_August 27th._--Halt at Badzwa. The kites are very bold in this neighbourhood. Seeing their daring, we amused ourselves with putting pieces of meat on the roof of a hut within arm's length of a man standing by, and each time the kite succeeded in escaping with the meat, as the bird, sailing and wheeling round the spot, seemed to know when the attention was relaxed, and that moment dropped plump upon the meat, and sailed away with it fast gripped before the outstretched hand could seize him. Our hunter, "Three o'clock," went out, and returned with the meat of a fine kudu he had shot. _April 28th._--Halt. Wadi Mabruki, another hunter, went out this morning to compete at game-hunting with "Three o'clock," and in the afternoon he and his followers brought three young roan antelope. _April 29th._--At 8 A.M., as we were about to break camp to march to the Lake, a native guide appeared with a note from Jephson, dated April 23rd, which stated that he had safely reached Mswa, a station of Emin Pasha's, and that messengers had been despatched by the Commandant, Shukri Agha, to apprise Emin Pasha of our appearance on the lake. A basket of onions--a gift from Shukri Agha--accompanied the note. At 9 A.M. we set out for the Lake. Two hours later we were camped about a quarter of a mile from the shore, not far from the bivouac ground occupied by us on the 16th December, and on the site of old Kavalli, as the chief showed us. We had five days' rations of grain with us, and meat could be procured from the plain behind us, as it swarmed with large game of various kinds. From my tent-door, at 4.30 P.M., I saw a dark object loom up on the north-east horizon of the lake. I thought it might be a native canoe, or perhaps the steel boat _Advance_ returning, but a binocular revealed the dimensions of a vessel much larger than a boat or canoe could possibly be, and presently a dark puff of smoke issuing from it declared her to be a steamer. An hour later we could distinguish a couple of boats in tow, and at 6.30 P.M. the steamer dropped anchor in the baylet of Nyamsassi, in shore of the island of that name. Scores of our people were on the beach in front of our camp firing guns, and waving signals, but though we were only two miles from the island, no one appeared to observe us.