It is a Portugese corruption of
Dombazi, which we adopted rather than introduce confusion by
new names, in the same way that we adopted Nyassa instead of
Nyanza ia Nyinyesi == Lake of the Stars, which the
Portuguese, from hearsay, corrupted into Nyassa. The English
have been worse propagators of nonsense than Portuguese.
'Geography of Nyassa' was thought to be a learned way of
writing the name, though 'Nyassi' means long grass and
nothing else. It took me twenty-two months to eliminate the
error into which I was led, and then it was not by my own
acuteness, but by the chief Cazembe, who was lately routed
and slain by a party of Banyamwezi. He gave me the first hint
of the truth, and that rather in a bantering strain: 'One
piece of water is just like another; Bangweolo water is just
like Moero water, Chambeze water like Luapula water; they are
all the same; but your chief ordered you to go to the
Bangweolo, therefore by all means go, but wait a few days,
till I have looked out for good men as guides, and good food
for you to eat,' etc.
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