deep-seated spring of fresh water, which bubbles up through many apertures in a large dome-shaped heap of soft lime–an accumulation obviously thrown up by the force of the spring, as the rocks on either side of it are of igneous character. We arrived at the deserted village of Kirengue. This was not an easy go-ahead march, for the halt had disaffected both men and mules. Three of the former bolted, leaving their loads upon the ground; and on the line of march, one of the mules, a full-conditioned animal, gave up the ghost after an eighteen hours’ sickness. What his disease was I never could ascertain; but as all the remaining animals died afterwards much in the same manner, I may state for once and for all, that these attacks commenced with general swelling, at first on the face, then down the neck, along the belly and down the legs. It proved so obstinate that fire had no effect upon it; and although we cut off the tails of some to relieve them by bleeding, still they died.
In former days Kirengue was inhabited, and we reasonably hoped to find some supplies for the jungly march before us. But we had calculated without our host, for the slave-hunters had driven every vestige of humanity away; and now, as we were delayed by our three loads behind, there was nothing left but to send back and purchase more grain. Such was one of the many days frittered away in do-nothingness.
This day, all together again, we rose the first spurs of the well-wooded Usagara hills, amongst which the familiar bamboo was plentiful, and at night we bivouacked in the jungle.
Rising betimes in the morning, and starting with a good will, we soon reached the first settlements of Mbuiga, from which could be seen a curious blue mountain, standing up like a giant overlooking all the rest of the hills. The scenery here formed a strong and very pleasing contrast to any we had seen since leaving the coast. Emigrant Waziraha, who had been driven from their homes across the Kingani river by the slave-hunters, had taken possession of the place, and disposed their little conical- hut villages on the heights of the hill-spurs in such a picturesque manner, that one could not help hoping they would here at least be allowed to rest in peace and quietness. The valleys, watered by little brooks, are far richer, and even prettier, than the high lands above, being lined with fine trees and evergreen shrubs; while the general state of prosperity was such, that the people could afford, even at this late season of the year, to turn their corn into malt to brew beer for sale; and goats and fowls were plentiful in the market.
Passing by the old village of Mbuiga, which I occupied on my former expedition, we entered some huts on the western flank of the Mbuiga district; and here, finding a coast-man, a great friend of the little sheikh’s, willing to take back to Zanzibar anything we might give him, a halt was made, and I drew up my reports. I then consigned to his charge three of the most sickly of the Hottentots in a deplorable condition–one of the mules, that they might ride by turns–and all the specimens that had been collected. With regret I also sent back the camera; because I saw, had I allowed my companion to keep working it, the heat he was subjected to in the little tent whilst preparing and fixing his plates would very soon have killed him. The number of guinea-fowl seen here was most surprising.
A little lighter and much more comfortable for the good riddance of those grumbling “Tots,” we worked up to and soon breasted the stiff ascent of the Mabruki Pass, which we surmounted without much difficult. This concluded the first range of these Usagara hills; and once over, we dropped down to the elevated valley of Makata, where we halted two days to shoot. As a travelling Arab informed me that the whole of the Maroro district had been laid waste by the marauding Wahehe, I changed our plans again, and directed our attention to a middle and entirely new line, which in the end would lead us to Ugogi. The first and only giraffe killed upon the journey was here shot by Grant, with a little 40- gauge Lancaster rifle, at 200 yards’ distance. Some smaller animals were killed; but I wasted all my time in fruitlessly stalking some wounded striped eland–magnificent animals, as large as Delhi oxen–and some other animals, of which I wounded three, about the size of hartebeest, and much their shape, only cream-coloured, with a conspicuous black spot in the centre of each flank. The eland may probably be the animal first mentioned by Livingstone, but the other animal is not known.
Though reluctant to leave a place where such rare animals were to be found, the fear of remaining longer on the road induced us to leave Kikobogo, and at a good stride we crossed the flat valley of Makata, and ascended the higher lands beyond, where we no sooner arrived than we met the last down trader from Unyamuezi, well known to all my men as the great Mamba or Crocodile. Mamba, dressed in a dirty Arab gown, with coronet of lion’s nails decorating a thread-bare cutch cap, greeted us with all the dignity of a savage potentate surrounded by his staff of half- naked officials. As usual, he had been the last to leave the Unyamuezi, and so purchased all his stock of ivory at a cheap rate, there being no competitors left to raise the value of that commodity; but his journey had been a very trying one. With a party, at his own estimate, of two thousand souls– we did not see anything like that number–he had come from Ugogo to this, by his own confession, living on the products of the jungle, and by boiling down the skin aprons of his porters occasionally for a soup. Famines were raging throughout the land, and the Arabs preceding him had so harried the country, that every village was deserted. On hearing our intention to march upon the direct line, he frankly said he thought we should never get through for my men could not travel as he had done, and therefore he advised our deflecting northwards from New Mbumi to join the track leading from Rumuma to Ugogi. This was a sad disappointment; but, rather than risk a failure, I resolved to follow his advice.
After reaching the elevated ground, we marched over rolling tops, covered with small trees and a rich variety of pretty bulbs, and reached the habitations of Muhanda, where we no sooner appeared than the poor villagers, accustomed only to rough handling, immediately dispersed in the jungles. By dint of persuasion, however, we induced them to sell us provisions, though at a monstrous rate, such as no merchant could have afforded; and having spent the night quietly, we proceeded on to the upper courses of the M’yombo river, which trends its way northwards to the Mukondokua river. The scenery was most interesting, with every variety of hill, roll, plateau, and ravine, wild and prettily wooded; but we saw nothing of the people. Like frightened rats, as soon as they caught the sound of our advancing march, they buried themselves in the jungles, carrying off their grain with them. Foraging parties, of necessity, were sent out as soon as the camp was pitched, with cloth for purchases, and strict orders not to use force; the upshot of which was, that my people got nothing but a few arrows fired at them by the lurking villagers, and I was abused for my squeamishness. Moreover, the villagers, emboldened by my lenity, vauntingly declared they would attack the camp by night, as they could only recognise in us such men as plunder their houses and steal their children. This caused a certain amount of alarm among my men, which induced them to run up a stiff bush-fence round the camp, and kept them talking all night.
This morning we marched on as usual, with one of the Hottentots lashed on a donkey; for the wretched creature, after lying in the sun asleep, became so sickly that he could not move or do anything for himself, and nobody would do anything for him. The march was a long one, but under ordinary circumstances would have been very interesting, for we passed an immense lagoon, where hippopotami were snorting as if they invited an attack. In the larger tree-jungles the traces of elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceros, and antelopes were very numerous; while a rich variety of small birds, as often happened, made me wish I had come on a shooting rather than on a long exploring expedition. Towards sunset we arrived at New Mbimi, a very pretty and fertile place, lying at the foot of a cluster of steep hills, and pitched camp for three days to lay in supplies for ten, as this was reported to be the only place where we could buy corn until we reached Ugogo, a span of 140 miles. Mr Mbumi, the chief of the place, a very affable negro, at once took us by the hand, and said he would do anything we desired, for he had often been to Zanzibar. He knew that the English were the ruling power in that land, and that they were opposed to slavery, the terrible effects of which had led to his abandoning Old Mbumi, on the banks of the Mukondokua river, and rising here.
The sick Hottentot died here, and we buried him with Christian honours. As his comrades said, he died because he had determined to die,–an instance of that obstinate fatalism in their mulish temperament which no kind words or threats can cure. This terrible catastrophe made me wish to send all the remaining Hottentots back to Zanzibar; but as they all preferred serving with me to returning to duty at the Cape, I selected two of the MOST sickly, put them under Tabib, one of Rigby’s old servants, and told him to remain with them at Mbumi until such time as he might find some party proceeding to the coasts; and, in the meanwhile, for board and lodgings I have Mbumi beads and cloth. The prices of provisions here being a good specimen of what one has to pay at this season of the year, I give a short list of them:–sixteen rations corn, two yards cloth; three fowls, two yards cloth; one goat, twenty yards cloth; one cow, forty yards cloth,–the cloth being common American sheeting. Before we left Mbumi, a party of forty men and women of the Waquiva tribe, pressed by famine, were driven there to purchase food. The same tribe had, however killed many of Mbumi’s subjects not long since, and therefore, in African revenge, the chief seized them all, saying he would send them off for sale to Zanzibar market unless they could give a legitimate reason for the cruelty they had committed. These Waquiva, I was given to understand, occupied the steep hills surrounding this place. They were a squalid-looking set, like the generality of the inhabitants of this mountainous region.
This march led us over a high hill to the Mdunhwi river, another tributary to the Mukondokua. It is all clad in the upper regions with the slender pole-trees which characterise these hills, intermingled with bamboo; but the bottoms are characterised by a fine growth of fig-trees of great variety along with high grasses; whilst near the villages were found good gardens of plantains, and numerous Palmyra trees. The rainy season being not far off, the villagers were busy in burning rubble and breaking their ground. Within their reach everywhere is the sarsaparilla vine, but growing as a weed, for they know nothing of its value.
Rising up from the deep valley of Mdunhwi we had to cross another high ridge before descending to the also deep valley of Chongue, as picturesque a country as the middle heights of the Himalayas, dotted on the ridges and spur-slopes by numerous small conical- hut villages; but all so poor that we could not, had we wanted it, have purchased provisions for a day’s consumption.
Leaving this valley, we rose to the table of Manyovi, overhung with much higher hills, looking, according to the accounts of our Hottentots, as they eyed the fine herds of cattle grazing on the slopes, so like the range in Kafraria, that they formed their expectations accordingly, and appeared, for the first time since leaving the coast, happy at the prospect before them, little dreaming that such rich places were seldom to be met with. The Wanyamuezi porters even thought they had found a paradise, and forthwith threw down their loads as the villagers came to offer them grain for sale; so that, had I not had the Wanguana a little under control, we should not have completed our distance that day, and so reached Manyonge, which reminded me, by its ugliness, of the sterile Somali land. Proceeding through the semi-desert rolling table-land–in one place occupied by men who build their villages in large open squares of flat-topped mud huts, which, when I have occasion to refer to them in future, I shall call by their native name tembe–we could see on the right hand the massive mountains overhanging the Mukondokua river, to the front the western chain of these hills, and to the left the high crab- claw shaped ridge, which, extending from the western chain, circles round conspicuously above the swelling knolls which lie between the two main rocky ridges. Contorted green thorn-trees, “elephant-foot” stumps, and aloes, seem to thrive best here, by their very nature indicating what the country is, a poor stony land. Our camp was pitched by the river Rumuma, where, sheltered from the winds, and enriched by alluvial soil, there ought to have been no scarcity; but still the villagers had nothing to sell.
On we went again to Marenga Mkhaili, the “Salt Water,” to breakfast, and camped in the crooked green thorns by night, carrying water on for our supper. This kind of travelling– forced marches–hard as it may appear, was what we liked best, for we felt that we were shortening the journey, and in doing so, shortening the risks of failure by disease, by war, by famine, and by mutiny. We had here no grasping chiefs to detain us for presents, nor had our men time to become irritable and truculent, concoct devices for stopping the way, or fight amongst themselves.
On again, and at last we arrived at the foot of the western chain; but not all together. Some porters, overcome by heat and thirst, lay scattered along the road, while the corporal of the Hottentots allowed his mule to stray from him, never dreaming the animal would travel far from his comrades, and, in following after him, was led such a long way into the bush, that my men became alarmed for his safety, knowing as they did that the “savages” were out living like monkeys on the calabash fruit, and looking out for any windfalls, such as stragglers worth plundering, that might come in their way. At first the Wanguana attempted to track down the corporal; but finding he would not answer their repeated shots, and fearful for their own safety, they came into camp and reported the case. Losing no time, I ordered twenty men, armed with carbines, to carry water for the distressed porters, and bring the corporal back as soon as possible. They all marched off, as they always do on such exploits, in high good-humour with themselves for the valour which they intended to show; and in the evening came in, firing their guns in the most reckless manner, beaming with delight; for they had the corporal in tow, two men and two women captives, and a spear as a trophy. Then in high impatience, all in a breath, they began a recital of the great day’s work. The corporal had followed on the spoor of the mule, occasionally finding some of his things that had been torn from the beast’s back by the thorns, and, picking up these one by one, had become so burdened with the weight of them, that he could follow no farther. In this fix the twenty men came up with him, but not until they had had a scrimmage with the “savages,” had secured four, and taken the spear which had been thrown at them. Of the mule’s position no one could give an opinion, save that they imagined, in consequence of the thickness of the bush, he would soon become irretrievably entangled in the thicket, where the savages would find him, and bring him in as a ransom for the prisoners.
What with the diminution of our supplies, the famished state of the country, and the difficulties which frowned upon us in advance, together with unwillingness to give up so good a mule, with all its gear and ammunition, I must say I felt doubtful as to what had better be done, until the corporal, who felt confident he would find the beast, begged so hard that I sent him in command of another expedition of sixteen men, ordering him to take one of the prisoners with him to proclaim to his brethren that we would give up the rest if they returned us the mule. The corporal then led off his band to the spot where he last saw traces of the animal, and tracked on till sundown; while Grant and myself went out pot-hunting and brought home a bag consisting of one striped eland, one saltiana antelope, four guinea-fowl, four ringdoves, and one partridge–a welcome supply, considering we were quite out of flesh.
Next day, as there were no signs of the trackers, I went again to the place of the elands, wounded a fine male, but gave up the chase, as I heard the unmistakable gun-firing return of the party, and straightway proceeded to camp. Sure enough, there they were; they had tracked the animal back to Marenga Mkhali, through jungle– for he had not taken to the footpath. Then finding he had gone on, they returned quite tired and famished. To make the most of a bad job, I now sent Grant on to the Robeho (or windy) Pass, on the top of the western chain, with the mules and heavy baggage, and directions to proceed thence across the brow of the hill the following morning, while I remained behind with the tired men, promising to join him by breakfast-time. I next released the prisoners, much to their disgust, for they had not known such good feeding before, and dreaded being turned adrift again in the jungles to live on calabash seeds; and then, after shooting six guinea-fowl, turned in for the night.
Betimes in the morning we were off, mounting the Robeho, a good stiff ascent, covered with trees and large blocks of granite, excepting only where cleared for villages; and on we went rapidly, until at noon the advance party was reached, located in a village overlooking the great interior plateau–a picture, as it were, of the common type of African scenery. Here, taking a hasty meal, we resumed the march all together, descended the great western chain, and, as night set in, camped in a ravine at the foot of it, not far from the great junction-station Ugogi, where terminate the hills of Usagara.
Chapter IV
Ugogo, and the Wilderness of Mgunda Mkhali
The Lie of the Country–Rhinoceros-Stalking–Scuffle of Villagers over a Carcass–Chief “Short-Legs” and His Successors– Buffalo- Shooting–Getting Lost–A Troublesome Sultan–Desertions from the Camp–Getting Plundered–Wilderness March–Diplomatic Relations with the Local Powers–Manua Sera’s Story–Christmas– The Relief from Kaze
This day’s work led us from the hilly Usagara range into the more level lands of the interior. Making a double march of it, we first stopped to breakfast at the quiet little settlement of Inenge, where cattle were abundant, but grain so scarce that the villagers were living on calabash seeds. Proceeding thence across fields delightfully checkered with fine calabash and fig trees, we marched, carrying water through thorny jungles, until dark, when we bivouacked for the night, only to rest and push on again next morning, arriving at Marenga Mkhali (the saline water) to breakfast. Here a good view of the Usagara hills is obtained. Carrying water with us, we next marched half-way to the first settlement of Ugogo, and bivouacked again, to eat the last of our store of Mbumi grain.
At length the greater famine lands had been spanned; but we were not in lands of plenty–for the Wagogo we found, like their neighbours Wasagara, eating the seed of the calabash, to save their small stores of grain.
The East Coast Range having been passed, no more hills had to be crossed, for the land we next entered on is a plateau of rolling ground, sloping southward to the Ruaha river, which forms a great drain running from west to east, carrying off all the rainwaters that fall in its neighbourhood through the East Coast Range to the sea. To the northward can be seen some low hills, which are occupied by Wahumba, a subtribe of the warlike Masai; and on the west is the large forest-wilderness of Mgunda Mkhali. Ugogo, lying under the lee side of the Usagara hills, is comparatively sterile. Small outcrops of granite here and there poke through the surface, which, like the rest of the rolling land, being covered with bush, principally acacias, have a pleasing appearance after the rains have set in, but are too brown and desert-looking during the rest of the year. Large prairies of grass also are exposed in many places, and the villagers have laid much ground bare for agricultural purposes.
Altogether, Ugogo has a very wild aspect, well in keeping with the natives who occupy it, who, more like the Wazaramo than the Wasagara, carry arms, intended for use rather than show. The men, indeed, are never seen without their usual arms–the spear, the shield, and the assage. They live in flat-topped, square, tembe villages, wherever springs of water are found, keep cattle in plenty, and farm enough generally to supply not only their own wants, but those of the thousands who annually pass in caravans. They are extremely fond of ornaments, the most common of which is an ugly tube of the gourd thrust through the lower lobe of the ear. Their colour is a soft ruddy brown, with a slight infusion of black, not unlike that of a rich plum. Impulsive by nature, and exceedingly avaricious, they pester travellers beyond all conception, by thronging the road, jeering, quizzing, and pointing at them; and in camp, by intrusively forcing their way into the midst of the kit, and even into the stranger’s tent. Caravans, in consequence, never enter their villages, but camp outside, generally under the big “gouty-limbed” trees–encircling their entire camp sometimes with a ring-fence of thorns to prevent any sudden attack.
To resume the thread of the journey: we found, on arrival in Ugogo, very little more food than in Usagara for the Wagogo were mixing their small stores of grain with the monkey-bread seeds of the gouty-limbed tree. Water was so scarce in the wells at this season that we had to buy it at the normal price of country beer; and, as may be imagined where such distress in food was existing, cows, goats, sheep, and fowls were also selling at high rates.
Our mules here gave us the slip again, and walked all the way back to Marenga Mkhali, where they were found and brought back by some Wagogo, who took four yards of merikani in advance, with a promise of four more on return, for the job–their chief being security for their fidelity. This business detained us two days, during which time I shot a new variety of florikan, peculiar in having a light blue band stretching from the nose over the eye to the occiput. Each day, while we resided here, cries were raised by the villagers that the Wahumba were coming, and then all the cattle out in the plains, both far and near, were driven into the village for protection.
At last, on the 26th, as the mules were brought it, I paid a hongo or tax of four barsati and four yards of chintz to the chief, and departed, but not until one of my porters, a Mhehe, obtained a fat dog for his dinner; he had set his heart on it, and would not move until he had killed it, and tied it on to his load for the evening’s repast. Passing through the next villages–a collection called Kifukuro–we had to pay another small tax of two barsati and four yards of chintz to the chief. There we breakfasted, and pushed on, carrying water to a bivouac in the jungles, as the famine precluded our taking the march more easily.
Pushing on again, we cleared out of the woods, and arrived at the eastern border of the largest clearance of Ugogo, Kanyenye. Here we were forced to halt a day, as the mules were done up, and eight of the Wanyamuezi porters absconded, carrying with them the best part of their loads. There was also another inducement for stopping here; for, after stacking the loads, as we usually did on arriving in camp, against a large gouty-limbed tree, a hungry Mgogo, on eyeing our guns, offered his services to show us some bicornis rhinoceros, which, he said paid nightly visits to certain bitter pools that lay in the nullah bottoms not far off. This exciting intelligence made me inquire if it was not possible to find them at once; but, being assured that they lived very far off, and that the best chance was the night, I gave way, and settled on starting at ten, to arrive at the ground before the full moon should rise.
I set forth with the guide and two of the sheikh’s boys, each carrying a single rifle, and ensconced myself in the nullah, to hide until our expected visitors should arrive, and there remained until midnight. When the hitherto noisy villagers turned into bed, the silvery moon shed her light on the desolate scene, and the Mgogo guide, taking fright, bolted. He had not, however, gone long, when, looming above us, coming over the horizon line, was the very animal we wanted.
In a fidgety manner the beast then descended, as if he expected some danger in store–and he was not wrong; for, attaching a bit of white paper to the fly-sight of my Blissett, I approached him, crawling under cover of the banks until within eighty yards of him, when, finding that the moon shone full on his flank, I raised myself upright and planted a bullet behind his left shoulder. Thus died my first rhinoceros.
To make the most of the night, as I wanted meat for my men to cook, as well as a stock to carry with them, or barter with the villagers for grain, I now retired to my old position, and waited again.
After two hours had elapsed, two more rhinoceros approached me in the same stealthy, fidgety way as the first one. They came even closer than the first, but, the moon having passed beyond their meridian, I could not obtain so clear a mark. Still they were big marks, and I determined on doing my best before they had time to wind us; so stepping out, with the sheikh’s boys behind me carrying the second rifle to meet all emergencies, I planted a ball in the larger one, and brought him round with a roar and whooh-whooh, exactly to the best position I could wish for receiving a second shot; but, alas! on turning sharply round for the spare rifle, I had the mortification to see that both the black boys had made off, and were scrambling like monkeys up a tree. At the same time the rhinoceros, fortunately for me, on second consideration turned to the right-about, and shuffled away, leaving, as is usually the case when conical bullets are used, no traces of blood.
Thus ended the night’s work. We now went home by dawn to apprise all the porters that we had flesh in store for them, when the two boys who had so shamelessly deserted me, instead of hiding their heads, described all the night’s scenes with such capital mimicry as to set the whole camp in a roar. We had all now to hurry back to the carcass before the Wagogo could find it; but though this precaution was quickly taken, still, before the tough skin of the beast could be cut through, the Wagogo began assembling like vultures, and fighting with my men. A more savage, filthy, disgusting, but at the same time grotesque, scene than that which followed cannot be conceived. All fell to work armed with swords, spears, knives, and hatchets–cutting and slashing, thumping and bawling, fighting and tearing, tumbling and wrestling up to their knees in filth and blood in the middle of the carcass. When a tempting morsel fell to the possession of any one, a stronger neighbour would seize and bear off the prize in triumph. All right was now a matter or pure might, and lucky it was that it did not end in a fight between our men and the villagers. These might be afterwards seen, one by one, covered with blood, scampering home each with his spoil–a piece of tripe, or liver, or lights, or whatever else it might have been his fortune to get off with.
We were still in great want of men; but rather than stop a day, as all delays only lead to more difficulties, I pushed on to Magomba’s palace with the assistance of some Wagogo carrying our baggage, each taking one cloth as his hire. The chief wazir at once come out to meet me on the way, and in an apparently affable manner, as an old friend, begged that I would live in the palace- -a bait which I did not take, as I knew my friend by experience a little too well. he then, in the politest possible manner, told me that a great dearth of food was oppressing the land–so much so, that pretty cloths only would purchase grain. I now wished to settle my hongo, but the great chief could not hear of such indecent haste.
The next day, too, the chief was too drunk to listen to any one, and I must have patience. I took out this time in the jungles very profitably, killing a fine buck and doe antelope, of a species unknown. These animals are much about the same size and shape as the common Indian antelope, and, like them, roam about in large herds. The only marked difference between the two is in the shape of their horns, as may be seen by the woodcut; and in their colour, in which, in both sexes, the Ugogo antelopes resemble the picticandata gazelle of Tibet, except that the former have dark markings on the face.
At last, after thousands of difficulties much like those I encountered in Uzaramo, the hongo was settled by a payment of one kisutu, one dubani, four yards bendera, four yards kiniki, and three yards merikani. The wazir then thought he would do some business on his own account, and commenced work by presenting me with a pot of ghee and flour, saying at the same time “empty words did not show true love,” and hoping that I would prove mine by making some slight return. To get rid of the animal I gave him the full value of his present in cloth, which he no sooner pocketed than he had the audacity to accuse Grant of sacrilege for having shot a lizard on a holy stone, and demanded four cloths to pay atonement for this offence against the “church.” As yet, he said, the chief was not aware of the damage done, and it was well he was not; for he would himself, if I only paid him the four cloths, settle matters quietly, otherwise there would be no knowing what demands might be made on my cloth. It was necessary to get up hot temper, else there was no knowing how far he would go; so I returned him his presents, and told the sheikh, instead of giving four, to fling six cloths in his face, and tell him that the holy-stone story was merely a humbug, and I would take care no more white men ever came to see him again.
Some Wanyamuezi porters, who had been left sick here by former caravans, now wished to take service with me as far as Kaze; but the Wagogo, hearing of their desire, frightened them off it. A report also at this time was brought to us, that a caravan had just arrived at our last ground, having come up from Whindi, direct by the line of the Wami river, in its upper course called Mukondokua, without crossing a single hill all the way; I therefore sent three men to see if they had any porters to spare, as it was said they had; but the three men, although they left their bows and arrows behind, never came back.
Another mule died to-day. This was perplexing indeed, but to stop longer was useless; so we pushed forward as best we could to a pond at the western end of the district where we found a party of Makua sportsmen who had just killed an elephant. They had lived in Ugogo one year and a half, and had killed in all seventeen elephants; half the tusks of which, as well as some portion of the flesh, they gave to Magomba for the privilege of residing there. There were many antelopes there, some of which both Grant and I shot for the good of the pot, and he also killed a crocute hyena. From the pond we went on to the middle of a large jungle, and bivouacked for the night in a shower of rain, the second of the season.
During a fierce downpour of rain, the porters all quivering and quaking with cold, we at length emerged from the jungle, and entered the prettiest spot in Ugogo–the populous district of Usekhe–where little hills and huge columns of granite crop out. Here we halted.
Next day came the hongo business, which was settled by paying one dubani, one kitambi, one msutu, four yards merikani, and two yards kiniki; but whilst we were doing it eight porters ran away, and four fresh ones were engaged (Wanyamuezi) who had run away from Kanyenye.
With one more march from this we reached the last district in Ugogo, Khoko. Here the whole of the inhabitants turned out to oppose us, imagining we had come there to revenge the Arab, Mohinna, because the Wagogo attacked him a year ago, plundered his camp, and drove him back to Kaze, for having shot their old chief “Short-legs.” They, however, no sooner found out who we were than they allowed us to pass on, and encamp in the outskirts of the Mgunda Mkhali wilderness. To this position in the bush I strongly objected, on the plea that guns could be best used against arrows in the open; but none would go out in the field, maintaining that the Wagogo would fear to attack us so far from their villages, as we now were, lest we might cut them off in their retreat.
Hori Hori was now chief in Short-leg’s stead, and affected to be much pleased that we were English, and not Arabs. He told us we might, he thought, be able to recruit all the men that we were in want of, as many Wanyanuezi who had been left there sick wished to go to their homes; and I would only, in addition to their wages, have to pay their “hotel bills” to the Wagogo. This, of course, I was ready to do, though I knew the Wanyamuezi had paid for themselves, as is usual, by their work in the fields of their hosts. Still, as I should be depriving these of hands, I could scarcely expect to get off for less than the value of a slave for each, and told Sheikh said to look out for some men at once, whilst at the same time he laid in provisions of grain to last us eight days in the wilderness, and settle the hongo.
For this triple business, I allowed three days, during which time, always eager to shoot something, either for science or the pot, I killed a bicornis rhinoceros, at a distance of five paces only, with my small 40-gauge Lancaster, as the beast stood quietly feeding in the bush; and I also shot a bitch fox of the genus Octocyon lalandii, whose ill-omened cry often alarms the natives by forewarning them of danger. This was rather tame sport; but next day I had better fun.
Starting in the early morning, accompanied by two of Sheikh Said’s boys, Suliman and Faraj, each carrying a rifle, while I carried a shot-gun, we followed a footpath to the westward in the wilderness of Mgunda Mkhali. There, after walking a short while in the bush, as I heard the grunt of a buffalo close on my left, I took “Blissett” in hand, and walked to where I soon espied a large herd quietly feeding. They were quite unconscious of my approach, so I took a shot at a cow, and wounded her; then, after reloading, put a ball in a bull and staggered him also. This caused great confusion among them; but as none of the animals knew where the shots came from, they simply shifted about in a fidgety manner, allowing me to kill the first cow, and even fire a fourth shot, which sickened the great bull, and induced him to walk off, leaving the herd to their fate, who, considerably puzzled, began moving off also.
I now called up the boys, and determined on following the herd down before either skinning the dead cow or following the bull, who I knew could not go far. Their footprints being well defined in the moist sandy soil, we soon found the herd again; but as they now knew they were pursued, they kept moving on in short runs at a time, when, occasionally gaining glimpses of their large dark bodies as they forced through the bush, I repeated my shots and struck a good number, some more and some less severely. This was very provoking; for all of them being stern shots were not likely to kill, and the jungle was so thick I could not get a front view of them. Presently, however, one with her hind leg broken pulled up on a white-ant hill, and, tossing her horns, came down with a charge the instant I showed myself close to her. One crack of the rifle rolled her over, and gave me free scope to improve the bag, which was very soon done; for on following the spoors, the traces of blood led us up to another one as lame as the last. He then got a second bullet in the flank, and, after hobbling a little, evaded our sight and threw himself into a bush, where we not sooner arrived than he plunged headlong at us from his ambush, just, and only just, giving me time to present my small 40-gauge Lancaster.
It was a most ridiculous scene. Suliman by my side, with the instinct of a monkey, made a violent spring and swung himself by a bough immediately over the beast, whilst Faraj bolted away and left me single-gunned to polish him off. There was only one course to pursue, for in one instant more he would have been into me; so, quick as thought, I fired the gun, and, as luck would have it, my bullet, after passing through the edge of one of his horns, stuck in the spine of his neck, and rolled him over at my feet as dead as a rabbit. Now, having cut the beast’s throat to make him “hilal,” according to Mussulman usage, and thinking we had done enough if I could only return to the first wounded bull and settle him too, we commenced retracing our steps, and by accident came on Grant. He was passing by from another quarter, and became amused by the glowing description of my boys, who never omitted to narrate their own cowardice as an excellent tale. He begged us to go on in our course, whilst he would go back and send us some porters to carry home the game.
Now, tracking back again to the first point of attack, we followed the blood of the first bull, till at length I found him standing like a stuck pig in some bushes, looking as if he would like to be put out of his miseries. Taking compassion, I levelled my Blisset; but, as bad luck would have it, a bough intercepted the flight of the bullet, and it went “pinging” into the air, whilst the big bull went off at a gallop. To follow on was no difficulty, the spoor was so good; and in ten minutes more, as I opened on a small clearance, Blisset in hand, the great beast, from the thicket on the opposite side, charged down like a mad bull, full of ferocity–as ugly an antagonist as ever I saw, for the front of his head was all shielded with horn. A small mound fortunately stood between us, and as he rounded it, I jumped to one side and let fly at his flank, but without the effect of stopping him; for, as quick as thought, the huge monster was at my feet, battling with the impalpable smoke of my gun, which fortunately hung so thick on the ground at the height of his head that he could not see me, though I was so close that I might, had I been possessed of a hatchet, have chopped off his head. This was a predicament which looked very ugly, for my boys had both bolted, taking with them my guns; but suddenly the beast, evidently regarding the smoke as a phantom which could not be mastered, turned round in a bustle, to my intense relief, and galloped off at full speed, as if scared by some terrible apparition.
O what would I not then have given for a gun, the chance was such a good one! Still, angry though I was, I could not help laughing as the dastardly boys came into the clearance full of their mimicry, and joked over the scene they had witnessed in security, whilst my life was in jeopardy because they were too frightened to give me my gun. But now came the worst part of the day; for, though rain was falling, I had not the heart to relinquish my game. Tracking on through the bush, I thought every minute I should come up with the brute; but his wounds ceased to bleed, and in the confusion of the numerous tracks which scored all the forest we lost our own.
Much disappointed at this, I now proposed to make for the track we came by in the morning, and follow it down into camp; but this luxury was not destined to be our lot that night, for the rain had obliterated all our footprints of the morning, and we passed the track, mistaking it for the run of wild beasts. It struck me we had done so; but say what I would, the boys thought they knew better; and the consequence was that, after wandering for hours no one knew where–for there was no sun to guide us–I pulled up, and swore I would wait for the stars, else it might be our fate to be lost in the wilderness, which I did not much relish. We were all at this time “hungry as hunters,” and beginning to feel very miserable from being wet through. What little ammunition I had left I fired off as signals, or made tinder of to get up a fire, but the wood would not burn. In this hapless condition the black boys began murmuring, wishing to go on, pretending, though both held opposite views, that each knew the way; for they thought nothing could be worse than their present state of discomfort.
Night with its gloom was then drawing on, heightened by thunder and lightning, which set in all around us. At times we thought we heard musketry in camp, knowing that Grant would be sure to fire signals for us; and doubtless we did so, but its sound and the thunder so much resembled one another that we distrusted our ears. At any rate, the boys mistook the west for the east; and as I thought they had done so, I stood firm to one spot, and finally lay down with them to sleep upon the cold wet ground, where we slept pretty well, being only disturbed occasionally by some animals sniffing at our feet. As the clouds broke towards morning, my obstinate boys still swore that west was east, and would hardly follow me when tracking down Venus; next up rose the moon and then followed the sun, when, as good luck would have it, we struck on the track, and walked straight into camp.
Here every one was in a great state of excitement: Grant had been making the men fire volleys. The little sheikh was warmly congratulatory as he spoke of the numbers who had strayed away and had been lost in that wilderness; whilst Bombay admitted he thought we should turn up again if I did not listen to the advice of the boys, which was his only fear. Nothing as yet, I now found, had been done to further our march. The hongo, the sheikh said, had to precede everything; yet that had not been settled, because the chief deferred it the day of our arrival, on the plea that it was the anniversary of Short-legs’s death; and he also said that till then all the Wagogo had been in mourning by ceasing to wear all their brass bracelets and other ornaments, and they now wished to solemnise the occasion by feasting and renewing their finery. This being granted, the next day another pretext for delay was found, by the Wahumba having made a raid on their cattle, which necessitated the chief and all his men turning out to drive them away; and to-day nothing could be attended to, as a party of fugitive Wanyamuezi had arrived and put them all in a fright. These Wanyamuezi, it then transpired, were soldiers of Manua Sera, the “Tippler,” who was at war with the Arabs. He had been defeated at Mguru, a district in Unyamuezi, by the Arabs, and had sent these men to cut off the caravan route, as the best way of retaliation that lay in his power.
At last the tax having been settled by the payment of one dubani, two barsati, one sahari, six yards merikani, and three yards kiniki (not, however, until I had our tents struck, and threatened to march away if the chief would not take it), I proposed going on with the journey, for our provisions were stored. but when the loads were being lifted, I found ten more men were missing; and as nothing now could be done but throw ten loads away, which seemed to great a sacrifice to be made in a hurry, I simply changed ground to show we were ready to march, and sent my men about, either to try to induce the fugitive Wanyamuezi to take service with me or else to buy donkeys, as the chief said he had some to sell.
We had already been here too long. A report was now spread that a lion had killed one of the chief’s cows; and the Wagogo, suspecting that our being here was the cause of this ill luck, threatened to attack us. This no sooner got noised over the camp than all my Wanyamuezi porters, who had friends in Ugogo, left to live with them, and would not come back again even when the “storm had blown over,” because they did not like the incessant rains that half deluged the camp. The chief, too, said he would not sell us his donkeys, lest we should give them back to Mohinna, from whom they were taken during his fight here. Intrigues of all sorts I could see were brewing, possibly at the instigation of the fugitive Wanyamuezi, who suspected we were bound to side with the Arabs– possibly from some other cause, I could not tell what; so, to clear out of this pandemonium as soon as possible I issued cloths to buy double rations, intending to cross the wilderness by successive relays in double the ordinary number of days. I determined at the same time to send forward two freed men to Kaze to ask Musa and the Arabs to send me out some provisions and men to meet us half-way.
Matters grew worse and worse. The sultan, now finding me unable to move, sent a message to say if I would not give him some better cloths to make his hongo more respectable, he would attack my camp; and advised all the Wanyamuezi who regarded their lives not to go near me if I resisted. This was by no means pleasant; for the porters showed their uneasiness by extracting their own cloths from my bundles, under the pretext that they wished to make some purchases of their own. I ought, perhaps, to have stopped this; but I thought the best plan was to show total indifference; so, at the same time that they were allowed to take their cloths, I refused to comply with the chief’s request, and begged them to have no fear so long as they saw I could hold my own ground with my guns.
The Wanyamuezi, however, were panic-stricken, and half of them bolted, with the kirangozi at their head, carrying off all the double-ration cloths as well as their own. At this time, the sultan, having changed tactics, as he saw us all ready to stand on the defensive, sent back his hongo; but, instead of using threats, said he would oblige us with donkeys or anything else if we would only give him a few more pretty cloths. With this cringing, perfidious appeal I refused to comply, until the sheikh, still more cringing, implored me to give way else not a single man would remain with me. I then told him to settle with the chief himself, and give me the account, which amounted to three barsati, two sahari, and three yards merikani; but the donkeys were never alluded to.
With half my men gone, I still ordered the march, though strongly opposed to the advice of one of old Mamba’s men, who was then passing by on his way to the coast, in command of his master’s rear detachment. He thought it impossible for us to pull through the wilderness, with its jungle grasses and roots, depending for food only on Grant’s gun and my own; still we made half-way to the Mdaburu nullah, taking some of Mamba’s out to camp with us, as he promised to take letters and specimens down to the coast for us, provided I paid him some cloths as ready money down, and promised some more to be paid at Zanzibar. These letters eventually reached home, but not the specimens.
The rains were so heavy that the whole country was now flooded, but we pushed on to the nullah by relays, and pitched on its left bank. In the confusion of the march, however, we lost many more porters, who at the same time relieved us of their loads, by slipping off stealthily into the bush.
The fifteenth was a forced halt, as the stream was so deep and so violent we could not cross it. To make the best of this very unfortunate interruption, I now sent on two men to Kaze, with letters to Musa and Sheikh Snay, both old friends on the former expedition, begging them to send me sixty men, each carrying thirty rations of grain, and some country tobacco. The tobacco was to gratify my men, who said of all things they most wanted to cheer them was something to smoke. At the same time I sent back some other men to Khoko, with cloth to buy grain for present consumption, as some of my porters were already reduced to living on wild herbs and white ants. I then sent all the remaining men, under the directions of Bombay and Baraka, to fell a tall tree with hatchets, on the banks of the nullah, with a view to bridging it; but the tree dropped to the wrong side, and thwarted the plan. The rain ceased on the 17th, just as we put the rain- gauge out, which was at once interpreted to be our Uganga, or religious charm, and therefore the cause of its ceasing. It was the first fine day for a fortnight, so we were only too glad to put all our things out to dry, and rejoiced to think of the stream’s subsiding. My men who went back to Khoko for grain having returned with next to nothing– though, of course, they had spent all the cloths–I sent back another batch with pretty cloths, as it was confidently stated that grain was so scarce there, nothing but the best fabrics would but it. This also proved a dead failure; but although animals were very scarce, Grant relieved our anxiety by shooting a zebra and an antelope.
After five halts, we forded the stream, middle deep, and pushed forwards again, doing short stages of four or five miles a-day, in the greatest possible confusion; for, whilst Grant and I were compelled to go out shooting all day for the pot, the sheikh and Bombay went on with the first half of the property and then, keeping guard over it sent the men back again to Baraka, who kept rear-guard, to have the rest brought on. Order there was none: the men hated this “double work;” all the Wanyamuezi but three deserted, with the connivance of the coast-men, carrying off their loads with them, under a mutual understanding, as I found out afterwards, that the coast-men were to go shares in the plunder as soon as we reached Unyamuezi. The next great obstacle in this tug-and-pull wilderness-march presented itself on the 24th, when, after the first half of the property had crossed the Mabunguru nullah, it rose in flood and cut off the rear half. It soon, however, subsided; and the next day we reached “the Springs,” where we killed a pig and two rhinoceros. Not content, however, with this fare–notwithstanding the whole camp had been living liberally on zebra’s and antelope’s flesh every day previously– some of my coast-men bolted on to the little settlement of Jiwa la Mkoa, contrary to orders, to purchase some grain; and in doing so, increased our transport difficulties.
Pulling on in the same way again–when not actually engaged in shooting, scolding and storming at the men, to keep them up to the mark, and prevent them from shirking their work, which they were for every trying to do–we arrived on the 28th at the “Boss,” a huge granite block, from the top of which the green foliage of the forest-trees looked like an interminable cloud, soft and waving, fit for fairies to dwell upon. Here the patience of my men fairly gave way, for the village of Jiwa la Mkoa was only one long march distance from us; and they, in consequence, smelt food on in advance much sweeter than the wild game and wild grasses they had been living on; and many more of them could not resist deserting us, though they might, had we all pulled together, have gone more comfortably in, as soon as the rear property arrived next day with Baraka.
All the men who deserted on the 25th, save Johur and Mutwana, now came into camp, and told us they had heard from travellers that those men who had been sent on for reliefs to Kaze were bringing us a large detachment of slaves to help us on. My men had brought no food either for us or their friends, as the cloths they took with them, “which were their own,” were scarcely sufficient to purchase a meal–famines being as bad where they had been as in Ugogo. To try and get all the men together again, I now sent off a party loaded with cloths to see what they could get for us; but they returned on the 30th grinning and joking, with nothing but a small fragment of goat-flesh, telling lies by the dozens. Johur then came into camp, unconscious that Baraka by my orders had, during his absence, been inspecting his kit, where he found concealed seventy-three yards of cloth, which could only have been my property, as Johur had brought no akaba or reserve fund from the coast.
The theft having been proved to the satisfaction of every one, I ordered Baraka to strip him of everything and give him three dozen lashes; but after twenty-one had been given, the rest were remitted on his promising to turn Queen’s evidence, when it transpired that Mutwana had done as much as himself. Johur, it turned out, was a murderer, having obtained his freedom by killing his master. He was otherwise a notoriously bad character; so, wishing to make an example, as I knew all my men were robbing me daily, though I could not detect them, I had him turned out of camp. Baraka was a splendid detective, and could do everything well when he wished it, so I sent him off now with cloths to see what he could to at Jiwa la Mkoa, and next day he returned triumphantly driving in cows and goats. Three Wanyamuezi, also, who heard we were given to shooting wild animals continually, came with him to offer their services as porters.
As nearly all the men had now returned, Grant and I spent New Year’s Day with the first detachment at Jiwa la Mkoa, or Round Rock– a single tembe village occupied by a few Wakimbu settlers, who, by their presence and domestic habits, made us feel as though we were well out of the wood. So indeed we found it; for although this wilderness was formerly an entire forest of trees and wild animals, numerous Wakimbu, who formerly occupied the banks of the Ruaha to the southward, had been driven to migrate here, wherever they could find springs of water, by the boisterous naked pastorals the Warori.
At night three slaves belonging to Sheikh Salem bin Saif stole into our camp, and said they had been sent by their master to seek for porters at Kaze, as all the Wanyamuezi porters of four large caravans had deserted in Ugogo, and they could not move. I was rather pleased by this news, and thought it served the merchants right, knowing, as I well did, that the Wanyamuezi, being naturally honest, had they not been defrauded by foreigners on the down march to the coast, would have been honest still. Some provisions were now obtained by sending men out to distant villages; but we still supplied the camp with our guns, killing rhinoceros, wild boar, antelope, and zebras. The last of our property did not come up till the 5th, when another thief being caught, got fifty lashes, under the superintendence of Baraka, to show that punishment was only inflicted to prevent further crime.
The next day my men came from Kaze with letters from Sheikh Snay and Musa. They had been detained there some days after arrival, as those merchants’ slaves had gone to Utambara to settle some quarrel there; but as soon as they returned, Musa ordered them to go and assist us, giving them beads to find rations for themselves on the way, as the whole country about Kaze had been half-starved by famines, though he did send a little rice and tobacco for me. The whole party left Kaze together; but on arrival at Tura the slaves said they had not enough beads and would return for some more, when they would follow my men. This bit of news was the worst that could have befallen us; my men were broken-hearted enough before, and this drove the last spark of spirit out of them. To make the best of a bad job, I now sent Bombay with two other men off to Musa to see what he could do, and ordered my other men to hire Wakimbu from village to village. On the 7th, a nervous excitement was produced in the camp by some of my men running in and calling all to arm, as the fugitive chief Manua Sera was coming, with thirty armed followers carrying muskets. Such was the case: and by the time my men were all under arms, with their sword-bayonets fixed, drawn up by my tent the veritable “Tippler” arrived; but, not liking the look of such a formidable array as my men presented, he passed on a short way, and then sent back a deputation to make known his desire of calling on me, which was no sooner complied with than he came in person, attended by a body-guard. On my requesting him to draw near and sit, his wooden stool was placed for him. He began the conversation by telling me he had heard of my distress from want of porters, and then offered to assist me with some, provided I would take him to Kaze, and mediate between him and the Arabs; for, through their unjustifiable interference in his government affairs, a war had ensued, which terminated with the Arabs driving him from his possessions a vagabond. Manua Sera, I must say, was as fine a young man as ever I looked upon. He was very handsome, and looked as I now saw him the very picture of a captain of the banditti of the romances. I begged him to tell me his tale, and, in compliance, he gave me the following narrative:–
“Shortly after you left Kaze for England, my old father, the late chief Fundi Kira, died, and by his desire I became lawful chief; for, though the son of a slave girl, and not of Fundi Kira’s wife, such is the law of inheritance–a constitutional policy established to prevent any chance of intrigues between the sons born in legitimate wedlock. Well, after assuming the title of chief, I gave presents of ivory to all the Arabs with a liberal hand, but most so to Musa, which caused great jealousy amongst the other merchants. Then after this I established a property tax on all merchandise that entered my country. Fundi Kira had never done so, but I did not think that any reason why I should not, especially as the Arabs were the only people who lived in my country exempt from taxation. This measure, however, exasperated the Arabs, and induced them to send me hostile messages, to the effect that, if I ever meddled with them, they would dethrone me, and place Mkisiwa, another illegitimate son, on the throne in my stead. This,” Manua Sera continued, “I could not stand; the merchants were living on sufferance only in my country. I told them so, and defied them to interfere with my orders, for I was not a ‘woman,’ to be treated with contempt; and this got up a quarrel. Mkisiwa, seizing at the opportunity of the prize held out to him by the Arabs as his supporters, then commenced a system of bribery. Words led to blows; we had a long and tough fight; I killed many of their number, and they killed mine. Eventually they drove me from my palace, and placed Mkisiwa there as chief in my stead. My faithful followers however, never deserted me; so I went to Rubuga, and put up with old Maula there. The Arabs followed–drove me to Nguru, and tried to kill Maula for having fostered me. He, however, escaped them; but they destroyed his country, and then followed me down to Nguru. There we fought for many months, until all provisions were exhausted, when I defied them to catch me, and forced my way through their ranks. It is needless to say I have been a wanderer since; and though I wish to make friends, they will not allow it, but do all they can to hunt me to death. Now, as you were a friend of my father, I do hope you will patch up this war for me, which you must think is unjust.”
I told Manua Sera I felt very much for him, and I would do my best if he would follow me to Kaze; but I knew that nothing could ever be done unless he returned to the free-trade principles of his father. He then said he had never taken a single tax from the Arabs, and would gladly relinquish his intention to do so. The whole affair was commenced in too great a hurry; but whatever happened he would gladly forgive all if I would use my influence to reinstate him, for by no other means could he ever get his crown back again. I then assured him that I would do what I could to restore the ruined trade of his country, observing that, as all the ivory that went out of his country, came to ours, and all imports were productions of our country also, this war injured us as well as himself. Manua Sera seemed highly delighted, and said he had a little business to transact in Ugogo at present, but he would overtake me in a few days. He then sent me one of my runaway porters, whom he had caught in the woods making off with a load of my beads. We then separated; and Baraka, by my orders, gave the thief fifty lashes for his double offence of theft and desertion.
On the 9th, having bought two donkeys and engaged several men, we left Jiwa la Mkoa, with half our traps, and marched to Garaeswi, where, to my surprise, there were as many as twenty tembes– a recently-formed settlement of Wokimbu. Here we halted a day for the rear convoy, and then went on again by detachments to Zimbo, where, to our intense delight, Bombay returned to us on the 13th, triumphantly firing guns, with seventy slaves accompanying him, and with letters from Snay and Musa, in which they said they hoped, if I met with Manua Sera, that I would either put a bullet through his head, or else bring him in a prisoner, that they might do for him, for the scoundrel had destroyed all their trade by cutting off caravans. Their fights with him commenced by his levying taxes in opposition to their treaties with his father, Fundi Kira, and then preventing his subjects selling them grain.
Once more the whole caravan moved on; but as I had to pay each of the seventy slaves sixteen yards of cloth, by order of their masters, in the simple matter of expenditure it would have been better had I thrown ten loads away at Ugogo, where my difficulties first commenced. On arrival at Mgongo Thembo–the Elephant’s Back– called so in consequence of a large granitic rock, which resembles the back of that animal, protruding through the ground–we found a clearance in the forest, of two miles in extent, under cultivation. Here the first man to meet me was the fugitive chief of Rubuga, Maula. This poor old man–one of the honestest chiefs in the country–had been to the former expedition a host and good friend. He now gave me a cow as a present, and said he would give me ten more if I would assist him in making friends with the Arabs, who had driven him out of his country, and had destroyed all his belongings, even putting a slave to reign in his stead, though he had committed no fault of intentional injury towards them. It was true Manua Sera, their enemy, had taken refuge in his palace, but that was not his fault; for, anticipating the difficulties that would arise, he did his best to keep Manua Sera out of it, but Manua Sera being too strong for him, forced his way in. I need not say I tried to console this unfortunate victim of circumstances as best I could, inviting him to go with me to Kaze, and promising to protect him with my life if he feared the Arabs; but the old man, being too feeble to travel himself, said he would send his son with me.
Next day we pushed on a double march through the forest, and reached a nullah. As it crosses the track in a southerly direction, this might either be the head of the Kululu mongo or river, which, passing through the district of Kiwele, drains westward into the Malagarazi river, and thence into the Tanganyika, or else the most westerly tributary to the Ruaha river, draining eastward into the sea. The plateau, however, is apparently so flat here, that nothing b a minute survey, or rather following the watercourse, could determine the matter. Then emerging from the wilderness, we came into the open cultivated district of Tura, or “put down”–called so by the natives because it was, only a few years ago, the first cleared space in the wilderness, and served as a good halting-station, after the normal ten day’s march in the jungles, where we had now been struggling more than a month.
The whole place, once so fertile, was now almost depopulated and in a sad state of ruin, showing plainly the savage ravages of war; for the Arabs and their slaves, when they take the field, think more of plunder and slavery than the object they started on–each man of the force looking out for himself. The incentives, too, are so great;–a young woman might be caught (the greatest treasure of earth), or a boy or a girl, a cow or a goat–all of the fortunes, of themselves too irresistible to be overlooked when the future is doubtful. Here Sheikh Said broke down in health of a complaint which he formerly had suffered from, and from which I at once saw he would never recover sufficiently well to be ever effective again. It was a sad misfortune, as the men had great confidence in him, being the representative of their Zanzibar government: still it could not be helped; for, as a sick man is, after all, the greatest possible impediment to a march, it was better to be rid of him than have the trouble of dragging him; so I made up my mind, as soon as we reached Kaze, I would drop him there with the Arabs. He could not be moved on the 16th, so I marched across the plain and put up in some villages on its western side. Whilst waiting for the sheikh’s arrival, some villagers at night stole several loads of beads, and ran off with them; but my men, finding the theft out in time, hunted them down, and recovered all but one load–for the thieves had thrown their loads down as soon as they found they were hotly pursued.
Early this morning I called all the head men of the village together, and demanded the beads to be restored to me; for, as I was living with them, they were responsible, according to the laws of the country. They acknowledged the truth and force of my demand, and said they would each give me a cow as an earnest, until their chief, who was absent, arrived. This, of course, was objected to, as the chief, in his absence, must have deputed some one to govern for him, and I expected him to settle at once, that I might proceed with the march. Then selecting five of my head men to conduct the case, with five of their elders, it was considered my losses were equivalent to thirty head of cattle. As I remitted the penalty to fifteen head, these were made over to me, and we went on with the march–all feeling delighted with the issue but the Hottentots, who, not liking the loss of the second fifteen cows, said that in Kafirland, where the laws of the country are the same as here, the whole would have been taken, and, as it was, they thought I was depriving them of their rights to beef.
By a double march, the sheikh riding in a hammock slung on a pole, we now made Kuale, or “Partridge” nullah, which, crossing the road to the northward, drains these lands to the Malagarazi river, and thence into the Tanganyika lake. Thence, having spent the night in the jungle, we next morning pushed into the cultivated district of Rubuga, and put up in some half-deserted tembes, where the ravages of war were even more disgusting to witness than at Tura. The chief, as I have said, was a slave, placed there by the Arabs on the condition that he would allow all traders and travellers to help themselves without payment as long as they chose to reside there. In consequence of this wicked arrangement, I found it impossible to keep my men from picking and stealing. They looked upon plunder as their fortune and right, and my interference as unjustifiable.
By making another morning and evening march, we then reached the western extremity of this cultivated opening; where, after sleeping the night, we threaded through another forest to the little clearance of Kigue, and in one more march through forest arrived in the large and fertile district of Unyanyembe, the centre of Unyamuezi–the Land of the Moon–within five miles of Kaze which is the name of a well in the village of Tbora, now constituted the great central slave and ivory merchants’ depot. My losses up to this date (23d) were as follows:–One Hottentot dead and five returned; one freeman sent back with the Hottentots, and one flogged and turned off; twenty-five of Sultan Majid’s gardeners deserted; ninety-eight of the original Wanyamuezi porters deserted; twelve mules and three donkeys dead. Besides which, more than half of my property had been stolen; whilst the travelling expenses had been unprecedented, in consequence of the severity of the famine throughout the whole length of the march.
Chapter V
Unyamuezi
The Country and People of U-n-ya-muezi–Kaze, the Capital–Old Musa –The Naked Wakidi–The N’yanza, and the Question of the River Running in or out–The Contest between Mohinna and “Short- legs”– Famine–The Arabs and Local Wars–The Sultana of Unyambewa–Ungurue “The Pig”–Pillage.
U-n-ya-muezi–Country of Moon–must have been one of the largest kingdoms in Africa. It is little inferior in size to England, and of much the same shape, though now, instead of being united, it is cut up into petty states. In its northern extremities it is known by the appellation U-sukuma–country north; and in the southern, U-takama–country south. There are no historical traditions known to the people; neither was anything ever written concerning their country, as far as we know, until the Hindus, who traded with the east coast of Africa, opened commercial dealings with its people in salves and ivory, possibly some time prior to the birth of our Saviour, when, associated with their name, Men of the Moon, sprang into existence the Mountains of the Moon. These Men of the Moon are hereditarily the greatest traders in Africa, and are the only people who, for love of barter and change, will leave their own country as porters and go to the coast, and they do so with as much zest as our country- folk go to a fair. As far back as we can trace they have done this, and they still do it as heretofore. The whole of their country ranges from 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea-level–a high plateau, studded with little outcropping hills of granite, between which, in the valleys, there are numerous fertilising springs of fresh water, and rich iron ore is found in sandstone. Generally industrious–much more so than most other negroes–they cultivate extensively, make cloths of cotton in their own looms, smelt iron and work it up very expertly, build tembes to live in over a large portion of their country, but otherwise live in grass huts, and keep flocks and herds of considerable extent.
The Wanyamuezi, however, are not a very well-favoured people in physical appearance, and are much darker than either the Wazaramo or the Wagogo, though many of their men are handsome and their women pretty; neither are they well dressed or well armed, being wanting in pluck and gallantry. Their women, generally, are better dressed than the men. Cloths fastened round under the arms are their national costume, along with a necklace of beads, large brass or copper wire armlets, and a profusion of thin circles, called sambo, made of the giraffe’s tail-hairs bound round by the thinnest iron or copper wire; whilst the men at home wear loin-cloths, but in the field, or whilst travelling, simply hang a goat-skin over their shoulders, exposing at least three- fourths of their body in a rather indecorous manner. In all other respects they ornament themselves like the women, only, instead of a long coil of wire wound up the arm, they content themselves with having massive rings of copper or brass on the wrist; and they carry for arms a spear and bow and arrows. All extract more or less their lower incisors, and cut a [upside-down V shape] between their two upper incisors. The whole tribe are desperate smokers, and greatly given to drink.
On the 24th, we all, as many as were left of us, marched into the merchant’s depot, S. lat. 5§ 0′ 52″, and E. long. 33§ 1′ 34″,[FN#7] escorted by Musa, who advanced to meet us, and guided us into his tembe, where he begged we would reside with him until we could find men to carry our property on to Karague. He added that he would accompany us; for he was on the point of going there when my first instalment of property arrived, but deferred his intention out of respect to myself. He had been detained at Kaze ever since I last left it in consequence of the Arabs having provoked a war with Manua Sera, to which he was adverse. For a long time also he had been a chained prisoner; as the Arabs, jealous of the favour Manua Sera had shown to him in preference to themselves, basely accused him of supplying Manua Sera with gunpowder, and bound him hand and foot “like a slave.” It was delightful to see old Musa’s face again, and the supremely hospitable, kind, and courteous manner in which he looked after us, constantly bringing in all kind of small delicacies, and seeing that nothing was wanting to make us happy. All the property I had sent on in advance he had stored away; or rather, I should say, as much as had reached him, for the road expenses had eaten a great hole in it.
Once settled down into position, Sheikh Snay and the whole conclave of Arab merchants came to call on me. They said they had an army of four hundred slaves armed with muskets ready to take the field at once to hunt down Manua Sera, who was cutting their caravan road to pieces, and had just seized, by their latest reports, a whole convoy of their ammunition. I begged them strongly to listen to reason, and accept my advice as an old soldier, not to carry on their guerilla warfare in such a headlong hurry, else they would be led a dance by Manua Sera, as we had been by Tantia Topee in India. I advised them to allow me to mediate between them, after telling them what a favourable interview I had had with Manua Sera and Maula, whose son was at that moment concealed in Musa’s tembe. My advice, however, was not wanted. Snay knew better than any one how to deal with savages, and determined on setting out as soon as his army had “eaten their beef-feast of war.”
On my questioning him about the Nile, Snay still thought the N’yanza was the source of the Jub river[FN#8] as he did in our former journey, but gave way when I told him that vessels frequented the Nile, as this also coincided with his knowledge of navigators in vessels appearing on some waters to the northward of Unyoro. In a great hurry he then bade me good-bye; when, as he thought it would be final, I gave him, in consideration of his former good services to the last expedition, one of the gold watches given me by the Indian Government. I saw him no more, though he and all the other Arabs sent me presents of cows, goats, and rice, with a notice that they should have gone on their war-oath before, only, hearing of my arrival, out of due respect to my greatness they waited to welcome me in. Further, after doing for Manua Sera, they were determined to go on to Ugogo to assist Salem bin Saif and the other merchants on, during which, at the same time, they would fight all the Wagogo who persisted in taking taxes and in harassing caravans. At the advice of Musa, I sent Maula’s son off at night to tell the old chief how sorry I was to find the Arabs so hot-headed I could not even effect an arrangement with them. It was a great pity; for Manua Sera was so much liked by the Wanyamuezi, they would, had they been able, have done anything to restore him.
Next day the non-belligerent Arabs left in charge of the station, headed by my old friends Abdulla and Mohinna, came to pay their respects again, recognising in me, as they said, a “personification of their sultan,” and therefore considering what they were doing only due to my rank. They regretted with myself that Snay was so hot-headed; for they themselves thought a treaty of peace would have been the best thing for them, for they were more than half-ruined already, and saw no hope for the future. Then, turning to geography, I told Abdulla all I had written and lectured in England concerning his stories about navigators on the N’yanza, which I explained must be the Nile, and wished to know if I should alter it in any way: but he said, “Do not; you may depend it will all turn out right;” to which Musa added, all the people in the north told him that when the N’yanza rose, the stream rushed with such violence it tore up islands and floated them away.
I was puzzled at this announcement, not then knowing that both the lake and the Nile, as well as all ponds, were called N’yanza: but we shall see afterwards that he was right; and it was in consequence of this confusion in the treatment of distinctly different geographical features under one common name by these people, that in my former journey I could not determine where the lake had ended and the Nile began. Abdulla again–he had done so on the former journey–spoke to me of a wonderful mountain to the northward of Karague, so high and steep no one could ascend it. It was, he said, seldom visible, being up in the clouds, where white matter, snow or hail, often fell. Musa said this hill was in Ruanda, a much larger country than Urundi; and further, both men said, as they had said before, that the lands of Usoga and Unyoro were islands, being surrounded by water; and a salt lake, which was called N’yanza, though not the great Victoria N’yanza lay on the other said of the Unyoro, from which direction Rumanika, king of Karague, sometimes got beads forwarded to him by Kamrasi, king of Unyoro, of a different sort from any brought from Zanzibar. Moreover, these beads were said to have been plundered from white men by the Wakidi,–a stark-naked people who live up in trees–have small stools fixed on behind, always ready for sitting–wear their hair hanging down as far as the rump, all covered with cowrie-shells–suspend beads from wire attached to their ears and their lower lips–and wear strong iron collars and bracelets.
This people, I was told, are so fierce in war that no other tribe can stand against them, though they only fight with short spears. When this discourse was ended, ever perplexed about the Tanganyika being a still lake, I enquired of Mohinna and other old friends what they thought about the Marungu river: did it run into or out of the lake? and they all still adhered to its running into the lake– which, after all, in my mind, is the most conclusive argument that it does run out of the lake, making it one of a chain of lakes leading to the N’yanza, and through it by the Zambezi into the sea; for all the Arabs on the former journey said the Rusizi river ran out of the Tanganyika, as also the Kitangule ran out of the N’yanza, and the Nile ran into it, even though Snay said he thought the Jub river drained the N’yanza. All these statements were, when literally translated into English, the reverse of what the speakers, using a peculiar Arab idiom, meant to say; for all the statements made as to the flow of rivers by the negroes–who apparently give the same meaning to “out” and “in” as we do–contradicted the Arabs in their descriptions of the direction of the flow of these rivers.
Mohinna now gave us a very graphic description of his fight with Short-legs, the late chief of Khoko. About a year ago, as he was making his way down to the coast with his ivory merchandise, on arrival at Khoko, and before his camp was fortified with a ring- fence of thorns, some of his men went to drink at a well, where they no sooner arrived than the natives began to bean them with sticks, claiming the well as their property. This commenced a row, which brought out a large body of men, who demanded a bullock at the point of their spears. Mohinna hearing this, also came to the well, and said he would not listen to their demand, but would drink as he wished, for the water was the gift of God. Words then changed to blows. All Mohinna’s pagazis bolted, and his merchandise fell into the hands of the Wagogo. Had his camp been fortified, he think he would have been too much for his enemies; but, as it was, he retaliated by shooting Short-legs in the head, and at once bolted back to Kaze with a few slaves as followers, and his three wives.
The change that had taken place in Unyanyembe since I last left it was quite surprising. Instead of the Arabs appearing merchants, as they did formerly, they looked more like great farmers, with huge stalls of cattle attached to their houses; whilst the native villages were all in ruins–so much so that, to obtain corn for my men, I had to send out into the district several days’ journey off, and even then had to pay the most severe famine prices for what I got. The Wanyamuezi, I was assured, were dying of starvation in all directions; for, in addition to the war, the last rainy season had been so light, all their crops had failed.
27th and 28th.–I now gave all my men presents for the severe trials they had experienced in the wilderness, forgetting, as I told them, the merciless manner in which they had plundered me; but as I have a trifle more in proportion, to the three sole remaining pagazis, because they had not finished their work, my men were all discontented, and wished to throw back their presents, saying I did not love them, although they were “perminents,” as much as the “temperaries.” They, however, gave in, after some hours of futile arguments, on my making them understand, through Baraka, that what they saw me give to the pagazis would, if they reflected, only tend to prove to them that I was not a bad master who forgot his obligations when he could get no more out of his servants.
I then went into a long inquiry with Musa about our journey northward to Karague; and as he said there were no men to be found in or near Unyanyembe, for they were either all killed or engaged in the war, it was settled he should send some of his head men on to Rungua, where he had formerly resided, trading for some years, and was a great favourite with the chief of the place, by name Kiringuana. He also settled that I might take out of his establishment of slaves as many men as I could induce to go with me, for he thought them more trouble than profit, hired porters being more safe; moreover, he said the plan would be of great advantage to him, as I offered to pay, both man and master, each the same monthly stipend as I gave my present men. This was paying double, and all the heavier a burden, as the number I should require to complete my establishment to one hundred armed men would be sixty. He, however, very generously advised me not to take them, as they would give so much trouble; but finally gave way when I told him I felt I could not advance beyond Karague unless I was quite independent of the natives there–a view in which he concurred.
29th and 30th.–Jafu, another Indian merchant here, and co- partner of Musa, came in from a ten days’ search after grain, and described the whole country to be in the most dreadful state of famine. Wanyamuezi were lying about dead from starvation in all directions, and he did not think we should ever get through Usui, as Suwarora, the chief, was so extortionate he would “tear us to pieces”; but advised our waiting until the war was settled, when all the Arabs would combine and go with us. Musa even showed fear, but arranged, at my suggestion, that he should send some men to Rumanika, informing him of our intention to visit him, and begging, at the same time, he would use his influence in preventing our being detained in Usui.
I may here explain that the country Uzinza was once a large kingdom, governed by a king named Ruma, of Wahuma blood. At his death, which took place in Dagara’s time (the present Rumanika’s father), the kingdom was contested by his two sons, Rohinda and Suwarora, but, at the intercession of Dagara, was divided– Rohinda taking the eastern, called Ukhanga, and Suwarora the western half of the country, called Usui. This measure made Usui feudatory to Karague, so that much of the produce of the extortions committed in Usui went to Karague, and therefore they were recognised, though the odium always rested on Suwarora, “the savage extortioner,” rather than on the mild-disposed king of Karague, who kept up the most amicable relations with every one who visited him.
Musa, I must say, was most loud in his praises of Rumanika; and on the other hand, as Musa, eight years ago, had saved Rumanika’s throne for him against an insurrection got up by his younger brother Rogero, Rumanika, always regarding Musa as his saviour, never lost an opportunity to show his gratitude, and would have done anything that Musa might have asked him. Of this matter, however, more in Karague.
31st.–To-day, Jafu, who had lost many ivories at Khoko when Mohinna was attacked there, prepared 100 slaves, with Said bin Osman, Mohinna’s brother, with a view to follow down Snay, and, combining forces, attack Hori Hori, hoping to recover their losses; for it appeared to them the time had now come when their only hope left in carrying their trade to a successful issue, lay in force of arms. They would therefore not rest satisfied until they had reduced Khoko and Usekhe both, by actual force, to acknowledge their superiority, “feeding on them” until the Ramazan, when they would return with all the merchants detained in Ugogo, and, again combining their forces, they would fall on Usui, to reduce that country also.
When these men had gone, a lunatic set the whole place in commotion. He was a slave of Musa’s, who had wounded some men previously in his wild excesses, and had been tied up; but now, breaking loose again, he swore he would not be satisfied until he killed some “big man.” His strength was so great no one could confine him, though they hunted him into a hut, where, having seized a gun and some arrows, he defied any one to put hands on him. Here, however, he was at last reduced to submission and a better state of his senses by starvation: for I must add, the African is much give to such mental fits of aberration at certain periods: these are generally harmless, but sometimes not; but they come and they go again without any visible cause.
1st.–Musa’s men now started for Rungua, and promised to bring all the porters we wanted by the first day of the next moon. We found that this would be early enough, for all the members of the expedition, excepting myself, were suffering from the effects of the wilderness life–some with fever, some with scurvy, and some with ophthalmia–which made it desirable they should all have rest. Little now was done besides counting out my property, and making Sheikh Said, who became worse and worse, deliver his charge of Cafila Bashi over to Bombay for good. When it was found so much had been stolen, especially of the best articles, I was obliged to purchase many things from Musa, paying 400 per cent, which he said was their value here, over the market price of Zanzibar. I also got him to have all my coils of brass and copper wire made into bracelet, as is customary, to please the northern people.
7th.–To-day information was brought here that whilst Manua Sera was on his way from Ugogo to keep his appointment with me, Sheikh Snay’s army came on him at Tura, where he was ensconced in a tembe. Hearing this, Snay, instead of attacking the village at once, commenced negotiations with the chief of the place by demanding him to set free his guest, otherwise they, the Arabs, would storm the tembe. The chief, unfortunately, did not comply at once, but begged grace for one night, saying that if Manua Sera was found there in the morning they might do as they liked. Of course Manua bolted; and the Arabs, seeing the Tura people all under arms ready to defend themselves the next morning, set at them in earnest, and shot, murdered, or plundered the whole of the district. Then, whilst Arabs were sending in their captures of women, children, and cattle, Manua Sera made off to a district called Dara, where he formed an alliance with its chief, Kifunja, and boasted he would attack Kaze as soon as the travelling season commenced, when the place would be weakened by the dispersion of the Arabs on their ivory excursions.
The startling news set the place in a blaze, and brought all the Arabs again to seek my advice for they condemned what Snay had done in not listening to me before, and wished to know if I could not now treat for them with Manua Sera, which they thought could be easily managed, as Manua Sera himself was not only the first to propose mediation, but was actually on his way here for the purpose when Snay opposed him. I said nothing could give me greater pleasure than mediating for them, to put a stop to these horrors, but it struck me the case had now gone too far. Snay, in opposition to my advice, was bent on fighting; he could not be recalled and unless all the Arabs were of one mind, I ran the risk of committing myself to a position I could not maintain. To this they replied that the majority were still at Kaze, all wishing for peace at any price, and that whatever terms I might wish to dictate they would agree to. Then I said, “What would you do with Mkisiwa? you have made him chief, and cannot throw him over.” “Oh, that,” they said, “can be easily managed; for formerly, when we confronted Manua Sera at Nguru, we offered to give him as much territory as his father governed, though not exactly in the same place; but he treated our message with disdain, not knowing then what a fix he was in. Now, however, as he has seen more, and wishes for peace himself, there can be no difficulty.” I then ordered two of my men to go with two of Musa’s to acquaint Manua Sera with what we were about, and to know his views on the subject; but these men returned to say Manua Sera could not be found, for he was driven from “pillar to post” by the different native chiefs, as, wherever he went, his army ate up their stores, and brought nothing but calamities with them. Thus died this second attempted treaty. Musa then told me it was well it turned out so; for Manua Sera would never believe the Arabs, as they had broken faith so often before, even after exchanging blood by cutting incision in one another’s legs–the most sacred bond or oath the natives know of.
As nothing more of importance was done, I set out with Grant to have a week’s shooting in the district, under the guidance of an old friend, Fundi Sangoro, Musa’s “head gamekeeper,” who assured me that the sable antelope and blanc boc, specimens of which I had not yet seen, inhabited some low swampy place called N’yama, or “Meat,” not far distant, on the left bank of the Wale nullah. My companion unfortunately got fever here, and was prevented from going out, and I did little better; for although I waded up to my middle every day, and wounded several blanc boc, I only bagged one, and should not have got even him, had it not happened that some lions in the night pulled him down close to our camp, and roared so violently that they told us the story. The first thing in the morning I wished to have at them; but they took the hint of daybreak to make off, and left me only the half of the animal. I saw only one sable antelope. We all went back to Kaze, arriving there on the 24th.
25th to 13th.–Days rolled on, and nothing was done in particular– beyond increasing my stock of knowledge of distant places and people, enlarging my zoological collection, and taking long series of astronomical observations–until the 13th, when the whole of Kaze was depressed by a sad scene of mourning and tears. Some slaves came in that night–having made their way through the woods from Ugogo, avoiding the track to save themselves from detection– and gave information that Snay, Jafu, and five other Arabs, had been killed, as well as a great number of slaves. The expedition, they said, had been defeated, and the positions were so complicated nobody knew what to do. At first the Arabs achieved two brilliant successes, having succeeded in killing Hori Hori of Khoko, when they recovered their ivory, made slaves of all they could find, and took a vast number of cattle; then attacking Usekhe they reduced that place to submission by forcing a ransom out of its people. At this period, however, they heard that a whole caravan, carrying 5000 dollars’ worth of property, had been cut up by the people of Mzanza, a small district ten miles north of Usekhe; so, instead of going on to Kanyenye to relieve the caravans which were waiting there for them, they foolishly divided their forces into three parts. Of these they sent one to take their loot back to Kaze, another to form a reserve force at Mdaburu, on the east flank of the wilderness, and a third, headed by Snay and Jafu, to attack Mzanza. At the first onset Snay and Jafu carried everything before them, and became so excited over the amount of their loot that they lost all feelings of care or precaution.
In this high exuberance of spirits, a sudden surprise turned their momentary triumph into a total defeat; for some Wahumba, having heard the cries of the Wagogo, joined in their cause, and both together fell on the Arab force with such impetuosity that the former victors were now scattered in all directions. Those who could run fast enough were saved–the rest were speared to death by the natives. Nobody knew how Jafu fell; but Snay, after running a short distance, called one of his slaves, and begged him to take his gun, saying, “I am too old to keep up with you; keep this gun for my sake, for I will lie down here and take my chance.” He never was seen again. But this was not all their misfortunes; for the slaves who brought in this information had met the first detachment, sent with the Khoko loot, at Kigua, where, they said, the detachment had been surprised by Manua Sera, who, having fortified a village with four hundred men, expecting this sort of thing, rushed out upon them, and cut them all up.
The Arabs, after the first burst of their grief was over, came to me again in a body, and begged me to assist them, for they were utterly undone. Manua Sera prevented their direct communication with their detachment at Mdaburu, and that again was cut off from their caravans at Kanyenye by the Mzanza people, and in fact all the Wagogo; so they hoped at least I would not forsake them, which they heard I was going to do, as Manua Sera had also threatened to attack Kaze. I then told them, finally that their proposals were now beyond my power, for I had a duty to perform as well as themselves, and in a day or two I should be off.
14th to 17th.–On the 14th thirty-nine porters were brought in from Rungua by Musa’s men, who said they had collected one hundred and twenty, and brought them to within ten miles of this, when some travellers frightened all but thirty-nine away, by telling them, “Are you such fools as to venture into Kaze now? all the Arabs have been killed, or were being cut up and pursued by Manua Sera.” This sad disappointment threw me on my “beam- ends.” For some reason or other none of Musa’s slaves would take service, and the Arabs prevented theirs from leaving the place, as it was already too short of hands. To do the best under these circumstances, I determined on going to Rungua with what kit could be carried, leaving Bombay behind with Musa until such time as I should arrive there, and, finding more men, could send them back for the rest. I then gave Musa the last of the gold watches the Indian Government had given me;[FN#9] and, bidding Sheikh Said take all our letters and specimens back to the coast as soon as the road was found practicable, set out on the march northwards with Grant and Baraka, and all the rest of my men who were well enough to carry loads, as well as some of Musa’s head men, who knew where to get porters.
After passing Masange and Zimbili, we put up a night in the village of Iviri, on the northern border of Unyanyembe, and found several officers there, sent by Mkisiwa, to enforce a levy of soldiers to take the field with the Arabs at Kaze against Manua Sera; to effect which, they walked about ringing bells, and bawling out that if a certain percentage of all the inhabitants did not muster, the village chief would be seized, and their plantations confiscated. My men all mutinied here for increase of ration allowances. To find themselves food with, I had given them all one necklace of beads each per diem since leaving Kaze, in lieu of cloth, which hitherto had been served out for that purpose. It was a very liberal allowance, because the Arabs never gave more than one necklace to every three men, and that, too, of inferior quality to what I served. I brought them to at last by starvation, and then we went on. Dipping down into a valley between two clusters of granitic hills, beautifully clothed with trees and grass, studded here and there with rich plantations, we entered the district of Usagari, and on the second day forded the Gombe nullah again–in its upper course, called Kuale.
Rising again up to the main level of the plantation, we walked into the boma of the chief of Unyambewa, Singinya, whose wife was my old friend the late sultana Ungugu’s lady’s-maid. Immediately on our entering her palace, she came forward to meet me with the most affable air of a princess, begged I would always come to her as I did then, and sought to make every one happy and comfortable. Her old mistress, she said, died well stricken in years; and, as she had succeeded her, the people of her country invited Singinya to marry her, because feuds had arisen about the rights of succession; and it was better a prince, whom they thought best suited by birth and good qualities, should head their warriors, and keep all in order. At that moment Singinya was out in the field fighting his enemies; and she was sure, when he heard I was here, that he would be very sorry he had missed seeing me.
We next went on to the district of Ukumbi, and put up in a village there, on approaching which all the villagers turned out to resist us, supposing we were an old enemy of theirs. They flew about brandishing their spears, and pulling their bows in the most grotesque attitudes, alarming some of my porters so much that they threw down their loads and bolted. All the country is richly cultivated, though Indian corn at that time was the only grain ripe. The square, flat-topped tembes had now been left behind, and instead the villagers lived in small collections of grass huts, surrounded by palisades of tall poles.
Proceeding on we put up at the small settlement of Usenda, the proprietor of which was a semi-negro Arab merchant called Sangoro. He had a large collection of women here, but had himself gone north with a view to trade in Karague. Report, however, assured us that he was then detained in Usui by Suwarora, its chief, on the plea of requiring his force of musketeers to prevent the Watuta from pillaging his country, for these Watuta lived entirely on plunder of other people’s cattle.
With one move, by alternately crossing strips of forest and cultivation, studded here and there with small hills of granite, we forded the Qaunde nullah–a tributary to the Gombe–and entered the rich flat district of Mininga, where the gingerbread- palm grows abundantly. The greatest man we found here was a broken-down ivory merchant called Sirboko, who gave us a good hut to live in. Next morning, I believe at the suggestion of my Wanguana, with Baraka at their head, he induced me to stop there; for he said Rungua had been very recently destroyed by the Watuta, and this place could afford porters better than it. To all appearance this was the case, for this district was better cultivated than any place I had seen. I also felt a certain inclination to stop, as I was dragging on sick men, sorely against my feelings; and I also thought I had better not go farther away from my rear property; but, afraid of doing wrong in not acting up to Musa’s directions, I called up his head men who were with me, and asked them what they thought of the matter, as they had lately come from Rungua. On their confirming Sirboki’s story, and advising my stopping, I acceded to their recommendation, and immediately gave Musa’s men orders to look out for porters.
Hearing this, all my Wanguana danced with delight; and I, fearing there was some treachery, called Musa’s men again, saying I had changed my mind, and wished to go on in the afternoon; but when the time came, not one of our porters could be seen. There was now no help for it; so, taking it coolly, I gave Musa’s men presents, begged them to look sharp in getting the men up, and trusted all would end well in the long-run. Sirboko’s attentions were most warm and affecting. He gave us cows, rice, and milk, with the best place he had to live in, and looked after us as constantly and tenderly as if he had been our father. It seemed quite unjust to harbour any suspicion against him.
He gave the following account of himself:–He used to trade in ivory, on account of some Arabs at Zanzibar. On crossing Usui, he once had a fight with one of the chiefs of the country and killed him; but he got through all right, because the natives, after two or three of their number had been killed, dispersed, and feared to come near his musket again. He visited Uganda when the late king Sunna was living, and even traded Usoga; but as he was coming down from these northern countries he lost all his property by a fire breaking out in a village he stopped in, which drove him down here a ruined man. As it happened, however, he put up with the chief of this district, Ugali–Mr Paste–at a time when the Watuta attacked the place and drove all the inhabitants away. The chief, too, was on the point of bolting, when Sirboko prevented him by saying, “If you will only have courage to stand by me, the Watuta shall not come near–at any rate, if they do, let us both die together.” The Watuta at that time surrounded the district, crowning all the little hills overlooking it; but fearing the Arabs’ guns might be many, they soon walked away, and left them in peace. In return for this magnanimity, and feeling a great security in firearms, Ugali then built the large enclosure, with huts for Sirboko, we were now living in. Sirboko, afraid to return to the coast lest he should be apprehended for debt, has resided here ever since, doing odd jobs for other traders, increasing his family, and planting extensively. His agricultural operations are confined chiefly to rice, because the natives do not like it enough to be tempted to steal it.
25th to 2d.–I now set to work, collecting, stuffing, and drawing, until the 2d, when Musa’s men came in with three hundred men, whom I sent on to Kaze at once with my specimens and letters, directing Musa and Bombay to come on and join us immediately. Whilst waiting for these men’s return, one of Sirboko’s slaves, chained up by him, in the most piteous manner cried out to me: “Hai Bana wangi, Bana wangi (Oh, my lord, my lord), take pity on me! When I was a free man I saw you at Uvira, on the Tanganyika lake, when you were there; but since then the Watuta, in a fight at Ujiji, speared me all over and left me for dead, when I was seized by the people, sold to the Arabs, and have been in chains ever since. Oh, I saw, Bana wangi, if you would only liberate me I would never run away, but would serve you faithfully all my life.” This touching appeal was too strong for my heart to withstand, so I called up Sirboko, and told him, if he would liberate this one man to please me he should be no loser; and the release was effected. He was then christened Farham (Joy), and was enrolled in my service with the rest of my freed men. I then inquired if it was true the Wabembe were cannibals, and also circumcised. In one of their slaves the latter statement was easily confirmed. I was assure that he was not a cannibal; for the whole tribe of Wabembe, when they cannot get human flesh otherwise, give a goat to their neighbours for a sick or dying child, regarding such flesh as the best of all. No other cannibals, however, were known of; but the Masai, and their cognates, the Wahumba, Wataturu, Wakasange, Wanyaramba, and even the Wagogo and Wakimbu, circumcise.
On the 15th I was surprised to find Bombay come in with all my rear property and a great quantity of Musa’s, but with out the old man. By a letter from Sheikh Said I then found that, since my leaving Kaze, the Arabs had, along with Mkisiwa, invested the position of Manua Sera at Kigue, and forced him to take flight again. Afterwards the Arabs, returning to Kaze, found Musa preparing to leave. Angry at this attempt to desert them, they persuaded him to give up his journey north for the present; so that at the time Bombay left, Musa was engaged as public auctioneer in selling the effects of Snay, Jafu, and others, but privately said he would follow me on to Karague as soon as his rice was cut. Adding a little advice of his own, Sheikh Said pressed me to go on with the journey as fast as possible, because all the Arabs had accused me of conspiring with Manua Sera, and would turn against me unless I soon got away.
2d to 30th.–Disgusted with Musa’s vacillatory conduct, on the 22d I sent him a letter containing a bit of my mind. I had given him, as a present, sufficient cloth to pay for his porters, as well as a watch and a good sum of money, and advised his coming on at once, for the porters who had just brought in my rear property would not take pay to go on to Karague; and so I was detained again, waiting whilst his head man went to Rungua to look for more. Five days after this, a party of Sangoro’s arrived from Karague, saying they had been detained three months in Usui by Suwarora, who had robbed them of an enormous quantity of property, and oppressed them so that all their porters ran away. Now, slight as this little affair might appear, it was of vital importance to me, as I found all my men shaking their heads and predicting what might happen to us when we got there; so, as a forlorn hope, I sent Baraka with another letter to Musa, offering to pay as much money for fifty men carrying muskets as would buy fifty slaves, and, in addition to that, I offered to pay them what my men were receiving as servants. Next day (23d) the chief Ugali came to pay his respects to us. He was a fine- looking young man, about thirty years old, the husband of thirty wives, but he had only three children. Much surprised at the various articles composing our kit, he remarked that our “sleeping-clothes”–blankets–were much better than his royal robes; but of all things that amused him most were our picture- books, especially some birds drawn by Wolf.
Everything still seemed going against me; for on the following day (24th) Musa’s men came in from Rungua to say the Watuta were “out.” They had just seized fifty head of cattle from Rungua, and the people were in such a state of alarm they dared not leave their homes and families. I knew not what to do, for there was no hope left but in what Baraka might bring; and as that even would be insufficient, I sent Musa’s men into Kaze, to increase the original number by thirty men more.
Patience, thank God, I had a good stock of, so I waited quietly until the 30th, when I was fairly upset by the arrival of a letter from Kaze, stating that Baraka had arrived, and had been very insolent both to Musa and to Sheikh Said. The bearer of the letter was at once to go and search for porters at Rungua, but not a word was said about the armed men I had ordered. At the same time reports from the other side came in, to the effect that the Arabs at Kaze and Msene had bribed the Watuta to join them, and overrun the whole country from Ugogo to Usui; and, in consequence of this, all the natives on the line I should have to take were in such dread of that terrible wandering race of savages, who had laid waste in turn all the lands from N’yassa to Usui on their west flank, that not a soul dared leave his home. I could now only suppose that this foolish and hasty determination of the Arabs, who, quite unprepared to carry out their wicked alliance to fight, still had set every one against their own interests as well as mine, had not reached Musa, so I made up my mind at once to return to Kaze, and settle all matters I had in my heart with himself and the Arabs in person.
This settled, I next, in this terrible embarrassment, determined on sending back the last of the Hottentots, as all four of them, though still wishing to go on with me, distinctly said they had not the power to continue the march, for they had never ceased suffering from fever and jaundice, which had made them all yellow as guineas, save one, who was too black to change colour. It felt to me as if I were selling my children, having once undertaken to lead them through the journey; but if I did not send them back then, I never could afterwards, and therefore I allowed the more substantial feelings of humanity to overcome these compunctions.
Next morning, then, after giving the Tots over in charge of some men to escort them on to Kaze quietly, I set our myself with a dozen men, and the following evening I put up with Musa, who told me Baraka had just left without one man–all his slaves having become afraid to go, since the news of the Arab alliance had reached Kaze. Suwarora had ordered his subjects to run up a line of bomas to protect his frontier, and had proclaimed his intention to kill every coast-man who dared attempt to enter Usui. My heart was ready to sink as I turned into bed, and I was driven to think of abandoning everybody who was not strong enough to go on with me carrying a load.
3d to 13th.–Baraka, hearing I had arrived, then came back to me, and confirmed Musa’s words. The Arabs, too, came flocking in to beg, nay implore, me to help them out of their difficulties. Many of them were absolutely ruined, they said; others had their houses full of stores unemployed. At Ugogo those who wished to join them were unable to do so, for their porters, what few were left, were all dying of starvation; and at that moment Manua Sera was hovering about, shooting, both night and day, all the poor villagers in the district, or driving them away. Would to God, they said, I would mediate for them with Manua Sera–they were sure I would be successful–and then they would give me as many armed men as I liked. Their folly in all their actions, I said, proved to me that anything I might attempt to do would be futile, for their alliance with the Watuta, when they were not prepared to act, at once damned them in my eyes as fools. This they in their terror acknowledged, but said it was not past remedy, if I would join them, to counteract what had been done in that matter. Suffice it now to say, after a long conversation, arguing all the pros and cons over, I settled I would write out all the articles of a treaty of peace, by which they should be liable to have all their property forfeited on the coast if they afterwards broke faith; and I begged them to call the next day and sign it.
They were no sooner gone, however, than Musa assured me they had killed old Maula of Rubuga in the most treacherous manner, as follows:–Khamis, who is an Arab of most gentlemanly aspect, on returning from Ugogo attended by slaves, having heard that Maula was desirous of adjusting a peace, invited him with his son to do so. When old Maula came as desired, bringing his son with him, and a suitable offering of ivory and cattle, the Arab induced them both to kneel down and exchange blood with him, when, by a previously concerted arrangement, Khamis had them shot down by his slaves. This disgusting story made me quite sorry, when next day the Arabs arrived, expecting that I should attempt to help them; but as the matter had gone so far, I asked them, in the first place, how they could hope Manua Sera would have any faith in them when they were so treacherous, or trust to my help, since they had killed Maula, who was my protege? They all replied in a breath, “Oh, let the past be forgotten, and assist us now! for in you alone we can look for a preserver.”
At length an armistice was agreed to; but as no one dared go to negotiated it but my men, I allowed them to take pay from the Arabs, which was settled on the 4th by ten men taking four yards of cloth each, with a promise of a feast on sweetmeats when they returned. Ex Mrs Musa, who had been put aside by her husband because she was too fat for her lord’s taste, then gave me three men of her private establishment, and abused Musa for being wanting in “brains.” She had repeatedly advised him to leave this place and go with me, lest the Arabs, who were all in debt to him, should put him to death; but he still hung on to recover his remaining debts, a portion having been realised by the sale of Snay’s and Jafu’s effects; for everything in the shape of commodities had been sold at the enormous price of 500 per cent– the male slaves even fetching 100 dollars per head, though the females went for less. The Hottentots now arrived, with many more of my men, who, seeing their old “flames,” Snay’s women, sold off by auction, begged me to advance them money to purchase them with, for they could not bear to see these women, who were their own when they formerly stayed here, go off like cattle no one knew where. Compliance, of course, was impossible, as it would have crowded the caravan with women. Indeed, to prevent my men every thinking of matrimony on the march, as well as to incite them on through the journey, I promised, as soon as we reached Egypt, to give them all wives and gardens at Zanzibar, provided they did not contract marriages on the road.
On the 6th, the deputation, headed by Baraka, returned triumphantly into Kaze, leading in two of Manua Sera’s ministers- -one of them a man with one eye, whom I called Cyclops–and tow