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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #66812 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66812)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Lake Regions of Central Africa, by
-Richard Francis Burton
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Lake Regions of Central Africa
- A Picture of Exploration, Vol. 1
-
-Author: Richard Francis Burton
-
-Release Date: November 24, 2021 [eBook #66812]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Emmanuel Ackerman, Harry Lamé and the Online Distributed
- Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
- produced from images generously made available by The Internet
- Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL
-AFRICA ***
-
-
- Transcriber’s Notes
-
- Text printed in italics has been transcribed _between underscores_,
- bold face text =between equal signs=. Small capitals have been changed
- to ALL CAPITALS. Superscript text is represented by ^{text}.
-
- More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.
-
-
-
-
- THE
- LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA
-
- VOL. I.
-
-
-
-
- LONDON
- PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
- NEW-STREET SQUARE
-
-
-[Illustration: THE IVORY PORTER.]
-
-
-
-
- THE
- LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA
-
- A PICTURE OF EXPLORATION
-
- BY
-
- RICHARD F. BURTON
- Capt. H. M. I. Army: Fellow and Gold Medallist of the Royal
- Geographical Society
-
- “_Some to discover islands far away_”--_Shakspere_
-
- IN TWO VOLUMES
-
- VOL. I.
-
- LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1860
-
- _The right of translation is reserved_
-
-
-
-
- TO
-
- MY SISTER,
-
- MARIA STISTED,
-
- THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-I had intended this record of personal adventure to appear immediately
-after my return to Europe, in May 1859. The impaired health, the
-depression of spirits, and worse still the annoyance of official
-correspondence, which to me have been the sole results of African
-Exploration, may be admitted as valid reasons for the delay.
-
-In April, 1860, the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain honoured
-me by publishing a detailed paper, forming the XXIXth Volume of their
-Journal, from which the topographical descriptions contained in the
-following pages have, with their kind permission, been extracted. I have
-now attempted to combine with geography and ethnology, a narrative of
-occurrences and an exposition of the more popular and picturesque points
-of view which the subject offers.
-
-When I communicated to my friends the publishers certain intentions of
-writing an exclusively “light work,” they protested against the project,
-stating that the public appetite required the addition of stronger meat.
-In compliance, therefore, with their suggestion, I have drawn two
-portraits of the same object, and mingled the gay with the graver
-details of travel, so as to produce an antipathetic cento.
-
-Modern “hinters to travellers” direct the explorer and the missionary to
-eschew theory and opinion. We are told somewhat peremptorily that it is
-our duty to gather actualities not inferences--to see and not to think,
-in fact, to confine ourselves to transmitting the rough material
-collected by us, that it may be worked into shape by the professionally
-learned at home. But why may not the observer be allowed a voice
-concerning his own observations, if at least his mind be sane and his
-stock of collateral knowledge be respectable?
-
-I have not attempted to avoid intruding matters of a private and
-personal nature upon the reader; it would have been impossible to avoid
-egotism in a purely egotistical narrative. The official matter, however,
-has been banished into Appendix II. In publishing it, my desire is to
-avoid the possibility of a charge being concealed in the pigeon-holes of
-the India House, to be produced, according to custom, with all the
-effect of a surprise whenever its presence is convenient. I know the
-conditions of appealing from those in office to a higher tribunal--the
-Public. I well know them and I accept them. _Avant tout, gentilhomme!_
-
-I have spoken out my feelings concerning Captain Speke, my companion in
-the Expedition which forms the subject of these pages. The history of
-our companionship is simply this:--As he had suffered with me in purse
-and person at Berberah, in 1855, I thought it but just to offer him the
-opportunity of renewing an attempt to penetrate into Africa. I had no
-other reasons. I could not expect much from his assistance; he was not a
-linguist--French and Arabic being equally unknown to him--nor a man of
-science, nor an accurate astronomical observer. The Court of Directors
-officially refused him leave of absence; I obtained it for him by an
-application to the local authorities at Bombay. During the exploration
-he acted in a subordinate capacity; and as may be imagined amongst a
-party of Arabs, Baloch, and Africans, whose languages he ignored, he was
-unfit for any other but a subordinate capacity. Can I then feel
-otherwise than indignant, when I find that, after preceding me from Aden
-to England, with the spontaneous offer, on his part, of not appearing
-before the Society that originated the Expedition until my return, he
-had lost no time in taking measures to secure for himself the right of
-working the field which I had opened, and that from that day he has
-placed himself _en evidence_ as the _primum mobile_ of an Expedition, in
-which he signed himself “surveyor,”--_cujus pars minima fuit_?
-
-With deference to the reader’s judgment, I venture to express a hope
-that whatever of unrefinement appears in these pages, may be charged to
-the subject. It has been my duty to draw a Dutch picture, a
-cabaret-piece which could not be stripped of its ordonnance, its boors,
-its pipes, and its pots. I have shirked nothing of the unpleasant
-task,--of recording processes and not only results; I have entered into
-the recital of the maladies, the weary squabbles, and the vast variety
-of petty troubles, without which the _coup d’œil_ of African adventure
-would be more like a Greek Saint in effigy--all lights and no
-shade--than the chapter of accidents which it now is.
-
-The map and the lists of stations, dates, &c., have been drawn upon the
-plan adopted by Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.G.S. The outline of Africa, the
-work of Mr. Weller, F.R.G.S., contains the latest and the best
-information concerning the half-explored interior of the Continent. The
-route-map has been borrowed by permission from the laborious and
-conscientious compilation of Mr. Findlay, F.R.G.S., accompanying the
-paper forwarded by me to the Royal Geographical Society. The latter
-gentleman has also kindly supplied a profile of the country traversed,
-showing the Eastern limits of the Great Depression, and the
-“elevated-trough formation” of Central Africa.
-
-In conclusion, I would solicit forbearance in all that concerns certain
-errors of omission and commission scattered through these pages. The
-migratory instinct is now hurrying me towards the New World: I have,
-therefore, been obliged to content myself with a single revise.
-
- 10th April,
- E.I.U.S. Club, 14 St. James’s Square.
-
-
-
-
-DATES OF JOURNEYING.
-
- 1856| September |Left England.
- |2nd December |Sailed from Bombay.
- |19th December |Arrived at Zanzibar Island.
- 1857|6th January |Left Zanzibar the first time.
- |14th June |Left Zanzibar the second time.
- |27th June |Set out from Kaole on the coast.
- |7th November |Arrived at Unyanyembe of Unyamwezi.
- 1858|14th February |Reached Ujiji on the Tanganyika Lake.
- |26th April |Arrived at Uvira on the North of the Tanganyika
- | |Lake.
- |26th May |Left Ujiji.
- |19th June |Returned to Unyanyembe.
- |26th September|Left Unyanyembe.
- 1859|3rd February |Reached Konduchi on the coast.
- |4th March |Landed at Zanzibar Island.
- |4th May |Left Aden.
- |20th May |Landed at Southampton.
-
-
-
-
-LIST STASIMETRIC AND HYPSOMETRIC.
-
- NAMES OF KHAMBI OR STAGES MADE BY THE EAST AFRICAN EXPEDITION, AND
- HEIGHTS OF THE SEVERAL CRUCIAL STATIONS.
-
-
-FIRST REGION.
-
- +-----+------------------------------------------------+-----+
- | | FROM KAOLE ON THE COAST TO ZUNGOMERO, CHIEF | |
- | | DISTRICT OF K’HUTU. | |
- +-----+------------------------------------------------+-----+
- | | |H. M.|
- | 1 | Kaoli to Mgude or Kuingani | 1 30|
- | 2 | Kuingani to Bomani | 1 30|
- | 3 | Bomani to Mkwaju la Mvuani | 0 30|
- | 4 | Mkwaju to Nzasa (of Uzaramo) | 3 20|
- | 5 | Nzasa to Kiranga-Ranga | 6 0|
- | 6 | Kiranga-Ranga to Tumba Ihere | 3 30|
- | 7 | Tumba Ihere to Muhonyera | 4 40|
- | 8 | Muhonyera to Sagesera | 2 45|
- | 9 | Sagesera to Tunda | 7 0|
- | 10 | Tunda to Dege la Mhora | 2 30|
- | 11 | Dege la Mhora to Madege Madogo | 3 0|
- | 12 | Madege Madogo to Kidunda | 3 0|
- | 13 | Kidunda to Mgeta Ford | 7 0|
- | 14 | Mgeta Ford to Kiruru in K’hutu | 6 0|
- | 15 | Kiruru to Dut’humi | 6 40|
- | 16 | Dut’humi to Bakera | 2 0|
- | 17 | Bakera to Zungomero | 7 0|
- +-----+ +-----+
- | ☉17 | |67 55|
- +-----+------------------------------------------------+-----+
- |Kaole, Latitude, South, 6° 25′ Longitude, East, 38° 51′.|
- |Zungomero, „ 7° 27′ „ 37° 22′.|
- | Altitude of Zungomero, 330 feet above sea level. Average |
- | altitude of First Region, by B. P. Therm., 230 feet. |
- +------------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-SECOND REGION.
-
- +---+----------------------------------------------------------+------+
- | | FROM ZUNGOMERO, OVER THE MOUNTAINS OF USAGARA, | |
- | | TO UGOGI. | |
- +---+----------------------------------------------------------+------+
- | | | H. M.|
- | 1|Zungomero to Mzizi Mdogo (in Usagara) | 5 0|
- | 2| Mzizi Mdogo to Chya K’henge | 4 30|
- | 3|Chya K’henge to Rufuta River | 4 30|
- | 4|Rufuta River (up the Goma Pass) to Mfu’uni | 1 50|
- | 5|Mfu’uni to “Overshot Nullah” | 6 10|
- | 6|“Overshot Nullah” to Zonhwe | 2 0|
- | 7|Zonhwe to Muhama | 4 45|
- | 8|Muhama to Makata | 6 30|
- | 9|Makata to Myombo River | 4 30|
- | 10|Myombo River to Mbumi | 4 30|
- | 11|Mbumi to Kadetamare | 5 55|
- | 12|Kadetamare to Muinyi | 8 10|
- | 13|Muinyi to Nidabi | 4 50|
- | 14|Nidabi to Rumuma | 5 30|
- | 15|Rumuma to Marenga Mk’hali | 3 30|
- | 16|Marenga Mk’hali to ☉ in Jungle | 5 0|
- | 17|Jungle to Inenge | 4 0|
- | 18|Inenge to first gradient of Rubeho Pass | 6 30|
- | 19|First gradient to second gradient ditto | 2 0|
- | 20|Second gradient to summit of Rubeho | 1 45|
- | 21|Summit to ☉ one quarter of the way down the counterslope | 3 0|
- | 22|From ☉ on slope to ☉ below half-way | 5 0|
- | 23|From ☉ below half-way to Ugogi at the base | 4 0|
- +---+ +------+
- |☉23 + 27 (carried forward) = 33 ☉’s 103 25|
- | Carried forward, 67 55|
- | ------+
- | Total hours from the coast to Ugogi 171 20|
- +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
- |Rubeho Pass, (about) Latitude, South, 6° 38′ Longitude, East, 36° 19′|
- |Ugogi, „ 6° 40′ „ 36° 6′|
- | Altitude of Rubeho summit, 5700. Altitude of Ugogi at Western |
- | Counterslope, by B. P. Therm. 2770. |
- +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-THIRD REGION.
-
- +------------+------------------------------------------------+------+
- | | FROM UGOGI, THROUGH MARENGA MK’HALI, UGOGO, | |
- | | AND MGUNDA MK’HALI, TO TURA OF UNYAMWEZI. | |
- +------------+------------------------------------------------+------+
- | | | H. M.|
- | ☉ 1|Ugogi to ☉ in Jungle | 4 0|
- | { 2|Jungle to Marenga Mk’hali (second of that name) | 4 40|
- |Marenga { 3|Marenga Mk’hali to ☉ in Jungle | 4 10|
- |Mk’hali.{ 4|☉ in Jungle to ☉ in Jungle | 5 0|
- | { 5|☉ in Jungle to Ziwa or tank (on frontier of | |
- | { |Ugogo) | 2 0|
- | { 6|Ziwa to Kifukuru | 3 0|
- | { 7|Kifukuru to ☉ in Jungle | 5 40|
- | { 8|☉ in Jungle to Kanyenye | 1 25|
- | { 9|Kanyenye to Kanyenye of Magomba | 2 45|
- |Ugogo. { 10|Kanyenye of Magomba to ☉ in Jungle | 5 0|
- | { 11|☉ in Jungle to K’hok’ho | 7 40|
- | { 12|K’hok’ho to Mdaburu | 6 20|
- | { 13|Mdaburu to ☉ in Jungle of Mgunda Mk’hali | 6 30|
- | { 14|Mgunda Mk’hali to Mabunguru | 6 0|
- | { 15|Mabunguru to Jiwe la Mkoa | 7 0|
- |Mganda { 16|Jiwe la Mkoa to Kirurumo | 3 10|
- |Mk’hali.{ 17|Kirurumo to Jiweni of Uyanzi | 4 30|
- | { 18|Jiweni to Mgongo Thembo | 2 20|
- | { 19|Mgongo Thembo to ☉ Tura Nullah | 7 0|
- | { 20|☉ Tura Nullah to Tura in Unyamwezi | 5 30|
- +------------+ +------+
- | ☉20 + 33 (carried forward) = 53. 93 40|
- | Carried forward 171 20|
- | -------+
- | Total hours from the coast to Tura 265 0|
- +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
- |Eastern limit of Tura, Latitude, South, 5° 27′ Longitude, East, 34°.|
- |Altitude, by Bath. Thermometer, 4125 feet. |
- +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-FOURTH REGION.
-
- +----------+------------------------------------------+-------------+
- | | THROUGH UNYAMWEZI, UGARA, UWENDE, AND | |
- | | UVINZA, TO FORD OF MALAGARAZI RIVER. | |
- +----------+------------------------------------------+-------------+
- | | | H. M. |
- | 1|Eastern limit of Tura to Western Tura. | 1 30 |
- | 2|Western Tura to Kwale Nullah | 6 30 |
- | 3|Kwale Nullah to Eastern Rubuga | 5 45 |
- | 4|Eastern Rubuga to Western Rubuga | 2 40 |
- | 5|Western Rubuga to Ukona | 2 15 |
- | 6|Ukona to Kigwa | 5 5 |
- | 7|Kigwa to Hanga village | 6 30 |
- | 8|Hanga to Kazeh (Arab ☉) | 5 0 |
- | 9|Kazeh to Zimbili Hill | 1 40 |
- | 10|Zimbili to Yombo | 2 0 |
- | 11|Yombo to Pano (clearing in Jungle) | 4 0 |
- | 12|Pano to Eastern Mfuto | 1 40 |
- | 13|Eastern Mfuto to Western Mfuto | 2 0 |
- | 14|Western Mfuto to Eastern Wilyankuru | 6 30 |
- | 15|Eastern Wilyankuru to Central Wilyankuru | 2 50 |
- | 16|Central Wilyankuru to Western Wilyankuru | 2 0 |
- | 17|Western Wilyankuru to Masenge | 2 30}Expe- |
- | 18|Masenge to Eastern Kirira | 2 0}dition|
- | 19|Eastern Kirira to Western Kirira | 3 0}sepa- |
- | 20|Western Kirira to Eastern Msene | 4 0}rated.|
- | 21|Eastern Msene to Western Msene (Arab ☉) | 2 0 |
- | 22|Western Msene to Mbhali | 1 30 |
- | 23|Mbhali to Sengati | 2 0 |
- | 24|Sengati to Sorora or Solola | 0 45 |
- | 25|Sorora to Ukungwe | 2 15 |
- | 26|Ukungwe to Panda | 1 50 |
- | 27|Panda to Kajjanjeri | 1 30 |
- | 28|Kajjanjeri to Eastern Usagozi | 3 45 |
- | 29|Eastern Usagozi to Western Usagozi | 1 0 |
- | 30|Western Usagozi to Masenga of Wagara | 2 0 |
- | 31|Masenga to Mukozimo of Wawende | 2 45 |
- | 32|Mukozimo to Uganza of Wanyamwezi | 3 15 |
- | {33|Uganza to Usenye of Wavinza | 4 0 |
- | {34|Usenye to Rukunda | 2 20 |
- |Uvinza.{35|Rukunda to Wanyika | 3 0 |
- | {36|Wanyika to Unyanguruwwe | 4 50 |
- | {37|Unyanguruwwe to Ugaga on the Malagarazi | |
- | |River | 3 0 |
- +----------+ +-------------+
- | ☉ 37 + 53 (carried over) = 90 110 30 |
- | Carried forward 265 0 |
- | --------------+
- | Total hours from coast to Malagarazi River 375 30 |
- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
- |Kazeh Latitude, South, 5° 1′. Longitude, East, 33° 3′.|
- |Malagarazi Ferry. „ 5° 7′. „ 31° 13′.|
- | Altitude of Kazeh, by Bath Therm. 3490 feet. |
- | „ Usenye „ 3190 „ |
- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-FIFTH REGION.
-
- +----+---------------------------------------------------+------+
- | | FROM THE MALAGARAZI FERRY TO UKARANGA ON THE | |
- | | TANGANYIKA LAKE. | |
- +----+---------------------------------------------------+------+
- | | | H. M.|
- | 1|Ugaga on left to Mpete on right hand | 0 25|
- | 2|Mpete to Kinawani | 5 20|
- | 3|Kinawani to ☉ in Jungle | 5 25|
- | 4|☉ in Jungle to Jambeho | 1 40|
- | 5|Jambeho to Salt pans of Rusugi River | 5 15|
- | 6|Salt pans to ☉ in Jungle | 4 20|
- | 7|☉ in Jungle to Ruguvu River | 3 30|
- | 8|Ruguvu River to Unguwwe River | 4 40|
- | 9|Unguwwe River to ☉ in Jungle | 7 35|
- | 10|☉ in Jungle to Ukaranga on Lake | 6 35|
- +----+ +------+
- |☉ 10 + 90 (carried forward) = 100 44 45|
- | Carried forward 375 30|
- | ------+
- | Total hours from the coast to the Tanganyika Lake 420 25|
- +---------------------------------------------------------------+
- |Ukaranga, Latitude, South, 4° 58′. Longitude, East, 30° 3′ 30″.|
- | Altitude by Bath Therm. 1850. |
- +---------------------------------------------------------------+
-
-The distance from Kaole to Ujiji is of 540 rectilinear geographical
-miles: or in statute miles, allowing one for windings of the road, thus:
-
- From Kaole to Kazeh, statute miles 520
- From Kazeh to Ujiji, „ 276
- ---
- 796
- Add one fifth for detour--159 miles 159
- ---
- Total of statute miles 955
-
-Assuming the absolute time of travelling to be 420 hours, this will give
-a marching rate of 2·27 miles per hour.
-
-
-
-
- CONTENTS
- OF
- THE FIRST VOLUME.
-
-
- Page
-
- CHAPTER I.
- We quit Zanzibar Island in Dignified Style 1
-
- CHAP. II.
- Zanzibar and the Mrima explained 28
-
- CHAP. III.
- Transit of the Valley of the Kingani and the Mgeta Rivers 41
-
- CHAP. IV.
- On the Geography and Ethnology of the First Region 100
-
- CHAP. V.
- Halt at Zungomero, and Formation of the Caravan 127
-
- CHAP. VI.
- We cross the East African Ghauts 158
-
- CHAP. VII.
- The Geography and Ethnology of the Second Region 225
-
- CHAP. VIII.
- We succeed in traversing Ugogo 241
-
- CHAP. IX.
- The Geography and Ethnography of Ugogo--the Third Region 294
-
- CHAP. X.
- We enter Unyamwezi, the Far-famed Land of the Moon 313
-
- CHAP. XI.
- We conclude the Transit of Unyamwezi 375
-
-
-
-
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- IN
- THE FIRST VOLUME.
-
-
- CHROMOXYLOGRAPHS.
-
- The Ivory Porter _Frontispiece._
- Zanzibar Town from the Sea _to face page_ 1
- A Town on the Mrima „ 28
- Explorers in East Africa „ 127
- The East African Ghauts „ 158
- View in Unyamwezi „ 313
-
-
- WOODCUTS.
-
- The Wazaramo Tribe 41
- Party of Wah’hutu Women 100
- A village in K’hutu. The Silk Cotton Tree 157
- Sycomore Tree in the Dhun Ugogi 158
- Maji ya W’heta, or the Jetting Fountain in K’hutu 225
- Ugogo 241
- Usagara Mountains, seen from Ugogo 294
- Ladies’ Smoking Party 313
- African House Building 375
-
-
-[Illustration: ZANZIBAR TOWN FROM THE SEA.]
-
-
-
-
- THE
- LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-WE QUIT ZANZIBAR ISLAND IN DIGNIFIED STYLE.
-
-
-At noon, on the 16th of June, 1857, the corvette Artémise, after the
-usual expenditure of gunpowder which must in Eastern lands announce
-every momentous event, from the birth of a prince to the departure of a
-bishop, slowly gliding out of Zanzibar harbour, afforded us a farewell
-glance at the whitewashed mosques and houses of the Arabs, the
-cadjan-huts, the cocoa-grown coasts, and the ruddy hills striped with
-long lines of clove. Onwards she stole before a freshening breeze, the
-balmy breath of the Indian Ocean, under a sun that poured a flood of
-sparkling light over the azure depths and the bright green shallows
-around, between the “elfin isles” of Kumbeni, with its tall trees, and
-Chumbi, tufted with dense thickets, till the white sandstrip mingled
-with the blue ocean, the gleaming line of dwarf red cliff and scaur
-dropped into the water’s edge, the land faded from emerald to brown, and
-from brown to hazy purple, the tufts of the trees seemed first to stand
-out of, then to swim upon, the wave, and as evening, the serenest of
-tropical evenings, closed in over sky, earth, and sea, a cloud-like
-ridge, dimly discernible from our quarter, was all that remained of
-Zanzibar.
-
-I will not here stay the course of my narrative to inform the reader
-that Zanzibar is not, as the Cyclopædias declare, “an island of Africa,
-governed by a king who is subject to the Portuguese;” that it is not, as
-the Indian post-offices appear to believe, a part of the Persian Gulf;
-nor, as homekeeping folk, whose notions of African geography are
-somewhat dim and ill-defined, have mentally determined, a rock in the
-Red Sea, nor a dependency of the Niger, nor even an offshoot of the Cape
-of Storms.
-
-The Artémise is a kind of “Jackass-frigate,” an 18-gun corvette,
-teak-built in Bombay, with a goodly breadth of beam, a slow sailer, but
-a sure. In the days of our deceased ally, Sayyid Said, the misnamed
-“Imaum of Muscat,” she had so frequently been placed by his Highness at
-the disposal of his old friend Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, that she had
-acquired the sobriquet of “the Balyuz or Consul’s yacht.” On this
-occasion she had been fitted up for a cruise to the mainland; her yards,
-usually struck, had been swayed up and thrown across; her top spars had
-been transferred from the hold to their proper place; her ropes and
-rigging, generally hanging in tatters about her sticks, had been
-carefully overhauled; her old sails had been bent, and her usual crew, a
-few slaves that held their own with difficulty against a legion of rats
-and an army of cockroaches, had been increased to its full complement of
-twenty men. His Highness the Sayyid Majid, who after the demise of his
-father had assumed the title of “Sultan of Zanzibar and the Sawahil,”
-came on board accompanied by his four brothers, of whom two--Sayyids
-Jamshid and Hamdan--died of small-pox before our return, and one--Sayyid
-Barghash--has lately become a state prisoner at Bombay, to bid what
-proved a last adieu to his father’s friend. At the same time His
-Highness honoured me, through his secretary, Ahmed bin Nuuman, more
-generally known as Wajhayn, or “Two-faces,” with three letters of
-introduction, to Musa Mzuri, the Indian doyen of the merchants settled
-at Unyamwezi, to the Arabs there resident, and to all his subjects who
-were travelling into the interior.
-
-The Artémise conveyed the _personnel_ and the _matériel_ of the East
-African Expedition, namely, the two European members--my companion and
-myself--two Portuguese, or rather half-caste Goanese “boys,” two Negro
-gun-carriers, the Seedy Mubarak Mombai (Bombay), and Muinyi Mabruki, his
-“brother,” and finally, eight so-called “Baloch” mercenaries, a guard
-appointed by the Sultan to accompany me. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, at
-that time Her Majesty’s consul and Hon. East India Company’s agent at
-Zanzibar, though almost lethargic from the effects of protracted
-illness--he lived only in the evening--had deemed it his duty to land us
-upon the coast, and to superintend our departure from the dangerous
-seaboard. He was attended by Mr. Frost, the apothecary attached to the
-consulate, whose treatment for a fatal liver-complaint appeared to
-consist of minute doses of morphia and a liberal diet of sugar.
-
-By Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton’s advice, I ventured to modify the scheme of
-the East African Expedition, as originally proposed by the Expeditionary
-Committee of the Royal Geographical Society of London. In 1855, M.
-Erhardt, an energetic member of the hapless “Mombas Mission,” had on his
-return to London offered to explore a vast mass of water, about the size
-of the Caspian, which, from the information of divers “natives,” he had
-deposited in slug or leech shape in the heart of Intertropical Africa,
-thus prolonging the old “Maravi,” or “Moravim Lake” of Portuguese
-travellers and school atlases, to the north of the equator, and thus
-bringing a second deluge upon sundry provinces and kingdoms thoroughly
-well known for the last half century. He had proposed to land, with an
-outfit of 300 dollars[1], at Kilwa, one of the southern ports of the
-Zanzibar mainland, to hire a score of Wasawahili porters, to march with
-a caravan upon the nearest point of his own water, and to launch an
-adventurous canoe upon a lake which, according to his map, could not be
-traversed under twenty-five days. Messrs. Erhardt and Krapf, of the
-“Mombas Mission,” spent, it is true, a few hours at Kilwa, where they
-were civilly entreated by the governor and the citizens; but they
-egregiously deceived themselves and others, when they concluded that
-they could make that place their ingress-point. Lieut. Christopher,
-I.N., who visited the East African coast in 1843, wisely advised
-explorers to avoid the neighbourhood of Kilwa. Wisely, I repeat: the
-burghers of that proud old settlement had, only a year before my
-arrival, murdered, by means of the Wangindo savages, an Arab merchant
-who ventured to lay open the interior.
-
- [1] The sum was wholly inadequate. M. Erhardt has, I have been told,
- expended as much on a week’s march from Pangani Town to Fuga. The
- smallest of Wasawahili pedlars would hardly deem an outfit of 300
- dollars sufficient. M. Erhardt was, even according to his own reduced
- ideas of distance, to march with twenty followers 400 miles, and to
- explore a lake 300 miles in breadth and of unknown length. In 1802,
- when cloth and beads were twice their present value in Africa, the
- black Pombeiros sent by M. Da Costa, superintendent of the “Cassangi
- Factory,” carried with them for the necessary expenses and presents,
- goods to the value of nearly 500_l._ M. Erhardt’s estimate was highly
- injurious to future travellers: either he knew the truth, and he
- should have named at once a reasonable estimate, or he was ignorant of
- the subject, and he should have avoided it. The consequence of his
- proposal was simply this:--With 5000_l._ instead of 1000_l._, the
- limited sum of the Government grant, the East African Expedition could
- have explored the whole central area; nothing but the want of supplies
- caused their return at the time when, after surmounting sickness,
- hardship, and want of discipline amongst the party, they were ready to
- push to the extreme end.
-
-At the same time I had laid before the Council of the Royal Geographical
-Society my desire to form an expedition primarily for the purpose of
-ascertaining the limits of the “Sea of Ujiji, or Unyamwezi Lake,” and
-secondarily, to determine the exportable produce of the interior, and
-the ethnography of its tribes. I have quoted exactly the words of the
-application. In these days every explorer of Central Africa is supposed
-to have set out in quest of the coy sources of the White Nile, and when
-he returns without them, his exploration, whatever may have been its
-value, is determined to be a failure. The Council honoured my plans with
-their approval. At their solicitation, the Foreign Office granted the
-sum of 1000_l._ for the outlay of the exploration, and the defunct Court
-of Directors of the late East India Company, who could not be persuaded
-to contribute towards the expenses, generously allowed me two years’
-leave of absence from regimental duty, for the purpose of commanding the
-Expedition. I also received instructions to report myself to his
-Excellency the Lord Elphinstone, then Governor of Bombay, and to
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, from whose influence and long experience much
-was expected.
-
-When the starting-point came to be debated, the Consul strongly objected
-to an Expedition into the interior _viâ_ Kilwa, on account of the
-opposition to be expected at a port so distant from the seat of
-government, where the people, half-caste Arabs and Wasawahili, who are
-under only a nominal control, still retained a strong predilection for
-protection, and a violent hostility to strangers. These reasons led him
-to propose my landing upon the coast opposite Zanzibar, and to my thence
-marching with a strong escort, despatched by the Arab prince, through
-the maritime tribes, whose cruel murder of M. Maizan, the first European
-known to have penetrated beyond the sea-board, was yet fresh in the
-memories of men. This notion was accepted the more readily, as during my
-short preliminary sojourn at Zanzibar, I had satisfactorily ascertained
-from Arab travellers that the Maravi or Kilwa Lake is distinct from the
-“Sea of Ujiji;” that the former is of comparatively diminutive
-dimensions; that there is no caravan route between the two; and
-therefore that, by exploring the smaller, I should lose the chance of
-discovering the larger water. Moreover, the general feeling of the
-Zanzibarites--of the Christian merchants, whom I had offended by
-collecting statistics about copal-digging, ivory, and sesamum--of the
-Bhattias or Hindus of Cutch, who systematically abuse the protection of
-the British flag to support the interest of the slave trade--of the
-Arabs, who remembered nothing but political intrigue in the explorations
-of the “Mombas Mission,” and the lamentable result of Dr. Krapf’s
-political intrigues--and of the Africans generally, who are disposed to
-see in every innovation some new form of evil--had been conveyed to my
-ears explicitly enough to warrant my apprehensions for the success of
-the Expedition, had I insisted upon carrying out the project proposed by
-M. Erhardt.
-
-I must here explain, that before my departure from England, the Church
-Missionary Society had supplied me, after a personal interview in
-Salisbury Square, with a letter to their _employé_, M. Rebmann, the last
-remnant of that establishment at Mombasah, which had, it is said,
-expended about 12,000_l._ with the minimest of results. The missionaries
-had commenced operations with vigour, and to the work of conversion they
-had added certain discoveries in the unknown lands of the interior,
-which attracted the attention of European geographers. Unhappily Dr.
-Krapf, the principal, happened to commit himself by the following
-assertion:--“The Imaum of Muskat has not an inch of ground on the coast
-between the Island of Wassin and the Pangani River; this tract, in fact,
-belonging to King Kmeri of Usumbara, down from 4° 30′ to 5° 30′ S. The
-tract, which is very low, is inhabited by the Wasegua tribes, and is the
-chief slave-market for supplying Zanzibar.”
-
-This “information,” put forth in the Journal of the Royal Geographical
-Society (vol. i. p. 203), was copied into the Proceedings (vol. xxiii.
-p. 106), with the remark, that the territory alluded to was a “supposed
-possession” of the Imaum. Orientals are thin-skinned upon questions of
-land; the assertion was directly opposed to fact, and the jealousy of
-the rival representatives at Zanzibar each on his own side, exaggerated
-its tendency. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, who felt his influence sapped by
-this error on the part of his protégé, had reported the facts to his
-government. Dr. Krapf had quitted the scene of his labours and
-discoveries, but his Highness the Sultan and the sadat, or court,
-retained a lively remembrance of the regretable incident. Before the
-arrival of the Expedition, “Muhiyy-el-Din,” the Shafei Kazi of the
-island, had called upon Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, probably by direction
-of his superiors, and had received an answer, fortified by an oath, that
-the Expedition was wholly independent of “Dutchmen,” as the missionaries
-were called by the Zanzibarites. I was compelled, somewhat unwillingly,
-to dispense with urging M. Rebmann’s presence. By acting in any other
-way I should have lost the assistance of the consul, and the Arabs, with
-a ready display of zeal, would have secured for me an inevitable
-failure.
-
-At six P.M. on Wednesday, the 17th of June, 1857, the Artémise cast
-anchor off Wale Point, a long, low bush-grown sandspit, about
-eighty-four miles distant from the little town of Bagamoyo. Our
-sailing-master, Mohammed bin Khamis, anchored in deep water, throwing
-out double the length of chain required. For this prudence, however,
-there was some reason. The road-steads are open; the muddy bottom
-shelves gradually, almost imperceptibly; the tides retire ten or eleven
-feet, and a strong gale, accompanied by the dangerous raz de marée, or
-rollers from seaward, especially at the seasons of the syzygies, with
-such a shore to leeward, is justly dreaded by the crews of square-rigged
-vessels.
-
-There is a something peculiarly interesting in the first aspect of the
-“Mrima,” the hill-land, as this portion of the African coast is called
-by the islanders of Zanzibar. On one side lies the Indian Ocean,
-illimitable towards the east, dimpled with its “anerithmon gelasma,” and
-broken westward by a thin line of foam, creaming upon the whitest and
-finest of sand, the detritus of coralline and madrepore. It dents the
-coast deeply, forming bays, bayous, lagoons, and backwaters, where,
-after breaking their force upon bars and black ledges of sand and rock,
-upon diabolitos, or sun-stained masses of a coarse conglomerate, and
-upon strong weirs planted in crescent shape, the waters lie at rest in
-the arms of the land like sheets of oil. The points and islets formed by
-these sea-streams are almost flush with the briny surface, yet they are
-overgrown with a profuse vegetation, the result of tropical suns and
-copious showers, which supply the want of rich soil. The banks of the
-backwaters are lined with forests of white and red mangrove. When the
-tide is out, the cone-shaped root-work supporting each tree rises naked
-from the deep sea-ooze; parasitical oysters cluster over the trunks at
-water-level, and between the adults rise slender young shoots, tipped
-with bunches of brilliant green. The pure white sand is bound together
-by a kind of convolvulus, whose large fleshy leaves and lilac-coloured
-flowers creep along the loose soil. Where raised higher above the ocean
-level, the coast is a wall of verdure. Plots of bald old trees, bent by
-the regular breezes, betray the positions of settlements which,
-generally sheltered from sight, besprinkle the coast in a long
-straggling line, like the suburbs of a populous city. Of these, thirteen
-were counted in a space of three miles. The monotony of green that
-clothes the soil is relieved in places by dwarf earth-cliffs and scaurs
-of rufous hue--East Africa is mostly a red land--and behind the
-foreground of littoral or alluvial plain, at a distance varying from
-three to five miles, rises a blue line of higher level, conspicuous even
-from Zanzibar Island, the sandy raised beach now the frontier of the
-wild men. To this sketch add its accompaniment; by day, the plashing of
-the wave, and the scream of the gull, with the perpetual hum and buzz of
-insect life; and, after sunset, the deep, dead silence of a tropical
-night, broken only by the roar of the old bull-crocodile at his
-resting-time, the qua-qua of the night-heron, and the shouts and shots
-of the watchmen, who know from the grunts of the hippopotamus,
-struggling up the bank, that he is quitting his watery home to pay a
-visit to their fields.
-
-We were delayed ten days off Wale Point by various preliminaries to
-departure. Said bin Salim, a half-caste Arab of Zanzibar, who, sorely
-against his will, was ordered by the prince to act as Ras Kafilah, or
-caravan-guide, had, after ceaseless and fruitless prayers for delay,
-preceded us about a fortnight, for the purpose of collecting porters.
-The timid little man, whose nerves were shaken to weeping-point by the
-terrors of the way, and by the fancy that, thus cooperating with the
-exploration, he was incurring the hatred of his fellows, had “taken the
-shilling,” in the shape of 500 dollars, advanced from public funds by
-the consul, with a promise of an ample reward in hard coin, and a gold
-watch, “si se bene gesserit:” at the same time Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton
-had warned me against trusting to a half-caste. Accompanied by a Cutch
-Banyan of the Bhattia caste, by name Ramji--of whom more anon--he had
-crossed over, on the 1st of June, to the main-land, and had hired a gang
-of porters, who, however, hearing that their employer was a Muzungu, a
-“white man,” at once dispersed, forgetting to return their hire. About
-one hundred and seventy men were required; only thirty-six were
-procurable. The large amount of carriage was necessitated by the bulky
-and ponderous nature of African specie, cotton cloth, brass-wire, and
-beads, of which a total of seventy loads was expended in one year and
-nine months. Moreover, under the impression that “vert and venison”
-abounded in the interior, I had provided ammunition for two years,--ten
-thousand copper-caps of sizes, forty boxes, each restricted, for
-convenience of porterage, to forty pounds, and containing ball, grape,
-and shot, six fire-proof magazines, and two small barrels of fine
-powder, weighing in total fifty pounds, together with four ten-pound
-kegs of a coarser kind for the escort,--in all, two hundred rounds for
-each individual of the party. This supply was deemed necessary on
-account of the immense loss to which ammunition is subjected by theft
-and weather in these lands.
-
-On the second day after anchoring off Wale Point, a native boat brought
-on board the Artémise Ladha Damha, the collector of customs at Zanzibar,
-who, in compliment to Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, of old his friend and
-patron, had torn himself from his beloved occupations to push the
-departure of the Expedition. Ladha, hearing that the Arab merchants had
-hastened to secure their gangs before corrupted by the more liberal
-offers of the “white men,”--“Pagazi,” or porters, being at that time
-scarce, because the caravans from the interior had not yet reached the
-coast,--proposed to send forward the thirty-six fellows hired by Said
-bin Salim, with orders to await the arrival of their employer at
-Zungomero, in the land of K’hutu, a point situated beyond the plundering
-maritime tribes. These men carried goods to the value of 654 dollars
-German crowns (each 4_s._ 2_d._), and they received for hire 124
-dollars; rations, that is to say, 1·50 lbs. of grain per diem, not
-included: they preferred to travel with the escort of two
-slave-musketeers rather than to incur the fancied danger of accompanying
-a “Muzungu,” though followed by a well-armed party. For the personal
-baggage and the outfit necessary for crossing the maritime region, which
-reached by waste the figure of 295 dollars, asses were proposed by Ladha
-Damha: Zanzibar and the mainland harbours were ransacked, and in a short
-time thirty animals, good, bad, and indifferent, were fitted for the
-roads with large canvas bags and vile Arab packsaddles, composed of
-damaged gunny-bags stuffed with straw. It was necessary to leave behind,
-till a full gang of porters could be engaged, the greater part of the
-ammunition, the iron boat which had proved so useful on the coasting
-voyage to Mombasah, and the reserve supply of cloth, wire, and beads,
-valued at 359 dollars. The Hindus promised faithfully to forward these
-articles, and received 150 dollars for the hire of twenty-two men, who
-were to start in ten days. Nearly eleven months, however, elapsed before
-they appeared; caravan after caravan came up from the coast, yet the
-apathetic Bhattias pretended want of porters as the cause of their
-delay. Evidently my preparations were hurriedly made; strong reasons,
-however, urged me on,--delay, even for a few days, might have been
-fatal.
-
-During the brief detention off Wale Point, the latitudes and longitudes
-of the estuary of the Kingani, the main artery of these regions, and of
-the little settlements Bagamoyo and Kaole,--strongly against the advice
-of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, who declared that by such proceedings the
-Expedition was going to the bad,--were laid down by my companion: a
-novice lunarian, he was assisted by Mohammed bin Khamis, who had read
-his “Norie” in England. Various visits to the hippopotamus haunts
-produced little beyond the damaging of the corvette’s gig, which,
-suddenly uplifted from the water upon the points of two tusks, showed
-two corresponding holes in her bottom. Nor did I neglect to land as
-often as possible at Kaole, the point of departure upon the mainland,
-for the purpose of making sketches with the pen and pencil, of urging on
-preparations, and of gathering those items of “bazar-gup,” _i. e._,
-tittle-tattle, that represents the labours of the “fourth estate” in
-Eastern lands.
-
-The little settlement of “Kaole”--an abbreviation of Kaole Urembo,
-meaning literally, in the ancient dialect of the coast, “to show
-beauty”--is the normal village-port in these regions, which, from
-Mombasah southwards to Kilwa, still ignore a town of masonry. You land,
-when the tide is out, upon half a mile of muddy sand, and if a “swell,”
-you are carried by four men upon the Kitanda--cot or cartel--which is
-slung along the side of your craft. Arrived at the strip of dry ground
-that marks the limit of the tide, you are let down, and amidst the
-shouts of the men, the shrieks of the women, and the naïve remarks of
-the juvenile population, you ascend by a narrow footpath, worn through
-the thick jungle and through the millet-fields which press upon the
-tattered palisade, a dwarf steep bank, on whose summit the settlement
-lies. Inside the fence are a dozen pent-roofed houses, claret-chests of
-wattle and dab, divided into three or more compartments by dwarf
-party-walls of the same material: each messuage is jealously separated
-from its neighbour by large enclosed “compounds” or court-yards
-appropriated to the women and children. The largest timber is that of
-the mangrove; the flying thatch-roof, so raised that, though windows are
-unknown, the interior enjoys tolerable ventilation, is of jauli, or rude
-cocoa-plaits, and under the long and projecting eaves, which rest upon
-strong perpendiculars, are broad earth-benches, divided by the entrance,
-and garnished with mats: these form the shops and sitting-rooms of the
-settlement. Some houses have a partial second story, like a ship’s bunk,
-a planking supported by rafters, and used as a store-closet or a
-dormitory. Around the larger habitations cluster masses of hovels, and
-the characteristic African haycock-huts. With closed doors in still
-weather, these dens are unendurable to a European; the people, however,
-fearing thieves and wild beasts, never fail to barricade themselves
-within at night. The only attempt at masonry in the settlement is the
-“Gurayza,” or fort, a square of lime and coralline, with store-rooms for
-the Banyan’s goods below, and provided with a crenelled terrace for
-watchmen.
-
-In the “garrison-towns” the soldiers and their families form the
-principal part of the population. These men, who call themselves Baloch,
-are, with few exceptions, originally from Mekran, and from the lowlands
-about Guadel. Many of them have been born and bred in Arabia. In former
-days their fathers migrated from their starving homes to Maskat, in the
-Arab dows which visited their ports, to buy horses, and to collect
-little cargoes of wheat and salt. In Arabia they were fakirs, sailors,
-porters, and day-labourers, barbers, date-gleaners, asinegos, beggars,
-and thieves. Sultan Bin Hamid, the father of the late Sayyid Said, first
-conceived the bright idea of putting matchlocks into their hands, and of
-dubbing them Askar, or soldiers, as a slight upon his less docile
-compatriots. The son of Sultan followed his sire’s plan, and succeeded
-in dividing and ruling by means of the antipathy prevailing between the
-more disciplinable mercenary and the unruly Arab subject. The Baloch
-are, however, rather hated than feared. They hang, say the Semites,
-their benefits behind their backs, whilst they wear their grievances in
-full view, woman-like, upon their breasts. Loud in debate, and turbulent
-in demeanour, they are called by the Arabs a “light folk,” and are
-compared to birds fluttering and chirruping round a snake. Abject slaves
-to the Great Gaster, they collect in swarms round a slaughtered goat,
-and they will feast their eyes for hours on the sight of a rice-bag.
-When in cantonment on the island or the coast, they receive as pay from
-2·50 to 5 dollars per mensem; when in the field or on outpost duty, a
-“batta” of 10 dollars;--a sensible system, which never allows them to
-become, like the Indian Sepoy, independent. They are not averse to
-active service, as, when so employed, they have full permission to “pill
-and poll.” In camp they are commanded by a jemadar, who, assisted by a
-“moollah,”--some wretch who has retained, as sole traces of his better
-days, a smattering of reading, writing, and arithmetic,--robs them and
-his government with the recklessness of impunity. Thus the jemadar, or
-C. O., who also dispenses promotion, is a man having authority.
-Similarly our colonels in India, by superior position and allowances,
-commanded the respect of their men before centralisation, falling upon
-the land like a pestilence, systematically monopolised all power, and
-then rained blame upon those who had lost it. These Baloch are a tame
-copy of the Turkish Bashi Buzuk, or “mad-cap,” far inferior as
-desperadoes to the Kurd and Arnaut. They live the life of the
-Anglo-Indian soldier of the past generation, drinking beer when they can
-“come by it,” smoking, chatting, and arguing; the younger wrestle,
-shoot, and exchange kit; and the silly babbling patriarchs, with white
-beards and venerable brows, tell wondrous tales of scenes long gone by,
-and describe to unbelieving ears the ice and snow, the luscious fruits
-and the sweet waters of the mountains and valleys of far Balochistan.
-
-The other items of the population are the Wamrima[2]--Western Negroids
-of a mixed Arab and African descent, who fringe the shore in a thin
-line. These “coast-clans” support themselves in idleness and comparative
-luxury, by amicably plundering the down-caravans, and by large
-plantations of cereals and vegetables, with which they, or rather their
-slaves, supply the island of Zanzibar, and even the shores of Arabia.
-The Wamrima are an ill-conditioned race; they spend life in eating,
-drinking, and smoking, drinking and dancing, visits, intrigue, and low
-debauchery. They might grow cotton and coffee, and dig copal to almost
-any extent; but whilst a pound of grain remains in bin, no man will
-handle a hoe. The feminine part of the community is greatly superior in
-number to the masculine, and this leads to the usual result: on a “Siku
-ku” or fête-day, the ladies of the village, with yellow pigment over
-their faces and their woolly heads, perform in their cups
-impromptu-dances upon the open, enter a stranger’s house as if it were
-their own, and call for something to drink, as if they had been educated
-at Cremorne, or the Rue Cadet. The Wamrima are ruled by Diwans, or
-headmen, locally called “Chomwi;” these officials are subject to
-Zanzibar, and their numbers are everywhere in inverse ratio to the
-importance of the places. The Chomwi enjoys the privileges of “dash,”
-fines and extortions; he has also certain marks of distinction. For
-instance, he is authorised to wear turbands and the wooden pattens
-called by the Arabs “kabkab;” he may also sit upon cots, chairs, and the
-mkeka, a fine dyed mat; whereas a commoner venturing upon such display
-would infallibly be mulcted in goats or cattle. At the Ngoma Ku or great
-dance, which celebrates every event in this land of revelry, only the
-Chomwi may perform the morris with drawn sword before the admiring
-multitude. A subject detected in intrigue with the wife of a headman
-must, under penalty of being sold, pay five slaves; the fine is reduced
-to one head in the case of a plebeian. With this amount of dignity the
-Diwan naturally expects to live, and to support his family with the fat
-of the land, and without sweat of brow. When times are hard, he
-organises a kidnapping expedition against a weaker neighbour, and fills
-his purse by selling the proceeds. But his income is derived chiefly
-from the down-caravans bringing ivory and slaves from Unyamwezi and the
-far interior. Though rigidly forbidden by the Prince of Zanzibar to
-force caravans to his particular port, he sends large armed parties of
-his kinsmen and friends, his clients and serfs, as far as 150 and 200
-miles inland, where they act less like touters than highwaymen. By every
-petty art of mercantile diplomacy,--now by force, then by fraud, by
-promises, or by bribes of cloth and sweetmeats,--they induce the caravan
-to enter the village, when the work of plunder begins. Out of each
-Frasilah (thirty-five lbs. avoirdupois) of ivory, from eight to fourteen
-dollars are claimed as duties to the Government of Zanzibar; the
-headmen, then, demand six dollars as their fee, under various technical
-names, plus one dollar for “ugali” or porridge--the “manche,”--and one
-dollar for the use of water--the “pour boire.” The owner of the tusk is
-then handed over to the tender mercies of the Banyan, from whom the
-Diwan has received a bribe, called his “rice”; and the crafty Hindu buys
-for eighteen to twenty dollars an article worth, at Zanzibar, fifty. If
-the barbarian be so unwise as to prefer cash, being intellectually unfit
-to discriminate between a cent and a dollar, he loses even more than if
-he had taken in barter the coarse and trashy articles provided for him
-by the trade. An adept at distinguishing good from bad cloth and a
-cunning connoisseur in beads of sorts, he has yet no choice: if he
-reject what is worthless, he must return home with his ivory and without
-an investment. Such is an outline of the present system. It is nowhere
-the same in its details; but everywhere the principle is one--the loss
-is to the barbarian, and the profits are to the coast-clans, the Wamrima
-and their headmen. Hence the dislike to strangers and the infinite
-division into little settlements, where people might be expected to
-prefer the comfort and safety of large communities. The 10th article of
-the commercial treaty, concluded on the 31st May, 1839, between Her
-Majesty’s Government and His Highness Sayyid Said of Muscat and
-Zanzibar, secured to the possessors of the Mrima a monopoly in the
-articles of ivory and gum-copal on that part of the east coast of Africa
-from the port of Tangata (Mtangata), situated in about 5½° S. lat. to
-the port of Quiloa (Kilwa) lying in about 7° S. of the equator. It is
-not improbable that the jealousy of European nations, each fearing the
-ambitious designs of its neighbour, brought about this invidious
-prohibitionist measure.
-
- [2] It must be borne in mind, that, in the Kisawahili and its
- cognates, the vowel _u_ prefixed to a root, which, however, is never
- used without some prefix, denotes, through a primary idea of
- causality, a country or region, as Uzaramo, the region of Zaramo. Many
- names, however, exceptionally omit this letter, as the Mrima, K’hutu,
- Fuga, and Karagwah. The liquid _m_, or, before a vowel and an
- aspirated h, _mu_, to prevent hiatus, being probably a synæresis of
- _M_tu, a man, denotes the individual, as Mzaramo, a man or woman of
- Zaramo. When prefixed to the names of trees, as has been instanced, it
- is evidently an abbreviation of Mti, a tree. The plural form of _m_
- and _mu_ is Wá, a contraction of Wátu, men, people; it is used to
- signify the population, as Wamrima, the “coast-clans,” Wazaramo, the
- people or tribe of Zaramo, and Wasawahíli (with a long accent upon the
- penultimate, consonant with the spirit of the African language, and
- contrary to that of the Arabic), the population of the Sawahil.
- Finally, the syllable _ki_--prefixed to the theoretical root--denotes
- anything appertaining to a country, as the terminating _ish_ in the
- word English. It especially refers in popular usage to language, as
- Kizaramo, the language of Zaramo; Kisawahíli, the language of the
- Sawahil, originally called Ki-ngozi, from the district of Ngozi, on
- the Ozi River. It has been deemed advisable to retain these terse and
- concise distinctions, which, if abandoned, would necessitate a weary
- redundance of words.
-
-Besides the Baloch and the Wamrima, the settlements usually contain a
-few of the “Washenzi” or barbarians from the interior, who visit them to
-act as day-labourers, and who sometimes, by evincing a little disrespect
-for the difference between the “mine” and the “thine,” leave their heads
-to decorate tall poles at the entrance. The Wazaramo tribe send, when
-there is no blood-feud, numbers to Kaole, where they are known by their
-peculiar headdress, a single or a double line of pips or dilberries of
-ochre and grease surrounding the head. They regard the stranger with a
-wild and childish stare, and whenever I landed, they slunk away from me,
-for reasons which will appear in the course of this narrative. The list
-of floating population concludes with a few Banyans,--there are about
-fifty in Kaole and its vicinity--a race national as the English, who do
-their best to import into Eastern Africa the cows and curries, the
-customs and the costumes, of Western India.
-
-The first visit to Kaole opened up a vista of unexpected difficulties.
-My escort had been allowed to leave the Artémise, and their comrades in
-arms had talked them half-crazy with fear. Zahri, a Baloch, who had
-visited Unyamwezi, declared that nothing less than 100 guards, 150 guns,
-and several cannon could enable them to fight a way through the perils
-of the interior. Tulsi, the Banyan, warned them that for three days they
-must pass amongst savages, who sit on trees and discharge poisoned
-arrows into the air with such dexterity that they never fail to fall
-upon the travellers’ pate; he strongly advised them therefore, under
-pain of death, to avoid trees--no easy matter in a land all forest. Then
-the principal Chomwi assured them that the chiefs of the Wazaramo tribe
-had sent six several letters to the officials of the coast forbidding
-the white man to enter their country. Ladha Damha also obscurely hinted
-that the Wazaramo might make caches of their provisions in the jungle,
-and that the human stomach cannot march without feeding. Divers dangers
-of the way were incidentally thrown in: I learned for the first time
-that the Kargadan or rhinoceros kills 200 men, that armies of elephants
-attack camps by night, and that the craven hyæna does more damage than
-the Bengal tiger. In vain I objected that guns with men behind them are
-better than cannon backed by curs, that mortals can die but once, that
-the Wazaramo are unable to write, that rations might be carried where
-not purchaseable, and that powder and ball have been known to conquer
-rhinoceroses, elephants, and hyænas. A major force was against me.
-
-Presently the cause of intimidation crept into sight. The Jemadar and
-the eight Baloch detached by His Highness the Sayyid Majid of Zanzibar
-could not march without a reinforcement of four others, afterwards
-increased by a fifth in the person of an “Ustad,” a tailor-boy. The
-garrison of Kaole having no employment, was ready, with the prospect of
-the almighty dollar, to march anywhere on this side of Jehannum. The
-perils of the path rendered it absolutely necessary that we should be
-escorted by a temporary guard of thirty-four men and their Jemadar
-Yaruk: and they did not propose to do the good deed gratis. Ramji, the
-Banyan clerk of the customs at Zanzibar, had a number of slaves whom he
-called his “sons;” they were “eating off their heads” in idleness at
-Zanzibar. He favoured me by letting out ten of these youths at the rate
-of thirty dollars ahead for a period of six months: for the same sum
-every man might have been purchased in the market. When asses were
-proposed ass-men were necessary; in the shortest space of time five were
-procured, and their pay for the whole journey was fixed at thirty
-dollars, about twice the sale-value of the article. I cannot plead
-guilty to not having understood the manœuvre,--a commercial speculation
-on the part of the rascal Ramji. Yet at times,--need I say it?--it is
-good to appear a dupe. It is wise, when your enemies determine you to be
-that manner of sable or ermine contrivance into which ladies insert
-their fair hands, to favour the hypothesis. I engaged the men, I paid
-the men, and mentally I chronicled a vow that Ramji should in the long
-run change places with me.
-
-Presently Mr. Frost with brow severe and official manner, informed me
-that the state of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton’s health forbade a longer stay
-near the coast. To this there was no reply: I contented myself with
-remarking once more that morphia appeared a curious cure for a confirmed
-liver complaint, and I made preparations for landing at once. Mr. Frost
-replied that the doses of morphia were very “little ones,”--an excuse
-which, according to Capt. Marryat, has been urged under somewhat
-dissimilar circumstances by the frail ancilla. I confided to Mr. Frost’s
-care two MSS. addressed through the Foreign Office, one to Mr. John
-Blackwood, the other to Dr. Norton Shaw, of the Royal Geographical
-Society. As the former arrived in safety, whilst the latter,--a detailed
-report concerning the commerce and capabilities of Zanzibar,--was lost,
-I cannot help suspecting that it came somehow to an untimely end.
-Lieutenant-Colonel Hamerton had repeatedly warned me that by making
-inquiries into the details of profit I was exciting the jealousy of the
-natives and the foreigners of Zanzibar. According to him the mercantile
-community was adopting the plan which had secured the foul murder of M.
-Maizan: the Christians had time and opportunity to alarm the Banyans,
-and the latter were able to work upon the Wasawahíli population. These
-short-sighted men dreaded that from throwing open the country,
-competition might result: Oriental-like, thinking only of the moment, of
-themselves, they could not perceive that the development of resources
-would benefit all concerned in their exploitation. There were, however,
-honourable exceptions, amongst whom I am bound to mention M. Bérard,
-agent to Mess. Rabaud, frères, of Marseilles, who by direction of his
-employers offered me every manner of assistance; and the late M. Sam.
-Masury, a Salem merchant, to whose gratuitous kindness I was indebted
-for several necessaries when separated from civilisation by one half of
-Africa. They contrasted sharply with the rest of the community: in the
-case of a certain young gentleman, Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton was,--he
-informed me,--compelled to threaten a personal chastisement, unless he
-ceased to fill native ears with his malignant suspicions.
-
-The weary labour of verifying accounts and of writing receipts duly
-concluded, I took a melancholy leave of my warm-hearted friend
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, upon whose form and features death was written
-in legible characters. He gave me his last advice, to march straight
-ahead despising “walnut and velvet-slipper men,” who afford opinions,
-and conciliating the Arabs as much as possible. Then he spoke of
-himself: he looked forward to death with a feeling of delight, the
-result of his religious convictions; he expressed a hope that if I
-remained at Kaole, he might be buried at sea; and he declared himself,
-in spite of my entreaties, determined to remain near the coast until he
-heard of our safe transit through the lands of the dreaded Wazaramo.
-This courage was indeed sublime! Such examples are not often met with
-amongst men!
-
-After this affecting farewell, I took leave of the Artémise and landed
-definitively at Kaole. The Baloch driving the asses were sent off to the
-first station on the road westwards, headed by my companion, on the same
-evening, lest a longer sojourn in the lands of semi-civilisation should
-thoroughly demoralise them. The Wanyamwezi porters, whose open faces and
-laughing countenances strongly prepossessed me in their favour, had
-already passed beyond their centre of attraction, the coast. I spent
-that evening with Ladha Damha, inside the gloomy Gurayza. He lectured me
-for the last time upon my development of what the French cartomantiste
-calls “la bosse de la témérité.” Might not the Sahib be a great Sahib in
-his own land--Cutch or Guzerat? Are there not other great Sahibs there,
-A--Sahib and B--Sahib, for instance, who only kill pigs and ignore the
-debtor and creditor side of an account in Guzeratee?
-
-I must mention that, on the morning of the same day, I was present at a
-conversation held by the Ladha, the respectable collector of the
-customs, with the worthy Ramji, his clerk. I had insisted upon their
-inserting in the estimate of necessaries the sum required to purchase a
-boat upon the “Sea of Ujiji.”
-
-“Will he ever reach it?” asked the respectable Ladha, conveying his
-question through the medium of Cutchee, a dialect of which, with the
-inconsequence of a Hindu, he assumed me to be profoundly ignorant.
-
-“Of course not,” replied the worthy Ramji; “what is he that he should
-pass through Ugogi?” (a province about half way.)
-
-At the moment I respected their “sharm,” or shame, a leading organ in
-the oriental brain, which apparently has dwindled to inconsequential
-dimensions amongst the nations of the West. But when Ladha was alone, I
-took the opportunity to inform him that I still intended to cross Ugogo,
-and to explore the “Sea of Ujiji.” I ended by showing him that I was not
-unacquainted with Cutchee, and even able to distinguish between the
-debits and the credits of his voluminous sheets.
-
-During the conversation, the loud wail of death rang wildly through the
-grave-like stillness of night. “O son, hope of my life! O brother,
-dearest of brothers! O husband! O husband!” these were the cries which
-reached our ears. We ran to the door of the Gurayza. The only son of the
-venerable Diwan Ukwere, who had been ascending the Kingani river on a
-mercantile expedition, with five slaves, had been upset by a vengeful
-hippopotamus, and, with two of his attendants, had lost his life.
-
-“Insaf Karo! be honest!” said the Banyan, with whom I had had many
-discussions as to whether it be lawful or unlawful to shoot the
-hippopotamus, “and own that this is the first calamity which you have
-brought upon the country by your presence.”
-
-I could only reply with the common-places of polemics. Why should Ladha,
-who by purchasing their spoils encouraged the destruction of herds of
-elephants, object to the death of a “creek-bull”? and why should the man
-who would not kill the “creek-bull” be ready to ruin a brother-man for
-making a better bargain about its tusks? Ladha received these futile
-objections contemptuously, as you would, right reverend father, were I
-to suggest that you, primate and spiritual peer, are not exactly
-following in the footsteps of certain paupers whom you fondly deem to
-have been your prototypes,--your exemplars.
-
-When Ladha left, my spirits went with him. In the solitude and the
-silence of the dark Gurayza, I felt myself the plaything of misfortune.
-At Cairo I had received from the East India House an order to return to
-London, to appear as a witness on a trial by court-martial then pending.
-The missive was, as usual, so ineptly worded, that I did not think
-proper to throw overboard the Royal Geographical Society--to whom my
-services had been made over--by obeying it: at the same time I well knew
-what the consequences would be. Before leaving Egypt, an interview with
-the Count d’Escayrac de Lauture, had afforded me an opportunity of
-inspecting an expedition thoroughly well organised by His Highness Said
-Pacha, of military predilections, and the contrast between an Egyptian
-and an English exploration impressed me unpleasantly. Arrived at Aden, I
-had enlisted the services of an old and valued friend, Dr. Steinhaeuser,
-civil surgeon at that station: a sound scholar, a good naturalist, a
-skilful practitioner, endowed, moreover, with even more inestimable
-personal qualities, his presence would have been valuable in a land of
-sickness, skirmishes, and sporting adventures, where the people are ever
-impressed with the name of “medicine-man,” and in a virgin field
-promising subjects of scientific interest. Yet though recommended for
-the work by his Excellency the Governor of Bombay, Dr. Steinhaeuser had
-been incapacitated by sickness from accompanying me: I had thus with me
-a companion and not a friend, with whom I was “strangers yet.” The
-Persian war had prevented the fitting-out of a surveying vessel, ordered
-by the Court of Directors to act as a base of operations upon the
-African coast; no disposable officer of the Indian navy was to be found
-at the Presidency; and though I heard in Leadenhall Street of an
-“Observatory Sergeant” competent to conduct the necessary astronomical
-and meteorological observations, in the desert halls of the great
-Bungalow at Colaba only a few lank Hindus met my sight. Nor was this
-all. His Highness the late Sayyid Said, that estimable ally of the
-English nation, had for many years repeatedly made the most
-public-spirited offers to his friend Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton. He was
-more than once upon the point of applying for officers selected to map
-the caravan routes of Eastern Africa, and he professed himself willing
-to assist them with men, money, and the weight of his widely extended
-influence. This excellent prince had died forty days before the
-Expedition arrived at Zanzibar. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, also, whose
-extraordinary personal qualities enabled him to perform anything but
-impossibilities amongst the Arabs, was compelled by rapidly failing
-health, during my stay at Zanzibar, to lead a recluse life, which
-favoured the plans of my opponents. Finally, as Indian experience taught
-me, I was entering the unknown land at the fatal season, when the
-shrinking of the waters after the wet monsoon would render it a hotbed
-of malaria.
-
-The hurry of departure, also, had caused a necessary neglect of certain
-small precautions, which, taken in time, save much after trouble. I
-should have shunned to have laid down limits of space and time for the
-Expedition, whereas my friend and adviser had specified the “Sea of
-Ujiji.” I intended to have drawn out every agreement in an official
-form, registered at the Consulate, and specifying all particulars
-concerning rations and presents for the escort, their ammunition, and
-their right of sporting--that is to say, of scaring the game before it
-could be shot--their reward for services, and their punishments for ill
-conduct. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton’s state of health, however, rendered
-him totally unfit for the excitement of business; and, without his
-assistance, a good result was not to be expected from measures so
-unfamiliar, and therefore so unpalatable, to the people whom they most
-concerned.
-
-Excuse, amiable reader, this lengthy and egotistical preface to a volume
-of adventure. Do not think that I would invert the moral of the
-Frog-fable, by showing that what is death to you, may become fun to me.
-As we are to be companions--not to say friends--for an hour or two, I
-must put you in possession of certain facts, trivial in themselves, and
-all unworthy of record, yet so far valuable, that they may enable us to
-understand each other. _Au reste_, to quote the ballad so much admired
-by the Authoress of “Our Village”:--
-
- “The Pindar of Wakefield is my style,
- And what I list I write;
- Whilom a clerk of Oxenford,
- But now--a banished wight.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. II.
-
-ZANZIBAR AND THE MRIMA EXPLAINED.
-
-
-The history of the word Zanzibar is curious. Its Persian origin proves
-that the Iranians were in early days a more maritime people than Vincent
-and other writers imagine. Zanzibar, signifying Nigritia, or Blackland,
-is clearly derived from the “Zang,” in Arabic Zanj, a negro, and “bar,”
-a region. This Zangbar was changed by the Arabs, who ignore in writing
-the hard _g_, into Zanjíbár; they still, however, pronounce Zangbar, and
-consider it synonymous with another popular expression, “Mulk el Zunuj,”
-or “the Land of the Blacks.” Thus the poet sings,--
-
- ‏فسميت ملك الزنوج جميعها‎
-
- “And it hath been called Land of the Blacks, all of it.”
-
-Traces of the word may be found in the earliest geographers.
-Ptolemy records a Zingis or Zingisa, which, however, with his customary
-incorrectness, he places north of the equator. According to Cosmas
-Indicopleustes, the Indian Ocean beyond Barbaria is called Zingium.
-“Sinus Barbaricus” seems to have been amongst the Romans the name of the
-belt of low land afterwards known as “Zanzibar,” and it was inhabited by
-a race of Anthropophagi, possibly the fathers of the present “Wadoe”
-tribe. In more modern times the land of the Zunuj has been mentioned by
-a host of authors, El Novayri and others.
-
-[Illustration: A TOWN ON THE MRIMA.]
-
-The limits of Zanzibar,--a word indiscriminately applied in former times
-to the coast, the island, and even to the principal town,--are variously
-laid down by geographers. Usually it is made to extend from Cape
-Delgado, in S. lat. 10° 41′ to the equator, or more strictly to S. lat.
-0° 15′, at the mouth of the Vumbo, or the Webbe Ganana, which appears in
-our maps under the deceptive corruptions “Juba” and “Govind,” from the
-Somali “Gob,” a junction, and “Gob-wen,” a large junction. Mr. Cooley
-(Inner Africa Laid Open, p. 111) corrects the great error of the
-Portuguese historian, de Barros, who has made the embouchure of the
-Obi--in Somali Webbe, meaning any river,--the demarcation line between
-“Ajan” on the north, and “Zanguebar” in the south, and has placed the
-mouth of that stream in 9° N. lat., which would extend Zanzibar almost
-to Cape Guardafui. Asiatic authors, according to M. Guillain, (Documents
-sur l’Histoire, &c. de l’Afrique Orientale. Première partie, p. 213)
-vary in opinion concerning the extent of the “land of the Zunuj” and its
-limits; some, as El Masudi, make it contain the whole country, including
-Sofala, between the embouchure of the Juba River (S. lat. 0° 15′) and
-Cape Corrientes (S. lat. 23° 48′): others, like El Idrisi and Ibn Said,
-separate from it Sofala. In local and modern usage the word Zanjibar is
-generally confined to the chief town upon the island, the latter being
-called by Arabs, as well as by the Negroids, Kisiwa, “insula,” in
-opposition to the Barr el Moli, a barbarised Semitic term for the
-continent.
-
-As usual throughout these lands, where comprehensive geographical names
-are no longer required, there is no modern general word for East Africa
-south of the equator. The term “Sawahil,” or “the shores,” in present
-parlance is confined to the strip of coast beyond the half-Somali
-country, called from its various ports,--Lamu, Brava, and Patta,--Barr
-el Banadir, or Harbour-land. The “Sawahil” extend southwards to
-Mombasah, below which the coast suddenly falling flat, is known as Mrima
-or the Hill, and its people as Wamrima, the “hill-men.” It is limited on
-the south by the delta of the Rufiji River, whose races are termed Watu
-wa Rufiji, Rufiji clans, or more shortly, Warufiji.
-
-The country properly called the Mrima has no history beyond its name,
-whilst the towns immediately to the north and south of it,--Mombasah and
-Kilwa,--have filled many a long and stirring page. The Arab geographers
-preceding the Portuguese conquest mention only five settlements on the
-coast between Makdishu (Magadoxo) and Kilwa, namely, Lamu, Brava, Marka,
-Malindi (Melinda), and Mombasah. In Captain Owen’s charts, between
-Pangani and the parallel of Mafiyah (Monfia Island) not a name appears.
-
-The fringe of Moslem Negroids inhabiting this part of the East African
-coast is called by the Arabs Ahl Maraim, and by themselves Wamrima, in
-opposition to the heathen of the interior. These are designated in mass
-the Washenzi--conquered or servile--properly the name of a Helot race in
-the hills of Usumbara, but extended by strangers to all the inner races.
-The Wasawahili, or people of the Sawahil, Mulattos originally African,
-but semiticised, like the Moplahs of Malabar, by Arab blood, are in
-these days confined to the lands lying northwards of Mombasah, to the
-island of Zanzibar, and to the regions about Kilwa.
-
-The Mrima is peopled by two distantly connected families, the half-caste
-Arabs and the Coast-Clans. The former are generally of Bayazi or Khariji
-persuasion; the latter follow the school of el Shafei; both, though the
-most imperfect of Moslems, are fanatical enough to be dangerous. They
-own a nominal allegiance to the suzerain of Zanzibar, yet they are
-autonomous and free-spoken as Bedouins, when removed a few miles from
-the coast, and they have a rooted aversion to the officials of the local
-government, whom they consider their personal enemies. Between them and
-the pure Arabs of Oman, who often traverse, but who now never settle
-upon the Mrima, there is a repugnance increased by commercial jealousy;
-they resent the presence of these strangers as an intrusion, and they
-lose no opportunity of thwarting and discouraging them from travelling
-into the interior. Like their ancestors, they dislike Europeans
-personally, and especially fear the Beni Nar, or Sons of Fire,--the
-English--“hot as the Ingrez,” is in these lands a proverb. In their many
-Riwayat, Hadisi, and Ngoma--tales, traditions, and songs--they predict
-the eventual conquest of the country that has once felt the white man’s
-foot.
-
-The half-caste Arab is degenerate in body and mind; the third generation
-becomes as truly negroid as the inner heathen. Even Creoles of pure
-blood, born upon the island and the coast of Zanzibar, lose the high
-nervous temperament that characterises their ancestors, and become, like
-Banyans, pulpy and lymphatic. These mestiços, appearing in the land of
-their grandsires, have incurred the risk of being sold as slaves. The
-peculiarity of their physiognomy is the fine Semitic development of the
-upper face, including the nose and nostrils, whilst the jaw is
-prognathous, the lips are tumid and everted, and the chin is weak and
-retreating. The cranium is somewhat rounded, and it wants the length of
-the Negroid’s skull. Idle and dissolute, though intelligent and cunning,
-the coast-Arab has little education. He is sent at the age of seven to
-school, where in two or three years he accomplishes the Khitmah, or
-perlection of the Koran, and he learns to write a note in an antiquated
-character, somewhat more imperfect than the Cufic. This he applies to
-the Kisawahili, and as nothing can be less fitted for the Semitic
-tongues than the Arabic syllabarium, so admirably adapted to its proper
-sphere, his compositions require the deciphering of an expert. A few
-prayers and hymns conclude the list of his acquirements. His
-mother-tongue knows no books except short treatises on Bao, or geomancy,
-and specimens of African proverbial wisdom. He then begins life by
-aiding his father in the shop or plantation, and by giving himself up to
-intoxication and intrigue. After suffering severely from his
-excesses--in this climate no constitution can bear up against
-over-indulgence long continued--at the age of seventeen or eighteen, he
-takes unto himself a wife. Estranged from the land of his forefathers,
-he rarely visits Zanzibar, where the restraints of semi-civilisation,
-the decencies of oriental society, and the low estimation in which the
-black skin is held, weary and irritate him. His point of honour seems to
-consist chiefly in wearing publicly, in token of his Arab descent, a
-turban and a long yellow shirt, called El Dishdasheh.
-
-The Wamrima, or coast-clans, resemble even more than the half-caste
-Arabs their congeners the Washenzi. The pure Omani will not acknowledge
-them as kinsmen, declaring the breed to be Aajam, or gentiles. They are
-less educated than the higher race, and they are more debauched,
-apathetic, dilatory, and inert; their favourite life is one of sensual
-indolence. Like the Somal, they appear to be unfitted by nature for
-intellectual labour; of the former people there is but one learned man,
-the Shaykh Jami of Harar, and the Kazi Muhiyy-el-Din of Zanzibar is the
-only literato amongst the Wasawahili. Study, or indeed any tension of
-the mind, seems to make these weak-brained races semi-idiotic. They
-cannot answer Yes or No to the simplest question. If, for example, a man
-be asked the place of his tribe, he will point to a distance, though
-actually living amongst them; or if questioned concerning some
-particular of an event, he will detail everything but what is wanted. In
-the earlier days of exploration, I have repeatedly collected the diwans,
-and, after a careful investigation and comparison of statements, have
-registered the names and distances of the stages ahead. These men,
-though dwelling upon the threshold of the regions which they described,
-and being in the habit of traversing them every year, yet could hardly
-state a single fact correctly; sometimes they doubled, at other times
-they halved, the distance; they seldom gave the same names, and they
-almost always made a hysteron-proteron of the stations. The reader may
-gather from this sample some idea of the difficulties besetting those
-who would collect information concerning Africa from the Africans. It
-would not have happened had an Arab been consulted. I soon resolved to
-doubt for the future all Wasawahili, Wamrima, Washenzi, and slaves, and
-I found no reason for regretting the resolution.
-
-The Wamrima are of darker complexion, and are more African in
-appearance, than the coast Arabs. The popular colour is a dull yellowish
-bronze. The dress is a fez, or a Surat-cap; a loin-cloth, which among
-the wealthy is generally an Arab check or an Indian print, with a
-similar sheet thrown over the shoulders. Men seldom appear in public
-without a spear, a sword, or a staff; and priding themselves upon the
-possession of umbrellas, they may be seen rolling barrels, or otherwise
-working upon the sands, under the luxurious shade. The women wear a
-tobe, or long cloth, wrapped tightly round the body, and extending from
-beneath the arms to the ankles; it is a garb ungraceful as was the
-European “sacque” of bygone days. It spoils the figure by depressing
-instead of supporting the bosom, and it conceals none of its
-deficiencies, especially the narrowness of the hips. The Murungwana, or
-free-woman, is distinguished from the slave-girl, when outside the
-house, by a cloth thrown over the head. Like the women of the Bedouins
-and of the Persian Iliyat, even the matrons of the Mrima go abroad
-unmasked. Their favourite necklace is a string of shark’s teeth. They
-distend the lobes of the ears to a prodigious size, and decorate them
-with a rolled-up strip of variously-dyed cocoa-leaf, a disk of wood, a
-plate of chakazi or raw gum-copal, or, those failing, with a betel-nut
-or with a few straws. The left wing of the nose is also pierced to admit
-a pin of silver, brass, lead, or even a bit of manioc-root. The hair,
-like the body, is copiously anointed with cocoa-nut or sesamum oil. Some
-shave the head wholly or partially across the brow and behind the ears;
-others grow their locks to half or full-length, which rarely exceeds a
-few inches. It is elaborately dressed, either in double-rolls rising
-like bear’s ears on both sides of the head, or divided into a number of
-frizzly curls which expose lines of scalp, and give to the head the
-appearance of a melon. They have also a propensity for savage
-“accroche-cœurs,” which stand out from the cheek bones, stiffly twisted
-like young porkers’ tails. In early youth, when the short, soft, and
-crisp hair resembles Astrachan wool, when the muscles of the face are
-smoothly rounded, and when the skin has that life and texture, and the
-countenance has that vivacity and amiability which belong only to the
-young, many of the girls have a pretty piquancy, a little minois
-chiffonné, a coquettishness, a natural grace, and a caressing look,
-which might become by habit exceedingly prepossessing. In later life,
-their charms assume that peculiar solidity which is said to characterise
-the beauties of Mullingar, and as a rule they are shockingly ugly. The
-Castilian proverb says that the English woman should be seen at the
-window, the French woman on the promenade, and the Spanish woman
-everywhere;--the African woman should be seen nowhere, or in the dark.
-The children mostly appear in the graceful costume of the Belvidere
-Apollo; not a few of them have, to the European eye, that amusing
-prettiness which we admire in pug-pups.
-
-The mode of life in the Mrima is simple. Men rise early and repair to
-either the shop, the boat, or the plantation,--more commonly they waste
-the morning in passing from house to house “ku amkía,”--to salute
-neighbours. They ignore “manners”: they enter abruptly with or without
-the warning cry of “Hodi! Hodi!” place their spears in the corner, and
-without invitation squat and extend themselves upon the floor till
-wearied with conversation they take “French leave.” Life, to the
-European so real and earnest, is with them a continued scene of
-drumming, dancing, and drinking, of gossip, squabble, and intrigue. The
-favourite inebrients are tembu or cocoa toddy, and mvinyo, its
-distillation, pombe or millet-beer, opium, Bhang, and sometimes foreign
-stimulants purchased at Zanzibar. Their food is mostly ugali, the thick
-porridge of boiled millet or maize flour, which represents the “staff of
-life” in East Africa: they usually feed twice a day, in the morning and
-at night-fall. They employ the cocoa-nut extensively: like the Arabs of
-Zanzibar, they boil their rice in the thick juice of the rasped albumen
-kneaded with water, and they make cakes of the pulp mixed with the flour
-of various grains. This immoderate use of the fruit which, according to
-the people, is highly refrigerant, causes, it is said, rheumatic and
-other diseases. A respectable man seen eating a bit of raw or undressed
-cocoa-nut would be derided by his fellows. They chew tobacco with lime,
-like the Arabs, who, under the influence of Wahhabi tenets, look upon
-the pipe as impure, and they rarely smoke it like the Washenzi.
-
-The Wamrima as well as the Wasawahili are distinguished by two national
-peculiarities of character. The first is a cautiousness bordering upon
-cowardice, derived from their wild African blood; the second is an
-unusual development of cunning and deceitfulness, which partially
-results from the grafting of the semi-civilised Semite upon the Hamite.
-The Arabs, who are fond of fanciful etymology, facetiously derive the
-race-name “Msawahili” from “Sawwá hílah,”[3] _he played a trick_, and
-the people boast of it, saying, “are we not Wasawahili?” that is “artful
-dodgers.” Supersubtle and systematic liars, they deceive when duller men
-would tell the truth, the lie direct is no insult, and the offensive
-word “muongo!” (liar) enters largely into every dialogue. They lie like
-Africans, objectlessly, needlessly, when sure of speedy detection, when
-fact would be more profitable than falsehood; they have not discovered
-with the civilised knave, that “honesty is the best policy;” they lie
-till their fiction becomes subjectively fact. With them the lie is no
-mental exertion, no exercise of ingenuity, no concealment, nor mere
-perversion of the truth: it is apparently a local instinctive
-peculiarity in the complicated madness of poor human nature. The most
-solemn and religious oaths are with them empty words; they breathe an
-atmosphere of falsehood, manœuvre, and contrivance, wasting about the
-mere nothings of life--upon a pound of grain or a yard of
-cloth--ingenuity of iniquity enough to win and keep a crown. And they
-are treacherous as false; with them the salt has no signification, and
-gratitude is unknown even by name.
-
- [3] Dr. Krapf, in the Preface to his “Outlines of the Kisuahelí
- Language,” deduces the national name from Síwá, ’a hílah, which would
- mean exactly the reverse of astute--“without guile.” He has made other
- curious linguistic errors: he translates, for instance, the
- “Quilimancy” River--the ancient name for the Ozi or Dana--“water from
- the mountain,” after a Germanic or Indo-European fashion, whereas, in
- the Zangian languages, the compound word would, if admissible, signify
- “a mountain of water.” It is curious that the learned and accurate Mr.
- Cooley, who has charged Dr. Krapf with “puerile etymologies,” should
- have fallen into precisely the same error. In the “Geography of
- N’yassi,” p. 19, “Mazingia” is rendered the “road or land along the
- water,” but Májí Njíá, if the elision of the possessive affix ya be
- allowed in prose as in poetry--Májí Njíá for Májí ya Njíá--would mean
- only the “water of the road.” As a specimen of Dr. Krapf’s discoveries
- in philology the following may suffice. In his vocabulary of the
- Engutuk Eloikob or Kikuafi dialect, he derives Olbitir, a _pig_, from
- the Arabic El Batrah, a _young ass_, or from El Basir, a _sharp-seeing
- dog_!
-
-Though partially Arabised, the Wamrima, as well as the Wasawahili,
-retain many habits and customs derived from the most degraded of the
-Washenzi savagery. Like the Wazegura heathen of Eastern Africa, and the
-Bangala of the Kasanji (Cassange) Valley, in the West, the uncle sells
-his nephews and nieces by an indefeasible vested right, with which even
-the parents cannot interfere. The voice of society even justifies this
-abomination. “What!” exclaim the people, “is a man to want when his
-brothers and sisters have children?” He is thus encouraged in doing, on
-the slightest pretext, that of which the heathen rarely approve, except
-to save themselves from starvation. At the same time the Wamrima,
-holding the unchastity of woman as a tenet of belief, consider the
-sister’s son--the “surer side”--the heir, in preference to the son. They
-have many superstitions, and before all undertakings they consult a
-pagan Mganga or medicine-man. If the K’hunguru or crow caws from the
-house-top, a guest is coming; if a certain black bird cries “chee!
-chee!” in front of a caravan, the porters will turn back, saying that
-there is blood on the road, and they will remain four or five days till
-the “chika! chika!” of the partridge beats the “General.” An even number
-of wayfarers met in early morning is a good omen, but an odd number, or
-the bark of the Mbweha--the fox--before the march, portends misfortune.
-Strong minds of course take advantage of these and a thousand other
-follies of belief, and when there is not, as in civilised countries, a
-counteracting influence of scepticism, the mental organisation of the
-people becomes a mass of superstitious absurdities.
-
-The chief industry of the Mrima, namely the plundering of caravans, has
-already been alluded to; it will here be described with somewhat more of
-detail. The industrious and commercial nations near Kilwa and the
-southern regions delay but a few days on the coast; the Wanyamwezi, on
-the line now to be described, will linger there from three to six
-months, enjoying the dear delights of comparative civilisation. Many old
-campaigners have so far overcome their barbarous horror of water
-travelling, which has been increased by tales of shipwreck and drowning,
-as to take boat and carry their ivory to the more profitable market in
-this land of Zanzibar, where the Wanyamwezi occupy their own quarter.
-Arrived within two marches of the coast-town, the head of the caravan
-calls a halt till the presents promised by an escort of touters have
-arrived and have been approved of. He then delays as long as possible,
-to live gratis upon those with whom he proposes to deal. After a time,
-the caravan enters in stately procession, a preliminary to the usual
-routine of commercial operations. Having settled the exorbitant claims
-of the village headmen and the charges of the Zanzibar Government, which
-are usually levied in duplicate by the local authorities, the barbarian
-has recourse to the Indian Banyan. Bargains are usually concluded at
-night: to a civilised man the work would be an impossible trial of
-patience. A lot of two hundred tusks is rarely sold under four months.
-Each article is laid upon the ground, and the purchaser begins by
-placing handsome cloths, technically called “pillows,” under the point
-and bamboo of the tusk, and by covering its whole length with a third;
-these form the first perquisites of the seller. After a few days, during
-which rice and ghee, sugar and sweetmeats, must be freely supplied,
-commences the chaffering for the price. The Banyan becomes excited at
-the ridiculous demand of his client, screams like a woman, pushes him
-out of doors, and receives a return of similar treatment with interest.
-He takes advantage of his knowledge that the African in making a bargain
-is never satisfied with the first offer, however liberal; he begins with
-a quarter of the worth, then he raises it to one-half, and when the
-barbarian still hesitates he throws in some flashy article which turns
-the scale. Any attempt at a tariff would be contemptuously rejected by
-both parties. The African delights in bargaining, and the Indian having
-brighter wits relies upon them for a profit, which the establishment of
-fair prices would curtail. It were in vain to attempt any alteration in
-this style of doing “business;” however despicable it may appear in the
-London market, it is a time-honoured institution in East Africa.
-
-[Illustration: The Wazaramo Tribe.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. III.
-
-TRANSIT OF THE VALLEY OF THE KINGANI AND THE MGETA RIVERS.
-
-
-It was a gallant sight to see the Baloch, as with trailed matchlocks,
-and in bravery of shield, sword, and dagger, they hurried in Indian file
-out of the Kaole cantonments, following their blood-red flag and their
-high-featured, snowy-bearded chief, the “Shaib Mohammed,”--old Mohammed.
-The band, “like worms,” as they expressed its numbers, which amounted to
-nearly a hundred, about one-third of the venerable Jemadar’s command,
-was marching forth to bid us farewell, in token of respect, at Mgude or
-Kuingani, “the cocoa-plantation near the sea.” It is a little
-settlement, distant an hour and a half’s walk from Kaole: hither my
-companion had preceded me, and hence we were to make our second
-departure. Accompanied by Said bin Salim, Valentine my Goanese servant,
-three Baloch, and two slaves, I followed in the wake of the main body,
-bringing up the rear of the baggage on three Unyamwezi asses bought that
-morning at the custom-house. The animals had been laden with difficulty:
-their kicking and plunging, rearing and pawing, had prevented the nice
-adjustment of their packs, and the wretched pads, which want of time had
-compelled me to take, instead of panels or pack-saddles, loosely girthed
-with rotten coir rope, could not support a heap of luggage weighing at
-least 200 lbs. per load. On the road they rushed against one another;
-they bolted, they shied, and they threw their impediments with such
-persistence, that my servant could not help exclaiming, “Unká nám
-gadha”--“Their name _is_ jackass.” At last, as the sun neared the salt
-sea, one of these half-wild brutes suddenly sank, girth-deep, in a patch
-of boggy mire, and the three Baloch, my companions, at once ran away,
-leaving us to extricate it as best we could. This little event had a
-peculiar significancy to one about to command a party composed
-principally of asses and Baloch.
-
-The excitement of finding myself on new ground, and the peculiarities of
-the scenery, somewhat diverted melancholy forebodings. Issuing from the
-little palisade of Kaole, the path winds in a south-westerly direction
-over a sandy soil, thick with thorns and bush, which in places project
-across the way. Thence ascending a wave of ground where cocoas and the
-wild arrow-root flourish, it looks down upon park land like that
-described by travellers in Kaffraria, a fair expanse of sand veiled with
-humus, here and there growing rice, with mangoes and other tall trees,
-regularly disposed as if by the hand of man. Finally, after crossing a
-muddy grass-grown swamp, and a sandy bottom full of water when rain has
-been heavy, the path, passing through luxuriant cultivation, enters
-Kuingani. Such is the “nakl,” or preparatory-stage of Arab travellers,
-an invariable first departure, where porters who find their load too
-heavy, or travellers who suspect that they are too light, can return to
-Kaole and re-form.
-
-The little settlement of Kuingani is composed of a few bee-hive
-huts, and a Bandani or wall-less thatched roof--the village
-palaver-house--clustering orderless round a cleared central space.
-Outside, cocoas, old and dwarfed, mangoes almost wild, the papaw, the
-cotton shrub, the perfumed Rayhan or Basil, and a sage-like herb, the
-sugarcane, and the Hibiscus called by the Goanese “Rosel,” vary the
-fields of rice, holcus, and “Turiyan,” or the Cajanus Indicus. The
-vegetation is, in fact, that of the Malabar coast; the habitations are
-peculiarly African.
-
-The 28th of June was a halt at Kuingani, where I was visited by Ramji
-and two brother Bhattias, Govindji and Kesulji. The former was equipped,
-as least becomes the Banyan man, with sword, dudgeon, and assegai. But
-Ramji was a heaven-made soldier; he had taken an active part in the
-military operations directed by His Highness the late Sayyid Said
-against the people of the mainland, and about thirteen years ago he
-defended Kaole against a host of Wazaramo, numbering, it is said, 3,000
-men, when, lacking balls, he had loaded his honeycombed cannon and his
-rusty matchlocks with pointed sticks. The Europeans of Zanzibar called
-him “Rush,”--the murderer. His fellow-countrymen declared him to be a
-“sharp practiser,” who had made a reputation by spending other people’s
-money, and I personally had proofs which did not allow me to doubt his
-“savoir faire.”
-
-The nights at Kuingani were not pleasant. The air was stifling, the
-mosquitoes buzzed without intermission, and I had neglected to lay in
-“essence of pennyroyal” against certain other plagues. On the second
-evening, seeing by the hang-dog look of my Jemadar that he was
-travailing in mind, I sent for a Mganga or medicine-man, and having
-previously promised him a Surat skull-cap for a good haul of prophecy, I
-collected the Baloch to listen. The Mganga, a dark old man, of superior
-rank, as the cloth round his head and his many bead necklaces showed,
-presently reappeared with a mat-bag containing the implements of his
-craft. After taking his seat opposite to me he demanded his fee--here,
-as elsewhere, to use the words with which Kleon excited the bile of
-Tiresias,
-
- “Το μαντικον γαρ παν φιλαργυρον γενος;”
-
---without which prediction would have been impossible. When
-gratified he produced a little gourd snuff-box and indulged himself with
-a solemn and dignified pinch. He then drew forth a larger gourd which
-contained the great medicine, upon which no eye profane might gaze: the
-vessel, repeatedly shaken, gave out a vulgar sound as if filled with
-pebbles and bits of metal. Presently, placing the implement upon the
-ground, Thaumaturges extracted from the mat-bag two thick goat’s horns
-connected by a snake-skin, which was decorated with bunches of
-curiously-shaped iron bells; he held one in the left hand, and with the
-right he caused the point of the other to perform sundry gyrations, now
-directing it towards me, then towards himself, then at the awe-struck
-bystanders, waving his head, muttering, whispering, swaying his body to
-and fro, and at times violently rattling the bells. When fully primed
-with the spirit of prophecy, and connected by ekstasis with the ghosts
-of the dead, he spake out pretty much in the style of his brotherhood
-all the world over. The journey was to be prosperous. There would
-be much talking, but little killing.--Said bin Salim, in chuckling
-state, confessed that he had heard the same from a Mganga consulted
-at Zanzibar.--Before navigating the sea of Ujiji a sheep or
-a parti-coloured hen should be killed and thrown into the
-lake.--Successful voyage.--Plenty of ivory and slaves.--Happy return to
-wife and family.
-
-This good example of giving valuable advice was not lost upon Mr. Rush
-Ramji. He insisted upon the necessary precautions of making a strong
-kraal and of posting sentinels every night; of wearing a kerchief round
-the head after dark, and of avoiding the dangerous air of dawn; of not
-eating strange food, and of digging fresh wells, as the Wazaramo bewitch
-water for travellers; of tethering the asses, of mending their ropes,
-and of giving them three lbs. of grain per diem. Like the medical
-directions given to the French troops proceeding to China, the counsel
-was excellent, but impracticable.
-
-The evening concluded with a nautch. Yusuf, a Baloch, produced a
-saringi--the Asiatic viol--and collected all the scamps of the camp with
-a loud scraping. Hulluk, the buffoon, acted dancing-girl to perfection.
-After the normal pantomime, somewhat broadly expressed, he did a little
-work in his own character; standing on his head with a peculiar
-tremulousness from the hips upwards, dislocating his person in a sitting
-position, imitating the cry of a dog, cat, ape, camel, and slave-girl,
-and finally reproducing me with peculiar impudence before my face. I
-gave him a dollar, when, true to his strain, he at once begged another.
-
-All accounts and receipts being finally duly settled with the Hindus,
-the last batch of three donkeys having arrived, and the baggage having
-been laden with great difficulty, I shook hands with old Mohammed and
-the other dignitaries, and mounting my ass, gave orders for immediate
-departure from Kuingani. This was not effected without difficulty: every
-one and everything, guide and escort, asses and slaves, seemed to join
-in raising up fresh obstacles. Four P.M. sped before we turned out of
-the little settlement. Among other unpleasant occurrences, Rahmat, a
-Baloch knave, who had formed one of my escort to Fuga, levelled his long
-barrel, with loud “Mimí ná pigá” (I am shooting him), when his company
-was objected to. His Jemadar, Yaruk, seized the old shooting-iron, which
-was probably unloaded, and Rahmat, with sotto-voce snarls and growls,
-slunk back to his kennel. A turbaned Negroid, who appeared on the path,
-was asked to point out the way, and, on his refusal, my bull-headed
-slave Mabruki struck him on the face, when, to the consternation of all
-parties, he declared himself a Diwan. The blow, according to the
-Jemadar, would infallibly lead to bloodshed.
-
-After a second short march of one hour and a half, we pitched tents and
-obtained lodgings in Bomani, “the Stockade,” a frontier village, but
-within the jurisdiction of Bagamoyo. On this road, which ascended the
-old sea-beach, patches of open forest and of high rank grass divided
-cultivated clearings, where huts and hamlets appeared, and where modest
-young maidens beckoned us as we passed. The vegetation is here partly
-African, partly Indian. The Mbuyu,--the baobab, Adansonia digitata,
-monkey-bread, or calabash, the Mowana of the southern and the Kuka of
-the northern regions,--is of more markedly bulbous form than on the
-coast, where the trunk is columnar; its heavy extremities, depressed by
-the wind, give it the shape of a lumpy umbrella shading the other wild
-growths. There appear to be two varieties of this tree, similar in bole
-but differing in foliage and in general appearance. The normal Mbuyu has
-a long leaf, and the drooping outline of the mass is convex; the rarer,
-observed only upon the Usagara Mountains, has a small leaf, in colour
-like the wild indigo, and the arms striking upwards assume the
-appearance of a bowl. The lower bottoms, where the soil is rich, grow
-the Mgude, also called Mparamusi (Taxus elongatus, the Geel hout or
-Yellow-wood of the Cape?) a perfect specimen of arboreal beauty. A tall
-tapering shaft, without knot or break, straight and clean as a main-mast
-forty or forty-five feet in height, and painted with a tender
-greenish-yellow, is crowned with parachute-shaped masses of vivid
-emerald foliage, whilst sometimes two and even three pillars spring from
-the same root. The Mvumo,--a distorted toddy tree, or Hyphæna allied to
-the Daum palm of Egypt and Arabia,--has a trunk rough with the drooping
-remnants of withered fronds, above which it divides itself into branches
-resembling a system of Y’s. Its oval fruit is of a yellowish red, and
-when full-sized it is as large as a child’s head; it is eaten even
-unripe by the people, and is said to be the favourite food of the
-elephant. Pulpless, hard, and stringy, it has, when thoroughly mature, a
-slight taste of gingerbread, hence it is also called the
-Gingerbread-tree. The Ukhindu or brab, of whose fronds mats and the
-grass kilts worn by many of the tribes are made, flourishes throughout
-the country, proving that the date-tree might be naturalised. The Nyara
-or Chamærops humilis, the dwarf fan-palm or palmetto of Southern Europe,
-abounds in this maritime region. The other growths are the Mtogwe and
-the Mbungo-bungo, varieties of the Nux vomica; the finest are those
-growing in the vicinity of water. The fruit contains within its hard
-rind, which, when ripe, is orange-coloured, large pips, covered with a
-yellow pulp of a grateful agro-dolce flavour, with a suspicion of the
-mango. The people eat them with impunity; the nuts, which contain the
-poisonous principle, being too hard to be digested. The Mtunguja (the
-Punneeria coagulans of Dr. Stocks), a solanaceous plant called by the
-Indians Jangli bengan, or the wild egg-plant, by the South Africans
-Toluane, and by the Baloch Panír, or cheese, from the effect of the
-juice in curdling milk, is here, as in Somaliland, a spontaneous growth
-throughout the country. The same may be said of the castor plant, which,
-in these regions, is of two kinds. The Mbono (Jatropha curcas?) is the
-Gumpal of Western India, a coarse variety, with a large seed; its fetid
-oil, when burnt, fouls the lamp; yet, in Africa, it is used by all
-classes as an unguent. The Mbarika, or Palma Christi, the Irindi of
-India, is employed in medicine. The natives extract the oil by toasting
-and pounding the bean, adding a little hot water and skimming off what
-appears upon the surface. The Arabs, more sensibly, prefer it
-“cold-drawn.” These plants, allowed to grow unpruned, often attain the
-height of eighteen to twenty feet.
-
-The 30th June was another forced halt, when I tasted all the bitterness
-that can fall to the lot of those who explore regions unvisited by their
-own colour. The air of Bomani is stagnant, the sun fiery, and clouds of
-mosquitoes make the nights miserable. Despite these disadvantages, it is
-a favourite halting-place for up-caravans, who defer to the last the
-evil days of long travel and short rations. Though impressed with the
-belief, that the true principle of exploration in these lands is to push
-on as rapidly and to return as leisurely as possible, I could not
-persuade the Baloch to move. In Asia, two departures usually suffice; in
-Africa there must be three,--the little start, the great start, and the
-start κατ’ εξοχην. Some clamoured for tobacco--I gave up my cavendish;
-others for guitar-strings--they were silenced with beads; and all, born
-donkey-drivers, complained loudly of the hardship and the indignity of
-having to load and lead an ass. The guide, an influential Mzaramo,
-promised by the Banyans Ladha and Ramji, declined, after receiving
-twenty dollars, to accompany the Expedition, and from his conduct the
-Baloch drew the worst of presages. Much ill-will was shown by them
-towards the European members of the Expedition. “Kafir end, márá bandirá
-na khenen” (they are infidels and must not carry our flag)--it was
-inscribed with the usual Moslem formula--was spoken audibly enough in
-their debased Mekrani to reach my ears: a faithful promise to make a
-target of the first man who might care to repeat the words, stopped that
-manner of nuisance. Again the most childish reports flew about the camp,
-making these jet-bearded and fierce-eyed hen-hearts faint with fears.
-Boxes had been prepared by the barbarians for myself, and gates had been
-built across the paths to arrest my party. P’hazi Mazungera, M. Maizan’s
-murderer, had collected a host that numbered thousands, and the Wazaramo
-were preparing a levée _en masse_. To no purpose I quoted the Arab’s
-proverb--“the son of fifty dieth not at thirty”; all _would_ be heroic
-victims marching to gory graves. Such reports did real damage: the
-principal danger was the tremulous alacrity with which the escort
-prepared upon each trivial occasion for battle and murder, and sudden
-death. At one place a squabble amongst the villagers kept the Baloch
-squatting on their hams with lighted matches from dusk till dawn. At
-another, a stray Fisi or Cynhyæna entering the camp by night, caused a
-confusion which only the deadliest onslaught could have justified. A
-slave hired on the road, hearing these horrors, fled in dismay; this,
-the first of desertions, was by no means the last. The reader may
-realise the prevalence and the extent of this African traveller’s bane
-by the fact that during my journey to Ujiji there was not a soul in the
-caravan, from Said bin Salim the Arab, to the veriest pauper, that did
-not desert or attempt to desert.
-
-Here, at the first mention of slaves, I must explain to the reader why
-we were accompanied by them, and how the guide and escort contrived to
-purchase them. All the serving-men in Zanzibar Island and on the coast
-of E. Africa are serviles; the Kisawahili does not contain even a word
-to express a hired domestic. For the evil of slave-service there was no
-remedy: I therefore paid them their wages and treated them as if they
-were freemen. I had no power to prevent Said bin Salim, the Baloch
-escort, and the “sons of Ramji,” purchasing whomever they pleased; all
-objections on my part were overruled by, “we are allowed by our law to
-do so,” and by declaring that they had the permission of the consul. I
-was fain to content myself with seeing that their slaves were well fed
-and not injured, and indeed I had little trouble in so doing, as no man
-was foolish enough to spoil his own property. I never neglected to
-inform the wild people that Englishmen were pledged to the suppression
-of slavery, and I invariably refused all slaves offered as return
-presents.
-
-The departure from Bomani was effected on the 1st of July with some
-trouble; it was like driving a herd of wild cattle. At length, by
-ejecting skulkers from their huts, by dint of promises and threats, of
-gentleness and violence, of soft words and hard words, occasionally
-backed by a smart application of the “Bakur”--the local “cat”--by
-sitting in the sun, in fact by incessant worry and fidget from 6 A. M.
-to 3 P. M., the sluggish and unwieldy body acquired some momentum. I had
-issued a few marching orders for the better protection of the baggage:
-two Baloch were told off for each donkey, one to lead, the other to
-drive; in case of attack, those near the head of the file, hearing the
-signal, three shots, were to leave their animals and to hurry to the
-front, where my companion marched, whilst the remainder rallied round my
-flag in the rear: thus there would have been an attacking party and a
-reserve, between which the asses would have been safe. The only result
-of these fine manœuvres was, that after a two-mile tramp through an
-umbrageous forest in which caravans often lose the way, and then down an
-easy descent across fertile fields, into a broken valley, whose further
-side was thick with luxuriant grass, tall shrubs, and majestic trees, a
-confused straggling line,--a mere mob of soldiers, slaves, and
-asses,--arrived at the little village of Mkwaju la Mvuani,--the
-“Tamarind in the rains.”
-
-The settlement is composed as usual of a few hovels and a palaver-house,
-with a fine lime-tree, the place of lounging and gossip, grain-husking,
-and mat-weaving, in the open centre. Provisions and rough muddy water
-being here plentiful, travellers often make a final halt to polish their
-weapons, and to prepare their minds for the Wazaramo. It is the last
-station under the jurisdiction of Bagamoyo; from Changahera, the crafty
-old Diwan, I obtained the services of his nephew Muinyi Wazírá, who
-received seventeen dollars as an inducement to travel in the interior,
-and was at once constituted linguist and general assistant to Said bin
-Salim. The day passed as usual, a snake was killed, and a gun-shot heard
-in the distance supplied conversation for some hours. The “sons of
-Ramji” carefully lost half a dozen of the axes, bill-hooks, and dibbles,
-with which they had been supplied, fearing lest they might be called
-upon to build the Síwá or Bomá, the loose thorn-fence with which the
-halting-place ought to be surrounded before the night, and 7 P. M. had
-passed before I could persuade the Baloch to catch, tether, and count
-the asses. One of the escort, Ismail, was attacked with dysentery and
-required to be mounted, although we were obliged by the want of carriage
-to wend our way on foot. During the last night, Said bin Salim had taken
-charge of three Wanguru porters, who, freshly trapped by Said el
-Hazrami, had been chained _pro tempore_ to prevent desertion. The Arab
-boasted that he was a bad sleeper, but bad sleepers are worse watchers,
-because when they do sleep they sleep in earnest. The men were placed
-for the night in Said’s tent, surrounded by his five slaves, yet they
-stole his gun, and carrying off an axe and sundry bill-hooks,
-disappeared in the jungle. The watchful Said, after receiving many
-congratulations on his good fortune--fugitive slaves sometimes draw
-their knives across the master’s throat or insert the points into his
-eyes--sent off his own attendants to recover the fugitives. In the
-jungle, however, search was of scant avail: the Wanguru feared that if
-caught by the Baloch, they would lose their ears; three days would
-enable them to reach their own country; and their only risk was that if
-trapped by the Washenzi before their irons--a valuable capture to the
-captors--could be removed, they might again be sold to some travelling
-trader. As the day wore on, Said’s face assumed a deplorable expression:
-his slaves had not appeared, and though several of them were muwallid or
-born in his father’s house, and one was after a fashion his
-brother-in-law, he sorely dreaded that they also had deserted. He was
-proportionably delighted when in the dead of the night, entering Mkwaju
-la Mvuani, they reported ill-success; and though I could little afford
-the loss, I was glad to get rid of this chained and surly gang.
-
-On the next day we began loading for the third and final departure,
-before dawn, and at 7.30 A. M. were on the dew-dripping way. Beyond the
-settlement a patch of jungle led to cultivated grounds belonging to the
-villagers, whose scattered and unfenced abodes were partially concealed
-by dense clumps of trees. The road then sweeping parallel with the river
-plain, which runs from N.W. to S.E., crossed several swamps, black muddy
-bottoms covered with tall thick rushes and pea-green paddy, and the
-heavily laden asses sunk knee-deep into the soft soil. Red copalliferous
-sand clothed the higher levels. On the wayside appeared for the first
-time the Khambi or substantial kraals, which evidence unsafe travelling
-and the unwillingness of caravans to bivouac in the villages. In this
-region they assumed the form of round huts and long sheds or boothies of
-straw or grass supported by a framework of rough sticks firmly planted
-in the ground and lashed together with bark-strips. The whole was
-surrounded with a deep circle of thorns which--the entrance or entrances
-being carefully closed at nightfall, not to reopen until dawn--formed a
-complete defence against bare feet and naked legs. About half-way a
-junction of the Mbuamaji road was reached, and the path became somewhat
-broader and less rough. Passing on the right, a hilly district, called
-Dunda or “the Hill,” the road fell from the ancient sea-beach into the
-alluvial valley of the Kinganí River; presently rising again, it entered
-the settlement of Nzasa, a name interpreted “level ground.”
-
-Nzasa is the first district of independent Uzaramo. My men proceeded to
-occupy the Bandani, in the centre of the hamlet, when Said bin Salim,
-discovering with the sharp eye of fear a large drum, planted in
-readiness for the war-signal or the dance-signal, hurried about till he
-had turned all hands out of the village into a clump of trees hard by, a
-propitious place for surprise and ambuscade. Here I was visited by three
-P’hazi or headmen, Kizaya, Tumba Ihere or the “poison gourd,” and Kombe
-la Simba or the “lion’s hide.” They came to ascertain whether I was
-bound on peaceful errand or--as the number of our guns suggested--I was
-marching to revenge the murder of my “brother” Muzungu. Assured of our
-unwarlike intentions, they told me that I must halt on the morrow and
-send forward a message to the next chief. As this plan invariably loses
-three days,--the first being a _dies non_, the second being expended in
-dispensing exoteric information to all the lieges squatting in solemn
-conclave, whilst on the third the real message is privily whispered into
-the chieftain’s ear,--I replied through Said that I could not be bound
-by their rules, but was ready to pay for their infraction. During the
-debate upon this fascinating proposal for breaking the law, Yusuf, one
-of the most turbulent of the Baloch, drew his sword upon an old woman
-because she refused to give up a basket of grain. She rushed, with the
-face of a black Medusa, into the assembly, and provoked not very
-peaceable remarks concerning the peaceful nature of our intentions. When
-the excitement was allayed, the principal P’hazi began to ask what had
-brought the white man into their country, and in a breath to predict the
-loss of their gains and commerce, their land and liberty. “I am old,”
-pathetically quoth the P’hazi, “and my beard is grey, yet I have never
-beheld such a calamity as this!” “These men,” replied Said, “neither buy
-nor sell; they do not inquire into price, nor do they covet profit.
-Moreover,” he pursued, “what have ye to lose? The Arabs take your best,
-the Wasawahili your second best, and your trifling tribute is reduced to
-a yoke of bullocks, a few clothes, or half a dozen hoes.” An extravagant
-present--at that time ignorance of the country compelled me to intrust
-such matters to the honesty of Said bin Salim--opened the headmen’s
-hearts: they privily termed me Murungwana Sana, a real free-man, the
-African equivalent for the English “gentleman,” and they detached Kizaya
-to accompany me as far as the western half of the Kingani Valley. At 4
-P. M. a loud drumming collected the women, who began to perform a dance
-of ceremony with peculiar vigour. A line of small, plump,
-chestnut-coloured beings, with wild beady eyes, and a thatch of
-clay-plastered hair, dressed in their loin-cloths, with a profusion of
-white disks, bead necklaces, a little square bib of beads called a
-t’hando, partially concealing the upper bosom, with short coils of thick
-brass wire wound so tightly round the wrists, the arms above the elbows,
-and the fat ankles, that they seemed to have grown into the flesh,
-and,--hideous perversion of taste!--with ample bosoms tightly corded
-down, advanced and retired in a convulsion of wriggle and contortion,
-whose fit expression was a long discordant howl, which seemed to
-
- “Embowel with outrageous noise the air.”
-
-I threw them a few strings of green beads, which for a moment
-interrupted the dance. One of these falling to the ground, I was
-stooping to pick it up when Said whispered hurriedly in my ear, “Bend
-not; they will say ‘he will not bend even to take up beads!’”
-
-In the evening I walked down to the bed of the Kingani river, which
-bisects a plain all green with cultivation,--rice and holcus, sweet
-potato and tobacco,--and pleasantly studded with huts and hamlets. The
-width of the stream, which here runs over a broad bed of sand, is about
-fifty yards; it is nowhere fordable, as the ferry-boat belonging to each
-village proves, and thus far it is navigable, though rendered dangerous
-by the crocodiles and the hippopotami that house in its waters. The
-colour is tawny verging upon red, and the taste is soft and sweet, as if
-fed by rain. The Kingani, like all streams in this part of the
-continent, is full of fish, especially a dark-green and scaleless
-variety (a Silurus?) called Kambari, and other local names. This great
-“miller’s thumb” has fleshy cirri, appears to be omnivorous, and tastes
-like animal mud. The night was rendered uncomfortable to the Baloch by
-the sound of distant drums, which suggested fighting as well as
-feasting, and by the uproar of the wild men, who, when reconnoitred by
-the scouts, were found to be shouting away the hippopotami.
-
-In the hurry and the confusion of loading on the next morning one ass
-was left behind, and the packs were so badly placed that the fatigue of
-marching was almost doubled by their repeated falls. Whilst descending
-the well-wooded river terrace, my portion of the escort descried an
-imaginary white flag crossing the grassy valley below. This is the sign
-of a Diwan’s expedition or commando: it is unwisely allowed by the
-Arabs, whose proper colours are a plain blood-red. After marching a few
-miles over undulating ground, open and parklike, and crossing rough and
-miry beds, the path disclosed a view verging upon the pretty. By the way
-side was planted the peculiarly African Mzimu or Fetiss hut, a penthouse
-about a foot high, containing, as votive offerings, ears of holcus or
-pombe-beer in a broken gourd. There, too, the graves of the heathen met
-the eye. In all other parts of East Africa a mouldering skull, a
-scattered skeleton, or a few calcined bones, the remains of wizards and
-witches dragged to the stake, are the only visible signs of man’s
-mortality. The Wazaramo tombs, especially in the cases of chiefs,
-imitate those of the Wamrima. They are parallelograms, seven feet by
-four, formed by a regular dwarf paling that encloses a space cleared of
-grass, and planted with two uprights to denote the position of head and
-feet. In one of the long walls there is an apology for a door. The
-corpse of the heathen is not made to front any especial direction;
-moreover the centre of the oblong has the hideous addition of a log
-carved by the unartistic African into a face and a bust singularly
-resembling those of a legless baboon, whilst a white rag tied turbanwise
-round the head serves for the inscription “this is a man.” The Baloch
-took notice of such idolatrous tendency by spitting and by pronouncing
-certain national anathemas, which literally translated might sound
-unpleasant in Europeans’ ears. The abomination of iconism is avoided in
-the graves of Moslem travellers: they are usually cleared ovals, with
-outlines of rough stone and a strew of smooth pebbles, according to the
-custom of the Wasawahili. Several stumps of wood planted in the earth
-show that the corpse faces Mecca, and, as amongst the Jinga of Western
-Africa, the fragments of a china bowl or cup lying upon the ground are
-sacred to the memory of the departed. In Zanzibar Island, also, saucers,
-plates, and similar articles are mortared into the tombstones.
-
-The number of these graves made the blackness of my companions pale.
-They were hurrying forward with sundry “la haul!” and with boding shakes
-of the head, when suddenly an uproar in the van made them all prepare
-for action. They did it characteristically by beginning with begging for
-ranjak--priming powder. Said bin Salim, much excited, sent forward his
-messmate Muinyi Wazira to ascertain the cause of the excitement. One
-Mviraru, the petty lord of a neighbouring village, had barred the road
-with about a dozen men, demanding “dash,” and insisting that Kizaya had
-no right to lead on the party without halting to give him the news. My
-companion, who was attended only by “Bombay,” his gun-carrier, and a few
-Baloch, remarked to the interferers that he had been franked through the
-country by paying at Nzasa. To this they obstinately objected. The
-Baloch began to light their matches and to use hard words. A fight
-appeared imminent. Presently, however, when the Wazaramo saw my flag
-rounding the hill-shoulder with a fresh party, whose numbers were
-exaggerated by distance, they gave way; and finally when Muinyi Wazira
-opened upon them the invincible artillery of his tongue, they fell back
-and stood off the road to gaze. The linguist returned to the rear in
-great glee, blowing his finger tips, as if they had been attached to a
-matchlock, and otherwise deriding the overboiling valour of the Beloch,
-who, not suspecting his purport, indulged in the wildest outbreak of
-boasting, offering at once to take the whole country and to convert me
-into its sultan. Towards the end of the march we crossed a shallow,
-salt, bitter rivulet, flowing cold and clear towards the Kingani River.
-On the grassy plain below noble game--zebra and koodoo--began to appear;
-whilst guinea-fowl and partridge, quail, green-pigeon, and the cuculine
-bird, called in India the Malabar-pheasant, became numerous. A track of
-rich red copalliferous soil, wholly without stone, and supporting black
-mould, miry during the rains, and caked and cracked by the potent suns
-of the hot season, led us to Kiranga-Ranga, the first dangerous station
-in Uzaramo. It is the name of a hilly district, with many little
-villages embosomed in trees, overlooking the low cultivated bottoms
-where caravans encamp in the vicinity of the wells.
-
-Before establishing themselves in the kraal at Kiranga-Ranga, the two
-rival parties of Baloch,--the Prince’s permanent escort and the
-temporary guard sent by Ladha Damha from Kaole--being in a chronic state
-of irritability, naturally quarrelled. With the noise of choughs
-gathering to roost they vented their bile, till thirteen men belonging
-to a certain Jemadar Mohammed suddenly started up, and without a word of
-explanation set out on their way home. According to Said bin Salim, the
-temporary guard had determined not to proceed beyond Kiranga-Ranga, and
-this desertion was intended as a preliminary to others by which the
-party would have lost two-thirds of its strength. I at once summoned the
-Jemadars, and wrote in their presence a letter reporting the conduct of
-their men to the dreaded Balyuz, the consul, who was supposed to be
-still anchored off Kaole. Seeing the bastinado in prospect, the Jemadar
-Yaruk shouldered his sabre, slung his shield over his arm, set out in
-pursuit of the fugitives, and soon succeeded in bringing them back. He
-was a good specimen of the true Baloch mountaineer--a tall, gaunt, and
-large-boned figure, with dark complexion deeply pitted by small-pox,
-hard, high, and sun-burnt features of exceeding harshness; an armoury in
-epitome was stuck in his belt, and his hand seemed never to rest but
-upon a weapon.
-
-The 4th of July was a halt at Kiranga-Ranga. Two asses had been lost,
-the back-sinews of a third had been strained, and all the others had
-been so wearied by their inordinate burdens, to which on the last march
-the meat of a koodoo, equal in weight to a young bullock, had been
-superadded, that a rest was deemed indispensable. I took the opportunity
-of wandering over and of prospecting the country. The scene was one of
-admirable fertility; rice, maize, and manioc grew in the rankest and
-richest crops, and the uncultivated lands bore the Corindah bush
-(Carissa Carandas), the salsaparilla vine, the small whitish-green
-mulberry (the Morus alba of India), and the crimson flowers of the
-Rosel. In the lower levels near the river rose the giants of the forest.
-The Mparamusi shot up its tall head, whose bunchy tresses rustled in the
-breeze when all below was still. The stately Msufi, a Bombax or
-silk-cotton tree, showed as many as four or five trunks, each two to
-three feet in diameter, rising from the same roots; the long tapering
-branches stood out stiffly at right angles from the bole; and the
-leaves, instead of forming masses of foliage, were sparsely scattered in
-small dense growth. The Msukulio, unknown to the people of Zanzibar, was
-a pile of dark verdure, which dwarfed the finest oaks and elms of an
-English park. No traces of game appeared in the likeliest of places;
-perhaps it preferred lurking in the tall gross grass, which was not yet
-in a fit state to burn.
-
-At Kiranga-Ranga the weather began to be unpropitious. The Mcho’o, the
-heavy showers which fall between the Masika or vernal, and the Vuli or
-autumnal rains, set in with regularity, and accompanied us during the
-transit of the maritime plain. I therefore refused to halt more than one
-day, although the P’hazi or chiefs of the Wazaramo showed, by sending
-presents of goats and grain, great civility--a civility purchased,
-however, by Said bin Salim at the price of giving to each man whatever
-he demanded; even women were never allowed to leave the camp
-unpropitiated. I was not permitted in this part to enter the villages,
-although the Wazaramo do not usually exclude strangers who venture upon
-their dangerous hospitality. Girls are appointed to attend upon them,
-and in case of sickness or accident happening to any one in the
-settlement, they are severely interrogated concerning the morality of
-the guest, and an unfavourable account of it leads to extortion and
-violence. The Wazaramo, like the Wagogo, and unlike the other East
-African tribes, are jealous of their women; still “damages” will act, as
-they have acted in other lands, as salve to wounded honour and broken
-heart.
-
-On the 5th of July we set out betimes, and traversing the fields around
-Kiranga-Ranga, struck through a dense jungle, here rising above, there
-bending into the river valley, to some stagnant pools which supply the
-district with water. The station, reached in 3^{hrs} 30′, was called
-Tumba Ihere, after the headman, who accompanied us. Here we saw cocos
-emerging from a fetid vegetation, and for the last time the Mwembe or
-mango, a richly foliaged but stunted tree which never attains the
-magnificent dimensions observed at Zanzibar. Several down-caravans were
-halted at Tumba Ihere; the slaves brought from the interior were tied
-together by their necks, and one obstinate deserter was so lashed to a
-forked pole with the bifurcation under his chin, that when once on the
-ground he could not rise without assistance. These wretches scarcely
-appeared to like the treatment; they were not, however, in bad
-condition. The Wanyamwezi porters bathed in the pools and looked at us
-without fear or shame. Our daily squabble did not fail to occur. Riza, a
-Baloch, drew his dagger on one of Said bin Salim’s “children,” and the
-child pointed his Tower-musket at the Baloch; a furious hubbub arose;
-the master, with his face livid and drawn like a cholera patient’s,
-screamed shrilly as a woman, and the weapons returned to their proper
-places bloodless as those wielded by Bardolph, Nym, and ancient Pistol.
-My companion began to suffer from the damp heat and the reeking miasma;
-he felt that a fever was coming on, and the fatigue of marching under
-these circumstances prevented our mustering the party. The consequence
-was, that an ass laden with rice disappeared,--it had probably been led
-out of the road and unburdened by the Baloch;--whilst axes, cords, and
-tethers could nowhere be found when wanted.
-
-On the next morning we left Tumba Ihere, and tramped over a red land
-through alternate strips of rich cultivation and tangled jungle, which
-presently opened out into a forest where the light-barked Msandarusi, or
-copal-tree, attains its fullest dimensions. This is one of the richest
-“diggins,” and the roadsides are everywhere pitted with pockets two or
-three feet deep by one in diameter. Rain fell in huge drops, and the
-heaviness of the ground caused frequent accidents to the asses’ loads.
-About noon we entered the fine grain-fields that gird the settlements of
-Muhogwe, one of the most dreaded in dreaded Uzaramo. In our case,
-however, the only peril was the levée _en masse_ of the fair sex in the
-villages, to stare, laugh, and wonder at the white men. “What should you
-think of these whites as husbands?” asked Muinyi Wazira of the crowd.
-“With such things on their legs?--Sivyo!--not by any means!”--was the
-unanimous reply, accompanied with peals of merriment.
-
-Beyond Muhogwe all was jungle and forest, tall trees rising from red
-copalliferous sand, and shading bright flowers, and blossoming shrubs.
-After crossing a low mud overgrown with rush and tiger-grass, and a
-watercourse dotted with black stagnant pools, we ascended rising
-well-forested ground, and lastly debouched upon the kraals of Muhonyera.
-
-The district of Muhonyera occupies the edge of the plateau forming the
-southern terrace of the Kingani River; and the elevated sea-beach is
-marked out by lines of quartsoze pebbles running along the northern
-slope of the hill upon which we encamped. Water is found in seven or
-eight reedy holes in the valley below; it acquires from decomposed
-vegetation an unnaturally sweet and slimy taste. This part of the
-country, being little inhabited by reason of its malarious climate,
-abounds in wild animals. The guides speak of lions, and the cry of the
-Fisi or Cynhyæna was frequently heard at night, threatening destruction
-to the asses. The Fisi, the Wuraba of the Somal, and the Wilde Honde of
-the Cape, is the wolf of Africa, common throughout the country, where it
-acts as scavenger. Though a large and powerful variety, it seldom
-assaults man, except when sleeping, and then it snatches a mouthful from
-the face, causing a ghastlier disfigurement even than the scalping of
-the bear. Three asses belonging to the Expedition were destroyed by this
-beast; in all cases they were attacked by night with a loud wrangling
-shriek, and the piece of flesh was raggedly torn from the hind quarter;
-after affording a live rump-steak, they could not be driven like Bruce’s
-far-famed bullock. These, however, were the animals brought from
-Zanzibar; that of Unyamwezi, if not tied up, defends itself successfully
-against its cowardly assailant with teeth and heels, even as the zebra,
-worthy of Homeric simile, has, it is said, kept the lion at bay. The
-woods about Muhonyera contain large and small grey monkeys with black
-faces; clinging to the trees they gaze for a time at the passing caravan
-imperturbably, till curiosity being satisfied, they slip down and bound
-away with long plunging leaps, like a greyhound at play. The view from
-the hill-side was suggestive. The dark green plain of sombre monotony,
-with its overhanging strata of mist-bank and dew-cloud, appeared in all
-the worst colours of the Oude Tirhai and the Guzerat jungles. At that
-season, when the moisture of the rainy monsoon was like poison distilled
-by the frequent bursts of fiery sunshine, it was a valley of death for
-unacclimatised travellers. Far to the west, however, rose Kidunda, “the
-hillock,” a dwarf cone breaking the blurred blue line of jungle, and
-somewhat northward of it towered a cloud-capped azure wall, the
-mountain-crags of Duthumi, upon which the eye, long weary of low levels,
-rested with a sensation of satisfaction.
-
-It was found necessary to halt a day at Muhonyera: according to some
-authorities no provisions were procurable for a week; others declared
-that there were villages on the road, but were uncertain whether rations
-could be purchased. Said bin Salim sent Ambari, a favourite slave, back
-to buy grain at Muhogwe, whence he had hurried us on in fear of the
-Wazaramo; and the youth, after wasting a day, returned on the evening of
-the 2nd July with about sixty lbs.,--a poor supply for eighty-eight
-hungry bodies. This proceeding naturally affronted the Baloch, who
-desired for themselves the perquisites proceeding from the purchases.
-Two of their number, Yusuf and Salih Mohammed, came to swear officially
-on the part of their men that there was not an ounce of grain in camp.
-Appearing credulous, I paid them a visit about half an hour afterwards;
-all their shuffling and sitting upon the bags could not conceal a store
-of about 100 lbs. of fine white rice, whose quality,--the Baloch had
-been rationed at Kaole with an inferior kind,--showed whence it came.
-
-After repairing the “boma,” or fenced kraal,--it had been burnt down, as
-often happens, by the last caravan of Wanyamwezi,--I left my companion,
-who was prostrate with fever, and went out, gun in hand, to inspect the
-country, and to procure meat, that necessary having fallen short. The
-good P’hazi, Tumba Ihere, accompanied me, and after return he received
-an ample present for his services, and departed. The Baloch employed
-themselves in cleaning their rusty matchlock-barrels with a bit of
-kopra,--dried cocoa-nut meat,--in weaving for themselves sandals, like
-the spartelle of the Pyrenees, with green palmetto-leaves; in preparing
-calabash fibre for fatilah or gun-matches, and in twisting cords for the
-asses. The best material is supplied by an aloetic plant, the Hig or
-Haskul of Somaliland, here called by the Arabs Bag, and by the natives
-Mukonge. The Mananazi, or pine-apple, grows wild as far as three marches
-from the coast, but its fibrous qualities are unknown to the people.
-Ismail, the invalid Baloch, was the worse for remedies; and two other
-men gave signs of breaking down.
-
-During the first week, creeping along at a slug’s pace, we heard the
-booming of the Artémise’s evening gun, an assurance that refuge was at
-hand. Presently these reports ceased. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, seized
-with mortal sickness, had left Kaole suddenly, and he died on board the
-Artémise on the 5th July, shortly after his return to Zanzibar. The
-first letters announcing the sad event were lost: with characteristic
-African futility the porter despatched with the parcel from the island,
-finding that the Expedition had passed on to the mountains of Usagara,
-left his charge with a village headman, and returned to whence he came.
-Easterns still hold that
-
- “Though it be honest, it is never good,
- To bring bad news.”
-
-The report, spread by a travelling trader, was discussed throughout
-the camp, but I was kept in ignorance of it till Khudabakhsh, a Baloch,
-who had probably been deputed by his brethren to ascertain what effect
-the decease of the consul would have upon me, “hardened his heart,” and
-took upon himself the task of communicating the evil intelligence. I was
-uncertain what to believe. Said bin Salim declared, when consulted, that
-he fully trusted in the truth of the report, but his reasons were
-somewhat too Arabo-African to convince me. He had found three pieces of
-scarlet broadcloth damaged by rats,--an omen of death; and the colour
-pointed out the nationality of the departed.
-
-The consul’s death might have proved fatal to the Expedition, had its
-departure been delayed for a week. The court of Zanzibar had required
-the stimulus of a strong official letter from Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton,
-before it would consent, as requested by the Foreign Office, “to procure
-a favourable reception on the coast, and to ensure the protection of the
-chiefs of the country” for the travellers. The Hindus, headed by Ladha
-Damha, showed from first to last extreme unwillingness to open up the
-rich regions of copal and ivory to European eyes: they had been deceived
-by my silence during the rainy season at Zanzibar into a belief that the
-coast-fever had cooled my ardour for further adventure; and their
-surprise at finding the contrary to be the case was not of a pleasant
-nature. The home-sick Baloch would have given their ears to return, they
-would have turned back even when arrived within a few marches from the
-Lake. Said bin Salim took the first opportunity of suggesting the
-advisability of his returning to Zanzibar for the purpose of completing
-carriage. I positively refused him leave; it was a mere pretext to
-ascertain whether His Highness the Sayyid Majid had or had not, in
-consequence of our changed position, altered his views.
-
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton’s death, however, was mourned for other than
-merely selfish considerations. His hospitality and kindness had indeed
-formed a well-omened contrast with my unauspicious reception at Aden in
-1855, before my departure to explore the Eastern Horn of Africa, when
-the coldness of some, and the active jealousy of other political
-authorities, thwarted all my projects, and led to the tragic disaster at
-Berberah.[4] Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton had received two strangers like
-sons, rather than like passing visitors. During the intervals between
-the painful attacks of a deadly disease, he had exerted himself to the
-utmost in forwarding my views; in fact, he made my cause his own. Though
-aware of his danger, he had refused to quit, until compelled by
-approaching dissolution, the post which he considered his duty to hold.
-He was a loss to his country, an excellent linguist, a ripe oriental
-scholar, and a valuable public servant of the old Anglo-Indian school;
-he was a man whose influence over Easterns, based upon their respect for
-his honour and honesty, his gallantry and determination, knew no bounds;
-and at heart a “sad good Christian,”--the Heavens be his bed!
-
- [4] Capt. R. L. Playfair, Madras Artillery and First Assistant Pol.
- Resident, Aden, in a selection from the records of the Bombay
- Government, (No. 49, new series, Bombay, printed for Government, at
- the Education Society Press, Byculla, 1859,) curiously misnamed “A
- History of Arabia Felix or Yemen,” transports himself, in a
- “supplementary chapter,” to East Africa, and thus records his
- impressions of what happened in the “Somali Country:”--
-
- 1855.--“During the afternoon of the same day (the 18th of April),
- three men visited the camp, _palpably as spies_, and as such, _the
- officers of the Expedition were warned against them by their native
- attendants_. Heedless of this warning, they retired to rest at night
- in the fullest confidence of security, and without having taken any
- extra, _or even ordinary means_, to guard against surprise.”
-
- The italics are my own: they designate mistatements unpardonable in an
- individual whose official position enabled him to ascertain and to
- record the truth. The three men were represented to me as spies, who
- came to ascertain whether I was preparing to take the country for the
- Chief Shermarkay, then hostile to their tribe, not as spies to spy out
- the weakness of my party. I received no warning of personal danger.
- The “ordinary measures,” that is to say, the posting of two sentinels
- in front and rear of the camp during the night were taken, and I
- cannot blame myself because they ran away.
-
- I will not stop to inquire what must be the value of Capt. Playfair’s
- 193 pages touching the history of Yemen, when in five lines there are
- three distinct and wilful deviations from fact.
-
- I am well aware that after my departure from Aden, in 1855, an inquiry
- was instituted during my absence, and without my knowledge, into the
- facts of the disaster which occurred at Berberah. The “privileged
- communication” was, I believe, in due course, privily forwarded to the
- Bombay Government, and the only rebuke which this shuffling proceeding
- received was from a gentleman holding a high and honourable position,
- who could not reconcile himself to seeing a man’s character stabbed in
- the back.
-
-On the 8th of July we fell into what our Arab called Wady el Maut and
-Dar el Jua--the Valley of Death and the Home of Hunger--the malarious
-river-plain of the Kingani River. My companion was compelled by sickness
-to ride, and thus the asses, now back-sore and weak with fatigue,
-suffered an addition of weight, and a “son of Ramji” who was upon the
-point of deserting openly required to be brought back at the muzzle of
-the barrel. The path descending into a dense thicket of spear grass,
-bush, and thorny trees based on sand, with a few open and scattered
-plantations of holcus, presently passed on the left Dunda Nguru, or
-“Seer-fish-hill,” so called because a man laden with such provision had
-there been murdered by the Wazaramo. After 2^{hrs}. 45′ a ragged
-camping-kraal was found on the tree-lined bank of a half-dry Fiumara, a
-tributary of the neighbouring Kingani: the water was bad, and a mortal
-smell of decay was emitted by the dark dank ground. It was a wild day.
-From the black brumal clouds driven before furious blasts pattered
-rain-drops like musket-bullets, splashing the already saturated ground.
-The tall stiff trees groaned and bent before the gusts; the birds
-screamed as they were driven from their perching places; the asses stood
-with heads depressed, ears hung down, and shrinking tails turned towards
-the weather, and even the beasts of the wild seemed to have taken refuge
-in their dens. Provisions being unprocurable at “Sagesera,” the party
-did what men on such occasions usually do--they ate double quantities. I
-had ordered a fair distribution of the rice that remained, consequently
-they cooked all day. Yusuf, a Jemadar of inferior rank, whose friends
-characterised him as “sweet of tongue but bitter at heart,” vainly came
-to beg, on plea of hunger, dismissal for himself and his party; and
-another Baloch, Wali, reported as uselessly that a sore foot would
-prevent him advancing.
-
-Despite our increasing weakness, we marched seven hours on the 9th of
-July, over a plain wild but prodigiously fertile, and varied by patches
-of field, jungle and swamp, along the right bank of the Kingani river,
-to another ragged old kraal, situated near a bend in the bed. This day
-showed the ghost of an adventure. At the “Makutaniro,” or junction of
-the Mbuamaji trunk-road with the other lines branching from various
-minor sea-ports, my companion, who was leisurely proceeding with the
-advance guard, found his passage barred by about fifty Wazaramo standing
-across the path in a single line that extended to the travellers’ right,
-whilst a reserve party squatted on the left of the road. Their chief
-stepping to the front and quietly removing the load from the foremost
-porter’s head, signalled the strangers to halt. Prodigious excitement of
-the Baloch, whose loud “Hai, hui!” and nervous anxiety contrasted badly
-with the perfect _sang froid_ of the barbarians. Presently, Muinyi
-Wazira coming up, addressed to the headman a few words, promising cloth
-and beads, when this African modification of the “pike” was opened, and
-the guard moved forward as before. As I passed, the Wazaramo stood under
-a tree to gaze. I could not but admire the athletic and statuesque
-figures of the young warriors and their martial attitude, grasping in
-one hand their full-sized bows, and in the other sheaths of grinded
-arrows, whose black barbs and necks showed a fresh layer of poison.
-
-At Tunda, “the fruit,” so called from its principal want, after a night
-passed amidst the rank vegetation, and within the malarious influence of
-the river, I arose weak and depressed, with aching head, burning eyes,
-and throbbing extremities. The new life, the alternations of damp heat
-and wet cold, the useless fatigue of walking, the sorry labour of
-waiting and re-loading the asses, the exposure to sun and dew, and last,
-but not least, of morbific influences, the wear and tear of mind at the
-prospect of imminent failure, all were beginning to tell heavily upon
-me. My companion had shaken off his preliminary symptoms, but Said bin
-Salim, attacked during the rainy gusty night by a severe Mkunguru or
-seasoning-fever, begged hard for a halt at Tunda--only for a day--only
-for half a day--only for an hour. Even this was refused. I feared that
-Tunda might prove fatal to us. Said bin Salim was mounted upon an ass,
-which compelled us to a weary trudge of two hours. The animals were
-laden with difficulty; they had begun to show a predilection for lying
-down. The footpath, crossing a deep nullah, spanned a pestilential
-expanse of spear-grass, and a cane, called from its appearance
-Gugu-mbua, or the wild sugar plant, with huge calabashes and natural
-clearings in the jungle, where large game appeared. After a short march
-I saw the red flag of the vanguard stationary, and turning a sharp
-corner found the caravan halted in a little village, called from its
-headman Ba̓ńá Dirungá. This was premature. I had ordered Muinyi Wazira
-to advance on that morning to Dege la Mhora, the “large jungle-bird,”
-the hamlet where M. Maizan’s blood was shed. Said and Wazira had
-proposed that we should pass it ere the dawn of the next day broke; the
-advice was rejected, it was too dangerous a place to show fear. The two
-diplomatists then bethought themselves of another manœuvre, and led me
-to Ba̓ńá Dirungá, calling it Dege la Mhora.
-
-We halted for a day at the little hamlet, embosomed in dense grass and
-thicket. On our appearance the villagers fled into the bush, their
-country’s strength; but before nightfall they took heart of grace and
-returned. The headman appeared to regard us with fear, he could not
-comprehend why we carried so much powder and ball. When reassured he
-offered to precede us, and to inform the chief of the “large
-jungle-bird” that our intentions had been misrepresented,--a proposal
-which seemed to do much moral good to Said, the Jemadar, and Wazira.
-
-On the eleventh day after leaving Kaole I was obliged to mount by a
-weakness which scarcely allowed me to stand. After about half an hour,
-through a comparatively open country, we passed on the left a
-well-palisaded village, belonging formerly to P’hazi Mazungera, and now
-occupied by his son Hembe, or the “wild buffalo’s horn.” Reports of our
-warlike intentions had caused Hembe to “clear decks for action;” the
-women had been sent from the village, and some score of tall youths,
-archers and spearmen, admirably appointed, lined the hedges, prepared,
-at the levelling of the first matchlock, to let loose a flight of
-poisoned arrows, which would certainly have dispersed the whole party. A
-halt was called by the trembling Said, who at such conjunctures would
-cling like a woman to my companion or to me. During the few minutes’
-delay the “sons of Ramji,” who were as pale as blacks could be, allowed
-their asses to bump off half a dozen loads. Presently Hembe, accompanied
-by a small guard, came forward, and after a few words with Wazira and
-Said, the donkey from which I had not dismounted was hurried forward by
-the Baloch. Hembe followed us with a stronger escort to Madege Madogo,
-the next station. Illness served me as an excuse for not receiving him:
-he obtained, however, from Said a letter to the headmen of the coast,
-bespeaking their good offices for certain of his slaves sent down to buy
-gunpowder.
-
-An account of the melancholy event which cut short at Dege la Mhora the
-career of the first European that ever penetrated beyond this portion of
-the coast may here be inserted.
-
-M. Maizan, an _enseigne de vaisseau_, and a pupil of the Polytechnic
-School, after a cruise in the seas off Eastern Africa, conceived, about
-the end of 1843, the project of exploring the lakes of the interior, and
-in 1844 his plans were approved of by his government. Arrived at
-Bourbon, he was provided with a passage to Zanzibar, in company with M.
-Broquant, the Consul de France, newly appointed after the French
-Commercial Treaty of the 21st Nov. 1844, on board the corvette Le
-Berceau, Capitaine, afterwards Vice-Admiral, Romain Desfossés,
-commanding. At the age of twenty-six M. Maizan had amply qualified
-himself by study for travel, and he was well provided with outfit and
-instruments. His “kit,” however, was of a nature calculated to excite
-savage cupidity, as was proved by the fact that his murderer converted
-the gilt knob of a tent-pole into a neck ornament, and tearing out the
-works of a gold chronometer, made of it a tobacco-pouch. He has been
-charged with imprudence in carrying too much luggage--a _batterie de
-déjeuner_, a _batterie de dîner_, and similar superfluities. But he had
-acted rightly, when bound upon a journey through countries where outfit
-cannot be renewed, in providing himself with all the materials for
-comfort. On such explorations a veteran traveller would always attempt
-to carry with him as much, not as little as possible,--of course
-prepared to abandon all things, and to reduce himself, whenever the
-necessity might occur, to the “_simple besace du pélerin_.” It is easy
-to throw away a superfluity, and the best preparation for severe
-“roughing it,” is to enjoy ease and comfort whilst attainable.
-
-But M. Maizan fell upon evil times at Zanzibar. Dark innuendos
-concerning French ambition--that nation being even suspected of a desire
-to establish itself in force at Lamu, Pangani, and other places on the
-coast of East Africa--filled Hindu and Hindi with fear for their
-profits. These men influenced the inhabitants of the island and the
-sea-coast, who probably procured the co-operation of their wild brethren
-in the interior. For the purpose of learning the Kisawahili, M. Maizan
-delayed nearly eight months at Zanzibar, and, seeing a French vessel
-entering the harbour, he left the place precipitately, fearing a recall.
-Vainly also M. Broquant had warned him against his principal confidant,
-a noted swindler, and Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton had cautioned him to no
-purpose that his glittering instruments and his numerous boxes, all of
-which would be supposed to contain dollars, were dangerous. He visited
-the coast thrice before finally landing, thus giving the Wasawahili time
-and opportunity to mature their plans. He lowered himself in the eyes of
-the Arabs by “making brotherhood” with a native of Unyamwezi. Finally,
-fearing Arab apathy and dilatoriness, he hastened into the country
-without waiting for the strong armed escort promised to him by His
-Highness the late Sayyid Said.
-
-These were grave errors; but they were nothing in comparison with that
-of trusting himself unarmed, after the fatal habit of Europeans, and
-without followers, into the hands of an African chief. How often has
-British India had to deplore deaths “that would have dimmed a victory,”
-caused by recklessness of danger or by the false shame which prevents
-men in high position from wearing weapons where they may be at any
-moment required, lest the safe mediocrities around them should deride
-such excess of cautiousness!
-
-After the rains of 1845 M. Maizan landed at Bagamoyo, a little
-settlement opposite the island of Zanzibar. There leaving the forty
-musketeers, his private guard, he pressed on, contrary to the advice of
-his Mnyamwezi brother, escorted only by Frédérique, a Madagascar or
-Comoro man, and by a few followers, to visit P’hazi Mazungera, the chief
-of the Wákámbá, a subtribe of the Wazaramo, at his village of Dege la
-Mhora. He was received with a treacherous cordiality, of which he
-appears to have been completely the dupe. After some days of the most
-friendly intercourse, during which the villain’s plans were being
-matured, Mazungera, suddenly sending for his guest, reproached him as he
-entered the hut with giving away goods to other chiefs. Presently
-working himself into a rage, the African exclaimed, “Thou shalt die at
-this moment!” At the signal a crowd of savages rushed in, bearing two
-long poles. Frédérique was saved by the P’hazi’s wife: he cried to his
-master to run and touch her, in which case he would have been under her
-protection; but the traveller had probably lost presence of mind, and
-the woman was removed. The unfortunate man’s arms were then tightly
-bound to a pole lashed crosswise upon another, to which his legs and
-head were secured by a rope tied across the brow. In this state he was
-carried out of the village to a calabash-tree, pointed out to me, about
-fifty yards on the opposite side of the road. The inhuman Mazungera
-first severed all his articulations, whilst the war-song and the drum
-sounded notes of triumph. Finding the sime, or double-edged knife,
-somewhat blunt, he stopped, when in the act of cutting his victim’s
-throat, to whet the edge, and, having finished the bloody deed, he
-concluded with wrenching the head from the body.
-
-Thus perished an amiable, talented, and highly educated man, whose only
-fault was rashness--too often the word for enterprise when Fortune
-withholds her smile. The savage Mazungera was disappointed in his
-guest’s death. The object of the torture was to discover, as the Mganga
-had advised, the place of his treasures, whereas the wretched man only
-groaned and implored forgiveness of his sins, and called upon the names
-of those friends whose advice he had neglected. The P’hazi then
-attempted to decoy from Bagamoyo the forty musketeers left with the
-outfit, but in this he failed. He then proceeded to make capital of his
-foul deed. When Snay bin Amir, a Maskat merchant,--of whom I shall have
-much to say,--appeared with a large caravan at Dege la Mhora, Mazungera
-demanded a new tribute for free passage; and, as a threat, he displayed
-the knife with which he had committed the murder. But Snay proved
-himself a man not to be trifled with.
-
-Frédérique returned to Zanzibar shortly after the murder, and was
-examined by M. Broquant. An infamous plot would probably have come to
-light had he not fled from the fort where he was confined. Frédérique
-disappeared mysteriously. He is said now to be living at Marungu, on the
-Tanganyika Lake, under the Moslem name of Muhammádí. His flight served
-for a pretext to mischievous men that the prince was implicated in the
-murder: they also spread a notoriously false report that Mazungera, an
-independent chief, was a vassal of the suzerain of Zanzibar.
-
-In 1846 the brig-of-war Le Ducoüedic, of the naval division of Bourbon,
-M. Guillain, Capitaine de Vaisseau, commanding, was charged, amongst
-other commercial and political interests, with insisting upon severe
-measures to punish the murderers. In vain His Highness Sayyid Said
-protested that Mazungera was beyond his reach; the fact of the
-robber-chief having been seen at Mbuamaji on the coast after the murder
-was deemed conclusive evidence to the contrary. At length the Sayyid
-despatched up-country three or four hundred musketeers, mercenaries, and
-slaves, under command of Juma Mfumbi, the late, and Bori, the present,
-Diwan of Saadani. The little troop marched some distance into the
-country, when they were suddenly confronted by the Wazaramo, commanded
-by Hembe, the son of Mazungera, who, after skirmishing for a couple of
-days, fled wounded by a matchlock-ball. The chief result of the
-expedition was the capture of a luckless clansman who had beaten the
-war-drum during the murder. He was at once transferred to Zanzibar, and
-passed off by these transparent African diplomatists as P’hazi
-Mazungera. For nearly two years he was chained in front of the French
-Consulate; after that time he was placed in the fort heavily ironed to a
-gun under a cadjan shed, where he could hardly stand or lie down. The
-unhappy wretch died about a year ago, and Zanzibar lost one of its
-lions.
-
-After the slaughter of M. Maizan the direct route through Dege la Mhora
-was long closed, it is said, and is still believed, by a “ghul,” a
-dragon or huge serpent, who, of course, was supposed to be the
-demon-ghost of the murdered man. The reader will rejoice to hear that
-the miscreant Mazungera, who has evaded human, has not escaped divine
-punishment. The miserable old man is haunted by the P’hepo or spirit of
-the guest so foully slain: the torments which he has brought upon
-himself have driven him into a kind of exile; and his tribe, as has been
-mentioned, has steadily declined from its former position with even a
-greater decline in prospect. The jealous national honour displayed by
-the French Government on the occasion of M. Maizan’s murder has begun to
-bear fruit.
-
-Its sensitiveness contrasts well with our proceedings on similar
-occasions. Rahmat, the murderer of Captain Milne, still wanders free
-over the hills in sight of Aden. By punishing the treacherous slaughter
-of a servant of Government, the price of provisions at the coal-hole of
-the East would have been raised. Au Ali, the murderer of Lieut. Stroyan,
-is still at large in the neighbourhood of Berberah, when a few dollars
-would have brought in his head. The burlesque of a blockade,--Capt.
-Playfair, in a work previously characterised, has officially mistermed
-it, to the astonishment of Aden, “a rigid blockade,” a “severe
-punishment,” and so forth,--was considered sufficient to chastise the
-Somal of Berberah for their cowardly onslaught on strangers and guests;
-and though the people offered an equivalent for the public and private
-property destroyed by them, the spirit of Centralisation, by an exercise
-of its peculiar attributes, omniscience and omnipresence, decided that
-the indemnity, which in such cases is customary throughout the East,
-must not be accepted, because--forsooth!--it was not deserved by the
-officers. This is a new plan, a system lately adopted by the nation once
-called “la plus orgueilleuse et la plus perilleuse”--to win and preserve
-respect in lands where prestige is its principal power. The Arabs of
-Yemen have already learned from it to characterise their invaders as
-Sahib Hilah,--a tricky, peddling manner of folk. They--wiser men than
-we--will not take upon themselves the pains and penalties of
-subject-hood, without its sole counterweight, the protection of their
-rulers, in cases where protection is required.
-
-At Madege Madogo, the “little birds,” so called in contradistinction to
-its western and neighbouring district, Madege Makuba, the “great birds,”
-we pitched tent under a large sycamore; and the Baloch passed a night of
-alarms, fancying in every sound the approach of a leopard, a
-hippopotamus, or a crocodile. On the 13th July, we set out after dawn,
-and traversing forest, jungle, and bush, chequered with mud and morass,
-hard by the bending and densely-wooded line of the Kingani River,
-reached in three hours’ march an unwholesome camping-ground, called from
-a conspicuous landmark Kidunda, the “little hill.” Here the scenery is
-effective. The swift, yellow stream, about fifty yards broad, sweeps
-under tall, stiff earth-works, ever green with tangled vegetation and
-noble trees. The conical huts of the cultivators are disposed in
-scattered patches to guard their luxuriant crops, whilst on the northern
-bank the woody hillock, and on the southern rising ground, apparently
-the ancient river-terrace, affect the sight agreeably after the
-evergreen monotony of the river-plain. A petty chief, Mvirama,
-accompanied by a small party of armed men, posted himself near the
-cantonment, demanding rice, which was refused with asperity. At this
-frontier station the Wazaramo, mixed up with the tribes of Udoe, K’hutu,
-and Usagara, are no longer dreaded.
-
-From Kidunda, the route led over sandy ground, with lines and scatters
-of water-worn pebbles, descended the precipitous inclines of sandstone,
-broken into steps of slabs and flags, and crossed the Manyora, a rough
-and rocky Fiumara, abounding in blocks of snowy quartz, grey and pink
-syenites, erratic boulders of the hornblende used as whetstones, and
-strata of a rude sandstone conglomerate. Thence it spanned grass, bush,
-and forest, close to the Kingani, and finally leaving the stream on the
-right hand, it traversed sandy soil, and, ascending a wave of ground,
-abutted upon the Mgeta or rivulet, a large perennial influent, which,
-rising in the mountains of Duthumi, drains the head of the River-valley.
-
-This lower portion of the Mgeta’s bed was unfordable after the heavy
-rains: other caravans, however, had made a rude bridge of trees, felled
-on each side, lashed with creepers, and jammed together by the force of
-the current. The men perched upon the trunks and boughs, tossed or
-handed to one another the loads and packages, whilst the asses, pushed
-by force of arm down the banks, were driven with sticks and stones
-across the stream. Suddenly a louder cry than usual arose from the mob;
-my double-barrelled elephant-gun found a grave below the cold and
-swirling waters. The Goanese Gaetano had the courage to plunge in; the
-depth was about twelve feet; the sole was of roots and loose sand, and
-the stream ran with considerable force. I bade farewell to that gun;--by
-the bye it was the second accident of the kind that had occurred to
-it;--the country people cannot dive, and no one ventures to affront the
-_genius loci_, the mamba or crocodile. I found consolation in the
-thought that the Expedition had passed without accident through the most
-dangerous part of the journey. In 18 days, from the 27th of June, to the
-14th of July, I had accomplished, despite sickness and all manner of
-difficulties, a march of 118 indirect statute miles, and had entered
-K’hutu, the safe rendezvous of foreign merchants.
-
-Resuming our march on the 15th July, we entered the “Doab,”[5] on the
-western bank of the Mgeta, where a thick and tangled jungle, with
-luxuriant and putrescent vegetation, is backed by low, grassy grounds,
-frequently inundated. Presently, however, the dense thicket opened out
-into a fine park country, peculiarly rich in game, where the calabash
-and the giant trees of the seaboard gave way to mimosas, gums, and
-stunted thorns. Large gnus, whom the porters regard with a wholesome
-awe, declaring that they are capable of charging a caravan, pranced
-about, pawing the ground, and shaking their formidable manes; hartebeest
-and other antelopes clustered together on the plain, or travelled in
-herds to slake their thirst at the river. The homely cry of the
-partridge resounded from the brake, and the guinea-fowls looked like
-large bluebells upon the trees. Small land-crabs took refuge in the pits
-and holes, which made the path a cause of frequent accidents; whilst
-ants of various kinds, crossing the road in close columns, attacked man
-and beast ferociously, causing the caravan to break into a halting,
-trotting hobble, ludicrous to behold. Whilst crossing a sandy Fiumara,
-Abdullah, a Baloch, lodged by accident four ounces of lead, the contents
-of my second elephant-gun, in the head of an ass. After a march of six
-hours we entered Kiruru, a small, ragged, and muddy village of Wak’hutu,
-deep in a plantation of holcus, whose tall, stiff canes nearly swept me
-from the saddle. The weather was a succession of raw mist, rain in
-torrents, and fiery sunbursts; the land appeared rotten, and the jungle
-smelt of death. At Kiruru I found a cottage, and enjoyed for the first
-time an atmosphere of sweet warm smoke. My companion remained in the
-reeking, miry tent, where he partially laid the foundation of the fever
-which threatened his life in the mountains of Usagara.
-
- [5] This useful word, which means the land embraced by the bifurcation
- of two streams, has no English equivalent. “Doab,” “Dhun” (Dhoon),
- “Nullah,” and “Ghaut,” might be naturalised with advantage in our
- mother tongue.
-
-Despite the danger of hyænas, leopards, and crocodiles to an
-ass-caravan, we were delayed by the torrents of rain and the depth of
-the mud for two days at Kiruru. According to the people, the district
-derives its name “palm leaves,” from a thirsty traveller, who, not
-knowing that water was near, chewed the leaves of the hyphæna-palm till
-he died. One of the Baloch proposed a “Hammam,”--a primitive form of the
-“lamp-bath,” practised in most parts of Central Asia,--as a cure for
-fever: he placed me upon one of the dwarf stools used by the people, and
-under the many abas or hair-cloaks with which I was invested he
-introduced a bit of pottery containing live coal and a little
-frankincense. At Kiruru I engaged six porters to assist our jaded
-animals as far as the next station. The headman was civil, but the
-people sold their grain with difficulty.
-
-On the 18th July we resumed our march over a tract which caused sinking
-of the heart in men who expected a long journey under similar
-circumstances. Near Kiruru the thick grass and the humid vegetation,
-dripping till midday with dew, rendered the black earth greasy and
-slippery. The road became worse as we advanced over deep thick mire
-interlaced with tree-roots through a dense jungle and forest, chiefly of
-the distorted hyphæna-palm, in places varied by the Mparamusi and the
-gigantic Msukulío, over barrens of low mimosa, and dreary savannahs cut
-by steep nullahs. In three places we crossed bogs from 100 yards to a
-mile in length, and admitting a man up to the knee; the porters plunged
-through them like laden animals, and I was obliged to be held upon the
-ass. This “Yegea Mud,” caused by want of water-shed after rain, is
-sometimes neck-deep; it never dries except when the moisture has been
-evaporated by sun and wind during the middle of the Kaskazi or N. E.
-monsoon. The only redeeming feature in the view was a foreground of
-lovely hill, the highlands of Dut’humi, plum-coloured in the distance
-and at times gilt by a sudden outburst of sunshine. Towards the end of
-the march, I forged ahead of the caravan, and passing through numerous
-villages, surrounded by holcus-fields, arrived at a settlement tenanted
-by Sayf bin Salim, an Arab merchant, who afterwards proved to be a
-notorious “mauvais sujet.” A Harisi from Birkah in Oman, he was a tall
-thin-featured venerable-looking man, whose old age had been hurried on
-by his constancy to pombe-beer. A long residence in Unyamwezi had
-enabled him to incur the hostility of his fellow-merchants, especially
-one Salim bin Said el Sawwafi, who, with other Arabs, persuaded Mpagamo,
-an African chief, to seize upon Sayf, and after tying him up in full
-view of the plundering and burning of his store-house, to drive him out
-of the country. Retreating to Dut’humi, he had again collected a small
-stock in trade, especially of slaves, whom he chained and treated so
-severely that all men predicted for him an evil end. “Msopora,” as he
-was waggishly nicknamed by the Wanyamwezi, instantly began to backbite
-Said bin Salim, whom he pronounced utterly unfit to manage our affairs;
-I silenced him by falling asleep upon a cartel placed under the cool
-eaves of a hut. Presently staggered in my companion almost too ill to
-speak; over-fatigue had prostrated his strength. By slow degrees, and
-hardly able to walk, appeared the Arab, the Baloch, the slaves and the
-asses, each and every having been bogged in turn. On this occasion
-Wazira had acted guide, and used to “bog-trotting,” he had preferred the
-short cut to the cleaner road that rounds the swamps.
-
-At Dut’humi we were detained nearly a week; the malaria had brought on
-attacks of marsh fever, which in my case lasted about 20 days; the
-paroxysms were mild compared with the Indian or the Sindhian type, yet,
-favoured by the atonic state of the constitution, they thoroughly
-prostrated me. I had during the fever-fit, and often for hours
-afterwards, a queer conviction of divided identity, never ceasing to be
-two persons that generally thwarted and opposed each other; the
-sleepless nights brought with them horrid visions, animals of grisliest
-form, hag-like women and men with heads protruding from their breasts.
-My companion suffered even more severely, he had a fainting-fit which
-strongly resembled a sun-stroke, and which seemed permanently to affect
-his brain. Said bin Salim was the convalescent of the party; the two
-Goanese yielded themselves wholly to maladies, brought on mainly by hard
-eating, and had they not been forced to rise, they would probably never
-have risen again. Our sufferings were increased by other causes than
-climate. The riding asses having been given up for loads, we were
-compelled, when premonitory symptoms suggested rest, to walk, sometimes
-for many miles in a single heat, through sun and rain, through mud and
-miasmatic putridities. Even ass-riding caused over-fatigue. It by no
-means deserves in these lands the reputation of an anile exercise, as it
-does in Europe. Maître Aliboron in Africa is stubborn, vicious and
-guilty of the four mortal sins of the equine race, he shies and
-stumbles, he rears and runs away: my companion has been thrown as often
-as twice in two hours. The animals are addicted to fidgetting, plunging
-and pirouetting when mounted, they hog and buck till they burst their
-frail girths, they seem to prefer holes and hollows, they rush about
-pig-like when high winds blow, and they bolt under tree-shade when the
-sun shines hot. They must be led, or, ever preferring the worst ground,
-they disdain to follow the path, and when difficulties arise the slave
-will surely drop the halter, and get out of harm’s way. If a pace
-exceeding two miles an hour be required, a second man must follow and
-flog each of these perfect slugs during the whole march. The roundness
-of their flanks, the shortness of their backs, and their want of
-shoulder, combine to make the meagre Arab packsaddle unsafe for anything
-but a baboon or a boy, whilst the straightness and the rigidity of their
-goat-like pasterns render the pace a wearisome, tripping hobble. We had,
-it is true, Zanzibari riding-asses, but the delicate animals soon chafed
-and presently died; we were then reduced to the Koroma or half-reclaimed
-beast of Wanyamwezi. The laden asses gave us even more trouble. The
-slaves would not attend to the girthing and the balancing of
-parcels--the great secret of donkey-loading--consequently the burdens
-were thrown at every mud or broken ground: the unwilling Baloch only
-grumbled, sat down and stared, leaving their Jemadars with Said bin
-Salim and ourselves to reload. My companion and I brought up the rear by
-alternate days, and sometimes we did not arrive before the afternoon at
-the camping ground. The ropes and cords intended to secure the herd were
-regularly stolen, that I might be forced to buy others: the animals were
-never pounded for the night, and during our illness none of the party
-took the trouble to number them. Thus several beasts were lost, and the
-grounding of the Expedition appeared imminent and permanent. The result
-was a sensation of wretchedness, hard to describe; every morning dawned
-upon me with a fresh load of cares and troubles, and every evening
-reminded me as it closed in, that another and a miserable morrow was to
-dawn. But “in despair,” as the Arabs say, “are many hopes;” though
-sorrow endured for the night--and many were “white” with anxiety--we
-never relinquished the determination to risk everything, ourselves
-included, rather than to return unsuccessful.
-
-Dut’humi, one of the most fertile districts in K’hutu, is a plain of
-black earth and sand, choked with vegetation where not corrected by the
-axe. It is watered by the perennial stream of the same name, which,
-rising in the islands, adds its quotum to the waters of the Mgazi, and
-eventually to the Mgeta and the Kingani Rivers. In such places
-artificial irrigation is common, the element being distributed over the
-fields by hollow ridges. The mountains of Dut’humi form the northern
-boundary of the plain. They appear to rise abruptly, but they throw off
-southerly lower eminences, which diminish in elevation till confounded
-with the almost horizontal surface of the champaign; the jagged broken
-crests and peaks argue a primitive formation. Their lay is to the
-N.N.W.; after four days’ journey, according to the guides, they
-inosculate with the main chain of the Usagara Mountains, and they are
-probably the southern buttress of Ngu, or Nguru, the hill region
-westward of Saadani. This chain is said to send forth the Kingani River,
-which, gushing from a cave or fissure in the eastern, is swollen to a
-large perennial stream by feeders from the southern slopes, whilst the
-Mgeta flows from the western face of the water-parting, and circles the
-southern base. The cold temperature of these cloud-capped and rainy
-crags, which never expose their outlines except in the clearest weather,
-affects the plains; by day bleak north-east and north-west gusts pour
-down upon the sun-parched Dut’humi, and at night the thermometer will
-sink to 70°, and even to 65° F. Water is supposed to freeze upon the
-highlands, yet they are not unhealthy; sheep, goats, and poultry abound;
-betel-pepper grows there, according to the Arabs, and, as in the
-lowlands, holcus and sesamum, manioc and sweet-potatoes (Convolvulus
-batata), cucumbers, the turai (Luffa acutangula), and beans, plantains,
-and sugar-cane, are plentiful. The thick jungle at the base of the hills
-shelters the elephant, the rhinoceros in considerable numbers, the gnu,
-and the koodoo, which, however, can rarely be found when the grass is
-high; a variety of the ngole--a small Dendraspis--haunts the patriarchs
-of the forest, and the chirrup of the mongoose, which the people enjoy,
-as Europeans do the monotonous note of the cricket, is heard in the
-brakes at eventide. This part of the country, about six hours’ march
-northward from Dut’humi, is called the Inland Magogoni; and it is
-traversed by the “Mdimu” nullah, which falls into the Mgeta River. The
-fertile valleys in the lower and southern folds are inhabited by the
-Wákumbáku(?),[6] and by the Wásuop’hángá tribes; the higher elevations,
-which apparently range from 3000 to 4000 feet, by the Waruguru. They are
-compelled to fortify themselves against the cold and the villanous races
-around them. The plague of the land is now one Kisabengo, a Mzegura of
-low origin, who, after conquering Ukami, a district extending from the
-eastern flank of the Dut’humi hills seawards, from its Moslem diwan,
-Ngozi, _alias_ Kingaru, has raised himself to the rank of a Shene
-Khambi, or principal headman. Aided by the kidnapping Moslem coast clans
-of Whinde, a small coast town opposite the island of Zanzibar, and his
-fellow tribemen of Uzegura, he has transferred by his frequent commandos
-almost all the people of Ukámí, chiefly Wásuop’hángá and Wárúgúrú, to
-the slave-market of Zanzibar, and, thus compelled to push his
-depredations further west, he has laid waste the lands even beyond the
-Mukondokwa river-valley. The hill tribes, however, still receive
-strangers hospitably into their villages. They have a place visited even
-by distant Wazaramo pilgrims. It is described as a cave where a P’hepo
-or the disembodied spirit of a man, in fact a ghost, produces a terrible
-subterraneous sound, called by the people Kurero or Bokero; it arises
-probably from the flow of water underground. In a pool in the cave women
-bathe for the blessing of issue, and men sacrifice sheep and goats to
-obtain fruitful seasons and success in war. These hill-races speak
-peculiar dialects, which, according to the guides, are closely connected
-with Kik’hutu.
-
- [6] This unsatisfactory figure of print will often occur in these
- pages. Ignorance, error, and causeless falsehood, together with the
- grossest exaggeration, deter the traveller from committing himself to
- any assertion which he has not proved to his own satisfaction.
-
-Despite the bad name of Dut’humi as regards climate, Arabs sometimes
-reside there for some months for the purpose of purchasing slaves
-cheaply and to repair their broken fortunes for a fresh trip to the
-interior. This keeps up a perpetual feud amongst the chiefs of the
-country, and scarcely a month passes without fields being laid waste,
-villages burnt down, and the unhappy cultivators being carried off to be
-sold.
-
-At Dut’humi a little expedition was sent against Manda, a petty chief,
-who, despite the presence of the Sayyid’s troops, had plundered a
-village and had kidnapped five of the subjects of Mgota, his weaker
-neighbour. I had the satisfaction of restoring the stolen wretches to
-their hearths and homes, and two decrepid old women that had been
-rescued from slavery thanked me with tears of joy.
-
-This easy good deed done, I was able, though with swimming head and
-trembling hands, to prepare accounts and a brief report of proceedings
-for the Royal Geographical Society. These, together with other papers,
-especially an urgent request for medical comforts and drugs, especially
-quinine and narcotics, addressed to Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, or, in case
-of accidents, to M. Cochet, Consul de France, were entrusted to Jemadar
-Yaruk, whom, moreover, I took the liberty of recommending to the prince
-for the then vacant command of the Bagamoyo garrison. The escort from
-Kaole, reduced in number by three desertions, was dismissed. All the
-volunteers had been clamouring to return, and I could no longer afford
-to keep them. Besides the two supplies of cloth, wire, and beads, which
-preceded, and which were left to follow us, I had been provided by Ladha
-Damha with a stock of white and blue cottons, some handsome articles of
-dress, 20,000 strings of white and black, pink, blue, and green, red and
-brown porcelain-beads, needles, and other articles of hardware, to
-defray transit-charges through Uzarama. This provision, valued at 295
-dollars, should have carried us to the end of the third month; it lasted
-about three weeks. Said bin Salim, to whom it had been entrusted, had
-been generous, through fear, to every half-naked barbarian that chose to
-stretch forth the hand of beggary; moreover, whilst too ill to
-superintend disbursements, he had allowed his “children,” aided by the
-Baloch and the “sons of Ramji,” to “loot” whatever they could seize and
-secrete. Ladha Damha, unable to complete our carriage, had hit upon the
-notable device of converting eighteen pieces of American domestics into
-saddle-cloths for the asses: the stuff was used at halts as bedding by
-the Baloch and others; and,--a proof that much had fallen into wrong
-hands,--the thirteen men composing our permanent guard, increased the
-number of their laden asses from two to five; moreover, for many weeks
-afterwards, the “sons of Ramji” could afford to expend four to five
-cloths upon a goat. On the 21st July the escort from Kaole departed with
-a general discharge of matchlocks. Their disappearance was hailed as a
-blessing; they had pestered me for rations, and had begged for asses
-till midnight. They were the refuse of their service; they thought of,
-they dreamed of, nothing but food; they would do no work; they were
-continually attempting violence upon the timid Wak’hutu, and they seemed
-resolved to make the name of Baloch equally hateful and contemptible.
-
-I had been careful to bring from Zanzibar four hammocks, which, slung to
-poles, formed the conveyance, called by the Indians “manchil;” by the
-Portuguese “manchila;” and in West Africa “tipoia.” Sayf bin Salim
-agreed for the sum of ten dollars to hire his slaves as porters for
-ourselves and our outfit. On the 24th July, feeling strong enough to
-advance, we passed out of the cultivation of Dut’humi. Crossing a steep
-and muddy bed, knee-deep even in the dry season, we entered fields under
-the outlying hillocks of the highlands. These low cones, like similar
-formations in India, are not inhabited; they are even more malarious
-than the plains, the surface is rocky, and the woodage, not ceasing as
-in higher elevations, extends from base to summit. Beyond the
-cultivation the route plunges into a jungle, where the European
-traveller realises every preconceived idea of Africa’s aspect, at once
-hideous and grotesque. The general appearance is a mingling of bush and
-forest, which, contracting the horizon to a few yards, is equally
-monotonous to the eye and palling to the imagination. The black greasy
-ground, veiled with thick shrubbery, supports in the more open spaces
-screens of tiger and spear-grass, twelve and thirteen feet high, with
-every blade a finger’s breadth; and the towering trees are often clothed
-from root to twig with huge epiphytes, forming heavy columns of densest
-verdure, and clustering upon the tops in the semblance of enormous
-bird’s nests. The foot-paths, in places “dead,”--as the natives
-say,--with encroaching bush, are crossed by llianas, creepers and
-climbers, thick as coir-cables, some connecting the trees in a curved
-line, others stretched straight down the trunks, others winding in all
-directions around their supports, frequently crossing one another like
-network and stunting the growth of even the vivacious calabash, by coils
-like rope tightly encircling its neck. The earth, ever rain-drenched,
-emits the odour of sulphuretted hydrogen, and in some parts the
-traveller might fancy a corpse to be hidden behind every bush. To this
-sad picture of miasma the firmament is a fitting frame: a wild sky,
-whose heavy purple nimbi, chased by raffales and chilling gusts,
-dissolve in large-dropped showers; or a dull, dark grey expanse, which
-lies like a pall over the world. In the finer weather the atmosphere is
-pale and sickly; its mists and vapours seem to concentrate the rays of
-the oppressive “rain-sun.” The sensation experienced at once explains
-the apathy and indolence, the physical debility, and the mental
-prostration, that are the gifts of climates which moist heat and damp
-cold render equally unsalubrious and uncomfortable. That no feature of
-miasma might be wanting to complete the picture, filthy heaps of the
-rudest hovels, built in holes in the jungle, sheltered their few
-miserable inhabitants, whose frames are lean with constant intoxication,
-and whose limbs, distorted by ulcerous sores, attest the hostility of
-Nature to mankind. Such a revolting scene is East Africa from central
-K’hutu to the base of the Usagara Mountains.
-
-Running through this fetid flat the path passed on the left sundry
-shallow salt-pits which, according to the Arabs, are wet during the dry
-and dry during the wet season. Presently after breaking through another
-fence of holcus, whose cane was stiffer than the rattans of an Indian
-jungle, we entered, and found lodgings in Bakera, a pretty little hamlet
-ringed with papaws and plantains, upon which the doves disported
-themselves. Here, on our return in 1859, a thick growth of grass waved
-over the ground-marks of hearth and roof-tree. The African has a
-superstitious horror of stone walls; he is still a semi-nomade, from the
-effects of the Wandertrieb, or man’s vagabond instinct, uncurbed by the
-habits of civilisation. Though vestiges of large and stable habitations
-have been discovered in the barbarous Eastern Horn, in these days,
-between the parallels of Harar and the ruined Portuguese towns near
-the Zambezi Rivers, inner Africa ignores a town of masonry. In
-our theoretical maps, the circlets used by cartographers to denote
-cities serve only to mislead; their names prove them to be
-Saltanats--lordships, districts or provinces.
-
-Resuming our course on the next day through hollows and rice-swamps,
-where almost every ass fell or cast its load, we came after a long tramp
-to the nearest outposts of the Zungomero district; here were several
-caravans with pitched tents, piles of ivory and crowds of porters. The
-gang of thirty-six Wanyamwezi, who had preceded us, having located
-themselves at a distant hamlet, we resumed our march, and presently were
-met by a number of our men headed by their guard, the two “sons of
-Ramji.” Ensued a general sword and spear play, each man with howls and
-cheers brandished his blade or vibrated his missile, rushing about in
-all directions, and dealing death amongst ideal foes with such action as
-may often be observed in poultry-yards when the hens indulge in a little
-merry pugnacity. The march had occupied us four weeks, about double the
-usual time, and the porters had naturally began to suspect accidents
-from the Wazaramo.
-
-Zungomero, the head of the great river-valley, is a plain of black earth
-and sand, prodigiously fertile. It is enclosed on all sides except the
-eastern, or the line of drainage; northwards rise the peaks of Dut’humi;
-westwards lie the little Wigo hills and the other spurs of Usagara,
-uncultivated and uninhabited, though the country is populous up to their
-feet; and southwards are detached cones of similar formation, steep,
-rocky, and densely wooded. The sea-breeze is here strong, but beyond its
-influence the atmosphere is sultry and oppressive; owing to maritime
-influences the kosi, or south-west wind, sometimes continues till the
-end of July. The normal day, which varies little throughout the year,
-begins with the light milky mist which forms the cloud-ring; by degrees
-nimbi and cumuli come up from the east, investing the heights of
-Dut’humi, and, when showers are imminent, a heavy line of stratus
-bisects the highlands and overlies the surface of the plain. At the
-epochs of the lunar change rain falls once or twice during the day and
-night, and, when the clouds burst, a fiery sun sucks up poison from the
-earth’s putridity. The early nights are oppressive, and towards the dawn
-condensation causes a copious deposit of heavy dew, which even the
-people of the country dread. A prolonged halt causes general sickness
-amongst the porters and slaves of a caravan. The humidity of the
-atmosphere corrodes everything with which it comes in contact; the
-springs of powder-flasks exposed to the damp snap like toasted quills;
-clothes feel limp and damp; paper, becoming soft and soppy by the loss
-of glazing, acts as a blotter; boots, books, and botanical collections
-are blackened; metals are ever rusty; the best percussion caps, though
-labelled waterproof, will not detonate unless carefully stowed away in
-waxed cloth and tin boxes; gunpowder, if not kept from the air, refuses
-to ignite; and wood becomes covered with mildew. We had an abundance of
-common German phosphor-matches, and the best English wax lucifers; both,
-however, became equally unserviceable, the heads shrank and sprang off
-at the least touch, and the boxes frequently became a mere mass of
-paste. To future travellers I should recommend the “good old plan;” a
-bit of phosphorus in a little phial half full of olive oil, which serves
-for light as well as ignition. When accompanied by matchlock-men,
-however, there is no difficulty about fire; their pouches always contain
-a steel and flint, and a store of cotton, or of the wild Bombex, dipped
-in saltpetre or gunpowder solution.
-
-Yet Zungomero is the great Bandárí or centre of traffic in the eastern,
-as are Unyanyembe and Ujiji in the middle and the western regions. Lying
-upon the main trunk-road, it must be traversed by the up and
-down-caravans, and, during the travelling season, between June and
-April, large bodies of some thousand men pass through it every week.
-Kilwa formerly sent caravans to it, and the Wanyamwezi porters have
-frequently made that port by the “Mwera road.” The Arab merchants
-usually pitch tents, preferring them to the leaky native huts, full of
-hens and pigeons, rats and mice, snakes and lizards, crickets and
-cockroaches, gnats and flies, and spiders of hideous appearance, where
-the inmates are often routed by swarms of bees, and are ever in imminent
-danger of fires. The armed slaves accompanying the caravan seize the
-best huts, which they either monopolise or share with the hapless
-inmates, and the porters stow themselves away under the projecting eaves
-of the habitations. The main attraction of the place is the plenty of
-provisions. Grain is so abundant that the inhabitants exist almost
-entirely upon the intoxicating pombe, or holcus-beer,--a practice
-readily imitated by their visitors. Bhang and the datura plant, growing
-wild, add to the attractions of the spot. The Bhang is a fine large
-species of the Cannabis Indica, the bang of Persia, the bhang of India,
-and the benj of Arabia, the fasukh of northern, and the dakha of
-southern Africa. In the low lands of East Africa it grows before every
-cottage door. As in hot climates generally, the fibre degenerates, and
-the plant is only valued for its narcotic properties. The Arabs smoke
-the sun-dried leaf with, and the Africans without tobacco, in huge
-waterpipes, whose bowls contain a quarter of a pound. Both ignore the
-more luxurious preparations, momiya and hashish, ganja and sebzi, charas
-and maajun. Like the “jangli” or jungle (wild)-bhang of Sindh, affected
-by kalandars, fakirs, and other holy beggars, this variety, contracting
-the muscle of the throat, produces a violent whooping-cough, ending in a
-kind of scream, after a few long puffs, when the smoke is inhaled; and
-if one man sets the example the others are sure to follow. These
-grotesque sounds are probably not wholly natural; even the boys may be
-heard practising them; they appear to be a fashion of “renowning it”; in
-fact, an announcement to the public that the fast youths are smoking
-bhang. The Datura stramonium, called by the Arabs and by the Wasawahili
-“muranhá,” grows in the well-watered plains; it bears a large whitish
-flower and a thorn-apple, like that of India. The heathen, as well as
-their visitors, dry the leaves, the flowers, and the rind of the
-rootlet, which is considered the strongest preparation, and smoke them
-in a common bowl or in a water-pipe. This is held to be a sovereign
-remedy against zik el nafas (asthma) and influenza; it diminishes the
-cough by loosening the phlegm. The Washenzi never make that horrible use
-of the plant known to the Indian dhaturiya, or datura-poisoners: many
-accidents, however, occur from ignorance of its violent narcotism. Meat
-is scarce: the only cattle are those driven down by the Wanyamwezi to
-the coast; milk, butter, and ghee are consequently unprocurable. A sheep
-or a goat will not cost less than a shukkah, or four cubits of
-domestics, here worth twenty-five cents. The same will purchase only two
-fowls; and eggs and fruit--chiefly papaws and plantains, cocos and
-limes--are at fancy prices. For the shukkah eight rations of unhusked
-holcus, four measures of rice--which must here be laid in by those
-travelling up-country--and five cakes of tobacco, equal to about three
-pounds, are generally procurable. Thus the daily expenditure of a large
-caravan ranges from one dollar to one dollar fifty cents’ worth of cloth
-in the Zanzibar market. The value, however, fluctuates greatly, and the
-people will shirk selling even at any price.
-
-The same attractions which draw caravans to Zungomero render it the
-great rendezvous of an army of touters, who, whilst watching for the
-arrival of the ivory traders, amuse themselves with plundering the
-country. The plague has now spread like a flight of locusts over the
-land. The Wak’hutu, a timid race, who, unlike the Wazaramo, have no
-sultan to gather round, are being gradually ousted from their ancient
-seats. In a large village there will seldom be more than three or four
-families, who occupy the most miserable hovels, all the best having been
-seized by the touters or pulled down for firewood. These men--slaves,
-escaped criminals, and freemen of broken fortunes, flying from misery,
-punishment, or death on the coast--are armed with muskets and sabres,
-bows and spears, daggers and knobsticks. They carry ammunition, and thus
-are too strong for the country people. When rough language and threats
-fail, the levelled barrel at once establishes the right to a man’s house
-and property, to his wife and children. If money runs short, a village
-is fired by night, and the people are sold off to the first caravan. In
-some parts the pattering of musketry is incessant, as it ever was in the
-turbulent states of Independent India. It is rarely necessary to have
-recourse to violence, the Wak’hutu, believing their tyrants to be
-emissaries, as they represent themselves, from His Highness the Sultan,
-and the chief nobles of Zanzibar, offer none but the most passive
-resistance, hiding their families and herds in the bush. Thus it happens
-that towards the end of the year nothing but a little grain can be
-purchased in a land of marvellous fertility.
-
-As has been mentioned, these malpractices are severely reprobated by His
-Highness the Sultan, and when the evil passes a certain point remedial
-measures are taken. A Banyan, for instance, is sent to the coast with
-warnings to the Diwans concerned. But what care they for his empty
-words, when they know that he has probably equipped a similar party of
-black buccaneers himself? and what hope can there be of reform when
-there is not an honest man in the country to carry it out? Thus the
-Government of Zanzibar is rendered powerless;--improvement can be
-expected only from the hand of Time. The Wak’hutu, indeed, often
-threaten a deputation to entreat the Arab Sultan for protection in the
-shape of a garrison of Baloch. This measure has been retarded for sound
-reasons: no man dares to leave his house for fear of finding it a ruin
-on his return; moreover, he would certainly be shot if the touters
-guessed his intention, and, even if he escaped this danger, he would
-probably be sold, on the way to the coast, by his truculent neighbours
-the Wazaramo. Finally, if they succeeded in their wishes, would not a
-Baloch garrison act the part of the man who, in the fable, was called in
-to assist the horse against the stag? The Arabs, who know the temper of
-these mercenaries, are too wise ever to sanction such a “dragonnade.”
-
-The reader will readily perceive that he is upon the slave-path, so
-different from travel amongst the free and independent tribes of
-Southern Africa. The traffic practically annihilates every better
-feeling of human nature. Yet, though the state of the Wak’hutu appears
-pitiable, the traveller cannot practise pity: he is ever in the dilemma
-of maltreating or being maltreated. Were he to deal civilly and
-liberally with this people he would starve: it is vain to offer a price
-for even the necessaries of life; it would certainly be refused because
-more is wanted, and so on beyond the bounds of possibility. Thus, if the
-touter did not seize a house, he would never be allowed to take shelter
-in it from the storm; if he did not enforce a “corvée,” he must labour
-beyond his strength with his own hands; and if he did not fire a village
-and sell the villagers, he might die of hunger in the midst of plenty.
-Such in this province are the action and reaction of the evil.
-
-[Illustration: Party of Wak’hutu Women.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IV.
-
-ON THE GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY OF THE FIRST REGION.
-
-
-Before bidding adieu to the Maritime Region, it will be expedient to
-enter into a few details concerning its geography and ethnology.[7]
-
- [7] Those who consider the subject worthy of further consideration are
- referred, for an ampler account of it, to the Journal of the R.
- Geographical Society, vol. xxix. of 1860.
-
-The first or maritime region extends from the shores of the Indian Ocean
-in E. long. 39° to the mountain-chain forming the land of Usagara in E.
-long. 37° 28′; its breadth is therefore 92 geographical miles, measured
-in rectilinear distance, and its mean length, bounded by the waters of
-the Kingani and the Rufiji rivers, may be assumed at 110. The average
-rise is under 4 feet per mile. It is divided into two basins; that of
-the Kingani easterly, and westward that of the Mgeta stream with its
-many tributaries; the former, which is the principal, is called the land
-of Uzaramo; the latter, which is of the second order, contains the
-provinces of K’hutu, by the Arabs pronounced Kutu, and Uziraha, a minor
-district. The natives of the country divide it into the three lowlands
-of Tunda, Dut’humi, and Zungomero.
-
-The present road runs with few and unimportant deviations along the
-whole length of the fluviatile valleys of the Kingani and the Mgeta.
-Native caravans if lightly laden generally accomplish the march in a
-fortnight, one halt included. On both sides of this line, whose greatest
-height above the sea-level was found by B. P. therm. to be 330 feet,
-rises the rolling ground, which is the general character of the country.
-Its undulations present no eminences worthy of notice; near the sea they
-are short and steep, further inland they roll in longer waves, and
-everywhere they are covered with abundant and luxuriant vegetation, the
-result of decomposition upon the richest soil. In parts there is an
-appearance of park land; bushless and scattered forests, with grass
-rising almost to the lower branches of the smaller thorns; here and
-there clumps and patches of impassable shrubbery cluster round knots and
-knolls of majestic and thickly foliaged trees. The narrow footpaths
-connecting the villages often plunge into dark and dense tunnels formed
-by overarching branch and bough, which delay the file of laden porters;
-the mud lingering long after a fall of rain in these low grounds fills
-them with a chilly clammy atmosphere. Merchants traverse such spots with
-trembling; in these, the proper places for ambuscade, a few determined
-men easily plunder a caravan by opposing it in front or by an attack in
-rear. The ways are often intersected by deep nullahs and water-courses,
-dry during the hot season, but unfordable when rain falls. In the many
-clearings, tobacco, maize, holcus, sesamum, and ground-nuts, manioc,
-beans, pulse, and sweet potatoes flourish; the pine-apple is a weed, and
-a few cocos and mangoes, papaws, jack-fruit, plantains, and limes are
-scattered over the districts near the sea. Rice grows abundantly in the
-lower levels. The villages are hidden deep in the bush or grass: the
-crowing of the cocks heard all along the road, except in the greater
-stretches of wilderness, proves them to be numerous; they are, however
-small and thinly populated. The versant, as usual in maritime E. Africa,
-trends towards the Indian Ocean. Water abounds even at a distance from
-the rivers; it springs from the soil in diminutive runnels and lies in
-“shimo” or pits, varying from surface-depth to 10 feet. The
-monsoon-rains, which are heavy, commence in March, about a month earlier
-than in Zanzibar, and the duration is similar. The climate of the higher
-lands is somewhat superior to that of the valley, but it is still hot
-and oppressive. The formation, after passing from the corallines, the
-limestones, the calcareous tuffs, and the rude gravelly conglomerates of
-the coast, is purely primitive and sandstone: erratic blocks of fine
-black hornblende and hornblendic rock, used by the people as whetstones
-and grinding-slabs, abound in the river-beds, which also supply the clay
-used for pottery. The subsoil is near the sea a stiff blue loam, in the
-interior a ruddy quartzose gravel; the soil is a rich brown or black
-humus, here and there coated with, or varied by, clean white sand, and
-in some parts are seams of reddish loam. Fresh-water shells are
-scattered over the surface, and land-crabs burrow in the looser earths
-where stone seldom appears. Black cattle are unknown in the maritime
-region, but poultry, sheep, and goats are plentiful: near the jungle
-they are protected from the leopards or ounces by large wooden huts,
-like cages, raised on piles for cleanliness.
-
-As a rule, the fluviatile valleys resemble in most points the physical
-features of the coast and island of Zanzibar: the general aspect of the
-country, however--the expression of its climate--undergoes some
-modifications. Near the sea, the basin is a broad winding line,
-traversed by the serpentine river, whose bed is now too deep for change.
-About the middle expanse stony ridges and rocky hills crop out from the
-rolling ground, and the head of the valley is a low continuous plain. In
-many places, especially near the estuary, river-terraces, like road
-embankments, here converging, there diverging, indicate by lines and
-strews of water-worn pebbles and sea-shells the secular uprise of the
-country and the declension of the stream to its present level. These
-raised seabeaches at a distance appear crowned with dwarf rounded cones
-which, overgrown with lofty trees, are favourite sites for settlements.
-In the lower lands the jungle and the cultivation are of the rankest and
-most gigantic description, the effect of a damp, hot region, where
-atmospheric pressure is excessive. The grass, especially that produced
-by the black soils in the swamps and marshes, rises to the height of
-12-13 feet, and serves to conceal runaway slaves and malefactors: the
-stalks vary in thickness from a goose-quill to a man’s finger. The
-larger growths, which are so closely planted that they conceal the soil,
-cannot be traversed without paths, and even where these exist the
-traveller must fight his way through a dense screen, receiving from time
-to time a severe blow when the reeds recoil, or a painful thrust from
-some broken and inclined stump. Even the horny sole of the sandal-less
-African cannot tread these places without being cut or staked, and
-everywhere a ride through these grass-avenues whilst still dripping with
-the cold exhalations of night, with the sun beating fiercely upon the
-upper part of the body, is a severe infliction to any man not in perfect
-health. The beds of streams and nullahs are sometimes veiled by the
-growth of the banks. These crops spring up with the rains, and are
-burned down by hunters, or more frequently by accident, after about a
-month of dry weather; in the interim fires are dangerous: the custom is
-to beat down the blaze with leafy boughs. Such is the variety of species
-that in some parts of the river-valleys each day introduces the
-traveller to a grass before unseen. Where the inundations lie long, the
-trees are rare, and those that exist are slightly raised by mounds above
-the ground to escape the destructive effects of protracted submergence:
-in these places the decomposed vegetation exhales a fetid odour. Where
-the waters soon subside there are clumps of tall shrubbery and seams of
-forest rising on extensive meadows of grassy land, which give it the
-semblance of a suite of natural parks or pleasure-grounds, and the
-effect is not diminished by the frequent herds of gnu and antelope
-prancing and pacing over their pastures.
-
-The climate is hot and oppressive, and the daily sea-breeze, which
-extends to the head of the Mgeta valley, is lost in the lower levels.
-About Zungomero rain is constant, except for a single fortnight in the
-month of January; it seems to the stranger as if the crops must
-infallibly decay, but they do not. At most times the sun, even at its
-greatest northern declination, shines through a veil of mist with a
-sickly blaze and a blistering heat, and the overcharge of electricity is
-evidenced by frequent and violent thunder-storms. In the western parts
-cold and cutting breezes descend from the rugged crags of Dut’humi.
-
-The principal diseases of the valley are severe ulcerations and fevers,
-generally of a tertian type. The “Mkunguru” begins with coldness in the
-toes and finger-tips; a frigid shiver seems to creep up the legs,
-followed by pains in the shoulders, severe frontal headache, hot eyes,
-and a prostration and irritability of mind and body. This preliminary
-lasts for one to three hours, when nausea ushers in the hot stage: the
-head burns, the action of the heart becomes violent, thirst rages, and a
-painful weight presses upon the eyeballs: it is often accompanied by a
-violent cough and irritation. Strange visions, as in delirium, appear to
-the patient, and the excitement of the brain is proved by unusual
-loquacity. When the fit passes off with copious perspiration the head is
-often affected, the ears buzz, and the limbs are weak. If the patient
-attempts to rise suddenly, he feels a dizziness, produced apparently by
-a gush of bile along the liver duct: want of appetite, sleeplessness and
-despondency, and a low fever, evidenced by hot pulses, throbbing
-temples, and feet painfully swollen, with eruptions of various kinds,
-and ulcerated mouth, usher in the cure. This fever yields easily to mild
-remedies, but it is capable of lasting three weeks.
-
-A multitude of roads, whose point of departure is the coast, form a
-triangle and converge at the “Makutaniro,” or junction-place, in Central
-Uzaramo. The route whose several stations have been described is one of
-the main lines running from Kaole and Bagamoyo, in a general southwest
-direction, till it falls into the great trunk road which leads directly
-west from Mbuamaji. It is divided into thirteen caravan stages, but a
-well-girt walker will accomplish the distance in a week.
-
-No apology is offered for the lengthiness of the ethnographical
-descriptions contained in the following pages. The ethnology of Africa
-is indeed its most interesting, if not its only interesting feature.
-Everything connected with the habits and customs, the moral and
-religious, the social and commercial state of these new races, is worthy
-of diligent observation, careful description, and minute illustration.
-There is indeed little in the physical features of this portion of the
-great peninsula to excite the attention of the reader beyond the
-satisfaction that ever accompanies the victory of truth over fable, and
-a certain importance which in these “travelling times,”--when man
-appears rapidly rising to the rank of a migratory animal,--must attach
-to discovery. The subject, indeed, mostly banishes ornament. Lying under
-the same parallels with a climate whose thermical variations know no
-extremes, the succession of alluvial valley, ghaut, table-land, and
-shelving plain is necessarily monotonous, the soil is the same, the
-productions are similar, and the rocks and trees resemble one another.
-Eastern and central inter-tropical Africa also lacks antiquarian and
-historic interest, it has few traditions, no annals, and no ruins, the
-hoary remnants of past splendour so dear to the traveller and to the
-reader of travels. It contains not a single useful or ornamental work, a
-canal or a dam is, and has ever been, beyond the narrow bounds of its
-civilisation. It wants even the scenes of barbaric pomp and savage
-grandeur with which the student of occidental Africa is familiar. But
-its ethnography has novelties: it exposes strange manners and customs,
-its Fetichism is in itself a wonder, its commerce deserves attention,
-and its social state is full of mournful interest. The fastidiousness of
-the age, however, forbidding ampler details, even under the veil of the
-“learned languages,” cripples the physiologist, and robs the subject of
-its principal peculiarities. I have often regretted that if Greek and
-dog-Latin be no longer a sufficient disguise for the facts of natural
-history, human and bestial, the learned have not favoured us with a
-system of symbols which might do away with the grossness of words.
-
-The present tenants of the First Region are the Wazaramo, the Wak’hutu,
-and their great sub-tribe, the Waziraha; these form the staple of
-population,--the Wadoe and the Wazegura being minor and immigrant
-tribes.
-
-The Wazaramo are no exception to the rule of barbarian maritime races:
-they have, like the Somal, the Gallas, the Wangindo, the Wamakua, and
-the Cape Kafirs, come into contact with a civilisation sufficiently
-powerful to corrupt without subjugating them; and though cultivators of
-the ground, they are more dreaded by caravans than any tribe from the
-coast to the Lake Region. They are bounded eastward by the thin line of
-Moslems in the maritime regions, westward by the Wak’hutu, northward by
-the Kingani River, and on the south by the tribes of the Rufiji. The
-Wazaramo, or, as they often pronounce their own name, Wazalamo, claim
-connection with the semi-nomade Wakamba, who have, within the last few
-years, migrated to the north-west of Mombasah. Their dialect, however,
-proves them to be congeners of the Wak’hutu, and distinct from the
-Wakamba. As in East Africa generally, it is impossible to form the
-remotest idea of the number of families, or of the total of population.
-The Wazaramo number many sub-tribes, the principal of which are the
-Wákámbá and the Wáp’hangárá.
-
-These negroids are able-bodied men, tall and straight, compared with the
-Coast-clans, but they are inferior in development to most of the inner
-tribes. The complexion, as usual, varies greatly. The chiefs are often
-coal-black, and but few are of light colour. This arises from the
-country being a slave-importer rather than exporter; and here, as among
-the Arabs, black skins are greatly preferred. The Mzaramo never
-circumcises, except when becoming a “Mháji,” or Moslem convert; nor does
-this tribe generally tattoo, though some adorn the face with three long
-cicatrized cuts, like the Mashali of Mecca, extending down each cheek
-from the ear-lobes to the corners of the mouth. Their distinctive mark
-is the peculiarity of dressing their hair. The thick wool is plastered
-over with a cap-like coating of ochreish and micaceous clay, brought
-from the hills, and mixed to the consistency of honey with the oil of
-the sesamum or the castor-bean. The pomatum, before drying, is pulled
-out with the fingers to the ends of many little twists, which circle the
-head horizontally, and the mass is separated into a single or a double
-line of knobs, the upper being above, and the lower below, the ears,
-both look stiff and matted, as if affected with a bad plica polonica.
-The contrast between these garlands of small red dilberries and the
-glossy black skin is, however, effective. The clay, when dry, is washed
-out with great trouble by means of warm water--soap has yet to be
-invented--and by persevering combing with the fingers. Women wear the
-hair-thatch like men; there are, however, several styles. It is usually
-parted in the centre, from the crinal front-line to the nape of the
-neck, and allowed to grow in a single or double dense thatch, ridging
-the head breadthwise from ear to ear: this is coloured or not coloured,
-according to the wearer’s taste. Some of the Wazaramo, again, train
-lumps of their wool to rise above the region of cautiousness, and very
-exactly simulate bears’ ears. The face is usually lozenge-shaped, the
-eyes are somewhat oblique, the nose is flat and patulated, the lips
-tumid and everted, the jaw prognathous, and the beard, except in a few
-individuals, is scanty. The sebaceous odour of the skin amongst all
-these races is overpowering: emitted with the greatest effect during and
-after excitement either of mind or body, it connects the negroid with
-the negro and separates him from the Somal, the Galla, and the Malagash.
-The expression of countenance is wild and staring, the features are
-coarse and harsh, the gait is loose and lounging; the Arab strut and the
-Indian swagger are unknown in East Africa. The Wazaramo tribe is rich in
-albinos; three were seen by the Expedition in the course of a single
-day. They much resemble Europeans of the leucous complexion; the face is
-quite bald; the skin is rough, and easily wrinkles in long lines, marked
-by a deeper pink; the hair is short, sharp-curling, and coloured like a
-silk-worm’s cocoon, and the lips are red. The eyes have grey pupils and
-rosy “whites:” they appear very sensitive to light, and are puckered up
-so as to distort the countenance. The features are unusually plain, and
-the stature appears to range below the average. The people who have no
-prejudice against them, call these leucœthiops Wazungu, “white men.”
-
-The Wazaramo tribe is wealthy enough to dress well: almost every man can
-afford a shukkah or loin-cloth of unbleached cotton, which he stains a
-dirty yellow, like the Indian gerua, with a clay dug in the subsoil.
-Their ornaments are extensive girdles and bead necklaces of various
-colours, white disks, made from the base of a sea-shell, and worn single
-on the forehead or in pairs at the neck. A massy ring of brass or zinc
-encircles the wrist. The decoration peculiar to the tribe, and common to
-both sexes, is the mgoweko, a tight collar or cravat, 1 to 1·50 inches
-broad, of red and yellow, white and black beads, with cross-bars of
-different colours at short intervals. Men never appear in public without
-an ostentatious display of arms. The usual weapons, when they cannot
-procure muskets, are spears, bows, and arrows, the latter poisoned, and
-sime, or long knives like the Somali daggers, made by themselves with
-imported iron. The chiefs are generally seen in handsome attire;
-embroidered Surat caps bound with a tight snowy turban of a true African
-shape, which contrasts well with black skins and the short double-peaked
-beards below. The body-garment is a loin-cloth of showy Indian cotton or
-Arab check; some prefer the long shirt and the kizbao or waistcoat
-affected by the slaves at Zanzibar. The women are well dressed as the
-men--a circumstance rare in East Africa. Many of them have the tibia
-bowed in front by bearing heavy water-pots at too early an age; when not
-burdened they have a curious mincing gate, they never veil their faces,
-and they show no shame in the presence of strangers. The child is
-carried in a cloth at the back.
-
-The habitations of the Wazaramo are far superior in shape and size to
-those of K’hutu, and, indeed, to any on this side of Unyamwezi. Their
-buildings generally resemble the humbler sort of English cow-house, or
-an Anglo-Indian bungalow. In poorer houses the outer walls are of holcus
-canes, rudely puddled; the better description are built of long and
-broad sheets of Myombo and Mkora bark, propped against strong uprights
-inside, and bound horizontally by split bamboos tied outside with
-fibrous cord. The heavy pent-shaped roof often provided with a double
-thatch of grass and reeds, projects eaves, which are high enough to
-admit a man without stooping; these are supported by a long cross bar
-resting on perpendiculars, tree-trunks, barked and smoothed, forked
-above, and firmly planted in the ground. Along the outer marginal length
-of this verandah lies a border of large logs polished by long sittings.
-The interior is dark and windowless, and party-walls of stiff grass-cane
-divide it into several compartments. The list of furniture comprises a
-dwarf cartel about 4 feet long by 16 inches broad, upon which even the
-married couple manages to make itself comfortable; a stool cut out of a
-single block, a huge wooden mortar, mtungi or black earthen pots,
-gourds, ladles of cocoa-nut, cast-off clothes, whetstones, weapons,
-nets, and in some places creels for fishing. Grain is ground upon an
-inclined slab of fine-grained granite or syenite, sometimes loose, at
-other times fixed in the ground with a mud plaster; the classical
-Eastern handmill is unknown in this part of Africa. The inner roof and
-its rafters, shining with a greasy soot, in wet weather admit drenching
-lines of leakage, and the only artifice applied to the flooring is the
-tread of the proprietors. The door is a close hurdle of parallel
-holcus-straw bound to five or six cross-bars with strips of bark. In a
-village there will be from four to twelve “bungalows;” the rest are the
-normal haycock and beehive hut of Africa. Where enemies are numerous the
-settlements are palisaded; each has, moreover, but a single entrance,
-which is approached by a narrow alley of strong stockade, and is guarded
-by a thick planking that fits into a doorway large enough to admit
-cattle.
-
-The Wazaramo are an ill-conditioned, noisy, boisterous violent, and
-impracticable race. A few years ago they were the principal obstacle to
-Arab and other travellers entering into East Africa. But the seizure of
-Kaole and other settlements by the late Sayyid of Zanzibar has now given
-strangers a footing in the land. After tasting the sweets of gain, they
-have somewhat relented; but quarrels between them and the caravans are
-still frequent. The P’házi, or chief of the district, demands a certain
-amount of cloth for free passage from all merchants on their way to the
-interior; from those returning he takes cattle, jembe, or iron hoes,
-shokah or hatchets, in fact, whatever he can obtain. If not contented,
-his clansmen lie in ambush and discharge a few poisoned arrows at the
-trespassers: they never have attempted, like the Wagogo, to annihilate a
-caravan; in fact, the loss of one of their number causes a general
-panic. They have hitherto successfully resisted the little armies of
-touters that have almost desolated K’hutu, and they are frequently in
-hostilities with the coast settlements. The young men sometimes set out
-on secret plundering expeditions to Bagamoyo and Mbuamaji, and enter the
-houses at night by mining under the walls. The burghers attempt to
-defeat them by burying stones and large logs as a foundation, but in
-vain: their superior dexterity has originated a superstitious notion
-that they possess a peculiar “medicine,” a magic spell called “Ugumba,”
-which throws the household into a deep trance. When a thief is caught
-_in flagrante delicto_, his head soon adorns a tall pole at the entrance
-of the settlement: it is not uncommon to see half a dozen bloody or
-bleached fragments of humanity collected in a single spot. When disposed
-to be friendly the Wazaramo will act as porters to Arabs, but if a man
-die his load is at once confiscated by his relatives, who, however,
-insist upon receiving his blood-money, as if he had been slain in
-battle. Their behaviour to caravans in their own country depends upon
-the strangers’ strength; many trading bodies therefore unite into one
-before beginning the transit, and even then they are never without fear.
-
-The Wazaramo chiefs are powerful only when their wealth or personal
-qualities win the respect of their unruly republican subjects. There are
-no less than five orders in this hereditary master-class. The P’hazi is
-the headman of the village, and the Mwene Goha is his principal
-councillor; under these are three ranks of elders, the Kinyongoni, the
-Chúmá, and the Káwámbwá. The headman, unless exceptionally influential,
-must divide amongst his “ministry” the blackmail extorted from
-travellers. The P’hazi usually fills a small village with his wives and
-families; he has also large estates, and he personally superintends the
-labour of his slave-gangs. He cannot sell his subjects except for two
-offences--Ugoni or adultery, and Ucháwe or black magic. The latter crime
-is usually punished by the stake; in some parts of the country the
-roadside shows at every few miles a heap or two of ashes with a few
-calcined and blackened human bones mixed with bits of half-consumed
-charcoal, telling the tragedy that has been enacted there. The prospect
-cannot be contemplated without horror; here and there, close to the
-larger circles where the father and mother have been burnt, a smaller
-heap shows that some wretched child has shared their terrible fate, lest
-growing up he should follow in his parents’ path. The power of
-conviction is wholly in the hands of the Mgángá or medicine-man, who
-administers an ordeal called Bága or Kyápo by boiling water. If the hand
-after being dipped show any sign of lesion, the offence is proven, and
-the sentence is instantly carried into execution.
-
-Instinctively conscious of their moral wants, the Washenzi throughout
-this portion of East Africa have organised certain customs which have
-grown to laws. The first is the Sáre or brother oath. Like the “manred”
-of Scotland, the “munh bola bhai” of India, and similar fraternal
-institutions amongst most of the ancient tribes of barbarians in whom
-sociability is a passion, it tends to reconcile separate interests
-between man and man, to modify the feuds and discords of savage society,
-and, principally, to strengthen those that need an alliance. In fact, it
-is a contrivance for choosing relations instead of allowing Nature to
-force them upon man, and the flimsiness of the tie between brothers born
-in polygamy has doubtless tended to perpetuate it. The ceremony, which
-is confined to adults of the male sex, is differently performed in the
-different tribes. Amongst the Wazaramo, the Wazegura, and the Wasagara,
-the two “brothers” sit on a hide face to face, with legs outstretched to
-the front and overlapping one another; their bows and arrows are placed
-across their thighs, whilst a third person, waving a sword over their
-heads, vociferates curses against any one that may “break the
-brotherhood.” A sheep is then slaughtered, and its flesh, or more often
-its heart, is brought roasted to the pair, who, having made with a
-dagger incisions in each other’s breasts close to the pit of the
-stomach, eat a piece of meat smeared with the blood. Among the
-Wanyamwezi and the Wajiji the cut is made below the left ribs or above
-the knee; each man receives in a leaf his brother’s blood, which, mixed
-with oil or butter, he rubs into his own wound. An exchange of small
-presents generally concludes the rite. It is a strong tie, as all men
-believe that death or slavery would follow its infraction. The Arabs, to
-whom the tasting of blood is unlawful, usually perform it by proxy. The
-slave “Fundi,” or fattori, of the caravans become brothers, even with
-the Washenzi, whenever they expect an opportunity of utilising the
-relationship.
-
-The second custom is more peculiar. The East African dares not
-appropriate an article found upon the road, especially if he suspect
-that it belongs to a fellow tribeman. He believes that a “Kigámbo,” an
-unexpected calamity, slavery or death, would follow the breach of this
-custom. At Zungomero a watch, belonging to the Expedition, was picked up
-by the country people in the jungle, and was punctually returned, well
-wrapped round with grass and leaves. But subsequent experience makes the
-traveller regret that the superstition is not of a somewhat more
-catholic and comprehensive character.
-
-The religion of the East African will be treated of in a future page.
-The Wazaramo, like their congeners, are as little troubled with ceremony
-as with belief. In things spiritual as in things temporal they listen to
-but one voice, that of “Ádá,” or custom. The most offensive scoffer or
-sceptic in Europe is not regarded with more abomination than the man who
-in these lands would attempt to touch a jot or tittle of Ádá.
-
-There are no ceremonies on birth-occasions and no purification of women
-amongst these people. In the case of abortion or of a still-born child
-they say, “he hath returned,” that is to say, to home in earth. When the
-mother perishes in childbirth, the parents claim a certain sum from “the
-man that killed their daughter.” Neither on the continent nor at
-Zanzibar do they bind with cloth the head of the new-born babe. Twins,
-here called Wápáchá, and by the Arabs of Zanzibar, Shukúl (‏شكول‎) are
-usually sold or exposed in the jungle as amongst the Ibos of West
-Africa. If the child die, an animal is killed for a general feast, and
-in some tribes the mother does a kind of penance. Seated outside the
-village, she is smeared, with fat and flour, and exposed to the derision
-of people who surround her, hooting and mocking with offensive jests and
-gestures. To guard against this calamity, the Wazaramo and other tribes
-are in the habit of vowing that the babe shall not be shaved till
-manhood, and the mother wears a number of talismans, bits of wood tied,
-with a thong of snake’s skin, round her neck, and beads of different
-shapes round her head. When carrying her offspring, which she rarely
-leaves alone, she bears in her hand what is technically called a
-kirangozi, a “guide” or “guardian,” in the form of two sticks a few
-inches in length, bound with bands of particoloured beads. This article,
-made up by the Mgángá or medicine-man, is placed at night under the
-child’s head, and is carried about till it has passed the first stage of
-life. The kirangozi is intended to guard the treasure against the
-malevolent spirits of the dead; that almost universal superstition, the
-Evil Eye, though an article of faith amongst the Arabs, the Wasawahili,
-and the Wamrima, is unknown to the inner heathen.
-
-A name is given to the child without other celebration than a debauch
-with pombe: this will sometimes occur at the birth of a male, when he is
-wanted. The East Africans, having few national prejudices, are fond of
-calling their children after Arabs and other strangers: they will even
-pay a sheep for the loan of a merchant’s name. There must be many
-hundred Sayyid Saids and Sayyid Majids now in the country; and as during
-the eighteen months’ peregrination of the East African Expedition every
-child born on and near the great trunk-line was called Muzungu--the
-“white”--the Englishman has also left his mark in the land. The period
-of ablactation, as in South Africa, is prolonged to the second or third
-year: may this account, in part, for the healthiness of the young and
-the almost total absence of debility and deformity? Indeed, the nearest
-approach to the latter is the unsightly protrusion of the umbilical
-region, sometimes to the extent of several inches, owing to ignorance of
-proper treatment; but, though conspicuous in childhood, it disappears
-after puberty. Women retain the power of suckling their children to a
-late age, even when they appear withered grandames. Until the child can
-walk without danger, it is carried by the mother, not on the hip, as in
-Asia, but on the bare back for warmth, a sheet or skin being passed over
-it and fastened at the parent’s breast. Even in infancy it clings like a
-young simiad, and the peculiar formation of the African race renders the
-position easier by providing a kind of seat upon which it subsides; the
-only part of the body exposed to view is the little coco-nut head, with
-the small, round, beady black eyes in a state of everlasting stare.
-Finally, the “kigogo,” or child who cuts the two upper incisors before
-the lower, is either put to death, or is given away or sold to the
-slave-merchant, under the impression that it will bring disease,
-calamity, and death into the household. The Wasawahili and the Zanzibar
-Arabs have the same impressions: the former kill the child; the latter,
-after a Khitmah or perlection of the Koran, make it swear, by nodding
-its head if unable to articulate, that it will not injure those about
-it. Even in Europe, it may be remembered, the old prejudice against
-children born with teeth is not wholly forgotten.
-
-Amongst the Wazaramo there is no limitation to the number of wives,
-except the expense of wedding and the difficulty of supporting a large
-establishment. Divorce is signified by presenting to the wife a piece of
-holcus-cane: if a sensible woman she at once leaves the house, and, if
-not, she is forced to leave. There is no more romance in the affair even
-before marriage than in buying a goat. The marriageable youth sends a
-friend to propose to the father: if the latter consents, his first step
-is, not to consult his daughter--such a proceeding would be deemed the
-act of a madman--but to secure for himself as many cloths as possible,
-from six to twelve, or even more, besides a preliminary present which
-goes by the name of kiremba (kilemba), his “turban.” This, however, is a
-kind of settlement which is demanded back if the wife die without issue;
-but if she bear children, it is preserved for them by their
-grand-parents. After the father the mother puts in her claim in behalf
-of the daughter; she requires a kondáví, or broad parti-coloured band of
-beads worn round the waist and next the skin; her mukájyá or loin-cloth,
-and her wereko, or sheet in which the child is borne upon the back. In
-the interior the settlement is made in live-stock, varying from a few
-goats to a dozen cows. This weighty point duly determined, the husband
-leads his wife to his own home, an event celebrated by drumming,
-dancing, and extensive drunkenness. The children born in wedlock belong
-to the father.
-
-When a man or a woman is at the point of death, the friends assemble,
-and the softer sex sometimes sings, howls, and weeps: the departing is
-allowed to depart life upon the kitanda, or cartel. There is, however,
-little demonstrative sorrow amongst these people, and, having the utmost
-dread of disembodied spirits, all are anxious to get rid of the corpse
-and its appertainings. The Wazaramo, more civilised than their
-neighbours, bury their dead stretched out and in the dress worn during
-life: their graves have already been described.
-
-The “industry” of Usaramo will occupy but few sentences. Before the
-great rains of the year set in the land must be weeded, and scratches
-must be made with a hoe for the reception of seed. The wet season
-ushers in the period for copal digging: the proceeds are either
-sold to travelling traders, or are carried down to the coast in
-mákándá--mat-sacks--of light weight, and are sold to the Banyans.
-Bargaining and huckstering, cheapening and chaffering, are ever the
-African’s highest intellectual enjoyments, and he does not fail to
-stretch them to their utmost limits. After the autumnal rains during the
-Azyab, or the north-east monsoon, the grass is fired, when the men
-seizing their bows, arrows, and spears, indiscriminately slaughter beast
-and bird--an operation which, yearly repeated, accounts in part for the
-scarcity of animal life so remarkable in this animal’s paradise. When
-all trades fail, the Mzaramo repairs to the coast, where, despite his
-bad name, he usually finds employment as a labourer.
-
-Next in order to the maritime Wazaramo are the Wak’hutu, to whom many of
-the observations upon the subject of their more powerful neighbours
-equally apply. Their territory extends from the Mgeta River to the
-mountains of Usagara, and in breadth from the Dut’humi Highlands to the
-Rufiji River.
-
-The Wak’hutu are physically and, apparently, mentally a race inferior to
-the Wazaramo; they are very dark, and bear other marks of a degradation
-effected by pernicious climatory conditions. They have no peculiar
-tattoo, although individuals raise complicated patterns in small
-cicatrices upon their breasts. The popular head-dress is the
-clay-coating of the Wazaramo, of somewhat modified dimensions; and some
-of them, who are possibly derived from the Wahiao and other southern
-clans, have a practice--exceptional in these latitudes--of chipping
-their incisors to sharp points, which imitate well enough the armature
-of the reptilia. Their eyes are bleared and red with perpetual
-intoxication, and they seem to have no amusements but dancing and
-singing through half the night. None but the wealthier can afford to
-wear cloth; the substitute is a kilt of the calabash fibre, attached by
-a cord of the same material to the waist. In women it often narrows to a
-span, and would be inadequate to the purposes of decency were it not
-assisted by an underclothing of softened goatskin; this and a square of
-leather upon the bosom, which, however, is often omitted, compose the
-dress of the multitude. The ornaments are like those of the Wazaramo,
-but by no means so numerous. The Wak’hutu live poorly, and, having no
-ghee, are contented with the oil of the sesamum and the castor-bean with
-their holcus porridge. The rivers supply them with the usual mud-fish;
-at times they kill game. Their sheep, goats, and poultry they reserve
-for barter on the coast; and, though bees swarm throughout the land, and
-even enter the villages, they will not take the trouble to make hives.
-
-As on the Mrima, the proportion of chiefs to subjects seems to increase
-in the inverse ratio of what is required. Every district in K’hutu has
-its P’hazi or headman, with his minister the Mwene Goha, and inferior
-chiefs, the Chándumé, the Muwinge, and the Mbárá. These men live chiefly
-upon the produce of their fields, which they sell to caravans; they are
-too abject and timid to insist upon the blackmail which has caused so
-many skirmishes in Uzaramo; and the only use that they make of their
-power is to tyrannise over their villages, and occasionally to organise
-a little kidnapping. With the aid of slavery and black magic they render
-their subjects’ lives as precarious as they well can: no one, especially
-in old age, is safe from being burnt at a day’s notice. They are civil
-to strangers, but wholly unable to mediate between them and the tribe.
-The Wak’hutu have been used as porters; but they have proved so
-treacherous, and so determined to desert, that no man will trust them in
-a land where prepayment is the first condition of an agreement. Property
-amongst them is insecure: a man has always a vested right in his
-sister’s children; and when he dies his brothers and relations carefully
-plunder his widow and orphans.
-
-The dirty, slovenly villages of the Wak’hutu are an index of the
-character of the people. Unlike the comfortable cottages of the
-coast, and the roomy abodes of the Wazaramo, the settlements of
-the Wak’hutu are composed of a few straggling hovels of the humblest
-description--with doors little higher than an English pigsty, and eaves
-so low that a man cannot enter them except on all fours. In shape they
-differ, some being simple cones, others like European haystacks, and
-others like our old straw beehives. The common hut is a circle from 12
-to 25 feet in diameter; those belonging to the chiefs are sometimes of
-considerable size, and the first part of the erection is a cylindrical
-framework composed of tall stakes, or the rough trunks of young trees,
-interwoven with parallel and concentric rings of flexible twigs and
-withies, which are coated inside and outside with puddle of red or grey
-clay. In some a second circle of wall is built round the inner cylinder,
-thus forming one house within the other. The roof, subsequently added,
-is of sticks and wattles, and the weight rests chiefly upon a central
-tree. It has eaves-like projections, forming a narrow verandah, edged
-with horizontal bars which rest upon forked uprights. Over the sticks
-interwoven with the frame, thick grass or palm-fronds are thrown, and
-the whole is covered with a coat of thatch tied on with strips of tree
-bark. During the first few minutes of heavy rain, this roofing, shrunk
-by the parching suns, admits water enough to patch the interior with
-mud. The furniture of the cottages is like that of the Wazaramo; and the
-few square feet which compose the area are divided by screens of wattle
-into dark pigeon-holes, used as stores, kitchen, and sleeping-rooms. A
-thick field of high grass is allowed to grow in the neighbourhood of
-each village, to baffle pursuers in case of need; and some cottages are
-provided with double doorways for easier flight. In the middle of the
-settlement there is usually a tall tree, under which the men lounge upon
-cots scarcely large enough for an English child; and where the slaves,
-wrangling and laughing, husk their holcus in huge wooden mortars. These
-villages can scarcely be called permanent: even the death of a chief
-causes them to be abandoned, and in a few months long grass waves over
-the circlets of charred stakes and straw.
-
-The only sub-tribe of the Wak’hutu which deserves notice is the
-Waziráhá, who inhabit the low grounds below the Mabruki Pass, in the
-first parallel of the Usagara Mountains. They are remarkable only for
-having beards somewhat better developed than in the other Eastern races:
-in sickly appearance they resemble their congeners.
-
-Remain for consideration the Wadoe and the Wazegura. The proper habitat
-of the Wadoe is between the Watondwe or the tribes of Saadani, on the
-littoral, and the Wak’hwere, near K’hutu, on the west; their northern
-frontier is the land of the Wazegura, and their southern the Gama and
-the Kingani Rivers. Their country, irrigated by the waters of the Gama,
-is plentiful in grain, though wanting in cattle; they export to Zanzibar
-sorghum and maize, with a little of the chakazi or unripe copal.
-
-The Wadoe once formed a powerful tribe, and were the terror of their
-neighbours. Their force was first broken by the Wakamba, who, however,
-so weakened themselves, that they were compelled to emigrate in mass
-from the country, and have now fixed themselves in a region about 14
-marches to the north-west of Mombasah, which appears to have been
-anciently called that of the Meremongao. During this struggle the Wadoe
-either began or, what is more likely, renewed a practice which has made
-their name terrible even in African ears. Fearing defeat from the
-Wakamba, they proceeded, in presence of the foe, to roast and devour
-slices from the bodies of the fallen. The manœuvre was successful; the
-Wakamba could dare to die, but they could not face the idea of becoming
-food. Presently, when the Wazegura had armed themselves with muskets,
-and the people of Whinde had organised their large plundering
-excursions, the Wadoe lost all power. About ten years ago Juma Mfumbi,
-the late Diwan of Saadani, exacted tribute from them, and after his
-death his sons succeeded to it. In 1857, broken by a famine of long
-continuance, many Wadoe fled to the south of the Kingani River, and
-obtained from the Wazaramo lands near Sagesera and Dege la Mhora.
-
-The Wadoe differ greatly in colour and in form. Some are tall,
-well-made, and light-complexioned Negroids, others are almost black.
-Their distinctive mark--in women as well as men--is a pair of long cuts
-down both cheeks, from the temple to the jaw; they also frequently chip
-away the two inner sides of the upper central incisors, leaving a small
-chevron-shaped hole. This however is practised almost throughout the
-country. They are wild in appearance, and dress in softened skins,
-stained yellow with the bark and flowers (?) of the mimosa. Their arms
-are a large hide-shield, spears, bows, and arrows, shokah or the little
-battle-axe, the sime-knife, and the rungu or knobstick. They are said
-still to drink out of human skulls, which are not polished or prepared
-in any way for the purpose. The principal chief is termed Mweme: his
-privy councillors are called Mákungá (?), and the elders M’áná Miráo
-(?). The great headmen are buried almost naked, but retaining their
-bead-ornaments, sitting in a shallow pit, so that the forefinger can
-project above the ground. With each man are interred alive a male and a
-female slave, the former holding a mundu or billhook wherewith to cut
-fuel for his lord in the cold death-world, and the latter, who is seated
-upon a little stool, supports his head in her lap. This custom has been
-abolished by some of the tribes: according to the Arabs, a dog is now
-buried in lieu of the slaves. The subdivisions of the Wadoe are numerous
-and unimportant.
-
-The Wazegura, who do not inhabit this line of road, require some
-allusion, in consequence of the conspicuous part which they have played
-in the evil drama of African life. They occupy the lands south of the
-Pangani River to the Cape of Utondwe, and they extend westward as far as
-the hills of Nguru. Originally a peaceful tribe, they have been rendered
-terrible by the possession of fire-arms; and their chiefs have now
-collected large stores of gunpowder, used only to kidnap and capture the
-weaker wretches within their reach. They thus supply the market of
-Zanzibar with slaves, and this practice is not of yesterday. About
-twenty years ago the Wazegura serfs upon the island, who had been
-cheaply bought during a famine for a few measures of grain, rose against
-their Arab masters, retired into the jungle, and, reinforced by
-malefactors and malcontents, began a servile war, which raged with the
-greatest fury for six months, when the governor, Ahmed bin Sayf,
-maternal uncle to His Highness the late Sayyid Said, brought in a body
-of mercenaries from Hazramaut, and broke the force of this Jacquerie by
-setting a price upon their heads, and by giving the captives as prizes
-to the captors. The exploits of Kisabengo, the Mzegura, have already
-been alluded to. The Arab merchants of Unyanyembe declare that the road
-will never be safe until that person’s head adorns a pole: they speak
-with bitterness of heart, for he exacts an unconscionable “blackmail.”
-
-The Wazegura are in point of polity an exception to the rule of East
-Africa: instead of owning hereditary sultans, they obey the loudest
-tongue, the most open hand, and the sharpest spear. This tends
-practically to cause a perpetual blood-feud, and to raise up a number of
-petty chiefs, who, aspiring to higher positions, must distinguish
-themselves by bloodshed, and must acquire wealth in weapons, especially
-fire-arms, the great title to superiority, by slave-dealing. The only
-occasion when they combine is an opportunity of successful attack upon
-some unguarded neighbour. Briefly, the Wazegura have become an
-irreclaimable race, and such they will remain until compelled to make a
-livelihood by honest industry.
-
-[Illustration: EXPLORERS IN EAST AFRICA.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. V.
-
-HALT AT ZUNGOMERO, AND FORMATION OF THE CARAVAN.
-
-
-I halted to collect carriage and to await the arrival of the twenty-two
-promised porters for about a fortnight at that hot-bed of pestilence,
-Zungomero, where we nearly found “wet graves.” Our only lodging was
-under the closed eaves of a hut built African-fashion, one abode within
-the other. The roof was a sieve, the walls were systems of chinks, and
-the floor was a sheet of mud. Outside the rain poured pertinaciously, as
-if K’hutu had been situated in the “black north” of Hibernia; the
-periodical S. and S.W. winds were raw and chilling, the gigantic
-vegetation was sopped to decay, and the tangled bank of the Mgeta River,
-lying within pistol-shot of our hovels, added its quotum of miasma. The
-hardships of a march in inclement weather had taken effect upon the
-Baloch guard: expecting everything to be done for them they endured
-seven days of wet and wind before they could find energy to build a
-shed, and they became almost mutinous because left to make shelter for
-themselves. They stole the poultry of the villagers like gipsies, they
-quarrelled violently with the slaves, they foully abused their temporal
-superior, Said bin Salim, and three of the thirteen were accused of
-grossly insulting the women of the Wak’hutu. The latter charge, after
-due investigation, was “not proven:” we had resolved, in case of its
-being brought home, severely to flog the culprits or to turn them out of
-camp.
-
-On the 27th July, Sayf bin Salim returned to Dut’humi with his gang of
-thirty slaves, who also had distinguished themselves by laying violent
-hands on sheep, goats, and hens. Their patroon had offered to carry our
-baggage half-way over the mountains to Ugogo, for a sum of sixty
-dollars; thinking his conditions exorbitant, I stipulated for conveyance
-the whole way. He refused, declaring that he was about to organise
-another journey up-country. I doubted his assertion, as he was known to
-have audaciously defrauded Musa Mzuri, an Indian merchant, who had
-entrusted him with a large venture of ivory at Kazeh: yet he spoke
-truth; nearly a year afterwards we met him on his march to the “Sea of
-Ujiji.” During his visit he had begged for drugs, tea, coffee, sugar,
-spices, everything, but the stores were already far wasted by the
-improvidence of the Goanese, who seemed to think that they were living
-in the vicinity of a bazar. To punish me for not engaging his gang, he
-caused the desertion of nine porters hired at Dut’humi, by declaring
-that I was bearing them into slavery. As they carried off, in addition
-to half their pay, sundry sundries and Muinyi Wazira’s sword, I sent
-three slave-musketeers to recover the stolen goods per force if
-necessary. With respect to the cloth, Sayf bin Salim wrote back to say
-that as I could well afford the loss of a few “domestics,” he would not
-compel the fugitives to restore it: at the same time that he did himself
-the honour to return the sword, which I might want. This man proved
-himself the sole “base exception” to the hospitality and the
-courteousness of the Omani Arabs. I forwarded an official complaint to
-H. M. the Sayyid Majid, but the arm of Zanzibar has not yet reached
-K’hutu.
-
-At Zungomero five fresh porters were engaged, making up the whole party
-to a total of 132 souls. They were drafted into the men of Muinyi
-Wazira, whose open indulgence in stingo had made his society at meals
-distasteful to Moslem sticklers for propriety. He was an able
-interpreter, speaking five African dialects, which is not, however, in
-these lands a remarkable feat, and when sober, he did at first the work
-of three men. But linguists are a dangerous race, as the annals of old
-India prove:--I doubt a bilingual Eastern man, and if he can speak three
-languages I do not doubt him at all. Moreover, true to his semi-servile
-breed--his dam was a Mzaramo slave, and his sire a half-caste
-Wawahili--he began well and he finished badly. His deep undying fondness
-for pombe or holcus beer, kept him in alternate states of maudlin apathy
-or of violent pugnacity. He had incurred heavy debts upon the coast.
-After his arrival at Unyamwezi, letters were sent urging upon the Arabs
-his instant arrest, but fortunately for him the bailiff and the jailor
-are not, as the venerable saying declares the schoolmaster to be,
-abroad. Muinyi Wazira, however, did not sight the Sea of Ujiji in my
-service, and his five messmates, who each received 15 dollars’ worth of
-cloth for the journey thither and back, were not more fortunate.
-
-Before marching from Zungomero into the mountains I will order, for the
-reader’s inspection, a muster of the party, and enlist his sympathies in
-behalf of the unhappy being who had to lead it.
-
-Said bin Salim may pass on: he has been described in Blackwood
-(February, 1858) and he scarcely deserves a second notice. He is
-followed by his four slaves, including the boy Faraj, who will presently
-desert, and without including his acting wife, the lady Halimah. That
-young person’s pug-dog countenance and bulky charms seem to engross
-every thought not appropriated to himself. One day, however, my ears
-detect the loud voice of wail proceeding from the lady Halimah,
-accompanying methinks the vigorous performance of a stick; the
-peccadillo was--but I eschew scandal and request the lady to advance.
-
-My companion’s gun carrier, Seedy Mubarak Bombay, a negro from Uhiao,
-has twice been sketched in Blackwood (March, 1858 and September, 1859),
-he also requires no further celebrity. My henchman, Muinyi Mabruki, had
-been selected by his fellow-tribeman Bombay at Zanzibar; he was the
-slave of an Arab Shaykh, who willingly let him for the sum of 5 dollars
-per mensem. Mabruki is the type of the bull-headed negro, low-browed,
-pig-eyed, pug-nosed, and provided by nature with that breadth and power,
-that massiveness and muscularity of jaw, which characterise the most
-voracious carnivors. He is at once the ugliest and the vainest of the
-party: his attention to his toilette knows no limit. His temper is
-execrable, ever in extremes, now wild with spirits, then dogged,
-depressed, and surly, then fierce and violent. He is the most unhandy of
-men, he spoils everything entrusted to him, and presently he will be
-forbidden to engage in any pursuit beyond ass-leading and tent-pitching.
-These worthies commenced well. They excited our admiration by braving
-noon-day suns, and by snoring heavily through the rawest night with
-nothing to warm them but a few smouldering embers. In an evil hour
-compassion-touched, I threw over their shoulders a pair of English
-blankets, which in the shortest time completely demoralised them. They
-learned to lie a-bed o’ mornings, and when called up their shrugged
-shoulders and shrinking forms were wrapped tightly round, lest the
-breath of dawn should visit them too roughly. Idleness marked them for
-her own: messmates and sworn brothers; they made at the halt huts out of
-hail, lest they should be called to do work. As a rule, however,
-Englishmen have the art of spoiling Eastern servants: we begin with the
-utmost stretch of exertion, and we expect this high pressure system to
-last. Of course the men’s energies are soon exhausted, their indolence
-and apathy contrast with their former activity; we conceive dislikes to
-them, and we end by dismissing them. This, however, was not the case
-with Bombay and Mabruki. They returned with us to Zanzibar, and we
-parted _à l’aimable_, especially with the former, who, after a somewhat
-protracted fit of the “blue devils,” became once more, what he before
-had been, a rara avis in the lands, an active servant and an honest man.
-
-Regard for the Indian perusers of these pages, who know by experience
-how “banal” a character is the half-caste oriental Portuguese, prevents
-my offering anything but a sketch of Valentine A. and Gaetano B. I had
-hired them at Bombay for Co.’s rs. 20 per mensem, besides board and
-lodging. Scions of that half Pariah race which yearly issues from Goa,
-Daman and Diu to gather rupees as “cook boys,” dry-nurses, and
-“buttrels,” in wealthy British India, the hybrids had their faults: a
-pride of caste, and a contempt for Turks and heathen, heretics and
-infidels, which often brought them to grief; a fondness for acting
-triton amongst the minnows; a certain disregard for the seventh
-commandment, in the matter of cloth and clothes, medicines and
-provisions; a constitutional repugnance to “Signior Sooth;” a
-wastefulness of other men’s goods, and a peculiar tenacity of their own;
-a deficiency of bodily strength and constitutional vigour; a voracity
-which induced indigestion once a day; and, finally, a habit of frequent
-phlebotomy which, deferred, made them sick. They had also their merits.
-Valentine was a good specimen of the neat-handed and ready-witted
-Indian: in the shortest time he learned to talk Kisawahili sufficiently
-for his own purposes, and to read a chronometer and thermometer
-sufficiently for ours: he had, however, one blemish, an addiction to
-“fudging,” which rendered the severest overseeing necessary. A “Davy do
-a’ things,” he was as clever at sewing a coat as at cooking a curry.
-Gaetano had a curious kind of tenderness when acting nurse, and,
-wonderful to relate, an utter disregard for danger: he would return
-alone through a night-march of jungle to fetch his forgotten keys, and
-would throw himself into an excited mob of natives with a fearlessness
-which, contrasted with his weakly body, never failed to turn their wrath
-into merriment. He suffered severely from the secondaries of fever,
-which, in his case, as in his master’s, assumed a cerebral form. At
-Msene he was seized with fits resembling epilepsy; and as he seemed
-every month to become more addle-headed and scatter-brained, more dirty
-and untidy, more wasteful and forgetful, more loath to work without
-compulsion, and more prone to start and feed the fire with ghee when it
-was the scarcest of luxuries, I could not but attribute many of his
-delinquencies to disease.
-
-The Baloch are now to appear. My little party were servants of His
-Highness the Sayyid Majid of Zanzibar, who had detached them as an
-escort upon the usual “deputation-allowance” of ten dollars per mensem.
-They had received the command of their master to accompany me wherever I
-might please to march, and they had been rendered responsible to him for
-the safety of my person and property. As has been mentioned, Lieut.-Col.
-Hamerton had advanced to them before departure a small sum for outfit,
-and had promised them, on condition of good conduct, an ample reward on
-the part of H. M.’s Government after return to Zanzibar. These men were
-armed with the usual matchlock, the Cutch sabre,--one or two had
-Damascus blades,--the Indian hide-targe, decorated with its usual
-tinsel, the long khanjar or dagger, extra matches, flints and steels,
-and toshdan, or ammunition pouches, sensibly distributed about their
-persons.
-
-The Jemadar Mallok led from Zanzibar seven warriors of fame, yclept
-severally, Mohammed, Shahdad, Ismail, Belok, Abdullah, Darwaysh, and the
-Seedy Jelai; at Kaole he persuaded to follow his fortunes, Khudabakhsh,
-Musa, Gul Mohammed, Riza, and Hudul a tailor boy.
-
-The Jemadar Mallok is a monocular, and the Sanscrit proverb declares:
-
- “Rare a Kana (one-eyed man) is a good man and sound,
- Rare a ladye gay will be faithful found.”
-
-Mallok is no exception to this rule of the “Kana.” He is a man with
-fine Italian features, somewhat disfigured by the small-pox: but his one
-eye never looks you “in the face,” and there is an expression about the
-mouth which forbids implicit trust in his honesty. He proclaims himself
-to be somewhat fonder of fighting than of feeding, yet suspicious
-circumstances led me to believe that he was one of those whom the Arabs
-describe as “first at the banquet and last at the brawl.” He began with
-a display of zeal and activity which died young; he lapsed, through
-grumbling and discontent, into open insubordination as we progressed
-westward, or from home; he became submissive and somewhat servile as we
-returned to the coast, and when he took leave of me he shed a flood of
-crocodile’s tears.
-
-Mohammed is the Rish Safid, or greybeard of the caravan, and without a
-greybeard no eastern caravan considers itself _en règle_. Of these
-indispensable veterans I had two specimens; but of what use they were,
-except to teach hot youth the cold caution of eld, I never could
-divine,--_vieux soldat, vielle bête_. In the civilised regiment age is
-not venerable in the private, as every grey hair is a proof that he has
-not merited or has forfeited promotion; so in the East, where there is a
-paucity of competitors in the race of fortune, the Rish Safid of humble
-fortune may be safely set down as a fool or a foolish knave, and though
-his escort is sought, he generally proves himself to be no better than
-he should have been.
-
-Mohammed’s body is apparently hard as a rock, his mind is soft as putty,
-and his comrades, disappointed in their hopes of finding brains behind
-those wrinkles, derisively compare him to a rotten walnut, and say
-before his face, “What! grey hairs and no wits?” He has invested the
-fifteen dollars advanced to him as outfit by Lieut.-Col. Hamerton, in a
-slave-boy, whom presently he will exchange for a slave-girl, despite all
-the inuendoes of his friends. He was at first a manner of peace-maker,
-but soon my refusal to enlist and pay his slave as a hired porter acted
-like Ithuriel’s spear. This veteran of fractious temper and miserly
-habits ended, in a question of stinted rations, by drawing his sabre
-upon and cutting at his Jemadar; an offence which I was compelled to
-visit with a bastinado, inflicted out of the sight of man by the hand of
-Khudabakhsh.
-
-Shahdad is the Chelebi of the party, the fast young man. He is decidedly
-not handsome. A figure short and _trapu_, a retrussed nose, small pigs’
-eyes, a beard like a blackberry bush, and a crop of hair which,
-projecting its wiry waves in a deep long curtain from beneath a
-diminutive scarlet fez, makes his head appear top-heavy. Yet he does sad
-havoc amongst female hearts by means of his zeze or guitar, half a gourd
-with an arm to which is attached a single string, and by his lively
-accompaniment is a squeaking falsetto, which is here as fascinating and
-emollient to the sex as ever was the organ of Rubini in Europe. During a
-lengthened sojourn at Bombay he has enlarged his mind by the acquisition
-of the Hindostani tongue and of Indian trickery. He is almost the only
-Eastern whom I remember that abused the poor letter H like a
-thoroughbred Londoner. His familiarity with Anglo-Europeans, and his
-experience touching the facility of gulling them, has induced in him a
-certain proclivity for peculation, grumbling, and mutiny. His
-brother--or rather cousin, for in these lands all fellow-tribesmen are
-brethren--“Ismail” is a confirmed invalid, a man with a “broken mouth,”
-deeply sunken cheeks, and emaciated frame, who, though earnestly
-solicited to return eastwards, will persist in accompanying the party
-till he falls a victim to a chronic malady in Unyamwezi.
-
-Belok is our snob; a youth of servile origin, with coarse features, wide
-mouth, everted lips, and a pert, or rather an impudent expression of
-countenance, which, acting as index to his troublesome character, at
-once prejudices the physiognomist against him. Belok’s comrades have
-reason to quote the Arab saw, “Defend me from the beggar become wealthy,
-and from the slave become a freeman!” He has invested his advance of
-salary in a youth; and the latter serves and works for the rest of the
-mess, who must patiently and passively endure the insolence of the
-master for fear of losing the offices of the man. After the fashion of a
-certain sort of fools, he applies the whole of his modicum of wit to
-mischief-making, and he succeeds admirably where better men, whose
-thoughts attempt a wider range, would fail. By his exertions the Baloch
-became, in point of social intercourse, not unlike the passengers of a
-ship bound on a long voyage: after the first month the society divides
-itself into two separate and adverse cliques; after the second it breaks
-up into little knots; and after the third it is a chequer-work of pairs
-and solitaires. Arrived at the “Pond of Ugogo,” I was compelled to
-address an official letter to Zanzibar, requesting the recal of Belok
-and his coadjutor in mischief, Khudabakhsh.
-
-Abdullah is the type of the respectable, in fact, of the good young man.
-It is really pathetic to hear him recount, with accents broken by
-emotion, the “tale full of waters of the eye,”--the parting of an only
-son, who was led away to an African grave, from the aged widow his
-mamma; to listen to her excellent advice, and to his no less excellent
-resolves. He is capable of calling his bride elect, were such article a
-subject ever to be mentioned amongst Moslems, “his choicest blessing.”
-With an edifying mingling of piety and discipline, he never neglects the
-opportunity of standing in prayer behind the Jemadar Mallok, whose
-elevation to a superior grade--_honneur oblige!_--has compelled him to
-rub up a superficial acquaintance with the forms of devotion. Virtue in
-the abstract I revere; in the concrete I sometimes suspect. The good
-young man soon justified this suspicion by repeatedly applying to Said
-bin Salim for beads, in my name, which he converted to his own purposes.
-
-Of Darwaysh little need be said. He is a youth about twenty-two years
-old, with a bulging brow, a pair of ferret-eyes, a “peaky” nose, a thin
-chin; in fact, with a face the quintessence of curiosity. He is the
-“brother”--that is to say, the spy--of the Jemadar, and his principal
-peculiarity is a repugnance to obeying an order because it is an order.
-With this individual I had at first many a passage of words. Presently
-prostrated in body and mind by severe disease, he obtained relief from
-European drugs; and from that time until the end of the journey, he
-conducted himself with a certain stiffness and decorum which contrasted
-pleasantly enough with the exceeding “bounce” of his earlier career.
-
-The Seedy Jelai calls himself a Baloch, though palpably the veriest
-descendant of Ham. He resents with asperity the name of “Nigger,” or
-“Nig”--Jupiter Tonans has heard of the offensive dissyllable, which
-was a household word before the days of the Indian mutiny, but has
-he heard of the more offensive monosyllable which was forced upon
-the abbreviating Anglo-Saxon by the fatal necessity of requiring
-to repeat the word so frequently? Jelai clothes his long lank
-legs--cucumber-shinned and bony-kneed--in calico tights, which display
-the full deformity of those members; and taking a pride in the length of
-his mustachios, which distinguishes him from his African-born brethren,
-he twists them _en croc_ like a hidalgo in the days of Gil Blas. The
-Seedy, judging from analogy, ought to be brave, but he is not. On the
-occasion of alarm in the mountains of Usagara, he privily proposed to
-his comrades to “bolt” and leave us. Moreover, on the “Sea of Ujiji,”
-where he was chosen as an escort, he ignobly deserted me.
-
-Khudabakhsh was formed by nature to be the best man of the party; he has
-transformed himself into the worst. A man of broad and stalwart frame,
-with stern countenance, and a quietness of demeanour which usually
-argues _sang-froid_ and persistency, his presence is in all points
-soldier-like and prepossessing. But his temper is unmanageable: he
-enters into a quarrel when certain of discomfiture; he is utterly
-reckless,--on one occasion he amused himself by blowing a charge of
-gunpowder into the calves of African warriors who were dancing in front
-of him;--and lastly, his innate propensity for backbiting, intrigue, and
-opposition to all authority, render him a dangerous member of the
-Expedition. He herds with Belok, whose tastes lie in the same line: he
-is the head and front of all mischief, and presently his presence will
-become insupportable.
-
-Musa, a tall, gaunt, and dark-brown old man, is the assistant Rish
-Safid, or greybeard; in fact, the complement of “Greybeard Mohammed.”
-After a residence of twenty years at Mombasah, he has clean forgotten
-Persian; he speaks only a debased Mekrani dialect, and the Kisawahili,
-which, as usual with his tribe, he prefers. An old soldier, he
-compensates for want of youth and vigour by artfulness; an old
-traveller--nothing better distinguishes in these lands the veteran of
-the road from the griffin or greenhorn, than the careful and systematic
-consideration of his comforts--he carries the lightest matchlock, he
-starts in the cool of the morning, he presses forward to secure the best
-quarters, and throughout he thinks only of himself. His character has a
-want of wrath, which, despite his white hairs, causes him to be little
-regarded. Greybeard Mohammed is considered a fool; Greybeard Musa, an
-old woman. Yet he troubles himself little about the opinions of his
-fellows, he looks well after his morning and evening meals, his ghee,
-his pipe, and his sleeping mat; and knowing that he will last out all
-the novices, with enviable philosophy he casts ambition to the winds.
-
-Gul Mohammed is the most civilised man of the party. He has straight and
-handsome features, of the old Grecian type, a reddish-brown skin--the
-skin by excellence--and a Central-Asian beard of largest dimensions. His
-mind is as civilised as his body; he is an adept after the fashion of
-his tribe, in divinity especially, in medicine and natural history; and
-when landing at Marka, he actually took the trouble to visit, for
-curiosity, the Juba River. Unfortunately, “Gul Mohammed” is a mixture of
-Baloch mountaineer-blood with the Sindhian of the plain, and the cross
-is, throughout the East, renowned for representing the worst points of
-both progenitors. Gul Mohammed is brave and treacherous, fair-spoken and
-detractive, honourable and dishonest, good-tempered and bad-hearted.
-
-Of the Baloch remain Riza, and Hudul, the tailor-boy: the former is a
-kind of Darwaysh, utterly insignificant, but by no means so disagreeable
-as his fellows: the only marking corporeal peculiarity of the latter is
-a deficiency of skin; his mouth appears ever open, and his teeth
-resemble those of an old rabbit. His mental organisation has its _petite
-pointe_, its little twist; he is under the constant delusion that those
-who speak in unknown tongues are employed specially in abusing him. His
-first complaint was against the Goanese: as he could not understand a
-word of their language, it was dismissed with some derision; he then
-charged me to his comrades with his normal grievance, and in due time he
-felt aggrieved by my companion.
-
-A proper regard to precedence induces me now to marshal the “sons of
-Ramji,” who acted as interpreters, guides, and war-men. They were armed
-with the old “Tower-musket,” which, loaded with nearly an ounce of
-powder, they never allowed to quit the hand; and with those antiquated
-German-cavalry sabres which find their way over all the East: their
-accoutrements were small leathern boxes, strapped to the waist, and huge
-cow-horns, for ammunition. The most part called themselves Muinyi
-(master), the title of an African freeman, because they had been
-received in pawn by the Banyan Ramji from their parents or uncles, who
-had forgotten to redeem the pledge, and they still claimed the honour of
-noble birth. Of these there were eight men under their Mtu Mku, or chief
-man, Kidogo--Anglicè, Mr. Little. Kidogo had preceded the Expedition,
-escorting the detachment of thirty-six Wanyamwezi porters to Zungomero,
-and he possessed great influence over his brother slaves, who all seemed
-to admire and to be proud of him. He was by no means a common man.
-“Natione magis quam ratione barbarus;” he had a fixed and obstinate
-determination: amongst these puerile, futile African souls he was
-exceptional as “a sage Sciote or a green horse.” His point of honour
-consisted in the resolve that his words should be held as Median laws,
-and he had, as the Africans say, a “large head,” namely, abundant
-self-esteem, that blessed quality which makes man independent of his
-fellows. Muinyi Kidogo is a short, thin, coal-black person, with a
-something arguing gentle blood in his tribe, the Wadoe Cannibals; he has
-a peaked beard, a bulging brow, close thin lips, a peculiar wall-eyed
-roll of glance, and a look fixed, when unobserved, with a manner of
-fascination which men felt. His attitude is always humble and
-deprecatory, he drops his chin upon the collar of reflection, he rarely
-speaks, save in dulcet tones, low, plaintive, and modulated; yet
-agreeing in every conceivable particular, he never fails to introduce a
-most pertinacious “but,” which brings him back precisely to his own
-starting-point. The vehemence of his manner, and the violence of his
-temper, win for him the fears of the porters; having a wife and children
-in Unyamwezi, he knows well the languages, the manners, and the customs
-of the people; he never hesitates, when necessary, to enforce his mild
-commands by a merciless application of the staff, or to air his blade
-and to fly at the recusant like a wild cat. In such moods, he is always
-seized by his friends, and led forcibly away, as if dangerous. To insure
-some regularity on the road, I ordered him to meet Said bin Salim and
-Muinyi Wazira every evening at my tent, for a “Mashauri,” or palaver,
-about the next day’s march and halt. The measure was rendered futile by
-Kidogo, who soon contrived so to browbeat the others, that they would
-not venture an opinion in his presence. As a chief, he would have been
-in the right position; as a slave, he was falsely placed, because
-determined not to obey. He lost no time in demanding that he and his
-brethren should be considered Askári, soldiers, whose sole duty it was
-to carry a gun; and he took the first opportunity of declaring that his
-men should not be under the direction of the Jemadar. Having received
-for answer that we could not all be Sultans, he retired with a
-“Ngema”--a “very well,” accompanied by a glance that boded little good.
-From that hour the “sons of Ramji” went wrong. Before, servilely civil,
-they waxed insolent; they learned their power--without them I must have
-returned to the coast--and they presumed upon it. They assumed the
-“swashing and martial outside” of valiant men: they disdained to be
-“mechanical;” they swore not to carry burdens; they objected to loading
-and leading the asses; they would not bring up articles left behind in
-the camp or on the road; they claimed the sole right of buying
-provisions; they arrogated to themselves supreme command over the
-porters; and they pilfered from the loads whenever they wanted the
-luxuries of meat and beer; they drank deep; and on more than one
-occasion they endangered the caravan by their cavalier proceedings with
-the fair sex. It was “water-painting” to complain; they had one short
-reply to all objections, namely, the threat of desertion. Preferring
-anything to risking the success of the Expedition, I was reduced to the
-bitter alternative of long-suffering, but it was with the hope of a
-_revanche_ at some future time. The suffering was perhaps not wholly
-patient. Orientals advise the traveller “to keep his manliness in his
-pocket for braving it and ruffling at home.” Such, however, is not
-exactly the principle or the practice of an Englishman, who recognises a
-primary duty of commanding respect for himself, for his successors, and
-for the noble name of his nation. On the return of the Expedition,
-Kidogo proved himself a “serviceable villain,” but an extortionate;
-anything committed to him was, as the Arabs say, in “ape’s custody,” and
-the only remedy was to remove him from all power over the outfit.
-
-Under the great Kidogo were the Muinyi Mboni, Buyuni, Hayja, and Jako;
-these four took precedence as being the sons of Diwans, whilst the
-commonalty was represented by the Muinyi Shehe, Mbaruko, Wulaydi, and
-Khamisi.
-
-The donkey-men, five in number, had been hired at the rate of thirty
-dollars per head for the whole time of exploration. Their names were
-Musangesi, Sangora, Nasibu, Hasani, and Saramalla. Of their natures
-little need be said, except that they were a trifle less manageable than
-the “sons of Ramji:” perfect models of servile humanity, obstinate as
-asses and vicious as mules, gluttonous and lazy, noisy and overbearing,
-insolent and quarrelsome as slaves.
-
-Lowest in rank, and little above the asses even in their own estimation,
-are the thirty-six Wanyamwezi Pagazi, or porters, who formed the
-transport-corps. Concerning these men and their burdens, a few words of
-explanation will be necessary.
-
-In collecting a caravan the first step is to “make,” as the people say,
-a “Khambi,” or kraal. The Mtongi, or proprietor of the goods, announces,
-by pitching his tent in the open, and by planting his flag, that he is
-ready to travel; this is done because amongst the Wanyamwezi a porter
-who persuades others to enlist does it under pain of prosecution and
-fine-paying if a death or an accident ensue. Petty chiefs, however, and
-their kinsmen will bring with them in hope of promotion a number of
-recruits, sometimes all the male adults of a village, who then recognise
-them as headmen. The next step is to choose a Kirangozi or guide. Guides
-are not a peculiar class; any individual of influence and local
-knowledge who has travelled the road before is eligible to the post. The
-Kirangozi must pay his followers to acknowledge his supremacy, and his
-Mganga or medicine-man for providing him with charms and prophylactics.
-On the march he precedes his porters, and any one who breaks this rule
-is liable to a fine. He often undergoes abuse for losing the way, for
-marching too far or not far enough, for not halting at the proper place,
-and for not setting out at the right time. In return he enjoys the empty
-circumstance of command, and the solid advantage of better food and a
-present, which, however, is optional, at the end of the journey: he
-carries a lighter load, and his emoluments frequently enable him to be
-attended by a slave. The only way of breaking the perverse and
-headstrong herd into a semblance of discipline, is to support the
-Kirangozi at all conjunctures, and to make him, if possible, dole out
-the daily rations and portion the occasional presents of meat.
-
-At the preliminary Khambi the Mtongi superintends the distribution of
-each Muzigo or load. The Pagazi or porters are mostly lads, lank and
-light, with the lean and clean legs of leopards. Sometimes, however, a
-herculean form is found with the bullet-head, the broad bull-like neck,
-the deep wide chest, and the large strong extremities that characterise
-the Hammal of Stamboul. There is usually a sprinkling of greybeards, who
-might be expected, as the proverb is, to be “leaning against the wall.”
-Amongst these races, however, the older men, who have learned to husband
-their strength, fare better than their juniors, and the Africans, like
-the Arabs, object to a party which does not contain veterans in beard,
-age, and experience. In portioning the loads there is always much
-trouble: each individual has his favourite fancy, and must choose, or,
-at any rate, must consent to his burden. To load porters properly is a
-work of skill. They will accept at the hand of a man who knows their
-nature a weight which, if proposed by a stranger, would be rejected with
-grunts of disgust. They hate the inconvenience of boxes, unless light
-enough to be carried at both ends of a “Banghi”-pole by one man, or
-heavy enough to be slung between two porters. The burden must never be
-under a fair standard, especially when of that description that it
-decreases by expenditure towards the end of the journey; a lightly-laden
-man not only becomes lazy, he also makes his fellows discontented. The
-nature of the load, however, causes an inequality of weight. Cloth is
-tightly rolled up in the form of a huge bolster, five feet long by
-eighteen to twenty-four inches in diameter, protected against wear and
-weather by Makanda or coarse matting of brab-leaf, and corded over. This
-bundle is fastened, for the purpose of preserving its shape and for
-convenience of stacking, in a cradle of three or more flexible branches,
-cut from a small tree below the place of junction, barked and trimmed,
-laid along the length of the load, and confined at the open end by a
-lashing of fibre-rope. Besides his weapons and marching kit, a man will
-carry a pack of two Frasilah or seventy pounds, and this perhaps is the
-maximum. Beads are placed in long, narrow bags of domestics, matted,
-corded, and cradled in sticks like cloth; being a less elastic load,
-they are more difficult to carry, and therefore seldom exceed fifty
-pounds. Brass, and other wires, are carried in daur, khata, or circles,
-lashed to both ends of a pole, which is generally the large midrib of a
-palm-frond, with a fork cut in its depth at one extremity to form a base
-for the load when stacked, and provided at the point of junction with a
-Kitambara or pad of grass, rag, or leather. Wire is the lightest, as
-ivory is the heaviest, of loads. The African porter will carry only the
-smallest burdens upon his head, and the custom is mostly confined to
-women and children. The merchants of course carry nothing but
-themselves, except in extreme cases; but when the sudden sickness or the
-evasion of a porter endangers the safety of his load, they shoulder it
-without hesitation. The chief proprietor usually follows his caravan,
-accompanied by some of his partners and armed slaves, to prevent the
-straggling which may lead to heavy loss; he therefore often endures the
-heat and tedium of the road longer than the rest of his party.
-
-The loads of the Pagazi, it has appeared, are composed of beads, cloth,
-and wire, which in this land of “round trade” or barter, supply the
-wants of a circulating medium, and they severally represent copper,
-silver, and gold. For a detailed notice, the reader is referred to the
-appendix; in this place a few general remarks will suffice to set before
-him the somewhat complicated use of the articles.
-
-Of beads there are about 400 varieties, some of which have each three or
-four different names. The cheapest, which form the staple of commerce,
-are the Hafizi, Khanyera or Ushanga Waupe, a round white porcelain, the
-price of which averages at Zanzibar 1 dollar per 5 or 6 lbs.
-avoirdupois. The most expensive are the Samsam or Samesame, also called
-Joho (scarlet cloth), Kimara-p’hamba (food-finishers), because a man
-will part with his dinner to obtain them, and Kifunjyá-mji
-(town-breakers), because the women will ruin themselves and their
-husbands for them: these are the small coral-bead, scarlet enamelled
-upon a white ground, they are of fifteen different sizes, and the value
-at Zanzibar is from 13 to 16 dollars per 35 lbs. Beads are purchased
-from the Banyan monopolisers unstrung, and are afterwards mounted by the
-merchant upon T’hembe, or threads of palm-fibre; much depends for
-success in sale upon the regularity and the attractiveness of the line.
-The principal divisions are the bitil and the khete, which may represent
-the farthing and the penny. The former is a single length from the tip
-of the index to the wrist; the latter, which comprises four of the
-former, is a double length round the thumb to the elbow-bone, or what is
-much the same, twice the circumference of the throat. Ten khete compose
-the fundo or knot, which is used in the larger purchases, and of these
-from two to three were daily expended in our small expenses by the
-Goanese servants, whilst the usual compensation for rations to an
-African is a single khete. The utmost economy should be exercised in
-beads: apparently exhaustless a large store goes but a little way, and a
-man’s load rarely outlasts a month. It is difficult to divine what
-becomes of these ornaments: for centuries ton after ton has been
-imported into the country, they are by no means perishable substances,
-and the people carry, like the Indians, their wealth upon their persons.
-Yet not a third of the population was observed to wear any considerable
-quantity; possibly the excessive demand in the lands outlying direct
-intercourse with the coast, tends to disperse them throughout the vast
-terra incognita of the central African basin.
-
-The African preserves the instincts of infancy in the higher races. He
-astonished the enlightened De Gama some centuries ago by rejecting with
-disdain jewels, gold, and silver, whilst he caught greedily at beads and
-other baubles, as a child snatches at a new plaything. To the present
-day he is the same. There is something painfully ludicrous in the
-expression of countenance, the intense and all-absorbing admiration, and
-the greedy wistfulness with which he contemplates the rubbish. Yet he
-uses it as a toy: after sacrificing perhaps his goat or his grain to
-become the happy possessor of a khete, he will hang it round his neck
-for a few days, and then, child-like, weary of the acquisition, he will
-do his best to exchange it for another. In all bargains beads must be
-thrown in, especially where women are concerned: their sisters of
-civilisation would reproach themselves with an unconscious lapse into
-the “nil admirari” doctrines so hateful to the muscular system of the
-age, and with a cold indifference to the charms of diamonds and pearls,
-could they but witness the effect of a string of scarlet porcelains upon
-the high-born dames in Central Africa.
-
-The cloths imported into East Africa are of three kinds, Merkani,
-Kaniki, and “cloths with names.”
-
-“Merkani,” in which we detect the African corruption of American, is the
-article “domestics”--unbleached shirting and sheeting from the mills
-near Salem. Kaniki, is the common Indian indigo dyed cotton. “Cloths
-with names,” as they are called by the Africans, are Arab and Indian
-checks, and coloured goods, of cotton or silk mixed with cotton. Of
-these the most common is the Barsati, a dark blue cotton cloth with a
-broad red stripe, which representing the dollar in the interior is
-useful as presents to chiefs. Of double value is the Dabwani, made at
-Maskat, a small blue and white check, with a quarter breadth of red
-stripe, crossed with white and yellow: this showy article is invariably
-demanded by the more powerful Sultans for themselves and their wives,
-whilst they divide the Merkani and Kaniki, which composes their
-Honga--“blackmail” or dash--amongst their followers.
-
-The people of East Africa, when first visited by the Arabs, were
-satisfied with the coarsest and flimsiest Kaniki imported by the Banyans
-from Cutch. When American merchants settled at Zanzibar, Kaniki yielded
-before the advance of “Merkani,” which now supplies the markets from
-Abyssinia to the Mozambique. But the wild men are fast losing their
-predilection for a stuff which is neither comfortable nor durable, and
-in many regions the tribes satisfied with goat-skins and tree barks,
-prefer to invest their capital in the more attractive beads and wire. It
-would evidently be advantageous if England or her colonies could
-manufacture an article better suited to the wants of the country than
-that now in general use; but as long as the Indian short-stapled cotton
-must be used, there is little probability of her competing with the
-produce of the New World.
-
-In Eastern Africa cotton cloth is used only for wear. The popular
-article is a piece of varying breadth but always of four cubits, or six
-feet, in length: the braça of Portuguese Africa, it is called by the
-Arabs, shukkah, by the Wasawahili, unguo, and in the far interior upande
-or lupande. It is used as a loin-wrapper, and is probably the first
-costume of Eastern Africa and of Arabia. The plate borrowed from
-Montfaucon’s edition of the “Topographia Christiana,” by Dr. Vincent
-(Part I. Appendix to the Periplus) shows the Shukkah, to be the general
-dress of Ethiopians, as it was of the Egyptians, and the spear their
-weapon. The use of the Shukkah during the Meccan pilgrimage, when the
-devotees cast off such innovations as coats and breeches for the
-national garb of their ancestors, proves its antiquity throughout the
-regions eastward of the Red Sea. On the African coast the Shukkah
-Merkani is worth about 0·25 dollars = 1_s._ 0½_d._, in the interior it
-rises to the equivalent of a dollar (4_s._ _2d._) and even higher. The
-Kaniki is but little cheaper than the Merkani, when purchased upon the
-sea-board; its increase of value in the interior, however, is by no
-means in proportion to its prime cost, and by some tribes it is wholly
-rejected. A double length of Shukkah, or twelve feet, the article worn
-by women who can afford it, is called a Doti, and corresponds with the
-Tobe of Abyssinia and of the Somali country. The whole piece of Merkani,
-which contains from seven to eleven Doti, is termed a Jurah or Gorah.
-
-After beads and piece-goods, the principal imports into Eastern Africa,
-especially on the northern lines and in the western portion of the great
-central route, are Masango or brass wires of large sizes, Nos. 4 and 5.
-They are purchased at Zanzibar, when cheap, at 12, and when dear at 16,
-dollars per Frasilah of 35 lbs. When imported up-country the Frasilah is
-divided into three or four large coils, called by the Arabs “daur,” and
-by the Africans “khata:” the object is convenience of attachment to the
-porters’ banghy-poles. Arrived at Unyanyembe they are converted by
-artisans into the kitindi, or coil-bracelet, a peculiarly African
-decoration. It is a system of concentric circles extending from the
-wrist to the elbow; at both extremities it is made to bulge out for
-grace and for allowing the joints to play; and the elasticity of the
-wire keeps it in its place. It weighs nearly 3 lbs., yet--“vanity knows
-no sore”--the women of some tribes will wear four of these bulky
-decorations upon their arms and legs. It is mostly a feminine ornament.
-In the Lake Regions, however, men assume the full-sized armlet, and in
-the mountains of Usagara their wrists, arms, and ankles are often
-decorated with half and quarter lengths, which being without terminal
-bulges, appear to compress the limbs painfully. At Unyanyembe the value
-of a kitindi varies from two to four shukkah; at Ujiji, where the
-ornament is in demand it rises to four or five.
-
-The remainder of the live stock forming the _personnel_ of the caravan
-is composed of asses. At Zanzibar I had bought five riding animals to
-mount the chiefs of the party, including Said bin Salim and the Goanese.
-The price varied from fifteen to forty dollars. Of the twenty-nine asses
-used for carriage, only twenty remained when the muster was made at
-Zungomero, and the rapid thinning of their numbers by loss, death and
-accident began to suggest uncomfortable ideas.
-
-The following “Equipment of the Expedition,” sent by me to Mr. Francis
-Galton, the South African traveller, and bearing date, “Camp Zungomero
-in Khutu, Sunday, 2nd August, 1857,” is here republished: it will assist
-the reader in picturing to himself the mass of material which I am about
-to drag over the mountains.
-
-_Provisions, &c._--1 dozen brandy (to be followed by 4 dozen more); 1
-box cigars; 5 boxes tea (each 6 lbs.); a little coffee; 2 bottles curry
-stuff, besides ginger, rock and common salt, red and black pepper, one
-bottle each, pickles, soap, and spices; 20 lbs. pressed vegetables; 1
-bottle vinegar; 2 bottles oil; 20 lbs. sugar (honey is procurable in the
-country).
-
-_Arms and Ammunition_, including 2 smooth bores, 3 rifles, a Colt’s
-carbine, and 3 revolvers, spare fittings, &c., and 3 swords. Each gun
-has its leather bag with three compartments, for powder-flask, ball,
-caps, patches, &c. 100 lbs. gunpowder (in 2 safety copper magazines and
-others); 60 lbs. shot; 380 lbs. lead bullets, cast of hardened material
-at the Arsenal, Bombay, placed in boxes 40 lbs. each for convenience of
-carriage, also to serve as specimen boxes, and screwed down to prevent
-pilfering; 20,000 copper caps; wadding.
-
-The Baloch are armed with matchlocks, shields, swords, daggers and
-knives. They have for ammunition--40 lbs. gunpowder (4 kegs); 1000 lead
-bullets; 1000 flints for slaves’ muskets, and are to be followed by
-about an equal quantity of ammunition.
-
-_Camp Furniture._--1 sepoy’s rowtie; 1 small (gable-shaped) tent of two
-sails joined, to cover and shelter property in this land of perpetual
-rains; 1 table and chair; 1 tin Crimean canteen, with knives and forks,
-kettle, cooking-pots, &c.; bedding, painted tarpaulin cover, 2 large
-cotton pillows for stuffing birds, 1 air pillow, 2 waterproof blankets
-(most useful), 1 Maltese blanket (remarkably good), and 2 other
-blankets; 1 cork bed, with 2 pillows, 3 blankets, and mosquito net. The
-Goanese have thick cotton padded mattresses, pillows, and blankets, and
-all the servants have some kind of bedding. 3 solid leather portmanteaus
-for clothes and books; 1 box, like an Indian petarah, for books; 1
-patent leather bag for books, washing materials, diaries, drawing-books,
-&c.; 1 small couriers’ bag, for instruments, &c.; 5 canvas bags for kit
-generally; 3 mats, used as carpets.
-
-_Instruments._--1 lever watch; 2 chronometers; 2 prismatic compasses,
-slings, and stands; 1 ship’s azimuth compass; 2 pocket compasses; 1
-pocket thermometer; 1 portable sun-dial; 1 rain gauge; 1 evaporating
-dish; 2 sextants and boxes, with canvas bags to be slung over porters’
-shoulders; 2 artificial horizons (with a little extra mercury, to be
-followed by more); 1 pocket lens; 1 mountain barometer lent by Bombay
-Geographical Society (very delicate); 3 thermometers; 1 measuring tape
-(100 ft.); 1 sounding lead; 2 boiling thermometers; 1 box of
-mathematical instruments; 1 glass; 1 telescope; 2 ft. rule with brass
-slide; 1 pocket pedometer by Dixie; 1 parallel ruler.
-
-_Stationery._--Foolscap paper; 1 ream common paper; 6 blank books; 3
-Letts’ diaries; 2 dozen pencils; 6 pieces caoutchouc; 6 metallic note
-books; 3 memorandum ditto; 1 box wafers and sealing wax; 2 field books;
-steel pens; quill ditto; ink powder which makes up well without acid; 3
-bottles ink; 1 bottle native ink; 2 sets meteorological tables, blank; 4
-tin cylinders for papers (very bad, everything rusts in them); Nautical
-Almanacs for 1857 and 1858; charts, Mr. Cooley’s maps; “Mombas mission
-map”; skeleton maps; table of stars; account book; portfolio; wooden and
-tin cylinders for pens, &c.
-
-_Tools._--1 large turnscrew; 1 hand saw; 1 hammer; 20 lbs. nails; 1 hand
-vice; 1 hone; 9 hatchets (as a rule every porter carries an axe); 2
-files; 9 Jembe or native hoe; 9 Mas’ha or native dibbles; 1 cold chisel;
-1 heavy hammer; 1 pair pincers. To be followed by 1 bench vice; 1 hand
-ditto; 12 gimlets of sizes; 1 18-inch stone grinder, with spindle and
-handle; 6 splitting axes; 12 augers of sizes; 2 sets centre-bits, with
-stock; 12 chisels; 4 mortise chisels; 2 sets drills; 24 saw files; 6
-files of sorts; 4 gouges of sizes; 50 lbs. iron nails; 2 planes, with 2
-spare irons; 3 hand saws; screws. These things were expected to be
-useful at the lakes, where carpenters are in demand.
-
-_Clothing, Bedding, and Shoes._--Shirts, flannel and cotton; turbans and
-thick felt caps for the head. (N.B. not looking forward to so long a
-journey, we left Zanzibar without a new outfit; consequently we were in
-tatters before the end, and in a climate where flannel fights half the
-battle of life against death, my companion was compelled to invest
-himself in overalls of American domestics, and I was forced to cut up
-blankets into coats and wrappers. The Goanese also had laden themselves
-with rags which would have been refused by a Jew; they required to be
-re-clothed in Kaniki, or blue cotton. African travel is no favourable
-opportunity for wearing out old clothes; the thorny jungles, and the
-practice of packing up clothes wet render a double outfit necessary for
-long journeys. The second should be carried packed up in
-tin--flannel-shirts, trousers and stocks, at least six of each,--not to
-be opened till required.
-
-The best bedding in this country would be a small horsehair mattrass
-with two blankets, one thick the other thin, and mosquito curtains that
-would pack into the pillow. A simple carpet-bag without leathern or
-other adjuncts, should contain the travelling clothes, and all the
-bedding should roll up into a single bundle, covered with a piece of
-waterproof canvass, and tightly bound with stout straps.
-
-As regards shoes, the best would be ammunition boots for walking and
-jack boots for riding. They must be of light colour, and at least one
-size too large in England; they should be carefully protected from
-external air which is ruinous to leather, and they must be greased from
-time to time,--with fat not with oil--otherwise they will soon become so
-hard and dry, that it is impossible to draw them on unless treated after
-the Indian plan, viz. dipped in hot water and stretched with a stuffing
-of straw.)
-
-_Books and Drawing Materials._--Norie; Bowdich; Thompson’s ‘Lunar
-Tables;’ Gordon’s ‘Time Tables;’ Galton’s ‘Art of Travel;’ Buist’s
-‘Manual of Observation;’ Jackson’s ‘What to Observe;’ Jackson’s
-‘Military Surveying;’ ‘Admiralty Manual;’ Cuvier’s ‘Animal Life;’
-Prichard’s ‘History of Man;’ Keith’s ‘Trigonometry;’ Krapf’s ‘Kisuaheli
-Grammar;’ Krapf’s ‘Kinika Testament;’ Amharic Grammar (Isenberg’s);
-Belcher’s ‘Mast Head Angles;’ Cooley’s ‘Geography of N’yassi;’ and other
-miscellaneous works; 1 paint-box complete, soft water colours; 1 small
-ditto, with Chinese ink, sepia and Prussian blue; 2 drawing books; 1
-large drawing book; 1 camera lucida.
-
-_Portable domestic Medicine Chest._--Vilely made. Some medicines for
-natives in packages. Application was made to Zanzibar for more quinine,
-some morphia, Warburg’s drops, citric acid, and chiretta root.
-
-_Miscellaneous._--10 pieces scarlet broad-cloth for presents (3
-expended); 3 knives for servants; 4 umbrellas; 1 hank salmon gut; 1
-dozen twisted gut; 1 lb. bees’ wax; courier’s box with brass clasps to
-carry sundries on the road; 2 dozen penknives; 2000 fishing hooks; 42
-bundles fishing line; 2 lanterns (policeman’s bull’s eye and common
-horn); 2 iron ladles for casting lead; 1 housewife, with buttons,
-needles, thread, silk, pins, &c.; 12 needles (sailor’s) and palms; 2
-pair scissors; 2 razors; 1 hone; 2 pipes; 1 tobacco pouch; 1 cigar case;
-7 canisters of snuff; 1 filter; 1 pocket filter; 1 looking-glass; 1
-small tin dressing-case, with soap, nail-brush and tooth-brush (very
-useful); brushes and combs; 1 union jack; arsenical paste for specimens;
-10 steels and flints.
-
-Life at Zungomero I have said was the acme of discomfort. The weather
-was, as usual at the base of the mountains, execrable; pelting showers
-descended in a succession, interrupted only by an occasional burst of
-fiery sunshine which extracted steam from the thick covert of grass,
-bush, and tree. The party dispersing throughout the surrounding
-villages, in which it was said about 1000 travellers were delayed by the
-inundations, drank beer, smoked bhang, quarrelled amongst themselves,
-and by their insolence and violence caused continual complaints on the
-part of the villagers. Both the Goanese being prostrated with mild
-modifications of “yellow jack,” I was obliged to admit them into the
-hut, which was already sufficiently populated with pigeons, rats, and
-flies by day, and with mosquitos, bugs, and fleas, by night. At length
-weary of waiting the arrival of the twenty-two promised porters, we
-prepared our papers, which I committed to the confidential slave of a
-coast Diwan, here dwelling as caravan-touter, for his uncle Ukwere of
-Kaole. His name was somewhat peculiar, Chomwi la Mtu Mku Wambele, or the
-“Headman Great Man of Precedence;”--these little Jugurthas have all the
-titles of emperors, with the actual power of country squires;--he never
-allowed himself to appear in public sober, and to judge from the list of
-stations with which he obliged me--of eighteen not one was correct--I
-hesitated to entrust his slave with reports and specimens. But the
-Headman Great Man of Precedence did as he promised to do, and as his
-charge arrived safely, I here make to him the “amende honorable.”
-
-[Illustration: A village in K’hutu.
-
-The Silk Cotton Tree.]
-
-[Illustration: Sycomore in the Dhun of Ugogi.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VI.
-
-WE CROSS THE EAST AFRICAN GHAUTS.
-
-
-On the 7th August, 1857, the Expedition left Zungomero. We were martyred
-by miasma; my companion and I were so feeble, that we could scarcely sit
-our asses, and weakness had almost deprived us of the sense of hearing.
-It was a day of severe toil. We loaded with difficulty, for the slaves
-and porters did not assemble till past 8 A.M., and instead of applying
-for their loads to Said bin Salim, every man ran off with the lightest
-burden or the easiest ass.
-
-[Illustration: THE EAST AFRICAN GHAUTS.]
-
-From Central Zungomero to the nearest ascent of the Usagara Mountains is
-a march of five hours. The route, emerging from the cultivated
-districts, leaves to the right the Wigo Hills, so called, probably, from
-the fishing weirs in the stagnant waters below, and in the Mgeta River,
-which flows through the plain. On the left, and distant four or five
-miles, is a straggling line of low cones: at the foot of one, somewhat
-larger than its neighbours, rises the thermal spring known to the people
-as the Maji ya W’heta, the Geyser, jetting-water, or _fontaine qui
-bouille_. Its position is a gentle slope between the hill-base and a
-dwarf Savannah which is surrounded by high walls of jungly forest, and
-the water-shed is from south to north. The hot water boils and bubbles
-out of a white sand, here and there stained and encrusted with oxide of
-iron. Upon the surface lie caked and scaly sheets of calcareous tufa,
-expressed by the spring, and around it are erratic boulders blackened
-probably by the thermal fumes. The earth is dark, sometimes sandy, and
-sprinkled over with fragments of quartzite and sandstone; in other
-places a screen of brab-tree backs a bold expanse of ground,
-treacherous, boggy, and unstable as water. The area is about 200 feet in
-diameter, and the centre of ebullition is unapproachable, owing to the
-heat and the instability of the soil. According to the guides, it is
-subject to occasional eruptions, when the water bursts out with
-violence, and fragments of lime are flung high in the air. Animals are
-said to refuse it, and tales are told of wild beasts having been bogged
-in the seething mire.
-
-With the Mgeta thrown on the left hand, we passed by a path almost
-invisible, through dense grass and trees, and presently we entered the
-luxuriant cultivation surrounding the westernmost villages of K’hutu. As
-the land beyond this point, for three long marches, lies barren, the
-slaves and porters had comfortably housed themselves. The prospect of
-another night in the plains made me desperate; I dislodged them, and
-persuaded them to advance once more. The settlements were of the most
-miserable description; many were composed of a few sticks lashed
-together at the top, and loosely covered with a few armfuls of
-holcus-cane. Here we sighted the cocoa-tree for the last time. The rats
-were busy in the fields, and the plundered peasants were digging them
-out for food. At almost every corner of the deeply-pitted path stood a
-mtego, or trap for small birds, a cage of rush or split bamboo planted
-in the ground near some corn, where a boy lies waiting till the prey
-nibbles at the bait, and then creeping up, bars with his hand the little
-doorway left in one of the sides. Beyond the villages the path forded
-six times the sandy bed of the Mgeta, whose steep and slippery banks
-supported dense screens of shrub and grass. Beyond the sixth passage,
-the road falls into the gravelly river-shoals, with the stream flowing
-in the other half of the course, under well-wooded masses of primitive
-hill. After again thrice fording the cold and muddy water, which even in
-the dry season is here ankle, there foot-deep, the road passed some
-clearings where porcupines and the African red squirrel, a sturdy little
-animal, with a long thick fur of dark brown, shot with green on the
-back, and a bright red waistcoat, muzzle, and points, were observed.
-About noon we diverged a few yards from the Mgeta, and ascended the
-incline of the first gradient in Usagara, rising about 300 feet from the
-plain below. This, the frontier of the second region, or ghauts, and the
-debris encumbering the lowest escarpment, is called Mzizi Mdogo, or the
-“Little Tamarind,” to distinguish it from the “Great Tamarind” station
-which lies beyond. There was no vestige of building upon the spot--no
-sight nor sound of man--the blood-feud and the infernal slave-trade had
-made a howling desert of the land. We found, however, a tattered kraal
-erected by the last passing caravan, and, spent with fatigue, we threw
-ourselves on the short grass to rest. The porters and the asses did not
-appear till the evening, when it became apparent that two of the latter
-had been lost by their drivers, Hayja and Khamisi, sons of Ramji, who
-preferred sitting in the shade, and chatting with passing caravans, to
-the sore task of doing their duty. The animals were recovered on the
-morrow, by sundry parties sent in search. During the fordings of the
-Mgeta, however, they had not been unpacked; our salt and sugar,
-therefore, had melted away; soap, cigars, mustard, and arsenical paste,
-were in pulp; the tea was spoiled, the compressed vegetables presently
-became musty, and the gunpowder in a fire-proof copper magazine was
-caked like stale bread.
-
-There was a wondrous change of climate at Mzizi Mdogo; strength and
-health returned as if by magic; even the Goanese shook off the obstinate
-bilious remittents of Zungomero. Truly delicious was the escape from the
-nebulous skies, the fog-driving gusts, the pelting rain, the clammy
-mists veiling a gross growth of fetor, the damp raw cold, rising as it
-were from the earth, and the alternations of fiery and oppressive heat;
-in fact, from the cruel climate of the river-valley, to the pure sweet
-mountain-air, alternately soft and balmy, cool and reviving, and to the
-aspect of clear blue skies, which lent their tints to highland ridges
-well wooded with various greens. Dull mangrove, dismal jungle, and
-monotonous grass, were supplanted by tall solitary trees, amongst which
-the lofty tamarind rose conspicuously graceful, and a card-table-like
-swamp, cut by a network of streams, nullahs, and stagnant pools, gave
-way to dry healthy slopes, with short steep pitches, and gently shelving
-hills. The beams of the large sun of the equator--and nowhere have I
-seen the rulers of night and day so large--danced gaily upon blocks and
-pebbles of red, yellow, and dazzling snowy quartz, and the bright
-sea-breeze waved the summits of the trees, from which depended graceful
-llianas, and wood-apples large as melons, whilst creepers, like vine
-tendrils, rising from large bulbs of brown-grey wood, clung closely to
-their stalwart trunks. Monkeys played at hide-and-seek, chattering
-behind the bolls, as the iguana, with its painted scale-armour, issued
-forth to bask upon the sunny bank; white-breasted ravens cawed when
-disturbed from their perching-places; doves cooed on the well-clothed
-boughs, and hawks soared high in the transparent sky. The field-cricket
-chirped like the Italian cigala in the shady bush, and everywhere, from
-air, from earth, from the hill slopes above, and from the marshes below,
-the hum, the buzz, and the loud continuous voice of insect life, through
-the length of the day, spoke out its natural joy. Our gipsy encampment
-lay
-
- “By shallow rivers, to whose falls
- Melodious birds sing madrigals.”
-
-By night, the soothing murmurs of the stream at the hill’s base rose
-mingled with the faint rustling of the breeze, which at times broken by
-the scream of the night-heron, the bellow of the bull-frog in his swampy
-home, the cynhyæna’s whimper, and the fox’s whining bark, sounded
-through the silence most musical, most melancholy. Instead of the cold
-night rain, and the soughing of the blast, the view disclosed a peaceful
-scene, the moonbeams lying like sheets of snow upon the ruddy highlands,
-and the stars hanging like lamps of gold from the dome of infinite blue.
-I never wearied with contemplating the scene, for, contrasting with the
-splendours around me, still stretched in sight the Slough of Despond,
-unhappy Zungomero, lead-coloured above, mud-coloured below, wind-swept,
-fog-veiled, and deluged by clouds that dared not approach these
-Delectable Mountains.
-
-During a day’s halt at this sanitarium fresh diversions agitated the
-party. The Baloch, weary of worrying one another, began to try their
-’prentice hands upon the sons of Ramji, and these fortified by the
-sturdy attitude of Muinyi Kidogo, manfully resolved to hold their own.
-The asses fought throughout the livelong night, and, contrary to the
-custom of their genus, strayed from one another by day. And as,
-
- “When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
- But in battalions,”
-
-Said bin Salim, who hated and was hated by the Baloch, on account
-of their divided interests, began to hate and to be hated by the sons of
-Ramji. His four children, the most ignoble of their ignoble race, were
-to him as the apples of his eyes. He had entered their names as public
-porters, yet, with characteristic egotism and self-tenderness, he was
-resolved that they should work for none but their master, and that even
-in this their labour should as much as possible fall upon the shoulders
-of others. His tent was always the first pitched and his fire the first
-built; his slaves were rewarded with such luxuries as ghee, honey, and
-turmeric, when no one in camp, ourselves included, could procure them.
-When all wanted clothes he clad his children out of the outfit as if it
-had been his own, and, till strong remonstrances were made, large
-necklaces of beads decked their sooty necks. On the return-march he
-preferred to pay hire for three porters rather than to allow the fat
-lazy knaves to carry a bed or a few gourds. They became of course
-insolent and unmanageable--more than once they gave trouble by pointing
-their muskets at the Baloch and the porters, and they would draw their
-knives and stab at a man who refused to give up his firewood or his
-hearth-stones, without incurring a word of blame from their master.
-Encouraged by impunity they robbed us impudently; curry-stuff was soon
-exhausted, the salt-bottles showed great gaps, and cigar-ends were
-occasionally seen upon the road-side. The Goanese accused the slaves,
-and the slaves the Goanese; probably both parties for once spoke the
-truth.
-
-Said bin Salim’s silly favouritism naturally aroused the haughty
-Kidogo’s bile; the sons of Ramji, consequently, worked less than before.
-The two worthies, Arab and African, never, however, quarrelled, no harsh
-word passed between them; with smiles upon their faces, and a bitter
-hate at heart, they confined themselves to all manner of backbiting and
-talebearing. Said bin Salim sternly declared to me that he would never
-rest satisfied until Kidogo’s sword was broken and his back was
-scarified at the flagstaff of Zanzibar; but I guessed that this
-“wrathful mouse and most magnanimous dove” would, long before his
-journey’s end, have forgotten all his vengeance. Kidogo asserted that
-the Muarabu or Arab was a green-horn, and frequently suggested the
-propriety of “planting” him. At last this continual harping upon the
-same chord became so offensive, that B’ana Saidi was forbidden to
-pronounce the name of Muinyi Kidogo, and Muinyi Kidogo was ordered never
-to utter the words B’ana Saidi before the exasperated leader of the
-Expedition, who could not, like these squabblers, complain, resent,
-forget and forgive, in the short space of a single hour.
-
-We left Mzizi Mdogo on the 9th August, much cheered by the well-omened
-appearance of a bird with red bill, white breast, and long
-tail-feathers. The path ran over a succession of short steep hills with
-a rufous-brown soil, dotted with blocks and stones, thinly veiled with
-grass, and already displaying signs of aridity in the growth of aloetic
-and thorny plants, the Cactus and the larger Asclepias, the Euphorbia or
-Spurge-wort, and the stunted Mimosa. The Calabash, however, still rose a
-stately tree, and there was a sprinkling of the fine Tamarinds which
-have lent their name to the district. The Tamarind, called by the Arabs
-of Zanzibar “Subar,” extends from the coast to the Lake Regions: with
-its lofty stem, its feathery leaflets, and its branches spreading dark
-cool shade, it is a beautiful feature in African landscape. The
-acidulated fruit is doubtless a palliative and a corrective to bilious
-affections. The people of the country merely peel and press it into bark
-baskets, consequently it soon becomes viscid, and is spoiled by mildew;
-they ignore the art of extracting from it an intoxicating liquor. The
-Arabs, who use it extensively in cooking, steam, sun-dry, and knead it,
-with a little salt and oil to prevent the effects of damp, into balls:
-thus prepared and preserved from the air, it will keep for years.
-
-On the way we were saddened by the sight of the clean-picked skeletons,
-and here and there the swollen corpses, of porters who had perished in
-this place of starvation. A single large body which had lost fifty of
-its number by small-pox, had passed us but yesterday on the road, and
-the sight of their deceased comrades recalled to our minds terrible
-spectacles; men staggering on blinded by disease, and mothers carrying
-on their backs infants as loathsome objects as themselves. The wretches
-would not leave the path, every step in their state of failing strength
-was precious; he who once fell would never rise again; no village would
-admit death into its precincts, no relation nor friend would return for
-them, and they would lie till their agony was ended by the raven and
-vulture, the Fisi and the fox. Near every Khambi or Kraal I remarked
-detached tents which, according to the guides, were set apart for those
-seized with the fell disease. Under these circumstances, as might be
-expected, several of our party caught the infection; they lagged behind
-and probably threw themselves into some jungle, for the path when
-revisited showed no signs of them.
-
-We spent 4 hrs. 30′ in weary marching, occasionally halting to reload
-the asses that threw their packs. Near the Mgeta River, which was again
-forded six times, the vegetation became tall and thick, grasses
-obstructed the path, and in the dense jungle on the banks of the stream,
-the Cowhage (_Dolichos pruriens_,) and stiff reeds known as the “wild
-sugar-cane,” annoyed the half-naked porters. Thus bounded and approached
-by muddy and slippery, or by steep and stony inclines, the stream shrank
-to a mountain torrent, in places hardly fifty feet broad; the flow was
-swift, the waters were dyed by the soil a ruddy brown, and the bed was
-sandy and sometimes rocky with boulders of primitive formation, streaked
-with lines of snow-white quartz. Near the end of the marsh we ascended a
-short steep staircase of rock and root, with a dwarf precipice
-overhanging the river on the right, which was dangerous for the laden
-beasts as they crawled like beetles up the path. At 3 P.M. we arrived at
-a kraal called Cha K’henge--of the iguana, from the number of these
-animals found near the stream. It was a delightful spot, equal to Mzizi
-Mdogo in purity of air, and commanding a fair prospect of the now
-distant Dut’humi Highlands.
-
-The next day was a forced halt at Cha K’henge. Of two asses that had
-been left behind one was recovered, the other was abandoned to its fate.
-The animals purchased at Zanzibar were falling off visibly in condition.
-Accustomed to a kind of grass which nowhere grows upon these sunburnt
-hills, they had regular feeds of holcus, but that, as Said bin Salim
-expressed himself, was only coffee to them. The Wanyamwezi asses,
-however, managed to pick a sustenance from the rushes and from the
-half-burned stubbles, when fortunate enough to find any. Sickness again
-declared itself. Shahdad the Baloch bellowed like a bull with fever
-pains, Gaetano complained that he was suffering tortures generally, two
-of the Wanyamwezi were incapacitated by the symptoms preliminary to
-small-pox from carrying their packs, and a third was prostrated by ague.
-We started, however, on the next day for a long march which concluded,
-the passage of the “Tamarind Hills.” Crossing a country broken by dry
-nullahs, or rather ditches, we traversed a seam of forest with a deep
-woody ravine on the right, and twice unpacked and reloaded the asses,
-who lay down instead of breasting the difficulties: a muddy swamp full
-of water-courses, and the high earth-banks of the Rufuta a Fiumara, here
-dry during the hot season. Thence, winding along a hill-flank, to avoid
-a bend in the bed, the path plunged into the sole of the Rufuta. This
-main-drain of the lower gradients carries off, according to the guides,
-the waters of the high ground around it into the Mgeta. The bed, which
-varies from three to sixteen feet in breadth, serpentines abruptly
-through the hills: its surface is either deep sand or clay, sopped with
-water, which near the head becomes a thin fillet, ankle-deep, now sweet,
-then salt: the mud is tinged in places with a solution of iron, showing,
-when stagnant, prismatic and iridescent tints. Where narrowest, the tall
-grasses of the banks meet across the gut, which, after a few yards of
-short, sharp winding, opens out again. The walls are in some parts
-earth, in others blocks of gray syenite, which here and there encumber
-the bed: on the right, near the end of the stage, the hills above seem
-to overhang the Fuimara in almost perpendicular masses of sandstone,
-from whose chinks spring the gnarled roots of tall trees corded with
-creepers, overgrown with parasites; and hung with fruits like footballs,
-dangling from twines sometimes thirty feet long. The lower banks, where
-not choked with rush, are overgrown with the brightest verdure, and with
-the feathery bamboo rising and falling before the wind. The corpses of
-porters were even more numerous than on the yester: our Muslems passed
-them with averted faces and with the low “la haul!” of disgust, and a
-decrepid old Mnyamwezi porter gazed at them and wept for himself. About
-2 P.M., turning abruptly from the bed, we crawled up a short stony steep
-strewed with our asses and their loads; and reaching the summit of a
-dwarf cone near the foot of the “Goma Pass,” we found the usual outlying
-huts for porters dying of small-pox, and an old kraal, which we made
-comfortable for the night. In the extensive prospect around, the little
-beehive villages of the Wakaguru and the Wakwivi, sub-tribes of the
-Wasagara, peeped from afar out of the forest nooks on the distant
-hill-folds. The people are rich in flocks and grain, but a sad
-experience has taught them to shun intercourse with all strangers, Arabs
-and Wasawahili, Wamrima and Wanyamwezi. In happier days the road was
-lined with large villages, of which now not a trace remains.
-
-A Boiling Point Thermometer by Cox, the gift of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton,
-and left with him by Captain, now Admiral Smyth, F. R. G. S., who had
-used it in measuring the Andes, had been accidentally broken by my
-companion at Cha K’henge. Arrived at Rufuta, I found that a second B. P.
-by Newman, and a Bath-Thermometer by the same maker, had been torn so
-violently from their box that even the well-soldered handles were
-wrenched off. But a few days afterwards our third B. P. was rendered
-useless by the carelessness of Gaetano. Thus, of the only three really
-accurate hypsometrical instruments which we possessed,--the Barometer
-had come to grief, and no aneroid had been sent from Bombay--not one was
-spared to reach the Lake. We saved, however, two Bath-Thermometers
-marked Newman, and Johnson and Co., Bombay, which did good service, and
-one of which was afterwards corrected by being boiled at sea-level. I
-may here observe that on such journeys, where triangulation is
-impossible, and where the delicate aneroid and the Mountain Barometer
-can scarcely be carried without accident, the thermometer is at present
-the traveller’s stand-by. It abounds, however, in elements of error. The
-elasticity of the glass, especially in a new instrument, causes the
-mercury to subside below the graduated scale. The difference of level in
-a covered “shaving-pot” and in an open pan exposed to the wind, will
-sometimes amount to 1° F. = 500 feet: they therefore are in error who
-declare that any vessel suffices for the purpose of boiling. Finally, in
-all but the best instruments the air is not thoroughly expelled from the
-tube: indeed some writers, Dr. Buist, for instance, actually advise the
-error.
-
-Another ass was left at Rufuta unable to stand, and anxiously eyeing its
-stomach, whereby the Baloch conjectured that it was dying of a poisonous
-grass. Having to ascend on the 12th August the Goma Pass of the Rufuta,
-or the Eastern Range, I had arranged with Kidogo and the Kirangozi, or
-guide, that the porters should proceed with their packs, and after
-topping the hill, should return, for a consideration, to assist the
-asses. None, however, reappearing, when the sun had risen a spear’s
-length we set out, hugging the hill-flanks, with deep ravines yawning on
-the right. Presently after passing through a clear forest of tall
-scattered trees, between whose trunks were visible on both sides in
-perspective, far below, long rolling tracts of well-wooded land broken
-by ravines and cut by water-courses, we arrived at the foot of a steep
-hill. The ascent was a kind of ramp, composed of earth-steps, clods
-bound by strong tenacious roots, and thickly strewn with blocks of
-schiste, micacious grit, and a sandstone showing the presence of iron.
-The summit of this “kloof” was ascertained to rise 2,235 feet above
-sea-level. It led to an easy descent along the flank of a hill
-commanding on the left hand, below a precipitous foreground, a fine
-bird’s-eye view of scattered cone and wavy ridge rising and falling in a
-long roll, and on a scale decreasing till they settled into a line of
-hazy-blue horizon, which had all the effect of a circumambient ocean. We
-reached the remains of a kraal on the summit of a dwarf hill called
-Mfu’uni, from the abundance of the Mfu’u tree, which bears an edible
-apple externally like the smallest “crab,” but containing a stone of
-inordinate proportions: below the encamping ground the Pagazi found a
-runnel of pure water, which derived its name from the station. In former
-times Mfu’uni was a populous settlement; the kidnapping parties from the
-coast, and especially the filibusters of Whinde, have restored it to the
-fox and the cynhyæna, its “old inhabitants.” I spent a sleepless night
-in watching each star as it sank and set in its turn, piercing with a
-last twinkle the thin silhouette of tall trees that fringed the hilly
-rim of the horizon, and in admiring the hardness of the bull-headed
-Mabruki, as he lay half-roasted by the fire and half-frozen by the cold
-southern gale.
-
-Rations had been issued at K’hutu to all hands for three days, the time
-in which they expected to make the principal provisioning-place,
-“Muhama.” They had consumed, as usual, their stores with the utmost
-possible quickness; it was our fifth day, and Muhama was still a long
-march distant. On the 13th August, therefore, in that hot haste which
-promises cold speed, we loaded at dawn, and ascended the last step of
-the pass by an easy path. The summit was thickly wooded; the hills were
-crowned with trees; the ravines were a mass of tangled verdure; and from
-the Dub (_Cynodon dactylon_, a nutritive and favourite food for cattle
-in India) and other grasses arose a sickening odour of decay. A Scotch
-mist, thick and raw, hung over the hill-tops, and about 10 P.M. a fiery
-outburst of sunshine told severely upon hungry and fever-stricken men.
-From the level table-summit of the range the route descended rapidly at
-first, but presently stretching out into gentle slopes, totally unlike
-the abrupt eastern or seaward face of the mountains: I counted twelve
-distinct rises and fifteen falls, separated by tree-clad lines of
-half-dried nullahs, which were choked with ill-savoured weeds. We halted
-every quarter of an hour to raise and reload the asses; when on the
-ground, they were invariably abandoned by the donkey-men. My companion’s
-bedding was found near the path, where it had been left by its porter, a
-slave given at Zungomero to Muinyi Wazira by his drunken brother. The
-fellow had been sworn by his mganga, or medicine-man, not to desert, and
-he had respected his oath for the long length of a week. A dispute with
-another man, however, had irritated him: he quietly threw his burden,
-and ran down the nearest steep, probably to fall into the hands of the
-Wakwivi. As the rain-catching peaks were left behind, the slopes of dry
-soil began to show sunburnt herbage and tufty grass. Signs of lions
-appeared numerous, and the cactaceous and aloetic plants that live on
-arid soil again met the eye. About noon we forded the little Zonhwe
-River, a stream of sweet water here flowing westward, in a bed of mire
-and grass, under high banks bearing a dense bush. Two hours afterwards I
-suddenly came upon the advance-guard, halted, and the asses unloaded, in
-a dry water-course, called in the map, from our misadventure, “Overshot
-Nullah.” A caravan of Wanyamwezi had misdirected them, Muinyi Wazira had
-in vain warned them of their error, he was overruled by Kidogo, and the
-Baloch had insisted upon camping at the first place where they expected
-to find a spring. Like all soft men, they were most impatient of thirst,
-and nothing caused so much grumbling and discontent as the cry of “Maji
-mb’hali!” (water is far!) That night, therefore, after a long march of
-fifteen miles, they again slept supperless.
-
-On the 14th of August we loaded early, and through spitting rains from
-the south-east hills we marched back for two hours from the Overshot
-Nullah to Zonhwe, the small and newly-built settlement which we had
-missed on the preceding day. Several of the porters had disappeared
-during the night. Men were sent in all directions for provisions, which
-came in, however, slowly and scantily; and the noise made by the
-slaves--they were pulling down Said bin Salim’s hut, which had
-accidentally caught fire--frightened away the country-people. We were,
-therefore, detained in this unwholesome spot for two days.
-
-Zonhwe was the turning-point of the Expedition’s difficulties. Another
-ass had died, reducing the number to twenty-three, and the Baloch, at
-first contented with two, doubled their requirements, and on the 14th
-August took a fifth, besides placing all their powder upon our
-hard-worked animals. I therefore proposed to the Jemadar that the cloth,
-the beads, and the other similar luggage of his men, should be packed,
-sealed up, and inserted into the porters’ loads, of which several had
-shrunk to half-weight. He probably thought the suggestion a ruse on my
-part to discover the means by which their property had almost trebled
-its quantity; his men, moreover, had become thoroughly weary of a
-journey where provisions were not always obtainable, and they had
-persuaded themselves that Lieut.-Col. Hamerton’s decease had left me
-without support from the government of Zanzibar. After a priming with
-opium, the monocular returned and reported that his men refused to open
-their baggage, declaring their property to be “on their own heads.”
-Whilst I was explaining the object of the measure, the escort appeared
-in mass, and, with noise sufficient for a general action, ostentatiously
-strewed their old clothes upon the ground, declaring that at Zanzibar
-they were honourable men, and boasting that the Baloch were entrusted
-with lacs of dollars by the Sayyid Said. Again I offered reasons, which,
-as is the wont of the world in such cases, served only to make them more
-hopelessly unreasonable. The Jemadar accused me of starving the party. I
-told him not to eat abominations, upon which, clapping hand to hilt, he
-theatrically forbade me to repeat the words. Being prostrated at the
-time by fever, I could only show him how little dangerous he was by
-using the same phrase half a dozen times. He then turned fiercely upon
-the timid Said bin Salim, and having safely vented the excess of his
-wrath, he departed to hold a colloquy with his men.
-
-The debate was purposely conducted in so loud a tone that every word
-reached my ears. Khudabakhsh, from first to last my evil genius and the
-mainspring of all mischief, threatened to take “that man’s life,” at the
-risk of chains for the remainder of his days. Another opined, that “in
-all Nazarenes there is no good.” All complained that they had no
-“hishmat” (respect!), no food, and, above everything, no meat.
-
-Presently Said bin Salim was deputed by them to state that for the
-future they would require one sheep per diem--men who, when at Zanzibar,
-saw flesh probably once a year on the Eed. This being inadmissible, they
-demanded three cloths daily instead of one. I would willingly have given
-them two, as long as provisions continued scarce and dear, but the shade
-of concession made them raise the number to four. They declared that in
-case of refusal they would sleep at the village, and on the next day
-would return to Zanzibar. Receiving a contemptuous answer, they marched
-away in a body, noisily declaring that they were going to make instant
-preparation for departure.
-
-Such a proceeding on the part of several of these mercenaries was
-inexcusable. They had been treated with kindness, and even indulgence.
-They had hitherto never complained, simply because they had no cause for
-complaint. One man, Ismail, who suffered from dysentery, had been
-regularly supplied with food cooked by the Goanese; and even while we
-dragged along our fevered frames on foot, he was allowed to ride an ass.
-Yet the recreant never attempted a word of dissuasion, and deserted with
-the rest.
-
-After the disappearance of the Baloch, the Sons of Ramji were summoned.
-I had privily ascertained from Said bin Salim the opinions of these men
-concerning their leader: they said but little evil, complaining
-principally of the Englishman’s “heat,” and that he was not wholly ruled
-by their rascalities, whereas the Baloch in their private confabs never
-failed to indulge in the choicest of Oriental Billingsgate. The slaves,
-when they heard the state of the case, cheerfully promised to stand by
-us, but on the same evening, assembled by Kidogo, they agreed to follow
-the example of the escort on the first justifiable occasion. I did not
-learn this till some days afterwards, and even if I had been told it on
-the spot, it would have mattered little. My companion and I had made up
-our minds, in case of the escort and the slaves deserting, to bury our
-baggage, and to trust ourselves in the hands of the Wanyamwezi porters.
-The storm, however,--a _brutum fulmen_--blew over with only noise.
-
-A march was ordered for the next day--the 17th August. As the asses were
-being loaded, appeared the one-eyed Jemadar, with Greybeard Musa and
-Darwaysh, looking more crestfallen and foolish than they had ever looked
-before. They took my hand with a polite violence, begged suppliantly for
-a paper of dismissal to “cover their shame,” and declared that, so far
-from deserting me, I was deserting them. As this required no reply, I
-mounted and rode on.
-
-The path fell easily westwards down a long grassy and jungly incline,
-cut by several water-courses. About noon, I lay down half-fainting in
-the sandy bed of the Muhama Nullah--the “Palmetto,” or “Fan-palm;” and
-retaining Wazira and Mabruki, I urged the caravan forwards, that my
-companion might send me back a hammock from the halting-place. Suddenly
-appeared the whole body of deserters shouldering--as porters and asses
-had been taken from them--their luggage, which outwardly consisted of
-cloth, dirty rags, green skins, old earthen pots, and greasy gourds and
-calabashes. They led me to a part of the nullah where stagnant water was
-found, and showing abundant penitence, they ever and anon attempted
-excuses, which were reserved for consideration. At 3 P.M., no hammock
-appearing, I remounted, and pursued a path over rolling ground, with
-masses of dwarf-hill flanking a low bottom, which renewed the scenery of
-the “Slough of Despond”--Zungomero. Again the land, matted with putrid
-grass, displayed the calabash and the hyphæna, the papaw and the
-palmetto; the holcus and maize were of luxuriant dimensions, and deep
-rat-holes, enlarged by the boy-hunters, broke the grassy path. I found
-two little villages, inhabitated by Wangindo and Mandandu immigrants
-from the vicinity of Kilwa. Then appeared on a hill-side the Kraal in
-which the caravan had halted; the party had lost the road, and had been
-dispersed by a swarm of wild bees, an accident even more frequent in
-East Africa than in India.
-
-Next morning the Baloch were harangued; they professed themselves
-profoundly penitent, and attributing their unsoldier-like conduct to
-opium, and to the Wiswas, the temptations of Sathanas, they promised to
-reform. The promise was kept till we reached Ugogi. They were, however,
-always an encumbrance; they did no good beyond creating an impression,
-and “making the careless Æthiopians afraid.” I saw them, it is true, in
-their worst colours. They held themselves to be servants of their
-prince, and as no Eastern man can or will serve two masters, they
-forfeited all claim to their sole good quality--manageability. As men,
-they had no stamina; after a few severe marches they murmured that
-
- “Famine, despair, thirst, cold, and heat,
- Had done their work on them by turns.”
-
-Their constitutions, sapped by long residence at Zanzibar, were
-subject to many ailments, and in sickness they were softer than Indian
-Pariahs. Under the slightest attack of fever, they threw themselves
-moaning upon the ground; they were soon deterred by the sun from
-bringing up the rear, and by night they would not keep watch or ward
-even when in actual danger of robbery. Notwithstanding their affectation
-of military carriage their bravery was more than problematical; they
-were disciplined only by their fears. As men at arms, one and all
-deserved to wear the wooden spoon: I saw the whole garrison of Kaole
-firing for an hour, without effect, at a shell, stuck on a stick,
-distant about a dozen paces: our party expended thirty pounds of
-gunpowder without bagging a pair of antelope, and it was impossible to
-trust them with ammunition; when unable to sell it, they wasted it upon
-small birds. Ever claiming for themselves “hishmat,” or respect, they
-forgot their own proverb that “courtesy hath two heads;” they complained
-that they were not seated half the day in our tents, and the being “told
-to depart,” when their terribly long visits rendered the measure
-necessary, was a standing grievance. Like the lower races of Orientals,
-they were ever attempting to intrude, to thrust themselves forwards, to
-take an ell when an inch was offered; they considered all but themselves
-fools, ready to be imposed upon by the flimsiest lie, by the shallowest
-artifices. Gratitude they ignored; with them a favour granted was but an
-earnest of favours to come, and one refusal obliterated the trace of a
-hundred largesses. Their objects in life seemed to be eating, and buying
-slaves; their pleasures, drinking and intrigue. Insatiable beggars were
-they; noisy, boisterous, foul-mouthed knaves, swearers “with voices like
-cannons;” rude and forward in manner, low and abusive in language, so
-slanderous that for want of other subjects they would calumniate one
-another, and requiring a periodical check to their presumption. I might
-have spent the whole of my day in superintending the food of these
-thirteen “great eaters and little runners.” Repeatedly warned, both by
-myself and by my companion, that their insubordination would prevent our
-recommending them for recompense at the end of the journey, they could
-not check repeated ebullitions of temper. Before arrival at the coast
-they seemed to have made up their minds that they had not fulfilled the
-conditions of reward. After my departure from Zanzibar, however, they
-persuaded Lieut.-Col. Hamerton’s successor to report officially to the
-Government of Bombay “the claims of these men, the hardships they
-endured, and the fidelity and perseverance they showed!”
-
-At Muhama I halted three days, a delay which generally occurred before
-long desert marches for which provisions are required. On the first,
-Kidogo would bring about sixty pounds of grain; on the second, he would
-disperse his men throughout the villages, and procure the 300 pounds
-required for five marches; and on the third, he would cause it to be
-husked and pounded, so as to be ready for the morrow. Three up-caravans,
-containing a total of about 150 men, suffering severely from small-pox,
-here passed us. One was commanded by Khalfan bin Muallim Salim and his
-brother Id, coast Arabs, whom we afterwards met at two places. He told
-me several deliberate falsehoods about the twenty-two porters that were
-to follow us, for instance, that he had left them, halted by disease, at
-Kidunda, in the maritime region, under the command of one Abdullah bin
-Jumah, and thus he led me to expect them at a time when they had not
-even been engaged. He and his men also spread reports in Ugogo and other
-places where the people are peculiarly suspicious concerning the magical
-and malignant powers of the “whites;” in fact, he showed all the bad
-spirit of his bastard blood. At Muhama, the furthest point westward to
-which the vuli or autumnal rains extend, the climate was still that of
-the Rufuta Range, foggy, misty mornings, white rags of cloudbank from
-the table-cloths outspread upon the heights, clear days, with hot suns
-and chilling south winds, and raw dewy nights. I again suffered from
-fever; the attack, after lasting seven days, disappeared, leaving,
-however, hepatic complications, which having lasted uninterruptedly ten
-months, either wore themselves out, or yielded to the action of acids,
-narcotics, and stimulants tardily forwarded from Zanzibar. Here also
-over-fatigue, in a fruitless shooting-excursion, combined with the
-mephitic air of stagnant, weedy waters, caused a return of my
-companion’s fever.
-
-Two other Wanyamwezi porters were laid up with small-pox. One ass died
-of fatigue, whilst a second torn by a hyæna, and a third too weak to
-walk, were left, together with the animal that had been stung by bees,
-in charge of Mpambe, headman of the Wangindo. Being now reduced to the
-number of nineteen beasts, I submitted to Said bin Salim the
-advisability of leaving behind wire and ammunition, either cached in the
-jungle, as is the custom of these lands, or entrusted to the headman.
-The Arab approved; Kidogo, however, dissented. I took the opinion of the
-latter, he was positive that the effects once abandoned would never be
-recovered, and that the headman, who appeared a kind of cunning idiot,
-was not to be trusted. Some months afterwards I commissioned an Arab
-merchant, who was marching towards the coast, to recover the asses left
-in the charge of Mpambe; the latter refused to give them up, thus
-proving the soundness of Kidogo’s judgment.
-
-Having collected with difficulty--the land was sun-cracked, and the
-harvest-store had been concealed by the people--some supplies, but
-scarcely sufficient for the long desert tract, we began, on the 21st of
-August, to cross the longitudinal plain that gently shelving westward
-separates the Rufuta from the second, or Mukondokwa Range. The plain was
-enclosed on all sides by low lines of distant hill, and cut by deep
-nullahs, which gave more than the usual amount of trouble. The tall
-Palmyra (_Borassus Flabelliformis_), whose majestic bulging column
-renders it so difficult to climb, was a novel feature in the scenery.
-This tree, the Mvumo of East Africa, and the Deleb-palm of the Upper
-Nile, is scattered through the interior, extending to the far south. On
-this line it is more common in Western Unyamwezi, where, and where only,
-an intoxicating toddy is drawn from the cut frond, than elsewhere. The
-country abounded in game, but we were both too weak to work--my
-companion, indeed, was compelled to lag behind--and the Baloch, to whom
-the guns were lent, returned empty-handed. Sign of the Mbogo (_Bos
-Caffer_) here appeared; it is general in East Africa, especially upon
-the river plains where water abounds. These wild cattle are fine
-animals, somewhat larger than the common-sized English bullock, with
-uniform dun skins, never parti-coloured like the tame herds, and with
-thick black-brown horns, from twelve to thirteen inches broad at the
-base, diverging outwards, and incurved at the points, which in large
-specimens are distant about three feet from each other; they are
-separated by a narrow channel, and this in age becomes a solid mass of
-bone. The Mbogo is as dull of comprehension as it is fierce and
-powerful; affecting particular spots, it will often afford several
-chances of a successful shot to the Fundi--Shikari, or Chasseur--of a
-caravan: the Africans kill it with arrows. The flesh, though considered
-heating and bilious, is eaten, and the hide is preferred for thongs and
-reins to that of the tame animal.
-
-The approach to the kraal was denoted by a dead level of dry, caked, and
-cracked mud, showing the subsidence of an extensive inundation. We
-passed a large camping-ground, affected by down-caravans, on the near
-side of the Makata, a long river-like “tank,” whose lay is E. by N. The
-oozy banks of this water, which is said to flow after rains into the
-Mukondokwa River, are fringed with liliaceous and other large aquatic
-plants; the water, though dark, is potable. After fording the tank,
-which was then breast-deep, we found on the further side the kraal used
-by porters of up-caravans, who sensibly avoid commencing the day with
-hard labour, and who fear that a sudden fall of rain might compel them
-to intempestive halts. In such places, throughout the country, there are
-two distinct khambi, one on each side of the obstacle, whether this be a
-river, a pass, or a populous clearing; in the latter case, caravans
-unload at the farther end of the cultivation, prepared to escape from a
-fray into the jungle, without running the gauntlet of the villages. That
-evening I tried to reduce the ever-increasing baggage of the sons of
-Ramji, who added to the heaps piled upon the wretched asses, now
-burdened with rations for several days, their drums and sleeping-hides,
-and their cocks and hens, whilst they left the beds and the
-cooking-utensils of the Goanese upon the ground. They informed me that
-if our animals could not carry their property, they could not drive our
-animals. The reply was significant. With some exertion of the “rascally
-virtue”--Prudence--I retired.
-
-The night was disturbed only by mosquitoes. These piping pests, however,
-are less troublesome in this part of East Africa than might be expected
-from the nature and the position of the country, and the bite has little
-venom compared with those of the Mozambique, or even of Western India.
-The common culex is a large variety, of brownish or dun colour; its
-favourite breeding-places are the backwaters on the banks of rivers, and
-the margins of muddy pools, and upon the creeks of the maritime regions,
-and the Central Lakes.
-
-Pursuing our march on the next day, I witnessed a curious contrast in
-this strange African nature, which is ever in extremes, and where
-extremes ever meet, where grace and beauty are seldom seen without a
-sudden change to a hideous grotesqueness. A splendid view charmed me in
-the morning. Above lay a sky of purest azure, flaked with fleecy
-opal-tinted vapours floating high in the empyrean, and catching the
-first roseate smiles of the unrisen sun. Long lines, one bluer than the
-other, broken by castellated crags and towers of most picturesque form,
-girdled the far horizon; the nearer heights were of a purplish-brown,
-and snowy mists hung like glaciers about their folds. The plain was a
-park in autumn, burnt tawny by the sun, patched with a darker hue where
-the people were firing the grass--a party was at work merrily, as if
-preparing for an English harvest-home--to start the animals, to promote
-the growth of a young crop, and, such is the popular belief, to attract
-rain. Calabashes, Palmyras, Tamarinds, and clumps of evergreen trees
-were scattered over the scene, each stretching its lordly arms over
-subject circlets of deep dew-fed verdure. Here the dove cooed loudly,
-and the guinea-fowl rang its wild cry, whilst the peewit chattered in
-the open stubble, and a little martin, the prettiest of its kind,
-contrasted by its nimble dartings along the ground with the condor
-wheeling slowly through the upper air. The most graceful of animals, the
-zebra and the antelope, browsed in the distance: now they stood to gaze
-upon the long line of porters, then, after leisurely pacing, with
-retrospective glances, in an opposite direction, they halted motionless
-for a moment, faced about once more to satiate curiosity, and lastly,
-terrified by their own fancy, they bounded in ricochets over the plain.
-
-About noon the fair scene vanished as if by enchantment. We suddenly
-turned northwards into a tangled mass of tall fetid reeds, rank jungle
-and forest, with its decaying trunks encroaching upon the hole-pierced
-goat-track that zigzaged towards the Myombo River. This perennial stream
-rises, according to the guides, in an elevation opposite to the
-highlands of Dut’humi. It is about fifty feet broad at the ford,
-breast-deep, and the swift brown waters swirl under a canopy of the
-trees whose name it bears. The “Myombo” is a fine specimen of African
-timber, apparently unknown to the people of Zanzibar, but extending
-almost from the coast to the Lake Regions. The flower is greenish, with
-the overpowering smell of the Indian jasmines; the fruit is a large pod,
-containing ten or twelve long hard acorns, of a brown-black colour, set
-in cups which resemble red sealing-wax. The coarse bark is used for
-building huts and kraals, the inner fibre for “bast” and ropes, and the
-wood makes what Easterns call a hot fire, lasting long, and burning well
-out. After the fiery sun and the dry atmosphere of the plains, the
-sudden effect of the dank and clammy chill, the result of exceeding
-evaporation, under the impervious shades that line the river banks, was
-overpowering. In such places one feels as if poisoned by miasma; a
-shudder runs through the frame; and a cold perspiration, like the
-prelude for a fainting-fit, breaks from the brow. Unloading the asses,
-and fording the stream, we ascended the left bank, and occupied a kraal,
-with fires still smoking, on its summit. Though another porter was left
-behind with small-pox, I had little difficulty with the luggage on this
-march: the more I worked the men, the harder they worked. Besides, they
-seldom fell sick on the road, though often prostrated when halting, a
-phenomenon which my companion explained by their hard eating and little
-exercise when stationary, and which Said bin Salim more mercifully
-attributed to the fatigue and exposure of the journey taking effect when
-the excitement had passed away.
-
-At dawn on the 23rd of August we resumed our journey, and in 4^{hrs} 30′
-concluded the transit of the lateral plain, which separates the Rufuta
-from the Mukondokwa Range. The path wound over a wintry land, green with
-vegetation only in the vicinity of water. After struggling through a
-forest of canes, we heard a ngoma, or large drum, which astonished us,
-as we had not expected to find a village. Presently, falling into a
-network of paths, we lost our way. After long wandering we came upon a
-tobacco-field which the Baloch and the sons of Ramji had finished
-stripping, and conducted by some Wanyamwezi who had delayed returning to
-guide us, in order to indulge their love for drumming and plundering, we
-arrived at the débris of a once flourishing village of Wasagara, called
-Mbumi from its headman. A pitiable scene here presented itself. The huts
-were torn and half-burnt, and the ground was strewed with nets and
-drums, pestles and mortars, cots and fragments of rude furniture; and
-though no traces of blood were observed, it was evident that a Commando
-had lately taken place there. Said bin Salim opined this ruin to be the
-work of Khalfan bin Salim, the youth who had preceded us from Muhama;
-ever suspicious, he saw in it a plan adopted by the coast-Arab in order
-to raise against us the people of the mountains. Kidogo, observing that
-the damage was at least ten days’ old, more acutely attributed it to the
-Moslem kidnappers of Whinde, who, aided by the terrible Kisabengo, the
-robber-chief of Ukami, near K’hutu, harry the country with four or five
-hundred guns. Two of the wretched villagers were seen lurking in the
-jungle, not daring to revisit the wreck of their homes. Here again the
-Demon of Slavery will reign over a solitude of his own creation. Can it
-be that, by some inexplicable law, where Nature has done her best for
-the happiness of mankind, man, doomed to misery, must work out his own
-unhappiness? That night was spent at the deserted village by our men in
-drumming, singing, and gleaning all that Khalfan’s gang had left; they
-were, moreover, kept awake by fear lest they might be surprised by the
-remnants of the villagers.
-
-Late in the morning of the 24th of August, after losing another ass,
-torn by a cynhyæna, we followed the path that leads from Mbumi along the
-right bank of the Mukondokwa River to its ford. The marcescent
-vegetation, and the tall, stiff, and thick-stalked grass, dripped with
-dew, which struck cold as a freezing-mixture. The path was slippery with
-mud, and man and beast were rendered wild by the cruel stings of a small
-red ant and a huge black pismire. The former cross the road in dense
-masses like the close columns of an army. They are large-headed, showing
-probably that they are the defenders of the republic, and that they
-perform the duties of soldiers in their excursions. Though they cannot
-spring, they show great quickness in fastening themselves to the foot or
-ankle as it brushes over them. The pismire, known to the people as the
-“chungu-fundo,” or “siyafu” from the Arabic “siyaf,” is a horse-ant,
-about an inch in length, whose bulldog-like head and powerful mandibles
-enable it to destroy rats and mice, lizards and snakes. It loves damp
-places upon the banks of rivers and stagnant waters; it burrows but
-never raises hills, and it appears scattered for miles over the paths.
-Like the other species, it knows neither fear nor sense of fatigue; it
-rushes to annihilation without hesitating, and it cannot be expelled
-from a hut except by fire or boiling water. Its bite, which is the
-preamble to its meal, burns like a pinch with a red-hot needle; and when
-it sets to work, twisting itself round and “accroupi” in its eagerness
-for food, it may be pulled in two without relaxing its hold. The
-favourite food of this pismire is the termite: its mortal enemy is a
-large ginger-coloured ant, called from its painful wound “maji m’oto,”
-or “hot-water.” In this foul jungle our men also suffered severely from
-the tzetze. This fly, the torment of Cape travellers, was limited, by
-Dr. Livingstone, to the regions south of the Zambezi river. A specimen,
-brought home by me and submitted to Mr. Adam White, of the British
-Museum, was pronounced by him to be a true Glossina morsitans, and Mr.
-Petherick has fixed its limits about eight degrees north of the equator.
-On the line followed by the Expedition, the tzetze was found extending
-from Usagara westward as far as the Central Lakes; its usual habitat is
-the jungle-strip which encloses each patch of cultivated ground, and in
-the latter it is rarely seen. It has more persistency of purpose even
-than the Egyptian fly, and when beaten off it will return half a dozen
-times to the charge; it cannot be killed except by a smart blow, and its
-long sharp proboscis draws blood even through a canvas hammock. It is
-not feared by the naked traveller; the sting is as painful as that of an
-English horsefly, and leaves a lasting trace, but this hard-skinned
-people expect no evil consequences from it. In the vicinity of Kilwa it
-was heard of under the name of “kipanga,” the “little sword.” It is
-difficult to conceive the purpose for which this plague was placed in a
-land so eminently fitted for breeding cattle and for agriculture, which
-without animals cannot be greatly extended, except as an exercise for
-human ingenuity to remove. Possibly at some future day, when the country
-becomes valuable, the tzetze may be exterminated by the introduction of
-some insectivorous bird, which will be the greatest benefactor that
-Central Africa ever knew.
-
-After about an hour’s march, the narrow tunnel in the jungle--it was so
-close that only one ass could be led up and unloaded at a
-time--debouched upon the Mukondokwa ford. The view was not unpleasing.
-The swift brown stream was broadened by a branch-islet in its upper bed
-to nearly a hundred yards, and its margins were fringed with rushes
-backed by a screen of dense verdure and tall trees which occupied the
-narrow space between the water and the hills. The descent and the
-landing-place were equally bad. Slipping down the steep miry bank the
-porters sank into the river breast-deep, causing not a little damage to
-their loads: the ford now wetted the waist then the knee, and the
-landing-place was a kind of hippopotamus-run of thick slushy mud,
-floored with roots and branches, snags and sawyers, and backed by a
-quagmire rendered passable only by its matwork of tough grass-canes laid
-by their own weight. Having crossed over on our men’s backs, we ascended
-a little rise and lay down somewhat in the condition of travelling Manes
-fresh from the transit of the Styx. I ordered back Kidogo with a gang of
-porters to assist Said bin Salim who was bringing up the rear: he
-promised to go but he went the wrong way--forwards. Resuming our march
-along the river’s left or northern bank, we wound along the shoulders
-and the bases of hills, sometimes ascending the spurs of stony and
-jungly eminences, where the paths were unusually rough and precipitous,
-at other times descending into the stagnant lagoons, the reedy and rushy
-swamps, and the deep bogs which margin the stream. After a total of six
-hours we reached a kraal situated upon the sloping ground at the foot of
-the northern walls which limit the grassy river basin: through this the
-Mukondokwa flows in a dark turbid stream now narrowed to about forty
-feet. The district of “Kadetamare” was formerly a provisioning station
-where even cattle were purchaseable, a rare exception to the rule in the
-smaller settlements of Usagara. I at once sent men to collect rations,
-none, however, were procurable: meeting a small party that were bringing
-grain from Rumuma, they learned that there was a famine in the land.
-
-At Kadetamare the only pedometer, a patent watch-shaped instrument,
-broke down, probably from the effects of the climate. Whilst carried by
-my companion it gave a steady exaggerative rate, but being set to the
-usual military pace of 30 inches, when transferred to the person of
-“Seedy Bombay” and others, it became worse than useless, sometimes
-showing 25 for 13 miles. I would suggest to future explorers in these
-regions, as the best and the most lasting means of measuring distances,
-two of the small wheelbarrow perambulators--it is vain to put trust in a
-single instrument--which can each be rolled on by one man. And when
-these are spoilt or stolen, timing with the watch, and a correct
-estimate of the walking rate combined with compass-bearings, the mean of
-the oscillations being taken when on the march, would give a
-“dead-reckoning,” which checked by latitudes, as often as the cloudy
-skies permit, and by a few longitudes at crucial stations, would afford
-materials for a map approximating as nearly to correctness as could be
-desired in a country where a “handful of miles” little matters. The
-other instruments, though carefully protected from the air, fared not
-better than the pedometer: with three pocket-chronometers and a valuable
-lever-watch, we were at last reduced to find time by a sixpenny
-sun-dial. Before the first fortnight after our second landing in Africa
-had elapsed, all these instruments, notwithstanding the time and trouble
-devoted to them by my companion, at Zanzibar, failed in their ratings
-and became useless for chronometric longitudes. Two of them (Ed. Baker,
-London, No. 863, and Barraud, London, No. 2/537), stopped without
-apparent reason. A third, a first-rate article (Parkinson and Frodsham,
-No. 2955), issued to me from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, at the
-kind suggestion of Capt. Belcher, of the Admiralty, had its glass broken
-and its second-hand lost by the blunderer Gaetano: we remedied that evil
-by counting the ticks without other trouble than that caused by the odd
-number,--5 to 2 seconds. This instrument also summarily struck work on
-the 9th November, 1858, the day before we intended to have “made a night
-of it” at Jiwe la Mkoa. This may serve as a warning for future
-travellers to avoid instruments so delicate that a jolt will disorder
-them--the hair-spring of the lever watch was broken by my companion in
-jumping out of a canoe--and which no one but a professional can attempt
-to repair. A box chronometer carried in a “petarah” by a pole swung
-between two men so as to preserve its horizontality, might outlast the
-pocket-instruments, yet we read in Capt. Owens celebrated survey of the
-African coasts, that out of nine not one kept rate without fluctuations.
-The best plan would be to purchase half-a-dozen sound second-hand
-watches, carefully inspected and cleaned, and to use one at a time; if
-gold-mounted, they would form acceptable presents to the Arabs, and
-ultimately would prove economical by obviating the necessity of parting
-with more valuable articles.
-
-The break-down of the last chronometer disheartened us for a time.
-Presently when our brains, addled by sun and sickness, had recovered
-tone by a return to the Usagara sanitarium, we remembered a rough and
-ready succedaneum for instruments. I need scarcely tell the reader that,
-unhappily for travellers, the only means of ascertaining the longitude
-of a place is by finding the difference between the local and Greenwich
-times, and that this difference of time with certain corrections is
-converted into distance of space. We split a 4 oz. rifle-ball, inserted
-into it a string measuring 39 inches from the point of suspension to the
-centre of the weight, and fixed it by hammering the halves together. The
-loose end of the cord was attached to a three-edged file as a pivot, and
-this was lashed firmly to the branch of a tree sheltered as much as
-possible from the wind. Local time was ascertained with a sextant by
-taking the altitude of a star or a planet; Greenwich time by a distance
-between the star or planet and the moon, and the vibrations of our rude
-pendulum did all that a watch could do, by registering the seconds that
-elapsed between the several observations.
-
-I am somewhat presuming upon the subject, but perhaps it may here be
-better to chronicle the accidents which happened to the rest of our
-instruments. We had two Schmalcalder’s compasses (H. Barron & Co., 26,
-Oxenden Street), which, when the paste-board faces had been acclimatized
-and no longer curled up against their glasses, did good service; one of
-them was trodden upon by my companion, the other by a sailor during a
-cruise on the lake. We returned with a single instrument, the gift of my
-old friend Lieut.-General Monteith; it had surveyed Persia, and
-outlasting two long excursions into Eastern Africa, it still outlives
-and probably will outlive many of the showy articles now supplied by the
-trade. Finally, a ship’s compass, mounted in gimbals for boat-work and
-indented for upon the Engineer’s Stores, Bombay, soon became lumber, its
-oscillations were too sluggish to be useful.
-
-We left Kadetamare on the 25th August, to ascend the fluviatile valley
-of the Mukondokwa. According to the guides this stream is the upper
-course of the Kingani River, with which it anastomoses in Uzaramo(?) It
-cuts its way through the chain to which it gives a name, by a
-transversal valley perpendicular to the lay, and so conveniently
-disposed that the mountains seem rather to be made for their drain than
-the drain for its mountains. The fluviatile valley is apparently girt on
-all sides by high peaks, with homesteads smoking and cattle grazing on
-all sides. Crippled by the night-cold that rose from the river-bed, and
-then wet through with the dew that dripped from the tall grass, we
-traversed, within ear-shot of the frightened villagers who hailed one
-another from the heights, some fields of grain and tobacco that had been
-lately reaped. After an hour and a-half of marching we arrived at the
-second ford of the Mukondokwa. Receiving less drainage than in the lower
-bed, the stream was narrower and only knee-deep; the landing-place of
-sloppy mud caused, however, many accidents to the asses, and on
-inspecting our stores a few days afterwards we found them all soft and
-mildewed. The reader will wonder that on these occasions we did not
-personally inspect the proceedings of our careless followers. The fact
-is we were physically and morally incapacitated for any exertion beyond
-balancing ourselves upon the donkeys; at Kadetamare I had laid in
-another stock of fever, and my companion had not recovered from his
-second severe attack. After fording the Mukondokwa we followed the right
-bank through cultivation, grass, and trees, up a gradually broadening
-valley peculiarly rich in field-rats. The path then crossing sundry
-swamps and nullahs, hill-spurs and “neat’s tongues,” equally rough
-thorny and precipitous, presently fell into a river-reach where pools of
-water, breast deep, and hedged in by impassable jungle and long runs of
-slushy mire festering in a furious sun, severely tried the porters and
-asses. Thence the road wound under the high hills to the South, whose
-flanks were smoking with extensive conflagrations, whilst on the
-opposite or left bank of the river, the opening valley displayed a
-forest of palms and tall trees. About 2 P.M. I reached the ground, a
-hutless circle of thorns, called by our people Muinyi: the rear-guard,
-however, did not straggle in before 6 P.M., and the exhaustion of the
-asses--seventeen now remained--rendered a day’s halt necessary.
-
-During the last two marches the Baloch had been, they declared, without
-grain; the sons of Ramji and the porters, more provident, had reserved a
-small store, moreover they managed to procure a sheep from the next
-station. On the morrow a party, headed by Muinyi Wazira, set out to
-forage among the mountain settlements, bearing no arms in token of
-peace. About noon they returned, and reported that at the sight of
-strangers the people had taken to flight, after informing the party that
-they were in the habit of putting to death all Murungwana or freemen
-found trespassing off the road; however, that on this occasion the lives
-of the strangers should be spared. But Ambari, a slave belonging to Said
-bin Salim, presently tattled the true tale. The gallant foragers had not
-dared to enter the village; when the war-cry flew from hamlet to hamlet,
-and all the Wasagara, even the women and children, seized their spears
-and stood to arms, they at once threw themselves into the jungle and
-descended the hill with such unseemly haste that most of them bore the
-wounds of thorns and stones. Two of Baloch, Riza and Belok, lit their
-matches and set out proudly to provide themselves by their prowess; they
-were derided by Kidogo: “Verily, O my brethren! ye go forth to meet men
-and not women!” and after a hundred yards’ walk they took second
-thoughts and returned. The Mukondokwa Mountains, once a garden, have
-become a field for fray and foray; cruelty and violence have brutalised
-the souls of the inhabitants, and they have learned, as several
-atrocities committed since our passage through the country prove, to
-wreak their vengeance upon all weaker than themselves.
-
-On the 27th August we resumed our way under fresh difficulties. The last
-march had cost us another ass. Muhinna, a donkey-driver, complaining of
-fever, had been mounted by Kidogo without my permission, and had
-summarily departed, thus depriving us of the services of a second,
-whilst all were in a state of weakness which compelled them to walk at
-their slowest pace. On the other hand, the men of the caravan, hungry
-and suffering from raw south-east wind and the chilly cold, the result
-not of low temperature but of humidity and extensive evaporation, were
-for pushing forward as fast as possible. The path was painful, winding
-along the shoulders of stony and bushy hills, with rough re-entering
-angles, and sometimes dipping down into the valley of the Mukondokwa,
-which, hard on the right, spread out in swamps, nearly two miles broad,
-temporary where they depended upon rain, and permanent where their low
-levels admitted of free infiltration. On the steep eminences to the left
-of the path rose tall and thick the thorny aloetic and cactaceous growth
-of arid Somaliland; the other side was a miniature of the marine
-lagoons, the creeks, and the bayous of green Zanzibar. After three hours
-of hard marching, the labour came to its crisis, where the path,
-breaking off at a right angle from the river, wound up an insecure
-ladder of loose earth and stones, which caused several porters and one
-ass to lose their footing, and to roll with their loads through the
-thorny bushes of the steep slope, near the off side, into the bed of
-rushes below. Then leaving the river-valley on the right, we fell into a
-Fiumara of deep loose sand, about a hundred yards broad, and occupying
-the centre of a widening table-land. The view now changed, and the
-“wady” afforded pleasant glimpses of scenery. Its broad, smooth and
-glistening bed, dinted by the footprints of cattle, was bounded by low
-perpendicular banks of stiff red clay, margined by mighty masses of
-brilliant green tamarinds, calabashes, and sycomores, which stood
-sharply out against the yellow stubbles beyond them. The Mkuyu or
-sycomore in Eastern Africa is a magnificent tree; the bole, composed of
-a pillared mass, averages from eight to ten feet in height, and the huge
-branches, thatched with thick cool foliage, extend laterally,
-overshadowing a circle whose perimeter, when the sun is vertical,
-sometimes attains five hundred feet. The fruit, though eaten by
-travellers, is a poor berry, all rind and seeds, with a slender title to
-the name of fig. There are apparently two varieties of this tree,
-resembling each other in general appearance, but differing in details.
-The Mtamba has a large, heavy, and fleshy leaf; its fruit is not smooth
-like that of the Mkuyu, but knobbed with green excrescences, and the
-bole is loftier than the common sycomore’s trunk. The roots of the older
-trees, rising above the earth, draw up a quantity of mould which, when
-the wood is decayed or destroyed, forms the dwarf mounds that in many
-parts encumber the surface of the country. Traces of extensive
-cultivation--fields of bajri or panicum, the staple cereal which here
-supplants the normal African holcus, or Kafir corn, and plantations of
-luxuriant maize, of beans, of the vetch known as the voiandzeia
-subterranea, of tobacco, and other plants--showed that this district is
-beyond the reach of the coast-kidnappers. From the rising ground on the
-left hand we heard the loud tattoo of the drum. The Baloch, choosing to
-be alarmed, fired several shots, much to the annoyance of the irascible
-Kidogo, who had laid down as a law that waste of powder in this region
-was more likely to invite than to prevent an attack. As we ascended the
-Fiumara it narrowed rapidly, and its head was encumbered with heaps of
-boulders from which sprang a runnel of the sweetest water. The
-camping-ground was upon the left bank of the bed. The guide called it
-Ndábi, probably from a small gnarled tree here abundant, bearing a fruit
-like a pale red currant, which tastes like sweetened gum dissolved in
-dirty water. I lost no time in sending for provisions, which were scarce
-and dear. Bombay failed in procuring a sheep, though the Baloch, by
-paying six cloths, were more fortunate. One of Kidogo’s principles of
-action, in which he was abetted by Said bin Salim, was to prevent our
-buying provisions, however necessary, at high prices, fearing lest the
-tariff thus established might become an “ada,” a precedent or custom for
-future travellers, himself and others. We were, therefore, fain to
-content ourselves and our servants with a little bajri and two eggs.
-
-After a day’s halt at Ndabi we resumed the journey on the 29th August.
-The path crossed a high and stony hill-shoulder, where the bleak raw air
-caused one of the porters to lie down torpid like a frozen man. It then
-stretched over gradually rising and falling ground to a dense bush of
-cactaceæ and milk-bush, aloetic plants and thorns, based upon a surface
-of brickdust-red. Beyond this point lay another plateau of wavy surface,
-producing dwarfed and wind-wrung calabashes, and showing grain-fields
-carefully and laboriously ridged with the hoe. Flocks and herds now
-appeared in all directions. The ground was in some places rust-coloured,
-in others dazzlingly white with a detritus of granite; mica glittered
-like silver-filings in the sun, and a fine silky grass waved in the
-wind, bleached clean of colour by the glowing rays. This plateau ended
-in a descent with rapid slopes, over falls and steps of rock and boulder
-into the basin of the Rumuma River. It is a southern influent, or a
-bifurcation of the Mukondokwa, and it drains the hills to the south-west
-of the Rumuma district, whereas the main stream, arising in the
-highlands of the Wahumba or Wamusai, carries off the waters of the lands
-on the west. Losing our way, we came upon this mountain-torrent, which
-swirls through blocks and boulders under stiff banks of red earth
-densely grown with brush and reeds; and to find the kraal we were
-obliged to travel up the bed-side, through well-hoed fields irrigated by
-raised water-courses. The khambi was badly situated in the dwarf hollow
-between the river and the hills, and having lately been tenanted, as the
-smoking embers showed, it was uncleanly in the extreme. It was
-heart-breaking to see the asses that day. I left them to Said bin Salim,
-who, with many others, did not appear till eventide.
-
-Rumuma is a favourite resting-place with caravans, on account of the
-comparative abundance of its supplies. I halted here two whole days, to
-rest and feed the starving porters, and to repair the sacks, the
-pack-saddles, and the other appointments of the asses. Here, for the
-first time, the country people descended in crowds from the hills,
-bringing fowls, hauling along small but beautifully formed goats, lank
-sheep, and fine bullocks--the latter worth twelve cloths--and carrying
-on their heads basket-platters full of the Voandzeia, bajri, beans, and
-the _Arachis Hypogæa_. The latter is called by the Arabs Sumbul el
-Sibal, or “Monkey’s Spikenard;” on the coast, Njugu ya Nyassa; in
-Unyamwezi, Karanga or K’haranga, and further west, Mayowwa or Mwanza. It
-is the Bhuiphali, or “earth-fruit” of India, and the Bik’han of
-Maharatta land, where it is used by cheap confectioners in the place of
-almonds, whose taste it simulates. Our older Cape travellers term it the
-pig-nut. The plant extends itself along the surface of the ground, and
-puts forth its fruit at intervals below. It is sown before the rains,
-and ripens after six months,--in the interior about June. The Arabs fry
-it with cream that has been slightly salted, and employ it in a variety
-of rich dishes; it affords them also a favourite oil. The Africans use
-it principally on journeys. The price greatly varies according to the
-abundance of the article; when moderate, about two pounds may be
-purchased for a “khete” of coral beads.
-
-The Wasagara of Rumuma are short, black, beardless men. They wear their
-hair combed off the forehead, and twisted into a fringe of little
-pig-tails, which extend to the nape of the neck. Few boast of cloth, the
-general body contenting themselves with a goat-skin flap somewhat like a
-cobbler’s apron tied over one shoulder, as we sling a game-bag. Their
-ornaments are zinc and brass earrings in rolls, which distend the
-ear-lobe, bangles, or armlets of similar metal, and iron chains with
-oblong links as anklets. Their arms are bows and arrows, assegais with
-long lanceated heads, and bull-hide shields, three feet long by one
-broad, painted black and red in perpendicular stripes. I was visited by
-their Sultan Njasa, a small grizzled old man, with eyes reddened by
-liquor, a wide mouth, a very thin beard, a sooty skin, and long
-straggling hair, “_à la malcontent_.” He was attired in an antiquated
-Barsati, or blue and red Indian cotton, tucked in at the waist, with
-another thrown over his shoulders, and his neck was decked with many
-strings of beads. He insisted upon making “sare” or brotherhood with
-Said bin Salim, who being forbidden by his law to taste blood, made the
-unconscientious Muinyi Wazira his proxy. The two brothers being seated
-on the ground opposite each other, with legs well to the fore, one man
-held over their heads a drawn sword, whilst another addressed to them
-alternately a little sermon, denouncing death or slavery as the penalty
-for proving false to the vow. Then each brother licked a little of the
-other’s blood, taken with the finger from a knife-cut above the heart,
-or rather where the heart is popularly supposed to be. The Sultan then
-presented to the Muinyi, _in memoriam_, a neat iron chain-anklet, and
-the Muinyi presented to the Sultan a little of our cloth.
-
-The climate of Rumuma was new to me, after the incessant rains of the
-maritime valley, and the fogs and mists of the Rufuta Range. It was,
-however, in extremes. At night the thermometer, under the influence of
-dewy gusts, sank in the tent to 48° F., a killing temperature in these
-latitudes to half-naked and houseless men. During the day the mercury
-ranged between 80° and 90° F.; the sun was fiery, whilst a furious south
-wind coursed through skies purer and bluer than I had ever seen in
-Greece or Italy. At times, according to the people, the hill-tops are
-veiled, especially in the mornings and evenings, with thick nimbus,
-vapours, and spitting clouds, which sometimes extend to the plain, and
-discharge heavy showers that invariably cause sickness. Here my
-companion once more suffered from an attack of “liver,” brought on, he
-supposed, from over-devotion to a fat bullock’s hump. Two of the
-Wanyamwezi porters were seized with preliminary symptoms of small-pox,
-euphuistically termed by Said bin Salim “shurua,” or chicken-pox.
-Several of the slaves, including the charming Halimah, were laid up; the
-worst of all, however, was Valentine, who complained of an unceasing
-racking headache, whilst his puffed cheeks and dull-yellow skin gave him
-the look of one newly deceased. At length, divining his complaint, he
-was cupped by a Mnyamwezi porter, and he recovered after the operation
-strength and appetite.
-
-The 2nd of September saw us _en route_ to Márengá Mk’hali, or the
-“brackish water.” Fording the Rumuma above the spot where it receives
-the thin supplies of the Márengá Mk’hali, we marched over stony hills
-and thorny bushes, dotted with calabash and mimosa, the castor-shrub and
-the wild egg-plant, and gradually rising, we passed into scattered
-fields of holcus and bajri, pulse and beans. Here, for the first time,
-bee-hives, called by the coast-people Mazinga, or cannons, from their
-shape, hollowed cylindrical logs, closed with grass and puddle at both
-ends, and provided with an oval opening in the centre, were seen hanging
-to the branches of the foliaged trees. Cucumbers, water-melons, and
-pumpkins grew apparently without cultivation. The water-melon, called by
-the Arabs Johh, and by the Wasawahili Tikiti, flourishes throughout the
-interior, where it is a favourite with the people. It is sown before the
-rainy season, gathered after six months, and placed to ripen upon the
-flat roofs of the villages. Like the produce of Kafir-land, it is hard,
-insipid, fleshy, and full of seeds, having nothing but the name in
-common with the delicious fruit of Egypt and Afghanistan. The Junsal, or
-Boga, the pumpkin, is, if possible, worse than the water-melon. Its red
-meat, simply boiled, is nauseously sweet; it is, however, considered
-wholesome, and the people enjoy the seeds toasted, pounded, and mixed
-with the “Mboga,” or wild vegetables, with which a veritable African
-can, in these regions, keep soul and body together for six months. About
-10 A.M., I found Khalfan’s caravan halted in a large kraal amongst the
-villages, on the eastern hill above the “brackish water.” They were
-loading for the march, and my men looked wistfully at the comfortable
-huts; but their halt had been occasioned by small-pox, I therefore
-hurried forwards across the streamlet to a wind-swept summit of an
-opposite hill. The place was far from pleasant, the gusts were furious;
-by night the thermometer showed 54° F., by day there was but scanty
-shelter from the fiery sun, and the “Márengá Mk’hali,” which afforded
-the only supplies of water, was at a considerable distance. Moreover our
-umbrellas and bedding suffered severely from a destructive host of white
-ants, that here became troublesome for the first time. The “Chunga
-Mchwa,” or termite, abounds throughout the sweet red clay soils, and
-cool damp places, avoiding heat, sand, and stone, and it acts like a
-clearer and scavenger; without it, indeed, some parts of the country
-would be impassable, and it is endowed with extraordinary powers of
-destruction. A hard clay-bench has been drilled and pierced like a sieve
-by these insects in a single night, and bundles of reeds placed under
-bedding, have in a few hours been converted into a mass of mud; straps
-were consumed, cloths and umbrellas were reduced to rags, and the mats
-used for covering the servants’ sleeping-gear were, in the shortest
-possible time, so tattered as to be unserviceable. Man revenges himself
-upon the white ant, and satisfies his craving for animal food, which in
-these regions becomes a principle of action,--a passion,--by boiling the
-largest and fattest kind, and eating it as a relish with his insipid
-ugali, or porridge. The termite appears to be a mass of live water. Even
-in the driest places it finds no difficulty in making a clay-paste for
-the mud-galleries, like hollow tree-twigs, with which it disguises its
-approach to its prey. The phenomenon has been explained by the
-conjecture that it combines by vital force the atmospheric oxygen with
-the hydrogen evolved by its food. When arrived at the adult state, the
-little peoples rise ready-winged, like thin curls of pipe-smoke,
-generally about even-tide, from the ground. After a flight of a few
-yards, the fine membranes, which apparently serve to disperse the
-insects into colonies, drop off. In East Africa there is also a
-semi-transparent brown ant, resembling the termite in form, but
-differing in habits, and even exceeding it in destructiveness. It does
-not, like its congener, run galleries up to the point of attack. Each
-individual works for itself in the open air, tears the prey with its
-strong mandibles, and carries it away to its hole. The cellular hills of
-the termites in this country rarely rise to the height of three feet,
-whereas in Somali-land they become dwarf towers, forming a conspicuous
-feature in the view.
-
-No watch was kept by the Baloch at Márengá Mk’hali, though we were then
-in the vicinity of the bandit Wahumba. On the next day we were harangued
-by Kidogo, who proceeded to expound the principles that must guide us
-through the unsafe regions ahead. The caravan must no longer straggle on
-in its usual disorder, the van must stop short when separated from the
-main body, and the rear must advance at the double when summoned by the
-sound of the Barghumi, or the koodoo-horn, which acts as bugle in
-Eastern Africa. I thought, at the time, that Kidogo might as well
-address his admonitions to the wind, and I thought rightly.
-
-The route lay through the lateral plain which separates the Mukondokwa
-or second, from the Rubeho or third parallel range of the Usagara
-Mountains. At Márengá, Mk’hali, situated as it is under the lee of the
-two eastern walls, upon which the humid N. E. and S. E. trade-winds
-impinge, the eye no longer falls, as before, upon a sheet of monotonous
-green, and the nose is not offended by the death-like exhalations of a
-pestilent vegetation. The dew diminishes, the morning-cloud is rare upon
-the hill-top, and the stratus is not often seen in the valley; rain,
-moreover, seldom falls heavily, except during its single appointed
-season. The climate is said to be salubrious, and the medium elevation
-of the land, 2500 feet, raises it high above the fatal fever-level,
-without attaining the altitudes where dysentery and pleurisy afflict the
-inhabitants. For many miles beyond Márengá Mk’hali water is rarely
-found. Caravans, therefore, resort to what is technically called a
-“Tirikeza,” or afternoon march. In the Kisawahili, or coast-language,
-“ku Tirikeza,” or “Tilikeza,” and in Kinyamwezi, “ku Witekezea,” is the
-infinitive of a neuter verb signifying “to march after noon-day”; by the
-Arabs it is corrupted into a substantive. Similarly the verb ku honga,
-to pay “dash”, tribute, passage-money, or blackmail, becomes in the
-mouths of the stranger, ku honga, or Honga. The tirikeza is one of the
-severest inflictions that African travelling knows. At 11 A.M.
-everything is thrown into confusion, although two or three hours must
-elapse before departure; loads are bound up, kitchen-batteries are
-washed and packed, tents are thrown, and stools are carried off by
-fidgeting porters and excited slaves. Having drunk for the last time,
-and filled their gourds for the night, the wayfarers set out when the
-midday ends. The sun is far more severely felt after the sudden change
-from shade, than during the morning marches, when its increase of heat
-is slow and gradual. They trudge under the fireball in the firmament,
-over ground seething with glow and reek, through an air which seems to
-parch the eyeballs, and they endure this affliction till their shadows
-lengthen out upon the ground. The tirikeza is almost invariably a
-lengthy stage, as the porters wish to abridge the next morning’s march,
-which leads to water. It is often bright moonlight before they arrive at
-the ground, with faces torn by the thorns projecting across the jungly
-path, with feet lacerated by stone and stub, and occasionally a leg
-lamed by stumbling into deep and narrow holes, the work of field-rats
-and of various insects.
-
-We left Márengá Mk’hali at 1 P.M., on the 3rd September, and in order to
-impressionise a large and well-armed band of the country people that had
-gathered to stare at, to criticise, and to deride us, we indulged in a
-little harmless sword-play, with a vast show of ferocity and readiness
-for fight. The road lay over several rough, steep, and bushy ridges,
-where the wretched asses, rushing away to take advantage of a yard of
-shade, caused constant delays. The Wanyamwezi animals having a great
-persistency of character, could scarcely be dislodged; and when they
-were, they threw their loads in pure spite. After topping a little “col”
-or pass, we came in sight of an extensive basin, bounded by distant blue
-hills, to which the porters pointed with a certain awe, declaring them
-to be the haunts of the fierce Wahumba. A descent of the western flank
-led us to a space partially cleared by burning, when the cry arose that
-men were lurking about. We then plunged into a thick bush of thorny
-trees, based upon a red clayey soil caked into the semblance of a rock.
-Contrary to expectation, when crossing a deep nullah trending
-northwards, we found a little rusty, ochreish water, in one of the cups
-and holes that dented the sandstone of the soles. Thence the path,
-gradually descending, fell into a coarse scrub, varied with small open
-savannahs, and broken, like the rest of the road, by deep, narrow
-watercourses, which carry off the waters of the southern hills to the
-northern lowlands. About 6 P.M., we came upon a cleared space in a thick
-thorn-jungle, where we established ourselves for the night. The near
-whine of the hyæna, and the alarm of the asses, made sleep a difficulty.
-The impatience and selfishness of thirst showed strongly in the Baloch.
-Belok had five large gourds full of water, perhaps three gallons, yet he
-would not part with a palmful to the sick Ismail. That day I was
-compelled to dismiss my usual ass-leader Shahdad, the zeze-player and
-fracturer of female hearts, who preferring the conversation of his
-fellows, dragged the animal through thorns and alongside of trees so
-artistically, that my nether garments were soon in strips. I substituted
-for him Musa the Greybeard, who, after a few days, begged, with bitter
-tears, to be excused. It was his habit to hurry on towards the kraal and
-shade, and the slow hobble of the ass detained him a whole hour in sore
-discomfort. The task was then committed to the tailor-youth Hudul, who
-lost no time in declaring that I had abused him--that he was a
-Baloch--that he was not an asinego. Then I tried Abdullah,--the good
-young man. I dismissed him because every day brought with it a fresh
-demand for cloth or beads, gourds or sandals, for a “chit” to the
-Balyuz--the Consul, or a general good character as regards honesty,
-virtue, and the _et ceteras_. Finally the ass was entrusted to the
-bull-headed slave Mabruki, who thinking of nothing but chat with his
-“brother,” Seedy Bombay, and having that curious mania for command which
-seems part of every servile nature, hurried my monture so recklessly,
-that earth-cracks and rat-holes caused us twain many a severe fall. My
-companion had entrusted himself to Bombay, who, though he did nothing
-well rarely did anything very badly.
-
-The 4th September began with an hour’s toil through the dense bush, to a
-rapid descent over red soil and rocks, which necessitated frequent
-dismounting,--no pleasant exercise after a sleepless night. Below, lay a
-wide basin of rolling ground, surrounded in front by a rim of hills. It
-was one of the many views which “catching the reflex of heaven,” and
-losing by indistinctness the harshness of defined outline and the
-deformity of individual feature, assume, viewed from afar, a peculiar
-picturesqueness. Traces of extensive cultivation, flocks and herds, were
-descried in the lower levels, which were a network of sandy nullahs; and
-upon the rises, the regular and irregular square or oblong habitations,
-called “Tembe,” were seen for the first time. Early September is, in
-this region, the depth of winter. Under the burning, glaring sun, the
-grass becomes white as the ground; the fields, stubbles stiff as
-harrows, are stained only by the shadow of passing clouds; the trees,
-except upon the nullah-banks, are gaunt and bare, the animals are
-walking skeletons, and nothing seems to flourish but flies and white
-ants, caltrops and grapple-plants. After crossing deep water-cuts
-trending N.E. and N.N.E., we descended a sharp incline and a rough
-ladder of boulders, and found a dirty and confined kraal, on the side of
-a rocky khad[8] or ravine, which drains off the surplus moisture of the
-westerly crags and highlands, and which affords sweet springs, that
-cover the soil as far as they extend with a nutritious and succulent
-grass. As this was to be a halting-place, a more than usually violent
-rush was made by the Baloch, the sons of Ramji, and the porters, to
-secure the best quarters. The Jemadar remaining behind with three of the
-Wanyamwezi, who were unable to walk, did not arrive till after noon, and
-my companion, suffering from a paroxysm of bilious fever, came in even
-later. Valentine was weaker than usual, and Gaetano groaned more
-frequently, “ang duk’hta”--body pains! To add other troubles, an ass had
-been lost, and “Khamsin,”--No. 50--my riding-animal, had by breaking a
-tooth in fighting incapacitated itself for food or drink: its feebleness
-compelled me to transfer the saddle to the last of the Zanzibar
-riding-asses, Siringe,--the Quarter-dollar--and Siringe, sadly
-back-sore, cowering in the hams, and slipping from under me every few
-minutes, showed present signs of giving in.
-
- [8] The Indian “khad” is the deep rocky drain in hilly countries, thus
- differing from the popular idea of a “ravine,” and from the nullah,
- which is a formation in more level lands.
-
-The basin of Inenge lies at the foot of the Rubeho or “Windy Pass,” the
-third and westernmost range of the Usagara Mountains. The climate, like
-that of Rumuma, is ever in extremes--during the day a furnace, and at
-night a refrigerator--the position is a funnel, which alternately
-collects the fiery sunbeams and the chilly winds that pour down from the
-misty highlands. The villagers of the settlements overlooking the
-ravine, flocked down to barter their animals and grain. Here, for the
-first time since our departure from the coast, honey, clarified butter,
-and, greatest boon of all, milk, fresh and sour, were procurable. The
-man who has been restricted to a diet so unwholesome as holcus and
-bajri, with an occasional treat of kennel-food,--broth and beans,--will
-understand that the first unexpected appearance of milk, butter, and
-honey formed an epoch in our journey.
-
-The halt was celebrated with abundant drumming and droning, which lasted
-half the night; it served to cheer the spirits of the men, who had
-talked of nothing the whole day but the danger of being attacked by the
-Wahumba. On the next morning arrived a caravan of about 400 Wanyamwezi
-porters marching to the coast, under the command of Isa bin Hijji and
-three other Arab merchants. An interchange of civilities took place. The
-Arabs lacking cloth could not feed their slaves and porters, who
-deserted daily, imperilling a valuable investment in ivory. The
-Europeans could afford a small contribution of three Gorah or pieces of
-domestics: they received a present of fine white rice, a few pounds of
-salt, and a goat, in exchange for a little perfumed snuff and
-assafœtida, which after a peculiar infusion is applied to wounds, and
-which, administered internally, is considered a remedy for many
-complaints. I was allured to buy a few yards of rope, indispensable for
-packing the animals. The number of our asses being reduced from thirty
-to fifteen, and the porters from thirty-six to thirty, it was necessary
-to recruit. The Arabs sold two Wanyamwezi animals for ten dollars each,
-payable at Zanzibar. One proved valuable as a riding ass, and carried me
-to the Central Lake, and back to Unyanyembe: the other, though caponized
-and blind on the off-side, had become by bad treatment so obstinate and
-so cleverly vicious, that the Baloch called him “Shaytan yek-cham,” or
-the “one-eyed fiend:” he carried, besides sundries, four boxes of
-ammunition, weighing together 160 pounds, and even under these he danced
-like a deer. Nothing was against him but his character: after a few days
-he was cast adrift in the wilderness of Mgunda M’khali, because no man
-dared to load and lead him. Knowing that the Arab merchants upon this
-line hold it a point of honour to discourage, by refusing a new
-engagement, the down-porters in their proclivity to desert, and
-believing that it was a stranger’s duty to be even stricter than they
-are, I gave most stringent orders that any fugitive porter detected in
-my caravan should be sent back a prisoner to his employers. But the
-Coast-Arabs and the Wasawahili ignore this commercial chivalry, and
-shamelessly offer a premium to “levanters:” moreover, in these lands it
-is hard to make men understand the _rapport_ between sayings and doings.
-Seven or eight fellows, who secretly left the party, were sent back;
-one, however, was taken on without my knowledge. Said bin Salim
-persuaded the merchants to lend us the services of three Wanyamwezi, who
-for sums varying from eight Shukkah to two cloths, and a coil large
-enough to make three wire bracelets, undertook to carry packs as far as
-Unyanyembe. Our Ras Kafilah had increased in Uzaramo his suite by the
-addition of “Zawada,”--the “nice gift,” a parting present of the headman
-Kizaya. She was a woman about thirty, with a black skin shining like a
-patent-leather boot, a bulging brow, little red eyes, a wide mouth which
-displayed a few long, strong, scattered teeth, and a figure considerably
-too bulky for her thin legs, which were unpleasantly straight, like
-ninepins. Her _morale_ was superior to her _physique_; she was a patient
-and hard-working woman, and respectable in the African acceptation of
-the term. She was at once married off to old Musangesi, one of the
-donkey-men, whose nose and chin made him a caricature of our dear old
-friend Punch. After detecting her in a lengthy walk, perhaps not
-solitary, through the jungle, he was palpably guilty of such cruelty
-that I felt compelled to decree a dissolution of the marriage. After
-passing through sundry adventures she returned safely to Zanzibar,
-where, for aught I know, she may still grace the harem of Said bin
-Salim. At Inenge another female slave was added to the troop, in the
-person of the lady Sikujui, “Don’t know,” a “mulier nigris dignissima
-barris,” whose herculean person and virago manner raised her value to
-six cloths and a large coil of brass wire. The channel of her upper lip
-had been pierced to admit a disk of bone; her Arab master had attempted
-to correct the disfigurement by scarification and the use of rock-salt,
-yet the distended muscles insisted upon projecting sharply from her
-countenance, like a duck’s bill, or the beak of an ornithorhyncus. This
-truly African ornamentation would have supplied another instance to the
-ingenious author of “Anthropometamorphosis.”[9] “Don’t know’s” morals
-were frightful. She was duly espoused--as the forlorn hope of making her
-an “honest woman”--to Goha, the sturdiest of the Wak’hutu porters; after
-a week she treated him with a sublime contempt. She gave him first one,
-then a dozen rivals; she disordered the caravan by her irregularities;
-she broke every article entrusted to her charge, as the readiest way of
-lightening her burden, and--“le moindre défaut d’une femme galante est
-de l’être”--she deserted so shamelessly that at last Said bin Salim
-disposed of her, at Unyanyembe, for a few measures of rice, to a
-travelling trader, who came the next morning to complain of a broken
-head.
-
- [9] Anthropometamorphosis: Man-transformed: or the Artificial
- Changeling, historically presented, In the mad and cruel Gallantry,
- foolish Bravery, Ridiculous Beauty, filthy Finenesse, and loathsome
- Loveliness of most NATIONS, fashioning and attiring their Bodies from
- the mould intended by NATURE; with figures of these Transfigurations.
- To which artificial and affected Deformations are added, all the
- Native and National Monstrosities that have appeared to disfigure the
- Humane Fabrick. With a VINDICATION of the Regular Beauty and Honesty
- of NATURE. With an Appendix of the Pedigree of the ENGLISH GALLANT.
- Scripsit J. B. Cognomento Chirosophus, M.D “In nova fert animus,
- mutatas dicere formas.” London: Printed by William Hunt, Anno. Dom.
- 1653.
-
-Isa bin Hijji did us various good services. He and his companions kindly
-waited some days to superintend our preparations for crossing the Rubeho
-Range. They supplied useful hints for keeping the caravan together at
-different places infamous for desertion. They gave me valuable
-information about Ugogo and Ujiji, and they placed at my disposal their
-house at Unyanyembe. They “wigged” the Kirangozi, or guide, for
-carelessness in not building a kraal-fence every night, and for not
-bringing in, as the custom is, wood and water. Kidogo was reproved for
-allowing his men to load our asses with their luggage, and the Baloch
-for their continual complaints about food. The latter had long forgotten
-the promises made at Muhama; they returned at every opportunity to their
-old tactic, that of obtaining, by all manner of pretexts, as much cloth
-and beads as possible, ostensibly for provisions, really for trading and
-buying slaves. At Rumuma they declared that one cloth per diem starved
-them. Said bin Salim sent them its value, about fifty pounds of beans,
-and they had abundant rations of beef and mutton, but they could not eat
-beans. At Inenge they wanted flour, and as the country people sold only
-grain, they gave themselves up to despair. I sent for the Jemadar and
-told him, in presence of the merchants, that, as a fitting opportunity
-had presented itself, I was willing to weed the party, by giving
-official dismissal to Khudabakhsh and Belok, to the invalid Ismail and
-his musical “brother” Shahdad. All four, when consulted, declared that
-they would die rather than blacken their faces by abandoning the “Haji
-Abdullah;” that same evening, however, as I afterwards learned, they
-wrote, by means of the Arabs, a heartrending complaint to their chief
-Jemadar at Zanzibar, declaring that he had thrown them into the fire (of
-affliction), and that their blood was upon his hands. My companion
-prepared official papers and maps for the Secretary of the Royal
-Geographical Society, and I again indented upon the Consul and the
-Collector of Customs for drugs, medical comforts, and an extra supply of
-cloth and beads, to the extent of 400 dollars, for which a cheque upon
-my agents in Bombay was enclosed. The Arabs took leave of us on the 2nd
-September. I charged them repeatedly not to spread reports of our
-illness, and I saw them depart with regret. It had really been a relief
-to hear once more the voice of civility and sympathy.
-
-The great labour still remained. Trembling with ague, with swimming
-heads, ears deafened by weakness, and limbs that would hardly support
-us, we contemplated with a dogged despair the apparently perpendicular
-path that ignored a zigzag, and the ladders of root and boulder, hemmed
-in with tangled vegetation, up which we and our starving drooping asses
-were about to toil. On the 10th September we hardened our hearts, and
-began to breast the Pass Terrible. My companion was so weak that he
-required the aid of two or three supporters; I, much less unnerved,
-managed with one. After rounding in two places wall-like sheets of
-rock--at their bases green grass and fresh water were standing close to
-camp, and yet no one had driven the donkeys to feed--and crossing a
-bushy jungly step, we faced a long steep of loose white soil and rolling
-stones, up which we could see the Wanyamwezi porters swarming, more like
-baboons scaling a precipice than human beings, and the asses falling
-after every few yards. As we moved slowly and painfully forwards,
-compelled to lie down by cough, thirst, and fatigue, the “sayhah” or
-war-cry rang loud from hill to hill, and Indian files of archers and
-spearmen streamed like lines of black ants in all directions down the
-paths. The predatory Wahumba, awaiting the caravan’s departure, had
-seized the opportunity of driving the cattle and plundering the villages
-of Inenge. Two passing parties of men, armed to the teeth, gave us this
-information; whereupon the negro “Jelai” proposed, fear-maddened--a
-_sauve qui peut_--leaving to their fate his employers, who, bearing the
-mark of Abel in this land of Cain, were ever held to be the head and
-front of all offence. Khudabakhsh, the brave of braves, being attacked
-by a slight fever, lay down, declaring himself unable to proceed, moaned
-like a bereaved mother, and cried for drink like a sick girl. The rest
-of the Baloch, headed by the Jemadar, were in the rear; they had
-levelled their matchlocks at one of the armed parties as it approached
-them, and, but for the interference of Kidogo, blood would have been
-shed.
-
-By resting after every few yards, and by clinging to our supporters, we
-reached, after about six hours, the summit of the Pass Terrible, and
-there we sat down amongst the aromatic flowers and bright shrubs--the
-gift of mountain dews--to recover strength and breath. My companion
-could hardly return an answer; he had advanced mechanically and almost
-in a state of coma. The view from the summit appeared eminently
-suggestive, perhaps unusually so, because disclosing a retrospect of
-severe hardships, now past and gone. Below the foreground of giant
-fractures, huge rocks, and detached boulders, emerging from a shaggy
-growth of mountain vegetation, with forest glens and hanging woods,
-black with shade gathering in the steeper folds, appeared, distant yet
-near, the tawny basin of Inenge, dotted with large square villages,
-streaked with lines of tender green, that denoted the water-courses,
-mottled by the shadows of flying clouds, and patched with black where
-the grass had been freshly fired. A glowing sun gilded the canopy of
-dense smoke which curtained the nearer plain, and in the background the
-hazy atmosphere painted with its azure the broken wall of hill which we
-had traversed on the previous day.
-
-Somewhat revived by the _tramontana_ which rolled like an ice-brook down
-the Pass, we advanced over an easy step of rolling ground, decked with
-cactus and the flat-topped mimosa, with green grass and bright shrubs,
-to a small and dirty khambi, in a hollow flanked by heights, upon which
-several settlements appeared. At this place, called the “Great Rubeho,”
-in distinction from its western neighbour, I was compelled to halt. My
-invalid sub. had been seized with a fever-fit that induced a dangerous
-delirium during two successive nights; he became so violent that it was
-necessary to remove his weapons, and, to judge from certain symptoms,
-the attack had a permanent cerebral effect. Death appeared stamped upon
-his features, yet the Baloch and the sons of Ramji clamoured to advance,
-declaring that the cold disagreed with them.
-
-On the 12th September the invalid, who, restored by a cool night, at
-first proposed to advance, and then doubted his ability to do so, was
-yet hesitating when the drum-signal for departure sounded without my
-order. The Wanyamwezi porters instantly set out. I sent to recal them,
-but they replied that it was the custom of their race never to return; a
-well-sounding principle against which they never offended except to
-serve their own ends. At length a hammock was rigged up for my
-companion, and the whole caravan broke ground.
-
-The path ran along the flank of an eminence, and, ascending a second
-step, as steep but shorter than the Pass Terrible, placed us at the
-Little Rubeho, or Windy Pass, the summit of the third and westernmost
-range of the Usagara Mountains, raised 5,700 feet above the sea-level.
-It is the main water-parting of this ghaut-region. At Inenge the trend
-is still to the S.E.; beyond Rubeho the direction is S.W. Eventually,
-however, the drainage of both slope and counter-slope finds its way to
-the Indian Ocean, the former through the Mukondokwa and the Kingani, the
-latter through the Rwaha and the Rufiji Rivers.
-
-A lively scene awaited my arrival at the “Little Rubeho.” From a
-struggling mass of black humanity, which I presently determined to be
-our porters, proceeded a furious shouting and yelling. Spears and
-daggers flashed in the sun, and cudgels played with a threshing movement
-which promised many a broken head. At the distance of a few yards, with
-fierce faces and in motionless martial attitudes, the right hand upon
-the axe-handle stuck in the waist-belt, and the left grasping the bow
-and two or three polished assegais, stood a few strong fellows, the
-forlorn hope of the fray. In the midst of the crowd, like Norman
-Ramsay’s troop begirt by French cavalry--to compare small things with
-great--rose and fell the chubby, thickset forms of Muinyi Wazira and his
-four Wak’hutu, who, undaunted by numbers, were dealing death to nose and
-scalp. Charge! Mavi ya Gnombe (“Bois de Vache”) charge! On! Mashuzi
-(“Fish Fry-soup”) on! Bite, Kuffan Kwema (“To die is good”) bite, Smite,
-Na daka Mali (“I want wealth”) smite! At length, when
-
- “Blood (t’was from the nose) began to flow,”
-
-a little active interference rescued the five “enfans perdus.” The
-porters had been fighting upon the question whether the men with
-small-pox should, or should not, be admitted into the kraal, and Muinyi
-Wazira and his followers, under the influence of potations which
-prevented their distinguishing friend from foe, had proved themselves,
-somewhat unnecessarily heroes. It is usually better to let these
-quarrels work themselves out; if prematurely cut short, the serpent,
-wrath, is scotched, not slain. A little “punishment” always cools the
-blood, and secures peace and quiet for the future. Moreover, the busy
-peacemaker here often shares the fate of M. Porceaugnac, and earns the
-reward of those who, according to the proverb, in quarrels interpose. It
-is vain to investigate, where all is lie, the origin of the squabble.
-Nothing easier, as the Welsh justice was fond of declaring, than to
-pronounce judgment after listening to one side of the question; but an
-impartial hearing of both would strike the inquiring mind with a sense
-of impotence. Perhaps it is not unadvisable to treat the matter after
-the fashion adopted by a “police-officer,” a certain captain in the _X.
-Y. Z._ army, who deemed it his duty to discourage litigiousness and
-official complaints amongst the quarrelsome Sindhi population of
-Hyderabad. The story is somewhat out of place; though so being, I will
-here recount it.
-
-Would enter, for instance, two individuals in an oriental costume
-considerably damaged; one has a cloth carefully tied round his head, the
-other has artificially painted his eye and his ear with a few drops of
-blood from the nose. They express their emotions by a loud drumming of
-the tom-tom accompanying the high-sounding Cri de Haro--Faryad! Faryad!
-Faryad!--
-
-“I’ll ‘Faryad’ yer, ye”----
-
-After these, the usual appellatives with which the “native” was in those
-days, on such occasions received, the plaintiff is thus addressed:--
-
-“Well, you--fellow! your complaint, what is it?”
-
-“Oh, Sahib! Oh, cherisher of the poor! this man who is, the same hath
-broken into my house, and made me eat a beating, and called my ma and
-sister naughty names, and hath stolen my brass pot, and--”
-
-“Bas! bas! enough!” cries the beak; “tie him”--the defendant--“up, and
-give him three dozen with thine own hand.”
-
-The wrathful plaintiff, as may be imagined, is nothing loath. After
-being vigorously performed upon by the plaintiff aforesaid, the
-defendant is cast loose, and is in turn addressed as follows:--
-
-“Well, now, you fellow! what say you?”
-
-“Oh, my lord and master! Oh, dispenser of justice! what lies hath not
-this man told? What abominations hath he not devoured? Behold (pointing
-to his war-paint) the sight! He hath met me in the street; he hath
-thrown me down; he hath kicked and trampled upon me; he hath--”
-
-“Bas! enough!” again cries the beak: “tie him--the plaintiff--up, and
-see if you can give _him_ a good three dozen.”
-
-Again it may be imagined that the three dozen are well applied by the
-revengeful defendant, and that neither that plaintiff nor that defendant
-ever troubled that excellent “police-officer” again.
-
-On Rubeho’s summit we found a single village of villanous Wasagara;
-afterwards “made clean”--as the mild Hindu expresses the extermination
-of his fellow-men--by a caravan in revenge for the murder of a porter.
-We were delayed on the hill-top a whole day, despite the extreme
-discomfort of all hands. Water had to be fetched from a runnel that
-issued from a rusty pool shaded by tilted-up strata of sandstone, at
-least a mile distant from camp. Rain fell daily, alternating with
-eruptions of sun; a stream of thick mist rolled down the ravines and
-hollows, and at night the howling winds made Rubeho their meeting-place.
-Yet neither would the sons of Ramji carry my companion’s hammock, nor
-would Said bin Salim allow his children to be so burdened; moreover,
-whatever measures one attempted with the porters, the other did his best
-to thwart. “Men,” say the Persians, “kiss an ass for an object.” I
-attempted with Kidogo that sweet speech which, according to Orientals,
-is stronger than chains, and administered “goose’s oil” in such
-quantities that I was graciously permitted to make an arrangement for
-the transport of my companion with the Kirangozi.
-
-On the 14th September, our tempers being sensibly cooled by the weather,
-we left the hill-top and broke ground upon the counterslope or landward
-descent of the Usagara Mountains. Following a narrow footpath that wound
-along the hill-flanks, on red earth growing thick clumps of cactus and
-feathery mimosa, after forty-five minutes’ march we found a kraal in a
-swampy green gap, bisected by a sluggish rivulet that irrigated scanty
-fields of grain, gourds, and water-melons, the property of distant
-villagers. For the first time since many days I had strength enough to
-muster the porters and to inspect their loads. The outfit, which was
-expected to last a year, had been half exhausted in three months. I
-summoned Said bin Salim, and passed on to him my anxiety. Like a
-veritable Arab, he declared, without the least emotion, that we had
-enough to reach Unyanyembe, where we certainly should be joined by the
-escort of twenty-two porters. “But how do you know that?” I inquired.
-“Allah is all-knowing,” replied Said; “but the caravan _will_ come.”
-Such fatalism is infectious. I ceased to think upon the subject.
-
-On the 15th September, after sending forward the luggage, and waiting as
-agreed upon for the return of the porters to carry my companion, I set
-out about noon, through hot sunshine tempered by the cool hill-breeze.
-Emerging from the grassy hollow, the path skirted a well-wooded hill and
-traversed a small savannah, overgrown with stunted straw and hedged in
-by a bushy forest. At this point massive trees, here single, there in
-holts and clumps, foliaged more gloomily than churchyard yews, and
-studded with delicate pink-flowers, rose from the tawny sun-burned
-expanse around, and defended from the fiery glare braky rings of emerald
-shrubbery, sharply defined as if by the forester’s hand. The savannah
-extended to the edge of a step which, falling deep and steep, suddenly
-disclosed to view, below and far beyond the shaggy ribs and the dark
-ravines and folds of the foreground, the plateau of Ugogo and its
-Eastern desert. The spectacle was truly impressive. The vault above
-seemed “an ample æther,” raised by its exceeding transparency higher
-than it is wont to be. Up to the curved rim of the western horizon, lay,
-burnished by the rays of a burning sun, plains rippled like a yellow sea
-by the wavy reek of the dancing air, broken towards the north by a few
-detached cones rising island-like from the surface, and zebra’d with
-long black lines, where bush and scrub and strip of thorn jungle,
-supplanted upon the watercourses, trending in mazy network southwards to
-the Rwaha River, the scorched grass and withered canes-stubbles, which
-seemed to be the staple growth of the land. There was nothing of
-effeminate or luxuriant beauty, nothing of the flush and fulness
-characterising tropical Nature, in this first aspect of Ugogo. It
-appeared what it is, stern and wild,--the rough nurse of rugged
-men,--and perhaps the anticipation of dangers and difficulties ever
-present to the minds of those preparing to endure the waywardness of its
-children, contributed not a little to the fascination of the scene.
-After lingering for a few minutes upon the crest of the step, with
-feelings which they will understand who after some pleasant
-months--oases in the grim deserts of Anglo-Indian life--spent among the
-tree-clad heights, the breezy lakes, and the turfy valleys of the
-Himalayas and the Neilgherries, sight from their last vantage-ground the
-jaundiced and fevered plains below, we scrambled down an irregular
-incline of glaring red clay and dazzling white chalk, plentifully
-besprinkled with dark-olive silex in its cherty crust. Below the descent
-was a level space upon a long ridge, where some small villages of
-Wasagara had surrounded themselves with dwarf fields of holcus, bajri,
-and maize. A little beyond this spot, called the “Third Rubeho,” we
-found a comfortless kraal on uneven ground, a sloping ledge sinking
-towards a deep ravine.
-
-At the third Rubeho we were delayed for a day--as is customary before a
-“Tirikeza”--by the necessity of laying in supplies for a jungle march,
-and by the quarrels of the men. The Baloch were cross as naughty
-children, ever their case when cold and hungry: warm and full, they
-become merry as crickets. The Kirangozi in hot wrath brought his flag to
-Said bin Salim, and threatened to resign, because he had been preceded
-on the last stage by two of the Baloch: his complaints of this highly
-irregular proceeding were with difficulty silenced by force of beads. I
-remarked, however, a few days afterwards, when travelling through Ugogo,
-that the Kirangozi, considering himself in danger, applied to me for a
-vanguard of matchlockmen. The sons of Ramji combined with the porters in
-refusing to carry my companion, and had Bombay and Mabruki not shown
-good-will, we might have remained a week in the acme of discomfort. The
-asses, frightened by wild beasts, broke loose at night, and one was
-lost. The atmosphere was ever in excesses of heat and cold: in the
-morning, a mist so thick that it displayed a fog-rainbow--a segment of
-an arch, composed of faint prismatic tints--rolled like a torrent down
-the ravine in front: the sun, at noon, made us cower under the thin
-canvas, and throughout the twenty-four hours a gale like a “vent de
-bise,” attracted by the heat of the western plains, swept the encamping
-ground.
-
-Sending forward my invalid companion in his hammock, I brought up the
-rear: Said bin Salim, who had waxed unusually selfish and surly,
-furtively left to us the task; he wore only sandals--he could not travel
-by night. Some of the Baloch wept at the necessity of carrying their
-gourds and skins.
-
-On the 17th September, about 2 P.M., we resumed the descent of the
-rugged mountains. The path wound to the N.W. down the stony and bushy
-crest of a ridge with a deep woody gap on the right hand: presently
-after alternations of steep and step, and platforms patched with
-odoriferous plants, it fell into the upper channel of the Mandama or the
-Dungomaro, the “Devil’s Glen.” Dungomaro in Kisawahili is the proper
-name of an evil spirit, not in the European but in the African
-sense,--some unblessed ghost who has made himself unpopular to the
-general;--perhaps the term was a facetiousness on the part of the sons
-of Ramji.
-
-It was a “via mala” down this great surface-drain of the western slopes,
-over boulders and water-rolled stones reposing upon deep sand, and with
-branches of thorny trees in places canopying the bed. After a march of
-five hours, I found the porters bivouacking upon a softer spot, and with
-difficulty persuaded four of the sons of Ramji to return and to assist
-the weary stragglers: horns were sounded, and shots were fired to guide
-the Baloch, who did not, however, arrive before 10 P.M.
-
-On the 18th September, a final march of four hours placed us in the
-plains of Ugogo. Leaving the place of the last night’s bivouac, we
-pursued the line of the Dungomaro, occasionally quitting it where
-boulders obstructed progress, and presently we came to its lower bed,
-where perennial rills, exuding from its earth-walls and trickling down
-its side, veiled the bottom with a green and shrubby perfumed
-vegetation. As the plain was neared, the difficulties increased, and the
-scenery became curious. The Dungomaro appeared a large crevasse in lofty
-rocks of pink and gray granite, streaked with white quartz, and
-pudding’d with greenstone and black horneblend; the sole, strewed with a
-rugged layer of blocks, was side-lined with narrow ledges and terraces
-of brown humus, supporting dwarf cactus and stunted thorny trees; whilst
-high above towered stony wooded peaks, closing in the view on all sides.
-Farther down the bed huge boulders, sunburnt, and stained by the courses
-of rain-torrents, rose, perpendicularly as walls, to the height of one
-hundred and one hundred and twenty feet, and there the flooring was a
-sheet or slide of shiny and shelving rock, with broad fissures, and
-steep drops, and cups, “potholes,” baths, and basins, filed and cut by
-the friction of the gravelly torrents, regularly as if turned with the
-lathe. Where water lay, deep mud and thick clumps of grass and reed
-forced the path to run along the ledges at the sides of the base.
-Gradually, as the angle of inclination became more obtuse, the bed
-widened out, the tall stone-walls gave way to low earth-banks clad with
-gum-trees; pits, serving as wells, appeared in the deep loose sand, and
-the Dungomaro, becoming a broad, smooth Fiumara, swept away verging
-southwards into the plain. Before noon, I sighted from a sharp turn in
-the bed our tent pitched under a huge sycomore, on a level step that
-bounded the Fiumara to the right. It was a pretty spot in a barren
-scene, grassy, and grown with green mimosas, spreading out their
-feathery heads like parachutes, and shedding upon the ground a filmy
-shade that fluttered and flickered in the draughty breeze.
-
-The only losses experienced during the scrambling descent, were a
-gun-case, containing my companion’s store of boots, and a chair and
-table. The latter, being indispensable on a journey where calculations,
-composition, and sketching were expected, I sent, during the evening
-halts, a detachment consisting of Muinyi Wazira, the Baloch, Greybeard
-Musa, and a party of slaves, to bring up the articles, which had been
-cache’d on the torrent bank. They returned with the horripilatory tale
-of the dangers lately incurred by the Expedition, which it appeared from
-them had been dogged by an army of Wasagara, thirsting for blood and
-furious for booty:--under such circumstances, how could they recover the
-chair and table? Some months afterwards an up-caravan commanded by a
-Msawahili found the articles lying where we had left them, and delivered
-them, for a consideration, to us at Unyanyembe. The party sent from
-Ugogo doubtless had passed a quiet, pleasant day, dozing in the shade at
-the nearest well.
-
-[Illustration: Maji ya W’heta, or the Jetting Fountain in K’hutu.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VII.
-
-THE GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY OF THE SECOND REGION.
-
-
-The second or mountain region extends from the western frontier of
-K’hutu, at the head of the alluvial valley, in E. long. 37° 28′, to the
-province of Ugogi, the eastern portion of the flat table-land of Ugogo,
-in E. long. 36° 14′. Its diagonal breadth is 85 geographical and
-rectilinear miles; and native caravans, if lightly laden, generally
-traverse it in three weeks, including three or four halts. Its length
-cannot be estimated. According to the guides, Usagara is a prolongation
-of the mountains of Nguru, or Ngu, extending southwards, with a gap
-forming the fluviatile valley of the Rwaha or Rufiji River, to the line
-of highlands of which Njesa in Uhiao is supposed to be the culminating
-apex: thus the feature would correspond with the Eastern Ghauts of the
-Indian Peninsula. The general law of the range is north and south; in
-the region now under consideration, the trend is from north by west to
-south by east, forming an angle of 10° 12′ with the meridian. The
-Usagara chain is of the first order in East Africa; it is indeed the
-only important elevation in a direct line from the coast to western
-Unyamwezi; it would hold, however, but a low grade in the general system
-of the earth’s mountains. The highest point above sea-level, observed by
-B. P. Therm., was 5,700 feet; there are, however, peaks which may rise
-to 6,000 and even to 7,000 feet, thus rivalling the inhabited portion of
-the Neilgherries. As has appeared, the chain, where crossed, was divided
-into three parallel ridges by longitudinal plains.
-
-Owing to the lowness of the basal regions at the seaward slope, there is
-no general prospect of the mountains from the East, where, after
-bounding the plains of K’hutu on the north, by irregular bulging lines
-of rolling hill, the first gradient of insignificant height springs
-suddenly from the plain. Viewed from the west, the counterslope appears
-a long crescent, with the gibbus to the front, and the cusps vanishing
-into distance; the summit is in the centre of the half-moon, whose
-profile is somewhat mural and regular. The flanks are rounded lumpy
-cones, and their shape denotes an igneous and primary origin,
-intersected by plains and basins, the fractures of the rocky system.
-Internally the lay, as in granitic formations generally, is irregular;
-the ridges, preserving no general direction, appear to cross one another
-confusedly. The slope and the counterslope are not equally inclined.
-Here, as usual in chains fringing a peninsula, the seaward declivities
-are the more abrupt; the landward faces are not only more elongated, but
-they are also shortened in proportion as the plateau into which they
-fall is higher than the mountain-plains from which they rise. To enter,
-therefore, is more toilsome than to return.
-
-From the mingling of lively colours, Usagara is delightful to the eye,
-after the monotonous tracts of verdure which pall upon the sight at
-Zanzibar and in the river valleys. The subsoil, displayed in the deeper
-cuts and ravines, is either of granite, greenstone, schiste, or a coarse
-incipient sandstone, brown or green, and outcropping from the ground
-with strata steeply tilted up. In the higher elevations, the soil varies
-in depth from a few inches to thirty feet; it is often streaked with
-long layers of pebbles, apparently water-rolled. The colour is either an
-ochreish brick-red, sometimes micaceous, and often tinted with oxide of
-iron; or it is a dull grey, the debris of comminuted felspar, which,
-like a mixture of all the colours, appears dazzlingly white under the
-sun’s rays. The plains and depressions are of black earth, which after a
-few showers becomes a grass-grown sheet of mire, and in the dry season a
-deeply-cracked, stubbly savannah. Where the elevations are veiled from
-base to summit with a thin forest, the crops of the greenstone and
-sandstone strata appear through a brown coat of fertile humus, the decay
-of vegetable matter. A fossil Bulimus was found about 3,000 feet above
-sea-level, and large Achatinæ, locally called Khowa, are scattered over
-the surface. On the hill-sides, especially in the lower slopes, are
-strewed and scattered erratic blocks and boulders, and diminutive pieces
-of white, dingy-red, rusty-pink, and yellow quartz, with large
-irregularly-shaped fragments and small nodules of calcareous kunkur.
-Where water lies deep below the surface, the hills and hill-plains are
-clothed with a thin shrubbery of mimosas and other thorny gums.
-Throughout Eastern Africa these forests are the only spots in which
-travelling is enjoyable: great indeed is their contrast with the normal
-features--bald glaring fields, fetid bush and grass, and monotonous
-expanses of dull dead herbage, concealing swamps and water-courses,
-hedged in by vegetation whose only varieties are green, greener, and
-greenest. In these favoured places the traveller appears surrounded by a
-thick wood which he never reaches, the trees thinning out as he
-advances. On clear and sunny days the scenery is strange and imposing.
-The dark-red earth is prolonged half-way up the tree-trunks by the
-ascending and descending galleries of the termite: contrasting with this
-peculiarly African tint, the foliage, mostly confined to the upper
-branches, is of a tender and lively green, whose open fret-work admits
-from above the vivid blue or the golden yellow of an unclouded sky. In
-the basins where water is nearer the surface, and upon the banks of
-water-courses and rivulets, the sweet and fertile earth produces a rich
-vegetation, and a gigantic growth of timber, which distinguishes this
-region from others further west. Usagara is peculiarly the land of
-jungle-flowers, and fruits, whose characteristic is a pleasant acidity,
-a provision of nature in climates where antiseptics and correctives to
-bile are almost necessaries of life. They are abundant, but, being
-uncultivated, the fleshy parts are undeveloped. In the plains, the air,
-heavy with the delicious perfume of the jasmine (_Jasminum
-Abyssinicum?_), with the strong odour of a kind of sage (_Salvia
-Africana_, or _Abyssinica_?), and with the fragrant exhalations of the
-mimosa-flowers, which hang like golden balls from the green clad boughs,
-forms a most enjoyable contrast to the fetid exhalations of the Great
-Dismal Swamps of the lowlands. The tamarind, everywhere growing wild, is
-a gigantic tree. The Myombo, the Mfu’u, the Ndábi, and the Mayágeá, a
-spreading tree with a large fleshy red flower, and gourds about eighteen
-inches long and hanging by slender cords, are of unusual dimensions; the
-calabash is converted into a hut; and the sycomore, whose favourite
-habitat is the lower counterslope of Usagara, is capable of shading a
-regiment. On the steep hill-sides, which here and there display signs of
-cultivation and clearings of green or sunburnt grass, grow
-parachute-shaped mimosas, with tall and slender trunks, and crowned by
-domes of verdure, rising in tiers one above the other, like umbrellas in
-a crowd.
-
-The plains, basins, and steps, or facets of table-land found at every
-elevation, are fertilised by a stripe-work of streams, runnels, and
-burns, which anastomosing in a single channel, flow off into the main
-drain of the country. Cultivation is found in patches isolated by thick
-belts of thorny jungle, and the villages are few and rarely visited. As
-usual in hilly countries, they are built upon high ridges and the slopes
-of cones, for rapid drainage after rain, a purer air and fewer
-mosquitoes, and, perhaps, protection from kidnappers. The country people
-bring down their supplies of grain and pulse for caravans. There is some
-delay and difficulty on the first day of arrival at a station, and
-provisions for a party exceeding a hundred men are not to be depended
-upon after the third or fourth marketing, when the people have exhausted
-their stores. Fearing the thievish disposition of the Wasagara, who will
-attempt even to snatch away a cloth from a sleeping man, travellers
-rarely lodge near the settlements. Kraals of thorn, capacious circles
-enclosing straw boothies, are found at every march, and, when burned or
-destroyed by accident, they are rebuilt before the bivouac. The roads,
-as usual in East Africa, are tracks trodden down by caravans and cattle,
-and the water-course is ever the favourite Pass. Many of the ascents and
-descents are so proclivitous that donkeys must be relieved of their
-loads; and in fording the sluggish streams, where no grass forms a
-causeway over the soft, viscid mire, the animals sink almost to the
-knees. The steepest paths are those in the upper regions; in the lower,
-though the inclines are often severe, they are generally longer, and
-consequently easier. At the foot of each hill there is either a mud or a
-water-course dividing it from its neighbour. These obstacles greatly
-reduce the direct distance of the day’s march.
-
-The mountains are well supplied with water, which tastes sweet after the
-brackish produce of the maritime valley, and good when not rendered soft
-and slimy by lying long on rushy beds. Upon the middle inclines the
-burns and runnels of the upper heights form terraces of considerable
-extent, and of a picturesque aspect. The wide and open sole, filled with
-the whitest and cleanest sand, and retaining pools of fresh clear water,
-or shallow wells, is edged by low steep ledges of a dull red clay, lined
-with glorious patriarchs of the forest, and often in the bed is a
-thickly wooded branch or shoal-islet, at whose upper extremity heavy
-driftwood, arrested by the gnarled mimosa-clumps, and the wall of
-shrubs, attests the violence of the rufous-tinted bore of waves with
-which a few showers fill the broadest courses. Lower down the channels
-which convey to the plains the surplus drainage of the mountains are
-heaps and sheets of granite, with long reaches of rough gravel; their
-stony walls, overrun with vegetation, tower high on either hand, and the
-excess of inclination produces after heavy rains torrents like
-avalanches, which cut their way deep into the lower plains. During the
-dry season, water is drawn from pits sunk from a few inches to 20 feet
-in the re-entering angles of the beds. Fed by the percolations of the
-soil, they unite the purity of springs with the abundance of
-rain-supplies,--a comfort fully appreciated by down-caravans after the
-frequent tirikeza, or droughty afternoon-marches in the western regions.
-
-The versant of the mountains varies. In the seaward and the central
-sections streams flow eastward, and swell the Kingani and other rivers.
-The southern hills discharge their waters south and south-west through
-the Maroro River, and various smaller tributaries, into the “Rwaha,”
-which is the proper name for the upper course of the Rufiji. In the
-lateral plains between the ridges, and in the hill-girt basins, stagnant
-pools, which even during the Masika, or rainy season, inundate, but will
-not flow, repose upon beds of porous black earth, and engendering, by
-their profuse herbage of reeds and rush-like grass, with the luxuriant
-crops produced by artificial irrigation, a malarious atmosphere, cause a
-degradation in the people.
-
-The climate of Usagara is cold and damp. It has two distinct varieties,
-the upper regions being salubrious, as the lower are unwholesome. In the
-sub-ranges heavy exhalations are emitted by the decayed vegetation, the
-nights are raw, the mornings chilly and misty, and the days are bright
-and hot. In the higher levels, near the sources of the Mukondokwa River,
-the climate suggests the idea of the Mahabaleshwar and the Neilgherry
-Hills in Western India. Compared with Uzaramo or Unyamwezi, these
-mountains are a sanatorium, and should Europeans ever settle in Eastern
-Africa as merchants or missionaries, here they might reside until
-acclimatised for the interior. The east wind, a local deflection of the
-south-east trade, laden with the moisture of the Atlantic and the Indian
-Oceans, and collecting the evaporation of the valley, impinges upon the
-seaward slope, where, ascending, and relieved from atmospheric pressure,
-it is condensed by a colder temperature; hence the frequent
-precipitations of heavy rain, and the banks and sheets of morning-cloud
-which veil the tree-clad peaks of the highest gradients. As the sun
-waxes hot, the atmosphere acquires a greater capacity for carrying
-water; and the results are a milky mist in the basins, and in the upper
-hills a wonderful clearness broken only by the thin cirri of the higher
-atmosphere. After sunset, again, the gradual cooling of the air causes
-the deposit of a copious dew, which renders the nights peculiarly
-pleasant to a European. The diurnal sea-breeze, felt in the slope, is
-unknown in the counterslope of the mountains, where, indeed, the climate
-is much inferior to that of the central and eastern heights. As in the
-Sawalik Hills, and the sub-ranges of the Himalayas, the sun is burning
-hot during the dry season, and in the rains there is either a storm of
-thunder and lightning, wind and rain, or a stillness deep and
-depressing, with occasional gusts whose distinct moaning shows the
-highly electrical state of the atmosphere. The Masika, here commencing
-in early January, lasts three months, when the normal easterly winds
-shift to the north and the north-west. The Vuli, confined to the eastern
-slopes, occurs in August, and, as on the plains, frequent showers fall
-between the vernal and the autumnal rains.
-
-The people of Usagara suffer in the lower regions from severe
-ulcerations, from cutaneous disorders, and from other ailments of the
-plain. Higher up they are healthier, though by no means free from
-pleurisy, pneumonia, and dysentery. Fever is common; it is more acute in
-the range of swamps and decomposed herbage, and is milder in the
-well-ventilated cols and on the hill-sides. The type is rather a violent
-bilious attack, accompanied by remittent febrile symptoms, than a
-regular fever. It begins with cold and hot fits, followed by a copious
-perspiration, and sometimes inducing delirium; it lasts as a quotidian
-or a tertian from four to seven days; and though the attacks are slight,
-they are followed by great debility, want of appetite, of sleep, and of
-energy. This fever is greatly exacerbated by exposure and fatigue, and
-it seldom fails to leave behind it a legacy of cerebral or visceral
-disease.
-
-The mountains of Usagara are traversed from east to west by two main
-lines; the Mukondokwa on the northern and the Kiringawana on the
-southern line. The former was closed until 1856 by a chronic famine, the
-result of such a neighbourhood as the Wazegura and the people of Whinde
-on the east, the Wahumba and the Wamasai northwards, and the Warori on
-the south-west. In 1858 the mountaineers, after murdering by the vilest
-treachery a young Arab trader, Salim bin Nasir, of the Bu Saidi, or the
-royal family of Zanzibar, attempted to plunder a large mixed caravan of
-Wanyamwezi and Wasawahili, numbering 700 or 800 guns, commanded by a
-stout fellow, Abdullah bin Nasib, called by the Africans “Kisesa,” who
-carried off the cattle, burned the villages, and laid waste the whole of
-the Rubeho or western chain.
-
-The clans now tenanting these East African ghauts are the
-Wasagara,--with their chief sub-tribe the Wakwivi,--and the Wahehe; the
-latter a small body inhabiting the south-western corner, and extending
-into the plains below.
-
-The limits of the Wasagara have already been laid down by the names of
-the plundering tribes that surround them. These mountaineers, though a
-noisy and riotous race, are not overblessed with courage: they will lurk
-in the jungle with bows and arrows to surprise a stray porter; but they
-seem ever to be awaiting an attack--the best receipt for inviting it. In
-the higher slopes they are fine, tall and sturdy men; in the low lands
-they appear as degraded as the Wak’hutu. They are a more bearded race
-than any other upon this line of East Africa, and, probably from
-extensive intercourse with the Wamrima, most of them understand the
-language of the coast. The women are remarkable for a splendid
-development of limb, whilst the bosom is lax and pendent.
-
-The Wasagara display great varieties of complexion, some being almost
-black, whilst the others are chocolate-coloured. This difference cannot
-be accounted for by the mere effects of climate--level and temperature.
-Some shave the head; others wear the Arab’s shushah, a kind of skull-cap
-growth, extending more or less from the poll. Amongst them is seen, for
-the first time on this line, the classical coiffure of ancient Egypt.
-The hair, allowed to attain its fullest length, is twisted into a
-multitude of the thinnest ringlets, each composed of two thin lengths
-wound together; the wiry stiffness of the curls keeps them distinct and
-in position. Behind, a curtain of pigtails hangs down to the nape; in
-front the hair is either combed off the forehead, or it is brought over
-the brow and trimmed short. No head-dress has a wilder nor a more
-characteristically African appearance than this, especially when,
-smeared with a pomatum of micaceous ochre, and decorated with beads,
-brass balls, and similar ornaments, it waves and rattles with every
-motion of the head. Young men and warriors adorn their locks with the
-feathers of vultures, ostriches, and a variety of bright-plumed jays,
-and some tribes twist each ringlet with a string of reddish fibre. It is
-seldom combed out, the operation requiring for a head of thick hair the
-hard work of a whole day; it is not, therefore, surprising that the
-pediculus swarms through the land. None but the chiefs wear caps. Both
-sexes distend the ear-lobe; a hole is bored with a needle or a thorn, it
-is enlarged by inserting bits of cane, wood, or quills, increasing the
-latter to the number of twenty, and it is kept open by a disk of brass,
-ivory, wood, or gum, a roll of leaf or a betel-nut; thus deformed it
-serves for a variety of purposes apparently foreign to the member; it
-often carries a cane snuff-box, sometimes a goat’s-horn pierced for a
-fife, and other small valuables. When empty, especially in old age, it
-depends in a deformed loop to the shoulders. The peculiar mark of the
-tribe is a number of confused little cuts between the ears and the
-eyebrows. Some men, especially in the eastern parts of the mountains,
-chip the teeth to points.
-
-The dress of the Wasagara is a shukkah or loin-cloth, 6 feet long,
-passed round the waist in a single fold,--otherwise walking would be
-difficult--drawn tight behind, and with the fore extremities gathered
-up, and tucked in over the stomach, where it is sometimes supported by a
-girdle of cord, leather, or brass wire: it is, in fact, the Arab’s
-“uzár.” On journeys it is purposely made short and scanty for
-convenience of running. The material is sometimes indigo-dyed, at other
-times unbleached cotton, which the Wasagara stain a dull yellow. Cloth,
-however, is the clothing of the wealthy. The poor content themselves
-with the calabash-“campestre” or kilt, and with the softened skins of
-sheep and goats. It is curious that in East Africa, where these articles
-have from time immemorial been the national dress, and where amongst
-some tribes hides form the house, that the people have neither invented
-nor borrowed the principles of rude tanning, even with mimosa-bark, an
-art so well known to most tribes of barbarians. Immediately after
-flaying, the stretched skin is pegged, to prevent shrinking, inside
-upwards, in the sun, and it is not removed till thoroughly cleansed and
-dried. The many little holes in the margin give it the semblance of
-ornamentation, and sometimes the hair is scraped off, leaving a fringe
-two or three inches broad around the edge: the legs and tail of the
-animal are favourite appendages with “dressy gentlemen.” These skins are
-afterwards softened by trampling, and they are vigorously pounded with
-clubs: after a few days’ wear, dirt and grease have almost done the duty
-of tanning. The garb is tied over either shoulder by a bit of cord or
-simply by knotting the corners; it therefore leaves one side of the body
-bare, and, being loose and ungirt, it is at the mercy of every wind. On
-journeys it is doffed during rain, and placed between the burden and the
-shoulder, so that, arrived at the encamping ground, the delicate
-traveller may have a “dry shirt.”
-
-Women of the wealthier classes wear a tobe, or double-length shukkah,
-tightly drawn under the arms, so as to depress whilst it veils the
-bosom, and tucked in at either side. Dark stuffs, indigo-dyed and Arab
-checks, are preferred to plain white for the usual reasons. The dress of
-the general is a short but decorous jupe of greasy skin, and a similar
-covering for the bosom, open behind, and extending in front from the
-neck to the middle of the body: the child is carried in another skin
-upon the back. The poorest classes of both sexes are indifferently
-attired in the narrow kilt of bark-fibre, usually made in the maritime
-countries from the ukhindu or brab tree; in the interior from the
-calabash. The children wear an apron of thin twine, like the Nubian
-thong-garments. Where beads abound, the shagele, a small square napkin
-of these ornaments strung upon thread, is fastened round the waist by a
-string or a line of beads. There are many fanciful modifications of it:
-some children wear a screen of tin plates, each the size of a man’s
-finger: most of the very juniors, however, are simply attired in a cord,
-with or without beads, round the waist.
-
-The ornaments of the Wasagara are the normal beads and wire, and their
-weight is the test of wealth and respectability. A fillet of blue and
-white beads is bound round the head, and beads,--more beads,--appear
-upon the neck, the arms, and the ankles. The kitindi, or coil of thick
-brass wire, extends from the elbow to the wrist; others wear little
-chains or thick bangles of copper, brass, or zinc, and those who can
-afford it twist a few circles of brass wire under the knee. The arms of
-the men are bows and arrows, the latter unpoisoned, but armed with
-cruelly-barbed heads, and spines like fish-bones, cut out in the long
-iron shaft which projects from the wood. Their spears and assegais are
-made from the old hoes which are brought down by the Wanyamwezi
-caravans; the ferule is thin, and it is attached to the shaft by a
-cylinder of leather from a cow’s tail, drawn over the iron, and allowed
-to shrink at its junction with the wood: some assegais have a central
-swell in the shaft, probably to admit of their being used in striking
-like the rungu or knobstick. Men seldom leave the house without a
-billhook of peculiar shape--a narrow sharp blade, ending in a right
-angle, and fixed in a wooden handle, with a projection rising above the
-blade. The shield is rarely found on this line of East Africa. In
-Usagara it is from three to four feet in length by one to two feet in
-breadth, composed of two parallel belts of hardened skin. The material
-is pegged out to stretch and dry, carefully cleaned, sometimes doubled,
-sewn together with a thin thong longitudinally, and stained black down
-one side, and red down the other. A stout lath is fastened lengthwise as
-a stiffener to the shield, and a central bulge is made in the hide,
-enabling the hand to grasp the wood. The favourite materials are the
-spoils of the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the giraffe; the common
-shields are of bull’s-hide, and the hair is generally left upon the
-outside as an ornament, with attachments of zebra and cows’ tails. It is
-a flimsy article, little better than a “wisp of fern or a herring-net”
-against an English “clothyard:” it suffices, however, for defence
-against the puny cane-arrows of the African archer.
-
-As a rule, each of these villages has its headman, who owns, however, an
-imperfect allegiance to the Mutwa or district chief, whom the Arabs call
-“sultan.” The Mgosi is his wazir, or favourite councillor, and the
-elders or headmen of settlements collectively are Wabáhá. Their
-principal distinction is the right to wear a fez, or a Surat cap, and
-the kizbáo, a sleeveless waistcoat. They derive a certain amount of
-revenue by trafficking in slaves: consequently many of the Wasagara find
-their way into the market of Zanzibar. Moreover, the game-laws as
-regards elephants are here strictly in favour of the Sultan. An animal
-found dead in his district, though wounded in another, becomes his
-property on condition of his satisfying his officials with small
-presents of cloth and beads: the flesh is feasted upon by the tribe, and
-the ivory is sold to travelling traders.
-
-The Wahehe, situated between the Wasagara and Wagogo, partake a little
-of the appearance of both. They are a plain race, but stout and well
-grown. Though to appearance hearty and good-humoured, they are
-determined pilferers: they have more than once attacked caravans, and
-only the Warori have prevented them from cutting off the road to Ugogo.
-During the return of the Expedition in 1858 they took occasion to drive
-off unseen a flock of goats; and at night no man, unless encamped in a
-strong kraal, was safe from their attempts to snatch his goods. On one
-occasion, being caught in flagrant delict, they were compelled to
-restore their plunder, with an equivalent as an indemnity. They are on
-bad terms with all their neighbours, and they unite under their chief
-Sultan Bumbumu.
-
-The Wahehe enlarge their ears like the Wagogo, they chip the two upper
-incisors, and they burn beauty-spots in their forearms. Some men extract
-three or four of the lower incisors: whenever an individual without
-these teeth is seen in Ugogo he is at once known as a Mhehe. For
-distinctive mark they make two cicatrised incisions on both cheeks from
-the zygomata to the angles of the mouth. They dress like the Wagogo, but
-they have less cloth than skins. The married women usually wear a jupe,
-in shape recalling the old swallow-tailed coat of Europe, with kitindi,
-or coil armlets of brass or iron wire on both forearms and above the
-elbows. Unmarried girls amongst the Wahehe are known by their peculiar
-attire, a long strip of cloth, like the Indian “languti or T-bandage,”
-but descending to the knees, and attached to waistbelts of large white
-or yellow porcelain or blue glass beads. Over this is tied a kilt of
-calabash fibre, a few inches deep. The men wear thick girdles of brass
-wire, neatly wound round a small cord. Besides the arms described
-amongst the Wasagara, the Wahehe carry “sime,” or double-edged knives,
-from one to two feet long, broadening out from the haft, and rounded off
-to a blunt point at the end. The handle is cut into raised rings for
-security of grip, and, when in sheath, half the blade appears outside
-its rude leathern scabbard. The Tembe, or villages of the Wahehe, are
-small, ragged, and low, probably to facilitate escape from attack. They
-do business in slaves, and have large flocks and herds, which are,
-however, often thinned by the Warori, whom the Wahehe dare not resist in
-the field.
-
-[Illustration: Ugogo.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. VIII.
-
-WE SUCCEED IN TRAVERSING UGOGO.
-
-
-Ugogo, the reader may remember, was the ultimate period applied to the
-prospects of the Exploration by the worthy Mr. Rush Ramji, in
-conversation with the respectable Ladha Damha, Collector of Customs,
-Zanzibar.
-
-I halted three days at Ugogi to recruit the party and to lay in rations
-for four long desert marches. Apparently there was an abundance of
-provisions, but the people at first declined to part with their grain
-and cattle even at exorbitant prices, and the Baloch complained of
-“cleanness of teeth.” I was visited by Ngoma Mroma, _alias_ Sultan
-Makande, a diwan or headman, from Ugogo, here settled as chief, and well
-known on the eastern seaboard: he came to offer his good services. But
-he talked like an idiot, he begged for every article that met his eye:
-and he wished me--palpably for his own benefit--to follow the most
-northerly of the three routes leading to Unyamwezi, upon which there
-were not less than eight “sultans” described by Kidogo as being “one
-hungrier than the other.” At last, an elephant having been found dead
-within his limits, he disappeared, much to my relief, for the purpose of
-enjoying a gorge of elephant-beef.
-
-Ugogi is the half-way district between the coast and Unyanyembe, and it
-is usually made by up-caravans at the end of the second month. The
-people of this “no man’s land” are a mongrel race: the Wasagara claim
-the ground, but they have admitted as settlers many Wahehe and Wagogo,
-the latter for the most part men who have left their country for their
-country’s good. The plains are rich in grain, and the hills in cattle,
-when not harried, as they had been, a little before our arrival, by the
-Warori. The inhabitants sometimes offer for sale milk and honey, eggs
-and ghee, but--only the civilised rogue can improve by adulteration--the
-milk falls like water off the finger, the honey is in the red stage of
-fermentation, of the eggs there are few without the rude beginnings of a
-chicken, and the ghee, from long keeping, is sweet above and bitter
-below. The country still contains game, kanga, or guinea-fowls, in
-abundance, the ocelot, a hyrax like the coney of the Somali country, and
-the beautiful “silver jackal.” The elephant and the giraffe are
-frequently killed on the plains. The giraffe is called by the Arabs
-Jamal el Wahshí, a translation of the Kisawahili Ngamia ya Muytu, “Camel
-of the Wild,” and throughout the interior Tiga or Twiga. Their sign is
-often seen in the uncultivated parts of the country; but they wander
-far, and they are rarely found except by accident; the hides are
-converted into shields and saddle-bags, the long tufty tails into
-“chauri,” or fly-flappers, and the flesh is a favourite food. At Ugogi,
-however, game has suffered from the frequent haltings of caravans, and
-from the carnivorous propensities of the people, who, huntsmen all,
-leave their prey no chance against their nets and arrows, their pitfalls
-and their packs of yelping curs.
-
-Ugogi stands 2760 feet above sea level, and its climate, immediately
-after the raw cold of Usagara, pleases by its elasticity and by its dry
-healthy warmth. The nights are fresh and dewless, and the rays of a
-tropical sun are cooled by the gusts and raffales which, regularly as
-the land and sea-breezes of the coast, sweep down the sinuosities of
-Dungomaro. As our “gnawing stomachs” testified, the air of Usagara had
-braced our systems. My companion so far recovered health that he was
-able to bring home many a brace of fine partridge, and of the fat
-guinea-fowl that, clustering upon the tall trees, awoke the echoes of
-the rocks as they called for their young. The Baloch, the sons of Ramji,
-and the porters began to throw off the effects of the pleurisies and the
-other complaints, which they attributed to hardship and exposure on the
-mountain-tops. The only obstinate invalids were the two Goanese. Gaetano
-had another attack of the Mukunguru, or seasoning fever, which, instead
-of acclimatising his constitution, seemed by ever increasing weakness
-and depression, to pave the way for a fresh visitation. Valentine, with
-flowing eyes, pathetically pointed to two indurations in his gastric
-region, and bewailed his hard fate in thus being torn from the
-dearly-loved shades of Panjim and Margão, to fatten the inhospitable
-soil of Central Africa.
-
-Immediately before departure, when almost in despair at the rapid
-failure of our carriage--the asses were now reduced to nine--I
-fortunately secured, for the sum of four cloths per man, the services of
-fifteen Wanyamwezi porters. In all a score, they had left at Ugogi their
-Mtongi, or employer, in consequence of a quarrel concerning _the_ sex.
-They dreaded forcible seizure and sale if found without protection
-travelling homewards through Ugogo; and thus they willingly agreed to
-carry our goods as far as their own country, Unyanyembe. Truly is
-travelling like campaigning,--a pennyweight of luck is better than a
-talent of all the talents! And if marriages, as our fathers used to say,
-are made in the heavens, the next-door manufactory must be devoted to
-the fabrication of African explorations. Notwithstanding, however, the
-large increase of conveyance, every man appeared on the next march more
-heavily laden than before:--they carried grain for six days, and water
-for one night.
-
-From Ugogi to the Ziwa or Pond, the eastern limits of Ugogo, are four
-marches, which, as they do not supply provisions, and as throughout the
-dry season water is found only in one spot, are generally accomplished
-in four days. The lesser desert, between Ugogi and Ugogo, is called
-Marenga M’khali, or the Brackish Water: it must not be confounded with
-the district of Usagara bearing the same name.
-
-We left Ugogi on the 22nd September, at 3 P.M., instead of at noon. As
-all the caravan hurried recklessly forward, I brought up the rear
-accompanied by Said bin Salim, the Jemadar, and several of the sons of
-Ramji, who insisted upon driving the asses for greater speed at a long
-trot, which, after lasting a hundred yards, led to an inevitable fall of
-the load. Before emerging from Ugogi, the road wound over a grassy
-country, thickly speckled with calabashes. Square Tembe appeared on both
-sides, and there was no want of flocks and herds. As the villages and
-fields were left behind, the land became a dense thorny jungle, based
-upon a sandy red soil. The horizon was bounded on both sides by
-gradually-thinning lines of lumpy outlying hill, the spurs of the Rubeho
-Range, that extended, like a scorpion’s claws, westward; and the plain,
-gently falling in the same direction, was broken only by a single
-hill-shoulder and by some dwarf descents. As we advanced through the
-shades--a heavy cloud-bank had shut out the crescent moon--our
-difficulties increased; thorns and spiky twigs threatened the eyes; the
-rough and rugged road led to many a stumble, and the frequent whine of
-the cynhyæna made the asses wild with fear. None but Bombay came out to
-meet us; the porters were overpowered by their long march under the
-fiery sun. About 8 P.M., directed by loud shouts and flaring fires, we
-reached a kraal, a patch of yellow grass, offering clear room in the
-thorny thicket. That night was the perfection of a bivouac, cool from
-the vicinity of the hills, genial from their shelter, and sweet as
-forest-air in these regions ever is.
-
-On the next day we resumed our labour betimes: for a dreary and thirsty
-stage lay before us. Toiling through the sunshine of the hot waste I
-could not but remark the strange painting of the land around. At a
-distance the plain was bright-yellow with stubble, and brown-black with
-patches of leafless wintry jungle based upon a brick-dust soil. A closer
-approach disclosed colours more vivid and distinct. Over the ruddy plain
-lay scattered untidy heaps of grey granite boulders, surrounded and
-capped by tufts of bleached white grass. The copse showed all manner of
-strange hues, calabashes purpled and burnished by sun and rain, thorns
-of a greenish coppery bronze, dead trees with trunks of ghastly white,
-and gums (the blue-gum tree of the Cape?) of an unnatural sky-blue, the
-effect of the yellow outer pellicle being peeled off by the burning
-rays, whilst almost all were reddened up to a man’s height, by the
-double galleries, ascending and descending, of the white ants. Here too,
-I began to appreciate the extent of the nuisance, thorns. Some were soft
-and green, others a finger long, fine, straight and woody--they serve as
-needles in many parts of the country--one, a “corking pin,” bore at its
-base a filbert-like bulge, another was curved like a cock’s spur; the
-double thorns, placed dos-à-dos, described by travellers in Abyssinia
-and in the Cape Karroos, were numerous, the “wait-a-bit,” a dwarf
-sharply bent spine with acute point and stout foundation, and a smaller
-variety, short and deeply crooked, numerous and tenacious as fish-hooks,
-tore without difficulty the strongest clothing, even our woollen Arab
-“Abas,” and our bed-covers of painted canvas.
-
-Travelling through this broom-jungle and crossing grassy plains, over
-paths where the slides of elephants’ feet upon the last year’s muddy
-clay showed that the land was not always dry, we halted after 11 A.M.
-for about an hour at the base of a steep incline, apparently an offset
-from the now distant Rubeho Range. The porters would have nighted at the
-mouth of a small drain which, too steep for ascent, exposed in its rocky
-bed occasional sand-patches and deep pools; Kidogo, however, forced them
-forwards, declaring that if the asses drank of this “brackish water,”
-they would sicken and die. His assertion, suspected of being a
-“traveller’s tale,” was subsequently confirmed by the Arabs of
-Unyanyembe, who declared that the country people never water their
-flocks and herds below the hill; there may be poisonous vegetation in
-the few yards between the upper and the lower pools, but no one offered
-any explanation of the phenomenon.
-
-Ascending with difficulty the eastern face of the step, which presented
-two ladders of loose stones and fixed boulders of grey syenite,
-hornblende, and greenstone, with coloured quartzes, micacious schistes,
-and layers of talcose slate glittering like mother-o’-pearl upon the
-surface, we found a half-way platform some 150 feet of extreme breadth.
-Upon its sloping and irregular floor, black-green pools, sadly offensive
-to more senses than one, spring-fed, and forming the residue of the
-rain-water which fills the torrent, lay in muddy holes broadly fringed
-with silky grass. Travellers drink without fear this upper Marenga
-Mk’hali, which, despite its name, is rather soft and slimy, than
-brackish, and sign of wild-beasts--antelope and buffalo, giraffe and
-rhinoceros--appear upon its brink. It sometimes dries up in the heart of
-the hot season, and then deaths from thirst occur amongst the porters
-who, mostly Wanyanwezi, are not wont to practise abstinence in this
-particular. “Sucking-places” are unknown to them, water-bearing bulbs
-might here be discovered by the South African traveller; as a rule,
-however, the East African is so plentifully supplied with the necessary
-that he does not care to provide for a dry day by unusual means.
-Ascending another steep incline we encamped upon a small step, the
-half-way gradient of a higher level.
-
-The 24th Sept. was to be a tirikeza: the Baloch and the sons of Ramji
-spent the earlier half in blowing away gunpowder at antelope, partridge
-and parrot, guinea-fowl and floriken, but not a head of game found its
-way into camp. The men were hot, tired and testy, those who had wives
-beat them, those who had not “let off the steam” by quarreling with one
-another. Said bin Salim, sick and surly, had words concerning a
-water-gourd with the brave Khudabakhsh, and the monocular Jemadar, who
-made a point of overloading his porters, bitterly complained because
-they would not serve him. At 2 P.M. we climbed up the last ladder of the
-rough and stony incline, which placed us a few hundred feet above the
-eastern half of the Lesser Desert. We took a pleasant leave of the last
-of the rises; on this line of road, between Marenga Mk’hali and Western
-Unyamwezi, the land, though rolling, has no steep ascents nor descents.
-
-From the summit of the Marenga Mk’hali step we travelled till
-sunset--the orb of day glaring like a fireball in our faces,--through
-dense thorny jungle and over grassy plains of black, cracked earth, in
-places covered with pebbles and showing extensive traces of shallow
-inundations during the rains; in the lower lands huge blocks of
-weathered granite stood out abruptly from the surface, and on both
-sides, but higher on the right hand, rose blue cones, some single,
-others in pairs like “brothers.” The caravan once rested in a thorny
-coppice, based upon rich red and yellow clay whence it was hurriedly
-dislodged by a swarm of wild bees. As the sun sank below the horizon the
-porters called a halt on a calabash-grown plain, near a block of stony
-hill veiled with cactus and mimosa, below whose northern base ran a
-tree-lined Nullah where, they declared, from the presence of antelope
-and other game, that water might be found by digging. Vainly Kidogo
-urged them forwards declaring that they would fail to reach the Ziwa or
-Pond in a single march; they preferred “crowing” and scooping up sand
-till midnight to advancing a few miles, and some gourdsfull of dirty
-liquid rewarded their industry.
-
-On the morning of the 26th of September, I learned that we had sustained
-an apparently irreparable loss. When the caravan was dispersed by bees,
-a porter took the opportunity of deserting. This man, who represented
-himself as desirous of rejoining at Unyamyembe, his patron Abdullah bin
-Musa, the son of the well-known Indian merchant, had been engaged for
-four cloths by Said bin Salim at Ugogi. The Arab with his usual
-after-wit found out, when the mishap was announced, that he had from the
-first doubted and disliked the man so much that he had paid down only
-half the hire. Yet to the new porter had been committed the most
-valuable of our packages, a portmanteau containing the Nautical Almanac
-for 1858, the surveying books, and most of our paper, pens and ink. Said
-bin Salim, however, was hardly to be blamed, his continual quarrels with
-the Baloch and the sons of Ramji absorbed all his thoughts. Although the
-men were unanimous in declaring that the box never could be recovered, I
-sent back Bombay Mabruki and the slave Ambari with particular directions
-to search the place where we had been attacked by bees; it was within
-three miles, but, as the road was deemed dangerous, the three worthies
-preferred passing a few quiet hours in some snug neighbouring spot.
-
-At 1.30 P.M. much saddened by the disaster, we resumed our road and
-after stretching over a monotonous grassy plain variegated with dry
-thorny jungle, we arrived about sunset at a waterless kraal where we
-determined to pass the night. Our supplies of liquid ran low, the
-Wanyamwezi porters, who carried our pots and gourds, had drained them on
-the way, and without drink an afternoon-march in this droughthy land
-destroys all appetite for supper. Some of the porters presently set out
-to fill their gourds with the waters of the Ziwa, thence distant but a
-few miles; they returned after a four hours’ absence with supplies which
-restored comfort and good humour to the camp.
-
-Before settling for the night Kidogo stood up, and to loud cries of
-“Maneno! maneno!”--words! words!--equivalent to our parliamentary hear!
-hear! delivered himself of the following speech:--
-
-“Listen, O ye whites! and ye children of Sayyidi Majidi! and ye sons of
-Ramji! hearken to my words, O ye offspring of the night! The journey
-entereth Ugogo--Ugogo (the orator threw out his arm westward). Beware,
-and again beware (he made violent gesticulations). You don’t know the
-Wagogo, they are ----s and ----s! (he stamped.) Speak not to those
-Washenzi pagans; enter not into their houses (he pointed grimly to the
-ground). Have no dealings with them, show no cloth, wire, nor beads
-(speaking with increasing excitement). Eat not with them, drink not with
-them, and make not love to their women (here the speech became a
-scream). Kirangozi of the Wanyamwezi, restrain your sons! Suffer them
-not to stray into the villages, to buy salt out of camp, to rob
-provisions, to debauch with beer, or to sit by the wells!” And thus, for
-nearly half an hour, now violently, then composedly, he poured forth the
-words of wisdom, till the hubbub and chatter of voices which at first
-had been silenced by surprise, brought his eloquence to an end.
-
-We left the jungle-kraal early on the 26th September, and after hurrying
-through thick bush we debouched upon an open stubbly plain, with herds
-of gracefully bounding antelopes and giraffes, who stood for a moment
-with long outstretched necks to gaze, and presently broke away at a
-rapid, striding, camel’s-trot, their heads shaking as if they would jerk
-off, their limbs loose, and their joints apparently dislocated. About 9
-P.M. we sighted the much-talked of Ziwa. The Arabs, fond of “showing a
-green garden,” had described to me at Inenge a piece of water fit to
-float a man-of-war. But Kidogo, when consulted, had replied simply with
-the Kisawahili proverb, “Khabari ya mb’hali;” _i. e._, “news from
-afar;”--_a beau mentir qui vient de loin_. I was not therefore surprised
-to find a shallow pool, which in India would barely merit the name of
-tank.
-
-The Ziwa, which lies 3,100 feet above the sea, occupies the lowest
-western level of Marenga Mk’háli, and is the deepest of the many
-inundated grounds lying to its north, north-east, and north-west. The
-extent greatly varies: in September, 1857, it was a slaty sheet of
-water, with granite projections on one side, and about 300 yards in
-diameter; the centre only could not be forded. The bottom and the banks
-were of retentive clay: a clear ring, whence the waters had subsided,
-margined the pool, and beyond it lay a thick thorny jungle. In early
-December, 1858, nothing remained but a surface of dry, crumbling, and
-deeply-cracked mud, and, according to travellers, it had long, in
-consequence of the scanty rains, been in that state. Caravans always
-encamp at the Ziwa when they find water there. The country around is
-full of large game, especially elephants, giraffes, and zebras, who come
-to drink at night; a few widgeon are seen breasting the little waves;
-“kata” (sand-grouse), of peculiarly large size and dark plumage, flock
-there with loud cries; and at eventide the pool is visited by
-guinea-fowl, floriken, curlews, peewits, wild pigeons, doves, and hosts
-of small birds. When the Ziwa is desiccated, travellers usually encamp
-in a thick bush, near a scanty clearing, about one mile to the
-north-west, where a few scattered villages of Wagogo have found dirty
-white water, hard and bad, in pits varying from twenty to thirty feet in
-depth. Here, as elsewhere in eastern Africa, the only trough is a small
-ring sunk in the retentive clayey soil, and surrounded by a little
-raised dam of mud and loose stones. A demand is always made for
-according permission to draw water--a venerable custom, dating from the
-days of Moses. “Ye shall buy meat of them (the Edomites) for money, that
-ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may
-drink.”--Deut. ii. 6. Yet as thirsty, like hungry men, are not to be
-trifled with, fatal collisions have resulted from this inhospitable
-practice. Some years ago a large caravan of Wanyamwezi was annihilated
-in consequence of a quarrel about water, and lately several deaths
-occurred in a caravan led by an Arab merchant, Sallum bin Hamid, because
-the wells were visited before the rate of payment was settled. In
-several places we were followed upon the march lest a gourd might be
-furtively filled. To prevent exhaustion the people throw euphorbia,
-asclepias, and solanaceous plants into the well after a certain hour,
-and when not wanted it is bushed over, to keep off animals, and to check
-evaporation.
-
-At the Ziwa the regular system of kuhonga, or blackmail, so much dreaded
-by travellers, begins in force. Up to this point all the chiefs are
-contented with little presents; but in Ugogo tribute is taken by force,
-if necessary. None can evade payment; the porters, fearing lest the road
-be cut off to them in future, would refuse to travel unless each chief
-is satisfied; and when a quarrel arises they throw down their packs and
-run away. Ugogo, since the closing of the northern line through the
-Wahumba and the Wamasai tribes, and the devastation of the southern
-regions by the Warori, is the only open line, and the sultans have
-presumed upon their power of stopping the way. There is no regular
-tariff of taxes: the sum is fixed by the traveller’s dignity and outfit,
-which, by means of his slaves, are as well known to every sultan as to
-himself. Properly speaking, the exaction should be confined to the
-up-caravans; from those returning a head or two of cattle, a few hoes,
-or some similar trifle, are considered ample. Such, however, was not the
-experience of the Expedition. When first travelling through the country
-the “Wazungu” were sometimes mulcted to the extent of fifty cloths by a
-single chief, and the Arabs congratulated them upon having escaped so
-easily. On their downward march they pleaded against a second demand as
-exorbitant as the first, adducing the custom of caravans, who are seldom
-mulcted in more than two cows or a pair of jembe, or iron hoes; the
-chiefs, however, replied that as they never expected to see white faces
-again, it was their painful duty to make the most from them.
-
-The kuhonga, however, is not unjust. In these regions it forms the
-customs-dues of the government: the sultan receives it nominally, but he
-must distribute the greater part amongst his family and councillors, his
-elders and attendants. It takes the place of the fees expected by the
-Balderabba of the Abyssinians, the Mogasa of the Gallas, the Abban of
-the Somal, and the Ghafir and Rafik amongst the Bedouin Arabs, which are
-virtually assertions of supremacy upon their own ground. These people
-have not the idea which seems prevalent in the south, namely, that any
-man has a right to tread God’s earth gratis as long as he does not
-interfere with property. If any hesitation about the kuhonga be made,
-the first question put to the objector will be, “Is this your ground or
-my ground?” The practice, which is sanctioned by the customs of
-civilised nations, is, however, vitiated in East Africa by the
-slave-trade: it becomes the means of intrusion and extortion, of
-insolence and violence. The Wagogo are an importing people, and they see
-with envy long strings of what they covet passing through their
-territory from the interior to the coast. They are strong enough to
-plunder any caravan; but violence they know would injure them by cutting
-off communication with the markets for their ivory. Thus they have
-settled into a silent compromise, and their nice sense of self-interest
-prevents any transgression beyond the bounds of reason. The sultans
-receive their kuhonga, and the subjects entice away slaves from every
-caravan, but the enormous interest upon capital laid out in the trade
-still leaves a balance in favour of the merchants. The Arabs, however,
-declaring that the evil is on the increase, propose many remedies--such
-as large armed caravans, sent by their government, and heavy dues to be
-exacted from those Wagogo who may visit the coast. But they are wise
-enough to murmur without taking steps which would inevitably exacerbate
-the evil. Should it pass a certain point, a new road will be opened, or
-the old road will be reopened, to restore the balance of interests.
-
-At the Ziwa we had many troubles. One Marema, the sultan of a new
-settlement situated a few hundred yards to the north-west visited us on
-the day of our arrival and reproving us for “sitting in the jungle,”
-pointed out the way to his village. On our replying that we were about
-to traverse Ugogo by another route, he demanded his Ada or customs,
-which being newly-imposed were at once refused by Kidogo. The sultan, a
-small man, a “mere thief,”--as a poor noble is graphically described in
-these lands,--threatened violence, whereupon the asses were brought in
-from grazing and were ostentatiously loaded before his eyes: when he
-changed his tone from threats to beggary. Kidogo relenting gave him two
-cloths with a few strings of beads, preferring this slender disbursement
-to the chance of a flight of arrows during the night. His good judgment
-was evidenced by the speedy appearance of the country-people, who
-brought with them bullocks, sheep, goats and poultry, water-melons and
-pumpkins, honey, butter-milk, whey and curded-milk, an abundance of
-holcus and calabash-flour. The latter is made from the hard dry pulp
-surrounding the bean-like seed contained in the ripe gourd: the taste is
-a not unpleasant agro-dolce, and the people declare it to be
-strengthening food, especially for children; they convert it into
-porridge and rude cakes.
-
-This abundance of provaunt caused a halt of four days at the Ziwa, and
-it was spent in disputes between the great Said and the greater Kidogo.
-The ostensible “bone of contention,” was cloth advanced by the former to
-the porters--who claimed as their perquisite a bullock before entering
-Ugogo--without consulting the hard-headed slave, who wounded in his
-tenderest place of pride, had influence enough to halt the caravan. The
-real cause of the dispute was kept from my ears till some months
-afterwards, but secrets in this land are as the Arabs say, “Like musk,
-murder, and Basrah-garlic,” they must out, and Bombay, who could never
-help blurting forth the tacenda with the dicenda, at last accidentally
-unveiled the mystery. Said had deferred taking overcharge of the outfit
-from Kidogo till our arrival at the Ziwa, and the latter felt aggrieved
-by the sudden yet tardy demand, which deprived him of the dignity and
-the profits of stewardship. Sickness became rife in camp, the effect of
-the cold night-winds and the burning suns, and as usual when men are
-uncomfortable violent quarrels ensued. Again the officious Wazira, shook
-the torch of discord by ordering Khamisi, an exceedingly drunken and
-debauched son of Ramji, to carry certain bundles which usually graced
-the shoulders of Goha, one of the Wak’hutu porters. When words were
-exhausted Khamisi drew his blade upon Goha and was tackled by Wazira,
-whilst Goha brought the muzzle of my elephant-gun to bear upon Khamisi
-and was instantly collared by Bombay. Being thus “in chancery” both
-heroes waxed so “exceedingly brave--particular,” that I was compelled to
-cool their noble bile with a long pole. At length it became necessary to
-make Kidogo raise his veto against the advance of the caravan. He did
-not appear before me till summoned half-a-dozen times: when he at last
-vouchsafed so to do I dragged rather than led him to the mat, where sat
-in surly pride Said bin Salim, with the monocular Jemadar, and I ordered
-the trio to quench with the waters of explanation the fire of anger.
-After an apparently satisfactory arrangement Kidogo started up and
-disappeared in the huts of his men; it presently proved that he had so
-done for the purpose of proposing to his party, who were now the sole
-interpreters, that to Said bin Salim, an ignoramus in such matters,
-should be committed the weighty task of settling the amount of our
-blackmail and presents with the greedy chiefs of Ugogo. Had the
-mischievous project been carried into execution, we should have been
-sufferers to some extent: lack of unanimity however caused the measure
-to be thrown out. A march was fixed for the next day, when the bullock,
-on this occasion the scape-grace, broke its tether and plunged into the
-bush: it was followed by the Baloch and the porters, whose puny arrows,
-when they alighted upon the beast’s stern, only goaded it forwards, and
-at least threescore matchlock balls were discharged before one bullet
-found its billet in the fugitive. The camp of course then demanded
-another holiday to eat beef.
-
-The reader must not imagine that I am making a “great cry,” about a
-little matter. Four days are not easily spent when snowed-up in a
-country inn, and that is a feeble comparison for the halt in East
-Africa, where outfit is leaking away, the valuable travelling-time is
-perhaps drawing to a close, health is palpably failing, and nothing but
-black faces made blacker still by ill-humour and loud squabbles, meet
-the eye and ear. Insignificant things they afterwards appear viewed
-through the medium of memory, these petty annoyances of travel; yet at
-the moment they are severely felt, and they must be resented
-accordingly. The African traveller’s fitness for the task of exploration
-depends more upon his faculty of chafing under delays and kicking
-against the pricks, than upon his power of displaying the patience of a
-Griselda or a Job.
-
-On the 30th September, the last day of our detention at the Jiwa,
-appeared a large caravan headed by Said bin Mohammed of Mbuamaji, with
-Khalfan bin Khamis, and several other Coast-Arabs. They brought news
-from the sea-board, and,--wondrous good fortune!--the portmanteau
-containing books which the porter, profiting by the confusion caused by
-the swarm of bees, had deposited in the long grass, at the place where I
-had directed the slaves to seek it. Some difficulty was at first made
-about restitution: the Arab law of “lakit,” or things trove, being
-variable, complicated, and altogether opposed to our ideas. However, two
-cloths were given to the man who had charge of it, and the Jemadar and
-Said bin Salim were sent to recover it by any or all means. The
-merchants were not offended. They consented to sell for the sum of
-thirty-five dollars a strong and serviceable but an old and obstinate
-African ass, which after carrying my companion for many a mile, at last
-broke its heart when toiling up the steeps from whose summit the fair
-waters of the Central Lake were first sighted. Moreover, they proposed
-that for safety and economy the two caravans should travel together
-under a single flag, and thus combine to form a total of 190 men. These
-Coast-Arabs travelled in comfort. The brother of Said Mohammed had
-married the daughter of Fundikira, Sultan of Unyanyembe, and thus the
-family had a double home, on the coast and in the interior. All the
-chiefs of the caravan carried with them wives and female slaves, negroid
-beauties, tall, bulky and “plenty of them,” attired in tulip-hues,
-cochineal and gamboge, who walked the whole way, and who when we passed
-them displayed an exotic modesty by drawing their head-cloths over
-cheeks which we were little ambitious to profane. They had a multitude
-of Fundi, or managing men, and male slaves, who bore their personal bag
-and baggage, scrip and scrippage, drugs and comforts, stores and
-provisions, and who were always early at the ground to pitch, to
-surround with a “pai,” or dwarf drain, and to bush for privacy, with
-green boughs, their neat and light ridge-tents of American domestics.
-Their bedding was as heavy as ours, and even their poultry travelled in
-wicker cages. This caravan was useful to us in dealing with the Wagogo:
-it always managed, however, to precede us on the march, and to
-monopolise the best kraals. The Baloch and the sons of Ramji, when asked
-on these occasions why they did not build a palisade, would reply
-theatrically, “Our hearts are our fortification!”--methought a sorry
-defence.
-
-By Kidogo’s suggestion I had preferred the middle line through the
-hundred miles of dreaded Ugogo: it was the beaten path, and infested
-only by four Sultans, namely: 1. Myandozi of Kifukuru. 2. Magomba of
-Kanyenye. 3. Maguru-Mafupi of K’hok’ho; and 4. Kibuya of Mdaburu. On the
-1st October, 1857, we left the Ziwa late in the morning, and after
-passing through the savannahs and the brown jungles of the lower levels,
-where giraffe again appeared, the path crested a wave of ground and
-debouched upon the table-land of Ugogo. The aspect was peculiar and
-unprepossessing. Behind still towered in sight the Delectable Mountains
-of Usagara, mist-crowned and robed in the lightest azure, with streaks
-of a deep plum-colour, fronting the hot low land of Marenga Mk’hali,
-whose tawny face was wrinkled with lines of dark jungle. On the north
-was a tabular range of rough and rugged hill, above which rose three
-distant cones pointed out as the haunts of the robber Wahumba: at its
-base was a deep depression, a tract of brown brush patched with yellow
-grass, inhabited only by the elephant, and broken by small outlying
-hillocks. Southwards scattered eminences of tree-crowned rock rose a few
-yards from the plain which extended to the front, a clearing of deep red
-or white soil, decayed vegetation based upon rocky or sandy ground, here
-and there thinly veiled with brown brush and golden stubbles: its
-length, about four miles, was studded with square villages, and with the
-stately but grotesque calabash. This giant is to the vegetable what the
-elephant is to the animal world:--the Persians call it the
-“practice-work of nature”--its disproportionate conical bole rests upon
-huge legs exposed to view by the washing away of the soil, and displays
-excrescences which in pious India would merit a coat of vermilion. From
-the neck extend gigantic gnarled arms, each one a tree, whose thinnest
-twig is thick as a man’s finger, and their weight causes them to droop
-earthwards, giving to the outline the shape of a huge dome. In many
-parts the unloveliness of its general appearance is varied by the
-wrinkles and puckerings which, forming by granulation upon the oblongs
-where the bark has been removed for fibre, give the base the appearance
-of being chamfered and fluted; and often a small family of trunks, four
-or five in number, springs from the same root. At that season all were
-leafless; at other times they are densely foliaged, and contrasting with
-their large timber and with their coarse fleshy leaf, they are adorned
-with the delicatest flowers of a pure virgin-white, which, opening at
-early dawn, fade and fall before eventide. The babe-tree issues from the
-ground about one foot in diameter: in Ugogo, however, all those observed
-were of middle age. The young are probably grubbed up to prevent their
-encumbering the ground, and when decayed enough to be easily felled,
-they are converted into firewood. By the side of these dry and leafless
-masses of dull dead hue, here and there a mimosa or a thorn was
-beginning to bear the buds of promise green as emeralds. The sun burned
-like the breath of a bonfire, a painful glare--the reflection of the
-terrible crystal above,--arose from the hot earth; warm Siroccos raised
-clouds of dust, and in front the horizon was so distant, that, as the
-Arabs expressed themselves, “a man might be seen three marches off.”
-
-We were received with the drumming and the ringing of bells attached to
-the ivories, with the yells and frantic shouts of two caravans halted at
-Kifukuru: one was that of Said Mohammed, who awaited our escort, the
-other a return “Safari,” composed of about 1,000 Wanyamwezi porters,
-headed by four slaves of Salim bin Rashid, an Arab merchant settled at
-Unyanyembe. The country people also flocked to stare at the phenomenon;
-they showed that excitement which some few years ago might have been
-witnessed in more polished regions when a “horrible murder” roused every
-soul from Tweed banks to Land’s End; when, to gratify a morbid
-destructiveness, artists sketched, literati described, tourists visited,
-and curio-hunters met to bid for the rope and the murderer’s whiskers.
-Yet I judged favourably of the Wagogo by their curiosity, which stood
-out in strong relief against the apathy and the uncommunicativeness of
-the races lately visited. Such inquisitiveness is amongst barbarians
-generally a proof of improvability,--of power to progress. One man who
-had visited Zanzibar could actually speak a few words of Hindostani, and
-in Ugogo, and there only, I was questioned by the chiefs concerning
-Uzungu “White-land,” the mysterious end of the world in which beads are
-found under ground, and where the women weave such cottons. From the day
-of our entering to that of our leaving the country, every settlement
-turned out its swarm of gazers, men and women, boys and girls, some of
-whom would follow us for miles with explosions of Hi!--i!--i! screams of
-laughter and cries of excitement, at a long high trot,--most ungraceful
-of motion!--and with a scantiness of toilette which displayed truly
-unseemly spectacles. The matrons, especially the aged matrons, realised
-Madame Pernelle’s description of an unpleasant female--
-
- “Un peu trop forte en gueule et fort impertinente;”
-
-and of their sex the old men were ever the most pertinacious and
-intrusive, the most surly and quarrelsome. Vainly the escort attempted
-to arrest the course of this moving multitude of semi-nude barbarity. I
-afterwards learned that the two half-caste Arabs who had passed us at
-Muhama, Khalfan and Id, the sons of Muallim Salim of Zanzibar, had,
-whilst preceding us, spread through Ugogo malevolent reports concerning
-the Wazungu. They had one eye each and four arms; they were full of
-“knowledge,” which in these lands means magic; they caused rain to fall
-in advance and left droughts in their rear; they cooked water melons and
-threw away the seeds, thereby generating small-pox; they heated and
-hardened milk, thus breeding a murrain amongst cattle; and their wire,
-cloth, and beads caused a variety of misfortunes; they were kings of the
-sea, and therefore white-skinned and straight-haired--a standing mystery
-to these curly-pated people--as are all men who live in salt water; and
-next year they would return and seize the country. Suspicion of our
-intentions touching “territorial aggrandisement” was a fixed idea:
-everywhere the value attached by barbarians to their homes is in inverse
-ratio to the real worth of the article. Hence mountaineers are
-proverbially patriotic. Thus the lean Bedouins of Arabia and the lank
-Somal, though they own that they are starving, never sight a stranger
-without suspecting that he is spying out the wealth of the land. “What
-will happen to us?” asked the Wagogo; “we never yet saw this manner of
-man!” But the tribe cannot now forfeit intercourse with the coast: they
-annoyed us to the utmost, they made the use of their wells a daily
-source of trouble, they charged us double prices, and when they brought
-us provisions for sale, they insisted upon receiving the price of even
-the rejected articles; yet they did not proceed to open outrage. Our
-timid Arab, the Baloch, the sons of Ramji, and the porters humoured them
-in every whim. Kidogo would not allow observations to be taken with a
-bright sextant in presence of the mobility. He declined to clear the
-space before the tent, as the excited starers, some of whom had come
-from considerable distances, were apt under disappointment to wax
-violent; and though he once or twice closed the tent-flaps, he would not
-remove the lines of men, women, and children, who stretched themselves
-for the greater convenience of peeping and peering, lengthways upon the
-ground. Whenever a Mnyamwezi porter interfered, he was arrogantly told
-to begone, and he slunk away, praying us to remember that these men are
-“Wagogo.” Caravan after caravan had thus taught them to become bullies,
-whereas a little manliness would soon have reduced them to their proper
-level. They are neither brave nor well-armed, and their prestige rests
-solely upon their feat in destroying about one generation ago a caravan
-of Wanyamwezi--an event embalmed in a hundred songs and traditions. They
-seemed to take a fancy to the Baloch, who received from the fair sex
-many a little souvenir in the shape of a kid or a water-melon. Whenever
-the Goanese Valentine was sent to a village he was politely and
-hospitably welcomed, and seated upon a three-legged stool by the
-headman; and generally the people agreed in finding fault with their
-principal Sultans, declaring that they unwisely made the country hateful
-to “Wakonongo,” or travellers. Fortunately for the Expedition several
-scions of the race saw the light safely during our transit of Ugogo: had
-an accident occurred to a few babies or calves, our return through the
-country would have been difficult and dangerous. All received the name
-of “Muzungu,” and thus there must now be a small colony of black “white
-men” in this part of the African interior.
-
-At Kifukuru I was delayed a day whilst settling the blackmail of its
-Sultan Miyandozi. Said bin Salim, the Jemadar, and Kidogo called upon
-him in the morning and were received in the gateway of a neat “Tembe,”
-the great man disdaining to appear on so trivial an occasion. This
-Sultan is the least powerful of the four; he is plundered by the Warori
-tribes living to the south-west, and by his western neighbour, Magomba;
-his subjects are poorly clad, and are little ornamented compared with
-those occupying the central regions, where they have the power to detain
-travellers and to charge them exorbitantly for grain and water. Yet
-Miyandozi demanded four white and six blue shukkahs; besides which I was
-compelled to purchase for him from the sons of Ramji, who of course
-charged treble its value, a “Sohari” or handsome silk and cotton
-loin-cloth. In return he sent--it appeared to be in irony--one kayla, or
-four small measures of grain. The slaves of Salim bin Rashid obliged me
-with a few pounds of rice, for which I gave them a return in gunpowder,
-and they undertook to convey to Zanzibar a package of reports, indents,
-and letters, which was punctually delivered. An ugly accident had nearly
-happened that night; the Wanyamwezi porters managed to fire the grass
-round a calabash tree, against which they had stretched their loads, and
-a powder-magazine--fortunately fire-proof--was blackened and charred by
-the flames. A traveller cannot be too careful about his ammunition in
-these lands. I have seen a slave smoking a water pipe, tied for
-convenience of carriage to a leaky keg of powder; and another in the
-caravan of Salim bin Sayf of Dut’humi, resting the muzzle of his musket
-against a barrel of ammunition, fired it to try its strength, and blew
-himself up with several of his comrades.
-
-On the 3rd October we quitted Kifukuru in the afternoon, and having
-marched nearly six hours we encamped in one of the strips of waterless
-brown jungles which throughout Ugogo divide the cultivated districts
-from one another, and occupy about half the superficies of the land. The
-low grounds, inundated during the rains, were deeply cracked, and my
-weak ass, led by the purblind Shahdad, fell with violence upon my knee,
-leaving a mixture of pain and numbness which lasted for some months. On
-the next day we resumed our journey betimes through a thick rugged
-jungle and over a rolling grassy plain, which extended to the frontier
-of Kanyenye, where Sultan Magomba rules. The 5th October saw us in the
-centre of Kanyenye, a clearing about ten miles in diameter. The surface
-is a red tamped clayey soil, dotted with small villages, huge
-calabashes, and stunted mimosas; water is found in wells or rather pits
-sunk from ten to twelve feet in the lower lands, or in the sandy beds of
-the several Fiumaras. Flocks and herds abound, and the country is as
-cultivated and populous as the saline nitrous earth, and the scarceness
-of the potable element, which often tarnishes silver like sulphur-fumes,
-permits.
-
-At Kanyenye I was delayed four days to settle blackmail with Magomba,
-the most powerful of the Wagogo chiefs. He was on this, as on a
-subsequent occasion, engaged in settling a cause arising from Uchawi or
-Black Magic; yet all agree that in Ugogo, where, to quote the “Royal
-Martyr’s” words,
-
- “Plunder and murder are the kingdom’s laws,”
-
-there is perhaps less of wizardhood and witchcraft, and consequently
-less of its normal consequences, fiscs and massacres, than in any other
-region between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. “Arrow-heads” employed
-every art of wild diplomacy to relieve me of as much cloth as possible.
-I received, when encamped at the Ziwa, a polite message declaring his
-desire to see white men; but--“the favour of the winds produces dust”--I
-was obliged to acknowledge the compliment with two cottons. On arrival
-at his head-quarters I was waited upon by an oily cabinet of Wazirs and
-elders, who would not depart without their “respects”--four cottons. The
-next demand was made by his favourite wife, a peculiarly hideous old
-princess with more wrinkles than hairs, with no hair black and no tooth
-white, and attended by ladies in waiting as unprepossessing as herself:
-she was not to be dismissed without a fee of six cottons. At last,
-accompanied by a mob of courtiers, who crowded in like an African House
-of Commons, appeared in person the magnifico. He was the only Sultan
-that ever entered my tent in Ugogo--pride and a propensity for strong
-drink prevented other visits. He was much too great a man to call upon
-the Arab merchants, but in our case curiosity had mastered state
-considerations. Magomba was a black and wrinkled elder, drivelling and
-decrepid, with a half-bald head from whose back and sides depended a few
-straggling corkscrews of iron gray: he wore a coat of castor-oil and a
-“Barsati” loin-cloth, which grease and use had changed from blue to
-black. A few bead strings decorated his neck, large flexible anklets of
-brass wire adorned his legs, solid brass rings, single and in coils,
-which had distended his earlobes almost to splitting, were tied by a
-string over his cranium, and his horny soles were defended by
-single-soled sandals, old, dirty, and tattered. He chewed his quid and
-he expectorated without mercy; he asked many a silly question, yet he
-had ever an eye to the main chance. He demanded and received five
-“cloths with names,” which I was again compelled to purchase at an
-exorbitant price from the Baloch and slaves, one coil of brass wire,
-four blue cottons, and ten “domestics;” the total amounted to fifty
-shukkahs, here worth at least fifty dollars, and exhausting nearly
-two-thirds of a porter’s load. His return present was the leanest of
-calves; when it was driven into camp with much parade, his son, who had
-long been looking out for a fit opportunity, put in a claim for three
-cottons.
-
-Magomba before our departure exacted from Kidogo an oath that his
-Wazungu would not smite the land with drought or with fatal disease,
-declaring that all we had was in his hands. He boasted, and with truth,
-of his generosity. It was indeed my firm conviction from first to last,
-that in case of attack or surprise I had not a soul except my companion
-to stand by me: all those who accompanied us could, and consequently
-would, have saved their lives;--_we_ must have perished. We should have
-been as safe with six as with sixty guns; but I would by no means apply
-to these regions Mr. Galton’s opinion, “that the last fatal expedition
-of Mungo Park is full of warning to travellers who propose exploring
-with a large body of men.” For though sixty guns do not suffice to
-prevent attack in Ugogo, 600 stout fellows armed with the “hot-mouthed
-weapon” might march through the length and breadth of Central Africa.
-
-During our four days’ detention at Kanyenye, I was compelled to waste
-string after string of beads in persuading the people to water the
-porters and asses. Yet their style of proceeding proved that it was
-greed of gain, not scarcity of the element, which was uppermost in their
-minds; they would agree to supply us with an unlimited quantity, and
-then would suddenly gather round the well and push away the Wanyamwezi,
-bidding them go and fetch more beads. All the caravan took the
-opportunity of loading itself with salt. Whilst the halt lasted, my
-companion brought in a fine-flavoured pallah and other antelopes, with
-floriken, guinea-fowl, and partridge. Neither he nor I, however, had
-strength enough, nor had we time, to attack the herds of elephants that
-roam over the valley whose deep purple line separates the table-land of
-Ugogo from the blue hills of the Wahumba to the north. And here,
-perhaps, a few words concerning the prospects of sportsmen in this part
-of Africa, may save future travellers from the mistake into which I
-fell. I expected great things, and returned without realising a single
-hope. This portion of the peninsula is a remarkable contrast to the line
-traversed by Dr. Livingstone, where the animals standing within bow-shot
-were so numerous and fearless, that the burden of provisions was often
-unnecessary. In the more populous parts game has melted away before the
-woodman’s axe and the hunters’ arrows: even where large tracks of jungle
-abound with water and forage, the note of a bird rarely strikes the ear,
-and during a long day’s march not a single large animal will be seen
-from the beaten track. It is true that in some places, there is
-
- “---- enough
- Of beastes that be chaseable.”
-
-The park lands of Dut’humi, the jungles and forests of Ugogi and
-Mgunda Mk’hali, the barrens of Usukuma, and the tangled thickets of
-Ujiji, are full of noble game,--lions and leopards, elephants and
-rhinoceroses, wild cattle, giraffes, gnus, zebras, quaggas, and
-ostriches. But these are dangerous regions where the sportsman often
-cannot linger for a day. Setting aside the minor considerations of
-miasma and malaria,--the real or fancied perils of the place, and the
-want of food, or the difficulty of procuring water, would infallibly
-cause the porters to desert. Here are no Cape-waggons, at once house,
-store, and transport; no “Ships of the Desert,” never known to run away;
-in fact there is no vehicle but man, and he is so impatient and
-headstrong, so suspicious and timorous, that he must be humoured in
-every whim. As sportsmen know, it is difficult to combine surveying
-operations and collection of specimens with a pursuit which requires all
-a man’s time; in these countries, moreover, no merely hunting-expedition
-would pay, owing to the extraordinary expense of provisions and
-carriage. Thus Venator will be reduced to use his “shooting-iron” on
-halting days, and at the several periods of his journey, and his only
-consolation will be the prospect of wreaking vengeance upon the
-hippopotamus and the crocodile of the coast, if his return there be
-entered in the book of Time. Finally, East Africa wants the vast variety
-of animals, especially the beautiful antelopes, which enrich the lists
-of the Cape Fauna. The tale of those observed in short: the horns of the
-oryx were seen, the hartebeest and steinbok, the saltiana and the
-pallah,--the latter affording excellent venison,--were shot. The country
-generally produces the “Suiya,” a little antelope with reddish coat and
-diminutive horns, about the size of an English hare, the swangura, or
-sungula, an animal somewhat larger than the saltiana, and of which,
-according to the people, the hind only has horns; and at K’hutu my
-companion saw a double-horned antelope which he thought resembled the
-“Chouka-singa,” (_Tetraceros Quadricornis_) of Nepaul. The species of
-birds, also, are scarcely more numerous than the beasts; the feathered
-tribe is characterised by sombreness of plumage, and their song is noisy
-but not harmonious, unpleasant, perhaps because strange, to the European
-ear.
-
-On the 8th October appeared at Kanyenye a large down-caravan headed by
-Abdullah bin Nasib, a Msawahili of Zanzibar, whose African name is
-Kisesa. This good man began with the usual token of hospitality, the
-gift of a goat, and some measures of the fine Unyanyembe rice, of which
-return-parties carry an ample store: he called upon me at once with
-several companions,--one of them surprised me not a little by an English
-“good morning,”--and he kindly volunteered to halt a day whilst we wrote
-reports and letters, life-certificates, and duplicate-indents upon
-Zanzibar for extra supplies of drugs and medical comforts, cloth and
-beads. The asses were now reduced to five, and as Magomba refused to
-part with any of his few animals, at any price,--on the coast I had been
-assured that asses were as numerous as dogs in Ugogo--Abdullah gave me
-one of his riding-animals, and would take nothing for it except a little
-medicine, and a paper acknowledging his civility. Several of the slaves
-and porters had been persuaded by the Wagogo to desert, and Abdullah
-busied himself to recover them. One man, who had suddenly deposited his
-pack upon the path and had disappeared in the jungle during the noonday
-halt, was pointed out by a woman to Kidogo, and was found lurking in a
-neighbouring village, where the people refused to give him up. Abdullah
-sent for Magomba’s four chief “ministers,” and persuaded them to render
-active aid: they seized the fellow, took from him his wire and his nine
-cloths, appropriated four, and left me five wherewith to engage another
-porter. The deserter was of course dismissed, but the severity of the
-treatment did not prevent three desertions on the next day.
-
-The 10th October ushered in an ugly march. Emerging betimes from the
-glaring white and red plains of Kanyenye, dotted with fields, villages,
-and calabashes, we unloaded in a thin jungle of mimosa and
-grass-bunches, near sundry pools, then almost dried up, but still
-surrounded by a straggling growth of chamærops and verdurous thorns. The
-bush gave every opportunity to the porters, who had dispersed in the
-halt, to desert with impunity. In our hurried morning tramp, want of
-carriage had caused considerable confusion, and at 2 P.M., when again
-the word “load” was given for a tirikeza, everything seemed to go wrong.
-Said bin Salim and the Jemadar hurried forwards, leaving me to manage
-the departure with Kidogo, who, whilst my companion lay under a calabash
-almost unable to move, substituted for his strong Mnyamwezi ass a
-wretched animal unable to bear the lightest load. The Baloch Belok was
-asked to carry our only gourd full of water; he pleaded sickness as an
-excuse. And, when the rear of the caravan was about to march, Kidogo,
-who alone knew the way, hastened on so fast that he left us to wander
-through a labyrinth of elephants’ tracks, hedged in by thorns and
-brambly trees, which did considerable damage to clothes and cutis.
-
-Having at length found the way, we advanced over a broad, open, and
-grassy plain, striped with southwards-trending sandy water-courses of
-easy ascent and descent, and lined with a green aromatic vegetation, in
-which the tall palm suggested a resemblance to the valley-plains of the
-Usagara Mountains. As night fell upon us like a pall, we entered the
-broken red ground that limits the flat westwards, and, ascending a dark
-ridge of broken, stony, ground, and a dense thorn-bush, we found
-ourselves upon a higher level. The asses stumbled, the men grumbled, and
-the want of water severely tried the general temper.
-
-From this cold jungle--the thermometer showed a minimum of 54° F.--we
-emerged at dawn on the 11th October, and after three hours’ driving
-through a dense bush of various thorns, with calabashes reddened by the
-intense heat, and tripping upon the narrow broken path that ran over
-rolling ground, we found the porters halted at some pits full of sweet
-clear water. Here the caravan preserved a remarkable dead silence. I
-inquired the cause. The Coast-Arabs who accompanied us were trying an
-experiment, which, had it failed, would have caused trouble, expense,
-and waste of time; they were attempting to pass without blackmail the
-little clearing of Usek’he, which lay to the south of the desert-road,
-and they knew that its Sultan, Ganza Mikono, usually posted a party upon
-the low masses of bristling hill hard by, to prevent caravans evading
-his dues. As no provisions were procurable in the jungle, it was judged
-better to proceed, and the sun was in the zenith before we reached the
-district of K’hok’ho. We halted under a spreading tree, near the
-head-quarter village of its villanous Sultan, in an open plain of millet
-and panicum-stubbles. Presently Kidogo, disliking the appearance of
-things--the men, rushing with yells of excitement from their villages,
-were forming a dense ring around us; the even more unmanageable old
-women stared like _sages femmes_, and already a Mnyamwezi porter had
-been beaten at the well--stirred us up and led the way to an open jungle
-about a mile distant. There we were safe; no assailant would place
-himself upon the plain, the Coast-Arabs were close at hand, and in the
-bush we should have been more than a match for the Wagogo.
-
-The Baloch, fatigued by the tedious marches of the last two days, had
-surlily refused their escort to our luggage, as well as to ourselves.
-When the camp was pitched, I ordered a goat to be killed; and, serving
-out rations to the sons of Ramji and the porters, I gave them none, a
-cruel punishment to men whose souls centered in their ingesta. The
-earlier part of the evening was spent by them in enumerating their
-grievances--they were careful to speak in four dialects, so that all
-around might understand them, in discussing their plans of desertion,
-and in silencing the contradiction of their commander, the monocular
-Jemadar, who, having forsworn opium, now headed the party in opposition
-to the mutineers. They complained that they were faint for want of
-meat--the fellows were driving a bullock and half a dozen goats, which
-they had purchased with cloth, certainly not their own. I had, they
-grumbled, given them no ghee or honey, consequently they were obliged to
-“eat dry”--they knew this to be false, as they had received both at
-Kanyenye. We had made them march ten “Cos” in our eagerness to obtain
-milk--they were the first to propose reaching a place where provisions
-were procurable. The unmanageables, Khudabakhsh, Shahdad, and Belok,
-proposed an immediate departure, but a small majority carried the day in
-favour of desertion next morning. Kidogo and the sons of Ramji
-ridiculed, as was their wont, the silly boasters with, “Of a truth,
-brethren! the coast is far off, and ye are hungry men!” On the ensuing
-day, when a night’s reflection had cooled down their noble bile, they
-swallowed their words like buttered parsnips. I heard no more of their
-plans, and in their demeanour they became cringing as before.
-
-The transit of the K’hok’ho clearing, which is also called the Nyika, or
-wilderness, is considered the nucleus of travellers’ troubles in Ugogo.
-The difficulty is caused by its Sultan, M’ana Miaha, popularly known as
-Maguru Mafupi, or Short-shanks. This petty tyrant, the most powerful,
-however, of the Wagogo chiefs, is a toothache to strangers, who complain
-that he cannot even plunder _à l’aimable_. He was described to me as a
-short elderly man, nearly bald, chocolate-coloured, and remarkable for
-the duck-like conformation which gave origin to his nickname. His dress
-was an Arab check round his loins, and another thrown over his
-shoulders. He becomes man, idiot, and beast with clockwork-regularity
-every day; when not disguised in liquor he is surly and unreasonable,
-and when made merry by his cups he refuses to do business. He is in the
-habit of detaining Wanyamwezi caravans to hoe his fields, and he often
-applies them to a _corvée_ of five or six days during the spring-time,
-before he will consent to receive his blackmail.
-
-We were delayed five days at K’hok’ho to lay in provisions for four
-marches, and by the usual African pretexts, various and peculiar. On the
-afternoon of arrival it would have been held indecent haste to trouble
-His Highness. On the first morning His Highness’s spouse was unwell, and
-during the day he was “sitting upon Pombe,” in other words, drinking
-beer. On the second he received, somewhat scurvily, a deputation headed
-by Said bin Salim, the Coast-Arab merchants, and the Jemadar. Two
-Wazagira, or chief-councillors, did the palaver, which was conducted,
-for dignity, outside the royal hovel. He declared that the two caravans
-must compound separately, and that in my case he would be satisfied with
-nothing under six porters’ loads. As about one-twelfth of his demand was
-offered to him, he dismissed them with ignominy, affirming that he held
-me equal to the Sayyid of Zanzibar, and accordingly that he should
-demand half the outfit. The third day was spent by the Coast-Arabs in
-haggling with the courtiers before His Highness, who maintained a solemn
-silence, certainly the easiest plan; and the present was paraded, as is
-customary on such occasions, in separate heaps, each intended for a
-particular person, but Her Highness, justly offended by the flimsiness
-of a bit of chintz, seized a huge wooden ladle and hooted and hunted the
-offenders out of doors. After high words the Arabs returned, and
-informed me that things were looking desperate. I promised assistance in
-case of violence being offered to them,--a civility which they
-acknowledged by sending a shoulder of beef. The fourth day was one of
-dignified idleness. We received a message that the court was again
-sitting upon Pombe, and we too well understood that His Highness, with
-his spouse and cabinet, were drunk as drunk could be. On the morning of
-the fifth day, a similar delaying process was attempted; but as the
-testy Kidogo, who had taken the place of the tame Said, declared that
-the morrow should see us march in the afternoon, the present was
-accepted, and the two or three musket shots usual on such occasions
-sounded the joyful tidings that we were at liberty to proceed. The
-unconscionable extortioner had received one coil of brass wire, four
-“cloths with names,” eight domestics, eight blue cottons, and thirty
-strings of coral beads. Not contented with this, he demanded two Arab
-checks, and these failing, a double quantity of beads, and another
-domestic. I compromised the affair with six feet of crimson broadcloth,
-an article which I had not produced, as the Coast-Arabs, who owned none,
-declared that such an offering would cause difficulties in their case.
-But as they charged me double and treble prices for the expensive cloths
-which the Sultan required, and which, as they had been omitted in our
-outfit, it was necessary to purchase from them, I at length thought
-myself justified in economising by the only means in my power. The
-fiery-tempered Coast-Arabs left K’hok’ho with rage in their hearts and
-curses under their tongues. These men usually think outside their heads,
-but they know that in Ugogo the merest pretext--the loosing a hot word,
-touching a woman, offending a boy, or taking in vain the name of the
-Sultan--infallibly leads to being mulcted in cloth.
-
-I was delighted to escape from the foul strip of crowded jungle in which
-we had halted. A down-caravan of Wanyamwezi had added its quotum of
-discomfort to the place. Throughout the fiery day we were stung by the
-Tzetze, and annoyed by swarms of bees and pertinacious gadflies. On one
-occasion an army of large poisonous siyafu, or black pismire, drove us
-out of the tent by the wounds which it inflicted between the fingers and
-on other tender parts of the body, before a kettle of boiling water
-persuaded them to abandon us. These ant-fiends made the thin-skinned
-asses mad with torture. The nights were cold and raw, and when we awoke
-in the morning we found some valuable article rendered unserviceable by
-the termites. K’hok’ho was an ill-omened spot. There my ass “Seringe,”
-sole survoice of the riding animals brought from Zanzibar, was so torn
-by a hyæna that I was compelled to leave it behind. I was afterwards
-informed that it had soon died of its wounds. The next mishap was the
-desertion of the fifteen Wanyamwezi porters who had been hired and paid
-at Ugogi. These men had slept in the same kraal with the somnolent sons
-of Ramji, and had stealthily disappeared during the night. As usual,
-though they carried off their own, they had left our loads behind, that
-they might reach their homes with greater speed. They would choose a
-jungle road, to avoid the danger of slavery, and living the while upon
-roots and edible grasses, would traverse the desert separating them from
-their country in three or four days. This desertion of fifteen men first
-suggested to me that my weary efforts and wearing anxiety about carriage
-were to a certain extent self-inflictions. Expecting to see half the
-outfit left upon the ground, I was surprised by the readiness with which
-it disappeared. The men seemed to behave best whenever things were
-palpably at the worst; besides which, as easily as the baggage of 50
-porters was distributed amongst 100, so easily were the loads of 100 men
-placed upon the shoulders of 50. Indeed, the original Wanyamwezi gang,
-who claimed by right extra pay for carrying extra weight, though
-fiercely opposed to lifting up an empty gourd gratis, were ever docile
-when a heavier pack brought with it an increase of cloth and beads.
-
-However, the march on the 17th October had its trifling hardships. My
-companion rode forward on the ass lately given to us by Abdullah bin
-Nasib, whilst I, remaining behind and finding that no carriage could be
-procured for two bags of clothes and shoes, placed them upon my animal
-the Mnyamwezi bought at Inenge, inasmuch as it appeared somewhat
-stronger than the half-dozen wretched brutes that flung themselves upon
-the ground apparently too fagged to move. I had, however, overrated its
-powers: it soon became evident that I must walk, or that the valuable
-cargo must be left behind. Trembling with weakness, I set out to
-traverse the length of the Mdáburu Jungle. The memory of that march is
-not pleasant: the burning sun and the fiery reflected heat arising from
-the parched ground--here a rough, thorny, and waterless jungle, where
-the jasmine flowered and the frankincense was used for fuel; there a
-grassy plain of black and sun-cracked earth--compelled me to lie down
-every half-hour. The watergourds were soon drained by my attendant
-Baloch; and the sons of Ramji, who, after reaching the resting-place,
-had returned with ample stores for their comrades, hid their vessels on
-my approach. Sarmalla, a donkey-driver, the model of a surly negro,
-whose crumpled brow, tightened eyes and thick lips which shot-out on the
-least occasion of excitement, showed what was going on within his head,
-openly refused me the use of his gourd, and--thirst is even less to be
-trifled with than hunger--found ample reason to repent himself of the
-proceeding. Near the end of the jungle I came upon a party of the
-Baloch, who, having seized upon a porter belonging to a large caravan of
-Wanyamwezi that had passed us on that march, were persuading him, half
-by promises and half by threats, to carry their sleeping mats and their
-empty gourds. The strict and positive orders as regards enticing away
-deserters which I had issued at Inenge, were looked upon by them, in
-their all-engrossing egotism, as a mere string of empty words. I could
-do nothing beyond threatening to report their conduct to their master,
-and dismissing the man, who obviously stood in fear of death, with his
-tobacco and hoes duly counted back to him. Towards the end of that long
-march I saw with pleasure the kindly face of Seedy Bombay, who was
-returning to me in hot haste, leading an ass, and carrying a few scones
-and hard-boiled eggs. Mounting, I resumed my way, and presently arrived
-at the confines of Mdáburu, where, under a huge calabash, stood our
-tent, amidst a kraal of grass boothies, surrounded by a heaped-up ridge
-of thorns.
-
-Mdáburu is the first important district in the land of Uyanzi, which,
-beginning from Western K’hok’ho, extends as far as Tura, the eastern
-frontier of Unyamwezi-land. It is a fertile depression of brick-red
-earth, bisected by a broad, deep, and sandy Fiumara, which, trending
-southwards, supplies from five pits water in plenty even during the
-driest season. It is belted on all sides by a dense jungle, over whose
-dark brown line appeared the summits of low blue cones, and beyond them
-long streaks of azure ridge, beautified by distance into the semblance
-of a sea. We were delayed two days at this, the fourth and westernmost
-district of Ugogo. It was necessary to lay in a week’s provision for the
-party--ever a tedious task in these regions, but more especially in the
-dead of winter--moreover, the Sultan Kibuya expected the settlement of
-his blackmail. From this man we experienced less than the usual
-incivility: by birth a Mkimbu foreigner, and fearing at that time wars
-and rumours of wars on the part of his villanous neighbour, Maguru
-Mafupi, he contented himself with a present which may be estimated at
-nineteen cloths, whereas the others had murmured at forty and fifty.
-However, he abated nothing of his country’s pretentious pride. A black,
-elderly man, dressed in a grimy cloth, without other ornament but a
-broad ivory bracelet covering several inches of his right wrist, he at
-first refused to receive the deputation because his “ministers” were
-absent; and during the discourse about the amount of blackmail, he sat
-preserving an apathetic silence, outside his dirty lodging in the huge
-kraal which forms his capital. The demand concluded with a fine
-silk-cotton cloth, on the part of his wife; and when “ma femme” appears
-on such occasions in these regions, as in others further west, it is a
-sure sign that the stranger is to be taken in. As usual with the East
-African chiefs, Kibuya was anxious to detain me, not only in order that
-his people might profitably dispose of their surplus stores, but also
-because the presence of so many guns would go far to modify the plans of
-his enemies. His attempts at delay, however, were skilfully
-out-manœuvred by Said bin Salim, who broke through all difficulties with
-the hardihood of fear. The little man’s vain terrors made him put the
-ragged kraal which surrounded us into a condition of defence, and every
-night he might be seen stalking like a troubled spirit amongst the forms
-of sleeping men.
-
-At Mdáburu I hired two porters from the caravan that accompanied us; and
-Said bin Salim began somewhat tardily to take the usual precautions
-against desertion. He was ordered, before the disappearance of the
-porters that levanted at K’hok’ho, to pack their hire in our loads, and
-every evening to chain up the luggage heaped in front of our tent. The
-accident caused by his neglect rendered him now quasi-obedient.
-Moreover, two or three Baloch were told off to precede the line, and as
-many to bring up the rear. The porters, as I have said, hold it a point
-of honour not to steal their packs; but if allowed to straggle forwards,
-or to loiter behind, they will readily attempt the recovery of their
-goods by opening their burdens, which they afterwards abandon upon the
-road. The Coast-Arabs, in return for some small shot, which is here
-highly prized, assisted me by carrying some surplus luggage. Amongst
-other articles, two kegs of gunpowder were committed to them: both were
-punctually returned at Unyanyembe, where gunpowder sells at two cloths,
-or half a Frasilah (17·5 lbs.) of ivory per lb; but the bungs had been
-stove in, and a quarter of the contents had evaporated. The evening of
-the second day’s halt closed on us before the rations for the caravan
-were collected, and seventeen shukkah, with about a hundred strings of
-beads, barely produced a sufficiency of grain.
-
-From the Red Vale of Mdáburu three main lines traverse the desert
-between Ugogo and Unyamwezi. The northernmost, called Njia T’humbi,
-leads in a west-north-westerly direction to Usukuma. Upon this track are
-two sultans and several villages. The central “Karangásá,” or “Mdáburu,”
-is that which will be described in the following pages. The
-southernmost, termed Uyánzi, sets out from K’hok’ho, and passes through
-the settlements known by the name of Jiwe lá Singá. It is avoided by the
-porters, dreading to incur the wrath of Sultan Kibuyá, who would resent
-their omitting to visit his settlement, M’dáburu.
-
-These three routes pass through the heart of the great desert and
-elephant-ground “Mgunda Mk’hali”--explained by the Arabs to mean in
-Kinyamwezi, the Fiery “Shamba” or Field. Like Marenga Mk’hali, it is a
-desert, because it contains no running water nor wells, except after
-rain. The name is still infamous, but its ill-fame rests rather upon
-tradition than actuality; in fact, its dimensions are rapidly shrinking
-before the torch and axe. About fifteen years ago it contained twelve
-long stages, and several tirikeza; now it is spanned in eight marches.
-The wildest part is the first half from Mdáburu to Jiwe lá Mkoa, and
-even here, it is reported, villages of Wakimbu are rising rapidly on the
-north and south of the road. The traveller, though invariably threatened
-with drought and the death of cattle, will undergo little hardship
-beyond the fatigue of the first three forced marches through the “Fiery
-Field;” in fact, he will be agreeably surprised by its contrast with the
-desert of Marenga Mk’hali.
-
-From east to west the diagonal breadth of Mgunda Mk’hali is 140 miles.
-The general aspect is a dull uniform bush, emerald-coloured during the
-rains, and in the heats a network of dry and broom-like twigs. Except
-upon the banks of nullahs--“rivers” that are not rivers--the trees, as
-in Ugogo, wanting nutriment, never afford timber, and even the calabash
-appears stunted. The trackless waste of scrub, called the “bush” in
-Southern Africa, is found in places alternating with thin gum-forest;
-the change may be accounted for by the different depths of water below
-the level of the ground. It is a hardy vegetation of mimosas and gums
-mixed with evergreen succulent plants, cactaceæ, aloes, and euphorbias:
-the grass, sometimes tufty, at other times equally spread, is hard and
-stiff; when green it feeds cattle, and when dry it is burned in places
-by passing caravans to promote the growth of another crop.
-
-The groundwork of Mgunda Mk’hali is a detritus of yellowish quartz, in
-places white with powdered felspar, and, where vegetation decays,
-brown-black with humus. Water-worn pebbles are sprinkled over the earth,
-and the vicinity of Fiumaras abounds in a coarse and modern
-sandstone-conglomerate. Upon the rolling surface, and towering high
-above the tallest trees, are based the huge granitic and syenitic
-outcrops before alluded to. The contrast between the masses and the
-dwarf rises which support them at once attracts the eye. Here and there
-the long waves that diversify the land appear in the far distance like
-blue lines bounding the nearer superficies of brown or green. Throughout
-this rolling table-land the watershed is to the south. In rare places
-the rains stagnate in shallow pools, which become systems of mud-cakes
-during the drought. At this season water is often unprocurable in the
-Fiumaras, causing unaccustomed hardships to caravans, and death to those
-beasts which, like the elephant and the buffalo, cannot long exist
-without drinking.
-
-On the 20th October we began the transit of the “Fiery Field,” whose
-long broad line of brown jungle, painted blue by the intervening air,
-had, since leaving K’hok’ho, formed our western horizon. The waste here
-appeared in its most horrid phase. The narrow goat-path serpentined in
-and out of a growth of poisonous thorny jungle, with thin, hard
-grass-straw, growing on a glaring white and rolling ground; the view was
-limited by bush and brake, as in the alluvial valleys of the maritime
-region, and in weary sameness the spectacle surpassed everything that we
-had endured in Marenga Mk’hali. We halted through the heat of the day at
-some water-pits in a broken course; and resuming our tedious march early
-in the afternoon, we arrived about sunset at the bed of a shallow
-nullah, where the pure element was found in sand-holes about five feet
-deep.
-
-On the 2nd day we reached the large Mabunguru Fiumara, a deep and
-tortuous gash of fine yellow quartzoze sand and sunburnt blocks of
-syenite: at times it must form an impassable torrent, even at this
-season of severe drought it afforded long pools of infiltrated
-rain-water, green with weeds and abounding with shell-fish, and with the
-usual description of Silurus. In the earlier morning the path passed
-through a forest already beautified by the sprouting of tender green
-leaves and by the blooming of flowers, amongst which was a large and
-strongly perfumed species of jasmine, whilst young grass sprouted from
-the fire-blackened remnants of the last year’s crop. Far upon the
-southern horizon rose distant hills and lines, blue, as if composed of
-solidified air, and mocking us by their mirage-likeness to the ocean.
-Nearer, the ground was diversified by those curious evidences of igneous
-action, which extend westward through eastern Unyamwezi, and northwards
-to the shores of the Nyanza Lake. These outcrops of gray granite and
-syenite are principally of two different shapes, the hog’s back and the
-turret. The former usually appears as a low lumpy dome of various
-dimensions; here a few feet long, there extending a mile and a half in
-diameter: the outer coat scales off under the action of the atmosphere,
-and in places it is worn away by a network of paths. The turret is a
-more picturesque and changing feature. Tall rounded blocks and conical
-or cylindrical boulders, here single, there in piles or ridges, some
-straight and stiff as giant ninepins, others split as if an alley or a
-gateway passed between them, rise abruptly and perpendicularly almost
-without foundationary elevation, cleaving the mould of a dead plain,
-or--like gypseous formations, in which the highest boulders are planted
-upon the lowest and broadest bases--they bristle upon a wave of
-dwarfish rocky hill. One when struck was observed to give forth a
-metallic clink, and not a few, balanced upon points, reminded me of the
-tradition-bearing rocking stones. At a distance in the forest, the
-larger masses might be mistaken for Cyclopean walls, towers, steeples,
-minarets, loggans, dwelling houses, and ruined castles. They are often
-overgrown with a soft grass, which decaying, forms with the degradation
-of the granite a thin cap of soil; their summits are crowned with tufty
-cactus, a stomatiferous plant which imbibes nourishment from the oxygen
-of the air; whilst huge creepers, imitating trees, project gnarled
-trunks from the deeper crevices in their flanks. Seen through the forest
-these rocks are an effective feature in the landscape, especially when
-the sunbeams fall warm and bright upon their rounded summits and their
-smooth sides, here clothed with a mildew-like lichen of the tenderest
-leek-green, there yellowed like Italian marbles by the burning rays, and
-there streaked with a shining black as if glazed by the rain, which,
-collecting in cupfuls upon the steps and slopes, at times overflows,
-coursing in mimic cataracts down the heights.
-
-That march was a severe trial; we had started at dawn, we did not,
-however, arrive at the Mabunguru Fiumara before noon, and our people
-straggled in about eveningtide. All our bullet-moulds, and three boxes
-of ammunition, were lost. Said bin Salim, the Jemadar, and three other
-men had followed in the rear, driving on the “One-Eyed Fiend,” which,
-after many a prank, lay down upon the ground, and positively declined to
-move. The escort, disliking the sun, abandoned it at once to its fate,
-and want of provisions, and the inordinate length of the marches,
-rendered a halt or a return for the valuable load--four boxes of
-ammunition--out of the question. An article once abandoned in these
-deserts is rarely if ever recovered; the caravan-porters will not halt,
-and a small party dares not return to recover it.
-
-The 22nd October saw us at Jiwe la Mkoa, the half-way-house of Mgunda
-Mk’hali. The track, crossing the rough Mabunguru Fiumara, passed over
-rolling ground through a thorny jungle that gradually thinned out into a
-forest; about 8 A.M. a halt was called at a water in the wilderness. My
-companion being no longer able to advance on foot, an ass was unloaded,
-and its burden of ammunition was divided, for facility of porterage,
-amongst the sons of Ramji. After noon we resumed our march, and the
-Kirangozi, derided by the rival guide of the Coast-Arabs’ caravan, and
-urged forward by Kidogo, who was burning to see his wife and children in
-Unyamwezi, determined to “put himself at the head of himself.” The
-jungle seemed interminable. The shadows of the hills lengthened out upon
-the plains, the sun sank in the glory of purple, crimson, and gold, and
-the crescent-moon rained a flood of silvery light upon the topmost
-twig-work of the trees; we passed a dwarf clearing, where lodging and
-perhaps provisions were to be obtained, and we sped by water near the
-road where the frogs were chanting their vesper-hymn; still far,--far
-ahead we heard the horns and the faint march-cries of the porters. At
-length, towards the end of the march, we wound round a fantastic mass of
-cactus-clad boulders, and crossing a low ridge we found at its base a
-single Tembe or square village of emigrant Wakimbu, who refused to admit
-us. The little basin beyond it displayed, by “black jacks” and felled
-tree-trunks, evidences of modern industry, and it extended to the Jiwe
-or Rock, which gives its name to the clearing. We were cheered by the
-sight of the red fires glaring in the Kraal, but my companion’s ass,
-probably frightened by some wild beast to us invisible, reared high in
-the air, bucked like a deer, broke his frail Arab girths, and threw his
-invalid rider heavily upon the hard earth. Arrived at the Kraal, I found
-every boothy occupied by the porters, who refused shelter until dragged
-out like slaughtered sheep. Said bin Salim’s awning was as usual snugly
-pitched; ours still lay on the ground. The little Arab’s “duty to
-himself” appeared to attain a higher limit every stage; once comfortably
-housed, he never thought of offering cover to another, and his children
-knew him too well even to volunteer such a service to any one but
-himself. On a late occasion, when our tent had not appeared, Said bin
-Salim, to whom a message had been sent, refused to lend us one half of
-the awning committed to him, a piece of canvas cut out to serve as a
-tent and lug-sail. Bombay then distinguished himself by the memorable
-words,--“If you are not ashamed of your master, be ashamed of his
-servant!” which had the effect of bringing the awning and of making Said
-bin Salim testily refuse the half returned to him.
-
-Jiwe la Mkoa, or the Round Rock, is the largest of the many hogs’-backs
-of grey syenite that stud this waste. It measures about two miles in
-extreme diameter, and the dome rises with a gentle slope to the height
-of 200 or 300 feet above the dead level of the plain. Tolerable water is
-found in pits upon a swamp at its southern base, and well covered Mtego
-or elephant traps, deep grave-like excavations, like the Indian “Ogi,”
-prove dangerous to travellers; in one of these the Jemadar disappeared
-suddenly, as if by magic. The smooth and rounded surface of the rock
-displays deep hoof-shaped holes, which in a Moslem land would at once be
-recognised as the Asr, or the footprints of those holy quadrupeds,
-Duldul or Zu’l Jenah. In places the Jiwe, overgrown with scattered tufts
-of white grass, and based upon a dusty surface blackened by torrent
-rains, forcibly suggested to the Baloch the idea of an elderly negro’s
-purbald poll.
-
-We encamped close to the Jiwe, and in so doing we did wrong: however
-pleasant may be the shadow of a tall rock in a thirsty land by day,
-way-wise travellers avoid the vicinity of stones which, by diminished
-radiation, retain their heat throughout the night. All caravans passing
-through this clearing clamour to be supplied with provisions; our
-porters, who, having received rations for eight days, which they
-consumed in four, were no exceptions to the rule. As the single little
-village of Jiwe la Mkoa could afford but one goatskin of grain and a few
-fowls, the cattle not being for sale, and no calves having been born to
-the herds, the porters proposed to send a party with cloth and beads to
-collect provaunt from the neighbouring settlements. But the notable
-Khalfan bin Khamis, the most energetic of the Coast-Arabs in whose
-company we were travelling, would brook no delay: he had issued as usual
-three days’ rations for a long week’s march, and thus by driving his
-porters beyond their speed, he practised a style of economy usually
-categorised by us at home as “penny-wise and pound-foolish.” His
-marching was conducted upon the same principle; determining to save
-time, he pushed on till his men began to flag, presently broke down, and
-finally deserted.
-
-At Jiwe la Mkoa the neck of the desert is broken: the western portion of
-Mgunda Mk’hali has already thinned out. On the 23rd October, despite the
-long march of the preceding day, Khalfan proposed a Tirikeza, declaring
-that the heavy nimbus from the west, accompanied by a pleasant cold,
-portended rain, and that this rain, like the “Choti Barsat” of India,
-announces the approach of the great Masika, or vernal wet season.
-Yielding to his reasons, we crossed the “Round Rock,” and passing
-through an open forest of tall trees, with here and there an undulating
-break, now yellow with quartz, then black with humus, we reached, after
-about three hours, another clearing like Jiwe la Mkoa, which owes its
-origin to the requirements of commerce. “Kirurumo” boasted of several
-newly built Tembe of Wakimbu, who supplied caravans at an exorbitant
-rate. The blackness of the ground, and the vivid green of vegetation,
-evidenced the proximity of water. The potable element was found in pits,
-sunk in a narrow nullah running northwards across the clearing; it was
-muddy and abundant. On the next day the road led through a thin forest
-of thorns and gums, which, bare of bush and underwood, afforded a broad
-path and pleasant, easy travelling. Sign of elephant and rhinoceros,
-giraffe and antelope, crossed the path, and as usual in such places, the
-asses were tormented by the Tzetze. After travelling four hours and
-thirty minutes, we reached a new settlement upon the western frontier of
-Uganzi, called “Jiweni,” “near the stones,” from the heaps of block and
-boulder scattered round pits of good water, sunk about three feet in the
-ground. The Mongo Nullah, a deep surface-drain, bisects this clearing,
-which is palpably modern. Many of the trees are barked previous to
-felling, and others have fallen prostrate, apparently from the
-depredations of the white ant. On the 25th, after another desert march
-of 2 hrs. 20′ through a flat country, where the forest was somewhat
-deformed by bush and brake, which in places narrowed the path to a mere
-goat-track, we arrived at the third quarter of Mgunda Mk’hali. “Mgongo
-T’hembo,” or the Elephant’s Back, derives its name from a long narrow
-ridge of chocolate-coloured syenite, outcropping from the low forest
-lands around it; the crest of the chain is composed of loose rocks and
-large detached boulders. Like the other inhabited portions of Mgunda
-Mk’hali, it is a recent clearing; numerous “black-jacks,” felled trees,
-and pollarded stumps still cumber the fields. The “Elephant’s Back” is,
-however, more extensive and better cultivated than any of its
-neighbours,--Mdáburu alone excepted,--and water being abundant and near
-the surface, it supports an increasing population of mixed Wakimbu and
-Wataturu, who dwell in large substantial Tembe, and live by selling
-their surplus holcus, maize, and fowls to travellers. They do not, like
-the Wakimbu of Jiwe la Mkoa, refuse entrance to their villages, but they
-receive the stranger with the usual niggard guest-rites of the
-slave-path, and African-like, they think only of what is to be gained by
-hospitality. Here I halted for a day to recruit and to lay in rations.
-The length of the stages had told upon the men; Bombay had stumped
-himself, several of the sons of Ramji, and two of Said bin Salim’s
-children were unable to walk; the asses, throwing themselves upon the
-ground, required to be raised with the stick, and all preferred rest
-even to food. Mboni, one of the sons of Ramji, carried off a slave girl
-from the camp of the Coast-Arabs; her proprietor came armed to recover
-her, swords were drawn, a prodigious clash and clatter of tongue arose,
-friends interfered, and blades were sheathed. Khalfan bin Khamis, losing
-all patience at this delay, bade us adieu, promising to announce our
-approach at Unyanyembe; about a week afterwards, however, we found him
-in most melancholy plight, halted half-way, because his over-worked
-porters had taken “French leave.”
-
-We resumed our march on the 27th October, and after a slow and painful
-progress for seven hours over a rolling country, whose soil was now
-yellow with argile, then white with felspar, then black-brown with
-humus, through thorny bush, and forest here opening out, there densely
-closing in, we arrived at the “Tura Nullah,” the deepest of the many
-surface drains winding tortuously to the S. W. The trees lining the
-margin were of the noblest dimensions; the tall thick grass that hedged
-them in showed signs of extensive conflagration, and water was found in
-shallow pools and in deep pits beneath the banks, on the side to which
-the stream, which must be furious during the rainy season, swings. When
-halted in a clear place in the jungle, we were passed by a down caravan
-of Wanyamwezi; our porters shouted and rushed up to greet their friends,
-the men raised their right hands about a dozen times, and then clapped
-palm to palm, and the women indulged in “vigelegele,” the African
-“lulliloo,” which rang like breech-loaders in our ears.
-
-On the next day we set out betimes through the forest, which, as usual
-when nearing populous settlements, spread out, and which began at this
-season to show a preponderance of green over brown. Presently we reached
-a large expanse of yellow stover where the van had halted, in order that
-the caravan might make its first appearance with dignity. Ensued a
-clearing, studded with large stockaded villages, peering over tall
-hedges of dark green milk-bush, fields of maize and millet, manioc,
-gourds, and water-melons, and showing numerous flocks and herds,
-clustering around the shallow pits. The people swarmed from their
-abodes, young and old hustling one another for a better stare; the man
-forsook his loom and the girl her hoe, and for the remainder of the
-march we were escorted by a tail of screaming boys and shouting adults;
-the males almost nude, the women, bare to the waist and clothed only
-knee-deep in kilts, accompanied us, puffing pipes the while, with
-wallets of withered or flabby flesh flapping the air, striking their
-hoes with stones, crying “Beads! beads!” and ejaculating their wonder in
-strident explosions of “Hi! hi!--Hui! ih!” and “Ha!--a!--a!” It was a
-spectacle to make an anchorite of a man,--it was at once ludicrous and
-disgusting.
-
-At length the Kirangozi fluttered his red flag in the wind, and the
-drums, horns, and larynxes of his followers began the fearful uproar
-which introduces a caravan to the admiring “natives.” Leading the way,
-our guide, much to my surprise,--I knew not then that such was the
-immemorial custom of Unyamwezi,--entered uninvited and sans ceremony the
-nearest large village; the long string of porters flocked in with bag
-and baggage, and we followed their example. The guests at once dispersed
-themselves through the several courts and compounds into which the
-interior hollow was divided, and lodged themselves with as much regard
-for self and disregard for their grumbling hosts as possible. We were
-placed under a wall-less roof, bounded on one side by the bars of the
-village palisade, and the mob of starers that relieved one another from
-morning till night made me feel like the denizen of a menagerie.
-
-[Illustration: Usagara Mountains, seen from Ugogo.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. IX.
-
-THE GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF UGOGO,--THE THIRD REGION.
-
-
-The third division of the country visited is a flat table-land extending
-from the Ugogi “Dhun,” or valley, at the western base of the Wasagara
-Mountains, in E. long. 36° 14′, to Tura, the eastern district of
-Unyamwezi, in E. long. 33° 57′; occupying a diagonal breadth of 155
-geographical rectilinear miles. The length from north to south is not so
-easily estimated. The Wahumba and the Wataturu in the former, and the
-Wahehe and Warori in the latter direction, are migratory tribes that
-spurn a civilised frontier; according to the Arabs, however, the Wagogo
-extend three long marches on an average to the north and four or five
-southwards. This, assuming the march at 15 miles, would give a total of
-120. The average of the heights observed is 3,650 feet, with a gradual
-rise westwards to Jiwe la Mkoa, which attains an altitude of 4,200
-feet(?).
-
-The third region, situated to leeward of a range whose height compels
-the south-east trades to part with their load of vapours, and distant
-from the succession of inland seas, which, stationed near the centre of
-the African continent, act as reservoirs to restore the balance of
-humidity, is an arid, sterile land, a counterpart, in many places, of
-the Kalahari and the Karroo, or South African desert-plains. The general
-aspect is a glaring yellow flat, darkened by long growths of acrid,
-saline, and succulent plants, thorny bush, and stunted trees, and the
-colouring is monotonous in the extreme. It is sprinkled with isolated
-dwarf cones bristling with rocks and boulders, from whose interstices
-springs a thin forest of gums, thorns, and mimosas. The power of igneous
-agency is displayed in protruding masses of granitic formation, which
-rise from the dead level with little foundationary elevation; and the
-masses of sandstone, superincumbent upon the primitive base in other
-parts of the country, here disappear. On the north rises the long
-tabular range of the Wahumba Hills, separated by a line of lower ground
-from the plateau. Southwards, a plain, imperceptibly shelving, trends
-towards the Rwaha River. There are no rivers in Ugogo: the periodical
-rains are carried off by large nullahs, whose clay banks are split and
-cut during the season of potent heat into polygonal figures like piles
-of columnar basalt. On the sparkling nitrous salinas and the dull-yellow
-or dun-coloured plains the mirage faintly resembles the effects of
-refraction in desert Arabia. The roads are mere foot-tracks worn through
-the fields and bushes. The kraals are small dirty circles enclosing a
-calabash or other tree, against which goods are stacked. The boothies
-are made of dried canes and stubble, surrounded by a most efficient
-_chevaux de frise_ of thorn-boughs. At the end of the dry season they
-are burnt down by inevitable accident. The want of wood prevents their
-being made solidly, and for the same reason “bois de vache” is the usual
-fuel of the country.
-
-The formation of the subsoil is mostly sandstone bearing a ruddy sand.
-The surface is in rare places a brown vegetable humus, extending but a
-few inches in depth, or more generally a hard yellow-reddish ferruginous
-clay covered with quartz nodules of many colours, and lumps of carbonate
-of lime, or white and siliceous sand, rather resembling a well-metalled
-road or an “untidy expanse of gravel-walk” than the rich moulds which
-belong to the fertile African belt. In many parts are conical anthills
-of pale red earth; in others ironstone crops out of the plain; and
-everywhere fine and coarse grits abound. The land is in parts condemned
-to perpetual drought, and nowhere is water either good or plentiful. It
-is found in the serpentine beds of nullahs, and after rain in ziwa,
-vleys, tanks, pools, or ponds, filled by a gentle gravitation, and
-retained by a strong clay, in deep pits excavated by the people, or in
-shallow holes “crowed” in the ground. The supplies of this necessary
-divide the country into three great districts. On the east is Marenga
-Mk’hali, a thick bush, where a few villages, avoided by travellers, are
-scattered north and south of the road. The heart of the region is Ugogo,
-the most populous and the best cultivated country, divided into a number
-of small and carefully cultivated clearings by tracts of dense bush and
-timberless woods, a wall of verdure during the rains, and in the hot
-season a system of thorns and broomwork which serves merely to impede a
-free circulation of the air. These seams of waste land appear strange in
-a country populated of old; the Arabs, however, declare that the land is
-more thinly inhabited than it used to be. Mgunda Mk’hali, the western
-division, is a thin forest and a heap of brakey jungle. The few hills
-are thickly clothed with vegetation, probably because they retain more
-moisture than the plains.
-
-The climate of Ugogo is markedly arid. During the transit of the
-Expedition in September and October, the best water-colours faded and
-hardened in their pans; India-rubber, especially the prepared article in
-squares, became viscid, like half-dried birdlime; “Macintosh” was
-sticking plaister, and the best vulcanized elastic-bands tore like brown
-paper. During almost the whole year a violent east-wind sweeps from the
-mountains. There are great changes in the temperature, whilst the
-weather apparently remains the same, and alternate currents of hot and
-cold air were observed. In the long summer the climate much resembles
-that of Sindh; there are the same fiery suns playing upon the naked
-surface with a painful dazzle, cool crisp nights, and clouds of dust.
-The succulent vegetation is shrivelled up and carbonised by heat, and
-the crackling covering of clayey earth and thin sand, whose particles
-are unbound by dew or rain, rises in lofty whirling columns like
-water-spouts when the north wind from the Wahumba Hills meets the gusts
-of Usagara, which are soon heated to a furnace-breath by the glowing
-surface. These “p’hepo” or “devils” scour the plain with the rapidity of
-horsemen, and, charged with coarse grain and small pebbles, strike with
-the violence of heavy hail. The siccity and repercussion of heat produce
-an atmosphere of peculiar brilliancy in Ugogo: the milky haze of the
-coast-climate is here unknown. The sowing season, at which time also
-trees begin to bud and birds to breed, is about the period of the sun’s
-greatest southern declination, and the diminution of temperature
-displays in these regions the effects of the tepid winds and the warm
-vernal showers of the European continent. There is no Vuli, and thus the
-climate is unrefreshed by the copious tropical rains. About the middle
-of November the country is visited by a few preliminary showers,
-accompanied by a violent tramontana, and the vital principle which
-appears extinct starts once more into sudden and excessive activity.
-Towards the end of December the Masika, or rainy season, commences with
-the wind shifting from the east to the north and north-east, blowing
-steadily from the high grounds eastward and westward of the Nyanza Lake,
-which have been saturated by heavy falls beginning in September. The
-“winter” seldom exceeds the third month, and the downfall is desultory
-and uncertain, causing frequent droughts and famine. For this reason the
-land is much inferior in fertility to the other regions, and the cotton
-and tobacco, which flourish from the coast to the Tanganyika Lake, are
-deficient in Ugogo, whilst rice is supplanted by the rugged sorghum and
-maize.
-
-Arab and other travellers unaccustomed to the country at first suffer
-from the climate, which must not, however, be condemned. They complain
-of the tourbillons, the swarms of flies, and the violent changes from
-burning heat to piercing cold, which is always experienced in that
-region when the thermometer sinks below 60°-55° F. Their thin tents,
-pitched under a ragged calabash, cannot mitigate the ardour of an
-unclouded sun; the salt-bitter water, whose nitrous and saline deposits
-sometimes tarnish a silver ring like the fumes of sulphur, affects their
-health; whilst the appetite, stimulated by a purer atmosphere and the
-coolness of the night air, is kept within due bounds only by deficiency
-in the means of satisfying it. Those who have seen Africa further west,
-are profuse in their praises of the climate on their return-march from
-the interior. The mukunguru, or seasoning fever, however, rarely fails
-to attack strangers. It is, like that of the second region, a violent
-bilious attack, whose consequences are sleeplessness, debility, and
-severe headaches: the hot fit compared with the algid stage is unusually
-long and rigorous. In some districts the parexia is rarely followed by
-the relieving perspiration; and when natural diaphoresis appears, it by
-no means denotes the termination of the paroxysm. Other diseases are
-rare, and the terrible ulcerations of K’hutu and Eastern Usagara are
-almost unknown in Ugogo. There is little doubt that the land, if it
-afforded good shelter, purified water, and regular diet, would be
-eminently wholesome.
-
-In the uninviting landscape a tufty, straggling grass, like living hay,
-often raised on little mounds, with bald places between, thinly strewed
-with bits of quartz and sandstone, replaces the tall luxuriant herbage
-of the maritime plain, and the arboraceous and frutescent produce of the
-mountains. The dryness of the climate, and the poverty of the soil, are
-displayed in the larger vegetation. The only tree of considerable growth
-is the calabash, and it is scattered over the country widely apart. A
-variety of frankincense overspreads the ground; the bark is a deep
-burnished bronze, whitened above with an incrustation, probably nitrous,
-that resembles hoar-frost; and the long woody twigs are bleached by the
-falling off of the outer integuments. The mukl or bdellium tree rises
-like a dwarf calabash from a low copse. The Arabs declare this produce
-of Ugogo (_Balsamodendron Africanum?_), to be of good quality. Rubbed
-upon a stone and mixed with water it is applied with a pledget of cotton
-to sluggish and purulent sores; and women use it for fumigation. The
-Africans ignore its qualities, and the Baloch, though well acquainted
-with the bdellium, gugal, or guggur, in their own country, did not
-observe it in Ugogo. The succulent plants, cactus, aloe, and euphorbia,
-will not burn; the air within them expands with heat, and the juices
-gushing out extinguish the flame. Amongst various salsolæ, or saltworts,
-the shrub called by the Arabs arak, the Capparis Sodata of Sindh and
-Arabia, with its currant-like bunches of fruit, is conspicuous for its
-evergreen verdure; the ragged and stunted mtungulu rains its apples upon
-the ground; and the mbembu, in places sheltered from the sun, bears a
-kind of medlar which is eagerly sought by the hungry traveller. The
-euphorbiæ here rise to the height of 35 or 40 feet, and the hard woody
-stem throws out a mass of naked arms, in the shape of a huge cap,
-impervious to the midday sun.
-
-Wild animals abound through these jungles, and the spoor lasts long upon
-the crisp gravelly soil. In some districts they visit by night the
-raised clay water-troughs of the cultivators. The elephant prefers the
-thick jungle, where he can wallow in the pools and feed delicately upon
-succulent roots and fruits, bark, and leaves. The rhinoceros loves the
-dark clumps of trees, which guard him from the noonday sun, and whence
-he can sally out all unexpected upon the assailant. The mbogo, or Bos
-Caffer, driven from his favourite spots, low grassy plains bordering on
-streams, wanders, like the giraffe, through the thinner forests. As in
-Unyamwezi, the roar of the lion strikes the ear by night, and the cry of
-the ostrich by day. The lion upon this line of Eastern Africa is often
-heard, but rarely seen; on only two occasions its footprints appeared
-upon the road. The king of beasts, according to the Arabs, is of
-moderate stature: it seldom attains its maximum of strength, stature,
-and courage, except in plain countries where game abounds, as in the
-lands north of the Cape, or in hills and mountains, where cattle can be
-lifted at discretion, as in Northern Africa. In Unyamwezi its spoils,
-which are yellow, like those of the Arab lion, with a long mane, said to
-hang over the eyes, and with a whitish tinge under the jaws, become the
-property of the Sultan. The animal is more common in the high lands of
-Karagwah than in the low countries; it has, however, attacked the mbogo,
-or wild bull, and has destroyed cattle within sight of the Arabs at
-Kazeh in Unyanyembe. The lion is rarely a man-eater; this peculiarity,
-according to some writers, being confined to old beasts, whose worn
-teeth are unfit for fight.
-
-The “polygamous bird” was first observed on the Ugogo plateau; it
-extends through Unyamwezi and Usukuma to Ujiji. The eggs are sold,
-sometimes fresh, but more generally stale. Emptied and dried, they form
-the principal circulating-medium between the Arab merchants and the
-coffee-growing races near the Nyanza Lake, who cut them up and grind
-them into ornamental disks and crescents. The young birds are caught,
-but are rarely tamed. In Usukuma the bright and glossy feathers of the
-old male are much esteemed for adorning the hair; yet, curious to say,
-the bird is seldom hunted. Moreover, these East Africans have never
-attempted to export the feathers, which, when white and uninjured, are
-sold, even by the Somal, for 8 dollars per lb. The birds are at once
-wild and stupid, timid and headstrong: their lengthened strides and
-backward glances announce terror at the sight of man, and it is
-impossible to stalk them in the open grounds, which they prefer. The
-leopard and the cynhyæna, the koodoo and the different species of
-antelope, are more frequently killed in these deserts than in any other
-part of the line. Hog of reddish colour, and hares with rufous fur, are
-sometimes started by caravans. The hyrax of the Somali country basks
-upon the rocks and boulders, and the carapace of a small land-turtle,
-called khasa, fastened to a branch, serves as a road-sign. The k’hwalu,
-a small green parrot, with yellow shoulders, the upupa or hoopoe, a
-great variety of fly-catchers, larks with jet-black heads and yellow
-bodies, small bustards, hornbills, nightjars, muscicapæ, green pigeons,
-sparrow-hawks, and small doves, are seen in every jungle. Near the
-settlements the white-necked raven and the common chíl of India (Falco
-cheela), attest the presence of man, as the monkey does the proximity of
-water. The nest of the loxia swings to and fro in the fierce simoom; the
-black Bataleur eagle of Somaliland, a splendid bird, towering shily in
-the air, with his light under-plume gleaming like a silver plate, and
-large vultures (condors?) flocking from afar, denote the position of a
-dead or dying animal.
-
-Until late years the Wagogo, being more numerous than they are now,
-deterred travellers from traversing their country: in those early days
-the road to Unyamwezi, running along the left or northern bank of the
-Rwaha, through the Warori tribe, struck off near Usanga and Usenga. It
-is related, when the first caravan, led by Jumah Mfumbi, the late Diwan
-of Saadani, entered Ugogo, that the people, penetrated with admiration
-of his corpulence, after many experiments to find out whether it was
-real or not, determined that he was and must be the Deity. Moreover,
-after coming to this satisfactory conclusion, they resolved that, being
-the Deity, he could improve their country by heavy rains; and when he
-protested against both these resolutions, they proposed to put him to
-death. A succession of opportune showers, however, released him. By
-degrees the ever-increasing insolence and violence of the Warori drove
-travellers to this northern line, and the Wagogo learned to see
-strangers without displaying this Lybian mania for sacrificing them.
-
-Three main roads, leading from Western Usagara westward, cross the
-Desert of Marenga Mk’hali. The most northern is called Yá Nyiká--of the
-wilderness--a misnomer, if the assertion of the guides be correct that
-it is well watered, and peopled by the subjects of eight sultans. The
-central line, described in the preceding pages, is called, from its
-middle station, Marenga Mk’hali: it is invariably preferred when water
-is scarce. The southern road is termed Nyá Ngáhá, a continuation of the
-Kiringwana route, previously alluded to: it has provisions, but the
-people cause much trouble.
-
-The superiority of climate, and probably the absence of that luxuriant
-vegetation which distinguishes the eastern region, have proved
-favourable to the physical development of the races living in and about
-Ugogo. The Wagogo, and their northern neighbours the Wahumba, are at
-once distinguishable from the wretched population of the alluvial
-valleys, and of the mountains of Usagara; though living in lower
-altitudes, they are a fairer race--and therefore show better blood--than
-the Wanyamwezi. These two tribes, whose distinctness is established by
-difference of dialect, will be described in order.
-
-The Wagogo extend from the landward base of Usagara in direct distance
-to Mdáburu a five days’ march: on the north they are bounded by the
-Watáturu, on the south by the Wabena tribes; the breadth of their
-country is computed at about eight stages. In the north, however, they
-are mingled with the Wahumba, in the south-east with the Wahehe, and in
-the south with the Warori.
-
-The Wagogo display the variety of complexion usually seen amongst
-slave-purchasing races: many of them are fair as Abyssinians; some are
-black as negroes. In the eastern and northern settlements they are a
-fine, stout, and light-complexioned race. Their main peculiarity is the
-smallness of the cranium compared with the broad circumference of the
-face at and below the zygomata: seen from behind the appearance is that
-of a small half-bowl fitted upon one of considerably larger bias; and
-this, with the widely-extended ears, gives a remarkable expression to
-the face. Nowhere in Eastern Africa is the lobe so distended. Pieces of
-cane an inch or two in length, and nearly double the girth of a man’s
-finger, are so disposed that they appear like handles to the owner’s
-head. The distinctive mark of the tribe is the absence of the two lower
-incisors; but they are more generally recognised by the unnatural
-enlargement of their ears--in Eastern Africa the “aures perforatæ” are
-the signs, not of slavery, but of freedom. There is no regular tattoo,
-though some of the women have two parallel lines running from below the
-bosom down the abdomen, and the men often extract only a single lower
-incisor. The hair is sometimes shaved clean, at others grown in
-mop-shape--more generally it is dressed in a mass of tresses, as amongst
-the Egyptians, and the skin, as well as the large bunch of corkscrews,
-freely stained with ochre and micaceous earths, drips with ghee, the
-pride of rank and beauty. The Wagogo are not an uncomely race: some of
-the younger women might even lay claim to prettiness. The upper part of
-the face is often fine, but the lips are ever thick, and the mouth
-coarse; similarly the body is well formed to the haunches, but the lean
-calf is placed peculiarly high up the leg. The expression of the
-countenance, even in the women, is wild and angry; and the round eyes
-are often reddened and bleared by drink. The voice is strong, strident,
-and commanding.
-
-Their superiority of clothing gives the Wagogo, when compared with the
-Wasagara or the Wanyamwezi, an aspect of civilisation; a skin garment is
-here as rare as a cotton farther west. Even the children are generally
-clad. The attire of the men is usually some Arab check or dyed Indian
-cotton: many also wear sandals of single hide. Married women are clothed
-in “cloths with names,” when wealthy, and in domestics when poor. The
-dress of the maidens under puberty is the languti of Hindostan, a kind
-of T-bandage, with the front ends depending to the knees; it is
-supported by a single or double string of the large blue glass-beads
-called Sungomaji. A piece of coarse cotton cloth two yards long, and a
-few inches broad, is fastened to the girdle behind, and passing under
-the fork, is drawn tightly through the waistbelt in front; from the zone
-the lappet hangs mid-down to the shins, and when the wearer is in rapid
-motion it has a most peculiar appearance. The ornaments of both sexes
-are kitindi, and bracelets and anklets of thick iron and brass-wires,
-necklaces of brass chains, disks and armlets of fine ivory, the
-principal source of their wealth, and bands of hide-strip with long
-hair, bound round the wrists, above the elbows, and below the knees:
-they value only the highest priced beads, coral and pink porcelains. As
-usual the males appear armed. Some import from Unyamwezi and the
-westward regions the long double-edged knife called sime, a “serviceable
-dudgeon” used in combat or in peaceful avocations, like the
-snick-an-snee of the ancient Dutch. Shields are unknown. The bow is
-long: the handle and the horns are often adorned with plates of tin and
-zinc, and the string is whipped round the extremities for strength. The
-spear resembles that used by the Wanyamwezi in the elephant-hunt: it is
-about four feet long, and the head is connected with a stout wooden
-handle by an iron neck measuring half the length of the weapon. In
-eastern Ugogo, where the Masai are near, the Wagogo have adopted their
-huge shovel-headed spears and daggers, like those of the Somal. It is
-the fashion for men to appear in public with the peculiar bill-hook used
-in Usagara; and in the fields the women work with the large hoe of
-Unyamwezi.
-
-The villages of the Wagogo are square Tembe, low and mean-looking for
-want of timber. The outer walls are thin poles, planted in the ground
-and puddled with mud. The huts, partitioned off like ships’ bunks, are
-exceedingly dirty, being shared by the domestic animals, dogs, and
-goats. They are scantily furnished with a small stool, a cot of cow’s
-hide stretched to a small framework, a mortar for grain, and sundry
-gourds and bark corn-bins. About sunset all the population retires, and
-the doors are carefully barricaded for fear of the plundering Wahumba.
-At night it is dangerous to approach the villages.
-
-The language of Ugogo is harsher than the dialects spoken by their
-eastern and western neighbours. In the eastern parts the people
-understand the Masai tongue. Many can converse fluently in the
-Kisawahili, or coast-tongue. The people, however, despise all strangers
-except the Warori and the Wahumba, and distinguish the Wanyamwezi by the
-name of Wakonongo, which they also apply to travellers in general.
-Within the memory of man one Kafuke, of Unyamwezi, a great merchant, and
-a Mtongi or caravan leader, when traversing Ugogo with some thousands of
-followers, became involved in a quarrel about paying for water. After
-fifteen days of skirmishing, the leader was slain and the party was
-dispersed. The effect on both tribes has lasted to the present day.
-After the death of Kafuke no rain fell for some years--a phenomenon
-attributed by the Wagogo to his powers of magic; and the land was almost
-depopulated. The Wanyamwezi, on the other hand, have never from that
-time crossed the country without fear and trembling. In the many wars
-between the two tribes the Wagogo have generally proved themselves the
-better men. This superiority has induced a brawling and bullying manner.
-They call themselves Wáná Wádege, or sons of birds--that is to say,
-semper parati. The Wanyamwezi studiously avoid offending them; and the
-porters will obey the command of a boy rather than risk an encounter.
-“He is a Mgogo,” said before the Bobadil’s face, makes him feel himself
-forty times a man; yet he will fly in terror before one of the Warori or
-the Wahumba.
-
-The strength of the Wagogo lies in their comparative numbers. As the
-people seldom travel to the coast, their scattered villages are full of
-fighting men. Moreover, Uchawi or black magic here numbers few
-believers, consequently those drones of the social hive, the Waganga, or
-medicine-men, are not numerous. The Wagogo seldom sell their children
-and relations, yet there is no order against the practice. They barter
-for slaves their salt and ivory, the principal produce of the country.
-No caravan ever passes through the country without investing capital in
-the salt-bitter substance which is gathered in flakes efflorescing; from
-the dried mud upon the surface of the Mbuga, or swampy hollows; the best
-and the cheapest is found in the district of Kanyenye. It is washed to
-clear it of dirt, boiled till it crystallises, spread upon clean and
-smoothed ground, and moulded with the hands into rude cones about half a
-foot in length, which are bought at the rate of 7-10 for a Shukkah, and
-are sold at a high premium after a few days’ march. Ugogo supplies
-western Usagara and the eastern regions of Unyamwezi with this article.
-It is, however, far inferior to the produce of the Rusugi pits, in
-Uvinza, which, on account of its “sweetness,” finds its way throughout
-the centre of Africa. Elephants are numerous in the country: every
-forest is filled with deep traps, and during droughthy seasons many are
-found dead in the jungle. The country is divided into districts; the
-tusks become the property of the Sultan within whose boundaries the
-animal falls, and the meat is divided amongst his subjects. Ivory is
-given in barter for slaves: this practice assures to caravans a hold
-upon the people, who, having an active commerce with the coast, cannot
-afford to be shut out from it. The Wagogo are so greedy of serviles that
-every gang leaves among them some of its live stock--the principal want
-of the listless and indolent cultivator. The wild captives bought in the
-interior, wayworn and fond of change, are persuaded by a word to desert;
-they take the first opportunity of slipping away from their masters,
-generally stealing a weapon and a little cloth or rations for immediate
-use. Their new masters send them off the road lest they should be
-recognised and claimed: after a time a large hoe is placed in their
-hands, and the fools feel, when too late, that they have exchanged an
-easy for a hard life. The Wagogo sell their fellow tribe-men only when
-convicted of magic; though sometimes parents, when in distress, part
-with their children. The same is the case amongst their northern
-neighbours, the Wamasai, the Wahumba, and the Wakwafi, who, however, are
-rarely in the market, and who, when there, though remarkable for
-strength and intelligence, are little prized, in consequence of their
-obstinate and untameable characters;--many of them would rather die
-under the stick than level themselves with women by using a hoe.
-
-The Wagogo are celebrated as thieves who will, like the Wahehe, rob even
-during the day. They are importunate beggars, who specify their long
-list of wants without stint or shame; their principal demand is tobacco,
-which does not grow in the land; and they resemble the Somal, who never
-sight a stranger without stretching out the hand for “Bori.” The men are
-idle and debauched, spending their days in unbroken crapulence and
-drunkenness, whilst the girls and women hoe the fields, and the boys
-tend the flocks and herds. They mix honey with their pombe, or beer, and
-each man provides entertainment for his neighbours in turn. After midday
-it would be difficult throughout the country to find a chief without the
-thick voice, fiery eyes, and moidered manners, which prove that he is
-either drinking or drunk.
-
-The Arabs declaim against the Wagogo as a “curst,” ill-conditioned and
-boisterous, a violent and extortionate race. They have certainly no idea
-of manners: they flock into a stranger’s tent, squat before him, staring
-till their curiosity is satisfied, and unmercifully quizzing his
-peculiarities. Upon the road a mob of both sexes will press and follow a
-caravan for miles. The women, carrying their babes in leopard-skins
-bound behind the back, and with unveiled bosoms, stand or run, fiercely
-shouting with the excitement of delight, and the girls laugh and deride
-the stranger as impudently as boys would in more modest lands. Yet, as
-has been said, this curiosity argues to a certain extent improvability;
-the most degraded tribes are too apathetic to be roused by strange
-sights. Moreover, the Wagogo are not deficient in rude hospitality. A
-stranger is always greeted with the “Yambo” salutation. He is not driven
-from their doors, as amongst the Wazaramo and Wasagara; and he is
-readily taken into brotherhood. The host places the stool for his
-guests, seating himself on the ground: he prepares a meal of milk and
-porridge, and on parting presents, if he can afford it, a goat or a cow.
-The African “Fundi” or “Fattori” of caravans are rarely sober in Ugogo.
-The women are well disposed towards strangers of fair complexion,
-apparently with the permission of their husbands. According to the
-Arabs, the husband of the daughter is also _de jure_ the lover of her
-mother.
-
-The Sultan amongst the Wagogo is called Mtemi, a high title. He
-exercises great authority, and is held in such esteem by his people,
-that a stranger daring to possess the same name would be liable to
-chastisement. The ministers, who are generally brothers or
-blood-relations, are known as Wázágíra (in the singular Mzágírá), and
-the councillors, who are the elders and the honourables of the tribe,
-take the Kinyamwezi title “Wányápárá.”
-
-The necessaries of life are dear in Ugogo. The people will rarely barter
-their sheep, goats, and cows for plain white or blue cottons, and even
-in exchange for milk they demand coral, pink, or blue glass beads. A
-moderate sized caravan will expend from six to ten shukkah per diem. The
-Wanyamwezi travelling-parties live by their old iron hoes, for which
-grain is returned by the people, who hold the metal in request.
-
-The Wahumba, by some called Wahumpa, is one of the terrible pastoral
-nations “beyond the rivers of Æthiopia.” To judge from their dialect
-they are, like the Wakwafi, a tribe or a subtribe of the great Masai
-race, who speak a language partly South-African and partly
-Semitico-African, like that of the Somal. The habitat of the Wahumba
-extends from the north of Usagara to the eastern shores of the Nyanza or
-Ukerewe Lake; it has been remarked that a branch of the Mukondokwa River
-rises in their mountains. The blue highlands occupied by this pastoral
-race, clearly visible, on the right hand, to the traveller passing from
-Ugogo westwards, show where the ancient route from Pangani-town used to
-fall into the main trunk-road of Unyamwezi. Having but little ivory,
-they are seldom visited by travellers: their country, however, was
-explored some years ago by an Arab merchant, Hamid bin Salim, for the
-purpose of buying asses. He set out from Tura, in eastern Unyamwezi,
-and, traversing the country of the wild Watatúru, arrived on the eighth
-day at the frontier district I´ramba, where there is a river which
-separates the tribes. He was received with civility; but none have since
-followed his example.
-
-The Wahumba are a fair and comely race, with the appearance of
-mountaineers, long-legged, and lightly made. They have repeatedly
-ravaged the lands of Usagara and Ugogo: in the latter country, near
-Usek’he, there are several settlements of this people, who have
-exchanged the hide-tent for the hut, and the skin for the cotton-cloth.
-They stain their garments with ochreish earth, and their women are
-distinguished by wearing Kitindi of full and half-size above and below
-the elbows. The ear lobes are pierced and distended by both sexes, as
-amongst the Wagogo. In their own land they are purely pastoral; they
-grow no grain, despise vegetable food, and subsist entirely upon meat or
-milk according to the season. Their habitations are hemispheres of
-boughs lashed together and roofed with a cow’s hide; it is the primitive
-dwelling-place, and the legs of the occupant protrude beyond the
-shelter. Their arms, which are ever hung up close at hand, are
-broad-headed spears of soft iron, long “Sine,” or double-edged daggers,
-with ribbed wooden handles fastened to the blade by a strip of cow’s
-tail shrunk on, and “Rungu,” or wooden knob-kerries, with double bulges
-that weight the weapon as it whirls through the air. They ignore and
-apparently despise the bow and arrows, but in battle they carry the
-Pavoise, or large hide-shield, affected by the Kafirs of the Cape. The
-Arabs, when in force, do not fear their attacks.
-
-The Wahumba, like their congeners the Wakwafi, bandage the infant’s leg
-from ankle to knee, and the ligature is not removed till the child can
-stand upright. Its object is to prevent the development of the calf,
-which, according to their physiology, diminishes the speed and endurance
-of the runner. The specimens of Wahumba seen in different parts of Ugogo
-showed the soleus and gastrocnemeius muscles remarkably shrunken, and
-the projection of the leg rising close below the knee.
-
-[Illustration: VIEW IN UNYAMWEZI.]
-
-[Illustration: Ladies’ Smoking Party.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. X.
-
-WE ENTER UNYAMWEZI, THE FAR-FAMED LAND OF THE MOON.
-
-
-The district of Tura, though now held, like Jiwe la Mkoa and Mgongo
-T’hembo, by Wakimbu, is considered the eastern frontier of Unyamwezi
-proper, which claims superiority over the minor neighbouring tribes.
-Some, however, extend the “land of the moon” eastward as far as Jiwe la
-Mkoa, and the porters when entering the “Fiery Field,” declare that they
-are setting foot upon their own ground. The word “Tura,” pronounced by
-the Wanyamwezi “Tula” or “Itula,” means “put down!” (scil. your pack):
-as the traveller, whether from the east or from the west, will
-inevitably be delayed for some days at this border settlement. Tula is
-situated in S. lat. 5° 2′ and E. long. 33° 57′, and the country rises
-4,000 feet above sea level. After the gloomy and monotonous brown
-jungles and thorn forests of Mgunda Mk’hali, whose sinuous line of thick
-jungle still girds the northern horizon, the fair champaign, bounded on
-either hand by low rolling and rounded hills of primary formation, with
-a succession of villages and many a field of holcus and sesamum, maize,
-millet, and other cereals, of manioc and gourds, water melons and
-various pulses, delights the sight, and appears to the African traveller
-a Land of Promise.
-
-The pertinacious Kidogo pressed me to advance, declaring the Wakimbu of
-Tura to be a dangerous race: they appeared however a timid and ignoble
-people, dripping with castor and sesamum oil, and scantily attired in
-shreds of unclean cotton or greasy goat-skins. At Tura the last of the
-thirty asses bought at Zanzibar paid the debt of nature, leaving us,
-besides the one belonging to the Jemadar, but three African animals
-purchased on the road. A few extra porters were therefore engaged. Our
-people, after the discomforts of the bivouac, found the unsavoury
-village a perfect paradise; they began somewhat prematurely to beg for
-Bakhshish, and Muinyi Wazira requested dismissal on the plea that a
-slave sent by him on a trading-expedition into the interior had, by
-dying, endangered the safety of the venture. On the morning of the 30th
-October Kidogo led us over the plain through cultivation and villages to
-another large settlement on the western outskirt of the Tura district.
-As I disappointed him in his hopes of a Tirikeza, he passed the night in
-another Tembe, which was occupied by the caravans of Coast-Arabs and
-their slave girls, to one of whom, said Scan. Mag., he had lost his
-heart, and he punished me by halting through the next day. As we neared
-the end of the journey the sons of Ramji became more restive under their
-light loads; their dignity was hurt by shouldering a pack, and day after
-day, till I felt weary of life, they left their burdens upon the ground.
-However, on the 1st November, they so far recovered temper that the
-caravan was able to cross the thin jungle, based upon a glaring white
-soil, which divides the Tura from the Rubuga District. After a march of
-6 hrs. and 30′, we halted on the banks of the Kwale or “Partridge”
-Nullah, where, though late in the season, we found several long pools of
-water. The porters collected edible bivalves and caught a quantity of
-mud-fish by the “rough and ready” African process, a waist-cloth tied to
-a pair of sticks, and used by two men as a drag-net. At Rubuga, which we
-reached in 5 hrs. and 45′, marching over a plain of black earth, thinly
-garnished with grass and thorn-trees, and then through clearings
-overgrown with stubble, I was visited by an Arab merchant, Abdullah bin
-Jumah, who, with a flying-caravan, had left Konduchi on the coast 2
-months and 20 days after our departure. According to him his caravan had
-lately marched thirty miles in the twenty-four hours: it was the
-greatest distance accomplished in these regions; but the Arabs are fond
-of exaggeration, the party was small and composed of lightly laden men,
-and moreover it required two days’ rest after so unusual an exertion.
-This merchant unwittingly explained a something which had puzzled me;
-whenever an advance beyond Unyanyembe had been made the theme of
-conversation, Said bin Salim’s countenance fell, and he dropped dark
-hints touching patience and the power of Allah to make things easy.
-Abdullah rendered the expression intelligible by asking me if I
-considered the caravan strong enough to dare the dangers of the
-road--which he grossly exaggerated--between Unyamwezi-Land and Ujiji. I
-replied that I did, and that even if I did not, such bugbears should not
-cause delay; Abdullah smiled, but was too polite to tell me that he did
-not believe me.
-
-A “doux marcher” of 2 hrs. 40′ on the 3rd November, led us to the
-western limit of the Rubuga District. During the usual morning-halt
-under a clump of shady milk-bush, I was addressed by Maura or Maula, the
-Sultan of a large neighbouring village of Wanyamwezi: being a civilised
-man and a coast-traveller, he could not allow the caravan of the
-“Wazungu” to pass his quarters without presenting to him a bullock, and
-extracting from him a little cloth. Like most chiefs in the “Land of the
-Moon,” he was a large-limbed, gaunt, angular, tall old man, with a black
-oily skin, seamed with wrinkles; and long wiry pigtails thickened with
-grease, melted butter, and castor-oil, depending from the sides of his
-purbald head. His dress--an old Barsati round the loins, and a grimy
-Subai loosely thrown over the shoulders--was redolent of boiled
-frankincense; his ankles were concealed by a foot depth of brass and
-copper “Sambo,” thin wires twisted round a little bundle of elephant’s,
-buffalo’s, or zebra’s hair; and he wore single-soled sandals, decorated
-with four disks of white shell, about the size of a crown-piece, bound
-to the thongs that passed between the toes and girt the heel. He
-recognised the Baloch, greeted all kindly, led the way to his village,
-ordered lodgings to be cleared and cleaned, caused the cartels or
-bedsteads,--the first seen by us for many months,--to be vacated, and
-left us to look for a bullock. At the village door I had remarked a rude
-attempt at fashioning a block of wood into what was palpably intended
-for a form human and feminine; the Moslems of course pronounced it to be
-an idol, but the people declared that they paid no respect to it. They
-said the same concerning the crosses and the serpent-like ornaments of
-white ashes--in this land lime is unknown--with which the brown walls of
-their houses were decorated.
-
-We made bonne chère at Rubuga, which is celebrated for its milk and
-meat, ghee and honey. On the wayside were numerous hives, the Mazinga or
-“cannons,” before described; here however they were raised out of the
-reach of the ants, white and black, upon a pair of short forked
-supports, instead of being suspended from the branches of a tall tree.
-My companion brought from a neighbouring swamp a fine Egyptian, or ruddy
-goose, and a brace of crane-like water-fowl: these the Wanyamwezi
-porters, expecting beef, disdained, because rejected by the Baloch, yet
-at Inenge they had picked the carcase of a way-spent ass. Presently we
-were presented by the Sultan with one of the fattest of his fine bulls;
-it was indeed
-
- “A grazier’s without and a butcher’s within;”
-
-withal, so violent and unmanageable that no man could approach,
-much less secure it: it rushed about the village like a wild buffalo,
-scattering the people, who all fled except the Sultan, till it was
-stopped dead in a most determined charge, with a couple of
-rifle-bullets, by my companion. In return, Maula received a crimson
-cloth and two domestics, after which he begged for everything, including
-percussion caps, for which he had no gun. He appeared most anxious to
-detain the caravan, and in the evening his carefully concealed reasons
-leaked out--he wanted me to cure his son of fever, and to “put the
-colophon” upon a neighbouring hostile chief. At 8 P.M., I was aroused by
-my gun-carrier, Mabruki, who handed to me my Ferrara, and by the Baloch
-Riza, who reported that the palisade was surrounded by a host of raging
-blacks. I went out into the village, where the guard was running about
-in a state of excitement which robbed them of their wits, and I saw a
-long dark line of men sitting silently and peaceably, though armed for
-fight, outside the strong stockade. Having caused our cloth to be safely
-housed, and given orders to be awakened if work began, I returned to the
-hut, determined to take leave of Sultan Maura and his quarrels on the
-next day.
-
-The porters were all gorged with beef, and three were “stale-drunk” with
-the consequences of pombe; yet so anxious were they rendered by the
-gathering clouds, and the spitting showers to reach their homes before
-the setting in of the “sowing rains,” that my task was now rather to
-restrain than to stimulate their ardour: the moon was resplendent, and
-had I wished it, they would have set out at midnight. On the 4th
-November we passed through another jungle-patch, to a village in the
-fertile slopes of Ukona, where the Cannabis and the Datura, with its
-large fetid flowers, disputed the ground with brinjalls and
-castor-plants, holcus and panicum: tobacco grew luxuriantly, and
-cotton-plots, carefully hedged round against the cattle, afforded
-material for the loom, which now appeared in every village.
-
-On the next day, we passed out of the fertile slopes of Ukona, and
-traversed an open wavy country, streaked with a thin forest of Mimosa,
-the Mtogwe or wood-apple, and a large quadrangular cactus. Beyond this
-point, a tract of swampy low level led to the third district of Eastern
-Unyamwezi, called Kigwa, or Mkigwa. We found quarters in a Tembe which
-was half-burned and partly pulled down, to be re-erected.
-
-The 6th November saw us betimes in the ill-omened Forest, that divided
-us from the Unyanyembe district; it is a thin growth of gum-trees,
-mimosas, and bauhinias, with tiers, earth-waves, and long rolling lines
-of tawny-yellow hill--mantled with umbrella-shaped trees, and sometimes
-capped with blocks and boulders--extending to a considerable distance on
-both sides. The Sultan of Kigwa, one Manwa, has taken an active part in
-the many robberies and murders which have rendered this forest a place
-of terror, and the Arabs have hitherto confined themselves to threats,
-though a single merchant complains that his slave-caravans have at
-different times lost fifty loads of cloth. Manwa is aided and counselled
-by Mansur, a Coast-Arab, who, horse-whipped out of the society of his
-countrymen at Kazeh, for drunken and disorderly conduct, has become a
-notorious traitor. Here also Msimbira, a Sultan of the Wasukuma, or
-Northern Wanyamwezi, who has an old and burning hatred against the
-Arabs, sends his plundering parties. On the 6th November the Baloch set
-out at 1 A.M., we followed at 2.15 A.M.: they had been prevented from
-obtaining beads on false pretences, consequently they showed temper, and
-determined to deny their escort. Their beards were now in my hand, they
-could neither desert nor refuse to proceed, but they desired to do me a
-harm, and they did it. During the transit of the forest, an old porter
-having imprudently lagged behind, was clubbed and cruelly bruised by
-three black Mohawks, who relieved him of his load, a leathern
-portmanteau, containing clothes, umbrellas, books, ink, journals, and
-botanical collections. I afterwards heard that the highwaymen had
-divided their spoils in the forest, and that separating into two
-parties, they had taken the route homewards. On the way, however, they
-were seized by a plundering expedition sent by Kitambi, the Sultan of
-Uyuwwi, a district half a day’s march N.E. from Kazeh. The delict was
-flagrant; the head of one robber at once decorated the main entrance of
-Kitambi’s village, but the other two escaped Jeddart-justice with their
-share of the plunder to his mortal enemy Msimbira. A present of a
-scarlet waistcoat and four domestics recovered our clothes from Kitambi;
-but Msimbira, threatening all the penalties of sorcery, abused,
-plundered, and expelled Masud ibn Musallam el Wardi, an old Arab
-merchant, sent to him from Unyanyembe for the purpose of recovering the
-books, journals, and collections. The perpetual risk of loss discourages
-the traveller in these lands; he never knows at what moment papers which
-have cost him months of toil may be scattered to the winds. As regards
-collections, future explorers are advised to abandon the hope of making
-them on the march upwards, reserving their labour for the more leisurely
-return. The precautions with which I prefaced our down-march may not be
-useless as suggestions. My field and sketch-books were entrusted to an
-Arab merchant, who preceded me to Zanzibar; they ran no other danger
-except from the carelesness of the Consul who, unfortunately for me,
-succeeded Lieut.-Col. Hamerton. My companion’s maps, papers, and
-instruments, were committed to a heavy “petarah,” a deal-box with
-pent-lid and hide-bound as a defence against rain, to be carried
-“Mziga-ziga,” as the phrase is--suspended on a pole between the two
-porters least likely to desert. I loaded one of the sons of Ramji with
-an enamelled leathern bag, converted from a dressing-case into a
-protection for writing and sketching materials; and a shooting-bag, hung
-during the march over the shoulders of Nasiri, a Coast-Arab youth
-engaged as ass-leader at Unyanyembe, contained my vocabularies,
-ephemeris, and drawing-books.
-
-Considering the conduct of the escort, I congratulated myself upon
-having passed through the Kigwa forest without other accident. Two or
-three days after our arrival at Kazeh several loads of beads were
-plundered from a caravan belonging to Abdullah bin Salih. Shortly
-afterwards Msimbira sent a large foraging party with a view to cutting
-off the road: they allowed themselves to be surprised during sleep by
-Mpagamo’s men, who slew twenty-five of their number and dispersed the
-rest. This accident, however, did not cure their propensity for pillage;
-on our return-march, when halted at a village west of the Kigwa forest,
-a body of slaves passed us in hot haste and sore tribulation: they had
-that day been relieved by bandits of all their packs.
-
-Passing from the Kigwa forest and entering the rice-lands of the
-Unyanyembe district we found quarters--a vile cow-house--in a large
-dirty village called Hanga. The aspect of the land became prepossessing:
-the route lay along a valley bisected by a little rivulet of sweet
-water, whose course was marked by a vivid leek-green line; the slopes
-were bright with golden stubble upon a surface of well-hoed field, while
-to the north and south ran low and broken cones of granite blocks and
-slabs, here naked, there clothed from base to brow with dwarf
-parasol-shaped trees, and cactaceæ of gigantic size.
-
-From this foul village I was urged by Kidogo to conclude by a tirikeza
-the last stage that separated the caravan from Kazeh in Unyanyembe, the
-place which he and all around him had apparently fixed as the final
-bourne of the exploration. But the firmament seemed on fire, the porters
-were fagged, and we felt feverish, briefly, an afternoon’s march was not
-judged advisable. To temper, however, the wind of refusal, I served out
-to each of the sons of Ramji five rounds of powder for blowing away on
-entering the Arab head-quarters. All of course had that private store
-which the Arabs call “El Akibah”--the ending; it is generally stolen
-from the master and concealed for emergencies with cunning care. They
-had declared their horns to be empty, and said Kidogo, “Every pedlar
-fires guns here--shall a great man creep into his Tembe without a soul
-knowing it?”
-
-On the 7th November, 1857,--the 134th day from the date of our leaving
-the coast--after marching at least 600 miles, we prepared to enter
-Kazeh, the principal Bandari of Eastern Unyamwezi, and the capital
-village of the Omani merchants. We left Hanga at dawn. The Baloch were
-clothed in that one fine suit without which the Eastern man rarely
-travels: after a few displays the dress will be repacked, and finally
-disposed of in barter for slaves. About 8 A.M., we halted for stragglers
-at a little village, and when the line of porters becoming compact began
-to wriggle, snake-like, its long length over the plain, with floating
-flags, booming horns, muskets ringing like saluting mortars, and an
-uproar of voice which nearly drowned the other noises, we made a truly
-splendid and majestic first appearance. The road was lined with people
-who attempted to vie with us in volume and variety of sound: all had
-donned their best attire, and with such luxury my eyes had been long
-unfamiliar. Advancing I saw several Arabs standing by the wayside, they
-gave the Moslem salutation and courteously accompanied me for some
-distance. Amongst them were the principal merchants, Snay bin Amir, Said
-bin Majid, a young and handsome Omani of noble tribe, Muhinna bin
-Sulayman, who, despite elephantiasis, marched every year into Central
-Africa, and Said bin Ali el Hinawi, whose short, spare, but well-knit
-frame, pale face, small features, snowy beard, and bald head, surmounted
-by a red fez, made him the type of an Arab old man.
-
-I had directed Said bin Salim to march the caravan to the Tembe kindly
-placed at my disposal by Isá bin Hijji, and the Arabs met at Inenge. The
-Kirangozi and the porters, however, led us on by mistake (?) to the
-house of “Musa Mzuri”--handsome Moses--an Indian merchant settled at
-Unyanyembe for whom I bore an introductory letter, graciously given by
-H. H. the Sayyid Majid of Zanzibar. As Musa was then absent on a
-trading-journey to Karagwah, his agent, Snay bin Amir, a Harisi Arab,
-came forward to perform the guest-rites, and led me to the vacant house
-of Abayd bin Sulayman who had lately returned to Zanzibar.
-
-After allowing me, as is the custom, a day to rest and to dismiss the
-porters, who at once separated to their homes, all the Arab merchants,
-then about a dozen, made the first ceremonious call, and to them was
-officially submitted the circular addressed by the Prince of Zanzibar to
-his subjects resident in the African interior. Contrary to the
-predictions of others, nothing could be more encouraging than the
-reception experienced from the Omani Arabs; striking, indeed, was the
-contrast between the open-handed hospitality and the hearty good-will of
-this truly noble race, and the niggardness of the savage and selfish
-African--it was heart of flesh after heart of stone. A goat and a load
-of the fine white rice grown in the country were the normal prelude to a
-visit and to offers of service which proved something more than a mere
-_vox et præterea nihil_. Whatever I alluded to, onions, plantains,
-limes, vegetables, tamarind-cakes, coffee from Karagwah, and similar
-articles, only to be found amongst the Arabs, were sent at once, and the
-very name of payment would have been an insult. Snay bin Amir,
-determining to surpass all others in generosity, sent two goats to us
-and two bullocks to the Baloch and the sons of Ramji: sixteen years
-before, he had begun life a confectioner at Maskat, and now he had risen
-to be one of the wealthiest ivory and slave-dealers in Eastern Africa.
-As his health forbade him to travel he had become a general agent at
-Kazeh, where he had built a village containing his store-houses and his
-depôts of cloth and beads, slaves and ivory. I have to acknowledge many
-an obligation to him. Having received a “wakalat-namah,” or “power of
-attorney” he enlisted porters for the caravan to Ujiji. He warehoused my
-goods, he disposed of my extra stores, and, finally, he superintended my
-preparations for the down-march. During two long halts at Kazeh he never
-failed, except through sickness, to pass the evening with me, and from
-his instructive and varied conversation was derived not a little of the
-information contained in the following pages. He had travelled three
-times between Unyamwezi and the coast, besides navigating the great Lake
-Tanganyika and visiting the northern kingdoms of Karagwah and Uganda. He
-first entered the country about fifteen years ago, when the line of
-traffic ended at Usanga and Usenga, and he was as familiar with the
-languages, the religion, the manners, and the ethnology of the African,
-as with those of his natal Oman. He was a middle-aged man with somewhat
-of the Quixotic appearance, high-featured, sharp and sunken-eyed, almost
-beardless, light-coloured, tall, gaunt, and large-limbed. He had read
-much, and, like an oriental, for improvement, not only for amusement: he
-had a wonderful memory, fine perceptions and passing power of language.
-Finally, he was the stuff of which friends are made; brave as all his
-race, prudent withal, ready to perish for the “Pundonor,” and,--such is
-not often the case in the East,--he was as honest as he was honourable.
-
-Before proceeding with the thread of my narrative, the reader is
-requested to bear with the following few lines upon the subject of
-Unyanyembe.
-
-Unyanyembe, the central and principal province of Unyamwezi, is, like
-Zungomero in Khutu, the great Bandari or meeting-place of merchants, and
-the point of departure for caravans which thence radiate into the
-interior of Central Intertropical Africa. Here the Arab merchant from
-Zanzibar meets his compatriot returning from the Tanganyika Lake and
-from Uruwwa. Northwards well-travelled lines diverge to the Nyanza Lake,
-and the powerful kingdoms of Karagwah, Uganda, and Unyoro; from the
-south Urori and Ubena, Usanga and Usenga, send their ivory and slaves;
-and from the south-west the Rukwa Water, K’hokoro, Ufipa, and Marungu
-must barter their valuables for cottons, wires, and beads. The central
-position and the comparative safety of Unyanyembe have made it the
-head-quarters of the Omani or pure Arabs, who, in many cases, settle
-here for years, remaining in charge of their depôts, whilst their
-factors and slaves travel about the country and collect the items of
-traffic. At Unyanyembe the merchants expect some delay. The porters,
-whether hired upon the coast or at the Tanganyika Lake, here disperse,
-and a fresh gang must be collected--no easy task when the sowing season
-draws nigh.
-
-Unyanyembe, which rises about 3480 feet above sea-level, and lies 356
-miles in rectilinear distance from the eastern coast of Africa,
-resembles in its physical features the lands about Tura. The plain or
-basin of Ihárá, or Kwihárá, a word synonymous with the “Bondei” or
-low-land of the coast, is bounded on the north and south by low,
-rolling hills, which converge towards the west, where, with the
-characteristically irregular lay of primitive formations, they are
-crossed almost at right angles by the Mfuto chain. The position has been
-imprudently chosen by the Arabs; the land suffers from alternate drought
-and floods, which render the climate markedly malarious. The soil is
-aluminous in the low levels--a fertile plain of brown earth, with a
-subsoil of sand and sandstone, from eight to twelve feet below the
-surface; the water is often impregnated with iron, and the higher
-grounds are uninhabited tracts covered with bulky granite-boulders,
-bushy trees, and thorny shrubs.
-
-Contrary to what might be expected this “Bandari-district” contains
-villages and hamlets, but nothing that can properly be termed a town.
-The Mtemi or Sultan Fundikira, the most powerful of the Wanyamwezi
-chiefs, inhabits a Tembe, or square settlement, called “Ititenya,” on
-the western slope of the southern hills. A little colony of Arab
-merchants has four large houses at a neighbouring place, “Mawiti.” In
-the centre of the plain lies “Kazeh,” another scattered collection of
-six large hollow oblongs, with central courts, garden-plots,
-store-rooms, and outhouses for the slaves. Around these nuclei cluster
-native villages--masses of Wanyamwezi hovels, which bear the names of
-their founders.
-
-This part of Unyanyembe was first colonised about 1852, when the Arabs
-who had been settled nearly ten years at Kigandu of P’huge, a district
-of Usukuma, one long day’s march north of Kazeh, were induced by
-Mpagamo, to aid them against Msimbira, a rival chief, who defeated and
-drove them from their former seats. The details of this event were
-supplied by an actor in the scenes; they well illustrate the futility of
-the people. The Arabs, after five or six days of skirmishing, were upon
-the point of carrying the boma or palisade of Msimbira, their enemy,
-when suddenly at night their slaves, tired of eating beef and raw
-ground-nuts, secretly deserted to a man. The masters awaking in the
-morning found themselves alone, and made up their minds for
-annihilation. Fortunately for them, the enemy, suspecting an ambuscade,
-remained behind their walls, and allowed the merchants to retire without
-an attempt to cut them off. Their employer, Mpagamo, then professed
-himself unable to defend them; when, deeming themselves insecure, they
-abandoned his territory. Snay bin Amir and Musa Mzuri, the Indian,
-settled at Kazeh, then a desert, built houses, sunk wells, and converted
-it into a populous place.
-
-It is difficult to average the present number of Arab merchants at
-Unyanyembe who, like the British in India, visit but do not colonise;
-they rarely, however, exceed twenty-five in number; and during the
-travelling season, or when a campaign is necessary, they are sometimes
-reduced to three or four; they are too strong to yield without fighting,
-and are not strong enough to fight with success. Whenever the people
-have mustered courage to try a fall with the strangers, they have been
-encouraged to try again. Hitherto the merchants have been on friendly
-terms with Fundikira, the chief. Their position, however, though partly
-held by force of prestige, is precarious. They are all Arabs from Oman,
-with one solitary exception, Musa Mzuri, an Indian Kojah, who is perhaps
-in these days the earliest explorer of Unyamwezi. In July, 1858, an Arab
-merchant, Silim bin Masud, returning from Kazeh to his home at Msene,
-with a slave-porter carrying a load of cloth, was, though well armed and
-feared as a good shot, attacked at a water in a strip of jungle westward
-of Mfuto, and speared in the back by five men, who were afterwards
-proved to be subjects of the Sultan Kasanyare, a Mvinza. The Arabs
-organised a small expedition to revenge the murder, marched out with 200
-or 300 slave-musketeers, devoured all the grain and poultry in the
-country, and returned to their homes without striking a blow, because
-each merchant-militant wished his fellows to guarantee his goods or his
-life for the usual diyat, or blood-money, 800 dollars. This impunity of
-crime will probably lead to other outrages.
-
-The Arabs live comfortably, and even splendidly, at Unyanyembe. The
-houses, though single-storied, are large, substantial, and capable of
-defence. Their gardens are extensive and well planted; they receive
-regular supplies of merchandise, comforts, and luxuries from the coast;
-they are surrounded by troops of concubines and slaves, whom they train
-to divers crafts and callings: rich men have riding-asses from
-Zanzibar, and even the poorest keep flocks and herds. At Unyanyembe,
-as at Msene, and sometimes at Ujiji, there are itinerant fundi, or
-slave-artisans--blacksmiths, tinkers, masons, carpenters, tailors,
-potters, and rope-makers,--who come up from the coast with Arab
-caravans. These men demand exorbitant wages. A broken matchlock can be
-repaired, and even bullets cast; good cord is purchaseable; and for
-tinning a set of seventeen pots and plates five shukkah merkani are
-charged. A pair of Arab stirrups are made up for one shukkah besides the
-material, and chains for animals at about double the price. Fetters and
-padlocks, however, are usually imported by caravans. Pack-saddles are
-brought from Zanzibar: in caravans a man may sometimes be found to make
-them. There is, moreover, generally a pauper Arab who for cloth will
-make up a ridge-tent; and as most civilised Orientals can use a needle,
-professional tailors are little required. Provisions are cheap and
-plentiful; the profits are large; and the Arab, when wealthy, is
-disposed to be hospitable and convivial. Many of the more prosperous
-merchants support their brethren who have been ruined by the chances and
-accidents of trade. When a stranger appears amongst them, he receives
-the “hishmat l’il gharíb,” or the guest-welcome, in the shape of a goat
-and a load of white rice; he is provided with lodgings, and is
-introduced by the host to the rest of the society at a general banquet.
-The Arabs’ great deficiency is the want of some man to take the lead.
-About fifteen years ago Abdullah bin Salim, a merchant from Zanzibar,
-with his body of 200 armed slaves, kept the whole community in
-subjection: since his death, in 1852, the society has suffered from all
-the effects of disunion where union is most required. The Arab, however,
-is even in Africa a Pantisocrat, and his familiarity with the inferior
-races around him leads to the proverbial consequences.
-
-The houses of the Arabs are Moslem modifications of the African Tembe,
-somewhat superior in strength and finish. The deep and shady
-outside-verandah, supported by stout uprights, shelters a broad bench of
-raised earthwork, where men sit to enjoy the morning cool and the
-evening serenity, and where they pray, converse, and transact their
-various avocations. A portcullis-like door, composed of two massive
-planks, with chains thick as a ship’s cable--a precaution rendered
-necessary by the presence of wild slaves--leads into the barzah, or
-vestibule. The only furniture is a pair of clay benches extending along
-the right and left sides, with pillow-shaped terminations of the same
-material; over these, when visitors are expected, rush mats and rugs are
-spread. From this barzah a passage, built at the angle proper to baffle
-the stranger’s curiosity, leads into the interior, a hollow square or
-oblong, with the several rooms opening upon a courtyard, which, when not
-built round, is completely closed by a “liwan”--a fence of small
-tree-trunks or reeds. The apartments have neither outward doors nor
-windows: small bull’s-eyes admit the air, and act as loop-holes in case
-of need. The principal room on the master’s side of the house has a
-bench of clay, and leads into a dark closet where stores and merchandise
-are placed. There are separate lodgings for the harem, and the domestic
-slaves live in barracoons or in their own outhouses. This form of Tembe
-is perhaps the dullest habitation ever invented by man. The exterior
-view is carefully removed from sight, and the dull, dirty courtyard,
-often swamped during the rains, is ever before the tenant’s eyes; the
-darkness caused by want of windows painfully contrasts with the flood of
-sunshine pouring in through the doors, and at night no number of candles
-will light up its gloomy walls of grey or reddish mud. The breeze is
-either excluded by careless frontage, or the high and chilling winds
-pour in like torrents; the roof is never water-tight, and the walls and
-rafters harbour hosts of scorpions and spiders, wasps and cockroaches.
-The Arabs, however, will expend their time and trouble in building
-rather than trust their goods in African huts, exposed to thieves and to
-the frequent fires which result from barbarous carelessness: everywhere,
-when a long halt is in prospect, they send their slaves for wood to the
-jungle, and superintend the building of a spacious Tembe. They neglect,
-however, an important precaution, a sleeping-room raised above the mean
-level of malaria.
-
-Another drawback to the Arab’s happiness is the failure of his
-constitution: a man who escapes illness for two successive months boasts
-of the immunity; and, as in Egypt, no one enjoys robust health. The
-older residents have learned to moderate their appetites. They eat but
-twice a-day--after sunrise, and at noon--the midday meal concluded, they
-confine themselves to chewing tobacco or the dried coffee of Karagwah.
-They avoid strong meats, especially beef and game, which are considered
-heating and bilious, remaining satisfied with light dishes, omelets and
-pillaus, harísah, firni, and curded milk, and the less they eat the more
-likely they are to escape fever. Harisáh, in Kisawahili “boko-boko,” is
-the roast beef--the _plat de résistance_--of the Eastern and African
-Arab. It is a kind of pudding made with finely shredded meat, boiled
-with flour of wheat, rice, or holcus, to the consistence of a thick
-paste, and eaten with honey or sugar. Firni, an Indian word, is
-synonymous with the muhallibah of Egypt, a thin jelly of milk-and-water,
-honey, rice-flour, and spices, which takes the place of our substantial
-northern rice-pudding. The general health has been improved by the
-importation from the coast of wheat, and a fine white rice, instead of
-the red aborigen of the country, of various fruits, plantains, limes,
-and papaws; and of vegetables, brinjalls, cucumbers, and tomatos, which
-relieve the indigenous holcus and maize, manioc and sweet-potato, millet
-and phaseoli, sesamum and ground-nuts. They declare to having derived
-great benefit from the introduction of onions,--an antifebral, which
-flourishes better in Central than in Maritime Africa. The onion, so
-thriving in South Africa, rapidly degenerates upon the island of
-Zanzibar into a kind of houseleek. In Unyamwezi it is of tolerable size
-and flavour. It enters into a variety of dishes, the most nauseous being
-probably the sugared onion-omelet. In consequence of general demand,
-onions are expensive in the interior; an indigo-dyed shukkah will
-purchase little more than a pound. When the bulbs fail, the leaves
-chopped into thin circles and fried in clarified butter with salt, are
-eaten as a relish with meat. They are also inserted into marak or soups,
-to disguise the bitter and rancid taste of stale ghee. Onions may be
-sown at all seasons except during the wet monsoon, when they are liable
-to decay. The Washenzi have not yet borrowed this excellent and healthy
-vegetable from the Arabs. Garlic has also been tried in Unyanyembe, but
-with less success; moreover, it is considered too heating for daily use.
-As might be expected, however, amongst a floating population with many
-slaves, foreign fruits and vegetables are sometimes allowed to die out.
-Thus some enterprising merchant introduced into Unyanyembe the date and
-the mkungu, bidam, or almond-tree of the coast: the former, watered once
-every third day, promised to bear fruit, when, in the absence of the
-master, the Wanyamwezi cut up the young shoots into walking-sticks.
-Sugar is imported: the water-wanting cane will not thrive in arid
-Unyanyembe, and honey must be used as a succedaneum. Black pepper,
-universally considered cooling by Orientals, is much eaten with
-curry-stuffs and other highly-seasoned dishes, whereas the excellent
-chillies and bird-pepper, which here grow wild, are shunned for their
-heating properties. Butter and ghee are made by the wealthy; humbler
-houses buy the article, which is plentiful and good, from the
-Wanyamwezi. Water is the usual beverage. Some Arabs drink togwa, a sweet
-preparation of holcus; and others, debauchees, indulge in the sour and
-intoxicating pombe, or small-beer.
-
-The market at Unyanyembe varies greatly according to the quantity of the
-rains. As usual in barbarous societies, a dry season, or a few
-unexpected caravans, will raise the prices, even to trebling; and the
-difference of value in grain before and after the harvest will be double
-or half of what it is at par. The price of provisions in Unyamwezi has
-increased inordinately since the Arabs have settled in the land.
-Formerly a slave-boy could be purchased for five fundo, or fifty strings
-of beads: the same article would now fetch three hundred. A fundo of
-cheap white porcelain-beads would procure a milch cow; and a goat, or
-ten hens its equivalent, was to be bought for one khete. In plentiful
-years Unyanyembe is, however, still the cheapest country in East Africa,
-and, as usual in cheap countries, it induces the merchant to spend more
-than in the dearest. Paddy of good quality, when not in demand, sells at
-twenty kayla (120lbs.) for one shukkah of American domestics; maize, at
-twenty-five; and sorghum, here the staff of life, when in large stock,
-at sixty. A fat bullock may be bought for four domestics, a cow costs
-from six to twelve, a sheep or a goat from one to two. A hen, or its
-equivalent, four or five eggs, is worth one khete of coral or pink
-porcelain beads. One fundo of the same will purchase a large bunch of
-plantains, with which máwá or plantain-wine, and siki or vinegar are
-made; and the Wanyamwezi will supply about a pint of milk every morning
-at the rate of one shukkah per mensem. A kind of mud-fish is caught by
-the slaves in the frequent pools which, during the cold season, dot the
-course of the Gombe Nullah, lying three miles north of Kazeh; and
-return-caravans often bring with them stores of the small fry, called
-Kashwá or Daga’a, from the Tanganyika Lake.
-
-From Unyanyembe twenty marches, which are seldom accomplished under
-twenty-five days, conduct the traveller to Ujiji, upon the Tanganyika.
-Of these the fifth station is Msene, the great Bandari of Western
-Unyamwezi. It is usually reached in eight days; and the twelfth is the
-Malagarazi River, the western limit of the fourth region.
-
-The traveller, by means of introductory letters to the Doyen of the Arab
-merchants at Kazeh, can always recruit his stock of country
-currency,--cloth, beads, and wire,--his requirements of powder and ball,
-and his supply of spices, comforts, and drugs, without which travel in
-these lands usually ends fatally. He will pay, it is true, about five
-times their market-value at Zanzibar: sugar, for instance, sells at its
-weight in ivory, or nearly one-third more than its weight in beads. But
-though the prices are exorbitant they preserve the buyer from greater
-evils, the expense of porterage, the risk of loss, and the trouble and
-annoyance of personally superintending large stores in a land where
-“vir” and “fur” are synonymous terms.
-
-And now comfortably housed within a stone-throw of my new friend Shaykh
-Snay bin Amir, I bade adieu for a time to the march, the camp, and the
-bivouac. Perhaps the reader may not be unwilling to hear certain details
-concerning the “road and the inn” in Eastern Africa; he is familiar from
-infancy with the Arab Kafilah and its host of litters and camels,
-horses, mules, and asses, but the porter-journeys in Eastern Africa have
-as yet escaped the penman’s pen.
-
-Throughout Eastern Africa made roads, the first test of progress in a
-people, are unknown. The most frequented routes are foot-tracks like
-goat-walks, one to two spans broad, trodden down during the travelling
-season by man and beast, and during the rains the path in African
-parlance “dies,” that is to say, it is overgrown with vegetation. In
-open and desert places four or five lines often run parallel for short
-distances. In jungly countries they are mere tunnels in thorns and under
-branchy trees, which fatigue the porter by catching his load. Where
-fields and villages abound they are closed with rough hedges, horizontal
-tree-trunks, and even rude stockades, to prevent trespassing and
-pilferage. Where the land is open, an allowance of one-fifth must be
-made for winding: in closer countries this must be increased to
-two-fifths or to one-half, and the traveller must exercise his judgment
-in distributing the marches between these two extremes. In Uzaramo and
-K’hutu the tracks run through tall grasses, which are laid by their own
-weight after rains, and are burned down during the hot seasons: they
-often skirt cultivated lands, which they are not allowed to enter, miry
-swamps are spanned, rivers breast-deep, with muddy bottoms and steep
-slippery banks, are forded, whilst deep holes, the work of rodents and
-insects, render them perilous to ridden cattle. In Usagara the gradients
-are surmounted either by beds of mountain torrents or by breasting steep
-and stony hills, mere ladders of tree-root and loose stones: laden
-animals frequently cannot ascend or descend them. The worst paths in
-this region are those which run along the banks of the many streams and
-rivulets, and which traverse the broken and thorny ground at the base of
-the hills. The former are “thieves’ roads,” choked with long succulent
-grass springing from slushy mud; the latter are continued rises and
-falls, with a small but ragged and awkward watercourse at every bottom.
-From Usagara to Western Unyamwezi the roads lead through thick
-thorn-jungle, and thin forests of trees blazed or barked along the
-track, without hill, but interrupted during the rains by swamps and
-bogs. They are studded with sign-posts, broken pots and gourds, horns
-and skulls of game and cattle, imitations of bows and arrows pointing
-towards water, and heads of holcus. Sometimes a young tree is bent
-across the path and provided with a cross-bar; here is a rush gateway
-like the yoke of the ancients, or a platform of sleepers supported by
-upright trunks; there a small tree felled and replanted, is tipped with
-a crescent of grass twisted round with bark, and capped with huge snail
-shells, and whatever barbarous imagination may suggest. Where many roads
-meet, those to be avoided are barred with a twig or crossed by a line
-drawn with the foot. In Western Uvinza and near Ujiji, the paths are
-truly vile, combining all the disadvantages of bog and swamp, river and
-rivulet, thorn-bush and jungle, towering grasses, steep inclines,
-riddled surface, and broken ground. The fords on the whole line are
-temporary as to season, but permanent in place: they are rarely more
-than breast-deep; and they average in dry weather a cubit and a half,
-the fordable medium. There are but two streams, the Mgeta and the
-Ruguvu, which are bridged over by trees; both could be forded higher up
-the bed; and on the whole route there is but one river, the Malagarazi,
-which requires a ferry during the dry season. Cross roads abound in the
-populous regions. Where they exist not, the jungle is often impassable,
-except to the elephant and the rhinoceros: a company of pioneers would
-in some places require a week to cut their way for a single march
-through the network of thorns and the stockade of rough tree-trunks. The
-directions issued to travellers about drawing off their parties for
-safety at night to rising grounds, will not apply to Eastern Africa; it
-would be far easier to dig for themselves abodes under the surface.
-
-It is commonly asserted in the island of Zanzibar that there are no
-caravans in these regions. The dictum is true if the term be limited to
-the hosts of camels and mules that traverse the deserts and the
-mountains of Arabia and Persia. It is erroneous if applied to a body of
-men travelling for commercial purposes. From time immemorial the
-Wanyamwezi have visited the road to the coast, and though wars and
-blood-feuds may have temporarily closed one line, another necessarily
-opened itself. Amongst a race so dependent for comfort and pleasure upon
-trade, commerce, like steam, cannot be compressed beyond a certain
-point. Until a few years ago, when the extension of traffic induced the
-country people to enlist as porters, all merchants traversed these
-regions with servile gangs hired on the coast or island of Zanzibar, a
-custom still prevailing on the northern and southern routes from the
-sea-board to the lakes of Nyanza and Nyassa. Porterage, on the long and
-toilsome journey, is now considered by the Wanyamwezi a test of
-manliness, as the Englishman deems a pursuit or a profession necessary
-to clear him from the charge of effeminacy. The children imbibe the
-desire with their milk, and at six or seven years old they carry a
-little tusk on their shoulders--instinctive porters, as pointer-pups are
-hereditary pointers. By premature toil their shinbones are sometimes
-bowed to the front like those of animals too early ridden. “He sits in
-hut egg-hatching,” is their proverbial phrase to express one more
-elegant--
-
- “Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.”
-
-And they are ever quoting the adage that men who travel not are
-void of understanding--the African equivalent of what was said by the
-European sage: “The world is a great book, of which those who never
-leave home read but a page.” Against this traditional tendency reasons
-of mere hire and rations, though apparently weighty, are found wanting.
-The porter will bargain over his engagement to the utmost bead, saying
-that all men are bound to make the best conditions for themselves: yet,
-after two or three months of hard labour, if he chance upon a caravan
-returning to his home, a word from a friend, acting upon his innate
-debility of purpose, will prevail upon him to sacrifice by desertion all
-the fruits of his toil. On these occasions the porters are carefully
-watched; open desertion would, it is true, be condemned by the general
-voice, yet no merchant can so win the affections of his men that some
-will not at times disappear. Until the gangs have left their homes far
-behind, their presence seems to hang by a thread; at the least pretext
-they pack up their goods and vanish in a mass. When approaching their
-settlements--at the frontier districts of Tura and Mfuto, for
-instance--their cloth and hire are taken from them, packed in the
-employer’s bales, and guarded by armed slaves, especially at night, and
-on the line of march. Yet these precautions frequently fail, and, once
-beyond the camp limits, it is vain to seek the fugitive. In the act of
-desertion they show intelligence: they seldom run away when caravans
-first meet, lest their employer should halt and recover them by main
-force, and, except where thieves and wild beasts are unknown, they will
-not fly by night. The porter, however, has one point of honour; he
-leaves his pack behind him. The slave, on the other hand, certainly robs
-his employer when he runs away, and this, together with his
-unwillingness to work and the trouble and annoyance which he causes to
-his owner, counterbalances his superior dexterity and intelligence.
-
-Caravans, called in Kisawahili safári (from the Arab safar, a journey)
-and by the African rugendo or lugendo, “a going,” are rarely wanting on
-the main trunk-lines. The favourite seasons for the upward-bound are the
-months in which the greater and the lesser Masika or tropical rains
-conclude--in June and September, for instance, on the coast--when water
-and provisions are plentiful. Those who delay till the dry weather has
-set in must expect hardships on the march; the expense of rations will
-be doubled and trebled, and the porters will frequently desert. The
-down-caravans set out in all seasons except the rainy; it is difficult
-to persuade the people of Unyanyembe to leave their fields between the
-months of October and May. They will abandon cultivation to the women
-and children, and merrily take the footpath way if laden with their own
-ivory, but from the merchant they will demand exorbitant wages, and even
-then they will hesitate to engage themselves.
-
-Porterage varies with every year and in every caravan. It knows but two
-limits: the interest of the employer to disburse as little as possible
-by taking every advantage of the necessities of his employé, and the
-desire of the employé to extract as much as he can by presuming upon the
-wants of his employer. In some years there is a glut of porters on the
-coast; when they are rare quarrels take place between the several
-settlements, each attempting a monopoly of enlistment to the detriment
-of its neighbours, and a little blood is sometimes let. When the
-Wanyamwezi began to carry, they demanded for a journey from the coast to
-their own country six to nine dollars’ worth of domestics, coloured
-cloths, brass-wires, and the pigeon’s-egg bead called sungomaji. The
-rate of porterage then declined; the increase of traffic, however, has
-of late years greatly increased it. In 1857 it was 10 dollars, and it
-afterwards rose to 12 dollars per porter. In this sum rations are not
-included; the value of these--which by ancient custom are fixed at 1
-kubabah (about 1·5 lbs.) of grain per diem, or, that failing, of manioc,
-sweet potatoes, and similar articles, with the present of a bullock at
-the frontier--is subject to greater variations, and is even less
-reducible to an average than the porter’s pay. It is needless to say
-that the down-journey is less expensive than the up-march, as the
-carriers rely upon a fresh engagement on the coast. The usual hire from
-Unyanyembe would be nine cloths, payable on arrival at the sea-port,
-where each is worth 25 cents, or about 1 shilling. The Arabs roughly
-calculate--the errors balancing one another--that, rations included, the
-hire of a porter from the coast to the Tanganyika Lake and back amounts
-to a total of 20 dollars = 4_l._ 3_s._ From the coast, Wanyamwezi
-porters will not engage themselves for a journey westward of their own
-country; at Unyanyembe they break up, and a fresh gang must be enlisted
-for a march to the Tanganyika or to the Nyanza Lake. It is impossible to
-average the numbers of an East African caravan, which varies from half a
-dozen to 200 porters, under a single Mundewa or merchant. In dangerous
-places travellers halt till they form an imposing force; 500 is a
-frequent figure, and even bodies of 1000 men are not rare. The only
-limit to the gathering is the incapability of the country to fill more
-than a certain number of mouths. The larger caravans, however, are slow
-and cumbrous, and in places they exhaust the provision of water.
-
-Caravans in East Africa are of three kinds. The most novel and
-characteristic are those composed only of Wanyamwezi; secondly, are the
-caravans directed and escorted by Wasawahili freemen or fundi (slave
-fattori), commissioned by their patrons; and, lastly, those commanded by
-Arabs.
-
-The porter, called pagazi or fagazi--the former is the African, the
-latter the ridiculous Arabised form of the word--corresponds with the
-carregador of West Africa. The Wanyamwezi make up large parties of men,
-some carrying their own goods, others hired by petty proprietors, who
-for union and strength elect a head Mtongi, Ras Kafilah, or leader. The
-average number of these parties that annually visit the coast is far
-greater than those commanded by stranger-merchants. In the Unyamwezi
-caravan there is no desertion, no discontent, and, except in certain
-spots, little delay. The porters trudge from sunrise to 10 or 11 A.M.,
-and sometimes, though rarely, they will travel twice a day, resting only
-during the hours of heat. They work with a will, carrying
-uncomplainingly huge tusks, some so heavy that they must be lashed to a
-pole between two men--a contrivance technically called mziga-ziga. Their
-shoulders are often raw with the weight, their feet are sore, and they
-walk half or wholly naked to save their cloth for displays at home. They
-ignore tent or covering, and sleep on the ground; their only supplies
-are their country’s produce, a few worn-down hoes, intended at times to
-purchase a little grain or to be given as blackmail for sultans, and
-small herds of bullocks and heifers that serve for similar purposes if
-not lost, with characteristic African futility, upon the road. Those who
-most consult comfort carry, besides their loads and arms, a hide for
-bedding, an earthen cooking pot, a stool, a kilindo or bark-box
-containing cloth and beads, and perhaps a small gourd full of ghee. They
-sometimes suffer severely from exposure to a climate which forbids long
-and hard work upon short and hard fare. Malignant epidemics, especially
-small-pox, often attack caravans as they approach the coast; generally,
-however, though somewhat lean and haggard, the porters appear in better
-condition than might be expected. The European traveller will repent
-accompanying these caravans: as was said of a similar race, the Indians
-of Guiana, “they will not deviate three steps from the regular path.”
-
-Porters engaged by Arab Mtajiri or Mundewa--the former is the
-Kisawahili, the latter is the Inner African term for a merchant or
-travelling trader--are known by their superior condition; they eat much
-more, work much less, and give far greater trouble to their commanders.
-They expend part of the cloth and beads which they have received as hire
-to procure for themselves occasional comforts; and on the down-journey
-they take with them a few worn-down hoes to retain the power of
-desertion without starving. The self-willed wretches demean themselves
-with the coolest impudence; reply imperiously, lord it over their
-leaders, regulate the marches and the halts, and though they work they
-never work without loud complaints and open discontent. Rations are a
-perpetual source of heart-burning: stinted at home to a daily mess of
-grain-porridge, the porters on the line of march devote, in places where
-they can presume, all their ingenuity to extort as much food as possible
-from their employers. At times they are seized with a furore for meat.
-When a bullock is slaughtered, the Kirangozi or guide claims the head,
-leaving the breast and loin to the Mtongi or principal proprietor, and
-the remainder is equally portioned amongst the khambi or messes into
-which the gang divides itself. As has been remarked, the Arab merchant,
-next to the Persian, is the most luxurious traveller in the East; a
-veteran of the way, he well knows the effects of protracted hardship and
-scarcity upon a wayfarer’s health. The European traveller, however, will
-not enjoy the companionship of the Arab caravan, which marches by
-instinct rather than by reason. It begins by dawdling over the
-preliminaries; it then pushes hurriedly onwards till arrested by
-epidemic or desertion; and finally it lingers over the end of the
-journey, thus loosing time twice. This style of progress is fatal to
-observation; moreover, none but a special caravan, consisting of slaves
-hired for the purpose in the island of Zanzibar or on the coast, and
-accompanied by their own Ahbab or patron--without whom they will obey no
-employer, however generous or energetic--will enable the explorer to
-strike into an unbeaten path, or to progress a few miles beyond the
-terminus of a main trunk-road. The most enterprising of porters will
-desert, leaving the caravan-leader like a water-logged ship.
-
-Between these two extremes are the trading parties directed by the
-Wasawahili, the Wamrima, and the slave Fundi--the Pombeiros of West
-Africa--kindred souls with the Pagazi, understanding their languages and
-familiar with their habits, manners, and customs. These “Safari” are
-neither starved like those composed of Wanyamwezi, nor pampered like
-those headed by the Arabs. There is less fatigue during the march, and
-more comfort at the halting-place, consequently there are fewer cases of
-disease and death. These semi-African Mtongi, hating and jealousing
-Arabs and all strangers, throw every obstacle in their way, spread
-reports concerning their magical and malevolent powers which are
-dangerous amongst the more superstitious barbarians, they offer a
-premium for desertion, and in fine, they labour hard though fruitlessly,
-to retain their ancient monopoly of the profits derived from the
-interior.
-
-I will now describe the day’s march and the halt of the East African
-caravan.
-
-At 3 A.M., all is silent as the tomb, even the Mnyamwezi watchman nods
-over his fire. About an hour later the red-faced apoplectic
-chanticleer--there are sometimes half-a-dozen of them--the alarum of the
-caravan, and a prime favourite with the slaves and porter, who carry him
-on their banghy-poles by turns, and who drench him with water when his
-beak opens under the sun,--flaps his wings and crows a loud salutation
-to the dawn: he is answered by every cock and cockerel within ear-shot.
-I have been lying awake for some time, longing for the light, and when
-in health, for an early breakfast. At the first paling of the East, the
-torpid Goanese are called up to build a fire, they tremble with the
-cold--thermometrically averaging 60° F.--and they hurry to bring food.
-Appetite somewhat difficult at this hour, demands a frequent change of
-diet, we drink tea or coffee when procurable, or we eat rice-milk and
-cakes raised with whey, or a porridge not unlike water-gruel. Whilst we
-are so engaged, the Baloch chanting the spiritual songs which follow
-prayers, squat round a cauldron placed upon a roaring fire, and fortify
-the inner man with boiled meat and grain, with toasted pulse and
-tobacco.
-
-About such time, 5 A.M., the camp is fairly roused, and a little low
-chatting becomes audible. This is a critical moment. The porters have
-promised overnight, to start early, and to make a long wholesome march.
-But, “uncertain, coy, and hard to please,” they change their minds like
-the fair sex, the cold morning makes them unlike the men of the warm
-evening, and perhaps one of them has fever. Moreover, in every caravan
-there is some lazy, loud-lunged, contradictory and unmanageable fellow,
-whose sole delight is to give trouble. If no march be in prospect, they
-sit obstinately before the fire warming their hands and feet, inhaling
-the smoke with everted heads, and casting quizzical looks at their
-fuming and fidgety employer. If all be unanimous, it is vain to attempt
-them, even soft sawder is but “throwing comfits to cows.” We return to
-our tent. If, however, there be a division, a little active stimulating
-will cause a march. Then a louder conversation leads to cries of Kwecha!
-Kwecha! Pakia! Pakia! Hopa! Hopa! Collect! pack! set out! Safari! Safari
-leo! a journey, a journey to-day! and some peculiarly African boasts,
-P’hunda! Ngami! I am an ass! a camel! accompanied by a roar of bawling
-voices, drumming, whistling, piping, and the braying of Barghumi, or
-horns. The sons of Ramji come in a body to throw our tents, and to
-receive small burdens, which, if possible, they shirk; sometimes Kidogo
-does me the honour to inquire the programme of the day. The porters,
-however, hug the fire till driven from it, when they unstack the loads
-piled before our tents and pour out of the camp or village. My companion
-and I, when well enough to ride, mount our asses, led by the gunbearers,
-who carry all necessaries for offence and defence; when unfit for
-exercise, we are borne in hammocks, slung to long poles, and carried by
-two men at a time. The Baloch tending their slaves hasten off in a
-straggling body, thinking only of escaping an hour’s sun. The Jemadar,
-however, is ordered to bring up the rear with Said bin Salim, who is
-cold and surly, abusive and ready with his rattan. Four or five packs
-have been left upon the ground by deserters, or shirkers, who have
-started empty-handed, consequently our Arab either double-loads more
-willing men, or persuades the sons of Ramji to carry a small parcel
-each, or that failing, he hires from some near village a few porters by
-the day. This, however, is not easy, the beads have been carried off,
-and the most tempting promises without pre-payment, have no effect upon
-the African mind.
-
-When all is ready, the Kirangozi or Mnyamwezi guide rises and shoulders
-his load, which is ever one of the lightest. He deliberately raises his
-furled flag, a plain blood-red, the sign of a caravan from Zanzibar,
-much tattered by the thorns, and he is followed by a privileged Pagazi,
-tom-toming upon a kettle-drum much resembling a European hour-glass. The
-dignitary is robed in the splendour of scarlet broadcloth, a narrow
-piece about six feet long, with a central aperture for the neck, and
-with streamers dangling before and behind; he also wears some wonderful
-head-dress, the spoils of a white and black “tippet-monkey,” or the
-barred skin of a wild cat, crowning the head, bound round the throat,
-hanging over the shoulders, and capped with a tall cup-shaped bunch of
-owl’s feathers, or the gorgeous plumes of the crested crane. His
-insignia of office are the kipungo or fly-flapper, the tail of some
-beast which he affixes to his person as if it were a natural growth, the
-kome, or hooked iron spit, decorated with a central sausage of
-parti-coloured beads, and a variety of oily little gourds containing
-snuff, simples, and “medicine,” for the road, strapped round his waist.
-He leads the caravan, and the better to secure the obedience of his
-followers he has paid them in a sheep or a goat, the value of which he
-will recover by fees and superiority of rations--the head of every
-animal slaughtered in camp and the presents at the end of the journey
-are exclusively his. A man guilty of preceding the Kirangozi is liable
-to fine, and an arrow is extracted from his quiver to substantiate his
-identity at the end of the march. Pouring out of the kraal in a
-disorderly mob, the porters stack their goods at some tree distant but a
-few hundred yards, and allow the late, the lazy, and the invalids to
-join the main body. Generally at this conjuncture the huts are fired by
-neglect or mischievousness. The khambi, especially in winter, burns like
-tinder, and the next caravan will find a heap of hot ashes and a few
-charred sticks still standing. Yet by way of contrast the Pagazi will
-often take the trouble to denote by the usual signposts to those
-following them that water is at hand. Here and there a little
-facetiousness appears in these erections, a mouth is cut in the
-tree-trunk to admit a bit of wood, simulating a pipe, with other
-representations still more waggish.
-
-After the preliminary halt, the caravan, forming into the order of
-march, winds, like a monstrous land-serpent, over hill, dale, and plain.
-The Kirangozi is followed by an Indian file, those nearest to him, the
-grandees of the gang, are heavily laden with ivories: when the weight of
-the tusk is inordinate, it is tied to a pole and is carried
-palanquin-fashion by two men. A large cowbell, whose music rarely ceases
-on the march, is attached to the point which is to the fore; to the
-bamboo behind is lashed the porter’s private baggage,--his earthen
-cooking-pot, his water-gourd, his sleeping-mat, and his other
-necessaries. The ivory-carriers are succeeded by the bearers of cloth
-and beads, each man, poising upon either shoulder, and sometimes raising
-upon the head for rest, packs that resemble huge bolsters, six feet long
-by two in diameter, cradled in sticks, which generally have a forked
-projection for facility of stacking and reshouldering the load. The
-sturdiest fellows are usually the lightest loaded: in Eastern Africa, as
-elsewhere, the weakest go to the wall. The maximum of burden may be two
-farasilah, or seventy pounds, avoirdupois. Behind the cloth bearers
-straggles a long line of porters and slaves, laden with the lighter
-stuff, rhinoceros-teeth, hides, salt-cones, tobacco, brass wire, iron
-hoes, boxes and bags, beds and tents, pots and water-gourds, mats and
-private stores. With the Pagazi, but in separate parties, march the
-armed slaves, who are never seen to quit their muskets, the women, and
-the little toddling children, who rarely fail to carry something, be it
-only of a pound weight, and the asses neatly laden with saddle-bags of
-giraffe or buffalo-hide. A “Mganga” almost universally accompanies the
-caravan, not disdaining to act as a common porter. The “parson” not only
-claims, in virtue of his sacred calling, the lightest load; he is also a
-stout, smooth, and sleek-headed man, because, as usual with his class,
-he eats much and he works little. The rear is brought up by the master
-or the masters of the caravan, who often remains far behind for the
-convenience of walking and to prevent desertion.
-
-All the caravan is habited in its worst attire, the East African derides
-those who wear upon a journey the cloth which should be reserved for
-display at home. If rain fall they will doff the single goat-skin hung
-round their sooty limbs, and, folding it up, place it between the
-shoulder and the load. When grain is served out for some days’ march,
-each porter bears his posho or rations fastened like a large “bussel” to
-the small of his back. Upon this again, he sometimes binds, with its
-legs projecting outwards, the three-legged stool, which he deems
-necessary to preserve him from the danger of sitting upon the damp
-ground. As may be imagined, the barbarians have more ornament than
-dress. Some wear the ngala, a strip of zebra’s mane bound round the head
-with the bristly parti-coloured, hair standing out like a saint’s
-“gloria:” others prefer a long bit of stiffened ox-tail, rising like a
-unicorn’s horn, at least a foot above the forehead. Other ornaments are
-the skins of monkeys and ocelots, rouleaus and fillets of white, blue,
-or scarlet cloth, and huge bunches of ostrich, crane, and jay’s
-feathers, crowning the head like the tufts of certain fowls. Their arms
-are decorated with massive ivory bracelets, heavy bangles of brass or
-copper, and thin circlets of the same metal, beads in strings and bands,
-adorn their necks, and small iron bells, a “knobby” decoration, whose
-incessant tinkling harmonises, in African ears, with the regular
-chime-like “Ti-ti! Ti-ti! tang!” of the tusk-bells, and the loud broken
-“Wa-ta-ta!” of the horns, are strapped below the knee or round the ankle
-by the more aristocratic. All carry some weapon; the heaviest armed have
-a bow and a bark-quiver full of arrows, two or three long spears and
-assegais, a little battle-axe borne on the shoulder, and the sime or
-dudgeon.
-
-The normal recreations of a march are, whistling, singing, shouting,
-hooting, horning, drumming, imitating the cries of birds and beasts,
-repeating words which are never used except on journeys--a “chough’s
-language, gabble enough and good enough”--and abundant squabbling; in
-fact perpetual noise which the ear however, soon learns to distinguish
-for the hubbub of a halt. The uproar redoubles near a village, where the
-flag is unfurled and where the line lags to display itself. All give
-vent to loud shouts, “Hopa! hopa!--go on! go on! Mgogolo!--a stoppage!
-Food! food! Don’t be tired! The kraal is here--home is near! Hasten,
-kirangozi--Oh! We see our mothers! We go to eat!” On the road it is
-considered prudent as well as pleasurable to be as loud as possible, in
-order to impress upon plunderers an exaggerated idea of the caravan’s
-strength; for equally good reasons silence is recommended in the kraal.
-When threatened with attack and no ready escape suggests itself, the
-porters ground their loads and prepare for action. It is only
-self-interest that makes them brave; I have seen a small cow, trotting
-up with tail erect, break a line of 150 men carrying goods not their
-own. If a hapless hare or antelope cross the path, every man casts his
-pack, brandishes his spear, and starts in pursuit; the animal never
-running straight is soon killed, and torn limb from limb, each negroid
-helluo devouring his morsel raw. Sometimes a sturdy fellow “renowns it”
-by carrying his huge burden round and round, like a horse being ringed,
-and starts off at full speed. When two bodies meet, that commanded by an
-Arab claims the road. If both are Wanyamwezi, violent quarrels ensue,
-but fatal weapons, which are too ready at hand, are turned to more
-harmless purposes, the bow and spear being used as whip and cudgel.
-These affrays are not rancorous till blood is shed. Few tribesmen are
-less friendly for so trifling an affair as a broken head; even a slight
-cut or a shallow stab is little thought of; but, if returned with
-interest, great loss of life may arise from the slenderest cause. When
-friendly caravans meet, the two Kirangozis sidle up with a stage pace, a
-stride, and a stand, and with sidelong looks prance till arrived within
-distance; then suddenly and simultaneously “ducking,” like boys “giving
-a back,” they come to logger-heads and exchange a butt violently as
-fighting rams. Their example is followed by all with a rush and a crush,
-which might be mistaken for the beginning of a faction, but it ends, if
-there be no bad blood, in shouts of laughter. The weaker body, however,
-must yield precedence and offer a small present as blackmail.
-
-About 8 A.M., when the fiery sun has topped the trees and a pool of
-water, or a shady place appears, the planting of the red flag, the
-braying of a Barghumi, or koodoo’s horn, which, heard at a distance in
-the deep forests, has something of the charm which endears the “Cor de
-Chasse” to every woodman’s ear, and sometimes a musket-shot or two,
-announces a short halt. The porters stack their loads, and lie or loiter
-about for a few minutes, chatting, drinking, and smoking tobacco and
-bhang, with the usual whooping, screaming cough, and disputing eagerly
-about the resting-place for the day. On long marches we then take the
-opportunity of stopping to discuss the contents of two baskets which are
-carried by a slave under the eye of the Goanese.
-
-If the stage be prolonged towards noon, the caravan lags, straggles, and
-suffers sorely. The heat of the ground, against which the horniest sole
-never becomes proof, tries the feet like polished-leather boots on a
-quarter-deck in the dog-days near the Line, and some tribulation is
-caused by the cry M’iba hapa!--thorns here! The Arabs and the Baloch
-must often halt to rest. The slaves ensconce themselves in snug places;
-the porters, propping their burdens against trees, curl up, dog-like,
-under the shade; some malinger; and this, the opportunity preferred for
-desertion, is an anxious hour to the proprietor; who, if he would do his
-work “deedily,” must be the last in the kraal. Still the men rarely
-break down. As in Indian marching, the African caravan prefers to end
-the day, rather than to begin it, with a difficulty--the ascent of a
-hill, or the fording of a stream. They prefer the strip of jungle at the
-further end of a district or a plantation, for safety as well as for the
-comfort of shade. They avoid the vicinity of rocks; and on desert plains
-they occupy some slightly rising ground, where the night-cold is less
-severe than in the lower levels.
-
-At length an increased hubbub of voices, blended with bells, drums,
-fifes, and horns, and sometimes a few musket-shots, announce that the
-van is lodged, and the hubbub of the halt confirms the pleasing
-intelligence that the journey is shortened by a stage. Each selfish body
-then hurries forward to secure the best boothy in the kraal, or the most
-comfortable hut in the village, and quarrels seem serious. Again,
-however, the knife returns home guiltless of gore, and the spear is used
-only as an instrument for sound belabouring. The more energetic at once
-apply themselves to “making all snug” for the long hot afternoon and the
-nipping night; some hew down young trees, others collect heaps of leafy
-boughs; one acts architect, and many bring in huge loads of firewood.
-The East African is so much accustomed to house-life, that the bivouac
-in the open appears to him a hardship; he prefers even to cut out the
-interior of a bush and to squat in it, the portrait of a comfortable
-cynocephalus. We usually spread our donkey-saddles and carpets in some
-shade, awaiting the arrival of our tents, and its erection by the
-grumbling sons of Ramji; if we want a hut, we draw out the man in
-possession like a badger,--he will never have the decency to offer it.
-As a rule, the villagers are more willing to receive the upward-bound
-caravans, than those who, returning, carry wealth out of instead of into
-the country. Merchants, on account of their valuable outfits, affect,
-except in the safest localities, the khambi rather than the village; the
-latter, however, is not only healthier, despite its uncleanliness in
-miasmatic lands, but is also more comfortable, plenty and variety of
-provisions being more readily procured inside than outside. The Arab’s
-khaymah is a thin pole or ridge-tent of flimsy domestics, admitting sun
-and rain, and, like an Irish cabin, permitting at night the occupant to
-tell time by the stars; yet he prefers it, probably for dignity, to the
-boothy which, in this land of verdure and cool winds, is a far more
-comfortable lodging.
-
-The Wamrima willingly admit strangers into their villages; the Wazaramo
-would do the same, but they are constantly at feud with the Wanyamwezi,
-who therefore care not to avail themselves of the dangerous hospitality.
-In K’hutu caravans seize by force the best lodgings. Throughout Eastern
-Usagara travellers pitch tents in the dear central spaces, surrounded by
-the round huts of the peasantry, under whose low and drooping eaves the
-pagazi find shelter. In the western regions, where the Tembe or square
-village prevails, kraals form the nighting-place. In Ugogo strangers
-rarely enter the hamlets, the hovels being foul, and the people
-dangerous. Throughout Eastern and Central Unyamwezi caravans defile into
-the villages without hesitation. Some parties take possession of the
-Iwanza or public-house; others build for themselves tabernacles of leafy
-boughs, which they are expected to clear away before departure, and the
-headman provides lodgings for the Mtongi. In Western Unyamwezi the doors
-are often closed against strangers, and in Eastern Uvinza the people
-will admit travellers to bivouac, but they will not vacate their huts.
-In Western Uvinza, a desert like Marenga and Mgunda Mk’hali, substantial
-khambi occur at short intervals. At Ujiji, the Sultan, after offering
-the preliminary magubiko or presents, provides his guests with lodgings,
-which, after a time sufficient for enabling them to build huts, they
-must vacate in favour of new comers. In the other Lake Regions the
-reception depends mainly upon the number of muskets in a caravan, and
-the character of the headman and his people.
-
-The khambi or kraal everywhere varies in shape and material. In the
-eastern regions, where trees are scarce, wattle frames of rough sticks,
-compacted with bark-fibre, are disposed in a circle; the forked
-uprights, made higher behind and lower in front, to form a sloping roof,
-support horizontal or cross poles, which are overlaid with a rough
-thatch of grass or grain-cane. The central space upon which the boothies
-open is occupied by one or more huts for the chiefs of the party; and
-the outer circle is a loose fence of thorn branches, flimsy, yet
-impassable to breech-less legs, unshod feet, and thin loose
-body-garments. When a kraal must be built, rations are not served out
-till enclosures made round the camp secure the cattle; if the leader be
-dilatory, or unwilling to take strong measures, he may be a serious
-loser. The stationary kraals become offensive, if not burnt down after a
-few months. The Masika-kraal, as it is called, is that occupied only
-during the rainy monsoon, when water is everywhere found. The vicinity
-and the abundance of that necessary are the main considerations in
-selecting the situation of encampments. The bark-kraals commence in
-Uvinza, where trees abound, and extend to the Tanganyika Lake; some are
-substantial, as the temporary villages, and may be a quarter of a mile
-in circumference. The Lakist population carry with them, when
-travelling, Karagwah or stiff mats of reed and rush; these they spread
-over and fasten to a firmly-planted framework of flexible boughs, not
-unlike a bird’s nest inverted, or they build a cone of strong canes, in
-the shape of piled muskets, with the ends lashed together. It is curious
-to see the small compass in which the native African traveller can
-contract himself: two, and even three, will dispose their heads and part
-of their bodies--leaving their lower limbs to the mercy of the
-elements--under a matting little more than a yard square.
-
-When lodgings in the kraal have been distributed, and the animals have
-been off-packed, and water has been brought from the pit or stream, all
-apply themselves to the pleasant toil of refection. Merrily then sounds
-the breathless chant of the woman pounding or rubbing down grain, the
-song of the cook, and the tinkle-tinkle of the slave’s pestle, as he
-bends over the iron mortar from which he stealthily abstracts the
-coffee. The fireplaces are three stones or clods, placed trivet-wise
-upon the ground, so that a draught may feed the flame, they are far
-superior to the holes and trenches of our camps and pic-nics. The tripod
-supports a small black earthen pot, round which the khambi or little
-knot of messmates perseveringly squat despite the stinging sun. At home
-where they eat their own provisions they content themselves with a
-slender meal of flour and water once a day. But like Spaniards, Arabs,
-and all abstemious races, they must “make up for lost time.” When
-provisions are supplied to them, they are cooking and consuming as long
-as the material remains; the pot is in perpetual requisition, now filled
-to be emptied, then refilled to be re-emptied. They will devour in three
-days the rations provided for eight, and then complain loudly that they
-are starved. To leave a favourable impression upon their brains, I had a
-measure nearly double that generally used, yet the perverse wretches
-pleading hunger, though they looked like aldermen by the side of the
-lean bony anatomies whom they met on the road, would desert whenever met
-by a caravan. After a time there will, doubtless, be a re-action; when
-their beards whiten they will indulge in the garrulity of age; they will
-recount to wondering youth the prodigality of the Muzungu, in filling
-them with grain, even during the longest marches, and they will compare
-his loads of cloth and beads with the half dozen “shaggy” cows and the
-worn-out hoes, the sole outfit for presents and provisions carried by
-caravans of “Young Africa.” If there be any delay in serving out
-provisions, loud cries of Posho! p’hamba!--rations! food!--resound
-through the camp; yet when fatigued, the porters will waste hours in
-apathetic idleness rather than walk a few hundred yards to buy grain.
-Between their dozen meals they puff clouds of pungent tobacco, cough and
-scream over their jungle-bhang, and chew ashes, quids, and pinches of
-red earth, probably the graves of white ants. If meat be served out to
-them, it is eaten as a relish; it never, however, interferes with the
-consumption of porridge. A sudden glut of food appears to have the
-effect of intoxicating them. The Arabs, however, avoiding steady
-rations, alternately gorge and starve their porters, knowing by
-experience that such extremes are ever most grateful to the barbarian
-stomach. The day must be spent in very idleness; a man will complain
-bitterly if told to bring up his pack for opening; and general
-discontent, with hints concerning desertion, will arise from the
-mortification of a muster. On such occasions he and his fellows will
-raise their voices,--when not half-choked by food--and declare that they
-will not be called about like servants, and crouch obstinately round the
-smoky fire, the pictures of unutterable disgust; and presently enjoy the
-sweet savour of stick-jaw dough and pearl-holcus like small shot, rat
-stews, and boiled weeds, which they devour till their “bulge” appears
-like the crop of a stuffed turkey. Sometimes when their improvidence has
-threatened them with a Banyan-day, they sit in a melancholy plight,
-spitefully smoking and wickedly eyeing our cooking-pots; on these
-occasions they have generally a goat or a bullock in store, and, if not,
-they finesse to obtain one of ours. I always avoid issuing an order to
-them direct, having been warned by experience that Kidogo or the
-Kirangozi is the proper channel; which sorely vexes Valentine and Seedy
-Bombay, whose sole enjoyment in life is command. I observed that when
-wanted for extra-work, to remove thorns or to dig for water, that the
-false alarm of Posho! (rations) summons them with a wonderful alacrity.
-Moreover, I remarked that when approaching their country and leaving
-ours--the coast--they became almost unmanageable and _vice versâ_ as
-conditions changed.
-
-My companion and I pass our day as we best can, sometimes in a bower of
-leafy branches, often under a spreading tree, rarely in the flimsy tent.
-The usual occupations are the diary and the sketch-book, added to a
-little business. The cloth must be doled out, and the porters must be
-persuaded, when rested, to search the country for rations,
-otherwise--the morrow will be a blank. When a bullock is killed one of
-us must be present. The porters receive about a quarter of the meat,
-over which they sit wrangling and screaming like hyænas, till a fair
-division according to messes is arrived at. Then, unless watched, some
-strong and daring hand will suddenly break through the ring, snatch up
-half a dozen portions and disappear at a speed defying pursuit; others
-will follow his example, with the clatter and gesture of a troop of
-baboons, and the remainder will retire as might be expected, grumbling
-and discontented. Dinner at 4 P.M. breaks the neck of the day.
-Provisions of some kind are mostly procurable, our diet, however, varies
-from such common doings as the hard holcus-scone, the tasteless
-bean-broth and the leathery goat-steak, to fixings of delicate venison,
-fatted capon, and young guinea-fowl or partridge, with “bread sauce,”
-composed of bruised rice and milk. At first the Goanese declined to cook
-“pretty food,” as pasties and rissoles, on the plea that such things
-were impossible upon the march; they changed their minds when warned
-that persistence in such theory might lead to a ceremonious fustigation.
-Moreover, they used to serve us after their fashion, with a kind of
-“portion” on plates; the best part, of course, remained in the pots and
-digesters; these, therefore, were ordered to do duty as dishes. When tea
-or coffee is required in a drinkable state, we must superintend the
-process of preparing it, the notions of the Goanese upon such subjects
-being abominable to the civilised palate. When we have eaten our
-servants take their turn; they squat opposite each other over a private
-“cooking-pot” to which they have paid unremitting attention; they
-stretch forth their talons and eat till weary, not satiated, pecking,
-nodding, and cramming like two lank black pigeons. Being “Christians,”
-that is to say, Roman Catholics, they will not feed with the heathenry,
-moreover a sort of semi-European dignity forbids. Consequently Bombay
-messes with his “brother” Mabruki, and the other slaves eat by
-themselves.
-
-When the wells ahead are dry the porters will scarcely march in the
-morning; their nervous impatience of thirst is such that they would
-exhaust all their gourds, if they expected a scarcity in front, and then
-they would suffer severely through the long hot day. They persist,
-moreover, upon eating before the march, under the false impression that
-it gives them strength and bottom. In fact, whenever difficulties as
-regards grain or drink suggest themselves, the African requires the
-direction of some head-piece made of better stuff than his own. The
-hardships of the tirikeza have already been described: they must be
-endured to be realised.
-
-Night is ushered in by penning and pounding the cows, and by tethering
-the asses--these “careless Æthiopians” lose them every second day,--and
-by collecting and numbering the loads, a task of difficulty where every
-man shirks the least trouble. When there has been no tirikeza, when
-provisions have been plentiful, and when there is a bright moonshine,
-which seems to enliven these people like jackals, a furious drumming, a
-loud clapping of hands, and a general droning song, summon the lads and
-the lasses of the neighbouring villages to come out and dance and “make
-love.” The performance is laborious, but these Africans, like most men
-of little game, soon become too tired to work, but not too tired to play
-and amuse themselves. Their style of salutation is remarkable only for
-the excessive gravity which it induces; at no other time does the East
-African look so serious, so full of earnest purpose. Sometimes a single
-dancer, the village buffoon, foots a _pas seul_, featly, with head,
-arms, and legs, bearing strips of hair-garnished cow-skin, which are
-waved, jerked, and contorted, as if dislocation had occurred to his
-members. At other times, a line or a circle of boys and men is formed
-near the fire, and one standing in the centre, intones the song solo,
-the rest humming a chorus in an undertone. The dancers plumbing and
-tramping to the measure with alternate feet, simultaneously perform a
-treadmill exercise with a heavier stamp at the end of every period: they
-are such timists, that a hundred pair of heels sound like one. At first
-the bodies are slowly swayed from side to side, presently as excitement
-increases, the exercise waxes severe: they “cower down and lay out their
-buttocks,” to use pedantic Ascham’s words, “as though they would shoot
-at crows;” they bend and recover themselves, and they stoop and rise to
-the redoubled sound of the song and the heel-music, till the assembly,
-with arms waving like windmills, assumes the frantic semblance of a ring
-of Egyptian Darwayshes. The performance often closes with a grand
-promenade; all the dancers being jammed in a rushing mass, a _galop
-infernale_, with the features of satyrs, and gestures resembling aught
-but the human. When the fun threatens to become too fast and furious,
-the song dies, and the performers, with loud shouts of laughter, throw
-themselves on the ground, to recover strength and breath. The greybeards
-look on with admiration and sentiment, remembering the days when they
-were capable of similar feats. Instead of “bravo,” they ejaculate “Nice!
-nice! very nice!” and they wonder what makes the white men laugh. The
-ladies prefer to perform by themselves, and perhaps in the East, ours
-would do the same, if a literal translation of the remarks to which a
-ball always gives rise amongst Orientals, happened by misfortune to
-reach their refined ears.
-
-When there is no dancing, and the porters can no longer eat, drink, and
-smoke, they sit by their fires, chatting, squabbling, talking and
-singing some such “pure nectar” as the following. The song was composed,
-I believe, in honour of me, and I frequently heard it when the singers
-knew that it was understood. The Cosmopolitan reader will not be
-startled by the epithet “Mbaya,” or wicked, therein applied to the
-Muzungu. A “good white man,” would indeed, in these lands, have been
-held an easy-going soul, a natural, an innocent, like the “buona
-famiglia,” of the Italian cook, who ever holds the highest quality of
-human nature to be a certain facility for being “plucked without
-’plaining,” and being “flayed without flinching.” Moreover, despite my
-“wickedness,” they used invariably to come to me for justice and
-redress, especially when proximity to the coast encouraged the guide and
-guards to “bully” them.
-
- “Muzungu mbaya” (the wicked white man) goes from the shore,
- (_Chorus_) Puti! Puti! (I can only translate it by “grub! grub!”)
- We will follow “Muzungu mbaya.”
- Puti! Puti!
- As long as he gives us good food!
- Puti! Puti!
- We will traverse the hill and the stream,
- Puti! Puti!
- With the caravan of this great mundewa (merchant).
- Puti! Puti! &c., &c.
-
-The Baloch and the sons of Ramji quarrel, yell, roar, and talk of
-eating--the popular subject of converse in these lands, as is beer in
-England, politics in France, law in Normandy, “pasta” at Naples, and to
-say no more, money everywhere--till a late hour. About 8 P.M., the small
-hours of the country, sounds the cry lala! lala!--sleep! It is willingly
-obeyed by all except the women, who must sometimes awake to confabulate
-even at midnight. One by one the caravan sinks into torpid slumber. At
-this time, especially when in the jungle-bivouac, the scene often
-becomes truly impressive. The dull red fires flickering and forming a
-circle of ruddy light in the depths of the black forest, flaming against
-the tall trunks and defining the foliage of the nearer trees, illuminate
-lurid groups of savage men, in every variety of shape and posture.
-Above, the dark purple sky, studded with golden points, domes the earth
-with bounds narrowed by the gloom of night. And, behold! in the western
-horizon, a resplendent crescent, with a dim, ash-coloured globe in its
-arms, and crowned by Hesperus, sparkling like a diamond, sinks through
-the vast of space, in all the glory and gorgeousness of Eternal Nature’s
-sublimest works. From such a night, methinks, the Byzantine man took his
-device, the Crescent and the Star.
-
-The rate of caravan-marching in East Africa greatly varies. In cool
-moonlit mornings, over an open path, the Pagazi will measure perhaps
-four miles an hour. This speed is reduced by a quarter after a short
-“spurt,” and under normal, perhaps favourable, circumstances, three
-statute miles will be the highest average. Throughout the journey it is
-safe to reckon for an Indian file of moderate length--say 150 men--2·25
-English miles, or what is much the same, 1·75 geographical miles per
-hour, measured by compass from point to point. In a clear country an
-allowance of 20 per cent, must be made for winding: in closer regions
-40-50 per cent., and the traveller must exercise his judgment in
-distributing his various courses between these extremes. Mr. Cooley
-(Inner Africa Laid Open, p. 6) a “resolute,” and I may add a most
-successful “reducer of itinerary distances,” estimates that the ordinary
-day’s journey of the Portuguese missionaries in West Africa never
-exceeded six geographical miles projected in a straight line, and that
-on rare occasions, and with effort only, it may have extended to 10
-miles. Dr. Lacerda’s porters in East Africa were terrified at the
-thought of marching ordinarily 2·50 Portuguese leagues, or about 9·33
-statute miles per day. Dr. Livingstone gives the exceedingly high
-maximum of 2·50 to 3 miles an hour in a straight line, but his porters
-were lightly laden, and the Makololo are apparently a far “gamer” race,
-more sober and industrious, than the East Africans. Mr. Petherick, H.
-M.’s Consul at Khartum, estimates his gangs to have marched 3·50 miles
-per hour, and the ordinary day’s march at 8 hours. It is undoubted that
-the negro races north of the equator far surpass in pedestrian powers
-their southern brethren; moreover the porters in question were marching
-only for a single day; but as no instruments were used, the average may
-fairly be suspected of exaggeration. Finally Mr. Galton’s observation
-concerning Cape travelling applies equally well to this part of Africa,
-namely, that 10 statute or 6 rectilinear geographical miles per diem is
-a fair average of progress, and that he does well who conducts the same
-caravan 1,000 geographical miles across a wild country in six months.
-
-I will conclude this chapter with a succinct account of the inn, that is
-to say the village in East Africa.
-
-The habitations of races form a curious study and no valueless guide to
-the nature of the climate and the physical conditions to which men are
-subject.
-
-Upon the East African coast the villages, as has been mentioned, are
-composed of large tenements, oblongs or squares of wattle and dab, with
-eaves projecting to form a deep verandah and a thatched pent-roof,
-approaching in magnitude that of Madagascar.
-
-Beyond the line of maritime land the “Nyumba” or dwelling-house assumes
-the normal African form, the circular hut described by every traveller
-in the interior: Dr. Livingstone appears to judge rightly that its
-circularity is the result of a barbarous deficiency in inventiveness. It
-has, however, several varieties. The simplest is a loose thatch thrown
-upon a cone of sticks based upon the ground, and lashed together at the
-apex: it ignores windows, and the door is a low hole in the side. A
-superior kind is made after the manner of our ancient bee hives; it is
-cup-shaped with bulging sides, and covered with neat thatch, cut in
-circles which overlap one another tile-fashion: at a distance it
-resembles an inverted bird’s nest. The common shape is a cylindrical
-framework of tall staves, or the rough trunks of young trees planted in
-the earth, neatly interwoven with parallel and concentric rings of
-flexible twigs and withies: this is plastered inside and outside with a
-hard coat of red or grey mud; in the poorer tenements the surface is
-rough and chinked, in the better order it is carefully smoothed and
-sometimes adorned with rude imitations of life. The diameter averages
-from 20 to 25, and the height from 7 to 15 feet in the centre, which is
-supported by a strong roof-tree, to which all the stacked rafters and
-poles converge. The roof is subsequently added, it is a structure
-similar to the walls, interwoven with sticks, upon which thick grass or
-palm-fronds are thrown, and the whole is covered with thatch tied on by
-strips of tree-bark. It has eaves which projecting from two to six
-feet--under them the inhabitants love to sit or sun shade
-themselves--rest upon horizontal bars, which are here and there
-supported by forked uprights, trees rudely barked. Near the coast the
-eaves are broad and high: in the interior they are purposely made so low
-that a man must creep in on all fours. The door-way resembles the
-entrance to an English pig-sty, it serves, however, to keep out heat in
-the hot season, and to keep in smoke and warmth during the rains and the
-cold weather: the threshold is garnished with a horizontal log or board
-that defends the interior from inundation. The door is a square of reeds
-fastened together by bark or cord, and planted upright at night between
-the wall and two dwarf posts at each side of the entrance: there is
-generally a smaller and a secret door opposite that in use, and
-jealously closed up except when flight is necessary. In the colder and
-damper regions there is a second wall and roof outside the first,
-forming in fact one house within the other.
-
-About Central Usagara the normal African haystack-hut makes place for
-the “Tembe” which extends westward, a little beyond Unyanyembe. The
-Tembe, though of Hamitic origin, resembles the Utum of the ancients, and
-the Hishan of the modern Hejaz, those hollow squares of building which
-have extended through Spain to France and even to Ireland: it was,
-probably, suggested to Africa and to Arabia by the necessity of defence
-to, as well as lodging for, man and beast. It is to a certain extent, a
-proof of civilisation in Eastern Africa: the wildest tribes have not
-progressed beyond the mushroom or circular hut, a style of architecture
-which seems borrowed from the indigenous mimosa tree.
-
-Westward of Unyamwezi in Uvinza and about the Tanganyika Lake the round
-hovel again finds favour with the people; but even there the Arabs
-prefer to build for themselves the more solid and comfortable Tembe.
-
-The haystack-hut has been described by a multitude of travellers: the
-“Tembe,” or hollow village, yet awaits that honour.
-
-The “Tembe” wants but the addition of white-wash to make it an effective
-feature in African scenery: as it is, it appears from afar like a short
-line of raised earth. Provided with a block-house at each angle to sweep
-dead ground where fire, the only mode of attack practised in these
-regions, can be applied, it would become a fort impregnable to the
-Eastern African. The form is a hollow square or oblong, generally
-irregular, with curves, projections, and semicircles; in the East
-African Ghauts, the shape is sometimes round or oval to suit the
-exigencies of the hill-sides and the dwarf cones upon which it is built.
-On the mountains and in Ugogo, where timber is scarce, the houses form
-the continued frontage of the building, which, composed of
-mimosa-trunks, stout stakes, and wattle and dab, rarely exceeds seven
-feet in height. In the southern regions of Usagara where the Tembe is
-poorest, the walls are of clods loosely put together and roofed over
-with a little straw. About Msene where fine trees abound, the Tembe is
-surrounded by a separate boma or palisade of young unbarked trunks,
-short or tall, and capped here and there with cattle-skulls, blocks of
-wood, grass-wisps, and similar talismans; this stockade, in damper
-places, is hedged with a high thick fence, sometimes doubled and
-trebled, of peagreen milk-bush, which looks pretty and refreshing, and
-is ditched outside with a deep trench serving as a drain. The cleared
-space in front of the main passage through the hedges is often decorated
-with a dozen poles, placed in a wide semicircle to support human skulls,
-the mortal remains of ill-conducted boors. In some villages the
-principal entrance is approached by long, dark and narrow lanes of
-palisading. When the settlement is built purely for defence, it is
-called “Kaya,” and its headman “Muinyi Kaya,” the word, however, is
-sometimes used for “Boma” or “Mji,” a palisaded village in general. In
-some parts of Unyamwezi there is a Bandani or exterior boothy, where the
-men work at the forge, or sit in the shade, and where the women husk,
-pound, and cook their grain.
-
-The general roof of the Tembe is composed of mud and clay heaped upon
-grass thickly strewed over a framework of rafters supported by the long
-walls. It has, usually, an obtuse slope to the front and another to the
-rear, that rain may not lie; it is, however, flat enough to support the
-bark-bins of grain, gourds, old pots, firewood, water-melons, pumpkins,
-manioc, mushrooms, and other articles placed there to ripen or dry in
-the sun. It has no projecting eaves, and it is ascended from the inside
-by the primitive ladder, the inclined trunk of a tree, with steps formed
-by the stumps of lopped boughs, acting rings. The roof, during the
-rains, is a small plot of bright green grass: I often regretted not
-having brought with me a little store of mustard and cress. In each
-external side of the square, one or two door-ways are pierced; they are
-large enough to admit a cow, and though public they often pass through
-private domiciles. They are jealously closed at sunset, after which hour
-not a villager dares to stir from his home till morning. The outer doors
-are sometimes solid planks, more often they are three or four heavy
-beams suspended to a cross-bar passing through their tops. When the way
-is to be opened they are raised from below and are kept up by being
-planted in a forked tree-trunk inside the palisade: they are let down
-when the entrance is to be closed, and are barred across with strong
-poles.
-
-The tenements are divided from one another by party-walls of the same
-material as the exterior. Each house has, usually, two rooms, a “but”
-and a “ben,” which vary in length from 20 to 50 feet, and in depth from
-12 to 15: they are partitioned by a screen of corn-canes supported by
-stakes, with a small passage left open for light. The “but,” used as
-parlour, kitchen, and dormitory, opens upon the common central square;
-the “ben” receives a glimmer from the doors and chinks, which have not
-yet suggested the idea of windows: it serves for a sleeping and a store
-room; it is a favourite place with hens and pigeons that aspire to be
-mothers, and the lambs and kids in early infancy are allowed to pass the
-night there. The inner walls are smeared with mud: lime is not
-procurable in Eastern Africa, and the people have apparently no
-predilection for the Indian “Gobar:” floor is of tamped earth, rough,
-uneven, and unclean. The prism-shaped ceiling is composed of rafters and
-thin poles gently rising from the long-walls to the centre, where they
-are supported by strong horizontals, which run the whole length of the
-house, and these again rest upon a proportionate number of pillars,
-solid forked uprights, planted in the floor. The ceiling is polished to
-a shiny black with smoke, which winds its way slowly through the
-door--smoke and grease are the African’s coat and small clothes, they
-contribute so much to his health and comfort that he is by no means
-anxious to get rid of them--and sooty lines depend from it like
-negro-stalactites.
-
-The common enceinte formed by the houses is often divided into various
-courts, intended for different families, by the walls of the tenements,
-or by stout screens, and connected by long wynds and dark alleys of
-palisade-work. The largest and cleanest square usually belongs to the
-headman. In these spaces cattle are milked and penned; the ground is
-covered with a thick coat of the animals’ earths, dust in the hot
-weather and deep viscid mud during the rains: the impurity must be an
-efficacious fomite of cutaneous and pectoral disease. The villagers are
-fond of planting in the central courts trees, under whose grateful shade
-the loom is plied, the children play, the men smoke, and the women work.
-Here, also, stands the little Mzimu, or Fetiss-hut, to receive the
-oblations of the pious. Places are partitioned off from the public
-ground, near the houses, by horizontal trunks of trees, resting on
-forks, forming pens to keep the calves from the cows at night. In some
-villages huge bolsters of surplus grain, neatly packed in bark and
-corded round, are raised on tall poles near the interior doors of the
-tenements. Often, too, the insides of the settlements boast of
-pigeon-houses, which in this country are made to resemble, in miniature,
-those of the people. In Unyamwezi the centre is sometimes occupied by
-the Iwanza, or village “public-house,” which will be described in a
-future chapter.
-
-In some regions, as in Ugogo, these lodgings become peculiarly offensive
-if not burnt after the first year. The tramping of the owners upon the
-roof shakes mud and soot from the ceiling, and the rains wash down
-masses of earthwork heavy enough to do injury. The interior is a
-menagerie of hens, pigeons, and rats, of peculiar impudence. Scorpions
-and earwigs fall from their nests in the warm or shady rafters. The
-former, locally termed “Nge,” is a small yellow variety, and though it
-stings spitefully the pain seldom lasts through the day; as many as
-three have dropped upon my couch in the course of the week. In Ugogo
-there is a green scorpion from four to five inches long, which inflicts
-a torturing wound. According to the Arabs the scorpion in Eastern Africa
-dies after inflicting five consecutive stings, and commits suicide if a
-bit of stick be applied to the middle of its back. The earwig is common
-in all damp places, and it haunts the huts on account of the shade. The
-insect apparently casts its coat before the rainy season, and the
-Africans ignore the superstition which in most European countries has
-given origin to its trivial name. A small xylophagus with a large black
-head rains a yellow dust like pollen from the riddled woodwork;
-house-crickets chirp from evening to dawn; cockroaches are plentiful as
-in an Indian steamer; and a solitary mason-wasp, the “Kumbharni,” or
-“potter’s wife” of western India--a large hymenopter of several
-varieties, tender-green, or black and yellow, or dark metallic
-blue--burrows holes in the wall, or raises plastered nests, and buzzes
-about the inmates’ ears; lizards, often tailless after the duello,
-tumble from the ceilings; in the darker corners spiders of frightful
-hideousness weave their solid webs; and the rest of the population is
-represented by tenacious ticks of many kinds, flies of sorts, bugs,
-fleas, mosquitoes, and small ants, which are, perhaps, the worst plagues
-of all. The Riciniæ in Eastern Africa are locally called Papazi, which
-probably explains the “Pazi bug,” made by Dr. Krapf a rival in venom to
-the Argas Persicus, or fatal “bug of Miana.” In Eastern Africa these
-parasites are found of many shapes, round and oval, flat and swollen;
-after suction they vary in size from microscopic dimensions to
-three-quarters of an inch; the bite cannot poison, but the constant
-irritation caused by it may induce fever and its consequences. A hut
-infested with Papazi must be sprinkled with boiling water, and swept
-clean for many weeks, before they will disappear. In the Tembe there is
-no draught to disturb the smaller occupants, consequently they are more
-numerous than in the circular cottage. Moreover, the people, having an
-aversion to sleeping in the open air, thus supply their co-inhabitants
-with nightly rations, which account for their fecundity.
-
-The abodes, as might be expected, are poorly furnished. In Unyamwezi,
-they contain invariably one or more “Kitanda.” This cartel, or bedstead,
-is a rude contrivance. Two parallel lines of peeled tree-branches,
-planted at wide intervals, support in their forks horizontal poles: upon
-these is spread crosswise a layer of thick sticks, which forms the
-frame. The bedding consists of a bull-hide or two, and perhaps a long,
-coarse, rush-mat. It is impossible for any one but an African to sleep
-upon these Kitanda, on account of their shortness, the hardness of the
-material, and the rapid slope which supplies the want of pillows, and
-serves for another purpose which will not be described. When removed, a
-fractured pole will pour forth a small shower of the foul cimex: this
-people of hard skins considers its bite an agreeable titillation, and,
-what may somewhat startle a European, esteems its odour a perfume.
-Around the walls depend from pegs neatly-plaited slings of fibrous cord,
-supporting gourds and “vilindo”--neat cylinders, like small band-boxes,
-of tree bark, made to contain cloth, butter, grain, or other provisions.
-In the store-room, propped upon stones, and plastered over with clay for
-preservation, are Lindo, huge corn-bins of the same material; grain is
-ground upon a coarse granite slab, raised at an angle of 25°, about one
-foot above the floor, and embedded in a rim of hard clay. The hearth is
-formed of three “Mafiga,” or truncated cones of red or grey mud,
-sometimes two feet high, and ten inches in diameter at the base: they
-are disposed triangularly, with the apex to the wall, and open to the
-front when the fire is made. The pot rests upon the tripod. The broom, a
-wisp of grass, a bunch of bamboo splints, or a split fibrous root,
-usually sticks in the ceiling; its work is left to the ants. From the
-rafters hang drums and kettle-drums, skins and hides in every process,
-and hooked twigs dangling from strings support the bows and arrows, the
-spears and assegais. An arrow is always thrust into the inner thatch for
-good luck: ivory is stored between the rafters, hence its dark ruddy
-colour, which must be removed by ablution with warm blood; and the
-ceiling is a favourite place for small articles that require
-seasoning--bows, quivers, bird-bolts, knob-sticks, walking-canes,
-reed-nozzles for bellows, and mi’iko or ladles, two feet long, used to
-stir porridge. The large and heavy water-pots, of black clay, which are
-filled every morning and evening by the women at the well, lie during
-the day empty or half empty about the room. The principal article of
-luxury is the “Kiti,” or dwarf stool, cut out of a solid block,
-measuring one foot in height by six inches in diameter, with a concave
-surface for convenience of sitting: it has usually three carved legs or
-elbows; some, however, are provided with a fourth, and with a base like
-the seat, to steady them. They are invariably used by the Sultan and the
-Mganga, who disdain to sit upon the ground: and the Wamrima ornament
-them with plates of tin let into the upper concaves. The woods generally
-used for the Kiti, are the Mninga and the Mpingu. The former is a tall
-and stately tree, which supplies wood of a dark mahogany colour, exuding
-in life a red gum, like dragon’s blood: the trunk is converted into
-bowls and platters, the boughs into rafters, which are, however, weak
-and subject to the xylophagus, whilst of the heart are made spears,
-which, when old and well-greased, resemble teak-wood. The Mpingu is the
-Sisam of India, (Dalbergia Sissoo) here erroneously called by the Arabs
-Abnus--ebony. The tree is found throughout Eastern Africa. The wood is
-of fine quality, and dark at the core: the people divide it into male
-and female; the former is internally a dark brick-dust red, whilst the
-latter verges upon black: they make from it spears and axe-handles,
-which soon, however, when exposed to the air, unless regularly greased,
-become brittle. The massive mortar, for husking grain, called by the
-people “Mchi,” is shaped exactly like those portrayed in the
-interior-scenes of ancient Egypt: it is hewn out of the trunk of the
-close-grained Mkora tree. The huge pestle, like a capstan-bar, is made
-of the Mkorongo, a large tree with a fine-grained wood, which is also
-preferred to others for rafters, as it best resists the attacks of
-insects.
-
-Such, gentle reader, is the Tembe of Central Africa. Concerning village
-life, I shall have something to say in a future page. The scene is more
-patent to the stranger’s eye in these lands than in the semi-civilised
-regions of Asia, where men rarely admit him into their society.
-
-[Illustration: African House Building.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XI.
-
-WE CONCLUDE THE TRANSIT OF UNYAMWEZI.
-
-
-I was detained at Kazeh from the 8th November to the 14th December,
-1857, and the delay was one long trial of patience.
-
-It is customary for stranger-caravans proceeding towards Ujiji to remain
-six weeks or two months at Unyanyembe for repose and recovery from the
-labours which they have, or are supposed to have, endured: moreover,
-they are expected to enjoy the pleasures of civilised society, and to
-accept the hospitality offered to them by the resident Arabs. In Eastern
-Africa, I may again suggest, six weeks is as the three days’ visit in
-England.
-
-On the morning after our arrival at Kazeh, the gang of Wanyamwezi
-porters that had accompanied us from the coast withdrew their hire from
-our cloth-bales; and not demanding, because they did not expect,
-bakhshish, departed, without a sign of farewell, to their homes in
-Western Unyamwezi. The Kirangozi or guide received a small present of
-domestics: his family being at Msene, distant five marches ahead, he
-fixed, after long haggling, the term of fifteen days as his leave of
-absence, after which he promised to join me with a fresh gang for the
-journey to Ujiji.
-
-The rest of the party apparently considered Unyanyembe, not Ujiji, the
-end of the exploration; it proved in effect a second point of departure,
-easier than Kaole only because I had now gained some experience.
-
-Two days after our arrival, the Baloch, headed by their Jemadar,
-appeared in full toilette to demand a “Hakk el Salamah,” or reward for
-safe-conduct. I informed them that this would be given when they had
-reached the end of the up-march. The pragmatical Darwaysh declared that
-without bakhshish there would be no advance; he withdrew his words,
-however, when my companion was called in to witness their being
-committed to paper--a proceeding always unpalatable to the Oriental. The
-Baloch then subsided into begging for salt and spices, and having
-received more than they had probably ever possessed in their lives, they
-privily complained of my parsimony to Said bin Salim. They then sent for
-tobacco, a goat, gunpowder, bullets--all which they obtained. Their next
-manœuvre was to extract four cloths for tinning their single copper pot
-and for repairing the matchdogs and stocks of two old matchlocks. They
-then sold a keg of gunpowder committed to their charge. They had
-experienced every kindness from Snay bin Amir, from Sallum bin Hamid, in
-fact, from all the Arab merchants of Kazeh. They lodged comfortably in
-Musa Mzuri’s house, and their allowance, one Shukkah of domestics per
-diem, enabled them to buy goats, sheep, and fowls--luxuries unknown in
-their starving huts at Zanzibar. Yet they did not fail, with their foul
-tongues, ever ready, as the Persians say, for “spitting at Heaven,” to
-charge their kind hosts with the worst crime that the Arab
-knows--niggardness.
-
-On the 8th November, I had arranged with Kidogo, as well as with the
-Kirangozi, to resume the march at the end of a fortnight. Ten days
-afterwards I again sent for him to conclude the plans concerning the
-journey: evidently something lay deep within his breast, but the
-difficulty was to extract it. He began by requiring a present for his
-excellent behaviour--he received, to his astonishment, four cloths. He
-next demanded leave to visit his Unyamwezi home for a week, and was
-unpleasantly surprised when it was granted. He then “hit the right nail
-on the head.” The sons of Ramji, declaring that I had promised them a
-bullock on arrival at Kazeh, had seized, hamstrung, and cut up a fine
-fat animal sent to me by Sallum bin Hamid; yet Kidogo averred that the
-alleged promise must be fulfilled to them. When I refused, he bluntly
-informed me that I was quite equal to the task of collecting porters for
-myself; I replied that this was his work and not mine. He left the house
-abruptly, swearing that he would not trouble himself any longer, and,
-moreover, for the future that his men should not carry the lightest
-load, nor assist us even in threading beads. At last, on the 27th
-November, I sent for Kidogo, and told him that the march was positively
-fixed for the next week. After sitting for a time “_cupo concentrato_,”
-in profound silence, the angry slave arose, delivered a volley of
-rattling words with the most theatrical fierceness, and rushed from the
-room, leaving the terrified Said bin Salim gazing upon vacancy like an
-idiot. Accompanied by his followers, who were shouting and laughing, he
-left the house, when--I afterwards heard--they drew their sabres, and
-waving them round their heads, they shouted, for the benefit of Arabs,
-“Tume-shinda Wazungu”--“We have conquered the Whites!” I held a
-consultation with my hosts concerning the advisability of disarming the
-recreant sons of Ramji. But Sallum bin Hamid, the “papa” of the colony,
-took up the word, and, as usual with such deliberative bodies, the
-council of war advised peace. They informed me that in Unyamwezi slaves
-and muskets are the stranger’s sole protection, and as they were
-unanimous in persuading me to temporise, to “swallow anger” till after
-return, I felt bound, after applying for it, to be guided by their
-advice. At the consultation, however, the real object which delayed the
-sons of Ramji at Kazeh oozed out: their patroon, Mr. Rush Ramji, had
-written to them that his and their trading outfit was on its way from
-the coast; consequently, they had determined to await, and to make us
-await, its arrival before marching upon Ujiji.
-
-On the 14th November, the Masika or wet season, which had announced its
-approach by premonitory showers and by a final burst of dry heat, set in
-over the Land of the Moon with torrents of rain and “rain-stones,” as
-hail is here called, and with storms of thunder and lightning, which
-made it more resemble the first breaking of an Indian than the desultory
-fall of a Zanzibar wet-monsoon. I was still under the impression that we
-were encountering the Choti Barsat or Little Rains of Bengal and Bombay;
-and curious to say, the Arabs of Unyanyembe one and all declared, even
-after the wet-monsoon had reached its height, that the Masika in
-Unyamwezi is synchronous with that of the island and the coast, namely,
-in early April.
-
-The Rains in Eastern Africa are, like the summer in England, the only
-healthy and enjoyable season: the contrast between the freshness of the
-air and the verdure of the scenery after the heat, dust, and desolation
-that preceded the first showers, was truly luxurious. Yet the Masika has
-many disadvantages for travellers. The Wanyamwezi, who were sowing their
-fields, declined to act porters, and several Arab merchants, who could
-not afford the expenditure required to hire unwilling men, were halted
-perforce in and near Unyanyembe. The peasants would come in numbers;
-offer to accompany the caravan; stand, stare, and laugh their vacant
-laughs; lift and balance their packs; chaffer about hire; promise to
-return next morning, and definitively disappear. With the utmost
-exertion Snay bin Amir could collect only ten men, and they were all
-ready to desert. Moreover, the opening of the Masika is ever unhealthy;
-strangers suffer severely from all sudden changes of temperature;
-Unyamwezi speedily became
-
- “As full of agues as the sun in March.”
-
-Another cause of delay became imminent; my companion was
-comparatively strong, but the others were prostrated by sickness.
-Valentine first gave in; he was nearly insensible for three days and
-nights, the usual period of the Mukunguru or “Seasoning” of Unyamwezi--a
-malignant bilious remittent--which left him weaker and thinner than he
-had ever been before. When he recovered, Gaetano fell ill, and was soon
-in the happy state of unconsciousness which distinguished all his
-fevers. The bull-headed slave Mabruki also retired into private life,
-and Bombay was laid up by a shaking ague, whilst the Baloch and the sons
-of Ramji, who had led a life so irregular that the Arabs had frequently
-threatened them with punishment, also began to pay the penalty of
-excess.
-
-Snay bin Amir was our principal doctor. An adept in the treatment,
-called by his countrymen “camel-physic,” namely, cautery and similar
-counter-irritants, he tried his art upon me when I followed the example
-of the party. At length, when the Hummah, or hot fit, refused to yield
-to its supposed specific, a coating of powdered ginger, he insisted upon
-my seeing a Mganga, or witch, celebrated for her cures throughout the
-country-side. She came, a wrinkled old beldame, with a greasy skin,
-black as soot, set off by a mass of tin-coloured pigtails: her arms were
-adorned with copper bangles like manacles, and the implement of her
-craft was, as usual, a girdle of small gourds dyed red-black with oil
-and use.
-
-After demanding and receiving her fee in cloth, she proceeded to search
-my mouth, and to inquire anxiously concerning poison. The question
-showed the prevalence of the practice in the country, and indeed the
-people, to judge from their general use of “Mithridates,” seem ever to
-expect it. She then drew from a gourd a greenish powder, which was
-apparently bhang, and having mixed it with water, she administered it
-like snuff, causing a convulsion of sneezing, which she hailed with
-shouts and various tokens of joy. Presently she rubbed my head with
-powder of another kind, and promising to return the next day, she left
-me to rest, declaring that sleep would cause a cure. The prediction,
-however, was not fulfilled, nor was the promise. Having become wealthy,
-she absconded to indulge in unlimited pombe for a week. The usual
-consequences of this “seasoning,” distressing weakness, hepatic
-derangements, burning palms, and tingling soles, aching eyes, and
-alternate thrills of heat and cold, lasted, in my case, a whole month.
-
-Our departure from Kazeh had now been repeatedly deferred. The fortnight
-originally fixed for the halt had soon passed in the vain search for
-porters. Sickness then delayed the journey till the 1st December, and
-Snay bin Amir still opined that want of carriage would detain me till
-the 19th of that month; he would not name the 18th, which was an unlucky
-day. When they recovered from their ailments, the Jemadar and the Baloch
-again began to be troublesome. All declared that a whole year, the term
-for which they had been sent by their Prince, had elapsed, and therefore
-that they had now a right to return. The period was wholly one of their
-own, based perhaps upon an answer which they had received from
-Lieut.-Col. Hamerton touching the probable duration of the Expedition,
-“a year or so.” Even of that time it still wanted five months, but
-nothing from myself or from Said bin Salim could convince men who would
-not be convinced, of that simple fact. Ismail, the Baloch, who was dying
-of dysentery, reported himself unable to proceed: arrangements were made
-to leave him and his “brother” Shahdad--the fearful tinkling of whose
-sleepless guitar argued that the sweet youth was in love--under the
-charge of Snay bin Amir, at Kazeh. Greybeard Mohammed was sulking with
-his fellows. He sat apart from them; and complaining that he had not
-received his portion of food, came to me for dismissal, which was
-granted, but not accepted. The Jemadar required for himself and the
-escort a porter per man. When this was refused, he changed his tactics,
-and began to lament bitterly the unavoidable delay. He annoyed me with
-ceaseless visits, which were spent in harping upon the one string, “When
-do we march?” At last I forbade all allusion to the subject. In wrath he
-demanded leave, declaring that he had not come to settle in Africa, and
-much “excessiveness” to the same effect. He was at last brought to his
-senses by being summarily turned out of the house for grossly insulting
-my companion. A reaction then ensued; the Baloch professed penitence,
-and all declared themselves ready to march or to halt as I pleased. Yet,
-simulating impatience to depart, they clung to the pleasures of Kazeh;
-they secretly caused the desertion of the porters, and they never ceased
-to spread idle reports, vainly hoping that I might be induced to return
-to the coast.
-
-Finally, Said bin Salim fulfilled at Kazeh Lieut.-Col. Hamerton’s acute
-prophecy. The Bukini blood of his mother--a Malagash slave--got the
-better of his Omani descent. I had long reformed my opinion concerning
-his generosity and kindheartedness, hastily concluded during a short
-cruise along the coast. “Man’s heart,” say the Arabs, “is known only in
-the fray, and man’s head is known only on the way.” But though
-high-flown sentiment and studied courtesy had disappeared with the first
-days of hardship and fatigue, he preserved for a time the semblance of
-respectability and respect. Presently, like the viler orders of
-Orientals, he presumed upon his usefulness, and his ability to forward
-the Expedition; the farther we progressed from our “_point d’appui_” the
-coast, the more independent became his manner,--of course it afterwards
-subsided into its former civility,--and an overpowering egotism formed
-the motive of his every action. I had imprudently allowed him to be
-accompanied by the charming Halimah. True to his servile origin, he
-never seemed happy except in servile society, where he was “king of his
-company.” At Kazeh, jealous of my regard for Snay bin Amir, and wearied
-by long evening conversations, where a little “ilm” or knowledge in the
-shape of history and divinity used to appear,--his ignorance and apathy
-concerning all things but A. bin B., and B. bin C., who married his son
-D. to the daughter of E., prevented his taking part in them,--he became
-first sulky, and then “contrarious.” Formerly he was wont, on the usual
-occasions, to address a word of salutation to my companion: this ceased,
-and presently he would pass him as if he had been a bale of cloth. He
-affected in society the indecorous posture of a European woman stretched
-upon a sofa, after crouching for months upon his shins,--in fact he was,
-as the phrase is, “trailing his jacket” for a quarrel.
-
-Through timidity he had been profuse in expending the goods entrusted to
-his charge, and he had been repeatedly reproved for serving out, without
-permission, cloth and beads to his children. Yet, before reaching
-Unyanyembe, I never had reason to suspect him of dishonesty or deceit.
-At Kazeh, however, he was ordered to sell a keg of gunpowder, before his
-slaves could purloin the whole. He reported that he had passed on the
-commission to Snay bin Amir. I also forbade him to issue hire to porters
-for a return-march from the Lake, having been informed that such was the
-best way to secure their desertion; and the information proved true
-enough, as twenty-five disappeared in a single night. He repeatedly
-affirmed that he had engaged and paid them for the up-march only. When
-he stood convicted of a double falsehood, he had _not_ spoken about the
-gunpowder, and he _had_ issued whole hire to several of the porters, I
-improved the occasion with a mild reproach. The little creature became
-vicious as a weasel, screamed like a hyæna, declared himself no tallab
-or “asker,” but an official under his government, and poured forth a
-torrent of justification. I cut the same short by leaving the room--a
-confirmed slight in these lands--and left him to rough language on the
-part of Snay bin Amir. Some hours subsequently he recovered his temper,
-and observed that “even husband and wife must occasionally have a gird
-at each other.” Not caring, however, for a repetition of such
-puerilities, I changed the tone of kindness in which he had invariably
-been addressed, for one of routine command, and this was preserved till
-the day of our final parting on the coast.
-
-The good Snay bin Amir redoubled his attentions. His slaves strung in
-proper lengths, upon the usual palm-fibre, the beads sent up loose from
-Zanzibar; and he distributed the bales in due proportions for carriage.
-Our lights being almost exhausted, he made for us “dips,” by ladling
-over wicks of unravelled “domestics” the contents of a cauldron filled
-with equal parts of hot wax and tallow. My servant, Valentine, who,
-evincing uncommon aptitude for cooking, had as yet acquired only that
-wretched art of burlesquing coarse English dishes which renders the
-table in Western India a standing mortification to man’s palate, was
-apprenticed to Mama Khamisi, a buxom housekeeper in Snay’s
-establishment. There, in addition to his various Goanese
-accomplishments--making curds and whey, butter, cheese, and ghee;
-potting fish, pickling onions and limes, and preparing jams and jelly
-from the pleasant and cooling rosel,--he learned the art of yeasting
-bread with whey or sour bean-flour (his leathery scones of coarse meal
-were an abomination to us); of straining honey, of preparing the
-favourite “Kawurmeh,” jerked or smoked meat chipped up and soused in
-ghee; of making Firni, rice-jelly, and Halwa, confectionery, in the
-shape of “Kazi’s luggage,” and “hand-works:” he was taught to make ink
-from burnt grain; and last, not least, the trick of boiling rice as it
-should be boiled. We, in turn, taught him the various sciences of
-bird-stuffing, of boiling down isinglass and ghee, of doctoring tobacco
-with plantain, heeart, and tea leaves, and of making milk-punch, cigars,
-and guraku for the hookah. Snay bin Amir also sent into the country for
-plantains and tamarinds, then unprocurable at Kazeh, and he brewed a
-quantity of beer and mawa or plantain-wine. He admonished the Baloch and
-the sons of Ramji to be more careful, as regards conduct and
-expenditure. He lent me valuable assistance in sketching the outlines of
-the Kinyamwezi, or language of Unyamwezi, and by his distances and
-directions we were enabled to lay down the Southern limits, and the
-general shape of the Nyanza or Northern Lake, as correctly--and the maps
-forwarded from Kazeh to the Royal Geographical Society will establish
-this fact--as they were subsequently determined, after actual
-exploration, by my companion. He took charge of our letters and papers
-intended for home, and he undertook to forward the lagging gang still
-expected from the Coast: as the future will prove, his energy enabled me
-to receive the much wanted reserve in the “nick of time.”
-
-At length, it became apparent that no other porters were procurable at
-Kazeh, and that the restiff Baloch and the sons of Ramji disdaining
-Cæsar’s “ite,” required his “venite.” I therefore resolved to lead them,
-instead of expending time and trouble in driving them, trusting that old
-habit, and that the difficulties attending their remaining behind would
-induce them to follow me. After much murmuring, my companion preceded me
-on the 5th December, and “made a Khambi,” at Zimbili, a lumpy hill, with
-a north and south lay, and conspicuous as a landmark from the Arab
-settlements, which are separated from it by a march of two hours. On the
-third day I followed him, in truth, more dead than alive,--the wing of
-Azrael seemed waving over my head,--even the movement of the Manchila
-was almost unendurable. I found cold and comfortless quarters in a large
-village at the base of Zimbili, no cartel was procurable, the roof
-leaked, and every night brought with it a furious storm of lightning,
-wind, and rain. By slow degrees, the Baloch began to drop in, a few of
-the sons of Ramji, and the donkey-men followed, half-a-dozen additional
-porters were engaged, and I was recovering strength to advance once
-more, when the report that our long-expected caravan was halted at
-Rubuga, in consequence of desertion, rendered a further delay necessary.
-My companion returned to Kazeh, to await the arrival of the
-reserve-supplies, and I proceeded onwards to collect a gang for the
-journey westwards.
-
-At 10 A.M., on the 15th December, I mounted the Manchila, carried by six
-slaves, hired by Snay bin Amir, from Khamis bin Salim at the rate of
-three pounds of white beads each, for the journey to Msene. After my
-long imprisonment, I was charmed with the prospect, a fine open country,
-with well-wooded hills rolling into blue distance on either hand. A two
-hours’ ride placed me at Yombo, a new and picturesque village of
-circular tents, surrounded by plantains and wild fruit-trees. The Mkuba
-bears an edible red plum, which, though scanty of flesh, as usual, where
-man’s care is wanting, was found by no means unpalatable. The Metrongoma
-produces a chocolate-coloured fruit, about the size of a cherry: it is
-eaten, but it lacks the grateful acid of the Mkuba. The gigantic Palmyra
-or Borassus, which failed in the barren platform of Ugogo, here
-re-appears, and hence extends to the Tanganyika Lake.
-
-I halted two days at Yombo: the situation was low and unhealthy, and
-provisions were procurable in homœopathic quantities. My only amusement
-there was to watch the softer part of the population. At eventide, when
-the labours of the day were past and done, the villagers came home in a
-body, laden with their implements of cultivation, and singing a kind of
-“dulce domum,” in a simple and pleasing recitative. The sunset hour, in
-the “Land of the Moon,” is replete with enjoyments. The sweet and balmy
-breeze floats in waves, like the draught of a fan; the sky is softly and
-serenely blue; the fleecy clouds, stationary in the upper firmament, are
-robed in purple and gold, and the beautiful blush, crimsoning the west,
-is reflected by all the features of earth. At this time, all is life.
-The vulture soars with silent flight, high in the blue expanse; the
-small birds preen themselves for the night, and sing their evening
-hymns; the antelopes prepare to couch in the bush; the cattle and flocks
-frisk and gamble, whilst driven from their pastures; and the people busy
-themselves with the simple pleasures that end the day. Every evening
-there is a smoking party, which particularly attracts my attention. All
-the feminine part of the population, from wrinkled grandmother to the
-maiden scarcely in her teens, assemble together, and sitting in a circle
-upon dwarf stools and logs of wood, apply themselves to their long
-black-bowl’d pipes.
-
- “Sæpe illæ long-cut vel short-cut flare tobacco
- Sunt solitæ pipos.”
-
-They smoke with an intense enjoyment, slowly and deeply inhaling
-the glorious weed, and exhaling clouds from their nostrils; at times
-they stop to cool the mouth with slices of raw manioc, or cobs of green
-maize roasted in the ashes; and often some earnest matter of local
-importance causes the pipes to be removed for a few minutes, and a
-clamour of tongues breaks the usual silence. The pipe also requires
-remark: the bowl is of imperfect material--the clay being
-half-baked--but the shape is perfect. The African tapering cone is far
-superior to the European bowl: the former gives as much smoke as
-possible whilst the tobacco is fresh and untainted, and as little when
-it becomes hot and unpleasant; the latter acts on the contrary
-principle. Amongst the fair of Yombo, there were no less than three
-beauties--women who would be deemed beautiful in any part of the world.
-Their faces were purely Grecian; they had laughing eyes, their figures
-were models for an artist, with--
-
- “Turgide, brune e ritondette mamme,”
-
-like the “bending statue that delights the world” cast in bronze.
-The dress--a short kilt of calabash fibre,--rather set off than
-concealed their charms, and though destitute of petticoat or crinoline
-they were wholly unconscious of indecorum. It is a question that by no
-means can be positively answered in the affirmative, that real modesty
-is less in proportion to the absence of toilette. These “beautiful
-domestic animals” graciously smiled when in my best Kinyamwezi I did my
-devoir to the sex; and the present of a little tobacco always secured
-for me a seat in the undress circle.
-
-After hiring twenty porters--five lost no time in deserting--and
-mustering the Baloch, of whom eleven now were present, I left Yombo on
-the 18th December, and passing through a thick green jungle, with low,
-wooded, and stony hills rising on the left hand, to about 4000 feet
-above sea-level, I entered the little settlement of Pano. The next day
-brought us to the clearing of Mfuto, a broad, populous, and fertile
-rolling plain, where the stately tamarind flourished to perfection. A
-third short march, through alternate patches of thin wood and field,
-studded with granite blocks, led to Irora, a village in Western Mfuto,
-belonging to Salim bin Salih, an Arab from Mbuamaji, and a cousin of
-Said bin Mohammed, my former travelling companion, who had remained
-behind at Kazeh. This individual, a fat, pulpy, and dingy-coloured
-mulatto, appeared naked to the waist, and armed with bow and arrows: he
-received me surlily, and when I objected to a wretched cow-shed outside
-his palisade, he suddenly waxed furious: he raved like a madman, shook
-his silly bow, and declared that he ignored the name of the Sayyid
-Majid, being himself as good a “Sultan” as any other. He became pacified
-on perceiving that his wrath excited nothing but the ridicule of the
-Baloch, found a better lodging, sent a bowl of fresh milk wherein to
-drown differences, and behaved on this and a subsequent occasion more
-like an Arab Shaykh, than an African headman.
-
-On the 22nd December my companion rejoined me, bringing four loads of
-cloth, three of beads, and seven of brass wire: they formed part of the
-burden of the twenty-two porters who were to join the Expedition ten
-days after its departure from the coast. The Hindus, Ladha Damha and Mr.
-Rush Ramji, after the decease of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, had behaved
-with culpable neglect. The cloth was of the worst and flimsiest
-description; the beads were the cheap white and the useless black--the
-latter I was obliged to throw away; and as they sent up the supply
-without other guard than two armed slaves, “Mshindo” and “Kirikhota,”
-the consequence was that the pair had plundered _ad libitum_. No letters
-had been forwarded, and no attention had been paid to my repeated
-requests for drugs and other stores. My companion’s new gang, levied at
-Kazeh, affected the greatest impatience. They refused to halt for a
-day,--even Christmas day. They proposed double marches, and they
-resolved to proceed by the straight road to Msene. It was deemed best to
-humour them. They arrived, however, at their destination only one day
-before my party, who travelled leisurely, and who followed the longer
-and the more cultivated route.
-
-We left Irora on the 23rd December, and marched from sunrise till noon
-to the district of Eastern Wilyankuru. There we again separated. On the
-next day I passed alone through the settlement called Muinyi Chandi,
-where certain Arabs from Oman had built large Tembe, to serve as
-barracoons and warehouses. This district supplies the adjoining
-countries with turmeric, of which very little grows in Unyanyembe. After
-this march disappeared the last of the six hammals who had been hired to
-carry the hammocks. They were as unmanageable as wild asses, ever
-grumbling and begging for “kitoweyo,”--“kitchen;”--constitutionally
-unfitted to obey an order; disposed, as the noble savage generally is,
-to be insolent; and, like all porters in this part of the world, unable
-to carry a palanquin. Two men, instead of four, insisted upon bearing
-the hammock; thus overburdened and wishing to get over the work, they
-hurried themselves till out of breath. When one was fagged, the man that
-should have relieved him was rarely to be found, consequently two or
-three stiff trudges knocked them up and made them desert. Said bin
-Salim, the Jemadar, and the Baloch, doubtlessly impressed with the
-belief that my days were numbered, passed me on the last march without a
-word--the sun was hot, and they were hastening to shade--and left me
-with only two men to carry the hammock, in a dangerous strip of jungle
-where, shortly afterwards, Salim bin Masud, an Arab merchant of Msene,
-was murdered.
-
-On Christmas day I again mounted ass, and passing through the western
-third of the Wilyankuru district, was hospitably received by a wealthy
-proprietor, Salim bin Said, surnamed, probably on account of his
-stature, Simba, or the Lion, who had obtained from the Sultan Mrorwa
-permission to build a large Tembe. The worthy and kind-hearted Arab
-exerted himself strenuously to promote the comfort of his guest. He led
-me to a comfortable lodging, placed a new cartel in the coolest room,
-supplied meat, milk, and honey, and spent the evening in conversation
-with me. He was a large middle-aged man, with simple, kindly manners,
-and an honesty of look and words which rendered his presence exceedingly
-prepossessing.
-
-After a short and eventless march, on the 26th December, to Masenge, I
-reached on the following day the little clearing of Kirira. I was
-unexpectedly welcomed by two Arabs, Masud ibn Musallam el Wardi, and
-Hamid bin Ibrahim el Amuri. The former, an old man of the Beni Bu Ali
-clan, and personally familiar with Sir Lionel Smith’s exploits, led me
-into the settlement, which was heaped round with a tall green growth of
-milkbush, and placed me upon a cartel in the cool and spacious barzah or
-vestibule of the Tembe. From my vantage-ground I enjoyed the pleasant
-prospect of those many little miseries which Orientals--perhaps not only
-Orientals--create for themselves by “ceremony” and “politeness.” Weary
-and fagged by sun and dust, the Baloch were kept standing for nearly
-half an hour before the preliminaries to sitting down could be arranged
-and the party could be marshalled in proper order,--the most honourable
-man on the left hand of the host, and the “lower class” off the dais or
-raised step;--and, when they commenced to squat, they reposed upon their
-shins, and could not remove their arms or accoutrements till especially
-invited to hang them up. Hungry and thirsty, they dared not commit the
-solecism of asking for food or drink; they waited from 9 A.M. till noon,
-sometimes eyeing the door with wistful looks, but generally affecting an
-extreme indifference as to feeding. At length came the meal, a mountain
-of rice, capped with little boulders of mutton. It was allowed to cool
-long before precedence round the tray was settled, and ere the grace,
-“Bismillah,”--the signal to “set to,”--was reverentially asked by Said
-bin Salim. Followed a preparation of curdled milk, for which spoons
-being requisite, a wooden ladle did the necessary. There was much
-bustling and not a little importance about Hamid, the younger host, a
-bilious subject twenty-four or twenty-five years old, who for reasons
-best known to himself assumed the style and title of Sarkal,--Government
-servant. The meal concluded with becoming haste, and was followed by
-that agreeable appearance of repletion which is so pleasing to the
-Oriental Amphitryon. The Baloch returned to squat upon their shins, and
-they must have suffered agonies till 5 P.M., when the appearance of a
-second and a more ceremonious repast enabled them once more to perch
-upon their heels. It was hard eating this time; the shorwa, or mutton
-broth, thickened with melted butter, attracted admiration; the guests,
-however, could only hint at its excellences, because in the East if you
-praise a man’s meat you intend to slight his society. The _plat de
-résistance_ was, as usual, the pillaw, or, as it is here called,
-pulao,--not the conventional mess of rice and fowl, almonds and raisins,
-onion-shreds, cardomoms, and other abominations, which goes by that name
-amongst Anglo-Indians, but a solid heap of rice, boiled after being
-greased with a handful of ghee--
-
-(I must here indulge in a little digression. For the past century, which
-concluded with reducing India to the rank of a British province, the
-proud invader has eaten her rice after a fashion which has secured for
-him the contempt of the East. He deliberately boils it, and after
-drawing off the nutritious starch or gluten called “conjee,” which forms
-the perquisite of his Portuguese or his Pariah cook, he is fain to fill
-himself with that which has become little more nutritious than the
-prodigal’s husks. Great, indeed, is the invader’s ignorance upon that
-point. Peace be to the manes of Lord Macaulay, but listen to and wonder
-at his eloquent words!--“The Sepoys came to Clive, not to complain of
-their scanty fare, but to propose that all the grain should be given to
-the Europeans, who required more nourishment than the natives of Asia.
-The thin gruel, they said, which was strained away from the rice would
-suffice for themselves. History contains no more touching instance of
-military fidelity, or of the influence of a commanding mind.” Indians
-never fail to drink the “conjee.” The Arab, on the other hand, mingles
-with his rice a sufficiency of ghee to prevent the extraction of the
-“thin gruel,” and thus makes the grain as palatable and as nutritious as
-Nature intended it to be.)
-
---and dotted over with morsels of fowl, so boiled that they shredded
-like yarn under the teeth. This repast again concluded with a bowl of
-sweetened milk, and other entremets, for which both hosts amply
-apologised; the house had lately been burned down, and honey had been
-used instead of sugar. The day concluded with prayers, with a seance in
-the verandah and with drinking fresh milk out of gourds--a state of
-things which again demanded excuses. A multitude of “Washenzi” thronged
-into the house, especially during the afternoon, to gaze at the Muzungu.
-I was formally presented to the Sultan Kafrira, a tall and wrinkled
-elder, celebrated for ready wits and spear. The sons of Ramji had often
-looked in at the door whilst preparations for feeding were going on, but
-they were not asked to sit down: the haughty host had provided them with
-a lean goat, in return for which they privily expressed an opinion that
-he was a “dog.” Masud, boasting of his intimacy with the Sultan
-Msimbira, whose subjects had plundered our portmanteau, offered on
-return to Unyanyembe his personal services in ransoming it. I accepted
-with joy; but the Shaykh Masud, as afterwards proved, nearly “left his
-skin” in the undertaking.
-
-The climate of Kíríra is called by the Arabs a medicine. They vaunt its
-virtues, which become apparent after the unhealthy air of Kazeh, and
-after a delicious night spent in the cool barzah, I had no reason to
-question its reputation. I arose in the morning wonderfully refreshed,
-and Valentine, who had been prostrated with fever throughout the day,
-became another man. Yet the situation was apparently unpropitious; the
-Gombe Nullah, the main drain of this region, a line of stagnant pools,
-belted with almost impassable vegetation, lies hard by, and the
-background is an expanse of densest jungle.
-
-Three short and eventless marches through thick jungle, with scattered
-clearings, led me, on the 30th December, to the district of Msene, where
-the dense wild growth lately traversed suddenly opens out and discloses
-to the west a broad view of admirable fertility. Before entering the
-settlements, the caravan halted, as usual, to form up. We then
-progressed with the usual pomp and circumstance; the noise was terrific,
-and the streets, or rather the spaces between the houses, were lined
-with Negroid spectators. I was led to the Tembe of one Saadullah, a
-low-caste Msawahili, and there found my companion looking but poorly.
-Gaetano, his “boy,” was so excited by the scene, that he fell down in a
-fit closely resembling epilepsy.
-
-Msene, the chief Bandari of Western Unyamwezi, may be called the capital
-of the Coast Arabs and the Wasawahili, who, having a natural antipathy
-to their brethren of Oman, have abandoned to them Unyanyembe and its
-vicinity. Of late years, however, the Omani merchants, having been
-driven from the neighbouring districts by sundry murders into Msene, may
-at times be met there to the number of four or five. The inhabitants are
-chiefly Wasumbwá, a subtribe of the Wanyamwezi race. There is, however,
-besides Arabs and Wasawahili, a large floating population of the
-pastoral clan called Watosi, and fugitives from Uhha. In 1858 the chief
-of Msene was the Sultan Masanza. Both he and Funza, his brother, were
-hospitable and friendly to travellers, especially to the Arabs, who but
-a few years ago beat off with their armed slaves a large plundering
-party of the ferocious Watuta. This chief has considerable power, and
-the heads of many criminals elevated upon poles in front of his several
-villages show that he rules with a firm hand. He is never approached by
-a subject without the clapping of hands and the kneeling which in these
-lands are the honours paid to royalty. He was a large-limbed, gaunt, and
-sinewy old man, dressed in a dirty Subai or Arab check, over a coating
-of rancid butter, with a broad brass disk, neatly arabesqued, round his
-neck, with a multitude of little pigtails where his head was not bald,
-and with some thirty sambo or flexible wire rings deforming, as if by
-elephantiasis, his ankles. Like the generality of sultans, he despises
-beads as an article of decoration, preferring coils of brass or copper.
-He called several times at the house occupied by the Expedition, and on
-more than one occasion brought with him a bevy of wives, whose
-deportment was, I regret to say, rather naïve than decorous.
-
-Msene, like Unyanyembe, is not a town, but a mass of detached
-settlements, which are unconscious of a regular street. To the
-northwards lie the villages of the Sultan--Kwihángá and Yovu. These are
-surrounded with a strong stockade, a deep moat, and a thick milk-bush
-hedge, intended for defence. The interior is occupied by thatched
-circular huts, divided by open squarelike spaces, and wynds and
-alleys are formed by milk-bush hedges and palisades. There are distinct
-places for the several wives, families, and slaves. The other
-settlements--Mbugání (“in the wild”) and Mji Mpia (“new town”), the
-latter being the place affected by the Wasawahili--cluster in a circle,
-separated by short cross-roads, which after rain are ankle-deep in mud,
-from Chyámbo, the favourite locale of the Coast Arabs. This settlement,
-which contained in 1858 nine large Tembe and about 150 huts, boasts of
-an African attempt at a soko or bazar, a clear space between the houses,
-where, in fine weather, bullocks are daily slaughtered for food, and
-where grain, vegetables, and milk are exposed for sale. At Msene a fresh
-outfit of cloth, beads, and wire can be procured for a price somewhat
-higher than at Unyanyembe. The merchants have small stores of drugs and
-spices, and sometimes a few comforts, as coffee, tea, and sugar. The
-latter is generally made of granulated honey, and therefore called
-sukárí zá ásalí. The climate of Msene is damp, the neighbouring hills
-and the thickly-vegetated country attracting an abundance of rain. It is
-exceedingly unhealthy, the result doubtless of filth in the villages and
-stagnant waters spread over the land. The Gombe Nullah, which runs
-through the district, about six hours’ march from the settlements,
-discharges after rain its superfluous contents into the many lakelets,
-ponds, and swamps of the lowlands. Fertilised by a wet monsoon, whose
-floods from the middle of October to May are interrupted only by bursts
-of fervent heat, the fat, black soil manured by the decay of centuries,
-reproduces abundantly anything committed to it. Flowers bloom
-spontaneously over the flats, and trees put forth their richest raiment.
-Rice of the red quality--the white is rare and dear--grows with a
-density and a rapidity unknown in Eastern Unyamwezi. Holcus and millet,
-maize and manioc, are plentiful enough to be exported. Magnificent
-palmyras, bauhinias and sycomores, plantains, and papaws, and a host of
-wild fruit-trees, especially the tamarind, which is extensively used,
-adorn the land. The other productions are onions, sweet potatoes, and
-egg-plants, which are cultivated; turmeric, brought from the vicinity;
-tomatos and bird-pepper, which grow wild; pulse, beans, pumpkins,
-water-melons, excellent mushrooms, and edible fungi. Milk, poultry,
-honey, and tobacco are cheap and plentiful. The currency at Msene in
-1858--the date is specified, as the medium is liable to perpetual and
-sudden change, often causing severe losses to merchants, who, after
-laying in a large outfit of certain beads, find them suddenly
-unfashionable, and therefore useless--was the “pipe-stem,” white and
-blue porcelain-beads, called sofi in the string, and individually msaro.
-Of these ten were sufficient to purchase a pound of beef. The other
-beads in demand were the sungomaji, or pigeon-egg, the red-coral, the
-pink-porcelain, and the shell-decorations called kiwangwa. The cheaper
-varieties may be exchanged for grain and vegetables, but they will not
-purchase fowls, milk, and eggs. At this place only, the palmyra is
-tapped for toddy; in other parts of East Africa the people are unable to
-climb it. The market at Msene is usually somewhat cheaper than that of
-Unyanyembe, but at times the prices become very exorbitant.
-
-The industry of Msene is confined to manufacturing a few cotton cloths,
-coarse mats, clay pipeheads, and ironmongery. As might be expected from
-the constitution of its society, Msene is a place of gross debauchery,
-most grateful to the African mind. All, from sultan to slave, are
-intoxicated whenever the material is forthcoming, and the relations
-between the sexes are of the loosest description. The drum is never
-silent, and the dance fills up the spare intervals of carouse, till
-exhausted nature can no more. The consequence is, that caravans
-invariably lose numbers by desertion when passing through Msene. Even
-household slaves, born and bred upon the coast, cannot tear themselves
-from its Circean charms.
-
-There was “cold comfort” at Msene, where I was delayed twelve days. The
-clay roof of the Tembe was weed-grown like a deserted grave, and in the
-foul patio or central court-yard only dirty puddles set in black mud met
-the eye. The weather was what only they can realise who are familiar
-with a “Rainy Monsoon.” The temptations of the town rendered it almost
-impossible to keep a servant or a slave within doors; the sons of Ramji
-vigorously engaged themselves in trading, and Muinyi Wazira in a
-debauch, which ended in his dismissal. Gaetano had repeated epileptic
-fits, and Valentine rushed into the room half-crying to show a white
-animalcule--in this country called Funza--which had lately issued from
-his “buff.” None of the half-caste Arabs, except I’d and Khalfan, sons
-of Muallim Salim, the youths who had spread evil reports concerning us
-in Ugogo and elsewhere, called or showed any civility, and the only Arab
-at that time resident at Msene was the old Salim bin Masud. I received
-several visits from the Sultan Masanza. His first greeting was, “White
-man, what pretty thing hast thou brought up from the shore for me?” He
-presented a bullock, and received in return several cloths and strings
-of beads, and he introduced to us a variety of princesses, who returned
-the salutes of the Baloch and others with a wild effusion. As
-Christmas-day had been spent in marching, I hailed the opportunity of
-celebrating the advent of the New Year. Said bin Salim, the Jemadar, and
-several of the guard, were invited to an English dinner on a fair
-sirloin of beef, and a curious succedaneum for a plum-pudding, where
-neither flour nor currants were to be found. A characteristic trait
-manifested itself on this occasion. Amongst Arabs, the remnants of a
-feast must always be distributed to the servants and slaves of the
-guests;--a “brass knocker” would lose a man’s reputation. Knowing this,
-I had ordered the Goanese to do in Rome as the Romans do; and being
-acquainted with their peculiarities, I paid them an unexpected visit,
-where they were found so absorbed in the task of hiding, under pots and
-pans, every better morsel from a crowd of hungry peerers that the
-interruption of a stick was deemed necessary.
-
-At length, on the 10th January, 1858, I left Msene with considerable
-difficulty. The Kirangozi, or guide, who had promised to accompany me,
-had sent an incompetent substitute, his brother, a raw young lad, who
-had no power to collect porters. The sons of Ramji positively refused to
-lend their aid in strengthening the gang. One of Said bin Salim’s
-children, the boy Faraj, had fled to Kazeh. The bull-headed Mabruki was
-brought back from flight only by the persuasion of his brother “Bombay,”
-and even “Bombay,” under the influence of some negroid Neæra, at the
-time of departure hid himself in his hut. All feared the march
-westwards. A long strip of blue hill lying northwards ever keeps the
-traveller in mind of the robber Watuta, and in places where the clans
-are mixed, all are equally hostile to strangers. Villages are less
-frequented and more meanly built, and caravans are not admitted beyond
-the faubourgs--the miserable huts outlying the fences. The land also is
-most unhealthy. After the rain, the rich dark loam becomes, like the
-black soils of Guzerat and the Deccan, a coat of viscid mire. Above is a
-canopy of cumulus and purple nimbus, that discharge their loads in
-copious day-long floods. The vegetation is excessive, and where there is
-no cultivation a dense matting of coarse grass, laid by wind and water
-and decayed by mud, veils the earth, and from below rises a clammy
-chill, like the thaw-cold of England, the effect of extreme humidity.
-And, finally, the paths are mere lines, pitted with deep holes, and worn
-by cattle through the jungle.
-
-After an hour and thirty minutes’ march I entered Mb’hali, the normal
-cultivator’s village in Western Unyamwezi;--a heap of dwarf huts like
-inverted birds’ nests surrounding a central space, and surrounded by
-giant heaps of euphorbia or milk-bush. Tall grasses were growing almost
-up to the door-ways, and about the settlement were scattered papaws and
-plantains; the Mwongo, with its damson-like fruit, the Mtogwe or
-wood-apple tree, and the tall solitary Palmyra, whose high columnar
-stem, with its graceful central swell, was eminently attractive. We did
-not delay at Mb’hali, whence provisions had been exhausted by the
-markets of Msene. The 11th January led us through a dense jungle upon a
-dead flat, succeeded by rolling ground bordered with low hills and
-covered with alternate bush and cultivation, to Sengati, another similar
-verdure-clad village of peasantry, where rice and other supplies were
-procurable. On the 12th January, after passing over a dead flat of
-fields and of the rankest grass, we entered rolling ground in the
-vicinity of the Gombe Nullah, with scattered huts upon the rises, and
-villages built close to the dense vegetation bordering upon the stream.
-Sorora or Solola is one of the deadliest spots in Unyamwezi; we were
-delayed there, however, three long days, by the necessity of collecting
-a two months’ supply of rice, which is rarely to be obtained further
-west.
-
-The non-appearance of the sons of Ramji rendered it necessary to take a
-strong step. I could ill afford the loss of twelve guns, but Kidogo and
-his men had become insufferable: moreover, they had openly boasted that
-they intended to prevent my embarking upon the “Sea of Ujiji.” Despite
-therefore the persuasions of the Jemadar and Said bin Salim, who looked
-as if they had heard their death-warrants, I summoned the slaves, who
-first condescended to appear on the 13th January--three days after my
-departure,--informed them that the six months for which they were
-engaged and paid had expired, and that they had better return and
-transact their proprietor’s business at Kazeh. They changed, it is true,
-their tone and manner, pathetically pleaded, as an excuse for their ill
-conduct, that they were slaves, and promised in future to be the most
-obedient of servants. But they had deceived me too often, and I feared
-that, if led forwards, they might compromise the success of the
-exploration. They were therefore formally dismissed, with a supply of
-cloth and beads sufficient to reach Kazeh, a letter to their master, and
-another paper to Snay bin Amir, authorising him to frank them to their
-homes. Kidogo departed, declaring that he would carry off perforce, if
-necessary, the four donkey-drivers who had been engaged and paid for the
-journey to the “Sea of Ujiji” and back: as two of these men, Nasibu and
-Hassani, openly threatened to desert, they were at once put in irons and
-entrusted to the Baloch. They took oaths on the Koran, and, by strong
-swearing, persuaded Said bin Salim and their guard to obtain my
-permission for their release. I gave it unwillingly, and on the next
-march they “levanted,” carrying off, as runaway slaves are wont to do, a
-knife, some cloth, and other necessaries belonging to Sangora, a brother
-donkey-driver. Sangora returning without leave, to recover his goods,
-was seized, tied up, and severely fustigated by the inexorable Kidogo,
-for daring to be retained whilst he himself was dismissed.
-
-The Kirangozi and Bombay having rejoined at Sorora, the Expedition left
-it on the 16th January. Traversing a fetid marsh, the road plunged into
-a forest, and crossed a sharp elbow of the Gombe Nullah, upon whose
-grassy and reedy banks lay a few dilapidated “baumrinden” canoes,
-showing that at times the bed becomes unfordable. Having passed that
-night at Ukungwe, and the next at Panda, dirty little villages, where
-the main of the people’s diet seemed to be mushrooms resembling ours and
-a large white fungus growing over the grassy rises, on the 18th January
-we entered Kajjanjeri.
-
-Kajjanjeri appeared in the shape of a circle of round huts. Its climate
-is ever the terror of travellers: to judge from the mud and vegetation
-covering the floors, the cultivators of the fields around usually retire
-to another place during the rainy season. Here a formidable obstacle to
-progress presented itself. I had been suffering for some days: the
-miasmatic air of Sorora had sown the seeds of fresh illness. About 3
-P.M., I was obliged to lay aside the ephemeris by an unusual sensation
-of nervous irritability, which was followed by a general shudder as in
-the cold paroxysm of fevers. Presently the extremities began to weigh
-and to burn as if exposed to a glowing fire, and a pair of jack-boots,
-the companions of many a day and night, became too tight and heavy to
-wear. At sunset, the attack had reached its height. I saw yawning wide
-to receive me
-
- “those dark gates across the wild
- That no man knows.”
-
-The whole body was palsied, powerless, motionless, and the limbs
-appeared to wither and die; the feet had lost all sensation, except a
-throbbing and tingling, as if pricked by a number of needle points; the
-arms refused to be directed by will, and to the hands the touch of cloth
-and stone was the same. Gradually the attack seemed to spread upwards
-till it compressed the ribs; there, however, it stopped short.
-
-This, at a distance of two months from medical aid, and with the
-principal labour of the Expedition still in prospect! However, I was
-easily consoled. Hope, says the Arab, is woman, Despair is man. If one
-of us was lost, the other might survive to carry home the results of the
-exploration. I had undertaken the journey in the “nothing-like-leather”
-state of mind, with the resolve either to do or die. I had done my best,
-and now nothing appeared to remain for me but to die as well.
-
-Said bin Salim, when sent for, declared, by a “la haul!” the case beyond
-his skill; it was one of partial paralysis brought on by malaria, with
-which the faculty in India are familiar. The Arab consulted a Msawahili
-Fundi, or caravan-guard, who had joined us on the road, and this man
-declared that a similar accident had once occurred to himself and his
-little party in consequence of eating poisoned mushrooms. I tried the
-usual remedies without effect, and the duration of the attack presently
-revealed what it was. The contraction of the muscles, which were
-tightened like ligatures above and below the knees, and those λυτα
-γουνατα, a pathological symptom which the old Greek loves to specify,
-prevented me from walking to any distance for nearly a year; the
-numbness of the hands and feet disappeared even more slowly. The Fundi,
-however, successfully predicted that I should be able to move in ten
-days--on the tenth I again mounted my ass.
-
-This unforeseen misfortune detained the caravan at Kajjanjeri till
-porters could be procured for the hammock. On the 21st January four men
-were with difficulty persuaded to carry me over the first march to
-Usagozi. This gang was afterwards increased to six men, who severally
-received six cloths for the journey to Ujiji; they all “bolted” eight
-days after their engagement, and before completing half the journey.
-These men were sturdier than the former set of Hammals, but being
-related to the Sultan of Usagozi, they were even more boisterous,
-troublesome, and insolent. One of them narrowly escaped a pistol bullet;
-he ceased, however, stabbing with his dagger at the slave Mabruki before
-the extreme measure became necessary.
-
-Usagozi was of old the capital province of Unyamwezi, and is still one
-of its principal and most civilised divisions. Some authorities make
-Usagozi the western frontier of Unyamwezi, others place the boundary at
-Mukozimo, a few miles to the westward; it is certain, however, that
-beyond Usagozi the Wanyamwezi are but part-proprietors of the soil. The
-country is laid out in alternate seams of grassy plains, dense jungle,
-and fertile field. The soil is a dark vegetable humus, which bears
-luxuriant crops of grain, vegetables, and tobacco; honey-logs hang upon
-every large tree, cattle are sold to travellers, and the people are
-deterred by the aspect of a dozen discoloured skulls capping tall poles,
-planted in a semicircle at the main entrance of each settlement, from
-doing violence to caravans. When I visited Usagozi it was governed by
-“Sultan Ryombo,” an old chief “adorned with much Christian courtesy.”
-His subjects are Wakalaganza, the noble tribe of the Wanyamwezi, mixed,
-however with the Watosi, a fine-looking race, markedly superior to their
-neighbours, but satisfied with leaky, ragged, and filthy huts, and large
-but unfenced villages. The general dress of the Wakalaganza is
-bark-cloth, stained a dull black.
-
-We halted three days on the western extremity of the Usagozi district,
-detained by another unpleasant phenomenon. My companion, whose blood had
-been impoverished, and whose system had been reduced by many fevers, now
-began to suffer from “an inflammation of a low type, affecting the whole
-of the interior tunic of the eyes, particularly the iris, the choroid
-coat, and the retina;” he describes it as “an almost total blindness,
-rendering every object enclouded as by a misty veil.” The Goanese
-Valentine became similarly afflicted, almost on the same day; he
-complained of a “drop serene” in the shape of an inky blot--probably
-some of the black pigment of the iris deposited on the front of the
-lens--which completely excluded the light of day; yet the pupils
-contracted with regularity when covered with the hand, and as regularly
-dilated when it was removed. I suffered in a minor degree; for a few
-days webs of flitting muscæ obscured smaller objects and rendered
-distant vision impossible. My companion and servant, however,
-subsequently, at Ujiji, were tormented by inflammatory ophthalmia, which
-I escaped by the free use of “camel-medicine.”
-
-Quitting Usagozi on the 26th January, we marched through grain fields,
-thick jungle-strips, and low grassy and muddy savannahs to Masenza, a
-large and comfortable village of stray Wagara or Wagala, an extensive
-tribe, limiting Unyamwezi on the S. and S.E., at the distance of about a
-week’s march from the road. On the 27th January, after traversing
-cultivation, thick jungles, and low muddy bottoms of tall grass
-chequered with lofty tamarinds, we made the large well-palisadoed
-villages of the Mukozimo district, inhabited by a mixture of Wanyamwezi,
-with Wagara from the S.E. and Wawende from the S.W. The headman of one
-of these inhospitable “Kaya,” or fenced hamlets, would not house “men
-who ride asses.” The next station was Uganza, a populous settlement of
-Wawende, who admitted us into their faubourg, but refused to supply
-provisions. The 29th January saw us at the populous and fertile clearing
-of Usenye, where the mixed races lying between the Land of the Moon
-eastward, and Uvinza westward, give way to pure Wavinza, who are
-considered by travellers even more dangerous than their neighbours.
-
-Beyond Usenye we traversed a deep jungle where still lingered remains of
-villages which had been plundered and burned down by the Wawende and the
-Watuta, whose hills rose clearly defined on the right hand. Having
-passed the night at Rukunda, or Lukunda, on the 31st January we sighted
-the plain of the Malagarazi River. Northwards of the road ran the
-stream, and the low level of the country adjoining it had converted the
-bottoms into permanent beds of soft, deep, and slippery mire. The rest
-of the march was the usual country--jungle, fields, and grasses--and
-after a toilsome stretch, we unpacked at the settlement of Wanyika.
-
-At Wanyika we were delayed for a day by the necessity of settling
-Kuhonga, or blackmail, with the envoys of Mzogera. This great man, the
-principal Sultan of Uvinza, is also the Lord of the Malagarazi River. As
-he can enforce his claims by forbidding the ferrymen to assist
-strangers, he must be carefully humoured. He received about forty
-cloths, white and blue, six Kitindi or coil bracelets, and ten Fundo (or
-100 necklaces) of coral beads. It is equivalent in these lands to 50_l._
-in England. When all the items had been duly palavered over, we resumed
-our march on the 2nd February. The road, following an incline towards
-the valley of the river, in which bush and field alternated with shallow
-pools, black mud, and putrid grass, led to Unyanguruwwe, a miserable
-settlement, producing, however, millet in abundance, sweet potatoes, and
-the finest manioc. On the 3rd February we set out betimes. Spanning
-cultivation and undulating grassy ground, and passing over hill-opens to
-avoid the deeper swamps, we debouched from a jungle upon the
-river-plain, with the swift brown stream, then about fifty yards broad,
-swirling through the tall wet grasses of its banks on our right hand,
-hard by the road. Upon the off side a herd of elephants, forming Indian
-file, slowly broke through the reed-fence in front of them: our purblind
-eyes mistook them for buffaloes. Northwards lay an expanse of card-table
-plain, over which the stream, when in flood, debords to the distance of
-two miles, cutting it with deep creeks and inlets. The flat is bounded
-in the far offing by a sinuous line of faint blue hills, the haunts of
-the Watuta; whilst, westward and southward, rises the wall-shaped ridge,
-stony and wooded, which buttresses the left bank of the river for some
-days’ journey down the stream. We found lodgings for the night in a
-little village, called from its district Ugaga; we obtained provisions,
-and we lost no time in opening the question of ferryage. The Sultan
-Mzogera had sold his permission to cross the river. The Mutware, or
-Mutwale, the Lord of the Ferry, now required payment for his canoes.
-
-Whilst delayed at Ugaga by the scabrous question of how much was to be
-extracted from me, I will enter into a few geographical details
-concerning the Malagarazi River.
-
-The Malagarazi, corrupted by speculative geographers to Mdjigidgi,--the
-uneuphonious terminology of the “Mombas Mission Map,”--to “Magrassie”
-and to “Magozi,” has been wrongly represented to issue from the Sea of
-Ujiji. According to all travellers in these regions, it arises in the
-mountains of Urundi, at no great distance from the Kitangure, or River
-of Karagwah; but whilst the latter, springing from the upper
-counterslope, feeds the Nyanza or Northern Lake, the Malagarazi, rising
-in the lower slope of the equatorial range, trends to the south-east,
-till it becomes entangled in the decline of the Great Central African
-Depression--the hydrographical basin first indicated in his Address of
-1852 by Sir Roderick I. Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical
-Society of London.[10] Thence it sweeps round the southern base of
-Urundi, and, deflected westwards, it disembogues itself into the
-Tanganyika. Its mouth is in the land of Ukaranga, and the long
-promontory behind which it discharges its waters, is distinctly visible
-from Kawele, the head-quarters of caravans in Ujiji. The Malagarazi is
-not navigable; as in primary and transition countries generally, the bed
-is broken by rapids. Beyond the ferry, the slope becomes more
-pronounced, branch and channel-islets of sand and verdure divide the
-stream, and as every village near the banks appears to possess one or
-more canoes, it is probably unfordable. The main obstacle to crossing it
-on foot, over the broken and shallower parts near the rock-bars, would
-be the number and the daring of the crocodiles.
-
- [10] The following notice concerning a discovery which must ever be
- remembered as a triumph of geological hypothesis, was kindly forwarded
- to me by the discoverer:--
-
- “My speculations as to the whole African interior being a vast watery
- plateau-land of some elevation above the sea, but subtended on the
- east and west by much higher grounds, were based on the following
- data:--
-
- “The discovery in the central portion of the Cape colony, by Mr. Bain,
- of fossil remains in a lacustrine deposit of secondary age, and the
- well-known existence on the coast of loftier mountains known to be of
- a Palæozoic or primary epoch and circling round the younger deposits,
- being followed by the exploration of the Ngami Lake, justified me in
- believing that Africa had been raised from beneath the ocean at a very
- early geological period; and that ever since that time the same
- conditions had prevailed. I thence inferred that an interior network
- of lakes and rivers would be found prolonged northwards from Lake
- Ngami, though at that time no map was known to me showing the
- existence of such central reservoirs. Looking to the west as well as
- to the east, I saw no possibility of explaining how the great rivers
- could escape from the central plateau-lands and enter the ocean except
- through deep lateral gorges, formed at some ancient period of
- elevation, when the lateral chains were subjected to transverse
- fractures. Knowing that the Niger and the Zaire, or Congo, escaped by
- such gorges on the west, I was confident that the same phenomenon must
- occur upon the eastern coast, when properly examined. This hypothesis,
- as sketched out in my ‘Presidential Address’ of 1852, was afterwards
- received by Dr. Livingstone just as he was exploring the transverse
- gorges by which the Zambesi escapes to the east, and the great
- traveller has publicly expressed the surprise he then felt that his
- discovery should have been thus previously suggested.”
-
-The Lord of the Ferry delayed us at Ugaga by removing the canoes till he
-had extracted fourteen cloths and one coil-bracelet,--half his original
-demand. Moreover, for each trip the ferryman received from one to five
-khete of beads, according to the bulk, weight, and value of the freight.
-He was as exorbitant when we returned; then he would not be satisfied
-with less than seven cloths, a large jar of palm oil, and at least three
-hundred khete. On the 4th February we crossed to Mpete, the district on
-the right or off bank of the stream. After riding over the river plain,
-which at that time, when the rains had not supersaturated the soil, was
-hard and dry, we came upon the “Ghaut,” a muddy run or clearing in the
-thicket of stiff grass which crossed the stream. There we found a scene
-of confusion. The Arabs of Kazeh had described the canoes as fine
-barges, capable of accommodating fifty or sixty passengers. I was not,
-however, surprised to find wretched “baumrinden”--tree-rind--canoes, two
-strips of “myombo” bark, from five to seven feet in length, sown
-together like a doubled wedge with fibres of the same material. The keel
-was sharp, the bow and stern were elevated, and the craft was prevented
-from collapsing by cross-bars--rough sticks about eighteen inches long,
-jammed ladder-wise between the sides. When high and dry upon the bank,
-they look not unlike castaway shoes of an unusual size. We entered
-“gingerly.” The craft is crankier than the Turkish caïque, and we held
-on “like grim death” to the gunwale with wetted fingers. The weight of
-two men causes these canoes to sink within three or four inches of
-water-level. An extra sheet of stiff bark was placed as a seat in the
-stern; but the interior was ankle-deep in water, and baling was
-necessary after each trip. The ferryman, standing amidships or in the
-fore, poled or paddled according to the depth of the stream. He managed
-skilfully enough, and on the return-march I had reason to admire the
-dexterity with which he threaded the narrow, grass-grown and winding
-veins of deep water, that ramified from the main trunk over the swampy
-and rushy plains on both sides. Our riding asses were thrown into the
-river, and they swam across without accident. Much to my surprise, none
-of the bales were lost or injured. The ferrymen showed decision in
-maintaining, and ingenuity in increasing, their claims. On the
-appearance of opposition they poled off to a distance, and squatted,
-quietly awaiting the effect of their decisive manœuvre. When the waters
-are out, it is not safe to step from the canoe before it arrives at its
-destination. The boatman will attempt to land his passenger upon some
-dry mound emerging from deep water, and will then demand a second fee
-for salvage.
-
-
-END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
-
-
- LONDON
- PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
- NEW-STREET SQUARE
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
- Abad bin Sulayman, rest of the party at the house of, at Kazeh, i.
- 323.
-
- Abdullah, the Baloch, sketch of him, i. 136.
-
- Abdullah bin Nasib, of Zanzibar, his kindness, i. 270.
-
- Abdullah bin Jumah, and his flying caravan, i. 315.
-
- Abdullah bin Salim of Kazeh, his authority there, i. 329.
-
- Abdullah, son of Musa Mzuri, ii. 225, 226.
-
- Ablactation, period of, in East Africa, i. 117.
-
- Abrus precatorius used as an ornament in Karagwah, ii. 181.
-
- Adansonia digitata, or monkey-bread of East Africa, peculiarity of,
- i. 47.
-
- Africa, Central, great depression of, i. 409; ii. 8.
-
- African proverbs, i. 131.
-
- Africans, a weak-brained people, i. 33.
-
- Africans, East, their character and religion, ii. 324.
-
- Albinos, frequency of, amongst the Wazaramo tribes, i. 109.
- Description of them, 109.
-
- Amayr bin Said el Shaksi, calls on Capt. Burton, ii. 228. His
- adventures, 228.
-
- Ammunition, danger of, in African travelling, i. 264.
-
- Androgyne, the, ii. 159.
-
- Animals, wild, of Uzaramo, i. 63. Of Dut’humi, 87. Of Zungomero, 95.
- Of the Mrima, 103, 104. Of K’hutu, 160. Of the Usagara mountains, 162.
- Of the plains beyond the Rufuta, 181, 183. Of Ugogi, 242. Of the road
- to Ugogo, 247. In Ugogo, 300. Of Unyamwezi, ii. 15. Of Ujiji, 60.
-
- Antelopes in the Doab of the Mgeta river, i. 81. In the Rufuta plains,
- 183. Of East Africa, 268, 269. On the Mgunda Mk’hali, 289. Of Ugogo,
- i. 300.
-
- Ant-hills of East Africa, i. 202, 203. In Unyamwezi, ii. 19. Clay of,
- chewed in Unyamwezi, 28.
-
- Anthropophagi of Murivumba, ii. 114.
-
- Ants in the Doab of the Mgeta river, i. 82. Red, of the banks of
- rivers in East Africa, 186. Maji m’oto, or “hot water” ants, 187. Near
- the Marenga Mk’hali river, 201. Account of them, 202. Annoyance of, at
- K’hok’ho, 276. Of Rubuga, 317. Of East Africa, 371. Of Unyamwezi,
- ii. 19. Of Ujiji, 64.
-
- Apples’ wood, at Mb’hali, i. 401.
-
- Arab caravans, description of, in East Africa, i. 342.
-
- Arab proverbs, i. 50, 86, 133, 135.
-
- Arabs of the East coast of Africa, i. 30. The half-castes described,
- 32. Those settled in Unyanyembe, 323. History and description of their
- settlements, 327. Tents of, on their march, 353.
-
- Arachis Hypogæa, as an article of food, i. 198.
-
- Arak tree in Ugogo, i. 300.
-
- Archery in East Africa, ii. 301.
-
- Armanika, Sultan of Karagwah, account of, ii. 183. His government,
- 183, 184. Besieged by his brother, ii. 224.
-
- Arms of the Wazaramo, i. 110. Of the Wadoe, 124. Of the Baloch
- mercenaries, 133. Of the “Sons of Ramji,” 140. Required for the
- expedition, 152. Of the Wasagara tribe, 199, 237. Of the Wahehe, 240.
- Of the Wagogo, 304. Of the Wahamba, 312. Of the porters of caravans,
- 350. Of the Wakimbu, ii. 20. Of the Wanzamwezi, 30. Of the Wajiji, 66.
- Of the Wavinza, 75. Of the Watuta, 77. Of the people of Karagwah, 182.
-
- Army of Uganda, ii. 189.
-
- Artémise frigate, i. 1.
-
- Atmosphere, brilliancy of the, in Ugogo, i. 297.
-
- Asclepias in the Usagara mountains, i. 165.
-
- Ashmed bin Nuuman, the Wajhayn or “two faces,” i. 3.
-
- Assegais of the Wasagara tribe, i. 237. Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22. Of
- East Africa generally, 301.
-
- Ass, the African, described, i. 85. Those of the expedition, 151. Loss
- of, 180. Fresh asses purchased from a down caravan, 209.
-
- Asthma, or zik el nafas, remedy in East Africa for, i. 96.
-
- Atheism, aboriginal, ii. 342.
-
-
- Bakera, village of, i. 92.
-
- Bakshshish, in the East, ii. 84, 85. The propriety of rewarding bad
- conduct, 85. Influence of, ii. 172.
-
- Balochs, the, of Zanzibar, described, i. 14. Their knavery, 85. Their
- behaviour on the march, 127. Sketch of their character, 132. Their
- quarrels with the “Sons of Ramji,” 163. Their desertion and return,
- 173. Their penitence, 177. Their character, 177, 178. Their discontent
- and complaints about food, 212, 221. And proposed desertion, 273, 278.
- Their bile cooled, 274. Their injury to the expedition, 319. Their
- breakfast on the march, 345. Their manœuvres at Kazeh, 376. Their
- desertion, ii. 111. Influenced by bakhshish, 217. Their quarrel with
- the porters, 253. Doing “Zam,” ii. 276. Sent home, 277.
-
- Bana Dirungá, village of, i. 71.
-
- Banadir, Barr el, or harbour-land, geography of, i. 30.
-
- Bangwe, islet of, in Lake Tanganyika, ii. 53. Described, 99.
-
- Banyans, the, of the East Coast of Africa, i. 19.
-
- Baobab Tree of East Africa, i. 47.
-
- Barghash, Sayyid, of Zanzibar, a state prisoner at Bombay, i. 3.
-
- Barghumi, the, of East Africa, ii. 294.
-
- Bark-cloth, price of, at Uvira, ii. 121.
-
- Basket making in East Africa, ii. 316.
-
- Basts of East Africa, ii. 317.
-
- Battle-axes of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 23. Of the East Africans, 307.
-
- Bazar-gup, or tittle-tattle in the East, i. 12.
-
- Bdellium Tree, or Mukl, of Ugogo, i. 299. Uses of, among the Wagogo,
- 300.
-
- Beads, mode of carrying, in the expedition, i. 145. Account of African
- beads of commerce, 146. Currency at Msene, 398. Those most highly
- valued in Ujiji, ii. 72. Bead trade of Zanzibar, 390.
-
- Bedding required for the expedition, i. 154.
-
- Beds and bedding of the East Africans, i. 370.
-
- Beef, roast, and plum-pudding at Msene, i. 400.
-
- Bee-hives, seen for the first time at Marenga Mk’hali, i. 200. Their
- shape, 200. Of Rubuga, 317.
-
- Beer in East Africa, ii. 285. Mode of making it, 286.
-
- Bees in K’hutu, i. 120. But no bee-hives, 120. Wild, attack the
- caravan, i. 176, 248, 249. Annoyance of, at K’hok’ho, 276. Of East
- Africa, ii. 287.
-
- Beetles in houses at Ujiji, ii. 91, _note_. One in the ear of Captain
- Speke, 91, _note_.
-
- Belok, the Baloch, sketch of him, i. 135.
-
- Bérard, M., his kindness, i. 22.
-
- Berberah, disaster at, referred to, i. 68.
-
- Bhang plant, the, in Zungomero, i. 95. Smoked throughout East Africa,
- 96. Effects produced by, 96. Used in Ujiji, ii. 70.
-
- Billhooks carried by the Wasagara tribe, i. 238.
-
- Birds, mode of catching them, i. 160. Scarcity of, in East Africa,
- 270. Of Ugogo, 300. Period of nidification and incubation of, ii. 13.
- Of Unyamwezi, 16. Of Ujiji, 60.
-
- Births and deaths amongst the Wazaramo, customs at, i. 115, 116, 118,
- 119.
-
- Bivouac, a pleasant, i. 245.
-
- Black Magic. See Uchawi.
-
- Blackmail of the Wazaramo, i. 70, 113. Of the Wak’hutu, 121. Of the
- Wazegura, 125. At Ugogo, 252. Account of the blackmail of East Africa,
- 253. At Kirufuru, 264. At Kanyenye, 265. In K’hok’ho, 274. At Mdaburu,
- 279. At Wanyika, 407. At Ubwari island, ii. 114.
-
- Blood of cattle, drunk in East Africa, ii. 282.
-
- Boats of the Tanganyika Lake, described, ii. 94.
-
- Boatmen of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 101.
-
- Bomani, “the stockade,” village of, i. 47. Halt at, 47. Vegetation of,
- 47, 48. Departure from, 51.
-
- Bombax, or silk cotton tree, of Uzaramo, i. 60.
-
- Bonye fiumara, accident to a caravan in the, ii. 270.
-
- Books required for the expedition, i. 155.
-
- Borassus flabelliformis, or Palmyra tree, in the plains, i. 180. Toddy
- drawn from, 181.
-
- Bos Caffer, or Mbogo, in the plains of East Africa, i. 181. Described,
- 181. In Ugogo, 300.
-
- Botanical collection stolen, i. 319. Difficulty of taking care of the
- collection on the upward march, 320. Destroyed by damp at Ujiji,
- ii. 81.
-
- Boulders of granite on the Mgunda Mk’hali, i. 284. Picturesque effects
- of the, 285, 286.
-
- Bows and arrows of the Wagogo, i. 504. Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22. Of
- the East Africans, 301. Poisoned arrows, 305.
-
- Brab tree, or Ukhindu, of the Mrima, i. 48.
-
- Breakfast in the caravan described, i. 345. An Arab’s, at Kazeh,
- ii. 167.
-
- Buffaloes on the road to Ugogo, i. 247. In Unyamwezi, ii. 15. On the
- Rusugi river, ii. 40.
-
- Bumbumu, Sultan, of the Wahehe, i. 239.
-
- Burial ceremonies of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 25.
-
- Burkene, route to, ii. 179.
-
- Burton, Captain, quits Zanzibar Island, i. 1.
- The personnel and materiel of the expedition, i. 3, 10, 11.
- Smallness of the grant allowed by government, i. 4, _note_.
- The author’s proposal to the Royal Geographical Society, i. 5.
- Anchors off Wale Point, i. 8.
- His difficulties, i. 19.
- His MS. lost, i. 21.
- Melancholy parting with Col. Hamerton, i. 22.
- Lands at Kaole, i. 22.
- Melancholy reflections, i. 24.
- Transit of the valley of the Kingani and the Mgeta rivers, i. 41.
- The first departure, i. 43, 46.
- Tents pitched at Bomani, i. 51.
- Delay the second, i. 49.
- Departure from Bomani, i. 51.
- Arrives at the village of Mkwaju la Mvuani, i. 52.
- The third departure, i. 53.
- Halt at Nzasa, in Uzaramo, i. 54.
- Start again, i. 57.
- First dangerous station, i. 59.
- Second one, i. 63.
- Adventure at Makutaniro, i. 70.
- Author attacked by fever, i. 71.
- Third dangerous station, i. 73.
- Encamps at Madege Madogo, i. 79.
- And at Kidunda, i. 79.
- Loses his elephant-gun, i. 80.
- Arrives at a place of safety, i. 81.
- Enters K’hutu, i. 82.
- Has a hammam, i. 82.
- Thoroughly prostrated, i. 84.
- His troubles, i. 86.
- Prepares a report for the Royal Geographical Society, i. 89.
- Advances from Dut’humi, i. 91.
- Halts at Zungomero, i. 127.
- Leaves Zungomero, i. 158.
- Arrives at Mzizi Mdogo, i. 161.
- Recovery of health at, i. 161.
- Leaves Mzizi Mdogo, i. 165.
- Halts at Cha K’henge, i. 167.
- Desertion of the Baloch, i. 173.
- Their return, i. 174.
- Halts at Muhama, i. 178.
- Again attacked by fever, i. 179.
- Resumes the march, i. 180.
- Contrasts in the scenery, i. 184.
- Fords the Mukondokwa river, i. 188.
- Reaches Kadetamare, i. 189.
- Loss of instruments, i. 189.
- Halts at Muinyi, i. 193.
- Resumes the journey, i. 194.
- Halts at Ndábi, i. 196.
- Resumes the march and rests at Rumuma, i. 198.
- Abundance of its supplies, i. 198.
- Reaches Marenga Mk’hali, i. 203.
- Approaches the bandit Wahumba, i. 203.
- Leaves Marenga Mk’hali, i. 204.
- Halts at the basin of Inenge, i. 208.
- Wholesome food obtained there, i. 208.
- Exchange of civilities with a down caravan, i. 208.
- Painful ascent of the Rubeho, or Windy Pass, i. 213.
- Halt at the Great Rubeho, i. 215.
- Ascent of the Little Rubeho, i. 215.
- Descent of the counterslope of the Usagara mountains, i. 219.
- First view of the Ugogo mountains, i. 220.
- Halts at the third Rubeho, i. 221.
- Marches on the banks of the Dungomaro, i. 222.
- Reaches the plains of Ugogo, i. 223.
- Losses during the descent, i. 224.
- Halts at Ugogi, i. 241.
- Engages the services of fifteen Wanyamwezi porters, i. 244.
- Leaves Ugogi, i. 244.
- The caravan dislodged by wild bees, i. 248.
- Loses a valuable portmanteau, i. 249.
- Halts on the road for the night, i. 250.
- Leaves the jungle-kraal, i. 250.
- Sights the Ziwa, or Pond, i. 251.
- Provisions obtained there, i. 255.
- Recovery of the lost portmanteau, i. 257.
- Joins another up-caravan, i. 257, 258.
- Enters Ugogo, i. 259.
- Astonishment of the Wagogo, i. 263.
- Delayed at Kifukuru for blackmail, i. 264.
- Leaves Kifukuru, i. 265.
- Accident in the jungle, i. 265.
- Interview with Magomba, sultan of Kanyenye, i. 266.
- Hurried march from Kanyenye, i. 271.
- Arrives at Usek’he and K’hok’ho, i. 272.
- Difficulties of blackmail at K’hok’ho, i. 274.
- Departs from K’hok’ho, i. 275.
- Desertion of fifteen porters, i. 275.
- Trying march in the Mdáburu jungle, i. 277.
- Reaches Uyanzi, i. 279.
- Traverses the Fiery Field, i. 283.
- Arrives at the Mabunguru fiumara, i. 285.
- Losses on the march, i. 285.
- Reaches Jiwe la Mkoa, i. 286, 288.
- And Kirurumo and Jiweni, i. 289.
- Marches to Mgono T’hembo, i. 290.
- Arrives at the Tura Nullah, i. 291.
- And at the village of Tura, the frontier of Unyamwezi, i. 292, 313.
- Proceeds into Unyamwezi, i. 314.
- Halts at the Kwale nullah, i. 315.
- Visited by Abdullah bin Jumah and his flying caravan, i. 315.
- And by Sultan Maura, i. 316.
- Reaches Ukona, i. 318.
- Leaves Ukona and halts at Kigwa or Mkigwa, i. 319.
- Enters the dangerous Kigwa forest, i. 319.
- Loss of papers there, i. 319.
- Reaches the rice-lands of the Unyamyembe district, i. 321.
- Enters Kazeh in grand style, i. 322.
- Hospitality of the Arabs there, i. 323.
- Difficulties of the preparations for recommencing the journey,
- i. 377.
- Sickness of the servants, i. 379.
- Author attacked by fever, i. 380.
- Leaves Kazeh and proceeds to Zimbili, i. 386.
- Proceeds and halts at Yombo, i. 386, 387.
- Leaves Yombo and reaches Pano and Mfuto, i. 389.
- Halts at Irora, i. 389.
- Marches to Wilyankuru, i. 390.
- Hospitality of Salim bin Said, i. 391.
- And of Masid ibn Musallam el Wardi, at Kirira, i. 392.
- Leaves Kirira, and marches to Msene, i. 395.
- Delayed there, i. 399.
- Marches to the village of Mb’hali, i. 401.
- And to Sengati and the deadly Sorora, i. 401.
- Desertions and dismissals at Sorora, i. 402.
- Marches to Kajjanjeri, i. 403.
- Detained there by dangerous illness, i. 403.
- Proceeds and halts at Usagozi, i. 406.
- Some of the party afflicted by ophthalmia, i. 406.
- Quits Usagozi, and marches to Masenza, i. 406, 407.
- Reaches the Mukozimo district, i. 407.
- Spends a night at Rukunda, i. 407.
- Sights the plain of the Malagarazi river, i. 407.
- Halts at Wanyika, i. 407.
- Settlement of blackmail at, i. 408.
- Resumes the march, i. 408.
- Arrives at the bank of the Malagarazi river, i. 408.
- Crosses over to Mpete, i. 410.
- Marches to Kinawani, ii. 35.
- And to Jambeho, ii. 36.
- Fords the Rusugi river, ii. 37.
- Fresh desertions, ii. 38.
- Halts on the Ungwwe river, ii. 40.
- First view of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 42.
- Arrives at Ukaranga, ii. 44.
- And at Ujiji, ii. 46.
- Visits the headman Kannena, ii. 81.
- Incurs his animosity, ii. 82, 84.
- Ill effects of the climate and food of Ujiji, ii. 85.
- Captain Speke sent up the Lake, ii. 87.
- Mode of spending the day at Ujiji, ii. 87.
- Failure of Capt. Speke’s expedition, ii. 90.
- The author prepares for a cruise, ii. 93.
- The voyage, ii. 99.
- Halts and encamps at Kigari, ii. 101.
- Enters the region of Urundi, ii. 101.
- Reaches and halts at Wafanya, ii. 106.
- Sails for the island of Ubwari, ii. 112.
- Anchors there, ii. 113.
- Leaves there and arrives at Murivumba, ii. 114.
- Reaches the southern frontier of Uvira, ii. 115.
- Further progress stopped, ii. 117, 119.
- Returns, ii. 121.
- Storm on the Lake, ii. 123.
- Passes the night at Wafanya, ii. 123.
- A slave accidentally shot there, ii. 124.
- Returns to Kawele, ii. 124.
- Improvement in health, ii. 129.
- The outfit reduced to a minimum, ii. 130.
- Arrival of supplies, but inadequate, ii. 132.
- Preparations for the return to Unyanyembe, ii. 155.
- The departure, ii. 157.
- The return-march, ii. 160.
- Pitches tents at Uyonwa, ii. 161.
- Desertions, ii. 161.
- Returns to the ferry of the Malagarazi, ii. 164.
- Marches back to Unyanyembe, ii. 165.
- Halts at Yombo, ii. 166.
- Re-enters Kazeh, ii. 167.
- Sends his companion on an expedition to the north, ii. 173.
- His mode of passing time at Kazeh, ii. 173, 198.
- Preparations for journeying, ii. 200.
- Shortness of funds, ii. 221.
- Outfit for the return, ii. 229.
- Departs from Kazeh, ii. 231.
- Halts at Hanga, ii. 232.
- Leaves Hanga, ii. 240.
- Returns through Ugogo, ii. 244.
- The letters with the official “wigging,” ii. 247.
- Takes the Kiringawana route, ii. 249.
- Halts at a den of thieves, ii. 252.
- And at Maroro, ii. 255.
- Marches to Kiperepeta, ii. 256.
- Fords the Yovu, ii. 258.
- Halts at Ruhembe rivulet, ii. 261.
- And on the Makata plain, ii. 262.
- Halts at Uziraha, ii. 263.
- Returns to Zungomero, ii. 264.
- Proposes a march to Kilwa, ii. 265.
- Desertion of the porters, ii. 266.
- Engages fresh ones, ii. 267.
- Leaves Zungomero, and resumes the march, ii. 276.
- Re-enters Uzaramo, ii. 277.
- And Konduchi, ii. 278.
- Sights the sea, ii. 278.
- Sets out for Kilwa, ii. 372.
- Returns to Zanzibar, ii. 379.
- Leaves Zanzibar for Aden, ii. 384.
- Returns to Europe, ii. 384.
-
- Butter in East Africa, ii. 284.
-
-
- Cacti in the Usagara Mountains, i. 165. Of Mgunda M’Khali, 286.
-
- Calabash-tree of East Africa, described, i. 147. In the Usagara
- mountains, i. 164, 229. Magnificence of, at Ugogo, 260. The only large
- tree in Ugogo, 299.
-
- Camp furniture required for the expedition, i. 152.
-
- Cannibalism of the Wadoe tribe, i. 123. Of the people of Murivumba,
- ii. 114.
-
- Cannabis Indica in Unyamwezi, i. 318.
-
- Canoes built of mvule trees, ii. 147. Mode of making them, 147.
-
- Canoes on the Malagarazi river, i. 409. On the “Ghaut,” 411.
-
- Capparis sodata, verdure of the, in Ugogo, i. 300.
-
- Carriage, cost of, in East Africa, ii. 414.
-
- Caravans of ivory, i. 17. Slave caravans, 17, 62. Mode of collecting a
- caravan in East Africa, 143. Attacked by wild bees, 4, 176. And by
- small-pox, 179. In East Africa, description of, 337. Porters, 337-339.
- Seasons for travelling, 339. The three kinds of caravan, 341. That of
- the Wanyamwezi, 341. Those made up by the Arab merchants, 342. Those
- of the Wasawahili, &c., 344. Sketch of a day’s march of an East
- African caravan, 344. Mode of forming a caravan, 348. Dress of the
- caravan, 349. Ornaments and arms worn by the porters, 349. Recreations
- of the march, 350. Meeting of two caravans, 351. Halt of a caravan,
- 351. Lodgings on the march, 353. Cooking, 355, 356. Greediness of the
- porters, 356, 357. Water, 359. Night, 359. Dances of the porters, 360.
- Their caravan, 361, 362. Rate of caravan travelling, 362. Custom
- respecting caravans in Central Africa, ii. 54. Those on the Uruwwa
- route, 148. Accident to a, 270.
-
- Carissa Carandas, the Corinda bush in Uzaramo, i. 60.
-
- Carpentering in East Africa, ii. 309.
-
- Carvings, rude, of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 26.
-
- Castor plants of East Africa, i. 48. Mode of extracting the oil, 48.
-
- Cats, wild, in Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-
- Cattle, horned, of Ujiji, ii. 59. Of Karagwah, 181.
-
- Cattle trade of East Africa, ii. 413.
-
- Cereals of East Africa, ii. 414.
-
- Ceremoniousness of the Wajiji, ii. 69.
-
- Ceremony and politeness, miseries of, in the East, i. 392.
-
- Cha K’henge, halt of the party at, i. 167.
-
- Chamærops humilis, or Nyara tree, of the Mrima, f. 48.
-
- Chawambi, Sultan of Unyoro, ii. 198.
-
- Chhaga, ii. 179.
-
- Chiefs of the Wazaramo, i. 113.
-
- Chikichi, or palm oil, trade in, at Wafanya, ii. 107.
-
- Childbirth, ceremonies of, in Unyamwezi ii. 23. Twins, 23.
-
- Children, mode of carrying, in Uzaramo, i. 110.
-
- Children, Wasagara mode of carrying, i. 237.
-
- Children, mode of carrying amongst the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22.
-
- Children, education of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 23, 24.
-
- Chomwi, or headman, of the Wamrima, i. 16. His privileges, 16, 17.
-
- Chumbi, isle of, i. 1.
-
- Chunga Mchwa, or ant, of the sweet red clay of East Africa, described,
- i. 201, 202.
-
- Chungo-fundo or siyafu, or pismires of the river banks of East Africa,
- described, i. 186.
-
- Chyámbo, the locale of the coast Arabs, i. 397.
-
- Circumcision, not practised by the Wazaramo, i. 108. Nor in the
- Unyamwezi, ii. 23.
-
- Clay chewed, when tobacco fails, in Unyamwezi, ii. 28.
-
- Climate of--
- Bomani, i. 49.
- Dut’humi, i. 89, 92.
- East Africa, during the wet season, i. 379.
- Inenge, i. 208.
- Kajjanjeri, ii. 403.
- Karagwah, ii. 180.
- Kawele, ii. 130.
- Kirira, i. 394.
- Kuingani, i. 44.
- Marenga Mk’hali, i. 203.
- Mrima, i. 102, 104.
- Msene, i. 400.
- Mohama, i. 179.
- Mzizi Mdogo, i. 161.
- Rumuma, i. 199.
- Sorora, i. 401.
- Tanganyika Lake, i. 142.
- Ugogo, i. 243, 259, 297.
- Ujiji, ii. 81.
- Unyamwezi, ii. 8-14.
- Usagara, i. 221, 222, 231.
- Wafanya, ii. 107.
- Zungomero, i. 94, 127, 156, 161, 163.
-
- Cloth, mode of carrying, in the expedition, i. 145. As an article of
- commerce, 148.
-
- Clothing required for the expedition, i. 154. Of travellers in East
- Africa, ii. 201.
-
- Clouds in Unyamwezi, ii. 12.
-
- Cockroaches in houses in East Africa, i. 370.
-
- Cocoa-nut, use of the, in East Africa, i. 36.
-
- Cocoa-tree, its limits inland, i. 160.
-
- Coffee, wild, or mwami, of Karagwah, ii. 180, 181, 187.
-
- Commando, pitiable scene presented after one, i. 185.
-
- Commerce of the Mrima, i. 39. Of Zungomero, 95. Of Uzaramo, 119. Of
- Ugogo, 308. Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29. Of the Nyanza Lake, 215.
- African, 224. Of Ubena, 270. Of Uvira, ii. 120. Of East Africa, 387.
-
- Conversation, specimen of, in East Africa, ii. 243, 244.
-
- Copal tree, or Msandarusi, of Uzaramo, i. 63.
-
- Copal trade of East Africa, ii. 403.
-
- Copper in Katata, ii. 148. In East Africa, 312.
-
- Cotton in Unyamwezi, i. 318. In Ujiji, i. 57. In East Africa, 417.
-
- Cowhage on the banks of the Mgeta river, i. 166.
-
- Cowries of Karagwah, ii. 185. Of East Africa, 416.
-
- Crickets of the Usagara mountains, i. 162. House, in East Africa,
- i. 370.
-
- Crocodiles of the Kingani river, i. 56. In Unyamwezi, ii. 15. In the
- Sea of Ujiji, 60. Of the Ruche River, 158.
-
- Crops of the Mrima, i. 102, _et seq_.
-
- Cucumbers at Marenga Mk’hali, i. 201. Wild, of Unyanyembe, ii. 285.
-
- Cultivation in the Mukondokwa hills, i. 196, 197. In the Usagara
- mountains, 229.
-
- Currency of East Africa, stock may be recruited at Kazeh, i. 334. Of
- Msene, i. 398. Of Ujiji, ii. 73. Of Karagwah, 185. Of Ubena, 270.
- Cynhyænas of Ugogo, i. 302. In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-
- Cynocephalus, the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 15. The terror of the country,
- 15.
-
-
- Dancing of the Wazaramo women, i. 55. African, described, 360;
- ii. 291, 298.
-
- Darwayash, the Baloch, sketch of him, i. 137.
-
- “Dash,” i. 58. _See_ Blackmail.
-
- Datura plant of Zungomero, i. 95. Smoked in East Africa, 96. In
- Unyamwezi, 318.
-
- Day, an African’s mode of passing the, ii. 289, 290.
-
- Death, African fear of, ii. 331.
-
- Defences of the Wazaramo, i. 111, 117.
-
- Dege la Mhora, “the large jungle bird,” village of, i. 72. Fate of M.
- Maizan at, 73.
-
- Det’he, or Kidete of East Africa, ii. 293.
-
- Devil’s trees of East Africa, ii. 353.
-
- Dialects of the Wazaramo, i. 107. The Wagogo, 306. The Wahumba, 311.
- The Wanyamwezi, ii. 5. The Wakimbu, 20. The Wanyamwezi, 30.
-
- Diseases of the maritime region of East Africa, i. 105. Of the people
- of Usagara, 233. Of Ugogo, 299. Of caravans in East Africa, 342. Of
- Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 13, 14. Of East Africa, 318. Remedies, 321.
- Mystical remedies, 352, 353.
-
- Dishdasheh, El, or turban of the coast Arabs, i. 32.
-
- Divorce amongst the Wazaramo, i. 118. Amongst the East Africans
- generally, ii. 333.
-
- Drawing materials required for the expedition, i. 155.
-
- Dress, articles of, of the East Africans, i. 148. Of the Wamrima, 33,
- 34. Of the Wazaramo, 109. Of the Wak’hutu, 120. Of the Wasagara, 253.
- Of the Wahete, 239. Of the Wagogo, 305. Of the Wahumba, 312. Of the
- Wakalaganza, 406. Of the Wakimbu, ii. 20. Of the Wanyamwezi, 21. Of
- the Wajiji, 64. Of the Warundi, 146. Of the Wavinza, 75. Of the
- Watuta, 77. Of the Wabuta, 78. Of the people of Karagwah, 182. Of the
- Wahinda, 220. Of the Warori, 271.
-
- Dodges of the ferrymen, ii. 164, 165.
-
- Dragon-flies in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-
- Drinking-bouts in East Africa, ii. 295, 335.
-
- Drinking-cups in East Africa, ii. 295.
-
- Drums and drumming of East Africa, ii. 295.
-
- Drunkenness of the Wazaramo, i. 118. Of the Wak’hutu, 120. And
- debauchery of the people of Msene, 398. Prevalence of, near the Lake
- Tanganyika, ii. 59. Of the Wajiji, 69.
-
- Dogs, wild, in Unyamwezi, ii. 16. Pariah, in the villages of Ujiji,
- 60. Rarely heard to bark, 60.
-
- Dolicos pruriens on the banks of the Mgeta river, i. 166.
-
- Donkey-men of the expedition, i. 143.
-
- Dub-grass in the Usagara mountains, i. 171.
-
- Dunda, or “the Hill,” district of, i. 54.
-
- Dunda Nguru, or “Seer fish-bill” i. 69.
-
- Dungomaro, or Mandama, river, arrival of the caravan at the, i. 222.
- Description of the bed of the, 223.
-
- Dut’humi, mountain crags of, i. 65, 83, 86. Illness of the chiefs of
- the expedition at, 84. Description of the plains of, 86.
-
-
- Eagles, fish, of Ujiji, ii. 60.
-
- Ear-lobes distended by the Wasagara, i. 235. And by the Wahehe, 239.
- By the Wagogo, 304. And by the Wahumba, 312. Enlarged by the
- Wanyamwezi, ii. 21.
-
- Earth-fruit of India, i. 198.
-
- Earthquakes in Unyamwezi, ii. 13.
-
- Earwigs in East African houses, i. 370.
-
- Ebb and flow of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 143. Causes of, 143, 144.
-
- Education of children in Unyamwezi, ii. 23, 24.
-
- Eels of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 68.
-
- Eggs not eaten by the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29. Nor by the people of Ujiji,
- 59.
-
- Elæis Guiniensis, or Mehikichi tree, in Ujiji, ii. 58.
-
- Elephants at Dut’humi, i. 87. In Ugogi, 242. At Ziwa, or the Pond,
- 251. On the road to Ugogo, 247. On the Mgunda Mk’hali, 287, 289. In
- Ugogo, 300. On the banks of the Malagarazi river, 408. In Unyamwezi,
- ii. 15. Near the sea of Ujiji, 60. In East Africa, 297.
-
- Elephant hunting in East Africa, ii. 298.
-
- English, the, bow regarded in Africa, i. 31.
-
- Erhardt, M., his proposed expedition to East Africa, i. 3.
-
- Ethnology of East Africa, i. 106. Of the second region, 225, _et seq._
-
- Euphorbiæ at Mb’hali, i. 401. In Ugogo, 300. In the Usagara mountains,
- i. 165.
-
- Evil eye unknown to the Wazaramo, i. 116.
-
- Exorcism in East Africa, ii. 352.
-
-
- Falsehood of the coast clans of East Africa, i. 37. General in East
- Africa, ii. 328.
-
- Faraj, sketch of him and his wife, the lady Halimah, i. 129.
-
- Fauna of Ujiji, ii. 60.
-
- Fetiss-huts of the Wazaramo described, i. 57. Of East Africa, 369;
- ii. 346.
-
- Fetissism of East Africa, ii. 341, _et seq._
-
- Fever, marsh, cure in Central Asia for, i. 82. The author prostrated
- by, 84. Delirium of, 84. Of East Africa generally described, 105. The
- author and his companion again attacked by, at Muhama, 179. Common in
- the Usagara mountains, 233. Seasoning fever of East Africa, generally,
- 379. Miasmatic, described, 403. Low type, 406. Seasoning fever at
- Unyamwezi described, ii. 14.
-
- Fire-arms and Gunpowder in East Africa, ii. 308.
-
- Fires in Africa, ii. 259.
-
- Fish of the Kingani river, i. 56. Of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 59.
- Varieties of, 67. Narcotised in Uzaramo, 67. At Wafanya, 108.
- Considered as an article of diet in East Africa, 280.
-
- Fishing in the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 66.
-
- Fisi, or cynhyæna, of Uzaramo, i. 63. The scavenger of the country,
- i. 64.
-
- Flies in Unyamwezi, ii. 18. Fatal bite of one in, 19.
-
- Flowers of Usagara, i. 328. At Msene, 397.
-
- Fly, a stinging, the tzetze, i. 187.
-
- Fog-rainbow in the Usagara mountains, i. 222.
-
- Food of the Wamrima, i. 35. Of the Wazaramo, 56. Of the people of
- Zungomero, 95, 96, 97. Of the Wak’hutu, 120. Of the expedition, 151,
- 198. Of the people of Marenga Mk’hali, 201. Of the Wagogo, 310, 311.
- Of Rubuga, 317. Of Kazeh, 329. Of Arabs of, 331-334. Of Wilyanhuru,
- 392-394. Of Unyamwezi, ii. 28, 29. Of Ujiji, 70, 88. Of Karagwah, 180,
- 181. Of Uganda, 196, 197. Of the Warori tribe, 273. East Africa
- generally, 280.
-
- Fords in East Africa, i. 336.
-
- Fowls not eaten by the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29. Nor by the people of Ujiji,
- 59.
-
- Frankincense of Ugogo, i. 299.
-
- Frogs in Unyamwezi, ii. 17. Night concerts of, 17. Of the sea of
- Ujiji, 61.
-
- Frost, Mr., of the Zanzibar consulate, i. 3, 21.
-
- Fruits of East Africa, i. 48, 201. Of Usagara, 228. Of Yombo, 337. Of
- Mb’hali, 401. Of Ujiji, ii. 58.
-
- Fundi, or itinerant slave-artizans of Unyanyembe, i. 328. Caravans of
- the, 344.
-
- Fundikira, Sultan of Unyamwezi, notice of him, ii. 31.
-
- Fundikira, Sultan of Ititenza, i. 326.
-
- Funerals of the Wazaramo, i. 119. Of the Wadoe, 124.
-
- Funza, brother of Sultan Matanza of Msene, i. 396.
-
- Furniture of East African houses, i. 371. Kitanda, or bedstead, 371.
- Bedding, 371. Of the houses of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 26.
-
-
- Gadflies, annoyance of, at K’hok’ho, i. 276.
-
- Gaetano, the Goanese servant, sketch of his character, i. 131. Taken
- ill, 380. His epileptic fits at Msene, 395, 399.
-
- Gama river, i. 123.
-
- Gambling in East Africa, ii. 279.
-
- Game in Uzaramo, i. 59, 71. In the Doab of the Mgeta river, 81. In
- K’huta, 120. In the plains between the Rufuta and the Mukondokwa
- mountains, 181. In Ugogi, 242. At Ziwa, or the Pond, 251. At Kanyenye,
- 268. Scarcity of, in East Africa generally, 268.
-
- Ganza Mikono, sultan of Usek’he, i. 272.
-
- Geography of the second region, i. 225, _et seq_. Of Ugogo, 295. Arab
- oral, ii. 144-154.
-
- Geology of the maritime region of East Africa, i. 102. Of the Usagara
- mountains, 227. Of the road to Ugogo, 247. Of Mgunda Mk’hali,
- i. 282-284. Of Ugogo, i. 295. Of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
-
- Ghost-faith of the Africans, ii. 344.
-
- Gingerbread tree, described, i. 47.
-
- Ginyindo, march to, ii. 253. Quarrel of the Baloch and porters at,
- 253.
-
- Giraffes in Ugogi, i. 242. Native names of the, 242, 243. Use made of
- them, 243. At Ziwa, or the Pond, 251. On the Mgunda Mk’hali, 289. In
- Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-
- Girls of the Wanyamwezi, strange custom of the, ii. 24.
-
- Gnus in the Doab of the Mgeta river, i. 81. At Dut’humi, 87.
-
- Goats of Ujiji, ii. 59.
-
- Goma pass, the, i. 168, 170.
-
- Gombe, mud-fish in the nullah of, i. 334.
-
- Gombe Nullah, i. 395, 397, 401, 403, ii. 8.
-
- Goose, ruddy, Egyptian, i. 317.
-
- Gourd, the, a musical instrument in East Africa, ii. 294.
-
- Gourds of the Myombo tree in Usagara, i. 229.
-
- Government of the Wazaramo, i. 113. Of the Wak’hutu, 120, 121. Of the
- Wanyamwezi, ii. 31. Of the Wajiji, 71. Of the northern kingdoms of
- Africa, 174. Mode of, in Uganda, 192. Forms of, in East Africa, 360.
-
- Grain, mode of grinding, in East Africa, i. 111, 372. That of Msene,
- 397, 398. Of Ujiji, ii. 57.
-
- Grapes, wild, seen for the first time, ii. 41.
-
- Grasses of the swamps and marshes of the Mrima, i. 103, 104. The dub
- of the Usagara mountains, 171.
-
- Graveyards, absence of, in East Africa, ii. 25.
-
- Ground-fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 68.
-
- Ground-nut oil in East Africa, ii. 285.
-
- Grouse, sand, at Ziwa, i. 251.
-
- Guest welcome, or hishmat l’il gharib, of the Arabs of Kazeh, i. 329.
-
- Gugu-mbua, or wild sugar-cane, i. 71.
-
- Guinea-fowls in the Doab of the Mgeta river, i. 81. Of the Rufuta
- plains, 183. Of Ugogi, 242.
-
- Guinea-palm of Ujiji, ii. 58.
-
- Gul Mohammed, a Baloch of the party, sketch of him, i. 139. His
- conversation with Muzungu Mbaya, ii. 244.
-
- Gulls, sea, of the sea of Ujiji, ii. 60.
-
- Gungu, district of, in Ujiji, ii. 53. Its former and present chiefs,
- 53. Plundered by the Watuta tribe, 76.
-
-
- Hail-storms in Unyamwezi, ii. 10.
-
- Hair, mode of dressing the, amongst the Wazaramo, i. 108. And the
- Wak’hutu, 120. Wasagara fashions of dressing the, 234. Wagogo mode,
- 304. Amongst the Wanyamwezi, ii. 26. Wabuha mode of dressing the, 78.
- And in Uganda, 189.
-
- Halimah, the lady, sketch of, i. 129. Taken ill, 200. Returns home,
- ii. 277.
-
- Hamdan, Sayyid, of Zanzibar, his death, i. 2.
-
- Hamerton, Lieut.-Col., his friendship with the late Sultan of
- Zanzibar, i. 2. Interest taken by him in the expedition, 3. His
- objections to an expedition into the interior _viâ_ Kilwa, 5. His
- death, 66. His character, 69.
-
- Hamid bin Salim, his journey to the Wahumba tribe, i. 311.
-
- Hammals of the Wanyamwezi, character of the, ii. 162.
-
- Hammam, or primitive form of the lamp-bath, i. 82.
-
- Hanga, journey to, ii. 232. Difficulties with the porters there, 232.
-
- Hartebeest in the Doab of the Mgeta river, i. 81.
-
- Hawks of the Usagara mountains, i. 162.
-
- Hembe, or “the wild buffalo’s horn,” his village, i. 72.
-
- Hides, African mode of dressing, i. 236.
-
- Hilal bin Nasur, his information respecting the southern provinces,
- ii. 228.
-
- Hippopotami on the east coast of Africa, i. 9, 12, 24, 56. In
- Unyamwezi, ii. 15. In the Ruche river, 52, 158. In the sea of Ujiji,
- 60.
-
- Hishmat l’il gharib, or guest welcome of the Arabs of Kazeh, i. 323,
- 329.
-
- Hogs of Ugogo, i. 300.
-
- Home, African attachment for, ii. 333.
-
- Honey in Ujiji, ii. 59. Abundance of, in East Africa, 287. Two kinds
- of, 288.
-
- Houses of Kuingani, i. 43. The wayside, or kraals, 53, 181, 230. Of
- the Wak’hutu, 97, 121. Of the Wazaramo, 110. Of the Wagogo, 306. Of
- the Arabs in Unyanyembe, 328, 329. Of stone, ignored by Inner Africa,
- 93. Of the country beyond Marenga Mk’hali, called “Tembe,” 207. The
- Tembe of the Wahete, 240. The Khambi or, Kraal, 354. The Tembe of the
- Usagara, 366. Houses of East Africa generally described, 364, ii. 334.
- Pests of the houses, i. 370. Furniture, 371. Of the Wanyamwezi,
- ii. 26. Of Karagwah, 182, 183.
-
- Hullak, the buffoon, i. 46.
-
- Hunting season in East Africa, ii. 296.
-
- Hyænas in Ugogo, i. 276. In Ujiji, ii. 60.
-
- Hyderabad, story of the police officer of, i. 217.
-
-
- Ibanda, second sultan of Ukerewe, ii. 214.
-
- Id, son of Muallim Salim, his civility at Msene, i. 399.
-
- Iguanas of the Usagara mountains, i. 162.
-
- Ihara or Kwihara, physical features of the plain of, i. 326.
-
- Ikuka of Uhehe, march to, ii. 252.
-
- Illness of the whole party at Ujiji, ii. 85, 86.
-
- Immigration in Central Africa, ii. 19.
-
- Imports and exports in East Africa, ii. 387.
-
- Indian Ocean, evening on the, i. 1. View of the Mrima from the, 8.
-
- Industry, commercial, of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.
-
- Inenge, basin of, i. 208. Halt at the, 208.
-
- Influenza, the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 13.
-
- Influenza, remedy in East Africa for, i. 96.
-
- Inhospitality of Africans, ii. 131, 327.
-
- Inhumanity of the Africans, ii. 329.
-
- Insects in East Africa, i. 186, 187, 201, 202. In houses in East
- Africa, 370. In Ujiji, ii. 61.
-
- Instruments required for the expedition, i. 153. Breakage of, on the
- road, 169. Accidents to which they are liable in East African travels,
- 189, 191.
-
- Intellect of the East African, ii. 337.
-
- Iron in Karagwah, ii. 185. In Urori, 27. And in Ubena, 27. Of East
- Africa generally, 311.
-
- Ironga, sultan of U’ungu, defeats the Warori, ii. 75.
-
- Ironware of Uvira, ii. 121.
-
- Irora, village of, i. 389. Halt at, 389. Sultan of, 389. Return to,
- ii. 166.
-
- Irrigation, artificial, in K’hutu, i. 86.
-
- Isa bin Hijji, the Arab merchant, exchange of civilities with, i. 208,
- 211. Places a tembe at Kazeh at the disposal of the party, 323.
-
- Isa bin Hosayn, the favourite of the Sultan of Uganda, ii. 193.
-
- Ismail, the Baloch, illness of, i. 381.
-
- Ititenya, settlement of, i. 326.
-
- Ivory, caravan of, i. 17. Frauds perpetrated on the owners of tusks,
- 17. Mode of buying and selling in East Africa, 39. Touters of
- Zungomero, 97. Mode of carrying large tusks of, 341, 348. Price of,
- at Uvira, ii. 120, 121. Ivory of Ubena, 270. Trade in Ivory, 408.
-
- Iwanza, or public-houses, in Unyamwezi, ii. 1, 27. Described, 27, 279,
- 285.
-
- Iwemba, province of, ii. 153.
-
-
- Jackal, silver, of Ugogi, i. 242.
-
- Jambeho, arrival of the party at the settlements of, ii. 36.
- Cultivation of, 36. Scarcity of food in, 36. Revisited, 163.
-
- Jami of Harar, Shaykh, of the Somal, i. 33.
-
- Jamshid, Sayyid, of Zanzibar, his death, i. 2.
-
- Jasmine, the, in Usagara, i. 228.
-
- Jealousy of the Wazaramo, i. 61.
-
- Jelai, Seedy, the Baloch, sketch of him, i. 137.
-
- Jezirah, island of, ii. 212.
-
- Jiwe la Mkoa, or the round rock, arrival of the party at, i. 286.
- Description of it, 287; ii. 242. Halt at, 242.
-
- Jiweni, arrival of the expedition at, i. 289. Water at, 289.
-
- Jongo, or millepedes, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-
- Jua, Dar el, or home of hunger, i. 69.
-
- Juma Mfumbi, Diwan of Saadani, his exaction of tribute from the Wadoe,
- i. 123.
-
- Jungle, insect pests of the, i. 186. Fire in the jungle in summer,
- ii. 163.
-
- Jungle-thorn, on the road to Ugogo, i. 246. Near Kanyenye, 271.
-
-
- Kadetamare, arrival of the party at, i. 189. Loss of instruments at,
- 189, 190.
-
- Kaffirs of the Cape, date of their migration to the banks of the Kei,
- ii. 5.
-
- Kafuro, district of, in Karagwah, ii. 177.
-
- Kajjanjeri, village of, arrival of the party at, i. 403. Deadly
- climate of, 403.
-
- Kannena, headman of Kawele, visit to, ii. 81. Description of him, 81.
- His mode of opening trade, 82. His ill-will, 83, 84. Agrees to take
- the party to the northern extremity of the lake, 93. His surly and
- drunken conduct, 97. Starts on the voyage, 98. His covetousness, 109.
- His extravagance, 120. His drunkenness and fate, 156.
-
- Kanoni, sultan of the Wahha tribe, ii. 79.
-
- Kanoni, minor chief of Wafanya, visit from, ii. 107. His blackmail,
- 107. Outrage committed by his people, 124.
-
- Kanyenye, country of, described, i. 265. Blackmail at, 265. Sultan
- Magomba of, 265.
-
- Kaole, settlement of, described, i. 12, 13. The landing place of the
- expedition, 22.
-
- Karagwah, kingdom of, ii. 177. Extent of, 177. Boundaries of, 178.
- Climate of, 180. People of, 181. Dress of, 182. Weapons of, 182.
- Houses of, 182. Sultan of, 183. Government of, 183.
-
- Karagwah, mountains of, ii. 48, 144, 177.
-
- Kariba, river, ii. 146.
-
- Karindira, river, ii. 146.
-
- Karungu, province of, ii. 149.
-
- Kasangare, a Mvinza sultan, his subjects, i. 328.
-
- Kaskazi, or N. E. monsoon, i. 83.
-
- Kata, or sand-grouse, at Ziwa, i. 251.
-
- Katata, or Katanga, copper in, ii. 148.
-
- Katonga, river, ii. 187.
-
- Kawele, principal village of Ujiji, ii. 53. Attacked by the Watuta
- tribe, ii. 76. Return of the expedition to, 126.
-
- Kaya, or fenced hamlets, i. 407.
-
- Kazeh, arrival at, i. 321, 322. Abdullah bin Salih’s caravan plundered
- at, 321. Hospitality of the Arabs there, 323. Revisited, ii. 167.
-
- Kazembe, sultan of Usenda, ii. 148. Account of him, 148.
-
- Khalfan bin Muallim Salim, commands an up caravan, i. 179. His caravan
- attacked by small-pox, 179, 201. His falsehoods, 179. Spreads
- malevolent reports at Ugogo, 262.
-
- Khalfan bin Khamis, his penny wise economy, i. 288. Bids adieu to the
- caravan, 291. Overtaken half-way to Unyanyembe, 221. His civility at
- Msene, 399.
-
- Khambi, or substantial kraals, of the wayside described, i. 53, 134.
-
- Khamisi, Muinyi, and the lost furniture, ii. 168.
-
- K’hok’ho, in Ugogo, dangers of, i. 272, 274. Its tyrant sultan, 274.
- Insect annoyances at, 276.
-
- Khudabakhsh, the Baloch, sketch of him, i. 138. His threats to murder
- the author, 174. His illness in the Windy Pass, 214. His conduct at
- Wafanya, ii. 110. Reaches Kawele by land, 111.
-
- K’hutu, expedition enters the country of, i. 86. Irrigation in, 86.
- Hideous and grotesque vegetation of, 91. Climate of, 92. Salt-pits of,
- 92. Country of, described, 119. Roads in, 335. Return to, ii. 264.
- Desolation of, 264.
-
- K’hutu, river i. 86.
-
- Kibaiba river, ii. 146.
-
- Kibuga, in Uganda, distance from the Kitangure river to, ii. 186. Road
- to, 186, 187. Described, 188.
-
- Kibuya, sultan of Mdabura, blackmail of, i. 279. Description of him,
- 279.
-
- Kichyoma-chyoma, “the little irons,” Captain Speke afflicted with,
- ii. 234. The disease described, 320.
-
- Kidogo, Muinyi, sketch of him, i. 140. His hatred of Said bin Salim,
- 164. His advice to the party at Marenga Mk’hali, 203. His words of
- wisdom on the road to Ugogo, 250. His management, 254. His quarrel
- with Said bin Salim, 255. Makes oath at Kanyenye, that the white man
- would not smite the land, 267. Loses his heart to a slave girl, 314.
- His demands at Kazeh, 377. Dismissed at Sorora, 402. Flogs Sangora,
- 403. Sent home, ii. 277.
-
- Kidunda, or the “little hill,” camping ground of, i. 79. Scenery of,
- 79.
-
- Kifukuru, delay of the caravan at, i. 264. Question of blackmail at,
- 264. Sultan of, 264.
-
- Kigari, on the Tanganyika Lake, halt of the party at, ii. 101.
-
- Kigwa, or Mkigwa, halt of the caravan at, i. 319. The ill-omened
- forest of, 319. Sultan Manwa, 319.
-
- Kikoboga, basin of, traversed, ii. 262.
-
- Kikoboga river, ii. 263.
-
- Kilwa, dangers of, as an ingress point, i. 4, 5.
-
- Kimanu, the sultan of Ubena, ii. 270.
-
- Kinanda, or harp, of East Africa, ii. 298.
-
- Kinawani, village of, arrival of the caravan at, ii. 35.
-
- Kindunda, “the hillock,” i. 64.
-
- Kinganguku, march to, ii. 251.
-
- Kingani river described, i. 56. Valley of the, 56. Hippopotami and
- crocodiles of the, 56. Fish of the, 56. Its malarious plain, 69. Rise
- of the, 87.
-
- Kingfishers on the lake of Tanganyika, ii. 61.
-
- Kipango, or tzetze fly, of East Africa, i. 187.
-
- Kiperepeta, march to, ii. 256.
-
- Kiranga-Ranga, the first dangerous station in Uzaramo, i. 59.
-
- Kirangozi, guide or guardian, carried by mothers in Uzaramo, i. 116.
-
- Kirangozi, or guide of the caravan, his wrath, i. 221. Description of
- one, 346. Meeting of two, 351. His treatment of his slave girl,
- ii. 161. His fear of travelling northward, 172.
-
- Kiringawana mountains, i. 233.
-
- Kiringawana route in the Usagara mountains described, ii. 249.
-
- Kiringawana, sultan, ii. 258.
-
- Kirira, halt of the party at, i. 392. Hospitality of an Arab merchant
- at, 392-394. Climate of, 394.
-
- Kiruru, or “palm leaves,” village of, i. 82.
-
- Kirurumo, on the Mgunda Mk’hali, i. 289. Water obtained at, 289.
-
- Kisanga, basin of, described, ii. 257.
-
- Kisabengo, the chief headman of Inland Magogoni, i. 88. Account of his
- depredations, 88.
-
- Kisawahili language, remarks on the, i. 15, _note_; ii. 198.
-
- Kisesa, sultan, his blackmail, ii. 114.
-
- Kitambi, sultan of Uyuwwi, recovers part of the stolen papers, i. 320.
-
- Kitangure, or river of Karagwah, i. 409; ii. 144, 177, 186.
-
- Kiti, or stool, of East Africa, i. 373.
-
- Kittara, in Kingoro, road to, ii. 187. Wild coffee of, 187.
-
- Kivira river, ii. 197.
-
- Kiyombo, sultan of Urawwa, ii. 147.
-
- Kizaya, the P’hazi, i. 54. Accompanies the expedition a part of their
- way, 55.
-
- Knobkerries of Africa, ii. 306.
-
- Kombe la Simba, the P’hazi, i. 54.
-
- Konduchi, march to, ii. 274. Revisited, 276.
-
- Koodoo, the, at Dut’humi, i. 87.
-
- Koodoo horn, the bugle of East Africa, i. 203.
-
- Kraals of thorn, in the Usagara mountains, i. 230. Of East Africa,
- 354.
-
- Krapf, Dr., result of his mission, i. 6. His information, 7. His
- etymological errors, 36, _note_.
-
- Kuhonga, or blackmail, at Ugogo, i. 252. Account of the blackmail of
- East Africa, 253.
-
- Kuingani, “the cocoa-nut plantation near the sea,” i. 42. Described,
- 43. Houses of, 43. Climate of, 44.
-
- Kumbeni, isles of, i. 1.
-
- Kuryamavenge river, ii. 146.
-
- Kwale, halt at the nullah of, i. 315.
-
- Kwihanga, village of, described, i. 396.
-
-
- Ladha Damha, pushes the expedition forward, i. 11. His conversation
- with Ramji, 23.
-
- Lakes,--Nyanza, or Ukerewe, i. 311, 409, ii. 175, 176, 179, 195.
- Tanganyika, ii. 42, _et seq._; 134, _et seq._ Mukiziwa, ii. 147.
-
- Lakit, Arab law of, i. 258.
-
- Lamp-bath of Central Asia, i. 82.
-
- Land-crabs in the Doab of the Mgeta river, i. 81.
-
- Language of the Wagogo, i. 306. Of the Wahumba, 311. Of the
- Wanyamwezi, ii. 5. Of the Wakimbu, 20. Of the Wanyamwezi, 30.
- Specimens of the various dialects collected, 198. Of the East
- Africans, 336.
-
- Leeches in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-
- Leopards in Ugogo, i. 302. In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-
- Leucæthiops amongst the Wazaramo, i. 109.
-
- Libellulæ in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-
- Lions in Uzaramo, i. 63. Signs of, on the road, 172. In Ugogo, 300,
- 301. In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-
- Lizards in the houses in East Africa, i. 371.
-
- Locusts, or nzige, flights of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18. Varieties of, 18.
- Some considered edible, 18.
-
- Lodgings on the march in East Africa, i. 353. In Ugogo, 354. In
- Unyamwezi, 354. In Uvinza, 354. At Ujiji, 351.
-
- Looms in Unyamwezi, i. 318; ii. 1.
-
- Lues in East Africa, ii. 321.
-
- Lunar Mountains, ii. 48, 144.
-
- Lurinda, chief of Gungu, ii. 53. Supplies a boat on the Tanganyika
- lake, 87. Enters into brotherhood with Said bin Salim, ii. 125.
-
- Lying, habit of, of the African, ii. 328.
-
-
- Mabruki, Muinyi, henchman in the expedition, sketch of the character
- of, i. 130. His slave boy, ii. 162. His bad behaviour, 173.
-
- Mabruki Pass, descent of the, ii. 263.
-
- Mabunguru fiumara, i. 283. Shell-fish and Silurus of the, 284. Arrival
- of the party at the, 285.
-
- Macaulay, Lord, quoted, i. 393.
-
- Machunda, chief sultan of Ukerewe, ii. 214.
-
- Madege Madogo, the “little birds,” district of, i. 79.
-
- Madege Mkuba, “the great birds,” district of, i. 79.
-
- Magic, black, or Ucháwi, how punished by the Wazaramo, i. 113, 265.
- Mode of proceeding for ascertaining the existence of, ii. 32. _See_
- Mganga.
-
- Magogoni, inland, country of, i. 87.
-
- Magomba, sultan of Kanyenye, i. 265. Blackmail levied by, 265.
- Interview with him and his court, 266. Description of him, 266.
-
- Magugi, in Karagwah, ii. 177.
-
- Maizan, M., his death, i. 6. Sketch of his career, 73.
-
- Maji m’ote, or “hot water” ant, of East Africa, i. 187.
-
- Maji ya W’heta, or jetting water, the thermal spring of, i. 159.
- Return to, ii. 264.
-
- Majid, Sayyid, sultan of Zanzibar, i. 2. Gives letters of introduction
- to the author, 3.
-
- Makata tank, i. 181. Forded by the expedition, 181. Return to, ii.
- 262.
-
- Makata plain, march over the, ii. 261.
-
- Makimoni, on the Tanganyika lake, ii. 126.
-
- Makutaniro, adventures at, i. 69.
-
- Malagarazi river, i. 334, 337. ii. 36, 39, 47, 49. First sighted by
- the party, 407. Described, 408, 409. Courses of the, 409. Crossed,
- 410. Return of the party to the, 164.
-
- Mallok, the Jemadar, sketch of his character and personal appearance,
- i. 133. His desertion, and return, 173. Becomes troublesome, 381, 382.
- His refusal to go northwards, ii. 172. Influence of bakhshish, 172.
- Sent home, ii. 277.
-
- Mamaletua, on the Tanganyika lake, halt of the party at, ii. 115.
- Civility of the people of, 115.
-
- M’ana Miaha, sultan of K’hok’ho, i. 272. Description of him, 274.
- His extortionate blackmail, 274.
-
- Mananzi, or pine-apple, of East Africa, i. 66.
-
- Manda, the petty chief at Dut’humi, i. 89. Expedition sent against
- him, 89.
-
- Mandama, or Dungomaro, river, arrival of the caravan at the, i. 222.
- Description of the bed of the, 223.
-
- Mangrove forest on the east coast of Africa, i. 9. Of the Uzaramo, 62.
-
- Manners and customs of the Wamrima, i. 35, 37. Of the Wasawahili, 37.
- Of the Wazaramo, 108 _et seq._ Of the Wak’hutu, 120. Of the Wadoe,
- 124. Of the Wasagara, 235. Of the Wagogo, 309, 310. Of the Wahumba,
- 312. Of the Wanyamwesi, ii. 23. Of the Wambozwa, 152.
-
- Mansanza, sultan of Msene, i. 396. His hospital, 396. His firm rule,
- 396. His wives, 396, 399. His visits to the author, 399.
-
- Manufactures of Msene, i. 398.
-
- Manyora, fiumara of, i. 80.
-
- Manwa, Sultan of Kigwa, his murders and robberies, i. 319. His
- adviser, Mansur, 319.
-
- Maraim, Abd, or Washhenzi, the, i. 30.
-
- Mariki, sultan of Uyonwa, ii. 78.
-
- Marema, sultan, at the Ziwa, i. 254.
-
- Marenga Mk’hali, or “brackish water,” river, i. 200, 201, 259. Climate
- of, 203. Upper, water of the, 247, 271.
-
- Maroro, basin of, its fertility, ii. 254. The place described, 255.
-
- Maroro river, i. 231.
-
- Marriage amongst the Wazaramo, i. 118. In Unyamwezi, ii. 24. In East
- Africa generally, 332.
-
- Marsh fever, i. 82, 84. Delirium of, 84.
-
- Martins in the Rufuta plains, i. 183. In Unyamwezi, ii. 17.
-
- “Marts,” custom of, in South Africa, ii. 54.
-
- Marungu, land of, ii. 149. Provinces of, 149. Roads in, 149.
- Description of the country, 150. History of an Arab caravan in, 151.
- People of, 152.
-
- Maruta, sultan of Uvira, ii. 116. Visit from his sons, 117.
- Description of them, 117. His blackmail, 120.
-
- Masenza, arrival of the party at the village of, i. 406, 407.
-
- Masika, or rainy season, in the second region, i. 231, 232. Of East
- Africa, 378.
-
- Mason-wasps of the houses in East Africa, i. 370.
-
- Masud ibn Musallam el Wardi, sent to Msimbira to recover the stolen
- papers, i. 325. His hospitality, 392.
-
- Masui, village of, ii. 229, 231.
-
- Masury, M. Sam., his kindness to the author, i. 22.
-
- Mat-weaving in East Africa, ii. 316.
-
- Maunga Tafuna, province of, ii. 153.
-
- Maura, or Maula, a sultan of the Wanyamwezi, i. 316. Visits the
- caravan, 316. His hospitality, 316. Description of him, 316.
-
- Mauta, Wady el, or Valley of Death, i. 69.
-
- Mawa, or plantain wine, ii. 180, 197. Mode of making, 287.
-
- Mawiti, colony of Arabs at, i. 326.
-
- Mazinga, or cannons, bee-hives so called in the interior, i. 200.
- Described, 200.
-
- Mazita, account of, ii. 212.
-
- Mazungera, P’hazi of Dege la Mhora, i. 75. Murders his guest, M.
- Maizan, 75, 76. Haunted by the P’hepo, or spirit of his guest, 76.
-
- Mbarika tree, or Palma Christi, of East Africa, i. 48.
-
- Mbega, or tippet-monkey, in Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-
- Mb’hali, village of, described, i. 401.
-
- Mbembu, a kind of medlar, in Ugogo, i. 300.
-
- Mbogo, or Bos Caffer, in the plains of East Africa, i. 181. Described,
- 181. In Ugogo, 300. On the Rusugi river, ii. 40.
-
- Mboni, son of Ramji, carries off a slave girl, i. 290.
-
- Mbono tree of East Africa, i. 48.
-
- Mbugani, “in the wild,” settlement of, described, i. 397.
-
- Mbugu, or tree-bark, used for clothing in Ujiji, ii. 64. Mode of
- preparing it, 64.
-
- Mbumi, the deserted village, i. 185.
-
- Mbungo-bungo tree, a kind of nux vomica, i. 48.
-
- Mbuyu, or calabash tree, of East Africa, described, i. 47.
-
- Mchikichi tree of Ujiji, ii. 58.
-
- Mdaburu, trying march in the jungle of, i. 277, 278. Description of,
- 279.
-
- Mdimu nullah, i. 88.
-
- Meals at Ujiji, ii. 89. In East Africa, 280, 334.
-
- Measures of length in East Africa, ii. 388.
-
- Medicine chest required for the expedition, i. 155.
-
- Melancholy, inexplicable, of travellers in tropical countries,
- ii. 130.
-
- Metrongoma, a wild fruit of Yombo, i. 387.
-
- Mfu’uni, hill of, i. 170. Its former importance, 171.
-
- Mfuto mountains, i. 326.
-
- Mfuto, clearing of, i. 389.
-
- Mganga, or medicine-man of East Africa, described, i. 38. His modus
- operandi, 44; ii. 358. His office as a priest, 350. As a physician,
- 352. As a detector of sorcery, 356. As a rain-maker, 357. As a
- prophet, 358. His minor duties, 359.
-
- Mganga, or witch of East Africa, i. 380.
-
- Mgazi river, i. 86.
-
- Mgege fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.
-
- Mgeta river, the, i. 80, 159, 160, 166; ii. 268. Head of the, 80.
- Mode of crossing the swollen river, 80. Pestilence of the banks of
- the, i. 127. Fords of the, i. 336; ii. 268.
-
- Mgongo T’hembo, the Elephant’s Back, arrival of the caravan at,
- i. 290. Description of, 290. Inhabitants of, 290.
-
- Mgude, or Mparamusi, tree, described, i. 47, 60, 83.
-
- Mgute fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.
-
- Mgunda Mk’hali, or “the Fiery Field,” i. 281. Description of, 281,
- 282. Stunted vegetation of, 282. Geology of, 282. Scarcity of water
- in, 283. Traversed by the caravan, 283. Features of the, 283, 292.
-
- Miasma of Sorora and Kajjanjeri, i. 403.
-
- Mikiziwa Lake, in Uguhha, ii. 147.
-
- Milk of cows in Ujiji, ii. 60. As food in East Africa, 283.
- Preparations of, 283.
-
- Millepedes, or jongo, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-
- Mimosa trees, i. 83. Flowers of the, in Usagara, 228. Trees in
- Usagara, 229. In Unyamwezi, 318. Of the Usagara mountains, 165.
-
- Miyandozi, sultan of Kifukaru, i. 264. Levies blackmail on the
- caravan, 264.
-
- Mji Mpia, “new town,” settlement of, described, i. 397. Bazar of, 397.
-
- Mkora tree, uses of the wood of the, i. 374.
-
- Mkorongo tree, uses of the, in East Africa, i. 374.
-
- Mkuba, or wild edible plum of Yombo, i. 387.
-
- Mkuyu, or sycamore tree, its magnificence in East Africa, i. 195. Its
- two varieties, 195, 196.
-
- Mkwaju la Mouani, the “Tamarind in the rains,” the village of,
- described, i. 52.
-
- Mninga tree, wood of the, i. 373. Use of the wood, 373.
-
- Mnya Mtaza, headman of Ukaranga, ii. 45.
-
- Mohammed bin Khamis, sailing-master of the Artemise, i. 8.
-
- Mohammed, the Baloch, the Rish Safid, or greybeard, sketch of him,
- i. 134. At Kazeh, 381.
-
- Molongwe river, ii. 146.
-
- Money in East Africa, ii. 388.
-
- Mombas Mission, the, i. 6, 7.
-
- Mongo Nullah, the, i. 289. Water obtained at the, 289.
-
- Mongoose, the, at Dut’humi, i. 87.
-
- Monkeys of Muhinyera, i. 64. Of Usagara mountains, 162. In Unyamwezi,
- ii. 15.
-
- Monkey-bread, ii. 221.
-
- Monsoon, the N. E., or Kaskazi, of East Africa, i. 83, 102. In
- Unyamwezi, ii. 9. Origin of the S. W. monsoon, 50. Failure of the
- opportunity for comparing the hygrometry of the African and Indian
- monsoons, 93.
-
- Moon, Land of the. _See_ Unyamwezi.
-
- Moon, her splendour at the equator, i. 162. Halo or corona round the,
- in Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 12.
-
- Morality, deficiency of, of the East Africans, ii. 335.
-
- Morus alba, the, in Uzaramo, i. 60.
-
- Mosquitoes of East Africa described, i. 182. On the Ruche river,
- ii. 52, 158.
-
- Mouma islands, ii. 153.
-
- Moumo tree (Borassus flabelliformis), of East Africa, i. 47, 180.
- Toddy drawn from, 181.
-
- Mountains:--
- Dut’humi, i. 65, 83, 86, 119.
- Jiwe la Mkoa, i. 286, 287, 295.
- Karagwah, ii. 48, 144, 177.
- Kilima Ngao, ii. 179.
- Kiringawana, i. 233.
- Lunar, ii. 144, 178.
- Mfuto, i. 326.
- Mukondokwa, i. 180, 185, 194, 203, 233.
- Ngu, or Nguru, i. 87, 125, 225.
- Njesa, i. 226.
- Rubeho, i. 203, 211, 214, 218, 245.
- Rufuta, i. 167, 170, 180.
- Uhha, ii. 160.
- Urundi, i. 409; ii. 48.
- Usagara, i. 101, 119, 159, 160, 215, 219, 225, 297.
- Wahumba, i. 295.
- Wigo, i. 159.
-
- Mountains, none in Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
-
- Mpagamo of Kigandu, defeated by Msimbira, i. 327.
-
- Mparamusi, or Mgude, tree, i. 47, 60, 83.
-
- Mpete, on the Malagarazi river, i. 410.
-
- Mpingu tree, i. 373. Uses of the wood of the, 373.
-
- Mporota, a den of thieves, halt at, ii. 252.
-
- Mrima, or “hill-land,” of the East African coast, described, i. 8, 30.
- Inhabitants of, 30. Their mode of life, 35. Mode of doing business in,
- 39. Vegetation of the, 47. Geography of the, 100. Climate of the, 102,
- 104. Diseases of the, 105. Roads of the, 105, 106. Ethnology of the,
- 106.
-
- Mororwa, sultan of Wilyankuru, i. 391.
-
- Msandarusi, or copal-tree, of Uzaramo, i. 63.
-
- Msene, settlement of, arrival of the party at, i. 395. Description of,
- 395, 396. Sultan Masawza of, 396. Prices at, 397. Productions of, 397,
- 398. Currency of, 398. Industry of, 398. Habits of the people of, 398.
- Climate of, 399.
-
- Msimbira, sultan of the Wasukuma, i. 319. Papers of the party stolen
- and carried to him, 320. Refuses to restore them, 320. Send a party to
- cut off the road, 321. Defeats Sultan Mpagamo, 327.
-
- Msopora, Sultan, restores the stolen goods, ii. 166.
-
- Msufi, a silk-cotton tree, in Uzaramo, i. 60.
-
- Msukulio tree of Uzaramo, i. 61, 83.
-
- Mtanda, date of the establishment of the kingdom of, ii. 5.
-
- Mtego, or elephant traps, i. 287. Disappearance of the Jemadar in one,
- 288.
-
- Mt’hipit’hipi, or Abras precatorius, seeds of, used as an ornament,
- ii. 181.
-
- Mtogwe tree, a variety of Nux vomica, i. 48. In Unyamwezi, 318, 401.
-
- Mtumbara, Sultan, and his quarrel, ii. 157.
-
- Mtunguja tree of the Mrima, i. 48.
-
- Mtungulu apples in Ugogo, i. 300.
-
- Mtuwwa, in Ubwari island, halt of the party at, ii. 114. Blackmail at,
- 112.
-
- Mud-fish, African mode of catching, i. 315.
-
- Mud-fish in the Gombe nullah, i. 334.
-
- Mud, Yegea, i. 83.
-
- Muhama, halt at the nullah of, i. 176, 178.
-
- Muhinna bin Sulayman of Kazeh, his arrival at Kawele, ii. 133. His
- extortion, 133.
-
- Muhinna bin Sulayman, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, i. 323.
-
- Muhiyy-el-Din, Shafehi Hazi of Zanzibar, i. 7.
-
- Muhiyy-el-Din, Kazi, of the Wasawahili, i. 33.
-
- Muhonge, settlement of, described, i. 63.
-
- Muhonyera, district of, described, i. 63. Wild animals, 63.
-
- Mui’ Gumbi, Sultan of the Warori, ii. 271. Defeated by Sultan Ironga,
- 75. Description of him, 271.
-
- Muikamba, on the Tanganyika Lake, night spent at, ii. 115.
-
- Muingwira river, ii. 211.
-
- Muinyi Wazira, engaged to travel with the expedition, i. 52. Sketch of
- his character, 129. Requests to be allowed to depart, 314. His
- debauch and dismissal, 399. Reappears at Kazeh, ii. 168. Ejected, 168.
-
- Muinyi, halt of the party at, i. 193. Determined attitude of the
- people of, 194.
-
- Muinyi Chandi, passed through, i. 390.
-
- Mukondokwa mountains, i. 180, 185, 196, 197, 203, 233. Bleak raw air
- of the, 197.
-
- Mukondokwa river, i. 88, 181, 188, 192, 311. Ford of, 188. Valley of
- the, 192.
-
- Mukozimo district, arrival of the party at the, i. 407. Inhospitality
- of the chiefs of, 407.
-
- Mukunguru, or seasoning fever, of Unyamwezi, ii. 14.
-
- Mulberry, the whitish-green, of Uzaramo, i. 60.
-
- Murchison, Sir R., his triumphant geological hypothesis, i. 409. His
- notice respecting the interior of Africa, 409, _note_.
-
- Murunguru river, ii. 154.
-
- Murivumba, tents of the party pitched at, ii. 114. Cannibal
- inhabitants of, 114.
-
- Murundusi, march to, ii. 250.
-
- Musa, the assistant Rish Safid of the party, sketch of him, i. 138.
-
- Musa Mzuri, handsome Moses, of Kazeh, i. 323. His return to Kazeh,
- ii. 223. His history, 223. His hospitality, 226. Visits the expedition
- at Masui, 231. His kindness, 231.
-
- Music and musical instruments in East Africa, described, ii. 291, 338.
- Of the Wajiji, 98.
-
- Mutware, or Mutwale, the Lord of the Ferry of the Malagarazi river,
- i. 409.
-
- Muzungu, or white man, dangers of accompanying a, in Africa, i. 10,
- 11.
-
- Muzunga Mbaya, the wicked white man, the plague of the party, ii. 239.
- His civility near home, 240. Sketch of his personal appearance, and
- specimen of his conversation, 244.
-
- Mvirama, a Mzaramo chief, demands rice, i. 80.
-
- Mviraru, a Wazaramo chief, bars the road, i. 58.
-
- Mvoro fish in the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.
-
- Mvule trees used for making canoes, ii. 147.
-
- Mwami, or wild coffee of Karagwah, ii. 180, 181, 187.
-
- Mwimbe, or mangrove trees, of the coast of East Africa, i. 9. Those of
- Uzaramo, 62.
-
- Mwimbi, bad camping ground of, ii. 262.
-
- Mwongo fruit tree, in Mb’hali, i. 401.
-
- Mgombi river, i. 183.
-
- Myombo tree of East Africa described, i. 184. Of Usagara, 229.
-
- Mzimu, or Fetiss hut, of the Wazaramo, described, i. 57. In Ubwari
- Island, halt at, ii. 113. Re-visited, 121.
-
- Mziga Mdogo, or “The Little Tamarind,” arrival of the party at,
- i. 161.
-
- Mziga-ziga, a mode of carrying goods, i. 341.
-
- Mzogera, Sultan of Uvinza, i. 408. His power, 408. Settlement of
- blackmail with envoys of, 408.
-
-
- Names given to children by the Wazaramo, i. 116.
-
- Nakl, or first stage of departure, i. 43.
-
- Nar, Beni, “sons of fire,” the English so called in Africa, i. 31.
-
- Nautch at Kuingani described, i. 45.
-
- Ndabi tree, i. 196. Fruit of the, 196.
-
- Ndabi, halt of the caravan at, i. 196.
-
- Navigation of the Tanganyika Lake, antiquity of the mode of, ii. 96.
-
- Necklaces of shells worn in Ujiji, ii. 65.
-
- Nge, or scorpions, of East Africa, i. 370.
-
- Ngole, or Dendraspis, at Dut’humi, i. 87.
-
- Night in the Usagara mountains, i. 162. In the caravan, described,
- 359.
-
- Nile, White, Ptolemy’s notion of the origin of the, ii. 178. Captain
- Speke’s supposed discovery of the sources of the, 204.
-
- Njasa, Sultan of the Wasagara, his visit to the expedition, i. 199.
- Description of him, 199. Makes “sare” or brotherhood with Said bin
- Salim, 199.
-
- Njesa mountains, i. 226.
-
- Njugu ya Nyassa, the Arachis Hypogæa, as an article of food, i. 198.
-
- Northern kingdoms of Africa. _See_ Karagwah, Uganda, and Unyoro.
-
- Nose pincers of the Wajiji tribe, ii. 65.
-
- Nullahs, or watercourses of East Africa, i. 102.
-
- Nutmeg, wild, of Usui, ii. 176.
-
- Nyakahanga, in Karagwah, ii. 177.
-
- Nyanza, or Ukerewe, Lake, i. 311, 439; ii. 175, 176, 179. Chances of
- exploration of the, 195. Geography of the, 206, 210, _et seq._ Size of
- the, 212. Position of the, 211. Commerce of the, 215. Savage races of
- the, 215. Reasons why it is not the head stream of the White Nile,
- 218. Tribes dwelling near the, 219.
-
- Nyara, or Chamærops humilis, of the Mrima, i. 48.
-
- Nyasanga, fishing village on the Tanganyika lake, ii. 101.
-
- Nzasa, halt at the, i. 54.
-
- Nzige, or locusts, flights of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18. Varieties of, 18.
-
-
- Oars not used on the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 96.
-
- Ocelot, the, of Ugogi, i. 242.
-
- Oil, common kind of, in East Africa, ii. 285. Various kinds of, 285.
-
- Olive-tree unknown in East Africa, ii. 285.
-
- Olympus, the Æthiopian, ii. 179.
-
- Onions cultivated in Unyamwezi, i. 330.
-
- Ophthalmia, several of the party suffer from, in Unyamwezi, i. 406.
-
- Ophidia in Unyamwezi, ii. 17.
-
- Ordeal for witchcraft, ii. 357. Amongst the Wazaramo, i. 114.
-
- Ornaments worn by the Wazaramo, i. 110. By the Wak’hutu, 120. Fondness
- of the Africans for, 147, 148, 150. Of the Wasagara tribe, 199, 237.
- Of the Wagogo, 305. Of the Wahumba, 312. Of the porters of caravans,
- 349. Of sultans in East Africa, 396. Of the Wakimba, ii. 20. Of the
- Wanyamwezi, 22. Of the Wabuha, 78. Of the Wabwari islanders, 113. Of
- the people of Karagwah, 181.
-
- Ostriches in Ugogo, i. 301. Value of feathers in East Africa, i. 301.
-
- Outfit of the expedition, articles required for the, i. 151.
-
- Oxen of Ujiji, ii. 59.
-
-
- Paddles used on the Tanganyika lake, ii. 96. Described, 96.
-
- Palm, Syphæna, i. 82, 83.
-
- Palma Christi, or Mbarika, of East Africa, i. 48.
-
- Palm-oil, or mawezi, of the shores of the Lake Tanganyika, ii. 58.
- Mode of extracting it, 58, 59. Price at the lake, 59. Uses to which it
- is applied, 59. Trade in, at Wafanya, 107.
-
- Palmyra tree (Borassus flabelliformis), in the plains, i. 180. Toddy
- drawn from, 181. At Yambo, 387. And at Mb’hali, 401. Tapped for toddy
- at Msene, 398.
-
- Pangani river, ii. 179.
-
- Papazi, pest of, in East Africa, i. 371.
-
- Papilionaceæ in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-
- Panda, village of, i. 403.
-
- Pano, village of, i. 389.
-
- Parugerero, district of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 37. Salt manufacture of,
- 37.
-
- Partridges in the Doab of the Mgeta river i. 81.
-
- Pazi bug, the, of East Africa, i. 371.
-
- Peewit, the, in the Rufuta plains, i. 183.
-
- Phantasmata in East Africa, ii. 352.
-
- P’hazi, or headmen of the Wazaramo, i. 54, 113. Of the Wak’hutu, 121.
-
- P’hepo, ghost or devil, African belief in, i. 88; ii. 352. Exorcism,
- 352.
-
- Phlebotomy in East Africa, ii. 322.
-
- Pig-nuts of East Africa, i. 198.
-
- Pillaw in Africa, i. 393. How to boil rice, 393.
-
- Pine-apple, or Mananzi, of East Africa, i. 66.
-
- Pipes in East Africa, ii. 315.
-
- Pismires, chungo-fundo or siyafu, of the banks of the rivers in East
- Africa, described, i. 186. Its enemy, the maji m’oto, 187.
-
- Pismires black, annoyance of, at K’hok’ho, i. 276.
-
- Plantain wine of Karagwah, ii. 180. And of Uganda, 197. Mode of making
- it, 287.
-
- Plantains near the Unguwwe river, ii. 41. Of Ujiji, 58. The staff of
- life in many places, 58. Luxuriance of it, 58. Varieties, 58. Of
- Uganda, 196.
-
- Playfair, Captain R. L., his “History of Arabia Felix” quoted, i. 68,
- _note_.
-
- Plum, wild, of Yombo, i. 387.
-
- Plundering expeditions of the Wazaramo, i. 112.
-
- Poisons used for arrows in Africa, ii. 301.
-
- Polygamy amongst the Wanyamwezi, ii. 24.
-
- Pombe beer, of East Africa, i. 95, 116, 333; ii. 180, 285. Universal
- use of, i. 309; ii. 29. Mode of making it, 286.
-
- Porcupines in K’hutu, i. 160.
-
- Porridge of the East Africans, i. 35.
-
- Porridge flour, of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.
-
- Porters, or Pagazi, the Wanyamwezi, of the expedition, i. 143.
- Character of East African, 144. In East Africa, 337. Variations of
- porterage, 339. Great weight carried sometimes by, 341. Their
- discontent, 343. Desertion of in Wilyankuru, 391. Description of those
- hired in Ujiji, ii. 157. Of the Warori, 271.
-
- Pottery, art of, in East Africa, ii. 313.
-
- Prices at Msene, i. 397. In the market at Unyanyembe, 333. In Ujiji,
- ii. 72. At Wafanya, 107. At Uvira, 120, 121.
-
- Proverbs, Arab, i. 50, 86, 130, 133, 135, 382.
-
- ---- African, i. 31.
-
- ---- Moslem, ii. 131.
-
- ---- Persian, ii. 237.
-
- ---- Sanscrit, i. 133.
-
- ---- Wanyamwezi, i. 338.
-
- Pumpkins, junsal or boga, grown at Marenga Mk’hali, i. 201.
-
- Punishments in Uganda, ii. 192.
-
- Punishments in East Africa, ii. 364.
-
- Punneeria coagulans of the Mrima, i. 48.
-
-
- Quaggas in Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-
-
- Races of the Northern Kingdoms of Africa, ii. 174, 175.
-
- Rahmat, the Baloch, i. 46.
-
- Rain at Zungomero, i. 156. Autumnal, at Muhama, 179. In the Usagara
- mountains, 218, 231, 232. In Ugogo, 298. The Masika or wet season,
- 378. In Unyamwezi, ii. 8-10. In the valley of the Malagarazi river,
- 49. In Karagwah, 180.
-
- Rainbow, fog, in the Usagara mountains, i. 222.
-
- Ramji, the Banyan of Cutch, engaged to accompany the expedition,
- i. 10. His commercial speculation, 20. His conversation with Ladha
- Damha, 23. Visits the author at Kuingani, 43. Account of him, 43, 44.
- His advice, 45.
-
- Ramji, “sons” of, sketch of them, i. 140. Their ever-increasing
- baggage, 182. Their quarrels with the Baloch soldiers, 163. Their
- insolence, 164. Reappear at Kazeh, ii. 168. Allowed to take the places
- of porters, 227. Return home, ii. 277.
-
- Ranæ of Unyamwezi, ii. 17. Of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 61.
-
- Rats, field, i. 160. On the banks of the Mukondokwa river, 193. House
- rats of Ujiji, ii. 60.
-
- Ravens of the Usagara mountains, i. 162.
-
- Religion of the Wazaramo, i. 115. Of the East Africans, _ib._; ii.
- 341. An African’s notion of God, 348 _note_.
-
- Reptiles in Unyamwezi, ii. 17.
-
- Respect, tokens of, amongst the Wajiji, ii. 69.
-
- Revenge of the African, ii. 329.
-
- Revenue, sources of, in East Africa, ii. 365.
-
- Rhinoceroses at Dut’humi, i. 87. On the road to Ugogo, 247. On the
- Mgunda Mk’hali, 289. In Ugogo, 300. In Unyamwezi, ii. 15. The
- Rhinoceros horn trade of East Africa, 413.
-
- Rice, how to cook, i. 393. Red, density and rapidity of growth of, at
- Msene, 397. Luxuriance of, in Ujiji, ii. 57. Allowed to degenerate,
- 57. Unknown in Karagwah, 180.
-
- Ricinæ of East Africa, i. 371.
-
- Rigby, Captain, at Zanzibar, ii. 382.
-
- Rivers:--
- Dungomaro, or Mandama, i. 222.
- Gama, i. 123.
- Kariba, ii. 146.
- Karindire, ii. 146.
- Katonga, ii. 187.
- K’hutu, i. 86.
- Kibaiba, ii. 146.
- Kingani, i. 56, 69, 87, 101, 123, 231.
- Kikoboga, ii. 263.
- Kitangure, or Karagwah, i. 409; ii. 144, 177, 186.
- Kuryamavenge, ii. 146.
- Malagarazi, i. 334, 337, 407, 408; ii. 36, 39, 47, 49, 164.
- Mandama, or Dungomero, 222.
- Marenga Mk’hali, i. 200, 201.
- Marenga Mk’hali, upper, i. 247.
- Maroro, i. 231.
- Molongwe, ii. 146.
- Mgazi, i. 86.
- Mgeta, i. 80, 86, 87, 88, 101, 119, 127, 159, 160, 336; ii. 264,
- 268, 274.
- Muingwira, ii. 187.
- Mukondokwa, i. 88, 181, 188, 192, 216, 311.
- Myombo, i. 181.
- Mwega, ii. 256.
- Pangani, i. 125; ii. 179.
- Ruche, ii. 46, 52, 157, 158.
- Rufiji, or Rwaha, i. 30, 101, 119, 216, 220, 225, 231; ii. 257, 270,
- 379.
- Rufuta, i. 167.
- Ruguvu, or Luguvu, ii. 40, 52.
- Rumangwa, ii. 149, 153.
- Rumuma, i. 197.
- Rusizi, or Lusizi, ii. 117, 146.
- Rusugi, ii. 37, 161.
- Rwaha, or Rufiti, i. 216, 220, 225, 231, 295; ii. 8.
- Tumbiri of Dr. Krapf, ii. 217.
- Unguwwe, or Uvungwe, ii. 40, 52.
- Yovu, ii. 257, 258.
- Zohnwe, i. 127.
-
- Riza, the Baloch, sketch of him, i. 139.
-
- Roads in the maritime region of East Africa described, i. 105, 106. In
- the Usagara Mountains, 230. From Ugogo to Unyamwezi, 281. In Ugogo,
- 302. In Unyanyembe, 325. Description of the roads in East Africa, 335.
- In Unyamwezi, ii. 19. From the Malagarazi Ferry, 51.
-
- Rubeho Mountains, i. 233, 211, 245.
-
- Rubeho, or “Windy Pass,” painful ascent of the, i. 213. Scenery from
- the summit, 214. Village of Wasagara at the summit, 218.
-
- Rubeho, the Great, halt at the, i. 215. Dangerous illness of Capt.
- Speke at, 215. His restoration, 215.
-
- Rubeho, the Little, ascent of the, i. 215. Fight between the porters
- and the four Wak’hutu, 216.
-
- Rubeho, the Third, halt of the caravan at, i. 221.
-
- Rubuga, arrival of the caravan at, i. 315. Visit from Abdullah bin
- Jumah and his flying caravan, 315. Flood at, 317.
-
- Ruche river, ii. 52. Mouth of the, 46, 157.
-
- Rudi, march to, ii. 251.
-
- Rufiji river, the, i. 30, 216, 220, 225, 231; ii. 257, 379. Races on
- the, i. 30.
-
- Rufita Pass in Umgara, ii. 259.
-
- Rufuta fiumara, the, i. 167.
-
- Ruguvu, or Luguvu, river, ii. 40, 52. Fords of the, i. 336.
-
- Ruhembe rivulet, the, ii. 261. Halt in the basin of the, 261.
-
- Ruhembe, Sultan, slain by the Watuta, ii. 76.
-
- Rukunda, or Lukunda, night spent at, i. 407.
-
- Rumanika of Karagwah, his rebellion and defeat, ii. 183. Besieges his
- brother, 224.
-
- Rumuma river, described, i. 197.
-
- Rumuma, halt of the caravan at, i. 198. Abundance of its supplies,
- 198. Visit from the Sultan Njasa at, 199. Climate of, 199.
-
- Rusimba, Sultan of Ujiji, ii. 70.
-
- Rusizi river, ii. 117, 146.
-
- Rusugi river, described, ii. 37. Forded, 37.
-
- Ruwere, chief of Jambeho, levies “dash” on the party, ii. 36.
-
- Rwaha river, i. 295, 216, 220, 225, 231; ii. 257.
-
-
- Sage, in Usagara, i. 228.
-
- Sangale fish in the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.
-
- Said, Sayyid, Sultan of Zanzibar, the “Imaum of Muscat,” i. 2. His
- sons, 2.
-
- Salim bin Rashid, the Arab merchant, calls on Captain Burton, ii. 228.
-
- Said bin Salim, appointed Ras Kafilah, or caravan guide, to the
- expedition, i. 9, 10. Attacked by fever, 71. His terror of the
- Wazaramo, 73. His generosity through fear, 90. His character, 129.
- His hatred of the Baloch, 163. His covetousness, 163, 164. Insolence
- of his slaves, 164. His dispute with Kidogo, 255. His fears, and
- neglect at Ugogo, 280. His inhospitality, 287. His change of
- behaviour, 382. His punishment, 384. His selfishness, 391. His fears,
- ii. 125. Enters into brotherhood with Lurinda, 125. And afterwards
- with Kannena, 126. His carelessness of the supplies, 127. His
- impertinence, 159, 160. His attempts to thwart the expedition, 172.
- Pitches tents outside Kazeh, 227. Moves to the village of Masui, 229.
- Dismissed from his stewardship, 237. His news from Zanzibar, 261. His
- terror in Uzaramo, 275. Leaves for home, 277. Visits the author at
- Zanzibar, 382.
-
- Said bin Ali el Hinawi, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, i. 323.
-
- Said bin Majid, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, i. 323. Return of the
- expedition with his caravan, ii. 157. Separation from him, 165.
- Treatment of his people at Ujiji, 84.
-
- Said bin Mohammed of Mbuamaji, and his caravan i. 257. Account of him
- and his family, 258.
-
- Said bin Mohammed, Sultan of Irora, i. 389. His surliness, 389.
- Brought to his senses, 389, 390.
-
- Salim bin Said, the Arab merchant in Wilyankuru, i. 391. His
- hospitality, 391.
-
- Salim bin Masud, the Arab merchant, murdered, i. 328, 391.
-
- Sanscrit proverb, i. 133.
-
- Salt, demand for, in Ujiji, ii. 82. Scarcity of, at Wafanya, 108.
- Stock laid in, ii. 161.
-
- Salt-pits of K’hutu, i. 92.
-
- Salt-trade of Parugerero, ii. 37. Quality of the salt, 37.
-
- Salsaparilla vine of Uzaramo, i. 60.
-
- Sare, or brother oath, of the Wazaramo, i. 114. Mode of performing the
- ceremony, 114. Ceremony of, performed between Sultan Njasa and Said
- bin Salim, i. 199.
-
- Sawahil, or “the shores,” geographical position of the, i. 29, 30.
- People of, described, 30.
-
- Sayf bin Salim, the Arab merchant, account of, i. 83. Returns to
- Dut’humi, 128. His covetousness, 128. Crushes a servile rebellion,
- 125.
-
- Scorpions of East Africa, i. 370. In the houses in Ujiji, ii. 61.
-
- Seasons, aspect of the, in Ugogo, i. 298. Eight in Zanzibar, ii. 8.
- Two in Unyamwezi, 8.
-
- Seedy Mubarak Bombay, gun-carrier in the expedition, character of,
- i. 130, 279. His demand of bakhshish, ii. 173. His peculiarities, 236.
- Appointed steward, 237.
-
- Σεληνης ορος of the Greeks, locality of the, ii. 4.
-
- Servile war in East Africa, i. 125.
-
- Shahdad, the Baloch, sketch of him, i. 135. Left behind at Kazeh, 381.
-
- Sharm, or shame, Oriental, i. 23.
-
- Sheep of Ujiji, ii. 59.
-
- Shehe, son of Ramji, appointed Kirangozi, ii. 232. Dismissed, 238.
-
- Shields of the Wasagara tribe, i. 238. Unknown to the Wagogo, 304.
- Carried by the Wahumba, 312. In Unyamwezi, ii. 23.
-
- Shoes required for the expedition, i. 154.
-
- Shoka, or battle-axes of the East Africans, ii. 307.
-
- Shukkah, or loin cloth, of East Africa, i. 149. Of the Wasagara, 235.
- Materials of which it is made, 236.
-
- Siki, or vinegar of East Africa, ii. 288.
-
- Sikujui, the lady, added to the caravan, i. 210. Description of her,
- 210, 221.
-
- Silurus, the, of the Mabunguru fiumara, i. 284.
-
- Sime, or double-edged knives, of the Wasagara, i. 240. Of the Wagogo,
- 306. Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22. Of East Africa generally, 307.
-
- Singa fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 68.
-
- Siroccos at Ugogo, i. 260.
-
- Siyafu, or black pismires, annoyances of, at K’hok’ho, i. 276.
-
- Skeletons on the road side, i. 165, 168.
-
- Skin, colour of the, of the Wazaramo, i. 108. Of the Wak’hutu, 120. Of
- the Wadoe, 124. Of the Wagogo, 304. Sebaceous odour of the, of the
- Wazaramo, 309. Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 20. Warundi, 145. Karagwah
- people, 181. Skin diseases of East Africa, 320.
-
- Slave caravans of East Africa, i. 17. At Tumba Ihere, 62. At Zanzibar,
- 50.
-
- Slaves and slavery: kidnapping in Inland Magogoni, i. 88. In Dat’humi,
- 89. Slavery in K’hutu, 97, 98, 121. Kidnappings of the Wazegura, 125.
- Pitiable scene presented by a village after a commando, 185. In Ugogo,
- 309. In Unyamwezi, ii. 23. Of Ujiji, 61, 71. Prices of slaves in, 62,
- 71. Prices of Wahha slaves at Msene, 79. Not trustworthy in Africa,
- 111. Their modes of murdering their patrons, 111. Prices of, in Uvira,
- 121. In Karagwah, 184. In Ubena, 270. Degrading effects of the slave
- trade, 340, 366. Origin of the slave trade of East Africa, 366.
- Treatment of slaves, 367, 369. Two kinds of slave trade, 368.
- Kidnapping, 369. Character of slaves, 371. Revenge of slaves, 374,
- 375. Female slaves, 375. Prices of slaves, 375. Number of slaves
- imported yearly into Zanzibar, 377. Ease with which the slave-trade at
- Zanzibar could be abolished, 377.
-
- Small-pox in the Usagara mountains, i. 166. And in the up caravans,
- 179. The porters of the party attacked by, 180, 184, 190. In Khalfan’s
- caravan, 201. In the caravans in East Africa, 342. In East Africa
- generally, ii. 318.
-
- Smoking parties of women at Yombo, i. 388.
-
- Snay bin Amir, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, i. 323. Performs the guest
- rites there, 323, 324. Sketch of his career, 324. His visit to the
- Sultan of Ugunda, ii. 193. His kindness, i. 384; ii. 231.
-
- Snakes at Unyamwezi, ii. 17. In the houses in Ujiji, 61.
-
- Snuff, Wajiji mode of taking, ii. 65.
-
- Soil, fertility of the, at Msene, i. 397. Character of the, in
- Unyamwezi, ii. 6. Wondrous fertility of the, in the valley of the
- Malagarazi river, 49. And of that of Ujiji, 57.
-
- Soma Giri, of the Hindus, locality of the, ii. 4.
-
- Songs of the porters of the caravan, ii. 361, 362. Of East Africa,
- ii. 291.
-
- Sorghum cultivated in Ujiji, ii. 57.
-
- Sorora, or Solola, in Unyamwezi, arrival of the party at, i. 401. Its
- deadly climate, 401.
-
- Speke, Capt., his illness in Uzaramo, i. 62, 65, 69. Shakes off his
- preliminary symptoms, 71. Lays the foundation of a fever, 82.
- Thoroughly prostrated, 84. Recovers his health at Mzizi Mdogo, 161.
- Again attacked at Muhama, 179. And by “liver” at Rumuma, 200.
- Dangerous illness at the Windy Pass, 214. Restored, 215. Unable to
- walk, 286. Awaits reserve supplies at Kazeh, 386. Rejoins the caravan,
- 390. Tormented by ophthalmia, 406; ii. 86. Starts on an expedition to
- explore the northern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake, 87. Returns
- moist and mildewed, and nothing done, 90. His “Journal” in “Blackwood”
- referred to, 90. Quoted, 91 _note_. A beetle in his ear, 91 _note_.
- Joins the second expedition, 99. Improvement in his health, 129.
- Return journey, 157. His deafness and dimness of vision, 169. Leaves
- Kazeh for the north, 173. Returns, 204. His supposed discovery of the
- sources of the White Nile, 204. Taken ill at Hanga, 233. Convalescent,
- 240. Sights the sea at Konduchi, 279. Returns home, 384.
-
- Spears and assegais of the Wasagara tribe, i. 237. Of the Wagogo, 306.
- Of the Wahumba, 311. Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22. Of East Africa
- generally, 301.
-
- Spiders of East Africa, i. 371. In the houses of Ujiji, ii. 61.
-
- Sport in East Africa, remarks on, i. 268.
-
- Spring, hot, of Maji ya W’heta, i. 159.
-
- Squirrels, red, in K’hutu, i. 160.
-
- Stars, their splendour at the equator, i. 163.
-
- Stares, category of in Africa, ii. 129.
-
- Stationery required for the expedition, i. 153.
-
- Steinhæuser, Dr., i. 25.
-
- Storm in Uzaramo, i. 69. Those of the rainy monsoon in Unyamwezi,
- ii. 9. On the Tanganyika Lake, description of a, 122.
-
- Succession and inheritance, in Unyamwezi, ii. 23.
-
- Sugar-cane, wild, or Gugu-mbua, i. 71. In Ujiji, ii. 58. Chewed, 288.
-
- Sugar made of granulated honey, i. 397.
-
- Suiya, antelope, i. 269.
-
- Sulphur in Karagwah, ii. 185.
-
- Sultans, burial-places of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 26. Power of the Sultan
- in this country, 31. And in East Africa generally, ii. 362.
-
- Sun, his splendour at the equator, i. 162. Ring-cloud tempering the
- rays of the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 12.
-
- Suna, Sultan of Uganda, ii. 188. The Arabs’ description of him, 189.
- His hundred sons, 192. His chief officers, and mode of government,
- 192. Account of a visit to him, 193.
-
- Sunset-hour on the Indian Ocean, i. 1. In the Land of the Moon, 387.
- In Unyamwezi, ii. 7. In Ujiji, 89. In East Africa generally, 289.
-
- Sunrise on the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 156.
-
- Superstitions of the Wamrima, i. 38. Of the Wagogoni, inland, 88. Of
- the Wazaramo, 112, 114, 115.
-
- Supplies, shortness of, ii. 130. Arrival of some, but inadequate for
- the purpose, 130.
-
- Surgery in East Africa, ii. 322.
-
- Suwarora, Sultan, his exorbitant black-mail, ii. 176.
-
- Swallows in Unyamwezi, ii. 17.
-
- Swords in East Africa, ii. 308.
-
- Sycomore tree of East Africa, the Mkuyu, its magnificence, i. 195. Its
- two varieties, 195, 196. Its magnificence in Usagara, 229.
-
-
- Tailoring in Africa, ii. 201.
-
- Tamarind trees of the Usagara Mountains, i. 165, 229. Modes of
- preparing the fruit, 165. At Mfuto, 389.
-
- Tanganyika Lake, first view of the, described, ii. 42, 43. A boat
- engaged on the, 45. Seen from Ujiji, 47. Hippopotami and crocodiles
- in, 60. People of the shores of, 62, _et seq._ Fishing in, 66.
- Varieties of fish in, 67. Failure of Captain Speke’s expedition for
- exploring the northern shores of, 90. Preparations for another cruise,
- 93. Description of the boats of the lake, 94. Navigation of the, 94.
- Voyage up the, 99. Eastern shores of the, described, 100. Fishing
- villages, 100. Remarks on boating and voyaging on the lake, 101.
- Account of the island of Ubwari, 108. Visit to the island, 113.
- Further progress stopped, 117, 119. Storm on the lake, 122. History of
- the lake, ii. 134 _et seq._ Meaning of the name, 137. Extent and
- general direction of, 137. Altitude of, 139. Sweetness of its water,
- 139. Its colour, 140. Its depth, 140. Its affluents, 140. Its coasts,
- 141. No effluents, 141. Its temperature, 142. Its ebb and flow, 143.
- Physical and ethnological features of its periplus, 144. Sunrise
- scenery on the lake, 156.
-
- Targes of the East Africans described, ii. 307.
-
- Tattoo, not general amongst the Wazaramo, i. 108. Nor amongst the
- Wak’hutu, 120. Practised by the Wadoe, 124. Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 21.
- Amongst the Wajiji, 63. Of the Warundi, 145.
-
- Teeth, chipped to points by the Wasagara tribe, i. 235.
-
- Tembe, the houses beyond Marenga Mk’hali so called, i. 207.
- Description of the Tembe of East Africa, 366.
-
- Tembo, or palm-toddy, a favourite inebrient in Ujiji, ii. 70.
-
- Tenga, in Karagwah, ii. 177.
-
- Tent-making in Africa, ii. 201.
-
- Termites of East Africa, i. 201, 202. In the houses of Ujiji, ii. 61.
-
- Tetemeka, or earthquakes in Unyamwezi, ii. 13.
-
- Thermometers in Africa, i. 169.
-
- Thiri, or Ut’hiri, district of, ii. 215.
-
- Thirst, impatience and selfishness of, of the Baloch guard, i. 205.
- African impatience of, 359; ii. 334.
-
- Thorns, nuisance of, on the road to Ugogo, i. 246.
-
- Thunder and lightning in Unyamwezi, ii. 9. In the Malagarazi valley,
- 50. In Karagwah, 180.
-
- Timber of East Africa, ii. 415.
-
- Time, difficulty of keeping, by chronometers in East African travel,
- i. 189, 190. Second-hand watches to be preferred, 190.
-
- Tirikeza, or afternoon march of a caravan, i. 203, 221. Incidents of
- one, 204, 205.
-
- Tobacco, trade of, in East Africa, ii. 418.
-
- Tobacco, use of, in East Africa, i. 36. Smoked by women in Unyamwezi,
- 388. Chewed by Unyamwezi, ii. 28. Tobacco of Uganda, 196. Tobacco
- trade of East Africa, ii. 418.
-
- Tobacco-pipes of Eastern Africa, i. 388; ii. 315.
-
- Toddy obtained from the palmyra of Msene only, i. 398. Extracted from
- the Guinea-palm in Ujiji, ii. 59. Prevalence of the use of, in Ujiji,
- 59, 70. Of Zanzibar, 287.
-
- Togwa, a drink in Unyamwezi, i. 333. And in East Africa generally,
- ii. 286.
-
- Tombs of the Wamrima and Wazaramo, i. 57.
-
- Tools required for the expedition, i. 153.
-
- Tramontana of the Rubeho, or Windy Pass, i. 214.
-
- Travellers in Africa, advice to, ii. 82. Melancholy of which
- travellers in tropical countries complain, 130.
-
- Travelling, characteristics of Arab, in Eastern Africa, ii. 157.
- Expense of travelling in East Africa, 229.
-
- Trees in East Africa. _See_ Vegetation.
-
- Tree-bark used for clothing in Ujiji, ii. 64. Mode of preparing it,
- 64.
-
- Trove, treasure, Arab care of, i. 258.
-
- Tumba Ihere, the P’hazi, i. 54. His station, 62. Slave caravans at,
- 62. Accompanies the expedition, 62, 65.
-
- Tumbiri river of Dr. Krapf, ii. 217.
-
- Tunda, “the fruit,” malaria of the place, i. 71.
-
- Tura, arrival of the caravan at the nullah of, i. 291. And at the
- village of, 292. Astonishment of the inhabitants, 292. Description of,
- 313. Return to, ii. 241.
-
- Turmeric at Muinyi Chandi, i. 390.
-
- Twanigana, elected Kirangozi, ii. 239. His conversation, 243.
-
- Twins amongst the Wazaramo, i. 116. Treatment of, in Unyamwezi,
- ii. 23.
-
- Tzetze, a stinging jungle fly, i. 187. At K’hok’ho, 276. On the
- Mgunda Mk’hali, 289.
-
-
- Ubena, land of, described, ii. 269. People of, 270. Commerce and
- currency of, 270.
-
- Ubeyya, province of, ii. 153.
-
- Ubwari, island of, ii. 108. De Barros’ account of, quoted, 108. Size
- and position of, 108. The expedition sails for, 112. Inhabitants of,
- 113. Halt at, 114. Portuguese accounts of, 135.
-
- Uchawi, or black magic, how punished by the Wazaramo, i. 113.
- Described, 265. Not generally believed in Ugogo, 307. Mode of
- proceeding in cases of, ii. 32. Belief of the East Africans generally
- in, 347. Office of the mganga, 356.
-
- Ufipa, district of, on the Tanganyika Lake, i. 153. Its fertility,
- 135. People of, 153.
-
- Ufyoma, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
-
- Ugaga, delay at the village of, i. 408, 410.
-
- Ugali, or flour porridge, the common food of East Africa, i. 35. Of
- the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.
-
- Uganda, road to, ii. 187. Sultan of, and his government, 188.
-
- Uganza, arrival of the caravan at, i. 407.
-
- Ugogi, halt of the party at, i. 241. Abundance of provisions at, 241.
- Geography of, 242. People of, 242. Animals of, 242. Pleasant position
- of, 243. Its healthiness, 243.
-
- Ugogo, first view of, from the Usagara mountains, i. 220. The plains
- of, reached by the caravan, 223. Scenery on the road near, 245.
- Blackmail at, 252. Entrance into, 259. Description of the surrounding
- country, 259. The calabash tree at, 260. Siroccos at, 260. Reception
- of the caravan at, 261. Incidents of the march through, 261-280. Roads
- from Ugogo to Unyamwezi, 281. Geography of Ugogo, 294. Boundaries of,
- 294. No rivers in, 295. Igneous formation of, 295. Houses of, 296.
- Subsoil of, 296. Climate of, 297. Diseases of, 299. Vegetation of,
- 299, 300. Animals of, 300. Roads of, 302. Description of the tribes
- of, 303. Lodging for caravans in, 354. Return through, ii. 246.
-
- Ugoyye, district of, in Ujiji, ii. 53.
-
- Uhha, land of, now a desert, ii. 53. Laid waste by the Watuta tribe,
- 76, 78.
-
- Uhehe, march through, ii. 250. People of, 251.
-
- Ujiji, Sea of. _See_ Tanganyika, Lake of.
-
- Ujiji, town of, lodgings for caravans in, i. 354. Arrival of the party
- at the, ii. 46. Scene there, 47. Climate of, 50, 51. Boundaries of,
- 53. Villages and districts of, 53. Camping ground of caravans near,
- 54. Distance of Ujiji from the coast, and number of stages, 55.
- History of the country, 56. Trade of, 57. Fertility of the soil of,
- 57. Bazar of, 59. Fauna of, 60. Slave trade of, 61. Principal tribes
- in, 62. Inconveniences of a halt at, and of a return journey from, 74.
- Mode of spending the day at, 87.
-
- Ukami, depopulation of, i. 88.
-
- Ukaranga, or “land of ground-nuts,” on the Tanganyika Lake, arrival
- at, ii. 44. Boundaries of, 52. Wretched villages of, 52. Apathy of the
- people, 52. Etymology of the name, 52.
-
- Ukerewe, ii. 212. Account of, 212, 213. People of, 212. Commerce of,
- 213.
-
- Ukhindu, or brab-tree, i. 48.
-
- Ukona, reached by the caravan, i. 318.
-
- Ukungwe, village of, i. 403.
-
- Ukungwe, islands of, ii. 151.
-
- Umbilical region, protrusion of the, in the children of the Wazaramo,
- ii. 117.
-
- Unguwwe, or Uvungwe, river, ii. 40, 52. Forded, 40.
-
- Unyanguruwwe, settlement of, i. 408.
-
- Unyangwira, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
-
- Unyanyembe district, rice lands of the, i. 321. Aspect of the land,
- 321. Description of it, 325; ii. 5. Roads in, i. 325. Its physical
- features, 326. Its villages, 326. History of the Arab settlements in,
- 327. Food in, 329, 331-334. Prices in, 333.
-
- Unyamwezi, or the Land of the Moon, i. 313. Arrival of the caravan in
- the, 314. Lodgings for caravans in, 354. Geography of, ii. 1.
- Boundaries and extent of, 2. Altitude of, 2. The country as known to
- the Portuguese, 2. Corruptions of the name, 2, 3. Etymology of the
- word, 3, 4. Barbarous traditions of its having been a great empire, 4.
- Portuguese accounts of its former greatness, 5. Its present political
- condition, 5. Its dialects, 5. Provinces into which it is divided, 5.
- General appearance of the country, 6. Its geology, 6. Peaceful rural
- beauty of the country, 7. Water and rice fields, 7. Versant of
- Unyamwezi, 8. Its two seasons, 8. Its rainy monsoon, 8-10. The hot
- season, 11. Diseases of the country, 11, 13, 14. Whirlwinds and
- earthquakes, 11, 13. Curious effects of the climate, 14. Fauna of
- Unyamwezi, 15. Roads in, 19. Notice of the races of, 19.
-
- Unyoro, dependent, ii. 187.
-
- Unyoro, independent, land of, ii. 197. People of, 197.
-
- Urundi, mountains of, i. 409; ii. 48. Arrival of the expedition in the
- region of, 101. People of, 107, 117. Description of the kingdom of,
- 144. Governments of, 145. People of, 145. Route to, 169.
-
- Uruwwa, the present terminus of trade, ii. 147. People of, 147. Prices
- at, 147.
-
- Usagara mountains, i. 87, 159, 215, 297, 335. Ascent of the, 160. Halt
- in the, 161. Healthiness of the, 161. Vegetation of the, 162, 165.
- Water in the, 218. Descent of the counterslope of the, 219. View from
- the, 220. Geography of the, 225, _et seq._ Geology of the, 227. Fruits
- and flowers of the, 228. Magnificent trees of the, 129. Water-channels
- and cultivation of the ground in the, 229. Village of the, 229.
- Supplies of food in the, 229. Roads of the, 230. Water for drinking in
- the, 230. Climate of the, 231. Diseases of the, 233. The tribes
- inhabiting the, 233.
-
- Usagozi, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6. March to, i. 405. Insolence
- of the men of, 405. Description of the town of, and country around,
- 405. Sultan and people of, 406.
-
- Usek’he, in Ugogo, i. 272.
-
- Usenda, capital of the Sultan Kazembe, ii. 148. Trade of Usenda, 148.
-
- Usenge, arrival of the party at the clearing of, i. 407.
-
- Usoga, Land of, ii. 197. People of, 197.
-
- Usui, road and route from Unyanyembe to, ii. 175. Description of, 176.
- People of, 176.
-
- Usukama, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 5.
-
- Usumbwa, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
-
- Utakama, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 5.
-
- Utambara, near Marungu, district of, ii. 151.
-
- Ut’hongwe, country of, ii. 52.
-
- Utumbara, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6, 176. People of, 176.
-
- Uvinza, lodgings for caravans in, i. 354. Geography of, ii. 1, 48. The
- two seasons of, 8.
-
- Uvira, southern frontier of, reached by the expedition, ii. 115, 116.
- Sultan of, 116. Blackmail at, 120. Commerce of, 120.
-
- Uyanzi, land of, description of the, i. 279.
-
- Uyonwa, principal village of Uvinza, ii. 78. Sultan Mariki of, 78.
- Tents pitched at, 161.
-
- Uyuwwi, Kitambi, sultan of, i. 320.
-
- Uzaramo, the first district of, i. 54. Fertility of, 60. Wild animals
- of, 63. Storm in, 60. Boundaries of the territory of, 107. Roads in,
- 335. Art of narcotising fish in, ii. 67. Re-entered, 275.
-
- Uzige, land of, described, ii. 146. People of, 146. Rivers of, 146.
-
- Uziraha, plain of, ii. 263.
-
- Uzungu, or White Land, African curiosity respecting, i. 261.
-
-
- Valentine, the Goanese servant, sketch of his character, i. 131. Taken
- ill, i. 200, 379; ii. 169. Cured by the tinctura Warburgii, 169. His
- reception by the Wagogo, 263. Sent to learn cooking, 384. Suffers from
- ophthalmia, 406. Mortally wounds a Wayfanya, ii. 124.
-
- Vegetables in East Africa, i. 201; ii. 283.
-
- Vegetation of--
- Bomani, road to, i. 47.
- Dut’humi, i. 87.
- Eastern Africa generally, i. 228.
- Karagwah, ii. 180.
- Katonga river, ii. 187.
- K’hutu, i. 91.
- Kingani river, valley of the, i. 56, 69.
- Kiranga-Ranga, i. 60.
- Kirira, i. 395.
- Kiruru, i. 83.
- Kuingani, i. 43.
- Makata tank, i. 181.
- Mgeta river, i. 166.
- Mgunda Mk’hali, i. 282.
- Mrima, the, i. 101, 103, 104.
- Msene, i. 397, _note_.
- Muhogwe, i. 63.
- Mukondokwa mountains, i. 195.
- Murundusi, ii. 250.
- Rufuta fiumara, i. 168.
- ---- plains, i. 180.
- Tanganyika Lake shores, ii. 141.
- The road beyond Marenga Mk’hali, i. 205.
- The road to Ugogo, i. 246.
- Tumba Ihere, i. 62.
- Ugogo, i. 275, 299, 300.
- Ugoma, ii. 147.
- Ujiji, ii. 57.
- Unguwwe river, ii. 40.
- Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
- Usagara mountains, i. 162, 165, 220.
- Uvinza in June, ii. 163.
- Yombo, i. 387.
- Zungomero, i. 95.
-
- Veneration, African want of, ii. 336.
-
- Village life in East Africa, described, ii. 278.
-
- Villages of the Mrima, i. 102. Of the Wak’hutu, 121. A deserted
- village described, 185. Villages of the Usagara mountains, 229. Of the
- Wahehe, 240. Of East Africa generally, 364, _et seq._ In Unyamwezi,
- ii. 7. Of Ukaranga, 52.
-
- Vinegar of East Africa, ii. 288.
-
- Voandzeia subterranea, a kind of vetch, i. 196, 198.
-
-
- Wabembe tribe, their cannibal practices, ii. 114, 146.
-
- Wabena tribes, i. 304. Described by the Arab merchants, ii. 270.
-
- Wabha tribe, their habitat, ii. 78. Their chief village, 78. Their
- personal appearance and dress, 78. Their arms, 78. Their women, 78.
-
- Wabisa tribe, habitat of the, ii. 150. Their dress, 150. Their manners
- and customs, 150.
-
- Wabwari, or people of Ubwari island, described, ii. 113. Women of the,
- 113.
-
- Wadoe tribe, their habitat, i. 123. Their history, 123. Their
- cannibalism, 123. Their distinctive marks, 124. Their arms, 124. Their
- customs, 124. Subdivisions of the tribe, 124.
-
- Wafanya, halt at the village of, ii. 106. Visit from the chief of,
- 107. Blackmail at, 107. Climate of, 107. Prices at, 107.
-
- Wafipa tribe, habitat of the, ii. 153. Their personal appearance, 153.
-
- Wafyoma race, described, ii. 176.
-
- Waganda races, described, ii. 196. Their language, 196. Their dress,
- 196.
-
- Waganga, or priests, of Urundi, their savage appearance, ii. 145.
- _See_ Mganga.
-
- Wagara, or Wagala, tribe, i. 407.
-
- Wagogo, their astonishment at the white man, i. 263. Habitat of the,
- 303, 304. Extent of the country of the, 304. Complexion of the, 304.
- The ear-ornaments of the, 304. Distinctive mark of the, 304. Modes of
- wearing the hair, 304. Women of the, 305. Dress of the, 305. Ornaments
- of the, 305. Arms of the, 306. Villages of the, 306. Language of the,
- 306. Their dislike of the Wanyamwezi, 307. Their strength of numbers,
- 307. Not much addicted to black magic, 307. Their commerce, 308. Their
- greediness, 308. Their thievish propensities, 309. Their idleness and
- debauchery, 309. Their ill manners, 309. Their rude hospitality, 310.
- Authority of the Sultan of Ugogo, 310. Food in, 310, 311.
-
- Wagoma tribe, their habitat, ii. 147.
-
- Waguhha tribe, habitat of the, ii. 147. Lake in their country, 147.
- Roads, 147.
-
- Wahayya tribe, the, ii. 187.
-
- Wahehe tribe, their habitat, i. 239. Their thievish propensities, 239.
- Their distension of their ear-lobes, 239. Distinctive marks of the
- tribe, 239. Their dress, 239. Their arms, 240. Their villages, flocks,
- and herds, 240.
-
- Wahha tribe, their country laid waste, ii. 76, 78. Their present
- habitat, 79. Wahha slaves, 79.
-
- Wahinda tribe, account of the, ii. 219. Their habitat, 219. Their
- dress, 220. Their manners and customs, 220.
-
- Wahuma class of Karagwah, described, ii. 181, 182.
-
- Wahumba tribe, the bandit, i. 203. Haunts of the, seen in the
- distance, 205.
-
- Wahumba, or Wamasai, tribe, ii. 215. Attack the villages of Inenge,
- i. 213. Haunts of, 259. Slavery among the, 309. Dialect of the, 311.
- Habitat of the, 311. Seldom visited by travellers, 311. Complexion of
- the, 311. Dress, manners, and customs of the, 312. Dwellings of the,
- 312. Arms of the, 312.
-
- Wahumba Hills, i. 295, 297.
-
- Wajiji tribe, the, described, ii. 62. Rudeness and violence of, 62,
- 68. Diseases of, 63. Practice of tattooing amongst, 63. Ornaments and
- dress of, 63, 64. Cosmetics of, 63. Mode of taking snuff of, 65.
- Fishermen of the lake of Tanganyika, 66. Ceremoniousness of the
- Wajiji, 69. Absence of family affection amongst them, 69. Their habits
- of intoxication, 69. Power and rights of their sultan, 70. Their
- government, 71. Their commerce, 71. Prices in Ujiji, 72. Currency in,
- 73. Musical instruments of the Wajiji, 98. Inquisitive wonder of the
- people, 128. Category of stares, 128.
-
- Wakaguru tribe, villages of the, i. 168.
-
- Wakalaganza tribe, the, i. 406. Dress of the, 406.
-
- Wakamba, the, a sub-tribe of the Wazaramo, i. 108.
-
- Wakarenga tribe, wretched villages of the, ii. 52. Their want of
- energy and civilisation, 52, 74, 75.
-
- Wakatete tribe, habitat of the, ii. 149.
-
- Wakimbu race, account of the, ii. 19. Villages of the, 19. Dress and
- characteristic marks of the, 20. Arms of the, 20. Ornaments of the,
- 20. Language of the, 20.
-
- Wakumbaku tribe, country of the, i. 88.
-
- Wak’hutu race, the, described, i. 97. The ivory touters of, 97. Their
- territory, 119. Their physical and mental qualities, 120. Their dress,
- 120. Their drunkenness, 120. Their food, 120. Their government, 121.
- Their dwellings, 121.
-
- Wakwafi tribe, slavery among the, i. 309. Their untameable character,
- 309.
-
- Wall point, i. 8.
-
- Wamasai tribe, slavery among the, i. 309.
-
- Wambele, Chomwi la Mtu Mku, or Headman Great Man of Precedence,
- i. 156.
-
- Wambozwa tribe, habitat of the, ii. 149. Their government, 152. Their
- personal appearance, 152. Their manners and customs, 152.
-
- Wamrima, or “people of the Mrima,” described, i. 16, 30, 32. Their
- chomwi, or headmen, 16. Their dress, 33. Their women, 34. Their mode
- of life, 35. Their national characteristics, 36. Their habits and
- customs, 37. Their tombs, 57. Wamrima caravans, description of, 344.
- Hospitality of the people, 353.
-
- Wanguru porters, desertion of the, i. 52.
-
- Wanyambo, the poor class of Karagwah, described, ii. 182.
-
- Wanyamwezi porters of the expedition, i. 143. Account of the
- Wanyamwezi tribe, ii. 20. Colour of the skin of the, 20. Effluvium
- from their skins, 20. Mode of dressing the hair, 20. Elongation of the
- mammæ of the women, 21. Mark of the tribe, 21. Dress of the, 21.
- Ornaments of the, 22. Arms of the, 22. Manners and customs of the, 23.
- Ceremonies of childbirth, 23. Of marriage, 24. Funerals, 25. Houses of
- the Wanyamwezi, 24. Iwanza, or public-house of the, 27. Food of the
- people, 28. Their commercial industry, 29. Their language, 30.
- Cultivation of the ground, 30, 31. Slavery amongst them, 31, 33.
- Government of the people, 31. Notice of Sultan Fundikira, 31, 32.
- Desertion of the porters, in Ugogo, 277. Their fear of the Wagogo,
- 307. Greeting of porters of the, on the road, 291.
-
- Wanyika, halt of the party at the settlement of, i. 407. Blackmail at,
- 407.
-
- Wanyora race described, ii. 197.
-
- Wap’hangara, the, a subtribe of the Wazaramo, i. 108.
-
- Wapoka, country of the, ii. 153.
-
- Warburg’s tincture, an invaluable medicine, ii. 169.
-
- Warori, their meeting with the caravan, ii. 251. The tribe described,
- 272. Their raids, 272, 273. Their personal appearance, 273. Dress and
- weapons, 273. Their food and habitations, 273.
-
- Warufiji, or people of the Rufiji river, i. 30.
-
- Warudi tribe, ii. 215, 219.
-
- Warugaru tribe, country of the, i. 88. Their language, 89.
-
- Warundi tribe, noise and insolence of the, ii. 107. Their
- inhospitality, 108, 117. Their habitat, 144. Their mode of government,
- 145. Their complexion, 145. Their personal appearance, 145. Their
- dress, arms, and ornaments, 145. Their women, 146.
-
- Wasagara tribe, thievish propensities of the, i. 229. Villages of the,
- 168. Those of Rumuma described, 198. Their ornaments and arms, 199.
- Village of, on the summit of Rubeho, 218. Villages of, on the slopes,
- 221. Their habitat, 234. Colour of their skins, 234. Modes of wearing
- the hair, 234. Distension of the ear-lobe, 235. Distinctive marks of
- the tribe, 235. Dress of the, 235. Arms of the, 237. Government of
- the, 238. Houses of the, 366.
-
- Wasawahili, or people of the Sawahil, described, i. 30. National
- characteristics of the, 36. Their habits and customs, 37. Caravans of,
- 344.
-
- Wasenze tribe, their habitat, ii. 147.
-
- Washaki tribe, the, ii. 215, 219.
-
- Washenzi, or barbarians from the interior, i. 18. Curiosity of, 394.
-
- Washenzi, “the conquered,” or Ahl Maraim, the, i. 30.
-
- Wasps, mason, of the houses in East Africa, i. 370.
-
- Wasui tribe, described, ii. 176.
-
- Wasukuma tribe, their thievery, i. 319. Punishment of some of them,
- 320, 321. Their sultan, Msimbira, 319-321.
-
- Wasumbwa tribe, in Msene, i. 395.
-
- Wasuop’hángá tribe, country of the, i. 88.
-
- Watatura tribes, i. 304; ii. 215, 220. Their habitat, 220. Recent
- history of them, 220, 221.
-
- Watches, a few second-hand, the best things for keeping time in East
- African travel, i. 190.
-
- Water-courses, or nullahs, of East Africa, i. 102. In the Usagara
- mountains, 229, 230.
-
- Water, in the Mrima, i. 102. In the Usagara mountains, 218. Scarcity
- of, near Marenga Mk’hali, 203. Impatience and selfishness of thirst of
- the Baloch guard, 205. In the Usagara mountains, 230. On the road to
- Ugogo, 247. Permission required for drawing, 252. Scarcity of, at
- Kanyenye, 265. Inhospitality of the people there, respecting, 267.
- Scarcity of, in Mgunda Mk’hali, 282. At the Jiwe la Mkoa, 287. At
- Kirurumo, 289. At Jiweni, 289. On the march of the caravan, 359. In
- Unyamwezi, ii. 7. Of the Tanganyika Lake, its sweetness, 139. Want of,
- on the return journey, 239.
-
- Water-melons at Marenga Mk’hali, i. 201. Cultivation of, 201.
-
- Wat’hembe tribe, the, ii. 154.
-
- Wat’hembwe tribe, habitat of the, ii. 149.
-
- Wat’hongwe tribe, country of the, ii. 154.
-
- Wat’hongwe Kapana, Sultan, ii. 154.
-
- Watosi tribe in Msene, i. 396. Their present habitat, ii. 185. Account
- of them and their manners and customs, 185.
-
- Watuta tribe, hills of the, i. 408. History of, ii. 75. Their present
- habitat, 76. Their wanderings and forays, 76, 77. Their women, 77.
- Their arms, 77. Their tactics, 77. Their fear of fire-arms, 77. Their
- hospitality and strange traits, 77. Their attack on the territory of
- Kannena, ii. 156.
-
- Wavinza tribe, i. 407. Personal appearance and character of the,
- ii. 75. Arms of the, 75. Inhospitality of the, 75. Drunkenness of the,
- 75.
-
- Wavira tribe, civility of the, ii. 115.
-
- Wayfanya, return to, ii. 123. A slave mortally wounded at, 124.
-
- Wazaramo tribe, the, i. 19.
-
- Wazaramo, or Wazalamo, territory of the, i. 54. Visit from the P’hazi,
- or headmen, i. 54. Women’s dance of ceremony, 55. Tombs of the tribe,
- 57. Stoppage of the guard of the expedition by the Wazaramo, 70.
- Ethnology of the race, 107. Their dialect, 107. Subtribes of, 108.
- Distinctive marks of the tribe, 108. Albinos of the, 109. Dress of
- the, 109. Ornaments and arms of the, 110. Houses of the, 110.
- Character of the, 112. Their government, 113. The Sare, or brother
- oath, of the, 114. Births and deaths, 118. Funeral ceremonies, 118,
- 119. “Industry” of the tribe, 119.
-
- Wazegura tribe, i. 124. Their habitat, 125. Their arms, 125. Their
- kidnapping practices, 125. Their government, 125. Their character,
- 126.
-
- Wazige tribe described, ii. 146.
-
- Waziraha, a subtribe of the Wak’hutu, i. 122. Described, 123.
-
- Weights and measures in Zanzibar, ii. 389, 391.
-
- Weapons in East Africa, ii. 300.
-
- Weaving in East Africa, ii. 309.
-
- White land, African curiosity respecting, i. 261.
-
- Whirlwinds in Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 13.
-
- Wife of Sultan Magomba, i. 266.
-
- Wigo hill, i. 93, 159.
-
- Wilyankuru, Eastern, passed through, i. 390.
-
- Winds in Unyamwezi, ii. 9, 10. In Central Africa, 50. Periodical of
- Lake Tanganyika, 143. In Karagwah, ii. 180.
-
- Windy Pass, or Pass of Rubeho, painful ascent of, i. 213. Village of
- Wasagara at, 218.
-
- Wine, plantain, of Karagwah, ii. 180. And of Uganda, 197.
-
- Wire, mode of carrying, in the expedition, i. 145. As an article of
- commerce, 146, 150.
-
- Witch, or mganga, of East Africa, i. 380.
-
- Witchcraft, belief in, in East Africa, ii. 347. Office of the mganga,
- 356.
-
- Women in East Africa, ii. 298, 330, 332, 334.
-
- ---- of Karagwah, ii. 182.
-
- ---- of the Wabuha, ii. 78.
-
- ---- ---- Wagogo, i. 304, 305, 310.
-
- ---- ---- Wahehe, i. 239.
-
- ---- ---- Wajiji, ii. 62-64.
-
- ---- ---- Wak’hutu, i. 120.
-
- ---- ---- Wamrima, i. 16, 34.
-
- ---- ---- Wanyamwezi, i. 388, 396, 398; ii. 21, 23, 24.
-
- ---- ---- Warundi, ii. 146.
-
- ---- ---- Wasagara, i. 234, 236.
-
- ---- ---- Wataturu, ii. 221.
-
- ---- ---- Watuta, ii. 77.
-
- ---- ---- Wazaramo, i. 55, 61, 63, 110, 116, 118.
-
- ---- “Lulliloo” of the Wanyamwezi, i. 291.
-
- ---- physicians in East Africa, ii. 323.
-
- ---- Dance by themselves in East Africa, i. 361.
-
- ---- Handsome, at Yombo, i. 388.
-
- ---- Slave-girls of the coast Arabs on the march up country, i. 314.
-
- ---- The Iwanza, or public-houses of the women of Unyamwezi, ii. 27.
-
- ---- Of the Wabwari islanders, ii. 113.
-
- Wood-apples in Unyamwezi, i. 318.
-
- Woodward, Mr. S. P., his description of shells brought from Tanganyika
- Lake, ii. 102, _note_.
-
-
- Xylophagus, the, in East African houses, i. 370.
-
-
- Yegea mud, i. 83.
-
- Yombo, halt of the party at, i. 387. Description of, 387. The sunset
- hour at, 387. Return to, ii. 166.
-
- Yovu, river, ii. 257, 258. Forded, 258.
-
- Yovu, village of, described, i. 396.
-
-
- Zanzibar, view of, from the sea, i. 1. What the island is not, 2.
- Family, 2, 3. History of the word “Zanzibar,” 28. Its geographical
- position, 29. Weakness of the government of, in the interior of the
- continent, 98. The eight seasons of, ii. 8. Slave-trade of, 377.
- Troubles in, 380. General trade of, Appendix to vol. ii.
-
- Zawada, the lady, added to the caravan, i. 210. Her services to Capt.
- Speke, ii. 277.
-
- Zebras, in the Rufuta plains, i. 183. At Ziwa, 251. In Unyamwezi,
- ii. 15.
-
- Zemzemiyah of East Africa, ii. 239.
-
- Zeze, or guitar, of East Africa, ii. 291.
-
- Zik el nafas, or asthma, remedy in East Africa for, i. 96.
-
- Zimbili, halt of the caravan at, i. 386. Description of, 386.
-
- Ziwa, or the Pond, i. 244. Water obtained from the, 250. Description
- of the, 251. Troubles of the expedition at, 254.
-
- Zohnwe river, i. 172.
-
- Zohnwe settlement, i. 173. Adventures of the expedition at, 173.
-
- Zungomero, district of, described, i. 93. Commerce of, 95. Attractions
- of, 95. Food of, 95-97. Cause of the ivory touters of, 97. Halt of the
- expedition at, i. 127. Pestilence of, 127, 163. Fresh porters engaged
- at, 128. Life at, 156. Return to, ii. 264. Departure from, 276.
-
-
-
-
- Transcriber’s Notes
-
-
- Spelling variants, inconsistent, archaic and unusual spelling,
- hyphenation, capitalisation, use of accents, etc., also in proper and
- geographical names and in non-English words, have been retained,
- except as listed below. The names of peoples, tribes, other groups and
- localities in particular occur in different variants. Factual and
- textual errors, inconcistencies and contradictions have not been
- corrected or standardised.
-
- Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, not all
- elements may display as intended.
-
- Index: the deviations from the alphabetical order of the main entries
- have not been corrected.
-
- Page viii, ix and others: the map and Appendices may be found in Vol.
- 2.
-
- Page xii ff., tables: The totals given do not always correspond to the
- data given; this has not been corrected.
-
-
- Changes made:
-
- Footnotes and illustrations have been moved outside text paragraphs.
-
- Some obvious minor punctuation and printing errors have been corrected
- silently.
-
- In several tables and lists ditto characters („) have been replaced
- with the dittoed text.
-
- Page xvii: Entry Illustration “A village in K’hutu. The Silk Cotton
- Tree” added.
-
- In the Index, some spelling and page numbering errors have been
- corrected silently in order to conform to the text.
-
- Index: The Index was not included in the original Volume I, but has
- been copied from Volume II for the sake of convenience and
- completeness.
-
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-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Lake Regions of Central Africa, by Richard Francis Burton</div>
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-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Lake Regions of Central Africa</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0;'>A Picture of Exploration, Vol. 1</p>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Richard Francis Burton</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 24, 2021 [eBook #66812]</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Emmanuel Ackerman, Harry Lamé and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div>
-
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA ***</div>
-
-<div class="tnbox">
-
-<p class="noindent">Please see the <a href="#TN">Transcriber&#8217;s Notes</a> at the end of this text.</p>
-
-<p class="noindent blankbefore75">The cover image has been created for this text, and is in the public domain.</p>
-
-</div><!--tnbox-->
-
-<div class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="container w30em">
-<img src="images/i_cover.jpg" alt="Cover" />
-</div>
-
-</div><!--scr only-->
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h1><span class="fsize70">THE</span><br />
-LAKE REGIONS <span class="fsize70">OF</span> CENTRAL AFRICA<br />
-<span class="fsize60">VOL. I.</span></h1>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="printer">LONDON<br />
-<span class="gesp1">PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO</span>.<br />
-NEW-STREET SQUARE</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="container" id="Illoi-1">
-<img src="images/i_illo004.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">THE IVORY PORTER.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="titlepage">
-
-<p class="center highline6"><span class="fsize80">THE</span><br />
-<span class="fsize125">LAKE REGIONS <span class="fsize80">OF</span> CENTRAL AFRICA</span><br />
-<span class="fsize80">A PICTURE OF EXPLORATION</span></p>
-
-<p class="center highline2 blankbefore4 blankafter4"><span class="fsize80">BY</span><br />
-RICHARD F. BURTON<br />
-<span class="fsize70">Capt. H. M. I. Army: Fellow and Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society</span></p>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="indent00">“<i>Some to discover islands far away</i>”&mdash;<i>Shakspere</i><br /></span>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p class="center highline4 blankbefore4"><span class="fsize90">IN TWO VOLUMES</span><br />
-VOL. I.</p>
-
-<p class="center highline2 blankbefore4">LONDON<br />
-LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS<br />
-1860</p>
-
-<p class="center fsize70 blankbefore4"><i>The right of translation is reserved</i></p>
-
-</div><!--titlepage-->
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="center highline4"><span class="fsize60">TO</span><br />
-<span class="fsize80">MY SISTER,</span><br />
-<span class="gesp2">MARIA STISTED</span>,<br />
-<span class="gesp1 fsize90">THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-vii">[vii]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak frontmatter fsize110"><span class="gesp2">PREFACE</span>.</h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">I had intended this record of personal adventure to
-appear immediately after my return to Europe, in May
-1859. The impaired health, the depression of spirits,
-and worse still the annoyance of official correspondence,
-which to me have been the sole results of African
-Exploration, may be admitted as valid reasons for the
-delay.</p>
-
-<p>In April, 1860, the Royal Geographical Society of
-Great Britain honoured me by publishing a detailed paper,
-forming the XXIXth Volume of their Journal, from
-which the topographical descriptions contained in the
-following pages have, with their kind permission, been
-extracted. I have now attempted to combine with
-geography and ethnology, a narrative of occurrences
-and an exposition of the more popular and picturesque
-points of view which the subject offers.</p>
-
-<p>When I communicated to my friends the publishers
-certain intentions of writing an exclusively “light work,”
-they protested against the project, stating that the
-public appetite required the addition of stronger meat.
-In compliance, therefore, with their suggestion, I have
-drawn two portraits of the same object, and mingled
-the gay with the graver details of travel, so as to
-produce an antipathetic cento.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-viii">[viii]</span></p>
-
-<p>Modern “hinters to travellers” direct the explorer
-and the missionary to eschew theory and opinion. We
-are told somewhat peremptorily that it is our duty to
-gather actualities not inferences&mdash;to see and not to think,
-in fact, to confine ourselves to transmitting the rough
-material collected by us, that it may be worked into
-shape by the professionally learned at home. But why
-may not the observer be allowed a voice concerning his
-own observations, if at least his mind be sane and his
-stock of collateral knowledge be respectable?</p>
-
-<p>I have not attempted to avoid intruding matters of a
-private and personal nature upon the reader; it would
-have been impossible to avoid egotism in a purely egotistical
-narrative. The official matter, however, has been
-banished into Appendix II. In publishing it, my desire
-is to avoid the possibility of a charge being concealed
-in the pigeon-holes of the India House, to be produced,
-according to custom, with all the effect of a surprise
-whenever its presence is convenient. I know the conditions
-of appealing from those in office to a higher tribunal&mdash;the
-Public. I well know them and I accept
-them. <i>Avant tout, gentilhomme!</i></p>
-
-<p>I have spoken out my feelings concerning Captain
-Speke, my companion in the Expedition which forms
-the subject of these pages. The history of our companionship
-is simply this:&mdash;As he had suffered with
-me in purse and person at Berberah, in 1855, I
-thought it but just to offer him the opportunity of renewing
-an attempt to penetrate into Africa. I had no
-other reasons. I could not expect much from his assistance;
-he was not a linguist&mdash;French and Arabic
-being equally unknown to him&mdash;nor a man of science,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-ix">[ix]</span>
-nor an accurate astronomical observer. The Court of
-Directors officially refused him leave of absence; I obtained
-it for him by an application to the local authorities
-at Bombay. During the exploration he acted in a
-subordinate capacity; and as may be imagined amongst
-a party of Arabs, Baloch, and Africans, whose languages
-he ignored, he was unfit for any other but a subordinate
-capacity. Can I then feel otherwise than indignant,
-when I find that, after preceding me from Aden to
-England, with the spontaneous offer, on his part, of not
-appearing before the Society that originated the Expedition
-until my return, he had lost no time in taking
-measures to secure for himself the right of working the
-field which I had opened, and that from that day he has
-placed himself <i>en evidence</i> as the <i>primum mobile</i> of an
-Expedition, in which he signed himself “surveyor,”&mdash;<i>cujus
-pars minima fuit</i>?</p>
-
-<p>With deference to the reader’s judgment, I venture
-to express a hope that whatever of unrefinement appears
-in these pages, may be charged to the subject.
-It has been my duty to draw a Dutch picture, a cabaret-piece
-which could not be stripped of its ordonnance, its
-boors, its pipes, and its pots. I have shirked nothing
-of the unpleasant task,&mdash;of recording processes and not
-only results; I have entered into the recital of the maladies,
-the weary squabbles, and the vast variety of
-petty troubles, without which the <i>coup d’œil</i> of African
-adventure would be more like a Greek Saint in effigy&mdash;all
-lights and no shade&mdash;than the chapter of accidents
-which it now is.</p>
-
-<p>The map and the <a href="#Pagei-xi">lists of stations, dates, &amp;c.</a>, have
-been drawn upon the plan adopted by Mr. Francis
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-x">[x]</span>
-Galton, F.R.G.S. The outline of Africa, the work of Mr.
-Weller, F.R.G.S., contains the latest and the best information
-concerning the half-explored interior of the
-Continent. The route-map has been borrowed by
-permission from the laborious and conscientious compilation
-of Mr. Findlay, F.R.G.S., accompanying the
-paper forwarded by me to the Royal Geographical
-Society. The latter gentleman has also kindly supplied
-a profile of the country traversed, showing the Eastern
-limits of the Great Depression, and the “elevated-trough
-formation” of Central Africa.</p>
-
-<p>In conclusion, I would solicit forbearance in all that
-concerns certain errors of omission and commission
-scattered through these pages. The migratory instinct
-is now hurrying me towards the New World: I have,
-therefore, been obliged to content myself with a single
-revise.</p>
-
-<p class="noindent blankbefore4 fsize80"><span class="padl8">10th April,</span><br />
-<span class="padl4">E.I.U.S. Club, 14 St. James’s Square.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-xi">[xi]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">DATES OF JOURNEYING.</h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<table class="travdates" summary="Dates">
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="3" class="year">1856</td>
-<td class="date"><span class="padl3">&nbsp;September</span></td>
-<td class="event">Left England.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">2nd December</td>
-<td class="event">Sailed from Bombay.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">19th December</td>
-<td class="event">Arrived at Zanzibar Island.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="4" class="year">1857</td>
-<td class="date">6th January</td>
-<td class="event">Left Zanzibar the first time.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">14th June</td>
-<td class="event">Left Zanzibar the second time.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">27th June</td>
-<td class="event">Set out from Kaole on the coast.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">7th November</td>
-<td class="event">Arrived at Unyanyembe of Unyamwezi.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="5" class="year">1858</td>
-<td class="date">14th February</td>
-<td class="event">Reached Ujiji on the Tanganyika Lake.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">26th April</td>
-<td class="event">Arrived at Uvira on the North of the Tanganyika Lake.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">26th May</td>
-<td class="event">Left Ujiji.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">19th June</td>
-<td class="event">Returned to Unyanyembe.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">26th September</td>
-<td class="event">Left Unyanyembe.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="4" class="year">1859</td>
-<td class="date">3rd February</td>
-<td class="event">Reached Konduchi on the coast.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">4th March</td>
-<td class="event">Landed at Zanzibar Island.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">4th May</td>
-<td class="event">Left Aden.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="date">20th May</td>
-<td class="event">Landed at Southampton.</td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">LIST STASIMETRIC AND HYPSOMETRIC.<br />
-<span class="fsize80">NAMES OF KHAMBI OR STAGES MADE BY THE EAST AFRICAN EXPEDITION, AND
-HEIGHTS OF THE SEVERAL CRUCIAL STATIONS.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<h3>FIRST REGION.</h3>
-
-<table class="journeys" summary="Journeys">
-
-<tr class="bt bb">
-<td colspan="2" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="center br"><span class="padl1 padr1 smcap">From Kaole on the Coast to Zungomero, chief district
-of K’hutu.</span></td>
-<td colspan="2" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="18" class="bb bl"><span class="padl1 padr1">&nbsp;</span></td>
-<td class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-<th class="center fsize90">H.</th>
-<th class="center fsize90 br">M.</th>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">1</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Kaoli to Mgude or Kuingani</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">2</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Kuingani to Bomani</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">3</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Bomani to Mkwaju la Mvuani</td>
-<td class="hours">0</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">4</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Mkwaju to Nzasa (of Uzaramo)</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">5</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Nzasa to Kiranga-Ranga</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">6</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Kiranga-Ranga to Tumba Ihere</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">7</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Tumba Ihere to Muhonyera</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">8</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Muhonyera to Sagesera</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">9</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Sagesera to Tunda</td>
-<td class="hours">7</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">10</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Tunda to Dege la Mhora</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">11</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Dege la Mhora to Madege Madogo</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">12</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Madege Madogo to Kidunda</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">13</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Kidunda to Mgeta Ford</td>
-<td class="hours">7</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">14</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Mgeta Ford to Kiruru in K’hutu</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">15</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Kiruru to Dut’humi</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">16</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Dut’humi to Bakera</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br bb">17</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Bakera to Zungomero</td>
-<td class="hours bb">7</td>
-<td class="mins bb">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bb">
-<td class="center bl">☉</td>
-<td class="number br">17</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="hours">67</td>
-<td class="mins">55</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="2" colspan="2" class="bl fsize90">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">Kaole,</td>
-<td class="left fsize90"><span class="nowrap">Latitude, South,</span></td>
-<td class="right fsize90">6°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">25′</td>
-<td class="left fsize90"><span class="nowrap">&nbsp;Longitude, East,</span></td>
-<td class="right fsize90">38°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">51′.</td>
-<td rowspan="2" colspan="2" class="br fsize90">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="left fsize90">Zungomero,</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">Latitude, South,</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">7°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">27′</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">&nbsp;Longitude, East,</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">37°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">22′.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="br bb bl">
-<td colspan="11" class="center fsize90"><span class="nowrap">Altitude of Zungomero, 330 feet above sea level.<br />Average
-altitude of First Region, by B. P. Therm., 230 feet.</span></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-xii">[xii]</span></p>
-
-<h3>SECOND REGION.</h3>
-
-<table class="journeys" summary="Journeys">
-
-<tr class="bt bb">
-<td colspan="2" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="center br"><span class="padl1 padr1 smcap">From Zungomero, over the Mountains of Usagara,
-to Ugogi.</span></td>
-<td colspan="2" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-<th class="center fsize90">H.</th>
-<th class="center fsize90 br">M.</th>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="23" class="bb bl"><span class="padl1 padr1">&nbsp;</span></td>
-<td class="number br">1</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Zungomero to Mzizi Mdogo (in Usagara)</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">2</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Mzizi Mdogo to Chya K’henge</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">3</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Chya K’henge to Rufuta River</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">4</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Rufuta River (up the Goma Pass) to Mfu’uni</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins">50</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">5</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Mfu’uni to “Overshot Nullah”</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">10</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">6</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">“Overshot Nullah” to Zonhwe</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">7</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Zonhwe to Muhama</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">8</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Muhama to Makata</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">9</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Makata to Myombo River</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">10</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Myombo River to Mbumi</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">11</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Mbumi to Kadetamare</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">55</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">12</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Kadetamare to Muinyi</td>
-<td class="hours">8</td>
-<td class="mins">10</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">13</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Muinyi to Nidabi</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">50</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">14</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Nidabi to Rumuma</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">15</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Rumuma to Marenga Mk’hali</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">16</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Marenga Mk’hali to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">17</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Jungle to Inenge</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">18</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Inenge to first gradient of Rubeho Pass</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">19</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">First gradient to second gradient ditto</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">20</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Second gradient to summit of Rubeho</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">21</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">Summit to ☉ one quarter of the way down the counterslope</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">22</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">From ☉ on slope to ☉ below half-way</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br bb">23</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage">From ☉ below half-way to Ugogi at the base</td>
-<td class="hours bb">4</td>
-<td class="mins bb">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="center bl">☉</td>
-<td colspan="8" class="left"><span class="nowrap">23 + 27 (carried forward) = 33 ☉’s</span></td>
-<td class="hours">103</td>
-<td class="mins">25</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="9" class="totals bl">Carried forward,</td>
-<td class="hours bb">67</td>
-<td class="mins bb">55</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bb">
-<td colspan="9" class="totals bl">Total hours from the coast to Ugogi</td>
-<td class="hours">171</td>
-<td class="mins">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="2" colspan="2" class="fsize90 bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">Rubeho Pass, (about)</td>
-<td class="left fsize90"><span class="nowrap">Latitude, South,</span></td>
-<td class="right fsize90">6°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">38′</td>
-<td class="left fsize90"><span class="nowrap">&nbsp;Longitude, East,</span></td>
-<td class="right fsize90">36°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">19′</td>
-<td rowspan="2" colspan="2" class="fsize90 br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="left fsize90">Ugogi,</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">Latitude, South,</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">6°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">40′</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">&nbsp;Longitude, East,</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">36°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">6′</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="br bb bl">
-<td colspan="11" class="center fsize90"><span class="nowrap">Altitude of Rubeho summit, 5700.<br />Altitude of Ugogi
-at Western Counterslope, by B. P. Therm. 2770.</span></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<h3>THIRD REGION.</h3>
-
-<table class="journeys" summary="Journeys">
-
-<tr class="bt bb">
-<td colspan="4" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap padl1 padr1">From Ugogi, through Marenga Mk’hali, Ugogo, and Mgunda
-Mk’hali, to Tura of Unyamwezi.</span></td>
-<td colspan="2" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="4" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-<th class="center fsize90">H.</th>
-<th class="center fsize90 br">M.</th>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="3" class="right bl">☉</td>
-<td class="number br">1</td>
-<td class="stage">Ugogi to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="4" class="region">Marenga<br />Mk’hali.</td>
-<td rowspan="4" class="brace">-</td>
-<td rowspan="4" class="brace bt bb bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="number br">2</td>
-<td class="stage">Jungle to Marenga Mk’hali (second of that name)</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">3</td>
-<td class="stage">Marenga Mk’hali to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">10</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">4</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ in Jungle to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">5</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ in Jungle to Ziwa or tank (on frontier of Ugogo)</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="4" class="thinline bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="thinline br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="2" class="thinline br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="8" class="region">Ugogo.</td>
-<td rowspan="8" class="brace">-</td>
-<td rowspan="8" class="brace bt bb bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="number br">6</td>
-<td class="stage">Ziwa to Kifukuru</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">7</td>
-<td class="stage">Kifukuru to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">8</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ in Jungle to Kanyenye</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins">25</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">9</td>
-<td class="stage">Kanyenye to Kanyenye of Magomba</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">10</td>
-<td class="stage">Kanyenye of Magomba to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">11</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ in Jungle to K’hok’ho</td>
-<td class="hours">7</td>
-<td class="mins">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">12</td>
-<td class="stage">K’hok’ho to Mdaburu</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">13</td>
-<td class="stage">Mdaburu to ☉ in Jungle of Mgunda Mk’hali</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="4" class="thinline bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="thinline br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="2" class="thinline br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="7" class="region">Mganda<br />Mk’hali.</td>
-<td rowspan="7" class="brace">-</td>
-<td rowspan="7" class="brace bt bb bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="number br">14</td>
-<td class="stage">Mgunda Mk’hali to
-Mabunguru<span class="pagenum fsize200" id="Pagei-xiii"><span class="fsize110">[xiii]</span></span></td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">15</td>
-<td class="stage">Mabunguru to Jiwe la Mkoa</td>
-<td class="hours">7</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">16</td>
-<td class="stage">Jiwe la Mkoa to Kirurumo</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins">10</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">17</td>
-<td class="stage">Kirurumo to Jiweni of Uyanzi</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">18</td>
-<td class="stage">Jiweni to Mgongo Thembo</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">19</td>
-<td class="stage">Mgongo Thembo to ☉ Tura Nullah</td>
-<td class="hours">7</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">20</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ Tura Nullah to Tura in Unyamwezi</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="4" class="thinline bl br bb">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="thinline br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="2" class="thinline br bb">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="3" class="right bl"><span class="padr1">☉</span></td>
-<td colspan="2" class="left"><span class="nowrap">20 + 33 (carried forward) = 53.</span></td>
-<td class="hours">93</td>
-<td class="mins">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="5" class="totals bl">Carried forward</td>
-<td class="hours bb">171</td>
-<td class="mins bb">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bb">
-<td colspan="5" class="totals bl">Total hours from the coast to Tura</td>
-<td class="hours">265</td>
-<td class="mins">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="7" class="center fsize90 bl br"><span class="nowrap">Eastern limit of Tura, Latitude, South, 5° 27′ Longitude,
-East, 34°.</span></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bb">
-<td colspan="7" class="center fsize90 bl br"><span class="nowrap">Altitude, by Bath. Thermometer, 4125 feet.</span></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<h3>FOURTH REGION.</h3>
-
-<table class="journeys" summary="Journeys">
-
-<tr class="bt bb">
-<td colspan="4" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="center br"><span class="smcap padl1 padr1">Through Unyamwezi, Ugara, Uwende, and Uvinza, to Ford
-of Malagarazi River.</span></td>
-<td colspan="5" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="4" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-<th class="center fsize90">H.</th>
-<th class="center fsize90">M.</th>
-<td colspan="3" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="32" colspan="3" class="bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="number br">1</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Eastern limit of Tura to Western Tura.</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-<td rowspan="16" colspan="3" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">2</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Western Tura to Kwale Nullah</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">3</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Kwale Nullah to Eastern Rubuga</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">4</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Eastern Rubuga to Western Rubuga</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">5</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Western Rubuga to Ukona</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">15</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">6</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Ukona to Kigwa</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">5</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">7</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Kigwa to Hanga village</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">8</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Hanga to Kazeh (Arab ☉)</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">9</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Kazeh to Zimbili Hill</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">10</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Zimbili to Yombo</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">11</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Yombo to Pano (clearing in Jungle)</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">12</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Pano to Eastern Mfuto</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">13</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Eastern Mfuto to Western Mfuto</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">14</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Western Mfuto to Eastern Wilyankuru</td>
-<td class="hours">6</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">15</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Eastern Wilyankuru to Central Wilyankuru</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">50</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">16</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Central Wilyankuru to Western Wilyankuru</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">17</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Western Wilyankuru to Masenge</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-<td rowspan="4" class="brace bt br bb">&nbsp;</td>
-<td rowspan="4" class="brace">-</td>
-<td rowspan="4" class="remarks">Expe-<br />dition<br />sepa-<br />rated.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">18</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Masenge to Eastern Kirira</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">19</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Eastern Kirira to Western Kirira</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">20</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Western Kirira to Eastern Msene</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">21</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Eastern Msene to Western Msene (Arab ☉)</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-<td rowspan="17" colspan="3" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">22</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Western Msene to Mbhali</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">23</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Mbhali to Sengati</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">24</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Sengati to Sorora or Solola</td>
-<td class="hours">0</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">25</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Sorora to Ukungwe</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">15</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">26</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Ukungwe to Panda</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">50</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">27</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Panda to Kajjanjeri</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">28</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Kajjanjeri to Eastern Usagozi</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">29</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Eastern Usagozi to Western Usagozi</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">30</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Western Usagozi to Masenga of Wagara</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">31</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Masenga to Mukozimo of Wawende</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">32</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Mukozimo to Uganza of Wanyamwezi</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">15</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="5" class="region">Uvinza.</td>
-<td rowspan="5" class="brace">-</td>
-<td rowspan="5" class="brace bt bb bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="number br">33</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Uganza to Usenye of Wavinza</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">34</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Usenye to Rukunda</td>
-<td class="hours">2</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">35</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Rukunda to Wanyika</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">36</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Wanyika to Unyanguruwwe</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">50</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">37</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="stage br">Unyanguruwwe to Ugaga on the Malagarazi River</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="4" class="thinline br bb bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="7" class="thinline br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td colspan="5" class="thinline br bb">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="3" class="right bl"><span class="padr1">☉</span></td>
-<td colspan="8" class="left">37 + 53 (carried over) = 90</td>
-<td class="hours">110</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-<td rowspan="3" colspan="3" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="11" class="totals bl">Carried forward</td>
-<td class="hours bb">265</td>
-<td class="mins noborder bb">0</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bb">
-<td colspan="11" class="totals bl">Total hours from coast to Malagarazi River</td>
-<td class="hours">375</td>
-<td class="mins noborder">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="4" colspan="4" class="bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">Kazeh</td>
-<td class="left fsize90"><span class="nowrap">Latitude, South,</span></td>
-<td class="right fsize90">5°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">1′.</td>
-<td class="left fsize90"><span class="nowrap">&nbsp;Longitude, East,</span></td>
-<td class="right fsize90">33°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">3′.</td>
-<td colspan="5" rowspan="4" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="left fsize90"><span class="nowrap">Malagarazi Ferry.</span></td>
-<td class="left fsize90">Latitude, South,</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">5°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">7′.</td>
-<td class="left fsize90">&nbsp;Longitude, East,</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">31°</td>
-<td class="right fsize90">13′.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="7" class="center fsize90">Altitude of Kazeh, by Bath Therm. 3490 feet.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bb">
-<td colspan="7" class="center fsize90">Altitude of Usenye, by Bath Therm. 3190 feet.</td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-xiv">[xiv]</span></p>
-
-<h3>FIFTH REGION.</h3>
-
-<table class="journeys" summary="Journeys">
-
-<tr class="bt bb">
-<td colspan="2" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="center br"><span class="smcap padl1 padr1">From the Malagarazi Ferry to Ukaranga on the Tanganyika Lake.</span></td>
-<td colspan="2" class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="bl br">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="br">&nbsp;</td>
-<th class="fsize90">H.</th>
-<th class="fsize90 br">M.</th>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="10" class="bl bb">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="number br">1</td>
-<td class="stage">Ugaga on left to Mpete on right hand</td>
-<td class="hours">0</td>
-<td class="mins br">25</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">2</td>
-<td class="stage">Mpete to Kinawani</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins br">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">3</td>
-<td class="stage">Kinawani to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins br">25</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">4</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ in Jungle to Jambeho</td>
-<td class="hours">1</td>
-<td class="mins br">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">5</td>
-<td class="stage">Jambeho to Salt pans of Rusugi River</td>
-<td class="hours">5</td>
-<td class="mins br">15</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">6</td>
-<td class="stage">Salt pans to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins br">20</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">7</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ in Jungle to Ruguvu River</td>
-<td class="hours">3</td>
-<td class="mins br">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">8</td>
-<td class="stage">Ruguvu River to Unguwwe River</td>
-<td class="hours">4</td>
-<td class="mins br">40</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br">9</td>
-<td class="stage">Unguwwe River to ☉ in Jungle</td>
-<td class="hours">7</td>
-<td class="mins br">35</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="number br bb">10</td>
-<td class="stage">☉ in Jungle to Ukaranga on Lake</td>
-<td class="hours bb">6</td>
-<td class="mins br bb">35</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="right bl"><span class="padr1">☉</span></td>
-<td colspan="2" class="left">10 + 90 (carried forward) = 100</td>
-<td class="hours">44</td>
-<td class="mins br">45</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td rowspan="2" colspan="2" class="bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="totals">Carried forward</td>
-<td class="hours bb">375</td>
-<td class="mins br bb">30</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="totals">Total hours from the coast to the Tanganyika Lake</td>
-<td class="hours">420</td>
-<td class="mins br">25</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bt">
-<td rowspan="2" colspan="2" class="fsize90 bl">&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="center fsize90">Ukaranga, Latitude, South, 4° 58′. Longitude, East, 30° 3′ 30″.</td>
-<td rowspan="2" colspan="2" class="fsize90 br">&nbsp;</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr class="bb">
-<td class="center fsize90">Altitude by Bath Therm. 1850.</td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<p>The distance from Kaole to Ujiji is of 540 rectilinear geographical miles: or in statute
-miles, allowing one for windings of the road, thus:</p>
-
-<table class="standard" summary="Distances">
-
-<tr>
-<td class="text">From Kaole to Kazeh, statute miles</td>
-<td class="numbers">520</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="text">From Kazeh to Ujiji, statute miles</td>
-<td class="numbers bb">276</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td>&nbsp;</td>
-<td class="numbers">796</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="text"><span class="padl6 padr4">Add one fifth for detour&mdash;159 miles</span></td>
-<td class="numbers bb">159</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="text"><span class="padl6 padr4">Total of statute miles</span></td>
-<td class="numbers">955</td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<p>Assuming the absolute time of travelling to be 420 hours, this will give a marching
-rate of 2·27 miles per hour.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-xv">[xv]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak frontmatter">CONTENTS<br />
-<span class="fsize50">OF</span><br />
-<span class="fsize80"><span class="gesp2">THE FIRST VOLUME</span>.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<table class="tocloi" summary="ToC">
-
-<tr>
-<th>&nbsp;</th>
-<th class="right padl2 fsize80">Page</th>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap notop">CHAPTER I.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">We quit Zanzibar Island in Dignified Style</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-1">1</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. II.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">Zanzibar and the Mrima explained</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-28">28</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. III.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">Transit of the Valley of the Kingani and the Mgeta Rivers</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-41">41</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. IV.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">On the Geography and Ethnology of the First Region</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-100">100</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. V.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">Halt at Zungomero, and Formation of the Caravan</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-127">127</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. VI.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">We cross the East African Ghauts</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-158">158</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. VII.<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-xvi">[xvi]</span></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">The Geography and Ethnology of the Second Region</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-225">225</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. VIII.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">We succeed in traversing Ugogo</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-241">241</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. IX.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">The Geography and Ethnography of Ugogo&mdash;the Third Region</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-294">294</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. X.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">We enter Unyamwezi, the Far-famed Land of the Moon</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-313">313</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAP. XI.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr">We conclude the Transit of Unyamwezi</td>
-<td class="pagno"><a href="#Pagei-375">375</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-xvii">[xvii]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak frontmatter">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS<br />
-<span class="fsize50">IN</span><br />
-<span class="fsize80">THE FIRST VOLUME.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<table class="tocloi" summary="LoI">
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="3" class="chap">CHROMOXYLOGRAPHS.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-1">The Ivory Porter</a></td>
-<td colspan="2" class="pagno"><i>Frontispiece.</i></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-2">Zanzibar Town from the Sea</a></td>
-<td class="right nowrap"><i>to face page</i></td>
-<td class="pagno">1</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-3">A Town on the Mrima</a></td>
-<td class="center padl2">„</td>
-<td class="pagno">28</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-4">Explorers in East Africa</a></td>
-<td class="center padl2">„</td>
-<td class="pagno">127</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-5">The East African Ghauts</a></td>
-<td class="center padl2">„</td>
-<td class="pagno">158</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-6">View in Unyamwezi</a></td>
-<td class="center padl2">„</td>
-<td class="pagno">313</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="3" class="chap">WOODCUTS.</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-7">The Wazaramo Tribe</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">41</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-8">Party of Wah’hutu Women</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">100</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-9">A village in K’hutu. The Silk Cotton Tree</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">157</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-10">Sycomore Tree in the Dhun Ugogi</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">158</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-11">Maji ya W’heta, or the Jetting Fountain in K’hutu</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">225</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-12">Ugogo</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">241</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-13">Usagara Mountains, seen from Ugogo</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">294</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-14">Ladies’ Smoking Party</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">313</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
-<td colspan="2" class="descr"><a href="#Illoi-15">African House Building</a></td>
-<td class="pagno">375</td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="container" id="Illoi-2">
-<img src="images/i_illo022.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">ZANZIBAR TOWN FROM THE SEA.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-1">[1]</span></p>
-
-<p class="fauxh1"><span class="fsize50">THE</span><br />
-LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAPTER I.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">WE QUIT ZANZIBAR ISLAND IN DIGNIFIED STYLE.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">At noon, on the 16th of June, 1857, the corvette Artémise,
-after the usual expenditure of gunpowder which must in
-Eastern lands announce every momentous event, from
-the birth of a prince to the departure of a bishop, slowly
-gliding out of Zanzibar harbour, afforded us a farewell
-glance at the whitewashed mosques and houses of the
-Arabs, the cadjan-huts, the cocoa-grown coasts, and the
-ruddy hills striped with long lines of clove. Onwards
-she stole before a freshening breeze, the balmy breath of
-the Indian Ocean, under a sun that poured a flood of
-sparkling light over the azure depths and the bright
-green shallows around, between the “elfin isles” of Kumbeni,
-with its tall trees, and Chumbi, tufted with dense
-thickets, till the white sandstrip mingled with the blue
-ocean, the gleaming line of dwarf red cliff and scaur
-dropped into the water’s edge, the land faded from emerald
-to brown, and from brown to hazy purple, the tufts
-of the trees seemed first to stand out of, then to swim
-upon, the wave, and as evening, the serenest of tropical
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-2">[2]</span>
-evenings, closed in over sky, earth, and sea, a cloud-like
-ridge, dimly discernible from our quarter, was all that
-remained of Zanzibar.</p>
-
-<p>I will not here stay the course of my narrative to
-inform the reader that Zanzibar is not, as the Cyclopædias
-declare, “an island of Africa, governed by a
-king who is subject to the Portuguese;” that it is not,
-as the Indian post-offices appear to believe, a part of
-the Persian Gulf; nor, as homekeeping folk, whose notions
-of African geography are somewhat dim and ill-defined,
-have mentally determined, a rock in the Red
-Sea, nor a dependency of the Niger, nor even an offshoot
-of the Cape of Storms.</p>
-
-<p>The Artémise is a kind of “Jackass-frigate,” an 18-gun
-corvette, teak-built in Bombay, with a goodly
-breadth of beam, a slow sailer, but a sure. In the days
-of our deceased ally, Sayyid Said, the misnamed “Imaum
-of Muscat,” she had so frequently been placed by his
-Highness at the disposal of his old friend Lieut.-Colonel
-Hamerton, that she had acquired the sobriquet of “the
-Balyuz or Consul’s yacht.” On this occasion she had
-been fitted up for a cruise to the mainland; her yards,
-usually struck, had been swayed up and thrown across;
-her top spars had been transferred from the hold to their
-proper place; her ropes and rigging, generally hanging
-in tatters about her sticks, had been carefully overhauled;
-her old sails had been bent, and her usual
-crew, a few slaves that held their own with difficulty
-against a legion of rats and an army of cockroaches, had
-been increased to its full complement of twenty men.
-His Highness the Sayyid Majid, who after the demise of
-his father had assumed the title of “Sultan of Zanzibar
-and the Sawahil,” came on board accompanied by his
-four brothers, of whom two&mdash;Sayyids Jamshid and Hamdan&mdash;died
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-3">[3]</span>
-of small-pox before our return, and one&mdash;Sayyid
-Barghash&mdash;has lately become a state prisoner at
-Bombay, to bid what proved a last adieu to his father’s
-friend. At the same time His Highness honoured me,
-through his secretary, Ahmed bin Nuuman, more generally
-known as Wajhayn, or “Two-faces,” with three
-letters of introduction, to Musa Mzuri, the Indian doyen
-of the merchants settled at Unyamwezi, to the Arabs
-there resident, and to all his subjects who were travelling
-into the interior.</p>
-
-<p>The Artémise conveyed the <i>personnel</i> and the <i>matériel</i>
-of the East African Expedition, namely, the two
-European members&mdash;my companion and myself&mdash;two
-Portuguese, or rather half-caste Goanese “boys,” two
-Negro gun-carriers, the Seedy Mubarak Mombai (Bombay),
-and Muinyi Mabruki, his “brother,” and finally, eight
-so-called “Baloch” mercenaries, a guard appointed by
-the Sultan to accompany me. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton,
-at that time Her Majesty’s consul and Hon. East India
-Company’s agent at Zanzibar, though almost lethargic
-from the effects of protracted illness&mdash;he lived only in
-the evening&mdash;had deemed it his duty to land us upon
-the coast, and to superintend our departure from the
-dangerous seaboard. He was attended by Mr. Frost, the
-apothecary attached to the consulate, whose treatment
-for a fatal liver-complaint appeared to consist of minute
-doses of morphia and a liberal diet of sugar.</p>
-
-<p>By Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton’s advice, I ventured
-to modify the scheme of the East African Expedition, as
-originally proposed by the Expeditionary Committee of
-the Royal Geographical Society of London. In 1855,
-M. Erhardt, an energetic member of the hapless “Mombas
-Mission,” had on his return to London offered to
-explore a vast mass of water, about the size of the Caspian,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-4">[4]</span>
-which, from the information of divers “natives,”
-he had deposited in slug or leech shape in the heart of
-Intertropical Africa, thus prolonging the old “Maravi,” or
-“Moravim Lake” of Portuguese travellers and school
-atlases, to the north of the equator, and thus bringing
-a second deluge upon sundry provinces and kingdoms
-thoroughly well known for the last half century. He
-had proposed to land, with an outfit of 300 dollars<a id="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>,
-at Kilwa, one of the southern ports of the Zanzibar
-mainland, to hire a score of Wasawahili porters, to
-march with a caravan upon the nearest point of his
-own water, and to launch an adventurous canoe upon
-a lake which, according to his map, could not be traversed
-under twenty-five days. Messrs. Erhardt and
-Krapf, of the “Mombas Mission,” spent, it is true, a
-few hours at Kilwa, where they were civilly entreated by
-the governor and the citizens; but they egregiously deceived
-themselves and others, when they concluded that
-they could make that place their ingress-point. Lieut.
-Christopher, I.N., who visited the East African coast in
-1843, wisely advised explorers to avoid the neighbourhood
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-5">[5]</span>
-of Kilwa. Wisely, I repeat: the burghers of that
-proud old settlement had, only a year before my arrival,
-murdered, by means of the Wangindo savages, an Arab
-merchant who ventured to lay open the interior.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>
-The sum was wholly inadequate. M. Erhardt has, I have been told, expended
-as much on a week’s march from Pangani Town to Fuga. The smallest
-of Wasawahili pedlars would hardly deem an outfit of 300 dollars sufficient.
-M. Erhardt was, even according to his own reduced ideas of distance, to march
-with twenty followers 400 miles, and to explore a lake 300 miles in breadth
-and of unknown length. In 1802, when cloth and beads were twice their
-present value in Africa, the black Pombeiros sent by M. Da Costa, superintendent
-of the “Cassangi Factory,” carried with them for the necessary
-expenses and presents, goods to the value of nearly 500<i>l.</i> M. Erhardt’s
-estimate was highly injurious to future travellers: either he knew the truth,
-and he should have named at once a reasonable estimate, or he was ignorant
-of the subject, and he should have avoided it. The consequence of his proposal
-was simply this:&mdash;With 5000<i>l.</i> instead of 1000<i>l.</i>, the limited sum of the
-Government grant, the East African Expedition could have explored the
-whole central area; nothing but the want of supplies caused their return at
-the time when, after surmounting sickness, hardship, and want of discipline
-amongst the party, they were ready to push to the extreme end.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>At the same time I had laid before the Council of the
-Royal Geographical Society my desire to form an expedition
-primarily for the purpose of ascertaining the limits
-of the “Sea of Ujiji, or Unyamwezi Lake,” and secondarily,
-to determine the exportable produce of the interior,
-and the ethnography of its tribes. I have quoted
-exactly the words of the application. In these days every
-explorer of Central Africa is supposed to have set out
-in quest of the coy sources of the White Nile, and
-when he returns without them, his exploration, whatever
-may have been its value, is determined to be a failure.
-The Council honoured my plans with their approval. At
-their solicitation, the Foreign Office granted the sum
-of 1000<i>l.</i> for the outlay of the exploration, and the defunct
-Court of Directors of the late East India Company,
-who could not be persuaded to contribute towards the
-expenses, generously allowed me two years’ leave of
-absence from regimental duty, for the purpose of commanding
-the Expedition. I also received instructions
-to report myself to his Excellency the Lord Elphinstone,
-then Governor of Bombay, and to Lieut.-Colonel
-Hamerton, from whose influence and long experience
-much was expected.</p>
-
-<p>When the starting-point came to be debated, the
-Consul strongly objected to an Expedition into the interior
-<i>viâ</i> Kilwa, on account of the opposition to be
-expected at a port so distant from the seat of government,
-where the people, half-caste Arabs and Wasawahili,
-who are under only a nominal control, still retained
-a strong predilection for protection, and a violent
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-6">[6]</span>
-hostility to strangers. These reasons led him to propose
-my landing upon the coast opposite Zanzibar, and
-to my thence marching with a strong escort, despatched
-by the Arab prince, through the maritime tribes, whose
-cruel murder of M. Maizan, the first European known
-to have penetrated beyond the sea-board, was yet fresh
-in the memories of men. This notion was accepted the
-more readily, as during my short preliminary sojourn
-at Zanzibar, I had satisfactorily ascertained from Arab
-travellers that the Maravi or Kilwa Lake is distinct from
-the “Sea of Ujiji;” that the former is of comparatively
-diminutive dimensions; that there is no caravan route
-between the two; and therefore that, by exploring the
-smaller, I should lose the chance of discovering the
-larger water. Moreover, the general feeling of the
-Zanzibarites&mdash;of the Christian merchants, whom I had
-offended by collecting statistics about copal-digging, ivory,
-and sesamum&mdash;of the Bhattias or Hindus of Cutch, who
-systematically abuse the protection of the British flag to
-support the interest of the slave trade&mdash;of the Arabs,
-who remembered nothing but political intrigue in the explorations
-of the “Mombas Mission,” and the lamentable
-result of Dr. Krapf’s political intrigues&mdash;and of the
-Africans generally, who are disposed to see in every
-innovation some new form of evil&mdash;had been conveyed
-to my ears explicitly enough to warrant my apprehensions
-for the success of the Expedition, had I insisted
-upon carrying out the project proposed by M. Erhardt.</p>
-
-<p>I must here explain, that before my departure from
-England, the Church Missionary Society had supplied
-me, after a personal interview in Salisbury Square, with
-a letter to their <i>employé</i>, M. Rebmann, the last remnant
-of that establishment at Mombasah, which had, it is
-said, expended about 12,000<i>l.</i> with the minimest of results.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-7">[7]</span>
-The missionaries had commenced operations with
-vigour, and to the work of conversion they had added
-certain discoveries in the unknown lands of the interior,
-which attracted the attention of European geographers.
-Unhappily Dr. Krapf, the principal, happened to commit
-himself by the following assertion:&mdash;“The Imaum of
-Muskat has not an inch of ground on the coast between
-the Island of Wassin and the Pangani River; this tract,
-in fact, belonging to King Kmeri of Usumbara, down
-from 4° 30′ to 5° 30′ S. The tract, which is very low,
-is inhabited by the Wasegua tribes, and is the chief
-slave-market for supplying Zanzibar.”</p>
-
-<p>This “information,” put forth in the Journal of the
-Royal Geographical Society (vol. i. p. 203), was copied
-into the Proceedings (vol. xxiii. p. 106), with the remark,
-that the territory alluded to was a “supposed
-possession” of the Imaum. Orientals are thin-skinned
-upon questions of land; the assertion was directly
-opposed to fact, and the jealousy of the rival representatives
-at Zanzibar each on his own side, exaggerated
-its tendency. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, who felt his
-influence sapped by this error on the part of his protégé,
-had reported the facts to his government. Dr.
-Krapf had quitted the scene of his labours and discoveries,
-but his Highness the Sultan and the sadat,
-or court, retained a lively remembrance of the regretable
-incident. Before the arrival of the Expedition,
-“Muhiyy-el-Din,” the Shafei Kazi of the island, had
-called upon Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, probably by direction
-of his superiors, and had received an answer,
-fortified by an oath, that the Expedition was wholly
-independent of “Dutchmen,” as the missionaries were
-called by the Zanzibarites. I was compelled, somewhat
-unwillingly, to dispense with urging M. Rebmann’s
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-8">[8]</span>
-presence. By acting in any other way I should have
-lost the assistance of the consul, and the Arabs, with a
-ready display of zeal, would have secured for me an inevitable
-failure.</p>
-
-<p>At six <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> on Wednesday, the 17th of June, 1857,
-the Artémise cast anchor off Wale Point, a long, low
-bush-grown sandspit, about eighty-four miles distant
-from the little town of Bagamoyo. Our sailing-master,
-Mohammed bin Khamis, anchored in deep water, throwing
-out double the length of chain required. For this
-prudence, however, there was some reason. The road-steads
-are open; the muddy bottom shelves gradually,
-almost imperceptibly; the tides retire ten or eleven feet,
-and a strong gale, accompanied by the dangerous raz
-de marée, or rollers from seaward, especially at the
-seasons of the syzygies, with such a shore to leeward, is
-justly dreaded by the crews of square-rigged vessels.</p>
-
-<p>There is a something peculiarly interesting in the first
-aspect of the “Mrima,” the hill-land, as this portion of
-the African coast is called by the islanders of Zanzibar.
-On one side lies the Indian Ocean, illimitable towards
-the east, dimpled with its “anerithmon gelasma,” and
-broken westward by a thin line of foam, creaming upon
-the whitest and finest of sand, the detritus of coralline
-and madrepore. It dents the coast deeply, forming
-bays, bayous, lagoons, and backwaters, where, after
-breaking their force upon bars and black ledges of sand
-and rock, upon diabolitos, or sun-stained masses of a
-coarse conglomerate, and upon strong weirs planted
-in crescent shape, the waters lie at rest in the arms
-of the land like sheets of oil. The points and islets
-formed by these sea-streams are almost flush with the
-briny surface, yet they are overgrown with a profuse vegetation,
-the result of tropical suns and copious showers,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-9">[9]</span>
-which supply the want of rich soil. The banks of the
-backwaters are lined with forests of white and red mangrove.
-When the tide is out, the cone-shaped root-work
-supporting each tree rises naked from the deep
-sea-ooze; parasitical oysters cluster over the trunks at
-water-level, and between the adults rise slender young
-shoots, tipped with bunches of brilliant green. The
-pure white sand is bound together by a kind of convolvulus,
-whose large fleshy leaves and lilac-coloured
-flowers creep along the loose soil. Where raised higher
-above the ocean level, the coast is a wall of verdure.
-Plots of bald old trees, bent by the regular breezes,
-betray the positions of settlements which, generally
-sheltered from sight, besprinkle the coast in a long
-straggling line, like the suburbs of a populous city. Of
-these, thirteen were counted in a space of three miles.
-The monotony of green that clothes the soil is relieved
-in places by dwarf earth-cliffs and scaurs of rufous hue&mdash;East
-Africa is mostly a red land&mdash;and behind the foreground
-of littoral or alluvial plain, at a distance varying
-from three to five miles, rises a blue line of higher level,
-conspicuous even from Zanzibar Island, the sandy raised
-beach now the frontier of the wild men. To this sketch
-add its accompaniment; by day, the plashing of the wave,
-and the scream of the gull, with the perpetual hum
-and buzz of insect life; and, after sunset, the deep, dead
-silence of a tropical night, broken only by the roar of
-the old bull-crocodile at his resting-time, the qua-qua
-of the night-heron, and the shouts and shots of the
-watchmen, who know from the grunts of the hippopotamus,
-struggling up the bank, that he is quitting his
-watery home to pay a visit to their fields.</p>
-
-<p>We were delayed ten days off Wale Point by various
-preliminaries to departure. Said bin Salim, a half-caste
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-10">[10]</span>
-Arab of Zanzibar, who, sorely against his will, was
-ordered by the prince to act as Ras Kafilah, or caravan-guide,
-had, after ceaseless and fruitless prayers for delay,
-preceded us about a fortnight, for the purpose of collecting
-porters. The timid little man, whose nerves were
-shaken to weeping-point by the terrors of the way, and
-by the fancy that, thus cooperating with the exploration,
-he was incurring the hatred of his fellows, had “taken
-the shilling,” in the shape of 500 dollars, advanced
-from public funds by the consul, with a promise of an
-ample reward in hard coin, and a gold watch, “si se
-bene gesserit:” at the same time Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton
-had warned me against trusting to a half-caste.
-Accompanied by a Cutch Banyan of the Bhattia caste,
-by name Ramji&mdash;of whom more anon&mdash;he had crossed
-over, on the 1st of June, to the main-land, and had hired
-a gang of porters, who, however, hearing that their
-employer was a Muzungu, a “white man,” at once
-dispersed, forgetting to return their hire. About one
-hundred and seventy men were required; only thirty-six
-were procurable. The large amount of carriage was
-necessitated by the bulky and ponderous nature of
-African specie, cotton cloth, brass-wire, and beads, of
-which a total of seventy loads was expended in one
-year and nine months. Moreover, under the impression
-that “vert and venison” abounded in the interior, I
-had provided ammunition for two years,&mdash;ten thousand
-copper-caps of sizes, forty boxes, each restricted, for
-convenience of porterage, to forty pounds, and containing
-ball, grape, and shot, six fire-proof magazines, and
-two small barrels of fine powder, weighing in total fifty
-pounds, together with four ten-pound kegs of a coarser
-kind for the escort,&mdash;in all, two hundred rounds for
-each individual of the party. This supply was deemed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-11">[11]</span>
-necessary on account of the immense loss to which ammunition
-is subjected by theft and weather in these lands.</p>
-
-<p>On the second day after anchoring off Wale Point, a
-native boat brought on board the Artémise Ladha Damha,
-the collector of customs at Zanzibar, who, in compliment
-to Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, of old his friend and
-patron, had torn himself from his beloved occupations
-to push the departure of the Expedition. Ladha, hearing
-that the Arab merchants had hastened to secure
-their gangs before corrupted by the more liberal offers
-of the “white men,”&mdash;“Pagazi,” or porters, being at
-that time scarce, because the caravans from the interior
-had not yet reached the coast,&mdash;proposed to send forward
-the thirty-six fellows hired by Said bin Salim, with orders
-to await the arrival of their employer at Zungomero, in
-the land of K’hutu, a point situated beyond the plundering
-maritime tribes. These men carried goods to the
-value of 654 dollars German crowns (each 4<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i>), and
-they received for hire 124 dollars; rations, that is
-to say, 1·50 lbs. of grain per diem, not included: they
-preferred to travel with the escort of two slave-musketeers
-rather than to incur the fancied danger of accompanying
-a “Muzungu,” though followed by a well-armed
-party. For the personal baggage and the outfit necessary
-for crossing the maritime region, which reached by
-waste the figure of 295 dollars, asses were proposed by
-Ladha Damha: Zanzibar and the mainland harbours were
-ransacked, and in a short time thirty animals, good, bad,
-and indifferent, were fitted for the roads with large canvas
-bags and vile Arab packsaddles, composed of damaged
-gunny-bags stuffed with straw. It was necessary to
-leave behind, till a full gang of porters could be engaged,
-the greater part of the ammunition, the iron boat which
-had proved so useful on the coasting voyage to Mombasah,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-12">[12]</span>
-and the reserve supply of cloth, wire, and beads,
-valued at 359 dollars. The Hindus promised faithfully
-to forward these articles, and received 150 dollars for the
-hire of twenty-two men, who were to start in ten days.
-Nearly eleven months, however, elapsed before they appeared;
-caravan after caravan came up from the coast, yet
-the apathetic Bhattias pretended want of porters as the
-cause of their delay. Evidently my preparations were
-hurriedly made; strong reasons, however, urged me on,&mdash;delay,
-even for a few days, might have been fatal.</p>
-
-<p>During the brief detention off Wale Point, the latitudes
-and longitudes of the estuary of the Kingani,
-the main artery of these regions, and of the little
-settlements Bagamoyo and Kaole,&mdash;strongly against the
-advice of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, who declared that
-by such proceedings the Expedition was going to the
-bad,&mdash;were laid down by my companion: a novice
-lunarian, he was assisted by Mohammed bin Khamis, who
-had read his “Norie” in England. Various visits to the
-hippopotamus haunts produced little beyond the damaging
-of the corvette’s gig, which, suddenly uplifted from
-the water upon the points of two tusks, showed two corresponding
-holes in her bottom. Nor did I neglect to
-land as often as possible at Kaole, the point of departure
-upon the mainland, for the purpose of making sketches
-with the pen and pencil, of urging on preparations, and
-of gathering those items of “bazar-gup,” <i>i. e.</i>, tittle-tattle,
-that represents the labours of the “fourth
-estate” in Eastern lands.</p>
-
-<p>The little settlement of “Kaole”&mdash;an abbreviation of
-Kaole Urembo, meaning literally, in the ancient dialect
-of the coast, “to show beauty”&mdash;is the normal village-port
-in these regions, which, from Mombasah southwards
-to Kilwa, still ignore a town of masonry. You
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-13">[13]</span>
-land, when the tide is out, upon half a mile of muddy
-sand, and if a “swell,” you are carried by four men
-upon the Kitanda&mdash;cot or cartel&mdash;which is slung
-along the side of your craft. Arrived at the strip of
-dry ground that marks the limit of the tide, you are let
-down, and amidst the shouts of the men, the shrieks of the
-women, and the naïve remarks of the juvenile population,
-you ascend by a narrow footpath, worn through
-the thick jungle and through the millet-fields which
-press upon the tattered palisade, a dwarf steep bank, on
-whose summit the settlement lies. Inside the fence are
-a dozen pent-roofed houses, claret-chests of wattle and
-dab, divided into three or more compartments by dwarf
-party-walls of the same material: each messuage is jealously
-separated from its neighbour by large enclosed
-“compounds” or court-yards appropriated to the women
-and children. The largest timber is that of
-the mangrove; the flying thatch-roof, so raised that,
-though windows are unknown, the interior enjoys
-tolerable ventilation, is of jauli, or rude cocoa-plaits,
-and under the long and projecting eaves, which rest
-upon strong perpendiculars, are broad earth-benches,
-divided by the entrance, and garnished with mats:
-these form the shops and sitting-rooms of the settlement.
-Some houses have a partial second story, like
-a ship’s bunk, a planking supported by rafters, and
-used as a store-closet or a dormitory. Around the
-larger habitations cluster masses of hovels, and the
-characteristic African haycock-huts. With closed doors
-in still weather, these dens are unendurable to a
-European; the people, however, fearing thieves and
-wild beasts, never fail to barricade themselves within
-at night. The only attempt at masonry in the settlement
-is the “Gurayza,” or fort, a square of lime and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-14">[14]</span>
-coralline, with store-rooms for the Banyan’s goods below,
-and provided with a crenelled terrace for watchmen.</p>
-
-<p>In the “garrison-towns” the soldiers and their
-families form the principal part of the population.
-These men, who call themselves Baloch, are, with few
-exceptions, originally from Mekran, and from the
-lowlands about Guadel. Many of them have been born
-and bred in Arabia. In former days their fathers
-migrated from their starving homes to Maskat, in the
-Arab dows which visited their ports, to buy horses, and
-to collect little cargoes of wheat and salt. In Arabia
-they were fakirs, sailors, porters, and day-labourers,
-barbers, date-gleaners, asinegos, beggars, and thieves.
-Sultan Bin Hamid, the father of the late Sayyid Said,
-first conceived the bright idea of putting matchlocks
-into their hands, and of dubbing them Askar, or soldiers,
-as a slight upon his less docile compatriots. The son
-of Sultan followed his sire’s plan, and succeeded in dividing
-and ruling by means of the antipathy prevailing
-between the more disciplinable mercenary and the
-unruly Arab subject. The Baloch are, however, rather
-hated than feared. They hang, say the Semites, their
-benefits behind their backs, whilst they wear their grievances
-in full view, woman-like, upon their breasts. Loud
-in debate, and turbulent in demeanour, they are called
-by the Arabs a “light folk,” and are compared to birds
-fluttering and chirruping round a snake. Abject slaves
-to the Great Gaster, they collect in swarms round a
-slaughtered goat, and they will feast their eyes for
-hours on the sight of a rice-bag. When in cantonment
-on the island or the coast, they receive as pay from 2·50
-to 5 dollars per mensem; when in the field or on outpost
-duty, a “batta” of 10 dollars;&mdash;a sensible system,
-which never allows them to become, like the Indian
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-15">[15]</span>
-Sepoy, independent. They are not averse to active
-service, as, when so employed, they have full permission
-to “pill and poll.” In camp they are commanded by a
-jemadar, who, assisted by a “moollah,”&mdash;some wretch
-who has retained, as sole traces of his better days, a
-smattering of reading, writing, and arithmetic,&mdash;robs
-them and his government with the recklessness of impunity.
-Thus the jemadar, or C. O., who also dispenses
-promotion, is a man having authority. Similarly our
-colonels in India, by superior position and allowances,
-commanded the respect of their men before centralisation,
-falling upon the land like a pestilence, systematically
-monopolised all power, and then rained blame upon those
-who had lost it. These Baloch are a tame copy of the
-Turkish Bashi Buzuk, or “mad-cap,” far inferior as desperadoes
-to the Kurd and Arnaut. They live the
-life of the Anglo-Indian soldier of the past generation,
-drinking beer when they can “come by it,” smoking,
-chatting, and arguing; the younger wrestle, shoot, and
-exchange kit; and the silly babbling patriarchs, with
-white beards and venerable brows, tell wondrous tales
-of scenes long gone by, and describe to unbelieving ears
-the ice and snow, the luscious fruits and the sweet waters
-of the mountains and valleys of far Balochistan.</p>
-
-<p>The other items of the population are the Wamrima<a id="FNanchor2"></a><a href="#Footnote2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>&mdash;Western
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-16">[16]</span>
-Negroids of a mixed Arab and African descent,
-who fringe the shore in a thin line. These “coast-clans”
-support themselves in idleness and comparative luxury,
-by amicably plundering the down-caravans, and by large
-plantations of cereals and vegetables, with which they,
-or rather their slaves, supply the island of Zanzibar,
-and even the shores of Arabia. The Wamrima are an
-ill-conditioned race; they spend life in eating, drinking,
-and smoking, drinking and dancing, visits, intrigue, and
-low debauchery. They might grow cotton and coffee,
-and dig copal to almost any extent; but whilst a pound
-of grain remains in bin, no man will handle a hoe.
-The feminine part of the community is greatly superior
-in number to the masculine, and this leads to the usual
-result: on a “Siku ku” or fête-day, the ladies of the
-village, with yellow pigment over their faces and their
-woolly heads, perform in their cups impromptu-dances
-upon the open, enter a stranger’s house as if it were their
-own, and call for something to drink, as if they had been
-educated at Cremorne, or the Rue Cadet. The Wamrima
-are ruled by Diwans, or headmen, locally called “Chomwi;”
-these officials are subject to Zanzibar, and their
-numbers are everywhere in inverse ratio to the importance
-of the places. The Chomwi enjoys the privileges of
-“dash,” fines and extortions; he has also certain marks
-of distinction. For instance, he is authorised to wear
-turbands and the wooden pattens called by the Arabs
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-17">[17]</span>
-“kabkab;” he may also sit upon cots, chairs, and the
-mkeka, a fine dyed mat; whereas a commoner venturing
-upon such display would infallibly be mulcted in goats
-or cattle. At the Ngoma Ku or great dance, which
-celebrates every event in this land of revelry, only the
-Chomwi may perform the morris with drawn sword
-before the admiring multitude. A subject detected in
-intrigue with the wife of a headman must, under penalty
-of being sold, pay five slaves; the fine is reduced to one
-head in the case of a plebeian. With this amount of dignity
-the Diwan naturally expects to live, and to support his
-family with the fat of the land, and without sweat of
-brow. When times are hard, he organises a kidnapping
-expedition against a weaker neighbour, and fills his
-purse by selling the proceeds. But his income is derived
-chiefly from the down-caravans bringing ivory and
-slaves from Unyamwezi and the far interior. Though
-rigidly forbidden by the Prince of Zanzibar to force
-caravans to his particular port, he sends large armed
-parties of his kinsmen and friends, his clients and serfs,
-as far as 150 and 200 miles inland, where they act less
-like touters than highwaymen. By every petty art of
-mercantile diplomacy,&mdash;now by force, then by fraud,
-by promises, or by bribes of cloth and sweetmeats,&mdash;they
-induce the caravan to enter the village, when the
-work of plunder begins. Out of each Frasilah (thirty-five
-lbs. avoirdupois) of ivory, from eight to fourteen
-dollars are claimed as duties to the Government of
-Zanzibar; the headmen, then, demand six dollars as
-their fee, under various technical names, plus one dollar
-for “ugali” or porridge&mdash;the “manche,”&mdash;and one
-dollar for the use of water&mdash;the “pour boire.” The
-owner of the tusk is then handed over to the tender
-mercies of the Banyan, from whom the Diwan has
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-18">[18]</span>
-received a bribe, called his “rice”; and the crafty
-Hindu buys for eighteen to twenty dollars an article
-worth, at Zanzibar, fifty. If the barbarian be so unwise
-as to prefer cash, being intellectually unfit to
-discriminate between a cent and a dollar, he loses even
-more than if he had taken in barter the coarse and
-trashy articles provided for him by the trade. An adept
-at distinguishing good from bad cloth and a cunning
-connoisseur in beads of sorts, he has yet no choice: if
-he reject what is worthless, he must return home with
-his ivory and without an investment. Such is an outline
-of the present system. It is nowhere the same in
-its details; but everywhere the principle is one&mdash;the
-loss is to the barbarian, and the profits are to the coast-clans,
-the Wamrima and their headmen. Hence the
-dislike to strangers and the infinite division into little
-settlements, where people might be expected to prefer
-the comfort and safety of large communities. The 10th
-article of the commercial treaty, concluded on the 31st
-May, 1839, between Her Majesty’s Government and
-His Highness Sayyid Said of Muscat and Zanzibar,
-secured to the possessors of the Mrima a monopoly in
-the articles of ivory and gum-copal on that part of the
-east coast of Africa from the port of Tangata (Mtangata),
-situated in about 5<sup>1</sup>&#8260;<sub>2</sub>° S. lat. to the port of Quiloa
-(Kilwa) lying in about 7° S. of the equator. It is not
-improbable that the jealousy of European nations, each
-fearing the ambitious designs of its neighbour, brought
-about this invidious prohibitionist measure.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>
-It must be borne in mind, that, in the Kisawahili and its cognates,
-the vowel <i>u</i> prefixed to a root, which, however, is never used without some
-prefix, denotes, through a primary idea of causality, a country or region, as
-Uzaramo, the region of Zaramo. Many names, however, exceptionally omit
-this letter, as the Mrima, K’hutu, Fuga, and Karagwah. The liquid <i>m</i>, or,
-before a vowel and an aspirated h, <i>mu</i>, to prevent hiatus, being probably a
-synæresis of <i>M</i>tu, a man, denotes the individual, as Mzaramo, a man or
-woman of Zaramo. When prefixed to the names of trees, as has been instanced,
-it is evidently an abbreviation of Mti, a tree. The plural form of
-<i>m</i> and <i>mu</i> is Wá, a contraction of Wátu, men, people; it is used to signify the
-population, as Wamrima, the “coast-clans,” Wazaramo, the people or tribe of
-Zaramo, and Wasawahíli (with a long accent upon the penultimate, consonant
-with the spirit of the African language, and contrary to that of the
-Arabic), the population of the Sawahil. Finally, the syllable <i>ki</i>&mdash;prefixed
-to the theoretical root&mdash;denotes anything appertaining to a country, as the
-terminating <i>ish</i> in the word English. It especially refers in popular usage
-to language, as Kizaramo, the language of Zaramo; Kisawahíli, the language
-of the Sawahil, originally called Ki-ngozi, from the district of Ngozi, on the
-Ozi River. It has been deemed advisable to retain these terse and concise distinctions,
-which, if abandoned, would necessitate a weary redundance of words.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>Besides the Baloch and the Wamrima, the settlements
-usually contain a few of the “Washenzi” or barbarians
-from the interior, who visit them to act as day-labourers,
-and who sometimes, by evincing a little disrespect for
-the difference between the “mine” and the “thine,” leave
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-19">[19]</span>
-their heads to decorate tall poles at the entrance. The
-Wazaramo tribe send, when there is no blood-feud, numbers
-to Kaole, where they are known by their peculiar
-headdress, a single or a double line of pips or dilberries
-of ochre and grease surrounding the head. They regard
-the stranger with a wild and childish stare, and whenever
-I landed, they slunk away from me, for reasons
-which will appear in the course of this narrative. The
-list of floating population concludes with a few Banyans,&mdash;there
-are about fifty in Kaole and its vicinity&mdash;a
-race national as the English, who do their best to import
-into Eastern Africa the cows and curries, the
-customs and the costumes, of Western India.</p>
-
-<p>The first visit to Kaole opened up a vista of unexpected
-difficulties. My escort had been allowed to leave
-the Artémise, and their comrades in arms had talked
-them half-crazy with fear. Zahri, a Baloch, who had
-visited Unyamwezi, declared that nothing less than 100
-guards, 150 guns, and several cannon could enable them
-to fight a way through the perils of the interior. Tulsi,
-the Banyan, warned them that for three days they must
-pass amongst savages, who sit on trees and discharge
-poisoned arrows into the air with such dexterity that
-they never fail to fall upon the travellers’ pate; he
-strongly advised them therefore, under pain of death, to
-avoid trees&mdash;no easy matter in a land all forest. Then
-the principal Chomwi assured them that the chiefs of the
-Wazaramo tribe had sent six several letters to the officials
-of the coast forbidding the white man to enter their
-country. Ladha Damha also obscurely hinted that the
-Wazaramo might make caches of their provisions in the
-jungle, and that the human stomach cannot march without
-feeding. Divers dangers of the way were incidentally
-thrown in: I learned for the first time that the Kargadan
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-20">[20]</span>
-or rhinoceros kills 200 men, that armies of elephants
-attack camps by night, and that the craven hyæna does
-more damage than the Bengal tiger. In vain I objected
-that guns with men behind them are better than cannon
-backed by curs, that mortals can die but once, that the
-Wazaramo are unable to write, that rations might be
-carried where not purchaseable, and that powder and
-ball have been known to conquer rhinoceroses, elephants,
-and hyænas. A major force was against me.</p>
-
-<p>Presently the cause of intimidation crept into sight.
-The Jemadar and the eight Baloch detached by His Highness
-the Sayyid Majid of Zanzibar could not march
-without a reinforcement of four others, afterwards
-increased by a fifth in the person of an “Ustad,” a tailor-boy.
-The garrison of Kaole having no employment, was
-ready, with the prospect of the almighty dollar, to march
-anywhere on this side of Jehannum. The perils of the
-path rendered it absolutely necessary that we should
-be escorted by a temporary guard of thirty-four men
-and their Jemadar Yaruk: and they did not propose
-to do the good deed gratis. Ramji, the Banyan clerk
-of the customs at Zanzibar, had a number of slaves
-whom he called his “sons;” they were “eating off
-their heads” in idleness at Zanzibar. He favoured me
-by letting out ten of these youths at the rate of thirty
-dollars ahead for a period of six months: for the same
-sum every man might have been purchased in the
-market. When asses were proposed ass-men were necessary;
-in the shortest space of time five were procured,
-and their pay for the whole journey was fixed at thirty
-dollars, about twice the sale-value of the article. I
-cannot plead guilty to not having understood the manœuvre,&mdash;a
-commercial speculation on the part of the
-rascal Ramji. Yet at times,&mdash;need I say it?&mdash;it is
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-21">[21]</span>
-good to appear a dupe. It is wise, when your enemies
-determine you to be that manner of sable or ermine
-contrivance into which ladies insert their fair hands, to
-favour the hypothesis. I engaged the men, I paid the
-men, and mentally I chronicled a vow that Ramji should
-in the long run change places with me.</p>
-
-<p>Presently Mr. Frost with brow severe and official
-manner, informed me that the state of Lieut.-Colonel
-Hamerton’s health forbade a longer stay near the coast.
-To this there was no reply: I contented myself with
-remarking once more that morphia appeared a curious
-cure for a confirmed liver complaint, and I made preparations
-for landing at once. Mr. Frost replied that
-the doses of morphia were very “little ones,”&mdash;an excuse
-which, according to Capt. Marryat, has been urged under
-somewhat dissimilar circumstances by the frail ancilla.
-I confided to Mr. Frost’s care two MSS. addressed
-through the Foreign Office, one to Mr. John Blackwood,
-the other to Dr. Norton Shaw, of the Royal Geographical
-Society. As the former arrived in safety, whilst the
-latter,&mdash;a detailed report concerning the commerce and
-capabilities of Zanzibar,&mdash;was lost, I cannot help suspecting
-that it came somehow to an untimely end. Lieutenant-Colonel
-Hamerton had repeatedly warned me
-that by making inquiries into the details of profit I was
-exciting the jealousy of the natives and the foreigners
-of Zanzibar. According to him the mercantile community
-was adopting the plan which had secured the foul
-murder of M. Maizan: the Christians had time and opportunity
-to alarm the Banyans, and the latter were
-able to work upon the Wasawahíli population. These
-short-sighted men dreaded that from throwing open the
-country, competition might result: Oriental-like, thinking
-only of the moment, of themselves, they could not
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-22">[22]</span>
-perceive that the development of resources would benefit
-all concerned in their exploitation. There were, however,
-honourable exceptions, amongst whom I am bound
-to mention M. Bérard, agent to Mess. Rabaud, frères,
-of Marseilles, who by direction of his employers offered
-me every manner of assistance; and the late M. Sam.
-Masury, a Salem merchant, to whose gratuitous kindness
-I was indebted for several necessaries when separated
-from civilisation by one half of Africa. They
-contrasted sharply with the rest of the community:
-in the case of a certain young gentleman, Lieut.-Colonel
-Hamerton was,&mdash;he informed me,&mdash;compelled
-to threaten a personal chastisement, unless he ceased to
-fill native ears with his malignant suspicions.</p>
-
-<p>The weary labour of verifying accounts and of writing
-receipts duly concluded, I took a melancholy leave
-of my warm-hearted friend Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton,
-upon whose form and features death was written in
-legible characters. He gave me his last advice, to march
-straight ahead despising “walnut and velvet-slipper
-men,” who afford opinions, and conciliating the Arabs
-as much as possible. Then he spoke of himself: he
-looked forward to death with a feeling of delight, the
-result of his religious convictions; he expressed a hope
-that if I remained at Kaole, he might be buried at sea;
-and he declared himself, in spite of my entreaties, determined
-to remain near the coast until he heard of our
-safe transit through the lands of the dreaded Wazaramo.
-This courage was indeed sublime! Such examples are
-not often met with amongst men!</p>
-
-<p>After this affecting farewell, I took leave of the Artémise
-and landed definitively at Kaole. The Baloch
-driving the asses were sent off to the first station on
-the road westwards, headed by my companion, on the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-23">[23]</span>
-same evening, lest a longer sojourn in the lands of semi-civilisation
-should thoroughly demoralise them. The
-Wanyamwezi porters, whose open faces and laughing
-countenances strongly prepossessed me in their favour,
-had already passed beyond their centre of attraction,
-the coast. I spent that evening with Ladha Damha, inside
-the gloomy Gurayza. He lectured me for the last
-time upon my development of what the French cartomantiste
-calls “la bosse de la témérité.” Might not the
-Sahib be a great Sahib in his own land&mdash;Cutch or Guzerat?
-Are there not other great Sahibs there, A&mdash;Sahib
-and B&mdash;Sahib, for instance, who only kill pigs
-and ignore the debtor and creditor side of an account in
-Guzeratee?</p>
-
-<p>I must mention that, on the morning of the same
-day, I was present at a conversation held by the Ladha,
-the respectable collector of the customs, with the worthy
-Ramji, his clerk. I had insisted upon their inserting
-in the estimate of necessaries the sum required to purchase
-a boat upon the “Sea of Ujiji.”</p>
-
-<p>“Will he ever reach it?” asked the respectable Ladha,
-conveying his question through the medium of Cutchee,
-a dialect of which, with the inconsequence of a Hindu,
-he assumed me to be profoundly ignorant.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course not,” replied the worthy Ramji; “what
-is he that he should pass through Ugogi?” (a province
-about half way.)</p>
-
-<p>At the moment I respected their “sharm,” or shame,
-a leading organ in the oriental brain, which apparently
-has dwindled to inconsequential dimensions amongst
-the nations of the West. But when Ladha was alone, I
-took the opportunity to inform him that I still intended
-to cross Ugogo, and to explore the “Sea of Ujiji.” I
-ended by showing him that I was not unacquainted with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-24">[24]</span>
-Cutchee, and even able to distinguish between the debits
-and the credits of his voluminous sheets.</p>
-
-<p>During the conversation, the loud wail of death rang
-wildly through the grave-like stillness of night. “O
-son, hope of my life! O brother, dearest of brothers!
-O husband! O husband!” these were the cries which
-reached our ears. We ran to the door of the Gurayza.
-The only son of the venerable Diwan Ukwere, who had
-been ascending the Kingani river on a mercantile expedition,
-with five slaves, had been upset by a vengeful
-hippopotamus, and, with two of his attendants, had lost
-his life.</p>
-
-<p>“Insaf Karo! be honest!” said the Banyan, with
-whom I had had many discussions as to whether it be
-lawful or unlawful to shoot the hippopotamus, “and own
-that this is the first calamity which you have brought
-upon the country by your presence.”</p>
-
-<p>I could only reply with the common-places of polemics.
-Why should Ladha, who by purchasing their
-spoils encouraged the destruction of herds of elephants,
-object to the death of a “creek-bull”? and why should
-the man who would not kill the “creek-bull” be ready
-to ruin a brother-man for making a better bargain
-about its tusks? Ladha received these futile objections
-contemptuously, as you would, right reverend father,
-were I to suggest that you, primate and spiritual peer,
-are not exactly following in the footsteps of certain
-paupers whom you fondly deem to have been your prototypes,&mdash;your
-exemplars.</p>
-
-<p>When Ladha left, my spirits went with him. In
-the solitude and the silence of the dark Gurayza, I
-felt myself the plaything of misfortune. At Cairo
-I had received from the East India House an order
-to return to London, to appear as a witness on a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-25">[25]</span>
-trial by court-martial then pending. The missive
-was, as usual, so ineptly worded, that I did not think
-proper to throw overboard the Royal Geographical Society&mdash;to
-whom my services had been made over&mdash;by
-obeying it: at the same time I well knew what the consequences
-would be. Before leaving Egypt, an interview
-with the Count d’Escayrac de Lauture, had afforded me
-an opportunity of inspecting an expedition thoroughly
-well organised by His Highness Said Pacha, of military
-predilections, and the contrast between an Egyptian and
-an English exploration impressed me unpleasantly.
-Arrived at Aden, I had enlisted the services of an old
-and valued friend, Dr. Steinhaeuser, civil surgeon at that
-station: a sound scholar, a good naturalist, a skilful
-practitioner, endowed, moreover, with even more inestimable
-personal qualities, his presence would have
-been valuable in a land of sickness, skirmishes, and
-sporting adventures, where the people are ever impressed
-with the name of “medicine-man,” and in a virgin field
-promising subjects of scientific interest. Yet though recommended
-for the work by his Excellency the Governor
-of Bombay, Dr. Steinhaeuser had been incapacitated by
-sickness from accompanying me: I had thus with me a
-companion and not a friend, with whom I was “strangers
-yet.” The Persian war had prevented the fitting-out of
-a surveying vessel, ordered by the Court of Directors
-to act as a base of operations upon the African coast; no
-disposable officer of the Indian navy was to be found at
-the Presidency; and though I heard in Leadenhall Street
-of an “Observatory Sergeant” competent to conduct the
-necessary astronomical and meteorological observations,
-in the desert halls of the great Bungalow at Colaba
-only a few lank Hindus met my sight. Nor was this
-all. His Highness the late Sayyid Said, that estimable
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-26">[26]</span>
-ally of the English nation, had for many years repeatedly
-made the most public-spirited offers to his friend
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton. He was more than once
-upon the point of applying for officers selected to map
-the caravan routes of Eastern Africa, and he professed
-himself willing to assist them with men, money, and the
-weight of his widely extended influence. This excellent
-prince had died forty days before the Expedition arrived
-at Zanzibar. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, also, whose extraordinary
-personal qualities enabled him to perform
-anything but impossibilities amongst the Arabs, was
-compelled by rapidly failing health, during my stay at
-Zanzibar, to lead a recluse life, which favoured the plans
-of my opponents. Finally, as Indian experience taught
-me, I was entering the unknown land at the fatal season,
-when the shrinking of the waters after the wet monsoon
-would render it a hotbed of malaria.</p>
-
-<p>The hurry of departure, also, had caused a necessary
-neglect of certain small precautions, which, taken in
-time, save much after trouble. I should have shunned
-to have laid down limits of space and time for the Expedition,
-whereas my friend and adviser had specified
-the “Sea of Ujiji.” I intended to have drawn out
-every agreement in an official form, registered at the
-Consulate, and specifying all particulars concerning rations
-and presents for the escort, their ammunition, and
-their right of sporting&mdash;that is to say, of scaring the
-game before it could be shot&mdash;their reward for services,
-and their punishments for ill conduct. Lieut.-Colonel
-Hamerton’s state of health, however, rendered him totally
-unfit for the excitement of business; and, without
-his assistance, a good result was not to be expected from
-measures so unfamiliar, and therefore so unpalatable, to
-the people whom they most concerned.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-27">[27]</span></p>
-
-<p>Excuse, amiable reader, this lengthy and egotistical
-preface to a volume of adventure. Do not think that
-I would invert the moral of the Frog-fable, by showing
-that what is death to you, may become fun to me. As we
-are to be companions&mdash;not to say friends&mdash;for an hour
-or two, I must put you in possession of certain facts,
-trivial in themselves, and all unworthy of record, yet
-so far valuable, that they may enable us to understand
-each other. <i>Au reste</i>, to quote the ballad so much admired
-by the Authoress of “Our <span class="nowrap">Village”:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“The Pindar of Wakefield is my style,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent2">And what I list I write;<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">Whilom a clerk of Oxenford,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent2">But now&mdash;a banished wight.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-28">[28]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. II.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">ZANZIBAR AND THE MRIMA EXPLAINED.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">The history of the word Zanzibar is curious. Its
-Persian origin proves that the Iranians were in early
-days a more maritime people than Vincent and other
-writers imagine. Zanzibar, signifying Nigritia, or
-Blackland, is clearly derived from the “Zang,” in Arabic
-Zanj, a negro, and “bar,” a region. This Zangbar was
-changed by the Arabs, who ignore in writing the hard
-<i>g</i>, into Zanjíbár; they still, however, pronounce
-Zangbar, and consider it synonymous with another
-popular expression, “Mulk el Zunuj,” or “the Land of
-the Blacks.” Thus the poet <span class="nowrap">sings,&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent0">‏<span class="fsize110">فسميت ملك الزنوج جميعها‎</span><br /></span>
-</div>
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“And it hath been called Land of the Blacks, all of it.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">Traces of the word may be found in the earliest
-geographers. Ptolemy records a Zingis or Zingisa,
-which, however, with his customary incorrectness, he
-places north of the equator. According to Cosmas
-Indicopleustes, the Indian Ocean beyond Barbaria is
-called Zingium. “Sinus Barbaricus” seems to have
-been amongst the Romans the name of the belt of
-low land afterwards known as “Zanzibar,” and it was
-inhabited by a race of Anthropophagi, possibly the
-fathers of the present “Wadoe” tribe. In more modern
-times the land of the Zunuj has been mentioned by a
-host of authors, El Novayri and others.</p>
-
-<div class="container" id="Illoi-3">
-<img src="images/i_illo051.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">A TOWN ON THE MRIMA.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-29">[29]</span></p>
-
-<p>The limits of Zanzibar,&mdash;a word indiscriminately
-applied in former times to the coast, the island, and
-even to the principal town,&mdash;are variously laid down
-by geographers. Usually it is made to extend from
-Cape Delgado, in S. lat. 10° 41′ to the equator, or
-more strictly to S. lat. 0° 15′, at the mouth of the
-Vumbo, or the Webbe Ganana, which appears in our maps
-under the deceptive corruptions “Juba” and “Govind,”
-from the Somali “Gob,” a junction, and “Gob-wen,” a
-large junction. Mr. Cooley (Inner Africa Laid Open,
-p. 111) corrects the great error of the Portuguese
-historian, de Barros, who has made the embouchure
-of the Obi&mdash;in Somali Webbe, meaning any river,&mdash;the
-demarcation line between “Ajan” on the north, and
-“Zanguebar” in the south, and has placed the mouth
-of that stream in 9° N. lat., which would extend Zanzibar
-almost to Cape Guardafui. Asiatic authors,
-according to M. Guillain, (Documents sur l’Histoire,
-&amp;c. de l’Afrique Orientale. Première partie, p. 213)
-vary in opinion concerning the extent of the “land
-of the Zunuj” and its limits; some, as El Masudi, make
-it contain the whole country, including Sofala, between
-the embouchure of the Juba River (S. lat.
-0° 15′) and Cape Corrientes (S. lat. 23° 48′): others,
-like El Idrisi and Ibn Said, separate from it Sofala.
-In local and modern usage the word Zanjibar is generally
-confined to the chief town upon the island, the latter
-being called by Arabs, as well as by the Negroids,
-Kisiwa, “insula,” in opposition to the Barr el Moli, a
-barbarised Semitic term for the continent.</p>
-
-<p>As usual throughout these lands, where comprehensive
-geographical names are no longer required,
-there is no modern general word for East Africa
-south of the equator. The term “Sawahil,” or “the
-shores,” in present parlance is confined to the strip of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-30">[30]</span>
-coast beyond the half-Somali country, called from its various
-ports,&mdash;Lamu, Brava, and Patta,&mdash;Barr el Banadir,
-or Harbour-land. The “Sawahil” extend southwards to
-Mombasah, below which the coast suddenly falling flat,
-is known as Mrima or the Hill, and its people as
-Wamrima, the “hill-men.” It is limited on the south
-by the delta of the Rufiji River, whose races are
-termed Watu wa Rufiji, Rufiji clans, or more shortly,
-Warufiji.</p>
-
-<p>The country properly called the Mrima has no history
-beyond its name, whilst the towns immediately to the
-north and south of it,&mdash;Mombasah and Kilwa,&mdash;have
-filled many a long and stirring page. The Arab
-geographers preceding the Portuguese conquest mention
-only five settlements on the coast between Makdishu
-(Magadoxo) and Kilwa, namely, Lamu, Brava, Marka,
-Malindi (Melinda), and Mombasah. In Captain Owen’s
-charts, between Pangani and the parallel of Mafiyah
-(Monfia Island) not a name appears.</p>
-
-<p>The fringe of Moslem Negroids inhabiting this part
-of the East African coast is called by the Arabs Ahl
-Maraim, and by themselves Wamrima, in opposition to
-the heathen of the interior. These are designated in
-mass the Washenzi&mdash;conquered or servile&mdash;properly
-the name of a Helot race in the hills of Usumbara, but
-extended by strangers to all the inner races. The
-Wasawahili, or people of the Sawahil, Mulattos originally
-African, but semiticised, like the Moplahs of Malabar,
-by Arab blood, are in these days confined to the lands
-lying northwards of Mombasah, to the island of Zanzibar,
-and to the regions about Kilwa.</p>
-
-<p>The Mrima is peopled by two distantly connected
-families, the half-caste Arabs and the Coast-Clans. The
-former are generally of Bayazi or Khariji persuasion;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-31">[31]</span>
-the latter follow the school of el Shafei; both, though
-the most imperfect of Moslems, are fanatical enough to
-be dangerous. They own a nominal allegiance to the
-suzerain of Zanzibar, yet they are autonomous and
-free-spoken as Bedouins, when removed a few miles
-from the coast, and they have a rooted aversion to the
-officials of the local government, whom they consider
-their personal enemies. Between them and the pure
-Arabs of Oman, who often traverse, but who now never
-settle upon the Mrima, there is a repugnance increased
-by commercial jealousy; they resent the presence of these
-strangers as an intrusion, and they lose no opportunity
-of thwarting and discouraging them from travelling into
-the interior. Like their ancestors, they dislike Europeans
-personally, and especially fear the Beni Nar, or
-Sons of Fire,&mdash;the English&mdash;“hot as the Ingrez,” is in
-these lands a proverb. In their many Riwayat, Hadisi,
-and Ngoma&mdash;tales, traditions, and songs&mdash;they predict
-the eventual conquest of the country that has once felt
-the white man’s foot.</p>
-
-<p>The half-caste Arab is degenerate in body and mind;
-the third generation becomes as truly negroid as the
-inner heathen. Even Creoles of pure blood, born upon
-the island and the coast of Zanzibar, lose the high nervous
-temperament that characterises their ancestors, and
-become, like Banyans, pulpy and lymphatic. These
-mestiços, appearing in the land of their grandsires, have
-incurred the risk of being sold as slaves. The peculiarity
-of their physiognomy is the fine Semitic development
-of the upper face, including the nose and nostrils, whilst
-the jaw is prognathous, the lips are tumid and everted,
-and the chin is weak and retreating. The cranium is
-somewhat rounded, and it wants the length of the Negroid’s
-skull. Idle and dissolute, though intelligent
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-32">[32]</span>
-and cunning, the coast-Arab has little education. He
-is sent at the age of seven to school, where in two or
-three years he accomplishes the Khitmah, or perlection
-of the Koran, and he learns to write a note in an antiquated
-character, somewhat more imperfect than the
-Cufic. This he applies to the Kisawahili, and as nothing
-can be less fitted for the Semitic tongues than the Arabic
-syllabarium, so admirably adapted to its proper sphere,
-his compositions require the deciphering of an expert.
-A few prayers and hymns conclude the list of his acquirements.
-His mother-tongue knows no books except
-short treatises on Bao, or geomancy, and specimens of
-African proverbial wisdom. He then begins life by
-aiding his father in the shop or plantation, and by giving
-himself up to intoxication and intrigue. After suffering
-severely from his excesses&mdash;in this climate no constitution
-can bear up against over-indulgence long continued&mdash;at
-the age of seventeen or eighteen, he takes unto
-himself a wife. Estranged from the land of his forefathers,
-he rarely visits Zanzibar, where the restraints
-of semi-civilisation, the decencies of oriental society, and
-the low estimation in which the black skin is held, weary
-and irritate him. His point of honour seems to consist
-chiefly in wearing publicly, in token of his Arab
-descent, a turban and a long yellow shirt, called El
-Dishdasheh.</p>
-
-<p>The Wamrima, or coast-clans, resemble even more
-than the half-caste Arabs their congeners the Washenzi.
-The pure Omani will not acknowledge them as kinsmen,
-declaring the breed to be Aajam, or gentiles. They are
-less educated than the higher race, and they are more
-debauched, apathetic, dilatory, and inert; their favourite
-life is one of sensual indolence. Like the Somal, they
-appear to be unfitted by nature for intellectual labour;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-33">[33]</span>
-of the former people there is but one learned man, the
-Shaykh Jami of Harar, and the Kazi Muhiyy-el-Din
-of Zanzibar is the only literato amongst the Wasawahili.
-Study, or indeed any tension of the mind, seems
-to make these weak-brained races semi-idiotic. They
-cannot answer Yes or No to the simplest question. If,
-for example, a man be asked the place of his tribe, he
-will point to a distance, though actually living amongst
-them; or if questioned concerning some particular of
-an event, he will detail everything but what is wanted.
-In the earlier days of exploration, I have repeatedly
-collected the diwans, and, after a careful investigation
-and comparison of statements, have registered the names
-and distances of the stages ahead. These men, though
-dwelling upon the threshold of the regions which they described,
-and being in the habit of traversing them every
-year, yet could hardly state a single fact correctly;
-sometimes they doubled, at other times they halved,
-the distance; they seldom gave the same names, and they
-almost always made a hysteron-proteron of the stations.
-The reader may gather from this sample some idea of
-the difficulties besetting those who would collect information
-concerning Africa from the Africans. It would
-not have happened had an Arab been consulted. I soon
-resolved to doubt for the future all Wasawahili, Wamrima,
-Washenzi, and slaves, and I found no reason for
-regretting the resolution.</p>
-
-<p>The Wamrima are of darker complexion, and are
-more African in appearance, than the coast Arabs. The
-popular colour is a dull yellowish bronze. The dress is
-a fez, or a Surat-cap; a loin-cloth, which among the
-wealthy is generally an Arab check or an Indian print, with
-a similar sheet thrown over the shoulders. Men seldom
-appear in public without a spear, a sword, or a staff;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-34">[34]</span>
-and priding themselves upon the possession of umbrellas,
-they may be seen rolling barrels, or otherwise working
-upon the sands, under the luxurious shade. The women
-wear a tobe, or long cloth, wrapped tightly round the body,
-and extending from beneath the arms to the ankles;
-it is a garb ungraceful as was the European “sacque”
-of bygone days. It spoils the figure by depressing
-instead of supporting the bosom, and it conceals none of
-its deficiencies, especially the narrowness of the hips.
-The Murungwana, or free-woman, is distinguished from
-the slave-girl, when outside the house, by a cloth thrown
-over the head. Like the women of the Bedouins and of
-the Persian Iliyat, even the matrons of the Mrima go
-abroad unmasked. Their favourite necklace is a string
-of shark’s teeth. They distend the lobes of the ears to
-a prodigious size, and decorate them with a rolled-up
-strip of variously-dyed cocoa-leaf, a disk of wood, a plate
-of chakazi or raw gum-copal, or, those failing, with a betel-nut
-or with a few straws. The left wing of the nose is
-also pierced to admit a pin of silver, brass, lead, or even
-a bit of manioc-root. The hair, like the body, is copiously
-anointed with cocoa-nut or sesamum oil. Some shave
-the head wholly or partially across the brow and behind
-the ears; others grow their locks to half or full-length,
-which rarely exceeds a few inches. It is elaborately
-dressed, either in double-rolls rising like bear’s ears on
-both sides of the head, or divided into a number of
-frizzly curls which expose lines of scalp, and give to the
-head the appearance of a melon. They have also a propensity
-for savage “accroche-cœurs,” which stand out
-from the cheek bones, stiffly twisted like young porkers’
-tails. In early youth, when the short, soft, and
-crisp hair resembles Astrachan wool, when the muscles
-of the face are smoothly rounded, and when the skin has
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-35">[35]</span>
-that life and texture, and the countenance has that
-vivacity and amiability which belong only to the young,
-many of the girls have a pretty piquancy, a little minois
-chiffonné, a coquettishness, a natural grace, and a caressing
-look, which might become by habit exceedingly prepossessing.
-In later life, their charms assume that
-peculiar solidity which is said to characterise the beauties
-of Mullingar, and as a rule they are shockingly
-ugly. The Castilian proverb says that the English
-woman should be seen at the window, the French woman
-on the promenade, and the Spanish woman everywhere;&mdash;the
-African woman should be seen nowhere, or in the
-dark. The children mostly appear in the graceful costume
-of the Belvidere Apollo; not a few of them have,
-to the European eye, that amusing prettiness which we
-admire in pug-pups.</p>
-
-<p>The mode of life in the Mrima is simple. Men rise
-early and repair to either the shop, the boat, or the
-plantation,&mdash;more commonly they waste the morning
-in passing from house to house “ku amkía,”&mdash;to salute
-neighbours. They ignore “manners”: they enter
-abruptly with or without the warning cry of “Hodi!
-Hodi!” place their spears in the corner, and without invitation
-squat and extend themselves upon the floor till
-wearied with conversation they take “French leave.”
-Life, to the European so real and earnest, is with
-them a continued scene of drumming, dancing, and
-drinking, of gossip, squabble, and intrigue. The favourite
-inebrients are tembu or cocoa toddy, and mvinyo,
-its distillation, pombe or millet-beer, opium, Bhang, and
-sometimes foreign stimulants purchased at Zanzibar.
-Their food is mostly ugali, the thick porridge of boiled
-millet or maize flour, which represents the “staff of life”
-in East Africa: they usually feed twice a day, in the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-36">[36]</span>
-morning and at night-fall. They employ the cocoa-nut
-extensively: like the Arabs of Zanzibar, they boil their
-rice in the thick juice of the rasped albumen kneaded
-with water, and they make cakes of the pulp mixed
-with the flour of various grains. This immoderate use
-of the fruit which, according to the people, is highly refrigerant,
-causes, it is said, rheumatic and other diseases.
-A respectable man seen eating a bit of raw or undressed
-cocoa-nut would be derided by his fellows. They chew
-tobacco with lime, like the Arabs, who, under the influence
-of Wahhabi tenets, look upon the pipe as impure, and
-they rarely smoke it like the Washenzi.</p>
-
-<p>The Wamrima as well as the Wasawahili are distinguished
-by two national peculiarities of character.
-The first is a cautiousness bordering upon cowardice,
-derived from their wild African blood; the second
-is an unusual development of cunning and deceitfulness,
-which partially results from the grafting of
-the semi-civilised Semite upon the Hamite. The
-Arabs, who are fond of fanciful etymology, facetiously
-derive the race-name “Msawahili” from “Sawwá
-hílah,”<a id="FNanchor3"></a><a href="#Footnote3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> <i>he played a trick</i>,
-and the people boast of it,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-37">[37]</span>
-saying, “are we not Wasawahili?” that is “artful
-dodgers.” Supersubtle and systematic liars, they deceive
-when duller men would tell the truth, the lie
-direct is no insult, and the offensive word “muongo!”
-(liar) enters largely into every dialogue. They lie like
-Africans, objectlessly, needlessly, when sure of speedy
-detection, when fact would be more profitable than falsehood;
-they have not discovered with the civilised knave,
-that “honesty is the best policy;” they lie till their fiction
-becomes subjectively fact. With them the lie is
-no mental exertion, no exercise of ingenuity, no concealment,
-nor mere perversion of the truth: it is apparently
-a local instinctive peculiarity in the complicated
-madness of poor human nature. The most solemn and
-religious oaths are with them empty words; they breathe
-an atmosphere of falsehood, manœuvre, and contrivance,
-wasting about the mere nothings of life&mdash;upon a pound
-of grain or a yard of cloth&mdash;ingenuity of iniquity enough
-to win and keep a crown. And they are treacherous as
-false; with them the salt has no signification, and gratitude
-is unknown even by name.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
-Dr. Krapf, in the Preface to his “Outlines of the Kisuahelí Language,”
-deduces the national name from Síwá, ’a hílah, which would mean exactly
-the reverse of astute&mdash;“without guile.” He has made other curious linguistic
-errors: he translates, for instance, the “Quilimancy” River&mdash;the
-ancient name for the Ozi or Dana&mdash;“water from the mountain,” after a
-Germanic or Indo-European fashion, whereas, in the Zangian languages, the
-compound word would, if admissible, signify “a mountain of water.” It is
-curious that the learned and accurate Mr. Cooley, who has charged Dr.
-Krapf with “puerile etymologies,” should have fallen into precisely the
-same error. In the “Geography of N’yassi,” p. 19, “Mazingia” is rendered
-the “road or land along the water,” but Májí Njíá, if the elision of
-the possessive affix ya be allowed in prose as in poetry&mdash;Májí Njíá for
-Májí ya Njíá&mdash;would mean only the “water of the road.” As a specimen
-of Dr. Krapf’s discoveries in philology the following may suffice. In his
-vocabulary of the Engutuk Eloikob or Kikuafi dialect, he derives
-Olbitir, a <i>pig</i>, from the Arabic El Batrah, a <i>young ass</i>, or from El Basir, a
-<i>sharp-seeing dog</i>!</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>Though partially Arabised, the Wamrima, as well as
-the Wasawahili, retain many habits and customs derived
-from the most degraded of the Washenzi savagery.
-Like the Wazegura heathen of Eastern Africa, and the
-Bangala of the Kasanji (Cassange) Valley, in the West,
-the uncle sells his nephews and nieces by an indefeasible
-vested right, with which even the parents cannot interfere.
-The voice of society even justifies this abomination.
-“What!” exclaim the people, “is a man to want when
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-38">[38]</span>
-his brothers and sisters have children?” He is thus encouraged
-in doing, on the slightest pretext, that of which
-the heathen rarely approve, except to save themselves
-from starvation. At the same time the Wamrima, holding
-the unchastity of woman as a tenet of belief, consider
-the sister’s son&mdash;the “surer side”&mdash;the heir, in
-preference to the son. They have many superstitions,
-and before all undertakings they consult a pagan Mganga
-or medicine-man. If the K’hunguru or crow caws from
-the house-top, a guest is coming; if a certain black bird
-cries “chee! chee!” in front of a caravan, the porters
-will turn back, saying that there is blood on the road,
-and they will remain four or five days till the “chika!
-chika!” of the partridge beats the “General.” An even
-number of wayfarers met in early morning is a good
-omen, but an odd number, or the bark of the Mbweha&mdash;the
-fox&mdash;before the march, portends misfortune. Strong
-minds of course take advantage of these and a thousand
-other follies of belief, and when there is not, as in civilised
-countries, a counteracting influence of scepticism,
-the mental organisation of the people becomes a mass of
-superstitious absurdities.</p>
-
-<p>The chief industry of the Mrima, namely the plundering
-of caravans, has already been alluded to; it will
-here be described with somewhat more of detail. The
-industrious and commercial nations near Kilwa and the
-southern regions delay but a few days on the coast; the
-Wanyamwezi, on the line now to be described, will linger
-there from three to six months, enjoying the dear delights
-of comparative civilisation. Many old campaigners
-have so far overcome their barbarous horror of water
-travelling, which has been increased by tales of shipwreck
-and drowning, as to take boat and carry their ivory to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-39">[39]</span>
-the more profitable market in this land of Zanzibar,
-where the Wanyamwezi occupy their own quarter.
-Arrived within two marches of the coast-town, the head
-of the caravan calls a halt till the presents promised by
-an escort of touters have arrived and have been approved
-of. He then delays as long as possible, to live gratis upon
-those with whom he proposes to deal. After a time, the
-caravan enters in stately procession, a preliminary to the
-usual routine of commercial operations. Having settled
-the exorbitant claims of the village headmen and the
-charges of the Zanzibar Government, which are usually
-levied in duplicate by the local authorities, the barbarian
-has recourse to the Indian Banyan. Bargains are usually
-concluded at night: to a civilised man the work
-would be an impossible trial of patience. A lot of two
-hundred tusks is rarely sold under four months. Each
-article is laid upon the ground, and the purchaser begins
-by placing handsome cloths, technically called “pillows,”
-under the point and bamboo of the tusk, and by
-covering its whole length with a third; these form the
-first perquisites of the seller. After a few days, during
-which rice and ghee, sugar and sweetmeats, must be
-freely supplied, commences the chaffering for the price.
-The Banyan becomes excited at the ridiculous demand
-of his client, screams like a woman, pushes him out of
-doors, and receives a return of similar treatment with
-interest. He takes advantage of his knowledge that the
-African in making a bargain is never satisfied with the
-first offer, however liberal; he begins with a quarter of
-the worth, then he raises it to one-half, and when the
-barbarian still hesitates he throws in some flashy article
-which turns the scale. Any attempt at a tariff would be
-contemptuously rejected by both parties. The African
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-40">[40]</span>
-delights in bargaining, and the Indian having brighter
-wits relies upon them for a profit, which the establishment
-of fair prices would curtail. It were in vain to
-attempt any alteration in this style of doing “business;”
-however despicable it may appear in the London market,
-it is a time-honoured institution in East Africa.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-41">[41]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w30em" id="Illoi-7">
-<img src="images/i_illo065.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">The Wazaramo Tribe.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. III.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">TRANSIT OF THE VALLEY OF THE KINGANI AND THE MGETA
-RIVERS.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">It was a gallant sight to see the Baloch, as with trailed
-matchlocks, and in bravery of shield, sword, and dagger,
-they hurried in Indian file out of the Kaole cantonments,
-following their blood-red flag and their high-featured,
-snowy-bearded chief, the “Shaib Mohammed,”&mdash;old
-Mohammed. The band, “like worms,” as they
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-42">[42]</span>
-expressed its numbers, which amounted to nearly a
-hundred, about one-third of the venerable Jemadar’s
-command, was marching forth to bid us farewell, in
-token of respect, at Mgude or Kuingani, “the cocoa-plantation
-near the sea.” It is a little settlement, distant
-an hour and a half’s walk from Kaole: hither my
-companion had preceded me, and hence we were to
-make our second departure. Accompanied by Said bin
-Salim, Valentine my Goanese servant, three Baloch,
-and two slaves, I followed in the wake of the main
-body, bringing up the rear of the baggage on three
-Unyamwezi asses bought that morning at the custom-house.
-The animals had been laden with difficulty:
-their kicking and plunging, rearing and pawing, had
-prevented the nice adjustment of their packs, and the
-wretched pads, which want of time had compelled me
-to take, instead of panels or pack-saddles, loosely girthed
-with rotten coir rope, could not support a heap of
-luggage weighing at least 200 lbs. per load. On the road
-they rushed against one another; they bolted, they
-shied, and they threw their impediments with such
-persistence, that my servant could not help exclaiming,
-“Unká nám gadha”&mdash;“Their name <i>is</i> jackass.” At last,
-as the sun neared the salt sea, one of these half-wild
-brutes suddenly sank, girth-deep, in a patch of boggy
-mire, and the three Baloch, my companions, at once
-ran away, leaving us to extricate it as best we could.
-This little event had a peculiar significancy to one
-about to command a party composed principally of
-asses and Baloch.</p>
-
-<p>The excitement of finding myself on new ground,
-and the peculiarities of the scenery, somewhat diverted
-melancholy forebodings. Issuing from the little palisade
-of Kaole, the path winds in a south-westerly direction
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-43">[43]</span>
-over a sandy soil, thick with thorns and bush, which in
-places project across the way. Thence ascending a
-wave of ground where cocoas and the wild arrow-root
-flourish, it looks down upon park land like that described
-by travellers in Kaffraria, a fair expanse of
-sand veiled with humus, here and there growing rice,
-with mangoes and other tall trees, regularly disposed
-as if by the hand of man. Finally, after crossing a
-muddy grass-grown swamp, and a sandy bottom full
-of water when rain has been heavy, the path, passing
-through luxuriant cultivation, enters Kuingani. Such
-is the “nakl,” or preparatory-stage of Arab travellers,
-an invariable first departure, where porters who find
-their load too heavy, or travellers who suspect that
-they are too light, can return to Kaole and re-form.</p>
-
-<p>The little settlement of Kuingani is composed of a
-few bee-hive huts, and a Bandani or wall-less thatched
-roof&mdash;the village palaver-house&mdash;clustering orderless
-round a cleared central space. Outside, cocoas, old and
-dwarfed, mangoes almost wild, the papaw, the cotton
-shrub, the perfumed Rayhan or Basil, and a sage-like
-herb, the sugarcane, and the Hibiscus called by the
-Goanese “Rosel,” vary the fields of rice, holcus, and
-“Turiyan,” or the Cajanus Indicus. The vegetation is,
-in fact, that of the Malabar coast; the habitations are
-peculiarly African.</p>
-
-<p>The 28th of June was a halt at Kuingani, where I was
-visited by Ramji and two brother Bhattias, Govindji
-and Kesulji. The former was equipped, as least becomes
-the Banyan man, with sword, dudgeon, and
-assegai. But Ramji was a heaven-made soldier; he
-had taken an active part in the military operations
-directed by His Highness the late Sayyid Said against
-the people of the mainland, and about thirteen years
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-44">[44]</span>
-ago he defended Kaole against a host of Wazaramo,
-numbering, it is said, 3,000 men, when, lacking balls,
-he had loaded his honeycombed cannon and his rusty
-matchlocks with pointed sticks. The Europeans of
-Zanzibar called him “Rush,”&mdash;the murderer. His
-fellow-countrymen declared him to be a “sharp practiser,”
-who had made a reputation by spending other
-people’s money, and I personally had proofs which did
-not allow me to doubt his “savoir faire.”</p>
-
-<p>The nights at Kuingani were not pleasant. The air
-was stifling, the mosquitoes buzzed without intermission,
-and I had neglected to lay in “essence of pennyroyal”
-against certain other plagues. On the second
-evening, seeing by the hang-dog look of my Jemadar
-that he was travailing in mind, I sent for a Mganga
-or medicine-man, and having previously promised him
-a Surat skull-cap for a good haul of prophecy, I collected
-the Baloch to listen. The Mganga, a dark old man, of
-superior rank, as the cloth round his head and his many
-bead necklaces showed, presently reappeared with a
-mat-bag containing the implements of his craft. After
-taking his seat opposite to me he demanded his fee&mdash;here,
-as elsewhere, to use the words with which Kleon
-excited the bile of Tiresias,</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Το μαντικον γαρ παν φιλαργυρον γενος;”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">&mdash;without which prediction would have been impossible.
-When gratified he produced a little gourd
-snuff-box and indulged himself with a solemn and
-dignified pinch. He then drew forth a larger gourd
-which contained the great medicine, upon which no
-eye profane might gaze: the vessel, repeatedly shaken,
-gave out a vulgar sound as if filled with pebbles and bits
-of metal. Presently, placing the implement upon the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-45">[45]</span>
-ground, Thaumaturges extracted from the mat-bag two
-thick goat’s horns connected by a snake-skin, which
-was decorated with bunches of curiously-shaped iron
-bells; he held one in the left hand, and with the right
-he caused the point of the other to perform sundry
-gyrations, now directing it towards me, then towards
-himself, then at the awe-struck bystanders, waving his
-head, muttering, whispering, swaying his body to and
-fro, and at times violently rattling the bells. When fully
-primed with the spirit of prophecy, and connected by
-ekstasis with the ghosts of the dead, he spake out pretty
-much in the style of his brotherhood all the world
-over. The journey was to be prosperous. There would
-be much talking, but little killing.&mdash;Said bin Salim, in
-chuckling state, confessed that he had heard the same
-from a Mganga consulted at Zanzibar.&mdash;Before navigating
-the sea of Ujiji a sheep or a parti-coloured hen
-should be killed and thrown into the lake.&mdash;Successful
-voyage.&mdash;Plenty of ivory and slaves.&mdash;Happy return
-to wife and family.</p>
-
-<p>This good example of giving valuable advice was
-not lost upon Mr. Rush Ramji. He insisted upon the
-necessary precautions of making a strong kraal and of
-posting sentinels every night; of wearing a kerchief
-round the head after dark, and of avoiding the dangerous
-air of dawn; of not eating strange food, and of
-digging fresh wells, as the Wazaramo bewitch water for
-travellers; of tethering the asses, of mending their ropes,
-and of giving them three lbs. of grain per diem. Like
-the medical directions given to the French troops proceeding
-to China, the counsel was excellent, but impracticable.</p>
-
-<p>The evening concluded with a nautch. Yusuf, a
-Baloch, produced a saringi&mdash;the Asiatic viol&mdash;and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-46">[46]</span>
-collected all the scamps of the camp with a loud scraping.
-Hulluk, the buffoon, acted dancing-girl to perfection.
-After the normal pantomime, somewhat broadly expressed,
-he did a little work in his own character;
-standing on his head with a peculiar tremulousness
-from the hips upwards, dislocating his person in a sitting
-position, imitating the cry of a dog, cat, ape,
-camel, and slave-girl, and finally reproducing me
-with peculiar impudence before my face. I gave him
-a dollar, when, true to his strain, he at once begged
-another.</p>
-
-<p>All accounts and receipts being finally duly settled
-with the Hindus, the last batch of three donkeys having
-arrived, and the baggage having been laden with great
-difficulty, I shook hands with old Mohammed and the
-other dignitaries, and mounting my ass, gave orders for
-immediate departure from Kuingani. This was not
-effected without difficulty: every one and everything,
-guide and escort, asses and slaves, seemed to join in raising
-up fresh obstacles. Four <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> sped before we turned
-out of the little settlement. Among other unpleasant
-occurrences, Rahmat, a Baloch knave, who had formed
-one of my escort to Fuga, levelled his long barrel, with
-loud “Mimí ná pigá” (I am shooting him), when his
-company was objected to. His Jemadar, Yaruk, seized
-the old shooting-iron, which was probably unloaded,
-and Rahmat, with sotto-voce snarls and growls, slunk
-back to his kennel. A turbaned Negroid, who appeared
-on the path, was asked to point out the way,
-and, on his refusal, my bull-headed slave Mabruki
-struck him on the face, when, to the consternation
-of all parties, he declared himself a Diwan. The blow,
-according to the Jemadar, would infallibly lead to
-bloodshed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-47">[47]</span></p>
-
-<p>After a second short march of one hour and a half,
-we pitched tents and obtained lodgings in Bomani,
-“the Stockade,” a frontier village, but within the jurisdiction
-of Bagamoyo. On this road, which ascended the
-old sea-beach, patches of open forest and of high rank
-grass divided cultivated clearings, where huts and
-hamlets appeared, and where modest young maidens
-beckoned us as we passed. The vegetation is here
-partly African, partly Indian. The Mbuyu,&mdash;the baobab,
-Adansonia digitata, monkey-bread, or calabash, the Mowana
-of the southern and the Kuka of the northern
-regions,&mdash;is of more markedly bulbous form than on the
-coast, where the trunk is columnar; its heavy extremities,
-depressed by the wind, give it the shape of a
-lumpy umbrella shading the other wild growths. There
-appear to be two varieties of this tree, similar in bole
-but differing in foliage and in general appearance. The
-normal Mbuyu has a long leaf, and the drooping outline
-of the mass is convex; the rarer, observed only upon the
-Usagara Mountains, has a small leaf, in colour like the
-wild indigo, and the arms striking upwards assume the
-appearance of a bowl. The lower bottoms, where the soil
-is rich, grow the Mgude, also called Mparamusi (Taxus
-elongatus, the Geel hout or Yellow-wood of the Cape?) a
-perfect specimen of arboreal beauty. A tall tapering shaft,
-without knot or break, straight and clean as a main-mast
-forty or forty-five feet in height, and painted with a
-tender greenish-yellow, is crowned with parachute-shaped
-masses of vivid emerald foliage, whilst sometimes two and
-even three pillars spring from the same root. The Mvumo,&mdash;a
-distorted toddy tree, or Hyphæna allied to the Daum
-palm of Egypt and Arabia,&mdash;has a trunk rough with
-the drooping remnants of withered fronds, above which
-it divides itself into branches resembling a system of Y’s.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-48">[48]</span>
-Its oval fruit is of a yellowish red, and when full-sized it
-is as large as a child’s head; it is eaten even unripe by
-the people, and is said to be the favourite food of the
-elephant. Pulpless, hard, and stringy, it has, when
-thoroughly mature, a slight taste of gingerbread, hence
-it is also called the Gingerbread-tree. The Ukhindu or
-brab, of whose fronds mats and the grass kilts worn by
-many of the tribes are made, flourishes throughout the
-country, proving that the date-tree might be naturalised.
-The Nyara or Chamærops humilis, the dwarf fan-palm
-or palmetto of Southern Europe, abounds in this
-maritime region. The other growths are the Mtogwe
-and the Mbungo-bungo, varieties of the Nux vomica;
-the finest are those growing in the vicinity of water.
-The fruit contains within its hard rind, which, when
-ripe, is orange-coloured, large pips, covered with a
-yellow pulp of a grateful agro-dolce flavour, with a
-suspicion of the mango. The people eat them with
-impunity; the nuts, which contain the poisonous principle,
-being too hard to be digested. The Mtunguja
-(the Punneeria coagulans of Dr. Stocks), a solanaceous
-plant called by the Indians Jangli bengan, or the wild
-egg-plant, by the South Africans Toluane, and by the
-Baloch Panír, or cheese, from the effect of the juice
-in curdling milk, is here, as in Somaliland, a spontaneous
-growth throughout the country. The same
-may be said of the castor plant, which, in these regions,
-is of two kinds. The Mbono (Jatropha curcas?) is the
-Gumpal of Western India, a coarse variety, with a
-large seed; its fetid oil, when burnt, fouls the lamp;
-yet, in Africa, it is used by all classes as an unguent.
-The Mbarika, or Palma Christi, the Irindi of India, is
-employed in medicine. The natives extract the oil by
-toasting and pounding the bean, adding a little hot
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-49">[49]</span>
-water and skimming off what appears upon the surface.
-The Arabs, more sensibly, prefer it “cold-drawn.”
-These plants, allowed to grow unpruned,
-often attain the height of eighteen to twenty feet.</p>
-
-<p>The 30th June was another forced halt, when I tasted
-all the bitterness that can fall to the lot of those who
-explore regions unvisited by their own colour. The
-air of Bomani is stagnant, the sun fiery, and clouds of
-mosquitoes make the nights miserable. Despite these
-disadvantages, it is a favourite halting-place for up-caravans,
-who defer to the last the evil days of long
-travel and short rations. Though impressed with the
-belief, that the true principle of exploration in these
-lands is to push on as rapidly and to return as leisurely
-as possible, I could not persuade the Baloch to move.
-In Asia, two departures usually suffice; in Africa there
-must be three,&mdash;the little start, the great start, and the
-start κατ’ εξοχην. Some clamoured for tobacco&mdash;I gave
-up my cavendish; others for guitar-strings&mdash;they were
-silenced with beads; and all, born donkey-drivers,
-complained loudly of the hardship and the indignity of
-having to load and lead an ass. The guide, an influential
-Mzaramo, promised by the Banyans Ladha and Ramji,
-declined, after receiving twenty dollars, to accompany the
-Expedition, and from his conduct the Baloch drew the
-worst of presages. Much ill-will was shown by them
-towards the European members of the Expedition.
-“Kafir end, márá bandirá na khenen” (they are infidels
-and must not carry our flag)&mdash;it was inscribed with the
-usual Moslem formula&mdash;was spoken audibly enough in
-their debased Mekrani to reach my ears: a faithful
-promise to make a target of the first man who might
-care to repeat the words, stopped that manner of
-nuisance. Again the most childish reports flew about
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-50">[50]</span>
-the camp, making these jet-bearded and fierce-eyed hen-hearts
-faint with fears. Boxes had been prepared by
-the barbarians for myself, and gates had been built
-across the paths to arrest my party. P’hazi Mazungera,
-M. Maizan’s murderer, had collected a host that numbered
-thousands, and the Wazaramo were preparing a
-levée <i>en masse</i>. To no purpose I quoted the Arab’s proverb&mdash;“the
-son of fifty dieth not at thirty”; all <i>would</i>
-be heroic victims marching to gory graves. Such reports
-did real damage: the principal danger was the tremulous
-alacrity with which the escort prepared upon each trivial
-occasion for battle and murder, and sudden death.
-At one place a squabble amongst the villagers kept the
-Baloch squatting on their hams with lighted matches
-from dusk till dawn. At another, a stray Fisi or Cynhyæna
-entering the camp by night, caused a confusion
-which only the deadliest onslaught could have justified.
-A slave hired on the road, hearing these horrors, fled in
-dismay; this, the first of desertions, was by no means
-the last. The reader may realise the prevalence and
-the extent of this African traveller’s bane by the fact
-that during my journey to Ujiji there was not a soul in
-the caravan, from Said bin Salim the Arab, to the veriest
-pauper, that did not desert or attempt to desert.</p>
-
-<p>Here, at the first mention of slaves, I must explain to
-the reader why we were accompanied by them, and
-how the guide and escort contrived to purchase them.
-All the serving-men in Zanzibar Island and on the coast
-of E. Africa are serviles; the Kisawahili does not contain
-even a word to express a hired domestic. For the evil
-of slave-service there was no remedy: I therefore paid
-them their wages and treated them as if they were freemen.
-I had no power to prevent Said bin Salim, the
-Baloch escort, and the “sons of Ramji,” purchasing
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-51">[51]</span>
-whomever they pleased; all objections on my part were
-overruled by, “we are allowed by our law to do so,”
-and by declaring that they had the permission of the
-consul. I was fain to content myself with seeing that
-their slaves were well fed and not injured, and indeed I
-had little trouble in so doing, as no man was foolish
-enough to spoil his own property. I never neglected
-to inform the wild people that Englishmen were pledged
-to the suppression of slavery, and I invariably refused
-all slaves offered as return presents.</p>
-
-<p>The departure from Bomani was effected on the 1st
-of July with some trouble; it was like driving a herd of
-wild cattle. At length, by ejecting skulkers from their
-huts, by dint of promises and threats, of gentleness and
-violence, of soft words and hard words, occasionally
-backed by a smart application of the “Bakur”&mdash;the local
-“cat”&mdash;by sitting in the sun, in fact by incessant worry
-and fidget from 6 <span class="smcapall">A. M.</span> to 3 <span class="smcapall">P. M.</span>, the sluggish and unwieldy
-body acquired some momentum. I had issued
-a few marching orders for the better protection of the
-baggage: two Baloch were told off for each donkey, one to
-lead, the other to drive; in case of attack, those near the
-head of the file, hearing the signal, three shots, were to
-leave their animals and to hurry to the front, where my
-companion marched, whilst the remainder rallied round
-my flag in the rear: thus there would have been an
-attacking party and a reserve, between which the asses
-would have been safe. The only result of these fine
-manœuvres was, that after a two-mile tramp through an
-umbrageous forest in which caravans often lose the way,
-and then down an easy descent across fertile fields, into
-a broken valley, whose further side was thick with luxuriant
-grass, tall shrubs, and majestic trees, a confused
-straggling line,&mdash;a mere mob of soldiers, slaves, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-52">[52]</span>
-asses,&mdash;arrived at the little village of Mkwaju la
-Mvuani,&mdash;the “Tamarind in the rains.”</p>
-
-<p>The settlement is composed as usual of a few hovels
-and a palaver-house, with a fine lime-tree, the place of
-lounging and gossip, grain-husking, and mat-weaving, in
-the open centre. Provisions and rough muddy water
-being here plentiful, travellers often make a final halt
-to polish their weapons, and to prepare their minds for
-the Wazaramo. It is the last station under the jurisdiction
-of Bagamoyo; from Changahera, the crafty old
-Diwan, I obtained the services of his nephew Muinyi
-Wazírá, who received seventeen dollars as an inducement
-to travel in the interior, and was at once constituted linguist
-and general assistant to Said bin Salim. The day
-passed as usual, a snake was killed, and a gun-shot heard
-in the distance supplied conversation for some hours.
-The “sons of Ramji” carefully lost half a dozen of
-the axes, bill-hooks, and dibbles, with which they had
-been supplied, fearing lest they might be called upon to
-build the Síwá or Bomá, the loose thorn-fence with which
-the halting-place ought to be surrounded before the
-night, and 7 <span class="smcapall">P. M.</span> had passed before I could persuade the
-Baloch to catch, tether, and count the asses. One of
-the escort, Ismail, was attacked with dysentery and
-required to be mounted, although we were obliged by
-the want of carriage to wend our way on foot. During
-the last night, Said bin Salim had taken charge of three
-Wanguru porters, who, freshly trapped by Said el Hazrami,
-had been chained <i>pro tempore</i> to prevent desertion.
-The Arab boasted that he was a bad sleeper, but bad
-sleepers are worse watchers, because when they do sleep
-they sleep in earnest. The men were placed for the
-night in Said’s tent, surrounded by his five slaves, yet they
-stole his gun, and carrying off an axe and sundry bill-hooks,
-disappeared in the jungle. The watchful Said, after
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-53">[53]</span>
-receiving many congratulations on his good fortune&mdash;fugitive
-slaves sometimes draw their knives across the
-master’s throat or insert the points into his eyes&mdash;sent
-off his own attendants to recover the fugitives. In the
-jungle, however, search was of scant avail: the Wanguru
-feared that if caught by the Baloch, they would lose their
-ears; three days would enable them to reach their own
-country; and their only risk was that if trapped by the
-Washenzi before their irons&mdash;a valuable capture to the
-captors&mdash;could be removed, they might again be sold to
-some travelling trader. As the day wore on, Said’s face
-assumed a deplorable expression: his slaves had not appeared,
-and though several of them were muwallid or
-born in his father’s house, and one was after a fashion
-his brother-in-law, he sorely dreaded that they also had
-deserted. He was proportionably delighted when in the
-dead of the night, entering Mkwaju la Mvuani, they
-reported ill-success; and though I could little afford the
-loss, I was glad to get rid of this chained and surly gang.</p>
-
-<p>On the next day we began loading for the third and
-final departure, before dawn, and at 7.30 <span class="smcapall">A. M.</span> were
-on the dew-dripping way. Beyond the settlement a
-patch of jungle led to cultivated grounds belonging
-to the villagers, whose scattered and unfenced abodes
-were partially concealed by dense clumps of trees.
-The road then sweeping parallel with the river plain,
-which runs from N.W. to S.E., crossed several swamps,
-black muddy bottoms covered with tall thick rushes
-and pea-green paddy, and the heavily laden asses sunk
-knee-deep into the soft soil. Red copalliferous sand
-clothed the higher levels. On the wayside appeared
-for the first time the Khambi or substantial kraals,
-which evidence unsafe travelling and the unwillingness
-of caravans to bivouac in the villages. In this region
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-54">[54]</span>
-they assumed the form of round huts and long sheds or
-boothies of straw or grass supported by a framework
-of rough sticks firmly planted in the ground and lashed
-together with bark-strips. The whole was surrounded
-with a deep circle of thorns which&mdash;the entrance or
-entrances being carefully closed at nightfall, not to reopen
-until dawn&mdash;formed a complete defence against
-bare feet and naked legs. About half-way a junction
-of the Mbuamaji road was reached, and the path became
-somewhat broader and less rough. Passing on the
-right, a hilly district, called Dunda or “the Hill,” the
-road fell from the ancient sea-beach into the alluvial
-valley of the Kinganí River; presently rising again, it
-entered the settlement of Nzasa, a name interpreted
-“level ground.”</p>
-
-<p>Nzasa is the first district of independent Uzaramo.
-My men proceeded to occupy the Bandani, in the centre
-of the hamlet, when Said bin Salim, discovering with the
-sharp eye of fear a large drum, planted in readiness for
-the war-signal or the dance-signal, hurried about till
-he had turned all hands out of the village into a
-clump of trees hard by, a propitious place for surprise
-and ambuscade. Here I was visited by three P’hazi or
-headmen, Kizaya, Tumba Ihere or the “poison gourd,”
-and Kombe la Simba or the “lion’s hide.” They came
-to ascertain whether I was bound on peaceful errand or&mdash;as
-the number of our guns suggested&mdash;I was marching
-to revenge the murder of my “brother” Muzungu.
-Assured of our unwarlike intentions, they told me that
-I must halt on the morrow and send forward a message
-to the next chief. As this plan invariably loses three
-days,&mdash;the first being a <i>dies non</i>, the second being expended
-in dispensing exoteric information to all the
-lieges squatting in solemn conclave, whilst on the third
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-55">[55]</span>
-the real message is privily whispered into the chieftain’s
-ear,&mdash;I replied through Said that I could not be bound
-by their rules, but was ready to pay for their infraction.
-During the debate upon this fascinating proposal for
-breaking the law, Yusuf, one of the most turbulent
-of the Baloch, drew his sword upon an old woman
-because she refused to give up a basket of grain. She
-rushed, with the face of a black Medusa, into the
-assembly, and provoked not very peaceable remarks
-concerning the peaceful nature of our intentions. When
-the excitement was allayed, the principal P’hazi began to
-ask what had brought the white man into their country,
-and in a breath to predict the loss of their gains and
-commerce, their land and liberty. “I am old,” pathetically
-quoth the P’hazi, “and my beard is grey, yet I
-have never beheld such a calamity as this!” “These
-men,” replied Said, “neither buy nor sell; they do not
-inquire into price, nor do they covet profit. Moreover,”
-he pursued, “what have ye to lose? The
-Arabs take your best, the Wasawahili your second best,
-and your trifling tribute is reduced to a yoke of
-bullocks, a few clothes, or half a dozen hoes.” An
-extravagant present&mdash;at that time ignorance of the
-country compelled me to intrust such matters to the
-honesty of Said bin Salim&mdash;opened the headmen’s
-hearts: they privily termed me Murungwana Sana, a
-real free-man, the African equivalent for the English
-“gentleman,” and they detached Kizaya to accompany
-me as far as the western half of the Kingani Valley.
-At 4 <span class="smcapall">P. M.</span> a loud drumming collected the women,
-who began to perform a dance of ceremony with
-peculiar vigour. A line of small, plump, chestnut-coloured
-beings, with wild beady eyes, and a thatch of
-clay-plastered hair, dressed in their loin-cloths, with a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-56">[56]</span>
-profusion of white disks, bead necklaces, a little square
-bib of beads called a t’hando, partially concealing the
-upper bosom, with short coils of thick brass wire wound
-so tightly round the wrists, the arms above the elbows,
-and the fat ankles, that they seemed to have grown into
-the flesh, and,&mdash;hideous perversion of taste!&mdash;with
-ample bosoms tightly corded down, advanced and retired
-in a convulsion of wriggle and contortion, whose fit
-expression was a long discordant howl, which seemed to</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Embowel with outrageous noise the air.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">I threw them a few strings of green beads, which for
-a moment interrupted the dance. One of these falling
-to the ground, I was stooping to pick it up when Said
-whispered hurriedly in my ear, “Bend not; they will
-say ‘he will not bend even to take up beads!’”</p>
-
-<p>In the evening I walked down to the bed of the
-Kingani river, which bisects a plain all green with
-cultivation,&mdash;rice and holcus, sweet potato and tobacco,&mdash;and
-pleasantly studded with huts and hamlets. The
-width of the stream, which here runs over a broad
-bed of sand, is about fifty yards; it is nowhere fordable,
-as the ferry-boat belonging to each village proves,
-and thus far it is navigable, though rendered dangerous
-by the crocodiles and the hippopotami that house in
-its waters. The colour is tawny verging upon red,
-and the taste is soft and sweet, as if fed by rain. The
-Kingani, like all streams in this part of the continent,
-is full of fish, especially a dark-green and scaleless
-variety (a Silurus?) called Kambari, and other local
-names. This great “miller’s thumb” has fleshy cirri,
-appears to be omnivorous, and tastes like animal mud.
-The night was rendered uncomfortable to the Baloch
-by the sound of distant drums, which suggested fighting
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-57">[57]</span>
-as well as feasting, and by the uproar of the wild men,
-who, when reconnoitred by the scouts, were found to
-be shouting away the hippopotami.</p>
-
-<p>In the hurry and the confusion of loading on the
-next morning one ass was left behind, and the packs
-were so badly placed that the fatigue of marching was
-almost doubled by their repeated falls. Whilst descending
-the well-wooded river terrace, my portion of the
-escort descried an imaginary white flag crossing the
-grassy valley below. This is the sign of a Diwan’s expedition
-or commando: it is unwisely allowed by the
-Arabs, whose proper colours are a plain blood-red.
-After marching a few miles over undulating ground,
-open and parklike, and crossing rough and miry beds,
-the path disclosed a view verging upon the pretty. By
-the way side was planted the peculiarly African Mzimu
-or Fetiss hut, a penthouse about a foot high, containing,
-as votive offerings, ears of holcus or pombe-beer in a
-broken gourd. There, too, the graves of the heathen
-met the eye. In all other parts of East Africa a mouldering
-skull, a scattered skeleton, or a few calcined bones,
-the remains of wizards and witches dragged to the
-stake, are the only visible signs of man’s mortality. The
-Wazaramo tombs, especially in the cases of chiefs, imitate
-those of the Wamrima. They are parallelograms,
-seven feet by four, formed by a regular dwarf paling
-that encloses a space cleared of grass, and planted with
-two uprights to denote the position of head and feet. In
-one of the long walls there is an apology for a door.
-The corpse of the heathen is not made to front any
-especial direction; moreover the centre of the oblong
-has the hideous addition of a log carved by the unartistic
-African into a face and a bust singularly resembling
-those of a legless baboon, whilst a white rag tied
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-58">[58]</span>
-turbanwise round the head serves for the inscription
-“this is a man.” The Baloch took notice of such idolatrous
-tendency by spitting and by pronouncing certain
-national anathemas, which literally translated might
-sound unpleasant in Europeans’ ears. The abomination
-of iconism is avoided in the graves of Moslem travellers:
-they are usually cleared ovals, with outlines of rough
-stone and a strew of smooth pebbles, according to the
-custom of the Wasawahili. Several stumps of wood
-planted in the earth show that the corpse faces Mecca,
-and, as amongst the Jinga of Western Africa, the fragments
-of a china bowl or cup lying upon the ground
-are sacred to the memory of the departed. In Zanzibar
-Island, also, saucers, plates, and similar articles are mortared
-into the tombstones.</p>
-
-<p>The number of these graves made the blackness of my
-companions pale. They were hurrying forward with
-sundry “la haul!” and with boding shakes of the head,
-when suddenly an uproar in the van made them all
-prepare for action. They did it characteristically by
-beginning with begging for ranjak&mdash;priming powder.
-Said bin Salim, much excited, sent forward his messmate
-Muinyi Wazira to ascertain the cause of the
-excitement. One Mviraru, the petty lord of a neighbouring
-village, had barred the road with about a dozen
-men, demanding “dash,” and insisting that Kizaya had
-no right to lead on the party without halting to give
-him the news. My companion, who was attended only
-by “Bombay,” his gun-carrier, and a few Baloch, remarked
-to the interferers that he had been franked
-through the country by paying at Nzasa. To this they
-obstinately objected. The Baloch began to light their
-matches and to use hard words. A fight appeared
-imminent. Presently, however, when the Wazaramo
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-59">[59]</span>
-saw my flag rounding the hill-shoulder with a fresh
-party, whose numbers were exaggerated by distance,
-they gave way; and finally when Muinyi Wazira opened
-upon them the invincible artillery of his tongue, they
-fell back and stood off the road to gaze. The linguist
-returned to the rear in great glee, blowing his finger
-tips, as if they had been attached to a matchlock, and
-otherwise deriding the overboiling valour of the Beloch,
-who, not suspecting his purport, indulged in the wildest
-outbreak of boasting, offering at once to take the whole
-country and to convert me into its sultan. Towards
-the end of the march we crossed a shallow, salt, bitter
-rivulet, flowing cold and clear towards the Kingani
-River. On the grassy plain below noble game&mdash;zebra
-and koodoo&mdash;began to appear; whilst guinea-fowl and
-partridge, quail, green-pigeon, and the cuculine bird,
-called in India the Malabar-pheasant, became numerous.
-A track of rich red copalliferous soil, wholly without
-stone, and supporting black mould, miry during the
-rains, and caked and cracked by the potent suns of
-the hot season, led us to Kiranga-Ranga, the first dangerous
-station in Uzaramo. It is the name of a hilly
-district, with many little villages embosomed in trees,
-overlooking the low cultivated bottoms where caravans
-encamp in the vicinity of the wells.</p>
-
-<p>Before establishing themselves in the kraal at Kiranga-Ranga,
-the two rival parties of Baloch,&mdash;the Prince’s
-permanent escort and the temporary guard sent by Ladha
-Damha from Kaole&mdash;being in a chronic state of irritability,
-naturally quarrelled. With the noise of choughs
-gathering to roost they vented their bile, till thirteen men
-belonging to a certain Jemadar Mohammed suddenly
-started up, and without a word of explanation set out on
-their way home. According to Said bin Salim, the temporary
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-60">[60]</span>
-guard had determined not to proceed beyond
-Kiranga-Ranga, and this desertion was intended as a
-preliminary to others by which the party would have lost
-two-thirds of its strength. I at once summoned the
-Jemadars, and wrote in their presence a letter reporting
-the conduct of their men to the dreaded Balyuz, the
-consul, who was supposed to be still anchored off Kaole.
-Seeing the bastinado in prospect, the Jemadar Yaruk
-shouldered his sabre, slung his shield over his arm, set
-out in pursuit of the fugitives, and soon succeeded in
-bringing them back. He was a good specimen of the true
-Baloch mountaineer&mdash;a tall, gaunt, and large-boned
-figure, with dark complexion deeply pitted by small-pox,
-hard, high, and sun-burnt features of exceeding harshness;
-an armoury in epitome was stuck in his belt, and
-his hand seemed never to rest but upon a weapon.</p>
-
-<p>The 4th of July was a halt at Kiranga-Ranga. Two
-asses had been lost, the back-sinews of a third had been
-strained, and all the others had been so wearied by their
-inordinate burdens, to which on the last march the meat
-of a koodoo, equal in weight to a young bullock, had
-been superadded, that a rest was deemed indispensable.
-I took the opportunity of wandering over and of prospecting
-the country. The scene was one of admirable
-fertility; rice, maize, and manioc grew in the rankest
-and richest crops, and the uncultivated lands bore the
-Corindah bush (Carissa Carandas), the salsaparilla vine,
-the small whitish-green mulberry (the Morus alba of
-India), and the crimson flowers of the Rosel. In the
-lower levels near the river rose the giants of the forest.
-The Mparamusi shot up its tall head, whose bunchy
-tresses rustled in the breeze when all below was still. The
-stately Msufi, a Bombax or silk-cotton tree, showed as
-many as four or five trunks, each two to three feet in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-61">[61]</span>
-diameter, rising from the same roots; the long tapering
-branches stood out stiffly at right angles from the bole;
-and the leaves, instead of forming masses of foliage, were
-sparsely scattered in small dense growth. The Msukulio,
-unknown to the people of Zanzibar, was a pile of dark verdure,
-which dwarfed the finest oaks and elms of an English
-park. No traces of game appeared in the likeliest
-of places; perhaps it preferred lurking in the tall gross
-grass, which was not yet in a fit state to burn.</p>
-
-<p>At Kiranga-Ranga the weather began to be unpropitious.
-The Mcho’o, the heavy showers which fall between
-the Masika or vernal, and the Vuli or autumnal
-rains, set in with regularity, and accompanied us during
-the transit of the maritime plain. I therefore refused to
-halt more than one day, although the P’hazi or chiefs of
-the Wazaramo showed, by sending presents of goats and
-grain, great civility&mdash;a civility purchased, however,
-by Said bin Salim at the price of giving to each
-man whatever he demanded; even women were never
-allowed to leave the camp unpropitiated. I was not
-permitted in this part to enter the villages, although the
-Wazaramo do not usually exclude strangers who venture
-upon their dangerous hospitality. Girls are appointed
-to attend upon them, and in case of sickness or
-accident happening to any one in the settlement, they
-are severely interrogated concerning the morality of the
-guest, and an unfavourable account of it leads to extortion
-and violence. The Wazaramo, like the Wagogo,
-and unlike the other East African tribes, are jealous of
-their women; still “damages” will act, as they have
-acted in other lands, as salve to wounded honour and
-broken heart.</p>
-
-<p>On the 5th of July we set out betimes, and traversing
-the fields around Kiranga-Ranga, struck through a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-62">[62]</span>
-dense jungle, here rising above, there bending into the
-river valley, to some stagnant pools which supply the
-district with water. The station, reached in 3<sup>hrs</sup> 30′,
-was called Tumba Ihere, after the headman, who
-accompanied us. Here we saw cocos emerging from a
-fetid vegetation, and for the last time the Mwembe or
-mango, a richly foliaged but stunted tree which never
-attains the magnificent dimensions observed at Zanzibar.
-Several down-caravans were halted at Tumba Ihere;
-the slaves brought from the interior were tied together
-by their necks, and one obstinate deserter was so lashed
-to a forked pole with the bifurcation under his chin,
-that when once on the ground he could not rise without
-assistance. These wretches scarcely appeared to like
-the treatment; they were not, however, in bad condition.
-The Wanyamwezi porters bathed in the pools and looked
-at us without fear or shame. Our daily squabble did
-not fail to occur. Riza, a Baloch, drew his dagger on one
-of Said bin Salim’s “children,” and the child pointed his
-Tower-musket at the Baloch; a furious hubbub arose;
-the master, with his face livid and drawn like a cholera
-patient’s, screamed shrilly as a woman, and the weapons
-returned to their proper places bloodless as those
-wielded by Bardolph, Nym, and ancient Pistol. My
-companion began to suffer from the damp heat and the
-reeking miasma; he felt that a fever was coming
-on, and the fatigue of marching under these circumstances
-prevented our mustering the party. The consequence
-was, that an ass laden with rice disappeared,&mdash;it
-had probably been led out of the road and unburdened
-by the Baloch;&mdash;whilst axes, cords, and tethers could
-nowhere be found when wanted.</p>
-
-<p>On the next morning we left Tumba Ihere, and
-tramped over a red land through alternate strips of rich
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-63">[63]</span>
-cultivation and tangled jungle, which presently opened
-out into a forest where the light-barked Msandarusi, or
-copal-tree, attains its fullest dimensions. This is one
-of the richest “diggins,” and the roadsides are everywhere
-pitted with pockets two or three feet deep by one
-in diameter. Rain fell in huge drops, and the heaviness of
-the ground caused frequent accidents to the asses’ loads.
-About noon we entered the fine grain-fields that gird
-the settlements of Muhogwe, one of the most dreaded
-in dreaded Uzaramo. In our case, however, the only
-peril was the levée <i>en masse</i> of the fair sex in the villages,
-to stare, laugh, and wonder at the white men. “What
-should you think of these whites as husbands?” asked
-Muinyi Wazira of the crowd. “With such things on
-their legs?&mdash;Sivyo!&mdash;not by any means!”&mdash;was the
-unanimous reply, accompanied with peals of merriment.</p>
-
-<p>Beyond Muhogwe all was jungle and forest, tall trees
-rising from red copalliferous sand, and shading bright
-flowers, and blossoming shrubs. After crossing a low
-mud overgrown with rush and tiger-grass, and a
-watercourse dotted with black stagnant pools, we ascended
-rising well-forested ground, and lastly debouched
-upon the kraals of Muhonyera.</p>
-
-<p>The district of Muhonyera occupies the edge of the
-plateau forming the southern terrace of the Kingani
-River; and the elevated sea-beach is marked out by
-lines of quartsoze pebbles running along the northern
-slope of the hill upon which we encamped. Water is
-found in seven or eight reedy holes in the valley below;
-it acquires from decomposed vegetation an unnaturally
-sweet and slimy taste. This part of the country, being
-little inhabited by reason of its malarious climate, abounds
-in wild animals. The guides speak of lions, and the cry
-of the Fisi or Cynhyæna was frequently heard at night,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-64">[64]</span>
-threatening destruction to the asses. The Fisi, the
-Wuraba of the Somal, and the Wilde Honde of the
-Cape, is the wolf of Africa, common throughout the
-country, where it acts as scavenger. Though a large
-and powerful variety, it seldom assaults man, except
-when sleeping, and then it snatches a mouthful from
-the face, causing a ghastlier disfigurement even than
-the scalping of the bear. Three asses belonging to the
-Expedition were destroyed by this beast; in all cases
-they were attacked by night with a loud wrangling
-shriek, and the piece of flesh was raggedly torn from
-the hind quarter; after affording a live rump-steak,
-they could not be driven like Bruce’s far-famed bullock.
-These, however, were the animals brought from Zanzibar;
-that of Unyamwezi, if not tied up, defends itself
-successfully against its cowardly assailant with
-teeth and heels, even as the zebra, worthy of Homeric
-simile, has, it is said, kept the lion at bay. The woods
-about Muhonyera contain large and small grey monkeys
-with black faces; clinging to the trees they gaze for a
-time at the passing caravan imperturbably, till curiosity
-being satisfied, they slip down and bound away with
-long plunging leaps, like a greyhound at play. The
-view from the hill-side was suggestive. The dark green
-plain of sombre monotony, with its overhanging strata
-of mist-bank and dew-cloud, appeared in all the worst
-colours of the Oude Tirhai and the Guzerat jungles.
-At that season, when the moisture of the rainy monsoon
-was like poison distilled by the frequent bursts of fiery
-sunshine, it was a valley of death for unacclimatised
-travellers. Far to the west, however, rose Kidunda,
-“the hillock,” a dwarf cone breaking the blurred blue
-line of jungle, and somewhat northward of it towered
-a cloud-capped azure wall, the mountain-crags of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-65">[65]</span>
-Duthumi, upon which the eye, long weary of low levels,
-rested with a sensation of satisfaction.</p>
-
-<p>It was found necessary to halt a day at Muhonyera:
-according to some authorities no provisions were procurable
-for a week; others declared that there were villages
-on the road, but were uncertain whether rations could
-be purchased. Said bin Salim sent Ambari, a favourite
-slave, back to buy grain at Muhogwe, whence he had hurried
-us on in fear of the Wazaramo; and the youth, after
-wasting a day, returned on the evening of the 2nd July
-with about sixty lbs.,&mdash;a poor supply for eighty-eight
-hungry bodies. This proceeding naturally affronted the
-Baloch, who desired for themselves the perquisites proceeding
-from the purchases. Two of their number,
-Yusuf and Salih Mohammed, came to swear officially
-on the part of their men that there was not an ounce of
-grain in camp. Appearing credulous, I paid them a
-visit about half an hour afterwards; all their shuffling
-and sitting upon the bags could not conceal a store of
-about 100 lbs. of fine white rice, whose quality,&mdash;the
-Baloch had been rationed at Kaole with an inferior kind,&mdash;showed
-whence it came.</p>
-
-<p>After repairing the “boma,” or fenced kraal,&mdash;it had
-been burnt down, as often happens, by the last caravan of
-Wanyamwezi,&mdash;I left my companion, who was prostrate
-with fever, and went out, gun in hand, to inspect the
-country, and to procure meat, that necessary having
-fallen short. The good P’hazi, Tumba Ihere, accompanied
-me, and after return he received an ample
-present for his services, and departed. The Baloch employed
-themselves in cleaning their rusty matchlock-barrels
-with a bit of kopra,&mdash;dried cocoa-nut meat,&mdash;in
-weaving for themselves sandals, like the spartelle of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-66">[66]</span>
-Pyrenees, with green palmetto-leaves; in preparing
-calabash fibre for fatilah or gun-matches, and in twisting
-cords for the asses. The best material is supplied by an
-aloetic plant, the Hig or Haskul of Somaliland, here
-called by the Arabs Bag, and by the natives Mukonge.
-The Mananazi, or pine-apple, grows wild as far as three
-marches from the coast, but its fibrous qualities are
-unknown to the people. Ismail, the invalid Baloch, was
-the worse for remedies; and two other men gave signs
-of breaking down.</p>
-
-<p>During the first week, creeping along at a slug’s
-pace, we heard the booming of the Artémise’s evening
-gun, an assurance that refuge was at hand. Presently
-these reports ceased. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, seized
-with mortal sickness, had left Kaole suddenly, and he
-died on board the Artémise on the 5th July, shortly
-after his return to Zanzibar. The first letters announcing
-the sad event were lost: with characteristic African
-futility the porter despatched with the parcel from the
-island, finding that the Expedition had passed on to the
-mountains of Usagara, left his charge with a village
-headman, and returned to whence he came. Easterns
-still hold that</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Though it be honest, it is never good,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">To bring bad news.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">The report, spread by a travelling trader, was discussed
-throughout the camp, but I was kept in ignorance of it
-till Khudabakhsh, a Baloch, who had probably been
-deputed by his brethren to ascertain what effect the
-decease of the consul would have upon me, “hardened
-his heart,” and took upon himself the task of communicating
-the evil intelligence. I was uncertain what to
-believe. Said bin Salim declared, when consulted, that
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-67">[67]</span>
-he fully trusted in the truth of the report, but his
-reasons were somewhat too Arabo-African to convince
-me. He had found three pieces of scarlet broadcloth
-damaged by rats,&mdash;an omen of death; and the colour
-pointed out the nationality of the departed.</p>
-
-<p>The consul’s death might have proved fatal to the
-Expedition, had its departure been delayed for a week.
-The court of Zanzibar had required the stimulus of a
-strong official letter from Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, before
-it would consent, as requested by the Foreign
-Office, “to procure a favourable reception on the coast,
-and to ensure the protection of the chiefs of the country”
-for the travellers. The Hindus, headed by Ladha
-Damha, showed from first to last extreme unwillingness
-to open up the rich regions of copal and ivory to
-European eyes: they had been deceived by my silence
-during the rainy season at Zanzibar into a belief that the
-coast-fever had cooled my ardour for further adventure;
-and their surprise at finding the contrary to be the
-case was not of a pleasant nature. The home-sick
-Baloch would have given their ears to return, they
-would have turned back even when arrived within a
-few marches from the Lake. Said bin Salim took the
-first opportunity of suggesting the advisability of his
-returning to Zanzibar for the purpose of completing
-carriage. I positively refused him leave; it was a mere
-pretext to ascertain whether His Highness the Sayyid
-Majid had or had not, in consequence of our changed
-position, altered his views.</p>
-
-<p>Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton’s death, however, was
-mourned for other than merely selfish considerations.
-His hospitality and kindness had indeed formed a well-omened
-contrast with my unauspicious reception at
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-68">[68]</span>
-Aden in 1855, before my departure to explore the
-Eastern Horn of Africa, when the coldness of some, and
-the active jealousy of other political authorities, thwarted
-all my projects, and led to the tragic disaster at
-Berberah.<a id="FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton had received two
-strangers like sons, rather than like passing visitors.
-During the intervals between the painful attacks of a
-deadly disease, he had exerted himself to the utmost in
-forwarding my views; in fact, he made my cause his
-own. Though aware of his danger, he had refused to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-69">[69]</span>
-quit, until compelled by approaching dissolution, the
-post which he considered his duty to hold. He was a
-loss to his country, an excellent linguist, a ripe oriental
-scholar, and a valuable public servant of the old
-Anglo-Indian school; he was a man whose influence
-over Easterns, based upon their respect for his honour
-and honesty, his gallantry and determination, knew no
-bounds; and at heart a “sad good Christian,”&mdash;the
-Heavens be his bed!</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>
-Capt. R. L. Playfair, Madras Artillery and First Assistant Pol.
-Resident, Aden, in a selection from the records of the Bombay Government,
-(No. 49, new series, Bombay, printed for Government, at the Education
-Society Press, Byculla, 1859,) curiously misnamed “A History of Arabia
-Felix or Yemen,” transports himself, in a “supplementary chapter,” to
-East Africa, and thus records his impressions of what happened in the
-“Somali <span class="nowrap">Country:”&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>1855.&mdash;“During the afternoon of the same day (the 18th of April), three
-men visited the camp, <i>palpably as spies</i>, and as such, <i>the officers of the
-Expedition were warned against them by their native attendants</i>. Heedless of
-this warning, they retired to rest at night in the fullest confidence of
-security, and without having taken any extra, <i>or even ordinary means</i>, to
-guard against surprise.”</p>
-
-<p>The italics are my own: they designate mistatements unpardonable in an
-individual whose official position enabled him to ascertain and to record the
-truth. The three men were represented to me as spies, who came to ascertain
-whether I was preparing to take the country for the Chief Shermarkay,
-then hostile to their tribe, not as spies to spy out the weakness of my party.
-I received no warning of personal danger. The “ordinary measures,” that
-is to say, the posting of two sentinels in front and rear of the camp during
-the night were taken, and I cannot blame myself because they ran away.</p>
-
-<p>I will not stop to inquire what must be the value of Capt. Playfair’s 193
-pages touching the history of Yemen, when in five lines there are three
-distinct and wilful deviations from fact.</p>
-
-<p>I am well aware that after my departure from Aden, in 1855, an inquiry
-was instituted during my absence, and without my knowledge, into the facts
-of the disaster which occurred at Berberah. The “privileged communication”
-was, I believe, in due course, privily forwarded to the Bombay Government,
-and the only rebuke which this shuffling proceeding received was from
-a gentleman holding a high and honourable position, who could not reconcile
-himself to seeing a man’s character stabbed in the back.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>On the 8th of July we fell into what our Arab
-called Wady el Maut and Dar el Jua&mdash;the Valley
-of Death and the Home of Hunger&mdash;the malarious
-river-plain of the Kingani River. My companion was
-compelled by sickness to ride, and thus the asses, now
-back-sore and weak with fatigue, suffered an addition of
-weight, and a “son of Ramji” who was upon the point
-of deserting openly required to be brought back at the
-muzzle of the barrel. The path descending into a dense
-thicket of spear grass, bush, and thorny trees based on
-sand, with a few open and scattered plantations of holcus,
-presently passed on the left Dunda Nguru, or “Seer-fish-hill,”
-so called because a man laden with such provision
-had there been murdered by the Wazaramo. After
-2<sup>hrs</sup>. 45′ a ragged camping-kraal was found on the
-tree-lined bank of a half-dry Fiumara, a tributary of
-the neighbouring Kingani: the water was bad, and a
-mortal smell of decay was emitted by the dark dank
-ground. It was a wild day. From the black brumal
-clouds driven before furious blasts pattered rain-drops
-like musket-bullets, splashing the already saturated
-ground. The tall stiff trees groaned and bent before
-the gusts; the birds screamed as they were driven from
-their perching places; the asses stood with heads depressed,
-ears hung down, and shrinking tails turned
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-70">[70]</span>
-towards the weather, and even the beasts of the wild
-seemed to have taken refuge in their dens. Provisions
-being unprocurable at “Sagesera,” the party did what
-men on such occasions usually do&mdash;they ate double
-quantities. I had ordered a fair distribution of the
-rice that remained, consequently they cooked all day.
-Yusuf, a Jemadar of inferior rank, whose friends characterised
-him as “sweet of tongue but bitter at heart,”
-vainly came to beg, on plea of hunger, dismissal for
-himself and his party; and another Baloch, Wali, reported
-as uselessly that a sore foot would prevent him
-advancing.</p>
-
-<p>Despite our increasing weakness, we marched seven
-hours on the 9th of July, over a plain wild but prodigiously
-fertile, and varied by patches of field, jungle
-and swamp, along the right bank of the Kingani river,
-to another ragged old kraal, situated near a bend in
-the bed. This day showed the ghost of an adventure.
-At the “Makutaniro,” or junction of the Mbuamaji
-trunk-road with the other lines branching from various
-minor sea-ports, my companion, who was leisurely proceeding
-with the advance guard, found his passage
-barred by about fifty Wazaramo standing across the
-path in a single line that extended to the travellers’
-right, whilst a reserve party squatted on the left
-of the road. Their chief stepping to the front and
-quietly removing the load from the foremost porter’s
-head, signalled the strangers to halt. Prodigious excitement
-of the Baloch, whose loud “Hai, hui!” and
-nervous anxiety contrasted badly with the perfect <i>sang
-froid</i> of the barbarians. Presently, Muinyi Wazira
-coming up, addressed to the headman a few words,
-promising cloth and beads, when this African modification
-of the “pike” was opened, and the guard moved
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-71">[71]</span>
-forward as before. As I passed, the Wazaramo stood
-under a tree to gaze. I could not but admire the
-athletic and statuesque figures of the young warriors
-and their martial attitude, grasping in one hand their
-full-sized bows, and in the other sheaths of grinded
-arrows, whose black barbs and necks showed a fresh
-layer of poison.</p>
-
-<p>At Tunda, “the fruit,” so called from its principal
-want, after a night passed amidst the rank vegetation,
-and within the malarious influence of the river, I arose
-weak and depressed, with aching head, burning eyes,
-and throbbing extremities. The new life, the alternations
-of damp heat and wet cold, the useless fatigue of
-walking, the sorry labour of waiting and re-loading the
-asses, the exposure to sun and dew, and last, but not least,
-of morbific influences, the wear and tear of mind at the
-prospect of imminent failure, all were beginning to tell
-heavily upon me. My companion had shaken off his
-preliminary symptoms, but Said bin Salim, attacked
-during the rainy gusty night by a severe Mkunguru or
-seasoning-fever, begged hard for a halt at Tunda&mdash;only
-for a day&mdash;only for half a day&mdash;only for an
-hour. Even this was refused. I feared that Tunda
-might prove fatal to us. Said bin Salim was mounted
-upon an ass, which compelled us to a weary trudge of
-two hours. The animals were laden with difficulty;
-they had begun to show a predilection for lying down.
-The footpath, crossing a deep nullah, spanned a pestilential
-expanse of spear-grass, and a cane, called from
-its appearance Gugu-mbua, or the wild sugar plant,
-with huge calabashes and natural clearings in the
-jungle, where large game appeared. After a short march
-I saw the red flag of the vanguard stationary, and
-turning a sharp corner found the caravan halted in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-72">[72]</span>
-a little village, called from its headman Ba̓ńá Dirungá.
-This was premature. I had ordered Muinyi Wazira
-to advance on that morning to Dege la Mhora, the “large
-jungle-bird,” the hamlet where M. Maizan’s blood was
-shed. Said and Wazira had proposed that we should
-pass it ere the dawn of the next day broke; the advice
-was rejected, it was too dangerous a place to show fear.
-The two diplomatists then bethought themselves of
-another manœuvre, and led me to Ba̓ńá Dirungá, calling
-it Dege la Mhora.</p>
-
-<p>We halted for a day at the little hamlet, embosomed
-in dense grass and thicket. On our appearance the
-villagers fled into the bush, their country’s strength;
-but before nightfall they took heart of grace and
-returned. The headman appeared to regard us with
-fear, he could not comprehend why we carried so much
-powder and ball. When reassured he offered to precede
-us, and to inform the chief of the “large jungle-bird”
-that our intentions had been misrepresented,&mdash;a
-proposal which seemed to do much moral good to Said,
-the Jemadar, and Wazira.</p>
-
-<p>On the eleventh day after leaving Kaole I was obliged
-to mount by a weakness which scarcely allowed me
-to stand. After about half an hour, through a comparatively
-open country, we passed on the left a well-palisaded
-village, belonging formerly to P’hazi Mazungera,
-and now occupied by his son Hembe, or the
-“wild buffalo’s horn.” Reports of our warlike intentions
-had caused Hembe to “clear decks for action;” the
-women had been sent from the village, and some score
-of tall youths, archers and spearmen, admirably appointed,
-lined the hedges, prepared, at the levelling of
-the first matchlock, to let loose a flight of poisoned
-arrows, which would certainly have dispersed the whole
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-73">[73]</span>
-party. A halt was called by the trembling Said, who
-at such conjunctures would cling like a woman to my
-companion or to me. During the few minutes’ delay the
-“sons of Ramji,” who were as pale as blacks could be,
-allowed their asses to bump off half a dozen loads. Presently
-Hembe, accompanied by a small guard, came forward,
-and after a few words with Wazira and Said, the
-donkey from which I had not dismounted was hurried
-forward by the Baloch. Hembe followed us with a
-stronger escort to Madege Madogo, the next station.
-Illness served me as an excuse for not receiving him:
-he obtained, however, from Said a letter to the headmen
-of the coast, bespeaking their good offices for certain of
-his slaves sent down to buy gunpowder.</p>
-
-<p>An account of the melancholy event which cut short
-at Dege la Mhora the career of the first European that
-ever penetrated beyond this portion of the coast may
-here be inserted.</p>
-
-<p>M. Maizan, an <i>enseigne de vaisseau</i>, and a pupil of
-the Polytechnic School, after a cruise in the seas off
-Eastern Africa, conceived, about the end of 1843, the
-project of exploring the lakes of the interior, and in
-1844 his plans were approved of by his government.
-Arrived at Bourbon, he was provided with a passage to
-Zanzibar, in company with M. Broquant, the Consul de
-France, newly appointed after the French Commercial
-Treaty of the 21st Nov. 1844, on board the corvette Le
-Berceau, Capitaine, afterwards Vice-Admiral, Romain
-Desfossés, commanding. At the age of twenty-six M.
-Maizan had amply qualified himself by study for travel,
-and he was well provided with outfit and instruments.
-His “kit,” however, was of a nature calculated to excite
-savage cupidity, as was proved by the fact that his
-murderer converted the gilt knob of a tent-pole into a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-74">[74]</span>
-neck ornament, and tearing out the works of a gold
-chronometer, made of it a tobacco-pouch. He has been
-charged with imprudence in carrying too much luggage&mdash;a
-<i>batterie de déjeuner</i>, a <i>batterie de dîner</i>, and similar
-superfluities. But he had acted rightly, when bound
-upon a journey through countries where outfit cannot
-be renewed, in providing himself with all the materials
-for comfort. On such explorations a veteran traveller
-would always attempt to carry with him as much, not
-as little as possible,&mdash;of course prepared to abandon all
-things, and to reduce himself, whenever the necessity
-might occur, to the “<i>simple besace du pélerin</i>.” It is
-easy to throw away a superfluity, and the best preparation
-for severe “roughing it,” is to enjoy ease and
-comfort whilst attainable.</p>
-
-<p>But M. Maizan fell upon evil times at Zanzibar. Dark
-innuendos concerning French ambition&mdash;that nation
-being even suspected of a desire to establish itself in
-force at Lamu, Pangani, and other places on the coast
-of East Africa&mdash;filled Hindu and Hindi with fear for
-their profits. These men influenced the inhabitants of
-the island and the sea-coast, who probably procured the
-co-operation of their wild brethren in the interior.
-For the purpose of learning the Kisawahili, M. Maizan
-delayed nearly eight months at Zanzibar, and, seeing a
-French vessel entering the harbour, he left the place
-precipitately, fearing a recall. Vainly also M. Broquant
-had warned him against his principal confidant,
-a noted swindler, and Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton had
-cautioned him to no purpose that his glittering instruments
-and his numerous boxes, all of which would be
-supposed to contain dollars, were dangerous. He
-visited the coast thrice before finally landing, thus
-giving the Wasawahili time and opportunity to mature
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-75">[75]</span>
-their plans. He lowered himself in the eyes of the
-Arabs by “making brotherhood” with a native of Unyamwezi.
-Finally, fearing Arab apathy and dilatoriness,
-he hastened into the country without waiting for the
-strong armed escort promised to him by His Highness
-the late Sayyid Said.</p>
-
-<p>These were grave errors; but they were nothing in comparison
-with that of trusting himself unarmed, after the
-fatal habit of Europeans, and without followers, into the
-hands of an African chief. How often has British India
-had to deplore deaths “that would have dimmed a victory,”
-caused by recklessness of danger or by the false
-shame which prevents men in high position from wearing
-weapons where they may be at any moment
-required, lest the safe mediocrities around them should
-deride such excess of cautiousness!</p>
-
-<p>After the rains of 1845 M. Maizan landed at Bagamoyo,
-a little settlement opposite the island of Zanzibar.
-There leaving the forty musketeers, his private guard,
-he pressed on, contrary to the advice of his Mnyamwezi
-brother, escorted only by Frédérique, a Madagascar or
-Comoro man, and by a few followers, to visit P’hazi Mazungera,
-the chief of the Wákámbá, a subtribe of the
-Wazaramo, at his village of Dege la Mhora. He was
-received with a treacherous cordiality, of which he appears
-to have been completely the dupe. After some
-days of the most friendly intercourse, during which the
-villain’s plans were being matured, Mazungera, suddenly
-sending for his guest, reproached him as he entered
-the hut with giving away goods to other chiefs.
-Presently working himself into a rage, the African exclaimed,
-“Thou shalt die at this moment!” At the
-signal a crowd of savages rushed in, bearing two long
-poles. Frédérique was saved by the P’hazi’s wife: he
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-76">[76]</span>
-cried to his master to run and touch her, in which case
-he would have been under her protection; but the
-traveller had probably lost presence of mind, and the
-woman was removed. The unfortunate man’s arms
-were then tightly bound to a pole lashed crosswise upon
-another, to which his legs and head were secured by a
-rope tied across the brow. In this state he was carried
-out of the village to a calabash-tree, pointed out to me,
-about fifty yards on the opposite side of the road. The
-inhuman Mazungera first severed all his articulations,
-whilst the war-song and the drum sounded notes of
-triumph. Finding the sime, or double-edged knife,
-somewhat blunt, he stopped, when in the act of cutting
-his victim’s throat, to whet the edge, and, having finished
-the bloody deed, he concluded with wrenching the head
-from the body.</p>
-
-<p>Thus perished an amiable, talented, and highly educated
-man, whose only fault was rashness&mdash;too often the
-word for enterprise when Fortune withholds her smile.
-The savage Mazungera was disappointed in his guest’s
-death. The object of the torture was to discover, as the
-Mganga had advised, the place of his treasures, whereas
-the wretched man only groaned and implored forgiveness
-of his sins, and called upon the names of those
-friends whose advice he had neglected. The P’hazi then
-attempted to decoy from Bagamoyo the forty musketeers
-left with the outfit, but in this he failed. He then proceeded
-to make capital of his foul deed. When Snay bin
-Amir, a Maskat merchant,&mdash;of whom I shall have much
-to say,&mdash;appeared with a large caravan at Dege la Mhora,
-Mazungera demanded a new tribute for free passage;
-and, as a threat, he displayed the knife with which he
-had committed the murder. But Snay proved himself
-a man not to be trifled with.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-77">[77]</span></p>
-
-<p>Frédérique returned to Zanzibar shortly after the
-murder, and was examined by M. Broquant. An infamous
-plot would probably have come to light had he
-not fled from the fort where he was confined. Frédérique
-disappeared mysteriously. He is said now to be living
-at Marungu, on the Tanganyika Lake, under the Moslem
-name of Muhammádí. His flight served for a pretext
-to mischievous men that the prince was implicated in
-the murder: they also spread a notoriously false report
-that Mazungera, an independent chief, was a vassal of
-the suzerain of Zanzibar.</p>
-
-<p>In 1846 the brig-of-war Le Ducoüedic, of the
-naval division of Bourbon, M. Guillain, Capitaine de
-Vaisseau, commanding, was charged, amongst other commercial
-and political interests, with insisting upon severe
-measures to punish the murderers. In vain His Highness
-Sayyid Said protested that Mazungera was beyond his
-reach; the fact of the robber-chief having been seen at
-Mbuamaji on the coast after the murder was deemed conclusive
-evidence to the contrary. At length the Sayyid
-despatched up-country three or four hundred musketeers,
-mercenaries, and slaves, under command of Juma Mfumbi,
-the late, and Bori, the present, Diwan of Saadani.
-The little troop marched some distance into the country,
-when they were suddenly confronted by the Wazaramo,
-commanded by Hembe, the son of Mazungera, who,
-after skirmishing for a couple of days, fled wounded by
-a matchlock-ball. The chief result of the expedition
-was the capture of a luckless clansman who had beaten
-the war-drum during the murder. He was at once
-transferred to Zanzibar, and passed off by these transparent
-African diplomatists as P’hazi Mazungera. For
-nearly two years he was chained in front of the French
-Consulate; after that time he was placed in the fort
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-78">[78]</span>
-heavily ironed to a gun under a cadjan shed, where he
-could hardly stand or lie down. The unhappy wretch
-died about a year ago, and Zanzibar lost one of its lions.</p>
-
-<p>After the slaughter of M. Maizan the direct route
-through Dege la Mhora was long closed, it is said, and
-is still believed, by a “ghul,” a dragon or huge serpent,
-who, of course, was supposed to be the demon-ghost of
-the murdered man. The reader will rejoice to hear that
-the miscreant Mazungera, who has evaded human, has
-not escaped divine punishment. The miserable old man
-is haunted by the P’hepo or spirit of the guest so foully
-slain: the torments which he has brought upon himself
-have driven him into a kind of exile; and his tribe, as
-has been mentioned, has steadily declined from its former
-position with even a greater decline in prospect. The
-jealous national honour displayed by the French Government
-on the occasion of M. Maizan’s murder has
-begun to bear fruit.</p>
-
-<p>Its sensitiveness contrasts well with our proceedings
-on similar occasions. Rahmat, the murderer of Captain
-Milne, still wanders free over the hills in sight of Aden.
-By punishing the treacherous slaughter of a servant of
-Government, the price of provisions at the coal-hole of
-the East would have been raised. Au Ali, the murderer
-of Lieut. Stroyan, is still at large in the neighbourhood
-of Berberah, when a few dollars would have
-brought in his head. The burlesque of a blockade,&mdash;Capt.
-Playfair, in a work previously characterised, has
-officially mistermed it, to the astonishment of Aden, “a
-rigid blockade,” a “severe punishment,” and so forth,&mdash;was
-considered sufficient to chastise the Somal of Berberah
-for their cowardly onslaught on strangers and guests;
-and though the people offered an equivalent for the
-public and private property destroyed by them, the spirit
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-79">[79]</span>
-of Centralisation, by an exercise of its peculiar attributes,
-omniscience and omnipresence, decided that the
-indemnity, which in such cases is customary throughout
-the East, must not be accepted, because&mdash;forsooth!&mdash;it
-was not deserved by the officers. This is a new plan, a
-system lately adopted by the nation once called “la plus
-orgueilleuse et la plus perilleuse”&mdash;to win and preserve
-respect in lands where prestige is its principal power.
-The Arabs of Yemen have already learned from it to
-characterise their invaders as Sahib Hilah,&mdash;a tricky,
-peddling manner of folk. They&mdash;wiser men than
-we&mdash;will not take upon themselves the pains and
-penalties of subject-hood, without its sole counterweight,
-the protection of their rulers, in cases where
-protection is required.</p>
-
-<p>At Madege Madogo, the “little birds,” so called in
-contradistinction to its western and neighbouring
-district, Madege Makuba, the “great birds,” we
-pitched tent under a large sycamore; and the Baloch
-passed a night of alarms, fancying in every sound the
-approach of a leopard, a hippopotamus, or a crocodile.
-On the 13th July, we set out after dawn, and traversing
-forest, jungle, and bush, chequered with mud and
-morass, hard by the bending and densely-wooded line of
-the Kingani River, reached in three hours’ march an unwholesome
-camping-ground, called from a conspicuous
-landmark Kidunda, the “little hill.” Here the scenery
-is effective. The swift, yellow stream, about fifty yards
-broad, sweeps under tall, stiff earth-works, ever green
-with tangled vegetation and noble trees. The conical
-huts of the cultivators are disposed in scattered patches
-to guard their luxuriant crops, whilst on the northern
-bank the woody hillock, and on the southern rising
-ground, apparently the ancient river-terrace, affect the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-80">[80]</span>
-sight agreeably after the evergreen monotony of the
-river-plain. A petty chief, Mvirama, accompanied by
-a small party of armed men, posted himself near the
-cantonment, demanding rice, which was refused with
-asperity. At this frontier station the Wazaramo, mixed
-up with the tribes of Udoe, K’hutu, and Usagara, are no
-longer dreaded.</p>
-
-<p>From Kidunda, the route led over sandy ground,
-with lines and scatters of water-worn pebbles, descended
-the precipitous inclines of sandstone, broken
-into steps of slabs and flags, and crossed the Manyora,
-a rough and rocky Fiumara, abounding in blocks of
-snowy quartz, grey and pink syenites, erratic boulders
-of the hornblende used as whetstones, and strata of a
-rude sandstone conglomerate. Thence it spanned grass,
-bush, and forest, close to the Kingani, and finally
-leaving the stream on the right hand, it traversed
-sandy soil, and, ascending a wave of ground, abutted
-upon the Mgeta or rivulet, a large perennial influent,
-which, rising in the mountains of Duthumi, drains the
-head of the River-valley.</p>
-
-<p>This lower portion of the Mgeta’s bed was unfordable
-after the heavy rains: other caravans, however,
-had made a rude bridge of trees, felled on each side,
-lashed with creepers, and jammed together by the force
-of the current. The men perched upon the trunks and
-boughs, tossed or handed to one another the loads and
-packages, whilst the asses, pushed by force of arm down
-the banks, were driven with sticks and stones across the
-stream. Suddenly a louder cry than usual arose from
-the mob; my double-barrelled elephant-gun found a
-grave below the cold and swirling waters. The Goanese
-Gaetano had the courage to plunge in; the depth was
-about twelve feet; the sole was of roots and loose sand,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-81">[81]</span>
-and the stream ran with considerable force. I bade farewell
-to that gun;&mdash;by the bye it was the second accident
-of the kind that had occurred to it;&mdash;the country people
-cannot dive, and no one ventures to affront the <i>genius
-loci</i>, the mamba or crocodile. I found consolation in
-the thought that the Expedition had passed without
-accident through the most dangerous part of the
-journey. In 18 days, from the 27th of June, to the
-14th of July, I had accomplished, despite sickness
-and all manner of difficulties, a march of 118 indirect
-statute miles, and had entered K’hutu, the safe rendezvous
-of foreign merchants.</p>
-
-<p>Resuming our march on the 15th July, we entered
-the “Doab,”<a id="FNanchor5"></a><a href="#Footnote5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> on the western bank of the Mgeta,
-where a thick and tangled jungle, with luxuriant and
-putrescent vegetation, is backed by low, grassy grounds,
-frequently inundated. Presently, however, the dense
-thicket opened out into a fine park country, peculiarly
-rich in game, where the calabash and the giant trees of
-the seaboard gave way to mimosas, gums, and stunted
-thorns. Large gnus, whom the porters regard with a
-wholesome awe, declaring that they are capable of
-charging a caravan, pranced about, pawing the
-ground, and shaking their formidable manes; hartebeest
-and other antelopes clustered together on the
-plain, or travelled in herds to slake their thirst at the
-river. The homely cry of the partridge resounded from
-the brake, and the guinea-fowls looked like large bluebells
-upon the trees. Small land-crabs took refuge in
-the pits and holes, which made the path a cause of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-82">[82]</span>
-frequent accidents; whilst ants of various kinds,
-crossing the road in close columns, attacked man and
-beast ferociously, causing the caravan to break into a
-halting, trotting hobble, ludicrous to behold. Whilst
-crossing a sandy Fiumara, Abdullah, a Baloch, lodged
-by accident four ounces of lead, the contents of my
-second elephant-gun, in the head of an ass. After a
-march of six hours we entered Kiruru, a small, ragged,
-and muddy village of Wak’hutu, deep in a plantation of
-holcus, whose tall, stiff canes nearly swept me from the
-saddle. The weather was a succession of raw mist,
-rain in torrents, and fiery sunbursts; the land appeared
-rotten, and the jungle smelt of death. At Kiruru I
-found a cottage, and enjoyed for the first time an atmosphere
-of sweet warm smoke. My companion
-remained in the reeking, miry tent, where he partially
-laid the foundation of the fever which threatened his
-life in the mountains of Usagara.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>
-This useful word, which means the land embraced by the bifurcation of
-two streams, has no English equivalent. “Doab,” “Dhun” (Dhoon),
-“Nullah,” and “Ghaut,” might be naturalised with advantage in our mother
-tongue.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>Despite the danger of hyænas, leopards, and crocodiles
-to an ass-caravan, we were delayed by the torrents of
-rain and the depth of the mud for two days at Kiruru.
-According to the people, the district derives its name
-“palm leaves,” from a thirsty traveller, who, not
-knowing that water was near, chewed the leaves of the
-hyphæna-palm till he died. One of the Baloch proposed
-a “Hammam,”&mdash;a primitive form of the “lamp-bath,”
-practised in most parts of Central Asia,&mdash;as a
-cure for fever: he placed me upon one of the dwarf
-stools used by the people, and under the many abas or
-hair-cloaks with which I was invested he introduced a
-bit of pottery containing live coal and a little frankincense.
-At Kiruru I engaged six porters to assist our
-jaded animals as far as the next station. The headman
-was civil, but the people sold their grain with difficulty.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-83">[83]</span></p>
-
-<p>On the 18th July we resumed our march over a tract
-which caused sinking of the heart in men who expected
-a long journey under similar circumstances. Near
-Kiruru the thick grass and the humid vegetation, dripping
-till midday with dew, rendered the black earth
-greasy and slippery. The road became worse as we
-advanced over deep thick mire interlaced with tree-roots
-through a dense jungle and forest, chiefly of the distorted
-hyphæna-palm, in places varied by the Mparamusi and
-the gigantic Msukulío, over barrens of low mimosa, and
-dreary savannahs cut by steep nullahs. In three places
-we crossed bogs from 100 yards to a mile in length, and
-admitting a man up to the knee; the porters plunged
-through them like laden animals, and I was obliged to
-be held upon the ass. This “Yegea Mud,” caused by
-want of water-shed after rain, is sometimes neck-deep; it
-never dries except when the moisture has been evaporated
-by sun and wind during the middle of the Kaskazi
-or N. E. monsoon. The only redeeming feature in the
-view was a foreground of lovely hill, the highlands of
-Dut’humi, plum-coloured in the distance and at times
-gilt by a sudden outburst of sunshine. Towards the
-end of the march, I forged ahead of the caravan, and
-passing through numerous villages, surrounded by
-holcus-fields, arrived at a settlement tenanted by Sayf
-bin Salim, an Arab merchant, who afterwards proved to
-be a notorious “mauvais sujet.” A Harisi from Birkah
-in Oman, he was a tall thin-featured venerable-looking
-man, whose old age had been hurried on by his constancy
-to pombe-beer. A long residence in Unyamwezi had
-enabled him to incur the hostility of his fellow-merchants,
-especially one Salim bin Said el Sawwafi, who, with
-other Arabs, persuaded Mpagamo, an African chief, to
-seize upon Sayf, and after tying him up in full view of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-84">[84]</span>
-the plundering and burning of his store-house, to drive
-him out of the country. Retreating to Dut’humi, he
-had again collected a small stock in trade, especially of
-slaves, whom he chained and treated so severely that all
-men predicted for him an evil end. “Msopora,” as he
-was waggishly nicknamed by the Wanyamwezi, instantly
-began to backbite Said bin Salim, whom he pronounced
-utterly unfit to manage our affairs; I silenced him by
-falling asleep upon a cartel placed under the cool eaves
-of a hut. Presently staggered in my companion almost
-too ill to speak; over-fatigue had prostrated his strength.
-By slow degrees, and hardly able to walk, appeared the
-Arab, the Baloch, the slaves and the asses, each and
-every having been bogged in turn. On this occasion
-Wazira had acted guide, and used to “bog-trotting,”
-he had preferred the short cut to the cleaner road that
-rounds the swamps.</p>
-
-<p>At Dut’humi we were detained nearly a week; the
-malaria had brought on attacks of marsh fever, which
-in my case lasted about 20 days; the paroxysms were
-mild compared with the Indian or the Sindhian type,
-yet, favoured by the atonic state of the constitution, they
-thoroughly prostrated me. I had during the fever-fit,
-and often for hours afterwards, a queer conviction of
-divided identity, never ceasing to be two persons that
-generally thwarted and opposed each other; the sleepless
-nights brought with them horrid visions, animals of
-grisliest form, hag-like women and men with heads protruding
-from their breasts. My companion suffered
-even more severely, he had a fainting-fit which strongly
-resembled a sun-stroke, and which seemed permanently
-to affect his brain. Said bin Salim was the convalescent
-of the party; the two Goanese yielded themselves
-wholly to maladies, brought on mainly by hard
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-85">[85]</span>
-eating, and had they not been forced to rise, they would
-probably never have risen again. Our sufferings were
-increased by other causes than climate. The riding
-asses having been given up for loads, we were compelled,
-when premonitory symptoms suggested rest, to walk,
-sometimes for many miles in a single heat, through sun
-and rain, through mud and miasmatic putridities.
-Even ass-riding caused over-fatigue. It by no means
-deserves in these lands the reputation of an anile exercise,
-as it does in Europe. Maître Aliboron in Africa
-is stubborn, vicious and guilty of the four mortal sins
-of the equine race, he shies and stumbles, he rears and
-runs away: my companion has been thrown as often
-as twice in two hours. The animals are addicted to
-fidgetting, plunging and pirouetting when mounted,
-they hog and buck till they burst their frail girths, they
-seem to prefer holes and hollows, they rush about pig-like
-when high winds blow, and they bolt under tree-shade
-when the sun shines hot. They must be led, or, ever
-preferring the worst ground, they disdain to follow the
-path, and when difficulties arise the slave will surely drop
-the halter, and get out of harm’s way. If a pace exceeding
-two miles an hour be required, a second man must
-follow and flog each of these perfect slugs during the
-whole march. The roundness of their flanks, the shortness
-of their backs, and their want of shoulder, combine
-to make the meagre Arab packsaddle unsafe for anything
-but a baboon or a boy, whilst the straightness and
-the rigidity of their goat-like pasterns render the pace a
-wearisome, tripping hobble. We had, it is true, Zanzibari
-riding-asses, but the delicate animals soon chafed and
-presently died; we were then reduced to the Koroma or
-half-reclaimed beast of Wanyamwezi. The laden asses
-gave us even more trouble. The slaves would not attend
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-86">[86]</span>
-to the girthing and the balancing of parcels&mdash;the great
-secret of donkey-loading&mdash;consequently the burdens
-were thrown at every mud or broken ground: the
-unwilling Baloch only grumbled, sat down and stared,
-leaving their Jemadars with Said bin Salim and ourselves
-to reload. My companion and I brought up the
-rear by alternate days, and sometimes we did not arrive
-before the afternoon at the camping ground. The ropes
-and cords intended to secure the herd were regularly
-stolen, that I might be forced to buy others: the animals
-were never pounded for the night, and during our illness
-none of the party took the trouble to number them.
-Thus several beasts were lost, and the grounding of the
-Expedition appeared imminent and permanent. The
-result was a sensation of wretchedness, hard to describe;
-every morning dawned upon me with a fresh load of
-cares and troubles, and every evening reminded me as
-it closed in, that another and a miserable morrow was to
-dawn. But “in despair,” as the Arabs say, “are many
-hopes;” though sorrow endured for the night&mdash;and
-many were “white” with anxiety&mdash;we never relinquished
-the determination to risk everything, ourselves included,
-rather than to return unsuccessful.</p>
-
-<p>Dut’humi, one of the most fertile districts in K’hutu,
-is a plain of black earth and sand, choked with vegetation
-where not corrected by the axe. It is watered by
-the perennial stream of the same name, which, rising
-in the islands, adds its quotum to the waters of the
-Mgazi, and eventually to the Mgeta and the Kingani
-Rivers. In such places artificial irrigation is common,
-the element being distributed over the fields by hollow
-ridges. The mountains of Dut’humi form the northern
-boundary of the plain. They appear to rise abruptly,
-but they throw off southerly lower eminences, which
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-87">[87]</span>
-diminish in elevation till confounded with the almost
-horizontal surface of the champaign; the jagged broken
-crests and peaks argue a primitive formation. Their
-lay is to the N.N.W.; after four days’ journey, according
-to the guides, they inosculate with the main chain
-of the Usagara Mountains, and they are probably the
-southern buttress of Ngu, or Nguru, the hill region
-westward of Saadani. This chain is said to send forth
-the Kingani River, which, gushing from a cave or fissure
-in the eastern, is swollen to a large perennial stream by
-feeders from the southern slopes, whilst the Mgeta flows
-from the western face of the water-parting, and circles the
-southern base. The cold temperature of these cloud-capped
-and rainy crags, which never expose their outlines
-except in the clearest weather, affects the plains;
-by day bleak north-east and north-west gusts pour down
-upon the sun-parched Dut’humi, and at night the thermometer
-will sink to 70°, and even to 65° F. Water is
-supposed to freeze upon the highlands, yet they are not
-unhealthy; sheep, goats, and poultry abound; betel-pepper
-grows there, according to the Arabs, and, as in
-the lowlands, holcus and sesamum, manioc and sweet-potatoes
-(Convolvulus batata), cucumbers, the turai
-(Luffa acutangula), and beans, plantains, and sugar-cane,
-are plentiful. The thick jungle at the base of the
-hills shelters the elephant, the rhinoceros in considerable
-numbers, the gnu, and the koodoo, which, however, can
-rarely be found when the grass is high; a variety of the
-ngole&mdash;a small Dendraspis&mdash;haunts the patriarchs of
-the forest, and the chirrup of the mongoose, which the
-people enjoy, as Europeans do the monotonous note of
-the cricket, is heard in the brakes at eventide. This
-part of the country, about six hours’ march northward
-from Dut’humi, is called the Inland Magogoni; and it
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-88">[88]</span>
-is traversed by the “Mdimu” nullah, which falls into
-the Mgeta River. The fertile valleys in the lower and
-southern folds are inhabited by the Wákumbáku(?),<a id="FNanchor6"></a><a href="#Footnote6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
-and by the Wásuop’hángá tribes; the higher elevations,
-which apparently range from 3000 to 4000 feet, by the
-Waruguru. They are compelled to fortify themselves
-against the cold and the villanous races around them.
-The plague of the land is now one Kisabengo, a Mzegura
-of low origin, who, after conquering Ukami, a district
-extending from the eastern flank of the Dut’humi hills
-seawards, from its Moslem diwan, Ngozi, <i>alias</i> Kingaru,
-has raised himself to the rank of a Shene Khambi, or
-principal headman. Aided by the kidnapping Moslem
-coast clans of Whinde, a small coast town opposite the
-island of Zanzibar, and his fellow tribemen of Uzegura,
-he has transferred by his frequent commandos almost
-all the people of Ukámí, chiefly Wásuop’hángá and
-Wárúgúrú, to the slave-market of Zanzibar, and, thus
-compelled to push his depredations further west, he has
-laid waste the lands even beyond the Mukondokwa river-valley.
-The hill tribes, however, still receive strangers
-hospitably into their villages. They have a place visited
-even by distant Wazaramo pilgrims. It is described
-as a cave where a P’hepo or the disembodied spirit of a
-man, in fact a ghost, produces a terrible subterraneous
-sound, called by the people Kurero or Bokero; it arises
-probably from the flow of water underground. In a
-pool in the cave women bathe for the blessing of issue,
-and men sacrifice sheep and goats to obtain fruitful
-seasons and success in war. These hill-races speak
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-89">[89]</span>
-peculiar dialects, which, according to the guides, are
-closely connected with Kik’hutu.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a>
-This unsatisfactory figure of print will often occur in these pages.
-Ignorance, error, and causeless falsehood, together with the grossest exaggeration,
-deter the traveller from committing himself to any assertion which
-he has not proved to his own satisfaction.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>Despite the bad name of Dut’humi as regards climate,
-Arabs sometimes reside there for some months for the
-purpose of purchasing slaves cheaply and to repair their
-broken fortunes for a fresh trip to the interior. This
-keeps up a perpetual feud amongst the chiefs of the
-country, and scarcely a month passes without fields
-being laid waste, villages burnt down, and the unhappy
-cultivators being carried off to be sold.</p>
-
-<p>At Dut’humi a little expedition was sent against
-Manda, a petty chief, who, despite the presence of the
-Sayyid’s troops, had plundered a village and had kidnapped
-five of the subjects of Mgota, his weaker neighbour.
-I had the satisfaction of restoring the stolen
-wretches to their hearths and homes, and two decrepid
-old women that had been rescued from slavery thanked
-me with tears of joy.</p>
-
-<p>This easy good deed done, I was able, though with
-swimming head and trembling hands, to prepare accounts
-and a brief report of proceedings for the Royal Geographical
-Society. These, together with other papers,
-especially an urgent request for medical comforts and
-drugs, especially quinine and narcotics, addressed to
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, or, in case of accidents, to
-M. Cochet, Consul de France, were entrusted to Jemadar
-Yaruk, whom, moreover, I took the liberty of recommending
-to the prince for the then vacant command
-of the Bagamoyo garrison. The escort from Kaole,
-reduced in number by three desertions, was dismissed.
-All the volunteers had been clamouring to return, and
-I could no longer afford to keep them. Besides the
-two supplies of cloth, wire, and beads, which preceded,
-and which were left to follow us, I had been provided
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-90">[90]</span>
-by Ladha Damha with a stock of white and blue cottons,
-some handsome articles of dress, 20,000 strings of white
-and black, pink, blue, and green, red and brown porcelain-beads,
-needles, and other articles of hardware, to
-defray transit-charges through Uzarama. This provision,
-valued at 295 dollars, should have carried us to
-the end of the third month; it lasted about three weeks.
-Said bin Salim, to whom it had been entrusted, had been
-generous, through fear, to every half-naked barbarian
-that chose to stretch forth the hand of beggary; moreover,
-whilst too ill to superintend disbursements, he had
-allowed his “children,” aided by the Baloch and the
-“sons of Ramji,” to “loot” whatever they could seize
-and secrete. Ladha Damha, unable to complete our
-carriage, had hit upon the notable device of converting
-eighteen pieces of American domestics into saddle-cloths
-for the asses: the stuff was used at halts as bedding by
-the Baloch and others; and,&mdash;a proof that much had
-fallen into wrong hands,&mdash;the thirteen men composing
-our permanent guard, increased the number of their
-laden asses from two to five; moreover, for many weeks
-afterwards, the “sons of Ramji” could afford to expend
-four to five cloths upon a goat. On the 21st July the
-escort from Kaole departed with a general discharge of
-matchlocks. Their disappearance was hailed as a blessing;
-they had pestered me for rations, and had begged
-for asses till midnight. They were the refuse of their
-service; they thought of, they dreamed of, nothing but
-food; they would do no work; they were continually
-attempting violence upon the timid Wak’hutu, and they
-seemed resolved to make the name of Baloch equally
-hateful and contemptible.</p>
-
-<p>I had been careful to bring from Zanzibar four hammocks,
-which, slung to poles, formed the conveyance,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-91">[91]</span>
-called by the Indians “manchil;” by the Portuguese
-“manchila;” and in West Africa “tipoia.” Sayf bin
-Salim agreed for the sum of ten dollars to hire his slaves
-as porters for ourselves and our outfit. On the 24th
-July, feeling strong enough to advance, we passed out of
-the cultivation of Dut’humi. Crossing a steep and muddy
-bed, knee-deep even in the dry season, we entered fields
-under the outlying hillocks of the highlands. These low
-cones, like similar formations in India, are not inhabited;
-they are even more malarious than the plains, the surface
-is rocky, and the woodage, not ceasing as in higher
-elevations, extends from base to summit. Beyond the
-cultivation the route plunges into a jungle, where the
-European traveller realises every preconceived idea of
-Africa’s aspect, at once hideous and grotesque. The
-general appearance is a mingling of bush and forest,
-which, contracting the horizon to a few yards, is equally
-monotonous to the eye and palling to the imagination.
-The black greasy ground, veiled with thick shrubbery,
-supports in the more open spaces screens of tiger and
-spear-grass, twelve and thirteen feet high, with every
-blade a finger’s breadth; and the towering trees are
-often clothed from root to twig with huge epiphytes,
-forming heavy columns of densest verdure, and clustering
-upon the tops in the semblance of enormous bird’s nests.
-The foot-paths, in places “dead,”&mdash;as the natives say,&mdash;with
-encroaching bush, are crossed by llianas, creepers
-and climbers, thick as coir-cables, some connecting the
-trees in a curved line, others stretched straight down the
-trunks, others winding in all directions around their
-supports, frequently crossing one another like network
-and stunting the growth of even the vivacious calabash,
-by coils like rope tightly encircling its neck. The earth,
-ever rain-drenched, emits the odour of sulphuretted hydrogen,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-92">[92]</span>
-and in some parts the traveller might fancy a
-corpse to be hidden behind every bush. To this sad
-picture of miasma the firmament is a fitting frame: a
-wild sky, whose heavy purple nimbi, chased by raffales
-and chilling gusts, dissolve in large-dropped showers; or
-a dull, dark grey expanse, which lies like a pall over the
-world. In the finer weather the atmosphere is pale and
-sickly; its mists and vapours seem to concentrate the
-rays of the oppressive “rain-sun.” The sensation
-experienced at once explains the apathy and indolence,
-the physical debility, and the mental prostration, that
-are the gifts of climates which moist heat and damp cold
-render equally unsalubrious and uncomfortable. That
-no feature of miasma might be wanting to complete the
-picture, filthy heaps of the rudest hovels, built in holes
-in the jungle, sheltered their few miserable inhabitants,
-whose frames are lean with constant intoxication, and
-whose limbs, distorted by ulcerous sores, attest the
-hostility of Nature to mankind. Such a revolting scene
-is East Africa from central K’hutu to the base of the
-Usagara Mountains.</p>
-
-<p>Running through this fetid flat the path passed on the
-left sundry shallow salt-pits which, according to the
-Arabs, are wet during the dry and dry during the wet
-season. Presently after breaking through another fence
-of holcus, whose cane was stiffer than the rattans of an
-Indian jungle, we entered, and found lodgings in Bakera,
-a pretty little hamlet ringed with papaws and
-plantains, upon which the doves disported themselves.
-Here, on our return in 1859, a thick growth of grass
-waved over the ground-marks of hearth and roof-tree.
-The African has a superstitious horror of stone walls; he
-is still a semi-nomade, from the effects of the Wandertrieb,
-or man’s vagabond instinct, uncurbed by the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-93">[93]</span>
-habits of civilisation. Though vestiges of large and
-stable habitations have been discovered in the barbarous
-Eastern Horn, in these days, between the parallels of
-Harar and the ruined Portuguese towns near the Zambezi
-Rivers, inner Africa ignores a town of masonry. In
-our theoretical maps, the circlets used by cartographers
-to denote cities serve only to mislead; their names
-prove them to be Saltanats&mdash;lordships, districts or
-provinces.</p>
-
-<p>Resuming our course on the next day through
-hollows and rice-swamps, where almost every ass fell or
-cast its load, we came after a long tramp to the nearest
-outposts of the Zungomero district; here were several
-caravans with pitched tents, piles of ivory and crowds
-of porters. The gang of thirty-six Wanyamwezi, who
-had preceded us, having located themselves at a distant
-hamlet, we resumed our march, and presently were met
-by a number of our men headed by their guard, the
-two “sons of Ramji.” Ensued a general sword and
-spear play, each man with howls and cheers brandished
-his blade or vibrated his missile, rushing about in all
-directions, and dealing death amongst ideal foes with
-such action as may often be observed in poultry-yards
-when the hens indulge in a little merry pugnacity.
-The march had occupied us four weeks, about double the
-usual time, and the porters had naturally began to suspect
-accidents from the Wazaramo.</p>
-
-<p>Zungomero, the head of the great river-valley, is a
-plain of black earth and sand, prodigiously fertile. It
-is enclosed on all sides except the eastern, or the line of
-drainage; northwards rise the peaks of Dut’humi; westwards
-lie the little Wigo hills and the other spurs of Usagara,
-uncultivated and uninhabited, though the country
-is populous up to their feet; and southwards are detached
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-94">[94]</span>
-cones of similar formation, steep, rocky, and densely
-wooded. The sea-breeze is here strong, but beyond its
-influence the atmosphere is sultry and oppressive;
-owing to maritime influences the kosi, or south-west
-wind, sometimes continues till the end of July. The
-normal day, which varies little throughout the year,
-begins with the light milky mist which forms the cloud-ring;
-by degrees nimbi and cumuli come up from the
-east, investing the heights of Dut’humi, and, when
-showers are imminent, a heavy line of stratus bisects
-the highlands and overlies the surface of the plain.
-At the epochs of the lunar change rain falls once or
-twice during the day and night, and, when the clouds
-burst, a fiery sun sucks up poison from the earth’s
-putridity. The early nights are oppressive, and towards
-the dawn condensation causes a copious deposit of heavy
-dew, which even the people of the country dread. A
-prolonged halt causes general sickness amongst the
-porters and slaves of a caravan. The humidity of the
-atmosphere corrodes everything with which it comes in
-contact; the springs of powder-flasks exposed to the
-damp snap like toasted quills; clothes feel limp and
-damp; paper, becoming soft and soppy by the loss of
-glazing, acts as a blotter; boots, books, and botanical
-collections are blackened; metals are ever rusty; the
-best percussion caps, though labelled waterproof, will
-not detonate unless carefully stowed away in waxed
-cloth and tin boxes; gunpowder, if not kept from
-the air, refuses to ignite; and wood becomes covered
-with mildew. We had an abundance of common
-German phosphor-matches, and the best English wax
-lucifers; both, however, became equally unserviceable,
-the heads shrank and sprang off at the least touch,
-and the boxes frequently became a mere mass of paste.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-95">[95]</span>
-To future travellers I should recommend the “good
-old plan;” a bit of phosphorus in a little phial half full
-of olive oil, which serves for light as well as ignition.
-When accompanied by matchlock-men, however, there
-is no difficulty about fire; their pouches always contain
-a steel and flint, and a store of cotton, or of the wild
-Bombex, dipped in saltpetre or gunpowder solution.</p>
-
-<p>Yet Zungomero is the great Bandárí or centre of
-traffic in the eastern, as are Unyanyembe and Ujiji in
-the middle and the western regions. Lying upon the
-main trunk-road, it must be traversed by the up and
-down-caravans, and, during the travelling season, between
-June and April, large bodies of some thousand
-men pass through it every week. Kilwa formerly
-sent caravans to it, and the Wanyamwezi porters have
-frequently made that port by the “Mwera road.” The
-Arab merchants usually pitch tents, preferring them
-to the leaky native huts, full of hens and pigeons, rats
-and mice, snakes and lizards, crickets and cockroaches,
-gnats and flies, and spiders of hideous appearance, where
-the inmates are often routed by swarms of bees, and
-are ever in imminent danger of fires. The armed slaves
-accompanying the caravan seize the best huts, which
-they either monopolise or share with the hapless inmates,
-and the porters stow themselves away under
-the projecting eaves of the habitations. The main
-attraction of the place is the plenty of provisions.
-Grain is so abundant that the inhabitants exist almost
-entirely upon the intoxicating pombe, or holcus-beer,&mdash;a
-practice readily imitated by their visitors. Bhang
-and the datura plant, growing wild, add to the attractions
-of the spot. The Bhang is a fine large species of
-the Cannabis Indica, the bang of Persia, the bhang of
-India, and the benj of Arabia, the fasukh of northern,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-96">[96]</span>
-and the dakha of southern Africa. In the low lands of
-East Africa it grows before every cottage door. As in
-hot climates generally, the fibre degenerates, and the
-plant is only valued for its narcotic properties. The
-Arabs smoke the sun-dried leaf with, and the Africans
-without tobacco, in huge waterpipes, whose bowls contain
-a quarter of a pound. Both ignore the more
-luxurious preparations, momiya and hashish, ganja
-and sebzi, charas and maajun. Like the “jangli” or
-jungle (wild)-bhang of Sindh, affected by kalandars,
-fakirs, and other holy beggars, this variety, contracting
-the muscle of the throat, produces a violent whooping-cough,
-ending in a kind of scream, after a few long
-puffs, when the smoke is inhaled; and if one man sets
-the example the others are sure to follow. These grotesque
-sounds are probably not wholly natural; even
-the boys may be heard practising them; they appear to
-be a fashion of “renowning it”; in fact, an announcement
-to the public that the fast youths are smoking
-bhang. The Datura stramonium, called by the Arabs
-and by the Wasawahili “muranhá,” grows in the well-watered
-plains; it bears a large whitish flower and a
-thorn-apple, like that of India. The heathen, as well
-as their visitors, dry the leaves, the flowers, and the
-rind of the rootlet, which is considered the strongest
-preparation, and smoke them in a common bowl or in a
-water-pipe. This is held to be a sovereign remedy
-against zik el nafas (asthma) and influenza; it diminishes
-the cough by loosening the phlegm. The
-Washenzi never make that horrible use of the plant
-known to the Indian dhaturiya, or datura-poisoners:
-many accidents, however, occur from ignorance of its
-violent narcotism. Meat is scarce: the only cattle are
-those driven down by the Wanyamwezi to the coast;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-97">[97]</span>
-milk, butter, and ghee are consequently unprocurable. A
-sheep or a goat will not cost less than a shukkah, or four
-cubits of domestics, here worth twenty-five cents. The
-same will purchase only two fowls; and eggs and fruit&mdash;chiefly
-papaws and plantains, cocos and limes&mdash;are at
-fancy prices. For the shukkah eight rations of unhusked
-holcus, four measures of rice&mdash;which must here
-be laid in by those travelling up-country&mdash;and five cakes
-of tobacco, equal to about three pounds, are generally procurable.
-Thus the daily expenditure of a large caravan
-ranges from one dollar to one dollar fifty cents’ worth
-of cloth in the Zanzibar market. The value, however,
-fluctuates greatly, and the people will shirk selling even
-at any price.</p>
-
-<p>The same attractions which draw caravans to Zungomero
-render it the great rendezvous of an army of
-touters, who, whilst watching for the arrival of the
-ivory traders, amuse themselves with plundering the
-country. The plague has now spread like a flight of
-locusts over the land. The Wak’hutu, a timid race, who,
-unlike the Wazaramo, have no sultan to gather round,
-are being gradually ousted from their ancient seats. In
-a large village there will seldom be more than three or
-four families, who occupy the most miserable hovels, all
-the best having been seized by the touters or pulled
-down for firewood. These men&mdash;slaves, escaped
-criminals, and freemen of broken fortunes, flying from
-misery, punishment, or death on the coast&mdash;are armed
-with muskets and sabres, bows and spears, daggers and
-knobsticks. They carry ammunition, and thus are too
-strong for the country people. When rough language
-and threats fail, the levelled barrel at once establishes
-the right to a man’s house and property, to his wife and
-children. If money runs short, a village is fired by
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-98">[98]</span>
-night, and the people are sold off to the first caravan.
-In some parts the pattering of musketry is incessant, as
-it ever was in the turbulent states of Independent India.
-It is rarely necessary to have recourse to violence, the
-Wak’hutu, believing their tyrants to be emissaries, as
-they represent themselves, from His Highness the
-Sultan, and the chief nobles of Zanzibar, offer none
-but the most passive resistance, hiding their families
-and herds in the bush. Thus it happens that towards
-the end of the year nothing but a little grain can be
-purchased in a land of marvellous fertility.</p>
-
-<p>As has been mentioned, these malpractices are severely
-reprobated by His Highness the Sultan, and when the
-evil passes a certain point remedial measures are taken.
-A Banyan, for instance, is sent to the coast with warnings
-to the Diwans concerned. But what care they for
-his empty words, when they know that he has probably
-equipped a similar party of black buccaneers himself?
-and what hope can there be of reform when there is not
-an honest man in the country to carry it out? Thus
-the Government of Zanzibar is rendered powerless;&mdash;improvement
-can be expected only from the hand of Time.
-The Wak’hutu, indeed, often threaten a deputation to
-entreat the Arab Sultan for protection in the shape of a
-garrison of Baloch. This measure has been retarded
-for sound reasons: no man dares to leave his house for
-fear of finding it a ruin on his return; moreover, he
-would certainly be shot if the touters guessed his intention,
-and, even if he escaped this danger, he would
-probably be sold, on the way to the coast, by his truculent
-neighbours the Wazaramo. Finally, if they succeeded
-in their wishes, would not a Baloch garrison act
-the part of the man who, in the fable, was called in to
-assist the horse against the stag? The Arabs, who know
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-99">[99]</span>
-the temper of these mercenaries, are too wise ever to
-sanction such a “dragonnade.”</p>
-
-<p>The reader will readily perceive that he is upon the
-slave-path, so different from travel amongst the free and
-independent tribes of Southern Africa. The traffic practically
-annihilates every better feeling of human nature.
-Yet, though the state of the Wak’hutu appears pitiable,
-the traveller cannot practise pity: he is ever in the
-dilemma of maltreating or being maltreated. Were
-he to deal civilly and liberally with this people he would
-starve: it is vain to offer a price for even the necessaries
-of life; it would certainly be refused because more is
-wanted, and so on beyond the bounds of possibility.
-Thus, if the touter did not seize a house, he would never
-be allowed to take shelter in it from the storm; if he
-did not enforce a “corvée,” he must labour beyond his
-strength with his own hands; and if he did not fire a
-village and sell the villagers, he might die of hunger in
-the midst of plenty. Such in this province are the
-action and reaction of the evil.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-100">[100]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w40em" id="Illoi-8">
-<img src="images/i_illo124.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">Party of Wak’hutu Women.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. IV.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">ON THE GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY OF THE FIRST REGION.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">Before bidding adieu to the Maritime Region, it will
-be expedient to enter into a few details concerning its
-geography and ethnology.<a id="FNanchor7"></a><a href="#Footnote7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>
-Those who consider the subject worthy of further consideration are
-referred, for an ampler account of it, to the Journal of the R. Geographical
-Society, vol. xxix. of 1860.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>The first or maritime region extends from the shores
-of the Indian Ocean in <span class="smcap">E.</span> long. 39° to the mountain-chain
-forming the land of Usagara in <span class="smcap">E.</span> long. 37° 28′; its
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-101">[101]</span>
-breadth is therefore 92 geographical miles, measured in
-rectilinear distance, and its mean length, bounded by the
-waters of the Kingani and the Rufiji rivers, may be assumed
-at 110. The average rise is under 4 feet per
-mile. It is divided into two basins; that of the Kingani
-easterly, and westward that of the Mgeta stream with
-its many tributaries; the former, which is the principal,
-is called the land of Uzaramo; the latter, which is of the
-second order, contains the provinces of K’hutu, by the
-Arabs pronounced Kutu, and Uziraha, a minor district.
-The natives of the country divide it into the three lowlands
-of Tunda, Dut’humi, and Zungomero.</p>
-
-<p>The present road runs with few and unimportant deviations
-along the whole length of the fluviatile valleys
-of the Kingani and the Mgeta. Native caravans if
-lightly laden generally accomplish the march in a fortnight,
-one halt included. On both sides of this line,
-whose greatest height above the sea-level was found by
-<span class="smcapall">B. P.</span> therm. to be 330 feet, rises the rolling ground, which
-is the general character of the country. Its undulations
-present no eminences worthy of notice; near the
-sea they are short and steep, further inland they roll in
-longer waves, and everywhere they are covered with
-abundant and luxuriant vegetation, the result of decomposition
-upon the richest soil. In parts there is an
-appearance of park land; bushless and scattered forests,
-with grass rising almost to the lower branches of the
-smaller thorns; here and there clumps and patches of impassable
-shrubbery cluster round knots and knolls of
-majestic and thickly foliaged trees. The narrow footpaths
-connecting the villages often plunge into dark
-and dense tunnels formed by overarching branch and
-bough, which delay the file of laden porters; the mud
-lingering long after a fall of rain in these low
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-102">[102]</span>
-grounds fills them with a chilly clammy atmosphere.
-Merchants traverse such spots with trembling; in these,
-the proper places for ambuscade, a few determined men
-easily plunder a caravan by opposing it in front or by
-an attack in rear. The ways are often intersected
-by deep nullahs and water-courses, dry during the hot
-season, but unfordable when rain falls. In the many
-clearings, tobacco, maize, holcus, sesamum, and ground-nuts,
-manioc, beans, pulse, and sweet potatoes flourish;
-the pine-apple is a weed, and a few cocos and mangoes,
-papaws, jack-fruit, plantains, and limes are scattered
-over the districts near the sea. Rice grows abundantly
-in the lower levels. The villages are hidden deep in the
-bush or grass: the crowing of the cocks heard all along
-the road, except in the greater stretches of wilderness,
-proves them to be numerous; they are, however
-small and thinly populated. The versant, as usual in
-maritime E. Africa, trends towards the Indian Ocean.
-Water abounds even at a distance from the rivers; it
-springs from the soil in diminutive runnels and lies in
-“shimo” or pits, varying from surface-depth to 10 feet.
-The monsoon-rains, which are heavy, commence in
-March, about a month earlier than in Zanzibar, and the
-duration is similar. The climate of the higher lands is
-somewhat superior to that of the valley, but it is still
-hot and oppressive. The formation, after passing from
-the corallines, the limestones, the calcareous tuffs, and
-the rude gravelly conglomerates of the coast, is purely
-primitive and sandstone: erratic blocks of fine black
-hornblende and hornblendic rock, used by the people as
-whetstones and grinding-slabs, abound in the river-beds,
-which also supply the clay used for pottery. The subsoil
-is near the sea a stiff blue loam, in the interior a
-ruddy quartzose gravel; the soil is a rich brown or black
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-103">[103]</span>
-humus, here and there coated with, or varied by, clean
-white sand, and in some parts are seams of reddish loam.
-Fresh-water shells are scattered over the surface, and
-land-crabs burrow in the looser earths where stone
-seldom appears. Black cattle are unknown in the maritime
-region, but poultry, sheep, and goats are plentiful:
-near the jungle they are protected from the leopards or
-ounces by large wooden huts, like cages, raised on piles
-for cleanliness.</p>
-
-<p>As a rule, the fluviatile valleys resemble in most
-points the physical features of the coast and island of
-Zanzibar: the general aspect of the country, however&mdash;the
-expression of its climate&mdash;undergoes some modifications.
-Near the sea, the basin is a broad winding
-line, traversed by the serpentine river, whose bed is
-now too deep for change. About the middle expanse
-stony ridges and rocky hills crop out from the
-rolling ground, and the head of the valley is a low continuous
-plain. In many places, especially near the
-estuary, river-terraces, like road embankments, here converging,
-there diverging, indicate by lines and strews of
-water-worn pebbles and sea-shells the secular uprise of
-the country and the declension of the stream to its present
-level. These raised seabeaches at a distance appear
-crowned with dwarf rounded cones which, overgrown
-with lofty trees, are favourite sites for settlements. In
-the lower lands the jungle and the cultivation are of the
-rankest and most gigantic description, the effect of a
-damp, hot region, where atmospheric pressure is excessive.
-The grass, especially that produced by the black
-soils in the swamps and marshes, rises to the height of
-12-13 feet, and serves to conceal runaway slaves and
-malefactors: the stalks vary in thickness from a goose-quill
-to a man’s finger. The larger growths, which are
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-104">[104]</span>
-so closely planted that they conceal the soil, cannot be
-traversed without paths, and even where these exist the
-traveller must fight his way through a dense screen, receiving
-from time to time a severe blow when the reeds
-recoil, or a painful thrust from some broken and inclined
-stump. Even the horny sole of the sandal-less African
-cannot tread these places without being cut or staked,
-and everywhere a ride through these grass-avenues whilst
-still dripping with the cold exhalations of night, with the
-sun beating fiercely upon the upper part of the body, is
-a severe infliction to any man not in perfect health. The
-beds of streams and nullahs are sometimes veiled by the
-growth of the banks. These crops spring up with the
-rains, and are burned down by hunters, or more frequently
-by accident, after about a month of dry weather;
-in the interim fires are dangerous: the custom is to beat
-down the blaze with leafy boughs. Such is the variety
-of species that in some parts of the river-valleys each day
-introduces the traveller to a grass before unseen. Where
-the inundations lie long, the trees are rare, and those
-that exist are slightly raised by mounds above the ground
-to escape the destructive effects of protracted submergence:
-in these places the decomposed vegetation exhales
-a fetid odour. Where the waters soon subside
-there are clumps of tall shrubbery and seams of forest
-rising on extensive meadows of grassy land, which give
-it the semblance of a suite of natural parks or pleasure-grounds,
-and the effect is not diminished by the frequent
-herds of gnu and antelope prancing and pacing over their
-pastures.</p>
-
-<p>The climate is hot and oppressive, and the daily sea-breeze,
-which extends to the head of the Mgeta valley,
-is lost in the lower levels. About Zungomero rain is
-constant, except for a single fortnight in the month of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-105">[105]</span>
-January; it seems to the stranger as if the crops must
-infallibly decay, but they do not. At most times the
-sun, even at its greatest northern declination, shines
-through a veil of mist with a sickly blaze and a blistering
-heat, and the overcharge of electricity is evidenced
-by frequent and violent thunder-storms. In the western
-parts cold and cutting breezes descend from the rugged
-crags of Dut’humi.</p>
-
-<p>The principal diseases of the valley are severe ulcerations
-and fevers, generally of a tertian type. The
-“Mkunguru” begins with coldness in the toes and
-finger-tips; a frigid shiver seems to creep up the legs,
-followed by pains in the shoulders, severe frontal headache,
-hot eyes, and a prostration and irritability of mind
-and body. This preliminary lasts for one to three
-hours, when nausea ushers in the hot stage: the head
-burns, the action of the heart becomes violent, thirst
-rages, and a painful weight presses upon the eyeballs:
-it is often accompanied by a violent cough and irritation.
-Strange visions, as in delirium, appear to the
-patient, and the excitement of the brain is proved by
-unusual loquacity. When the fit passes off with copious
-perspiration the head is often affected, the ears buzz, and
-the limbs are weak. If the patient attempts to rise
-suddenly, he feels a dizziness, produced apparently by a
-gush of bile along the liver duct: want of appetite,
-sleeplessness and despondency, and a low fever, evidenced
-by hot pulses, throbbing temples, and feet painfully
-swollen, with eruptions of various kinds, and ulcerated
-mouth, usher in the cure. This fever yields easily to
-mild remedies, but it is capable of lasting three weeks.</p>
-
-<p>A multitude of roads, whose point of departure is
-the coast, form a triangle and converge at the “Makutaniro,”
-or junction-place, in Central Uzaramo. The
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-106">[106]</span>
-route whose several stations have been described is
-one of the main lines running from Kaole and Bagamoyo,
-in a general southwest direction, till it falls into
-the great trunk road which leads directly west from
-Mbuamaji. It is divided into thirteen caravan stages,
-but a well-girt walker will accomplish the distance in
-a week.</p>
-
-<p>No apology is offered for the lengthiness of the ethnographical
-descriptions contained in the following pages.
-The ethnology of Africa is indeed its most interesting,
-if not its only interesting feature. Everything connected
-with the habits and customs, the moral and religious,
-the social and commercial state of these new races,
-is worthy of diligent observation, careful description, and
-minute illustration. There is indeed little in the physical
-features of this portion of the great peninsula to excite
-the attention of the reader beyond the satisfaction that
-ever accompanies the victory of truth over fable, and a
-certain importance which in these “travelling times,”&mdash;when
-man appears rapidly rising to the rank of a migratory
-animal,&mdash;must attach to discovery. The subject, indeed,
-mostly banishes ornament. Lying under the same
-parallels with a climate whose thermical variations know
-no extremes, the succession of alluvial valley, ghaut,
-table-land, and shelving plain is necessarily monotonous,
-the soil is the same, the productions are similar, and the
-rocks and trees resemble one another. Eastern and
-central inter-tropical Africa also lacks antiquarian and
-historic interest, it has few traditions, no annals, and no
-ruins, the hoary remnants of past splendour so dear to
-the traveller and to the reader of travels. It contains not
-a single useful or ornamental work, a canal or a dam is,
-and has ever been, beyond the narrow bounds of its
-civilisation. It wants even the scenes of barbaric pomp
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-107">[107]</span>
-and savage grandeur with which the student of occidental
-Africa is familiar. But its ethnography has novelties:
-it exposes strange manners and customs, its Fetichism is
-in itself a wonder, its commerce deserves attention, and
-its social state is full of mournful interest. The fastidiousness
-of the age, however, forbidding ampler details,
-even under the veil of the “learned languages,”
-cripples the physiologist, and robs the subject of its
-principal peculiarities. I have often regretted that if
-Greek and dog-Latin be no longer a sufficient disguise
-for the facts of natural history, human and bestial, the
-learned have not favoured us with a system of symbols
-which might do away with the grossness of words.</p>
-
-<p>The present tenants of the First Region are the
-Wazaramo, the Wak’hutu, and their great sub-tribe, the
-Waziraha; these form the staple of population,&mdash;the
-Wadoe and the Wazegura being minor and immigrant
-tribes.</p>
-
-<p>The Wazaramo are no exception to the rule of barbarian
-maritime races: they have, like the Somal, the
-Gallas, the Wangindo, the Wamakua, and the Cape Kafirs,
-come into contact with a civilisation sufficiently powerful
-to corrupt without subjugating them; and though cultivators
-of the ground, they are more dreaded by caravans
-than any tribe from the coast to the Lake Region. They
-are bounded eastward by the thin line of Moslems in the
-maritime regions, westward by the Wak’hutu, northward
-by the Kingani River, and on the south by the tribes of
-the Rufiji. The Wazaramo, or, as they often pronounce
-their own name, Wazalamo, claim connection with the
-semi-nomade Wakamba, who have, within the last few
-years, migrated to the north-west of Mombasah. Their
-dialect, however, proves them to be congeners of
-the Wak’hutu, and distinct from the Wakamba. As in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-108">[108]</span>
-East Africa generally, it is impossible to form the remotest
-idea of the number of families, or of the total of
-population. The Wazaramo number many sub-tribes,
-the principal of which are the Wákámbá and the Wáp’hangárá.</p>
-
-<p>These negroids are able-bodied men, tall and straight,
-compared with the Coast-clans, but they are inferior in
-development to most of the inner tribes. The complexion,
-as usual, varies greatly. The chiefs are often
-coal-black, and but few are of light colour. This arises
-from the country being a slave-importer rather than
-exporter; and here, as among the Arabs, black skins
-are greatly preferred. The Mzaramo never circumcises,
-except when becoming a “Mháji,” or Moslem convert;
-nor does this tribe generally tattoo, though some adorn
-the face with three long cicatrized cuts, like the Mashali
-of Mecca, extending down each cheek from the ear-lobes
-to the corners of the mouth. Their distinctive mark is
-the peculiarity of dressing their hair. The thick wool
-is plastered over with a cap-like coating of ochreish and
-micaceous clay, brought from the hills, and mixed to
-the consistency of honey with the oil of the sesamum
-or the castor-bean. The pomatum, before drying, is
-pulled out with the fingers to the ends of many little
-twists, which circle the head horizontally, and the mass is
-separated into a single or a double line of knobs, the
-upper being above, and the lower below, the ears, both look
-stiff and matted, as if affected with a bad plica polonica.
-The contrast between these garlands of small red dilberries
-and the glossy black skin is, however, effective. The
-clay, when dry, is washed out with great trouble by
-means of warm water&mdash;soap has yet to be invented&mdash;and
-by persevering combing with the fingers. Women wear
-the hair-thatch like men; there are, however, several
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-109">[109]</span>
-styles. It is usually parted in the centre, from the
-crinal front-line to the nape of the neck, and allowed to
-grow in a single or double dense thatch, ridging the
-head breadthwise from ear to ear: this is coloured or
-not coloured, according to the wearer’s taste. Some of
-the Wazaramo, again, train lumps of their wool to rise
-above the region of cautiousness, and very exactly
-simulate bears’ ears. The face is usually lozenge-shaped,
-the eyes are somewhat oblique, the nose is flat and patulated,
-the lips tumid and everted, the jaw prognathous,
-and the beard, except in a few individuals, is scanty.
-The sebaceous odour of the skin amongst all these races
-is overpowering: emitted with the greatest effect during
-and after excitement either of mind or body, it connects
-the negroid with the negro and separates him from the
-Somal, the Galla, and the Malagash. The expression of
-countenance is wild and staring, the features are coarse
-and harsh, the gait is loose and lounging; the Arab strut
-and the Indian swagger are unknown in East Africa. The
-Wazaramo tribe is rich in albinos; three were seen by the
-Expedition in the course of a single day. They much
-resemble Europeans of the leucous complexion; the
-face is quite bald; the skin is rough, and easily wrinkles
-in long lines, marked by a deeper pink; the hair is
-short, sharp-curling, and coloured like a silk-worm’s
-cocoon, and the lips are red. The eyes have grey
-pupils and rosy “whites:” they appear very sensitive
-to light, and are puckered up so as to distort the countenance.
-The features are unusually plain, and the stature
-appears to range below the average. The people who
-have no prejudice against them, call these leucœthiops
-Wazungu, “white men.”</p>
-
-<p>The Wazaramo tribe is wealthy enough to dress well:
-almost every man can afford a shukkah or loin-cloth of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-110">[110]</span>
-unbleached cotton, which he stains a dirty yellow, like the
-Indian gerua, with a clay dug in the subsoil. Their
-ornaments are extensive girdles and bead necklaces of
-various colours, white disks, made from the base of a
-sea-shell, and worn single on the forehead or in pairs at
-the neck. A massy ring of brass or zinc encircles the
-wrist. The decoration peculiar to the tribe, and common
-to both sexes, is the mgoweko, a tight collar or
-cravat, 1 to 1·50 inches broad, of red and yellow, white
-and black beads, with cross-bars of different colours at
-short intervals. Men never appear in public without
-an ostentatious display of arms. The usual weapons,
-when they cannot procure muskets, are spears, bows,
-and arrows, the latter poisoned, and sime, or long knives
-like the Somali daggers, made by themselves with imported
-iron. The chiefs are generally seen in handsome
-attire; embroidered Surat caps bound with a tight
-snowy turban of a true African shape, which contrasts
-well with black skins and the short double-peaked beards
-below. The body-garment is a loin-cloth of showy Indian
-cotton or Arab check; some prefer the long shirt
-and the kizbao or waistcoat affected by the slaves at
-Zanzibar. The women are well dressed as the men&mdash;a
-circumstance rare in East Africa. Many of them
-have the tibia bowed in front by bearing heavy water-pots
-at too early an age; when not burdened they have
-a curious mincing gate, they never veil their faces, and
-they show no shame in the presence of strangers. The
-child is carried in a cloth at the back.</p>
-
-<p>The habitations of the Wazaramo are far superior in
-shape and size to those of K’hutu, and, indeed, to any
-on this side of Unyamwezi. Their buildings generally
-resemble the humbler sort of English cow-house, or an
-Anglo-Indian bungalow. In poorer houses the outer
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-111">[111]</span>
-walls are of holcus canes, rudely puddled; the better
-description are built of long and broad sheets of Myombo
-and Mkora bark, propped against strong uprights
-inside, and bound horizontally by split bamboos tied outside
-with fibrous cord. The heavy pent-shaped roof
-often provided with a double thatch of grass and reeds,
-projects eaves, which are high enough to admit a man
-without stooping; these are supported by a long cross
-bar resting on perpendiculars, tree-trunks, barked and
-smoothed, forked above, and firmly planted in the
-ground. Along the outer marginal length of this
-verandah lies a border of large logs polished by long
-sittings. The interior is dark and windowless, and
-party-walls of stiff grass-cane divide it into several compartments.
-The list of furniture comprises a dwarf
-cartel about 4 feet long by 16 inches broad, upon which
-even the married couple manages to make itself comfortable;
-a stool cut out of a single block, a huge wooden
-mortar, mtungi or black earthen pots, gourds, ladles of
-cocoa-nut, cast-off clothes, whetstones, weapons, nets, and
-in some places creels for fishing. Grain is ground upon
-an inclined slab of fine-grained granite or syenite, sometimes
-loose, at other times fixed in the ground with a
-mud plaster; the classical Eastern handmill is unknown
-in this part of Africa. The inner roof and its rafters,
-shining with a greasy soot, in wet weather admit drenching
-lines of leakage, and the only artifice applied to the
-flooring is the tread of the proprietors. The door is a
-close hurdle of parallel holcus-straw bound to five or
-six cross-bars with strips of bark. In a village there
-will be from four to twelve “bungalows;” the rest are
-the normal haycock and beehive hut of Africa. Where
-enemies are numerous the settlements are palisaded;
-each has, moreover, but a single entrance, which is approached
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-112">[112]</span>
-by a narrow alley of strong stockade, and is
-guarded by a thick planking that fits into a doorway
-large enough to admit cattle.</p>
-
-<p>The Wazaramo are an ill-conditioned, noisy, boisterous
-violent, and impracticable race. A few years ago they
-were the principal obstacle to Arab and other travellers
-entering into East Africa. But the seizure of Kaole and
-other settlements by the late Sayyid of Zanzibar has
-now given strangers a footing in the land. After tasting
-the sweets of gain, they have somewhat relented; but
-quarrels between them and the caravans are still frequent.
-The P’házi, or chief of the district, demands a
-certain amount of cloth for free passage from all merchants
-on their way to the interior; from those returning
-he takes cattle, jembe, or iron hoes, shokah or
-hatchets, in fact, whatever he can obtain. If not contented,
-his clansmen lie in ambush and discharge a few
-poisoned arrows at the trespassers: they never have
-attempted, like the Wagogo, to annihilate a caravan; in
-fact, the loss of one of their number causes a general
-panic. They have hitherto successfully resisted the little
-armies of touters that have almost desolated K’hutu, and
-they are frequently in hostilities with the coast settlements.
-The young men sometimes set out on secret
-plundering expeditions to Bagamoyo and Mbuamaji, and
-enter the houses at night by mining under the walls.
-The burghers attempt to defeat them by burying stones
-and large logs as a foundation, but in vain: their
-superior dexterity has originated a superstitious notion
-that they possess a peculiar “medicine,” a magic spell
-called “Ugumba,” which throws the household into a
-deep trance. When a thief is caught <i>in flagrante delicto</i>,
-his head soon adorns a tall pole at the entrance of the
-settlement: it is not uncommon to see half a dozen
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-113">[113]</span>
-bloody or bleached fragments of humanity collected in a
-single spot. When disposed to be friendly the Wazaramo
-will act as porters to Arabs, but if a man die his
-load is at once confiscated by his relatives, who, however,
-insist upon receiving his blood-money, as if he had
-been slain in battle. Their behaviour to caravans in
-their own country depends upon the strangers’ strength;
-many trading bodies therefore unite into one before
-beginning the transit, and even then they are never
-without fear.</p>
-
-<p>The Wazaramo chiefs are powerful only when their
-wealth or personal qualities win the respect of their
-unruly republican subjects. There are no less than five
-orders in this hereditary master-class. The P’hazi is the
-headman of the village, and the Mwene Goha is his principal
-councillor; under these are three ranks of elders,
-the Kinyongoni, the Chúmá, and the Káwámbwá. The
-headman, unless exceptionally influential, must divide
-amongst his “ministry” the blackmail extorted from travellers.
-The P’hazi usually fills a small village with
-his wives and families; he has also large estates, and he
-personally superintends the labour of his slave-gangs.
-He cannot sell his subjects except for two offences&mdash;Ugoni
-or adultery, and Ucháwe or black magic. The
-latter crime is usually punished by the stake; in some
-parts of the country the roadside shows at every few
-miles a heap or two of ashes with a few calcined and
-blackened human bones mixed with bits of half-consumed
-charcoal, telling the tragedy that has been enacted
-there. The prospect cannot be contemplated without
-horror; here and there, close to the larger circles where
-the father and mother have been burnt, a smaller heap
-shows that some wretched child has shared their terrible
-fate, lest growing up he should follow in his parents’ path.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-114">[114]</span>
-The power of conviction is wholly in the hands of the
-Mgángá or medicine-man, who administers an ordeal
-called Bága or Kyápo by boiling water. If the hand
-after being dipped show any sign of lesion, the offence
-is proven, and the sentence is instantly carried into execution.</p>
-
-<p>Instinctively conscious of their moral wants, the
-Washenzi throughout this portion of East Africa have
-organised certain customs which have grown to laws.
-The first is the Sáre or brother oath. Like the
-“manred” of Scotland, the “munh bola bhai” of India,
-and similar fraternal institutions amongst most of the ancient
-tribes of barbarians in whom sociability is a passion,
-it tends to reconcile separate interests between man and
-man, to modify the feuds and discords of savage society,
-and, principally, to strengthen those that need an alliance.
-In fact, it is a contrivance for choosing relations instead of
-allowing Nature to force them upon man, and the flimsiness
-of the tie between brothers born in polygamy has
-doubtless tended to perpetuate it. The ceremony, which
-is confined to adults of the male sex, is differently performed
-in the different tribes. Amongst the Wazaramo,
-the Wazegura, and the Wasagara, the two “brothers”
-sit on a hide face to face, with legs outstretched to the
-front and overlapping one another; their bows and
-arrows are placed across their thighs, whilst a third person,
-waving a sword over their heads, vociferates curses
-against any one that may “break the brotherhood.” A
-sheep is then slaughtered, and its flesh, or more often its
-heart, is brought roasted to the pair, who, having made
-with a dagger incisions in each other’s breasts close to
-the pit of the stomach, eat a piece of meat smeared with
-the blood. Among the Wanyamwezi and the Wajiji the
-cut is made below the left ribs or above the knee; each
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-115">[115]</span>
-man receives in a leaf his brother’s blood, which, mixed
-with oil or butter, he rubs into his own wound. An
-exchange of small presents generally concludes the rite.
-It is a strong tie, as all men believe that death or
-slavery would follow its infraction. The Arabs, to whom
-the tasting of blood is unlawful, usually perform it by
-proxy. The slave “Fundi,” or fattori, of the caravans
-become brothers, even with the Washenzi, whenever
-they expect an opportunity of utilising the relationship.</p>
-
-<p>The second custom is more peculiar. The East African
-dares not appropriate an article found upon the road,
-especially if he suspect that it belongs to a fellow tribeman.
-He believes that a “Kigámbo,” an unexpected
-calamity, slavery or death, would follow the breach of
-this custom. At Zungomero a watch, belonging to the
-Expedition, was picked up by the country people in the
-jungle, and was punctually returned, well wrapped round
-with grass and leaves. But subsequent experience makes
-the traveller regret that the superstition is not of a
-somewhat more catholic and comprehensive character.</p>
-
-<p>The religion of the East African will be treated of in
-a future page. The Wazaramo, like their congeners,
-are as little troubled with ceremony as with belief. In
-things spiritual as in things temporal they listen to but
-one voice, that of “Ádá,” or custom. The most offensive
-scoffer or sceptic in Europe is not regarded with
-more abomination than the man who in these lands would
-attempt to touch a jot or tittle of Ádá.</p>
-
-<p>There are no ceremonies on birth-occasions and no
-purification of women amongst these people. In the
-case of abortion or of a still-born child they say, “he
-hath returned,” that is to say, to home in earth. When
-the mother perishes in childbirth, the parents claim a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-116">[116]</span>
-certain sum from “the man that killed their daughter.”
-Neither on the continent nor at Zanzibar do they bind with
-cloth the head of the new-born babe. Twins, here called
-Wápáchá, and by the Arabs of Zanzibar, Shukúl (‏شكول‎)
-are usually sold or exposed in the jungle as amongst the
-Ibos of West Africa. If the child die, an animal is
-killed for a general feast, and in some tribes the mother
-does a kind of penance. Seated outside the village, she
-is smeared, with fat and flour, and exposed to the derision
-of people who surround her, hooting and mocking
-with offensive jests and gestures. To guard against this
-calamity, the Wazaramo and other tribes are in the habit
-of vowing that the babe shall not be shaved till manhood,
-and the mother wears a number of talismans, bits of
-wood tied, with a thong of snake’s skin, round her neck,
-and beads of different shapes round her head. When
-carrying her offspring, which she rarely leaves alone,
-she bears in her hand what is technically called a kirangozi,
-a “guide” or “guardian,” in the form of two sticks
-a few inches in length, bound with bands of particoloured
-beads. This article, made up by the Mgángá or medicine-man,
-is placed at night under the child’s head, and
-is carried about till it has passed the first stage of life.
-The kirangozi is intended to guard the treasure against
-the malevolent spirits of the dead; that almost universal
-superstition, the Evil Eye, though an article of faith
-amongst the Arabs, the Wasawahili, and the Wamrima,
-is unknown to the inner heathen.</p>
-
-<p>A name is given to the child without other celebration
-than a debauch with pombe: this will sometimes occur
-at the birth of a male, when he is wanted. The East
-Africans, having few national prejudices, are fond of
-calling their children after Arabs and other strangers:
-they will even pay a sheep for the loan of a merchant’s
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-117">[117]</span>
-name. There must be many hundred Sayyid Saids and
-Sayyid Majids now in the country; and as during the
-eighteen months’ peregrination of the East African Expedition
-every child born on and near the great trunk-line
-was called Muzungu&mdash;the “white”&mdash;the Englishman
-has also left his mark in the land. The period of ablactation,
-as in South Africa, is prolonged to the second or third
-year: may this account, in part, for the healthiness of the
-young and the almost total absence of debility and deformity?
-Indeed, the nearest approach to the latter is
-the unsightly protrusion of the umbilical region, sometimes
-to the extent of several inches, owing to ignorance
-of proper treatment; but, though conspicuous in childhood,
-it disappears after puberty. Women retain the
-power of suckling their children to a late age, even when
-they appear withered grandames. Until the child can
-walk without danger, it is carried by the mother, not
-on the hip, as in Asia, but on the bare back for warmth,
-a sheet or skin being passed over it and fastened at
-the parent’s breast. Even in infancy it clings like a
-young simiad, and the peculiar formation of the African
-race renders the position easier by providing a kind of seat
-upon which it subsides; the only part of the body exposed
-to view is the little coco-nut head, with the small, round,
-beady black eyes in a state of everlasting stare. Finally,
-the “kigogo,” or child who cuts the two upper incisors
-before the lower, is either put to death, or is given away
-or sold to the slave-merchant, under the impression that
-it will bring disease, calamity, and death into the household.
-The Wasawahili and the Zanzibar Arabs have
-the same impressions: the former kill the child; the latter,
-after a Khitmah or perlection of the Koran, make
-it swear, by nodding its head if unable to articulate,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-118">[118]</span>
-that it will not injure those about it. Even in
-Europe, it may be remembered, the old prejudice against
-children born with teeth is not wholly forgotten.</p>
-
-<p>Amongst the Wazaramo there is no limitation to the
-number of wives, except the expense of wedding and the
-difficulty of supporting a large establishment. Divorce is
-signified by presenting to the wife a piece of holcus-cane:
-if a sensible woman she at once leaves the house, and, if
-not, she is forced to leave. There is no more romance
-in the affair even before marriage than in buying a goat.
-The marriageable youth sends a friend to propose to the
-father: if the latter consents, his first step is, not to
-consult his daughter&mdash;such a proceeding would be
-deemed the act of a madman&mdash;but to secure for himself
-as many cloths as possible, from six to twelve, or
-even more, besides a preliminary present which goes by
-the name of kiremba (kilemba), his “turban.” This,
-however, is a kind of settlement which is demanded
-back if the wife die without issue; but if she bear children,
-it is preserved for them by their grand-parents.
-After the father the mother puts in her claim in behalf
-of the daughter; she requires a kondáví, or broad parti-coloured
-band of beads worn round the waist and next
-the skin; her mukájyá or loin-cloth, and her wereko, or
-sheet in which the child is borne upon the back. In the
-interior the settlement is made in live-stock, varying from
-a few goats to a dozen cows. This weighty point duly
-determined, the husband leads his wife to his own home,
-an event celebrated by drumming, dancing, and extensive
-drunkenness. The children born in wedlock belong
-to the father.</p>
-
-<p>When a man or a woman is at the point of death, the
-friends assemble, and the softer sex sometimes sings,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-119">[119]</span>
-howls, and weeps: the departing is allowed to depart life
-upon the kitanda, or cartel. There is, however, little demonstrative
-sorrow amongst these people, and, having the
-utmost dread of disembodied spirits, all are anxious to
-get rid of the corpse and its appertainings. The Wazaramo,
-more civilised than their neighbours, bury their
-dead stretched out and in the dress worn during life:
-their graves have already been described.</p>
-
-<p>The “industry” of Usaramo will occupy but few sentences.
-Before the great rains of the year set in the
-land must be weeded, and scratches must be made with
-a hoe for the reception of seed. The wet season ushers
-in the period for copal digging: the proceeds are either
-sold to travelling traders, or are carried down to the
-coast in mákándá&mdash;mat-sacks&mdash;of light weight, and
-are sold to the Banyans. Bargaining and huckstering,
-cheapening and chaffering, are ever the African’s highest
-intellectual enjoyments, and he does not fail to stretch
-them to their utmost limits. After the autumnal rains
-during the Azyab, or the north-east monsoon, the grass
-is fired, when the men seizing their bows, arrows, and
-spears, indiscriminately slaughter beast and bird&mdash;an
-operation which, yearly repeated, accounts in part for the
-scarcity of animal life so remarkable in this animal’s
-paradise. When all trades fail, the Mzaramo repairs to
-the coast, where, despite his bad name, he usually finds
-employment as a labourer.</p>
-
-<p>Next in order to the maritime Wazaramo are the
-Wak’hutu, to whom many of the observations upon the
-subject of their more powerful neighbours equally apply.
-Their territory extends from the Mgeta River to the
-mountains of Usagara, and in breadth from the Dut’humi
-Highlands to the Rufiji River.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-120">[120]</span></p>
-
-<p>The Wak’hutu are physically and, apparently, mentally
-a race inferior to the Wazaramo; they are very
-dark, and bear other marks of a degradation effected
-by pernicious climatory conditions. They have no
-peculiar tattoo, although individuals raise complicated
-patterns in small cicatrices upon their breasts. The popular
-head-dress is the clay-coating of the Wazaramo, of
-somewhat modified dimensions; and some of them,
-who are possibly derived from the Wahiao and other
-southern clans, have a practice&mdash;exceptional in these
-latitudes&mdash;of chipping their incisors to sharp points,
-which imitate well enough the armature of the reptilia.
-Their eyes are bleared and red with perpetual intoxication,
-and they seem to have no amusements but
-dancing and singing through half the night. None
-but the wealthier can afford to wear cloth; the substitute
-is a kilt of the calabash fibre, attached by a cord
-of the same material to the waist. In women it often
-narrows to a span, and would be inadequate to the
-purposes of decency were it not assisted by an underclothing
-of softened goatskin; this and a square of
-leather upon the bosom, which, however, is often
-omitted, compose the dress of the multitude. The ornaments
-are like those of the Wazaramo, but by no means
-so numerous. The Wak’hutu live poorly, and, having
-no ghee, are contented with the oil of the sesamum and
-the castor-bean with their holcus porridge. The rivers
-supply them with the usual mud-fish; at times they
-kill game. Their sheep, goats, and poultry they reserve
-for barter on the coast; and, though bees swarm throughout
-the land, and even enter the villages, they will not
-take the trouble to make hives.</p>
-
-<p>As on the Mrima, the proportion of chiefs to subjects
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-121">[121]</span>
-seems to increase in the inverse ratio of what is required.
-Every district in K’hutu has its P’hazi or headman, with
-his minister the Mwene Goha, and inferior chiefs, the
-Chándumé, the Muwinge, and the Mbárá. These men live
-chiefly upon the produce of their fields, which they sell to
-caravans; they are too abject and timid to insist upon
-the blackmail which has caused so many skirmishes in
-Uzaramo; and the only use that they make of their
-power is to tyrannise over their villages, and occasionally
-to organise a little kidnapping. With the aid of slavery
-and black magic they render their subjects’ lives as precarious
-as they well can: no one, especially in old age,
-is safe from being burnt at a day’s notice. They are
-civil to strangers, but wholly unable to mediate between
-them and the tribe. The Wak’hutu have been used as
-porters; but they have proved so treacherous, and so
-determined to desert, that no man will trust them in a
-land where prepayment is the first condition of an
-agreement. Property amongst them is insecure: a man
-has always a vested right in his sister’s children; and
-when he dies his brothers and relations carefully plunder
-his widow and orphans.</p>
-
-<p>The dirty, slovenly villages of the Wak’hutu are an
-index of the character of the people. Unlike the comfortable
-cottages of the coast, and the roomy abodes of
-the Wazaramo, the settlements of the Wak’hutu are composed
-of a few straggling hovels of the humblest description&mdash;with
-doors little higher than an English
-pigsty, and eaves so low that a man cannot enter them
-except on all fours. In shape they differ, some being
-simple cones, others like European haystacks, and others
-like our old straw beehives. The common hut is a circle
-from 12 to 25 feet in diameter; those belonging to the
-chiefs are sometimes of considerable size, and the first
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-122">[122]</span>
-part of the erection is a cylindrical framework composed
-of tall stakes, or the rough trunks of young trees, interwoven
-with parallel and concentric rings of flexible twigs
-and withies, which are coated inside and outside with
-puddle of red or grey clay. In some a second circle of wall
-is built round the inner cylinder, thus forming one house
-within the other. The roof, subsequently added, is of
-sticks and wattles, and the weight rests chiefly upon a
-central tree. It has eaves-like projections, forming a
-narrow verandah, edged with horizontal bars which
-rest upon forked uprights. Over the sticks interwoven
-with the frame, thick grass or palm-fronds are thrown,
-and the whole is covered with a coat of thatch tied on
-with strips of tree bark. During the first few minutes
-of heavy rain, this roofing, shrunk by the parching suns,
-admits water enough to patch the interior with mud.
-The furniture of the cottages is like that of the Wazaramo;
-and the few square feet which compose the area
-are divided by screens of wattle into dark pigeon-holes,
-used as stores, kitchen, and sleeping-rooms. A thick
-field of high grass is allowed to grow in the neighbourhood
-of each village, to baffle pursuers in case of need;
-and some cottages are provided with double doorways
-for easier flight. In the middle of the settlement there is
-usually a tall tree, under which the men lounge upon
-cots scarcely large enough for an English child; and
-where the slaves, wrangling and laughing, husk their
-holcus in huge wooden mortars. These villages can
-scarcely be called permanent: even the death of a chief
-causes them to be abandoned, and in a few months
-long grass waves over the circlets of charred stakes and
-straw.</p>
-
-<p>The only sub-tribe of the Wak’hutu which deserves
-notice is the Waziráhá, who inhabit the low grounds
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-123">[123]</span>
-below the Mabruki Pass, in the first parallel of the Usagara
-Mountains. They are remarkable only for having
-beards somewhat better developed than in the other
-Eastern races: in sickly appearance they resemble their
-congeners.</p>
-
-<p>Remain for consideration the Wadoe and the Wazegura.
-The proper habitat of the Wadoe is between the
-Watondwe or the tribes of Saadani, on the littoral, and
-the Wak’hwere, near K’hutu, on the west; their northern
-frontier is the land of the Wazegura, and their southern
-the Gama and the Kingani Rivers. Their country, irrigated
-by the waters of the Gama, is plentiful in grain,
-though wanting in cattle; they export to Zanzibar sorghum
-and maize, with a little of the chakazi or unripe
-copal.</p>
-
-<p>The Wadoe once formed a powerful tribe, and were
-the terror of their neighbours. Their force was first
-broken by the Wakamba, who, however, so weakened
-themselves, that they were compelled to emigrate in
-mass from the country, and have now fixed themselves
-in a region about 14 marches to the north-west of Mombasah,
-which appears to have been anciently called that
-of the Meremongao. During this struggle the Wadoe
-either began or, what is more likely, renewed a practice
-which has made their name terrible even in African ears.
-Fearing defeat from the Wakamba, they proceeded, in
-presence of the foe, to roast and devour slices from the
-bodies of the fallen. The manœuvre was successful; the
-Wakamba could dare to die, but they could not face the
-idea of becoming food. Presently, when the Wazegura
-had armed themselves with muskets, and the people of
-Whinde had organised their large plundering excursions,
-the Wadoe lost all power. About ten years ago Juma
-Mfumbi, the late Diwan of Saadani, exacted tribute
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-124">[124]</span>
-from them, and after his death his sons succeeded to it.
-In 1857, broken by a famine of long continuance, many
-Wadoe fled to the south of the Kingani River, and obtained
-from the Wazaramo lands near Sagesera and
-Dege la Mhora.</p>
-
-<p>The Wadoe differ greatly in colour and in form.
-Some are tall, well-made, and light-complexioned Negroids,
-others are almost black. Their distinctive mark&mdash;in
-women as well as men&mdash;is a pair of long cuts down
-both cheeks, from the temple to the jaw; they also frequently
-chip away the two inner sides of the upper
-central incisors, leaving a small chevron-shaped hole.
-This however is practised almost throughout the country.
-They are wild in appearance, and dress in softened skins,
-stained yellow with the bark and flowers (?) of the mimosa.
-Their arms are a large hide-shield, spears, bows,
-and arrows, shokah or the little battle-axe, the sime-knife,
-and the rungu or knobstick. They are said still
-to drink out of human skulls, which are not polished or
-prepared in any way for the purpose. The principal
-chief is termed Mweme: his privy councillors are called
-Mákungá (?), and the elders M’áná Miráo (?). The
-great headmen are buried almost naked, but retaining
-their bead-ornaments, sitting in a shallow pit, so that
-the forefinger can project above the ground. With each
-man are interred alive a male and a female slave, the
-former holding a mundu or billhook wherewith to cut
-fuel for his lord in the cold death-world, and the latter,
-who is seated upon a little stool, supports his head in
-her lap. This custom has been abolished by some of
-the tribes: according to the Arabs, a dog is now buried
-in lieu of the slaves. The subdivisions of the Wadoe
-are numerous and unimportant.</p>
-
-<p>The Wazegura, who do not inhabit this line of road,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-125">[125]</span>
-require some allusion, in consequence of the conspicuous
-part which they have played in the evil
-drama of African life. They occupy the lands south
-of the Pangani River to the Cape of Utondwe, and
-they extend westward as far as the hills of Nguru.
-Originally a peaceful tribe, they have been rendered
-terrible by the possession of fire-arms; and their chiefs
-have now collected large stores of gunpowder, used only
-to kidnap and capture the weaker wretches within their
-reach. They thus supply the market of Zanzibar with
-slaves, and this practice is not of yesterday. About
-twenty years ago the Wazegura serfs upon the island,
-who had been cheaply bought during a famine for a few
-measures of grain, rose against their Arab masters, retired
-into the jungle, and, reinforced by malefactors and
-malcontents, began a servile war, which raged with the
-greatest fury for six months, when the governor, Ahmed
-bin Sayf, maternal uncle to His Highness the late Sayyid
-Said, brought in a body of mercenaries from Hazramaut,
-and broke the force of this Jacquerie by setting a
-price upon their heads, and by giving the captives as
-prizes to the captors. The exploits of Kisabengo, the
-Mzegura, have already been alluded to. The Arab merchants
-of Unyanyembe declare that the road will never
-be safe until that person’s head adorns a pole: they
-speak with bitterness of heart, for he exacts an unconscionable
-“blackmail.”</p>
-
-<p>The Wazegura are in point of polity an exception to
-the rule of East Africa: instead of owning hereditary
-sultans, they obey the loudest tongue, the most open
-hand, and the sharpest spear. This tends practically to
-cause a perpetual blood-feud, and to raise up a number
-of petty chiefs, who, aspiring to higher positions, must
-distinguish themselves by bloodshed, and must acquire
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-126">[126]</span>
-wealth in weapons, especially fire-arms, the great
-title to superiority, by slave-dealing. The only occasion
-when they combine is an opportunity of successful attack
-upon some unguarded neighbour. Briefly, the
-Wazegura have become an irreclaimable race, and such
-they will remain until compelled to make a livelihood
-by honest industry.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="container" id="Illoi-4">
-<img src="images/i_illo152.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">EXPLORERS IN EAST AFRICA.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-127">[127]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. V.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">HALT AT ZUNGOMERO, AND FORMATION OF THE CARAVAN.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">I halted to collect carriage and to await the arrival
-of the twenty-two promised porters for about a fortnight
-at that hot-bed of pestilence, Zungomero, where we nearly
-found “wet graves.” Our only lodging was under the
-closed eaves of a hut built African-fashion, one abode
-within the other. The roof was a sieve, the walls were
-systems of chinks, and the floor was a sheet of mud.
-Outside the rain poured pertinaciously, as if K’hutu had
-been situated in the “black north” of Hibernia; the
-periodical S. and S.W. winds were raw and chilling, the
-gigantic vegetation was sopped to decay, and the tangled
-bank of the Mgeta River, lying within pistol-shot of
-our hovels, added its quotum of miasma. The hardships
-of a march in inclement weather had taken effect
-upon the Baloch guard: expecting everything to be
-done for them they endured seven days of wet and
-wind before they could find energy to build a shed, and
-they became almost mutinous because left to make
-shelter for themselves. They stole the poultry of the
-villagers like gipsies, they quarrelled violently with the
-slaves, they foully abused their temporal superior, Said
-bin Salim, and three of the thirteen were accused of
-grossly insulting the women of the Wak’hutu. The
-latter charge, after due investigation, was “not proven:”
-we had resolved, in case of its being brought home,
-severely to flog the culprits or to turn them out of
-camp.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-128">[128]</span></p>
-
-<p>On the 27th July, Sayf bin Salim returned to Dut’humi
-with his gang of thirty slaves, who also had distinguished
-themselves by laying violent hands on sheep,
-goats, and hens. Their patroon had offered to carry
-our baggage half-way over the mountains to Ugogo, for
-a sum of sixty dollars; thinking his conditions exorbitant,
-I stipulated for conveyance the whole way.
-He refused, declaring that he was about to organise
-another journey up-country. I doubted his assertion,
-as he was known to have audaciously defrauded Musa
-Mzuri, an Indian merchant, who had entrusted him
-with a large venture of ivory at Kazeh: yet he spoke
-truth; nearly a year afterwards we met him on his
-march to the “Sea of Ujiji.” During his visit he had
-begged for drugs, tea, coffee, sugar, spices, everything,
-but the stores were already far wasted by the improvidence
-of the Goanese, who seemed to think that they
-were living in the vicinity of a bazar. To punish me
-for not engaging his gang, he caused the desertion of
-nine porters hired at Dut’humi, by declaring that I was
-bearing them into slavery. As they carried off, in
-addition to half their pay, sundry sundries and Muinyi
-Wazira’s sword, I sent three slave-musketeers to recover
-the stolen goods per force if necessary. With respect
-to the cloth, Sayf bin Salim wrote back to say that as I
-could well afford the loss of a few “domestics,” he
-would not compel the fugitives to restore it: at the
-same time that he did himself the honour to return the
-sword, which I might want. This man proved himself
-the sole “base exception” to the hospitality and the
-courteousness of the Omani Arabs. I forwarded an
-official complaint to H. M. the Sayyid Majid, but the
-arm of Zanzibar has not yet reached K’hutu.</p>
-
-<p>At Zungomero five fresh porters were engaged,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-129">[129]</span>
-making up the whole party to a total of 132 souls. They
-were drafted into the men of Muinyi Wazira, whose open
-indulgence in stingo had made his society at meals distasteful
-to Moslem sticklers for propriety. He was an
-able interpreter, speaking five African dialects, which is
-not, however, in these lands a remarkable feat, and
-when sober, he did at first the work of three men. But
-linguists are a dangerous race, as the annals of old India
-prove:&mdash;I doubt a bilingual Eastern man, and if he
-can speak three languages I do not doubt him at all.
-Moreover, true to his semi-servile breed&mdash;his dam
-was a Mzaramo slave, and his sire a half-caste Wawahili&mdash;he
-began well and he finished badly. His deep undying
-fondness for pombe or holcus beer, kept him in
-alternate states of maudlin apathy or of violent pugnacity.
-He had incurred heavy debts upon the coast.
-After his arrival at Unyamwezi, letters were sent urging
-upon the Arabs his instant arrest, but fortunately for
-him the bailiff and the jailor are not, as the venerable
-saying declares the schoolmaster to be, abroad. Muinyi
-Wazira, however, did not sight the Sea of Ujiji in my
-service, and his five messmates, who each received 15
-dollars’ worth of cloth for the journey thither and
-back, were not more fortunate.</p>
-
-<p>Before marching from Zungomero into the mountains
-I will order, for the reader’s inspection, a muster of the
-party, and enlist his sympathies in behalf of the unhappy
-being who had to lead it.</p>
-
-<p>Said bin Salim may pass on: he has been described
-in Blackwood (February, 1858) and he scarcely deserves
-a second notice. He is followed by his four slaves, including
-the boy Faraj, who will presently desert, and
-without including his acting wife, the lady Halimah. That
-young person’s pug-dog countenance and bulky charms
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-130">[130]</span>
-seem to engross every thought not appropriated to
-himself. One day, however, my ears detect the loud
-voice of wail proceeding from the lady Halimah, accompanying
-methinks the vigorous performance of a
-stick; the peccadillo was&mdash;but I eschew scandal and request
-the lady to advance.</p>
-
-<p>My companion’s gun carrier, Seedy Mubarak Bombay,
-a negro from Uhiao, has twice been sketched in Blackwood
-(March, 1858 and September, 1859), he also
-requires no further celebrity. My henchman, Muinyi
-Mabruki, had been selected by his fellow-tribeman
-Bombay at Zanzibar; he was the slave of an Arab
-Shaykh, who willingly let him for the sum of 5 dollars per
-mensem. Mabruki is the type of the bull-headed negro,
-low-browed, pig-eyed, pug-nosed, and provided by nature
-with that breadth and power, that massiveness and muscularity
-of jaw, which characterise the most voracious
-carnivors. He is at once the ugliest and the vainest
-of the party: his attention to his toilette knows no limit.
-His temper is execrable, ever in extremes, now wild
-with spirits, then dogged, depressed, and surly, then
-fierce and violent. He is the most unhandy of men,
-he spoils everything entrusted to him, and presently
-he will be forbidden to engage in any pursuit
-beyond ass-leading and tent-pitching. These worthies
-commenced well. They excited our admiration by
-braving noon-day suns, and by snoring heavily
-through the rawest night with nothing to warm them
-but a few smouldering embers. In an evil hour compassion-touched,
-I threw over their shoulders a pair
-of English blankets, which in the shortest time completely
-demoralised them. They learned to lie a-bed o’
-mornings, and when called up their shrugged shoulders
-and shrinking forms were wrapped tightly round,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-131">[131]</span>
-lest the breath of dawn should visit them too roughly.
-Idleness marked them for her own: messmates and sworn
-brothers; they made at the halt huts out of hail, lest
-they should be called to do work. As a rule, however,
-Englishmen have the art of spoiling Eastern servants:
-we begin with the utmost stretch of exertion, and we
-expect this high pressure system to last. Of course the
-men’s energies are soon exhausted, their indolence and
-apathy contrast with their former activity; we conceive
-dislikes to them, and we end by dismissing them. This,
-however, was not the case with Bombay and Mabruki.
-They returned with us to Zanzibar, and we parted <i>à
-l’aimable</i>, especially with the former, who, after a somewhat
-protracted fit of the “blue devils,” became once
-more, what he before had been, a rara avis in the lands,
-an active servant and an honest man.</p>
-
-<p>Regard for the Indian perusers of these pages, who
-know by experience how “banal” a character is the half-caste
-oriental Portuguese, prevents my offering anything
-but a sketch of Valentine A. and Gaetano B.
-I had hired them at Bombay for Co.’s rs. 20 per
-mensem, besides board and lodging. Scions of that
-half Pariah race which yearly issues from Goa, Daman
-and Diu to gather rupees as “cook boys,” dry-nurses,
-and “buttrels,” in wealthy British India, the
-hybrids had their faults: a pride of caste, and a contempt
-for Turks and heathen, heretics and infidels,
-which often brought them to grief; a fondness for acting
-triton amongst the minnows; a certain disregard for the
-seventh commandment, in the matter of cloth and
-clothes, medicines and provisions; a constitutional repugnance
-to “Signior Sooth;” a wastefulness of other
-men’s goods, and a peculiar tenacity of their own; a deficiency
-of bodily strength and constitutional vigour; a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-132">[132]</span>
-voracity which induced indigestion once a day; and,
-finally, a habit of frequent phlebotomy which, deferred,
-made them sick. They had also their merits. Valentine
-was a good specimen of the neat-handed and
-ready-witted Indian: in the shortest time he learned to
-talk Kisawahili sufficiently for his own purposes, and
-to read a chronometer and thermometer sufficiently for
-ours: he had, however, one blemish, an addiction to
-“fudging,” which rendered the severest overseeing
-necessary. A “Davy do a’ things,” he was as clever at
-sewing a coat as at cooking a curry. Gaetano had a
-curious kind of tenderness when acting nurse, and,
-wonderful to relate, an utter disregard for danger: he
-would return alone through a night-march of jungle to
-fetch his forgotten keys, and would throw himself into
-an excited mob of natives with a fearlessness which,
-contrasted with his weakly body, never failed to turn
-their wrath into merriment. He suffered severely from
-the secondaries of fever, which, in his case, as in his
-master’s, assumed a cerebral form. At Msene he was
-seized with fits resembling epilepsy; and as he seemed
-every month to become more addle-headed and scatter-brained,
-more dirty and untidy, more wasteful and
-forgetful, more loath to work without compulsion, and
-more prone to start and feed the fire with ghee when
-it was the scarcest of luxuries, I could not but attribute
-many of his delinquencies to disease.</p>
-
-<p>The Baloch are now to appear. My little party were
-servants of His Highness the Sayyid Majid of Zanzibar,
-who had detached them as an escort upon the usual
-“deputation-allowance” of ten dollars per mensem.
-They had received the command of their master to
-accompany me wherever I might please to march, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-133">[133]</span>
-they had been rendered responsible to him for the
-safety of my person and property. As has been mentioned,
-Lieut.-Col. Hamerton had advanced to them before
-departure a small sum for outfit, and had promised
-them, on condition of good conduct, an ample reward
-on the part of H. M.’s Government after return to
-Zanzibar. These men were armed with the usual matchlock,
-the Cutch sabre,&mdash;one or two had Damascus
-blades,&mdash;the Indian hide-targe, decorated with its usual
-tinsel, the long khanjar or dagger, extra matches, flints
-and steels, and toshdan, or ammunition pouches, sensibly
-distributed about their persons.</p>
-
-<p>The Jemadar Mallok led from Zanzibar seven warriors
-of fame, yclept severally, Mohammed, Shahdad,
-Ismail, Belok, Abdullah, Darwaysh, and the Seedy Jelai;
-at Kaole he persuaded to follow his fortunes, Khudabakhsh,
-Musa, Gul Mohammed, Riza, and Hudul a
-tailor boy.</p>
-
-<p>The Jemadar Mallok is a monocular, and the Sanscrit
-proverb declares:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Rare a Kana (one-eyed man) is a good man and sound,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">Rare a ladye gay will be faithful found.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">Mallok is no exception to this rule of the “Kana.” He
-is a man with fine Italian features, somewhat disfigured
-by the small-pox: but his one eye never looks you
-“in the face,” and there is an expression about the
-mouth which forbids implicit trust in his honesty. He
-proclaims himself to be somewhat fonder of fighting
-than of feeding, yet suspicious circumstances led me to
-believe that he was one of those whom the Arabs describe
-as “first at the banquet and last at the brawl.”
-He began with a display of zeal and activity which
-died young; he lapsed, through grumbling and discontent,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-134">[134]</span>
-into open insubordination as we progressed westward,
-or from home; he became submissive and somewhat
-servile as we returned to the coast, and when he took
-leave of me he shed a flood of crocodile’s tears.</p>
-
-<p>Mohammed is the Rish Safid, or greybeard of the
-caravan, and without a greybeard no eastern caravan
-considers itself <i>en règle</i>. Of these indispensable veterans
-I had two specimens; but of what use they were,
-except to teach hot youth the cold caution of eld, I
-never could divine,&mdash;<i>vieux soldat, vielle bête</i>. In the civilised
-regiment age is not venerable in the private, as every
-grey hair is a proof that he has not merited or has forfeited
-promotion; so in the East, where there is a paucity
-of competitors in the race of fortune, the Rish Safid
-of humble fortune may be safely set down as a fool or a
-foolish knave, and though his escort is sought, he generally
-proves himself to be no better than he should have
-been.</p>
-
-<p>Mohammed’s body is apparently hard as a rock, his
-mind is soft as putty, and his comrades, disappointed in
-their hopes of finding brains behind those wrinkles,
-derisively compare him to a rotten walnut, and say
-before his face, “What! grey hairs and no wits?” He
-has invested the fifteen dollars advanced to him as outfit
-by Lieut.-Col. Hamerton, in a slave-boy, whom presently
-he will exchange for a slave-girl, despite all the
-inuendoes of his friends. He was at first a manner of
-peace-maker, but soon my refusal to enlist and pay
-his slave as a hired porter acted like Ithuriel’s spear.
-This veteran of fractious temper and miserly habits
-ended, in a question of stinted rations, by drawing his
-sabre upon and cutting at his Jemadar; an offence
-which I was compelled to visit with a bastinado, inflicted
-out of the sight of man by the hand of Khudabakhsh.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-135">[135]</span></p>
-
-<p>Shahdad is the Chelebi of the party, the fast young
-man. He is decidedly not handsome. A figure short
-and <i>trapu</i>, a retrussed nose, small pigs’ eyes, a beard
-like a blackberry bush, and a crop of hair which, projecting
-its wiry waves in a deep long curtain from beneath
-a diminutive scarlet fez, makes his head appear
-top-heavy. Yet he does sad havoc amongst female
-hearts by means of his zeze or guitar, half a gourd with
-an arm to which is attached a single string, and by his
-lively accompaniment is a squeaking falsetto, which is
-here as fascinating and emollient to the sex as ever
-was the organ of Rubini in Europe. During a lengthened
-sojourn at Bombay he has enlarged his mind by the
-acquisition of the Hindostani tongue and of Indian
-trickery. He is almost the only Eastern whom I remember
-that abused the poor letter H like a thoroughbred
-Londoner. His familiarity with Anglo-Europeans,
-and his experience touching the facility of gulling them,
-has induced in him a certain proclivity for peculation,
-grumbling, and mutiny. His brother&mdash;or rather cousin,
-for in these lands all fellow-tribesmen are brethren&mdash;“Ismail”
-is a confirmed invalid, a man with a “broken
-mouth,” deeply sunken cheeks, and emaciated frame,
-who, though earnestly solicited to return eastwards,
-will persist in accompanying the party till he falls a
-victim to a chronic malady in Unyamwezi.</p>
-
-<p>Belok is our snob; a youth of servile origin, with
-coarse features, wide mouth, everted lips, and a pert, or
-rather an impudent expression of countenance, which,
-acting as index to his troublesome character, at once
-prejudices the physiognomist against him. Belok’s
-comrades have reason to quote the Arab saw, “Defend
-me from the beggar become wealthy, and from the slave
-become a freeman!” He has invested his advance of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-136">[136]</span>
-salary in a youth; and the latter serves and works for
-the rest of the mess, who must patiently and passively
-endure the insolence of the master for fear of losing the
-offices of the man. After the fashion of a certain sort
-of fools, he applies the whole of his modicum of wit to
-mischief-making, and he succeeds admirably where
-better men, whose thoughts attempt a wider range,
-would fail. By his exertions the Baloch became, in
-point of social intercourse, not unlike the passengers of
-a ship bound on a long voyage: after the first month
-the society divides itself into two separate and adverse
-cliques; after the second it breaks up into little knots;
-and after the third it is a chequer-work of pairs and
-solitaires. Arrived at the “Pond of Ugogo,” I was
-compelled to address an official letter to Zanzibar, requesting
-the recal of Belok and his coadjutor in mischief,
-Khudabakhsh.</p>
-
-<p>Abdullah is the type of the respectable, in fact, of
-the good young man. It is really pathetic to hear him
-recount, with accents broken by emotion, the “tale full
-of waters of the eye,”&mdash;the parting of an only son, who
-was led away to an African grave, from the aged widow
-his mamma; to listen to her excellent advice, and to his
-no less excellent resolves. He is capable of calling his
-bride elect, were such article a subject ever to be mentioned
-amongst Moslems, “his choicest blessing.” With
-an edifying mingling of piety and discipline, he never
-neglects the opportunity of standing in prayer behind
-the Jemadar Mallok, whose elevation to a superior
-grade&mdash;<i>honneur oblige!</i>&mdash;has compelled him to rub up
-a superficial acquaintance with the forms of devotion.
-Virtue in the abstract I revere; in the concrete I sometimes
-suspect. The good young man soon justified this
-suspicion by repeatedly applying to Said bin Salim for
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-137">[137]</span>
-beads, in my name, which he converted to his own
-purposes.</p>
-
-<p>Of Darwaysh little need be said. He is a youth
-about twenty-two years old, with a bulging brow, a
-pair of ferret-eyes, a “peaky” nose, a thin chin; in
-fact, with a face the quintessence of curiosity. He
-is the “brother”&mdash;that is to say, the spy&mdash;of the
-Jemadar, and his principal peculiarity is a repugnance
-to obeying an order because it is an order. With
-this individual I had at first many a passage of words.
-Presently prostrated in body and mind by severe disease,
-he obtained relief from European drugs; and from
-that time until the end of the journey, he conducted
-himself with a certain stiffness and decorum which contrasted
-pleasantly enough with the exceeding “bounce”
-of his earlier career.</p>
-
-<p>The Seedy Jelai calls himself a Baloch, though palpably
-the veriest descendant of Ham. He resents with
-asperity the name of “Nigger,” or “Nig”&mdash;Jupiter
-Tonans has heard of the offensive dissyllable, which was
-a household word before the days of the Indian mutiny,
-but has he heard of the more offensive monosyllable
-which was forced upon the abbreviating Anglo-Saxon
-by the fatal necessity of requiring to repeat the word
-so frequently? Jelai clothes his long lank legs&mdash;cucumber-shinned
-and bony-kneed&mdash;in calico tights,
-which display the full deformity of those members; and
-taking a pride in the length of his mustachios, which
-distinguishes him from his African-born brethren, he
-twists them <i>en croc</i> like a hidalgo in the days of Gil
-Blas. The Seedy, judging from analogy, ought to be
-brave, but he is not. On the occasion of alarm in the
-mountains of Usagara, he privily proposed to his comrades
-to “bolt” and leave us. Moreover, on the “Sea
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-138">[138]</span>
-of Ujiji,” where he was chosen as an escort, he ignobly
-deserted me.</p>
-
-<p>Khudabakhsh was formed by nature to be the best
-man of the party; he has transformed himself into the
-worst. A man of broad and stalwart frame, with stern
-countenance, and a quietness of demeanour which
-usually argues <i>sang-froid</i> and persistency, his presence
-is in all points soldier-like and prepossessing. But his
-temper is unmanageable: he enters into a quarrel when
-certain of discomfiture; he is utterly reckless,&mdash;on one
-occasion he amused himself by blowing a charge of
-gunpowder into the calves of African warriors who
-were dancing in front of him;&mdash;and lastly, his innate
-propensity for backbiting, intrigue, and opposition to
-all authority, render him a dangerous member of the
-Expedition. He herds with Belok, whose tastes lie in
-the same line: he is the head and front of all mischief,
-and presently his presence will become insupportable.</p>
-
-<p>Musa, a tall, gaunt, and dark-brown old man, is the
-assistant Rish Safid, or greybeard; in fact, the complement
-of “Greybeard Mohammed.” After a residence
-of twenty years at Mombasah, he has clean forgotten
-Persian; he speaks only a debased Mekrani dialect, and
-the Kisawahili, which, as usual with his tribe, he prefers.
-An old soldier, he compensates for want of youth and
-vigour by artfulness; an old traveller&mdash;nothing better
-distinguishes in these lands the veteran of the road
-from the griffin or greenhorn, than the careful and
-systematic consideration of his comforts&mdash;he carries
-the lightest matchlock, he starts in the cool of the
-morning, he presses forward to secure the best quarters,
-and throughout he thinks only of himself. His character
-has a want of wrath, which, despite his white
-hairs, causes him to be little regarded. Greybeard
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-139">[139]</span>
-Mohammed is considered a fool; Greybeard Musa, an
-old woman. Yet he troubles himself little about the
-opinions of his fellows, he looks well after his morning
-and evening meals, his ghee, his pipe, and his sleeping
-mat; and knowing that he will last out all the novices,
-with enviable philosophy he casts ambition to the
-winds.</p>
-
-<p>Gul Mohammed is the most civilised man of the
-party. He has straight and handsome features, of the
-old Grecian type, a reddish-brown skin&mdash;the skin by
-excellence&mdash;and a Central-Asian beard of largest dimensions.
-His mind is as civilised as his body; he is an
-adept after the fashion of his tribe, in divinity especially,
-in medicine and natural history; and when landing
-at Marka, he actually took the trouble to visit, for
-curiosity, the Juba River. Unfortunately, “Gul Mohammed”
-is a mixture of Baloch mountaineer-blood with
-the Sindhian of the plain, and the cross is, throughout
-the East, renowned for representing the worst points of
-both progenitors. Gul Mohammed is brave and treacherous,
-fair-spoken and detractive, honourable and dishonest,
-good-tempered and bad-hearted.</p>
-
-<p>Of the Baloch remain Riza, and Hudul, the tailor-boy:
-the former is a kind of Darwaysh, utterly insignificant,
-but by no means so disagreeable as his fellows:
-the only marking corporeal peculiarity of the latter is
-a deficiency of skin; his mouth appears ever open, and
-his teeth resemble those of an old rabbit. His mental
-organisation has its <i>petite pointe</i>, its little twist; he is
-under the constant delusion that those who speak in
-unknown tongues are employed specially in abusing
-him. His first complaint was against the Goanese: as
-he could not understand a word of their language, it
-was dismissed with some derision; he then charged me
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-140">[140]</span>
-to his comrades with his normal grievance, and in due
-time he felt aggrieved by my companion.</p>
-
-<p>A proper regard to precedence induces me now to
-marshal the “sons of Ramji,” who acted as interpreters,
-guides, and war-men. They were armed with the old
-“Tower-musket,” which, loaded with nearly an ounce
-of powder, they never allowed to quit the hand; and
-with those antiquated German-cavalry sabres which
-find their way over all the East: their accoutrements
-were small leathern boxes, strapped to the waist,
-and huge cow-horns, for ammunition. The most part
-called themselves Muinyi (master), the title of an African
-freeman, because they had been received in pawn by the
-Banyan Ramji from their parents or uncles, who had
-forgotten to redeem the pledge, and they still claimed the
-honour of noble birth. Of these there were eight men
-under their Mtu Mku, or chief man, Kidogo&mdash;Anglicè,
-Mr. Little. Kidogo had preceded the Expedition, escorting
-the detachment of thirty-six Wanyamwezi
-porters to Zungomero, and he possessed great influence
-over his brother slaves, who all seemed to admire and
-to be proud of him. He was by no means a common
-man. “Natione magis quam ratione barbarus;” he had
-a fixed and obstinate determination: amongst these
-puerile, futile African souls he was exceptional as “a
-sage Sciote or a green horse.” His point of honour
-consisted in the resolve that his words should be held
-as Median laws, and he had, as the Africans say, a
-“large head,” namely, abundant self-esteem, that
-blessed quality which makes man independent of his
-fellows. Muinyi Kidogo is a short, thin, coal-black
-person, with a something arguing gentle blood in his
-tribe, the Wadoe Cannibals; he has a peaked beard, a
-bulging brow, close thin lips, a peculiar wall-eyed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-141">[141]</span>
-roll of glance, and a look fixed, when unobserved,
-with a manner of fascination which men felt. His
-attitude is always humble and deprecatory, he drops
-his chin upon the collar of reflection, he rarely speaks,
-save in dulcet tones, low, plaintive, and modulated; yet
-agreeing in every conceivable particular, he never fails
-to introduce a most pertinacious “but,” which brings
-him back precisely to his own starting-point. The
-vehemence of his manner, and the violence of his
-temper, win for him the fears of the porters; having
-a wife and children in Unyamwezi, he knows well the
-languages, the manners, and the customs of the people;
-he never hesitates, when necessary, to enforce his mild
-commands by a merciless application of the staff, or to
-air his blade and to fly at the recusant like a wild cat.
-In such moods, he is always seized by his friends, and
-led forcibly away, as if dangerous. To insure some
-regularity on the road, I ordered him to meet Said bin
-Salim and Muinyi Wazira every evening at my tent,
-for a “Mashauri,” or palaver, about the next day’s march
-and halt. The measure was rendered futile by Kidogo,
-who soon contrived so to browbeat the others, that
-they would not venture an opinion in his presence. As
-a chief, he would have been in the right position; as a
-slave, he was falsely placed, because determined not to
-obey. He lost no time in demanding that he and his
-brethren should be considered Askári, soldiers, whose sole
-duty it was to carry a gun; and he took the first opportunity
-of declaring that his men should not be under the
-direction of the Jemadar. Having received for answer
-that we could not all be Sultans, he retired with a
-“Ngema”&mdash;a “very well,” accompanied by a glance that
-boded little good. From that hour the “sons of Ramji”
-went wrong. Before, servilely civil, they waxed insolent;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-142">[142]</span>
-they learned their power&mdash;without them I must
-have returned to the coast&mdash;and they presumed upon it.
-They assumed the “swashing and martial outside” of
-valiant men: they disdained to be “mechanical;” they
-swore not to carry burdens; they objected to loading
-and leading the asses; they would not bring up articles
-left behind in the camp or on the road; they claimed the
-sole right of buying provisions; they arrogated to themselves
-supreme command over the porters; and they
-pilfered from the loads whenever they wanted the
-luxuries of meat and beer; they drank deep; and on
-more than one occasion they endangered the caravan
-by their cavalier proceedings with the fair sex. It was
-“water-painting” to complain; they had one short
-reply to all objections, namely, the threat of desertion.
-Preferring anything to risking the success of the Expedition,
-I was reduced to the bitter alternative of long-suffering,
-but it was with the hope of a <i>revanche</i> at
-some future time. The suffering was perhaps not
-wholly patient. Orientals advise the traveller “to
-keep his manliness in his pocket for braving it and
-ruffling at home.” Such, however, is not exactly the
-principle or the practice of an Englishman, who recognises
-a primary duty of commanding respect for himself,
-for his successors, and for the noble name of his
-nation. On the return of the Expedition, Kidogo
-proved himself a “serviceable villain,” but an extortionate;
-anything committed to him was, as the Arabs
-say, in “ape’s custody,” and the only remedy was to
-remove him from all power over the outfit.</p>
-
-<p>Under the great Kidogo were the Muinyi Mboni,
-Buyuni, Hayja, and Jako; these four took precedence
-as being the sons of Diwans, whilst the commonalty was
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-143">[143]</span>
-represented by the Muinyi Shehe, Mbaruko, Wulaydi,
-and Khamisi.</p>
-
-<p>The donkey-men, five in number, had been hired at
-the rate of thirty dollars per head for the whole time of
-exploration. Their names were Musangesi, Sangora,
-Nasibu, Hasani, and Saramalla. Of their natures little
-need be said, except that they were a trifle less manageable
-than the “sons of Ramji:” perfect models of servile
-humanity, obstinate as asses and vicious as mules,
-gluttonous and lazy, noisy and overbearing, insolent
-and quarrelsome as slaves.</p>
-
-<p>Lowest in rank, and little above the asses even in their
-own estimation, are the thirty-six Wanyamwezi Pagazi,
-or porters, who formed the transport-corps. Concerning
-these men and their burdens, a few words of explanation
-will be necessary.</p>
-
-<p>In collecting a caravan the first step is to “make,”
-as the people say, a “Khambi,” or kraal. The Mtongi,
-or proprietor of the goods, announces, by pitching his
-tent in the open, and by planting his flag, that he is
-ready to travel; this is done because amongst the
-Wanyamwezi a porter who persuades others to enlist
-does it under pain of prosecution and fine-paying if a
-death or an accident ensue. Petty chiefs, however,
-and their kinsmen will bring with them in hope of promotion
-a number of recruits, sometimes all the male
-adults of a village, who then recognise them as headmen.
-The next step is to choose a Kirangozi or guide.
-Guides are not a peculiar class; any individual of influence
-and local knowledge who has travelled the road before is
-eligible to the post. The Kirangozi must pay his followers
-to acknowledge his supremacy, and his Mganga
-or medicine-man for providing him with charms and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-144">[144]</span>
-prophylactics. On the march he precedes his porters,
-and any one who breaks this rule is liable to a fine.
-He often undergoes abuse for losing the way, for
-marching too far or not far enough, for not halting at
-the proper place, and for not setting out at the right
-time. In return he enjoys the empty circumstance of
-command, and the solid advantage of better food and a
-present, which, however, is optional, at the end of the
-journey: he carries a lighter load, and his emoluments
-frequently enable him to be attended by a slave. The
-only way of breaking the perverse and headstrong herd
-into a semblance of discipline, is to support the Kirangozi
-at all conjunctures, and to make him, if possible,
-dole out the daily rations and portion the occasional
-presents of meat.</p>
-
-<p>At the preliminary Khambi the Mtongi superintends
-the distribution of each Muzigo or load. The Pagazi
-or porters are mostly lads, lank and light, with the lean
-and clean legs of leopards. Sometimes, however, a
-herculean form is found with the bullet-head, the broad
-bull-like neck, the deep wide chest, and the large strong
-extremities that characterise the Hammal of Stamboul.
-There is usually a sprinkling of greybeards, who might
-be expected, as the proverb is, to be “leaning against
-the wall.” Amongst these races, however, the older
-men, who have learned to husband their strength, fare
-better than their juniors, and the Africans, like the
-Arabs, object to a party which does not contain
-veterans in beard, age, and experience. In portioning
-the loads there is always much trouble: each individual
-has his favourite fancy, and must choose, or, at any
-rate, must consent to his burden. To load porters
-properly is a work of skill. They will accept at the
-hand of a man who knows their nature a weight which,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-145">[145]</span>
-if proposed by a stranger, would be rejected with grunts
-of disgust. They hate the inconvenience of boxes,
-unless light enough to be carried at both ends of a
-“Banghi”-pole by one man, or heavy enough to be
-slung between two porters. The burden must never
-be under a fair standard, especially when of that description
-that it decreases by expenditure towards the
-end of the journey; a lightly-laden man not only becomes
-lazy, he also makes his fellows discontented. The
-nature of the load, however, causes an inequality of
-weight. Cloth is tightly rolled up in the form of a
-huge bolster, five feet long by eighteen to twenty-four
-inches in diameter, protected against wear and weather
-by Makanda or coarse matting of brab-leaf, and corded
-over. This bundle is fastened, for the purpose of preserving
-its shape and for convenience of stacking, in a
-cradle of three or more flexible branches, cut from a
-small tree below the place of junction, barked and
-trimmed, laid along the length of the load, and
-confined at the open end by a lashing of fibre-rope.
-Besides his weapons and marching kit, a man will carry
-a pack of two Frasilah or seventy pounds, and this
-perhaps is the maximum. Beads are placed in long,
-narrow bags of domestics, matted, corded, and cradled in
-sticks like cloth; being a less elastic load, they are more
-difficult to carry, and therefore seldom exceed fifty
-pounds. Brass, and other wires, are carried in daur,
-khata, or circles, lashed to both ends of a pole, which is
-generally the large midrib of a palm-frond, with a fork
-cut in its depth at one extremity to form a base for the
-load when stacked, and provided at the point of junction
-with a Kitambara or pad of grass, rag, or leather.
-Wire is the lightest, as ivory is the heaviest, of loads.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-146">[146]</span>
-The African porter will carry only the smallest burdens
-upon his head, and the custom is mostly confined to
-women and children. The merchants of course carry
-nothing but themselves, except in extreme cases; but
-when the sudden sickness or the evasion of a porter
-endangers the safety of his load, they shoulder it without
-hesitation. The chief proprietor usually follows
-his caravan, accompanied by some of his partners and
-armed slaves, to prevent the straggling which may
-lead to heavy loss; he therefore often endures the
-heat and tedium of the road longer than the rest of his
-party.</p>
-
-<p>The loads of the Pagazi, it has appeared, are composed
-of beads, cloth, and wire, which in this land of “round
-trade” or barter, supply the wants of a circulating
-medium, and they severally represent copper, silver,
-and gold. For a detailed notice, the reader is referred
-to the appendix; in this place a few general remarks
-will suffice to set before him the somewhat complicated
-use of the articles.</p>
-
-<p>Of beads there are about 400 varieties, some of which
-have each three or four different names. The cheapest,
-which form the staple of commerce, are the Hafizi,
-Khanyera or Ushanga Waupe, a round white porcelain,
-the price of which averages at Zanzibar 1 dollar per
-5 or 6 lbs. avoirdupois. The most expensive are the
-Samsam or Samesame, also called Joho (scarlet cloth),
-Kimara-p’hamba (food-finishers), because a man will
-part with his dinner to obtain them, and Kifunjyá-mji
-(town-breakers), because the women will ruin themselves
-and their husbands for them: these are the small coral-bead,
-scarlet enamelled upon a white ground, they are of
-fifteen different sizes, and the value at Zanzibar is from
-13 to 16 dollars per 35 lbs. Beads are purchased from
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-147">[147]</span>
-the Banyan monopolisers unstrung, and are afterwards
-mounted by the merchant upon T’hembe, or threads of
-palm-fibre; much depends for success in sale upon the
-regularity and the attractiveness of the line. The
-principal divisions are the bitil and the khete, which
-may represent the farthing and the penny. The former
-is a single length from the tip of the index to the wrist;
-the latter, which comprises four of the former, is a
-double length round the thumb to the elbow-bone, or what
-is much the same, twice the circumference of the throat.
-Ten khete compose the fundo or knot, which is used
-in the larger purchases, and of these from two to three
-were daily expended in our small expenses by the
-Goanese servants, whilst the usual compensation for
-rations to an African is a single khete. The utmost
-economy should be exercised in beads: apparently exhaustless
-a large store goes but a little way, and a man’s
-load rarely outlasts a month. It is difficult to divine
-what becomes of these ornaments: for centuries ton after
-ton has been imported into the country, they are by no
-means perishable substances, and the people carry, like
-the Indians, their wealth upon their persons. Yet not
-a third of the population was observed to wear any considerable
-quantity; possibly the excessive demand in
-the lands outlying direct intercourse with the coast,
-tends to disperse them throughout the vast terra incognita
-of the central African basin.</p>
-
-<p>The African preserves the instincts of infancy in the
-higher races. He astonished the enlightened De Gama
-some centuries ago by rejecting with disdain jewels, gold,
-and silver, whilst he caught greedily at beads and other
-baubles, as a child snatches at a new plaything. To the
-present day he is the same. There is something painfully
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-148">[148]</span>
-ludicrous in the expression of countenance, the intense
-and all-absorbing admiration, and the greedy
-wistfulness with which he contemplates the rubbish.
-Yet he uses it as a toy: after sacrificing perhaps his
-goat or his grain to become the happy possessor of a
-khete, he will hang it round his neck for a few days,
-and then, child-like, weary of the acquisition, he will do
-his best to exchange it for another. In all bargains
-beads must be thrown in, especially where women are
-concerned: their sisters of civilisation would reproach
-themselves with an unconscious lapse into the “nil admirari”
-doctrines so hateful to the muscular system of
-the age, and with a cold indifference to the charms of diamonds
-and pearls, could they but witness the effect of a
-string of scarlet porcelains upon the high-born dames in
-Central Africa.</p>
-
-<p>The cloths imported into East Africa are of three
-kinds, Merkani, Kaniki, and “cloths with names.”</p>
-
-<p>“Merkani,” in which we detect the African corruption
-of American, is the article “domestics”&mdash;unbleached
-shirting and sheeting from the mills near Salem. Kaniki,
-is the common Indian indigo dyed cotton. “Cloths
-with names,” as they are called by the Africans, are
-Arab and Indian checks, and coloured goods, of cotton
-or silk mixed with cotton. Of these the most common
-is the Barsati, a dark blue cotton cloth with a broad
-red stripe, which representing the dollar in the interior
-is useful as presents to chiefs. Of double value is the
-Dabwani, made at Maskat, a small blue and white check,
-with a quarter breadth of red stripe, crossed with white
-and yellow: this showy article is invariably demanded
-by the more powerful Sultans for themselves and their
-wives, whilst they divide the Merkani and Kaniki,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-149">[149]</span>
-which composes their Honga&mdash;“blackmail” or dash&mdash;amongst
-their followers.</p>
-
-<p>The people of East Africa, when first visited by the
-Arabs, were satisfied with the coarsest and flimsiest
-Kaniki imported by the Banyans from Cutch. When
-American merchants settled at Zanzibar, Kaniki yielded
-before the advance of “Merkani,” which now supplies
-the markets from Abyssinia to the Mozambique. But
-the wild men are fast losing their predilection for a
-stuff which is neither comfortable nor durable, and in
-many regions the tribes satisfied with goat-skins and
-tree barks, prefer to invest their capital in the more attractive
-beads and wire. It would evidently be advantageous
-if England or her colonies could manufacture
-an article better suited to the wants of the country than
-that now in general use; but as long as the Indian
-short-stapled cotton must be used, there is little probability
-of her competing with the produce of the New
-World.</p>
-
-<p>In Eastern Africa cotton cloth is used only for wear.
-The popular article is a piece of varying breadth but
-always of four cubits, or six feet, in length: the braça of
-Portuguese Africa, it is called by the Arabs, shukkah,
-by the Wasawahili, unguo, and in the far interior
-upande or lupande. It is used as a loin-wrapper, and is
-probably the first costume of Eastern Africa and of
-Arabia. The plate borrowed from Montfaucon’s edition
-of the “Topographia Christiana,” by Dr. Vincent (Part
-I. Appendix to the Periplus) shows the Shukkah, to be
-the general dress of Ethiopians, as it was of the Egyptians,
-and the spear their weapon. The use of the Shukkah
-during the Meccan pilgrimage, when the devotees cast
-off such innovations as coats and breeches for the national
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-150">[150]</span>
-garb of their ancestors, proves its antiquity
-throughout the regions eastward of the Red Sea. On
-the African coast the Shukkah Merkani is worth about
-0·25 dollars = 1<i>s.</i> 0<sup>1</sup>&#8260;<sub>2</sub><i>d.</i>, in the interior it rises to the
-equivalent of a dollar (4<i>s.</i> <i>2d.</i>) and even higher. The
-Kaniki is but little cheaper than the Merkani, when
-purchased upon the sea-board; its increase of value in
-the interior, however, is by no means in proportion to
-its prime cost, and by some tribes it is wholly rejected.
-A double length of Shukkah, or twelve feet, the article
-worn by women who can afford it, is called a Doti, and
-corresponds with the Tobe of Abyssinia and of the
-Somali country. The whole piece of Merkani, which
-contains from seven to eleven Doti, is termed a Jurah
-or Gorah.</p>
-
-<p>After beads and piece-goods, the principal imports into
-Eastern Africa, especially on the northern lines and in
-the western portion of the great central route, are
-Masango or brass wires of large sizes, Nos. 4 and 5.
-They are purchased at Zanzibar, when cheap, at 12,
-and when dear at 16, dollars per Frasilah of 35 lbs.
-When imported up-country the Frasilah is divided
-into three or four large coils, called by the Arabs
-“daur,” and by the Africans “khata:” the object is
-convenience of attachment to the porters’ banghy-poles.
-Arrived at Unyanyembe they are converted by artisans
-into the kitindi, or coil-bracelet, a peculiarly African
-decoration. It is a system of concentric circles extending
-from the wrist to the elbow; at both extremities it
-is made to bulge out for grace and for allowing the
-joints to play; and the elasticity of the wire keeps it in
-its place. It weighs nearly 3 lbs., yet&mdash;“vanity knows
-no sore”&mdash;the women of some tribes will wear four of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-151">[151]</span>
-these bulky decorations upon their arms and legs. It
-is mostly a feminine ornament. In the Lake Regions,
-however, men assume the full-sized armlet, and in the
-mountains of Usagara their wrists, arms, and ankles
-are often decorated with half and quarter lengths, which
-being without terminal bulges, appear to compress the
-limbs painfully. At Unyanyembe the value of a
-kitindi varies from two to four shukkah; at Ujiji,
-where the ornament is in demand it rises to four or
-five.</p>
-
-<p>The remainder of the live stock forming the <i>personnel</i>
-of the caravan is composed of asses. At Zanzibar I
-had bought five riding animals to mount the chiefs of the
-party, including Said bin Salim and the Goanese. The
-price varied from fifteen to forty dollars. Of the twenty-nine
-asses used for carriage, only twenty remained
-when the muster was made at Zungomero, and the rapid
-thinning of their numbers by loss, death and accident
-began to suggest uncomfortable ideas.</p>
-
-<p>The following “Equipment of the Expedition,” sent
-by me to Mr. Francis Galton, the South African traveller,
-and bearing date, “Camp Zungomero in Khutu,
-Sunday, 2nd August, 1857,” is here republished: it
-will assist the reader in picturing to himself the mass
-of material which I am about to drag over the mountains.</p>
-
-<p><i>Provisions, &amp;c.</i>&mdash;1 dozen brandy (to be followed by
-4 dozen more); 1 box cigars; 5 boxes tea (each 6
-lbs.); a little coffee; 2 bottles curry stuff, besides
-ginger, rock and common salt, red and black pepper, one
-bottle each, pickles, soap, and spices; 20 lbs. pressed
-vegetables; 1 bottle vinegar; 2 bottles oil; 20 lbs.
-sugar (honey is procurable in the country).</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-152">[152]</span></p>
-
-<p><i>Arms and Ammunition</i>, including 2 smooth bores, 3
-rifles, a Colt’s carbine, and 3 revolvers, spare fittings,
-&amp;c., and 3 swords. Each gun has its leather bag
-with three compartments, for powder-flask, ball, caps,
-patches, &amp;c. 100 lbs. gunpowder (in 2 safety copper
-magazines and others); 60 lbs. shot; 380 lbs. lead
-bullets, cast of hardened material at the Arsenal, Bombay,
-placed in boxes 40 lbs. each for convenience of
-carriage, also to serve as specimen boxes, and screwed
-down to prevent pilfering; 20,000 copper caps; wadding.</p>
-
-<p>The Baloch are armed with matchlocks, shields,
-swords, daggers and knives. They have for ammunition&mdash;40
-lbs. gunpowder (4 kegs); 1000 lead bullets;
-1000 flints for slaves’ muskets, and are to be followed by
-about an equal quantity of ammunition.</p>
-
-<p><i>Camp Furniture.</i>&mdash;1 sepoy’s rowtie; 1 small (gable-shaped)
-tent of two sails joined, to cover and shelter
-property in this land of perpetual rains; 1 table and
-chair; 1 tin Crimean canteen, with knives and forks,
-kettle, cooking-pots, &amp;c.; bedding, painted tarpaulin cover,
-2 large cotton pillows for stuffing birds, 1 air pillow, 2
-waterproof blankets (most useful), 1 Maltese blanket
-(remarkably good), and 2 other blankets; 1 cork bed,
-with 2 pillows, 3 blankets, and mosquito net. The
-Goanese have thick cotton padded mattresses, pillows,
-and blankets, and all the servants have some kind of bedding.
-3 solid leather portmanteaus for clothes and
-books; 1 box, like an Indian petarah, for books; 1
-patent leather bag for books, washing materials, diaries,
-drawing-books, &amp;c.; 1 small couriers’ bag, for instruments,
-&amp;c.; 5 canvas bags for kit generally; 3 mats,
-used as carpets.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-153">[153]</span></p>
-
-<p><i>Instruments.</i>&mdash;1 lever watch; 2 chronometers; 2
-prismatic compasses, slings, and stands; 1 ship’s azimuth
-compass; 2 pocket compasses; 1 pocket thermometer;
-1 portable sun-dial; 1 rain gauge; 1 evaporating
-dish; 2 sextants and boxes, with canvas bags
-to be slung over porters’ shoulders; 2 artificial horizons
-(with a little extra mercury, to be followed by more);
-1 pocket lens; 1 mountain barometer lent by Bombay
-Geographical Society (very delicate); 3 thermometers;
-1 measuring tape (100 ft.); 1 sounding lead; 2 boiling
-thermometers; 1 box of mathematical instruments;
-1 glass; 1 telescope; 2 ft. rule with brass slide; 1
-pocket pedometer by Dixie; 1 parallel ruler.</p>
-
-<p><i>Stationery.</i>&mdash;Foolscap paper; 1 ream common paper;
-6 blank books; 3 Letts’ diaries; 2 dozen pencils; 6
-pieces caoutchouc; 6 metallic note books; 3 memorandum
-ditto; 1 box wafers and sealing wax; 2 field
-books; steel pens; quill ditto; ink powder which makes
-up well without acid; 3 bottles ink; 1 bottle native
-ink; 2 sets meteorological tables, blank; 4 tin cylinders
-for papers (very bad, everything rusts in them);
-Nautical Almanacs for 1857 and 1858; charts, Mr.
-Cooley’s maps; “Mombas mission map”; skeleton maps;
-table of stars; account book; portfolio; wooden and tin
-cylinders for pens, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p><i>Tools.</i>&mdash;1 large turnscrew; 1 hand saw; 1 hammer;
-20 lbs. nails; 1 hand vice; 1 hone; 9 hatchets (as a
-rule every porter carries an axe); 2 files; 9 Jembe or
-native hoe; 9 Mas’ha or native dibbles; 1 cold chisel;
-1 heavy hammer; 1 pair pincers. To be followed by
-1 bench vice; 1 hand ditto; 12 gimlets of sizes; 1
-18-inch stone grinder, with spindle and handle; 6 splitting
-axes; 12 augers of sizes; 2 sets centre-bits, with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-154">[154]</span>
-stock; 12 chisels; 4 mortise chisels; 2 sets drills; 24
-saw files; 6 files of sorts; 4 gouges of sizes; 50 lbs.
-iron nails; 2 planes, with 2 spare irons; 3 hand saws;
-screws. These things were expected to be useful at the
-lakes, where carpenters are in demand.</p>
-
-<p><i>Clothing, Bedding, and Shoes.</i>&mdash;Shirts, flannel and
-cotton; turbans and thick felt caps for the head. (N.B.
-not looking forward to so long a journey, we left Zanzibar
-without a new outfit; consequently we were in tatters
-before the end, and in a climate where flannel fights half
-the battle of life against death, my companion was compelled
-to invest himself in overalls of American domestics,
-and I was forced to cut up blankets into coats
-and wrappers. The Goanese also had laden themselves
-with rags which would have been refused by a Jew;
-they required to be re-clothed in Kaniki, or blue
-cotton. African travel is no favourable opportunity for
-wearing out old clothes; the thorny jungles, and the
-practice of packing up clothes wet render a double outfit
-necessary for long journeys. The second should be
-carried packed up in tin&mdash;flannel-shirts, trousers and
-stocks, at least six of each,&mdash;not to be opened till required.</p>
-
-<p>The best bedding in this country would be a small
-horsehair mattrass with two blankets, one thick the
-other thin, and mosquito curtains that would pack into
-the pillow. A simple carpet-bag without leathern or
-other adjuncts, should contain the travelling clothes,
-and all the bedding should roll up into a single bundle,
-covered with a piece of waterproof canvass, and tightly
-bound with stout straps.</p>
-
-<p>As regards shoes, the best would be ammunition
-boots for walking and jack boots for riding. They
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-155">[155]</span>
-must be of light colour, and at least one size too large
-in England; they should be carefully protected from
-external air which is ruinous to leather, and they must
-be greased from time to time,&mdash;with fat not with oil&mdash;otherwise
-they will soon become so hard and dry, that
-it is impossible to draw them on unless treated after the
-Indian plan, viz. dipped in hot water and stretched
-with a stuffing of straw.)</p>
-
-<p><i>Books and Drawing Materials.</i>&mdash;Norie; Bowdich;
-Thompson’s ‘Lunar Tables;’ Gordon’s ‘Time Tables;’
-Galton’s ‘Art of Travel;’ Buist’s ‘Manual of Observation;’
-Jackson’s ‘What to Observe;’ Jackson’s ‘Military
-Surveying;’ ‘Admiralty Manual;’ Cuvier’s ‘Animal
-Life;’ Prichard’s ‘History of Man;’ Keith’s ‘Trigonometry;’
-Krapf’s ‘Kisuaheli Grammar;’ Krapf’s
-‘Kinika Testament;’ Amharic Grammar (Isenberg’s);
-Belcher’s ‘Mast Head Angles;’ Cooley’s ‘Geography of
-N’yassi;’ and other miscellaneous works; 1 paint-box
-complete, soft water colours; 1 small ditto, with Chinese
-ink, sepia and Prussian blue; 2 drawing books; 1 large
-drawing book; 1 camera lucida.</p>
-
-<p><i>Portable domestic Medicine Chest.</i>&mdash;Vilely made.
-Some medicines for natives in packages. Application
-was made to Zanzibar for more quinine, some morphia,
-Warburg’s drops, citric acid, and chiretta root.</p>
-
-<p><i>Miscellaneous.</i>&mdash;10 pieces scarlet broad-cloth for presents
-(3 expended); 3 knives for servants; 4 umbrellas;
-1 hank salmon gut; 1 dozen twisted gut; 1 lb. bees’
-wax; courier’s box with brass clasps to carry sundries
-on the road; 2 dozen penknives; 2000 fishing hooks;
-42 bundles fishing line; 2 lanterns (policeman’s bull’s
-eye and common horn); 2 iron ladles for casting lead;
-1 housewife, with buttons, needles, thread, silk, pins, &amp;c.;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-156">[156]</span>
-12 needles (sailor’s) and palms; 2 pair scissors; 2 razors;
-1 hone; 2 pipes; 1 tobacco pouch; 1 cigar case; 7
-canisters of snuff; 1 filter; 1 pocket filter; 1 looking-glass;
-1 small tin dressing-case, with soap, nail-brush
-and tooth-brush (very useful); brushes and combs;
-1 union jack; arsenical paste for specimens; 10 steels
-and flints.</p>
-
-<p>Life at Zungomero I have said was the acme of discomfort.
-The weather was, as usual at the base of the
-mountains, execrable; pelting showers descended in a
-succession, interrupted only by an occasional burst of fiery
-sunshine which extracted steam from the thick covert
-of grass, bush, and tree. The party dispersing throughout
-the surrounding villages, in which it was said about
-1000 travellers were delayed by the inundations, drank
-beer, smoked bhang, quarrelled amongst themselves, and
-by their insolence and violence caused continual complaints
-on the part of the villagers. Both the Goanese
-being prostrated with mild modifications of “yellow
-jack,” I was obliged to admit them into the hut, which
-was already sufficiently populated with pigeons, rats, and
-flies by day, and with mosquitos, bugs, and fleas, by
-night. At length weary of waiting the arrival of the
-twenty-two promised porters, we prepared our papers,
-which I committed to the confidential slave of a coast
-Diwan, here dwelling as caravan-touter, for his uncle
-Ukwere of Kaole. His name was somewhat peculiar,
-Chomwi la Mtu Mku Wambele, or the “Headman Great
-Man of Precedence;”&mdash;these little Jugurthas have all
-the titles of emperors, with the actual power of country
-squires;&mdash;he never allowed himself to appear in public
-sober, and to judge from the list of stations with which
-he obliged me&mdash;of eighteen not one was correct&mdash;I hesitated
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-157">[157]</span>
-to entrust his slave with reports and specimens.
-But the Headman Great Man of Precedence did as he
-promised to do, and as his charge arrived safely, I here
-make to him the “amende honorable.”</p>
-
-<div class="container w40em" id="Illoi-9">
-
-<img src="images/i_illo183.jpg" alt="" />
-
-<div class="split5050">
-
-<div class="left5050">
-<p class="caption">A village in K’hutu.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="right5050">
-<p class="caption">The Silk Cotton Tree.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="thinline allclear">&nbsp;</p>
-
-</div><!--split5050-->
-
-</div><!--container-->
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-158">[158]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w40em" id="Illoi-10">
-<img src="images/i_illo184.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">Sycomore in the Dhun of Ugogi.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. VI.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">WE CROSS THE EAST AFRICAN GHAUTS.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">On the 7th August, 1857, the Expedition left Zungomero.
-We were martyred by miasma; my companion and I
-were so feeble, that we could scarcely sit our asses, and
-weakness had almost deprived us of the sense of hearing.
-It was a day of severe toil. We loaded with
-difficulty, for the slaves and porters did not assemble
-till past 8 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, and instead of applying for their loads
-to Said bin Salim, every man ran off with the lightest
-burden or the easiest ass.</p>
-
-<div class="container" id="Illoi-5">
-<img src="images/i_illo185.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">THE EAST AFRICAN GHAUTS.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-159">[159]</span></p>
-
-<p>From Central Zungomero to the nearest ascent of the
-Usagara Mountains is a march of five hours. The route,
-emerging from the cultivated districts, leaves to the
-right the Wigo Hills, so called, probably, from the fishing
-weirs in the stagnant waters below, and in the
-Mgeta River, which flows through the plain. On the
-left, and distant four or five miles, is a straggling line
-of low cones: at the foot of one, somewhat larger than
-its neighbours, rises the thermal spring known to the
-people as the Maji ya W’heta, the Geyser, jetting-water,
-or <i>fontaine qui bouille</i>. Its position is a gentle slope
-between the hill-base and a dwarf Savannah which is
-surrounded by high walls of jungly forest, and the water-shed
-is from south to north. The hot water boils and
-bubbles out of a white sand, here and there stained and
-encrusted with oxide of iron. Upon the surface lie
-caked and scaly sheets of calcareous tufa, expressed by
-the spring, and around it are erratic boulders blackened
-probably by the thermal fumes. The earth is dark,
-sometimes sandy, and sprinkled over with fragments of
-quartzite and sandstone; in other places a screen of brab-tree
-backs a bold expanse of ground, treacherous, boggy,
-and unstable as water. The area is about 200 feet in
-diameter, and the centre of ebullition is unapproachable,
-owing to the heat and the instability of the soil. According
-to the guides, it is subject to occasional eruptions,
-when the water bursts out with violence, and
-fragments of lime are flung high in the air. Animals
-are said to refuse it, and tales are told of wild beasts
-having been bogged in the seething mire.</p>
-
-<p>With the Mgeta thrown on the left hand, we passed
-by a path almost invisible, through dense grass and
-trees, and presently we entered the luxuriant cultivation
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-160">[160]</span>
-surrounding the westernmost villages of K’hutu.
-As the land beyond this point, for three long marches,
-lies barren, the slaves and porters had comfortably
-housed themselves. The prospect of another night in
-the plains made me desperate; I dislodged them, and
-persuaded them to advance once more. The settlements
-were of the most miserable description; many
-were composed of a few sticks lashed together at the top,
-and loosely covered with a few armfuls of holcus-cane.
-Here we sighted the cocoa-tree for the last time. The
-rats were busy in the fields, and the plundered peasants
-were digging them out for food. At almost every
-corner of the deeply-pitted path stood a mtego, or trap
-for small birds, a cage of rush or split bamboo planted
-in the ground near some corn, where a boy lies waiting
-till the prey nibbles at the bait, and then creeping up, bars
-with his hand the little doorway left in one of the sides.
-Beyond the villages the path forded six times the sandy
-bed of the Mgeta, whose steep and slippery banks supported
-dense screens of shrub and grass. Beyond the
-sixth passage, the road falls into the gravelly river-shoals,
-with the stream flowing in the other half of the
-course, under well-wooded masses of primitive hill.
-After again thrice fording the cold and muddy water,
-which even in the dry season is here ankle, there foot-deep,
-the road passed some clearings where porcupines
-and the African red squirrel, a sturdy little animal,
-with a long thick fur of dark brown, shot with green
-on the back, and a bright red waistcoat, muzzle, and
-points, were observed. About noon we diverged a few
-yards from the Mgeta, and ascended the incline of the
-first gradient in Usagara, rising about 300 feet from
-the plain below. This, the frontier of the second region,
-or ghauts, and the debris encumbering the lowest
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-161">[161]</span>
-escarpment, is called Mzizi Mdogo, or the “Little Tamarind,”
-to distinguish it from the “Great Tamarind”
-station which lies beyond. There was no vestige of
-building upon the spot&mdash;no sight nor sound of man&mdash;the
-blood-feud and the infernal slave-trade had made a
-howling desert of the land. We found, however, a
-tattered kraal erected by the last passing caravan, and,
-spent with fatigue, we threw ourselves on the short grass
-to rest. The porters and the asses did not appear till
-the evening, when it became apparent that two of the
-latter had been lost by their drivers, Hayja and Khamisi,
-sons of Ramji, who preferred sitting in the
-shade, and chatting with passing caravans, to the sore
-task of doing their duty. The animals were recovered
-on the morrow, by sundry parties sent in search. During
-the fordings of the Mgeta, however, they had not been unpacked;
-our salt and sugar, therefore, had melted away;
-soap, cigars, mustard, and arsenical paste, were in pulp;
-the tea was spoiled, the compressed vegetables presently
-became musty, and the gunpowder in a fire-proof copper
-magazine was caked like stale bread.</p>
-
-<p>There was a wondrous change of climate at Mzizi
-Mdogo; strength and health returned as if by magic;
-even the Goanese shook off the obstinate bilious remittents
-of Zungomero. Truly delicious was the escape
-from the nebulous skies, the fog-driving gusts, the pelting
-rain, the clammy mists veiling a gross growth of
-fetor, the damp raw cold, rising as it were from the
-earth, and the alternations of fiery and oppressive
-heat; in fact, from the cruel climate of the river-valley,
-to the pure sweet mountain-air, alternately soft and
-balmy, cool and reviving, and to the aspect of clear
-blue skies, which lent their tints to highland ridges
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-162">[162]</span>
-well wooded with various greens. Dull mangrove, dismal
-jungle, and monotonous grass, were supplanted by
-tall solitary trees, amongst which the lofty tamarind
-rose conspicuously graceful, and a card-table-like
-swamp, cut by a network of streams, nullahs, and stagnant
-pools, gave way to dry healthy slopes, with short
-steep pitches, and gently shelving hills. The beams of
-the large sun of the equator&mdash;and nowhere have I seen
-the rulers of night and day so large&mdash;danced gaily upon
-blocks and pebbles of red, yellow, and dazzling snowy
-quartz, and the bright sea-breeze waved the summits
-of the trees, from which depended graceful llianas, and
-wood-apples large as melons, whilst creepers, like vine
-tendrils, rising from large bulbs of brown-grey wood,
-clung closely to their stalwart trunks. Monkeys played at
-hide-and-seek, chattering behind the bolls, as the iguana,
-with its painted scale-armour, issued forth to bask upon
-the sunny bank; white-breasted ravens cawed when disturbed
-from their perching-places; doves cooed on the
-well-clothed boughs, and hawks soared high in the transparent
-sky. The field-cricket chirped like the Italian
-cigala in the shady bush, and everywhere, from air,
-from earth, from the hill slopes above, and from the
-marshes below, the hum, the buzz, and the loud continuous
-voice of insect life, through the length of the
-day, spoke out its natural joy. Our gipsy encampment
-lay</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“By shallow rivers, to whose falls<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">Melodious birds sing madrigals.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p>By night, the soothing murmurs of the stream at the
-hill’s base rose mingled with the faint rustling of the
-breeze, which at times broken by the scream of the night-heron,
-the bellow of the bull-frog in his swampy home, the
-cynhyæna’s whimper, and the fox’s whining bark, sounded
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-163">[163]</span>
-through the silence most musical, most melancholy. Instead
-of the cold night rain, and the soughing of the blast,
-the view disclosed a peaceful scene, the moonbeams lying
-like sheets of snow upon the ruddy highlands, and the
-stars hanging like lamps of gold from the dome of infinite
-blue. I never wearied with contemplating the
-scene, for, contrasting with the splendours around me,
-still stretched in sight the Slough of Despond, unhappy
-Zungomero, lead-coloured above, mud-coloured below,
-wind-swept, fog-veiled, and deluged by clouds that
-dared not approach these Delectable Mountains.</p>
-
-<p>During a day’s halt at this sanitarium fresh diversions
-agitated the party. The Baloch, weary of worrying one
-another, began to try their ’prentice hands upon the
-sons of Ramji, and these fortified by the sturdy attitude
-of Muinyi Kidogo, manfully resolved to hold their own.
-The asses fought throughout the livelong night, and,
-contrary to the custom of their genus, strayed from one
-another by day. And as,</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“When sorrows come, they come not single spies,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">But in battalions,”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">Said bin Salim, who hated and was hated by the Baloch,
-on account of their divided interests, began to hate
-and to be hated by the sons of Ramji. His four
-children, the most ignoble of their ignoble race, were
-to him as the apples of his eyes. He had entered
-their names as public porters, yet, with characteristic
-egotism and self-tenderness, he was resolved that they
-should work for none but their master, and that even in
-this their labour should as much as possible fall upon
-the shoulders of others. His tent was always the first
-pitched and his fire the first built; his slaves were rewarded
-with such luxuries as ghee, honey, and turmeric,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-164">[164]</span>
-when no one in camp, ourselves included, could procure
-them. When all wanted clothes he clad his children
-out of the outfit as if it had been his own, and, till
-strong remonstrances were made, large necklaces of
-beads decked their sooty necks. On the return-march
-he preferred to pay hire for three porters rather than to
-allow the fat lazy knaves to carry a bed or a few gourds.
-They became of course insolent and unmanageable&mdash;more
-than once they gave trouble by pointing their muskets
-at the Baloch and the porters, and they would draw
-their knives and stab at a man who refused to give up his
-firewood or his hearth-stones, without incurring a word of
-blame from their master. Encouraged by impunity they
-robbed us impudently; curry-stuff was soon exhausted,
-the salt-bottles showed great gaps, and cigar-ends were
-occasionally seen upon the road-side. The Goanese accused
-the slaves, and the slaves the Goanese; probably
-both parties for once spoke the truth.</p>
-
-<p>Said bin Salim’s silly favouritism naturally aroused
-the haughty Kidogo’s bile; the sons of Ramji, consequently,
-worked less than before. The two worthies,
-Arab and African, never, however, quarrelled, no harsh
-word passed between them; with smiles upon their faces,
-and a bitter hate at heart, they confined themselves to all
-manner of backbiting and talebearing. Said bin Salim
-sternly declared to me that he would never rest satisfied
-until Kidogo’s sword was broken and his back was scarified
-at the flagstaff of Zanzibar; but I guessed that
-this “wrathful mouse and most magnanimous dove”
-would, long before his journey’s end, have forgotten all
-his vengeance. Kidogo asserted that the Muarabu or
-Arab was a green-horn, and frequently suggested the
-propriety of “planting” him. At last this continual harping
-upon the same chord became so offensive, that B’ana
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-165">[165]</span>
-Saidi was forbidden to pronounce the name of Muinyi
-Kidogo, and Muinyi Kidogo was ordered never to utter
-the words B’ana Saidi before the exasperated leader of
-the Expedition, who could not, like these squabblers, complain,
-resent, forget and forgive, in the short space of a
-single hour.</p>
-
-<p>We left Mzizi Mdogo on the 9th August, much
-cheered by the well-omened appearance of a bird with
-red bill, white breast, and long tail-feathers. The path
-ran over a succession of short steep hills with a rufous-brown
-soil, dotted with blocks and stones, thinly veiled
-with grass, and already displaying signs of aridity in
-the growth of aloetic and thorny plants, the Cactus and
-the larger Asclepias, the Euphorbia or Spurge-wort, and
-the stunted Mimosa. The Calabash, however, still rose
-a stately tree, and there was a sprinkling of the fine
-Tamarinds which have lent their name to the district.
-The Tamarind, called by the Arabs of Zanzibar
-“Subar,” extends from the coast to the Lake Regions:
-with its lofty stem, its feathery leaflets, and its branches
-spreading dark cool shade, it is a beautiful feature in
-African landscape. The acidulated fruit is doubtless a
-palliative and a corrective to bilious affections. The
-people of the country merely peel and press it into bark
-baskets, consequently it soon becomes viscid, and is
-spoiled by mildew; they ignore the art of extracting
-from it an intoxicating liquor. The Arabs, who use
-it extensively in cooking, steam, sun-dry, and knead
-it, with a little salt and oil to prevent the effects of
-damp, into balls: thus prepared and preserved from the
-air, it will keep for years.</p>
-
-<p>On the way we were saddened by the sight of the
-clean-picked skeletons, and here and there the swollen
-corpses, of porters who had perished in this place of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-166">[166]</span>
-starvation. A single large body which had lost fifty of
-its number by small-pox, had passed us but yesterday on
-the road, and the sight of their deceased comrades recalled
-to our minds terrible spectacles; men staggering on
-blinded by disease, and mothers carrying on their backs
-infants as loathsome objects as themselves. The wretches
-would not leave the path, every step in their state of
-failing strength was precious; he who once fell would
-never rise again; no village would admit death into its
-precincts, no relation nor friend would return for them,
-and they would lie till their agony was ended by the
-raven and vulture, the Fisi and the fox. Near every
-Khambi or Kraal I remarked detached tents which,
-according to the guides, were set apart for those seized
-with the fell disease. Under these circumstances, as
-might be expected, several of our party caught the infection;
-they lagged behind and probably threw themselves
-into some jungle, for the path when revisited
-showed no signs of them.</p>
-
-<p>We spent 4 hrs. 30′ in weary marching, occasionally
-halting to reload the asses that threw their
-packs. Near the Mgeta River, which was again
-forded six times, the vegetation became tall and thick,
-grasses obstructed the path, and in the dense jungle on
-the banks of the stream, the Cowhage (<i>Dolichos pruriens</i>,)
-and stiff reeds known as the “wild sugar-cane,” annoyed
-the half-naked porters. Thus bounded and approached
-by muddy and slippery, or by steep and stony
-inclines, the stream shrank to a mountain torrent, in
-places hardly fifty feet broad; the flow was swift, the
-waters were dyed by the soil a ruddy brown, and the
-bed was sandy and sometimes rocky with boulders of
-primitive formation, streaked with lines of snow-white
-quartz. Near the end of the marsh we ascended a short
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-167">[167]</span>
-steep staircase of rock and root, with a dwarf precipice
-overhanging the river on the right, which was dangerous
-for the laden beasts as they crawled like beetles up the
-path. At 3 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> we arrived at a kraal called Cha
-K’henge&mdash;of the iguana, from the number of these animals
-found near the stream. It was a delightful spot,
-equal to Mzizi Mdogo in purity of air, and commanding
-a fair prospect of the now distant Dut’humi Highlands.</p>
-
-<p>The next day was a forced halt at Cha K’henge. Of
-two asses that had been left behind one was recovered,
-the other was abandoned to its fate. The animals purchased
-at Zanzibar were falling off visibly in condition.
-Accustomed to a kind of grass which nowhere grows
-upon these sunburnt hills, they had regular feeds of
-holcus, but that, as Said bin Salim expressed himself, was
-only coffee to them. The Wanyamwezi asses, however,
-managed to pick a sustenance from the rushes and from
-the half-burned stubbles, when fortunate enough to find
-any. Sickness again declared itself. Shahdad the
-Baloch bellowed like a bull with fever pains, Gaetano complained
-that he was suffering tortures generally, two of
-the Wanyamwezi were incapacitated by the symptoms
-preliminary to small-pox from carrying their packs,
-and a third was prostrated by ague. We started, however,
-on the next day for a long march which concluded,
-the passage of the “Tamarind Hills.” Crossing a
-country broken by dry nullahs, or rather ditches, we
-traversed a seam of forest with a deep woody ravine on
-the right, and twice unpacked and reloaded the asses,
-who lay down instead of breasting the difficulties: a
-muddy swamp full of water-courses, and the high earth-banks
-of the Rufuta a Fiumara, here dry during the
-hot season. Thence, winding along a hill-flank, to avoid
-a bend in the bed, the path plunged into the sole of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-168">[168]</span>
-Rufuta. This main-drain of the lower gradients carries
-off, according to the guides, the waters of the high
-ground around it into the Mgeta. The bed, which
-varies from three to sixteen feet in breadth, serpentines
-abruptly through the hills: its surface is either deep
-sand or clay, sopped with water, which near the head
-becomes a thin fillet, ankle-deep, now sweet, then salt: the
-mud is tinged in places with a solution of iron, showing,
-when stagnant, prismatic and iridescent tints. Where
-narrowest, the tall grasses of the banks meet across the
-gut, which, after a few yards of short, sharp winding,
-opens out again. The walls are in some parts earth, in
-others blocks of gray syenite, which here and there encumber
-the bed: on the right, near the end of the stage,
-the hills above seem to overhang the Fuimara in almost
-perpendicular masses of sandstone, from whose chinks
-spring the gnarled roots of tall trees corded with creepers,
-overgrown with parasites; and hung with fruits like footballs,
-dangling from twines sometimes thirty feet long.
-The lower banks, where not choked with rush, are overgrown
-with the brightest verdure, and with the feathery
-bamboo rising and falling before the wind. The corpses
-of porters were even more numerous than on the yester:
-our Muslems passed them with averted faces and with
-the low “la haul!” of disgust, and a decrepid old
-Mnyamwezi porter gazed at them and wept for himself.
-About 2 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, turning abruptly from the bed, we crawled
-up a short stony steep strewed with our asses and their
-loads; and reaching the summit of a dwarf cone near
-the foot of the “Goma Pass,” we found the usual outlying
-huts for porters dying of small-pox, and an old
-kraal, which we made comfortable for the night. In the
-extensive prospect around, the little beehive villages of
-the Wakaguru and the Wakwivi, sub-tribes of the Wasagara,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-169">[169]</span>
-peeped from afar out of the forest nooks on the
-distant hill-folds. The people are rich in flocks and
-grain, but a sad experience has taught them to shun
-intercourse with all strangers, Arabs and Wasawahili,
-Wamrima and Wanyamwezi. In happier days the road
-was lined with large villages, of which now not a trace
-remains.</p>
-
-<p>A Boiling Point Thermometer by Cox, the gift of
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, and left with him by Captain,
-now Admiral Smyth, F. R. G. S., who had used it in measuring
-the Andes, had been accidentally broken by my
-companion at Cha K’henge. Arrived at Rufuta, I found
-that a second B. P. by Newman, and a Bath-Thermometer
-by the same maker, had been torn so violently
-from their box that even the well-soldered handles were
-wrenched off. But a few days afterwards our third
-B. P. was rendered useless by the carelessness of Gaetano.
-Thus, of the only three really accurate hypsometrical
-instruments which we possessed,&mdash;the Barometer
-had come to grief, and no aneroid had been sent
-from Bombay&mdash;not one was spared to reach the Lake.
-We saved, however, two Bath-Thermometers marked
-Newman, and Johnson and Co., Bombay, which did good
-service, and one of which was afterwards corrected by
-being boiled at sea-level. I may here observe that on
-such journeys, where triangulation is impossible, and
-where the delicate aneroid and the Mountain Barometer
-can scarcely be carried without accident, the thermometer
-is at present the traveller’s stand-by. It abounds, however,
-in elements of error. The elasticity of the glass,
-especially in a new instrument, causes the mercury to
-subside below the graduated scale. The difference of
-level in a covered “shaving-pot” and in an open pan
-exposed to the wind, will sometimes amount to 1° F. =
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-170">[170]</span>
-500 feet: they therefore are in error who declare that
-any vessel suffices for the purpose of boiling. Finally,
-in all but the best instruments the air is not thoroughly
-expelled from the tube: indeed some writers,
-Dr. Buist, for instance, actually advise the error.</p>
-
-<p>Another ass was left at Rufuta unable to stand, and
-anxiously eyeing its stomach, whereby the Baloch conjectured
-that it was dying of a poisonous grass. Having
-to ascend on the 12th August the Goma Pass of the
-Rufuta, or the Eastern Range, I had arranged with
-Kidogo and the Kirangozi, or guide, that the porters
-should proceed with their packs, and after topping the
-hill, should return, for a consideration, to assist the asses.
-None, however, reappearing, when the sun had risen a
-spear’s length we set out, hugging the hill-flanks, with
-deep ravines yawning on the right. Presently after passing
-through a clear forest of tall scattered trees, between
-whose trunks were visible on both sides in perspective,
-far below, long rolling tracts of well-wooded land broken
-by ravines and cut by water-courses, we arrived at the
-foot of a steep hill. The ascent was a kind of ramp,
-composed of earth-steps, clods bound by strong tenacious
-roots, and thickly strewn with blocks of schiste,
-micacious grit, and a sandstone showing the presence
-of iron. The summit of this “kloof” was ascertained
-to rise 2,235 feet above sea-level. It led to an easy
-descent along the flank of a hill commanding on the
-left hand, below a precipitous foreground, a fine bird’s-eye
-view of scattered cone and wavy ridge rising and
-falling in a long roll, and on a scale decreasing till they
-settled into a line of hazy-blue horizon, which had all
-the effect of a circumambient ocean. We reached
-the remains of a kraal on the summit of a dwarf hill
-called Mfu’uni, from the abundance of the Mfu’u tree,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-171">[171]</span>
-which bears an edible apple externally like the smallest
-“crab,” but containing a stone of inordinate proportions:
-below the encamping ground the Pagazi found
-a runnel of pure water, which derived its name from
-the station. In former times Mfu’uni was a populous
-settlement; the kidnapping parties from the coast, and
-especially the filibusters of Whinde, have restored it to
-the fox and the cynhyæna, its “old inhabitants.” I
-spent a sleepless night in watching each star as it sank
-and set in its turn, piercing with a last twinkle the thin
-silhouette of tall trees that fringed the hilly rim of the
-horizon, and in admiring the hardness of the bull-headed
-Mabruki, as he lay half-roasted by the fire and
-half-frozen by the cold southern gale.</p>
-
-<p>Rations had been issued at K’hutu to all hands for
-three days, the time in which they expected to make the
-principal provisioning-place, “Muhama.” They had
-consumed, as usual, their stores with the utmost possible
-quickness; it was our fifth day, and Muhama was still
-a long march distant. On the 13th August, therefore,
-in that hot haste which promises cold speed, we loaded
-at dawn, and ascended the last step of the pass by an
-easy path. The summit was thickly wooded; the hills
-were crowned with trees; the ravines were a mass of
-tangled verdure; and from the Dub (<i>Cynodon dactylon</i>, a
-nutritive and favourite food for cattle in India) and other
-grasses arose a sickening odour of decay. A Scotch mist,
-thick and raw, hung over the hill-tops, and about 10 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>
-a fiery outburst of sunshine told severely upon hungry
-and fever-stricken men. From the level table-summit of
-the range the route descended rapidly at first, but presently
-stretching out into gentle slopes, totally unlike
-the abrupt eastern or seaward face of the mountains: I
-counted twelve distinct rises and fifteen falls, separated
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-172">[172]</span>
-by tree-clad lines of half-dried nullahs, which were
-choked with ill-savoured weeds. We halted every
-quarter of an hour to raise and reload the asses;
-when on the ground, they were invariably abandoned
-by the donkey-men. My companion’s bedding was
-found near the path, where it had been left by its
-porter, a slave given at Zungomero to Muinyi Wazira
-by his drunken brother. The fellow had been sworn
-by his mganga, or medicine-man, not to desert, and
-he had respected his oath for the long length of a week.
-A dispute with another man, however, had irritated
-him: he quietly threw his burden, and ran down the
-nearest steep, probably to fall into the hands of the Wakwivi.
-As the rain-catching peaks were left behind, the
-slopes of dry soil began to show sunburnt herbage and
-tufty grass. Signs of lions appeared numerous, and
-the cactaceous and aloetic plants that live on arid soil
-again met the eye. About noon we forded the little
-Zonhwe River, a stream of sweet water here flowing
-westward, in a bed of mire and grass, under high banks
-bearing a dense bush. Two hours afterwards I suddenly
-came upon the advance-guard, halted, and the
-asses unloaded, in a dry water-course, called in the map,
-from our misadventure, “Overshot Nullah.” A caravan
-of Wanyamwezi had misdirected them, Muinyi Wazira
-had in vain warned them of their error, he was overruled
-by Kidogo, and the Baloch had insisted upon
-camping at the first place where they expected to find a
-spring. Like all soft men, they were most impatient of
-thirst, and nothing caused so much grumbling and discontent
-as the cry of “Maji mb’hali!” (water is far!)
-That night, therefore, after a long march of fifteen miles,
-they again slept supperless.</p>
-
-<p>On the 14th of August we loaded early, and through
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-173">[173]</span>
-spitting rains from the south-east hills we marched back
-for two hours from the Overshot Nullah to Zonhwe, the
-small and newly-built settlement which we had missed
-on the preceding day. Several of the porters had disappeared
-during the night. Men were sent in all directions
-for provisions, which came in, however, slowly and
-scantily; and the noise made by the slaves&mdash;they
-were pulling down Said bin Salim’s hut, which had
-accidentally caught fire&mdash;frightened away the country-people.
-We were, therefore, detained in this unwholesome
-spot for two days.</p>
-
-<p>Zonhwe was the turning-point of the Expedition’s
-difficulties. Another ass had died, reducing the number
-to twenty-three, and the Baloch, at first contented with
-two, doubled their requirements, and on the 14th August
-took a fifth, besides placing all their powder
-upon our hard-worked animals. I therefore proposed to
-the Jemadar that the cloth, the beads, and the other
-similar luggage of his men, should be packed, sealed up,
-and inserted into the porters’ loads, of which several had
-shrunk to half-weight. He probably thought the suggestion
-a ruse on my part to discover the means by which
-their property had almost trebled its quantity; his men,
-moreover, had become thoroughly weary of a journey
-where provisions were not always obtainable, and they
-had persuaded themselves that Lieut.-Col. Hamerton’s
-decease had left me without support from the government
-of Zanzibar. After a priming with opium, the monocular
-returned and reported that his men refused to
-open their baggage, declaring their property to be “on
-their own heads.” Whilst I was explaining the object
-of the measure, the escort appeared in mass, and, with
-noise sufficient for a general action, ostentatiously
-strewed their old clothes upon the ground, declaring
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-174">[174]</span>
-that at Zanzibar they were honourable men, and boasting
-that the Baloch were entrusted with lacs of dollars by
-the Sayyid Said. Again I offered reasons, which, as is
-the wont of the world in such cases, served only to make
-them more hopelessly unreasonable. The Jemadar accused
-me of starving the party. I told him not to eat
-abominations, upon which, clapping hand to hilt, he
-theatrically forbade me to repeat the words. Being
-prostrated at the time by fever, I could only show him
-how little dangerous he was by using the same phrase
-half a dozen times. He then turned fiercely upon the
-timid Said bin Salim, and having safely vented the excess
-of his wrath, he departed to hold a colloquy with his men.</p>
-
-<p>The debate was purposely conducted in so loud a tone
-that every word reached my ears. Khudabakhsh, from
-first to last my evil genius and the mainspring of all
-mischief, threatened to take “that man’s life,” at the
-risk of chains for the remainder of his days. Another
-opined, that “in all Nazarenes there is no good.” All
-complained that they had no “hishmat” (respect!), no
-food, and, above everything, no meat.</p>
-
-<p>Presently Said bin Salim was deputed by them to
-state that for the future they would require one sheep
-per diem&mdash;men who, when at Zanzibar, saw flesh probably
-once a year on the Eed. This being inadmissible,
-they demanded three cloths daily instead of one. I
-would willingly have given them two, as long as provisions
-continued scarce and dear, but the shade of concession
-made them raise the number to four. They
-declared that in case of refusal they would sleep at the
-village, and on the next day would return to Zanzibar.
-Receiving a contemptuous answer, they marched away in
-a body, noisily declaring that they were going to make
-instant preparation for departure.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-175">[175]</span></p>
-
-<p>Such a proceeding on the part of several of these
-mercenaries was inexcusable. They had been treated
-with kindness, and even indulgence. They had hitherto
-never complained, simply because they had no cause for
-complaint. One man, Ismail, who suffered from dysentery,
-had been regularly supplied with food cooked
-by the Goanese; and even while we dragged along our
-fevered frames on foot, he was allowed to ride an ass.
-Yet the recreant never attempted a word of dissuasion,
-and deserted with the rest.</p>
-
-<p>After the disappearance of the Baloch, the Sons of
-Ramji were summoned. I had privily ascertained
-from Said bin Salim the opinions of these men concerning
-their leader: they said but little evil, complaining
-principally of the Englishman’s “heat,” and that he was
-not wholly ruled by their rascalities, whereas the Baloch
-in their private confabs never failed to indulge in the
-choicest of Oriental Billingsgate. The slaves, when
-they heard the state of the case, cheerfully promised to
-stand by us, but on the same evening, assembled by
-Kidogo, they agreed to follow the example of the escort
-on the first justifiable occasion. I did not learn this till
-some days afterwards, and even if I had been told it on
-the spot, it would have mattered little. My companion
-and I had made up our minds, in case of the escort and
-the slaves deserting, to bury our baggage, and to trust
-ourselves in the hands of the Wanyamwezi porters. The
-storm, however,&mdash;a <i>brutum fulmen</i>&mdash;blew over with
-only noise.</p>
-
-<p>A march was ordered for the next day&mdash;the 17th
-August. As the asses were being loaded, appeared the
-one-eyed Jemadar, with Greybeard Musa and Darwaysh,
-looking more crestfallen and foolish than they had ever
-looked before. They took my hand with a polite
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-176">[176]</span>
-violence, begged suppliantly for a paper of dismissal to
-“cover their shame,” and declared that, so far from deserting
-me, I was deserting them. As this required no
-reply, I mounted and rode on.</p>
-
-<p>The path fell easily westwards down a long grassy
-and jungly incline, cut by several water-courses. About
-noon, I lay down half-fainting in the sandy bed of the
-Muhama Nullah&mdash;the “Palmetto,” or “Fan-palm;” and
-retaining Wazira and Mabruki, I urged the caravan
-forwards, that my companion might send me back a
-hammock from the halting-place. Suddenly appeared
-the whole body of deserters shouldering&mdash;as porters and
-asses had been taken from them&mdash;their luggage, which
-outwardly consisted of cloth, dirty rags, green skins, old
-earthen pots, and greasy gourds and calabashes. They
-led me to a part of the nullah where stagnant water
-was found, and showing abundant penitence, they ever
-and anon attempted excuses, which were reserved for
-consideration. At 3 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, no hammock appearing, I
-remounted, and pursued a path over rolling ground,
-with masses of dwarf-hill flanking a low bottom, which
-renewed the scenery of the “Slough of Despond”&mdash;Zungomero.
-Again the land, matted with putrid grass,
-displayed the calabash and the hyphæna, the papaw
-and the palmetto; the holcus and maize were of luxuriant
-dimensions, and deep rat-holes, enlarged by the
-boy-hunters, broke the grassy path. I found two little
-villages, inhabitated by Wangindo and Mandandu immigrants
-from the vicinity of Kilwa. Then appeared on
-a hill-side the Kraal in which the caravan had halted;
-the party had lost the road, and had been dispersed by a
-swarm of wild bees, an accident even more frequent in
-East Africa than in India.</p>
-
-<p>Next morning the Baloch were harangued; they professed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-177">[177]</span>
-themselves profoundly penitent, and attributing
-their unsoldier-like conduct to opium, and to the Wiswas,
-the temptations of Sathanas, they promised to reform.
-The promise was kept till we reached Ugogi. They
-were, however, always an encumbrance; they did no
-good beyond creating an impression, and “making the
-careless Æthiopians afraid.” I saw them, it is true, in
-their worst colours. They held themselves to be servants
-of their prince, and as no Eastern man can or will
-serve two masters, they forfeited all claim to their
-sole good quality&mdash;manageability. As men, they had no
-stamina; after a few severe marches they murmured that</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Famine, despair, thirst, cold, and heat,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">Had done their work on them by turns.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">Their constitutions, sapped by long residence at Zanzibar,
-were subject to many ailments, and in sickness they were
-softer than Indian Pariahs. Under the slightest attack
-of fever, they threw themselves moaning upon the ground;
-they were soon deterred by the sun from bringing up
-the rear, and by night they would not keep watch or
-ward even when in actual danger of robbery. Notwithstanding
-their affectation of military carriage their
-bravery was more than problematical; they were disciplined
-only by their fears. As men at arms, one and
-all deserved to wear the wooden spoon: I saw the whole
-garrison of Kaole firing for an hour, without effect, at a
-shell, stuck on a stick, distant about a dozen paces:
-our party expended thirty pounds of gunpowder without
-bagging a pair of antelope, and it was impossible to
-trust them with ammunition; when unable to sell it,
-they wasted it upon small birds. Ever claiming for
-themselves “hishmat,” or respect, they forgot their own
-proverb that “courtesy hath two heads;” they complained
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-178">[178]</span>
-that they were not seated half the day in our tents, and
-the being “told to depart,” when their terribly long
-visits rendered the measure necessary, was a standing
-grievance. Like the lower races of Orientals, they
-were ever attempting to intrude, to thrust themselves
-forwards, to take an ell when an inch was offered; they
-considered all but themselves fools, ready to be imposed
-upon by the flimsiest lie, by the shallowest artifices.
-Gratitude they ignored; with them a favour granted was
-but an earnest of favours to come, and one refusal obliterated
-the trace of a hundred largesses. Their objects
-in life seemed to be eating, and buying slaves; their
-pleasures, drinking and intrigue. Insatiable beggars
-were they; noisy, boisterous, foul-mouthed knaves,
-swearers “with voices like cannons;” rude and forward
-in manner, low and abusive in language, so slanderous
-that for want of other subjects they would calumniate
-one another, and requiring a periodical check to their
-presumption. I might have spent the whole of my day
-in superintending the food of these thirteen “great
-eaters and little runners.” Repeatedly warned, both by
-myself and by my companion, that their insubordination
-would prevent our recommending them for recompense
-at the end of the journey, they could not check repeated
-ebullitions of temper. Before arrival at the coast they
-seemed to have made up their minds that they had not
-fulfilled the conditions of reward. After my departure
-from Zanzibar, however, they persuaded Lieut.-Col.
-Hamerton’s successor to report officially to the Government
-of Bombay “the claims of these men, the hardships
-they endured, and the fidelity and perseverance
-they showed!”</p>
-
-<p>At Muhama I halted three days, a delay which generally
-occurred before long desert marches for which
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-179">[179]</span>
-provisions are required. On the first, Kidogo would bring
-about sixty pounds of grain; on the second, he would
-disperse his men throughout the villages, and procure the
-300 pounds required for five marches; and on the third,
-he would cause it to be husked and pounded, so as to be
-ready for the morrow. Three up-caravans, containing a
-total of about 150 men, suffering severely from small-pox,
-here passed us. One was commanded by Khalfan bin
-Muallim Salim and his brother Id, coast Arabs, whom
-we afterwards met at two places. He told me several
-deliberate falsehoods about the twenty-two porters
-that were to follow us, for instance, that he had left
-them, halted by disease, at Kidunda, in the maritime
-region, under the command of one Abdullah bin
-Jumah, and thus he led me to expect them at a time
-when they had not even been engaged. He and his men
-also spread reports in Ugogo and other places where
-the people are peculiarly suspicious concerning the
-magical and malignant powers of the “whites;” in fact,
-he showed all the bad spirit of his bastard blood. At
-Muhama, the furthest point westward to which the
-vuli or autumnal rains extend, the climate was still
-that of the Rufuta Range, foggy, misty mornings, white
-rags of cloudbank from the table-cloths outspread upon
-the heights, clear days, with hot suns and chilling south
-winds, and raw dewy nights. I again suffered from fever;
-the attack, after lasting seven days, disappeared, leaving,
-however, hepatic complications, which having lasted uninterruptedly
-ten months, either wore themselves out,
-or yielded to the action of acids, narcotics, and stimulants
-tardily forwarded from Zanzibar. Here also over-fatigue,
-in a fruitless shooting-excursion, combined with
-the mephitic air of stagnant, weedy waters, caused a
-return of my companion’s fever.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-180">[180]</span></p>
-
-<p>Two other Wanyamwezi porters were laid up with
-small-pox. One ass died of fatigue, whilst a second
-torn by a hyæna, and a third too weak to walk, were left,
-together with the animal that had been stung by bees, in
-charge of Mpambe, headman of the Wangindo. Being
-now reduced to the number of nineteen beasts, I submitted
-to Said bin Salim the advisability of leaving
-behind wire and ammunition, either cached in the jungle,
-as is the custom of these lands, or entrusted to the
-headman. The Arab approved; Kidogo, however, dissented.
-I took the opinion of the latter, he was positive
-that the effects once abandoned would never be recovered,
-and that the headman, who appeared a kind of
-cunning idiot, was not to be trusted. Some months
-afterwards I commissioned an Arab merchant, who was
-marching towards the coast, to recover the asses left in
-the charge of Mpambe; the latter refused to give them
-up, thus proving the soundness of Kidogo’s judgment.</p>
-
-<p>Having collected with difficulty&mdash;the land was sun-cracked,
-and the harvest-store had been concealed by
-the people&mdash;some supplies, but scarcely sufficient for
-the long desert tract, we began, on the 21st of August,
-to cross the longitudinal plain that gently shelving westward
-separates the Rufuta from the second, or Mukondokwa
-Range. The plain was enclosed on all sides
-by low lines of distant hill, and cut by deep nullahs,
-which gave more than the usual amount of trouble.
-The tall Palmyra (<i>Borassus Flabelliformis</i>), whose majestic
-bulging column renders it so difficult to climb,
-was a novel feature in the scenery. This tree, the
-Mvumo of East Africa, and the Deleb-palm of the
-Upper Nile, is scattered through the interior, extending
-to the far south. On this line it is more common in
-Western Unyamwezi, where, and where only, an intoxicating
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-181">[181]</span>
-toddy is drawn from the cut frond, than elsewhere.
-The country abounded in game, but we were
-both too weak to work&mdash;my companion, indeed, was compelled
-to lag behind&mdash;and the Baloch, to whom the guns
-were lent, returned empty-handed. Sign of the Mbogo
-(<i>Bos Caffer</i>) here appeared; it is general in East Africa,
-especially upon the river plains where water abounds.
-These wild cattle are fine animals, somewhat larger than
-the common-sized English bullock, with uniform dun
-skins, never parti-coloured like the tame herds, and with
-thick black-brown horns, from twelve to thirteen inches
-broad at the base, diverging outwards, and incurved at
-the points, which in large specimens are distant about
-three feet from each other; they are separated by a
-narrow channel, and this in age becomes a solid mass of
-bone. The Mbogo is as dull of comprehension as it is
-fierce and powerful; affecting particular spots, it will
-often afford several chances of a successful shot to the
-Fundi&mdash;Shikari, or Chasseur&mdash;of a caravan: the Africans
-kill it with arrows. The flesh, though considered heating
-and bilious, is eaten, and the hide is preferred for
-thongs and reins to that of the tame animal.</p>
-
-<p>The approach to the kraal was denoted by a dead
-level of dry, caked, and cracked mud, showing the subsidence
-of an extensive inundation. We passed a large
-camping-ground, affected by down-caravans, on the near
-side of the Makata, a long river-like “tank,” whose lay
-is E. by N. The oozy banks of this water, which is
-said to flow after rains into the Mukondokwa River, are
-fringed with liliaceous and other large aquatic plants;
-the water, though dark, is potable. After fording the
-tank, which was then breast-deep, we found on the further
-side the kraal used by porters of up-caravans, who
-sensibly avoid commencing the day with hard labour, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-182">[182]</span>
-who fear that a sudden fall of rain might compel them
-to intempestive halts. In such places, throughout the
-country, there are two distinct khambi, one on each
-side of the obstacle, whether this be a river, a pass, or
-a populous clearing; in the latter case, caravans unload
-at the farther end of the cultivation, prepared to escape
-from a fray into the jungle, without running the gauntlet
-of the villages. That evening I tried to reduce the
-ever-increasing baggage of the sons of Ramji, who
-added to the heaps piled upon the wretched asses, now
-burdened with rations for several days, their drums and
-sleeping-hides, and their cocks and hens, whilst they left
-the beds and the cooking-utensils of the Goanese upon
-the ground. They informed me that if our animals
-could not carry their property, they could not drive
-our animals. The reply was significant. With some
-exertion of the “rascally virtue”&mdash;Prudence&mdash;I
-retired.</p>
-
-<p>The night was disturbed only by mosquitoes. These
-piping pests, however, are less troublesome in this part of
-East Africa than might be expected from the nature and
-the position of the country, and the bite has little venom
-compared with those of the Mozambique, or even of
-Western India. The common culex is a large variety, of
-brownish or dun colour; its favourite breeding-places
-are the backwaters on the banks of rivers, and the margins
-of muddy pools, and upon the creeks of the maritime
-regions, and the Central Lakes.</p>
-
-<p>Pursuing our march on the next day, I witnessed a
-curious contrast in this strange African nature, which
-is ever in extremes, and where extremes ever meet,
-where grace and beauty are seldom seen without a sudden
-change to a hideous grotesqueness. A splendid
-view charmed me in the morning. Above lay a sky of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-183">[183]</span>
-purest azure, flaked with fleecy opal-tinted vapours
-floating high in the empyrean, and catching the first
-roseate smiles of the unrisen sun. Long lines, one
-bluer than the other, broken by castellated crags and
-towers of most picturesque form, girdled the far horizon;
-the nearer heights were of a purplish-brown, and
-snowy mists hung like glaciers about their folds. The
-plain was a park in autumn, burnt tawny by the sun,
-patched with a darker hue where the people were firing
-the grass&mdash;a party was at work merrily, as if preparing
-for an English harvest-home&mdash;to start the animals,
-to promote the growth of a young crop, and, such
-is the popular belief, to attract rain. Calabashes, Palmyras,
-Tamarinds, and clumps of evergreen trees were scattered
-over the scene, each stretching its lordly arms over
-subject circlets of deep dew-fed verdure. Here the dove
-cooed loudly, and the guinea-fowl rang its wild cry,
-whilst the peewit chattered in the open stubble, and a
-little martin, the prettiest of its kind, contrasted by its
-nimble dartings along the ground with the condor
-wheeling slowly through the upper air. The most
-graceful of animals, the zebra and the antelope, browsed
-in the distance: now they stood to gaze upon the long
-line of porters, then, after leisurely pacing, with retrospective
-glances, in an opposite direction, they halted
-motionless for a moment, faced about once more to
-satiate curiosity, and lastly, terrified by their own
-fancy, they bounded in ricochets over the plain.</p>
-
-<p>About noon the fair scene vanished as if by enchantment.
-We suddenly turned northwards into a tangled
-mass of tall fetid reeds, rank jungle and forest, with its
-decaying trunks encroaching upon the hole-pierced goat-track
-that zigzaged towards the Myombo River. This
-perennial stream rises, according to the guides, in an
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-184">[184]</span>
-elevation opposite to the highlands of Dut’humi. It is
-about fifty feet broad at the ford, breast-deep, and the
-swift brown waters swirl under a canopy of the trees
-whose name it bears. The “Myombo” is a fine specimen
-of African timber, apparently unknown to the
-people of Zanzibar, but extending almost from the coast
-to the Lake Regions. The flower is greenish, with the
-overpowering smell of the Indian jasmines; the fruit is
-a large pod, containing ten or twelve long hard acorns,
-of a brown-black colour, set in cups which resemble
-red sealing-wax. The coarse bark is used for building
-huts and kraals, the inner fibre for “bast” and ropes,
-and the wood makes what Easterns call a hot fire, lasting
-long, and burning well out. After the fiery sun
-and the dry atmosphere of the plains, the sudden effect
-of the dank and clammy chill, the result of exceeding
-evaporation, under the impervious shades that line the
-river banks, was overpowering. In such places one
-feels as if poisoned by miasma; a shudder runs
-through the frame; and a cold perspiration, like
-the prelude for a fainting-fit, breaks from the brow.
-Unloading the asses, and fording the stream, we
-ascended the left bank, and occupied a kraal, with
-fires still smoking, on its summit. Though another
-porter was left behind with small-pox, I had
-little difficulty with the luggage on this march: the
-more I worked the men, the harder they worked.
-Besides, they seldom fell sick on the road, though often
-prostrated when halting, a phenomenon which my companion
-explained by their hard eating and little exercise
-when stationary, and which Said bin Salim more
-mercifully attributed to the fatigue and exposure of the
-journey taking effect when the excitement had passed
-away.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-185">[185]</span></p>
-
-<p>At dawn on the 23rd of August we resumed our
-journey, and in 4<sup>hrs</sup> 30′ concluded the transit of the
-lateral plain, which separates the Rufuta from the
-Mukondokwa Range. The path wound over a wintry
-land, green with vegetation only in the vicinity
-of water. After struggling through a forest of canes,
-we heard a ngoma, or large drum, which astonished
-us, as we had not expected to find a village. Presently,
-falling into a network of paths, we lost our way. After
-long wandering we came upon a tobacco-field which the
-Baloch and the sons of Ramji had finished stripping,
-and conducted by some Wanyamwezi who had delayed
-returning to guide us, in order to indulge their love for
-drumming and plundering, we arrived at the débris of a
-once flourishing village of Wasagara, called Mbumi from
-its headman. A pitiable scene here presented itself.
-The huts were torn and half-burnt, and the ground was
-strewed with nets and drums, pestles and mortars, cots
-and fragments of rude furniture; and though no traces
-of blood were observed, it was evident that a Commando
-had lately taken place there. Said bin Salim opined this
-ruin to be the work of Khalfan bin Salim, the youth who
-had preceded us from Muhama; ever suspicious, he saw
-in it a plan adopted by the coast-Arab in order to raise
-against us the people of the mountains. Kidogo, observing
-that the damage was at least ten days’ old,
-more acutely attributed it to the Moslem kidnappers
-of Whinde, who, aided by the terrible Kisabengo, the
-robber-chief of Ukami, near K’hutu, harry the country
-with four or five hundred guns. Two of the wretched
-villagers were seen lurking in the jungle, not daring to
-revisit the wreck of their homes. Here again the Demon
-of Slavery will reign over a solitude of his own creation.
-Can it be that, by some inexplicable law, where Nature
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-186">[186]</span>
-has done her best for the happiness of mankind, man,
-doomed to misery, must work out his own unhappiness?
-That night was spent at the deserted village by our men
-in drumming, singing, and gleaning all that Khalfan’s
-gang had left; they were, moreover, kept awake by fear
-lest they might be surprised by the remnants of the
-villagers.</p>
-
-<p>Late in the morning of the 24th of August, after
-losing another ass, torn by a cynhyæna, we followed the
-path that leads from Mbumi along the right bank of the
-Mukondokwa River to its ford. The marcescent vegetation,
-and the tall, stiff, and thick-stalked grass, dripped
-with dew, which struck cold as a freezing-mixture. The
-path was slippery with mud, and man and beast were rendered
-wild by the cruel stings of a small red ant and a
-huge black pismire. The former cross the road in dense
-masses like the close columns of an army. They are
-large-headed, showing probably that they are the defenders
-of the republic, and that they perform the duties
-of soldiers in their excursions. Though they cannot
-spring, they show great quickness in fastening themselves
-to the foot or ankle as it brushes over them. The
-pismire, known to the people as the “chungu-fundo,” or
-“siyafu” from the Arabic “siyaf,” is a horse-ant, about
-an inch in length, whose bulldog-like head and powerful
-mandibles enable it to destroy rats and mice, lizards
-and snakes. It loves damp places upon the banks of
-rivers and stagnant waters; it burrows but never raises
-hills, and it appears scattered for miles over the paths.
-Like the other species, it knows neither fear nor sense of
-fatigue; it rushes to annihilation without hesitating,
-and it cannot be expelled from a hut except by fire or
-boiling water. Its bite, which is the preamble to its
-meal, burns like a pinch with a red-hot needle; and when
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-187">[187]</span>
-it sets to work, twisting itself round and “accroupi” in
-its eagerness for food, it may be pulled in two without
-relaxing its hold. The favourite food of this pismire is
-the termite: its mortal enemy is a large ginger-coloured
-ant, called from its painful wound “maji m’oto,” or “hot-water.”
-In this foul jungle our men also suffered severely
-from the tzetze. This fly, the torment of Cape
-travellers, was limited, by Dr. Livingstone, to the regions
-south of the Zambezi river. A specimen, brought home
-by me and submitted to Mr. Adam White, of the British
-Museum, was pronounced by him to be a true Glossina
-morsitans, and Mr. Petherick has fixed its limits about
-eight degrees north of the equator. On the line followed
-by the Expedition, the tzetze was found extending from
-Usagara westward as far as the Central Lakes; its usual
-habitat is the jungle-strip which encloses each patch
-of cultivated ground, and in the latter it is rarely
-seen. It has more persistency of purpose even than the
-Egyptian fly, and when beaten off it will return half a
-dozen times to the charge; it cannot be killed except by
-a smart blow, and its long sharp proboscis draws blood
-even through a canvas hammock. It is not feared by
-the naked traveller; the sting is as painful as that of an
-English horsefly, and leaves a lasting trace, but this hard-skinned
-people expect no evil consequences from it. In
-the vicinity of Kilwa it was heard of under the name of
-“kipanga,” the “little sword.” It is difficult to conceive
-the purpose for which this plague was placed in a land
-so eminently fitted for breeding cattle and for agriculture,
-which without animals cannot be greatly extended,
-except as an exercise for human ingenuity to remove.
-Possibly at some future day, when the country becomes
-valuable, the tzetze may be exterminated by the introduction
-of some insectivorous bird, which will
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-188">[188]</span>
-be the greatest benefactor that Central Africa ever
-knew.</p>
-
-<p>After about an hour’s march, the narrow tunnel in the
-jungle&mdash;it was so close that only one ass could be led
-up and unloaded at a time&mdash;debouched upon the Mukondokwa
-ford. The view was not unpleasing. The
-swift brown stream was broadened by a branch-islet
-in its upper bed to nearly a hundred yards, and its
-margins were fringed with rushes backed by a
-screen of dense verdure and tall trees which occupied
-the narrow space between the water and the
-hills. The descent and the landing-place were
-equally bad. Slipping down the steep miry bank
-the porters sank into the river breast-deep, causing
-not a little damage to their loads: the ford now wetted
-the waist then the knee, and the landing-place was a
-kind of hippopotamus-run of thick slushy mud, floored
-with roots and branches, snags and sawyers, and backed
-by a quagmire rendered passable only by its matwork
-of tough grass-canes laid by their own weight. Having
-crossed over on our men’s backs, we ascended a little
-rise and lay down somewhat in the condition of travelling
-Manes fresh from the transit of the Styx. I
-ordered back Kidogo with a gang of porters to assist
-Said bin Salim who was bringing up the rear: he promised
-to go but he went the wrong way&mdash;forwards.
-Resuming our march along the river’s left or northern
-bank, we wound along the shoulders and the bases of
-hills, sometimes ascending the spurs of stony and jungly
-eminences, where the paths were unusually rough and
-precipitous, at other times descending into the stagnant
-lagoons, the reedy and rushy swamps, and the deep
-bogs which margin the stream. After a total of six
-hours we reached a kraal situated upon the sloping
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-189">[189]</span>
-ground at the foot of the northern walls which limit
-the grassy river basin: through this the Mukondokwa
-flows in a dark turbid stream now narrowed to about
-forty feet. The district of “Kadetamare” was formerly
-a provisioning station where even cattle were purchaseable,
-a rare exception to the rule in the smaller settlements
-of Usagara. I at once sent men to collect rations,
-none, however, were procurable: meeting a small party
-that were bringing grain from Rumuma, they learned
-that there was a famine in the land.</p>
-
-<p>At Kadetamare the only pedometer, a patent watch-shaped
-instrument, broke down, probably from the
-effects of the climate. Whilst carried by my companion
-it gave a steady exaggerative rate, but being set to the
-usual military pace of 30 inches, when transferred to
-the person of “Seedy Bombay” and others, it became
-worse than useless, sometimes showing 25 for 13 miles.
-I would suggest to future explorers in these regions, as
-the best and the most lasting means of measuring
-distances, two of the small wheelbarrow perambulators&mdash;it
-is vain to put trust in a single instrument&mdash;which can
-each be rolled on by one man. And when these are spoilt
-or stolen, timing with the watch, and a correct estimate
-of the walking rate combined with compass-bearings, the
-mean of the oscillations being taken when on the march,
-would give a “dead-reckoning,” which checked by latitudes,
-as often as the cloudy skies permit, and by a
-few longitudes at crucial stations, would afford materials
-for a map approximating as nearly to correctness
-as could be desired in a country where a “handful of
-miles” little matters. The other instruments, though
-carefully protected from the air, fared not better than
-the pedometer: with three pocket-chronometers and a
-valuable lever-watch, we were at last reduced to find
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-190">[190]</span>
-time by a sixpenny sun-dial. Before the first fortnight
-after our second landing in Africa had elapsed, all these
-instruments, notwithstanding the time and trouble devoted
-to them by my companion, at Zanzibar, failed in
-their ratings and became useless for chronometric longitudes.
-Two of them (Ed. Baker, London, No. 863,
-and Barraud, London, No. 2/537), stopped without apparent
-reason. A third, a first-rate article (Parkinson
-and Frodsham, No. 2955), issued to me from the Royal
-Observatory Greenwich, at the kind suggestion of Capt.
-Belcher, of the Admiralty, had its glass broken and its
-second-hand lost by the blunderer Gaetano: we remedied
-that evil by counting the ticks without other
-trouble than that caused by the odd number,&mdash;5 to 2
-seconds. This instrument also summarily struck work
-on the 9th November, 1858, the day before we intended
-to have “made a night of it” at Jiwe la Mkoa. This may
-serve as a warning for future travellers to avoid instruments
-so delicate that a jolt will disorder them&mdash;the
-hair-spring of the lever watch was broken by my companion
-in jumping out of a canoe&mdash;and which no one but
-a professional can attempt to repair. A box chronometer
-carried in a “petarah” by a pole swung between
-two men so as to preserve its horizontality, might outlast
-the pocket-instruments, yet we read in Capt. Owens
-celebrated survey of the African coasts, that out of
-nine not one kept rate without fluctuations. The best
-plan would be to purchase half-a-dozen sound second-hand
-watches, carefully inspected and cleaned, and to
-use one at a time; if gold-mounted, they would form
-acceptable presents to the Arabs, and ultimately would
-prove economical by obviating the necessity of parting
-with more valuable articles.</p>
-
-<p>The break-down of the last chronometer disheartened
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-191">[191]</span>
-us for a time. Presently when our brains, addled by
-sun and sickness, had recovered tone by a return to the
-Usagara sanitarium, we remembered a rough and ready
-succedaneum for instruments. I need scarcely tell
-the reader that, unhappily for travellers, the only means
-of ascertaining the longitude of a place is by finding
-the difference between the local and Greenwich times,
-and that this difference of time with certain corrections
-is converted into distance of space. We split a 4 oz.
-rifle-ball, inserted into it a string measuring 39 inches
-from the point of suspension to the centre of the
-weight, and fixed it by hammering the halves together.
-The loose end of the cord was attached to a three-edged
-file as a pivot, and this was lashed firmly to
-the branch of a tree sheltered as much as possible
-from the wind. Local time was ascertained with a
-sextant by taking the altitude of a star or a planet;
-Greenwich time by a distance between the star or
-planet and the moon, and the vibrations of our rude
-pendulum did all that a watch could do, by registering
-the seconds that elapsed between the several observations.</p>
-
-<p>I am somewhat presuming upon the subject, but perhaps
-it may here be better to chronicle the accidents
-which happened to the rest of our instruments. We
-had two Schmalcalder’s compasses (H. Barron &amp; Co.,
-26, Oxenden Street), which, when the paste-board
-faces had been acclimatized and no longer curled up
-against their glasses, did good service; one of them was
-trodden upon by my companion, the other by a sailor
-during a cruise on the lake. We returned with a
-single instrument, the gift of my old friend Lieut.-General
-Monteith; it had surveyed Persia, and outlasting
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-192">[192]</span>
-two long excursions into Eastern Africa, it still
-outlives and probably will outlive many of the showy
-articles now supplied by the trade. Finally, a ship’s
-compass, mounted in gimbals for boat-work and indented
-for upon the Engineer’s Stores, Bombay, soon
-became lumber, its oscillations were too sluggish to be
-useful.</p>
-
-<p>We left Kadetamare on the 25th August, to ascend
-the fluviatile valley of the Mukondokwa. According
-to the guides this stream is the upper course of the
-Kingani River, with which it anastomoses in Uzaramo(?)
-It cuts its way through the chain to which it
-gives a name, by a transversal valley perpendicular to
-the lay, and so conveniently disposed that the mountains
-seem rather to be made for their drain than the
-drain for its mountains. The fluviatile valley is apparently
-girt on all sides by high peaks, with homesteads
-smoking and cattle grazing on all sides. Crippled by
-the night-cold that rose from the river-bed, and then
-wet through with the dew that dripped from the tall
-grass, we traversed, within ear-shot of the frightened
-villagers who hailed one another from the heights,
-some fields of grain and tobacco that had been lately
-reaped. After an hour and a-half of marching
-we arrived at the second ford of the Mukondokwa.
-Receiving less drainage than in the lower bed, the
-stream was narrower and only knee-deep; the landing-place
-of sloppy mud caused, however, many accidents
-to the asses, and on inspecting our stores a few
-days afterwards we found them all soft and mildewed.
-The reader will wonder that on these occasions
-we did not personally inspect the proceedings of our
-careless followers. The fact is we were physically and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-193">[193]</span>
-morally incapacitated for any exertion beyond balancing
-ourselves upon the donkeys; at Kadetamare I had
-laid in another stock of fever, and my companion had not
-recovered from his second severe attack. After fording
-the Mukondokwa we followed the right bank through
-cultivation, grass, and trees, up a gradually broadening
-valley peculiarly rich in field-rats. The path then crossing
-sundry swamps and nullahs, hill-spurs and “neat’s
-tongues,” equally rough thorny and precipitous, presently
-fell into a river-reach where pools of water,
-breast deep, and hedged in by impassable jungle and long
-runs of slushy mire festering in a furious sun, severely
-tried the porters and asses. Thence the road wound
-under the high hills to the South, whose flanks were
-smoking with extensive conflagrations, whilst on the opposite
-or left bank of the river, the opening valley displayed
-a forest of palms and tall trees. About 2 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>
-I reached the ground, a hutless circle of thorns,
-called by our people Muinyi: the rear-guard, however,
-did not straggle in before 6 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, and the exhaustion of
-the asses&mdash;seventeen now remained&mdash;rendered a day’s
-halt necessary.</p>
-
-<p>During the last two marches the Baloch had been,
-they declared, without grain; the sons of Ramji and
-the porters, more provident, had reserved a small store,
-moreover they managed to procure a sheep from the next
-station. On the morrow a party, headed by Muinyi
-Wazira, set out to forage among the mountain settlements,
-bearing no arms in token of peace. About noon
-they returned, and reported that at the sight of
-strangers the people had taken to flight, after informing
-the party that they were in the habit of putting to
-death all Murungwana or freemen found trespassing off
-the road; however, that on this occasion the lives of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-194">[194]</span>
-strangers should be spared. But Ambari, a slave belonging
-to Said bin Salim, presently tattled the true tale.
-The gallant foragers had not dared to enter the village;
-when the war-cry flew from hamlet to hamlet, and all
-the Wasagara, even the women and children, seized their
-spears and stood to arms, they at once threw themselves
-into the jungle and descended the hill with such unseemly
-haste that most of them bore the wounds of
-thorns and stones. Two of Baloch, Riza and Belok,
-lit their matches and set out proudly to provide themselves
-by their prowess; they were derided by Kidogo:
-“Verily, O my brethren! ye go forth to meet men and
-not women!” and after a hundred yards’ walk they
-took second thoughts and returned. The Mukondokwa
-Mountains, once a garden, have become a field for fray
-and foray; cruelty and violence have brutalised the
-souls of the inhabitants, and they have learned, as
-several atrocities committed since our passage through
-the country prove, to wreak their vengeance upon all
-weaker than themselves.</p>
-
-<p>On the 27th August we resumed our way under fresh
-difficulties. The last march had cost us another ass.
-Muhinna, a donkey-driver, complaining of fever, had
-been mounted by Kidogo without my permission, and
-had summarily departed, thus depriving us of the services
-of a second, whilst all were in a state of weakness
-which compelled them to walk at their slowest pace. On
-the other hand, the men of the caravan, hungry and
-suffering from raw south-east wind and the chilly cold,
-the result not of low temperature but of humidity and
-extensive evaporation, were for pushing forward as fast
-as possible. The path was painful, winding along the
-shoulders of stony and bushy hills, with rough re-entering
-angles, and sometimes dipping down into the valley of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-195">[195]</span>
-the Mukondokwa, which, hard on the right, spread out
-in swamps, nearly two miles broad, temporary where they
-depended upon rain, and permanent where their low
-levels admitted of free infiltration. On the steep eminences
-to the left of the path rose tall and thick the thorny
-aloetic and cactaceous growth of arid Somaliland; the
-other side was a miniature of the marine lagoons, the
-creeks, and the bayous of green Zanzibar. After three
-hours of hard marching, the labour came to its crisis,
-where the path, breaking off at a right angle from the river,
-wound up an insecure ladder of loose earth and stones,
-which caused several porters and one ass to lose their
-footing, and to roll with their loads through the thorny
-bushes of the steep slope, near the off side, into the bed
-of rushes below. Then leaving the river-valley on the
-right, we fell into a Fiumara of deep loose sand, about a
-hundred yards broad, and occupying the centre of a
-widening table-land. The view now changed, and the
-“wady” afforded pleasant glimpses of scenery. Its
-broad, smooth and glistening bed, dinted by the footprints
-of cattle, was bounded by low perpendicular
-banks of stiff red clay, margined by mighty masses of
-brilliant green tamarinds, calabashes, and sycomores,
-which stood sharply out against the yellow stubbles beyond
-them. The Mkuyu or sycomore in Eastern
-Africa is a magnificent tree; the bole, composed of
-a pillared mass, averages from eight to ten feet in
-height, and the huge branches, thatched with thick cool
-foliage, extend laterally, overshadowing a circle whose
-perimeter, when the sun is vertical, sometimes attains
-five hundred feet. The fruit, though eaten by travellers,
-is a poor berry, all rind and seeds, with a slender title
-to the name of fig. There are apparently two varieties
-of this tree, resembling each other in general appearance,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-196">[196]</span>
-but differing in details. The Mtamba has a large, heavy,
-and fleshy leaf; its fruit is not smooth like that of the
-Mkuyu, but knobbed with green excrescences, and the
-bole is loftier than the common sycomore’s trunk. The
-roots of the older trees, rising above the earth, draw up
-a quantity of mould which, when the wood is decayed
-or destroyed, forms the dwarf mounds that in many parts
-encumber the surface of the country. Traces of extensive
-cultivation&mdash;fields of bajri or panicum, the staple
-cereal which here supplants the normal African holcus,
-or Kafir corn, and plantations of luxuriant maize, of
-beans, of the vetch known as the voiandzeia subterranea,
-of tobacco, and other plants&mdash;showed that this district is
-beyond the reach of the coast-kidnappers. From the rising
-ground on the left hand we heard the loud tattoo of the
-drum. The Baloch, choosing to be alarmed, fired several
-shots, much to the annoyance of the irascible Kidogo, who
-had laid down as a law that waste of powder in this region
-was more likely to invite than to prevent an attack. As
-we ascended the Fiumara it narrowed rapidly, and its
-head was encumbered with heaps of boulders from which
-sprang a runnel of the sweetest water. The camping-ground
-was upon the left bank of the bed. The guide
-called it Ndábi, probably from a small gnarled tree here
-abundant, bearing a fruit like a pale red currant, which
-tastes like sweetened gum dissolved in dirty water. I
-lost no time in sending for provisions, which were scarce
-and dear. Bombay failed in procuring a sheep, though the
-Baloch, by paying six cloths, were more fortunate. One
-of Kidogo’s principles of action, in which he was abetted
-by Said bin Salim, was to prevent our buying provisions,
-however necessary, at high prices, fearing lest the tariff
-thus established might become an “ada,” a precedent or
-custom for future travellers, himself and others. We
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-197">[197]</span>
-were, therefore, fain to content ourselves and our servants
-with a little bajri and two eggs.</p>
-
-<p>After a day’s halt at Ndabi we resumed the journey
-on the 29th August. The path crossed a high and
-stony hill-shoulder, where the bleak raw air caused one
-of the porters to lie down torpid like a frozen man. It
-then stretched over gradually rising and falling ground
-to a dense bush of cactaceæ and milk-bush, aloetic plants
-and thorns, based upon a surface of brickdust-red. Beyond
-this point lay another plateau of wavy surface,
-producing dwarfed and wind-wrung calabashes, and
-showing grain-fields carefully and laboriously ridged with
-the hoe. Flocks and herds now appeared in all directions.
-The ground was in some places rust-coloured, in
-others dazzlingly white with a detritus of granite; mica
-glittered like silver-filings in the sun, and a fine silky
-grass waved in the wind, bleached clean of colour by the
-glowing rays. This plateau ended in a descent with
-rapid slopes, over falls and steps of rock and boulder
-into the basin of the Rumuma River. It is a southern
-influent, or a bifurcation of the Mukondokwa, and
-it drains the hills to the south-west of the Rumuma
-district, whereas the main stream, arising in the highlands
-of the Wahumba or Wamusai, carries off the
-waters of the lands on the west. Losing our way,
-we came upon this mountain-torrent, which swirls
-through blocks and boulders under stiff banks of red
-earth densely grown with brush and reeds; and to
-find the kraal we were obliged to travel up the bed-side,
-through well-hoed fields irrigated by raised water-courses.
-The khambi was badly situated in the dwarf hollow between
-the river and the hills, and having lately been
-tenanted, as the smoking embers showed, it was uncleanly
-in the extreme. It was heart-breaking to see the asses
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-198">[198]</span>
-that day. I left them to Said bin Salim, who, with
-many others, did not appear till eventide.</p>
-
-<p>Rumuma is a favourite resting-place with caravans,
-on account of the comparative abundance of its supplies.
-I halted here two whole days, to rest and feed
-the starving porters, and to repair the sacks, the pack-saddles,
-and the other appointments of the asses. Here,
-for the first time, the country people descended in
-crowds from the hills, bringing fowls, hauling along
-small but beautifully formed goats, lank sheep, and fine
-bullocks&mdash;the latter worth twelve cloths&mdash;and carrying
-on their heads basket-platters full of the Voandzeia,
-bajri, beans, and the <i>Arachis Hypogæa</i>. The latter is
-called by the Arabs Sumbul el Sibal, or “Monkey’s
-Spikenard;” on the coast, Njugu ya Nyassa; in Unyamwezi,
-Karanga or K’haranga, and further west, Mayowwa
-or Mwanza. It is the Bhuiphali, or “earth-fruit”
-of India, and the Bik’han of Maharatta land,
-where it is used by cheap confectioners in the place of
-almonds, whose taste it simulates. Our older Cape travellers
-term it the pig-nut. The plant extends itself
-along the surface of the ground, and puts forth its fruit
-at intervals below. It is sown before the rains, and
-ripens after six months,&mdash;in the interior about June.
-The Arabs fry it with cream that has been slightly
-salted, and employ it in a variety of rich dishes; it
-affords them also a favourite oil. The Africans use it
-principally on journeys. The price greatly varies according
-to the abundance of the article; when moderate,
-about two pounds may be purchased for a “khete” of
-coral beads.</p>
-
-<p>The Wasagara of Rumuma are short, black, beardless
-men. They wear their hair combed off the forehead,
-and twisted into a fringe of little pig-tails, which
-extend to the nape of the neck. Few boast of cloth,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-199">[199]</span>
-the general body contenting themselves with a goat-skin
-flap somewhat like a cobbler’s apron tied over
-one shoulder, as we sling a game-bag. Their ornaments
-are zinc and brass earrings in rolls, which
-distend the ear-lobe, bangles, or armlets of similar
-metal, and iron chains with oblong links as anklets.
-Their arms are bows and arrows, assegais with long
-lanceated heads, and bull-hide shields, three feet
-long by one broad, painted black and red in perpendicular
-stripes. I was visited by their Sultan
-Njasa, a small grizzled old man, with eyes reddened by
-liquor, a wide mouth, a very thin beard, a sooty skin,
-and long straggling hair, “<i>à la malcontent</i>.” He was
-attired in an antiquated Barsati, or blue and red Indian
-cotton, tucked in at the waist, with another
-thrown over his shoulders, and his neck was decked
-with many strings of beads. He insisted upon making
-“sare” or brotherhood with Said bin Salim, who being
-forbidden by his law to taste blood, made the unconscientious
-Muinyi Wazira his proxy. The two brothers
-being seated on the ground opposite each other, with
-legs well to the fore, one man held over their heads a
-drawn sword, whilst another addressed to them alternately
-a little sermon, denouncing death or slavery as
-the penalty for proving false to the vow. Then each
-brother licked a little of the other’s blood, taken with
-the finger from a knife-cut above the heart, or rather
-where the heart is popularly supposed to be. The Sultan
-then presented to the Muinyi, <i>in memoriam</i>, a neat
-iron chain-anklet, and the Muinyi presented to the Sultan
-a little of our cloth.</p>
-
-<p>The climate of Rumuma was new to me, after the incessant
-rains of the maritime valley, and the fogs and
-mists of the Rufuta Range. It was, however, in extremes.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-200">[200]</span>
-At night the thermometer, under the influence
-of dewy gusts, sank in the tent to 48° F., a killing temperature
-in these latitudes to half-naked and houseless
-men. During the day the mercury ranged between 80°
-and 90° F.; the sun was fiery, whilst a furious south
-wind coursed through skies purer and bluer than I had
-ever seen in Greece or Italy. At times, according to
-the people, the hill-tops are veiled, especially in the
-mornings and evenings, with thick nimbus, vapours,
-and spitting clouds, which sometimes extend to the
-plain, and discharge heavy showers that invariably
-cause sickness. Here my companion once more suffered
-from an attack of “liver,” brought on, he supposed,
-from over-devotion to a fat bullock’s hump. Two of
-the Wanyamwezi porters were seized with preliminary
-symptoms of small-pox, euphuistically termed by Said
-bin Salim “shurua,” or chicken-pox. Several of the
-slaves, including the charming Halimah, were laid up;
-the worst of all, however, was Valentine, who complained
-of an unceasing racking headache, whilst his puffed
-cheeks and dull-yellow skin gave him the look of one
-newly deceased. At length, divining his complaint, he
-was cupped by a Mnyamwezi porter, and he recovered
-after the operation strength and appetite.</p>
-
-<p>The 2nd of September saw us <i>en route</i> to Márengá
-Mk’hali, or the “brackish water.” Fording the Rumuma
-above the spot where it receives the thin supplies
-of the Márengá Mk’hali, we marched over stony hills
-and thorny bushes, dotted with calabash and mimosa,
-the castor-shrub and the wild egg-plant, and gradually
-rising, we passed into scattered fields of holcus and
-bajri, pulse and beans. Here, for the first time, bee-hives,
-called by the coast-people Mazinga, or cannons, from
-their shape, hollowed cylindrical logs, closed with grass
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-201">[201]</span>
-and puddle at both ends, and provided with an oval
-opening in the centre, were seen hanging to the branches
-of the foliaged trees. Cucumbers, water-melons, and
-pumpkins grew apparently without cultivation. The
-water-melon, called by the Arabs Johh, and by the
-Wasawahili Tikiti, flourishes throughout the interior,
-where it is a favourite with the people. It is sown before
-the rainy season, gathered after six months, and
-placed to ripen upon the flat roofs of the villages. Like
-the produce of Kafir-land, it is hard, insipid, fleshy,
-and full of seeds, having nothing but the name in common
-with the delicious fruit of Egypt and Afghanistan.
-The Junsal, or Boga, the pumpkin, is, if possible, worse
-than the water-melon. Its red meat, simply boiled, is
-nauseously sweet; it is, however, considered wholesome,
-and the people enjoy the seeds toasted, pounded, and
-mixed with the “Mboga,” or wild vegetables, with
-which a veritable African can, in these regions, keep
-soul and body together for six months. About 10 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>,
-I found Khalfan’s caravan halted in a large kraal
-amongst the villages, on the eastern hill above the
-“brackish water.” They were loading for the march,
-and my men looked wistfully at the comfortable huts;
-but their halt had been occasioned by small-pox, I therefore
-hurried forwards across the streamlet to a wind-swept
-summit of an opposite hill. The place was far from
-pleasant, the gusts were furious; by night the thermometer
-showed 54° F., by day there was but scanty
-shelter from the fiery sun, and the “Márengá Mk’hali,”
-which afforded the only supplies of water, was at a considerable
-distance. Moreover our umbrellas and bedding
-suffered severely from a destructive host of white
-ants, that here became troublesome for the first time.
-The “Chunga Mchwa,” or termite, abounds throughout
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-202">[202]</span>
-the sweet red clay soils, and cool damp places, avoiding
-heat, sand, and stone, and it acts like a clearer and
-scavenger; without it, indeed, some parts of the country
-would be impassable, and it is endowed with extraordinary
-powers of destruction. A hard clay-bench has
-been drilled and pierced like a sieve by these insects in a
-single night, and bundles of reeds placed under bedding,
-have in a few hours been converted into a mass of mud;
-straps were consumed, cloths and umbrellas were reduced
-to rags, and the mats used for covering the servants’
-sleeping-gear were, in the shortest possible time,
-so tattered as to be unserviceable. Man revenges himself
-upon the white ant, and satisfies his craving for
-animal food, which in these regions becomes a principle
-of action,&mdash;a passion,&mdash;by boiling the largest and fattest
-kind, and eating it as a relish with his insipid ugali, or
-porridge. The termite appears to be a mass of live
-water. Even in the driest places it finds no difficulty
-in making a clay-paste for the mud-galleries, like hollow
-tree-twigs, with which it disguises its approach to
-its prey. The phenomenon has been explained by the
-conjecture that it combines by vital force the atmospheric
-oxygen with the hydrogen evolved by its food.
-When arrived at the adult state, the little peoples rise
-ready-winged, like thin curls of pipe-smoke, generally
-about even-tide, from the ground. After a flight of a
-few yards, the fine membranes, which apparently serve
-to disperse the insects into colonies, drop off. In East
-Africa there is also a semi-transparent brown ant, resembling
-the termite in form, but differing in habits,
-and even exceeding it in destructiveness. It does not,
-like its congener, run galleries up to the point of attack.
-Each individual works for itself in the open air, tears
-the prey with its strong mandibles, and carries it away
-to its hole. The cellular hills of the termites in this
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-203">[203]</span>
-country rarely rise to the height of three feet, whereas
-in Somali-land they become dwarf towers, forming a
-conspicuous feature in the view.</p>
-
-<p>No watch was kept by the Baloch at Márengá Mk’hali,
-though we were then in the vicinity of the bandit Wahumba.
-On the next day we were harangued by Kidogo,
-who proceeded to expound the principles that
-must guide us through the unsafe regions ahead. The
-caravan must no longer straggle on in its usual disorder,
-the van must stop short when separated from
-the main body, and the rear must advance at the
-double when summoned by the sound of the Barghumi,
-or the koodoo-horn, which acts as bugle in Eastern
-Africa. I thought, at the time, that Kidogo might
-as well address his admonitions to the wind, and I
-thought rightly.</p>
-
-<p>The route lay through the lateral plain which separates
-the Mukondokwa or second, from the Rubeho or
-third parallel range of the Usagara Mountains. At
-Márengá, Mk’hali, situated as it is under the lee of the
-two eastern walls, upon which the humid N. E. and
-S. E. trade-winds impinge, the eye no longer falls, as
-before, upon a sheet of monotonous green, and the nose
-is not offended by the death-like exhalations of a pestilent
-vegetation. The dew diminishes, the morning-cloud
-is rare upon the hill-top, and the stratus is not
-often seen in the valley; rain, moreover, seldom falls
-heavily, except during its single appointed season. The
-climate is said to be salubrious, and the medium elevation
-of the land, 2500 feet, raises it high above the
-fatal fever-level, without attaining the altitudes where
-dysentery and pleurisy afflict the inhabitants. For
-many miles beyond Márengá Mk’hali water is rarely
-found. Caravans, therefore, resort to what is technically
-called a “Tirikeza,” or afternoon march. In the Kisawahili,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-204">[204]</span>
-or coast-language, “ku Tirikeza,” or “Tilikeza,” and
-in Kinyamwezi, “ku Witekezea,” is the infinitive of a neuter
-verb signifying “to march after noon-day”; by the
-Arabs it is corrupted into a substantive. Similarly the
-verb ku honga, to pay “dash”, tribute, passage-money, or
-blackmail, becomes in the mouths of the stranger, ku
-honga, or Honga. The tirikeza is one of the severest
-inflictions that African travelling knows. At 11 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>
-everything is thrown into confusion, although two or
-three hours must elapse before departure; loads are
-bound up, kitchen-batteries are washed and packed,
-tents are thrown, and stools are carried off by fidgeting
-porters and excited slaves. Having drunk for the last
-time, and filled their gourds for the night, the wayfarers
-set out when the midday ends. The sun is far more
-severely felt after the sudden change from shade, than
-during the morning marches, when its increase of heat is
-slow and gradual. They trudge under the fireball in the
-firmament, over ground seething with glow and reek,
-through an air which seems to parch the eyeballs, and
-they endure this affliction till their shadows lengthen
-out upon the ground. The tirikeza is almost invariably
-a lengthy stage, as the porters wish to abridge
-the next morning’s march, which leads to water. It is
-often bright moonlight before they arrive at the ground,
-with faces torn by the thorns projecting across the
-jungly path, with feet lacerated by stone and stub,
-and occasionally a leg lamed by stumbling into deep
-and narrow holes, the work of field-rats and of various
-insects.</p>
-
-<p>We left Márengá Mk’hali at 1 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, on the 3rd September,
-and in order to impressionise a large and well-armed
-band of the country people that had gathered to
-stare at, to criticise, and to deride us, we indulged in
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-205">[205]</span>
-a little harmless sword-play, with a vast show of ferocity
-and readiness for fight. The road lay over several rough,
-steep, and bushy ridges, where the wretched asses,
-rushing away to take advantage of a yard of shade,
-caused constant delays. The Wanyamwezi animals
-having a great persistency of character, could scarcely
-be dislodged; and when they were, they threw their
-loads in pure spite. After topping a little “col” or
-pass, we came in sight of an extensive basin, bounded
-by distant blue hills, to which the porters pointed with
-a certain awe, declaring them to be the haunts of the
-fierce Wahumba. A descent of the western flank led
-us to a space partially cleared by burning, when the cry
-arose that men were lurking about. We then plunged
-into a thick bush of thorny trees, based upon a red
-clayey soil caked into the semblance of a rock. Contrary
-to expectation, when crossing a deep nullah trending
-northwards, we found a little rusty, ochreish water,
-in one of the cups and holes that dented the sandstone
-of the soles. Thence the path, gradually descending,
-fell into a coarse scrub, varied with small open savannahs,
-and broken, like the rest of the road, by deep,
-narrow watercourses, which carry off the waters of the
-southern hills to the northern lowlands. About 6 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>,
-we came upon a cleared space in a thick thorn-jungle,
-where we established ourselves for the night. The
-near whine of the hyæna, and the alarm of the asses,
-made sleep a difficulty. The impatience and selfishness
-of thirst showed strongly in the Baloch. Belok
-had five large gourds full of water, perhaps three gallons,
-yet he would not part with a palmful to the sick
-Ismail. That day I was compelled to dismiss my usual
-ass-leader Shahdad, the zeze-player and fracturer of female
-hearts, who preferring the conversation of his
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-206">[206]</span>
-fellows, dragged the animal through thorns and alongside
-of trees so artistically, that my nether garments
-were soon in strips. I substituted for him Musa the
-Greybeard, who, after a few days, begged, with bitter
-tears, to be excused. It was his habit to hurry on
-towards the kraal and shade, and the slow hobble of the
-ass detained him a whole hour in sore discomfort. The
-task was then committed to the tailor-youth Hudul, who
-lost no time in declaring that I had abused him&mdash;that
-he was a Baloch&mdash;that he was not an asinego. Then I
-tried Abdullah,&mdash;the good young man. I dismissed him
-because every day brought with it a fresh demand for
-cloth or beads, gourds or sandals, for a “chit” to the
-Balyuz&mdash;the Consul, or a general good character as regards
-honesty, virtue, and the <i>et ceteras</i>. Finally the ass
-was entrusted to the bull-headed slave Mabruki, who
-thinking of nothing but chat with his “brother,” Seedy
-Bombay, and having that curious mania for command
-which seems part of every servile nature, hurried my
-monture so recklessly, that earth-cracks and rat-holes
-caused us twain many a severe fall. My companion
-had entrusted himself to Bombay, who, though he did
-nothing well rarely did anything very badly.</p>
-
-<p>The 4th September began with an hour’s toil through
-the dense bush, to a rapid descent over red soil and
-rocks, which necessitated frequent dismounting,&mdash;no
-pleasant exercise after a sleepless night. Below, lay a
-wide basin of rolling ground, surrounded in front by a
-rim of hills. It was one of the many views which
-“catching the reflex of heaven,” and losing by indistinctness
-the harshness of defined outline and the deformity
-of individual feature, assume, viewed from afar,
-a peculiar picturesqueness. Traces of extensive cultivation,
-flocks and herds, were descried in the lower
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-207">[207]</span>
-levels, which were a network of sandy nullahs; and
-upon the rises, the regular and irregular square or
-oblong habitations, called “Tembe,” were seen for the first
-time. Early September is, in this region, the depth of
-winter. Under the burning, glaring sun, the grass
-becomes white as the ground; the fields, stubbles stiff as
-harrows, are stained only by the shadow of passing
-clouds; the trees, except upon the nullah-banks, are
-gaunt and bare, the animals are walking skeletons, and
-nothing seems to flourish but flies and white ants,
-caltrops and grapple-plants. After crossing deep water-cuts
-trending N.E. and N.N.E., we descended a sharp
-incline and a rough ladder of boulders, and found a
-dirty and confined kraal, on the side of a rocky khad<a id="FNanchor8"></a><a href="#Footnote8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> or
-ravine, which drains off the surplus moisture of the
-westerly crags and highlands, and which affords sweet
-springs, that cover the soil as far as they extend with a
-nutritious and succulent grass. As this was to be a
-halting-place, a more than usually violent rush was
-made by the Baloch, the sons of Ramji, and the
-porters, to secure the best quarters. The Jemadar
-remaining behind with three of the Wanyamwezi, who
-were unable to walk, did not arrive till after noon, and
-my companion, suffering from a paroxysm of bilious
-fever, came in even later. Valentine was weaker than
-usual, and Gaetano groaned more frequently, “ang
-duk’hta”&mdash;body pains! To add other troubles, an ass
-had been lost, and “Khamsin,”&mdash;No. 50&mdash;my riding-animal,
-had by breaking a tooth in fighting incapacitated
-itself for food or drink: its feebleness compelled me
-to transfer the saddle to the last of the Zanzibar riding-asses,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-208">[208]</span>
-Siringe,&mdash;the Quarter-dollar&mdash;and Siringe, sadly
-back-sore, cowering in the hams, and slipping from
-under me every few minutes, showed present signs of
-giving in.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a>
-The Indian “khad” is the deep rocky drain in hilly countries, thus
-differing from the popular idea of a “ravine,” and from the nullah, which is
-a formation in more level lands.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>The basin of Inenge lies at the foot of the Rubeho
-or “Windy Pass,” the third and westernmost range of
-the Usagara Mountains. The climate, like that of
-Rumuma, is ever in extremes&mdash;during the day a furnace,
-and at night a refrigerator&mdash;the position is a funnel,
-which alternately collects the fiery sunbeams and the
-chilly winds that pour down from the misty highlands.
-The villagers of the settlements overlooking the ravine,
-flocked down to barter their animals and grain. Here,
-for the first time since our departure from the coast,
-honey, clarified butter, and, greatest boon of all, milk,
-fresh and sour, were procurable. The man who has
-been restricted to a diet so unwholesome as holcus
-and bajri, with an occasional treat of kennel-food,&mdash;broth
-and beans,&mdash;will understand that the first unexpected
-appearance of milk, butter, and honey formed
-an epoch in our journey.</p>
-
-<p>The halt was celebrated with abundant drumming and
-droning, which lasted half the night; it served to cheer the
-spirits of the men, who had talked of nothing the whole
-day but the danger of being attacked by the Wahumba.
-On the next morning arrived a caravan of about 400
-Wanyamwezi porters marching to the coast, under the
-command of Isa bin Hijji and three other Arab merchants.
-An interchange of civilities took place. The
-Arabs lacking cloth could not feed their slaves and
-porters, who deserted daily, imperilling a valuable
-investment in ivory. The Europeans could afford a
-small contribution of three Gorah or pieces of
-domestics: they received a present of fine white
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-209">[209]</span>
-rice, a few pounds of salt, and a goat, in exchange
-for a little perfumed snuff and assafœtida, which after
-a peculiar infusion is applied to wounds, and which, administered
-internally, is considered a remedy for many
-complaints. I was allured to buy a few yards of rope,
-indispensable for packing the animals. The number of
-our asses being reduced from thirty to fifteen, and the
-porters from thirty-six to thirty, it was necessary to
-recruit. The Arabs sold two Wanyamwezi animals for
-ten dollars each, payable at Zanzibar. One proved
-valuable as a riding ass, and carried me to the Central
-Lake, and back to Unyanyembe: the other, though caponized
-and blind on the off-side, had become by bad treatment
-so obstinate and so cleverly vicious, that the Baloch
-called him “Shaytan yek-cham,” or the “one-eyed
-fiend:” he carried, besides sundries, four boxes of ammunition,
-weighing together 160 pounds, and even under
-these he danced like a deer. Nothing was against him
-but his character: after a few days he was cast adrift in
-the wilderness of Mgunda M’khali, because no man
-dared to load and lead him. Knowing that the Arab
-merchants upon this line hold it a point of honour to
-discourage, by refusing a new engagement, the down-porters
-in their proclivity to desert, and believing that
-it was a stranger’s duty to be even stricter than they
-are, I gave most stringent orders that any fugitive
-porter detected in my caravan should be sent back a
-prisoner to his employers. But the Coast-Arabs and
-the Wasawahili ignore this commercial chivalry, and
-shamelessly offer a premium to “levanters:” moreover,
-in these lands it is hard to make men understand the
-<i>rapport</i> between sayings and doings. Seven or eight
-fellows, who secretly left the party, were sent back;
-one, however, was taken on without my knowledge.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-210">[210]</span>
-Said bin Salim persuaded the merchants to lend us the
-services of three Wanyamwezi, who for sums varying from
-eight Shukkah to two cloths, and a coil large enough
-to make three wire bracelets, undertook to carry packs
-as far as Unyanyembe. Our Ras Kafilah had increased
-in Uzaramo his suite by the addition of “Zawada,”&mdash;the
-“nice gift,” a parting present of the headman
-Kizaya. She was a woman about thirty, with a black
-skin shining like a patent-leather boot, a bulging brow,
-little red eyes, a wide mouth which displayed a few long,
-strong, scattered teeth, and a figure considerably too
-bulky for her thin legs, which were unpleasantly straight,
-like ninepins. Her <i>morale</i> was superior to her <i>physique</i>;
-she was a patient and hard-working woman, and respectable
-in the African acceptation of the term. She was at
-once married off to old Musangesi, one of the donkey-men,
-whose nose and chin made him a caricature of our
-dear old friend Punch. After detecting her in a lengthy
-walk, perhaps not solitary, through the jungle, he was
-palpably guilty of such cruelty that I felt compelled to
-decree a dissolution of the marriage. After passing
-through sundry adventures she returned safely to Zanzibar,
-where, for aught I know, she may still grace
-the harem of Said bin Salim. At Inenge another female
-slave was added to the troop, in the person of the lady
-Sikujui, “Don’t know,” a “mulier nigris dignissima
-barris,” whose herculean person and virago manner
-raised her value to six cloths and a large coil of brass
-wire. The channel of her upper lip had been pierced to
-admit a disk of bone; her Arab master had attempted
-to correct the disfigurement by scarification and the use
-of rock-salt, yet the distended muscles insisted upon projecting
-sharply from her countenance, like a duck’s bill,
-or the beak of an ornithorhyncus. This truly African
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-211">[211]</span>
-ornamentation would have supplied another instance to
-the ingenious author of “Anthropometamorphosis.”<a id="FNanchor9"></a><a href="#Footnote9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
-“Don’t know’s” morals were frightful. She was duly
-espoused&mdash;as the forlorn hope of making her an “honest
-woman”&mdash;to Goha, the sturdiest of the Wak’hutu porters;
-after a week she treated him with a sublime contempt.
-She gave him first one, then a dozen rivals;
-she disordered the caravan by her irregularities; she
-broke every article entrusted to her charge, as the
-readiest way of lightening her burden, and&mdash;“le moindre
-défaut d’une femme galante est de l’être”&mdash;she deserted
-so shamelessly that at last Said bin Salim disposed of
-her, at Unyanyembe, for a few measures of rice, to a
-travelling trader, who came the next morning to complain
-of a broken head.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a>
-Anthropometamorphosis: Man-transformed: or the Artificial Changeling,
-historically presented, In the mad and cruel Gallantry, foolish Bravery,
-Ridiculous Beauty, filthy Finenesse, and loathsome Loveliness of most
-NATIONS, fashioning and attiring their Bodies from the mould intended
-by NATURE; with figures of these Transfigurations. To which artificial
-and affected Deformations are added, all the Native and National
-Monstrosities that have appeared to disfigure the Humane Fabrick. With
-a VINDICATION of the Regular Beauty and Honesty of NATURE.
-With an Appendix of the Pedigree of the ENGLISH GALLANT.
-Scripsit J. B. Cognomento Chirosophus, M.D “In nova fert animus,
-mutatas dicere formas.” London: Printed by William Hunt, Anno. Dom.
-1653.</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>Isa bin Hijji did us various good services. He and
-his companions kindly waited some days to superintend
-our preparations for crossing the Rubeho Range. They
-supplied useful hints for keeping the caravan together
-at different places infamous for desertion. They gave
-me valuable information about Ugogo and Ujiji, and
-they placed at my disposal their house at Unyanyembe.
-They “wigged” the Kirangozi, or guide, for carelessness
-in not building a kraal-fence every night, and for
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-212">[212]</span>
-not bringing in, as the custom is, wood and water.
-Kidogo was reproved for allowing his men to load our
-asses with their luggage, and the Baloch for their continual
-complaints about food. The latter had long forgotten
-the promises made at Muhama; they returned
-at every opportunity to their old tactic, that of obtaining,
-by all manner of pretexts, as much cloth and beads as
-possible, ostensibly for provisions, really for trading and
-buying slaves. At Rumuma they declared that one
-cloth per diem starved them. Said bin Salim sent
-them its value, about fifty pounds of beans, and they
-had abundant rations of beef and mutton, but they
-could not eat beans. At Inenge they wanted flour, and
-as the country people sold only grain, they gave themselves
-up to despair. I sent for the Jemadar and told
-him, in presence of the merchants, that, as a fitting
-opportunity had presented itself, I was willing to weed
-the party, by giving official dismissal to Khudabakhsh
-and Belok, to the invalid Ismail and his musical
-“brother” Shahdad. All four, when consulted, declared
-that they would die rather than blacken their faces by
-abandoning the “Haji Abdullah;” that same evening,
-however, as I afterwards learned, they wrote, by means
-of the Arabs, a heartrending complaint to their chief
-Jemadar at Zanzibar, declaring that he had thrown
-them into the fire (of affliction), and that their blood
-was upon his hands. My companion prepared official
-papers and maps for the Secretary of the Royal Geographical
-Society, and I again indented upon the Consul
-and the Collector of Customs for drugs, medical comforts,
-and an extra supply of cloth and beads, to the
-extent of 400 dollars, for which a cheque upon my
-agents in Bombay was enclosed. The Arabs took leave
-of us on the 2nd September. I charged them repeatedly
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-213">[213]</span>
-not to spread reports of our illness, and I saw them
-depart with regret. It had really been a relief to hear
-once more the voice of civility and sympathy.</p>
-
-<p>The great labour still remained. Trembling with
-ague, with swimming heads, ears deafened by weakness,
-and limbs that would hardly support us, we contemplated
-with a dogged despair the apparently perpendicular
-path that ignored a zigzag, and the ladders of
-root and boulder, hemmed in with tangled vegetation, up
-which we and our starving drooping asses were about to
-toil. On the 10th September we hardened our hearts, and
-began to breast the Pass Terrible. My companion was
-so weak that he required the aid of two or three supporters;
-I, much less unnerved, managed with one. After
-rounding in two places wall-like sheets of rock&mdash;at their
-bases green grass and fresh water were standing close to
-camp, and yet no one had driven the donkeys to feed&mdash;and
-crossing a bushy jungly step, we faced a long steep of
-loose white soil and rolling stones, up which we could see
-the Wanyamwezi porters swarming, more like baboons
-scaling a precipice than human beings, and the asses falling
-after every few yards. As we moved slowly and
-painfully forwards, compelled to lie down by cough,
-thirst, and fatigue, the “sayhah” or war-cry rang loud
-from hill to hill, and Indian files of archers and spearmen
-streamed like lines of black ants in all directions
-down the paths. The predatory Wahumba, awaiting the
-caravan’s departure, had seized the opportunity of driving
-the cattle and plundering the villages of Inenge. Two
-passing parties of men, armed to the teeth, gave us this
-information; whereupon the negro “Jelai” proposed,
-fear-maddened&mdash;a <i>sauve qui peut</i>&mdash;leaving to their fate
-his employers, who, bearing the mark of Abel in this land
-of Cain, were ever held to be the head and front of all
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-214">[214]</span>
-offence. Khudabakhsh, the brave of braves, being attacked
-by a slight fever, lay down, declaring himself
-unable to proceed, moaned like a bereaved mother, and
-cried for drink like a sick girl. The rest of the Baloch,
-headed by the Jemadar, were in the rear; they had
-levelled their matchlocks at one of the armed parties
-as it approached them, and, but for the interference of
-Kidogo, blood would have been shed.</p>
-
-<p>By resting after every few yards, and by clinging to our
-supporters, we reached, after about six hours, the summit
-of the Pass Terrible, and there we sat down amongst the
-aromatic flowers and bright shrubs&mdash;the gift of mountain
-dews&mdash;to recover strength and breath. My companion
-could hardly return an answer; he had advanced
-mechanically and almost in a state of coma. The view
-from the summit appeared eminently suggestive, perhaps
-unusually so, because disclosing a retrospect of
-severe hardships, now past and gone. Below the foreground
-of giant fractures, huge rocks, and detached
-boulders, emerging from a shaggy growth of mountain
-vegetation, with forest glens and hanging woods, black
-with shade gathering in the steeper folds, appeared,
-distant yet near, the tawny basin of Inenge, dotted with
-large square villages, streaked with lines of tender green,
-that denoted the water-courses, mottled by the shadows
-of flying clouds, and patched with black where the grass
-had been freshly fired. A glowing sun gilded the canopy
-of dense smoke which curtained the nearer plain, and
-in the background the hazy atmosphere painted with
-its azure the broken wall of hill which we had traversed
-on the previous day.</p>
-
-<p>Somewhat revived by the <i>tramontana</i> which rolled
-like an ice-brook down the Pass, we advanced over an
-easy step of rolling ground, decked with cactus and the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-215">[215]</span>
-flat-topped mimosa, with green grass and bright shrubs,
-to a small and dirty khambi, in a hollow flanked by
-heights, upon which several settlements appeared. At
-this place, called the “Great Rubeho,” in distinction
-from its western neighbour, I was compelled to halt.
-My invalid sub. had been seized with a fever-fit that
-induced a dangerous delirium during two successive
-nights; he became so violent that it was necessary to
-remove his weapons, and, to judge from certain symptoms,
-the attack had a permanent cerebral effect. Death
-appeared stamped upon his features, yet the Baloch and
-the sons of Ramji clamoured to advance, declaring that
-the cold disagreed with them.</p>
-
-<p>On the 12th September the invalid, who, restored
-by a cool night, at first proposed to advance, and then
-doubted his ability to do so, was yet hesitating when
-the drum-signal for departure sounded without my
-order. The Wanyamwezi porters instantly set out. I
-sent to recal them, but they replied that it was the
-custom of their race never to return; a well-sounding
-principle against which they never offended except to
-serve their own ends. At length a hammock was rigged
-up for my companion, and the whole caravan broke
-ground.</p>
-
-<p>The path ran along the flank of an eminence, and,
-ascending a second step, as steep but shorter than the
-Pass Terrible, placed us at the Little Rubeho, or
-Windy Pass, the summit of the third and westernmost
-range of the Usagara Mountains, raised 5,700 feet above
-the sea-level. It is the main water-parting of this ghaut-region.
-At Inenge the trend is still to the S.E.; beyond
-Rubeho the direction is S.W. Eventually, however,
-the drainage of both slope and counter-slope finds
-its way to the Indian Ocean, the former through the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-216">[216]</span>
-Mukondokwa and the Kingani, the latter through the
-Rwaha and the Rufiji Rivers.</p>
-
-<p>A lively scene awaited my arrival at the “Little
-Rubeho.” From a struggling mass of black humanity,
-which I presently determined to be our porters, proceeded
-a furious shouting and yelling. Spears and
-daggers flashed in the sun, and cudgels played with a
-threshing movement which promised many a broken
-head. At the distance of a few yards, with fierce faces and
-in motionless martial attitudes, the right hand upon the
-axe-handle stuck in the waist-belt, and the left grasping
-the bow and two or three polished assegais, stood a
-few strong fellows, the forlorn hope of the fray. In
-the midst of the crowd, like Norman Ramsay’s troop
-begirt by French cavalry&mdash;to compare small things with
-great&mdash;rose and fell the chubby, thickset forms of Muinyi
-Wazira and his four Wak’hutu, who, undaunted by numbers,
-were dealing death to nose and scalp. Charge!
-Mavi ya Gnombe (“Bois de Vache”) charge! On!
-Mashuzi (“Fish Fry-soup”) on! Bite, Kuffan Kwema
-(“To die is good”) bite, Smite, Na daka Mali (“I want
-wealth”) smite! At length, when</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Blood (t’was from the nose) began to flow,”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">a little active interference rescued the five “enfans
-perdus.” The porters had been fighting upon the
-question whether the men with small-pox should, or
-should not, be admitted into the kraal, and Muinyi
-Wazira and his followers, under the influence of potations
-which prevented their distinguishing friend from
-foe, had proved themselves, somewhat unnecessarily
-heroes. It is usually better to let these quarrels work
-themselves out; if prematurely cut short, the serpent,
-wrath, is scotched, not slain. A little “punishment”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-217">[217]</span>
-always cools the blood, and secures peace and quiet
-for the future. Moreover, the busy peacemaker here
-often shares the fate of M. Porceaugnac, and earns
-the reward of those who, according to the proverb,
-in quarrels interpose. It is vain to investigate,
-where all is lie, the origin of the squabble. Nothing
-easier, as the Welsh justice was fond of declaring, than
-to pronounce judgment after listening to one side of the
-question; but an impartial hearing of both would strike
-the inquiring mind with a sense of impotence. Perhaps
-it is not unadvisable to treat the matter after the fashion
-adopted by a “police-officer,” a certain captain in the
-<i>X. Y. Z.</i> army, who deemed it his duty to discourage
-litigiousness and official complaints amongst the
-quarrelsome Sindhi population of Hyderabad. The
-story is somewhat out of place; though so being, I will
-here recount it.</p>
-
-<p>Would enter, for instance, two individuals in an
-oriental costume considerably damaged; one has a
-cloth carefully tied round his head, the other has artificially
-painted his eye and his ear with a few drops
-of blood from the nose. They express their emotions
-by a loud drumming of the tom-tom accompanying
-the high-sounding Cri de Haro&mdash;Faryad! Faryad!
-<span class="nowrap">Faryad!&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>“I’ll ‘Faryad’ yer, <span class="nowrap">ye”&mdash;&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>After these, the usual appellatives with which the
-“native” was in those days, on such occasions received,
-the plaintiff is thus <span class="nowrap">addressed:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>“Well, you&mdash;fellow! your complaint, what is it?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, Sahib! Oh, cherisher of the poor! this man who
-is, the same hath broken into my house, and made me
-eat a beating, and called my ma and sister naughty
-names, and hath stolen my brass pot, and&mdash;”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-218">[218]</span></p>
-
-<p>“Bas! bas! enough!” cries the beak; “tie him”&mdash;the
-defendant&mdash;“up, and give him three dozen with
-thine own hand.”</p>
-
-<p>The wrathful plaintiff, as may be imagined, is
-nothing loath. After being vigorously performed upon
-by the plaintiff aforesaid, the defendant is cast loose,
-and is in turn addressed as <span class="nowrap">follows:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>“Well, now, you fellow! what say you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, my lord and master! Oh, dispenser of justice!
-what lies hath not this man told? What abominations
-hath he not devoured? Behold (pointing to his war-paint)
-the sight! He hath met me in the street; he
-hath thrown me down; he hath kicked and trampled
-upon me; he hath&mdash;”</p>
-
-<p>“Bas! enough!” again cries the beak: “tie him&mdash;the
-plaintiff&mdash;up, and see if you can give <i>him</i> a good
-three dozen.”</p>
-
-<p>Again it may be imagined that the three dozen
-are well applied by the revengeful defendant, and that
-neither that plaintiff nor that defendant ever troubled
-that excellent “police-officer” again.</p>
-
-<p>On Rubeho’s summit we found a single village of
-villanous Wasagara; afterwards “made clean”&mdash;as the
-mild Hindu expresses the extermination of his fellow-men&mdash;by
-a caravan in revenge for the murder of a porter.
-We were delayed on the hill-top a whole day, despite
-the extreme discomfort of all hands. Water had to be
-fetched from a runnel that issued from a rusty pool
-shaded by tilted-up strata of sandstone, at least a
-mile distant from camp. Rain fell daily, alternating
-with eruptions of sun; a stream of thick mist rolled
-down the ravines and hollows, and at night the howling
-winds made Rubeho their meeting-place. Yet neither
-would the sons of Ramji carry my companion’s hammock,
-nor would Said bin Salim allow his children
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-219">[219]</span>
-to be so burdened; moreover, whatever measures one
-attempted with the porters, the other did his best to
-thwart. “Men,” say the Persians, “kiss an ass for an object.”
-I attempted with Kidogo that sweet speech which,
-according to Orientals, is stronger than chains, and administered
-“goose’s oil” in such quantities that I was
-graciously permitted to make an arrangement for the
-transport of my companion with the Kirangozi.</p>
-
-<p>On the 14th September, our tempers being sensibly
-cooled by the weather, we left the hill-top and broke
-ground upon the counterslope or landward descent of
-the Usagara Mountains. Following a narrow footpath
-that wound along the hill-flanks, on red earth growing
-thick clumps of cactus and feathery mimosa, after
-forty-five minutes’ march we found a kraal in a swampy
-green gap, bisected by a sluggish rivulet that irrigated
-scanty fields of grain, gourds, and water-melons, the
-property of distant villagers. For the first time since
-many days I had strength enough to muster the porters
-and to inspect their loads. The outfit, which was expected
-to last a year, had been half exhausted in three
-months. I summoned Said bin Salim, and passed on to
-him my anxiety. Like a veritable Arab, he declared,
-without the least emotion, that we had enough to reach
-Unyanyembe, where we certainly should be joined by the
-escort of twenty-two porters. “But how do you know
-that?” I inquired. “Allah is all-knowing,” replied
-Said; “but the caravan <i>will</i> come.” Such fatalism is
-infectious. I ceased to think upon the subject.</p>
-
-<p>On the 15th September, after sending forward the
-luggage, and waiting as agreed upon for the return of
-the porters to carry my companion, I set out about
-noon, through hot sunshine tempered by the cool hill-breeze.
-Emerging from the grassy hollow, the path
-skirted a well-wooded hill and traversed a small savannah,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-220">[220]</span>
-overgrown with stunted straw and hedged in by a
-bushy forest. At this point massive trees, here single,
-there in holts and clumps, foliaged more gloomily than
-churchyard yews, and studded with delicate pink-flowers,
-rose from the tawny sun-burned expanse around,
-and defended from the fiery glare braky rings of emerald
-shrubbery, sharply defined as if by the forester’s
-hand. The savannah extended to the edge of a step
-which, falling deep and steep, suddenly disclosed to
-view, below and far beyond the shaggy ribs and the dark
-ravines and folds of the foreground, the plateau of
-Ugogo and its Eastern desert. The spectacle was
-truly impressive. The vault above seemed “an ample
-æther,” raised by its exceeding transparency higher
-than it is wont to be. Up to the curved rim of the
-western horizon, lay, burnished by the rays of a burning
-sun, plains rippled like a yellow sea by the wavy
-reek of the dancing air, broken towards the north by
-a few detached cones rising island-like from the surface,
-and zebra’d with long black lines, where bush and scrub
-and strip of thorn jungle, supplanted upon the watercourses,
-trending in mazy network southwards to the
-Rwaha River, the scorched grass and withered canes-stubbles,
-which seemed to be the staple growth of the
-land. There was nothing of effeminate or luxuriant
-beauty, nothing of the flush and fulness characterising
-tropical Nature, in this first aspect of Ugogo. It appeared
-what it is, stern and wild,&mdash;the rough nurse
-of rugged men,&mdash;and perhaps the anticipation of dangers
-and difficulties ever present to the minds of those
-preparing to endure the waywardness of its children,
-contributed not a little to the fascination of the scene.
-After lingering for a few minutes upon the crest of the
-step, with feelings which they will understand who
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-221">[221]</span>
-after some pleasant months&mdash;oases in the grim deserts
-of Anglo-Indian life&mdash;spent among the tree-clad heights,
-the breezy lakes, and the turfy valleys of the Himalayas
-and the Neilgherries, sight from their last vantage-ground
-the jaundiced and fevered plains below, we
-scrambled down an irregular incline of glaring red clay
-and dazzling white chalk, plentifully besprinkled with
-dark-olive silex in its cherty crust. Below the descent
-was a level space upon a long ridge, where some small
-villages of Wasagara had surrounded themselves with
-dwarf fields of holcus, bajri, and maize. A little beyond
-this spot, called the “Third Rubeho,” we found a comfortless
-kraal on uneven ground, a sloping ledge sinking
-towards a deep ravine.</p>
-
-<p>At the third Rubeho we were delayed for a day&mdash;as
-is customary before a “Tirikeza”&mdash;by the necessity of
-laying in supplies for a jungle march, and by the
-quarrels of the men. The Baloch were cross as naughty
-children, ever their case when cold and hungry: warm
-and full, they become merry as crickets. The Kirangozi
-in hot wrath brought his flag to Said bin
-Salim, and threatened to resign, because he had been
-preceded on the last stage by two of the Baloch: his
-complaints of this highly irregular proceeding were
-with difficulty silenced by force of beads. I remarked,
-however, a few days afterwards, when travelling through
-Ugogo, that the Kirangozi, considering himself in
-danger, applied to me for a vanguard of matchlockmen.
-The sons of Ramji combined with the porters in refusing
-to carry my companion, and had Bombay and
-Mabruki not shown good-will, we might have remained
-a week in the acme of discomfort. The asses,
-frightened by wild beasts, broke loose at night, and one
-was lost. The atmosphere was ever in excesses of heat
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-222">[222]</span>
-and cold: in the morning, a mist so thick that it displayed
-a fog-rainbow&mdash;a segment of an arch, composed
-of faint prismatic tints&mdash;rolled like a torrent down the
-ravine in front: the sun, at noon, made us cower
-under the thin canvas, and throughout the twenty-four
-hours a gale like a “vent de bise,” attracted by the
-heat of the western plains, swept the encamping ground.</p>
-
-<p>Sending forward my invalid companion in his hammock,
-I brought up the rear: Said bin Salim, who had
-waxed unusually selfish and surly, furtively left to us
-the task; he wore only sandals&mdash;he could not travel by
-night. Some of the Baloch wept at the necessity of
-carrying their gourds and skins.</p>
-
-<p>On the 17th September, about 2 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, we resumed the
-descent of the rugged mountains. The path wound
-to the N.W. down the stony and bushy crest of a ridge
-with a deep woody gap on the right hand: presently after
-alternations of steep and step, and platforms patched
-with odoriferous plants, it fell into the upper channel
-of the Mandama or the Dungomaro, the “Devil’s Glen.”
-Dungomaro in Kisawahili is the proper name of an evil
-spirit, not in the European but in the African sense,&mdash;some
-unblessed ghost who has made himself unpopular
-to the general;&mdash;perhaps the term was a facetiousness
-on the part of the sons of Ramji.</p>
-
-<p>It was a “via mala” down this great surface-drain of
-the western slopes, over boulders and water-rolled stones
-reposing upon deep sand, and with branches of thorny
-trees in places canopying the bed. After a march of
-five hours, I found the porters bivouacking upon a
-softer spot, and with difficulty persuaded four of the
-sons of Ramji to return and to assist the weary
-stragglers: horns were sounded, and shots were fired
-to guide the Baloch, who did not, however, arrive before
-10 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-223">[223]</span></p>
-
-<p>On the 18th September, a final march of four hours
-placed us in the plains of Ugogo. Leaving the place of
-the last night’s bivouac, we pursued the line of the Dungomaro,
-occasionally quitting it where boulders obstructed
-progress, and presently we came to its lower
-bed, where perennial rills, exuding from its earth-walls
-and trickling down its side, veiled the bottom with a green
-and shrubby perfumed vegetation. As the plain was
-neared, the difficulties increased, and the scenery became
-curious. The Dungomaro appeared a large crevasse in
-lofty rocks of pink and gray granite, streaked with
-white quartz, and pudding’d with greenstone and black
-horneblend; the sole, strewed with a rugged layer of
-blocks, was side-lined with narrow ledges and terraces
-of brown humus, supporting dwarf cactus and stunted
-thorny trees; whilst high above towered stony wooded
-peaks, closing in the view on all sides. Farther down the
-bed huge boulders, sunburnt, and stained by the courses
-of rain-torrents, rose, perpendicularly as walls, to the
-height of one hundred and one hundred and twenty feet,
-and there the flooring was a sheet or slide of shiny and
-shelving rock, with broad fissures, and steep drops, and
-cups, “potholes,” baths, and basins, filed and cut by the
-friction of the gravelly torrents, regularly as if turned
-with the lathe. Where water lay, deep mud and thick
-clumps of grass and reed forced the path to run along
-the ledges at the sides of the base. Gradually, as the
-angle of inclination became more obtuse, the bed
-widened out, the tall stone-walls gave way to low earth-banks
-clad with gum-trees; pits, serving as wells, appeared
-in the deep loose sand, and the Dungomaro, becoming a
-broad, smooth Fiumara, swept away verging southwards
-into the plain. Before noon, I sighted from a sharp turn
-in the bed our tent pitched under a huge sycomore, on a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-224">[224]</span>
-level step that bounded the Fiumara to the right. It
-was a pretty spot in a barren scene, grassy, and grown
-with green mimosas, spreading out their feathery heads
-like parachutes, and shedding upon the ground a filmy
-shade that fluttered and flickered in the draughty
-breeze.</p>
-
-<p>The only losses experienced during the scrambling
-descent, were a gun-case, containing my companion’s
-store of boots, and a chair and table. The latter, being
-indispensable on a journey where calculations, composition,
-and sketching were expected, I sent, during the
-evening halts, a detachment consisting of Muinyi Wazira,
-the Baloch, Greybeard Musa, and a party of slaves, to
-bring up the articles, which had been cache’d on the
-torrent bank. They returned with the horripilatory tale
-of the dangers lately incurred by the Expedition, which
-it appeared from them had been dogged by an army of
-Wasagara, thirsting for blood and furious for booty:&mdash;under
-such circumstances, how could they recover the
-chair and table? Some months afterwards an up-caravan
-commanded by a Msawahili found the articles lying
-where we had left them, and delivered them, for a consideration,
-to us at Unyanyembe. The party sent from
-Ugogo doubtless had passed a quiet, pleasant day, dozing
-in the shade at the nearest well.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-225">[225]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w40em" id="Illoi-11">
-<img src="images/i_illo253.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">Maji ya W’heta, or the Jetting Fountain in K’hutu.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. VII.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">THE GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY OF THE SECOND REGION.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">The second or mountain region extends from the western
-frontier of K’hutu, at the head of the alluvial valley,
-in E. long. 37° 28′, to the province of Ugogi, the eastern
-portion of the flat table-land of Ugogo, in E. long. 36°
-14′. Its diagonal breadth is 85 geographical and rectilinear
-miles; and native caravans, if lightly laden, generally
-traverse it in three weeks, including three or four
-halts. Its length cannot be estimated. According to the
-guides, Usagara is a prolongation of the mountains of
-Nguru, or Ngu, extending southwards, with a gap forming
-the fluviatile valley of the Rwaha or Rufiji River, to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-226">[226]</span>
-the line of highlands of which Njesa in Uhiao is supposed
-to be the culminating apex: thus the feature would
-correspond with the Eastern Ghauts of the Indian Peninsula.
-The general law of the range is north and
-south; in the region now under consideration, the trend
-is from north by west to south by east, forming an angle
-of 10° 12′ with the meridian. The Usagara chain is
-of the first order in East Africa; it is indeed the
-only important elevation in a direct line from the coast
-to western Unyamwezi; it would hold, however, but
-a low grade in the general system of the earth’s mountains.
-The highest point above sea-level, observed by B.
-P. Therm., was 5,700 feet; there are, however, peaks
-which may rise to 6,000 and even to 7,000 feet, thus rivalling
-the inhabited portion of the Neilgherries. As has
-appeared, the chain, where crossed, was divided into
-three parallel ridges by longitudinal plains.</p>
-
-<p>Owing to the lowness of the basal regions at the seaward
-slope, there is no general prospect of the mountains
-from the East, where, after bounding the plains
-of K’hutu on the north, by irregular bulging lines of rolling
-hill, the first gradient of insignificant height springs
-suddenly from the plain. Viewed from the west, the
-counterslope appears a long crescent, with the gibbus to
-the front, and the cusps vanishing into distance; the
-summit is in the centre of the half-moon, whose profile
-is somewhat mural and regular. The flanks are
-rounded lumpy cones, and their shape denotes an igneous
-and primary origin, intersected by plains and basins, the
-fractures of the rocky system. Internally the lay, as
-in granitic formations generally, is irregular; the ridges,
-preserving no general direction, appear to cross one
-another confusedly. The slope and the counterslope
-are not equally inclined. Here, as usual in chains fringing
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-227">[227]</span>
-a peninsula, the seaward declivities are the more
-abrupt; the landward faces are not only more elongated,
-but they are also shortened in proportion as the plateau
-into which they fall is higher than the mountain-plains
-from which they rise. To enter, therefore, is more toilsome
-than to return.</p>
-
-<p>From the mingling of lively colours, Usagara is delightful
-to the eye, after the monotonous tracts of verdure
-which pall upon the sight at Zanzibar and in the
-river valleys. The subsoil, displayed in the deeper cuts
-and ravines, is either of granite, greenstone, schiste, or a
-coarse incipient sandstone, brown or green, and outcropping
-from the ground with strata steeply tilted up. In
-the higher elevations, the soil varies in depth from a
-few inches to thirty feet; it is often streaked with long
-layers of pebbles, apparently water-rolled. The colour
-is either an ochreish brick-red, sometimes micaceous, and
-often tinted with oxide of iron; or it is a dull grey,
-the debris of comminuted felspar, which, like a mixture of
-all the colours, appears dazzlingly white under the sun’s
-rays. The plains and depressions are of black earth,
-which after a few showers becomes a grass-grown sheet
-of mire, and in the dry season a deeply-cracked, stubbly
-savannah. Where the elevations are veiled from base
-to summit with a thin forest, the crops of the greenstone
-and sandstone strata appear through a brown coat
-of fertile humus, the decay of vegetable matter. A fossil
-Bulimus was found about 3,000 feet above sea-level,
-and large Achatinæ, locally called Khowa, are scattered
-over the surface. On the hill-sides, especially in the
-lower slopes, are strewed and scattered erratic blocks and
-boulders, and diminutive pieces of white, dingy-red, rusty-pink,
-and yellow quartz, with large irregularly-shaped
-fragments and small nodules of calcareous kunkur. Where
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-228">[228]</span>
-water lies deep below the surface, the hills and hill-plains
-are clothed with a thin shrubbery of mimosas and other
-thorny gums. Throughout Eastern Africa these forests
-are the only spots in which travelling is enjoyable: great
-indeed is their contrast with the normal features&mdash;bald
-glaring fields, fetid bush and grass, and monotonous
-expanses of dull dead herbage, concealing swamps and
-water-courses, hedged in by vegetation whose only
-varieties are green, greener, and greenest. In these favoured
-places the traveller appears surrounded by a thick
-wood which he never reaches, the trees thinning out as
-he advances. On clear and sunny days the scenery is
-strange and imposing. The dark-red earth is prolonged
-half-way up the tree-trunks by the ascending
-and descending galleries of the termite: contrasting
-with this peculiarly African tint, the foliage, mostly
-confined to the upper branches, is of a tender and
-lively green, whose open fret-work admits from above the
-vivid blue or the golden yellow of an unclouded sky.
-In the basins where water is nearer the surface, and
-upon the banks of water-courses and rivulets, the sweet
-and fertile earth produces a rich vegetation, and a
-gigantic growth of timber, which distinguishes this
-region from others further west. Usagara is peculiarly
-the land of jungle-flowers, and fruits, whose characteristic
-is a pleasant acidity, a provision of nature
-in climates where antiseptics and correctives to bile
-are almost necessaries of life. They are abundant,
-but, being uncultivated, the fleshy parts are undeveloped.
-In the plains, the air, heavy with the delicious
-perfume of the jasmine (<i>Jasminum Abyssinicum?</i>),
-with the strong odour of a kind of sage (<i>Salvia Africana</i>,
-or <i>Abyssinica</i>?), and with the fragrant exhalations
-of the mimosa-flowers, which hang like golden balls from
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-229">[229]</span>
-the green clad boughs, forms a most enjoyable contrast
-to the fetid exhalations of the Great Dismal Swamps
-of the lowlands. The tamarind, everywhere growing
-wild, is a gigantic tree. The Myombo, the Mfu’u, the
-Ndábi, and the Mayágeá, a spreading tree with a large
-fleshy red flower, and gourds about eighteen inches long
-and hanging by slender cords, are of unusual dimensions;
-the calabash is converted into a hut; and the sycomore,
-whose favourite habitat is the lower counterslope of Usagara,
-is capable of shading a regiment. On the steep
-hill-sides, which here and there display signs of cultivation
-and clearings of green or sunburnt grass, grow parachute-shaped
-mimosas, with tall and slender trunks, and
-crowned by domes of verdure, rising in tiers one above
-the other, like umbrellas in a crowd.</p>
-
-<p>The plains, basins, and steps, or facets of table-land
-found at every elevation, are fertilised by a stripe-work
-of streams, runnels, and burns, which anastomosing in
-a single channel, flow off into the main drain of the
-country. Cultivation is found in patches isolated by
-thick belts of thorny jungle, and the villages are few
-and rarely visited. As usual in hilly countries, they
-are built upon high ridges and the slopes of cones, for
-rapid drainage after rain, a purer air and fewer mosquitoes,
-and, perhaps, protection from kidnappers. The
-country people bring down their supplies of grain and
-pulse for caravans. There is some delay and difficulty
-on the first day of arrival at a station, and provisions
-for a party exceeding a hundred men are not to be
-depended upon after the third or fourth marketing,
-when the people have exhausted their stores. Fearing
-the thievish disposition of the Wasagara, who will
-attempt even to snatch away a cloth from a sleeping
-man, travellers rarely lodge near the settlements.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-230">[230]</span>
-Kraals of thorn, capacious circles enclosing straw
-boothies, are found at every march, and, when burned
-or destroyed by accident, they are rebuilt before
-the bivouac. The roads, as usual in East Africa, are
-tracks trodden down by caravans and cattle, and the
-water-course is ever the favourite Pass. Many of the
-ascents and descents are so proclivitous that donkeys
-must be relieved of their loads; and in fording the sluggish
-streams, where no grass forms a causeway over the
-soft, viscid mire, the animals sink almost to the knees.
-The steepest paths are those in the upper regions; in the
-lower, though the inclines are often severe, they are
-generally longer, and consequently easier. At the foot
-of each hill there is either a mud or a water-course
-dividing it from its neighbour. These obstacles greatly
-reduce the direct distance of the day’s march.</p>
-
-<p>The mountains are well supplied with water, which tastes
-sweet after the brackish produce of the maritime valley,
-and good when not rendered soft and slimy by lying
-long on rushy beds. Upon the middle inclines the
-burns and runnels of the upper heights form terraces
-of considerable extent, and of a picturesque aspect.
-The wide and open sole, filled with the whitest and
-cleanest sand, and retaining pools of fresh clear water,
-or shallow wells, is edged by low steep ledges of
-a dull red clay, lined with glorious patriarchs of the
-forest, and often in the bed is a thickly wooded branch
-or shoal-islet, at whose upper extremity heavy driftwood,
-arrested by the gnarled mimosa-clumps, and the
-wall of shrubs, attests the violence of the rufous-tinted
-bore of waves with which a few showers fill the broadest
-courses. Lower down the channels which convey to
-the plains the surplus drainage of the mountains are
-heaps and sheets of granite, with long reaches of rough
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-231">[231]</span>
-gravel; their stony walls, overrun with vegetation,
-tower high on either hand, and the excess of inclination
-produces after heavy rains torrents like avalanches,
-which cut their way deep into the lower plains. During
-the dry season, water is drawn from pits sunk from a
-few inches to 20 feet in the re-entering angles of the
-beds. Fed by the percolations of the soil, they unite
-the purity of springs with the abundance of rain-supplies,&mdash;a
-comfort fully appreciated by down-caravans
-after the frequent tirikeza, or droughty afternoon-marches
-in the western regions.</p>
-
-<p>The versant of the mountains varies. In the seaward
-and the central sections streams flow eastward,
-and swell the Kingani and other rivers. The southern
-hills discharge their waters south and south-west through
-the Maroro River, and various smaller tributaries, into the
-“Rwaha,” which is the proper name for the upper course
-of the Rufiji. In the lateral plains between the ridges,
-and in the hill-girt basins, stagnant pools, which even
-during the Masika, or rainy season, inundate, but will
-not flow, repose upon beds of porous black earth, and
-engendering, by their profuse herbage of reeds and
-rush-like grass, with the luxuriant crops produced by
-artificial irrigation, a malarious atmosphere, cause a
-degradation in the people.</p>
-
-<p>The climate of Usagara is cold and damp. It has
-two distinct varieties, the upper regions being salubrious,
-as the lower are unwholesome. In the sub-ranges
-heavy exhalations are emitted by the decayed
-vegetation, the nights are raw, the mornings chilly and
-misty, and the days are bright and hot. In the higher
-levels, near the sources of the Mukondokwa River, the
-climate suggests the idea of the Mahabaleshwar and the
-Neilgherry Hills in Western India. Compared with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-232">[232]</span>
-Uzaramo or Unyamwezi, these mountains are a sanatorium,
-and should Europeans ever settle in Eastern Africa
-as merchants or missionaries, here they might reside
-until acclimatised for the interior. The east wind, a
-local deflection of the south-east trade, laden with the
-moisture of the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, and
-collecting the evaporation of the valley, impinges upon
-the seaward slope, where, ascending, and relieved from
-atmospheric pressure, it is condensed by a colder temperature;
-hence the frequent precipitations of heavy rain,
-and the banks and sheets of morning-cloud which veil
-the tree-clad peaks of the highest gradients. As the
-sun waxes hot, the atmosphere acquires a greater
-capacity for carrying water; and the results are a milky
-mist in the basins, and in the upper hills a wonderful
-clearness broken only by the thin cirri of the higher
-atmosphere. After sunset, again, the gradual cooling
-of the air causes the deposit of a copious dew, which
-renders the nights peculiarly pleasant to a European.
-The diurnal sea-breeze, felt in the slope, is unknown
-in the counterslope of the mountains, where, indeed,
-the climate is much inferior to that of the central
-and eastern heights. As in the Sawalik Hills, and
-the sub-ranges of the Himalayas, the sun is burning hot
-during the dry season, and in the rains there is either a
-storm of thunder and lightning, wind and rain, or a
-stillness deep and depressing, with occasional gusts whose
-distinct moaning shows the highly electrical state of the
-atmosphere. The Masika, here commencing in early
-January, lasts three months, when the normal easterly
-winds shift to the north and the north-west. The Vuli,
-confined to the eastern slopes, occurs in August, and, as
-on the plains, frequent showers fall between the vernal
-and the autumnal rains.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-233">[233]</span></p>
-
-<p>The people of Usagara suffer in the lower regions from
-severe ulcerations, from cutaneous disorders, and from
-other ailments of the plain. Higher up they are healthier,
-though by no means free from pleurisy, pneumonia, and
-dysentery. Fever is common; it is more acute in the
-range of swamps and decomposed herbage, and is milder
-in the well-ventilated cols and on the hill-sides. The type
-is rather a violent bilious attack, accompanied by remittent
-febrile symptoms, than a regular fever. It begins
-with cold and hot fits, followed by a copious perspiration,
-and sometimes inducing delirium; it lasts as a
-quotidian or a tertian from four to seven days; and
-though the attacks are slight, they are followed by great
-debility, want of appetite, of sleep, and of energy. This
-fever is greatly exacerbated by exposure and fatigue,
-and it seldom fails to leave behind it a legacy of cerebral
-or visceral disease.</p>
-
-<p>The mountains of Usagara are traversed from east to
-west by two main lines; the Mukondokwa on the northern
-and the Kiringawana on the southern line. The
-former was closed until 1856 by a chronic famine, the
-result of such a neighbourhood as the Wazegura and the
-people of Whinde on the east, the Wahumba and the
-Wamasai northwards, and the Warori on the south-west.
-In 1858 the mountaineers, after murdering by the vilest
-treachery a young Arab trader, Salim bin Nasir, of the
-Bu Saidi, or the royal family of Zanzibar, attempted to
-plunder a large mixed caravan of Wanyamwezi and
-Wasawahili, numbering 700 or 800 guns, commanded
-by a stout fellow, Abdullah bin Nasib, called by the
-Africans “Kisesa,” who carried off the cattle, burned the
-villages, and laid waste the whole of the Rubeho or
-western chain.</p>
-
-<p>The clans now tenanting these East African ghauts are
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-234">[234]</span>
-the Wasagara,&mdash;with their chief sub-tribe the Wakwivi,&mdash;and
-the Wahehe; the latter a small body inhabiting
-the south-western corner, and extending into the plains
-below.</p>
-
-<p>The limits of the Wasagara have already been laid
-down by the names of the plundering tribes that surround
-them. These mountaineers, though a noisy and
-riotous race, are not overblessed with courage: they
-will lurk in the jungle with bows and arrows to surprise
-a stray porter; but they seem ever to be awaiting an
-attack&mdash;the best receipt for inviting it. In the higher
-slopes they are fine, tall and sturdy men; in the low
-lands they appear as degraded as the Wak’hutu. They
-are a more bearded race than any other upon this line
-of East Africa, and, probably from extensive intercourse
-with the Wamrima, most of them understand
-the language of the coast. The women are remarkable
-for a splendid development of limb, whilst the bosom is
-lax and pendent.</p>
-
-<p>The Wasagara display great varieties of complexion,
-some being almost black, whilst the others are chocolate-coloured.
-This difference cannot be accounted for by the
-mere effects of climate&mdash;level and temperature. Some
-shave the head; others wear the Arab’s shushah, a kind of
-skull-cap growth, extending more or less from the poll.
-Amongst them is seen, for the first time on this line, the
-classical coiffure of ancient Egypt. The hair, allowed to
-attain its fullest length, is twisted into a multitude of
-the thinnest ringlets, each composed of two thin lengths
-wound together; the wiry stiffness of the curls keeps
-them distinct and in position. Behind, a curtain of
-pigtails hangs down to the nape; in front the hair is
-either combed off the forehead, or it is brought over
-the brow and trimmed short. No head-dress has a
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-235">[235]</span>
-wilder nor a more characteristically African appearance
-than this, especially when, smeared with a pomatum of
-micaceous ochre, and decorated with beads, brass balls,
-and similar ornaments, it waves and rattles with every
-motion of the head. Young men and warriors adorn
-their locks with the feathers of vultures, ostriches, and
-a variety of bright-plumed jays, and some tribes twist
-each ringlet with a string of reddish fibre. It is seldom
-combed out, the operation requiring for a head of thick
-hair the hard work of a whole day; it is not, therefore,
-surprising that the pediculus swarms through the land.
-None but the chiefs wear caps. Both sexes distend the
-ear-lobe; a hole is bored with a needle or a thorn, it
-is enlarged by inserting bits of cane, wood, or quills,
-increasing the latter to the number of twenty, and it is
-kept open by a disk of brass, ivory, wood, or gum, a
-roll of leaf or a betel-nut; thus deformed it serves for a
-variety of purposes apparently foreign to the member;
-it often carries a cane snuff-box, sometimes a goat’s-horn
-pierced for a fife, and other small valuables.
-When empty, especially in old age, it depends in a deformed
-loop to the shoulders. The peculiar mark of
-the tribe is a number of confused little cuts between the
-ears and the eyebrows. Some men, especially in the
-eastern parts of the mountains, chip the teeth to
-points.</p>
-
-<p>The dress of the Wasagara is a shukkah or loin-cloth,
-6 feet long, passed round the waist in a single fold,&mdash;otherwise
-walking would be difficult&mdash;drawn tight
-behind, and with the fore extremities gathered up, and
-tucked in over the stomach, where it is sometimes supported
-by a girdle of cord, leather, or brass wire: it is,
-in fact, the Arab’s “uzár.” On journeys it is purposely
-made short and scanty for convenience of running.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-236">[236]</span>
-The material is sometimes indigo-dyed, at other
-times unbleached cotton, which the Wasagara stain a
-dull yellow. Cloth, however, is the clothing of the
-wealthy. The poor content themselves with the calabash-“campestre”
-or kilt, and with the softened skins of sheep
-and goats. It is curious that in East Africa, where
-these articles have from time immemorial been the
-national dress, and where amongst some tribes hides
-form the house, that the people have neither invented
-nor borrowed the principles of rude tanning, even with
-mimosa-bark, an art so well known to most tribes of
-barbarians. Immediately after flaying, the stretched
-skin is pegged, to prevent shrinking, inside upwards, in
-the sun, and it is not removed till thoroughly cleansed
-and dried. The many little holes in the margin give it
-the semblance of ornamentation, and sometimes the hair
-is scraped off, leaving a fringe two or three inches broad
-around the edge: the legs and tail of the animal are
-favourite appendages with “dressy gentlemen.” These
-skins are afterwards softened by trampling, and they
-are vigorously pounded with clubs: after a few days’
-wear, dirt and grease have almost done the duty of
-tanning. The garb is tied over either shoulder by a bit
-of cord or simply by knotting the corners; it therefore
-leaves one side of the body bare, and, being loose and
-ungirt, it is at the mercy of every wind. On journeys
-it is doffed during rain, and placed between the burden
-and the shoulder, so that, arrived at the encamping
-ground, the delicate traveller may have a “dry shirt.”</p>
-
-<p>Women of the wealthier classes wear a tobe, or
-double-length shukkah, tightly drawn under the arms,
-so as to depress whilst it veils the bosom, and tucked in
-at either side. Dark stuffs, indigo-dyed and Arab checks,
-are preferred to plain white for the usual reasons. The
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-237">[237]</span>
-dress of the general is a short but decorous jupe of
-greasy skin, and a similar covering for the bosom, open
-behind, and extending in front from the neck to the
-middle of the body: the child is carried in another
-skin upon the back. The poorest classes of both sexes
-are indifferently attired in the narrow kilt of bark-fibre,
-usually made in the maritime countries from
-the ukhindu or brab tree; in the interior from
-the calabash. The children wear an apron of thin
-twine, like the Nubian thong-garments. Where beads
-abound, the shagele, a small square napkin of these
-ornaments strung upon thread, is fastened round
-the waist by a string or a line of beads. There are
-many fanciful modifications of it: some children wear
-a screen of tin plates, each the size of a man’s finger:
-most of the very juniors, however, are simply attired in
-a cord, with or without beads, round the waist.</p>
-
-<p>The ornaments of the Wasagara are the normal beads
-and wire, and their weight is the test of wealth and respectability.
-A fillet of blue and white beads is bound
-round the head, and beads,&mdash;more beads,&mdash;appear
-upon the neck, the arms, and the ankles. The kitindi,
-or coil of thick brass wire, extends from the elbow to
-the wrist; others wear little chains or thick bangles of
-copper, brass, or zinc, and those who can afford it twist
-a few circles of brass wire under the knee. The arms of
-the men are bows and arrows, the latter unpoisoned, but
-armed with cruelly-barbed heads, and spines like fish-bones,
-cut out in the long iron shaft which projects
-from the wood. Their spears and assegais are made
-from the old hoes which are brought down by the
-Wanyamwezi caravans; the ferule is thin, and it is
-attached to the shaft by a cylinder of leather from a
-cow’s tail, drawn over the iron, and allowed to shrink
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-238">[238]</span>
-at its junction with the wood: some assegais have a
-central swell in the shaft, probably to admit of their
-being used in striking like the rungu or knobstick. Men
-seldom leave the house without a billhook of peculiar
-shape&mdash;a narrow sharp blade, ending in a right angle, and
-fixed in a wooden handle, with a projection rising above
-the blade. The shield is rarely found on this line of East
-Africa. In Usagara it is from three to four feet in
-length by one to two feet in breadth, composed of two
-parallel belts of hardened skin. The material is pegged
-out to stretch and dry, carefully cleaned, sometimes
-doubled, sewn together with a thin thong longitudinally,
-and stained black down one side, and red down the
-other. A stout lath is fastened lengthwise as a stiffener
-to the shield, and a central bulge is made in the
-hide, enabling the hand to grasp the wood. The favourite
-materials are the spoils of the elephant, the
-rhinoceros, and the giraffe; the common shields are of
-bull’s-hide, and the hair is generally left upon the outside
-as an ornament, with attachments of zebra and
-cows’ tails. It is a flimsy article, little better than a
-“wisp of fern or a herring-net” against an English
-“clothyard:” it suffices, however, for defence against
-the puny cane-arrows of the African archer.</p>
-
-<p>As a rule, each of these villages has its headman, who
-owns, however, an imperfect allegiance to the Mutwa or
-district chief, whom the Arabs call “sultan.” The Mgosi
-is his wazir, or favourite councillor, and the elders or
-headmen of settlements collectively are Wabáhá. Their
-principal distinction is the right to wear a fez, or a
-Surat cap, and the kizbáo, a sleeveless waistcoat. They
-derive a certain amount of revenue by trafficking in
-slaves: consequently many of the Wasagara find their
-way into the market of Zanzibar. Moreover, the game-laws
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-239">[239]</span>
-as regards elephants are here strictly in favour of
-the Sultan. An animal found dead in his district,
-though wounded in another, becomes his property on
-condition of his satisfying his officials with small presents
-of cloth and beads: the flesh is feasted upon by the
-tribe, and the ivory is sold to travelling traders.</p>
-
-<p>The Wahehe, situated between the Wasagara and
-Wagogo, partake a little of the appearance of both.
-They are a plain race, but stout and well grown. Though
-to appearance hearty and good-humoured, they are determined
-pilferers: they have more than once attacked
-caravans, and only the Warori have prevented them from
-cutting off the road to Ugogo. During the return
-of the Expedition in 1858 they took occasion to
-drive off unseen a flock of goats; and at night no
-man, unless encamped in a strong kraal, was safe from
-their attempts to snatch his goods. On one occasion,
-being caught in flagrant delict, they were compelled to
-restore their plunder, with an equivalent as an indemnity.
-They are on bad terms with all their neighbours,
-and they unite under their chief Sultan Bumbumu.</p>
-
-<p>The Wahehe enlarge their ears like the Wagogo, they
-chip the two upper incisors, and they burn beauty-spots
-in their forearms. Some men extract three or four of
-the lower incisors: whenever an individual without these
-teeth is seen in Ugogo he is at once known as a Mhehe.
-For distinctive mark they make two cicatrised incisions
-on both cheeks from the zygomata to the angles of
-the mouth. They dress like the Wagogo, but they
-have less cloth than skins. The married women usually
-wear a jupe, in shape recalling the old swallow-tailed
-coat of Europe, with kitindi, or coil armlets of brass or
-iron wire on both forearms and above the elbows. Unmarried
-girls amongst the Wahehe are known by their
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-240">[240]</span>
-peculiar attire, a long strip of cloth, like the Indian
-“languti or T-bandage,” but descending to the knees,
-and attached to waistbelts of large white or yellow porcelain
-or blue glass beads. Over this is tied a kilt of
-calabash fibre, a few inches deep. The men wear thick
-girdles of brass wire, neatly wound round a small cord.
-Besides the arms described amongst the Wasagara, the
-Wahehe carry “sime,” or double-edged knives, from
-one to two feet long, broadening out from the haft, and
-rounded off to a blunt point at the end. The handle
-is cut into raised rings for security of grip, and, when
-in sheath, half the blade appears outside its rude
-leathern scabbard. The Tembe, or villages of the
-Wahehe, are small, ragged, and low, probably to facilitate
-escape from attack. They do business in slaves,
-and have large flocks and herds, which are, however,
-often thinned by the Warori, whom the Wahehe dare
-not resist in the field.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-241">[241]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w40em" id="Illoi-12">
-<img src="images/i_illo269.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">Ugogo.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. VIII.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">WE SUCCEED IN TRAVERSING UGOGO.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">Ugogo, the reader may remember, was the ultimate
-period applied to the prospects of the Exploration
-by the worthy Mr. Rush Ramji, in conversation with
-the respectable Ladha Damha, Collector of Customs,
-Zanzibar.</p>
-
-<p>I halted three days at Ugogi to recruit the party and
-to lay in rations for four long desert marches. Apparently
-there was an abundance of provisions, but the
-people at first declined to part with their grain and cattle
-even at exorbitant prices, and the Baloch complained
-of “cleanness of teeth.” I was visited by Ngoma Mroma,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-242">[242]</span>
-<i>alias</i> Sultan Makande, a diwan or headman, from Ugogo,
-here settled as chief, and well known on the eastern seaboard:
-he came to offer his good services. But he talked
-like an idiot, he begged for every article that met his
-eye: and he wished me&mdash;palpably for his own benefit&mdash;to
-follow the most northerly of the three routes leading
-to Unyamwezi, upon which there were not less than eight
-“sultans” described by Kidogo as being “one hungrier
-than the other.” At last, an elephant having been found
-dead within his limits, he disappeared, much to my
-relief, for the purpose of enjoying a gorge of elephant-beef.</p>
-
-<p>Ugogi is the half-way district between the coast and
-Unyanyembe, and it is usually made by up-caravans
-at the end of the second month. The people of this
-“no man’s land” are a mongrel race: the Wasagara
-claim the ground, but they have admitted as settlers
-many Wahehe and Wagogo, the latter for the most part
-men who have left their country for their country’s good.
-The plains are rich in grain, and the hills in cattle, when
-not harried, as they had been, a little before our arrival,
-by the Warori. The inhabitants sometimes offer for sale
-milk and honey, eggs and ghee, but&mdash;only the civilised
-rogue can improve by adulteration&mdash;the milk falls like
-water off the finger, the honey is in the red stage of fermentation,
-of the eggs there are few without the rude beginnings
-of a chicken, and the ghee, from long keeping,
-is sweet above and bitter below. The country still contains
-game, kanga, or guinea-fowls, in abundance, the
-ocelot, a hyrax like the coney of the Somali country,
-and the beautiful “silver jackal.” The elephant and
-the giraffe are frequently killed on the plains. The giraffe
-is called by the Arabs Jamal el Wahshí, a translation of
-the Kisawahili Ngamia ya Muytu, “Camel of the Wild,”
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-243">[243]</span>
-and throughout the interior Tiga or Twiga. Their sign
-is often seen in the uncultivated parts of the country;
-but they wander far, and they are rarely found except by
-accident; the hides are converted into shields and
-saddle-bags, the long tufty tails into “chauri,” or fly-flappers,
-and the flesh is a favourite food. At Ugogi,
-however, game has suffered from the frequent haltings
-of caravans, and from the carnivorous propensities of the
-people, who, huntsmen all, leave their prey no chance
-against their nets and arrows, their pitfalls and their
-packs of yelping curs.</p>
-
-<p>Ugogi stands 2760 feet above sea level, and its climate,
-immediately after the raw cold of Usagara, pleases by its
-elasticity and by its dry healthy warmth. The nights
-are fresh and dewless, and the rays of a tropical sun are
-cooled by the gusts and raffales which, regularly as the
-land and sea-breezes of the coast, sweep down the sinuosities
-of Dungomaro. As our “gnawing stomachs” testified,
-the air of Usagara had braced our systems. My
-companion so far recovered health that he was able to bring
-home many a brace of fine partridge, and of the fat guinea-fowl
-that, clustering upon the tall trees, awoke the echoes
-of the rocks as they called for their young. The Baloch,
-the sons of Ramji, and the porters began to throw off the
-effects of the pleurisies and the other complaints, which
-they attributed to hardship and exposure on the mountain-tops.
-The only obstinate invalids were the two Goanese.
-Gaetano had another attack of the Mukunguru, or seasoning
-fever, which, instead of acclimatising his constitution,
-seemed by ever increasing weakness and depression,
-to pave the way for a fresh visitation. Valentine,
-with flowing eyes, pathetically pointed to two indurations
-in his gastric region, and bewailed his hard fate in thus
-being torn from the dearly-loved shades of Panjim
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-244">[244]</span>
-and Margão, to fatten the inhospitable soil of Central
-Africa.</p>
-
-<p>Immediately before departure, when almost in despair
-at the rapid failure of our carriage&mdash;the asses were now
-reduced to nine&mdash;I fortunately secured, for the sum of
-four cloths per man, the services of fifteen Wanyamwezi
-porters. In all a score, they had left at Ugogi their
-Mtongi, or employer, in consequence of a quarrel concerning
-<i>the</i> sex. They dreaded forcible seizure and sale
-if found without protection travelling homewards
-through Ugogo; and thus they willingly agreed to carry
-our goods as far as their own country, Unyanyembe.
-Truly is travelling like campaigning,&mdash;a pennyweight
-of luck is better than a talent of all the
-talents! And if marriages, as our fathers used to say,
-are made in the heavens, the next-door manufactory
-must be devoted to the fabrication of African explorations.
-Notwithstanding, however, the large increase of
-conveyance, every man appeared on the next march
-more heavily laden than before:&mdash;they carried grain
-for six days, and water for one night.</p>
-
-<p>From Ugogi to the Ziwa or Pond, the eastern limits
-of Ugogo, are four marches, which, as they do not supply
-provisions, and as throughout the dry season water is
-found only in one spot, are generally accomplished in
-four days. The lesser desert, between Ugogi and Ugogo,
-is called Marenga M’khali, or the Brackish Water: it
-must not be confounded with the district of Usagara
-bearing the same name.</p>
-
-<p>We left Ugogi on the 22nd September, at 3 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, instead
-of at noon. As all the caravan hurried recklessly
-forward, I brought up the rear accompanied by Said bin
-Salim, the Jemadar, and several of the sons of Ramji,
-who insisted upon driving the asses for greater speed at
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-245">[245]</span>
-a long trot, which, after lasting a hundred yards, led to
-an inevitable fall of the load. Before emerging from
-Ugogi, the road wound over a grassy country, thickly
-speckled with calabashes. Square Tembe appeared on
-both sides, and there was no want of flocks and herds.
-As the villages and fields were left behind, the land became
-a dense thorny jungle, based upon a sandy red soil.
-The horizon was bounded on both sides by gradually-thinning
-lines of lumpy outlying hill, the spurs of the
-Rubeho Range, that extended, like a scorpion’s claws,
-westward; and the plain, gently falling in the same
-direction, was broken only by a single hill-shoulder
-and by some dwarf descents. As we advanced through
-the shades&mdash;a heavy cloud-bank had shut out the
-crescent moon&mdash;our difficulties increased; thorns and
-spiky twigs threatened the eyes; the rough and rugged
-road led to many a stumble, and the frequent whine of
-the cynhyæna made the asses wild with fear. None but
-Bombay came out to meet us; the porters were overpowered
-by their long march under the fiery sun. About
-8 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, directed by loud shouts and flaring fires, we
-reached a kraal, a patch of yellow grass, offering clear
-room in the thorny thicket. That night was the perfection
-of a bivouac, cool from the vicinity of the hills,
-genial from their shelter, and sweet as forest-air in
-these regions ever is.</p>
-
-<p>On the next day we resumed our labour betimes:
-for a dreary and thirsty stage lay before us. Toiling
-through the sunshine of the hot waste I could not but
-remark the strange painting of the land around. At
-a distance the plain was bright-yellow with stubble,
-and brown-black with patches of leafless wintry jungle
-based upon a brick-dust soil. A closer approach disclosed
-colours more vivid and distinct. Over the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-246">[246]</span>
-ruddy plain lay scattered untidy heaps of grey granite
-boulders, surrounded and capped by tufts of bleached
-white grass. The copse showed all manner of strange
-hues, calabashes purpled and burnished by sun and rain,
-thorns of a greenish coppery bronze, dead trees with
-trunks of ghastly white, and gums (the blue-gum tree
-of the Cape?) of an unnatural sky-blue, the effect of the
-yellow outer pellicle being peeled off by the burning
-rays, whilst almost all were reddened up to a man’s
-height, by the double galleries, ascending and descending,
-of the white ants. Here too, I began to appreciate the
-extent of the nuisance, thorns. Some were soft and green,
-others a finger long, fine, straight and woody&mdash;they serve
-as needles in many parts of the country&mdash;one, a “corking
-pin,” bore at its base a filbert-like bulge, another was
-curved like a cock’s spur; the double thorns, placed dos-à-dos,
-described by travellers in Abyssinia and in the Cape
-Karroos, were numerous, the “wait-a-bit,” a dwarf
-sharply bent spine with acute point and stout foundation,
-and a smaller variety, short and deeply crooked,
-numerous and tenacious as fish-hooks, tore without
-difficulty the strongest clothing, even our woollen
-Arab “Abas,” and our bed-covers of painted canvas.</p>
-
-<p>Travelling through this broom-jungle and crossing
-grassy plains, over paths where the slides of elephants’
-feet upon the last year’s muddy clay showed that the
-land was not always dry, we halted after 11 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> for about
-an hour at the base of a steep incline, apparently an offset
-from the now distant Rubeho Range. The porters
-would have nighted at the mouth of a small drain
-which, too steep for ascent, exposed in its rocky bed
-occasional sand-patches and deep pools; Kidogo, however,
-forced them forwards, declaring that if the asses
-drank of this “brackish water,” they would sicken and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-247">[247]</span>
-die. His assertion, suspected of being a “traveller’s
-tale,” was subsequently confirmed by the Arabs of
-Unyanyembe, who declared that the country people
-never water their flocks and herds below the hill; there
-may be poisonous vegetation in the few yards between
-the upper and the lower pools, but no one offered any
-explanation of the phenomenon.</p>
-
-<p>Ascending with difficulty the eastern face of the
-step, which presented two ladders of loose stones and
-fixed boulders of grey syenite, hornblende, and greenstone,
-with coloured quartzes, micacious schistes, and layers of
-talcose slate glittering like mother-o’-pearl upon the
-surface, we found a half-way platform some 150 feet of
-extreme breadth. Upon its sloping and irregular floor,
-black-green pools, sadly offensive to more senses than
-one, spring-fed, and forming the residue of the rain-water
-which fills the torrent, lay in muddy holes broadly fringed
-with silky grass. Travellers drink without fear this
-upper Marenga Mk’hali, which, despite its name, is
-rather soft and slimy, than brackish, and sign of wild-beasts&mdash;antelope
-and buffalo, giraffe and rhinoceros&mdash;appear
-upon its brink. It sometimes dries up in the
-heart of the hot season, and then deaths from thirst
-occur amongst the porters who, mostly Wanyanwezi, are
-not wont to practise abstinence in this particular.
-“Sucking-places” are unknown to them, water-bearing
-bulbs might here be discovered by the South African
-traveller; as a rule, however, the East African is so
-plentifully supplied with the necessary that he does not
-care to provide for a dry day by unusual means. Ascending
-another steep incline we encamped upon a small
-step, the half-way gradient of a higher level.</p>
-
-<p>The 24th Sept. was to be a tirikeza: the Baloch and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-248">[248]</span>
-the sons of Ramji spent the earlier half in blowing
-away gunpowder at antelope, partridge and parrot,
-guinea-fowl and floriken, but not a head of game found
-its way into camp. The men were hot, tired and testy,
-those who had wives beat them, those who had not “let
-off the steam” by quarreling with one another. Said
-bin Salim, sick and surly, had words concerning a water-gourd
-with the brave Khudabakhsh, and the monocular
-Jemadar, who made a point of overloading his porters,
-bitterly complained because they would not serve him.
-At 2 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> we climbed up the last ladder of the rough
-and stony incline, which placed us a few hundred feet
-above the eastern half of the Lesser Desert. We took
-a pleasant leave of the last of the rises; on this line
-of road, between Marenga Mk’hali and Western Unyamwezi,
-the land, though rolling, has no steep ascents nor
-descents.</p>
-
-<p>From the summit of the Marenga Mk’hali step we
-travelled till sunset&mdash;the orb of day glaring like a fireball
-in our faces,&mdash;through dense thorny jungle and over
-grassy plains of black, cracked earth, in places covered
-with pebbles and showing extensive traces of shallow inundations
-during the rains; in the lower lands huge
-blocks of weathered granite stood out abruptly from the
-surface, and on both sides, but higher on the right hand,
-rose blue cones, some single, others in pairs like
-“brothers.” The caravan once rested in a thorny coppice,
-based upon rich red and yellow clay whence it was
-hurriedly dislodged by a swarm of wild bees. As the sun
-sank below the horizon the porters called a halt on a
-calabash-grown plain, near a block of stony hill veiled
-with cactus and mimosa, below whose northern base ran
-a tree-lined Nullah where, they declared, from the presence
-of antelope and other game, that water might be
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-249">[249]</span>
-found by digging. Vainly Kidogo urged them forwards
-declaring that they would fail to reach the Ziwa
-or Pond in a single march; they preferred “crowing” and
-scooping up sand till midnight to advancing a few
-miles, and some gourdsfull of dirty liquid rewarded
-their industry.</p>
-
-<p>On the morning of the 26th of September, I learned
-that we had sustained an apparently irreparable loss.
-When the caravan was dispersed by bees, a porter took
-the opportunity of deserting. This man, who represented
-himself as desirous of rejoining at Unyamyembe,
-his patron Abdullah bin Musa, the son of the well-known
-Indian merchant, had been engaged for four cloths by Said
-bin Salim at Ugogi. The Arab with his usual after-wit
-found out, when the mishap was announced, that he had
-from the first doubted and disliked the man so much
-that he had paid down only half the hire. Yet to the
-new porter had been committed the most valuable of
-our packages, a portmanteau containing the Nautical
-Almanac for 1858, the surveying books, and most of
-our paper, pens and ink. Said bin Salim, however, was
-hardly to be blamed, his continual quarrels with the Baloch
-and the sons of Ramji absorbed all his thoughts.
-Although the men were unanimous in declaring that
-the box never could be recovered, I sent back Bombay
-Mabruki and the slave Ambari with particular directions
-to search the place where we had been attacked by bees;
-it was within three miles, but, as the road was deemed
-dangerous, the three worthies preferred passing a few
-quiet hours in some snug neighbouring spot.</p>
-
-<p>At 1.30 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> much saddened by the disaster, we resumed
-our road and after stretching over a monotonous
-grassy plain variegated with dry thorny jungle, we
-arrived about sunset at a waterless kraal where we determined
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-250">[250]</span>
-to pass the night. Our supplies of liquid ran
-low, the Wanyamwezi porters, who carried our pots and
-gourds, had drained them on the way, and without drink
-an afternoon-march in this droughthy land destroys all
-appetite for supper. Some of the porters presently set
-out to fill their gourds with the waters of the Ziwa,
-thence distant but a few miles; they returned after a four
-hours’ absence with supplies which restored comfort and
-good humour to the camp.</p>
-
-<p>Before settling for the night Kidogo stood up, and to
-loud cries of “Maneno! maneno!”&mdash;words! words!&mdash;equivalent
-to our parliamentary hear! hear! delivered
-himself of the following <span class="nowrap">speech:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>“Listen, O ye whites! and ye children of Sayyidi
-Majidi! and ye sons of Ramji! hearken to my words,
-O ye offspring of the night! The journey entereth
-Ugogo&mdash;Ugogo (the orator threw out his arm westward).
-Beware, and again beware (he made violent
-gesticulations). You don’t know the Wagogo, they are
-&mdash;&mdash;s and &mdash;&mdash;s! (he stamped.) Speak not to those
-Washenzi pagans; enter not into their houses (he
-pointed grimly to the ground). Have no dealings with
-them, show no cloth, wire, nor beads (speaking with increasing
-excitement). Eat not with them, drink not
-with them, and make not love to their women (here the
-speech became a scream). Kirangozi of the Wanyamwezi,
-restrain your sons! Suffer them not to stray into
-the villages, to buy salt out of camp, to rob provisions,
-to debauch with beer, or to sit by the wells!” And
-thus, for nearly half an hour, now violently, then composedly,
-he poured forth the words of wisdom, till the
-hubbub and chatter of voices which at first had been
-silenced by surprise, brought his eloquence to an end.</p>
-
-<p>We left the jungle-kraal early on the 26th September,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-251">[251]</span>
-and after hurrying through thick bush we debouched
-upon an open stubbly plain, with herds of gracefully
-bounding antelopes and giraffes, who stood for a moment
-with long outstretched necks to gaze, and presently
-broke away at a rapid, striding, camel’s-trot, their heads
-shaking as if they would jerk off, their limbs loose,
-and their joints apparently dislocated. About 9
-<span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> we sighted the much-talked of Ziwa. The Arabs,
-fond of “showing a green garden,” had described to me
-at Inenge a piece of water fit to float a man-of-war.
-But Kidogo, when consulted, had replied simply with
-the Kisawahili proverb, “Khabari ya mb’hali;” <i>i. e.</i>,
-“news from afar;”&mdash;<i>a beau mentir qui vient de loin</i>. I
-was not therefore surprised to find a shallow pool, which
-in India would barely merit the name of tank.</p>
-
-<p>The Ziwa, which lies 3,100 feet above the sea, occupies
-the lowest western level of Marenga Mk’háli, and
-is the deepest of the many inundated grounds lying to
-its north, north-east, and north-west. The extent
-greatly varies: in September, 1857, it was a slaty sheet
-of water, with granite projections on one side, and about
-300 yards in diameter; the centre only could not be
-forded. The bottom and the banks were of retentive clay:
-a clear ring, whence the waters had subsided, margined
-the pool, and beyond it lay a thick thorny jungle. In
-early December, 1858, nothing remained but a surface
-of dry, crumbling, and deeply-cracked mud, and, according
-to travellers, it had long, in consequence of the
-scanty rains, been in that state. Caravans always encamp
-at the Ziwa when they find water there. The country
-around is full of large game, especially elephants, giraffes,
-and zebras, who come to drink at night; a few widgeon
-are seen breasting the little waves; “kata” (sand-grouse),
-of peculiarly large size and dark plumage, flock there with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-252">[252]</span>
-loud cries; and at eventide the pool is visited by guinea-fowl,
-floriken, curlews, peewits, wild pigeons, doves, and
-hosts of small birds. When the Ziwa is desiccated, travellers
-usually encamp in a thick bush, near a scanty clearing,
-about one mile to the north-west, where a few scattered
-villages of Wagogo have found dirty white water, hard and
-bad, in pits varying from twenty to thirty feet in depth.
-Here, as elsewhere in eastern Africa, the only trough is
-a small ring sunk in the retentive clayey soil, and surrounded
-by a little raised dam of mud and loose stones.
-A demand is always made for according permission to
-draw water&mdash;a venerable custom, dating from the days
-of Moses. “Ye shall buy meat of them (the Edomites)
-for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water
-of them for money, that ye may drink.”&mdash;Deut. ii. 6.
-Yet as thirsty, like hungry men, are not to be trifled with,
-fatal collisions have resulted from this inhospitable
-practice. Some years ago a large caravan of Wanyamwezi
-was annihilated in consequence of a quarrel about
-water, and lately several deaths occurred in a caravan
-led by an Arab merchant, Sallum bin Hamid, because
-the wells were visited before the rate of payment was
-settled. In several places we were followed upon the
-march lest a gourd might be furtively filled. To prevent
-exhaustion the people throw euphorbia, asclepias,
-and solanaceous plants into the well after a certain hour,
-and when not wanted it is bushed over, to keep off
-animals, and to check evaporation.</p>
-
-<p>At the Ziwa the regular system of kuhonga, or blackmail,
-so much dreaded by travellers, begins in force. Up
-to this point all the chiefs are contented with little presents;
-but in Ugogo tribute is taken by force, if necessary.
-None can evade payment; the porters, fearing
-lest the road be cut off to them in future, would refuse
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-253">[253]</span>
-to travel unless each chief is satisfied; and when a
-quarrel arises they throw down their packs and run
-away. Ugogo, since the closing of the northern line
-through the Wahumba and the Wamasai tribes, and the
-devastation of the southern regions by the Warori, is the
-only open line, and the sultans have presumed upon
-their power of stopping the way. There is no regular
-tariff of taxes: the sum is fixed by the traveller’s
-dignity and outfit, which, by means of his slaves, are as
-well known to every sultan as to himself. Properly
-speaking, the exaction should be confined to the up-caravans;
-from those returning a head or two of cattle,
-a few hoes, or some similar trifle, are considered ample.
-Such, however, was not the experience of the Expedition.
-When first travelling through the country the
-“Wazungu” were sometimes mulcted to the extent of
-fifty cloths by a single chief, and the Arabs congratulated
-them upon having escaped so easily. On their downward
-march they pleaded against a second demand as
-exorbitant as the first, adducing the custom of caravans,
-who are seldom mulcted in more than two cows or a pair
-of jembe, or iron hoes; the chiefs, however, replied that
-as they never expected to see white faces again, it was
-their painful duty to make the most from them.</p>
-
-<p>The kuhonga, however, is not unjust. In these regions
-it forms the customs-dues of the government: the sultan
-receives it nominally, but he must distribute the greater
-part amongst his family and councillors, his elders and
-attendants. It takes the place of the fees expected by
-the Balderabba of the Abyssinians, the Mogasa of the
-Gallas, the Abban of the Somal, and the Ghafir and
-Rafik amongst the Bedouin Arabs, which are virtually
-assertions of supremacy upon their own ground. These
-people have not the idea which seems prevalent in the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-254">[254]</span>
-south, namely, that any man has a right to tread God’s
-earth gratis as long as he does not interfere with property.
-If any hesitation about the kuhonga be made, the
-first question put to the objector will be, “Is this your
-ground or my ground?” The practice, which is sanctioned
-by the customs of civilised nations, is, however,
-vitiated in East Africa by the slave-trade: it becomes
-the means of intrusion and extortion, of insolence and
-violence. The Wagogo are an importing people, and
-they see with envy long strings of what they covet
-passing through their territory from the interior to the
-coast. They are strong enough to plunder any caravan;
-but violence they know would injure them by cutting
-off communication with the markets for their ivory.
-Thus they have settled into a silent compromise, and their
-nice sense of self-interest prevents any transgression
-beyond the bounds of reason. The sultans receive
-their kuhonga, and the subjects entice away slaves from
-every caravan, but the enormous interest upon capital
-laid out in the trade still leaves a balance in favour of
-the merchants. The Arabs, however, declaring that
-the evil is on the increase, propose many remedies&mdash;such
-as large armed caravans, sent by their government,
-and heavy dues to be exacted from those Wagogo who
-may visit the coast. But they are wise enough to murmur
-without taking steps which would inevitably exacerbate
-the evil. Should it pass a certain point, a
-new road will be opened, or the old road will be reopened,
-to restore the balance of interests.</p>
-
-<p>At the Ziwa we had many troubles. One Marema,
-the sultan of a new settlement situated a few hundred
-yards to the north-west visited us on the day of our
-arrival and reproving us for “sitting in the jungle,”
-pointed out the way to his village. On our replying
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-255">[255]</span>
-that we were about to traverse Ugogo by another route,
-he demanded his Ada or customs, which being newly-imposed
-were at once refused by Kidogo. The sultan,
-a small man, a “mere thief,”&mdash;as a poor noble is graphically
-described in these lands,&mdash;threatened violence,
-whereupon the asses were brought in from grazing and
-were ostentatiously loaded before his eyes: when he
-changed his tone from threats to beggary. Kidogo
-relenting gave him two cloths with a few strings of
-beads, preferring this slender disbursement to the
-chance of a flight of arrows during the night. His
-good judgment was evidenced by the speedy appearance
-of the country-people, who brought with them bullocks,
-sheep, goats and poultry, water-melons and pumpkins,
-honey, butter-milk, whey and curded-milk, an abundance
-of holcus and calabash-flour. The latter is made from
-the hard dry pulp surrounding the bean-like seed contained
-in the ripe gourd: the taste is a not unpleasant
-agro-dolce, and the people declare it to be strengthening
-food, especially for children; they convert it into porridge
-and rude cakes.</p>
-
-<p>This abundance of provaunt caused a halt of four
-days at the Ziwa, and it was spent in disputes between
-the great Said and the greater Kidogo. The ostensible
-“bone of contention,” was cloth advanced by the former
-to the porters&mdash;who claimed as their perquisite a bullock
-before entering Ugogo&mdash;without consulting the
-hard-headed slave, who wounded in his tenderest place
-of pride, had influence enough to halt the caravan. The
-real cause of the dispute was kept from my ears till
-some months afterwards, but secrets in this land are as
-the Arabs say, “Like musk, murder, and Basrah-garlic,”
-they must out, and Bombay, who could never help blurting
-forth the tacenda with the dicenda, at last accidentally
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-256">[256]</span>
-unveiled the mystery. Said had deferred taking
-overcharge of the outfit from Kidogo till our arrival at
-the Ziwa, and the latter felt aggrieved by the sudden
-yet tardy demand, which deprived him of the dignity
-and the profits of stewardship. Sickness became rife
-in camp, the effect of the cold night-winds and the
-burning suns, and as usual when men are uncomfortable
-violent quarrels ensued. Again the officious Wazira,
-shook the torch of discord by ordering Khamisi, an exceedingly
-drunken and debauched son of Ramji, to
-carry certain bundles which usually graced the shoulders
-of Goha, one of the Wak’hutu porters. When words
-were exhausted Khamisi drew his blade upon Goha and
-was tackled by Wazira, whilst Goha brought the muzzle
-of my elephant-gun to bear upon Khamisi and was instantly
-collared by Bombay. Being thus “in chancery”
-both heroes waxed so “exceedingly brave&mdash;particular,”
-that I was compelled to cool their noble bile with a long
-pole. At length it became necessary to make Kidogo raise
-his veto against the advance of the caravan. He did not
-appear before me till summoned half-a-dozen times: when
-he at last vouchsafed so to do I dragged rather than led him
-to the mat, where sat in surly pride Said bin Salim, with
-the monocular Jemadar, and I ordered the trio to quench
-with the waters of explanation the fire of anger. After an
-apparently satisfactory arrangement Kidogo started up
-and disappeared in the huts of his men; it presently
-proved that he had so done for the purpose of proposing
-to his party, who were now the sole interpreters, that
-to Said bin Salim, an ignoramus in such matters, should
-be committed the weighty task of settling the amount
-of our blackmail and presents with the greedy chiefs of
-Ugogo. Had the mischievous project been carried into
-execution, we should have been sufferers to some extent:
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-257">[257]</span>
-lack of unanimity however caused the measure to be
-thrown out. A march was fixed for the next day, when
-the bullock, on this occasion the scape-grace, broke its
-tether and plunged into the bush: it was followed by
-the Baloch and the porters, whose puny arrows, when
-they alighted upon the beast’s stern, only goaded it forwards,
-and at least threescore matchlock balls were discharged
-before one bullet found its billet in the fugitive.
-The camp of course then demanded another holiday to
-eat beef.</p>
-
-<p>The reader must not imagine that I am making a
-“great cry,” about a little matter. Four days are not
-easily spent when snowed-up in a country inn, and that
-is a feeble comparison for the halt in East Africa, where
-outfit is leaking away, the valuable travelling-time is
-perhaps drawing to a close, health is palpably failing,
-and nothing but black faces made blacker still by
-ill-humour and loud squabbles, meet the eye and
-ear. Insignificant things they afterwards appear viewed
-through the medium of memory, these petty annoyances
-of travel; yet at the moment they are severely felt, and
-they must be resented accordingly. The African traveller’s
-fitness for the task of exploration depends more
-upon his faculty of chafing under delays and kicking
-against the pricks, than upon his power of displaying
-the patience of a Griselda or a Job.</p>
-
-<p>On the 30th September, the last day of our detention
-at the Jiwa, appeared a large caravan headed by Said
-bin Mohammed of Mbuamaji, with Khalfan bin Khamis,
-and several other Coast-Arabs. They brought news
-from the sea-board, and,&mdash;wondrous good fortune!&mdash;the
-portmanteau containing books which the porter, profiting
-by the confusion caused by the swarm of bees, had deposited
-in the long grass, at the place where I had
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-258">[258]</span>
-directed the slaves to seek it. Some difficulty was at
-first made about restitution: the Arab law of “lakit,”
-or things trove, being variable, complicated, and altogether
-opposed to our ideas. However, two cloths were
-given to the man who had charge of it, and the
-Jemadar and Said bin Salim were sent to recover it
-by any or all means. The merchants were not offended.
-They consented to sell for the sum of thirty-five dollars
-a strong and serviceable but an old and obstinate
-African ass, which after carrying my companion for
-many a mile, at last broke its heart when toiling up
-the steeps from whose summit the fair waters of the
-Central Lake were first sighted. Moreover, they proposed
-that for safety and economy the two caravans should
-travel together under a single flag, and thus combine to
-form a total of 190 men. These Coast-Arabs travelled
-in comfort. The brother of Said Mohammed had married
-the daughter of Fundikira, Sultan of Unyanyembe,
-and thus the family had a double home, on the coast
-and in the interior. All the chiefs of the caravan carried
-with them wives and female slaves, negroid beauties,
-tall, bulky and “plenty of them,” attired in tulip-hues,
-cochineal and gamboge, who walked the whole way, and
-who when we passed them displayed an exotic modesty
-by drawing their head-cloths over cheeks which we were
-little ambitious to profane. They had a multitude of
-Fundi, or managing men, and male slaves, who bore their
-personal bag and baggage, scrip and scrippage, drugs
-and comforts, stores and provisions, and who were always
-early at the ground to pitch, to surround with a
-“pai,” or dwarf drain, and to bush for privacy, with
-green boughs, their neat and light ridge-tents of American
-domestics. Their bedding was as heavy as ours,
-and even their poultry travelled in wicker cages. This
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-259">[259]</span>
-caravan was useful to us in dealing with the Wagogo:
-it always managed, however, to precede us on the march,
-and to monopolise the best kraals. The Baloch and the
-sons of Ramji, when asked on these occasions why
-they did not build a palisade, would reply theatrically,
-“Our hearts are our fortification!”&mdash;methought a
-sorry defence.</p>
-
-<p>By Kidogo’s suggestion I had preferred the middle
-line through the hundred miles of dreaded Ugogo: it
-was the beaten path, and infested only by four Sultans,
-namely: 1. Myandozi of Kifukuru. 2. Magomba of
-Kanyenye. 3. Maguru-Mafupi of K’hok’ho; and 4. Kibuya
-of Mdaburu. On the 1st October, 1857, we left
-the Ziwa late in the morning, and after passing through
-the savannahs and the brown jungles of the lower levels,
-where giraffe again appeared, the path crested a wave
-of ground and debouched upon the table-land of Ugogo.
-The aspect was peculiar and unprepossessing. Behind still
-towered in sight the Delectable Mountains of Usagara,
-mist-crowned and robed in the lightest azure, with
-streaks of a deep plum-colour, fronting the hot low land
-of Marenga Mk’hali, whose tawny face was wrinkled
-with lines of dark jungle. On the north was a tabular
-range of rough and rugged hill, above which rose
-three distant cones pointed out as the haunts of the
-robber Wahumba: at its base was a deep depression, a
-tract of brown brush patched with yellow grass, inhabited
-only by the elephant, and broken by small outlying
-hillocks. Southwards scattered eminences of tree-crowned
-rock rose a few yards from the plain which
-extended to the front, a clearing of deep red or white
-soil, decayed vegetation based upon rocky or sandy
-ground, here and there thinly veiled with brown brush
-and golden stubbles: its length, about four miles, was
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-260">[260]</span>
-studded with square villages, and with the stately but
-grotesque calabash. This giant is to the vegetable what
-the elephant is to the animal world:&mdash;the Persians call
-it the “practice-work of nature”&mdash;its disproportionate
-conical bole rests upon huge legs exposed to view by
-the washing away of the soil, and displays excrescences
-which in pious India would merit a coat of vermilion.
-From the neck extend gigantic gnarled arms, each one
-a tree, whose thinnest twig is thick as a man’s finger,
-and their weight causes them to droop earthwards, giving
-to the outline the shape of a huge dome. In many parts
-the unloveliness of its general appearance is varied by
-the wrinkles and puckerings which, forming by granulation
-upon the oblongs where the bark has been removed
-for fibre, give the base the appearance of being chamfered
-and fluted; and often a small family of trunks,
-four or five in number, springs from the same
-root. At that season all were leafless; at other times
-they are densely foliaged, and contrasting with their
-large timber and with their coarse fleshy leaf, they are
-adorned with the delicatest flowers of a pure virgin-white,
-which, opening at early dawn, fade and fall before
-eventide. The babe-tree issues from the ground about
-one foot in diameter: in Ugogo, however, all those observed
-were of middle age. The young are probably
-grubbed up to prevent their encumbering the ground,
-and when decayed enough to be easily felled, they are
-converted into firewood. By the side of these dry and
-leafless masses of dull dead hue, here and there a mimosa
-or a thorn was beginning to bear the buds of promise
-green as emeralds. The sun burned like the breath of
-a bonfire, a painful glare&mdash;the reflection of the terrible
-crystal above,&mdash;arose from the hot earth; warm Siroccos
-raised clouds of dust, and in front the horizon was so
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-261">[261]</span>
-distant, that, as the Arabs expressed themselves, “a man
-might be seen three marches off.”</p>
-
-<p>We were received with the drumming and the ringing
-of bells attached to the ivories, with the yells and
-frantic shouts of two caravans halted at Kifukuru: one
-was that of Said Mohammed, who awaited our escort,
-the other a return “Safari,” composed of about 1,000
-Wanyamwezi porters, headed by four slaves of Salim bin
-Rashid, an Arab merchant settled at Unyanyembe. The
-country people also flocked to stare at the phenomenon;
-they showed that excitement which some few years ago
-might have been witnessed in more polished regions
-when a “horrible murder” roused every soul from
-Tweed banks to Land’s End; when, to gratify a morbid
-destructiveness, artists sketched, literati described, tourists
-visited, and curio-hunters met to bid for the
-rope and the murderer’s whiskers. Yet I judged favourably
-of the Wagogo by their curiosity, which stood out in
-strong relief against the apathy and the uncommunicativeness
-of the races lately visited. Such inquisitiveness
-is amongst barbarians generally a proof of improvability,&mdash;of
-power to progress. One man who had visited
-Zanzibar could actually speak a few words of Hindostani,
-and in Ugogo, and there only, I was questioned by the
-chiefs concerning Uzungu “White-land,” the mysterious
-end of the world in which beads are found under ground,
-and where the women weave such cottons. From the
-day of our entering to that of our leaving the country,
-every settlement turned out its swarm of gazers, men
-and women, boys and girls, some of whom would follow
-us for miles with explosions of Hi!&mdash;i!&mdash;i! screams of
-laughter and cries of excitement, at a long high trot,&mdash;most
-ungraceful of motion!&mdash;and with a scantiness of
-toilette which displayed truly unseemly spectacles. The
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-262">[262]</span>
-matrons, especially the aged matrons, realised Madame
-Pernelle’s description of an unpleasant <span class="nowrap">female&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Un peu trop forte en gueule et fort impertinente;”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">and of their sex the old men were ever the most pertinacious
-and intrusive, the most surly and quarrelsome.
-Vainly the escort attempted to arrest the course of this
-moving multitude of semi-nude barbarity. I afterwards
-learned that the two half-caste Arabs who had passed
-us at Muhama, Khalfan and Id, the sons of Muallim
-Salim of Zanzibar, had, whilst preceding us, spread
-through Ugogo malevolent reports concerning the Wazungu.
-They had one eye each and four arms; they
-were full of “knowledge,” which in these lands means
-magic; they caused rain to fall in advance and left
-droughts in their rear; they cooked water melons and
-threw away the seeds, thereby generating small-pox;
-they heated and hardened milk, thus breeding a murrain
-amongst cattle; and their wire, cloth, and beads caused
-a variety of misfortunes; they were kings of the sea, and
-therefore white-skinned and straight-haired&mdash;a standing
-mystery to these curly-pated people&mdash;as are all men
-who live in salt water; and next year they would return
-and seize the country. Suspicion of our intentions
-touching “territorial aggrandisement” was a fixed idea:
-everywhere the value attached by barbarians to their
-homes is in inverse ratio to the real worth of the article.
-Hence mountaineers are proverbially patriotic. Thus
-the lean Bedouins of Arabia and the lank Somal, though
-they own that they are starving, never sight a stranger
-without suspecting that he is spying out the wealth of
-the land. “What will happen to us?” asked the
-Wagogo; “we never yet saw this manner of man!”
-But the tribe cannot now forfeit intercourse with the
-coast: they annoyed us to the utmost, they made the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-263">[263]</span>
-use of their wells a daily source of trouble, they charged
-us double prices, and when they brought us provisions
-for sale, they insisted upon receiving the price of even
-the rejected articles; yet they did not proceed to open
-outrage. Our timid Arab, the Baloch, the sons of
-Ramji, and the porters humoured them in every whim.
-Kidogo would not allow observations to be taken with
-a bright sextant in presence of the mobility. He declined
-to clear the space before the tent, as the excited
-starers, some of whom had come from considerable distances,
-were apt under disappointment to wax violent;
-and though he once or twice closed the tent-flaps,
-he would not remove the lines of men, women, and
-children, who stretched themselves for the greater convenience
-of peeping and peering, lengthways upon the
-ground. Whenever a Mnyamwezi porter interfered, he
-was arrogantly told to begone, and he slunk away, praying
-us to remember that these men are “Wagogo.”
-Caravan after caravan had thus taught them to become
-bullies, whereas a little manliness would soon have
-reduced them to their proper level. They are neither
-brave nor well-armed, and their prestige rests solely
-upon their feat in destroying about one generation ago
-a caravan of Wanyamwezi&mdash;an event embalmed in a
-hundred songs and traditions. They seemed to take a
-fancy to the Baloch, who received from the fair sex
-many a little souvenir in the shape of a kid or a water-melon.
-Whenever the Goanese Valentine was sent to a
-village he was politely and hospitably welcomed, and
-seated upon a three-legged stool by the headman; and
-generally the people agreed in finding fault with their
-principal Sultans, declaring that they unwisely made the
-country hateful to “Wakonongo,” or travellers. Fortunately
-for the Expedition several scions of the race saw
-the light safely during our transit of Ugogo: had an
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-264">[264]</span>
-accident occurred to a few babies or calves, our return
-through the country would have been difficult and dangerous.
-All received the name of “Muzungu,” and
-thus there must now be a small colony of black “white
-men” in this part of the African interior.</p>
-
-<p>At Kifukuru I was delayed a day whilst settling the
-blackmail of its Sultan Miyandozi. Said bin Salim, the
-Jemadar, and Kidogo called upon him in the morning and
-were received in the gateway of a neat “Tembe,” the
-great man disdaining to appear on so trivial an occasion.
-This Sultan is the least powerful of the four; he is
-plundered by the Warori tribes living to the south-west,
-and by his western neighbour, Magomba; his subjects
-are poorly clad, and are little ornamented compared with
-those occupying the central regions, where they have the
-power to detain travellers and to charge them exorbitantly
-for grain and water. Yet Miyandozi demanded
-four white and six blue shukkahs; besides which I was
-compelled to purchase for him from the sons of Ramji,
-who of course charged treble its value, a “Sohari” or
-handsome silk and cotton loin-cloth. In return he sent&mdash;it
-appeared to be in irony&mdash;one kayla, or four small measures
-of grain. The slaves of Salim bin Rashid obliged
-me with a few pounds of rice, for which I gave them a
-return in gunpowder, and they undertook to convey to
-Zanzibar a package of reports, indents, and letters,
-which was punctually delivered. An ugly accident had
-nearly happened that night; the Wanyamwezi porters
-managed to fire the grass round a calabash tree, against
-which they had stretched their loads, and a powder-magazine&mdash;fortunately
-fire-proof&mdash;was blackened and charred
-by the flames. A traveller cannot be too careful about his
-ammunition in these lands. I have seen a slave smoking
-a water pipe, tied for convenience of carriage to a leaky
-keg of powder; and another in the caravan of Salim bin
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-265">[265]</span>
-Sayf of Dut’humi, resting the muzzle of his musket
-against a barrel of ammunition, fired it to try its strength,
-and blew himself up with several of his comrades.</p>
-
-<p>On the 3rd October we quitted Kifukuru in the
-afternoon, and having marched nearly six hours we
-encamped in one of the strips of waterless brown
-jungles which throughout Ugogo divide the cultivated
-districts from one another, and occupy about half the
-superficies of the land. The low grounds, inundated
-during the rains, were deeply cracked, and my weak ass,
-led by the purblind Shahdad, fell with violence upon my
-knee, leaving a mixture of pain and numbness which
-lasted for some months. On the next day we resumed
-our journey betimes through a thick rugged jungle and
-over a rolling grassy plain, which extended to the
-frontier of Kanyenye, where Sultan Magomba rules.
-The 5th October saw us in the centre of Kanyenye,
-a clearing about ten miles in diameter. The surface is
-a red tamped clayey soil, dotted with small villages, huge
-calabashes, and stunted mimosas; water is found in
-wells or rather pits sunk from ten to twelve feet in the
-lower lands, or in the sandy beds of the several Fiumaras.
-Flocks and herds abound, and the country is as cultivated
-and populous as the saline nitrous earth, and the scarceness
-of the potable element, which often tarnishes silver
-like sulphur-fumes, permits.</p>
-
-<p>At Kanyenye I was delayed four days to settle blackmail
-with Magomba, the most powerful of the Wagogo
-chiefs. He was on this, as on a subsequent occasion,
-engaged in settling a cause arising from Uchawi or
-Black Magic; yet all agree that in Ugogo, where, to
-quote the “Royal Martyr’s” words,</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Plunder and murder are the kingdom’s laws,”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">there is perhaps less of wizardhood and witchcraft,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-266">[266]</span>
-and consequently less of its normal consequences, fiscs
-and massacres, than in any other region between the
-Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. “Arrow-heads” employed
-every art of wild diplomacy to relieve me of as
-much cloth as possible. I received, when encamped at
-the Ziwa, a polite message declaring his desire to see
-white men; but&mdash;“the favour of the winds produces
-dust”&mdash;I was obliged to acknowledge the compliment
-with two cottons. On arrival at his head-quarters I was
-waited upon by an oily cabinet of Wazirs and elders,
-who would not depart without their “respects”&mdash;four
-cottons. The next demand was made by his favourite
-wife, a peculiarly hideous old princess with more
-wrinkles than hairs, with no hair black and no tooth
-white, and attended by ladies in waiting as unprepossessing
-as herself: she was not to be dismissed without
-a fee of six cottons. At last, accompanied by a mob
-of courtiers, who crowded in like an African House
-of Commons, appeared in person the magnifico. He
-was the only Sultan that ever entered my tent in Ugogo&mdash;pride
-and a propensity for strong drink prevented
-other visits. He was much too great a man to call
-upon the Arab merchants, but in our case curiosity
-had mastered state considerations. Magomba was a
-black and wrinkled elder, drivelling and decrepid, with
-a half-bald head from whose back and sides depended
-a few straggling corkscrews of iron gray: he wore a
-coat of castor-oil and a “Barsati” loin-cloth, which
-grease and use had changed from blue to black. A few
-bead strings decorated his neck, large flexible anklets
-of brass wire adorned his legs, solid brass rings, single
-and in coils, which had distended his earlobes almost to
-splitting, were tied by a string over his cranium,
-and his horny soles were defended by single-soled
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-267">[267]</span>
-sandals, old, dirty, and tattered. He chewed his quid
-and he expectorated without mercy; he asked many a
-silly question, yet he had ever an eye to the main
-chance. He demanded and received five “cloths with
-names,” which I was again compelled to purchase at an
-exorbitant price from the Baloch and slaves, one coil of
-brass wire, four blue cottons, and ten “domestics;” the
-total amounted to fifty shukkahs, here worth at least
-fifty dollars, and exhausting nearly two-thirds of a
-porter’s load. His return present was the leanest of
-calves; when it was driven into camp with much parade,
-his son, who had long been looking out for a fit opportunity,
-put in a claim for three cottons.</p>
-
-<p>Magomba before our departure exacted from Kidogo
-an oath that his Wazungu would not smite the land
-with drought or with fatal disease, declaring that all
-we had was in his hands. He boasted, and with truth,
-of his generosity. It was indeed my firm conviction
-from first to last, that in case of attack or surprise I
-had not a soul except my companion to stand by me:
-all those who accompanied us could, and consequently
-would, have saved their lives;&mdash;<i>we</i> must have perished.
-We should have been as safe with six as with sixty
-guns; but I would by no means apply to these regions
-Mr. Galton’s opinion, “that the last fatal expedition
-of Mungo Park is full of warning to travellers who
-propose exploring with a large body of men.” For
-though sixty guns do not suffice to prevent attack in
-Ugogo, 600 stout fellows armed with the “hot-mouthed
-weapon” might march through the length and breadth
-of Central Africa.</p>
-
-<p>During our four days’ detention at Kanyenye, I was
-compelled to waste string after string of beads in persuading
-the people to water the porters and asses. Yet their
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-268">[268]</span>
-style of proceeding proved that it was greed of gain,
-not scarcity of the element, which was uppermost in
-their minds; they would agree to supply us with an
-unlimited quantity, and then would suddenly gather
-round the well and push away the Wanyamwezi, bidding
-them go and fetch more beads. All the caravan
-took the opportunity of loading itself with salt. Whilst
-the halt lasted, my companion brought in a fine-flavoured
-pallah and other antelopes, with floriken, guinea-fowl, and
-partridge. Neither he nor I, however, had strength
-enough, nor had we time, to attack the herds of elephants
-that roam over the valley whose deep purple
-line separates the table-land of Ugogo from the blue
-hills of the Wahumba to the north. And here, perhaps,
-a few words concerning the prospects of sportsmen
-in this part of Africa, may save future travellers from
-the mistake into which I fell. I expected great things,
-and returned without realising a single hope. This
-portion of the peninsula is a remarkable contrast to
-the line traversed by Dr. Livingstone, where the animals
-standing within bow-shot were so numerous and fearless,
-that the burden of provisions was often unnecessary.
-In the more populous parts game has melted away
-before the woodman’s axe and the hunters’ arrows:
-even where large tracks of jungle abound with water
-and forage, the note of a bird rarely strikes the ear, and
-during a long day’s march not a single large animal will
-be seen from the beaten track. It is true that in
-some places, there is</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent14">“&mdash;&mdash; enough<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">Of beastes that be chaseable.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">The park lands of Dut’humi, the jungles and forests
-of Ugogi and Mgunda Mk’hali, the barrens of Usukuma,
-and the tangled thickets of Ujiji, are full of noble
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-269">[269]</span>
-game,&mdash;lions and leopards, elephants and rhinoceroses,
-wild cattle, giraffes, gnus, zebras, quaggas, and ostriches.
-But these are dangerous regions where the sportsman
-often cannot linger for a day. Setting aside the minor
-considerations of miasma and malaria,&mdash;the real or
-fancied perils of the place, and the want of food, or the
-difficulty of procuring water, would infallibly cause the
-porters to desert. Here are no Cape-waggons, at once
-house, store, and transport; no “Ships of the Desert,”
-never known to run away; in fact there is no vehicle
-but man, and he is so impatient and headstrong, so suspicious
-and timorous, that he must be humoured in every
-whim. As sportsmen know, it is difficult to combine surveying
-operations and collection of specimens with a pursuit
-which requires all a man’s time; in these countries,
-moreover, no merely hunting-expedition would pay,
-owing to the extraordinary expense of provisions and
-carriage. Thus Venator will be reduced to use his
-“shooting-iron” on halting days, and at the several
-periods of his journey, and his only consolation will be
-the prospect of wreaking vengeance upon the hippopotamus
-and the crocodile of the coast, if his return there
-be entered in the book of Time. Finally, East Africa
-wants the vast variety of animals, especially the beautiful
-antelopes, which enrich the lists of the Cape Fauna.
-The tale of those observed in short: the horns of the
-oryx were seen, the hartebeest and steinbok, the saltiana
-and the pallah,&mdash;the latter affording excellent
-venison,&mdash;were shot. The country generally produces
-the “Suiya,” a little antelope with reddish coat and
-diminutive horns, about the size of an English hare,
-the swangura, or sungula, an animal somewhat larger
-than the saltiana, and of which, according to the people,
-the hind only has horns; and at K’hutu my companion
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-270">[270]</span>
-saw a double-horned antelope which he thought
-resembled the “Chouka-singa,” (<i>Tetraceros Quadricornis</i>)
-of Nepaul. The species of birds, also, are scarcely
-more numerous than the beasts; the feathered tribe
-is characterised by sombreness of plumage, and their
-song is noisy but not harmonious, unpleasant, perhaps
-because strange, to the European ear.</p>
-
-<p>On the 8th October appeared at Kanyenye a large down-caravan
-headed by Abdullah bin Nasib, a Msawahili of
-Zanzibar, whose African name is Kisesa. This good
-man began with the usual token of hospitality, the gift
-of a goat, and some measures of the fine Unyanyembe rice,
-of which return-parties carry an ample store: he called
-upon me at once with several companions,&mdash;one of them
-surprised me not a little by an English “good morning,”&mdash;and
-he kindly volunteered to halt a day whilst we wrote
-reports and letters, life-certificates, and duplicate-indents
-upon Zanzibar for extra supplies of drugs and
-medical comforts, cloth and beads. The asses were now
-reduced to five, and as Magomba refused to part with
-any of his few animals, at any price,&mdash;on the coast
-I had been assured that asses were as numerous as dogs
-in Ugogo&mdash;Abdullah gave me one of his riding-animals,
-and would take nothing for it except a little
-medicine, and a paper acknowledging his civility.
-Several of the slaves and porters had been persuaded
-by the Wagogo to desert, and Abdullah busied
-himself to recover them. One man, who had suddenly
-deposited his pack upon the path and had disappeared
-in the jungle during the noonday halt, was
-pointed out by a woman to Kidogo, and was found
-lurking in a neighbouring village, where the people
-refused to give him up. Abdullah sent for Magomba’s
-four chief “ministers,” and persuaded them to render
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-271">[271]</span>
-active aid: they seized the fellow, took from him his
-wire and his nine cloths, appropriated four, and left
-me five wherewith to engage another porter. The deserter
-was of course dismissed, but the severity of the
-treatment did not prevent three desertions on the next
-day.</p>
-
-<p>The 10th October ushered in an ugly march. Emerging
-betimes from the glaring white and red plains of
-Kanyenye, dotted with fields, villages, and calabashes,
-we unloaded in a thin jungle of mimosa and grass-bunches,
-near sundry pools, then almost dried up, but
-still surrounded by a straggling growth of chamærops
-and verdurous thorns. The bush gave every opportunity
-to the porters, who had dispersed in the halt, to
-desert with impunity. In our hurried morning tramp,
-want of carriage had caused considerable confusion, and
-at 2 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, when again the word “load” was given for
-a tirikeza, everything seemed to go wrong. Said bin
-Salim and the Jemadar hurried forwards, leaving me to
-manage the departure with Kidogo, who, whilst my
-companion lay under a calabash almost unable to move,
-substituted for his strong Mnyamwezi ass a wretched
-animal unable to bear the lightest load. The Baloch
-Belok was asked to carry our only gourd full of water;
-he pleaded sickness as an excuse. And, when the rear
-of the caravan was about to march, Kidogo, who alone
-knew the way, hastened on so fast that he left us to
-wander through a labyrinth of elephants’ tracks, hedged
-in by thorns and brambly trees, which did considerable
-damage to clothes and cutis.</p>
-
-<p>Having at length found the way, we advanced over a
-broad, open, and grassy plain, striped with southwards-trending
-sandy water-courses of easy ascent and descent,
-and lined with a green aromatic vegetation, in which the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-272">[272]</span>
-tall palm suggested a resemblance to the valley-plains of
-the Usagara Mountains. As night fell upon us like a
-pall, we entered the broken red ground that limits the flat
-westwards, and, ascending a dark ridge of broken, stony,
-ground, and a dense thorn-bush, we found ourselves upon
-a higher level. The asses stumbled, the men grumbled,
-and the want of water severely tried the general
-temper.</p>
-
-<p>From this cold jungle&mdash;the thermometer showed a
-minimum of 54° F.&mdash;we emerged at dawn on the
-11th October, and after three hours’ driving through
-a dense bush of various thorns, with calabashes reddened
-by the intense heat, and tripping upon the narrow
-broken path that ran over rolling ground, we found the
-porters halted at some pits full of sweet clear water.
-Here the caravan preserved a remarkable dead silence.
-I inquired the cause. The Coast-Arabs who accompanied
-us were trying an experiment, which, had it
-failed, would have caused trouble, expense, and waste of
-time; they were attempting to pass without blackmail
-the little clearing of Usek’he, which lay to the south of
-the desert-road, and they knew that its Sultan, Ganza
-Mikono, usually posted a party upon the low masses of
-bristling hill hard by, to prevent caravans evading his
-dues. As no provisions were procurable in the jungle,
-it was judged better to proceed, and the sun was in the
-zenith before we reached the district of K’hok’ho. We
-halted under a spreading tree, near the head-quarter
-village of its villanous Sultan, in an open plain of
-millet and panicum-stubbles. Presently Kidogo, disliking
-the appearance of things&mdash;the men, rushing with
-yells of excitement from their villages, were forming a
-dense ring around us; the even more unmanageable old
-women stared like <i>sages femmes</i>, and already a Mnyamwezi
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-273">[273]</span>
-porter had been beaten at the well&mdash;stirred us up
-and led the way to an open jungle about a mile distant.
-There we were safe; no assailant would place himself
-upon the plain, the Coast-Arabs were close at hand, and
-in the bush we should have been more than a match
-for the Wagogo.</p>
-
-<p>The Baloch, fatigued by the tedious marches of the
-last two days, had surlily refused their escort to our
-luggage, as well as to ourselves. When the camp was
-pitched, I ordered a goat to be killed; and, serving out
-rations to the sons of Ramji and the porters, I gave
-them none, a cruel punishment to men whose souls
-centered in their ingesta. The earlier part of the
-evening was spent by them in enumerating their
-grievances&mdash;they were careful to speak in four dialects,
-so that all around might understand them, in discussing
-their plans of desertion, and in silencing the contradiction
-of their commander, the monocular Jemadar,
-who, having forsworn opium, now headed the party in
-opposition to the mutineers. They complained that they
-were faint for want of meat&mdash;the fellows were driving a
-bullock and half a dozen goats, which they had purchased
-with cloth, certainly not their own. I had, they grumbled,
-given them no ghee or honey, consequently they were
-obliged to “eat dry”&mdash;they knew this to be false, as they
-had received both at Kanyenye. We had made them
-march ten “Cos” in our eagerness to obtain milk&mdash;they
-were the first to propose reaching a place where provisions
-were procurable. The unmanageables, Khudabakhsh,
-Shahdad, and Belok, proposed an immediate departure,
-but a small majority carried the day in favour of desertion
-next morning. Kidogo and the sons of Ramji
-ridiculed, as was their wont, the silly boasters with, “Of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-274">[274]</span>
-a truth, brethren! the coast is far off, and ye are hungry
-men!” On the ensuing day, when a night’s reflection
-had cooled down their noble bile, they swallowed their
-words like buttered parsnips. I heard no more of their
-plans, and in their demeanour they became cringing as
-before.</p>
-
-<p>The transit of the K’hok’ho clearing, which is also
-called the Nyika, or wilderness, is considered the nucleus
-of travellers’ troubles in Ugogo. The difficulty is caused
-by its Sultan, M’ana Miaha, popularly known as Maguru
-Mafupi, or Short-shanks. This petty tyrant, the most
-powerful, however, of the Wagogo chiefs, is a toothache
-to strangers, who complain that he cannot even
-plunder <i>à l’aimable</i>. He was described to me as a short
-elderly man, nearly bald, chocolate-coloured, and remarkable
-for the duck-like conformation which gave origin to
-his nickname. His dress was an Arab check round his
-loins, and another thrown over his shoulders. He becomes
-man, idiot, and beast with clockwork-regularity
-every day; when not disguised in liquor he is surly
-and unreasonable, and when made merry by his cups he
-refuses to do business. He is in the habit of detaining
-Wanyamwezi caravans to hoe his fields, and he often
-applies them to a <i>corvée</i> of five or six days during the
-spring-time, before he will consent to receive his blackmail.</p>
-
-<p>We were delayed five days at K’hok’ho to lay in provisions
-for four marches, and by the usual African pretexts,
-various and peculiar. On the afternoon of arrival
-it would have been held indecent haste to trouble His
-Highness. On the first morning His Highness’s spouse
-was unwell, and during the day he was “sitting upon
-Pombe,” in other words, drinking beer. On the second
-he received, somewhat scurvily, a deputation headed by
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-275">[275]</span>
-Said bin Salim, the Coast-Arab merchants, and the
-Jemadar. Two Wazagira, or chief-councillors, did the
-palaver, which was conducted, for dignity, outside the
-royal hovel. He declared that the two caravans must compound
-separately, and that in my case he would be satisfied
-with nothing under six porters’ loads. As about one-twelfth
-of his demand was offered to him, he dismissed
-them with ignominy, affirming that he held me equal to
-the Sayyid of Zanzibar, and accordingly that he should
-demand half the outfit. The third day was spent by the
-Coast-Arabs in haggling with the courtiers before His
-Highness, who maintained a solemn silence, certainly the
-easiest plan; and the present was paraded, as is customary
-on such occasions, in separate heaps, each intended
-for a particular person, but Her Highness, justly offended
-by the flimsiness of a bit of chintz, seized a huge wooden
-ladle and hooted and hunted the offenders out of doors.
-After high words the Arabs returned, and informed me
-that things were looking desperate. I promised assistance
-in case of violence being offered to them,&mdash;a civility which
-they acknowledged by sending a shoulder of beef. The
-fourth day was one of dignified idleness. We received
-a message that the court was again sitting upon
-Pombe, and we too well understood that His Highness,
-with his spouse and cabinet, were drunk as drunk could
-be. On the morning of the fifth day, a similar delaying
-process was attempted; but as the testy Kidogo, who
-had taken the place of the tame Said, declared that
-the morrow should see us march in the afternoon, the
-present was accepted, and the two or three musket shots
-usual on such occasions sounded the joyful tidings that
-we were at liberty to proceed. The unconscionable extortioner
-had received one coil of brass wire, four
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-276">[276]</span>
-“cloths with names,” eight domestics, eight blue cottons,
-and thirty strings of coral beads. Not contented with
-this, he demanded two Arab checks, and these failing, a
-double quantity of beads, and another domestic. I
-compromised the affair with six feet of crimson broadcloth,
-an article which I had not produced, as the Coast-Arabs,
-who owned none, declared that such an offering
-would cause difficulties in their case. But as they
-charged me double and treble prices for the expensive
-cloths which the Sultan required, and which, as they
-had been omitted in our outfit, it was necessary to purchase
-from them, I at length thought myself justified in
-economising by the only means in my power. The
-fiery-tempered Coast-Arabs left K’hok’ho with rage in
-their hearts and curses under their tongues. These
-men usually think outside their heads, but they know
-that in Ugogo the merest pretext&mdash;the loosing a hot
-word, touching a woman, offending a boy, or taking in
-vain the name of the Sultan&mdash;infallibly leads to being
-mulcted in cloth.</p>
-
-<p>I was delighted to escape from the foul strip of crowded
-jungle in which we had halted. A down-caravan of
-Wanyamwezi had added its quotum of discomfort to
-the place. Throughout the fiery day we were stung by
-the Tzetze, and annoyed by swarms of bees and pertinacious
-gadflies. On one occasion an army of large
-poisonous siyafu, or black pismire, drove us out of the
-tent by the wounds which it inflicted between the
-fingers and on other tender parts of the body, before a
-kettle of boiling water persuaded them to abandon us.
-These ant-fiends made the thin-skinned asses mad with
-torture. The nights were cold and raw, and when we
-awoke in the morning we found some valuable article
-rendered unserviceable by the termites. K’hok’ho was
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-277">[277]</span>
-an ill-omened spot. There my ass “Seringe,” sole survoice
-of the riding animals brought from Zanzibar,
-was so torn by a hyæna that I was compelled to leave
-it behind. I was afterwards informed that it had
-soon died of its wounds. The next mishap was the desertion
-of the fifteen Wanyamwezi porters who had been
-hired and paid at Ugogi. These men had slept in the
-same kraal with the somnolent sons of Ramji, and
-had stealthily disappeared during the night. As usual,
-though they carried off their own, they had left our loads
-behind, that they might reach their homes with greater
-speed. They would choose a jungle road, to avoid the
-danger of slavery, and living the while upon roots and
-edible grasses, would traverse the desert separating them
-from their country in three or four days. This desertion
-of fifteen men first suggested to me that my weary
-efforts and wearing anxiety about carriage were to a
-certain extent self-inflictions. Expecting to see half the
-outfit left upon the ground, I was surprised by the readiness
-with which it disappeared. The men seemed to
-behave best whenever things were palpably at the worst;
-besides which, as easily as the baggage of 50 porters
-was distributed amongst 100, so easily were the loads
-of 100 men placed upon the shoulders of 50. Indeed, the
-original Wanyamwezi gang, who claimed by right extra
-pay for carrying extra weight, though fiercely opposed to
-lifting up an empty gourd gratis, were ever docile when
-a heavier pack brought with it an increase of cloth and
-beads.</p>
-
-<p>However, the march on the 17th October had its trifling
-hardships. My companion rode forward on the ass lately
-given to us by Abdullah bin Nasib, whilst I, remaining
-behind and finding that no carriage could be procured for
-two bags of clothes and shoes, placed them upon my animal
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-278">[278]</span>
-the Mnyamwezi bought at Inenge, inasmuch as it appeared
-somewhat stronger than the half-dozen wretched
-brutes that flung themselves upon the ground apparently
-too fagged to move. I had, however, overrated its
-powers: it soon became evident that I must walk, or that
-the valuable cargo must be left behind. Trembling
-with weakness, I set out to traverse the length of the
-Mdáburu Jungle. The memory of that march is not
-pleasant: the burning sun and the fiery reflected heat
-arising from the parched ground&mdash;here a rough, thorny,
-and waterless jungle, where the jasmine flowered and the
-frankincense was used for fuel; there a grassy plain of
-black and sun-cracked earth&mdash;compelled me to lie down
-every half-hour. The watergourds were soon drained
-by my attendant Baloch; and the sons of Ramji,
-who, after reaching the resting-place, had returned with
-ample stores for their comrades, hid their vessels on my
-approach. Sarmalla, a donkey-driver, the model of a
-surly negro, whose crumpled brow, tightened eyes and
-thick lips which shot-out on the least occasion of excitement,
-showed what was going on within his head, openly
-refused me the use of his gourd, and&mdash;thirst is even
-less to be trifled with than hunger&mdash;found ample reason
-to repent himself of the proceeding. Near the end
-of the jungle I came upon a party of the Baloch, who,
-having seized upon a porter belonging to a large caravan
-of Wanyamwezi that had passed us on that march,
-were persuading him, half by promises and half by
-threats, to carry their sleeping mats and their empty
-gourds. The strict and positive orders as regards enticing
-away deserters which I had issued at Inenge, were
-looked upon by them, in their all-engrossing egotism, as a
-mere string of empty words. I could do nothing beyond
-threatening to report their conduct to their master, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-279">[279]</span>
-dismissing the man, who obviously stood in fear of death,
-with his tobacco and hoes duly counted back to him. Towards
-the end of that long march I saw with pleasure the
-kindly face of Seedy Bombay, who was returning to me
-in hot haste, leading an ass, and carrying a few scones
-and hard-boiled eggs. Mounting, I resumed my way,
-and presently arrived at the confines of Mdáburu,
-where, under a huge calabash, stood our tent, amidst a
-kraal of grass boothies, surrounded by a heaped-up ridge
-of thorns.</p>
-
-<p>Mdáburu is the first important district in the land
-of Uyanzi, which, beginning from Western K’hok’ho, extends
-as far as Tura, the eastern frontier of Unyamwezi-land.
-It is a fertile depression of brick-red earth,
-bisected by a broad, deep, and sandy Fiumara, which, trending
-southwards, supplies from five pits water in plenty
-even during the driest season. It is belted on all sides
-by a dense jungle, over whose dark brown line appeared
-the summits of low blue cones, and beyond them long
-streaks of azure ridge, beautified by distance into the semblance
-of a sea. We were delayed two days at this, the
-fourth and westernmost district of Ugogo. It was necessary
-to lay in a week’s provision for the party&mdash;ever
-a tedious task in these regions, but more especially in the
-dead of winter&mdash;moreover, the Sultan Kibuya expected
-the settlement of his blackmail. From this man we experienced
-less than the usual incivility: by birth a Mkimbu
-foreigner, and fearing at that time wars and rumours
-of wars on the part of his villanous neighbour, Maguru
-Mafupi, he contented himself with a present which may
-be estimated at nineteen cloths, whereas the others had
-murmured at forty and fifty. However, he abated nothing
-of his country’s pretentious pride. A black, elderly man,
-dressed in a grimy cloth, without other ornament but
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-280">[280]</span>
-a broad ivory bracelet covering several inches of his
-right wrist, he at first refused to receive the deputation
-because his “ministers” were absent; and during the
-discourse about the amount of blackmail, he sat preserving
-an apathetic silence, outside his dirty lodging in the
-huge kraal which forms his capital. The demand concluded
-with a fine silk-cotton cloth, on the part of his
-wife; and when “ma femme” appears on such occasions
-in these regions, as in others further west, it is a sure
-sign that the stranger is to be taken in. As usual
-with the East African chiefs, Kibuya was anxious to
-detain me, not only in order that his people might profitably
-dispose of their surplus stores, but also because
-the presence of so many guns would go far to modify
-the plans of his enemies. His attempts at delay, however,
-were skilfully out-manœuvred by Said bin Salim,
-who broke through all difficulties with the hardihood
-of fear. The little man’s vain terrors made him put the
-ragged kraal which surrounded us into a condition of
-defence, and every night he might be seen stalking like
-a troubled spirit amongst the forms of sleeping men.</p>
-
-<p>At Mdáburu I hired two porters from the caravan
-that accompanied us; and Said bin Salim began somewhat
-tardily to take the usual precautions against desertion.
-He was ordered, before the disappearance of the porters
-that levanted at K’hok’ho, to pack their hire in our loads,
-and every evening to chain up the luggage heaped in
-front of our tent. The accident caused by his neglect
-rendered him now quasi-obedient. Moreover, two or
-three Baloch were told off to precede the line, and as
-many to bring up the rear. The porters, as I have
-said, hold it a point of honour not to steal their packs;
-but if allowed to straggle forwards, or to loiter behind,
-they will readily attempt the recovery of their goods by
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-281">[281]</span>
-opening their burdens, which they afterwards abandon
-upon the road. The Coast-Arabs, in return for some
-small shot, which is here highly prized, assisted me by
-carrying some surplus luggage. Amongst other articles,
-two kegs of gunpowder were committed to them: both
-were punctually returned at Unyanyembe, where gunpowder
-sells at two cloths, or half a Frasilah (17·5 lbs.)
-of ivory per lb; but the bungs had been stove in, and a
-quarter of the contents had evaporated. The evening
-of the second day’s halt closed on us before the
-rations for the caravan were collected, and seventeen
-shukkah, with about a hundred strings of beads, barely
-produced a sufficiency of grain.</p>
-
-<p>From the Red Vale of Mdáburu three main lines traverse
-the desert between Ugogo and Unyamwezi.
-The northernmost, called Njia T’humbi, leads in a west-north-westerly
-direction to Usukuma. Upon this track
-are two sultans and several villages. The central “Karangásá,”
-or “Mdáburu,” is that which will be described
-in the following pages. The southernmost, termed
-Uyánzi, sets out from K’hok’ho, and passes through the
-settlements known by the name of Jiwe lá Singá. It
-is avoided by the porters, dreading to incur the wrath
-of Sultan Kibuyá, who would resent their omitting
-to visit his settlement, M’dáburu.</p>
-
-<p>These three routes pass through the heart of the
-great desert and elephant-ground “Mgunda Mk’hali”&mdash;explained
-by the Arabs to mean in Kinyamwezi, the Fiery
-“Shamba” or Field. Like Marenga Mk’hali, it is a desert,
-because it contains no running water nor wells, except
-after rain. The name is still infamous, but its ill-fame
-rests rather upon tradition than actuality; in fact, its
-dimensions are rapidly shrinking before the torch and
-axe. About fifteen years ago it contained twelve long
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-282">[282]</span>
-stages, and several tirikeza; now it is spanned in eight
-marches. The wildest part is the first half from
-Mdáburu to Jiwe lá Mkoa, and even here, it is reported,
-villages of Wakimbu are rising rapidly on the north and
-south of the road. The traveller, though invariably
-threatened with drought and the death of cattle, will
-undergo little hardship beyond the fatigue of the first
-three forced marches through the “Fiery Field;” in fact,
-he will be agreeably surprised by its contrast with the
-desert of Marenga Mk’hali.</p>
-
-<p>From east to west the diagonal breadth of Mgunda
-Mk’hali is 140 miles. The general aspect is a dull uniform
-bush, emerald-coloured during the rains, and in the
-heats a network of dry and broom-like twigs. Except
-upon the banks of nullahs&mdash;“rivers” that are not rivers&mdash;the
-trees, as in Ugogo, wanting nutriment, never afford
-timber, and even the calabash appears stunted. The
-trackless waste of scrub, called the “bush” in Southern
-Africa, is found in places alternating with thin gum-forest;
-the change may be accounted for by the different
-depths of water below the level of the ground. It is a
-hardy vegetation of mimosas and gums mixed with evergreen
-succulent plants, cactaceæ, aloes, and euphorbias:
-the grass, sometimes tufty, at other times equally spread,
-is hard and stiff; when green it feeds cattle, and when dry
-it is burned in places by passing caravans to promote the
-growth of another crop.</p>
-
-<p>The groundwork of Mgunda Mk’hali is a detritus of
-yellowish quartz, in places white with powdered felspar,
-and, where vegetation decays, brown-black with humus.
-Water-worn pebbles are sprinkled over the earth, and
-the vicinity of Fiumaras abounds in a coarse and modern
-sandstone-conglomerate. Upon the rolling surface, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-283">[283]</span>
-towering high above the tallest trees, are based the
-huge granitic and syenitic outcrops before alluded to.
-The contrast between the masses and the dwarf rises
-which support them at once attracts the eye. Here and
-there the long waves that diversify the land appear in
-the far distance like blue lines bounding the nearer
-superficies of brown or green. Throughout this rolling
-table-land the watershed is to the south. In rare places
-the rains stagnate in shallow pools, which become
-systems of mud-cakes during the drought. At this
-season water is often unprocurable in the Fiumaras,
-causing unaccustomed hardships to caravans, and death
-to those beasts which, like the elephant and the buffalo,
-cannot long exist without drinking.</p>
-
-<p>On the 20th October we began the transit of the
-“Fiery Field,” whose long broad line of brown jungle,
-painted blue by the intervening air, had, since leaving
-K’hok’ho, formed our western horizon. The waste
-here appeared in its most horrid phase. The narrow
-goat-path serpentined in and out of a growth of
-poisonous thorny jungle, with thin, hard grass-straw,
-growing on a glaring white and rolling ground; the
-view was limited by bush and brake, as in the alluvial
-valleys of the maritime region, and in weary sameness
-the spectacle surpassed everything that we had endured
-in Marenga Mk’hali. We halted through the heat
-of the day at some water-pits in a broken course; and
-resuming our tedious march early in the afternoon, we
-arrived about sunset at the bed of a shallow nullah,
-where the pure element was found in sand-holes about
-five feet deep.</p>
-
-<p>On the 2nd day we reached the large Mabunguru
-Fiumara, a deep and tortuous gash of fine yellow quartzoze
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-284">[284]</span>
-sand and sunburnt blocks of syenite: at times it
-must form an impassable torrent, even at this season of
-severe drought it afforded long pools of infiltrated rain-water,
-green with weeds and abounding with shell-fish,
-and with the usual description of Silurus. In the
-earlier morning the path passed through a forest already
-beautified by the sprouting of tender green leaves and
-by the blooming of flowers, amongst which was a large
-and strongly perfumed species of jasmine, whilst young
-grass sprouted from the fire-blackened remnants of the
-last year’s crop. Far upon the southern horizon rose
-distant hills and lines, blue, as if composed of solidified
-air, and mocking us by their mirage-likeness to the
-ocean. Nearer, the ground was diversified by those
-curious evidences of igneous action, which extend westward
-through eastern Unyamwezi, and northwards to
-the shores of the Nyanza Lake. These outcrops of
-gray granite and syenite are principally of two
-different shapes, the hog’s back and the turret. The
-former usually appears as a low lumpy dome of various
-dimensions; here a few feet long, there extending a mile
-and a half in diameter: the outer coat scales off under
-the action of the atmosphere, and in places it is worn
-away by a network of paths. The turret is a more
-picturesque and changing feature. Tall rounded
-blocks and conical or cylindrical boulders, here single,
-there in piles or ridges, some straight and stiff as giant
-ninepins, others split as if an alley or a gateway passed
-between them, rise abruptly and perpendicularly almost
-without foundationary elevation, cleaving the mould of
-a dead plain, or&mdash;like gypseous formations, in which
-the highest boulders are planted upon the lowest and
-broadest bases&mdash;they bristle upon a wave of dwarfish
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-285">[285]</span>
-rocky hill. One when struck was observed to give
-forth a metallic clink, and not a few, balanced upon
-points, reminded me of the tradition-bearing rocking
-stones. At a distance in the forest, the larger masses
-might be mistaken for Cyclopean walls, towers, steeples,
-minarets, loggans, dwelling houses, and ruined castles.
-They are often overgrown with a soft grass, which
-decaying, forms with the degradation of the granite a
-thin cap of soil; their summits are crowned with tufty
-cactus, a stomatiferous plant which imbibes nourishment
-from the oxygen of the air; whilst huge creepers,
-imitating trees, project gnarled trunks from the deeper
-crevices in their flanks. Seen through the forest these
-rocks are an effective feature in the landscape, especially
-when the sunbeams fall warm and bright upon
-their rounded summits and their smooth sides, here
-clothed with a mildew-like lichen of the tenderest leek-green,
-there yellowed like Italian marbles by the burning
-rays, and there streaked with a shining black as if
-glazed by the rain, which, collecting in cupfuls upon the
-steps and slopes, at times overflows, coursing in mimic
-cataracts down the heights.</p>
-
-<p>That march was a severe trial; we had started at dawn,
-we did not, however, arrive at the Mabunguru Fiumara
-before noon, and our people straggled in about eveningtide.
-All our bullet-moulds, and three boxes of ammunition,
-were lost. Said bin Salim, the Jemadar, and
-three other men had followed in the rear, driving on the
-“One-Eyed Fiend,” which, after many a prank, lay down
-upon the ground, and positively declined to move. The
-escort, disliking the sun, abandoned it at once to its fate,
-and want of provisions, and the inordinate length of
-the marches, rendered a halt or a return for the valuable
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-286">[286]</span>
-load&mdash;four boxes of ammunition&mdash;out of the question.
-An article once abandoned in these deserts is rarely
-if ever recovered; the caravan-porters will not halt,
-and a small party dares not return to recover it.</p>
-
-<p>The 22nd October saw us at Jiwe la Mkoa, the half-way-house
-of Mgunda Mk’hali. The track, crossing the
-rough Mabunguru Fiumara, passed over rolling ground
-through a thorny jungle that gradually thinned out into
-a forest; about 8 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> a halt was called at a water in
-the wilderness. My companion being no longer able to
-advance on foot, an ass was unloaded, and its burden
-of ammunition was divided, for facility of porterage,
-amongst the sons of Ramji. After noon we resumed
-our march, and the Kirangozi, derided by the rival
-guide of the Coast-Arabs’ caravan, and urged forward
-by Kidogo, who was burning to see his wife and children
-in Unyamwezi, determined to “put himself at the head
-of himself.” The jungle seemed interminable. The
-shadows of the hills lengthened out upon the plains, the
-sun sank in the glory of purple, crimson, and gold, and
-the crescent-moon rained a flood of silvery light upon
-the topmost twig-work of the trees; we passed a dwarf
-clearing, where lodging and perhaps provisions were to
-be obtained, and we sped by water near the road where
-the frogs were chanting their vesper-hymn; still far,&mdash;far
-ahead we heard the horns and the faint march-cries of
-the porters. At length, towards the end of the march,
-we wound round a fantastic mass of cactus-clad
-boulders, and crossing a low ridge we found at its base
-a single Tembe or square village of emigrant Wakimbu,
-who refused to admit us. The little basin beyond it
-displayed, by “black jacks” and felled tree-trunks,
-evidences of modern industry, and it extended to the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-287">[287]</span>
-Jiwe or Rock, which gives its name to the clearing. We
-were cheered by the sight of the red fires glaring in the
-Kraal, but my companion’s ass, probably frightened by
-some wild beast to us invisible, reared high in the air,
-bucked like a deer, broke his frail Arab girths, and
-threw his invalid rider heavily upon the hard earth.
-Arrived at the Kraal, I found every boothy occupied by
-the porters, who refused shelter until dragged out like
-slaughtered sheep. Said bin Salim’s awning was as
-usual snugly pitched; ours still lay on the ground.
-The little Arab’s “duty to himself” appeared to attain
-a higher limit every stage; once comfortably housed, he
-never thought of offering cover to another, and his
-children knew him too well even to volunteer such
-a service to any one but himself. On a late occasion,
-when our tent had not appeared, Said bin Salim, to
-whom a message had been sent, refused to lend us one
-half of the awning committed to him, a piece of canvas
-cut out to serve as a tent and lug-sail. Bombay then
-distinguished himself by the memorable words,&mdash;“If
-you are not ashamed of your master, be ashamed of his
-servant!” which had the effect of bringing the awning
-and of making Said bin Salim testily refuse the half
-returned to him.</p>
-
-<p>Jiwe la Mkoa, or the Round Rock, is the largest
-of the many hogs’-backs of grey syenite that stud
-this waste. It measures about two miles in extreme
-diameter, and the dome rises with a gentle slope
-to the height of 200 or 300 feet above the dead level of
-the plain. Tolerable water is found in pits upon a
-swamp at its southern base, and well covered Mtego or
-elephant traps, deep grave-like excavations, like the
-Indian “Ogi,” prove dangerous to travellers; in one of
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-288">[288]</span>
-these the Jemadar disappeared suddenly, as if by magic.
-The smooth and rounded surface of the rock displays
-deep hoof-shaped holes, which in a Moslem land would
-at once be recognised as the Asr, or the footprints of
-those holy quadrupeds, Duldul or Zu’l Jenah. In places
-the Jiwe, overgrown with scattered tufts of white grass,
-and based upon a dusty surface blackened by torrent
-rains, forcibly suggested to the Baloch the idea of an
-elderly negro’s purbald poll.</p>
-
-<p>We encamped close to the Jiwe, and in so doing we did
-wrong: however pleasant may be the shadow of a tall
-rock in a thirsty land by day, way-wise travellers avoid
-the vicinity of stones which, by diminished radiation,
-retain their heat throughout the night. All caravans
-passing through this clearing clamour to be supplied
-with provisions; our porters, who, having received
-rations for eight days, which they consumed in four,
-were no exceptions to the rule. As the single little
-village of Jiwe la Mkoa could afford but one goatskin
-of grain and a few fowls, the cattle not being for
-sale, and no calves having been born to the herds, the
-porters proposed to send a party with cloth and beads
-to collect provaunt from the neighbouring settlements.
-But the notable Khalfan bin Khamis, the most energetic
-of the Coast-Arabs in whose company we were travelling,
-would brook no delay: he had issued as usual
-three days’ rations for a long week’s march, and thus
-by driving his porters beyond their speed, he practised a
-style of economy usually categorised by us at home as
-“penny-wise and pound-foolish.” His marching was
-conducted upon the same principle; determining to save
-time, he pushed on till his men began to flag, presently
-broke down, and finally deserted.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-289">[289]</span></p>
-
-<p>At Jiwe la Mkoa the neck of the desert is broken:
-the western portion of Mgunda Mk’hali has already
-thinned out. On the 23rd October, despite the long
-march of the preceding day, Khalfan proposed a Tirikeza,
-declaring that the heavy nimbus from the west,
-accompanied by a pleasant cold, portended rain, and
-that this rain, like the “Choti Barsat” of India, announces
-the approach of the great Masika, or vernal wet
-season. Yielding to his reasons, we crossed the “Round
-Rock,” and passing through an open forest of tall trees,
-with here and there an undulating break, now yellow
-with quartz, then black with humus, we reached, after
-about three hours, another clearing like Jiwe la Mkoa,
-which owes its origin to the requirements of commerce.
-“Kirurumo” boasted of several newly built Tembe
-of Wakimbu, who supplied caravans at an exorbitant
-rate. The blackness of the ground, and the vivid
-green of vegetation, evidenced the proximity of water.
-The potable element was found in pits, sunk in a narrow
-nullah running northwards across the clearing; it was
-muddy and abundant. On the next day the road led
-through a thin forest of thorns and gums, which, bare
-of bush and underwood, afforded a broad path and
-pleasant, easy travelling. Sign of elephant and rhinoceros,
-giraffe and antelope, crossed the path, and as
-usual in such places, the asses were tormented by the
-Tzetze. After travelling four hours and thirty minutes,
-we reached a new settlement upon the western frontier
-of Uganzi, called “Jiweni,” “near the stones,” from
-the heaps of block and boulder scattered round pits of
-good water, sunk about three feet in the ground. The
-Mongo Nullah, a deep surface-drain, bisects this clearing,
-which is palpably modern. Many of the trees are
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-290">[290]</span>
-barked previous to felling, and others have fallen prostrate,
-apparently from the depredations of the white
-ant. On the 25th, after another desert march of
-2 hrs. 20′ through a flat country, where the forest
-was somewhat deformed by bush and brake, which
-in places narrowed the path to a mere goat-track,
-we arrived at the third quarter of Mgunda Mk’hali.
-“Mgongo T’hembo,” or the Elephant’s Back, derives
-its name from a long narrow ridge of chocolate-coloured
-syenite, outcropping from the low forest lands around
-it; the crest of the chain is composed of loose rocks
-and large detached boulders. Like the other inhabited
-portions of Mgunda Mk’hali, it is a recent clearing;
-numerous “black-jacks,” felled trees, and pollarded
-stumps still cumber the fields. The “Elephant’s Back”
-is, however, more extensive and better cultivated than
-any of its neighbours,&mdash;Mdáburu alone excepted,&mdash;and
-water being abundant and near the surface,
-it supports an increasing population of mixed Wakimbu
-and Wataturu, who dwell in large substantial
-Tembe, and live by selling their surplus holcus, maize, and
-fowls to travellers. They do not, like the Wakimbu of
-Jiwe la Mkoa, refuse entrance to their villages, but they
-receive the stranger with the usual niggard guest-rites of
-the slave-path, and African-like, they think only of what
-is to be gained by hospitality. Here I halted for a day to
-recruit and to lay in rations. The length of the stages
-had told upon the men; Bombay had stumped himself,
-several of the sons of Ramji, and two of Said bin
-Salim’s children were unable to walk; the asses, throwing
-themselves upon the ground, required to be raised with
-the stick, and all preferred rest even to food. Mboni,
-one of the sons of Ramji, carried off a slave girl from
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-291">[291]</span>
-the camp of the Coast-Arabs; her proprietor came armed
-to recover her, swords were drawn, a prodigious clash
-and clatter of tongue arose, friends interfered, and
-blades were sheathed. Khalfan bin Khamis, losing all
-patience at this delay, bade us adieu, promising to announce
-our approach at Unyanyembe; about a week
-afterwards, however, we found him in most melancholy
-plight, halted half-way, because his over-worked porters
-had taken “French leave.”</p>
-
-<p>We resumed our march on the 27th October, and
-after a slow and painful progress for seven hours over
-a rolling country, whose soil was now yellow with argile,
-then white with felspar, then black-brown with humus,
-through thorny bush, and forest here opening out,
-there densely closing in, we arrived at the “Tura Nullah,”
-the deepest of the many surface drains winding
-tortuously to the S. W. The trees lining the margin
-were of the noblest dimensions; the tall thick grass that
-hedged them in showed signs of extensive conflagration,
-and water was found in shallow pools and in deep pits
-beneath the banks, on the side to which the stream,
-which must be furious during the rainy season, swings.
-When halted in a clear place in the jungle, we were
-passed by a down caravan of Wanyamwezi; our porters
-shouted and rushed up to greet their friends, the men
-raised their right hands about a dozen times, and then
-clapped palm to palm, and the women indulged in
-“vigelegele,” the African “lulliloo,” which rang like
-breech-loaders in our ears.</p>
-
-<p>On the next day we set out betimes through the
-forest, which, as usual when nearing populous settlements,
-spread out, and which began at this season to
-show a preponderance of green over brown. Presently
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-292">[292]</span>
-we reached a large expanse of yellow stover where the
-van had halted, in order that the caravan might make
-its first appearance with dignity. Ensued a clearing,
-studded with large stockaded villages, peering over tall
-hedges of dark green milk-bush, fields of maize and millet,
-manioc, gourds, and water-melons, and showing numerous
-flocks and herds, clustering around the shallow pits.
-The people swarmed from their abodes, young and old
-hustling one another for a better stare; the man forsook
-his loom and the girl her hoe, and for the remainder
-of the march we were escorted by a tail of screaming
-boys and shouting adults; the males almost nude, the
-women, bare to the waist and clothed only knee-deep in
-kilts, accompanied us, puffing pipes the while, with
-wallets of withered or flabby flesh flapping the air,
-striking their hoes with stones, crying “Beads! beads!”
-and ejaculating their wonder in strident explosions of
-“Hi! hi!&mdash;Hui! ih!” and “Ha!&mdash;a!&mdash;a!” It was a
-spectacle to make an anchorite of a man,&mdash;it was at
-once ludicrous and disgusting.</p>
-
-<p>At length the Kirangozi fluttered his red flag in the
-wind, and the drums, horns, and larynxes of his followers
-began the fearful uproar which introduces a
-caravan to the admiring “natives.” Leading the way,
-our guide, much to my surprise,&mdash;I knew not then that
-such was the immemorial custom of Unyamwezi,&mdash;entered
-uninvited and sans ceremony the nearest large
-village; the long string of porters flocked in with bag and
-baggage, and we followed their example. The guests
-at once dispersed themselves through the several courts
-and compounds into which the interior hollow was divided,
-and lodged themselves with as much regard for
-self and disregard for their grumbling hosts as possible.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-293">[293]</span>
-We were placed under a wall-less roof, bounded on one
-side by the bars of the village palisade, and the mob of
-starers that relieved one another from morning till night
-made me feel like the denizen of a menagerie.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-294">[294]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w40em" id="Illoi-13">
-<img src="images/i_illo322.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">Usagara Mountains, seen from Ugogo.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. IX.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">THE GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF UGOGO,&mdash;THE THIRD REGION.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">The third division of the country visited is a flat table-land
-extending from the Ugogi “Dhun,” or valley, at the
-western base of the Wasagara Mountains, in E. long.
-36° 14′, to Tura, the eastern district of Unyamwezi, in E.
-long. 33° 57′; occupying a diagonal breadth of 155 geographical
-rectilinear miles. The length from north to
-south is not so easily estimated. The Wahumba and
-the Wataturu in the former, and the Wahehe and
-Warori in the latter direction, are migratory tribes that
-spurn a civilised frontier; according to the Arabs, however,
-the Wagogo extend three long marches on an
-average to the north and four or five southwards. This,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-295">[295]</span>
-assuming the march at 15 miles, would give a total of
-120. The average of the heights observed is 3,650 feet,
-with a gradual rise westwards to Jiwe la Mkoa, which
-attains an altitude of 4,200 feet(?).</p>
-
-<p>The third region, situated to leeward of a range
-whose height compels the south-east trades to part with
-their load of vapours, and distant from the succession
-of inland seas, which, stationed near the centre of the
-African continent, act as reservoirs to restore the
-balance of humidity, is an arid, sterile land, a counterpart,
-in many places, of the Kalahari and the Karroo,
-or South African desert-plains. The general aspect is
-a glaring yellow flat, darkened by long growths of
-acrid, saline, and succulent plants, thorny bush, and
-stunted trees, and the colouring is monotonous in the
-extreme. It is sprinkled with isolated dwarf cones
-bristling with rocks and boulders, from whose interstices
-springs a thin forest of gums, thorns, and mimosas.
-The power of igneous agency is displayed in protruding
-masses of granitic formation, which rise from the dead
-level with little foundationary elevation; and the masses
-of sandstone, superincumbent upon the primitive base
-in other parts of the country, here disappear. On the
-north rises the long tabular range of the Wahumba
-Hills, separated by a line of lower ground from the plateau.
-Southwards, a plain, imperceptibly shelving, trends
-towards the Rwaha River. There are no rivers in Ugogo:
-the periodical rains are carried off by large nullahs,
-whose clay banks are split and cut during the season of
-potent heat into polygonal figures like piles of columnar
-basalt. On the sparkling nitrous salinas and the dull-yellow
-or dun-coloured plains the mirage faintly resembles
-the effects of refraction in desert Arabia. The roads
-are mere foot-tracks worn through the fields and bushes.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-296">[296]</span>
-The kraals are small dirty circles enclosing a calabash
-or other tree, against which goods are stacked. The
-boothies are made of dried canes and stubble, surrounded
-by a most efficient <i>chevaux de frise</i> of thorn-boughs.
-At the end of the dry season they are burnt down by
-inevitable accident. The want of wood prevents their
-being made solidly, and for the same reason “bois de
-vache” is the usual fuel of the country.</p>
-
-<p>The formation of the subsoil is mostly sandstone
-bearing a ruddy sand. The surface is in rare places a
-brown vegetable humus, extending but a few inches in
-depth, or more generally a hard yellow-reddish ferruginous
-clay covered with quartz nodules of many colours,
-and lumps of carbonate of lime, or white and siliceous
-sand, rather resembling a well-metalled road or an
-“untidy expanse of gravel-walk” than the rich moulds
-which belong to the fertile African belt. In many parts
-are conical anthills of pale red earth; in others ironstone
-crops out of the plain; and everywhere fine and
-coarse grits abound. The land is in parts condemned
-to perpetual drought, and nowhere is water either good
-or plentiful. It is found in the serpentine beds of nullahs,
-and after rain in ziwa, vleys, tanks, pools, or ponds,
-filled by a gentle gravitation, and retained by a strong
-clay, in deep pits excavated by the people, or in shallow
-holes “crowed” in the ground. The supplies of this
-necessary divide the country into three great districts.
-On the east is Marenga Mk’hali, a thick bush, where a
-few villages, avoided by travellers, are scattered north
-and south of the road. The heart of the region is
-Ugogo, the most populous and the best cultivated
-country, divided into a number of small and carefully
-cultivated clearings by tracts of dense bush and timberless
-woods, a wall of verdure during the rains, and in
-the hot season a system of thorns and broomwork which
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-297">[297]</span>
-serves merely to impede a free circulation of the air.
-These seams of waste land appear strange in a country
-populated of old; the Arabs, however, declare that the land
-is more thinly inhabited than it used to be. Mgunda
-Mk’hali, the western division, is a thin forest and a heap
-of brakey jungle. The few hills are thickly clothed
-with vegetation, probably because they retain more
-moisture than the plains.</p>
-
-<p>The climate of Ugogo is markedly arid. During the
-transit of the Expedition in September and October,
-the best water-colours faded and hardened in their pans;
-India-rubber, especially the prepared article in squares,
-became viscid, like half-dried birdlime; “Macintosh”
-was sticking plaister, and the best vulcanized elastic-bands
-tore like brown paper. During almost the whole
-year a violent east-wind sweeps from the mountains.
-There are great changes in the temperature, whilst the
-weather apparently remains the same, and alternate
-currents of hot and cold air were observed. In the long
-summer the climate much resembles that of Sindh;
-there are the same fiery suns playing upon the naked
-surface with a painful dazzle, cool crisp nights, and
-clouds of dust. The succulent vegetation is shrivelled
-up and carbonised by heat, and the crackling covering
-of clayey earth and thin sand, whose particles are unbound
-by dew or rain, rises in lofty whirling columns
-like water-spouts when the north wind from the Wahumba
-Hills meets the gusts of Usagara, which are
-soon heated to a furnace-breath by the glowing surface.
-These “p’hepo” or “devils” scour the plain with the
-rapidity of horsemen, and, charged with coarse grain
-and small pebbles, strike with the violence of heavy
-hail. The siccity and repercussion of heat produce an
-atmosphere of peculiar brilliancy in Ugogo: the milky
-haze of the coast-climate is here unknown. The sowing
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-298">[298]</span>
-season, at which time also trees begin to bud and birds
-to breed, is about the period of the sun’s greatest
-southern declination, and the diminution of temperature
-displays in these regions the effects of the tepid
-winds and the warm vernal showers of the European
-continent. There is no Vuli, and thus the
-climate is unrefreshed by the copious tropical rains.
-About the middle of November the country is visited
-by a few preliminary showers, accompanied by a violent
-tramontana, and the vital principle which appears
-extinct starts once more into sudden and excessive
-activity. Towards the end of December the Masika, or
-rainy season, commences with the wind shifting from
-the east to the north and north-east, blowing steadily
-from the high grounds eastward and westward of the
-Nyanza Lake, which have been saturated by heavy falls
-beginning in September. The “winter” seldom exceeds
-the third month, and the downfall is desultory
-and uncertain, causing frequent droughts and famine.
-For this reason the land is much inferior in fertility to
-the other regions, and the cotton and tobacco, which
-flourish from the coast to the Tanganyika Lake, are
-deficient in Ugogo, whilst rice is supplanted by the
-rugged sorghum and maize.</p>
-
-<p>Arab and other travellers unaccustomed to the
-country at first suffer from the climate, which must
-not, however, be condemned. They complain of the
-tourbillons, the swarms of flies, and the violent changes
-from burning heat to piercing cold, which is always experienced
-in that region when the thermometer sinks
-below 60°-55° F. Their thin tents, pitched under a
-ragged calabash, cannot mitigate the ardour of an unclouded
-sun; the salt-bitter water, whose nitrous and saline
-deposits sometimes tarnish a silver ring like the
-fumes of sulphur, affects their health; whilst the appetite,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-299">[299]</span>
-stimulated by a purer atmosphere and the coolness of the
-night air, is kept within due bounds only by deficiency
-in the means of satisfying it. Those who have
-seen Africa further west, are profuse in their praises of
-the climate on their return-march from the interior.
-The mukunguru, or seasoning fever, however, rarely
-fails to attack strangers. It is, like that of the second
-region, a violent bilious attack, whose consequences are
-sleeplessness, debility, and severe headaches: the hot fit
-compared with the algid stage is unusually long and rigorous.
-In some districts the parexia is rarely followed
-by the relieving perspiration; and when natural diaphoresis
-appears, it by no means denotes the termination
-of the paroxysm. Other diseases are rare, and the terrible
-ulcerations of K’hutu and Eastern Usagara are almost
-unknown in Ugogo. There is little doubt that the land,
-if it afforded good shelter, purified water, and regular
-diet, would be eminently wholesome.</p>
-
-<p>In the uninviting landscape a tufty, straggling grass,
-like living hay, often raised on little mounds, with bald
-places between, thinly strewed with bits of quartz and
-sandstone, replaces the tall luxuriant herbage of the
-maritime plain, and the arboraceous and frutescent
-produce of the mountains. The dryness of the climate,
-and the poverty of the soil, are displayed in the larger
-vegetation. The only tree of considerable growth is
-the calabash, and it is scattered over the country widely
-apart. A variety of frankincense overspreads the
-ground; the bark is a deep burnished bronze, whitened
-above with an incrustation, probably nitrous, that resembles
-hoar-frost; and the long woody twigs are
-bleached by the falling off of the outer integuments.
-The mukl or bdellium tree rises like a dwarf calabash
-from a low copse. The Arabs declare this produce of
-Ugogo (<i>Balsamodendron Africanum?</i>), to be of good
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-300">[300]</span>
-quality. Rubbed upon a stone and mixed with water
-it is applied with a pledget of cotton to sluggish and
-purulent sores; and women use it for fumigation.
-The Africans ignore its qualities, and the Baloch,
-though well acquainted with the bdellium, gugal, or
-guggur, in their own country, did not observe it in
-Ugogo. The succulent plants, cactus, aloe, and
-euphorbia, will not burn; the air within them expands
-with heat, and the juices gushing out extinguish the
-flame. Amongst various salsolæ, or saltworts, the shrub
-called by the Arabs arak, the Capparis Sodata of Sindh
-and Arabia, with its currant-like bunches of fruit,
-is conspicuous for its evergreen verdure; the ragged
-and stunted mtungulu rains its apples upon the ground;
-and the mbembu, in places sheltered from the sun, bears
-a kind of medlar which is eagerly sought by the hungry
-traveller. The euphorbiæ here rise to the height of
-35 or 40 feet, and the hard woody stem throws out a
-mass of naked arms, in the shape of a huge cap, impervious
-to the midday sun.</p>
-
-<p>Wild animals abound through these jungles, and the
-spoor lasts long upon the crisp gravelly soil. In some
-districts they visit by night the raised clay water-troughs
-of the cultivators. The elephant prefers the thick jungle,
-where he can wallow in the pools and feed delicately
-upon succulent roots and fruits, bark, and leaves. The
-rhinoceros loves the dark clumps of trees, which guard
-him from the noonday sun, and whence he can sally out
-all unexpected upon the assailant. The mbogo, or Bos
-Caffer, driven from his favourite spots, low grassy plains
-bordering on streams, wanders, like the giraffe, through
-the thinner forests. As in Unyamwezi, the roar of the
-lion strikes the ear by night, and the cry of the ostrich by
-day. The lion upon this line of Eastern Africa is often
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-301">[301]</span>
-heard, but rarely seen; on only two occasions its footprints
-appeared upon the road. The king of beasts,
-according to the Arabs, is of moderate stature: it
-seldom attains its maximum of strength, stature, and
-courage, except in plain countries where game abounds, as
-in the lands north of the Cape, or in hills and mountains,
-where cattle can be lifted at discretion, as in Northern
-Africa. In Unyamwezi its spoils, which are yellow,
-like those of the Arab lion, with a long mane, said to
-hang over the eyes, and with a whitish tinge under the
-jaws, become the property of the Sultan. The animal is
-more common in the high lands of Karagwah than in the
-low countries; it has, however, attacked the mbogo, or
-wild bull, and has destroyed cattle within sight of the
-Arabs at Kazeh in Unyanyembe. The lion is rarely a
-man-eater; this peculiarity, according to some writers,
-being confined to old beasts, whose worn teeth are unfit
-for fight.</p>
-
-<p>The “polygamous bird” was first observed on the
-Ugogo plateau; it extends through Unyamwezi and
-Usukuma to Ujiji. The eggs are sold, sometimes fresh,
-but more generally stale. Emptied and dried, they
-form the principal circulating-medium between the
-Arab merchants and the coffee-growing races near the
-Nyanza Lake, who cut them up and grind them into
-ornamental disks and crescents. The young birds are
-caught, but are rarely tamed. In Usukuma the bright
-and glossy feathers of the old male are much esteemed
-for adorning the hair; yet, curious to say, the bird is
-seldom hunted. Moreover, these East Africans have
-never attempted to export the feathers, which, when
-white and uninjured, are sold, even by the Somal, for 8
-dollars per lb. The birds are at once wild and stupid,
-timid and headstrong: their lengthened strides and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-302">[302]</span>
-backward glances announce terror at the sight of man,
-and it is impossible to stalk them in the open grounds,
-which they prefer. The leopard and the cynhyæna, the
-koodoo and the different species of antelope, are more
-frequently killed in these deserts than in any other part
-of the line. Hog of reddish colour, and hares with
-rufous fur, are sometimes started by caravans. The
-hyrax of the Somali country basks upon the rocks and
-boulders, and the carapace of a small land-turtle, called
-khasa, fastened to a branch, serves as a road-sign. The
-k’hwalu, a small green parrot, with yellow shoulders,
-the upupa or hoopoe, a great variety of fly-catchers,
-larks with jet-black heads and yellow bodies, small
-bustards, hornbills, nightjars, muscicapæ, green pigeons,
-sparrow-hawks, and small doves, are seen in every
-jungle. Near the settlements the white-necked raven
-and the common chíl of India (Falco cheela), attest the
-presence of man, as the monkey does the proximity of
-water. The nest of the loxia swings to and fro in the
-fierce simoom; the black Bataleur eagle of Somaliland, a
-splendid bird, towering shily in the air, with his light
-under-plume gleaming like a silver plate, and large vultures
-(condors?) flocking from afar, denote the position
-of a dead or dying animal.</p>
-
-<p>Until late years the Wagogo, being more numerous
-than they are now, deterred travellers from traversing
-their country: in those early days the road to Unyamwezi,
-running along the left or northern bank of the
-Rwaha, through the Warori tribe, struck off near
-Usanga and Usenga. It is related, when the first caravan,
-led by Jumah Mfumbi, the late Diwan of Saadani,
-entered Ugogo, that the people, penetrated with admiration
-of his corpulence, after many experiments to
-find out whether it was real or not, determined that he
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-303">[303]</span>
-was and must be the Deity. Moreover, after coming to
-this satisfactory conclusion, they resolved that, being
-the Deity, he could improve their country by heavy
-rains; and when he protested against both these resolutions,
-they proposed to put him to death. A succession
-of opportune showers, however, released him. By degrees
-the ever-increasing insolence and violence of the Warori
-drove travellers to this northern line, and the Wagogo
-learned to see strangers without displaying this Lybian
-mania for sacrificing them.</p>
-
-<p>Three main roads, leading from Western Usagara
-westward, cross the Desert of Marenga Mk’hali. The
-most northern is called Yá Nyiká&mdash;of the wilderness&mdash;a
-misnomer, if the assertion of the guides be correct that
-it is well watered, and peopled by the subjects of eight
-sultans. The central line, described in the preceding
-pages, is called, from its middle station, Marenga
-Mk’hali: it is invariably preferred when water is scarce.
-The southern road is termed Nyá Ngáhá, a continuation
-of the Kiringwana route, previously alluded to: it has
-provisions, but the people cause much trouble.</p>
-
-<p>The superiority of climate, and probably the absence
-of that luxuriant vegetation which distinguishes the
-eastern region, have proved favourable to the physical
-development of the races living in and about Ugogo.
-The Wagogo, and their northern neighbours the Wahumba,
-are at once distinguishable from the wretched
-population of the alluvial valleys, and of the mountains
-of Usagara; though living in lower altitudes, they are a
-fairer race&mdash;and therefore show better blood&mdash;than the
-Wanyamwezi. These two tribes, whose distinctness
-is established by difference of dialect, will be described
-in order.</p>
-
-<p>The Wagogo extend from the landward base of Usagara
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-304">[304]</span>
-in direct distance to Mdáburu a five days’ march:
-on the north they are bounded by the Watáturu, on the
-south by the Wabena tribes; the breadth of their country
-is computed at about eight stages. In the north,
-however, they are mingled with the Wahumba, in the
-south-east with the Wahehe, and in the south with the
-Warori.</p>
-
-<p>The Wagogo display the variety of complexion usually
-seen amongst slave-purchasing races: many of them are
-fair as Abyssinians; some are black as negroes. In the
-eastern and northern settlements they are a fine, stout,
-and light-complexioned race. Their main peculiarity
-is the smallness of the cranium compared with the
-broad circumference of the face at and below the
-zygomata: seen from behind the appearance is that of a
-small half-bowl fitted upon one of considerably larger
-bias; and this, with the widely-extended ears, gives
-a remarkable expression to the face. Nowhere in
-Eastern Africa is the lobe so distended. Pieces of cane
-an inch or two in length, and nearly double the girth
-of a man’s finger, are so disposed that they appear like
-handles to the owner’s head. The distinctive mark of
-the tribe is the absence of the two lower incisors; but
-they are more generally recognised by the unnatural
-enlargement of their ears&mdash;in Eastern Africa the “aures
-perforatæ” are the signs, not of slavery, but of freedom.
-There is no regular tattoo, though some of the women
-have two parallel lines running from below the bosom
-down the abdomen, and the men often extract only a
-single lower incisor. The hair is sometimes shaved clean,
-at others grown in mop-shape&mdash;more generally it is
-dressed in a mass of tresses, as amongst the Egyptians,
-and the skin, as well as the large bunch of corkscrews,
-freely stained with ochre and micaceous earths, drips
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-305">[305]</span>
-with ghee, the pride of rank and beauty. The Wagogo
-are not an uncomely race: some of the younger women
-might even lay claim to prettiness. The upper part of
-the face is often fine, but the lips are ever thick, and
-the mouth coarse; similarly the body is well formed to
-the haunches, but the lean calf is placed peculiarly
-high up the leg. The expression of the countenance,
-even in the women, is wild and angry; and the round
-eyes are often reddened and bleared by drink. The
-voice is strong, strident, and commanding.</p>
-
-<p>Their superiority of clothing gives the Wagogo, when
-compared with the Wasagara or the Wanyamwezi, an
-aspect of civilisation; a skin garment is here as rare as
-a cotton farther west. Even the children are generally
-clad. The attire of the men is usually some Arab
-check or dyed Indian cotton: many also wear sandals
-of single hide. Married women are clothed in “cloths
-with names,” when wealthy, and in domestics when poor.
-The dress of the maidens under puberty is the languti
-of Hindostan, a kind of T-bandage, with the front ends
-depending to the knees; it is supported by a single or
-double string of the large blue glass-beads called Sungomaji.
-A piece of coarse cotton cloth two yards long,
-and a few inches broad, is fastened to the girdle
-behind, and passing under the fork, is drawn tightly
-through the waistbelt in front; from the zone the lappet
-hangs mid-down to the shins, and when the wearer
-is in rapid motion it has a most peculiar appearance.
-The ornaments of both sexes are kitindi, and
-bracelets and anklets of thick iron and brass-wires,
-necklaces of brass chains, disks and armlets of fine
-ivory, the principal source of their wealth, and bands
-of hide-strip with long hair, bound round the wrists,
-above the elbows, and below the knees: they value
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-306">[306]</span>
-only the highest priced beads, coral and pink porcelains.
-As usual the males appear armed. Some import
-from Unyamwezi and the westward regions the
-long double-edged knife called sime, a “serviceable
-dudgeon” used in combat or in peaceful avocations,
-like the snick-an-snee of the ancient Dutch. Shields
-are unknown. The bow is long: the handle and the
-horns are often adorned with plates of tin and zinc, and
-the string is whipped round the extremities for strength.
-The spear resembles that used by the Wanyamwezi in the
-elephant-hunt: it is about four feet long, and the head is
-connected with a stout wooden handle by an iron neck
-measuring half the length of the weapon. In eastern
-Ugogo, where the Masai are near, the Wagogo have
-adopted their huge shovel-headed spears and daggers,
-like those of the Somal. It is the fashion for men to
-appear in public with the peculiar bill-hook used in
-Usagara; and in the fields the women work with the
-large hoe of Unyamwezi.</p>
-
-<p>The villages of the Wagogo are square Tembe, low
-and mean-looking for want of timber. The outer walls
-are thin poles, planted in the ground and puddled with
-mud. The huts, partitioned off like ships’ bunks, are
-exceedingly dirty, being shared by the domestic animals,
-dogs, and goats. They are scantily furnished with a
-small stool, a cot of cow’s hide stretched to a small
-framework, a mortar for grain, and sundry gourds
-and bark corn-bins. About sunset all the population
-retires, and the doors are carefully barricaded for fear
-of the plundering Wahumba. At night it is dangerous
-to approach the villages.</p>
-
-<p>The language of Ugogo is harsher than the dialects
-spoken by their eastern and western neighbours. In the
-eastern parts the people understand the Masai tongue.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-307">[307]</span>
-Many can converse fluently in the Kisawahili, or coast-tongue.
-The people, however, despise all strangers
-except the Warori and the Wahumba, and distinguish
-the Wanyamwezi by the name of Wakonongo, which
-they also apply to travellers in general. Within the
-memory of man one Kafuke, of Unyamwezi, a great
-merchant, and a Mtongi or caravan leader, when traversing
-Ugogo with some thousands of followers, became
-involved in a quarrel about paying for water. After
-fifteen days of skirmishing, the leader was slain and the
-party was dispersed. The effect on both tribes has
-lasted to the present day. After the death of Kafuke
-no rain fell for some years&mdash;a phenomenon attributed
-by the Wagogo to his powers of magic; and the land
-was almost depopulated. The Wanyamwezi, on the
-other hand, have never from that time crossed the
-country without fear and trembling. In the many wars
-between the two tribes the Wagogo have generally
-proved themselves the better men. This superiority
-has induced a brawling and bullying manner. They
-call themselves Wáná Wádege, or sons of birds&mdash;that
-is to say, semper parati. The Wanyamwezi studiously
-avoid offending them; and the porters will obey the
-command of a boy rather than risk an encounter. “He
-is a Mgogo,” said before the Bobadil’s face, makes him
-feel himself forty times a man; yet he will fly in terror
-before one of the Warori or the Wahumba.</p>
-
-<p>The strength of the Wagogo lies in their comparative
-numbers. As the people seldom travel to the coast,
-their scattered villages are full of fighting men. Moreover,
-Uchawi or black magic here numbers few believers,
-consequently those drones of the social hive,
-the Waganga, or medicine-men, are not numerous.
-The Wagogo seldom sell their children and relations,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-308">[308]</span>
-yet there is no order against the practice. They barter
-for slaves their salt and ivory, the principal produce of
-the country. No caravan ever passes through the
-country without investing capital in the salt-bitter substance
-which is gathered in flakes efflorescing; from the
-dried mud upon the surface of the Mbuga, or swampy
-hollows; the best and the cheapest is found in the
-district of Kanyenye. It is washed to clear it of dirt,
-boiled till it crystallises, spread upon clean and smoothed
-ground, and moulded with the hands into rude cones
-about half a foot in length, which are bought at
-the rate of 7-10 for a Shukkah, and are sold at a
-high premium after a few days’ march. Ugogo supplies
-western Usagara and the eastern regions of Unyamwezi
-with this article. It is, however, far inferior to
-the produce of the Rusugi pits, in Uvinza, which, on
-account of its “sweetness,” finds its way throughout
-the centre of Africa. Elephants are numerous in the
-country: every forest is filled with deep traps, and
-during droughthy seasons many are found dead in the
-jungle. The country is divided into districts; the
-tusks become the property of the Sultan within whose
-boundaries the animal falls, and the meat is divided
-amongst his subjects. Ivory is given in barter for slaves:
-this practice assures to caravans a hold upon the people,
-who, having an active commerce with the coast, cannot
-afford to be shut out from it. The Wagogo are so greedy
-of serviles that every gang leaves among them some of its
-live stock&mdash;the principal want of the listless and indolent
-cultivator. The wild captives bought in the interior,
-wayworn and fond of change, are persuaded by a word to
-desert; they take the first opportunity of slipping away
-from their masters, generally stealing a weapon and a
-little cloth or rations for immediate use. Their new
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-309">[309]</span>
-masters send them off the road lest they should be
-recognised and claimed: after a time a large hoe is
-placed in their hands, and the fools feel, when too late,
-that they have exchanged an easy for a hard life. The
-Wagogo sell their fellow tribe-men only when convicted of
-magic; though sometimes parents, when in distress, part
-with their children. The same is the case amongst
-their northern neighbours, the Wamasai, the Wahumba,
-and the Wakwafi, who, however, are rarely in the
-market, and who, when there, though remarkable for
-strength and intelligence, are little prized, in consequence
-of their obstinate and untameable characters;&mdash;many
-of them would rather die under the stick
-than level themselves with women by using a hoe.</p>
-
-<p>The Wagogo are celebrated as thieves who will, like
-the Wahehe, rob even during the day. They are importunate
-beggars, who specify their long list of wants
-without stint or shame; their principal demand is tobacco,
-which does not grow in the land; and they resemble the
-Somal, who never sight a stranger without stretching
-out the hand for “Bori.” The men are idle and debauched,
-spending their days in unbroken crapulence
-and drunkenness, whilst the girls and women hoe the
-fields, and the boys tend the flocks and herds. They
-mix honey with their pombe, or beer, and each man
-provides entertainment for his neighbours in turn.
-After midday it would be difficult throughout the
-country to find a chief without the thick voice, fiery
-eyes, and moidered manners, which prove that he is
-either drinking or drunk.</p>
-
-<p>The Arabs declaim against the Wagogo as a “curst,”
-ill-conditioned and boisterous, a violent and extortionate
-race. They have certainly no idea of manners: they
-flock into a stranger’s tent, squat before him, staring
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-310">[310]</span>
-till their curiosity is satisfied, and unmercifully quizzing
-his peculiarities. Upon the road a mob of both sexes will
-press and follow a caravan for miles. The women, carrying
-their babes in leopard-skins bound behind the back,
-and with unveiled bosoms, stand or run, fiercely shouting
-with the excitement of delight, and the girls laugh and
-deride the stranger as impudently as boys would in more
-modest lands. Yet, as has been said, this curiosity argues
-to a certain extent improvability; the most degraded
-tribes are too apathetic to be roused by strange sights.
-Moreover, the Wagogo are not deficient in rude hospitality.
-A stranger is always greeted with the “Yambo”
-salutation. He is not driven from their doors, as
-amongst the Wazaramo and Wasagara; and he is readily
-taken into brotherhood. The host places the stool for
-his guests, seating himself on the ground: he prepares
-a meal of milk and porridge, and on parting presents,
-if he can afford it, a goat or a cow. The African
-“Fundi” or “Fattori” of caravans are rarely sober in
-Ugogo. The women are well disposed towards strangers
-of fair complexion, apparently with the permission of
-their husbands. According to the Arabs, the husband
-of the daughter is also <i>de jure</i> the lover of her mother.</p>
-
-<p>The Sultan amongst the Wagogo is called Mtemi, a
-high title. He exercises great authority, and is held in
-such esteem by his people, that a stranger daring to
-possess the same name would be liable to chastisement.
-The ministers, who are generally brothers or blood-relations,
-are known as Wázágíra (in the singular Mzágírá),
-and the councillors, who are the elders and the
-honourables of the tribe, take the Kinyamwezi title
-“Wányápárá.”</p>
-
-<p>The necessaries of life are dear in Ugogo. The people
-will rarely barter their sheep, goats, and cows for plain
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-311">[311]</span>
-white or blue cottons, and even in exchange for milk
-they demand coral, pink, or blue glass beads. A moderate
-sized caravan will expend from six to ten shukkah
-per diem. The Wanyamwezi travelling-parties
-live by their old iron hoes, for which grain is returned
-by the people, who hold the metal in request.</p>
-
-<p>The Wahumba, by some called Wahumpa, is one of
-the terrible pastoral nations “beyond the rivers of
-Æthiopia.” To judge from their dialect they are, like
-the Wakwafi, a tribe or a subtribe of the great Masai
-race, who speak a language partly South-African and
-partly Semitico-African, like that of the Somal. The
-habitat of the Wahumba extends from the north of
-Usagara to the eastern shores of the Nyanza or Ukerewe
-Lake; it has been remarked that a branch of the Mukondokwa
-River rises in their mountains. The blue
-highlands occupied by this pastoral race, clearly visible,
-on the right hand, to the traveller passing from Ugogo
-westwards, show where the ancient route from Pangani-town
-used to fall into the main trunk-road of Unyamwezi.
-Having but little ivory, they are seldom visited by
-travellers: their country, however, was explored some
-years ago by an Arab merchant, Hamid bin Salim, for
-the purpose of buying asses. He set out from Tura, in
-eastern Unyamwezi, and, traversing the country of the
-wild Watatúru, arrived on the eighth day at the frontier
-district I´ramba, where there is a river which separates
-the tribes. He was received with civility; but
-none have since followed his example.</p>
-
-<p>The Wahumba are a fair and comely race, with the
-appearance of mountaineers, long-legged, and lightly
-made. They have repeatedly ravaged the lands of
-Usagara and Ugogo: in the latter country, near
-Usek’he, there are several settlements of this people,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-312">[312]</span>
-who have exchanged the hide-tent for the hut, and the
-skin for the cotton-cloth. They stain their garments
-with ochreish earth, and their women are distinguished
-by wearing Kitindi of full and half-size above and below
-the elbows. The ear lobes are pierced and distended
-by both sexes, as amongst the Wagogo. In their own
-land they are purely pastoral; they grow no grain,
-despise vegetable food, and subsist entirely upon meat
-or milk according to the season. Their habitations
-are hemispheres of boughs lashed together and roofed
-with a cow’s hide; it is the primitive dwelling-place,
-and the legs of the occupant protrude beyond the
-shelter. Their arms, which are ever hung up close at
-hand, are broad-headed spears of soft iron, long “Sine,”
-or double-edged daggers, with ribbed wooden handles
-fastened to the blade by a strip of cow’s tail shrunk on,
-and “Rungu,” or wooden knob-kerries, with double
-bulges that weight the weapon as it whirls through the
-air. They ignore and apparently despise the bow and
-arrows, but in battle they carry the Pavoise, or large
-hide-shield, affected by the Kafirs of the Cape. The
-Arabs, when in force, do not fear their attacks.</p>
-
-<p>The Wahumba, like their congeners the Wakwafi,
-bandage the infant’s leg from ankle to knee, and the
-ligature is not removed till the child can stand upright.
-Its object is to prevent the development of the calf,
-which, according to their physiology, diminishes the
-speed and endurance of the runner. The specimens of
-Wahumba seen in different parts of Ugogo showed the
-soleus and gastrocnemeius muscles remarkably shrunken,
-and the projection of the leg rising close below the knee.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="container" id="Illoi-6">
-<img src="images/i_illo342.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">VIEW IN UNYAMWEZI.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-313">[313]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w30em" id="Illoi-14">
-<img src="images/i_illo343.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">Ladies’ Smoking Party.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. X.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">WE ENTER UNYAMWEZI, THE FAR-FAMED LAND OF THE MOON.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">The district of Tura, though now held, like Jiwe la
-Mkoa and Mgongo T’hembo, by Wakimbu, is considered
-the eastern frontier of Unyamwezi proper, which claims
-superiority over the minor neighbouring tribes. Some,
-however, extend the “land of the moon” eastward as
-far as Jiwe la Mkoa, and the porters when entering the
-“Fiery Field,” declare that they are setting foot upon
-their own ground. The word “Tura,” pronounced by
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-314">[314]</span>
-the Wanyamwezi “Tula” or “Itula,” means “put
-down!” (scil. your pack): as the traveller, whether
-from the east or from the west, will inevitably be delayed
-for some days at this border settlement. Tula is
-situated in S. lat. 5° 2′ and E. long. 33° 57′, and
-the country rises 4,000 feet above sea level. After the
-gloomy and monotonous brown jungles and thorn
-forests of Mgunda Mk’hali, whose sinuous line of thick
-jungle still girds the northern horizon, the fair champaign,
-bounded on either hand by low rolling and
-rounded hills of primary formation, with a succession of
-villages and many a field of holcus and sesamum, maize,
-millet, and other cereals, of manioc and gourds, water
-melons and various pulses, delights the sight, and
-appears to the African traveller a Land of Promise.</p>
-
-<p>The pertinacious Kidogo pressed me to advance, declaring
-the Wakimbu of Tura to be a dangerous race:
-they appeared however a timid and ignoble people,
-dripping with castor and sesamum oil, and scantily
-attired in shreds of unclean cotton or greasy goat-skins.
-At Tura the last of the thirty asses bought at
-Zanzibar paid the debt of nature, leaving us, besides
-the one belonging to the Jemadar, but three African
-animals purchased on the road. A few extra porters
-were therefore engaged. Our people, after the
-discomforts of the bivouac, found the unsavoury village
-a perfect paradise; they began somewhat prematurely
-to beg for Bakhshish, and Muinyi Wazira requested
-dismissal on the plea that a slave sent by him on a
-trading-expedition into the interior had, by dying, endangered
-the safety of the venture. On the morning of
-the 30th October Kidogo led us over the plain through
-cultivation and villages to another large settlement on
-the western outskirt of the Tura district. As I disappointed
-him in his hopes of a Tirikeza, he passed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-315">[315]</span>
-the night in another Tembe, which was occupied by the
-caravans of Coast-Arabs and their slave girls, to one of
-whom, said Scan. Mag., he had lost his heart, and he
-punished me by halting through the next day. As we
-neared the end of the journey the sons of Ramji
-became more restive under their light loads; their dignity
-was hurt by shouldering a pack, and day after day,
-till I felt weary of life, they left their burdens upon
-the ground. However, on the 1st November, they so
-far recovered temper that the caravan was able to
-cross the thin jungle, based upon a glaring white soil,
-which divides the Tura from the Rubuga District.
-After a march of 6 hrs. and 30′, we halted on the
-banks of the Kwale or “Partridge” Nullah, where,
-though late in the season, we found several long pools
-of water. The porters collected edible bivalves and
-caught a quantity of mud-fish by the “rough and ready”
-African process, a waist-cloth tied to a pair of sticks,
-and used by two men as a drag-net. At Rubuga,
-which we reached in 5 hrs. and 45′, marching over
-a plain of black earth, thinly garnished with grass
-and thorn-trees, and then through clearings overgrown
-with stubble, I was visited by an Arab merchant,
-Abdullah bin Jumah, who, with a flying-caravan, had
-left Konduchi on the coast 2 months and 20 days
-after our departure. According to him his caravan had
-lately marched thirty miles in the twenty-four hours:
-it was the greatest distance accomplished in these regions;
-but the Arabs are fond of exaggeration, the
-party was small and composed of lightly laden men,
-and moreover it required two days’ rest after so unusual
-an exertion. This merchant unwittingly explained a
-something which had puzzled me; whenever an advance
-beyond Unyanyembe had been made the theme of conversation,
-Said bin Salim’s countenance fell, and he
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-316">[316]</span>
-dropped dark hints touching patience and the power of
-Allah to make things easy. Abdullah rendered the expression
-intelligible by asking me if I considered the
-caravan strong enough to dare the dangers of the road&mdash;which
-he grossly exaggerated&mdash;between Unyamwezi-Land
-and Ujiji. I replied that I did, and that even if
-I did not, such bugbears should not cause delay; Abdullah
-smiled, but was too polite to tell me that he did
-not believe me.</p>
-
-<p>A “doux marcher” of 2 hrs. 40′ on the 3rd
-November, led us to the western limit of the Rubuga
-District. During the usual morning-halt under
-a clump of shady milk-bush, I was addressed by
-Maura or Maula, the Sultan of a large neighbouring
-village of Wanyamwezi: being a civilised man and a
-coast-traveller, he could not allow the caravan of the
-“Wazungu” to pass his quarters without presenting to
-him a bullock, and extracting from him a little cloth.
-Like most chiefs in the “Land of the Moon,” he was a
-large-limbed, gaunt, angular, tall old man, with a black
-oily skin, seamed with wrinkles; and long wiry pigtails
-thickened with grease, melted butter, and castor-oil, depending
-from the sides of his purbald head. His dress&mdash;an
-old Barsati round the loins, and a grimy Subai
-loosely thrown over the shoulders&mdash;was redolent of
-boiled frankincense; his ankles were concealed by a
-foot depth of brass and copper “Sambo,” thin wires
-twisted round a little bundle of elephant’s, buffalo’s,
-or zebra’s hair; and he wore single-soled sandals,
-decorated with four disks of white shell, about the size
-of a crown-piece, bound to the thongs that passed between
-the toes and girt the heel. He recognised the
-Baloch, greeted all kindly, led the way to his village,
-ordered lodgings to be cleared and cleaned, caused the
-cartels or bedsteads,&mdash;the first seen by us for many
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-317">[317]</span>
-months,&mdash;to be vacated, and left us to look for a bullock.
-At the village door I had remarked a rude attempt at
-fashioning a block of wood into what was palpably intended
-for a form human and feminine; the Moslems of
-course pronounced it to be an idol, but the people declared
-that they paid no respect to it. They said the
-same concerning the crosses and the serpent-like ornaments
-of white ashes&mdash;in this land lime is unknown&mdash;with
-which the brown walls of their houses were decorated.</p>
-
-<p>We made bonne chère at Rubuga, which is celebrated
-for its milk and meat, ghee and honey. On the wayside
-were numerous hives, the Mazinga or “cannons,”
-before described; here however they were raised out of
-the reach of the ants, white and black, upon a pair of
-short forked supports, instead of being suspended from
-the branches of a tall tree. My companion brought
-from a neighbouring swamp a fine Egyptian, or ruddy
-goose, and a brace of crane-like water-fowl: these the
-Wanyamwezi porters, expecting beef, disdained, because
-rejected by the Baloch, yet at Inenge they had picked
-the carcase of a way-spent ass. Presently we were
-presented by the Sultan with one of the fattest of his
-fine bulls; it was indeed</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“A grazier’s without and a butcher’s within;”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">withal, so violent and unmanageable that no man could
-approach, much less secure it: it rushed about the village
-like a wild buffalo, scattering the people, who all
-fled except the Sultan, till it was stopped dead in a
-most determined charge, with a couple of rifle-bullets,
-by my companion. In return, Maula received a crimson
-cloth and two domestics, after which he begged for
-everything, including percussion caps, for which he had
-no gun. He appeared most anxious to detain the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-318">[318]</span>
-caravan, and in the evening his carefully concealed
-reasons leaked out&mdash;he wanted me to cure his son of
-fever, and to “put the colophon” upon a neighbouring
-hostile chief. At 8 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, I was aroused by my gun-carrier,
-Mabruki, who handed to me my Ferrara, and
-by the Baloch Riza, who reported that the palisade
-was surrounded by a host of raging blacks. I went
-out into the village, where the guard was running about
-in a state of excitement which robbed them of their
-wits, and I saw a long dark line of men sitting silently
-and peaceably, though armed for fight, outside the
-strong stockade. Having caused our cloth to be safely
-housed, and given orders to be awakened if work began,
-I returned to the hut, determined to take leave of Sultan
-Maura and his quarrels on the next day.</p>
-
-<p>The porters were all gorged with beef, and three
-were “stale-drunk” with the consequences of pombe;
-yet so anxious were they rendered by the gathering
-clouds, and the spitting showers to reach their homes
-before the setting in of the “sowing rains,” that my task
-was now rather to restrain than to stimulate their ardour:
-the moon was resplendent, and had I wished it, they
-would have set out at midnight. On the 4th November
-we passed through another jungle-patch, to a village in
-the fertile slopes of Ukona, where the Cannabis and the
-Datura, with its large fetid flowers, disputed the ground
-with brinjalls and castor-plants, holcus and panicum:
-tobacco grew luxuriantly, and cotton-plots, carefully
-hedged round against the cattle, afforded material for
-the loom, which now appeared in every village.</p>
-
-<p>On the next day, we passed out of the fertile slopes
-of Ukona, and traversed an open wavy country,
-streaked with a thin forest of Mimosa, the Mtogwe or
-wood-apple, and a large quadrangular cactus. Beyond
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-319">[319]</span>
-this point, a tract of swampy low level led to the
-third district of Eastern Unyamwezi, called Kigwa, or
-Mkigwa. We found quarters in a Tembe which was
-half-burned and partly pulled down, to be re-erected.</p>
-
-<p>The 6th November saw us betimes in the ill-omened
-Forest, that divided us from the Unyanyembe district;
-it is a thin growth of gum-trees, mimosas, and bauhinias,
-with tiers, earth-waves, and long rolling lines of tawny-yellow
-hill&mdash;mantled with umbrella-shaped trees, and
-sometimes capped with blocks and boulders&mdash;extending
-to a considerable distance on both sides. The Sultan
-of Kigwa, one Manwa, has taken an active part in the
-many robberies and murders which have rendered this
-forest a place of terror, and the Arabs have hitherto
-confined themselves to threats, though a single merchant
-complains that his slave-caravans have at different
-times lost fifty loads of cloth. Manwa is aided
-and counselled by Mansur, a Coast-Arab, who, horse-whipped
-out of the society of his countrymen at Kazeh,
-for drunken and disorderly conduct, has become a
-notorious traitor. Here also Msimbira, a Sultan of
-the Wasukuma, or Northern Wanyamwezi, who has an
-old and burning hatred against the Arabs, sends his
-plundering parties. On the 6th November the Baloch
-set out at 1 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, we followed at 2.15 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>: they had been
-prevented from obtaining beads on false pretences, consequently
-they showed temper, and determined to deny
-their escort. Their beards were now in my hand, they could
-neither desert nor refuse to proceed, but they desired
-to do me a harm, and they did it. During the transit
-of the forest, an old porter having imprudently lagged
-behind, was clubbed and cruelly bruised by three black
-Mohawks, who relieved him of his load, a leathern portmanteau,
-containing clothes, umbrellas, books, ink, journals,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-320">[320]</span>
-and botanical collections. I afterwards heard that
-the highwaymen had divided their spoils in the forest, and
-that separating into two parties, they had taken the route
-homewards. On the way, however, they were seized by
-a plundering expedition sent by Kitambi, the Sultan of
-Uyuwwi, a district half a day’s march <span class="smcapall">N.E.</span> from Kazeh.
-The delict was flagrant; the head of one robber at once
-decorated the main entrance of Kitambi’s village, but the
-other two escaped Jeddart-justice with their share of the
-plunder to his mortal enemy Msimbira. A present of a
-scarlet waistcoat and four domestics recovered our clothes
-from Kitambi; but Msimbira, threatening all the penalties
-of sorcery, abused, plundered, and expelled Masud
-ibn Musallam el Wardi, an old Arab merchant, sent to
-him from Unyanyembe for the purpose of recovering
-the books, journals, and collections. The perpetual
-risk of loss discourages the traveller in these lands;
-he never knows at what moment papers which have
-cost him months of toil may be scattered to the winds.
-As regards collections, future explorers are advised
-to abandon the hope of making them on the march upwards,
-reserving their labour for the more leisurely
-return. The precautions with which I prefaced our
-down-march may not be useless as suggestions. My
-field and sketch-books were entrusted to an Arab merchant,
-who preceded me to Zanzibar; they ran no
-other danger except from the carelesness of the Consul
-who, unfortunately for me, succeeded Lieut.-Col.
-Hamerton. My companion’s maps, papers, and instruments,
-were committed to a heavy “petarah,” a deal-box
-with pent-lid and hide-bound as a defence against
-rain, to be carried “Mziga-ziga,” as the phrase is&mdash;suspended
-on a pole between the two porters least likely
-to desert. I loaded one of the sons of Ramji with
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-321">[321]</span>
-an enamelled leathern bag, converted from a dressing-case
-into a protection for writing and sketching materials;
-and a shooting-bag, hung during the march over
-the shoulders of Nasiri, a Coast-Arab youth engaged as
-ass-leader at Unyanyembe, contained my vocabularies,
-ephemeris, and drawing-books.</p>
-
-<p>Considering the conduct of the escort, I congratulated
-myself upon having passed through the Kigwa forest
-without other accident. Two or three days after our
-arrival at Kazeh several loads of beads were plundered
-from a caravan belonging to Abdullah bin Salih.
-Shortly afterwards Msimbira sent a large foraging
-party with a view to cutting off the road: they allowed
-themselves to be surprised during sleep by Mpagamo’s
-men, who slew twenty-five of their number and dispersed
-the rest. This accident, however, did not cure
-their propensity for pillage; on our return-march, when
-halted at a village west of the Kigwa forest, a body of
-slaves passed us in hot haste and sore tribulation: they
-had that day been relieved by bandits of all their packs.</p>
-
-<p>Passing from the Kigwa forest and entering the rice-lands
-of the Unyanyembe district we found quarters&mdash;a
-vile cow-house&mdash;in a large dirty village called Hanga.
-The aspect of the land became prepossessing: the route
-lay along a valley bisected by a little rivulet of sweet
-water, whose course was marked by a vivid leek-green
-line; the slopes were bright with golden stubble upon a
-surface of well-hoed field, while to the north and south
-ran low and broken cones of granite blocks and slabs,
-here naked, there clothed from base to brow with dwarf
-parasol-shaped trees, and cactaceæ of gigantic size.</p>
-
-<p>From this foul village I was urged by Kidogo to conclude
-by a tirikeza the last stage that separated the
-caravan from Kazeh in Unyanyembe, the place which he
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-322">[322]</span>
-and all around him had apparently fixed as the final
-bourne of the exploration. But the firmament seemed on
-fire, the porters were fagged, and we felt feverish,
-briefly, an afternoon’s march was not judged advisable.
-To temper, however, the wind of refusal, I served out
-to each of the sons of Ramji five rounds of powder
-for blowing away on entering the Arab head-quarters.
-All of course had that private store which the Arabs
-call “El Akibah”&mdash;the ending; it is generally stolen
-from the master and concealed for emergencies with
-cunning care. They had declared their horns to be
-empty, and said Kidogo, “Every pedlar fires guns here&mdash;shall
-a great man creep into his Tembe without a soul
-knowing it?”</p>
-
-<p>On the 7th November, 1857,&mdash;the 134th day from
-the date of our leaving the coast&mdash;after marching at
-least 600 miles, we prepared to enter Kazeh, the principal
-Bandari of Eastern Unyamwezi, and the capital village
-of the Omani merchants. We left Hanga at dawn.
-The Baloch were clothed in that one fine suit without
-which the Eastern man rarely travels: after a few displays
-the dress will be repacked, and finally disposed of
-in barter for slaves. About 8 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, we halted for stragglers
-at a little village, and when the line of porters becoming
-compact began to wriggle, snake-like, its long
-length over the plain, with floating flags, booming horns,
-muskets ringing like saluting mortars, and an uproar of
-voice which nearly drowned the other noises, we made
-a truly splendid and majestic first appearance. The
-road was lined with people who attempted to vie with
-us in volume and variety of sound: all had donned
-their best attire, and with such luxury my eyes had
-been long unfamiliar. Advancing I saw several Arabs
-standing by the wayside, they gave the Moslem salutation
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-323">[323]</span>
-and courteously accompanied me for some distance.
-Amongst them were the principal merchants, Snay bin
-Amir, Said bin Majid, a young and handsome Omani of
-noble tribe, Muhinna bin Sulayman, who, despite elephantiasis,
-marched every year into Central Africa, and
-Said bin Ali el Hinawi, whose short, spare, but well-knit
-frame, pale face, small features, snowy beard, and bald
-head, surmounted by a red fez, made him the type of
-an Arab old man.</p>
-
-<p>I had directed Said bin Salim to march the caravan
-to the Tembe kindly placed at my disposal by Isá bin
-Hijji, and the Arabs met at Inenge. The Kirangozi
-and the porters, however, led us on by mistake (?) to the
-house of “Musa Mzuri”&mdash;handsome Moses&mdash;an Indian
-merchant settled at Unyanyembe for whom I bore an introductory
-letter, graciously given by H. H. the Sayyid
-Majid of Zanzibar. As Musa was then absent on a
-trading-journey to Karagwah, his agent, Snay bin Amir,
-a Harisi Arab, came forward to perform the guest-rites,
-and led me to the vacant house of Abayd bin Sulayman
-who had lately returned to Zanzibar.</p>
-
-<p>After allowing me, as is the custom, a day to rest and
-to dismiss the porters, who at once separated to their
-homes, all the Arab merchants, then about a dozen,
-made the first ceremonious call, and to them was officially
-submitted the circular addressed by the Prince
-of Zanzibar to his subjects resident in the African
-interior. Contrary to the predictions of others, nothing
-could be more encouraging than the reception experienced
-from the Omani Arabs; striking, indeed, was
-the contrast between the open-handed hospitality and
-the hearty good-will of this truly noble race, and the
-niggardness of the savage and selfish African&mdash;it was
-heart of flesh after heart of stone. A goat and a load
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-324">[324]</span>
-of the fine white rice grown in the country were the
-normal prelude to a visit and to offers of service which
-proved something more than a mere <i>vox et præterea nihil</i>.
-Whatever I alluded to, onions, plantains, limes, vegetables,
-tamarind-cakes, coffee from Karagwah, and
-similar articles, only to be found amongst the Arabs,
-were sent at once, and the very name of payment would
-have been an insult. Snay bin Amir, determining to
-surpass all others in generosity, sent two goats to us
-and two bullocks to the Baloch and the sons of Ramji:
-sixteen years before, he had begun life a confectioner
-at Maskat, and now he had risen to be one of the
-wealthiest ivory and slave-dealers in Eastern Africa.
-As his health forbade him to travel he had become a
-general agent at Kazeh, where he had built a village
-containing his store-houses and his depôts of cloth
-and beads, slaves and ivory. I have to acknowledge
-many an obligation to him. Having received a “wakalat-namah,”
-or “power of attorney” he enlisted
-porters for the caravan to Ujiji. He warehoused my
-goods, he disposed of my extra stores, and, finally, he
-superintended my preparations for the down-march.
-During two long halts at Kazeh he never failed, except
-through sickness, to pass the evening with me, and from
-his instructive and varied conversation was derived not
-a little of the information contained in the following
-pages. He had travelled three times between Unyamwezi
-and the coast, besides navigating the great Lake
-Tanganyika and visiting the northern kingdoms of Karagwah
-and Uganda. He first entered the country about
-fifteen years ago, when the line of traffic ended at
-Usanga and Usenga, and he was as familiar with the
-languages, the religion, the manners, and the ethnology
-of the African, as with those of his natal Oman. He
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-325">[325]</span>
-was a middle-aged man with somewhat of the Quixotic
-appearance, high-featured, sharp and sunken-eyed,
-almost beardless, light-coloured, tall, gaunt, and large-limbed.
-He had read much, and, like an oriental, for
-improvement, not only for amusement: he had a wonderful
-memory, fine perceptions and passing power of
-language. Finally, he was the stuff of which friends
-are made; brave as all his race, prudent withal, ready
-to perish for the “Pundonor,” and,&mdash;such is not often
-the case in the East,&mdash;he was as honest as he was
-honourable.</p>
-
-<p>Before proceeding with the thread of my narrative,
-the reader is requested to bear with the following few
-lines upon the subject of Unyanyembe.</p>
-
-<p>Unyanyembe, the central and principal province of
-Unyamwezi, is, like Zungomero in Khutu, the great
-Bandari or meeting-place of merchants, and the point of
-departure for caravans which thence radiate into the
-interior of Central Intertropical Africa. Here the Arab
-merchant from Zanzibar meets his compatriot returning
-from the Tanganyika Lake and from Uruwwa. Northwards
-well-travelled lines diverge to the Nyanza Lake,
-and the powerful kingdoms of Karagwah, Uganda, and
-Unyoro; from the south Urori and Ubena, Usanga and
-Usenga, send their ivory and slaves; and from the south-west
-the Rukwa Water, K’hokoro, Ufipa, and Marungu
-must barter their valuables for cottons, wires, and beads.
-The central position and the comparative safety of Unyanyembe
-have made it the head-quarters of the Omani
-or pure Arabs, who, in many cases, settle here for years,
-remaining in charge of their depôts, whilst their factors
-and slaves travel about the country and collect the
-items of traffic. At Unyanyembe the merchants expect
-some delay. The porters, whether hired upon
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-326">[326]</span>
-the coast or at the Tanganyika Lake, here disperse, and
-a fresh gang must be collected&mdash;no easy task when the
-sowing season draws nigh.</p>
-
-<p>Unyanyembe, which rises about 3480 feet above sea-level,
-and lies 356 miles in rectilinear distance from the
-eastern coast of Africa, resembles in its physical features
-the lands about Tura. The plain or basin of Ihárá, or
-Kwihárá, a word synonymous with the “Bondei” or
-low-land of the coast, is bounded on the north and
-south by low, rolling hills, which converge towards the
-west, where, with the characteristically irregular lay of
-primitive formations, they are crossed almost at right
-angles by the Mfuto chain. The position has been imprudently
-chosen by the Arabs; the land suffers from
-alternate drought and floods, which render the climate
-markedly malarious. The soil is aluminous in the low
-levels&mdash;a fertile plain of brown earth, with a subsoil of
-sand and sandstone, from eight to twelve feet below the
-surface; the water is often impregnated with iron, and
-the higher grounds are uninhabited tracts covered with
-bulky granite-boulders, bushy trees, and thorny shrubs.</p>
-
-<p>Contrary to what might be expected this “Bandari-district”
-contains villages and hamlets, but nothing that
-can properly be termed a town. The Mtemi or Sultan
-Fundikira, the most powerful of the Wanyamwezi chiefs,
-inhabits a Tembe, or square settlement, called “Ititenya,”
-on the western slope of the southern hills. A little
-colony of Arab merchants has four large houses at a
-neighbouring place, “Mawiti.” In the centre of the
-plain lies “Kazeh,” another scattered collection of six
-large hollow oblongs, with central courts, garden-plots,
-store-rooms, and outhouses for the slaves. Around these
-nuclei cluster native villages&mdash;masses of Wanyamwezi
-hovels, which bear the names of their founders.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-327">[327]</span></p>
-
-<p>This part of Unyanyembe was first colonised about
-1852, when the Arabs who had been settled nearly ten
-years at Kigandu of P’huge, a district of Usukuma,
-one long day’s march north of Kazeh, were induced by
-Mpagamo, to aid them against Msimbira, a rival chief,
-who defeated and drove them from their former seats.
-The details of this event were supplied by an actor in
-the scenes; they well illustrate the futility of the
-people. The Arabs, after five or six days of skirmishing,
-were upon the point of carrying the boma or
-palisade of Msimbira, their enemy, when suddenly at
-night their slaves, tired of eating beef and raw ground-nuts,
-secretly deserted to a man. The masters awaking
-in the morning found themselves alone, and made up
-their minds for annihilation. Fortunately for them,
-the enemy, suspecting an ambuscade, remained behind
-their walls, and allowed the merchants to retire without
-an attempt to cut them off. Their employer, Mpagamo,
-then professed himself unable to defend them; when,
-deeming themselves insecure, they abandoned his territory.
-Snay bin Amir and Musa Mzuri, the Indian,
-settled at Kazeh, then a desert, built houses, sunk wells,
-and converted it into a populous place.</p>
-
-<p>It is difficult to average the present number of Arab
-merchants at Unyanyembe who, like the British in
-India, visit but do not colonise; they rarely, however,
-exceed twenty-five in number; and during the travelling
-season, or when a campaign is necessary, they
-are sometimes reduced to three or four; they are too
-strong to yield without fighting, and are not strong
-enough to fight with success. Whenever the people
-have mustered courage to try a fall with the strangers,
-they have been encouraged to try again. Hitherto
-the merchants have been on friendly terms with Fundikira,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-328">[328]</span>
-the chief. Their position, however, though
-partly held by force of prestige, is precarious. They
-are all Arabs from Oman, with one solitary exception,
-Musa Mzuri, an Indian Kojah, who is perhaps
-in these days the earliest explorer of Unyamwezi. In
-July, 1858, an Arab merchant, Silim bin Masud, returning
-from Kazeh to his home at Msene, with a slave-porter
-carrying a load of cloth, was, though well armed
-and feared as a good shot, attacked at a water in a strip
-of jungle westward of Mfuto, and speared in the back
-by five men, who were afterwards proved to be subjects
-of the Sultan Kasanyare, a Mvinza. The Arabs organised
-a small expedition to revenge the murder,
-marched out with 200 or 300 slave-musketeers, devoured
-all the grain and poultry in the country, and
-returned to their homes without striking a blow, because
-each merchant-militant wished his fellows to
-guarantee his goods or his life for the usual diyat, or
-blood-money, 800 dollars. This impunity of crime will
-probably lead to other outrages.</p>
-
-<p>The Arabs live comfortably, and even splendidly, at
-Unyanyembe. The houses, though single-storied, are
-large, substantial, and capable of defence. Their gardens
-are extensive and well planted; they receive regular
-supplies of merchandise, comforts, and luxuries from
-the coast; they are surrounded by troops of concubines
-and slaves, whom they train to divers crafts and callings:
-rich men have riding-asses from Zanzibar, and
-even the poorest keep flocks and herds. At Unyanyembe,
-as at Msene, and sometimes at Ujiji, there are
-itinerant fundi, or slave-artisans&mdash;blacksmiths, tinkers,
-masons, carpenters, tailors, potters, and rope-makers,&mdash;who
-come up from the coast with Arab caravans.
-These men demand exorbitant wages. A broken
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-329">[329]</span>
-matchlock can be repaired, and even bullets cast;
-good cord is purchaseable; and for tinning a set of
-seventeen pots and plates five shukkah merkani are
-charged. A pair of Arab stirrups are made up for one
-shukkah besides the material, and chains for animals at
-about double the price. Fetters and padlocks, however,
-are usually imported by caravans. Pack-saddles are
-brought from Zanzibar: in caravans a man may sometimes
-be found to make them. There is, moreover,
-generally a pauper Arab who for cloth will make up
-a ridge-tent; and as most civilised Orientals can use
-a needle, professional tailors are little required. Provisions
-are cheap and plentiful; the profits are large;
-and the Arab, when wealthy, is disposed to be hospitable
-and convivial. Many of the more prosperous merchants
-support their brethren who have been ruined by the
-chances and accidents of trade. When a stranger appears
-amongst them, he receives the “hishmat l’il
-gharíb,” or the guest-welcome, in the shape of a goat
-and a load of white rice; he is provided with lodgings,
-and is introduced by the host to the rest of the society
-at a general banquet. The Arabs’ great deficiency is
-the want of some man to take the lead. About fifteen
-years ago Abdullah bin Salim, a merchant from Zanzibar,
-with his body of 200 armed slaves, kept the
-whole community in subjection: since his death, in
-1852, the society has suffered from all the effects of disunion
-where union is most required. The Arab, however,
-is even in Africa a Pantisocrat, and his familiarity
-with the inferior races around him leads to the proverbial
-consequences.</p>
-
-<p>The houses of the Arabs are Moslem modifications
-of the African Tembe, somewhat superior in strength
-and finish. The deep and shady outside-verandah,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-330">[330]</span>
-supported by stout uprights, shelters a broad bench of
-raised earthwork, where men sit to enjoy the morning
-cool and the evening serenity, and where they pray,
-converse, and transact their various avocations. A
-portcullis-like door, composed of two massive planks,
-with chains thick as a ship’s cable&mdash;a precaution rendered
-necessary by the presence of wild slaves&mdash;leads
-into the barzah, or vestibule. The only furniture is a
-pair of clay benches extending along the right and left
-sides, with pillow-shaped terminations of the same
-material; over these, when visitors are expected, rush
-mats and rugs are spread. From this barzah a passage,
-built at the angle proper to baffle the stranger’s curiosity,
-leads into the interior, a hollow square or oblong,
-with the several rooms opening upon a courtyard,
-which, when not built round, is completely closed by a
-“liwan”&mdash;a fence of small tree-trunks or reeds. The
-apartments have neither outward doors nor windows:
-small bull’s-eyes admit the air, and act as loop-holes in
-case of need. The principal room on the master’s side
-of the house has a bench of clay, and leads into a dark
-closet where stores and merchandise are placed. There
-are separate lodgings for the harem, and the domestic
-slaves live in barracoons or in their own outhouses.
-This form of Tembe is perhaps the dullest habitation
-ever invented by man. The exterior view is carefully
-removed from sight, and the dull, dirty courtyard, often
-swamped during the rains, is ever before the tenant’s
-eyes; the darkness caused by want of windows painfully
-contrasts with the flood of sunshine pouring in through
-the doors, and at night no number of candles will light
-up its gloomy walls of grey or reddish mud. The
-breeze is either excluded by careless frontage, or the
-high and chilling winds pour in like torrents; the roof
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-331">[331]</span>
-is never water-tight, and the walls and rafters harbour
-hosts of scorpions and spiders, wasps and cockroaches.
-The Arabs, however, will expend their time and trouble
-in building rather than trust their goods in African
-huts, exposed to thieves and to the frequent fires which
-result from barbarous carelessness: everywhere, when a
-long halt is in prospect, they send their slaves for wood
-to the jungle, and superintend the building of a spacious
-Tembe. They neglect, however, an important precaution,
-a sleeping-room raised above the mean level of malaria.</p>
-
-<p>Another drawback to the Arab’s happiness is the
-failure of his constitution: a man who escapes illness
-for two successive months boasts of the immunity; and,
-as in Egypt, no one enjoys robust health. The older
-residents have learned to moderate their appetites.
-They eat but twice a-day&mdash;after sunrise, and at noon&mdash;the
-midday meal concluded, they confine themselves to
-chewing tobacco or the dried coffee of Karagwah. They
-avoid strong meats, especially beef and game, which are
-considered heating and bilious, remaining satisfied with
-light dishes, omelets and pillaus, harísah, firni, and
-curded milk, and the less they eat the more likely they
-are to escape fever. Harisáh, in Kisawahili “boko-boko,”
-is the roast beef&mdash;the <i>plat de résistance</i>&mdash;of the
-Eastern and African Arab. It is a kind of pudding
-made with finely shredded meat, boiled with flour of
-wheat, rice, or holcus, to the consistence of a thick
-paste, and eaten with honey or sugar. Firni, an Indian
-word, is synonymous with the muhallibah of Egypt, a
-thin jelly of milk-and-water, honey, rice-flour, and spices,
-which takes the place of our substantial northern rice-pudding.
-The general health has been improved by the
-importation from the coast of wheat, and a fine white
-rice, instead of the red aborigen of the country, of various
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-332">[332]</span>
-fruits, plantains, limes, and papaws; and of vegetables,
-brinjalls, cucumbers, and tomatos, which relieve
-the indigenous holcus and maize, manioc and sweet-potato,
-millet and phaseoli, sesamum and ground-nuts.
-They declare to having derived great benefit from the
-introduction of onions,&mdash;an antifebral, which flourishes
-better in Central than in Maritime Africa. The onion,
-so thriving in South Africa, rapidly degenerates upon
-the island of Zanzibar into a kind of houseleek. In
-Unyamwezi it is of tolerable size and flavour. It enters
-into a variety of dishes, the most nauseous being probably
-the sugared onion-omelet. In consequence of general
-demand, onions are expensive in the interior; an indigo-dyed
-shukkah will purchase little more than a pound.
-When the bulbs fail, the leaves chopped into thin circles
-and fried in clarified butter with salt, are eaten as
-a relish with meat. They are also inserted into marak
-or soups, to disguise the bitter and rancid taste of
-stale ghee. Onions may be sown at all seasons except
-during the wet monsoon, when they are liable to decay.
-The Washenzi have not yet borrowed this excellent
-and healthy vegetable from the Arabs. Garlic has
-also been tried in Unyanyembe, but with less success;
-moreover, it is considered too heating for daily
-use. As might be expected, however, amongst a floating
-population with many slaves, foreign fruits and
-vegetables are sometimes allowed to die out. Thus
-some enterprising merchant introduced into Unyanyembe
-the date and the mkungu, bidam, or almond-tree
-of the coast: the former, watered once every third
-day, promised to bear fruit, when, in the absence of
-the master, the Wanyamwezi cut up the young shoots
-into walking-sticks. Sugar is imported: the water-wanting
-cane will not thrive in arid Unyanyembe, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-333">[333]</span>
-honey must be used as a succedaneum. Black pepper,
-universally considered cooling by Orientals, is much
-eaten with curry-stuffs and other highly-seasoned
-dishes, whereas the excellent chillies and bird-pepper,
-which here grow wild, are shunned for their heating
-properties. Butter and ghee are made by the wealthy;
-humbler houses buy the article, which is plentiful and
-good, from the Wanyamwezi. Water is the usual
-beverage. Some Arabs drink togwa, a sweet preparation
-of holcus; and others, debauchees, indulge in the
-sour and intoxicating pombe, or small-beer.</p>
-
-<p>The market at Unyanyembe varies greatly according
-to the quantity of the rains. As usual in barbarous
-societies, a dry season, or a few unexpected
-caravans, will raise the prices, even to trebling; and
-the difference of value in grain before and after the
-harvest will be double or half of what it is at par. The
-price of provisions in Unyamwezi has increased inordinately
-since the Arabs have settled in the land. Formerly
-a slave-boy could be purchased for five fundo, or
-fifty strings of beads: the same article would now fetch
-three hundred. A fundo of cheap white porcelain-beads
-would procure a milch cow; and a goat, or ten hens its
-equivalent, was to be bought for one khete. In plentiful
-years Unyanyembe is, however, still the cheapest country
-in East Africa, and, as usual in cheap countries, it
-induces the merchant to spend more than in the dearest.
-Paddy of good quality, when not in demand, sells at
-twenty kayla (120lbs.) for one shukkah of American domestics;
-maize, at twenty-five; and sorghum, here the
-staff of life, when in large stock, at sixty. A fat bullock
-may be bought for four domestics, a cow costs from
-six to twelve, a sheep or a goat from one to two.
-A hen, or its equivalent, four or five eggs, is worth
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-334">[334]</span>
-one khete of coral or pink porcelain beads. One fundo
-of the same will purchase a large bunch of plantains,
-with which máwá or plantain-wine, and siki or vinegar
-are made; and the Wanyamwezi will supply about a
-pint of milk every morning at the rate of one shukkah
-per mensem. A kind of mud-fish is caught by the
-slaves in the frequent pools which, during the cold
-season, dot the course of the Gombe Nullah, lying three
-miles north of Kazeh; and return-caravans often bring
-with them stores of the small fry, called Kashwá or
-Daga’a, from the Tanganyika Lake.</p>
-
-<p>From Unyanyembe twenty marches, which are seldom
-accomplished under twenty-five days, conduct the traveller
-to Ujiji, upon the Tanganyika. Of these the
-fifth station is Msene, the great Bandari of Western
-Unyamwezi. It is usually reached in eight days; and
-the twelfth is the Malagarazi River, the western limit
-of the fourth region.</p>
-
-<p>The traveller, by means of introductory letters to the
-Doyen of the Arab merchants at Kazeh, can always
-recruit his stock of country currency,&mdash;cloth, beads, and
-wire,&mdash;his requirements of powder and ball, and his supply
-of spices, comforts, and drugs, without which travel
-in these lands usually ends fatally. He will pay, it is
-true, about five times their market-value at Zanzibar:
-sugar, for instance, sells at its weight in ivory, or nearly
-one-third more than its weight in beads. But though
-the prices are exorbitant they preserve the buyer from
-greater evils, the expense of porterage, the risk of loss,
-and the trouble and annoyance of personally superintending
-large stores in a land where “vir” and “fur”
-are synonymous terms.</p>
-
-<p>And now comfortably housed within a stone-throw of
-my new friend Shaykh Snay bin Amir, I bade adieu for
-a time to the march, the camp, and the bivouac. Perhaps
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-335">[335]</span>
-the reader may not be unwilling to hear certain details
-concerning the “road and the inn” in Eastern Africa;
-he is familiar from infancy with the Arab Kafilah and
-its host of litters and camels, horses, mules, and asses,
-but the porter-journeys in Eastern Africa have as yet
-escaped the penman’s pen.</p>
-
-<p>Throughout Eastern Africa made roads, the first test
-of progress in a people, are unknown. The most frequented
-routes are foot-tracks like goat-walks, one to
-two spans broad, trodden down during the travelling
-season by man and beast, and during the rains the path
-in African parlance “dies,” that is to say, it is overgrown
-with vegetation. In open and desert places four
-or five lines often run parallel for short distances. In
-jungly countries they are mere tunnels in thorns and
-under branchy trees, which fatigue the porter by catching
-his load. Where fields and villages abound they
-are closed with rough hedges, horizontal tree-trunks, and
-even rude stockades, to prevent trespassing and pilferage.
-Where the land is open, an allowance of one-fifth
-must be made for winding: in closer countries
-this must be increased to two-fifths or to one-half, and
-the traveller must exercise his judgment in distributing
-the marches between these two extremes. In Uzaramo
-and K’hutu the tracks run through tall grasses, which
-are laid by their own weight after rains, and are burned
-down during the hot seasons: they often skirt cultivated
-lands, which they are not allowed to enter, miry swamps
-are spanned, rivers breast-deep, with muddy bottoms and
-steep slippery banks, are forded, whilst deep holes, the
-work of rodents and insects, render them perilous to
-ridden cattle. In Usagara the gradients are surmounted
-either by beds of mountain torrents or by breasting
-steep and stony hills, mere ladders of tree-root and
-loose stones: laden animals frequently cannot ascend
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-336">[336]</span>
-or descend them. The worst paths in this region are
-those which run along the banks of the many streams
-and rivulets, and which traverse the broken and thorny
-ground at the base of the hills. The former are
-“thieves’ roads,” choked with long succulent grass
-springing from slushy mud; the latter are continued
-rises and falls, with a small but ragged and awkward
-watercourse at every bottom. From Usagara to Western
-Unyamwezi the roads lead through thick thorn-jungle,
-and thin forests of trees blazed or barked along the
-track, without hill, but interrupted during the rains by
-swamps and bogs. They are studded with sign-posts,
-broken pots and gourds, horns and skulls of game and
-cattle, imitations of bows and arrows pointing towards
-water, and heads of holcus. Sometimes a young tree
-is bent across the path and provided with a cross-bar;
-here is a rush gateway like the yoke of the ancients, or
-a platform of sleepers supported by upright trunks; there
-a small tree felled and replanted, is tipped with a crescent
-of grass twisted round with bark, and capped with huge
-snail shells, and whatever barbarous imagination may
-suggest. Where many roads meet, those to be avoided
-are barred with a twig or crossed by a line drawn with
-the foot. In Western Uvinza and near Ujiji, the paths
-are truly vile, combining all the disadvantages of bog
-and swamp, river and rivulet, thorn-bush and jungle,
-towering grasses, steep inclines, riddled surface, and
-broken ground. The fords on the whole line are temporary
-as to season, but permanent in place: they are rarely
-more than breast-deep; and they average in dry weather
-a cubit and a half, the fordable medium. There are
-but two streams, the Mgeta and the Ruguvu, which are
-bridged over by trees; both could be forded higher up
-the bed; and on the whole route there is but one river,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-337">[337]</span>
-the Malagarazi, which requires a ferry during the dry
-season. Cross roads abound in the populous regions.
-Where they exist not, the jungle is often impassable,
-except to the elephant and the rhinoceros: a company
-of pioneers would in some places require a week to cut
-their way for a single march through the network
-of thorns and the stockade of rough tree-trunks. The
-directions issued to travellers about drawing off their
-parties for safety at night to rising grounds, will not
-apply to Eastern Africa; it would be far easier to dig
-for themselves abodes under the surface.</p>
-
-<p>It is commonly asserted in the island of Zanzibar
-that there are no caravans in these regions. The dictum
-is true if the term be limited to the hosts of
-camels and mules that traverse the deserts and the
-mountains of Arabia and Persia. It is erroneous if
-applied to a body of men travelling for commercial
-purposes. From time immemorial the Wanyamwezi
-have visited the road to the coast, and though wars and
-blood-feuds may have temporarily closed one line,
-another necessarily opened itself. Amongst a race so
-dependent for comfort and pleasure upon trade, commerce,
-like steam, cannot be compressed beyond a certain
-point. Until a few years ago, when the extension
-of traffic induced the country people to enlist as porters,
-all merchants traversed these regions with servile gangs
-hired on the coast or island of Zanzibar, a custom still
-prevailing on the northern and southern routes from
-the sea-board to the lakes of Nyanza and Nyassa. Porterage,
-on the long and toilsome journey, is now considered
-by the Wanyamwezi a test of manliness, as the
-Englishman deems a pursuit or a profession necessary
-to clear him from the charge of effeminacy. The
-children imbibe the desire with their milk, and at six
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-338">[338]</span>
-or seven years old they carry a little tusk on their
-shoulders&mdash;instinctive porters, as pointer-pups are
-hereditary pointers. By premature toil their shinbones
-are sometimes bowed to the front like those of
-animals too early ridden. “He sits in hut egg-hatching,”
-is their proverbial phrase to express one more
-<span class="nowrap">elegant&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">And they are ever quoting the adage that men who
-travel not are void of understanding&mdash;the African
-equivalent of what was said by the European sage:
-“The world is a great book, of which those who never
-leave home read but a page.” Against this traditional
-tendency reasons of mere hire and rations, though apparently
-weighty, are found wanting. The porter will
-bargain over his engagement to the utmost bead, saying
-that all men are bound to make the best conditions for
-themselves: yet, after two or three months of hard
-labour, if he chance upon a caravan returning to his
-home, a word from a friend, acting upon his innate debility
-of purpose, will prevail upon him to sacrifice by
-desertion all the fruits of his toil. On these occasions
-the porters are carefully watched; open desertion would,
-it is true, be condemned by the general voice, yet no
-merchant can so win the affections of his men that some
-will not at times disappear. Until the gangs have left
-their homes far behind, their presence seems to hang by
-a thread; at the least pretext they pack up their goods
-and vanish in a mass. When approaching their settlements&mdash;at
-the frontier districts of Tura and Mfuto, for
-instance&mdash;their cloth and hire are taken from them,
-packed in the employer’s bales, and guarded by armed
-slaves, especially at night, and on the line of march.
-Yet these precautions frequently fail, and, once beyond
-the camp limits, it is vain to seek the fugitive. In the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-339">[339]</span>
-act of desertion they show intelligence: they seldom
-run away when caravans first meet, lest their employer
-should halt and recover them by main force, and, except
-where thieves and wild beasts are unknown, they
-will not fly by night. The porter, however, has one
-point of honour; he leaves his pack behind him. The
-slave, on the other hand, certainly robs his employer
-when he runs away, and this, together with his unwillingness
-to work and the trouble and annoyance which
-he causes to his owner, counterbalances his superior
-dexterity and intelligence.</p>
-
-<p>Caravans, called in Kisawahili safári (from the Arab
-safar, a journey) and by the African rugendo or lugendo,
-“a going,” are rarely wanting on the main trunk-lines.
-The favourite seasons for the upward-bound are the
-months in which the greater and the lesser Masika or
-tropical rains conclude&mdash;in June and September, for
-instance, on the coast&mdash;when water and provisions are
-plentiful. Those who delay till the dry weather has
-set in must expect hardships on the march; the expense
-of rations will be doubled and trebled, and the
-porters will frequently desert. The down-caravans set
-out in all seasons except the rainy; it is difficult to
-persuade the people of Unyanyembe to leave their fields
-between the months of October and May. They will
-abandon cultivation to the women and children, and
-merrily take the footpath way if laden with their own
-ivory, but from the merchant they will demand exorbitant
-wages, and even then they will hesitate to engage
-themselves.</p>
-
-<p>Porterage varies with every year and in every caravan.
-It knows but two limits: the interest of the
-employer to disburse as little as possible by taking
-every advantage of the necessities of his employé, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-340">[340]</span>
-the desire of the employé to extract as much as he
-can by presuming upon the wants of his employer.
-In some years there is a glut of porters on the coast;
-when they are rare quarrels take place between the
-several settlements, each attempting a monopoly of
-enlistment to the detriment of its neighbours, and a
-little blood is sometimes let. When the Wanyamwezi
-began to carry, they demanded for a journey from
-the coast to their own country six to nine dollars’
-worth of domestics, coloured cloths, brass-wires, and
-the pigeon’s-egg bead called sungomaji. The rate of
-porterage then declined; the increase of traffic, however,
-has of late years greatly increased it. In 1857 it
-was 10 dollars, and it afterwards rose to 12 dollars per
-porter. In this sum rations are not included; the
-value of these&mdash;which by ancient custom are fixed at 1
-kubabah (about 1·5 lbs.) of grain per diem, or, that
-failing, of manioc, sweet potatoes, and similar articles,
-with the present of a bullock at the frontier&mdash;is subject
-to greater variations, and is even less reducible to an
-average than the porter’s pay. It is needless to say
-that the down-journey is less expensive than the up-march,
-as the carriers rely upon a fresh engagement on
-the coast. The usual hire from Unyanyembe would be
-nine cloths, payable on arrival at the sea-port, where
-each is worth 25 cents, or about 1 shilling. The Arabs
-roughly calculate&mdash;the errors balancing one another&mdash;that,
-rations included, the hire of a porter from the
-coast to the Tanganyika Lake and back amounts to a
-total of 20 dollars = 4<i>l.</i> 3<i>s.</i> From the coast, Wanyamwezi
-porters will not engage themselves for a
-journey westward of their own country; at Unyanyembe
-they break up, and a fresh gang must be enlisted
-for a march to the Tanganyika or to the Nyanza Lake.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-341">[341]</span>
-It is impossible to average the numbers of an East
-African caravan, which varies from half a dozen to 200
-porters, under a single Mundewa or merchant. In
-dangerous places travellers halt till they form an
-imposing force; 500 is a frequent figure, and even
-bodies of 1000 men are not rare. The only limit to
-the gathering is the incapability of the country to fill
-more than a certain number of mouths. The larger
-caravans, however, are slow and cumbrous, and in places
-they exhaust the provision of water.</p>
-
-<p>Caravans in East Africa are of three kinds. The
-most novel and characteristic are those composed only
-of Wanyamwezi; secondly, are the caravans directed
-and escorted by Wasawahili freemen or fundi (slave
-fattori), commissioned by their patrons; and, lastly,
-those commanded by Arabs.</p>
-
-<p>The porter, called pagazi or fagazi&mdash;the former is
-the African, the latter the ridiculous Arabised form of
-the word&mdash;corresponds with the carregador of West
-Africa. The Wanyamwezi make up large parties of
-men, some carrying their own goods, others hired by
-petty proprietors, who for union and strength elect a
-head Mtongi, Ras Kafilah, or leader. The average
-number of these parties that annually visit the coast is
-far greater than those commanded by stranger-merchants.
-In the Unyamwezi caravan there is no desertion,
-no discontent, and, except in certain spots, little
-delay. The porters trudge from sunrise to 10 or 11 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>,
-and sometimes, though rarely, they will travel twice a
-day, resting only during the hours of heat. They work
-with a will, carrying uncomplainingly huge tusks, some
-so heavy that they must be lashed to a pole between
-two men&mdash;a contrivance technically called mziga-ziga.
-Their shoulders are often raw with the weight, their
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-342">[342]</span>
-feet are sore, and they walk half or wholly naked to
-save their cloth for displays at home. They ignore
-tent or covering, and sleep on the ground; their only
-supplies are their country’s produce, a few worn-down
-hoes, intended at times to purchase a little grain or to
-be given as blackmail for sultans, and small herds of
-bullocks and heifers that serve for similar purposes if
-not lost, with characteristic African futility, upon the
-road. Those who most consult comfort carry, besides
-their loads and arms, a hide for bedding, an earthen
-cooking pot, a stool, a kilindo or bark-box containing
-cloth and beads, and perhaps a small gourd full of ghee.
-They sometimes suffer severely from exposure to a
-climate which forbids long and hard work upon short
-and hard fare. Malignant epidemics, especially small-pox,
-often attack caravans as they approach the coast;
-generally, however, though somewhat lean and haggard,
-the porters appear in better condition than might be
-expected. The European traveller will repent accompanying
-these caravans: as was said of a similar race,
-the Indians of Guiana, “they will not deviate three
-steps from the regular path.”</p>
-
-<p>Porters engaged by Arab Mtajiri or Mundewa&mdash;the
-former is the Kisawahili, the latter is the Inner African
-term for a merchant or travelling trader&mdash;are known by
-their superior condition; they eat much more, work much
-less, and give far greater trouble to their commanders.
-They expend part of the cloth and beads which they
-have received as hire to procure for themselves occasional
-comforts; and on the down-journey they take with
-them a few worn-down hoes to retain the power of
-desertion without starving. The self-willed wretches
-demean themselves with the coolest impudence; reply imperiously,
-lord it over their leaders, regulate the marches
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-343">[343]</span>
-and the halts, and though they work they never work
-without loud complaints and open discontent. Rations
-are a perpetual source of heart-burning: stinted at
-home to a daily mess of grain-porridge, the porters on
-the line of march devote, in places where they can presume,
-all their ingenuity to extort as much food as
-possible from their employers. At times they are
-seized with a furore for meat. When a bullock is
-slaughtered, the Kirangozi or guide claims the head,
-leaving the breast and loin to the Mtongi or principal
-proprietor, and the remainder is equally portioned
-amongst the khambi or messes into which the gang
-divides itself. As has been remarked, the Arab merchant,
-next to the Persian, is the most luxurious
-traveller in the East; a veteran of the way, he well
-knows the effects of protracted hardship and scarcity
-upon a wayfarer’s health. The European traveller,
-however, will not enjoy the companionship of the Arab
-caravan, which marches by instinct rather than by
-reason. It begins by dawdling over the preliminaries;
-it then pushes hurriedly onwards till arrested by epidemic
-or desertion; and finally it lingers over the end
-of the journey, thus loosing time twice. This style of
-progress is fatal to observation; moreover, none but a
-special caravan, consisting of slaves hired for the purpose
-in the island of Zanzibar or on the coast, and
-accompanied by their own Ahbab or patron&mdash;without
-whom they will obey no employer, however generous
-or energetic&mdash;will enable the explorer to strike into an
-unbeaten path, or to progress a few miles beyond the
-terminus of a main trunk-road. The most enterprising
-of porters will desert, leaving the caravan-leader like
-a water-logged ship.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-344">[344]</span></p>
-
-<p>Between these two extremes are the trading parties
-directed by the Wasawahili, the Wamrima, and the slave
-Fundi&mdash;the Pombeiros of West Africa&mdash;kindred souls
-with the Pagazi, understanding their languages and
-familiar with their habits, manners, and customs.
-These “Safari” are neither starved like those composed
-of Wanyamwezi, nor pampered like those headed by
-the Arabs. There is less fatigue during the march,
-and more comfort at the halting-place, consequently
-there are fewer cases of disease and death. These semi-African
-Mtongi, hating and jealousing Arabs and all
-strangers, throw every obstacle in their way, spread
-reports concerning their magical and malevolent powers
-which are dangerous amongst the more superstitious
-barbarians, they offer a premium for desertion, and in
-fine, they labour hard though fruitlessly, to retain their
-ancient monopoly of the profits derived from the interior.</p>
-
-<p>I will now describe the day’s march and the halt of
-the East African caravan.</p>
-
-<p>At 3 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, all is silent as the tomb, even the Mnyamwezi
-watchman nods over his fire. About an hour
-later the red-faced apoplectic chanticleer&mdash;there are
-sometimes half-a-dozen of them&mdash;the alarum of the
-caravan, and a prime favourite with the slaves and
-porter, who carry him on their banghy-poles by turns,
-and who drench him with water when his beak opens
-under the sun,&mdash;flaps his wings and crows a loud
-salutation to the dawn: he is answered by every cock and
-cockerel within ear-shot. I have been lying awake for
-some time, longing for the light, and when in health,
-for an early breakfast. At the first paling of the East,
-the torpid Goanese are called up to build a fire, they
-tremble with the cold&mdash;thermometrically averaging
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-345">[345]</span>
-60° F.&mdash;and they hurry to bring food. Appetite somewhat
-difficult at this hour, demands a frequent change
-of diet, we drink tea or coffee when procurable, or we eat
-rice-milk and cakes raised with whey, or a porridge not
-unlike water-gruel. Whilst we are so engaged, the
-Baloch chanting the spiritual songs which follow
-prayers, squat round a cauldron placed upon a roaring
-fire, and fortify the inner man with boiled meat and
-grain, with toasted pulse and tobacco.</p>
-
-<p>About such time, 5 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, the camp is fairly roused,
-and a little low chatting becomes audible. This is a
-critical moment. The porters have promised overnight,
-to start early, and to make a long wholesome march.
-But, “uncertain, coy, and hard to please,” they change
-their minds like the fair sex, the cold morning makes
-them unlike the men of the warm evening, and perhaps
-one of them has fever. Moreover, in every caravan
-there is some lazy, loud-lunged, contradictory and unmanageable
-fellow, whose sole delight is to give trouble.
-If no march be in prospect, they sit obstinately before
-the fire warming their hands and feet, inhaling the
-smoke with everted heads, and casting quizzical looks
-at their fuming and fidgety employer. If all be unanimous,
-it is vain to attempt them, even soft sawder is
-but “throwing comfits to cows.” We return to our
-tent. If, however, there be a division, a little active
-stimulating will cause a march. Then a louder conversation
-leads to cries of Kwecha! Kwecha! Pakia!
-Pakia! Hopa! Hopa! Collect! pack! set out! Safari!
-Safari leo! a journey, a journey to-day! and some
-peculiarly African boasts, P’hunda! Ngami! I am an
-ass! a camel! accompanied by a roar of bawling voices,
-drumming, whistling, piping, and the braying of Barghumi,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-346">[346]</span>
-or horns. The sons of Ramji come in a body
-to throw our tents, and to receive small burdens, which,
-if possible, they shirk; sometimes Kidogo does me the
-honour to inquire the programme of the day. The
-porters, however, hug the fire till driven from it, when
-they unstack the loads piled before our tents and pour
-out of the camp or village. My companion and I,
-when well enough to ride, mount our asses, led by the
-gunbearers, who carry all necessaries for offence and defence;
-when unfit for exercise, we are borne in hammocks,
-slung to long poles, and carried by two men at a time.
-The Baloch tending their slaves hasten off in a straggling
-body, thinking only of escaping an hour’s sun.
-The Jemadar, however, is ordered to bring up the rear
-with Said bin Salim, who is cold and surly, abusive
-and ready with his rattan. Four or five packs have
-been left upon the ground by deserters, or shirkers, who
-have started empty-handed, consequently our Arab
-either double-loads more willing men, or persuades the
-sons of Ramji to carry a small parcel each, or that
-failing, he hires from some near village a few porters
-by the day. This, however, is not easy, the beads have
-been carried off, and the most tempting promises without
-pre-payment, have no effect upon the African mind.</p>
-
-<p>When all is ready, the Kirangozi or Mnyamwezi
-guide rises and shoulders his load, which is ever one of
-the lightest. He deliberately raises his furled flag, a
-plain blood-red, the sign of a caravan from Zanzibar,
-much tattered by the thorns, and he is followed by a
-privileged Pagazi, tom-toming upon a kettle-drum
-much resembling a European hour-glass. The dignitary
-is robed in the splendour of scarlet broadcloth, a
-narrow piece about six feet long, with a central aperture
-for the neck, and with streamers dangling before and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-347">[347]</span>
-behind; he also wears some wonderful head-dress, the
-spoils of a white and black “tippet-monkey,” or the
-barred skin of a wild cat, crowning the head, bound
-round the throat, hanging over the shoulders, and
-capped with a tall cup-shaped bunch of owl’s feathers,
-or the gorgeous plumes of the crested crane. His insignia
-of office are the kipungo or fly-flapper, the tail of some
-beast which he affixes to his person as if it were a
-natural growth, the kome, or hooked iron spit, decorated
-with a central sausage of parti-coloured beads, and
-a variety of oily little gourds containing snuff, simples,
-and “medicine,” for the road, strapped round his waist.
-He leads the caravan, and the better to secure the obedience
-of his followers he has paid them in a sheep or a
-goat, the value of which he will recover by fees and superiority
-of rations&mdash;the head of every animal slaughtered
-in camp and the presents at the end of the journey are
-exclusively his. A man guilty of preceding the Kirangozi
-is liable to fine, and an arrow is extracted from his
-quiver to substantiate his identity at the end of the
-march. Pouring out of the kraal in a disorderly mob,
-the porters stack their goods at some tree distant but a
-few hundred yards, and allow the late, the lazy, and the
-invalids to join the main body. Generally at this conjuncture
-the huts are fired by neglect or mischievousness.
-The khambi, especially in winter, burns like tinder, and
-the next caravan will find a heap of hot ashes and a
-few charred sticks still standing. Yet by way of contrast
-the Pagazi will often take the trouble to denote
-by the usual signposts to those following them that
-water is at hand. Here and there a little facetiousness
-appears in these erections, a mouth is cut in the tree-trunk
-to admit a bit of wood, simulating a pipe, with
-other representations still more waggish.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-348">[348]</span></p>
-
-<p>After the preliminary halt, the caravan, forming into
-the order of march, winds, like a monstrous land-serpent,
-over hill, dale, and plain. The Kirangozi is followed
-by an Indian file, those nearest to him, the grandees
-of the gang, are heavily laden with ivories: when the
-weight of the tusk is inordinate, it is tied to a pole and
-is carried palanquin-fashion by two men. A large cowbell,
-whose music rarely ceases on the march, is attached
-to the point which is to the fore; to the bamboo behind
-is lashed the porter’s private baggage,&mdash;his earthen
-cooking-pot, his water-gourd, his sleeping-mat, and his
-other necessaries. The ivory-carriers are succeeded by
-the bearers of cloth and beads, each man, poising upon
-either shoulder, and sometimes raising upon the head
-for rest, packs that resemble huge bolsters, six feet long
-by two in diameter, cradled in sticks, which generally
-have a forked projection for facility of stacking and
-reshouldering the load. The sturdiest fellows are
-usually the lightest loaded: in Eastern Africa, as elsewhere,
-the weakest go to the wall. The maximum of
-burden may be two farasilah, or seventy pounds, avoirdupois.
-Behind the cloth bearers straggles a long line
-of porters and slaves, laden with the lighter stuff,
-rhinoceros-teeth, hides, salt-cones, tobacco, brass wire,
-iron hoes, boxes and bags, beds and tents, pots and
-water-gourds, mats and private stores. With the Pagazi,
-but in separate parties, march the armed slaves,
-who are never seen to quit their muskets, the women,
-and the little toddling children, who rarely fail to carry
-something, be it only of a pound weight, and the asses
-neatly laden with saddle-bags of giraffe or buffalo-hide.
-A “Mganga” almost universally accompanies the caravan,
-not disdaining to act as a common porter. The
-“parson” not only claims, in virtue of his sacred calling,
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-349">[349]</span>
-the lightest load; he is also a stout, smooth, and sleek-headed
-man, because, as usual with his class, he eats much
-and he works little. The rear is brought up by the
-master or the masters of the caravan, who often remains
-far behind for the convenience of walking and to
-prevent desertion.</p>
-
-<p>All the caravan is habited in its worst attire, the
-East African derides those who wear upon a journey
-the cloth which should be reserved for display at
-home. If rain fall they will doff the single goat-skin
-hung round their sooty limbs, and, folding it up,
-place it between the shoulder and the load. When
-grain is served out for some days’ march, each porter
-bears his posho or rations fastened like a large “bussel”
-to the small of his back. Upon this again, he
-sometimes binds, with its legs projecting outwards,
-the three-legged stool, which he deems necessary to
-preserve him from the danger of sitting upon the
-damp ground. As may be imagined, the barbarians
-have more ornament than dress. Some wear the
-ngala, a strip of zebra’s mane bound round the head
-with the bristly parti-coloured, hair standing out like a
-saint’s “gloria:” others prefer a long bit of stiffened
-ox-tail, rising like a unicorn’s horn, at least a foot
-above the forehead. Other ornaments are the skins of
-monkeys and ocelots, rouleaus and fillets of white, blue,
-or scarlet cloth, and huge bunches of ostrich, crane,
-and jay’s feathers, crowning the head like the tufts of
-certain fowls. Their arms are decorated with massive
-ivory bracelets, heavy bangles of brass or copper, and
-thin circlets of the same metal, beads in strings and
-bands, adorn their necks, and small iron bells, a
-“knobby” decoration, whose incessant tinkling harmonises,
-in African ears, with the regular chime-like “Ti-ti!
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-350">[350]</span>
-Ti-ti! tang!” of the tusk-bells, and the loud broken
-“Wa-ta-ta!” of the horns, are strapped below the knee
-or round the ankle by the more aristocratic. All carry
-some weapon; the heaviest armed have a bow and a
-bark-quiver full of arrows, two or three long spears
-and assegais, a little battle-axe borne on the shoulder,
-and the sime or dudgeon.</p>
-
-<p>The normal recreations of a march are, whistling,
-singing, shouting, hooting, horning, drumming, imitating
-the cries of birds and beasts, repeating words which
-are never used except on journeys&mdash;a “chough’s language,
-gabble enough and good enough”&mdash;and abundant
-squabbling; in fact perpetual noise which the ear
-however, soon learns to distinguish for the hubbub of a
-halt. The uproar redoubles near a village, where the
-flag is unfurled and where the line lags to display
-itself. All give vent to loud shouts, “Hopa! hopa!&mdash;go
-on! go on! Mgogolo!&mdash;a stoppage! Food! food!
-Don’t be tired! The kraal is here&mdash;home is near!
-Hasten, kirangozi&mdash;Oh! We see our mothers! We go
-to eat!” On the road it is considered prudent as well as
-pleasurable to be as loud as possible, in order to impress
-upon plunderers an exaggerated idea of the caravan’s
-strength; for equally good reasons silence is recommended
-in the kraal. When threatened with attack
-and no ready escape suggests itself, the porters ground
-their loads and prepare for action. It is only self-interest
-that makes them brave; I have seen a small cow,
-trotting up with tail erect, break a line of 150 men
-carrying goods not their own. If a hapless hare or
-antelope cross the path, every man casts his pack,
-brandishes his spear, and starts in pursuit; the animal
-never running straight is soon killed, and torn limb
-from limb, each negroid helluo devouring his morsel
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-351">[351]</span>
-raw. Sometimes a sturdy fellow “renowns it” by
-carrying his huge burden round and round, like a horse
-being ringed, and starts off at full speed. When two bodies
-meet, that commanded by an Arab claims the road. If
-both are Wanyamwezi, violent quarrels ensue, but fatal
-weapons, which are too ready at hand, are turned to
-more harmless purposes, the bow and spear being used
-as whip and cudgel. These affrays are not rancorous
-till blood is shed. Few tribesmen are less friendly for so
-trifling an affair as a broken head; even a slight cut or
-a shallow stab is little thought of; but, if returned with
-interest, great loss of life may arise from the slenderest
-cause. When friendly caravans meet, the two Kirangozis
-sidle up with a stage pace, a stride, and a stand,
-and with sidelong looks prance till arrived within distance;
-then suddenly and simultaneously “ducking,”
-like boys “giving a back,” they come to logger-heads
-and exchange a butt violently as fighting rams. Their
-example is followed by all with a rush and a crush,
-which might be mistaken for the beginning of a faction,
-but it ends, if there be no bad blood, in shouts of
-laughter. The weaker body, however, must yield precedence
-and offer a small present as blackmail.</p>
-
-<p>About 8 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, when the fiery sun has topped the trees
-and a pool of water, or a shady place appears, the
-planting of the red flag, the braying of a Barghumi, or
-koodoo’s horn, which, heard at a distance in the deep
-forests, has something of the charm which endears the
-“Cor de Chasse” to every woodman’s ear, and sometimes
-a musket-shot or two, announces a short halt. The
-porters stack their loads, and lie or loiter about for a
-few minutes, chatting, drinking, and smoking tobacco
-and bhang, with the usual whooping, screaming cough,
-and disputing eagerly about the resting-place for the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-352">[352]</span>
-day. On long marches we then take the opportunity
-of stopping to discuss the contents of two baskets which
-are carried by a slave under the eye of the Goanese.</p>
-
-<p>If the stage be prolonged towards noon, the caravan
-lags, straggles, and suffers sorely. The heat of the
-ground, against which the horniest sole never becomes
-proof, tries the feet like polished-leather boots on
-a quarter-deck in the dog-days near the Line, and
-some tribulation is caused by the cry M’iba hapa!&mdash;thorns
-here! The Arabs and the Baloch must often halt
-to rest. The slaves ensconce themselves in snug places;
-the porters, propping their burdens against trees, curl
-up, dog-like, under the shade; some malinger; and this,
-the opportunity preferred for desertion, is an anxious
-hour to the proprietor; who, if he would do his work
-“deedily,” must be the last in the kraal. Still the men
-rarely break down. As in Indian marching, the African
-caravan prefers to end the day, rather than to begin it,
-with a difficulty&mdash;the ascent of a hill, or the fording of
-a stream. They prefer the strip of jungle at the further
-end of a district or a plantation, for safety as well as
-for the comfort of shade. They avoid the vicinity of
-rocks; and on desert plains they occupy some slightly
-rising ground, where the night-cold is less severe than
-in the lower levels.</p>
-
-<p>At length an increased hubbub of voices, blended
-with bells, drums, fifes, and horns, and sometimes a few
-musket-shots, announce that the van is lodged, and the
-hubbub of the halt confirms the pleasing intelligence
-that the journey is shortened by a stage. Each selfish
-body then hurries forward to secure the best boothy
-in the kraal, or the most comfortable hut in the
-village, and quarrels seem serious. Again, however,
-the knife returns home guiltless of gore, and the
-spear is used only as an instrument for sound belabouring.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-353">[353]</span>
-The more energetic at once apply themselves
-to “making all snug” for the long hot afternoon and the
-nipping night; some hew down young trees, others
-collect heaps of leafy boughs; one acts architect, and
-many bring in huge loads of firewood. The East African
-is so much accustomed to house-life, that the bivouac in
-the open appears to him a hardship; he prefers even
-to cut out the interior of a bush and to squat in it, the
-portrait of a comfortable cynocephalus. We usually
-spread our donkey-saddles and carpets in some shade,
-awaiting the arrival of our tents, and its erection by the
-grumbling sons of Ramji; if we want a hut, we draw
-out the man in possession like a badger,&mdash;he will never
-have the decency to offer it. As a rule, the villagers are
-more willing to receive the upward-bound caravans, than
-those who, returning, carry wealth out of instead of into
-the country. Merchants, on account of their valuable
-outfits, affect, except in the safest localities, the khambi
-rather than the village; the latter, however, is not only
-healthier, despite its uncleanliness in miasmatic lands,
-but is also more comfortable, plenty and variety of provisions
-being more readily procured inside than outside.
-The Arab’s khaymah is a thin pole or ridge-tent of
-flimsy domestics, admitting sun and rain, and, like an
-Irish cabin, permitting at night the occupant to tell
-time by the stars; yet he prefers it, probably for
-dignity, to the boothy which, in this land of verdure
-and cool winds, is a far more comfortable lodging.</p>
-
-<p>The Wamrima willingly admit strangers into their
-villages; the Wazaramo would do the same, but they
-are constantly at feud with the Wanyamwezi, who
-therefore care not to avail themselves of the dangerous
-hospitality. In K’hutu caravans seize by force the best
-lodgings. Throughout Eastern Usagara travellers pitch
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-354">[354]</span>
-tents in the dear central spaces, surrounded by the round
-huts of the peasantry, under whose low and drooping
-eaves the pagazi find shelter. In the western regions,
-where the Tembe or square village prevails, kraals form
-the nighting-place. In Ugogo strangers rarely enter the
-hamlets, the hovels being foul, and the people dangerous.
-Throughout Eastern and Central Unyamwezi caravans
-defile into the villages without hesitation. Some parties
-take possession of the Iwanza or public-house; others
-build for themselves tabernacles of leafy boughs, which
-they are expected to clear away before departure, and
-the headman provides lodgings for the Mtongi. In
-Western Unyamwezi the doors are often closed against
-strangers, and in Eastern Uvinza the people will admit
-travellers to bivouac, but they will not vacate their
-huts. In Western Uvinza, a desert like Marenga and
-Mgunda Mk’hali, substantial khambi occur at short
-intervals. At Ujiji, the Sultan, after offering the preliminary
-magubiko or presents, provides his guests with
-lodgings, which, after a time sufficient for enabling
-them to build huts, they must vacate in favour of
-new comers. In the other Lake Regions the reception
-depends mainly upon the number of muskets in a
-caravan, and the character of the headman and his
-people.</p>
-
-<p>The khambi or kraal everywhere varies in shape and
-material. In the eastern regions, where trees are scarce,
-wattle frames of rough sticks, compacted with bark-fibre,
-are disposed in a circle; the forked uprights, made
-higher behind and lower in front, to form a sloping
-roof, support horizontal or cross poles, which are overlaid
-with a rough thatch of grass or grain-cane. The
-central space upon which the boothies open is occupied
-by one or more huts for the chiefs of the party; and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-355">[355]</span>
-the outer circle is a loose fence of thorn branches, flimsy,
-yet impassable to breech-less legs, unshod feet, and
-thin loose body-garments. When a kraal must be built,
-rations are not served out till enclosures made round
-the camp secure the cattle; if the leader be dilatory, or
-unwilling to take strong measures, he may be a serious
-loser. The stationary kraals become offensive, if not
-burnt down after a few months. The Masika-kraal, as
-it is called, is that occupied only during the rainy
-monsoon, when water is everywhere found. The vicinity
-and the abundance of that necessary are the main
-considerations in selecting the situation of encampments.
-The bark-kraals commence in Uvinza, where
-trees abound, and extend to the Tanganyika Lake; some
-are substantial, as the temporary villages, and may be
-a quarter of a mile in circumference. The Lakist
-population carry with them, when travelling, Karagwah
-or stiff mats of reed and rush; these they spread over
-and fasten to a firmly-planted framework of flexible
-boughs, not unlike a bird’s nest inverted, or they
-build a cone of strong canes, in the shape of piled
-muskets, with the ends lashed together. It is curious
-to see the small compass in which the native African
-traveller can contract himself: two, and even three, will
-dispose their heads and part of their bodies&mdash;leaving
-their lower limbs to the mercy of the elements&mdash;under
-a matting little more than a yard square.</p>
-
-<p>When lodgings in the kraal have been distributed,
-and the animals have been off-packed, and water has
-been brought from the pit or stream, all apply themselves
-to the pleasant toil of refection. Merrily then
-sounds the breathless chant of the woman pounding or
-rubbing down grain, the song of the cook, and the tinkle-tinkle
-of the slave’s pestle, as he bends over the iron
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-356">[356]</span>
-mortar from which he stealthily abstracts the coffee.
-The fireplaces are three stones or clods, placed trivet-wise
-upon the ground, so that a draught may feed the
-flame, they are far superior to the holes and trenches
-of our camps and pic-nics. The tripod supports a small
-black earthen pot, round which the khambi or little
-knot of messmates perseveringly squat despite the
-stinging sun. At home where they eat their own provisions
-they content themselves with a slender meal of
-flour and water once a day. But like Spaniards, Arabs,
-and all abstemious races, they must “make up for lost
-time.” When provisions are supplied to them, they
-are cooking and consuming as long as the material
-remains; the pot is in perpetual requisition, now filled
-to be emptied, then refilled to be re-emptied. They will
-devour in three days the rations provided for eight,
-and then complain loudly that they are starved. To
-leave a favourable impression upon their brains, I had a
-measure nearly double that generally used, yet the perverse
-wretches pleading hunger, though they looked
-like aldermen by the side of the lean bony anatomies
-whom they met on the road, would desert whenever
-met by a caravan. After a time there will, doubtless,
-be a re-action; when their beards whiten they will
-indulge in the garrulity of age; they will recount to
-wondering youth the prodigality of the Muzungu, in
-filling them with grain, even during the longest marches,
-and they will compare his loads of cloth and beads with
-the half dozen “shaggy” cows and the worn-out hoes,
-the sole outfit for presents and provisions carried by
-caravans of “Young Africa.” If there be any delay in
-serving out provisions, loud cries of Posho! p’hamba!&mdash;rations!
-food!&mdash;resound through the camp; yet
-when fatigued, the porters will waste hours in apathetic
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-357">[357]</span>
-idleness rather than walk a few hundred yards to buy
-grain. Between their dozen meals they puff clouds of
-pungent tobacco, cough and scream over their jungle-bhang,
-and chew ashes, quids, and pinches of red earth,
-probably the graves of white ants. If meat be served
-out to them, it is eaten as a relish; it never, however,
-interferes with the consumption of porridge. A sudden
-glut of food appears to have the effect of intoxicating
-them. The Arabs, however, avoiding steady rations,
-alternately gorge and starve their porters, knowing by
-experience that such extremes are ever most grateful to
-the barbarian stomach. The day must be spent in very
-idleness; a man will complain bitterly if told to bring
-up his pack for opening; and general discontent, with
-hints concerning desertion, will arise from the mortification
-of a muster. On such occasions he and his fellows
-will raise their voices,&mdash;when not half-choked by food&mdash;and
-declare that they will not be called about like servants,
-and crouch obstinately round the smoky fire, the
-pictures of unutterable disgust; and presently enjoy
-the sweet savour of stick-jaw dough and pearl-holcus
-like small shot, rat stews, and boiled weeds, which they
-devour till their “bulge” appears like the crop of a
-stuffed turkey. Sometimes when their improvidence
-has threatened them with a Banyan-day, they sit in a
-melancholy plight, spitefully smoking and wickedly eyeing
-our cooking-pots; on these occasions they have
-generally a goat or a bullock in store, and, if not, they
-finesse to obtain one of ours. I always avoid issuing
-an order to them direct, having been warned by experience
-that Kidogo or the Kirangozi is the proper channel;
-which sorely vexes Valentine and Seedy Bombay, whose
-sole enjoyment in life is command. I observed that
-when wanted for extra-work, to remove thorns or
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-358">[358]</span>
-to dig for water, that the false alarm of Posho! (rations)
-summons them with a wonderful alacrity.
-Moreover, I remarked that when approaching their country
-and leaving ours&mdash;the coast&mdash;they became almost
-unmanageable and <i>vice versâ</i> as conditions changed.</p>
-
-<p>My companion and I pass our day as we best can,
-sometimes in a bower of leafy branches, often under
-a spreading tree, rarely in the flimsy tent. The usual
-occupations are the diary and the sketch-book, added to
-a little business. The cloth must be doled out, and the
-porters must be persuaded, when rested, to search the
-country for rations, otherwise&mdash;the morrow will be a
-blank. When a bullock is killed one of us must be present.
-The porters receive about a quarter of the meat, over
-which they sit wrangling and screaming like hyænas,
-till a fair division according to messes is arrived at.
-Then, unless watched, some strong and daring hand will
-suddenly break through the ring, snatch up half a dozen
-portions and disappear at a speed defying pursuit;
-others will follow his example, with the clatter and
-gesture of a troop of baboons, and the remainder will
-retire as might be expected, grumbling and discontented.
-Dinner at 4 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> breaks the neck of the day.
-Provisions of some kind are mostly procurable, our diet,
-however, varies from such common doings as the hard
-holcus-scone, the tasteless bean-broth and the leathery
-goat-steak, to fixings of delicate venison, fatted capon,
-and young guinea-fowl or partridge, with “bread
-sauce,” composed of bruised rice and milk. At first
-the Goanese declined to cook “pretty food,” as pasties
-and rissoles, on the plea that such things were impossible
-upon the march; they changed their minds when
-warned that persistence in such theory might lead to a
-ceremonious fustigation. Moreover, they used to serve
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-359">[359]</span>
-us after their fashion, with a kind of “portion” on
-plates; the best part, of course, remained in the pots
-and digesters; these, therefore, were ordered to do duty
-as dishes. When tea or coffee is required in a drinkable
-state, we must superintend the process of preparing it,
-the notions of the Goanese upon such subjects being
-abominable to the civilised palate. When we have
-eaten our servants take their turn; they squat opposite
-each other over a private “cooking-pot” to which they
-have paid unremitting attention; they stretch forth their
-talons and eat till weary, not satiated, pecking, nodding,
-and cramming like two lank black pigeons. Being
-“Christians,” that is to say, Roman Catholics, they
-will not feed with the heathenry, moreover a sort of
-semi-European dignity forbids. Consequently Bombay
-messes with his “brother” Mabruki, and the other
-slaves eat by themselves.</p>
-
-<p>When the wells ahead are dry the porters will scarcely
-march in the morning; their nervous impatience of thirst
-is such that they would exhaust all their gourds, if they
-expected a scarcity in front, and then they would suffer
-severely through the long hot day. They persist, moreover,
-upon eating before the march, under the false
-impression that it gives them strength and bottom. In
-fact, whenever difficulties as regards grain or drink
-suggest themselves, the African requires the direction
-of some head-piece made of better stuff than his own.
-The hardships of the tirikeza have already been described:
-they must be endured to be realised.</p>
-
-<p>Night is ushered in by penning and pounding the
-cows, and by tethering the asses&mdash;these “careless
-Æthiopians” lose them every second day,&mdash;and by collecting
-and numbering the loads, a task of difficulty
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-360">[360]</span>
-where every man shirks the least trouble. When there
-has been no tirikeza, when provisions have been
-plentiful, and when there is a bright moonshine, which
-seems to enliven these people like jackals, a furious
-drumming, a loud clapping of hands, and a general
-droning song, summon the lads and the lasses of the
-neighbouring villages to come out and dance and “make
-love.” The performance is laborious, but these Africans,
-like most men of little game, soon become too tired to work,
-but not too tired to play and amuse themselves. Their
-style of salutation is remarkable only for the excessive
-gravity which it induces; at no other time does the
-East African look so serious, so full of earnest purpose.
-Sometimes a single dancer, the village buffoon, foots
-a <i>pas seul</i>, featly, with head, arms, and legs, bearing
-strips of hair-garnished cow-skin, which are waved,
-jerked, and contorted, as if dislocation had occurred to
-his members. At other times, a line or a circle of boys
-and men is formed near the fire, and one standing in
-the centre, intones the song solo, the rest humming a
-chorus in an undertone. The dancers plumbing and
-tramping to the measure with alternate feet, simultaneously
-perform a treadmill exercise with a heavier
-stamp at the end of every period: they are such timists,
-that a hundred pair of heels sound like one. At first
-the bodies are slowly swayed from side to side, presently
-as excitement increases, the exercise waxes severe:
-they “cower down and lay out their buttocks,” to use
-pedantic Ascham’s words, “as though they would shoot
-at crows;” they bend and recover themselves, and they
-stoop and rise to the redoubled sound of the song and
-the heel-music, till the assembly, with arms waving
-like windmills, assumes the frantic semblance of a
-ring of Egyptian Darwayshes. The performance often
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-361">[361]</span>
-closes with a grand promenade; all the dancers being
-jammed in a rushing mass, a <i>galop infernale</i>, with the
-features of satyrs, and gestures resembling aught but
-the human. When the fun threatens to become too
-fast and furious, the song dies, and the performers, with
-loud shouts of laughter, throw themselves on the
-ground, to recover strength and breath. The greybeards
-look on with admiration and sentiment, remembering
-the days when they were capable of similar feats.
-Instead of “bravo,” they ejaculate “Nice! nice! very
-nice!” and they wonder what makes the white men
-laugh. The ladies prefer to perform by themselves,
-and perhaps in the East, ours would do the same, if a
-literal translation of the remarks to which a ball always
-gives rise amongst Orientals, happened by misfortune to
-reach their refined ears.</p>
-
-<p>When there is no dancing, and the porters can no
-longer eat, drink, and smoke, they sit by their fires,
-chatting, squabbling, talking and singing some such
-“pure nectar” as the following. The song was composed,
-I believe, in honour of me, and I frequently heard
-it when the singers knew that it was understood. The
-Cosmopolitan reader will not be startled by the epithet
-“Mbaya,” or wicked, therein applied to the Muzungu.
-A “good white man,” would indeed, in these lands, have
-been held an easy-going soul, a natural, an innocent,
-like the “buona famiglia,” of the Italian cook, who ever
-holds the highest quality of human nature to be a
-certain facility for being “plucked without ’plaining,”
-and being “flayed without flinching.” Moreover,
-despite my “wickedness,” they used invariably to come
-to me for justice and redress, especially when proximity
-to the coast encouraged the guide and guards to “bully”
-them.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-362">[362]</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent6">“Muzungu mbaya” (the wicked white man) goes from the shore,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">(<i>Chorus</i>)<span class="padl5">Puti!</span> Puti! (I can only translate it by “grub! grub!”)<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent10">We will follow “Muzungu mbaya.”<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent12">Puti! Puti!<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent10">As long as he gives us good food!<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent12">Puti! Puti!<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent10">We will traverse the hill and the stream,<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent12">Puti! Puti!<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent10">With the caravan of this great mundewa (merchant).<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent12">Puti! Puti! &amp;c., &amp;c.<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p>The Baloch and the sons of Ramji quarrel, yell,
-roar, and talk of eating&mdash;the popular subject of converse
-in these lands, as is beer in England, politics in
-France, law in Normandy, “pasta” at Naples, and to
-say no more, money everywhere&mdash;till a late hour.
-About 8 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, the small hours of the country, sounds
-the cry lala! lala!&mdash;sleep! It is willingly obeyed by
-all except the women, who must sometimes awake to
-confabulate even at midnight. One by one the caravan
-sinks into torpid slumber. At this time, especially
-when in the jungle-bivouac, the scene often becomes
-truly impressive. The dull red fires flickering and
-forming a circle of ruddy light in the depths of the
-black forest, flaming against the tall trunks and defining
-the foliage of the nearer trees, illuminate lurid groups
-of savage men, in every variety of shape and posture.
-Above, the dark purple sky, studded with golden points,
-domes the earth with bounds narrowed by the gloom
-of night. And, behold! in the western horizon, a resplendent
-crescent, with a dim, ash-coloured globe in
-its arms, and crowned by Hesperus, sparkling like
-a diamond, sinks through the vast of space, in all the
-glory and gorgeousness of Eternal Nature’s sublimest
-works. From such a night, methinks, the Byzantine
-man took his device, the Crescent and the Star.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-363">[363]</span></p>
-
-<p>The rate of caravan-marching in East Africa greatly
-varies. In cool moonlit mornings, over an open path, the
-Pagazi will measure perhaps four miles an hour. This
-speed is reduced by a quarter after a short “spurt,” and
-under normal, perhaps favourable, circumstances, three
-statute miles will be the highest average. Throughout
-the journey it is safe to reckon for an Indian file
-of moderate length&mdash;say 150 men&mdash;2·25 English miles,
-or what is much the same, 1·75 geographical miles per
-hour, measured by compass from point to point. In a
-clear country an allowance of 20 per cent, must be
-made for winding: in closer regions 40-50 per cent.,
-and the traveller must exercise his judgment in distributing
-his various courses between these extremes. Mr.
-Cooley (Inner Africa Laid Open, p. 6) a “resolute,” and
-I may add a most successful “reducer of itinerary distances,”
-estimates that the ordinary day’s journey of the
-Portuguese missionaries in West Africa never exceeded
-six geographical miles projected in a straight line, and
-that on rare occasions, and with effort only, it may
-have extended to 10 miles. Dr. Lacerda’s porters in
-East Africa were terrified at the thought of marching
-ordinarily 2·50 Portuguese leagues, or about 9·33 statute
-miles per day. Dr. Livingstone gives the exceedingly
-high maximum of 2·50 to 3 miles an hour in a straight
-line, but his porters were lightly laden, and the
-Makololo are apparently a far “gamer” race, more
-sober and industrious, than the East Africans. Mr.
-Petherick, H. M.’s Consul at Khartum, estimates his
-gangs to have marched 3·50 miles per hour, and
-the ordinary day’s march at 8 hours. It is undoubted
-that the negro races north of the equator far
-surpass in pedestrian powers their southern brethren;
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-364">[364]</span>
-moreover the porters in question were marching only
-for a single day; but as no instruments were used, the
-average may fairly be suspected of exaggeration. Finally
-Mr. Galton’s observation concerning Cape travelling
-applies equally well to this part of Africa, namely, that
-10 statute or 6 rectilinear geographical miles per diem
-is a fair average of progress, and that he does well who
-conducts the same caravan 1,000 geographical miles
-across a wild country in six months.</p>
-
-<p>I will conclude this chapter with a succinct account
-of the inn, that is to say the village in East Africa.</p>
-
-<p>The habitations of races form a curious study and no
-valueless guide to the nature of the climate and the
-physical conditions to which men are subject.</p>
-
-<p>Upon the East African coast the villages, as has been
-mentioned, are composed of large tenements, oblongs or
-squares of wattle and dab, with eaves projecting to form
-a deep verandah and a thatched pent-roof, approaching
-in magnitude that of Madagascar.</p>
-
-<p>Beyond the line of maritime land the “Nyumba” or
-dwelling-house assumes the normal African form, the
-circular hut described by every traveller in the interior:
-Dr. Livingstone appears to judge rightly that its circularity
-is the result of a barbarous deficiency in inventiveness.
-It has, however, several varieties. The
-simplest is a loose thatch thrown upon a cone of sticks
-based upon the ground, and lashed together at the
-apex: it ignores windows, and the door is a low hole
-in the side. A superior kind is made after the manner
-of our ancient bee hives; it is cup-shaped with bulging
-sides, and covered with neat thatch, cut in circles
-which overlap one another tile-fashion: at a distance
-it resembles an inverted bird’s nest. The common
-shape is a cylindrical framework of tall staves, or the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-365">[365]</span>
-rough trunks of young trees planted in the earth,
-neatly interwoven with parallel and concentric rings
-of flexible twigs and withies: this is plastered inside
-and outside with a hard coat of red or grey mud;
-in the poorer tenements the surface is rough and
-chinked, in the better order it is carefully smoothed
-and sometimes adorned with rude imitations of life.
-The diameter averages from 20 to 25, and the height
-from 7 to 15 feet in the centre, which is supported
-by a strong roof-tree, to which all the stacked rafters
-and poles converge. The roof is subsequently added,
-it is a structure similar to the walls, interwoven
-with sticks, upon which thick grass or palm-fronds are
-thrown, and the whole is covered with thatch tied on
-by strips of tree-bark. It has eaves which projecting from
-two to six feet&mdash;under them the inhabitants love to sit
-or sun shade themselves&mdash;rest upon horizontal bars, which
-are here and there supported by forked uprights, trees
-rudely barked. Near the coast the eaves are broad and
-high: in the interior they are purposely made so low
-that a man must creep in on all fours. The door-way
-resembles the entrance to an English pig-sty, it serves,
-however, to keep out heat in the hot season, and to
-keep in smoke and warmth during the rains and the
-cold weather: the threshold is garnished with a horizontal
-log or board that defends the interior from inundation.
-The door is a square of reeds fastened together
-by bark or cord, and planted upright at night between
-the wall and two dwarf posts at each side of the entrance:
-there is generally a smaller and a secret door
-opposite that in use, and jealously closed up except
-when flight is necessary. In the colder and damper
-regions there is a second wall and roof outside the first,
-forming in fact one house within the other.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-366">[366]</span></p>
-
-<p>About Central Usagara the normal African haystack-hut
-makes place for the “Tembe” which extends westward,
-a little beyond Unyanyembe. The Tembe, though
-of Hamitic origin, resembles the Utum of the ancients,
-and the Hishan of the modern Hejaz, those hollow
-squares of building which have extended through Spain
-to France and even to Ireland: it was, probably, suggested
-to Africa and to Arabia by the necessity of
-defence to, as well as lodging for, man and beast. It is
-to a certain extent, a proof of civilisation in Eastern
-Africa: the wildest tribes have not progressed beyond
-the mushroom or circular hut, a style of architecture
-which seems borrowed from the indigenous mimosa tree.</p>
-
-<p>Westward of Unyamwezi in Uvinza and about the
-Tanganyika Lake the round hovel again finds favour
-with the people; but even there the Arabs prefer to
-build for themselves the more solid and comfortable
-Tembe.</p>
-
-<p>The haystack-hut has been described by a multitude
-of travellers: the “Tembe,” or hollow village, yet
-awaits that honour.</p>
-
-<p>The “Tembe” wants but the addition of white-wash
-to make it an effective feature in African scenery: as it
-is, it appears from afar like a short line of raised earth.
-Provided with a block-house at each angle to sweep
-dead ground where fire, the only mode of attack practised
-in these regions, can be applied, it would become a
-fort impregnable to the Eastern African. The form is
-a hollow square or oblong, generally irregular, with
-curves, projections, and semicircles; in the East
-African Ghauts, the shape is sometimes round or oval
-to suit the exigencies of the hill-sides and the dwarf
-cones upon which it is built. On the mountains and in
-Ugogo, where timber is scarce, the houses form the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-367">[367]</span>
-continued frontage of the building, which, composed of
-mimosa-trunks, stout stakes, and wattle and dab, rarely
-exceeds seven feet in height. In the southern regions
-of Usagara where the Tembe is poorest, the walls are of
-clods loosely put together and roofed over with a little
-straw. About Msene where fine trees abound, the Tembe
-is surrounded by a separate boma or palisade of young
-unbarked trunks, short or tall, and capped here and
-there with cattle-skulls, blocks of wood, grass-wisps,
-and similar talismans; this stockade, in damper places,
-is hedged with a high thick fence, sometimes doubled
-and trebled, of peagreen milk-bush, which looks pretty
-and refreshing, and is ditched outside with a deep
-trench serving as a drain. The cleared space in front
-of the main passage through the hedges is often decorated
-with a dozen poles, placed in a wide semicircle to
-support human skulls, the mortal remains of ill-conducted
-boors. In some villages the principal entrance
-is approached by long, dark and narrow lanes of palisading.
-When the settlement is built purely for defence,
-it is called “Kaya,” and its headman “Muinyi Kaya,”
-the word, however, is sometimes used for “Boma” or
-“Mji,” a palisaded village in general. In some parts
-of Unyamwezi there is a Bandani or exterior boothy,
-where the men work at the forge, or sit in the shade,
-and where the women husk, pound, and cook their grain.</p>
-
-<p>The general roof of the Tembe is composed of mud
-and clay heaped upon grass thickly strewed over a
-framework of rafters supported by the long walls. It
-has, usually, an obtuse slope to the front and another
-to the rear, that rain may not lie; it is, however, flat
-enough to support the bark-bins of grain, gourds, old
-pots, firewood, water-melons, pumpkins, manioc, mushrooms,
-and other articles placed there to ripen or dry
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-368">[368]</span>
-in the sun. It has no projecting eaves, and it is ascended
-from the inside by the primitive ladder, the
-inclined trunk of a tree, with steps formed by the
-stumps of lopped boughs, acting rings. The roof,
-during the rains, is a small plot of bright green grass:
-I often regretted not having brought with me a little
-store of mustard and cress. In each external side of
-the square, one or two door-ways are pierced; they
-are large enough to admit a cow, and though public
-they often pass through private domiciles. They are
-jealously closed at sunset, after which hour not a villager
-dares to stir from his home till morning. The outer
-doors are sometimes solid planks, more often they are
-three or four heavy beams suspended to a cross-bar
-passing through their tops. When the way is to be
-opened they are raised from below and are kept up by
-being planted in a forked tree-trunk inside the palisade:
-they are let down when the entrance is to be closed,
-and are barred across with strong poles.</p>
-
-<p>The tenements are divided from one another by party-walls
-of the same material as the exterior. Each
-house has, usually, two rooms, a “but” and a “ben,”
-which vary in length from 20 to 50 feet, and in depth
-from 12 to 15: they are partitioned by a screen of corn-canes
-supported by stakes, with a small passage left
-open for light. The “but,” used as parlour, kitchen, and
-dormitory, opens upon the common central square; the
-“ben” receives a glimmer from the doors and chinks,
-which have not yet suggested the idea of windows: it
-serves for a sleeping and a store room; it is a favourite
-place with hens and pigeons that aspire to be mothers,
-and the lambs and kids in early infancy are allowed to
-pass the night there. The inner walls are smeared with
-mud: lime is not procurable in Eastern Africa, and the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-369">[369]</span>
-people have apparently no predilection for the Indian
-“Gobar:” floor is of tamped earth, rough, uneven,
-and unclean. The prism-shaped ceiling is composed of
-rafters and thin poles gently rising from the long-walls
-to the centre, where they are supported by strong horizontals,
-which run the whole length of the house, and
-these again rest upon a proportionate number of pillars,
-solid forked uprights, planted in the floor. The ceiling
-is polished to a shiny black with smoke, which winds its
-way slowly through the door&mdash;smoke and grease are
-the African’s coat and small clothes, they contribute so
-much to his health and comfort that he is by no means
-anxious to get rid of them&mdash;and sooty lines depend
-from it like negro-stalactites.</p>
-
-<p>The common enceinte formed by the houses is often
-divided into various courts, intended for different
-families, by the walls of the tenements, or by stout
-screens, and connected by long wynds and dark alleys
-of palisade-work. The largest and cleanest square
-usually belongs to the headman. In these spaces cattle
-are milked and penned; the ground is covered with a
-thick coat of the animals’ earths, dust in the hot weather
-and deep viscid mud during the rains: the impurity
-must be an efficacious fomite of cutaneous and pectoral
-disease. The villagers are fond of planting in the central
-courts trees, under whose grateful shade the loom
-is plied, the children play, the men smoke, and the
-women work. Here, also, stands the little Mzimu, or
-Fetiss-hut, to receive the oblations of the pious. Places
-are partitioned off from the public ground, near the
-houses, by horizontal trunks of trees, resting on forks,
-forming pens to keep the calves from the cows at
-night. In some villages huge bolsters of surplus grain,
-neatly packed in bark and corded round, are raised on
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-370">[370]</span>
-tall poles near the interior doors of the tenements.
-Often, too, the insides of the settlements boast of pigeon-houses,
-which in this country are made to resemble, in
-miniature, those of the people. In Unyamwezi the
-centre is sometimes occupied by the Iwanza, or village
-“public-house,” which will be described in a future
-chapter.</p>
-
-<p>In some regions, as in Ugogo, these lodgings become
-peculiarly offensive if not burnt after the first year.
-The tramping of the owners upon the roof shakes mud
-and soot from the ceiling, and the rains wash down
-masses of earthwork heavy enough to do injury. The
-interior is a menagerie of hens, pigeons, and rats, of
-peculiar impudence. Scorpions and earwigs fall from
-their nests in the warm or shady rafters. The former,
-locally termed “Nge,” is a small yellow variety, and
-though it stings spitefully the pain seldom lasts through
-the day; as many as three have dropped upon my couch
-in the course of the week. In Ugogo there is a green
-scorpion from four to five inches long, which inflicts a
-torturing wound. According to the Arabs the scorpion
-in Eastern Africa dies after inflicting five consecutive
-stings, and commits suicide if a bit of stick be applied to
-the middle of its back. The earwig is common in all damp
-places, and it haunts the huts on account of the shade.
-The insect apparently casts its coat before the rainy
-season, and the Africans ignore the superstition which
-in most European countries has given origin to its
-trivial name. A small xylophagus with a large black
-head rains a yellow dust like pollen from the riddled
-woodwork; house-crickets chirp from evening to dawn;
-cockroaches are plentiful as in an Indian steamer; and
-a solitary mason-wasp, the “Kumbharni,” or “potter’s
-wife” of western India&mdash;a large hymenopter of several
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-371">[371]</span>
-varieties, tender-green, or black and yellow, or dark
-metallic blue&mdash;burrows holes in the wall, or raises
-plastered nests, and buzzes about the inmates’ ears;
-lizards, often tailless after the duello, tumble from the
-ceilings; in the darker corners spiders of frightful
-hideousness weave their solid webs; and the rest of the
-population is represented by tenacious ticks of many
-kinds, flies of sorts, bugs, fleas, mosquitoes, and small
-ants, which are, perhaps, the worst plagues of all. The
-Riciniæ in Eastern Africa are locally called Papazi,
-which probably explains the “Pazi bug,” made by Dr.
-Krapf a rival in venom to the Argas Persicus, or fatal
-“bug of Miana.” In Eastern Africa these parasites are
-found of many shapes, round and oval, flat and swollen;
-after suction they vary in size from microscopic dimensions
-to three-quarters of an inch; the bite cannot
-poison, but the constant irritation caused by it may
-induce fever and its consequences. A hut infested with
-Papazi must be sprinkled with boiling water, and swept
-clean for many weeks, before they will disappear. In
-the Tembe there is no draught to disturb the smaller
-occupants, consequently they are more numerous than
-in the circular cottage. Moreover, the people, having
-an aversion to sleeping in the open air, thus supply
-their co-inhabitants with nightly rations, which account
-for their fecundity.</p>
-
-<p>The abodes, as might be expected, are poorly furnished.
-In Unyamwezi, they contain invariably one or more
-“Kitanda.” This cartel, or bedstead, is a rude contrivance.
-Two parallel lines of peeled tree-branches, planted at
-wide intervals, support in their forks horizontal poles:
-upon these is spread crosswise a layer of thick sticks,
-which forms the frame. The bedding consists of a
-bull-hide or two, and perhaps a long, coarse, rush-mat.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-372">[372]</span>
-It is impossible for any one but an African to sleep
-upon these Kitanda, on account of their shortness, the
-hardness of the material, and the rapid slope which
-supplies the want of pillows, and serves for another
-purpose which will not be described. When removed,
-a fractured pole will pour forth a small shower of the
-foul cimex: this people of hard skins considers its
-bite an agreeable titillation, and, what may somewhat
-startle a European, esteems its odour a perfume.
-Around the walls depend from pegs neatly-plaited
-slings of fibrous cord, supporting gourds and “vilindo”&mdash;neat
-cylinders, like small band-boxes, of tree bark,
-made to contain cloth, butter, grain, or other provisions.
-In the store-room, propped upon stones, and plastered
-over with clay for preservation, are Lindo, huge corn-bins
-of the same material; grain is ground upon a
-coarse granite slab, raised at an angle of 25°, about
-one foot above the floor, and embedded in a rim of
-hard clay. The hearth is formed of three “Mafiga,”
-or truncated cones of red or grey mud, sometimes two
-feet high, and ten inches in diameter at the base: they
-are disposed triangularly, with the apex to the wall,
-and open to the front when the fire is made. The pot
-rests upon the tripod. The broom, a wisp of grass, a
-bunch of bamboo splints, or a split fibrous root, usually
-sticks in the ceiling; its work is left to the ants. From
-the rafters hang drums and kettle-drums, skins and
-hides in every process, and hooked twigs dangling
-from strings support the bows and arrows, the spears
-and assegais. An arrow is always thrust into the inner
-thatch for good luck: ivory is stored between the
-rafters, hence its dark ruddy colour, which must be
-removed by ablution with warm blood; and the ceiling
-is a favourite place for small articles that require
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-373">[373]</span>
-seasoning&mdash;bows, quivers, bird-bolts, knob-sticks, walking-canes,
-reed-nozzles for bellows, and mi’iko or ladles,
-two feet long, used to stir porridge. The large and heavy
-water-pots, of black clay, which are filled every morning
-and evening by the women at the well, lie during
-the day empty or half empty about the room. The
-principal article of luxury is the “Kiti,” or dwarf
-stool, cut out of a solid block, measuring one foot in
-height by six inches in diameter, with a concave surface
-for convenience of sitting: it has usually three carved
-legs or elbows; some, however, are provided with a
-fourth, and with a base like the seat, to steady them.
-They are invariably used by the Sultan and the
-Mganga, who disdain to sit upon the ground: and the
-Wamrima ornament them with plates of tin let into the
-upper concaves. The woods generally used for the Kiti,
-are the Mninga and the Mpingu. The former is a tall
-and stately tree, which supplies wood of a dark mahogany
-colour, exuding in life a red gum, like dragon’s
-blood: the trunk is converted into bowls and platters,
-the boughs into rafters, which are, however, weak
-and subject to the xylophagus, whilst of the heart
-are made spears, which, when old and well-greased,
-resemble teak-wood. The Mpingu is the Sisam of India,
-(Dalbergia Sissoo) here erroneously called by the Arabs
-Abnus&mdash;ebony. The tree is found throughout Eastern
-Africa. The wood is of fine quality, and dark at the
-core: the people divide it into male and female; the
-former is internally a dark brick-dust red, whilst the
-latter verges upon black: they make from it spears
-and axe-handles, which soon, however, when exposed
-to the air, unless regularly greased, become brittle.
-The massive mortar, for husking grain, called by the
-people “Mchi,” is shaped exactly like those portrayed
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-374">[374]</span>
-in the interior-scenes of ancient Egypt: it is hewn out
-of the trunk of the close-grained Mkora tree. The
-huge pestle, like a capstan-bar, is made of the
-Mkorongo, a large tree with a fine-grained wood, which
-is also preferred to others for rafters, as it best resists
-the attacks of insects.</p>
-
-<p>Such, gentle reader, is the Tembe of Central Africa.
-Concerning village life, I shall have something to say
-in a future page. The scene is more patent to the
-stranger’s eye in these lands than in the semi-civilised
-regions of Asia, where men rarely admit him into their
-society.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-375">[375]</span></p>
-
-<div class="container w40em" id="Illoi-15">
-<img src="images/i_illo405.jpg" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">African House Building.</p>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="chapno">CHAP. XI.</span><br />
-<span class="chapname">WE CONCLUDE THE TRANSIT OF UNYAMWEZI.</span></h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<p class="noindent">I was detained at Kazeh from the 8th November to
-the 14th December, 1857, and the delay was one long
-trial of patience.</p>
-
-<p>It is customary for stranger-caravans proceeding towards
-Ujiji to remain six weeks or two months at
-Unyanyembe for repose and recovery from the labours
-which they have, or are supposed to have, endured:
-moreover, they are expected to enjoy the pleasures of
-civilised society, and to accept the hospitality offered to
-them by the resident Arabs. In Eastern Africa, I may
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-376">[376]</span>
-again suggest, six weeks is as the three days’ visit in
-England.</p>
-
-<p>On the morning after our arrival at Kazeh, the gang
-of Wanyamwezi porters that had accompanied us from
-the coast withdrew their hire from our cloth-bales;
-and not demanding, because they did not expect,
-bakhshish, departed, without a sign of farewell, to
-their homes in Western Unyamwezi. The Kirangozi
-or guide received a small present of domestics: his
-family being at Msene, distant five marches ahead, he
-fixed, after long haggling, the term of fifteen days as
-his leave of absence, after which he promised to join me
-with a fresh gang for the journey to Ujiji.</p>
-
-<p>The rest of the party apparently considered Unyanyembe,
-not Ujiji, the end of the exploration; it proved
-in effect a second point of departure, easier than Kaole
-only because I had now gained some experience.</p>
-
-<p>Two days after our arrival, the Baloch, headed by
-their Jemadar, appeared in full toilette to demand a
-“Hakk el Salamah,” or reward for safe-conduct. I informed
-them that this would be given when they
-had reached the end of the up-march. The pragmatical
-Darwaysh declared that without bakhshish there
-would be no advance; he withdrew his words, however,
-when my companion was called in to witness their being
-committed to paper&mdash;a proceeding always unpalatable
-to the Oriental. The Baloch then subsided
-into begging for salt and spices, and having received
-more than they had probably ever possessed in their
-lives, they privily complained of my parsimony to Said
-bin Salim. They then sent for tobacco, a goat, gunpowder,
-bullets&mdash;all which they obtained. Their
-next manœuvre was to extract four cloths for tinning
-their single copper pot and for repairing the matchdogs
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-377">[377]</span>
-and stocks of two old matchlocks. They then sold a
-keg of gunpowder committed to their charge. They
-had experienced every kindness from Snay bin Amir,
-from Sallum bin Hamid, in fact, from all the Arab merchants
-of Kazeh. They lodged comfortably in Musa
-Mzuri’s house, and their allowance, one Shukkah of
-domestics per diem, enabled them to buy goats, sheep,
-and fowls&mdash;luxuries unknown in their starving huts at
-Zanzibar. Yet they did not fail, with their foul tongues,
-ever ready, as the Persians say, for “spitting at Heaven,”
-to charge their kind hosts with the worst crime that
-the Arab knows&mdash;niggardness.</p>
-
-<p>On the 8th November, I had arranged with Kidogo, as
-well as with the Kirangozi, to resume the march at the
-end of a fortnight. Ten days afterwards I again sent
-for him to conclude the plans concerning the journey:
-evidently something lay deep within his breast, but the
-difficulty was to extract it. He began by requiring a
-present for his excellent behaviour&mdash;he received, to his
-astonishment, four cloths. He next demanded leave to
-visit his Unyamwezi home for a week, and was unpleasantly
-surprised when it was granted. He then “hit the
-right nail on the head.” The sons of Ramji, declaring that
-I had promised them a bullock on arrival at Kazeh,
-had seized, hamstrung, and cut up a fine fat animal sent
-to me by Sallum bin Hamid; yet Kidogo averred that
-the alleged promise must be fulfilled to them. When I
-refused, he bluntly informed me that I was quite equal
-to the task of collecting porters for myself; I replied
-that this was his work and not mine. He left the house
-abruptly, swearing that he would not trouble himself
-any longer, and, moreover, for the future that his men
-should not carry the lightest load, nor assist us even in
-threading beads. At last, on the 27th November, I sent
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-378">[378]</span>
-for Kidogo, and told him that the march was positively
-fixed for the next week. After sitting for a time
-“<i>cupo concentrato</i>,” in profound silence, the angry
-slave arose, delivered a volley of rattling words with
-the most theatrical fierceness, and rushed from the room,
-leaving the terrified Said bin Salim gazing upon vacancy
-like an idiot. Accompanied by his followers, who were
-shouting and laughing, he left the house, when&mdash;I afterwards
-heard&mdash;they drew their sabres, and waving them
-round their heads, they shouted, for the benefit of
-Arabs, “Tume-shinda Wazungu”&mdash;“We have conquered
-the Whites!” I held a consultation with my
-hosts concerning the advisability of disarming the recreant
-sons of Ramji. But Sallum bin Hamid, the “papa”
-of the colony, took up the word, and, as usual with such
-deliberative bodies, the council of war advised peace.
-They informed me that in Unyamwezi slaves and muskets
-are the stranger’s sole protection, and as they were
-unanimous in persuading me to temporise, to “swallow
-anger” till after return, I felt bound, after applying
-for it, to be guided by their advice. At the consultation,
-however, the real object which delayed the sons
-of Ramji at Kazeh oozed out: their patroon, Mr.
-Rush Ramji, had written to them that his and their
-trading outfit was on its way from the coast; consequently,
-they had determined to await, and to make us
-await, its arrival before marching upon Ujiji.</p>
-
-<p>On the 14th November, the Masika or wet season,
-which had announced its approach by premonitory
-showers and by a final burst of dry heat, set in over
-the Land of the Moon with torrents of rain and “rain-stones,”
-as hail is here called, and with storms of thunder
-and lightning, which made it more resemble the first
-breaking of an Indian than the desultory fall of a Zanzibar
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-379">[379]</span>
-wet-monsoon. I was still under the impression
-that we were encountering the Choti Barsat or Little
-Rains of Bengal and Bombay; and curious to say, the
-Arabs of Unyanyembe one and all declared, even after the
-wet-monsoon had reached its height, that the Masika
-in Unyamwezi is synchronous with that of the island
-and the coast, namely, in early April.</p>
-
-<p>The Rains in Eastern Africa are, like the summer in
-England, the only healthy and enjoyable season: the
-contrast between the freshness of the air and the verdure
-of the scenery after the heat, dust, and desolation
-that preceded the first showers, was truly luxurious.
-Yet the Masika has many disadvantages for travellers.
-The Wanyamwezi, who were sowing their fields, declined
-to act porters, and several Arab merchants, who
-could not afford the expenditure required to hire unwilling
-men, were halted perforce in and near Unyanyembe.
-The peasants would come in numbers; offer to
-accompany the caravan; stand, stare, and laugh their
-vacant laughs; lift and balance their packs; chaffer
-about hire; promise to return next morning, and definitively
-disappear. With the utmost exertion Snay
-bin Amir could collect only ten men, and they were all
-ready to desert. Moreover, the opening of the Masika is
-ever unhealthy; strangers suffer severely from all sudden
-changes of temperature; Unyamwezi speedily became</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“As full of agues as the sun in March.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">Another cause of delay became imminent; my companion
-was comparatively strong, but the others were
-prostrated by sickness. Valentine first gave in; he was
-nearly insensible for three days and nights, the usual
-period of the Mukunguru or “Seasoning” of Unyamwezi&mdash;a
-malignant bilious remittent&mdash;which left him
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-380">[380]</span>
-weaker and thinner than he had ever been before. When
-he recovered, Gaetano fell ill, and was soon in the happy
-state of unconsciousness which distinguished all his
-fevers. The bull-headed slave Mabruki also retired into
-private life, and Bombay was laid up by a shaking ague,
-whilst the Baloch and the sons of Ramji, who had
-led a life so irregular that the Arabs had frequently
-threatened them with punishment, also began to pay the
-penalty of excess.</p>
-
-<p>Snay bin Amir was our principal doctor. An adept
-in the treatment, called by his countrymen “camel-physic,”
-namely, cautery and similar counter-irritants,
-he tried his art upon me when I followed the example
-of the party. At length, when the Hummah, or hot fit,
-refused to yield to its supposed specific, a coating of
-powdered ginger, he insisted upon my seeing a Mganga,
-or witch, celebrated for her cures throughout the country-side.
-She came, a wrinkled old beldame, with a
-greasy skin, black as soot, set off by a mass of tin-coloured
-pigtails: her arms were adorned with copper
-bangles like manacles, and the implement of her craft
-was, as usual, a girdle of small gourds dyed red-black
-with oil and use.</p>
-
-<p>After demanding and receiving her fee in cloth, she
-proceeded to search my mouth, and to inquire anxiously
-concerning poison. The question showed the prevalence
-of the practice in the country, and indeed the
-people, to judge from their general use of “Mithridates,”
-seem ever to expect it. She then drew from
-a gourd a greenish powder, which was apparently bhang,
-and having mixed it with water, she administered it
-like snuff, causing a convulsion of sneezing, which she
-hailed with shouts and various tokens of joy. Presently
-she rubbed my head with powder of another kind, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-381">[381]</span>
-promising to return the next day, she left me to rest,
-declaring that sleep would cause a cure. The prediction,
-however, was not fulfilled, nor was the promise.
-Having become wealthy, she absconded to indulge
-in unlimited pombe for a week. The usual consequences
-of this “seasoning,” distressing weakness, hepatic
-derangements, burning palms, and tingling soles,
-aching eyes, and alternate thrills of heat and cold,
-lasted, in my case, a whole month.</p>
-
-<p>Our departure from Kazeh had now been repeatedly
-deferred. The fortnight originally fixed for the halt
-had soon passed in the vain search for porters. Sickness
-then delayed the journey till the 1st December, and
-Snay bin Amir still opined that want of carriage would
-detain me till the 19th of that month; he would not
-name the 18th, which was an unlucky day. When they
-recovered from their ailments, the Jemadar and the
-Baloch again began to be troublesome. All declared
-that a whole year, the term for which they had been
-sent by their Prince, had elapsed, and therefore that
-they had now a right to return. The period was wholly
-one of their own, based perhaps upon an answer which
-they had received from Lieut.-Col. Hamerton touching
-the probable duration of the Expedition, “a year or
-so.” Even of that time it still wanted five months,
-but nothing from myself or from Said bin Salim could
-convince men who would not be convinced, of that
-simple fact. Ismail, the Baloch, who was dying of dysentery,
-reported himself unable to proceed: arrangements
-were made to leave him and his “brother”
-Shahdad&mdash;the fearful tinkling of whose sleepless guitar
-argued that the sweet youth was in love&mdash;under the
-charge of Snay bin Amir, at Kazeh. Greybeard Mohammed
-was sulking with his fellows. He sat apart from
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-382">[382]</span>
-them; and complaining that he had not received his portion
-of food, came to me for dismissal, which was granted,
-but not accepted. The Jemadar required for himself
-and the escort a porter per man. When this was
-refused, he changed his tactics, and began to lament
-bitterly the unavoidable delay. He annoyed me with
-ceaseless visits, which were spent in harping upon the
-one string, “When do we march?” At last I forbade
-all allusion to the subject. In wrath he demanded leave,
-declaring that he had not come to settle in Africa, and
-much “excessiveness” to the same effect. He was at
-last brought to his senses by being summarily turned
-out of the house for grossly insulting my companion.
-A reaction then ensued; the Baloch professed penitence,
-and all declared themselves ready to march or to halt
-as I pleased. Yet, simulating impatience to depart, they
-clung to the pleasures of Kazeh; they secretly caused
-the desertion of the porters, and they never ceased to
-spread idle reports, vainly hoping that I might be induced
-to return to the coast.</p>
-
-<p>Finally, Said bin Salim fulfilled at Kazeh Lieut.-Col.
-Hamerton’s acute prophecy. The Bukini blood of his
-mother&mdash;a Malagash slave&mdash;got the better of his Omani
-descent. I had long reformed my opinion concerning
-his generosity and kindheartedness, hastily concluded
-during a short cruise along the coast. “Man’s heart,”
-say the Arabs, “is known only in the fray, and man’s
-head is known only on the way.” But though high-flown
-sentiment and studied courtesy had disappeared
-with the first days of hardship and fatigue, he preserved
-for a time the semblance of respectability and respect.
-Presently, like the viler orders of Orientals, he presumed
-upon his usefulness, and his ability to forward
-the Expedition; the farther we progressed from our
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-383">[383]</span>
-“<i>point d’appui</i>” the coast, the more independent became
-his manner,&mdash;of course it afterwards subsided
-into its former civility,&mdash;and an overpowering egotism
-formed the motive of his every action. I had imprudently
-allowed him to be accompanied by the charming
-Halimah. True to his servile origin, he never seemed
-happy except in servile society, where he was “king of
-his company.” At Kazeh, jealous of my regard for
-Snay bin Amir, and wearied by long evening conversations,
-where a little “ilm” or knowledge in the shape
-of history and divinity used to appear,&mdash;his ignorance
-and apathy concerning all things but A. bin B., and B.
-bin C., who married his son D. to the daughter of E., prevented
-his taking part in them,&mdash;he became first sulky,
-and then “contrarious.” Formerly he was wont, on
-the usual occasions, to address a word of salutation to
-my companion: this ceased, and presently he would pass
-him as if he had been a bale of cloth. He affected in
-society the indecorous posture of a European woman
-stretched upon a sofa, after crouching for months upon
-his shins,&mdash;in fact he was, as the phrase is, “trailing
-his jacket” for a quarrel.</p>
-
-<p>Through timidity he had been profuse in expending
-the goods entrusted to his charge, and he had been repeatedly
-reproved for serving out, without permission,
-cloth and beads to his children. Yet, before reaching
-Unyanyembe,I never had reason to suspect him of dishonesty
-or deceit. At Kazeh, however, he was ordered
-to sell a keg of gunpowder, before his slaves could purloin
-the whole. He reported that he had passed on
-the commission to Snay bin Amir. I also forbade him
-to issue hire to porters for a return-march from the
-Lake, having been informed that such was the best way
-to secure their desertion; and the information proved
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-384">[384]</span>
-true enough, as twenty-five disappeared in a single
-night. He repeatedly affirmed that he had engaged
-and paid them for the up-march only. When he stood
-convicted of a double falsehood, he had <i>not</i> spoken
-about the gunpowder, and he <i>had</i> issued whole hire to
-several of the porters, I improved the occasion with a
-mild reproach. The little creature became vicious as
-a weasel, screamed like a hyæna, declared himself no
-tallab or “asker,” but an official under his government,
-and poured forth a torrent of justification. I
-cut the same short by leaving the room&mdash;a confirmed
-slight in these lands&mdash;and left him to rough language
-on the part of Snay bin Amir. Some hours subsequently
-he recovered his temper, and observed that
-“even husband and wife must occasionally have a gird
-at each other.” Not caring, however, for a repetition
-of such puerilities, I changed the tone of kindness in
-which he had invariably been addressed, for one of
-routine command, and this was preserved till the day
-of our final parting on the coast.</p>
-
-<p>The good Snay bin Amir redoubled his attentions.
-His slaves strung in proper lengths, upon the usual
-palm-fibre, the beads sent up loose from Zanzibar; and
-he distributed the bales in due proportions for carriage.
-Our lights being almost exhausted, he made for us
-“dips,” by ladling over wicks of unravelled “domestics”
-the contents of a cauldron filled with equal
-parts of hot wax and tallow. My servant, Valentine,
-who, evincing uncommon aptitude for cooking, had as
-yet acquired only that wretched art of burlesquing
-coarse English dishes which renders the table in Western
-India a standing mortification to man’s palate, was
-apprenticed to Mama Khamisi, a buxom housekeeper
-in Snay’s establishment. There, in addition to his
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-385">[385]</span>
-various Goanese accomplishments&mdash;making curds and
-whey, butter, cheese, and ghee; potting fish, pickling
-onions and limes, and preparing jams and jelly
-from the pleasant and cooling rosel,&mdash;he learned the
-art of yeasting bread with whey or sour bean-flour
-(his leathery scones of coarse meal were an abomination
-to us); of straining honey, of preparing the favourite
-“Kawurmeh,” jerked or smoked meat chipped up and
-soused in ghee; of making Firni, rice-jelly, and Halwa,
-confectionery, in the shape of “Kazi’s luggage,” and
-“hand-works:” he was taught to make ink from
-burnt grain; and last, not least, the trick of boiling
-rice as it should be boiled. We, in turn, taught him
-the various sciences of bird-stuffing, of boiling down
-isinglass and ghee, of doctoring tobacco with plantain,
-heeart, and tea leaves, and of making milk-punch, cigars,
-and guraku for the hookah. Snay bin Amir also sent into
-the country for plantains and tamarinds, then unprocurable
-at Kazeh, and he brewed a quantity of beer and
-mawa or plantain-wine. He admonished the Baloch
-and the sons of Ramji to be more careful, as regards
-conduct and expenditure. He lent me valuable
-assistance in sketching the outlines of the Kinyamwezi,
-or language of Unyamwezi, and by his distances and
-directions we were enabled to lay down the Southern
-limits, and the general shape of the Nyanza or Northern
-Lake, as correctly&mdash;and the maps forwarded from Kazeh
-to the Royal Geographical Society will establish this fact&mdash;as
-they were subsequently determined, after actual
-exploration, by my companion. He took charge of our
-letters and papers intended for home, and he undertook
-to forward the lagging gang still expected from the
-Coast: as the future will prove, his energy enabled me to
-receive the much wanted reserve in the “nick of time.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-386">[386]</span></p>
-
-<p>At length, it became apparent that no other porters
-were procurable at Kazeh, and that the restiff Baloch
-and the sons of Ramji disdaining Cæsar’s “ite,” required
-his “venite.” I therefore resolved to lead them, instead
-of expending time and trouble in driving them, trusting
-that old habit, and that the difficulties attending their
-remaining behind would induce them to follow me.
-After much murmuring, my companion preceded me on
-the 5th December, and “made a Khambi,” at Zimbili,
-a lumpy hill, with a north and south lay, and conspicuous
-as a landmark from the Arab settlements,
-which are separated from it by a march of two hours.
-On the third day I followed him, in truth, more dead
-than alive,&mdash;the wing of Azrael seemed waving over my
-head,&mdash;even the movement of the Manchila was almost
-unendurable. I found cold and comfortless quarters in a
-large village at the base of Zimbili, no cartel was procurable,
-the roof leaked, and every night brought with it
-a furious storm of lightning, wind, and rain. By slow
-degrees, the Baloch began to drop in, a few of the
-sons of Ramji, and the donkey-men followed, half-a-dozen
-additional porters were engaged, and I was
-recovering strength to advance once more, when the
-report that our long-expected caravan was halted at
-Rubuga, in consequence of desertion, rendered a
-further delay necessary. My companion returned to
-Kazeh, to await the arrival of the reserve-supplies, and
-I proceeded onwards to collect a gang for the journey
-westwards.</p>
-
-<p>At 10 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, on the 15th December, I mounted the
-Manchila, carried by six slaves, hired by Snay bin
-Amir, from Khamis bin Salim at the rate of three
-pounds of white beads each, for the journey to Msene.
-After my long imprisonment, I was charmed with the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-387">[387]</span>
-prospect, a fine open country, with well-wooded hills
-rolling into blue distance on either hand. A two
-hours’ ride placed me at Yombo, a new and picturesque
-village of circular tents, surrounded by plantains and
-wild fruit-trees. The Mkuba bears an edible red plum,
-which, though scanty of flesh, as usual, where man’s
-care is wanting, was found by no means unpalatable.
-The Metrongoma produces a chocolate-coloured fruit,
-about the size of a cherry: it is eaten, but it lacks the
-grateful acid of the Mkuba. The gigantic Palmyra or
-Borassus, which failed in the barren platform of Ugogo,
-here re-appears, and hence extends to the Tanganyika
-Lake.</p>
-
-<p>I halted two days at Yombo: the situation was low
-and unhealthy, and provisions were procurable in
-homœopathic quantities. My only amusement there
-was to watch the softer part of the population. At
-eventide, when the labours of the day were past and
-done, the villagers came home in a body, laden with
-their implements of cultivation, and singing a kind of
-“dulce domum,” in a simple and pleasing recitative.
-The sunset hour, in the “Land of the Moon,” is
-replete with enjoyments. The sweet and balmy breeze
-floats in waves, like the draught of a fan; the sky is
-softly and serenely blue; the fleecy clouds, stationary in
-the upper firmament, are robed in purple and gold, and
-the beautiful blush, crimsoning the west, is reflected
-by all the features of earth. At this time, all is life.
-The vulture soars with silent flight, high in the blue
-expanse; the small birds preen themselves for the night,
-and sing their evening hymns; the antelopes prepare to
-couch in the bush; the cattle and flocks frisk and
-gamble, whilst driven from their pastures; and the
-people busy themselves with the simple pleasures that
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-388">[388]</span>
-end the day. Every evening there is a smoking party,
-which particularly attracts my attention. All the feminine
-part of the population, from wrinkled grandmother
-to the maiden scarcely in her teens, assemble together,
-and sitting in a circle upon dwarf stools and logs of
-wood, apply themselves to their long black-bowl’d pipes.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Sæpe illæ long-cut vel short-cut flare tobacco<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">Sunt solitæ pipos.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">They smoke with an intense enjoyment, slowly and
-deeply inhaling the glorious weed, and exhaling clouds
-from their nostrils; at times they stop to cool the
-mouth with slices of raw manioc, or cobs of green
-maize roasted in the ashes; and often some earnest matter
-of local importance causes the pipes to be removed
-for a few minutes, and a clamour of tongues breaks the
-usual silence. The pipe also requires remark: the bowl
-is of imperfect material&mdash;the clay being half-baked&mdash;but
-the shape is perfect. The African tapering cone is
-far superior to the European bowl: the former gives as
-much smoke as possible whilst the tobacco is fresh and
-untainted, and as little when it becomes hot and unpleasant;
-the latter acts on the contrary principle.
-Amongst the fair of Yombo, there were no less than
-three beauties&mdash;women who would be deemed beautiful
-in any part of the world. Their faces were purely
-Grecian; they had laughing eyes, their figures were
-models for an artist, <span class="nowrap">with&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent00">“Turgide, brune e ritondette mamme,”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">like the “bending statue that delights the world”
-cast in bronze. The dress&mdash;a short kilt of calabash
-fibre,&mdash;rather set off than concealed their charms, and
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-389">[389]</span>
-though destitute of petticoat or crinoline they were
-wholly unconscious of indecorum. It is a question that
-by no means can be positively answered in the affirmative,
-that real modesty is less in proportion to the absence
-of toilette. These “beautiful domestic animals”
-graciously smiled when in my best Kinyamwezi I did
-my devoir to the sex; and the present of a little
-tobacco always secured for me a seat in the undress
-circle.</p>
-
-<p>After hiring twenty porters&mdash;five lost no time in
-deserting&mdash;and mustering the Baloch, of whom eleven
-now were present, I left Yombo on the 18th December,
-and passing through a thick green jungle, with low,
-wooded, and stony hills rising on the left hand, to about
-4000 feet above sea-level, I entered the little settlement
-of Pano. The next day brought us to the
-clearing of Mfuto, a broad, populous, and fertile rolling
-plain, where the stately tamarind flourished to perfection.
-A third short march, through alternate patches
-of thin wood and field, studded with granite blocks, led
-to Irora, a village in Western Mfuto, belonging to Salim
-bin Salih, an Arab from Mbuamaji, and a cousin of
-Said bin Mohammed, my former travelling companion,
-who had remained behind at Kazeh. This individual,
-a fat, pulpy, and dingy-coloured mulatto, appeared
-naked to the waist, and armed with bow and arrows: he
-received me surlily, and when I objected to a wretched
-cow-shed outside his palisade, he suddenly waxed
-furious: he raved like a madman, shook his silly bow, and
-declared that he ignored the name of the Sayyid Majid,
-being himself as good a “Sultan” as any other. He
-became pacified on perceiving that his wrath excited
-nothing but the ridicule of the Baloch, found a better
-lodging, sent a bowl of fresh milk wherein to drown
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-390">[390]</span>
-differences, and behaved on this and a subsequent occasion
-more like an Arab Shaykh, than an African
-headman.</p>
-
-<p>On the 22nd December my companion rejoined me,
-bringing four loads of cloth, three of beads, and seven
-of brass wire: they formed part of the burden of the
-twenty-two porters who were to join the Expedition ten
-days after its departure from the coast. The Hindus,
-Ladha Damha and Mr. Rush Ramji, after the decease of
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, had behaved with culpable
-neglect. The cloth was of the worst and flimsiest description;
-the beads were the cheap white and the useless
-black&mdash;the latter I was obliged to throw away; and
-as they sent up the supply without other guard than two
-armed slaves, “Mshindo” and “Kirikhota,” the consequence
-was that the pair had plundered <i>ad libitum</i>. No
-letters had been forwarded, and no attention had been
-paid to my repeated requests for drugs and other stores.
-My companion’s new gang, levied at Kazeh, affected the
-greatest impatience. They refused to halt for a day,&mdash;even
-Christmas day. They proposed double marches, and
-they resolved to proceed by the straight road to Msene.
-It was deemed best to humour them. They arrived,
-however, at their destination only one day before my
-party, who travelled leisurely, and who followed the
-longer and the more cultivated route.</p>
-
-<p>We left Irora on the 23rd December, and marched from
-sunrise till noon to the district of Eastern Wilyankuru.
-There we again separated. On the next day I passed
-alone through the settlement called Muinyi Chandi,
-where certain Arabs from Oman had built large Tembe,
-to serve as barracoons and warehouses. This district
-supplies the adjoining countries with turmeric, of which
-very little grows in Unyanyembe. After this march disappeared
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-391">[391]</span>
-the last of the six hammals who had been hired
-to carry the hammocks. They were as unmanageable
-as wild asses, ever grumbling and begging for “kitoweyo,”&mdash;“kitchen;”&mdash;constitutionally
-unfitted to obey
-an order; disposed, as the noble savage generally is, to be
-insolent; and, like all porters in this part of the world,
-unable to carry a palanquin. Two men, instead of four,
-insisted upon bearing the hammock; thus overburdened
-and wishing to get over the work, they hurried
-themselves till out of breath. When one was fagged,
-the man that should have relieved him was rarely to be
-found, consequently two or three stiff trudges knocked
-them up and made them desert. Said bin Salim, the
-Jemadar, and the Baloch, doubtlessly impressed with
-the belief that my days were numbered, passed me on
-the last march without a word&mdash;the sun was hot, and
-they were hastening to shade&mdash;and left me with only
-two men to carry the hammock, in a dangerous strip of
-jungle where, shortly afterwards, Salim bin Masud, an
-Arab merchant of Msene, was murdered.</p>
-
-<p>On Christmas day I again mounted ass, and passing
-through the western third of the Wilyankuru district,
-was hospitably received by a wealthy proprietor, Salim
-bin Said, surnamed, probably on account of his stature,
-Simba, or the Lion, who had obtained from the Sultan
-Mrorwa permission to build a large Tembe. The worthy
-and kind-hearted Arab exerted himself strenuously to
-promote the comfort of his guest. He led me to a comfortable
-lodging, placed a new cartel in the coolest room,
-supplied meat, milk, and honey, and spent the evening
-in conversation with me. He was a large middle-aged
-man, with simple, kindly manners, and an honesty of
-look and words which rendered his presence exceedingly
-prepossessing.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-392">[392]</span></p>
-
-<p>After a short and eventless march, on the 26th December,
-to Masenge, I reached on the following day the
-little clearing of Kirira. I was unexpectedly welcomed
-by two Arabs, Masud ibn Musallam el Wardi, and Hamid
-bin Ibrahim el Amuri. The former, an old man of the
-Beni Bu Ali clan, and personally familiar with Sir Lionel
-Smith’s exploits, led me into the settlement, which was
-heaped round with a tall green growth of milkbush, and
-placed me upon a cartel in the cool and spacious barzah
-or vestibule of the Tembe. From my vantage-ground I
-enjoyed the pleasant prospect of those many little miseries
-which Orientals&mdash;perhaps not only Orientals&mdash;create
-for themselves by “ceremony” and “politeness.” Weary
-and fagged by sun and dust, the Baloch were kept standing
-for nearly half an hour before the preliminaries to
-sitting down could be arranged and the party could be
-marshalled in proper order,&mdash;the most honourable man
-on the left hand of the host, and the “lower class” off
-the dais or raised step;&mdash;and, when they commenced to
-squat, they reposed upon their shins, and could not remove
-their arms or accoutrements till especially invited
-to hang them up. Hungry and thirsty, they dared not
-commit the solecism of asking for food or drink; they
-waited from 9 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> till noon, sometimes eyeing the door
-with wistful looks, but generally affecting an extreme
-indifference as to feeding. At length came the meal, a
-mountain of rice, capped with little boulders of mutton.
-It was allowed to cool long before precedence round the
-tray was settled, and ere the grace, “Bismillah,”&mdash;the
-signal to “set to,”&mdash;was reverentially asked by Said bin
-Salim. Followed a preparation of curdled milk, for which
-spoons being requisite, a wooden ladle did the necessary.
-There was much bustling and not a little importance about
-Hamid, the younger host, a bilious subject twenty-four or
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-393">[393]</span>
-twenty-five years old, who for reasons best known to himself
-assumed the style and title of Sarkal,&mdash;Government servant.
-The meal concluded with becoming haste, and was
-followed by that agreeable appearance of repletion which
-is so pleasing to the Oriental Amphitryon. The Baloch
-returned to squat upon their shins, and they must have
-suffered agonies till 5 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, when the appearance of a
-second and a more ceremonious repast enabled them once
-more to perch upon their heels. It was hard eating
-this time; the shorwa, or mutton broth, thickened with
-melted butter, attracted admiration; the guests, however,
-could only hint at its excellences, because in the East
-if you praise a man’s meat you intend to slight his society.
-The <i>plat de résistance</i> was, as usual, the pillaw,
-or, as it is here called, pulao,&mdash;not the conventional mess
-of rice and fowl, almonds and raisins, onion-shreds, cardomoms,
-and other abominations, which goes by that
-name amongst Anglo-Indians, but a solid heap of rice,
-boiled after being greased with a handful of <span class="nowrap">ghee&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>(I must here indulge in a little digression. For the past
-century, which concluded with reducing India to the
-rank of a British province, the proud invader has eaten
-her rice after a fashion which has secured for him the contempt
-of the East. He deliberately boils it, and after
-drawing off the nutritious starch or gluten called “conjee,”
-which forms the perquisite of his Portuguese or his
-Pariah cook, he is fain to fill himself with that which has
-become little more nutritious than the prodigal’s husks.
-Great, indeed, is the invader’s ignorance upon that point.
-Peace be to the manes of Lord Macaulay, but listen to and
-wonder at his eloquent words!&mdash;“The Sepoys came to
-Clive, not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose
-that all the grain should be given to the Europeans, who
-required more nourishment than the natives of Asia. The
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-394">[394]</span>
-thin gruel, they said, which was strained away from the
-rice would suffice for themselves. History contains no
-more touching instance of military fidelity, or of the
-influence of a commanding mind.” Indians never fail
-to drink the “conjee.” The Arab, on the other hand,
-mingles with his rice a sufficiency of ghee to prevent
-the extraction of the “thin gruel,” and thus makes the
-grain as palatable and as nutritious as Nature intended
-it to be.)</p>
-
-<p>&mdash;and dotted over with morsels of fowl, so boiled that
-they shredded like yarn under the teeth. This repast
-again concluded with a bowl of sweetened milk, and
-other entremets, for which both hosts amply apologised;
-the house had lately been burned down, and
-honey had been used instead of sugar. The day concluded
-with prayers, with a seance in the verandah
-and with drinking fresh milk out of gourds&mdash;a state of
-things which again demanded excuses. A multitude of
-“Washenzi” thronged into the house, especially during
-the afternoon, to gaze at the Muzungu. I was formally
-presented to the Sultan Kafrira, a tall and wrinkled elder,
-celebrated for ready wits and spear. The sons of
-Ramji had often looked in at the door whilst preparations
-for feeding were going on, but they were not asked
-to sit down: the haughty host had provided them with
-a lean goat, in return for which they privily expressed
-an opinion that he was a “dog.” Masud, boasting of
-his intimacy with the Sultan Msimbira, whose subjects
-had plundered our portmanteau, offered on return to
-Unyanyembe his personal services in ransoming it.
-I accepted with joy; but the Shaykh Masud, as afterwards
-proved, nearly “left his skin” in the undertaking.</p>
-
-<p>The climate of Kíríra is called by the Arabs a medicine.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-395">[395]</span>
-They vaunt its virtues, which become apparent
-after the unhealthy air of Kazeh, and after a delicious
-night spent in the cool barzah, I had no reason to question
-its reputation. I arose in the morning wonderfully
-refreshed, and Valentine, who had been prostrated
-with fever throughout the day, became another man. Yet
-the situation was apparently unpropitious; the Gombe
-Nullah, the main drain of this region, a line of stagnant
-pools, belted with almost impassable vegetation, lies
-hard by, and the background is an expanse of densest
-jungle.</p>
-
-<p>Three short and eventless marches through thick
-jungle, with scattered clearings, led me, on the 30th
-December, to the district of Msene, where the dense
-wild growth lately traversed suddenly opens out and
-discloses to the west a broad view of admirable fertility.
-Before entering the settlements, the caravan halted, as
-usual, to form up. We then progressed with the usual
-pomp and circumstance; the noise was terrific, and the
-streets, or rather the spaces between the houses, were
-lined with Negroid spectators. I was led to the Tembe
-of one Saadullah, a low-caste Msawahili, and there
-found my companion looking but poorly. Gaetano, his
-“boy,” was so excited by the scene, that he fell down
-in a fit closely resembling epilepsy.</p>
-
-<p>Msene, the chief Bandari of Western Unyamwezi, may
-be called the capital of the Coast Arabs and the Wasawahili,
-who, having a natural antipathy to their brethren
-of Oman, have abandoned to them Unyanyembe and its
-vicinity. Of late years, however, the Omani merchants,
-having been driven from the neighbouring districts by
-sundry murders into Msene, may at times be met there
-to the number of four or five. The inhabitants are
-chiefly Wasumbwá, a subtribe of the Wanyamwezi race.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-396">[396]</span>
-There is, however, besides Arabs and Wasawahili, a
-large floating population of the pastoral clan called
-Watosi, and fugitives from Uhha. In 1858 the chief of
-Msene was the Sultan Masanza. Both he and Funza, his
-brother, were hospitable and friendly to travellers, especially
-to the Arabs, who but a few years ago beat off
-with their armed slaves a large plundering party of the
-ferocious Watuta. This chief has considerable power, and
-the heads of many criminals elevated upon poles in front
-of his several villages show that he rules with a firm
-hand. He is never approached by a subject without
-the clapping of hands and the kneeling which in these
-lands are the honours paid to royalty. He was a large-limbed,
-gaunt, and sinewy old man, dressed in a dirty
-Subai or Arab check, over a coating of rancid butter, with
-a broad brass disk, neatly arabesqued, round his neck,
-with a multitude of little pigtails where his head was
-not bald, and with some thirty sambo or flexible wire
-rings deforming, as if by elephantiasis, his ankles. Like
-the generality of sultans, he despises beads as an article
-of decoration, preferring coils of brass or copper. He
-called several times at the house occupied by the Expedition,
-and on more than one occasion brought with him
-a bevy of wives, whose deportment was, I regret to say,
-rather naïve than decorous.</p>
-
-<p>Msene, like Unyanyembe, is not a town, but a mass
-of detached settlements, which are unconscious of a regular
-street. To the northwards lie the villages of the
-Sultan&mdash;Kwihángá and Yovu. These are surrounded
-with a strong stockade, a deep moat, and a thick milk-bush
-hedge, intended for defence. The interior is occupied
-by thatched circular huts, divided by open
-squarelike spaces, and wynds and alleys are formed by
-milk-bush hedges and palisades. There are distinct
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-397">[397]</span>
-places for the several wives, families, and slaves. The
-other settlements&mdash;Mbugání (“in the wild”) and Mji Mpia
-(“new town”), the latter being the place affected by the
-Wasawahili&mdash;cluster in a circle, separated by short cross-roads,
-which after rain are ankle-deep in mud, from
-Chyámbo, the favourite locale of the Coast Arabs. This
-settlement, which contained in 1858 nine large Tembe
-and about 150 huts, boasts of an African attempt at a
-soko or bazar, a clear space between the houses, where,
-in fine weather, bullocks are daily slaughtered for food,
-and where grain, vegetables, and milk are exposed for
-sale. At Msene a fresh outfit of cloth, beads, and wire
-can be procured for a price somewhat higher than at
-Unyanyembe. The merchants have small stores of
-drugs and spices, and sometimes a few comforts, as
-coffee, tea, and sugar. The latter is generally made of
-granulated honey, and therefore called sukárí zá ásalí.
-The climate of Msene is damp, the neighbouring hills
-and the thickly-vegetated country attracting an abundance
-of rain. It is exceedingly unhealthy, the result
-doubtless of filth in the villages and stagnant waters
-spread over the land. The Gombe Nullah, which runs
-through the district, about six hours’ march from
-the settlements, discharges after rain its superfluous
-contents into the many lakelets, ponds, and swamps of
-the lowlands. Fertilised by a wet monsoon, whose floods
-from the middle of October to May are interrupted only
-by bursts of fervent heat, the fat, black soil manured by
-the decay of centuries, reproduces abundantly anything
-committed to it. Flowers bloom spontaneously over
-the flats, and trees put forth their richest raiment. Rice
-of the red quality&mdash;the white is rare and dear&mdash;grows
-with a density and a rapidity unknown in Eastern Unyamwezi.
-Holcus and millet, maize and manioc, are
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-398">[398]</span>
-plentiful enough to be exported. Magnificent palmyras,
-bauhinias and sycomores, plantains, and papaws, and a
-host of wild fruit-trees, especially the tamarind, which
-is extensively used, adorn the land. The other productions
-are onions, sweet potatoes, and egg-plants, which
-are cultivated; turmeric, brought from the vicinity;
-tomatos and bird-pepper, which grow wild; pulse,
-beans, pumpkins, water-melons, excellent mushrooms,
-and edible fungi. Milk, poultry, honey, and tobacco
-are cheap and plentiful. The currency at Msene in
-1858&mdash;the date is specified, as the medium is liable to
-perpetual and sudden change, often causing severe losses
-to merchants, who, after laying in a large outfit of
-certain beads, find them suddenly unfashionable, and
-therefore useless&mdash;was the “pipe-stem,” white and blue
-porcelain-beads, called sofi in the string, and individually
-msaro. Of these ten were sufficient to purchase
-a pound of beef. The other beads in demand were the
-sungomaji, or pigeon-egg, the red-coral, the pink-porcelain,
-and the shell-decorations called kiwangwa. The
-cheaper varieties may be exchanged for grain and
-vegetables, but they will not purchase fowls, milk, and
-eggs. At this place only, the palmyra is tapped for
-toddy; in other parts of East Africa the people are unable
-to climb it. The market at Msene is usually somewhat
-cheaper than that of Unyanyembe, but at times
-the prices become very exorbitant.</p>
-
-<p>The industry of Msene is confined to manufacturing
-a few cotton cloths, coarse mats, clay pipeheads, and
-ironmongery. As might be expected from the constitution
-of its society, Msene is a place of gross debauchery,
-most grateful to the African mind. All, from
-sultan to slave, are intoxicated whenever the material
-is forthcoming, and the relations between the sexes are
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-399">[399]</span>
-of the loosest description. The drum is never silent,
-and the dance fills up the spare intervals of carouse,
-till exhausted nature can no more. The consequence
-is, that caravans invariably lose numbers by desertion
-when passing through Msene. Even household slaves,
-born and bred upon the coast, cannot tear themselves
-from its Circean charms.</p>
-
-<p>There was “cold comfort” at Msene, where I was
-delayed twelve days. The clay roof of the Tembe
-was weed-grown like a deserted grave, and in the foul
-patio or central court-yard only dirty puddles set in
-black mud met the eye. The weather was what only
-they can realise who are familiar with a “Rainy
-Monsoon.” The temptations of the town rendered it
-almost impossible to keep a servant or a slave within
-doors; the sons of Ramji vigorously engaged themselves
-in trading, and Muinyi Wazira in a debauch, which
-ended in his dismissal. Gaetano had repeated epileptic
-fits, and Valentine rushed into the room half-crying to
-show a white animalcule&mdash;in this country called Funza&mdash;which
-had lately issued from his “buff.” None of
-the half-caste Arabs, except I’d and Khalfan, sons of
-Muallim Salim, the youths who had spread evil reports
-concerning us in Ugogo and elsewhere, called or showed
-any civility, and the only Arab at that time resident at
-Msene was the old Salim bin Masud. I received several
-visits from the Sultan Masanza. His first greeting
-was, “White man, what pretty thing hast thou brought
-up from the shore for me?” He presented a bullock, and
-received in return several cloths and strings of beads, and
-he introduced to us a variety of princesses, who returned
-the salutes of the Baloch and others with a wild effusion.
-As Christmas-day had been spent in marching, I
-hailed the opportunity of celebrating the advent of the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-400">[400]</span>
-New Year. Said bin Salim, the Jemadar, and several
-of the guard, were invited to an English dinner on a
-fair sirloin of beef, and a curious succedaneum for a
-plum-pudding, where neither flour nor currants were to
-be found. A characteristic trait manifested itself on
-this occasion. Amongst Arabs, the remnants of a feast
-must always be distributed to the servants and slaves of
-the guests;&mdash;a “brass knocker” would lose a man’s
-reputation. Knowing this, I had ordered the Goanese
-to do in Rome as the Romans do; and being acquainted
-with their peculiarities, I paid them an unexpected visit,
-where they were found so absorbed in the task of hiding,
-under pots and pans, every better morsel from a crowd
-of hungry peerers that the interruption of a stick was
-deemed necessary.</p>
-
-<p>At length, on the 10th January, 1858, I left Msene
-with considerable difficulty. The Kirangozi, or guide,
-who had promised to accompany me, had sent an incompetent
-substitute, his brother, a raw young lad, who
-had no power to collect porters. The sons of Ramji
-positively refused to lend their aid in strengthening
-the gang. One of Said bin Salim’s children, the boy
-Faraj, had fled to Kazeh. The bull-headed Mabruki
-was brought back from flight only by the persuasion of
-his brother “Bombay,” and even “Bombay,” under
-the influence of some negroid Neæra, at the time of departure
-hid himself in his hut. All feared the march
-westwards. A long strip of blue hill lying northwards
-ever keeps the traveller in mind of the robber Watuta,
-and in places where the clans are mixed, all are
-equally hostile to strangers. Villages are less frequented
-and more meanly built, and caravans are not admitted
-beyond the faubourgs&mdash;the miserable huts outlying the
-fences. The land also is most unhealthy. After the
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-401">[401]</span>
-rain, the rich dark loam becomes, like the black soils of
-Guzerat and the Deccan, a coat of viscid mire. Above is
-a canopy of cumulus and purple nimbus, that discharge
-their loads in copious day-long floods. The vegetation
-is excessive, and where there is no cultivation a dense
-matting of coarse grass, laid by wind and water and decayed
-by mud, veils the earth, and from below rises a
-clammy chill, like the thaw-cold of England, the effect of
-extreme humidity. And, finally, the paths are mere
-lines, pitted with deep holes, and worn by cattle
-through the jungle.</p>
-
-<p>After an hour and thirty minutes’ march I entered
-Mb’hali, the normal cultivator’s village in Western Unyamwezi;&mdash;a
-heap of dwarf huts like inverted birds’ nests
-surrounding a central space, and surrounded by giant
-heaps of euphorbia or milk-bush. Tall grasses were
-growing almost up to the door-ways, and about the settlement
-were scattered papaws and plantains; the
-Mwongo, with its damson-like fruit, the Mtogwe or wood-apple
-tree, and the tall solitary Palmyra, whose high
-columnar stem, with its graceful central swell, was eminently
-attractive. We did not delay at Mb’hali, whence
-provisions had been exhausted by the markets of Msene.
-The 11th January led us through a dense jungle upon
-a dead flat, succeeded by rolling ground bordered with
-low hills and covered with alternate bush and cultivation,
-to Sengati, another similar verdure-clad village of
-peasantry, where rice and other supplies were procurable.
-On the 12th January, after passing over a dead
-flat of fields and of the rankest grass, we entered rolling
-ground in the vicinity of the Gombe Nullah, with scattered
-huts upon the rises, and villages built close to the
-dense vegetation bordering upon the stream. Sorora or
-Solola is one of the deadliest spots in Unyamwezi; we
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-402">[402]</span>
-were delayed there, however, three long days, by the
-necessity of collecting a two months’ supply of rice,
-which is rarely to be obtained further west.</p>
-
-<p>The non-appearance of the sons of Ramji rendered
-it necessary to take a strong step. I could ill afford the
-loss of twelve guns, but Kidogo and his men had become
-insufferable: moreover, they had openly boasted
-that they intended to prevent my embarking upon the
-“Sea of Ujiji.” Despite therefore the persuasions of
-the Jemadar and Said bin Salim, who looked as if
-they had heard their death-warrants, I summoned the
-slaves, who first condescended to appear on the 13th
-January&mdash;three days after my departure,&mdash;informed
-them that the six months for which they were engaged
-and paid had expired, and that they had better
-return and transact their proprietor’s business at Kazeh.
-They changed, it is true, their tone and manner, pathetically
-pleaded, as an excuse for their ill conduct, that
-they were slaves, and promised in future to be the most
-obedient of servants. But they had deceived me too
-often, and I feared that, if led forwards, they might
-compromise the success of the exploration. They were
-therefore formally dismissed, with a supply of cloth and
-beads sufficient to reach Kazeh, a letter to their master,
-and another paper to Snay bin Amir, authorising him
-to frank them to their homes. Kidogo departed, declaring
-that he would carry off perforce, if necessary,
-the four donkey-drivers who had been engaged and
-paid for the journey to the “Sea of Ujiji” and back:
-as two of these men, Nasibu and Hassani, openly threatened
-to desert, they were at once put in irons and
-entrusted to the Baloch. They took oaths on the
-Koran, and, by strong swearing, persuaded Said bin
-Salim and their guard to obtain my permission for
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-403">[403]</span>
-their release. I gave it unwillingly, and on the next
-march they “levanted,” carrying off, as runaway slaves
-are wont to do, a knife, some cloth, and other necessaries
-belonging to Sangora, a brother donkey-driver. Sangora
-returning without leave, to recover his goods, was seized,
-tied up, and severely fustigated by the inexorable Kidogo,
-for daring to be retained whilst he himself was
-dismissed.</p>
-
-<p>The Kirangozi and Bombay having rejoined at Sorora,
-the Expedition left it on the 16th January. Traversing
-a fetid marsh, the road plunged into a forest,
-and crossed a sharp elbow of the Gombe Nullah, upon
-whose grassy and reedy banks lay a few dilapidated
-“baumrinden” canoes, showing that at times the bed
-becomes unfordable. Having passed that night at
-Ukungwe, and the next at Panda, dirty little villages,
-where the main of the people’s diet seemed to be
-mushrooms resembling ours and a large white fungus
-growing over the grassy rises, on the 18th January we
-entered Kajjanjeri.</p>
-
-<p>Kajjanjeri appeared in the shape of a circle of round
-huts. Its climate is ever the terror of travellers: to
-judge from the mud and vegetation covering the floors,
-the cultivators of the fields around usually retire to
-another place during the rainy season. Here a formidable
-obstacle to progress presented itself. I had been
-suffering for some days: the miasmatic air of Sorora
-had sown the seeds of fresh illness. About 3 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, I
-was obliged to lay aside the ephemeris by an unusual
-sensation of nervous irritability, which was followed by
-a general shudder as in the cold paroxysm of fevers.
-Presently the extremities began to weigh and to burn
-as if exposed to a glowing fire, and a pair of jack-boots,
-the companions of many a day and night, became too
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-404">[404]</span>
-tight and heavy to wear. At sunset, the attack had
-reached its height. I saw yawning wide to receive me</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="verse indent4">“those dark gates across the wild<br /></span>
-<span class="verse indent0">That no man knows.”<br /></span>
-</div><!--stanza-->
-
-</div><!--poetry-->
-</div><!--poetry-container-->
-
-<p class="noindent">The whole body was palsied, powerless, motionless,
-and the limbs appeared to wither and die; the feet had
-lost all sensation, except a throbbing and tingling, as if
-pricked by a number of needle points; the arms refused
-to be directed by will, and to the hands the touch of
-cloth and stone was the same. Gradually the attack
-seemed to spread upwards till it compressed the ribs;
-there, however, it stopped short.</p>
-
-<p>This, at a distance of two months from medical aid,
-and with the principal labour of the Expedition still in
-prospect! However, I was easily consoled. Hope, says
-the Arab, is woman, Despair is man. If one of us was
-lost, the other might survive to carry home the results
-of the exploration. I had undertaken the journey in the
-“nothing-like-leather” state of mind, with the resolve
-either to do or die. I had done my best, and now
-nothing appeared to remain for me but to die as well.</p>
-
-<p>Said bin Salim, when sent for, declared, by a “la
-haul!” the case beyond his skill; it was one of partial
-paralysis brought on by malaria, with which the
-faculty in India are familiar. The Arab consulted
-a Msawahili Fundi, or caravan-guard, who had joined
-us on the road, and this man declared that a similar
-accident had once occurred to himself and his little party
-in consequence of eating poisoned mushrooms. I tried
-the usual remedies without effect, and the duration of
-the attack presently revealed what it was. The contraction
-of the muscles, which were tightened like ligatures
-above and below the knees, and those λυτα γουνατα,
-a pathological symptom which the old Greek loves to
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-405">[405]</span>
-specify, prevented me from walking to any distance for
-nearly a year; the numbness of the hands and feet
-disappeared even more slowly. The Fundi, however,
-successfully predicted that I should be able to move in
-ten days&mdash;on the tenth I again mounted my ass.</p>
-
-<p>This unforeseen misfortune detained the caravan
-at Kajjanjeri till porters could be procured for the
-hammock. On the 21st January four men were with
-difficulty persuaded to carry me over the first march to
-Usagozi. This gang was afterwards increased to six
-men, who severally received six cloths for the journey
-to Ujiji; they all “bolted” eight days after their engagement,
-and before completing half the journey. These
-men were sturdier than the former set of Hammals,
-but being related to the Sultan of Usagozi, they were
-even more boisterous, troublesome, and insolent. One
-of them narrowly escaped a pistol bullet; he ceased,
-however, stabbing with his dagger at the slave Mabruki
-before the extreme measure became necessary.</p>
-
-<p>Usagozi was of old the capital province of Unyamwezi,
-and is still one of its principal and most civilised divisions.
-Some authorities make Usagozi the western
-frontier of Unyamwezi, others place the boundary at
-Mukozimo, a few miles to the westward; it is certain,
-however, that beyond Usagozi the Wanyamwezi are
-but part-proprietors of the soil. The country is laid
-out in alternate seams of grassy plains, dense jungle,
-and fertile field. The soil is a dark vegetable humus,
-which bears luxuriant crops of grain, vegetables, and
-tobacco; honey-logs hang upon every large tree, cattle
-are sold to travellers, and the people are deterred by the
-aspect of a dozen discoloured skulls capping tall poles,
-planted in a semicircle at the main entrance of each
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-406">[406]</span>
-settlement, from doing violence to caravans. When I
-visited Usagozi it was governed by “Sultan Ryombo,”
-an old chief “adorned with much Christian courtesy.”
-His subjects are Wakalaganza, the noble tribe of the
-Wanyamwezi, mixed, however with the Watosi, a fine-looking
-race, markedly superior to their neighbours, but
-satisfied with leaky, ragged, and filthy huts, and large
-but unfenced villages. The general dress of the Wakalaganza
-is bark-cloth, stained a dull black.</p>
-
-<p>We halted three days on the western extremity of
-the Usagozi district, detained by another unpleasant
-phenomenon. My companion, whose blood had been
-impoverished, and whose system had been reduced by
-many fevers, now began to suffer from “an inflammation
-of a low type, affecting the whole of the interior
-tunic of the eyes, particularly the iris, the choroid coat,
-and the retina;” he describes it as “an almost total
-blindness, rendering every object enclouded as by a
-misty veil.” The Goanese Valentine became similarly
-afflicted, almost on the same day; he complained of a
-“drop serene” in the shape of an inky blot&mdash;probably
-some of the black pigment of the iris deposited on the
-front of the lens&mdash;which completely excluded the light
-of day; yet the pupils contracted with regularity when
-covered with the hand, and as regularly dilated when it
-was removed. I suffered in a minor degree; for a few
-days webs of flitting muscæ obscured smaller objects and
-rendered distant vision impossible. My companion and
-servant, however, subsequently, at Ujiji, were tormented
-by inflammatory ophthalmia, which I escaped by the free
-use of “camel-medicine.”</p>
-
-<p>Quitting Usagozi on the 26th January, we marched
-through grain fields, thick jungle-strips, and low grassy
-and muddy savannahs to Masenza, a large and comfortable
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-407">[407]</span>
-village of stray Wagara or Wagala, an extensive
-tribe, limiting Unyamwezi on the S. and S.E., at the
-distance of about a week’s march from the road. On
-the 27th January, after traversing cultivation, thick
-jungles, and low muddy bottoms of tall grass chequered
-with lofty tamarinds, we made the large well-palisadoed
-villages of the Mukozimo district, inhabited by a mixture
-of Wanyamwezi, with Wagara from the S.E. and
-Wawende from the S.W. The headman of one of these
-inhospitable “Kaya,” or fenced hamlets, would not
-house “men who ride asses.” The next station was
-Uganza, a populous settlement of Wawende, who admitted
-us into their faubourg, but refused to supply provisions.
-The 29th January saw us at the populous and
-fertile clearing of Usenye, where the mixed races lying
-between the Land of the Moon eastward, and Uvinza
-westward, give way to pure Wavinza, who are considered
-by travellers even more dangerous than their
-neighbours.</p>
-
-<p>Beyond Usenye we traversed a deep jungle where
-still lingered remains of villages which had been plundered
-and burned down by the Wawende and the Watuta,
-whose hills rose clearly defined on the right hand.
-Having passed the night at Rukunda, or Lukunda, on
-the 31st January we sighted the plain of the Malagarazi
-River. Northwards of the road ran the stream,
-and the low level of the country adjoining it had converted
-the bottoms into permanent beds of soft, deep,
-and slippery mire. The rest of the march was the
-usual country&mdash;jungle, fields, and grasses&mdash;and after a
-toilsome stretch, we unpacked at the settlement of
-Wanyika.</p>
-
-<p>At Wanyika we were delayed for a day by the necessity
-of settling Kuhonga, or blackmail, with the envoys
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-408">[408]</span>
-of Mzogera. This great man, the principal Sultan of
-Uvinza, is also the Lord of the Malagarazi River. As
-he can enforce his claims by forbidding the ferrymen
-to assist strangers, he must be carefully humoured. He
-received about forty cloths, white and blue, six Kitindi
-or coil bracelets, and ten Fundo (or 100 necklaces) of
-coral beads. It is equivalent in these lands to 50<i>l.</i> in
-England. When all the items had been duly palavered
-over, we resumed our march on the 2nd February.
-The road, following an incline towards the valley of the
-river, in which bush and field alternated with shallow
-pools, black mud, and putrid grass, led to Unyanguruwwe,
-a miserable settlement, producing, however, millet in
-abundance, sweet potatoes, and the finest manioc. On
-the 3rd February we set out betimes. Spanning cultivation
-and undulating grassy ground, and passing over
-hill-opens to avoid the deeper swamps, we debouched
-from a jungle upon the river-plain, with the swift brown
-stream, then about fifty yards broad, swirling through
-the tall wet grasses of its banks on our right hand, hard
-by the road. Upon the off side a herd of elephants,
-forming Indian file, slowly broke through the reed-fence
-in front of them: our purblind eyes mistook them for
-buffaloes. Northwards lay an expanse of card-table
-plain, over which the stream, when in flood, debords to the
-distance of two miles, cutting it with deep creeks and
-inlets. The flat is bounded in the far offing by a sinuous
-line of faint blue hills, the haunts of the Watuta; whilst,
-westward and southward, rises the wall-shaped ridge,
-stony and wooded, which buttresses the left bank of the
-river for some days’ journey down the stream. We
-found lodgings for the night in a little village, called
-from its district Ugaga; we obtained provisions, and
-we lost no time in opening the question of ferryage.
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-409">[409]</span>
-The Sultan Mzogera had sold his permission to cross
-the river. The Mutware, or Mutwale, the Lord of the
-Ferry, now required payment for his canoes.</p>
-
-<p>Whilst delayed at Ugaga by the scabrous question of
-how much was to be extracted from me, I will enter into
-a few geographical details concerning the Malagarazi
-River.</p>
-
-<p>The Malagarazi, corrupted by speculative geographers
-to Mdjigidgi,&mdash;the uneuphonious terminology of the
-“Mombas Mission Map,”&mdash;to “Magrassie” and to “Magozi,”
-has been wrongly represented to issue from the
-Sea of Ujiji. According to all travellers in these regions,
-it arises in the mountains of Urundi, at no great
-distance from the Kitangure, or River of Karagwah; but
-whilst the latter, springing from the upper counterslope,
-feeds the Nyanza or Northern Lake, the Malagarazi,
-rising in the lower slope of the equatorial range, trends
-to the south-east, till it becomes entangled in the decline
-of the Great Central African Depression&mdash;the hydrographical
-basin first indicated in his Address of 1852 by
-Sir Roderick I. Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical
-Society of London.<a id="FNanchor10"></a><a href="#Footnote10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Thence it sweeps round
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-410">[410]</span>
-the southern base of Urundi, and, deflected westwards, it
-disembogues itself into the Tanganyika. Its mouth is
-in the land of Ukaranga, and the long promontory behind
-which it discharges its waters, is distinctly visible from
-Kawele, the head-quarters of caravans in Ujiji. The
-Malagarazi is not navigable; as in primary and transition
-countries generally, the bed is broken by rapids.
-Beyond the ferry, the slope becomes more pronounced,
-branch and channel-islets of sand and verdure divide the
-stream, and as every village near the banks appears to
-possess one or more canoes, it is probably unfordable.
-The main obstacle to crossing it on foot, over the
-broken and shallower parts near the rock-bars, would
-be the number and the daring of the crocodiles.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a>
-The following notice concerning a discovery which must ever be remembered
-as a triumph of geological hypothesis, was kindly forwarded to
-me by the <span class="nowrap">discoverer:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>“My speculations as to the whole African interior being a vast watery
-plateau-land of some elevation above the sea, but subtended on the east and
-west by much higher grounds, were based on the following <span class="nowrap">data:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>“The discovery in the central portion of the Cape colony, by Mr. Bain,
-of fossil remains in a lacustrine deposit of secondary age, and the well-known
-existence on the coast of loftier mountains known to be of a Palæozoic
-or primary epoch and circling round the younger deposits, being followed by
-the exploration of the Ngami Lake, justified me in believing that Africa had
-been raised from beneath the ocean at a very early geological period; and
-that ever since that time the same conditions had prevailed. I thence inferred
-that an interior network of lakes and rivers would be found prolonged
-northwards from Lake Ngami, though at that time no map was known to
-me showing the existence of such central reservoirs. Looking to the
-west as well as to the east, I saw no possibility of explaining how the great
-rivers could escape from the central plateau-lands and enter the ocean
-except through deep lateral gorges, formed at some ancient period of elevation,
-when the lateral chains were subjected to transverse fractures. Knowing
-that the Niger and the Zaire, or Congo, escaped by such gorges on the
-west, I was confident that the same phenomenon must occur upon the eastern
-coast, when properly examined. This hypothesis, as sketched out in my
-‘Presidential Address’ of 1852, was afterwards received by Dr. Livingstone
-just as he was exploring the transverse gorges by which the Zambesi
-escapes to the east, and the great traveller has publicly expressed the surprise
-he then felt that his discovery should have been thus previously suggested.”</p>
-
-</div><!--footnote-->
-
-<p>The Lord of the Ferry delayed us at Ugaga by
-removing the canoes till he had extracted fourteen
-cloths and one coil-bracelet,&mdash;half his original demand.
-Moreover, for each trip the ferryman received from one
-to five khete of beads, according to the bulk, weight,
-and value of the freight. He was as exorbitant when
-we returned; then he would not be satisfied with
-less than seven cloths, a large jar of palm oil, and at
-least three hundred khete. On the 4th February we
-crossed to Mpete, the district on the right or off bank of
-the stream. After riding over the river plain, which at
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-411">[411]</span>
-that time, when the rains had not supersaturated the
-soil, was hard and dry, we came upon the “Ghaut,” a
-muddy run or clearing in the thicket of stiff grass which
-crossed the stream. There we found a scene of confusion.
-The Arabs of Kazeh had described the canoes as fine
-barges, capable of accommodating fifty or sixty passengers.
-I was not, however, surprised to find wretched
-“baumrinden”&mdash;tree-rind&mdash;canoes, two strips of “myombo”
-bark, from five to seven feet in length, sown
-together like a doubled wedge with fibres of the same
-material. The keel was sharp, the bow and stern were
-elevated, and the craft was prevented from collapsing by
-cross-bars&mdash;rough sticks about eighteen inches long,
-jammed ladder-wise between the sides. When high and
-dry upon the bank, they look not unlike castaway shoes of
-an unusual size. We entered “gingerly.” The craft is
-crankier than the Turkish caïque, and we held on “like
-grim death” to the gunwale with wetted fingers. The
-weight of two men causes these canoes to sink within
-three or four inches of water-level. An extra sheet of
-stiff bark was placed as a seat in the stern; but the interior
-was ankle-deep in water, and baling was necessary
-after each trip. The ferryman, standing amidships or
-in the fore, poled or paddled according to the depth of
-the stream. He managed skilfully enough, and on the
-return-march I had reason to admire the dexterity with
-which he threaded the narrow, grass-grown and winding
-veins of deep water, that ramified from the main
-trunk over the swampy and rushy plains on both sides.
-Our riding asses were thrown into the river, and they
-swam across without accident. Much to my surprise,
-none of the bales were lost or injured. The ferrymen
-showed decision in maintaining, and ingenuity in increasing,
-their claims. On the appearance of opposition
-<span class="pagenum" id="Pagei-412">[412]</span>
-they poled off to a distance, and squatted, quietly awaiting
-the effect of their decisive manœuvre. When the waters
-are out, it is not safe to step from the canoe before
-it arrives at its destination. The boatman will attempt
-to land his passenger upon some dry mound emerging
-from deep water, and will then demand a second fee for
-salvage.</p>
-
-<p class="center highline8 fsize90">END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</p>
-
-<p class="center highline2 blankbefore4 fsize60">LONDON<br />
-<span class="gesp2">PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO</span>.<br />
-NEW-STREET SQUARE</p>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="chapno gesp2">INDEX.</h2>
-
-</div><!--chapter-->
-
-<ul class="index">
-
-<li class="newletter">Abad bin Sulayman, rest of the party at the house of, at Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Abdullah, the Baloch, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-136">i. 136</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Abdullah bin Nasib, of Zanzibar, his kindness, <a href="#Pagei-270">i. 270</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Abdullah bin Jumah, and his flying caravan, <a href="#Pagei-315">i. 315</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Abdullah bin Salim of Kazeh, his authority there, <a href="#Pagei-329">i. 329</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Abdullah, son of Musa Mzuri, ii. 225, 226.</li>
-
-<li>Ablactation, period of, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-117">i. 117</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Abrus precatorius used as an ornament in Karagwah, ii. 181.</li>
-
-<li>Adansonia digitata, or monkey-bread of East Africa, peculiarity of, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Africa, Central, great depression of, <a href="#Pagei-409">i. 409</a>; ii. 8.</li>
-
-<li>African proverbs, <a href="#Pagei-131">i. 131</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Africans, a weak-brained people, <a href="#Pagei-33">i. 33</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Africans, East, their character and religion, ii. 324.</li>
-
-<li>Albinos, frequency of, amongst the Wazaramo tribes, <a href="#Pagei-109">i. 109</a>.
-Description of them, <a href="#Pagei-109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Amayr bin Said el Shaksi, calls on Capt. Burton, ii. 228.
-His adventures, 228.</li>
-
-<li>Ammunition, danger of, in African travelling, <a href="#Pagei-264">i. 264</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Androgyne, the, ii. 159.</li>
-
-<li>Animals, wild, of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.
-Of Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">87</a>.
-Of Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-95">95</a>.
-Of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-103">103</a>, <a href="#Pagei-104">104</a>.
-Of K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-160">160</a>.
-Of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">162</a>.
-Of the plains beyond the Rufuta, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>, <a href="#Pagei-183">183</a>.
-Of Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>.
-Of the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-247">247</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-Of Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-Of Ujiji, 60.</li>
-
-<li>Antelopes in the Doab of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-81">i. 81</a>.
-In the Rufuta plains, <a href="#Pagei-183">183</a>.
-Of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-268">268</a>, <a href="#Pagei-269">269</a>.
-On the Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.
-Of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">i. 300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ant-hills of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-202">i. 202</a>, <a href="#Pagei-203">203</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 19.
-Clay of, chewed in Unyamwezi, 28.</li>
-
-<li>Anthropophagi of Murivumba, ii. 114.</li>
-
-<li>Ants in the Doab of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>.
-Red, of the banks of rivers in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-186">186</a>.
-Maji m’oto, or “hot water” ants, <a href="#Pagei-187">187</a>.
-Near the Marenga Mk’hali river, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>.
-Account of them, <a href="#Pagei-202">202</a>.
-Annoyance of, at K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-276">276</a>.
-Of Rubuga, <a href="#Pagei-317">317</a>.
-Of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-371">371</a>.
-Of Unyamwezi, ii. 19.
-Of Ujiji, 64.</li>
-
-<li>Apples’ wood, at Mb’hali, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Arab caravans, description of, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-342">i. 342</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Arab proverbs, <a href="#Pagei-50">i. 50</a>, <a href="#Pagei-86">86</a>, <a href="#Pagei-133">133</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-135">135</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Arabs of the East coast of Africa, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>.
-The half-castes described, <a href="#Pagei-32">32</a>.
-Those settled in Unyanyembe, <a href="#Pagei-323">323</a>.
-History and description of their settlements, <a href="#Pagei-327">327</a>.
-Tents of, on their march, <a href="#Pagei-353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Arachis Hypogæa, as an article of food, <a href="#Pagei-198">i. 198</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Arak tree in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">i. 300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Archery in East Africa, ii. 301.</li>
-
-<li>Armanika, Sultan of Karagwah, account of, ii. 183.
-His government, 183, 184.
-Besieged by his brother, ii. 224.</li>
-
-<li>Arms of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-110">i. 110</a>.
-Of the Wadoe, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.
-Of the Baloch mercenaries, <a href="#Pagei-133">133</a>.
-Of the “Sons of Ramji,” <a href="#Pagei-140">140</a>.
-Required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-152">152</a>.
-Of the Wasagara tribe, <a href="#Pagei-199">199</a>, <a href="#Pagei-237">237</a>.
-Of the Wahehe, <a href="#Pagei-240">240</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Of the Wahamba, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-Of the porters of caravans, <a href="#Pagei-350">350</a>.
-Of the Wakimbu, ii. 20.
-Of the Wanzamwezi, 30.
-Of the Wajiji, 66.
-Of the Wavinza, 75.
-Of the Watuta, 77.
-Of the people of Karagwah, 182.</li>
-
-<li>Army of Uganda, ii. 189.</li>
-
-<li>Artémise frigate, <a href="#Pagei-1">i. 1</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Atmosphere, brilliancy of the, in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-297">i. 297</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Asclepias in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-165">i. 165</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ashmed bin Nuuman, the Wajhayn or “two faces,” <a href="#Pagei-3">i. 3</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Assegais of the Wasagara tribe, <a href="#Pagei-237">i. 237</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22.
-Of East Africa generally, 301.</li>
-
-<li>Ass, the African, described, <a href="#Pagei-85">i. 85</a>.
-Those of the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-151">151</a>.
-Loss of, <a href="#Pagei-180">180</a>.
-Fresh asses purchased from a down caravan, <a href="#Pagei-209">209</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Asthma, or zik el nafas, remedy in East Africa for, <a href="#Pagei-96">i. 96</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Atheism, aboriginal, ii. 342.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Bakera, village of, <a href="#Pagei-92">i. 92</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bakshshish, in the East, ii. 84, 85.
-The propriety of rewarding bad conduct, 85.
-Influence of, ii. 172.</li>
-
-<li>Balochs, the, of Zanzibar, described, <a href="#Pagei-14">i. 14</a>.
-Their knavery, <a href="#Pagei-85">85</a>.
-Their behaviour on the march, <a href="#Pagei-127">127</a>.
-Sketch of their character, <a href="#Pagei-132">132</a>.
-Their quarrels with the “Sons of Ramji,” <a href="#Pagei-163">163</a>.
-Their desertion and return, <a href="#Pagei-173">173</a>.
-Their penitence, <a href="#Pagei-177">177</a>.
-Their character, <a href="#Pagei-177">177</a>, <a href="#Pagei-178">178</a>.
-Their discontent and complaints about food, <a href="#Pagei-212">212</a>, <a href="#Pagei-221">221</a>.
-And proposed desertion, <a href="#Pagei-273">273</a>, <a href="#Pagei-278">278</a>.
-Their bile cooled, <a href="#Pagei-274">274</a>.
-Their injury to the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-319">319</a>.
-Their breakfast on the march, <a href="#Pagei-345">345</a>.
-Their manœuvres at Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-376">376</a>.
-Their desertion, ii. 111.
-Influenced by bakhshish, 217.
-Their quarrel with the porters, 253.
-Doing “Zam,” ii. 276.
-Sent home, 277.</li>
-
-<li>Bana Dirungá, village of, <a href="#Pagei-71">i. 71</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Banadir, Barr el, or harbour-land, geography of, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bangwe, islet of, in Lake Tanganyika, ii. 53.
-Described, 99.</li>
-
-<li>Banyans, the, of the East Coast of Africa, <a href="#Pagei-19">i. 19</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Baobab Tree of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Barghash, Sayyid, of Zanzibar, a state prisoner at Bombay, <a href="#Pagei-3">i. 3</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Barghumi, the, of East Africa, ii. 294.</li>
-
-<li>Bark-cloth, price of, at Uvira, ii. 121.</li>
-
-<li>Basket making in East Africa, ii. 316.</li>
-
-<li>Basts of East Africa, ii. 317.</li>
-
-<li>Battle-axes of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 23.
-Of the East Africans, 307.</li>
-
-<li>Bazar-gup, or tittle-tattle in the East, <a href="#Pagei-12">i. 12</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bdellium Tree, or Mukl, of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-299">i. 299</a>.
-Uses of, among the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Beads, mode of carrying, in the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-145">i. 145</a>.
-Account of African beads of commerce, <a href="#Pagei-146">146</a>.
-Currency at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.
-Those most highly valued in Ujiji, ii. 72.
-Bead trade of Zanzibar, 390.</li>
-
-<li>Bedding required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-154">i. 154</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Beds and bedding of the East Africans, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Beef, roast, and plum-pudding at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-400">i. 400</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bee-hives, seen for the first time at Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-200">i. 200</a>.
-Their shape, <a href="#Pagei-200">200</a>.
-Of Rubuga, <a href="#Pagei-317">317</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Beer in East Africa, ii. 285.
-Mode of making it, 286.</li>
-
-<li>Bees in K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">i. 120</a>.
-But no bee-hives, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Wild, attack the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-176">i. 176</a>, <a href="#Pagei-248">248</a>, <a href="#Pagei-249">249</a>.
-Annoyance of, at K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-276">276</a>.
-Of East Africa, ii. 287.</li>
-
-<li>Beetles in houses at Ujiji, ii. 91, <i>note</i>.
-One in the ear of Captain Speke, 91, <i>note</i>.</li>
-
-<li>Belok, the Baloch, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-135">i. 135</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bérard, M., his kindness, <a href="#Pagei-22">i. 22</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Berberah, disaster at, referred to, <a href="#Pagei-68">i. 68</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bhang plant, the, in Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-95">i. 95</a>.
-Smoked throughout East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-96">96</a>.
-Effects produced by, <a href="#Pagei-96">96</a>.
-Used in Ujiji, ii. 70.</li>
-
-<li>Billhooks carried by the Wasagara tribe, <a href="#Pagei-238">i. 238</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Birds, mode of catching them, <a href="#Pagei-160">i. 160</a>.
-Scarcity of, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-270">270</a>.
-Of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-Period of nidification and incubation of, ii. 13.
-Of Unyamwezi, 16.
-Of Ujiji, 60.</li>
-
-<li>Births and deaths amongst the Wazaramo, customs at, <a href="#Pagei-115">i. 115</a>, <a href="#Pagei-116">116</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-118">118</a>, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bivouac, a pleasant, <a href="#Pagei-245">i. 245</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Black Magic. See <a href="#IndRef1">Uchawi</a>.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef2">Blackmail of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-70">i. 70</a>, <a href="#Pagei-113">113</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.
-Of the Wazegura, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>.
-At Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-252">252</a>.
-Account of the blackmail of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-253">253</a>.
-At Kirufuru, <a href="#Pagei-264">264</a>.
-At Kanyenye, <a href="#Pagei-265">265</a>.
-In K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-274">274</a>.
-At Mdaburu, <a href="#Pagei-279">279</a>.
-At Wanyika, <a href="#Pagei-407">407</a>.
-At Ubwari island, ii. 114.</li>
-
-<li>Blood of cattle, drunk in East Africa, ii. 282.</li>
-
-<li>Boats of the Tanganyika Lake, described, ii. 94.</li>
-
-<li>Boatmen of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 101.</li>
-
-<li>Bomani, “the stockade,” village of, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>.
-Halt at, <a href="#Pagei-47">47</a>.
-Vegetation of, <a href="#Pagei-47">47</a>, <a href="#Pagei-48">48</a>.
-Departure from, <a href="#Pagei-51">51</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bombax, or silk cotton tree, of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-60">i. 60</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bonye fiumara, accident to a caravan in the, ii. 270.</li>
-
-<li>Books required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-155">i. 155</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Borassus flabelliformis, or Palmyra tree, in the plains, <a href="#Pagei-180">i. 180</a>.
-Toddy drawn from, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bos Caffer, or Mbogo, in the plains of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-181">i. 181</a>.
-Described, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Botanical collection stolen, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.
-Difficulty of taking care of the collection on the upward march, <a href="#Pagei-320">320</a>.
-Destroyed by damp at Ujiji, ii. 81.</li>
-
-<li>Boulders of granite on the Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-284">i. 284</a>.
-Picturesque effects of the, <a href="#Pagei-285">285</a>, <a href="#Pagei-286">286</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Bows and arrows of the Wagogo, i. 504.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22.
-Of the East Africans, 301.
-Poisoned arrows, 305.</li>
-
-<li>Brab tree, or Ukhindu, of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Breakfast in the caravan described, <a href="#Pagei-345">i. 345</a>.
-An Arab’s, at Kazeh, ii. 167.</li>
-
-<li>Buffaloes on the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-247">i. 247</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-On the Rusugi river, ii. 40.</li>
-
-<li>Bumbumu, Sultan, of the Wahehe, <a href="#Pagei-239">i. 239</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Burial ceremonies of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 25.</li>
-
-<li>Burkene, route to, ii. 179.</li>
-
-<li>Burton, Captain, quits Zanzibar Island, <a href="#Pagei-1">i. 1</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">The personnel and materiel of the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-3">i. 3</a>, <a href="#Pagei-10">10</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-11">11</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Smallness of the grant allowed by government, <a href="#Pagei-4">i. 4</a>, <i>note</i>.</li>
-<li class="level1">The author’s proposal to the Royal Geographical Society, <a href="#Pagei-5">i. 5</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Anchors off Wale Point, <a href="#Pagei-8">i. 8</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">His difficulties, <a href="#Pagei-19">i. 19</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">His MS. lost, <a href="#Pagei-21">i. 21</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Melancholy parting with Col. Hamerton, <a href="#Pagei-22">i. 22</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Lands at Kaole, <a href="#Pagei-22">i. 22</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Melancholy reflections, <a href="#Pagei-24">i. 24</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Transit of the valley of the Kingani and the Mgeta rivers, <a href="#Pagei-41">i. 41</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">The first departure, <a href="#Pagei-43">i. 43</a>, <a href="#Pagei-46">46</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Tents pitched at Bomani, <a href="#Pagei-51">i. 51</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Delay the second, <a href="#Pagei-49">i. 49</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Departure from Bomani, <a href="#Pagei-51">i. 51</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at the village of Mkwaju la Mvuani, <a href="#Pagei-52">i. 52</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">The third departure, <a href="#Pagei-53">i. 53</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halt at Nzasa, in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Start again, <a href="#Pagei-57">i. 57</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">First dangerous station, <a href="#Pagei-59">i. 59</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Second one, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Adventure at Makutaniro, <a href="#Pagei-70">i. 70</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Author attacked by fever, <a href="#Pagei-71">i. 71</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Third dangerous station, <a href="#Pagei-73">i. 73</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Encamps at Madege Madogo, <a href="#Pagei-79">i. 79</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">And at Kidunda, <a href="#Pagei-79">i. 79</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Loses his elephant-gun, <a href="#Pagei-80">i. 80</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at a place of safety, <a href="#Pagei-81">i. 81</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Enters K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Has a hammam, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Thoroughly prostrated, <a href="#Pagei-84">i. 84</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">His troubles, <a href="#Pagei-86">i. 86</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Prepares a report for the Royal Geographical Society, <a href="#Pagei-89">i. 89</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Advances from Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-91">i. 91</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-127">i. 127</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-158">i. 158</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at Mzizi Mdogo, <a href="#Pagei-161">i. 161</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Recovery of health at, <a href="#Pagei-161">i. 161</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Mzizi Mdogo, <a href="#Pagei-165">i. 165</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Cha K’henge, <a href="#Pagei-167">i. 167</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Desertion of the Baloch, <a href="#Pagei-173">i. 173</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Their return, <a href="#Pagei-174">i. 174</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Muhama, <a href="#Pagei-178">i. 178</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Again attacked by fever, <a href="#Pagei-179">i. 179</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Resumes the march, <a href="#Pagei-180">i. 180</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Contrasts in the scenery, <a href="#Pagei-184">i. 184</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Fords the Mukondokwa river, <a href="#Pagei-188">i. 188</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches Kadetamare, <a href="#Pagei-189">i. 189</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Loss of instruments, <a href="#Pagei-189">i. 189</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Muinyi, <a href="#Pagei-193">i. 193</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Resumes the journey, <a href="#Pagei-194">i. 194</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Ndábi, <a href="#Pagei-196">i. 196</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Resumes the march and rests at Rumuma, <a href="#Pagei-198">i. 198</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Abundance of its supplies, <a href="#Pagei-198">i. 198</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-203">i. 203</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Approaches the bandit Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-203">i. 203</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-204">i. 204</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at the basin of Inenge, <a href="#Pagei-208">i. 208</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Wholesome food obtained there, <a href="#Pagei-208">i. 208</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Exchange of civilities with a down caravan, <a href="#Pagei-208">i. 208</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Painful ascent of the Rubeho, or Windy Pass, <a href="#Pagei-213">i. 213</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halt at the Great Rubeho, <a href="#Pagei-215">i. 215</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ascent of the Little Rubeho, <a href="#Pagei-215">i. 215</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Descent of the counterslope of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-219">i. 219</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">First view of the Ugogo mountains, <a href="#Pagei-220">i. 220</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at the third Rubeho, <a href="#Pagei-221">i. 221</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches on the banks of the Dungomaro, <a href="#Pagei-222">i. 222</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches the plains of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-223">i. 223</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Losses during the descent, <a href="#Pagei-224">i. 224</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-241">i. 241</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Engages the services of fifteen Wanyamwezi porters, <a href="#Pagei-244">i. 244</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-244">i. 244</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">The caravan dislodged by wild bees, <a href="#Pagei-248">i. 248</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Loses a valuable portmanteau, <a href="#Pagei-249">i. 249</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts on the road for the night, <a href="#Pagei-250">i. 250</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves the jungle-kraal, <a href="#Pagei-250">i. 250</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sights the Ziwa, or Pond, <a href="#Pagei-251">i. 251</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Provisions obtained there, <a href="#Pagei-255">i. 255</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Recovery of the lost portmanteau, <a href="#Pagei-257">i. 257</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Joins another up-caravan, <a href="#Pagei-257">i. 257</a>, <a href="#Pagei-258">258</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Enters Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-259">i. 259</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Astonishment of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-263">i. 263</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Delayed at Kifukuru for blackmail, <a href="#Pagei-264">i. 264</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Kifukuru, <a href="#Pagei-265">i. 265</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Accident in the jungle, <a href="#Pagei-265">i. 265</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Interview with Magomba, sultan of Kanyenye, <a href="#Pagei-266">i. 266</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Hurried march from Kanyenye, <a href="#Pagei-271">i. 271</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at Usek’he and K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-272">i. 272</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Difficulties of blackmail at K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-274">i. 274</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Departs from K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-275">i. 275</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Desertion of fifteen porters, <a href="#Pagei-275">i. 275</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Trying march in the Mdáburu jungle, <a href="#Pagei-277">i. 277</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches Uyanzi, <a href="#Pagei-279">i. 279</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Traverses the Fiery Field, <a href="#Pagei-283">i. 283</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at the Mabunguru fiumara, <a href="#Pagei-285">i. 285</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Losses on the march, <a href="#Pagei-285">i. 285</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches Jiwe la Mkoa, <a href="#Pagei-286">i. 286</a>, <a href="#Pagei-288">288</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">And Kirurumo and Jiweni, <a href="#Pagei-289">i. 289</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches to Mgono T’hembo, <a href="#Pagei-290">i. 290</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at the Tura Nullah, <a href="#Pagei-291">i. 291</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">And at the village of Tura, the frontier of Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-292">i. 292</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-313">313</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Proceeds into Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-314">i. 314</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at the Kwale nullah, <a href="#Pagei-315">i. 315</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Visited by Abdullah bin Jumah and his flying caravan, <a href="#Pagei-315">i. 315</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">And by Sultan Maura, <a href="#Pagei-316">i. 316</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches Ukona, <a href="#Pagei-318">i. 318</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Ukona and halts at Kigwa or Mkigwa, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Enters the dangerous Kigwa forest, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Loss of papers there, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches the rice-lands of the Unyamyembe district, <a href="#Pagei-321">i. 321</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Enters Kazeh in grand style, <a href="#Pagei-322">i. 322</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Hospitality of the Arabs there, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Difficulties of the preparations for recommencing the journey, <a href="#Pagei-377">i. 377</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sickness of the servants, <a href="#Pagei-379">i. 379</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Author attacked by fever, <a href="#Pagei-380">i. 380</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Kazeh and proceeds to Zimbili, <a href="#Pagei-386">i. 386</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Proceeds and halts at Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-386">i. 386</a>, <a href="#Pagei-387">387</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Yombo and reaches Pano and Mfuto, <a href="#Pagei-389">i. 389</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Irora, <a href="#Pagei-389">i. 389</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches to Wilyankuru, <a href="#Pagei-390">i. 390</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Hospitality of Salim bin Said, <a href="#Pagei-391">i. 391</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">And of Masid ibn Musallam el Wardi, at Kirira, <a href="#Pagei-392">i. 392</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Kirira, and marches to Msene, <a href="#Pagei-395">i. 395</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Delayed there, <a href="#Pagei-399">i. 399</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches to the village of Mb’hali, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">And to Sengati and the deadly Sorora, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Desertions and dismissals at Sorora, <a href="#Pagei-402">i. 402</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches to Kajjanjeri, <a href="#Pagei-403">i. 403</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Detained there by dangerous illness, <a href="#Pagei-403">i. 403</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Proceeds and halts at Usagozi, <a href="#Pagei-406">i. 406</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Some of the party afflicted by ophthalmia, <a href="#Pagei-406">i. 406</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Quits Usagozi, and marches to Masenza, <a href="#Pagei-406">i. 406</a>, <a href="#Pagei-407">407</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches the Mukozimo district, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Spends a night at Rukunda, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sights the plain of the Malagarazi river, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Wanyika, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Settlement of blackmail at, <a href="#Pagei-408">i. 408</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Resumes the march, <a href="#Pagei-408">i. 408</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at the bank of the Malagarazi river, <a href="#Pagei-408">i. 408</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Crosses over to Mpete, <a href="#Pagei-410">i. 410</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches to Kinawani, ii. 35.</li>
-<li class="level1">And to Jambeho, ii. 36.</li>
-<li class="level1">Fords the Rusugi river, ii. 37.</li>
-<li class="level1">Fresh desertions, ii. 38.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts on the Ungwwe river, ii. 40.</li>
-<li class="level1">First view of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 42.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrives at Ukaranga, ii. 44.</li>
-<li class="level1">And at Ujiji, ii. 46.</li>
-<li class="level1">Visits the headman Kannena, ii. 81.</li>
-<li class="level1">Incurs his animosity, ii. 82, 84.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ill effects of the climate and food of Ujiji, ii. 85.</li>
-<li class="level1">Captain Speke sent up the Lake, ii. 87.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mode of spending the day at Ujiji, ii. 87.</li>
-<li class="level1">Failure of Capt. Speke’s expedition, ii. 90.</li>
-<li class="level1">The author prepares for a cruise, ii. 93.</li>
-<li class="level1">The voyage, ii. 99.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts and encamps at Kigari, ii. 101.</li>
-<li class="level1">Enters the region of Urundi, ii. 101.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches and halts at Wafanya, ii. 106.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sails for the island of Ubwari, ii. 112.</li>
-<li class="level1">Anchors there, ii. 113.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves there and arrives at Murivumba, ii. 114.</li>
-<li class="level1">Reaches the southern frontier of Uvira, ii. 115.</li>
-<li class="level1">Further progress stopped, ii. 117, 119.</li>
-<li class="level1">Returns, ii. 121.</li>
-<li class="level1">Storm on the Lake, ii. 123.</li>
-<li class="level1">Passes the night at Wafanya, ii. 123.</li>
-<li class="level1">A slave accidentally shot there,
-ii. 124.</li>
-<li class="level1">Returns to Kawele, ii. 124.</li>
-<li class="level1">Improvement in health, ii. 129.</li>
-<li class="level1">The outfit reduced to a minimum, ii. 130.</li>
-<li class="level1">Arrival of supplies, but inadequate, ii. 132.</li>
-<li class="level1">Preparations for the return to Unyanyembe, ii. 155.</li>
-<li class="level1">The departure, ii. 157.</li>
-<li class="level1">The return-march, ii. 160.</li>
-<li class="level1">Pitches tents at Uyonwa, ii. 161.</li>
-<li class="level1">Desertions, ii. 161.</li>
-<li class="level1">Returns to the ferry of the Malagarazi, ii. 164.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches back to Unyanyembe, ii. 165.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Yombo, ii. 166.</li>
-<li class="level1">Re-enters Kazeh, ii. 167.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sends his companion on an expedition to the north, ii. 173.</li>
-<li class="level1">His mode of passing time at Kazeh, ii. 173, 198.</li>
-<li class="level1">Preparations for journeying, ii. 200.</li>
-<li class="level1">Shortness of funds, ii. 221.</li>
-<li class="level1">Outfit for the return, ii. 229.</li>
-<li class="level1">Departs from Kazeh, ii. 231.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Hanga, ii. 232.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Hanga, ii. 240.</li>
-<li class="level1">Returns through Ugogo, ii. 244.</li>
-<li class="level1">The letters with the official “wigging,” ii. 247.</li>
-<li class="level1">Takes the Kiringawana route, ii. 249.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at a den of thieves, ii. 252.</li>
-<li class="level1">And at Maroro, ii. 255.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marches to Kiperepeta, ii. 256.</li>
-<li class="level1">Fords the Yovu, ii. 258.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Ruhembe rivulet, ii. 261.</li>
-<li class="level1">And on the Makata plain, ii. 262.</li>
-<li class="level1">Halts at Uziraha, ii. 263.</li>
-<li class="level1">Returns to Zungomero, ii. 264.</li>
-<li class="level1">Proposes a march to Kilwa, ii. 265.</li>
-<li class="level1">Desertion of the porters, ii. 266.</li>
-<li class="level1">Engages fresh ones, ii. 267.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Zungomero, and resumes the march, ii. 276.</li>
-<li class="level1">Re-enters Uzaramo, ii. 277.</li>
-<li class="level1">And Konduchi, ii. 278.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sights the sea, ii. 278.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sets out for Kilwa, ii. 372.</li>
-<li class="level1">Returns to Zanzibar, ii. 379.</li>
-<li class="level1">Leaves Zanzibar for Aden, ii. 384.</li>
-<li class="level1">Returns to Europe, ii. 384.</li>
-
-<li>Butter in East Africa, ii. 284.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Cacti in the Usagara Mountains, <a href="#Pagei-165">i. 165</a>.
-Of Mgunda M’Khali, <a href="#Pagei-286">286</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Calabash-tree of East Africa, described, <a href="#Pagei-147">i. 147</a>.
-In the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-164">i. 164</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.
-Magnificence of, at Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-260">260</a>.
-The only large tree in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Camp furniture required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-152">i. 152</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Cannibalism of the Wadoe tribe, <a href="#Pagei-123">i. 123</a>.
-Of the people of Murivumba, ii. 114.</li>
-
-<li>Cannabis Indica in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-318">i. 318</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Canoes built of mvule trees, ii. 147.
-Mode of making them, 147.</li>
-
-<li>Canoes on the Malagarazi river, <a href="#Pagei-409">i. 409</a>.
-On the “Ghaut,” <a href="#Pagei-411">411</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Capparis sodata, verdure of the, in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">i. 300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Carriage, cost of, in East Africa, ii. 414.</li>
-
-<li>Caravans of ivory, <a href="#Pagei-17">i. 17</a>.
-Slave caravans, <a href="#Pagei-17">17</a>, <a href="#Pagei-62">62</a>.
-Mode of collecting a caravan in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-143">143</a>.
-Attacked by wild bees, <a href="#Pagei-4">4</a>, <a href="#Pagei-176">176</a>.
-And by small-pox, <a href="#Pagei-179">179</a>.
-In East Africa, description of, <a href="#Pagei-337">337</a>.
-Porters, <a href="#Pagei-337">337-339</a>.
-Seasons for travelling, <a href="#Pagei-339">339</a>.
-The three kinds of caravan, <a href="#Pagei-341">341</a>.
-That of the Wanyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-341">341</a>.
-Those made up by the Arab merchants, <a href="#Pagei-342">342</a>.
-Those of the Wasawahili, &amp;c., <a href="#Pagei-344">344</a>.
-Sketch of a day’s march of an East African caravan, <a href="#Pagei-344">344</a>.
-Mode of forming a caravan, <a href="#Pagei-348">348</a>.
-Dress of the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-349">349</a>.
-Ornaments and arms worn by the porters, <a href="#Pagei-349">349</a>.
-Recreations of the march, <a href="#Pagei-350">350</a>.
-Meeting of two caravans, <a href="#Pagei-351">351</a>.
-Halt of a caravan, <a href="#Pagei-351">351</a>.
-Lodgings on the march, <a href="#Pagei-353">353</a>.
-Cooking, <a href="#Pagei-355">355</a>, <a href="#Pagei-356">356</a>.
-Greediness of the porters, <a href="#Pagei-356">356</a>, <a href="#Pagei-357">357</a>.
-Water, <a href="#Pagei-359">359</a>.
-Night, <a href="#Pagei-359">359</a>.
-Dances of the porters, <a href="#Pagei-360">360</a>.
-Their caravan, <a href="#Pagei-361">361</a>, <a href="#Pagei-362">362</a>.
-Rate of caravan travelling, <a href="#Pagei-362">362</a>.
-Custom respecting caravans in Central Africa, ii. 54.
-Those on the Uruwwa route, 148.
-Accident to a, 270.</li>
-
-<li>Carissa Carandas, the Corinda bush in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-60">i. 60</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Carpentering in East Africa, ii. 309.</li>
-
-<li>Carvings, rude, of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 26.</li>
-
-<li>Castor plants of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.
-Mode of extracting the oil, <a href="#Pagei-48">48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Cats, wild, in Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Cattle, horned, of Ujiji, ii. 59.
-Of Karagwah, 181.</li>
-
-<li>Cattle trade of East Africa, ii. 413.</li>
-
-<li>Cereals of East Africa, ii. 414.</li>
-
-<li>Ceremoniousness of the Wajiji, ii. 69.</li>
-
-<li>Ceremony and politeness, miseries of, in the East, <a href="#Pagei-392">i. 392</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Cha K’henge, halt of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-167">i. 167</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Chamærops humilis, or Nyara tree, of the Mrima, f. <a href="#Pagei-48">48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Chawambi, Sultan of Unyoro, ii. 198.</li>
-
-<li>Chhaga, ii. 179.</li>
-
-<li>Chiefs of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-113">i. 113</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Chikichi, or palm oil, trade in, at Wafanya,
-ii. 107.</li>
-
-<li>Childbirth, ceremonies of, in Unyamwezi ii. 23.
-Twins, 23.</li>
-
-<li>Children, mode of carrying, in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-110">i. 110</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Children, Wasagara mode of carrying, <a href="#Pagei-237">i. 237</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Children, mode of carrying amongst the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22.</li>
-
-<li>Children, education of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 23, 24.</li>
-
-<li>Chomwi, or headman, of the Wamrima, <a href="#Pagei-16">i. 16</a>.
-His privileges, <a href="#Pagei-16">16</a>, <a href="#Pagei-17">17</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Chumbi, isle of, <a href="#Pagei-1">i. 1</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Chunga Mchwa, or ant, of the sweet red clay of East Africa, described, <a href="#Pagei-201">i. 201</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-202">202</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Chungo-fundo or siyafu, or pismires of the river banks of East Africa, described, <a href="#Pagei-186">i. 186</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Chyámbo, the locale of the coast Arabs, <a href="#Pagei-397">i. 397</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Circumcision, not practised by the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-108">i. 108</a>.
-Nor in the Unyamwezi, ii. 23.</li>
-
-<li>Clay chewed, when tobacco fails, in Unyamwezi, ii. 28.</li>
-
-<li>Climate of&mdash;</li>
-<li class="level1">Bomani, <a href="#Pagei-49">i. 49</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-89">i. 89</a>, <a href="#Pagei-92">92</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">East Africa, during the wet season, <a href="#Pagei-379">i. 379</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Inenge, <a href="#Pagei-208">i. 208</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kajjanjeri, ii. 403.</li>
-<li class="level1">Karagwah, ii. 180.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kawele, ii. 130.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kirira, <a href="#Pagei-394">i. 394</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kuingani, <a href="#Pagei-44">i. 44</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-203">i. 203</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-102">i. 102</a>, <a href="#Pagei-104">104</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Msene, <a href="#Pagei-400">i. 400</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mohama, <a href="#Pagei-179">i. 179</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mzizi Mdogo, <a href="#Pagei-161">i. 161</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rumuma, <a href="#Pagei-199">i. 199</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Sorora, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Tanganyika Lake, <a href="#Pagei-142">i. 142</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-243">i. 243</a>, <a href="#Pagei-259">259</a>, <a href="#Pagei-297">297</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ujiji, ii. 81.</li>
-<li class="level1">Unyamwezi, ii. 8-14.</li>
-<li class="level1">Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-221">i. 221</a>, <a href="#Pagei-222">222</a>, <a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Wafanya, ii. 107.</li>
-<li class="level1">Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-94">i. 94</a>, 127, 156,
-161, 163.</li>
-
-<li>Cloth, mode of carrying, in the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-145">i. 145</a>.
-As an article of commerce, <a href="#Pagei-148">148</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Clothing required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-154">i. 154</a>.
-Of travellers in East Africa, ii. 201.</li>
-
-<li>Clouds in Unyamwezi, ii. 12.</li>
-
-<li>Cockroaches in houses in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Cocoa-nut, use of the, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-36">i. 36</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Cocoa-tree, its limits inland, <a href="#Pagei-160">i. 160</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Coffee, wild, or mwami, of Karagwah, ii. 180, 181,
-187.</li>
-
-<li>Commando, pitiable scene presented after one, <a href="#Pagei-185">i. 185</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Commerce of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-39">i. 39</a>.
-Of Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-95">95</a>.
-Of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>.
-Of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-308">308</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.
-Of the Nyanza Lake, 215.
-African, 224.
-Of Ubena, 270.
-Of Uvira, ii. 120.
-Of East Africa, 387.</li>
-
-<li>Conversation, specimen of, in East Africa, ii. 243, 244.</li>
-
-<li>Copal tree, or Msandarusi, of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Copal trade of East Africa, ii. 403.</li>
-
-<li>Copper in Katata, ii. 148.
-In East Africa, 312.</li>
-
-<li>Cotton in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-318">i. 318</a>.
-In Ujiji, <a href="#Pagei-57">i. 57</a>.
-In East Africa, 417.</li>
-
-<li>Cowhage on the banks of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-166">i. 166</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Cowries of Karagwah, ii. 185.
-Of East Africa, 416.</li>
-
-<li>Crickets of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>.
-House, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Crocodiles of the Kingani river, <a href="#Pagei-56">i. 56</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-In the Sea of Ujiji, 60.
-Of the Ruche River, 158.</li>
-
-<li>Crops of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-102">i. 102</a>, <i>et seq</i>.</li>
-
-<li>Cucumbers at Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-201">i. 201</a>.
-Wild, of Unyanyembe, ii. 285.</li>
-
-<li>Cultivation in the Mukondokwa hills, <a href="#Pagei-196">i. 196</a>, <a href="#Pagei-197">197</a>.
-In the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Currency of East Africa, stock may be recruited at Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-334">i. 334</a>.
-Of Msene, <a href="#Pagei-398">i. 398</a>.
-Of Ujiji, ii. 73.
-Of Karagwah, 185.
-Of Ubena, 270.
-Cynhyænas of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-302">i. 302</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Cynocephalus, the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-The terror of the country, 15.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Dancing of the Wazaramo women, <a href="#Pagei-55">i. 55</a>.
-African, described, <a href="#Pagei-360">360</a>; ii. 291, 298.</li>
-
-<li>Darwayash, the Baloch, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-137">i. 137</a>.</li>
-
-<li>“Dash,” <a href="#Pagei-58">i. 58</a>.
-<i>See</i> <a href="#IndRef2">Blackmail</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Datura plant of Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-95">i. 95</a>.
-Smoked in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-96">96</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Day, an African’s mode of passing the, ii. 289, 290.</li>
-
-<li>Death, African fear of, ii. 331.</li>
-
-<li>Defences of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-111">i. 111</a>, <a href="#Pagei-117">117</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Dege la Mhora, “the large jungle bird,” village of, <a href="#Pagei-72">i. 72</a>.
-Fate of M. Maizan at, <a href="#Pagei-73">73</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Det’he, or Kidete of East Africa, ii. 293.</li>
-
-<li>Devil’s trees of East Africa, ii. 353.</li>
-
-<li>Dialects of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-107">i. 107</a>.
-The Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-306">306</a>.
-The Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-The Wanyamwezi, ii. 5.
-The Wakimbu, 20.
-The Wanyamwezi, 30.</li>
-
-<li>Diseases of the maritime region of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-105">i. 105</a>.
-Of the people of Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-233">233</a>.
-Of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-299">299</a>.
-Of caravans in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-342">342</a>.
-Of Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 13, 14.
-Of East Africa, 318.
-Remedies, 321.
-Mystical remedies, 352, 353.</li>
-
-<li>Dishdasheh, El, or turban of the coast Arabs, <a href="#Pagei-32">i. 32</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Divorce amongst the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-118">i. 118</a>.
-Amongst the East Africans generally, ii. 333.</li>
-
-<li>Drawing materials required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-155">i. 155</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Dress, articles of, of the East Africans, <a href="#Pagei-148">i. 148</a>.
-Of the Wamrima, <a href="#Pagei-33">33</a>, <a href="#Pagei-34">34</a>.
-Of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-109">109</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Of the Wasagara, <a href="#Pagei-253">253</a>.
-Of the Wahete, <a href="#Pagei-239">239</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-305">305</a>.
-Of the Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-Of the Wakalaganza, <a href="#Pagei-406">406</a>.
-Of the Wakimbu, ii. 20.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, 21.
-Of the Wajiji, 64.
-Of the Warundi, 146.
-Of the Wavinza, 75.
-Of the Watuta, 77.
-Of the Wabuta, 78.
-Of the people of Karagwah, 182.
-Of the Wahinda, 220.
-Of the Warori, 271.</li>
-
-<li>Dodges of the ferrymen, ii. 164, 165.</li>
-
-<li>Dragon-flies in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.</li>
-
-<li>Drinking-bouts in East Africa, ii. 295, 335.</li>
-
-<li>Drinking-cups in East Africa, ii. 295.</li>
-
-<li>Drums and drumming of East Africa, ii. 295.</li>
-
-<li>Drunkenness of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-118">i. 118</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-And debauchery of the people of Msene, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.
-Prevalence of, near the Lake Tanganyika, ii. 59.
-Of the Wajiji, 69.</li>
-
-<li>Dogs, wild, in Unyamwezi, ii. 16.
-Pariah, in the villages of Ujiji, 60.
-Rarely heard to bark, 60.</li>
-
-<li>Dolicos pruriens on the banks of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-166">i. 166</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Donkey-men of the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-143">i. 143</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Dub-grass in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-171">i. 171</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Dunda, or “the Hill,” district of, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Dunda Nguru, or “Seer fish-bill” <a href="#Pagei-69">i. 69</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Dungomaro, or Mandama, river, arrival of the caravan at the, <a href="#Pagei-222">i. 222</a>.
-Description of the bed of the, <a href="#Pagei-223">223</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Dut’humi, mountain crags of, <a href="#Pagei-65">i. 65</a>, <a href="#Pagei-83">83</a>, <a href="#Pagei-86">86</a>.
-Illness of the chiefs of the expedition at, <a href="#Pagei-84">84</a>.
-Description of the plains of, <a href="#Pagei-86">86</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Eagles, fish, of Ujiji, ii. 60.</li>
-
-<li>Ear-lobes distended by the Wasagara, <a href="#Pagei-235">i. 235</a>.
-And by the Wahehe, <a href="#Pagei-239">239</a>.
-By the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-And by the Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-Enlarged by the Wanyamwezi, ii. 21.</li>
-
-<li>Earth-fruit of India, <a href="#Pagei-198">i. 198</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Earthquakes in Unyamwezi, ii. 13.</li>
-
-<li>Earwigs in East African houses, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ebb and flow of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 143.
-Causes of, 143, 144.</li>
-
-<li>Education of children in Unyamwezi, ii. 23, 24.</li>
-
-<li>Eels of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 68.</li>
-
-<li>Eggs not eaten by the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.
-Nor by the people of Ujiji, 59.</li>
-
-<li>Elæis Guiniensis, or Mehikichi tree, in Ujiji, ii. 58.</li>
-
-<li>Elephants at Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>.
-In Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>.
-At Ziwa, or the Pond, <a href="#Pagei-251">251</a>.
-On the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-247">247</a>.
-On the Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-287">287</a>, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-On the banks of the Malagarazi river, <a href="#Pagei-408">408</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-Near the sea of Ujiji, 60.
-In East Africa, 297.</li>
-
-<li>Elephant hunting in East Africa, ii. 298.</li>
-
-<li>English, the, bow regarded in Africa, <a href="#Pagei-31">i. 31</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Erhardt, M., his proposed expedition to East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-3">i. 3</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ethnology of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-106">i. 106</a>.
-Of the second region, <a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>, <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li>Euphorbiæ at Mb’hali, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-In the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-165">i. 165</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Evil eye unknown to the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-116">i. 116</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Exorcism in East Africa, ii. 352.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Falsehood of the coast clans of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-37">i. 37</a>.
-General in East Africa, ii. 328.</li>
-
-<li>Faraj, sketch of him and his wife, the lady Halimah, <a href="#Pagei-129">i. 129</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Fauna of Ujiji, ii. 60.</li>
-
-<li>Fetiss-huts of the Wazaramo described, <a href="#Pagei-57">i. 57</a>.
-Of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-369">369</a>; ii. 346.</li>
-
-<li>Fetissism of East Africa, ii. 341, <i>et seq.</i></li>
-
-<li>Fever, marsh, cure in Central Asia for, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>.
-The author prostrated by, <a href="#Pagei-84">84</a>.
-Delirium of, <a href="#Pagei-84">84</a>.
-Of East Africa generally described, <a href="#Pagei-105">105</a>.
-The author and his companion again attacked by, at Muhama, <a href="#Pagei-179">179</a>.
-Common in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-233">233</a>.
-Seasoning fever of East Africa, generally, <a href="#Pagei-379">379</a>.
-Miasmatic, described, <a href="#Pagei-403">403</a>.
-Low type, <a href="#Pagei-406">406</a>.
-Seasoning fever at Unyamwezi described, ii. 14.</li>
-
-<li>Fire-arms and Gunpowder in East Africa, ii. 308.</li>
-
-<li>Fires in Africa, ii. 259.</li>
-
-<li>Fish of the Kingani river, <a href="#Pagei-56">i. 56</a>.
-Of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 59.
-Varieties of, 67.
-Narcotised in Uzaramo, 67.
-At Wafanya, 108.
-Considered as an article of diet in East Africa, 280.</li>
-
-<li>Fishing in the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 66.</li>
-
-<li>Fisi, or cynhyæna, of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.
-The scavenger of the country, <a href="#Pagei-64">i. 64</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Flies in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-Fatal bite of one in, 19.</li>
-
-<li>Flowers of Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-328">i. 328</a>.
-At Msene, <a href="#Pagei-397">397</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Fly, a stinging, the tzetze, <a href="#Pagei-187">i. 187</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Fog-rainbow in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-222">i. 222</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Food of the Wamrima, <a href="#Pagei-35">i. 35</a>.
-Of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-56">56</a>.
-Of the people of Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-95">95</a>, <a href="#Pagei-96">96</a>, <a href="#Pagei-97">97</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Of the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-151">151</a>, <a href="#Pagei-198">198</a>.
-Of the people of Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-310">310</a>, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Of Rubuga, <a href="#Pagei-317">317</a>.
-Of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-329">329</a>.
-Of Arabs of, <a href="#Pagei-331">331-334</a>.
-Of Wilyanhuru, <a href="#Pagei-392">392-394</a>.
-Of Unyamwezi, ii. 28, 29.
-Of Ujiji, 70, <a href="#Pagei-88">88</a>.
-Of Karagwah, 180, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.
-Of Uganda, 196, <a href="#Pagei-197">197</a>.
-Of the Warori tribe, 273.
-East Africa generally, 280.</li>
-
-<li>Fords in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-336">i. 336</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Fowls not eaten by the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.
-Nor by the people of Ujiji, 59.</li>
-
-<li>Frankincense of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-299">i. 299</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Frogs in Unyamwezi, ii. 17.
-Night concerts of, 17.
-Of the sea of Ujiji, 61.</li>
-
-<li>Frost, Mr., of the Zanzibar consulate, <a href="#Pagei-3">i. 3</a>, <a href="#Pagei-21">21</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Fruits of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>.
-Of Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-228">228</a>.
-Of Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-337">337</a>.
-Of Mb’hali, <a href="#Pagei-401">401</a>.
-Of Ujiji, ii. 58.</li>
-
-<li>Fundi, or itinerant slave-artizans of Unyanyembe, <a href="#Pagei-328">i. 328</a>.
-Caravans of the, <a href="#Pagei-344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Fundikira, Sultan of Unyamwezi, notice of him, ii. 31.</li>
-
-<li>Fundikira, Sultan of Ititenza, <a href="#Pagei-326">i. 326</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Funerals of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-119">i. 119</a>. Of the Wadoe, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Funza, brother of Sultan Matanza of Msene, <a href="#Pagei-396">i. 396</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Furniture of East African houses, <a href="#Pagei-371">i. 371</a>.
-Kitanda, or bedstead, <a href="#Pagei-371">371</a>.
-Bedding, <a href="#Pagei-371">371</a>.
-Of the houses of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 26.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Gadflies, annoyance of, at K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-276">i. 276</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Gaetano, the Goanese servant, sketch of his character, <a href="#Pagei-131">i. 131</a>.
-Taken ill, <a href="#Pagei-380">380</a>.
-His epileptic fits at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-395">395</a>, <a href="#Pagei-399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Gama river, <a href="#Pagei-123">i. 123</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Gambling in East Africa, ii. 279.</li>
-
-<li>Game in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-59">i. 59</a>, <a href="#Pagei-71">71</a>.
-In the Doab of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-81">81</a>.
-In K’huta, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-In the plains between the Rufuta and the Mukondokwa mountains, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.
-In Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>.
-At Ziwa, or the Pond, <a href="#Pagei-251">251</a>.
-At Kanyenye, <a href="#Pagei-268">268</a>.
-Scarcity of, in East Africa generally, <a href="#Pagei-268">268</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ganza Mikono, sultan of Usek’he, <a href="#Pagei-272">i. 272</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Geography of the second region, <a href="#Pagei-225">i. 225</a>, <i>et seq</i>.
-Of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-295">295</a>.
-Arab oral, ii. 144-154.</li>
-
-<li>Geology of the maritime region of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-102">i. 102</a>.
-Of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-227">227</a>.
-Of the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-247">247</a>.
-Of Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-282">i. 282-284</a>.
-Of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-295">i. 295</a>.
-Of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.</li>
-
-<li>Ghost-faith of the Africans, ii. 344.</li>
-
-<li>Gingerbread tree, described, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ginyindo, march to, ii. 253.
-Quarrel of the Baloch and porters at, 253.</li>
-
-<li>Giraffes in Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-242">i. 242</a>.
-Native names of the, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>, <a href="#Pagei-243">243</a>.
-Use made of them, <a href="#Pagei-243">243</a>.
-At Ziwa, or the Pond, <a href="#Pagei-251">251</a>.
-On the Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Girls of the Wanyamwezi, strange custom of the, ii. 24.</li>
-
-<li>Gnus in the Doab of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-81">i. 81</a>.
-At Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">87</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Goats of Ujiji, ii. 59.</li>
-
-<li>Goma pass, the, <a href="#Pagei-168">i. 168</a>, <a href="#Pagei-170">170</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Gombe, mud-fish in the nullah of, <a href="#Pagei-334">i. 334</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Gombe Nullah, <a href="#Pagei-395">i. 395</a>, <a href="#Pagei-397">397</a>, <a href="#Pagei-401">401</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-403">403</a>, ii. 8.</li>
-
-<li>Goose, ruddy, Egyptian, <a href="#Pagei-317">i. 317</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Gourd, the, a musical instrument in East Africa, ii. 294.</li>
-
-<li>Gourds of the Myombo tree in Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-229">i. 229</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Government of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-113">i. 113</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 31.
-Of the Wajiji, 71.
-Of the northern kingdoms of Africa, 174.
-Mode of, in Uganda, 192.
-Forms of, in East Africa, 360.</li>
-
-<li>Grain, mode of grinding, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-111">i. 111</a>, <a href="#Pagei-372">372</a>.
-That of Msene, <a href="#Pagei-397">397</a>, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.
-Of Ujiji, ii. 57.</li>
-
-<li>Grapes, wild, seen for the first time, ii. 41.</li>
-
-<li>Grasses of the swamps and marshes of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-103">i. 103</a>, <a href="#Pagei-104">104</a>.
-The dub of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-171">171</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Graveyards, absence of, in East Africa, ii. 25.</li>
-
-<li>Ground-fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 68.</li>
-
-<li>Ground-nut oil in East Africa, ii. 285.</li>
-
-<li>Grouse, sand, at Ziwa, <a href="#Pagei-251">i. 251</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Guest welcome, or hishmat l’il gharib, of the Arabs of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-329">i. 329</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Gugu-mbua, or wild sugar-cane, <a href="#Pagei-71">i. 71</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Guinea-fowls in the Doab of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-81">i. 81</a>.
-Of the Rufuta plains, <a href="#Pagei-183">183</a>.
-Of Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Guinea-palm of Ujiji, ii. 58.</li>
-
-<li>Gul Mohammed, a Baloch of the party, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-139">i. 139</a>.
-His conversation with Muzungu Mbaya, ii. 244.</li>
-
-<li>Gulls, sea, of the sea of Ujiji, ii. 60.</li>
-
-<li>Gungu, district of, in Ujiji, ii. 53.
-Its former and present chiefs, 53.
-Plundered by the Watuta tribe, 76.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Hail-storms in Unyamwezi, ii. 10.</li>
-
-<li>Hair, mode of dressing the, amongst the
-Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-108">i. 108</a>.
-And the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Wasagara fashions of dressing the, <a href="#Pagei-234">234</a>.
-Wagogo mode, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Amongst the Wanyamwezi, ii. 26.
-Wabuha mode of dressing the, 78.
-And in Uganda, 189.</li>
-
-<li>Halimah, the lady, sketch of, <a href="#Pagei-129">i. 129</a>.
-Taken ill, <a href="#Pagei-200">200</a>.
-Returns home, ii. 277.</li>
-
-<li>Hamdan, Sayyid, of Zanzibar, his death, <a href="#Pagei-2">i. 2</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hamerton, Lieut.-Col., his friendship with the late Sultan of Zanzibar, <a href="#Pagei-2">i. 2</a>.
-Interest taken by him in the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-3">3</a>.
-His objections to an expedition into the interior <i>viâ</i> Kilwa, <a href="#Pagei-5">5</a>.
-His death, <a href="#Pagei-66">66</a>.
-His character, <a href="#Pagei-69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hamid bin Salim, his journey to the Wahumba tribe, <a href="#Pagei-311">i. 311</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hammals of the Wanyamwezi, character of the, ii. 162.</li>
-
-<li>Hammam, or primitive form of the lamp-bath, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hanga, journey to, ii. 232.
-Difficulties with the porters there, 232.</li>
-
-<li>Hartebeest in the Doab of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-81">i. 81</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hawks of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hembe, or “the wild buffalo’s horn,” his village, <a href="#Pagei-72">i. 72</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hides, African mode of dressing, <a href="#Pagei-236">i. 236</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hilal bin Nasur, his information respecting the southern provinces, ii. 228.</li>
-
-<li>Hippopotami on the east coast of Africa, <a href="#Pagei-9">i. 9</a>, <a href="#Pagei-12">12</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-24">24</a>, <a href="#Pagei-56">56</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-In the Ruche river, 52, 158.
-In the sea of Ujiji, 60.</li>
-
-<li>Hishmat l’il gharib, or guest welcome of the Arabs of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-329">329</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hogs of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">i. 300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Home, African attachment for, ii. 333.</li>
-
-<li>Honey in Ujiji, ii. 59.
-Abundance of, in East Africa, 287.
-Two kinds of, 288.</li>
-
-<li>Houses of Kuingani, <a href="#Pagei-43">i. 43</a>.
-The wayside, or kraals, <a href="#Pagei-53">53</a>, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>, <a href="#Pagei-230">230</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-97">97</a>, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.
-Of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-110">110</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-306">306</a>.
-Of the Arabs in Unyanyembe, <a href="#Pagei-328">328</a>, <a href="#Pagei-329">329</a>.
-Of stone, ignored by Inner Africa, <a href="#Pagei-93">93</a>.
-Of the country beyond Marenga Mk’hali, called “Tembe,” <a href="#Pagei-207">207</a>.
-The Tembe of the Wahete, <a href="#Pagei-240">240</a>.
-The Khambi or, Kraal, <a href="#Pagei-354">354</a>.
-The Tembe of the Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-366">366</a>.
-Houses of East Africa generally described, <a href="#Pagei-364">364</a>, ii. 334.
-Pests of the houses, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.
-Furniture, <a href="#Pagei-371">371</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 26.
-Of Karagwah, 182, 183.</li>
-
-<li>Hullak, the buffoon, <a href="#Pagei-46">i. 46</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Hunting season in East Africa, ii. 296.</li>
-
-<li>Hyænas in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-276">i. 276</a>.
-In Ujiji, ii. 60.</li>
-
-<li>Hyderabad, story of the police officer of, <a href="#Pagei-217">i. 217</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Ibanda, second sultan of Ukerewe, ii. 214.</li>
-
-<li>Id, son of Muallim Salim, his civility at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-399">i. 399</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Iguanas of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ihara or Kwihara, physical features of the plain of, <a href="#Pagei-326">i. 326</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ikuka of Uhehe, march to, ii. 252.</li>
-
-<li>Illness of the whole party at Ujiji, ii. 85, 86.</li>
-
-<li>Immigration in Central Africa, ii. 19.</li>
-
-<li>Imports and exports in East Africa, ii. 387.</li>
-
-<li>Indian Ocean, evening on the, <a href="#Pagei-1">i. 1</a>.
-View of the Mrima from the, <a href="#Pagei-8">8</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Industry, commercial, of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.</li>
-
-<li>Inenge, basin of, <a href="#Pagei-208">i. 208</a>.
-Halt at the, <a href="#Pagei-208">208</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Influenza, the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 13.</li>
-
-<li>Influenza, remedy in East Africa for, <a href="#Pagei-96">i. 96</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Inhospitality of Africans, ii. 131, 327.</li>
-
-<li>Inhumanity of the Africans, ii. 329.</li>
-
-<li>Insects in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-186">i. 186</a>, <a href="#Pagei-187">187</a>, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-202">202</a>.
-In houses in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-370">370</a>.
-In Ujiji, ii. 61.</li>
-
-<li>Instruments required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-153">i. 153</a>.
-Breakage of, on the road, <a href="#Pagei-169">169</a>.
-Accidents to which they are liable in East African travels, <a href="#Pagei-189">189</a>, <a href="#Pagei-191">191</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Intellect of the East African, ii. 337.</li>
-
-<li>Iron in Karagwah, ii. 185.
-In Urori, 27.
-And in Ubena, 27.
-Of East Africa generally, 311.</li>
-
-<li>Ironga, sultan of U’ungu, defeats the Warori, ii. 75.</li>
-
-<li>Ironware of Uvira, ii. 121.</li>
-
-<li>Irora, village of, <a href="#Pagei-389">i. 389</a>.
-Halt at, <a href="#Pagei-389">389</a>.
-Sultan of, <a href="#Pagei-389">389</a>.
-Return to, ii. 166.</li>
-
-<li>Irrigation, artificial, in K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-86">i. 86</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Isa bin Hijji, the Arab merchant, exchange of civilities with, <a href="#Pagei-208">i. 208</a>, <a href="#Pagei-211">211</a>.
-Places a tembe at Kazeh at the disposal of the party, <a href="#Pagei-323">323</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Isa bin Hosayn, the favourite of the Sultan of Uganda, ii. 193.</li>
-
-<li>Ismail, the Baloch, illness of, <a href="#Pagei-381">i. 381</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ititenya, settlement of, <a href="#Pagei-326">i. 326</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ivory, caravan of, <a href="#Pagei-17">i. 17</a>.
-Frauds perpetrated on the owners of tusks, <a href="#Pagei-17">17</a>.
-Mode of buying and selling in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-39">39</a>.
-Touters of Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-97">97</a>.
-Mode of carrying large tusks of, <a href="#Pagei-341">341</a>, <a href="#Pagei-348">348</a>.
-Price of, at Uvira, ii. 120, 121.
-Ivory of Ubena, 270.
-Trade in Ivory, 408.</li>
-
-<li>Iwanza, or public-houses, in Unyamwezi, ii. 1, 27.
-Described, 27, 279, 285.</li>
-
-<li>Iwemba, province of, ii. 153.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Jackal, silver, of Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-242">i. 242</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jambeho, arrival of the party at the settlements of, ii. 36.
-Cultivation of, 36.
-Scarcity of food in, 36.
-Revisited, 163.</li>
-
-<li>Jami of Harar, Shaykh, of the Somal, <a href="#Pagei-33">i. 33</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jamshid, Sayyid, of Zanzibar, his death, <a href="#Pagei-2">i. 2</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jasmine, the, in Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-228">i. 228</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jealousy of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-61">i. 61</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jelai, Seedy, the Baloch, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-137">i. 137</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jezirah, island of, ii. 212.</li>
-
-<li>Jiwe la Mkoa, or the round rock, arrival of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-286">i. 286</a>.
-Description of it, <a href="#Pagei-287">287</a>; ii. 242.
-Halt at, 242.</li>
-
-<li>Jiweni, arrival of the expedition at, <a href="#Pagei-289">i. 289</a>.
-Water at, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jongo, or millepedes, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.</li>
-
-<li>Jua, Dar el, or home of hunger, <a href="#Pagei-69">i. 69</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Juma Mfumbi, Diwan of Saadani, his exaction of tribute from the Wadoe, <a href="#Pagei-123">i. 123</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Jungle, insect pests of the, <a href="#Pagei-186">i. 186</a>.
-Fire in the jungle in summer, ii. 163.</li>
-
-<li>Jungle-thorn, on the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-246">i. 246</a>.
-Near Kanyenye, <a href="#Pagei-271">271</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Kadetamare, arrival of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-189">i. 189</a>.
-Loss of instruments at, <a href="#Pagei-189">189</a>, <a href="#Pagei-190">190</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kaffirs of the Cape, date of their migration to the banks of the Kei, ii. 5.</li>
-
-<li>Kafuro, district of, in Karagwah, ii. 177.</li>
-
-<li>Kajjanjeri, village of, arrival of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-403">i. 403</a>.
-Deadly climate of, <a href="#Pagei-403">403</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kannena, headman of Kawele, visit to, ii. 81.
-Description of him, 81.
-His mode of opening trade, 82.
-His ill-will, 83, 84.
-Agrees to take the party to the northern extremity of the lake, 93.
-His surly and drunken conduct, 97.
-Starts on the voyage, 98.
-His covetousness, 109.
-His extravagance, 120.
-His drunkenness and fate, 156.</li>
-
-<li>Kanoni, sultan of the Wahha tribe, ii. 79.</li>
-
-<li>Kanoni, minor chief of Wafanya, visit from, ii. 107.
-His blackmail, 107.
-Outrage committed by his people, 124.</li>
-
-<li>Kanyenye, country of, described, <a href="#Pagei-265">i. 265</a>.
-Blackmail at, <a href="#Pagei-265">265</a>.
-Sultan Magomba of, <a href="#Pagei-265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kaole, settlement of, described, <a href="#Pagei-12">i. 12</a>, <a href="#Pagei-13">13</a>.
-The landing place of the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-22">22</a>.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef5">Karagwah, kingdom of, ii. 177.
-Extent of, 177.
-Boundaries of, 178.
-Climate of, 180.
-People of, 181.
-Dress of, 182.
-Weapons of, 182.
-Houses of, 182.
-Sultan of, 183.
-Government of, 183.</li>
-
-<li>Karagwah, mountains of, ii. 48, 144, 177.</li>
-
-<li>Kariba, river, ii. 146.</li>
-
-<li>Karindira, river, ii. 146.</li>
-
-<li>Karungu, province of, ii. 149.</li>
-
-<li>Kasangare, a Mvinza sultan, his subjects, <a href="#Pagei-328">i. 328</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kaskazi, or N. E. monsoon, <a href="#Pagei-83">i. 83</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kata, or sand-grouse, at Ziwa, <a href="#Pagei-251">i. 251</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Katata, or Katanga, copper in, ii. 148.</li>
-
-<li>Katonga, river, ii. 187.</li>
-
-<li>Kawele, principal village of Ujiji, ii. 53.
-Attacked by the Watuta tribe, ii. 76.
-Return of the expedition to, 126.</li>
-
-<li>Kaya, or fenced hamlets, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kazeh, arrival at, <a href="#Pagei-321">i. 321</a>, <a href="#Pagei-322">322</a>.
-Abdullah bin Salih’s caravan plundered at, <a href="#Pagei-321">321</a>.
-Hospitality of the Arabs there, <a href="#Pagei-323">323</a>.
-Revisited, ii. 167.</li>
-
-<li>Kazembe, sultan of Usenda, ii. 148.
-Account of him, 148.</li>
-
-<li>Khalfan bin Muallim Salim, commands an up caravan, <a href="#Pagei-179">i. 179</a>.
-His caravan attacked by small-pox, <a href="#Pagei-179">179</a>, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>.
-His falsehoods, <a href="#Pagei-179">179</a>.
-Spreads malevolent reports at Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-262">262</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Khalfan bin Khamis, his penny wise economy, <a href="#Pagei-288">i. 288</a>.
-Bids adieu to the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-291">291</a>.
-Overtaken half-way to Unyanyembe, <a href="#Pagei-221">221</a>.
-His civility at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Khambi, or substantial kraals, of the wayside described, <a href="#Pagei-53">i. 53</a>, <a href="#Pagei-134">134</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Khamisi, Muinyi, and the lost furniture, ii. 168.</li>
-
-<li>K’hok’ho, in Ugogo, dangers of, <a href="#Pagei-272">i. 272</a>, <a href="#Pagei-274">274</a>.
-Its tyrant sultan, <a href="#Pagei-274">274</a>.
-Insect annoyances at, <a href="#Pagei-276">276</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Khudabakhsh, the Baloch, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-138">i. 138</a>.
-His threats to murder the author, <a href="#Pagei-174">174</a>.
-His illness in the Windy Pass, <a href="#Pagei-214">214</a>.
-His conduct at Wafanya, ii. 110.
-Reaches Kawele by land, 111.</li>
-
-<li>K’hutu, expedition enters the country of, <a href="#Pagei-86">i. 86</a>.
-Irrigation in, <a href="#Pagei-86">86</a>.
-Hideous and grotesque vegetation of, <a href="#Pagei-91">91</a>.
-Climate of, <a href="#Pagei-92">92</a>.
-Salt-pits of, <a href="#Pagei-92">92</a>.
-Country of, described, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>.
-Roads in, <a href="#Pagei-335">335</a>.
-Return to, ii. 264.
-Desolation of, 264.</li>
-
-<li>K’hutu, river <a href="#Pagei-86">i. 86</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kibaiba river, ii. 146.</li>
-
-<li>Kibuga, in Uganda, distance from the Kitangure river to, ii. 186.
-Road to, 186, 187.
-Described, 188.</li>
-
-<li>Kibuya, sultan of Mdabura, blackmail of, <a href="#Pagei-279">i. 279</a>.
-Description of him, <a href="#Pagei-279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kichyoma-chyoma, “the little irons,” Captain Speke afflicted with, ii. 234.
-The disease described, 320.</li>
-
-<li>Kidogo, Muinyi, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-140">i. 140</a>.
-His hatred of Said bin Salim, <a href="#Pagei-164">164</a>.
-His advice to the party at Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-203">203</a>.
-His words of wisdom on the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-250">250</a>.
-His management, <a href="#Pagei-254">254</a>.
-His quarrel with Said bin Salim, <a href="#Pagei-255">255</a>.
-Makes oath at Kanyenye, that the white man would not smite the land, <a href="#Pagei-267">267</a>.
-Loses his heart to a slave girl, <a href="#Pagei-314">314</a>.
-His demands at Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-377">377</a>.
-Dismissed at Sorora, <a href="#Pagei-402">402</a>.
-Flogs Sangora, <a href="#Pagei-403">403</a>.
-Sent home, ii. 277.</li>
-
-<li>Kidunda, or the “little hill,” camping ground of,
-<a href="#Pagei-79">i. 79</a>.
-Scenery of, <a href="#Pagei-79">79</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kifukuru, delay of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-264">i. 264</a>.
-Question of blackmail at, <a href="#Pagei-264">264</a>.
-Sultan of, <a href="#Pagei-264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kigari, on the Tanganyika Lake, halt of the party at, ii. 101.</li>
-
-<li>Kigwa, or Mkigwa, halt of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.
-The ill-omened forest of, <a href="#Pagei-319">319</a>.
-Sultan Manwa, <a href="#Pagei-319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kikoboga, basin of, traversed, ii. 262.</li>
-
-<li>Kikoboga river, ii. 263.</li>
-
-<li>Kilwa, dangers of, as an ingress point, <a href="#Pagei-4">i. 4</a>, <a href="#Pagei-5">5</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kimanu, the sultan of Ubena, ii. 270.</li>
-
-<li>Kinanda, or harp, of East Africa, ii. 298.</li>
-
-<li>Kinawani, village of, arrival of the caravan at, ii. 35.</li>
-
-<li>Kindunda, “the hillock,” <a href="#Pagei-64">i. 64</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kinganguku, march to, ii. 251.</li>
-
-<li>Kingani river described, <a href="#Pagei-56">i. 56</a>.
-Valley of the, <a href="#Pagei-56">56</a>.
-Hippopotami and crocodiles of the, <a href="#Pagei-56">56</a>.
-Fish of the, <a href="#Pagei-56">56</a>.
-Its malarious plain, <a href="#Pagei-69">69</a>.
-Rise of the, <a href="#Pagei-87">87</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kingfishers on the lake of Tanganyika, ii. 61.</li>
-
-<li>Kipango, or tzetze fly, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-187">i. 187</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kiperepeta, march to, ii. 256.</li>
-
-<li>Kiranga-Ranga, the first dangerous station in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-59">i. 59</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kirangozi, guide or guardian, carried by mothers in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-116">i. 116</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kirangozi, or guide of the caravan, his wrath, <a href="#Pagei-221">i. 221</a>.
-Description of one, <a href="#Pagei-346">346</a>.
-Meeting of two, <a href="#Pagei-351">351</a>.
-His treatment of his slave girl, ii. 161.
-His fear of travelling northward, 172.</li>
-
-<li>Kiringawana mountains, <a href="#Pagei-233">i. 233</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kiringawana route in the Usagara mountains described, ii. 249.</li>
-
-<li>Kiringawana, sultan, ii. 258.</li>
-
-<li>Kirira, halt of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-392">i. 392</a>.
-Hospitality of an Arab merchant at, <a href="#Pagei-392">392-394</a>.
-Climate of, <a href="#Pagei-394">394</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kiruru, or “palm leaves,” village of, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kirurumo, on the Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-289">i. 289</a>.
-Water obtained at, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kisanga, basin of, described, ii. 257.</li>
-
-<li>Kisabengo, the chief headman of Inland Magogoni, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>.
-Account of his depredations, <a href="#Pagei-88">88</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kisawahili language, remarks on the, <a href="#Pagei-15">i. 15</a>, <i>note</i>; ii. 198.</li>
-
-<li>Kisesa, sultan, his blackmail, ii. 114.</li>
-
-<li>Kitambi, sultan of Uyuwwi, recovers part of the stolen papers, <a href="#Pagei-320">i. 320</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kitangure, or river of Karagwah, <a href="#Pagei-409">i. 409</a>; ii. 144,
-177, 186.</li>
-
-<li>Kiti, or stool, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-373">i. 373</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kittara, in Kingoro, road to, ii. 187.
-Wild coffee of, 187.</li>
-
-<li>Kivira river, ii. 197.</li>
-
-<li>Kiyombo, sultan of Urawwa, ii. 147.</li>
-
-<li>Kizaya, the P’hazi, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.
-Accompanies the expedition a part of their way, <a href="#Pagei-55">55</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Knobkerries of Africa, ii. 306.</li>
-
-<li>Kombe la Simba, the P’hazi, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Konduchi, march to, ii. 274.
-Revisited, 276.</li>
-
-<li>Koodoo, the, at Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Koodoo horn, the bugle of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-203">i. 203</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kraals of thorn, in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-230">i. 230</a>.
-Of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-354">354</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Krapf, Dr., result of his mission, <a href="#Pagei-6">i. 6</a>.
-His information, <a href="#Pagei-7">7</a>.
-His etymological errors, <a href="#Pagei-36">36</a>, <i>note</i>.</li>
-
-<li>Kuhonga, or blackmail, at Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-252">i. 252</a>.
-Account of the blackmail of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kuingani, “the cocoa-nut plantation near the sea,” <a href="#Pagei-42">i. 42</a>.
-Described, <a href="#Pagei-43">43</a>.
-Houses of, <a href="#Pagei-43">43</a>.
-Climate of, <a href="#Pagei-44">44</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kumbeni, isles of, <a href="#Pagei-1">i. 1</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kuryamavenge river, ii. 146.</li>
-
-<li>Kwale, halt at the nullah of, <a href="#Pagei-315">i. 315</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Kwihanga, village of, described, <a href="#Pagei-396">i. 396</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Ladha Damha, pushes the expedition forward, <a href="#Pagei-11">i. 11</a>.
-His conversation with Ramji, <a href="#Pagei-23">23</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Lakes,&mdash;Nyanza, or Ukerewe, <a href="#Pagei-311">i. 311</a>, <a href="#Pagei-409">409</a>,
-ii. 175, 176, 179,
-195.
-Tanganyika, ii. 42, <i>et seq.</i>; <a href="#Pagei-134">134</a>, <i>et seq.</i>
-Mukiziwa, ii. 147.</li>
-
-<li>Lakit, Arab law of, <a href="#Pagei-258">i. 258</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Lamp-bath of Central Asia, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Land-crabs in the Doab of the Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-81">i. 81</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Language of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-306">i. 306</a>.
-Of the Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 5.
-Of the Wakimbu, 20.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, 30.
-Specimens of the various dialects collected, 198.
-Of the East Africans, 336.</li>
-
-<li>Leeches in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.</li>
-
-<li>Leopards in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-302">i. 302</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Leucæthiops amongst the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-109">i. 109</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Libellulæ in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.</li>
-
-<li>Lions in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.
-Signs of, on the road, <a href="#Pagei-172">172</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>, <a href="#Pagei-301">301</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Lizards in the houses in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-371">i. 371</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Locusts, or nzige, flights of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-Varieties of, 18.
-Some considered edible, 18.</li>
-
-<li>Lodgings on the march in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-353">i. 353</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-354">354</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-354">354</a>.
-In Uvinza, <a href="#Pagei-354">354</a>.
-At Ujiji, <a href="#Pagei-351">351</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Looms in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-318">i. 318</a>; ii. 1.</li>
-
-<li>Lues in East Africa, ii. 321.</li>
-
-<li>Lunar Mountains, ii. 48, 144.</li>
-
-<li>Lurinda, chief of Gungu, ii. 53.
-Supplies a boat on the Tanganyika lake, 87.
-Enters into brotherhood with Said bin Salim, ii. 125.</li>
-
-<li>Lying, habit of, of the African, ii. 328.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Mabruki, Muinyi, henchman in the expedition, sketch of the character of, <a href="#Pagei-130">i. 130</a>.
-His slave boy, ii. 162.
-His bad behaviour, 173.</li>
-
-<li>Mabruki Pass, descent of the, ii. 263.</li>
-
-<li>Mabunguru fiumara, <a href="#Pagei-283">i. 283</a>.
-Shell-fish and Silurus of the, <a href="#Pagei-284">284</a>.
-Arrival of the party at the, <a href="#Pagei-285">285</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Macaulay, Lord, quoted, <a href="#Pagei-393">i. 393</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Machunda, chief sultan of Ukerewe, ii. 214.</li>
-
-<li>Madege Madogo, the “little birds,” district of, <a href="#Pagei-79">i. 79</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Madege Mkuba, “the great birds,” district of, <a href="#Pagei-79">i. 79</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Magic, black, or Ucháwi, how punished by the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-113">i. 113</a>, <a href="#Pagei-265">265</a>.
-Mode of proceeding for ascertaining the existence of, ii. 32.
-<i>See</i> <a href="#IndRef3">Mganga</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Magogoni, inland, country of, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Magomba, sultan of Kanyenye, <a href="#Pagei-265">i. 265</a>.
-Blackmail levied by, <a href="#Pagei-265">265</a>.
-Interview with him and his court, <a href="#Pagei-266">266</a>.
-Description of him, <a href="#Pagei-266">266</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Magugi, in Karagwah, ii. 177.</li>
-
-<li>Maizan, M., his death, <a href="#Pagei-6">i. 6</a>.
-Sketch of his career, <a href="#Pagei-73">73</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Maji m’ote, or “hot water” ant, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-187">i. 187</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Maji ya W’heta, or jetting water, the thermal spring of, <a href="#Pagei-159">i. 159</a>.
-Return to, ii. 264.</li>
-
-<li>Majid, Sayyid, sultan of Zanzibar, <a href="#Pagei-2">i. 2</a>.
-Gives letters of introduction to the author, <a href="#Pagei-3">3</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Makata tank, <a href="#Pagei-181">i. 181</a>.
-Forded by the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.
-Return to, ii. 262.</li>
-
-<li>Makata plain, march over the, ii. 261.</li>
-
-<li>Makimoni, on the Tanganyika lake, ii. 126.</li>
-
-<li>Makutaniro, adventures at, <a href="#Pagei-69">i. 69</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Malagarazi river, <a href="#Pagei-334">i. 334</a>, <a href="#Pagei-337">337</a>. ii. 36,
-39, 47, 49.
-First sighted by the party, 407.
-Described, 408, 409.
-Courses of the, 409.
-Crossed, 410.
-Return of the party to the, 164.</li>
-
-<li>Mallok, the Jemadar, sketch of his character and personal appearance, <a href="#Pagei-133">i. 133</a>.
-His desertion, and return, <a href="#Pagei-173">173</a>.
-Becomes troublesome, <a href="#Pagei-381">381</a>, <a href="#Pagei-382">382</a>.
-His refusal to
-go northwards, ii. 172.
-Influence of bakhshish, 172.
-Sent home, ii. 277.</li>
-
-<li>Mamaletua, on the Tanganyika lake, halt of the party at, ii. 115.
-Civility of the people of, 115.</li>
-
-<li>M’ana Miaha, sultan of K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-272">i. 272</a>.
-Description of him, <a href="#Pagei-274">274</a>.
-His extortionate blackmail, <a href="#Pagei-274">274</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mananzi, or pine-apple, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-66">i. 66</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Manda, the petty chief at Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-89">i. 89</a>.
-Expedition sent against him, <a href="#Pagei-89">89</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mandama, or Dungomaro, river, arrival of the caravan at the, <a href="#Pagei-222">i. 222</a>.
-Description of the bed of the, <a href="#Pagei-223">223</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mangrove forest on the east coast of Africa, <a href="#Pagei-9">i. 9</a>.
-Of the Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-62">62</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Manners and customs of the Wamrima, <a href="#Pagei-35">i. 35</a>, <a href="#Pagei-37">37</a>.
-Of the Wasawahili, <a href="#Pagei-37">37</a>.
-Of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-108">108</a> <i>et seq.</i>
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Of the Wadoe, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.
-Of the Wasagara, <a href="#Pagei-235">235</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>, <a href="#Pagei-310">310</a>.
-Of the Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwesi, ii. 23.
-Of the Wambozwa, 152.</li>
-
-<li>Mansanza, sultan of Msene, <a href="#Pagei-396">i. 396</a>.
-His hospital, <a href="#Pagei-396">396</a>.
-His firm rule, <a href="#Pagei-396">396</a>.
-His wives, <a href="#Pagei-396">396</a>, <a href="#Pagei-399">399</a>.
-His visits to the author, <a href="#Pagei-399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Manufactures of Msene, <a href="#Pagei-398">i. 398</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Manyora, fiumara of, <a href="#Pagei-80">i. 80</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Manwa, Sultan of Kigwa, his murders and robberies, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.
-His adviser, Mansur, <a href="#Pagei-319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Maraim, Abd, or Washhenzi, the, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mariki, sultan of Uyonwa, ii. 78.</li>
-
-<li>Marema, sultan, at the Ziwa, <a href="#Pagei-254">i. 254</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Marenga Mk’hali, or “brackish water,” river, <a href="#Pagei-200">i. 200</a>, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-259">259</a>.
-Climate of, <a href="#Pagei-203">203</a>.
-Upper, water of the, <a href="#Pagei-247">247</a>, <a href="#Pagei-271">271</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Maroro, basin of, its fertility, ii. 254.
-The place described, 255.</li>
-
-<li>Maroro river, <a href="#Pagei-231">i. 231</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Marriage amongst the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-118">i. 118</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 24.
-In East Africa generally, 332.</li>
-
-<li>Marsh fever, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>, <a href="#Pagei-84">84</a>.
-Delirium of, <a href="#Pagei-84">84</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Martins in the Rufuta plains, <a href="#Pagei-183">i. 183</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 17.</li>
-
-<li>“Marts,” custom of, in South Africa, ii. 54.</li>
-
-<li>Marungu, land of, ii. 149.
-Provinces of, 149.
-Roads in, 149.
-Description of the country, 150.
-History of an Arab caravan in, 151.
-People of, 152.</li>
-
-<li>Maruta, sultan of Uvira, ii. 116.
-Visit from his sons, 117.
-Description of them, 117.
-His blackmail, 120.</li>
-
-<li>Masenza, arrival of the party at the village of, <a href="#Pagei-406">i. 406</a>, <a href="#Pagei-407">407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Masika, or rainy season, in the second region, <a href="#Pagei-231">i. 231</a>, <a href="#Pagei-232">232</a>.
-Of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-378">378</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mason-wasps of the houses in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Masud ibn Musallam el Wardi, sent to Msimbira to recover the stolen papers, <a href="#Pagei-325">i. 325</a>.
-His hospitality, <a href="#Pagei-392">392</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Masui, village of, ii. 229, 231.</li>
-
-<li>Masury, M. Sam., his kindness to the author, <a href="#Pagei-22">i. 22</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mat-weaving in East Africa, ii. 316.</li>
-
-<li>Maunga Tafuna, province of, ii. 153.</li>
-
-<li>Maura, or Maula, a sultan of the Wanyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-316">i. 316</a>.
-Visits the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-316">316</a>.
-His hospitality, <a href="#Pagei-316">316</a>.
-Description of him, <a href="#Pagei-316">316</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mauta, Wady el, or Valley of Death, <a href="#Pagei-69">i. 69</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mawa, or plantain wine, ii. 180, 197.
-Mode of making, 287.</li>
-
-<li>Mawiti, colony of Arabs at, <a href="#Pagei-326">i. 326</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mazinga, or cannons, bee-hives so called in the interior, <a href="#Pagei-200">i. 200</a>.
-Described, <a href="#Pagei-200">200</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mazita, account of, ii. 212.</li>
-
-<li>Mazungera, P’hazi of Dege la Mhora, <a href="#Pagei-75">i. 75</a>.
-Murders his guest, M. Maizan, <a href="#Pagei-75">75</a>, <a href="#Pagei-76">76</a>.
-Haunted by the P’hepo, or spirit of his guest, <a href="#Pagei-76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbarika tree, or Palma Christi, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbega, or tippet-monkey, in Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Mb’hali, village of, described, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbembu, a kind of medlar, in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">i. 300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbogo, or Bos Caffer, in the plains of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-181">i. 181</a>.
-Described, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-On the Rusugi river, ii. 40.</li>
-
-<li>Mboni, son of Ramji, carries off a slave girl, <a href="#Pagei-290">i. 290</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbono tree of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbugani, “in the wild,” settlement of, described, <a href="#Pagei-397">i. 397</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbugu, or tree-bark, used for clothing in Ujiji, ii. 64.
-Mode of preparing it, 64.</li>
-
-<li>Mbumi, the deserted village, <a href="#Pagei-185">i. 185</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbungo-bungo tree, a kind of nux vomica, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mbuyu, or calabash tree, of East Africa, described, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mchikichi tree of Ujiji, ii. 58.</li>
-
-<li>Mdaburu, trying march in the jungle of, <a href="#Pagei-277">i. 277</a>, <a href="#Pagei-278">278</a>.
-Description of, <a href="#Pagei-279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mdimu nullah, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Meals at Ujiji, ii. 89.
-In East Africa, 280, 334.</li>
-
-<li>Measures of length in East Africa, ii. 388.</li>
-
-<li>Medicine chest required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-155">i. 155</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Melancholy, inexplicable, of travellers in tropical countries, ii. 130.</li>
-
-<li>Metrongoma, a wild fruit of Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-387">i. 387</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mfu’uni, hill of, <a href="#Pagei-170">i. 170</a>.
-Its former importance, <a href="#Pagei-171">171</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mfuto mountains, <a href="#Pagei-326">i. 326</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mfuto, clearing of, <a href="#Pagei-389">i. 389</a>.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef3">Mganga, or medicine-man of East Africa, described, <a href="#Pagei-38">i. 38</a>.
-His modus operandi, <a href="#Pagei-44">44</a>; ii. 358.
-His office as a priest, 350.
-As a physician, 352.
-As a detector of sorcery, 356.
-As a rain-maker, 357.
-As a prophet, 358.
-His minor duties, 359.</li>
-
-<li>Mganga, or witch of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-380">i. 380</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mgazi river, <a href="#Pagei-86">i. 86</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mgege fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.</li>
-
-<li>Mgeta river, the, <a href="#Pagei-80">i. 80</a>, <a href="#Pagei-159">159</a>, <a href="#Pagei-160">160</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-166">166</a>; ii. 268.
-Head of the, <a href="#Pagei-80">80</a>.
-Mode of crossing the swollen river, <a href="#Pagei-80">80</a>.
-Pestilence of the banks of the, <a href="#Pagei-127">i. 127</a>.
-Fords of the, <a href="#Pagei-336">i. 336</a>; ii. 268.</li>
-
-<li>Mgongo T’hembo, the Elephant’s Back, arrival of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-290">i. 290</a>.
-Description of, <a href="#Pagei-290">290</a>.
-Inhabitants of, <a href="#Pagei-290">290</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mgude, or Mparamusi, tree, described, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>, <a href="#Pagei-60">60</a>, <a href="#Pagei-83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mgute fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.</li>
-
-<li>Mgunda Mk’hali, or “the Fiery Field,” <a href="#Pagei-281">i. 281</a>.
-Description of, <a href="#Pagei-281">281</a>, <a href="#Pagei-282">282</a>.
-Stunted vegetation of, <a href="#Pagei-282">282</a>.
-Geology of, <a href="#Pagei-282">282</a>.
-Scarcity of water in, <a href="#Pagei-283">283</a>.
-Traversed by the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-283">283</a>.
-Features of the, <a href="#Pagei-283">283</a>, <a href="#Pagei-292">292</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Miasma of Sorora and Kajjanjeri, <a href="#Pagei-403">i. 403</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mikiziwa Lake, in Uguhha, ii. 147.</li>
-
-<li>Milk of cows in Ujiji, ii. 60.
-As food in East Africa, 283.
-Preparations of, 283.</li>
-
-<li>Millepedes, or jongo, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.</li>
-
-<li>Mimosa trees, <a href="#Pagei-83">i. 83</a>.
-Flowers of the, in Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-228">228</a>.
-Trees in Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-318">318</a>.
-Of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-165">165</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Miyandozi, sultan of Kifukaru, <a href="#Pagei-264">i. 264</a>.
-Levies blackmail on the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mji Mpia, “new town,” settlement of, described, <a href="#Pagei-397">i. 397</a>.
-Bazar of, <a href="#Pagei-397">397</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mkora tree, uses of the wood of the, <a href="#Pagei-374">i. 374</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mkorongo tree, uses of the, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-374">i. 374</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mkuba, or wild edible plum of Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-387">i. 387</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mkuyu, or sycamore tree, its magnificence in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-195">i. 195</a>.
-Its two varieties, <a href="#Pagei-195">195</a>, <a href="#Pagei-196">196</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mkwaju la Mouani, the “Tamarind in the rains,” the village of, described, <a href="#Pagei-52">i. 52</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mninga tree, wood of the, <a href="#Pagei-373">i. 373</a>.
-Use of the wood, <a href="#Pagei-373">373</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mnya Mtaza, headman of Ukaranga, ii. 45.</li>
-
-<li>Mohammed bin Khamis, sailing-master of the Artemise, <a href="#Pagei-8">i. 8</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mohammed, the Baloch, the Rish Safid, or greybeard, sketch of him,
-<a href="#Pagei-134">i. 134</a>.
-At Kazeh, 381.</li>
-
-<li>Molongwe river, ii. 146.</li>
-
-<li>Money in East Africa, ii. 388.</li>
-
-<li>Mombas Mission, the, <a href="#Pagei-6">i. 6</a>, <a href="#Pagei-7">7</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mongo Nullah, the, <a href="#Pagei-289">i. 289</a>.
-Water obtained at the, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mongoose, the, at Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Monkeys of Muhinyera, <a href="#Pagei-64">i. 64</a>.
-Of Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">162</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Monkey-bread, ii. 221.</li>
-
-<li>Monsoon, the N. E., or Kaskazi, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-83">i. 83</a>, <a href="#Pagei-102">102</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 9.
-Origin of the S. W. monsoon, 50.
-Failure of the opportunity for comparing the hygrometry of the African and Indian monsoons, 93.</li>
-
-<li>Moon, Land of the. <i>See</i> <a href="#IndRef4">Unyamwezi</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Moon, her splendour at the equator, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>.
-Halo or corona round the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 12.</li>
-
-<li>Morality, deficiency of, of the East Africans, ii. 335.</li>
-
-<li>Morus alba, the, in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-60">i. 60</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mosquitoes of East Africa described, <a href="#Pagei-182">i. 182</a>.
-On the Ruche river, ii. 52, 158.</li>
-
-<li>Mouma islands, ii. 153.</li>
-
-<li>Moumo tree (Borassus flabelliformis), of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>, <a href="#Pagei-180">180</a>.
-Toddy drawn from, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mountains:&mdash;</li>
-<li class="level1">Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-65">i. 65</a>, <a href="#Pagei-83">83</a>, <a href="#Pagei-86">86</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Jiwe la Mkoa, <a href="#Pagei-286">i. 286</a>, <a href="#Pagei-287">287</a>, <a href="#Pagei-295">295</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Karagwah, ii. 48, <a href="#Pagei-144">144</a>, <a href="#Pagei-177">177</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kilima Ngao, ii. 179.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kiringawana, <a href="#Pagei-233">i. 233</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Lunar, ii. 144, <a href="#Pagei-178">178</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mfuto, <a href="#Pagei-326">i. 326</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mukondokwa, <a href="#Pagei-180">i. 180</a>, <a href="#Pagei-185">185</a>, <a href="#Pagei-194">194</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-203">203</a>, <a href="#Pagei-233">233</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ngu, or Nguru, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>, <a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Njesa, <a href="#Pagei-226">i. 226</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rubeho, <a href="#Pagei-203">i. 203</a>, <a href="#Pagei-211">211</a>, <a href="#Pagei-214">214</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-218">218</a>, <a href="#Pagei-245">245</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rufuta, <a href="#Pagei-167">i. 167</a>, <a href="#Pagei-170">170</a>, <a href="#Pagei-180">180</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Uhha, ii. 160.</li>
-<li class="level1">Urundi, i. 409; ii. 48.</li>
-<li class="level1">Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-101">i. 101</a>, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>, <a href="#Pagei-159">159</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-160">160</a>, <a href="#Pagei-215">215</a>, <a href="#Pagei-219">219</a>, <a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-297">297</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-295">i. 295</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Wigo, <a href="#Pagei-159">i. 159</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mountains, none in Unyamwezi, ii. 6.</li>
-
-<li>Mpagamo of Kigandu, defeated by Msimbira, <a href="#Pagei-327">i. 327</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mparamusi, or Mgude, tree, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>, <a href="#Pagei-60">60</a>, <a href="#Pagei-83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mpete, on the Malagarazi river, <a href="#Pagei-410">i. 410</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mpingu tree, <a href="#Pagei-373">i. 373</a>.
-Uses of the wood of the, <a href="#Pagei-373">373</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mporota, a den of thieves, halt at, ii. 252.</li>
-
-<li>Mrima, or “hill-land,” of the East African
-coast, described, <a href="#Pagei-8">i. 8</a>, <a href="#Pagei-30">30</a>.
-Inhabitants of, <a href="#Pagei-30">30</a>.
-Their mode of life, <a href="#Pagei-35">35</a>.
-Mode of doing business in, <a href="#Pagei-39">39</a>.
-Vegetation of the, <a href="#Pagei-47">47</a>.
-Geography of the, <a href="#Pagei-100">100</a>.
-Climate of the, <a href="#Pagei-102">102</a>, <a href="#Pagei-104">104</a>.
-Diseases of the, <a href="#Pagei-105">105</a>.
-Roads of the, <a href="#Pagei-105">105</a>, <a href="#Pagei-106">106</a>.
-Ethnology of the, <a href="#Pagei-106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mororwa, sultan of Wilyankuru, <a href="#Pagei-391">i. 391</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Msandarusi, or copal-tree, of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Msene, settlement of, arrival of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-395">i. 395</a>.
-Description of, <a href="#Pagei-395">395</a>, <a href="#Pagei-396">396</a>.
-Sultan Masawza of, <a href="#Pagei-396">396</a>.
-Prices at, <a href="#Pagei-397">397</a>.
-Productions of, <a href="#Pagei-397">397</a>, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.
-Currency of, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.
-Industry of, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.
-Habits of the people of, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.
-Climate of, <a href="#Pagei-399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Msimbira, sultan of the Wasukuma, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.
-Papers of the party stolen and carried to him, <a href="#Pagei-320">320</a>.
-Refuses to restore them, <a href="#Pagei-320">320</a>.
-Send a party to cut off the road, <a href="#Pagei-321">321</a>.
-Defeats Sultan Mpagamo, <a href="#Pagei-327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Msopora, Sultan, restores the stolen goods, ii. 166.</li>
-
-<li>Msufi, a silk-cotton tree, in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-60">i. 60</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Msukulio tree of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-61">i. 61</a>, <a href="#Pagei-83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mtanda, date of the establishment of the kingdom of, ii. 5.</li>
-
-<li>Mtego, or elephant traps, <a href="#Pagei-287">i. 287</a>.
-Disappearance of the Jemadar in one, <a href="#Pagei-288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mt’hipit’hipi, or Abras precatorius, seeds of, used as an ornament, ii. 181.</li>
-
-<li>Mtogwe tree, a variety of Nux vomica, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-318">318</a>, <a href="#Pagei-401">401</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mtumbara, Sultan, and his quarrel, ii. 157.</li>
-
-<li>Mtunguja tree of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mtungulu apples in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">i. 300</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mtuwwa, in Ubwari island, halt of the party at, ii. 114.
-Blackmail at, 112.</li>
-
-<li>Mud-fish, African mode of catching, <a href="#Pagei-315">i. 315</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mud-fish in the Gombe nullah, <a href="#Pagei-334">i. 334</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mud, Yegea, <a href="#Pagei-83">i. 83</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muhama, halt at the nullah of, <a href="#Pagei-176">i. 176</a>, <a href="#Pagei-178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muhinna bin Sulayman of Kazeh, his arrival at Kawele, ii. 133.
-His extortion, 133.</li>
-
-<li>Muhinna bin Sulayman, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muhiyy-el-Din, Shafehi Hazi of Zanzibar, <a href="#Pagei-7">i. 7</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muhiyy-el-Din, Kazi, of the Wasawahili, <a href="#Pagei-33">i. 33</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muhonge, settlement of, described, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muhonyera, district of, described, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.
-Wild animals, <a href="#Pagei-63">63</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mui’ Gumbi, Sultan of the Warori, ii. 271.
-Defeated by Sultan Ironga, 75.
-Description of him, 271.</li>
-
-<li>Muikamba, on the Tanganyika Lake, night spent at, ii. 115.</li>
-
-<li>Muingwira river, ii. 211.</li>
-
-<li>Muinyi Wazira, engaged to travel with the
-expedition, <a href="#Pagei-52">i. 52</a>.
-Sketch of his character, 129.
-Requests to be allowed to depart, 314.
-His debauch and dismissal, 399.
-Reappears at Kazeh, ii. 168.
-Ejected, 168.</li>
-
-<li>Muinyi, halt of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-193">i. 193</a>.
-Determined attitude of the people of, <a href="#Pagei-194">194</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muinyi Chandi, passed through, <a href="#Pagei-390">i. 390</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mukondokwa mountains, <a href="#Pagei-180">i. 180</a>, <a href="#Pagei-185">185</a>, <a href="#Pagei-196">196</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-197">197</a>, <a href="#Pagei-203">203</a>, <a href="#Pagei-233">233</a>.
-Bleak raw air of the, <a href="#Pagei-197">197</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mukondokwa river, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>, <a href="#Pagei-188">188</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-192">192</a>, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Ford of, <a href="#Pagei-188">188</a>.
-Valley of the, <a href="#Pagei-192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mukozimo district, arrival of the party at the, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.
-Inhospitality of the chiefs of, <a href="#Pagei-407">407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mukunguru, or seasoning fever, of Unyamwezi, ii. 14.</li>
-
-<li>Mulberry, the whitish-green, of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-60">i. 60</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Murchison, Sir R., his triumphant geological hypothesis, <a href="#Pagei-409">i. 409</a>.
-His notice respecting the interior of Africa, <a href="#Pagei-409">409</a>, <i>note</i>.</li>
-
-<li>Murunguru river, ii. 154.</li>
-
-<li>Murivumba, tents of the party pitched at, ii. 114.
-Cannibal inhabitants of, 114.</li>
-
-<li>Murundusi, march to, ii. 250.</li>
-
-<li>Musa, the assistant Rish Safid of the party, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-138">i. 138</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Musa Mzuri, handsome Moses, of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>.
-His return to Kazeh, ii. 223.
-His history, 223.
-His hospitality, 226.
-Visits the expedition at Masui, 231.
-His kindness, 231.</li>
-
-<li>Music and musical instruments in East Africa, described, ii. 291, 338.
-Of the Wajiji, 98.</li>
-
-<li>Mutware, or Mutwale, the Lord of the Ferry of the Malagarazi river, <a href="#Pagei-409">i. 409</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muzungu, or white man, dangers of accompanying a, in Africa, <a href="#Pagei-10">i. 10</a>, <a href="#Pagei-11">11</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Muzunga Mbaya, the wicked white man, the plague of the party, ii. 239.
-His civility near home, 240.
-Sketch of his personal appearance, and specimen of his conversation, 244.</li>
-
-<li>Mvirama, a Mzaramo chief, demands rice, <a href="#Pagei-80">i. 80</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mviraru, a Wazaramo chief, bars the road, <a href="#Pagei-58">i. 58</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mvoro fish in the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.</li>
-
-<li>Mvule trees used for making canoes, ii. 147.</li>
-
-<li>Mwami, or wild coffee of Karagwah, ii. 180, 181,
-187.</li>
-
-<li>Mwimbe, or mangrove trees, of the coast of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-9">i. 9</a>.
-Those of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-62">62</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mwimbi, bad camping ground of, ii. 262.</li>
-
-<li>Mwongo fruit tree, in Mb’hali, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mgombi river, <a href="#Pagei-183">i. 183</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Myombo tree of East Africa described, <a href="#Pagei-184">i. 184</a>.
-Of Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mzimu, or Fetiss hut, of the Wazaramo, described, <a href="#Pagei-57">i. 57</a>.
-In Ubwari Island, halt at, ii. 113.
-Re-visited, 121.</li>
-
-<li>Mziga Mdogo, or “The Little Tamarind,” arrival of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-161">i. 161</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mziga-ziga, a mode of carrying goods, <a href="#Pagei-341">i. 341</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Mzogera, Sultan of Uvinza, <a href="#Pagei-408">i. 408</a>.
-His power, <a href="#Pagei-408">408</a>.
-Settlement of blackmail with envoys of, <a href="#Pagei-408">408</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Names given to children by the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-116">i. 116</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nakl, or first stage of departure, <a href="#Pagei-43">i. 43</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nar, Beni, “sons of fire,” the English so called in Africa, <a href="#Pagei-31">i. 31</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nautch at Kuingani described, <a href="#Pagei-45">i. 45</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ndabi tree, <a href="#Pagei-196">i. 196</a>.
-Fruit of the, <a href="#Pagei-196">196</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ndabi, halt of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-196">i. 196</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Navigation of the Tanganyika Lake, antiquity of the mode of, ii. 96.</li>
-
-<li>Necklaces of shells worn in Ujiji, ii. 65.</li>
-
-<li>Nge, or scorpions, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ngole, or Dendraspis, at Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Night in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>.
-In the caravan, described, <a href="#Pagei-359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nile, White, Ptolemy’s notion of the origin of the, ii. 178.
-Captain Speke’s supposed discovery of the sources of the, 204.</li>
-
-<li>Njasa, Sultan of the Wasagara, his visit to the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-199">i. 199</a>.
-Description of him, <a href="#Pagei-199">199</a>.
-Makes “sare” or brotherhood with Said bin Salim, <a href="#Pagei-199">199</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Njesa mountains, <a href="#Pagei-226">i. 226</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Njugu ya Nyassa, the Arachis Hypogæa, as an article of food, <a href="#Pagei-198">i. 198</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Northern kingdoms of Africa. <i>See</i> <a href="#IndRef5">Karagwah</a>, <a href="#IndRef6">Uganda</a>, and
-<a href="#IndRef7">Unyoro</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nose pincers of the Wajiji tribe, ii. 65.</li>
-
-<li>Nullahs, or watercourses of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-102">i. 102</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nutmeg, wild, of Usui, ii. 176.</li>
-
-<li>Nyakahanga, in Karagwah, ii. 177.</li>
-
-<li>Nyanza, or Ukerewe, Lake, <a href="#Pagei-311">i. 311</a>, 439;
-ii. 175, 176, 179.
-Chances of exploration of the, 195.
-Geography of the, 206, 210, <i>et seq.</i>
-Size of the, 212.
-Position of the, 211.
-Commerce of the, 215.
-Savage races of the, 215.
-Reasons why it is not the head stream of the White Nile, 218.
-Tribes dwelling near the, 219.</li>
-
-<li>Nyara, or Chamærops humilis, of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nyasanga, fishing village on the Tanganyika lake, ii. 101.</li>
-
-<li>Nzasa, halt at the, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Nzige, or locusts, flights of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.
-Varieties of, 18.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Oars not used on the Tanganyika Lake,
-ii. 96.</li>
-
-<li>Ocelot, the, of Ugogi, <a href="#Pagei-242">i. 242</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Oil, common kind of, in East Africa, ii. 285.
-Various kinds of, 285.</li>
-
-<li>Olive-tree unknown in East Africa, ii. 285.</li>
-
-<li>Olympus, the Æthiopian, ii. 179.</li>
-
-<li>Onions cultivated in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-330">i. 330</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ophthalmia, several of the party suffer from, in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-406">i. 406</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ophidia in Unyamwezi, ii. 17.</li>
-
-<li>Ordeal for witchcraft, ii. 357.
-Amongst the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-114">i. 114</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ornaments worn by the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-110">i. 110</a>.
-By the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Fondness of the Africans for, <a href="#Pagei-147">147</a>, <a href="#Pagei-148">148</a>, <a href="#Pagei-150">150</a>.
-Of the Wasagara tribe, <a href="#Pagei-199">199</a>, <a href="#Pagei-237">237</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-305">305</a>.
-Of the Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-Of the porters of caravans, <a href="#Pagei-349">349</a>.
-Of sultans in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-396">396</a>.
-Of the Wakimba, ii. 20.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, 22.
-Of the Wabuha, 78.
-Of the Wabwari islanders, 113.
-Of the people of Karagwah, 181.</li>
-
-<li>Ostriches in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-301">i. 301</a>.
-Value of feathers in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-301">i. 301</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Outfit of the expedition, articles required for the, <a href="#Pagei-151">i. 151</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Oxen of Ujiji, ii. 59.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Paddles used on the Tanganyika lake, ii. 96.
-Described, 96.</li>
-
-<li>Palm, Syphæna, <a href="#Pagei-82">i. 82</a>, <a href="#Pagei-83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Palma Christi, or Mbarika, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Palm-oil, or mawezi, of the shores of the Lake Tanganyika, ii. 58.
-Mode of extracting it, 58, 59.
-Price at the lake, 59.
-Uses to which it is applied, 59.
-Trade in, at Wafanya, 107.</li>
-
-<li>Palmyra tree (Borassus flabelliformis), in the plains, <a href="#Pagei-180">i. 180</a>.
-Toddy drawn from, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>.
-At Yambo, <a href="#Pagei-387">387</a>.
-And at Mb’hali, <a href="#Pagei-401">401</a>.
-Tapped for toddy at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pangani river, ii. 179.</li>
-
-<li>Papazi, pest of, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-371">i. 371</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Papilionaceæ in Unyamwezi, ii. 18.</li>
-
-<li>Panda, village of, <a href="#Pagei-403">i. 403</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pano, village of, <a href="#Pagei-389">i. 389</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Parugerero, district of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 37.
-Salt manufacture of, 37.</li>
-
-<li>Partridges in the Doab of the Mgeta river <a href="#Pagei-81">i. 81</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pazi bug, the, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-371">i. 371</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Peewit, the, in the Rufuta plains, <a href="#Pagei-183">i. 183</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Phantasmata in East Africa, ii. 352.</li>
-
-<li>P’hazi, or headmen of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>, <a href="#Pagei-113">113</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li>P’hepo, ghost or devil, African belief in, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>; ii. 352.
-Exorcism, 352.</li>
-
-<li>Phlebotomy in East Africa, ii. 322.</li>
-
-<li>Pig-nuts of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-198">i. 198</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pillaw in Africa, <a href="#Pagei-393">i. 393</a>.
-How to boil rice, <a href="#Pagei-393">393</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pine-apple, or Mananzi, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-66">i. 66</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pipes in East Africa, ii. 315.</li>
-
-<li>Pismires, chungo-fundo or siyafu, of the banks of the rivers in East Africa, described, <a href="#Pagei-186">i. 186</a>.
-Its enemy, the maji m’oto, <a href="#Pagei-187">187</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pismires black, annoyance of, at K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-276">i. 276</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Plantain wine of Karagwah, ii. 180.
-And of Uganda, 197.
-Mode of making it, 287.</li>
-
-<li>Plantains near the Unguwwe river, ii. 41.
-Of Ujiji, 58.
-The staff of life in many places, 58.
-Luxuriance of it, 58.
-Varieties, 58.
-Of Uganda, 196.</li>
-
-<li>Playfair, Captain R. L., his “History of Arabia Felix” quoted, <a href="#Pagei-68">i. 68</a>, <i>note</i>.</li>
-
-<li>Plum, wild, of Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-387">i. 387</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Plundering expeditions of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-112">i. 112</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Poisons used for arrows in Africa, ii. 301.</li>
-
-<li>Polygamy amongst the Wanyamwezi, ii. 24.</li>
-
-<li>Pombe beer, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-95">i. 95</a>, <a href="#Pagei-116">116</a>, <a href="#Pagei-333">333</a>;
-ii. 180, 285.
-Universal use of, <a href="#Pagei-309">i. 309</a>; ii. 29.
-Mode of making it, 286.</li>
-
-<li>Porcupines in K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-160">i. 160</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Porridge of the East Africans, <a href="#Pagei-35">i. 35</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Porridge flour, of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.</li>
-
-<li>Porters, or Pagazi, the Wanyamwezi, of the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-143">i. 143</a>.
-Character of East African, <a href="#Pagei-144">144</a>.
-In East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-337">337</a>.
-Variations of porterage, <a href="#Pagei-339">339</a>.
-Great weight carried sometimes by, <a href="#Pagei-341">341</a>.
-Their discontent, <a href="#Pagei-343">343</a>.
-Desertion of in Wilyankuru, <a href="#Pagei-391">391</a>.
-Description of those hired in Ujiji, ii. 157.
-Of the Warori, 271.</li>
-
-<li>Pottery, art of, in East Africa, ii. 313.</li>
-
-<li>Prices at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-397">i. 397</a>.
-In the market at Unyanyembe, <a href="#Pagei-333">333</a>.
-In Ujiji, ii. 72.
-At Wafanya, 107.
-At Uvira, 120, 121.</li>
-
-<li>Proverbs, Arab, <a href="#Pagei-50">i. 50</a>, <a href="#Pagei-86">86</a>, <a href="#Pagei-130">130</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-133">133</a>, <a href="#Pagei-135">135</a>, <a href="#Pagei-382">382</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; African, <a href="#Pagei-31">i. 31</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Moslem, ii. 131.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Persian, ii. 237.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Sanscrit, <a href="#Pagei-133">i. 133</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Wanyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-338">i. 338</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Pumpkins, junsal or boga, grown at Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-201">i. 201</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Punishments in Uganda, ii. 192.</li>
-
-<li>Punishments in East Africa, ii. 364.</li>
-
-<li>Punneeria coagulans of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Quaggas in Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Races of the Northern Kingdoms of Africa, ii. 174, 175.</li>
-
-<li>Rahmat, the Baloch, <a href="#Pagei-46">i. 46</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rain at Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-156">i. 156</a>.
-Autumnal, at Muhama, <a href="#Pagei-179">179</a>.
-In the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-218">218</a>, <a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>, <a href="#Pagei-232">232</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-298">298</a>.
-The Masika or wet season, <a href="#Pagei-378">378</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 8-10.
-In the valley of the Malagarazi river, 49.
-In Karagwah, 180.</li>
-
-<li>Rainbow, fog, in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-222">i. 222</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ramji, the Banyan of Cutch, engaged to accompany the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-10">i. 10</a>.
-His commercial speculation, <a href="#Pagei-20">20</a>.
-His conversation with Ladha Damha, <a href="#Pagei-23">23</a>.
-Visits the author at Kuingani, <a href="#Pagei-43">43</a>.
-Account of him, <a href="#Pagei-43">43</a>, <a href="#Pagei-44">44</a>.
-His advice, <a href="#Pagei-45">45</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ramji, “sons” of, sketch of them, <a href="#Pagei-140">i. 140</a>.
-Their ever-increasing baggage, <a href="#Pagei-182">182</a>.
-Their quarrels with the Baloch soldiers, <a href="#Pagei-163">163</a>.
-Their insolence, <a href="#Pagei-164">164</a>.
-Reappear at Kazeh, ii. 168.
-Allowed to take the places of porters, 227.
-Return home, ii. 277.</li>
-
-<li>Ranæ of Unyamwezi, ii. 17.
-Of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 61.</li>
-
-<li>Rats, field, <a href="#Pagei-160">i. 160</a>.
-On the banks of the Mukondokwa river, <a href="#Pagei-193">193</a>.
-House rats of Ujiji, ii. 60.</li>
-
-<li>Ravens of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Religion of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-115">i. 115</a>.
-Of the East Africans, <i>ib.</i>; ii. 341.
-An African’s notion of God, 348 <i>note</i>.</li>
-
-<li>Reptiles in Unyamwezi, ii. 17.</li>
-
-<li>Respect, tokens of, amongst the Wajiji, ii. 69.</li>
-
-<li>Revenge of the African, ii. 329.</li>
-
-<li>Revenue, sources of, in East Africa, ii. 365.</li>
-
-<li>Rhinoceroses at Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>.
-On the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-247">247</a>.
-On the Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.
-The Rhinoceros horn trade of East Africa, 413.</li>
-
-<li>Rice, how to cook, <a href="#Pagei-393">i. 393</a>.
-Red, density and rapidity of growth of, at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-397">397</a>.
-Luxuriance of, in Ujiji, ii. 57.
-Allowed to degenerate, 57.
-Unknown in Karagwah, 180.</li>
-
-<li>Ricinæ of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-371">i. 371</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rigby, Captain, at Zanzibar, ii. 382.</li>
-
-<li>Rivers:&mdash;</li>
-<li class="level1">Dungomaro, or Mandama, <a href="#Pagei-222">i. 222</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Gama, <a href="#Pagei-123">i. 123</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kariba, ii. 146.</li>
-<li class="level1">Karindire, ii. 146.</li>
-<li class="level1">Katonga, ii. 187.</li>
-<li class="level1">K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-86">i. 86</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kibaiba, ii. 146.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kingani, <a href="#Pagei-56">i. 56</a>, <a href="#Pagei-69">69</a>, <a href="#Pagei-87">87</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-101">101</a>, <a href="#Pagei-123">123</a>, <a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kikoboga, ii. 263.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kitangure, or Karagwah, <a href="#Pagei-409">i. 409</a>; ii. 144,
-177, 186.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kuryamavenge, ii. 146.</li>
-<li class="level1">Malagarazi, <a href="#Pagei-334">i. 334</a>, <a href="#Pagei-337">337</a>, <a href="#Pagei-407">407</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-408">408</a>; ii. 36, 39, 47,
-49, 164.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mandama, or Dungomero, 222.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-200">i. 200</a>, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Marenga Mk’hali, upper, <a href="#Pagei-247">i. 247</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Maroro, <a href="#Pagei-231">i. 231</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Molongwe, ii. 146.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mgazi, <a href="#Pagei-86">i. 86</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mgeta, <a href="#Pagei-80">i. 80</a>, <a href="#Pagei-86">86</a>, <a href="#Pagei-87">87</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-88">88</a>, <a href="#Pagei-101">101</a>, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>, <a href="#Pagei-127">127</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-159">159</a>, <a href="#Pagei-160">160</a>, <a href="#Pagei-336">336</a>; ii. 264,
-268, 274.</li>
-<li class="level1">Muingwira, ii. 187.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mukondokwa, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>, <a href="#Pagei-181">181</a>, <a href="#Pagei-188">188</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-192">192</a>, <a href="#Pagei-216">216</a>, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Myombo, <a href="#Pagei-181">i. 181</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mwega, ii. 256.</li>
-<li class="level1">Pangani, <a href="#Pagei-125">i. 125</a>; ii. 179.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ruche, ii. 46, 52, 157,
-158.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rufiji, or Rwaha, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>, <a href="#Pagei-101">101</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>, <a href="#Pagei-216">216</a>, <a href="#Pagei-220">220</a>, <a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>; ii. 257, 270, 379.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rufuta, <a href="#Pagei-167">i. 167</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ruguvu, or Luguvu, ii. 40, 52.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rumangwa, ii. 149, 153.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rumuma, <a href="#Pagei-197">i. 197</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rusizi, or Lusizi, ii. 117, 146.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rusugi, ii. 37, 161.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rwaha, or Rufiti, <a href="#Pagei-216">i. 216</a>, <a href="#Pagei-220">220</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>, <a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>, <a href="#Pagei-295">295</a>; ii. 8.</li>
-<li class="level1">Tumbiri of Dr. Krapf, ii. 217.</li>
-<li class="level1">Unguwwe, or Uvungwe, ii. 40, 52.</li>
-<li class="level1">Yovu, ii. 257, 258.</li>
-<li class="level1">Zohnwe, <a href="#Pagei-127">i. 127</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Riza, the Baloch, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-139">i. 139</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Roads in the maritime region of East Africa described, <a href="#Pagei-105">i. 105</a>, <a href="#Pagei-106">106</a>.
-In the Usagara Mountains, <a href="#Pagei-230">230</a>.
-From Ugogo to Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-281">281</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-302">302</a>.
-In Unyanyembe, <a href="#Pagei-325">325</a>.
-Description of the roads in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-335">335</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 19.
-From the Malagarazi Ferry, 51.</li>
-
-<li>Rubeho Mountains, <a href="#Pagei-233">i. 233</a>, <a href="#Pagei-211">211</a>, <a href="#Pagei-245">245</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rubeho, or “Windy Pass,” painful ascent of the, <a href="#Pagei-213">i. 213</a>.
-Scenery from the summit, <a href="#Pagei-214">214</a>.
-Village of Wasagara at the summit, <a href="#Pagei-218">218</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rubeho, the Great, halt at the, <a href="#Pagei-215">i. 215</a>.
-Dangerous illness of Capt. Speke at, <a href="#Pagei-215">215</a>.
-His restoration, <a href="#Pagei-215">215</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rubeho, the Little, ascent of the, <a href="#Pagei-215">i. 215</a>.
-Fight between the porters and the four Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-216">216</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rubeho, the Third, halt of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-221">i. 221</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rubuga, arrival of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-315">i. 315</a>.
-Visit from Abdullah bin Jumah and his flying caravan, <a href="#Pagei-315">315</a>.
-Flood at, <a href="#Pagei-317">317</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ruche river, ii. 52.
-Mouth of the, 46, 157.</li>
-
-<li>Rudi, march to, ii. 251.</li>
-
-<li>Rufiji river, the, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>, <a href="#Pagei-216">216</a>, <a href="#Pagei-220">220</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>, <a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>; ii. 257, 379.
-Races on the, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rufita Pass in Umgara, ii. 259.</li>
-
-<li>Rufuta fiumara, the, <a href="#Pagei-167">i. 167</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ruguvu, or Luguvu, river, ii. 40, 52.
-Fords of the, <a href="#Pagei-336">i. 336</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ruhembe rivulet, the, ii. 261.
-Halt in the basin of the, 261.</li>
-
-<li>Ruhembe, Sultan, slain by the Watuta, ii. 76.</li>
-
-<li>Rukunda, or Lukunda, night spent at, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rumanika of Karagwah, his rebellion and defeat, ii. 183.
-Besieges his brother, 224.</li>
-
-<li>Rumuma river, described, <a href="#Pagei-197">i. 197</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rumuma, halt of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-198">i. 198</a>.
-Abundance of its supplies, <a href="#Pagei-198">198</a>.
-Visit from the Sultan Njasa at, <a href="#Pagei-199">199</a>.
-Climate of, <a href="#Pagei-199">199</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Rusimba, Sultan of Ujiji, ii. 70.</li>
-
-<li>Rusizi river, ii. 117, 146.</li>
-
-<li>Rusugi river, described, ii. 37.
-Forded, 37.</li>
-
-<li>Ruwere, chief of Jambeho, levies “dash” on the party, ii. 36.</li>
-
-<li>Rwaha river, <a href="#Pagei-295">i. 295</a>, <a href="#Pagei-216">216</a>, <a href="#Pagei-220">220</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>, <a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>; ii. 257.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Sage, in Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-228">i. 228</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sangale fish in the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 67.</li>
-
-<li>Said, Sayyid, Sultan of Zanzibar, the “Imaum of Muscat,” <a href="#Pagei-2">i. 2</a>.
-His sons, <a href="#Pagei-2">2</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Salim bin Rashid, the Arab merchant, calls on Captain Burton, ii. 228.</li>
-
-<li>Said bin Salim, appointed Ras Kafilah, or caravan guide, to the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-9">i. 9</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-10">10</a>.
-Attacked by fever, <a href="#Pagei-71">71</a>.
-His terror of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-73">73</a>.
-His generosity through fear, <a href="#Pagei-90">90</a>.
-His character, <a href="#Pagei-129">129</a>.
-His hatred of the Baloch, <a href="#Pagei-163">163</a>.
-His covetousness, <a href="#Pagei-163">163</a>, <a href="#Pagei-164">164</a>.
-Insolence of his slaves, <a href="#Pagei-164">164</a>.
-His dispute with Kidogo, <a href="#Pagei-255">255</a>.
-His fears, and neglect at Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-280">280</a>.
-His inhospitality, <a href="#Pagei-287">287</a>.
-His change of behaviour, <a href="#Pagei-382">382</a>.
-His punishment, <a href="#Pagei-384">384</a>.
-His selfishness, <a href="#Pagei-391">391</a>.
-His fears, ii. 125.
-Enters into brotherhood with Lurinda, 125.
-And afterwards with Kannena, 126.
-His carelessness of the supplies, 127.
-His impertinence, 159, 160.
-His attempts to thwart the expedition, 172.
-Pitches tents outside Kazeh, 227.
-Moves to the village of Masui, 229.
-Dismissed from his stewardship, 237.
-His news from Zanzibar, 261.
-His terror in Uzaramo, 275.
-Leaves for
-home, 277.
-Visits the author at Zanzibar, 382.</li>
-
-<li>Said bin Ali el Hinawi, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Said bin Majid, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>.
-Return of the expedition with his caravan, ii. 157.
-Separation from him, 165.
-Treatment of his people at Ujiji, 84.</li>
-
-<li>Said bin Mohammed of Mbuamaji, and his caravan <a href="#Pagei-257">i. 257</a>.
-Account of him and his family, <a href="#Pagei-258">258</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Said bin Mohammed, Sultan of Irora, <a href="#Pagei-389">i. 389</a>.
-His surliness, <a href="#Pagei-389">389</a>.
-Brought to his senses, <a href="#Pagei-389">389</a>, <a href="#Pagei-390">390</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Salim bin Said, the Arab merchant in Wilyankuru, <a href="#Pagei-391">i. 391</a>.
-His hospitality, <a href="#Pagei-391">391</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Salim bin Masud, the Arab merchant, murdered, <a href="#Pagei-328">i. 328</a>, <a href="#Pagei-391">391</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sanscrit proverb, <a href="#Pagei-133">i. 133</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Salt, demand for, in Ujiji, ii. 82.
-Scarcity of, at Wafanya, 108.
-Stock laid in, ii. 161.</li>
-
-<li>Salt-pits of K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-92">i. 92</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Salt-trade of Parugerero, ii. 37.
-Quality of the salt, 37.</li>
-
-<li>Salsaparilla vine of Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-60">i. 60</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sare, or brother oath, of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-114">i. 114</a>.
-Mode of performing the ceremony, <a href="#Pagei-114">114</a>.
-Ceremony of, performed between Sultan Njasa and Said bin Salim, <a href="#Pagei-199">i. 199</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sawahil, or “the shores,” geographical position of the, <a href="#Pagei-29">i. 29</a>, <a href="#Pagei-30">30</a>.
-People of, described, <a href="#Pagei-30">30</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sayf bin Salim, the Arab merchant, account of, <a href="#Pagei-83">i. 83</a>.
-Returns to Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-128">128</a>.
-His covetousness, <a href="#Pagei-128">128</a>.
-Crushes a servile rebellion, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Scorpions of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.
-In the houses in Ujiji, ii. 61.</li>
-
-<li>Seasons, aspect of the, in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-298">i. 298</a>.
-Eight in Zanzibar, ii. 8.
-Two in Unyamwezi, 8.</li>
-
-<li>Seedy Mubarak Bombay, gun-carrier in the expedition, character of, <a href="#Pagei-130">i. 130</a>, <a href="#Pagei-279">279</a>.
-His demand of bakhshish, ii. 173.
-His peculiarities, 236.
-Appointed steward, 237.</li>
-
-<li>Σεληνης ορος of the Greeks, locality of the, ii. 4.</li>
-
-<li>Servile war in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-125">i. 125</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Shahdad, the Baloch, sketch of him, <a href="#Pagei-135">i. 135</a>.
-Left behind at Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-381">381</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sharm, or shame, Oriental, <a href="#Pagei-23">i. 23</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sheep of Ujiji, ii. 59.</li>
-
-<li>Shehe, son of Ramji, appointed Kirangozi, ii. 232.
-Dismissed, 238.</li>
-
-<li>Shields of the Wasagara tribe, <a href="#Pagei-238">i. 238</a>.
-Unknown to the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Carried by the Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 23.</li>
-
-<li>Shoes required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-154">i. 154</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Shoka, or battle-axes of the East Africans, ii. 307.</li>
-
-<li>Shukkah, or loin cloth, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-149">i. 149</a>.
-Of the Wasagara, <a href="#Pagei-235">235</a>.
-Materials of which it is made, <a href="#Pagei-236">236</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Siki, or vinegar of East Africa, ii. 288.</li>
-
-<li>Sikujui, the lady, added to the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-210">i. 210</a>.
-Description of her, <a href="#Pagei-210">210</a>, <a href="#Pagei-221">221</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Silurus, the, of the Mabunguru fiumara, <a href="#Pagei-284">i. 284</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sime, or double-edged knives, of the Wasagara, <a href="#Pagei-240">i. 240</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-306">306</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22.
-Of East Africa generally, 307.</li>
-
-<li>Singa fish of the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 68.</li>
-
-<li>Siroccos at Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-260">i. 260</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Siyafu, or black pismires, annoyances of, at K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-276">i. 276</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Skeletons on the road side, <a href="#Pagei-165">i. 165</a>, <a href="#Pagei-168">168</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Skin, colour of the, of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-108">i. 108</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Of the Wadoe, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Sebaceous odour of the, of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 20.
-Warundi, 145.
-Karagwah people, 181.
-Skin diseases of East Africa, 320.</li>
-
-<li>Slave caravans of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-17">i. 17</a>.
-At Tumba Ihere, <a href="#Pagei-62">62</a>.
-At Zanzibar, <a href="#Pagei-50">50</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Slaves and slavery: kidnapping in Inland Magogoni, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>.
-In Dat’humi, <a href="#Pagei-89">89</a>.
-Slavery in K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-97">97</a>, <a href="#Pagei-98">98</a>, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.
-Kidnappings of the Wazegura, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>.
-Pitiable scene presented by a village after a commando, <a href="#Pagei-185">185</a>.
-In Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 23.
-Of Ujiji, 61, 71.
-Prices of slaves in, 62, 71.
-Prices of Wahha slaves at Msene, 79.
-Not trustworthy in Africa, 111.
-Their modes of murdering their patrons, 111.
-Prices of, in Uvira, 121.
-In Karagwah, 184.
-In Ubena, 270.
-Degrading effects of the slave trade, 340, 366.
-Origin of the slave trade of East Africa, 366.
-Treatment of slaves, 367, 369.
-Two kinds of slave trade, 368.
-Kidnapping, 369.
-Character of slaves, 371.
-Revenge of slaves, 374, 375.
-Female slaves, 375.
-Prices of slaves, 375.
-Number of slaves imported yearly into Zanzibar, 377.
-Ease with which the slave-trade at Zanzibar could be abolished, 377.</li>
-
-<li>Small-pox in the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-166">i. 166</a>.
-And in the up caravans, <a href="#Pagei-179">179</a>.
-The porters of the party attacked by, <a href="#Pagei-180">180</a>, <a href="#Pagei-184">184</a>, <a href="#Pagei-190">190</a>.
-In Khalfan’s caravan, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>.
-In the caravans in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-342">342</a>.
-In East Africa generally, ii. 318.</li>
-
-<li>Smoking parties of women at Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-388">i. 388</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Snay bin Amir, the Arab merchant of Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-323">i. 323</a>.
-Performs the guest rites there, <a href="#Pagei-323">323</a>, <a href="#Pagei-324">324</a>.
-Sketch of his career, <a href="#Pagei-324">324</a>.
-His visit to the Sultan of Ugunda, ii. 193.
-His kindness, <a href="#Pagei-384">i. 384</a>; ii. 231.</li>
-
-<li>Snakes at Unyamwezi, ii. 17.
-In the houses in Ujiji, 61.</li>
-
-<li>Snuff, Wajiji mode of taking, ii. 65.</li>
-
-<li>Soil, fertility of the, at Msene, <a href="#Pagei-397">i. 397</a>.
-Character of the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
-Wondrous fertility of the, in the valley of the Malagarazi river, 49.
-And of that of Ujiji, 57.</li>
-
-<li>Soma Giri, of the Hindus, locality of the, ii. 4.</li>
-
-<li>Songs of the porters of the caravan, ii. 361, 362.
-Of East Africa, ii. 291.</li>
-
-<li>Sorghum cultivated in Ujiji, ii. 57.</li>
-
-<li>Sorora, or Solola, in Unyamwezi, arrival of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-401">i. 401</a>.
-Its deadly climate, <a href="#Pagei-401">401</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Speke, Capt., his illness in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-62">i. 62</a>, <a href="#Pagei-65">65</a>, <a href="#Pagei-69">69</a>.
-Shakes off his preliminary symptoms, <a href="#Pagei-71">71</a>.
-Lays the foundation of a fever, <a href="#Pagei-82">82</a>.
-Thoroughly prostrated, <a href="#Pagei-84">84</a>.
-Recovers his health at Mzizi Mdogo, <a href="#Pagei-161">161</a>.
-Again attacked at Muhama, <a href="#Pagei-179">179</a>.
-And by “liver” at Rumuma, <a href="#Pagei-200">200</a>.
-Dangerous illness at the Windy Pass, <a href="#Pagei-214">214</a>.
-Restored, <a href="#Pagei-215">215</a>.
-Unable to walk, <a href="#Pagei-286">286</a>.
-Awaits reserve supplies at Kazeh, <a href="#Pagei-386">386</a>.
-Rejoins the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-390">390</a>.
-Tormented by ophthalmia, <a href="#Pagei-406">406</a>; ii. 86.
-Starts on an expedition to explore the northern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake, 87.
-Returns moist and mildewed, and nothing done, 90.
-His “Journal” in “Blackwood” referred to, 90.
-Quoted, 91 <i>note</i>.
-A beetle in his ear, 91 <i>note</i>.
-Joins the second expedition, 99.
-Improvement in his health, 129.
-Return journey, 157.
-His deafness and dimness of vision, 169.
-Leaves Kazeh for the north, 173.
-Returns, 204.
-His supposed discovery of the sources of the White Nile, 204.
-Taken ill at Hanga, 233.
-Convalescent, 240.
-Sights the sea at Konduchi, 279.
-Returns home, 384.</li>
-
-<li>Spears and assegais of the Wasagara tribe, <a href="#Pagei-237">i. 237</a>.
-Of the Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-306">306</a>.
-Of the Wahumba, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 22.
-Of East Africa generally, 301.</li>
-
-<li>Spiders of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-371">i. 371</a>.
-In the houses of Ujiji, ii. 61.</li>
-
-<li>Sport in East Africa, remarks on, <a href="#Pagei-268">i. 268</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Spring, hot, of Maji ya W’heta, <a href="#Pagei-159">i. 159</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Squirrels, red, in K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-160">i. 160</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Stars, their splendour at the equator, <a href="#Pagei-163">i. 163</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Stares, category of in Africa, ii. 129.</li>
-
-<li>Stationery required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-153">i. 153</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Steinhæuser, Dr., <a href="#Pagei-25">i. 25</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Storm in Uzaramo, <a href="#Pagei-69">i. 69</a>.
-Those of the rainy monsoon in Unyamwezi, ii. 9.
-On the Tanganyika Lake, description of a, 122.</li>
-
-<li>Succession and inheritance, in Unyamwezi, ii. 23.</li>
-
-<li>Sugar-cane, wild, or Gugu-mbua, <a href="#Pagei-71">i. 71</a>.
-In Ujiji, ii. 58.
-Chewed, 288.</li>
-
-<li>Sugar made of granulated honey, <a href="#Pagei-397">i. 397</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Suiya, antelope, <a href="#Pagei-269">i. 269</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Sulphur in Karagwah, ii. 185.</li>
-
-<li>Sultans, burial-places of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 26.
-Power of the Sultan in this country, 31.
-And in East Africa generally, ii. 362.</li>
-
-<li>Sun, his splendour at the equator, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>.
-Ring-cloud tempering the rays of the, in Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 12.</li>
-
-<li>Suna, Sultan of Uganda, ii. 188.
-The Arabs’ description of him, 189.
-His hundred sons, 192.
-His chief officers, and mode of government, 192.
-Account of a visit to him, 193.</li>
-
-<li>Sunset-hour on the Indian Ocean, <a href="#Pagei-1">i. 1</a>.
-In the Land of the Moon, <a href="#Pagei-387">387</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 7.
-In Ujiji, 89.
-In East Africa generally, 289.</li>
-
-<li>Sunrise on the Tanganyika Lake, ii. 156.</li>
-
-<li>Superstitions of the Wamrima, <a href="#Pagei-38">i. 38</a>.
-Of the Wagogoni, inland, <a href="#Pagei-88">88</a>.
-Of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-112">112</a>, <a href="#Pagei-114">114</a>, <a href="#Pagei-115">115</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Supplies, shortness of, ii. 130.
-Arrival of some, but inadequate for the purpose, 130.</li>
-
-<li>Surgery in East Africa, ii. 322.</li>
-
-<li>Suwarora, Sultan, his exorbitant black-mail, ii. 176.</li>
-
-<li>Swallows in Unyamwezi, ii. 17.</li>
-
-<li>Swords in East Africa, ii. 308.</li>
-
-<li>Sycomore tree of East Africa, the Mkuyu, its magnificence, <a href="#Pagei-195">i. 195</a>.
-Its two varieties, <a href="#Pagei-195">195</a>, <a href="#Pagei-196">196</a>.
-Its magnificence in Usagara, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Tailoring in Africa, ii. 201.</li>
-
-<li>Tamarind trees of the Usagara Mountains, <a href="#Pagei-165">i. 165</a>, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.
-Modes of preparing the fruit, <a href="#Pagei-165">165</a>.
-At Mfuto, <a href="#Pagei-389">389</a>.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef9">Tanganyika Lake, first view of the, described, ii. 42, 43.
-A boat engaged on the, 45.
-Seen from Ujiji, 47.
-Hippopotami and crocodiles in, 60.
-People of the shores of, 62, <i>et seq.</i>
-Fishing in, 66.
-Varieties of fish in, 67.
-Failure of Captain Speke’s expedition for exploring the northern shores of, 90.
-Preparations for another cruise, 93.
-Description of the boats of the lake, 94.
-Navigation of the, 94.
-Voyage up the, 99.
-Eastern shores of the, described, 100.
-Fishing villages, 100.
-Remarks on boating and voyaging
-on the lake, 101.
-Account of the island of Ubwari, 108.
-Visit to the island, 113.
-Further progress stopped, 117, 119.
-Storm on the lake, 122.
-History of the lake, ii. 134 <i>et seq.</i>
-Meaning of the name, 137.
-Extent and general direction of, 137.
-Altitude of, 139.
-Sweetness of its water, 139.
-Its colour, 140.
-Its depth, 140.
-Its affluents, 140.
-Its coasts, 141.
-No effluents, 141.
-Its temperature, 142.
-Its ebb and flow, 143.
-Physical and ethnological features of its periplus, 144.
-Sunrise scenery on the lake, 156.</li>
-
-<li>Targes of the East Africans described, ii. 307.</li>
-
-<li>Tattoo, not general amongst the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-108">i. 108</a>.
-Nor amongst the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Practised by the Wadoe, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 21.
-Amongst the Wajiji, 63.
-Of the Warundi, 145.</li>
-
-<li>Teeth, chipped to points by the Wasagara tribe, <a href="#Pagei-235">i. 235</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tembe, the houses beyond Marenga Mk’hali so called, <a href="#Pagei-207">i. 207</a>.
-Description of the Tembe of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-366">366</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tembo, or palm-toddy, a favourite inebrient in Ujiji, ii. 70.</li>
-
-<li>Tenga, in Karagwah, ii. 177.</li>
-
-<li>Tent-making in Africa, ii. 201.</li>
-
-<li>Termites of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-201">i. 201</a>, <a href="#Pagei-202">202</a>.
-In the houses of Ujiji, ii. 61.</li>
-
-<li>Tetemeka, or earthquakes in Unyamwezi, ii. 13.</li>
-
-<li>Thermometers in Africa, <a href="#Pagei-169">i. 169</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Thiri, or Ut’hiri, district of, ii. 215.</li>
-
-<li>Thirst, impatience and selfishness of, of the Baloch guard, <a href="#Pagei-205">i. 205</a>.
-African impatience of, <a href="#Pagei-359">359</a>; ii. 334.</li>
-
-<li>Thorns, nuisance of, on the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-246">i. 246</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Thunder and lightning in Unyamwezi, ii. 9.
-In the Malagarazi valley, 50.
-In Karagwah, 180.</li>
-
-<li>Timber of East Africa, ii. 415.</li>
-
-<li>Time, difficulty of keeping, by chronometers in East African travel, <a href="#Pagei-189">i. 189</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-190">190</a>.
-Second-hand watches to be preferred, <a href="#Pagei-190">190</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tirikeza, or afternoon march of a caravan, <a href="#Pagei-203">i. 203</a>, <a href="#Pagei-221">221</a>.
-Incidents of one, <a href="#Pagei-204">204</a>, <a href="#Pagei-205">205</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tobacco, trade of, in East Africa, ii. 418.</li>
-
-<li>Tobacco, use of, in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-36">i. 36</a>.
-Smoked by women in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-388">388</a>.
-Chewed by Unyamwezi, ii. 28.
-Tobacco of Uganda, 196.
-Tobacco trade of East Africa, ii. 418.</li>
-
-<li>Tobacco-pipes of Eastern Africa, <a href="#Pagei-388">i. 388</a>; ii. 315.</li>
-
-<li>Toddy obtained from the palmyra of Msene only, <a href="#Pagei-398">i. 398</a>.
-Extracted from
-the Guinea-palm in Ujiji, ii. 59.
-Prevalence of the use of, in Ujiji, 59, 70.
-Of Zanzibar, 287.</li>
-
-<li>Togwa, a drink in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-333">i. 333</a>.
-And in East Africa generally, ii. 286.</li>
-
-<li>Tombs of the Wamrima and Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-57">i. 57</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tools required for the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-153">i. 153</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tramontana of the Rubeho, or Windy Pass, <a href="#Pagei-214">i. 214</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Travellers in Africa, advice to, ii. 82.
-Melancholy of which travellers in tropical countries complain, 130.</li>
-
-<li>Travelling, characteristics of Arab, in Eastern Africa, ii. 157.
-Expense of travelling in East Africa, 229.</li>
-
-<li>Trees in East Africa. <i>See</i> <a href="#IndRef8">Vegetation</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tree-bark used for clothing in Ujiji, ii. 64.
-Mode of preparing it, 64.</li>
-
-<li>Trove, treasure, Arab care of, <a href="#Pagei-258">i. 258</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tumba Ihere, the P’hazi, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.
-His station, <a href="#Pagei-62">62</a>.
-Slave caravans at, <a href="#Pagei-62">62</a>.
-Accompanies the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-62">62</a>, <a href="#Pagei-65">65</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tumbiri river of Dr. Krapf, ii. 217.</li>
-
-<li>Tunda, “the fruit,” malaria of the place, <a href="#Pagei-71">i. 71</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Tura, arrival of the caravan at the nullah of, <a href="#Pagei-291">i. 291</a>.
-And at the village of, <a href="#Pagei-292">292</a>.
-Astonishment of the inhabitants, <a href="#Pagei-292">292</a>.
-Description of, <a href="#Pagei-313">313</a>.
-Return to, ii. 241.</li>
-
-<li>Turmeric at Muinyi Chandi, <a href="#Pagei-390">i. 390</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Twanigana, elected Kirangozi, ii. 239.
-His conversation, 243.</li>
-
-<li>Twins amongst the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-116">i. 116</a>.
-Treatment of, in Unyamwezi, ii. 23.</li>
-
-<li>Tzetze, a stinging jungle fly, <a href="#Pagei-187">i. 187</a>.
-At K’hok’ho, <a href="#Pagei-276">276</a>.
-On the Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Ubena, land of, described, ii. 269.
-People of, 270.
-Commerce and currency of, 270.</li>
-
-<li>Ubeyya, province of, ii. 153.</li>
-
-<li>Ubwari, island of, ii. 108.
-De Barros’ account of, quoted, 108.
-Size and position of, 108.
-The expedition sails for, 112.
-Inhabitants of, 113.
-Halt at, 114.
-Portuguese accounts of, 135.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef1">Uchawi, or black magic, how punished by the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-113">i. 113</a>.
-Described, <a href="#Pagei-265">265</a>.
-Not generally believed in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-307">307</a>.
-Mode of proceeding in cases of, ii. 32.
-Belief of the East Africans generally in, 347.
-Office of the mganga, 356.</li>
-
-<li>Ufipa, district of, on the Tanganyika Lake, <a href="#Pagei-153">i. 153</a>.
-Its fertility, <a href="#Pagei-135">135</a>.
-People of, <a href="#Pagei-153">153</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ufyoma, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.</li>
-
-<li>Ugaga, delay at the village of, <a href="#Pagei-408">i. 408</a>, <a href="#Pagei-410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ugali, or flour porridge, the common food
-of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-35">i. 35</a>.
-Of the Wanyamwezi, ii. 29.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef6">Uganda, road to, ii. 187.
-Sultan of, and his government, 188.</li>
-
-<li>Uganza, arrival of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ugogi, halt of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-241">i. 241</a>.
-Abundance of provisions at, <a href="#Pagei-241">241</a>.
-Geography of, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>.
-People of, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>.
-Animals of, <a href="#Pagei-242">242</a>.
-Pleasant position of, <a href="#Pagei-243">243</a>.
-Its healthiness, <a href="#Pagei-243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ugogo, first view of, from the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-220">i. 220</a>.
-The plains of, reached by the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-223">223</a>.
-Scenery on the road near, <a href="#Pagei-245">245</a>.
-Blackmail at, <a href="#Pagei-252">252</a>.
-Entrance into, <a href="#Pagei-259">259</a>.
-Description of the surrounding country, <a href="#Pagei-259">259</a>.
-The calabash tree at, <a href="#Pagei-260">260</a>.
-Siroccos at, <a href="#Pagei-260">260</a>.
-Reception of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-261">261</a>.
-Incidents of the march through, <a href="#Pagei-261">261-280</a>.
-Roads from Ugogo to Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-281">281</a>.
-Geography of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-294">294</a>.
-Boundaries of, <a href="#Pagei-294">294</a>.
-No rivers in, <a href="#Pagei-295">295</a>.
-Igneous formation of, <a href="#Pagei-295">295</a>.
-Houses of, <a href="#Pagei-296">296</a>.
-Subsoil of, <a href="#Pagei-296">296</a>.
-Climate of, <a href="#Pagei-297">297</a>.
-Diseases of, <a href="#Pagei-299">299</a>.
-Vegetation of, <a href="#Pagei-299">299</a>, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-Animals of, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.
-Roads of, <a href="#Pagei-302">302</a>.
-Description of the tribes of, <a href="#Pagei-303">303</a>.
-Lodging for caravans in, <a href="#Pagei-354">354</a>.
-Return through, ii. 246.</li>
-
-<li>Ugoyye, district of, in Ujiji, ii. 53.</li>
-
-<li>Uhha, land of, now a desert, ii. 53.
-Laid waste by the Watuta tribe, 76, 78.</li>
-
-<li>Uhehe, march through, ii. 250.
-People of, 251.</li>
-
-<li>Ujiji, Sea of. <i>See</i> <a href="#IndRef9">Tanganyika, Lake of</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ujiji, town of, lodgings for caravans in, <a href="#Pagei-354">i. 354</a>.
-Arrival of the party at the, ii. 46.
-Scene there, 47.
-Climate of, 50, 51.
-Boundaries of, 53.
-Villages and districts of, 53.
-Camping ground of caravans near, 54.
-Distance of Ujiji from the coast, and number of stages, 55.
-History of the country, 56.
-Trade of, 57.
-Fertility of the soil of, 57.
-Bazar of, 59.
-Fauna of, 60.
-Slave trade of, 61.
-Principal tribes in, 62.
-Inconveniences of a halt at, and of a return journey from, 74.
-Mode of spending the day at, 87.</li>
-
-<li>Ukami, depopulation of, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ukaranga, or “land of ground-nuts,” on the Tanganyika Lake, arrival at, ii. 44.
-Boundaries of, 52.
-Wretched villages of, 52.
-Apathy of the people, 52.
-Etymology of the name, 52.</li>
-
-<li>Ukerewe, ii. 212.
-Account of, 212, 213.
-People of, 212.
-Commerce of, 213.</li>
-
-<li>Ukhindu, or brab-tree, <a href="#Pagei-48">i. 48</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ukona, reached by the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-318">i. 318</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ukungwe, village of, <a href="#Pagei-403">i. 403</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ukungwe, islands of, ii. 151.</li>
-
-<li>Umbilical region, protrusion of the, in the children of the Wazaramo,
-ii. 117.</li>
-
-<li>Unguwwe, or Uvungwe, river, ii. 40, 52.
-Forded, 40.</li>
-
-<li>Unyanguruwwe, settlement of, <a href="#Pagei-408">i. 408</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Unyangwira, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.</li>
-
-<li>Unyanyembe district, rice lands of the, <a href="#Pagei-321">i. 321</a>.
-Aspect of the land, <a href="#Pagei-321">321</a>.
-Description of it, <a href="#Pagei-325">325</a>; ii. 5.
-Roads in, <a href="#Pagei-325">i. 325</a>.
-Its physical features, <a href="#Pagei-326">326</a>.
-Its villages, <a href="#Pagei-326">326</a>.
-History of the Arab settlements in, <a href="#Pagei-327">327</a>.
-Food in, <a href="#Pagei-329">329</a>, <a href="#Pagei-331">331-334</a>.
-Prices in, <a href="#Pagei-333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef4">Unyamwezi, or the Land of the Moon, <a href="#Pagei-313">i. 313</a>.
-Arrival of the caravan in the, <a href="#Pagei-314">314</a>.
-Lodgings for caravans in, <a href="#Pagei-354">354</a>.
-Geography of, ii. 1.
-Boundaries and extent of, 2.
-Altitude of, 2.
-The country as known to the Portuguese, 2.
-Corruptions of the name, 2, 3.
-Etymology of the word, 3, 4.
-Barbarous traditions of its having been a great empire, 4.
-Portuguese accounts of its former greatness, 5.
-Its present political condition, 5.
-Its dialects, 5.
-Provinces into which it is divided, 5.
-General appearance of the country, 6.
-Its geology, 6.
-Peaceful rural beauty of the country, 7.
-Water and rice fields, 7.
-Versant of Unyamwezi, 8.
-Its two seasons, 8.
-Its rainy monsoon, 8-10.
-The hot season, 11.
-Diseases of the country, 11, 13, 14.
-Whirlwinds and earthquakes, 11, 13.
-Curious effects of the climate, 14.
-Fauna of Unyamwezi, 15.
-Roads in, 19.
-Notice of the races of, 19.</li>
-
-<li>Unyoro, dependent, ii. 187.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef7">Unyoro, independent, land of, ii. 197.
-People of, 197.</li>
-
-<li>Urundi, mountains of, <a href="#Pagei-409">i. 409</a>; ii. 48.
-Arrival of the expedition in the region of, 101.
-People of, 107, 117.
-Description of the kingdom of, 144.
-Governments of, 145.
-People of, 145.
-Route to, 169.</li>
-
-<li>Uruwwa, the present terminus of trade, ii. 147.
-People of, 147.
-Prices at, 147.</li>
-
-<li>Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>, <a href="#Pagei-159">159</a>, <a href="#Pagei-215">215</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-297">297</a>, <a href="#Pagei-335">335</a>.
-Ascent of the, <a href="#Pagei-160">160</a>.
-Halt in the, <a href="#Pagei-161">161</a>.
-Healthiness of the, <a href="#Pagei-161">161</a>.
-Vegetation of the, <a href="#Pagei-162">162</a>, <a href="#Pagei-165">165</a>.
-Water in the, <a href="#Pagei-218">218</a>.
-Descent of the counterslope of the, <a href="#Pagei-219">219</a>.
-View from the, <a href="#Pagei-220">220</a>.
-Geography of the, <a href="#Pagei-225">225</a>, <i>et seq.</i>
-Geology of the, <a href="#Pagei-227">227</a>.
-Fruits and flowers of the, <a href="#Pagei-228">228</a>.
-Magnificent trees of the, <a href="#Pagei-129">129</a>.
-Water-channels and cultivation of the ground in the, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.
-Village of the, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.
-Supplies of food in the, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.
-Roads of the, <a href="#Pagei-230">230</a>.
-Water
-for drinking in the, <a href="#Pagei-230">230</a>.
-Climate of the, <a href="#Pagei-231">231</a>.
-Diseases of the, <a href="#Pagei-233">233</a>.
-The tribes inhabiting the, <a href="#Pagei-233">233</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Usagozi, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.
-March to, <a href="#Pagei-405">i. 405</a>.
-Insolence of the men of, <a href="#Pagei-405">405</a>.
-Description of the town of, and country around, <a href="#Pagei-405">405</a>.
-Sultan and people of, <a href="#Pagei-406">406</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Usek’he, in Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-272">i. 272</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Usenda, capital of the Sultan Kazembe, ii. 148.
-Trade of Usenda, 148.</li>
-
-<li>Usenge, arrival of the party at the clearing of, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Usoga, Land of, ii. 197.
-People of, 197.</li>
-
-<li>Usui, road and route from Unyanyembe to, ii. 175.
-Description of, 176.
-People of, 176.</li>
-
-<li>Usukama, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 5.</li>
-
-<li>Usumbwa, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6.</li>
-
-<li>Utakama, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 5.</li>
-
-<li>Utambara, near Marungu, district of, ii. 151.</li>
-
-<li>Ut’hongwe, country of, ii. 52.</li>
-
-<li>Utumbara, a province of Unyamwezi, ii. 6, 176.
-People of, 176.</li>
-
-<li>Uvinza, lodgings for caravans in, <a href="#Pagei-354">i. 354</a>.
-Geography of, ii. 1, 48.
-The two seasons of, 8.</li>
-
-<li>Uvira, southern frontier of, reached by the expedition, ii. 115, 116.
-Sultan of, 116.
-Blackmail at, 120.
-Commerce of, 120.</li>
-
-<li>Uyanzi, land of, description of the, <a href="#Pagei-279">i. 279</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Uyonwa, principal village of Uvinza, ii. 78.
-Sultan Mariki of, 78.
-Tents pitched at, 161.</li>
-
-<li>Uyuwwi, Kitambi, sultan of, <a href="#Pagei-320">i. 320</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Uzaramo, the first district of, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.
-Fertility of, <a href="#Pagei-60">60</a>.
-Wild animals of, <a href="#Pagei-63">63</a>.
-Storm in, <a href="#Pagei-60">60</a>.
-Boundaries of the territory of, <a href="#Pagei-107">107</a>.
-Roads in, <a href="#Pagei-335">335</a>.
-Art of narcotising fish in, ii. 67.
-Re-entered, 275.</li>
-
-<li>Uzige, land of, described, ii. 146.
-People of, 146.
-Rivers of, 146.</li>
-
-<li>Uziraha, plain of, ii. 263.</li>
-
-<li>Uzungu, or White Land, African curiosity respecting, <a href="#Pagei-261">i. 261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Valentine, the Goanese servant, sketch of his character, <a href="#Pagei-131">i. 131</a>.
-Taken ill, <a href="#Pagei-200">i. 200</a>, <a href="#Pagei-379">379</a>; ii. 169.
-Cured by the tinctura Warburgii, 169.
-His reception by the Wagogo, 263.
-Sent to learn cooking, 384.
-Suffers from ophthalmia, 406.
-Mortally wounds a Wayfanya, ii. 124.</li>
-
-<li>Vegetables in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-201">i. 201</a>; ii. 283.</li>
-
-<li id="IndRef8">Vegetation of&mdash;</li>
-<li class="level1">Bomani, road to, <a href="#Pagei-47">i. 47</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Dut’humi, <a href="#Pagei-87">i. 87</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Eastern Africa generally, <a href="#Pagei-228">i. 228</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Karagwah, ii. 180.</li>
-<li class="level1">Katonga river, ii. 187.</li>
-<li class="level1">K’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-91">i. 91</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kingani river, valley of the, <a href="#Pagei-56">i. 56</a>, <a href="#Pagei-69">69</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kiranga-Ranga, <a href="#Pagei-60">i. 60</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kirira, <a href="#Pagei-395">i. 395</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kiruru, <a href="#Pagei-83">i. 83</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Kuingani, <a href="#Pagei-43">i. 43</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Makata tank, <a href="#Pagei-181">i. 181</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mgeta river, <a href="#Pagei-166">i. 166</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-282">i. 282</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mrima, the, <a href="#Pagei-101">i. 101</a>, <a href="#Pagei-103">103</a>, <a href="#Pagei-104">104</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Msene, <a href="#Pagei-397">i. 397</a>, <i>note</i>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Muhogwe, <a href="#Pagei-63">i. 63</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Mukondokwa mountains, <a href="#Pagei-195">i. 195</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Murundusi, ii. 250.</li>
-<li class="level1">Rufuta fiumara, <a href="#Pagei-168">i. 168</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">&mdash;&mdash; plains, <a href="#Pagei-180">i. 180</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Tanganyika Lake shores, ii. 141.</li>
-<li class="level1">The road beyond Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-205">i. 205</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">The road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-246">i. 246</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Tumba Ihere, <a href="#Pagei-62">i. 62</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-275">i. 275</a>, <a href="#Pagei-299">299</a>, <a href="#Pagei-300">300</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ugoma, ii. 147.</li>
-<li class="level1">Ujiji, ii. 57.</li>
-<li class="level1">Unguwwe river, ii. 40.</li>
-<li class="level1">Unyamwezi, ii. 6.</li>
-<li class="level1">Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-162">i. 162</a>, <a href="#Pagei-165">165</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-220">220</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Uvinza in June, ii. 163.</li>
-<li class="level1">Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-387">i. 387</a>.</li>
-<li class="level1">Zungomero, <a href="#Pagei-95">i. 95</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Veneration, African want of, ii. 336.</li>
-
-<li>Village life in East Africa, described, ii. 278.</li>
-
-<li>Villages of the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-102">i. 102</a>.
-Of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.
-A deserted village described, <a href="#Pagei-185">185</a>.
-Villages of the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>.
-Of the Wahehe, <a href="#Pagei-240">240</a>.
-Of East Africa generally, <a href="#Pagei-364">364</a>, <i>et seq.</i>
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 7.
-Of Ukaranga, <a href="#Pagei-52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Vinegar of East Africa, ii. 288.</li>
-
-<li>Voandzeia subterranea, a kind of vetch, <a href="#Pagei-196">i. 196</a>, <a href="#Pagei-198">198</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Wabembe tribe, their cannibal practices, ii. 114,
-146.</li>
-
-<li>Wabena tribes, <a href="#Pagei-304">i. 304</a>.
-Described by the Arab merchants, ii. 270.</li>
-
-<li>Wabha tribe, their habitat, ii. 78.
-Their chief village, 78.
-Their personal appearance and dress, 78.
-Their arms, 78.
-Their women, 78.</li>
-
-<li>Wabisa tribe, habitat of the, ii. 150.
-Their dress, 150.
-Their manners and customs, 150.</li>
-
-<li>Wabwari, or people of Ubwari island, described, ii. 113.
-Women of the, 113.</li>
-
-<li>Wadoe tribe, their habitat, <a href="#Pagei-123">i. 123</a>.
-Their history, <a href="#Pagei-123">123</a>.
-Their cannibalism, <a href="#Pagei-123">123</a>.
-Their distinctive marks, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.
-Their
-arms, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.
-Their customs, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.
-Subdivisions of the tribe, <a href="#Pagei-124">124</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wafanya, halt at the village of, ii. 106.
-Visit from the chief of, 107.
-Blackmail at, 107.
-Climate of, 107.
-Prices at, 107.</li>
-
-<li>Wafipa tribe, habitat of the, ii. 153.
-Their personal appearance, 153.</li>
-
-<li>Wafyoma race, described, ii. 176.</li>
-
-<li>Waganda races, described, ii. 196.
-Their language, 196.
-Their dress, 196.</li>
-
-<li>Waganga, or priests, of Urundi, their savage appearance, ii. 145.
-<i>See</i> <a href="#IndRef3">Mganga</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wagara, or Wagala, tribe, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wagogo, their astonishment at the white man, <a href="#Pagei-263">i. 263</a>.
-Habitat of the, <a href="#Pagei-303">303</a>, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Extent of the country of the, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Complexion of the, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-The ear-ornaments of the, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Distinctive mark of the, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Modes of wearing the hair, <a href="#Pagei-304">304</a>.
-Women of the, <a href="#Pagei-305">305</a>.
-Dress of the, <a href="#Pagei-305">305</a>.
-Ornaments of the, <a href="#Pagei-305">305</a>.
-Arms of the, <a href="#Pagei-306">306</a>.
-Villages of the, <a href="#Pagei-306">306</a>.
-Language of the, <a href="#Pagei-306">306</a>.
-Their dislike of the Wanyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-307">307</a>.
-Their strength of numbers, <a href="#Pagei-307">307</a>.
-Not much addicted to black magic, <a href="#Pagei-307">307</a>.
-Their commerce, <a href="#Pagei-308">308</a>.
-Their greediness, <a href="#Pagei-308">308</a>.
-Their thievish propensities, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>.
-Their idleness and debauchery, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>.
-Their ill manners, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>.
-Their rude hospitality, <a href="#Pagei-310">310</a>.
-Authority of the Sultan of Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-310">310</a>.
-Food in, <a href="#Pagei-310">310</a>, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wagoma tribe, their habitat, ii. 147.</li>
-
-<li>Waguhha tribe, habitat of the, ii. 147.
-Lake in their country, 147.
-Roads, 147.</li>
-
-<li>Wahayya tribe, the, ii. 187.</li>
-
-<li>Wahehe tribe, their habitat, <a href="#Pagei-239">i. 239</a>.
-Their thievish propensities, <a href="#Pagei-239">239</a>.
-Their distension of their ear-lobes, <a href="#Pagei-239">239</a>.
-Distinctive marks of the tribe, <a href="#Pagei-239">239</a>.
-Their dress, <a href="#Pagei-239">239</a>.
-Their arms, <a href="#Pagei-240">240</a>.
-Their villages, flocks, and herds, <a href="#Pagei-240">240</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wahha tribe, their country laid waste, ii. 76, 78.
-Their present habitat, 79.
-Wahha slaves, 79.</li>
-
-<li>Wahinda tribe, account of the, ii. 219.
-Their habitat, 219.
-Their dress, 220.
-Their manners and customs, 220.</li>
-
-<li>Wahuma class of Karagwah, described, ii. 181, 182.</li>
-
-<li>Wahumba tribe, the bandit, <a href="#Pagei-203">i. 203</a>.
-Haunts of the, seen in the distance, <a href="#Pagei-205">205</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wahumba, or Wamasai, tribe, ii. 215.
-Attack the villages of Inenge, <a href="#Pagei-213">i. 213</a>.
-Haunts of, <a href="#Pagei-259">259</a>.
-Slavery among the, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>.
-Dialect of the, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Habitat of the, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Seldom visited by travellers, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Complexion of the, <a href="#Pagei-311">311</a>.
-Dress, manners, and customs of the, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-Dwellings of the, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.
-Arms of the, <a href="#Pagei-312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wahumba Hills, <a href="#Pagei-295">i. 295</a>, <a href="#Pagei-297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wajiji tribe, the, described, ii. 62.
-Rudeness and violence of, 62, 68.
-Diseases of, 63.
-Practice of tattooing amongst, 63.
-Ornaments and dress of, 63, 64.
-Cosmetics of, 63.
-Mode of taking snuff of, 65.
-Fishermen of the lake of Tanganyika, 66.
-Ceremoniousness of the Wajiji, 69.
-Absence of family affection amongst them, 69.
-Their habits of intoxication, 69.
-Power and rights of their sultan, 70.
-Their government, 71.
-Their commerce, 71.
-Prices in Ujiji, 72.
-Currency in, 73.
-Musical instruments of the Wajiji, 98.
-Inquisitive wonder of the people, 128.
-Category of stares, 128.</li>
-
-<li>Wakaguru tribe, villages of the, <a href="#Pagei-168">i. 168</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wakalaganza tribe, the, <a href="#Pagei-406">i. 406</a>.
-Dress of the, <a href="#Pagei-406">406</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wakamba, the, a sub-tribe of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-108">i. 108</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wakarenga tribe, wretched villages of the, ii. 52.
-Their want of energy and civilisation, 52, 74, 75.</li>
-
-<li>Wakatete tribe, habitat of the, ii. 149.</li>
-
-<li>Wakimbu race, account of the, ii. 19.
-Villages of the, 19.
-Dress and characteristic marks of the, 20.
-Arms of the, 20.
-Ornaments of the, 20.
-Language of the, 20.</li>
-
-<li>Wakumbaku tribe, country of the, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wak’hutu race, the, described, <a href="#Pagei-97">i. 97</a>.
-The ivory touters of, <a href="#Pagei-97">97</a>.
-Their territory, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>.
-Their physical and mental qualities, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Their dress, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Their drunkenness, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Their food, <a href="#Pagei-120">120</a>.
-Their government, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.
-Their dwellings, <a href="#Pagei-121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wakwafi tribe, slavery among the, <a href="#Pagei-309">i. 309</a>.
-Their untameable character, <a href="#Pagei-309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wall point, <a href="#Pagei-8">i. 8</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wamasai tribe, slavery among the, <a href="#Pagei-309">i. 309</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wambele, Chomwi la Mtu Mku, or Headman Great Man of Precedence, <a href="#Pagei-156">i. 156</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wambozwa tribe, habitat of the, ii. 149.
-Their government, 152.
-Their personal appearance, 152.
-Their manners and customs, 152.</li>
-
-<li>Wamrima, or “people of the Mrima,” described, <a href="#Pagei-16">i. 16</a>, <a href="#Pagei-30">30</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-32">32</a>.
-Their chomwi, or headmen, <a href="#Pagei-16">16</a>.
-Their dress, <a href="#Pagei-33">33</a>.
-Their women, <a href="#Pagei-34">34</a>.
-Their mode of life, <a href="#Pagei-35">35</a>.
-Their national characteristics, <a href="#Pagei-36">36</a>.
-Their habits and customs, <a href="#Pagei-37">37</a>.
-Their tombs, <a href="#Pagei-57">57</a>.
-Wamrima caravans, description of, <a href="#Pagei-344">344</a>.
-Hospitality of the people, <a href="#Pagei-353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wanguru porters, desertion of the, <a href="#Pagei-52">i. 52</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wanyambo, the poor class of Karagwah, described, ii. 182.</li>
-
-<li>Wanyamwezi porters of the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-143">i. 143</a>.
-Account of the Wanyamwezi tribe,
-ii. 20.
-Colour of the skin of the, 20.
-Effluvium from their skins, 20.
-Mode of dressing the hair, 20.
-Elongation of the mammæ of the women, 21.
-Mark of the tribe, 21.
-Dress of the, 21.
-Ornaments of the, 22.
-Arms of the, 22.
-Manners and customs of the, 23.
-Ceremonies of childbirth, 23.
-Of marriage, 24.
-Funerals, 25.
-Houses of the Wanyamwezi, 24.
-Iwanza, or public-house of the, 27.
-Food of the people, 28.
-Their commercial industry, 29.
-Their language, 30.
-Cultivation of the ground, 30, 31.
-Slavery amongst them, 31, 33.
-Government of the people, 31.
-Notice of Sultan Fundikira, 31, 32.
-Desertion of the porters, in Ugogo, 277.
-Their fear of the Wagogo, 307.
-Greeting of porters of the, on the road, 291.</li>
-
-<li>Wanyika, halt of the party at the settlement of, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.
-Blackmail at, <a href="#Pagei-407">407</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wanyora race described, ii. 197.</li>
-
-<li>Wap’hangara, the, a subtribe of the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-108">i. 108</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wapoka, country of the, ii. 153.</li>
-
-<li>Warburg’s tincture, an invaluable medicine, ii. 169.</li>
-
-<li>Warori, their meeting with the caravan, ii. 251.
-The tribe described, 272.
-Their raids, 272, 273.
-Their personal appearance, 273.
-Dress and weapons, 273.
-Their food and habitations, 273.</li>
-
-<li>Warufiji, or people of the Rufiji river, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Warudi tribe, ii. 215, 219.</li>
-
-<li>Warugaru tribe, country of the, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>.
-Their language, <a href="#Pagei-89">89</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Warundi tribe, noise and insolence of the, ii. 107.
-Their inhospitality, 108, 117.
-Their habitat, 144.
-Their mode of government, 145.
-Their complexion, 145.
-Their personal appearance, 145.
-Their dress, arms, and ornaments, 145.
-Their women, 146.</li>
-
-<li>Wasagara tribe, thievish propensities of the, <a href="#Pagei-229">i. 229</a>.
-Villages of the, <a href="#Pagei-168">168</a>.
-Those of Rumuma described, <a href="#Pagei-198">198</a>.
-Their ornaments and arms, <a href="#Pagei-199">199</a>.
-Village of, on the summit of Rubeho, <a href="#Pagei-218">218</a>.
-Villages of, on the slopes, <a href="#Pagei-221">221</a>.
-Their habitat, <a href="#Pagei-234">234</a>.
-Colour of their skins, <a href="#Pagei-234">234</a>.
-Modes of wearing the hair, <a href="#Pagei-234">234</a>.
-Distension of the ear-lobe, <a href="#Pagei-235">235</a>.
-Distinctive marks of the tribe, <a href="#Pagei-235">235</a>.
-Dress of the, <a href="#Pagei-235">235</a>.
-Arms of the, <a href="#Pagei-237">237</a>.
-Government of the, <a href="#Pagei-238">238</a>.
-Houses of the, <a href="#Pagei-366">366</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wasawahili, or people of the Sawahil, described, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>.
-National characteristics of the, <a href="#Pagei-36">36</a>.
-Their habits and customs, <a href="#Pagei-37">37</a>.
-Caravans of, <a href="#Pagei-344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wasenze tribe, their habitat, ii. 147.</li>
-
-<li>Washaki tribe, the, ii. 215,
-219.</li>
-
-<li>Washenzi, or barbarians from the interior, <a href="#Pagei-18">i. 18</a>.
-Curiosity of, <a href="#Pagei-394">394</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Washenzi, “the conquered,” or Ahl Maraim, the, <a href="#Pagei-30">i. 30</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wasps, mason, of the houses in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wasui tribe, described, ii. 176.</li>
-
-<li>Wasukuma tribe, their thievery, <a href="#Pagei-319">i. 319</a>.
-Punishment of some of them, <a href="#Pagei-320">320</a>, <a href="#Pagei-321">321</a>.
-Their sultan, Msimbira, <a href="#Pagei-319">319-321</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wasumbwa tribe, in Msene, <a href="#Pagei-395">i. 395</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wasuop’hángá tribe, country of the, <a href="#Pagei-88">i. 88</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Watatura tribes, <a href="#Pagei-304">i. 304</a>; ii. 215, 220.
-Their habitat, 220.
-Recent history of them, 220, 221.</li>
-
-<li>Watches, a few second-hand, the best things for keeping time in East African travel, <a href="#Pagei-190">i. 190</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Water-courses, or nullahs, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-102">i. 102</a>.
-In the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-229">229</a>, <a href="#Pagei-230">230</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Water, in the Mrima, <a href="#Pagei-102">i. 102</a>.
-In the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-218">218</a>.
-Scarcity of, near Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-203">203</a>.
-Impatience and selfishness of thirst of the Baloch guard, <a href="#Pagei-205">205</a>.
-In the Usagara mountains, <a href="#Pagei-230">230</a>.
-On the road to Ugogo, <a href="#Pagei-247">247</a>.
-Permission required for drawing, <a href="#Pagei-252">252</a>.
-Scarcity of, at Kanyenye, <a href="#Pagei-265">265</a>.
-Inhospitality of the people there, respecting, <a href="#Pagei-267">267</a>.
-Scarcity of, in Mgunda Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-282">282</a>.
-At the Jiwe la Mkoa, <a href="#Pagei-287">287</a>.
-At Kirurumo, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.
-At Jiweni, <a href="#Pagei-289">289</a>.
-On the march of the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-359">359</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 7.
-Of the Tanganyika Lake, its sweetness, 139.
-Want of, on the return journey, 239.</li>
-
-<li>Water-melons at Marenga Mk’hali, <a href="#Pagei-201">i. 201</a>.
-Cultivation of, <a href="#Pagei-201">201</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wat’hembe tribe, the, ii. 154.</li>
-
-<li>Wat’hembwe tribe, habitat of the, ii. 149.</li>
-
-<li>Wat’hongwe tribe, country of the, ii. 154.</li>
-
-<li>Wat’hongwe Kapana, Sultan, ii. 154.</li>
-
-<li>Watosi tribe in Msene, <a href="#Pagei-396">i. 396</a>.
-Their present habitat, ii. 185.
-Account of them and their manners and customs, 185.</li>
-
-<li>Watuta tribe, hills of the, <a href="#Pagei-408">i. 408</a>.
-History of, ii. 75.
-Their present habitat, 76.
-Their wanderings and forays, 76, 77.
-Their women, 77.
-Their arms, 77.
-Their tactics, 77.
-Their fear of fire-arms, 77.
-Their hospitality and strange traits, 77.
-Their attack on the territory of Kannena, ii. 156.</li>
-
-<li>Wavinza tribe, <a href="#Pagei-407">i. 407</a>.
-Personal appearance and character of the, ii. 75.
-Arms of the, 75.
-Inhospitality of the, 75.
-Drunkenness of the, 75.</li>
-
-<li>Wavira tribe, civility of the, ii. 115.</li>
-
-<li>Wayfanya, return to, ii. 123.
-A slave mortally wounded at, 124.</li>
-
-<li>Wazaramo tribe, the, <a href="#Pagei-19">i. 19</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wazaramo, or Wazalamo, territory of the, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.
-Visit from the P’hazi, or headmen, <a href="#Pagei-54">i. 54</a>.
-Women’s dance of ceremony, <a href="#Pagei-55">55</a>.
-Tombs of the tribe, <a href="#Pagei-57">57</a>.
-Stoppage of the guard of the expedition by the Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-70">70</a>.
-Ethnology of the race, <a href="#Pagei-107">107</a>.
-Their dialect, <a href="#Pagei-107">107</a>.
-Subtribes of, <a href="#Pagei-108">108</a>.
-Distinctive marks of the tribe, <a href="#Pagei-108">108</a>.
-Albinos of the, <a href="#Pagei-109">109</a>.
-Dress of the, <a href="#Pagei-109">109</a>.
-Ornaments and arms of the, <a href="#Pagei-110">110</a>.
-Houses of the, <a href="#Pagei-110">110</a>.
-Character of the, <a href="#Pagei-112">112</a>.
-Their government, <a href="#Pagei-113">113</a>.
-The Sare, or brother oath, of the, <a href="#Pagei-114">114</a>.
-Births and deaths, <a href="#Pagei-118">118</a>.
-Funeral ceremonies, <a href="#Pagei-118">118</a>, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>.
-“Industry” of the tribe, <a href="#Pagei-119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wazegura tribe, <a href="#Pagei-124">i. 124</a>.
-Their habitat, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>.
-Their arms, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>.
-Their kidnapping practices, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>.
-Their government, <a href="#Pagei-125">125</a>.
-Their character, <a href="#Pagei-126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wazige tribe described, ii. 146.</li>
-
-<li>Waziraha, a subtribe of the Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-122">i. 122</a>.
-Described, <a href="#Pagei-123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Weights and measures in Zanzibar, ii. 389, 391.</li>
-
-<li>Weapons in East Africa, ii. 300.</li>
-
-<li>Weaving in East Africa, ii. 309.</li>
-
-<li>White land, African curiosity respecting, <a href="#Pagei-261">i. 261</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Whirlwinds in Unyamwezi, ii. 11, 13.</li>
-
-<li>Wife of Sultan Magomba, <a href="#Pagei-266">i. 266</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wigo hill, <a href="#Pagei-93">i. 93</a>, <a href="#Pagei-159">159</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wilyankuru, Eastern, passed through, <a href="#Pagei-390">i. 390</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Winds in Unyamwezi, ii. 9, 10.
-In Central Africa, 50.
-Periodical of Lake Tanganyika, 143.
-In Karagwah, ii. 180.</li>
-
-<li>Windy Pass, or Pass of Rubeho, painful ascent of, <a href="#Pagei-213">i. 213</a>.
-Village of Wasagara at, <a href="#Pagei-218">218</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Wine, plantain, of Karagwah, ii. 180.
-And of Uganda, 197.</li>
-
-<li>Wire, mode of carrying, in the expedition, <a href="#Pagei-145">i. 145</a>.
-As an article of commerce, <a href="#Pagei-146">146</a>, <a href="#Pagei-150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Witch, or mganga, of East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-380">i. 380</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Witchcraft, belief in, in East Africa, ii. 347.
-Office of the mganga, 356.</li>
-
-<li>Women in East Africa, ii. 298, 330, 332,
-334.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; of Karagwah, ii. 182.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; of the Wabuha, ii. 78.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wagogo, <a href="#Pagei-304">i. 304</a>, <a href="#Pagei-305">305</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wahehe, <a href="#Pagei-239">i. 239</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wajiji, ii. 62-64.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wak’hutu, <a href="#Pagei-120">i. 120</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wamrima, <a href="#Pagei-16">i. 16</a>, <a href="#Pagei-34">34</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wanyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-388">i. 388</a>, <a href="#Pagei-396">396</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-398">398</a>; ii. 21, 23, 24.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Warundi, ii. 146.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wasagara,
-<a href="#Pagei-234">i. 234</a>, <a href="#Pagei-236">236</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wataturu, ii. 221.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Watuta, ii. 77.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; Wazaramo, <a href="#Pagei-55">i. 55</a>, <a href="#Pagei-61">61</a>,
-<a href="#Pagei-63">63</a>, <a href="#Pagei-110">110</a>, <a href="#Pagei-116">116</a>, <a href="#Pagei-118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; “Lulliloo” of the Wanyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-291">i. 291</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; physicians in East Africa, ii. 323.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Dance by themselves in East Africa, <a href="#Pagei-361">i. 361</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Handsome, at Yombo, <a href="#Pagei-388">i. 388</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Slave-girls of the coast Arabs on the march up country, <a href="#Pagei-314">i. 314</a>.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; The Iwanza, or public-houses of the women of Unyamwezi, ii. 27.</li>
-
-<li>&mdash;&mdash; Of the Wabwari islanders, ii. 113.</li>
-
-<li>Wood-apples in Unyamwezi, <a href="#Pagei-318">i. 318</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Woodward, Mr. S. P., his description of shells brought from Tanganyika Lake, ii. 102,
-<i>note</i>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Xylophagus, the, in East African houses, <a href="#Pagei-370">i. 370</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Yegea mud, <a href="#Pagei-83">i. 83</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Yombo, halt of the party at, <a href="#Pagei-387">i. 387</a>.
-Description of, <a href="#Pagei-387">387</a>.
-The sunset hour at, <a href="#Pagei-387">387</a>.
-Return to, ii. 166.</li>
-
-<li>Yovu, river, ii. 257, 258.
-Forded, 258.</li>
-
-<li>Yovu, village of, described, <a href="#Pagei-396">i. 396</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="newletter">Zanzibar, view of, from the sea, <a href="#Pagei-1">i. 1</a>.
-What the island is not, <a href="#Pagei-2">2</a>.
-Family, <a href="#Pagei-2">2</a>, <a href="#Pagei-3">3</a>.
-History
-of the word “Zanzibar,” <a href="#Pagei-28">28</a>.
-Its geographical position, <a href="#Pagei-29">29</a>.
-Weakness of the government of, in the interior of the continent, <a href="#Pagei-98">98</a>.
-The eight seasons of, ii. 8.
-Slave-trade of, 377.
-Troubles in, 380.
-General trade of, Appendix to vol. ii.</li>
-
-<li>Zawada, the lady, added to the caravan, <a href="#Pagei-210">i. 210</a>.
-Her services to Capt. Speke, ii. 277.</li>
-
-<li>Zebras, in the Rufuta plains, <a href="#Pagei-183">i. 183</a>.
-At Ziwa, <a href="#Pagei-251">251</a>.
-In Unyamwezi, ii. 15.</li>
-
-<li>Zemzemiyah of East Africa, ii. 239.</li>
-
-<li>Zeze, or guitar, of East Africa, ii. 291.</li>
-
-<li>Zik el nafas, or asthma, remedy in East Africa for, <a href="#Pagei-96">i. 96</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Zimbili, halt of the caravan at, <a href="#Pagei-386">i. 386</a>.
-Description of, <a href="#Pagei-386">386</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Ziwa, or the Pond, <a href="#Pagei-244">i. 244</a>.
-Water obtained from the, <a href="#Pagei-250">250</a>.
-Description of the, <a href="#Pagei-251">251</a>.
-Troubles of the expedition at, <a href="#Pagei-254">254</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Zohnwe river, <a href="#Pagei-172">i. 172</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Zohnwe settlement, <a href="#Pagei-173">i. 173</a>.
-Adventures of the expedition at, <a href="#Pagei-173">173</a>.</li>
-
-<li>Zungomero, district of, described, <a href="#Pagei-93">i. 93</a>.
-Commerce of, <a href="#Pagei-95">95</a>.
-Attractions of, <a href="#Pagei-95">95</a>.
-Food of, <a href="#Pagei-95">95-97</a>.
-Cause of the ivory touters of, <a href="#Pagei-97">97</a>.
-Halt of the expedition at, <a href="#Pagei-127">i. 127</a>.
-Pestilence of, <a href="#Pagei-127">127</a>, <a href="#Pagei-163">163</a>.
-Fresh porters engaged at, <a href="#Pagei-128">128</a>.
-Life at, <a href="#Pagei-156">156</a>.
-Return to, ii. 264.
-Departure from, 276.</li>
-
-</ul><!--index-->
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="tnbot" id="TN">
-
-<h2>Transcriber&#8217;s Notes</h2>
-
-<p>Spelling variants, inconsistent, archaic and unusual spelling,
-hyphenation, capitalisation, use of accents, etc., also in proper and
-geographical names and in non-English words, have been retained,
-except as listed below. The names of peoples, tribes, other groups and
-localities in particular occur in different variants. Factual and
-textual errors, inconcistencies and contradictions have not been
-corrected or standardised.</p>
-
-<p>Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, not all elements may display as intended.</p>
-
-<p>Index: the deviations from the alphabetical order of the main entries have not been corrected.</p>
-
-<p>Page viii, ix and others: the map and Appendices may be found in Vol. 2.</p>
-
-<p>Page xii ff., tables: The totals given do not always correspond to the data given; this has not been corrected.</p>
-
-<p class="blankbefore75">Changes made:</p>
-
-<p>Footnotes and illustrations have been moved outside text paragraphs.</p>
-
-<p>Some obvious minor punctuation and printing errors have been corrected silently.</p>
-
-<p>In several tables and lists ditto characters (&#8222;) have been replaced with the dittoed text.</p>
-
-<p>Page xvii: Entry Illustration &#8220;A village in K’hutu. The Silk Cotton Tree&#8221; added.</p>
-
-<p>In the Index, some spelling and page numbering errors have been corrected silently in order to conform to the text.</p>
-
-<p>Index: The Index was not included in the original Volume I, but has been copied from Volume II for the sake of
-convenience and completeness.</p>
-
-</div><!--tnbot-->
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