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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. 2
-
-Author: Richard Francis Burton
-
-Release Date: November 24, 2021 [eBook #66813]
-
-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 II.
-
-
-
-
-  LONDON
-  PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
-  NEW-STREET SQUARE
-
-[Illustration: NAVIGATION OF THE TANGANYIKA LAKE.]
-
-
-
-
-  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. II.
-
-  LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1860
-
-  _The right of translation is reserved_
-
-
-
-
-  CONTENTS
-  OF
-  THE SECOND VOLUME.
-
-
-                                                                    Page
-
-  CHAPTER XII.
-  The Geography and Ethnology of Unyamwezi.--The Fourth Region         1
-
-  CHAP. XIII.
-  At length we sight the Lake Tanganyika, the “Sea of Ujiji.”         34
-
-  CHAP. XIV.
-  We explore the Tanganyika Lake                                      80
-
-  CHAP. XV.
-  The Tanganyika Lake and its Periplus                               134
-
-  CHAP. XVI.
-  We return to Unyanyembe                                            155
-
-  CHAP. XVII.
-  The Down-march to the Coast                                        223
-
-  CHAP. XVIII.
-  Village Life in East Africa                                        278
-
-  CHAP. XIX.
-  The Character and Religion of the East Africans; their Government,
-  and Slavery                                                        324
-
-  Conclusion                                                         379
-
-  APPENDICES.
-  APPENDIX I.: Commerce, Imports, and Exports                        387
-  APPENDIX II.: Official Correspondence                              420
-
-
-
-
-  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-  IN
-  THE SECOND VOLUME.
-
-
-  CHROMOXYLOGRAPHS.
-
-  Navigation of the Tanganyika Lake                      _Frontispiece._
-  View in Usagara                                     _to face page_   1
-  Snay bin Amir’s House                                      „       155
-  Saydumi, a native of Uganda                                „       223
-  The Basin of Maroro                                        „       255
-  The Basin of Kisanga                                       „       278
-  Map of the Routes between Zanzibar and the Great Lakes in Eastern
-  Africa in 1857, 1858 & 1859, by R. F. Burton
-
-
-  WOODCUTS.
-
-  Iwanza, or public-houses; with Looms to the left                     1
-  My Tembe near the Tangangika                                        34
-  Head Dresses of Wanyamwezi                                          80
-  African heads, and Ferry-boat                                      134
-  Portraits of Muinyi Kidogo, the Kirangozi, the Mganga, &c.         155
-  Mgongo Thembo, or the Elephant’s Back                              223
-  Jiwe la Mkoa, the Round Rock                                       242
-  Rufita Pass in Usagara                                             259
-  The Ivory Porter, the Cloth Porter, and Woman in Usagara           278
-  Gourd, Stool, Bellows, Guitar, and Drum                            292
-  Gourds                                                             313
-  A Mnyamwezi and a Mheha                                            324
-  The Bull-headed Mabruki, and the African standing position         378
-  The Elephant Rock                                                  384
-
-[Illustration: VIEW IN USAGARA.]
-
-
-
-
-  THE
-  LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA.
-
-[Illustration: A village interior in the Land of the Moon.
-
-Utanta or loom.
-
-Iwanza, or public houses.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-THE GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY OF UNYAMWEZI.--THE FOURTH REGION.
-
-
-The fourth division is a hilly table-land, extending from the western
-skirts of the desert Mgunda Mk’hali, in E. long. 33° 57′, to the eastern
-banks of the Malagarazi River, in E. long. 31° 10′: it thus stretches
-diagonally over 155 rectilinear geographical miles. Bounded on the north
-by Usui and the Nyanza Lake, to the south-eastwards by Ugala, southwards
-by Ukimbu, and south-westwards by Uwende, it has a depth of from
-twenty-five to thirty marches. Native caravans, if lightly laden, can
-accomplish it in twenty-five days, including four halts. The maximum
-altitude observed by B. P. therm. was 4050 feet, the minimum 2850. This
-region contains the two great divisions of Unyamwezi and Uvinza.
-
-The name of Unyamwezi was first heard by the Portuguese, according to
-Giovanni Botero, towards the end of the sixteenth century, or about
-1589. Pigafetta, who, in 1591, systematised the discoveries of the
-earlier Portuguese, placed the empire of “Monemugi” or Munimigi in a
-vast triangular area, whose limits were Monomotapa, Congo, and
-Abyssinia: from his pages it appears that the people of this central
-kingdom were closely connected by commerce with the towns on the eastern
-coast of Africa. According to Dapper, the Dutch historian, (1671,) whose
-work has been the great mine of information to subsequent writers upon
-Africa south of the equator, about sixty days’ journey from the Atlantic
-is the kingdom of Monemugi, which others call “Nimeamaye,” a name still
-retained under the corrupted form “Nimeaye” in our atlases. M.
-Malte-Brun, senior, mentioning Mounemugi, adds, “ou, selon une
-autographe plus authentique, _Mou-nimougi_.” All the Portuguese authors
-call the people Monemugi or Mono-emugi; Mr. Cooley prefers Monomoezi,
-which he derives from “Munha Munge,” or “lord of the world,” the title
-of a great African king in the interior, commemorated by the historian
-De Barros. Mr. Macqueen (‘Geography of Central Africa’), who also gives
-Manmoise, declares that “Mueno-muge, Mueno-muize, Monomoise, and
-Uniamese,” relate to the same place and people, comprehending a large
-extent of country in the interior of Africa: he explains the word
-erroneously to mean the “great Moises or Movisas.” The Rev. Mr. Erhardt
-asserts that for facility of pronunciation the coast merchants have
-turned the name “Wanamesi” into “Waniamesi,” which also leads his
-readers into error. The Rev. Mr. Livingstone thus endorses the mistake
-of Messrs. Macqueen and Erhardt: “The names Monomoizes, spelt also
-Monemuigis and Monomuizes, and Monomotapistas, when applied to the
-tribes, are exactly the same as if we should call the Scotch the Lord
-Douglases.... Monomoizes was formed from Moiza or Muiza, the singular of
-the word Babisa or Aiza, the proper name of a large tribe to the north.”
-In these sentences there is a confusion between the lands of the
-Wanyamwezi, lying under the parallel of the Tanganyika Lake, and the
-Wabisa (in the singular Mbísá, the Wavisa of the Rev. Mr. Rebmann), a
-well-known commercial tribe dwelling about the Maravi or Nyassa Lake,
-S.W. of Kilwa, whose name in times of old was corrupted by the
-Portuguese to Movizas or Movisas. Finally M. Guillain, in a work already
-alluded to, states correctly the name of the people to be Oua-nyamouczi,
-but in designating the country “pays de Nyamouezi,” he shows little
-knowledge of the Zangian dialects. M. V. A. Malte-Brun, junior
-(‘Bulletin de Géographie,’ Paris, 1856, Part II. p. 295) correctly
-writes Wanyamwezi.
-
-A name so discrepantly corrupted deserves some notice. Unyamwezi is
-translated by Dr. Krapf and the Rev. Mr. Rebmann, “Possessions of the
-Moon.” The initial U, the causal and locative prefix, denotes the land,
-nya, of, and mwezi, articulated m’ezí with semi-elision of the w, means
-the moon. The people sometimes pronounce their country name Unyamiezi,
-which would be a plural form, miezi signifying moons or months. The
-Arabs and the people of Zanzibar, for facility and rapidity of
-pronunciation, dispense with the initial dissyllable, and call the
-country and its race Mwezi. The correct designation of the inhabitants
-of Unyamwezi is, therefore, Mnyamwezi in the singular, and Wanyamwezi in
-the plural: Kinyamwezi is the adjectival form. It is not a little
-curious that the Greeks should have placed their της σεληνης ορος--the
-mountain of the moon--and the Hindus their Soma Giri (an expression
-probably translated from the former), in the vicinity of the African
-“Land of the Moon.” It is impossible to investigate the antiquity of the
-vernacular term; all that can be discovered is, that nearly 350 years
-ago the Portuguese explorers of Western Africa heard the country
-designated by its present name.
-
-There is the evidence of barbarous tradition for a belief in the
-existence of Unyamwezi as a great empire, united under a single despot.
-The elders declare that their patriarchal ancestor became after death
-the first tree, and afforded shade to his children and descendants.
-According to the Arabs the people still perform pilgrimage to a holy
-tree, and believe that the penalty of sacrilege in cutting off a twig
-would be visited by sudden and mysterious death. All agree in relating
-that during the olden time Unyamwezi was united under a single
-sovereign, whose tribe was the Wakalaganza, still inhabiting the western
-district, Usagozi. According to the people, whose greatest chronical
-measure is a Masika, or rainy season, in the days of the grandfathers of
-their grandfathers the last of the Wanyamwezi emperors died. His
-children and nobles divided and dismembered his dominions, further
-partitions ensued, and finally the old empire fell into the hands of a
-rabble of petty chiefs. Their wild computation would point to an epoch
-of 150 years ago--a date by no means improbable.
-
-These glimmerings of light thrown by African tradition illustrate the
-accounts given by the early Portuguese concerning the extent and the
-civilisation of the Unyamwezi empire. Moreover, African travellers in
-the seventeenth century concur in asserting that, between 250 and 300
-years ago, there was an outpouring of the barbarians from the heart of
-Æthiopia and from the shores of the Central Lake towards the eastern and
-southern coasts of the peninsula, a general waving and wandering of
-tribes which caused great ethnological and geographical confusion,
-public demoralisation, dismemberment of races, and change, confusion,
-and corruption of tongues. About this period it is supposed the kingdom
-of Mtándá, the first Kazembe, was established. The Kafirs of the Cape
-also date their migration from the northern regions to the banks of the
-Kei about a century and a half ago.
-
-In these days Unyamwezi has returned to the political status of Eastern
-Africa in the time of the Periplus. It is broken up into petty
-divisions, each ruled by its own tyrant; his authority never extends
-beyond five marches; moreover, the minor chiefs of the different
-districts are virtually independent of their suzerains. One language is
-spoken throughout the land of the Moon, but the dialectic differences
-are such that the tribes in the east with difficulty understand their
-brethren in the west. The principal provinces are--Utakama to the
-extreme north, Usukuma on the south,--in Kinyamwezi sukuma means the
-north, takama the south, kiya the east, and mwere the west,--Unyanyembe
-in the centre, Ufyoma and Utumbara in the north-west, Unyangwira in the
-south-east, Usagozi and Usumbwá to the westward. The three normal
-divisions of the people are into Wanyamwezi, Wasukuma or northern, and
-Watakama or southern.
-
-The general character of Unyamwezi is rolling ground, intersected with
-low conical and tabular hills, whose lines ramify in all directions. No
-mountain is found in the country. The superjacent stratum is clay,
-overlying the sandstone based upon various granites, which in some
-places crop out, picturesquely disposed in blocks and boulders and huge
-domes and lumpy masses; ironstone is met with at a depth varying from
-five to twelve feet, and at Kazeh, the Arab settlement in Unyanyembe,
-bits of coarse ore were found by digging not more than four feet in a
-chance spot. During the rains a coat of many-tinted greens conceals the
-soil; in the dry season the land is grey, lighted up by golden stubbles
-and dotted with wind-distorted trees, shallow swamps of emerald grass,
-and wide sheets of dark mud. Dwarfed stumps and charred “black-jacks”
-deform the fields, which are sometimes ditched or hedged in, whilst a
-thin forest of parachute-shaped thorns diversifies the waves of rolling
-land and earth-hills spotted with sun-burnt stone. The reclaimed tracts
-and clearings are divided from one another by strips of primæval jungle,
-varying from two to twelve miles in length. As in most parts of Eastern
-Africa, the country is dotted with “fairy mounts”--dwarf mounds, the
-ancient sites of trees now crumbled to dust, and the débris of insect
-architecture; they appear to be rich ground, as they are always
-diligently cultivated. The yield of the soil, according to the Arabs,
-averages sixty-fold, even in unfavourable seasons.
-
-The Land of the Moon, which is the garden of Central Intertropical
-Africa, presents an aspect of peaceful rural beauty which soothes the
-eye like a medicine after the red glare of barren Ugogo, and the dark
-monotonous verdure of the western provinces. The inhabitants are
-comparatively numerous in the villages, which rise at short intervals
-above their impervious walls of the lustrous green milk-bush, with its
-coral-shaped arms, variegating the well-hoed plains; whilst in the
-pasture-lands frequent herds of many-coloured cattle, plump,
-round-barrelled, and high-humped, like the Indian breeds, and mingled
-flocks of goats and sheep dispersed over the landscape, suggest ideas of
-barbarous comfort and plenty. There are few scenes more soft and
-soothing than a view of Unyamwezi in the balmy evenings of spring. As
-the large yellow sun nears the horizon, a deep stillness falls upon
-earth: even the zephyr seems to lose the power of rustling the lightest
-leaf. The milky haze of midday disappears from the firmament, the flush
-of departing day mantles the distant features of scenery with a lovely
-rose-tint, and the twilight is an orange glow that burns like distant
-horizontal fires, passing upwards through an imperceptibly graduated
-scale of colours--saffron, yellow, tender green, and the lightest
-azure--into the dark blue of the infinite space above. The charm of the
-hour seems to affect even the unimaginative Africans, as they sit in the
-central spaces of their villages, or, stretched under the forest-trees,
-gaze upon the glories around.
-
-In Unyamwezi water generally lies upon the surface, during the rains, in
-broad shallow pools, which become favourite sites for rice-fields. These
-little ziwa and mbuga--ponds and marshes--vary from two to five feet
-below the level of the land; in the dry season they are betrayed from
-afar by a green line of livelier vegetation streaking the dead tawny
-plain. The Arabs seldom dig their wells deeper than six feet, and they
-complain of the want of “live-water” gushing from the rocky ground, as
-in their native Oman. The country contains few springs, and the surface
-of retentive clay prevents the moisture penetrating to the subsoil. The
-peculiarity of the produce is its decided chalybeate flavour. The
-versant of the country varies. The eastern third, falling to the
-south-east, discharges its surplus supplies through the Rwaha river into
-the Indian Ocean; in the centre, water seems to stagnate; and in the
-western third, the flow, turning to the north and north-west, is carried
-by the Gombe nullah--a string of pools during the dry season, and a
-rapid unfordable stream during the rains--into the great Malagarazi
-river, the principal eastern influent of the Tanganyika Lake. The levels
-of the country and the direction of the waters combine to prove that the
-great depression of Central Africa, alluded to in the preceding chapter,
-commences in the district of Kigwa in Unyamwezi.
-
-The climate of the island and coast of Zanzibar has, it must be
-remembered, double seasons, which are exceedingly confused and
-irregular. The lands of Unyamwezi and Uvinza, on the other hand, are as
-remarkable for simplicity of division. There eight seasons disturb the
-idea of year; here but two--a summer and a winter. Central Africa has,
-as the Spaniards say of the Philippine Isles,
-
-  “Seis mezes de polvo,
-   Seis mezes de lodo.”
-
-In 1857 the Masika, or rains, commenced throughout Eastern Unyamwezi on
-the 14th of November. In the northern and western provinces the wet
-monsoon begins earlier and lasts longer. At Msene it precedes Unyanyembe
-about a month; in Ujiji, Karagwah, and Uganda, nearly two months. Thus
-the latter countries have a rainy season which lasts from the middle of
-September till the middle of May.
-
-The moisture-bearing wind in this part of Africa is the fixed south-east
-trade, deflected, as in the great valley of the Mississippi and in the
-island of Ceylon, into a periodical south-west monsoon. As will appear
-in these pages, the downfalls begin earlier in Central Africa than upon
-the eastern coast, and from the latter point they travel by slow
-degrees, with the northing sun, to the north-east, till they find a
-grave upon the rocky slopes of the Himalayas.
-
-The rainy monsoon is here ushered in, accompanied, and terminated by
-storms of thunder and lightning, and occasional hail-falls. The blinding
-flashes of white, yellow, or rose colour play over the firmament
-uninterruptedly for hours, during which no darkness is visible. In the
-lighter storms thirty and thirty-five flashes may be counted in a
-minute: so vivid is the glare that it discloses the finest shades of
-colour, and appears followed by a thick and palpable gloom, such as
-would hang before a blind man’s eyes, whilst a deafening roar
-simultaneously following the flash, seems to travel, as it were, to and
-fro overhead. Several claps sometimes sound almost at the same moment,
-and as if coming from different directions. The same storm will, after
-the most violent of its discharges, pass over, and be immediately
-followed by a second, showing the superabundance of electricity in the
-atmosphere. When hail is about to fall, a rushing noise is heard in the
-air, with sudden coolness and a strange darkness from the canopy of
-brownish purple clouds. The winds are exceedingly variable: perhaps they
-are most often from the east and north-east during summer, from the
-north-west and south-west in the rains; but they are answered from all
-quarters of the heavens, and the most violent storms sail up against the
-lower atmospheric currents. The Portuguese of the Mozambique attribute
-these terrible discharges of electricity to the quantity of mineral
-substances scattered about the country; but a steaming land like Eastern
-Africa wants, during the rains, no stronger battery. In the rainy season
-the sensation is that experienced during the equinoctial gales in the
-Mediterranean, where the scirocco diffuses everywhere discomfort and
-disease. The fall is not, as in Western India, a steady downpour,
-lasting sometimes two or three days without a break. In Central Africa,
-rain seldom endures beyond twelve hours, and it often assumes for weeks
-an appearance of regularity, re-occurring at a certain time. Night is
-its normal season; the mornings are often wet, and the torrid midday is
-generally dry. As in Southern Africa, a considerable decrease of
-temperature is the consequence of long-continued rain. Westward of
-Unyanyembe, hail-storms, during the rainy monsoon, are frequent and
-violent; according to the Arabs, the stones sometimes rival pigeons’
-eggs in size. Throughout this monsoon the sun burns with sickly
-depressing rays, which make earth reek like a garment hung out to dry.
-Yet this is not considered the unhealthy period: the inundation is too
-deep, and evaporation is yet unable to extract sufficient poison from
-decay.
-
-As in India and the southern regions of Africa, the deadly season
-follows the wet monsoon from the middle of May to the end of June. The
-kosi or south-west wind gives place to the kaskazi, or north-east,
-about April, a little later than at Zanzibar. The cold gales and the
-fervid suns then affect the outspread waters; the rivers, having swollen
-during the weeks of violent downfall that usher in the end of the rains,
-begin to shrink, and miry morasses and swamps of black vegetable mud
-line the low-lands whose central depths are still under water. The
-winds, cooled by excessive evaporation and set in motion by the heat,
-howl over the country by night and day, dispersing through the
-population colds and catarrhs, agues and rheumatisms, dysenteries and
-deadly fevers. It must, however, be remarked that many cases which in
-India and Sindh would be despaired of, survived in Eastern Africa.
-
-The hot season, or summer, lasting from the end of June till nearly the
-middle of November, forms the complement of the year. The air now
-becomes healthy and temperate; the cold, raw winds rarely blow, and the
-people recover from their transition diseases. At long intervals, during
-these months, but a few grateful and refreshing showers, accompanied by
-low thunderings, cool the air and give life to the earth. These
-phenomena are expected after the change of the moon, and not, as in
-Zanzibar, during her last quarter. The Arabs declare that here, as in
-the island, rain sometimes falls from a clear sky--a phenomenon not
-unknown to African travellers. The drought affects the country severely,
-a curious exception to the rule in the zone of perpetual rain; and after
-August whirlwinds of dust become frequent. At this time the climate is
-most agreeable to the senses; even in the hottest nights a blanket is
-welcome, especially about dawn, and it is possible to dine at 3 or 4
-P.M., when in India the exertion would be impracticable. During the day
-a ring-cloud, or a screen of vapour, almost invariably tempers the
-solar rays; at night a halo, or a corona, generally encircles the moon.
-The clouds are chiefly cumulus, cumulo-stratus, and nimbus; the sky is
-often overcast with large white masses floating, apparently without
-motion, upon the milky haze, and in the serenest weather a few threads
-are seen pencilled upon the expanse above. Sunrise is seldom thoroughly
-clear, and, when so, the clouds, sublimed in other regions and brought
-up by the rising winds, begin to gather in the forenoon. They are
-melted, as it were, by the fervent heat of the sun between noon and 3
-P.M., at which time also the breezes fall light. Thick mists collect
-about sunset, and by night the skies are seldom free from clouds. The
-want of heat to dilate the atmosphere at this season, and the
-light-absorbing vegetation which clothes the land, causes a peculiar
-dimness in the Galaxy and “Magellan’s Clouds.” The twilight also is
-short, and the zodiacal light is not observed. The suffocating sensation
-of the tropics is unknown, and at noon in the month of September--the
-midsummer of this region--the thermometer, defended from the wind, in a
-single-fold Arab tent, never exceeded 113° Fahr. Except during the
-rains, the dews are not heavy, as in Zanzibar, in the alluvial valleys,
-and in Usagara and Ujiji: the people do not fear exposure to them,
-though, as in parts of France, they consider dew-wetted grass
-unwholesome for cattle. The Arabs stand bathing in the occasional
-torrents of rain without the least apprehension. The temperature varies
-too little for the European constitution, which requires a winter. The
-people, however, scarcely care to clothe themselves. The flies and
-mosquitoes--those pests of most African countries--are here a minor
-annoyance.
-
-The principal cause of disease during the summer of Unyamwezi is the
-east wind, which, refrigerated by the damp alluvial valleys of the first
-region and the tree-clad peaks and swampy plains of Usagara, sweeps the
-country, like the tramontanas of Italy, with a freezing cold in the
-midst of an atmosphere properly tepid. These unnatural combinations of
-extremes, causing sudden chills when the skin perspires, bring on
-inevitable disease; strangers often suffer severely, and the influenza
-is as much feared in Unyamwezi as in England. The east wind is even more
-dangerous in the hut than in the field: draughts from the four quarters
-play upon the patient, making one side of the body tremble with cold,
-whilst the other, defended by the wall or heated by the fire, burns with
-fever-glow. The gales are most violent immediately after the cessation
-of the rains; about the beginning of August they become warmer and fall
-light. At this time frequent whirlwinds sweep from the sun-parched land
-clouds of a fine and penetrating clay-dust; and slight shocks of
-earthquakes are by no means uncommon. Three were observed by the
-Expedition--at noon on the 14th of June, 1858; on the morning of the
-13th of June; and at 5 P.M. on the 22nd of November, 1858. The motion,
-though mild, was distinctly perceptible; unfortunately, means of
-ascertaining the direction were wanted. The people of the country call
-this phenomenon “Tetemeka,” or the trembling; and the Arabs remember a
-shock of a serious nature which took place at Unyanyembe in the hot
-season of 1852. After September, though the land is parched with
-drought, the trees begin to put forth their leaves; it is the coupling
-season of beasts, and the period of nidification and incubation for
-birds. The gradual lowering of the temperature, caused by the southern
-declination of the sun, acts like the genial warmth of an English
-spring. As all sudden changes from siccity to humidity are prejudicial
-to man, there is invariably severe disease at the end of the summer,
-when the rains set in.
-
-Travellers from Unyamwezi homeward returned often represent that country
-to be the healthiest in Eastern and Central Africa: they quote, as a
-proof, the keenness of their appetites and the quantity of food which
-they consume. The older residents, however, modify their opinions: they
-declare that digestion does not wait upon appetite; and that, as in
-Egypt, Mazanderan, Malabar, and other hot-damp countries, no man long
-retains rude health. The sequelæ of their maladies are always severe;
-few care to use remedies, deeming them inefficacious against morbific
-influences to them unknown; convalescence is protracted, painful, and
-uncertain, and at length they are compelled to lead the lives of
-confirmed invalids. The gifts of the climate, lassitude and indolence,
-according to them, predispose to corpulence; and the regular warmth
-induces baldness, and thins the beard, thus assimilating strangers in
-body as in mind to the aborigines. They are unanimous in quoting a
-curious effect of climate, which they attribute to a corruption of the
-“humours and juices of the body.” Men who, after a lengthened sojourn in
-these regions return to Oman, throw away the surplus provisions brought
-from the African coast, burn their clothes and bedding, and for the
-first two or three months eschew society; a peculiar effluvium rendering
-them, it is said, offensive to the finer olfactories of their
-compatriots.
-
-The Mukunguru of Unyamwezi is perhaps the severest seasoning fever in
-this part of Africa. It is a bilious remittent, which normally lasts
-three days; it wonderfully reduces the patient in that short period, and
-in severe cases the quotidian is followed by a long attack of a tertian
-type. The consequences are severe and lasting even in men of the
-strongest nervous diathesis; burning and painful eyes, hot palms and
-soles, a recurrence of shivering and flushing fits, with the extremities
-now icy cold, then painfully hot and swollen, indigestion, insomnolency,
-cutaneous eruptions and fever sores, languor, dejection, and all the
-inconveniences resulting from torpidity of liver, or from an inordinate
-secretion of bile, betray the poison deep-lurking in the system. In some
-cases this fever works speedily; some even, becoming at once delirious,
-die on the first or the second day, and there is invariably an
-exacerbation of symptoms before the bilious remittent passes away.
-
-The fauna of Unyamwezi are similar to those described in Usagara and
-Ugogo. In the jungles quadrumana are numerous; lions and leopards,
-cynhyænas and wild cats haunt the forests; the elephant and the
-rhinoceros, the giraffe and the Cape buffalo, the zebra, the quagga (?),
-and the koodoo wander over the plains; and the hippopotamus and
-crocodile are found in every large pool. The nyanyi or cynocephalus in
-the jungles of Usukuma attains the size of a greyhound; according to the
-people, there are three varieties of colour--red, black, and yellow.
-They are the terror of the neighbouring districts: women never dare to
-approach their haunts; they set the leopard at defiance, and, when in a
-large body, they do not, it is said, fear the lion. The Colobus guereza,
-or tippet monkey, the “polume” of Dr. Livingstone (ch. xvi.), here
-called mbega, is admired on account of its polished black skin and
-snowy-white mane. It is a cleanly animal, ever occupied in polishing
-its beautiful garb, which, according to the Arabs, it tears to pieces
-when wounded, lest the hunter should profit by it. The mbega lives in
-trees, seldom descending, and feeds upon the fruit and the young leaves.
-The Arabs speak of wild dogs in the vicinity of Unyanyembe, describing
-them as being about eighteen inches in height, with rufous-black and
-shaggy coats, and long thick tails; they are gregarious, running in
-packs of from 20 to 200; they attack indiscriminately man and the
-largest animals, and their only cry is a howl. About the time of our
-autumn the pools are visited by various kinds of aquatic birds, widgeon,
-plump little teal, fine snipe, curlew, and crane; the ardea, or white
-“paddy-bird” of India, and the “lily-trotter” (Parra Africana), are
-scattered over the country; and sometimes, though rarely, the chenalopex
-or common Egyptian-goose and the gorgeous-crowned crane (Balearica
-pavonina), the latter a favourite dish with the Arabs, appear. In
-several parts of Unyamwezi, especially in the north, there is a large
-and well-flavoured species of black-backed goose (Sakidornis melanota):
-the common wild duck of England was not seen. Several specimens of the
-Buceros, the secretary-bird (Serpentarius reptilivorus), and large
-vultures, probably the condor of the Cape, were observed in Unyamwezi;
-the people do not molest them, holding the flesh to be carrion. The
-Cuculus indicator, called in Kisawahili “tongoe,” is common; but, its
-honey being mostly hived, it does not attract attention. Grillivori, and
-a species of thrush, about the size of common larks, with sulphur-yellow
-patches under the eyes, and two naked black striæ beneath the throat,
-are here migratory birds; they do good service to the agriculturist
-against the locust. A variety of the Loxia or grossbill constructs
-nests sometimes in bunches hanging from the lower branches of the trees.
-The mtiko, a kind of water-wagtail (Motacilla), ventures into the huts
-with the audacity of a London sparrow, and the Africans have a prejudice
-against killing it. Swallows and martins of various kinds, some
-peculiarly graceful and slender, may be seen migrating at the approach
-of winter in regular travelling order: of these, one variety resembles
-the English bird. The Africans declare that a single species of hirundo,
-probably the sand-martin, builds in the precipitous earth-banks of the
-nullahs: their nests were not seen, however, as in Southern Africa,
-under the eaves of houses. There are a few ostriches, hawks, ravens,
-plovers, nightjars (Caprimulgidæ), red and blue jays of brilliant plume,
-muscicapæ, blackcaps or mock nightingales (Motacilla atrocapilla?),
-passerines of various kinds, hoopoes, bulbuls, wrens, larks, and
-bats. We saw but few poisonous animals. Besides the dendrophis, the
-only ophidia killed in the country were snakes, with slate-coloured
-backs, and silver bellies, resembling the harmless “mas” or
-“hanash” of Somaliland, the Psammophis sibilaris (L.); C. moniliger
-Lacépède,--according to Mr. Blyth (“Journal of the As. Soc. of Bengal,”
-vol. xxiv., p. 306), who declares it to be not venomous--they abound in
-the houses and destroy the rats. The people speak of a yellow and
-brown-coated snake, eight feet long by five or six inches in diameter;
-it is probably a boa or rock-snake. Chúrá or frogs are numerous in the
-swamps, where the frog-concerts resemble those of the New World; and in
-the regions about the Tanganyika Lake a large variety makes night
-hideous with its croakings. Of the ranæ there are many species. The
-largest is probably the “matmalelo” of S. Africa; it is eaten by the
-Wagogo and other tribes. A smaller kind is of dark colour, and with long
-legs, which enable it to hop great distances. A third is of a dirty
-yellow, with brownish speckles. There is also a little green tree-frog,
-which adheres to the broad and almost perpendicular leaves of the
-thicker grasses. The leech is found in the lakes and rivers of the
-interior, as well as in Zanzibar and on both coasts of Africa; according
-to the Arabs they are of two kinds, large and small. The people neither
-take precautions against them when drinking at the streams, as the Somal
-do, nor are they aware of any officinal use for the animals; moreover,
-it is impossible to persuade a Msawahili to collect them: they are of
-P’hepo or fiendish nature, and never fail to haunt and harm their
-captor. Jongo, or huge millepedes, some attaining a length of half a
-foot, with shiny black bodies and red feet, are found in the fields and
-forests, especially during the rains: covered with epizoa, these animals
-present a disgusting appearance, and they seem, to judge from their
-spoils, to die off during the hot weather. At certain seasons there is a
-great variety of the papilionaceous family in the vicinity of waters
-where libellulæ or dragon-flies also abound. The country is visited at
-irregular times by flights of locusts, here called nzige. In spring the
-plants are covered in parts with the p’hánzí, a large pink and green
-variety, and the destructive species depicted and described by Salt:
-they rise from the earth like a glowing rose-coloured cloud, and die off
-about the beginning of the rains. The black leather-like variety, called
-by the Arabs “Satan’s ass,” is not uncommon: it is eaten by the
-Africans, as are many other edibles upon which strangers look with
-disgust. The Arabs describe a fly which infests the forest-patches of
-Unyamwezi: it is about the size of a small wasp, and is so fatal that
-cattle attacked by it are at once killed and eaten before they become
-carrion from its venomous effects. In parts the country is dotted with
-ant-hills, which, when old, become hard as sandstone: they are generally
-built by the termite under some shady tree, which prevents too rapid
-drying, and apparently the people have not learned, like their brethren
-in South Africa, to use them as ovens.
-
-From Tura westward to Unyanyembe, the central district of Unyamwezi,
-caravans usually number seven marches, making a total of 60 rectilinear
-geographical miles. As far as Kigwa there is but one line of route; from
-that point travelling parties diverge far and wide, like ships making
-their different courses.
-
-The races requiring notice in this region are two, the Wakimbu and the
-Wanyamwezi.
-
-The Wakimbu, who are emigrants into Unyamwezi, claim a noble origin, and
-derive themselves from the broad lands running south of Unyanyembe as
-far westward as K’hokoro. About twenty masika, wet monsoons, or years
-ago, according to themselves, in company with their neighbours, the
-Wakonongo and the Wamia, they left Nguru, Usanga, and Usenga, in
-consequence of the repeated attacks of the Warori, and migrated to
-Kipiri, the district lying south of Tura; they have now extended into
-Mgunda Mk’hali and Unyanyembe, where they hold the land by permission of
-the Wanyamwezi. In these regions there are few obstacles to immigrants.
-They visit the Sultan, make a small present, obtain permission to
-settle, and name the village after their own chief; but the original
-proprietors still maintain their rights to the soil. The Wakimbu build
-firmly stockaded villages, tend cattle, and cultivate sorghum and
-maize, millet and pulse, cucumbers, and water-melons. Apparently they
-are poor, being generally clad in skins. They barter slaves and ivory in
-small quantities to the merchants, and some travel to the coast. They
-are considered treacherous by their neighbours, and Mapokera, the Sultan
-of Tura, is, according to the Arabs, prone to commit “_avanies_.” They
-are known by a number of small lines formed by raising the skin with a
-needle, and opening it by points literally between the hair of the
-temples and the eyebrows. In appearance they are dark and uncomely;
-their arms are bows and arrows, spears and knives stuck in the leathern
-waistbelt; some wear necklaces of curiously plaited straw, others a
-strip of white cowskin bound around the brow--a truly savage and African
-decoration. Their language differs from Kinyamwezi.
-
-The Wanyamwezi tribe, the proprietors of the soil, is the typical race
-in this portion of Central Africa: its comparative industry and
-commercial activity have secured to it a superiority over the other
-kindred races.
-
-The aspect of the Wanyamwezi is alone sufficient to disprove the
-existence of very elevated lands in this part of the African interior.
-They are usually of a dark sepia-brown, rarely coloured like diluted
-Indian ink, as are the Wahiao and slave races to the south, with negroid
-features markedly less Semitic than the people of the eastern coast. The
-effluvium from their skins, especially after exercise or excitement,
-marks their connection with the negro. The hair curls crisply, but it
-grows to the length of four or five inches before it splits; it is
-usually twisted into many little ringlets or hanks; it hangs down like a
-fringe to the neck, and is combed off the forehead after the manner of
-the ancient Egyptians and the modern Hottentots. The beard is thin and
-short, there are no whiskers, and the moustachio--when not plucked
-out--is scant and straggling. Most of the men and almost all the women
-remove the eyelashes, and pilar hair rarely appears to grow. The normal
-figure of the race is tall and stout, and the women are remarkable for
-the elongation of the mammary organs. Few have small waists, and the
-only lean men in the land are the youths, the sick, and the famished.
-This race is said to be long-lived, and it is not deficient in bodily
-strength and savage courage. The clan-mark is a double line of little
-cuts, like the marks of cupping, made by a friend with a knife or razor,
-along the temporal fossæ from the external edges of the eyebrows to the
-middle of the cheeks or to the lower jaws. Sometimes a third line, or a
-band of three small lines, is drawn down the forehead to the bridge of
-the nose. The men prefer a black, charcoal being the substance generally
-used, the women a blue colour, and the latter sometimes ornament their
-faces with little perpendicular scars below the eyes. They do not file
-the teeth into a saw-shape as seen amongst the southern races, but they
-generally form an inner triangular or wedge-shaped aperture by chipping
-away the internal corners of the two front incisors like the Damaras,
-and the women extract the lower central teeth. Both sexes enlarge the
-lobes of the ears. In many parts of the country skins are more commonly
-worn than cloth, except by the Sultans and the wealthier classes. The
-women wear the long tobe of the coast, tightly wrapped round either
-above or more commonly below the breast; the poorer classes veil the
-bosom with a square or softened skin; the remainder of the dress is a
-kilt or short petticoat of the same material extending from waist to
-knee. Maidens never cover the breast, and children are rarely clothed;
-the infant, as usual in East Africa, is carried in a skin fastened by
-thongs behind the parent’s back. The favourite ornaments are beads, of
-which the red coral, the pink, and the “pigeon-eggs” made at Nuremberg
-are preferred. From the neck depend strings of beads with kiwangwa,
-disks of shell brought from the coast, and crescents of hippopotamus
-teeth country made, and when the beard is long it is strung with red and
-particoloured beads. Brass and copper bangles or massive rings are worn
-upon the wrists, the forearm bears the ponderous kitindi or coil
-bracelet, and the arm above the elbow is sometimes decorated with
-circlets of ivory or with a razor in an ivory étui; the middle is girt
-with a coil of wire twisted round a rope of hair or fibre, and the
-ankles are covered with small iron bells and the rings of thin brass,
-copper, or iron wire, called sambo. When travelling, a goat’s horn, used
-as a bugle, is secured over the right shoulder by a lanyard and allowed
-to hang by the left side: in the house many wear a smaller article of
-the same kind, hollowed inside and containing various articles intended
-as charms, and consecrated by the Mganga or medicine-man. The arms are
-slender assegais with the shoulders of the blade rounded off: they are
-delivered, as by the Somal, with the thumb and forefinger after a
-preliminary of vibratory motion, but the people want the force and the
-dexterity of the Kafirs. Some have large spears for thrusting, and men
-rarely leave the hut without their bows and arrows, the latter
-unpoisoned, but curiously and cruelly barbed. They make also the long
-double-edged knives called sime, and different complications of rungu or
-knob-kerries, some of them armed with an iron lance-head upon the wooden
-bulge. Dwarf battle-axes are also seen, but not so frequently as
-amongst the western races on the Tanganyika Lake. The shield in
-Unyamwezi resembles that of Usagara; it is however rarely used.
-
-There are but few ceremonies amongst the Wanyamwezi. A woman about to
-become a mother retires from the hut to the jungle, and after a few
-hours returns with a child wrapped in goatskin upon her back, and
-probably carrying a load of firewood on her head. The medical treatment
-of the Arabs with salt and various astringents for forty days is here
-unknown. Twins are not common as amongst the Kafir race, and one of the
-two is invariably put to death; the universal custom amongst these
-tribes is for the mother to wrap a gourd or calabash in skins, to place
-it to sleep with, and to feed it like, the survivor. If the wife die
-without issue, the widower claims from her parents the sum paid to them
-upon marriage; if she leave a child, the property is preserved for it.
-When the father can afford it, a birth is celebrated by copious
-libations of pombe. Children are suckled till the end of the second
-year. Their only education is in the use of the bow and arrow; after the
-fourth summer the boy begins to learn archery with diminutive weapons,
-which are gradually increased in strength. Names are given without
-ceremony; and as in the countries to the eastward, many of the heathens
-have been called after their Arab visitors. Circumcision is not
-practised by this people. The children in Unyamwezi generally are the
-property not of the uncle but of the father, who can sell or slay them
-without blame; in Usukuma or the northern lands, however, succession and
-inheritance are claimed by the nephews or sisters’ sons. The Wanyamwezi
-have adopted the curious practice of leaving property to their
-illegitimate children by slave girls or concubines, to the exclusion of
-their issue by wives; they justify it by the fact of the former
-requiring their assistance more than the latter, who have friends and
-relatives to aid them. As soon as the boy can walk he tends the flocks;
-after the age of ten he drives the cattle to pasture, and, considering
-himself independent of his father, he plants a tobacco-plot and aspires
-to build a hut for himself. There is not a boy “which cannot earn his
-own meat.”
-
-Another peculiarity of the Wanyamwezi is the position of the Wahárá or
-unmarried girls. Until puberty they live in the father’s house; after
-that period the spinsters of the village, who usually number from seven
-to a dozen, assemble together and build for themselves at a distance
-from their homes a hut where they can receive their friends without
-parental interference. There is but one limit to community in single
-life: if the Mhárá or “maiden” be likely to become a mother, her “young
-man” must marry her under pain of mulct; and if she die in childbirth,
-her father demands from her lover a large fine for having taken away his
-daughter’s life. Marriage takes place when the youth can afford to pay
-the price for a wife: it varies according to circumstances from one to
-ten cows. The wife is so far the property of the husband that he can
-claim damages from the adulterer; he may not, however, sell her, except
-when in difficulties. The marriage is celebrated with the usual carouse,
-and the bridegroom takes up his quarters in his wife’s home, not under
-her father’s roof. Polygamy is the rule with the wealthy. There is
-little community of interests and apparently a lack of family affection
-in these tribes. The husband, when returning from the coast laden with
-cloth, will refuse a single shukkah to his wife, and the wife
-succeeding to an inheritance will abandon her husband to starvation. The
-man takes charge of the cattle, goats, sheep, and poultry; the woman has
-power over the grain and the vegetables; and each must grow tobacco,
-having little hope of borrowing from the other. Widows left with houses,
-cattle, and fields, usually spend their substance in supporting lovers,
-who are expected occasionally to make presents in return. Hence no coast
-slave in Wanyamwezi is ever known to keep a shukkah of cloth.
-
-The usual way of disposing of a corpse in former times was, to carry it
-out on the head and to throw it into some jungle strip where the fisi or
-cynhyæna abounds,--a custom which accounts for the absence of
-graveyards. The Wanyamwezi at first objected to the Arabs publicly
-burying their dead in their fields, for fear of pollution; they would
-assemble in crowds to close the way against a funeral party. The
-merchants, however, persevered till they succeeded in establishing a
-right. When a Mnyamwezi dies in a strange country, and his comrades take
-the trouble to inter him, they turn the face of the corpse towards the
-mother’s village, a proceeding which shows more sentiment than might be
-expected from them. The body is buried standing, or tightly bound in a
-heap, or placed in a sitting position with the arms clasping the knees:
-if the deceased be a great man, a sheep and a bullock are slaughtered
-for a funeral feast, the skin is placed over his face, and the hide is
-bound to his back. When a sultan dies in a foreign land his body is
-buried upon the spot, and his head, or what remains of it, is carried
-back for sepulture to his own country. The chiefs of Unyamwezi generally
-are interred by a large assemblage of their subjects with cruel rites.
-A deep pit is sunk, with a kind of vault or recess projecting from it:
-in this the corpse, clothed with skin and hide, and holding a bow in the
-right hand, is placed sitting, with a pot of pombe, upon a dwarf stool,
-whilst sometimes one, but more generally three female slaves, one on
-each side and the third in front, are buried alive to preserve their
-lord from the horrors of solitude. A copious libation of pombe upon the
-heaped-up earth concludes the ceremony. According to the Arabs, the
-Wasukuma inter all their sultans in a jungle north of Unyanyembe, and
-the neighbouring peasants deposit before seed-time small offerings of
-grain at the Mzimo or Fetiss-house which marks the spot.
-
-The habitations of the eastern Wanyamwezi are the Tembe, which in the
-west give way to the circular African hut; among the poorer sub-tribes
-the dwelling is a mere stack of straw. The best Tembe have large
-projecting eaves supported by uprights: cleanliness, however, can never
-be expected in them. Having no limestone, the people ornament the inner
-and outer walls with long lines of ovals formed by pressing the finger
-tips, after dipping them into ashes and water for whitewash, and into
-red clay or black mud for variety of colour. With this primitive
-material they sometimes attempt rude imitations of nature--human beings
-and serpents. In some parts the cross appears, but the people apparently
-ignore it as a symbol. Rude carving is also attempted upon the massive
-posts at the entrances of villages, but the figures, though to
-appearance idolatrous, are never worshipped. The household furniture of
-the Tembe differs little from that described in the villages generally.
-The large sloping Kitanda, or bedstead of peeled tree-branch, supported
-by forked sticks, and provided with a bedding of mat and cowhide,
-occupies the greater part of the outer room. The triangle of clay cones
-forming the hearth are generally placed for light near the wall-side
-opposite the front door; and the rest of the supellex consists of large
-stationary bark cornbins, of gourds and bandboxes slung from the roof,
-earthen-pots of black clay, huge ladles, pipes, grass-mats,
-grinding-stones, and arms hung to a trimmed and branchy tree trunk
-planted upright in a corner. The rooms are divided by party walls,
-which, except when separating families, seldom reach to the ceiling. The
-fireplace acts as lamp by night, and the door is the only chimney.
-
-The characteristic of the Mnyamwezi village is the “İwánzá”--a
-convenience resulting probably from the instinct of the sexes, who
-prefer not to mingle, and for the greater freedom of life and manners.
-Of these buildings there are two in every settlement, generally built at
-opposite sides, fronting the normal Mrimba-tree, which sheds its filmy
-shade over the public court-yard. That of the women, being a species of
-harem, was not visited; as travellers and strangers are always admitted
-into the male İwánzá, it is more readily described. This public-house is
-a large hut, somewhat more substantial than those adjoining, often
-smeared with smooth clay, and decorated here and there with broad
-columns of the ovals before described, and the prints of palms dipped in
-ashes and placed flat like the hands in ancient Egyptian buildings. The
-roof is generally a flying thatch raised a foot above the walls--an
-excellent plan for ventilation in these regions. Outside, the İwánzá is
-defended against the incursions of cattle by roughly-barked trunks of
-trees resting upon stout uprights: in this space men sit, converse, and
-smoke. The two doorways are protected by rude charms suspended from the
-lintel, hares’ tails, zebras’ manes, goats’ horns, and other articles of
-prophylactic virtue. Inside, half the depth is appropriated to the
-Ubiri, a huge standing bedframe, formed, like the plank-benches of a
-civilised guard-room, by sleepers lying upon horizontal cross-bars:
-these are supported by forked trunks about two feet long planted firmly
-in the ground. The floor is of tamped earth. The furniture of the İwánzá
-consists of a hearth and grinding-stone; spears, sticks, arrows, and
-shillelaghs are stuck to smoke in the dingy rafter ceiling, or are laid
-upon hooks of crooked wood depending from the sooty cross-beams: the
-corners are occupied by bellows, elephant-spears, and similar articles.
-In this “public” the villagers spend their days, and often, even though
-married, their nights, gambling, eating, drinking pombe, smoking bhang
-and tobacco, chatting, and sleeping like a litter of puppies destitute
-of clothing, and using one another’s backs, breasts, and stomachs as
-pillows. The İwánzá appears almost peculiar to Unyamwezi.
-
-In Unyamwezi the sexes do not eat together: even the boys would disdain
-to be seen sitting at meat with their mothers. The men feed either in
-their cottages or more generally in the İwánzá: they make, when they
-can, two meals during the day--in the morning, a breakfast, which is
-often omitted for economy, and a dinner about 3 P.M. During the interim
-they chew tobacco, and, that failing, indulge in a quid of clay. It
-probably contains some animal matter, but the chief reason for using it
-is apparently the necessity to barbarians of whiling away the time when
-not sleeping by exercising their jaws. They prefer the “sweet earth,”
-that is to say, the clay of ant-hills: the Arabs have tried it without
-other effects but nausea. The custom, however, is not uncommon upon both
-coasts of Africa: it takes, in fact, the place of the mastic of Chios,
-the kat of Yemen, the betel and toasted grains of India and the farther
-East, and the ashes of the Somali country. The Wanyamwezi, and indeed
-the East-African tribes generally, have some curious food prejudices.
-Before their closer intercourse with the Arabs they used to keep
-poultry, but, like the Gallas and the Somal, who look upon the fowl as a
-kind of vulture, they would not eat it: even in the present day they
-avoid eggs. Some will devour animals that have died of disease, and
-carrion,--the flesh of lions and leopards, elephants and rhinoceroses,
-asses, wild cats and rats, beetles and white ants;--others refuse to
-touch mutton or clean water-fowl, declaring that it is not their custom.
-The prejudice has not, however, been reduced to a system, as amongst the
-tribes of southern Africa. They rarely taste meat except upon the march,
-where the prospect of gain excites them to an unusual indulgence: when a
-bullock is killed, they either jerk the meat, or dry it upon a dwarf
-platform of sticks raised above a slow and smoky fire, after which it
-will keep for some days. The usual food is the ugali or porridge of
-boiled flour: they find, however, a variety of edible herbs in the
-jungle, and during the season they luxuriate upon honey and sour milk.
-No Mnyamwezi, however, will own to repletion unless he has “sat upon
-pombe,”--in other words, has drunk to intoxication; and the chiefs pride
-themselves upon living entirely upon beef and stimulants.
-
-The Wanyamwezi have won for themselves a reputation by their commercial
-industry. Encouraged by the merchants, they are the only professional
-porters of East Africa; and even amongst them, the Wakalaganza,
-Wasumbwa, and Wasukuma are the only tribes who regularly visit the coast
-in this capacity. They are now no longer “honest and civil to
-strangers”--semi-civilisation has hitherto tended to degradation. They
-seem to have learned but little by their intercourse with the Arabs.
-Commerce with them is still in its infancy. They have no idea of credit,
-although in Karagwah and the northern kingdoms payment may be delayed
-for a period of two years. They cannot, like some of their neighbours,
-bargain: a man names the article which he requires, and if it be not
-forthcoming he will take no other. The porters, who linger upon the
-coast or in the island of Zanzibar, either cut grass for asses, carry
-stones and mortar to the town, for which they receive a daily hire of
-from two to eight pice, or they obtain from the larger landholders
-permission to reclaim and cultivate a plot of ground for vegetables and
-manioc. They have little of the literature, songs and tales, common
-amongst barbarians; and though they occasionally indulge in speeches,
-they do not, like many kindred tribes, cultivate eloquence. On the march
-they beguile themselves with chanting for hours together half a dozen
-words eternally repeated. Their language is copious but confused, and
-they are immoderately fond of simple and meaningless syllables used as
-interjections. Their industry is confined to weaving coarse cloths of
-unbleached cotton, neatly-woven baskets, wooden milk-bowls, saddle-bags
-for their asses, and arms. They rear asses and load them lightly when
-travelling to the coast, but they have not yet learned to ride them.
-Though they carefully fence and ditch their fields, they have never
-invented a plough, confining themselves to ridging the land with the
-laborious hoe. They rarely sell one another, nor do they much encourage
-the desertion of slaves. The wild bondsman, when running away, is
-sometimes appropriated by his captor, but a Muwallid or domestic slave
-is always restored after a month or two. The Arabs prefer to purchase
-men sold under suspicion of magic; they rarely flee, fearing lest their
-countrymen should put them to death.
-
-As has been said, the government of Unyamwezi is conducted by a
-multitude of petty chiefs. The ruling classes are thus called: Mtemi or
-Mwáme is the chief or sultan, Mgáwe (in the plural Wágáwe) the principal
-councillor, and Mánácháro, or Mnyapara (plural Wányápárá) the elder. The
-ryots or subjects on the other hand are collectively styled Wasengi. The
-most powerful chiefs are Fundikira of Unyanyembe, Masanga of Msene, and
-Kafrira of Kiríra. The dignity of Mtemi is hereditary. He has power of
-life and death over his subjects, and he seldom condescends to any but
-mortal punishment. His revenue is composed of additions to his private
-property by presents from travellers, confiscation of effects in cases
-of felony or magic, by the sale of subjects, and by treasure trove. Even
-if a man kill his own slave, the slave’s effects lapse to the ruler. The
-villagers must give up all ivory found in the jungles, although the
-hunters are allowed to retain the tusks of the slaughtered animals.
-
-A few brief remarks concerning Fundikira, the chief of Unyamwezi in
-1858, may serve to illustrate the condition of the ruling class in
-Unyamwezi. This chief was travelling towards the coast as a porter in a
-caravan, when he heard of his father’s death: he at once stacked his
-load and prepared to return home and rule. The rest of the gang, before
-allowing him to depart, taunted him severely, exclaiming, partly in
-jest, partly in earnest, “Ah! now thou art still our comrade, but
-presently thou wilt torture and slay, fine and flog us.” Fundikira
-proceeding to his native country inherited, as is the custom, all his
-father’s property and widows; he fixed himself at Ititenya, presently
-numbered ten wives, who have borne him only three children, built 300
-houses for his slaves and dependants, and owned 2000 head of cattle. He
-lived in some state, declining to call upon strangers, and, though not
-demanding still obtaining large presents. Becoming obese by age and good
-living, he fell ill in the autumn of 1858, and, as usual, his relations
-were suspected of compassing his end by Uchawi, or black magic. In these
-regions the death of one man causes many. The Mganga was summoned to
-apply the usual ordeal. After administering a mystic drug, he broke the
-neck of a fowl, and splitting it into two lengths inspected the
-interior. If blackness or blemish appear about the wings, it denotes the
-treachery of children, relations and kinsmen; the backbone convicts the
-mother and grandmother; the tail shows that the criminal is the wife,
-the thighs the concubines, and the injured shanks or feet the other
-slaves. Having fixed upon the class of the criminals, they are collected
-together by the Mganga, who, after similarly dosing a second hen, throws
-her up into the air above the heads of the crowd and singles out the
-person upon whom she alights. Confession is extorted by tying the thumb
-backwards till it touches the wrist or by some equally barbarous mode of
-question. The consequence of condemnation is certain and immediate
-death; the mode is chosen by the Mganga. Some are speared, others are
-beheaded or “ammazati,”--clubbed:--a common way is to bind the cranium
-between two stiff pieces of wood which are gradually tightened by cords
-till the brain bursts out from the sutures. For women they practise a
-peculiarly horrible kind of impalement. These atrocities continue until
-the chief recovers or dies: at the commencement of his attack, in one
-household eighteen souls, male and female, had been destroyed; should
-his illness be protracted, scores will precede him to the grave, for the
-Mchawi or magician must surely die.
-
-The Wanyamwezi will generally sell their criminals and captives; when
-want drives, they part with their wives, their children, and even their
-parents. For economy, they import their serviles from Ujiji and the
-adjoining regions; from the people lying towards the south-east angle of
-the Tanganyika Lake, as the Wafipa, the Wapoka, and the Wagara; and from
-the Nyanza races, and the northern kingdoms of Karagwah, Uganda, and
-Unyoro.
-
-[Illustration: My Tembe near the Tanganyika.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIII.
-
-AT LENGTH WE SIGHT THE LAKE TANGANYIKA, THE “SEA OF UJIJI.”
-
-
-The route before us lay through a howling wilderness, once populous and
-fertile, but now laid waste by the fierce Watuta. Snay bin Amir had
-warned me that it would be our greatest trial of patience. The march
-began badly: Mpete, the district on the right bank of the Malagarazi
-River, is highly malarious, and the mosquitoes feasted right royally
-upon our life, even during the day-time. We bivouacked under a shady
-tree, within sight of the ferry, not knowing that upon the woody
-eminences above the valley there are usually fine kraals of dry grass
-and of mkora or myombo-bark. During the rainy monsoon the best
-encampments in these regions are made of tree-sheets: two parallel
-rings are cut in the bole, at a distance of six to seven feet; a
-perpendicular slit then connects them, the bark is easily stripped off,
-and the trunk, after having been left for a time to season, is filled
-for use.
-
-On the 5th of February we set out betimes, across a route traversing for
-a short distance swampy ground along the river-side. It then stretched
-over jungly and wooded hill-spires, with steep rough ascents and
-descents, divided from neighbouring elevations by slippery mire-runs.
-Exposed to the full break of the rainy monsoon, and the frequent
-outbursts of fiery sun, I could not but admire the marvellous fertility
-of the soil; an impervious luxuriance of vegetation veils the lowlands,
-clothes the hill-sides, and caps their rounded summits. After marching
-five hours and twenty minutes, we found a large kraal in the district of
-Kinawani: the encamping ground,--partially cleared of the thick,
-fetid, and putrescent vegetation around,--hugs the right bank of
-the Malagarazi, and faces the village of Sultan Mzogera on the
-southern or opposite side. A small store of provisions--grain and
-sweet-potatoes--was purchased from the villagers of Kinawani, who
-flocked across the stream to trade. They were, however, fanciful in
-their requirements: beads, especially the coral porcelain, iron-wire,
-salt, and meat. The heaviness of this march caused two of the Hammals
-engaged at Usagozi to levant, and the remaining four to strike work. It
-was therefore again necessary to mount ass--ten days after an attack of
-“paraplegia!”
-
-We left Kinawani on the next morning, and striking away from the river
-we crossed rugged and rolling ground, divided by deep swamps of mire and
-grass. To the southward ran the stream, rushing violently down a rocky
-bed, with tall trees lining its banks. Sailing before the morning
-east-wind, a huge mass of nimbus occupied the sky, and presently
-discharged itself in an unusually heavy downfall: during the afternoon
-the breeze veered as usual to the west, and the hot sunshine was for
-once enjoyable. After a weary trudge of five hours and twenty minutes,
-we entered a large and comfortable kraal, situated near a reach where
-the swift and turbid river foamed over a discontinuous ledge of rock,
-between avenues of dense and tangled jungle. No provisions were
-procurable at this place; man appeared to have become extinct.
-
-The 7th of February led us over broken ground, encumbered by forest, and
-cut by swamps, with higher levels on the right hand, till we again fell
-into the marshes and fields of the river-valley. The district on the
-other side of the river, called Jambeho, is one of the most flourishing
-in Uvinza; its villages of small bird-nest huts, and its carefully hoed
-fields of grain and sweet-potato, affected the eye, after the dreary
-monotony of a jungle-march, like the glimmer of a light at the end of a
-night-march, or the discovery of land at the conclusion of a long
-sea-voyage. The village ferry was instantly put into requisition, and
-the chief, Ruwere, after receiving as his “dash” eight cloths, allowed
-us to purchase provisions. At that season, however, the harvest of grain
-and sweet-potatoes had not been got in, and for their single old hen the
-people demanded an exorbitant price. We hastened, despite all
-difficulties, to escape from this place of pestilence, which clouds of
-mosquitoes rendered as uncomfortable as it was dangerous.
-
-The next day ushered in our departure with drizzling rain, which
-drenched the slippery paths of red clay; the asses, wild with wind and
-weather, exposed us to accidents in a country of deep ravines and rugged
-boulders. Presently diverging from the Malagarazi, we passed over the
-brow of a low tree-clad hill above the junction of the Rusugi River, and
-followed the left bank of this tributary as far as its nearer ford. The
-Rusugi which drains the northern highlands into the Malagarazi, was then
-about 100 yards in width: the bottom is a red ochreish soil, the strong
-stream, divided in the centre by a long low strip of sand and gravel,
-flowed at that time breast-deep, and its banks,--as usual with rivers in
-these lands,--deeply cut by narrow watercourses, rendered travelling
-unusually toilsome. At the Rusugi Ford the road separates into a
-northern and a southern branch, a hill-spur forming the line of
-demarcation. The northern strikes off to the district of Parugerero on
-the left bank, where a shallower ford is found: the place in question is
-a settlement of Wavinza, containing from forty to fifty bee-hive huts,
-tenanted by salt-diggers. The principal pan is sunk in the vicinity of
-the river, the saline produce, after being boiled down in the huts, is
-piled up, and handmade into little cones. The pan affords tripartite
-revenue to three sultans, and it constitutes the principal wealth of the
-Wavinza: the salt here sold for one shukkah per masuta, or half-load,
-and far superior to the bitter, nitrous produce of Ugogo, finds its way
-throughout the heart of Africa, supplying the lands adjoining both the
-Tanganyika and the Nyanza Lakes.
-
-We followed the southern line which crosses the Rusugi River at the
-branch islet. Fords are always picturesque. The men seemed to enjoy the
-washing; their numbers protected them from the crocodiles, which fled
-from their shouting and splashing; and they even ventured into deep
-water, where swimming was necessary. We crossed as usual on a “unicorn”
-of negroids, the upper part of the body supported by two men, and the
-feet resting upon the shoulders of a third,--a posture somewhat similar
-to that affected by gentlemen who find themselves unable to pull off
-their own boots. Then remounting, we ascended the grassy rise on the
-right of the stream, struggled, slipped, and slided over a muddy swamp,
-climbed up a rocky and bushy ridge, and found ourselves ensconced in a
-ragged and comfortless kraal upon the western slopes, within sight of
-some deserted salt-pans below. As evening drew in, it became apparent
-that the Goanese Gaetano, the five Wak’hutu porters, and Sarmalla, a
-donkey-driving son of Ramji, had remained behind, in company with
-several loads, the tent, two bags of clothes, my companion’s
-elephant-gun, my bedding, and that of my servant. It was certain that
-with this provision in the vicinity of Parugerero they would not starve,
-and the porters positively refused to halt an hour more than necessary.
-I found it therefore compulsory to advance. On the 11th February three
-“children” of Said bin Salim consented, as usual, for a consideration,
-to return and to bring up the laggers, and about a week afterwards they
-entered Ujiji without accident. The five Wak’hutu porters, probably from
-the persuasions of Muinyi Wazira, had, although sworn to fidelity with
-the strongest oaths, carried into execution a long-organised plan of
-desertion. Gaetano refused to march on the day of our separation,
-because he was feverish, and he expected a riding-ass to be sent back
-for him. He brought up our goods safely, but blankets, towels, and many
-articles of clothing belonging to his companion, had disappeared. This
-difficulty was, of course, attributed to the Wak’hutu porters; probably
-the missing things had been sold for food by the Goanese and the son of
-Ramji: I could not therefore complain of the excuse.
-
-From the Msawahili Fundi,--fattore, manciple or steward--of a small
-caravan belonging to an Arab merchant, Hamid bin Sulayyam, I purchased
-for thirty-five cloths, about thrice its value, a little single-fold
-tent of thin American domestics, through which sun and rain penetrated
-with equal facility. Like the cloth-houses of the Arab travellers
-generally, it was gable-shaped, six or seven feet high, about eight feet
-long by four broad, and so light that with its bamboo-poles and its pegs
-it scarcely formed a load for a man. On the 9th February, we descended
-from the ridge upon which the kraal was placed, and traversed a deep
-swamp of black mud, dotted in the more elevated parts with old salt-pans
-and pits, where broken pottery and blackened lumps of clay still showed
-traces of human handiwork. Beyond this low-land, the track, striking off
-from the river-valley and turning to the right, entered toilsome ground.
-We crossed deep and rocky ravines, with luxuriant vegetation above, and
-with rivulets at the bottom trickling towards the Malagarazi, by
-scrambling down and swarming up the roughest steps of rock, boulder, and
-knotted tree-root. Beyond these difficulties lay woody and stony hills,
-whose steep and slippery inclines were divided by half a dozen waters,
-all more or less troublesome to cross. The porters, who were in a place
-of famine, insisted upon pushing on to the utmost of their strength:
-after six hours’ march, I persuaded them to halt in the bush upon a
-rocky hill, where the neighbouring descent supplied water. The Fundi
-visited the valley of the Rusugi River, and finding a herd of the Mbogo
-or Bos Caffer, brought home a welcome addition to our well-nigh
-exhausted rations.
-
-The 10th February saw us crossing the normal sequence of jungly and
-stony “neat’s-tongues,” divided by deep and grassy swamps, which,
-stagnant in the dry weather, drain after rains the northern country to
-the Malagarazi River. We passed over by a felled tree-trunk an
-unfordable rivulet, hemmed in by a dense and fetid thicket; and the
-asses summarily pitched down the muddy bank into the water, swam across
-and wriggled up the slimy off-side like cats. Thence a foul swamp of
-black mire led to the Ruguvu or Luguvu River, the western boundary of
-Uvinza and the eastern frontier of Ukaranga. This stream, which can be
-forded during the dry season, had spread out after the rains over its
-borders of grassy plain; we were delayed till the next morning in a
-miserable camping ground, a mud-bank thinly veiled with vegetation, in
-order to bridge it with branching trees. An unusual downfall during the
-night might have caused serious consequences;--provisions had now
-disappeared, moreover the porters considered the place dangerous.
-
-The 10th February began with the passage of the Ruguvu River, where
-again our goods and chattels were fated to be thoroughly sopped. I
-obtained a few corn-cobs from a passing caravan of Wanyamwezi, and
-charged them with meat and messages for the party left behind. A desert
-march, similar to the stage last travelled, led us to the Unguwwe or
-Uvungwe River, a shallow, muddy stream, girt in as usual by dense
-vegetation; and we found a fine large kraal on its left bank. After a
-cold and rainy night, we resumed our march by fording the Unguwwe. Then
-came the weary toil of fighting through tiger and spear-grass, with
-reeds, rushes, a variety of ferns, before unseen, and other lush and
-lusty growths, clothing a succession of rolling hills, monotonous
-swellings, where the descent was ever a reflection of the ascent. The
-paths were broken, slippery, and pitted with deep holes; along their
-sides, where the ground lay exposed to view, a conglomerate of
-ferruginous red clay--suggesting a resemblance to the superficies of
-Londa, as described by Dr. Livingstone--took the place of the granites
-and sandstones of the eastern countries, and the sinking of the land
-towards the Lake became palpable. In the jungle were extensive clumps of
-bamboo and rattan; the former small, the latter of poor quality; the
-bauhinia, or black-wood, and the salsaparilla vine abounded; wild grapes
-of diminutive size, and of the austerest flavour, appeared for the first
-time upon the sunny hill-sides which Bacchus ever loves, and in the
-lower swamps plantains grew almost wild. In parts the surface was broken
-into small deep hollows, from which sprang pyramidal masses of the
-hugest trees. Though no sign of man here met the eye, scattered fields
-and plantations showed that villages must be somewhere near. Sweet water
-was found in narrow courses of black mud, which sorely tried the sinews
-of laden man and beast. Long after noon, we saw the caravan halted by
-fatigue upon a slope beyond a weary swamp: a violent storm was brewing,
-and whilst half the sky was purple black with nimbus, the sun shone
-stingingly through the clear portion of the empyrean. But these small
-troubles were lightly borne; already in the far distance appeared walls
-of sky-blue cliff with gilded summits, which were as a beacon to the
-distressed mariner.
-
-On the 13th February we resumed our travel through screens of lofty
-grass, which thinned out into a straggling forest. After about an hour’s
-march, as we entered a small savannah, I saw the Fundi before alluded to
-running forward and changing the direction of the caravan. Without
-supposing that he had taken upon himself this responsibility, I followed
-him. Presently he breasted a steep and stony hill, sparsely clad with
-thorny trees: it was the death of my companion’s riding-ass. Arrived
-with toil,--for our fagged beasts now refused to proceed,--we halted for
-a few minutes upon the summit. “What is that streak of light which lies
-below?” I inquired of Seedy Bombay. “I am of opinion,” quoth Bombay,
-“that that is _the_ water.” I gazed in dismay; the remains of my
-blindness, the veil of trees, and a broad ray of sunshine illuminating
-but one reach of the Lake, had shrunk its fair proportions. Somewhat
-prematurely I began to lament my folly in having risked life and lost
-health for so poor a prize, to curse Arab exaggeration, and to propose
-an immediate return, with the view of exploring the Nyanza, or Northern
-Lake. Advancing, however, a few yards, the whole scene suddenly burst
-upon my view, filling me with admiration, wonder, and delight. It gave
-local habitation to the poet’s fancy:--
-
-  “Tremolavano i rai del Sol nascente
-     Sovra l’onde del mar purpuree e d’oro,
-   E in veste di zaffiro il ciel ridente
-     Specchiar parea le sue bellezze in loro.
-   D’Africa i venti fieri e d’Oriente,
-     Sovra il letto del mar, prendean ristoro,
-   E co’ sospiri suoi soavi e lieti
-     Col Zeffiro increspava il lembo a Teti.”
-
-Nothing, in sooth, could be more picturesque than this first view of the
-Tanganyika Lake, as it lay in the lap of the mountains, basking in the
-gorgeous tropical sunshine. Below and beyond a short foreground of
-rugged and precipitous hill-fold, down which the foot-path zigzags
-painfully, a narrow strip of emerald green, never sere and marvellously
-fertile, shelves towards a ribbon of glistening yellow sand, here
-bordered by sedgy rushes, there cleanly and clearly cut by the breaking
-wavelets. Further in front stretch the waters, an expanse of the
-lightest and softest blue, in breadth varying from thirty to thirty-five
-miles, and sprinkled by the crisp east-wind with tiny crescents of snowy
-foam. The background in front is a high and broken wall of
-steel-coloured mountain, here flecked and capped with pearly mist, there
-standing sharply pencilled against the azure air; its yawning chasms,
-marked by a deeper plum-colour, fall towards dwarf hills of mound-like
-proportions, which apparently dip their feet in the wave. To the south,
-and opposite the long low point, behind which the Malagarazi River
-discharges the red loam suspended in its violent stream, lie the bluff
-headlands and capes of Uguhha, and, as the eye dilates, it falls upon a
-cluster of outlying islets, speckling a sea-horizon. Villages,
-cultivated lands, the frequent canoes of the fishermen on the waters,
-and on a nearer approach the murmurs of the waves breaking upon the
-shore, give a something of variety, of movement, of life to the
-landscape, which, like all the fairest prospects in these regions, wants
-but a little of the neatness and finish of Art,--mosques and kiosks,
-palaces and villas, gardens and orchards--contrasting with the profuse
-lavishness and magnificence of nature, and diversifying the unbroken
-_coup d’œil_ of excessive vegetation, to rival, if not to excel, the
-most admired scenery of the classic regions. The riant shores of this
-vast crevasse appeared doubly beautiful to me after the silent and
-spectral mangrove-creeks on the East-African seaboard, and the
-melancholy, monotonous experience of desert and jungle scenery, tawny
-rock and sun-parched plain or rank herbage and flats of black mire.
-Truly it was a revel for soul and sight! Forgetting toils, dangers, and
-the doubtfulness of return, I felt willing to endure double what I had
-endured; and all the party seemed to join with me in joy. My purblind
-companion found nothing to grumble at except the “mist and glare before
-his eyes.” Said bin Salim looked exulting,--_he_ had procured for me
-this pleasure,--the monoculous Jemadar grinned his congratulations, and
-even the surly Baloch made civil salams.
-
-Arrived at Ukaranga I was disappointed to find there a few miserable
-grass-huts--used as a temporary shelter by caravans passing to and from
-the islets fringing the opposite coast--that clustered round a single
-Tembe, then occupied by its proprietor, Hamid bin Sulayyam, an Arab
-trader. Presently the motive of the rascally Fundi, in misleading the
-caravan, which, by the advice of Snay bin Amir, I had directed to march
-upon the Kawele district in Ujiji, leaked out. The roadstead of Ukaranga
-is separated from part of Kawele by the line of the Ruche River, which
-empties itself into a deep hollow bay, whose chord, extending from N.W.
-to S.E., is five or six miles in length. The strip of shelving plain
-between the trough-like hills and the lake is raised but a few feet
-above water-level. Converted by the passage of a hundred drains from the
-highlands, into a sheet of sloppy and slippery mire, breast deep in
-select places, it supports with difficulty a few hundred inhabitants:
-drenched with violent rain-storms and clammy dews, it is rife in fevers,
-and it is feared by travellers on account of its hippopotami and
-crocodiles. In the driest season the land-road is barely practicable;
-during and after the wet monsoon the lake affords the only means of
-passage, and the port of Ukaranga contains not a single native canoe.
-The Fundi, therefore, wisely determined that I should spend beads for
-rations and lodgings amongst his companions, and be heavily mulcted for
-a boat by them. Moreover, he instantly sent word to Mnya Mtaza, the
-principal headman of Ukaranga, who, as usual with the Lakist chiefs,
-lives in the hills at some distance from the water, to come instanter
-for his Honga or blackmail, as, no fresh fish being procurable, the
-Wazungu were about to depart. The latter manœuvre, however, was
-frustrated by my securing a conveyance for the morrow. It was an open
-solid-built Arab craft, capable of containing thirty to thirty-five men;
-it belonged to an absent merchant, Said bin Usman; it was in point of
-size the second on the Tanganyika, and being too large for paddling, its
-crew rowed instead of scooping up the water like the natives. The
-slaves, who had named four khete of coral beads as the price of a bit of
-sun-dried “baccalà,” and five as the hire of a foul hovel for one night,
-demanded four cloths--at least the price of the boat--for conveying the
-party to Kawele, a three hours’ trip. I gave them ten cloths and two
-coil-bracelets, or somewhat more than the market value of the whole
-equipage,--a fact which I effectually used as an _argumentum ad
-verecundiam_.
-
-At eight A.M., on the 14th February, we began coasting along the eastern
-shore of the lake in a north-westerly direction, towards the Kawele
-district, in the land of Ujiji. The view was exceedingly beautiful:
-
-    “  .  .  .  the flat sea shone like yellow gold
-  Fused in the sun,”
-
-and the picturesque and varied forms of the mountains, rising above and
-dipping into the lake, were clad in purplish blue, set off by the rosy
-tints of morning. Yet, more and more, as we approached our destination,
-I wondered at the absence of all those features which prelude a popular
-settlement. Passing the low, muddy, and grass-grown mouth of the Ruche
-River, I could descry on the banks nothing but a few scattered hovels of
-miserable construction, surrounded by fields of sorghum and sugar-cane,
-and shaded by dense groves of the dwarf, bright-green plantain, and the
-tall, sombre elæis or Guinea-palm. By the Arabs I had been taught to
-expect a town, a ghaut, a port, and a bazar, excelling in size that of
-Zanzibar, and I had old, preconceived ideas concerning “die Stadt
-Ujiji,” whose sire was the “Mombas Mission Map.” Presently Mammoth and
-Behemoth shrank timidly from exposure, and a few hollowed logs, the
-monoxyles of the fishermen, the wood-cutters, and the market-people,
-either cut the water singly, or stood in crowds drawn up on the patches
-of yellow sand. About 11 A.M. the craft was poled through a hole in a
-thick welting of coarse reedy grass and flaggy aquatic plants to a level
-landing-place of flat shingle, where the water shoaled off rapidly. Such
-was the ghaut or disembarkation quay of the great Ujiji.
-
-Around the ghaut a few scattered huts, in the humblest bee-hive shape,
-represented the port-town. Advancing some hundred yards through a din of
-shouts and screams, tom-toms and trumpets, which defies description, and
-mobbed by a swarm of black beings, whose eyes seemed about to start from
-their heads with surprise, I passed a relic of Arab civilisation, the
-“Bazar.” It is a plot of higher ground, cleared of grass, and flanked
-by a crooked tree; there, between 10 A.M. and 3 P.M.--weather
-permitting--a mass of standing and squatting negroes buy and sell,
-barter and exchange, offer and chaffer with a hubbub heard for miles,
-and there a spear or dagger-thrust brings on, by no means unfrequently,
-a skirmishing faction-fight. The articles exposed for sale are sometimes
-goats, sheep, and poultry, generally fish, vegetables, and a few fruits,
-plantains, and melons; palm-wine is a staple commodity, and occasionally
-an ivory or a slave is hawked about: those industriously disposed employ
-themselves during the intervals of bargaining in spinning a coarse yarn
-with the rudest spindle, or in picking the cotton, which is placed in
-little baskets on the ground. I was led to a ruinous Tembe, built by an
-Arab merchant, Hamid bin Salim, who had allowed it to be tenanted by
-ticks and slaves. Situated, however, half a mile from, and backed by,
-the little village of Kawele, whose mushroom-huts barely protruded their
-summits above the dense vegetation, and placed at a similar distance
-from the water in front, it had the double advantage of proximity to
-provisions, and of a view which at first was highly enjoyable. The
-Tanganyika is ever seen to advantage from its shores: upon its surface
-the sight wearies with the unvarying tintage--all shining greens and
-hazy blues--whilst continuous parallels of lofty hills, like the sides
-of a huge trough, close the prospect and suggest the idea of
-confinement.
-
-And now, lodged with comparative comfort, in the cool Tembe, I will
-indulge in a few geographical and ethnological reminiscences of the
-country lately traversed.
-
-The fifth region includes the alluvial valley of the Malagarazi River,
-which subtends the lowest spires of the Highlands of Karagwah and
-Urundi, the western prolongation of the chain which has obtained,
-probably from African tradition, the name of “Lunar Mountains.” In
-length, it extends from the Malagarazi Ferry in E. Lat. 31° 10′ to the
-Tanganyika Lake, in E. Long. 30° 1′. Its breadth, from S. Lat. 3° 14′,
-the supposed northern limit of Urundi, to S. Lat. 5° 2′; the parallel of
-Ukaranga is a distance of 108 rectilinear geographical miles. Native
-caravans pass from the Malagarazi to Ujiji in eight days, usually
-without halting till arrived within a stone’s throw of their
-destination. To a region of such various elevations it would be
-difficult to assign an average of altitude; the heights observed by
-thermometer never exceeded 1850 feet.
-
-This country contains in due order, from east to west, the lands of
-Uvinza, Ubuha, and Ujiji: on the northern edge is Uhha, and on the
-south-western extremity Ukaranga. The general features are those of the
-alluvial valleys of the Kingani and the Mgeta Rivers. The soil in the
-vicinity of the Malagarazi is a rich brown or black loam, rank with
-vegetable decay. This strip along the stream varies in breadth from one
-to five miles; on the right bank it is mostly desert, but not sterile,
-on the left it is an expanse of luxuriant cultivation. The northern
-boundary is a jagged line of hill-spurs of primitive formation, rough
-with stones and yawning with ravines: in many places the projections
-assume the form of green “dogs’ tails,” or “neat’s tongues,” projecting
-like lumpy ridges into the card-table-like level of the river-land
-southwards. Each mound or spur is crowned with a tufty clump,
-principally of bauhinias and mimosas, and often a lone, spreading and
-towering tree, a Borassus or a Calabash, ornamenting the extreme point,
-forms a landmark for the caravan. The sides of these hills, composed of
-hornblende and gneissic rock, quartzite, quartz-grit, and ferruginous
-gritstone, are steep, rugged, and thickly wooded, and one slope
-generally reflects the other,--if muddy, muddy; and if stony, stony.
-Each “hanger,” or wave of ground, is divided from its neighbour by a
-soft sedgy valley, bisected by a network of stagnant pools. Here and
-there are nullahs, with high stiff earthbanks for the passage of rain
-torrents. The grass stands in lofty screens, and the path leads over a
-matted mass of laid stalks which cover so closely the thick mud that
-loaded asses do not sink; this vegetation is burned down during the hot
-season, and a few showers bring up an emerald crop of young blades,
-sprouting phœnix-like from the ashes of the dead. The southern boundary
-of the valley is more regular; in the eastern parts is an almost tabular
-wall of rock, covered even to the crest with shrub and tree.
-
-As is proved by the regular course of the Malagarazi River, the westward
-decline of the country is gentle: along the road, however, the two
-marches nearest to the Tanganyika Lake appear to sink more rapidly than
-those preceding them. The main drain receives from the northern
-hill-spurs a multitude of tributaries, which convey their surplus
-moisture into the great central reservoir.
-
-Under the influence of the two great productive powers in nature--heat
-and moisture--the wondrous fertility of the soil, which puts forth where
-uncleared a rank jungle of nauseous odour, renders the climate
-dangerous. The rains divide the year into two unequal portions of eight
-and four months, namely, the wet monsoon, which commences with violence
-in September and ends in May, and the dry hot weather which rounds off
-the year. The showers fall, as in Zanzibar, uncontinuously, with breaks
-varying from a few hours to several days; unlike those of Zanzibar, they
-are generally accompanied by violent discharges of electricity.
-Lightning from the north, especially at night, is considered a sign of
-approaching foul weather. It would be vain to seek in these regions of
-Central Africa the kaskazi and kosi, or regular north-east and
-south-west monsoons, those local modifications of the trade-winds which
-may be traced in regular progress from the centre of Equatorial Africa
-to the Himalayas. The atmospheric currents deflected from the Atlantic
-Ocean by the coast-radiation and the arid and barren regions of Southern
-Africa are changed in hydrometric condition, and are compelled by the
-chilly and tree-clad heights of the Tanganyika Lake, and the low, cold,
-and river-bearing plains lying to the westward, to part with the
-moisture which they have collected in the broad belt of extreme humidity
-lying between the Ngami Lake and the equator. When the land has become
-super-saturated, the cold, wet, wind, driving cold masses, surcharged
-with electricity, sets continually eastward, to restore the equilibrium
-in lands still reeking with the torrid blaze, and where the atmosphere
-has been rarified by from four to six months of burning suns. At Msene,
-in Western Unyamwezi, the rains break about October; thence the wet
-monsoon, resuming its eastward course, crosses the Land of the Moon,
-and, travelling by slow stages, arrives at the coast in early April.
-Following the northing sun, and deflected to the north-east by the
-rarified atmosphere from the hot, dry surface of the Eastern Horn of
-Africa, the rains reach Western India in June, and exhaust themselves in
-frequent and copious downfalls upon the southern versant of the
-Himalayas. The gradual refrigeration of the ground, with the southing
-of the sun, produces in turn the inverse process, namely, the
-north-east monsoon. About the Tanganyika, however, all is variable. The
-large body of water in the central reservoir preserves its equability of
-temperature, while the alternations of chilly cold and potent heat, in
-the high and broken lands around it, cause extreme irregularity in the
-direction of the currents. During the rains of 1858 the prevalent winds
-were constantly changing: in the mornings there was almost regularly a
-cool north breeze drawn by the water from the heights of Urundi; in the
-course of the day it varied round towards the south. The most violent
-storms came up from the south-east and the south-west, and as often
-against as with the gale. The long and rigorous wet monsoon, broken only
-by a few scattered days of heat, renders the climate exceedingly damp,
-and it is succeeded by a burst of sunshine which dries the grass to
-stubble in a few days. Despite these extremes, the climate of Ujiji has
-the reputation of being comparatively healthy; it owes this probably to
-the refreshing coolness of the nights and mornings. The mukunguru, or
-seasoning-fever of this region, is not feared by strangers so much as
-that of Unyanyembe, yet no one expects to escape it. It is a low bilious
-and aguish type, lasting from three to four days: during the attack
-perspiration is induced with difficulty, and it often recurs at regular
-times once a month.
-
-From the Malagarazi Ferry many lines traverse the desert on the right or
-northern bank of the river, which is preferred to the southern, whence
-the Wavinza exclude travellers. Before entering this region caravans
-generally combine, so as to present a formidable front to possible foes.
-The trunk road, called Jambeho, the most southerly of the northern
-routes, has been described in detail.
-
-The district of Ukaranga extends from the Ruguvu or the Unguwwe River to
-the waters of the lake: on the south it is bounded by the region of
-Ut’hongwe, and on the north by the Ruche River. This small and sluggish
-stream, when near the mouth, is about forty yards in breadth, and, being
-unfordable at all seasons, two or three ferry-boats always ply upon its
-waters. The _rauque_ bellow of the hippopotamus is heard on its banks,
-and the adjacent lowlands are infested by mosquitoes in clouds. The
-villages of Ukaranga are scattered in clumps over the plain--wretched
-hamlets, where a few households live surrounded by rare cultivation in
-the drier parts of the swamps. The “port of Ukaranga” is an open
-roadstead, which seldom shows even a single canoe. Merchants who possess
-boats and can send for provisions to the islands across the lake
-sometimes prefer, for economy, Ukaranga to Kawele; it is also made a
-halting-place by those _en route_ to Uguhha, who would lose time by
-visiting Ujiji. The land, however, affords no supplies; a bazar is
-unknown; and the apathetic tribe, who cultivate scarcely sufficient
-grain for themselves, will not even take the trouble to cast a net.
-Ukaranga sends bamboos, rafters for building, and fire-wood, cut in the
-background of highlands, to Kawele and other parts of Ujiji, at which
-places, however, workmen must be hired.
-
-Ukaranga signifies, etymologically, the “Land of Groundnuts.” This
-little district may, in earlier ages, have given name to the Mocarangas,
-Mucarongas, or Mucarangas, a nation which, according to the Portuguese
-historians, from João dos Sanctos (1586-97) to Don Sebastian Xavier
-Botelho (1835), occupied the country within the Mozambique, from S.
-lat. 5° to S. lat. 25°, under subjection to the sovereign and the people
-of “Monomotapa.” In the absence of history, analogy is the only guide.
-Either, then, the confusion of the Tanganyika and the Nyassa Lakes by
-the old geographers, caused them to extend the “Mocarangas” up to the
-northern water--and the grammatical error in the word “Mucaranga”
-justifies some suspicion as to their accuracy--or in the space of three
-centuries the tribe has declined from its former power and consequence,
-or the Wakaranga of the Tanganyika are a remnant of the mighty southern
-nation, which, like the Watuta tribe, has of late years been pressed by
-adverse circumstances to the north. Though Senhor Botelho, in his
-‘Memoria Estatisca,’ denominates the “Monomoezi country” “Western
-Mucaranga,” it is certain that no Mnyamwezi in the present day owns to
-connection with a race speaking a different dialect, and distant about
-200 miles from his frontier.
-
-The land of Ujiji is bounded on the north by the heights of Urundi, and
-on the south by the Ukaranga country: eastward it extends to Ubuha, and
-westward it is washed by the waves of the Tanganyika Lake. On its
-north-east lies the land of Uhha, now reduced by the predatory Watuta to
-a luxuriant desert.
-
-The head-quarter village of Ujiji was in 1858 Kawele. To the westward of
-this settlement was the district of Gungu, facing the islet rock Bangwe.
-This place was deserted by travellers on account of the plundering
-propensities of its former chief. His son “Lurinda,” however, labours to
-recover lost ground by courtesy and attention to strangers.
-South-eastwards of Kawele is the district of Ugoyye, frequented by the
-Arabs, who find the Sultans Habeyya and Marabu somewhat less
-extortionate than their neighbours. It is a sandy spot, clear of white
-ants, but shut out by villages and cultivation from the lovely view of
-the lake. To one standing at Kawele all these districts and villages are
-within two or three miles, and a distant glance discloses the
-possessions of half-a-dozen independent tribes.
-
-Caravans entering Ujiji from the land side usually encamp in the
-outlying villages on the right or left bank of the Ruche, at
-considerable inconvenience, for some days. The origin of this custom
-appears to date from olden time. In East Africa, as a rule, every
-stranger is held to be hostile before he has proved friendly intentions,
-and many tribes do not admit him into their villages without a special
-invitation. Thus, even in the present day, the visitor in the countries
-of the Somal and Galla, the Wamasai and the Wakwafi, must sit under some
-tree outside the settlement till a deputation of elders, after formally
-ascertaining his purpose, escort him to their homes. The modern reason
-for the custom, which prevails upon the coast, as well as on the banks
-of the Tanganyika, is rather commercial than political. The caravan
-halts upon neutral ground, and the sultans or chiefs of the different
-villages send select messengers carrying various presents: in the
-interior ivory and slaves, and in the maritime regions cloth and
-provisions, technically called “Magubiko,” and intended as an earnest of
-their desire to open trade. Sweet words and fair promises win the day;
-the Mtongi, or head of the caravan, after a week of earnest deliberation
-with all his followers, chooses his host, temporary lodgings are
-provided for the guests, and the value of the retaining fees is
-afterwards recovered in Hongá and Kirembá--blackmail and customs. This
-custom was known in Southern Africa by the name of “marts;” that is, a
-“connection with a person belonging to another nation, so that they
-reside at each other’s houses when visiting the place, and make mutual
-presents.” The compulsory guest amongst the Arabs of Zanzibar and the
-Somal is called “Nezil.”
-
-At Ujiji terminates, after twelve stages, which native caravans
-generally finish in a fortnight, all halts included, the transit of the
-fifth region. The traveller has now accomplished a total number of 85
-long, or 100 short stages, which, with necessary rests, but excluding
-detentions and long halts, occupy 150 days. The direct longitudinal
-distance from the coast is 540 geo. miles, which the sinuosities of the
-road prolong to 955, or in round numbers 950 statute miles. The number
-of days expended by the Expedition in actual marching was 100, of hours
-420, which gives a rate of 2·27 miles per hour. The total time was seven
-and a-half months, from the 27th June, 1857, to the 18th February, 1858;
-thus the number of the halts exceeded by one-third the number of the
-marches. In practice Arab caravans seldom arrive at the Tanganyika, for
-reasons before alluded to, under a total period of six months. Those
-lightly laden may make Unyanyembe in between two and a-half and three
-months, and from Unyanyembe Ujiji in twenty-five stages, which would
-reduce their journey to four months.
-
-Dapper (‘Beschryving van Afrika,’ Amst. 1671) asserts that the “blacks
-of Pombo, _i. e._ the Pombeiros, or native travellers of W. Africa, when
-asked respecting the distance of the lake, say that it is at least a
-sixty days’ journey, going constantly eastwards.” But the total breadth
-of the continent between Mbuamaji and Loanda being, in round numbers,
-1560 geographical miles, this estimate would give a marching rate of
-twenty-six geographical and rectilinear miles (or, allowing for
-deviation, thirty-six statute miles) per diem. When Da Couto (1565),
-quoting the information procured by Francisco Barreto, during his
-expedition in 1570, from some Moors (Arabs or Wasawahili) at Patta and
-elsewhere, says that “from Kilwa or Atondo (that is to say, the country
-of the Watondwe) the other sea of Angola might be reached with a journey
-of fifteen or twenty (150 or 200?) leagues,” he probably alludes to the
-Nyassa Lake, lying south-westwards of Kilwa, not to the Tanganyika. Mr.
-Cooley gives one itinerary, by Mohammed bin Nasur, an old Arab merchant,
-enumerating seventy-one marches from Buromaji (Mbuamaji) to Oha (Uhha),
-and a total of eighty-three from the coast to the lake; and a second by
-a native of Monomoezi, Lief bin Said (a misprint for Khalaf bin Saíd?)
-sixty-two to Ogara (Ugala), which is placed four or five days from Oha.
-In another page he remarks that “from Buromaji, near Point Puna, to Oha
-in Monomoezi is a journey of seventy-nine, or, in round numbers, eighty
-days, the shores of the lake being still six or eight days distant.”
-This is the closest estimate yet made. Mr. Macqueen, from the itinerary
-of Lief bin Said, estimates the lake, from the mouth of the river
-Pangani, at 604 miles, and seventy-one days of total march. It is
-evident, from the preceding pages, that African authorities have
-hitherto confounded the Nyanza, the Tanganyika, and the Nyassa Lakes.
-Still, in the estimate of the distance between the coast and Ujiji there
-is a remarkable and a most deceptive coherence.
-
-Ujiji--also called Manyofo, which appears, however, peculiar to a
-certain sultanat or district--is the name of a province, not, as has
-been represented, of a single town. It was first visited by the Arabs
-about 1840; ten years after that they had penetrated to Unyamwezi; they
-found it conveniently situated as a mart upon the Tanganyika Lake, and a
-central point where their depôts might be established, and whence their
-factors and slaves could navigate the waters, and collect slaves and
-ivory from the tribes upon its banks. But the climate proved unhealthy,
-the people dangerous, and the coasting-voyages frequently ended in
-disaster; Ujiji, therefore, never rose to the rank of Unyanyembe or
-Msene. At present it is visited during the fair season, from May to
-September, by flying caravans, who return to Unyanyembe as soon as they
-have loaded their porters.
-
-Abundant humidity and a fertile soil, evidenced by the large forest
-trees and the abundance of ferns, render Ujiji the most productive
-province in this section of Africa: vegetables, which must elsewhere be
-cultivated, here seem to flourish almost spontaneously. Rice of
-excellent quality was formerly raised by the Arabs upon the shores of
-the Tanganyika; it grew luxuriantly, attaining, it is said, the height
-of eight or nine feet. The inhabitants, however, preferring sorghum, and
-wearied out by the depredations of the monkey, the elephant, and the
-hippopotamus, have allowed the more civilised cereal to degenerate. The
-principal grains are the holcus and the Indian nagli or nanchni
-(Eleusine coracano); there is no bajri (panicum or millet) in these
-regions; the pulses are phaseoli and the voandzeia, groundnuts, beans,
-and haricots of several different species. The manioc, egg-plant, and
-sweet-potato, the yam, the cucumber, an edible white fungus growing
-subterraneously, and the Indian variety of the Jerusalem artichoke,
-represent the vegetables: the people, however, unlike the Hindus,
-despise, and consequently will not be at the pains to cultivate them.
-Sugar-cane, tobacco, and cotton are always purchasable in the bazar. The
-fruits are the plantain and the Guinea-palm. The mdizi or plantain-tree
-is apparently an aborigen of these latitudes: in certain parts, as in
-Usumbara, Karagwah, and Uganda, it is the staff of life: in the hilly
-countries there are, it is said, about a dozen varieties, and a single
-bunch forms a load for a man. It is found in the island and on the coast
-of Zanzibar, at K’hutu in the head of the alluvial valley, and, though
-rarely, in the mountains of Usagara. The best fruit is that grown by the
-Arabs at Unyanyembe: it is still a poor specimen, coarse and insipid,
-stringy and full of seeds, and strangers rarely indulge in it, fearing
-flatulence. Upon the Tanganyika Lake there is a variety called mikono
-t’hembu, or elephant’s-hands, which is considerably larger than the
-Indian “horse-plantain.” The skin is of a brickdust red, in places
-inclining to rusty-brown; the pulp is a dull yellow, with black seeds,
-and the flavour is harsh, strong, and drug-like. The Elæis Guiniensis,
-locally called mchikichi, which is known by the Arabs to grow in the
-islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and more rarely in the mountains of
-Usagara, springs apparently uncultivated in large dark groves on the
-shores of the Tanganyika, where it hugs the margin, rarely growing at
-any distance inland. The bright-yellow drupe, with shiny purple-black
-point, though nauseous to the taste, is eaten by the people. The mawezi
-or palm-oil, of the consistency of honey, rudely extracted, forms an
-article of considerable traffic in the regions about the Lake. This is
-the celebrated extract, whose various officinal uses in Europe have
-already begun to work a social reformation in W. Africa. The people of
-Ujiji separate, by pounding, the oily sarcocarpium from the one seed of
-the drupe, boil it for some hours, allow the floating substance to
-coagulate, and collect it in large earthen pots. The price is usually
-about one doti of white cotton for thirty-five pounds, and the people
-generally demand salt in exchange for it from caravans. This is the “oil
-of a red colour” which, according to Mr. Cooley, is bought by the
-Wanyamwezi “from the opposite or south-western side of the lake.”
-Despite its sickly flavour, it is universally used in cooking, and it
-forms the only unguent and lamp-oil in the country. This fine
-Guinea-palm is also tapped, as the date in Western India, for toddy; and
-the cheapness of this tembo--the sura of West Africa--accounts for the
-prevalence of intoxication, and the consequent demoralisation of the
-Lakist tribes.
-
-The bazar at Ujiji is well supplied. Fresh fish of various kinds is
-always procurable except during the violence of the rains: the people,
-however, invariably cut it up and clean it out before bringing it to
-market. Good honey abounds after the wet monsoon. By the favour of the
-chief, milk and butter may be purchased every day. Long-tailed sheep and
-well-bred goats, poultry and eggs--the two latter are never eaten by the
-people--are brought in from the adjoining countries: the Arabs breed a
-few Manilla ducks, and the people rear but will not sell pigeons. The
-few herds at Ujiji which have escaped the beef-eating propensities of
-the Watuta are a fine breed, originally, it is said, derived by the
-Wahha from the mountains of Karagwah. Their horns in these lands appear
-unusually large; their stature combines with the smallness of the hump
-to render them rather like English than Indian or African cattle. They
-are rarely sold of later days, except for enormous prices, an adult
-slave being the lowest valuation of a cow. The cattle is never stalled
-or grain-fed, and the udder is little distended; the produce is about
-one quarter that of a civilised cow, and the animals give milk only
-during the few first months after calving. The “tulchan” of Tibet is
-apparently unknown in Central Africa; but the people are not wanting in
-barbarous contrivances to persuade a stubborn animal to yield her
-produce.
-
-The fauna appear rare upon the borders of the Tanganyika: all men are
-hunters; every human being loves animal food, from white ants to
-elephants; the tzetze was found there, and probably the luxuriance of
-the vegetation, in conjunction with the extreme humidity, tends to
-diminish species and individuals. Herds of elephants exist in the
-bamboo-jungles which surround the sea, but the heaps of ivory sold in
-the markets of Ujiji are collected from an area containing thousands of
-square miles. Hippopotami and crocodiles are common in the waters, wild
-buffaloes in the plains. The hyænas are bold thieves, and the half-wild
-“Pariah-dogs” that slink about the villages are little inferior as
-depredators. The people sometimes make pets of them, leading them about
-with cords; but they do not object to see them shot after a raid upon
-the Arab’s meat, butter, or milk. These animals are rarely heard to
-bark; they leave noise to the village cocks. The huts are as usual
-haunted by the grey and the musk-rat. Of birds there is a fine
-fish-eagle, about the size of a domestic cock, with snowy head and
-shoulders relieving a sombre chocolate plume: he sits majestically
-watching his prey upon the tall trees overhanging the waves of the
-Tanganyika. A larus, or sea-gull, with reddish legs, lives in small
-colonies upon this lake. At the end of the monsoon in 1858 these birds
-were seen to collect in troops upon the sands, as they are accustomed
-to do at Aden when preparing to migrate. The common kingfisher is a
-large bird with a white and grey plume, a large and strong black bill,
-and a crest which somewhat resembles that of the Indian bulbul: it
-perches upon the branches over the waters, and in flight and habits
-resembles other halcyons. A long and lank black plotus, or diver, is
-often seen skimming the waters, and sandpipers run along the yellow
-sands. The other birds are the white-breasted “parson-crow,” partridges,
-and quails seen in Urundi; swallows in passage, curlews, motacillæ,
-muscicapæ, and various passerines. Ranæ, some of them noisy in the
-extreme, inhabit the sedges close to the lake. The termite does great
-damage in the sweet red soils about Kawele: it is less feared when the
-ground is dry and sandy. The huts are full of animal life--snakes,
-scorpions, ants of various kinds, whose armies sometimes turn the
-occupants out of doors; the rafters are hollowed out by xylophagous
-insects; the walls are riddled by mason-bees, hideous spiders veil the
-corners with thick webs, the chirp of the cricket is heard both within
-and out of doors, cockroaches destroy the provisions, and large brown
-mosquitoes and flies, ticks and bugs, assault the inhabitants.
-
-The rise in the price of slaves and ivory has compelled Arab merchants,
-as will be seen in another chapter, to push their explorations beyond
-the Tanganyika Lake. Ujiji is, however, still the great slave-mart of
-these regions, the article being collected from all the adjoining tribes
-of Urundi, Uhha, Uvira, and Marungu. The native dealers, however, are so
-acute, that they are rapidly ruining this their most lucrative traffic.
-They sell cheaply, and think to remunerate themselves by aiding and
-abetting desertion. Merchants, therefore, who do not chain or cord
-together their gangs till they have reached the east bank of the
-Malagarazi River, often lose 20 per cent. The prevalence of the practice
-has already given Ujiji a bad name, and, if continued, will remove the
-market to another place, where the people are somewhat less clever and
-more sensible. It is impossible to give any idea of the average price of
-the human commodity, which varies, under the modifications of demand and
-supply, from two to ten doti or tobes of American domestics. Yet as
-these purchases sell in Zanzibar for fourteen or fifteen dollars per
-head, the trade realises nearly 500 per cent., and will, therefore, with
-difficulty be put down.
-
-The principal tribes in this region are the Wajiji, the Wavinza, the
-Wakaranga, the Watuta, the Wabuha, and the Wahha.
-
-The Wajiji are a burly race of barbarians, far stronger than the tribes
-hitherto traversed, with dark skins, plain features, and straight,
-sturdy limbs: they are larger and heavier men than the Wanyamwezi, and
-the type, as it approaches Central Africa, becomes rather negro than
-negroid.[1] Their feet and hands are large and flat, their voices are
-harsh and strident, and their looks as well as their manners are
-independent even to insolence. The women, who are held in high repute,
-resemble, and often excel, their masters in rudeness and violence; they
-think little in their cups of entering a stranger’s hut, and of
-snatching up and carrying away an article which excites their
-admiration. Many of both sexes, and all ages, are disfigured by the
-small-pox--the Arabs have vainly taught them inoculation--and there are
-few who are not afflicted by boils and various eruptions; there is also
-an inveterate pandemic itch, which, according to their Arab visitors,
-results from a diet of putrid fish.
-
-  [1] My companion observes (in Blackwood, Nov. 1859), “It may be worthy
-  of remark that I have always found the lighter coloured savages more
-  boisterous and warlike than those of the dingier hue. The _ruddy
-  black_, fleshy-looking Wazaramos and Wagogos are much _lighter_ in
-  colour (!) than any of the other tribes, and certainly have a far
-  superior, more manly and warlike independent spirit and bearing than
-  any of the others.” The “dingiest” peoples are usually the most
-  degraded, and therefore sometimes the least powerful; but the fiercest
-  races in the land are the Wazaramo, the Wajiji and the Wataturu, who
-  are at the same time the darkest.
-
-This tribe is extensively tattooed, probably as a protection against the
-humid atmosphere, and the chills of the Lake Region. Some of the chiefs
-have ghastly scars raised by fire, in addition to large patterns marked
-upon their persons--lines, circles, and rays of little cupping-cuts
-drawn down the back, the stomach, and the arms, like the tattoo of the
-Wangindo tribe near Kilwa. Both sexes love to appear dripping with oil;
-and they manifestly do not hold cleanliness to be a virtue. The head is
-sometimes shaved; rarely the hair is allowed to grow; the most
-fashionable coiffure is a mixture of the two; patches and beauty-spots
-in the most eccentric shapes--buttons, crescents, crests, and galeated
-lines--being allowed to sprout either on the front, the sides, or the
-back of the head, from a carefully-scraped scalp. Women as well as men
-are fond of binding a wisp of white tree-fibre round their heads, like
-the ribbon which confines the European old person’s wig. There is not a
-trace of mustachio or whisker in the country; they are removed by the
-tweezers, and the climate, according to the Arabs, is, like that of
-Unyamwezi, unfavourable to beards. For cosmetics both sexes apply, when
-they can procure such luxuries, red earth to the face, and over the head
-a thick-coating of chalk or mountain-meal, which makes their blackness
-stand out hideously grotesque.
-
-The chiefs wear expensive stuffs, checks, and cottons, which they
-extract from passing caravans. Women of wealth affect the tobe or
-coast-dress, and some were seen wearing red and blue broadcloths. The
-male costume of the lower orders is confined to softened goat, sheep,
-deer, leopard, or monkey skins, tied at two corners over either
-shoulder, with the flaps open at one side, and with tail and legs
-dangling in the wind. Women who cannot afford cloth use as a succedaneum
-a narrow kilt of fibre or skin, and some content themselves with a
-tassel of fibre or a leafy twig depending from a string bound round the
-waist, and displaying the nearest approach to the original fig-leaf. At
-Ujiji, however, the people are observed, for the first time, to make
-extensive use of the macerated tree-bark, which supplies the place of
-cotton in Urundi, Karagwah, and the northern kingdoms. This article,
-technically termed “mbugu,” is made from the inner bark of various
-trees, especially the mrimba and the mwale, or huge Raphia-palm. The
-trunk of the full-grown tree is stripped of its integument twice or
-thrice, and is bound with plantain-leaves till a finer growth is judged
-fit for manipulation. This bark is carefully removed, steeped in water,
-macerated, kneaded, and pounded with clubs and battens to the
-consistency of a coarse cotton. Palm-oil is then spirted upon it from
-the mouth, and it acquires the colour of chamois-leather. The Wajiji
-obtain the mbugu mostly from Urundi and Uvira. They are fond of striping
-it with a black vegetable mud, so as to resemble the spoils of leopards
-and wild cats, and they favour the delusion by cutting the edge into
-long strips, like the tails and other extremities of wild beasts. The
-price of the mbugu varies according to size, from six to twelve khete or
-strings of beads. Though durable, it is never washed: after many
-months’ wear the superabundance of dirt is removed by butter or ghee.
-
-Besides the common brass-wire girdles and bracelets, armlets and
-anklets, masses of white-porcelain, blue-glass, and large pigeon-egg
-beads, and hundreds of the iron-wire circlets called sambo, which, worn
-with ponderous brass or copper rings round the lower leg, above the
-foot, suggest at a distance the idea of disease, the Wajiji are
-distinguished from tribes not on the lake by necklaces of shells--small
-pink bivalves strung upon a stout fibre. They have learned to make brass
-from the Arabs, by melting down one-third of zinc imported from the
-coast with two parts of the fine soft and red copper brought from the
-country of the Kazeembe. Like their Lakist neighbours, they ornament the
-throat with disks, crescents, and strings of six or seven cones,
-fastened by the apex, and depending to the breast. Made of the whitest
-ivory or of the teeth, not the tusks, of the hippopotamus, these
-dazzling ornaments effectively set off the dark and negro-like skin.
-Another peculiarity amongst these people is a pair of iron pincers or a
-piece of split wood ever hanging round the neck; nor is its use less
-remarkable than its presence. The Lakists rarely chew, smoke, or take
-snuff according to the fashion of the rest of mankind. Every man carries
-a little half-gourd or diminutive pot of black earthenware, nearly full
-of tobacco; when inclined to indulge, he fills it with water, expresses
-the juice, and from the palm of his hand sniffs it up into his nostrils.
-The pincers serve to close the exit, otherwise the nose must be
-temporarily corked by the application of finger and thumb. Without much
-practice it is difficult to articulate during the retention of the dose,
-which lasts a few minutes, and when an attempt is made the words are
-scarcely intelligible. The arms of the Wajiji are small battle-axes and
-daggers, spears, and large bows, which carry unusually heavy arrows.
-They fear the gun and the sabre, yet they show no unwillingness to
-fight. The Arabs avoid granting their demands for muskets and gunpowder,
-consequently a great chief never possesses more than two or three
-fire-locks.
-
-The Lakists are an almost amphibious race, excellent divers, strong
-swimmers and fishermen, and vigorous ichthyophagists all. At times, when
-excited by the morning coolness and by the prospect of a good haul, they
-indulge in a manner of merriment which resembles the gambols of sportive
-water-fowls: standing upright and balancing themselves in their hollow
-logs, which appear but little larger than themselves, they strike the
-water furiously with their paddles, skimming over the surface, dashing
-to and fro, splashing one another, urging forward, backing, and wheeling
-their craft, now capsizing, then regaining their position with wonderful
-dexterity. They make coarse hooks, and have many varieties of nets and
-creels. Conspicuous on the waters and in the villages is the Dewa, or
-“otter” of Oman, a triangle of stout reeds, which shows the position of
-the net. A stronger kind, and used for the larger ground-fish, is a cage
-of open basket-work, provided, like the former, with a bait and two
-entrances. The fish once entangled cannot escape, and a log of wood,
-used as a trimmer, attached to a float-rope of rushy plants, directs the
-fisherman. The heaviest animals are caught by a rope-net--the likh of
-Oman--weighted and thrown out between two boats. They have circular lath
-frames, meshed in with a knot somewhat different from that generally
-used in Europe; the smaller variety is thrown from the boat by a single
-man, who follows it into the water,--the larger, which reaches six feet
-in diameter, is lowered from the bow by cords, and collects the fish
-attracted by the glaring torch-fire. The Wajiji also make large and
-small drag-nets, some let down in a circle by one or more canoes, the
-others managed by two fishermen, who, swimming at each end, draw them in
-when ready. They have little purse-nets to catch small fry, hoops thrust
-into a long stick-handle through the reed walls that line the shore; and
-by this simple contrivance the fish are caught in considerable
-quantities. The wigo or crates alluded to as peculiar in the ‘Periplus,’
-and still common upon the Zanzibar coast, are found at the Tanganyika.
-The common creel resembles the khún of Western India, and is well-known
-even to the Bushmen of the South: it is a cone of open bamboo-strips or
-supple twigs, placed lengthways, and bound in and out by strings of
-grass or tree-fibre. It is closed at the top, and at the bottom there is
-a narrow aperture, with a diagonally-disposed entrance like that of a
-wire rat-trap, which prevents the fish escaping. It is placed upon its
-side with a bait, embanked with mud, reeds, or sand, and seems to answer
-the purpose for which it is intended. In Uzaramo and near the coast the
-people narcotise fish with the juice of certain plants, asclepias and
-euphorbias: about the Tanganyika the art appears unknown.
-
-There are many varieties of fish in the waters of this Lake. The Mvoro
-is a long and bony variety, in shape like a large mackerel; the Sangále
-resembles it, but the head and body are thicker. The Mgege, which
-suggests the Pomfret of Western India, is well flavoured, but full of
-bones. The Mguhe is said to attain the length of five or six feet: it is
-not unlike the kheri of the Indian rivers, and to a European palate it
-is the best fish that swims in these waters. The largest is the Singá, a
-scaleless variety, with black back, silvery belly, small fins, and long
-fleshy cirri: it crawls along the bottom, and is unfit for leaping or
-for rapid progress. This sluggish and misshapen ground-fish is much
-prized by the people on account of its rich and luscious fat. Like the
-Pallu of Sindh, it soon palls upon the European palate. Want of flavour
-is the general complaint made by the Arabs and coast people against the
-produce of the Tanganyika: they attempt to diminish the wateriness of
-the fish by exposing it spitted to a slow fire, and by subsequently
-stowing it for the night in well-closed earthen pots. Besides the five
-varieties above alluded to, there are dwarf eels of good flavour,
-resembling the Indian Bam; Dagá’a, small fish called by the Arabs
-Kashu’a, minnows of many varieties, which, simply sundried, or muriated
-if salt can be afforded, find their way far east; a dwarf shrimp, about
-one quarter the size of the common English species; and a large bivalve
-called Sinani, and identified as belonging to the genus Iridina. The
-meat is fat and yellow, like that of a well-fed oyster, but it is so
-insipid that none but a Mjiji can eat it. The shells collected upon the
-shores of the Tanganyika and on the land journey have been described by
-Mr. Samuel P. Woodward, who courteously named the species after the
-European members of the Expedition. To his memoir--quoted in pages 102,
-103 of this volume--the reader is referred.
-
-The Wajiji are considered by the Arabs to be the most troublesome race
-in these black regions. They are taught, by the example of their chiefs,
-to be rude, insolent, and extortionate; they demand beads even for
-pointing out the road; they will deride and imitate a stranger’s speech
-and manner before his face; they can do nothing without a long
-preliminary of the fiercest scolding; they are as ready with a blow as
-with a word; and they may often be seen playing at “rough and tumble,”
-fighting, pushing, and tearing hair, in their boats. A Mjiji uses his
-dagger or his spear upon a guest with little hesitation; he thinks
-twice, however, before drawing blood, if it will cause a feud. Their
-roughness of manner is dashed with a curious ceremoniousness. When the
-sultan appears amongst his people, he stands in a circle and claps his
-hands, to which all respond in the same way. Women curtsy to one
-another, bending the right knee almost to the ground. When two men meet
-they clasp each other’s arms with both hands, rubbing them up and down,
-and ejaculating for some minutes, “Nama sanga? nama sanga?--art thou
-well?” They then pass the hands down to the forearm, exclaiming “Wákhe?
-wákhe?--how art thou?” and finally they clap palms at each other, a
-token of respect which appears common to these tribes of Central Africa.
-The children have all the frowning and unprepossessing look of their
-parents; they reject little civilities, and seem to spend life in
-disputes, biting and clawing like wild cats. There appears to be little
-family affection in this undemonstrative race. The only endearment
-between father and son is a habit of scratching and picking each other,
-caused probably by the prevalence of a complaint before alluded to; as
-amongst the Simiads, the intervals between pugnacity are always spent in
-exercising the nails. Sometimes, also, at sea, when danger is near, the
-Mjiji breaks the mournful silence of his fellows, who are all thinking
-of home, with the exclamation, “Yá mgúri wánje!--O my wife!” They are
-never sober when they can be drunk; perhaps in no part of the world
-will the traveller more often see men and women staggering about the
-village with thick speech and violent gestures. The favourite inebrient
-is tembo or palm-toddy; almost every one, however, even when on board
-the canoe, smokes bhang, and the whooping and screaming which follow the
-indulgence resemble the noise of wild beasts rather than the sounds of
-human beings. Their food consists principally of holcus, manioc, and
-fish, which is rarely eaten before it becomes offensive to European
-organs.
-
-The great Mwami or Sultan of Ujiji in 1858-59 was Rusimba. Under him
-were several mutware (mutwale) or minor chiefs, one to each settlement,
-as Kannena in Kawele and Lurinda in Gungu. On the arrival of a caravan,
-Rusimba forwards, through his relations, a tusk or two of ivory, thus
-mutely intimating that he requires his blackmail, which he prefers to
-receive in beads and kitindi or coil-bracelets, proportioning, however,
-his demand to the trader’s means. When this point has been settled, the
-mutware sends his present, and expects a proportionate return. He is,
-moreover, entitled to a fee for every canoe hired; on each slave the
-kiremba or excise is about half the price; from one to two cloths are
-demanded upon every tusk of ivory; and he will snatch a few beads from a
-man purchasing provisions for his master. The minor headmen are fond of
-making “sare” or brotherhood with strangers, in order to secure them in
-case of return. They depend for influence over their unruly subjects
-wholly upon personal qualifications, bodily strength, and violence of
-temper. A chief, though originally a slave, may “win golden opinions” by
-his conduct when in liquor: he assumes the most ferocious aspect, draws
-his dagger, brandishes his spear, and, with loud screams, rushes at his
-subjects as intent upon annihilating them. The affairs of the nation
-are settled by the mwami, the chief, in a general council of the lieges,
-the wateko (in the singular mteko) or elders presiding. Their
-intellects, never of the brightest, are invariably fuddled with toddy,
-and, after bawling for hours together and coming apparently to the most
-satisfactory conclusion, the word of a boy or of an old woman will
-necessitate another lengthy palaver. The sultans, like their subjects,
-brook no delay in their own affairs; they impatiently dun a stranger
-half-a-dozen times a day for a few beads, while they patiently keep him
-waiting for weeks on occasions to him of the highest importance, whilst
-they are drinking pombe or taking leave of their wives. Besides the
-magubiko or preliminary presents, the chiefs are bound, before the
-departure of a caravan which has given them satisfaction, to supply it
-with half-a-dozen masuta or matted packages of grain, and to present the
-leader with a slave, who generally manages to abscond. The parting gifts
-are technically called “urangozi,” or guidance.
-
-Under the influence of slavery the Wajiji have made no progress in the
-art of commerce. They know nothing of bargaining or of credit: they will
-not barter unless the particular medium upon which they have set their
-hearts is forthcoming; and they fix a price according to their wants,
-not to the value of the article. The market varies with the number of
-caravans present at the depôt, the season, the extent of supply, and a
-variety of similar considerations. Besides the trade in ivory, slaves,
-bark, cloth, and palm-oil, they manufacture and hawk about iron sickles
-shaped like the European, kengere, kiugi, or small bells, and sambo,
-locally called tambi, or wire circlets, worn as ornaments round the
-ankles; long double-edged knives in wooden sheaths, neatly whipped with
-strips of rattan; and jembe or hoes. Of bells a dozen were purchased in
-March and April of 1858 for two fundo of white beads. Jembe and large
-sime averaged also two fundo. Of good sambo 100, and of the inferior
-quality 200, were procurable for a fundo. The iron is imported in a
-rough state from Uvira. The value of a goat was one shukkah, which here
-represents, as in Unyamwezi, twelve feet, or double the length of the
-shukkah in other regions, the single cloth being called lupande, or
-upande. Sheep, all of a very inferior quality, cost somewhat more than
-goats. A hen, or from five to six eggs, fetched one khete of samesame,
-or red-coral beads, which are here worth three times the quantity of
-white porcelain. Large fish, or those above two pounds in weight, were
-sold for three khete; the small fry--the white bait of this region--one
-khete per two pounds; and diminutive shrimps one khete per three pounds.
-Of plantains, a small bunch of fifteen, and of sweet potatoes and yams
-from ten to fifteen roots, were purchased for a khete; of artichokes,
-egg-plants, and cucumbers, from fifty to one hundred. The wild
-vegetables generically called mboga are the cheapest of these esculents.
-Beans, phaseoli, ground-nuts, and the voandzeia, were expensive,
-averaging about two pounds per khete. Rice is not generally grown in
-Ujiji; a few measures of fine white grain were purchased at a fancy
-price from one Sayfu bin Hasani, a pauper Msawahili, from the isle of
-Chole, settled in the country. The sugar-cane is poor and watery, it was
-sold in lengths of four or five feet for the khete: one cloth and two
-khete purchased three pounds of fine white honey. Tobacco was
-comparatively expensive. Of the former a shukkah procured a bag weighing
-perhaps ten pounds. Milk was sold at arbitrary prices, averaging about
-three teacups for the khete. A shukkah would procure three pounds of
-butter, and ghee was not made for the market. It was impossible to find
-sweet toddy, as the people never smoke nor clean the pots into which it
-is drawn; of the acid and highly intoxicating drink used by the Wajiji,
-from five to six teacups were to be bought with a khete. Firewood, being
-imported, was expensive, a khete being the price of a little faggot
-containing from fifty to one hundred sticks. About one pound of unclean
-cotton was to be purchased for three khete of samesame. It must be
-observed, that this list of prices, which represents the market at
-Kawele, gives a high average, many of the articles being brought in
-canoes from considerable distances, and even from the opposite coast.
-
-The traveller in the Lake Regions loses by cloth; the people, contented
-with softened skins and tree-bark, prefer beads, ornaments, and more
-durable articles: on the other hand, he gains upon salt, which is
-purchased at half-price at the Parugerero Pan, and upon large wires
-brought from the coast. Beads are a necessary evil to those engaged in
-purchasing ivory and slaves. In 1858 the Wajiji rejected with contempt
-the black porcelains, called ububu. At first they would not receive the
-khanyera, or white-porcelains; and afterwards, when the Expedition had
-exchanged, at a considerable loss, their large stock for langiyo, or
-small blues, they demanded the former. The bead most in fashion was the
-mzizima, or large blue-glass, three khete of which were equivalent to a
-small cloth; the samesame, or red-corals, required to be exchanged for
-mzizima, of which one khete was an equivalent to three of samesame. The
-maguru nzige, or pink porcelains, were at par. The tobacco-stem bead,
-called sofi, and current at Msene, was in demand. The reader will
-excuse the prolixity of these wearisome details, they are necessary
-parts of a picture of manners and customs in Central Africa. Moreover, a
-foreknowledge of the requirements of the people is a vital condition of
-successful exploration. There is nothing to arrest the traveller’s
-progress in this section of the African interior except the failure of
-his stores.
-
-A serious inconvenience awaits the inexperienced, who find a long halt
-at, and a return from, Ujiji necessary. The Wanyamwezi pagazi, or
-porters, hired at Unyanyembe, bring with them the cloth and beads which
-they have received as hire for going to and coming from the lake, and
-lose no time in bartering the outfit for ivory or slaves. Those who
-prefer the former article will delay for some time with extreme
-impatience and daily complaints, fearing to cross Uvinza in small bodies
-when loaded with valuables. The purchasers of slaves, however, knowing
-that they will inevitably lose them after a few days at Ujiji, desert at
-once. In all cases, the report that a caravan is marching eastwards
-causes a general disappearance of the porters. As the Wajiji will not
-carry, the caravan is reduced to a halt, which may be protracted for
-months, in fact, till another body of men coming from the east will
-engage themselves as return porters. Moreover, the departure homewards
-almost always partakes of the nature of a flight, so fearful are the
-strangers lest their slaves should seize the opportunity to desert. The
-Omani Arabs obviate these inconveniences by always travelling with large
-bodies of domestics, whose interest it is not to abandon the master.
-
-South of the Wajiji lie the Wakaranga, a people previously described as
-almost identical in development and condition, but somewhat inferior in
-energy and civilisation. Little need be said of the Wavinza, who appear
-to unite the bad qualities of both the Wanyamwezi and the Ujiji. They
-are a dark, meagre, and ill-looking tribe; poorly clad in skin aprons
-and kilts. They keep off insects by inserting the chauri, or fly-flap,
-into the waistband of their kilts: and at a distance they present, like
-the Hottentots, the appearance of a race with tails. Their arms are
-spears, bows, and arrows; and they use, unlike their neighbours,
-wicker-work shields six feet long by two in breadth. Their chiefs are of
-the Watosi race, hence every stranger who meets with their approbation
-is called, in compliment, Mtosi. They will admit strangers into their
-villages, dirty clumps of beehive huts; but they refuse to provide them
-with lodging. Merchants with valuable outfits prefer the jungle, and
-wait patiently for provisions brought in baskets from the settlements.
-The Wavinza seldom muster courage to attack a caravan, but stragglers
-are in imminent danger of being cut off by them. Their country is rich
-in cattle and poultry, grain and vegetables. Bhang grows everywhere near
-the settlements, and they indulge themselves in it immoderately.
-
-The Watuta--a word of fear in these regions--are a tribe of robbers
-originally settled upon the southern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake.
-After plundering the lands of Marungu and Ufipa, where they almost
-annihilated the cattle, the Watuta, rounding the eastern side of the
-Lake, migrated northwards. Some years ago they were called in by Ironga,
-the late Sultan of U’ungu, to assist him against Mui’ Gumbi, the
-powerful chief of the Warori. The latter were defeated, after obstinate
-fighting for many months. After conquering the Warori, the Watuta
-settled in Sultan Ironga’s lands, rather by might than right, and they
-were expelled by his son with the greatest difficulty. From U’ungu their
-next step was to the southern bank of the Malagarazi River. About three
-years ago this restless tribe was summoned by Mzogera, the present
-Sultan of Uvinza, to assist him in seizing Uhha, which had just lost
-T’háre, its chief. The Watuta crossed the Malagarazi, laid waste the
-lands of Uhha and Ubuha, and desolated the northern region between the
-river and the lake. Shortly afterwards they attacked Msene, and were
-only repulsed by the matchlocks of the Arabs, after a week of hard
-skirmishing. In the early part of 1858 they slew Ruhembe, the Sultan of
-Usui, a district north of Unyanyembe, upon the road to Karagwah. In the
-latter half of the same year they marched upon Ujiji, plundered Gungu,
-and proceeded to attack Kawele. The Arab merchants, however, who were
-then absent on a commercial visit to Uviva, returned precipitately to
-defend their depôts, and with large bodies of slave musketeers beat off
-the invader. The lands of the Watuta are now bounded on the north by
-Utumbara, on the south by Msene; eastwards by the meridian of
-Wilyankuru, and westwards by the highlands of Urundi.
-
-The Watuta, according to the Arabs, are a pastoral tribe, despising,
-like the Wamasai and the Somal, such luxuries as houses and fields; they
-wander from place to place, camping under trees, over which they throw
-their mats, and driving their herds and plundered cattle to the most
-fertile pasture-grounds. The dress is sometimes a mbugu or bark-cloth;
-more generally it is confined to the humblest tribute paid to decency by
-the Kafirs of the Cape, and they have a similar objection to removing
-it. On their forays they move in large bodies, women as well as men,
-with the children and baggage placed upon bullocks, and their wealth in
-brass wire twisted round the horns. Their wives carry their weapons, and
-join, it is said, in the fight. The arms are two short spears, one in
-the right hand, the other in the left, concealed by a large shield, so
-that they can thrust upwards unawares: disdaining bows and arrows, they
-show their superior bravery by fighting at close quarters, and they
-never use the spear as an assegai. In describing their tactics, the
-Arabs call them “manœuvrers like the Franks.” Their thousands march in
-four or five extended lines, and attack by attempting to envelop the
-enemy. There is no shouting nor war-cry to distract the attention of the
-combatants: iron whistles are used for the necessary signals. During the
-battle the sultan, or chief, whose ensign is a brass stool, sits
-attended by his forty or fifty elders in the rear; his authority is
-little more than nominal, the tribe priding itself upon autonomy. The
-Watuta rarely run away, and take no thought of their killed and wounded.
-They do not, like the ancient Jews, and the Gallas and Abyssinians of
-the present day, carry off a relic of the slain foe; in fact, the custom
-seems to be ignored south of the equator. The Watuta have still however
-a wholesome fear of fire-arms, and the red flag of a caravan causes them
-to decamp without delay. According to the Arabs they are not
-inhospitable, and though rough in manner they have always received
-guests with honour. A fanciful trait is related concerning them: their
-first question to a stranger will be, “Didst thou see me from
-afar?”--which, being interpreted, means, Did you hear of my greatness
-before coming here?--and they hold an answer in the negative to be a
-casus belli.
-
-Remain for consideration the people of Ubuha and Uhha. The Wabuha is a
-small and insignificant tribe bounded on the north by Uhha, and on the
-south by the Malagarazi River: the total breadth is about three marches;
-the length, from the Rusugi stream of the Wavinza to the frontiers of
-Ujiji and Ukaranga, is in all a distance of four days. Their principal
-settlement is Uyonwa, the district of Sultan Mariki: it is a mere
-clearing in the jungle, with a few pauper huts dotting fields of sweet
-potatoes. This harmless and oppressed people will sell provisions, but
-though poor they are particular upon the subject of beads, preferring
-coral and blue to the exclusion of black and white. They are a dark,
-curly-headed, and hard-favoured race: they wear the shushah or top-knot
-on the poll, dress in skins and tree-barks, ornament themselves with
-brass and copper armlets, ivory disks, and beads, and are never without
-their weapons, spears and assegais, sime or daggers, and small
-battle-axes. Honourable women wear tobes of red broadcloth and fillets
-of grass or fibre confining the hair.
-
-Uhha, written by Mr. Cooley Oha, was formerly a large tract of land
-bounded on the north by the mountains of Urundi, southwards and
-eastwards by the Malagarazi River, and on the west by the northern parts
-of Ujiji. As has been recounted, the Wahha dispersed by the Watuta have
-dispersed themselves over the broad lands between Unyanyembe and the
-Tanganyika, and their own fertile country, well stocked with the finest
-cattle, has become a waste of jungle. A remnant of the tribe, under
-Kanoni, their present Sultan, son of the late T’háre, took refuge in
-the highlands of Urundi, not far from the principal settlement of the
-mountain king Mwezí: here they find water and pasture for their herds,
-and the strength of the country enables them to beat off their enemies.
-The Wahha are a comparatively fair and a not uncomely race; they are
-however universally held to be a vile and servile people; according to
-the Arabs they came originally from the southern regions, the most
-ancient seat of slavery in E. Africa. Their Sultans or chiefs are of
-Wahinda or princely origin, probably descendants from the regal race of
-Unyamwezi. Wahha slaves sell dearly at Msene; an adult male costs from
-five to six doti merkani, and a full-grown girl one gorah merkani or
-kaniki.
-
-[Illustration: Head Dresses of Wanyamwezi.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIV.
-
-WE EXPLORE THE TANGANYIKA LAKE.
-
-
-My first care after settling in Hamid’s Tembe, was to purify the floor
-by pastiles of assafœtida, and fumigations of gunpowder; my second was
-to prepare the roof for the rainy season. Improvement, however,
-progressed slowly; the “children” of Said bin Salim were too lazy to
-work; and the Wanyamwezi porters, having expended their hire in slaves,
-and fearing loss by delay, took the earliest opportunity of deserting.
-By the aid of a Msawahili artisan, I provided a pair of cartels, with
-substitutes for chairs and tables. Benches of clay were built round the
-rooms, but they proved useless, being found regularly every morning
-occupied in force by a swarming, struggling colony, of the largest white
-ants. The roof, long overgrown with tall grass, was fortified with an
-extra coat of mud; it never ceased, however, leaking like a colander;
-presently the floor was covered with deep puddles, then masses of earth
-dropped from the sopped copings and sides of the solid walls, and, at
-last, during the violent showers, half the building fell in. The
-consequence of the extreme humidity was, that every book which had
-English paste in it was rendered useless by decay; writing was rendered
-illegible by stains and black mildew; moreover, during my absence,
-whilst exploring the Lake, Said bin Salim having neglected to keep a
-fire, as was ordered, constantly burning in the house, a large botanical
-collection was irretrievably lost. This was the more regretable as our
-return to the coast took place during the dry season, when the woods
-were bare of leaf, flower, and fruit.
-
-On the second day after my arrival I was called upon by “Kannena,” the
-headman of Kawele, under Rusimba, the Mwami, or principal chief of
-Ujiji. I had heard a bad account of the former. His predecessor, Kabeza,
-a great favourite with the Arabs, had died about two months before we
-entered Kawele, leaving a single son, hardly ten years old, and Kannena,
-a slave, having the art to please the widows of the deceased, and,
-through them, the tribe, caused himself to be elected temporary headman
-during the heir’s minority. He was introduced habited in silk turban and
-broadcloth coat, which I afterwards heard he had borrowed from the
-Baloch, in order to put in a prepossessing first appearance. The effort,
-however, failed; his aspect was truly ignoble; a short, squat, and
-broad-backed figure, with natural “plumpers,” a black skin cut and
-carved in various patterns, thick straight, stumpy, legs, and huge splay
-feet; his low narrow brow was ever knotted into a peevish frown, his
-apology for a nose much resembled the pug with which the ancients
-provided Silenus, and a villanous expression lurked about the depressed
-corners of his thick-lipped, sensual, liquorish mouth. On this occasion
-he behaved with remarkable civility, and he introduced, as the envoys
-commissioned by the great Rusimba to receive his blackmail, two
-gentlemen a quarter-clad in the greasiest and scantiest bark-aprons, and
-armed with dwarfish battle-axes. The present was finally settled at ten
-coil-bracelets and two fundi of coral-beads. I had no salt--the first
-article in demand--to spare, or much valuable merchandise might have
-been saved. The return was six small bundles of grain, worth, probably,
-one-tenth of what had been received. Then Kannena opened trade by
-sending us a nominal gift, a fine ivory, weighing at least seventy
-pounds, and worth, perhaps, one hundred pounds, or nearly two mens’
-loads of the white or blue-porcelain beads used in this traffic. After
-keeping it for a day or two, I returned it, excusing myself by saying
-that, having visited the Tanganyika as a “Sarkal,” I could have no
-dealings in ivory and slaves.
-
-This was right and proper in the character of a “Sarkal.” But future
-adventurers are strongly advised always to assume the character of
-traders. In the first place, it explains the traveller’s motives to the
-people, who otherwise lose themselves in a waste of wild conjecture.
-Secondly, under this plea, the explorer can push forward into unknown
-countries; he will be civilly received, and lightly fined, because the
-hosts expect to see him or his semblables again; whereas, appearing
-without ostensible motive amongst them, he would be stripped of his
-last cloth by recurring confiscations, fines, and every annoyance which
-greed of gain can suggest. Thus, as the sequel will prove, he loses more
-by overcharges than by the trifling outlay necessary to support the
-character of a trader. He travels respectably as a “Mundewa” or “Tajir,”
-a merchant, which is ever the highest title given by the people to
-strangers; and he can avoid exciting the jealousy of the Arabs by
-exchanging his tusks with them at a trifling loss when comforts or
-provisions are required for the road.
-
-So strange an announcement on my part aroused, as may be supposed, in
-the minds of the Wajiji marvel, doubt, disbelief, ill-will. “These are
-men who live by doing nothing!” exclaimed the race commercial as the
-sons of Hamburg; and they lost no time in requesting me to quit their
-territory sooner than convenient. To this I objected, offering, however,
-as compensation for the loss of their octrois and perquisites to pay for
-not trading what others paid for trading. Kannena roughly informed me
-that he had a claim for Kiremba, or duties upon all purchases and sales;
-two cloths, for instance, per head of slave, or per elephant’s tusk; and
-that, as he expected to gain nothing by brokerage from me, he must
-receive as compensation, four coil-bracelets and six cotton cloths.
-These were at once forwarded to him. He then evidenced his ill-will in
-various ways, and his people were not slow in showing the dark side of
-their character. They threatened to flog Sayfu, the old Msawahili of
-Chole, for giving me hints concerning prices. The two surviving riding
-asses were repeatedly wounded with spears. Thieves broke into the
-outhouses by night, and stole all the clothes belonging to the Jemadar
-and to the bull-headed slave Mabruki. At first the widows of the late
-Kabeza, to whom the only cows in the district belonged, supplied us
-plentifully with milk; gradually the quantity shrank, whenever an
-opportunity offered it was “cut off;” and, at last, we could no longer
-afford the exorbitant price demanded. My companion having refused a
-cheese to Kannena, the dowager ladies, who owned the cows, when applied
-to for milk, threw away the vessel, and swore that by boiling what ought
-to be drunk unboiled, we were manifestly bewitching and killing their
-cattle. On one occasion, a young person related to Rusimba went to the
-huts of the Baloch, and, snatching up a fine cloth which she clasped to
-her bosom, defied them to recover it by force, and departed, declaring
-that it was a fine for bringing “whites” into the country. At first our
-heroes spoke of much slaughter likely to arise from such procedure, and
-with theatrical gesture, made “_rapière au vent_;” presently
-second-thoughts suggested how beautiful is peace, and thirdly, they
-begged so hard, that I was compelled to ransom for them the article
-purloined. I had unwittingly incurred the animosity of Kennena. On the
-day after his appearance in rich clothing he had entered unannounced
-with bare head, a spear or two in hand, and a bundle of wild-cats’ skins
-by way of placket; not being recognised, he was turned out, and the
-ejectment mortally offended his dignity. Still other travellers fared
-even worse than we did. Said bin Majid, who afterwards arrived at Ujiji
-to trade for ivory and slaves, had two followers wounded by the Wajiji,
-one openly speared in the bazaar, and the other at night by a thief who
-was detected digging through the wall of the store-hut.
-
-After trade was disposed of, ensued a general Bakhshish. Nothing of the
-kind had been contemplated or prepared for at Zanzibar, but before
-leaving Unyanyembe, I had found it necessary to offer an inducement, and
-now the promise was to be fulfilled. Moreover, most of the party had
-behaved badly, and in these exceptional lands, bad behaviour always
-expects a reward. In the first place, says the Oriental, no man
-misconducts himself unless he has power to offend you and you are
-powerless to punish him. Secondly, by “petting” the offender, he may be
-bribed to conduct himself decently. On the other hand, the Eastern
-declares, by rewarding, praising, or promoting a man who has already
-satisfied you, you do him no good, and you may do him great harm. The
-boy Faraj, who had shamelessly deserted his master, Said bin Salim, was
-afterwards found at Unyanyembe, in Snay bin Amir’s house, handsomely
-dressed and treated like a guest; and his patron, forgetting all his
-stern resolves of condign punishment, met him with a peculiar kindness.
-I gave to the Baloch forty-five cloths, and to each slave, male and
-female, a pair. The gratification, however, proved somewhat like that
-man’s liberality who, according to the old satirist, presented fine
-apparel to those whom he wished to ruin. Our people recklessly spent all
-their Bakhshish in buying slaves, who generally deserted after a week,
-leaving the unhappy ex-proprietor tantalised by all the torments of
-ungratified acquisitiveness.
-
-At first the cold damp climate of the Lake Regions did not agree with
-us; perhaps, too, the fish diet was over-rich and fat, and the abundance
-of vegetables led to little excesses. All energy seemed to have
-abandoned us. I lay for a fortnight upon the earth, too blind to read or
-write, except with long intervals, too weak to ride, and too ill to
-converse. My companion, who, when arriving at the Tanganyika Lake was
-almost as “groggy” upon his legs as I was, suffered from a painful
-ophthalmia, and from a curious distortion of face, which made him chew
-sideways, like a ruminant. Valentine was nearly blind; and he also had a
-wry mouth, by no means the properest for the process of mastication.
-Gaetano, who arrived at Ujiji on the 17th February, was half-starved,
-and his anxiety to make up for lost time brought on a severe attack of
-fever. The Baloch complained of influenzas and catarrhs: too lazy to
-build huts after occupying Kannena’s “Traveller’s Bungalow” for the
-usual week, they had been turned out in favour of fresh visitors, and
-their tempers were as sore as their lungs and throats.
-
-But work remained undone; it was necessary to awake from this lethargy.
-Being determined to explore the northern extremity of the Tanganyika
-Lake, whence, according to several informants, issued a large river,
-flowing northwards, and seeing scanty chance of success, and every
-prospect of an accident, if compelled to voyage in the wretched canoes
-of the people, I at first resolved to despatch Said bin Salim across the
-water, and, by his intervention, to hire from an Arab merchant, Hamid
-bin Sulayyam, the only dow, or sailing-craft then in existence. But the
-little Arab evidently shirked the mission, and he shirked so
-artistically, that, after a few days, I released him, and directed my
-companion to do his best about hiring the dow, and stocking it with
-provisions for a month’s cruise.
-
-Then arose the preliminary difficulties of the trip. Kannena and all his
-people, suspecting that my only object was economy in purchasing
-provisions, opposed the project; they demanded exorbitant sums, and
-often when bargained down and apparently satisfied, they started up and
-rushed away, declaring that they washed their hands of the business. At
-length, Lurinda, the neighbouring headman, was persuaded to supply a
-Nakhoda and a crew of twenty men. An Arab pays on these occasions,
-besides rations, ten per cent. upon merchandise; the white men were
-compelled to give four coil-bracelets and eight cloths for the canoe;
-besides which, the crew received, as hire, six coil-bracelets, and to
-each individual provisions for eight days, and twenty khete of large
-blue-glass beads, and small blue-porcelains were issued. After many
-delays, my companion set out on the 2nd of March, in the vilest weather,
-and spent the first stormy day near the embouchure of the Ruche River,
-within cannon shot of Kawele. This halt gave our persecutors time to
-change their minds once more, and again to forbid the journey. I was
-compelled to purchase their permission by sending to Kannena an
-equivalent of what had been paid for the canoe to Lurinda, viz. four
-coil-bracelets and eight cloths. Two days afterwards my companion,
-supplied with an ample outfit, and accompanied by two Baloch and his
-men--Gaetano and Bombay--crossed the bay of Ukaranga, and made his final
-departure for the islands.
-
-During my twenty-seven days of solitude the time sped quickly; it was
-chiefly spent in eating and drinking, smoking and dozing. Awaking at 2
-or 3 A.M., I lay anxiously expecting the grey light creeping through the
-door-chinks and making darkness visible; the glad tidings of its
-approach were announced by the cawing of the crows and the crowing of
-the village cocks. When the golden rays began to stream over the red
-earth, the torpid Valentine was called up; he brought with him a mess of
-Suji, or rice-flour boiled in water, with a little cold milk as a
-relish. Then entered Muhabanya, the “slavey” of the establishment, armed
-with a leafy branch to sweep the floor, and to slay the huge wasps that
-riddled the walls of the tenement. This done he lit the fire--the
-excessive damp rendered this precaution necessary--and sitting over it
-he bathed his face and hands--luxurious dog!--in the pungent smoke.
-Ensued visits of ceremony from Said bin Salim and the Jemadar, who sat,
-stared, and, somewhat disappointed at seeing no fresh symptoms of
-approaching dissolution, told me so with their faces, and went away.
-From 7 A.M. till 9 A.M., the breakfast hour, Valentine was applied to
-tailoring, gun-cleaning, and similar light work, over which he groaned
-and grumbled, whilst I settled down to diaries and vocabularies, a
-process interrupted by sundry pipes. Breakfast was again a mess of Suji
-and milk,--such civilised articles as tea, coffee, and sugar, had been
-unknown to me for months. Again the servants resumed their labour, and
-they worked, with the interval of two hours for sleep at noon, till 4
-P.M. During this time the owner lay like a log upon his cot, smoking
-almost uninterruptedly, dreaming of things past, and visioning things
-present, and sometimes indulging himself in a few lines of reading and
-writing.
-
-Dinner was an alternation of fish and fowl, game and butchers’ meat
-being rarely procurable at Ujiji. The fish were in two extremes, either
-insipid and soft, or so fat and coarse that a few mouthfuls sufficed;
-most of them resembled the species seen in the seas of Western India,
-and the eels and small shrimps recalled memories of Europe. The poultry,
-though inferior to that of Unyanyembe, was incomparably better than the
-lean stringy Indian chicken. The vegetables were various and plentiful,
-tomatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes, yams, and several kinds
-of beans, especially a white harricot, which afforded many a _purée_;
-the only fruit procurable was the plantain, and the only drink--the
-toddy being a bad imitation of vinegar--was water.
-
-As evening approached I made an attempt to sit under the broad eaves of
-the Tembe, and to enjoy the delicious spectacle of this virgin Nature,
-and the reveries to which it gave birth.
-
-  “A pleasing land of drowsihed it was,
-     Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,
-   And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
-     For ever flushing round a summer sky.”
-
-It reminded me of the loveliest glimpses of the Mediterranean; there
-were the same “laughing tides,” pellucid sheets of dark blue water,
-borrowing their tints from the vinous shores beyond; the same purple
-light of youth upon the cheek of the earlier evening, the same bright
-sunsets, with their radiant vistas of crimson and gold opening like the
-portals of a world beyond the skies; the same short-lived grace and
-loveliness of the twilight; and, as night closed over the earth, the
-same cool flood of transparent moonbeam, pouring on the tufty heights
-and bathing their sides with the whiteness of virgin snow.
-
-At 7 P.M., as the last flush faded from the occident, the lamp--a wick
-in a broken pot full of palm oil--was brought in; Said bin Salim
-appeared to give the news of the day,--how A. had abused B., and how C.
-had nearly been beaten by D., and a brief conversation led to the hour
-of sleep. A dreary, dismal day, you will exclaim, gentle reader; a day
-that
-
-    “lasts out a night in Russia,
-  When nights are longest there.”
-
-Yet it had its enjoyments. There were no post-offices, and this African
-Eden had other advantages, which, probably, I might vainly attempt to
-describe.
-
-On the 29th of March the rattling of matchlocks announced my companion’s
-return. The Masika had done its worst upon him. I never saw a man so
-thoroughly moist and mildewed; he justified even the French phrase “wet
-to the bone.” His paraphernalia were in a similar state; his guns were
-grained with rust, and his fire-proof powder-magazine had admitted the
-monsoon-rain. I was sorely disappointed: he had done literally nothing.
-About ten days before his return I had been visited by Khamis bin Jumah,
-an Arab merchant, who, on the part of the proprietor of the dow, gave
-the gratifying message that we could have it when we pleased. I cannot
-explain where the mismanagement lay; it appears, however, that the wily
-“son of Sulayyam” detained the traveller simply for the purpose of
-obtaining from him gratis a little gunpowder. My companion had rested
-content with the promise that after three months the dow should be let
-to us for a sum of 500 dollars! and he had returned without boat or
-provisions to report ill success. The faces of Said bin Salim and the
-Jemadar, when they heard the period mentioned, were indeed a study. I
-consoled him and myself as I best could, and applied myself to supplying
-certain deficiencies as regards orthography and syntax in a diary which
-appeared in Blackwood, of September 1859, under the title “Journal of a
-Cruise in the Tanganyika Lake, Central Africa.” I must confess, however,
-my surprise at, amongst many other things, the vast horseshoe of lofty
-mountain placed by my companion in the map attached to that paper, near
-the very heart of Sir R. Murchison’s Depression. As this wholly
-hypothetical, or rather inventive feature,--I had seen the mountains
-growing upon paper under my companion’s hand, from a thin ridge of hill
-fringing the Tanganyika to the portentous dimensions given in Blackwood
-(Sept. 1859), and Dr. Petermann’s Mittheilungen, (No. 9, of 1859,)--wore
-a crescent form, my companion gravely published, with all the pomp of
-discovery, in the largest capitals, “This mountain range I consider to
-be THE TRUE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON.” * * * Thus men _do_ geography! and
-thus discovery is stultified.
-
-When my companion had somewhat recovered from his wetness, and from the
-effects of punching-in with a pen-knife a beetle which had visited his
-tympanum[2], I began seriously to seek some means of exploring the
-northern head of the Tanganyika. Hamid bin Sulayyam had informed his
-late guest that he had visited the place, where, although attacked by an
-armada of thirty or forty hostile canoes, he had felt the influence of a
-large river, which drains the water northwards: in fact, he told the
-“lie with circumstance.” By a curious coincidence, Sayfu, the Mswahili
-of Chole, declared that he also had sighted a stream issuing from the
-northern extremity of the lake--this was the “lie direct”--and he
-offered to accompany me as guide and interpreter. When we compared
-statements, we saw what was before us,--a prize for which wealth,
-health, and life, were to be risked.
-
-  [2] My companion gives in Blackwood, Sept. 1859, the following
-  description of his untoward accident:--“This day (that of his arrival
-  at the isle of Kivira) passed in rest and idleness, recruiting from
-  our late exertions. At night a violent storm of rain and wind beat on
-  my tent with such fury that its nether parts were torn away from the
-  pegs, and the tent itself was only kept upright by sheer force. On the
-  wind’s abating, a candle was lighted to rearrange the kit, and in a
-  moment, as though by magic, the whole interior became covered with a
-  host of small black beetles, evidently attracted by the glimmer of the
-  candle. They were so annoyingly determined in their choice of place
-  for peregrinating, that it seemed hopeless my trying to brush them off
-  the clothes or bedding, for as one was knocked aside another came on,
-  and then another, till at last, worn out, I extinguished the candle,
-  and with difficulty--trying to overcome the tickling annoyance
-  occasioned by these intruders crawling up my sleeves and into my hair,
-  or down my back and legs--fell off to sleep. Repose that night was not
-  destined to be my lot. One of these horrid little insects awoke me in
-  his struggles to penetrate my ear, but just too late: for in my
-  endeavour to extract him, I aided his immersion. He went his course,
-  struggling up the narrow channel, until he got arrested by want of
-  passage-room. This impediment evidently enraged him, for he began with
-  exceeding vigour, like a rabbit at a hole, to dig violently away at my
-  tympanum. The queer sensation this amusing _measure_ excited in me is
-  past description. I felt inclined to act as our donkeys once did, when
-  beset by a swarm of bees, who buzzed about their ears and stung their
-  heads and eyes until they were so irritated and confused that they
-  galloped about in the most distracted order, trying to knock them off
-  by treading on their heads, or by rushing under bushes, into houses,
-  or through any jungle they could find. Indeed, I do not know which was
-  worst off. The bees killed some of them and this beetle nearly did for
-  me. What to do I knew not. Neither tobacco, oil, nor salt could be
-  found: I therefore tried melted butter; that failing, I applied the
-  point of a pen-knife to his back, which did more harm than good; for
-  though a few thrusts kept him quiet, the point also wounded my ear so
-  badly, that inflammation set in, severe suppuration took place, and
-  all the facial glands extending from that point down to the point of
-  the shoulder became contorted and drawn aside, and a string of bubos
-  decorated the whole length of that region. It was the most painful
-  thing I ever remember to have endured; but, more annoying still, I
-  could not open my mouth for several days, and had to feed on broth
-  alone. For many months the tumour made me almost deaf, and ate a hole
-  between that orifice and the nose, so that when I blew it, my ear
-  whistled so audibly that those who heard it laughed. Six or seven
-  months after this accident happened, bits of the beetle, a leg, a
-  wing, or parts of its body, came away in the wax.”
-
-It now became apparent that the Masika or rains, which the Arabs, whose
-barbarous lunar year renders untrustworthy in measurements of time, had
-erroneously represented as synchronous with the wet monsoon of Zanzibar,
-was drawing to a close, and that the season for navigation was
-beginning.[3] After some preliminaries with Said bin Salim, Kannena,
-who had been preparing for a cruise northwards, was summoned before me.
-He agreed to convey me; but when I asked him the conditions on which he
-would show me the Mtoni, or river, he jumped up, discharged a volley of
-oaths, and sprang from the house like an enraged baboon. I was prepared
-for this difficulty, having had several warnings that the tribes on the
-northern shores of the Tanganyika allow no trade. But fears like
-Kannena’s may generally be bought over. I trusted, therefore, to Fate,
-and resolved that at all costs, even if reduced to actual want, we
-should visit this mysterious stream. At length the headman yielded every
-point. He received, it is true, an exorbitant sum. Arabs visiting Uvira,
-the “ultima thule” of lake navigation, pay one cloth to each of the
-crew; and the fare of a single passenger is a brace of coil-bracelets.
-For two canoes, the larger sixty feet by four, and the lesser about
-two-thirds that size, I paid thirty-three coil-bracelets, here equal to
-sixty dollars, twenty cloths, thirty-six khete of blue glass beads, and
-770 ditto of white-porcelains and green-glass. I also promised to
-Kannena a rich reward if he acted up to his word; and as an earnest I
-threw over his shoulders a six-foot length of scarlet broadcloth, which
-caused his lips to tremble with joy, despite his struggles to conceal
-it. The Nakhoda (captain) and the crew in turn received, besides
-rations, eighty cloths, 170 khete of blue glass-beads, and forty of
-coral-porcelains, locally three times more valuable than whites or
-greens. Sayfu, the interpreter, was as extravagantly paid in eight
-cloths and twenty-seven pounds of white and blue-porcelains. After
-abundance of dispute it was settled that the crews should consist of
-fifty-five men, thirty-three to the larger and twenty-two to the smaller
-canoe. It was an excess of at least one-half, who went for their own
-profit, not for our pleasure. When this point was conceded, we were
-kindly permitted to take with us the two Goanese, the two black
-gun-carriers, and three Baloch as an escort. The latter were the valiant
-Khudabakhsh, whom I feared to leave behind; Jelai, the mestiço-Mekrani;
-and, thirdly, Riza, the least mutinous and uncivil of the party.
-
-  [3] Not unmindful of the instructions of the Bombay Geographical
-  Society, which called especial attention to the amount of rain-fall
-  and evaporation in a region, which abounding in lakes and rivers yet
-  sends no supplies to the sea, I had prepared, at Zanzibar, a dish and
-  a gauge for the purpose of comparing the hygrometry of the African
-  with that of the Indian rainy monsoon. The instruments, however, were
-  fated to do no work. The first portion of the Masika was spent in a
-  journey; ensued severe sickness, and the end of the rains happened
-  during a voyage to the north of the Tanganyika. A few scattered
-  observations might have been registered, but it was judged better to
-  bring home no results, rather than imperfections which could only
-  mislead the meteorologist.
-
-Before departure it will be necessary to lay before the reader a sketch
-of our conveyance. The first aspect of these canoes made me lament the
-loss of Mr. Francis’ iron boat: regrets, however, were of no avail.
-_Quocumque modo--rem!_ was the word.
-
-The Baumrinden are unknown upon the Tanganyika Lake, where the smaller
-craft are monoxyles, generally damaged in the bow by the fishermen’s
-fire. The larger are long, narrow “matumbi,” or canoes, rudely hollowed
-with the axe--the application of fire being still to be invented,--in
-fact, a mere log of mvule, or some other large tree which abound in the
-land of the Wagoma, opposite Ujiji. The trunks are felled, scooped out
-in loco, dragged and pushed by man-power down the slopes, and finally
-launched and paddled over to their destination. The most considerable
-are composed of three parts--clumsy, misshapen planks, forming, when
-placed side by side, a keel and two gunwales, the latter fastened to
-the centre-piece by cords of palm-fibre passing through lines of holes.
-The want of caulking causes excessive leakage: the crew take duty as
-balesmen in turns. The cry Senga!--bale out!--rarely ceases, and the
-irregular hollowing of the tree-trunks makes them lie lopsided in the
-water. These vessels have neither masts nor sails; artifices which now
-do not extend to this part of the African world. An iron ring, fixed in
-the stern, is intended for a rudder, which, however, seldom appears
-except in the canoes of the Arabs, steering is managed by the paddle,
-and a flag-staff or a fishing-rod projects jib-like from the bow. Layers
-of palm-ribs, which serve for fuel, are strewed over the interior to
-raise the damageable cargo--it is often of salt--above the bilge-water.
-The crew sit upon narrow benches, extending across the canoe and
-fastened with cords to holes in the two side-pieces; upon each bench,
-despite the narrowness of the craft, two men place themselves side by
-side. The “Karagwah,” stout stiff mats used for hutting and bedding, are
-spread for comfort upon the seats; and for convenience of paddling, the
-sailors, when at work, incline their bodies over the sides. The space
-under the seats is used for stowage. In the centre there is a square
-place, about six feet long, left clear of benches; here also cargo is
-stored, passengers, cattle, and slaves litter down, the paddles, gourds,
-and other furniture of the crew are thrown, and the baling is carried on
-by means of an old gourd. The hold is often ankle-deep in water, and
-affords no convenience for leaning or lying down; the most comfortable
-place, therefore, is near the stern or the bow of the boat. The spears
-are planted upright amidships, at one or two corners of the central
-space so as to be ready at a moment’s notice; each man usually has his
-dagger stuck in his belt, and on long trips all are provided with bows
-and arrows. These Africans cannot row; indeed they will not use oars.
-The paddle on the Tanganyika is a stout staff, about six feet long, and
-cut out at the top to admit a trefoil-shaped block the size of a man’s
-hand:--it was described in South Africa by Captain Owen. The block,
-adorned with black paint in triangular patches, is lashed to the staff
-by a bit of whipcord, and it seldom lasts through the day without
-breaking away from its frail tackling. The paddler, placing one hand on
-the top and the other about the middle of the staff, scoops up as it
-were, the water in front of him, steadying his paddle by drawing it
-along the side of the canoe. The eternal splashing keeps the boat wet.
-It is a laborious occupation, and an excessive waste of power.
-
-The Lake People derive their modern practice of navigation, doubtless,
-from days of old; the earliest accounts of the Portuguese mention the
-traffic of this inland sea. They have three principal beats from Ujiji:
-the northern abuts at the ivory and slave marts of Uvira; the western
-conducts to the opposite shores of the Lake and the island depôts on the
-south-west; and the southern leads to the land of Marunga. Their canoes
-creep along the shores like the hollowed elders of thirty bygone
-centuries, and, waiting till the weather augurs fairly, they make a
-desperate push for the other side. Nothing but their extreme timidity,
-except when emboldened by the prospect of a speedy return home,
-preserves their cranky craft from constant accidents. The Arabs, warned
-by the past, rarely trust themselves to this Lake of Storms, preferring
-the certain peculation incurred by deputing for trading purposes agents
-and slaves to personal risk. Those who must voyage on the lake build,
-by means of their menials and artisans, dows, or sailing-vessels, and
-teach their newly-bought gangs to use oars instead of paddles. This is
-rather an economy of money than of time: they expend six months upon
-making the dow, whereas they can buy the largest canoe for a few
-farasilah of ivory.
-
-As my outfit was already running low, I persuaded, before departure, two
-of the Baloch to return with a down-caravan westwards, and arrived at
-Unyanyembe, to communicate personally with my agent, Snay bin Amir. They
-agreed so to do, but the Mtongi, or head of the African kafilah, with
-true African futility, promised to take them on the next day, and set
-out that night on his journey. As Said bin Majid was about despatching a
-large armed party to the north of the Lake, I then hurried on my
-preparations for the voyage. Provisions and tobacco were laid in, the
-tent was repaired, and our outfit, four half loads of salt--of these two
-were melted in the canoe, six Gorah,--or one load of domestics, nine
-coil-bracelets, the remainder of our store, one load of blue porcelain
-beads, and a small bag of the valuable red coral intended for private
-expenses, and “El Akibah” (the reserve), was properly packed for
-concealment. Meanwhile some trifling disputes occurred with Kannena, who
-was in the habit of coming to our Tembe, drunk and surly, with eyes like
-two gouts of blood, knitted front, and lips viciously shot out: when
-contradicted or opposed, he screamed and gesticulated as if haunted by
-his P’hepo,--his fiend;--and when very evilly disposed, he would proceed
-to the extreme measure of cutting down a tent. This slave-sultan was a
-“son of noise:” he affected _brusquerie_ of manner and violence of
-demeanour the better to impressionise his unruly subjects; and he
-frightened the timid souls around us, till at last the Jemadar’s phrase
-was, “strength is useless here.” Had I led, however, three hundred
-instead of thirty matchlocks, he would have crouched and cowered like a
-whipped cur.
-
-At 4 P.M., on the 9th April, appeared before the Kannena in a tattered
-red turban donned for the occasion. He was accompanied by his ward, who
-was to perform the voyage as a training to act sultan, and he was
-followed by his sailors bearing salt, in company with their loud-voiced
-wives and daughters performing upon the wildest musical instruments. Of
-these the most noisy was a kind of shaum, a straight, long and narrow
-tube of wood, bound with palm-fibre and provided with an opening mouth
-like a clarionet; a distressing bray is kept up by blowing through a
-hole pierced in the side. The most monotonous was a pair of
-foolscap-shaped plates of thin iron, joined at the apices and connected
-at the bases by a solid cross-bar of the same metal; this rude tomtom is
-performed upon by a muffled stick with painful perseverance; the
-sound--how harshly it intruded upon the stilly beauty of the scenes
-around!--still lingers and long shall linger in my tympanum. The canoe
-had been moved from its usual position opposite our Tembe, to a place of
-known departure--otherwise not a soul could have been persuaded to
-embark--and ignoring the distance, I condemned myself to a hobble of
-three miles over rough and wet ground. The night was comfortless; the
-crew, who were all “half-seas over,” made the noise of bedlamites; and
-two heavy falls of rain drenching the flimsy tent, at once spoiled the
-tobacco and flour, the grain and the vegetables prepared for the voyage.
-
-Early on the next morning we embarked on board the canoes: the crews had
-been collected, paid, and rationed, but as long as they were near home
-it was impossible to keep them together. Each man thinking solely of
-his own affairs, and disdaining the slightest regard for the wishes, the
-comfort, or the advantage of his employers, they objected systematically
-to every article which I had embarked. Kannena had filled the canoes
-with his and his people’s salt, consequently he would not carry even a
-cartel. Various points settled we hove anchor or rather hauled up the
-block of granite doing anchoral duty, and with the usual hubbub and
-strife, the orders which every man gives and the advice which no man
-takes, we paddled in half an hour to a shingly and grassy creek,
-defended by a sandpit and backed by a few tall massive trees. Opposite
-and but a few yards distant, rose the desert islet of Bangwe, a
-quoin-shaped mass of sandstone and red earth, bluff to the north and
-gradually shelving towards the water at the other extremity: the
-prolific moisture above and around had covered its upper ledge with a
-coat of rich thick vegetation. Landward the country rises above the
-creek, and upon its earth-waves, which cultivation shares with wild
-growth, appear a few scattered hamlets.
-
-Boats generally waste some days at Bangwe Bay, the stage being short
-enough for the usual scene being encored. They load and reload, trim
-cargo, complete rations, collect crews, and take leave of friends and
-relatives, women, and palm-wine. We pitched a tent and halted in a
-tornado of wind and rain. Kannena would not move without the present of
-one of our three goats. At 4 P.M., on the 11th April, the canoes were
-laden and paddled out to and back from Bangwe islet, when those knowing
-in such matters pronounced them so heavily weighted as to be unsafe:
-whereupon, the youth Riza, sorely against my will, was sent back to the
-Kawele. On that night a furious gale carried away my tent, whilst the
-Goanese were, or pretended to be, out of hearing. I slept, however,
-comfortably enough upon the crest of a sand-wave higher than the puddles
-around it, and--blessings on the name of Mackintosh!--escaped the
-pitiless pelting of the rain.
-
-The next morning showed a calm sea, levelled by the showers, and no
-pretext or desire for longer detention lingered in the hearts of the
-crew. At 7·20 A.M., on the 12th April, 1858, my canoe--bearing for the
-first time on those dark waters--
-
-  “The flag that braved a thousand years
-    The battle and the breeze,”
-
-stood out of Bangwe Bay, and followed by my companion’s turned the
-landspit separating the bight from the main, and made directly for the
-cloudy and storm-vexed north. The eastern shore of the lake, along which
-we coasted, was a bluff of red earth pudding’d with separate blocks of
-sandstone. Beyond this headland the coast dips, showing lines of shingle
-or golden-coloured quartzose sand, and on the shelving plain appear the
-little fishing-villages. They are usually built at the mouths of the
-gaps, combes, and gullies, whose deep gorges winding through the
-background of hill-curtain, become, after rains, the beds of
-mountain-torrents. The wretched settlements are placed between the tree
-clad declivities and the shore on which the waves break. The sites are
-far from comfortable: the ground is here veiled with thick and fetid
-grass; there it is a puddle of black mud, and there a rivulet trickles
-through the villages. The hamlet consists of half a dozen beehive-huts,
-foul, flimsy, and leaky; their only furniture is a hearth of three clods
-or stones, with a few mats and fishing implements. The settlements are
-distinguished from a distance by their plantations of palm and
-plantain, and by large spreading trees, from whose branches are
-suspended the hoops and the drag-nets not in actual use, and under whose
-shade the people sit propped against their monoxyles, which are drawn
-high up out of danger of the surf. There was no trade, and few
-provisions were procurable at Kigari. We halted there to rest, and
-pitching a tent in the thick grass we spent a night loud with wind and
-rain.
-
-Rising at black dawn on the 13th April, the crews rowed hard for six
-hours between Kigari and another dirty little fishing-village called
-Nyasanga. The settlement supplied fish-fry, but neither grain nor
-vegetables were offered for sale. At this place, the frontier district
-between Ujiji and Urundi, our Wajiji took leave of their fellow-clansmen
-and prepared with serious countenances for all the perils of
-expatriation.
-
-This is the place for a few words concerning boating and voyaging upon
-the Tanganyika Lakes. The Wajiji, and indeed all these races, never work
-silently or regularly. The paddling is accompanied by a long monotonous
-melancholy howl, answered by the yells and shouts of the chorus, and
-broken occasionally by a shrill scream of delight from the boys which
-seems violently to excite the adults. The bray and clang of the horns,
-shaums, and tomtoms, blown and banged incessantly by one or more men in
-the bow of each canoe, made worse by brazen-lunged imitations of these
-instruments in the squeaking trebles of the younger paddlers, lasts
-throughout the livelong day, except when terror induces a general
-silence. These “Wáná Máji”--sons of water--work in “spirts,” applying
-lustily to the task till the perspiration pours down their sooty
-persons. Despite my remonstrances, they insisted upon splashing the
-water in shovelsful over the canoe. They make terribly long faces,
-however, they tremble like dogs in a storm of sleet, and they are ready
-to whimper when compelled by sickness or accident to sit with me under
-the endless cold wave-bath in the hold. After a few minutes of exertion,
-fatigued and worn, they stop to quarrel, or they progress languidly till
-recruited for another effort. When two boats are together they race
-continually till a bump--the signal for a general grin--and the
-difficulty of using the entangled paddles afford an excuse for a little
-loitering, and for the loud chatter, and violent abuse, without which
-apparently this people cannot hold converse. At times they halt to eat,
-drink, and smoke: the bhang-pipe is produced after every hour, and the
-paddles are taken in whilst they indulge in the usual screaming
-convulsive whooping-cough. They halt for their own purposes but not for
-ours; all powers of persuasion fail when they are requested to put into
-a likely place for collecting shells or stones.[4] For some
-superstitious reason they allow no questions to be asked, they will not
-dip a pot for water into the lake, fearing to be followed and perhaps
-boarded by crocodiles, which are hated and dreaded by these black
-navigators, much as is the shark by our seamen, and for the same cause
-not a scrap of food must be thrown overboard--even the offal must be
-cast into the hold. “Whittling” is here a mortal sin: to chip or break
-off the smallest bit of even a condemned old tub drawn up on the beach
-causes a serious disturbance. By the advice of a kind and amiable
-friend[5], I had supplied myself with the desiderata for sounding and
-ascertaining the bottom of the Lake: the crew would have seen me under
-water rather than halt for a moment when it did not suit their purpose.
-The wild men lose half an hour, when time is most precious, to secure a
-dead fish as it floats past the canoe entangled in its net. They never
-pass a village without a dispute; some wishing to land, others objecting
-because some wish it. The captain, who occupies some comfortable place
-in the bow, stern, or waist, has little authority; and if the canoe be
-allowed to touch the shore, its men will spring out without an idea of
-consulting aught beyond their own inclinations. Arrived at the
-halting-place they pour on shore; some proceed to gather firewood,
-others go in search of rations, and others raise the boothies. A dozen
-barked sticks of various lengths are planted firmly in the ground; the
-ends are bent and lashed together in the shape of half an orange, by
-strips of tree-fibre; they are then covered with the karagwah--the
-stiff-reed mats used as cushions when paddling--these are tightly bound
-on, and thus a hut is made capable of defending from rain the bodies of
-four or five men whose legs which project beyond the shelter are
-apparently not supposed to require covering. Obeying only impulse, and
-wholly deficient in order and purpose, they make the voyage as
-uncomfortable as possible; they have no regular stages and no fixed
-halting-places; they waste a fine cool morning, and pull through the
-heat of the day, or after dozing throughout the evening, at the loud cry
-of “Pakírá Bábá!”--pack up, hearties!--they scramble into their canoes
-about midnight. Outward-bound they seek opportunities for delay; when it
-is once “up anchor for home,” they hurry with dangerous haste.
-
-  [4] THE FOLLOWING PAPER BY S. P. WOODWARD, F.G.S., COMMUNICATED BY
-  PROF. OWEN, APPEARED IN THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
-  LONDON, JUNE 28, 1859.
-
-  The four shells which form the subject of the present note were
-  collected by Captain Speke in the great freshwater lake Tanganyika in
-  Central Africa.
-
-  The large bivalve belongs to the genus _Iridina_, Lamarck,--a group of
-  river mussels, of which there are nine reputed species, all belonging
-  to the African continent. This little group has been divided into
-  several sub-genera. That to which the new shell belongs is
-  distinguished by its broad and deeply-wrinkled hinge-line, and is
-  called _Pleiodon_ by Conrad. The posterior slope of this shell is
-  encrusted with tufa, as if there were limestone rocks in the vicinity
-  of its habitat.
-
-  The small bivalve is a normal _Unio_, with finely sculptured valves.
-
-  The smaller univalve is concave beneath, and so much resembles a
-  _Nerita_ or _Calyptræa_ that it would be taken for a sea-shell if its
-  history were not well authenticated. It agrees essentially with
-  _Lithoglyphus_,--a genus peculiar to the Danube; for the American
-  shells referred to it are probably, or, I may say, certainly distinct.
-  It agrees with the Danubian shells in the extreme obliquity of the
-  aperture, and differs in the width of the umbilicus, which in the
-  European species is nearly concealed by the callous columellar lip.
-
-  In the Upper Eocene Tertiaries of the Isle of Wight there are several
-  estuary shells, forming the genus _Globulus_, Sow., whose affinities
-  are uncertain, but which resemble _Lithoglyphus_.
-
-  The lake Tanganyika (situated in lat. 3° to 8° S. and long. 30° E.),
-  which is several hundred miles in length and 30 to 40 in breadth,
-  seems entirely disconnected with the region of the Danube: but the
-  separation may not always have been so complete, for there is another
-  great lake, Nyanza, to the northward of Tanganyika, which is believed
-  by Speke to be the principal source of the Nile.
-
-  The other univalve is a _Melania_, of the sub-genus _Melanella_
-  (Swainson), similar in shape to _M. hollandi_ of S. Europe, and
-  similar to several Eocene species of the Isle of Wight. Its colour,
-  solidity, and tuberculated ribs give it much the appearance of a small
-  marine whelk (_Nassa_); and it is found in more boisterous waters, on
-  the shores of this great inland sea, than most of its congeners
-  inhabit.
-
-  1. IRIDINA (PLEIODON) SPEKII, n. sp. (Pl. XLVII. fig. 2.)
-
-  Shell oblong, ventricose, somewhat attenuated at each end: base
-  slightly concave; epidermis chestnut brown, deepening to black at the
-  margin; anterior slope obscurely radiated; hinge-line compressed in
-  front and tuberculated, wider behind and deeply wrinkled.
-
-  Length 4¾, breadth 2, thickness 1¾ inches.
-
-  _Testa oblonga, tumida, extremitatibus fere attenuata, basi
-  subarcuata; epidermide castaneo-fusca, marginem versus nigricante;
-  linea cardinali antice compressa tuberculata, postice latiore, paucis
-  rugis arata._
-
-  2. UNIO BURTONI, n. sp. (Pl. XLVII. fig. 1.)
-
-  Shell small, oval, rather thin, somewhat pointed behind; umbones
-  small, not eroded; pale olive, concentrically furrowed, and sculptured
-  more or less with fine divaricating lines; anterior teeth narrow, not
-  prominent; posterior teeth laminar; pedal scar confluent with anterior
-  adductor.
-
-  Length 12, breadth 8½, thickness 5½ lines.
-
-  _Testa parva, ovalis, tenuiuscula, postice subattenuata; umbonibus
-  parvis, acuminatis; epidermide pallide olivacea; valvis lineolis
-  divaricatis, decussatum exaratis; dentibus cardinalibus angustis, haud
-  prominentibus._
-
-  3. LITHOGLYPHUS ZONATUS, n. sp. (Pl. XLVII. fig. 3.)
-
-  Shell orbicular, hemispherical; spire very small; aperture large, very
-  oblique; umbilicus wide and shallow, with an open fissure in the young
-  shell; lip continuous in front with the umbilical ridge; columella
-  callous, ultimately covering the fissure; body-whirl flattened, pale
-  olivaceous, with two brown bands, darker at the apex; lines of growth
-  crossed by numerous oblique, interrupted striæ.
-
-  Diameter 5-6, height 3 lines.
-
-  _Testa orbicularis, hemisphærica, late umbilicata (apud juniores
-  rimata), spira minuta; apertura magna, valde obliqua; labio calloso
-  (in testa adulta rimam tegente); pallide olivacea, fasciis duabus
-  fuscis zonata; lineis incrementi striolis interruptis oblique
-  decussatis._
-
-  4. MELANIA (MELANELLA) NASSA, n. sp. (Pl. XLVII. fig. 4.)
-
-  Shell ovate, strong, pale brown, with (sometimes) two dark bands;
-  spire shorter than the aperture; whirls flattened, ornamented with six
-  brown spiral ridges crossed with a variable number of white,
-  tuberculated, transverse ribs; base of body-whirl eight with
-  tuberculated spiral ridges variegated with white and brown; aperture
-  sinuated in front; outer lip simple; inner lip callous.
-
-  Length 8½, breadth 5½ lines.
-
-  _Testa ovata, solida, pallide fusca, zonis 2 nigricantibus aliquando
-  notata; spira apertura breviore; anfractibus planulatis, lineis 6
-  fuscis spiralibus et costis tuberculatis ornatis; apertura antice
-  sinuata; labro simplici; labio calloso._
-
-  P.S. July 27th.--In addition to the foregoing shells, several others
-  were collected by Capt. Speke, when employed, under the command of
-  Capt. Burton, in exploring Central Africa in the years 1856-9; these
-  were deposited in the first instance with the Geographical Society,
-  and are now transferred to the British Museum.
-
-  A specimen of _Ampullaria (Lanistes) sinistrorsa_, Lea, and odd valves
-  of two species of _Unio_, both smooth and olive-coloured, were picked
-  up in the Ugogo district, an elevated plateau in lat. 6° to 7° S.,
-  long. 34° to 35° E.
-
-  A large _Achatina_, most nearly related to _A. glutinosa_, Pfr., is
-  the “common snail” of the region between lake Tanganyika and the east
-  coast. Fossil specimens were obtained in the Usagara district, at a
-  place called Marora, 3000 feet above the sea, overlooking the Lufiji
-  River, where it intersects the coast range (lat. 7° to 8° S., long.
-  36° to 36° E.).
-
-  Another common land snail of the same district is the well known
-  “_Bulimus caillaudi_, Pfr.,” a shell more nearly related to _Achatina_
-  than _Bulimus_.
-
-  Captain Speke also found a solitary example of _Bulimus ovoideus_,
-  Brug., in a musjid on the island of Kiloa (lat. 9° S., long. 39° to
-  40° E.). This species is identical with _B. grandis_, Desh., from the
-  island of Nosse Bé, Madagascar, and very closely allied to _B.
-  liberianus_, Lea, from Guinea.
-
-  [5] Captain Balfour, H.M.I.N., who kindly supplied me with a list of
-  necessaries for sail-making and other such operations on the Lake. I
-  had indented upon the Engineers’ Stores, Bombay, for a Massey’s patent
-  or self-registering log, which would have been most useful had the
-  people allowed it to be used. Prevented by stress of business from
-  testing it in India, I found it at sea so thoroughly defective, that
-  it was returned from whence it came by the good aid of Captain
-  Frushard, then commanding the H.E.I.C.’s sloop of war _Elphinstone_. I
-  then prepared at Zanzibar, a line and a lead, properly hollowed to
-  admit of its being armed, and this safely reached the Tanganyika Lake.
-  It was not useless but unused: the crew objected to its being hove,
-  and moreover--lead and metal are never safe in Central Africa--the
-  line, which was originally short, was curtailed of one half during the
-  first night after our departure from Kawele. It is by no means easy to
-  estimate the rate of progress in these barbarous canoes barbarously
-  worked. During the “spirts” when the paddler bends his back manfully
-  to his task, a fully-manned craft may attain a maximum of 7 to 8 miles
-  per hour: this exertion, however, rarely exceeds a quarter of an hour,
-  and is always followed by delay. The usual pace, when all are fresh
-  and cool, is about 4 to 5 miles, which declines through 4 and 3 to 2½,
-  when the men are fatigued, or when the sun is high. The medium,
-  therefore, may be assumed at 4 miles for short, and a little more than
-  2 miles an hour for long trips, halts deducted.
-
-On the 14th April, a cruise of four hours conducted us to Wafanya, a
-settlement of Wajiji mixed with Warundi. Leaving this wretched mass of
-hovels on the next day, which began with a solemn warning from Sayfu--a
-man of melancholic temperament--we made in four hours Wafanya, the
-southern limit of Urundi, and the only port in that inhospitable land
-still open to travellers. Drawing up our canoes upon a clear narrow
-sandstrip beyond the reach of the surf, we ascended a dwarf earth-cliff,
-and pitching our tents under a spreading tree upon the summit, we made
-ourselves as comfortable as the noisy, intrusive, and insolent crowd,
-assembled to stare and to laugh at the strangers, would permit. The crew
-raised their boothies within a stone-throw of the water, flight being
-here the thought ever uppermost in their minds.
-
-The people of this country are a noisy insolent race, addicted, like all
-their Lakist brethren, to drunkenness, and, when drunk, quarrelsome and
-violent. At Wafanya, however, they are kept in order by Kanoni, their
-mutware or minor chief, subject to “Mwezi,” the mwami or sultan of
-Urundi. The old man appeared, when we reached his settlement, in some
-state, preceded by an ancient carrying his standard, a long wisp of
-white fibre attached to a spear, like the Turkish “horse-tail,” and
-followed by a guard of forty or fifty stalwart young warriors armed with
-stout lance-like spears for stabbing and throwing, straight double-edged
-daggers, stiff bows, and heavy, grinded arrows. Kanoni began by
-receiving his black-mail--four cloths, two coil-bracelets, and three
-fundo of coral beads: the return was the inevitable goat. The climate of
-Wafanya is alternately a damp-cold and a “muggy” heat; the crews,
-however, if numerous and well armed, will delay here to feed when
-northward bound, and to lay in provisions when returning to their homes.
-Sheep and fine fat goats vary in value from one to two cloths; a fowl,
-or five to six eggs, costs a khete of beads; sweet potatoes are somewhat
-dearer than at Ujiji; there is no rice, but holcus and manioc are cheap
-and abundant, about 5 lbs. of the latter being sold for a single khete.
-Even milk is at times procurable. A sharp business is carried on in
-chikichi or palm-oil, of which a large earthen pot is bought for a
-cloth; the best paddles used by the crews are made at Wafanya; and the
-mbugu, or bark-cloth, is bought for four to ten khete, about one third
-of the market-price at Ujiji. Salt, being imported from Uvinza, is dear
-and scarce: it forms the first demand for barter, and beads the second.
-Large fish is offered for sale, but the small fry is the only article of
-the kind which is to be purchased fresh. The country owes its plenty,
-according to the guides, to almost perennial showers.
-
-The inhospitality of the Warundi and their northern neighbours, who
-would plunder a canoe or insist upon a black-mail equivalent to plunder,
-allows neither traffic nor transit to the north of Wafanya. Here,
-therefore, the crews prepare to cross the Tanganyika, which is divided
-into two stages by the island of Ubwari.
-
-In Ubwari I had indeed discovered “an island far away.” It is probably
-the place alluded to by the Portuguese historian, De Barros, in this
-important passage concerning the great lake in the centre of Africa: “It
-is a sea of such magnitude as to be capable of being navigated by many
-sail; and among the islands in it there is one capable of sending forth
-an army of 30,000 men.” Ubwari appears from a distance of two days
-bearing north-west; it is then somewhat hazy, owing to the extreme
-humidity of the atmosphere. From Wafanya it shows a clear profile about
-eighteen to twenty miles westward, and the breadth of the western
-channel between it and the mainland averages from six to seven miles.
-Its north point lies in south lat. 4° 7′, and the lay is N. 17° E.
-(corrected). From the northern point of Ubwari the eastern prolongation
-of the lake bears N. 3° W. and the western N. 10° W. It is the only
-island near the centre of the Tanganyika--a long, narrow lump of rock,
-twenty to twenty-five geographical miles long, by four or five of
-extreme breadth, with a high longitudinal spine, like a hog’s back,
-falling towards the water--here shelving, there steep, on the
-sea-side--where it ends in abrupt cliffs, here and there broken by broad
-or narrow gorges. Green from head to foot, in richness and profuseness
-of vegetation it equals, and perhaps excels, the shores of the
-Tanganyika, and in parts it appears carefully cultivated. Mariners dare
-not disembark on Ubwari, except at the principal places; and upon the
-wooded hill-sides wild men are, or are supposed to be, ever lurking in
-wait for human prey.
-
-We halted two miserable days at Wafanya. The country is peculiarly rich,
-dotted with numerous hamlets, which supply provisions, and even milk,
-and divided into dense thickets, palm-groves, and large clearings of
-manioc, holcus, and sweet potatoes, which mantle like a garment the
-earth’s brown body. Here we found Kannena snugly ensconced in our
-sepoy’s pal, or ridge-tent. He had privily obtained it from Said bin
-Salim, with a view to add to his and his ward’s comfort and dignity.
-When asked to give it up--we were lodging, I under a lug-sail, brought
-from the coast and converted into an awning, and my companion in the
-wretched flimsy article purchased from the Fundi--he naively refused.
-Presently having seen a fat sheep, he came to me declaring that it was
-his perquisite: moreover, he insisted upon receiving the goat offered to
-us by the Sultan Kanoni. I at first demurred. His satisfactory rejoinder
-was: “Ngema, ndugu yango!--Well, my brother,--here we remain!” I
-consulted Bombay about the necessity of humouring him in every whim.
-“What these jungle-niggers want,” quoth my counsel, “that they will
-have, or they will see the next month’s new moon!”
-
-The morning of the 18th April was dark and menacing. Huge purpling
-clouds deformed the face of the northern sky. Having loaded the canoes,
-however, we embarked to cross the channel which separated us from the
-Ubwari island. As the paddles were in hand, the crew, starting up from
-their benches, landed to bring on board some forgotten manioc. My
-companion remained in his boat, I in mine. Presently, hearing an unusual
-uproar, I turned round and saw the sailors arming themselves, whilst the
-“curtain-lion,” Khudabakhsh, was being hustled with blows, and pushed up
-the little cliff by a host of black spearmen; a naked savage the while
-capering about, waving the Baloch’s bare blade in one hand and its
-scabbard in the other. Kannena joined majestically in the “row,” but the
-peals of laughter from the mob showed no signs of anger. A Mjiji slave,
-belonging to Khudabakhsh had, it appears, taken flight, after landing
-unobserved with the crowd. The brave had redemanded him of Kannena, whom
-he charged, moreover, with aiding and abetting the desertion. The slave
-Sultan offered to refer the point to me, but the valiant man, losing
-patience, out with his sword, and was instantly disarmed, assaulted, and
-battered, as above described, by forty or fifty sailors. When quiet was
-restored, I called to him from the boat. He replied by refusing to
-“budge an inch,” and by summoning his “brother” Jelai to join him with
-bag and baggage. Kannena also used soft words, till at last, weary of
-waiting, he gave orders to put off, throwing two cloths to Khudabakhsh,
-that the fellow might not return home hungry. I admired his generosity
-till compelled to pay for it.
-
-The two Baloch were like mules; they disliked the voyage, and as it was
-the Ramazan, they added to their discomforts by pretending to fast.
-Their desertion was inexcusable; they left us wholly in the power of the
-Wajiji, to dangers and difficulties which they themselves could not
-endure. Prudent Orientals, I may again observe, never commit themselves
-to the sole custody of Africans, even of the “Muwallid,” namely those
-born and bred in their houses. In Persia the traveller is careful to mix
-the black blood with that of the higher race; formerly, whenever the
-member of a family was found murdered, the serviles were all tortured as
-a preliminary to investigation, and many stories, like the following,
-are recounted. The slaves had left their master in complete security,
-and were sitting, in early night, merrily chatting round the camp fire.
-Presently one began to relate the list of their grievances; another
-proposed to end them by desertion; and a third seconded the motion,
-opining, however, that they might as well begin by murdering the
-patroon. No sooner said than done. These children of passion and
-instinct, in the shortest interim, act out the “dreadful thing,” and as
-readily repent when reflection returns. The Arab, therefore, in African
-lands, seldom travels with Africans only; he prefers collecting as many
-companions, and bringing as many hangers on as he can afford. The best
-escort to a European capable of communicating with and commanding them,
-would be a small party of Arabs fresh from Hazramaut and untaught in the
-ways and tongues of Africa. They would by forming a kind of balance of
-power, prevent that daring pilfering for which slaves are infamous; in
-the long run they would save money to the explorer, and perhaps save his
-life.
-
-Khudabakhsh and his comrade-deserter returned safely by land to Kawele;
-and when derided by the other men, he repeated, as might be expected,
-notable griefs. Both had performed prodigies of valour; they had however
-been mastered by millions. Then they had called upon “Haji Abdullah”
-for assistance, to which he had replied “My power does not extend here!”
-Thus heartlessly refused aid by the only person who could and should
-have afforded it, they were reduced, sorely against their will, to take
-leave of him. Their tale was of course believed by their comrades, till
-the crews brought back the other version of the affair, the
-“camel-hearts” then once more became the laugh and jibe of man and
-woman.
-
-After a short consultation amongst the men concerning the threatening
-aspect of the heavens, it was agreed by them to defer crossing the Lake
-till the next day. We therefore passed on to the northern side of the
-point which limits the bay of Wafanya, and anchoring the craft in a
-rushy bayou, we pitched tents in time to protect us against a violent
-thunderstorm with its wind and rain.
-
-On the 19th April we stretched westward, towards Ubwari, which appeared
-a long strip of green directly opposite Urundi, and distant from
-eighteen to twenty miles. A little wind caused a heavy chopping swell;
-we were wet to the skin, and as noon drew nigh, the sun shone
-stingingly, reflected by a mirrory sea. At 10 A.M. the party drew in
-their paddles and halted to eat and smoke. About 2 P.M. the wind and
-waves again arose,--once more we were drenched, and the frail craft was
-constantly baled out to prevent water-logging. A long row of nine hours
-placed the canoes at a roadstead, with the usual narrow line of yellow
-sand, on the western coast of Ubwari Island. The men landed to dry
-themselves, and to cook some putrid fish which they had caught as it
-floated past the canoe, with the reed triangle that buoyed up the net.
-It was “strong meat” to us, but to them its staleness was as the “taste
-in his butter,” to the Londoner, the pleasing toughness of the old cock
-to the Arab, and the savoury “fumet” of the aged he-goat to the Baloch.
-After a short halt, we moved a little northwards to Mzimu, a strip of
-low land dividing the waters from their background of grassy rise,
-through which a swampy line winds from the hills above. Here we found
-canoes drawn up, and the islanders flocked from their hamlets to change
-their ivory and slaves, goats and provisions, for salt and beads, wire
-and cloth. The Wabwari are a peculiar, and by no means a comely race.
-The men are habited in the usual mbugu, tigered with black stripes, and
-tailed like leopard-skins: a wisp of fine grass acts as fillet, and
-their waists, wrists, and ankles, their knob-sticks, spears, and
-daggers, are bound with rattan-bark, instead of the usual wire. The
-women train their frizzly locks into two side-bits resembling bear’s
-ears; they tie down the bosom with a cord, apparently for the purpose of
-distorting nature in a way that is most repulsive to European eyes; and
-they clothe themselves with the barbarous goat-skin, or the scantiest
-kilts of bark-cloth. The wives of the chiefs wear a load of brass and
-bead ornaments; and, like the ladies of Wafanya, they walk about with
-patriarchal staves five feet long, and knobbed at the top.
-
-We halted for a day at Mzimu in Ubwari, where Kannena demanded seventy
-khete of blue-porcelain beads as his fee for safe conduct to the island.
-Suddenly, at 6 P.M., he informed me that he must move to other quarters.
-We tumbled into the boats, and after enjoying two hours of pleasant
-progress with a northerly current, and a splendid moonshine, which set
-off a scene at once wild and soft as any
-
-  “That savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew,”
-
-we rounded the bluff northern point of the island, put into “Mtuwwa,” a
-little bay on its western shore, pitched the tent, and slept at ease.
-
-Another halt was required on the 22nd April. The Sultan Kisesa demanded
-his blackmail, which amounted to one coil-bracelet and two cloths;
-provisions were hardly procurable, because his subjects wanted white
-beads, with which, being at a discount at Ujiji, we had not provided
-ourselves; and Kannena again successfully put in a tyrannical claim for
-460 khete of blue-porcelains to purchase rations.
-
-On the 23rd April we left Mtuwwa, and made for the opposite or western
-shore of the lake, which appeared about fifteen miles distant; the day’s
-work was nine hours. The two canoes paddled far apart, there was
-therefore little bumping, smoking, or quarrelling, till near our
-destination. At Murivumba the malaria, the mosquitoes, the crocodiles,
-and the men are equally feared. The land belongs to the Wabembe,
-who are correctly described in the “Mombas Mission Map” as
-“Menschenfresser--anthropophagi.” The practice arises from the savage
-and apathetic nature of the people, who devour, besides man, all kinds
-of carrion and vermin, grubs and insects, whilst they abandon to wild
-growths a land of the richest soil and of the most prolific climate.
-They prefer man raw, whereas the Wadoe of the coast eat him roasted. The
-people of a village which backed the port, assembled as usual to “sow
-gape-seed;” but though
-
-  “A hungry look hung upon them all,”--
-
-and amongst cannibals one always fancies oneself considered in the light
-of butcher’s meat,--the poor devils, dark and stunted, timid and
-degraded, appeared less dangerous to the living than to the dead. In
-order to keep them quiet, the bull-headed Mabruki, shortly before dusk,
-fired a charge of duck-shot into the village; ensued loud cries and
-deprecations to the “Murungwana,” but happily no man was hurt. Sayfu the
-melancholist preferred squatting through the night on the bow of the
-canoe, to trusting his precious person on shore. We slept upon a
-reed-margined spit of sand, and having neglected to pitch the tent, were
-rained upon to our heart’s content.
-
-We left Murivumba of the man-eaters early on the morning of the 24th
-April, and stood northwards along the western shore of the Lake: the
-converging trend of the two coasts told that we were fast approaching
-our destination. After ten hours’ paddling, halts included, we landed at
-the southern frontier of Uvira, in a place called Mamaletua, Ngovi, and
-many other names. Here the stream of commerce begins to set strong; the
-people were comparatively civil, they cleared for us a leaky old hut
-with a floor like iron,--it appeared to us a palace!--and they supplied,
-at moderate prices, sheep and goats, fish-fry, eggs, and poultry, grain,
-manioc and bird-pepper.
-
-After another long stretch of fifteen rainy and sunny hours, a high
-easterly wind compelled the hard-worked crews to put into Muikamba (?)
-of Uvira. A neighbouring hamlet, a few hovels built behind a thick
-wind-wrung plantain-grove, backed a reed-locked creek, where the canoes
-floated in safety and a strip of clean sand on which we passed the night
-as pleasantly as the bright moonlight and the violent gusts would
-permit. On the 26th April, a paddle of three hours and a half landed us
-in the forenoon at the sandy baystand, where the trade of Uvira is
-carried on.
-
-Great rejoicings ushered in the end of our outward-bound voyage. Crowds
-gathered on the shore to gaze at the new merchants arriving at Uvira,
-with the usual concert, vocal and instrumental, screams, shouts, and
-songs, shaums, horns, and tom-toms. The captains of the two canoes
-performed with the most solemn gravity a bear-like dance upon the
-mat-covered benches, which form the “quarter-decks,” extending their
-arms, pirouetting upon both heels, and springing up and squatting down
-till their hams touched the mats. The crews, with a general grin which
-showed all their ivories, rattled their paddles against the sides of
-their canoes in token of greeting, a custom derived probably from the
-ceremonious address of the Lakists, which is performed by rapping their
-elbows against their ribs. Presently Majid and Bekkari, two Arab youths
-sent from Ujiji by their chief, Said bin Majid, to collect ivory, came
-out to meet me; they gave me, as usual, the news, and said that having
-laid in the store of tusks required, they intended setting out
-southwards on the morrow. We passed half the day of our arrival on the
-bare landing-place, a strip of sand foully unclean, from the effect of
-many bivouacs. It is open to the water and backed by the plain of Uvira;
-one of the broadest of these edges of gently-inclined ground which
-separate the Lake from its trough of hills. Kannena at once visited the
-Mwami or Sultan Maruta, who owns a village on a neighbouring elevation;
-this chief invited me to his settlement, but the outfit was running low
-and the crew and party generally feared to leave their canoes. We
-therefore pitched our tents upon the sand, and prepared for the last
-labour, that of exploring the head of the Lake.
-
-We had now reached the “ne plus ultra,” the northernmost station to
-which merchants have as yet been admitted. The people are generally on
-bad terms with the Wavira, and in these black regions a traveller coming
-direct from an enemy’s territory is always suspected of hostile
-intentions,--no trifling bar to progress. Opposite us still rose, in a
-high broken line, the mountains of inhospitable Urundi, apparently
-prolonged beyond the northern extremity of the waters. The head, which
-was not visible from the plain, is said to turn N.N. westwards, and to
-terminate after a voyage of two days, which some informants, however,
-reduce to six hours. The breadth of the Tanganyika is here between seven
-and eight miles. On the 28th April, all my hopes--which, however, I had
-hoped against hope--were rudely dashed to the ground. I received a visit
-from the three stalwart sons of the Sultan Maruta: they were the noblest
-type of Negroid seen near the Lake, with symmetrical heads, regular
-features and pleasing countenances; their well-made limbs and athletic
-frames of a shiny jet black, were displayed to advantage by their loose
-aprons of red and dark-striped bark-cloth, slung, like game-bags, over
-their shoulders, and were set off by opal-coloured eyeballs, teeth like
-pearls, and a profusion of broad massive rings of snowy ivory round
-their arms, and conical ornaments like dwarf marling-spikes of
-hippopotamus tooth suspended from their necks. The subject of the
-mysterious river issuing from the Lake, was at once brought forward.
-They all declared that they had visited it, they offered to forward me,
-but they unanimously asserted, and every man in the host of bystanders
-confirmed their words, that the “Rusizi” enters into, and does not flow
-out of the Tanganyika. I felt sick at heart. I had not, it is true,
-undertaken to explore the Coy Fountains by this route; but the combined
-assertions of the cogging Shaykh and the false Msawahili had startled
-me from the proprieties of reason, and--this was the result!
-
-Bombay, when questioned, declared that my companion had misunderstood
-the words of Hamid bin Sulayyam, who spoke of a river falling into, not
-issuing _from_ the lake; and added his own conviction that the Arab had
-never sailed north of Ubwari Island. Sayfu, who at Ujiji had described,
-as an eye-witness, the mouth of the déversoir and its direction for two
-days, now owned that he had never been beyond Uvira, and that he never
-intended to do so. Briefly, I had been deceived by a strange coincidence
-of deceit.
-
-On the 28th April, we were driven from the strip of land which we
-originally occupied by a S. E. gale; here a “blat,” or small hurricane,
-which drives the foaming waters of the tideless sea up to the green
-margin of the land. Retiring higher up where the canoes were careened,
-we spread our bedding on the little muddy mounds that rise a few inches
-above the surface of grass-closed gutter which drains off the showers
-daily falling amongst the hills. I was still obliged to content myself
-with the lug-sail, thrown over a ridge-pole supported by two bamboo
-uprights, and pegged out like a tent below; it was too short to fall
-over the ends and to reach the ground, it was therefore a place of
-passage for mizzle, splash, and draught of watery wind. My companion
-inhabited the tent bought from the Fundi, it was thoroughly rotted,
-during his first trip across the Lake--by leakage in the boat, and by
-being “bushed” with mud instead of pegs on shore. He informed me that
-there was “good grub” at Uvira, and that was nearly the full amount of
-what I heard from or of him. Our crews had hutted themselves in the
-dense mass of grass near our tents; they lived as it were under arms,
-and nothing would induce them to venture away from their only escape,
-the canoes, which stood ready for launching whenever required. Sayfu
-swore that he would return to Ujiji rather than venture a few yards
-inland to buy milk, whilst Bombay and Mabrukí, who ever laboured under
-the idea that every brother-African of the jungle thirsted for their
-blood, upon the principle that wild birds hate tame birds, became, when
-the task was proposed to them, almost mutinous. Our nine days’ halt at
-Uvira had therefore unusual discomforts. The air, however, though damp
-and raw, with gust, storm, and rain, must have been pure in the extreme;
-appetite and sleep--except when the bull-frogs were “making a night of
-it”--were rarely wanting, and provisions were good, cheap, and abundant.
-
-I still hoped, however, to lay down the extreme limits of the lake
-northwards. Majid and Bekkari the Arab agents of Said bin Majid, replied
-to the offer of an exorbitant sum, that they would not undertake the
-task for ten times that amount. The sons of Maruta had volunteered their
-escort; when I wanted to close with them, they drew off. Kannena, when
-summoned to perform his promise and reminded of the hire that he had
-received, jumped up and ran out of the tent: afterwards at Ujiji he
-declared that he had been willing to go, but that his crews were
-unanimous in declining to risk their lives,--which was perhaps true.
-Towards the end of the halt I suffered so severely from ulceration of
-the tongue, that articulation was nearly impossible, and this was a
-complete stopper to progress. It is a characteristic of African travel
-that the explorer may be arrested at the very bourne of his journey, on
-the very threshold of success, by a single stage, as effectually as if
-all the waves of the Atlantic or the sands of Arabia lay between.
-
-Maruta and his family of young giants did not fail to claim their
-blackmail; they received a total of twelve cloths, five kitindi, and
-thirty khete of coral beads. They returned two fine goats, here worth
-about one cloth each, and sundry large gourds of fresh milk--the only
-food I could then manage to swallow. Kannena, who had been living at
-Maruta’s village, came down on the 5th May to demand 460 khete of blue
-porcelains, wherewith to buy rations for the return-voyage. Being
-heavily in debt, all his salt and coil-bracelets had barely sufficed for
-his liabilities: he had nothing to show for them but masses of
-Sambo--iron-wire rings--which made his ankles resemble those of a young
-hippopotamus. The slaves and all the fine tusks that came on board were
-the property of the crew.
-
-Our departure from Uvira was finally settled for the 6th May: before
-taking leave of our “furthest point,” I will offer a few details
-concerning the commerce of the place.
-
-Uvira is much frequented on account of its cheapness; it is the great
-northern depôt for slaves, ivory, grain, bark-cloth, and ironware, and,
-in the season, hardly a day elapses without canoes coming in for
-merchandise or provisions. The imports are the kitindi, salt, beads,
-tobacco, and cotton cloth. Rice does not grow there, holcus and maize
-are sold at one to two fundo of common beads per masuta or small
-load,--perhaps sixteen pounds,--and one khete is sufficient during the
-months of plenty to purchase five pounds of manioc, or two and even
-three fowls. Plantains of the large and coarse variety are common and
-cheap, and one cloth is given for two goodly earthen pots full of
-palm-oil. Ivory fetches its weight in brass wire: here the merchant
-expects for every 1000 dollars of outfit to receive 100 farasilah (3500
-lbs.) of large tusks, and his profit would be great were it not
-counterbalanced by the risk and by the expense of transport. The prices
-in the slave-mart greatly fluctuate. When business is dull, boys under
-ten years may be bought for four cloths and five fundo of white and blue
-porcelains, girls for six shukkah, and as a rule at these remote places,
-as Uvira, Ujipa, and Marungu, slaves are cheaper than in the market of
-Ujiji. Adults fetch no price, they are notoriously intractable, and
-addicted to desertion. Bark-cloths, generally in the market, vary from
-one to three khete of coral beads. The principal industry of the Wavira
-is ironware, the material for which is dug in the lands lying at a
-little distance westward of the lake. The hoes, dudgeons, and small
-hatchets, here cost half their usual price at Ujiji. The people also
-make neat baskets and panniers, not unlike those of Normandy, and pretty
-bowls cut out of various soft woods, light and dark: the latter are also
-found, though rarely, at Ujiji and in the western islets.
-
-A gale appeared to be brewing in the north--here the place of
-storms--and the crews, fearing wind and water, in the afternoon insisted
-upon launching their canoes and putting out to sea at 10 A.M. on the 6th
-May. After touching at the stages before described, Muikamba, Ngovi and
-Murivumba of the anthropophagi, we crossed without other accidents but
-those of weather--the rainy monsoon was in its last convulsions--the
-western branch or supplementary channel separating the Lake from the
-island of Ubwari. Before anchoring at Mzimu, our former halting-place,
-we landed at a steep ghaut, where the crews swarmed up a ladder of rock,
-and presently returned back with pots of the palm-oil, for which this
-is the principal depôt.
-
-On the 10th May the sky was dull and gloomy, the wind was hushed, the
-“rain-sun” burnt with a sickly and painful heat; the air was still and
-sultry, stifling and surcharged, while the glimmerings of lurid
-lightning and low mutterings from the sable cloud-banks lying upon the
-northern horizon, cut by light masses of mist in a long unbroken line,
-and from the black arch rising above the Acroceraurian hills to the
-west, disturbed at times the death-like silence. Even the gulls on the
-beach forefelt a storm. I suggested a halt, but the crews were now in a
-nervous hurry to reach their homes,--impatience mastered even _their_
-prudence.
-
-We left Mzimu at sunset, and for two hours coasted along the shore. It
-was one of those portentous evenings of the tropics--a calm before a
-tempest--unnaturally quiet; we struck out, however, boldly towards the
-eastern shore of the Tanganyika, and the western mountains rapidly
-lessened on the view. Before, however, we reached the mid-channel, a
-cold gust--in these regions the invariable presage of a storm--swept
-through the deepening shades cast by the heavy rolling clouds, and the
-vivid nimble lightning flashed, at first by intervals, then incessantly,
-with a ghastly and blinding glow, illuminating the “vast of night,” and
-followed by a palpable obscure, and a pitchy darkness, that weighed upon
-the sight. As terrible was its accompaniment of rushing, reverberating
-thunder, now a loud roar, peal upon peal, like the booming of heavy
-batteries, then breaking into a sudden crash, which was presently
-followed by a rattling discharge like the sharp pattering of musketry.
-The bundles of spears planted upright amidships, like paratonnerres,
-seemed to invite the electric fluid into the canoes. The waves began to
-rise, the rain descended, at first in warning-drops, then in torrents,
-and had the wind steadily arisen, the cockle-shell craft never could
-have lived through the short, chopping sea which characterises the
-Tanganyika in heavy weather. The crew, though blinded by the showers,
-and frightened by the occasional gusts, held their own gallantly enough;
-at times, however, the moaning cry, “O my wife!” showed what was going
-on within. Bombay, a noted Voltairian in fine weather, spent the length
-of that wild night in reminiscences of prayer. I sheltered myself from
-the storm under my best friend, the Mackintosh, and thought of the
-far-famed couplet of Hafiz,--with its mystic meaning I will not trouble
-the reader:--
-
-  “This collied night, these horrid waves, these gusts that sweep the
-     whirling deep!
-   What reck they of our evil plight, who on the shore securely sleep?”
-
-Fortunately the rain beat down wind and sea, otherwise nothing short of
-a miracle could have preserved us for a dry death.
-
-That night, however, was the last of our “sea-sorrows.” After floating
-about during the latter hours of darkness, under the land, but uncertain
-where to disembark, we made at 7 A.M., on the 11th May, Wafanya, our
-former station in ill-famed Urundi. Tired and cramped by the night’s
-work, we pitched tents, and escaping from the gaze of the insolent and
-intrusive crowd, we retired to spend a few hours in sleep.
-
-I was suddenly aroused by Mabruki, who, rushing into the tent, thrust my
-sword into my hands, and exclaimed that the crews were scrambling into
-their boats. I went out and found everything in dire confusion. The
-sailors hurrying here and there, were embarking their mats and
-cooking-pots, some were in violent parley with Kannena, whilst a little
-knot was carrying a man, mortally wounded, down to the waters of the
-Lake. I saw at once that the affair was dangerous. On these occasions
-the Wajiji, whose first impulse is ever flight, rush for safety to their
-boats and push off, little heeding whom or what they leave behind. We
-therefore hurried in without delay.
-
-When both crews had embarked, and no enemy appeared, Kannena persuaded
-them to reland, and proving to them their superior force, induced them
-to demand, at the arrow’s point, satisfaction of Kanoni, the chief, for
-the outrage committed by his subjects. During our sleep a drunken
-man--almost all these disturbances arise from fellows who have the “_vin
-méchant_”--had rushed from the crowd of Warundi, and, knobstick in hand,
-had commenced dealing blows in all directions. Ensued a general mêlée.
-Bombay, when struck, called to the crews to arm. The Goanese, Valentine,
-being fear-crazed, seized my large “Colt” and probably fired it into the
-crowd; at all events, the cone struck one of our own men below the right
-pap, and came out two inches to the right of the backbone. Fortunately
-for us he was a slave, otherwise the situation would have been
-desperate. As it was, the crowd became violently excited, one man drew
-his dagger upon Valentine, and with difficulty I dissuaded Kannena from
-killing him. As the crew had ever an eye to the “main chance,” food,
-they at once confiscated three goats, our store for the return voyage,
-cut their throats, and spitted the meat upon their spears:--thus the
-lamb died and the wolf dined, and the innocent suffered and the
-plunderer was joyed, the strong showed his strength and the weak his
-weakness, according to the usual formula of this sublunary world.
-
-Whilst Kannena was absent, on martial purposes intent, I visited the
-sole sufferer in the fray, and after seeing his wound washed, I forbade
-his friends to knead the injured muscles, as they were doing, and to
-wrench his right arm from side to side. A cathartic seemed to have a
-beneficial effect. On the second day of his accident he was able to
-rise. But these occurrences in wild countries always cause long
-troubles. Kannena, who obtained from Sultan Kanoni, as blood-money, a
-small girl and a large sheep, declared that the man might die, and
-insisted upon my forthwith depositing, in case of such contingency,
-eight cloths, which, should the wound not prove fatal, would be
-returned. The latter clause might have been omitted; in these lands,
-_nescit_ cloth _missa reverti_. As we were about to leave Ujiji, Kannena
-claimed for the man’s subsistence forty cloths,--or as equivalent, three
-slaves and six cloths--which also it was necessary to pay. A report was
-afterwards spread that the wretch had sunk under his wound. Valentine
-heard the intelligence with all that philosophy which distinguishes his
-race when mishaps occur to any but self. His prowess, however, cost me
-forty-eight dollars, here worth at least £100 in England. Still I had
-reason to congratulate myself that matters had not been worse. Had the
-victim been a Mjiji freeman, the trouble, annoyances, and expense would
-have been interminable. Had he been a Mrundi, we should have been
-compelled to fight our way, through a shower of arrows, to the boats;
-war would have extended to Ujiji, and “England,” as usual, would have
-had to pay the expenses. When Said bin Salim heard at Kazeh a distorted
-account of this mishap--of course it was reported that “Haji Abdullah”
-killed the man--he hit upon a notable device. Lurinda, the headman of
-Gungu, had often begged the Arab to enter into “blood-brotherhood” with
-him, and this had Said bin Salim pertinaciously refused, on religious
-grounds, to do. When informed that battle and murder were in the wind,
-he at once made fraternity with Lurinda, hoping to derive protection
-from his spear. His terrors afterwards persuaded him to do the same with
-Kannena: indeed at that time he would have hailed a slave as “Ndugu
-yango!” (my brother!)
-
-When Kannena returned successful from his visit to Kanoni, we prepared
-to leave Wafanya. The fierce rain and the nightly drizzle detained us,
-however, till the next morning. On the 11th May we paddled round the
-southern point of Wafanya Bay to Makimoni, a little grassy inlet, where
-the canoes were defended from the heavy surf.
-
-After this all was easy. We rattled paddles on the 12th May, as we
-entered our “patrie,” Nyasanga. The next night was spent in Bangwe Bay.
-We were too proud to sneak home in the dark; we had done something
-deserving a Certain Cross, we were heroes, braves of braves; we wanted
-to be looked at by the fair, to be howled at by the valiant. Early on
-the morning of the 13th May we appeared with shots, shouts, and a
-shocking noise, at the reed-lined gap of sand that forms the ghaut of
-Kawele. It was truly a triumphal entrance. All the people of that
-country-side had collected to welcome the crew, women and children, as
-well as men, pressed waist-deep into the water to receive friend and
-relative with becoming affection:--the gestures, the clamour, and the
-other peculiarities of the excited mob I must really leave to the
-reader’s imagination; the memory is too much for me.
-
-But true merit is always modest; it aspires to Honor, not honours. The
-Wagungu, or whites, were repeatedly “called for.” I broke, however,
-through the sudant, strident, hircine throng, and regaining, with the
-aid of Riza’s strong arm, the old Tembe, was salaamed to by the
-expectant Said bid Salim and the Jemadar. It felt like a return home.
-But I had left, before my departure, with my Arab chargé-d’affaires,
-four small loads of cloth, and on inspecting the supplies there remained
-only ten shukkah. I naturally inquired what had become of the 110
-others, which had thus prematurely disappeared. Said bin Salim replied
-by showing a small pile of grain-bags, and by informing me that he had
-hired twenty porters for the down-march. He volunteered, it is true, in
-case I felt disposed to finish the Periplus of the Lake, to return to
-Kazeh and to superintend the transmission of our reserve supplies; as,
-however, he at the same time gave me to understand that he could not
-escort them back to Ujiji, I thanked him for his offer, and declined it.
-
-We had expended upwards of a month--from the 10th April to the 13th May,
-1858--in this voyage fifteen days outward bound, nine at Uvira, and nine
-in returning. The boating was rather a severe trial. We had no means of
-resting the back; the holds of the canoes, besides being knee-deep in
-water, were disgracefully crowded;--they had been appropriated to us and
-our four servants by Kannena, but by degrees, he introduced in addition
-to the sticks, spears, broken vases, pots, and gourds, a goat, two or
-three small boys, one or two sick sailors, the little slave-girl and the
-large sheep. The canoes were top-heavy with the number of their crew,
-and the shipping of many seas spoilt our tents, and besides, wetted our
-salt, and soddened our grain and flour; the gunpowder was damaged, and
-the guns were honeycombed with rust. Besides the splashing of the
-paddles and the dashing of waves, heavy showers fell almost every day
-and night, and the intervals were bursts of burning sunshine.
-
-The discomfort of the halt was not less than that of the boat. At first
-we pitched tents near the villages, in tall, fetid grass, upon ground
-never level, where stones were the succedanea for tent-pegs stolen for
-fuel, and where we slept literally upon mire. The temperature inside was
-ever in extremes, now a raw rainy cold, then a steam-bath that damped us
-like an April shower. The villagers, especially in the remoter
-districts, were even more troublesome, noisy, and inquisitive, than the
-Wagogo. A “notable passion of wonder” appeared in them. We felt like
-baited bears: we were mobbed in a moment, and scrutinised from every
-point of view by them; the inquisitive wretches stood on tiptoe, they
-squatted on their hams, they bent sideways, they thrust forth their
-necks like hissing geese to vary the prospect. Their eyes, “glaring
-lightning-like out of their heads,” as old Homer hath it, seemed to
-devour us; in the ecstasy of curiosity they shifted from one Muzungu to
-his “brother,” till, like the well-known ass between the two bundles of
-hay, they could not enjoy either. They were pertinacious as flies, to
-drive them away was only to invite a return; whilst, worst grief of all,
-the women were plain, and their grotesque salutations resembled the
-“encounter of two dog-apes.” The Goanese were almost equally honoured,
-and the operation of cooking was looked upon as a miracle. At last my
-experience in staring enabled me to categorise the infliction as
-follows. Firstly, is the stare furtive, when the starer would peep and
-peer under the tent, and its reverse, the stare open. Thirdly, is the
-stare curious or intelligent, which, generally accompanied with
-irreverent laughter regarding our appearance. Fourthly, is the stare
-stupid, which denoted the hebete incurious savage. The stare discreet is
-that of sultans and great men; the stare indiscreet at unusual seasons
-is affected by women and children. Sixthly, is the stare flattering--it
-was exceedingly rare, and equally so was the stare contemptuous.
-Eighthly, is the stare greedy; it was denoted by the eyes restlessly
-bounding from one object to another, never tired, never satisfied.
-Ninthly, is the stare peremptory and pertinacious, peculiar to crabbed
-age. The dozen concludes with the stare drunken, the stare fierce or
-pugnacious, and finally the stare cannibal, which apparently considered
-us as articles of diet. At last, weary of the stare by day, and the tent
-by night, I preferred inhabiting a bundle of clothes in the wet hold of
-the canoe; this, at least, saved the trouble of wading through the
-water, of scrambling over the stern, and of making a way between the two
-close lines of grumbling and surly blacks that manned the
-paddle-benches; whenever, after a meaningless halt, some individual
-thought proper to scream out “Safári!” (journey!)
-
-Curious to say, despite all these discomforts our health palpably
-improved. My companion, though still uncomfortably deaf, was almost
-cured of his blindness. When that ulcerated mouth, which rendered it
-necessary for me to live by suction--generally milk and water--for
-seventeen days, had returned to its usual state, my strength gradually
-increased. Although my feet were still swollen by the perpetual wet and
-by the painful funza or entozoon, my hands partially lost their
-numbness, and the fingers which before could hold the pen only for a few
-minutes were once more able freely to write and sketch. In fact, I date
-a slow but sensible progress towards a complete recovery of health from
-the days and nights spent in the canoe and upon the mud of the
-Tanganyika Lake. Perhaps mind had also acted upon matter; the object of
-my mission was now effected, and this thought enabled me to cast off the
-burden of grinding care with which the imminent prospect of a failure
-had before sorely laden me.
-
-The rainy monsoon broke up on the 14th May, the day after my return to
-Kawele, and once more, after six months of incessant storm-wind and
-rain, clouds and mists, we had fine, cool mornings, clear warm sun, and
-deliciously cold nights. The climate became truly enjoyable, but the
-scenery somewhat lost its earlier attractions. The faultless, regular,
-and uniform beauty, and the deep stillness of this evergreen land did
-not fail to produce that strange, inexplicable melancholy of which most
-travellers in tropical countries complain. In this Nature all is
-beautiful that meets the eye, all is soft that affects the senses; but
-she is a Siren whose pleasures soon pall upon the enjoyer. The mind,
-enfeebled perhaps by an enervating climate, is fatigued and wearied by
-the monotony of the charms which haunt it; cloyed with costly fare, it
-sighs for the rare simplicity of the desert. I have never felt this
-sadness in Egypt and Arabia, and was never without it in India and
-Zanzibar.
-
-Our outfit, as I have observed, had been reduced to a minimum. Not a
-word from Snay bin Amir, my agent at Kazeh, had arrived in reply to my
-many missives, and old Want began to stare at us with the stare
-peremptory. “Wealth,” say the Arabs, “hath one devil, poverty a dozen,”
-and nowhere might a caravan more easily starve than in rich and fertile
-Central Africa. Travellers are agreed that in these countries “baggage
-is life:” the heartless and inhospitable race will not give a handful of
-grain without return, and to use the Moslem phrase, “Allah pity him who
-must beg of a beggar!” As usual on such occasions, the Baloch began to
-clamour for more rations--they received two cloths per diem--and to
-demand a bullock wherewith to celebrate their Eed or greater Festival.
-There were several Arab merchants at Kawele, but they had exhausted
-their stock in purchasing slaves and ivory. None in fact were so rich as
-ourselves, and we were reduced to ten shukkah, ten fundo of coral beads,
-and one load of black porcelains, which were perfectly useless. With
-this pittance we had to engage hammals for the hammock, to feed
-seventy-five mouths, and to fee several Sultans; in fact, to incur the
-heavy expenses of marching back 260 miles to Unyanyembe.
-
-Still, with an enviable development of Hope, Said bin Salim determined
-that we should reach Kazeh unfamished. We made the necessary
-preparations for the journey, patched tents and umbrella, had a grand
-washing and scouring day, mended the portmanteaus, and ground the grain
-required for a month’s march, hired four porters for the manchil,
-distributed ammunition to Said bin Salim and the Baloch, who at once
-invested it in slaves, and exchanged with Said bin Majid several pounds
-of lead for palm-oil, which would be an economy at the Malagarazi Ferry.
-For some days past rumours had reached here that a large caravan of
-Wanyamwazi porters, commanded by an Arab merchant, was approaching
-Kawele. I was not sanguine enough to expose myself to another
-disappointment. Suddenly on the 22d May, frequent musket shots announced
-the arrival of strangers, and at noon the Tembe was surrounded with
-boxes and bales, porters, slaves, and four “sons of Ramji,” Mbaruko,
-Sangora, Khamisi, and Shehe. Shahdad the Baloch, who had been left
-behind at Kazeh in love, and in attendance upon his “brother,” Ismail,
-who presently died, had charge of a parcel of papers and letters from
-Europe, India, and Zanzibar. They were the first received after nearly
-eleven months, and of course they brought with them evil tidings,--the
-Indian mutinies. _En revanche_, I had a kindly letter from M. Cochet,
-Consul of France, and from Mr. Mansfield, of the U.S., who supplied me
-with the local news, and added for my edification a very “low-church”
-Tract, the first of the family, I opine, that has yet presented itself
-in Central Africa. Mr. Frost reported that he had sent at once a letter
-apprising me of Lieut.-Colonel Hamaton’s death, and had forwarded the
-medical supplies for which I indented from K’hutu: these, as has been
-explained, had not reached me. Snay bin Amir also informed me that he
-had retained all the packages for which he could find no porters; that
-three boxes had been stolen from his “godown;” and finally, that the
-second supply, 400 dollars-worth of cloth and beads, for which I had
-written at Inenge and had re-written at Ugogo and other places, was
-hourly expected to arrive.
-
-This was an unexpected good fortune, happening at a crisis when it was
-really wanted. My joy was somewhat damped by inspecting the packs of the
-fifteen porters. Twelve were laden with ammunition which was not wanted,
-and with munitions _de bouche_, which were: nearly half the bottles of
-curry-powder, spices, and cognac were broken, tea, coffee, and sugar,
-had been squeezed out of their tin canisters, and much of the rice and
-coffee had disappeared. The three remaining loads were one of American
-domestics,--sixty shukkahs--and the rest contained fifteen
-coral-bracelets and white beads. All were the refuse of their kind: the
-good Hindoos at Zanzibar had seized this opportunity to dispose of their
-flimsy, damaged, and unsaleable articles. This outfit was sufficient to
-carry us comfortably to Unyanyembe. I saw, however, with regret that it
-was wholly inadequate for the purpose of exploring the two southern
-thirds of the Tanganyika Lake, much less for returning to Zanzibar,
-_viâ_ the Nyassa or Maravi Lake, and Kilwa, as I had once dreamed.
-
-I received several visits from our old companion, Muhinna bin Sulayman
-of Kazeh, and three men of his party. He did not fail to improve the
-fact of his having brought up my supplies in the nick of time. He
-required five coil-bracelets and sixteen pounds of beads as my share of
-the toll taken from him by the Lord of the Malagarazi Ferry. For the
-remaining fifteen coil-bracelets he gave me forty cloths, and for the
-load and a half of white beads he exchanged 880 strings of blue
-porcelains--a commercial operation by which he cleared without trouble
-35 per cent. Encouraged by my facility, he proposed to me the propriety
-of paying part of the kuhonga or blackmail claimed from new comers by
-Rusimba and Kannena. But facility has its limits: I quietly objected,
-and we parted on the best of terms.
-
-[Illustration: A Mnyamwezi.
-
-A Mjiji.
-
-Mugungu Mbaya, “the wicked white man.”
-
-A Mgogo.
-
-Ferry Boat on the Malagarazi River.
-
-A Mzaramo.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XV.
-
-THE TANGANYIKA LAKE AND ITS PERIPLUS.
-
-
-The Tanganyika Lake, though situated in the unexplored centre of
-Intertropical Africa, and until 1858 unvisited by Europeans, has a
-traditionary history of its own, extending through more than three
-centuries.
-
-“Accounts of a great sea in the interior of Africa obtained (partially
-from native travellers) at Congo and Sofala,” reached the Portuguese
-settlements on both shores of the continent.[6] The details of de
-Barros (first printed in 1852), whilst affording substantially correct
-details, such as the length of the Lake--100 leagues--the capability of
-navigation, and the one large island--Ubwari--are curiously intermingled
-with the errors of theoretical conclusion. Subsequently Pigafetta
-(1591), writing upon the authority of Portuguese inquirers, affirms that
-there is but one lake (the N’yassa) on the confines of Angola and
-Monomotapa, but that there are two lakes (the Nyassa and the
-Tanganyika), not lying east and west, as was supposed by Ptolemy of
-Alexandria, but north and south of each other, and about 400 miles
-asunder, which give birth to the Nile. From that epoch dates the origin
-of our modern misconceptions concerning the Lake Region of Central
-Intertropical Africa. The Nyassa and the Tanganyika were now blended,
-then separated, according to the theories or the information of the
-geographer; no explorer ventured to raise from the land of mystery the
-veil that invested it; and the “Mombas Mission” added the colophon by
-confounding, with the old confusion, the Nyanza or Ukerewe, a third
-lake, of which they had heard at Mombasah and elsewhere. It is not
-wonderful then that Dr. Vincent suspected the existence or the place of
-the Central Lake, or that the more ignorant popularizers of knowledge
-confounded the waters of the Nyassa and the Ngami.[7]
-
-  [6] Mr. Cooley’s ‘Memoir on the Geography of N’yassi,’ p. 1. (Vol. XV.
-  of 1845, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.) The extracts from
-  Portuguese history in the text are entirely taken from that learned
-  paper, which in describing actualities wanted nothing but a solid
-  foundation of data. The geographer’s principal informant in 1834 was
-  one “Khamisi bin Tani,” civilised into “Khamis bin Osman,” a Msawahili
-  of Lamu who having visited the Nyassa, Maravi or Kilwa Lake, pretended
-  that he had travelled to the Tanganyika Lake. I cannot allow this
-  opportunity to pass without expressing my gratitude to Mr. Cooley for
-  his courtesy in supplying me with references and other information.
-
-  [7] In the ‘Westminster Review’ (New Series, No. XX.) occurs the
-  following passage, which sufficiently illustrates the assertion in the
-  text; the critic is discussing Mr. C. Andersson’s ‘Lake Ngami,’ &c.
-  &c. (London, 1856):--“African missionaries, penetrating some little
-  distance inland from the S.E., recently brought information, which
-  they received second-hand from Arab travellers, of a vast fresh-water
-  lake far in the interior, described as being of enormous
-  dimensions--as nothing less than a great inland sea. Frequenters of
-  the Geographical Society’s meetings in Whitehall-place have observed
-  in consequence, on the site which used to be marked in the maps as a
-  sandy desert, a blue spot, about the size of the Caspian, and the
-  shape of a hideous inflated leech. We trusted that a more accurate
-  survey would correct the extreme frightfulness of the supposed form.
-  Mr. Andersson has spared us further excitement. The lake turns out to
-  be a mirage--a mythus with the smallest conceivable nucleus of fact.
-  On the very spot occupied by this great blue leech--long. E. from
-  Greenwich 23° and lat. S. 20° 21′--he found a small speck of bitter
-  water, something more than twenty miles across, or the size of Lake
-  Corrib in Galway. So perishes a phantom which has excited London
-  geographers for a whole season.”
-
-  Had the learned reviewer used his eyes or his judgment in
-  Whitehall-place, he would not thus have confounded the hypothetic sea
-  of the ‘Mombas Mission Map’--a reservoir made to include the three
-  several waters of Nyanza, Tanganyika, and Nyassa--in E. long. 24°-29°,
-  and _S. lat._ 0° 13′--with the little Ngami explored by Dr.
-  Livingstone and a party of friends in August, 1849, and placed by him
-  in E. long. 23°, and in _S. lat._ 20° 20′ 21′. The nearest points of
-  the two waters are separated by an interval, in round numbers, of 700
-  miles.
-
-The earliest name given by theoretical writers to the hypothetical
-single lake appears to have been Zembére, Zémbere, Zambre, Zambri, or
-Zembre, probably a corruption or dialectic variety of Zambesi, that
-river being supposed, like the Nile, the Zaire, the Manisa, and others,
-to be derived from it. The word Moravi or Maravi, which still deforms
-our maps, is the name of a large tribe or a lordly race like the
-Wahinda, dwelling to the south-east and south-west of the Nyassa. In the
-seventeenth century Luigi Mariano, a missioner residing at the Rios de
-Sena, calls the Central Sea the Lake of Hemosura; his description
-however applies to the Nyassa, Maravi or Kilwa Lake, and the word is
-probably a corruption of Rusuro or Lusuro, which in the language of
-Uhiao signifies a river or flowing water. In the ‘Mombas Mission Map’
-the lake is called “See von Uniamesi,” a mere misnomer, as it is
-separated by hundreds of miles from the Land of the Moon: the northern
-part is termed Ukerewe, by a confusion with the Nyanza Lake and the
-southern N’hánjá, for Nyassa, the old Maravi water near Kilwa. It is not
-a little curious, however, that Messrs. Cooley and Macqueen should both
-have recorded the vernacular name of the northern Lake Tangenyika, so
-unaccountably omitted from the ‘Mombas Mission Map.’ The words
-Tanganyenka and Tanganyenko used by Dr. Livingstone, who in places
-appears to confound the Lake with the Nyanza and the Nyassa, are
-palpable mispronunciations.
-
-The African name for the central lake is Tanganyika, signifying an
-anastomosis, or a meeting place (sc. of waters,) from ku tanganyika, the
-popular word, to join, or meet together: the initial t being changed to
-ch--ku changanyika for ku tanganyika--in the lingua Franca of Zanzibar
-doubtless gave rise to Mr. Cooley’s “Zanganyika.” The word Tanganyika is
-universally used by the Wajiji and other tribes near and upon the Lake.
-The Arabs and African strangers, when speaking loosely of it, call it
-indifferently the Bahari or Sea, the Ziwa or Pond, and even the Mtoni or
-River. The “Sea of Ujiji” would, after the fashion of Easterns, be
-limited to the waters in the neighbourhood of that principal depot.
-
-The Tanganyika occupies the centre of the length of the African
-continent, which extends from 32° N. to 33° S. latitude, and it lies on
-the western extremity of the eastern third of the breadth. Its general
-direction is parallel to the inner African line of volcanic action drawn
-from Gondar southwards through the regions about Kilima-ngáo
-(Kilimanjáro) to Mount Njesa, the eastern wall of the Nyassa Lake. The
-general formation suggests, as in the case of the Dead Sea, the idea of
-a volcano of depression--not, like the Nyanza or Ukerewe, a vast
-reservoir formed by the drainage of mountains. Judging from the eye, the
-walls of this basin rise in an almost continuous curtain, rarely waving
-and infracted to 2,000 or 3,000 feet above the water-level. The lower
-slopes are well wooded: upon the higher summits large trees are said not
-to grow; the deficiency of soil, and the prevalence of high fierce winds
-would account for the phenomena. The lay is almost due north and south,
-and the form a long oval, widening in the central portions and
-contracting systematically at both extremities. The length of the bed
-was thus calculated: From Ujiji (in S. lat. 4° 55′) to Uvira (in S. lat.
-3° 25′), where the narrowing of the breadth evidences approach to the
-northern head, was found by exploration a direct distance of 1° 30′ = 90
-miles, which, allowing for the interval between Uvira and the river
-Rusizi, that forms the northernmost limit, may be increased to 100
-rectilinear geographical miles. According to the Arab voyagers, who have
-frequently rounded the lake Ujiji in eight stages from the northern, and
-twelve from the southern, end of the lake, the extent from Ujiji to the
-Marungu River, therefore, is roughly computed at 150 miles. The total of
-length, from Uvira, in S. lat. 30° 25′, to Marungu, in S. lat. 7° 20′,
-would then be somewhat less than 250 rectilinear geographical miles.
-About Ujiji the water appears to vary in breadth from 30 to 35 miles,
-but the serpentine form of the banks, with a succession of serrations
-and indentations of salient and re-entering angles--some jutting far and
-irregularly into the bed--render the estimate of average difficult. The
-Arabs agree in correctly stating, that opposite Ujiji the shortest
-breadth of the lake is about equal to the channel which divides Zanzibar
-from the mainland, or between 23 and 24 miles. At Uvira the breadth
-narrows to eight miles. Assuming, therefore, the total length at 250,
-and the main breadth at 20, geographical miles, the circumference of the
-Tanganyika would represent, in round numbers, a total of 550 miles; the
-superficial area, which seems to vary little, covers about 5,000 square
-miles; and the drainage from the beginning of the great Central African
-depression in Unyamwezi, in E. long. 33° 58′, numbers from the eastward
-about 240 miles.
-
-By B. P. thermometer the altitude of the Tanganyika is 1850 feet above
-the sea-level, and about 2000 feet below the adjacent plateau of
-Unyamwezi and the Nyanza, or northern lake. This difference of level,
-even did not high-hill ranges intervene, would preclude the possibility
-of that connection between the waters which the Arabs, by a conjecture
-natural to inexpert geographers, have maintained to the confusion of the
-learned. The topographical situation of the Tanganyika is thus the
-centre of a deep synclical depression in the continent, a long
-narrow trough in the southern spurs of Urundi, which, with its
-mountain-neighbour Karagwah, situated upon the equator, represents the
-Inner African portion of the Lunar Mountains. It may be observed that
-the parallel of the northern extremity of the Tanganyika nearly
-corresponds with the southern creek of the Nyanza, and that they are
-separated by an arc of the meridian of about 343 miles.
-
-The water of the Tanganyika appears deliciously sweet and pure after the
-salt and bitter, the putrid and slimy produce of the wells, pits, and
-pools on the line of march. The people, however, who drink it willingly
-when afloat, prefer, when on shore, the little springs which bubble from
-its banks. They complain that it does not satisfy thirst, and contrast
-it unfavourably with the waters of its rival the Nyanza: it appears
-moreover, to corrode metal and leather with exceptional power. The
-colour of the pure and transparent mass has apparently two normal
-varieties: a dull sea-green--never, however, verdigris-coloured, as in
-the shoals of the Zanzibar seas, where the reflected blue of the
-atmosphere blends with the yellow of the sandy bottom; the other, a
-clear, soft blue--by day rarely deep and dark, like the ultramarine of
-the Mediterranean, but resembling the light and milky tints of tropical
-seas. Under a strong wind the waves soon rise in yeasty lines, foaming
-up from a turbid greenish surface, and the aspect becomes menacing in
-the extreme.
-
-It was found impracticable to take soundings of the Tanganyika: the
-Arabs, however, agreed in asserting that with lines of several fathoms
-they found bottom only near the shores. The shingly sole shelves
-rapidly, without steps or overfalls, into blue water. Judging from the
-eye, the bottom is sandy and profusely strewn with worn pebbles. Reefs
-and washes were observed near the shores; it is impossible to form an
-idea of their position or extent, as the crews confine themselves to a
-few well-known lines, from which they cannot be persuaded to diverge. No
-shoals or shallows were seen at a distance from the coasts, and though
-islets are not unfrequent upon the margin, only one was observed or
-heard of near the centre.
-
-The affluents of this lake are neither sufficiently numerous nor
-considerable to alter by sedimentary deposit the depth or the shape of
-the bed. The borders are generally low: a thick fringe of rush and reed,
-obviating erosion by the element, conceals the watery margin. Where the
-currents beat, they cut out a short and narrow strip of quartzose sand,
-profusely strewn with large shingle, gravel, comminuted shells, and
-marine exuviæ, with a fringe of drift formed by the joint action of wind
-and wave. Beyond this is a shelving plain--the principal locality for
-cultivation and settlements. In some parts it is a hard clay
-conglomerate; in others, a rich red loam, apparently stained with oxide
-of iron; and in others sandy, but everywhere coated with the thickest
-vegetation extending up to the background of mountains. The coast is
-here and there bluff, with miniature cliffs and headlands, whose
-formation is of sandstone strata tilted, broken, and distorted, or small
-blocks imbedded in indurated reddish earth. From the water appeared
-piles of a dark stone resembling angular basalt, and amongst the
-rock-crevices the people find the float-clay, or mountain meal, with
-which they decorate their persons and the sterns of their canoes. The
-uncultivated hill summits produce various cactaceæ; the sides are
-clothed with giant trees, the mvule, the tamarind, and the bauhinia. On
-the declines, more precipitous than the Swiss terraces, manioc and
-cereals grow luxuriantly, whilst the lowest levels are dark with groves
-of plantains and Guinea-palms.
-
-A careful investigation and comparison of statements leads to the belief
-that the Tanganyika receives and absorbs the whole river-system--the
-net-work of streams, nullahs, and torrents--of that portion of the
-Central African depression whose water-shed converges towards the great
-reservoir. Geographers will doubt that such a mass, situated at so
-considerable an altitude, can maintain its level without an effluent.
-Moreover, the freshness of the water would, under normal circumstances,
-argue the escape of saline matter washed down by the influents from the
-area of drainage. But may not the Tanganyika, situated, like the Dead
-Sea, as a reservoir for supplying with humidity the winds which have
-parted with their moisture in the barren and arid regions of the south,
-maintain its general level by the exact balance of supply and
-evaporation? And may not the saline particles deposited in its waters be
-wanting in some constituent which renders them evident to the taste? One
-point concerning the versant has been proved by these pages, namely,
-that the Tanganyika cannot be drained eastward by rents in a subtending
-mountain ridge, as was supposed by Dr. Livingstone from an
-indiscriminately applied analogy with the ancient head-basin of the
-Zambezi. Dr. Livingstone (chap. xxiv. xxvi. et passim) informs his
-readers, from report of the Arabs, that the Tanganyika is a large
-shallow body of water; in fact, the residuum of a mass anciently much
-more extensive. This, however, is not and cannot be the case. In
-theorising upon the eastern versant and drainage of the Tanganyika, Dr.
-Livingstone seems to have been misled by having observed that the vast
-inland sea of geological ages, of which Lake Ngami and its neighbour
-Kumadau are now the principal remains, had been desiccated by cracks and
-fissures, caused in the subtending soils by earthquakes and sudden
-upheavals, which thus opened for the waters an exit into the Indian
-Ocean. This may have happened to the Nyassa, or Southern Lake; it must
-not, however, be generalized and extended to the Nyanza and the
-Tanganyika.
-
-As in Zanzibar, there is little variety of temperature upon the
-Tanganyika. The violent easterly gales, which, pouring down from the
-cold heights of Usagara, acquire impetus sufficient to carry the current
-over Ugogo, Unyamwezi, and Uvinza, are here less distinctly defined.
-The periodical winds over the Lake--regular, but not permanent--are the
-south-east and the south-west, which also bring up the foulest weather.
-The land and sea breezes are felt almost as distinctly as upon the
-shores of the Indian Ocean. The breath of the morning, called by the
-Arabs El Barad, or the zephyr, sets in from the north. During the day
-are light variable breezes, which often subside, when the weather is not
-stormy, into calms. In the evenings a gentle afflatus comes up from the
-waters. Throughout the dry season the Lake becomes a wind-trap, and a
-heavy ground sea rolls towards the shore. In the rains there is less
-sea, but accidents occur from sudden and violent storms. The mountainous
-breakers of Arab and African informants were not seen; in fact, with a
-depth of three feet from ridge to dell, a wave would swamp the largest
-laden canoe. Wind-currents are common. Within a few hours a stream will
-be traversed, setting strongly to the east, and crossed by a southerly
-or south-westerly current. High gales, in certain localities where the
-waves set upon a flush, flat shore, drive the waters fifteen to twenty
-feet beyond the usual mark. This circumstance may partly explain the
-Arab’s belief in a regular Madd wa Jarr--ebb and flow--which Eastern
-travellers always declare to have observed upon the Tanganyika and
-Nyassa Lakes, and which Mr. Anderson believes to exist in the little
-Ngami. A mass of water so large must be, to a certain extent, subject to
-tidal influences; but the narrowness of the bed from east to west would
-render their effect almost unobservable. Mr. Francis Galton referred me
-for the explanation of this phenomenon to a paper ‘On the Seiches of
-Lakes,’ by Colonel J. R. Jackson, F.R.G.S., published in the ‘Journal of
-the R. G. S.,’ vol. iii. of 1833, in which the learned author refers
-the ebb and flow of the waters of Lake Leman, or of Geneva (and of the
-lakes of Zurich, Annecy, and Constance), to “an unequal pressure of the
-atmosphere on different parts of the lake at the same time; that is, to
-the simultaneous effect of columns of air of different weight or
-different elasticity, arising from temporary variations of temperature,
-or from mechanical causes.”
-
-The scenery and the navigation of the Tanganyika have been illustrated
-in the last chapter. Remains only a succinct account of the physical and
-ethnological features of its Periplus, carefully collected from
-authorities on the spot.
-
-According to the Wajiji, from their country to the Runangwa or Marungu
-River, which enters the Lake at the southern point, there are twelve
-stages; this Periplus numbers 120 khambi or stations, at most of which,
-however, provisions are not procurable. An extended list of fifty-three
-principal points was given by the guides; it is omitted, as it contains
-nothing beyond mere names. There are, however, sixteen tribes and
-districts which claim attention: of these, Ukaranga and Ujiji have
-already been described.
-
-The kingdom of Urundi, which lies north of Ujiji, has a sea-face of
-about fifty miles; a low strip of exceeding fertility, backed at short
-distances by a band of high green hill. This region, rising from the
-Lake in a north-easterly direction, culminates into the equatorial mass
-of highlands which, under the name of Karagwah, forms the western spinal
-prolongation of the Lunar Mountains. The residence of the Mwami, or
-chief sultan Mwezi, is near the headstream of the Kitangure (Kitangule),
-or River of Karagwah, which rises at a place distant six days’ march
-(sixty miles), and bearing north-east from, the Tanganyika. His
-settlement, according to the Arabs, is of considerable extent; the huts
-are built of rattan, and lions abound in the vicinity.
-
-Urundi differs from the lake regions generally in being a strictly
-monarchical country, locally governed by Watware or headmen, who
-transmit the customs and collections at stated periods to their
-suzerain. The Mwame, it is said, can gather in a short time a large host
-of warriors who are the terror of the neighbouring tribes. The Warundi
-are evidently natives of a high cold country; they are probably the
-“white people resembling Abyssinians,” and dwelling near the Lake, of
-whom European geographers have heard from Zanzibar. The complexion
-varies from a tawny yellow, the colour of the women, to a clear dark
-brown, which is so brightened by the daily use of ochre mixed with
-palm-oil, that in few cases the real tint is discernible. The men tattoo
-with circles and lines like cupping-cuts; some burn up alti rilievi of
-large shining lumps an inch in diameter, a decoration not a little
-resembling large boils; others chip the fore teeth like the Wanyamwezi.
-Their limbs are stout and well proportioned, many stand upwards of six
-feet high, and they bear the appearance of a manly and martial race.
-Their dress is the mbugu, worn in the loosest way; their arms are heavy
-spears, sime, and unusually strong arrows; their ornaments are beads,
-brass wire, and streaks of a carmine-coloured substance, like the red
-farinaceous powder called in India gulal, drawn across the head and
-forehead. The Waganga, or priests of Urundi, wear a curious hood, a
-thatch of long white grass or fibre, cut away at the face and allowed to
-depend behind over the shoulders; their half-naked figures,
-occasionally rattling wooden clappers, and capering causelessly like
-madmen, present a savage and horrid appearance. Honourable women wear
-long tobes of American domestics from below the arms to the ankles; they
-are followed by hosts of female slaves, and preserve an exceptionally
-modest and decorous demeanour. Their features are of the rounded African
-type of beauty. Their necks and bosoms support a profusion of sofi and
-other various-coloured beads; their foreheads are bound with frontlets,
-fillet-like bands of white and coral porcelain, about three fingers
-deep, a highly becoming ornament probably derived from Karagwah; and
-those who were seen by the Expedition invariably walked about with thin
-staves five or six feet long, pointed and knobbed as the walking-sticks
-of ancient Egypt.
-
-At the northern extremity of the Urundi sea-face, and at the head of the
-Tanganyika, lies the land of Uzige; it is rarely visited except by the
-Lakist traders. This people, who, like their neighbours, cannot exist
-without some form of traffic, have, it is said, pursued the dows of the
-earlier Arab explorers with a flotilla of small canoes; it is probable
-that negro traders would be better received. In their country, according
-to the guides, six rivers fall into the Tanganyika in due order from the
-east: the Kuryamavenge, the Molongwe, the Karindira, the Kariba, the
-Kibaiba, and westernmost the Rusizi or Lusizi. The latter is the main
-drain of the northern countries, and the best authorities, that is to
-say those nearest the spot, unanimously assert that it is an influent.
-
-The races adjoining Uzige, namely, the Wavira on the north-western head
-of the Tanganyika, and their southern neighbours, the Wabembe cannibals,
-have already been mentioned. The Wasenze inhabit the hills within or
-westwards of the Wabembe. Further southwards and opposite Kawele in
-Ujiji are the Wagoma highlanders. The lower maritime lands belonging to
-the Wagoma supply the gigantic mvule trees required for the largest
-canoes. These patriarchs of the forest are felled and shaped with little
-axes on the spot; when finished they are pushed and dragged down the
-slopes by the workmen, and are launched and paddled over to the shores
-of Ujiji.
-
-South of the Wagoma are the Waguhha, who have been mentioned as the
-proprietors of the islets south-west of Ujiji. In their lands, according
-to the Arabs, is a lake or large water called Mikiziwá, whence the tribe
-upon its banks derives its name Wamikiziwá. Through the country of the
-Waguhha lies the route to Uruwwa, at present the western terminus of the
-Zanzibar trade. The merchant crossing the sea-arm which separates
-Kasenge from the mainland of the Tanganyika, strikes towards Uruwwa; the
-line runs over low levels shelving towards the lake, cut by a
-reticulation of streams unfordable after rain, and varied by hilly and
-rolling ground. Provisions are everywhere procurable, but the people,
-like the Wavinza, are considered dangerous. At Uruwwa the khete, or
-string of beads, is half the size of that current in other countries.
-The price of ivory per frasilah is 15 miranga, or 150 large khete of
-white, small-blue, and coarse-red porcelain beads, the latter called
-Lungenga; besides which a string of sungomaji (pigeon-egg beads), and a
-few sámesáme, or coral-beads, are thrown in. The route numbers nine long
-or sixteen short stages; the general direction is south-westerly.
-Kiyombo, the sultan of Uruwwa, is at present friendly with the Arabs; he
-trades in ivory, slaves, and a little copper from Katata or Katanga, a
-district distant fifteen marches north-west of Usenda, the now
-well-known capital of the great chief Kazembe. The grandfather of the
-present Kazembe, the “viceroy” of the country lying south-west of the
-Tanganyika, and feudatory to Mwátá yá Nvo, the sovereign of “Uropua,”
-was first visited by Dr. Lacerda, governor of the Rios de Sena, in
-1798-99. The traveller died, however, after being nine months in the
-country, without recording the name and position of the African capital;
-the former was supplied by the expedition sent under Major Monteiro and
-Captain Gamitto in 1831-32; it is variously pronounced Lucenda, Luenda,
-and by the Arabs Usenda, the difference being caused probably by dialect
-or inflexion. According to the Arabs, the Kazembe visited by the
-Portuguese expedition in 1831, died about 1837, and was succeeded by his
-son the present chief. He is described as a man of middle age, of
-light-coloured complexion, handsomely dressed in a Surat cap, silk coat,
-and embroidered loin cloth; he is rich in copper, ivory, and slaves,
-cloth and furniture, muskets and gunpowder. Many Arabs, probably
-half-castes, are said to be living with him in high esteem, and the
-medium of intercourse is the Kisawahili. Though he has many wives, he
-allows his subjects but one each, puts both adulterer and adulteress to
-death, and generally punishes by gouging out one or both eyes.
-
-On the Uruwwa route caravans are composed wholly of private slaves; the
-races of the Tanganyika will not carry loads, and the Wanyamwezi,
-unmaritime savages like the Kafirs, who have a mortal dread and
-abhorrence of water, refuse to advance beyond Ujiji. On account of its
-dangers, the thriving merchants have hitherto abandoned this line to
-debtors and desperate men.
-
-South of Uguhha lies the unimportant tribe of Wat’hembwe, whose
-possessions are within sight of Kawele in Ujiji. The race adjoining them
-is the Wakatete or Wakadete, and the country is called by the Arabs
-Awwal Marungu, on the northern frontier of Marungu. Marungu is one of
-the most important divisions of the lands about the Tanganyika. Amayr
-bin Said el Shaksi, a sturdy old merchant from Oman, who, wrecked about
-twelve years ago on that part of the coast, had spent five months with
-the people, living on roots and grasses, divides the region generically
-termed Marungu into three distinct provinces--Marungu to the north,
-Karungu in the centre, and Urungu on the south. Others mention a western
-Marungu, divided from the eastern by the Runangwa River, and they call
-the former in contradistinction Marungu Tafuna, from its sultan.
-
-Western Marungu extends according to the Arabs in depth from Ut’hembwe
-to the Wabisa, a tribe holding extensive lands westward of the Nyassa
-Lake. Travellers from Unyamwezi to K’hokoro meet, near Ufipa, caravans
-of the northern Wabisa _en route_ to Kilwa. Between Marungu and Usenda,
-the capital of the Kazembe, the road lies through the district of
-Kavvire, distant seven marches; thence nine stages conduct them to the
-end of the journey. There is an upper land route through Uruwwa for
-those travelling from Ujiji to Usenda, and many caravans have passed
-from Unyanyembe direct through K’hokoro and Ufipa, to the country of the
-Kazembe. Mr. Cooley (“Geography of N’yassi,” p. 7) conjectures that the
-Ambios or Imbies, Zimbas or Muzimbas, celebrated by the old Portuguese
-historians of Africa on account of an irruption, in 1570, from the north
-as far as the Zambezi River, “were no other than the M’Biza, or Moviza,
-as they are called by the Portuguese who still occupy its (the Nyassa’s)
-south-western banks.” The proper name of this well-known tribe is Wábísá
-(in the sing. Mbisá), not Wábíshá, as it is pronounced at Zanzibar,
-where every merchant knows “Bisha ivory.” The Wábísá extend according to
-the Arabs from the west of the Nyassa or Kilwa Lake towards the south of
-the Tanganyika. They dress in bark-cloth, carry down their fine ivory to
-Tete and Kilimani (Quillimane); and every four or five years a caravan
-appears at Kilwa, where, confounding their hosts with the Portuguese,
-they call every Arab “muzungu,” or white man. They are a semi-pastoral
-tribe, fond of commerce, and said to be civil and hospitable to
-strangers. It must be observed that those geographers are in error who
-connect the Wabisa with the Wanyamwezi; they are distinct in manners and
-appearance, habits and language. Mr. Cooley has, for instance, asserted
-that “the ‘Moviza’ and the ‘Monomoezi’ are similar in physical character
-and national marks.” The only mark known to the Wabisa is the kishshah,
-or crest of hair; not, as Khamisi Wa Tani asserted to Mr. Cooley (“Inner
-Africa laid Open,” p. 61), a dotted line on the nose and forehead;
-whereas, the Wanyamwezi, as has been seen, puncture the skin. Thus
-Lacerda calls the “Moviza” a frizzled and periwigged people. The Arabs
-deny the assertion of Pereira, recorded by Bowdich, that the Moviza,
-like the Wahiao, file their teeth.
-
-Marungu is described by the Arabs as a hilly country like Ujiji and
-Uvira: the precincts of the lake, however, are here less bold than the
-opposite shore. Off the coast lie four or five islands, two of which,
-according to the Arabs, are of considerable size; the only name given is
-Ukungwe, which appears, however, to be rather the name of the farthest
-point visible from Kasenge, and bearing S. 58° E. On the north-western
-frontier of Marungu, and about three marches from the lake, is the
-district called Utumbara, from Mtumbara its sultan. This Utumbara, which
-must not be confounded with the district of the same name in Northern
-Unyamwezi, is said by the Arabs to be fifteen to twenty days’ march from
-Usenda.
-
-Marungu, though considered dangerous, has often been visited by Arab
-merchants. After touching at Kasenge they coast along Uguhha for four
-days, not daring to land there in consequence of an event that happened
-about 1841-42. A large Arab caravan of 200 armed slaves, led by Mohammed
-bin Salih and Sulayman bin Nasir, and with four coadjutors, Abd el Al
-and Ibn Habib, Shiahs of Bahrayn, Nasir and Rashid bin Salim el Harisi
-(who soon afterwards died at Marungu) took boat to Marungu, and in due
-time arrived at Usenda. They completed their cargo, and were returning
-in a single boat, when they were persuaded by the Sultan Mtumbara to
-land, and to assist him in annihilating a neighbour, Sámá or Kipyoká,
-living at about one day’s march from the Lake. The Arabs, aided by
-Africans, attacked a boma, or palisade, where, bursting in, they found
-Sámá’s brother sitting upon pombe, with his wife. The villagers poured
-in a shower of arrows, to which the Arabs replied by shooting down the
-happy couple over their cups. Sámá’s people fled, but presently
-returning they massacred the slaves of the Arabs, who were obliged to
-take refuge in the grass till aid was afforded by their employer
-Mtumbara. Sámá, thus victorious, burned the Arab boat, and, compelling
-the merchants to return to Usenda, seized the first opportunity of
-slaying his rival. The Arabs have found means of sending letters to
-their friends, but they appear unable to leave the country. Their
-correspondence declares them to be living in favour with the Kazembe,
-who has presented them with large rice-shambas, that they have collected
-ivory and copper in large quantities, but are unable to find porters.
-This being highly improbable in a land where in 1807 a slave cost five,
-and a tusk of ivory six or seven squares of Indian piece-goods, and as,
-moreover, several merchants, deluded by exaggerated accounts of the
-Kazembe’s wealth and liberality, intrusted these men with considerable
-ventures, of which no tidings have as yet reached the creditors’ ears,
-the more acute Arabs suspect that their countrymen are living from hand
-to mouth about Usenda, and are cultivating the land with scant prospect
-of quitting it.
-
-The people of Marungu are called Wámbozwá by the Arabs; they are subject
-to no king, but live under local rulers, and are ever at war with their
-neighbours. They are a dark and plain, a wild and uncomely race. Amongst
-these people is observed a custom which connects them with the Wangindo,
-Wahiao, and the slave races dwelling inland from Kilwa. They pierce the
-upper lip and gradually enlarge the aperture till the end projects in a
-kind of bill beyond the nose and chin, giving to the countenance a
-peculiar duck-like appearance. The Arabs, who abhor this hideous vagary
-of fashion, scarify the sides of the hole and attempt to make the flesh
-grow by the application of rock-salt. The people of Marungu, however,
-are little valued as slaves; they are surly and stubborn, exceedingly
-depraved, and addicted to desertion.
-
-Crossing the Runangwa or Marungu River, which, draining the southern
-countries towards the Tanganyika, is represented to equal the Malagarazi
-in volume, the traveller passes through the districts of Marungu Tafuna,
-Ubeyya, and Iwemba. Thence, turning to the north, he enters the country
-of the Wapoka, between whom and the Lake lie the Wasowwa and the Wafipa.
-This coast is divided from the opposite shore by a voyage of fourteen
-hours; it is a hilly expanse divided by low plains, where men swarm
-according to the natives like ants. At a short distance from the shore
-lies the Mvuma group, seven rocks or islets, three of which are
-considerable in size, and the largest, shaped like a cone, breeds goats
-in plenty, whilst the sea around is rich in fish. There are other islets
-in the neighbourhood, but none are of importance.
-
-Ufipa is an extensive district fertilised by many rivers. It produces
-grain in abundance, and the wild rice is of excellent flavour. Cattle
-abounded there before the Watuta, who held part of the country, began a
-system of plunder and waste, which ended in their emigration to the
-north of Uvinza; cows, formerly purchased for a few strings of cheap
-white beads, are now rare and dear. The Wafipa are a wild but kindly
-people, who seldom carry arms: they have ever welcomed the merchants
-that visited them for slaves and ivory, and they are subject to four or
-five principal chiefs. The servile specimens seen at Unyanyembe were
-more like the jungle races of the Deccan than Africans--small and short,
-sooty and shrunken men, so timid, ignorant, and suspicious, that it was
-found impossible to obtain from them the simplest specimen of their
-dialect. Some of them, like the Wanyoro, had extracted all the lower
-incisors.
-
-North of the Wafipa, according to the Arabs, lies another tribe, called
-Wat’hembe (?), an offshoot from the people on the opposite side of the
-Tanganyika. Here the lake receives a small river called the Murunguru
-(?). The circuit of the Tanganyika concludes with the Wat’hongwe, called
-from their sultan or their founder Wat’hongwe Kapana. In clear weather
-their long promontory is the furthest point visible from Kawele in
-Ujiji; and their lands extend northwards to Ukaranga and the Malagarazi
-River.
-
-Such are the most important details culled from a mass of Arab oral
-geography: they are offered however to the reader without any guarantee
-of correctness. The principal authorities are the Shaykh Snay bin Amir
-el Harsi and Amayr bin Said el Shaksi; the latter was an eye-witness.
-All the vague accounts noted down from casual informants were submitted
-to them for an imprimatur. Their knowledge and experience surpassing
-those of others, it was judged better to record information upon trust
-from them only, rather than to heap together reliable and unreliable
-details, and as some travellers do, by striking out a medium, inevitably
-to confuse fact with fiction. Yet it is the explorer’s unpleasant duty
-throughout these lands to doubt everything that has not been subjected
-to his own eyes. The boldest might look at the “Mombas Mission Map” and
-tremble.
-
-[Illustration: SNAY BIN AMIR’S HOUSE.]
-
-[Illustration: Mganga, or medicine man.
-
-The porter.
-
-The Kirangozi, or guide.
-
-Muinyi Kidogo.
-
-Mother and child.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVI.
-
-WE RETURN TO UNYANYEMBE.
-
-
-Immediately after the arrival of our caravan I made preparations for
-quitting Ujiji. The 26th May, 1858, was the day appointed for our
-departure, which was fated to resemble a flight more than the march of a
-peaceful Expedition. Said bin Salim, who had received as “Urangozi” or
-retaining-fee from his two African “brothers,” Lurinda and Kannena, a
-boy-slave and a youth, thought only of conveying them safely out of the
-country. The Baloch, especially the Jemadar, who had invested every
-cubit of cloth and every ounce of powder in serviles, were also
-trembling at the prospect of desertion. As usual, when these barbarians
-see preparations for departure, the Wajiji became more extortionate and
-troublesome than before. A general drinking-bout had followed the return
-of the crews from Uvira: Kannena had not been sober for a fortnight. At
-last his succession of violent and maudlin fits ended fortunately for us
-in a high fever, which somewhat tamed his vice. Shortly after our
-disappearance, his territory was attacked by the predal Watuta: and had
-not the Arabs assisted in its defence, it would doubtless have been
-converted into a grisly solitude, like the once fertile and populous
-Uhha. Kannena, of course, fled into the mountains from the attack of the
-gallant rascals: he had courage enough to bully, but not to fight. I
-heard of him no more: he showed no pity to the homeless stranger,--may
-the world show none to him!
-
-I shall long remember the morning of the 26th May, which afforded me the
-last sunrise-spectacle of the Tanganyika Lake. The charm of the scenery
-was perhaps enhanced by the reflection that my eyes might never look
-upon it again. Masses of brown-purple clouds covered the quarter of the
-heavens where the sun was about to rise. Presently the mists, ruffled
-like ocean billows, and luminously fringed with Tyrian purple, were cut
-by filmy rays, whilst, from behind their core, the internal living fire
-shot forth its broad beams, like the spokes of a huge aërial wheel,
-rolling a flood of gold over the light blue waters of the lake. At last
-Dan Sol, who at first contented himself with glimmering through the
-cloud-mass, disclosed himself in his glory, and dispersed with a glance
-the obstacles of the vapourous earth: breaking into long strata and
-little pearly flakes, they soared high in the empyrean, whilst the
-all-powerful luminary assumed undisputed possession of earth, and a soft
-breeze, the breath of the morn, as it is called in the East, awoke the
-waters into life.
-
-But I am not long to enjoy this mighty picture. A jarring din sings in
-my ears, contrasting strangely with the beautiful world before my eyes.
-A crowd of newly-engaged Pagazi are standing before me in the ecstasy of
-impatience: some poised like cranes upon the right foot, with the left
-sole placed against the knee, others with their arms thrown in a
-brotherly fashion round neighbours’ necks, whilst others squatted in the
-usual Asiatic and African position, with their posteriora resting upon
-their calves and heels, their elbows on their thighs, and their chins
-propped upon their hands, gazed at me with that long longing look which
-in these lands evidences a something sorely wanted. Presently, from Said
-bin Majid’s home-bound caravan, with which I had consented to travel,
-shots and a popping of muskets rang through the air: the restless crowd
-that still watched me appeared at the sound of this signal to lose their
-wits. In a moment the space before the Tembe was cleared. After a few
-moments, Said bin Salim ran up violently excited, declaring that his
-orders were of no avail, that some parties were starting with, and
-others without, their loads, and that no man would take up the burden
-assigned to him on the yesterday. I directed him to compose himself, and
-since he could not remain, to precede me with the headstrong gang as far
-as the Ruche River--the first stage--whence he would send back, as soon
-as possible, a few men bribed to carry my hammock and to remove the
-loose loads scattered upon the ground. These, as usual on such
-occasions, were our own. He departed greatly delighting in the
-opportunity of escaping further trouble, and of driving off his six wild
-slaves in safety: true to his inconsequential Arabo-African blood,
-however, neglecting the appointed station in the eagerness of hurry, he
-marched on with Said bin Majid’s men to at least double the distance,
-thus placing himself out of Kannena’s reach, and throwing all my
-arrangements into direst confusion.
-
-Meanwhile, having breakfasted, we sat till the afternoon in the now
-empty and deserted Tembe, expecting the return of the slaves. As none
-appeared, I was induced by the utter misery depicted in the countenances
-of the Baloch, and trusting that the return-porters would meet us on the
-way, to give orders for a march about 4 P.M., to mount my manchil, and
-to set out carried by only two men. Scarcely had I left the Tembe when a
-small party, headed by Said bin Salim’s four children, passed by me at
-speed. Though summoned to halt, they sped onwards, apparently intending
-to fetch the loads from the house, and thus to relieve those left behind
-as a guard; it proved afterwards that they were bound for the bazar to
-buy plantains for their patroon. Meanwhile, hurrying on with one Baloch,
-the astute Gul Mohammed, Valentine, and three sons of Ramji, as the
-shades of evening closed around us, we reached, without guide or
-direction from the surly villagers, the ferry of the Ruche River.
-Disappointed at not finding the camp at the place proposed, we were
-punted across the Styx-like stream; and for what reason no man could
-say, the party took the swampy road along the Bay of Ukaranga. The
-mosquitos stung like wasps; the loud spoutings and the hollow bursts of
-bellow, snort, and grunt of the hippopotami--in these lands they are
-brave as the bulls of the Spanish sierras--and the roar of the old male
-crocodile startled the party, whilst the porters had difficulty in
-preserving their balance as they waded through water waist-deep, and
-crept across plains of mud, mire, and sea-ooze.
-
-As the darkness rendered the march risky, I gave the word, when arrived
-at a bunch of miserable huts, for a bivouac; the party, had I permitted
-it, would have wandered through the outer glooms without fixed purpose
-till permanently bogged. We spread our bedding upon the clear space
-between the cane-cones acting hovels, and we snatched, under a
-resplendent moon, and a dew that soaked through the blankets, a few
-hours of sleep, expecting to be aroused by a guide and porters before
-the end of night. Gaetano had preceded us with the provisions and the
-_batterie de cuisine_; we were destitute even of tobacco, and we looked
-forward expectantly to the march. But the dawn broke, and morning
-flashed over the canopy above, and the sun poured his hot rays through
-the cool, clear air, still we found ourselves alone. The sons of Ramji,
-and the others composing our party, had gradually disappeared, leaving
-with us only Gul Mohammed. Taking heart of grace, we then cleared out a
-hut, divided the bedding, lay down in the patience of expectation, and
-dined on goat. Our neighbour afforded us some food for the mind.
-Apparently an Androgyne, she had the voice, the look, and the thorax of
-a man, whilst the dress and the manner argued her to be a woman; it was
-the only approach to the dubious sex seen by me in East Africa.
-
-About 2 P.M. appeared Ramazan and Salman, children of Said bin Said,
-with four porters, an insufficient supply for the long and trying march
-which they described. They insisted upon our enduring the heat and
-labour of the day so energetically, that they were turned with ignominy
-out of the village, and were told to send their master to escort us in
-the evening or on the morning of the next day. Accordingly at 9 A.M. of
-the 28th May appeared Said bin Salim and the Jemadar, escorted by a
-full gang of bearers. The former, bursting with irritation, began that
-loud speaking which in the East is equivalent to impertinence; he was
-easily silenced by a more explosive and an angrier tone of voice. Having
-breakfasted, we set out leisurely, and after rejoining Said bin Majid’s
-party we advanced until evening fell upon us at the end of the first
-day’s stage.
-
-I have related the tale of our departure from the Tanganyika somewhat
-circumstantially: it was truly characteristic of Arab travelling in
-Eastern Africa. Said bin Salim had scant cause for hurry: slaves rarely
-desert on the day of departure; knowing themselves to be watched they
-wait their opportunity, and find it perhaps--as our caravan discovered
-to its loss--a week or two afterwards. The Arab was determined to gain a
-few miles by passing the appointed station; he did so, and he lost two
-days. In his haste and dread of delay, he had neglected to lay in salt,
-ghee, or any other stores for the road but grain: consequently he was
-detained at half a dozen places to procure them. Finally, his froward
-children, who had done their utmost to waste time in the bazar, were not
-reproved, much less punished. Truly the half-caste Arab of Zanzibar is
-almost as futile as the slavish moiety of his ancestry.
-
-There was little novelty in our return-march to Unyamyembe. We took the
-northerly route, crossing and skirting the lower spurs of the mountains
-which form the region of Uhha. During the first few stages, being still
-within the influence of that bag of Æolus, the Tanganyika trough, we
-endured tornados of wind and heavy rain, thunder and lightning. After
-the 5th March the threatening clouds drew off, the dank heavy dew
-diminished, and the weather became clear and hot, with a raw cold
-eastern wind pouring through the tepid temperature, and causing general
-sickness. On the 29th May we pitched at Uyonwa, a little settlement of
-Wabuha, who have already raised crops of sweet potatoes; if they have
-the sense to avoid keeping cattle, the only attraction to the robber
-Watuta, they may once more convert the sad waste of Uhha, a wilderness
-where men are now wolves to one another, into a land smiling with grains
-and fruits. Beyond Uyonwa we hurried over “neat-tongue” hills, separated
-by green swamps and black rivulets, with high woody banks, over jungle
-paths thick with spear and tiger grass, brambly bush and tall growths of
-wild arrowroot, and over a country for the most part rough and rugged,
-with here and there an acacia-barren, a bamboo-clump, or a lone Palmyra.
-Approaching the Rusugi River, which we forded on the 1st June at the
-upper or Parugerero passage, the regular succession of ridge and swamp
-gave way to a dry, stony, and thorny slope, rolling with an eastward
-decline. We delayed for an hour at the Salt-pass, to lay in a supply of
-the necessary, and the temptation to desert became irresistible.
-Muhabanya, the “slavey” of the establishment, ran away, carrying off his
-property and my hatchet. The Jemadar was rendered almost daft by the
-disappearance of half of his six slaves. A Mnyamwezi porter placed his
-burden--it was a case of Cognac and vinegar, deeply regretted!--upon the
-ground, and levanted. Two other porters lost their way, and disappeared
-for some days; their comrades, standing in awe of the Wavinza, would not
-venture in search of them. The Kirangozi or Mnyamwezi guide, who had
-accompanied the Expedition from the coast, remained behind, because his
-newly-purchased slave-girl had become foot-sore, and unable to advance;
-finding the case hopeless, he cut off her head, lest of his evil good
-might come to another. The party gave the usual amount of trouble. The
-bull-headed Mabruki had invested his capital in a small servile, an
-infant phenomenon, who, apparently under six years, trotted manfully
-alongside the porters, bearing his burden of hide-bed and water-gourd
-upon his tiny shoulder. For some days he was to his surly master as her
-first doll to a young girl: when tired he was mounted upon the back, and
-after crossing every swamp his feet were carefully wiped. When the
-novelty, however, wore off, the little unfortunate was so savagely
-beaten that I insisted upon his being committed to the far less
-hard-hearted Bombay. The Hanmals who carried my manchil were the most
-annoying of their kind. Wanyamwezi veterans of the way (their chief man
-wore a kizbao or waistcoat, and carried an old Tower musket), originally
-five in number, and paid in advance as far as Unyanyembe; they deserted
-slowly and surely, till it was necessary to raise a fresh gang. For a
-short time they worked well, then they fell off. In the mornings when
-their names were called they hid themselves in the huts, or they
-squatted pertinaciously near the camp fires, or they rushed ahead of the
-party. On the road they hurried forwards, recklessly dashing the
-manchil, without pity or remorse, against stock and stone. A man allowed
-to lag behind never appeared again on that march, and more than once
-they attempted to place the hammock on the ground and to strike for
-increase of wages, till brought to a sense of their duty by a
-sword-point applied to their ribs. They would halt for an hour to boil
-their sweet potatoes, but if I required the delay of five minutes, or
-the advance of five yards, they became half mad with fidgetiness; they
-were as loud-voiced, noisy and insolent, as turbulent and irritable, as
-grumbling, importunate, and greedy specimens of the genus _homo_,
-species _Africanus_, as I have ever seen, even amongst the “sons of
-water” in the canoes of Ujiji. In these lands, however, the traveller
-who cannot utilise the raw material that comes to hand will make but
-little progress.
-
-On the 2nd June we fell into our former route at Jambeho, in the
-alluvial valley of the Malagarazi River. The party was pitched in two
-places by the mismanagement of Said bin Salim; already the porters began
-to raise loud cries of Posho! (provaunt!) and their dread of the Wavinza
-increased as they approached the Malagarazi Ferry. The land in the
-higher levels was already drying up, the vegetation had changed from
-green to yellow, and the strips of grassy and tree-clad rock,
-buttressing the left bank of the river, afforded those magnificent
-spectacles of conflagration which have ever been favourite themes with
-the Indian muse:--
-
-                          “silence profound
-  Enwraps the forest, save where bubbling springs
-  Gush from the rock, or where the echoing hills
-  Give back the tiger’s roar, or where the boughs
-  Burst into crackling flame and wide extends
-  The blaze the Dragon’s fiery breath has kindled.”
-
-  WILSON’s _Uttara Rama Cheritra_, act 2.
-
-A sheet of flame, beginning with the size of a spark, overspread the
-hill-side, advancing on the wings of the wind, with the roaring rushing
-sound of many hosts where the grass lay thick, shooting huge forky
-tongues high into the dark air, where tall trees, the patriarchs of the
-forest, yielded their lives to the blast, smouldering and darkening, as
-if about to be quenched where the rock afforded scanty fuel, then
-flickering, blazing up and soaring again till topping the brow of the
-hill, the sheet became a thin line of fire, and gradually vanished from
-the view, leaving its reflection upon the canopy of lurid smoke studded
-with sparks and bits of live braise, which marked its descent on the
-other side of the buttress. Resuming our march along the cold and foggy
-vale of the Malagarazi, and crossing on the third day the stony slabby
-hills that bound the fluviatile plain northward, we reached, on the 4th
-June, the dreaded ferry-place of the river.
-
-The great Malagarazi still swollen, though the rains had ceased, by the
-surplus moisture of the sopped earth, had spread its wide heart of
-shallow waters, variegated with narrow veins--a deeper artery in the
-centre showing the main stream--far over the plain. Thus offering
-additional obstacles to crossing, it was turned to good account by the
-Mutware, the Lord of the Ferry. On arrival at the Kraal overlooking the
-river I summoned this Charon, who demanded as his preliminary obolus one
-pot of oil, seven cloths, and 300 khete of blue porcelains. Said bin
-Majid, our companion, paid about one-fifth the sum. But the Kraal was
-uncomfortable, we were stung out by armies of ants; a slight earthquake,
-at 11.15 A.M., on the 4th June, appeared a bad omen to Said bin Salim:
-briefly, I was compelled to countenance the extortion. On the next
-morning we set out, having been cannily preceded by Said bin Majid.
-Every difficulty was thrown in the way of our boxes and baggage. Often,
-when I refused the exorbitant sum of four and even five khete per load,
-the fellows quietly poled off, squatted in their canoes, and required to
-be summoned back by Said bin Salim with the abjectest concessions. They
-would not take on board a Goanese or a Baloch without extra pay, and
-they landed, under some pretext, Said bin Salim and the Jemadar upon a
-dry knoll in the waste of waters, and demanded and received a cloth
-before they would rescue them. In these and kindred manœuvres nearly
-seven hours were expended; no accidents, however, occurred, and at 4
-P.M. we saw ourselves, with hearts relieved of some load, once more at
-Ugogo, on the left bank of the river. I found my companion, who had
-preceded me, in treaty for the purchase of a little pig; fortunately the
-beads would not persuade the porters to part with it, consequently my
-pots escaped pollution.
-
-An eventless march of twelve days led from the Malagarazi Ferry to
-Unyanyembe. Avoiding the _détour_ to Msene we followed this time the
-more direct southern route. I had expected again to find the
-treacle-like surface over which we had before crept, and perhaps even in
-a worse state; but the inundations compelled the porters to skirt the
-little hills bounding the swamps. Provisions--rice, holcus and panicum,
-manioc, cucumbers and sweet potatoes, pulse, ground-nuts, and
-tobacco--became plentiful as we progressed; the arrowroot and the bhang
-plant flourished wild, and plantains and palmyras were scattered over
-the land. On the 8th June, emerging from inhospitable Uvinza into
-neutral ground, we were pronounced to be out of danger, and on the next
-day, when in the meridian of Usagozi, we were admitted for the first
-time to the comfort of a village. Three days afterwards we separated
-from Said bin Majid. Having a valuable store of tusks, he had but half
-loaded his porters; he also half fed them: the consequence was that they
-marched like mad men, and ours followed like a flock of sheep. He would
-not incur the danger and expense of visiting a settlement, and he
-pitched in the bush, where provisions were the least obtainable. When I
-told him that we must part company, he deprecated the measure with his
-stock statement, viz. that at the distance of an hour’s march there was
-a fine safe village full of provisions, and well fitted for a halt. The
-hour’s march proved a long stage of nearly sixteen miles, over a
-remarkably toilsome country, a foul jungle with tsetse-haunted
-thorn-bushes, swamps, and inundated lands, ending at a wretched cluster
-of huts, which could supply nothing but a tough old hen. I was sorry to
-part with the Arab merchant, a civil man, and a well-informed, yet
-somewhat addicted to begging like all his people. His marching freaks,
-however, were unendurable, dawdling at the beginning of the journey,
-rushing through the middle, and lagging at the end. We afterwards passed
-him on the road, of course he had been delayed, and subsequently, during
-a long halt at Unyanyembe, he frequently visited me.
-
-On the 17th June the caravan, after sundry difficulties, caused by
-desertion, passed on to Irora the village of Salim bin Salih, who this
-time received us hospitably enough. Thence we first sighted the blue
-hills of Unyanyembe, our destination. The next day saw us at Yombo,
-where, by good accident, we met a batch of seven cloth-bales and one box
-_en route_ to Ujiji, under charge of our old enemy Salim bin Sayf of
-Dut’humi. My complaint against “Msopora,” forwarded from Zuryomero, had,
-after Lieut.-Col. Hamerton’s decease, on the 5th July 1857, been laid by
-M. Cochet, Consul de France, before H. M. the Sayyid Majid,--a fact
-which accounts for the readiness with which our effects were on this
-occasion delivered up, and for the non-appearance of the individual in
-person. We also received the second packet of letters which reached us
-during that year: as usual, they-were full of evil news. Almost every
-one had lost some relation or friend near and dear to him: even Said
-bin Salim’s hearth had been spoiled of its chief attraction, an only
-son, who, born it was supposed in consequence of my “barakat”
-(propitious influence), had been named Abdullah. Such tidings are
-severely felt by the wanderer who, living long behind the world, and
-unable to mark its gradual changes, lulls, by dwelling upon the past,
-apprehension into a belief that his home has known no loss, and who
-expects again to meet each old familiar face ready to smile upon his
-return as it was to weep at his departure.
-
-After a day’s halt to collect porters at Yombo, we marched from it on
-the 20th June, and passing the scene of our former miseries, the village
-under the lumpy hill, “Zimbili,” we re-entered Kazeh. There I was warmly
-welcomed by the hospitable Snay bin Amir, who, after seating us to
-coffee, as is the custom, for a few minutes in his Barzah or ante-room,
-led us to the old abode, which had been carefully repaired, swept, and
-plastered. There a large metal tray bending under succulent dishes of
-rice and curried fowl, giblets and manioc boiled in the cream of the
-ground-nut, and sugared omelets flavoured with ghee and onion shreds,
-presented peculiar attractions to half-starved travellers.
-
-Our return from Ujiji to Unyanyembe was thus accomplished in twenty-two
-stations, which, halts included, occupied a total of twenty-six days,
-from the 26th May to the 20th June 1858, and the distance along the road
-may be computed at 265 statute miles.
-
-After a day’s repose at Kazeh, I was called upon, as “etiquette”
-directs, by the few Arab merchants there present. Musa Mzuri, the
-Indian, was still absent at Karagwah, and the greater part of the
-commercial body was scattered in trading-trips over the country. I had
-the satisfaction of finding that my last indent on Zanzibar for 400
-dollars’ worth of cloth and beads had arrived under the charge of Tani
-bin Sulayyam, who claimed four Gorah or pieces for safe conduct. I also
-recovered, though not without some display of force, the table and chair
-left by the escort and the slaves in the Dungomaro Nullah. The articles
-had been found by one Muinyi Khamisi, a peddling and not over-honest
-Msawahili, who demanded an unconscionable sum for porterage, and whose
-head-piece assumed the appearance of a coal-scuttle when rewarded with
-the six cloths proposed by Snay bin Amir. The debauched Wazira, who had
-remained behind at Msene, appeared with an abundance of drunken smiles,
-sideling in at the doorway, which he scratched _more Africano_ with one
-set of five nails, whilst the other was applied to a similar purpose _à
-posteriori_. He was ejected, despite his loud asseverations that he, and
-he only, could clear us through the dangerous Wagogo. The sons of Ramji,
-who, travelling from Msene, had entered Kazeh on the day preceding our
-arrival, came to the house _en masse_, headed by Kidogo, with all the
-jaunty and _sans-souci_ gait and manner of yore. I had imagined that by
-that time they would have found their way to the coast. I saw no reason,
-however, for re-engaging them, and they at once returned to the gaieties
-of their capital.
-
-During the first week following the march all paid the inevitable
-penalty of a toilsome trudge through a perilous jungly country, in the
-deadliest season of the year, when the waters are drying up under a
-fiery sun, and a violent _vent de bise_ from the East, which pours
-through the tepid air like cold water into a warm bath. Again I suffered
-severely from swelling and numbness of the extremities, and strength
-returned by tantalisingly slow degrees. My companion was a martyr to
-obstinate deafness and to a dimness of vision, which incapacitated him
-from reading, writing, and observing correctly. Both the Goanese were
-prostrated by fever, followed by severe rheumatism and liver-pains. In
-the case of Valentine, who, after a few hours lay deprived of sense and
-sensation, quinine appearing useless--the malady only changed from a
-quotidian to a tertian type--I resolved to try the Tinctura Warburgii,
-which had been used with such effect by Lieut.-Col. Hamerton at
-Zanzibar. “O true apothecary!” The result was quasi-miraculous. The
-anticipated paroxysm did not return; the painful emetism at once ceased;
-instead of a death-like lethargy, a sweet childish sleep again visited
-his aching eyes, and, chief boon of all to those so affected, the
-corroding thirst gave way to an appetite, followed by sound if not
-strong digestion. Finally, the painful and dangerous consequences of the
-disease were averted, and the subsequent attacks were scarcely worthy of
-notice. I feel bound in justice, after a personal experiment, which
-ended similarly, to pay this humble tribute of gratitude to Dr.
-Warburg’s invaluable discovery. The Baloch, in their turn, yielded to
-the effects of malaria, many complained of ulcerations and prurigo, and
-their recovery was protracted by a surfeit of food and its consequences.
-But, under the influence of narcotics, tonics, and stimulants, we
-presently progressed towards convalescence; and stronger than any
-physical relief, in my case, was the moral effect of success, and the
-cessation of the ghastly doubts and cares, and of the terrible wear and
-tear of mind which, from the coast to Uvira, had never been absent. I
-felt the proud consciousness of having done my best, under conditions
-from beginning to end the worst and the most unpromising, and that
-whatever future evils Fate might have in store for me, that it could not
-rob me of the meed won by the hardships and sufferings of the past.
-
-Several Arab merchants were preparing to return coastwards for the
-“Mausim” (monsoon), or Indian trading-season, which, at Zanzibar,
-includes the months of December, January, and February, and they were
-not unwilling to avail themselves of my escort. But several reasons
-detained me at Kazeh. Some time was required to make preparations for
-the long down march. I had not given up the project of returning to the
-seaboard _viâ_ Kilwa. Moreover, it was judged advisable to collect from
-the Arabs details concerning the interesting countries lying to the
-north and south of the line traversed by the Expedition. As has been
-mentioned in Chap. XI., the merchants had detailed to me, during my
-first halt at Kazeh, their discovery of a large Bahr--a sea or
-lake--lying fifteen or sixteen marches to the north; and from their
-descriptions and bearings, my companion had laid down the water in a
-hand-map forwarded to the Royal Geographical Society. All agreed in
-claiming for it superiority of size over the Tanganyika Lake. I saw at
-once that the existence of this hitherto unknown basin would explain
-many discrepancies promulgated by speculative geographers, more
-especially the notable and deceptive differences of distances, caused by
-the confusion of the two waters.[8] Remained only to ascertain if the
-Arabs had not, with the usual Oriental hyperbole, exaggerated the
-dimensions of the Northern Lake.
-
-  [8] Mr. Erhardt, for instance, “Memoir on the Chart of East and
-  Central Africa, compiled by J. Erhardt and J. Rebmann, London, 1856,”
-  announces the “existence of a Great Lake, called in the south Niandsha
-  (Nyassa), in the north Ukerewe, and on the coast Niasa and Bahari ya
-  Uniamesi,” makes the distance through Dschaga (Chhaga) and the Masai
-  plains only fifty-nine marches.
-
-My companion, who had recovered strength from the repose and the
-comparative comfort of our head-quarters, appeared a fit person to be
-detached upon this duty; moreover, his presence at Kazeh was by no means
-desirable. To associate at the same time with Arabs and Anglo-Indians,
-who are ready to take offence when it is least intended, who expect
-servility as their due, and whose morgue of colour induces them to treat
-all skins a shade darker than their own as “niggers,” is even more
-difficult than to avoid a rupture when placed between two friends who
-have quarrelled with each other. Moreover, in this case, the difficulty
-was exaggerated by the Anglo-Indian’s complete ignorance of Eastern
-manners and customs, and of any Oriental language beyond, at least, a
-few words of the debased Anglo-Indian jargon.
-
-I have dwelt upon this subject because my companion has thought proper
-to represent (in Blackwood, Oct. 1859) that I was “most unfortunately
-quite done up, but most graciously consented to wait with the Arabs and
-recruit health.” This is far from being the fact. I had other and more
-important matter to work out. Writing from the spot (Unyanyembe, 2nd
-July 1858, and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical
-Society, 24th Jan. 1859) my companion represents the case somewhat
-differently. “To diminish the disappointment, caused by the short-coming
-of our cloth, in not seeing the whole of the Sea Ujiji, I have proposed
-to take a flying trip to the unknown lake, while Captain Burton prepares
-for our return homewards.”
-
-On the 30th June the subject was brought forward in the presence of Said
-bin Salim and the Baloch. The former happily lodged at Kazeh, felt loath
-to tear himself from the massive arms of his charmer Halimah. He
-finessed as usual, giving an evasive answer, viz. that he could not
-decide till the last day, and he declined to influence the escort, who
-afterwards declared that he had done all in his power to deter them from
-the journey. In vain my companion threatened him with forfeiture of his
-reward after he returned to Zanzibar; in vain my companion told him that
-it was forfeited.[9] He held firm, and I was not over-anxious in
-influencing him, well knowing that though the Baloch, a stolid race,
-might prove manageable, the brain of the Machiavellian Arab, whose
-egregious selfishness never hesitated at any measure calculated to
-ensure its gratification, was of a somewhat too heavy metal for the
-article opposed to it. That Said bin Salim attempted to thwart the
-project I have no doubt. The Kirangozi, and the fifteen porters hired
-from his village with the tempting offer of five cloths per man, showed
-an amount of fear and shirking hardly justified by the real risks of
-treading so well known a tract. The Jemadar and his men at first
-positively refused their escort, but the meaning word “Bakhshish”
-slipping in reassured me. After informing them that in case of recusancy
-their rations should be stopped, I inquired the amount of _largesse_
-expected. The ten efficient men composing the guard demanded fifteen
-cloths a piece, besides one porter each to carry their matchlocks and
-pervanents. The number of the porters was reduced, the cloth was
-procured from an Arab merchant, Sayf bin Said el Wardi, at an expense of
-one hundred dollars, made payable by draught upon Ladha Damha of
-Zanzibar: at the same time, the Baloch were warned that they must option
-between this and the reward conditionally promised to them after
-return.[10] Their bad example was followed by the old and faithful
-servant “Bombay,” who required instant dismissal unless he also received
-cloth before the journey: he was too useful to my companion as
-interpreter and steward to be lightly parted with. But the granting his
-claim led to a similar strike and menace on the part of the bull-headed
-slave Mabruki, who, being merely a “headache” to me, at once “got the
-sack” till he promised, if pardoned, to shake off his fear, and not to
-be naughty in future. By dint of severe exertion my companion was
-enabled to leave Kazeh on the 10th July.
-
-  [9] I transcribe the following words from my companion’s paper
-  (Blackwood, October 1859): “I urged that it was as much his (Said bin
-  Salim’s) duty as mine to go there; and said, unless he changed his
-  present resolution, I should certainly recommend the Government not to
-  pay the gratuity which the consul had promised him on condition that
-  he worked entirely to our satisfaction, in assisting the Expedition to
-  carry out the Government’s plans.”
-
-  [10] So my report printed in the Proceedings Roy. Geog. Soc. loco cit.
-  “Our asses, thirty in number, all died, our porters ran away, our
-  goods were left behind; our black escort became so unmanageable as to
-  require dismissal; the weakness of our party invited attacks, and our
-  wretched Baloch deserted us in the jungle, and throughout have
-  occasioned an infinity of trouble.”
-
-I proceed to recount the most important portion of the information--for
-ampler details the reader is referred to the Journal of the Royal
-Geographical Society--collected during my halt at Kazeh from various
-sources, Arab and African, especially from Snay bin Amir, concerning--
-
-
-THE NORTHERN KINGDOMS: KARAGWAH, UGANDA, AND UNYORO.
-
-The extensive and hitherto unknown countries described in this chapter,
-being compact despotisms, resembling those of Ashanti and Dahomey more
-than the semi-monarchies of Unyamwezi and Urundi, or the barbarous
-republics of Uvinza and Ujiji, are designated the Northern Kingdoms. It
-is regrettable that oral information, and not the results of actual
-investigation, are offered to the reader concerning regions so
-interesting as the Southern Tanganyika, the Northern Kingdoms, and the
-provinces south of Unyanyembe. But absolute obstacles having interfered,
-it was judged advisable to use the labours of others rather than to omit
-all notice of a subject which has the importance of novelty, because it
-lacked the advantages of a regular exploration.
-
-Informants agree in representing the northern races as superior in
-civilisation and social constitution to the other tribes of Eastern and
-Central Africa. Like the subjects of the Kazembe, they have built
-extensive and regular settlements, and they reverence even to worship a
-single despot, who rules with a rigour which in Europe would be called
-barbarity. Having thrown off the rude equality of their neighbours, they
-recognise ranks in society; there is order amongst men, and some idea of
-honour in women; they add to commerce credit, without which commerce can
-hardly exist; and they hospitably entertain strangers and guests. These
-accounts are confirmed by the specimens of male and female slaves from
-Karagwah and Uganda seen at Unyanyembe: between them and the southern
-races there is a marked physical difference. Their heads are of a
-superior cast: the regions where the reflective faculties and the moral
-sentiments, especially benevolence, are placed, rise high; the nose is
-more of the Caucasian type; the immoderate masticating apparatus which
-gives to the negro and the lower negroid his peculiar aspect of
-animality, is greatly modified, and the expression of the countenance is
-soft, kindly, and not deficient in intelligence.
-
-From Unyanyembe to Kibuga, the capital of Uganda, are fifty-three
-stages, which are distributed into four crucial stations of Usui,
-Karagwah, dependent Unyoro, and Uganda. A few remarks concerning each of
-these divisions may not be unacceptable.
-
-Between Unyanyembe and Usui are sixteen long, or nineteen short, stages.
-Though the road is for the most part rough and hilly, the marches can
-scarcely be reduced below ten statute, or six rectilinear geo. miles per
-diem; in fact, the geographer’s danger when making these estimates is,
-that of falling, through fear of exaggeration, into the opposite and
-equally incorrect extreme. The general direction of the line leading
-from Kazeh, in Unyanyembe, to Karagwah, pointed out by Snay bin Amir,
-bore 345° (corrected 332°); the length of the nineteen marches would be
-about 115 geo. miles. The southern frontier of Usui may, therefore, be
-safely placed in S. lat. 3° 10′.
-
-The route from Kazeh to Usui falls at once westward of the line leading
-to the Nyanza Lake; it diverges, however, but little at first, as they
-both traverse the small districts of Ulikampuri, Unyambewa, and Ukuni.
-Usonga, crossed in five short marches, is the first considerable
-district north of Unyanyembe. Thence the road enters the province of
-Utumbara, which is flanked on the east by Usambiro, and on the west by
-Uyungu, governed by the Muhinda Sultan, Kanze. Utumbara, as has been
-mentioned, was lately plundered, and Ruhembe, its chief, was slain, by
-the predatory Watuta. In Utumbara and Usambiro the people are chiefly
-the Wafyoma, a tribe of Wanyamwezi: they are a commercial race, like the
-Wajiji--trafficking in hoes and ivory; and their present Sultan,
-Mutawazi, has often been visited by the Arabs. Uyofu, governed by
-Mnyamurunda, is the northern boundary of Unyamwezi, after which the
-route enters the ill famed territory of Usui.
-
-Usui is traversed in seven marches, making a sum of twenty-six from
-Kazeh. According to the former computation, a total march of about 156
-geo. miles would place the southern frontier of Karagwah in S. lat. 2°
-40′. The road in several parts discloses a view of the Nyanza Lake. Usui
-is described as a kind of neutral ground between the rolling plateau of
-Unyamwezi and the highlands of Karagwah: it is broken by ridges in two
-places--Nyakasene the fourth, and Ruhembe the seventh stage, where
-mention is also made of a small stream. From this part of the country a
-wild nutmeg is brought to Kazeh by caravans: the Arabs declare that it
-grows upon the well-wooded hills, and the only specimen shown was heavy
-and well flavoured, presenting a marked contrast to the poor produce of
-Zanzibar island.
-
-The Wasúí, according to the Arabs, are not Wanyamwezi. They are
-considered dangerous, and they have frequently cut off the route to
-caravans from Karagwah. Their principal sultan, a Muhinda named
-Suwarora, demands exorbitant blackmail, and is described as troublesome
-and overbearing: his bad example has been imitated by his minor chiefs.
-
-The kingdom of Karagwah, which is limited on the north by the Kitangure
-or Kitangule River, a great western influent of the Nyanza Lake,
-occupies twelve days in traversing. The usual estimate would thus give
-it a depth of 72, and place the northern limit about 228 rectilinear
-geo. miles from Kazeh, or in S. lat. 1° 40′. But the Kitangure River,
-according to the Arabs, falls into the Nyanza diagonally from south-west
-to north-east. Its embouchure will, therefore, not be distant from the
-equator. The line of road is thus described: After ascending the hills
-of Ruhembe the route, deflecting eastward, pursues for three days the
-lacustrine plain of the Nyanza. At Tenga, the fourth station, the first
-gradient of the Karagwah mountains is crossed, probably at low levels,
-where the spurs fall towards the lake. Kafuro is a large district where
-merchants halt to trade, in the vicinity of Weranhánjá, the royal
-settlement, which commands a distant view of the Nyanza. Nyakahanga, the
-eighth stage, is a gradient similar to that of Tenga; and Magugi, the
-tenth station, conducts the traveller to the northernmost ridge of
-Karagwah. The mountains are described as abrupt and difficult, but not
-impracticable for laden asses: they are compared by the Arabs to the
-Rubeho chain of Usagara. This would raise them about 4000 feet above the
-mean level of the Unyamwezi plateau and the Nyanza water, and about 8000
-feet above this sea. Their surface, according to the Arabs, is
-alternately earth and stone, the former covered with plantains and huge
-timber-trees, the latter bare, probably by reason of their altitude.
-There are no plains, bush, or jungle, but the deep ravines and the
-valleys intersecting the various ridges drain the surface of the hills,
-and are the sites of luxuriant cultivation. The people of Karagwah,
-averse to the labour of felling the patriarchs of the forest, burn
-“_bois de vache_,” like the natives of Usukuma. North of Magugi, at
-Katanda, a broad flat extends eastwards: the path thence descends the
-northern counterslope, and falls into the alluvial plain of the
-Kitungure River.
-
-Karagwah is thus a mass of highlands, bounded on the north by dependent
-Unyoro, on the south by Usui, eastward by the tribes of Wahayya and
-Wapororo, upon the lacustrine plain of the Nyanza; on the south-west it
-inosculates with Urundi, which has been described as extending from the
-north-eastern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake. Its equatorial position
-and its altitude enable it to represent the Central African prolongation
-of the Lunar Mountains. Ptolemy describes this range, which he supposes
-to send forth the White Nile, as stretching across the continent for a
-distance of 10° of longitude. For many years this traditional feature
-has somewhat fallen into discredit: some geographers have changed the
-direction of the line, which, like the Himalayas, forms the base of the
-South African triangle from east and west to north and south, thus
-converting it into a formation akin to the ghauts or lateral ranges of
-the Indian peninsula; whilst others have not hesitated to cast ridicule
-upon the mythus. From the explorations of the “Mombas Mission” in
-Usumbara, Chhaga, and Kitui, and from the accounts of Arab visitors to
-the lands of Umasai and the kingdom of Karagwah, it appears that from
-the fifth parallel of S. lat. to the equator, an elevated mass of
-granite and sandstone formation crosses from the shores of the Indian
-Ocean to the centre of Tropical Africa. The vast limestone band which
-extends from the banks of the Burramputra to those of the Tagus appears
-to be prolonged as far south as the Eastern Horn, and near the equator
-to give place to sandstone formations. The line is not, however, as
-might be expected from analogy with the Himalayan, a continuous unbroken
-chain; it consists of insulated mountains, apparently volcanic, rising
-from elevated plains, and sometimes connected by barren and broken
-ridges. The south-eastern threshold of the Lunar cordillera is the
-highland region of Usumbara, which may attain the height of 3000 or 4000
-feet above sea-level. It leads by a succession of mountain and valley to
-Chhaga, whose apex is the “Æthiopian Olympus,” Kilima-Ngao. From this
-corner-pillar the line trends westward, and the route to Burkene passes
-along the base of the principal elevations, Doengo Engai and Endia
-Siriani. Beyond Burkene lies the Nyanza Lake, in a huge gap which,
-breaking the continuity of the line, drains the regions westward of
-Kilima-Ngao, whilst those to the eastward, the Pangani and other similar
-streams, discharge their waters to the south-east into the Indian Ocean.
-The kingdom of Karagwah prolongs the line to Urundi, upon the Tanganyika
-Lake, where the south-western spurs of the Lunar Mountains form a high
-continuous belt. Mr. Petherick, of Khartum, travelling twenty-five
-marches, each of twenty miles (?), in a south-south-western and
-due-southerly direction from the Bahr el Ghazal, found a granitic ridge
-rising, he supposes 2000 to 2500 feet above the plain, near the equator,
-and lying nearly upon the same parallel of latitude, and in about 27° E.
-long. Beyond that point the land is still unexplored. Thence the
-mountains may sink into the great Depression of Central Africa, or,
-deflected northwards of the kingdom of Uropua, they may inosculate with
-the ridge which, separating the northern negroid races of Islamised
-Africa from their negro brethren to the south, is popularly known,
-according to Denham and Clapperton, as el-Gibel Gumhr,--Jebel Kamar,--or
-Mons Lunæ.
-
-The high woody hills of Karagwah attract a quantity of rain. The long
-and copious wet monsoon divides the year into two seasons--a winter of
-seven or eight, and a summer of four or five months. The Vuli, or lesser
-rains, commence, as at Zanzibar, with the Nayruz (29th of August); and
-they continue with little intermission till the burst of the Masika,
-which lasts in Karagwah from October to May or June. The winds, as in
-Unyamwezi, are the Kaskazi, or north and north-east gales, which shift
-during the heavier falls of rain to the Kosi, the west and south-west.
-Storms of thunder and lightning are frequent, and the Arabs compare the
-down-pour rather to that of Zanzibar island than to the scanty showers
-of Unyamwezi. The sowing season at Karagwah, as at Msene and Ujiji,
-begins with the Vuli, when maize and millet, the voandzeia, various
-kinds of beans and pulse, are committed to the well-hoed ground. Rice
-being unknown, the people depend much upon holcus: this cereal, which is
-sown in October to prepare for the Masika in November, has, in the
-mountains, a short cane and a poor insipid grain of the red variety. The
-people convert it into pombe; and they make the wine called mawa from
-the plantains, which in several districts are more abundant than the
-cereals. Karagwah grows according to some, according to others imports
-from the northern countries, along the western margin of the Nyanza
-Lake, a small wild coffee, locally called mwámí. Like all wild
-productions, it is stunted and undeveloped, and the bean, which, when
-perfect, is about the size of a corking-pin’s head, is never drunk in
-decoction. The berry gathered unripe is thrown into hot water to defend
-it from rot, or to prevent its drying too rapidly--an operation which
-converts the husk to a dark chocolate colour--the people of this country
-chew it like tobacco, and, during visits, a handful is invariably
-presented to the guest. According to the Arabs, it has, like the kishr
-of Yemen, stimulating properties, affects the head, prevents somnolency,
-renders water sweet to the taste, and forms a pleasant refreshing
-beverage, which the palate, however, never confounds with the taste of
-the Mocha-berry. In Karagwah a single khete of beads purchases a kubabah
-(from 1 lb. to 2 lbs.) of this coffee; at Kazeh and Msene, where it is
-sometimes brought by caravans, it sells at fancy prices. Another
-well-known production of all these regions is the mt’hípít’hípí, or
-Abrus precatorius, whose scarlet seeds are converted into ornaments for
-the head.
-
-The cattle is a fine variety, with small humps and large horns, like
-that of Ujiji and Uviva. The herds are reckoned by Gundu, or stallions,
-in the proportion of 1 to 100 cows. The late Sultan Ndagara is said to
-have owned 200 Gundu, or 20,000 cows, which late civil wars have reduced
-to 12,000 or 13,000. In Karagwah cattle forms wealth, and everywhere in
-Africa wealth, and wealth only, secures defenders and dependants. The
-surplus males are killed for beef; this meat, with milk in its various
-preparations, and a little of the fine white hill-honey, forms the food
-of the higher classes.
-
-The people of Karagwah, who are not, according to South African fashion,
-called Wakaragwah, are divided into two orders--Wahuma and Wanyambo--who
-seem to bear to each other the relation of patron and client, patrician
-and plebeian. The Wahuma comprises the rich, who sometimes possess 1000
-head of cattle, and the warriors, a militia paid in the milk of cows
-allotted to their temporary use by the king. The Wanyambo--Fellahs or
-Ryots--are, it is said, treated by the nobles as slaves. The men of
-Karagwah are a tall stout race, doubtless from the effect of pure
-mountain-air and animal food. Corpulence is a beauty: girls are fattened
-to a vast bulk by drenches of curds and cream thickened with flour, and
-are duly disciplined when they refuse. The Arabs describe them as
-frequently growing to a monstrous size, like some specimens of female
-Boers mentioned by early travellers in Southern Africa. Fresh milk is
-the male, sour the female beverage. The complexion is a brown yellow,
-like that of the Warundi. The dress of the people, and even of the
-chiefs, is an apron of close-grained mbugu, or bark-cloth, softened with
-oil, and crimped with fine longitudinal lines made with a batten or
-pounding club. In shape it resembles the flap of an English saddle, tied
-by a prolongation of the upper corners round the waist. To this scarcely
-decent article the chiefs add a languti, or Indian-T-bandage of goat’s
-skin. Nudity is not uncommon, and nubile girls assume the veriest
-apology for clothing, which is exchanged after marriage for short kilts
-and breast coverings of skin. Both sexes wear tiara-shaped and
-cravat-formed ornaments of the crimson abrus-seed, pierced and strung
-upon mondo, the fine fibre of the mwale or raphia-palm. The weapons are
-bows and arrows, spears, knobsticks, and knives; the ornaments are beads
-and coil-bracelets, which, with cattle, form the marriage settlement.
-The huts are of the conical and circular African shape, with walls of
-stakes and roofs so carefully thatched that no rain can penetrate them:
-the villages, as in Usagara, are scattered upon the crests and ridges of
-the hills.
-
-The Mkámá, or Sultan of Karagwah, in 1858, was Armanika, son of Ndagara,
-who, although the dignity is in these lands hereditary, was opposed by
-his younger brother Rumanika. The rebel, after an obstinate attack, was
-routed by Suna, the late despot of Uganda, who, bribed by the large
-present of ivory, which was advanced by Musa Mzuri of Kazeh, then
-trading with Armanika, threw a large force into the field. Rumanika was
-blinded and pensioned, and about four years ago peace was restored.
-Armanika resides in the central district, Weranhanja, and his
-settlement, inhabited only by the royal family, contains from forty to
-fifty huts. He is described as a man about thirty to thirty-five years
-old, tall, sturdy, and sinewy-limbed, resembling the Somal. His dress
-is, by preference, the mbugu, or bark-cloth, but he has a large store of
-fine raiment presented by his Arab visitors: in ornaments he is
-distinguished by tight gaiters of beads extending from knee to ankle.
-His diet is meat and milk, with sometimes a little honey, plantains, and
-grain: unlike his subjects, he eschews mawa and pombe. He has about a
-dozen wives, an unusually moderate allowance for an African chief, and
-they have borne him ten or eleven children. The royal family is said to
-be a race of centagenarians; they are buried in their garments, sitting
-and holding their weapons: when the king dies there is a funeral feast.
-
-Under the Mkama is a single minister, who takes the title of Muhinda,
-and presides over the Wakungu, elders and headmen, whose duty it is to
-collect and to transmit to the monarch once every month his revenues,
-in the shape of slaves and ivory, cattle and provisions. Milk must be
-forwarded by proprietors of cows and herds even from a distance of three
-days’ march. Armanika is an absolute ruler, and he governs without
-squeamishness. Adulterers are punished by heavy fines in cattle,
-murderers are speared and beheaded, rebels and thieves are blinded by
-gouging out the eyes with the finger-joints of the right-hand, and
-severing the muscles. Subjects are forbidden to sell milk to those who
-eat beans or salt, for fear of bewitching the animals. The Mkama, who
-lives without state or splendour, receives travellers with courtesy.
-Hearing of their approach, he orders his slaves to erect four or five
-tents for shelter, and he greets them with a large present of
-provisions. He demands no blackmail, but the offerer is valued according
-to his offerings: the return gifts are carefully proportioned, and for
-beads which suit his taste he has sent back an acknowledgment of fifty
-slaves and forty cows. The price of adult male slaves varies from eight
-to ten fundo of white, green, or blue porcelain-beads: a woman in her
-prime costs two kitindi (each equal to one dollar on the coast), and
-five or six fundo of mixed beasts. Some of these girls, being
-light-coloured and well favoured, sell for sixty dollars at Zanzibar.
-The merchants agree in stating that a European would receive in Karagwah
-the kindest welcome, but that to support the dignity of the white face a
-considerable sum would be required. Arabs still visit Armanika to
-purchase slaves, cattle, and ivory, the whitest and softest, the largest
-and heaviest in this part of Central Africa. The land is rich in iron,
-and the spears of Karagwah, which are, to some extent, tempered, are
-preferred to the rude work of the Wafyoma. Sulphur is found, according
-to the Arabs, near hot springs amongst the mountains. A species of
-manatus (?) supplies a fine skin used for clothing. The simbi, or cowrie
-(Cypræa), is the minor currency of the country: it is brought from the
-coast by return caravans of Wanyamwezi.
-
-The country of Karagwah is at present the head-quarters of the Watosi, a
-pastoral people who are scattered throughout these Lake Regions. They
-came, according to tradition, from Usingo, a mountain district lying to
-the north of Uhha. They refuse to carry loads, to cultivate the ground,
-or to sell one another. Harmless, and therefore unarmed, they are often
-plundered, though rarely slain, by other tribes, and they protect
-themselves by paying fees in cattle to the chiefs. When the Wahinda are
-sultans, the Watosi appear as councillors and elders; but whether this
-rank is derived from a foreign and superior origin, or is merely the
-price of their presents, cannot be determined. In appearance they are a
-tall, comely, and comparatively fair people; hence in some parts every
-“distinguished foreigner” is complimented by being addressed as “Mtosi.”
-They are said to derive themselves from a single ancestor, and to
-consider the surrounding tribes as serviles, from whom they will take
-concubines, but to whom they refuse their daughters. Some lodges of this
-people were seen about Unyanyembe and Msene, where they live by selling
-cattle, milk, and butter. Their villages are poor, dirty, and
-unpalisaded; mere scatters of ragged round huts. They have some curious
-practices: never eat out of their own houses, and, after returning from
-abroad, test, by a peculiar process, the fidelity of their wives before
-anointing themselves and entering their houses. The Arabs declare that
-they are known by their black gums, which they consider a beauty.
-
-The last feature of importance in Karagwah is the Kitangure River on its
-northern frontier. This stream, deriving its name from a large
-settlement on its banks, according to some travellers flows through a
-rocky trough, according to others it traverses a plain. Some, again,
-make it thirty yards, others 600, and even half a mile, in breadth. All
-these statements are reconcileable. The river issues from Higher Urundi,
-not far from the Malagarazi; but whilst the latter, engaged in the
-Depression of Central Africa, is drawn towards the Tanganyika, the
-former, falling into the counterslope, is directed to the north-east
-into the Nyanza Lake. Its course would thus lie through a
-mountain-valley, from which it issues into a lacustrine plain, the
-lowlands of Unyoro and Uganda. The dark and swift stream must be crossed
-in canoes even during the dry season, but, like the Malagarazi, about
-June or at the end of the rains, it debords over the swampy lands of its
-lower course.
-
-From the Kitangure River fifteen stations conduct the traveller to
-Kibuga, the capital district of Uganda, and the residence of its
-powerful despot. The maximum of these marches would be six daily, or a
-total of ninety rectilinear geographical miles. Though there are no
-hills, the rivers and rivulets--said to be upwards of a hundred in
-number--offer serious obstacles to rapid travelling. Assuming then, the
-point where the Kitangure River is crossed to be in S. lat. 1° 14′,
-Kibuga may be placed in S. lat. 0° 10′. Beyond Weranhanja no traveller
-with claims to credibility has seen the Nyanza water. North of Kibuga
-all is uncertain; the Arabs were not permitted by Suna, the last despot,
-to penetrate farther north.
-
-The two first marches from the Kitangure River traverse the territory
-of “dependent Unyoro,” so called because it has lately become subject to
-the Sultan of Uganda. In former times Unyoro in crescent-shape, with the
-cusps fronting eastwards and westwards, almost encompassed Uganda. From
-dependent Unyoro the path, crossing a tract of low jungle, enters Uganda
-in the concave of the crescent. The tributary Wahayya, under Gaetawa,
-their sultan, still extend to the eastward. North of the Wahayya, of
-whose territory little is known, lies “Kittara,” in Kinyoro (or
-Kiganda?), a word interpreted to mean “mart,” or “meeting-place.” This
-is the region which supplies Karagwah with coffee. The shrub is
-propagated by sowing the bean. It attains the height of five feet,
-branching out about half-way; it gives fruit after the third, and is in
-full vigour after the fifth year. Before almost every hut-door there is
-a plantation, forming an effective feature in the landscape of rolling
-and wavy hill, intersected by a network of rivers and streams: the
-foliage is compared to a green tapestry veiling the ground; and at
-times, when the leaves are stripped off by wind and rain, the plant
-appears decked with brilliant crimson cherry-like berries. The Katonga
-River, crossed at Kitutu, is supposed to fall into the Nyanza, the
-general recipient of the network of streams about Karagwah. This
-diagonality may result from the compound incline produced by the
-northern counterslope of the mountains of Karagwah and the
-south-westward depression necessary to form and to supply the lake. The
-Katonga is a sluggish and almost stagnant body of considerable breadth,
-and when swollen it arrests the progress of caravans. Some portions of
-the river are crossed, according to the Arabs, over a thick growth of
-aquatic vegetation, which forms a kind of matwork, capable of
-supporting a man’s weight, and cattle are towed over in the more open
-parts by cords attached to their horns. Four stations lead from the
-Katonga River to Kibuga, the capital district of Uganda.
-
-Kibuga is the residence of the great Mkámá or chief of Uganda.
-Concerning its population and peculiarities the Arabs must be allowed to
-tell their own tale. “Kibuga, the settlement, is not less than a day’s
-journey in length; the buildings are of cane and rattan. The sultan’s
-palace is at least a mile long, and the circular huts, neatly ranged in
-line, are surrounded by a strong fence which has only four gates. Bells
-at the several entrances announce the approach of strangers, and guards
-in hundreds attend there at all hours. They are commanded by four
-chiefs, who are relieved every second day: these men pass the night
-under hides raised upon uprights, and their heads are forfeited if they
-neglect to attend to the summons of the king. The harem contains about
-3000 souls--concubines, slaves, and children. No male nor adult animal
-may penetrate, under pain of death, beyond the Barzah, a large vestibule
-or hall of audience where the king dispenses justice and receives his
-customs. This palace has often been burned down by lightning: on these
-occasions the warriors must assemble and extinguish the fire by rolling
-over it. The chief of Uganda has but two wants with which he troubles
-his visitors--one, a medicine against death; the other, a charm to avert
-the thunderbolt: and immense wealth would reward the man who could
-supply either of these desiderata.”
-
-Suna, the great despot of Uganda, a warlike chief, who wrested dependent
-Unyoro from its former possessor, reigned till 1857. He perished in the
-prime of life and suddenly, as the Arabs say, like Namrud, whilst
-riding “pickaback”--the state carriage of Central Africa--upon a
-minister’s shoulders, he was struck by the shaft of the destroyer in the
-midst of his mighty host. As is the custom of barbarous and despotic
-races, the event was concealed for some months. When the usual time had
-expired, one of his many sons, exchanging his heir-elective name
-“Sámunjú” for Mtesa, became king. The court usage compels the newly
-elected chief to pass two years in retirement, committing state affairs
-to his ministers; little, therefore, is yet known of him. As he will
-certainly tread in the footsteps of his sire, the Arabs may again be
-allowed to describe the state and grandeur of the defunct Suna; and as
-Suna was in fact the whole kingdom of Uganda, the description will
-elucidate the condition of the people in general.
-
-“The army of Uganda numbers at least 300,000 men; each brings an egg to
-muster, and thus something like a reckoning of the people is made. Each
-soldier carries one spear, two assegais, a long dagger, and a shield,
-bows and swords being unknown. When marching the host is accompanied by
-women and children carrying spare weapons, provisions, and water. In
-battle they fight to the sound of drums, which are beaten with sticks
-like those of the Franks: should this performance cease, all fly the
-field. Wars with the Wanyoro, the Wasoga, and other neighbours are
-rendered almost chronic by the policy as well as the pleasure of the
-monarch, and there are few days on which a foraging party does not march
-from or return to the capital. When the king has no foreign enemies, or
-when the exchequer is indecently deficient, he feigns a rebellion,
-attacks one of his own provinces, massacres the chief men, and sells off
-the peasantry. Executions are frequent, a score being often slain at a
-time: when remonstrated with concerning this barbarity, Sana declared
-that he had no other secret for keeping his subjects in awe of him, and
-for preventing conspiracies. Sometimes the king would accompany his army
-to a battue of game, when the warriors were expected to distinguish
-themselves by attacking the most ferocious beasts without weapons: even
-the elephant, borne down by numbers, yielded to the grasp of man. When
-passing a village he used to raise a shout, which was responded to by a
-loud flourish of horns, reed-pipes, iron whistles, and similar
-instruments. At times he decreed a grand muster of his soldiery: he
-presented himself sitting before his gate, with a spear in the right
-hand, and holding in the left the leash of a large and favourite dog
-resembling an Arab suluki or greyhound. The master of the hounds was an
-important personage. Suna took great pleasure in witnessing trials of
-strength, the combatants contending with a mixture of slapping and
-pushing till one fell to the ground. He had a large menagerie of lions,
-elephants, leopards, and similar beasts of disport, to whom he would
-sometimes give a criminal as a ‘_curée_:’ he also kept for amusement
-fifteen or sixteen albinos; and so greedy was he of novelty that even a
-cock of peculiar or uniform colour would have been forwarded by its
-owner to feed his eyes.”
-
-Suna when last visited by the Arabs was a “red man,” aged about
-forty-five, tall, robust, and powerful of limb, with a right kingly
-presence and a warrior carriage. His head was so shaven as to leave what
-the Omani calls “el Kishshah,” a narrow crest of hair like a cock’s
-comb, from nape to brow; nodding and falling over his face under its
-weight of strung beads, it gave him a fierce and formidable aspect.
-This tonsure, confined to those about the palace, distinguishes its
-officers and inmates, servile as well as free, from the people. The
-Ryots leave patches of hair where they please, but they may not shave
-the whole scalp under pain of death, till a royal edict unexpectedly
-issued at times commands every head to shed its honours. Suna never
-appeared in public without a spear; his dress was the national costume,
-a long piece of the fine crimped mbugu or bark-cloth manufactured in
-these regions, extending from the neck to the ground. He made over to
-his women the rich clothes presented by the Arabs, and allowed them to
-sew with unravelled cotton thread, whereas the people under severe
-penalties were compelled to use plantain fibre. No commoner could wear
-domestics or similar luxuries; and in the presence, the accidental
-exposure of a limb led, according to the merchants, to the normal
-penalty--death.
-
-Suna, like the northern despots generally, had a variety of names, all
-expressing something bitter, mighty, or terrible, as, for instance,
-Lbare, the Almighty (?); Mbidde and Purgoma, a lion. He could not
-understand how the Sultan of Zanzibar allowed his subjects treasonably
-to assume the name of their ruler; and besides mortifying the Arabs by
-assuming an infinite superiority over their prince, he shocked them by
-his natural and unaffected impiety. He boasted to them that he was the
-god of earth, as their Allah was the Lord of Heaven. He murmured loudly
-against the abuse of lightning; and he claimed from his subjects divine
-honours, which were as readily yielded to him as by the facile Romans to
-their emperors. No Mgándá would allow the omnipotence of his sultan to
-be questioned, and a light word concerning him would have imperilled a
-stranger’s life. Suna’s domestic policy reminds the English reader of
-the African peculiarities which form the groundwork of “Rasselas.” His
-sons, numbering more than one hundred, were removed from the palace in
-early youth to separate dungeons, and so secured with iron collars and
-fetters fastened to both ends of a long wooden bar that the wretches
-could never sit, and without aid could neither rise nor lie. The
-heir-elective was dragged from his chains to fill a throne, and the
-cadets will linger through their dreadful lives, unless wanted as
-sovereigns, until death release them. Suna kept his female children
-under the most rigid surveillance within the palace: he had, however, a
-favourite daughter named Nasuru, whose society was so necessary to him
-that he allowed her to appear with him in public.
-
-The principal officers under the despot of Uganda are, first, the Kimara
-Vyona (literally the “finisher of all things”): to him, the chief
-civilian of the land, the city is committed; he also directs the kabaka
-or village headmen. The second is the Sakibobo or commander-in-chief,
-who has power over the Sáwágánzí, the life-guards and slaves, the
-warriors and builders of the palace. Justice is administered in the
-capital by the sultan, who, though severe, is never accused of
-perverting the law, which here would signify the ancient custom of the
-country. A Mhozi--Arabised to Hoz, and compared with the Kazi of el
-Islam--dispenses in each town criminal and civil rights. The only
-punishments appear to be death and mulcts. Capital offenders are
-beheaded or burned; in some cases they are flayed alive; the operation
-commences with the face, and the skin, which is always much torn by the
-knife, is stuffed as in the old torturing days of Asia. When a criminal
-absconds, the males of his village are indiscriminately slain and the
-women are sold--blood and tears must flow for discipline. In money suits
-each party begins by placing before the Mhozi a sum equivalent to the
-disputed claim; the object is to prevent an extensive litigiousness.
-Suna used to fine by fives or tens, dozens or scores, according to the
-offender’s means; thus from a wealthy man he would take twenty male and
-twenty female slaves, with a similar number of bulls and cows, goats and
-kids, hens and even eggs. One of his favourites, who used constantly to
-sit by him on guard, matchlock in hand, was Isa bin Hosayn, a Baloch
-mercenary of H. H. Sayyid Said of Zanzibar. He had fled from his
-debtors, and had gradually wandered to Uganda, where the favour of the
-sovereign procured him wealth in ivory, and a harem containing from 200
-to 300 women. “Mzagayya,”--the hairy one, as he was locally called, from
-his long locks and bushy beard--was not permitted, nor probably did he
-desire, to quit the country; after his patron’s death he fled to
-independent Unyoro, having probably raised up, as these adventurers
-will, a host of enemies at Uganda.
-
-Suna greatly encouraged, by gifts and attention, the Arab merchants to
-trade in his capital; the distance has hitherto prevented more than
-half-a-dozen caravans travelling to Kibuga; all however came away loudly
-praising his courtesy and hospitality. To a poor trader he has presented
-twenty slaves, and an equal number of cows, without expecting any but
-the humblest return. The following account of a visit paid to him in
-1852, by Snay bin Amir, may complete his account of the despot Uganda.
-When the report of arrival was forwarded by word of mouth to Suna, he
-issued orders for the erection of as many tents as might be necessary.
-The guest, who was welcomed with joyful tumult by a crowd of gazers, and
-was conducted to the newly-built quarters, where he received a present
-of bullocks and grain, plantains and sugar-canes. After three or four
-days for repose, he was summoned to the Barzah or audience hall, outside
-of which he found a squatting body of about 2000 guards armed only with
-staves. Allowed to retain his weapons, he entered with an interpreter
-and saluted the chief, who, without rising, motioned his guest to sit
-down in front of him. Suna’s only cushion was a mbugu; his dress was of
-the same stuff; two spears lay close at hand, and his dog was as usual
-by his side. The Arab thought proper to assume the posture of homage,
-namely, to sit upon his shins, bending his back, and, with eyes fixed on
-the ground--he had been cautioned against staring at the “god of
-earth,”--to rest his hands upon his lap. The levee was full; at a
-distance of fifty paces between the king and the guards sat the
-ministers; and inside the palace, so placed that they could see nothing
-but the visitor’s back, were the principal women, who are forbidden to
-gaze at or to be gazed at by a stranger. The room was lit with torches
-of a gummy wood, for Suna, who eschewed pombe, took great pleasure in
-these audiences, which were often prolonged from sunset to midnight.
-
-The conversation began with a string of questions concerning Zanzibar,
-the route, the news, and the other staple topics of barbarous
-confabulation; when it flagged, a minister was called up to enliven it.
-No justice was administered nor present offered during the first
-audience; it concluded with the despot rising, at which signal all
-dispersed. At the second visit Snay presented his blackmail, which
-consisted of ten cotton cloths, and one hundred fundo of coral, and
-other porcelain beads. The return was an offering of two ivories and a
-pair of serviles; every day, moreover, flesh and grain, fruit and milk
-were supplied without charge; whenever the wish was expressed, a string
-of slave-girls presently appeared bending under loads of the article in
-question; and it was intimated to the “king’s stranger” that he might
-lay hands upon whatever he pleased, animate or inanimate. Snay, however,
-was too wise to avail himself of this truly African privilege. During
-the four interviews which followed, Suna proved himself a man of
-intelligence: he inquired about the Wazungu or Europeans, and professed
-to be anxious for a closer alliance with the Sultan of Zanzibar. When
-Snay took leave he received the usual present of provisions for the
-road, and 200 guards prepared to escort him, an honour which he
-respectfully declined: Suna offered to send with him several loads of
-elephants’ tusks as presents to H. H. the Sayyid; but the merchant
-declined to face with them the difficulties and dangers of Usúí. Like
-all African chiefs, the despot considered these visits as personal
-honours paid to himself; his pride therefore peremptorily forbade
-strangers to pass northwards of his capital, lest the lesser and hostile
-chiefs might boast a similar brave. According to Snay, an European would
-be received with distinction, if travelling with supplies to support his
-dignity. He would depend, however, upon his ingenuity and good fortune
-upon further progress; and perhaps the most feasible plan to explore the
-water-shed north of the Nyanza Lake would be to buy or to build, with
-the permission of the reigning monarch, boats upon the nearest western
-shore. Suna himself, had, according to Snay, constructed a flotilla of
-matumbi or undecked vessels similar in shape to the Mtope or
-Muntafiyah--the modern “Ploiaria Rhapta” of the Sawahili coast from Lamu
-to Kilwa.
-
-Few details were given by the Arabs concerning the vulgar herd of
-Waganda: they are, as has been remarked, physically a finer race than
-the Wayamwezi, and they are as superior in character; more docile and
-better disciplined, they love small gifts, and show their gratitude by
-prostrating themselves before the donor. The specimens of slaves seen at
-Kazeh were, however, inferior to the mountaineers of Karagwah; the
-complexion was darker, and the general appearance more African. Their
-language is, to use an Arab phrase, like that of birds, soft and quickly
-spoken; the specimens collected prove without doubt that it belongs to
-the Zangian branch of the great South-African family. Their normal dress
-is the mbugu, under which, however, all wear the “languti” or
-Indian-T-bandage of goatskin; women appear in short kilts and
-breast-coverings of the same material. Both sexes decorate their heads
-with the tiara of abrus-seeds alluded to when describing the people of
-Karagwah. As sumptuary laws impede the free traffic of cloth into
-Uganda, the imports are represented chiefly by beads, cowries, and brass
-and copper wires. The wealth of the country is in cattle, ivory, and
-slaves, the latter often selling for ten fundo of beads, and the same
-sum will purchase the Wasoga and Wanyoro captives from whom the despot
-derives a considerable portion of his revenues. The elephant is rare in
-Uganda; tusks are collected probably by plunder from Usoga, and the
-alakah of about ninety Arab pounds is sold for two slaves, male or
-female. The tobacco, brought to market in leaf, as in Ujiji, and not
-worked, as amongst the other tribes, is peculiarly good. Flesh, sweet
-potatoes, and the highly nutritious plantain, which grows in groves a
-whole day’s march long, are the chief articles of diet; milk is drunk
-by women only, and ghee is more valued for unction than for cookery. The
-favourite inebrients are mawa and pombe; the latter is served in neatly
-carved and coloured gourds, and the contents are imbibed, like sherry
-cobbler, through a reed.
-
-From Kibuga the Arabs have heard that between fifteen and twenty marches
-lead to the Kivira River, a larger and swifter stream than the Katonga,
-which forms the northern limit of Uganda, and the southern frontier of
-Unyoro. They are unable to give the names of stations. South of Kivira
-is Usoga, a low alluvial land, cut by a multitude of creeks, islets, and
-lagoons; in their thick vegetation the people take refuge from the
-plundering parties of the Waganda, whose chief built, as has been told,
-large boats to dislodge them. The Wasoga have no single sultan, and
-their only marketable commodity is ivory.
-
-On the north, the north-west, and the west of Uganda lies, according to
-the Arabs, the land of Independent Unyoro. The slaves from that country
-vaguely describe it as being bounded on the north-west by a tribe called
-Wakede, who have a currency of cowries, and wear tiaras of the shell;
-and the Arabs have heard that on the north-east there is a “people with
-long daggers like the Somal,” who may be Gallas (?). But whether the
-Nyanza Lake extends north of the equator is a question still to be
-decided. Those consulted at Kazeh ignored even the name of the
-Nyam-nyam; nor had they heard of the Bahri and Barri, the Shilluks on
-the west, and the Dinkas east of the Nile, made familiar to us by the
-Austrian Mission at Gondokoro, and other explorers.
-
-The Wanyoro are a distinct race, speaking a language of the Zangian
-family: they have suffered from the vicinity of the more warlike
-Waganda, who have affixed to the conquered the opprobrious name of widdu
-or “serviles;” and they have lost their southern possessions, which
-formerly extended between Karagwah and Uganda. Their late despot
-Chawambi, whose death occurred about ten years ago, left three sons, one
-of whom it is reported has fallen into the power of Uganda, whilst the
-two others still rule independently. The county is rich and fertile, and
-magnificent tales are told concerning the collections of ivory, which in
-some parts are planted in the ground to pen cattle. Slaves are cheap;
-they find their way to the southern markets _viâ_ Uganda and Karagwah.
-Those seen at Kazeh and Kirira, where the Arab traders had a large gang,
-appeared somewhat inferior to the other races of the northern kingdoms,
-with a dull dead black colour, flattish heads, brows somewhat
-retreating, prominent eyes, and projecting lower jaws. They were
-tattooed in large burnt blotches encircling the forehead, and in some
-cases the inferior excisors had been extracted. The price of cattle in
-Unyoro varies from 500 to 1000 cowries. In this country ten simbi
-(Cypræa) represent one khete of beads; they are the most esteemed
-currency, and are also used as ornaments for the neck, arms, and legs,
-and decorations for stools and drums.
-
-During my companions’ absence much of my spare time was devoted to
-collecting specimens of the multitudinous dialects into which the great
-South African family here divides itself. After some months of desultory
-work I had learned the Kisawahili or coast language, the lingua Franca
-of the South African coast: it is the most useful, because the most
-generally known, and because, once mastered, it renders its cognates as
-easy of acquirement as Bengali or Maharatti after Hindostani. The
-principal obstacle is the want of instructors and books--the Kisawahili
-is not a written language; and the elementary publications put forth in
-Europe gave me the preliminary trouble of composing a grammar and a
-vocabulary. Said Bin Salim, though bred and born amongst the Wasawahili,
-knew but little of the tongue, and his peculiarities of disposition
-rendered the task of instruction as wearisome to himself as it was
-unsatisfactory to me. My best tutor was Snay Bin Amir, who had
-transferred to the philology of East Africa his knowledge of Arabic
-grammar and syntax. With the aid of the sons of Ramji and other tame
-slaves, I collected about 1500 words in the three principal dialects
-upon this line of road, namely the Kisawahili, the Kizaramo--which
-includes the Kik’hutu--and the Kinyamwezi. At Kazeh I found a number of
-wild captives, with whom I began the dreary work of collecting
-specimens. In the languages of least consideration I contented myself
-with the numerals, which are the fairest test of independence of
-derivation, because the most likely to be primitive vocables. The work
-was not a labour of love. The savages could not guess the mysterious
-objects of my inquiry into their names for 1, 2, and 3; often they
-started up and ran away, or they sat in dogged silence, perhaps thinking
-themselves derided. The first number was rarely elicited without half an
-hour’s “talkee-talkee” somewhat in this style:--
-
-“Listen, O my brother! in the tongue of the shores (Kisawahili) we say
-1, 2, 3, 4, 5”--counting the fingers to assist comprehension.
-
-“Hu! hu!” replies the wild man, “_we_ say fingers.”
-
-“By no means, that’s not it. This white man wants to know how thou
-speakest 1, 2, 3?”
-
-“One, two, three what? sheep, or goats, or women?”--expressing the
-numerals in Kisawahili.
-
-“By no means, only 1, 2, 3 sheep in thine own tongue, the tongue of the
-Wapoka.”
-
-“Hi! Hi! what wants the white man with the Wapoka?”
-
-And so on till patience was almost impossible. But, like the Irish
-shay-horse of days gone by, their tongues once started often hobbled on
-without halting. The tame slaves were more tractable, yet even in their
-case ten minutes sufficed to weary out the most intellectual; when the
-listless and incoherent reply, the glazed eye gazing at vacancy, and the
-irresistible tendency to gape and yawn, to nod and snooze, evidenced a
-feeble brain soon overworked. Said Bin Salim would sit staring at me
-with astonishment, and ejaculate, like Abba Gregorius, the preceptor of
-Ludolph, the grammarian philologist and historian of Æthiopia, “Verily
-in the coast-tongue words never take root, nor do they bear branches.”
-
-The rest of my time was devoted to preparations for journeying. The
-Fundi’s tent, which had accompanied us to Uvira, was provided with an
-outer cover. The Sepoys’ “pal,” brought from Zanzibar, having been
-destroyed by the ill-treatment of the villain Kannena, I made up, with
-the aid of a blackguard Baghdadi, named ’Brahim, a large tent of
-American domestics, which having, however, but one cloth, and that of
-the thinnest, proved a fiery purgatory on the down-march eastwards. The
-canvas lug-sail was provided with an extra double cloth, sewn round the
-top to increase its dimensions: it thus became a pent-shaped affair,
-twelve feet long, eight broad, and six feet high--seven would have been
-better,--buttoned at the foot, which was semicircular, and in front
-provided with blue cotton curtains, most useful against glare and
-stare. Its lightness, combined with impenetrability, made it the model
-of a tent for rapid marching. It was not, however, pegged down close to
-the ground, as some explorers advise, without the intervention of ropes;
-in these lands, a tent so pitched would rot in a week. The three tents
-were fitted with solid male bamboos, and were provided with skin-bags
-for their pegs, which, unless carefully looked after, disappear almost
-daily. The only furniture was a kitanda or cartel: some contrivance of
-the kind, a “Biddulph,” or an iron bed-frame, without joints, nuts, or
-screws, which are sure to break or to be lost, is absolutely necessary
-in these lands, where from Kaole to Uvira every man instinctively
-attempts to sit and to sleep upon something that raises him above the
-ground. Moreover, I have ever found the cartel answer the threefold
-purpose of bed, chair, and table; besides saving weight by diminishing
-the quantity of bedding required.
-
-To the task of tent-making succeeded tailoring. We had neglected to
-provide ourselves with the loose blanket suits, served out to sailors on
-board men-of-war in the tropics: they are most useful in passing through
-countries where changes of climate are sudden and marked. Besides these,
-the traveller should carry with him an ample store of flannels: the
-material must be shrunk before making up shirts, otherwise it will
-behave as did the Little Boy’s mantle when tried by the frail fair
-Guinever. A red colour should moreover be avoided, the dye soon turns
-dark, and the appearance excites too much attention. Besides shirt and
-trousers, the only necessary is a large “stomach-warmer” waistcoat, with
-sleeves and back of similar material, without collar--which renders
-sleeping in it uneasy--and provided with four flapped pockets, to
-contain a compass and thermometer, a note-book, and a sketch-book, a
-watch and a moderate-sized knife of many uses. The latter should contain
-scissors, tweezers, tooth-pick, and ear-pick, needle, file, picker,
-steel for fire, turnscrew, watch-spring-saw, clasp blade, and pen blade:
-it should be made of moderate dimensions, and for safety be slung by a
-lanyard to the button-hole. For the cold mornings and the noon-day
-heats, I made up a large padded hood, bound round the head like the Arab
-Kufiyah. Too much cannot be said in favour of this article, which in
-eastward travel defends the eyes from the fiery glare, protects, when
-wending westwards, the carotids against the solar blaze, and, at all
-times, checks the intrusive staring of the crowd. I reformed my
-umbrella, ever an invaluable friend in these latitudes, by removing the
-rings and wires from the worm-eaten stick, and by mounting them on a
-spear, thus combining with shelter a staff and a weapon. The traveller
-should have at least three umbrellas, one large and water proof--white,
-not black--in the shape of those used by artists; and two others of
-moderate size, and of the best construction, which should be covered
-with light-coloured calico, as an additional defence against the sun. At
-Kazeh I was somewhat deficient in material: my lazy “Jack of all
-trades,” Valentine, made, however, some slippers of green baize, soled
-with leather, for me, overalls of American domestics for my companion,
-and various articles of indigo-dyed cotton for himself and his
-fellow-servant, who presently appeared tastefully rigged out like Paul
-and Virginia in “Bengal blue.”
-
-The minor works were not many. The two remaining portmanteaus of the
-three that had left the Coast were cobbled with goatskins, and were
-bound with stout thongs. The hammocks, of which half had disappeared,
-were patched and provided with the Nara, or Indian cotton-tape, which
-in these climates is better than either reims or cord. To save my eyes
-the spectacle of moribund fowls, suspended to a porter’s pole, two light
-cages were made after the fashion of the country, with bent and bound
-withes. The metal plates, pots, and pans were furbished, and a damaged
-kettle was mended by a travelling tinker: the asses’ saddles and halters
-were repaired, and, greatest luxury of all, a brace of jembe or iron
-hoes was converted into two pairs of solid stirrups, under the vigilant
-eye of Snay bin Amir. A party of slaves sent to Msene brought back
-fifty-four jembe, useful as return-presents and blackmail on the
-down-march: they paid, however, one cloth for two, instead of four.
-Sallum bin Hamid, the “papa” of the Arabs, sold for the sum of forty
-dollars a fine half-bred Zanzibar she-ass and foal--there is no surer
-method of procuring a regular supply of milk on Eastern journeys. My
-black and white beads being almost useless, he also parted with, as a
-peculiar favour, seventeen or eighteen pounds of pink-porcelains for
-forty dollars, and with a Frasibah of coffee, and a similar quantity of
-sugar for eighty dollars, equal to sixteen pounds sterling. On the 14th
-July the last Arab caravan of the season left Unyanyembe, under the
-command of Sayf bin Said el Wardi. As he obligingly offered to convey
-letters and any small articles which I wished to precede me, and knowing
-that under his charge effects were far safer than with our own people, I
-forwarded the useless and damaged surveying instruments, certain
-manuscripts, and various enclosures of maps, field and sketch-books,
-together with reports to the Royal Geographical Society.
-
-This excitement over I began to weary of Kazeh. Snay bin Amir and most
-of the Arabs had set out on an expedition to revenge the murder of old
-Silim--an event alluded to in a former page, and the place had become
-dull as a mess-dinner. Said bin Salim, who was ill, who coughed and
-expectorated, and sincerely pitied himself because he had a cold, became
-more than usually unsociable: he could enjoy nothing but the society of
-Brahim, the bawling Baghdadi, and the crowd of ill-flavoured slavery
-that flocked into the vestibule. My Goanese servant, who connected my
-aspect with hard labour, avoided it like a pestilence. Already I was
-preparing to organise a little expedition to K’hokoro and the southern
-provinces, when unexpectedly,--in these lands a few cries and gun-shots
-are the only credible precursors of a caravan,--on the morning of the
-25th August reappeared my companion.
-
-At length my companion had been successful, his “flying trip” had led
-him to the northern water, and he had found its dimensions surpassing
-our most sanguine expectations. We had scarcely, however, breakfasted,
-before he announced to me the startling fact, that he had discovered the
-sources of the White Nile. It was an inspiration perhaps: the moment he
-sighted the Nyanza, he felt at once no doubt but that the “Lake at his
-feet gave birth to that interesting river which has been the subject of
-so much speculation, and the object of so many explorers.” The fortunate
-discoverer’s conviction was strong; his reasons were weak--were of the
-category alluded to by the damsel Lucetta, when justifying her penchant
-in favour of the “lovely gentleman,” Sir Proteus:--
-
-  “I have no other but a woman’s reason.
-  I think him so because I think him so;”[11]
-
-and probably his sources of the Nile grew in his mind as his Mountains
-of the Moon had grown under his hand.
-
-  [11] The following extract from the Proceedings of the R. Geographical
-  Society, May 9, 1859, will best illustrate what I mean:--
-
-  MR. MACQUEEN, F.R.G.S., said the question of the sources of the Nile
-  had cost him much trouble and research, and he was sure there was no
-  material error either in longitude or latitude in the position he had
-  ascribed to them, namely, a little to the eastward of the meridian of
-  35°, and a little northward of the equator. That was the principal
-  source of the White Nile. The mountains there were exceedingly high,
-  from the equator north to Kaffa Enarea. All the authorities, from
-  east, west, north, or south, now perfectly competent to form judgments
-  upon such a matter, agreed with him; and among them were the officers
-  commanding the Egyptian commission. It was impossible they could all
-  be mistaken. Dr. Krapf had been within a very short distance of it; he
-  was more than 180 miles from Mombas, and he saw snow upon the
-  mountains. He conversed with the people who came from them, and who
-  told him of the snow and exceeding coldness of the temperature. The
-  line of perpetual congelation, it was well known, was 17,000 feet
-  above the sea. He had an account of the navigation of the White Nile
-  by the Egyptian expedition. It was then given as 3° 30′ N. lat. and
-  31° E. long. At this point the expedition turned back for want of a
-  sufficient depth of water. Here the river was 1370 feet broad, and the
-  velocity of the current _one-quarter_ of a mile per hour. The journals
-  also gave a specific and daily current, the depth and width of the
-  river, and every thing, indeed, connected with it. Surely, looking at
-  the current of the river, the height of the Cartoom above the level of
-  the sea, and the distance thence up to the equator, the sources of the
-  Nile must be 6000 or 8000 feet above the level of the sea, and still
-  much below the line of the snow, which was 6000 or 8000 feet farther
-  above them. He deeply regretted he was unable to complete the diagram
-  for the rest of the papers he had given to the Society, for it was
-  more important than any others he had previously given. It contained
-  the journey over Africa from sea to sea, second only to that of Dr.
-  Livingstone. But all the rivers coming down from the mountains in
-  question, and running south-eastward, had been clearly stated by Dr.
-  Krapf, who gave every particular concerning them. He should like to
-  know what the natives had said was to the northward of the large lake?
-  Did they say the rivers ran out from or into the lake? How could the
-  Egyptian officers be mistaken?
-
-  CAPTAIN SPEKE replied. They were not mistaken; and if they had pursued
-  their journey 50 miles farther, they would undoubtedly have found
-  themselves at the northern borders of this lake.
-
-  MR. MACQUEEN said that other travellers, Don Angelo for instance, had
-  been within one and a half degree of the Equator, and saw the mountain
-  of Kimborat under the Line, and persisted in the statement, adding,
-  that travellers had been up the river until they found it a mere
-  brook. He felt convinced that the large lake alluded to by Captain
-  Speke was not the source of the Nile: it was impossible it could be
-  so, for it was not at a sufficiently high altitude.
-
-  The paper presented to the Society, when fully read in conjunction
-  with the map, will clearly show that the Bahr-el-Abied has no
-  connection with Kilimanjaro, that it has no connection whatever with
-  any lake or river to the south of the Equator, and that the swelling
-  of the river Nile proceeds from the tropical rains of the northern
-  torrid zone, as was stated emphatically to Julius Cæsar by the chief
-  Egyptian priest Amoreis 2000 years ago.
-
-  In nearly 3° N. lat. there is a great cataract, which boats cannot
-  pass. It is called Gherba. About half-way (50 miles) above, and
-  between this cataract and Robego, the capital of Kuenda, the river
-  becomes so narrow as to be crossed by a bridge formed by a tree thrown
-  across it. Above Gherba no stream joins the river either from the
-  south or south-west.
-
-The main argument in favour of the Lake representing the great reservoir
-of the White River was, that the “principal men” at the southern
-extremity ignored the extent northward. “On my inquiring about the
-lake’s length the man (the greatest traveller in the place) faced to the
-north, and began nodding his head to it; at the same time he kept
-throwing forward his right hand, and making repeated snaps of his
-fingers endeavoured to indicate something immeasurable; and added, that
-nobody knew, but he thought it probably extended to the end of the
-world.” Strongly impressed by this valuable statistical information, my
-companion therefore placed the northern limit about 4°-5° north lat.,
-whereas the Egyptian expedition sent by the late Mohammed Ali Pacha,
-about twenty years ago, to explore the Coy Sources, reached 3° 22′ north
-lat. It therefore ought to have sailed fifty miles upon the Nyanza lake.
-On the contrary, from information derived on the spot, that expedition
-placed the fountains at one month’s journey--300 to 350 miles--to the
-south-east, or upon the northern counterslope of Mount Kenia. Whilst
-marching to the coast, my companion--he tells us--was assured by a
-“respectable Sowahili merchant, that when engaged in traffic some years
-previously to the northward of the line, and the westward of this lake,
-he had heard it commonly reported that large vessels frequented the
-northern extremity of these waters, in which the officers engaged in
-navigating them used sextants and kept a log, precisely similar to what
-is found in vessels on the ocean. Query, could this be in allusion to
-the expedition sent by Mohammed Ali up the Nile in former years?”
-(Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society, May 9, 1859.) Clearly, if
-Abdullah Bin Nasib, the Msawahili alluded to, had reported these words,
-he merely erred; the Egyptian expedition, as has been shown, not only
-did not find, they never even heard of a lake. But not being present at
-the conversation I am tempted to assign further explanation. My
-companion, wholly ignorant of Arabic, was reduced to depend upon
-“Bombay,” who spoke an even more debased dialect than his master, and it
-is easy to see how the blunder originated. The Arabic bahr and the
-Kisawahili bahari are equally applicable in vulgar parlance to a river
-or sea, a lake or a river. Traditions concerning a Western Sea--the to
-them now unknown Atlantic--over which the white men voyage, are familiar
-to many East Africans; I have heard at Harar precisely the same report
-concerning the log and sextants. Either, then, Abdullah Bin Nasib
-confounded, or my companion’s “interrupter” caused him to confound the
-Atlantic and the Lake. In the maps forwarded from Kazeh by my companion,
-the River Kivira was, after ample inquiry, made a western _influent_ of
-the Nyanza Lake. In the map appended to the paper in Blackwood, before
-alluded to, it has become an _effluent_, and the only minute concerning
-so very important a modification is, “This river (although I must
-confess at first I did not think so) is the Nile itself!”
-
-Beyond the assertion, therefore, that no man had visited the north, and
-the appearance of sextants and logs upon the waters, there is not a
-shade of proof _pro._ Far graver considerations lie on the _con._ side:
-the reports of the Egyptian expedition, and the dates of the several
-inundations which--as will presently appear--alone suffice to disprove
-the possibility of the Nyanza causing the flood of the Nile. It is
-doubtless a satisfactory thing to disclose to an admiring public, of
-“statesmen, churchmen, missionaries, merchants, and more particularly
-geographers,” the “solution of a problem, which it has been the first
-geographical desideratum of many thousand years to ascertain, and the
-ambition of the first monarchs in the world to unravel.” (Blackwood’s
-Magazine, October 1859.) But how many times since the days of a certain
-Claudius Ptolemæius surnamed Pelusiota, have not the Fountains of the
-White Nile been discovered and re-discovered after this fashion?
-
-What tended at the time to make me the more sceptical was the
-substantial incorrectness of the geographical and other details brought
-back by my companion. This was natural enough. Bombay, after
-misunderstanding his master’s ill-expressed Hindostani, probably
-mistranslated the words into Kisawahili to some travelled African, who
-in turn passed on the question in a wilder dialect to the barbarian or
-barbarians under examination. During such a journey to and fro words
-must be liable to severe accidents. The first thing reported to me was
-the falsehood of the Arabs at Kazeh, who had calumniated the good Sultan
-Muhayya, and had praised the bad Sultan Machunda: subsequent inquiries
-proved their rigid correctness. My companion’s principal informant was
-one Mansur Bin Salim, a half-caste Arab, who had been flogged out of
-Kazeh by his compatriots; he pronounced Muhayya to be a “very excellent
-and obliging person,” and of course he was believed. I then heard a
-detailed account of how the caravan of Salim bin Rashid had been
-attacked, beaten, captured, and detained at Ukerewe, by its sultan
-Machunda. The Arabs received the intelligence with a smile of ridicule,
-and in a few days Salim bin Rashid appeared in person to disprove the
-report. These are but two cases of many. And what knowledge of Asiatic
-customs can be expected from the writer of these lines? “The Arabs at
-Unyanyembe had advised my donning their habit for the trip in order to
-attract less attention; a vain precaution, which I believe they
-suggested more to gratify their own vanity in _seeing an Englishman
-lower himself to their position_, than for any benefit that I might
-receive by doing so.” (Blackwood, loco cit.) This galimatias of the
-Arabs!--the haughtiest and the most clannish of all Oriental peoples.
-
-But difference of opinion was allowed to alter companionship. After a
-few days it became evident to me that not a word could be uttered upon
-the subject of the Lake, the Nile, and his _trouvaille_ generally
-without offence. By a tacit agreement it was, therefore, avoided, and I
-should never have resumed it had my companion not stultified the results
-of the Expedition by putting forth a claim which no geographer can
-admit, and which is at the same time so weak and flimsy, that no
-geographer has yet taken the trouble to contradict it.
-
-I will here offer to the reader a few details concerning the Lake in
-question,--they are principally borrowed from my companion’s diary,
-carefully corrected, however, by Snay bin Amir, Salim bin Rashid[12],
-and other merchants at Kazeh.
-
-  [12] When my companion returned to Kazeh, he represented Ukerewe and
-  Mazita to be islands, and, although in sight of them, he had heard
-  nothing concerning their connection with the coast. This error was
-  corrected by Salim bin Rashid, and accepted by us. Yet I read in his
-  discovery of the supposed sources of the Nile: “Mansur, and a native,
-  the greatest traveller of the place, kindly accompanied and gave me
-  every obtainable information. This man had traversed the island, as he
-  called it, of Ukerewe from north to south. _But by his rough mode of
-  describing it, I am rather inclined to think that instead of its being
-  an actual island, it is a connected tongue of land, stretching
-  southwards from a promontory lying at right angles to the eastern
-  shore of the lake_, which being a wash, affords a passage to the
-  mainland during the fine season, but during the wet becomes submerged
-  and thus makes Ukerewe temporarily an island.” The information, I
-  repeat, was given, not by the “native,” but by Salim bin Rashid. When,
-  however, the latter proceeded to correct my companion’s confusion
-  between the well-known coffee mart Kitara and “the island of Kitiri
-  occupied by a tribe called Watiri,” he gave only offence--consequently
-  Kitiri has obtained a local habitation in Blackwood and Petermann.
-
-This fresh-water sea is known throughout the African tribes as Nyanza,
-and the similarity of the sound to “Nyassa,” the indigenous name of the
-little Maravi or Kilwa Lake, may have caused in part the wild confusion
-in which speculative geographers have involved the Lake Regions of
-Central Africa. The Arabs, after their fashion of deriving comprehensive
-names from local and minor features, call it Ukerewe, in the Kisukuma
-dialect meaning the “place of Kerewe” (Kelewe), an islet. As has been
-mentioned, they sometimes attempt to join by a river, a creek, or some
-other theoretical creation, the Nyanza with the Tanganyika, the altitude
-of the former being 3750 feet above sea-level, or 1900 feet above the
-latter, and the mountain regions which divide the two having been
-frequently travelled over by Arab and African caravans. Hence the name
-Ukerewe has been transferred in the “Mombas Mission Map” to the northern
-waters of the Tanganyika. The Nyanza, as regards name, position, and
-even existence, has hitherto been unknown to European geographers; but,
-as will presently appear, descriptions of this sea by native travellers
-have been unconsciously transferred by our writers to the Tanganyika of
-Ujiji, and even to the Nyassa of Kilwa.
-
-M. Brun-Rollet (“Le Nil Blanc et le Soudan,” p. 209) heard that on the
-west of the Padongo tribe,--whom he places to the S. of Mount Kambirah,
-or below 1° S. lat.--lies a great lake, from whose northern extremity
-issues a river whose course is unknown. In the map appended to his
-volume this water is placed between 1° S. and 3° N. lat., and about 25°
-50′ E. long. (Greenwich), and the déversoir is made an influent of the
-White Nile.
-
-Bowdich (“Discoveries of the Portuguese,” pp. 131, 132), when speaking
-of the Maravi Lake (the Nyassa), mentions that the “negroes or the Moors
-of Melinde” have mentioned a great water which is known to reach
-Mombaca, which the Jesuit missionaries conjectured to communicate with
-Abyssinia, and of which Father Lewis Marianna, who formerly resided at
-Tete, recommended a discovery, in a letter addressed to the government
-at Goa, which is still preserved among the public archives of that city.
-Here the confusion of the Nyanza, to which there was of old a route from
-Mombasah with the Nyassa, is apparent.
-
-At the southern point, where the Muingwira River falls into the tortuous
-creek, whose surface is a little archipelago of brown rocky islets
-crowned with trees, and emerging from the blue waters, the observed
-latitude of the Nyanza Lake, is 2° 24′ S.; the longitude by dead
-reckoning from Kazeh is E. long. 33° and nearly due north, and the
-altitude by B. P. thermometer 3750 feet above sea-level. Its extent to
-the north is unknown to the people of the southern regions, which rather
-denotes some difficulty in travelling than any great extent. They
-informed my companion that from Mwanza to the southern frontier of
-Karagwah is a land journey of one month, or a sea voyage of five days
-towards the N. N. W. and then to the north. They also pointed out the
-direction of Unyoro N. 20° W. The Arab merchants of Kazeh have seen the
-Nyanza opposite Weranhanja, the capital district of Armanika, King of
-Karagwah, and declare that it receives the Kitangure River, whose mouth
-has been placed about the equator. Beyond that point all is doubtful.
-The merchants have heard that Suna, the late despot of Uganda, built
-matumbi, or undecked vessels, capable of containing forty or fifty men,
-in order to attack his enemies, the Wasoga, upon the creeks which indent
-the western shores of the Nyanza. This, if true, would protract the lake
-to between 1° and 1° 30′ of N. lat., and give it a total length of about
-4° or 250 miles. This point, however, is still involved in the deepest
-obscurity. Its breadth was estimated as follows. A hill, about 200 feet
-above the water-level, shows a conspicuous landmark on the eastern
-shore, which was set down as forty miles distant. On the south-western
-angle of the line from the same point ground appeared; it was not,
-however, perceptible on the north-west. The total breadth, therefore,
-has been assumed at eighty miles,--a figure which approaches the
-traditions unconsciously chronicled by European geographers. In the
-vicinity of Usoga the lake, according to the Arabs, broadens out: of
-this, however, and in fact of all the formation north of the equator, it
-is at present impossible to arrive at certainty.
-
-The Nyanza is an elevated basin or reservoir, the recipient of the
-surplus monsoon-rain which falls in the extensive regions of the Wamasai
-and their kinsmen to the east, the Karagwah line of the Lunar Mountains
-to the west, and to the south Usukuma or Northern Unyamwezi. Extending
-to the equator in the central length of the African peninsula, and
-elevated above the limits of the depression in the heart of the
-continent, it appears to be a gap in the irregular chain which, running
-from Usumbara and Kilima-ngao to Karagwah, represents the formation
-anciently termed the Mountains of the Moon. The physical features, as
-far as they were observed, suggest this view. The shores are low and
-flat, dotted here and there with little hills; the smaller islands also
-are hill-tops, and any part of the country immediately on the south
-would, if inundated to the same extent, present a similar aspect. The
-lake lies open and elevated, rather like the drainage and the temporary
-deposit of extensive floods than a volcanic creation like the
-Tanganyika, a long narrow mountain-girt basin. The waters are said to be
-deep, and the extent of the inundation about the southern creek proves
-that they receive during the season an important accession. The colour
-was observed to be clear and blue, especially from afar in the early
-morning; after 9 _a.m._, when the prevalent south-east wind arose, the
-surface appeared greyish, or of a dull milky white, probably the effect
-of atmospheric reflection. The tint, however, does not, according to
-travellers, ever become red or green like the waters of the Nile. But
-the produce of the lake resembles that of the river in its purity; the
-people living on the shores prefer it, unlike that of the Tanganyika, to
-the highest, and clearest springs; all visitors agree in commending its
-lightness and sweetness, and declare that the taste is rather of river
-or of rain-water than resembling the soft slimy produce of stagnant
-muddy bottoms, or the rough harsh flavour of melted ice and snow.
-
-From the southern creek of the Nyanza, and beyond the archipelago of
-neighbouring islets, appear the two features which have given to this
-lake the name of Ukerewe. The Arabs call them “Jezirah”--an ambiguous
-term, meaning equally insula and peninsula--but they can scarcely be
-called islands. The high and rocky Mazita to the east, and the
-comparatively flat Ukerewe on the west, are described by the Arabs as
-points terminating seawards in bluffs, and connected with the eastern
-shore by a low neck of land, probably a continuous reef, flooded during
-the rains, but never so deeply as to prevent cattle fording the isthmus.
-The northern and western extremities front deep water, and a broad
-channel separates them from the southern shore, Usukuma. The Arabs, when
-visiting Ukerewe or its neighbour, prefer hiring the canoes of the
-Wasukuma, and paddling round the south-eastern extremity of the Nyanza,
-to exposing their property and lives by marching through the dangerous
-tribes of the coast.
-
-Mazita belongs to a people called Makwiya. Ukerewe is inhabited,
-according to some informants, by Wasukuma; according to others, the
-Wakerewe are marked by their language as ancient emigrants from the
-highlands of Karagwah. In Ukerewe, which is exceedingly populous, are
-two brother Sultans: the chief is “Machunda;” the second, “Ibanda,”
-rules at Wiru, the headland on the western limit. The people collect
-ivory from the races on the eastern mainland, and store it, awaiting an
-Arab caravan. Beads are in most request; as in Usukuma generally, not
-half a dozen cloths of native and foreign manufacture will be found upon
-a hundred men. The women are especially badly clad; even the adult
-maidens wear only the languti of India, or the Nubian apron of
-aloe-fibre, strung with the pipe-stem bead called sofi, and blackened,
-like India-rubber, by use; it is fastened round the waist, and depends
-about one foot by six or seven inches in breadth.
-
-The Arabs who traffic in these regions generally establish themselves
-with Sultan Machunda, and send their slaves in canoes round the
-south-east angle of the lake to trade with the coast people. These races
-are successively from the south; the Washaki, at a distance of three
-marches, and their inland neighbours the Wataturu; then the Warudi, a
-wild tribe, rich in ivory, lying about a fortnight’s distance; and
-beyond them the Wahumba, or Wamasai. Commercial transactions extend
-along the eastern shore as far as T’hiri, or Ut’hiri, a district between
-Ururu and Uhumba. This is possibly the origin of the island of Tiri or
-Kittiri, placed in my companion’s map near the north-west extremity of
-the Nyanza Lake, off the coast of Uganda, where there is a province
-called Kittara, peculiarly rich in coffee. The explorer heard from the
-untrustworthy country people that, after a long coasting voyage, they
-arrived at an island where the inhabitants, a poor and naked race, live
-on fish, and cultivate coffee for sale. The information appears
-suspicious. The Arabs know of no islands upon the Nyanza which produce
-coffee. Moreover, if the people had any traffic, they would not be
-without clothing.
-
-The savagery of the races adjacent to the Nyanza has caused accidents
-amongst travelling traders. About five years ago a large caravan from
-Tanga, on the eastern coast, consisting of 400 or 500 guns, and led by
-Arab merchants, at the end of a journey which had lasted nearly two
-years, happened to quarrel with the Wahumba or Wamasai near the lake.
-The subject was the burning down of some grass required for pasture by
-the wild men. Words led to blows; the caravan, having but two or three
-pounds of gunpowder, was soon dispersed; seven or eight merchants lost
-their lives, and a few made their escape to Unyanyembe. Before our
-departure from Kazeh, the slaves of Salim bin Rashid, having rescued one
-of the wounded survivors, who had been allowed by the Wamasai to wander
-into Urudi, brought him back to Kazeh. He described the country as no
-longer practicable. In 1858 also the same trading party, the principal
-authority for these statements, were relieved of several bales of cloth,
-during their sleep, when bivouacking upon an inhabited island near the
-eastern shore.
-
-The altitude, the conformation of the Nyanza Lake, the argilaceous
-colour and the sweetness of its waters, combine to suggest that it may
-be one of the feeders of the White Nile. In the map appended to M.
-Brun-Rollet’s volume, before alluded to, the large water west of the
-Padongo tribe, which clearly represents the Nyanza or Ukerewe, is, I
-have observed, made to drain northwards into the Fitri Lake, and
-eventually to swell the main stream of the White River. The details
-supplied by the Egyptian Expedition, which, about twenty years ago,
-ascended the White River to 3° 22′ N. lat., and 31° 30′ E. long., and
-gave the general bearing of the river from that point to its source as
-south-east, with a distance of one month’s journey, or from 300 to 350
-miles, would place the actual sources 2° S. lat., and 35° E. long., or
-in 2° eastward of the southern creek of the Nyanza Lake. This position
-would occupy the northern counterslope of the Lunar Mountains, the upper
-water-shed of the high region whose culminating apices are Kilima-Ngao,
-Kenia, and Doengo Engai. The distance of these peaks from the coast, as
-given by Dr. Krapf, must be considerably reduced, and little authority
-can be attached to his river Tumbiri.[13] The site, supposed by Mr.
-Macqueen (“Proceedings of the Geographical Society of London,” January
-24th, 1859), to be at least 21,000 feet above the level of the sea, and
-consequently 3000 or 4000 feet above the line of perpetual congelation,
-would admirably explain the two most ancient theories concerning the
-source of the White River, namely, that it arises in a snowy region, and
-that its inundation is the result of tropical rains.
-
-  [13] The large river Tumbiri, mentioned by Dr. Krapf as flowing
-  towards Egypt from the northern counterslope of Mount Kenia, rests
-  upon the sole authority of a single wandering native. As, moreover,
-  the word T’humbiri or T’humbili means a monkey, and the people are
-  peculiarly fond of satire in a small way, it is not improbable that
-  the very name had no foundation of fact. This is mentioned, as some
-  geographers--for instance, Mr. Macqueen (“Observations on the
-  Geography of Central Africa:” “Proceedings of the R. G. S. of London,”
-  May 9, 1859)--have been struck by the circumstance that the Austrian
-  Missionaries and Mr. Werne (“Expedition to discover the sources of the
-  White Nile, in 1840-41”) gave Tubirih as the Bari name of the White
-  Nile at the southern limit of their exploration.
-
-It is impossible not to suspect that between the upper portion of the
-Nyanza and the watershed of the White Nile there exists a longitudinal
-range of elevated ground, running from east to west--a “furca” draining
-northwards into the Nile and southwards into the Nyanza Lake--like that
-which separates the Tanganyika from the Maravi or Nyassa of Kilwa.
-According to Don Angelo Vinco, who visited Loquéck in 1852, beyond the
-cataract of Garbo--supposed to be in N. lat. 2° 40′--at a distance of
-sixty miles lie Robego, the capital of Kuenda, and Lokoya (Logoja), of
-which the latter receives an affluent from the east. Beyond Lokoya the
-White Nile is described as a _small and rocky mountain-river_,
-presenting none of the features of a stream flowing from a broad
-expanse of water like the great Nyanza reservoir.
-
-The periodical swelling of the Nyanza Lake, which, flooding a
-considerable tract of land on the south, may be supposed--as it lies
-flush with the basal surface of the country--to inundate extensively all
-the low lands that form its periphery, forbids belief in the possibility
-of its being the head-stream of the Nile, or the reservoir of its
-periodical inundation. In Karagwah, upon the western shore, the masika
-or monsoon lasts from October to May or June, after which the dry season
-sets in. The Egyptian Expedition found the river falling fast at the end
-of January, and they learned from the people that it would again rise
-about the end of March, at which season the sun is vertical over the
-equator. About the summer solstice (June), when the rains cease in the
-regions south of and upon the equator, the White Nile begins to flood.
-From March to the autumnal equinox (September) it continues to overflow
-its banks till it attains its magnitude, and from that time it shrinks
-through the winter solstice (December) till March. The Nile is,
-therefore, full during the dry season and low during the rainy season
-south of and immediately upon the equator. And as the northern
-counterslope of Kenia will, to a certain extent, be a lee-land, like
-Ugogo, it cannot have the superfluity of moisture necessary to send
-forth a first-class stream. The inundation is synchronous with the great
-falls of the northern equatorial regions, which extend from July to
-September, and is dependent solely upon the tropical rains. It is,
-therefore, probable that the true sources of the “Holy River” will be
-found to be a network of runnels and rivulets of scanty dimensions,
-filled by monsoon torrents, and perhaps a little swollen by melted snow
-on the northern water-parting of the Eastern Lunar Mountains.
-
-Of the tribes dwelling about the Nyanza, the western have been already
-described. The Washaki and the Warudi are plundering races on the east,
-concerning whom little is known. Remain the Wahinda, a clan or class
-alluded to in this and a former chapter, and the Wataturu, an extensive
-and once powerful tribe, mentioned when treating of the regions about
-Tura.
-
-The Wahinda (in the singular Muhinda) are, according to some Arabs, a
-foreign and ruling family, who coming from a distant country, probably
-in the neighbourhood of Somaliland, conquered the lands, and became
-Sultans. This opinion seems to rest upon physical peculiarities,--the
-superiority of the Wahinda in figure, stature, and complexion to their
-subjects suggesting a difference of origin. Others explain the word
-Muhinda to mean a cadet of royal family, and call the class Bayt el
-Saltanah, or the Kingly House. Thus, whilst Armanika is the Mkámá or
-Sovereign of Karagwah, his brother simply takes the title of Muhinda.
-These conflicting statements may be reconciled by the belief general in
-the country that the families of the Sultans are a foreign and a nobler
-race, the date of whose immigration has long fallen into oblivion.
-This may be credited without difficulty; the physique of the
-rulers--approximating more to the northern races of Africa--is markedly
-less negroid than that of their subjects, and the difference is too
-great to be explained by the effects of climate or of superior diet,
-comfort, and luxury.
-
-The Wahinda are found in the regions of Usui, Karagwah, Uhha, Uvinza,
-Uyungu, Ujiji, and Urundi, where they live in boma--stockades--and
-scattered villages. Of this race are the Sultans Suwarora of the Wasui,
-Armanika of Karagwah, Kanoni of Uhha, Kanze of Uyungu, Mzogera of
-Uvinza, Rusimba of Ujiji, Mwezi of Urundi, Mnyamurunde of Uyofo, Gaetawa
-of Uhayya, and Mutawazi of Utumbara. The Wahinda affect a milk diet
-which is exceedingly fattening, and anoint themselves plentifully with
-butter and ghee, to soften and polish the skin. They never sell their
-fellow clansmen, are hospitable and civil to strangers, seldom carry
-arms, fear nothing from the people, and may not be slain even in battle.
-Where the Wahinda reign, their ministers are the Watosi, a race which
-has been described when treating of their head-quarters Karagwah.
-
-The Wataturu extend from the Mángewá district, two marches northward of
-Tura in a north-north-westerly diagonal, to Usmáo, a district of
-Usukuma, at the south-east angle of the Nyanza Lake. On the north and
-east they are limited by the Wahumba, on the south by the people of
-Iramba, and there is said to be a connection between these three tribes.
-This wild pastoral people were formerly rich in flocks and herds; they
-still have the best asses in the country. About five years ago, however,
-they were persuaded by Msimbira, a chief of Usukuma, to aid him against
-his rival Mpagamo, who had called in the Arabs to his assistance. During
-the long and bitter contest which ensued, the Arabs, as has been
-related, were worsted in the field, and the Wataturu suffered severe
-losses in cattle. Shortly before the arrival of the Expedition at Kazeh
-the foreign merchants had despatched to Utaturu a plundering party of
-sixty slave-musketeers, who, however, suddenly attacked by the people,
-were obliged to fly, leaving behind eighteen of their number. This event
-was followed by a truce, and the Wataturu resumed their commerce with
-Tura and Unyanyembe, where, in 1858, a caravan, numbering about 300
-men, came in. Two small parties of this people were also met at Tura;
-they were small, dark, and ugly savages, almost beardless, and not
-unlike the “Thakur” people in Maharatta-land. Their asses, provided with
-neat saddle-bags of zebra skin, were better dressed than the men, who
-wore no clothing except the simplest hide-sandals. According to the
-Arabs this clan affects nudity: even adult maidens dispense with the
-usual skin-kilt. The men ignored bows and arrows, but they were
-efficiently armed with long spears, double-edged sime, and heavy hide
-shields. They brought calabash or monkey-bread flour--in this country,
-as in Ugogo, a favourite article of consumption--and a little coarse
-salt, collected from the dried mud of a Mbuga or swamp in the land of
-Iramba, to be bartered for holcus and beads. Their language sounded to
-the unpractised ear peculiarly barbarous, and their savage
-suspiciousness rendered it impossible to collect any specimens.
-
-At Kazeh, sorely to my disappointment, it was finally settled, in a full
-conclave of Arabs, that we must return to the coast by the tedious path
-with which we were already painfully familiar. At Ujiji the state of our
-finances had been the sole, though the sufficient obstacle to our
-traversing Africa from east to west; we might--had we possessed the
-means--by navigating the Tanganyika southwards, have debouched, after a
-journey of three months, at Kilwa. The same cause prevented us from
-visiting the northern kingdoms of Karagwah and Uganda; to effect this
-exploration, however, we should have required not only funds but time.
-The rains there setting in about September render travelling impossible;
-our two years’ leave of absence were drawing to a close, and even had we
-commanded a sufficient outfit, we were not disposed to risk the
-consequences of taking an extra twelve months. No course, therefore,
-remained but to regain the coast. We did not, however, give up hopes of
-making our return useful to geography, by tracing the course of the
-Rwaha or Rufijí River, and of visiting the coast between the Usagara
-Mountains and Kilwa, an unknown line not likely to attract future
-travellers.
-
-[Illustration: SAYDUMI, A NATIVE OF UGANDA.]
-
-[Illustration: Mgongo Thembo, or the Elephant’s Back.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVII.
-
-THE DOWN-MARCH TO THE COAST.
-
-
-On the 5th September 1858, Musa Mzuri--handsome Moses, as he was called
-by the Africans--returned with great pomp to Kazeh after his long
-residence at Karagwah. Some details concerning this merchant, who has
-played a conspicuous part in the eventful “_peripéties_” of African
-discovery, may be deemed well placed.
-
-About thirty-five years ago, Musa, a Moslem of the Kojah sect, and then
-a youth, was driven by poverty from his native Surat to follow his
-eldest brother “Sayyan,” who having sought fortune at Zanzibar, and
-having been provided with an outfit by the Sayyid el Laghbari, then
-governor of the island, made sundry journeys into the interior. About
-1825, the brothers first visited the Land of the Moon, preceding the
-Arab travellers, who in those days made their markets at Usanga and
-Usenga, distant about a dozen marches to the S.S.E. of Kazeh. Musa
-describes Unyamwezi as richly cultivated, and he has not forgotten the
-hospitable reception of the people. The brothers bought up a little
-venture of forty Farasilah or twenty men’s loads of cloth and beads, and
-returned with a joint stock of 800 Farasilah (800 × 35 = 28,000 lbs.
-avoirdupois) in ivory; as Sayyan died on the road, all fell to Musa’s
-share. Since that time he has made five journeys to the coast and
-several to the northern kingdoms. About four years ago Armanika, the
-present Sultan of Karagwah, was besieged in a palisaded village by a
-rebel brother Rumanika. On this occasion Musa, in company with the king,
-endured great hardships, and incurred no little risk; when both parties
-were weary of fighting, he persuaded, by a large bribe of ivory, Suna,
-the powerful despot of the neighbouring kingdom of Uganda, to raise the
-siege, by throwing a strong force into the field. He has ever since been
-fraternally received by Armanika, and his last journey to Karagwah was
-for the purpose of recovering part of the ivory expended in the king’s
-cause. After an absence of fifteen months he brought back about a score
-of splendid tusks, one weighing, he declared, upwards of 200 lbs. During
-his detention Salim bin Sayf, of Dut’humi, who had been entrusted by
-Musa with sixty-five Farasilah of ivory to barter for goods on the
-coast, arrived at Unyanyembe, when hearing the evil tidings, the wily
-Harisi appropriated the property and returned to whence he came. Like
-most merchants in East Africa, Musa’s business is extensive, but his
-gains are principally represented by outlying debts; he cannot,
-therefore, leave the country without an enormous sacrifice. He is the
-recognised Doyen of the commercial body, and he acts agent and
-warehouseman; his hall is usually full of buyers and sellers, Arab and
-African, and large investments of wires, beads, and cotton-cloths, some
-of them valuable, are regularly forwarded to him with comforts and
-luxuries from the coast.
-
-Musa Mzuri is now a man of the uncertain “certain age” between
-forty-five and fifty, thin-bearded, tall, gaunt, with delicate
-extremities, and with the regular and handsome features of a high-caste
-Indian Moslem. Like most of his compatriots, he is a man of sad and
-staid demeanour, and he is apparently faded by opium, which so
-tyrannises over him that he carries pills in every pocket, and stores
-them, lest the hoard should run short, in each corner and cranny of his
-house. His clean new dress, perfumed with jasmine-oil and sandal-wood,
-his snowy skull-cap and well-fitting sandals, distinguish him in
-appearance from the Arabs; and his abode, which is almost a village,
-with its lofty gates and its spacious courts, full of slaves and
-hangers-on, contrasts with the humility of the Semite tenements.
-
-On arrival at Kazeh I forwarded to Musa the introductory letter with
-which H. H. the Sayyid Majid had honoured me. Sundry civilities passed
-between his housekeeper, Mama Khamisi, and ourselves; she supplied the
-Baloch with lodgings and ourselves with milk, for which we were careful
-to reward her. After returning from Ujiji we found Abdullah, the eldest
-of Musa’s two sons by different slave girls, resting at Kazeh after his
-down-march from Karagwah. He knew a few words of English, but he had
-learned no Hindostani from his father, who curious to say, after an
-expatriation of thirty-five years, still spoke his mother-tongue purely
-and well. The youth would have become a greater favourite had he not
-been so hard a drinker and so quarrelsome in his cups; on more than one
-occasion he had dangerously cut or stabbed his servile boon-companions.
-Musa had spared the rod, or had used it upon him to very little purpose;
-after intruding himself repeatedly into the hall and begging for
-handsome clothes, with more instance of freedom than consisted with
-decorum, he was warned that if he stayed away it might be the better for
-his back, and he took the warning.
-
-Musa, when rested after his weary return-march, called upon me with all
-due ceremony, escorted by the principal Arab merchants. I was not
-disappointed in finding him wholly ignorant concerning Africa and things
-African; Snay bin Amir had told me that such was the case. He had,
-however, a number of slaves fresh from Karagwah and Uganda, who
-confirmed the accounts previously received from Arab travellers in
-those regions. Musa displayed even more hospitality than his
-fellow-travellers. Besides the mbogoro or skinful of grain and the goat
-usually offered to fresh arrivals, he was ever sending those little
-presents of provisions which in the East cannot be refused without
-offence. I narrowly prevented his killing a bullock to provide us with
-beef, and at last I feared to mention a want before him. During his
-frequent visits he invariably showed himself a man of quiet and
-unaffected manners, dashed with a little Indian reserve, which in
-process of time would probably have worn off.
-
-On the 6th September, Said bin Salim, nervously impatient to commence
-the march homewards, “made a khambi,” that is to say, pitched our tents
-under a spreading tree outside and within sight of Kazeh. Although he
-had been collecting porters for several days, only two came to the fore;
-a few refreshing showers were falling at the autumnal equinox, and the
-black peasantry so miscalculated the seasons that they expected the
-immediate advent of the great Masika. Moreover, when informed that our
-route would debouch at Kilwa, they declared that they must receive
-double pay, as they could not expect there to be hired by return
-caravans. That the “khambi” might assume an appearance of reality, the
-Baloch were despatched into “country-quarters.” As they followed their
-usual tactic, affecting eagerness to depart but privily clinging to the
-pleasures of Kazeh, orders were issued definitively to “cut” their
-rations in case of necessity. The sons of Ramji, who had returned from
-Msene, without, however, intrusion or swagger, were permitted to enter
-the camp. Before the march I summoned them, and in severe terms
-recapitulated their misdeeds, warned them that they would not be
-re-engaged, and allowed them provisions and protection only on condition
-of their carrying, as the slaves of Arab merchants are expected to do,
-our lighter valuables, such as the digester, medicine-chest, gun-cases,
-camp-table and chair. They promised with an edifying humility to reform.
-I was compelled, however to enliven their murmuring by a few slight
-floggings before they would become amenable to a moral rule, and would
-acquire those habits of regularity which are as chains and fetters to
-the African man. The five Wak’hutu porters who, after robbing and
-deserting us on the road to Ujiji, had taken service with my old
-acquaintance, Salim bin Rashid--the well-informed Coast Arab merchant,
-originally named by H. H. the Sayyid Majid, as my guide and caravan
-leader,--begged hard to be again employed. I positively refused to see
-them. If at this distance from home they had perjured themselves and had
-plundered us, what might be expected when they arrived near their native
-country?
-
-As the time of departure approached, I regretted that the arrival of
-several travellers had not taken place a month earlier. Salim bin
-Rashid, whilst collecting ivory in Usukuma and to the eastward of the
-Nyanza Lake, had recovered a Msawahili porter, who, falling sick on the
-road, had been left by a caravan from Tanga amongst the wildest of the
-East African tribes, the Wamasai or Wahumba. From this man, who spent
-two years amongst those plunderers and their rivals in villany the
-Warudi, I derived some valuable information concerning the great
-northern route which spans the countries lying between the coast and the
-Nyanza Lake. I was also called upon by Amayr bin Said el Shaksi, a
-strong-framed and stout-hearted greybeard, who, when his vessel
-foundered in the waters of the Tanganyika, saved his life by swimming,
-and as he had no goods and but few of his slaves had survived, lived for
-five months on roots and grasses, till restored to Ujiji by an Arab
-canoe. A garrulous senior, fond of “venting his travels,” he spent many
-hours with me, talking over his past adventures, and his ocular
-knowledge of the Tanganyika enabled me to gather many, perhaps, reliable
-details concerning its southern extremity. A few days before departure
-Hilal bin Nasur, a well-born Harisi, returned from K’hokoro; he supplied
-me with a list of stations and a lengthy description of his various
-excursions to the southern provinces.[14]
-
-  [14] For this and other purely geographical details concerning the
-  Southern Provinces, the reader is referred to the Journal of the Royal
-  Geographical Society, vol. xxix. 1860.
-
-Said bin Salim, in despair that the labours of a whole fortnight spent
-in the jungle had produced the slenderest of results, moved from under
-the tree in Kazeh plain to Masui, a dirty little village distant about
-three miles to the east of our head-quarters. As he reported on the 25th
-of September that his gang was nearly completed, I sent forward all but
-the personal baggage. The Arab had, however, secured but three Hammals
-or bearers for my hammock; one a tottering old man, the other a
-knock-kneed boy, and the third a notorious skulk. Although supplied with
-meat to strengthen them, as they expressed it, they broke down after a
-single march. From that time, finding it useless to engage bearers for a
-long journey in these lands, I hired men from district to district, and
-dismissed them when tired. The only objection to this proceeding was its
-inordinate expense: three cloths being generally demanded by the porter
-for thirty miles. A little calculation will give an idea of the relative
-cost of travelling in Africa and in Europe. Assuming each man to receive
-one cloth, worth one dollar, for every ten miles, and that six porters
-are required to carry the hammock, we have in Africa an expenditure on
-carriage alone of nearly half a crown per mile: in most parts of Europe
-travel on the iron road has been reduced to one penny.
-
-Our return from Unyanyembe to the coast was to take place during the
-dead season, when provisions are most expensive and are not unfrequently
-unprocurable. But being “Wazungu” and well provided with “African
-money,” we might expect the people to sell to us their grain and stores,
-which they would have refused at tariff-prices to Arabs or Wasawahili.
-We carried as stock fourteen porters’ loads of cloth, viz., 645
-domestics, 653 blue-cottons, and 20 coloured cloths, principally
-Debwani, Barsati, and Subai, as presents to chiefs. The supply of beads
-was represented by one load of ububu or black-porcelains--afterwards
-thrown away as useless--half a Frasilah (17·5 pounds) of “locust-legs,”
-or pink-porcelains, purchased from Sallum bin Hamid, and eight Kartasat
-or papered-bundles of the heavy and expensive “town-breakers,” vermilion
-or coral-porcelains, amounting to seventy Fundo, each of which covered
-as a rule the day’s minor expenses. The other stores were the fifty-four
-Jembe purchased at Msene, besides a few brought from Usukuma by my
-companion. These articles are useful in making up kuhonga or blackmail;
-in Ugogo and Usagara, which is their western limit, they double in
-value, and go even further than a white cotton-cloth. Finally, we had
-sixteen cows, heifers, and calves, bought in Usukuma by my companion, at
-the rate of six domestics per head. We expected them to be serviceable
-as presents, and meanwhile to add materially to our comfort by a more
-regular supply of milk than the villages afford. But, alas! having
-neglected to mark the animals, all were changed--a fact made evident by
-their running dry after a few days: the four calves presently died of
-fatigue; whenever an animal lay down upon the road its throat was
-summarily cut, others were left to stray and be stolen, and the last
-bullock preserved for a sirloin on Christmas was prematurely lost. A
-small per-centage proved useful as tribute to the chiefs of Ugogo, and
-served as rations when grain was unprocurable. The African, however,
-looks upon meat, not as “Posho”--daily bread--but as kitoweyo--kitchen:
-two or three pounds of beef merely whet his teeth for the usual Ugali
-or porridge of boiled flour. It is almost needless to state that,
-despite the best surveillance and the strictest economy, we arrived at
-the coast almost destitute; cloth and beads, hoes and cattle, all had
-disappeared, and had we possessed treble the quantity, it would have
-gone the same way.
-
-The 26th September, 1858, saw us on foot betimes. The hospitable Snay
-bin Amir, freshly recovered from an influenza which had confined him for
-some days to his sleeping-mat, came personally to superintend our
-departure. As no porters had returned for property left behind, and as
-all the “cooking-pots” had preceded us on the yester, Snay supplied us
-with his own slaves, and provided us with an Arab breakfast, well
-cooked, and as usual, neatly served on porcelain plates, with plaited
-and coloured straw dish-covers, pointed like Chinese caps. Then,
-promising to spend the next day with me, he shook hands and followed me
-out of the compound. After a march of three miles, under a white-hot
-sun, and through a chilling wind, to which were probably owing our
-subsequent sufferings, we entered the dirty little village of Masui,
-where a hovel had been prepared for us by Said bin Salim. There we were
-greeted by the caravan, and we heard with pleasure that it was ready,
-after a fashion, to break ground.
-
-Early on the next morning appeared Snay bin Amir and Musa Mzuri: as I
-was suffering from a slight attack of fever, my companion took my place
-as host. The paroxysm passing off, allowed me to settle all accounts
-with Snay bin Amir, and to put a finishing touch to the names of
-stations in the journal. I then thanked these kind-hearted men for their
-many good deeds, and promised to report to H. H. the Sayyid Majid the
-hospitable reception of his Arab subjects generally, and of Snay and
-Musa in particular. About evening time I shook hands with Snay bin
-Amir--having so primed the dear old fellow with a stirrup-cup of
-burnt-punch, that his gait and effusion of manner were by no means such
-as became a staid and stately Arab Shaykh.
-
-On the 4th October, after a week of halts and snail’s marches--the
-insufficiency of porterage compelled me to send back men for the
-articles left behind at the several villages--we at last reached Hanga,
-our former quarters on the eastern confines of the Unyanyembe district.
-As long as we were within easy distance of Kazeh it was impossible to
-keep the sons of Ramji in camp, and their absence interfered materially
-with the completion of the gang. Several desertions took place, a slave
-given by Kannena of Ujiji to Said bin Salim, old Musangesi the Asinego,
-and two new purchases, male and female, made by the Baloch at Kazeh,
-disappeared after the first few marches. The porters were troublesome.
-They had divided themselves as usual into Khambi, or crews, but no
-regular Kirangozi having been engaged, they preferred, through mutual
-jealousy, following Shehe, one of the sons of Ramji. On the road, also,
-some heads had been broken, because the cattle-drivers had attempted to
-precede the line, and I feared that the fall of a chance shower might
-make the whole squad desert, under the impression that the sowing season
-had set in. In their idleness and want of excitement, they had
-determined to secure at Hanga the bullock claimed by down caravans at
-Rubuga. After four days’ halt, without other labour but that of cooking,
-they arose under pretext of a blow given by one of the children of Said
-bin Salim, and packing up their goods and chattels, poured in mass,
-with shouts and yells, from the village, declaring that they were going
-home. In sore tribulation, Said bin Salim and the Jemadar begged me to
-take an active part, but a short experience of similar scenes amongst
-the Bashi-Buzuks at the Dardanelles had made me wiser than my advisers:
-the African, like the Asiatic, is naturally averse to the operation
-proverbially called “cutting off one’s own nose;” but if begged not to
-do so, he may wax, like pinioned men, valorous exceedingly, and dare the
-suicidal deed. I did not move from my hut, and in half an hour
-everything was _in statu quo ante_. The porters had thrown the blame of
-the proceeding upon the blow, consequently a flogging was ordered for
-Said bin Salim’s “child,” who, as was ever the case, had been flagrantly
-in the wrong; but after return, evading the point, the plaintiffs
-exposed the true state of affairs by a direct reference to the bullock.
-Thus the “child” escaped castigation, and the bullock was not given till
-we reached Rubuga.
-
-At Hanga my companion was taken seriously ill. He had been chilled on
-the line of march by the cruel easterly wind, and at the end of the
-second march from Kazeh he appeared trembling as if with ague.
-Immediately after arrival at the foul village of Hanga--where we lodged
-in a kind of cow-house, full of vermin, and exposed directly to the fury
-of the cold gales--he complained, in addition to a deaf ear, an inflamed
-eye, and a swollen face, of a mysterious pain which often shifted its
-seat, and which he knew not whether to attribute to liver or to spleen.
-It began with a burning sensation, as by a branding-iron, above the
-right breast, and then extended to the heart with sharp twinges. After
-ranging around the spleen, it attacked the upper part of the right lung,
-and finally it settled in the region of the liver. On the 10th October,
-suddenly waking about dawn from a horrible dream, in which a close pack
-of tigers, leopards, and other beasts, harnessed with a network of iron
-hooks, were dragging him like the rush of a whirlwind over the ground,
-he found himself sitting up on the side of his bedding, forcibly
-clasping both sides with his hands. Half-stupefied by pain, he called
-Bombay, who having formerly suffered from the “Kichyoma-chyoma”--the
-“little irons”--raised his master’s right arm, placed him in a sitting
-position, as lying down was impossible, and directed him to hold the
-left ear behind the head, thus relieving the excruciating and torturing
-twinges, by lifting the lung from the liver. The next spasm was less
-severe, but the sufferer’s mind had begun to wander, and he again
-clasped his sides, a proceeding with which Bombay interfered.
-
-Early on the next morning, my companion, supported by Bombay and
-Gaetano, staggered towards the tent. Nearing the doorway, he sent in his
-Goanese, to place a chair for sitting, as usual, during the toils of the
-day, outside. The support of an arm being thus removed, ensued a second
-and violent spasm of cramps and twinges, all the muscles being painfully
-contracted. After resting for a few moments, he called his men to assist
-him into the house. But neglecting to have a chair previously placed for
-him, he underwent a third fit of the same epileptic description, which
-more closely resembled those of hydrophobia than aught I had ever
-witnessed. He was once more haunted by a crowd of hideous devils,
-giants, and lion-headed demons, who were wrenching, with superhuman
-force, and stripping the sinews and tendons of his legs down to the
-ankles. At length, sitting, or rather lying upon the chair, with limbs
-racked by cramps, features drawn and ghastly, frame fixed and rigid,
-eyes glazed and glassy, he began to utter a barking noise, and a
-peculiar chopping motion of the mouth and tongue, with lips
-protruding--the effect of difficulty of breathing--which so altered his
-appearance that he was hardly recognisable, and completed the terror of
-the beholders. When this, the third and the severest spasm, had passed
-away, he called for pen and paper, and fearing that increased weakness
-of mind and body might presently prevent any exertion, he wrote an
-incoherent letter of farewell to his family. That, however, was the
-crisis. He was afterwards able to take the proper precautions, never
-moving without assistance, and always ordering a resting-place to be
-prepared for him. He spent a better night, with the inconvenience,
-however, of sitting up, pillow-propped, and some weeks elapsed before he
-could lie upon his sides. Presently, the pains were mitigated, though
-they did not entirely cease: this he expressed by saying that “the
-knives were sheathed.” Such, gentle reader, in East Africa, is the
-kichyoma-chyoma: either one of those eccentric after-effects of fever,
-which perplex the European at Zanzibar, or some mysterious manifestation
-of the Protean demon Miasma.
-
-I at once sent an express to Snay bin Amir for the necessary drugs. The
-Arabs treat this complaint by applying to the side powdered myrrh mixed
-with yoke of egg, and converted into a poultice with flour of mung
-(Phaseolus Mungo). The material was duly forwarded, but it proved of
-little use. Said bin Salim meanwhile, after sundry vague hints
-concerning the influence of the Father of Hair, the magnificent comet
-then spanning the western skies, insisted, as his people invariably do
-on such conjunctures, upon my companion being visited by the mganga, or
-medicine-man of the caravan. That reverend personage, after claiming and
-receiving the usual fee, a fat goat, anointed with its grease two little
-bits of wood strung on to a tape of tree-fibre, and contented himself
-with fastening this Mpigi--the negroid’s elixir vitæ--round my
-companion’s waist. The ligature, however, was torn off after a few
-minutes, as its only effect was to press upon and pain the tenderest
-part.
-
-During the forced halt which followed my companion’s severe attack, I
-saw that, in default of physic, change of air was the most fitting
-restorative. My benumbed legs and feet still compelling me to use a
-hammock, a second was rigged up for the invalid; and by good fortune
-thirteen unloaded porters of a down caravan consented to carry us both
-for a large sum to Rubuga. The sons of Ramji were imperatively ordered
-to leave Kazeh under pain of dismissal, which none would incur as they
-had a valuable investment in slaves: with their aid the complement of
-porters was easily and speedily filled up.
-
-Seedy Mubarak Bombay--in the interior the name became Mamba (a
-crocodile) or Pombe (small beer)--had long before returned to his former
-attitude, that of a respectful and most ready servant. He had, it is
-true, sundry uncomfortable peculiarities. A heaven-born “Pagazi,” he
-would load himself on the march with his “T’haka-t’haka,” or
-“chow-chow,” although a porter had been especially hired for him. He had
-no memory: an article once taken by him was always thrown upon the
-ground and forgotten: in a single trip he broke my elephant gun, killed
-my riding-ass, and lost its bridle. Like the Eastern Africans
-generally, he lacked the principle of immediate action; if beckoned to
-for a gun in the field he would probably first delay to look round, then
-retire, and lastly advance. He had a curious inverted way of doing all
-that he did. The water-bottle was ever carried on the march either
-uncorked or inverted; his waistcoat was generally wound round his neck,
-and it appeared fated not to be properly buttoned; whilst he walked
-bareheaded in the sun, his Fez adorned the tufty poll of some comrade;
-and at the halt he toiled like a charwoman to raise our tents and to
-prepare them for habitation, whilst his slave, the large lazy Maktubu, a
-boy-giant from the mountains of Urundi, sat or dozed under the cool
-shade. Yet with all his faults and failures Bombay, for his unwearied
-activity, and especially from his undeviating honesty,--there was no
-man, save our “Negro Rectitude,” in the whole camp who had not proved
-his claim to the title triliteral--was truly valuable. Said bin Salim
-had long forfeited my confidence by his carelessness and extravagance;
-and the disappearance of the outfit committed to him at Ujiji, in
-favour, as I afterwards learned, of an Arab merchant-friend, rendered
-him unfit for the responsibilities of stewardship.
-
-Having summoned Said bin Salim, I told him with all gentleness, in order
-to spare his “shame”--the Persian proverb says, Fell not the tree which
-thou hast planted--that being now wiser in Eastern African travel than
-before, I intended to relieve him of his troublesome duties. He heard
-this announcement with the wriest of faces; and his perturbation was not
-diminished when informed that the future distribution of cloth should be
-wholly in the hands of Bombay, checked by my companion’s
-superintendence. The loads were accordingly numbered and registered;
-the Pagazi were forbidden, under pain of punishment, to open or to
-change them without permission; and Said bin Salim received, like the
-Baloch, a certain monthly amount of beads, besides rations of rice for
-the consumption of his children. This arrangement was persevered in till
-we separated upon the seaboard: it acted well, saving outfit, time, and
-a host of annoyances; moreover, it gave us command, as the African man,
-like the lower animals, respects only, if he respects anything, the hand
-that gives, that feeds him. It was wonderful to see how the “bone of
-contention,” cloth, having been removed, the fierceness of those who
-were formerly foes melted and merged into friendship and fraternisation.
-The triad of bitter haters, Said bin Salim, the monocular Jemadar, and
-Muinyi Kidogo, now marched and sat and ate together as if never weary of
-such society; they praised one another openly and without reserve, and
-if an evil tale ever reached my ear its subject was the innocent
-Bombay--its object was to ruin him in my estimation.
-
-Acutely remembering the trouble caused by the feuds between Said bin
-Salim and Kidogo upon the subject of work, I directed the former to take
-sole charge of the porters, to issue their rations, and to superintend
-their loads. The better to assist him, two disorderly sons of Ramji were
-summarily flogged, and several others who refused to carry our smaller
-valuables were reduced to order by the usual process of stopping
-rations. “Shehe,” though chosen as Kirangozi or guide from motives of
-jealousy by the porters, was turned out of office; he persisted in
-demanding cloth for feeing an Unyamwezi medicine-man, in order to
-provide him, a Moslem! with charms against the evil eye, a superstition
-unknown to this part of Eastern Africa. The Pagazi, ordered to elect
-one of their number, named the youth Twánígáná, who had brought with him
-a large gang. But the plague of the party, a hideous, puckered, and
-scowling old man who had called himself “Muzungu Mbaya,” or the “Wicked
-White,” so far prevailed that at the first halt Twanigana, with his
-blushing honours in the shape of a scarlet waistcoat fresh upon him, was
-found squatting solus under a tree, the rest of the party having
-mutinously preceded him. I halted at once and recalled the porters, who,
-after a due interval of murmuring, reappeared. And subsequently, by
-invariably siding with the newly-made Kirangozi, and by showing
-myself ready to enforce obedience by any means and every means, I
-gave the long-legged and weak-minded youth, who was called
-“Gopa-Gopa”--“Funk-stick”--on account of his excessive timidity, a
-little confidence, and reduced his unruly followers to all the
-discipline of which their race is capable.
-
-As we were threatened with want of water on the way, I prepared for that
-difficulty by packing a box with empty bottles, which, when occasion
-required, might be filled at the best springs. The Zemzemiyah or
-travelling canteen of the East African is everywhere a long-necked
-gourd, slung to the shoulder by a string. But it becomes offensive after
-a short use, and it can never be entrusted to servant, slave, or porter
-without its contents being exhausted before a mile is measured.
-
-By these arrangements, the result of that after-wisdom which some have
-termed fools’ wit, I commenced the down march under advantages, happy as
-a “_bourgeois_” of trappers in the joyous _pays sauvage_. I have
-detailed perhaps to a wearisome length the preparations for the march.
-But the success of such expeditions mainly depends upon the measures
-adopted before and immediately after departure, and this dry knowledge
-may be useful to future adventurers in the great cause of discovery.
-
-The stages now appeared shorter, the sun cooler, the breeze warmer;
-after fourteen months of incessant fevers, the party had become
-tolerably acclimatised; all were now loud in praise, as they had been
-violent in censure, of the “water and air.” Before entering the Fiery
-Field, the hire for carrying the hammocks became so exorbitant that I
-dismissed the bearers, drew on my jack-boots, mounted the half-caste
-Zanzibari ass, and appeared once more as the Mtongi of a caravan. After
-a fortnight my companion had convalesced so rapidly that he announced
-himself ready to ride. The severe liver pains had disappeared, leaving
-behind them, however, for a time, a harassing heart-ache and nausea,
-with other bilious symptoms, which developed themselves when exposed to
-the burning sun of the several tirikeza. Gradually these sequelæ ceased,
-sleep and appetite returned, and at K’hok’ho, in Ugogo, my companion had
-strength enough to carry a heavy rifle, and to do damage amongst the
-antelope and the guinea fowl. Our Goanese servants also, after suffering
-severely from fever and face-ache, became different men; Valentine,
-blessed with a more strenuous diathesis, carried before him a crop like
-a well-crammed capon. As the porters left this country, and the escort
-approached their homes, there was a notable change of demeanour. All
-waxed civil, even to servility, grumbling ceased, and smiles mantled
-every countenance. Even Muzungu Mbaya, who in Unyamwezi had been the
-head and front of all offence, was to be seen in Ugogo meekly sweeping
-out our tents with a bunch of thorns.
-
-We left Hanga, the dirty cow-village, on the 13th October. The seven
-short marches between that place and Tura occupied fifteen days, a
-serious waste of time and cloth, caused by the craving of the porters
-for their homes. It was also necessary to march with prudence,
-collisions between the party and the country-people, who are
-unaccustomed to see the articles which they most covet carried out of
-the country, were frequent: in fact we flew to arms about every second
-day, and after infinite noise and chatter, we quitted them to boast of
-the deeds of “derring do,” which had been consigned to the limbo of
-things uncreate by the fainéance of the adversary. At Eastern Tura,
-where we arrived on the 28th October, a halt of six days was occasioned
-by the necessity of providing and preparing food, at that season scarce
-and dear, for the week’s march through the Fiery Field. The caravan was
-then mustered, when its roll appeared as follows. We numbered in our own
-party two Europeans, two Goanese, Bombay with two slaves--the child-man
-Nasibu and the boy-giant Maktubu--the bull-headed Mabruki, Nasir, a
-half-caste Mazrui Arab, who had been sent with me by the Arabs of Kazeh
-to save his morals, and Taufiki, a Msawahili youth, who had taken
-service as gun-carrier to the coast: they formed a total of 10 souls.
-Said bin Salim was accompanied by 12--the charmers Halimah and Zawada,
-his five children, and a little gang of five fresh captures, male and
-female. The Baloch, 12 in number, had 15 slaves and 11 porters,
-composing a total of 38. The sons of Ramji, and the ass-drivers under
-Kidogo their leader, were in all 24, including their new acquisitions.
-Finally 68 Wanyamwezi porters, carrying the outfit and driving the
-cattle, completed the party to 152 souls.
-
-[Illustration: Jiwe la Mkoa, the Round Rock.]
-
-On the 3rd November, the caravan issuing from Tura plunged manfully into
-the Fiery Field, and after seven marches in as many days, halted for
-breath and forage at Jiwe la Mkoa, the Round Stone. A few rations having
-been procured in its vicinity, we resumed our way on the 12th November,
-and in two days exchanged, with a sensible pleasure, the dull expanse of
-dry brown bush and brushwood, dead thorn-trees, and dry Nullahs, for the
-fertile red plain of Mdaburu. After that point began the transit of
-Ugogo, where I had been taught to expect accidents: they resolved
-themselves, however, into nothing more than the disappearance of cloth
-and beads in inordinate quantities. We were received by Magomba, the
-Sultan of Kanyenye, with a charge of magic, for which of course it was
-necessary to pay heavily. The Wanyamwezi porters seemed even more timid
-on the down-journey than on the up-march. They slank about like curs,
-and the fierce look of a Mgogo boy was enough to strike a general
-terror. Twanigana, when safe in the mountains of Usagara, would
-frequently indulge me in a dialogue like the following, and it may serve
-as a specimen of the present state of conversation in East Africa:--
-
-“The state, Mdula?” (_i.e._ Abdullah, a word unpronounceable to Negroid
-organs.)
-
-“The state is very! (well) and thy state?”
-
-“The state is very! (well) and the state of Spikka? (my companion).”
-
-“The state of Spikka is very! (well.)”
-
-“We have escaped the Wagogo (resumes Twanigana), white man O!”
-
-“We have escaped, O my brother!”
-
-“The Wagogo are bad.”
-
-“They are bad.”
-
-“The Wagogo are very bad.”
-
-“They are very bad.”
-
-“The Wagogo are not good.”
-
-“They are not good.”
-
-“The Wagogo are not at all good.”
-
-“They are not at all good.”
-
-“I greatly feared the Wagogo, who kill the Wanyamwezi.”
-
-“Exactly so!”
-
-“But now I don’t fear them. I call them ----s and ----s, and I would
-fight the whole tribe, white man O!”
-
-“Truly so, O my brother!”
-
-And thus for two mortal hours, till my ennui turned into marvel.
-Twanigana however was, perhaps, in point of intellect somewhat below the
-usual standard of African young men. Older and more experienced was
-Muzungu Mbaya, and I often listened with no small amusement to the
-attempts made by the Baloch to impress upon this truly African mind a
-respect for their revelation. Gul Mohammed was the missionary of the
-party: like Moslems generally, however, his thoughts had been taught to
-run in one groove, and if disturbed by startling objections, they were
-all abroad. Similarly I have observed in the European old lady, that on
-such subjects all the world must think with her, and I have been
-suspected of drawing the long-bow when describing the worship of gods
-with four arms, and goddesses with two heads.
-
-Muzungu Mbaya, as the old hunks calls himself, might be sitting deeply
-meditative, at the end of the march, before the fire, warming his inner
-legs, smoking his face, and ever and anon casting pleasant glances at a
-small black earthen pipkin, whence arose the savoury steam of meat and
-vegetables. A concatenation of ideas induces Gul Mohammed to break into
-his favourite theme.
-
-“And thou, Muzungu Mbaya, thou also must die!”
-
-“Ugh! ugh!” replies the Muzungu personally offended, “don’t speak in
-that way! Thou must die too.”
-
-“It is a sore thing to die,” resumes Gul Mohammed.
-
-“Hoo! Hoo!” exclaims the other, “it is bad, very bad, never to wear a
-nice cloth, no longer to dwell with one’s wife and children, not to eat
-and drink, snuff, and smoke tobacco. Hoo! Hoo! it is bad, very bad!”
-
-“But we shall eat,” rejoins the Moslem, “the flesh of birds, mountains
-of meat, and delicate roasts, and drink sugared water, and whatever we
-hunger for.”
-
-The African’s mind is disturbed by this tissue of contradictions. He
-considers birds somewhat low feeding, roasts he adores, he contrasts
-mountains of meat with his poor half-pound in pot, he would sell himself
-for sugar; but again he hears nothing of tobacco; still he takes the
-trouble to ask
-
-“Where, O my brother?”
-
-“There,” exclaims Gul Mohammed, pointing to the skies.
-
-This is a “chokepear” to Muzungu Mbaya. The distance is great, and he
-can scarcely believe that his interlocutor has visited the firmament to
-see the provision; he therefore ventures upon the query,
-
-“And hast thou been there, O my brother?”
-
-“Astaghfar ullah (I beg pardon of Allah)!” ejaculates Gul Mohammed, half
-angry, half amused. “What a mshenzi (pagan) this is! No, my brother, I
-have not exactly been there, but my Mulungu (Allah) told my Apostle[15],
-who told his descendants, who told my father and mother, who told me,
-that when we die we shall go to a Shamba (a plantation), where----”
-
-  [15] Those who translate Rasul, meaning, literally, “one sent,” by
-  prophet instead of apostle, introduce a notable fallacy into the very
-  formula of Moslem faith. Mohammed never pretended to prophecy in our
-  sense of foretelling future events.
-
-“Oof!” grunts Muzungu Mbaya, “it is good of you to tell us all this
-Upumbafu (nonsense) which your mother told you. So there are plantations
-in the skies?”
-
-“Assuredly,” replies Gul Mohammed, who expounds at length the Moslem
-idea of paradise to the African’s running commentary of “Nenda we!” (be
-off!), “Mama-e!” (O my mother!) and “Tumbanina,” which may not be
-translated.
-
-Muzungu Mbaya, who for the last minute has been immersed in thought, now
-suddenly raises his head; and, with somewhat of a goguenard air,
-inquires:
-
-“Well then, my brother, thou knowest all things! answer me, is thy
-Mulungu black like myself, white like this Muzungu, or whity-brown as
-thou art?”
-
-Gul Mohammed is fairly floored: he ejaculates sundry la haul! to collect
-his wits for the reply,--
-
-“Verily the Mulungu hath no colour.”
-
-“To-o-oh! Tuh!” exclaims the Muzunga, contorting his wrinkled
-countenance, and spitting with disgust upon the ground. He was now
-justified in believing that he had been made a laughing-stock. The
-mountain of meat had, to a certain extent, won over his better judgment:
-the fair vision now fled, and left him to the hard realities of the
-half-pound. He turns a deaf ear to every other word; and, devoting all
-his assiduity to the article before him, he unconsciously obeys the
-advice which many an Eastern philosopher has inculcated to his
-disciples--
-
-  “Hold fast the hour, though fools say nay,
-     The spheres revolve, they bring thee sorrow;
-   The wise enjoys his joy to-day,
-     The fool shall joy his joy to-morrow.”
-
-The transit of Ugogo occupied three weeks, from the 14th of November to
-the 5th of December. In Kanyenye we were joined by a large down-caravan
-of Wanyamwezi, carrying ivories; the musket-shots which announced the
-conclusion of certain brotherly ties between the sons of Ramji and the
-porters, sounded in my ears like minute-guns announcing the decease of
-our hopes of a return to the coast viâ Kilwa. At Kanyenye, also, we met
-the stout Msawahili Abdullah bin Nasib, alias Kisesa, who was once more
-marching into Unyamwezi: he informed me that the slaughter of Salim bin
-Nasir, the Bu-Saidi, and the destruction of the Rubeho settlements,
-after the murder of a porter, had closed our former line through
-Usagara. He also supplied me with valuable tea and sugar, and my
-companion with a quantity of valueless, or perhaps misunderstood,
-information, which I did not deem worth sifting. On the 6th of December,
-arrived at our old ground in the Ugogi Dhun, we were greeted by a
-freshly-arrived caravan, commanded by Jumah bin Mbwana and his two
-brothers, half-caste Hindi or Indian Moslems, from Mombasah.
-
-The Hindis, after receiving and returning news with much solemnity,
-presently drew forth a packet of letters and papers, which as usual
-promised trouble. This time, however, the post was to produce the second
-manner of annoyance--official “wigging,”--the first being intelligence
-of private misfortune. Imprimis, came a note from Captain Rigby, the
-newly-appointed successor to Lieut.-Col. Hamerton at Zanzibar, and that
-name was not nice in the nostrils of men. Secondly, the following
-pleasant announcement. I give the whole letter:
-
-  DEAR BURTON,--Go ahead! Vogel and Macguire dead--murdered. Write often
-  to
-
-  Yours truly, N. S.
-
-And thirdly came the inevitable official wig.
-
-Convinced, by sundry conversations with Arabs and others at Suez and
-Aden, during my last overland journey to India, and by the details
-supplied to me by a naval officer who was thoroughly conversant with the
-Red Sea, that, in consequence of the weakness and insufficiency of the
-squadron then employed, slavery still flourished, and that the numerous
-British subjects and protegés were inadequately protected, I had dared,
-after arrival at Zanzibar, privately to address on the 15th of December,
-1856, a letter upon the subject to the secretary of the Royal
-Geographical Society. It contained an “Account of Political Affairs in
-the Red Sea,”--to quote the words of the paper, and expressed a hope
-that it might be “deemed worthy to be transmitted to the Court of
-Directors, or to the Foreign Office.”[16] The only acknowledgment which
-I received, was the edifying information that the Secretary to
-Government, Bombay, was directed by the Right Honourable the Governor in
-Council, Bombay, to state that my “want of discretion and due regard for
-the authorities to whom I am subordinate, has been regarded with
-displeasure by the Government.”
-
-  [16] The whole correspondence, with its reply and counter-reply, are
-  printed in Appendix.
-
-This was hard. I have perhaps been Quixotic enough to attempt a
-suggestion that, though the Mediterranean is fast becoming a French
-lake, by timely measures the Red Sea may be prevented from being
-converted into a Franco-Russo-Austrian lake. But an Englishman in these
-days must be proud, very proud, of his nation, and withal somewhat
-regretful that he was not born of some mighty mother of men--such as
-Russia and America--who has not become old and careless enough to leave
-her bairns unprotected, or cold and crusty enough to reward a little
-word of wisdom from her babes and sucklings with a scolding or a buffet.
-
-The sore, however, had its salve. The official wig was dated the 23rd of
-July, 1857. Posts are slow in Africa. When received on the 5th of
-December, 1858, it was accompanied by a copy of a Bombay Newspaper,
-which reported that on the 30th of June, 1858, “a massacre of nearly all
-the Christians took place at Juddah, on the Red Sea,” and that “it was
-apprehended that the news from Juddah might excite the Arab population
-of Suez to the commission of similar outrages.”
-
-At Ugogi, which, it will be remembered, is considered the half-way
-station between Unyanyembe and the coast, the sons of Ramji and the
-porters detained us for a day, declaring that there was a famine upon
-the Mukondokwa road which we had previously traversed. At the same time
-they warned us that we should find the great chief, who has given a name
-to the Kiringawana route, an accomplished extortioner, and one likely to
-insist upon our calling upon him in person. Having given their
-ultimatum, they would not recede from it: for us, therefore, nothing
-remained but to make a virtue of necessity. We loaded on the 7th of
-December, and commenced the passage of the Usagara mountains by the
-Kiringawana line.
-
-I must indent upon the patience of the reader by a somewhat detailed
-description of this southern route, which is separated from the northern
-by a maximum interval of forty-three miles. The former being the more
-ancient, contains some settlements like Maroro and Kisanga, not unknown
-by report to European geographers. It is preferred by down-caravans, who
-have no store of cloth to be demanded by the rapacious chiefs: the
-up-country travellers, who have asses, must frequent the Mukondokwa, on
-account of the severity of the passes on the Kiringawana.
-
-The Kiringawana numbers nineteen short stages, which may be accomplished
-without hardship in twelve days, at the rate of about five hours per
-diem. Provisions are procurable in almost every part, except when the
-Warori are “out;” and water is plentiful, if not good. Travel is
-rendered pleasant by long stretches of forest land without bush or fetid
-grass. The principal annoyances are the thievish propensities of the
-natives and the extortionate demands of the chief. A minor plague is
-that of mosquitoes, that haunt the rushy banks of the hill rivulets,
-some of which are crossed nine or ten times in the same day; moreover,
-the steep and slippery ascents and descents of black earth and mud, or
-rough blocks of stone, make the porters unwilling to work.
-
-Breaking ground at 6 A.M. on the 7th December, we marched to Murundusi,
-the frontier of Usagara and Uhehe. The path lay over a rolling thorny
-jungle with dottings of calabash at the foot of the Rubeho mountains,
-and lumpy outliers falling on the right of the road. After three hours’
-march, the sound of the horses announced the vicinity of a village, and
-the country opening out, displayed a scene of wonderful fertility, the
-effect of subterraneous percolations from the highlands. Nowhere are the
-tamarind, the sycamore, and the calabash, seen in such perfection; of
-unusual size also are the perfumed myombo and the mkora, the myongo, the
-ndabi, the chamvya, with its edible yellowish-red berries, and a large
-sweet-smelling acacia. Amidst these piles of verdure, troops of
-parroquets, doves, jays, and bright fly-catchers, find a home, and
-frequent flocks and herds, a resting-place beneath the cool shade. The
-earth is still sprinkled with “black-jacks,” the remains of trees which
-have come to an untimely end. In the fields near the numerous villages
-rise little sheds to shelter the guardians of the crops, and cattle
-wander over the commons or unreclaimed lands. Water, which is here pure
-and good, lies in pits from fifteen to twenty feet deep, staged over
-with tree trunks, and the people draw it in large shallow buckets, made
-of gourds sewn together and strengthened with sticks. Towards the
-evening, a cold east-wind brought up with it a storm of thunder and
-rain, which was pronounced by the experts to be the opening of the rainy
-monsoon in Usagara.
-
-The next day led us over an elevated undulation cut by many jagged
-watercourses, and still flanked by the outlying masses which fall
-westward into the waste of Mgunda M’khali. After an hour’s march, we
-turned abruptly eastwards, and crossing a rugged stony fork, presently
-found a dwarf basin of red soil which supplied water. The Wahehe owners
-of the land have a chronic horror of the Warori; on sighting our
-peaceful caravan, they at once raised the war-cry, and were quieted only
-by the certainty that we were even more frightened than they were. At
-Kinganguku, the night was again wild and stormy; in fact, after leaving
-Ugogi, we were regularly rained upon till we had crossed the Mountains.
-
-On the 9th December, we marched in six hours from Kinyanguku to Rudi,
-the principal district of Uhehe. It was an ascent plunging into the
-hills, which, however, on this line are easy to traverse, compared with
-those of the northern route; the paths were stony and rugged, and the
-earth was here white and glaring, there of a dull red colour. Water pure
-and plentiful was found in pits about fifteen feet deep, which dented
-the sole of a picturesque Fiumara. The people assembled to stare with
-the stare pertinacious; they demanded large prices for their small
-reserves of provisions, but they sold tobacco at the rate of two or
-three cakes, each weighing about one pound and a half, for a shukkah.
-
-Passing from the settlements of Rudi, on the next morning we entered a
-thorn jungle, where the handiwork of the fierce Warori appeared in many
-a shell of smoke-stained village. We then crossed two Fiumaras exactly
-similar to those which attract the eye in the Somali country, broad
-white sandy beds, with high stiff earth-banks deeply water-cut, and with
-huge emerald-foliaged trees rising from a hard bare red plain. After a
-short march of three hours, we pitched under a tamarind, and sent our
-men abroad to collect provisions. Tobacco was cheap, as at Rudi, grain
-and milk, whether fresh or sour, were expensive, and two shukkahs were
-demanded for a lamb or a young goat. The people of Mporota are notorious
-pilferers. About noontide a loud “hooroosh” and the scampering of
-spearmen over the country announced a squabble; presently our people
-reappeared driving before them a flock which they had seized in revenge
-for a daring attempt at larceny. I directed them to retain one fine
-specimen--the _lex talionis_ is ever the first article of the penal code
-in the East--and to return the rest. Notwithstanding these energetic
-measures, the youth Taufiki awaking in the night with a shriek like one
-affected by nightmare, found that a Mhehe robber had snatched his cloth,
-and favoured by the shades had escaped with impunity. The illness of
-Said bin Salim detained us for a day in this den of thieves.
-
-The 12th December carried us in three hours from Mporota to Ikuka of
-Uhehe. The route wound over red steps amongst low stony hills, the legs
-of the spider-like system, and the lay of the heights was in exceeding
-confusion. Belted by thorny scrub and forests of wild fruit trees--some
-edible, others poisonous--were several villages, surrounded by fields,
-especially rich in ground-nuts. Beyond Ikuka the road entered stony and
-rugged land, with a few sparse cultivations almost choked by thick bushy
-jungle; the ragged villages contained many dogs, and a few peculiarly
-hideous human beings. Thence it fell into a fine Fiumara, with pure
-sweet water in pools, breaking the surface of loose white sand; upon the
-banks, red soil, varying from a few inches to 20 feet in depth, overlay
-bands and lines of rounded pebbles, based on beds of granite, schiste,
-and sandstone. After ascending a hill, we fell into a second
-watercourse, whose line was almost choked with wild and thorny
-vegetation, and we raised the tents in time to escape a pitiless
-pelting, which appeared to spring from a gap in the southern mountains.
-The time occupied in marching from Ikuka to Inena of Usagara was four
-hours, and, as usual in these short stages, there was no halt.
-
-Two porters were found missing on the morning of the 14th
-December,--they had gone for provisions, and had slept in the
-villages,--moreover, heavy clouds hanging on the hill-tops threatened
-rain: a Tirikeza was therefore ordered. At 11 A.M. we set out over
-rises, falls, and broken ground, at the foot of the neighbouring
-highlands which enclose a narrow basin, the seat of villages and
-extensive cultivation. Small cascades flashing down the walls that
-hemmed us in showed the copiousness of the last night’s fall. After five
-hours’ heavy marching, we forded a rapid Fiumara, whose tall banks of
-stiff red clay, resting upon tilted-up strata of greenstone, enclosed a
-stream calf-deep, and from 10 to 12 feet broad. At this place, called
-Ginyindo, provisions were hardly procurable; consequently the caravan,
-as was its wont on such occasions, quarrelled for disport, and the
-Baloch, headed by “Gray-beard Musa,” began to abuse and to beat the
-Pagazis.
-
-The morning of the 15th December commenced with a truly African scene.
-The men were hungry, and the air was chill. They prepared, however, to
-start quietly betimes. Suddenly a bit of rope was snatched, a sword
-flashed in the air, a bow-horn quivered with nocked arrow, and the whole
-caravan rushed frantically with a fearful row to arms. As no one
-dissuaded the party from “fighting it out,” they apparently became
-friends, and took up their loads. My companion and I rode quietly
-forward: scarcely, however, had we emerged from the little basin in
-which the camp had been placed, than a terrible hubbub of shouts and
-yells announced that the second act had commenced. After a few minutes,
-Said bin Salim came forward in trembling haste to announce that the
-Jemadar had again struck a Pagazi, who, running into the Nullah, had
-thrown stones with force enough to injure his assailant, consequently
-that the Baloch had drawn their sabres and had commenced a general
-massacre of porters. Well understanding this misrepresentation, we
-advanced about a mile, and thence sent back two of the sons of Ramji to
-declare that we would not be delayed, and that if not at once followed,
-we would engage other porters at the nearest village. This brought on a
-denouement: presently the combatants appeared, the Baloch in a high
-state of grievance, the Africans declaring that they had not come to
-fight but to carry. I persuaded them both to defer settling the business
-till the evening, when both parties well crammed with food listened
-complacently to that gross personal abuse, which, in these lands,
-represents a reprimand.
-
-Resuming our journey, we crossed two high and steep hills, the latter of
-which suddenly disclosed to the eye the rich and fertile basin of
-Maroro. Its principal feature is a perennial mountain stream, which,
-descending the chasm which forms the northern pass, winds sluggishly
-through the plain of muddy black soil and patches of thick rushy grass,
-and diffused through watercourses of raised earth, covers the land with
-tobacco, holcus, sweet-potato, plantains, and maize. The cereals stood
-five feet high, and were already in ear: according to the people, never
-less than two, and often three and four crops are reaped during the
-year. This hill-girt district is placed at one month’s march from the
-coast. At the southern extremity, there is a second opening like the
-northern, and through it the “River of Maroro” sheds into the Rwaha,
-distant in direct line two marches west with southing.
-
-[Illustration: THE BASIN OF MARORO.]
-
-Maroro, or Malolo, according to dialect, is the “Marorrer town” of Lt.
-Hardy, (Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from Sept. 1841
-to May 1844,) who, in 1811-12, was dispatched with Capt. Smee by the
-Government of Bombay to collect information at Kilwa and its
-dependencies, and the East African coast generally. Mr. Cooley (Inner
-Africa Laid Open, p. 56) writes the word Marora, and explains it to mean
-“trade:” the people, however, ignore the derivation. It is not a town,
-but a district, containing as usual on this line a variety of little
-settlements. The confined basin is by no means a wholesome locality, the
-air is warm and “muggy,” the swamp vegetation is fetid, the mosquitos
-venomous, and the population, afflicted with fevers and severe
-ulceration, is not less wretched and degraded than the Wak’hutu. Their
-habitations are generally Tembe, but small and poor, and their fields
-are dotted with dwarf platforms for the guardians of the crops. Here a
-cow costs twelve cloths, a goat three, whilst two fowls are procurable
-for a shukkah. Maroro is the westernmost limit of the touters from the
-Mrima; there are seldom less than 150 muskets present, and the Wasagara
-have learned to hold strangers in horror.
-
-In these basins caravans endeavour, and are forced by the people, to
-encamp upon the further end after marching through. At the end of a
-short stage of three hours we forded three times the river bed, a muddy
-bottom, flanked by stiff rushes, and encamped under a Mkamba tree, above
-and to windward of the fetid swamp. The night was hot and rainy, clouds
-of mosquitos rose from their homes below, and the cynhyænas were so
-numerous that it was necessary to frighten them away with shots. The
-labour of laying in provisions detained us for a day at Maroro.
-
-On the 17th December we left the little basin by its southern opening,
-which gradually winds eastward. The march was delayed by the
-distribution of the load of a porter who had fled to the Warori. After
-crossing a fourth rise, the road fell into the cultivated valley of the
-Mwega River. This is a rush-girt stream of pure water, about 20 feet
-broad, and knee-deep at the fords in dry weather; its course is S.W. to
-the stream of Maroro. Like the Mukondokwa, it spreads out, except where
-dammed by the correspondence of the salient and the re-entering angles
-of the hill spurs. The road runs sometimes over this rocky and jungly
-ground, horrid with thorn and cactus, fording the stream, where there is
-no room for a path, and at other times it traverses lagoon-like
-backwaters, garnished with grass, rush, and stiff shrubs, based upon
-sun-cracked or miry beds. After a march of four hours we encamped in the
-Mwega Basin, where women brought down grain in baskets: cattle were seen
-upon the higher grounds, but the people refused to sell milk or meat.
-
-The next stage was Kiperepeta; it occupied about 2 hours 30 min. The
-road was rough, traversing the bushy jungly spurs on the left bank of
-the rushy narrow stream; in many places there were steps and ladders of
-detached blocks and boulders. At last passing through a thick growth,
-where the smell of jasmine loads the air, we ascended a steep and rugged
-incline, whose summit commanded a fine back view of the Maroro Basin. A
-shelving counterslope of earth deeply cracked and cut with watercourses
-led us to the encamping-ground, a red patch dotted with tall calabashes,
-and boasting a few pools of brackish water. We had now entered the land
-of grass-kilts and beehive huts, built for defence upon the ridges of
-the hills: whilst cactus, aloe, and milk-bush showed the diminished
-fertility of the soil. About Kiperepeta it was said a gang of nearly 400
-touters awaited with their muskets the arrival of caravans from the
-interior.
-
-On the 19th December, leaving Kiperepeta, we toiled up a steep incline,
-cut by the sinuated channels of water-courses, to a col or pass, the
-water-parting of this line in Usagara: before south-westerly, the
-versant thence-forward trends to the south-east. Having topped the
-summit, we began the descent along the left bank of a mountain burn, the
-Rufita, which, forming in the rainy season a series of rapids and
-cascades, casts its waters into the Yovu, and eventually into the Rwaha
-River. The drainage of the hill-folds cuts, at every re-entering angle,
-a ragged irregular ditch, whose stony depths are impassable to
-heavily-laden asses. After a toilsome march of three hours, we fell into
-the basin of Kisanga, which, like others on this line, is an enlarged
-punchbowl, almost surrounded by a mass of green hills, cone rising upon
-cone, with tufted cappings of trees, and long lines of small
-haycock-huts ranged along the acclivities and ridge-lines. The floor of
-the basin is rough and uneven; a rich cultivation extends from the
-hill-slopes to the stream which drains the sole, and fine trees, amongst
-which are the mparamusi and the sycomore, relieve the uniformity of the
-well-hoed fields. Having passed through huts and villages, where two
-up-caravans of Wanyamwezi were halted, displaying and haggling over the
-cloths intended as tribute to the Sultan Kiringawana, we prudently
-forded the Yovu, and placed its bed between ourselves and the enemy. The
-Yovu, which bisects the basin of Kisanga from N. to S. and passes by the
-S.E. into the Rwaha, was then about four feet deep; it flowed down a
-muddy bed laced with roots, and its banks, whence a putrid smell
-exhaled, were thick lines of sedgy grass which sheltered myriads of
-mosquitos. Ascending an eminence to the left of the stream, we obtained
-lodgings, and at once proceeded to settle kuhonga with the chief,
-Kiringawana.
-
-[Illustration: Rufita Pass in Usagara.]
-
-The father, or, according to others, the grandfather of the present
-chief, a Mnyamwezi of the ancient Wakalaganza tribe, first emigrated
-from his home in Usagozi, and, being a mighty elephant-hunter and a
-powerful wizard, he persuaded by arts and arms the Wasagara, who allowed
-him to settle amongst them, to constitute him their liege lord. The
-actual Kiringawana, having spent his heir-apparent days at Zanzibar,
-returned to Kisanga on the death of his sire, and reigned in his stead.
-His long residence among the Arabs has so far civilised him that he
-furnishes his several homes comfortably enough; he receives his
-tributary-visitors with ceremony, affects amenity of manner, clothes his
-short, stout, and sooty person in rainbow-coloured raiment, carries a
-Persian blade, and is a cunning diplomatist in the art of choosing
-cloth.
-
-On the day of arrival I was visited by Msimbiri, the
-heir-apparent--kingly dignity prevented Kiringawana wading the
-Yovu,--who gave some information about the Rwaha river, and promised
-milk. The 20th of December was expended in the palaver about “dash.”
-After abundant chaffering, the chief accepted from the Expedition,
-though passing through his acres on the return-march, when presents are
-poor, three expensive coloured cloths, and eight shukkah of domestics
-and Kaniki; wondering the while that the wealthy Muzungu had neglected
-to reserve for him something more worthy of his acceptance. He returned
-a fat bullock, which was instantly shot and devoured. In their indolence
-the caravan-men again began to quarrel; and Wulaydi, a son of Ramji,
-speared a porter, an offence for which he was ordered, if he failed to
-give satisfaction for the assault, to be turned out of camp. A march was
-anticipated on the next day, when suddenly, as the moon rose over the
-walls of the basin, a fine bonfire on the neighbouring hill and a
-terrible outcry announced an accident in the village occupied by the
-sons of Ramji. Muinyi Buyuni had left in charge of the hearth the object
-of his affections, a fine strapping slave-girl, whom for certain reasons
-he expected to sell for a premium at Zanzibar, and she had made it over
-to some friend, who probably had fallen asleep. The hut was soon in
-flames,--in these lands fires are never extinguished,--and the
-conflagration had extended to the nearer hovels, consuming the cloth,
-grain, and furniture of the inmates. Fortunately, the humans and the
-cattle escaped; but a delay was inevitable. The elder who owned the
-chief hut demanded only eighty-eight cloths, one slave, thirteen Fundo
-of beads, and other minor articles:--a lesser sum would have purchased
-the whole household. His cupidity was restrained by Kiringawana, who
-named as indemnity thirty cloths, here worth thirty dollars, which I
-gave with extreme unwillingness, promising the sons of Ramji, who
-appeared rather to enjoy the excitement, that they should pay for their
-carelessness at Zanzibar.
-
-During the second day’s halt, I attempted to obtain from Kiringawana a
-permission to depart from the beaten track. The noble descent of this
-chief gives him power over the guides of the Wanyamwezi caravans. In
-consequence of an agreement with the Diwans of the Mrima, he has lately
-closed the direct route to Kilwa, formerly regularly traversed, and he
-commands a little army of touters. He returned a gracious reply, which
-in East Africa, however, means no gracious intentions.
-
-Resuming our march on the 22nd of December, we descended from the
-eminence into the basin of the Yovu River, and fought our way through a
-broad “Wady,” declining from east to west, with thick lines of tree and
-bush down the centre, and everywhere else an expanse of dark and
-unbroken green, like a plate of spinach. Passing along the southern bank
-amongst wild Annonas and fine Palmyras, over a good path where there was
-little mud, we presently ascended rising ground through an open forest,
-of the rainbow hues before described, where sweet air and soft filmy
-shade formed, whilst the sun was low and the breath of the morning was
-pure and good, most enjoyable travelling. After about five hours we
-descended into the basin of the Ruhembe rivulet, which seems to be the
-“Rohambi people” of Mr. Cooley’s Itinerary. (Geography of N’yassi, p.
-22.) The inhabitants are Wasagara; they supply travellers with manioc,
-grain, and bitter egg-plants, of a scarlet colour resembling tomatos.
-Cultivation flourishes upon the hill-sides and in the swampy grounds
-about the sole of the basin, which is bisected by a muddy and apparently
-stagnant stream ten feet broad. We pitched tents in the open central
-space of a village, and met a caravan of Wasawahili from Zanzibar, who
-reported to Said bin Salim the gratifying intelligence that, in
-consequence of a rumour of his decease, his worthy brother, Ali bin
-Salim, had somewhat prematurely laid violent hands upon his goods and
-chattels.
-
-The porters would have halted on the next day, but the excited Said
-exerted himself manfully; at 2 P.M. we were once more on the road.
-Descending from the village-eminence, we crossed in a blazing sun the
-fetid Ruhembe; and, after finding with some difficulty the jungly path,
-we struck into a pleasant forest, like that traversed on the last march.
-It was cut by water-courses draining south, and at these places it was
-necessary to dismount. At 6 P.M. appeared a clearing, with sundry
-villages and clumps of the Mgude tree, whose tufty summits of the
-brightest green, gilt by the last rays of the sun, formed a lovely
-picture. The porters would have rested at this spot, but they were
-forced forwards by the sons of Ramji. Presently we emerged upon the
-southern extremity of the Makata Plain, a hideous low level of black
-vegetable earth, peaty in appearance, and, bearing long puddles of dark
-scummy and stagnant rain-water, mere horse-ponds, with the additional
-qualities of miasma and mosquitos. The sons of Ramji had determined to
-reach the Makata Nullah, still distant about two hours. I called a halt
-in favour of the fatigued Pagazi, who heard it with pleasure, and sent
-to recall Wulaydi, Shehe, and Nasibu, who were acting bell-wethers. The
-worthies returned after a time, and revenged themselves by parading,
-with many grimaces, up and down the camp.
-
-On the morning of the 24th of December, we resumed the transit of the
-Makata Plain, and crossed the tail of its nullah. It was here bone-dry;
-consequently, had we made it last night, the thirsty caravan would have
-suffered severely. Ensued a long slope garnished with the normal thin
-forest; in two places the plots of ashes, which denote the deaths of
-wizard and witch, apprised us that we were fast approaching benighted
-K’hutu. A skeleton caravan of touters, composed of six muskets and two
-flags, met us on the way. Presently we descended into the basin of
-Kikoboga, which was occupied in force by gentry of the same description.
-After wading four times the black, muddy, and rushy nullah, which
-bisects the lake, we crossed a lateral band of rough high ground, whence
-a further counter-slope bent down to a Khambi in a diminutive hollow,
-called Mwimbi. It was the ideal of a bad encamping ground. The kraal
-stood on the bank of a dark, miry water at the head of a narrow gap,
-where heat was concentrated by the funnel-shaped hill-sides, and where
-the dark ground, strewed with rotting grass and leaves, harboured hosts
-of cock-roaches, beetles, and mosquitos. The supplies, a little grain,
-poor sugar-cane, good wild vegetables, at times plantains, were distant,
-and the water was vile. Throughout this country, however, the Wasagara
-cultivators, fearing plunder should a caravan encamp near their crops,
-muster in force; the traveller, therefore, must not unpack except at the
-kraals on either edge of the cultivation.
-
-The dawn of Christmas Day, 1858, saw us toiling along the Kikoboga
-River, which we forded four times. We then crossed two deep affluents,
-whose banks were thick with fruitless plantains. The road presently
-turned up a rough rise, from whose crest began the descent of the
-Mabruki Pass. This col may be divided into two steps: the first winds
-along a sharp ridge-line, a chain of well-forested hills, whose heights,
-bordered on both sides by precipitous slopes of earth overgrown with
-thorns and thick bamboo-clumps, command an extensive view of spur and
-subrange, of dhun and champaign, sprinkled with villages and dwarf
-cones, and watered by streamlets that glisten like lines of quicksilver
-in the blue-brown of the hazy distant landscape. Ensues, after a
-succession of deep and rugged watercourses, with difficult slopes, the
-second step; a short but sharp steep of red earth, corded with the
-tree-roots that have been bared by the heavy rains. Beyond this the
-path, spanning rough ground at the hill-base, debouches upon the course
-of a streamlet flowing southwards from the last heights of Usagara to
-the plains of Uziraha in K’hutu.
-
-The bullock reserved for the occasion having been lost in Uhehe, I had
-ordered the purchase of half a dozen goats wherewith to celebrate the
-day; the porters, however, were too lazy to collect them. My companion
-and I made good cheer upon a fat capon, which acted as roast-beef, and a
-mess of ground-nuts sweetened with sugar-cane, which did duty as
-plum-pudding. The contrast of what was with what might be now, however,
-suggested only pleasurable sensations; long odds were in favour of our
-seeing the Christmas Day of 1859, compared with the chances of things at
-Msene on the Christmas Day of 1857.
-
-From Uziraha sixteen hours distributed into fourteen marches conducted
-us from Uziraha, at the foot of the Usagara mountains, to Central
-Zungomero. The districts traversed were Eastern Mbwiga, Marundwe, and
-Kirengwe. The road again realises the European idea of Africa in its
-most hideous and grotesque aspect. Animals are scarce amidst the
-portentous growth of herbage, not a head of black cattle is seen, flocks
-and poultry are rare, and even the beasts of the field seem to flee the
-land. The people admitted us into their villages, whose wretched
-straw-hovels, contrasting with the luxuriant jungle which hems them in,
-look like birds’ nests torn from the trees: all the best settlements,
-however, were occupied by parties of touters. At the sight of our
-passing caravan the goatherd hurried off his charge, the peasant
-prepared to rush into the grass, the women and children slunk and hid
-within the hut, and no one ever left his home without a bow and a sheath
-of arrows, whose pitchy-coloured bark-necks denoted a fresh layer of
-poison.
-
-We entered Zungomero on the 29th of December, after sighting on the left
-the cone at whose base rises the Maji ya W’heta, or Fontaine qui
-bouille. The village on the left bank of the Mgeta, which we had
-occupied about eighteen months before, had long been level with the
-ground; we were therefore conducted with due ceremony into another
-settlement on the right of the stream. An army of black musketeers, in
-scanty but various and gaudy attire, came out to meet us, and with the
-usual shots and shouts conducted us to the headman’s house, which had
-already been turned into a kind of barrack by these irregulars. They
-then stared as usual for half-a-dozen consecutive hours, which done they
-retired to rest.
-
-After a day’s repose, sending for the Kirangozi, and personally offering
-a liberal reward, I opened to him the subject then nearest my heart,
-namely, a march upon Kilwa. This proceeding probably irritated the too
-susceptible Said bin Salim, and caused him, if not actually to
-interfere, at any rate to withhold all aid towards furthering the
-project. Twanigana, after a palaver with his people, returned with a
-reply that he himself was willing, but that his men would not leave the
-direct track. Their reasons were various. Some had become brothers with
-the sons of Ramji, and expected employment from their “father.” Others
-declared that it would be necessary to march a few miles back, which was
-contrary to their custom, and said that they ought to have been warned
-of the intention before passing the Makutaniro, or junction of the two
-roads. But none expressed any fear, as has since been asserted, of being
-sold off into slavery at Kilwa. Such a declaration would have been
-ridiculous. Of the many Wanyamwezi caravans that have visited Kilwa none
-has ever yet been seized and sold; the coast-people are too well
-acquainted with their own interests to secure for themselves a permanent
-bad name. Seeing, however, that energetic measures were necessary to
-open the road, I allowed them two days for consideration, and warned
-them that after that time Posho or rations should be withdrawn.
-
-On the next day I was privately informed by the Mnfumo or parson of the
-caravan, that his comrades intended to make a feint of desertion, and
-then to return, if they found us resolved not to follow them. The
-reverend gentleman’s sister-in-law, who had accompanied us from
-Unyamwezi as cook and concubine to Seedy Bombay, persuaded our managing
-man that there was no danger of the porters traversing Uzaramo, without
-pay, escort, or provisions. On the 1st January, 1859, however, the gang
-rose to depart. I sent for the Kirangozi, who declared that though loth
-to leave us he must head his men: in return for which semi-fidelity I
-made him name his own reward; he asked two handsome cloths, a Gorah or
-piece of domestics, and one Fundo of coral beads--it was double his pay,
-but I willingly gave it, and directed Said bin Salim to write an order
-to that effect upon Mr. Rush Ramji, or any other Hindu who might happen
-to be at Kaole. But I rejected the suggestion of my companion, who
-proposed that half the sum agreed upon in Unyanyembe as payment to the
-porters--nine cloths each--should be given to them. In the first place,
-this donation would have been equivalent to a final dismissal. Secondly,
-the Arabs at Kazeh had warned me that it was not their custom to pay in
-part those who will not complete the journey to the coast; and I could
-see no reason for departing from a commercial precedent, evidently
-necessary to curb the Africans’ alacrity in desertion.
-
-On the day following the departure of the gang I set out to visit the
-Jetting Spring, and found when returning to the village shortly before
-noon that my companion had sent a man to recal the “Pagazi,” who were
-said to be encamped close to the river, and to propose to them a march
-upon Mbuamaji. The messenger returned and reported that the Wanyamwezi
-had already crossed the river. Unwilling that the wretches should lose
-by their headstrongness, I at once ordered Said bin Salim to mount ass
-and to bring back the porters by offers which they would have accepted.
-Some time afterwards, when I fancied that he was probably haranguing the
-men, he came to me to say that he had not eaten and the sun was hot.
-With the view of shaming him I directed Kidogo to do the work, but as he
-also made excuses, Khamisi and Shehe, two sons of Ramji, were despatched
-with cloths to buy rations for the Pagazi, and, _coûte que coûte_, to
-bring them back. They set out on the 2nd January, and returned on the
-7th January, never having, according to their own account, seen the
-fugitives.
-
-This was a regrettable occurrence: it gave a handle to private malice
-under the specious semblance of public duty. But such events are common
-on the slave-path in Eastern Africa; of the seven gangs of porters
-engaged on this journey only one, an unusually small proportion, left me
-without being fully satisfied, and that one deserved to be disappointed.
-
-We were detained at K’hutu till the 20th January. The airiest of schemes
-were ventilated by Said bin Salim and my companion. Three of the Baloch
-eye-sores, the “Graybeard Mohammed,” the mischief-maker Khudabakhsh, and
-the mulatto Jelai, were sent to the coast with letters, reports, and
-officials for Zanzibar and home. The projectors then attempted to engage
-Wak’hutu porters, but after a long palaver, P’hazi Madenge, the
-principal chief of Uziraha, who at first undertook to transport us in
-person to Dut’humi, declared that he could not assist us. It was then
-proposed to trust for porterage to the Wazaramo; that project also
-necessarily fell to the ground. Two feasible plans remained: either to
-write to the coast for a new gang, or to await the transit of some
-down-caravan. As the former would have caused an inevitable delay I
-preferred the latter, justly thinking that during this, the
-travelling-season, we should not long be detained.
-
-On the 11th January, 1859, a large party of Wanyanwezi, journeying from
-the interior to the coast, bivouacked in the village. I easily persuaded
-Muhembe, the Mtongi or leader, to make over to me the services of nine
-of his men, and lest the African mind might conceive that in dismissing
-the last gang cloth or beads had been an object, I issued to these new
-porters seventy-two cloths, as much as if they had carried packs from
-Unyanwezi to the coast. On the 14th January, 1859, we received Mr.
-Apothecary Frost’s letters, drugs, and medical comforts, for which we
-had written to him in July 1857. The next day saw us fording the warm
-muddy waters of the Mgeta, which was then 100 feet broad: usually
-knee-deep, it rises after a few showers to the breast, and during the
-heavy rains which had lately fallen it was impassable. We found a little
-village on the left bank, and there we sat down patiently to await,
-despite the trouble inflicted by a host of diminutive ants, who knew no
-rest by day or night, the arrival of another caravan to complete our
-gang. The medical comforts so tardily received from Zanzibar fortified
-us, however, to some extent against enemies and inconveniences; we had
-æther-sherbet and æther-lemonade, formed by combining a wine-glass of
-the spirit with a _quant. suff._ of citric acid; and when we wanted a
-change the villagers supplied an abundance of Pombe or small beer.
-
-On the 17th Jan. a numerous down-caravan entered the settlement which we
-occupied, and it proved after inquiry to be one of which I had heard
-often and much. The chiefs, Sulayman bin Rashid el Riami, a coast-Arab,
-accompanied by a Msawahili, Mohammed bin Gharib, and others, called upon
-me without delay, and from them I obtained a detailed account of their
-interesting travel.
-
-The merchants had left the coast for Ubena in June, 1857, and their
-up-march had lasted six months. They set out with a total of 600 free
-men and slaves, armed with 150 guns, hired on the seaboard for eight to
-ten dollars per head, half being advanced: they could not persuade the
-Wanyamwezi to traverse these regions. The caravan followed the Mbuamaji
-trunk-road westward as far as Maroro in Usagara, thence deflecting
-southwards it crossed the Rwaha River, which at the ford was knee-deep.
-The party travelled through the Wahehe and the Wafaji, south of and far
-from the stream, to avoid the Warori, who hold both banks. The sultan of
-these freebooters, being at war with the Wabena, would not have
-permitted merchants to pass on to his enemies, and even in time of peace
-he fines them, it is said, one half of their property for safe-conduct.
-On the right hand of the caravan, or to the south from Uhehe to Ubena,
-was a continuous chain of highlands, pouring affluents across the road
-into the Rwaha River, and water was procurable only in the beds of these
-nullahs and fiumaras. If this chain be of any considerable length, it
-may represent the water-parting between the Tanganyika and the Nyassa
-Lakes, and thus divide by another and a southerly lateral band the great
-Depression of Central Africa. The land was dry and barren; in fact,
-Ugogo without its calabashes. Scarcely a blade of grass appeared upon
-the whity-brown soil, and the travellers marvelled how the numerous
-herds obtained their sustenance. The masika or rainy monsoon began
-synchronously with that of Unyamwezi, but it lasted little more than
-half its period in the north. In the sparse cultivation, surrounded by
-dense bush, they were rarely able to ration oftener than once a week.
-They were hospitably received by Kimanu, the Jyari or Sultan of Ubena.
-His people, though fierce and savage, appeared pleased by the sight of
-strangers. The Wabena wore a profusion of beads, and resembled in dress,
-diet, and lodging the Warori; they were brave to recklessness, and
-strictly monarchical, swearing by their chief. The Warori, however, were
-the cleaner race; they washed and bathed, whilst the Wabena used the
-same fluid to purify teeth, face, and hands.
-
-At Ubena the caravan made considerable profits in slaves and ivory. The
-former, mostly captured or kidnapped, were sold for four to six fundo of
-beads, and, merchants being rare, a large stock was found on hand. About
-800 were purchased, as each Pagazi or porter could afford one at least.
-On the return-march, however, half of the property deserted. The ivory,
-which rather resembled the valuable article procured at Karagwah than
-the poor produce of Unyanyembe, sold at 35 to 70 fundo of yellow and
-other coloured beads per frasilah of 35 lbs. Cloth was generally
-refused, and the kitindi or wire armlets were useful only in purchasing
-provisions.
-
-On its return the caravan, following for eighteen stages the right bank
-of the Rwaha River, met with an unexpected misfortune. They were
-nighting in a broad fiumara called Bonye, a tributary from the southern
-highlands to the main artery, when suddenly a roar and rush of waters
-fast approaching and the cries of men struck them with consternation. In
-the confusion which ensued 150 souls, for the most part slaves, and
-probably ironed or corded together, were carried away by the torrent,
-and the porters lost a great part of the ivory. A more dangerous place
-for encampment can scarcely be imagined, yet the East African everywhere
-prefers it because it is warm at night, and the surface is soft. In the
-neighbourhood of the Rwaha they entered the capital district of Mui’
-Gumbi, the chief, after a rude reception on the frontier, where the
-people, mistaking them for a plundering party of Wabena, gathered in
-arms to the number of 4000. When the error was perceived, the Warori
-warmly welcomed the traders, calling them brothers, and led them to the
-quarters of their Sultan. Mui’ Gumbi was apparently in his 70th year, a
-man of venerable look, tall, burly, and light-coloured, with large ears,
-and a hooked nose like a “moghrebi.” His sons, about thirty in number,
-all resembled him, their comeliness contrasting strongly with the common
-clansmen, who are considered by their chiefs as slaves. A tradition
-derives the origin of this royal race from Madagascar or one of its
-adjoining islets. Mui’ Gumbi wore a profusion of beads, many of them
-antiquated in form and colour, and now unknown in the market of
-Zanzibar: above his left elbow he had a lumpy bracelet of ivory, a
-decoration appropriated to chieftains. The Warori expressed their
-surprise that the country had not been lately visited by caravans, and,
-to encourage others, the Sultan offered large gangs of porters without
-pay to his visitors. These men never desert; such disobedience would
-cost them their lives. From the settlement of Mui’ Gumbi to the coast
-the caravan travelled without accident, but under great hardships,
-living on roots and grasses for want of means to buy provisions.
-
-The same caravan-traders showed me divers specimens of the Warori, and
-gave me the following description, which tallied with the details
-supplied by Snay bin Amin and the Arabs of Kazeh.
-
-The Warori extend from the western frontier of the Wahehe, about forty
-marches along principally the northern bank of the Rwaha River, to the
-meridian of Eastern Unyanyembe. They are a semi-pastoral tribe,
-continually at war with their neighbours. They never sell their own
-people, but attack the Wabena, the Wakimbu, the Wahehe, the Wakonongo,
-and the races about Unyangwira, and drive their captives to the sea, or
-dispose of them to the slavers in Usagara. The price is of course cheap;
-a male adult is worth from two to six shukkah merkani. Some years ago a
-large plundering party, under their chief Mbangera, attacked Sultan
-Kalala of the Wasukuma; they were, however, defeated, with the loss of
-their leader, by Kafrira of Kivira, the son-in-law of Kalala. They also
-ravaged Unyanyembe, and compelled the people to take refuge on the
-summit of a natural rock-fortress between Kazeh and Yombo, and they have
-more than once menaced the dominions of Fundikira. Those mighty boasters
-the Wagogo hold the Warori in awe; as the Arabs say, they shrink small
-as a cubit before foes fiercer than themselves. The Warori have wasted
-the lands of Uhehe and Unyangwira, and have dispersed the Wakimbu and
-the Wamia tribes. They have closed the main-road from the seaboard by
-exorbitant blackmail and charges for water, and about five years ago
-they murdered two coast Arab traders from Mbuamaji. Since their late
-defeat by the Watuta, they have been comparatively quiet. When the E.
-African Expedition, however, entered the country they had just
-distinguished themselves by driving the herds from Ugogi, and thus
-prevented any entrance into their country from that district. Like the
-pastoral races generally of this portion of the peninsula, the object
-of their raids is cattle: when a herd falls into their hands, they fly
-at the beasts like hyænas, pierce them with their assegais, hack off
-huge slices, and devour the meat raw.
-
-The Warori are small and shrivelled black savages. Their diminutive size
-is doubtless the effect of scanty food, continued through many
-generations: the Sultans, however, are a peculiarly fine large race of
-men. The slave-specimens observed had no distinguishing mark on the
-teeth; in all cases, however, two short lines were tattooed across the
-hollow of the temples. The male dress is a cloak of strung beads,
-weighing ten or twelve pounds, and covering the shoulders like a
-European cape. Some wind a large girdle of the same material round the
-waist. The women wear a bead-kilt extending to the knees, or, if unable
-to afford it, a wrapper of skin. The favourite weapon is a light, thin,
-and pliable assegai; they carry a sheath of about a dozen, and throw
-them with great force and accuracy. The bow is unknown. They usually
-press to close quarters, each man armed with a long heavy spear. Iron is
-procured in considerable quantities both in Ubena and Urori. The
-habitations are said to be large Tembe, capable of containing 400 to 500
-souls. The principal articles of diet are milk, meat, and especially
-fattened dog’s flesh--of which the chiefs are inordinately fond,--maize,
-holcus, and millet. Rice is not grown in these arid districts. They
-manage their intoxication by means of pombe made of grain and the bhang,
-which is smoked in gourd-pipes; they also mix the cannabis with their
-vegetable food. The Warori are celebrated for power of abstinence; they
-will march, it is said, six days without eating, and they require to
-drink but once in the twenty-four hours. In one point they resemble the
-Bedouins of Arabia: the chief will entertain his guests hospitably as
-long as they remain in his village, but he will plunder them the moment
-they leave it.
-
-On the 19th January the expected down-caravan of Wanyamwezi arrived, and
-I found no difficulty in completing our carriage--a fair proof, be it
-remarked, that I had not lost the confidence of the people. The Mtongi,
-however, was, or perhaps pretended to be, ill; we were, therefore,
-delayed for another day in a place which had no charms for us.
-
-The 21st January enabled us to bid adieu to Zungomero and merrily to
-take the footpath way. We made Konduchi on the 3rd February, after
-twelve marches, which were accomplished in fifteen days. There was
-little of interest or adventure in this return-line, of which the nine
-first stations had already been visited and described. As the Yegea mud,
-near Dut’humi, was throat-deep, we crossed it lower down: it was still a
-weary trudge of several miles through thick slabby mire, which admitted
-a man to his knees. In places, after toiling under a sickly sun, we
-crept under the tunnels of thick jungle-growth veiling the Mgazi and
-other streams; the dank and fetid cold caused a deadly sensation of
-faintness, which was only relieved by a glass of æther-sherbet, a pipe
-or two of the strongest tobacco, and half an hour’s repose. By degrees
-it was found necessary to abandon the greater part of the remaining
-outfit and the luggage: the Wanyamwezi, as they neared their
-destination, became even less manageable than before, and the sons of
-Ramji now seemed to consider their toils at an end. On the 25th January
-we forded the cold, strong, yellow stream of the Mgeta, whose sandy bed
-had engulfed my elephant-gun, and we entered with steady hearts the
-formerly dreaded Uzaramo. The 27th January saw us pass safely by the
-village where M. Maizan came to an untimely end. On that day Ramazan and
-Salman, children of Said bin Salim, returned from Zanzibar Island,
-bringing letters, clothing, and provisions for their master, who, by way
-of small revenge, had despatched them secretly from Zungomero. On the
-28th January we reached the Makutaniro or anastomosis of the Kaole and
-Mbuamaji roads, where on our ingress the Wazaramo had barred passage in
-force. No one now ventured to dispute the way with well-armed paupers.
-That evening, however, the Mtongi indulged his men with “maneno,” a
-harangue. Reports about fatal skirmishes between the Wazaramo and a
-caravan of Wanyamwezi that had preceded us had flown about the camp;
-consequently the Mtongi recommended prudence. “There would be danger
-to-morrow--a place of ambuscade--the porters must not rise and be off
-too early nor too late--they must not hasten on, nor lag behind--they
-had with them Wazungu, and in case of accidents they would lose their
-name!” The last sentence was frequently repeated with ever increasing
-emphasis, and each period of the discourse was marked by a general
-murmur, denoting attention.
-
-As I have said, there was no danger. Yet on the next day a report arose
-that we were to be attacked in a dense thicket--where no archer, be it
-observed, could bend his bow--a little beyond the junction of the
-Mbuamaji road with that of Konduchi, our destination. In the afternoon
-Said bin Salim, with important countenance, entered my tent and
-disclosed to me the doleful tidings. The road was cut off. He knew it. A
-great friend of his--a slave--had told him so. He remembered warning me
-that such was the case five days ago. I must either delay till an escort
-could be summoned from the coast, or--I must fee a chief to precede me
-and to reason with the enemy. It was in vain to storm, I feared that
-real obstacles might be placed by the timid and wily little man in our
-way, and I consented most unwillingly to pay two coloured cloths, and
-one ditto of blue-cotton, as hire to guard that appeared in the shape of
-four clothless varlets, that left us after the first quarter of an hour.
-The Baloch, headed by the Jemadar, knowing that all was safe,
-distinguished themselves on that night, for the first time in eighteen
-months, by uttering the shouts which prove that the Oriental soldier is
-doing “Zam,” _i.e._ is on the _qui vive_. When requested not to make so
-much noise they grumbled that it was for our sake, not for theirs.
-
-On the 30th January our natives of Zanzibar screamed with delight at the
-sight of the mango-tree, and pointed out to one another, as they
-appeared in succession, the old familiar fruits, jacks and pine-apples,
-limes and cocoes. On the 2nd February we greeted, with doffed caps and
-with three times three and one more, as Britons will do on such
-occasions, the kindly smiling face of our father Neptune as he lay
-basking in the sunbeams between earth and air. Finally, the 3rd February
-1859 saw us winding through the poles decorated with skulls--they now
-grin in the Royal College of Surgeons, London--a negro Temple-bar which
-pointed out the way into the little maritime village of Konduchi.
-
-Our entrance was attended with the usual ceremony, now familiar to the
-reader: the warmen danced, shot, and shouted, a rabble of adults,
-youths, and boys crowded upon us, the fair sex lulliloo’d with vigour,
-and a general procession conducted their strangers to the hut swept,
-cleaned, and garnished for us by old Premji, the principal Banyan of the
-head-quarter village, and there stared and laughed till they could stare
-and laugh no more.
-
-On the evening of the same day an opportunity offered of transferring
-the Jemadar, the Baloch, and my _bête noire_, Kidogo, to their homes in
-Zanzibar Island, which lies within sight of Konduchi: as may be
-imagined, I readily availed myself of it. After begging powder and _et
-cæteras_ to the last, the monocular insisted upon kissing my hand, and
-departed weeping bitterly with the agony of parting. By the same boat I
-sent a few lines to H. M. consul, Zanzibar, enclosing a list of
-necessaries, and requesting that a Battela, or coasting-craft, might be
-hired, provisioned, and despatched without delay, as I purposed to
-explore the Delta and the unknown course of the Rufiji River. In due
-time Said bin Salim and his “children,” including the fair Halimah and
-Zawada--the latter was liberally rewarded by me for services rendered to
-my companion--and shortly afterwards the sons of Ramji, or rather the
-few who had not deserted or lagged behind, were returned to their
-master, and were, I doubt not, received with all the kindness which
-their bad conduct deserved.
-
-We were detained at Konduchi for six days between the 3rd and 10th
-February. There is nothing interesting in this little African village
-port: instead of describing it, I will enter into a few details
-concerning African matters of more general importance.
-
-[Illustration: The Ivory Porter, the Cloth Porter, and Woman, in
-Usagara.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XVIII.
-
-VILLAGE LIFE IN EAST AFRICA.
-
-
-The assertion may startle the reader’s preconceived opinions concerning
-the savage state of Central Africa and the wretched condition of the
-slave races, negroid and negro; but is not less true that the African is
-in these regions superior in comforts, better dressed, fed, and lodged,
-and less worked than the unhappy Ryot of British India. His condition,
-where the slave trade is slack, may, indeed, be compared advantageously
-with that of the peasantry in some of the richest of European
-countries.
-
-[Illustration: THE BASIN OF KISANGA.]
-
-The African rises with the dawn from his couch of cow’s hide. The hut is
-cool and comfortable during the day, but the barred door impeding
-ventilation at night causes it to be close and disagreeable. The hour
-before sunrise being the coldest time, he usually kindles a fire, and
-addresses himself to his constant companion, the pipe. When the sun
-becomes sufficiently powerful, he removes the reed-screen from the
-entrance, and issues forth to bask in the morning-beams. The villages
-are populous, and the houses touching one another enable the occupants,
-when squatting outside and fronting the central square, to chat and
-chatter without moving. About 7 A.M., when the dew has partially
-disappeared from the grass, the elder boys drive the flocks and herds to
-pasture with loud shouts and sounding applications of the quarter-staff.
-They return only when the sun is sinking behind the western horizon. At
-8 P.M. those who have provisions at home enter the hut to refection with
-ugali or holcus-porridge; those who have not, join a friend. Pombe, when
-procurable, is drunk from the earliest dawn.
-
-After breaking his fast the African repairs, pipe in hand, to the
-Iwánzá--the village “public,” previously described. Here, in the society
-of his own sex, he will spend the greater part of the day, talking and
-laughing, smoking, or torpid with sleep. Occasionally he sits down to
-play. As with barbarians generally, gambling in him is a passion. The
-normal game is our “heads and tails,” its implement a flat stone, a
-rough circle of tin, or the bottom of a broken pot. The more civilised
-have learned the “bao” of the coast, a kind of “tables,” with counters
-and cups hollowed in a solid plank. Many of the Wanyamwezi have been
-compelled by this indulgence to sell themselves into slavery: after
-playing through their property, they even stake their aged mothers
-against the equivalent of an old lady in these lands,--a cow or a pair
-of goats. As may be imagined, squabbles are perpetual; they are almost
-always, however, settled amongst fellow-villagers with bloodless
-weapons. Others, instead of gambling, seek some employment which,
-working the hands and leaving the rest of the body and the mind at ease,
-is ever a favourite with the Asiatic and the African; they whittle wood,
-pierce and wire their pipe-sticks--an art in which all are adepts--shave
-one another’s heads, pluck out their beards, eyebrows, and eyelashes,
-and prepare and polish their weapons.
-
-At about 1 P.M. the African, unless otherwise employed, returns to his
-hut to eat the most substantial and the last meal of the day, which has
-been cooked by his women. Eminently gregarious, however, he often
-prefers the Iwánzá as a dining-room, where his male children, relatives,
-and friends meet during the most important hour of the twenty-four. With
-the savage and the barbarian food is the all-in-all of life:--food is
-his thought by day,--food is his dream by night. The civilised European,
-who never knows hunger or thirst without the instant means of gratifying
-every whim of appetite, can hardly conceive the extent to which his wild
-brother’s soul is swayed by stomach; he can scarcely comprehend the
-state of mental absorption in which the ravenous human animal broods
-over the carcase of an old goat, the delight which he takes in
-superintending every part of the cooking process, and the jealous eye
-with which he regards all who live better than himself.
-
-The principal articles of diet are fish and flesh, grain and vegetables;
-the luxuries are milk and butter, honey, and a few fruits, as bananas
-and Guinea-palm dates; and the inebrients are pombe or millet-beer,
-toddy, and mawa or plantain-wine.
-
-Fish is found in the lakes and in the many rivers of this well-watered
-land; it is despised by those who can afford flesh, but it is a
-“godsend” to travellers, to slaves, and to the poor. Meat is the diet
-most prized; it is, however, a luxury beyond the reach of peasantry,
-except when they can pick up the orts of the chiefs. The Arabs assert
-that in these latitudes vegetables cause heartburn and acidity, and that
-animal food is the most digestible. The Africans seem to have made the
-same discovery: a man who can afford it almost confines himself to
-flesh, and he considers fat the essential element of good living. The
-crave for meat is satisfied by eating almost every description of living
-thing, clean or unclean; as a rule, however, the East African prefers
-beef, which strangers find flatulent and heating. Like most people, they
-reject game when they can command the flesh of tame beasts. Next to the
-bullock the goat is preferred in the interior; as indeed it is by the
-Arabs of Zanzibar Island; whereas those of Oman and of Western Arabia
-abandon it to the Bedouins. In this part of Africa the cheapest and
-vilest meat is mutton, and its appearance--pale, soft, and
-braxy--justifies the prejudice against it. Of late years it has become
-the fashion to eat poultry and pigeons; eggs, however, are still
-avoided. In the absence of history and tradition, it is difficult to
-decide whether this aversion to eggs arises from an imported or an
-indigenous prejudice. The mundane egg of Hindoo mythology probably
-typified the physiological dogma “omne vivum ex ovo,” and the mystic
-disciples would avoid it as representing the principle of life. In
-remote ages the prejudice may have extended to Africa, although the idea
-which gave birth to it was not familiar to the African mind. Of wild
-flesh, the favourite is that of the zebra; it is smoked or jerked,
-despite which it retains a most savoury flavour. Of the antelopes a few
-are deliciously tender and succulent; the greater part are black,
-coarse, and indigestible. One of the inducements for an African to
-travel is to afford himself more meat than at home. His fondness for the
-article conquers at times even his habitual improvidence. He preserves
-it by placing large lumps upon a little platform of green reeds, erected
-upon uprights about eighteen inches high, and by smoking it with a slow
-fire. Thus prepared, and with the addition of a little salt, the
-provision will last for several days, and the porters will not object to
-increase their loads by three or four pounds of the article, disposed
-upon a long stick like gigantic kababs. They also jerk their stores by
-exposing the meat upon a rope, or spread upon a flat stone, for two or
-three days in the sun; it loses a considerable portion of nutriment, but
-it packs into a conveniently small compass. This jerked meat, when
-dried, broken into small pieces, and stored in gourds or in pots full of
-clarified and melted butter, forms the celebrated travelling provision
-in the East called kavurmeh: it is eaten as a relish with rice and other
-boiled grains. When meat is not attainable and good water is scarce, the
-African severs one of the jugulars of a bullock and fastens upon it like
-a leech. This custom is common in Karagwah and the other northern
-kingdoms, and some tribes, like the Wanyika, near Mombasah, churn the
-blood with milk.
-
-The daily food of the poor is grain, generally holcus, maize, or bajri
-(panicum); wheat is confined to the Arabs, and rice grows locally, as in
-the Indian peninsula. The inner Africans, like the semi-civilised Arabs
-of Zanzibar, the Wasawahili, and the Wamrima, ignore the simple art of
-leavening bread by acidulated whey, sour bean-paste, and similar
-contrivances universally practised in Oman. Even the rude Indian chapati
-or scone is too artificial for them, and they have not learned to toast
-grain. Upon journeys the African boils his holcus unhusked in an earthen
-basin, drinks the water, and devours the grain, which in this state is
-called masango; at home he is more particular. The holcus is either
-rubbed upon a stone--the mill being wholly unknown--or pounded with a
-little water in a huge wooden mortar; when reduced to a coarse powder,
-it is thrown into an earthen pot containing boiling water sufficient to
-be absorbed by the flour; a little salt, when procurable, is added; and
-after a few stirrings with a ladle, or rather with a broad and
-flat-ended stick, till thoroughly saturated, the thick mass is
-transferred into a porous basket, which allows the extra moisture to
-leak out. Such is the ugali, or porridge, the staff of life in East
-Africa.
-
-During the rains vegetables are common in the more fertile parts of East
-Africa; they are within reach of the poorest cultivator. Some varieties,
-especially the sweet potato and the mushroom, are sliced and sun-dried
-to preserve them through the year. During the barren summer they are
-boiled into a kind of broth.
-
-Milk is held in high esteem by all tribes, and some live upon it almost
-exclusively during the rains, when cattle find plentiful pasture. It is
-consumed in three forms--“mabichi,” when drunk fresh; or converted into
-mabivu (butter-milk), the rubb of Arabs; or in the shape of mtindi
-(curded milk), the laban of Arabia, and the Indian dahi. These Africans
-ignore the dudh-pinda, or ball of fresh-milk boiled down to hardness by
-evaporation of the serum, as practised by the Indian halwaí
-(confectioner); the indurated sour-clot of Arabia, called by the
-Bedouins el igt, and by the Persians the Baloch, and the Sindhians
-kurut, is also unknown; and they consider cheese a miracle, and use
-against it their stock denunciation, the danger of bewitching cattle.
-The fresh produce, moreover, has few charms as a poculent amongst
-barbarous and milk-drinking races: the Arabs and the Portuguese in
-Africa avoid it after the sun is high, believing it to increase bile,
-and eventually to cause fever: it is certain that, however pleasant the
-draught may be in the cool of the morning, it is by no means so much
-relished during the heat of the day. On the other hand, the curded milk
-is everywhere a favourite on account of its cooling and thirst-quenching
-properties, and the people accustomed to it from infancy have for it an
-excessive longing. It is procurable in every village where cows are
-kept, whereas that newly-drawn is generally half-soured from being at
-once stored in the earthen pots used for curding it. These East Africans
-do not, however, make their dahi, like the Somal, in lumps floating upon
-the tartest possible serum; nor do they turn it, like the Arabs, with
-kid’s rennet, nor like the Baloch with the solanaceous plant called
-panir. The best is made, as in India, by allowing the milk to stand till
-it clots in a pot used for the purpose, and frequently smoked for
-purity. Butter-milk is procurable only in those parts of the country
-where the people have an abundance of cattle.
-
-Butter is made by filling a large gourd, which acts as churn, with
-partially-soured milk, which is shaken to and fro: it is a poor article,
-thin, colourless, and tainted by being stored for two or three months,
-without preliminary washing, in the bark-boxes called vilindo. In the
-Eastern regions it is converted into ghee by simply melting over the
-fire: it is not boiled to expel the remnant of sour milk, impurities are
-not removed by skimming, and finally it becomes rancid and bitter by
-storing in pots and gourds which have been used for the purpose during
-half a generation. The Arabs attempt to do away with the nauseous taste
-by throwing into it when boiling a little water, with a handful of flour
-or of unpowdered rice. Westward of Unyamwezi butter is burned instead of
-oil in lamps.
-
-The common oil in East Africa is that of the karanga, bhuiphali, or
-ground-nut (Arachis hypogæa): when ghee is not procurable, the Arabs eat
-it, like cocoa-nut oil, with beans, manioc, sweet-potato and other
-vegetables. A superior kind of cooking is the “uto” extracted from the
-ufuta, simsim or sesamum, which grows everywhere upon the coast, and
-extends far into the interior. The process of pressing is managed by
-pounding the grain dry in a huge mortar; when the oil begins to appear,
-a little hot water is poured in, and the mass is forcibly squeezed with
-huge pestles; all that floats is then ladled out into pots and gourds.
-The viscid chikichi (palm-oil) is found only in the vicinity of the
-Tanganyika Lake, although the tree grows in Zanzibar and its adjacent
-islets. Oil is extracted from the two varieties of the castor-plant;
-and, in spite of its unsavoury smell, it is extensively used as an
-unguent by the people. At Unyanyembe and other places where the cucumber
-grows almost wild, the Arabs derive from its seed an admirable
-salad-oil, which in flavour equals, and perhaps surpasses, the finest
-produce of the olive. The latter tree is unknown in East Africa to the
-Arabs, who speak of it with a religious respect, on account of the
-mention made of it in the Koran.
-
-In East Africa every man is his own maltster; and the “Iwánzá,” or
-public-house of the village, is the common brewery. In some tribes,
-however, fermentation is the essential occupation of the women. The
-principal inebrient is a beer without hops, called pombe. This ποτος
-θειος of the negro and negroid races dates from the age of Osiris: it is
-the buzah of Egypt and the farther East, and the merissa of the Upper
-Nile, the ξιθον and xythum of the West, and the oala or boyaloa of the
-Kafirs and the South African races. The taste is somewhat like soured
-wort of the smallest description, but strangers, who at first dislike it
-exceedingly, are soon reconciled to it by the pleasurable sensations to
-which it gives rise. Without violent action, it affects the head, and
-produces an agreeable narcotism, followed by sound sleep and heaviness
-in the morning--as much liked by the barbarian, to whom inebriation is a
-boon, as feared by the civilised man. Being, as the Arabs say, a “cold
-drink,” causing hydrocele and rheumatism, it has some of the
-after-effects of gin, and the drunkard is readily recognised by his red
-and bleared eyes. When made thick with the grounds or sediment of grain,
-it is exceedingly nutricious. Many a gallon must be drunk by the veteran
-malt-worm before intoxication; and individuals of both sexes sometimes
-live almost entirely upon pombe. It is usually made as follows: half of
-the grain--holcus, panicum, or both mixed--intended for the brew is
-buried or soaked in water till it sprouts; it is then pounded and mixed
-with the other half, also reduced to flour, and sometimes with a little
-honey. The compound is boiled twice or thrice in huge pots, strained,
-when wanted clear, through a bag of matting, and allowed to ferment:
-after the third day it becomes as sour as vinegar. The “togwa” is a
-favourite drink, also made of holcus. At first it is thick and sickly,
-like honeyed gruel; when sour it becomes exceedingly heady. As these
-liquors consume a quantity of grain, they are ever expensive; the large
-gourdful never fetches less than two khete or strings of beads, and
-strangers must often pay ten khete for the luxury. Some years ago an
-Arab taught the Wanyamwezi to distil: they soon, however, returned to
-their favourite fermentation.
-
-The use of pombe is general throughout the country: the other inebrients
-are local. At the island and on the coast of Zanzibar tembo, or toddy,
-in the West African dialects tombo, is drawn from the cocoa-tree; and in
-places a pernicious alcohol, called mvinyo, is extracted from it. The
-Wajiji and other races upon the Tanganyika Lake tap the Guinea-palm for
-a toddy, which, drawn in unclean pots, soon becomes acid and acrid as
-the Silesian wine that serves to mend the broken limbs of the poor. The
-use of bhang and datura-seed has already been alluded to. “Máwá,” or
-plantain-wine, is highly prized because it readily intoxicates. The
-fruit when ripe is peeled and hand-kneaded with coarse green grass, in a
-wide-mouthed earthen pot, till all the juice is extracted: the sweet
-must is then strained through a _cornet_ of plantain-leaf into a clean
-gourd, which is but partially stopped. To hasten fermentation a handful
-of toasted or pounded grain is added: after standing for two days in a
-warm room the wine is ready for drinking.
-
-The East Africans ignore the sparkling berille or hydromel of Abyssinia
-and Harar, and the mead of the Bushman race. Yet honey abounds
-throughout the country, and near the villages log-hives, which from
-their shape are called mazinga or cannons by the people, hang from every
-tall and shady tree. Bees also swarm in the jungles, performing an
-important part in the vegetable economy by masculation or
-caprification, and the conveyance of pollen. Their produce is of two
-kinds. The cheaper resembles wasp-honey in Europe; it is found in the
-forest, and stored in gourds. More than half-filled with dirt and
-wood-bark, it affords but little wax; the liquid is thin and watery, and
-it has a peculiarly unpleasant flavour. The better variety, the
-hive-honey, is as superior to the produce of the jungle as it is
-inferior to that of India and of more civilised lands. It is tolerable
-until kept too long, and it supplies a good yellow wax, used by the
-Arabs to mix with tallow in the manufacture of “dips.” The best honey is
-sold after the rains; but the African hoards his store till it reddens,
-showing the first stage of fermentation: he will eat it after the second
-or third year, when it thins, froths, and becomes a rufous-brown fluid
-of unsavoury taste; and he rarely takes the trouble to remove the comb,
-though the Arabs set him the example of straining the honey through bags
-of plantain-straw or matting. Decomposition, moreover, is assisted by
-softening the honey over the fire to extract the wax instead of placing
-it in the sun. The price varies from one to three cloths for a large
-gourdful. When cheap, the Arabs make from it “honey-sugar:” the
-material, after being strained and cleaned, is stored for two or three
-weeks in a cool place till surface-granulation takes place; the produce
-resembles in taste and appearance coarse brown sugar. The “siki,” a
-vinegar of the country, is also made of one part honey and four of
-water, left for a fortnight to acetise: it is weak and insipid. Honey is
-the only sweetener in the country, except in the places where the
-sugar-cane grows, namely, the maritime and the Lakist regions. The
-people chew it, ignoring the simple art of extracting and inspissating
-the juice; nor do they, like the natives of Usumbara, convert it into an
-inebrient. Yet sugar attracts them like flies; they clap their hands
-with delight at the taste; they buy it for its weight of ivory; and if a
-thimbleful of the powder happen to fall upon the ground, they will eat
-an ounce of earth rather than lose a grain of it.
-
-After eating, the East African invariably indulges in a long fit of
-torpidity, from which he awakes to pass the afternoon as he did the
-forenoon, chatting, playing, smoking, and chewing “sweet-earth.” Towards
-sunset all issue forth to enjoy the coolness: the men sit outside the
-Iwánzá, whilst the women and the girls, after fetching water for
-household wants from the well, collecting in a group upon their little
-stools, indulge in the pleasures of gossipred and the pipe. This hour in
-the more favoured parts of the country is replete with enjoyment, which
-even the barbarian feels, though not yet indoctrinated into æsthetics.
-As the hours of darkness draw nigh, the village doors are carefully
-closed, and, after milking his cows, each peasant retires to his hut, or
-passes his time squatting round the fire with his friends in the Iwánzá.
-He has not yet learned the art of making a wick, and of filling a bit of
-pottery with oil. When a light is wanted, he ignites a stick of the
-oleaginous mtata, or msásá-tree--a yellow, hard, close-grained, and
-elastic wood, with few knots, much used in making spears, bows, and
-walking staves--which burns for a quarter of an hour with a brilliant
-flame. He repairs to his hard couch before midnight, and snores with a
-single sleep till dawn. For thorough enjoyment, night must be spent in
-insensibility, as day is in inebriety; and, though an early riser, he
-avoids the “early to bed,” in order that he may be able to slumber
-through half the day.
-
-It is evident that these barbarians lead rather a “fast” life; there
-are, however, two points that modify its evil consequences. The “damned
-distillation” is unknown, consequently they do not suffer from delirium
-tremens, its offspring. Their only brain-work is that necessitated by
-the simple wants of life, and by the unartificial style of gambling
-which they affect. Amongst the civilized, the peculiar state of the
-nervous system in the individual, and in society, the abnormal
-conditions induced by overcrowding in cities and towns, has engendered a
-cohort of dire diseases which the children of nature ignore.
-
-Such is the African’s idle day, and thus every summer is spent. As the
-wintry rains draw nigh, the necessity of daily bread suggests itself.
-The peasants then leave their huts at 6 or 7 A.M., often without
-provision, which now becomes scarce, and labour till noon, or 2 P.M.,
-when they return home, and find food prepared by the wife or the
-slave-girl. During the afternoon they return to work, and sometimes,
-when the rains are near, they are aided by the women. Towards sunset all
-wend homewards in a body, laden with their implements of cultivation,
-and singing a kind of “dulce domum,” in a simple and pleasing
-recitative.
-
-When the moon shines bright the spirits of the East African are raised
-like the jackal’s, and a furious drumming and a droning chorus summon
-the maidens to come out and enjoy the spectacle of a dance. The sexes
-seldom perform together, but they have no objection to be gazed at by
-each other. Their style of saltation is remarkable only for the extreme
-gravity which it induces--at no other time does the East African look
-so serious and so full of earnest purpose. Yet with all this
-thoughtfulness, “poor human nature cannot dance of itself.” The dance
-has already been described as far as possible: as may be imagined, the
-African Thalia is by no means free from the reproach which caused
-Mohammed to taboo her to his followers.
-
-Music is at a low ebb. Admirable timists, and no mean tunists, the
-people betray their incapacity for improvement by remaining contented
-with the simplest and the most monotonous combinations of sounds. As in
-everything else, so in this art, creative talent is wanting. A higher
-development would have produced other results; yet it is impossible not
-to remark the delight which they take in harmony. The fisherman will
-accompany his paddle, the porter his trudge, and the housewife her task
-of rubbing down grain, with song; and for long hours at night the
-peasants will sit in a ring repeating, with a zest that never flags, the
-same few notes, and the same unmeaning line. Their style is the
-recitative, broken by a full chorus, and they appear to affect the major
-rather than the interminable minor key of the Asiatic. Their singing
-also wants the strained upper notes of the cracked-voiced Indian
-performer, and it ignores the complicated raga and ragini or Hindu
-modes, which appear rather the musical expression of high mathematics
-than the natural language of harmony and melody.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-1. Paddle in East Africa.
-
-2. The Sange or Gourd.
-
-3. Bellows.
-
-4. Drum.
-
-5. Stool.
-
-6. The Zeze (guitar).
-
-7. The D’hete, or Kidete.]
-
-The instruments of the East African are all of foreign invention,
-imported from various regions, Madagascar, and the coast. Those
-principally in use are the following. The zeze, or banjo, resembles in
-sound the monochord Arabian rubabah, the rude ancestor of the Spanish
-guitar. The sounding-board is a large hollow gourd, open below; on the
-upper part, fastened by strings that pass through drilled holes, is a
-conical piece of gourd, cleft longitudinally to admit the arm or handle,
-which projects at a right angle. The arm is made of light wood, from 18
-inches to 2 feet in length; the left-hand extremity has three frets
-formed by two notches, with intervals, and thus the total range is of
-six notes. A single string, made of “mondo,” the fibre of the mwale or
-raphia-palm, is tied to a knob of wood projecting from the dexter
-extremity of the handle, thence it passes over a bridge of bent quill,
-which for tuning is raised or depressed, and lastly it is secured round
-another knob at the end beyond the frets. Sometimes, to form a bass or
-drone, a second string is similarly attached along the side of the arm,
-whilst the treble runs along the top.
-
-The kinanda, a prototype of the psaltery and harp, the lute and lyre,
-and much used by the southern races in the neighbourhood of Kilwa, is of
-two kinds. One is a shallow box cut out of a single plank, thirteen
-inches long by five or six in breadth, and about two inches in depth:
-eleven or twelve strings are drawn tightly over the hollow. The
-instrument is placed in the lap, and performed upon with both hands. The
-other is a small bow-guitar, with an open gourd attached to the part
-about the handle: sometimes the bow passes through the gourd. This
-instrument is held in the left hand, whilst the “tocador” strikes its
-single cord with a thin cane-plectrum about one foot long. As in the
-zeze, the gourd is often adorned with black tattoo, or bright brass
-tacks, disposed in various patterns, amongst which the circle and the
-crescent figure conspicuously. A third form of the kinanda appears to be
-a barbarous ancestor of the Grecian lyre, which, like the modern Nubian
-“kisirka,” is a lineal descendant from the Egyptian oryx-horn lute with
-the transverse bar. A combination of the zeze and kinanda is made by
-binding a dwarf hollow box with its numerous strings to the open top of
-a large circular gourd, which then acts as a sounding-board.
-
-The wind-instruments are equally rude, though by no means so feeble as
-their rivals. The nai or sackbut of India, and the siwa, a huge bassoon
-of black wood, at least five feet long, are known only to the
-coast-people. The tribes of the interior use the d’hete or kidete,
-called by the Wasawahili zumari. It is literally the bucolic reed, a
-hollowed holcus-cane, pierced with four holes at the further end: the
-mouthpiece is not stopped in any way, and the instrument is played upon
-solely by the lips, a drone being sometimes supplied by the voice. Thus
-simple and ineffective, it has nevertheless a familiar sound to European
-ears. The barghumi is made by cutting an oblong hole, about the size of
-a man’s nail, within two or three inches of the tip of a koodoo, an
-oryx, or a goat’s horn, which, for effect and appearance, is sometimes
-capped with a bit of cane, whence projects a long zebra’s or giraffe’s
-tail. Like the det’he, it is played upon by the lips; and without any
-attempt at stops or keys, four or five notes may be produced. Its sound,
-heard from afar, especially in the deep silence of a tropical night,
-resembles not a little the sad, sweet music of the French
-_cor-de-chasse_; and when well performed upon, it might be mistaken for
-a regimental bugle. There are smaller varieties of the barghumi, which
-porters carry slung over the shoulder, and use as signals on the line of
-march. Another curious instrument is a gourd, a few inches in
-circumference, drilled with many little apertures: the breath passes
-through one hole, and certain notes are produced by stopping others with
-the fingers--its loud, shrill, and ear-piercing quavers faintly resemble
-the European “piccolo.” The only indigenous music of the pastoral
-African--the Somal, for instance--is whistling, a habit acquired in
-youth when tending the flocks and herds. This “Mu’unzi” is soft and
-dulcet; the ear, however, fails to detect in it either phrase or tune.
-For signals the East Africans practise the kik’horombwe, or blowing
-between the fore and the middle fingers with a noise like that of a
-railway whistle. The Wanyamwezi also blow over the edge of the hollow in
-a small antelope’s horn, or through an iron tube; and the Watuta are
-said to use metal-whistles as signals in battle.
-
-The drum is ever the favourite instrument with the African, who uses it
-as the alarum of war, the promise of mirth, the token of hospitality,
-and the cure of diseases: without drumming his life would indeed be a
-blank. The largest variety, called “ngoma ku,” is the hollowed hole of a
-mkenga or other soft tree, with a cylindrical solid projection from the
-bottom, which holds it upright when planted in the ground. The
-instrument is from three to five feet in length with a diameter of from
-one to two feet: the outside is protected with a net-work of strong
-cord. Over the head is stretched a rough parchment made of calf’s-skin;
-and a cap of green hide, mounted when loose, and afterwards shrunken by
-exposure to fire, protects the bottom. It is vigorously beaten with the
-fists, and sometimes with coarse sticks. There are many local varieties
-of this instrument, especially the timbrel or tabret, which is about a
-foot long, shaped like an hour-glass or a double “darabukkah,” and
-provided with a head of iguana-skin. The effect of tom-toming is also
-produced by striking hollow gourds and similar articles. The only cymbal
-is the upatu, a flat-bottomed brass pot turned upside down, and tapped
-with a bit of wood. The “sanje,” a gourd full of pebbles, is much
-affected in parts of the country by women, children, and, especially, by
-the mganga or rain-maker; its use being that of the babe’s rattle
-amongst Europeans.
-
-The insipidity of the African’s day is relieved by frequent drinking
-bouts, and by an occasional hunt. For the former the guests assemble at
-early dawn, and take their seats in a circle, dividing into knots of
-three or four to facilitate the circulation of the bowl. The mwandázi,
-or cup-bearer, goes round the assembly, giving scrupulous precedence to
-the chiefs and elders, who are also provided with larger vessels. The
-sonzo, or drinking-cup, which also serves as a travelling canteen, is
-made generally by the women, of a kind of grass called mávú, or of wild
-palm-leaf: the split stalks are neatly twisted into a fine cord, which
-is rolled up, beginning from the bottom, in concentric circles, each
-joined to its neighbour by a binding of the same material: it is
-sometimes stained and ornamented with red and black dyes. The shape when
-finished is a truncated cone, somewhat like a Turk’s fez; it measures
-about six inches in diameter by five in depth, and those of average size
-may contain a quart. This cup passes around without delay or heel-taps,
-and the topers stop occasionally to talk, laugh, and snuff, to chew
-tobacco, and to smoke bhang. The scene of sensuality lasts for three or
-four hours--in fact, till the pombe prepared for the occasion is
-exhausted,--when the carousers, with red eyes, distorted features, and
-the thickest of voices, stagger home to doze through the day. Perhaps in
-no European country are so many drunken men seen abroad as in East
-Africa. Women also frequently appear intoxicated; they have, however,
-private “pombe,” and do not drink with the men.
-
-The East African, who can seldom afford to gratify his longing for meat
-by slaughtering a cow or a goat, looks eagerly forward to the end of the
-rains, when the grass is in a fit condition for firing; then, armed with
-bows and arrows, and with rungu or knobkerries, the villagers have a
-battue of small antelopes, hares, and birds. During the hot season also,
-when the waters dry up, they watch by night at the tanks and pools, and
-they thus secure the larger kinds of game. Elephants especially are
-often found dead of drought during the hot season; they are driven from
-the springs which are haunted by the hunters, and, according to the
-Arabs, they fear migrating to new seats where they would be attacked by
-the herds in possession. In many parts the huntsmen suspend by a cord
-from the trees sharpened blocks of wood, which, loosened by the animal’s
-foot, fall and cause a mortal wound. This “suspended spear,” sprung by a
-latch, has been described by a host of South African travellers. It has
-been sketched by Lieut. Boteler (“Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to
-Africa and Arabia,” chap. iv.); and Major Monteiro (“O Muata Cazembe,”
-chap. v.); and described by Mr. Galton, Mr. Gordon Cumming, and Dr.
-Livingstone (chap. xxviii.). Throughout Ugogo and upon the maritime
-regions large game is caught in pitfalls, here called mtego, and in
-India ogi: in some places travellers run the risk of falling into these
-traps. The mtego is an oblong excavation like a great grave, but
-decreasing in breadth below the surface of the ground and it is always
-found single, not in pairs as in South Africa. The site generally chosen
-is near water, and the hole is carefully masked with thin layers of
-small sticks and leaves. The Indian “surrounds” and the hopo or V-shaped
-trap of the Bakwens are here unknown. The distribution of treasure-trove
-would seem to argue ancient partitions and lordships, and, in dividing
-the spoils of wild or tame animals, the chief claims, according to
-ancient right, the breast. This custom apparently borrowed by the
-Hebrews from Africa (Leviticus, chap. vii. 30, 31), is alluded to by
-almost all South-African travellers.
-
-The elephant roams in herds throughout the country, affecting the low
-grounds where stagnating water produces a plentiful vegetation: with
-every human being its foe, and thousands living by its destruction, the
-animal is far from becoming scarce; indeed, the greatest number of
-footprints appeared near Chogwe and Tongwe, stations of Baloch garrisons
-close to the town of Pangani. The elephant hunt is with the African a
-solemn and serious undertaking. He fortifies himself with periapts and
-prophylactics given by the mganga, who also trains him to the use of his
-weapon. The elephant-spear resembles our boarding-pike rather than the
-light blunt arm employed in war; it is about six feet long, with a broad
-tapering head cut away at the shoulders, and supported by an iron neck,
-which is planted in a thick wooden handle, the junction being secured by
-a cylinder of raw hide from a cow’s tail passed over it, and shrunk on
-by drying: a specimen was deposited with the Royal Geographical Society.
-The spear is invariably guarded by a mpigi or charm, the usual two bits
-of wood bound together with a string or strip of skin. It is not a
-little curious that the East African, though born and bred a hunter, is,
-unlike almost all barbarians, as skill-less as an European in the art of
-el asr, the “spoor” or “sign.”
-
-The hunting-party, consisting of fifteen to twenty individuals, proceeds
-before departure to sing and dance, to drink and drum for a consecutive
-week. The women form line and perambulate the village, each striking an
-iron jembe or hoe with a large stone, which forms an appropriate
-accompaniment to the howl and the vigelegele, “lullilooing,” or trills
-of joy. At every step the dancer sways herself elephant-like from side
-to side, and tosses her head backwards with a violence threatening
-dislocation of the atlas. The line, led by a fugle-woman by the right,
-who holds two jembe in one hand, but does not drum, stops facing every
-Arab house where beads may be expected, and performs the most hideous
-contortions, whirling the arms round the shoulder-socket, kneeling, and
-imitating the actions of various animals. The labour done, the ladies
-apply to their pombe, and reappear after four or five hours with a
-tell-tale stagger and a looseness of limb which adds a peculiar charm to
-their gesticulations. The day concludes with a “fackeltanz” of
-remarkable grotesqueness. This merrymaking is probably intended as a
-consolation for the penance which the elephant-hunter’s wife performs
-during the absence of her mate; she is expected to abstain from good
-food, handsome cloth, and fumigation: she must not leave the house, and
-for an act of infidelity the blame of failure in the hunt will fall
-heavily upon her. Meanwhile the men--at least as “far gone” as the
-women--encircle with a running jumping gait, and with the grace and
-science of well-trained bears, a drum or a kilindo,--the normal bark
-bandbox,--placed with open mouth upon the ground, and violently beaten
-with sticks and fists or rubbed and scraped with stones. It forms also a
-sounding-board for a kinanda or bow-guitar, one end of which is applied
-to it, whilst a shrill fife of goat’s horn gives finish and completeness
-to the band. Around the drum are placed several elephants’ tails,
-possibly designed to serve the purpose of the clay-corpse introduced
-into the feasts of ancient Egypt.
-
-When thoroughly drenched with drink, the hunters set out early in the
-morning, carrying live brands lest fire should fail them in the jungle,
-and applying them to their mouths to keep out the cold air. These
-trampers are sometimes dangerous to stragglers from caravans, especially
-in countries where the robber or the murderer expects to escape with
-impunity. In some places hunting-huts have been erected; they are,
-however, seldom used when elephants are sought, as a herd once startled
-does not readily return to the same pasture-grounds. The great art of
-the African muinzi or elephant-hunter is to separate a tusker from the
-herd without exciting suspicion, and to form a circle round the victim.
-The mganga, then rising with a shout, hurls or thrusts the first spear,
-and his example is followed by the rest. The weapons are not poisoned:
-they are fatal by a succession of small wounds. The baited beast rarely
-breaks, as might be expected, through the frail circle of assailants:
-its proverbial obstinacy is excited; it charges one man, who slips away,
-when another, with a scream, thrusts the long stiff spear into its hind
-quarters, which makes it change intention and turn fiercely from the
-fugitive to the fresh assailant. This continues till the elephant,
-losing breath and heart, attempts to escape; its enemies then redouble
-their efforts, and at length the huge prey, overpowered by pain and loss
-of blood trickling from a hundred gashes, bites the dust. The victors,
-after certain preliminaries of singing and dancing, carefully cut out
-the tusks with small, sharp axes, and the rich marrow is at once picked
-from the bamboo and devoured upon the spot, as the hare’s liver is in
-Italy. The hunt concludes with a grand feast of fat and garbage, and the
-hunters return home in triumph, laden with ivory, with ovals of hide for
-shields, and with festoons of raw and odorous meat spitted upon long
-poles.
-
-Throughout East Africa the mouse, as the saying is, travels with a
-staff: the education of youth and the exercises of manhood are confined
-to the practice of weapons. Yet the people want the expertness of the
-Somal of the North and the Kafirs of the South; their internal feuds
-perpetuate the necessity of offensive measures, and of the presence of
-arms, but their agricultural state, rendering them independent of the
-chase, prevents their reliance upon their skill for daily food. In
-consequence of being ever armed, the African like the Asiatic is nothing
-without his weapons; he cannot use his strength, and when he comes to
-blows he fights like a woman. Thus the habitual show of arms is a mere
-substitute for courage; in dangerous countries, as in Ugogo, the
-Wanyamwezi do not dare to carry them for fear of provocation, whereas at
-home and in comparative safety they never appear without spear or
-knobstick.
-
-The weapons universally carried are the spear and the assegai. The bow
-and arrow, the knobkerry, the dagger, and the battle-axe are confined to
-certain tribes, whilst the musket and the sword are used beyond the
-coast only by strangers. The shield is seldom seen.
-
-The lance of the European, Arab, and Indian is unknown to these
-unequestrian races. The bravest tribes prefer the stabbing-spear, which
-brings them to close quarters with the enemy. The weapon indeed cannot
-make the man, but by reaction it greatly modifies his manliness. Thus
-the use of short weapons generally denotes a gallant nation; the old
-Roman gladius, the French briquet, and the Afghan charay would be
-useless in the hands of a timid people. Under the impression that the
-further men stand from their enemies the less is to be expected from
-them, the French knights not inaptly termed the “villanous saltpetre”
-the “grave of honour,” whilst their English rivals called the gun a
-“hell-born murderer,” and an “instrument hateful in the sight of God and
-man.” The Africans have also acted upon this idea. A great Kafir chief
-did what Plutarch relates of Camillus: he broke short the assegais of
-his “magnificent savages” when he sent them to war, and forbade each
-warrior to return without having stained his stick with blood; the
-consequence was, that, instead of “dumb-shooting” at a distance, they
-rushed in and won.
-
-The mkuki, farárá, or spear, is more generally used for stabbing than
-throwing. It has a long narrow blade of untempered iron, so soft that it
-may be bent with the fingers; it is capable, however, of receiving a
-fine edge. The shoulders are rounded off, and one or two lines extend
-lengthways along the centre from socket to point. At the socket where
-the shaft is introduced, it its covered with a bit of skin from the tail
-of some animal drawn on like a stocking, and sometimes the iron is
-forced on when heated, so as to adhere by contraction of the metal. The
-shaft, which is five to six feet long, is a branch of the dark-brown
-mkole or the light-yellow mtata-tree, chosen because close-grained,
-tough, pliable, and free from knots; it is peeled, straightened in hot
-ashes, pared down to the heart, smoothed with a knife, carefully oiled
-or greased, without which it soon becomes brittle, and polished with the
-leaves of the mkuba-tree. The wood is mostly ornamented with twists of
-brass and copper wire; it is sometimes plated with zinc or tin, and it
-is generally provided with an iron heel for planting in the ground. Some
-tribes--the northern Wagogo and their neighbours the Wamasai for
-instance--have huge spear-heads like shovels, unfit for throwing. The
-best weapons for war are made in Karagwah.
-
-The kikuki, assegai, or javelin, is much used by the Warori and other
-fighting tribes, who enter action with a sheaf of those weapons.
-Nowhere, however, did the East African appear possessed of the dexterity
-described by travellers amongst the southern races. The assegai
-resembles the spear in all points, except that the head is often barbed,
-and it is more lightly timbered; the shaft is rarely more than four feet
-in length, and it tapers to the thinness of a man’s little finger. It is
-laid upon the palm of the right hand, and balanced with a vibratory
-motion till the point of equilibrium is found, when it is delivered with
-little exertion of the muscles beyond the run or spring, and as it
-leaves the hand it is directed by the forefinger and thumb. Sometimes,
-to obviate breaking, the assegai is made like the Indian “sang,” wholly
-of iron.
-
-The East African is a “good archère and a fayre.” The cubit-high Armiger
-begins as soon as he can walk with miniature weapons, a cane bow and
-reed bird-bolts tipped with wood, to practise till perfect at gourds and
-pumpkins; he considers himself a man when he can boast of iron tips.
-With many races “pudor est nescire sagittas.” The bravest, however, the
-Wamasai and the Wakwafi, the Warori and the Watuta, ignore the practice;
-with them--
-
-        “No proof of manhood, none
-  Of daring courage, is the bow;”
-
-and the Somali abandons it to his Midgan or servile. The bow in East
-Africa is invariably what is called a “self-bow,” that is to say, made
-of a single piece, and backed weapons are unknown. It is uncommonly
-stiff, and the strongest archer would find it difficult to “draw up a
-yard;” of this nature probably was the bow sent to Cambyses by the
-Æthiopian monarch, with the taunting message that he had better not
-attack men who could bend such weapons. When straight it may measure
-five feet from tip to tip. It is made with the same care as the spear,
-from a branch of the mumepweke or the mtata-tree, laboriously cut and
-scraped so as to taper off towards the horns, and smeared with oil or
-grease, otherwise it is easily sprung, and it is sometimes adorned with
-plates of tin and zinc, with copper or brass wire and tips. The string
-is made of hide, gut, the tendons of a bullock’s neck or hock, and
-sometimes of tree-fibre; it is nearly double the bow in length, the
-extra portion being whipped for strength as well as contingent use round
-the upper horn. In shooting the bow is grasped with the left hand, but
-the thumb is never extended along the back; the string is drawn with the
-two bent forefingers, though sometimes the shaft is held after the
-Asiatic fashion with the thumb and index. The bow is pulled with a jerk
-as amongst the Somal, and not let fly as by Europeans with a long steady
-loose. The best bows are made by the tribes near the Rufiji River.
-
-The arrow is about two feet in length; the stele or shaft is made of
-some light wood, and often of reed. Its fault is want of weight: to
-inflict damage upon an antelope it must not be used beyond point-blank,
-fifteen to twenty paces; and a score will be shot into a bullock before
-it falls. The musketeer, despising the arrow at a distance, fears it at
-close quarters, knowing that for his one shot the archer can discharge a
-dozen. From the days of Franklin to the era of Silistria, Citate, and
-Kars, fancy-tacticians have advocated the substitution of the bow or the
-addition of it to the “queen of weapons,” the musket. Their reasons for
-a revival of the obsolete arm are its lightness, its rapidity of
-discharge, and its silent action. They forget, however, the saying of
-Xenophon, that it is impiety in a man who has not learned archery from
-his childhood to ask such boon of the easy gods.
-
-The East Africans ignore the use of red-hot arrows; and the poisoned
-shaft, an unmanly weapon, unused by the English and French archers even
-in their deadliest wars, is confined to the Wanyika of Mombasah, the
-Wazaramo, the Wak’hutu, the Western Wasagara, and the people of Uruwwa.
-The Wazaramo and Wak’hutu call the plant from which the poison is
-extracted Mkandekande. They sold at somewhat an exorbitant price a leaf
-full of the preparation, but avoided pointing out to the expedition the
-plant, which from their description appears to be a variety of
-euphorbia. M. Werne (“Sources of the White Nile,” chap. viii.) says that
-the river tribe prepare their arrow-poison from a kind of asclepias,
-whose milky sap is pressed out between two stones and allowed to
-thicken. Dr. Livingstone (chap. viii.) mentions the use of the n’gwa
-caterpillar amongst the Bushmen, who also poison waters with the
-Euphorbia arborescens; and Mr. Andersson (chap. vii.) specifies the
-Euphorbia candelabrum amongst the Ovaherero and the Hill Damaras. In
-East Africa the poison-leaves are allowed to distil their juices into a
-pot, which for inspissation is placed over a slow fire; becoming thick
-and slab, the contents are applied with a stick to the arrow, and are
-smoothed between the hands. When finished, the part behind the barb is
-covered with a shiny brown-black coat, not unlike pitch, to the extent
-of four or five inches. After drying it is renewed by the application of
-a fresh layer, the old being removed by exposure to the fire. The people
-fear this poison greatly; they wash their hands after touching it, and
-declare that a wounded man or beast loses sense, “moons about,” and
-comes to the ground before running a quarter of a mile. Much
-exaggeration, however, must be expected upon the subject of toxicology
-amongst barbarians: it acts like the Somali arrow-poison, as a strong
-narcotic, and is, probably, rarely fatal, even when freshly applied.
-
-Fearing the action of the wind upon such light shafts if unfledged, the
-archer inserts into the cloven end three or four feathers, the
-cockfeather being as in Europe perpendicular when the arrow is nocked.
-The pile or iron head is curiously and cruelly barbed with long waving
-tails; the neck is toothed and edged by dinting the iron when hot with
-an axe, and it is sometimes half-sawed that it may break before
-extraction. The East Africans also have forkers or two-headed shafts,
-and bird-bolts or blunt arrows tipped with some hard wood, used when the
-weapon is likely to be lost. Before loosing an arrow the archer throws
-into the air a pinch of dust, not to find out the wind, but for good
-luck, like the Tartars of Tibet before discharging their guns. In battle
-the heavy-armed man holds his spear and a sheaf of spare arrows in the
-bow-hand, whilst a quiver slung to the left side contains reserve
-missiles, and a little axe stuck in the right side of the girdle is
-ready when the rest fail. The ronga or quiver is a bark-case, neatly cut
-and stained. It is of two forms, full-length, and provided with a cover
-for poisoned, and half-length for unpoisoned, arrows.
-
-The rungu or knobkerry is the African club or mace; it extends from the
-Cape to the negroid and the Somal tribes north of the equator. The shape
-varies in almost every district: the head is long or round, oval or
-irregular, and sometimes provided on one side with an edge; it is cut
-out of the hardest wood, and generally from one piece. In some cases the
-knob is added to the handle, and in others it is supplied with a
-spear-head. The handle is generally two feet long, and it is cut thin
-enough to make the weapon top-heavy. The Mnyamwezi is rarely seen abroad
-without this weapon; he uses it in the chase, and in battle against the
-archer: he seems to trust it in close quarters rather than the
-feather-weight arrow or the spear that bends like gutta-percha, and most
-murders are committed with it. The East people do not, like the Kafirs,
-use the handle of the knobkerry as a dibble.
-
-The sime or dudgeon is the makeshift for the Arab jambiyah and the
-Persian khanjar. The form of this weapon differs in almost every tribe.
-The Wahumba or Wamasai use blades about four feet long by two fingers in
-breadth; the long, round, and guardless hilt is ribbed for security of
-grasp, and covered with leather; their iron is of excellent quality, and
-the shape of the weapon has given rise to the report that “they make
-swords on the model of those of the Knights Templars.” The Wazegura and
-the Wagogo use knives not unlike the poniard of the Somal. In some
-tribes it is 3·5 feet long, with a leathern sheath extending half-way up
-the blade. Generally it is about half that size, straight, pointed, and
-double-edged, or jagged with teeth. The regions about the Lake
-manufacture and export great numbers of these weapons varying from a
-finger’s length to full dimensions.
-
-The shoka or battle-axe is much used by the tribes around the
-Tanganyika. It has a blade of triangular shape, somewhat longer and
-thinner than that used as a working tool, which is passed through the
-bulging head of a short handle cut out of the bauhinia or some other
-hard tree. Amongst the Wasagara the peculiar mundu or bill often serves
-for the same purpose.
-
-The targes of the Wasagara and the Wanyamwezi have already been
-described; the Wavinza make a shield of basket-work six feet by two, and
-much resembling that of the southern Kafirs, and the Wa’ungu carry
-large pavoises of bull’s hide. It is probable that the exceeding
-humidity of the climate, so ruinous to leather, prevents the general
-adoption of the shield; on the march it is merely an encumbrance, and
-the warrior must carry it on his head beyond the reach of the dewy
-grass.
-
-The maritime races, the Wazegura, and others opposite the island of
-Zanzibar, have imprudently been allowed to purchase fire-arms, which
-they employ in obstructing caravans and in kidnapping-commandos against
-their weaker neighbours. A single German house has, it is said, sold off
-13,000 Tower muskets in one year. The arms now preferred are those
-exported by Hamburg and America; they fetch 4 dollars each; the French
-single-barrel is somewhat cheaper, averaging 3 dollars 50 cents. In the
-interior fire-arms are still fortunately rare--the Arabs are too wise to
-arm the barbarians against themselves. In Unyamwezi an old gun is a
-present for a chief, and the most powerful rulers seldom can boast of
-more than three. Gunpowder is imported from Zanzibar in kegs of 10 and
-25 lbs., bearing the American mark; it is of the description used in
-blasting, and fouls the piece after a few discharges. The price varies
-at Zanzibar from 3 dollars 50 cents to 7 dollars, and upon the coast
-from 5 to 10 dollars per small keg; in Unyamwezi ammunition is exchanged
-for ivory and slaves, and some Arab merchants keep as many as thirty
-kegs in the house, which they retail to factors and traders at the rate
-of 1 to 2 shukkahs per lb.
-
-Swords in East Africa are used only by strangers. The Wasawahili and the
-slave-factors prefer the kittareh, a curved sabre made in Oman and
-Hazramaut, or, in its stead, an old German cavalry-blade. The Arabs
-carry as a distinction the “faranji,” a straight, thin, double-edged,
-guardless, and two-handed sword, about four feet long, and sharp as a
-carving-knife; the price varies from 10 to 100 dollars.
-
-The negroid is an unmechanical race; his industry has scarcely passed
-the limits of savage invention. Though cotton abounds in the interior,
-the Wanyamwezi only have attempted a rude loom; and the working of iron
-and copper is confined to the Wafyoma and the Lakist races. The gourd is
-still the principal succedaneum for pottery. The other branches of
-industry which are necessary to all barbarians are mats and baskets,
-ropes and cords.
-
-Carpentering amongst the East Africans is still in its rudest stage; no
-Dædalus has yet taught them to jag their knives into saws. It is limited
-to making the cots and cartels upon which the people invariably sleep,
-and to carving canoes, mortars, bowls, rude platters, spoons, stools,
-and similar articles of furniture. The tree, after being rung and barked
-to dry the juices, is felled by fire or the axe; it is then cut up into
-lengths of the required dimensions, and hacked into shape with slow and
-painful toil. The tools are a shoka, or hatchet of puerile dimensions,
-perhaps one-fifth the size of our broad axes, yet the people can use it
-to better advantage than the admirable implement of the backwoodsman.
-The mbizo or adze is also known in the interior, but none except the
-Fundi and the slaves trained upon the coast have ever seen a hand-saw, a
-centre-bit, or a chisel.
-
-Previous to weaving, cotton is picked and cleaned with the hand; it is
-then spun into a coarse thread. Like the Paharis of India, the East
-Africans ignore the distaff; they twist the material round the left
-wrist. The mlavi, or spindle, is of two forms; one is a short stick,
-inserted in a hole practised through a lump of lead or burnt clay, like
-the Indian bhaunri; the other is a thin bit of wood, about 1·5 ft. long,
-with a crescent of the same material on the top, and an iron hook to
-hold the thread. The utanda, or loom-frame differs from the
-vertical-shaped article of West Africa. Two side-poles about twelve feet
-long, and supported at the corners by four uprights, are placed at an
-angle, enabling the workman to stand to his work; and the oblong is
-completed by two cross-bars, round which the double line of the warp, or
-longitudinal threads of the woven tissue, are secured. The dimensions of
-the web vary from five to six feet in length, by two to three broad. The
-weft, or transverse thread, is shot with two or three thin laths, or
-spindles, round which the white and coloured yarns are wound, through
-the doubled warp, which is kept apart by another lath passing between
-the two layers, and the spindle is caught with the left hand as it
-appears at the left side. Lastly, a lath, broader and flatter than the
-others, is used to close the work, and to beat the thread home. As the
-workman deems three hours per diem ample labour, a cloth will rarely be
-finished under a week. Taste is shown in the choice of patterns: they
-are sometimes checks with squares, alternately black and white, or in
-stripes of black variegated with red dyes upon a white ground: the lines
-are generally broad in the centre, but narrow along the edges, and the
-texture not a little resembles our sacking. The dark colour is obtained
-from the juice of the mzima-tree; it stains the yarn to a dull brown,
-which becomes a dark mulberry, or an Indian-ink black, when buried for
-two or three days in the vegetable mud of the ponds and pools. The
-madder-red is produced by boiling the root and bark of a bush called
-mda’a; an ochreish tint is also extracted from the crimson matter that
-stains the cane and the leaves of red holcus. All cloths have the tambua
-or fringe indispensable in East Africa. Both weaving and dyeing are
-men’s not women’s work in these lands.
-
-The cloth is a poor article: like the people of Ashanti, who from time
-immemorial have woven their own cottons, the East African ever prefers
-foreign fabrics. The loose texture of his own produce admits wind and
-rain; when dry it is rough and unpleasant, when wet heavy, comfortless
-as leather, and it cannot look clean, as it is never bleached. According
-to the Arabs, the yarn is often dipped into a starch made from grain,
-for the purpose of thickening the appearance of the texture: this
-disappears after the first washing, and the cloth must be pegged down to
-prevent its shrinking to half-size. The relative proportion of warp and
-weft is unknown, and the woolly fuzzy quality of the half-wild cotton
-now in use impoverishes the fabric. Despite the labour expended upon
-these cloths, the largest size may be purchased for six feet of American
-domestics, or for a pair of iron hoes: there is therefore little
-inducement to extend the manufacture.
-
-Iron is picked up in the state called Utundwe, or gangue, from the sides
-of low sandstone hills: in places the people dig pits from two to four
-feet deep, and, according to the Arabs, they find tears, nodules, and
-rounded lumps. The pisolithic iron, common in the maritime regions, is
-not worked. The mhesi or blacksmith’s art is still in its infancy. The
-iron-stone is carried to the smithy, an open shed, where the work is
-done: the smelting-furnace is a hole in the ground, filled with lighted
-charcoal, upon which the utundwe is placed, and, covered with another
-layer of fire, it is allowed to run through the fuel. The blast is
-produced by mafukutu (bellows): they are two roughly rounded troughs,
-about three inches deep by six in diameter, hewn out of a single bit of
-wood and prolonged into a pair of parallel branches, pierced for the
-passage of the wind through two apertures in the walls of the troughs.
-The troughs are covered with skin, to which are fixed two long
-projecting sticks for handles, which may be worked by a man sitting. A
-stone is placed upon the bellows for steadiness, and clay nozzles, or
-holcus-canes with a lateral hole, are fixed on to the branches to
-prevent them from charring. Sometimes as many as five pairs are worked
-at once, and great is the rapidity required to secure a continuous
-outdraught. Mr. Andersson (“Lake Ngami,” chap. xvi.) gives a sketch of a
-similar contrivance amongst the South Africans: the clay-tubes, however,
-are somewhat larger than those used in Unyamwezi by “blacksmiths at
-work.” The ore is melted and remelted several times, till pure;
-tempering and case-hardening are unknown, and it is stored for use by
-being cast in clay-moulds, or made up into hoes. The hammer and anvil
-are generally smooth stones. The principal articles of ironmongery are
-spears, assegais, and arrow-heads, battle-axes, hatchets, and adzes,
-knives and daggers, sickles and razors, rings and sambo, or wire
-circlets. The kinda is a large bell, hung by the ivory-porter to his
-tusk on the line of the march: the kengere or kiugi a smaller variety
-which he fastens to his legs. Pipes, with iron bowls and stems, are made
-by the more ingenious, and the smoker manufactures for himself small
-pincers or pliers which, curious to say, are unknown even by name to the
-more civilised people of Zanzibar.
-
-Copper is not found upon this line in East Africa. From the country of
-the Kazembe, however, an excellent red and heavy, soft and bright
-variety, not unlike that of Japan, finds its way to Ujiji, and sometimes
-to the coast. It is sold in bars from one to two feet long. At Ujiji,
-where it is cheap, four to five pounds are procurable for two doti,
-there worth about four dollars. Native copper, therefore, is almost as
-expensive as that imported from Europe. It is used in making the rude
-and clumsy bangles affected by both sexes, sambo, and ornaments for the
-spear and bow, the staff and the knobkerry.
-
-[Illustration: Gourds.]
-
-The art of ceramics has made but little progress in East Africa; no
-Anacharsis has yet arisen to teach her sons the use of the wheel. The
-figuline, a greyish-brown clay, is procured from river-beds, or is dug
-up in the country; it is subjected to the preliminary operations of
-pounding, rubbing dry upon a stone, pulverising, and purifying from
-stones and pebbles. It is then worked into a thick mass, with water, and
-the potter fashions it with the hand, first shaping the mouth; he adds
-an inch to it when dry, hardens it in the sun, makes another addition,
-and thus proceeds till it is finished. Lines and other ornaments having
-been traced, the pots are baked in piles of seven or eight, by burning
-grass--wood-fire would crack them--consequently the material always
-remains half-raw. Usually the colour becomes lamp-black; in Usagara,
-however, the potter’s clay burns red, like the soil--the effect of iron.
-A cunning workman will make in a day four of these pots, some of them
-containing several gallons, and their perfect regularity of form, and
-often their picturesqueness of shape, surprise the stranger. The best
-are made in Ujiji, Karagwah, and Ugunda: those of Unyamwezi are
-inferior, and the clay of Zanzibar is of all the worst.
-
-There are many kinds of pots which not a little resemble the glazed jars
-of ancient Egypt. The ukango, which acts as vat in fermenting liquor, is
-of the greatest dimensions. The mtungi is a large water-vessel with a
-short and narrow neck, and rounded at the bottom so as to be
-conveniently carried on the head. The chungu, or cooking-pot, has a wide
-and open mouth; it is of several varieties, large and small. The mkungu
-is a shallow bowl, precisely like those made at the tomb of Moses, and
-now familiar to Europe. At Ujiji and on the Lake they also manufacture
-smaller vessels, with and without spouts.
-
-In a country where pottery is scarce and dear, the buyu or Cucurbita
-lagenaria supplies every utensil except those used for cooking; its many
-and various adaptations render it a valuable production. The people
-train it to grow in the most fantastic shapes, and ornament it by
-tatooing with dark paint, and by patterns worked in brass tacks and
-wires; where it splits, it is artistically sewn together. The larger
-kinds serve as well-buckets, water-pots, travelling-canteens, churns,
-and the sounding-boards of musical instruments: a hookah, or water-pipe,
-is made by distorting the neck, and the smaller varieties are converted
-into snuff-boxes, medicine-cases, and unguent-pots. The fruit of the
-calabash-tree is also called buyu: split and dried it is used as ladles,
-but it is too small to answer all the purposes of the gourd.
-
-The East Africans excel in the manufacture of mtemba or
-bori--pipe-heads. These are of two kinds. One is made from a soft stone,
-probably steatite, found in Usonga, near Utumbara, and on the road to
-Karagwah: it is, however, rare, and about ten times the price of the
-clay bowls, because less liable to break. The other is made of a plastic
-or pipe-clay, too brittle to serve for pots, and it invariably cracks at
-the shank, unless bound with wire. Both are hand-made, and are burned in
-the same rough way as the pottery. At Msene, where the clay pipe is
-cheapest, the price of the bowl is a khete, or double string of white or
-blue beads. The pipe of Unyamwezi is of graceful shape, a cone with the
-apex downwards; this leaves but little of the hot, oily, and
-high-smelling tobacco at the bottom, whereas in Europe the contrary
-seems to be the rule. In Ujiji the bowl is small, rounded, and shallow;
-it is, moreover, very brittle. The most artful “mtemba” is made by the
-people of Uvira: black inside, like other pottery, its exterior is
-coloured a greyish-white, and is adorned with red by means of the Indian
-geru (Colcothar or Crocus Martis). Bhang is always, and tobacco is
-sometimes, smoked in a water-pipe: the bowl is of huge size, capable of
-containing at least half a pound, and its upper half is made to incline
-towards the smoker’s face. The Lakist tribes have a graceful variety,
-like the Indian “chillam,” very different from the awkward, unwieldy,
-and distorted article now fashionable in Unyamwezi and the Eastern
-countries. The usual pipe-stem is a tube of about 1·5 feet long,
-generally a hollow twig of the dwarf melewele-tree. As it is rudely
-bored with hot wire, it must be made air-tight by wax and a coating of
-brass or copper wire; a strap of hairy skin prevents the pipe-shank
-parting from the stick. Iron and brass tubes are rare and highly prized;
-the fortunate possessor will sometimes ask for a single specimen two
-shukkahs.
-
-Basket-making and mat-weaving are favourite occupations in East Africa
-for both sexes and all ages; even the Arabs may frequently be seen
-absorbed in an employment which in Oman would be considered derogatory
-to manliness. The sengo, or common basket, from the coast to the Lake,
-is an open, shallow, and pan-shaped article, generally made of mwanzi,
-or bamboo-bark, reddened in parts and stained black in others by the
-root of the Mkuruti and other trees, and white where the outer coat has
-been removed from the bamboo. The body, which resembles a popular
-article in ancient Egypt, is neatly plaited, and the upper ends are
-secured to a stout hoop of the same material. The kanda (in the plural
-makanda) acts in the interior as matting for rooms, and is converted
-into bags for covering bales of cloth, beads, and similar articles. It
-is made from the myara (myala) or Chamærops humilis; the leaf is peeled,
-sun-dried, and split with a bit of iron into five or six lengths, joined
-at the base, which is trimmed for plaiting. The Karagwah, the only mat
-made in the interior of Africa, is used as bedding and carpeting; on
-journeys the porters bivouac under it; it swells with the wet, and soon
-becomes impervious to rain or heavy dew. It is of two kinds: one of
-rushes growing in the vicinity of water, the other of grass rolled up
-into little bundles. A complicated stitch runs along the whole length in
-double lines. The best description of mat is called mkeke. It is made
-at Zanzibar and the coast, from the young fronds of the ukhindu or brab,
-neatly stained with various dyes. Women of family pride themselves upon
-their skill in making the mkeke, which still attains a price of four
-dollars. Amongst the maritime races none but the chiefs have a right to
-sit upon it; there are no such distinctions in the interior, where these
-mats are carried for sale by the slaves. From the brab also are made
-neat strainers to purify honey, pombe, and similar articles. They are
-open-mouthed cylinders, from one to two feet long, and varying in
-diameter from three to six inches. The bottom is narrowed by whipping
-fibre round the loose ends of the leaves. The fishing-nets have been
-described when treating of the Tanganyika. The luávo, or hand-net, is
-made of calabash or other fibre, with coarse wide meshes; it is affixed
-to two sticks firmly planted in the ground, and small animals are driven
-into it by beaters.
-
-The basts or barks and fibrous substances in East Africa are cheap and
-abundant, but labour and conveyance being difficult and expensive, they
-would require to be shipped from Zanzibar in the condition of
-half-stuff. The best and most easily divisible into pliant and
-knot-tying fibres are, upon the coast the pineapple, and in the interior
-the plantain. The next in value are the integuments of the calabash and
-the myombo tree. These fibres would produce a good article were it not
-for the artlessness of African manipulation. The bark is pounded or
-chewed, and, in lieu of spinning, is twisted between the hands; the
-largest ropes are made in half an hour, and break after a few minutes of
-hard work. A fine silky twine, used for fishing, is made from the
-aloetic plants called by the Wasawahili mkonge, and by the Arabs bag,
-masad and kideh: it is the hig or haskul of Somaliland, where it affects
-the poorest ground, cannot be burnt down, and is impassable to naked
-legs and cattle. The leaves are stripped of their coats, and the ends
-being tightly bound between two pieces of wood, the mass of fibre is
-drawn out like a sword from its sheath. Fatilah, or matchlock matches,
-are made in Zanzibar of cotton, and in the interior of calabash fibre.
-
-As might be expected among a sparse population leading a comparatively
-simple life, the vast variety of diseases which afflict more civilised
-races, who are collected in narrow spaces, are unknown in East Africa
-even by name. Its principal sporadic is fever, remittent and
-intermittent, with its multitudinous secondaries, concerning which
-notices have been scattered through the preceding pages. The most
-dangerous epidemic is its aborigen, the small-pox, which, propagated
-without contact or fomites, sweeps at times like a storm of death over
-the land. For years it has not left the Arab colony at Kazeh, and,
-shortly before the arrival of the Expedition, in a single month 52
-slaves died out of a total of 800. The ravages of this disease amongst
-the half-starved and over-worked gangs of caravan porters have already
-been described; as many as a score of these wretches have been seen at a
-time in a single caravan; men staggering along blinded and almost
-insensible, jostling and stumbling against every one in their way; and
-mothers carrying babes, both parent and progeny in the virulent stage of
-the fell disease. The Arabs have partially introduced the practice of
-inoculating, anciently known in South Africa; the pus is introduced into
-an incision in the forehead between the eyebrows. The people have no
-remedy for small-pox: they trust entirely to the vis medicatrix. There
-is a milder form of the malady, called shúrúá, resembling the
-chicken-pox of Europe; it is cured by bathing in cold water and smearing
-the body with ochreish earth. The Arab merchants of Unyanyembe declare
-that, when they first visited Karagwah, the people were decimated by the
-táún, or plague. They describe correctly the bubo under the axillæ, the
-torturing thirst, and the rapid fatality of the disease. In the early
-part of 1859 a violent attack of cholera, which extended from Maskat
-along the eastern coast of Arabia and Africa, committed terrible ravages
-in the island of Zanzibar and throughout the maritime regions. Of
-course, no precautions of quarantine or cordon militaire were taken, yet
-the contagion did not extend into the interior.
-
-Strangers in East Africa suffer from dysenteries and similar disorders
-consequent upon fever; and, as in Egypt, few are free from hæmorrhoids,
-which in Unyamwezi are accompanied by severe colics and umbilical pains.
-Rheumatism and rheumatic fever, severe catarrhs and influenzas, are
-caused by the cold winds, and, when crossing the higher altitudes,
-pneumonia and pleurisis abound in the caravan. On the coast many
-settlers, Indian and Arab, show upon the skin whitish leprous spots,
-which are treated with various unguents. In the interior, though well
-provided with fresh meat and vegetables, travellers are attacked by
-scurvy, even in the absence of its normal exciting causes, damp, cold,
-and poor diet. This phenomenon has often been observed upon the upper
-course of the Nile; Europeans have been prostrated by it even in the dry
-regions westward of the Red Sea, and the Portuguese officers who
-explored Usenda of the Kazembe suffered tortures from the complaint.
-
-Common diseases among the natives are umbilical hernia and prolapsus:
-the latter is treated by the application of powdered bhang, dry or mixed
-with ghee. They are subject to kihindu-hindu--in Arabic, sara--the
-epilepsy, which they pretend to cure by the marrow of rhinoceros’ shank.
-Of the many fits and convulsions which affect them, the kichyoma-chyoma
-is the most dreaded. The word, which means the “little irons,” describes
-the painful sensations, the cramps and stitches, the spasms and
-lancinations, which torment the sufferer. Many die of this disease. It
-is not extraordinary that the fits, convulsions, and contortions which
-it suddenly induces should lead the people to consider it in the light
-of possession, and the magician to treat it with charms. Madness and
-idiocy are not uncommon: of the patient it is said, “Ana wazimo”--“he
-has fiends.” In most parts the people, after middle age, are tender-eyed
-from the effects of smoke within, glare without, exposure and
-debauchery. Not a few samples of acute ophthalmic disease were seen.
-
-In the lower and more malarious spots, desquamations, tumours, and skin
-diseases are caused by suddenly suppressed perspiration. The terrible
-kidonda or helcoma of the maritime regions and the prurigo of Ujiji have
-already been alluded to. The “chokea” is a hordeolum or large boil,
-generally upon the upper eyelid. The “funza” is supposed to result from
-the bite of a large variety of fly. It begins with a small red and fiery
-swelling, which bursts after a time and produces a white entozoon about
-half an inch in length. “Kumri” are common blains, and “p’hambazi”
-malignant blind-boils, which leave a deep discoloured scar; when the
-parts affected are distant from the seat of circulation, the use of the
-limb is sometimes lost. For most of these sores tutiya or murtutu,
-blue-stone, is considered a specific.
-
-As might be expected amongst an ignorant and debauched race coming in
-direct contact with semi-civilisation, the lues has found its way from
-the island of Zanzibar to Ujiji and into the heart of Africa. It is
-universally believed both by the natives and by the Arabs, who support
-the assertion with a host of proofs, to be propagated without contact.
-Such, indeed, is the general opinion of the Eastern world, where perhaps
-its greater virulence may assimilate it to the type of the earlier
-attacks in Europe. The disease, however, dies out, and has not taken
-root in the people as amongst the devoted races of North America and the
-South Sea islands. Although a malignant form was found extending
-throughout the country, mutilation of the features and similar
-secondaries were not observed beyond the maritime region. Except
-blue-stone, mineral drugs are unknown, and the use of mercury and
-ptyalism have not yet exasperated the evil. The minor form of lues is
-little feared and yields readily to simples; the consequences, however,
-are strangury, cystitis, chronic nephritic disease, and rheumatism.
-
-“Polypharmacy” is not the fault of the profession in East Africa, and
-the universal belief in possession tends greatly to simplify the
-methodus modendi. The usual cathartic is the bark of a tree called
-kalákalá, which is boiled in porridge. There is a great variety of
-emetics, some so violent that several Arabs who have been bold enough to
-swallow them, barely escaped with life. The actual cautery--usually a
-favourite counter-irritant amongst barbarous people--is rarely practised
-in East Africa; in its stead powder of blue-stone is applied to the sore
-or wound, which has been carefully scraped, and the patient howls with
-pain for twenty-four hours. They bleed frequently as Italians, who even
-after being startled resort to a mild phlebotomy, and they cut down
-straight upon the vein with a sharp knife. They prefer the cucurbitula
-cruenta, like the Arabs, who say,--
-
-  “Few that cup repent;
-   Few that bleed, rejoice.”
-
-A favourite place is the crown of the head. The practitioner, after
-scarifying the skin with a razor or a dagger, produces a vacuum by
-exhausting the air through a horn applied with wetted edges; at the
-point is a bit of wax, which he closes over the aperture with his tongue
-or teeth, as the hospital “singhi” in India uses a bit of leather.
-Cupping--called ku hu míká or kumíká--is made highly profitable by
-showing strange appearances in the blood. They cure by excision the bite
-of snakes, which, however, are not feared nor often fatal in these
-lands. They cannot reduce dislocations, and they never attempt to set or
-splint a broken bone.
-
-The mganga or medicine-man, in his character of “doctor,” is a personage
-of importance. He enters the sick-room in the dignity of antelope-horn,
-grease, and shell-necklace, and he sits with importance upon his
-three-legged stool. As the devil saves him the trouble of diagnosis, he
-begins by a prescription, invariably ordering something edible for the
-purpose, and varying it, according to the patient’s means, from a
-measure of grain to a bullock. He asserts, for instance, that a pound of
-fat is required for medicine; a goat must be killed, and his perquisite
-is the head or breast--a preliminary to a more important fee. Then the
-price of prescription--a _sine quâ non_ to prescribing--is settled upon
-and paid in advance. After certain questions, invariably suggesting the
-presence of poison, the medical practitioner proceeds to the cure; this
-is generally a charm or periapt bound round the part affected. In common
-diseases, however, like fever, the mganga will condescend to such
-profane processes as adhibiting sternutatories and rubbing the head with
-vegetable powders. If the remedies prove too powerful or powerless, he
-at once decamps; under normal circumstances he incapacitates himself for
-performing his promise of calling the next day by expending his fee in
-liquor. The Africans have in one point progressed beyond Europeans:
-there are as many women physicians as men.
-
-[Illustration: A Mnyamwezi.
-
-A Mheha.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAP. XIX.
-
-THE CHARACTER AND RELIGION OF THE EAST AFRICANS; THEIR GOVERNMENT, AND
-SLAVERY.
-
-
-The study of psychology in Eastern Africa is the study of man’s
-rudimental mind, when, subject to the agency of material nature, he
-neither progresses nor retrogrades. He would appear rather a degeneracy
-from the civilised man than a savage rising to the first step, were it
-not for his apparent incapacity for improvement. He has not the ring of
-the true metal; there is no rich nature, as in the New Zealander, for
-education to cultivate. He seems to belong to one of those childish
-races which, never rising to man’s estate, fall like worn-out links from
-the great chain of animated nature. He unites the incapacity of infancy
-with the unpliancy of age; the futility of childhood, and the credulity
-of youth, with the scepticism of the adult and the stubbornness and
-bigotry of the old. He has “beaten lands” and seas. For centuries he has
-been in direct intercourse with the more advanced people of the eastern
-coast, and though few have seen an European, there are not many who have
-not cast eyes upon an Arab. Still he has stopped short at the threshold
-of progress; he shows no signs of development; no higher and more varied
-orders of intellect are called into being. Even the simple truths of El
-Islam have failed to fix the thoughts of men who can think, but who,
-absorbed in providing for their bodily wants, hate the trouble of
-thinking. His mind, limited to the objects seen, heard, and felt, will
-not, and apparently cannot, escape from the circle of sense, nor will it
-occupy itself with aught but the present. Thus he is cut off from the
-pleasures of memory, and the world of fancy is altogether unknown to
-him. Perhaps the automaton which we call spiritual suffers from the
-inferiority of the mechanism by which it acts.
-
-The East African is, like other barbarians, a strange mixture of good
-and evil: by the nature of barbarous society, however, the good element
-has not, whilst the evil has, been carefully cultured.
-
-As a rule, the civilised or highest type of man owns the sway of
-intellect, of reason; the semi-civilised--as are still the great nations
-of the East--are guided by sentiment and propensity in a degree
-incomprehensible to more advanced races; and the barbarian is the slave
-of impulse, passion, and instinct, faintly modified by sentiment, but
-ignorant of intellectual discipline. He appears, therefore, to the
-civilised man a paralogic being,--a mere mass of contradictions; his
-ways are not our ways, his reason is not our reason. He deduces effects
-from causes which we ignore; he compasses his ends by contrivances
-which we cannot comprehend; and his artifices and polity excite, by
-their shallowness and “inconsequence,” our surprise and contempt. Like
-that Hindu race that has puzzled the plain-witted Englishman for the
-century closing with the massacres of Delhi and Cawnpore, he is
-calculated to perplex those who make conscience an instinct which
-elevates man to the highest ground of human intelligence. He is at once
-very good-tempered and hard-hearted, combative and cautious; kind at one
-moment, cruel, pitiless, and violent at another; sociable and
-unaffectionate; superstitious and grossly irreverent; brave and
-cowardly, servile and oppressive; obstinate, yet fickle and fond of
-changes; with points of honour, but without a trace of honesty in word
-or deed; a lover of life, though addicted to suicide; covetous and
-parsimonious, yet thoughtless and improvident; somewhat conscious of
-inferiority, withal unimprovable. In fact, he appears an embryo of the
-two superior races. He is inferior to the active-minded and objective,
-the analytic and perceptive European, and to the ideal and subjective,
-the synthetic and reflective Asiatic. He partakes largely of the worst
-characteristics of the lower Oriental types--stagnation of mind,
-indolence of body, moral deficiency, superstition, and childish passion;
-hence the Egyptians aptly termed the Berbers and negroes the “perverse
-race of Kush.”
-
-The main characteristic of this people is the selfishness which the
-civilised man strives to conceal, because publishing it would obstruct
-its gratification. The barbarian, on the other hand, displays his
-inordinate egotism openly and recklessly; his every action discloses
-those unworthy traits which in more polished races chiefly appear on
-public occasions, when each man thinks solely of self-gratification.
-Gratitude with him is not even a sense of prospective favours; he looks
-upon a benefit as the weakness of his benefactor and his own strength;
-consequently, he will not recognise even the hand that feeds him. He
-will, perhaps, lament for a night the death of a parent or a child, but
-the morrow will find him thoroughly comforted. The name of hospitality,
-except for interested motives, is unknown to him: “What will you give
-me?” is his first question. To a stranger entering a village the worst
-hut is assigned, and, if he complain, the answer is that he can find
-encamping ground outside. Instead of treating him like a guest, which
-the Arab Bedouin would hold to be a point of pride, of honour, his host
-compels him to pay and prepay every article, otherwise he might starve
-in the midst of plenty. Nothing, in fact, renders the stranger’s life
-safe in this land, except the timid shrinking of the natives from the
-“hot-mouthed weapon” and the necessity of trade, which induces the
-chiefs to restrain the atrocities of their subjects. To travellers the
-African is, of course, less civil than to merchants, from whom he
-expects to gain something. He will refuse a mouthful of water out of his
-abundance to a man dying of thirst; utterly unsympathising, he will not
-stretch out a hand to save another’s goods, though worth thousands of
-dollars. Of his own property, if a ragged cloth or a lame slave be lost,
-his violent excitement is ridiculous to behold. His egotism renders him
-parsimonious even in self-gratification; the wretched curs, which he
-loves as much as his children, seldom receive a mouthful of food, and
-the sight of an Arab’s ass feeding on grain elicits a prolonged “Hi!
-hi!” of extreme surprise. He is exceedingly improvident, taking no
-thought for the morrow--not from faith, but rather from carelessness as
-to what may betide him; yet so greedy of gain is he that he will refuse
-information about a country or the direction of a path without a present
-of beads. He also invariably demands prepayment: no one keeps a promise
-or adheres to an agreement, and, if credit be demanded for an hour, his
-answer would be, “There is nothing in my hand.” Yet even greed of gain
-cannot overcome the levity and laxity of his mind. Despite his best
-interests, he will indulge the mania for desertion caused by that
-mischievous love of change and whimsical desire for novelty that
-characterise the European sailor. Nor can even lucre prevail against the
-ingrained indolence of the race--an indolence the more hopeless as it is
-the growth of the climate. In these temperate and abundant lands Nature
-has cursed mankind with the abundance of her gifts; his wants still
-await creation, and he is contented with such necessaries as roots and
-herbs, game, and a few handfuls of grain--consequently improvement has
-no hold upon him.
-
-In this stage of society truth is no virtue. The “mixture of a lie” may
-“add to pleasure” amongst Europeans; in Africa it enters where neither
-pleasure nor profit can arise from the deception. If a Mnyamwezi guide
-informs the traveller that the stage is short, he may make up his mind
-for a long and weary march, and _vice versâ_. Of course, falsehood is
-used as a defence by the weak and oppressed; but beyond that, the
-African desires to be lied to, and one of his proverbs is, “’Tis better
-to be deceived than to be undeceived.” The European thus qualifies the
-assertion,
-
-  “For sure the pleasure is as great
-   In being cheated as to cheat.”
-
-Like the generality of barbarous races, the East Africans are wilful,
-headstrong, and undisciplinable: in point of stubbornness and
-restiveness they resemble the lower animals. If they cannot obtain the
-very article of barter upon which they have set their mind, they will
-carry home things useless to them; any attempt at bargaining is settled
-by the seller turning his back, and they ask according to their wants
-and wishes, without regard to the value of goods. Grumbling and
-dissatisfied, they never do business without a grievance. Revenge is a
-ruling passion, as the many rancorous fratricidal wars that have
-prevailed between kindred clans, even for a generation, prove.
-Retaliation and vengeance are, in fact, their great agents of moral
-control. Judged by the test of death, the East African is a hardhearted
-man, who seems to ignore all the charities of father, son, and brother.
-A tear is rarely shed, except by the women, for departed parent,
-relative, or friend, and the voice of the mourner is seldom heard in
-their abodes. It is most painful to witness the complete inhumanity with
-which a porter seized with small-pox is allowed by his friends,
-comrades, and brethren to fall behind in the jungle, with several days’
-life in him. No inducement--even beads--can persuade a soul to attend
-him. Every village will drive him from its doors; no one will risk
-taking, at any price, death into his bosom. If strong enough, the
-sufferer builds a little bough-hut away from the camp, and, provided
-with his rations--a pound of grain and a gourdful of water--he quietly
-expects his doom, to feed the hyæna and the raven of the wild. The
-people are remarkable for the readiness with which they yield to fits of
-sudden fury; on these occasions they will, like children, vent their
-rage upon any object, animate or inanimate, that presents itself. Their
-temper is characterised by a nervous, futile impatience; under delay or
-disappointment they become madmen. In their own country, where such
-displays are safe, they are remarkable for a presumptuousness and a
-violence of manner which elsewhere disappears. As the Arabs say, there
-they are lions, here they become curs. Their squabbling and clamour pass
-description: they are never happy except when in dispute. After a rapid
-plunge into excitement, the brawlers alternately advance and recede,
-pointing the finger of threat, howling and screaming, cursing and using
-terms of insult which an inferior ingenuity--not want of will--causes to
-fall short of the Asiatic’s model vituperation. After abusing each other
-to their full, both “parties” usually burst into a loud laugh or a burst
-of sobs. Their tears lie high; they weep like Goanese. After a cuff, a
-man will cover his face with his hands and cry as if his heart would
-break. More furious shrews than the women are nowhere met with. Here it
-is a great truth that “the tongues of women cannot be governed.” They
-work off excitement by scolding, and they weep little compared with the
-men. Both sexes delight in “argument,” which here, as elsewhere, means
-two fools talking foolishly. They will weary out of patience the most
-loquacious of the Arabs. This development is characteristic of the East
-African race, and “maneno marefu!”--long words!--will occur as a useless
-reproof half a dozen times in the course of a single conversation. When
-drunk, the East African is easily irritated; with the screams and
-excited gestures of a maniac he strides about, frantically flourishing
-his spear and agitating his bow, probably with notched arrow; the
-spear-point and the arrow-head are often brought perilously near, but
-rarely allowed to draw blood. The real combat is by pushing, pulling
-hair, and slapping with a will, and a pair thus engaged require to be
-torn asunder by half a dozen friends. The settled tribes are, for the
-most part, feeble and unwarlike barbarians; even the bravest East
-African, though, like all men, a combative entity, has a valour tempered
-by discretion and cooled by a high development of cautiousness. His
-tactics are of the Fabian order: he loves surprises and safe ambuscades;
-and in common frays and forays the loss of one per cent. justifies a
-_sauve qui peut_. This people, childlike, is ever in extremes. A man
-will hang himself from a rafter in his tent, and kick away from under
-him the large wooden mortar upon which he has stood at the beginning of
-the operation with as much sang-froid as an Anglo-Saxon in the gloomy
-month of November; yet he regards annihilation, as all savages do, with
-loathing and ineffable horror. “He fears death,” to quote Bacon, “as
-children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is
-increased with tales, so is the other.” The African mind must change
-radically before it can “think upon death, and find it the least of all
-evils.” All the thoughts of these negroids are connected with this life.
-“Ah!” they exclaim, “it is bad to die! to leave off eating and drinking!
-never to wear a fine cloth!” As in the negro race generally, their
-destructiveness is prominent; a slave never breaks a thing without an
-instinctive laugh of pleasure; and however careful he may be of his own
-life, he does not value that of another, even of a relative, at the
-price of a goat. During fires in the town of Zanzibar, the blacks have
-been seen adding fuel, and singing and dancing, wild with delight. On
-such occasions they are shot down by the Arabs like dogs.
-
-It is difficult to explain the state of society in which the civilised
-“social evil” is not recognised as an evil. In the economy of the
-affections and the intercourse between the sexes, reappears that rude
-stage of society in which ethics were new to the mind of now enlightened
-man. Marriage with this people--as amongst all barbarians, and even the
-lower classes of civilised races--is a mere affair of buying and
-selling. A man must marry because it is necessary to his comfort,
-consequently the woman becomes a marketable commodity. Her father
-demands for her as many cows, cloths, and brass-wire bracelets as the
-suitor can afford; he thus virtually sells her, and she belongs to the
-buyer, ranking with his other live stock. The husband may sell his wife,
-or, if she be taken from him by another man, he claims her value, which
-is ruled by what she would fetch in the slave-market. A strong
-inducement to marriage amongst the Africans, as with the poor in Europe,
-is the prospective benefit to be derived from an adult family; a large
-progeny enriches them. The African--like all barbarians, and, indeed,
-semi-civilised people--ignores the dowry by which, inverting Nature’s
-order, the wife buys the husband, instead of the husband buying the
-wife. Marriage, which is an epoch amongst Christians, and an event with
-Moslems, is with these people an incident of frequent recurrence.
-Polygamy is unlimited, and the chiefs pride themselves upon the number
-of their wives, varying from twelve to three hundred. It is no disgrace
-for an unmarried woman to become the mother of a family; after matrimony
-there is somewhat less laxity. The mgoni or adulterer, if detected, is
-punishable by a fine of cattle, or, if poor and weak, he is sold into
-slavery; husbands seldom, however, resort to such severities, the
-offence, which is considered to be against vested property, being held
-to be lighter than petty larceny. Under the influence of jealousy,
-murders and mutilations have been committed, but they are rare and
-exceptional. Divorce is readily effected by turning the spouse out of
-doors, and the children become the father’s property. Attachment to home
-is powerful in the African race, but it regards rather the comforts and
-pleasures of the house, and the unity of relations and friends, than the
-fondness of family. Husband, wife, and children have through life
-divided interests, and live together with scant appearance of affection.
-Love of offspring can have but little power amongst a people who have no
-preventive for illegitimacy, and whose progeny may be sold at any time.
-The children appear undemonstrative and unaffectionate, as those of the
-Somal. Some attachment to their mothers breaks out, not in outward
-indications, but by surprise, as it were: “Mámá! mámá!”--mother!
-mother!--is a common exclamation in fear or wonder. When childhood is
-passed, the father and son become natural enemies, after the manner of
-wild beasts. Yet they are a sociable race, and the sudden loss of
-relatives sometimes leads from grief to hypochondria and insanity,
-resulting from the inability of their minds to bear any unusual strain.
-It is probable that a little learning would make them mad, like the
-Widad, or priest of the Somal, who, after mastering the reading of the
-Koran, becomes unfit for any exertion of judgment or common sense. To
-this over-development of sociability must be ascribed the anxiety always
-shown to shift, evade, or answer blame. The “ukosa,” or transgression,
-is never accepted; any number of words will be wasted in proving the
-worse the better cause. Hence also the favourite phrase, “Mbáyá
-we!”--thou art bad!--a pet mode of reproof which sounds simple and
-uneffective to European ears.
-
-The social position of the women--the unerring test of progress towards
-civilisation--is not so high in East Africa as amongst the more highly
-organised tribes of the south. Few parts of the country own the rule of
-female chiefs. The people, especially the Wanyamwezi, consult their
-wives, but the opinion of a brother or a friend would usually prevail
-over that of a woman.
-
-The deficiency of the East African in constructive power has already
-been remarked. Contented with his haystack or beehive hut, his
-hemisphere of boughs, or his hide acting tent, he hates and has a truly
-savage horror of stone walls. He has the conception of the “Madeleine,”
-but he has never been enabled to be delivered of it. Many Wanyamwezi,
-when visiting Zanzibar, cannot be prevailed upon to enter a house.
-
-The East African is greedy and voracious; he seems, however, to prefer
-light and frequent to a few regular and copious meals. Even the
-civilised Kisawahili has no terms to express the breakfast, dinner, and
-supper of other languages. Like most barbarians, the East African can
-exist and work with a small quantity of food, but he is unaccustomed,
-and therefore unable, to bear thirst. The daily ration of a porter is 1
-kubabah (= 1·5 lbs.) of grain; he can, with the assistance of edible
-herbs and roots, which he is skilful in discovering in the least likely
-places, eke out this allowance for several days, though generally, upon
-the barbarian’s impulsive principle of mortgaging the future for the
-present, he recklessly consumes his stores. With him the grand end of
-life is eating; his love of feeding is inferior only to his propensity
-for intoxication. He drinks till he can no longer stand, lies down to
-sleep, and awakes to drink again. Drinking-bouts are solemn things, to
-which the most important business must yield precedence. They celebrate
-with beer every event--the traveller’s return, the birth of a child, and
-the death of an elephant--a labourer will not work unless beer is
-provided for him. A guest is received with a gourdful of beer, and,
-amongst some tribes, it is buried with their princes. The highest orders
-rejoice in drink, and pride themselves upon powers of imbibing: the
-proper diet for a king is much beer and a little meat. If a Mnyamwezi be
-asked after eating whether he is hungry, he will reply yea, meaning that
-he is not drunk. Intoxication excuses crime in these lands. The East
-African, when in his cups, must issue from his hut to sing, dance, or
-quarrel, and the frequent and terrible outrages which occur on these
-occasions are passed over on the plea that he has drunk beer. The
-favourite hour for drinking is after dawn,--a time as distasteful to the
-European as agreeable to the African and Asiatic. This might be proved
-by a host of quotations from the poets, Arab, Persian, and Hindu. The
-civilised man avoids early potations because they incapacitate him for
-necessary labour, and he attempts to relieve the headache caused by
-stimulants. The barbarian and the semi-civilised, on the other hand,
-prefer them, because they relieve the tedium of his monotonous day; and
-they cherish the headache because they can sleep the longer, and, when
-they awake, they have something to think of. The habit once acquired is
-never broken: it attaches itself to the heartstrings of the idle and
-unoccupied barbarian.
-
-In morality, according to the more extended sense of the word, the East
-African is markedly deficient. He has no benevolence, but little
-veneration--the negro race is ever irreverent--and, though his cranium
-rises high in the region of firmness, his futility prevents his being
-firm. The outlines of law are faintly traced upon his heart. The
-authoritative standard of morality fixed by a revelation is in him
-represented by a vague and varying custom, derived traditionally from
-his ancestors; he follows in their track for old-sake’s sake. The
-accusing conscience is unknown to him. His only fear after committing a
-treacherous murder is that of being haunted by the angry ghost of the
-dead; he robs as one doing a good deed, and he begs as if it were his
-calling. His depravity is of the grossest: intrigue fills up all the
-moments not devoted to intoxication.
-
-The want of veneration produces a savage rudeness in the East African.
-The body politic consists of two great members, masters and slaves.
-Ignoring distinctions of society, he treats all men, except his chief,
-as his equals. He has no rules for visiting: if the door be open, he
-enters a stranger’s house uninvited; his harsh, barking voice is ever
-the loudest; he is never happy except when hearing himself speak; his
-address is imperious, his demeanour is rough and peremptory, and his
-look “sfacciato.” He deposits his unwashed person, in his greasy and
-tattered goat-skin or cloth, upon rug or bedding, disdaining to stand
-for a moment, and he always chooses the best place in the room. When
-travelling he will push forward to secure the most comfortable hut: the
-chief of a caravan may sleep in rain or dew, but, if he attempt to
-dislodge his porters, they lie down with the settled purpose of
-mules--as the Arabs say, they “have no shame.” The curiosity of these
-people, and the little ceremony with which they gratify it, are at times
-most troublesome. A stranger must be stared at; total apathy is the only
-remedy: if the victim lose his temper, or attempt to dislodge them, he
-will find it like disturbing a swarm of bees. They will come for miles
-to “sow gape-seed:” if the tent-fly be closed, they will peer and peep
-from below, complaining loudly against the occupant, and, if further
-prevented, they may proceed to violence. On the road hosts of idlers,
-especially women, boys, and girls, will follow the caravan for hours; it
-is a truly offensive spectacle--these uncouth figures, running at a
-“gymnastic pace,” half clothed except with grease, with pendent bosoms
-shaking in the air, and cries that resemble the howls of beasts more
-than any effort of human articulation. This offensive ignorance of the
-first principles of social intercourse has been fostered in the races
-most visited by the Arabs, whose national tendency, like the Italian and
-the Greek, is ever and essentially republican. When strangers first
-appeared in the country they were received with respect and deference.
-They soon, however, lost this vantage-ground: they sat and chatted with
-the people, exchanged pleasantries, and suffered slights, till the
-Africans found themselves on an equality with their visitors. The evil
-has become inveterate, and no greater contrast can be imagined than that
-between the manners of an Indian Ryot and an East African Mshenzi.
-
-In intellect the East African is sterile and incult, apparently
-unprogressive and unfit for change. Like the uncivilised generally, he
-observes well, but he can deduce nothing profitable from his
-perceptions. His intelligence is surprising when compared with that of
-an uneducated English peasant; but it has a narrow bound, beyond which
-apparently no man may pass. Like the Asiatic, in fact, he is stationary,
-but at a much lower level. Devotedly fond of music, his love of tune has
-invented nothing but whistling and the whistle: his instruments are all
-borrowed from the coast people. He delights in singing, yet he has no
-metrical songs: he contents himself with improvising a few words
-without sense or rhyme, and repeats them till they nauseate: the long,
-drawling recitative generally ends in “Ah! ha^{n}!” or some such
-strongly-nasalised sound. Like the Somal, he has tunes appropriated to
-particular occasions, as the elephant-hunt or the harvest-home. When
-mourning, the love of music assumes a peculiar form: women weeping or
-sobbing, especially after chastisement, will break into a protracted
-threne or dirge, every period of which concludes with its own particular
-groan or wail: after venting a little natural distress in a natural
-sound, the long, loud improvisation, in the highest falsetto key,
-continues as before. As in Europe the “laughing-song” is an imitation of
-hilarity somewhat distressing to the spirits of the audience, so the
-“weeping-song” of the African only tends to risibility. His wonderful
-loquacity and volubility of tongue have produced no tales, poetry, nor
-display of eloquence; though, like most barbarians, somewhat
-sententious, he will content himself with squabbling with his
-companions, or with repeating some meaningless word in every different
-tone of voice during the weary length of a day’s march. His language is
-highly artificial and musical: the reader will have observed that the
-names which occur in these pages often consist entirely of liquids and
-vowels, that consonants are unknown at the end of a word, and that they
-never are double except at the beginning. Yet the idea of a syllabarium
-seems not to have occurred to the negroid mind. Finally, though the East
-African delights in the dance, and is an excellent timist--a thousand
-heels striking the ground simultaneously sound like one--his performance
-is as uncouth as perhaps was ever devised by man. He delights in a joke,
-which manages him like a Neapolitan; yet his efforts in wit are of the
-feeblest that can be conceived.
-
-Though the general features of character correspond throughout the
-tribes in East Africa, there are also marked differences. The Wazaramo,
-for instance, are considered the most dangerous tribe on this line:
-caravans hurry through their lands, and hold themselves fortunate if a
-life be not lost, or if a few loads be not missing. Their neighbours,
-the Wasagara of the hills, were once peaceful and civil to travellers:
-the persecutions of the coast-people have rendered them morose and
-suspicious; they now shun strangers, and, never knowing when they may be
-attacked, they live in a constant state of agitation, excitement, and
-alarm. After the Wazaramo, the tribes of Ugogo are considered the most
-noisy and troublesome, the most extortionate, quarrelsome and violent on
-this route: nothing restrains these races from bloodshed and plunder but
-fear of retribution and self-interest. The Wanyamwezi bear the highest
-character for civilisation, discipline, and industry. Intercourse with
-the coast, however, is speedily sapping the foundations of their
-superiority: the East African Expedition suffered more from thieving in
-this than in any other territory, and the Arabs now depend for existence
-there not upon prestige, but sufferance, in consideration of mutual
-commercial advantage. In proportion as the traveller advances into the
-interior, he finds the people less humane, or rather less human. The
-Wavinza, the Wajiji, and the other Lakist tribes, much resemble one
-another: they are extortionate, violent, and revengeful barbarians; no
-Mnyamwezi dares to travel alone through their territories, and small
-parties are ever in danger of destruction.
-
-In dealing with the East African the traveller cannot do better than to
-follow the advice of Bacon--“Use savages justly and graciously, with
-sufficient guard nevertheless.” They must be held as foes; and the
-prudent stranger will never put himself in their power, especially where
-life is concerned. The safety of a caravan will often depend upon the
-barbarian’s fear of beginning the fray: if the onset once takes place,
-the numbers, the fierce looks, the violent gestures, and the confidence
-of the assailants upon their own ground, will probably prevail. When
-necessary, however, severity must be employed; leniency and forbearance
-are the vulnerable points of civilised policy, as they encourage attack
-by a suspicion of fear and weakness. They may be managed as the Indian
-saw directs, by a judicious mixture of the “Narm” and “Garm”--the soft
-and hot. Thus the old traders remarked in Guinea, that the best way to
-treat a black man was to hold out one hand to shake with him, while the
-other is doubled ready to knock him down. In trading with, or even when
-dwelling amongst this people, all display of wealth must be avoided. A
-man who would purchase the smallest article avoids showing anything
-beyond its equivalent.
-
-The ethnologist who compares this sketch with the far more favourable
-description of the Kafirs, a kindred race, given by travellers in South
-Africa, may suspect that only the darker shades of the picture are
-placed before the eye. But, as will appear in a future page, much of
-this moral degradation must be attributed to the working, through
-centuries, of the slave-trade: the tribes are no longer as nature made
-them; and from their connection with strangers they have derived nothing
-but corruption. Though of savage and barbarous type, they have been
-varnished with the semi-civilisation of trade and commerce, which sits
-ridiculously upon their minds as a rich garment would upon their
-persons.
-
-Fetissism--the word is derived from the Portuguese feitiço, “a
-doing,”--scil. of magic, by euphuism--is still the only faith known in
-East Africa. Its origin is easily explained by the aspect of the
-physical world, which has coloured the thoughts and has directed the
-belief of man: he reflects, in fact, the fantastical and monstrous
-character of the animal and vegetable productions around him. Nature, in
-these regions rarely sublime or beautiful, more often terrible and
-desolate, with the gloomy forest, the impervious jungle, the tangled
-hill, and the dread uniform waste tenanted by deadly inhabitants,
-arouses in his mind a sensation of utter feebleness, a vague and
-nameless awe. Untaught to recommend himself for protection to a Superior
-Being, he addresses himself directly to the objects of his reverence and
-awe: he prostrates himself before the sentiment within him, hoping to
-propitiate it as he would satisfy a fellow-man. The grand mysteries of
-life and death, to him unrevealed and unexplained, the want of a true
-interpretation of the admirable phenomena of creation, and the vagaries
-and misconceptions of his own degraded imagination, awaken in him ideas
-of horror, and people the invisible world with ghost and goblin, demon
-and spectrum, the incarnations, as it were, of his own childish fears.
-Deepened by the dread of destruction, ever strong in the barbarian
-breast, his terror causes him to look with suspicion upon all around
-him: “How,” inquires the dying African, “can I alone be ill when others
-are well, unless I have been bewitched?” Hence the belief in magical and
-supernatural powers in man, which the stronger minded have turned to
-their own advantage.
-
-Fetissism is the adoration, or rather the propitiation, of natural
-objects, animate and inanimate, to which certain mysterious influences
-are attributed. It admits neither god, nor angel, nor devil; it ignores
-the very alphabet of revealed or traditionary religion--a creation, a
-resurrection, a judgment-day, a soul or a spirit, a heaven or a hell. A
-modified practical atheism is thus the prominent feature of the
-superstition. Though instinctively conscious of a being above them, the
-Africans have as yet failed to grasp the idea: in their feeble minds it
-is an embryo rather than a conception--at the best a vague god, without
-personality, attributes, or providence. They call that being Mulungu,
-the Uhlunga of the Kafirs, and the Utika of the Hottentots. The term,
-however, may mean a ghost, the firmament, or the sun; a man will
-frequently call himself Mulungu, and even Mulungu Mbaya, the latter word
-signifying bad or wicked. In the language of the Wamasai “Ai,” or with
-the article “Engai”--the Creator--is feminine, the god and rain being
-synonymous.
-
-The Fetiss superstition is African, but not confined to Africa. The
-faith of ancient Egypt, the earliest system of profane belief known to
-man, with its Triad denoting the various phases and powers of nature,
-was essentially fetissist; whilst in the Syrian mind dawned at first the
-idea of “Melkart,” a god of earth, and his Baalim, angels, viceregents,
-or local deities. But generally the history of religions proves that
-when man, whether degraded from primal elevation or elevated from primal
-degradation, has progressed a step beyond atheism--the spiritual state
-of the lowest savagery--he advances to the modification called
-Fetissism, the condition of the infant mind of humanity. According to
-the late Col. Van Kennedy, “such expressions as the love and fear of
-God never occur in the sacred books of the Hindus.” The ancient Persians
-were ignicolists, adoring ethereal fire. Confucius owned that he knew
-nothing about the gods, and therefore preferred saying as little as
-possible upon the subject. Men, still without tradition or training,
-confused the Creator with creation, and ventured not to place the burden
-of providence upon a single deity. Slaves to the agencies of material
-nature, impressed by the splendours of the heavenly bodies, comforted by
-fire and light, persuaded by their familiarity with the habits of wild
-beasts that the brute creation and the human claimed a mysterious
-affinity, humbled by the terrors of elemental war, and benefitted by
-hero and sage,--
-
-  “Quicquid humus, pelagus, cœlum mirabile gignunt,
-   Id duxere deos.”
-
-The barbarian worshipped these visible objects not as types, myths,
-divine emanations, or personifications of a deity: he adored them for
-themselves. The modern theory, the mode in which full-grown man explains
-away the follies of his childhood, making the interpretation precede the
-fable, fails when tested by experience. The Hindu, and, indeed, the
-ignorant Christian, still adore the actual image of man and beast; it is
-unreasonable to suppose that they kneel before and worship with heart
-and soul its metaphysics; and an attempt to allegorise it, or to deprive
-it of its specific virtues, would be considered, as in ancient Greece
-and Rome, mere impiety.
-
-By its essence, then, Fetissism is a rude and sensual superstition, the
-faith of abject fear, and of infant races that have not risen, and are,
-perhaps, incapable of rising to theism--the religion of love and the
-belief of the highest types of mankind. But old creeds die hard, and
-error, founded upon the instincts and feelings of human nature borrows
-the coherence and uniformity of truth. That Fetissism is a belief common
-to man in the childhood of his spiritual life, may be proved by the
-frequent and extensive remains of the faith which the cretinism of the
-Hamitic race has perpetuated amongst them to the present day, still
-sprouting like tares even in the fair field of revealed religion. The
-dread of ghosts, for instance, which is the mainstay of Fetissism, is
-not inculcated in any sacred book, yet the belief is not to be
-abolished. Thus the Rakshasa of the Hindus is a disembodied spirit,
-doing evil to mankind; and the ghost of the prophet Samuel, raised by
-the familiar of the Witch of Endor, was the immortal part of a mortal
-being, still connected with earth, and capable of returning to it.
-Through the Manes, the Umbra, and the Spectrum of the ancients, the
-belief has descended to the moderns, as the household words ghost,
-goblin, and bogle, revenant, polter-geist, and spook, Duh, Dusha, and
-Dukh attest. Precisely similar to the African ghost-faith is the old
-Irish belief in Banshees, Pookas, and other evil entities; the corporeal
-frame of the dead forms other bodies, but the spirit hovers in the air,
-watching the destiny of friends, haunting houses, killing children,
-injuring cattle, and causing disease and destruction. Everywhere, too,
-their functions are the same: all are malevolent to the living, and they
-are seldom known to do good. The natural horror and fear of death which
-may be observed even in the lower animals has caused the dead to be
-considered vindictive and destructive.
-
-Some missionaries have detected in the habit, which prevails throughout
-Eastern and Western Africa, of burying slaves with the deceased, of
-carrying provisions to graves, and of lighting fires on cold nights near
-the last resting-places of the departed, a continuation of relations
-between the quick and the dead which points to a belief in a future
-state of existence. The wish is father to that thought: the doctrine of
-the soul, of immortality, belongs to a superior order of mind, to a more
-advanced stage of society. The belief, as its operations show, is in
-presentity, materialism, not in futurity, spiritualism. According to the
-ancients, man is a fourfold being:--
-
-  “Bis duo sunt homini, manes, caro, spiritus, umbra:
-     Quatuor hæc loci bis duo suscipiunt
-   Terra tegit carnem, tumulum circumvolitat umbra,
-     Manes Orcus habet, spiritus astra petit.”
-
-Take away the Manes and the astral Spirit, and remains the African
-belief in the ειδωλον or Umbra, spiritus, or ghost. When the savage and
-the barbarian are asked what has become of the “old people” (their
-ancestors), over whose dust and ashes they perform obsequies, these
-veritable secularists only smile and reply Wáme-kwisha, “they are
-ended.” It proves the inferior organisation of the race. Even the North
-American aborigines, a race which Nature apparently disdains to
-preserve, decided that man hath a future, since even Indian corn is
-vivified and rises again. The East African has created of his fears a
-ghost which never attains the perfect form of a soul. This inferior
-development has prevented his rising to the social status of the Hindu,
-and other anciently civilised races, whom a life wholly wanting in
-purpose and occupation drove from the excitement necessary to stimulate
-the mind towards a hidden or mysterious future. These wild races seek
-otherwise than in their faith a something to emotionise and to agitate
-them.
-
-The East African’s Credenda--it has not arrived at the rank of a system,
-this vague and misty dawning of a creed--are based upon two main
-articles. The first is demonology, or, rather, the existence of Koma,
-the spectra of the dead; the second is Uchawi, witchcraft or black
-magic, a corollary to the principal theorem. Few, and only the tribes
-adjacent to the maritime regions, have derived from El Islam a faint
-conception of the one Supreme. There is no trace in this country of the
-ancient and modern animal-worship of Egypt and India, though travellers
-have asserted that vestiges of it exist amongst the kindred race of
-Kafirs. The African has no more of Sabæism than what belongs to the
-instinct of man: he has a reverence for the sun and moon, the latter is
-for evident reasons in higher esteem, but he totally ignores
-star-worship. If questioned concerning his daily bread, he will point
-with a devotional aspect towards the light of day; and if asked what
-caused the death of his brother, will reply Jua, or Rimwe, the sun. He
-has not, like the Kafir, a holiday at the epoch of new moon: like the
-Moslem, however, on first seeing it, he raises and claps his hands in
-token of obeisance. The Mzimo, or Fetiss hut, is the first germ of a
-temple, and the idea is probably derived from the Kurban of the Arabs.
-It is found throughout the country, especially in Uzaramo, Unyamwezi,
-and Karagwah. It is in the shape of a dwarf house, one or two feet high,
-with a thatched roof, but without walls. Upon the ground, or suspended
-from the roof, are handfuls of grain and small pots full of beer, placed
-there to propitiate the ghosts, and to defend the crops from injury.
-
-A prey to base passions and melancholy godless fears, the Fetissist,
-who peoples with malevolent beings the invisible world, animates
-material nature with evil influences. The rites of his dark and deadly
-superstition are all intended to avert evils from himself, by
-transferring them to others: hence the witchcraft and magic which flow
-naturally from the system of demonology. Men rarely die without the wife
-or children, the kindred or slaves, being accused of having compassed
-their destruction by “throwing the glamour over them;” and, as has been
-explained, the trial and the conviction are of the most arbitrary
-nature. Yet witchcraft is practised by thousands with the firmest
-convictions in their own powers; and though frightful tortures await the
-wizard and the witch who have been condemned for the destruction of
-chief or elder, the vindictiveness of the negro drives him readily to
-the malevolent practices of sorcery. As has happened in Europe and
-elsewhere, in the presence of torture and the instant advance of death,
-the sorcerer and sorceress will not only confess, but even boast of and
-believe in, their own criminality. “Verily I slew such a one!--I brought
-about the disease of such another!”--these are their demented vaunts,
-the offspring of mental imbecility, stimulated by traditional
-hallucination.
-
-In this state of spiritual death there is, as may be imagined, but
-little of the fire of fanaticism: polemics are as unknown as politics to
-them; their succedaneum for a god is not a jealous god. But upon the
-subjects of religious belief and revelation all men are equal: Davus
-becomes Œdipus, the fool is as the sage. What the “I” believes, that the
-“Thou” must acknowledge, under the pains and penalties of offending
-Self-esteem. Whilst the African’s faith is weakly catholic, he will not
-admit that other men are wiser on this point than himself. Yet he will
-fast like a Moslem, because doing something seems to raise him in the
-scale of creation. His mind, involved in the trammels of his
-superstition, and enchained by custom, is apparently incapable of
-receiving the impressions of El Islam. His Fetissism, unspiritualised by
-the philosophic Pantheism and Polytheism of Europe and Asia, has
-hitherto unfitted him for that belief which was readily accepted by the
-more Semitic maritime races, the Somal, the Wasawahili, and the Wamrima.
-To a certain extent, also, it has been the policy of the Arab to avoid
-proselytising, which would lead to comparative equality: for sordid
-lucre the Moslem has left the souls of these Kafirs to eternal
-perdition. According to most doctors of the saving faith, an ardent
-proselytiser might convert by the sword whole tribes, though he might
-not succeed with individuals, who cannot break through the ties of
-society. The “Mombas Mission,” however, relying upon the powers of
-persuasion, unequivocally failed, and pronounced their flock to be “not
-behind the greatest infidels and scoffers of Europe: they blaspheme, in
-fact, like children.” With characteristic want of veneration they would
-say, “Your Lord is a bad master, for he does not cure his servants.”
-When an early convert died, the Wanyika at once decided that there is no
-Saviour, as he does not prevent the decease of a friend. The sentiment
-generally elicited by a discourse upon the subject of the existence of a
-Deity is a desire to see him, in order to revenge upon him the deaths of
-relatives, friends, and cattle.[17]
-
-  [17] That the Western African negro resembles in this point his
-  negroid brother, the following extract from an amusing and truthful
-  little volume, entitled “Trade and Travels in the Gulf of Guinea and
-  Western Africa” (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1851), will prove:--
-
-  Always anxious,--says Mr. J. Smith, the author,--to get any of them
-  (the Western Africans) to talk about God and religion, I said, “What
-  have you been doing King Pepple?”
-
-  “All the same as you do,--I tank God.”
-
-  “For what?”
-
-  “Every good ting God sends me.”
-
-  “Have you seen God?”
-
-  “Chi! no;--suppose man see God, he must die one minute.” (He would die
-  in a moment.)
-
-  “When you die won’t you see God?”
-
-  With great warmth, “I know no savvy. (I don’t know.) How should I
-  know? Never mind. I no want to hear more for that palaver.” (I want no
-  more talk on that subject.)
-
-  “What way?” (Why?)
-
-  “It no be your business, you come here for trade palaver.”
-
-  I knew--resumes Mr. Smith--it would be of no use pursuing the subject
-  at that time, so I was silent, and it dropped for the moment.
-
-  In speaking of him dying, I had touched a very tender and disagreeable
-  chord, for he looked very savage and sulky, and I saw by the rapid
-  changes in his countenance that he was the subject of some intense
-  internal emotion. At length he broke out, using most violent
-  gesticulations, and exhibiting a most inhuman expression of
-  countenance, “Suppose God was here, I must kill him, one minute!”
-
-  “You what? you kill God?” followed I, quite taken aback, and almost
-  breathless with the novel and diabolical notion; “You kill God? why,
-  you talk all some fool” (like a fool); “you cannot kill God; and
-  suppose it possible that God could die, everything would cease to
-  exist. He is the Spirit of the universe. But he can kill you.”
-
-  “I know I cannot kill him; but suppose I could kill him, I would.”
-
-  “Where does God live?”
-
-  “For top.”
-
-  “How?” He pointed to the zenith.
-
-  “And suppose you could, why would you kill him?”
-
-  “Because he makes men to die.”
-
-  “Why, my friend,” in a conciliatory manner, “you would not wish to
-  live for ever, would you?”
-
-  “Yes, I want to stand” (remain for ever).
-
-  “But you will be old by and by, and if you live long enough, will
-  become very infirm, like that old man,” pointing to a man very old for
-  an African and thin, and lame, and almost blind, who had come into the
-  court during the foregoing conversation, to ask for some favour (I
-  wonder he had not been destroyed),--“and like him you will become
-  lame, and deaf, and blind, and will be able to take no pleasure; would
-  it not be better, then, for you to die when this takes place, and you
-  are in pain and trouble, and so make room for your son, as your father
-  did for you?”
-
-  “No, it would not; I want to stand all same I stand now.”
-
-  “But supposing you should go to a place of happiness after death
-  and----”
-
-  “I no savvy nothing about that, I know that I now live, and have too
-  many wives, and niggers (slaves), and canoes,” (he did not mean what
-  he said, in saying he had too many wives, &c., it is their way of
-  expressing a great number,) “and that I am king, and plenty of ships
-  come to my country. I know no other ting, and I want to stand.”
-
-  I offered a reply, but he would hear no more, and so the conversation
-  on that subject ceased; and we proceeded to discuss one not much more
-  agreeable to him--the payment of a very considerable debt which he
-  owed me.
-
-Fetissism supplies an abundance of professionally holy men. The “Mfumo”
-is translated by the Arabs Bassar, a seer or clairvoyant. The Mchawi is
-the Sahhar, magician, or adept in the black art. Amongst the Wazegura
-and the Wasagara is the Mgonezi, a word Arabised into Rammal or
-Geomantist. He practises the Miramoro, or divination and prediction of
-fray and famine, death and disease, by the relative position of small
-sticks, like spilikins, cast at random on the ground. The “rain-maker,”
-or “rain-doctor” of the Cape, common throughout these tribes, and
-extending far north of the equator, is called in East Africa Mganga, in
-the plural Waganga: the Arabs term him Tabib, doctor or physician.
-
-The Mganga, in the central regions termed Mfumo, may be considered as
-the rude beginning of a sacerdotal order. These drones, who swarm
-throughout the land, are of both sexes: the women, however, generally
-confine themselves to the medical part of the profession. The calling is
-hereditary, the eldest or the cleverest son begins his neoteric
-education at an early age, and succeeds to his father’s functions. There
-is little mystery in the craft, and the magicians of Unyamwezi have not
-refused to initiate some of the Arabs. The power of the Mganga is great:
-he is treated as a sultan, whose word is law, and as a giver of life and
-death. He is addressed by a kingly title, and is permitted to wear the
-chieftain’s badge, made of the base of a conical shell. He is also known
-by a number of small greasy and blackened gourds, filled with physic and
-magic, hanging round his waist, and by a little more of the usual
-grime--sanctity and dirt being connected in Africa as elsewhere. These
-men are sent for from village to village, and receive as obventions and
-spiritual fees sheep and goats, cattle and provisions. Their persons,
-however, are not sacred, and for criminal acts they are punished like
-other malefactors. The greatest danger to them is an excess of fame. A
-celebrated magician rarely, if ever, dies a natural death: too much is
-expected from him, and a severer disappointment leads to consequences
-more violent than usual. The Arabs deride their pretensions, comparing
-them depreciatingly to the workers of Simiya, or conjuration, in their
-own country. They remark that the wizard can never produce rain in the
-dry, or avert it in the wet season. The many, however, who, to use a
-West African phrase, have “become black” from a long residence in the
-country, acquire a sneaking belief in the Waganga, and fear of their
-powers. The well-educated classes in Zanzibar consult these heathen, as
-the credulous of other Eastern countries go to the astrologer and
-geomantist, and in Europe to the clairvoyant and the tireuse de cartes.
-In one point this proceeding is wise: the wizard rarely wants wits; and
-whatever he has heard secretly or openly will inevitably appear in the
-course of his divination.
-
-It must not be supposed, however, that the Mganga is purely an impostor.
-To deceive others thoroughly a man must first deceive himself, otherwise
-he will be detected by the least discerning. This is the simple secret
-of so many notable successes, achieved in the most unpromising causes by
-self-reliance and enthusiasm, the parents of energy and consistence.
-These barbarians are more often sinned against by their own fears and
-fooleries of faith, than sinners against their fellow-men by fraud and
-falsehood.
-
-The office of Uganga includes many duties. The same man is a physician
-by natural and supernatural means, a mystagogue or medicine-man, a
-detector of sorcery, by means of the Judicium Dei or ordeal, a
-rain-maker, a conjuror, an augur, and a prophet.
-
-As a rule, all diseases, from a boil to marasmus senilis, are attributed
-by the Fetissist to P’hepo, Hubub, or Afflatus. The three words are
-synonymous. P’hepo, in Kisawahili, is the plural form of upepo (a
-zephyr), used singularly to signify a high wind, a whirlwind (“devil”),
-and an evil ghost, generally of a Moslem. Hubub, the Arabic translation,
-means literally the blowing of wind, and metaphorically “possession.”
-The African phrase for a man possessed is “ana p’hepo,” “he has a
-devil.” The Mganga is expected to heal the patient by expelling the
-possession. Like the evil spirit in the days of Saul, the unwelcome
-visitant must be charmed away by sweet music; the drums cause
-excitement, and violent exercise expels the ghost, as saltation
-nullifies in Italy the venom of the tarantula. The principal remedies
-are drumming, dancing, and drinking, till the auspicious moment arrives.
-The ghost is then enticed from the body of the possessed into some
-inanimate article, which he will condescend to inhabit. This,
-technically called a Keti, or stool, may be a certain kind of bead, two
-or more bits of wood bound together by a strip of snake’s skin, a lion’s
-or a leopard’s claw, and other similar articles, worn round the head,
-the arm, the wrist, or the ankle. Paper is still considered great
-medicine by the Wasukuma and other tribes, who will barter valuable
-goods for a little bit: the great desideratum of the charm, in fact,
-appears to be its rarity, or the difficulty of obtaining it. Hence also
-the habit of driving nails into and hanging rags upon trees. The
-vegetable itself is not worshipped, as some Europeans who call it the
-“Devil’s tree” have supposed: it is merely the place for the laying of
-ghosts, where by appending the Keti most acceptable to the spectrum, he
-will be bound over to keep the peace with man. Several accidents in the
-town of Zanzibar have confirmed even the higher orders in their lurking
-superstition. Mr. Peters, an English merchant, annoyed by the slaves who
-came in numbers to hammer nails and to hang iron hoops and rags upon a
-“Devil’s tree” in his courtyard, ordered it to be cut down, to the
-horror of all the black beholders, of whom no one would lay an axe to
-it. Within six months five persons died in that house--Mr. Peters, his
-two clerks, his cooper, and his ship’s carpenter. This superstition will
-remind the traveller of the Indian Pipul (Ficus religiosa), in which
-fiends are supposed to roost, and suggest to the Orientalist an
-explanation of the mysterious Moslem practices common from Western
-Africa to the farthest East. The hanging of rags upon trees by pilgrims
-and travellers is probably a relic of Arab Fetissism, derived in the
-days of ignorance from their congeners in East Africa. The custom has
-spread far and wide: even the Irish peasantry have been in the habit of
-suspending to the trees and bushes near their “holy wells” rags,
-halters, and spancels, in token of gratitude for their recovery, or that
-of their cattle.
-
-There are other mystical means of restoring the sick to health; one
-specimen will suffice. Several little sticks, like matches, are daubed
-with ochre, and marks are made with them upon the patient’s body. A
-charm is chanted, the possessed one responds, and at the end of every
-stave an evil spirit flies from him, the signal being a stick cast by
-the Mganga upon the ground. Some unfortunates have as many as a dozen
-haunting ghosts, each of which has his own periapt: the Mganga demands a
-distinct honorarium for the several expulsions. Wherever danger is, fear
-will be; wherever fear is, charms and spells, exorcisms and talismans of
-portentous powers will be in demand; and wherever supernaturalisms are
-in requisition, men will be found, for a consideration, to supply them.
-
-These strange rites are to be explained upon the principle which
-underlies thaumaturgy in general: they result from conviction in a gross
-mass of exaggerations heaped by ignorance, falsehood, and credulity,
-upon the slenderest foundation of fact--a fact doubtless solvable by the
-application of natural laws. The African temperament has strong
-susceptibilities, combined with what appears to be a weakness of brain,
-and great excitability of the nervous system, as is proved by the
-prevalence of epilepsy, convulsions, and hysteric disease. According to
-the Arab, El Sara, epilepsy, or the falling sickness, is peculiarly
-common throughout East Africa; and, as we know by experience in lands
-more civilised, the sudden prostration, rigidity, contortions, &c. of
-the patient, strongly suggest the idea that he has been taken and seized
-(επιληφθεις) by, as it were, some external and invisible agent. The
-negroid is, therefore, peculiarly liable to the epidemical mania called
-“Phantasmata,” which, according to history, has at times of great
-mental agitation and popular disturbance broken out in different parts
-of Europe, and which, even in this our day, forms the basework of
-“revivals.” Thus in Africa the objective existence of spectra has become
-a tenet of belief. Stories that stagger the most sceptical are told
-concerning the phenomenon by respectable and not unlearned Arabs, who
-point to their fellow-countrymen as instances. Salim bin Rashid, a
-half-caste merchant, well known at Zanzibar, avers, and his companions
-bear witness to his words, that on one occasion, when travelling
-northwards from Unyanyembe, the possession occurred to himself. During
-the night two female slaves, his companions, of whom one was a child,
-fell, without apparent cause, into the fits which denote the approach of
-a spirit. Simultaneously, the master became as one intoxicated; a dark
-mass, material, not spiritual, entered the tent, and he felt himself
-pulled and pushed by a number of black figures, whom he had never before
-seen. He called aloud to his companions and slaves, who, vainly
-attempting to enter the tent, threw it down, and presently found him in
-a state of stupor, from which he did not recover till the morning. The
-same merchant circumstantially related, and called witnesses to prove,
-that a small slave-boy, who was produced on the occasion, had been
-frequently carried off by possession, even when confined in a windowless
-room, with a heavy door carefully bolted and padlocked. Next morning the
-victim was not found, although the chamber remained closed. A few days
-afterwards he was met in the jungle wandering absently like an idiot,
-and with speech too incoherent to explain what had happened to him. The
-Arabs of Oman, who subscribe readily to transformation, deride these
-tales; those of African blood believe them. The transformation-belief,
-still so common in Maskat, Abyssinia, Somaliland, and the Cape, and
-anciently an almost universal superstition, is, curious to say, unknown
-amongst these East African tribes. The Wahiao, lying between Kilwa and
-the Nyassa Lake, preserve, however, a remnant of the old creed in their
-conviction, that a malevolent magician can change a man after death into
-a lion, a leopard, or a hyæna. On the Zambezi the people, according to
-Dr. Livingstone (chap. xxx.), believe that a chief may metamorphose
-himself into a lion, kill any one he chooses, and then return to the
-human form. About Tete (chap. xxxi.) the negroids hold that, “while
-persons are still living, they may enter into lions and alligators, and
-then return again to their own bodies.” Travellers determined to find in
-Africa counterparts of European and Asiatic tenets, argue from this
-transformation a belief in the “transmigration of souls.” They thus
-confuse material metamorphosis with a spiritual progress, which is
-assuredly not an emanation from the Hamitic mind. The Africans have
-hitherto not bewildered their brains with metaphysics, and, ignoring the
-idea of a soul, which appears to be a dogma of the Caucasian race, they
-necessarily ignore its immortality.
-
-The second, and, perhaps, the most profitable occupation of the Mganga,
-is the detection of Uchawi, or black magic. The fatuitous style of
-conviction, and the fearful tortures which, in the different regions,
-await those found guilty, have already been described, as far as
-description is possible. Amongst a people where the magician is a police
-detector, ordeals must be expected to thrive. The Baga or Kyapo of East
-Africa--the Arabs translate it El Halaf, or the Oath--is as cruel,
-absurd, and barbarous, as the red water of Ashanti, the venoms of
-Kasanji (Cassange), the muavi of the Banyai tribes of Monomotapa, the
-Tangina poison of the Malagash, the bitter water of the Jews, the
-“saucy-water” of West Africa, and the fire tests of mediæval Europe. The
-people of Usumbara thrust a red-hot hatchet into the mouth of the
-accused. Among the south-eastern tribes a heated iron spike, driven into
-some tender part of the person, is twice struck with a log of wood. The
-Wazaramo dip the hand into boiling water, the Waganda into seething oil;
-and the Wazegura prick the ear with the stiffest bristles of a gnu’s
-tail. The Wakwafi have an ordeal of meat that chokes the guilty. The
-Wanyamwezi pound with water between two stones, and infuse a poisonous
-bark called “Mwavi:” it is first administered by the Mganga to a hen,
-who, for the nonce, represents the suspected. If, however, all parties
-be not satisfied with such trial, it is duly adhibited to the accused.
-
-In East Africa, from Somaliland to the Cape, and throughout the interior
-amongst the negroids and negroes north as well as south of the equator,
-the rain-maker or rain-doctor is a personage of consequence; and he does
-not fail to turn the hopes and fears of the people to his own advantage.
-A season of drought causes dearth, disease, and desolation amongst these
-improvident races, who therefore connect every strange phenomenon with
-the object of their desires, a copious wet monsoon. The enemy has
-medicines which disperse the clouds. The stranger who brings with him
-heavy showers is regarded as a being of good omen; usually, however, the
-worst is expected from the novel portent; he will, for instance, be
-accompanied and preceded by fertilising rains, but the wells and springs
-will dry up after his departure, and the result will be drought or
-small-pox. These rumours which may account for the Lybian
-stranger-sacrifices in the olden time, are still dangerous to
-travellers. The Mganga must remedy the evil. His spells are those of
-fetissists in general, the mystic use of something foul, poisonous, or
-difficult to procure, such as the album græcum of hyænas, snakes’ fangs,
-or lions’ hair; these and similar articles are collected with
-considerable trouble by the young men of the tribe for the use of the
-rain-maker. But he is a weatherwise man, and rains in tropical lands are
-easily foreseen. Not unfrequently, however, he proves himself a false
-prophet; and when all the resources of cunning fail he must fly for dear
-life from the victims of his delusion.
-
-The Mganga is also a predictor and a soothsayer. He foretels the
-success or failure of commercial undertakings, of wars, and of
-kidnapping-commandos; he foresees famine and pestilence, and he suggests
-the means of averting calamities. He fixes also, before the commencement
-of any serious affair, fortunate conjunctions, without which a good
-issue cannot be expected. He directs expiatory offerings. His word is
-ever powerful to expedite or to delay the march of a caravan; and in his
-quality of augur he considers the flight of birds and the cries of
-beasts, like his prototype of the same class in ancient Europe and in
-modern Asia.
-
-The principal instrument of the Mganga’s craft is one of the dirty
-little buyu or gourds which he wears in a bunch round his waist; and the
-following is the usual programme when the oracle is to be consulted. The
-magician brings his implements in a bag of matting; his demeanour is
-serious as the occasion; he is carefully greased, and his head is
-adorned with the diminutive antelope-horns fastened by a thong of
-leather above the forehead. He sits like a sultan upon a dwarf stool in
-front of the querist, and begins by exhorting the highest possible
-offertory. No pay, no predict. Divination by the gourd has already been
-described; the Mganga has many other implements of his craft. Some
-prophesy by the motion of berries swimming in a cup full of water, which
-is placed upon a low stool surrounded by four tails of the zebra or the
-buffalo lashed to sticks planted upright in the ground. The Kasanda is a
-system of folding triangles not unlike those upon which plaything
-soldiers are mounted. Held in the right hand, it is thrown out, and the
-direction of the end points to the safe and auspicious route; this is
-probably the rudest appliance of prestidigitation. The shero is a bit of
-wood about the size of a man’s hand, and not unlike a pair of bellows,
-with a dwarf handle, a projection like a nozzle, and in the circular
-centre a little hollow. This is filled with water, and a grain or
-fragment of wood, placed to float, gives an evil omen if it tends
-towards the sides, and favourable if it veers towards the handle or the
-nozzle. The Mganga generally carries about with him to announce his
-approach a kind of rattle called “sánje.” This is a hollow gourd of
-pine-apple shape, pierced with various holes, prettily carved and half
-filled with maize, grains, and pebbles; the handle is a stick passed
-through its length and secured by cross-pins.
-
-The Mganga has many minor duties. In elephant hunts he must throw the
-first spear and endure the blame if the beast escapes. He marks ivory
-with spots disposed in lines and other figures, and thus enables it to
-reach the coast without let or hindrance. He loads the kirangozi or
-guide with charms and periapts to defend him from the malice which is
-ever directed at a leading man, and sedulously forbids him to allow
-precedence even to the Mtongi, the commander and proprietor of the
-caravan. He aids his tribe by magical arts in wars, by catching a bee,
-reciting over it certain incantations, and loosing it in the direction
-of the foe, when the insect will instantly summon an army of its fellows
-and disperse a host, however numerous. This belief well illustrates the
-easy passage of the natural into the supernatural. The land being full
-of swarms, and man’s body being wholly exposed, many a caravan has been
-dispersed like chaff before the wind by a bevy of swarming bees.
-Similarly in South Africa the magician kicks an ant-hill and starts
-wasps which put the enemy to flight. And in the books of the Hebrews we
-read that the hornet sent before the children of Israel against the
-Amorite was more terrible than sword or bow. (Joshua, xxiv.)
-
-The several tribes in East Africa present two forms of government, the
-despotic and the semi-monarchical.
-
-In the despotic races, the Wakilima or mountaineers of Chhaga, for
-instance, the subjects are reduced to the lowest state of servility.
-All, except the magicians and the councillors, are “Wasoro”--soldiers
-and slaves to the sultan, mangi, or sovereign. The reader will bear in
-mind that the word “sultan” is the Arabic term applied generically by
-traders to all the reguli and roitelets, the chiefs and headmen, whose
-titles vary in every region. In Uzaramo the Sultan is called p’hazi; in
-Khutu, p’hazi or mundewa; in Usagara, mundewa; in Ugogo, mteme; in
-Unyamwezi, mwami; in Ujiji and Karagwah, mkama. “Wazir” is similarly
-used by the Arabs for the principal councillor or minister, whose
-African name in the several tribes is mwene goha, mbáhá, mzágírá,
-magáwe, mhángo, and muhinda. The elders are called throughout the
-country Wagosi and Wányáp’hárá; they form the council of the chief. All
-male children are taken from their mothers, are made to live together,
-and are trained to the royal service, to guarding the palace, to tilling
-the fields, and to keeping the watercourses in order. The despot is
-approached with fear and trembling; subjects of both sexes must stand at
-a distance, and repeatedly clap their palms together before venturing to
-address him. Women always bend the right knee to the earth, and the
-chief acknowledges the salutation with a nod. At times the elders and
-even the women inquire of the ruler what they can do to please him: he
-points to a plot of ground which he wishes to be cleared, and this
-_corvée_ is the more carefully performed, as he fines them in a bullock
-if a weed be left unplucked. In war female captives are sold by the
-king, and the children are kept to swell the number of his slaves. None
-of the Wasoro may marry without express permission. The king has
-unlimited power of life and death, which he exercises without
-squeamishness, and a general right of sale over his subjects; in some
-tribes, as those of Karagwah, Uganda, and Unyoro, he is almost
-worshipped. It is a capital offence to assume the name of a Sultan; even
-a stranger so doing would be subjected to fines and other penalties. The
-only limit to the despot’s power is the Ada, or precedent, the unwritten
-law of ancient custom, which is here less mutable than the codes and
-pandects of Europe. The African, like the Asiatic, is by nature a
-conservative, at once the cause and the effect of his inability to rise
-higher in the social scale. The king lives in a manner of barbarous
-state. He has large villages crowded with his families and slaves. He
-never issues from his abode without an armed mob, and he disdains to
-visit even the wealthiest Arabs. The monarchical tribes are legitimists
-of the good old school, disdaining a _novus homo_; and the consciousness
-of power invests their princes with a certain dignity and majesty of
-demeanour. As has been mentioned, some of the Sultans whose rule has the
-greatest prestige, appear, from physical peculiarities, to be of a
-foreign and a nobler origin.
-
-In the aristocratical or semi-monarchical tribes, as the Wanyamwezi, the
-power of the Sultan depends mainly upon his wealth, importance, and
-personal qualifications for the task of rule. A chief enabled to carry
-out a “fist-right” policy will raise himself to the rank of a despot,
-and will slay and sell his subjects without mercy. Though surrounded by
-a council varying from two to a score of chiefs and elders, who are
-often related or connected with him, and who, like the Arab shaykhs,
-presume as much as possible in ordering this and forbidding that, he can
-disregard and slight them. More often, however, his authority is
-circumscribed by a rude balance of power; the chiefs around him can
-probably bring as many warriors into the field as he can. When weak, the
-sultan has little more authority than the patell of an Indian village or
-the shaykh of a Bedouin tribe. Yet even when the chief cannot command in
-his own clan, he is an important personage to travelling merchants and
-strangers. He can cause a quarrel, an advance, or an assassination, and
-he can quiet brawls even when his people have been injured. He can open
-a road by providing porters, or bar a path by deterring a caravan from
-proceeding, or by stopping the sale of provisions. Thus it is easy to
-travel amongst races whose chiefs are well disposed to foreigners, and
-the utmost circumspection becomes necessary when the headmen are
-grasping and inhospitable. Upon the whole, the chiefs are wise enough
-to encourage the visits of traders.
-
-A patriarchal or purely republican form of government is unknown in East
-Africa. The Wasagara, it is true, choose their chief like the Banyai of
-“Monomotapa,” but, once elected, he becomes a monarch. Loyalty--or, to
-reduce it to its elements, veneration for the divinity that hedges in a
-king--is a sentiment innate in the African mind. Man, however, in these
-regions is not a political animal; he has a certain instinctive regard
-for his chief and a respect for his elders. He ignores, however, the
-blessings of duly limited independence and the natural classification of
-humanity into superior and inferior, and honours--the cheap pay of
-nations--are unknown. He acknowledges no higher and lower social strata.
-His barbarism forbids the existence of a learned oligarchy, of an
-educated community, or of a church and state, showing the origin of the
-connection between the soul and body of society. Man being equal to man,
-force being the only law and self the sole consideration, mutual
-jealousy prevents united efforts and deadens all patriotic spirit. No
-one cares for the public good; the welfare of the general must yield to
-the most contemptible individual interests; civil order and security are
-therefore unknown, and foreign relations cannot exist.
-
-In the lowest tribes the chieftain is a mere nonentity, “a Sultan,” as
-the Arabs say, “within his own walls.” His subjects will boast, like the
-Somal, that he is “_tanquam unus ex nobis_;” and they are so sensible of
-restraint that “girdles and garters would be to them bonds and shackles”
-metaphorically as well as literally. The position of these Sultans is
-about equal to that of the diwans of the Mrima; their dignity is
-confined to sitting upon a dwarf three-legged stool, to wearing more
-brass wire than beads, and to possessing clothes a little better than
-those of their subjects. The “regulus” must make a return present to
-strangers after receiving their offerings, and in some cases must begin
-with gifts. He must listen to the words of his councillors and elders,
-who, being without salary, claim a portion of the presents and
-treasure-trove, interfere on all occasions of blackmail, fines, and
-penalties, demand from all petitioners gifts and bribes to secure
-interest, and exert great influence over the populace.
-
-Legitimacy is the rule throughout the land, and the son, usually the
-eldest, succeeds to the father, except amongst the Wasukuma of N.
-Unyamwezi, where the line of descent is by the sister’s son--the “surer
-side”--for the normal reason, to secure some of the blood royal for
-ruling. Even the widows of the deceased become the property of the
-successor. This truly African practice prevails also amongst the
-Bachwana, and presents another of those curious points of resemblance
-between the Hamite and Semite races which have induced modern
-ethnologists to derive the Arab from Africa. The curious custom amongst
-the Wanyamwezi of devising property to illegitimate children is not
-carried out in the succession to power. Where there are many sons, all,
-as might be expected, equally aspire to power; sometimes, however, of
-two brothers, one will consent to hold authority under the other. In
-several tribes, especially in Usukuma, the widow of a chief succeeds to
-his dignity in default of issue.
-
-Punishments are simple in East Africa. The sar, vendetta or blood-feud,
-and its consequence, the diyat or weregeld, exist in germ, unreduced, as
-amongst the more civilised Arabs, to an artful and intricate system.
-But these customs are founded, unlike ours, upon barbarous human nature.
-Instinct prompts a man to slay the slayer of his kith and kin; the
-offence is against the individual, not the government or society. He
-must reason to persuade himself that the crime, being committed against
-the law, should be left to the law for notice; he wants revenge, and he
-cares nought for punishment or example for the prevention of crime. The
-Sultan encourages the payment of blood-money to the relatives of the
-deceased, or, if powerful enough, claims it himself, rather than that
-one murder should lead to another, and eventually to a chronic state of
-bloodshed and confusion. Thus, in some tribes the individual revenges
-himself, and in others he commits his cause to the chief. Here he takes
-an equivalent in cattle for the blood of a brother or the loss of a
-wife; there he visits the erring party with condign punishment. The
-result of such deficiency of standard is a want of graduation in
-severity; a thief is sometimes speared and beheaded, or sold into
-slavery after all his property has been extorted by the chief, the
-councillors, and the elders, whilst a murderer is perhaps only fined.
-
-The land in East Africa is everywhere allodial; it does not belong to
-the ruler, nor has the dawn of the feudal system yet arisen there. A
-migratory tribe gives up its rights to the soil, contrary to the
-mortmain system of the Arab Bedouins, and, if it would return, it must
-return by force. The Sultan, however, exacts a fee from all immigrants
-settling in his territory.
-
-The sources of revenue in East Africa are uncertain, desultory, and
-complicated. The agricultural tribes pay yearly a small per centage of
-grain; this, however, is the office of the women, who are expert in
-fraud. Neither sowing nor harvest can take place without the chief’s
-permission, and the issue of his order is regulated by his own
-interests. Amongst the hunting tribes, slain elephants become the
-hunter’s property, but the Sultan claims as treasure-trove a tusk of any
-animal found wounded or dead in his dominions, and in all cases the
-spoils of dead lions are crown property. The flesh of game is
-distributed amongst the elders and the ruling family, who also assert a
-claim to the cloth or beads purchased by means of the ivory from
-caravans. Some have abditaria and considerable stores of the articles
-most valued by barbarians. Throughout the slave-paths the chiefs have
-learned to raise revenue from the slaves, who thus bribe them to forbear
-from robbery. But whilst the stronger require large gifts without
-return, the weaker make trifling presents, generally of cattle or
-provisions, and expect many times the value in brass wire, cloth, and
-beads. The stranger may refuse these offerings; it is, however, contrary
-to custom, and as long as he can afford it he should submit to the
-imposition. Fiscs and fines are alarmingly frequent. If the
-monsoon-rains delay, the chief summons a Mganga to fix upon the
-obstructor; he is at once slain, and his property is duly escheated. The
-Sultan claims the goods and chattels of all felons and executed
-criminals, even in the case of a servant put to death by his master. In
-the more republican tribes the chief lives by the sweat of his slaves.
-Briefly, East Africa presents an instructive study of human society in
-its first stage after birth.
-
-I will conclude this uninteresting chapter--attribute its dulness,
-gentle reader, to the effects of the climate and society of
-Konduchi--with a subject which strikes home to the heart of every
-Englishman, slavery.
-
-The origin of slavery in East Africa is veiled in the glooms of the
-past. It is mentioned in the Periplus (chap. iii.), as an institution of
-the land, and probably it was the result of the ancient trade with
-southern Arabia. At present it is almost universal: with the exceptions
-of the Wahinda, the Watosi, and the Wagogo, all the tribes from the
-eastern equatorial coast to Ujiji and the regions lying westward of the
-Tanganyika Lake may be called slave-races. An Arab, Msawahili, and even
-a bondsman from Zanzibar, is everywhere called Murungwana or freeman.
-Yet in many parts of the country the tribes are rather slave-importers
-than exporters. Although they kidnap others, they will not sell their
-fellows, except when convicted of crime--theft, magic, murder, or
-cutting the upper teeth before the lower. In times of necessity,
-however, a man will part with his parents, wives, and children, and when
-they fail he will sell himself without shame. As has been observed,
-amongst many tribes the uncle has a right to dispose of his nephews and
-nieces.
-
-Justice requires the confession that the horrors of slave-driving rarely
-meet the eye in East Africa. Some merchants chain or cord together their
-gangs for safer transport through regions where desertion is at a
-premium. Usually, however, they trust rather to soft words and kind
-treatment; the fat lazy slave is often seen stretched at ease in the
-shade, whilst the master toils in the sun and wind. The “property” is
-well fed and little worked, whereas the porter, belonging to none but
-himself, is left without hesitation to starve upon the road-side. The
-relationship is rather that of patron and client than of lord and
-bondsman; the slave is addressed as Ndugu-yango, “my brother,” and he is
-seldom provoked by hard words or stripes. In fact, the essence of
-slavery, compulsory unpaid labour, is perhaps more prevalent in
-independent India than in East Africa; moreover, there is no adscriptus
-glebæ, as in the horrid thraldom of Malabar. To this general rule there
-are terrible exceptions, as might be expected amongst a people with
-scant regard for human life. The Kirangozi, or guide, attached to the
-Expedition on return from Ujiji, had loitered behind for some days
-because his slave girl was too footsore to walk. When tired of waiting
-he cut off her head, for fear lest she should become gratis another
-man’s property.
-
-In East Africa there are two forms of this traffic, the export and the
-internal trade. For the former slaves are collected like ivories
-throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are driven down from
-the principal depôts, the island of Kasenge, Ujiji, Unyanyembe, and
-Zungomero to the coast by the Arab and Wasawahili merchants, who
-afterwards sell them in retail at the great mart, Zanzibar. The internal
-trade is carried on between tribe and tribe, and therefore will long
-endure.
-
-The practice of slavery in East Africa, besides demoralising and
-brutalising the race, leads to the results which effectually bar
-increase of population and progress towards civilisation. These are
-commandos, or border wars, and intestine confusion.
-
-All African wars, it has been remarked, are for one of two objects,
-cattle-lifting or kidnapping. Some of the pastoral tribes--as the
-Wamasai, the Wakwafi, the Watuta, and the Warori--assert the theory that
-none but themselves have a right to possess herds, and that they
-received the gift directly from their ancestor who created cattle; in
-practice they covet the animals for the purpose of a general gorge.
-Slaves, however, are much more frequently the end and aim of feud and
-foray. The process of kidnapping, an inveterate custom in these lands,
-is in every way agreeable to the mind of the man-hunter. A “_multis
-utile bellum_,” it combines the pleasing hazards of the chase with the
-exercise of cunning and courage; the battue brings martial glory and
-solid profit, and preserves the barbarian from the listlessness of life
-without purpose. Thus men date from foray to foray, and pass their days
-in an interminable blood-feud and border war. A poor and powerful chief
-will not allow his neighbours to rest wealthier than himself; a quarrel
-is soon found, the stronger attacks the weaker, hunts and harries his
-cattle, burns his villages, carries off his subjects and sells them to
-the first passing caravan. The inhabitants of the land have thus become
-wolves to one another; their only ambition is to dispeople and destroy,
-and the blow thus dealt to a thinly populated country strikes at the
-very root of progress and prosperity.
-
-As detrimental to the public interests as the border wars is the
-intestine confusion caused by the slave trade. It perpetuates the vile
-belief in Uchawi or black magic: when captives are in demand, the
-criminal’s relations are sold into slavery. It affords a scope for the
-tyranny of a chief, who, if powerful enough, will enrich himself by
-vending his subjects in wholesale and retail. By weakening the tie of
-family, it acts with deadly effect in preventing the increase of the
-race.
-
-On the coast and in the island of Zanzibar the slaves are of two
-kinds--the Muwallid or domestic, born in captivity, and the wild slave
-imported from the interior.
-
-In the former case the slave is treated as one of the family, because
-the master’s comfort depends upon the man being contented; often also
-his sister occupies the dignified position of concubine to the head of
-the house. These slaves vary greatly in conduct. The most tractable are
-those belonging to the Diwans and the Wasawahili generally, who treat
-them with the utmost harshness and contempt. The Arabs spoil them by a
-kinder usage; few employ the stick, the salib, or cross--a forked pole
-to which the neck and ankles are lashed--and the makantale or stocks,
-for fear of desertion. Yet the slave if dissatisfied silently leaves the
-house, lets himself to another master, and returns after perhaps two
-years’ absence as if nothing had occurred. Thus he combines the
-advantages of freedom and slavery. Moreover, it is a proverb among the
-Arabs that a slave must desert once in his life, and he does so the more
-readily as he betters his condition by so doing. The worst in all points
-are those belonging to the Banyans, the Indians, and other European
-subjects; they know their right to emancipation, and consult only their
-own interests and inclinations. The Muwallid or domestic slave is also
-used like the Pombeiro of West Africa. From Unyamwezi and Ujiji he is
-sent to traffic in the more dangerous regions--the master meanwhile
-dwelling amongst his fellow countrymen in some comfortable Tembe. This
-proceeding has greatly injured the commerce of the interior, and
-necessitates yearly lengthening journeys. The slave intrusted with cloth
-and beads suddenly becomes a great man; he is lavish in supporting the
-dignity of a fundi or fattore, and consulting nothing but his own
-convenience, he will loiter for six months at a place where he has been
-sent for a week. Thus it is that ivory sold in Unyamwezi but a dozen
-years ago at 10 lbs. for 1 lb. of beads now fetches nearly weight for
-weight. And this is a continually increasing evil. No caravan, however,
-can safely traverse the interior without an escort of slave-musketeers.
-They never part with their weapons, even when passing from house to
-house, holding that their lives depend upon their arms; they beg,
-borrow, or steal powder and ball; in fact they are seldom found unready.
-They will carry nothing but the lightest gear, the master’s
-writing-case, bed, or praying-mat; to load them heavily would be to
-ensure desertion. Contrary to the practice of the free porter, they
-invariably steal when they run away; they are also troublesome about
-food, and they presume upon their weapons to take liberties with the
-liquor and the women of the heathen.
-
-The imported slaves again are of two different classes. Children are
-preferred to adults; they are Islamised and educated so as to resemble
-the Muwallid, though they are even somewhat less tame. Full-grown serfs
-are bought for predial purposes; they continue indocile, and alter
-little by domestication. When not used by the master they are left to
-plunder or to let themselves out for food and raiment, and when dead
-they are cast into the sea or into the nearest pit. These men are the
-scourge of society; no one is safe from their violence; and to preserve
-a garden or an orchard from the depredations of the half-starved
-wretches, a guard of musketeers would be required. They are never armed,
-yet, as has been recounted, they have caused at Zanzibar servile wars,
-deadly and lasting as those of ancient Rome.
-
-Arabs declare that the barbarians are improved by captivity--a partial
-theory open to doubt. The servum pecus retain in thraldom that wildness
-and obstinacy which distinguish the people and the lower animals of
-their native lands; they are trapped, but not tamed; they become
-captives, but not civilised. However trained, they are probably the
-worst servants in the world; a slave-household is a model of discomfort.
-The wretches take a trouble and display an ingenuity in opposition and
-disobedience, in perversity, annoyance, and villany, which rightly
-directed would make them invaluable. The old definition of a slave still
-holds good--“an animal that eats as much and does as little as
-possible.” Clumsy and unhandy, dirty and careless, he will never labour
-unless ordered to do so, and so futile is his nature that even the
-inducement of the stick cannot compel him to continue his exertions; a
-whole gang will barely do the work of a single servant. He “has no end,”
-to use the Arab phrase: that is to say, however well he may begin, he
-will presently tire of his task; he does not and apparently he will not
-learn; his first impulse, like that of an ass, is not to obey; he then
-thinks of obeying; and if fear preponderate he finally may obey. He must
-deceive, for fraud and foxship are his force; when detected in some
-prodigious act of rascality, he pathetically pleads, “Am I not a slave?”
-So wondrous are his laziness and hate of exertion, that despite a high
-development of love of life he often appears the most reckless of
-mortals. He will run away from the semblance of danger; yet on a journey
-he will tie his pipe to a leaky keg of gunpowder, and smoke it in that
-position rather than take the trouble to undo it. A slave belonging to
-Musa, the Indian merchant at Kazeh, unwilling to rise and fetch a pipe,
-opened the pan of his musket, filled it with tobacco and fire, and
-beginning to inhale it from the muzzle blew out his brains. Growing
-confident and impudent from the knowledge of how far he may safely go,
-the slave presumes to the utmost. He steals instinctively, like a
-magpie: a case is quoted in which the gold spangles were stripped from
-an officer’s sword-belt whilst dining with the Prince of Zanzibar. The
-slave is almost always half-naked; whatever clothes he obtains from the
-master are pawned or sold in the bazar; hence he must pilfer and plunder
-almost openly for the means of gratifying his lowest propensities,
-drinking and intrigue. He seems to acquire from captivity a greater
-capacity for debauchery than even in his native wilds; he has learned
-irregularities unknown to his savage state: it is the brutishness of
-negroid nature brought out by the cheap and readily attainable pleasures
-of semi-civilisation. Whenever on moonlight nights the tapping of the
-tomtom responds to the vile squeaking of the fife, it is impossible to
-keep either a male or female slave within doors. All rendezvous at the
-place, and, having howled and danced themselves into happiness, conclude
-with a singularly disorderly scene. In the town of Zanzibar these
-“Ngoma” or dances were prohibited for moral reasons by the late Sayyid.
-The attachment of a slave to his master is merely a development of
-selfishness; it is a greater insult to abuse the Ahbab (patroon), than,
-according to Eastern fashion, the father and mother, the wife and
-sister. No slave-owner, however, praises a slave or relies upon his
-fidelity. The common expression is, “There is no good in the bondsman.”
-
-Like the Somal, a merry and light-hearted race in foreign countries, but
-rendered gloomy and melancholy by the state of affairs at home, the
-negroid slaves greatly improve by exportation: they lose much of the
-surliness and violence which distinguish them at Zanzibar, and are
-disciplined into a kind of respect for superiors. Thus, “Seedy Mubarak”
-is a prime favourite on board an Indian steamer; he has also strength
-and courage enough to make himself respected. But “Seedy Mubarak” has
-tasted the intoxicating draught of liberty, he is in high good humour
-with himself and with all around him, he is a slave merely in origin, he
-has been adopted into the great family of free men, and with it he has
-identified all his interests. Eastern history preserves instances of the
-valour and faithfulness of bondsmen, as the annals of the West are fond
-of recording the virtues of dogs. Yet all the more civilised races have
-a gird at the negro. In the present day the Persians and other Asiatics
-are careful, when bound on distant or dangerous journeys, to mix white
-servants with black slaves; they hold the African to be full of strange
-childish caprices, and to be ever at heart a treacherous and
-bloodthirsty barbarian. Like the “bush-negroes” of Surinam, once so
-dangerous to the Dutch, the runaway slaves from Zanzibar have formed a
-kind of East African Liberia, between Mount Yombo and the Shimba section
-of the Eastern Ghauts. They have endangered the direct caravan-road from
-Mombasah to Usumbara; and though trespassing upon the territory of the
-Mwasagnombe, a sub-clan of the Wadigo, and claimed as subjects by
-Abdullah, the son of Sultan Kimwere, they have gallantly held their
-ground. According to the Arabs there is another servile republic about
-Gulwen, near Brava. Travellers speak with horror of the rudeness,
-violence, and cruelty of these self-emancipated slaves; they are said to
-be more dangerous even than the Somal, who for wanton mischief and
-malice can be compared with nothing but the naughtiest schoolboys in
-England.
-
-The serviles at Zanzibar have played their Arab masters some notable
-tricks. Many a severe lord has perished by the hand of a slave. Several
-have lost their eyes by the dagger’s point during sleep. Curious tales
-are told of ingenious servile conspiracy. Mohammed bin Sayf, a Zanzibar
-Arab, remarkable for household discipline, was brought to grief by
-Kombo, his slave, who stole a basket of nutmegs from the Prince, and,
-hiding them in his master’s house, denounced him of theft. Fahl bin
-Nasr, a travelling merchant, when passing through Ugogo, nearly lost his
-life in consequence of a slave having privily informed the people that
-his patroon had been killing crocodiles and preserving their fat for
-poison. In both these cases the slaves were not punished; they had
-acted, it was believed, according to the true instincts of servile
-nature, and chastisement would have caused desertion, not improvement.
-
-As regards the female slaves, the less said about them, from regard to
-the sex, the better: they are as deficient in honour as in honesty, in
-modesty and decorum as in grace and beauty. No man, even an Arab, deems
-the mother of his children chaste, or believes in the legitimacy of his
-progeny till proved.
-
-Extensive inquiries into the subject lead to a conviction that it is
-impossible to offer any average of the price of slaves. Yet the question
-is of importance, as only the immense profit causes men thus to overlook
-all considerations of humanity. A few general rules may be safely given.
-There is no article, even horse-flesh, that varies so much in
-market-value as the human commodity: the absolute worth is small
-compared with the wants of the seller and the requirements and the means
-of the purchaser. The extremes range from six feet of unbleached
-domestics or a few pounds of grain in time of famine, to seventy
-dollars, equal to 15_l._ The slaves are cheapest in the interior, on
-account of the frequency of desertion: about Unyamwezi they are dearer,
-and most expensive in the island of Zanzibar. At the latter place
-during the last few years they have doubled in price: according to the
-Arabs, who regard the abolition of slavery with feelings of horror, this
-increase results from the impediments thrown in the way by the English;
-a more probable explanation may be found in the greater cheapness of
-money. At Zanzibar the price of a boy under puberty is from fifteen to
-thirty dollars. A youth till the age of fifteen is worth a little less.
-A man in the prime of life, from twenty-five to forty, fetches from
-thirteen to twenty dollars; after that age he may be bought from ten to
-thirteen. Educated slaves, fitted for the work of factors, are sold from
-twenty-five to seventy dollars, and at fancy prices. The price of
-females is everywhere about one-third higher than that of males. At
-Zanzibar the ushur or custom-dues vary according to the race of the
-slave: the Wahiao, Wangindo, and other serviles imported from Kilwa, pay
-one dollar per head, from the Mrima or maritime regions two dollars, and
-from Unyamwezi, Ujiji, and the rest of the interior three dollars. At
-the central depôt, Unyanyembe, where slaves are considered neither cheap
-nor dear, the value of a boy ranges between eight and ten doti or double
-cloths; a youth from nine to eleven; a man in prime, from five to ten;
-and past his prime from four to six. In some parts of the interior men
-are dearer than children under puberty. In the cheapest places, as in
-Karagwah and Urori, a boy costs three shukkahs of cloth, and three fundo
-or thirty strings of coral beads; a youth from ten to fifteen fundo; a
-man in prime from eight to ten; and no one will purchase an old man.
-These general notes must not, however, be applied to particular tribes:
-as with ivory and other valuable commodities, the amount and the
-description of the circulating medium vary at almost every march.
-
-It was asserted by the late Colonel Hamerton, whose local knowledge was
-extensive, that the average of yearly import into the island of Zanzibar
-was 14,000 head of slaves, the extremes being 9000 and 20,000. The loss
-by mortality and desertion is 30 per cent. per annum; thus, the whole
-gang must be renewed between the third and fourth year.
-
-By a stretch of power slavery might readily be abolished in the island
-of Zanzibar, and in due time, after the first confusion, the measure
-would doubtless be found as profitable as it is now unpalatable to the
-landed proprietors, and to the commercial body. A “sentimental
-squadron,” like the West African, would easily, by means of steam,
-prevent any regular exportation to the Asiatic continent. But these
-measures would deal only with effects, leaving the causes in full
-vigour; they would strike at the bole and branches, the root retaining
-sufficient vitality to resume its functions as soon as relieved of the
-pressure from without. Neither treaty nor fleet would avail permanently
-to arrest the course of slavery upon the seaboard, much less would it
-act in the far realms of the interior. At present the African will not
-work: the purchase of predial slaves to till and harvest for him is the
-great aim of his life. When a more extensive intercourse with the
-maritime regions shall beget wants which compel the barbarian, now
-contented with doing nothing and having nothing, to that individual
-exertion and that mutual dependency which render serfdom a moral
-impossibility in the more advanced stages of human society,--when man,
-now valueless except to himself, shall become more precious by his
-labour than by his sale, in fact an article so expensive that strangers
-cannot afford to buy him,--then we may expect to witness the extinction
-of the evil. Thus, and thus only can “Rachel, still weeping for her
-children,” in the evening of her days, be made happy.
-
-Meanwhile, the philanthropist, who after sowing the good seed has sense
-and patience to consign the gathering of the crop to posterity, will
-hear with pleasure that the extinction of slavery would be hailed with
-delight by the great mass throughout the length and breadth of Eastern
-Africa. This people, “robbed and spoiled” by their oppressors, who are
-legionary, call themselves “the meat,” and the slave-dealers “the
-knife:” they hate and fear their own demon Moloch, but they lack
-unanimity to free their necks from his yoke. Africa still “lies in her
-blood,” but the progress of human society, and the straiter bonds which
-unite man with man, shall eventually rescue her from her old pitiable
-fate.
-
-[Illustration: The Bull-headed Mabruki.]
-
-[Illustration: African standing position.]
-
-
-
-
-CONCLUSION.
-
-
-On the 9th February the Battela and the stores required for our trip
-arrived at Konduchi from Zanzibar, and the next day saw us rolling down
-the coast, with a fair fresh breeze, towards classic Kilwa, the Quiloa
-of De Gama, of Camoens, and of the Portuguese annalists. I shall reserve
-an account of this most memorable shore for a future work devoted
-especially to the seaboard of Zanzibar--coast and island:--in the
-present tale of adventure the details of a _cabotage_ would be out of
-place. Suffice it to say that we lost nearly all our crew by the
-cholera, which, after ravaging the eastern coast of Arabia and Africa,
-and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, had almost depopulated the
-southern settlements on the mainland. We were unable to visit the course
-of the great Rufiji River, a counterpart of the Zambezi in the south,
-and a water-road which appears destined to become the highway of nations
-into Eastern equatorial Africa. No man dared to take service on board
-the infected vessel; the Hindu Banyans, who directed the Copal trade of
-the river regions aroused against us the chiefs of the interior;
-moreover, the stream was in flood, overflowing its banks, and its line
-appeared marked by heavy purple clouds, which discharged a deluge of
-rain. Convinced that the travelling season was finished, I turned the
-head of the Battela northwards, and on the 4th March, 1859, after a
-succession of violent squalls and pertinacious calms, we landed once
-more upon the island of Zanzibar.
-
-Sick and way-worn I entered the house connected in memory with an old
-friend, not without a feeling of sorrow for the change--I was fated to
-regret it even more. The excitement of travel was succeeded by an utter
-depression of mind and body: even the labour of talking was too great,
-and I took refuge from society in a course of French novels _à vingt
-sous la pièce_.
-
-Yet I had fallen upon stirring times: the little state, at the epoch of
-my return, was in the height of confusion. His Highness the Sayyid
-Suwayni, Suzerain of Maskat, seizing the pretext of a tribute owed to
-him by his cadet brother of Zanzibar, had embarked, on the 11th
-February, 1859, a host of Bedouin brigands upon four or five
-square-rigged ships and many Arab craft: with this power he was
-preparing a hostile visit to the island. The Baloch stations on the
-mainland were drained of mercenaries, and 7000 muskets, with an amount
-of ammunition, which rendered the town dangerous, were served out to
-slaves and other ruffians. Dows from Hadramaut brought down armed
-adventurers, who were in the market to fight for the best pay. The
-turbulent Harisi chiefs of Zanzibar were terrified into siding with his
-Highness the Sayyid Majid by the influence of H. M. consul, Captain
-Rigby. But the representatives of the several Christian powers could not
-combine to preserve the peace, and M. Ladislas Cochet, Consul de France,
-an uninterested spectator of the passing events, thought favourably of
-his Highness the Sayyid Suwayni’s claim, he believed that the people if
-consulted would prefer the rule of the elder brother, and he could not
-reconcile his conscience to the unscrupulous means--the _force
-majeure_--which his opponent brought into the field. The Harisi,
-therefore, with their thousands of armed retainers--in a single review I
-saw about 2200 of them--preserved an armed neutrality, which threatened
-mischief to the weaker of the rival brothers: trade was paralysed, the
-foreign merchants lost heavily, and no less than eighty native vessels
-were still at the end of the season due from Bombay and the north. To
-confuse confusion, several ships collecting negro “emigrants” and “free
-labourers,” _per fas et nefas_, even kidnapping them when necessary,
-were reported by the Arab local authorities to be anchored and to be
-cruising off the coast of Zanzibar.
-
-After a fortnight of excitement and suspense, during which the wildest
-rumours flew through the mouths of men, it was officially reported that
-H. M.’s steamer _Punjaub_, Captain Fullerton, H.M.I.N., commanding, had,
-under orders received from the government of Bombay, met his Highness
-the Sayyid Suwayni off the eastern coast of Africa and had persuaded him
-to return.
-
-Congratulations were exchanged, salutes were fired, a few Buggalows
-belonging to the enemy’s fleet, which was said to have been dispersed by
-a storm, dropped in and were duly captured, the negroes drank, sang, and
-danced for a consecutive week, and with the least delay armed men poured
-in crowded boats from the island towards their several stations on the
-mainland. But the blow had been struck, the commercial prosperity of
-Zanzibar could not be retrieved during the brief remnant of the season,
-and the impression that a renewal of the attempt would at no distant
-time ensure similar disasters seemed to be uppermost in every man’s
-mind.
-
-His Highness the Sayyid Majid had honoured me with an expression of
-desire that I should remain until the expected hostilities might be
-brought to a close. I did so willingly in gratitude to a prince to whose
-good-will my success was mainly indebted. But the consulate was no
-longer what it was before. I felt myself too conversant with local
-politics, and too well aware of what was going on to be a pleasant
-companion to its new tenant. At last, on the 15th March, when concluding
-my accounts with Ladha Damha, the collector of customs at Zanzibar, that
-official requested me, with the usual mystery, to be the bearer of
-despatches, privately addressed by his prince, to the home government. I
-could easily guess what they contained. Unwilling, however, to undertake
-such a duty when living at the consulate, and seeing how totally opposed
-to official _convenance_ such a procedure was, I frankly stated my
-objections to Ladha Damha, and repeated the conversation to Captain
-Rigby. As may be imagined, this little event did not diminish his desire
-to see me depart.
-
-Still I was unwilling to leave the field of my labours while so much
-remained to be done. As my health appeared gradually to return under the
-influence of repose and comparative comfort, I would willingly have
-delayed at the island till the answer to an application for leave of
-absence, and to a request for additional funds could be received from
-the Government of Bombay and the Royal Geographical Society. But the
-evident anxiety of my host to disembarrass himself of his guest, and the
-nervous impatience of my companion--who could not endure the thought of
-losing an hour--compelled me, sorely against my wish, to abandon my
-intentions.
-
-Said bin Salim, the Ras Kafilah, called twice or thrice at the
-consulate. I refused, however, to see him, and explained the reason to
-Captain Rigby. That gentleman agreed with me at the time that the Arab
-had been more than sufficiently rewarded by the sum advanced to him by
-Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton: but--perhaps he remembers the cognomen by which
-he was known in days of yore amongst his juvenile _confrères_ at
-Addiscombe?--he has since thought proper to change his mind. The Jemadar
-and the Baloch attended me to the doorway of the prince’s darbar: I
-would not introduce them to their master or to the consul, as such
-introduction would have argued myself satisfied with their conduct, nor
-would I recommend them for promotion or reward. Ladha Damha put in a
-faint claim for salary due to the sons of Ramji; but when informed of
-the facts of the case he at once withdrew it, and I heard no more of it
-at Zanzibar. As regards the propriety of these severe but equitable
-measures, my companion was, I believe, at that time of the same opinion
-as myself: perhaps Captain Speke’s prospect of a return to East Africa,
-and of undertaking a similar exploration, have caused him since that
-epoch to think, and to think that he then thought, otherwise.
-
-The report of the success of the _Punjaub’s_ mission left me at liberty
-to depart. With a grateful heart I bade adieu to a prince whose kindness
-and personal courtesy will long dwell in my memory, and who at the
-parting interview had expressed a hope to see me again, and had offered
-me a passage homeward in one of his ships-of-war. At the time, however,
-a clipper-built barque, the _Dragon of Salem_, Captain M‘Farlane
-commanding, was discharging cargo in the harbour, preparatory to sailing
-with the S.W. monsoon for Aden. The captain consented to take us on
-board: Captain Rigby, however, finding his boat too crowded, was
-compelled to omit accompanying us--a little mark of civility not unusual
-in the East. His place, however, was well filled up by Seedy Mubarak
-Bombay, whose honest face appeared at that moment, by contrast,
-peculiarly attractive.
-
-On the 22nd March, 1859, the clove-shrubs and the cocoa-trees of
-Zanzibar again faded from my eyes. After crossing and re-crossing three
-times the tedious line, we found ourselves anchored, on the 16th April,
-near the ill-omened black walls of the Aden crater.
-
-The crisis of my African sufferings had taken place during my voyage
-upon the Tanganyika Lake: the fever, however, still clung to me like the
-shirt of Nessus. Mr. Apothecary Frost, of Zanzibar, had advised a
-temporary return to Europe: Dr. Steinhaeuser, the civil surgeon, Aden,
-also recommended a lengthened period of rest. I bade adieu to the
-coal-hole of the East on the 28th April, 1859, and in due time greeted
-with becoming heartiness the shores of my native land.
-
-[Illustration: The Elephant Rock (Ακρωτηριον Ελεφας, Periplus II. ‏راس
-الفيل‎), seen from fifteen miles at sea, direction S.W.]
-
-
-FINIS CORONAT OPUS!
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  MAP OF THE ROUTES
-  between
-  ZANZIBAR AND THE GREAT LAKES
-  IN
-  =EASTERN AFRICA=
-  in 1857, 1858 & 1859,
-  by
-  R. F. Burton
-
-  _London, Longman & Co._
-
-  _Engraved by Edwd. Weller, Red Lion Square._]
-
-
-
-
-APPENDICES.
-
-
-APPENDIX I.
-
-COMMERCE, IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.
-
-Commerce has for ages been a necessity to the East African, who cannot
-be contented without his clothing and his ornaments, which he receives
-in barter for the superfluity of his country. Against its development,
-however, serious obstacles have hitherto interposed. On the seaboard and
-in the island the Banyans, by monopolizing the import traffic, do injury
-to the internal trade. In the interior the Wasawahili excite, with all
-the animosity of competition, the barbarians against Arab interlopers,
-upon the same sordid and short-sighted principle that the latter display
-when opposing the ingress of Europeans. Finally, the Arabs, according to
-their own confession, have by rapacity and imprudence impoverished the
-people without enriching themselves. Their habit of sending fundi on
-trading trips is, as has been explained, most prejudicial both to seller
-and buyer; the prices of provisions as well as of merchandise increase
-almost visibly; and though the evil might be remedied by a little
-combination, solidarity of interests being unknown, that little is
-nowhere found. All, Banyans, Wasawahili, and Arabs, like semi-civilised
-people generally, abhor and oppose a free trade, which they declare
-would be as injurious to themselves as doubtless advantageous to the
-country. Here, as in Europe, the battle of protection has still to be
-fought; and here, unlike Europe, the first step towards civilisation,
-namely, the facility of intercourse between the interior and the coast,
-has yet to be created.
-
-The principal imports into East Africa are domestics and piece goods,
-plain and unbleached cotton cloths, beads, and brass wire. The minor
-items for the native population are prints, coloured cloths Indian and
-Arabian, broadcloth, calicos, caps, ironware, knives and needles, iron
-and copper wires for ornaments, and in some regions trinkets and
-ammunition. A small trade, chiefly confined to the Arabs, is done in
-provisions, spices, drugs, and other luxuries.
-
-The people of East Africa when first visited were satisfied with the
-worst and flimsiest kaniki or indigo-dyed Indian cotton. This they
-presently gave up for the “merkani,” American “domestics,” or unbleached
-shirting and sheeting, which now supplies the markets from Abyssinia to
-the Mozambique. But the wild men are losing 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 and durable beads and wire. It would
-evidently be advantageous if England or her Indian colonies would
-manufacture an article better suited to the wants of the country than
-that at present in general use; but, under existing circumstances, there
-is little probability of this being done.
-
-The “domestics” from the mills near Salem, Lawrence, Manchester, and
-others, called in the island of Zanzibar wilaiti (“foreign”), or khami
-(the “raw”), is known throughout the inner country as “merkani” or
-American. These unbleached cottons are of two kinds: the wilaiti mpana
-(broad) or sheeting, sold in pieces about 30 yards long and 36 to 38
-inches broad, and the wilaiti kabibu (narrow) or shirting, of the same
-length but less in breadth, from 32 to 34 inches. In the different mills
-the lengths vary, the extremes being 24 and 36 yards. The cloth measures
-in use throughout the country are the following:--
-
-  2½ Fitr (short spans)       = 1 Mukono, Ziraá, or cubit.
-  2 Mikono, or Ziraá (cubits) = 1 Half-Shukkah (_i.e._ 3 feet of
-                                domestics).
-  2 Half-Shukkah              = 1 Shukkah, Mwenda, Upande, or Lupande,
-                                the Portuguese Braça (_i.e._ 6 feet of
-                                domestics).
-  2 Shukkahs                  = 1 Tobe (Ar. Saub), Doti, Unguo ya ku
-                                shona (washing cloth), or simply Unguo
-                                (12 ft.)
-  2 Doti                      = 1 Takah.
-  7 to 11 Doti                = 1 Jurah or Gorah, the piece.
-
-The fitr or short span is from the extended end of the forefinger to the
-thumb; the shibr or long span is from the thumb to the little finger; of
-these, two go to that primitive measure the cubit or elbow length. Two
-cubits in long measure compose the wár or yard, and two wár the ba’a or
-fathom.
-
-The price of domestics greatly varies in dear years and cheap years. At
-Zanzibar it sometimes falls to 2 dols. per gorah or piece, and it often
-rises to 2·75 dols. When the dollar is alluded to, the Maria Theresa
-crown is always meant. The price in Bombay is from 213 to 215 Co.’s rs.
-per cent. At Zanzibar the crown is divided like the rupee into 16 annas,
-and each anna into 9 or 8 pice; of these the full number is 128 to the
-dollar, but it is subject to incessant fluctuations. Merchants usually
-keep accounts in dollars and cents. The Arabs divide the dollar as
-follows:--
-
-  4 Ruba baisah (the “pie”)        = Baisah (in the plur. Biyas), the
-                                     Indian Paisa.
-  8 Biyas                          = 1 Anna.
-  2 Annas, or 16 Pice              = 1 Tumun or eighth.
-  4 Annas, or 32 Pice, or 25 Cents = 1 Ruba, Rubo or Quarter-dollar, the
-                                     Indian Paola.
-  2 Ruba, or 64 Pice, or 50 Cents  = 1 Nusu or Half-dollar.
-  2 Nusu                           = 1 Dollar.
-
-The Spanish or pillar dollar is called by the Arabs abu madfa, and by
-the Wasawahili riyal mazinga (the “cannon dollar”). In the East
-generally it is worth from 6 to 8 per cent. more than the Maria Theresa,
-but at Zanzibar, not being a legal tender, the value is unfixed. The
-only subdivision of this coin generally known is the seringe, pistoline,
-or “small quarter dollar,” which is worth only 10 pice and 2 pies,
-whereas the ruba, or quarter of the Maria Theresa, is 32 pice. The
-French 5-franc piece, raised in value by a somewhat arbitrary process
-from 114 to 110 per 100 “piastres d’Espagne” by M. Guillain in 1846, has
-no currency, though the Banyans attempt to pass them off upon strangers
-at 108 for 100 Maria Theresas. In selling, the price ranges from 15 to
-22 shukkahs, each of which, assuming the dollar or German crown to be
-worth 4_s._ 2_d._, will be worth upon the island from 6_d._ to 8_d._ The
-shukkah is, as has been said, the shilling and florin of East Africa,
-and it is assuredly the worst circulating medium ever invented by
-mankind. The progress of its value as it recedes from the seaboard, and
-other details concerning it, which may be useful to future travellers,
-have been treated of in the preceding pages.
-
-First in importance amongst the cloths is the kaniki or kiniki; its
-names and measures are made to differ by the traders according to the
-fashion of semi-civilised people, who seek in confusion and intricacy
-facilities for fraud and chicanery. The popular divisions are--
-
-  4 Mikono, Ziraá, or cubits = 1 Shukkah.
-  2 Shukkah                  = 1 Doti or Tobe.
-  2 Doti                     = 1 Jurah, Gorah, or Takah.
-  2 Takah                    = 1 Korjah, Kori, or score.
-
-Of this indigo-dyed cotton there are three kinds: the best, which is
-close and neatly made, is seldom exported from Zanzibar. The gorah or
-piece of 16 cubits, 45 inches in breadth, is worth about 1 dollar. The
-common variety, 40 inches broad, supplied to the markets of the
-interior, costs about half that sum; and the worst kind, which averages
-in breadth 36 inches, represents a little less. The value of the korjah
-or score fluctuates between 8 and 13 dollars. Assuming, therefore, the
-average at 10 dollars, and the number of shukkahs contained in the gorah
-at 80, the price of each will represent 6_d._ Thus it is little inferior
-in price to the merkani or domestics when purchased upon the seaboard:
-its progress of value in the interior, however, is by no means in
-proportion, and by some tribes it is wholly rejected.
-
-The lucrative bead trade of Zanzibar is now almost entirely in the hands
-of the Banyan capitalists, who, by buying up ships’ cargoes, establish
-their own prices, and produce all the inconveniences of a monopoly. In
-laying in a stock the traveller must not trust himself to these men, who
-seize the opportunity of palming off the waste and refuse of their
-warehouses: he is advised to ascertain from respectable Arab merchants,
-on their return from the interior, the varieties requisite on the line
-of march. Any neglect in choosing beads, besides causing daily
-inconvenience, might arrest an expedition on the very threshold of
-success: towards the end of these long African journeys, when the real
-work of exploration commences, want of outfit tells fatally. The
-bead-monopolisers of Zanzibar supplied the East African expedition with
-no less than nine men’s loads of the cheapest white and black beads,
-some of which were thrown away, as no man would accept them at a gift.
-Finally, the utmost economy must be exercised in beads: apparently
-exhaustless, a large store goes but a little way: the minor purchases of
-a European would average 10 strings or necklaces per diem, and thus a
-man’s load rarely outlasts the fifth week.
-
-Beads, called by the Arabs kharaz, and by the Wasawahili ushanga, are
-yearly imported into East Africa by the ton--in quantities which excite
-the traveller’s surprise that so little is seen of them. For centuries
-there has been a regular supply of these ornaments; load after load has
-been absorbed; but although they are by no means the most perishable of
-substances, and though the people, like the Indians, carry their wealth
-upon their persons, not a third of the population wears any considerable
-quantity. There are about 400 current varieties, of which each has its
-peculiar name, value, and place of preference; yet, being fabricated at
-a distance from the spot, they lack the perpetual change necessary to
-render them thoroughly attractive. In Urori and Ubena, antiquated marts,
-now nearly neglected, there are varieties highly prized by the people:
-these might be imitated with advantage.
-
-For trading purposes a number of different kinds must be laid in,--for
-travellers, the coral or scarlet, the pink porcelain, and the large blue
-glass bead, are more useful than other colours. Yet in places even the
-expensive coral bead has been refused.
-
-Beads are sold in Zanzibar island by the following weights:
-
-  16 Wakiyyah (ounces, each = 1 dollar in = 1 Ratl (or pound; in the
-  weight)                                   plural, Artál).
-   3 Ratl, or 48 Wakiyyah                 = 1 Man (Maund).
-  12 Amnan (Maunds)                       = 1 Frasilah (35 to 36
-                                            pounds).
-  60 Artál (pounds)                       = 1 Frasilah.
-  20 to 22 Farásilah (according to the
-  article purchased)                      = 1 Kandi (Candy).
-
-The Zanzibar lb. is the current English avoirdupois. The Arabs use a
-ratl without standard, except that it should be equal to sixteen Maria
-Theresa dollars. According to M. Guillain, it is four grammes (each
-22·966 grs. avoir.) less than the English lb., and when reduced to seven
-grammes it is considered under weight. The “man” or maund is the general
-measure: there are, however, three varieties. The “man” of Zanzibar
-consists of three ratl, that of Maskat contains nine, and that of Oman
-generally 0·25 less than the Zanzibar maund. The frasilah (in the plur.
-farásilah) may roughly be assumed as one-third of the cwt.: the word
-probably gave rise to the English coffee-weight called a “frail.”
-
-The measures of beads are as complicated and arbitrary as those of
-cloth. The following are the terms known throughout the interior, but
-generally unintelligible at Zanzibar, where this merchandise is sold by
-weight:
-
-  4 Bitil (each a single length from
-  index tip to wrist)                   = 1 Khete.
-  10 Khete (each a doubled length round
-  the throat, or round the thumb, to
-  the elbow-bone)                       = 1 Fundo (_i.e._ a “knot.”)
-  10 Fundo (in the plural, Mafundo)     = 1 Ugoyye, or Ugoe.
-  10 Ugoyye (or 60 Fundo)               = 1 Miranga, or Gana.
-
-Of these bead measures there are local complications. In the central
-regions, for instance, the khete is of half size, and the fundo consists
-of five, not of ten khete.
-
-Beads are purchased for the monopolisers of Zanzibar unstrung, and
-before entering the country it is necessary to measure and prepare the
-lengths for barter. The string, called “ut’hembwe” (in the plural
-“t’hembwe”), is generally made of palm-fibre, and much depends for
-successful selling, especially in the larger kinds of beads, upon the
-regularity and attractiveness of the line. It will be remembered that
-beads in East Africa represent the copper and smaller silver coins of
-European countries; it is, however, impossible to reduce the khete, the
-length most used in purchases, to any average: it varies from a
-halfpenny to three-pence. The average value of the khete in Zanzibar
-coin is three pice, and about 100 khete are included in the man or
-maund. The traveller will find the bitil used as our farthing, the khete
-is the penny, the shukkah kaniki is the sixpence and shilling, the
-shukkah merkani and the fundo represent the halfcrown and crown, whilst
-the Barsati cloth, the kitindi or coil bracelet, and the larger measures
-of beads, form the gold money. The following varieties are imported in
-extensive outfits. Nos. 1, 2, and 3, are the expensive kinds; Nos. 4, 5,
-and 6, are in local demand, cheap in the maritime, and valuable in the
-central regions, and the rest are the more ordinary sorts. All those
-that are round and pierced are called indifferently by the Arabs
-madruji, or the “drilled.”
-
-1. Samsam (Ar.) sámesáme (Kis.), kimara-p’hamba (food-finishers), joho
-(scarlet cloth), and kifungá-mgi (town-breakers, because the women are
-mad for them), are the various names for the small coral bead, a scarlet
-enamelled upon a white ground. They are known at Zanzibar as
-kharaz-kartasi--paper beads--because they are sent into the country
-ready strung, and packed in paper parcels, which ought to weigh 4 pounds
-each, but are generally found to vary from 8 to 10 fundo or knots. Of
-this bead there are 15 several sizes, and the value of the frasilah is
-from 13 to 16 dollars at Zanzibar. In Unyamwezi, where the sámesáme is
-in greatest demand, one fundo is equivalent to 1 shukkah merkani, and 6
-khete to the shukkah kaniki.
-
-2. Next in demand to the sámesáme, throughout the country, except at
-Ujiji, where they lose half their value, are the pink porcelain, called
-gulabi (the rosy), or máguru lá nzige (locust’s feet). The price in
-Zanzibar varies from 12 to 15 dollars per frasilah.
-
-3. The blue porcelain, called in Venice ajerino, and in East Africa
-langiyo or murtutu (blue vitriol) is of three several sizes, and the
-best is of the lightest colour. The larger variety, called langiyo
-mkuba, fetches, at Zanzibar, from 6 to 12 dollars per frasilah, and the
-p’heke, or smaller, from 7 to 9 dollars. In Usagara and Unyamwezi, where
-from 3 to 4 fundo are equivalent to the shukkah merkani, and 1 to 2 to
-the shukkah kaniki, it is used for minor purchases, where the sámesáme
-would be too valuable. It is little prized in other parts, and between
-Unyamwezi and Ujiji it falls to the low level of the white porcelain.
-
-4. A local variety, current from Msene to the Tanganyika Lake, where, in
-the heavier dealings, as the purchase of slaves and ivory, a few strings
-are always required to cap the bargain, is called mzizima, mtunda,
-balghami, and jelabi, the ringel perle of Germany. It is a large flat
-bead of glass; the khete contains about 150, and each item acts as a
-copper coin. The mzizima is of two varieties; the more common is a dark
-blue, the other is of a whitish and opaline tint. At Zanzibar the
-frasilah costs from 7 to 9 dollars. In Unyamwezi 3 fundo are equivalent
-to 1 shukkah merkani, and 1 fundo to 1 shukkah kaniki.
-
-5. Another local variety is the balghami mkuba, popularly called
-sungomaji, a bead made at Nuremberg (?). It is a porcelain, about the
-size of a pigeon’s egg, and of two colours, white and light blue. The
-sungomaji, attached to a thin cord or twine, is worn singly or in
-numbers as an ornament round the neck, and the people complain that the
-polish soon wears off. At Zanzibar the price per 1000 is from 15 to 20
-dollars, but it is expected to decline to 10 dollars. This bead is
-useful in purchasing ivory in Ugogo and Unyamwezi, and in hiring boats
-at Ujiji: its relative value to cloth is 19 per shukkah merkani, and 15
-per shukkah kaniki.
-
-6. The sofi, called in Italian cannettone, resembles bits of broken
-pipe-stems, about two-thirds of an inch in length. It is of various
-colours, white, brick-red, and black. Each bead is termed masaro, and is
-used like pice in India: of these the khete contains from 55 to 60. The
-price varies, at Zanzibar, from 2 to 3 dollars per frasilah; in the
-interior, however, the value greatly increases, on account of
-insufficient importation. This bead, in 1858, was in great demand
-throughout Usagara, Unyamwezi, and the western regions, where it was as
-valuable as the sámesáme. Having neglected to lay in a store at
-Zanzibar, the East African Expedition was compelled to exchange cloth
-for it at Msene and Ujiji, giving 1 shukkah merkani for 30 to 35 khete,
-and 1 shukkah kaniki for 15 to 25. In Ujiji, however, many of the
-purchases were rejected because the bits had become small by wear, or
-had been chipped off by use.
-
-7. The staple of commerce is a coarse porcelain bead, of various
-colours, known in Zanzibar by the generic name of háfizi. There are
-three principal kinds. The khanyera or ushanga waupa (white beads) are
-common throughout the country. The average value, at Zanzibar, is 6
-dollars per frasilah: in Unyamwezi, 4 fundo were equivalent to the
-shukkah merkani, and 2 to 3 to the kaniki; but the people, glutted with
-this bead (as many as 20,000 strings were supplied to the East African
-Expedition by the Banyans of Zanzibar), preferred 1 khete of sámesáme to
-3 of khanyera. The kidunduguru is a dull brick-red bead, worth at
-Zanzibar from 5 to 7 dollars per frasilah, but little prized in the
-interior, where it is derisively termed khanyera ya mk’hundu. Another
-red variety of háfizi is called merkani: it is finely made to resemble
-the sámesáme, and costs from 7 to 11 dollars per frasilah. Of this bead
-there are four several subdivisions. The uzanzawírá or samuli
-(ghee-coloured) is a bright yellow porcelain worth, at Zanzibar, from 7
-to 9 dollars per frasilah. It is in demand throughout Chhaga and the
-Masai country, but is rarely seen on the central line.
-
-8. The sukoli are orange-coloured or rhubarb-tinted porcelain, which
-average, at Zanzibar, from 7 to 9 dollars. They are prized in Usagara
-and Ugogo, but are little worn in other places.
-
-9. The nílí (green), or ukutí wa mnazi (coco-leaves), are little beads
-of transparent green glass; they are of three sizes, the smallest of
-which is called kíkítí. The Zanzibar price is from 6 to 11 dollars. In
-Ujiji they are highly valued, and are readily taken in small quantities
-throughout the central line.
-
-10. The ghubari (dust-coloured), or nya kifu (?) is a small
-dove-coloured bead, costing, in Zanzibar, from 7 or 8 dollars. It is
-used in Uzaramo, but its dulness of aspect prevents it being a
-favourite.
-
-11. The lungenya or lak’hio is a coarse red porcelain, valued at 5 to 6
-dollars in Zanzibar, and now principally exported to Uruwwa and the
-innermost regions of Central Africa.
-
-12. The bubu (ububu?), also called ukumwi and ushanga ya vipande, are
-black Venetians, dull dark porcelain, ranging, at Zanzibar, from 5 to 7
-dollars. They are of fourteen sizes, large, medium, and small; the
-latter are the most valued. These beads are taken by the Wazaramo. In
-East Usagara and Unyamwezi they are called khuni or firewood, nor will
-they be received in barter except when they excite a temporary caprice.
-
-The other beads, occasionally met with, are the sereketi, ovals of white
-or garnet-red, prized in Khutu; choroko or mágiyo, dull green
-porcelains; undriyo maupe (?), mauve-coloured, round or oval; undriyo
-mausi (?), dark lavender; asmani, sky-coloured glass; and pusange, blue
-Bohemian glass beads, cut into facets. The people of the coast also
-patronise a variety of large fancy articles, flowered, shelled, and
-otherwise ornamented; these, however, rarely find their way into the
-interior.
-
-After piece goods and beads, the principal articles of traffic,
-especially on the northern lines and the western portion of the central
-route, are masango (in the singular sango), or brass wires, called by
-the Arabs hajúlah. Nos. 4 or 5 are preferred. They are purchased in
-Zanzibar, when cheap, for 12 dollars, and when dear for 16 dollars per
-frasilah. When imported up country the frasilah is divided into three or
-four large coils, called by the Arabs daur, and by the Africans khata,
-for the convenience of attachment to the banghy-pole. Arrived at
-Unyanyembe they are converted by artizans into the kitindi, or
-coil-bracelets, described in the preceding pages. Each daur forms two or
-three of these bulky ornaments, of which there are about 11 to the
-frasilah, and the weight is thus upwards of three pounds. The charge for
-the cutting, cleaning, and twisting into shape is about 1 doti of
-domestics for 50 kitindis. The value of the kitindi, throughout
-Unyamwezi, in 1858, was 1 doti merkani; at Ujiji, where they are in
-demand for slaves and ivory, the price was doubled. Thus, the kitindi,
-worth one dollar each--when cheap, nine are bought for ten dollars--in
-Zanzibar, rises to five dollars in the lake regions. Kitindi were
-formerly made of copper wire; it has fallen into disuse on account of
-its expense,--at Zanzibar from 15 to 20 dollars per frasilah. Large iron
-wires, called senyenge, are confined to Ugogo and the northern countries
-inhabited by the Wamasai. The East Africans have learned to draw fine
-wire, which they call uzi wa shaba (brass thread); they also import from
-the coast Nos. 22 to 25, and employ them for a variety of decorative
-purposes, which have already been alluded to. The average price of this
-small wire at Zanzibar is 12 dollars per frasilah. As has been
-mentioned, sat or zinc, called by the Africans bati (tin), is imported
-by the Wajiji.
-
-The principal of the minor items are coloured cloths, called by the
-people “cloths with names:” of these, many kinds are imported by every
-caravan. In some regions, Ugogo for instance, the people will not sell
-their goats and more valuable provisions for plain piece-goods; their
-gross and gaudy tastes lead them to despise sober and uniform colours.
-The sultans invariably demand for themselves and their wives showy
-goods, and complete their honga or blackmail with domestics and
-indigo-dyed cottons, which they divide amongst their followers. Often,
-too, a bit of scarlet broadcloth, thrown in at the end of a lengthened
-haggle, opens a road and renders impossibilities possible.
-
-The coloured cloths may be divided into three kinds,--woollens, cottons,
-and silks mixed with cotton. Of the former, the principal varieties now
-imported are Joho or broadcloth; of the second, beginning with the
-cheapest, are Barsati, Dabwani, Jamdani, Bandira, Shít (chintz),
-Khuzarangi, Ukaya, Sohari, Shali, Taujiri, Msutu, Kikoi, and Shazar or
-Mukunguru; the mixed and most expensive varieties are the Subai, Dewli,
-Sabuni, Khesi, and Masnafu. Travelling Arabs usually take a piece of
-baftah or white calico as kafan or shrouds for themselves or their
-companions in case of accidents. At Zanzibar the value of a piece of 24
-yds. is 1 dollar 25 cents. Blankets were at first imported by the Arabs,
-but being unsuited to the climate and to the habits of the people they
-soon became a drug in the market.
-
-Joho (a corruption of the Arabic Johh) is a coarse article, either blue
-or scarlet. As a rule, even Asiatics ignore the value of broadcloth,
-estimating it, as they do guns and watches, by the shine of the
-exterior: the African looks only at the length of the pile and the depth
-of the tint. The Zanzibar valuation of the cheap English article is
-usually 50 cents (2_s._ 1_d._) per yard; in the interior rising rapidly
-through double and treble to four times that price, it becomes a present
-for a prince. At Ujiji and other great ivory-marts there is a demand for
-this article, blue as well as red; it is worn, like the shukkah merkani,
-round the loins by men and round the bosom by women, who, therefore,
-require a tobe or double length. At Unyanyembe there are generally
-pauper Arabs or Wasawahili artisans who can fashion the merchants’
-supplies into the kizbao or waistcoats affected by the African chiefs in
-imitation of their more civilised visitors.
-
-Of the second division the cheapest is the Barsati, called by the
-Africans kitambi; it is a blue cotton cloth, with a broad red stripe
-extending along one quarter of the depth, the other three-quarters being
-dark blue; the red is either of European or Cutch dye. The former is
-preferred upon the coast for the purchase of copal. Of this Indian stuff
-there are three kinds, varying in size, colour, and quality; the
-cheapest is worth at Zanzibar (where, however, like dabwani, it is
-usually sold by the gorah of two uzar or loin-cloths) from 5 to 7
-dollars per score; the second 10 dollars 50 cents; and the best 14 to 15
-dollars. The barsati in the interior represents the doti or tobe of
-Merkani. On the coast it is a favourite article of wear with the poorer
-freemen, slaves, and women. Beyond the maritime regions the chiefs will
-often refuse a barsati, if of small dimensions and flimsy texture.
-Formerly, the barsati was made of silk, and cost 7 dollars per
-loin-cloth. Of late years the Wanyamwezi have taken into favour the
-barsati or kitambi banyani; it is a thin white long cloth, called in
-Bombay kora (Corah, or cotton piece-goods), with a narrow reddish border
-of madder or other dye stamped in India or at Zanzibar. The piece of 39
-yards, which is divided into 20 shukkah, costs at Bombay 4·50 Co.’s rs.;
-at Zanzibar 2 dollars 50 cents; and the price of printing the edge is 1
-dollar 75 cents.
-
-The dabwani is a kind of small blue and white check made at Maskat; one
-fourth of its breadth is a red stripe, edged with white and yellow. This
-stuff, which from its peculiar stiffening of gum appears rather like
-grass-cloth than cotton, is of three kinds: the cheapest, dyed with
-Cutch colours, is much used in the far interior; it costs at Zanzibar 12
-dols. 50 cents per score of pieces, each two and a half yards long;--the
-medium quality, employed in the copal trade of the coast, is stained
-with European dye, and superior in work; the score of pieces, each 3
-yards long, costs 30 dols.;--and the best, which is almost confined to
-the island of Zanzibar, ranges from 40 to 45 dols. per kori. The dabwani
-is considered in the interior nearly double the value of the barsati,
-and it is rarely rejected unless stained or injured.
-
-The jamdani is a sprigged or worked muslin imported from India: though
-much prized for turbans by the dignitaries of the maritime races, it is
-rarely carried far up the country. At Zanzibar the price of 10 yards is
-1 dol., and the piece of 20 lengths, each sufficient for a turban, may
-be purchased for 15 dols.
-
-The bandira (flag stuff) is a red cotton bunting imported from Bombay.
-It is prized in the interior by women. At Zanzibar the price of this
-stuff greatly varies; when cheap the piece of 28 yards may be obtained
-for 2 dols. 50 cents, when dear it rises to 3 dols. 50 cents. It is sold
-by gorah of 7½ shukkahs.
-
-Shít, or chintz, is of many different kinds. The common English is a red
-cotton, striped yellow and dark green; it fetches from 1 dol. 50 cents
-to 2 dols. per piece of 28 yards, and is little prized in the interior.
-Those preferred, especially in Unyamwezi and Ujiji, are the French and
-Hamburg; the former is worth at Zanzibar from 4 dols. 50 cents per piece
-of 35 yards, to 5 dols. 50 cents per gorah of 10 shukkahs, and the
-latter from 5 dols. to 5 dols. 50 cents. The most expensive is the
-“ajemi,” that used by the Persians as lining for their lambswool caps;
-the price is from 50 cents to 1 dol. per yard, which renders it a scarce
-article even in Zanzibar island.
-
-The khuzarangi, a European cotton dyed a reddish nankeen, with
-pomegranate rind and other colouring matters, at Maskat, is almost
-confined to the Arabs, who make of it their normal garment, the long and
-sleeved shirt called el dishdashah, or in Kisawahili khanzu. It is the
-test of foreign respectability and decorum when appearing amongst the
-half-clad African races, and the poorest of pedlars will always carry
-with him one of these nightgown-like robes. The price of the ready-made
-dishdashah ranges from 50 cents to 2 dols. 50 cents, and the uncut piece
-of 16 yards costs from 2 dols. to 2 dols. 50 cents.
-
-The ukaya somewhat resembles the kaniki, but it is finer and thinner.
-This jaconnet, manufactured in Europe and dyed in Bombay, is much used
-by female slaves and concubines as head veils. The price of the piece of
-20 yards, when of inferior quality, is 2 dollars 50 cents; it ranges as
-high as 12 dollars.
-
-The sohari, or ridia, made at Maskat, is a blue and white check with a
-red border about 5 inches broad, with smaller stripes of red, blue, and
-yellow; the ends of the piece are checks of a larger pattern, with red
-introduced. There are many varieties of this cloth, which, considered as
-superior to the dabwani as the latter is superior to the barsati, forms
-an acceptable present to a chief. The cheapest kind, much used in
-Unyamwezi, costs 16 dollars 25 cents per kori, or score. The higher
-sorts, of which however only 1 to 40 of the inferior is imported into
-the country, ranges from 22 to 30 dollars.
-
-The shali, a corruption of the Indian shal (shawl), is a common English
-imitation shawl pattern of the poorest cotton. Bright yellow or red
-grounds, with the pear pattern and similar ornaments, are much prized by
-the chiefs of Unyamwezi. The price of the kori, or score, is 25 dollars.
-
-The taujiri (from the Indian taujír burá) is a dark blue cotton stuff,
-with a gaudy border of madder-red or tumeric-yellow, the former colour
-preferred by the Wahiao, the latter by the Wanyamwezi. The price per
-score varies from 8 to 17 dollars.
-
-The msutu is a European cotton dyed at Surat, indigo blue upon a
-madder-red ground, spotted with white. This print is much worn by Arab
-and Wasawahili women as a nightdress and morning wrapper; in the
-interior it becomes a robe of ceremony. At Zanzibar the piece of 20
-lengths, each 2·25 yards long and 40 inches broad (two breadths being
-sown together), costs 19 dollars. The kisutu, an inferior variety,
-fetches, per kori of pieces 2·50 yards long, 13 dollars.
-
-The kikoi is a white cotton, made at Surat, coarse and thick, with a
-broad border of parallel stripes, red, yellow, and indigo blue: per kori
-of pieces 2 yards long, and sewn in double breadths, the price is 5
-dollars. A superior variety is made principally for the use of women,
-with a silk border, which costs from 1 to 4 dollars.
-
-The shazar, called throughout the interior mukunguru, is a Cutch-made
-cotton plaid, with large or small squares, red and white, or black and
-blue; this cloth is an especial favourite with the Wamasai tribes. The
-score of pieces, each 2 yards, costs 6 dollars 25 cents. There is a
-dearer variety, of which each piece is 3 yards long, costing 16 dollars
-per kori, and therefore rarely sold.
-
-Of the last division of “cloths with names,” namely those of silk and
-cotton mixed, the most popular is the subaí. It is a striped stuff, with
-small checks between the lines, and with a half-breadth of border, a
-complicated pattern of red, black, and yellow. This cloth is used as an
-uzar, or loin-cloth, by the middle classes of Arabs; the tambua, taraza,
-or fringe, is applied to the cloth with a band of gold thread at
-Zanzibar, by Wasawahili. The subai, made at Maskat of Cutch cotton,
-varies greatly in price: the cheapest, of cotton only, may be obtained
-for 2 dollars; the medium, generally preferred for presents to great
-chiefs, is about 5 dollars 50 cents; whilst the most expensive, inwoven
-with gold thread, ranges from 8 to 30 dollars.
-
-The dewli is the Indian lungi, a Surat silk, garnished with a border of
-gold thread and a fringe at Zanzibar. It is a red, yellow, or green
-ground, striped in various ways, and much prized for uzar. The price of
-the cheap piece of 3·50 yards is 7 dollars, besides the fringe, which is
-2 dollars more; the best, when adorned with gold, rise to 80 dollars.
-
-The sabuni uzar, made in Maskat, is a silk-bordered cotton, a small blue
-and white check; the red and yellow edging which gives it its value is
-about one-fifth of its breadth. The score of pieces, each 2·50 yards
-long, varies from 25 to 50 dollars; the more expensive, however, rarely
-find their way into the interior.
-
-The khesi is a rare importation from Bombay, a scarlet silk, made at
-Tannah; the piece sold at Bombay for 10 Co.’s rs. fetches at Zanzibar 5
-dols. 50 cents to 6 dollars; this kind is preferred by the Wanyamwezi
-chiefs; when larger, and adorned with gold stripes, it rises to 35 Co.’s
-rs., or 19 dollars, and is prized by the Banyans and Hindis of Zanzibar.
-
-The masnafu is rare like the khesi; it is a mixed silk and cotton cloth,
-of striped pattern, made at Maskat. The cheapest is a piece of 1·75
-yards, costing from 2 to 5 dollars, and highly regarded in Unyamwezi;
-the larger kinds, of 2·50 yards, rise from 5 to 6 dollars, and the Arabs
-will pay from 20 to 25 dollars for those worked with gold thread.
-
-These notes upon the prices of importations into Central Africa rest
-upon the authority of the Hindus, and principally of Ladha Damha, the
-collector of customs at Zanzibar. Specimens of the cloths were deposited
-with the Royal Geographical Society of London, and were described by the
-kindness of Mr. Alderman Botterill, F.R.G.S.
-
-Remain for consideration the minor and local items of traffic.
-
-The skull-caps are of two kinds. One is a little fez, locally called
-kummah. It is made in France, rarely at Bagdad, and sells at Zanzibar
-for 5 dols. 50 cents to 9 dollars per dozen. The cheaper kind is
-preferred in Unyamwezi; it is carried up from the coast by Arab slaves
-and Wasawahili merchants, and is a favourite wear with the sultan and
-the mtongi. At Unyanyembe the price of the fez rises to 1 dollar. The
-“alfiyyah” is the common Surat cap, worked with silk upon a cotton
-ground; it is affected by the Diwans and Shomwis of the coasts. The
-“vis-gol,” or 20-stitch, preferred for importation, cost 8 dollars per
-score; the “tris-gol,” or 30-stitch, 13 dollars; and the “chalis-gol,”
-or 40-stitch, 18 dollars.
-
-Besides these articles, a little hardware finds its way into the
-country. Knives, razors, fish-hooks, and needles are useful, especially
-in the transit of Uzaramo. As an investment they are useless; the
-people, who make for themselves an article which satisfies their wants,
-will not part with valuables to secure one a little better. They have
-small axes and sharp spears, consequently they will not buy dear
-cutlery; they have gourds, and therefore they care little for glass and
-china. The Birmingham trinkets and knicknacks, of which travellers take
-large outfits to savage and barbarous countries, would in East Africa be
-accepted by women and children as presents, but unless in exceptional
-cases they would not procure a pound of grain; mirrors are cheap and
-abundant at Zanzibar, yet they are rarely imported into the interior.
-The people will devise new bijouterie for themselves, but they will not
-borrow it from strangers. In the maritime regions, where the tribes are
-more civilised, they will covet such foreign contrivances, as dollars,
-blankets, snuff-boxes, and tin cylinders which can be converted into
-tobacco pouches: the Wanyamwezi would not regard them. Similarly in
-Somaliland, a case of Birmingham goods carried through the country
-returned to Aden almost full.
-
-Coffee, sugar, and soap may generally be obtained in small quantities
-from the Arabs of Unyanyembe. At Zanzibar the price of common coffee is
-3 dollars 75 cents, and of Mocha 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah. Sugar
-is of three kinds: the buluji, or loaf-sugar, imported from America,
-averages 6 annas; sukkari za mawe, or sugar-candy, fetches upon the
-island 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah; and the bungálá, or sukkari za
-mchanga (brown Bengal sugar), costs 3 dollars 50 cents; gur, or
-molasses, sells at Zanzibar for 1 dollar 25 cents per frasilah. Soap is
-brought to Zanzibar island by the Americans, French, and India
-merchants.
-
-The other articles of importation into Zanzibar, which, however, so
-rarely find their way into the interior, that they do not merit detailed
-notice, are--rice and other cereals from Bombay and Western India;
-shipping materials, canvas, rigging, hempen cord, planks and boards,
-paint, pitch, turpentine, linseed-oil, bees’-wax, and tar, from America
-and India; metals from Europe and India; furniture from Europe and
-America, China and Bombay; carpets and rugs from Turkey and Persia; mats
-from Madagascar; made-up clothes from Maskat and Yemen; glassware from
-Europe and America; pottery, paper, and candles from Europe and Bombay;
-kuzah (water-jars) from the Persian Gulf; woods and timber from
-Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the coast as far north as Mombasah;
-skins and hides from the Banadir; salt-fish (shark and others) from
-Oman, Hazramaut, and the Benadir; brandy, rum, peppermint, eau de
-Cologne, syrups and pickles, tobacco, cigars, and tea, from Bombay,
-France, and the Mauritius; rose-water from the Gulf; attar of rose and
-of sandal from Bombay; dates, almonds, and raisins from Arabia and the
-Gulf; gums and ambergris from Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the
-“Sayf-Tawil” (the long low coast extending from Ras Awath, in N. lat. 5°
-33′, to Ras el-Khayl, N. lat. 7° 44′); aloes and dragon’s-blood from
-Socotra; incense, gum Arabic, and myrrh from the Somali country and the
-Benadir; turmeric, opium, ginger, nutmegs, colombo-root, cardamoms,
-cinnamon, aniseed, camphor, benzoin, assafœtida, saltpetre, potash, blue
-vitriol, alum, soda, saffron, garlic, fenugreek, and other drugs and
-spices from Bombay and Western India.
-
-The staple articles of the internal trade throughout the regions
-extending from the coast of the Indian Ocean to the lakes of Central
-Africa are comprised in slaves and cattle, salt, iron, tobacco, mats and
-strainers, and tree-barks and ropes. Of these, all except salt have been
-noticed in detail in the preceding pages.
-
-Salt is brought down during the season from East Arabia to Zanzibar by
-Arab dows, and is heaped up for sale on a strip of clear ground under
-the eastern face of the gurayza or fort. It is of two kinds: the fine
-rock salt sells at 6 annas per frasilah, and the inferior, which is
-dark and sandy, at about half that price. On the coast the principal
-ports and towns supply themselves with sea-salt evaporated in the rudest
-way. Pits sunk near the numerous lagoons and backwaters allow the saline
-particles to infiltrate; the contents, then placed in a pierced earthen
-pot, are allowed to strain into a second beneath. They are inspissated
-by boiling, and are finally dried in the sun, when the mass assumes the
-form of sand. This coarse salt is sold after the rains, when it abounds,
-for its weight of holcus; when dear, the price is doubled. In the
-interior there are two great markets, and the regularity of
-communication enables the people to fare better as regards the luxury
-than the more civilised races of Abyssinia and Harar, where of a
-millionnaire it is said, “he eateth salt.” An inferior article is
-exported from Ugogo, about half-way between the East Coast and the
-Tanganyika Lake. A superior quality is extracted from the pits near the
-Rusugi River in Western Uvinza, distant but a few days from Ujiji. For
-the prices and other conditions of sale the reader is referred to
-Chapters V. and VII.
-
-The subject of exports will be treated of at some length; it is not only
-interesting from its intrinsic value, but it is capable of considerable
-development, and it also offers a ready entrance for civilisation. The
-African will never allow the roads to be permanently closed--none but
-the highly refined amongst mankind can contemplate with satisfaction a
-life of utter savagery. The Arab is too wise to despise “protection,”
-but he will not refuse to avail himself of assistance offered by
-foreigners when they appear as capitalists. Hitherto British interests
-have been neglected in this portion of the African continent, and the
-name of England is unknown in the interior. Upon the island of Zanzibar,
-in 1857-8, there was not an English firm; no line of steamers connected
-it with India or the Cape, and, during the dead season, nine months have
-elapsed before the answer to a letter has been received from home.
-
-The reader is warned that amongst the East Africans the “bay o
-shara”--barter or round trade--is an extensive subject, of which only
-the broad outlines and general indications can be traced. At present,
-the worthlessness of time enables both buyer and seller to haggle _ad
-libitum_, and the superior craft of the Arab, the Banyan, the Msawahili,
-and the more civilised slave, has encumbered with a host of difficulties
-the simplest transactions. It is easy to be a merchant and to buy
-wholesale at Zanzibar, but a lengthened period of linguistic study and
-of conversancy with the habits and customs of the people must be spent
-by the stranger who would engage in the task of retail-buying in the
-interior.
-
-The principal article of export from the Zanzibar coast is copal, from
-the interior ivory. The minor items are hippopotamus teeth, rhinoceros
-horns, cattle, skins, hides, and horns, the cereals, timbers, and
-cowries. Concerning the slaves, who in East Africa still form a
-considerable item of export, details have been given in the preceding
-pages. The articles which might be exploited, were means of carriage
-supplied to the people, are wax and honey, orchella-weed, fibrous
-substances, and a variety of gums.
-
-The copal of Zanzibar, which differs materially from that of the Western
-Coast of Mexico and the cowaee (Australian dammar?) of New Zealand, is
-the only article convertible into the fine varnishes now so extensively
-used throughout the civilised world.
-
-As the attention of the Expedition was particularly directed to the
-supplies of copal in East Africa by Dr. G. Buist, LL.D., Secretary to
-the Bombay branch of the R. G. Society, many inquiries and visits to the
-copal diggings were made. In the early part of 1857 specimens of the
-soils and subsoils, and of the tree itself, were forwarded to the
-Society.
-
-The copal-tree is called by the Arabs shajar el sandarús, from the
-Hindostani chhandarus; by the Wasawahili msandarusi; and by the Wazaramo
-and other maritime races mnángú. The tree still lingers on the island
-and the mainland of Zanzibar. It was observed at Mombasah, Saadani,
-Muhonyera, and Mzegera of Uzaramo; and was heard of at Bagamoyo,
-Mbuamaji, and Kilwa. It is by no means, as some have supposed, a shrubby
-thorn; its towering bole has formed canoes 60 feet long, and a single
-tree has sufficed for the kelson of a brig. The average size, however,
-is about half that height, with from 3 to 6 feet girth near the ground;
-the bark is smooth, the lower branches are often within reach of a man’s
-hand, and the tree frequently emerges from a natural ring-fence of dense
-vegetation. The trunk is of a yellow-whitish tinge, rendering the tree
-conspicuous amid the dark African jungle-growths; it is dotted with
-exudations of raw gum, which is found scattered in bits about the base;
-and it is infested by ants, especially by a long ginger-coloured and
-semi-transparent variety, called by the people maji-m’oto, or “boiling
-water,” from its fiery bite. The copal wood is yellow tinted, and the
-saw collects from it large flakes; when dried and polished it darkens to
-a honey-brown, and, being well veined, it is used for the panels of
-doors. The small and pliable branches, freshly cut, form favourite
-“bakur,” the kurbaj or bastinadoing instrument of these regions; after
-long keeping they become brittle. The modern habitat of the tree is the
-alluvial sea-plain and the anciently raised beach: though extending over
-the crest of the latter formation, it ceases to be found at any distance
-beyond the landward counterslope, and it is unknown in the interior.
-
-The gum copal is called by the Arabs and Hindus sandarus, by the
-Wasawahili sandarusi, and by the Wanyamwezi--who employ it like the
-people of Mexico and Yucatan as incense in incantations and
-medicinings--sirokko and mámnángu. This semi-fossil is not “washed out
-by streams and torrents,” but “crowed” or dug up by the coast clans and
-the barbarians of the maritime region. In places it is found when
-sinking piles for huts, and at times it is picked up in spots overflowed
-by the high tides. The East African seaboard, from Ras Gomani in S. lat.
-3° to Ras Delgado in 10° 41′, with a medium depth of 30 miles, may
-indeed be called the “copal coast;” every part supplies more or less the
-gum of commerce. Even a section of this line, from the mouth of the
-Pangani River to Ngao (Monghou), would, if properly exploited, suffice
-to supply all our present wants.
-
-The Arabs and Africans divide the gum into two different kinds. The raw
-copal (copal vert of the French market) is called sandarusi za miti,
-“tree copal,” or chakází, corrupted by the Zanzibar merchant to
-“jackass” copal. This chakazi is either picked from the tree or is
-found, as in the island of Zanzibar, shallowly imbedded in the loose
-soil, where it has not remained long enough to attain the phase of
-bitumenisation. To the eye it is smoky or clouded inside, it feels soft,
-it becomes like putty when exposed to the action of alcohol, and it
-viscidises in the solution used for washing the true copal. Little
-valued in European technology, it is exported to Bombay, where it is
-converted into an inferior varnish for carriages and palanquins, and to
-China, where the people have discovered, it is said, for utilising it, a
-process which, like the manufacture of rice paper and of Indian ink,
-they keep secret. The price of chakazi varies from 4 to 9 dollars per
-frasilah.
-
-The true or ripe copal, properly called sandarusi, is the produce of
-vast extinct forests, overthrown in former ages either by some violent
-action of the elements, or exuded from the roots of the tree by an
-abnormal action which exhausted and destroyed it. The gum, buried at
-depths beyond atmospheric influence, has, like amber and similar
-gum-resins, been bitumenised in all its purity, the volatile principles
-being fixed by moisture and by the exclusion of external air. That it is
-the produce of a tree is proved by the discovery of pieces of gum
-embedded in a touchwood which crumbles under the fingers; the
-“goose-skin,” which is the impress of sand or gravel, shows that it was
-buried in a soft state; and the bees, flies, gnats, and other insects
-which are sometimes found in it delicately preserved, seem to disprove a
-remote geologic antiquity. At the end of the rains it is usually carried
-ungarbled to Zanzibar. When garbled upon the coast it acquires an
-additional value of 1 dollar per frasilah. The Banyan embarks it on
-board his own boat, or pays a freight varying from 2 to 4 annas, and the
-ushur or government tax is 6 annas per frasilah with half an anna for
-charity. About 8 annas per frasilah are deducted for “tare and tret.” At
-Zanzibar, after being sifted and freed from heterogeneous matter, it is
-sent by the Banyan retailer to the Indian market or sold to the foreign
-merchant. It is then washed in solutions of various strengths: the lye
-is supposed to be composed of soda and other agents for softening the
-water; its proportions, however, are kept a profound secret. European
-technologists have, it is said, vainly proposed theoretical methods for
-the delicate part of the operation which is to clear the goose-skin of
-dirt. The Americans exported the gum uncleaned, because the operation is
-better performed at Salem. Of late years they have begun to prepare it
-at Zanzibar, like the Hamburg traders. When taken from the solution, in
-which from 20 to 37 per cent. is lost, the gum is washed, sun-dried for
-some hours, and cleaned with a hard brush, which must not, however,
-injure the goose skin; the dark “eyes,” where the dirt has sunk deep,
-are also picked out with an iron tool. It is then carefully garbled with
-due regard to colour and size. There are many tints and peculiarities
-known only to those whose interests compel them to study and to observe
-copal, which, like cotton and Cashmere shawls, requires years of
-experience. As a rule, the clear and semi-transparent are the best; then
-follow the numerous and almost imperceptible varieties of dull white,
-lemon colour, amber yellow, rhubarb yellow, bright red, and dull red.
-Some specimens of this vegetable fossil appear by their dirty and
-blackened hue to have been subjected to the influence of fire; others
-again are remarkable for a tender grass-green colour. According to some
-authorities, the gum, when long kept, has been observed to change its
-tinge. The sizes are fine, medium, and large, with many subdivisions;
-the pieces vary from the dimensions of small pebbles to 2 or 3 ounces;
-they have been known to weigh 5 lbs., and, it is said, at Salem a piece
-of 35 lbs. is shown. Lastly, the gum is thrown broadcast into boxes and
-exported from the island. The Hamburg merchants keep European coopers,
-who put together the cases whose material is sent out to them. It is
-almost impossible to average the export of copal from Zanzibar.
-According to the late Lieutenant-Colonel Hamerton, it varies from
-800,000 to 1,200,000 lbs. per annum, of which Hamburg absorbs 150,000
-lbs., and Bombay two lacs’ worth. The refuse copal used formerly to
-reach India as “packing,” being deemed of no value in commerce; of late
-years the scarcity of the supply has rendered merchants more careful.
-The price, also, is subject to incessant fluctuations, and during the
-last few years it has increased from 4 dol. 50 cents to a maximum of 12
-dollars per frasilah.
-
-According to the Arabs, the redder the soil the better is the copal. The
-superficies of the copal country is generally a thin coat of white sand,
-covering a dark and fertilising humus, the vestiges of decayed
-vegetation, which varies from a few inches to a foot and a half in
-depth. In the island of Zanzibar, which produces only the chakazi or raw
-copal, the subsoil is a stiff blue clay, the raised sea-beach, and the
-ancient habitat of the coco. It becomes greasy and adhesive, clogging
-the hoe in its lower bed; where it is dotted with blood-coloured
-fragments of ochreish earth, proving the presence of oxidising and
-chalybeate efficients, and with a fibrous light-red matter, apparently
-decayed coco-roots. At a depth of from 2 to 3 feet water oozes from the
-greasy walls of the pit. When digging through these formations, the gum
-copal occurs in the vegetable soil overlying the clayey subsoil.
-
-A visit to the little port of Saadani afforded different results. After
-crossing 3 miles of alluvial and maritime plain, covered with a rank
-vegetation of spear grass and low thorns, with occasional mimosas and
-tall hyphænas, which have supplanted the coco, the traveller finds a few
-scattered specimens of the living tree and pits dotting the ground. The
-diggers, however, generally advance another mile to a distinctly formed
-sea-beach, marked with lateral bands of quartzose and water-rolled
-pebbles, and swelling gradually to 150 feet from the alluvial plain. The
-thin but rich vegetable covering supports a luxuriant thicket, the
-subsoil is red and sandy, and the colour darkens as the excavation
-deepens. After 3 feet, fibrous matter appears, and below this copal,
-dusty and comminuted, is blended with the red ochreish earth. The guides
-assert that they have never hit upon the subsoil of blue clay, but they
-never dig lower than a man’s waist, and the pits are seldom more than 2
-feet in depth. Though the soil is red, the copal of Saadani is not
-highly prized, being of a dull white colour; it is usually designated as
-“chakazi.”
-
-On the line inland from Bagamoyo and Kaole the copal-tree was observed
-at rare intervals in the forests, and the pits extended as far as
-Muhonyera, about 40 miles in direct distance from the coast. The produce
-of this country, though not first-rate, is considered far superior to
-that about Saadani.
-
-Good copal is dug in the vicinity of Mbuamaji, and the diggings are said
-to extend to 6 marches inland. The Wadenkereko, a wild tribe, mixed with
-and stretching southwards of the Wazaramo, at a distance of two days’
-journey from the sea, supply a mixed quality, more often white than red.
-The best gums are procured from Hunda and its adjacent districts.
-Frequent feuds with the citizens deter the wild people from venturing
-out of their jungles, and thus the Banyans of Mbuamaji find two small
-dows sufficient for the carriage of their stores. At that port the price
-of copal varies from 2 dol. 50 cents to 3 dol. per frasilah.
-
-The banks of the Rufiji River, especially the northern district of
-Wánde, supply the finest and best of copal; it is dug by the Wawande
-tribe, who either carry it to Kikunya and other ports, or sell it to
-travelling hucksters. The price in loco is from 1 dol. 50 cents to 2
-dollars per frasilah; on the coast it rises to 3 dol. 50 cents. At all
-these places the tariff varies with the Bombay market, and in 1858
-little was exported owing to the enlistment of “free labourers.”
-
-In the vicinity of Kilwa, for four marches inland, copal is dug up by
-the Mandandu and other tribes; owing to the facility of carriage and the
-comparative safety of the country it is somewhat dearer than that
-purchased on the banks of the Rufiji. The copal of Ngao (Monghou) and
-the Lindi creek is much cheaper than at Kilwa; the produce, however, is
-variable in quality, being mostly a dull white chakazi.
-
-Like that of East African produce generally, the exploitation of copal
-is careless and desultory. The diggers are of the lowest classes, and
-hands are much wanted. Near the seaboard it is worked by the fringe of
-Moslem negroids called the Wamrima or Coast clans; each gang has its own
-mtu mku or akida’ao (mucaddum--headman), who, by distributing the stock,
-contrives to gain more and to labour less than the others. In the
-interior it is exploited by the Washenzi or heathen, who work
-independently of one another. When there is no blood-feud they carry it
-down to the coast, otherwise they must await the visits of petty retail
-dealers from the ports, who enter the country with ventures of 10 or 12
-dollars, and barter for it cloth, beads, and wire. The kosi--south-west
-or rainy monsoon--is the only period of work; the kaskazi, or dry
-season, is a dead time. The hardness of the ground is too much for the
-energies of the people: moreover, “kaskazi copal” gives trouble in
-washing on account of the sand adhering to its surface, and the flakes
-are liable to break. As a rule, the apathetic Moslem and the futile
-heathen will not work whilst a pound of grain remains in their huts. The
-more civilised use a little jembe or hoe, an implement about as
-efficient as the wooden spade with which an English child makes
-dirt-pies.
-
-The people of the interior “crow” a hole about six inches in diameter
-with a pointed stick, and scrape out the loosened earth with the hand as
-far as the arm will reach. They desert the digging before it is
-exhausted; and although the labourers could each, it is calculated,
-easily collect from ten to twelve lbs. per diem, they prefer sleeping
-through the hours of heat, and content themselves with as many ounces.
-Whenever upon the coast there is a blood-feud--and these are uncommonly
-frequent--a drought, a famine, or a pestilence, workmen strike work, and
-cloth and beads are offered in vain. It is evident that the copal-mine
-can never be regularly and efficiently worked as long as it continues in
-the hands of such unworthy miners. The energy of Europeans, men of
-capital and purpose, settled on the seaboard with gangs of foreign
-workmen, would soon remedy existing evils; but they would require not
-only the special permission, but also the protection of the local
-government. And although the intensity of the competition principle
-amongst the Arabs has not yet emulated the ferocious rivalry of
-civilisation, the new settlers must expect considerable opposition from
-those in possession. Though the copal diggings are mostly situated
-beyond the jurisdiction of Zanzibar, the tract labours under all the
-disadvantages of a monopoly: the diwans, the heavy merchants, and the
-petty traders of the coast derive from it, it is supposed, profits
-varying from 80 to 100 per cent. Like other African produce, though
-almost dirt-cheap, it becomes dear by passing through many hands, and
-the frasilah, worth from 1 to 3 dollars in the interior, acquires a
-value of from 8 to 9 dollars at Zanzibar.
-
-Zanzibar is the principal mart for perhaps the finest and largest ivory
-in the world. It collects the produce of the lands lying between the
-parallels of 2° N. lat. and 10° S. lat., and the area extends from the
-coast to the regions lying westward of the Tanganyika Lake. It is almost
-the only legitimate article of traffic for which caravans now visit the
-interior.
-
-An account of the ivory markets in Inner Africa will remove sundry false
-impressions. The Arabs are full of fabulous reports concerning regions
-where the article may be purchased for its circumference in beads, and
-greed of gain has led many of them to danger and death. Wherever tusks
-are used as cattle-pens or to adorn graves, the reason is that they are
-valueless on account of the want of conveyance.
-
-The elephant has not wholly disappeared from the maritime regions of
-Zanzibar. It is found, especially during the rainy monsoon, a few miles
-behind Pangani town: it exists also amongst the Wazegura, as far as
-their southern limit, the Gama River. The Wadoe hunt the animal in the
-vicinity of Shakini, a peak within sight of Zanzibar. Though killed out
-of Uzaramo, and K’hutu, it is found upon the banks of the Kingani and
-the Rufiji rivers. The coast people now sell their tusks for 30 to 35
-dollars’ worth of cloth, beads, and wire per frasilah.
-
-In Western Usagara the elephant extends from Maroro to Ugogi. The
-people, however, being rarely professional hunters, content themselves
-with keeping a look-out for the bodies of animals that have died of
-thirst or of wounds received elsewhere. As the chiefs are acquainted
-with the luxuries of the coast, their demands are fantastic. They will
-ask, for instance, for a large tusk--the frasilah is not used in inland
-sales--a copper caldron worth 15 dollars; a khesi, or fine cloth,
-costing 20 dollars; and a variable quantity of blue and white cottons:
-thus, an ivory, weighing perhaps 3 frasilah, may be obtained for 50
-dollars.
-
-Ugogo and its encircling deserts are peculiarly rich in elephants. The
-people are eminently hunters, and, as has been remarked, they trap the
-animals, and in droughty seasons they find many dead in the jungles.
-Ivory is somewhat dearer in Ugogo than in Unyamwezi, as caravans rarely
-visit the coasts. It is generally bartered to return caravans for slaves
-brought from the interior; of these, five or six represent the value of
-a large tusk.
-
-The ivory of Unyamwezi is collected from the districts of Mgunda
-Mk’hali, Usukuma, Umanda, Usagozi, and other adjacent regions. When the
-“Land of the Moon” was first visited by the Arabs, they purchased, it is
-said, 10 farasilah of ivory with 1 frasilah of the cheap white or blue
-porcelains. The price is now between 30 and 35 dollars per frasilah in
-cloth, beads, and wire. The Africans, ignoring the frasilah, estimate
-the value of the tusk by its size and quality; and the Arabs ascertain
-its exact weight by steelyards. Moreover, they raise the weight of what
-they purchase to 48 lbs., and diminish that which they sell to 23·50
-lbs., calling both by the same name, frasilah. When the Arab wishes to
-raise an outfit at Unyanyembe he can always command three gorahs of
-domestics (locally worth 30 dollars) per frasilah of ivory. Merchants
-visiting Karagwah, where the ivory is of superior quality, lay in a
-stock of white, pink, blue, green, and coral beads, and brass armlets,
-which must be made up at Unyanyembe to suit the tastes of the people.
-Cloth is little in demand. For one frasilah of beads and brass wire they
-purchase about one and a half of ivory. At K’hokoro the price of tusks
-has greatly risen; a large specimen can scarcely be procured under 40
-doti of domestics, one frasilah of brass wire, and 100 fundo of coloured
-beads. The tusks collected in this country are firm, white, and soft,
-sometimes running 6 farasilah (210 lbs.) The small quantity collected in
-Ubena, Urori, and the regions east of the Tanganyika Lake, resembles
-that of K’hokoro.
-
-The ivory of Ujiji is collected from the provinces lying around the
-northern third of the lake, especially from Urundi and Uvira. These
-tusks have one great defect; though white and smooth when freshly taken
-from the animal, they put forth after a time a sepia-coloured or dark
-brown spot, extending like a ring over the surface, which gradually
-spreads and injures the texture. Such is the “Jendai” or “Gendai” ivory,
-well known at Zanzibar: it is apt to flake off outside, and is little
-prized on account of its lightness. At Ujiji tusks were cheap but a few
-years ago, now they fetch an equal weight of porcelain or glass beads,
-in addition to which the owners--they are generally many--demand from 4
-to 8 cloths. Competition, which amongst the Arabs is usually somewhat
-unscrupulous, has driven the ivory merchant to regions far west of the
-Tanganyika, and geography will thrive upon the losses of commerce.
-
-The process of elephant-hunting, the complicated division of the spoils,
-and the mode of transporting tusks to the coast, have already been
-described. A quantity of ivory, as has appeared, is wasted in bracelets,
-armlets, and other ornaments. This would not be the case were the
-imports better calculated to suit the tastes of the people. At present
-the cloth-stuffs are little prized, and the beads are not sufficiently
-varied for barbarians who, eminently fickle, require change by way of
-stimulant. The Arabs seek in ivory six qualities: it must be white,
-heavy, soft, thick--especially at the point--gently curved--when too
-much curved it loses from 10 to 14 per cent.--and it must be marked with
-dark surface-lines, like cracks, running longitudinally towards the
-point. It is evident from the preceding details that the Arab merchants
-gain but little beyond a livelihood in plenty and dignity by their
-expeditions to the interior. An investment of 1,000 dollars rarely
-yields more than 70 farasilah (2450 lbs.) Assuming the high price of
-Zanzibar at an average of 50 dollars per farasilah, the stock would be
-worth 3500 dollars--a net profit of 1050 dollars. Against this, however,
-must be set off the price of porterage and rations--equal to at least
-five dollars per frasilah--the enormous interest upon the capital, the
-wastage of outfit, and the risk of loss, which, upon the whole, is
-excessive. Though time, toil, and sickness, not being matters of money,
-are rarely taken into consideration by the Eastern man, they must be set
-down on the loss side of the account. It is therefore plain that
-commercial operations on such a scale can be remunerative only to a poor
-people, and that they can be rendered lucrative to capitalists only by
-an extension and a development which, depending solely upon improved
-conveyance, must be brought about by the energy of Europeans. For long
-centuries past and for centuries to come the Semite and the Hamite have
-been and will be contented with human labour. The first thought which
-suggests itself to the sons of Japhet is a tramroad from the coast to
-the Lake regions.
-
-The subject of ivory as sold at Zanzibar is as complicated as that of
-sugar in Great Britain or of cotton in America. A detailed treatise
-would here be out of place, but the following notices may serve to
-convey an idea of the trade.
-
-The merchants at Zanzibar recognise in ivory, the produce of these
-regions, three several qualities. The best, a white, soft, and large
-variety, with small “bamboo,” is that from the Banadir, Brava, Makdishu,
-and Marka. A somewhat inferior kind, on account of its hardness, is
-brought from the countries of Chaga, Umasai, and Nguru. The Wamasai
-often spoil their tusks by cutting them, for the facility of transport;
-and, like the people of Nguru and other tribes, they stain the exterior
-by sticking the tooth in the sooty rafters of their chimneyless huts,
-with the idea that so treated it will not crack or split in the sun.
-This red colour, erroneously attributed at Zanzibar to the use of ghee,
-is removed by the people with blood, or cowdung mixed with water. Of
-these varieties the smaller tusks fetch from 40 to 50 dollars; when they
-attain a length of 6 feet, the price would be 12_l._; and some choice
-specimens 7½ feet long fetch 60_l._ A lot of 47 tusks was seen to fetch
-1500_l._; the average weight of each was 95 lbs., 80 being considered
-moderate, and from 70 to 75 lbs. poor.
-
-The second quality is that imported from the regions about the Nyassa
-Lake, and carried to Kilwa by the Wabisa, the Wahiao, the Wangindo, the
-Wamakua, and other clans. The “Bisha ivory” formerly found its way to
-the Mozambique, but the barbarians have now learned to prefer Zanzibar;
-and the citizens welcome them, as they sell their stores more cheaply
-than the Wahiao, who have become adepts in coast arts. The ivory of the
-Wabisa, though white and soft, is generally small, the full length of a
-tusk being 7 feet. The price of the “bab kalasi”--scrivellos or small
-tusks, under 20 lbs.--is from 24 to 25 dollars; and the value increases
-at the rate of somewhat less than 1 dollar per lb. The “bab gujrati or
-kashshi,” the bab kashshi, is that intended for the Cutch market. The
-tusk must be of middling size, little bent, very bluff at the point as
-it is intended for rings and armlets; the girth must be a short span and
-three fingers, the bamboo shallow and not longer than a hand. Ivory
-fulfilling all these conditions will sell as high as 70 dollars per
-frasilah,--medium size of 20 to 45 lbs.--fetches 56 to 60 dollars. The
-“bab wilaiti,” or “foreign sort,” is that purchased in European and
-American markets. The largest size is preferred, which ranging from 45
-to 100 lbs., may be purchased for 52 dollars per frasilah.
-
-The third and least valued quality is the western ivory, the Gendai, and
-other varieties imported from Usagara, Uhehe, Urori, Unyamwezi, and its
-neighbourhood. The price varies according to size, form, and weight,
-from 45 to 56 dollars per frasilah.
-
-The transport of ivory to the coast, and the profits derived by the
-maritime settlers, Arab and Indian, have been described. When all fees
-have been paid, the tusk, guarded against smuggling by the custom-house
-stamp, is sent to Zanzibar. On the island scrivellos under 6 lbs. in
-weight are not registered. According to the late Lieutenant-Colonel
-Hamerton, the annual average of large tusks is not less than 20,000. The
-people of the country make the weight range between 17,000 and 25,000
-frasilah. The tusk is larger at Zanzibar than elsewhere. At Mozambique,
-for instance, 60 lbs. would be considered a good average for a lot.
-Monster tusks are spoken of. Specimens of 5 farasilah are not very rare,
-and the people have traditions that these wonderful armatures have
-extended to 227 lbs., and even to 280 lbs. each.
-
-Amongst the minor articles of export from the interior, hippopotamus
-teeth have been enumerated. Beyond the coast, however, they form but a
-slender item in the caravan load. In the inner regions they are bought
-in retail; the price ranges between 1 and 2 fundo of beads, and at
-times 3 may be procured for a shukkah. On the coast they rise, when
-fine, to 25 dollars per frasilah. At Zanzibar a large lot, averaging 6
-to 8 lbs. in weight (12 lbs. would be about the largest), will sell for
-60 dollars; per frasilah of 5 lbs. from 40 to 45 dollars: whilst the
-smallest fetch from 5 to 6 dollars. Of surpassing hardness, they are
-still used in Europe for artificial teeth. In America porcelain bids
-fair to supplant them.
-
-The gargatan (karkadan?), or small black rhinoceros with a double horn,
-is as common as the elephant in the interior. The price of the horn is
-regulated by its size; a small specimen is to be bought for 1 jembe or
-iron hoe. When large the price is doubled. Upon the coast a lot fetches
-from 6 to 9 dollars per frasilah, which at Zanzibar increases to from 8
-to 12 dollars. The inner barbarians apply plates of the horn to helcomas
-and ulcerations, and they cut it into bits, which are bound with twine
-round the limb, like the wooden mpigii or hirizi. Large horns are
-imported through Bombay to China and Central Asia, where it is said the
-people convert them into drinking-cups, which sweat if poison be
-administered in them: thus they act like the Venetian glass of our
-ancestors, and are as highly prized as that eccentric fruit the coco de
-mer. The Arabs of Maskat and Yemen cut them into sword-hilts,
-dagger-hafts, tool-handles, and small boxes for tobacco, and other
-articles. They greatly prize, and will pay 12 dollars per frasilah, for
-the spoils of the kobaoba, or long-horned white rhinoceros, which,
-however, appears no longer to exist in the latitudes westward of
-Zanzibar island.
-
-Black cattle are seldom driven down from the interior, on account of the
-length and risk of the journey. It is evident, however, that the trade
-is capable of extensive development. The price of full-grown bullocks
-varies, according to the distance from the coast, between 3 and 5 doti;
-whilst that of cows is about double. When imported from the mainland
-ports, 1 dollar per head is paid as an octroi to the government, and
-about the same sum for passage-money. As Banyans will not allow this
-traffic to be conducted by their own craft, it is confined to the Moslem
-population. The island of Zanzibar is supplied with black cattle,
-chiefly from the Banadir and Madagascar, places beyond the range of this
-description. The price of bullocks varies from 5 to 8 dollars, and of
-cows from 6 to 9 dollars. Goats and sheep abound throughout Eastern
-Africa. The former, which are preferred, cost in the maritime regions
-from 8 to 10 shukkah merkani; in Usagara, the most distant province
-which exports them to Zanzibar, they may be bought for 4 to 6 shukkah
-per head. The Wasawahili conduct a small trade in this live stock, and
-sell them upon the island for 4 to 5 dollars per head. From their large
-profits, however, must be deducted the risk of transport, the price of
-passage, and the octroi, which is 25 cents per head.
-
-The exceptional expense of man-carriage renders the exportation of hides
-and horns from the far interior impossible. The former are sold with the
-animal, and are used for shields, bedding, saddle-bags, awnings,
-sandals, and similar minor purposes. Skins, as has been explained, are
-in some regions almost the only wear; consequently the spoils of a fine
-goat command, even in far Usukuma, a doti of domestics. The principal
-wild hides, which, however, rarely find their way to the coast, are
-those of the rhinoceros--much prized by the Arabs for targes--the lion
-and the leopard, the giraffe and the buffalo, the zebra and the quagga.
-Horns are allowed to crumble upon the ground. The island of Zanzibar
-exports hides and skins, which are principally those of bullocks and
-goats brought from Brava, Marka, Makdishu, and the Somali country. The
-korjah or score of the former has risen from 10 to 24 dollars; and the
-people have learned to mix them with the spoils of wild animals,
-especially the buffalo. When taken from the animal the hides are pinned
-down with pegs passed through holes in the edges; thus they dry without
-shrinking, and become stiff as boards. When thoroughly sun-parched they
-are put in soak and are pickled in sea-water for forty-eight hours; thus
-softened, they are again stretched and staked, that they may remain
-smooth: as they are carelessly removed by the natives, the meat fat,
-flippers, ears, and all the parts likely to be corrupted, or, to prevent
-close stowage, are cut off whilst wet. They are again thoroughly
-sun-dried, the grease which exudes during the operation is scraped off,
-and they are beaten with sticks to expel the dust. The Hamburg merchants
-paint their hides with an arsenical mixture, which preserves them during
-the long months of magazine-storing and sea-voyage. The French and
-American traders omit this operation, and their hides suffer severely
-from insects.
-
-Details concerning the growth of cereals in the interior have occurred
-in the preceding pages. Grain is never exported from the lands lying
-beyond the maritime regions: yet the disforesting of the island of
-Zanzibar and the extensive plantations of clove-trees rendering a large
-importation of cereals necessary to the Arabs, an active business is
-carried on by Arab dows from the whole of the coast between Tanga and
-Ngao (Monghou), and during the dear season, after the rains,
-considerable profits are realised. The corn measures used by the
-Banyans are as follows:--
-
-   2 Kubabah (each from 1·25
-     to 1·50 lbs., in fact,
-     our “quart”)            = 1 Kisaga.
-   3 Kubabah                 = 1 Pishi (in Khutu the Pishi = 2 Kubabah).
-   4 Kubabah                 = 1 Kayla (equal to 2 Man).
-  24 Kayla                   = 1 Frasilah.
-  60 Kayla                   = 1 Jizlah, in Kisawahili Mzo.
-  20 Farasilah               = 1 Kandi (candy).
-
-As usual in these lands, the kubabah or unit is made to be arbitrary; it
-is divided into two kinds, large and small. The measure is usually a
-gourd.
-
-The only timber now utilised in commerce is the mukanda’a or red and
-white mangrove, which supplies the well-known bordi or “Zanzibar
-rafters.” They are the produce of the fluviatile estuaries and the
-marine lagoons, and attain large dimensions under the influence of
-potent heat and copious rains. The best is the red variety, which, when
-thrown upon the shore, stains the sand; it grows on the soft and slimy
-bank, and anchors itself with ligneous shoots to the shifting soil. The
-white mangrove, springing from harder ground, dispenses with these
-supports; it is called mti wa muytu (“wild wood”), and is quickly
-destroyed by worms. Indeed, all the bordi at Zanzibar begin to fail
-after the fifth year if exposed to the humid atmosphere; at Maskat it is
-said they will last nearly a century. The rafter trade is conducted by
-Arab dows: the crews fell the trees, after paying 2 or 3 dollars in
-cloth by way of ada or present to the diwan, who permits them to hire
-labourers. The korjah or score of cut and trimmed red mangrove rafters
-formerly cost at Zanzibar 1 dollar; the price has now risen to 2 and 3
-dollars. This timber finds its way to Aden and the woodless lands of
-Eastern and Western Arabia; at Jeddah they have been known to fetch 1
-dollar each.
-
-The maritime regions also supply a small quantity of the “grenadille
-wood,” called by the people, who confound it with real ebony (Diospyros
-ebenus), abnus and pingú. It is not so brittle as ebony; it is harder
-than lignum-vitæ (G. officinalis), spoiling the common saw, and is
-readily recognised by its weight. As it does not absorb water or grease,
-it is sent to Europe for the mouth-pieces and flanges of instruments,
-and for the finer parts of mills. The people use it in the interior for
-pipe-bowls.
-
-The mpira or caoutchouc-tree (Ficus elastica) grows abundantly
-throughout the maritime regions. A few lumps of the gum were brought to
-Zanzibar at the request of a merchant, who offered a large sum for a
-few tons, in the vain hope of stimulating the exploitation of this
-valuable article. The specimens were not, however, cast in moulds as by
-the South American Indians; they were full of water, and even fouler
-than those brought from Madagascar. To develop the trade European
-supervision would be absolutely necessary during the season for tapping
-the trees.
-
-A tree growing upon the coast and common in Madagascar produces, when an
-incision has been made in the bark, a juice inspissating to the
-consistency of soft soap, and much resembling the Indian “kokam.” This
-“kanya” is eaten by Arabs and Africans, with the idea that it “moistens
-the body:” in cases of stiff joints, swellings of the extremities, and
-contractions of the sinews, it is melted over the fire and is rubbed
-into the skin for a fortnight or three weeks.
-
-The produce and the value of the coco and areca palms have already been
-noted. Orchella-weed (Rocilla fuciformis?), a lichen most valuable in
-dyeing, is found, according to the late Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, growing
-on trees and rocks throughout the maritime regions. The important
-growths of the interior are the frankincense and bdellium, the coffee
-and nutmeg--which, however, are still in a wild state--the tamarind, and
-the sisam or black wood. The largest planks are made of the mtimbati
-(African teak?) and the mvule; they are now exported from the coast to
-the island, where they have almost died out. As the art of sawing is
-unknown, a fine large tree is invariably sacrificed for a single board.
-It was the opinion of the late Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton that a saw-mill
-at the mouth of the Pangani River would, if sanctioned by the local
-government, be highly remunerative.
-
-Cowries, called by the Arabs kaure, in Kisawahili khete, and in the
-interior simbi, are collected from various places in the coast-region
-between Ras Hafun and the Mozambique. This trade is in the hands of
-Moslem hucksters; the Banyan who has no objection to the valuable ivory
-or hippopotamus-tooth, finds his religion averse to the vile spoils of
-the Cypræa. Cowries are purchased on the mainland by a curious specimen
-of the “round-trade;” money is not taken, so the article is sold measure
-for measure of holcus grain. From Zanzibar the cowrie takes two
-directions. As it forms the currency of the regions north of the “Land
-of the Moon,” and is occasionally demanded as an ornament in Unyamwezi,
-the return African porters, whose labour costs them nothing, often
-partly load themselves with the article; the Arab, on the other hand,
-who seldom visits the northern kingdoms, does not find compensation for
-porterage and rations. The second and principal use of cowries is for
-exportation to the West African coast, where they are used in
-currency--50 strings, each of 40 shells, or a total of 2000,
-representing the dollar. This, in former days a most lucrative trade, is
-now nearly ruined. Cowries were purchased at 75 cents per jizlah, which
-represents from 3 to 3½ sacks, of which much, however, was worthless.
-The sacks in which they were shipped cost in Zanzibar 1 dollar 44 cents,
-and fetched in West Africa 8 or 9 dollars. The shells sold at the rate
-of 80_l._ (60_l._ was the average English price) per ton; thus the
-profits were estimated at 500 per cent., and a Hamburg house rose, it is
-said, by this traffic, from 1 to 18 ships, of which 7 were annually
-engaged in shipping cowries. From 75 cents the price rose to 4 dollars,
-it even attained a maximum of 10 dollars, the medium being 6 and 7
-dollars per jizlah, and the profits necessarily declined.
-
-Cotton is indigenous to the more fertile regions of Eastern as well as
-of Western Africa. The specimens hitherto imported from Port Natal and
-from Angola have given satisfaction, as they promise, with careful
-cultivation, to rival in fineness, firmness, and weight the
-medium-staple cotton of the New World. On the line between Zanzibar and
-the Tanganyika Lake the shrub grows almost wild, with the sole exception
-of Ugogo and its two flanks of wilderness, where the ground is too hard
-and the dry season too prolonged to support it. The partial existence of
-the same causes renders it scarce and dear in Unyamwezi. A superior
-quality was introduced by the travelling Arabs, but it soon degenerated.
-Cotton flourishes luxuriantly in the black earths fat with decayed
-vegetation, and on the rich red clays of the coast regions, of Usumbara,
-Usagara, and Ujiji, where water underlies the surface. These almost
-virgin soils are peculiarly fitted by atmospheric and geologic
-conditions for the development of the shrub, and the time may come when
-vast tracts, nearly half the superficies of the lands, here grass-grown,
-there cumbered by the primæval forest, may be taught to bear crops
-equalling the celebrated growths of Egypt and Algeria, Harar and
-Abyssinia. At present the cultivation is nowhere encouraged, and it is
-limited by the impossibility of exportation to the scanty domestic
-requirements of the people. It is grown from seed sown immediately after
-the rains, and the only care given to it is the hedging requisite to
-preserve the dwarf patches from the depredations of cattle. In some
-parts the shrub is said to wither after the third year, in others to be
-perennial.
-
-Upon the coast the cotton grown by the Wasawahili and Wamrima is chiefly
-used as lamp-wicks and for similar domestic purposes; Zanzibar Island is
-supplied from Western India. The price of raw uncleaned cotton in the
-mountain regions is about 0·25 dollar per maund of 3 Arab lbs. In
-Zanzibar, where the msufi or bombax abounds, its fibrous substance is a
-favourite substitute for cotton, and costs about half the price. In
-Unyamwezi it fetches fancy prices; it is sold in handfuls for salt,
-beads, and similar articles. About 1 maund may be purchased for a
-shukkah, and from 1 to 2 oz. of rough home-spun yarn for a fundo of
-beads. At Ujiji the people bring it daily to the bazar and spend their
-waste time in spinning yarn with the rude implements before described.
-This cotton, though superior in quality, as well as quantity, to that of
-Unyanyembe, is but little less expensive.
-
-Tobacco grows plentifully in the more fertile regions of East Africa.
-Planted at the end of the rains, it gains strength by sun and dew, and
-is harvested in October. It is prepared for sale in different forms.
-Everywhere, however, a simple sun-drying supplies the place of cocking
-and sweating, and the people are not so fastidious as to reject the
-lower or coarser leaves and those tainted by the earth. Usumbara
-produces what is considered at Zanzibar a superior article: it is
-kneaded into little circular cakes four inches in diameter by half an
-inch deep: rolls of these cakes are neatly packed in plantain-leaves for
-exportation. The next in order of excellence is that grown in Uhiáo: it
-is exported in leaf or in the form called kambari, “roll-tobacco,” a
-circle of coils each about an inch in diameter. The people of Khutu and
-Usagara mould the pounded and wetted material into discs like cheeses, 8
-or 9 inches across by 2 or 3 in depth, and weighing about 3 lbs.; they
-supply the Wagogo with tobacco, taking in exchange for it salt. The leaf
-in Unyamwezi generally is soft and perishable, that of Usukuma being the
-worst: it is sold in blunt cones, so shaped by the mortars in which they
-are pounded. At Karagwah, according to the Arabs, the tobacco, a
-superior variety, tastes like musk in the water-pipe. The produce of
-Ujiji is better than that of Unyamwezi; it is sold in leaf, and is
-called by the Arabs hamúmí, after a well-known growth in Hazramaut. It
-is impossible to assign an average price to tobacco in East Africa; it
-varies from 1 khete of coral beads per 6 oz. to 2 lbs.
-
-Tobacco is chewed by the maritime races, the Wasawahili, and especially
-the Zanzibar Arabs, who affect a religious scruple about smoking. They
-usually insert a pinch of nurah or coral-lime into their quids,--as the
-Somal introduces ashes,--to make them bite; in the interior, where
-calcareous formations are deficient, they procure the article from
-cowries brought from the coast, or from shells found in the lakes and
-streams. About Unyamwezi all sexes and ages enjoy the pipe. Farther
-eastward snuff is preferred. The liquid article in fashion amongst the
-Wajiji has already been described. The dry snuff is made of leaf toasted
-till crisp and pounded between two stones, mixed with a little magádí or
-saltpetre, sometimes scented with the heart of the plantain-tree and
-stored in the tumbakira or gourd-box.
-
-The other articles exported from the coast to Zanzibar are bees’-wax and
-honey, tortoiseshell and ambergris, ghee, tobacco, the sugar-cane, the
-wild arrowroot, gums, and fibrous substances; of these many have been
-noticed, and the remainder are of too trifling a value to deserve
-attention.
-
-To conclude the subject of commerce in East Africa. It is rather to the
-merchant than to the missionary that we must look for the regeneration
-of the country by the development of her resources. The attention of the
-civilized world, now turned towards this hitherto neglected region, will
-presently cause slavery to cease; man will not risk his all in petty and
-passionless feuds undertaken to sell his weaker neighbour; and commerce,
-which induces mansuetude of manners, will create wants and interests at
-present unknown. As the remote is gradually drawn nigh, and the
-difficult becomes accessible, the intercourse of man--strongest
-instrument of civilisation in the hand of Providence--will raise Africa
-to that place in the great republic of nations from which she has
-hitherto been unhappily excluded.
-
-Already a line of steam navigation from the Cape of Good Hope to Aden
-and the Red Sea, touching at the various important posts upon the
-mainland and the islands of East Africa, has been proposed. This will be
-the first step towards material improvement. The preceding pages have,
-it is believed, convinced the reader that the construction of a tramroad
-through a country abounding in timber and iron, and where only one pass
-of any importance presents itself, will be attended with no engineering
-difficulties. As the land now lies, trade stagnates, loanable capital
-remains idle, produce is depreciated, and new seats of enterprise are
-unexplored. The specific for existing evils is to be found in
-facilitating intercourse between the interior and the coast, and that
-this will in due season be effected we may no longer doubt.
-
-
-APPENDIX II.
-
-
-FIRST CORRESPONDENCE.
-
-
-1.
-
-  “East India House, 13th September, 1856.
-
-“Sir,--I am commanded by the Court of Directors of the East India
-Company to inform you, that, in compliance with the request of the Royal
-Geographical Society, you are permitted to be absent from your duties as
-a regimental officer whilst employed with an Expedition, under the
-patronage of Her Majesty’s Government, to be despatched into Equatorial
-Africa, for the exploration of that country, for a period not exceeding
-two years. I am directed to add, that you are permitted to draw the pay
-and allowances of your rank during the period of your absence, which
-will be calculated from the date of your departure from Bombay.
-
-  “I am, Sir,
-  “Your most obedient humble Servant,
-  “(Signature illegible.)
-
-  “Lieutenant R. BURTON.”
-
-
-2.
-
-  “East India House, 24th October, 1856.
-
-“Sir,--In consequence of a communication from the office of the
-Secretary of State for War, intimating that you are required as a
-witness on the trial by Court-Martial now pending on Colonel A. Shirley,
-I am desired to convey to you the commands of the Court of Directors
-that you instantly return to London for that purpose. In obeying this
-order, you are required to proceed, not through France, but by the
-steamer direct from Alexandria to Southampton. You will report yourself
-to the Secretary of State for War immediately on your arrival. The agent
-for the East India Company in Egypt has received instructions by this
-mail to supply you with the necessary funds for your passage.
-
-  “I am, Sir,
-  “Your most obedient humble Servant,
-  “(Signed) JAMES MELVILLE.
-
-  “Lieutenant BURTON.”
-
-
-
-3.
-
-  “_The Military Secretary, East India House._
-
-  “Aden, 14th November.
-
-“Sir,--I have the honour to acknowledge your official letter of the 24th
-October, conveying to me the commands of the Court of Directors to
-return instantly to London by the steamer direct from Alexandria to
-Southampton.
-
-“The steamer in question left Alexandria on November 6th, at about 10
-a.m. I received and acknowledged from the British Consulate your
-official letter on the same day at Cairo, about noon. No steamer leaves
-Alexandria before the 20th inst.; it is therefore evident that I could
-not possibly obey the order within the limits specified.
-
-“No mention was made about my returning to England by the next steamer,
-probably because the Court-Martial pending upon Colonel A. Shirley will
-before that time have come to a close. I need scarcely say, that should
-I, on arrival at Bombay, find an order to that effect, it shall be
-instantly and implicitly obeyed.
-
-“Considering, however, that I have already stated all that I know upon
-the subject of the Court-Martial in question--that I was not subpœnaed
-in England--that I am under directions of the Royal Geographical
-Society, and employed with an Expedition under the patronage of the
-Foreign Office--that without my proceeding to Bombay, valuable
-Government property would most probably have been lost, and the
-preparations for the Expedition have suffered from serious delay--and
-lastly, that by the loss of a few weeks a whole year’s exploration must
-be allowed to pass by--I venture respectfully to hope that I have taken
-the proper course, and that should I, on my arrival in India, find no
-express and positive order for an immediate return to Europe, I may be
-permitted to proceed forthwith to Africa.
-
-“As a servant of the East India Company, in whose interests I have
-conscientiously and energetically exerted myself for the space of 14
-years, I cannot but request the Court of Directors to use their powerful
-influence in my behalf. Private interests cannot be weighed against
-public duty. At the same time, I have already embarked a considerable
-sum in the materiel of the Expedition, paid passage money, and devoted
-time, which might otherwise have been profitably employed, to the
-subject of Equatorial Africa. I remained long enough in London to enable
-the War Office to call for my presence as a witness, and I ascertained
-personally from Major-General Beatson that he had not placed me upon his
-list. And finally, I venture to observe, that by returning to Europe
-now, I should be compromising the interests of the Royal Geographical
-Society, under which I am in fact virtually serving.”
-
-
-4.
-
-  “_To the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, London._
-
-“Sir,--I have the honour to forward, for the information of the
-President and members of the Expeditionary Committee, a copy of a
-communication to my address from the Military Secretary to the Court of
-Directors, together with my reply thereto. On perusal of these
-documents, you will perceive that my presence is urgently demanded in
-England to give evidence on a Court-Martial, and that the letter
-desiring me to proceed forthwith to England arrived too late in Egypt to
-admit of my obeying that order. Were I now to proceed directly from
-Bombay to England, it is evident that the Expedition which I am
-undertaking under your direction, must be deferred to a future and
-uncertain date. With a view to obviate this uncalled-for delay, I have
-the honour to request that you will use your interest to the effect
-that, as an officer virtually in your service, I may be permitted to
-carry out the views of your Society; and that my evidence, which can be
-of no importance to either prosecutor or defendant in the Court-Martial
-in question, may be dispensed with. I start this evening for Bombay, and
-will report departure from that place.
-
-  “I have, &c.,
-  “R. F. BURTON.
-
-  “Camp, Aden, 14th November, 1856.”
-
-
-5.
-
-  “_To the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, London._
-
-“Sir,--I have the honour to inform you that on the 1st Dec. 1856, I
-addressed to you a letter which I hope has been duly received. On the
-2nd instant, in company with Lt. Speke, I left Bombay Harbour, on board
-the H.E.I.C’s. ship of war ‘_Elphinstone_’ (Capt. Frushard, I.N.,
-commanding), _en route_ to East Africa. I have little to report that may
-be interesting to geographers; but perhaps some account of political
-affairs in the Red Sea may be deemed worthy to be transmitted by you to
-the Court of Directors or to the Foreign Office.
-
-“As regards the Expedition, copies of directions and a memorandum on
-instruments and observations for our guidance have come to hand. For
-observations, Lt. Speke and I must depend upon our own exertions,
-neither serjeants nor native students being procurable at the Bombay
-Observatory. The case of instruments and the mountain barometer have not
-been forwarded, but may still find us at Zanzibar. Meanwhile I have
-obtained from the Commanding Engineer, Bombay, one six-inch sextant, one
-five and a-half ditto, two prismatic compasses, five thermometers (of
-which two are B.P.), a patent log, taper, protractors, stands, &c.; also
-two pocket chronometers from the Observatory, duly rated; and Dr. Buist,
-Secretary, Bombay Geographical Society, has obliged me with a mountain
-barometer and various instructions about points of interest. Lt. Speke
-has been recommended by the local government to the Government of India
-for duty in East Africa, and the services of Dr. Steinhaeuser, who is
-most desirous to join us, have been applied for from the Medical Board,
-Bombay. I have strong hopes that both these officers will be allowed to
-accompany me, and that the Royal Geographical Society will use their
-efforts to that effect.
-
-“By the subjoined detailed account of preliminary expenses at Bombay, it
-will be seen that I have expended £70 out of £250, for which I was
-permitted to draw.
-
-“Although, as I before mentioned, the survey of Eastern Intertropical
-Africa has for the moment been deferred, the necessity still exists.
-Even in the latest editions of _Horsburgh_, the mass of matter relative
-to Zanzibar is borrowed from the observations of Capt. Bissel, who
-navigated the coast in H.M’s. ships ‘_Leopard_’ and ‘_Orestes_’ about
-A.D. 1799. Little is known of the great current which, setting
-periodically from and to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, sweeps round
-the Eastern Horn of Africa. The reefs are still formidable to
-navigators; and before these seas can be safely traversed by steamers
-from the Cape, as is now proposed, considerable additions must be made
-to Capt. Owen’s survey in A.D. 1823-24. Finally, operations on the coast
-will form the best introduction to the geographical treasures of the
-interior.
-
-“The H.E.I. Company’s surveying brig ‘_Tigris_’ will shortly be out of
-dock, where she has been undergoing a thorough repair, and if fitted up
-with a round house on the quarter-deck would answer the purpose well.
-She might be equipped in a couple of months, and dispatched to her
-ground before the South-west Monsoon sets in, or be usefully employed in
-observing at Zanzibar instead of lying idle in Bombay Harbour. On former
-surveys of the Arabian and African Coasts, a small tender of from thirty
-to forty tons has always been granted, as otherwise operations are much
-crippled in boisterous weather and exposed on inhospitable shores.
-Should no other vessel be available, one of the smallest of the new
-Pilot Schooners now unemployed at Bombay might be directed to wait upon
-the ‘_Tigris_.’ Lt. H. G. Fraser, I.N., has volunteered for duty upon
-the African Coast, and I have the honour to transmit his letter. Nothing
-more would be required were some junior officer of the Indian Navy
-stationed at Zanzibar for the purpose of registering tidal, barometric,
-and thermometric observations, in order that something of the
-meteorology of this unknown region may be accurately investigated.
-
-“When passing through Aden I was informed that the blockade of the
-Somali Coast had been raised without compensation for the losses
-sustained on my last journey. This step appears, politically speaking, a
-mistake. In the case of the ‘_Mary Ann_’ brig, plundered near Berberah
-in A.D. 1825, due compensation was demanded and obtained. Even in India,
-an officer travelling through the states not under British rule, can, if
-he be plundered, require an equivalent for his property. This is indeed
-our chief protection,--semi-barbarians and savages part with money less
-willingly than with life. If it be determined for social reasons at Aden
-that the blockade should cease and mutton become cheap, a certain
-per-centage could be laid upon the exports of Berberah till such time as
-our losses, which, including those of government, amount to 1380_l._,
-are made good.
-
-“From Harar news has reached Aden that the Amir Abubakr, dying during
-the last year of chronic consumption, has been succeeded by a cousin,
-one Abd el Rahman, a bigoted Moslem, and a violent hater of the Gallas.
-His success in feud and foray, however, have not prevented the wild
-tribes from hemming him in, and unless fortune interfere, the city must
-fall into their hands. The rumour prevalent at Cairo, namely, that Harar
-had been besieged and taken by Mr. Bell, now serving under ‘Theodorus,
-Emperor of Ethiopia’ (the chief Cássái), appears premature. At Aden I
-met in exile Sharmarkay bin Ali Salih, formerly governor of Zayla. He
-has been ejected in favour of a Dankali chief by the Ottoman authorities
-of Yemen, a circumstance the more to be regretted as he has ever been a
-firm friend to our interests.
-
-“The present defenceless state of Berberah still invites our presence.
-The eastern coast of the Red Sea is almost entirely under the Porte. On
-the western shore, Cosseir is Egyptian, Masawwah, Sawakin, and Zayla,
-Turkish, and Berberah, the best port of all, unoccupied. I have
-frequently advocated the establishment of a British agency at this
-place, and venture to do so once more. This step would tend to increase
-trade, to obviate accidents in case of shipwreck, and materially assist
-in civilizing the Somal of the interior. The Government of Bombay has
-doubtless preserved copies of my reports, plans, and estimates
-concerning the proposed agency, and I would request the Royal
-Geographical Society to inquire into a project peculiarly fitted to
-promote their views of exploration in the Eastern Horn of Africa.
-Finally, this move would checkmate any ambitious projects in the Red
-Sea. The Suez Canal may be said to have commenced. It appears impossible
-that the work should pay in a commercial sense. Politically it may, if,
-at least, its object be, as announced by the Count d’Escayrac de
-Lauture, at the Société de Geographie, to ‘throw open the road of India
-to the Mediterranean coasting trade, to democratise commerce and
-navigation.’ The first effect of the highway would be, as that learned
-traveller justly remarks, to open a passage through Egypt to the
-speronari and feluccas of the Levant, the light infantry of a more
-regular force.
-
-“The next step should be to provide ourselves with a more efficient
-naval force at Aden, the Head-Quarters of the Red Sea Squadron. I may
-briefly quote as a proof of the necessity for protection, the number of
-British protégés in the neighbouring ports, and the present value of the
-Jeddah trade.
-
-“Mocha now contains about twenty-five English subjects, the principal
-merchants in the place. At Masawwah, besides a few French and Americans,
-there are from sixteen to twenty British protégés, who trade with the
-interior, especially for mules required at the Mauritius and our other
-colonies. Hodaydah has from fifty to sixty, and Jeddah, besides its
-dozen resident merchants, annually witnesses the transit of some
-hundreds of British subjects, who flock to the Haj for commerce and
-devotion.
-
-“The chief emporium of the Red Sea trade has for centuries past been
-Jeddah, the port of Meccah. The custom-house reports of 1856 were kindly
-furnished to me by Capt. Frushard, I.N. (now commanding the H.E.I.C’s.
-sloop of war, ‘_Elphinstone_,’) an old and experienced officer, lately
-employed in blockading Berberah, and who made himself instrumental in
-quelling certain recent attempts upon Turkish supremacy in Western
-Arabia. According to these documents, thirty-five ships of English build
-(square-rigged) arrived at and left Jeddah between the end of September
-and April, from and for various places in the East, China, Batavia,
-Singapore, Calcutta, Bombay, the Malabar Coast, the Persian Gulf, and
-Eastern Africa. Nearly all carried our colours, and were protected, or
-supposed to be protected, by a British register: only five had on board
-a European captain or sailing master, the rest being commanded and
-officered by Arabs and Indians. Their cargoes from India and the Eastern
-regions are rice, sugar, piece goods, planking, pepper, and pilgrims;
-from Persia, dates, tobacco, and raw silk; and from the Mozambique,
-ivory, gold dust, and similar costly articles. These imports in 1856 are
-valued at 160,000_l._ The exports for the year, consisting of a little
-coffee and spice for purchase of imports, amounts, per returns, to
-120,000_l._ In addition to these square-rigged ships, the number of
-country vessels, open boats, buggalows, and others, from the Persian
-Gulf and the Indian Coasts, amount to 900, importing 550,000_l._, and
-exporting about 400,000_l._ I may remark, that to all these sums at
-least one-third should be added, as speculation abounds, and books are
-kept by triple entry in the Holy Land.
-
-“The next port in importance to Jeddah is Hodaydah, where vessels touch
-on their way northward, land piece and other goods, and call on the
-return passage to fill with coffee. As the head-quarters of the Yemen
-Pashalik, it has reduced Mocha, formerly the great coffee mart, to
-insignificance, and the vicinity of Aden, a free port, has drawn off
-much of the stream of trade from both these ancient emporia. On the
-African Coast of the Red Sea, Sawakin, opposite Jeddah, is a mere slave
-mart, and Masawwah, opposite Hodaydah, still trades in pearls, gold
-dust, ivory, and mules.
-
-“But if the value of the Red Sea traffic calls, in the present posture
-of events, for increased means of protection, the Slave-trade has equal
-claims to our attention. At Aden energetic efforts have been made to
-suppress it. It is, however, still carried on by country boats from
-Sawakin, Tajurrah, Zayla, and the Somali Coast;--a single cargo
-sometimes consisting of 200 head gathered from the interior, and
-exported to Jeddah and the small ports lying north and south of it. The
-trade is, I believe, principally in the hands of Arab merchants at
-Jeddah and Hodaydah, and resident foreigners, principally Indian
-Moslems, who claim our protection in case of disturbances, and
-consequently carry on a thriving business. Our present Squadron in the
-Red Sea consisting of only two sailing vessels, the country boats in the
-African ports have only to wait till they see the ship pass up or down,
-and then knowing the passage--a matter of a day--to be clear, to lodge
-the slaves at their destination. During the past year, this trade was
-much injured by the revolt of the Arabs against the Turks, and the
-constant presence of the ‘_Elphinstone_,’ whose reported object was to
-seize all vessels carrying slaves. The effect was principally moral.
-Although the instructions for the guidance of the Commander enjoined him
-to carry out the wishes of the Home and Indian Governments for the
-suppression of Slavery, yet there being no published treaty between the
-Imperial Government and the Porte sanctioning to us the right of search
-in Turkish bottoms, his interference would not have been supported by
-the Ottoman local authorities. It may be well to state, that after a
-Firman had been published in the Hejaz and Gemen abolishing the trade,
-the Turkish Governments of Jeddah and Hodaydah declared that the English
-Commander might do as he pleased, but that they declined making any
-written request for his assistance. For its present increased duties,
-for the suppression of the Slave-trade, for the protection of British
-subjects, and for the watching over Turkish and English interests in the
-Red Sea, the Aden Squadron is no longer sufficient. During the last two
-years it has numbered two sailing vessels, the ‘_Elphinstone_,’ a sloop
-of war, carrying twelve 32-pounders, and two 12-pounders; and the
-‘_Mahi_’ a schooner armed with one pivot gun, 32-pounder, and two
-12-pounders. Nor would it be benefited by even a considerable increase
-of sailing vessels. It is well known that, as the prevailing winds
-inside the sea are favourable for proceeding upwards from September to
-April, so on the return, during those months, they are strongly adverse.
-A fast ship, like the ‘_Elphinstone_,’ requires 30 days on the downward
-voyage to do the work of four. Outside the sea, during those months, the
-current sets inward from the Indian Ocean, and a ship, in event of very
-light winds falling, has been detained a whole week in sight of Aden.
-From April to September, on the contrary, the winds set down the Red Sea
-frequently with violence; the current inside the sea also turns towards
-the Indian Ocean, and outside the S.W. Monsoon is blowing. Finally,
-sailing ships draw too much water. In the last year the ‘_Elphinstone_’
-kept the Arabs away from Jeddah till the meanness of the Sherif Abd el
-Muttalib had caused his downfall. But her great depth (about from 14-6
-to 15 ft.) prevented her approaching the shore at Hodaydah near enough
-to have injured the insurgents, who, unaware of the fact, delayed their
-attack upon the town till famine and a consequent pestilence dispersed
-them. With little increase of present expenditure, the Red Sea might be
-effectually commanded. Two screw-steamers, small enough to enter every
-harbour, and to work steadily amongst the banks on either shore, and yet
-large enough to be made useful in conveying English political officers
-of rank and Native Princes, when necessary, would amply suffice, a
-vessel of the class of H.M.’s gun-boat, ‘_Flying Fish_,’ drawing at
-most 9 feet water, and carrying four 32-pounders of 25 cwt. each, as
-broadside, and two 32-pounders of 25 cwt. each, as pivot guns, would
-probably be that selected. The crews would consist of fewer men than
-those at present required, and means would easily be devised for
-increasing the accommodation of officers and men, and for securing their
-health and comfort during cruises that might last two months in a hot
-and dangerous climate.
-
-“By means of two such steamers we shall, I believe, be prepared for any
-contingencies which might arise in the Red Sea; and if to this squadron
-be added an allowance for interpreters and a slave approver in each
-harbour, in fact a few of the precautions practised by the West African
-Squadron, the slave-trade in the Red Sea will soon have received its
-death-blow, and Eastern Africa its regeneration at our hands.
-
-  “I have, &c., &c.,
-  “R. F. BURTON,
-  “Commanding East African Expedition.
-
-  “H.E.I.C. Sloop of War ‘_Elphinstone_,’
-  “15th December, 1856.”
-
-
-6.
-
-  No. 961 of 1857.
-
-  _From_ H. L. ANDERSON, _Esquire, Secretary to Government, Bombay, to_
-  Captain R. F. BURTON, _18th Regiment Bombay N. I._
-
-  Dated the 23rd July, 1857.
-
-“Sir,--With reference to your letter, dated the 15th December, 1856, to
-the address of the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society of
-London, communicating your views on affairs in the Red Sea, and
-commenting on the political measures of the Government of India, I am
-directed by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council to state, your
-want of discretion, and due respect for the authorities to whom you are
-subordinate, has been regarded with displeasure by Government.
-
-  “I have the honour to be, Sir,
-  “Your most obedient Servant,
-  “(Signed) H. L. ANDERSON,
-  “Secretary to Government.
-
-  “Bombay Castle, 23rd July, 1857.”
-
-
-7.
-
-THE MASSACRE AT JUDDAH.
-
-  (_Extract from the “Telegraph Courier,” Overland Summary, Bombay,
-  August 4, 1858._)
-
-“On the 30th June, a massacre of nearly all the Christians took place at
-Juddah on the Red Sea. Amongst the victims were Mr. Page, the British
-Consul, and the French Consul and his lady. Altogether the Arabs
-succeeded in slaughtering about twenty-five.
-
-“H.M. steamship Cyclops was there at the time, and the captain landed
-with a boat’s crew, and attempted to bring off some of the survivors,
-but he was compelled to retreat, not without having killed a number of
-the Arabs. The next day, however, he succeeded in rescuing the few
-remaining Christians, and conveyed them to Suez.
-
-“Amongst those who were fortunate enough to escape was the daughter of
-the French Consul; and this she succeeded in doing through the fidelity
-of a native after she had killed two men with her own hands, and been
-severely wounded in the encounter. Telegraphic dispatches were
-transmitted to England and France, and the Cyclops is waiting orders at
-Suez. As it was apprehended that the news from Juddah might excite the
-Arab population of Suez to the commission of similar outrages, H.R.M’s
-Vice-Consul at that place applied to the Pasha of Egypt for assistance,
-which was immediately afforded by the landing of 500 Turkish soldiers,
-under the orders of the Pasha of Suez.”
-
-
-8.
-
-  “Unyanyembe, Central Africa, 24th June, 1858.
-
-“Sir,--I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your official
-letter, No. 961 of 1857, conveying to me the displeasure of the
-Government in consequence of my having communicated certain views on
-political affairs in the Red Sea to the R. G. S. of Great Britain.
-
-“The paper in question was as is directly stated, and it was sent for
-transmission to the Board of Directors, or the Foreign Office, not for
-publication. I beg to express my regret that it should have contained
-any passages offensive to the authorities to whom I am subordinate; and
-to assure the Right Honourable the Governor in Council that nothing was
-farther from my intentions than to displease a government to whose kind
-consideration I have been, and am still, so much indebted.
-
-“In conclusion, I have the honour to remind you that I have received no
-reply to my official letter, sent from Zanzibar, urging our claims upon
-the Somal for the plunder of our property.
-
-  “I have the honour to be, Sir,
-  “Your most obedient Servant,
-  “RICHARD. F. BURTON,
-  “Commanding East African Expedition.
-
-  To the Secretary to Government, Bombay.”
-
-
-
-9.
-
-No. 2845, of 1857.
-
-  “Political Department.
-
-  _From_ H. L. ANDERSON, Esq., _Secretary to Government of Bombay, to_
-  Capt. R. F. BURTON, _Commanding E. A. Expedition, Zanzibar_.
-
-  “Dated 13th June, 1857.
-
-“Sir,--I am directed by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council to
-acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the 26th April last,
-soliciting compensation on behalf of yourself and the other members of
-the late Somalee Expedition, for losses sustained by you and them.
-
-  Having regard to the conduct of the Expedition, His Lordship cannot
-  think that the officers who composed it have any just claims on the
-  Government for their personal losses.
-
-“2. In reply, I am desired to inform you, that under the opinion copied
-in the margin, expressed by the late Governor-General of India, the
-Right Honourable the Governor in Council cannot accede to the
-application now preferred.
-
-  “I have, &c.,
-  “(Signed) H. L. ANDERSON,
-  “Secretary to Government.”
-
-END OF FIRST CORRESPONDENCE.
-
-
-SECOND CORRESPONDENCE.
-
-
-1.
-
-  “India Office, E. C., 8th November, 1859.
-
-“Sir,--I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to
-forward for your information, copy of a letter addressed by Captain
-Rigby, her Majesty’s Consul and agent at Zanzibar, to the Government of
-Bombay, respecting the non-payment of certain persons hired by you to
-accompany the Expedition under your command into Equatorial Africa, and
-to request that you will furnish me with any observations which you may
-have to make upon the statements contained in that letter.
-
-“Sir Charles Wood especially desires to be informed why you took no
-steps to bring the services of the men who accompanied you, and your
-obligations to them, to the notice of the Bombay Government.
-
-  “I am, Sir,
-  “Your obedient servant,
-  “(Signed) T. COSMO MELVILLE.
-
-  “Captain R. Burton.”
-
-
-2.
-
-  “No. 70 of 1859.
-  “Political Department.
-
-  _From_ Captain C. P. RIGBY, _her Majesty’s Consul and British agent,
-  Zanzibar, to_ H. L. ANDERSON, _Esquire, Secretary to Government,
-  Bombay_.
-
-  “Zanzibar, July 15th, 1859.
-
-“Sir,--I have the honour to report, for the information of the Right
-Honourable the Governor in Council, the following circumstances
-connected with the late East African Expedition under the command of
-Captain Burton.
-
-“2. Upon the return of Captain Burton to Zanzibar in March last, from
-the interior of Africa, he stated that, from the funds supplied him by
-the Royal Geographical Society for the expenses of the Expedition, he
-had only a sufficient sum left to defray the passage of himself and
-Captain Speke to England, and in consequence the persons who accompanied
-the Expedition from here, viz.: the Kafila Bashi, the Belooch Sepoys,
-and the porters, received nothing whatever from him on their return.
-
-“3. On quitting Zanzibar for the interior of Africa, the expedition was
-accompanied by a party of Belooch soldiers, consisting of a Jemadar and
-twelve armed men. I understand they were promised a monthly salary of
-five dollars each; they remained with the Expedition for twenty months,
-and as they received nothing from Captain Burton beyond a few dollars
-each before starting, his highness the Sultan has generously distributed
-amongst them the sum of (2300) two thousand three hundred dollars.
-
-“4. The head clerk of the Custom House here, a Banian, by name Ramjee,
-procured ten men, who accompanied the Expedition as porters; they were
-promised five dollars each per mensem, and received pay for six months,
-viz.: thirty dollars each before starting for the interior. They were
-absent for twenty months, during three of which the Banian Ramjee
-states that they did not accompany the Expedition. He now claims eleven
-months’ pay for each of these men, as they have not been paid anything
-beyond the advance before starting.
-
-“5. The head clerk also states that after the Expedition left Zanzibar,
-he sent two men to Captain Burton with supplies, one of whom was absent
-with the Expedition seventeen months, and received nothing whatever; the
-other, he states, was absent fifteen months, and received six months’
-pay, the pay for the remaining nine months being still due to him. Thus
-his claim amounts to the following sums:--
-
-  Ten men for eleven months, at five dollars per man, per month,
-                                                            550 Dollars.
-  One man for seventeen „           „           „        „
-                                                             85    „
-  One    „    nine      „           „           „        „
-                                                             45    „
-                                                            ---
-                                    Total dollars           680
-
-“6. These men were slaves, belonging to ‘deewans,’ or petty chiefs, on
-the opposite mainland. They travel far into the interior to collect and
-carry down ivory to the coast, and are absent frequently for the space
-of two or three years. When hired out, the pay they receive is equally
-divided between the slave and the master. Captain Speke informs me, that
-when these men were hired, it was agreed that one-half of their hire
-should be paid to the men, and the other half to Ramjee on account of
-their owners. When Ramjee asked Captain Burton for their pay, on his
-return here, he declined to give him anything, saying that they had
-received thirty dollars each on starting, and that he could have bought
-them for a less sum.
-
-“7. The Kafila Bashi, or chief Arab, who accompanied the Expedition, by
-name Said bin Salem, was twenty-two months with Captain Burton. He
-states, that on the first journey to Pangany and Usumbara, he received
-fifty (50) dollars from Captain Burton; and that before starting on the
-last expedition, to discover the Great Lake, the late Lieutenant-Colonel
-Hamerton presented him with five hundred dollars on behalf of Government
-for the maintenance of his family during his absence. He states that he
-did not stipulate for any monthly pay, as Colonel Hamerton told him,
-that if he escorted the gentlemen to the Great Lake in the interior, and
-brought them in safety back to Zanzibar, he would be handsomely
-rewarded; and both Captain Speke and Mr. Apothecary Frost inform me that
-Colonel Hamerton frequently promised Said bin Salem that he should
-receive a thousand dollars and a gold watch if the Expedition were
-successful.
-
-“8. As it appeared to me that Colonel Hamerton had received no authority
-from Government to defray any part of the expenses of this Expedition,
-and probably made these promises thinking that if the exploration of the
-unknown interior were successful a great national object would be
-attained, and that the chief man who conducted the Expedition would be
-liberally rewarded, and as Captain Burton had been furnished with funds
-to defray the expenses, I told him that I did not feel authorised to
-make any payment without the previous sanction of Government, and Said
-bin Salem has therefore received nothing whatever since his return.
-
-“9. Said Bin Salem also states, that on the return of the Expedition
-from Lake Tanganyika, (70) seventy natives of the country were engaged
-as porters, and accompanied the Expedition for three months; and that on
-arriving at a place called ‘Kootoo,’ a few days’ journey from the
-sea-coast, Captain Burton wished them to diverge from the correct route
-to the coast opposite Zanzibar, to accompany him south to Keelwa; but
-they refused to do so, saying that none of their people ever dared to
-venture to Keelwa; that the chief slave-trade on the east coast is
-carried on. No doubt their fears were well grounded. These men received
-nothing in payment for their three months’ journey, and, as no white man
-had ever penetrated into their country previously, I fear that any
-future traveller will meet with much inconvenience in consequence of
-these poor people not having been paid.
-
-“10. As I considered that my duty connected with the late Expedition was
-limited to affording it all the aid and support in my power, I have felt
-very reluctant to interfere with anything connected with the non-payment
-of these men; but Said bin Salem and Ramjee having appealed to me, and
-Captain Speke, since his departure from Zanzibar, having written me two
-private letters, pointing out so forcibly the claims of these men, the
-hardships they endured, and the fidelity and perseverance they showed,
-conducting them safely through unexplored countries, and stating also
-that the agreements with them were entered into at the British
-Consulate, and that they considered they were serving the British
-Government, that I deem it my duty to bring their claims to the notice
-of Government; for I feel that if these men remain unpaid, after all
-they have endured in the service of British officers, our name for good
-faith in these countries will suffer, and that any future travellers
-wishing to further explore the interesting countries of the interior
-will find no persons willing to accompany them from Zanzibar, or the
-opposite mainland.
-
-“11. As there was no British agent at Zanzibar for thirteen months after
-the death of Colonel Hamerton, the Expedition was entirely dependent on
-Luddah Damha, the Custom-master here, for money and supplies. He
-advanced considerable sums of money without any security, forwarded all
-requisite supplies, and, Captain Speke says, afforded the Expedition
-every assistance, in the most handsome manner. Should Government,
-therefore, be pleased to present him with a shawl, or some small mark of
-satisfaction, I am confident he is fully deserving of it, and it would
-gratify a very worthy man to find that his assistance to the Expedition
-is acknowledged.
-
-  “I have, &c.,
-  “(Signed) C. P. RIGBY, Captain,
-  “H. M.’s Consul and British Agent, Zanzibar.”
-
-
-3.
-
-  “East India United Service Club, St. James’s Square,
-
-  11th November, 1859.
-
-“Sir,--I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your official
-letter, dated the 8th of November, 1859, forwarding for my information
-copy of a letter, addressed by Captain Rigby, Her Majesty’s consul and
-agent at Zanzibar, to the Government of Bombay, respecting the
-non-payment of certain persons, hired by me to accompany the Expedition
-under my command into Equatorial Africa, and apprising me that Sir C.
-Wood especially desires to be informed, why I took no steps to bring the
-services of the men who accompanied me, and my obligations to them, to
-the notice of the Bombay Government.
-
-“In reply to Sir Charles Wood I have the honour to state that, as the
-men alluded to rendered me no services, and as I felt in no way obliged
-to them, I would not report favourably of them. The Kafilah Bashi, the
-Jemadar, and the Baloch were servants of H.H. Sayyid Majid, in his pay
-and under his command; they were not hired by me, but by the late
-Lieut.-Col. Hamerton, H.M.’s Consul and H.E.I.C.’s agent at Zanzibar,
-and they marched under the Arab flag. On return to Zanzibar, I reported
-them as undeserving of reward to Lieut.-Col. Hamerton’s successor, Capt.
-Rigby, and after return to England, when my accounts were sent in to the
-Royal Geographical Society, I appended a memorandum, that as those
-persons had deserved no reward, no reward had been applied for.
-
-“Before proceeding to reply to Capt. Rigby’s letter, paragraph by
-paragraph, I would briefly premise with the following remarks.
-
-“Being ordered to report myself to Lieut.-Col. Hamerton, and having been
-placed under his direction, I admitted his friendly interference, and
-allowed him to apply to H.H. the Sultan for a guide and an escort.
-Lieut.-Col. Hamerton offered to defray, from public funds, which he
-understood to be at his disposal, certain expenses of the Expedition,
-and he promised, as reward to the guide and escort, sums of money, to
-which, had I been unfettered, I should have objected as exorbitant. But
-in all cases, the promises made by the late consul were purely
-conditional, depending entirely upon the satisfactory conduct of those
-employed. These facts are wholly omitted in Capt. Rigby’s reports.
-
-“2. Capt. Rigby appears to mean that the Kafila Bashi, the Baloch
-sepoys, and the porters received nothing whatever on my return to
-Zanzibar, in March last, from the interior of Africa, because the funds
-supplied to me by the Royal Geographical Society for the Expenditure of
-the Expedition, had been exhausted. Besides the sum of (1000_l._) one
-thousand pounds, granted by the Foreign Office, I had expended from
-private resources nearly (1400_l._) fourteen hundred pounds, and I was
-ready to expend more had the expenditure been called for. But, though
-prepared on these occasions to reward liberally for good service, I
-cannot see the necessity, or rather I see the unadvisability of offering
-a premium to notorious misconduct. This was fully explained by me to
-Capt. Rigby on my return to Zanzibar.
-
-“3. Capt. Rigby ‘_understands_’ that the party of Baloch sepoys,
-consisting of a Jemadar and twelve armed men, were promised a monthly
-salary of 5 dollars each. This was not the case. Lieut.-Col. Hamerton
-advanced to the Jemadar 25, and to each sepoy 20 dollars for an outfit;
-he agreed that I should provide them with daily rations, and he promised
-them an ample reward from the public funds in case of good behaviour.
-These men deserved nothing; I ignore their ‘fidelity’ and
-‘perseverance,’ and I assert that if I passed safely through an
-unexplored country, it was in no wise by their efforts. On hearing of
-Lieut.-Col. Hamerton’s death, they mutinied in a body. At the Tanganyika
-Lake they refused to escort me during the period of navigation, a month
-of danger and difficulty. When Capt. Speke proposed to explore the
-Nyanza Lake, they would not march without a present of a hundred
-dollars’ worth of cloth. On every possible occasion they clamoured for
-‘Bakshish,’ which, under pain of endangering the success of the
-Expedition, could not always be withheld. They were often warned by me
-that they were forfeiting all hopes of a future reward, and, indeed,
-they ended by thinking so themselves. They returned to Zanzibar with a
-number of slaves, purchased by them with money procured from the
-Expedition. I would not present either guide or escort to the consul;
-but I did not think it my duty to oppose a large reward, said to be
-2,300 dollars, given to them by H.H. the Sultan, and I reported his
-liberality and other acts of kindness to the Bombay Government on my
-arrival at Aden. This fact will, I trust, exonerate me from any charge
-of wishing to suppress my obligations.
-
-“4. The Banyan Ramji, head clerk of the Custom House, did not, as is
-stated by Capt. Rigby, procure me (10) ten men who accompanied the
-Expedition as porters; nor were these men, as is asserted, (in par. 6),
-‘Slaves belonging to deewans or petty chiefs on the opposite mainland.’
-It is a notorious fact that these men were private slaves, belonging to
-the Banyan Ramjee, who hired them to me direct, and received from me as
-their pay, for six months, thirty dollars each; a sum for which, as I
-told him, he might have bought them in the bazaar. At the end of six
-months I was obliged to dismiss these slaves, who, as is usually the
-case with the slaves of Indian subjects at Zanzibar, were mutinous in
-the extreme. At the same time I supplied them with cloth, to enable them
-to rejoin their patron. On my return from the Tanganyika Lake, they
-requested leave to accompany me back to Zanzibar, which I permitted,
-with the express warning that they were not to consider themselves
-re-engaged. The Banyan, their proprietor, had, in fact, sent them on a
-trading trip into the interior under my escort, and I found them the
-most troublesome of the party. When Ramji applied for additional pay,
-after my return to Zanzibar, I told him that I had engaged them for six
-months; that I had dismissed them at the end of six months, as was left
-optional to me; and that he had already received an unusual sum for
-their services. This conversation appears in a distorted form and
-improperly represented in the concluding sentence of Capt. Rigby’s 6th
-paragraph.
-
-“5 and 6. With respect to the two men sent on with supplies after the
-Expedition had left Zanzibar, they were not paid, on account of the
-prodigious disappearance of the goods intrusted to their charge, as I am
-prepared to prove from the original journals in my possession. They were
-dismissed with their comrades, and never afterwards, to the best of my
-remembrance, did a day’s work.
-
-“7 and 8. The Kafilah Bashi received from me for the first journey to
-Usumbara (50) fifty dollars. Before my departure in the second
-Expedition he was presented by Lieut. Colonel Hamerton with (500) five
-hundred dollars, almost double what he had expected. He was also
-promised, in case of good conduct, a gold watch, and an ample reward,
-which, however, was to be left to the discretion of his employers. I
-could not recommend him through Captain Rigby to the Government for
-remuneration. His only object seemed to be that of wasting our resources
-and of collecting slaves in return for the heavy presents made to the
-native chiefs by the Expedition, and the consequence of his carelessness
-or dishonesty was, that the expenditure on the whole march, until we had
-learnt sufficient to supervise him, was inordinate. When the Kafilah
-Bashi at last refused to accompany Captain Speke to the Nyanza Lake, he
-was warned that he also was forfeiting all claim to future reward, and
-when I mentioned this circumstance to Captain Rigby at Zanzibar, he then
-agreed with me that the 500 dollars originally advanced were sufficient.
-
-“9. With regard to the statement of Said bin Salim concerning the
-non-payment of the seventy-three porters, I have to remark that it was
-mainly owing to his own fault. The men did not refuse to accompany me
-because I wished to diverge from the “correct route,” nor was I so
-unreasonable as to expect them to venture into the jaws of the slave
-trade. Several caravans that had accompanied us on the down-march, as
-well as the porters attached to the Expedition, were persuaded by the
-slaves of Ramjee (because Zanzibar was a nearer way to their homes) not
-to make Kilwa. The pretext of the porters was simply that they would be
-obliged to march back for three days. An extra remuneration was offered
-to them, they refused it, and left in a body. Shortly before their
-departure Captain Speke proposed to pay them for their services, but
-being convinced that they might be prevented from desertion, I did not
-judge advisable by paying them to do what would be virtually dismissing
-them. After they had proceeded a few miles, Said bin Salim was sent to
-recall them, on conditions which they would have accepted; he delayed,
-lost time, and ended by declaring that he could not travel without his
-dinner. Another party was instantly sent; they also loitered on the way,
-and thus the porters reached the coast and dispersed. Before their
-departure I rewarded the Kirangozi, or chief man of the caravan, who had
-behaved well in exhorting his followers to remain with us. I was delayed
-in a most unhealthy region for the arrival of some down porters, who
-consented to carry our goods to the coast; and to prove to them that
-money was not my object, I paid the newly-engaged gang as if they had
-marched the whole way. Their willingness to accompany me is the best
-proof that I had not lost the confidence of the people. Finally, on
-arrival at the coast, I inquired concerning those porters who had
-deserted us, and was informed by the Diwan and headman of the village,
-that they had returned to their homes in the interior, after a stay of a
-few days on the seaboard. This was a regrettable occurrence, but such
-events are common on the slave-path in Eastern Africa, and the
-established custom of the Arabs and other merchants, whom I had
-consulted upon the subject before leaving the interior, is, not to
-encourage desertion by paying part of the hire, or by settling for
-porterage before arriving at the coasts. Of the seven gangs of porters
-engaged on this journey, only one, an unusually small proportion, left
-me without being fully satisfied.
-
-“10. That Said bin Salim, and Ramji, the Banyan, should have appealed to
-Captain Rigby, according to the fashion of Orientals, after my departure
-from Zanzibar, for claims which they should have advanced when I refused
-to admit them, I am not astonished. But I must express my extreme
-surprise that Captain Speke should have written two private letters,
-forcibly pointing out the claims of these men to Captain Rigby, without
-having communicated the circumstance in any way to me, the chief of the
-Expedition. I have been in continued correspondence with that officer
-since my departure from Zanzibar, and until this moment I have been
-impressed with the conviction that Captain Speke’s opinion as to the
-claims of the guide and escort above alluded to was identical with my
-own.
-
-“11. With respect to the last paragraph of Captain Rigby’s letter,
-proposing that a shawl or some small mark of satisfaction should be
-presented by Government to Ladha Damha, the custom-master at Zanzibar,
-for his assistance to the Expedition, I distinctly deny the gratuitous
-assertions that I was entirely dependent on him for money and supplies;
-that he advanced considerable sums of money without any security; that
-he forwarded all requisite supplies, or, as Captain Speke affirms, that
-he afforded the Expedition every assistance in the most handsome manner.
-Before quitting Zanzibar for inner Africa, I settled all accounts with
-him, and left a small balance in his hands, and I gave, for all
-subsequent supplies, an order upon Messrs. Forbes, my agents in Bombay.
-He, like the other Hindus at Zanzibar, utterly neglected me after the
-death of Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton; and Captain Rigby has probably seen
-some of the letters of complaint which were sent by me from the
-interior. In fact, my principal merit in having conducted the Expedition
-to a successful issue is in having contended against the utter neglect
-of the Hindus at Zanzibar (who had promised to Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton,
-in return for his many good offices, their interest and assistance), and
-against the carelessness and dishonesty, the mutinous spirit and the
-active opposition of the guide and escort.
-
-“I admit that I was careful that these men should suffer for their
-misconduct. On the other hand, I was equally determined that those who
-did their duty should be adequately rewarded,--a fact which nowhere
-appears in Captain Rigby’s letter. The Portuguese servants, the
-negro-gun carriers, the several African gangs of porters, with their
-leaders, and all other claimants, were fully satisfied. The bills drawn
-in the interior, from the Arab merchants, were duly paid at Zanzibar,
-and on departure I left orders that if anything had been neglected it
-should be forwarded to me in Europe. I regret that Captain Rigby,
-without thoroughly ascertaining the merits of the case (which he
-evidently has not done), should not have permitted me to record any
-remarks which I might wish to offer, before making it a matter of appeal
-to the Bombay Government.
-
-“Finally, I venture to hope that Captain Rigby has forwarded the
-complaints of those who have appealed to him without endorsing their
-validity; and I trust that these observations upon the statements
-contained in his letter may prove that these statements were based upon
-no foundation of fact.
-
-  “I am, Sir,
-  “Your obedient Servant,
-  “R. F. BURTON,
-  “Bombay Army.”
-
-
-4.
-
-  “India Office, E. C., 14th January, 1860.
-
-“Sir,--I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in council, to
-inform you that, having taken into consideration the explanations
-afforded by you in your letter of the 11th November, together with the
-information on the same subject furnished by Captain Speke, he is of
-opinion that it was your duty, knowing, as you did, that demands for
-wages, on the part of certain Belochs and others who accompanied you
-into Equatorial Africa, existed against you, not to have left Zanzibar
-without bringing these claims before the consul there, with a view to
-their being adjudicated on their own merits, the more especially as the
-men had been originally engaged through the intervention or the
-influence of the British authorities, whom, therefore, it was your duty
-to satisfy before leaving the country. Had this course been followed,
-the character of the British Government would not have suffered, and the
-adjustment of the dispute would, in all probability, have been effected
-at a comparatively small outlay.
-
-“Your letter, and that of Captain Speke, will be forwarded to the
-Government of Bombay, with whom it will rest to determine whether you
-shall be held pecuniarily responsible for the amount which has been paid
-in liquidation of the claims against you.
-
-  “I am, Sir,
-  “Your obedient Servant,
-  “(Signed) J. COSMO MELVILL.”
-
-
-5.
-
-“Sir,--I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your official
-letter of the 14th January, 1860.
-
-“In reply, I have the honour to observe that, not having been favoured
-with a copy of the information on the same subject furnished to you by
-Captain Speke, I am not in a position to understand on what grounds the
-Secretary of State for India in council should have arrived at so
-unexpected a decision as regards the alleged non-payment of certain
-claims made by certain persons sent with me into the African interior.
-
-“I have the honour to observe that I did not know that demands for wages
-existed against me on the part of those persons, and that I believed I
-had satisfactorily explained the circumstances of their dismissal
-without payment in my official letter of the 11th November, 1859.
-
-“Although impaired health and its consequences prevented me from
-proceeding in an official form to the adjudication of the supposed
-claims in the presence of the consular authority, I represented the
-whole question to Captain Rigby, who, had he then--at that time--deemed
-it his duty to interfere, might have insisted upon adjudicating the
-affair with me, or with Captain Speke, before we left Zanzibar.
-
-“I have the honour to remark that the character of the British
-Government has _not_, and cannot (in my humble opinion) have suffered in
-any way by my withholding a purely conditional reward when forfeited by
-gross neglect and misconduct; and I venture to suggest that by
-encouraging such abuses serious obstacles will be thrown in the way of
-future exploration, and that the liberality of the British Government
-will be more esteemed by the native than its character for sound sense.
-
-“In conclusion, I venture to express my surprise, that all my labours
-and long services in the cause of African Exploration should have won
-for me no other reward than the prospect of being mulcted in a pecuniary
-liability incurred by my late lamented friend, Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton,
-and settled without reference to me by his successor, Captain Rigby.
-
-  “I have the honour, &c. &c.,
-  “RICHD. F. BURTON,
-  “Captain, Bombay Army.”
-
-  “The Under Secretary of State for India.”
-
-
-
-
-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.
-
-
-THE END.
-
-
-  LONDON:
-  PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
-  NEW-STREET SQUARE.
-
-
-
-
-  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 under Changes below. The names of peoples, tribes,
-  other groups and localities in particular occur in different
-  varieties, either accidentally or deliberately. Factual and textual
-  errors, inconsistencies 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.
-
-
-  Changes made:
-
-  Page vii: Entry Map of the Routes added.
-
-  Page 389: 2 Nusu = Dollar changed to 2 Nusu = 1 Dollar.
-
-  Page430: Heading FIRST CORRESPONDENCE. inserted.
-
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