The Lie of the Country--Rhinoceros-Stalking--Scuffle of Villagers over a
Carcass--Chief "Short-Legs" and His Successors--Buffalo-Shooting--
Getting Lost--A Troublesome Sultan--Desertions from the Camp--Getting
Plundered--Wilderness March--Diplomatic Relations with the Local
Powers--Manua Sera's Story--Christmas--The Relief from Kaze
This day's work led us from the hilly Usagara range into the more level
lands of the interior. Making a double march of it, we first stopped to
breakfast at the quiet little settlement of Inenge, where cattle were
abundant, but grain so scarce that the villagers were living on calabash
seeds. Proceeding thence across fields delightfully checkered with
fine calabash and fig trees, we marched, carrying water through thorny
jungles, until dark, when we bivouacked for the night, only to rest
and push on again next morning, arriving at Marenga Mkhali (the saline
water) to breakfast. Here a good view of the Usagara hills is obtained.
Carrying water with us, we next marched half-way to the first settlement
of Ugogo, and bivouacked again, to eat the last of our store of Mbumi
grain.
At length the greater famine lands had been spanned; but we were not
in lands of plenty--for the Wagogo we found, like their neighbours
Wasagara, eating the seed of the calabash, to save their small stores of
grain.
The East Coast Range having been passed, no more hills had to be
crossed, for the land we next entered on is a plateau of rolling ground,
sloping southward to the Ruaha river, which forms a great drain running
from west to east, carrying off all the rainwaters that fall in its
neighbourhood through the East Coast Range to the sea. To the northward
can be seen some low hills, which are occupied by Wahumba, a subtribe
of the warlike Masai; and on the west is the large forest-wilderness of
Mgunda Mkhali. Ugogo, lying under the lee side of the Usagara hills,
is comparatively sterile. Small outcrops of granite here and there poke
through the surface, which, like the rest of the rolling land, being
covered with bush, principally acacias, have a pleasing appearance after
the rains have set in, but are too brown and desert-looking during
the rest of the year. Large prairies of grass also are exposed in many
places, and the villagers have laid much ground bare for agricultural
purposes.
Altogether, Ugogo has a very wild aspect, well in keeping with the
natives who occupy it, who, more like the Wazaramo than the Wasagara,
carry arms, intended for use rather than show. The men, indeed, are
never seen without their usual arms--the spear, the shield, and the
assage. They live in flat-topped, square, tembe villages, wherever
springs of water are found, keep cattle in plenty, and farm enough
generally to supply not only their own wants, but those of the thousands
who annually pass in caravans. They are extremely fond of ornaments,
the most common of which is an ugly tube of the gourd thrust through the
lower lobe of the ear. Their colour is a soft ruddy brown, with a slight
infusion of black, not unlike that of a rich plum. Impulsive by
nature, and exceedingly avaricious, they pester travellers beyond all
conception, by thronging the road, jeering, quizzing, and pointing at
them; and in camp, by intrusively forcing their way into the midst of
the kit, and even into the stranger's tent. Caravans, in consequence,
never enter their villages, but camp outside, generally under the big
"gouty-limbed" trees--encircling their entire camp sometimes with a
ring-fence of thorns to prevent any sudden attack.
To resume the thread of the journey: we found, on arrival in Ugogo, very
little more food than in Usagara for the Wagogo were mixing their small
stores of grain with the monkey-bread seeds of the gouty-limbed tree.
Water was so scarce in the wells at this season that we had to buy it
at the normal price of country beer; and, as may be imagined where such
distress in food was existing, cows, goats, sheep, and fowls were also
selling at high rates.
Our mules here gave us the slip again, and walked all the way back to
Marenga Mkhali, where they were found and brought back by some Wagogo,
who took four yards of merikani in advance, with a promise of four more
on return, for the job--their chief being security for their fidelity.
This business detained us two days, during which time I shot a new
variety of florikan, peculiar in having a light blue band stretching
from the nose over the eye to the occiput. Each day, while we resided
here, cries were raised by the villagers that the Wahumba were coming,
and then all the cattle out in the plains, both far and near, were
driven into the village for protection.
At last, on the 26th, as the mules were brought it, I paid a hongo or
tax of four barsati and four yards of chintz to the chief, and departed,
but not until one of my porters, a Mhehe, obtained a fat dog for his
dinner; he had set his heart on it, and would not move until he had
killed it, and tied it on to his load for the evening's repast. Passing
through the next villages--a collection called Kifukuro--we had to pay
another small tax of two barsati and four yards of chintz to the chief.
There we breakfasted, and pushed on, carrying water to a bivouac in the
jungles, as the famine precluded our taking the march more easily.
Pushing on again, we cleared out of the woods, and arrived at the
eastern border of the largest clearance of Ugogo, Kanyenye. Here we
were forced to halt a day, as the mules were done up, and eight of the
Wanyamuezi porters absconded, carrying with them the best part of their
loads. There was also another inducement for stopping here; for, after
stacking the loads, as we usually did on arriving in camp, against a
large gouty-limbed tree, a hungry Mgogo, on eyeing our guns, offered
his services to show us some bicornis rhinoceros, which, he said paid
nightly visits to certain bitter pools that lay in the nullah bottoms
not far off. This exciting intelligence made me inquire if it was not
possible to find them at once; but, being assured that they lived very
far off, and that the best chance was the night, I gave way, and settled
on starting at ten, to arrive at the ground before the full moon should
rise.
I set forth with the guide and two of the sheikh's boys, each carrying
a single rifle, and ensconced myself in the nullah, to hide until our
expected visitors should arrive, and there remained until midnight. When
the hitherto noisy villagers turned into bed, the silvery moon shed her
light on the desolate scene, and the Mgogo guide, taking fright, bolted.
He had not, however, gone long, when, looming above us, coming over the
horizon line, was the very animal we wanted.
In a fidgety manner the beast then descended, as if he expected some
danger in store--and he was not wrong; for, attaching a bit of white
paper to the fly-sight of my Blissett, I approached him, crawling under
cover of the banks until within eighty yards of him, when, finding that
the moon shone full on his flank, I raised myself upright and planted a
bullet behind his left shoulder. Thus died my first rhinoceros.
To make the most of the night, as I wanted meat for my men to cook, as
well as a stock to carry with them, or barter with the villagers for
grain, I now retired to my old position, and waited again.
After two hours had elapsed, two more rhinoceros approached me in the
same stealthy, fidgety way as the first one. They came even closer than
the first, but, the moon having passed beyond their meridian, I could
not obtain so clear a mark. Still they were big marks, and I determined
on doing my best before they had time to wind us; so stepping out,
with the sheikh's boys behind me carrying the second rifle to meet all
emergencies, I planted a ball in the larger one, and brought him round
with a roar and whooh-whooh, exactly to the best position I could wish
for receiving a second shot; but, alas! on turning sharply round for the
spare rifle, I had the mortification to see that both the black boys had
made off, and were scrambling like monkeys up a tree. At the same time
the rhinoceros, fortunately for me, on second consideration turned to
the right-about, and shuffled away, leaving, as is usually the case when
conical bullets are used, no traces of blood.
Thus ended the night's work. We now went home by dawn to apprise all the
porters that we had flesh in store for them, when the two boys who had
so shamelessly deserted me, instead of hiding their heads, described all
the night's scenes with such capital mimicry as to set the whole camp
in a roar. We had all now to hurry back to the carcass before the Wagogo
could find it; but though this precaution was quickly taken, still,
before the tough skin of the beast could be cut through, the Wagogo
began assembling like vultures, and fighting with my men. A more savage,
filthy, disgusting, but at the same time grotesque, scene than that
which followed cannot be conceived. All fell to work armed with swords,
spears, knives, and hatchets--cutting and slashing, thumping and
bawling, fighting and tearing, tumbling and wrestling up to their knees
in filth and blood in the middle of the carcass. When a tempting morsel
fell to the possession of any one, a stronger neighbour would seize and
bear off the prize in triumph. All right was now a matter or pure might,
and lucky it was that it did not end in a fight between our men and
the villagers. These might be afterwards seen, one by one, covered with
blood, scampering home each with his spoil--a piece of tripe, or liver,
or lights, or whatever else it might have been his fortune to get off
with.
We were still in great want of men; but rather than stop a day, as all
delays only lead to more difficulties, I pushed on to Magomba's palace
with the assistance of some Wagogo carrying our baggage, each taking one
cloth as his hire. The chief wazir at once come out to meet me on the
way, and in an apparently affable manner, as an old friend, begged that
I would live in the palace--a bait which I did not take, as I knew
my friend by experience a little too well. He then, in the politest
possible manner, told me that a great dearth of food was oppressing the
land--so much so, that pretty cloths only would purchase grain. I now
wished to settle my hongo, but the great chief could not hear of such
indecent haste.
The next day, too, the chief was too drunk to listen to any one, and I
must have patience. I took out this time in the jungles very profitably,
killing a fine buck and doe antelope, of a species unknown. These
animals are much about the same size and shape as the common Indian
antelope, and, like them, roam about in large herds. The only marked
difference between the two is in the shape of their horns, as may be
seen by the woodcut; and in their colour, in which, in both sexes, the
Ugogo antelopes resemble the picticandata gazelle of Tibet, except that
the former have dark markings on the face.
At last, after thousands of difficulties much like those I encountered
in Uzaramo, the hongo was settled by a payment of one kisutu, one
dubani, four yards bendera, four yards kiniki, and three yards merikani.
The wazir then thought he would do some business on his own account, and
commenced work by presenting me with a pot of ghee and flour, saying at
the same time "empty words did not show true love," and hoping that I
would prove mine by making some slight return. To get rid of the animal
I gave him the full value of his present in cloth, which he no sooner
pocketed than he had the audacity to accuse Grant of sacrilege for
having shot a lizard on a holy stone, and demanded four cloths to pay
atonement for this offence against the "church." As yet, he said, the
chief was not aware of the damage done, and it was well he was not; for
he would himself, if I only paid him the four cloths, settle matters
quietly, otherwise there would be no knowing what demands might be made
on my cloth. It was necessary to get up hot temper, else there was no
knowing how far he would go; so I returned him his presents, and told
the sheikh, instead of giving four, to fling six cloths in his face, and
tell him that the holy-stone story was merely a humbug, and I would take
care no more white men ever came to see him again.
Some Wanyamuezi porters, who had been left sick here by former caravans,
now wished to take service with me as far as Kaze; but the Wagogo,
hearing of their desire, frightened them off it. A report also at this
time was brought to us, that a caravan had just arrived at our last
ground, having come up from Whindi, direct by the line of the Wami
river, in its upper course called Mukondokua, without crossing a single
hill all the way; I therefore sent three men to see if they had any
porters to spare, as it was said they had; but the three men, although
they left their bows and arrows behind, never came back.
Another mule died to-day. This was perplexing indeed, but to stop longer
was useless; so we pushed forward as best we could to a pond at the
western end of the district where we found a party of Makua sportsmen
who had just killed an elephant. They had lived in Ugogo one year and
a half, and had killed in all seventeen elephants; half the tusks of
which, as well as some portion of the flesh, they gave to Magomba for
the privilege of residing there. There were many antelopes there, some
of which both Grant and I shot for the good of the pot, and he also
killed a crocute hyena. From the pond we went on to the middle of a
large jungle, and bivouacked for the night in a shower of rain, the
second of the season.
During a fierce downpour of rain, the porters all quivering and quaking
with cold, we at length emerged from the jungle, and entered the
prettiest spot in Ugogo--the populous district of Usekhe--where little
hills and huge columns of granite crop out. Here we halted.
Next day came the hongo business, which was settled by paying one
dubani, one kitambi, one msutu, four yards merikani, and two yards
kiniki; but whilst we were doing it eight porters ran away, and four
fresh ones were engaged (Wanyamuezi) who had run away from Kanyenye.
With one more march from this we reached the last district in Ugogo,
Khoko. Here the whole of the inhabitants turned out to oppose us,
imagining we had come there to revenge the Arab, Mohinna, because the
Wagogo attacked him a year ago, plundered his camp, and drove him back
to Kaze, for having shot their old chief "Short-legs." They, however, no
sooner found out who we were than they allowed us to pass on, and encamp
in the outskirts of the Mgunda Mkhali wilderness. To this position in
the bush I strongly objected, on the plea that guns could be best
used against arrows in the open; but none would go out in the field,
maintaining that the Wagogo would fear to attack us so far from their
villages, as we now were, lest we might cut them off in their retreat.
Hori Hori was now chief in Short-leg's stead, and affected to be much
pleased that we were English, and not Arabs. He told us we might, he
thought, be able to recruit all the men that we were in want of, as many
Wanyanuezi who had been left there sick wished to go to their homes;
and I would only, in addition to their wages, have to pay their "hotel
bills" to the Wagogo. This, of course, I was ready to do, though I knew
the Wanyamuezi had paid for themselves, as is usual, by their work in
the fields of their hosts. Still, as I should be depriving these of
hands, I could scarcely expect to get off for less than the value of a
slave for each, and told Sheikh said to look out for some men at once,
whilst at the same time he laid in provisions of grain to last us eight
days in the wilderness, and settle the hongo.
For this triple business, I allowed three days, during which time,
always eager to shoot something, either for science or the pot, I killed
a bicornis rhinoceros, at a distance of five paces only, with my small
40-gauge Lancaster, as the beast stood quietly feeding in the bush; and
I also shot a bitch fox of the genus Octocyon lalandii, whose ill-omened
cry often alarms the natives by forewarning them of danger. This was
rather tame sport; but next day I had better fun.
Starting in the early morning, accompanied by two of Sheikh Said's boys,
Suliman and Faraj, each carrying a rifle, while I carried a shot-gun, we
followed a footpath to the westward in the wilderness of Mgunda Mkhali.
There, after walking a short while in the bush, as I heard the grunt
of a buffalo close on my left, I took "Blissett" in hand, and walked
to where I soon espied a large herd quietly feeding. They were quite
unconscious of my approach, so I took a shot at a cow, and wounded her;
then, after reloading, put a ball in a bull and staggered him also. This
caused great confusion among them; but as none of the animals knew where
the shots came from, they simply shifted about in a fidgety manner,
allowing me to kill the first cow, and even fire a fourth shot, which
sickened the great bull, and induced him to walk off, leaving the herd
to their fate, who, considerably puzzled, began moving off also.
I now called up the boys, and determined on following the herd down
before either skinning the dead cow or following the bull, who I knew
could not go far. Their footprints being well defined in the moist
sandy soil, we soon found the herd again; but as they now knew they were
pursued, they kept moving on in short runs at a time, when, occasionally
gaining glimpses of their large dark bodies as they forced through the
bush, I repeated my shots and struck a good number, some more and some
less severely. This was very provoking; for all of them being stern
shots were not likely to kill, and the jungle was so thick I could not
get a front view of them. Presently, however, one with her hind leg
broken pulled up on a white-ant hill, and, tossing her horns, came down
with a charge the instant I showed myself close to her. One crack of the
rifle rolled her over, and gave me free scope to improve the bag, which
was very soon done; for on following the spoors, the traces of blood led
us up to another one as lame as the last. He then got a second bullet
in the flank, and, after hobbling a little, evaded our sight and
threw himself into a bush, where we not sooner arrived than he plunged
headlong at us from his ambush, just, and only just, giving me time to
present my small 40-gauge Lancaster.
It was a most ridiculous scene. Suliman by my side, with the instinct of
a monkey, made a violent spring and swung himself by a bough immediately
over the beast, whilst Faraj bolted away and left me single-gunned to
polish him off. There was only one course to pursue, for in one instant
more he would have been into me; so, quick as thought, I fired the gun,
and, as luck would have it, my bullet, after passing through the edge of
one of his horns, stuck in the spine of his neck, and rolled him over at
my feet as dead as a rabbit. Now, having cut the beast's throat to make
him "hilal," according to Mussulman usage, and thinking we had done
enough if I could only return to the first wounded bull and settle him
too, we commenced retracing our steps, and by accident came on Grant.
He was passing by from another quarter, and became amused by the glowing
description of my boys, who never omitted to narrate their own cowardice
as an excellent tale. He begged us to go on in our course, whilst he
would go back and send us some porters to carry home the game.
Now, tracking back again to the first point of attack, we followed the
blood of the first bull, till at length I found him standing like a
stuck pig in some bushes, looking as if he would like to be put out of
his miseries. Taking compassion, I levelled my Blisset; but, as bad luck
would have it, a bough intercepted the flight of the bullet, and it went
"pinging" into the air, whilst the big bull went off at a gallop. To
follow on was no difficulty, the spoor was so good; and in ten minutes
more, as I opened on a small clearance, Blisset in hand, the great
beast, from the thicket on the opposite side, charged down like a mad
bull, full of ferocity--as ugly an antagonist as ever I saw, for the
front of his head was all shielded with horn. A small mound fortunately
stood between us, and as he rounded it, I jumped to one side and let fly
at his flank, but without the effect of stopping him; for, as quick as
thought, the huge monster was at my feet, battling with the impalpable
smoke of my gun, which fortunately hung so thick on the ground at the
height of his head that he could not see me, though I was so close that
I might, had I been possessed of a hatchet, have chopped off his head.
This was a predicament which looked very ugly, for my boys had both
bolted, taking with them my guns; but suddenly the beast, evidently
regarding the smoke as a phantom which could not be mastered, turned
round in a bustle, to my intense relief, and galloped off at full speed,
as if scared by some terrible apparition.
O what would I not then have given for a gun, the chance was such a
good one! Still, angry though I was, I could not help laughing as the
dastardly boys came into the clearance full of their mimicry, and joked
over the scene they had witnessed in security, whilst my life was in
jeopardy because they were too frightened to give me my gun. But now
came the worst part of the day; for, though rain was falling, I had not
the heart to relinquish my game. Tracking on through the bush, I thought
every minute I should come up with the brute; but his wounds ceased to
bleed, and in the confusion of the numerous tracks which scored all the
forest we lost our own.
Much disappointed at this, I now proposed to make for the track we came
by in the morning, and follow it down into camp; but this luxury was not
destined to be our lot that night, for the rain had obliterated all our
footprints of the morning, and we passed the track, mistaking it for the
run of wild beasts. It struck me we had done so; but say what I would,
the boys thought they knew better; and the consequence was that, after
wandering for hours no one knew where--for there was no sun to guide
us--I pulled up, and swore I would wait for the stars, else it might be
our fate to be lost in the wilderness, which I did not much relish. We
were all at this time "hungry as hunters," and beginning to feel very
miserable from being wet through. What little ammunition I had left I
fired off as signals, or made tinder of to get up a fire, but the
wood would not burn. In this hapless condition the black boys began
murmuring, wishing to go on, pretending, though both held opposite
views, that each knew the way; for they thought nothing could be worse
than their present state of discomfort.
Night with its gloom was then drawing on, heightened by thunder and
lightning, which set in all around us. At times we thought we heard
musketry in camp, knowing that Grant would be sure to fire signals
for us; and doubtless we did so, but its sound and the thunder so much
resembled one another that we distrusted our ears. At any rate, the
boys mistook the west for the east; and as I thought they had done so, I
stood firm to one spot, and finally lay down with them to sleep upon
the cold wet ground, where we slept pretty well, being only disturbed
occasionally by some animals sniffing at our feet. As the clouds broke
towards morning, my obstinate boys still swore that west was east, and
would hardly follow me when tracking down Venus; next up rose the moon
and then followed the sun, when, as good luck would have it, we struck
on the track, and walked straight into camp.
Here every one was in a great state of excitement: Grant had been making
the men fire volleys. The little sheikh was warmly congratulatory as
he spoke of the numbers who had strayed away and had been lost in that
wilderness; whilst Bombay admitted he thought we should turn up again
if I did not listen to the advice of the boys, which was his only fear.
Nothing as yet, I now found, had been done to further our march. The
hongo, the sheikh said, had to precede everything; yet that had not been
settled, because the chief deferred it the day of our arrival, on the
plea that it was the anniversary of Short-legs's death; and he also said
that till then all the Wagogo had been in mourning by ceasing to wear
all their brass bracelets and other ornaments, and they now wished to
solemnise the occasion by feasting and renewing their finery. This
being granted, the next day another pretext for delay was found, by the
Wahumba having made a raid on their cattle, which necessitated the chief
and all his men turning out to drive them away; and to-day nothing could
be attended to, as a party of fugitive Wanyamuezi had arrived and
put them all in a fright. These Wanyamuezi, it then transpired, were
soldiers of Manua Sera, the "Tippler," who was at war with the Arabs. He
had been defeated at Mguru, a district in Unyamuezi, by the Arabs, and
had sent these men to cut off the caravan route, as the best way of
retaliation that lay in his power.
At last the tax having been settled by the payment of one dubani, two
barsati, one sahari, six yards merikani, and three yards kiniki (not,
however, until I had our tents struck, and threatened to march away if
the chief would not take it), I proposed going on with the journey,
for our provisions were stored, but when the loads were being lifted,
I found ten more men were missing; and as nothing now could be done but
throw ten loads away, which seemed to great a sacrifice to be made in a
hurry, I simply changed ground to show we were ready to march, and sent
my men about, either to try to induce the fugitive Wanyamuezi to take
service with me or else to buy donkeys, as the chief said he had some to
sell.
We had already been here too long. A report was now spread that a lion
had killed one of the chief's cows; and the Wagogo, suspecting that our
being here was the cause of this ill luck, threatened to attack us. This
no sooner got noised over the camp than all my Wanyamuezi porters, who
had friends in Ugogo, left to live with them, and would not come back
again even when the "storm had blown over," because they did not like
the incessant rains that half deluged the camp. The chief, too, said he
would not sell us his donkeys, lest we should give them back to Mohinna,
from whom they were taken during his fight here. Intrigues of all sorts
I could see were brewing, possibly at the instigation of the fugitive
Wanyamuezi, who suspected we were bound to side with the Arabs--possibly
from some other cause, I could not tell what; so, to clear out of this
pandemonium as soon as possible I issued cloths to buy double rations,
intending to cross the wilderness by successive relays in double the
ordinary number of days. I determined at the same time to send forward
two freed men to Kaze to ask Musa and the Arabs to send me out some
provisions and men to meet us half-way.
Matters grew worse and worse. The sultan, now finding me unable to move,
sent a message to say if I would not give him some better cloths to make
his hongo more respectable, he would attack my camp; and advised all
the Wanyamuezi who regarded their lives not to go near me if I resisted.
This was by no means pleasant; for the porters showed their uneasiness
by extracting their own cloths from my bundles, under the pretext that
they wished to make some purchases of their own. I ought, perhaps,
to have stopped this; but I thought the best plan was to show total
indifference; so, at the same time that they were allowed to take their
cloths, I refused to comply with the chief's request, and begged them
to have no fear so long as they saw I could hold my own ground with my
guns.
The Wanyamuezi, however, were panic-stricken, and half of them bolted,
with the kirangozi at their head, carrying off all the double-ration
cloths as well as their own. At this time, the sultan, having changed
tactics, as he saw us all ready to stand on the defensive, sent back
his hongo; but, instead of using threats, said he would oblige us with
donkeys or anything else if we would only give him a few more pretty
cloths. With this cringing, perfidious appeal I refused to comply, until
the sheikh, still more cringing, implored me to give way else not a
single man would remain with me. I then told him to settle with the
chief himself, and give me the account, which amounted to three barsati,
two sahari, and three yards merikani; but the donkeys were never alluded
to.
With half my men gone, I still ordered the march, though strongly
opposed to the advice of one of old Mamba's men, who was then passing by
on his way to the coast, in command of his master's rear detachment. He
thought it impossible for us to pull through the wilderness, with its
jungle grasses and roots, depending for food only on Grant's gun and
my own; still we made half-way to the Mdaburu nullah, taking some
of Mamba's out to camp with us, as he promised to take letters and
specimens down to the coast for us, provided I paid him some cloths as
ready money down, and promised some more to be paid at Zanzibar. These
letters eventually reached home, but not the specimens.
The rains were so heavy that the whole country was now flooded, but we
pushed on to the nullah by relays, and pitched on its left bank. In the
confusion of the march, however, we lost many more porters, who at the
same time relieved us of their loads, by slipping off stealthily into
the bush.
The fifteenth was a forced halt, as the stream was so deep and so
violent we could not cross it. To make the best of this very unfortunate
interruption, I now sent on two men to Kaze, with letters to Musa and
Sheikh Snay, both old friends on the former expedition, begging them
to send me sixty men, each carrying thirty rations of grain, and some
country tobacco. The tobacco was to gratify my men, who said of all
things they most wanted to cheer them was something to smoke. At the
same time I sent back some other men to Khoko, with cloth to buy grain
for present consumption, as some of my porters were already reduced to
living on wild herbs and white ants. I then sent all the remaining men,
under the directions of Bombay and Baraka, to fell a tall tree with
hatchets, on the banks of the nullah, with a view to bridging it; but
the tree dropped to the wrong side, and thwarted the plan. The rain
ceased on the 17th, just as we put the rain-gauge out, which was at
once interpreted to be our Uganga, or religious charm, and therefore the
cause of its ceasing. It was the first fine day for a fortnight, so we
were only too glad to put all our things out to dry, and rejoiced to
think of the stream's subsiding. My men who went back to Khoko for grain
having returned with next to nothing--though, of course, they had spent
all the cloths--I sent back another batch with pretty cloths, as it was
confidently stated that grain was so scarce there, nothing but the best
fabrics would but it. This also proved a dead failure; but although
animals were very scarce, Grant relieved our anxiety by shooting a zebra
and an antelope.
After five halts, we forded the stream, middle deep, and pushed forwards
again, doing short stages of four or five miles a-day, in the greatest
possible confusion; for, whilst Grant and I were compelled to go out
shooting all day for the pot, the sheikh and Bombay went on with the
first half of the property and then, keeping guard over it sent the men
back again to Baraka, who kept rear-guard, to have the rest brought
on. Order there was none: the men hated this "double work;" all the
Wanyamuezi but three deserted, with the connivance of the coast-men,
carrying off their loads with them, under a mutual understanding, as
I found out afterwards, that the coast-men were to go shares in the
plunder as soon as we reached Unyamuezi. The next great obstacle in this
tug-and-pull wilderness-march presented itself on the 24th, when, after
the first half of the property had crossed the Mabunguru nullah, it rose
in flood and cut off the rear half. It soon, however, subsided; and
the next day we reached "the Springs," where we killed a pig and two
rhinoceros. Not content, however, with this fare--notwithstanding the
whole camp had been living liberally on zebra's and antelope's flesh
every day previously--some of my coast-men bolted on to the little
settlement of Jiwa la Mkoa, contrary to orders, to purchase some grain;
and in doing so, increased our transport difficulties.
Pulling on in the same way again--when not actually engaged in shooting,
scolding and storming at the men, to keep them up to the mark, and
prevent them from shirking their work, which they were for every trying
to do--we arrived on the 28th at the "Boss," a huge granite block, from
the top of which the green foliage of the forest-trees looked like an
interminable cloud, soft and waving, fit for fairies to dwell upon. Here
the patience of my men fairly gave way, for the village of Jiwa la Mkoa
was only one long march distance from us; and they, in consequence,
smelt food on in advance much sweeter than the wild game and wild
grasses they had been living on; and many more of them could not resist
deserting us, though they might, had we all pulled together, have gone
more comfortably in, as soon as the rear property arrived next day with
Baraka.
All the men who deserted on the 25th, save Johur and Mutwana, now came
into camp, and told us they had heard from travellers that those men who
had been sent on for reliefs to Kaze were bringing us a large detachment
of slaves to help us on. My men had brought no food either for us or
their friends, as the cloths they took with them, "which were their
own," were scarcely sufficient to purchase a meal--famines being as bad
where they had been as in Ugogo. To try and get all the men together
again, I now sent off a party loaded with cloths to see what they could
get for us; but they returned on the 30th grinning and joking, with
nothing but a small fragment of goat-flesh, telling lies by the dozens.
Johur then came into camp, unconscious that Baraka by my orders had,
during his absence, been inspecting his kit, where he found concealed
seventy-three yards of cloth, which could only have been my property, as
Johur had brought no akaba or reserve fund from the coast.
The theft having been proved to the satisfaction of every one, I ordered
Baraka to strip him of everything and give him three dozen lashes; but
after twenty-one had been given, the rest were remitted on his promising
to turn Queen's evidence, when it transpired that Mutwana had done as
much as himself. Johur, it turned out, was a murderer, having obtained
his freedom by killing his master. He was otherwise a notoriously bad
character; so, wishing to make an example, as I knew all my men were
robbing me daily, though I could not detect them, I had him turned out
of camp. Baraka was a splendid detective, and could do everything well
when he wished it, so I sent him off now with cloths to see what he
could to at Jiwa la Mkoa, and next day he returned triumphantly driving
in cows and goats. Three Wanyamuezi, also, who heard we were given to
shooting wild animals continually, came with him to offer their services
as porters.
As nearly all the men had now returned, Grant and I spent New Year's Day
with the first detachment at Jiwa la Mkoa, or Round Rock--a single tembe
village occupied by a few Wakimbu settlers, who, by their presence and
domestic habits, made us feel as though we were well out of the wood. So
indeed we found it; for although this wilderness was formerly an
entire forest of trees and wild animals, numerous Wakimbu, who formerly
occupied the banks of the Ruaha to the southward, had been driven
to migrate here, wherever they could find springs of water, by the
boisterous naked pastorals the Warori.
At night three slaves belonging to Sheikh Salem bin Saif stole into our
camp, and said they had been sent by their master to seek for porters at
Kaze, as all the Wanyamuezi porters of four large caravans had deserted
in Ugogo, and they could not move. I was rather pleased by this news,
and thought it served the merchants right, knowing, as I well did, that
the Wanyamuezi, being naturally honest, had they not been defrauded by
foreigners on the down march to the coast, would have been honest
still. Some provisions were now obtained by sending men out to distant
villages; but we still supplied the camp with our guns, killing
rhinoceros, wild boar, antelope, and zebras. The last of our property
did not come up till the 5th, when another thief being caught, got fifty
lashes, under the superintendence of Baraka, to show that punishment was
only inflicted to prevent further crime.
The next day my men came from Kaze with letters from Sheikh Snay and
Musa. They had been detained there some days after arrival, as those
merchants' slaves had gone to Utambara to settle some quarrel there; but
as soon as they returned, Musa ordered them to go and assist us, giving
them beads to find rations for themselves on the way, as the whole
country about Kaze had been half-starved by famines, though he did send
a little rice and tobacco for me. The whole party left Kaze together;
but on arrival at Tura the slaves said they had not enough beads and
would return for some more, when they would follow my men. This bit
of news was the worst that could have befallen us; my men were
broken-hearted enough before, and this drove the last spark of spirit
out of them. To make the best of a bad job, I now sent Bombay with two
other men off to Musa to see what he could do, and ordered my other
men to hire Wakimbu from village to village. On the 7th, a nervous
excitement was produced in the camp by some of my men running in and
calling all to arm, as the fugitive chief Manua Sera was coming, with
thirty armed followers carrying muskets. Such was the case: and by the
time my men were all under arms, with their sword-bayonets fixed, drawn
up by my tent the veritable "Tippler" arrived; but, not liking the look
of such a formidable array as my men presented, he passed on a short
way, and then sent back a deputation to make known his desire of
calling on me, which was no sooner complied with than he came in person,
attended by a body-guard. On my requesting him to draw near and sit, his
wooden stool was placed for him. He began the conversation by telling
me he had heard of my distress from want of porters, and then offered
to assist me with some, provided I would take him to Kaze, and mediate
between him and the Arabs; for, through their unjustifiable interference
in his government affairs, a war had ensued, which terminated with the
Arabs driving him from his possessions a vagabond. Manua Sera, I
must say, was as fine a young man as ever I looked upon. He was very
handsome, and looked as I now saw him the very picture of a captain of
the banditti of the romances. I begged him to tell me his tale, and, in
compliance, he gave me the following narrative:--
"Shortly after you left Kaze for England, my old father, the late chief
Fundi Kira, died, and by his desire I became lawful chief; for, though
the son of a slave girl, and not of Fundi Kira's wife, such is the
law of inheritance--a constitutional policy established to prevent any
chance of intrigues between the sons born in legitimate wedlock. Well,
after assuming the title of chief, I gave presents of ivory to all
the Arabs with a liberal hand, but most so to Musa, which caused great
jealousy amongst the other merchants. Then after this I established a
property tax on all merchandise that entered my country. Fundi Kira had
never done so, but I did not think that any reason why I should not,
especially as the Arabs were the only people who lived in my country
exempt from taxation. This measure, however, exasperated the Arabs, and
induced them to send me hostile messages, to the effect that, if I ever
meddled with them, they would dethrone me, and place Mkisiwa, another
illegitimate son, on the throne in my stead. This," Manua Sera
continued, "I could not stand; the merchants were living on sufferance
only in my country. I told them so, and defied them to interfere with my
orders, for I was not a 'woman,' to be treated with contempt; and this
got up a quarrel. Mkisiwa, seizing at the opportunity of the prize held
out to him by the Arabs as his supporters, then commenced a system of
bribery. Words led to blows; we had a long and tough fight; I killed
many of their number, and they killed mine. Eventually they drove
me from my palace, and placed Mkisiwa there as chief in my stead. My
faithful followers however, never deserted me; so I went to Rubuga, and
put up with old Maula there. The Arabs followed--drove me to Nguru, and
tried to kill Maula for having fostered me. He, however, escaped them;
but they destroyed his country, and then followed me down to Nguru.
There we fought for many months, until all provisions were exhausted,
when I defied them to catch me, and forced my way through their ranks.
It is needless to say I have been a wanderer since; and though I wish to
make friends, they will not allow it, but do all they can to hunt me to
death. Now, as you were a friend of my father, I do hope you will patch
up this war for me, which you must think is unjust."
I told Manua Sera I felt very much for him, and I would do my best if
he would follow me to Kaze; but I knew that nothing could ever be done
unless he returned to the free-trade principles of his father. He then
said he had never taken a single tax from the Arabs, and would gladly
relinquish his intention to do so. The whole affair was commenced in too
great a hurry; but whatever happened he would gladly forgive all if I
would use my influence to reinstate him, for by no other means could he
ever get his crown back again. I then assured him that I would do what I
could to restore the ruined trade of his country, observing that, as all
the ivory that went out of his country, came to ours, and all imports
were productions of our country also, this war injured us as well as
himself. Manua Sera seemed highly delighted, and said he had a little
business to transact in Ugogo at present, but he would overtake me in a
few days. He then sent me one of my runaway porters, whom he had caught
in the woods making off with a load of my beads. We then separated; and
Baraka, by my orders, gave the thief fifty lashes for his double offence
of theft and desertion.
On the 9th, having bought two donkeys and engaged several men, we left
Jiwa la Mkoa, with half our traps, and marched to Garaeswi, where, to
my surprise, there were as many as twenty tembes--a recently-formed
settlement of Wokimbu. Here we halted a day for the rear convoy, and
then went on again by detachments to Zimbo, where, to our intense
delight, Bombay returned to us on the 13th, triumphantly firing guns,
with seventy slaves accompanying him, and with letters from Snay and
Musa, in which they said they hoped, if I met with Manua Sera, that
I would either put a bullet through his head, or else bring him in a
prisoner, that they might do for him, for the scoundrel had destroyed
all their trade by cutting off caravans. Their fights with him commenced
by his levying taxes in opposition to their treaties with his father,
Fundi Kira, and then preventing his subjects selling them grain.
Once more the whole caravan moved on; but as I had to pay each of the
seventy slaves sixteen yards of cloth, by order of their masters, in the
simple matter of expenditure it would have been better had I thrown ten
loads away at Ugogo, where my difficulties first commenced. On arrival
at Mgongo Thembo--the Elephant's Back--called so in consequence of a
large granitic rock, which resembles the back of that animal, protruding
through the ground--we found a clearance in the forest, of two miles
in extent, under cultivation. Here the first man to meet me was the
fugitive chief of Rubuga, Maula. This poor old man--one of the honestest
chiefs in the country--had been to the former expedition a host and good
friend. He now gave me a cow as a present, and said he would give me
ten more if I would assist him in making friends with the Arabs, who
had driven him out of his country, and had destroyed all his belongings,
even putting a slave to reign in his stead, though he had committed no
fault of intentional injury towards them. It was true Manua Sera, their
enemy, had taken refuge in his palace, but that was not his fault; for,
anticipating the difficulties that would arise, he did his best to keep
Manua Sera out of it, but Manua Sera being too strong for him, forced
his way in. I need not say I tried to console this unfortunate victim of
circumstances as best I could, inviting him to go with me to Kaze, and
promising to protect him with my life if he feared the Arabs; but the
old man, being too feeble to travel himself, said he would send his son
with me.
Next day we pushed on a double march through the forest, and reached
a nullah. As it crosses the track in a southerly direction, this might
either be the head of the Kululu mongo or river, which, passing through
the district of Kiwele, drains westward into the Malagarazi river, and
thence into the Tanganyika, or else the most westerly tributary to the
Ruaha river, draining eastward into the sea. The plateau, however,
is apparently so flat here, that nothing b a minute survey, or rather
following the watercourse, could determine the matter. Then emerging
from the wilderness, we came into the open cultivated district of Tura,
or "put down"--called so by the natives because it was, only a few years
ago, the first cleared space in the wilderness, and served as a good
halting-station, after the normal ten day's march in the jungles, where
we had now been struggling more than a month.
The whole place, once so fertile, was now almost depopulated and in a
sad state of ruin, showing plainly the savage ravages of war; for the
Arabs and their slaves, when they take the field, think more of plunder
and slavery than the object they started on--each man of the force
looking out for himself. The incentives, too, are so great;--a young
woman might be caught (the greatest treasure of earth), or a boy or
a girl, a cow or a goat--all of the fortunes, of themselves too
irresistible to be overlooked when the future is doubtful. Here Sheikh
Said broke down in health of a complaint which he formerly had suffered
from, and from which I at once saw he would never recover sufficiently
well to be ever effective again. It was a sad misfortune, as the men
had great confidence in him, being the representative of their Zanzibar
government: still it could not be helped; for, as a sick man is, after
all, the greatest possible impediment to a march, it was better to be
rid of him than have the trouble of dragging him; so I made up my mind,
as soon as we reached Kaze, I would drop him there with the Arabs. He
could not be moved on the 16th, so I marched across the plain and put
up in some villages on its western side. Whilst waiting for the sheikh's
arrival, some villagers at night stole several loads of beads, and ran
off with them; but my men, finding the theft out in time, hunted them
down, and recovered all but one load--for the thieves had thrown their
loads down as soon as they found they were hotly pursued.
Early this morning I called all the head men of the village together,
and demanded the beads to be restored to me; for, as I was living with
them, they were responsible, according to the laws of the country. They
acknowledged the truth and force of my demand, and said they would each
give me a cow as an earnest, until their chief, who was absent, arrived.
This, of course, was objected to, as the chief, in his absence, must
have deputed some one to govern for him, and I expected him to settle
at once, that I might proceed with the march. Then selecting five of
my head men to conduct the case, with five of their elders, it was
considered my losses were equivalent to thirty head of cattle. As I
remitted the penalty to fifteen head, these were made over to me, and
we went on with the march--all feeling delighted with the issue but the
Hottentots, who, not liking the loss of the second fifteen cows, said
that in Kafirland, where the laws of the country are the same as here,
the whole would have been taken, and, as it was, they thought I was
depriving them of their rights to beef.
By a double march, the sheikh riding in a hammock slung on a pole, we
now made Kuale, or "Partridge" nullah, which, crossing the road to the
northward, drains these lands to the Malagarazi river, and thence into
the Tanganyika lake. Thence, having spent the night in the jungle, we
next morning pushed into the cultivated district of Rubuga, and put up
in some half-deserted tembes, where the ravages of war were even more
disgusting to witness than at Tura. The chief, as I have said, was a
slave, placed there by the Arabs on the condition that he would allow
all traders and travellers to help themselves without payment as long as
they chose to reside there. In consequence of this wicked arrangement,
I found it impossible to keep my men from picking and stealing. They
looked upon plunder as their fortune and right, and my interference as
unjustifiable.
By making another morning and evening march, we then reached the western
extremity of this cultivated opening; where, after sleeping the night,
we threaded through another forest to the little clearance of Kigue,
and in one more march through forest arrived in the large and fertile
district of Unyanyembe, the centre of Unyamuezi--the Land of the
Moon--within five miles of Kaze which is the name of a well in the
village of Tbora, now constituted the great central slave and ivory
merchants' depot. My losses up to this date (23d) were as follows:--One
Hottentot dead and five returned; one freeman sent back with the
Hottentots, and one flogged and turned off; twenty-five of Sultan
Majid's gardeners deserted; ninety-eight of the original Wanyamuezi
porters deserted; twelve mules and three donkeys dead. Besides which,
more than half of my property had been stolen; whilst the travelling
expenses had been unprecedented, in consequence of the severity of the
famine throughout the whole length of the march.