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.