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.