Chapter III.

Leave Tanganyika--Determine to Visit the Ukéréwé Lake, _alias_

Victoria N'yanza--Confusion about Rivers Running in and out--Idea that

it is the Source of the Nile--Arrangements for the

Journey--Difficulties--The March--Nature of the Country--Formalities

at the Meeting of Caravans--A Pagazi Strike--A

Sultana--Incidents--Pillars of Granite.

On returning to Ujiji after a rather protracted sojourn at Uvira,

occasioned by Kannina's not completing his work so quickly as had been

anticipated, we found our stock of beads and cloth, which had been

left in charge of the Ras-cafila, Sheikh Said, and under the

protection of the Beluches and our Wanyamuézi porters, reduced to so

low an ebb that everybody felt anxious about our future movements. The

Sheikh, however, I must add, on a prior occasion, very generously

proposed, in case we felt disposed to carry on the survey of the lake,

to return to the Arab depôt at Kazé, and fetch some more _African

money_, to meet the necessary expenses. I wished to finish off the

navigation of the lake; but Captain Burton declared he would not, as

he had had enough of canoe-travelling, and thought our being short of

cloth, and out of leave, would be sufficient excuse for him. Though

admiring so magnanimous a sacrifice on the part of this energetic

Sheikh, it was voted, in consequence of my companion's failing health,

as well as from the delay it would occasion, that we should all return

at once to Kazé, where we expected to meet our reserve supplies. This

once agreed upon, I then proposed that, after reaching Kazé, we should

travel northwards to the lake described by the Arabs to be both

broader and longer than the Tanganyika, and which they call Ukéréwé,

after the island where their caravans go for ivory--in short, the

Victoria N'yanza--for I was all the while burning to see it. To this

Captain Burton at first demurred. He said we had done enough, and he

would do no more; but finally gave way when I said, If you are not

well enough when we reach Kazé I will go by myself, and you can employ

the time in taking notes from the travelled Arabs of all the countries

round. This was agreed to at last by Captain Burton, as he said the

journey hitherto had been so uninteresting, a month with Sheikh Snay

would be very necessary to completing his book. Delighted at this

announcement, I begged for leave to take Sheikh Said with me. Captain

Burton, however, wanted to keep him, as he was a great friend of all

the Arabs, and could procure him news better than any one else. I

argued that the road was dangerous, and without him I thought I could

not succeed, as there was no one else to argue with the native chiefs,

and bring them to terms if they were headstrong. Captain Burton to

this appeal finally gave way, but said I must ask the Sheikh myself,

as he was not bound to go on any other line than the one we were now

on. I did ask the Sheikh, some time after, at Usenyé, and he said he

would see about it when we reached Kazé. Just as we were preparing to

leave Ujiji, by great good fortune some supplies were brought to us by

an Arab called Mohinna, an old friend whom we formerly left at Kazé,

and who had now followed us here to trade in ivory. Had this timely

supply not reached us, it is difficult to conceive what would have

been our fate, left as we should have been with a large amount of

non-marketable property, and having numbers of people to feed, whilst

my companion was unable to move without the assistance of eight men to

carry him in a hammock, we being totally without the means of purchase

in the territory of one of the most inhospitable of all the tribes

with whom we have had connection.

This timely supply was one of the many strokes of good fortune which

befell us upon this journey, and for which we have so much reason to

be grateful. Help had always reached us at the time when least we

expected it, but when we most required it. My health had been

improving ever since I first reached the lake, and enjoyed those

invigorating swims upon its surface, and revelled in the good living

afforded by the market at Ujiji. The facilities of the place giving us

such a choice of food, our powers in the culinary art were tried to

their fullest extent. It would be difficult to tell what dishes we did

not make there. Fish of many sorts done up in all the fashions of the

day--meat and fowl in every form--vegetable soups, and dishes of

numberless varieties--fruit-preserves, custards, custard-puddings, and

jellies--and last, but not least, buttered crumpets and

cheese,--formed as fine a spread as was ever set before a king.

But sometimes we came to grief when our supply of milk was, on the

most foolish pretexts, stopped by Kannina, who was the only

cow-proprietor in the neighbourhood. At one time he took offence

because we turned his importunate wives out of the house, in mistake

for common beggars. On another occasion, when I showed him a cheese of

our manufacture, and begged he would allow me to instruct his people

in the art of making them, he took fright, declared that the cheese

was something supernatural, and that it could never have been made by

any ordinary artifice. Moreover, if his people were shown the way to

do it one hundred times, they would never be able to comprehend it. He

further showed his alarm by forbidding us any more milk, lest, by our

tampering with it, we should bewitch his cows and make them all run

dry. The cattle this milk was taken from are of a uniform red colour,

like our Devonshire breed; but they attain a very great height and

size, and have horns of the most stupendous dimensions.

A year's acclimatisation had by this time produced a wonderful effect

on all the party; so that now, with our fresh supplies, most of us

marched away from Ujiji in better condition than we had enjoyed since

leaving the coast. The weather was very fine, the rainy season having

ceased on the 15th May; we marched rapidly across the eastern horn of

the mountains back to the ferry on the Malagarazi, but by a more

northernly route than the one by which we came.

We reached this river in early June, and found its appearance very

different from what it was on our former visit, at the beginning of

the monsoon. Then its waters were contained within its banks, of no

considerable width; but now, although the rains had ceased here long

ago, the river had not only overflowed its banks, but had submerged

nearly all the valley in which it lies to the extent at least of a

mile or more. The rains about 5° south latitude had just lasted out

the six months during which the sun was in the south; and now, as the

sun had gone north, the rains had gone there also. This was a very

important fact, by which the rise of the Nile on the other side of the

axis of this mountain-group might be determined, proving, as it does,

that whilst rain falls most wherever the sun is vertical, it is

greatly augmented on the equatorial regions by these mountains, where

also, as our maps show, is the rainy zone of the world.

After crossing the river, we hurried along by a more southernly and

straighter road than we formerly came by, and reached Kazé towards the

latter end of June. Here Sheikh Snay received us with his usual

genuine hospitality, arranged a house especially for our use, and with

him we again established our headquarters. This man, when we were

formerly detained here to form our second caravan on our journey

westwards, housed us, and carefully attended to our wants. He took

charge of our kit, provided us with porters, and finally became our

agent. Living with him, surrounded by an Arab community, felt like

living in a civilised land; for the Arab's manners and society are as

pleasant and respectable as can be found in any Oriental family. Snay

had travelled as much as, or more than, any person in this land; and

from being a shrewd and intelligent inquirer, knew everybody and

everything. It was from his mouth, on our former visit to Kazé, that I

first heard of the N'yanza, or, as he called it, the Ukéréwé Sea; and

then, too, I first proposed that we should go to it instead of

journeying westward to the smaller waters of Ujiji. He had travelled

up its western flank to Kibuga, the capital of the kingdom of Uganda,

and had in his employ men who had lived and traded in Usoga. Snay,

narrating his own experiences, said to me, "I was once three years

absent on a visit to King Sunna, at his capital (Kibuga) in the Uganda

kingdom, occupied by a tribe called Waganda. Starting from Kazé, it

took me thirty-five marches to reach Kitangulé (bearing N.N.W.), and

twenty more marches going northwards, with the morning sun a little on

my right face (probably north by east), to arrive at Kibuga. The only

people that gave me any trouble on the way are the Wasui, situate at

the beginning of the Karagué kingdom; but that was only trifling, as

they did not fight, and lasted but three or four marches. The Karagué

kingdom (a mountainous tract of land, containing several high spurs of

hill, the eastern buttresses of these Lunae Montes, and washed on the

flanks by the Ukéréwé Sea) is bounded on the north by the Kitangulé

river, beyond which the Wanyoro territory (crescent shape) lies, with

the horns directed eastwards. Amidst them, situate in the concave or

lake side, are the Waganda, to whose capital I went. Anybody wishing

to see the northern boundary of the lake should go to Kibuga, take

good presents, and make friends with the reigning monarch; and, with

his assistance, buy or construct boats on the shore of the lake, which

is about five marches east of his capital.[47] North, beyond the

Waganda, the Wanyoro are again met with; and there quarrels and wars

were so rife, from a jealousy existing among them and the Waganda,

that had these people known of a northern boundary, I still might not

have heard of it. On crossing the Kitangulé river, I found it

emanating from Urundi (a district in the Mountains of the Moon), and

flowing north-easterly. The breadth of the river is very great--I

should imagine, some five to six hundred yards--and it contains much

water, overflowing as the Malagarazi does after rains. There are also

numerous other little streams on the way to Kibuga, but none so great

as the Katonga river. This, like the rest, comes from the west, and

flows towards the lake. It has a breadth of two thousand yards, is

very deep when full, but sinks and is very sluggish in the dry season,

when water-lilies and rushes overspread its surface, and the

musquitoes are very annoying. The cowrie-shell, brought from the

Zanzibar coast, is the common currency amongst the more northern

tribes; but they are not worth the merchant's while to carry, as beads

and brass (not cloth, for they are essentially a bead-wearing and

naked people) are eagerly sought for and taken in exchange. Large

sailing-craft, capable of containing forty or fifty men, and manned

and navigated after the fashion of ocean mariners, are reported by the

natives to frequent the lake (meaning the Nile at Gondokoro). We Arabs

believe in this report, as everybody tells the same story; but don't

know how it happens to be so, unless it is open to the sea. The

Kitangulé river is crossed in good-sized wooden canoes; but the

Katonga river can only be passed in the dry season, when men walk over

it on the lily leaves: cattle, too, are then passed across in certain

open spaces, guided by a long string, which is attached to the

animals' heads."

Other Arab and Wasuahili merchants have corroborated Snay's statement,

as also a Hindi merchant, called Musa, whom I especially mention, as I

consider him a very valuable informant--not only from the

straightforward way he had of telling his story, but also because we

could converse with one another direct, and so obviate any chance of

errors. After describing his route to the north in minute detail,

stage by stage, with great precision, which was to the same effect as

all the other accounts, he told me of a third large river to the

northward of the Line, beyond Uganda; this he spoke of as much larger

than the Katonga, and generally called the Usoga River, because it

waters that district. Although he had recently visited Kibuga, and had

lived with Sultan Mtésa, the present reigning monarch in place of

Sunna, who died since Snay was there, he had no positive or definite

idea of the physical features of any of the country beyond the point

which he had reached; but he produced a negro slave who had been to

Usoga, and had seen the river in question. This man called the river

Kivira, and described it as being much broader, deeper, and stronger

in its current than either the Katonga or Kitangulé river; that it

came from the lake, and that it intersected stony hilly ground on its

passage to the north-west.

This river Kivira, I now believe (although I must confess I did not

until I made Snay alter his original statement about the direction of

its flow, and so proved he meant this for his Jub), is the Nile

itself. On a subsequent occasion, when talking to a very respectable

Suahili merchant, by name Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasib, about the

N'yanza, he corroborated the story about the mariners, who are said to

keep logs and use sextants, and mentioned that he had heard of the

Kidi and Bari people living on the Kivira river. Now, the Bari people

mentioned by him are evidently those who have long since been known to

us as a tribe living on the Nile in latitude 5° north and longitude

32° east, and described by the different Egyptian expeditions sent up

the Nile to discover its source. M. Ferdinand Werne (says Dr Beke) has

published an account of the second expedition's proceedings, in which

he took part; and which, it appears, succeeded in getting farther up

the river than either of the others. "The author states that,

according to Lacono, King of Bari, the course of the river continues

thence southwards a distance of thirty days' journey." This, by Dr

Beke's computation, places the source of the Nile just where I have

since discovered the N'yanza's southern extremity to be--in the second

degree south latitude, lying in the Unyamuézi country.[48]

Here we see how singularly all the different informers' statements

blend together in substantiating my opinion that the N'yanza is the

great reservoir or fountainhead of that mighty stream that floated

Father Moses on his first adventurous sail--the Nile. It must appear

marvellous to the English reader how it happened that these traders

obtained so much and such good information to the northward of the

equator, and especially of the White Nile traders. The reasons are

these:--For several years these Arabs have not only traded with

Karagué, Uganda, and Usoga, but they have had trading-stations in

Uddu-Uganda and in Karagué. The Uganda station has since been broken

up by order of the king, as the Arabs were interfering too much with

his subjects. In Karagué, on the contrary, they still have

establishments; and as they cannot go into Unyoro themselves, they

have induced the Wahaiya and Waziwa to bring them ivory from that

country and from Kidi, in exchange for which they give beads. These

Zanzibar merchants are very inquiring men, and have learnt a great

deal from this source. Far more, however, they have learned from the

King of Karagué, who is much respected by all the surrounding kings,

and is continually exchanging presents and news with them. The King of

Unyoro, for instance, whose territory extends to Madi, once sent him a

present of beads and coral ornaments which must have come up the Nile,

for at the same time the sailing-vessels on the Nile were heard of,

and ornaments of that nature were never brought into the country from

the Zanzibar side. Omitted in these accounts was a statement of Musa's

I did not believe at first concerning the rise of the Nile, which was

this: The natives had told him when the N'yanza (Nile) rose, it tore

up and floated away islands. Further, Abdullah told me of a

wonderfully high and steep mountain beyond Karagué--doubtless the

Mfumbiro--being constantly covered with clouds; and I heard from him

of a salt lake--doubtless the Little Luta Nzigé--which had some

connection with the N'yanza. These details were, however, so obscurely

given, I feared to place them on my map at that time.

I began the formation of the new caravan for exploring Northern

Unyamuézi immediately after our arrival, but found it difficult to do

things hurriedly. There was only one man then at Unyanyembé who knew

the coast language, and would consent to act as my Kirangozi;[49] and

as he had come all the way from Ujiji with us, he required a few days

to arrange things at his home, in a village some distance off. Whilst

he was absent the Arabs paid us daily visits, and gave many useful

hints about the journey in prospect. One hint must especially be

regarded, which was, to take care, on arrival at the lake, that I did

not enter the village of a certain sultan called Mahaya, to whose

district, Muanza, at the southern extremity of the lake, they directed

me to go. This precautionary warning was advanced in consequence of a

trick the sultan had played an Arab, who, after visiting him in a

friendly way, was forcibly detained until he paid a ransom; an unjust

measure, which the Arabs pointedly advert to as destructive to

commercial interests. Further, the Arabs had learnt from travellers

just arrived from Usukuma that the whole route leading to the N'yanza

was in a state of commotion, caused by civil wars, and therefore

advised me to go as strongly armed as possible.

To lose no time whilst the Kirangozi was away--for I had a long

business to do in a very short space--I intimated to Sheikh Said and

the Beluch guard my intention of taking them with me to the lake, and

ordered them to prepare for the journey by a certain date. Said

demurred, saying he would give a definite answer about accompanying me

before the time of starting, but subsequently refused (I hear, as one

reason), because he did not consider me his chief.[50] I urged that it

was as much his duty as mine to go there; and said that 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.

The Jemadar of the Beluch guard, on seeing the Sheikh hold back, at

first raised objections, and then began to bargain. He fixed a pay of

one gora or fifteen cloths per man, as the only condition on which I

should get their services; for they all declared that they had not

only been to Ujiji, the place appointed by Sultan Majid and their

chief before leaving Zanzibar, but that they had overstayed the time

agreed upon for them to be absent on these travels--namely, six

months. I acceded to this exorbitant demand, considering the value of

time, as the dry season had now set in, and the Arabs at this period

cease travelling to Zanzibar, from fear of being caught by droughts in

the deserts between this place and the East Coast Range, where, if the

ponds and puddles dry up, there is so little water in the wells that

travelling becomes precarious.

Further, I had not only to go through a much wilder country than we

had travelled in before, two and a half degrees off, to discover and

bring back full particulars of the N'yanza, but had to purchase cattle

sufficient for presents, and food for the whole journey down to the

coast, within the limited period of six weeks. Ramji's slaves all came

back to us here, and begged we would take them into our service again.

I wanted to do so, as Snay not only strongly advised me to have as

strong an escort as possible, but thought that their knowledge of

treating with native chiefs would be of the greatest value to me.

Captain Burton, however, would not listen to my request, as he

insisted they would only prove of more expense than profit to the

expedition; but instead, he employed them himself, after I had gone,

in repairing our damaged property, and in laying in supplies for our

future journey home. I regretted the loss of these men the more, as

they all so warmly volunteered to go with me. The Arab depôt now came

into play to satisfy this sudden and unexpected call upon our store of

cloths. There were ten Beluches fit for service, and for each of them

a gora was bought at the depôt, at a valuation of ten dollars each, or

a hundred the lot. In addition to this they received an advance of

fifteen maunds of white beads in lieu of rations--a rate of 1 lb. per

man per day for six weeks. The Kirangozi now returned with many

excuses to escape the undertaking of guiding me to the lake. He

declared that all the roads were rendered impassable by wars, and that

it was impossible for him to undertake the responsibility of escorting

me in so dangerous a country. After a good deal of bothering and

persuading he at length acceded, and brought fifteen pagazis or

porters from his own and some neighbouring villages. To each of these

I gave five cloths as hire, and all appeared ready; but not so.

Bombay's Seedi nature came over him, and he would not move a yard

unless I gave him a month's wages in cloth upon the spot. I thought

his demand an imposition, for he had just been given a cloth. His

wages were originally fixed at five dollars a-month, to accumulate at

Zanzibar until our return there; but he was to receive daily rations

the same as all the other men, with an occasional loin-cloth covering

whenever his shukka might wear out. All these strikes with the

Beluches and Bombay for cloth were in consequence of their having

bought some slaves, whose whims and tastes they could not satisfy

without our aid; and they knew these men would very soon desert them

unless they received occasionally alluring presents to make them

contented. But finessing is a kind of itch with all Orientals, as

gambling is with those who are addicted to it; and they would tell any

lie rather than gain their object easily by the simple truth, on the

old principle that "stolen things are sweetest." Had Bombay only

opened his heart, the matter would have been settled at once, for his

motives were of a superior order. He had bought, to be his adopted

brother, a slave of the Wahha tribe, a tall, athletic, fine-looking

man, whose figure was of such excellent proportions that he would have

been remarkable in any society; and it was for this youth, and not

himself, he had made so much fuss and used so many devices to obtain

the cloths. Indeed, he is a very singular character, not caring one

bit about himself, how he dressed or what he ate; ever contented, and

doing everybody's work in preference to his own, and of such exemplary

honesty, he stands a solitary marvel in the land: he would do no wrong

to benefit himself--to please anybody else there is nothing he would

stick at. I now gave him five cloths at his request, to be eventually

deducted from his pay. Half of them he gave to a slave called Mabruki,

who had been procured by him for leading Captain Burton's donkey, but

who had, in consequence of bad behaviour, reverted to my service. This

man he also designated "brother," and was very warmly attached to,

though Mabruki had no qualifications worthy of attracting any one's

affections to him. He was a sulky, dogged, pudding-headed brute, very

ugly, but very vain; he always maintained a respectable appearance, to

cloak his disrespectful manners. The remainder was expended in

loin-cloths, some spears, and a fez (red Turkish cap), the wearing of

which he shared by turns with his purchased brother, and a little

slave-child whom he had also purchased and employed in looking after

the general wardrobe, and in cooking his porridge dinner, or fetching

water and gathering sticks. On the line of march the little urchin

carried Bombay's sleeping-hide and water-gourd.

Before my departure from Kazé, Captain Burton wrote the Royal

Geographical Society to the following effect:--"I have the honour to

transmit a copy of a field-book with a map, by Captain Speke. Captain

Speke has volunteered to visit the Ukéréwé Lake, of which the Arabs

give grand accounts."

9th July 1858.--The caravan, consisting of one Kirangozi, twenty

pagazis, ten Beluches as guard, Bombay, Mabruki, and Gaetano,

escorting a kit sufficient for six weeks, left Kazé to form camp at

noon. The Beluches were all armed with their own guns, save one, who

carried one of Captain Burton's double rifles, an eight-bore by W.

Richards.[51] I took with me for sporting purposes, as well as for the

defence of the expedition, one large five-bore elephant-gun, also lent

by Captain Burton; and of my own, one two-grooved four-gauge single

rifle, one polygrooved twenty-gauge double, and one double smooth

twelve-bore, all by John Blissett of High Holborn. The village they

selected to form up in was three miles distant on the northern

extremity of this, the Unyanyembé district.

I commenced the journey myself at 6 P.M., as soon as the two donkeys I

took with me to ride were caught and saddled. It was a dreary

beginning. The escort of Beluches who accompanied me had throughout

the former journeys been in great disgrace, and were in consequence

all sullen in their manner, and walked with heavy gait and downcast

countenances, looking very much as if they considered they had sold

themselves when striking such a heavy bargain with us, for they

evidently saw nothing before them but drudgery and a continuance of

past hardships. The nature of the track increased the general gloom;

it lay through fields of jowari (holcus) across the plain of

Unyanyembé. In the shadow of night, the stalks, awkwardly lying across

the path, tripped up the traveller at every step; and whilst his

hands, extended to the front, were grasping at darkness to preserve

his equilibrium, the heavy bowing ears, ripe and ready to drop, would

bang against his eyes. Further, the heavy sandy soil aided not a

little in ruffling the temper; but it was soon over, though all our

mortification did not here cease. The pagazis sent forward had

deposited their loads and retired home to indulge, it is suspected, in

those potations deep of the universal pombé (African small-beer) that

always precede a journey, hunt, or other adventure--without leaving a

word to explain the reason of their going, or even the time which they

purposed being absent.

10th July.--The absence of the pagazis caused a halt, for none of them

appeared again until after dark. The Beluches, gloomy, dejected,

discontented, and ever grumbling, form as disagreeable a party as it

was ever the unfortunate lot of any man to command.

11th.--We started on the journey northwards at 7 A.M., and, soon

clearing the cultivated plain, bade adieu to Unyanyembé. The track

passed down a broad valley with a gentle declination, which was full

of tall but slender forest-trees, and was lined on either side by low

hills. We passed one dry nullah, the Gombé, which drains the regions

westward into the Malagarazi river, some pools of water, and also two

Wasukuma caravans, one of ivory destined for the coast, and the other

conveying cattle to the Unyanyembé markets. Though the country through

which we passed was wild and uninhabited, we saw no game but a troop

of zebras, which were so wild that I could not get near them. After

walking fifteen miles, we arrived at the district of Ulékampuri, and

entered a village, where I took up my quarters in a negro's hut. My

servants and porters did the best they could by pigging with the

cattle, or lying in the shade under the eaves of the huts.

Up to this point the villages, as is the case in all central

Unyamuézi, are built on the most luxurious principles. They form a

large hollow square, the walls of which are the huts, ranged on all

sides of it in a sort of street consisting of two walls, the breadth

of an ordinary room, which is partitioned off to a convenient size by

interior walls of the same earth-construction as the exterior ones, or

as our sepoys' lines are made in India. The roof is flat, and serves

as a store-place for keeping sticks to burn, drying grain, pumpkins,

mushrooms, or any vegetables they may have. Most of these compartments

contain the families of the villagers, together with their poultry,

brewing utensils, cooking apparatus, stores of grain, and anything

they possess. The remainder contain their flocks and herds,

principally goats and cows, for sheep do not breed well in the

country, and their flesh is not much approved of by the people. What

few sheep there are appear to be an offshoot from the Persian stock.

They have a very scraggy appearance, and show but the slightest signs

of the fat-rumped proportions of their ancestors. The cows, unlike the

noble Tanganyika ones, are small and short-horned, and are of a

variety of colours. They carry a hump like the Brahminy bull, but give

very little milk. In front of nearly every house you see large slabs

of granite, the stones on which the jowari is ground by women, who,

kneeling before them, rub the grain down to flour with a smaller

stone, which they hold with both hands at once. Thus rubbing and

grinding away, swaying monotonously to and fro, they cheer the time by

singing and droning in cadence to the motion of their bodies.

The country to the east and north-east of this village is said to be

thinly peopled, but, as usual, the clans are much intermixed, the two

principal being Wakimbu and Wasagari. I here engaged a second guide or

leader for five shukkas (small loin-cloths) merikani, as a second war,

different from the one we had heard of at Kazé, had broken out exactly

on the road I was pursuing, and rendered my first leader's experience

of no avail. The evening was spent by the porters in dancing, and

singing a song which had been evidently composed for the occasion, as

it embraced everybody's name connected with the caravan, but more

especially Mzungu (the wise or white man), and ended with the

prevailing word amongst these curly-headed bipeds, "Grub, Grub, Grub!"

It is wonderful to see how long they will, after a long fatiguing

march, keep up these festivities, singing the same song over and over

again, and dancing and stamping, with their legs and arms flying about

like the wings of a semaphore, as they move slowly round and round in

the same circle and on the same ground; their heads and bodies lolling

to and fro in harmony with the rest of the dance, which is always kept

at more even measure when, as on this occasion, there were some

village drums beating the measure they were wont to move by.

12th.--The caravan got under way by 6 A.M., and we marched thirteen

miles to a village in the southern extremity of the Unyambéwa

district. Fortunately tempers, like butterflies, soon change state.

The great distractor Time, together with the advantage of distance,

has produced such a salutary effect on the Beluches' minds, that this

morning's start was accomplished to the merry peals of some native

homely ditty, and all moved briskly forward. This was the more

cheering to me because it was the first occasion of their having shown

such signs of good feeling as singing in chorus on the line of march.

The first five miles lay over flattish ground, winding amongst low

straggling hills of the same formation as the whole surface of the

Unyamuézi country, which is diversified with small hills composed of

granite outcrops. As we proceeded, the country opened into an

extensive plain, covered, as we found it at first, with rich

cultivation, and then succeeded by a slender tree-forest, amongst

which we espied some antelopes, all very wary and difficult of

approach.

At the ninth mile was a pond of sweet water, the greatest luxury in

the desert. Here I ordered a halt for half an hour, and made a hearty

breakfast on cold meat, potted Tanganyika shrimps, rozelle jelly, with

other delicacies, and coffee. The latter article was bought from the

Kazé merchants. Towards the close of the journey a laughable scene

took place between an ivory caravan of Wasukuma and my own.[52] On

nearing each other, the two Kirangozis or leaders slowly advanced,

marching in front of the single-file order in which caravans worm

along these twisting narrow tracks, with heads awry, and eyes

steadfastly fixed on one another, and with their bodies held

motionless and strictly poised, like rams preparing for a fight,

rushed in with their heads down, and butted continuously till one gave

way. The rest of the caravan then broke up their order of march, and

commenced a general mêlée. In my ignorance--for it was the first time

I had seen such a scrimmage--I hastened to the front with my knobbed

stick, and began reflecting where I could make best use of it in

dividing the combatants, and should no doubt have laid on if I only

could have distinguished friend from foe; but both parties, being

black, were so alike, that I hesitated until they stopped to laugh at

my excited state, and assured me that it was only the enactment of a

common custom in the country when two strange caravan-leaders meet,

and each doubts who should take the supremacy in choice of side. In

two minutes more the antagonists broke into broad laughter, and each

went his way.

The villages about here are numerous, and the country, after passing

the forest, is highly cultivated, and affords plenty of provisions;

but unfortunately as yet the white beads which I have brought have no

value with the natives, and I cannot buy those little luxuries, eggs,

butter, and milk, which have such a powerful influence in making one's

victuals good and palatable; whereas there is such a rage for coloured

beads, that if I had brought some I might purchase anything.

13th.--The caravan started at 6.30 A.M., and after travelling eight

miles over an open, waving, well-cultivated country, stopped at the

last village in Unyambéwa. The early morning before starting was

wasted by the pagazis "striking" for more cloth, and refusing to move

unless I complied with their demand. I peremptorily refused, and they

then tried to wheedle me out of beads. In demanding cloth, they

pretended that they were suffering from the chilling cold of night--a

pretence too absurd to merit even a civil reply. I then explained to

my head men that I would rather anything happened than listen to such

imposture as this; for did the men once succeed by tricks of this

sort, there would never be an end to their trying it on, and it would

ultimately prove highly injurious to future travellers, especially to

merchants. On the route we had nothing to divert attention, save a

single Wasukuma caravan proceeding southwards to Unyanyembé. A sultana

called Ungugu governs this district. She is the first and only female

that we have seen in this position, though she succeeded to it after

the custom of the country. I imagine she must have had a worthless

husband, since every sultan can have as many wives as he pleases, and

the whole could never have been barren. I rallied the porters for

pulling up after so short a march, but could not induce them to go on.

They declared that forests of such vast extent lay on ahead that it

would be quite impossible to cross them before the night set in. In

the evening I had a second cause for being vexed at this loss of time,

when every mile and hour was of so much importance; for by our halt

the sultana got news of my arrival, and sent a messenger to request

the pleasure of my company at her house on the morrow. In vain I

pleaded for permission to go and see her that moment, or to do so on

my return from the N'yanza; her envoy replied that the day was so far

spent I could not arrive at her abode till after dark, and she would

not have the pleasure of seeing me sufficiently well. He therefore

begged I would attend to the letter of her request, and not fail to

visit her in the morning.

The lazy pagazis, smelling flesh, also aided the deputy in his

endeavours to detain me, by saying that they could not oppose her

majesty's will, lest at any future time, when they might want again to

pass that way, she should take her revenge upon them. Though this

might seem a very reasonable excuse, I doubt much, if their interests

had lain the opposite way, whether they would have been so cautious.

However, it was not difficult to detect their motives for bringing

forward such an urgent reason against me, as it is a custom in this

country that every wealthy traveller or merchant shall pay a

passport-fee, according to his means, to the sultan of the country he

travels through, who in return gives a cow or goat as a mark of amity,

and this is always shared amongst the whole caravan.

14th.--The sultana's house was reported to be near, so I thought to

expedite the matter by visiting her in person, and thus perhaps gain

an afternoon's march: otherwise to have sent the Jemadar with a

present would have been sufficient, for these creatures are pure

Mammonists. Vain hope, trying to do anything in a hurry in Negroland!

I started early in the morning, unfortified within, and escorted by

two Beluches, the Kirangozi, three porters, Bombay, and Mabruki. The

necessary presents were also taken: these consisted of one

barsati,[53] one dhoti merikani,[54] and one shukka kiniki.[55] This

last article was to be kept in reserve, to throw in at last and close

with, as further demands beyond what is given are invariably made.

After walking six miles over a well-cultivated plain, I felt anxious

to know what they meant by "near," and was told, as usual, that the

house was close at hand. Distrustful, but anxious to complete the

business as speedily as possible (for to succeed in Africa one must do

everything one's self), I followed the envoy across one of the waves

that diversify the face of the country, descended into a

well-cultivated trough-like depression, and mounted a second wave six

miles farther on.

Here at last, by dint of perseverance, we had the satisfaction of

seeing the palisadoed royal abode. We entered it by an aperture in the

tall slender stakes which surround the dwellings and constitute the

palisadoing, and after following up a passage constructed of the same

material as the outer fence, we turned suddenly into a yard full of

cows--a substitute for an anteroom. Arrived there, the negroes at once

commenced beating a couple of large drums, half as tall as themselves,

made something like a beer-barrel, covered on the top with a cow-skin

stretched tightly over, by way of a drum-head. This drumming was an

announcement of our arrival, intended as a mark of regal respect.

For ten minutes we were kept in suspense, my eyes the while resting

upon the milk-pots which were being filled at mid-day, but I could not

get a drop. At the expiration of that time a body of slaves came

rushing in, and hastily desired us to follow them. They led us down

the passage by which we entered, and then turned up another one

similarly constructed, which brought us into the centre of the

sultana's establishment--a small court, in which the common negro

mushroom huts, with ample eaves, afforded us grateful shelter from the

blazing sun. A cow-skin was now spread, and a wooden stool set for me,

that I might assume a better state than my suite, who were squatted in

a circle around me. With the usual precaution of African nobles, the

lady's-maid was first sent to introduce herself--an ugly halting

creature, very dirtily garbed, but possessing a smiling contented

face. Her kindly mien induced me, starving and thirsty as I was after

my twelve miles' walk, to ask for eggs and milk--great luxuries,

considering how long I had been deprived of them. They were soon

procured, and devoured with a voracity that must have astonished the

bystanders.

The maid, now satisfied there was nothing to fear, whether from ghost,

goblin, or white face, retired and brought her mistress, a short

stumpy old dame, who had seen at least some sixty summers. Her nose

was short, squat, and flabby at the end, and her eyes were bald of

brows or lashes; but still she retained great energy of manner, and

was blessed with an ever-smiling face. The dress she wore consisted of

an old barsati, presented by some Arab merchant, and was if anything

dirtier than her maid's attire. The large joints of all her fingers

were bound up with small copper wire, her legs staggered under an

immense accumulation of anklets made of brass wire wound round

elephant's tail or zebra's hair; her arms were decorated with huge

solid brass rings, and from other thin brass wire bracelets depended a

great assortment of wooden, brazen, horn, and ivory ornaments, cut in

every shape of talismanic peculiarity.

Squatting by my side, the sultana at once shook hands. Her nimble

fingers first manipulated my shoes (the first point of notice in these

barefooted climes), then my overalls, then my waistcoat, more

particularly the buttons, and then my coat--this latter article being

so much admired, that she wished I would present it to her, to wear

upon her own fair person. Next my hands and fingers were mumbled, and

declared to be as soft as a child's, and my hair was likened to a

lion's mane. "Where is he going?" was the all-important query. This,

without my understanding, was readily answered by a dozen voices,

thus: "He is going to the Lake, to barter his cloth for large

hippopotami teeth." Satisfied with this plausible story, she retired

into privacy, and my slave, taking the hint, soon followed with the

hongo (present or tax), duly presented it, and begged permission in my

name to depart. But as she had always given a bullock to the Arabs who

visited her, I also must accept one from her, though she could not

realise the fact that so scurvy a present as mine could be intended

for her, whose pretensions were in no way inferior to those of the

Unyanyembé Sultan. An Arab could not have offered less, and this was a

rich Mzungu!

Misfortunes here commenced anew: the bullock she was desirous of

giving was out grazing, and could not be caught until the evening,

when all the cattle are driven in together. Further, she could not

afford to lose so interesting a personage as her guest, and

volunteered to give me a shakedown for the night. I begged she would

consider my position--the absolute necessity for my hurrying--and not

insist on my acceptance of the bullock, or be offended by my refusing

her kind offer to remain there, but permit our immediate departure.

She replied that the word had gone forth, so the animal must be given;

and if I still persisted in going, at any rate three porters could

remain behind, and drive it on afterwards. To this I reluctantly

consented, and only on the Kirangozi's promise to march the following

morning. Then, with the usual farewell salutation, "Kuaheré, Mzungu,"

from my pertinacious hostess, I was not sorry to retrace my steps, a

good five hours' walk. We re-entered camp at 7.20 P.M., which is long

after dark in regions so near to the equator. All palaces here are

like all the common villages beyond Unyamuézi proper, and are usually

constructed on the same principle as this one. They consist of a

number of mushroom-shaped grass huts, surrounded by a tall slender

palisading, and having streets or passages of the same wooden

construction, some winding, some straight, and others crosswise, with

outlets at certain distances leading into the different courts, each

court usually containing five or six huts partitioned off with poles

as the streets are. These courts serve for dividing the different

families, uncles and cousins occupying some, whilst slaves and their

relatives live in others. Besides this they have their cattle-yards.

If the site of the village be on moist or soft ground, it is usual, in

addition to the palisading, to have it further fortified by a moat or

evergreen fence.

15th.--We left Unyambéwa at 7 A.M., and reached a village in the

Ibanda district, having marched seven miles over flat ground, growing

fine crops in some places, with the remainder covered by the usual

slender forest-trees. The road was very good and regular. In the

afternoon the three porters arrived with the sultana's bullock, and

were attended by her nephew and managing man, and by some of her

slaves as drivers. The nephew asked first for more presents in her

name; as this was refused, he requested something for the drivers. I

gave them a cloth, and he then pleaded for himself, as he had

sacrificed so much time and trouble for me. I satisfied him with one

fundo of beads (a bunch of beads sufficient to form ten khetes or

necklaces), and we parted: a full khete is a string of beads double

the length of the fore-arm, or sufficiently long to encircle the neck

twice. The Beluches, finding that nothing but the coarsest grains were

obtainable with the white beads they had received, petitioned for and

obtained a shukka, but under the proviso of their always assisting me

to urge on the lazy porters. This they not only agreed to do, but also

declared themselves willing to execute any orders I might give them:

they looked upon me as their Ma, Bap (mother and father, a Hindostani

expression, significant of everything, or entire dependence on one as

a son on his parents), and considered my interests their interests.

16th.--We started at 6 A.M., and travelled eleven miles to Ukamba, a

village in the district of Msalala, which is held by a tribe called

Wamanda. The first four miles lay over the cultivated plain of Ibanda,

till we arrived at the foot of a ridge of hills, which, gradually

closing from the right, intersects the road, and runs into a hilly

country extending round the western side of the aforesaid plain. We

now crossed the range, and descended into a country more closely

studded with the same description of small hills, but highly

cultivated in the valleys and plains that separate them. About twelve

miles to the eastward of Ukamba live a tribe called Wasongo, and to

the west, at twenty miles' distance, are the Waquanda. To-day was

fully verified the absolute futility of endeavouring to march against

time in these wild countries.

The lazy pagazis finding themselves now, as it were, in clover, a

country full of all the things they love, would not stir one step

after 11 A.M. Were time of no consequence, and coloured beads in

store, such travelling as this would indeed be pleasant. For the

country here, so different from the Ujiji line, affords not only

delightful food for the eyes, but abounds in flesh, milk, eggs, and

vegetables in every variety. The son of the Mséné Sultan, who lives

between Unyanyembé and Ujiji, and became great friends with us when

travelling there, paid me a visit to-day. He caught me at work with my

diary and instruments, and being struck with veneration at the sight

of my twirling compass and literary pursuits, thought me a magician,

and begged that I would cast his horoscope, divine the probable extent

of his father's life, ascertain if there would be any wars, and

describe the weather, the prospects of harvest, and what future state

the country would lapse into. The shrewd Bombay replied, to save me

trouble, that so great a matter required more days of contemplation

than I could afford to give. Provisions were very dear when purchased

with white beads, for they were not the fashion, and the people were

indifferent to them. I paid him one loin-cloth for four fowls and nine

eggs, though, had I had coloured beads, I might have purchased one hen

per khete (or necklace). Had this been a cloth-wearing instead of a

bead-decorating nation, I should have obtained forty fowls for one

shukka (or loin-cloth), that being the equivalent value with beads,

equal, according to Zanzibar money, to one dollar. It is always

foolish to travel without an assortment of beads, in consequence of

the tastes of the different tribes varying so much; and it is more

economical in the long-run to purchase high-priced than low-priced

beads when making up the caravan at Zanzibar, for every little trader

buys the cheaper sorts, stocks the country with them, and thus makes

them common.

17th.--This day, like all the preceding ones, is delightful, and

worthy of drawing forth an exclamation, like the Indian Griff's, of

"What a fine day this is again!" We started at 7 A.M., and travelled

thirteen miles, with fine bracing air, so cold in the morning that my

fingers tingled with it. We were obliged here to diverge from the

proper road _viâ_ Sarengé, to avoid a civil war--the one before

alluded to, and to escape which I had engaged the second

guide--between two young chiefs, brothers of the Wamanda tribe, who

were contending for the reins of government on the principle that

might ought to give the right. Our new course led us out of the

Msalala into the Uyombo district, which is governed by a sultan called

Mihambo. He paid me a visit and presented a sheep--a small present,

for he was a small chief, and could not demand a hongo. I gave in

return one shukka merikani and one shukka kiniki. Here all the people

were very busily engaged in their harvest, cutting their jowari, and

thrashing it out with long sticks.

The whole country lies in long waves, crested with cropping little

hills, thickly clad with small trees and brushwood. In the hollows of

these waves the cultivation is very luxuriant. Here I unfortunately

had occasion to give my miserable Goanese cook-boy a sound dressing,

as the only means left of checking his lying, obstinate, destructive,

wasteful, and injurious habit of intermeddling. This raised the

creature's choler, and he vowed vengeance to the death, seconding his

words with such a fiendish, murderous look, his eyes glistening like

an infuriated tiger's, that I felt obliged to damp his temerity and

freedom of tongue by further chastisement, which luckily brought him

to a proper sense of his duty.

18th.--We left at 7 A.M., and travelled ten miles to Ukuni. The

country still continues of the same rich and picturesque character,

and retains daily the same unvarying temperature. On the road we met a

party of Wayombo, who, taking advantage of the Wamanda disturbances,

had lifted some forty or fifty head of their cattle in perfect

security. I saw two albinos in this village, one an old woman with

greyish eyes, and the other young, who ran away from fright, and

concealed herself in a hut, and would not show again although beads

were offered as an inducement for one moment's peep. The old lady's

skin was of an unwholesome fleshy-pink hue, and her hair, eyebrows,

and eyelashes were a light yellowish white. This march was shortened

by two pagazis falling sick. I surmised this illness to be in

consequence of their having gorged too much beef, to which they

replied that everybody is sure to suffer pains in the stomach after

eating meat, if the slayer of the animal happens to protrude his

tongue and clench it with his teeth during the process of

slaughtering. At last the white beads have been taken, but at the

extravagant rate of two khetes for four eggs, the dearest I ever paid.

19th.--The caravan proceeded at 6 A.M., and after going eight miles

re-entered the Msalala district's frontier, where we put up in a

village three miles beyond the border. The country throughout this

march may be classed in two divisions, one of large and extensively

cultivated plains, with some fine trees about; and the other of small

irregularly-disposed hills, the prevailing granitic outcrops of the

region. There is no direct line northwards here, so we had to track

about, and hit upon the lines between the different villages, which

enhanced our trouble and caused much delay. At this place I witnessed

the odd operation of brother-making. It consists in the two men

desirous of a blood-tie being seated face to face on a cow's hide,

with their legs stretched out as wide to the front as their length

will permit, one pair overlapping the other. They then place their

bows and arrows across their thighs, and each holds a leaf: at the

same time a third person, holding a pot of oil or butter, makes an

incision above their knees, and requires each to put his blood on the

other's leaf, and mix a little oil with it, when each anoints himself

with the brother-salve. This operation over, the two brothers bawl

forth the names and extent of their relatives, and swear by the blood

to protect the other till death. Ugogo, on the highway between the

coast and Ujiji, is a place so full of inhabitants compared with the

other places on that line, that the coast people quote it as a

wonderful instance of high population; but this district astonished

all my retinue. The road to-day was literally thronged with a legion

of black humanity so exasperatingly bold that nothing short of the

stick could keep them from jostling me. Poor creatures! they said they

had come a long way to see, and now must have a good long stare; for

when was there ever a Mzungu here before?

20th.--We broke ground at 6 A.M., and after travelling through high

cultivation six miles, were suddenly stopped by a guard of Wamanda,

sent by Kurua, a sultan of that tribe, and chief of the division we

were marching in. Their business was to inform us that if we wished to

travel to the Lake, the sultan would give directions to have us

escorted by another route, as his eldest brother was disputing the

rights of government with him along the line we were now pursuing; and

added, that our intentions would be only known to him by the part we

might choose to take. These constant interruptions were becoming very

troublesome; so, as we were close to the confines of these two

malcontents, I was anxious to force our way on, and agreed to do so

with the Beluches. But the tiresome, lazy, flesh-seeking pagazis saw a

feast in prospect by the sultan's arrangement, and would not move an

inch. Further, the Kirangozi requested his discharge if I was

otherwise than peacefully inclined. The guard then led us to Mgogua,

the sultan's village, a little off the road.

Kurua is a young man, not very handsome himself, but he has two

beautiful young wives. They secured me a comfortable house, showed

many attentions, and sent me a bowl of fresh sweetmilk, the very

extreme of savage hospitality. In the evening he presented me with a

bullock. This I tried to refuse, observing that flesh was the prime

cause of all my hindrances; but nothing would satisfy him; I must

accept it, or he would be the laughing-stock of everybody for

inhospitality. If I gave nothing in return, he should be happy as long

as his part of host was properly fulfilled. Salt, according to the

sultan, is only to be found here in the same efflorescent state in

which I saw it yesterday--a thin coating overspreading the ground, as

though flour had been sprinkled there.

21st.--Halt. I gave the sultan, as a return present, one dhoti

merikani and six cubits kiniki, what I thought to be just the value of

his bullock. His kindness was undoubtedly worthy of a higher reward,

but I feared to excite these men's cupidity, as there is no end to

their tricks and finesse whenever they find a new chance of gain, and

I now despaired of accomplishing my task in time. However, Kurua

seemed quite happy under the circumstances, and considered the

exchange of hongo a bond of alliance, and proclaimed that we were

henceforth to be brothers. He then said he would accompany me back to

Unyanyembé, on my return from the Lake, and would exchange any of his

cows that I might take a fancy to for powder, which I said I had

there. The quantity of cattle in Msalala surpasses anything I have

seen in Africa. Large droves, tended by a few men each, are to be seen

in every direction over the extensive plains, and every village is

filled with them at night. The cultivation also is as abundant as the

cattle are numerous, and the climate is delightful. To walk till

breakfast, 9 A.M., every morning, I find a luxury, and from that time

till noon I ride with pleasure; but the next three hours, though

pleasant in a hut, are too warm to be agreeable under hard exertion.

The evenings and the mornings, again, are particularly serene, and the

night, after 10 P.M., so cold as to render a blanket necessary. But

then it must be remembered that all the country about these latitudes,

on this meridian, 33° east, is at an altitude of from 3500 to 4000

feet. My dinner to-day was improved by the addition of tomatos and the

bird's-eye chili--luxuries to us, but which the negroes, so different

from the Indians, never care about, and seldom grow.

The cotton-plant is as fine here as at Unyanyembé or Ujiji, and

anything would grow with only the trouble of throwing down the seed.

It is a great pity that the country is not in better hands. From all I

can gather, there is no fixed revenue paid to these sultans; all their

perquisites are occasional hongos received from travellers; a

percentage on all foreign seizures, whether by battle or plunder; and

a certain part of all windfalls, such as a share of the sportsman's

game-bag, in the shape of elephants' tusks or flesh, or the skins of

any wild animals; otherwise they live by the sweat of the brow of

their slaves, in tilling their ground, tending their cattle, or

trafficking for them in slaves and ivory. It seems destined that I

should never reach the goal of my ambition. To-day the Jemadar finds

himself too unwell to march, and two other Beluches say the same. This

is an effectual obstacle; for the guard declares itself too weak to

divide, and the sultan blows on the fire of my mortification by saying

that these are troubled times, and advises our keeping all together.

He says that his differences have been going on these five years with

his eldest brother, and now he wishes to bring them to a crisis, which

he proposes doing after my return, when he will obtain powder from me,

and will have the preponderating influence of Arab opinion brought to

bear in his favour by the aid of their guns--an impressive mode which

Africa has of proving right in its own way.

22d.--After much groaning and grumbling, I got the sick men on their

legs by 7 A.M., and we marched eight miles to Senagongo, the boma[56]

(palisade) of Sultan Kanoni, Kurua's second brother. These two younger

brothers side together against the eldest. They are all by different

mothers, and think the father's property should fairly be divided

among them. It is a glaring instance of the bad effects of a plurality

of wives; and being contrary to our constitutional laws of marriage, I

declined giving an opinion as to who was right or wrong.

To avoid the seat of war my track was rather tortuous. On the east or

right side the country was open, and afforded a spacious view; but on

the west this was limited by an irregularly-disposed series of low

hills. Cultivation and scrub-jungle alternated the whole way. The

miserable Goanese, like a dog slinking off to die, slipped away behind

the caravan, and hid himself in the jungle to suffer the pangs of

fever in solitude. I sent men to look for him in vain: party succeeded

party in the search, till at last night set in without his appearing.

It is singular in this country to find how few men escape some fever

or other sickness, who make a sudden march after living a quiet

stationary life. It appears as if the bile got stirred, suffused the

body, and, exciting the blood, produced this effect. I had to admonish

a silly Beluch, who, foolishly thinking that powder alone could not

hurt a man, fired his gun off into a mass of naked human legs, in

order, as he said, to clear the court. The consequence was, that at

least fifty pairs got covered with numerous small bleeding wounds, all

dreadfully painful from the saltpetre contained in the powder. It was

fortunate that the sultan was a good man, and was present at the time

it occurred, else a serious row might have been the consequence of

this mischievous trick.

23d.--Halt. We fired alarm-guns all night to no purpose; so at

daybreak three different parties, after receiving particular orders

how to scour the country, were sent off at the same time to search for

Gaetano. Fortunately the Beluches obeyed my injunctions, and at 10

A.M. returned with the man, who looked for all the world exactly like

a dog who, guilty of an indiscretion, is being brought in disgrace

before his master to receive a flogging; for he knew I had a spare

donkey for the sick, and had constantly warned the men from stopping

behind alone in these lawless countries. The other two parties

adopting, like true Easterns, a better plan of their own, spent the

whole day ranging wildly over the country, fruitlessly exerting

themselves, and frustrating any chance of my getting even an

afternoon's march. Kanoni very kindly sent messengers all over his

territory to assist in the search: he, like Kurua, has taken every

opportunity to show me those little pleasing attentions which always

render travelling agreeable. These Wamanda are certainly the most

noisy set of beings that I ever met with: commencing their fêtes in

the middle of the village every day at 3 P.M., with screaming,

yelling, rushing, jumping, sham-fighting, drumming, and singing in one

collective inharmonious noise, they seldom cease till midnight. Their

villages, too, are everywhere much better protected by bomas

(palisading) than is usual in Africa, arguing that they are a rougher

and more war-like people than the generality. If shoved aside, or

pushed with a stick, they show their savage nature by turning fiercely

like a fatted pig upon whoever tries to poke it up.

24th.--The march commenced at 7 A.M.; and here we again left the

direct road, to avoid a third party of belligerent Wamanda, situated

in the northern extremity of the Msalala district, on the highway

between Unyanyembé and the Lake. On bidding the sultan adieu, he was

very urgent in his wishes that I should take a bullock from him. This

I told him I should willingly have accepted, only that it would delay

my progress; and he, more kindly than the other chief, excused me.

Finding that none of our party knew the road, he advanced a short way

with us, and generously offered to furnish us with a guide to the Lake

and back, saying that he would send one of his own men after us to a

place he appointed with my Kirangozi. I expressed my gratitude for his

consideration, and we parted with warm regard for one another.

Unfortunately, Bombay, who is not the clearest man in the world in

expressing himself, stupidly bungled the sultan's arrangement, and we

missed the man.

To keep the pagazis going was a matter of no little difficulty; after

the fifth mile they persisted in entering every village that they came

across, and, throwing down their loads, were bent upon making an easy

day's work of it. I, on the contrary, was equally persistent in going

on, and neither would allow the Beluches to follow them, nor enter the

villages myself, until they, finding their game of no avail, quietly

shouldered their loads and submitted to my orders. This day's journey

was twelve miles over a highly-cultivated, waving country, at the end

of which we took up our abode in a deserted village called Kahama.

25th.--We got under way at 7 A.M., and marched seven and a half hours,

when we entered a village in the district of Nindo, nineteen miles

distant. After passing through a belt of jungle three miles broad, we

came upon some villages amidst a large range of cultivation. This

passed, we penetrated a large wilderness of thorn and bush jungle,

having sundry broad grassy flats lying at right angles to the road.

Here I saw a herd of hartebeests, giraffes, and other animals, giving

to the scene a truly African character. The tracks of elephants and

different large beasts prove that this place is well tenanted in the

season. The closeness of the jungle and evenness of the land prevented

my taking any direct observations with the compass; but the mean

oscillations of its card showed a course with northing again. This

being a long stage, I lent my ass to a sick Beluch, and we

accomplished the journey, notwithstanding the great distance, in a

pleasant and spirited manner. This despatch may in part be

attributable to there being so much desert, and the beloved "grub" and

the village lying ahead of us luring the men on.

26th.--We broke ground at 7 A.M., and, after passing the village

cultivation, entered a waterless wilderness of thorn and tree forest,

with some long and broad plains of tall grass intersecting the line of

march. These flats very much resemble some we crossed when travelling

close to and parallel with the Malagarazi river; for the cracked and

flawy nature of the ground, now parched up by a constant drought,

shows that this part gets inundated in the wet season. Indeed, this

peculiar grassy flat formation suggests the proximity of a river

everywhere in Africa; and I felt sure, as afterwards proved true, that

a river was not far from us. The existence of animal life is another

warranty of water being near: elephants and buffaloes cannot live a

day without it.

Fortunately for my mapping, a small conical hill overtopped the trees

in advance of our track, at twelve miles from the starting-point. We

eventually passed alongside of it, and travelled on six miles farther

to a village in the cultivated plain of Salawé, a total distance of

eighteen miles. The whole country about here was covered with

harvest-workers, who, on seeing my approach, left off work and

followed me into the village. As nothing proves better the real

feelings and natural propensities of a nation than the impulsive

actions of the children, I will give a striking instance, as it

occurred to me to-day. On seeing a child approach me, I offered him a

handful of beads, upon which the greedy little urchin snatched them

from my hand with all the excited eagerness of a monkey. He clenched

tight hold of them in his little fists, and, without the slightest

show of any emotions of gratitude, retired, carrying his well-earned

prize away with a self-satisfied and perfectly contented air, not even

showing the beads to his parents or playmates. I called Bombay's

attention to this transaction, and contrasted it with the joyful,

grateful manner in which an English child would involuntarily act if

suddenly become possessed of so much wealth, by hurrying off to his

mamma, and showing what fine things the kind gentleman had given him.

Bombay passed on my remark, with a twelvemonth's grin upon his face,

to his inquiring brother Mabruki, and then explained the matter to his

sooty friends around, declaring that such tumma (avaricious)

propensities were purely typical of the Seedi's nature.

At the usual hour of departure this morning, the Kirangozi discovered

that the pagazis' feet were sore from the late long marches, and

declared that they could not walk. To this the Jemadar replied that

the best asylum for such complaints was on ahead, where the sahib

proposed to kill some goats and rest a day. The Kirangozi replied,

"But the direct road is blocked up by wars: if a march must be made, I

will show another route three marches longer round." "That," answered

the Jemadar, "is not your business: if any troubles arise from

marauders, we, the Beluches, are the fighting men--leave that to us."

At last the Kirangozi, getting quite disconcerted, declared that there

was no water on the way. "Then," quoth the energetic Jemadar, "were

your gourds made for nothing? If you don't pack up at once, you and my

stick shall make acquaintance." The party was then off in a moment.

On the way we met some herdsmen driving their cattle to Unyanyembé,

and inquired from them the state of the road. They said that the

country beyond a certain distance was safe and quiet, but corroborated

the Kirangozi's statement as to warriors being in the immediate

neighbourhood, who came and visited this place from the west, where is

the northern extremity of the Msalala district. Several varieties of

antelopes were seen, and the Beluches fired at an ostrich. As in the

last place, no milk could be obtained, for the people, fearing the

Wamanda, had driven off their cattle to the northward. It is evident,

from the general nakedness of the people, that cloth or beads do not

find their way much here, which is accounted for by so few merchants

ever coming this way. Hardly a neck here is decorated, and they seldom

wear anything but the common goat-skin covering, hung over the

shoulder by a strap or string like a game-bag, which covers only one

hip at a time, and might as well be dispensed with as far as decency

is concerned; but at night they take it off, and spread it on the

ground to protect themselves from the cold and moisture of the earth.

This district is occupied by a tribe called Waumba; to the east of it,

thirty miles distant, are the Wanatiya, and thirty miles westward the

Wazinza tribes.

27th.--At 6 A.M. we crawled through the opening in the palisading

which forms the entrances of these villages, and at once perceived a

tall, narrow pillar of granite, higher than Pompey's at Alexandria, or

Nelson's Monument in Charing Cross, towering above us, and having

sundry huge boulders of the same composition standing around its base,

much in the same peculiar way as we see at Stonehenge, on Salisbury

Plain. This scene strikes one with wonderment at the oddities of

nature, and taxes one's faculties to imagine how on earth the stones

ever became tilted up in this extraordinary position; but farther on,

about five miles distant, we encountered another and even higher

pillar, that quite overtopped the trees and everything about it. This

and the former one served as good station-marks for the journey, the

latter being visible at eight miles' distance. After the first eight

miles, which terminates the cultivated district of Salawé, the track

penetrated a waterless desert of thorn and small tree-forest, lying in

a broad valley between low hills. As the sick Beluch still occupied my

steadier donkey Ted, I was compelled to mount the half-broken

Jenny--so playful with her head and heels that neither the Sheikh nor

any other man dared sit upon her. The man's sickness appears to be one

of those eccentric complaints, the after-effects of African fevers: it

was attended with severe pain, and swelling extending over the

stomach, the right side, the right arm, and the right half of the

neck, depriving him of sleep and repose. In every position, whether

sitting, lying, standing, rising up, or sitting down, he complained of

aching muscles. I purchased a goat and sheep for the men for one dhoti

merikani.

28th.--Halt. This stoppage was for the restoration of wounded feet,

the pagazis' being all blistered by the last four long marches. I now

slaughtered and gave the two purchased animals to the men, as no one

grumbled at my refusing the last bullock, a recognised present for the

whole party, though nominally given to the Sahib. These people, like

the Arabs, and all those who have many wives, seem to find little

enjoyment in that domestic bliss so interesting and beautiful in our

English homes. Except on rare occasions, the husband never dines with

his wife and family, always preferring the exclusive society of his

own sex: even the boys, disdaining to dine with their mothers, mess

with the men; whilst the girls and women, having no other option, eat

a separate meal by themselves.

29th.--We started at 6 A.M., and marched thirteen miles to a village

at the northern extremity of the district. The face of the country is

still very irregular, sometimes rising into hills, at other times

dropping into dells, but very well cultivated in the lower portion;

whilst the brown granite rocks, with trees and brushwood covering the

upper regions, diversify the colouring, and form a pleasing contrast

to the scene; added to this, large and frequent herds graze about the

fields and amongst the villages, and give animation to the whole.

Amongst the trees, palms take a prominent part. Indeed, for tropical

scenery, there are few places that could equal this; and if the

traveller, as he moves along, surrounded by the screeching, howling,

inquisitive savages, running rudely about and boisterously jostling

him, could only divest himself of the idea that he is a bear baited by

a yelping pack of hounds, the journey would be replete with enjoyment.

Crossing some hills, the caravan sprang a covey of guinea-fowls, and

at some springs in a valley I shot several couple of sand-grouse,

darker in plumage than any I ever saw in Africa or India, and not

quite so big as the Tibet bird. The chief of the village offered me a

bullock; but as the beast did not appear until the time of starting, I

declined it. Neither did I give him any cloth, being convinced in my

mind that these and other animals have always been brought to me by

the smaller chiefs at the instigation of the Kirangozi, and probably

aided by the flesh-loving party in general. The Jemadar must have been

particularly mortified at my way of disposing of the business, for he

talked of nothing else but flesh and the animal from the moment it was

sent for, his love for butcher-meat amounting almost to a frenzy. The

sandstone in this region is highly impregnated with iron, and smelters

do a good business; indeed, the iron for nearly all the tools and

cutlery that are used in this division of Eastern Africa is found and

manufactured here. It is the Brummagem of the land, and has not only

rich but very extensive ironfields stretching many miles north, east,

and west. I brought some specimens away. Cloth is little prized in

this especially bead country, and I had to pay the sum of one dhoti

kiniki for one pot of honey and one pot of ghee (clarified butter).

30th.--The caravan started at 6 A.M., and travelled four miles

northwards, amidst villages and cultivation. From this point, on

facing to the left, I could discern a sheet of water, about four miles

from me, which ultimately proved to be a creek, and the most southern

point of the N'yanza, which, as I have said before, the Arabs

described to us as the Ukéréwé Sea.[57] We soon afterwards descended

into a grassy and jungly depression, and arrived at a deep, dirty,

viscid nullah (a watercourse that only runs in wet weather), draining

the eastern country into the southern end of the creek. To cross this

(which I shall name Jordan) was a matter of no small difficulty,

especially for the donkeys, whose fording seemed quite hopeless, until

the Jemadar, assisted by two other Beluches, with blows and threats

made the lazy pagazis work, and dragged them through the mud by sheer

force. This operation lasted so long that, after crossing, we made for

the nearest village in the Uvira district, and completed a journey of

eight miles. The country to the eastward appeared open and waving, but

to the north and far west very hilly. The ground is fertile, and the

flocks and herds very abundant. Hippopotami frequent the nullah at

night, and reside there during the rainy season; but at this, the dry

half of the year, they retreat to the larger waters of the creek.

Rhinoceroses are said to pay nightly visits to fields around the

villages, and commit sad havoc on the crops. The nullah, running from

the south-east, drains the land in that direction; but a river, I

hear, rising in the Msalala district, draws off the water from the

lays we have recently been crossing, to the westward of our track,

where its course lies, and empties it into the creek on the opposite

side to where the nullah debouches.

31st.--On hearing that a shorter track than the Sukuma one usually

frequented by the Arabs led to Muanza, the place Sheikh Snay advised

my going to, I started by it at 8 A.M.; and after following it

west-ward down the nullah's right bank a few miles, turned up

northwards, and continued along the creek to a village, eight miles

distant, at the farther end of the Urima district, where we took up

our quarters. The country has a mixed and large population of smiths,

agriculturists, and herdsmen, residing in the flats and depressions

which lie between the scattered little hills. During the rainy season,

when the lake swells and the country becomes super-saturated, the

inundations are so great that all travelling becomes suspended. The

early morning was wasted by the unreasonable pagazis in the following

absurd manner.

It will be remembered that, on starting from Unyanyembé, these cunning

rascals begged for cloth as a necessary protection against the cold.

This seemed reasonable enough, if they had not just before that

received their hire in cloth; for the nights were so cold that I

should have been sorry to be as naked as they were; but their real

motive for asking was only to increase their stock for this present

occasion, as we now shall see. Two days ago they broke ground with

great difficulty, and only on my assuring them that I would wait at

the place a day or two on my return from the Lake, as they expressed

their desire to make a few halts there, and barter their hire of cloth

for jembés (iron hoes), to exchange again at Unyanyembé, where those

things fetch double the price they do in these especially iron

regions. Now, to-day these dissembling creatures, distrusting my word

as they would their own brethren's, stoutly refused to proceed until

their business was completed,--suspecting I should break my word on

returning, and would not then wait for them. They had come all this

way especially for their own benefit, and now meant to profit by their

trouble. Fortunately, the Jemadar and some other Beluches, who of late

had shown great energy and zeal in promoting my views, pointed out to

them that they were really more bound to do my business than their

own, as they had engaged to do so, and since they could never have

come there at all excepting through my influence and by my cloths;

further, if they bought their hoes then, they would have to carry them

all the way to the Lake and back. The Kirangozi acknowledged the

fairness of this harangue, and soon gave way; but it was not until

much more arguing, and the adoption of other persuasive means, that

the rest were induced to relinquish their determination.

1st August.--This day's march, commenced at 6 A.M., differs but little

from the last. Following down the creek, which, gradually increasing

in breadth as it extended northwards, was here of very considerable

dimensions, we saw many little islands, well-wooded elevations,

standing boldly out of its waters, which, together with the

hill-dotted country around, afforded a most agreeable prospect. Would

that my eyes had been strong enough to dwell, unshaded, upon such

scenery! but my French grey spectacles so excited the crowds of sable

gentry who followed the caravan, and they were so boisterously rude,

stooping and peering underneath my wide-awake to gain a better sight

of my double eyes, as they chose to term them, that it became

impossible for me to wear them. I therefore pocketed the instrument,

closed my eyes, and allowed the donkey I was riding to be quietly

pulled along. The evil effects of granting an indulgence to those who

cannot appreciate it, was more obvious every day. To secure speed and

contentment, I had indulged the pagazis by hiring double numbers, and

giving each only half a recognised burden; but what has been the

return? Yesterday the pagazis stopped at the eighth mile, because they

said that so large a jungle was in our front that we could not cross

it during daylight.

I disbelieved their story, and gave them to understand, on submitting

to their request, that I was sure their trick for stopping me would

turn to their own disadvantage; for if my surmise proved true, as the

morrow would show, I should give them no more indulgence, and

especially no more meat. On our arrival to-day there was a great

hubbub amongst them, because I ordered the Jemadar and Kirangozi, with

many of their principal men, to sit in state before me; when I gave a

cloth to the soldiers to buy a goat with, and, turning to the

Kirangozi, told him I was sorry I was obliged to keep my word of

yesterday, and, their story having proved false, I must depart from

the principle I had commenced upon, of feeding both parties alike, and

now they might feel assured that I would do nothing further for their

comfort until I could see in them some desire to please me. The screw

was on the tenderest part: a black man's belly is his god; and they no

sooner found themselves deprived of their wonted feast, than they

clamorously declared they would be my devoted servants; that they had

come expressly to serve me, and were willing to do anything I wished.

The village chief offered me a goat; but as it came at the last moment

before starting, I declined it.

To-day's track lay for the first half of the way over a jungly

depression, where we saw ostriches, florikans, and the small Saltiana

antelopes; but as their shyness did not allow of an open approach, I

amused myself by shooting partridges. During the remainder of the way,

the caravan threaded between villages and cultivation lying in small

valleys, or crossed over low hills, accomplishing a total distance of

twelve miles. Here we put up at a village called Ukumbi, occupied by

the Walaswanda tribe.

2d.--We set out at 6 A.M., and travelled thirteen miles by a tortuous

route, sometimes close by the creek, at other times winding between

small hills, the valleys of which were thickly inhabited by both

agricultural and pastoral people. Here some small perennial streams,

exuding from springs by the base of these hills, meander through the

valleys, and keep all vegetable life in a constant state of verdant

freshness. The creek still increases in width as it extends northward,

and is studded with numerous small rocky island-hills covered with

brushwood, which, standing out from the bosom of the deep-blue waters,

reminded me of a voyage I once had in the Grecian Archipelago. The

route also being so diversified with hills, afforded fresh objects of

attraction at every turn; and to-day, by good fortune, the usually

troublesome people have attended more to their harvest-making, and

left me to the enjoyment of the scenery. My trusty Blissett made a

florikan pay the penalty of death for his temerity in attempting a

flight across the track. The day's journey lasted thirteen miles, and

brought us into a village called Isamiro.