You will be rather surprised that a month has gone by and I have got no
nearer my goal than this! But firstly I went down with a bad go of
fever--all right now--and secondly I could not hustle von Wissmann, who
is Imperial Commissioner here and who has been very kind--and thirdly
the rains are so appalling just now that overland travelling is
well-nigh impossible till the country dries up a little. But I am not
losing my time otherwise. I am getting everything fixed up with the
Germans, and next shall only have to arrive at an understanding with the
natives. The boundaries of our Concession (which will include the
Stotts) cover the Happy Valley from the water-parting between the Bubu
and the Kwou on the south to the escarpment at the north end of the
lake, and on east and west include all the water-shed of Lake Manyara,
Iraku and Fiome. So they have dealt with us generously.
Wissmann I like immensely. He is a great man and has the interests of
the real natives thoroughly at heart. Our old friends the Stotts have
impressed him favourably and they are to be woven into my schemes of
development. Wissmann from the first asked me to put up at his
headquarters and treated me like a colleague in the opening up of
Africa. So I was saved the disagreeableness of staying at my former
Consulate with the Bazzards.
Mrs. Bazzard has been sickly in her protestations of friendship, utterly
insincere as you know. I fancy she is turning her pen now on Sir
Godfrey, in the hope she may oust _him_. Considering how kind the
Dewburns were to them it is odious to note how she tries to disparage
him....
There is not much news from the interior. I hear that Ali-bin-Ferhani
got rewarded by the Germans for saving Hangodi Station, and that Mbogo
is still chief there in name, the real chief of the district being Ann
Anderson, or Mgozimke--"The man-woman," as the natives call her.
In haste to catch the mail....
Your loving
ROGER.
_From the same to the same._
Mwada, The Happy Valley,
_July_ 28, 1891.