This Looked Famous, And It Was Agreed We Should Move
The Next Morning.
Just then a new light broke in on my defeat at
Sorombo, for with Makinga I recognised one of
My former porters,
who I had supposed was a "child" of the Pig's. This man now said
before all my men, Baraka included, that he wished to accept the
load of mzizima I had offered the Pig if he would go forward with
Baraka and tell Suwarora I wanted some porters to help me to
reach him. He was not a "child" of the Pig's, but a "child" of
K'yengo's; and as Baraka would not allow him to accept the load
of mzizima, he went on to K'yengo by himself, and told all that
had happened. It was now quite clear what motives induced
Suwarora to send out the three Wasui; but how I blessed Baraka
for this in my heart, though I said nothing about it to him, for
fear of his playing some more treacherous tricks. Grant then
told me Baraka had been frightened at Mininga, by a blackguard
Mganga to whom he would not give a present, into the belief that
our journey would encounter some terrible mishap; for, when the
M'yonga catastrophe happened, he thought that a fulfillment of
the Mganga's prophecy.
I wished to move in the morning (23d), and had all hands ready,
but was told by Makinga he must be settled with first. His dues
for the present were four brass wires, and as many more when we
reached the palace. I could not stand this: we were literally,
as Musa said we should be, being "torn to pieces"; so I appealed
to the mace-bearers, protested that Makinga could have no claims
on me, as he was not a man of Usui, but a native of Utambara, and
brought on a row. On the other hand, as he could not refute
this, Makinga swore the mace was all a pretence, and set a-
fighting with the Wasui and all the men in turn.
To put a stop to this, I ordered a halt, and called on the
district officer to assist us, on which he said he would escort
us on to Suwarora's if we would stop till next morning. This was
agreed to; but in the night we were robbed of three goats, which
he said he could not allow to be passed over, lest Suwarora might
hear of it, and he would get into a scrape. He pressed us
strongly to stop another day whilst he sought for them, but I
told him I would not, as his magic powder was weak, else he would
have found the scabbard we lost long before this.
At last we got under way, and, after winding through a long
forest, we emerged on the first of the populous parts of Usui, a
most convulsed-looking country, of well-rounded hills composed of
sandstone. In all the parts not under cultivation they were
covered with brushwood.
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