These Separations From Grant Were Most Annoying, But They Could
Not Be Helped; So, When All Was Settled Here, I
Bade him adieu -
both of us saying we would do our best - and set out on my
journey, thinking what
A terrible thing it was I could not
prevail on my men to view things as I did. Neither my experience
with native chiefs, nor my money and guns, were of any use to me,
simply because my men were such incomprehensible fools, though
many of them who had travelled before ought to have known better.
More reports came to us about Suwarora, all of the most inviting
nature; but nothing else worth mentioning occurred until we
reached the border of Msalala, where an officer of M'yonga's, who
said he was a bigger man than his chief, demanded a tax, which I
refused, and the dispute ended in his snatching Nasib's gun out
of his hands. I thought little of this affair myself, beyond
regretting the delay which it might occasion, as M'yonga, I knew,
would not permit such usage, if I chose to go round by his palace
and make a complaint. Both Bui and Nasib, however, were so
greatly alarmed, that before I could say a word they got the gun
back again by paying four yards merikani. We had continued
bickering again, for Bui had taken such fright at this kind of
rough handling, and the "push-ahead" manner in which I persisted
"riding over the lords of the soil," that I could hardly drag the
party along.
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