I Told
Them So, And Defied Them To Interfere With My Orders, For I Was
Not A 'woman,' To Be Treated With Contempt; And This Got Up A
Quarrel.
Mkisiwa, seizing at the opportunity of the prize held
out to him by the Arabs as his supporters, then commenced a
system of bribery.
Words led to blows; we had a long and tough
fight; I killed many of their number, and they killed mine.
Eventually they drove me from my palace, and placed Mkisiwa there
as chief in my stead. My faithful followers however, never
deserted me; so I went to Rubuga, and put up with old Maula
there. The Arabs followed - drove me to Nguru, and tried to kill
Maula for having fostered me. He, however, escaped them; but
they destroyed his country, and then followed me down to Nguru.
There we fought for many months, until all provisions were
exhausted, when I defied them to catch me, and forced my way
through their ranks. It is needless to say I have been a
wanderer since; and though I wish to make friends, they will not
allow it, but do all they can to hunt me to death. Now, as you
were a friend of my father, I do hope you will patch up this war
for me, which you must think is unjust."
I told Manua Sera I felt very much for him, and I would do my
best if he would follow me to Kaze; but I knew that nothing could
ever be done unless he returned to the free-trade principles of
his father. He then said he had never taken a single tax from the
Arabs, and would gladly relinquish his intention to do so. The
whole affair was commenced in too great a hurry; but whatever
happened he would gladly forgive all if I would use my influence
to reinstate him, for by no other means could he ever get his
crown back again. I then assured him that I would do what I could
to restore the ruined trade of his country, observing that, as
all the ivory that went out of his country, came to ours, and all
imports were productions of our country also, this war injured us
as well as himself. Manua Sera seemed highly delighted, and said
he had a little business to transact in Ugogo at present, but he
would overtake me in a few days. He then sent me one of my
runaway porters, whom he had caught in the woods making off with
a load of my beads. We then separated; and Baraka, by my orders,
gave the thief fifty lashes for his double offence of theft and
desertion.
On the 9th, having bought two donkeys and engaged several men, we
left Jiwa la Mkoa, with half our traps, and marched to Garaeswi,
where, to my surprise, there were as many as twenty tembes - a
recently-formed settlement of Wokimbu. Here we halted a day for
the rear convoy, and then went on again by detachments to Zimbo,
where, to our intense delight, Bombay returned to us on the 13th,
triumphantly firing guns, with seventy slaves accompanying him,
and with letters from Snay and Musa, in which they said they
hoped, if I met with Manua Sera, that I would either put a bullet
through his head, or else bring him in a prisoner, that they
might do for him, for the scoundrel had destroyed all their trade
by cutting off caravans. Their fights with him commenced by his
levying taxes in opposition to their treaties with his father,
Fundi Kira, and then preventing his subjects selling them grain.
Once more the whole caravan moved on; but as I had to pay each of
the seventy slaves sixteen yards of cloth, by order of their
masters, in the simple matter of expenditure it would have been
better had I thrown ten loads away at Ugogo, where my
difficulties first commenced. On arrival at Mgongo Thembo - the
Elephant's Back - called so in consequence of a large granitic
rock, which resembles the back of that animal, protruding through
the ground - we found a clearance in the forest, of two miles in
extent, under cultivation. Here the first man to meet me was the
fugitive chief of Rubuga, Maula. This poor old man - one of the
honestest chiefs in the country - had been to the former
expedition a host and good friend. He now gave me a cow as a
present, and said he would give me ten more if I would assist him
in making friends with the Arabs, who had driven him out of his
country, and had destroyed all his belongings, even putting a
slave to reign in his stead, though he had committed no fault of
intentional injury towards them. It was true Manua Sera, their
enemy, had taken refuge in his palace, but that was not his
fault; for, anticipating the difficulties that would arise, he
did his best to keep Manua Sera out of it, but Manua Sera being
too strong for him, forced his way in. I need not say I tried to
console this unfortunate victim of circumstances as best I could,
inviting him to go with me to Kaze, and promising to protect him
with my life if he feared the Arabs; but the old man, being too
feeble to travel himself, said he would send his son with me.
Next day we pushed on a double march through the forest, and
reached a nullah. As it crosses the track in a southerly
direction, this might either be the head of the Kululu mongo or
river, which, passing through the district of Kiwele, drains
westward into the Malagarazi river, and thence into the
Tanganyika, or else the most westerly tributary to the Ruaha
river, draining eastward into the sea. The plateau, however, is
apparently so flat here, that nothing b a minute survey, or
rather following the watercourse, could determine the matter.
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