This, Of Course, Was
Objected To, As The Chief, In His Absence, Must Have Deputed Some
One To Govern For Him, And I Expected Him To Settle At Once, That
I Might Proceed With The March.
Then selecting five of my head
men to conduct the case, with five of their elders, it was
considered my losses were equivalent to thirty head of cattle.
As I remitted the penalty to fifteen head, these were made over
to me, and we went on with the march - all feeling delighted with
the issue but the Hottentots, who, not liking the loss of the
second fifteen cows, said that in Kafirland, where the laws of
the country are the same as here, the whole would have been
taken, and, as it was, they thought I was depriving them of their
rights to beef.
By a double march, the sheikh riding in a hammock slung on a
pole, we now made Kuale, or "Partridge" nullah, which, crossing
the road to the northward, drains these lands to the Malagarazi
river, and thence into the Tanganyika lake. Thence, having spent
the night in the jungle, we next morning pushed into the
cultivated district of Rubuga, and put up in some half-deserted
tembes, where the ravages of war were even more disgusting to
witness than at Tura. The chief, as I have said, was a slave,
placed there by the Arabs on the condition that he would allow
all traders and travellers to help themselves without payment as
long as they chose to reside there. In consequence of this wicked
arrangement, I found it impossible to keep my men from picking
and stealing. They looked upon plunder as their fortune and
right, and my interference as unjustifiable.
By making another morning and evening march, we then reached the
western extremity of this cultivated opening; where, after
sleeping the night, we threaded through another forest to the
little clearance of Kigue, and in one more march through forest
arrived in the large and fertile district of Unyanyembe, the
centre of Unyamuezi - the Land of the Moon - within five miles of
Kaze which is the name of a well in the village of Tbora, now
constituted the great central slave and ivory merchants' depot.
My losses up to this date (23d) were as follows: - One Hottentot
dead and five returned; one freeman sent back with the
Hottentots, and one flogged and turned off; twenty-five of Sultan
Majid's gardeners deserted; ninety-eight of the original
Wanyamuezi porters deserted; twelve mules and three donkeys dead.
Besides which, more than half of my property had been stolen;
whilst the travelling expenses had been unprecedented, in
consequence of the severity of the famine throughout the whole
length of the march.
Chapter V
Unyamuezi
The Country and People of U-n-ya-muezi - Kaze, the Capital - Old
Musa - The Naked Wakidi - The N'yanza, and the Question of the
River Running in or out - The Contest between Mohinna and "Short-
legs" - Famine - The Arabs and Local Wars - The Sultana of
Unyambewa - Ungurue "The Pig" - Pillage.
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