Immediately
On Our Entering Her Palace, She Came Forward To Meet Me With The
Most Affable Air Of A Princess, Begged I Would Always Come To Her
As I Did Then, And Sought To Make Every One Happy And
Comfortable.
Her old mistress, she said, died well stricken in
years; and, as she had succeeded her, the people of
Her country
invited Singinya to marry her, because feuds had arisen about the
rights of succession; and it was better a prince, whom they
thought best suited by birth and good qualities, should head
their warriors, and keep all in order. At that moment Singinya
was out in the field fighting his enemies; and she was sure, when
he heard I was here, that he would be very sorry he had missed
seeing me.
We next went on to the district of Ukumbi, and put up in a
village there, on approaching which all the villagers turned out
to resist us, supposing we were an old enemy of theirs. They
flew about brandishing their spears, and pulling their bows in
the most grotesque attitudes, alarming some of my porters so much
that they threw down their loads and bolted. All the country is
richly cultivated, though Indian corn at that time was the only
grain ripe. The square, flat-topped tembes had now been left
behind, and instead the villagers lived in small collections of
grass huts, surrounded by palisades of tall poles.
Proceeding on we put up at the small settlement of Usenda, the
proprietor of which was a semi-negro Arab merchant called
Sangoro. He had a large collection of women here, but had himself
gone north with a view to trade in Karague. Report, however,
assured us that he was then detained in Usui by Suwarora, its
chief, on the plea of requiring his force of musketeers to
prevent the Watuta from pillaging his country, for these Watuta
lived entirely on plunder of other people's cattle.
With one move, by alternately crossing strips of forest and
cultivation, studded here and there with small hills of granite,
we forded the Qaunde nullah - a tributary to the Gombe - and
entered the rich flat district of Mininga, where the gingerbread-
palm grows abundantly. The greatest man we found here was a
broken-down ivory merchant called Sirboko, who gave us a good hut
to live in. Next morning, I believe at the suggestion of my
Wanguana, with Baraka at their head, he induced me to stop there;
for he said Rungua had been very recently destroyed by the
Watuta, and this place could afford porters better than it. To
all appearance this was the case, for this district was better
cultivated than any place I had seen. I also felt a certain
inclination to stop, as I was dragging on sick men, sorely
against my feelings; and I also thought I had better not go
farther away from my rear property; but, afraid of doing wrong in
not acting up to Musa's directions, I called up his head men who
were with me, and asked them what they thought of the matter, as
they had lately come from Rungua.
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