A Row Amongst The Negroes
Means A General Rising Of Arms, Legs, And Voices; All Are In A
State Of The Greatest Excitement; And Each Individual Thinks He
Is Doing The Best To Mend Matters, But Is Actually Doing His Best
To Create Confusion.
By dint of perseverance, I now succeeded in having Baraka
separated from the crowd and dragged before me for justice.
I
found that the woman, who fully understood the jealous hatred
which existed in Baraka's heart against Bombay, flirted with both
of them; and, pretending to show a preference for Bombay, set
Baraka against her, when from high words they came to blows, and
set the place in a blaze. It was useless to remonstrate - Baraka
insisted he would beat the woman if she abused him, no matter
whether I thought it cowardly or not; he did not come with me
expecting to be bullied in this way - the whole fault lay with
Bombay - I did not do him justice - when he proved Bombay a thief
at Usui, I did not turn him off, but now, instead, I showed the
preference to Bombay by always taking him when I went to
Rumanika. It was useless to argue with such a passionate man, so
I told him to go away and cool himself before morning.
When he was gone, Bombay said there was not one man in the camp,
besides his own set, who wished to go on to Egypt - for they had
constant arguments amongst themselves about it; and whilst Bombay
always said he would follow me wherever I led, Baraka and those
who held by him abused him and his set for having tricked them
away from Zanzibar, under the false hopes that the road was quite
safe. Bombay said his arguments were, that Bana knew better than
anybody else what he was about, and he would follow him, trusting
to luck, as God was the disposer of all things, and men could die
but once. Whilst Baraka's arguments all rested the other way; -
that no one could tell what was ahead of him - Bana had sold
himself to luck and the devil - but though he did not care for his
own safety, he ought not to sacrifice the lives of others - Bombay
and his lot were fools for their pains in trusting to him.
3d. - At daybreak Rumanika sent us word he was off to Moga-
Namarinzi, a spur of a hill beyond "the Little Windermere,"
overlooking the Ingezi Kagera, or river which separates Kishakka
from Karague, to show me how the Kiangule river was fed by small
lakes and marshes, in accordance with my expressed wish to have a
better comprehension of the drainage system of the Mountains of
the Moon. He hoped we would follow him, not by the land route he
intended to take, but in canoes which he had ordered at the ferry
below. Starting off shortly afterwards, I made for the lake, and
found the canoes all ready, but so small that, besides two
paddlers, only two men could sit down in each. After pushing
through the tall reeds with which the end of the lake is covered,
we emerged in the clear open, and skirted the further side of the
water until a small strait was gained, which led us into another
lake, drained at the northern end with a vast swampy plain,
covered entirely with tall rushes, excepting only in a few places
where bald patches expose the surface of the water, or where the
main streams of the Ingezi and Luchoro valleys cut a clear drain
for themselves.
The whole scenery was most beautiful. Green and fresh, the
slopes of the hills were covered with grass, with small clumps of
soft cloudy-looking acacias growing at a few feet only above the
water, and above them, facing over the hills, fine detached
trees, and here and there the gigantic medicinal aloe. Arrived
near the end of the Moga-Namirinzi hill in the second lake, the
paddlers splashed into shore, where a large concourse of people,
headed by Nnanaji, were drawn up to receive me. I landed with
all the dignity of a prince, when the royal band struck up a
march, and we all moved on to Rumanika's frontier palace, talking
away in a very complimentary manner, not unlike the very polite
and flowery fashion of educated Orientals.
Rumanika we found sitting dressed in a wrapper made of an nzoe
antelope's skin, smiling blandly as we approached him. In the
warmest manner possible he pressed me to sit by his side, asked
how I had enjoyed myself, what I thought of his country, and if I
did not feel hungry; when a pic-nic dinner was spread, and we all
set to at cooked plantains and pombe, ending with a pipe of his
best tobacco. Bit by bit Rumanika became more interested in
geography, and seemed highly ambitious of gaining a world-wide
reputation through the medium of my pen. At his invitation we
now crossed over the spur to the Ingezi Kagera side, when, to
surprise me, the canoes I had come up the lake in appeared before
us. They had gone out of the lake at its northern end, paddled
into, and then up the Kagera to where we stood, showing, by
actual navigation, the connection of these highland lakes with
the rivers which drain the various spurs of the Mountains of the
Moon. The Kagera was deep and dark, of itself a very fine
stream, and, considering it was only one - and that, too, a minor
one - of the various affluents which drain the mountain valleys
into the Victoria N'yanza through the medium of the Kitangule
river, I saw at once there must be water sufficient to make the
Kitangule a very powerful tributary to the lake.
On leaving this interesting place, with the widespread
information of all the surrounding countries I had gained, my
mind was so impressed with the topographical features of all this
part of Africa, that in my heart I resolved I would make Rumanika
as happy as he had made me, and asked K'yengo his doctor, of all
things I possessed what the king would like best.
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