In Two More Marches, However, I
Reached Kaze, And Put Up With Musa's Eldest Son, Abdalla, On The
2nd July, Who Now Was Transformed From A Drunken Slovenly Boy
Into The Appearance Of A Grand Swell, Squatting All Day As His
Old Father Used To Do.
The house, however, did not feel the same-
-no men respected him as they had done his father.
Sheikh Said
was his clerk and constant companion, and the Tots were well fed
on his goats - at my expense, however. On hearing my fix, Abdalla
said I should have men; and, what's more, he would go with me as
his father had promised to do; but he had a large caravan
detained in Ugogo, and for that he must wait.
At that moment Manua Sera was in a boma at Kigue, in alliance
with the chief of that place; but there was no hope for him now,
as all the Arabs had allied themselves with the surrounding
chiefs, including Kitambi; and had invested his position by
forming a line, in concentric circles, four deep, cutting off his
supplies of water within it, so that they daily expected to hear
of his surrendering. The last news that had reached them brought
intelligence of one man killed and two Arabs wounded; whilst, on
the other side, Manua Sera had lost many men, and was put to such
straits that he had called out if it was the Arabs' determination
to kill him he would bolt again; to which the Arabs replied it
was all the same; if he ran up to the top of the highest mountain
or down into hell, they would follow after and put him to death.
3d. - After much bother and many disappointments, as I was assured
I could get no men to help me until after the war was over, and
the Arabs had been to Ugogo, and had brought up their property,
which was still lying there, I accepted two men as guides - one
named Bui, a very small creature, with very high pretensions, who
was given me by Abdalla - the other, a steady old traveller, named
Nasib (or Fortune), who was given me by Fundi Sangoro. These two
slaves, both of whom knew all the chiefs and languages up to and
including Uganda, promised me faithfully they would go with
Bombay on to Usui, and bring back porters in sufficient number
for Grant and myself to go on together. They laughed at the
stories I told them of the terror that had seized Baraka and all
the Wanguana, and told me, as old Musa had often done before,
that those men, especially Baraka, had from their first leaving
Kaze made up their minds they would not enter Usui, or go
anywhere very far north.
I placed those men on the same pay as Bombay, and then tried to
buy some beads from the Arabs, as I saw it was absolutely
necessary I should increase my fast-ebbing store if I ever hoped
to reach Gondokoro.
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