The Mammoth Book of Travel in Dangerous Places (41 page)

17th
This day, like all the preceding ones, is delightful, and worthy of drawing forth an exclamation, like the Indian Griff’s, of “What a fine day this is
again!” We started at 7 a.m., and travelled thirteen miles, with fine bracing air, so cold in the morning that my fingers tingled with it. We were obliged here to diverge from the proper road
viâ
Sarengé, to avoid a civil war – the one before alluded to, and to escape which I had engaged the second guide – between two young chiefs, brothers of the Wamanda
tribe, who were contending for the reins of government on the principle that might ought to give the right.

The whole country lies in long waves, crested with cropping little hills, thickly clad with small trees and brushwood. In the hollows of these waves the cultivation is very luxuriant. Here I
unfortunately had occasion to give my miserable Goanese cook-boy a sound dressing, as the only means left of checking his lying, obstinate, destructive, wasteful, and injurious habit of
intermeddling. This raised the creature’s choler, and he vowed vengeance to the death, seconding his words with such a fiendish, murderous look, his eyes glistening like an infuriated
tiger’s, that I felt obliged to damp his temerity and freedom of tongue by further chastisement, which luckily brought him to a proper sense of his duty.

18th
We left at 7 a.m., and travelled ten miles to Ukuni. The country still continues of the same rich and picturesque character, and retains daily the same unvarying
temperature. On the road we met a party of Wayombo, who, taking advantage of the Wamanda disturbances, had lifted some forty or fifty head of their cattle in perfect security. I saw two albinos in
this village, one an old woman with greyish eyes, and the other young, who ran away from fright, and concealed herself in a hut, and would not show again although beads were offered as an
inducement for one moment’s peep. The old lady’s skin was of an unwholesome fleshy-pink hue, and her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were a light yellowish white. This march was shortened
by two pagazis falling sick. I surmised this illness to be in consequence of their having gorged too much beef, to which they replied that everybody is sure to suffer pains in the stomach after
eating meat, if the slayer of the animal happens to protrude his tongue and clench it with his teeth during the process of slaughtering. At last the white beads have been taken, but at the
extravagant rate of two khetes for four eggs, the dearest I ever paid.

19th
The caravan proceeded at 6 a.m., and, after going eight miles re-entered the Msalala district’s frontier, where we put up in a village three miles beyond the
border. The country throughout this march may be classed in two divisions, one of large and extensively cultivated plains, with some fine trees about; and the other of small irregularly-disposed
hills, the prevailing granitic outcrops of the region. There is no direct line northwards here, so we had to track about, and hit upon the lines between the different villages, which enhanced our
trouble and caused much delay. At this place I witnessed the odd operation of brother-making. It consists in the two men desirous of a blood-tie being seated face to face on a cow’s hide,
with their legs stretched out as wide to the front as their length will permit, one pair overlapping the other. They then place their bows and arrows across their thighs, and each holds a leaf: at
the same time a third person, holding a pot of oil or butter, makes an incision above their knees, and requires each to put his blood on the other’s leaf, and mix a little oil with it, when
each anoints himself with the brother-salve. This operation over, the two brothers bawl forth the names and extent of their relatives, and swear by the blood to protect the other till death. Ugogo,
on the highway between the coast and Ujiji, is a place so full of inhabitants compared with the other places on that line, that the coast people quote it as a wonderful instance of high population;
but this district astonished all my retinue. The road to-day was literally thronged with a legion of black humanity so exasperatingly bold that nothing short of the stick could keep them from
jostling me. Poor creatures! they said they had come a long way to see, and now must have a good long stare; for when was there ever a Mzungu here before?

20th
We broke ground at 6 a.m., and after travelling through high cultivation six miles, were suddenly stopped by a guard of Wamanda, sent by Kurua, a sultan of that
tribe, and chief of the division we were marching in. Their business was to inform us that if we wished to travel to the Lake, the sultan would give directions to have us escorted by another route,
as his eldest brother was disputing the rights of government with him along the line we were now pursuing; and added, that our intentions would be only known to him by the part we might choose to
take. These constant interruptions were becoming very troublesome; so, as we were close to the confines of these two malcontents, I was anxious to force our way on, and agreed to do so with the
Beluches. But the tiresome, lazy, flesh-seeking pagazis saw a feast in prospect by the sultan’s arrangement, and would not move an inch. Further, the Kirangozi requested his discharge if I
was otherwise than peacefully inclined. The guard then led us to Mgogua, the sultan’s village, a little off the road.

Kurua is a young man, not very handsome himself, but he has two beautiful young wives. They secured me a comfortable house, showed many attentions, and sent me a bowl of fresh sweetmilk, the
very extreme of savage hospitality. In the evening he presented me with a bullock. This I tried to refuse, observing that flesh was the prime cause of all my hindrances; but nothing would satisfy
him;. I must accept it, or he would be the laughing-stock of everybody for inhospitality. If I gave nothing in return, he should be happy as long as his part of host was properly fulfilled. Salt,
according to the sultan, is only to be found here in the same efflorescent state in which I saw it yesterday – a thin coating overspreading the ground, as though flour had been sprinkled
there.

21st
Halt. The quantity of cattle in Msalala surpasses anything I have seen in Africa. Large droves, tended by a few men each, are to be seen in every direction over the
extensive plains, and every village is filled with them at night. The cultivation also is as abundant as the cattle are numerous, and the climate is delightful. To walk till breakfast, 9 a.m.,
every morning, I find a luxury, and from that time till noon I ride with pleasure; but the next three hours, though pleasant in a hut, are too warm to be agreeable under hard exertion. The evenings
and the mornings, again, are particularly serene, and the night, after 10 p.m., so cold as to render a blanket necessary. But then it must be remembered that all the country about these latitudes,
on this meridian, 33° east, is at an altitude of from 3500 to 4000 feet. My dinner to-day was improved by the addition of tomatos and the bird’s-eye chili – luxuries to us, but
which the negroes, so different from the Indians, never care about, and seldom grow.

22d
After much groaning and grumbling, I got the sick men on their legs by 7 a.m., and we marched eight miles to Senagongo, the boma (palisade) of Sultan Kanoni,
Kurua’s second brother. These two younger brothers side together against the eldest. They are all by different mothers, and think the father’s property should fairly be divided among
them. It is a glaring instance of the bad effects of a plurality of wives; and being contrary to our constitutional laws of marriage, I declined giving an opinion as to who was right or wrong.

To avoid the seat of war my track was rather tortuous. On the east or right side the country was open, and afforded a spacious view; but on the west this was limited by an irregularly-disposed
series of low hills. Cultivation and scrub-jungle alternated the whole way. The miserable Goanese, like a dog slinking off to die, slipped away behind the caravan, and hid himself in the jungle to
suffer the pangs of fever in solitude. I sent men to look for him in vain: party succeeded party in the search, till at last night set in without his appearing. It is singular in this country to
find how few men escape some fever or other sickness, who make a sudden march after living a quiet stationary life. It appears as if the bile got stirred, suffused the body, and, exciting the
blood, produced this effect. I had to admonish a silly Beluch, who, foolishly thinking that power alone could not hurt a man, fired his gun off into a mass of naked human legs, in order, as he
said, to clear the court. The consequences was, that at least fifty pairs got covered with numerous small bleeding wounds, all dreadfully painful from the saltpetre contained in the powder. It was
fortunate that the sultan was a good man, and was present at the time it occurred, else a serious row might have been the consequence of this mischievous trick.

23d
Halt. We fired alarm-guns all night to no purpose; so at daybreak three different parties, after receiving particular orders how to scour the country, were sent off
at the same time to search for Gaetano. Fortunately the Beluches obeyed my injunctions, and at 10 a.m., returned with the man, who looked for all the world exactly like a dog who, guilty of an
indiscretion, is being brought in disgrace before his master to receive a flogging; for he knew I had a spare donkey for the sick, and had constantly warned the men from stopping behind alone in
these lawless countries. The other two parties adopting, like true Easterns, a better plan of their own, spent the whole day ranging wildly over the country, fruitlessly exerting themselves, and
frustrating any chance of my getting even an afternoon’s march. Kanoni very kindly sent messengers all over his territory to assist in the search: he, like Kurua, has taken every opportunity
to show me those little pleasing attentions which always render travelling agreeable. These Wamanda are certainly the most noisy set of beings that I ever met with: commencing their fêtes in
the middle of the village every day at 3 p.m., with screaming, yelling, rushing, jumping, sham-fighting, drumming, and singing in one collective inharmonious noise, they seldom cease till midnight.
Their villages, too, are everywhere much better protected by bomas (palisading) than is usual in Africa, arguing that they are a rougher and more warlike people than the generality. If shoved
aside, or pushed with a stick, they show their savage nature by turning fiercely like a fatted pig upon whoever tries to poke it up.

24th
The march commenced at 7 a.m.; and here we again left the direct road, to avoid a third party of belligerent Wamanda, situated in the northern extremity of the
Msalala district, on the highway between Unyanyembé and the Lake. On bidding the sultan adieu, he was very urgent in his wishes that I should take a bullock from him. This I told him I
should willingly have accepted, only that it would delay my progress; and he, more kindly than the other chief, excused me. Finding that none of our party knew the road, he advanced a short way
with us, and generously offered to furnish us with a guide to the Lake and back, saying that he would send one of his own men after us to a place he appointed with my Kirangozi. I expressed my
gratitude for his consideration, and we parted with warm regard for one another. Unfortunately, Bombay, who is not the clearest man in the world in expressing himself, stupidly bungled the
sultan’s arrangement, and we missed the man.

To keep the pagazis going was a matter of no little difficulty; after the fifth mile they persisted in entering every village that they came across, and, throwing down their loads, were bent
upon making an easy day’s work of it. I, on the contrary, was equally persistent in going on, and neither would allow the Beluches to follow them, nor enter the villages myself, until they,
finding their game of no avail, quietly shouldered their loads and submitted to my orders. This day’s journey was twelve miles over a highly-cultivated, waving country, at the end of which we
took up our abode in a deserted village called Kahama.

25th
We got under way at 7 a.m., and marched seven and a half hours, when we entered a village in the district of Nindo, nineteen miles distant. After passing through a
belt of jungle three miles broad, we came upon some villages amidst a large range of cultivation. This passed, we penetrated a large wilderness of thorn and bush jungle, having sundry broad grassy
flats lying at right angles to the road. Here I saw a herd of hartebeests, giraffes, and other animals, giving to the scene a truly African character. The tracks of elephants and different large
beasts prove that this place is well tenanted in the season. The closeness of the jungle and evenness of the land prevented my taking any direct observations with the compass; but the mean
oscillations of its card showed a course with northing again. This being a long stage, I lent my ass to a sick Beluch, and we accomplished the journey, notwithstanding the great distance, in a
pleasant and spirited manner. This despatch may in part be attributable to there being so much desert, and the beloved “grub” and the village lying ahead of us luring the men on.
26th
We broke ground at 7 a.m., and, after passing the village cultivation, entered a waterless wilderness of thorn and tree forest, with some long and broad plains of tall grass
intersecting the line of march. These flats very much resemble some we crossed when travelling close to and parallel with the Malagarazi river; for the cracked and flawy nature of the ground, now
parched up by a constant drought, shows that this part gets inundated in the wet season. Indeed, this peculiar grassy flat formation suggests the proximity of a river everywhere in Africa; and I
felt sure, as afterwards proved true, that a river was not far from us. The existence of animal life is another warranty of water being near: elephants and buffaloes cannot live a day without
it.

At the usual hour of departure this morning, the Kirangozi discovered that the pagazis’ feet were sore from the late long marches, and declared that they could not walk. To this the
Jemadar replied that the best asylum for such complaints was on ahead, where the sahib proposed to kill some goats and rest a day. The Kirangozi replied, “But the direct road is blocked up by
wars: if a march must be made, I will show another route three marches longer round.” “That,” answered the Jemadar, “is not your business: if any troubles arise from
marauders, we, the Beluches, are the fighting men – leave that to us.” At last the Kirangozi, getting quite disconcerted, declared that there was no water on the way.
“Then,” quoth the energetic Jemadar, “were your gourds made for nothing? If you don’t pack up at once, you and my stick shall make acquaintance.” The party was then
off in a moment.