 Chapter 6 Part 1 of How I Found Livingston This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, read by Anna Simon. How I Found Livingston Travels, Adventures and Discoveries in Central Africa, including 4 Months Residence with Dr. Livingston by Sir Henry M. Stanley. Chapter 6 Part 1 to Ogogo The distance from Bagamoyo to Simba Meni we found to be 119 miles and was accomplished in 14 marches. By these marches, owing to difficulties arising from the Masika season and more especially to the lagging of the 4th caravan under Maganga, extended to 29 days, thus rendering our progress very slow indeed, but a little more than 4 miles a day. I inferred from what I have seen of the traveling that had I not been encumbered by the sick, one-yamese porters, I could have accomplished the distance in 16 days, for it was not the donkeys that proved recreation to my confidence. They, poor animals carrying a weight of 150 pounds each, arrived at Simba Meni in first-rate order, but it was Maganga, composed of greed and laziness, and his weakly-bodied tribe who were ever falling sick. In dry weather the number of marches might have been much reduced. Of the half-dozen of Arabs or so who preceded this expedition along this route, two accomplished the entire distance in eight days. From the brief descriptions given of the country, as it day by day expanded to our view, enough may be gleaned to give readers a fair idea of it. The elevation of Simba Meni cannot be much over 1,000 feet above the level the rise of the land have it been gradual. It being the rainy season, about which so many ominous statements were doled out to us by those ignorant of the character of the country, we naturally saw it under its worst aspect. But, even in this adverse phase of it, with all its death of black mud, its excessive dew, its dripping and till grass, its density of rank, jungle, and its fevers, I look back upon the scene of pleasure. For the wealth and prosperity it promises to some civilized nation, which in some future time will come and take possession of it. A railroad from Bagamoyo to Simba Meni might be constructed with as much ease and rapidity as, and at far less cost than the Union Pacific Railway, whose rapid strides day by day towards completion the world heard of and admired. A residence in this part of Africa, after a thorough system of drainage had been carried out, would not be attended with more discomfort than generally follows upon the occupation of new land. The temperature at this season during the day never exceeded 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The nights were pleasant, too cold without a pair of blankets for covering, and as far as Simba Meni they were without that pest which is so dreadful in the Nebraska and Kansas prairies, the Mosquito. The only annoyances I know of that would hell-hard on the settler is the determined ferocity of the Mabungo or horse-fly, the Chufwai etc., already described, which until the dense forests and jungles were cleared would be certain to render the keeping of domestic cattle un-remunerative. Contrary to expectation, the expedition was not able to start at the end of two days. The third and the fourth days were passed miserably enough in the desponding valley of Ungarengeri. This river, small as it is in the dry seasons, becomes of considerable volume and power during the Masika, as we experience to our sorrow. It serves as a drain to a score of peaks and two long ranges of mountains. Winding along their bays, it is the recipient of the cascades seen flashing during the few intervals of sunlight, of all the nullas and ravines which render the lengthy frontage of the mountain slopes so rugged and irregular until it glides into the valley of Simba Meni, a formidable body of water, opposing a serious obstacle to caravans without means to build bridges. Added to which was an incessant downfall of rain. Such a rain as shuts people indoors and renders them miserable and un-amiable, a real London rain, an internal drizzle accompanied with mist and fog. When the sun shone, it appeared but a pale image of itself, and old Pagasis, wise in their traditions as old wailing captains, shook their heads ominously at the dull spectre, and declared it was doubtful if the rain would cease for three weeks yet. The site of the caravan camp on the hither side of the Unger and Gehry was a hotbed of malaria, unpleasant to witness, an abomination to memory. The filth of generations of Pagasis had gathered innumerable hosts of creeping things. Armies of black, white, and red ants infested the stricken soil, centipedes like worms of every ewe clamber over streps and plants. Hanging to the undergrowth are the honeycombed nests of yellow-headed wasps with stings as harmful as scorpions. Enormous beetles, as large as full-grown mice, rolled down hills over the ground. Of all sorts, shapes, sizes, and yews are the myriad-fold vermin with which the ground teems. In short, the richest entomological collection could not vie in variety and numbers with the species which the four walls of my tent enclosed from morning until night. On the fifth morning, or the 23rd April, the rain gave us a few hours respite, during which we managed to wade through the stitch-in quagmire reeking with noisomeness to the inundated river bank. The soldiers commenced at 5am to convey the baggage across from bank to bank over a bridge which was the most rustic of the rustic kind. Only an ignorant African would have been satisfied with its small utility as a means to cross a deep and rapid body of water. Even for light-footed Wanyamesi pagasis, it was anything but comfortable to traverse. Only a professional tightrope performer could have carried a load across with ease. To travel over an African bridge requires first a long leap from land to the limb of a tree, which may or may not be covered by water, followed by a long jump ashore. With seventy pounds weight on his back, the carrier finds it difficult enough. Sometimes he is assisted by ropes extemporized from a long convulvery lie which hang from almost every tree, but not always, these being deemed superfluities by the Wayshensi. Fortunately, the baggage was transferred without a single accident, and though the torrent was strong, the donkeys were dragged through the flood by vigorous efforts and much objugation without a casualty. This performance of crossing the Ungeringeri occupied fully five hours, though energy, abuse, and fury enough were expended for an army. Reloading and wringing our clothes dry, we set out from the horrible neighborhood of the river, with its weak and filth, in a northerly direction, following a road which led up to easy and level ground. Two obtruding hills were thus avoided on our left, and after passing them we had shut out the view of the hateful valley. I always found myself more comfortable and light-hearted while travelling, than when chafing and fratting in camp, a delays which no effort could avoid, and consequently I fear that some things, while on a march, may be tended so much stronger than their appearance or merit, may properly warrant. But I thought that the view opening before us was much more agreeable than the valley of Simma Mweny, with all its indescribable fertility. It was a series of glades opening one after another between forest clumps of young trees, hemmed in, distantly, by isolated peaks and scattered mountains. Now and again, as we crested low eminences, we caught sight of the blue Uzagara mountains, bounding the horizon westerly and northerly, and looked down upon a vast expanse of plain which lay between. At the foot of the lengthy slope, well-watered by bubbling springs and mountain reels, we found a comfortable combi with well-made huts, which the natives call Simbo. It lies just two hours, or five miles, north-west of the Unge and Geri crossing. The ground is rocky, composed principally of quartzose detritus swept down by the constant streams. In the neighbourhood of these grow bamboo, the thickest of which was about two-and-a-half inches in diameter. The miombo, a very shapely tree, with a clean trunk like an ash. The embite, with large, fleshy leaves like the metamba, sycamore, plum tree, the yugasa, or tamarisk, and the mugongo, a tree containing several wide branches with small leaves clustered together in a clump, and the silk-cotton tree. Though there are no villages or settlements in view of Simbo-cumbi, there are several clustered within the mountain folds. Inhabited by Oasegua, some are prone to dishonest acts of murder. The long broad plain visible from the eminences crossed between the Unge and Geri and Simbo was now before us, and became known to sorrowful memories subsequently as the Makata Valley. The initial march was from Simbo, its terminus at Rehaneco, at the base of the Usagara Mountains, six marches distant. The valley commences with broad undulations covered with young forests of bamboo which grow thickly along the streams, the dwarf fan palm, the stately palmyra, and the mugongo. These undulations soon become broken by gullies containing water, nourishing dense crops of cane reeds and broad-bladed grass, and emerging from this district, wide savanna covered with tall grass-open interview with an isolated tree here and there, agreeably breaking the monotony of the scene. The Makata is a wilderness containing with one village of the Usagua throughout its broad expanse. Venison consequently abounds within the forest clumps, and the kudu, heart-beast, antelope, and zebra may be seen at early dawn emerging into the open savannas to feed. At night the Sinaiina prowls about with its hideous clamour seeking for sleeping prey, men or beast. The slushy mire of the savannas rendered marching a work of great difficulty. Its tenacious hold of the feet told terribly on men and animals. A ten-mile march required ten hours, who were therefore compelled to camp in the middle of this wilderness, and construct a new campy, a measure which was afterwards adopted by half-dozen caravans. The kud did not arrive until nearly midnight, and with it, besides three or four broken-down baghazis, came Bombay with a duller stale that, having put his load, consisting of the property tent, one large American axe, his two uniform coats, his shirts, beads and cloth, powder, pistol and hatchet, on the ground, to go and assist the cart out of a quagmire, he had returned to the place where he had left it and could not find it, that he believed that some thieving Washensi, who always lurk in the rear of caravans to pick up stragglers, had decamped with it. Which this mild tale, told me at black midnight, was not received at all graciously, but rather with most wrathful words, all of which the penitent captain received as his proper due. Working myself into a fury, I enumerated his sins to him. He had lost the goat at Mohalle, he had permitted Kameesi to a dessert with valuable property at Embiki, he had frequently shown culpable negligence in not looking after the donkeys, permitting them to be tied up at night without seeing that they had water, and in the mornings, when about to march, he preferred to sleep until seven o'clock, rather than wake up early and settle the donkeys, that we might start at six o'clock. He had shown of late great love for the fire, cowering like a bloodless man before it, torped and apathetic. He had now lost the property tent in the middle of the Masiki season, by which carelessness the cloth bales would rot and become valueless. He had lost the axe which I should want at Ujiji to construct my boat, and finally he had lost a pistol and hatchet, and a flask full of the best powder. Considering all these things, how utterly incompetent he was to be captain, I would degrade him from his office, and appoint Mabrugi Burton instead. Uledi also, following the example of Bombay, instead of being second captain, should give no orders to any soldier in future, but shoot himself obey those given by Mabrugi. They said Mabrugi being worth a dozen Bombay's and two dozen Uledi's, and so he was dismissed with orders to return a daylight to find the tent, axe, pistol, powder and hatchet. The next morning the caravan, thoroughly fatigued with the last day's exertions, was obliged to halt. Bombay was dispatched after the lost goods. King Aru, Mabrugi the Great, and Mabrugi the Little were dispatched to bring back three doty worth of grain on which we were just subsist in the wilderness. Three days passed away, and we were still at camp, awaiting with what patience we possessed the return of the soldiers. In the meantime provisions ran very low. No game could be procured. The birds were so wild. Two days shooting procured but two potfuls of birds consisting of grouse, quail and pigeons. Bombay returned unsuccessfully from his search after the missing property and suffered deep disgrace. On the fourth day I dispatched Shaw with two more soldiers to see what had become of King Aru and the two Mabrugi's. Towards night he returned completely prostrated with a violent attack of the Mukunguru or Aeg, but bringing the missing soldiers who were thus left to report themselves. With most thankful hearts that we quit our camp where so much anxiety of mind and fretfulness had been suffered, not heeding a furious rain which, after drenching us all night, might have somewhat damped our ardour for the march and their other circumstances. The road for the first mile led over reddish ground and was drained by gentle slopes falling east and west, but leaving the cover of the friendly woods on whose eastern margin we'd been delayed so long, we hitched into one of the savannas whose soil during the rain is as soft as slush and tenacious as thick mortar, where we were all threatened with the fate of the famous Arkansas traveller who'd sunk so low in one of the many quagmires in Arkansas County that nothing but his tall stovepipe hat was left visible. Shaw was sick and the whole duty of driving the foundering caravan devolved upon myself. The one-yamese donkeys stuck in the mire as if they were routed to it. As fast as one was flocked from a stubborn position prone to the deaths fell another, giving me a Sisyphian labour which was maddening, trader pelting rain, assisted by such man as Bombay and a lady who could not for a whole skin-sake stomach the storm and mire. Two hours of such a task enabled me to drag my caravan over a savanna one mile and a half broad, and barely had I finished congratulating myself over my success before I was hold by a deep ditch which, filled with rainwater from the inundated savannas, had become a considerable stream, breast deep flowing swiftly into the macata. Donkeys had to be unloaded, let through a torrent and loaded again on the other bank, an operation which consumed a full hour. Presently, after straggling through a wood-clump, barring our progress was another stream, swollen into a river. The bridge being swept away, we were obliged to swim and float our baggage over, which the latest two hours more. Leaving the second river bank, we splashed, waded, occasionally half-swimming and reeled through mire, water-dripping grass and metama stalks along the left bank of the macata proper until further progress was effectually prevented for that day by a deep bend of the river which we should be obliged to cross the next day. Though but six miles were traversed during that miserable day, the march occupied ten hours. Half-dead with fatigue I yet could feel thankful that it was not accompanied by fever which it seemed a miracle to avoid, for if ever a district was cursed with the ache the macata wilderness ranks foremost of those afflicted. Surely the sight of the dripping woods enveloped in opaque mist of the inundated country with lengthy swaths of tiger-grass laid low by the turbid flood, of mounds of decaying trees and canes, of the swollen river and the weeping sky was enough to engender the Mukunguro. The well-used kambi and the heaps of filth surrounding it were enough to create a cholera. The macata, a river whose breath during the dry season is but forty feet, in the Masiki season assumes the breath, death and force of an important river. Should it happen to be an unusually rainy season it inundates the great plain which stretches on either sides and converts it into a great lake. It is the main feeder of the Wami River which empties into the sea between the ports of Saadani and Winder, about ten miles northeast of the macata crossing, the great macata, the little macata, a nameless creek and the Rudewa River unite and the river thus formed becomes known as the Wami. Throughout Uzagara the Wami is known as the Mukundokwa. Three of these streams take their rise from the crescent-like Uzagara Range which bounds the macata plains south and south-westerly while the Rudewa rises in a northern horn of the same range. So swift was the flow of the macata and so much that its unsteady bridge, half buried in the water, imperiled the safety of the property that its transfer from bank to bank occupied fully five hours. No sooner had we landed every article on the other side undamaged by the water than the rain poured down in torrents that drenched them all as if they had been dragged through the river. The rain through the swamp which an hour's rain had formed was utterly out of the question. We were accordingly compelled to camp in a place where every hour furnished its quota of annoyance. One of the Wangwana soldiers engaged at Bagamoyo, named Kingaero, improved an opportunity to desert with another Magwana's kit. My two detectives, Uleri, Grandsvalet and Sarmian, were immediately dispatched in pursuit, both being armed with American bridge loaders. They went about their task with an adroitness and celerity which augured well for the success. In an hour they returned with the runaway, having found him hidden in the house of a mizagua chief called Kigondo, who lived about a mile from the eastern bank of the river and who had accompanied Uleri and Sarmian to receive his reward and render an account of the incident. Kigondo said when he'd been seated, I saw this man carrying a bundle and running hard, of which I knew that he was deserting you. We, my wife and I, were sitting in our little watch hut watching our corn, and as the road runs close by this man was obliged to come close to us. We called to him when he was near, saying, Master, where are you going so fast? Are you deserting the mizungu? For we know you belong to him, since you bought from us yesterday too dirty worth of meat. Yes, said he, I am running away. I want to get to Sima Mweny. If you will take me there, I will give you a dodgy. We said to him then, Come into our house and we'll talk it over quietly. When he was in our house, in an inner room, we locked him up and went out again to the watch, but leaving word with the women to look out for him. We knew that if he wanted him you would send Ascari, soldiers, after him. We had but lit our pipes when we saw two men armed with short guns and having no loads coming along the road, looking now and then on the ground as if they were looking at foot marks. We knew them to be the men we were expecting, so we held them and said, Master, what are you looking for? They said, We are looking for a man who has deserted our master. Here are his footsteps. If you have been long in your hut you must have seen him. Can you tell us where he is? We said, If you'll come with us we'll give him up to you, but your master must give us something for catching him. As Kegondo had promised to deliver King Aru up, there remained nothing further to do for Oledi and Sarmien but to take charge of their prisoner and bring him and his captors to my camp on the western bank of the Makata. King Aru received two dozen lashes and was chained. His captor Adati, besides five keta of red coral beads for his wife. That downpour of rain which visited us the day we crossed the Makata proved the last of the Masika season. As the first rainfall which we had experienced occurred on the 23rd March and the last on the 30th April, its duration was 39 days. The seers of Bagamoyo had delivered their fascinations concerning the same Masika with solemnity. For forty days said they, rain would fall incessantly whereas we had but experienced 18 days rain. Nevertheless we were glad that it was over for we were tired of stopping day after day to dry the bales and grease the tools and ironware and of seeing all things of cloth and leather wrought visibly before our eyes. The first of May found us struggling through the mire and water of the Makata with her caravan bodily sick from the exertion and fatigue of crossing so many rivers and wading through marshes. Shaw was still suffering from his first Mukunguru. Zahidi, a soldier, was critically ill with the smallpox. The Kichumu Chuma, the little irons, had hold of Bombay across the chest rendering him the most useless of the inservisables. Mabruk Salim, a youth of lusty frame following the example of Bombay laid himself down on the marshy ground professing his total inability to breast the Makata swamp. Abdul Qadr, the Hindi tailor and adventurer the weakliest of mortal bodies was ever able to do so. The Makata Swamp, one of the most immortal bodies was ever ailing for lack of force as he expressed it in French, i.e. strength, ever indisposed to work, shiftless, moxic, but ever hungry. Oh God was the cry of my tired soul were all the men of my expedition like this man I should be compelled to return. Solomon was wise, perhaps from inspiration, perhaps from observation. I was becoming wise by experience I was compelled to observe that when mud and wet sapped the physical energy of the lazily inclined a dock whip became their becks restoring them to a sound sometimes to an extravagant activity. For 30 miles from our camp was the Makata Plain an extensive swamp. The water was on an average one foot in death. In some places we plunged into holes three, four or even five feet deep. Plash, plash, plash, plash were the only sounds we heard from the commencement of the march until we found the Bomas occupying the only dry spots along the line of march. This kind of work continued for two days until we came inside of the Ridaewa River another powerful stream with banks brimful of rushing rainwater. Crossing a branch of the Ridaewa and emerging from the dank, reedy grass crowding the western bank the view consisted of an immense sheet of water topped by clumps of grass, tufts and foliage of thinly scattered trees bounded 10 or 12 miles off by the eastern front of the Isagara mountain range. The acme of discomfort and vexation was realized on the five mile march from the Ridaewa branch. As myself in the Wangwana appeared with the loaded donkeys the baghazis were observed huddled on a mount. When asked if the mount was the camp they replied, no. Why then do you stop here? The man asked his loins to indicate the death of water before us. Another drew a line across his chest another across his throat another held his hand over his head by which he meant that we should have to swim. Swim five miles through a reedy march it was impossible it was also impossible that such varied accounts could all be correct. Without hesitation therefore I ordered the Wangwana to proceed with the animals. After three hours of splashing water we reached dry land and had traversed the swamp of Makata but not without the swamp with its horrors having left a durable impression upon our minds no one was disposed to forget its fatigues nor the nausea of travel which had almost engendered. Subsequently we had to remember its passage still more vividly and to regret that we had undertaken the journey during the Masika season when the animals died from this date by twos and threes almost every day until with five sickly worn-out beasts remained when the Wangwana, soldiers and Pagasis sickened of diseases innumerable when I myself was finally compelled to lie a bed with an attack of acute dysentery which brought me to the verge of the grave I suffered more perhaps than I might have done had I taken the proper medicine but my overconfidence in that compound called Colours Brown's Chlorodine delayed the cure which ultimately resulted from a judicious use of Dovers powder in no one single gaze of diarrhea or acute dysentery had this Chlorodine about which so much has been said and written any effect of lessening the attack whatever though I used three bottles to the dysentery contracted during the transit of the Makara Swamp only two fell victims and those were a Pagasi and my poor little dog Omar my companion from India the only tree of any prominence in the Makara Valley was the Palmyra Palm Barassus Flabelliformis and this grew in some places in numbers sufficient to be called a Grove the fruit was not ripe while it passed otherwise we might have enjoyed it as a novelty the other vegetation consisted of the several species of thornbush and the graceful parachute topped and evergreen mimosa the fourth of May the northern village of Rianneco the first village near to which we encamped in Uzagara it lay at the foot of the mountain and its plenitude and mountain air promised its comfort and health it was a square compact village surrounded by a thick wall of mud and closing cone topped huts roofed with bamboo and hulkers stalks and contained a population of about a thousand souls it has several wealthy and populous neighbors whose inhabitants are independent enough in their manner they serve the purest water fresh and pollucid as crystal bubbling over round pebbles and clean gravel with a music delightful to hear to the traveler in search of such a sweetly potable element the bamboo grows to surfaceable size in the neighborhood of Rianneco strong enough for tent and banji poles and in numbers sufficient to supply an army the mountain slopes are densely wooded with trees that might supply a very good timber for building purposes we rested four days at this pleasant spot to recruit ourselves and to allow the sick and feeble time to recover a little before testing their ability in the ascent of the Uzagara mountains end of chapter 6 part 1 chapter 6 part 2 of How I Found Livingston this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org read by Anna Seumann How I Found Livingston travels adventures and discoveries in Central Africa including four month's residence with Dr. Livingston by Sir Henry M. Stanley chapter 6 part 2 to Ugogo the 8th of May saw us with our terribly jaded men and animals winding up the steep slope of the first line of hills gaining the summit of which we obtained a few remarkably grand which exhibited as in a masterpiece the broad valley of the Makata with its swift streams like so many courts of silver as the sunshine played on the unshadowed reaches of water with its thousands of graceful palms adding not a little to the charm of the scene with the great wall of the Uroguro and Usopanga mountains dimly blue but sublime in their loftiness and immensity forming a fit background to such an extensive far embracing prospect turning our faces west we found ourselves in a mountain world fold rising above fold peak behind peak cone jostling cone awaited in north to the west to the south the mountain tops rolled like so many vitrified waves not one adust or arid spot was visible in all this scene the diorama had no sudden changes or striking contrasts for a universal forest of green trees clothed at every peak, cone and summit to the men this first days marched through the mountain region of Uzagara was an agreeable interlude after a successive journey over the flats and heavy undulations of the maritime region but to the loaded and enfeebled animals it was most trying we were minus two by the time we had arrived at our camp but seven miles from Araneco our first installment of the debt we owed to Makata water, sweet and clear was abundant in the deep hollows of the mountains flowing sometimes over beds of solid granite sometimes over a rich red sandstone whose soft substance was soon penetrated by the aqueous element and whose particles were swept away constantly to enrich the valley below and in other ravines it dashed and roared miniature clender as it leaped over granite boulders and quartz rock the ninth of may after another such an up and down cause ascending hills and descending into the twilight deaths of deepening valleys we came suddenly upon the Mukondokwa and its narrow pent up valley crowded with rank reedy grass, cane and thorny bushes and rugged tamarisk which grappled for existence with monster convulvuli winding their coils around their trunks with such tenacity and strength that the tamarisk seemed grown but for their support the valley was barely a quarter of a mile broad in some places at others it widened to about a mile the hills on either side shot up into precipitous slopes clothed with mamosa, aquezia and tamarisk and closing a river and valley whose curves and folds were as various as a serpents shortly after debouching into the Mukondokwa valley we struck the road traversed by captain's buxton and speak in 1857 between Mbumi and Karatamaa the latter place should be called Mizongi Karatamaa being but the name of a chief after following the left bank of the Mukondokwa during which our route diverged to every point from southeast to west, north and northeast for about an hour we came to the fort beyond the fort, a short half hours march we came to Kiora at this filthy village of Kiora which was well grounded with goat dung and peopled with a wonderful number of children for a hamlet that did not number twenty families with a hot sun pouring on the limited open space with a fury that exceeded 128 degrees Fahrenheit which swarmed with flies and insects of known and unknown species I found as I had been previously informed the third caravan which had started out of Bagamayo so well fitted and supplied the leader who was no other than the white man Farkar was sick a bed with swollen legs bright disease, unable to move as he heard my voice Farkar staggered out of his tent so changed for my spruce mate who started from Bagamayo that I hardly knew I met first his legs were ponderous, elephantine since his leg illness was of elephantiasis or dropsy his face was of a deathly pallor for he had not been out of his tent for two weeks a breezy hill overlooking the village of Kiora was chosen by me for my camping ground and as soon as the tents were pitched the animals attended to and the boma made of thorn bushes Farkar was carried up by four men into my tent upon being questioned as to the cause of his illness he said he did not know what had caused it he had no pain he thought anywhere I asked do you not sometimes feel pain on the right side yes I think I do but I don't know nor over the left nipple sometimes a quick throbbing with the shortness of breath yes I think I have I know I breathe quick sometimes he said his only trouble was in the legs which was swollen to an immense size though he had a sound appetite he yet felt weak in the legs from the scant information of the disease and its peculiarities as given by Farkar himself I could only make out by studying a little medical book I had with me that a swelling of the legs and sometimes of the body might result from either heart, liver or kidney disease but I did not know to what to ascribe the disease unless it was to elephantiasis a disease most common in Zanzibar nor did I know how to treat it in a man who could not tell me whether he felt pain in his head or in his back in his feet or in his chest it was therefore fortunate for me that I overtook him at Kyora though he was about to prove a soaring comprance to me for he was not able to walk and the donkey carriage after the rough experience of the Makata Valley of Kyora death would soon overtake him there but how long I could convey a man in such a state through a country devoid of carriage was a question to be resolved by circumstances on the 11th of May the 3rd and 5th caravans now united followed up the right bank of the Mukondokwa through fields of hulkus the great Mukondokwa ranges rising in higher altitude as we proceeded west and unfolding us in a narrow river valley roundabout between Ni-Uzagara on our right and soon after found hills spurs earthward our road which were obliged to ascend and descend a march of 8 miles from the Fort of Mizongi brought us to another fort of the Mukondokwa where we bid along a jail to Burton's Road which led up to the Goma Pass and up the steep slopes of Rubeo our road left the right bank and followed the left over a country quite the reverse of the Mukondokwa Valley enclosed between mountain ranges fertile soils and spontaneous vegetation reeking with miasma and overpowering from their odor we had exchanged for a droughty wilderness of aloetic and cactius plants where the kolkwao and several thornbushes grew paramount instead of the tree-clad heights slopes and valleys instead of cultivated fields we saw now the confines of uninhabited wilderness the hilltops were bared of their bosky crowns the hilltops were bared of their bosky crowns the hilltops were bared of their bosky crowns the hilltops were bared of their bosky crowns the hilltops were bared of their bosky crowns and revealed their rocky natures bleached wide by rain and sun Guru peak, the loftiest of the Uzagarra cones stood right shoulder-wards of us as we ascended the long slope of Dun Gray soil which rose beyond the brown Mukondokwa on the left at the distance of two miles from the last fort we found a neat kambi situated close to the river where it first broke into a furious rapid the next morning the caravan was preparing for the march and the Kambdogo, little master Shaw had not yet arrived with the cart and the man in charge of it late the previous night I dispatched one donkey for Shaw who had said he was too ill to walk and another for the load that was on the cart I had retired satisfied that they would soon arrive my conclusion when I learned in the morning that the people had not yet come in was that Shaw was not aware that for five days we should have to march through a wilderness totally uninhabited there was a man, a Mughana soldier with the following note to him you will upon receipt of this order pitch the cart into the nearest ravine gully or river as well as all the extra pack-settles and come at once for God's sake for you must not starve here one, two, three and four hours were passed by me in the utmost impatience waiting but in vain for Shaw having a long march before us I could wait no longer but went to meet his party myself about a quarter of a mile from the fort I met the van of the legals Stout Burley Chalpera and oh cart-makers listen he carried the cart on his head wheels, shafts, body, axle and all complete he having found that carrying it was much easier than drawing it the sight was such a damper to my regard for it as an experiment that the cart was wheeled into the deaths of the tall reeds and their left the central figure was Shaw himself riding at a gate which seemed to leave a doubtful on my mind whether he or his animal felt most sleepy upon expostulating with him for keeping the caravan so long waiting when there was a march on hand in a most peculiar voice which he always assumed when disposed to be ugly tempered he said he had done the best he could but as I had seen the solemn pace at which he rode I felt dubious about his best endeavours and of course there was a little scene of the European tongi of an East African expedition must need sup with the fellows he's chosen we arrived at my data at 4pm minus two donkeys which had stretched their very limbs in death we had crossed the Mukundokwa about 3pm and after taking its bearings and cools I made sure that its rise took place near a group of mountains about 40 miles north by west of Goropik our road let west-northwest and at this place finally diverged from the river on the 14th after a march of 7 miles over hills whose sandstone and granite formation cropped visibly here and there above the surface whose stony and dry aspect seemed reflected in every bush and plant and having gained that altitude of about 800 feet above the flow of the Mukundokwa we sighted the lake of Ogombo a grey sheet of water lying directly at the foot of the hill from whose summit we gazed at the scene the view was neither beautiful nor pretty but what I should call refreshing it afforded a pleasant relief to the eyes fatigued from dwelling on the bleak country around besides, the immediate neighbourhood of the lake was too tame to call forth any enthusiasm there were no grandly swelling mountains no smiling landscapes nothing but a dun brown peak about 1,000 feet high above the surface of the lake at its western extremity from which the lake arrived its name, Ogombo nothing but a low, dun brown and regular range running parallel with its northern shore at a distance of a mile nothing but a low plain stretching from its western shore far away towards the Buapwa mountains in Marenga Makali then apparent to us from our coin of vantage from which extensive scene of dun brownness we were glad to rest our eyes on the quiet grey water beneath descending from the summit of the range which bounded the lake east for about 400 feet we travelled along the northern shore the time occupied on the journey from the eastern to the western extremity 1 hour and 30 minutes as this site represents its greatest length I concluded the miles 3 miles long by 2 miles greatest breadth the immediate shores of the lake on all sides for at least 50 feet from the water's edge is one impassable morass nourishing rank reeds and rushes where the hippopotamus ponderous form has crushed into watery trails the soft composition of the morass as he passes from the lake on his nocturnal excursions the lesser animals such as the mbogo buffalo the punutera zebra the twiga giraffe the boar the kudu the herax or coney and the antelope come here also to quench their thirst by night the surface of the lake swarms with an astonishing variety of waterfowl which are fish eagles and hawks while the neighborhood is resonant with the loud chirps of the guinea fowls calling for their young with the harsh cry of the toucan the cooing of the pigeon and a tweet tooo of the owl from the long grass and its vicinity also issue the grating and loud cry of the florican woodcock and grouse being obliged to hold here two days owing to the desertion of the hindi cooper jaco with one of my best carbines I improved the opportunity of exploring the northern and southern shores of the lake at the rocky foot of a low, humpy hill on that northern side about 15 feet above the present surface of the water I detected in most distinct and definite lines the agency of waves from its base could be traced clear to the edge of the dank morass tiny lines of the cominuted shell as plainly marked as the small particles which lie in rows on a beach after receding tides there is no doubt that the wave marks on the sandstone might have been traced much higher by one skilled in geology it was only its elementary character that was visible to me nor do I entertain the least doubt after a two days exploration of the neighbourhood especially of the low plain at the western end that this lake of ugumbo is by the tail of what was once a large body of water equal in extent to the tanganica and after ascending halfway up to the ugumbo peak this opinion was confirmed when I saw the long depressed line of plain at space stretching towards the bubba mountains 30 miles off and then surround to morangam kali and covering all that extensive servers of 40 miles in breath and at unknown length a death of 12 feet more I thought as I gazed upon it would give the lake a length of 30 miles and a breath of 10 a death of 30 feet and give it a breath of 50 for such was the level nature of the plain that stretched west of ugumbo and north of morangam kali besides the water of the lake partook slightly of the bitter nature of the matamombo creek distant 15 miles and in a still lesser degree of that of morangam kali 40 miles off towards the end of the first day of our hold the hindi cooper jaco arrived in camp alleging as an excuse he had fallen asleep in some bushes a few feet from the roadside having been the cause of our detention in the hungry wilderness of ugumbo I was not in a frame of mind to forgive him so to prevent any future truerant tricks on his part I was under the necessity of including him with the chain gangs of runaways two more of our drunkies died and to prevent any of the valuable baggage being left behind I was obliged to send fargar off on my own riding ass to the village of mpuapa to save the expedition from ruin I was reluctantly compelled to come to the conclusion that it were better for me for him and concerned that he be left with some kind of chief of village with a six month supply of cloth and beads until he got well and that he make his own recovery impossible the 16th of May saw us journeying over the plain which lies between ugumbo and puapa skirting close at intervals a low range of trap rock out of which had become displaced by some violent agency several immense boulders on its slopes grew the colquel to a size which I had not seen in Abyssinia in the plain grew Baobab an immense tamarind and a variety of thorn within five hours from ugumbo the mountain range deflected towards the northeast while we continued on a northwesterly course heading for the lofty mountain line of mpuapa to our left towered to the blue clouds the adoption of this new road to Unyanyembe by which we were travelling was now explained we were unable to avoid the passes and stiff steeps of Rubahio and had nothing worse to encounter than a broad smooth plain which sloped gently to ugogo after a march of 15 miles we camped at a dryim Tony called Matamombo celebrated for its pools of bitter water of the color of ocho monkeys and rhinoceroses stymbox and antelopes were numerous in the vicinity at this camp my little dog Omar died of inflammation of the bowels almost in the threshold of the country ugogo whereas faithful watchfulness would have been invaluable to me the next day's march was also 15 miles in length through one interminable jungle of thorn bushes within two miles of the camp the road led up a small riverbed broad as an avenue clear to the Kambi of Ppuapa which was situated close to a number of streams of the purest water the following morning found us much fatigued after the long marches from ugombo and generally disposed to take advantage of the precious luxuries Ppuapa offered to caravans fresh from the fly plague lands of the Wasaguwa and Wado Shaik Tani clever but innocently speaking old Arab was encamped under the grateful umbrage of a huge Matamba Sycamore and had been regaling himself with fresh milk luscious mutton ever since his arrival here two days before and as he informed me it did not suit his views to quit such a happy abundance so soon for the saline nitrous water of Marengam Kali with its several Terkesas and manifold disagreeables no he said to me emphatically better stop here two or three days give your tired animals some rest collect all the baghazis you can fill your inside with fresh milk tea, honey, beans, matama mariri and nuts then inshallah we shall go together through ugogo without stopping anywhere as the advice tell it accurately with my own desire and keen appetite for the good things he named he had not long to wait for my assent to his council ugogo continued he is rich with milk and honey rich in flour, beans and almost every eatable thing and inshallah I had heard from passing caravans so many extremely favourable reports respecting ugogo and its productions that it appeared to me a very land of promise and I was most anxious to refresh my jaded stomach with some of the precious asculine raised in ugogo but when I heard that mvava also furnished some of those delicate eatables and good things most of the morning hours were spent finally eggs, milk, honey, mutton ghee, ground matama and beans had been collected in sufficient quantities to produce a respectable meal my keenest attention and best culinary talents were occupied for a couple of hours in converting this crude supply into a breakfast which could be accepted by and befit a stomach at once fastidious and famished such as mine was the subsequent healthier digestion was successful at the termination of this eventful day the following remark was dotted down in my diary thank God after 57 days of living upon matama porridge and tough goat I have endured with anxious satisfaction a real breakfast and dinner it was in one of the many small villages which are situated upon the slopes of the mvava that a refuge and a home for farcar was found until it should be enabled by restored health to start to join us at ugogogo it is a beautiful and a sufficient variety to suit the most fastidious cheap also much cheaper than we'd experienced for many a day lukola the chief of the village with whom arrangements for farcar's protection and comfort were made was a little old man of mild eye and a very pleasing face and on being informed that it was intended to leave the musungu entirely under his charge suggested that some man should be left to wait on him jaco was appointed and the chief lukola was satisfied six months provisions of white beads marikani and kaniki cloth together with two doti of handsome cloth to serve as a present to lukola after his recovery were taken to farcar by bombe together with a star's carabine 300 rounds of cartridge a set of cooking pots and three pounds of tea Abdullah bin nasib who was found encamped here with 500 pagasis and a train of arab he was involved around his importance treated me in somewhat the same manner that Hamid bin sulayman treated to speak at ksenge followed by his satellites he came a tall, nervous looking man of 50 or thereabouts to see me in my camp and asked me if I wished to purchase donkeys as all my animals were either sick or moribund I replied very readily in the affirmative upon which he graciously said he would sell me as many as I wanted and for payment I could give him I thought I'm a very considerate and kind person fully justifying the encomiums lavished on him in Burton's lake regions of central Africa and accordingly I treated him with a consideration due to so great and good a man the morrow came and with it went Abdullah bin nasib or quisesa as he's called by the wanyamezi with all his pagasis his train of followers and each and every one of his donkeys towards bagamoyo without so much as giving a quahiri in this place there are generally to be found from 10 to 30 pagasis awaiting upcaravans I was fortunate enough to secure 12 good people who upon my arrival at Union Yembe without an exception voluntarily engaged themselves as carriers to Ujiji with the formidable marches of Maringa Magali in front I felt thankful for this happy windfall which resolved the difficulties I had been anticipating for I had but 10 donkeys left and four of these were so enfeebled Vapa so called by the Arabs who have managed to corrupt almost every native word is called Bamba by the Vazagara it is a mountain range rising over 6000 feet above the sea bounding on the north the extensive plane which commences at Gumball Lake and on the east that part of the plane which is called Maringa Magali which stretches away beyond the borders of Uhumba opposite Vapa at the distance of 30 miles or so is the Anak peak of Rubio with several other ambitious and tall brethren cresting long lines of rectilinear scarps which ascend from the plane of Uhumba and Maringa Magali as regularly as if they had been chiseled out by the hands of generations of masons and stone cutters Upon looking at Vapas greenly tinted slopes dark with many a densely foliageed tree its many rills following sweet and clear nourishing besides thick patches of gum and thorn bush more and parachute top mimosa and permitting my imagination to picture sweet views behind the tall cones above I was tempted to brave the fatigue of an ascent to the summit nor was my love for the picturesque disappointed once sweep of the ice embraced hundreds of square miles of plain and mountain from Uhumba peak away to distant Uhugo and from Rubio and Uhugo to the dim and purple pasture lands of the wild and tamable Uhumba where the nature of Maringa Magali apparently level as a sea was dotted here and there with hillocks dropped in nature's careless haste which appeared like islands amid the dun and green expanse where the jungle was dense the color was green alternating with dark brown where the plane appeared denuded of bush and break it had a whitey brown appearance on which the passing clouds now and again cast their deep shadows altogether this side of the picture in its turnest aspect but perhaps the knowledge that in the bosom of the fast plane before me there was not one drop of water but was bitter as nighter and undrinkable as urine prejudiced me against it the hunter might consider it a paradise for in its death through all kinds of game to attract his keenest instincts but to the mere traveler it had a stern outlook nearer however to the base of Mvapua the aspect of the plane altered at first the jungle thinned naked clearings then extensive fields of the hardy hulkas indian corn and mariria of barchelie with here and there a square tembe or village still nearer ran thin lines of fresh young grass great trees surrounded a patch of alluvial meadow a broad river bed containing several rivulets of water ran through the thirsty fields conveying the vivifying element which in this part of Uzugara was so scarce and precious in the land of Mvapua roughened in some places by great boulders of basalt or by rock masses which had parted from a precipitous scarb where clung the kulkwal with a sure hold drawing nourishment where every other green thing failed clad in others by the hardy mimosa which rose like a sloping bank of green verger almost to the summit and happy sight to me so longer stranger to it there were hundreds of cattle grazing imparting a pleasing animation but the fairest view was obtained by looking northward towards dense group of mountains which buttressed the front range facing towards Rubeja it was the home of the winds which starting here and sweeping down the precipitous slopes and solitary peaks on the western side and gathering strength as they rushed through the prairie like Marengam Kali howled through Ogogo and Onyamesi with the force of a storm it was also the home of the dews where sprang the clear springs of the ski dels below and enriched the populous district of Varpa one felt better, stronger on this breezy height drinking in the pure air and feasting the eyes on such a varied landscape as it presented on spreading plateaus green as lawns on smooth rounded tops on mountain veils containing recesses which might charm a hermit's soul on deep and awful ravines where rained twilight gloom on fractured and riven precipices on huge fantastically worn boulders which overtopped them on picturesque tracts which embraced all that was wild and all that was poetical in nature Varpa though the traveller from the coast will feel grateful for the milk it furnished after being so long deprived of it will be kept in mind as a most remarkable place for earwigs in my tent they might be counted by thousands in my slunk hut they were by hundreds on my clothes they were by fifties on my neck and head on my toes the several plagues of locusts fleas and lice sink into utter insignificance compared with this fearful one of earwigs it is true they did not bite and they did not irritate the cuticle but what their presence and numbers suggested was something so horrible that it drove one nearly insane to think of it who will come to East Africa without reading the experiences of Burton speak who is he that having read them will not remember with horror will he speak of his encounters with these pests my intense nervous watchfulness alone I believe saved me from a like calamity second to the earwigs in importance and in numbers were the white ants whose powers of destructiveness were simply awful mats, cloths, portmanteaus, clothes ensured every article I possessed seemed on the verge of destruction and as I witnessed their ferocity I felt anxious and the intent should be devoured while I slept this was the first combi since leaving the coast where their presence became a matter of anxiety at all other camping places hitherto the red and black ants had usurped our attention but up in Pwapa the red species were not seen while the black were also very scarce after a three days hold up in Pwapa I decided of a march to Marenga Mokali which should be uninterrupted until we reached Mfumi in Yugogo and we went into the art of paying tribute to the Wagogo chiefs the first march to Kizokwe was purposely made short being barely four miles in order to enable Shaikhtani, Shaikhamet and five or six Wazawahili caravans to come up with me at Junyo on the confines of Marenga Mokali End of Chapter 6 Part 2 Chapter 7 Part 1 of How I Found Living Stone This is a Librebox recording All Librebox recordings are available in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit Librebox.org How I Found Living Stone travels, adventures and discoveries in Central Africa including four months residents with Dr. Living Stone by Sir Henry M. Stanley Chapter 7 Part 1 Marenga Mokali, Yugogo and Uyanzi to Unyanyembe The 22nd of May saw Thani and Hamad's caravans united with my own at Chinyo three and a half hours march from Umpuapua The road from the latter place ran along the skirts of the Umpuapua range at three or four places it crossed outlying spurs that stood isolated from the main body of the range The last of these hill spurs joined by an elevated cross ridge to the Umpuapua shelters the tomb of Chinyo situated on the western face that had become roaring down the steep slopes The water of Chinyo is eminently bad in fact it is its saline nitrous nature which has given the name Marenga Mokali bitter water to the wilderness which separates Usagara from Yugogo though extremely offensive to the pallet Arabs and the natives drink it without fear and without any bad results but they are careful to withhold their baggage animals from the pits being ignorant of its nature and not exactly understanding what the precise location was meant by Marenga Mokali I permitted the donkeys to be taken to water as usual after a march and the consequence was calamitous in the extreme What the fearful swamp of Makata had spared the waters of Marenga Mokali destroyed in less than five days after our departure from Chinyo or Marenga Mali five out of the nine donkeys left to me at the time the five healthiest animals fell victim as we emerged from inhospitable Chinyo in number amounting to about 400 souls we were strong in guns, flags, horns sounding drums and noise to shake Hamad by permission of Sheikh Thani and myself was a lot of the task of guiding and leading this great caravan through dreaded Yugogo which was the most unhappy selection as we'll be seen hereafter Marenga Mokali over 30 miles across was at last before us the first within 36 hours so that the fatigue of the ordinary march would be more than doubled by this from Chinyo to Yugogo not one drop of water was to be found as a large caravan say over 200 souls seldom travels over one and three-quarter miles per hour a march of 30 miles would require 17 hours of endurance without water and but little rest East Africa generally possessing unlimited quantities of water caravans have not been compelled for lack of the element to have recourse to the mishok of India and the curva of Egypt being able to cross the waterless districts by a couple of long marches they content themselves for the time with the small gourd full and with keeping their imaginations dwelling upon the copious quantities they will drink upon arrival at the watering place the march through this waterless district was most monotonous and a dangerous fever attacked me which seemed to eat into my very vitals the wonders of Africa that bodied themselves forth in the shape of flocks of zebras giraffes, ellens, or antelopes galloping over the jungle as plain had no charm for me nor could they serve to draw my attention from the severe fit of sickness which possessed me towards the end of the first march I was not able to sit upon the donkey's back nor would it do when but a third of the way across the wilderness to halt until the next day soldiers were therefore detailed and when the terraqueza was performed in the afternoon I lay in a lethargic state unconscious of all things with the night past the fever and at three o'clock in the morning when the march was resumed I was booted and spurred and the recognized metangi of my caravan once more at eight a.m. we had performed the thirty-two miles the wilderness of Marenga Makali had passed and we entered Yugo which was at once a dreaded land to my caravan and a land of promise to myself the transition from the wilderness into this promised land was very gradual and easy very slowly the jungle thinned the cleared land was a long time appearing and when it had finally appeared there were no signs of cultivation until we could clearly make out the herbage and vegetation on some hill slopes to our right running parallel with our route then we saw timber on the hills and broad acreage under cultivation and low as we ascended the land of reddish earth covered with tall weeds and cane but a few feet from us and directly across our path were the fields of matama and grain we had been looking for and Yugo had been entered an hour before the view was not such as I expected I had imagined a plateau several hundred feet higher than Marenga Makali and an expansive view which should reveal Yugo and its characteristics at once but instead while traveling we visited the cultivated parts we had entered into the depths of the taller matama stalks and accepting some distant hills near Movumi where the great sultan lived the first of the tribe to whom we should pay tribute the view was extremely limited however in the neighborhood of the first village a glimpse at some of the peculiar features of Yugo was obtained and there was a vast plain now flat now heaving upwards bristling with scores of rough boulders of immense size which lay piled one above another as if the children of a titanic race had been playing at house building indeed these piles of rounded, angular and riven rock formed miniature hills of themselves and appeared as if each body had been ejected upwards by some violent agency beneath there was one of these in particular near Movumi which was so large that the outspreading branches of a gigantic boobab bore such a strong resemblance to a square tower of massive dimensions that for a long time I cherished the idea that I had discovered something most interesting which had strangely escaped the notice of my predecessors in East Africa a nearer view dispelled the illusion and it proved out to be a huge cube of rock measuring about 40 feet each way the boobabs were also particularly conspicuous on this scene no other kind of tree being visible in the cultivated parts these had probably been left for two reasons first, want of proper access for felling trees of such enormous growth secondly, because during a famine the fruit of the boobab furnishes a flower which, in the absence of anything better is said to be eatable and nourishing the first words I heard in Ugogo were from a Ugogo elder of sturdy form who in an indolent way tended the flots immersed in the stranger clad in white flannels with a hawks patent cork solar topi on his head a most unusual thing in Ugogo who came walking past him and there were yambo, masungu, yambo, bana, bana delivered with a voice loud enough to make itself heard a full mile away no sooner had the greeting been delivered than the word masungu seemed to electrify his entire village and the people of other villages situated at intervals near the road noting the excitement that reigned at the first also participated in the general frenzy which seemed suddenly to have possessed them I consider my progress from the first village to mavumi to have been most triumphant for I was accompanied by a furious mob of men, women, and children all almost as naked as mother earth when the first world dawned upon her in the garden of Eden fighting, quarreling, jostling staggering against each other for the best view of the white man the like of whom was now seen for the first time in this part of Ugogo the cries of admiration such as highly which broke often in the confused uproar upon my head were not gratefully accepted in as much as I deemed many of them impertinent a respectful silence and more reserved behavior would have won my esteem but e-powers who cause etiquette to be observed in yusungu respectful silence, reserved behavior and esteem are terms unknown hitherto I had compared myself to a merchant of Baghdad traveling among the Kurds of Kurdistan selling his wares of Damascus silk kefiyes, etc but now I was compelled to lower my standard and thought myself not much better than a monkey in a zoological collection one of my soldiers requested them to lessen their vociferous noise but the evil-minded race ordered him to shut up as a thing unworthy to speak to the Ugogo when I imploringly turned to the Arabs for counsel in the strait old Sheikh Thani, always worldly wise said, heed them not they are dogs who bite besides barking at nine a.m. we were in Arbauma near the Mbawumi village but here also crowds of Ugogo came to catch a glimpse of the Musungu whose presence was soon made known throughout the district of Mbawumi but two hours later I was oblivious of their endeavors to see me for despite repeated doses of quinine the Mukunguru had sure hold of me the next day was a march of eight miles from east Mbawumi to west Mbawumi where lived the sultan of the district the quantity and variety of provisions which arrived at Arbauma did not belie the reports respecting the productions of Ugogo milk, sour and sweet honey, beans, matama, mawari indian corn, ghee, peanuts and a species of bean nut very like a large pistachio or an almond watermelons, pumpkins, mushmelons and cucumbers were brought and readily exchanged for marikani, kanaki and for the white marikani beads and samisami or samsam the trade and barter which progressed in the camp from morning till night reminded me of the customs existing among the gallows and absinience eastward caravans were obliged to dispatch men with cloth to purchase from the villagers this was unnecessary in Ugogo where the people voluntarily brought every vendible they possessed to the camp the smallest breadth of white or blue cloth became saleable and useful in purchasing provisions even a loin cloth worn thread bear the day after our march was a halt we had fixed this day for bearing the tribute to the great sultan of Mbawumi prudent and cautious Sheikh Thani early began this important duty the omission of which would have been a signal for war we sent two faithful slaves well up to the eccentricities of the Ugogo sultans well spoken having glib tongues and the real instinct for trade as carried on amongst orientals they bore six dhoti of cloths viz one dhoti of Dabwani Ulya contributed by myself also one dhoti of Barsari from me two dhoti marikani satin from Sheikh Thani and two dhoti of Kaniki from Sheikh Hamad as a first installment of the tribute the slaves were absent a full hour but having wasted their powers of pleading in vain they returned with the demand for more which Sheikh Thani communicated to me in this wise oh this sultan is a very bad man a very bad man indeed he says the masungu is a great man I call him a sultan the masungu is very rich for he has several caravans already gone past the masungu must pay 40 dhoti and the Arabs must pay 12 dhoti each for they have rich caravans they have no use for you to tell me you are all one caravan otherwise why so many flags and tents go and bring me 60 dhoti with less I will not be satisfied I suggested to Sheikh Thani upon hearing this exorbitant demand that I had 20 wasungu armed with Winchester repeating rifles the sultan might be obliged to pay tribute to me but Thani prayed and begged me to be cautious lest angry words might irritate the sultan and cause him to demand a double tribute and if you preferred war said he your pagazes would all desert and leave you and your cloth to the small mercy of the wugogo but I hastened to allay his fears by telling Bombay in his presence that I had foreseen such demands on the part of the wugogo and that having set aside 120 dhoti of hunga cloths I should not consider myself a sufferer if the sultan demanded and I paid 40 cloths to him that he must therefore open the hunga bail and permit Sheikh Thani what the sultan might like Sheikh Thani having put on the cap of consideration and joined heads with Hamad and the faithful serviles thought if I paid 12 dhoti out of which three should be of ulya quality that the sultan might possibly condescend to accept our tribute supposing he was persuaded by the oratorical words of the faithfuls that the masungu had nothing with him but the mashiwa, boat which would be of no use to him come what might have you concurred see in its wisdom the slaves departed bearing this time from our Boma 30 dhoti with our best wishes for their success in an hour they returned with empty hands but yet unsuccessful the sultan demanded six dhoti of merikani and a fundu of bubu from the masungu and from the Arabs and other caravans 12 dhoti more for the third time the slaves departed for the sultan's tembi carrying with them six dhoti merikani from the Arabs again they returned to us with the sultan's word that as the dhoti of the masungu were short measure and the cloths of the Arabs of miserable quality the masungu must send three dhoti full measure and the Arabs five dhoti of keniki my three dhoti were at once measured out with the longest forearm according to kigogo measure and sent off by bombay but the Arabs almost in despair declared they would be ruined if they gave way to such demands so the five dhoti demanded sent only two with a pleading to the sultan that he would consider what was paid as just and fair mahungu and not ask any more but the sultan of mavumi was by no means disposed to consider any such proposition but declared he must have three dhoti and these to be two of ulyakloth and one kitambi basardi which as he was determined to obtain were sent to him heavy with the deep maledictions of sheikh hamad and the despairing size of sheikh thami altogether the sultanship of a district in yugogo must be very remunerative besides being a delightful sinicure so long as the sultan has to deal with timid Arab merchants who fear to exhibit anything approaching to independence and self-reliance lest they might be molested in cloth in one day from one camp the sultan received forty seven dhoti consisting of marikani, keniki, basardi and dhobani equal to thirty five dollars and twenty five cents besides seven dhoti of superior cloths consisting of rhani, sohori and dhobani ulya and one fundo of bubu equal to fourteen dollars making a total of forty nine dollars and twenty five cents a most handsome revenue for a mongogo chief on the twenty seventh of may we gladly shook the dust of mavumi from our feet and continued on our route ever westward before leaving the camp of mavumi I went to look at their carcasses but found them to have been clean picked by the hyenas and the bones taken possession of by an army of white-necked crows as we passed the numerous villages and perceived the entire face of the land to be one vast field of grain and counted the people halted by scores on the roadside to feast their eyes with a greedy stare on the masungu I no longer wondered at the extortionate demands of the mongogo for it was manifest that they had but to stretch out their hands to possess whatever the wealth of a caravan consisted of and I began to think better of the people who knowing well their strength did not use it of people who were intellectual enough to comprehend that their interest lay in permitting the caravans to pass on without attempting any outrage between the mvumi and the next sultan's district that of matamburo and the clay-colored plain despite the inhospitable nature of the plain it was better cultivated than any part of any other country we have seen since leaving bagamoyo when we had at last arrived at our Boma of matamburu the same groups of curious people the same eager looks the same exclamations of surprise the same peels of laughter at something they deemed ludicrous in the masungu's dress or manner awaited us as at mvumi the Arabs being wakanungo travelers whom they saw every day enjoyed a complete immunity from the vexations which we had to endure the sultan of matamburu a man of herculean form and massive head well set on shoulders that might vie with those of milo proved to be a very reasonable person not quite so powerful as the sultan of mvumi he yet owned a fair share of ugogo and about forty villages and could if he chose have oppressed the mercantile souls in the same way as he of mvumi four dodie of cloth were taken to him as a preliminary offering to his greatness which he said he would accept if the Arabs and masungu would send him four more as his demands were reasonable this little affair was soon terminated to everybody's satisfaction and soon after the kirungozi of shake hamad sounded the signal for the morrow's march at the orders of the same shake the kirungozi stood up to speak before the assembled caravans he shouted give ear kirungozi's listen children of uniamwezi the journey is for tomorrow the road is crooked and bad, bad the jungle is there and many ugogo lie hidden within it ugogo spear the pagazis and cut the throats of those who carry matamba bales and ushanga, beads the ugogo have been to our camp they have seen your bales tonight they seek the jungle tomorrow watch well oh waniamwezi keep close together lag not behind kirungozi's walks low that the weak, the sick and the young may keep up with the strong take two rests on the journey these are the words of the bana do you hear them waniamwezi a loud shout in the affirmative from all do you understand them well another chorus then, boss, having said which the elegant kirungozi retired into the dark night the next camp was rugged and long through a continuous jungle of gums and thorns up steep hills and finally over a fervid plain while the sun waxed hotter and hotter as it drew near the meridian until it seemed to scorch all vitality from inanimate nature while the view was one white blaze unbearable to the pained sight which sought relief from the glare in vain several sandy water courses on which were impressed many a trail of elephants the scope of these stream beds trended southeast and south in the middle of this scorching plains to the villages of bahawana almost undistinguishable from the extreme lowness of the huts which did not reach the height of the tall bleached grass which stood smoking in the untempered heat our camp was in a large Boma about a quarter of a mile from the sultan's temple soon after arriving at the camp I was visited by three wogogo who asked me if I had seen a mogogo I was about to answer very innocently yes, when mobruki, cautious and watchful always for the interest of the master requested me not to answer as the wogogo as customary would charge me with having done away with them and would require their price from me indignant at the imposition they were about to practice upon me I was about to raise my whip to flog them out of the camp when again mobruki with a roaring voice bade me beware every blow would cost me three or four dodie of cloth as I did not care to gratify my anger at such an expense I was compelled to swallow my wrath and consequently the wogogo escape chastisement we halted for one day at this place which was a great relief to me as I was suffering severely from intermittent fever which lasted in this case two weeks and entirely prevented my posting my diary in full as was my custom every evening after a march the sultan of Bihawana though his subjects were evil disposed and ready-handed at theft and murder contented himself with three dodie as honga from this chief I received news in my fourth caravan which had distinguished itself in a fight with some outlawed subjects of his my soldiers had killed two who had attempted after way-laying a couple of my pagazes to carry away a bale of cloth and a bag of beads coming up in time the soldiers decisively frustrated the attempt the sultan thought that if all caravans were as well guarded as mine were there would be less depredations committed on them while on the road with which I heartily agreed the next sultan's tembe through whose territory we marched this being on the thirtieth of May was at Kitadimo but four miles from Bihawana the road led through a flat elongated plane lying between two lengthy hilly ridges thickly dotted with the giant forms of the bobab Kitadimo is exceedingly bleak in aspect even the faces of the wugogos seem to have contracted a bleak cue from the general bleakness around the water of the pits obtained in the neighborhood had inexcrible flavor and two donkeys sickened and died in less than an hour from its effects man suffered nausea and a general irritability of the system and accordingly revenge himself by cursing the country and its imbecile ruler most heartily the war max came however when Bombay reported after an attempt to settle the mohungo that the chief's head had grown big since he had heard that the musungu had come and that its bigness would not be reduced unless he could extract ten dodi as tribute though the demand was large I was not in a humor being feeble and almost nervous from repeated attacks of the muk and guru to dispute the sum consequently it was paid without many words but the Arabs continued the whole afternoon negotiating and at the end of each end of chapter 7 part 1 chapter 7 part 2 of How I Found Livingston this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org How I Found Livingston travels adventures and discoveries in Central Africa including four months residence with Dr. Livingston by Sir Henry M. Stanley chapter 7 part 2 from the between between the district of the Sultan was a broad and lengthy forest and jungle inhabited by the elephant, rhinoceros, zebra, deer, antelope and giraffe starting at dawn of the 31st we entered the jungle whose dark lines and Bosque banks were clearly visible from our bower at Kitadimo and traveling for two hours halted for rest and breakfast two hours, halted for rest and breakfast, at pools of sweet water surrounded by tracts of vivid green verdure, which were a great resort for the wild animals of the jungle, whose tracts were numerous and recent. A narrow nulla, shaded deeply with foliage, afforded excellent retreats from the glaring sunshine. At Meridian our thirst quenched, our hunger satisfied, our gourds refilled. We set out from the shade into the heated blaze of hot noon. The path serpentine'd in and out of jungle and thin forest into open tracts of grass bleached white as stubble, into thickets of gums and thorns, which emitted an odor as rank as a stable, through clumps of wide-spreading mimosa and colonies of boobab, through a country teeming with noble gain, which, though we saw them frequently, were yet as safe from our rifles as if we had been on the Indian Ocean. Terecheza, such as we are now making, admits of no delay. Water we had left behind at noon, until noon of the next day not a drop was to be obtained, and unless we marched fast and long on this day, raging thirst would demoralize everybody. So for six long, weary hours we toiled bravely, and at sunset we camped, and still a march of two hours, to be done before the sun was an hour high, intervened between us and our camp at Nyambwa. That night the men bivouacked under the trees, surrounded by many miles of dense forest, enjoying the cool night unprotected by hat or tent, while I groaned and tossed throughout the night in a paroxysm of fever. The morn came, and while it was yet young, the long caravan, or string of caravans, was under way. It was the same forest, admitting on the narrow line which we threaded, but one man at a time. Its view was as limited. To our right and left the forest was dark and deep. Above was a riband of glassy sky, flecked by the floating nimbus. We heard nothing save a few stray notes from a flying bird, or the din of caravans as the men sang, or hummed, or conversed, or shouted, as the thought struck them that we were nearing water. One of my pagazes, wearied and sick, fell and never rose again. The last of the caravan passed him before he died. At seven a.m. we were encamped at Nyamba, drinking the excellent water found here with the avidity of thirsty camels. Extensive fields of grain had heralded the neighborhood of the villages, at the side of which we were conscious that the caravan was quickening its pace, as approaching its halting-place. As the wasangu drew within the populated area, crowds of wogogo used their utmost taste to see them before they passed by. Young and old of both genders pressed about us in a multitude, a very howling mob. This excessive demonstrativeness elicited from my sailor overseer the characteristic remark. Well, I declare, these must be the genuine ugogians, for they stare, stare! There is no end to their staring. I am almost tempted to slap them in the face. In fact the conduct of the wogogo of Nyambwa was an exaggeration of the general conduct of wogogo. Hither, too, those we had met had contented themselves with staring and shouting, but these outstepped all bounds, and my growing anger at their excessive insolence vented itself in gripping the rowdiest of them by the neck, and before he could recover from his astonishment administering a sound thrashing with my dog-whip, which he little relished. This proceeding educed from the tribe of stareers all their native power of witter-patient and abuse, in expressing which they were peculiar. Being in manner to angry tomcats, they jerked their words with something of a splitting hiss and half-bark. The ejaculation, as near as I can spell it phonetically, was haught, uttered in a shrill, crescendo tone. They paced backwards and forwards, asking themselves, Are the wogogo to be beaten like slaves by this misungu? A mogogo is a moana, a free man, he is not used to be beaten, haught. But whenever I made motion, flourishing my whip towards them, these mighty braggarts found it convenient to move to respectable distances from the irritated misungu. Perceiving that a little manliness and show of power was something which the mogogo long needed, and that in this instance it relieved me from annoyance I had recourse to my whip, whose long lash cracked like a pistol-shot whenever they overstepped moderation. So long as they continued to confine their obtrusiveness to staring and communicating to each other their opinions respecting my complexion and dress and accoutrement, I philosophically resigned myself in silence for their amusement. But when they pressed on me, barely allowing me to proceed, a few vigorous and rapid slashes right and left with my serviceable thong soon cleared the trek. Pembera Perra is a queer old man, very small, and would be very insignificant where he not the greatest sultan in ugogo, and enjoying a sort of demediated power over many other tribes. Though such an important chief, he is the meanest dressed of his subjects, is always filthy, ever greasy, eternally foul about the mouth, but these are mere eccentricities. As a wise judge he is without parallel, always has a dodge ever ready for the abstraction of cloth from the spiritless Arab merchants, who trade with Unyanyembe every year, and disposes with ease of a judicial case which would over-task ordinary men. Jake Hamad, who was elected guider of the United Caravans now traveling through Ugogo, was of such a fragile and small make that he might be taken for an imitation of his famous prototype, dapper. Being of such dimensions, what he lacked for weight and size he made up by activity. No sooner had he arrived in camp than his trimmed dapper form was seen frisking about from side to side of the great Boma, fidgeting, arranging, disturbing everything and everybody. He permitted no bales or packs to be intermingled or to come into too close proximity to his own. He had a favorite mode of stacking his goods, which he would see carried out. He had a special eye for the best place for his tent, and no one else must trespass on that ground. One would imagine that walking ten or fifteen miles a day he would leave such trivialities to his servants. But no, nothing could be right unless he had personally super-intended it, in which work he was tireless and knew no fatigue. Another not uncommon peculiarity pertained to Sheikhamad. As he was not a rich man, he labored hard to make the most of every shukka and dodi expended, and each fresh expenditure seemed to gnaw his very vitals. He was ready to weep, as he himself expressed it, at the high prices of Yugogo, and the extortionate demands of its sultans. For this reason, being the leader of the caravans, so far as he was able, we were very sure not to be delayed in Yugogo, where food was so dear. The day we arrived at Nyamba will be remembered by Hamad as long as he lives, for the trouble and vexation which he suffered. His misfortunes arose from the fact that, being too busily engaged in fidgeting about the camp, he permitted his donkeys to stray into the matama fields of Perimbera para, the sultan. For hours he and his servants sought for the stray donkeys, returning towards evening utterly unsuccessful, Hamad bewailing, as only an oriental can do, when hard fate visits him with its inflections, the loss of a hundred dollars' worth of musket donkeys. Sheikh Tani, older, more experienced and wiser, suggested to him that he should notify the sultan of his loss. Acting upon the sagacious advice, Hamad sent an embassy of two slaves, and the information they brought back was that Perimbera para's servants had found the two donkeys eating the unripened matama, and that unless the Arab who owned them would pay nine dodie of first class cloths, he, Perimbera para, would surely keep them to remunerate him for the matama they had eaten. Hamad was in despair. Nine dodie of first class cloths, worth twenty-five dollars in Unyanyembe for half a chukka's worth of grain, was, as he thought, an absurd demand, but then if he did not pay it, what would become of the hundred dollars' worth of donkeys? He proceeded to the sultan to show him the absurdity of the damage-claim, and to endeavour to make him accept one chukka, which would be more than double the worth of what grain the donkeys had consumed. But the sultan was sitting on Pambi, he was drunk, which I believed to be his normal state, too drunk to attend to business. Consequently his deputy, a renegade Monyam Wenzay, gave ear to the business. With most of the Wagogo chief lives Monyam Wenzay, as their right-hand man, prime minister, counselor, executioner, ready man at all things, save the general good, a sort of Harlequin Monyam Wenzay, who is such an intriguing, restless, unsatisfied person, that as soon as one hears that this kind of man forms one of and the chief of the Magogo sultan's council, one feels very much tempted to do damage to his person. Most of the extortions practiced upon the Arabs are suggested by these crafty renegades. Sheik Hamad found that the Monyam Wenzay was far more obdurate than the sultan. Being under nine Dodi first clath's cloths would redeem the donkeys. The business that day remained unsettled, and the night following was, as one may imagine, a very sleepless one to Hamad. As it turned out, however, the loss of the donkeys, the after-heavy fine and the sleepless night proved to be blessings in disguise, for towards midnight a robber Magogo visited his camp, and while attempting to steal a bale of cloth was detected in the act by the wide awake and irritated Arab, and was made to vanish instantly with a bullet whistling in close proximity to his ear. From each of the principles of the caravans the Monyam Wenzay had received as tribute for his drunken master, fifteen Dodi, and from the other six caravans, six Dodi each, altogether fifty-one Dodi. Yet on the next morning, when we took the road, he was not in a whit disposed to deduct a single cloth from the fine imposed on Hamad, and the unfortunate sheik was therefore obliged to liquidate the claim or leave his donkeys behind. After traveling through the cornfields of Pembera Para, we emerged upon a broad, flat plain, as level as the still surface of a pond, once the salt of the will-go-go is obtained. From Kenyani, on the southern road, to beyond the confines of Ehomba and Ubanarama, this saline field extends, containing many large ponds of salt-bitter water, whose low banks are covered with an effervescence partaking of the nature of nitrate. Subsequently, two days afterwards, having ascended the elevated ridge which separates you-go-go from Uyanzi, I obtained a view of this immense saline plain, embracing over a hundred square miles. I may have been deceived, but I imagined I saw large expanses of grayish blue water, which causes me to believe that this saline is but a corner of a great salt lake. Though Wahomba, who are numerous, from Nyambwa to the Uyanzi border, informed my soldiers that there was a maju-cuba a way to the north. Mazanza, our next camp after Nyamba, is situated in a grove of palms about thirteen miles from the latter place. Soon after arriving I had to bury myself under blankets, plagued with the same intermittent fever which first attacked me during the transit of Marenga Makali, feeling certain that one day's halt which would enable me to take regular doses of the invaluable sulfate of quinine would cure me, I requested Sheikh Thani to tell Hamad to halt on the morrow, as I should be utterly unable to continue thus long under repeated attacks of a virulent disease which was fast reducing me into a mere frame of skin and bone. Hamad, in a hurry to arrive at Unyanyembe in order to dispose of his cloth before other caravans appeared in the market, replied at first that he would not, that he could not, stop for Masungu. Upon Thani's reporting his answer to me, I requested him to inform Hamad that, as the Masungu did not wish to detain him or any other caravan, it was his express wish that Hamad would march and leave him, as he was quite strong enough in guns to march through Yugo-Go alone. Whatever cause modified the Sheikh's resolution and his anxiety to depart, Hamad's horn signal for the march was not heard that night, and on the morrow he had not gone. Early in the morning I commenced on my queening-doses. At six a.m. I took a second dose, before noon I had taken four more. All together, fifty measured grains, the effect of which was manifest in the copious perspiration which drenched flannels, linen, and blankets. After noon I rose, devoutly thankful that the disease which had clunked to me for the last fourteen days had at last succumbed to queening. On this day the lofty tent, and the American flag which ever flew from the center pole, attracted the Sultan of Mazanze toward it, and was the cause of a visit with which he honored me. As he was notorious among the Arabs for having assisted Moana Sarah in his war against Sheikh Snin bin Amir, high eulogies upon whom have been written by Burton and subsequently by Speak, and as he was the second most powerful chief in Yugo-Go, of course he was quite a curiosity to me. As the tent door was uplifted that he might enter, the ancient gentleman was so struck with astonishment at the lofty apex and internal arrangements that the greasy barsadi cloth which formed his sole and only protection against the chills of night and the heat of noon in a fit of abstraction was permitted to fall down to his feet, exposing to the Musungu's unhallowed gaze the sad and aged wreck of what must have once been a towering form. His son, a youth of about fifteen, attentive to the infirmities of his father, hastened with filial duty to remind him of his condition, upon which, with an idiotic titter at the incident, he resumed his scanty apparel and sat down to wonder and jibber out his admiration at the tent and the strange things which formed the Musungu's personal baggage and furniture. After gazing in stupid wonder at the table, on which was placed some crockery and the few books I carried with me, at the slung hammock which he believed was suspended by some magical contrivance, at the portmanteaus which contained my stock of clothes, he ejaculated, Hila, the Musungu is a great sultan who has come from his country to see you go-go. He then noticed me and was again wonder-struck at my pale complexion and straight hair, and the question now propounded was, how on earth was I white when the sun had burned his people's skins into blackness, whereupon he was shown my cork-toppy which he tried on his wooly head, much to his own and to our amusement. The guns were next shown to him, the wonderful repeating rifle of the Winchester Company, which was fired thirteen times in rapid secession to demonstrate its remarkable murderous powers. If he was astonished before he was a thousand times more so now, and expressed his belief that the woo-go-go could not stand before the Musungu in battle, for wherever a woo-go-go was seen such a gun would surely kill him. When the other firearms were brought forth, each with its peculiar mechanism explained, until in a burst of enthusiasm at my riches in power he said he would send me a sheep or goat and that he would be my brother. I thanked him for the honour and promised to accept whatever he was pleased to send me. At the instigation of Sheikh Thani, who acted as interpreter, who said that woo-go-go chiefs must not depart with empty hands, I cut off a shukka of kaniki and presented it to him, which after being examined in measures was refused upon the ground that the Musungu being a great sultan should not demean himself so much as to give him only a shukka. This after the twelve dodi received his mahungo from the caravans I thought was rather sore, but as he was about to present me with a sheep or goat another shukka would not matter much. Shortly after he departed and true to his promise I received a large fine sheep, with a broad tail, heavy with fat, but with the words that being now his brother I must send him three dodi of good cloth. As the price of a sheep is but a dodi and a half I refused the sheep and the fraternal honour upon the ground that the gifts were all on one side, and that as I had paid mahungo and given him a dodi of kaniki as present I could not afford to part with any more cloth without an adequate return. During the afternoon one more of my donkey's died, and at night the hyenas came in great numbers to feast upon the carcass. Ullimengo, the Shassur, and best shot of my wungwana, stole out and seceded in shooting two, which turned out to be some of the largest of their kind. One of them measured six feet from the tip of the nose to the extremity of the tail, and three feet around the girth. On the fourth June we struck camp, and after traveling westward for about three miles, passing several ponds of salt water, we headed north by west, skirting the range of low hills which separates Ugo-Go from Uyanzi. End of Chapter 7, Part 2 Chapter 7, Part 3 of How I Found Livingston. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. How I Found Livingston Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries in Central Africa, including four months' residence with Dr. Livingston, by Sir Henry M. Stanley. Chapter 7, Part 3, Marenga Makali, Ugo-Go, and Uyanzi to Unyanyanbe. After a three-hours march, we halted for a short time at little Makandaku to settle tribute with the brother of him who rules at Makandaku proper. Three Doty satisfy the sultan, whose district contains but two villages, mostly occupied by pastoral Wohambe and renegade Wohehe. The Wohambe live in plastered cow-dung cone huts, shaped like the tartar tents of Turkestan. The Wohambe, so far as I have seen them, are a fine and well-formed race. The men are positively handsome, tall, with small heads, the posterior parts of which project considerably. One will look in vain for a thick lip or a flat nose among them. On the contrary, the mouth is exceedingly well-cut, delicately small. The nose is that of the Greeks, so universal was the peculiar feature that I at once named them the Greeks of Africa. Their lower limbs have not the heaviness of the Wugogo and other tribes, but are long and shapely, clean as those of an antelope. Their necks are long and slender, on which their small heads are poised most gracefully. Athletes from their youth, shepherd-bread and intermarrying among themselves, thus keeping the race pure, any of them would form a fit subject for the sculptor who would wish to immortalize in marble an Antonius, a Hylas, a Daphnis, or an Apollo. The women are as beautiful as the men are handsome. They have clear ebb and skins, not coal-black, but of an inky hue. Their ornaments consist of spiral rings of brass pendants from the ears, brass ring-collars about the necks, and a spiral syncture of brass wire about their loins for the purpose of retaining their calf and goat skins, which are folded about their bodies, and, depending from the shoulder, shade one half of the bosom and fall to the knees. The Wahehe may be styled the Romans of Africa. Resuming our march, after a halt of an hour, in four hours more we arrived at Mukunduku proper. This extremity of Ugogo is most populous. The villages which surround the central tembe, where the Sultan Swaruru lives, amount to thirty-six. The people who flocked from these to see the wonderful men whose faces were white, who wore the most wonderful things on their persons, and possessed the most wonderful weapons, guns which bum-bummed as fast as you could count on your fingers, formed such a mob of howling savages that I for an instant thought there was something besides mere curiosity which caused such commotion, and attracted such numbers to the roadside. Halting I asked what was the matter, and what they wanted, and why they made such a noise. One burly rascal, taking my words for a declaration of hostilities, promptly drew his bow. But as prompt as he had fixed his arrow my faithful Winchester, with thirteen shots in the magazine, was ready and at the shoulder, and but waited to see the arrow fly to pour the leaden messengers of death into the crown. But the crowd vanished as quickly as they had come, leaving the burly thereseats, and two or three Erezlut fellows of his tribe, standing within pistol range of my leveled rifle. Such a dispersion of the mob, which, but a moment before, was overwhelming in numbers, caused me to lower my rifle, and to indulge in a hearty laugh at the disgraceful flight of the men destroyers. The Arabs, who were as much alarmed at their boisterous obtrusiveness, now came up to patch a truce, in which they succeeded to everybody's satisfaction. A few words of explanation, and the mob came back in greater numbers than before, and the thereseats, who had been the cause of the momentary disturbance, was obliged to retire abashed before the pressure of public opinion. A chief now came up, whom I afterwards learned was the second man to Swaruru, and lectured the people upon their treatment of the white stranger. No you not will go go, shouted he, that this Musungu is a Sultan, Metemi, a most high title. He has not come to you, go go, like the Wakanongo Arabs, to trade in ivory, but to see us, and to give presents. Why do you molest him and his people? Let them pass in peace. If you wish to see him, draw near, but do not mock him. The first of you who creates a disturbance, let him be aware. Our great Metemi shall know how you treat his friends. This little bit of oratorical effort on the part of the chief was translated to me there and then by the old Sheikh Thani, which having understood I bade the Sheikh to inform the chief that, after I had rested, I should like him to visit me in my tent. Having arrived at the Kambi, which always surrounds some great bull-bob in Uggogo, at the distance of about half a mile from the temple of the Sultan, the Uggogo pressed in in such great numbers to the camp that Sheikh Thani resolved to make an effort to stop or mitigate the nuisance. Dressing himself in his best clothes, he went to appeal to the Sultan for protection against his people. The Sultan was very inebriated and was pleased to say, What is it you want, you thief? You have come to steal my ivory or my cloth. Go away, thief! But the sensible chief, whose voice had just been heard reproaching the people for their treatment of the Wakanongo, beckoned to Thani to come out of the tembe, and then proceeded with him towards the Kambi. The camp was in a great up-war. The curious Uggogo monopolized almost every foot of ground. There was no room to turn anywhere. The Wanyamwese were quarreling with the Uggogo. The Waswahili servants were clamoring loud that the Uggogo pressed down their tents, and that the property of the masters was in danger. While I, busy on my diary within my tent, cared not how great was the noise of confusion outside, so long as it can find itself to the Uggogo, Wanyamwese, and Wengwana. The presence of the chief in the camp was followed by a deep silence that I was prevailed upon to go outside to see what had cost it. The chief's words were few and to the point. He said, To your tembe's, Uggogo, to your tembe's. Why do you come to trouble the Wakanongo? What have you to do with them? To your tembe's, go. Each Uggogo found in the Kambi without meal, without cattle to sell, shall pay to the tembe cloth or cows, away with you. Saying which, he snatched up a stick and drove the hundreds out of the Kambi, who were as obedient to him as so many children. During the two days we halted at Makandanko we saw no more of the mob, and there was peace. The Mahongo of the Sultan Swaruru was settled with a few words. The chief who acted for the Sultan as his prime minister, having been made glad with the dhoti of Rahane Ulia for me, to the usual tribute of six dhoti, only one of which was a first-class cloth. There remained but one more Sultan to whom Mahongo must be paid after Makandanko, and this was the Sultan of Kiwa, whose reputation was so bad that owners of property who had control over the Pagazis seldom passed by Kiwa, perverring the hardships of long marches through the wilderness to the rudeness and exorbitant demands of the chief of Kiwa. But the Pagazis, on whom no burden nor responsibility fell, proved that of carrying their loads, who could use their legs and show clean heels in the case of a hostile outbreak, preferred the march to Kiwa to endure thirst and the fatigue of Aterrakeza. Often the preference of the Pagazis won the day when their employers were timid, irresolute men like Sheikh Hamad. The seventh of June was the day fixed for our departure from Makandanko, so the day before the Arabs came to my tent to counsel with me as to the route we should adopt. When calling together the Kirangozis of the respective caravans and veteran Watamondi Pagazis, we learned that there were three roads leading from Makandanko to Uyanzi. The first was the southern road, and the one generally adopted, for the reasons already stated, and led by Kiwa. To this Hamad raised objections. The Sultan was bad, he said. He sometimes charged a caravan twenty dodi. Our caravan would have to pay about sixty dodi. The Kiwa road would not do at all. Besides, he added, we have to make Aterrakeza to reach Kiwa, and then we will not reach it before the day after tomorrow. The second was the central road. We should arrive at Munyeka on the morrow. The day after would be Aterrakeza from Muganguro Nala to a camp near Unyambogi. Two hours the next day would bring us to Qiti, where there was plenty of water and food. As neither of the Kirangozis or Arabs knew this road, and as its description came from one of my ancient Pagazis, Hamad said he did not like to trust the guidance of such a caravan in the hands of an old Munyamwezi, and would therefore prefer to hear about the third road before rendering his decision. The third road was the northern. It led past numerous villages of the Wagongo for the first two hours. Then we should strike a jungle, and three hours' march would then bring us to Simbo, where there was water but no village. Starting early next morning we would travel six hours when we would arrive at a pool of water. There taking a short rest an afternoon march of five hours would bring us within three hours of another village. As this last road was known to many, Hamad said, Sheikh Thani, tell the Sahib that I think this is the best road. Sheikh Thani was told, after he had informed me that, as I had marched with them through Yugogo, if they decided upon going by Simbo my caravan would follow. Immediately after the discussion among the principals respecting the merits of the several routes arose a discussion amongst the Pagazis which resulted in an obstinate clamor against the Simbo Road, for its long terraqueza and scant prospects of water. The dislike to the Simbo Road communicated itself to all the caravans, and soon it was magnified by reports of a wilderness reaching from Simbo to Kasuri, where there was neither food nor water to be obtained. Hamad's Pagazis and those of the Arab servants rose in a body and declared they could not go on that march, and if Hamad insisted upon adopting it they would put their packs down and leave him to carry them himself. Hamad Kimiani, as he was styled by the Arabs, rushed up to Sheikh Thani and declared that he must take the Kiwo Road, otherwise his Pagazis would all desert. Thani replied that all the roads were the same to him, that wherever Hamad chose to go he would follow. They then came to my tent and informed me of the determination at which the Wanyam Wensei had arrived, calling my veteran Manyam Wensei, who had given me the favourable report once more to my tent, I bade him give a correct account of the Kiwi Road. It was so favourable that my reply to Hamad was that I was the master of my caravan, that it was to go wherever I told the Kiran-Ghazi, not where the Pagazis chose, that when I told them to halt they must halt, and when I commanded a march a march should be made, and that as I fed them well and did not overwork them I should like to see the Pagazi or soldier that disobeyed me. You made up your mind just now that you would take the Simbo Road and we all agreed upon it. Now your Pagazis say they will take the Kiwi Road or dessert. Go on the Kiwi Road and pay twenty Dori Mahongo. I and my caravan tomorrow morning will take the Kiwi Road, and when you find me in Unyam Wembe one day ahead of you, you will be sorry you did not take the same road. This resolution of mine had the effect of again changing the current of Hamad's thoughts, for he instantly thought, what is the best road after all, and as the Sahib is determined to go on it, and we have all traveled together through the bad land of the Wagogo, inshallah, let us all go the same way, and Thani, good old man not objecting, and Hamad having decided they both joyfully went out of the tent to communicate the news. On the seventh the caravans, apparently unanimous that the Kiwi Road was to be taken, were led as usual by Hamad's Kiran-Ghazi. We had barely gone a mile before I perceived that we had left the Simbo Road, had taken the direction of Kiti, and by a cunning detour, were now fast approaching the defile of the mountain ridge before us, which admitted access to the higher plateau of Kiwiah. Instantly halting my caravan I summoned the veteran who had traveled by Kiti, and asked him whether we were not going towards Kiwiah. He replied that we were. Calling my Pagazis together, I bad Bombay tell them that the Musungu never changed his mind, that as I had said my caravan should march by Kiti, to Kiti it must go whether the Arabs followed it or not. I then ordered the veteran to take up his load and show the Kiran-Ghazi the proper road to Kiti. The Wanyam-Wenzay Pagazis put down their bails, and then there was every indication of a mutiny. The Wangwana soldiers were next ordered to load their guns and to flank the caravan and shoot the first Pagazis who made an attempt to run away. Dismounting I seized my whip, and advancing towards the first Pagazis who had put down his load, I motioned him to take up his load and march. It was unnecessary to proceed further, without an exception, all marched away obediently after the Kiran-Ghazi. I was about bidding farewell to Thani and Hamad when Thani said, Stop a bit, Sahib. I have had enough of this child's play. I come with you. And his caravan turned after mine. Hamad's caravan was by this time close to the defile, and he himself was a full mile behind it, weeping like a child at what he was pleased to call our desertion of him. Pitying his straight, for he was almost beside himself as thoughts of Qiyua's sultan, his extortion and rudeness swept across his mind, I advised him to run after his caravan and tell it, as all the rest had taken the other road, to think of the sultan of Qiyua. Before reaching the Qiti defile I was aware that Hamad's caravan was following us. The descent of the ridge was rugged and steep. Thorns of the prickliest nature punished us severely. The Akesha hurrida was here more horrid than usual. The gums stretched out their branches and entangled the loads. The mimosa, with its umbrella-like tops, served to shade us from the sun, but impeded a rapid advance. Steep outcrops of cyanite and granite, worn smooth by many feet, had to be climbed over. Rugged terraces of earth and rock had to be ascended, and distant shots resounding through the forest added to the alarm and general discontent. And had I not been immediately behind my caravan, watchful of every maneuver, my one-yum Wednesday had deserted to a man. Though the height we ascended was barely eight hundred feet above the Salina we had just left, the ascent occupied two hours. Having surmounted the plateau in the worst difficulties, we had a fair road, comparatively, which ran through jungle, forest, and small open tracks, which in three hours more brought us to Munyeka, a small village surrounded by a clearing richly cultivated by a colony of subjects of Swaruru of Makanduku. By the time we had arrived at camp everybody had recovered his good humor and content except Hamad. Thani's men happened to set his tent too close to Hamad's tree, around which his bales were stacked. Whether the little shake imagined, honest old Thani capable of stealing one is not known. But it is certain that he stormed and raved about the near neighborhood of his best friend's tent, until Thani ordered its removal a hundred yards off. This proceeding even, it seems, did not satisfy Hamad. For it was quite midnight, as Thani said, when Hamad came and kissing his hands and feet on his knees implored forgiveness, which of course Thani, being the soul of good nature, and as large-hearted as any man, willingly gave. Hamad was not satisfied, however, until with the aid of his slaves he had transported his friend's tent to where it had at first been pitched. The water at Munyaka was obtained from a deep depression in a hump of cyanite, and was as clear as crystal and as cold as ice-water, a luxury we had not experienced since leaving Sembo-Wenny. We were now on the borders of Unyanzi, or it is better known, Makanduki Makali, the hot ground or hot field. We had passed the village populated by Wugogo and were about to shake the dust of Ugo-Go from our feet. We had entered Ugo-Go full of hopes, believing it a most pleasant land, a land flowing with milk and honey. We had been grievously disappointed. It proved to be a land of gall and bitterness, full of trouble and vexation of spirit, where danger was eminent at every step, where we were exposed to the caprice of inebriated sultans. Is it a wonder, then, that all felt happy at such a moment? With the prospect before us of what was believed by many to be a real wilderness, our ardor was not abated, but was rather strengthened. Wilderness in Africa proves to be, in many instances, more friendly than the populated country. The Kira-ngozi blew his kuduhorn much more merrily on this morning than he was accustomed to do while in Ugo-Go. We were about to enter Magandu Makali. At nine a.m., three hours after leaving Munieka, and two hours since we had left the extreme limits of Ugo-Go, we were halted at Mabangura Nala. The Nala ran southwesterly after leaving its source in the chain of hills dividing Ugo-Go from Magandu Makali. During the rainy season it must be nearly impassable, owing to the excessive slope of its bed. Traces of the force of the torrent are seen in the cyanite and basalt boulders which encumber their course. Their rugged angles are worn smooth, and deep basins are excavated where the bed is of the rock, which in the dry season serve as reservoirs. Though the water contained in them has a slimy and greenish appearance and is well populated with frogs, it is by no means unpolatable.