The Plateau, However, Is
Apparently So Flat Here, That Nothing B A Minute Survey, Or
Rather Following The Watercourse, Could Determine The Matter.
Then emerging from the wilderness, we came into the open
cultivated district of Tura, or "put down" - called so
By the
natives because it was, only a few years ago, the first cleared
space in the wilderness, and served as a good halting-station,
after the normal ten day's march in the jungles, where we had now
been struggling more than a month.
The whole place, once so fertile, was now almost depopulated and
in a sad state of ruin, showing plainly the savage ravages of
war; for the Arabs and their slaves, when they take the field,
think more of plunder and slavery than the object they started
on - each man of the force looking out for himself. The
incentives, too, are so great; - a young woman might be caught
(the greatest treasure of earth), or a boy or a girl, a cow or a
goat - all of the fortunes, of themselves too irresistible to be
overlooked when the future is doubtful. Here Sheikh Said broke
down in health of a complaint which he formerly had suffered
from, and from which I at once saw he would never recover
sufficiently well to be ever effective again. It was a sad
misfortune, as the men had great confidence in him, being the
representative of their Zanzibar government: still it could not
be helped; for, as a sick man is, after all, the greatest
possible impediment to a march, it was better to be rid of him
than have the trouble of dragging him; so I made up my mind, as
soon as we reached Kaze, I would drop him there with the Arabs.
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