At Last I Settled This Confounded Hongo, By Paying Seven
Additional Wires In Lieu Of The Cloth; And, Delighted At The
Termination Of This Tedious Affair, I Ordered A March.
Like
magic, however, Vikora turned up, and said we must wait until he
was settled with.
His rank was the same as the others, and one
bead less than I had given them he would not take. I fought all
the day out, but the next morning, as he deputed his officers to
take nine wires, these were given, and then we went on with the
journey.
Tripping along over the hill, we descended to a deep miry
watercourse, full of bulrushes, then over another hill, from the
heights of which we saw Suwarora's palace, lying down in the
Uthungu valley, behind which again rose another hill of
sandstone, faced on the top with a dyke of white quartz. The
scene was very striking, for the palace enclosures, of great
extent, were well laid out to give effect. Three circles of milk
bush, one within the other, formed the boma, or ring-fence. The
chief's hut (I do not think him worthy of the name of king, since
the kingdom is divided in two) was three times as large as any of
the others, and stood by itself at the farther end; whilst the
smaller huts, containing his officers and domestics, were
arranged in little groups within a circle, at certain distances
apart from one another, sufficient to allow of their stalling
their cattle at night.
On descending into the Uthungu valley, Grant, who was preceding
the men, found Makinga opposed to the progress of the caravan
until his dues were paid. He was a stranger like ourselves, and
was consequently treated with scorn, until he tried to maintain
what he called his right, by pulling the loads off my men's
shoulders, whereupon Grant cowed him into submission, and all
went on again - not to the palace, as we had supposed, but, by
the direction of the mace-bearers, to the huts of Suwarora's
commander-in-chief, two miles from the palace; and here we found
Masudi's camp also. We had no sooner formed camp for ourselves
and arranged all our loads, than the eternal Vikora, whom I
thought we had settled with before we started, made a claim for
some more wire, cloth, and beads, as he had not received as much
as Kariwani and Virembo. Of course I would not listen to this, as
I had paid what his men asked for, and that was enough for me.
Just then Masudi, with the other Arabs who were travelling with
him, came over to pay us a visit, and inquire what we thought of
the Usui taxes. He had just concluded his hongo to Suwarora by
paying 80 wires, 120 yards of cloth, and 130 lb. of beads, whilst
he had also paid to every officer from 20 to 40 wires, as well as
cloths and beads. On hearing of my transactions, he gave it as
his opinion that I had got off surprisingly well.
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