They
Flew About Brandishing Their Spears, And Pulling Their Bows In
The Most Grotesque Attitudes, Alarming Some Of My Porters So Much
That They Threw Down Their Loads And Bolted.
All the country is
richly cultivated, though Indian corn at that time was the only
grain ripe.
The square, flat-topped tembes had now been left
behind, and instead the villagers lived in small collections of
grass huts, surrounded by palisades of tall poles.
Proceeding on we put up at the small settlement of Usenda, the
proprietor of which was a semi-negro Arab merchant called
Sangoro. He had a large collection of women here, but had himself
gone north with a view to trade in Karague. Report, however,
assured us that he was then detained in Usui by Suwarora, its
chief, on the plea of requiring his force of musketeers to
prevent the Watuta from pillaging his country, for these Watuta
lived entirely on plunder of other people's cattle.
With one move, by alternately crossing strips of forest and
cultivation, studded here and there with small hills of granite,
we forded the Qaunde nullah - a tributary to the Gombe - and
entered the rich flat district of Mininga, where the gingerbread-
palm grows abundantly. The greatest man we found here was a
broken-down ivory merchant called Sirboko, who gave us a good hut
to live in. Next morning, I believe at the suggestion of my
Wanguana, with Baraka at their head, he induced me to stop there;
for he said Rungua had been very recently destroyed by the
Watuta, and this place could afford porters better than it.
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