He Knew That The English Were The Ruling Power In That
Land, And That They Were Opposed To Slavery, The Terrible Effects
Of Which Had Led To His Abandoning Old Mbumi, On The Banks Of The
Mukondokua River, And Rising Here.
The sick Hottentot died here, and we buried him with Christian
honours.
As his comrades said, he died because he had determined
to die, - an instance of that obstinate fatalism in their mulish
temperament which no kind words or threats can cure. This
terrible catastrophe made me wish to send all the remaining
Hottentots back to Zanzibar; but as they all preferred serving
with me to returning to duty at the Cape, I selected two of the
MOST sickly, put them under Tabib, one of Rigby's old servants,
and told him to remain with them at Mbumi until such time as he
might find some party proceeding to the coasts; and, in the
meanwhile, for board and lodgings I have Mbumi beads and cloth.
The prices of provisions here being a good specimen of what one
has to pay at this season of the year, I give a short list of
them: - sixteen rations corn, two yards cloth; three fowls, two
yards cloth; one goat, twenty yards cloth; one cow, forty yards
cloth, - the cloth being common American sheeting. Before we left
Mbumi, a party of forty men and women of the Waquiva tribe,
pressed by famine, were driven there to purchase food. The same
tribe had, however killed many of Mbumi's subjects not long
since, and therefore, in African revenge, the chief seized them
all, saying he would send them off for sale to Zanzibar market
unless they could give a legitimate reason for the cruelty they
had committed. These Waquiva, I was given to understand,
occupied the steep hills surrounding this place. They were a
squalid-looking set, like the generality of the inhabitants of
this mountainous region.
This march led us over a high hill to the Mdunhwi river, another
tributary to the Mukondokua. It is all clad in the upper regions
with the slender pole-trees which characterise these hills,
intermingled with bamboo; but the bottoms are characterised by a
fine growth of fig-trees of great variety along with high
grasses; whilst near the villages were found good gardens of
plantains, and numerous Palmyra trees. The rainy season being
not far off, the villagers were busy in burning rubble and
breaking their ground. Within their reach everywhere is the
sarsaparilla vine, but growing as a weed, for they know nothing
of its value.
Rising up from the deep valley of Mdunhwi we had to cross another
high ridge before descending to the also deep valley of Chongue,
as picturesque a country as the middle heights of the Himalayas,
dotted on the ridges and spur-slopes by numerous small conical-
hut villages; but all so poor that we could not, had we wanted
it, have purchased provisions for a day's consumption.
Leaving this valley, we rose to the table of Manyovi, overhung
with much higher hills, looking, according to the accounts of our
Hottentots, as they eyed the fine herds of cattle grazing on the
slopes, so like the range in Kafraria, that they formed their
expectations accordingly, and appeared, for the first time since
leaving the coast, happy at the prospect before them, little
dreaming that such rich places were seldom to be met with. The
Wanyamuezi porters even thought they had found a paradise, and
forthwith threw down their loads as the villagers came to offer
them grain for sale; so that, had I not had the Wanguana a little
under control, we should not have completed our distance that
day, and so reached Manyonge, which reminded me, by its ugliness,
of the sterile Somali land. Proceeding through the semi-desert
rolling table-land - in one place occupied by men who build their
villages in large open squares of flat-topped mud huts, which,
when I have occasion to refer to them in future, I shall call by
their native name tembe - we could see on the right hand the
massive mountains overhanging the Mukondokua river, to the front
the western chain of these hills, and to the left the high crab-
claw shaped ridge, which, extending from the western chain,
circles round conspicuously above the swelling knolls which lie
between the two main rocky ridges. Contorted green thorn-trees,
"elephant-foot" stumps, and aloes, seem to thrive best here, by
their very nature indicating what the country is, a poor stony
land. Our camp was pitched by the river Rumuma, where, sheltered
from the winds, and enriched by alluvial soil, there ought to
have been no scarcity; but still the villagers had nothing to
sell.
On we went again to Marenga Mkhaili, the "Salt Water," to
breakfast, and camped in the crooked green thorns by night,
carrying water on for our supper. This kind of travelling -
forced marches - hard as it may appear, was what we liked best,
for we felt that we were shortening the journey, and in doing so,
shortening the risks of failure by disease, by war, by famine,
and by mutiny. We had here no grasping chiefs to detain us for
presents, nor had our men time to become irritable and truculent,
concoct devices for stopping the way, or fight amongst
themselves.
On again, and at last we arrived at the foot of the western
chain; but not all together. Some porters, overcome by heat and
thirst, lay scattered along the road, while the corporal of the
Hottentots allowed his mule to stray from him, never dreaming the
animal would travel far from his comrades, and, in following
after him, was led such a long way into the bush, that my men
became alarmed for his safety, knowing as they did that the
"savages" were out living like monkeys on the calabash fruit, and
looking out for any windfalls, such as stragglers worth
plundering, that might come in their way.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 22 of 207
Words from 21337 to 22338
of 210958
