Here Every One Was In A Great State Of Excitement:
Grant had been
making the men fire volleys.
The little sheikh was warmly
congratulatory as he spoke of the numbers who had strayed away
and had been lost in that wilderness; whilst Bombay admitted he
thought we should turn up again if I did not listen to the advice
of the boys, which was his only fear. Nothing as yet, I now
found, had been done to further our march. The hongo, the sheikh
said, had to precede everything; yet that had not been settled,
because the chief deferred it the day of our arrival, on the plea
that it was the anniversary of Short-legs's death; and he also
said that till then all the Wagogo had been in mourning by
ceasing to wear all their brass bracelets and other ornaments,
and they now wished to solemnise the occasion by feasting and
renewing their finery. This being granted, the next day another
pretext for delay was found, by the Wahumba having made a raid on
their cattle, which necessitated the chief and all his men
turning out to drive them away; and to-day nothing could be
attended to, as a party of fugitive Wanyamuezi had arrived and
put them all in a fright. These Wanyamuezi, it then transpired,
were soldiers of Manua Sera, the "Tippler," who was at war with
the Arabs. He had been defeated at Mguru, a district in
Unyamuezi, by the Arabs, and had sent these men to cut off the
caravan route, as the best way of retaliation that lay in his
power.
At last the tax having been settled by the payment of one dubani,
two barsati, one sahari, six yards merikani, and three yards
kiniki (not, however, until I had our tents struck, and
threatened to march away if the chief would not take it), I
proposed going on with the journey, for our provisions were
stored. but when the loads were being lifted, I found ten more
men were missing; and as nothing now could be done but throw ten
loads away, which seemed to great a sacrifice to be made in a
hurry, I simply changed ground to show we were ready to march,
and sent my men about, either to try to induce the fugitive
Wanyamuezi to take service with me or else to buy donkeys, as the
chief said he had some to sell.
We had already been here too long. A report was now spread that
a lion had killed one of the chief's cows; and the Wagogo,
suspecting that our being here was the cause of this ill luck,
threatened to attack us. This no sooner got noised over the camp
than all my Wanyamuezi porters, who had friends in Ugogo, left to
live with them, and would not come back again even when the
"storm had blown over," because they did not like the incessant
rains that half deluged the camp. The chief, too, said he would
not sell us his donkeys, lest we should give them back to
Mohinna, from whom they were taken during his fight here.
Intrigues of all sorts I could see were brewing, possibly at the
instigation of the fugitive Wanyamuezi, who suspected we were
bound to side with the Arabs - possibly from some other cause, I
could not tell what; so, to clear out of this pandemonium as soon
as possible I issued cloths to buy double rations, intending to
cross the wilderness by successive relays in double the ordinary
number of days. I determined at the same time to send forward
two freed men to Kaze to ask Musa and the Arabs to send me out
some provisions and men to meet us half-way.
Matters grew worse and worse. The sultan, now finding me unable
to move, sent a message to say if I would not give him some
better cloths to make his hongo more respectable, he would attack
my camp; and advised all the Wanyamuezi who regarded their lives
not to go near me if I resisted. This was by no means pleasant;
for the porters showed their uneasiness by extracting their own
cloths from my bundles, under the pretext that they wished to
make some purchases of their own. I ought, perhaps, to have
stopped this; but I thought the best plan was to show total
indifference; so, at the same time that they were allowed to take
their cloths, I refused to comply with the chief's request, and
begged them to have no fear so long as they saw I could hold my
own ground with my guns.
The Wanyamuezi, however, were panic-stricken, and half of them
bolted, with the kirangozi at their head, carrying off all the
double-ration cloths as well as their own. At this time, the
sultan, having changed tactics, as he saw us all ready to stand
on the defensive, sent back his hongo; but, instead of using
threats, said he would oblige us with donkeys or anything else if
we would only give him a few more pretty cloths. With this
cringing, perfidious appeal I refused to comply, until the
sheikh, still more cringing, implored me to give way else not a
single man would remain with me. I then told him to settle with
the chief himself, and give me the account, which amounted to
three barsati, two sahari, and three yards merikani; but the
donkeys were never alluded to.
With half my men gone, I still ordered the march, though strongly
opposed to the advice of one of old Mamba's men, who was then
passing by on his way to the coast, in command of his master's
rear detachment. He thought it impossible for us to pull through
the wilderness, with its jungle grasses and roots, depending for
food only on Grant's gun and my own; still we made half-way to
the Mdaburu nullah, taking some of Mamba's out to camp with us,
as he promised to take letters and specimens down to the coast
for us, provided I paid him some cloths as ready money down, and
promised some more to be paid at Zanzibar.
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