After Sending A Party Of Beluch To Track Down The Deserters And
Goats, In Which They Were Not Successful, We Passed Through The
Village Of Sagesera, And Camped One Mile Beyond, Close To The
River.
Phanze Kirongo (which means Mr Pit) here paid us his
respects, with a presentation of rice.
In return he received
four yards merikani and one dubuani, which Bombay settled, as the
little Sheikh, ever done by the sultans, pleaded indisposition,
to avoid the double fire he was always subjected to on these
occasions, by the sultans grasping on the one side, and my
resisting on the other; for I relied on my strength, and thought
it very inadvisable to be generous with my cloth to the prejudice
of future travellers, by decreasing the value of merchandise, and
increasing proportionately the expectations of these negro
chiefs. From the top of the bank bordering on the valley, a good
view was obtainable of the Uraguru hills, and the top of a very
distant cone to its northward; but I could see no signs of any
river joining the kingani on its left, though on the former
expedition I heard that the Mukondokua river, which was met with
in Usagara, joined the Kingani close to Sagesera, and actually
formed its largest head branch. Neither could Mr Pit inform me
what became of the Mukondokua, as the Wazaramo are not given to
travelling. He had heard of it from the traders, but only knew
himself of one river beside the Kingani. It was called Wami in
Uegura, and mouths at Utondue, between the ports of Whindi and
Saadani. To try and check the desertions of Sultan Majid's men,
I advised - ordering was of no use - that their camp should be
broken up, and they should be amalgamated with the Wanguana; but
it was found that the two would not mix. In fact, the whole
native camp consisted of so many clubs of two, four, six, or ten
men, who originally belonged to one village or one master, or
were united by some other family tie which they preferred keeping
intact; so they cooked together, ate together, slept together,
and sometimes mutinied together. The amalgamation having failed,
I wrote some emanicipation tickets, called the Sultan's men all
up together, selected the best, gave them these tickets,
announced that their pay and all rewards would be placed for the
future on the same conditions as those of the Wanguana, and as
soon as I saw any signs of improvement in the rest, they would
all be treated in the same manner; but should they desert, they
would find my arm long enough to arrest them on the coast and put
them into prison.
During this march we crossed three deep nullahs which drain the
Uzaramo plateau, and arrived at the Makutaniro, or junction of
this line with those of Mboamaji and Konduchi, which traverse
central Uzaramo, and which, on my former return journey, I went
down. The gum-copal diggings here cease.
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