The Dum Palm Is Left
Behind; The Large Rich Green-Leaved Trees Of The Low Plateau Give
Place To The
Mimosa; and now, having ascended the greater decline
of the Kingani river, instead of being confined by a bank, we
Found ourselves on flat open-park land, where antelopes roam at
large, buffalo and zebra are sometimes met with, and guinea-fowl
are numerous. The water for the camp is found in the river, but
supplies of grain come from the village of Kipora farther on.
A march through the park took us to a camp by a pond, from which,
by crossing the Kingani, rice and provisions for the men were
obtained on the opposite bank. One can seldom afford to follow
wild animals on the line of march, otherwise we might have bagged
some antelopes to-day, which, scared by the interminable singing,
shouting, bell-jingling, horn-blowing, and other such merry
noises of the moving caravan, could be seen disappearing in the
distance.
Leaving the park, we now entered the riches part of Uzaramo,
affording crops as fine as any part of India. Here it was, in
the district of Dege la Mhora, that the first expedition to this
country, guided by a Frenchman, M. Maizan, came to a fatal
termination, that gentleman having been barbarously murdered by
the sub-chief Hembe. The cause of the affair was distinctly
explained to me by Hembe himself, who, with his cousin Darunga,
came to call upon me, presuming, as he was not maltreated by the
last expedition, that the matter would now be forgotten. The two
men were very great friends of the little Sheikh, and as a
present was expected, which I should have to pay, we all talked
cheerfully and confidentially, bringing in the fate of Maizan for
no other reason than to satisfy curiosity. Hembe, who lives in
the centre of an almost impenetrable thicket, confessed that he
was the murderer, but said the fault did not rest with him, as he
merely carried out the instructions of his father, Mzungera, who,
a Diwan on the coast, sent him a letter directing his actions.
Thus it is proved that the plot against Maizan was concocted on
the coast by the Arab merchants - most likely from the same motive
which has induced one rival merchant to kill another as the best
means of checking rivalry or competition. When Arabs - and they
are the only class of people who would do such a deed - found a
European going into the very middle of their secret trading-
places, where such large profits were to be obtained, they would
never suppose that the scientific Maizan went for any other
purpose than to pry into their ivory stores, bring others into
the field after him, and destroy their monopoly. The Sultan of
Zanzibar, in those days, was our old ally Said Said, commonly
called the Emam of Muscat; and our Consul, Colonel Hamerton, had
been M. Maizan's host as long as he lived upon the coast.
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