To Supply Its Place, We Took Six Small Boats,
Turning My Men Into Sailors, And Going As We Liked.
The river
still continued beautiful; but after paddling three hours we
found it bend considerably, and narrow to two hundred yards, the
average depth being from two to three fathoms.
At the fourth
hour, imagining our cattle to be far behind, we pulled in, and
walked up a well-cultivated hill to Yaragonjo's, the governor of
these parts. The guide, however, on first sighting his thorn-
fenced cluster of huts, regarding it apparently with the awe and
deference due to a palace, shrank from advancing, and merely
pointed, till he was forced on, and in the next minute we found
ourselves confronted with the heads of the establishment. The
father of the house, surprised at our unexpected manner of
entrance - imagining, probably, we were the king's sorcerers, in
consequence of our hats, sent to fight "the brothers" - without
saying a word, quietly beckoned us to follow him out of the gate
by the same way as we came. Preferring, however, to have a
little talk where we were, we remained.
The eldest son, a fine young man considerably above six feet
high, with large gashes on his body received in war during late
skirmishes with the refractory brothers, now came in, did the
honours, and, on hearing of the importance of his visitors,
directed us to some huts a little distance off, where we could
rest for the night, for there was no accommodation for such a
large party in the palace. The red hill we were now on, with
plantain-gardens, fine huts neatly kept, and dense grasses
covering the country, reminded us of our residence in Uganda.
The people seemed of a decidedly sporting order, for they kept
hippopotamus-harpoons, attached to strong ropes with trimmers of
pith wood, in their huts; and, outside, trophies of their toil in
the shape of a pile of heads, consisting of those of buffalo and
hippopotami. The women, anything but pretty, wore their mbugu
cut into two flounces, fastened with a drawing-string round the
waist; and, in place of stockings, they bound strings of small
iron beads, kept bright and shining, carefully up the leg from
the ankle to the bottom of the calf.
Kidgwiga with our cattle arrived in the morning. A bundle of
cartridges, stolen from one of the men's pouches, which we knew
could only have been done by some comrade, was discovered by
stopping the rations of flesh. The guilty person, to save
detection, threw it on the road, and allowed some of the natives
to pick it up. Strange as it may appear, the only motive for
this petty theft was the hope of being able to sell the
cartridges for a trifle at Gani. Yaragonjo brought us a present
of a goat and plantains. He was sorry he sent us back yesterday
from his house; and invited us to change ground to another
village close by, where he would make arrangements for our
receiving other boats, as the ones we had in possession must go
back.
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