The Man Tells A Falsehood; He Had The Wire
Before, But Now, Seeing Your Cloth Open, Wants To Exchange It.
"
"If that is the case," I said, taking things easy, "how is it you
have opened my loads and scattered
The wires about in the tent?"
"Oh, that was to take care of them; for I thought, if they were
left outside all night with the rest of the property, some one
would steal them, and I should get the blame of it."
Further parley was useless; for, though both my wires and cloths
were short, still it was better not to kick up a row, when I had
so much to do to keep all my men in good temper for the journey.
Baraka then, wishing to beguile me, as he thought he could do,
into believing him a wonderful man for both pluck and honesty,
said he had had many battles to fight with the men since I had
been gone to Kaze, for there were two strong parties in the camp;
those who, during the late rebellion at Zanzibar, had belonged to
the Arabs that sided with Sultan Majid, and were royalists, and
those who, having belonged to the rebellious Arabs, were on the
opposite side. The battle commenced, he stated, by the one side
abusing the other for their deeds during that rebellion, the
rebels in this sort of contest proving themselves the stronger.
But he, heading the royalist party, soon reduced them to order,
though only for a short while, as from that point they turned
round to open mutiny for more rations; and some of the rebels
tried to kill him, which, he said, they would have done had he
not settled the matter by buying some cows for them. It was on
this account he had been obliged to open my loads. And now he
had told me the case, he hoped I would forgive him if he had done
wrong. Now, the real facts of the case were these - though I did
not find them out at the time: - Baraka had bought some slaves
with my effects, and he had had a fight with some of my men
because they tampered with his temporary wife - a princess he had
picked up in Phunze. To obtain her hand he had given ten
necklaces of MY beads to her mother, and had agreed to the
condition that he should keep the girl during the journey; and
after it was over, and he took her home, he would, if his wife
pleased him, give her mother ten necklaces more.
Next day Baraka told me his heart shrank to the dimensions of a
very small berry when he saw whom I had brought with me
yesterday - meaning Bombay, and the same porters whom he had
prevented going on with me before. I said, "Pooh, nonsense; have
done with such excuses, and let us get away out of this as fast
as we can. Now, like a good man, just use your influence with
the chief of the village, and try and get from him five or six
men to complete the number we want, and then we will work round
the east of Sorombo up to Usui, for Suwarora has invited us to
him." This, however, was not so easy; for Lumeresi, having heard
of my arrival, sent his Wanyapara, or grey-beards, to beg I would
visit him. He had never seen a white man in all his life,
neither had his father, nor any of his forefathers, although he
had often been down to the coast; I must come and see him, as I
had seen his mtoto Ruhe. He did not want property; it was only
the pleasure of my company that he wanted, to enable him to tell
all his friends what a great man had lived in his house.
This was terrible: I saw at once that all my difficulties in
Sorombo would have to be gone through again if I went there, and
groaned when I thought what a trick the Pig had played me when I
first of all came to this place; for if I had gone on then, as I
wished, I should have slipped past Lumeresi without his knowing
it.
I had to get up a storm at the grey-beards, and said I could not
stand going out of my road to see any one now, for I had already
lost so much time by Makaka's trickery in Sorombo. Bui then,
quaking with fright at my obstinacy, said, "You must - indeed you
must - give in and do with these savage chiefs as the Arabs when
they travel, for I will not be a party to riding rough-shod over
them." Still I stuck out, and the grey-beards departed to tell
their chief of it. Next morning he sent them back to say he
would not be cheated out of his rights as the chief of the
district. Still I would not give in, and the whole day kept
"jawing" without effect, for I could get no man to go with me
until the chief gave his sanction. I then tried to send Bombay
off with Bui, Nasib, and their guide, by night; but though Bombay
was willing, the other two hung back on the old plea. In this
state of perplexity, Bui begged I would allow him to go over to
Lumeresi and see what he could do with a present. Bui really now
was my only stand-by, so I sent him off, and next had the
mortification to find that he had been humbugged by honeyed
words, as Baraka had been with Makaka, into believing that
Lumeresi was a good man, who really had no other desire at heart
than the love of seeing me. His boma, he said, did not lie much
out of my line, and he did not wish a stitch of my cloth. So far
from detaining me, he would give me as many men as I wanted; and,
as an earnest of his good intentions, he sent his copper hatchet,
the badge of office as chief of the district, as a guarantee for
me.
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