In A Great Hurry He Then Bade Me Good-Bye; When, As
He Thought It Would Be Final, I Gave Him, In Consideration Of His
Former Good Services To The Last Expedition, One Of The Gold
Watches Given Me By The Indian Government.
I saw him no more,
though he and all the other Arabs sent me presents of cows,
goats, and
Rice, with a notice that they should have gone on
their war-oath before, only, hearing of my arrival, out of due
respect to my greatness they waited to welcome me in. Further,
after doing for Manua Sera, they were determined to go on to
Ugogo to assist Salem bin Saif and the other merchants on, during
which, at the same time, they would fight all the Wagogo who
persisted in taking taxes and in harassing caravans. At the
advice of Musa, I sent Maula's son off at night to tell the old
chief how sorry I was to find the Arabs so hot-headed I could not
even effect an arrangement with them. It was a great pity; for
Manua Sera was so much liked by the Wanyamuezi, they would, had
they been able, have done anything to restore him.
Next day the non-belligerent Arabs left in charge of the station,
headed by my old friends Abdulla and Mohinna, came to pay their
respects again, recognising in me, as they said, a
"personification of their sultan," and therefore considering what
they were doing only due to my rank. They regretted with myself
that Snay was so hot-headed; for they themselves thought a treaty
of peace would have been the best thing for them, for they were
more than half-ruined already, and saw no hope for the future.
Then, turning to geography, I told Abdulla all I had written and
lectured in England concerning his stories about navigators on
the N'yanza, which I explained must be the Nile, and wished to
know if I should alter it in any way: but he said, "Do not; you
may depend it will all turn out right;" to which Musa added, all
the people in the north told him that when the N'yanza rose, the
stream rushed with such violence it tore up islands and floated
them away.
I was puzzled at this announcement, not then knowing that both
the lake and the Nile, as well as all ponds, were called N'yanza:
but we shall see afterwards that he was right; and it was in
consequence of this confusion in the treatment of distinctly
different geographical features under one common name by these
people, that in my former journey I could not determine where the
lake had ended and the Nile began. Abdulla again - he had done so
on the former journey - spoke to me of a wonderful mountain to the
northward of Karague, so high and steep no one could ascend it.
It was, he said, seldom visible, being up in the clouds, where
white matter, snow or hail, often fell.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 65 of 403
Words from 33487 to 33990
of 210958