This Settled, I Next, In This Terrible Embarrassment, Determined
On Sending Back The Last Of The Hottentots, As All Four
Of them,
though still wishing to go on with me, distinctly said they had
not the power to continue the
March, for they had never ceased
suffering from fever and jaundice, which had made them all yellow
as guineas, save one, who was too black to change colour. It
felt to me as if I were selling my children, having once
undertaken to lead them through the journey; but if I did not
send them back then, I never could afterwards, and therefore I
allowed the more substantial feelings of humanity to overcome
these compunctions.
Next morning, then, after giving the Tots over in charge of some
men to escort them on to Kaze quietly, I set our myself with a
dozen men, and the following evening I put up with Musa, who told
me Baraka had just left without one man - all his slaves having
become afraid to go, since the news of the Arab alliance had
reached Kaze. Suwarora had ordered his subjects to run up a line
of bomas to protect his frontier, and had proclaimed his
intention to kill every coast-man who dared attempt to enter
Usui. My heart was ready to sink as I turned into bed, and I was
driven to think of abandoning everybody who was not strong enough
to go on with me carrying a load.
3d to 13th. - Baraka, hearing I had arrived, then came back to me,
and confirmed Musa's words. The Arabs, too, came flocking in to
beg, nay implore, me to help them out of their difficulties. Many
of them were absolutely ruined, they said; others had their
houses full of stores unemployed. At Ugogo those who wished to
join them were unable to do so, for their porters, what few were
left, were all dying of starvation; and at that moment Manua Sera
was hovering about, shooting, both night and day, all the poor
villagers in the district, or driving them away. Would to God,
they said, I would mediate for them with Manua Sera - they were
sure I would be successful - and then they would give me as many
armed men as I liked. Their folly in all their actions, I said,
proved to me that anything I might attempt to do would be futile,
for their alliance with the Watuta, when they were not prepared
to act, at once damned them in my eyes as fools. This they in
their terror acknowledged, but said it was not past remedy, if I
would join them, to counteract what had been done in that matter.
Suffice it now to say, after a long conversation, arguing all the
pros and cons over, I settled I would write out all the articles
of a treaty of peace, by which they should be liable to have all
their property forfeited on the coast if they afterwards broke
faith; and I begged them to call the next day and sign it.
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