A pool of good water a few hundred yards from
the roadside is the only supply caravans can obtain, nearer than
Tura in Unyamwezi. The tsetse or chufwa-fly, as called by the
Wasawahili, stung us dreadfully, which is a sign that large game
visit the pool sometimes, but must not be mistaken for an indication
that there is any in the immediate neighbourhood of the water.
A single pool so often frequented by passing caravans, which must
of necessity halt here, could not be often visited by the animals
of the forest, who are shy in this part of Africa of the haunts
of man.
At dawn the neat day we were on the road striding at a quicker
pace than on most days, since we were about to quit Magunda Mali
for the more populated and better land of Unyamwezi. The forest
held its own for a wearisomely long time, but at the end of two
hours it thinned, then dwarfed into low jungle, and finally
vanished altogether, and we had arrived on the soil of Unyamwezi,
with a broad plain, swelling, subsiding, and receding in lengthy
and grand undulations in our front to one indefinite horizontal
line which purpled in the far distance. The view consisted of
fields of grain ripening, which followed the contour of the plain,
and which rustled merrily before the morning breeze that came
laden with the chills of Usagara.
At 8 A.M. we had arrived at the frontier village of Unyamwezi,
Eastern Tura, which we invaded without any regard to the
disposition of the few inhabitants who lived there. Here we
found Nondo, a runaway of Speke's, one of those who had sided
with Baraka against Bombay, who, desiring to engage himself with
me, was engaging enough to furnish honey and sherbet to his
former companions, and lastly to the pagazis. It was only a short
breathing pause we made here, having another hour's march to reach
Central Tura.
The road from Eastern Tura led through vast fields of millet,
Indian corn, holcus sorghum, maweri, or panicum, or bajri, as
called by the Arabs; gardens of sweet potatoes, large tracts of
cucumbers, water-melons, mush-melons, and pea-nuts which grew in
the deep furrows between the ridges of the holcus.
Some broad-leafed plantain plants were also seen in the
neighbourhood of the villages, which as we advanced became very
numerous. The villages of the Wakimbu are like those of the
Wagogo, square, flat-roofed, enclosing an open area, which is
sometimes divided into three or four parts by fences or matama
stalks.
At central Tura, where we encamped, we had evidence enough of
the rascality of the Wakimbu of Tura. Hamed, who, despite his
efforts to reach Unyanyembe in time to sell his cloths before other
Arabs came with cloth supplies, was unable to compel his pagazis
to the double march every day, was also encamped at Central Tura,
together with the Arab servants who preferred Hamed's imbecile
haste to Thani's cautious advance.
