- Started early with great caution, maintaining deep
silence. The guides were sent forward, one two hundred yards ahead
of the other, that we might be warned in time. The first part of
the march was through a thin jungle of dwarf trees, which got thinner
and thinner until finally it vanished altogether, and we had
entered Uhha - a plain country. Villages were visible by the score
among the tall bleached stalks of dourra and maize. Sometimes three,
sometimes five, ten, or twenty beehive-shaped huts formed a village.
The Wahha were evidently living in perfect security, for not one
village amongst them all was surrounded with the customary
defence of an African village. A narrow dry ditch formed the only
boundary between Uhha and Uvinza. On entering Uhha, all danger
from Makumbi vanished.
We halted at Kawanga, the chief of which lost no time in making us
understand that he was the great Mutware of Kimenyi under the king,
and that he was the tribute gatherer for his Kiha majesty. He
declared that he was the only one in Kimenyi - an eastern division
of Uhha - who could demand tribute; and that it would be very
satisfactory to him, and a saving of trouble to ourselves, if we
settled his claim of twelve doti of good cloths at once. We did
not think it the best way of proceeding, knowing as we did the
character of the native African; so we at once proceeded to
diminish this demand; but, after six hours' hot argument, the
Mutware only reduced it by two. This claim was then settled,
upon the understanding that we should be allowed to travel through
Uhha as far as the Rusugi River without being further mulcted.
November 5th. - Leaving Kawanga early in the morning and
continuing our march over the boundless plains, which were bleached
white by the hot equatorial sun, we were marching westward full of
pleasant anticipations that we were nearing the end of our
troubles, joyfully congratulating ourselves that within five days
we should see that which I had come so far from civilisation, and
through so many difficulties, to see, and were about passing a
cluster of villages, with all the confidence which men possess
against whom no one had further claim or a word to say, when I
noticed two men darting from a group of natives who were watching
us, and running towards the head of the Expedition, with the object,
evidently, of preventing further progress.
The caravan stopped, and I walked forward to ascertain the cause
from the two natives. I was greeted politely by the two Wahha
with the usual "Yambos," and was then asked, "Why does the white
man pass by the village of the King of Uhha without salutation
and a gift? Does not the white man know there lives a king in Uhha,
to whom the Wangwana and Arabs pay something for right of passage?"
"Why, we paid last night to the chief of Kawanga, who informed us
that he was the man deputed by the King of Uhha to collect the
toll."
"How much did you pay?"
"Ten doti of good cloth."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite sure.
