How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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Having Arrived
Between The Cattle And The Herdsmen, They Suddenly Rise Up And
Begin To Switch The Cattle Heartily, And, Having Started Them Off
Into The Jungle In The Care Of Men Already Detailed For The Work,
They Turn About, And Plant Their Shields Before Them, To Fight
The Aroused Shepherds.
On the 30th we arrived at Khonze, which is remarkable for the
mighty globes of foliage which the giant sycamores and baobabs put
forth above the plain.
The chief of Khonze boasts of four tembes,
out of which he could muster in the aggregate fifty armed men;
yet this fellow, instigated by the Wanyamwezi residents, prepared
to resist our advance, because I only sent him three doti - twelve
yards of cloth - as honga.
We were halted, waiting the return of a few friendly Wagogo
travellers who had joined us, and who were asked to assist Bombay
in the negotiation of the tribute, when the Wagogo returned to us
at breathless speed, and shouted out to me, "Why do you halt here?
Do you wish to die? These pagans will not take the tribute, but
they boast that they will eat up all your cloth."
The renegade Wanyamwezi who had married into Wagogo families were
always our bane in this country. As the chief of Khonze came up
I ordered the men to load their guns, and I loaded my own
ostentatiously in his presence, and then strode up to him, and
asked if he had come to take the cloth by force, or if he were
going to accept quietly what I would give him. As the Mnyamwezi
who caused this show of hostilities was beginning to speak, I
caught him by the throat, and threatened to make his nose flatter
if he attempted to speak again in my presence, and to shoot him
first, if we should be forced to fight. The rascal was then pushed
away into the rear. The chief, who was highly amused with this
proceeding, laughed loudly at the discomfiture of the parasite,
and in a short time he and I had settled the tribute to our mutual
satisfaction, and we parted great friends. The Expedition arrived
at Sanza that night.
On the 31st we came to Kanyenyi, to the great Mtemi - Magomba's -
whose son and heir is Mtundu M'gondeh. As we passed by the tembe
of the great Sultan, the msagira, or chief counsellor, a pleasant
grey-haired man, was at work making a thorn fence around a patch
of young corn. He greeted the caravan with a sonorous "Yambo,"
and, putting himself at its head, he led the way to our camp.
When introduced to me he was very cordial in his manner.
He was offered a kiti-stool and began to talk very affably.
He remembered my predecessors, Burton, Speke, and Grant, very well;
declared me to be much younger than any of them; and, recollecting
that one of the white men used to drink asses' milk (Burton?),
offered to procure me some.
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