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 In His Village,
Mionvu Had Cast Himself At Full Length Under The Scanty Shade
Afforded By A Few Trees Within The Boma.
About 2 P.M. the
messengers returned, saying it was true the chief of Kawanga had
taken ten cloths; not, however for the King of Uhha, but for
himself!
Mionvu, who evidently was keen-witted, and knew perfectly what he
was about, now roused himself, and began to make miniature faggots
of thin canes, ten in each faggot, and shortly he presented ten
of these small bundles, which together contained one hundred, to me,
saying each stick represented a cloth, and the amount of the "honga"
required by the King of Uhha was ONE HUNDRED CLOTHS! - nearly two bales!
Recovering from our astonishment, which was almost indescribable,
we offered TEN.
"Ten! to the King of Uhha! Impossible. You do not stir from
Lukomo until you pay us one hundred!" exclaimed Mionvu, in a
significant manner.
I returned no answer, but went to my hut, which Mionvu had cleared
for my use, and Bombay, Asmani, Mabruki, and Chowpereh were invited -
to come to me for consultation. Upon my asking them if we could not
fight our way through Uhha, they became terror-stricken, and Bombay,
in imploring accents, asked me to think well what I was about to do,
because it was useless to enter on a war with the Wahha. "Uhha is
all a plain country; we cannot hide anywhere. Every village will
rise all about us, and how can forty-five men fight thousands of
people?
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