During the Masika season, when the animals died from this date
by twos and threes, almost every day, until but five sickly
worn-out beasts remained; when the Wangwana, soldiers, and
pagazis sickened of diseases innumerable; when I myself was
finally compelled to lie a-bed with an attack of acute dysentery
which brought me to the verge of the grave. I suffered more,
perhaps, than I might have done had I taken the proper medicine,
but my over-confidence in that compound, called "Collis Brown's
Chlorodyne," delayed the cure which ultimately resulted from
a judicious use of Dover's powder. In no one single case of
diarrhoea or acute dysentery had this "Chlorodyne," about which
so much has been said, and written, any effect of lessening the
attack whatever, though I used three bottles. To the dysentery
contracted during, the transit of the Makata swamp, only two
fell victims, and those were a pagazi and my poor little dog
"Omar," my companion from India.
The only tree of any prominence in the Makata valley was the
Palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis), and this grew in some
places in numbers sufficient to be called a grove; the fruit was
not ripe while we passed, otherwise we might have enjoyed it as a
novelty. The other vegetation consisted of the several species of
thorn bush, and the graceful parachute-topped and ever-green
mimosa.
The 4th of May we were ascending a gentle slope towards the
important village of Rehenneko, the first village near to which we
encamped in Usagara. It lay at the foot of the mountain, and its
plenitude and mountain air promised us comfort and health. It was
a square, compact village, surrounded by a thick wall of mud,
enclosing cone-topped huts, roofed with bamboo and holcus-stalks;
and contained a population of about a thousand souls. It has
several wealthy and populous neighbours, whose inhabitants are
independent enough in their manner, but not unpleasantly so.
The streams are of the purest water, fresh, and pellucid as crystal,
bubbling over round pebbles and clean gravel, with a music
delightful to hear to the traveller in search of such a sweetly
potable element.
The bamboo grows to serviceable size in the neighbourhood of
Rehenneko, strong enough for tent and banghy poles; and in
numbers sufficient to supply an army. The mountain slopes are
densely wooded with trees that might supply very good timber for
building purposes.
We rested four days at this pleasant spot, to recruit ourselves,
and to allow the sick and feeble time to recover a little before
testing their ability in the ascent of the Usagara mountains.
The 8th of May saw us with our terribly jaded men and animals
winding up the steep slopes of the first line of hills; gaining
the summit of which we obtained a view remarkably grand, which
exhibited as in a master picture the broad valley of the Makata,
with its swift streams like so many cords of silver, as the
sunshine played on the unshadowed reaches of water, with its
thousands of graceful palms adding not a little to the charm of the
scene, with the great wall of the Uruguru and Uswapanga mountains
dimly blue, but sublime in their loftiness and immensity - forming a
fit background to such an extensive, far-embracing prospect.
Turning our faces west, we found ourselves in a mountain world,
fold rising above fold, peak behind peak, cone jostling cone; away
to the north, to the west, to the south, the mountain tops rolled
like so many vitrified waves; not one adust or arid spot was
visible in all this scene. The diorama had no sudden changes or
striking contrasts, for a universal forest of green trees clothed
every peak, cone, and summit.
To the men this first day's march through the mountain region of
Usagara was an agreeable interlude after the successive journey
over the flats and heavy undulations of the maritime region, but
to the loaded and enfeebled animals it was most trying. We were
minus two by the time we had arrived at our camp, but seven miles
from Rehenneko, our first instalment of the debt we owed to Makata.
Water, sweet and clear, was abundant in the deep hollows of the
mountains, flowing sometimes over beds of solid granite, sometimes
over a rich red sandstone, whose soft substance was soon penetrated
by the aqueous element, and whose particles were swept away
constantly to enrich the valley below; and in other ravines it
dashed,, and roared, miniature thunder, as it leaped over granite
boulders and quartz rock.
The 9th of May, after another such an up-and-down course, ascending
hills and descending into the twilight depths of deepening
valleys, we came suddenly upon the Mukondokwa, and its narrow
pent-up valley crowded with rank reedy grass, cane, and thorny
bushes; and rugged tamarisk which grappled for existence with
monster convolvuli, winding their coils around their trunks with
such tenacity and strength that the tamarisk seemed grown
but for their support.
The valley was barely a quarter of a mile broad in some places -
at others it widened to about a mile. The hills on either side
shot up into precipitous slopes, clothed ,with mimosa, acacia,
and tamarisk, enclosing a river and valley whose curves and
folds were as various as a serpent's.
Shortly after debouching into the Mukondokwa valley, we struck the
road traversed by Captains Buxton and Speke in 1857, between Mbumi
and Kadetamare (the latter place should be called Misonghi,
Kadetamare being but the name of a chief). After following the
left bank of the Mukondokwa, during which our route diverged to
every point from south-east to west, north and northeast, for
about an hour, we came to the ford.
