stanley tells about king rumanika.—the karagwé geographical society.—the king's treasure-house.—good-bye to his majesty.—hostility between elephant and rhinoceros.—plundered in usui.—the sources of the alexandra nile.—retrospection.—questions of topography.—insolence of mankorongo.—death of "bull."—troubles with the petty kings.—interview with the famous mirambo.—general appearance of the renowned african.—an imposing ceremony.—blood-brotherhood.—how grant's caravan was plundered.—myonga's threats.—a compromise.—among the watuta.—in sight of lake tanganika.—arrival at ujiji.
during all the forenoon of the following day frank was busy preparing his matter for the work of the afternoon. when the party of youths had assembled mr. stanley came among them and asked at what point in the story of the dark continent they stopped on the previous evening.
"we were in the country of king rumanika, i believe it is called karagwé," said one of the auditors; "and you had just returned from exploring lake windermere."
house of arab merchant near rumanika's village.
"ah, yes," replied mr. stanley, "he was a charming old man, that rumanika, and very fond of strangers. after i had explored the lake[pg 125] he sent for me, and wanted to have a talk on geographical subjects. of course i went to meet him."
"did he know anything about geography outside of his own country?" was the very natural inquiry of fred.
"not much," was the reply; "and what he did know was very hazy. but he pretended to know a great deal about africa, and gave me some startling information, which i gravely put down in my note-book. the sight of that note-book always seemed to inspire him to tell the wildest stories about his country, and i presume he thought i would spread them before my countrymen as the most solemn truths.
"for example," continued mr. stanley, "he said at one of our meetings:
"'mkinyaga is at the end of ruanda, and its lake is muta nzege, on which you can go to unyoro. there is a race of dwarfs, somewhere west of mkinyaga, called the mpundu, and another called the batwa, or watwa, who are only two feet high. in uriambwa is a race of small people with tails.
"'uitwa, or batwa—watwa—is at the extreme south end of uzongora.
"'from butwa, at the end of a point of land in ruanda, you can see uitwa usongora.
"'from butwa, mkinyaga is to the left of you about three days' journey.
on the way to the meeting.
"'some of the waziwa saw a strange people in one of those far-off lands who had long ears descending to their feet; one ear formed a mat to sleep on, the other served to cover him from the cold, like a dressed hide! they tried to coax one[pg 126] of them to come and see me, but the journey was long, and he died on the way.'
"another time he said:
"'stamlee, how is it, will you tell me, that all white men have long noses, and all their dogs have very short noses, while almost all black men have short noses but their dogs have very long noses?'
"he had observed the broad, short nose of my british bull-dog, and hastily arrived at the conclusion that all white men's dogs were pug-nosed.
ground-plan of king's house.
"rumanika propounded a great many other questions, which i answered to the best of my ability, and generally to his satisfaction. i was somewhat puzzled about his question regarding the noses, but finally explained that originally the white men and their dogs had noses of the same length. the men had lengthened theirs by constantly smelling the good things they had to eat, while the dogs had shortened their noses by using them to push open the doors of the houses.
"another day," continued mr. stanley, quoting from his work:
"rumanika requested hamed ibrahim to exhibit the treasures, trophies, and curiosities in the king's museum or armory, which hamed was most anxious to do, as he had frequently extolled the rare things there.
"the armory was a circular hut, resembling externally a dome, thatched neatly with straw. it was about thirty feet in diameter.
"the weapons and articles of brass, and copper, and iron, were in perfect order, and showed that rumanika did not neglect his treasures.
treasure-house, arms, and treasures of rumanika.
"there were about sixteen rude brass figures of ducks with copper wings, ten curious things of the same metal, which were meant to represent elands, and ten headless cows of copper. bill-hooks of iron, of really admirable make, double-bladed spears, several gigantic blades of exceedingly keen edge, eight inches across and eighteen inches in length; exquisite spears, some with blades and staves of linked iron; others with chain-shaped staves, and several with a cluster of small rigid rings massed at the bottom of the blade and the end of the staff; others, copper-bladed, had curious inter-twisted iron rods for the staff. there were also great fly-flaps set in iron, the handles of which were admirable specimens of native art; massive cleaver-looking knives, with polished blades, and a kedge-anchor-shaped article with four hooked iron prongs, projecting out of a brass body. some exquisite native cloths, manufactured of delicate grass, were indeed so fine as to vie with cotton sheeting, and were colored black and red, in patterns and stripes. the royal stool was a masterpiece of native[pg 127]
[pg 128] turnery, being carved out of a solid log of cottonwood. besides these specimens of native art were drinking-cups, goblets, trenchers, and milk-dishes of wood, all beautifully clean. the fireplace was a circular hearth in the centre of the building, very tastefully constructed. ranged round the wall along the floor were other gifts from arab friends, massive copper trays, with a few tureen-lids of britannia-ware, evidently from birmingham. nor must the revolving rifle given to him by captain speke be forgotten, for it had an honored place, and rumanika loves to look at it, for it recalls to his memory the figures of his genial white friends, speke and grant.
"the enormous drums, fifty-two in number, ranged outside, enabled us, from their very appearance, to guess at the deafening sounds which celebrate the new moon or deliver the signals for war.
"my parting with the genial old man was very affecting. he shook my hands many times, saying each time that he was sorry that my visit must be so short. he strictly charged his sons to pay me every attention until i should arrive at kibogora's, the king of western usui, who, he was satisfied, would be glad to see me as a friend of rumanika.
"on the 26th of march the expedition, after its month's rest at kafurro, the whole of which period i had spent in exploration of western karagwé, resumed its journey, and after a march of five miles camped at nakawanga, near the southern base of kibonga mountain.
"on the 27th i had the good-fortune to shoot three rhinoceroses, from the bodies of which we obtained ample supplies of meat for our journey through the wilderness of uhimba. one of these enormous brutes possessed a horn two feet long, with a sharp, dagger-like point below a stunted horn, nine inches in length. he appeared to have had a tussle with some wild beast, for a hand's-breadth of hide was torn from his rump.
"the wangwana and wanyambu informed me, with the utmost gravity, that the elephant maltreats the rhinoceros frequently, because of a jealousy that the former entertains of his fiery cousin.
"should a rhinoceros meet an elephant he must observe the rule of the road, and walk away, for the latter brooks no rivalry; but the former is sometimes head-strong, and the elephant then despatches him with his tusks by forcing him against a tree and goring him, or by upsetting him, and leisurely crushing him.
"during the next two days we travelled twenty-seven miles south through a depression, or a longitudinal valley, parallel to uhimba lake and the course of the alexandra, with only an intervening ridge excluding the latter from our view. tall, truncated hill-cones rise every now and then, with a singular resemblance to each other, to the same altitude as the grassy ridges which flank them. their summits are flat, but the iron-stone faithfully indicates by its erosions the element which separated them from the ridges, and first furrowed the valley.
"and now," said mr. stanley, "having told you about king rumanika, and how i left him, i will lapse into silence and let you hear from frank."
with this hint, frank opened the volume before him and read:
the expedition traversing the valley.
"uhimba, placed by rumanika in the charge of his sons, kakoko, kananga,[pg 129]
[pg 130] and ruhinda, is sixty-eight miles south of his capital, and consists of a few settlements of herdsmen. i was courteously received by kakoko, and remained there two days. the next day we entered western usui, and camped at kafurra's. in usui there was a famine, and it required thirty-two doti of cloth to purchase four days' rations. kibogora, king of usui, demanded and obtained thirty doti, one coil of wire, and forty necklaces of beads as tribute; kafurra, his principal chief, demanded ten doti and a quantity of beads; another chief required five doti; the queen required a supply of cloth to wear; the princes put in a claim; the guides were loud for their reward. thus in four days we were compelled to disburse two bales out of twenty-two—all that were left of the immense store we had departed with from zanzibar. under such circumstances what prospect of exploration had we? were we to continue our journey through uhha, that land which, in 1871, had consumed at the rate of two bales of cloth per diem? twenty days of such experience in uhha would reduce us to beggary. its 'esurient' mutwarés and rapacious mkamas and other extortionate people can only be quieted with cloth and beads disbursed with a princely hand. one hundred bales of cloth would only suffice to sustain a hundred men in uhha about six weeks. beyond uhha lay the impenetrable countries of urundi and ruanda, the inhabitants of which were hostile to strangers.
pottery in usui.
"kibogora and kafurra were sufficiently explicit and amiably communicative, for my arrival in their country had been under the very best auspices, viz., an introduction from the gentle and beloved rumanika.
"i turned away with a sigh from the interesting land, but with a resolution gradually being intensified, that the third time i sought a road west, nothing should deter me.
"on the 7th of april we reluctantly resumed our journey in a southerly direction, and travelled five miles along a ravine, at the bottom of which murmured the infant stream lohugati. on coming to its source, we ascended a steep slope until we stood upon the summit of a grassy ridge at the height of five thousand six hundred feet by aneroid.
"not until we had descended about a mile to the valley of uyagoma, did i recognize the importance of this ridge as the water-parting between one of the feeders of lake victoria and the source of the malagarazi, the principal affluent of lake tanganika.
[pg 131]
"though by striking across uhha due west, or to the southwest, we should again have reached the alexandra nile and the affluents of the alexandra lake, our future course was destined never to cross another stream or rivulet that supplied the great river which flows through the land of egypt into the mediterranean sea.
"from the 17th of january, 1875, up to the 7th of april, 1876, we had been engaged in tracing the extreme southern sources of the nile, from the marshy plains and cultivated uplands where they are born, down to the mighty reservoir called the victoria nyanza. we had circumnavigated the entire expanse; penetrated to every bay, inlet, and creek; become acquainted with almost every variety of wild human nature—the mild and placable, the ferocious and impracticably savage, the hospitable and the inhospitable, the generous-souled as well as the ungenerous; we had viewed their methods of war, and had witnessed them imbruing their hands in each other's blood with savage triumph and glee; we had been five times sufferers by their lust for war and murder, and had lost many men through their lawlessness and ferocity; we had travelled hundreds of miles to and fro on foot along the northern coast of the victorian sea, and, finally, had explored with a large force the strange countries lying between the two lakes muta nzege and the victoria, and had been permitted to gaze upon the arm of the lake named by me 'beatrice gulf,' and to drink of its sweet waters. we had then returned from further quest in that direction, unable to find a peaceful resting-place on the lake shores, and had struck south from the katonga lagoon down to the alexandra nile, the principal affluent of the victoria lake, which drains nearly all the waters from the west and southwest. we had made a patient survey of over one half of its course, and then, owing to want of the means to feed the rapacity of the churlish tribes which dwell in the vicinity of the alexandra nyanza, and to our reluctance to force our way against the will of the natives, opposing unnecessarily our rifles to their spears and arrows, we had been compelled, on the 7th of april, to bid adieu to the lands which supply the nile, and to turn our faces towards the tanganika.
"i have endeavored to give a faithful portrayal of nature, animate and inanimate, in all its strange, peculiar phases, as they were unfolded to us. i am conscious that i have not penetrated to the depths; but then, i have not ventured beyond the limits assigned me, viz., the exploration of the southern sources of the nile, and the solution of the problem left unsolved by speke and grant—is the victoria nyanza one lake, or does it consist of five lakes, as reported by livingstone, burton, and others? this problem has been satisfactorily solved, and speke has now the full glory of having discovered the largest inland sea on the continent of africa, also its principal affluent, as well as the outlet. i must also give him credit for having understood the geography of the countries he travelled through better than any of those who so persistently assailed his hypothesis, and i here record my admiration of the geographical genius that, from mere native report, first sketched with such a masterly hand the bold outlines of the victoria nyanza. speke's hypothetic sketch made this lake twenty-nine thousand square miles in extent. my survey of it has reduced it to twenty-one thousand five hundred square miles.
"along the valley of uyagoma, in western usui, stretches east and west a[pg 132] grass-covered ridge, beautiful in places with rock-strewn dingles, tapestried with ferns and moss, and bright with vivid foliage. from two such fair nooks, half-way down either slope, the northern and the southern, drip in great rich drops the sources of two impetuous rivers—on the southern the malagarazi, on the other the lohugati. though nurtured in the same cradle, and issuing within two thousand yards of one another, the twin streams are strangers throughout their lives. through the thick ferns and foliage the rivulets trickle each down his appointed slope, murmuring as they gather strength to run their destined course—the lohugati to the victoria lake, and the malagarazi to distant tanganika.
a village in western usui.
"while the latter river is in its infancy, collecting its first tribute of waters from the rills that meander down from the mountain folds round the basin of uyagoma, and is so shallow that tiny children can paddle through it, the people of usui call it the meruzi. when we begin our journey from uyagoma, we follow its broadening course for a couple of hours, through the basin, and by that time it has become a river nomine dignum, and, plunging across it, we begin to breast the mountains, which, rising in diagonal lines of ridges from northeast to southwest[pg 133]
[pg 134] across usui, run in broken series into northern uhha, and there lose themselves in a confusion of complicated masses and clumps.
camp of an arab merchant.
"the meruzi wanders round and through these mountain masses in mazy curves, tumbles from height to height, from terrace to terrace, receiving as it goes the alliance of myriads of petty rivulets and threads of clear water, until, arriving at the grand forest lands of unyamwezi, it has assumed the name of lukoke, and serves as a boundary between unyamwezi and uhha.
"meanwhile, we have to cross a series of mountain ridges clothed with woods; and at a road leading from kibogora's land to the territory of the turbulent and vindictive mankorongo, we meet an embassy, which demands, in a most insolent tone, that we should pass by his village. this means, of course, that we must permit ourselves to be defrauded of two or three bales of cloth, half a dozen guns, a sack or two of beads, and such other property as he may choose to exact, for the privilege of lengthening our journey some forty miles, and a delay of two or three weeks.
"the insolent demand is therefore not to be entertained, and we return a decided refusal. they are not satisfied with the answer, and resort to threats. threats in the free, uninhabited forest constitute a casus belli. so the chiefs are compelled to depart without a yard of cloth on the instant, and after their departure we urge our pace until night, and from dawn next morning to 3 p.m. we continue the journey with unabated speed, until we find ourselves in nyambarri, usambiro, rejoiced to find that we have foiled the dangerous king.
"on the 13th of april we halted to refresh the people. usambiro, like all unyamwezi, produces sufficient grain, sesamum, millet, indian corn, and vetches, besides beans and pease, to supply all caravans and expeditions. i have observed that lands producing grain are more easy of access than pastoral countries, or those which only supply milk, bananas, and potatoes to their inhabitants.
"at nyambarri we met two arab caravans fresh from mankorongo, of whom they gave fearful accounts, from which i inferred that the extortionate chief would be by no means pleased when he came to understand how he had been baffled in his idea of spoliating our expedition.
"during the march from nyambarri to gambawagao, the chief village of usambiro, ancient "bull," the last of all the canine companions which left england with me, borne down by weight of years and a land journey of about fifteen hundred miles, succumbed. with bull-dog tenacity he persisted in following the receding figures of the gun-bearers, who were accustomed to precede him in the narrow way. though he often staggered and moaned, he made strenuous efforts to keep up, but at last, lying down in the path, he plaintively bemoaned the weakness of body that had conquered his will, and soon after died—his eyes to the last looking forward along the track he had so bravely tried to follow.
"bull."
(from a photograph by mr stanley.)
"poor dog! good and faithful service had he done me! who more rejoiced than he to hear the rifle-shot ringing through the deep woods! who more loudly applauded success than he with his deep, mellow bark! what long forest-tracts of tawny plains, and series of mountain ranges had he not traversed! how he plunged through jungle and fen, morass and stream! in the sable blackness of the night his voice warned off marauders and prowling beasts from the sleeping camp. his growl responded to the hideous jabber of the greedy hyena, and the[pg 135] snarling leopard did not dismay him. he amazed the wondering savages with his bold eyes and bearing, and by his courageous front caused them to retreat before him; and right bravely did he help us to repel the wanyaturu from our camp in ituru. farewell, thou glory of thy race! rest from thy labors in the silent forest! thy feet shall no more hurry up the hill or cross mead and plain; thy form shall rustle no more through the grasses, or be plunging to explore the brake; thou shalt no longer dash after me across the savannahs, for thou art gone to the grave, like the rest of thy companions!
"the king of usambiro exchanged gifts with us, and appeared to be a clever, agreeable young man. his people, though professing to be wanyamwezi, are a mixture of wahha and wazinja. he has constructed a strong village, and surrounded it with a fosse four feet deep and six feet wide, with a stockade and 'marksmen's nests' at intervals round it. the population of the capital is about two thousand.
"boma kiengo, or msera, lies five miles south-southeast from the capital, and its chief, seeing that we had arrived at such a good understanding with the king, also exerted himself to create a favorable impression.
"musonga lies twelve miles south-southeast of boma kiengo, and is the most northerly village of the country of urangwa. on the 18th of april a march of fifteen miles enabled us to reach the capital, ndeverva, another large stockaded village, also provided with 'marksmen's nests,' and surrounded by a fosse.
"we were making capital marches. the petty kings, though they exacted a small interchange of gifts, which compelled me to disburse cloth a little more frequently than was absolutely necessary, were not insolent, nor so extortionate as[pg 136] to prevent our intercourse being of the most friendly character. but on the day we arrived at urangwa, lo! there came up in haste, while we were sociably chatting together, a messenger to tell us that the phantom, the bugbear, the terror whose name silences the children of unyamwezi and usukuma, and makes women's hearts bound with fear, that mirambo himself was coming—that he was only two camps, or about twenty miles, away—that he had an immense army of ruga-ruga (bandits) with him!
"the consternation at this news, the dismay and excitement, the discussion and rapid interchange of ideas suggested by terror throughout the capital, may be conceived. barricades were prepared, sharp-shooters' platforms, with thick bulwarks of logs, were erected. the women hastened to prepare their charms, the waganda consulted their spirits, each warrior and elder examined his guns and loaded them, ramming the powder down the barrels of their brummagem muskets with desperately vengeful intentions, while the king hastened backward and forward with streaming robes of cotton behind him, animated by an hysterical energy.
"i had one hundred and seventy-five men under my command, and forty of the arabs' people were with me, and we had many boxes of ammunition. the king recollected these facts, and said, 'you will stop to fight mirambo, will you not?'
"'not i, my friend; i have no quarrel with mirambo, and we cannot join every native to fight his neighbor. if mirambo attacks the village while i am here, and will not go away when i ask him, we will fight, but we cannot stop here to wait for him.'
"the poor king was very much distressed when we left the next morning. we despatched our scouts ahead, as we usually did when traversing troublous countries, and omitted no precaution to guard against surprise.
a hut and its frame.
"on the 19th we arrived at one of the largest villages or towns in unyamwezi, called serombo or sorombo. it was two miles and a half in circumference, and[pg 137]
[pg 138] probably contained over a thousand large and small huts, and a population of about five thousand.
view in the interior of an african village.
"the present king's name is ndega, a boy of sixteen, the son of makaka, who died about two years ago. too young himself to govern the large settlement and the country round, two elders, or manyapara, act as regents during his minority.
"we were shown to a peculiar-shaped hut, extremely like an abyssinian dwelling. the height of the doorway was seven feet, and from the floor to the top of the conical roof it was twenty feet. the walls were of interwoven sticks, plastered over neatly with brown clay. the king's house was thirty feet high from the ground to the tip of the cone, and forty feet in diameter within; but the total diameter, including the circular fence or palisade that supported the broad eaves and enclosed a gallery which ran round the house, was fifty-four feet.
serombo huts.
"owing to this peculiar construction a desperate body of one hundred and fifty men might from the circular gallery sustain a protracted attack from a vastly superior foe, and probably repel it.
"ndega is a relative of mirambo by marriage, and he soon quieted all uneasy minds by announcing that the famous man who was now advancing upon serombo had just concluded a peace with the arabs, and that therefore no trouble was to be apprehended from his visit, it being solely a friendly visit to his young relative.
"naturally we were all anxious to behold the 'mars of africa,' who since 1871 has made his name feared by both native and foreigner from usui to urori, and from uvinza to ugogo, a country embracing ninety thousand square miles; who, from the village chieftainship over uyoweh, has made for himself a name as well known as that of mtesa throughout the eastern half of equatorial africa, a household word from nyangwé to zanzibar, and the theme of many a song of the bards of unyamwezi, ukimbu, ukonongo, uzinja, and uvinza.
"on the evening of our arrival at serombo's we heard his brown besses—called by the natives gumeh-gumeh—announcing to all that the man with the dread name lay not far from our vicinity.
"at dusk the huge drums of serombo signalled silence for the town-criers, whose voices, preceded by the sound of iron bells, were presently heard crying out:
[pg 139]
"'listen, o men of serombo. mirambo, the brother of ndega, cometh in the morning. be ye prepared, therefore, for his young men are hungry. send your women to dig potatoes, dig potatoes. mirambo cometh. dig potatoes, potatoes, dig potatoes, to-morrow!'
war-drum and idol.
"at 10 a.m. the brown besses, heavily charged and fired off by hundreds, loudly heralded mirambo's approach, and nearly all my wangwana followed the inhabitants of serombo outside to see the famous chieftain. great war-drums and the shouts of admiring thousands proclaimed that he had entered the town, and soon little mabruki, the chief of the tent-boys, and kachéché, the detective, on whose intelligence i could rely, brought an interesting budget to me.
a "ruga-ruga," one of mirambo's patriots.
"mabruki said: 'we have seen mirambo. he has arrived. we have beheld the ruga-ruga, and there are many of them, and all are armed with gumeh-gumeh. about a hundred are clothed in crimson cloth and white shirts, like our wangwana. mirambo is not an old man.'
"kachéché said: 'mirambo is not old, he is young: i must be older than he is. he is a very nice man, well dressed, quite like an arab. he wears the turban, fez, and cloth coat of an arab, and carries a scimitar. he also wears slippers, and his clothes under his coat are very white. i should say he has about a thousand and a half men with him, and they are all armed with muskets or double-barrelled guns. mirambo has three young men carrying his guns for him. truly, mirambo is a great man!'
"the shrill lu-lu-lu's, prolonged and loud, were still maintained by the women, who entertained a great respect for the greatest king in unyamwezi.
"presently manwa sera, the chief captain of the wangwana, came to my hut, to introduce three young men—ruga-ruga (bandits), as we called them, but must do so no more, lest we give offence—handsomely dressed in fine red and blue cloth coats, and snowy white shirts, with ample turbans around their heads. they were confidential captains of mirambo's body-guard.
"'mirambo sends his salaams to the white man,' said the principal of them. 'he hopes the[pg 140] white man is friendly to him, and that he does not share the prejudices of the arabs, and believe mirambo a bad man. if it is agreeable to the white man, will he send words of peace to mirambo?'
"'tell mirambo,' i replied, 'that i am eager to see him, and would be glad to shake hands with so great a man; and as i have made strong friendship with mtesa, rumanika, and all the kings along the road from usoga to unyamwezi, i shall be rejoiced to make strong friendship with mirambo also. tell him i hope he will come and see me as soon as he can.'
"the next day mirambo, having despatched a ruga-ruga—no, a patriot, i should have said—to announce his coming, appeared with about twenty of his principal men.
hillside house in mirambo's country.
"i shook hands with him with fervor, which drew a smile from him as he said, 'the white man shakes hands like a strong friend.'
"his person quite captivated me, for he was a thorough african gentleman in appearance, very different from my conception of the terrible bandit who had struck his telling blows at native chiefs and arabs with all the rapidity of a frederick the great environed by foes.
"i entered the following notes in my journal on april 22, 1876:
"'this day will be memorable to me for the visit of the famous mirambo. he was the reverse of all my conceptions of the redoubtable chieftain, and the man i had styled the "terrible bandit."
"'he is a man about five feet eleven inches in height, and about thirty-five years old, with not an ounce of superfluous flesh about him. a handsome, regular-featured, mild-voiced, soft-spoken man, with what one might call a "meek" demeanor, very generous and open-handed. the character was so different from that which i had attributed to him that for some time a suspicion clung to my mind that i was being imposed upon, but arabs came forward who testified that this quiet-looking man was indeed mirambo. i had expected to see something of the mtesa type, a man whose exterior would proclaim his life and rank; but this unpresuming, mild-eyed man, of inoffensive, meek exterior, whose action was so[pg 141] calm, without a gesture, presented to the eye nothing of the napoleonic genius which he has for five years displayed in the heart of unyamwezi, to the injury of arabs and commerce, and the doubling of the price of ivory. i said there was nothing; but i must except the eyes, which had the steady, calm gaze of a master.
unyamwezi chief and his wife.
"'during the conversation i had with him, he said he preferred boys or young men to accompany him to war; he never took middle-aged or old men, as they were sure to be troubled with wives or children, and did not fight half so well as young fellows who listened to his words. said he, "they have sharper eyes, and their young limbs enable them to move with the ease of serpents or the rapidity of zebras, and a few words will give them the hearts of lions. in all my wars with the arabs, it was an army of youths that gave me victory, boys without beards. fifteen of my young men died one day because i said i must have a certain red cloth that was thrown down as a challenge. no, no; give me youths for war in the open field, and men for the stockaded village."
"'"what was the cause of your war, mirambo, with the arabs?" i asked.
"'"there was a good deal of cause. the arabs got the big head" (proud), "and there was no talking with them. mkasiwa of unyanyembé lost his head too, and thought i was his vassal, whereas i was not. my father was king of[pg 142] uyoweh, and i was his son. what right had mkasiwa or the arabs to say what i ought to do? but the war is now over—the arabs know what i can do, and mkasiwa knows it. we will not fight any more, but we will see who can do the best trade, and who is the smartest man. any arab or white man who would like to pass through my country is welcome. i will give him meat and drink, and a house, and no man shall hurt him."'
"mirambo retired, and in the evening i returned his visit with ten of the principal wangwana. i found him in a bell-tent twenty feet high, and twenty-five feet in diameter, with his chiefs around him.
"manwa sera was requested to seal our friendship by performing the ceremony of blood brotherhood between mirambo and myself. having caused us to sit fronting each other on a straw carpet, he made an incision in each of our right legs, from which he extracted blood, and, interchanging it, he exclaimed aloud:
"'if either of you break this brotherhood now established between you, may the lion devour him, the serpent poison him, bitterness be in his food, his friends desert him, his gun burst in his hands and wound him, and everything that is bad do wrong to him until death.'
"my new brother then gave me fifteen cloths to be distributed among my chiefs, while he would accept only three from me. but, not desirous of appearing illiberal, i presented him with a revolver and two hundred rounds of ammunition, and some small curiosities from england. still ambitious to excel me in liberality, he charged five of his young men to proceed to urambo, and to select three milch-cows with their calves, and three bullocks, to be driven to ubagwé to meet me. he also gave me three guides to take me along the frontier of the predatory watuta.
shield and drum.
"on the morning of the 23d he accompanied me outside serombo, where we parted on the very best terms with each other. an arab in his company, named sayid bin mohammed, also presented me with a bar of castile soap, a bag of pepper, and some saffron. a fine riding-ass, purchased from sayid, was named[pg 143] mirambo by me, because the wangwana, who were also captivated by mirambo's agreeable manners, insisted on it.
"we halted on the 23d at mayangira, seven miles and a half from serombo, and on the 24th, after a protracted march of eleven miles south-southeast over flooded plains, arrived at ukombeh.
"through similar flooded plains, with the water hip-deep in most places, and after crossing an important stream flowing west-southwest towards the malagarazi, we arrived at myonga's village, the capital of southern masumbwa.
color-party of an english expedition in africa.
"this myonga is the same valorous chief who robbed colonel grant as he was hurrying with an undisciplined caravan after speke. (see speke's journal, page 159, for the following graphic letter:
"'in the jungles, near myonga's, 16th september, 1861.
"'my dear speke,—the caravan was attacked, plundered, and the men driven to the winds, while marching this morning into myonga's country.
"'awaking at cock-crow, i roused the camp, all anxious to rejoin you; and while the loads were being packed, my attention was drawn to an angry discussion[pg 144] between the head men and seven or eight armed fellows sent by sultan myonga to insist on my putting up for the day in his village. they were summarily told that as you had already made him a present, he need not expect a visit from me. adhering, i doubt not, to their master's instructions, they officiously constituted themselves our guides till we chose to strike off their path, when, quickly heading our party, they stopped the way, planted their spears, and dared our advance!
"'this menace made us firmer in our determination, and we swept past the spears. after we had marched unmolested for some seven miles, a loud yelping from the woods excited our attention, and a sudden rush was made upon us by, say, two hundred men, who came down seemingly in great glee. in an instant, at the caravan's centre, they fastened upon the poor porters. the struggle was short; and with the threat of an arrow or spear at their breasts, men were robbed of their cloths and ornaments, loads were yielded and run away with before resistance could be organized; only three men of a hundred stood by me; the others, whose only thought was their lives, fled into the woods, where i went shouting for them. one man, little rahan, stood with cocked gun, defending his load against five savages with uplifted spears. no one else could be seen. two or three were reported killed, some were wounded. beads, boxes, cloths, etc., lay strewed about the woods. in fact, i felt wrecked. my attempt to go and demand redress from the sultan was resisted, and, in utter despair, i seated myself among a mass of rascals jeering round me, and insolent after the success of the day. several were dressed in the very cloths, etc., they had stolen from my men.
"'in the afternoon about fifteen men and loads were brought me, with a message from the sultan, that the attack had been a mistake of his subjects—that one man had had a hand cut off for it, and that all the property would be restored!
"'yours sincerely,
"'j. a. grant.')
"age had not lessened the conceit of myonga, increased his modesty, or moderated his cupidity. he asserted the rights and privileges of his royalty with a presumptuous voice and a stern brow. he demanded tribute! twenty-five cloths. a gun and five fundo of beads! the arabs, my friends, were requested to do the same!
"'impossible, myonga!' i replied, yet struck with admiration at the unparalleled audacity of the man.
"'people have been obliged to pay what i ask,' the old man said, with a cunning twinkle in his eyes.
"'perhaps,' i answered; 'but whether they have or not, i cannot pay you so much, and, what is more, i will not. as a sign that we pass through your country, i give you one cloth, and the arabs shall only give you one cloth.'
"myonga blustered and stormed, begged and threatened, and some of his young men appeared to be getting vicious, when, rising, i informed him that to talk loudly was to act like a scolding woman, and that, when his elder should arrive at our camp, he would receive two cloths, one from me and one from the arabs, as acknowledgment of his right to the country.
"the drum of myonga's village at once beat to arms, but the affair went no further, and the elder received the reasonable and just tribute of two cloths, with[pg 145]
[pg 146] a gentle hint that it would be dangerous to intercept the expedition on the road when on the march, as the guns were loaded.
mountains along the route of the expedition.
"phunze, chief of mkumbiro, a village ten miles south by east from myonga, and the chief of ureweh, fourteen miles and a half from phunze's, were equally bold in their demands, but they did not receive an inch of cloth; but neither of these three chiefs were half so extortionate as ungomirwa, king of ubagwé, a large town of three thousand people.
"we met at ubagwé an arab trader en route to uganda, and he gave us a dismal tale of robbery and extortion practised on him by ungomirwa. he had been compelled to pay one hundred and fifty cloths, five kegs, or fifty pounds, of gunpowder, five guns double-barrelled, and thirty-five pounds of beads, the whole being of the value of $625, or ￡125, for the privilege of passing unmolested through the district of ubagwé.
"when the chief came to see me, i said to him,
"'why is it, my friend, that your name goes about the country as being that of a bad man? how is it that this poor arab has had to pay so much for going through ubagwé? is ubagwé unyamwezi, that ungomirwa demands so much from the arabs? the arab brings cloths, powder, guns into unyamwezi. if you rob him of his property, i must send letters to stop people coming here, then ungomirwa will become poor, and have neither powder, guns, nor cloths to wear. what has ungomirwa to say to his friend?'
"'ungomirwa,' replied he, 'does no more than ureweh, phunze, myonga, ndega, urangwa, and mankorongo—he takes what he can. if the white man thinks it is wrong, and will be my friend, i will return it all to the arab.'
"'ungomirwa is good. nay, do not return it all; retain one gun, five cloths, two fundo of beads, and one keg of powder; that will be plenty, and nothing but right. i have many wanyamwezi with me, whom i have made good men. i have two from ubagwé, and one man who was born at phunze's. let ungomirwa call the wanyamwezi, and ask them how the white man treats wanyamwezi, and let him try to make them run away, and see what they will say. they will tell him that all white men are very good to those who are good.'
"ungomirwa called the wanyamwezi to him, and asked them why they followed the white man to wander about the world, leaving their brothers and sisters. the question elicited the following reply:
"'the white people know everything. they are better than the black people in heart. we have abundance to eat, plenty to wear, and silver for ourselves. all we give to the white man is our strength. we carry his goods for him, and he bestows a father's care on his black children. let ungomirwa make friends with the white man, and do as he says, and it will be good for the land of unyamwezi.'
"to whatever cause it was owing, ungomirwa returned the arab nearly all his property, and presented me with three bullocks; and during all the time that i was his guest at ubagwé, he exhibited great friendship for me, and boasted of me to several watuta visitors who came to see him during that time; indeed, i can hardly remember a more agreeable stay at any village in africa than that which i made in ubagwé.
"unyamwezi is troubled with a vast number of petty kings, whose paltriness[pg 147] and poverty have so augmented their pride that each of them employs more threats, and makes more demands, than mtesa, emperor of uganda.
"the adage that 'small things make base men proud' holds true in africa as in other parts of the world. sayid bin sayf, one of the arabs at kafurro, begged me, as i valued my property and peace of mind, not to march through unyamwezi to ujiji, but to travel through uhha. i attribute these words of sayid's to a desire on his part to hear of my being mulcted by kings khanza, iwanda, and kiti in the same proportion that he was. he confessed that he had paid to kiti sixty cloths, to iwanda sixty cloths, and to king khanza one hundred and thirty-eight, which amounted in value to $516, and this grieved the gentle merchant's soul greatly.
fashionable hair-dressing.
"on my former journey in search of livingstone, i tested sufficiently the capacity of the chiefs of uhha to absorb property, and i vowed then to give them a wide berth for all future time. sayid's relation of his experiences, confirmed by hamed ibrahim, and my own reverses, indicated but too well the custom in vogue among the wahha. so far, between kibogora's capital and ubagwé, i had only disbursed thirty cloths as gifts to nine kings of unyamwezi, without greater annoyance than the trouble of having to reduce their demands by negotiation.
"on the 4th of may, having received the milch-cows, calves, and bullocks from my new brother mirambo, we marched in a south-southwest direction, skirting the territory of the watuta, to ruwinga, a village occupying a patch of cleared land, and ruled by a small chief who is a tributary to his dreaded neighbors.
"the next day, in good order, we marched across a portion of the territory of the watuta. no precaution was omitted to insure our being warned in time of the presence of the enemy, nor did we make any delay on the road, as a knowledge of their tactics of attack assured us that this was our only chance of avoiding a conflict with them. msené, after a journey of twenty miles, was reached about 2 p.m., and the king, mulagwa, received us with open arms.
"the population of the three villages under mulagwa probably numbers about[pg 148] thirty-five hundred. the king of the watuta frequently visits mulagwa's district; but his strongly-fenced villages and large number of muskets have been sufficient to check the intentions of the robbers, though atrocious acts are often committed upon the unwary.
"ten miles southwest of msené is kawangira, a district about ten miles square, governed by the chief nyambu, a rival of mulagwa. relics of the ruthlessness and devastating attacks of the watuta are visible between the two districts, and the once populous land is rapidly resuming its original appearance of a tenantless waste.
one of the watuta.
"the next village, nganda, ten miles southwest from kawangira, was reached on the 9th of may. from this place, as far as usenda (distant fourteen miles south-southwest), extended a plain, inundated with from two to five feet of water from the flooded gombé, which rises about forty miles southeast of unyanyembé. where the gombé meets with the malagarazi, there is a spacious plain, which during each rainy season is converted into a lake.
"we journeyed to the important village of usagusi on the 12th, in a south-southwest direction. like serombo, myonga's, urangwa, ubagwé, and msené, it is strongly stockaded, and the chief, conscious that the safety of his principal village depends upon the care he bestows upon its defences, exacts heavy fines upon those of his people who manifest any reluctance to repair the stockade; and this vigilant prudence has hitherto baffled the wolflike marauders of ugomba.
"twenty-five miles in a westerly direction through a depopulated land brought us to zegi, in uvinza, where we found a large caravan, under an arab in the employ of sayid bin habib. among these natives of zanzibar was a man who had accompanied cameron and tippu-tib to utatera. like other munchausens of[pg 149] his race, he informed me upon oath that he had seen a ship upon a lake west of utatera, manned by black wazungu, or black europeans!
bow, spears, hatchets, and arrow-heads.
"before reaching zegi, we saw sivué lake, a body of water fed by the sagala river; it is about seven miles wide by fourteen miles long. through a broad bed, choked by reeds and grass and tropical plants, it empties into the malagarazi river near kiala.
"zegi swarmed with a reckless number of lawless men, and was not a comfortable place to dwell in. the conduct of these men was another curious illustration of how 'small things make base men proud.' here were a number of youths suffering under that strange disease peculiar to vain youth in all lands, which mirambo had called 'big head.' the manner in which they strutted about, their big looks and bold staring, their enormous feathered head-dresses and martial stride, were most offensive. having adopted, from bravado, the name of ruga-ruga, they were compelled in honor to imitate the bandits' custom of smoking banghi (wild hemp), and my memory fails to remind me of any similar experience to the wild screaming and stormy sneezing, accompanied day and night by the monotonous droning of the one-string guitar (another accomplishment with the complete bandit) and the hiccoughing, snorting, and vocal extravagances which we had to bear in the village of zegi.
idols sheltered from the rain.
"for the next few days there were no incidents of importance, our march being pressed with as little delay as possible. at noon of the 27th of may the bright[pg 150] waters of the tanganika broke upon the view, and compelled me to linger admiringly for a while, as i did on the day i first beheld them. by 3 p.m. we were in ujiji. muini kheri, mohammed bin gharib, sultan bin kassim, and khamis the baluch greeted me kindly. mohammed bin sali was dead. nothing was changed much, except the ever-changing mud tembés of the arabs. the square or plaza where i met david livingstone in november, 1871, is now occupied by large tembés. the house where he and i lived has long ago been burned down, and in its place there remain only a few embers and a hideous void. the lake expands[pg 151] with the same grand beauty before the eyes as we stand in the market-place. the opposite mountains of goma have the same blue-black color, for they are everlasting, and the liuché river continues its course as brown as ever just east and south of ujiji. the surf is still as restless, and the sun as bright; the sky retains its glorious azure, and the palms all their beauty; but the grand old hero, whose presence once filled ujiji with such absorbing interest for me, was gone!"
arab house near ujiji.
"and here at ujiji," said frank, "we will pause for the present. we have read the first volume of mr. stanley's very interesting work, and this evening we'll begin reading the second. the story it contains is even more exciting than that which you have just heard; it carries us among new people and into new lands, and introduces us to a part of the continent unknown to europeans until mr. stanley made his remarkable journey through it."
a motion to adjourn was carried unanimously, and very soon the party was dispersed over the steamer's deck. some of them looked around for mr. stanley, and were disappointed to hear that he had not been visible about the deck or saloon for several hours.
[pg 152]
whistle, pillow, and hatchet.
