February, 1874The Sindi was crossed on the 2nd of February on a mass of floating vegetation, one of the peculiarities of intertropical Africa. Many rivers for a great portion of their courses are studded with these islands, which, when in good condition, are frequently used by man and beast as natural floating bridges.
At the point where we crossed there was only a clear channel about two feet wide on each side, the remaining hundred yards being covered with this vegetable growth, which extended about three-quarters of a mile down the stream.
Stepping on these islands is accompanied with much the same sensation as walking on a quaking bog overgrown with rushes and grass. On boring with a pole through about three feet of closely matted vegetation mixed with soil the river is found, and the hippopotami pass underneath.
These masses vary in thickness and stability from year to year. They owe their origin to the rushes growing in the bed of the river impeding the course of floating debris and causing it to accumulate and form soil for vegetation.
Plants quickly spring up and flourish, and, interlacing their roots, a compact mass is the result. This continues to increase for about six years, when the limit is reached. Then the island begins to decay and disappears altogether in about four years.
Caravans sometimes pass over them when the stage of decay has already set in, and several have been lost in the attempt. Consequently it was not without many prophecies of disaster befalling us that the men ventured to trust themselves on this floating vegetation. However, we found ourselves across it without any accident having happened, and passing through cultivated grounds and habitations, soon reached the village of Itambara, the head-quarters of the chief of Uvinza.
Looking back towards he hills we had traversed, their likeness to an archipelago could not fail to occur to me, the islands being represented by numerous hills detached from each other by narrow gorges, with bluffs, promontories, and cliffs.
Many of them had such precipitous sides as to appear from this distance quite inaccessible; but the curling faint blue smoke betokened the presence of villages nestling under the rocky crags. Taking it all in all the scene was one of marvellous beauty.
In Uvinza food of different kinds was plentiful and we saw many plantations of Indian corn, matama, sweet potatoes, beans growing on a sort of bush, and tobacco.
At Itambara we were cordially welcomed by the headman, who offered us the use of some huts and, remarking that we must be hungry, brought a goat and some fowls for myself and flour for my men.
Mhongo was paid here for permission to cross the Malagarazi. The amount was very heavy, but I was assured it would clear us with the Mutwalé at Ugaga - where the ferry is - and that I should only have to reward the canoe-men.
Mutwalé is the title given throughout Uvinza and some of the neighbouring districts to the chief of a single village.
A day was consumed in arranging this matter and drying clothing and stores which had suffered much from the rains we had experienced; and another was lost by the obstinacy of Bombay who would not get the men together.
My lameness prevented my moving amongst the men and forcing them to start, and Bombay, as an excuse for his folly, continually reiterated, "Food cheap here, master; better stop another day." And stop we did, though for the life of me I could not understand the economy of remaining an extra day in a place doing nothing simply to save about one-sixth of our ordinary daily expenses.
The headman brought the chief, a boy about eight years of age, to visit me. He was in a terrible fright and cried bitterly at the first sight of a white man. But I soon pacified him, and amused him with pictures in Dallas's "Natural History," and finally sent him away perfectly happy with some pages of the Illustrated London News which had been used in packing.
Ugaga was reached on the 5th of February, by a road leading through jungle and past many villages and plantations, and then descending diagonally the face of a cliff which divided the uplands from the plain of the Malagarazi.
Far and wide stretched the green plain and in the distance in the north were the blue hills of Uhha, while close to the foot of the cliff was Ugaga in which we halted.
The Mutwalé, to my disgust, demanded a heavy toll for our passage over the Malagarazi. The mhongo already exacted at Itambara would, we had been assured, free us from all further demands. Yet the Mutwalé declared that we had paid only for permission to cross the river, and that he, as lord of the ferry, besides the chief of the canoe-men and various other officials, all expected their fees. Otherwise no canoes whatever would be forthcoming for our service.
The Mutwalé was a good-looking fellow of five and twenty and very civil, though he would do no business on the day of our arrival and was politely firm on the mhongo question.
When he called on me I was lying on my bed without boots and stockings, waiting for my bath. I showed him my guns, books, and other curiosities to occupy his attention; but in the midst of his examination of these things he suddenly caught hold of my toes and looked at them most carefully; remarking that my feet were much too white and soft for walking. Then he transferred his attention to my hands which certainly could not be called white, having been tanned to the colour of a dirty dogskin glove; but after inspection he arrived at the conclusion that I had done very little work and therefore must be an important personage in my own country.
The mode of salutation here is very ceremonious, and varies according to the ranks of the performers.
When two "grandees" meet, the junior leans forward, bend his knees, and places the palms of his hands on the ground on each side of his feet, whilst the senior claps his hands six or seven times. They then change rounds, and the junior slaps himself first under the left armpit and then under the right. But when a "swell" meets an inferior, the superior only claps his hands and does not fully returns the salutation by following the motions of the one who first salutes.
On two commoners meeting they pat their stomachs, then clap hands at each other, and finally shake hands. These greetings are observed to an unlimited extent, and the sound of patting and clapping is almost unceasing.
The people are extensively tattooed with small cuts forming spirals, circles, and straight lines, and they wear their hair shaved in patches or clipped close.
Their ornaments are wire bracelets, sambo, beads, and little iron bells. A very small amount of trade cloth is worn, most of the people being dressed in bark cloth and skins.
In the afternoon some fugitives brought the news that the village to which they belonged had been destroyed by Mirambo who was then only eight miles distant, and that five people had been killed and many more, with some cattle, driven off.
This so fully occupied the Mutwalé's attention that we did not commence the palaver about payment for crossing the Malagarazi until late in the afternoon. And almost immediately afterwards an alarm was raised that Mirambo was coming to attack the place. The bearer of this disquieting intelligence asserted that he was the sole survivor of a large village about five miles distant.
Of course we cut short our conference and prepared to confront our redoutable foe. On going outside the village I saw several columns of smoke rising to the east and south-east of us, and more fugitives came running stating that Mirambo had parties in all directions, looting and destroying.
Everything was arranged for meeting the anticipated attack, and as we were enjoying the hospitality of Ugaga, I told the Mutwalé we were ready to assist him to the utmost. He smiled and said that as Mirambo had been beaten off with the loss of many people - including his son and brother - when he attacked the village some four years before, it was probable he would not try it again.
The Mutwalé was right, for Mirambo left the neighbourghood during the night after having destroyed and looted seven or eight villages.
The excitement having subsided, we again turned our attention to the knotty question of the amount to be paid for crossing the river. And knotty it was, for no sooner had I settled one demand than others were brought forward.
The people must have exercised their ingenuity to the utmost, for I received claims from the following officials, their wives and relations : -
1st, the Mutwalé; 2nd, his wife; 3rd, head Mtéko or councillor; 4th, his wife; 5th, Mwari, or head canoe-man; 6th, his wife; 7th Mutwalé's relations; 8th, people who make the palaver; 9th, to buy rope; 10th, canoe paddlers.
I objected strongly for to the charge for rope as it had been specially mentioned and paid for at Itambara - although when or why it was required I could not ascertain. I also made a stand against many other items, especially wives and relatives.
At last, being thoroughly tired of argument, I rose and said, "If we go on like this, we shall remain here till the end of the world;" and went away, in a state best descibed by the last word of the marriage service.
My action brought the claimants to their senses, and the Mutwalé and Mtéko soon followed me offering to settle the whole business for less than I had already consented to pay, and promising that canoes should be at the ferry early the next morning.
At the appointed time I went down to the river, a swift, swirling, brown stream, running between four and five knots and about thirty yards wide. Vut not a canoe was there.
Summoning my patience, already sorely tried, I sat down a short distance from the stream, when presently a head and shoulders appeared gliding along just above the grassy river-bank, and then another and another.
These were the all-important canoes, six in all. Four were the roughest specimens of naval architecture I ever came across, being merely hollow logs about eighteen feet long by two wide; the others were constructed of a single strip of bark sewn up at the ends, and were rather narrower and longer than the logs. They were each manned by two men, one of whom squatted down and used a paddle whilst the other stood up and punted along with a pole.
When the whole of the men and loads had been ferried over, an altercation arose about the donkeys, the canoe-men refusing to tow them across until a fetish man had made medicine.
This, of course, entailed an extra fee. But it was inadvisable to refuse, especially as Bombay swore that it was owing to the neglect of this precaution that Stanley lost a donkey on crossing this river.
So much time was occupied here that we were compelled to halt at Mpeta, the village of the other chief of the ferry, who fleeces travellers from Ujiji the same way as his confrère does those from Unyanyembé. The Mutwalé here, a small boy, was unwell, and I therefore escaped a visit from him, which I did not regret since it would have obliged me to make him a present.
At Mpeta I got sights for latitude which agreed to within fifteen seconds with those taken by Captain Speke at the same place, a difference caused possibly by our position not being exactly the same, and which may therefore be regarded as practically giving the same result.
Leaving Mpeta we traversed a level country, just above the heads of many valleys and ravines running down to the Malagarazi which lay some little distance to the southward and much below us, on account of the rapid descent of its bed. Beyond the valley of the Malagarazi were high and rocky hills similar to those we had passed before crossing the river.
At Itaga we halted a day to buy food and partly because I was ill with fever and was also suffering from the effects of Sambo having mixed the dough for my breakfast cakes with castor-oil.
Whilst here two more villages were reported to have been destroyed by Mirambo, yet by all accounts he had no more than a hundred and fifty fighting men with him. Had the people banded together they could easily have trashed him; but they were perpetually squabbling amongst themselves and could therefore be attacked and destroyed piecemeal.
Our next station was Lugowa, to reach which we had to pass several villages and some muddy swamps, whence salt is procured in the following manner.
A quantity of mud is placed in a trough having at the bottom a square hole partially stopped with sheds of bark, beneath which about half-a-dozen similar vessels are placed, the upper one only containing mud. Hot water is then poured into this topmost trough to dissolve the salt with which the mud is impregnated, and the liquid being filtered by passing through the bark in the holes of the lower troughs, runs out of the bottom one nearly clear.
It is then boiled and evaporated, leaving as a sediment a very good white salt, the best of any I have seen in Africa. If the first boiling does not produce a sufficiently pure salt, it is again dissolved and filtered until the requisite purity is attained.
The salt is carried far and wide. The whole district from Lake Victoria Nyanza, round the south of Tanganyika, much of Manyuéma, and south to the Ruaha, is supplied by the pans of Uvinza.
There are some other places in these districts where salt is produced, but that of Uvinza is so superior that it always finds a ready sale.
At parting the old chief presented me with a load of salt, which I acknowledged by a gift in return.
At Lugowa I witnessed for the first time a curious method of using tobacco which prevails to a great extent at Ujiji. Instead of taking dry powdered snuff according to the ordinary custom, the people carry tobacco in a small gourd, and when they wish to indulge in a "sneeshin" fill it with water, and after allowing the leaf to soak for a few moments they press out the juice and sniff it up their nostrils.
The pungent liquid snuff is retained in the nostrils for many minutes, being prevented from escaping either by holding the nose with the fingers or with a small pair of metal nippers. The after performance will not bear description.
It is indescribably droll to see half-a-dozen men sitting gravely round a fire trying to talk with nippers on their noses.
Another touch of fever came upon me at Lugowa, but I managed to continue the journey the next morning although still very lame and scarcely able to walk, which was a terrible hindrance in every way.
After marching four miles a man named Sungoro declared he was too ill to proceed any further, so I determined to leave him in charge of a coast negro who had settled in a village of salt-makers. I paid the negro to attend to the wants of the invalid and to forward him to Ujiji by caravan when he became convalescent.
Rain coming on heavily made it advisable to camp earlier than I had intended, and on looking for Leo I missed him. I immediately sent men to search for him, and they quickly returned carrying the poor animal.
To my sorrow I found he was nearly dead, and had only strength left to lick my hand and try to wag his tail, when he lay down and died at my feet. I believe he must have been bitten by a snake, for he was running about near me, well and full of life, only a short time before I lost sight of him.
Few can imagine how great was the loss of my faithful dog to me in my solitude, the sad blank which his death made in my everyday life.
One of the Mnyamwési donkeys gave birth to a foal here, and the little creature was carried for a few days until it grew strong enough to march with the caravan.
Five hours from this brought us to the Rugusi, which flows into the Malagarazi along a valley flanked by rocky hills on either side. And it was remarkable that though flowing through a soil impregnated with salt the water tasted perfectly fresh. On both banks of the Rusugi there were temporary villages now quite deserted, innumerable broken pots, stone fireplaces, and small pits where people make salt in the season.
During the night we were disturbed by a great noise amongst the donkeys, and found that one had been pinned by the nose by some wild beast, but luckily without doing much damage, the donkey being more frightened than hurt.
The next three marches were through a mixture of jungle, long grass, and occasional outcrops of granite. On the first we passed ten small streams besides the Ruguvu, which was twenty feet wide and four feet six inches deep; on the second one more, and on the third the Mansungwé.
There were many tracks of buffalo and elephants, and we several times heard the latter trumpeting in the jungle.
In some places the grass was of great length, far above our heads, and the pouring rain made the work of forcing our way through this wet and heavy grass most laborious and unpleasant.
After arriving in camp on the third day I had a general inspection of the men's private loads and found that ten had been guilty of stealing my beads. This I had long suspected, but Bombay always persisted that nothing of the sort was going on.
I firmly believe that the whole caravan had been systematically robbing me and that those I detected with the stolen goods were really not more guilty, but only more unfortunate, than the rest. I took possession of the beads thus recovered, and made prisoners of the thieves.
From this I sent forward two men to Ujiji to deliver letters of introduction which had been given me by Said ibn Salim at Unyanyembé; also to request that boats might be provided at the mouth of the Ruché river to convey us to Kawélé, the chief town of Ujiji.
Near the camp I noticed several nutmeg-trees and picked up some very good nutmegs. The country about here was much broken up, and there were many small streams and rivulets, and brakes of bamboo.
The next morning I moved to Niamtaga, in Ukaranga, a good-sized palisaded village with many skulls bleaching on poles close to the entrance, and surrounded by fields neatly fenced in with bamboo.
The people proved an inhospitabe set and would not allow us inside the village, so we camped by a large brake of bamboo which afforded admirable material for huts.
Anxious as I was to push forward to Ujiji, now so near at hand, I found it impossible to get the men on by hook or crook. Everything I tried, even to pulling down their huts; but it was altogether useless, and Bombay and the askari were quite as troublesome as the pagazi.
However, on the 18th of February, fifteen years and five days from the time Burton discovered it, my eyes rested on the vast Tanganyika.
At first I could barely realize it. Lying at the bottom of a steep descent was a bright blue patch and about a mile long, then some trees, and beyond them a great expanse having the appearance of sky with floating clouds.
"That the lake?" said I in disdain, looking at the small blue patch below me. "Nonsense." "It is the lake, master," persisted my men.
It then dawned on me that the vast grey expanse was the Tanganyika, and that which I had supposed to be clouds was the distant mountains of Ugoma, whilst the blue patch was only an inlet lighted up by a passing ray of sun.
Hurrying down the descent and across the flat at the bottom - which was covered with cane-grass and bamboo intersected by paths made by hippopotami - we reached the shore and found two large canoes sent for us by the Arabs at Ujiji. Both were quickly filled with stores and men, and after an hour's pull, Kawélé was reached.
The scenery was grand. To the west were the gigantic mountains of Ugoma, while on the eastern shore was a dense growth of cane-grass of a bright green. Occasional open spaces disclosed yellow sandy beaches and bright red miniature cliffs with palm-trees and villages close to the water's edge. Numerous canoes moving about, and gulls, divers and darters, gave life to the scene; and distant floating islands of grass had very much the appearance of boats under sail.
At Kawélé I was warmly welcomed by the traders who turned out to meet me, and with them I sat in state until the house placed at my disposal was ready to receive me.
This ceremonious sitting took place under the verandah of Mohammed ibn Salib who, with his compatriots, was full of anxiety to hear any news from Unyanyembé and the coast, as none had been received at Ujiji for a long time previous to my coming. Especially anxious were they to learn particulars of Mirambo's proceedings, and were greatly annoyed and disgusted to hear of his continued activity. The prevailing feeling amongst them did not seem to be one of fear that they might be robbed by him on the road to Unyanyembé, but rather that they should be compelled by Said ibn Salim to remain there instead of going on to Zanzibar, so as to increase the numerical strength at his disposal. However, they were rejoiced to hear that the journey had been accomplished, and began almost immediately to discuss means of sending to Unyanyembé. I found this long waiting and conversation rather purgatorial, for having had nothing to eat that day I was very hungry, besides being thoroughly tired and wet from wading through a swamp just before reaching the boats. My patience was rewarded, however, for after enjoying a comfortable wash and shift into dry clothes, I found prepared for me such a meal as I had not seen since partaking of Said ibn Salim's hospitality.
