May, 1873On the morning of the 26th of April, several hands were absent and five had deserted. Amongst the latter was the man whom I had refused to surrender to the bumptious Arab who demanded him for debt.

It was annoying beyond measure to find that after feeding men in idleness for a month, they bolted the moment they were required for work and had received their rations for the road.

And another trouble was, notwithstanding my having taken the pains to see each man told off to his own particular load, yet they made a rush and struggled for the favourites ones. This was not so much from any desire to shirk a heavy load as to carry one which entitled the bearer to a more dignified position in the caravan, the order being - tents first and foremost, then wire, cloth, and beads, and miscellaneous gear such as boxes and cooking ustensils, bringing up the rear. By dint of perseverance we adjusted all our difficulties and started a ten o' clock.

Our road wound through a rocky gorge and up the steep side of the mountain, rendered more difficult by numerous torrent beds channelled in the solid granite, and which were worn quite smooth and polished and made slippery by the draining down of water. Before some of our donkeys would cross the worst of these it was necessary to blindfold them.

None of the men appeared fit to work, being out of training from a long stay in camp; so after a short march we encamped on a slope almost as steep as the roof ofa house, that being the most level spot we could find.

Consequently we were obiged to chock up our "rolling stock" to prevent their starting for the Makata plain, some eight hundred feet below.

Several men complaining of illness and weakness we rearranged the loads. This employed us until late in the evening, when the askari whom I had sent in search of deserters returned without having obtained any news of them.

June 1, 1873Leaving here the next morning without difficulty we made a long and fatiguing march over very montainous countrey to a camp on the left bank of the Mukondokwa - the principal affluent of the Makata - meeting on our way a large Arab caravan taking ivory to the coast.

The leader, a very miserable-looking wretch, unhesintatingly asked us for a bale of cloth, but when that modest request was politely refused lowered his demands and begged for a single doti.

From him we heard that Mirambo, a chief to the west of Unyanyembé, who had been fighting the Arabs for some three or four years, was still inconquered; for although all the Arabs at Taborah aided by numerous native allies had taken the field against him they had been unable to drive him from the vicinity of their settlements. Travelling round around Taborah was therefore considered dangerous. The road was a succession of very steep ascents and descents, worn in many places into steps composed or quartz and granite either in slippery sheets or loose blocks that rendered walking very difficult indeed, and it was almost a marvel that the pagazi and donkeys with their loads avoided coming to grief.

Our camp was on an uncomfortable slope even steeper than that of the previous night, and everything seemed inclined to follow the universal law of gravity.

Just below flowed the Mukondokwa, a broad and shallow but swift stream, and the hills covered to their summits with acacias looked, as Burton justly observes, much like umbrellas in a crowd; and in the dips and valleys where water was plentiful the mparamusi reared its lofty head.

The mparamusi is one of the noblest specimens of arboreal beauty in the world, having a towering shaft sometimes fifteen feet in diameter and a hundred and forty feet high with bark of a tender yellowish green, crowned by a spreading head of dark foliage. Unfortunately, these magnificent trees are often sacrificed to serve no more important purpose than the making of a single door, the wood being soft and easily fashioned; and since it rots rapidly unless well seasoned, the work of destruction is constantly proceeding.

As the last men left camp for our next march a leopard having a monkey in its clutches fell from an overhanging tree within fifteen yards of where our tents had been pitched.

For two hours we followed the left bank of the Munkondokwa and then crossed the river below a sharp bend in its course, whence a level path through plantations of enormous matama, with stalks over twenty feet high, brought us to camp close to the village of Muinyi Useghara.

The stream at the point where we forded it was fifty yards wide and mid-thigh deep, running two knots an hour, the ford being marked by the finest mparamusi I ever saw. It had two stems springing from the same root and running at least one hundred and seventy feet in height before spreading its magnificent head.

Near this was the former village of Kadetamaré. It had been much damaged by the late floods and hurricane and was now inhabited by some of his slaves under the orders of a headman in charge of the provision grounds.

Kadetamaré, profiting by experience, had built a new village for himself on the summit of a small knoll.

Soon after our arrival at Muinyi Useghara's we witnessed a curious custom, said to be universal in Oriental Africa.

A woman rushed into camp and tied a knot in Issa's turban, thereby placing herself under his protection in order to be revenged upon her husband who had beaten her for not cooking some fish properly.

The husband came and claimed her, but before she was restored to him he was compelled to pay a ransom of a bullock and three goats, and to promise in the presence of his chief that he would never again illtreat her.

A slave can also obtain a change of masters by breaking a bow or spear belonging to the man whom he selects as his new owner or by tying a knot in any portion of his clothing, and the original owner cannot redeem him except by paying his full value, and he is invariably obliged to promise not to use him harshly.

From this place we despatched a party of forty men to Mbumi, for food to take us to Mpwpapwa; but some of them returned a day later with a woeful story of disaster and death.

When sifted to the bottom, the affair proved much less than they represented, though bad enough in all conscience.

It appeared that the party arrived safely at Mbumi and completed the purchase of the corn we required, when a false alarm was raised that some of the wilder tribes living in the hills were coming to attack the villagers. There was naturally very much excitement, in the midst of which one of our men's rifles was discharged by accident and shot a native through the body, killing him on the spot.

The people then turned upon our party, and those who did not escape by running were seized and put in chowkie, and the corn that had been collected was lost.

Syde ibn Omar, the Arab whose son visited us at Rehenneko, lived near Mbumi and wrote to acquaint us of the occurence, and afterwards came in person and was of the greatest possible assistance in arranging the affair. Still this unlucky business delayed us and cost three loads of cloth. But we were fortunate in getting off so easily, for many caravans have lost very heavily in conflicts with natives of the Useghara mountains arising from more trivial circumstances than the death of a man.

By a caravan passing down from Unyanyembé, we sent letters and also Moffat's bible, watch, and an old rifle that had belonged to his grandfather, Dr. Moffat, to be forwarded from Zanzibar to his mother at Durban.

Three up caravans also arrived and attached themselves to us in order to benefit by the protection of numbers in passing through Ugogo.

One was composed of Wanyamwési taking home the proceeds of the ivory they had sold at the coast. But on passing Rehenneko two or three days after we left, they were attacked and dispersed by the chief and people of that place; and, according to their account - which I believe was greatly exaggerated - they had lost fifty or sixty loads and eight or ten men.

Another was a party of about twenty, belonging to a blacksmith who indulged in the hope of making a fortune at Unyanyembé by repairing muskets during the war with Mirambo.

The last and largest was a heterogeneous assemblage joined together for mutual protection. It consisted of small parties under the charge of Arabs' slaves and poor freemen who could only muster two or three loads and slaves to carry them; but, full of hope, were bound for lands of fabulous riches where ivory was reported to be used for fencing pig-styes and making doorposts.

When we marched on the 11th of June we were altogether over five hundred strong.

The track was rough and broken, and in some places overhanging the river there were holes so nearly hidden by scrub that very wary walking was requisite, a false step being sufficient to send one tumbling through scrub and thorns into the Mukondokwa.

Fording this stream again and then following up its valley, we crossed it for the third and last time close to a small village called Madété, where we camped.

Here we met an elephant-hunter from Mombasa, awaiting the return of men he had despatched to the coast with ivory. He was armed with bow and arrows, the latter so strongly poisoned that one deep, or two slight, wounds proved sufficient to kill an elephant.

Two arrow-heads were neatly covered with banana leves to prevent accidents, and a stock of the poison was carried in a gourd

A short distance below the place where we last crossed the Mukondokwa, the Ugombo joins it, and following the valley of that river, on both sides of which the mountains are very bold and precipitous - some peaks, apparently formed of solid masses of syenite, being excellent landmarks - we arrived the next day at Lake Ugombo.

This sheet of water varies from three miles long by one wide to one mile long by half a mile wide, according to the season, being mainly dependent on the rains for its supply.

It affords a home for a number of hippopotami and its surface is usually dotted with various kinds of water-fowl, while on the neighbouring hills guinea-fowls were abundant.

Although I had been assured that all our donkeys were properly tethered in camp, I heard during the night the screams of one evidently in great pain or fear at some distance from us. It was impossible to proceed to its assistance, owing to the darkness, and when day dawned the poor animal was found to have been so dreadfully torn and mangled, most probably by a hyæna, that we were obliged to shoot it

A distressing sight was witnessed on the day of our departure, when a mixed multitude of men, women and children, driving cattle and goats, and hurrying along with a few of their household belongings, passed by our camp.

They proved to be the homeless population of some villages near Mpwapwa which had been plundered by the Wadirigo, a predatory highland tribe of whom more anon.

From Ugombo to Mpwapwa, two long marches distant, the country was reported to be waterless, and for the first time we underwent a terekesa or afternoon march, one of the most trying experiences of African travel.

A terekesa is so arranged that by starting in the afternoon from a place where water is found and marching until some time after dark, leaving again as early as possible on the following morning for the watering-place in front, a caravan is only about twenty hours without water instead of over thirty as would be the case if the start were in the morning. And as the men cook their food before moving from the first camp and after arrival at the second, no water need be carried for that purpose.

The tents and loads were in this instance seized upon and packed by the carriers at 11 A.M., leaving us exposed to the sun's rays without a particle of shelter till we started at one o'clock.

From that hour until after sunset we toiled along a parched and dusty country, with outcrops of granite and quartz all bleached and weathered by the scorching sun and pouring rains of the torrid zone. The vegetation was sparse and dry consisting of a few baobab-trees and kolqualls and some thin wiry grass, much of which had been burnt down by sparks from the pipes of passing caravans.

Our halting-place was at Matamondo,where the river-bed was perfectly dry and not so much as a drop of water was to be seen.

Issa, however, had heard at Ugombo that some was to be found near this place, and after a long and tiresome search in the dark a pool was discovered about two miles distant.

To this the men immediately went to quench their thirst; but the state of the road rendered it impossible to send the unfortunate donkeys there at night.

In order to esape the heat of the sun as far as possible we started again at 5 A.M., and after dragging along through dusty scrub, up and down steep hills and in and out of rocky nullahs, we approached the foot of the hills on the slopes of which Mpwapwa lies about two in the afternoon.

The sight of fresh green trees and fields of maize, matama and sweet potatoes, and streams of beautiful crystal water running in threads through a broad sandy course, then gladdened our eyes.

Those only who have traversed a barren scorching road such as we had gone over can imagine how great was the delight and refreshment to our weary eyes and aching limbs when this scene first burst upon our view.

Directly I reached the water I sent some of the least fatigued with a supply for those who had lagged behind, faint with heat and thirst; but, notwithstanding this precaution, one pagazi and a donkey never lived to taste of the fountains of Mpwapwa.

Proceeding up this watercourse, bounded on both sides by very large trees, we found water becoming more plentiful and pitched our three tents under an enormous acacia, one half of which afforded us ample shelter.

We were soon favoured by a visit from an Arab who was working his way down to the coast in company with a caravan under charge of a slave of a large merchant of Unyanyembé. having failed to make his fortune in the interior. He seemed half-witted and certainly was the coolest fellow I ever met; for he did not hesitate to take the pipe out of my mouth, and after a whiff or two to pass it on to a circle of greasy, dirty natives who were squatting round us staring as only a negro can stare.

After a while our eccentric friend retired, and soon afterwards a tremendous noise occurred in the camp of the Wanyamwési.

On going to ascertain the cause of the excitement, I found the Arab, followed by some slaves from his caravan, driving the Wanyamwési out of their camp on the plea that heathens had no right to possess any goods, and therefore the remnant of stores they had saved from the rapacious clutches of the thief of Rehenneko ought by right to belong to a true believer.

He was now attempting to carry out this doctrine to its logical conclusion, but I sent the lunatic back to his master, and seeing quiet restored the Wanyamwési returned to their occupations which had been so suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted.

The chief, a dirty, greasy old fellow with a moist and liquorish eye and a nose which denoted his devotion to pombé, came afterwards with the leader of an Arab caravan to thank me for having prevented a serious disturbance.

In order to recruit after the fatigues of the trying march from Lake Ugombo, and to prepare for crossing the Marenga Mkali, another waterless track of more than thirty miles, we remained here two days.

At Mpwapwa the tembé was first met with, and continued thence throughout Ugogo the sole habitation of the natives.

The tembé is formed simply of two walls running parallel, subdivided by partitions and having a roof nearly flat, sloping only slightly to the front. They are usually built to form a square, inside which the cattle are penned at night. It is about the most comfortless form of habitation that the brain of man ever devised, and as the huts are shared by the fowls and goats they are filthy in the extreme and swarm with insect life.

The people are armed with bows and arrows and knobsticks for throwing or using as a club, and also have long, narrow, oval-shaped shields of bull's hide.

Their ornamens are brass-wire earrings and necklaces; and, having been so much in commnunication with people of the coast, they dress like the Arabs' slaves.

A great contrast to the Mpwapwa people were some of the Wadirigo who came over to look at us. They stalked about among the timid villagers, openly telling them that whenever they thought fit they would plunder them.

The Wadirigo are a tall, manly race, despising such refinements of civilisation as clothing, the men and many of the women being stark-naked with the exception, perhaps, of a single string of beads round the neck or wrist.

They carry enormous shields of hide, five feet high by three wide, stiffened by a piece of wood bowed to form a handle down the centre, and having a small withe round the edge to keep it in shape. On the right-hand side of the centre-piece are two beckets. In these are kept a heavy spear for close quarters and a bundle of six or eight slender, beautifully finished assagais - ornamented with brass wire and balanced by a small knob of the same metal at the butt - which they throw upwards of fifty yards with force and precision.

Such is their reputation for courage and skill in the issue of their weapons that none of the tribes on whom they habitually make their raids ever dare to resist them.

After resting three days on we went again, marching first to a village called Kisokweh, and meeting on our way many women of Mpwapwa bringing in the harvest in large baskets carried on their heads.

Several had babies slung in a goatskin on their backs, and wore an apron made of innumerable thongs of hide having a charm dangling from each to preserve the infant from the evil eye and other forms of witchcraft.

Kisokweh was occupied by the Wadirigo who were well-enough didposed towards us, and as is usually the case with people of their description, it was "light come, light go," so that we were able to purchase from them a couple of bullocks, half-a-dozen goats, and some ghee, for a very small amount of beads and brass wire.

A short march from this brought us to Chunyo ("bitter"), so called from its unsesirable reputation of having bitter water which poisons beasts should they drink it. As we found it fairly good on tasting we allowed ours to drink, arguing that if good enough for man it could not harm a donkey, and the result proved we were right.

The water in the pillows we reserved for the Marenga Mkali, for which we started on the 20th of June.

The walking was good, over a level sandy plain with numerous small granite hills in different directions; and although there was not much vegetation for the first part of the road, but only a little thin grass and some thorn scrub, this seemed to afford sufficient sustenance for large herds of antelopes and zebras.

One herd Dillon and I stalked for some distance, but could not get within effective range owing to the paucity of cover.

On this occasion we marched almost without intermission from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M., when we camped in a grove of stunted acacias. The men scarcely appreciated this long stretch, and were desirous of halting with a down caravan which we passed at sunset; but knowing that the next morning would be the most trying part of the march we pressed forwards wishing to shorten it as much as possible.

The scene in camp was very striking, for no tents being pitched or huts built we all bivouacked in the open.

Overhead was the sky of a deep velvety blackness studded with innumerable silver and golden stars, while the dusky figures moving about amongst the fires formed a weird and effective foreground, the smoke hanging like frosted silver amongst the treetops.

Ugogo was reached the next day after a very tiresome march of five hours across a country intersected by many nullahs, which in the rainy season are temporary streams.

When we arrived within the limits of cultivation our men, unable any longer to withstand the pangs of thirst, commenced gathering watermelons of a very inferior and bitter sort; but some harp-eyed Wagogo detected them and demanded about twenty times the value of what had been picked. And upon camping at noon our beasts were not allowed to be watered until we had obtained leave by payment.

Earthen pot. - Ugogo.