October, 1874As we were preparing to start I missed my goat which usually slept at my feet or was the first to pay her respects in the morning; and on enquiring where she was, found that she had been seen between the village and the camp late in the evening.
I thereupon went to the village with two men and a guide to look for her; and so confident did I feel of the friendliness of the natives towards us that we were unarmed. Some men whom we saw I told of my loss and stated my willingness to pay a reward if she were brought back, but I could get no answer whatever from them.
It soon became evident that we were in for a row, for all the women had disappeared and there were far more armed men than the size of the village would account for.
Those with whom I had been trying to have a conversation bolted from us suddenly, and immediately others at a short distance commenced shooting their arrows at us. At that moment some of my men with rifles fortunately arrived, and Jumah coming behind me put my trusty twelve-bore rifle into my hand.
None of my people were hit in this preliminary skirmish, but I sent orders for the remainder to join me at once with the stores so as to form one body; and no sooner had they quitted the camp than the natives set fire to it.
The greater number of my people I placed under shelter of huts and posted others as pickets to prevent our being taken in rear or flank, and then, with the guides, went into the centre space of the village to declare our peaceable intentions and to enquire the cause of our being attacked; but the only reply vouchsafed was a dropping fire of arrows. I was astonished that none of us were hit, for at least half-a-dozen arrows fell within a yard of me in a couple of minutes.
Being unable to obtain any satisfactory answer I returned to the caravan, and at that moment a body of about five hundred men, who had been posted in ambush on the road we were to have taken, joined the natives.
Encouraged by this reinforcement and our pacific attitude, the natives closed in and commenced hurling spears at us. And as matters were now becoming rather serious I reluctantly allowed a few shots to be fired.
One of these fortunately took effect in the leg of a native who happened to be a person of consideration and was standing in what he imagined was a position of safety. This circumstance made such an impression that a parley was proposed by the chief of the village, and I gladly acceded.
After some talk the following agreement was entered into, namely, the goat should be found and returned; I should make a present to the chief of a piece of scarlet cloth; Bombay or Bilâl should make brothers with him; and we were to be furnished with guides and permitted to depart in peace.
I at once proceeded to carry out my part of the agreement, and having fetched the cloth was returning with it to the chief of Kamwawi, when another arrived with more armed men and said to him, "Don't be such a fool as to make peace with these people for the sake of one piece of cloth. We are strong enough to eat them, and can easily get every bit of cloth and every bead belonging to them, and themselves we can kill or make slaves of. How many tens are they? You can count their tens on one hand; whilst our tens would take more hands to count than we could number afterwards."
The councils of the newly arrived chief unhappily prevailed; negotiations were broken off, and arrows again began to fly about.
I now determined to make some show of retaliation, so burnt down one hut, threatening at the same moment that if not allowed to leave peaceably I would set fire to the entire place and let them know what bullets really were.
This decided action resulted in permission being given for our departure, but only by a road leading in an opposite direction to that we proposed going.
My guides said that a village under a separate chieftainship, where we should be hospitably received, was situated on the road we were ordered to follow, so I decided to go there to avoid any further argument or trouble with these treacherous people and gave orders to march.
The road was through tangled grass, serub, belts of thick jungle and open plains, and as we marched along we were surrounded by crowds of yelling savages who kept out of range of our guns in the open, but closed in and shot at us whenever there was cover.
The whit ! whit ! of the long arrows going through the trees created a very unpleasant sensation; but notwithstanding the number flying about none of us were wounded. I therefore would not allow a gun to be fired, being determined not to shed any blood unless driven to do so in self-defence.
About five o'clock the natives drew off; and at sunset we arrived at a strip of jungle with a stream running through it, and on the opposite bank was the village that we hoped would prove a haven of peace and rest.
With the guides I went to hail the village and enquire whether we could be received. And here again our only answer was a volley of arrows.
I then called upon my men to follow me, a summoms to which Jumah, Sambo and one or two others responded, and firing our guns, we dashed through the jungle, across the river, and entered the village at one side while the natives disappeared at the other.
The rest of my brave army, excepting four or five who remained with Bombay in charge of the stores, bolted; and for thus turning their backs on the enemy retributive justice furnished two of them with artificial tails looking remarkably like arrows.
I knew that not a moment was to be lost in preparing for the return of the hostile natives, so ordered the loads to be brought into the village immediately.
My runaways speedily followed and now, Falstaff-like, began to boast of their great deeds and of the still greater performances they intended in the future. But it was no time for talking, and I set cowards as well as heroes at work in fortifying our position.
Four huts in the centre of the village forming an imperfect square I had loopholed as blockhouses, and between built a barricade of doors and poles from the remaining huts, which were either torn down or burnt to prevent their affording cover for our enemies. The barricade being formed, a trench was dug inside and roofed over, and, notwithstanding our being disturbed by several volleys of arrows, the morning saw us fairly protected.
It was plain that matters were serious, and that to get away from our present situation we should be obliged to return the fire of the natives.
During the next two days we were constantly shot at and some half-dozen of my men were wounded whilst fetching water from the stream; but the natives grew afraid of our guns as two or three had been killed and a few wounded, and did not come near the fort, which I had named Fort Dinah in memory of my poor goat.
I next sent our reconnoitring parties, and they soon returned after having destroyed some barricades erected by the natives across the paths, but which were not manned when my people found them.
On the third day a party going further afield captured two men and a woman and brought them into camp. The woman proved to be a relation of Mona Kasanga, and we gladly despatched her with one of the men to tell the natives that we wanted peace, not war, while we detained the other man as a hostage.
She returned the following morning with a neighbouring chief, who was also a relation of Mona Kasanga, and peace was soon concuded.
Fort Dinah was left on the 6th of October, and in villages which we passed many temporary huts built to accomodate the fighting men who had assembled in order to share in plundering us were still remaining. These men had now returned to their homes, and the villages had resumed their normal state, and women and children ran alongside the caravan, chattering and laughing.
When we camped the chief ot the district brought me a large bundle of grass cloth and some goats as payment for having attacked us without provocation.
I accepted one goat and gave him some beads as a token of friendship, remarking that, unlike some other travellers, we were not looking for slaves and endeavouring to pick quarrels, but only desired to see the country and be friendly with the people. But I took the opportunity of informing him that we would always defend ourselves if attacked, and, as they had already learnt, we were quite strong enough to take care of ourselves.
I afterwards fund that Mona Kasanga, although acting as an interpreter during this palaver and hearing my remarks, tried to extract something from the chief on his own account. Fortunately I discovered his little game, or the chief would have come to the conclusion that the white man was given to talking baout friendship and pretending to be generous, and yet allowed his men to take the offering in a roundabout manner.
The actual reason for our being attacked was that a party from a Portuguese caravan had been within five miles of Kamwawi, destroying villages, murdering men, and carrying off women and children as slaves. The natives naturally connected me with the slave-hunters, more especially as I had made particulat enquiries respecting them and whence they came; and no doubt they were supposed to be friends whom we wished to join in carrying on these barbarities.
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| A native of Mpanga Sanga. |
At the principal village of Mpanga Sanga I met a very intelligent fellow who offered to conduct me in two or three days' journey to the principal place of Kasongo, the chief of all Urua. For some private reasons Mona Kasanga dissuaded him from fulfilling his promise and assured me he was not speaking the truth, for in the direction pointed out by him the people were very troublesome, and taking that road would lead to more fighting.
We therefore continued our journey under Mona Kasanga's guidance, and arrived the next day at a village the headman of which -M'Nchkulla - was a friend of Mona Kasanga. Here we halted, and remained whilst these worthies and their friends got drunk in honour of some mutual acquaintance who had departed this life three months previously.
The headman visited me in a very maudlin state and insisted on shaking hands with me times without number. From him I ascertained that the camp we were occupying had been built by the plundering party we heard of near Kamwawi, and that Kasongo's capital was only three or four days distant.
When their convivial manner of mourning for their dead friend was completed and Mona Kasanga was ready to march, he again refused to take the direct road but led us in an E.S.E direction, and we camped by a village situated on the banks of the Luvijo, a large stream running to the Lualaba.
Near the source of this river is found a large quantity of cinnabar, used by the natives for painting themselves.
Their faces they colour in the most ludicrous manner. A red dot on the tip of the nose is a favourite embellishment, and some who also use a kind of pipe-clay as white paint give their face a very close resemblance to that of a circus clown.
Their ornaments are principally beads, worn in great numbers round the arms and legs and in two ropes of several strands disposed across the breast and back like cross-belts, and also a few copper and iron bracelets and anklets.
Another march in the wrong direction, along the northern base of the Nyoka hills, had to be undergone the day following; and all the water-holes being dry we were compelled to continue our walk until late in the afternoon, suffering from the pangs of thirst. We had become so accustomed to constant streams of running water that we failed to take the precaution of carrying a supply with us.
At last we reached Hankoya, a village where the only obtainable water was of a dark green colour and as thick as peasoup; but, notwithstanding its objectionable appearance and still more nauseous taste, we were glad to drink it for -
The day was long, the day was hot,
The pilgrims were a thirsty lot.
The mystery of Mona Kasanga's behaviour in dragging us eastwards was now revealed. He had doubtless heard of his father having neglected to pay tribute to Kasongo, and that he, according to his custom on such occasions, had looted the village and killed most of the inhabitants. Mona Kasanga's father and brothers were amongst those killed, but his mother, who had escaped, met her son at this village soon after we arrived.
Mona Kasanga refused to go any further, and M'Nchkulla being a headman of Mukalombo said he must first visit that village, which was three or four miles from Hanyoka.
On our arriving on its outskirts the whole of the inhabitants turned out, and some hoisted M'Nchkulla on their shoulders and chaired him round the place, yelling and shouting, while he looked very foolish and uncomfortable. This performance being ended we were conducted to a camping-place destitute of all shade near a pool of muddy water, and we gladly shifted to a more suitable spot the following day.
Mona Kasanga hurried off with his mother and wife, being anxious to put as great a distance as possible between himself and Kasongo.
The duty of guiding us to Kasongo's now devolved on M'Nchkulla, who, in company with the chief of the village, made demands for increased payment. They stated that Mona Kasanga, as headman, received the lion's share of that given by me at Tipo-tipo's, and as M'Nchkulla had now succeeded to the position of principal guide he should properly receive the same amount as his predecessor.
It was further maintained that as this new engagement was entered into at the village of his chief that personage was entitled to a fee; besides which M'Nchkulla refused to proceed without half-a-dozen of his fellow-villagers who also expected payment for their services.
Kongwé would willingly have taken upon himself to show the road but feared his countrymen, for being of lower rank than M'Nchkulla he would have been punished had he dared to supersede him.
No sooner were arrangements made to M'Nchkulla's satisfaction than he returned to the village and made merry on pombé. The next day he also devoted to the worship of the African Bacchus, and he proved a very poor specimen of a guide when brought into camp on the third day, being so drunk at starting that two friends were obliged to help him along.
We reached the village of Munza on the 21st of October, passing on our way over the rocky Kilwala hills, and through plains, partly forest, with other portions more park-like with open meadows and many streams.
There were also small hills of gneiss and granite, much weather-worn, the effects of sun and rain having split large blocks into fragments which lay more as though they had been piled together instead of being originally part of one shattered mass.
Charcoal-burners' fires were frequently seen and some villages had foundries, the hæmatite ore being obtained by digging pits sometimes twenty and thirty feet deep.
At Munza we found a party belonging to Jumah Merikani, who had a large permanent camp at Kasongo's head-quarters, and they said that a Portuguese trader from the West Coast was also there. They had heard nothing of our approach and were much astonished at seeing us.
This meeting was fortunate since M'Nchkulla and his friends had taken the opportunity of bolting; but Jumah's people promised me a guide to his camp, for which I started after remaining a day to obtain provisions, as Kasongo's place, Kwintaha, was reported to be hungry.
The guide was a Mrua named Ngoöni, who had been lent to Jumah by Kasongo during his stay, and who had learnt to talk Kisuahili very fairly.
We made two marches through fertile and open country, with many villages lately destroyed by parties reported to belong to Kasongo and the Portuguese. The people had been carried off as slaves, the country laid waste, and banana-trees and oil-palms cut down.
Situated in the middle of an extensive plain we saw a few huts occupied by people employed in the manufacture of salt.
This plain I was informed was Kasongo's own especial property, and worked by his own slaves and retainers. There were many others in the surrounding country which were the property of a chief who paid heavy tribute to Kasongo for the right of manufacturing salt.
There is scarcely any vegetation in these plains, the soil, springs, oozes, and pools being all salt. In one instance a small runing stream is also salt, but it soon falls into a fresh-river water.
The manner in which salt is manufactured here differs somewhat from that already described.
A shape framed like an inverted cone made of sticks joined together by hoops at short intervals, is fastened to four or five stout stakes planted in the ground. The inside of this cone being carefully lined with large leaves, and grass being put into the apex to act as filter, it is filled with the soil. Boiling water is then poured into it, and the salt being dissolved oozes through the grass and drips out at the apex of the cone into a gourd or earthen pot. The water is then evaporated, and the salt, which is impure and dirty and usually contains much salpetre, is formed into small cones averaging three pounds in weight.
This salt is carried long distances for purposes of trade and is greedily sought after by tribes who have none in their country.
After a hot afternoon march through an extensive marsh, with water and mud waist-deep in the only practicable passage through the dense vegetation by which it was overgrown, we arrived on the banks of a small stream shaded by fine trees, and on the other side was Kilemba, Jumah Merikani's settlement.
We halted until a messenger had been sent to apprise Jumah Merikani of our arrival, according to Arab etiquette, and when he returned we crossed the stream.
As I reached the other bank my hand was warmly grasped and shaken by a fine, portly Arab with a slight dash of the tar-brush, who gave me the benefit of the only two English words he knew : "Good morning."
This was Jumah Merikani, who proved to be the kindest and most hospitable of the many friends I found amongst the Arab traders in Africa.
He conducted me to his large and substantially built house, situated in the midst of a village surrounded by large plantations of rice and corn, and did everything in his power to make me feel thoroughly at home and comfortable.
