THE MARCH DELAYED.

21

bazaar-all its flints, fish, rice, grog, and sixpenny accordions, not worth more than ten pounds—had too many attractions for our men; and we did not get away till the following day, after having drunk success to the expedition in a bottle of Colonel Rigby's champagne, and seen our kind host into his boat on his return to Zanzibar.

CHAPTER III.

JOURNEY TO KAZEH, 500 MILES IN THE INTERIOR-ESCORT AND CASUALTIES ON THE MARCH-CROSS THE EAST AFRICAN CHAIN INTO UGOGO-CLIMATE AND DISEASES OF KAZEH-AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTS-WILD ANIMALS, BIRDS, AND FISH— FOUR NATIVE RACES, THE WAZARAMO, WASAGARA, WAGOGO, AND WANYAMUEZI.

ON the 2d of October 1860, we started from Bagomoyo on the East African coast for Kazeh, 500 miles in the interior of Africa, latitude 5° south. The party consisted of the following:

Said bin Salem, native commandant.

Bombay, factotum, interpreter.

Baraka, commanding Zanzibar men, interpreter.

Three or four women.

Mabrook, valet, donkey-man.

Sixty-four Seedee boys,

115 porters of the interior, Carrying our kit and

Sbarter.

Eleven mules carrying ammunition.

Five donkeys to carry the sick.

Twenty-five Belooch soldiers escorted us for the first thirteen stages, and we had the under-mentioned casualties during the journey :—

Private Peters dead;

Five other privates sent back sick ;
About thirty Seedees deserted;

One discharged;

113 porters deserted;

Eleven mules and two donkeys dead ;

Fifteen out of twenty goats stolen ; and

Our native commandant, the Sheikh, hors de combat.

The daily stages have been so well and so fully described by Captain Speke that I shall not dwell upon them, but merely mention a few incidents descriptive of our life in the interior, and the fauna we observed. To accomplish this distance of 500 miles in 71 travelling days, of from 1 to 25 miles per day on foot, took us all the months of October, November, December, and twenty-five days of January, struggling against the caprices of our followers, the difficulties of the countries passed through, and the final desertion of our porters.

There being no roads, merely a rough track, no beasts of burden nor conveyances of any kind in the country, our whole kit was put into loads of 50 and 60 lb. each, without lock or key, and the porters paraded up and down with them a whole day trying

24

CRIES OF "BOMAH" AND "POSHO."

their weight-a ludicrous scene of confusion and squabbling. Their captain, distinguished by a high head-dress of ostrich plumes stuck through a strip of scarlet flannel, seeing all ready, led the caravan in single file with great dignity during the march. The pace was never more than three and a half miles per hour. When the captain put down his load for as many minutes as he thought necessary, the rest, a gang of naked, woolly-haired negroes, with only an airy covering of goat-skin in front, would also stop and refresh themselves with pipes, snuff, grain, dancing, and singing choruses. Generally there was an argument to settle how long the march should continue; and many were the excuses found for a halt, no water ahead being a common one. Once camped, and the loads stacked amidst cries of "Bomah!" or ring-fence, and "Posho!" or food, the first concern with every one was to receive his day's wages, consisting of either a portion of cloth or one necklace of beads, while we retired to tents seven feet square, which were generally sheltered under a tree, with the kit and natives all round us, a motley crew. If we had that day arrived at the headquarters of a sultan, an officer would call saying his master must have so many cloths, with various other articles, and he must himself have so many more. Strong arguments and menaces would follow, and it sometimes took several days to the conference, as the sultan would be reported absent, or, more often, tipsy. However, once settled, if no porters absconded, we were free to proceed on our journey. I may here remark that nothing can exceed the noise and jollity of an African camp at night. We, the masters, were often unable to hear ourselves talk for

THE RIVER KINGANI.

25

the merry song and laughter, the rattle of drums, jingling of bells, beating of old iron, and discordant talk going on round our tents. No Hindoo dare be so rude in your hearing, but an African only wonders that you don't enjoy the fun.

We passed through three distinct countriesUzaramo, Usagara, and Ugogo. Now at Kazeh we were in Unyamuezi-translated "Country of the Moon." Our interpreters had been Africans speaking Hindostanee, and seemed to learn the dialects as they went along, their native Kisuahili tongue being to them a useful basis. The four countries were not governed by one king, but divided into provinces, each from 20 to 30 miles across; and each had its despot ruler, the terror of travellers, who were forced to pay whatever tax was demanded without reference to any scale. The aristocrats or chiefs lived in no greater luxury than the poor, although they had a revenue from fines, taxes, a tusk of every elephant killed or found dead in their province, and the produce of large herds of cattle and of farming.

On leaving the coast our path ran up a broad, flat, dry valley of grass and trees for twenty marches. At the ninth stage, from a ridge of rising ground composed of small pebbles in rotten sandstone, we saw distant hills to the north-west, and had a good view of the sluggish, winding Kingani, which we did not altogether lose sight of till the thirteenth march. We crossed the East African chain at an elevation of 4750 feet, and got into Ugogo, a plateau without a river, and its "neeka" or deserted land requiring abundant rain to make it look at all green. These hills were tame in general outline; the flora also was poor. We