How I Found Livingstone by Henry M. Stanley (read after .txt) đź“–
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heralded by musketry-shots and horn-blowing, the usual signs of an
approaching caravan in this land. His sick men were considerably
improved, but they required one more day of rest at Kingaru. In
the afternoon he came to lay siege to my generosity, by giving
details of Soor Hadji Palloo’s heartless cheats upon him; but I
informed him, that since I had left Bagamoyo, I could no longer be
generous; we were now in a land where cloth was at a high premium;
that I had no more cloth than I should need to furnish food for
myself and men; that he and his caravan had cost me more money
and trouble than any three caravans I had, as indeed was the case.
With this counter-statement he was obliged to be content. But I
again solved his pecuniary doubts by promising that, if he hurried
his caravan on to Unyanyembe, be should have no cause of complaint.
The 5th of April saw the fourth caravan vanish for once in our
front, with a fair promise that, however fast we should follow,
we should not see them the hither side of Sinbamwenni.
The following morning, in order to rouse my people from the
sickened torpitude they had lapsed into, I beat an exhilarating
alarum on a tin pan with an iron ladle, intimating that a sofari
was about to be undertaken. This had a very good effect, judging
from the extraordinary alacrity with which it was responded to.
Before the sun rose we started. The Kingaru villagers were out
with the velocity of hawks for any rags or refuse left behind us.
The long march to Imbiki, fifteen miles, proved that our protracted
stay at Kingaru had completely demoralized my soldiers and
pagazis. Only a few of them had strength enough to reach Imbiki
before night. The others, attending the laden donkeys, put in an
appearance next morning, in a lamentable state of mind and body.
Khamisi—the pagazi with the weak loins—had deserted, taking with
him two goats, the property tent, and the whole of Uledi’s
personal wealth, consisting of his visiting dish-dasheh—a long
shirt of the Arabic pattern, 10 lbs. of beads, and a few fine
cloths, which Uledi, in a generous fit, had intrusted to him, while
he carried the pagazi’s load, 70 lbs. of Bubu beads. This
defalcation was not to be overlooked, nor should Khamisi be
permitted to return without an effort to apprehend him. Accordingly
Uledi and Ferajji were despatched in pursuit while we rested at
Imbiki, in order to give the dilapidated soldiers and animals time
to recruit.
On the 8th we continued our journey, and arrived at Msuwa. This
march will be remembered by our caravan as the most fatiguing of all,
though the distance was but ten miles. It was one continuous jungle,
except three interjacent glades of narrow limits, which gave us
three breathing pauses in the dire task of jungle travelling. The
odour emitted from its fell plants was so rank, so pungently acrid,
and the miasma from its decayed vegetation so dense, that I expected
every moment to see myself and men drop down in paroxysms of acute
fever. Happily this evil was not added to that of loading and
unloading the frequently falling packs. Seven soldiers to attend
seventeen laden donkeys were entirely too small a number while passing
through a jungle; for while the path is but a foot wide, with a
wall of thorny plants and creepers bristling on each side, and
projecting branches darting across it, with knots of spikey twigs
stiff as spike-nails, ready to catch and hold anything above four
feet in height, it is but reasonable to suppose that donkeys
standing four feet high, with loads measuring across from bale to
bale four feet, would come to grief. This grief was of frequent
recurrence here, causing us to pause every few minutes for
re-arrangements. So often had this task to be performed, that the
men got perfectly discouraged, and had to bespoken to sharply
before they set to work. By the time I reached Msuwa there was
nobody with me and the ten donkeys I drove but Mabruk the Little,
who, though generally stolid, stood to his work like a man.
Bombay and Uledi were far behind, with the most jaded donkeys.
Shaw was in charge of the cart, and his experiences were most
bitter, as he informed me he had expended a whole vocabulary of
stormy abuse known to sailors, and a new one which he had invented
ex tempore. He did not arrive until two o’clock next morning, and
was completely worn out.
Another halt was fixed at Msuwa, that we and our animals might
recuperate. The chief of the village, a white man in everything
but colour, sent me and mine the fattest broad-tailed sheep of his
flock, with five measures of matama grain. The mutton was
excellent, unapproachable. For his timely and needful present
I gave him two doti, and amused him with an exhibition of the
wonderful mechanism of the Winchester rifle, and my breechloading
revolvers.
He and his people were intelligent enough to comprehend the utility
of these weapons at an emergency, and illustrated in expressive
pantomime the powers they possessed against numbers of people
armed only with spears and bows, by extending their arms with an
imaginary gun and describing a clear circle. “Verily,” said
they, “the Wasungu are far wiser than the Washensi. What heads
they have! What wonderful things they make! Look at their
tents, their guns, their time-pieces, their clothes, and that
little rolling thing (the cart) which carries more than five
men,–que!”
On the 10th, recovered from the excessive strain of the last march,
the caravan marched out of Msuwa, accompanied by the hospitable
villagers as far as their stake defence, receiving their unanimous
“Kwaheris.” Outside the village the march promised to be less
arduous than between Imbiki and Msuwa. After crossing a beautiful
little plain intersected by a dry gully or mtoni, the route led by
a few cultivated fields, where the tillers greeted us with one grand
unwinking stare, as if fascinated.
Soon after we met one of those sights common in part of the world,
to wit a chain slave-gang, bound east. The slaves did not appear to
be in any way down-hearted on the contrary, they seemed imbued with
the philosophic jollity of the jolly servant of Martin Chuzzlewit.
Were it not for their chains, it would have been difficult to discover
master from slave; the physiognomic traits were alike—the mild
benignity with which we were regarded was equally visible on all faces.
The chains were ponderous—they might have held elephants captive;
but as the slaves carried nothing but themselves, their weight could
not have been insupportable.
The jungle was scant on this march, and though in some places the
packs met with accidents, they were not such as seriously to
retard progress. By 10 A.M. we were in camp in the midst of an
imposing view of green sward and forest domed by a cloudless sky.
We had again pitched our camp in the wilderness, and, as is the
custom of caravans, fired two shots to warn any Washensi having
grain to sell, that we were willing to trade.
Our next halting-place was Kisemo, distant but eleven miles from
Msuwa, a village situated in a populous district, having in its
vicinity no less than five other villages, each fortified by
stakes and thorny abattis, with as much fierce independence as if
their petty lords were so many Percys and Douglasses. Each
topped a ridge, or a low hummock, with an assumption of defiance of
the cock-on-its-own-dunghill type. Between these humble eminences
and low ridges of land wind narrow vales which are favored with the
cultivation of matama and Indian corn. Behind the village flows
the Ungerengeri River, an impetuous stream during the Masika
season, capable of overflowing its steep banks, but in the dry
season it subsides into its proper status, which is that of a small
stream of very clear sweet water. Its course from Kisemo is
southwest, then easterly ; it is the main feeder of the Kingani
River.
The belles of Kisemo are noted for their vanity in brass wire,
which is wound in spiral rings round their wrists and ankles, and
the varieties of style which their hispid heads exhibit; while
their poor lords, obliged to be contented with dingy torn clouts
and split ears, show what wide sway Asmodeus holds over this
terrestrial sphere—for it must have been an unhappy time when the
hard-besieged husbands finally gave way before their spouses.
Besides these brassy ornaments on their extremities, and the
various hair-dressing styles, the women of Kisemo frequently wear
lengthy necklaces, which run in rivers of colours down their
bodies.
A more comical picture is seldom presented than that of one of
these highly-dressed females engaged in the homely and necessary
task of grinding corn for herself and family. The grinding
apparatus consists of two portions: one, a thick pole of hard wood
about six feet long, answering for a pestle; the other, a
capacious wooden mortar, three feet in height.
While engaged in setting his tent, Shaw was obliged to move a small
flat stone, to drive a peg into the ground. The village chief, who
saw him do it, rushed up in a breathless fashion, and replaced the
stone instantly, then stood on it in an impressive manner,
indicative of the great importance attached to that stone and
location. Bombay, seeing Shaw standing in silent wonder at the
act, volunteered to ask the chief what was the matter. The Sheikh
solemnly answered, with a finger pointing downward, “Uganga!”
Whereupon I implored him to let me see what was under the stone.
With a graciousness quite affecting he complied. My curiosity was
gratified with the sight of a small whittled stick, which pinned
fast to the ground an insect, the cause of a miscarriage to a young
female of the village.
During the afternoon, Uledi and Ferajji, who had been despatched
after the truant Khamisi, returned with him and all the missing
articles. Khamisi, soon after leaving the road and plunging into
the jungle, where he was mentally triumphing in his booty, was met
by some of the plundering Washensi, who are always on the qui vive
for stragglers, and unceremoniously taken to their village in the
woods, and bound to a tree preparatory, to being killed. Khamisi
said that he asked them why they tied him up, to which they answered,
that they were about to kill him, because he was a Mgwana, whom they
were accustomed to kill as soon as they were caught. But Uledi and
Ferajji shortly after coming upon the scene, both well armed, put
an end to the debates upon Khamisi’s fate, by claiming him as
an absconding pagazi from the Musungu’s camp, as well as all the
articles he possessed at the time of capture. The robbers did not
dispute the claim for the pagazi, goats, tent, or any other
valuable found with him, but intimated that they deserved a reward
for apprehending him. The demand being considered just, a reward
to the extent of two doti and a fundo, or ten necklaces of beads,
was given.
Khamisi, for his desertion and attempted robbery, could not be
pardoned without first suffering punishment. He had asked at
Bagamoyo, before enlisting in my service, an advance of $5 in
money, and had received it, and a load of Bubu beads, no heavier
than a pagazis load, had been given him to carry; he had,
therefore, no excuse for desertion. Lest I should overstep
prudence, however, in punishing him, I convened a court of eight
pagazis and four soldiers to sit in judgment, and asked them to
give me their decision as to what should be done. Their unanimous
verdict was
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