moreover, that some years ago we had been to Ujiji and
to Ukerdwd without having done any harm in those
places; and, further, since Musa had sent word that I
had done my best to subdue the war at Unyanyembe, and
had promised to do my best here, he, Sftwarora, had been
anxiously watching our movements, and longed for our
arrival. This looked famous, and it was agreed we should
move the next morning. Just then a new light broke in
on my defeat at Sorombo, for with Makinga I recognised
one of my former porters, who I had supposed was a
“ child ” of the Pig’s. This man now said before all my
men, Baraka included, that he wished to accept the load
of mzizima I had offered the Pig if he would go forward
with Baraka and tell Suwarora I wanted some porters to
help me to reach him. He was not a “ child ” of the Pig’s,
but a “ child ” of K’yengo’s ; and as Baraka would not
allow him to accept the load of mzizima, he went on to
K’yengo by himself, and told all that had happened. It
was now quite clear what motives induced Suwarora to
send out the three Wastii; but how I blessed Baraka for
this in my heart, though I said nothing about it to him,
for fear of his playing some more treacherous tricks. Grant
then told me Baraka had been frightened at Mininga, by
a.blackguard Mganga to whom he would not give a
present, into the belief that our journey would encounter
some terrible mishap; for, when the M’yonga catastrophe
happened, he thought that a fulfilment of the Mganga’s
prophecy.
I wished to move in the morning (23d), and had all
hands ready, but was told by Makinga he must be settled
with first. His dues for the present were four brass wires,
and as many more when we reached the palace. I could
not stand this : we were literally, as Mftsa said we should
be, being “ tom to pieces;” so I appealed to the mace-
bearers, protested that Makinga could have no claims on
me, as he was not a man of Usui, but a native of Utambara,
and brought on a row. On the other hand, as he
could not refute this, Makinga swore the mace was all a
pretence, and set a-fighting with the Wasui and all the
men in turn.
To put a stop to this, I ordered a halt, and called on
the district officer to assist us, on which he said he would
escort us on to Sftwarora’s if we would stop till next
morning. This was agreed to ; but in the night we were
robbed of three goats, which, he said he could not allow
to be passed over, lest Sftwarora might hear of it, and he
would get into a scrape. He pressed us strongly to stop
another day whilst he sought for them, but I told him I
would not, as his magic powder was weak, else he would
have found the scabbard we lost long before this
At last we got under way, and, after winding through
To ViremWs, a long forest, we. emerged on the first of the
populous parts of Usfti, a most convulsed-
looking country, of well-rounded hills composed of sandstone.
In all the parts not under cultivation they were
covered with brushwood. Here the little grass-hut villages
were not fenced by a boma, but were hidden in
large fields of plantains. Cattle were numerous, kept by
the Wahtima, who would not sell their milk to us because
we ate fowls and a bean called maharagfte.
Happily no one tried to pillage us here, so on we went
To vikora’s, to Vikora s, another officer, living at N’yaka-
‘ ' senye, under a sandstone hill, faced with a
dyke of white quartz, over which leaped a small stream
of water—a seventy-feet drop—which, it is said, Sftwarora
sometimes paid homage to when the land was
oppressed by drought. Yikora’s father it was whom Sir-
boko of Mininga shot. Usually he was very severe with
merchants in consequence of that act; but he did not
molest us, as the messenger who went on to Sftwarora
returned here just as we arrived, to say we must come
M