Kiriiru, where, as rice was grown—an article not to be
procured again on this side of Unyamuezi—we stopped a
day to lay in supplies of this most valuable of all travelling
oo ^ Here I obtained the most consistent accounts of
the river system which, within five days'journey, trends
through uzegura; and I concluded, from what I heard
that there is no doubt of the Mtikondokfia and Warni
nvers being one and the same stream. My informants
were the natives of the settlement, and they all concurred
^ tilB Kingani above the junction is called
the Kfifa, meaning the parent stream. Beyond it, following
under the line of the hills, at one day’s journey distant
there is a smaller river called Msonge. At an equal
distance beyond it, another of the same size is known as
Lungdrengdri; and a fourth river is the Wami, which
mout s in the sea at Utondue', between the ports of
Whindi and Saadani. In former years, the ivory-mer-
chants, ever seeking for an easy road for their trade, and
knowing they would have no hills to climb if they could
oidy gam a clear passage by this river from the interior
plateau to the sea, made friends with the native chiefs-of
Uzegura, and succeeded in establishing it as a thoroughfare
Avance, however, that fatal enemy to the negro
chiefs, made them overreach themselves by exorbitant
demands of taxes. Then followed contests for the right
of appropriating the taxes, and the whole ended in the
closing of the road, which both parties were equally
anxious to keep open for their mutual gain. This foolish
disruption having at first only lasted for a while, the road
was again opened and again closed, for the merchants
wanted aa easy passage, and the native chiefs desired
c oths. But it was shut again j and now we heard of
its being for a third time opened, with what success the
future only can determine—for experience will not teach
the negro, who thinks only for the moment. Had they
only sense to see, and patience to wait, the whole trade of
the interior would inevitably pass through their country
instead of Uzaramo; and instead of being poor in cloths,
they would be rich and well dressed like their neighbours.
But the curse of Noah sticks to these his grandchildren
by Ham, and no remedy that has yet been found will
relieve them. They require a government like ours in
India; and without it, the slave-trade will wipe them off
the face of the earth.
Now leaving the open parks of pretty acacias, we
To Dttthttmi, followed up the Mgazi branch of the Mgeta,
21si- traversed large tree-jungles, where the tall
palm is conspicuous, and drew up under the lumpy
Mkambaku, to find a residence for the day. Here an
Arab merchant, Khamis, bound for Zanzibar, obliged us
by agreeing for a few dollars to convey our recent spoils
in natural history to the coast.
My plans for the present were to reach Zungomero as
m soon as possible, as a few days’ halt would To Hozti, 22d. 1 . J be required there to fix the longitude of the
eastern flank of the East Coast Range by astronomical
observation; but on ordering the morning’s marr-b, the
porters—too well fed and lazy—thought our marching-*
rate much too severe, and resolutely refused to move.
They ought to have made ten miles a-day, but preferred
doing five. Argument was useless, and I was reluctant
to apply the stick, as the Arabs would have done when
they saw their porters trifling with their pockets. Determining,
however, not to be frustrated in this puerile
maimer, I ordered the bugler to sound the march, and
started with the mules and coast-men, trusting to Sheikh
and Baraka to bring on the Wanyamufizi as soon as they
could move them. The same day we crossed the Mgazi,
where we found several Wakhiitti spearing fish in the
muddy hovers of its banks.