Our mules here gave us the slip again, and walked all
the way back to Marenga Mkhali, where they were found
and brought back by some Wagogo, who took four yards
of merikani in advance, with a promise of four more on
return, for the job—their chief being security for their
fidelity. This business detained us two days, during
which time I shot a new variety of florikan, peculiar in
having a light blue band stretching from the nose over
the eye to the occiput. Each day, while we resided here,
cries were raised by the villagers that the Wahumba were
coming, and then all the cattle out in the plains, both far
and near, were driven into the village for protection.
At last, on the 26th, as the mules were brought in,
To camp in , 1 paM a hongo or tax of four barsati and
Bush, 2biA. four yards of chintz to the chief, and departed,
but not until one of my porters, a Mhdhe,
obtained a fat dog for his dinner; he had set his heart
on it, and would not move until he had killed it, and
tied it on to his load for the evening’s repast. Passing
through the next villages—a collection called Kifukuro—
we had to pay another small tax of two barsati and four
yards of chintz to the chief. There we breakfasted, and
pushed on, carrying water to a bivouac in the jungles, as
the famine precluded our taking the march more easily.
Pushing on again, we cleared out of the woods, and
To e. Kanyenys, arrived at the eastern border of the largest
clearance of Ugogo, Kanyenye. Here we
were forced to halt a day, as the mules were done up,
and eight of the Wanyam&dzi porters absconded, carrying
with them the best part of their loads. There was also
another inducement for stopping here; for, after stacking
the loads, as we usually did on arriving in camp, against
a large gouty-limbed tree, a hungry Mgogo, on eyeing our
guns, offered his services to show us some bicornis rhinoceros,
which, he said, paid nightly visits to certain bitter
pools that lay in the nullah bottoms not far off. This
exciting intelligence made me inquire if it was not possible
to find them at once; but, being assured that they
Our Camp in Dgcgo.
lived very far off, and that the best chance was the night,
I gave way, and settled on starting at ten, to arrive at
the ground before the full moon should rise. ,
I set forth with the guide and two of the sheikhs boys,
each carrying a single rifle, and ensconced myself m the
nullah, to hide until our expected visitors should arrive,
and there remained until midnight. When the hitherto
noisy villagers turned into bed, the silvery moon shed
her light on the desolate scene, and the Mgogo guide,
firing fright, bolted. He had not, however, gone long,
when, looming above us, coming over the horizon line,
was the very animal we wanted.
In a fidgety manner the beast then descended, as if he
expected some danger in store—and he was not wrong;
for, attaching a bit of white paper to the fly-sight ot my
Blissett, I approached him, crawling under cover oi the
banks until within eighty yards of him, when, finding
that the moon shone full on his flank, I raised myse
upright and planted a bullet behind his left shoulder.
Thus died my first rhinoceros.