merikani. Baraka approached me triumphantly, saying
how well he had managed the business. M’yonga did not
wish to see me, because he did not know the coast language.
He was immensely pleased with the present I
had given him, and said he was much and very unjustly
abused by the Arabs, who never came this way, saying
he was a bad man. He should be very glad to see Grant,
and would take nothing from him; and, though he did
not see me in person, he would feel much aifronted if I
did not stop the night there. In the meanwhile he would
have the cows brought in, for he could not allow any one
to leave his country abused in any way.
My men had greatly amused him by firing their guns
off and showing him the use of their sword-bayonets. I
knew, as a matter of course, that if I stopped any longer I
should be teased for more cloths, and gave orders to my
men to march the same instant, saying, if they did not—
for I saw them hesitate—I Would give the cows to the villagers,
since I knew that was the thing that weighed on
their minds. This raised a mutiny. No one would go
forward with the two cows behind; besides which, the
day was far spent, and there was nothing but jungle, they
said, beyond. The kirangozi would not show the way,
nor would any man lift a load. A great confusion ensued.
I knew they were, telling lies, and would not enter the
village, but shot the cows when they arrived, for the villagers
to eat, to show them I cared for nothing but making
headway, and remained out in the open all night.
Next morning, sure enough, before we could get under
way, M’yonga sent his prime minister to say that the king’s
sisters and other members of his family had been crying
and tormenting him all night for having let me off so
cheaply*rthey had got nothing to cover their nakedness,
and I must pay something more. This provoked fresh
squabbles. The drums had beaten and the tax was settled;
I could not pay more. The kirangozi, however, said he
would not move a peg unless I gave something more,
else he would be seized on his way back. His “ children”
all said the same; and as I thought Grant would only
be worsted if I did not keep friends with the scoundrel,
I gave four yards more merikani, and then went on my
way. .
For the first few miles there were villages, but after'
that a long tract of jungle, inhabited chiefly by antelopes
and rhinoceros. It was wilder in appearance than most
parts of Unyamudzi. In this jungle a tributary nullah
to the Gombd, called Niirhungure, is the boundary-line
between the great Country of the Moon and the kingdom
of Uzinza.
[Note to page 86.—It may be as well to remark here, that the figures, both
in latitude and longitude, representing the position of Kaze, computed by
Mr Dunkin, accord with what appeared in * Blackwood’s Magazine,’ computed
by myself, and in the R. G. S. Journal Map, computed by Captain
George.
This applies also to the position of Ujiji; at any rate, the practical differences
are so trifling that it would require a microscope to detect them on
the map.]