We had continued bickering again, for Bhi had taken
such fright at this kind of rough handling, and the
“ push-ahead ” manner in which I persisted “ riding over
the lords of the soil,” that I could hardly drag the party
along,
However, on the 18th, after breakfasting at Buhl’s, we
walked into Mihambo, and took all the camp by surprise.
I found the Union Jack hoisted up on a flag-staff, high
above all the trees, in the boma. Baraka said he had
done this to show the Watuta that the place was occupied
by men with guns—a necessary precaution, as all the
villages in the neighbourhood had, since my departure,
been visited and plundered by them. Lumdrdsi, the chief
of the district, who lived ten miles to the eastward, had
been constantly, pressing him to leave this post and come
to his palace, as he felt greatly affronted at our having
shunned him and put up with Ruhe. He did not want
property, he said, but he could not bear that the strangers
had lived with his mtoto, or child, which Rnbb was, and
yet would not live with him. He thought Baraka’s determined
obstinacy on this could only be caused by the
influence of the head man of the village, and threatened
that if Baraka did not come to visit him at once, he would
have the head man beheaded. Then, shifting round a bit,
he thought of ordering his subjects to starve the visitors
into submission, and said he must have a hongo equal to
Ruhr’s. To all this Baraka replied, that he was merely a
servant, and as he had orders to stop where he was, he
could not leave it until I came; but to show there was no
ill feeling towards him, he sent the chief a cloth.
These first explanations over, I entered my tent, in
which Baraka had been living, and there I found a lot of
my brass wires on the ground, lying scattered about. I
did not like the look of this, so ordered Bombay to resume
his position of factotum, and count over the kit. Whilst
this was going on, a villager came to me with a wire, and
asked me to change it for a cloth. I saw at once what
the game was; so I asked my friend where he got it, on
which he at once pointed to Baraka. I then heard the
men who were standing round us say one to another in
under-tones, giggling with the fun of it, “ Oh, what a shame
of him t Did you hear what Bana said, and that fool’s
reply to it ? What a shame of him to tell in that way.”
Without appearing to know, or rather to hear, the by-play
that was going on, I now said to Baraka, “ How is it this
man has got one of my wires, for I told you not to touch
or unpack them during my absence?” To which he coolly
replied, in face of such evidence, “ I t is not one of your
wires; I never gave away one of yours; there are lots
more wires besides yours in the country. The man tells
a falsehood; he had the wire before, but now, seeing
your cloth open, wants to exchange it.” “ If that is the
case,” I said, taking things easy, “ how is it you have
opened my loads and scattered the wires about in the
tent ?” “ Oh, that was to take care of them; for I thought,
if they were left outside all night with the rest of the
property, some one would steal them, and I should get the
blame of it.”
Further parley was useless; for, though both my wires
and cloths were short, still it was better not to kick up a
row, when I had so much to do to keep all my men in
good temper for the journey. Baraka then, wishing to
beguile me, as he thought he could do, into believing him
a wonderful man for both pluck and honesty, said he had
had many battles to fight with the men since I had been
gone 'to Kaze, for there were two strong parties in the
camp; those who, during the late rebellion at Zanzibar,
had belonged to the Arabs that sided with Sultan Majid,
and were royalists, and those who, having belonged to the
rebellious Arabs, were on the opposite side. The battle
commenced, he stated, by the one side abusing the other
for their deeds during that rebellion, the rebels in this sort