2 K6 THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. I A p r i l7-IO, 18751
^ L Usavara. ]
Mtesa, “ show my women how white men can
shoot.” T o represent all the sons o f Japhet on
this occasion was a great responsibility, but I
am happy to say that— whether owing to the
gracious influence o f some unseen divinity who
has the guardianship o f their interests or whether
from mere luck— 1 nearly severed the head of
the young crocodile from its b od y at the distance
o f 100 yards with a three-ounce ball, an act
Which was accepted as conclusive p roof that all
white men are dead shots.
In the afternoon we amused ourselves with
target practice, at which an accident occurred that
might have produced grave results. A No. 8
double-barrelled rifle was fractured in Mtesa’s
hands at the second shot, but fortunately without
injuring either him or the page on whose
shoulders it rested. General alarm prevailed for
a short time, until, seeing that it was about to
be accepted as a bad omen, I examined the
rifle and showed Mtesa an ancient flaw in the
barrel, which his go od sense perceived had led
to the fracture. T h e gun was a v e ry old one,
and had evidently seen much service.
On the 10th o f A p ril the court broke up its
hunting lodges at Usavara, on Murchison Bay,
and moved to the capital, whither I was strongly
urged to follow. Mtesa, escorted b y about two
hundred musketeers and the great Wakungu and
their armed retainers, travelled quickly; but
[■April iO( 1875.-] T o t h e im p e r i a l c a p i t a l .
Usavara. J
owing to my being obliged to house my boat
from the hot sun, I did not reach the capital
until 1 P.M.
T he road had been prepared for his Imperial
Majesty’s hunting excursion, and was 8 feet
wide, through jungle and garden, forest and
field. Beautiful landscapes were thus enjoyed o f
rolling land and placid lake, o f gigantic tamarinds
and gum-trees, o f extensive banana groves and
plantations o f the ficus, from the bark o f which
the national dress, or mbugu, is made. T h e
peculiar dome-like huts, each with an attempt
at a portico, were buried deep in dense bowers
o f plantains which filled the air with the odour
o f their mellow rich fruit.
The road wound upward to the summits o f
green hills which commanded exquisite prospects,
and down again into the sheltered bosoms o f
w o od y nooks, and vales, and tree-embowered
ravines. Streams o f clear water murmured
through these depressions, as th ey flowed
towards Murchison Bay. The verdure was o f
a brilliant green, freshened b y the unfailing rains
of the Equator; the sk y was o f the bluest, and
the heat, though g rea t, was tempered b y the
hill breezes, and frequently b y the dense foliage
overhead.
Within three hours’ march from Usavara, w e
saw the capital crowning the summit o f a smooth
rounded hill— a large cluster o f tall conical grass
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. VOL. I. S