A t the distance o f twenty-six miles from
Kafurro we made our third camp near some I
wave-worn sheets and protruding humps of
brown-veined porphyry, and close to an arm of
the Uhimba lake, which swarmed with hippopotami.
There were traces o f water or wave action
on this hard p o rp h y ry visible at about fifty feet
above the present level. Some o f these humps
were exposed in the water also, and showed
similar effects to those observed behind our
camp.
During the next two days we travelled twenty-
seven miles south through a depression, or a
longitudinal valley, parallel to Uhimba lake and
the course o f the Alexandra, with only an intervening
ridge excluding the latter from our
view. T a ll truncated hill-cones rise every now
and then with) a singular resemblance to each
other, to the same altitude as the grassy ridges
which flank them. Their summits are flat, but
the iron-stone faithfully indicates b y its erosions
the element which separated them from the
ridges, and first furrowed the valley.
Uhimba, placed b y Rumanika in the charge
o f his sons K a k o k o | Kananga, and Ruhinda, is
sixty-eight miles south o f his capital, and consists
o f a few settlements o f herdsmen. It was, a
few years a go , a debatable land between Usui
and Karagwe, but upon the conquest o f Kishakka
b y Ruanda, Rumanika occupied it lest his jealous
and ill-conditioned rival, Mankorongo o f Usui,
should do so.
A t this place I met messengers from Mankorongo
, despatched b y him to invite me to go
and see him, and who, with all the impudence
characteristic o f their behaviour to the Arabs,
declared that if I attempted to traverse any
country in his neighbourhood without paying him
the compliment o f a visit, it would be my utter ruin!
T h e y were sent back with a peacieful message,
and told to say that I was bound for Kib o go ra ’s
capital, to try and search out a road across
Urundi to the west, arid that if I did not succeed
I would think o f Mankorongo’s words; at the
same time, Mankorongo was to be sure that it
I was waylaid in the forest b y any large armed
party with a view to intimidation, that party
would be sorry for it.
r had heard o f Mankorongo’s extortions from
Arabs and Waganda, and how he had proved
himself a worthy successor to the rapacious
Swarora, who caused so much trouble to S p ek e
and Grant.
During the second day o f our courteous intercourse
with K ak o k o , I ascended a mount some
600 feet high about three miles from camp, to
take bearings o f the several features which
Kananga was requested to show me. Fiv e
countries were exposed to view, Karagwe,
X2