if people died through hunger there was not the
slightest doubt but that the dying would impute
blame to us for having reduced them to such
straits. To prevent the calamity which would
surely follow absolute poverty, it was our duty
to see that some measures should be adopted
to punish those who would provoke such fright-
ful suffering. A man had been found that after-
noon with a large stock of beads, which he had
filched from the general store— that man was
Uledi. What ought to be done with him?
After much urging, Manwa Sera, the chief,
said that it was a very hard case, seeing it was
Uledi. Had it been any of the Goee-G-oee.s, men
who had for months been tenderly cared for,
who had not toiled from morn to eve in the
cataracts, nor borne the fatigue and toil of the
day; who had never been distinguished for worth,
but were always a shiftless and'cowardly set,'
he would have given his vote for drowning him
by hanging a great stone to his neck and pitching
him into the river; but as it happened to
be Uledi, he therefore proposed that he should
receive a thorough flogging, to deter others
from repeating the crime. The votes of the
chiefs were in accord with Manwa Sera’s, and
three-fourths of the people cried out for “ flogging”
u Then I turned to the boat’s crew, and said,
“Now you boys, you who know Uledi so well,
rMay *7. i877-1 ULEDI SENTENCED TO FLOGGING. 1 2 5
Mowa. 1
and have followed him like children through a
hundred rough scenes, speak, what shall be done
to him?”
Mpwapwa, whose duty was to watch the boat
in camp, and who was one of the most reliable
and steady men, replied, “Well, master, it is a
hard question. Uledi is like our elder brother,
and to give our voice for punishing him would
be like asking you to punish ourselves. But the
fathers of the people have demanded that he
shall be beaten, and I am only like a boy among
them. Yet, master, for our sakes beat him only
just a little. Mpwapwa has said.”
“And you, Marzoukp-Uledi’s companion on
the rock at the fourth cataract of the Stanley
Falls—what do you say?”
“Verily, master, Mpwapwa has spoken what
my tongue would have uttered, yet I would say,
remember it is Uledi.”
“And you, Shumari, who are Uledi’s brother,
what punishment shall I mete to this thief who
;would starve everybody, you and me?”
“Ah, dear master, your words are as lead.
¡Spare him! It is true Uledi has stolen, and he
has done very wrong. He is always stealing,
and I have scolded him often for it. I have
never stolen. No man can accuse me of taking
that which did not belong to me, and I am but
a boy, and Uledi is my elder. But please, master,
as the' chiefs say he must be flogged, give me