for his bray sent them flying in all directions.
Scores of times during a day’s march we were
asked the name of the beast, and, having learnt
it, they were never tired of talking about the
“Mpunda.”
One must not rashly impute all the blame to
the Arabs and Wa-Swahili of the Zanzibar
coast for their excesses in Manyema, for the
natives are also in a way to blame. Just as the
Saxon and Dane and Jute, invited by the Britons,
became their masters, so the Arabs, invited by
the Manyema tb assist them against one another,
have become their tyrants.
Bribes were offered to us three times by
Manyema chiefs to assist them in destroying
their neighbours, to whom they are of near kin,
and with whom they have almost daily intimate
relations. Our refusal of ivory and slaves appeared
to surprise the chiefs, and they expressed
the opinion that we white men were not as good
as the Arabs, for— though it was true we did
not rob them of their wives, ravish and steal
their daughters, enslave their sons, or despoil
them of a single article—the Arabs would have
assisted them.
One of my men, who knew Manyema of old,
said, “ I told you, master, what kind of people
these were: they have always got a little war
on hand, and they only wait the arrival of the
Arabs to begin it. The quarrel is always with their
nearest relatives and friends, whom, however,
for the sake of the family alliances between
them, they always take care to-warn. I was
once with Mohammed bin Gharib (Livingstone’s
friend) when he undertook to fight a tribe for
Mwana Ngoy of Kizambala on the Luama. We
were ten hours firing away as fast as we could, but
not a single soul was wounded of either party!
“Mwana Ngoy, you must know, had told his
friend the hour Mohammed would begin, and
his friend obligingly left the field clear. Some
of the boldest had amused themselves by showing
their heads, just to let us know that they
were there, but I assure you no one was hurt
in the least.
“Of late years it has not been so bloodless,
because the Arabs have learned their tricks.
When they set out now, they never tell their
native confederate when they intend to begin,
because they don’t like to throw away their
powder for nothing. In this manner large numbers
of slaves have been captured and many men
killed. After such an event, both sides, those
who have suffered and those who were the cause
and who bribed the Arabs to the war, fall to
weeping and abusing the Arabs violently, and
with pathetic cries bewail the murdered, but
never think of accusing themselves.”
The above is the story of Wadi Safeni, the
coxswain of the boat on Lake Victoria.