ABSTRACT
We stayed three days at Kafro 1 during which time we rested & got rid of the remains of our fevers by eating quantities of tomatoes. We are all getting up our strength now, we do not get the violent fevers we had in Usongora & Ankori, & though the country is dried up & burnt black what water we get is good, the temperature does not seem to have so great a range here, the nights are not so intensely cold as in Ankori, & that was one of the great causes of our constant fevers. Please God we'll pull through. Stanley finally sent the King a present of a Winchester Rifle & 200 rounds of ammunition. It is now five days to the boundary of Karagwe, the country is up & down mountains all burnt & blackened & the monotony of the country is only relieved by the banana groves which are dotted here & there among the villages. [7 August] We passed Kienzie's2 settlement, a very flourishing one with quantities of cattle & goats in it, the fields are all marked out with hedges of milk bush which has a pretty effect, the village itself is also surrounded by a high hedge of it. Kienzi came out to say good bye & gave Stanley some beautiful spears & bows & arrows; all his young men escorted us out of the place with a tremendous noise. This is a tremendous country for lakes & mountains & in the wet season must be very pretty, on climbing the mountains one constantly comes on a beautiful, peaceful lake surrounded by hills. The King had given us guides so that we had to pay for no food, but just took bananas etc. as we wanted them, but Stanley was very careful & punished the Zanzibaris severely whenever the natives had reason to complain of them. Our real route to Msalala runs through Usui, but we hear that the chief of Usui is very extortionate & demands large hongo (tribute), we hear also that an Arab caravan is on its way' to Karagwe, but has been stopped by the King who has compelled the Arab to wait in order to get all his cloth from him, he will neither allow him to proceed on his journey or to return, Stanley has therefore decided to go by a slightly longer road between Usui & the lake, the people of which are governed by small chiefs & will not demand hongo. Of course if we chose we could easily force our way through Usui, but Stanley does not wish to
been constantly flogged, so Stanley told him he could stand it no longer; he had shot a friendly native & might have caused the caravan to be attacked in consequence, he had always been a source of endless trouble to us & he had also intrigued against the expedition at Kavalli's with the Pasha's people & therefore it was a case of blood for blood & he handed him over to the natives; they rushed at him with yells, bound him & carried him away. The guides tell us the natives will all collect tonight from the villages round & have a feast & drink quantities of pombe, they will have the prisoner bound in their midst & the women will all insult & beat him & when the men have drunk sufficient pombe to madden them, they will rush on him in a body & hew him to pieces. That is their custom. A horrible fate certainly, I cannot conceive a much worse, but it is a fate he has brought on himself & one which he richly deserves. The rest of the men who were found looting all received a sound flogging & peace was restored. These people have to be held with a very firm hand otherwise anarchy, confusion & ruin would be the result. [zs August] We left the lake at this point, we had been marching along its shores three days & had not yet reached the end of it, so it is large, we struck East straight for the Victoria Nyanza, whose banks we shall follow as far as M'salala, we should strike the lake slightly to the north of Bumbireh island. We marched east over the mountains & reached a large settlement on the table lands & camped in the middle of it beside a clear stream, there were enormous plantations of bananas & fields of manioc & food of all sorts. The Pasha & his party were somewhat behind the main body of the caravan & a large party of half drunken natives came up & barred the road & threatened with violent gestures to shoot him if he moved another step without paying bongo. They drew a line across the path & dared him to cross it. They had placed arrows in their bows & were getting more & more excited & the Pasha was getting in a terrible funk when fortunately Nelson came up with his company & cleared them out pretty sharp. Stanley was furious & sent for the chief & told him if he & his people wished to be friends let them be so, but if they wished to fight his guns were ready & he would destroy the whole settlement, the chief urged friendship & said that this party of men had come from a village some distance off & were all half drunk, to which Stanley answered it did not matter whether they were drunk or not, that they had threatened his people & if a drunken man entered his camp he would at once shoot him & make war. The chief then harangued his people & warned them to be careful. We stayed here a day the natives brought in abundance of food but were rather cheeky. Numbers of the Pasha's people almost poisoned themselves with eating manioc which if not prepared properly is poisonous especially if eaten raw which they are very fond of doing-there is an immense amount of prussic acid in it. The next
day [ z5 August] we reached the country of Kajumah who is the largest chief about here. His is a very fine settlement close to the Lake but sheltered from it by a high range of flat hills. There were beautiful banana groves in all the hollows the best bananas we have ever seen, there was abundance of food & very cheap & lots of honey if we had only had a few doti of cloth to buy it with, but Stanley does not know what we shall find ahead & so will not give us a yard of cloth, he is quite right for we have but twelve bales & do not know how long we may have to make them last. Kajumah was a fine big old man & very patronizing, he was suffering from bad eyes & asked Parke to go up to his Kraal & give him medicine. When Parke arrived he was taken into a Kraal by himself into an empty hut in which Kajumah was waiting for him, he would not allow any of his own people to come in for fear of poison. He told Parke he was sure some one of his people had a spite against him & that his bad eyes were the result of this person's using witch craft, he wanted to have his wise men brought in & a chicken killed in the presence of the man he suspected & if the entrails were red the man was guilty & should be killed & if they were white the man was innocent. Parke persuaded him not to put this test & gave him some medicine with which the old fellow seemed highly satisfied. We stayed here two days & started off with guides supplied by Kajumah with whom we parted excellent friends. After going for an hour we sighted the Nyanza1 lying immediately beneath us. It is a glorious looking lake. We were a little south of Bumbireh but there were whole chains of islands to the South East & East & to the North East there was a broad stretch of dark blue water & a cool breeze blowing & making the face of the Lake a mass of little crisp waves. The islands were mostly lofty & rugged and formed of a bright yellowish orange stone which contrasted prettily with the blue of the Lake. On some of the islands might be seen fishing villages with bright green acacia trees growing amongst them. We were standing at the edge of some rocky cliffs some two to three hundred feet above the lake which went sheer down to the sandy strand which, with a breadth of about 50 yards, skirted the Lake. [ 20 August] It was a splendid view & we stood for a long time feasting our eyes on it & the wind blew cool & fresh across the great expanse of water & brought the little waves dancing in upon the shore with a cool soothing sound. It seemed as if we were now really & truly getting near home. We hear that all this country has been conquered by Usui but the people here are too far removed from the influence of the King. We could see the lake shore stretching away to the South into the blue distance with broad low headlands stretching away into the lake with a double chain of islands stretching away as far as we could see & our road lay in a fairly straight line across these headlands, so
A
We camped there for the night & heard from the mission people that Mackays mission was now at a place called Usambiro whose chief is Makolo, he had left M'salala some time & had moved the mission there on account of some difficulties the Missionaries had with the chief of M'salala. 1 Stanley sent off a note in the evening to tell Mackay of our coming, he got the note next morning & must have been considerably astonished as he had not heard of the expedition for months & months & had no idea where we were. Next morning at about 10 o'clock we came across a broad cart road leading into the jungle & in another hour we had reached Usambiro. It is a nicely situated place about a mile from the south west arm of the lake & is surrounded by a boma. [ 27 August] Mackay received us very cordially, he & another missionary, named Deeks, are the only two Europeans there, Stokes an Irish trader with two other missionaries had started only the day before to Uganda where they are going to help M'wanga to reestablish the mission which was destroyed by the Arabs, Mackay sent messengers to recall them, but as they had gone by boat they were unable to communicate with them. [28 August] We all arrived in an utterly worn out condition & with scarcely any clothes or boots, though still as keenly interested in our work as ever, we were worn down & tired out by fevers & constant marching, we wanted rest, anything for rest; our nerves were in a state of rack & strain & the slightest sudden noise nearly sent one mad. When we came in there was a musical box playing Auld lang Syne, I could'nt listen to it & had to leave the room; to hear that tune of all others was more than I could bear-I who when I left England did'nt ever suspect I was possessed of nerves. There were no letters or papers for us. Stairs had two, one announcing the death of his father, & another containing the news that his sister whose husband is stationed in Burmah was burnt out of house & home by the Decoits & had had to take refuge in the jungle until she was rescued. Ah I the bitter, bitter disappointment it was to us to hear that all our letters had been stupidly sent on to Uganda & had been destroyed by the Arabs. In our low & depressed state of spirits we imagined all sorts of things happening to our people & news equally bad as that which poor Stairs had received. One got into a morbid desponding state of mind which was unusual & most distressing. From Mackay we heard further news of the German occupation of which before we had heard rumours & of the dangers & difficulties which it caused to all Europeans. Mackay was threatened by an invasion of Arabs from Unyanyembe & had fortified the station strongly in consequence. He had had no papers for over a year & the few letters he had had been smuggled past the Arabs hidden in bags of grain or in the stocks of the runners guns.
