United States or New Zealand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Bit by bit we pushed on to Msene, another small colony occupied chiefly by Wasuahili, and here we ate our Christmas dinner. The country was rich in the extreme, and well under rice cultivation. Ramji's men were quite in their element here, and even Bombay became so love-sick we could hardly tear him away.
I now took leave of my generous host; and, bidding adieu to Kasenge, soon arrived and spent the day at Kabizia, mourning in my mind that I had induced Captain Burton to discharge Ramji's slaves, for Bombay said they were all sailors, and would have handled the dhow in first-rate style. 23d. We crossed over to Kivira, and pitched the tent in our former harbour.
They were forgiven; but another difficulty arose in consequence of our donkeys dying faster than their loads were consumed, so that we could not have proceeded had not some of Ramji's slaves carried some loads for us. Our supplies were already too short for our journey; nevertheless, Captain Burton said he would pay them if they carried our loads.
I saw now we had too many mouths to feed; and as Ramji's men had been hired more for show than work, their term of service had just expired, and I did not think we should require their guns any more, I begged Captain Burton to give them a present each, with leave to go to their homes for it must be remembered they possess homes in Unyamuezi as well as at Zanzibar.
How this even was to be managed then seemed very dubious, for not one of Ramji's slaves would come near us, and the Beluches were so tired of the journey they begged for their discharge, crying it was their due, as they had served their turn of service. They wanted no pay if we would only give them certificates of satisfaction.
Ramji's slaves all came back to us here, and begged we would take them into our service again. I wanted to do so, as Snay not only strongly advised me to have as strong an escort as possible, but thought that their knowledge of treating with native chiefs would be of the greatest value to me.
Still Ramji's men would not come out to camp, so I tried with Bombay to see what they had at heart, and then it transpired they had not been paid for carrying loads on from the East Coast Range to Kaze. In a minute I recollected Captain Burton's promise to them, brought them into the camp, and paid them their dues.
Finally, in compliance with my request and this was the most important item of news to myself Colonel Rigby had sent on, thirteen days previously, fifty-six loads of cloth and beads, in charge of two of Ramji's men, consigned to Musa at Kaze. To call on the Sultan, of course, was our first duty.
Word Of The Day