United States or Japan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I said, "Oh, Baraka, how can you be such a fool? Do you not see through this humbug? Makaka only wishes to keep us here to frighten away the Watuta; for Godsake be a man, and don't be alarmed at such phantoms as these. You always are nagging at me that Bombay is the 'big' and you are the 'small' man. Bombay would never be frightened in this silly way.
I had doubled back from his country, and now he was cutting me off in front. I expected as much when the oily blackguard Mfumbi came over from his chief to ask after my health; so, judging from my experience with Makaka, I told Lumeresi at once to tell me what he considered his due, for this fearful haggling was killing me by inches. I had no more deoles, but would make that up in brass wire.
Baraka then brought one to my tent, and told me of his having bought it for eight dollars at the coast; and as I now saw I was let in for it, I told him to give it. It was given, but Makaka no sooner saw it than he said he must have another one; for it was all nonsense saying a white man had no rich cloths.
Every day matters got worse and worse. Mfumbi, the small chief of Sorombo, came over, in an Oily-Gammon kind of manner, to say Makaka had sent him over to present his compliments to me, and express his sorrow on hearing that I had fallen sick here.
Of course I knew well what all this meant; and at the same time that I said I could not comply, I promised to send him a present of friendship by the hands of Baraka. This caused a halt. Makaka would not hear of such an arrangement. A present, he said, was due to him of course, but of more importance than the present was his wish to see me.
Baraka offered him one common cloth, and then another all of which he rejected with such impetuosity that Baraka said his head was all on a whirl. Makaka insisted he would have a deole, or nothing at all. I protested I had no deoles I could give him; for all the expensive cloths which I had brought from the coast had been stolen in Mgunda Mkhali.
They no sooner did so than the drums beat, and Makaka, in the best humour possible, came over to say I had permission to go when I liked, but he hoped I would give him a gun and a box of lucifers. This was too provoking.
Makaka then came forward and said, "Just stop here with me until this ill wind blows over"; but Baraka, more in a fright at Makaka than at any one else, said, No he would do anything rather than that; for Makaka's bullying had made him quite ill.
Then Baraka said, "I have just heard from Makaka, that a man who arrived from Usui only a few minutes ago has said Suwarora is so angry with the Arabs that he has detained one caravan of theirs in his country, and, separating the whole of their men, has placed each of them in different bomas, with orders to his village officers that, in case the Watuta came into his country, without further ceremony they were to be all put to death."
The Politics of Uzinza The Wahuma "The Pig's" Trick First Taste of Usui Taxation Pillaged by Mfumbi Pillaged by Makaka Pillaged by Lumeresi Grant Stripped by M'Yonga Stripped Again by Ruhe Terrors and Defections in the Camp Driven back to Kaze with new Tribulations and Impediments.
Word Of The Day