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Updated: June 5, 2025
We had not rested two hours before two Wangwana entered my tent, who were slaves of Thani bin Abdullah, our dandified friend of Unyanyembe. These men came, on the part of the king's brother, to claim the HONGA ! The king's brother, demanded thirty doti! Half a bale! Merciful Providence! What shall I do?
Not quite so powerful as the Sultan of Mvumi, he yet owned a fair share of Ugogo and about forty villages, and could, if he chose, have oppressed the mercantile souls of my Arab companions, in the same way as he of Mvumi. Four doti of cloth were taken to him as a preliminary offering to his greatness, which he said he would accept, if the Arabs and Musungu would send him four more.
The same want of money led to the great scandal of his reign the plundering of the Monte delle Doti, or State Insurance Office Fund for securing dowers to the children of its creditors. While tracing the salient points of Lorenzo de' Medici's administration I have omitted to mention the important events which followed shortly after his accession to power in 1469.
My informants gave me to understand that for one hundred men, 10 doti, or 40 yards of cloth per diem, would suffice for food.
Six months' provisions of white beads, Merikani and Kaniki cloth, together with two doti of handsome cloth to serve as a present to Leucole after his recovery, were taken to Farquhar by Bombay, together with a Starr's carbine, 300 rounds of cartridge, a set of cooking pots, and 3 lbs. of tea.
The muhongo of the Sultan Swaruru was settled with few words. The chief who acted for the Sultan as his prime minister having been "made glad" with a doti of Rehani Ulyah from me, accepted the usual tribute of six doti, only one of which was of first-class cloth.
On the morning of the 31st we sent a canoe with men to search for food in the two or three villages that were visible on the other side. Four doti purchased just sufficient for four days for our caravan of forty-eight persons.
Words fail to express the astonishment I naturally felt, that this sharp-looking young man should so soon have forgotten the verbal contract entered into between him and myself the morning previous, which was to the effect that out of the three thousand doti stored in my tent, and bought expressly for pagazi hire, each and every man hired for me as carriers from Bagamoyo to Unyanyembe, should be paid out of the store there in my tent. when I asked if he remembered the contract, he replied in the affirmative: his reasons for breaking it so soon were, that he wished to sell his cloths, not mine, and for his cloths he should want money, not an exchange.
The soldiers were set to work to reopen and repack, which latter task is performed in the following manner: We cut a doti, or four yards of Merikani, ordinarily sold at Zanzibar for $2.75 the piece of thirty yards, and spread out.
Affecting great indignation at the unpardonable omission, he, Kingaru, concluded to send to the Musungu four of his young men to say to him that "since you have buried your horse in my ground, it is well; let him remain there; but you must pay me two doti of Merikani."
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