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Uledi, not wishing to be plagued by his Satanic majesty's angels on the march, sacrificed a cow and fed the poor, according to the great Phepo's orders, and had been exempted from it; but Wadi Hamadi, who preferred taking his chance, had been visited several times: once at Usui, when he was told the journey would be prosperous, only the devil wanted one man's life, and one man would fall sick; which proved true, for Hassani was murdered, and Grant fell sick in Karague.
Five days after this, a party of Sangoro's arrived from Karague, saying they had been detained three months in Usui by Suwarora, who had robbed them of an enormous quantity of property, and oppressed them so that all their porters ran away.
The hill-tops in many places were breasted with dykes of pure white quartz, just as we had seen in Usui, only that here their direction tended more to the north.
We wished ourselves at the end of the journey; thought anything better than this kind of existence living entirely at the expense of others; even the fleecings in Usui felt less dispiriting; but it could not be helped, for it must always exist as long as these Turks are allowed to ride rough-shod over the people.
There was something specially aggravating in this precedence; for it will be remembered that these very brass wires which they saw, I had myself intended for Mtesa, that they were taken from me by Suwarora as far back as Usui, and it would never do, without remonstrance, to have them boastfully paraded before my eyes in this fashion. My protests, however, had no effect upon the escorting Wakungu.
Report, however, assured us that he was then detained in Usui by Suwarora, its chief, on the plea of requiring his force of musketeers to prevent the Watuta from pillaging his country, for these Watuta lived entirely on plunder of other people's cattle.
As he could not tell me, saying some excused themselves on the plea they were cutting their corn, and others that they feared the Watuta, I resolved at once to move over to Nunda; and if that place also failed to furnish men, I would go on to Usui or Karague with what men I had, and send back for the rest of my property; for though I could bear the idea of separating from Grant, still the interests of old England were at stake, and demanded it.
Swaruru of Usui just takes from us whatever he wants; and now, here is Mirambo, who says, after taking more than five bales of cloth as tribute from one man, that no Arab caravan shall go to Ujiji, but over his body. Are we prepared to give up the ivory of Ujiji, of Urundi, of Karagwah, of Uganda, because of this one man?
At last, able for the first time to sit up a little, I succeeded in prevailing on Bui to promise he would go to Usui as soon as the hongo was settled, provided, as he said, I took on myself all responsibilities of the result. This cheered me so greatly, I had my chair placed under a tree and smoked my first pipe.
It was useless to remonstrate Baraka insisted he would beat the woman if she abused him, no matter whether I thought it cowardly or not; he did not come with me expecting to be bullied in this way the whole fault lay with Bombay I did not do him justice when he proved Bombay a thief at Usui, I did not turn him off, but now, instead, I showed the preference to Bombay by always taking him when I went to Rumanika.
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