XX.] NYANGWfl. 263 



CHAPTER XX. 



Nyangwe. — The Head-man's Harem. — Syde Mezrui is a Fraud. — A Slow Set. — The 

 Markets. — The Weaker Sex. — Their Lordly Masters. — Difficulty in obtaining 

 Canoes. — Native Opinion of the White Man. — As Others see Us. — An Antislavery 

 Lecture. — A Clear-headed Man of Business. — An Old Impostor. — No Guides. — 

 Fighting on the Road. — Ulegga. — The Lualaba and the Nile. — Lake Sankorra. — 

 Tipo-tipo. — Crossing the Lualaba. — A Fever Den. — Bad Quarters. — Fishing-vreir 

 Bridges. — Russuna. — A Brush with the Natives. — Blood-money. — A Check upon 

 Looting. — Russuna's Wives. — Not Bashful, but Inquisitive. — A State Visit. — Rus- 

 suna's Private Village. — The Cares of a Mother-in-law. 



ISTyangwe has been well chosen by the Zanzibar traders as a August, 

 permanent settlement on the Lualaba. It takes the form of i^'^*- 

 two villages, each set on an eminence above the river, divided 

 by a small valley watered by a little marshy stream, and afford- 

 ing admirable rice grounds. 



The right bank of the river, on which Nyangwe is situated, 

 being well raised, is free from malaria and fever, while the left 

 bank is low, and overflowed by the annual floods, which leave 

 festering, stagnant backwaters. It is about as pestilential a 

 place as it is possible to imagine, notwithstanding which the 

 Wagenya live and flourish there, apparently feeling no ill ef- 

 fects from the miasma. 



Of the two settlements, th,e western one is occupied entirely 

 by Wamerima from Bagamoyo and its neighboring district. 

 The head-man among them is Muinyi Dugumbi, who, finding 

 himself a far greater personage here than he could ever hope 

 to be in his native place, gave up all idea of returning to the 

 coast, and devoted his attention and energies to establishing a 

 harem. He had collected round him over three hundred slave 

 women, and the ill effects of this arrangement, and his indul- 

 gence in bhang and pombe, were plainly noticeable in his rapid 

 decline into idiotcy. 



The eastern part, where I staid, is the abode of the Wasuahili 

 and Arabs, but Tanganyika was the only one then there ; the 



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