MESSAGE TO BAMBIREH. 777 



sold to us three canoes. After a few days' rest on Refuge Island, we pro- 

 ceeded once again on our voyage, and halted at Mahyiga Island, five miles 

 south of Bambireh, and one mile south of Iroba, which lies between Mahyiga 

 and Bambireh. Remembering the bitter injuries I had received from the 

 savages of Bambireh, and the death by violence and starvation we had so 

 narrowly escaped, I resolved, unless the natives made amends for their cruelty 

 and treachery, to make war on them, and for this purpose I camped on Mah- 

 yiga Island, sending the canoes back for the remainder of the Expedition, 

 which in a few days safely arrived. 



" I then despatched a message to the natives of Bambireh, to the effect 

 that, if they delivered their king, and the two principals under him, to my 

 hands, I would make peace with them. At the same time, not trusting quite 

 the success of this, I sent a party to summon the King of Iroba, who very 

 willingly came, with three of his chiefs, to save his people from the horrors 

 of war. Upon their arrival I put them in chains, and told the canoemen that 

 the price of their freedom was the capture of the King of Bambireh and his 

 two principal chiefs. The natives of Bambireh treated my message with con- 

 tempt, but the next morning the men of Iroba brought the King of Bam- 

 bireh to me, who was at once chained heavily, while the King of Iroba and 

 his people were released, with a promise that neither his island nor people 

 would be touched by us. 



" A message was also sent to Antari, King of Ahingiro, on the mainland, 

 to whom Bambireh was tributary, requesting him to redeem his island from 

 war. Antari sent his son and two chiefs to treat with us, who told us many 

 falsehoods, and had treachery written on their faces. They brought a few 

 bunches of bananas, as an earnest of what the king intended to give ; but I 

 thought that a bird in my hand would be worth a thousand false promises, 

 and accordingly his son and his two companions were detained as hostages 

 for the appearance of the two chiefs of Bambireh. In the meantime seven 

 large canoes from Mtesa, King of Uganda, en route to Usukuma, to convey an 

 Arab and his goods to Uganda, appeared at Iroba. The chief of the party 

 was asked not to proceed to Usukuma until we had taken our Expedition to 

 Uganda. This man, Sabadu, informed me that Magassa, the dilatory Grand 

 Admiral, had returned with the boat's oars to Mtesa, and the news that I and 

 my crew were dead, for which he had been chained, but subsequently released 

 and sent by land, with a large party, to hunt up certain news of me. Sabadu 

 was induced, after a little persuasion, to accede to my request. 



" Two days after his arrival Sabadu sent his Wagaida to Bambireh, to 

 procure food. The savages would not give them any, but attacked them, 

 wounding eight and killing a chief of Kattawas, a neighbour of Antari, which 

 gave me another strong reason why Bambireh should be punished. Accord- 

 ingly, next morning I prepared a force of two hundred and eighty men, fifty 



