58 



FROM THE COAST TO KILIMANJARO 



In Mawia I was kept two days at the weary task of dividing 

 loads, &c. ; but at the last minute I got a few more men, and 

 then I was off. The clanking of the fetters of the chained men 

 exercised a wholesome influence, and after one day's march I 

 reached Leva, the unlucky spot whence I had started to go 

 back to Zanzibar. There I got disquieting news from Count 

 Teleki, which made me push on more eagerly than ever. 

 There had been a regular fight with guns between his men and 

 the people of the big village, Kwa Mgumi, near to which he 

 had camped, and not a few had been killed and wounded 

 on both sides. A kind of truce had now been patched up, 

 but the position of our party was anything but secure or 

 pleasant. 



I did the thirty-seven miles which separated me from 

 Count Teleki in forty-eight hours, reaching his camp on the 

 second day. The way there led first through an undulating 

 district, dotted with trees growing singly, as in the orchards 

 of Europe ; and then, just at the hottest and most glaring 

 part of the day, across parched and barren plains. On 

 the left we had all along; our course the dark vegetation- 

 fringed shores of the Pangani, whilst on the right rose the 

 precipitous heights of Usambara, and in the distance before us 

 we could see the pleasant-looking bluish-green woods lining 

 the banks of the Lwengera stream, which seemed to be 

 advancing to meet us. At last we reached the cool shade 

 of the trees, feeling almost chilly after the great heat we had 

 passed through ; but we had not long revelled in the march 

 beside the rushing water before we were again on unsheltered, 

 arid steppes. Another half-hour's march, however, and we 

 were opposite the island in the Pangani from which rose the 

 village of Kwa Mgumi. Crowds of natives at once appeared, 

 and we advanced with caution towards the bridge connecting^ 

 the island with the mainland ; but we soon found that the men 



