198 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERU 



and swords, added to our stores of butter and mikufu, chatted 

 with the natives, and for the rest of the time did nothing at all. 

 On the second day messengers arrived from Mochi with two 

 letters. One was dictated by Mandara in Arabic, and contained 

 greetings, professions of friendship, and an urgent request to 

 us to visit him, whilst the other was written at Mandara's 

 request by the Eev. Mr. Fitch, a missionary at Mochi, also beg- 

 ging for a visit and giving us some local news. Amongst 

 other things, he told us that the people of Mochi were all 

 feverishly preparing for a slave and cattle raid on the two Pare 

 chiefs, Muanamata and Mpesa, to whom he had introduced 

 us. Miriali told us that Mandara had already asked him some 

 time ago to share in this expedition, but he had given an 

 evasive answer, as he could not count on a fair division of the 

 spoil with that chief. Mandara generally makes these raids 

 with the help of the natives of Arusha-wa-ju, and to their 

 combined forces are due most of the thefts in the coast 

 districts, with which the Masai are generally credited. The Kili- 

 manjaro chiefs — Mandara especially — march upon the people of 

 the mountain itself, especially those of the Jagga states of Eombo 

 and Useri, which are not yet provided with guns. Oxen and 

 slaves are the principal things coveted, the chiefs requiring 

 numbers of the former, some for their own use and some to 

 sell. Moreover, the purchase of ivory is really only a secondary 

 aim of the many little caravans which go up country almost 

 every month from Mombasa, slaves being what they chiefly 

 seek ; but children only are carried off, adults being killed. 



Mandara, who had found out through his spies what 

 presents we had given to Miriali, was fearfully enraged and had 

 several times threatened the latter with war. He sent word 

 to Miriali that the repeating rifle, revolver, and helmet were 

 all presents meant by Sultan Seyid Burgash for him. Yet 

 Miriali had succeeded in enticing us to him, an easy matter 



