HALT AT KAZEH. 



297 



Kazeh turned into an agricultural depot, tlie 

 neiglibouring Tillages ruined, and the people 

 starving. The merchants had refused to pay a 

 tax imposed upon them by Manwa Sera, son of 

 the Pundi Kira, lord of Unyanyembe, in the days 

 when I visited it, and the young chief, who was 

 very popular, had been supplanted by his half- 

 brother Msikiwa. Hence a war resulting in the 

 death of my poor friend, the brave Snay bin Amir, 

 who, being too proud and perhaps not young 

 enough to run from the hosts of enemies, lay down 

 when abandoned by his negroes and took his 

 chance, that is to say, was slaughtered. Manwa 

 Sera then threatened to attack Kazeh, and the 

 Arabs begged Capt. Speke not to abandon hosts, 

 whose warm and generous hospitality he repeatedly 

 acknowledges. The reply was that ' he had a duty 

 to perform as well as themselves, and that in a 

 day or two he would be off.' Some men would 

 not have treated so lightly a heavy debt of grati- 

 tude, but such compunctions are often fatal to suc- 

 cess. Capt. Speke, I doubt not, really believed that 

 ' the interests of old England were at stake : ' he 

 had not hesitated for a moment in throwing 

 over a Himalayan friend who was to have ac- 

 companied him, nor did he deem himself other- 

 wise but justified in separating from a com- 



