THE BASIN OF MARORO. 



255 



four crops are reaped during the year. This hill-girt 

 district is placed at one month's march from the coast. 

 At the southern extremity, there is a second opening 

 like the northern, and through it the " River of Ma- 

 roro " sheds into the Rwaha, distant in direct line two 

 marches west with southing. 



Maroro, or Malolo, according to dialect, is the " Ma- 

 rorrer town" of Lt. Hardy, (Transactions of the 

 Bombay Geographical Society, from Sept. 1841 to May 

 1844,) who, in- 1811 — 12, was dispatched with Capt. 

 Smee by the Government of Bombay to collect infor- 

 mation at Kilwa and its dependencies, and the East 

 African coast generally; Mr. Cooley (Inner Africa Laid 

 Open, p. 56) writes the word Marora, and explains it to 

 mean "trade:" the people, however, ignore the derivation. 

 It is not a town, but a district, containing as usual on this 

 line a variety of little settlements. The confined basin 

 is by no means a wholesome locality, the air is warm 

 and " muggy," the swamp vegetation is fetid, the mos- 

 quitos venomous, and the population, afflicted with 

 fevers and severe ulceration, is not less wretched and 

 degraded than the Wak'hutu. Their habitations are 

 generally Tembe, but small and poor, and their fields 

 are dotted with dwarf platforms for the guardians of 

 the crops. Here a cow costs twelve cloths, a goat three, 

 whilst two fowls are procurable for a shukkah. Maroro 

 is the westernmost limit of the touters from the Mrima ; 

 there are seldom less than 150 muskets present, and 

 the Wasagara have learned to hold strangers in horror. 



In these basins caravans endeavour, and are forced 

 by the people, to encamp upon the further end after 

 marching through. At the end of a short stage of 

 three hours we forded three times the river bed, a muddy 

 bottom, flanked by stiff rushes, and encamped under a 

 Mkamba tree, above and to windward of the fetid 



