THE LAND OF UBENA. 



269 



accompanied by a Msawahili, Mohammed bin Gharib, 

 and others, called upon me without delay, and from 

 them I obtained a detailed account of their interesting 

 travel. 



The merchants had left the coast for Ubena in June, 

 1857, and their up -march had lasted six months. They 

 set out with a total of 600 free men and slaves, armed 

 with 150 guns, hired on the seaboard for eight to ten 

 dollars per head, half being advanced : they could not 

 persuade the Wanyamwezi to traverse these regions. 

 The caravan followed the Mbuamaji trunk-road west- 

 ward as far as Maroro in Usagara, thence deflecting 

 southwards it crossed the Rwaha River, which at the 

 ford was knee-deep. The party travelled through the 

 Wahehe and the Wafaji, south of and far from the 

 stream, to avoid the Warori, who hold both banks. The 

 sultan of these freebooters, being at war with the Wa- 

 bena, would not have permitted merchants to pass on 

 to his enemies, and even in time of peace he fines them, 

 it is said, one half of their property for safe-conduct. On 

 the right hand of the caravan, or to the south from. 

 Uhehe to Ubena, was a continuous chain of highlands, 

 pouring affluents across the road into the Ewaha River, 

 and water was procurable only in the beds of these 

 nullahs and fiumaras. If this chain be of any consider - 

 able length, it may represent the water-parting between 

 the Tanganyika and the Nyassa Lakes, and thus divide 

 by another and a southerly lateral band the great De- 

 pression of Central Africa. The land was dry and 

 barren ; in fact, Ugogo without its calabashes. Scarcely 

 a blade of grass appeared upon the whity-brown soil, 

 and the travellers marvelled how the numerous herds 

 obtained their sustenance. The masika or rainy mon- 

 soon began synchronously with that of Unyamwezi, but 



