70 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



towards the weather, and even the beasts of the wild 

 seemed to have taken refuge in their dens. Provisions 

 being unprocurable at " Sagesera," the party did what 

 men on such occasions usually do — they ate double 

 quantities. I had ordered a fair distribution of the 

 rice that remained, consequently they cooked all day. 

 Yusuf, a Jemadar of inferior rank, whose friends cha- 

 racterised him as " sweet of tongue but bitter at heart," 

 vainly came to beg, on plea of hunger, dismissal for 

 himself and his party ; and another Baloch, Wali, re- 

 ported as uselessly that a sore foot would prevent him 

 advancing. 



Despite our increasing weakness, we marched seven 

 hours on the 9th of July, over a plain wild but pro- 

 digiously fertile, and varied by patches of field, jungle 

 and swamp, along the right bank of the Kingani river, 

 to another ragged old kraal, situated near a bend in 

 the bed. This day showed the ghost of an adventure. 

 At the " Makutaniro," or junction of the Mbuamaji 

 trunk-road with the other lines branching from various 

 minor sea-ports, my companion, who was leisurely pro- 

 ceeding with the advance guard, found his passage 

 barred by about fifty Wazaramo standing across the 

 path in a single line that extended to the travelled 

 right, whilst a reserve party squatted on the left 

 of the road. Their chief stepping to the front and 

 quietly removing the load from the foremost porter's 

 head, signalled the strangers to halt. Prodigious ex- 

 citement of the Baloch, whose loud " Hai, hui ! " and 

 nervous anxiety contrasted badly with the perfect sang 

 froid of the barbarians. Presently, Muinyi Wazira 

 coming up, addressed to the headman a few words, 

 promising cloth and beads, when this African modifica- 

 tion of the " pike " was opened, and the guard moved 



