THE WAZEGURA. 



125 



require some allusion, in consequence of the con- 

 spicuous part which they have played in the evil 

 drama of African life. They occupy the lands south 

 of the Pangani River to the Cape of Utondwe, and 

 they extend westward as far as the hills of Nguru. 

 Originally a peaceful tribe, they have been rendered 

 terrible by the possession of fire-arms ; and their chiefs 

 have now collected large stores of gunpowder, used only 

 to kidnap and capture the weaker wretches within their 

 reach. They thus supply the market of Zanzibar with 

 slaves, and this practice is not of yesterday. About 

 twenty years ago the Wazegura serfs upon the island, 

 who had been cheaply bought during a famine for a few 

 measures of grain, rose against their Arab masters, re- 

 tired into the jungle, and, reinforced by malefactors and 

 malcontents, began a servile war, which raged with the 

 greatest fury for six months, when the governor, Ahmed 

 bin Sayf, maternal uncle to His Highness the late Sayyid 

 Said, brought in a body of mercenaries from Hazra- 

 maut, and broke the force of this Jacquerie by setting a 

 price upon their heads, and by giving the captives as 

 prizes to the captors. The exploits of Kisabengo, the 

 Mzegura, have already been alluded to. The Arab mer- 

 chants of Unyanyembe declare that the road will never 

 be safe until that person's head adorns a pole : they 

 speak with bitterness of heart, for he exacts an un- 

 conscionable " blackmail." 



The Wazegura are in point of polity an exception to 

 the rule of East Africa : instead of owning hereditary 

 sultans, they obey the loudest tongue, the most open 

 hand, and the sharpest spear. This tends practically to 

 cause a perpetual blood-feud, and to raise up a number 

 of petty chiefs, who, aspiring to higher positions, must 

 distinguish themselves by bloodshed, and must ac- 



