TABLE LAND OF UGOGO. 



259 



caravan was useful to us in dealing with the Wagogo : 

 it always managed, however, to precede us on the march, 

 and to monopolise the best kraals. The Baloch and the 

 sons of Eamji, when asked on these occasions why 

 they did not build a palisade, would reply theatrically, 

 "Our hearts are our fortification!" — methought a 

 sorry defence. 



By Kidogo's suggestion I had preferred the middle 

 line through the hundred miles of dreaded Ugogo : it 

 was the beaten path, and infested only by four Sultans, 

 namely: 1. Myandozi of Kifukuru. 2. Magomba of 

 Kanyenye. 3. Maguru-Mafupi of K'hok'ho ; and 4. Ki- 

 buya of Mdaburu. On the 1st October, 1857, we left 

 the Ziwa late in the morning, and after passing through 

 the savannahs and the brown jungles of the lower levels, 

 where giraffe again appeared, the path crested a wave 

 of ground and debouched upon the table-land of Ugogo. 

 The aspect was peculiar and unprepossessing. Behind still 

 towered in sight the Delectable Mountains of Usagara, 

 mist-crowned and robed in the lightest azure, with 

 streaks of a deep plum-colour, fronting the hot low land 

 of Marenga Mk'haii, whose tawny face was wrinkled 

 with lines of dark jungle. On the north was a tabular 

 range of rough and rugged hill, above which rose 

 three distant cones pointed out as the haunts of the 

 robber Wahumba : at its base was a deep depression, a 

 tract of brown brush patched with yellow grass, in- 

 habited only by the elephant, and broken by small out- 

 lying hillocks. Southwards scattered eminences of tree- 

 crowned rock rose a few yards from the plain which 

 extended to the front, a clearing of deep red or white 

 soil, decayed vegetation based upon rocky or sandy 

 ground, here and there thinly veiled with brown brush 

 and golden stubbles : its length, about four miles, was 



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