98 
THE KILIMA-NJAB0 EXPEDITION. 
sists perhaps of 1000 men, the pick of Mosi’s manhood), 
it is more for purposes of defence. He occupies at 
present somewhat the position, in Kilima-njaro politics, 
of a Napoleon wdio has returned from Elba, but 
prudently avoids a Waterloo. 
Though this remarkable savage never, in his most 
successful days, ruled over a larger territory than the 
postal area of London, yet the fame of his intelligence, 
his kingly manners, and his bravery extended far and 
wide in Central Africa, borne by the Swahili traders, 
who journeyed in all directions between the Victoria 
Nyanza and the Indian Ocean. Slave-traders and 
slave-kidnappers though these men are, their influence 
over Africa has had a certain civilizing tendency. 
These strange Arab mongrels, who have become 
almost an independent race, merit the designation of 
Africa’s land-carriers. They journey for purposes of 
trade over nearly all the district which lies between the 
Victoria Nile, Abyssinia, the great lakes, the Upper 
Congo, and the Zambesi. After visiting such a chief 
as Mandara they may find themselves at the court of 
Mtesa, the late chief of the LTganda, and they will carry 
the fame of one king to another. Mandara alleges 
that he held communication (I suppose this consisted 
in the transmission of Arabic compliments) with Mtesa 
of Uganda, and with Mirambo of Unyamwesi, by 
means of such far-travelling traders as Jumba Kime- 
meta, in whose company Mr. Thomson crossed Masai- 
land. This is quite possible ; at any rate through the 
Swahili merchants Mandara first heard of her Majesty 
the Queen, of Sir John Kirk (the 44 Baloza ”), and of 
Sayyid Barghasli of Zanzibar. The same itinerant 
pedlars informed this Central African savage, who has 
never been thirty miles from his birthplace, nor visited 
