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John Hanning Speke - The Discovery of the Source of the Nile
give up the rest if they returned us the mule. The corporal then led off his band to the spot where he last
saw traces of the animal, and tracked on till sundown; while Grant and myself went out pot-hunting and
brought home a bag consisting of one striped eland, one saltiana antelope, four guinea-fowl, four
ringdoves, and one partridge - a welcome supply, considering we were quite out of flesh.
Next day, as there were no signs of the trackers, I went again to the place of the elands, wounded a fine
male, but gave up the chase, as I heard the unmistakable gun-firing return of the party, and straightway
proceeded to camp. Sure enough, there they were; they had tracked the animal back to Marenga Mkhali,
through jungle - for he had not taken to the footpath. Then finding he had gone on, they returned quite
tired and famished. To make the most of a bad job, I now sent Grant on to the Robeho (or windy) Pass,
on the top of the western chain, with the mules and heavy baggage, and directions to proceed thence
across the brow of the hill the following morning, while I remained behind with the tired men, promising
to join him by breakfast-time. I next released the prisoners, much to their disgust, for they had not known
such good feeding before, and dreaded being turned adrift again in the jungles to live on calabash seeds;
and then, after shooting six guinea-fowl, turned in for the night.
Betimes in the morning we were off, mounting the Robeho, a good stiff ascent, covered with trees and
large blocks of granite, excepting only where cleared for villages; and on we went rapidly, until at noon
the advance party was reached, located in a village overlooking the great interior plateau - a picture, as it
were, of the common type of African scenery. Here, taking a hasty meal, we resumed the march all
together, descended the great western chain, and, as night set in, camped in a ravine at the foot of it, not
far from the great junction-station Ugogi, where terminate the hills of Usagara.
Chapter IV. Ugogo, and the Wilderness of Mgunda Mkhali
The Lie of the Country - Rhinoceros-Stalking - Scuffle of Villagers over a Carcass - Chief "Short-Legs"
and His Successors - Buffalo- Shooting - Getting Lost - A Troublesome Sultan - Desertions from the
Camp - Getting Plundered - Wilderness March - Diplomatic Relations with the Local Powers - Manua
Sera's Story - Christmas - The Relief from Kaze
This day's work led us from the hilly Usagara range into the more level lands of the interior. Making a
double march of it, we first stopped to breakfast at the quiet little settlement of Inenge, where cattle were
abundant, but grain so scarce that the villagers were living on calabash seeds. Proceeding thence across
fields delightfully checkered with fine calabash and fig trees, we marched, carrying water through thorny
jungles, until dark, when we bivouacked for the night, only to rest and push on again next morning,
arriving at Marenga Mkhali (the saline water) to breakfast. Here a good view of the Usagara hills is
obtained. Carrying water with us, we next marched half-way to the first settlement of Ugogo, and
bivouacked again, to eat the last of our store of Mbumi grain.
At length the greater famine lands had been spanned; but we were not in lands of plenty - for the Wagogo
we found, like their neighbours Wasagara, eating the seed of the calabash, to save their small stores of
grain.
The East Coast Range having been passed, no more hills had to be crossed, for the land we next entered
on is a plateau of rolling ground, sloping southward to the Ruaha river, which forms a great drain running
from west to east, carrying off all the rainwaters that fall in its neighbourhood through the East Coast
Range to the sea. To the northward can be seen some low hills, which are occupied by Wahumba, a
subtribe of the warlike Masai; and on the west is the large forest-wilderness of Mgunda Mkhali. Ugogo,
lying under the lee side of the Usagara hills, is comparatively sterile. Small outcrops of granite here and
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