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John Hanning Speke - The Discovery of the Source of the Nile
By a double march, the sheikh riding in a hammock slung on a pole, we now made Kuale, or "Partridge"
nullah, which, crossing the road to the northward, drains these lands to the Malagarazi river, and thence
into the Tanganyika lake. Thence, having spent the night in the jungle, we next morning pushed into the
cultivated district of Rubuga, and put up in some half-deserted tembes, where the ravages of war were
even more disgusting to witness than at Tura. The chief, as I have said, was a slave, placed there by the
Arabs on the condition that he would allow all traders and travellers to help themselves without payment
as long as they chose to reside there. In consequence of this wicked arrangement, I found it impossible to
keep my men from picking and stealing. They looked upon plunder as their fortune and right, and my
interference as unjustifiable.
By making another morning and evening march, we then reached the western extremity of this cultivated
opening; where, after sleeping the night, we threaded through another forest to the little clearance of
Kigue, and in one more march through forest arrived in the large and fertile district of Unyanyembe, the
centre of Unyamuezi - the Land of the Moon - within five miles of Kaze which is the name of a well in
the village of Tbora, now constituted the great central slave and ivory merchants' depot. My losses up to
this date (23d) were as follows: - One Hottentot dead and five returned; one freeman sent back with the
Hottentots, and one flogged and turned off; twenty-five of Sultan Majid's gardeners deserted;
ninety-eight of the original Wanyamuezi porters deserted; twelve mules and three donkeys dead. Besides
which, more than half of my property had been stolen; whilst the travelling expenses had been
unprecedented, in consequence of the severity of the famine throughout the whole length of the march.
Chapter V. Unyamuezi
The Country and People of U-n-ya-muezi - Kaze, the Capital - Old Musa - The Naked Wakidi - The
N'yanza, and the Question of the River Running in or out - The Contest between Mohinna and "Short-
legs" - Famine - The Arabs and Local Wars - The Sultana of Unyambewa - Ungurue "The Pig" - Pillage.
U-n-ya-muezi - Country of Moon - must have been one of the largest kingdoms in Africa. It is little
inferior in size to England, and of much the same shape, though now, instead of being united, it is cut up
into petty states. In its northern extremities it is known by the appellation U-sukuma - country north; and
in the southern, U-takama - country south. There are no historical traditions known to the people; neither
was anything ever written concerning their country, as far as we know, until the Hindus, who traded with
the east coast of Africa, opened commercial dealings with its people in salves and ivory, possibly some
time prior to the birth of our Saviour, when, associated with their name, Men of the Moon, sprang into
existence the Mountains of the Moon. These Men of the Moon are hereditarily the greatest traders in
Africa, and are the only people who, for love of barter and change, will leave their own country as
porters and go to the coast, and they do so with as much zest as our country- folk go to a fair. As far back
as we can trace they have done this, and they still do it as heretofore. The whole of their country ranges
from 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea-level - a high plateau, studded with little outcropping hills of
granite, between which, in the valleys, there are numerous fertilising springs of fresh water, and rich iron
ore is found in sandstone. Generally industrious - much more so than most other negroes - they cultivate
extensively, make cloths of cotton in their own looms, smelt iron and work it up very expertly, build
tembes to live in over a large portion of their country, but otherwise live in grass huts, and keep flocks
and herds of considerable extent.
The Wanyamuezi, however, are not a very well-favoured people in physical appearance, and are much
darker than either the Wazaramo or the Wagogo, though many of their men are handsome and their
women pretty; neither are they well dressed or well armed, being wanting in pluck and gallantry. Their
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