ke; it was done only
because they could do it without danger of punishment: it was such fun
to make the Mashense, as they call all natives, houseless. Men are worse
than beasts of prey, if indeed it is lawful to call Zanzibar slaves men.
It is monstrous injustice to compare free Africans living under their
own chiefs and laws, and cultivating their own free lands, with what
slaves afterwards become at Zanzibar and elsewhere.
_26th July, 1871._--Came up out of the last valley of denudation--that
drained by Kahembai, and then along a level land with open forest. Four
men passed us in hot haste to announce the death of a woman at their
village to her relations living at another. I heard of several deaths
lately of dysentery. Pleurisy is common from cold winds from N.W.
Twenty-two men with large square black shields, capable of completely
hiding the whole person, came next in a trot to receive the body of
their relative and all her gear to carry her to her own home for burial:
about twenty women followed them, and the men waited under the trees
till they should have wound the body up and wept over her. They smeared
their bodies with clay, and their faces with soot. Reached our friend
Kama.
_27th July, 1871._--Left Kama's group of villages and went through many
others before we reached Kasongo's, and were welcomed by all the Arabs
of the camp at this place. Bought two milk goats reasonably, and rest
over Sunday. (_28th and 29th_). They asked permission to send a party
with me for goods to Ujiji; this will increase our numbers, and perhaps
safety too, among the justly irritated people between this and Bambarre.
All are enjoined to help me, and of course I must do the same to them.
It is colder here than at Nyangwe. Kasongo is off guiding an ivory or
slaving party, and doing what business he can on his own account; he has
four guns, and will be the first to maraud on his own account.
_30th July, 1871._--They send thirty tusks to Ujiji, and seventeen
Manyuema volunteers to carry thither and back: these are the very first
who in modern times have ventured fifty miles from the place of their
birth. I came only three miles to a ridge overlooking the River Shokoye,
and slept at village on a hill beyond it.
_31st July, 1871._--Passed through the defile between Mount Kimazi and
Mount Kijila. Below the cave with stalactite pillar in its door a fine
echo answers those who feel inclined to shout to it. Come to Mangala's
numerous
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