Chogwe is situated upon an eminence gently rising from the grassy plain of black alluvial soil which is flooded during the rains. It is seven direct miles distant from Panga-ni town, bearing west 288°; the walk over a rugged path occupies four or five hours, yet few men but slaves availed themselves of the short cut. The position is badly chosen, water is distant, the rugged soil produces nothing but stunted manioc, and when the inundation subsides in the lowlands it is exposed to miasma, whilst the frequent creeks must he crossed upon tree trunks acting bridges. The garrison at such times suffers severely from sickness, especially from fever and diarrhœa, and the men, dull as a whaler’s crew lorn of luck, abhor the wretched desolate out-station. Commanding, however, the main road to Usumbara, Chogwe affords opportunity for an occasional something in the looting line—which is a consideration.
HILL-FORT AT TONGWE.
A stiff snake-fence surrounds the hill-crest and defends the cajan penthouses of the Bashi Buzuks: the only works are two platforms for matchlock-men planted on high poles like the Maychan of Hindostan and the Mintar of Syria. The Washenzi savages sometimes creep up at night, shoot a few arrows into the huts, set fire to the matting with the spicula ignita, and after other such amenities, hurriedly levant. The Wazegura, though fighting with one another, did not when we visited the place molest the Baloch. To the North and West of Chogwe rises a continuous range, the outliers of Usumbara: about 15 miles S. Westward (233° 15′) in the plains of the Wazegura beyond the river is a succession of detached hills of which the most remarkable, Tongwe Mwanapiro, in our charts called Genda-genda, may be seen from Zanzibar. Here rules one Mwere, a chief hostile to the mercenaries, who boast that if they numbered 50 they could overrun and plunder the whole land: the Asiatics, not caring to soil their hands with negro blood, make their slaves fight his men even as the ingenuous youth, of Eton offered their scouts to meet in the cricket-field the ambitious youth of Rugby. It is certain that a few stout fellows, with a competent leader and a little money for good arms and ammunition, might easily establish an absolute monarchy over the independent blacks, and filibuster for Zanzibar, as the Khedive is now doing for Egypt.
These Baloch mercenaries merit some notice. They were first entitled Askar in the days of Sultan bin Ahmad, father of the late Sayyid Said, who preferred them to his unruly self-willed Omani Arabs and his futile half-castes and blacks: he acted upon the same principle which made the Ayyubite sultans of Syria and Egypt arm first Kurdish and afterwards Circassian ‘Mamluks.’ From 1000 to 1500 men were scattered over the country in charge of the forts: the ruler knew that they were hated by all Arabs, and to create dissensions even amongst his own children was ever the astute Sayyid’s policy. The Wáli and the Jemadar, like the Turkish Wáli and Mushir, are rarely on speaking terms, and if not open enemies, they are at least rivals. The people nickname these foreigners Kurára Kurára—to sleep! to sleep! ‘rárá’ being the Asiatic mispronunciation of lálá. Boasting themselves to be Baloch, they are mostly from the regions about Kech and Bampur: they are mixed up with a rabble rout of Arabs and Afghans, of Sidis[[34]] and Hindostan men. The corps spoke some half-a-dozen different languages, and many of the members have left their country for their country’s good—a body of convicts, however, generally fights well. The Mekrani especially are staunch men behind walls, and if paid, drilled, and officered, they would make as ‘varmint’ light-bobs as any Arnauts. They have a knightly fondness for arms: a ‘young barrel and an old blade’ are their delight: like schoolboys, they think nothing so fine as the report of a gun; consequently ammunition is kept by the C. O., and is never served out except before a fight. All use the matchlock: while good shots are rare, many are tolerably skilful with sword and shield. Their nominal pay is from $2 to $3 per mensem, a pittance of some 20 pice (120 pice=$1) per diem: this must find them in clothes and rations as well as in arms; often there is not a sandal amongst them, and they are as ragged a crew as ever left the barren wolds of Central Asia in quest of African fortune. They live in tattered hovels, which they build for themselves, upon one meal a day, which is shared by their slave concubines. To the natural greed of mountain-races, the poor devils who come in horse and salt-boats, and act barbers and sailors, porters, labourers, and date-gleaners, add the insatiable desires of beggars. The Banyans have a proverb that a Baloch, a Brahman, and a buck-goat eat the trees to which they are tied. Sudden and sharp in quarrel, they draw their daggers upon the minutest provocation; they have no mitigation nor remorse of voice, and they pray in the proportion of one to a dozen. Africa is to them what the Caucasus is to the Russians, Kabylie to the French, and Sind to the English soldier. All look forward to ‘Hindostan—bagh o bostan,’ India the flower-garden; but the Arabs have a canny proverb inporting that the fool who falleth into the fire rarely falleth out of it.
Fraudare stipendio, saith ancient Justin, was the proverb of the Great King’s satraps: the custom has been religiously preserved by the modern East. Each station is commanded by a Jemadar, who receives $4 to $5 per month, and ample license to pay himself by peculation. This class is at once under-salaried, and over-trusted. The Jemadar advances money upon usury to his men; he keeps them six months in arrears, and not a few of them never see the colour of Government coin from the year’s beginning to the end. He exacts perquisites from all who fear his hate and who need his aid; and he falsifies the muster-rolls impudently and with impunity, giving 25 names to perhaps four men. Thus, like the Turkish Colonel of Nizam, the Jemadar lives in great state. He has a wife or two, and perhaps a dozen slaves; he sports a fine coat of scarlet broadcloth, a silver-hilted sword and dagger, and a turban of rich silk. He keeps flocks of sheep and goats, and he trades with the interior for ivory and captives. Such has been, such is, and such ever will be till Europe steps in, that false economy which throughout the ‘East,’ from Stambul to Japan, grasps the penny and flings away the pound. It is a state inseparable from the conditions of society and of government, where public servants are not paid, they must, of course, pay themselves; and they often prefer the latter mode, as they pay themselves far better than they would otherwise be paid. About a century ago we did the same thing in India, where men amassed fortunes, and until the late reforms, such was notoriously the case throughout the Russian empire. Perhaps in the present day the best place to study the system of all peculation and no pay is Damascus.
Having confided our project to the Jemadar of Chogwe, he promised his good-will—for a consideration. He undertook to start us the next day, and, curious to relate, for as usual he was a Cathaian of the first water, he kept his word. The small garrison, however, could afford but four matchlock-men as a guard, and the same number of slave-boys acting porters. The C. O., therefore, engaged for us, nominally paying $10, and doubtless retaining one half, a couple of guides, who proved to be a single guide and his chattel.
After a night spent in the Maychan, where wind, dust, and ants conspired to make us miserable, we arose to prepare for marching. We reduced our kit to the strictest necessaire, surveying instruments, weapons, waterproof blankets, tea, sugar, and tobacco for ten days, a bag of dates, and three bags of rice. About noon, issuing from our shed, we placed the baggage in the sun; thus mutely appealing to the ‘Sharm’—shame or sense of honour—possessed by our Baloch employés. A start was not effected till 5 P.M.; every slave grumbling loudly at his load, snatching up the lightest of packs, fighting to avoid the heavier burdens, and rushing forward regardless of what was left behind. This nuisance endured till abated by an outward application easily divined. I had only to hope that after a march or two the scramble would subside into something like order. At length, escorted in token of honour by the consumptive Jemadar and most of his company, we set out, in a straggling Indian file, towards Tongwe.
The track wound over stony ridges, and after an hour it plunged into a dense, thorny thicket, which during the rains must be impassable. The evening belling of the deer and the near ‘clock clock’ of the partridge struck our ears pleasantly. In open places lay the dry lesses of elephants, and footprints retained by the last year’s mud: these animals, as in the Harar country, descend to the plains during the rainy monsoon, and when the heats set in retire to the cool hills—a regular annual migration. The Baloch shoot, the wild people kill them with poisoned arrows. More than once during our march we found the gravelike trap-pits in India called Ogi. They are wedge-shaped holes 10 feet deep, artfully placed in the little rises frequented by the beasts, and the size must exactly fit the victim, which easily extricates itself from one too large or too small: if fairly jammed, however, it cannot escape. We did not sight a single specimen; but judging from the footprints—three to three and a half circumferences showing the shoulder-height—the elephant here is not of tall stature. From the further interior come tusks commonly weighing 100 lbs. each; those of 175 lbs. are not rare, and I have heard of a par nobile sent from Delagoa Bay to the King of Portugal, whose joint weight was 560 lbs. We also saw many traces of lion, antelope, and wild cattle, here called buffalo. It was a severe disappointment to us that we could not revisit, as we had promised ourselves, this country during the rains; but Lieut.-Col. Hamerton strongly dissuaded us from again risking jungle fever; and we had other work to do in Inner Africa. Sporting, indeed, must occupy the whole man, and even to shoot for specimens is often to waste time in two ways. The ‘serious traveller’ must indulge himself by taking at times a week or a fortnight’s leave from geographical[geographical] work, and even then he will frequently find circumstances interfere with his plans. Throughout our march in these regions game was rarely seen; none lives where the land is peopled; in the parts near the stations it is persecuted by the Baloch, and the wild Jägers will kill and eat even rats. We heard, however, many tales of Mabogo, or wild cattle, and of lions; of leopards in plenty; of a hog, probably the masked boar; amongst many antelopes, of one resembling the Nilghai (A. Picta), and of an elk said to be like the Sambar of Hindostan.
Another hour’s marching, and a total of six miles, as shown by the pedometer, brought us to the Makam Sayyid Sulayman, a partially cleared ring in the thorny jungle. It was bounded on one side by a rocky and tree-fringed nullah, where water stagnates in pools during the dry season; and here ensued a comical scene. The whole party went to drink, when suddenly all began to dance and shout like madmen, pulling off their clothes and frantically snatching at their lower limbs. It was our first experience of that formican fiend, the bull-dog ant (Siyáfú or Ch’hungu Fundo),[[35]] black, and a good half inch long, which invariably reserves its attentions for the tenderest portions of the person attacked. The bite of this wretch, properly called ‘atrox,’ burns like the point of a red-hot needle, and whilst engaged in its cannibal meal, literally beginning to devour man alive, even when its doubled-up body has been torn from the head, the pincers will remain embedded in flesh. Moreover, there are the usual white ants (Ch’hungu Mchwa, Termes fatalis), death upon your property; the ginger-coloured Ch’hungu ya moto, whose name ‘fire-ant’ describes its bite, and the hopper ant, who, like the leopard, takes a flying leap from the nearest branch, and cleverly alighting upon the victim, commences operations. And where the ant is in legions, one of the most troublesome is the smelling ant (Ch’hungu Uvundo), which suggests that carrion is concealed behind every bush. Verily, in Africa, as was said of the Brazil, the ant is king, and he rules like a tyrant.