All indeed seemed couleur de rose, and when I slept at night I looked upon the time as being close at hand when I again should see my countrymen and hear my native tongue.
CHAPTER XXV.
DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS.
Although Hatibu professed himself as desirous of pressing on as I did, I found he managed to have so much business to do at Kawele that we were detained there for weeks instead of days, as I had at first supposed. Though I was well lodged and well fed, and by the kindness of the Arabs well clothed, I was always longing for the time when we should again be on the march.
Hatibu here disposed of all his slaves, and to take their places in carrying the ivory, he hired Wanyamwesi who wished to return to their own country. I must say I was heartily glad to be freed from daily witnessing the hopeless toil of the poor wretches.
Loyal comrades as Hatibu and Bilal had proved themselves to me, I could not put up with the apathy with which they regarded the sufferings of these wretched creatures, and thought no more, if so much, of their life or death than if they were brute beasts. To my many remonstrances they would only say, “What does it matter? they are only heathens and slaves;” and though they did not interfere with my doing what I could to alleviate their sufferings, they regarded my efforts with contemptuous indifference, and I verily believe in my own heart they thought I was an idiot for troubling myself about them.
Now we were clear of this. Instead of half-starved, chained wretches, our ivory was to be carried by stalwart Wanyamwesi, who from their very childhood had been in the habit of travelling and carrying heavy loads, supplying the Arabs with the best pagazi or porters that they find in Eastern Africa. A tusk weighing over fifty or sixty pounds, or even below these weights, had to be carried by two slaves; while the brawny fellows who now were to act as our carriers looked upon seventy or eighty pounds as a normal load. One fellow by himself actually carried a monster tusk weighing a hundred and twenty-five pounds, and seemed to find a recompense for his extra toil in the pride he took in carrying the largest piece of ivory we had.
With these fellows, however, we had to give in to their customs of the road; and the road to be taken and the places at which we were to halt were all laid down by the kirangosi, or leader. He marched at the head of the caravan, carrying his load like the rest, and decked in a fantastic manner with beads and feathers, and wearing when coming near a village a robe of scarlet baize, which was his right, in addition to the wages of an ordinary porter. Besides this he was entitled to the head of every animal killed in the caravan, and the heads of fowls, goats, and of any game we shot were all scrupulously demanded by him, and after some process of cookery devoured by him and his companions.
Our departure took place early one morning. We went by water in boats and canoes to a place about four miles south of Kawele, so as to avoid crossing a river which fell into the lake; then after a short piece of flat ground, we commenced to ascend the lofty hills which lay behind. The difference between the Wanyamwesi and slaves as carriers of ivory was nowhere more marked than in this ascent. While the latter would have had to make innumerable halts, and have taken hours to reach the summit, the Wanyamwesi, without any delay, and to show off their manhood and strength, faced the steep ascent as if they were storming a fortress. In little more than fifty minutes we halted on the crest to take our last look at the Tanganyika.
The scene was one of marvellous beauty. The sides of the hills were clothed with forest, the sombre green of the larger forest trees being varied by flowering acacias, which stood out in patches of vivid colouring. At our feet lay a deep inlet of blue water; beyond lay the vast expanse of Tanganyika, shining beneath the rays of the sun like a surface of polished brass, on which the canoes of the fishermen and the floating islands brought down by the numerous streams which feed this vast reservoir of the mighty Congo seemed like the merest specks; while in the far distance the mountains of Ugoma lay like clouds deep in shadow. Looking inland was one sea of forest, from which arose cloud-capped hills, and the only sign that human beings had any existence were dim wreaths of smoke, which betrayed the presence of the people of Ukaranga.
Our first camp lay near one of their villages, and a grinning human skull over its gateway, through which none of us were allowed to pass, showed how little the semi-civilization of Kawele had done to leaven the savagery of the surrounding peoples. Though this grinning remnant of mortality had a gruesome and forbidding appearance, we found the people ready enough to come to our camp to dispose of fowls, eggs, bananas, and other articles of food, for dried fish from the lake, with a goodly stock of which we had provided ourselves.