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