[The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke]@TWC D-Link bookThe Discovery of the Source of the Nile CHAPTER V 25/46
Now, slight as this little affair might appear, it was of vital importance to me, as I found all my men shaking their heads and predicting what might happen to us when we got there; so, as a forlorn hope, I sent Baraka with another letter to Musa, offering to pay as much money for fifty men carrying muskets as would buy fifty slaves, and, in addition to that, I offered to pay them what my men were receiving as servants.
Next day (23d) the chief Ugali came to pay his respects to us.
He was a fine-looking young man, about thirty years old, the husband of thirty wives, but he had only three children.
Much surprised at the various articles composing our kit, he remarked that our "sleeping-clothes"-- blankets--were much better than his royal robes; but of all things that amused him most were our picture-books, especially some birds drawn by Wolf. Everything still seemed going against me; for on the following day (24th) Musa's men came in from Rungua to say the Watuta were "out." They had just seized fifty head of cattle from Rungua, and the people were in such a state of alarm they dared not leave their homes and families.
I knew not what to do, for there was no hope left but in what Baraka might bring; and as that even would be insufficient, I sent Musa's men into Kaze, to increase the original number by thirty men more. Patience, thank God, I had a good stock of, so I waited quietly until the 30th, when I was fairly upset by the arrival of a letter from Kaze, stating that Baraka had arrived, and had been very insolent both to Musa and to Sheikh Said.
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