five hundred slaves. Formerly wars in this country were caused by blood-feuds between different chiefs; they are now encouraged by the slave-buyers of the Mrima, for the purpose of supplying these human chattels for the market of Zanzibar. The East African squadron has the power to crush this hornets' nest, and stop the inhuman traffic in slaves, so far as concerns Useguhha's ability to maintain it. Let a steam launch with fifty men on board be detached for this service up the Wami river. By ascending the river as far as Kigongo's they would arrive within twenty miles of the town of Simbamwenni, which could be marched in a night, and in the morning they could attack and burn the place, and break up this nucleus of the slave-trade in East Africa at once and for ever. The Waseguhha, aided by the slave-buyers, are the real scourge of this part of East Africa, and once their stronghold was taken and destroyed they would be powerless for evil. The Waseguhha are about the most thorough believers in witchcraft, yet the professors of this dark science fare badly at their hands. It is a very common sight to see cinereous piles on the roadside, and the waving garments suspended to the branches of trees above them, which mark the fate of the unfortunate waganga or medicine men. So long as their predictions prove correct, and have a happy culmination, these professors of "uchawi," magic arts, are regarded with favor by the people; but if an unusual calamity overtakes a family, and they can swear that it is the result of the magician's art, a quorum of relentless inquisitors is soon formed, and a like fate to that which overtook the "witches" in the dark days of New England surely awaits him. Enough dead wood is soon found in their African forests, and the unhappy one perishes by fire, and as a warning to all false professors of the art, his loin-cloth is hung up to a tree above the spot where he met his doom. The Wasagara are mountaineers. The country which they inhabit is the mountain chain and its immediate base, extending from the Makata river to the desert of Marenga Mkali, a breadth of seventy-five geographical miles, and a length of very nearly three degrees of latitude. The mountain range lies longitudinally in a north-byeast direction. The highest peak may probably have an elevation of about 6,000 feet above the sea. Mount Kibwe must be about 2,500 feet above the Mukondokwa Valley near Kadetamare, and Kadetamare must be 2,000 feet above the sea. But there are peaks in the Nguru group near Ugombo which I should estimate to be at least 1,500 feet higher than Mount Kibwe. To the north, as we approach the range from the Makata river, the mountains loom up more stupendous and lofty than those contiguous to the Pass of the Mukondokwa. On the tops and slopes of these mountains the vapours drifted hither by the monsoon winds shed their burden of water, and become rivers as the streams trickle down the slopes and unite in the valleys at their eastern base. However much geographers may disagree with me, my opinion is that this chain of mountains is to East Africa what the Rocky Mountains are to Central North America. I regard it as the backbone of East Africa. Travellers place Kilima-Njaro in east longitude 37° 27′, and Mount Kenia in 37° 35' east, and I place Mount Kibwe in longitude 36° 50'; and Burton believes that this same mountain chain of Usagara has "its culmi nating apex in Njésa-Uhiyou." If the Ruhwha Valley, through which the Rufiji issues into the sea from the highlands beyond, is only a gap in the Usagara range, why is not the Mukondokwa Valley a gap? Why may not the low plain of Uhumba, or Masai, be a gap? Why should the Ngaserai Hills, the mountain group of Kilima-Njaro, the snowy peak of Kenia, its southern neighbour Doeno Camwea, and its northern neighbour Msarara Mount, all heaving upward on the same line of longitude, not belong to this same Usagara range? The same effect observable in the plains to the east and the west of the Rocky Mountains is visible at either base of the Usagara range. In Western North America it is well known that the Plain of Colorado, Wyoming, and a large portion of Nebraska, on the east, and that portion of Colorado and Utah at the western base of the Rocky Mountains, do not appear to possess that remarkable fertility observable near the Missouri River and eastward, or west of Utah. These denuded regions of America are from 500 to 800 miles in breadth on either side of the Rocky Mountains, and have a length of nearly 2,000 miles. But it must be remembered that the Rocky Mountains have an average altitude of about 11,000 or 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. Such gigantic physical features are not to be seen in East Africa. I should estimate the average altitude of the more easterly portion of the Usagara Range to be about 3,500 feet above the sea level, while the most westerly should be estimated at 1,000 feet higher. The Makata Plain or Valley, east of Usagara, has the same denuded appearance that our western plains have, and the region west of Usagara, embracing the whole of Marenga Mkali and Ugogo, may be com |