Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/548

454 WEST AFRICA. natives rose against them, and a Negro empire was founded by the famous Mirambo, the "black Bonaparte," whose military genius has been the theme of all travellers. At present this state is divided, one half of the villages belonging to the proteges of the Arabs, some of whom are of true Semite stock ; but the majority are half-castes from Muscat or Zanzibar, who employ mercenary troops imported from Baluchistan and other places. Owing to the introduction of all these foreign elements the population has become strangely mixed, and most of the natives along the trade routes speak three languages — their Bantu mother- tongue, Arabic, and the Ki-Swahili of Zanzibar. The town, or rather group of villages, most frequently mentioned in the reports of travellers and missionaries is Tabora^ the Kazeh, or " Eesidence," of the first English explorers. It stands at an altitude of over 4,000 feet, or very nearly on the highest land of the waterparting at the converging point of all caravan routes between the .sea and the great lakes. Tabora, which is surrounded by extensive plantations of batatas, yams, rice, maize, and other cereals, comprises several honias, or palisaded enclosures, which with numerous outlying groups of huts has an estimated population of five thousand Wa-Nyamezi, Arabs, Zanzibari, and Baluchi. On the surrounding plain to the south and south-west are scattered several other villages, such as Kui-Kuru, or the " Royal Village," with five concentric enclosures, where resides the Mtemi, who rules over U-Nyamezi under the protection of the Arab agent at Tabora. All these groups of carefully built huts are well kept and surrounded either with a hedge of poisonous arborescent euphorbise, or else in the new style, with a rampart of thick walls. Of late years some European buildings, such as schools and chapels,' have sprung up both in the Tabora district and in U- Yiii and U-RamhOy to the north-east and north-west. According to Wilson, from four thousand to five thousand natives dwell within the strong enclosure of U-Yui ; and Serombo, on a northern affluent of the Mala- garazi, is also a large place with a population estimated at about five thousand. As in most other parts of Africa where Islam and Christianity come in contact, the former exercises most moral influence, although recording fewer proselytes, and although the Arab traders show no zeal for the conversion of the natives. In the U-Gonda district south of Tabora the Germans had established a station, where they hoped sooner or later to create a centre of effective political control for the whole region stretching east of Tanganjdka. Their first post Avas founded in 1881 near the village of Kakoma in the Vua Galla country, but was soon after removed to Gonda in the Yua-Gunda territory. In return for a few charges of gunpowder the local " sultan " had granted them a share of the royal power, with the right of pronouncing sentence of death and declaring peace or war. Neverthe- less, they failed to prevent human sacrifices over the graves of the chiefs, and the station was abandoned. In the Malagarazi valley west of U-Nyamezi one of the most dreaded predatory tribes are the Yua-Tuta, whose territory is carefully avoided by caravans, which here turn north to the populous town of Serombo. But in this region the largest