The Kilima-Njaro Expedition by Harry Johnston

The people of Taveita were glad to welcome me once more to their midst, and after the first few days, spent in rapidly building houses to store my goods, and huts for my followers-from which efforts a small town ultimately arose-I prepared to smooth the way by negotiations for a peaceful ascent of Kilima-njaro. The chief of Maraṅu, a largish state (a little bigger than Middlesex) on the south-eastern flank of the great mountain, had latterly sent emissaries to Taveita, to question the people of the forest sanctuary as to my real character and disposition. News of my disputes with Mandara had reached him, and he thought, perhaps, he might oust that chief in my good graces, and get me all to himself with my (supposed) illimitable wealth, and my wonderful powers of sorcery. I met his advances enthusiastically-perhaps _too_ enthusiastically, because it at first roused suspicion as to my real motives in entering Maraṅu-and sent to say, by Taveitan intermediaries, that I should be very happy to make peace. I invited, moreover, all the different chieftains of Kilima-njaro to send delegates to Taveita, where we might discuss our differences on neutral ground. The hope was in me that now being duly supported by a well-equipped band of followers, and residing on my own land, I might act as the peaceful arbiter of Kilima-njaro, might show its foolish people that their quarrels were only to the advantage of the Arab slave-traders, and induce them to band together in a friendly confederation to resist the common enemy. My proposal for a conference was well received. Representatives from Kibôšo, Mamba, Mwika, Kirua, Useri, came to Taveita. I had also sent a letter to Mandara, explaining my object and inviting him to co-operate, but no immediate answer was given, nor did he send any delegate to attend our conference. The naked ambassadors of the different states I have mentioned were all of one opinion. "Make friends with Maraṅu, and you are friends with all of us. As to forming a league with Mandara against the coast people, perhaps we will see-later; but it is Mandara who must first make amends; it is he who has for years past robbed, enslaved, and harried us. Did Maraṅu ever fight with Kibôšo, or Useri with Mamba and Mwika? Never! There would be peace on the mountain were it not for Mandara. He began the war-let him make proposals of peace. Where is his delegate to-day?"

I confess that having done my utmost I was not going to waste any more time in trying to restore peace in troubled Čaga. Politics I only meddled with inasmuch as they were contingent on the prosecution of my scientific mission. As Mandara abstained from following my pacific suggestions, all that remained to me was to make friends as speedily as possible with Maraṅu-not for the pleasure of its chief's acquaintance, or for interest in its welfare, but in order to reside in the upper regions in peace and quiet-and then proceed at once to the borders of the snow, and make up for lost time by collecting as busily as possible. Had the mission of pacifying and regenerating the states of Kilima-njaro been confided to me I would have thrown my whole heart into it, and might perhaps have done some real good, but it was not for that end that I had received my grants from the Royal Society and the British Association. They wanted plants and birds and beetles, not assurances that certain obscure communities of savages in Central Africa had been induced to abstain for a few months from killing and enslaving one another. What would they say, when my six months' residence on Kilima-njaro was over, and I presented myself to their committee, and said, "Oh, I am sorry to inform you I found the state of affairs in the Čaga commonwealth so disorganized, that I set myself to work to restore peace and prosperity, and this took up so much time that I wasn't able to collect"?