The heart of Africa, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by Georg August Schweinfurth

Of the three companies that had met with this serious repulse, Kurshook Ali’s company had suffered the smallest loss; its column of bearers, who were bringing up the rear of the procession, had retreated in time; but of the soldiers of the company, who had naturally hastened to the assistance of their fellow-countrymen, ten were killed and four more were carried away severely wounded. According to the protocol that Khalil received, all of these had been pierced by bullets. Apart from the grievous loss of life and property that this occurrence entailed, it foreboded nothing but discouragement for the future of the ivory trade; the controllers of the Seribas felt absolutely powerless before the overwhelming fact that the Niam-niam had used firearms, and, under the circumstances, they were entirely at a loss to know how to induce their disheartened troops to re-enter the formidable country. The soldiers openly declared that they had been hired to fight against savages on the Upper Nile, and by savages, they meant people who used lances and arrows; but to do battle with people who were armed with genuine bullets was going beyond their contract, and this they positively refused to do.

All the bearers who had escaped from the conflict with their lives, hurried back in crowds to their settlements, and circulated in the environs of the Seribas the most horrible accounts of the heartrending massacre they had witnessed. As the demands of the expedition had nearly emptied several of the Seribas of their fighting force, those settlements that were on the Dinka frontiers were consequently for the time considerably exposed to the danger of attack from their neighbours. Accordingly, in the course of a few days, it happened that we were solicited by the inhabitants of a neighbouring Seriba of the deceased Aboo Guroon to send them an armed succour, as the Dinka around them were assuming a most threatening attitude. Khalil complied with their request by sending a small detachment of soldiers to co-operate with the remnant of armed men who had been left in charge of the garrison.

All these events combined to give my life in the Seriba much more excitement than before, and my intercourse with strangers was far from unfrequent. Many of the Gellahbas, mounted upon their donkeys or Baggara oxen, passed through the place to do business in the purchase of living ebony, and their rivals, the Turkish soldiers, ever and anon paid us a visit whilst on their way to make their requisitions of corn at the adjacent Seribas.

A LION SHOT.

On one occasion the surprising intelligence was brought us that a lion had been shot on the sandy bed of the retreating Dyoor. In the early morning the animal had gone to quench its thirst at the river, and had been tracked down to the water’s edge by a troop of soldiers who happened to be passing by; one of their number, though but an indifferent marksman, had aimed from a short range, and had succeeded in mortally wounding the lion by a shot in the head. The skin was dressed and converted into a splendid saddle-cloth, whilst the head was stuffed, and devoted to the mysterious purposes of magic.

One night a deafening uproar suddenly arose: it was followed by a horrible yell, accompanied by what sounded like the wails, screeches, and howls of a lot of terrified women. Every one started to his feet; the soldiers seized their weapons; the captain of the Turkish guard, who happened to be in the place with a party of bazibozuks, rushed out with his troop, and increased the confusion by sending forth a whole volley of the usual oaths and imprecations. It turned out, however, that there was no demand either for his military services or for any of his bombastic bluster. The simple cause of the tumultuous outcry was the fall of an enormous tree near the Seriba. To save the trouble of felling this monster of the woods it had been gradually undermined by fire, and the negroes, in the course of one of their nightly orgies, had been waiting for the moment of its downfall, and were now bellowing and dancing like maniacs around the prostrate and still smoking mass.

On the 25th I made an excursion to the banks of the Dyoor, for the purpose of hunting hippopotamuses, as well as of verifying the condition of the river by taking measurements in two fresh places. Six miles to the S.S.E. of the Seriba, I reached the left bank of the river at a place where it was overgrown with tall reeds, and on our return we crossed again four miles farther below. Between these two positions was a deep basin, in which a number of hippopotamuses throughout the year found sufficient water in which to perform their evolutions. A couple of miles still lower down were situated the two crossing-places of earlier date. Between the most northerly and the most southerly of the four spots I have mentioned, the general direction of the Dyoor is due north, varied by gentle windings to the N.N.E. and N.N.W. Beginning at the most northerly, and taking them in order, I will now proceed to give the result of my observations on the condition of the Dyoor at each of the four places where I crossed it either by boat or by swimming.

1. At the first spot the entire bed was 800 feet wide, but on the 28th of April, 1869, the water only extended to the width of eighty feet, being from one to four feet in depth, The edge of the bank stood from twenty to twenty-five feet above the water.

2. At the next point of examination the measuring-line gave the width of the bed from bank to bank as 302 feet. On the 8th of May, 1869, the river was full, and three or four feet deep. On the 27th of October, and on the 1st of November, 1870, the depth was from sixteen to twenty feet, whilst the banks were already three or four feet above the surface of the water. The velocity of the current on the left and western shore was 105 feet per minute, whilst on the eastern it was 137½ feet. It could be seen by the flood-marks that in the height of the rainy season (i.e. in August and September) the entire depression, extending from 1000 to 1200 paces on the left shore, and only 100 paces broad on the right, was covered with water to a depth of three or four feet.

THE BED OF THE DYOOR.