The Mbrwole, which, ten miles lower down, after receiving a number of rivulets from the south, becomes a considerable stream, had here the appearance of being nothing more than an ordinary gallery-brook; and if I had not heard the name from the Niam-niam, who are always accurate in the nomenclature of their waters, I should have never imagined that it was the main stream. The Bahr-el-Wando, as it is called by the Khartoomers, flowed due west; and though doubtless it was fed by various minor brooks, it was here little more than a ditch of a few feet in breadth; yet the entire depression, clothed with its woody heights, was scarcely less than 1500 paces broad.
The abject terror which the Niam-niam men displayed, lest they should be devoured, formed a very remarkable contrast to the quiet composure of the young woman who had just been captured, and who, without any sign of fear, entered into conversation and was ready to furnish us with whatever geographical information she could. Her calm demeanour led me to the conclusion that the Niam-niam forego eating their female prisoners of war, for the advantage of reserving them as slaves.
Under the guidance of our captive, we crossed the Mbrwole, and taking possession of the huts on the opposite bank, we found ourselves towards midday well installed in a comfortable camp.
The proximity of our position here to the thickets made a nocturnal attack more than probable. I resolved, therefore, to pitch my own tent in the middle of the huts and to keep a lamp burning throughout the night. The tent consequently became (as it was in a measure transparent) a great lantern in the darkness and formed a target for the aim of the missiles from the woods, a number of arrows being found on the following morning sticking in the top; these I have preserved as memorials of our bivouac on the Mbrwole. All night long the natives were skirmishing with our outposts, thus necessitating a continual fire in reply; but although I slept alone in my tent, the experience of the last few days had so accustomed me to the perpetual shots that my night’s rest was perfectly undisturbed. I was well aware that before the enemy could get to my position in the centre of the camp, they must alarm the groups of bearers who were crouching round their fires, and must afterwards penetrate the quarters of the soldiers and of my own servants.
To get into the right road we had again to cross the Mbrwole. Another two leagues to the west along the left bank, and the river was recrossed once more. Over cultivated tracts of rising ground we proceeded to the north and came to some extensive flats of gneiss, the first we observed in the course of our return. This gneiss, being on the hither side of the river, and to the east of the furrowed soil which we noticed on our outward way between the Mbrwole and the Lindukoo, acquired an increased significance as apparently belonging to the line of elevation that traverses the watershed of the Nile.
THE LINDUKOO.
Leaving this interesting locality, we made a palpable descent, and had next to pass over the meadow-waters that, flowing in a northerly direction, formed affluents of the Lindukoo. No regular path conducted to the farther side; pell-mell the caravan plunged into the long grass and clumps of Phrynia that made a half-floating surface to the swampy depths. Experience makes a traveller wary in getting across these marshy spots; he learns by practice how to avoid a ducking; he gets the knack of kicking down a clump of weeds without lifting his feet, and can tell to a nicety whether it will bear his weight; by caution such as this he surmounts the difficulty of “the lacustrine streams.” After passing the last of these, we made our next encampment near some Niam-niam hamlets, which, in this direction, were the last before we should arrive at Aboo Sammat’s territory. Our arrival here was unexpected, yet before the bulk of the caravan had come up the inhabitants had all made off, so that we found the place entirely deserted. Although the late outbreak of hostilities had put the whole district upon the alert, there were various things to prevent the foe from reckoning with any certainty upon our movements; unevenness of soil, extent of wilderness, prospect of supplies, all influenced our plans, which might be changed at any hour; and thus it happened that in spite of all the spies that might be set to watch us, the adversary was never safe from being taken by surprise.
Ten leagues still remained between our present quarters and Aboo Sammat’s hospitable Seriba, which it was our wish to reach by the shortest route.
An early hour of the following day found us at the Lindukoo, that branch of the Yubbo, which I have already described as the last tributary of the Nile system, and which is distinguishable from the other rivers of the district by the eastward flow of its waters. It was here considerably enlarged by receiving the meadow waters from the watershed. Bounded by banks some 20 feet in height, it meandered along a deep bed that was 30 feet in breadth, through low-lying steppes, which at no great distance were replaced by woods.
The bank-forests that give the flora of the southern Niam-niam lands its singular resemblance to the West African type of vegetation here came to an end. In arriving at the gneiss-hills, we had entered upon the limits of the dense bush-forest which covers Mohammed’s entire territory, an area of nearly 500 square miles. Whilst, in the region of the gallery-forests, all the trees and bushes are confined to the river-banks, the intermediate spaces being occupied by uniform grass-plains, here, on the contrary, in the region of continuous woods all watercourses of every kind, whether they are rivers or mere brooks are (just as in Bongoland) bounded by low open plains, which extend, without being wooded at all, to the very shores. The hydrographical system is better developed, and imparts a well-defined aspect to the scenery, the strips of open grassy steppe along the margins of the watercourses winding like streams of verdure through the dense masses of the foliage.