WINWOOD READE'S OX AND HAMMOCK TRAIN.
"Yes," replied the Doctor; "oxen are not as fast as horses, but they will endure more, and keep fat where a horse would starve. Where there is plenty of food a horse is to be preferred, but in a country where the herbage is scant, and you must travel day after day and week after week, the ox is the superior animal. He is slow but sure in his movements, and will get over rough ground better than a horse. Winwood Reade says he is sulky and revengeful, but this is contrary to the testimony of other travellers. Mr. Reade had some saddle-oxen in his train, but his favorite mode of riding was by hammock, on the shoulders of porters.
"I had arranged for porters with hammocks to carry us back to Afuddo in case the oxen failed to arrive. But they are here all right; and as everything is ready we will mount and be off."
Early in the afternoon they were once more in their camp on the banks of the Nile, and discussing the plans for departure up the river.
As Doctor Bronson had predicted, the two days of preparation were extended to four, and it was not till the fifth day that they were ready to start. All the baggage was carried on board in the evening, and the two explorers slept on deck, beneath the awnings. The cabins were too hot for comfort, and so full of mosquitoes that several smudges and a vigorous use of brooms and switches could not expel them. The deck was much more agreeable, and it was voted that, while the cabins might be useful as dressing-rooms, they were undesirable for lodging-places.
The steamer was off about nine o'clock in the morning, and headed against the strong current of the Nile in the direction of the Albert N'yanza. Late in the afternoon a bend of the stream revealed the widening that betokened the entrance of the lake, and in a little while the Khedive was afloat on the waters of the lowest of the lakes that form the head-waters of the mysterious river of Egypt.
We will leave the Khedive and her passengers and return to Frank, whom we left on his southward travels a day beyond Afuddo. His journal will tell the story of his experiences.
"I had a sad heart all day after parting from my friends," said the youth in his note-book, "and was unable to see much beauty in the landscape. The country was well but not richly timbered, and I observed that the road ascended steadily as we moved away from the river. We passed many villages, all of the same general appearance, and I began to be weary of the succession of grass-thatched huts. The people looked at us indifferently, and sometimes came out to beg or try to sell us some of the products of their little fields. They did not display any hostility, but Abdul said we were not yet in the country where we might look for opposition.