Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed.
Some illustrations have been moved from mid-paragraph for ease of reading.
The [footnotes] follow the text.
In certain versions of this etext, in certain browsers, clicking on this symbol will bring up a larger version of the image. The larger symbol that appears over certain maps will bring up a very much larger version.
(etext transcriber's note)

IN DARKEST AFRICA

OR THE
QUEST, RESCUE, AND RETREAT OF EMIN
GOVERNOR OF EQUATORIA
BY
HENRY M. STANLEY
WITH TWO STEEL ENGRAVINGS, AND ONE HUNDRED AND
FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
IN TWO VOLUMES
Vol. II
“I will not cease to go forward until I come to the place where the two seas meet,
though I travel ninety years.”—Koran, chap. xviii., v. 62.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1890
[All rights reserved]
Copyright, 1890, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Press of J. J. Little & Co.,
Astor Place, New York.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

[CHAPTER XXI.]
WE START OUR THIRD JOURNEY TO THE NYANZA.
PAGE
Mr. Bonny and the Zanzibaris—The Zanzibaris’ complaints—Poisonof the Manioc—Conversations with Ferajji and Salim—We tellthe rear column of the rich plenty of the Nyanza—We wait forTippu-Tib at Bungangeta Island—Muster of our second journeyto the Albert—Mr. Jameson’s letter from Stanley Falls datedAugust 12th—The flotilla of canoes starts—The Mariri Rapids—Ugarrowwaand Salim bin Mohammed visit me—Tippu-Tib,Major Barttelot and the carriers—Salim bin Mohammed—Myanswer to Tippu-Tib—Salim and the Manyuema—The settlementof the Batundu—Small-pox among the Madi carriers andthe Manyuema—Two insane women—Two more Zanzibariraiders slain—Breach of promises in the Expedition—TheAbabua tribe—Wasp Rapids—Ten of our men killed and eatenby natives—Canoe accident at Manginni—Lakki’s raiding partyat Mambanga—Feruzi and the bush antelope—Our cook, Jabu,shot dead by a poisoned arrow—Panga Falls—Further casualtiesby the natives—Nejambi Rapids—The poisoned arrows—MabenguRapids—Child-birth on the road—Our sick list—Nativeaffection—A tornado at Little Rapids—Mr. Bonnydiscovers the village of Bavikai—Remarks about Malaria—EminPasha and mosquito curtain—Encounter with the Bavikainatives—A cloud of moths at Hippo Broads—Death of the boySoudi—Incident at Avaiyabu—Result of vaccinating the Zanzibaris—Zanzibaristung by wasps—Misfortunes at Amiri Rapids—Ourcasualities—Collecting food prior to march to Avatiko	[1]
[CHAPTER XXII.]
ARRIVAL AT FORT BODO.
Ugarrowwa’s old station once more—March to Bunda—We cross theIturi River—Note written by me opposite the mouth of theLenda River—We reach the Avatiko plantations—Mr. Bonnymeasures a pigmy—History and dress of the pigmies—A conversationby gesture—The pigmy’s wife—Monkeys and otheranimals in the forest—The clearing of Andaki—Our tatteredclothes—The Ihuru River—Scarcity of food; Amani’s meals—Uledisearches for food—Missing provisions—We reach Kilonga-Longa’svillage again—More deaths—The forest improves fortravelling—Skirmish near Andikumu—Story of the pigmies andthe box of ammunition—We pass Kakwa Hill—Defeat of acaravan—The last of the Somalis—A heavy shower of rain—Welcomefood discovery at Indemau—We bridge the DuiRiver—A rough muster of the people—A stray goat at ourNgwetza camp—Further capture of dwarfs—We send back toNgwetza for plantains—Loss of my boy Saburi in the forest—Wewonder what has become of the Ngwetza party—My boy Saburiturns up—Starvation Camp—We go in search of the absentees,and meet them in the forest—The Ihuru River—And subsequentarrival at Fort Bodo	[37]
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
THE GREAT CENTRAL AFRICAN FOREST.
Professor Drummond’s statements respecting Africa—Dimensionsof the great forest—Vegetation—Insect life—Description of thetrees, &c.—Tribes and their food—The primæval forest—Thebush proper—The clearings: wonders of vegetable life—Thequeer feeling of loneliness—A forest tempest—Tropical vegetationalong the banks of the Aruwimi—Wasps’ nests—The foresttypical of human life—A few secrets of the woods—Game in theforest—Reasons why we did not hunt the animals—Birds—TheSimian tribe—Reptiles and insects—The small bees and thebeetles—The “jigger”—Night disturbances by falling trees, &c.—TheChimpanzee—The rainiest zone of the earth—The Iturior Upper Aruwimi—The different tribes and their languages—Theirfeatures and customs—Their complexion—Conversationwith some captives at Engweddé—The Wambutti dwarfs: theirdwellings and mode of living—The Batwa dwarfs—Life in theforest villages—Two Egyptians captured by the dwarfs at FortBodo—The poisons used for the arrows—Our treatment forwounds by the arrows—The wild fruits of the forest—Domesticanimals—Ailments of the Madis and Zanzibaris—The CongoRailway and the forest products	[73]
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
IMPRISONMENT OF EMIN PASHA AND MR. JEPHSON.
Our reception at Fort Bodo—Lieut. Stairs’ report of what took placeat the Fort during our relief of the rear column—No news ofJephson—Muster of our men—We burn the Fort and advanceto find Emin and Jephson—Camp at Kandekoré—Partingwords to Lieut. Stairs and Surgeon Parke, who are left incharge of the sick—Mazamboni gives us news of Emin andJephson—Old Gavira escorts us—Two Wahuma messengersbring letters from Emin and Jephson—Their contents—Myreplies to the same handed to Chief Mogo for delivery—TheBalegga attack us, but, with the help of the Bavira, are repulsed—Mr.Jephson turns up—We talk of Emin—Jephson’s reportbearing upon the revolt of the troops of Equatoria, also hisviews respecting the invasion of the province by the Mahdists,and its results—Emin Pasha sends through Mr. Jephson ananswer to my last letter	[112]
[CHAPTER XXV.]
EMIN PASHA AND HIS OFFICERS REACH OUR CAMP AT KAVALLI.
Lieut. Stairs and his caravan are sent for—Plans regarding therelease of Emin from Tunguru—Conversations with Jephsonby which I acquire a pretty correct idea of the state of affairs—Therebel officers at Wadelai—They release Emin, and proceedin the s.s. Khedive and Nyanza to our camp at Kavalli—EminPasha’s arrival—Stairs and his caravan arrive at Mazamboni’s—Characteristicletter from Jephson, who is sent to bring Eminand his officers from the Lake to Kavalli—Short note from thePasha—Arrival of Emin Pasha’s caravan—We make a granddisplay outside our camp—At the grand divan: Selim Bey—Stairs’column rolls into camp with piles of wealth—Mr. Bonnydespatched to the Nyanza to bring up baggage—Text of mymessage to the rest of the revolted officers at Wadelai—Notefrom Mr. Bonny—The Greek merchant, Signor Marco, arrives—Suicideof Zanzibari named Mrima—Neighbouring chiefs supplyus with carriers—Captain Nelson brings in Emin’s baggage—Arrangementswith the chiefs from the Ituri River to theNyanza—The chief Kabba-Rega—Emin Pasha’s daughter—SelimBey receives a letter from Fadl-el-Mulla—The Pashaappointed naturalist and meteorologist to the Expedition—ThePasha a Materialist—Dr. Hassan’s arrival—My inspection overthe camp—Capt. Casati arrives—Mr. Bonny appears withAwash Effendi and his baggage—The rarest doctor in the world—Discoveryof some chimpanzees—The Pasha in his vocation of“collecting”—Measurements of the dwarfs—Why I differ withEmin in the judgment of his men—Various journeys from thecamp to the Lake for men and baggage—The Zanzibaris’complaints of the ringleaders—Hassan Bakari—The Egyptianofficers—Interview with Shukri Agha—The flora on the BareggaHills—The chief of Usiri joins our confederacy—Conversationwith Emin regarding Selim Bey and Shukri Agha—Address byme to Stairs, Nelson, Jephson and Parke before Emin Pasha—Theirreplies—Notices to Selim Bey and Shukri Agha	[139]
[CHAPTER XXVI.]
WE START HOMEWARD FOR ZANZIBAR.
False reports of strangers at Mazamboni’s—Some of the Pasha’sivory—Osman Latif Effendi gives me his opinions on theWadelai officers—My boy Sali as spy in the camp—Capt.Casati’s views of Emin’s departure from his province—Lieut.Stairs makes the first move homeward—Weights of my officersat various places—Ruwenzori visible—The little girl reared byCasati—I act as mediator between Mohammed Effendi, hiswife, and Emin—Bilal and Serour—Attempts to steal riflesfrom the Zanzibari’s huts—We hear of disorder and distressat Wadelai and Mswa—Two propositions made to Emin Pasha—Signalfor general muster under arms sounded—Emin’s Arabsare driven to muster by the Zanzibaris—Address to theEgyptians and Soudanese—Lieut. Stairs brings the Pasha’sservants into the square—Serour and three others, being theprincipal conspirators, placed under guard—Muster of EminPasha’s followers—Osman Latif Effendi and his mother—Casatiand Emin not on speaking terms—Preparing for the march—Fightwith clubs between the Nubian, Omar, and the Zanzibaris—Myjudgments on the combatants—We leave Kavalli forZanzibar—The number of our column—Halt in Mazamboni’sterritory—I am taken ill with inflammation of the stomach—Dr.Parke’s skilful nursing—I plan in my mind the homewardmarch—Frequent reports to me of plots in the camp—Lieut.Stairs and forty men capture Rehan and twenty-two deserterswho left with our rifles—At a holding of the court it is agreedto hang Rehan—Illness of Surgeon Parke and Mr. Jephson—Apacket of letters intended for Wadelai falls into my hands,and from which we learn of an important plot concocted byEmin’s officers—Conversation with Emin Pasha about thesame—Shukri Agha arrives in our camp with two followers—Lieut.Stairs buries some ammunition—We continue our marchand camp at Bunyambiri—Mazamboni’s services and hospitality—Threesoldiers appear with letters from Selim Bey—Theircontents—Conversation with the soldiers—They take a letter toSelim Bey from Emin—Ali Effendi and his servants accompanythe soldiers back to Selim Bey	[182]
[CHAPTER XXVII.]
EMIN PASHA—A STUDY.
The Relief of David Livingstone compared with the Relief of EminPasha—Outline of the journey of the Expedition to the first meetingwith Emin—Some few points relating to Emin on which wehad been misinformed—Our high conception of Emin Pasha—Loyaltyof the troops, and Emin’s extreme indecision—Surpriseat finding Emin a prisoner on our third return to the Nyanza—Whatmight have been averted by the exercise of a little franknessand less reticence on Emin’s part—Emin’s virtues and nobledesires—The Pasha from our point of view—Emin’s rank andposition in Khartoum, and gradual rise to Governor of Equatoria—Gordon’strouble in the Soudan—Emin’s consideration andpatience—After 1883 Emin left to his own resources—Emin’ssmall explorations—Correctness of what the Emperor Hadrianwrote of the Egyptians—The story of Emin’s struggles with theMahdi’s forces from 1883 to 1885—Dr. Junker takes Emin’sdespatches to Zanzibar in 1886—Kabba Rega a declared enemyof Emin—The true position of Emin Pasha prior to his relief byus, showing that good government was impossible—Two documents(one from Osman Digna, and the other from Omar Saleh)received from Sir Francis Grenfell, the Sirdar	[228]
[CHAPTER XXVIII.]
TO THE ALBERT EDWARD NYANZA.
Description of the road from Bundegunda—We get a good view ofthe twin peaks in the Ruwenzori range—March to Utinda—ThePasha’s officers abuse the officer in command: which compelsa severe order—Kaibuga urges hostilities against Uhobo—Brushwith the enemy: Casati’s servant, Akili, killed—Descriptionof the Ruwenzori range as seen from Mboga—Mr.Jephson still an invalid—The little stowaway named Tukabi—CaptainNelson examines the Semliki for a suitable ferry—Wereach the Semliki river: description of the same—Uledi andSaat Tato swim across the river for a canoe—A band of WaraSura attack us—All safely ferried across the river—In theAwamba forest—Our progress to Baki-kundi—We come acrossa few Baundwé, forest aborigines—the Egyptians and theirfollowers—Conversation with Emin Pasha—Unexplored parts ofAfrica—Abundance of food—Ruwenzori from the spur ofUgarama—Two native women give us local information—Wefind an old man at Batuma—At Bukoko we encounter someManyuema raiders: their explanation—From Bakokoro wearrive at Mtarega, the foot of the Ruwenzori range—LieutenantStairs with some men explore the Mountains of the Moon—Reportof Lieutenant Stairs’ experiences—The Semliki valley—TheRami-lulu valley—The perfection of a tropical forest—Villagesin the clearing of Ulegga—Submission of a Ukonjuchief—Local knowledge from our friends the Wakonju—Descriptionof the Wakonju tribe—The Semliki river—View ofRuwenzori from Mtsora—We enter Muhamba, and next daycamp at Karimi—Capture of some fat cattle of Rukara’s—theZeriba of Rusessé—Our first view of Lake Albert EdwardNyanza	[250]
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
THE SOURCES OF THE NILE—THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON,AND THE FOUNTAINS OF THE NILE.
Père Jerome Lobo and the Nile—The chartographers of Homer’s time—Hekatæus’sideas of Africa—Africa after Hipparchus—Thegreat Ptolemy’s map—Edrisi’s map—Map of the MargaritaPhilosophica—Map of John Ruysch—Sylvannus’ map—SebastianCabot’s map—The arbitrariness of the modern map maker—Mapof Constable, Edinburgh—What Hugh Murray says in his bookpublished in 1818—A fine dissertation on the Nile by FatherLobo—Extracts from part of a MS. in the possession of H. E. AliPasha Moubarek—Plan of Mount Gumr—A good description ofAfrica by Scheabeddin—The Nile according to Abdul HassenAli—Abu Abd Allah Mohammed on the Nile river	[291]
[CHAPTER XXX.]
RUWENZORI: THE CLOUD KING.
Recent travellers who have failed to see this range—Its classical history—Therange of mountains viewed from Pisgah by us in1887—The twin cones and snowy mountain viewed by us in1888 and January 1889—Description of the range—The Semlikivalley—A fair figurative description of Ruwenzori—Theprincipal drainage of the snowy range—The luxurious productiveregion known as Awamba forest or the Semliki valley—Shelterfrom the winds—Curious novelties in plants in Awambaforest—The plains between Mtsora and Muhamba—Changes ofclimate and vegetation on nearing the hills constituting thesouthern flank of Ruwenzori—The north-west and west side ofRuwenzori—Emotions raised in us at the sight of Ruwenzori—Thereason why so much snow is retained on Ruwenzori—Theascending fields of snow and great tracts of débris—Brief viewsof the superb Rain Creator or Cloud King—Impression made onall of us by the skyey crests and snowy breasts of Ruwenzori	[313]
[CHAPTER XXXI.]
RUWENZORI AND LAKE ALBERT EDWARD.
Importance of maps in books of travels—The time spent over mymaps—The dry bed of a lake discovered near Karimi; its computedsize—Lessons acquired in this wonderful region—Whatwe learn by observation from the Semliki valley to the basin ofthe twin lakes—Extensive plain between Rusessé and Katwé—TheZeribas of euphorbia of Wasongora—The raid of the Wagandamade eighteen years ago—The grass and water on thewide expanses of flats—The last view and southern face ofRuwenzori—The town of Katwé—The Albert Edward Nyanza—Analysisof the brine obtained from the Salt Lake at Katwé—Surroundingsof the Salt Lake—The blood tints of its waters—Thelarger Salt Lake of Katwé, sometimes called Lake of Mkiyo—Thegreat repute of the Katwé salt—The Lakists of the AlbertEdward—Bevwa, on our behalf, makes friends with the natives—Kakuriappears with some Wasongora chiefs—Exploration ofthe large Katwé lake—Kaiyura’s settlement—Katwé Bay—Ablack leopard—The native huts at Mukungu—We round anarm of the lake called Beatrice Gulf, and halt at Muhokya—Ambuscadeby some of the Wara-Sura, near the Rukoki: weput them to flight—And capture a Mhuma woman—CaptainNelson and men follow up the rear guard of Rukara—Halt atBuruli: our Wakonju and Wasongora friends leave us—Sicknessamongst us through bad water—The Nsongi River crossed—Captureof a Wara-Sura—Illness and death among the Egyptiansand blacks—Our last engagement with the Wara-Sura atKavandaré pass—Bulemo-Ruigi places his country at ourdisposal—The Pasha’s muster roll—Myself and others aresmitten down with fever at Katari Settlement—The south sideof Lake Albert Edward and rivers feeding the Lake—Our firstand last view, also colour of the Lake—What we might haveseen if the day had been clearer	[334]
[CHAPTER XXXII.]
THROUGH ANKORI TO THE ALEXANDRA NILE.
The routes to the sea, viâ Uganda, through Ankori, to Ruandaand thence to Tanganika—We decide on the Ankori route—Wehalt at Kitété, and are welcomed in the name of King Antari—Entertainedby Masakuma and his women—A glad messagefrom King Antari’s mother—Two Waganda Christians, namedSamuel and Zachariah, appear in camp: Zachariah relates anarrative of astounding events which had occurred in Uganda—Mwanga,King of Uganda; his behaviour—Our people recoveringfrom the fever epidemic—March up the valley between Iwandaand Denny Range—We camp at Wamaganga—Its inhabitants—TheRwizi River crossed—Present from the king’s mother—Thefeelings of the natives provoked by scandalous practices of someof my men—An incident illustrating the different views mentake of things—Halt at the valley of Rusussu—Extract from mydiary—We continue our journey down Namianja Valley—Thepeaceful natives turn on us, but are punished by PrinceUchunku’s men—I go through the rite of blood-brotherhoodwith Prince Uchunku—The Prince’s wonder at the Maxim gun—Asecond deputation from the Waganda Christians: my longcross-examination of them: extract from my journal—Myanswer to the Christians—We enter the valley of Mavona—Andcome in sight of the Alexandra Valley—The Alexandra Nile	[358]
[CHAPTER XXXIII.]
THE TRIBES OF THE GRASS-LAND.
The Wahuma: the exact opposite of the Dwarfs: their descendants—Tribesnearly allied to the true negro type—Tribes of theNilotic basin—The Herdsmen—The traditions of Unyoro—Myexperiences of the Wahuma gained while at Kavalli—View ofthe surrounding country from Kavalli camp—Chiefs Kavalli,Katto, and Gavira, unbosom their wrongs to me—Old Ruguji’sreminiscences—The pasture-land lying between Lake Albert andthe forest—The cattle in the district round Kavalli: their milk-yield—Threecases referring to cattle which I am called upon toadjudicate—Household duties of the women—Dress among theWahuma—Old Egyptian and Ethiopian characteristics preservedamong the tribes of the grass-land—Customs, habits, and religionof the tribes—Poor Gaddo suspected of conspiracy against hischief, Kavalli: his death—Diet of the Wahuma—The climate ofthe region of the grass-land	[384]
[CHAPTER XXXIV.]
TO THE ENGLISH MISSION STATION, SOUTH END OF VICTORIA NYANZA.
Ankori and Karagwé under two aspects—Karagwé; and the AlexandraNile—Mtagata Hot Springs—A baby rhinoceros, capturedby the Nubians, shows fight in camp—Disappearance of WadiAsmani—The Pasha’s opinion of Capt. Casati—Surgeon Parkeand the pigmy damsel—Conduct of a boy pigmy—Kibbo-boraloses his wife at the Hot Springs—Arrival at Kufurro—Recentkings of Karagwé—Kiengo and Captain Nelson’s resemblance to“Speke”—The King of Uganda greatly dreaded in Karagwé—Ndagararefuses to let our sick stay in his country—Camp atUthenga: loss of men through the cold—We throw superfluousarticles in Lake Urigi in order to carry the sick—We enter thedistrict of Ihangiro: henceforward our food has to be purchased—theLake of Urigi—At the village of Mutara, Fath-el-Mullahruns amuck with the natives, and is delivered over to them—TheUnyamatundu plateau—Halt at Ngoti: Mwengi theirchief—Kajumba’s territory—We obtain a good view of LakeVictoria—The country round Kisaho—Lions and human skullsin the vicinity of our camp—The events of 1888 cleared ourtrack for a peaceful march to the sea—We reach Amranda andBwanga—The French missionaries and their stations at Usambiro—Arrivalat Mr. Mackay’s, the English Mission station—Mr.Mackay and his books—We rest, and replenish our stores,etc.—Messrs. Mackay and Deakes give us a sumptuous dinnerprevious to our departure—The last letter from Mr. A. M.Mackay, dated January 5, 1890	[404]
[CHAPTER XXXV.]
FROM THE VICTORIA NYANZA TO ZANZIBAR.
Missionary work along the shores of the Victoria Nyanza and alongthe Congo river—The road from Mackay’s Mission—The countryat Gengé—Considerable difficulty at preserving the peace atKungu—Rupture of peace at Ikoma—Capture and release ofMonangwa—The Wasukuma warriors attack us, but finally retire—Treachery—Thenatives follow us from Nera to Seké—Weenter the district of Sinyanga; friendship between the nativesand our men—Continued aggression of the natives—Heavytributes—Massacre of caravan—The district of Usongo, and itschief Mittinginya—His surroundings and neighbours—TwoFrench missionaries overtake us—Human skulls at Ikungu—Wemeet one of Tippu-Tib’s caravans from Zanzibar—TroubledUgogo—Lieutenant Schmidt welcomes us at the German stationof Mpwapwa—Emin Pasha visits the Pères of the FrenchMission of San Esprit—The Fathers unacquainted with Emin’srepute—Our mails in Africa continually going astray—Contentsof some newspaper clippings—Baron von Gravenreuth andothers meet us at Msua—Arrival of an Expedition withEuropean provisions, clothing and boots for us—Major Wissman—Heand Schmidt take Emin and myself on to Bagamoyo—Dinnerand guests at the German officer’s mess house—MajorWissman proposes the healths of the guests; Emin’s and myreply to the same—Emin’s accident—I visit Emin in thehospital—Surgeon Parke’s report—The feeling at Bagamoyo—Embarkfor Zanzibar—Parting words with Emin Pasha—Illnessof Doctor Parke—Emin Pasha enters the service of theGerman Government—Emin Pasha’s letter to Sir John Kirk—Suddentermination of Emin’s acquaintance with me—Threeoccasions when I apparently offended Emin—Emin’s fears thathe would be unemployed—The British East African Companyand Emin—Courtesy and hospitality at Zanzibar—Monies dueto the survivors of the Relief Expedition—Tippu-Tib’s agentat Zanzibar, Jaffar Tarya—The Consular Judge grants me aninjunction against Jaffar Tarya—At Cairo—Conclusion	[432]

[APPENDICES].
[A].—	Congratulations by Cable received at Zanzibar	[481]
[B].—	Comparative Tables of Forest and Grass-land Languages	[490]
[C].—	Itinerary of the Journeys made in 1887, 1888, 1889	[496]
[D].—	Balance Sheet, &c., of the Relief Expedition	[513]
	[General Index]	[515]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME II.

STEEL ENGRAVING.
Portrait of Henry M. Stanley	[Frontispiece].
(From a Photograph taken at Cairo, March, 1890.)
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
Facing page
Swords and Knives of the Ababua	[22]
Entering Andikumu	[50]
The Scouts Discover the Pigmies Carrying away the Case ofAmmunition	[54]
Starvation Camp: Serving out Milk and Butter for Broth	[66]
A Page from Mr. Stanley’s Note-Book—Sketch-Maps	[94]
The Pigmies at Home—A Zanzibar Scout Taking Notes	[104]
Address to Rebel Officers at Kavalli	[148]
The Pigmies as Compared with the English Officers, Soudanese,and Zanzibaris	[152]
The Pigmies under the Lens, as Compared to Captain Casati’sServant Okili	[164]
Climbing the Plateau Slopes	[170]
Rescued Egyptians and Their Families	[220]
Ruwenzori, from Kavalli’s	[252]
Ruwenzori, from Mtsora	[286]
Bird’s-Eye View of Ruwenzori, Lake Albert Edward, and LakeAlbert	[318]
Ruwenzori, from Karimi	[328]
Expedition Winding up the Gorge of Karya-Muhoro	[362]
A Page from Mr. Stanley’s Note-Book—Musical Instruments	[396]
Weapons of the Balegga and Wahuma Tribes	[400]
Baby Rhinoceros Showing Fight in Camp	[406]
South-West Extremity of Lake Victoria Nyanza	[419]
Stanley, Emin, and Officers at Usambiro	[425]
Experiences in Usukuma	[438]
Banquet at Msua	[450]
Under the Palms at Bagamoyo	[454]
The Relief Expedition Returning to Zanzibar	[462]
The Faithfuls at Zanzibar	[474]
OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS.
A Swimming Race after a Bush Antelope	[25]
Dwarf Captive at Avitako	[41]
Bridging the Dui River	[60]
Two-Edged Spears	[99]
Play-Table	[99]
Back-Rest and Stool	[99]
Decorated Earthen Pot	[99]
Arrows of the Dwarfs	[101]
Elephant Trap	[102]
A Belle of Bavira	[130]
View of Camp at Kavalli	[140]
Shukri Agha, Commandant of Mswa Station	[173]
Sali, Head-Boy	[185]
An Ancient Egyptian Lady	[207]
Attack by the Wanyoro at Semliki Ferry	[260]
Houses on the Edge of the Forest	[264]
Egyptian Women and Children	[266]
The Tallest Peak of Ruwenzori, from Awamba Forest	[274]
South-West Twin Cones of Ruwenzori—Sketch. By Lieut. Stairs	[278]
[1]Africa in Homer’s World	[293]
“ Map of Hekatæus	[294]
“ Hipparchus, 100 b.c.	[295]
Ptolemy’s Map of Africa, a.d. 150	[295]
Central Africa according to Edrisi, a.d. 1154	[296]
Map of the Margarita Philosophica, a.d. 1503	[296]
“ John Ruysch, a.d. 1508	[297]
Map, Sylvanus', a.d. 1511	[297]
Hieronimus de Verrazano’s Map, a.d. 1529	[298]
Sebastian Cabot’s Map of the World, 16th Century	[298]
The Nile’s Sources According to Geographers of the 16th and 17th Centuries	[299]
Map of the Nile Basin, a.d. 1819	[301]
Mountains of the Moon—Massoudi, 11th Century	[308]
Map of Nile Basin to-day from the Mediterranean to S. Lat. 4°	[311]
View of Ruwenzori from Bakokoro Western Cones	[326]
The Little Salt Lake at Katwé	[342]
Section of a House near Lake Albert Nyanza	[348]
A Village in Ankori	[361]
Expedition Climbing the Rock in the Valley of Ankori	[362]
Musical Instruments of the Balegga	[399]
A Hot Spring, Mtagata	[406]
Lake Urigi	[415]
View from Mackay’s Mission, Lake Victoria	[428]
Rock Hills, Usambiro	[437]
House and Balcony from which Emin Fell	[454]
Sketch of Casket containing the Freedom of the City of London	[488]
Sketch of Casket, the Gift of King Leopold	[489]
MAPS.
A Map of the Route of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition through Africa.	[In Pocket.]
A Map of Emin Pasha’s Province.	[In Pocket.]
Profile Sketch of Ruwenzori and the Valley of the Semliki.	[Facing page 335]

IN DARKEST AFRICA.

CHAPTER XXI.
WE START OUR THIRD JOURNEY TO THE NYANZA.

Mr. Bonny and the Zanzibaris—The Zanzibaris’ complaints—Poison of the Manioc—Conversations with Ferajji and Salim—We tell the rear column of the rich plenty of the Nyanza—We wait for Tippu-Tib at Bungangeta Island—Muster of our second journey to the Albert—Mr. Jameson’s letter from Stanley Falls dated August 12th—The flotilla of canoes starts—The Mariri rapids—Ugarrowwa and Salim bin Mohammed visit me—Tippu-Tib, Major Barttelot, and the carriers—Salim bin Mohammed—My answer to Tippu-Tib—Salim and the Manyuema—The settlement of the Batundu—Small-pox among the Madi carriers and the Manyuema—Two insane women—Two more Zanzibari raiders slain—Breach of promises in the Expedition—The Ababua tribe—Wasp Rapids—Ten of our men killed and eaten by natives—Canoe accident at Manginni—Lakki’s raiding party at Mambanga—Feruzi and the bush antelope—Our cook, Jabu, shot dead by a poisoned arrow—Panga Falls—Further casualties by the natives—Nejambi Rapids—The poisoned arrows—Mabengu Rapids—Child-birth on the road—Our sick list—Native affection—A tornado at Little Rapids—Mr. Bonny discovers the village of Bavikai—Remarks about Malaria—Emin Pasha and mosquito curtain—Encounter with the Bavikai natives—A cloud of moths at Hippo Broads—Death of the boy Soudi—Incident at Avaiyabu—Result of vaccinating the Zanzibaris—Zanzibari stung by wasps—Misfortunes at Amiri Rapids—Our casualties—Collecting food prior to march to Avatiko.

1888.
Aug. 21.
Bavabya.

That uncanny concurrence of circumstances, illustrated by the contents of the last chapter, was recalled to my mind again on the next morning which dawned on us after the arrival of the advance column at Bavabya.

1888.
Aug. 21.
Forest.

In Mr. Bonny’s entry in the log-book will be found mentioned that the Soudanese and Zanzibaris mustered of their own accord to lay their complaints before me. Mr. Bonny, in his official report, had stated it was his intention, “under God’s help, to make the Expedition more successful than it had been hitherto.” By his written report, and his oral accounts, by the brave deliberation of his conduct during the terrible hours of the 19th July, and by the touching fidelity to his duties, as though every circumstance of his life was precisely what it ought to be, Mr. Bonny had leaped at a bound, in my estimation, to a most admiring height. I was sure, also, that Major Barttelot must have discovered remarkable elements of power in him, which, unfortunately for my credit, had been unseen by me. But no sooner had permission been given to the men to speak, than I was amazed at finding himself listening to a confession that the first day’s march to the eastward under Mr. Bonny was to be the signal for his total abandonment by the Zanzibaris.

I gave them a patient hearing. Only sixty seemed in any way likely to survive the trials they had endured out of the 101 or 102 remaining. They all appeared unutterably miserable, many seemed heart-broken, but there were several whose looks suggested a fixed hate, malice, and spite.

“Well, sit down, children,” said I, “and let us talk this matter quietly,” and when they had seated themselves in a semi-circle before me, and our own robust people from the Nyanza had crowded about behind, I addressed them thus:—

“Ah, my poor men, the days of weeping and grieving are over. Dry your tears and be glad. See those stout fellows behind you. They have seen the white Pasha, they have shared his bounties of meat, and milk and millet, and have heard him praise their manliness. They are the people who should weep, but weep for gladness, for every step hence is one step nearer to Zanzibar. We came back from the Nyanza to seek you who were so long lost to us. We have found you, thanks be to God! Now, let bygones be bygones. I cannot restore the dead, but I can rejoice the hearts of the living. Think no more of your sufferings, but live in hope of a brighter future. It was necessary for us to go before you, to clear the road and assist the white man before he perished. We told you all this before we departed from you. You should have remembered our promise that as soon as we had found him whom we sought we should come back with the good news to you. We have kept our word—have you kept yours?

“No, you lost your faith in us. When the runaways from our party returned to you, and they, with gaping mouths, told you what was false to hide their crime of desertion, you listened with wide-open ears, and accepted their tales as truths. Did they bring a letter from any of us? No! but you found silver watches, and Arab cloaks striped with gold in their baggage. Do common carriers find such things in the forest? If they do, then you should have said to them, ‘Come, turn back with us, and show us the place where we may also find such wealth.’ Those carriers had stolen those things from us, and had run away with their booty. You saw these things, and yet you believed that we were all destroyed, that I was shot in seventeen places, and all the white men except one had been killed, and the one remaining had gone to Ujiji! Oh, men of little wit!

“What, nearly 400 Zanzibaris, and six white men, all lost except a few, and those few gone to Ujiji instead of coming to you, their brothers and friends! That is too much for belief. I thought Zanzibaris were wiser men, for truly I have seen wise ones in my time.

“And if I were not dead, how came you to believe that I would forget you, and my white sons whom I left with you. Whither could I go, except to my own children if I were distressed or unable to go on? Was not the fact of our long absence a proof that we were still going on doing our work, since even deserters and thieves had nowhere to flee except back to you?

“Aye, I see well how it has happened unto you. You lay on your backs rotting in camp, and have been brooding and thinking until the jiggers have burrowed into your brains, and Shaitan has caused you to dream of evil and death. You became hardened in mind, and cruel to your own bodies. Instead of going to the little masters, and telling them of your griefs and fears, you have said Mambu Kwa Mungu—it is God’s trouble. Our masters don’t care for us, and we don’t care for them.

“Now, Ferajji, you are a head man, tell me what cause of complaint in particular you have. Did the white men ill-treat you?”

“No, they treated me well; but they were hard on some of the men.”

“How hard, and on whom?”

“On the Zanzibaris, and if they were not chap-a-chap (active).”

“But what did they wish to be chap-a-chap for? Had you important work to do?”

“No, for when the steamer went away there was little to do. Only fixing the earth work, sweep camp, cut fuel, and stand guard at night. But the goee-goees (lazy or useless) would not come when called. Then the white men got impatient, and would call again louder. Then the goee-goees would come slowly—lazily—little by little, and say they had pains in the head, or in the body, back, chest, or feet. Then the masters would get angry, and say it was shamming. Every day it was the same thing.”

“But how could sweeping camp, getting fuel, and standing guard be hard work for 250 people?”

“It was no work at all.”

“Was anybody else punished except the goee goees?”

“No one except the thieves.”

“Did you have many of them?”

“I think all the thieves of Zanzibar joined the ‘journey-makers’ this time.”

“That cannot be, Ferajji, because we had some thieves with us, and there must have been a few left on the coast.”

The audience laugh. Ferajji replied, “That is indeed truth, but we had a great many. Brass rods, cowries, and garments were lost daily. Zanzibaris accused Soudanese, Soudanese accused Somalis, Somalis accused Zanzibaris, and so it went round. Nothing was safe. Put anything under your pillow, roll it under the sleeping-mat, bind it tight, and make it into a headrest, and lo! in the morning it was gone! Indeed, I became afraid my teeth would be stolen next.”

“But those white teeth of yours are not purchased, are they, Ferajji?”

“No, thank Allah, they were born with me, but those who thrive on thieving may well be feared.”

“That is true, Ferajji; but why should they have stolen all the time?”

“Hunger made them steal. Hunger killed the strong lion in the fable, and hunger will kill the best man.”

“Hunger! what are you talking of. Hunger, with all those fields of manioc near here?”

“Manioc, master! Manioc will do for a time, but manioc with sauce is better.”

“Sauce! I don’t understand you, Ferajji?”

“Why, dry manioc—that is manioc with nothing but itself—manioc in the morning, and at noon, and at the sunset meal, and nothing but eternal manioc, with neither salt, nor fish, nor meat, nor oil, nor butter, nor fat of any kind to assist its passage down the gullet, is apt to cloy. Give the appetite something now and then new to smell, or see with the manioc, and the Zanzibari is satisfied. Without that the stomach by-and-by shuts the door, and won’t take anything, and men die.”

“I see, but I left salt in the storeroom. It was to purchase fish, bananas and palm oil that the brass rods, cowries and beads were for.”

“Ah, now you are drawing near the point, master. Sometimes—nay, we were a long time without either.”

“But if they were in the store, surely there must be some reason why they were not given out?”

“We come to the thieves again, who became so active that they sold our axes and bill-hooks, and sold them to the natives for fish. Those who shared in the fish refused to tell who the thieves were, and our rations of cowries and brass rods were stopped.”

“After all, Ferajji, though manioc by itself is very dry eating, it is very good food. Think of it, all the blacks from Banana to Stanley Falls live on it, why should not Zanzibaris of this expedition live on it as they lived during six years on the Congo with me. I cannot see any reason for manioc to kill 100 men in eleven months. Tell me when did the people begin to sicken.”

“There were about a dozen sick when you left, sick of ulcers, bowel and chest complaints. A few recovered; then, in about four weeks, many got very feeble, and some sank lower and thinner until they died, and we buried them. When our friends came up from Bolobo, we thought they looked very different from us at Yambuya. They were stout and strong—we were thin and dying. Then, in another month, the men from Bolobo began to sicken and die, and every few days we buried one, or two, or even three at a time. There was no difference after a while between the Yambuya and Bolobo men.”

“Had you any cholera, small-pox, fever, or dysentery among you?”

“No, the men did not die of any of those things. Perhaps the Somalis and Soudanese did not take kindly to the climate, but it was not the climate that killed the Zanzibaris. Oh——”

“And you say it was not by the stick, or hard work, or cholera, small-pox, fever, dysentery or climate?”

“Nothing of any of those things killed the Zanzibaris.”

“Were they shot, or hanged, poisoned, or drowned?”

“Neither was any of those things done unto them, and a proper and good man was never punished, and we had one day out of seven in the week to ourselves.”

“Now in the name of the Prophet Mohammed—throw your eyesight on these forty men here who sit apart. Look at those big eyes, hollow cheeks, thin necks, and every rib bare to the view. You see them? What has caused those men to be thus?”

“God knows!”

“Yet they are wasting away, man, and they will die.”

“It is true.”

“Well, then, give me some idea—of what is killing them?”

“I cannot tell you, master; may be it is their fate to be thus.”

“Bah! God has done His best for you. He has given you eyes, hands to feel, feet to walk, a good stomach to digest your food, and a sense to pilot your path through the world. Don’t say that God made strong men to wither them away in this manner. I must and will find the reason of this out.

“Now, you Salim, the son of Rashid, speak to me. The son of a wise father should know a few wise things. There is Death among you, and I want to find out why. Say, how you and your comrades living in camp for a year can lose more lives than we did during all our journey, through this big forest, despite all the hunger and hard work we met?”

Salim thus urged, replied modestly: “I am not wise, and all the world knows it. I am but a youth, and a porter, who for a little wage has come to gather a little money by carrying my load through Pagan lands. What strength I have I give freely to the owner of the caravan. Bitter things have happened to us while you were away. I have lost a brother since I came here. You must know, sir, that dry manioc and water is not good for a son of Adam. If our friends and relatives have sickened, and died—it must surely be that the manioc has had something to do with it. Thank God, I am well, and still strong, but I have seen the days when I would willingly have sold my freedom for a full meal. Whatsoever tended to fill the void of the stomach I have sought out and have continued to live on day after day, until, praise be to God and the Prophet—you have come back to us. But, sir, all men are not the same—the sense of all men is not equal, and it may be that white men differ one from the other as much as we blacks; for I see that some of them are rich, and some are poor, some attend the engines down in the belly of the ship, and some walk the quarter deck and command.”

“Aye, Salim has the gift of speech,” murmured the crowd.

This encouraged Salim, who, clearing his throat, resumed: “There is no doubt that the main fault lies in the manioc. It is a most bitter kind, and the effects of eating it we all know. We know the sickness, the retching, the quaking of the legs, the softening of the muscles, the pain in the head as if it were bound with iron and the earth swimming round the place whereon we stand, and the fall into a deadly faint. I say we have felt all this, and have seen it in others. Some of us have picked up the knack of making it eatable; but there are others who are already too feeble or too lazy to try, or try to care how to live.

“For some time we have been thinking that in every camp of ours there is nothing but graves, and dying and burying. There has been no meat, nor salt, nor dripping, nor gravy. There has been manioc, always manioc, and no more. But if the gullet be dry, what will drive the food down the passage? If the stomach is filled with loathing it requires a little gravy or dripping to make the food palatable.

“We knew that in a few weeks we were to leave here for Stanley Falls, or for up the river, and we had made up our minds to leave the white men’s service—every one of us. There has been death among us, it is here still, and no one knows what is the cause of it. I myself don’t quite believe that it is because we are working for white men, but there are some of us who do. But we were all agreed until you came that we had seen enough of it. There is another thing I wished to say, and that is—we have wondered why we who belong to the Continent should die, and white men who are strangers to it should live. When we were on the Congo and on other journeys it was the white men who died, and not we. Now it is we who die, a hundred blacks for one white. No, master, the cause of death is in the food. The white men had meat of goat, and fowls, and fish; we have had nothing but manioc and therefore died. I have spoken my say.”

“Well, it is my turn to talk. I have been listening, and thinking, and everything seems clear to me. You say that manioc was your food at Yambuya, and that it made you sick and your men died?”

“Yes.”

“And you say that the men of Bolobo when they come to Yambuya were in good condition?”

“Yes.”

“But that afterwards they became sick and died also?”

“Yes.”

“What did the men of Bolobo eat when there?”

“Chikwanga.”

“Well, what is chikwanga but bread made out of manioc?”

“That is true.”

“Did you make it into bread?”

“Some of us.”

“And some of you have lived. Now the truth of the matter is this. You went out into the fields, and gathered the manioc tubers, the finest and best. And you cut some leaves of manioc and brought them in, to bruise them and make greens. This manioc is of the bitter kind. This bitterness which you taste in it is poison. It would not only kill a few hundreds. It would kill a whole race.

“As you peeled the tubers, you cut raw slices and ate them, you pounded your greens and as ‘kitowêo,’ you ate them also. These are two instances in which you took poison.

“Now the men from Bolobo had bought the manioc bread from the native women. They had steeped the tubers in the river for four or five or six days until the poison had all been washed away, they had then picked the fibres out, dried the mush, and when dry they had made it into good bread. That was what fed the Bolobo men, and fattened them. But the men of Yambuya had scraped their manioc, and cut the roots for drying in the sun, and as they did so they ate many a piece raw, and before the slices were well dried they had eaten some, because they had no reserve of food, and hunger forced them. Even those of you who put your roots to soak in the water ate many a nice-looking bit, and you bruised and cooked your greens to serve with your badly-prepared bread, and men naturally sickened and died of the poison; and the men of Bolobo, when they came up, did like the men of Yambuya, and by-and-by they fell ill and died also. That is the reason why there are a hundred graves at Yambuya, and that is what ails these sick men here. Not one of the white men died, because they had rice, beans, biscuits and meat of fowl and goat. If it were the climate that had killed your friends, the white men less adapted for it would have died first, as they have done on the lower Congo; but neither the climate nor the camp had anything to do with your mortal sickness—the retching, and quaking of the limbs, the vertigo and pain in the head, the weakening of the knees, and the softening of the muscles, the final loathing, and indifference to life—nothing else than the poison of the bitter manioc.

“What you should have done was to have sent two or three daily out of each mess to gather in the manioc in sufficient quantities and steep it in the river, and have always plenty of prepared flour on hand to make porridge or dumplings when hungry. Had you done so, I should have about 200 sleek and strong men ready for travel with me to Zanzibar.

“Now follow what I say to you now. Eat as little of this manioc as you can. Go, gather plenty of it, put it in the river to steep, and while it is soaking eat your fill of bananas and plantains. In a day or two I will move away from here. The sick shall be carried to a big island a few hours distant, and there you will prepare twenty days’ provisions of flour. Those who cannot get sufficient bananas make gratings over the fire, slice your manioc thin, and let them dry till morning; then pound, and make into flour, and eat what is good for white man as well as black. To-morrow, all of you come back again to me, and you will throw away those filthy rags of clothing into the river, and I shall clothe you anew. Meantime, rejoice, and thank God that we have come to save you from the grave.”

We had brought with us a saving salve for all the despair and discontent that wrought confusion in the minds of those who were herded within the pen of Banalya. The influence of the beauty of the grass-land, its wealth of grains and vegetables, and its stores of food had been impressed so vividly upon the minds of our men of the advance column, that the subject-matter of their revelations excited the dullest mind to a lively hope that good times were come again. The men who had feasted their eyes and glutted their appetites in that glorious land were never tired of relating those details which have such a charm for those who know from bitter experience what it is to hunger. As vivid as the word pictures describing the happy region was the rapture of attention paid to them by the poor emaciates who bore on their faces the unhealthy stain of anæmia. To these it seemed an Eden filled with all manner of pleasant things—abundance of food, grain and meat for strength, milk and millet for nourishment. Slight regard was paid by the narrators to the miserable months to be endured before the Eden could be reached, nor did the eager listeners seem to care to sift the narratives. Their imagination was so engrossed with the bright scenes that quite obscured the stern realities to be borne before they could be attained. I listened to the artless prattle of these adult children, sympathised with their enthusiasm, and pitied them with all my soul. “Inshallah!” said the boys from the Nyanza, with fervid emotion, “We shall feast on beef once again, then you will laugh at the days you fed on manioc roots and greens.”

Was it to be doubted that these seductive visions would lead the sickly ones of Banalya from erring thoughts of desertion? Milk and honey, meat and millet, with wages and bounties, were stronger attractions than the dried fish of Stanley Falls, the cane of the Arab master, and a doubtful future.

The cloud that had weighed down the spirits of the men of the rear column so long was now about to be uplifted. But first it was necessary to remove every one from the immediate vicinity of Banalya, the scene of the tragedy and nursery of vicious moods and mischiefs. The couriers sent on the 17th of August with notice of our arrival to Tippu-Tib must have reached him on the 24th of August. I had stated I should wait for him ten days, and even that period was begrudged by the impatient Nyanza men, who had heard with scorn of his calculating dilatoriness. But this delay was not only needed to give another opportunity to Tippu-Tib, but also to enable Mr. Jameson, who was reported to be at Stanley Falls, to join us, and also to reorganise the Expedition, and re-arrange the goods, which had become terribly deranged by the demands of Tippu-Tib, that they should be reduced to suit mere boy carriers.

1888.
Aug. 21.
Bungangeta.

After three days’ halt at the camp we embarked all the sick and goods in the canoes, and proceeded to Bungangeta Island, which we reached in three hours. All the Manyuema carriers proceeded by land to a camp opposite the island. During our stay at Banalya, Ugarrowwa had descended the river from Wasp Rapids and occupied the larger island; we therefore paddled to another higher up, which in some respects was more suitable for us. The land column straggled into the camp opposite during three successive days, but the rear guard, driving the stragglers, did not reach the landing-place until the evening of the 24th, though the distance was but six miles. Mr. Bonny did not reach until the 22nd. The advance column in 1887 had covered the distance in four hours, but meantime the Arabs had destroyed the large settlements, and the marvellously thriving bush had buried ruins, fields, and plantations under accumulated layers of leafy parasites. This short march, protracted over three days, emphasised the necessity that existed for a complete reorganization and thorough overhaul. We had also lost four half-loads and two rifles through absconding Manyuema. On the whole it was a capital test march, and proves, if any further proof was needed beyond the log-book, the utter unruliness of this mob of slaves, which had half-maddened the officers of the rear column. Without Tippu-Tib, or one of his nephews, such a column could not be taken through the broad extents of wildernesses ahead. At this rate of marching we should be 450 days reaching the Albert Nyanza. Messrs. Jameson and Bonny had been forty-three days going ninety miles. The difficulties which our officers met on the road are but slightly glanced at in the log-book, but the patience with which they had met them was never more manifest. We stayed on our breezy island until the 31st August. Cloth, beads, cowries, and brass rods had been distributed at the rate of five doti or twenty yards, three pounds cowries, one pound beads, and fifteen brass rods per man of the Nyanza force, and half as much to the men of the rear column, equal in value to £760 to the Nyanza force, and £283 to the Banalya men. They all deserved equally, but the latter had already a pretty fair kit, whereas the Nyanza men had been clad in goat skins and strips of bark-cloth. This “pocket-money” to each would enable our men to enjoy perfect rest while Ugarrowwa’s 600 people would only be too happy in preparing flour, making manioc cakes and bread—as reserve provisions—for a fair portion of cloth and other articles.

Besides the work of restoring the baggage into order, which needed my personal supervision, I had to write my reports to the Relief Committee, to the London Royal, and Royal Scottish Geographical Societies, who were contributories to the Relief Fund, to hold my palaver with the Manyuema headmen, who one day vowed strictest fidelity, and the next burdened my ear with complaints of their moody-mad men, losses by disease, desertion, thefts of goods, menaces, &c., &c. But my answer to them all was almost similar in terms to that used in my note to Tippu-Tib on the 17th: “If you decline the journey it is well, if you proceed with me it is well also. Exercise your own free will. I do not need you, but if you like to follow me I can make use of you, and will pay you according to the number of loads you carry.” Some of them understood this as implying leave to proceed upon their own business—that of ravaging and marauding—but three head men volunteered to accompany me. I engaged them on the condition that if they followed me of their own will for thirty days I would after that time trust them with loads.

At the muster of the Expedition, August 29th, the roll was made out as follows:—

	Men.	Carriers.
Zanzibaris capable of carrying goods	165	= 283
Madi carriers	57
Manyuema carriers	61
Soudanese and officers	21
Sick, &c. (Zanzibaris)	45
Somali	1
Emin Pasha’s soldiers	4
Manyuema chiefs, women and followers	108
Officers and servant	3
	465	283

List of loads to be carried on 2nd Journey to the Albert:—

Gunpowder	37	cases
Remington ammunition	83	”
Winchester	11	”
Maxim	9	”
Beads in sacks	19	”
Cowries	6	”
Brass wire coils	4	”
Cloth in bales	17	”
Percussion caps	4	”
Miscellaneous	40	”
	230	loads	for 283 carriers.

There were besides a few extra loads of miscellanea, which, so long as all were carried in canoes, were useful and necessary, such as service ammunition, native provisions, rope, &c., but the above formed the indispensable baggage, when we should start overland. Though we had fifty-three carriers in excess of loads, sickness, wounds, and death would naturally, from the nature of the country and the present physical condition of the rear column, decrease the number greatly, and the time would arrive no doubt when the carriers would only be equal to the loads, and the head men would have to relieve the sick porters. But meantime a very fair chance of life was offered to the sick. For something like sixty days they would be carried in canoes, and fed on plantain flour and garden herbs. Goats and fowls were very scarce, for Ugarrowwa had despoiled both banks. Also the porters would not be called upon to exert their strength in the transport of any burdens. It only remained for individuals to abstain from wild and reckless looting, and seeking untimely fate by excess of zeal and imprudence, to assure us a greater immunity from loss of life on this final journey to the Albert Nyanza than we enjoyed on our first journey.

1888
Aug. 30
Lower Mariri

During our stay out at Bungangeta Island Mr. Jameson’s letter from Stanley Falls arrived dated August 12th. Though the letter stated he purposed to descend to Bangala, the messenger reported that he was likely to proceed to Banana Point, but whether Banana Point or Bangala mattered very little. When he descended from Stanley Falls he deliberately severed himself from the Expedition, and no inducement would tempt me to remain in the neighbourhood of Banalya. I had given my word to the officers at Fort Bodo and to Emin Pasha and the Egyptians that on December 22nd, or thereabouts, I should be in the neighbourhood of Fort Bodo, and by January 16th, or near that date, on the Nyanza. It was natural that we should grieve and deplore the loss of Mr. Jameson to the Expedition, for the log-book entries pleaded powerfully for him, but the fatality that attached itself to the rear column was not to deplete our numbers also, nor should the garrison at Fort Bodo wonder and bewail our long absence, and lose their wits in consequence of our breach of promise. I wrote a letter, however, to Mr. Jameson, wherein I suggested that if he could muster sixty men, and immediately follow our blazed path, which was too broad to be mistaken, he might easily overtake our large column marching in single file through the forest along a road, bristling with obstacles, of sloughs, marshes, creeks and rivers. But, as the reader is aware, though we were ignorant of it, Mr. Jameson had been dead twelve days before my letter was written.

On the 30th August I sent the entire flotilla of canoes—twenty-nine in number, with twelve of Ugarrowwa’s—to transport Mr. Bonny, 239 men and their personal kit, provisions and cooking pots, five miles up river to the landing-place above the Rendi River, with orders to the land column to continue along our track to the next village, and the canoes having discharged their passengers returned to the island.

The next day—thirteen days having elapsed since Tippu-Tib had been communicated with and no reply having been received—we departed from Bungangeta Island on our final journey through the forest land, east. We embarked 225 men, inclusive of canoe crews, feeble and sick, and 275 full loads of between sixty and sixty-five pounds each of expeditionary property, provisions of flour, private kits of the people, &c., and despite a burning sun, which made extempore awnings very necessary, pressed on up river for six hours until we arrived at our old camp below Lower Mariri. On the 1st of September we reached the foot of Mariri Rapids to find that Bonny’s column had passed on to South Mupé. As the unsophisticated Zanzibaris and Manyuema had quite overlooked the device of portage opposite rapids, we had to despatch couriers to South Mupé for men to assist in the transport of loads overland.

On the 2nd we were engaged in poling the canoes through the dangerous river, and in the operation two were capsized. The next day we poled through the upper Mariri Rapids, and at noon we were all assembled at South Mupé.

1888.
Sept. 4.
Mupé.

Ugarrowwa had followed us up with his flotilla to collect a little more ivory, and was encamped at Upper Mariri Village. I had finished my hastily written letters to the Royal and Scottish Geographical Societies, and availed myself of his visit to me to request him to see that they were forwarded to England, but during our halt on the 4th September at South Mupé he re-visited me with Salim bin Mohammed, the nephew of Tippu-Tib, so often mentioned in connection with Major Barttelot and Mr. Jameson. This man was of medium height and of slender build, with good and regular Arab features, much marred by the small-pox, and a face that reflected courage and audacity.

Mr. Bonny’s story of him and his malevolence to Major Barttelot personally had led me to imagine that I had misjudged his character, but at this interview I was confirmed in my previous impressions of him and of Tippu-Tib. It was simply this, that both Arabs were quite capable of shedding pagan blood without concern as to its guilt, but would not plan out any cold-blooded conspiracy to murder Arabs or white men for a less cause than revenge. Now as neither had cause to plot the murder of Barttelot, or to conspire for the destruction of the rear column, there ought absolutely to be no grounds for supposing that they had ever imagined such mischiefs. I am not disposed to doubt that Tippu-Tib did send or lead a contingent of carriers in person to the Aruwimi. His excuses for his early return—on the plea that he could not find the camp—may be told to the “Marines.” They prove that he was lukewarm, that he did not care sufficiently for the promised reward, and he ought to have been dropped out of mind. When, however, the young officers pleaded, and entreated, and coaxed him, both he and his nephew saw clearly that the service so eagerly and earnestly desired was worth money, and they raised their price; not out of ill-will, but out of an uncontrollable desire to make more profit. The obligations Tippu was under by contract, the gratitude due me for my assistance, were all forgotten in the keen and sharpened appetite for money. The Major possessed no resources to meet their demands, the worthy uncle and nephew believed that both he and Jameson were rich, and the Expedition to be under the patronage of wealthy men. “Why, then,” say they both with smug complacency, “if they want us so badly, let them pay. Stanley has been good to us, that is true (see the Major’s report), but a man can’t work for his friend for nothing—friendship is too dear at the price”—and so they took another turn of the screw. It was done effectively I admit. If Tippu-Tib appeared a trifle indifferent he knew how to assume it, he knew he would be coaxed to good humour with gifts. If Salim bin Mohammed appeared a little vexed, sour, or talked of wounded susceptibilities, the Major opened his boxes and chose a gay uniform jacket, or sent a forty-five guinea rifle, or a bale of cloth, or a pair of ivory handled revolvers; if Salim bin Massoud his brother-in-law talked a little big, his condescending kindness was secured and stimulated by a rich bounty.

Salim had come in person, he said, to give a verbal reply to my note of the 17th, and he was ordered by his uncle to send couriers immediately back to him with my words.

The Arab’s inability to comprehend the meaning of a legal contract, his litigious and wavering spirit, his settled forgetfulness of words spoken, his facility for breaking promises, and tampering with agreements, his general inveracity, insincerity and dissimulation, as well as his gift of pouring a stream of compliments amid a rain of Mashallahs and Inshallahs, were never better displayed than at this interview. Salim said that Tippu-Tib had sent him to ask what we should do. This, after six letters, one in English and five in Arabic and Swahili, on the 17th!

“Now Salim,” said I, “listen. If I thought you or Tippu-Tib were in any way implicated in the murder of my friend, you would never leave this camp alive. You have only seen hitherto one side of me. But I know and believe from my soul that it was neither you nor Tippu-Tib who caused the death of the Major. Therefore we can speak together as formerly without anger. Tippu-Tib has not injured me beyond what the consul and the Seyyid of Zanzibar can settle easily between them. Into their hands I will commit the case. Tell your uncle that the passage of himself and his ninety-six followers from Zanzibar to Stanley Falls must be paid, that the loss of goods, rifles, powder, and ammunition, the loss of time of this entire expedition will have to be made good. Tell him to do what he likes, but in the end I shall win. He cannot hurt me, but I can hurt him. Tell him to consider these things, and then say whether it would not be better to prove at the last that he was sorry, and that in future he would try to do better. If he would like to try, say, that if he gathers his men, and overtakes me before I cross the expedition over the Ituri in about fifty days hence, he shall have a chance of retrieving my good opinion, and quashing all legal proceedings.”

“Very well, I hear all you say. I shall return to-night to Banalya; Ugarrowwa will lend me canoes. I shall be with Tippu-Tib in eight days, and on the 17th day I shall be back here, on your track. I shall overhaul you before forty days.”

“Good, then,” I said, “we had better utter our last farewells, for we shall not meet again unless we meet at Zanzibar, about eighteen months hence.”

“Why?”

“Because neither you nor Tippu-Tib have the least intention of keeping your word. Your business here has been to order the Manyuema who are with me back to Stanley Falls. But it is perfectly immaterial. Take them back, for once more I say, it is not in your power to hurt me.”

“Inshallah, Inshallah, let your heart rest in peace, we meet in less than forty days, I swear to you.”

Poor Salim! he proceeded straight from my presence to the quarters of the Manyuema headmen, and tempted them to return with him, which, singular to relate, they obstinately declined to do. Salim waxing wrathful, employed menaces, upon hearing which they came to me demanding protection.

Smiling, I said to Salim, “What you promised me just now is true; you have seen me in less than forty days! But what is the meaning of this? These are independent Manyuema chiefs, who were sent by Tippu-Tib to follow us. They are obeying Tippu-Tib in doing so. Let them alone, Salim, there will be less people for you to look after on the road, you know, because you also will follow us. Don’t you see? There, that will do. Come and get into your canoe, otherwise we shall make two marches before you leave here—and you have promised to catch me, you know, in forty days.”

Our move on the 5th was to the large settlement of the Batundu, who owned a flourishing crop of Indian corn, and a splendid plantation of bananas, as yet untouched by any caravan. The rear column men required good feeding to restore them to health, and though meat was unprocurable, bananas and corn were not amiss. Here we halted two days, during which we became aware of certain serious disadvantages resulting from contact with the Manyuema. For these people had contracted the small-pox, and had communicated it to the Madi carriers. Our Zanzibaris were proof against this frightful disease, for we had taken the precautions to vaccinate every member of the expedition on board the Madura, in March, 1887. But on the Madis it began to develop with alarming rapidity. Among the Manyuema were two insane women, or rather, to be quite correct, two women subject to spasms of hysterical exaltation, possessed by “devils,” according to their chiefs, who prevented sleep by their perpetual singing during the night. Probably some such mania for singing at untimely hours was the cause of the Major’s death. If the poor Major had any ear for harmony, their inharmonious and excited madhouse uproar might well have exasperated him.

The female sympathisers of these afflicted ones frequently broke out into strange chorus with them, in the belief that this method had a soothing effect, while any coercive measures for silencing them only exaggerated their curious malady. Whatever influence the chorus may have had on the nerves of the sufferers, on us, who were more tranquil, it was most distressing.

1888.
Sept. 5.
Batundu.

At this settlement two Zanzibaris, exceedingly useful, and reckoned among the elect of the force, secretly left camp to make a raid on the Batundu, and were ambushed and slain. This was the manner our most enterprising men became lost to us. One of these two was the leader of the van, and had acted in that capacity since we had departed from Yambuya, June 1887. The sad occasion was an opportunity to impress on the infatuated men for the hundredth time the absurd folly they were guilty of in sacrificing their lives for a goat, in nobly working for months to earn pay and honour by manliness and fidelity, and then bury all in the entrails of cannibals. I had bestowed on them cattle, sheep, goats, fowls, handfuls of silver, and a thousand pounds’ worth of clothes, but none, no, not one, had offered his throat to me to be cut. But for the sake of a goat, at any time day or night the cannibal might kill and then eat them. What monstrous ingratitude! They were instantly penitential. Again they promised to me by Allah! that they would not do so again, and, of course, in a day or two they would forget their promise. It is their way.

But any person who has travelled with the writer thus far will have observed that almost every fatal accident hitherto in this Expedition has been the consequence of a breach of promise. How to adhere to a promise seems to me to be the most difficult of all tasks for every 999,999 men out of every million whom I meet. I confess that these black people who broke their promises so wantonly were the bane of my life, and the cause of continued mental disquietude, and that I condemned them to their own hearing as supremest idiots. Indeed, I have been able to drive from one to three hundred cattle a five hundred mile journey with less trouble and anxiety than as many black men. If we had strung them neck and neck along a lengthy slave-chain they would certainly have suffered a little inconvenience, but then they themselves would be the first to accuse us of cruelty. Not possessing chains, or even rope enough, we had to rely on their promises that they would not break out of camp into the bush on these mad individual enterprises, which invariably resulted in death, but never a promise was kept longer than two days.

1888.
Sept. 8.
Elephant Playground.

“Elephant Playground” Camp was our next halting-place, and thence we moved to Wasp Rapids.

I learned from some of Ugarrowwa’s men that inland from Bwamburi are the Ababua tribe, among whom a different style of architecture prevails, the huts being more commodious and comfortable, and plastered, and that to the dwellings are attached wide verandahs. I was also told that their blacksmith’s art was carried to a high standard, and that on every blade of spear, sword, knife, or arrow, considerable decorations were lavished. Some of the tri-bladed and four-bladed knives were shown to me, and they were recognised as characteristic of the Monbuttu and Nyam-Nyam as described by Schweinfurth in his “Artes Africanæ.”

On leaving Wasp Rapids, on the 12th, our canoes carried 198; the land column under Mr. Bonny numbered 262. Being unladen, the trained men arrived in camp before the advance canoe of the flotilla. The road was now distinct and well trodden like ordinary African footpaths.

1888.
Sept. 12.
Manginni.

On reaching camp, however, the men, under pretence of cutting phrynia leaves to roof their huts, vanished into the forest, eluding the guards, and escaped along a path leading inland. Some of these managed to gain a few fowls, a sheaf or two of sugar-cane, and an abundance of mature plantains, but there were others who met only misfortune. Three Manyuema were killed, and a Lado soldier of the irregulars of Emin Pasha received a broad and sharp spear through his body, which, glancing past the vertebræ, caused a ghastly wound, but fortunately uninjured a vital part. The wounds were sewn up and bandages applied. The rear guard reported that on the road five Manyuema, three Zanzibaris, and one Soudanese were killed and eaten by ghoulish natives who had been hiding while the column was passing, and that these men belonging to the Banalya party had been resting near their hiding-place, when they were suddenly set upon and despatched. It was only five days previously that I had addressed the people publicly on the danger they were incurring by these useless and wholly unnecessary raids. When food was really required, which was once in five days, a foraging party would be sent to cut plantains in such abundance that they sufficed for several days, and twelve hours’ drying over a fire rendered the provisions portable. Their absolute inability to keep their promise, and the absolute impossibility of compelling them to do so, had been the cause of twelve deaths, and the thirteenth person was so seriously wounded that he was in imminent danger of dying. We had the small-pox raging among the Manyuema and Madis, and daily creating havoc among their numbers, and we had this fatal want of discipline, which was utterly irremediable in the forest region. The more vehemently I laboured to correct this disorder in the mob, the more conscious I became that only a death penalty on the raider would stop him; but then when the natives themselves executed infallibly the sentence, there was no necessity for me to do it.

Just above Manginni a canoe was capsized through pure carelessness. With our best divers we proceeded to the scene and recovered every article excepting a box of gunpowder and one of beads. The canoe was broken.

Passing by Mugwye’s, we reached Mambanga, and halted two days to prepare food for the uninhabited wilderness that stretches thence to Engwedde. At this camp Lakki or a “Hundred thousand,” a veritable Jack Cade, loud, noisy, blustering—the courier who in the midst of the midnight fray at Bandeya shouted to his comrades: “These fellows want meat, and meat they shall have, but it will be their own!”—heading a secret raiding party made up of choice friends, and returned twenty-four hours later with a curious and most singular wound from a poisoned arrow. Carbonate of ammonium was injected into the wound, and he was saved, but Lakki was firmly of the opinion that he was indebted to the green tobacco leaves employed to cover it.

1888.
Sept. 14.
Mambanga.

1888.
Sept. 17.
Ngula River.

While preparing our forest camps we were frequently startled at the sudden rush of some small animal resembling a wild goat, which often waited in his covert until almost trodden upon, and then bounded swiftly away, running the gauntlet among hundreds of excited and hungry people, who with gesture, voice, and action attempted to catch it. This time, however, the animal took a flying leap over several canoes lying abreast into the river, and dived under. In an instant there was a desperate pursuit. Man after man leaped head foremost into the river, until its face was darkly dotted with the heads of the frantic swimmers. This mania for meat had approached madness. The poisoned arrow, the razor-sharp spear, and the pot of the cannibal failed to deter them from such raids; they dared all things, and in this instance an entire company had leaped into the river to fight and struggle, and perhaps be drowned, because there was a chance that a small animal that two men would consider as insufficient for a full meal, might be obtained by one man out of fifty. Five canoes were therefore ordered out to assist the madmen. About half a mile below, despite the manœuvres of the animal which dived and swam with all the cunning of savage man, a young fellow named Feruzi clutched it by the neck, and at the same time he was clutched by half-a-dozen fellows, and all must assuredly have been drowned had not the canoes arrived in time, and rescued the tired swimmers. But, alas! for Feruzi, the bush antelope, for such it was, no sooner was slaughtered than a savage rush was made on the meat, and he received only a tiny morsel, which he thrust into his mouth for security.

During the next journey it was the river column that suffered. We were near our old camp at the confluence of the Ngula and the Ituri. A man in the advance canoe was shot in the back with a poisoned arrow. The wound was treated instantly with an injection of carbonate of ammonia, and no ill-effects followed.

The day following, the river column again suffered, and this time the case was as fatal as that caused by a bullet, and almost instantaneous. Jabu, our cook, somewhat indisposed, was sitting in the stern of a canoe while the crew was on shore about forty feet from him, hauling it past a bit of rapids. A bold and crafty native, with fixed arrow before him, steadily approached the vessel and shot a poisoned wooden dart, which penetrated the arm near the shoulders and pierced the base of the throat. The wound was a mere needle-hole puncture, but Jabu had barely time to say “Mahommed!” when he fell back dead.

Our next move was to Panga Falls. On the following day, 20th September, we made a road past the Falls, hauled twenty-seven canoes to the landing-place above, in view of Fort Island and then conveyed all goods and baggage to the camp.

1888.
Sept. 21.
Nejambi Rapids.

During our first journey through the neighbourhood we had lost no person through native weapons, but since our first passage the natives had been stimulated into aggressive efforts by the ease with which the reckless improvident black when not controlled by a white man, could be butchered. The deserters from the advance column had furnished the wretches with several meals; the stupid, dense-headed Bakusu under Ugarrowwa had supplied them with victims until the cannibal had discovered that by his woodcraft he could creep upon the unsuspecting men and drive his spear through them as easily as through so many goats. We had lost fourteen men in thirty days. A silly Madi strayed into the bush on the 20th, to collect fuel. A native confronted him and drove his weapon clean through his body. On the 21st a Manyuema woman, fifty paces from our camp, was pierced with a poisoned arrow, and was dead before we could reach her. And, to complete the casualties, a Zanzibari of the rear column succumbed to manioc poison.

Nejambi Rapids was our next camp. As soon as we had arrived and stacked goods, about a hundred men, driven by hunger, started in a body to forage for plantains. We, who remained in camp, had our hands full of work. The twenty-seven canoes required to be hauled, on the next day, past the rapids, and a road had to be cleared, and rattan cables were wanted for each vessel for hauling.

By sunset several of the foragers had returned well rewarded for their enterprise, but many were belated, and, till long past midnight, guns were fired as signals, and the great ivory horns sounded loud blasts which travelled through the glades with continued rolling echoes. About nine p.m., tidings came that two Zanzibaris had been killed by poisoned arrows. An hour later a dead body, that of Ferajji, the humorous head-man, who was cross-examined at Banalya, was brought in. On inspection, the corpse was found studded with beads of perspiration. The arrow wound was a mere pin-hole puncture in upper left arm, but it had proved quite enough. It was said that he walked about an hour after being struck, towards camp, but then cried out for a little rest, as he was faint. During the ten minutes’ rest he died.

Young Hussein bin Juma, of a respectable parentage at Zanzibar, was soon after carried in, and brought to me, not dead, as reported, but in an extremely low condition. I discovered that the arrow had pierced the outer flesh of the right arm, and had entered an inch above the third rib. The arrow was hastily withdrawn and shown to me. It was smeared over with a dark substance like thick coal tar, and emitted a most peculiar odour. The arm was not swollen, but the body wound had caused a considerable tumour, soft to the touch. He said that he had felt exceedingly faint at one time, and that he perspired greatly, but had felt great relief after retching. At present he was languid, and suffered from thirst. After washing well both wounds, five grains of carbonate ammonia were injected into each wound, and a good dose of strong medical brandy was administered.

In ten days young Hussein was quite restored, and went about performing his accustomed duties.

A squad of men returned long after midnight with fowls, plantains, and fortunately without accident. But early in the morning, Tam, a native of Johanna, raving from small-pox, threw himself into the rapids and was drowned. He had declined being vaccinated.

After hauling our canoes overland three-quarters of a mile, we halted a day above the rapids to prepare five days’ rations of flour. The strain of hauling the rotten craft had reduced our flotilla to twenty-two vessels.

Engwedde’s long series of rapids was passed without accident, and thence we moved to Avisibba, and a good march brought us to the camp below Mabengu Rapids, where we had waited so long for the lost column under Jephson in August, 1887.

The next day was a halt, and a strong foraging party was sent over to Itiri to collect food. In the afternoon it returned, bringing several days’ supply of plantains with a few goats and fowls, and for the first time we were able to make soup and distribute meat to the Banalya sick. It was reported to me that the Manyuema had carved a woman most butcherly to allay their strong craving for meat, but the headman assured me that it was utterly false, and I am inclined to believe him, for the Zanzibaris, if they had really detected such a monstrous habit in people who might at any time contaminate their cooking-pots, would have insisted on making a severe example.

1888.
Sept. 30.
Avugadu.

On the last day of September we moved up to above upper rapids of Avugadu, at which camp we discovered wild oranges. There were also wild mango-trees, if we may trust the flowering and foliage. Red figs of a sweetish flavour were very common, but as their shrunk pedicels possessed no saccharine secretions they were uneatable.

A native woman was delivered of a child on the road. She was seen standing over the tiny atom. The Zanzibaris as they came up crowded around the unusual sight, and one said, “throw the thing into the river out of the way.” “But why should you do that when the infant is alive?” asked another. “Why don’t you see that it is white? it must be some terrible disease I am sure.” “Oh Ignorance, how many evils transpire under thy dark shade.” “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” rushed to my mind, as I looked in wonder at the speakers, who, utterly unconscious that they were committing murder, would have extinguished the little spark of life there and then.

Our anxieties at this period were mainly on the account of those suffering from ulcers. There was one wise little boy of about thirteen called Soudi, who formerly attended on the Major. An injury he had received had caused about four inches of the leg bone to be exposed. We had also fifteen cases of small-pox, who mingled in the freest manner possible with our Zanzibaris, and only the suicide, Tam, had thus far been attacked.

1888.
Oct. 1.
Avejeli.

On arriving at Avejeli, opposite the Nepoko, the wife of the Manyuema drummer, a prepossessing lassie, went out to the gardens close by to collect herbs. A band of natives were in hiding, and they pierced her with arrows. Seven of them quivered in her body. Her screams attracted attention, and she was hastily brought in, but even as we were about to inject the ammonium she rolled over, raised her arms, and embraced her young husband in the most touching manner, gave a long sigh, and died. “Oh, ye travellers! who belong to that clique who say the Africans know neither love, affection, nor jealousy. What would you have said to this pitiful death-scene?” We had also a Manyuema woman who was a hideous object, a mass of loathsome pustules, emitting an almost unbearable stench, but her husband tended and served her with a surpassing and devoted tenderness. Death, death everywhere, and on every day, and in every shape; but love, supreme love stood like a guardian angel to make death beautiful! Poor unlettered, meek creatures, the humblest of humanity, yet here unseen, and unknown of those who sing of noble sacrifices, of constancy and devotion, proving your brotherhood with us amid the sternest realities by lulling your loved ones to rest with the choicest flowers of love!

On the 2nd of October we moved up to Little Rapids below the confluence of the Ngaiyu with the Ituri, where a tornado visited us, churned up the generally waveless river into careering rollers, that stretched from bank to bank, with a power and force that disturbed the very bed and muddied the stream until it resembled a wild strip of shallow wind-driven sea, beating on an alluvial shore. Our canoes were dashed one against the other until they promised to become matchwood, while the great forest groaned and roared with the agony of the strife, but in half-an-hour the river had resumed its placid and tender face, and the forest stood still as though petrified.

During a halt on the 3rd, Mr. Jameson’s box, containing various trifles belonging to an industrial naturalist, was opened. Books, diaries, and such articles as were worth preserving, were sealed up for transport athwart the continent; the others, unnecessary to a person in civilization, were discarded.

1888.
Oct. 3.
Bavikai.

Mr. Bonny was despatched with twenty-eight men past the Ngaiyu, to verify my hope that a landing-place I had observed in passing and repassing would lead to the discovery of a road by which I could avoid the devastated wilderness that stretched for nearly 200 miles along the south bank between the Basopo Rapids and Ibwiri. Mr. Bonny, after returning, was pleased to express his surprise at the marvellous dexterity and agility of the scouts, who sprang with the lightness of springing bush antelopes over every kind of impediment, and who in almost every thousand paces gained five hundred ahead of him. A mile and a half from the landing-place on the north bank he had found a fine village surrounded by rich groves of plantains. To this village, called Bavikai, we proceeded more in the hope that we could utilize some road going north-easterly, whence, after sixty miles or so, we could strike on a bee-line course for the Albert.

As the men were being transported across the river opposite the landing-place of the Bavikai on the 4th, I saw a dozen Madis in a terrible condition from the ravages of the small-pox, and crowding them, until they jostled them in admirable unconcern, were some two dozen of the tribe as yet unaffected by the disease. This little fact put me on a line of reflections which, had a first-class shorthand writer been near, might have been of value to other thoughtless persons. Never did ignorance appear to me so foolish. Its utter unsuspectingness was pitiful. Over these human animals I saw the shadow of Death, in the act to strike. But I said to myself, I see the terrible shade over them ready to smite them with the disease which will make them a horror, and finally kill them. When I fall also it will probably be from some momentary thoughtlessness, when I shall either be too absorbed, or too confident to observe the dark shadow impending over me. However, Mambu Kwa Mungu, neither they nor I can avoid our fate.

Among my notes on the 5th of October I find a few remarks about Malaria.

While we have travelled through the forest region we have suffered less from African fevers, than we did in the open country between Mataddi and Stanley Pool.

A long halt in the forest clearings soon reminds us that we are not yet so acclimated as to utterly escape the effects of malaria. But when within the inclosed woods our agues are of a very mild form, soon extinguished by a timely dose of quinine.

On the plateau of Kavalli and Undussuma, Messrs. Jephson, Parke, and myself were successively prostrated by fever, and the average level of the land was over 4500 feet above the sea.

On descending to the Nyanza plain, 2500 feet lower, we were again laid up with fierce attacks.

At Banana Point, which is at sea-level, ague is only too common.

At Boma, 80 feet higher, the ague is more common still.

At Vivi, there were more cases than elsewhere, and the station was about 250 feet higher than Boma, and not a swamp was near it.

At Stanley Pool, about 1100 feet above sea level, fever of a pernicious form was prevalent.

While ascending the Congo with the wind astern we were unusually exempted from ague.

But descending the Upper Congo, facing the wind, we were smitten with most severe forms of it.

While ascending the Aruwimi we seldom thought of African fever, but descending it in canoes, meeting the wind currents, and carried towards it by river-flow and paddle, we were speedily made aware that acclimatisation is slow.

Therefore it is proved that from 0 to 5000 feet above the sea there is no immunity from fever and ague, that over forty miles of lake water between a camp and the other shore are no positive protection; that a thousand miles of river course may serve as a flue to convey malaria in a concentrated form; that if there is a thick screen of primeval forest, or a grove of plantains between the dwelling-place and a large clearing or open country there is only danger of the local malaria around the dwelling, which might be rendered harmless by the slightest attention to the system; but in the open country neither a house nor a tent are sufficient protection, since the air enters by the doors of the house, and under the flaps, and through the ventilators to poison the inmates.

Hence we may infer that trees, tall shrubbery, a high wall or close screen interposed between the dwelling-place and the wind currents will mitigate their malarial influence, and the inmate will only be subjected to local exhalations.

Emin Pasha informed me that he always took a mosquito curtain with him, as he believed that it was an excellent protector against miasmatic exhalations of the night.

Question, might not a respirator attached to a veil, or face screen of muslin, assist in mitigating malarious effects when the traveller finds himself in open regions?

Three companies of forty men each were sent in three different directions to follow the tracks leading from Bavikai. The first soon got entangled in the thick woods bordering the Ngaiyu, and had an engagement with the natives of Bavikai, who were temporarily encamped in the dark recesses, the second followed a path that ran E. by N., and soon met a large force of natives coming from three different villages. One of our men was wounded in the head with a poisoned arrow. The third was perplexed by a network of paths, and tried several of them, but all ended in plantations of plantains and thin bush of late growth, and in the search these men encountered savages well armed and prepared with poisoned darts. We were therefore compelled to recross the river to the south bank, to try again higher up, to avoid the trying labour of tunnelling through the forest.

1888.
Oct. 10.
Hippo Broads.

On the 10th the Expedition reached Hippo Broads. On this date we saw a cloud of moths sailing up river, which reached from the water’s face to the topmost height of the forest, say 180 feet, so dense, that before it overtook us we thought that it was a fog, or, as was scarcely possible, a thick fall of lavender-coloured snow. The rate of flight was about three knots an hour. In the dead calm morning air they maintained an even flight, but the slightest breeze from the banks whirled them confusedly about, like light snow particles on a gusty day. Every now and then the countless close packed myriads met a cloud of moth migrants from above river, and the sunbeams glinting and shining on their transparent wing caused them to resemble fire sparks.

Bits of turfy green, cropped close by hippo, which favours this fine reach of river, distinguish the banks near this locality. Many oil palms, some raphia, arums, phrynia, amoma, pepper bushes, &c., denote a very ancient site of a human settlement. My tent was pitched under a small branching fig-tree, which protected it from a glowing Equatorial sun, but the heat reflected from the river’s face mounted up to 87° in the shade at 3 P.M. This unusual heat preceded a tempest, with lightning, startling thunder, and deluging rain.

At the Bafaido Cataract, a woman who fell into our hands informed us that the Medze tribe lived on the other side of the Ngaiyu River and that the Babandi were found on its left bank.

Near Avaiyabu, a lurking native who had been standing behind a leafy screen of parasites depending from the branches of a big tree, suddenly stepped into the path, snatched a little girl belonging to the Manyuema, and drove his double-edged dagger from breast to back, and holding his weapon above his head uttered a furious cry, which might well have been “Death to the invader!”

And at the next camp, Avamberri landing-place, Soudi the wise little boy who had served the Major, while being carried past the rapids to the canoes waiting above, died on the carriers’ shoulders. The enamel covering of the leg-bone had been all destroyed by the virulent ulcer. Since we had left Bungangeta Island, Soudi had been carried and nursed, but want of exercise, and exposure to sun in the canoe and constant rain had weakened his digestion. His constitution had been originally healthy and sound. The little fellow had borne his sufferings bravely, but the reserve medicines were at Bangala, and we could do nothing for him.

On the 18th of October we were at Amiri Rapids, and the second Zanzibari showed symptoms of small-pox. So far we had been remarkably free of the disease, despite the fact that there were from ten to twenty sufferers daily in the camp since arriving at the settlement of the Batundu. Out of 620 Zanzibaris who were ordered to be vaccinated, some few constitutions might possibly have resisted the vaccine; but no more decided proof of the benefits resulting to humanity could be obtained from Jenner’s discovery than were furnished by our Expedition. Among the Manyuema, Madis, and native followers, the epidemic had taken deadly hold, and many a victim had already been tossed into the river weighted with rocks. For this was also a strange necessity we had to resort to, to avoid subsequent exhumation by the natives whom we discovered to be following our tracks for the purpose of feeding on the dead.

One of the Zanzibari headmen while acting as coxswain of a canoe was so stung by wasps at this camp that he despaired of his life, and insisted that his will should be written, wherein he made his brother, then with us, his sole legatee. I conformed to his wish in a clerkly fashion that pleased him well, but I also administered a ten-grain dose of carbonate of ammonium hypodermically, and told him he should reach Zanzibar in spite of the vicious wasps who had so punished him. The next day he was a new man, and boasted that the white man’s medicines could cure everything except death.

1888.
Oct. 18.
Amiri Falls.

After moving to the top of Amiri Rapids, a series of misfortunes met us. Some few of the flighty-headed untrained men of the rear-column rushed off to the plantain plantations without a leader or authority, and conducted themselves like children. The natives surrounded them and punished them, wounding three. Two others, one suffering from a palpitation of the heart, and another feeble youth, had left the trail to hide from the rear-guard.

Up to date, we had lost since 1st of September, nine Zanzibaris killed, one from suicide, one from ulcers, and two were missing. Of the Manyuema contingent, fifteen had been killed or had died from small pox, and eighteen Madis had either been killed or had perished from the pest. Total loss, forty-four deaths within forty-nine days.

1888.
Oct. 19.
Amiri Falls.

From Amiri Falls to Avatiko was a seven-days’ march through a depopulated country, through a land wholly empty of food. Beyond Avatiko by the new route I proposed to follow, two days would probably transpire before another supply of food could be obtained. This was my estimate, at which with the Zanzibaris of the advance column who were now trained in forest life, we might perform these journeys. If we could obtain no food at Avatiko, then our lot would be hard indeed. Up to within a day’s march of Avatiko, we could employ the canoes in carrying an extra supply of provisions. It would not be impossible to take twenty days’ rations of flour per capita; but a leader to perform such a work must be obeyed. He performs his duties by enjoining on all his followers to remember his words, to take heed of his advice, and do their utmost to conform to his instructions.

On the 20th at dawn, 160 rifles were despatched to the plantations five miles inland from Amiri Falls. The men were told how many days Avatiko was distant, and that they should employ one day in collecting food, in peeling, slicing and drying their plantains in the plantation, so that they could bring from sixty to seventy pounds of food, which when distributed would supply each person with over twenty pounds, equal to ten days’ rations. Experience of them proved to me that the enterprising would carry sufficient to satisfy them with fifteen days’ unstinted food; others, again, despite the warning of death rung in their ears, would not carry more than would suffice them for four days.

On the afternoon of the 21st I was gratified to see that the people had been very successful. How many had followed my advice it was impossible to state. The messes had sent half their numbers to gather the food, and every man had to contribute two handfuls for the officers and sick. It only remained now for the chiefs of the messes to be economical of the food, and the dreaded wilderness might be safely crossed.

CHAPTER XXII.
ARRIVAL AT FORT BODO.

Ugarrowwa’s old station once more—March to Bunda—We cross the Ituri River—Note written by me opposite the mouth of the Lenda River—We reach the Avatiko plantations—Mr. Bonny measures a pigmy—History and dress of the pigmies—A conversation by gesture—The pigmy’s wife—Monkeys and other animals in the forest—The clearing of Andaki—Our tattered clothes—The Ihuru River—Scarcity of food; Amani’s meals—Uledi searches for food—Missing provisions—We reach Kilonga-Longa’s village again—More deaths—The forest improves for travelling—Skirmish near Andikumu—Story of the pigmies and the box of ammunition—We pass Kakwa Hill—Defeat of a caravan—The last of the Somalis—A heavy shower of rain—Welcome food discovery at Indemau—We bridge the Dui River—A rough muster of the people—A stray goat at our Ngwetza camp—Further capture of dwarfs—We send back to Ngwetza for plantains—Loss of my boy Saburi in the forest—We wonder what has become of the Ngwetza party—My boy Saburi turns up—Starvation Camp—We go in search of the absentees, and meet them in the forest—The Ihuru River—And subsequent arrival at Fort Bodo.

1888.
Oct. 23.
Ugarrowwa’s Station.

The Expedition reached Ugarrowwa’s old station on the 23rd of October, and slept within its deserted huts. In the court of the great house of the chief of the raiders, a crop of rice had grown up, but the birds had picked every grain. Over one hundred people found comfortable shelter in the spacious passages; and had supplies been procurable within a respectable distance, it would not have ill-suited us for a halt of a week; but it was too risky altogether to consume our rations because of the comfort of shelter. It was the centre of a great desolate area, which we were bound by fear of famine to travel through with the utmost speed.

1888.
Oct. 24.
Bunda.

The following day we marched to Bunda. The river column received attention from Ugarrowwa’s old subjects, and the Manyuema sprang overboard to avoid the arrows; but the Zanzibaris from the canoe behind leaped ashore, and by a flank attack assisted us to save the bewildered Manyuema, who in their careless happy attitudes in the canoe had offered such tempting targets for the natives.

The Ituri River was now in full flood, for the rains fell daily in copious tropical showers. The streams and creeks flowing into the Ituri from the right bank were deep, which caused the land party excessive worry and distress. No sooner had they crossed one creek up to the waist, than in a few moments another of equal or greater depth had to be waded through. They were perpetually wringing their clothes, and declaiming against the vexatious interruptions. Across the mouths of deeper tributaries the canoes were aligned, and served as floating bridges for the party to cross, while each man was the subject of some jest at his bedraggled appearance. The foremost men were sure to have some wet mud or soapy clay on the boards; the garments of others would be dripping with water, and presently fall after fall would testify to the exceeding slipperiness of the bridge, and would be hailed with uproarious chaff and fun. On this day thirty-two streams were crossed by the land party.

On the 25th, we moved up to a camp, opposite the mouth of the Lenda River. We were making progress, but I came across the following note written that evening. It will be seen later that such congratulations could only have been the outcome of a feeling of temporary pleasure that the day was not far distant when we should see the end to our harder labours.

1888.
Oct. 25.
Lenda River.

“I desire to render most hearty thanks that our laborious travels through the forest are drawing to a close. We are about 160 miles to-night from the grass-land; but we shall reduce this figure quickly enough, I hope. Meantime we live in anticipation. We bear the rainy season without a murmur, for after the rain the harvest will be ready for us in the grass-land. We do not curse the mud and reek of this humid land now, though we crossed thirty-two streams yesterday, and the mud banks and flats were sorely trying to the patience. We have a number of minor pleasures in store. It will be a great relief to be delivered from the invasions of the red ants, and to be perfectly secure from their assaults by day and by night. When we have finally dried the soles of our boots and wiped the mildew of the forest off their tops, our dreams will be undisturbed by one enemy at least. While we smart under the bites of the ferocious small bees, and start at the sting of small ants, and writhe under the venom of a hornet, or groan by reason of the sting of a fiendish wasp, or flap away the ever-intrusive butterfly, or dash aside the hurtful tiger slug, or stamp with nervous haste on the advancing greenish centipede, we remind ourselves that these miseries will not be for many days now. A little more patience and then merrier times. We have had four goats since August 17th for meat. We have subsisted mainly on roast plantains. They have served to maintain the soul attached to the body. We are grateful even for this, though our strength is not to be boasted of. We complacently think of the beef, and veal, and mutton diet ahead, garnished with a variety of edibles such as the sweet potato and beans, and millet flour for porridge with milk, and sesamum oil for cooking. Relief also from the constant suspicion, provoked by an animal instinct, that a savage with a sheaf of poisoned arrows is lurking within a few feet of one will be something to be grateful for. The ceaseless anxiety, the tension of watchfulness, to provide food, and guard the people from the dangers that meet their frolics, will be relaxed; and I shall be glad to be able to think better of the world and its inhabitants than the doubtful love I entertain for mankind in the forest.”

1888.
Oct. 27.
Lenda River.

We found our camp at Umeni on the 26th, but there were only two small bunches of miniature plantains discovered here, and a raging tornado roared like a legion of demons through the forest, and shook the ancient tree giants to their base, while the dark Ituri was so beswept that it became pallid under the whistling, screaming fury of the squalls.

On the next day we rowed up to below Big Cataract, unloaded the goods, left the canoes in the bushes, shouldered our loads, and marched away after half an hour’s halt only, for five miles inland. We had left the Ituri navigation for the last time.

We entered the Avatiko plantations after three hours’ march on the 28th, and just while the majority of the people was perilously near starvation. They spread over the plantations with the eagerness of famished wolves after prey. Here we stayed two days in foraging and preparing a supply of food.

We had not been long at Avatiko before a couple of pigmies were brought to me. What relation the pair were to one another is not known. The man was young, probably twenty-one. Mr. Bonny conscientiously measured him, and I recorded the notes.

Height, 4 ft.; round head, 20¼ in.; from chin to back top of head, 24¼ in.; round chest, 25½ in.; round abdomen, 27¾ in.; round hips, 22½ in.; round wrist, 4¼ in.; round muscle of left arm, 7½ in.; round ankle, 7 in.; round calf of leg, 7¾ in.; length of index finger, 2 in.; length of right hand, 4 in.; length of foot, 6¼ in.; length of leg, 22 in.; length of back, 18½ in.; arm to tip of finger, 19¾ in.

This was the first full-grown man we had seen. His colour was coppery, the fell over the body was almost furry, being nearly half an inch in length. His head-dress was a bonnet of a priestly form, decorated with a bunch of parrot feathers; it was either a gift or had been stolen. A broad strip of bark cloth covered his nakedness. His hands were very delicate, and attracted attention by their unwashed appearance. He had evidently been employed in peeling plantains.

1888.
Oct. 28.
Avatiko.

Not one London editor could guess the feelings with which I regarded this mannikin from the solitudes of the vast central African forest. To me he was far more venerable than the Memnonium of Thebes. That little body of his represented the oldest types of primeval man, descended from the outcasts of the earliest ages, the Ishmaels of the primitive race, for ever shunning the haunts of the workers, deprived of the joy and delight of the home hearth, eternally exiled by their vice, to live the life of human beasts in morass and fen and jungle wild. Think of it! Twenty-six centuries ago his ancestors captured the five young Nassamonian explorers, and made merry with them at their villages on the banks of the Niger. Even as long as forty centuries ago they were known as pigmies, and the famous battle between them and the storks was rendered into song. On every map since Hekataeus’ time, 500 years B.C., they have been located in the region of the Mountains of the Moon. When Mesu led the children of Jacob out of Goshen, they reigned over Darkest Africa undisputed lords; they are there yet, while countless dynasties of Egypt and Assyria, Persia, Greece and Rome, have flourished for comparatively brief periods, and expired. And these little people have roamed far and wide during the elapsed centuries. From the Niger banks, with successive waves of larger migrants, they have come hither to pitch their leafy huts in the unknown recesses of the forest. Their kinsmen are known as Bushmen in Cape Colony, as Watwa in the basin of the Lulungu, as Akka in Monbuttu, as Balia by the Mabodé, as Wambutti in the Ihuru basin, and as Batwa under the shadows of the Lunae Montes.

As the gigantic Madis, and tall Soudanese, and tallest Zanzibaris towered above the little man, it was delightful to observe the thoughts within him express themselves with lightning rapidity on his face. The wonderment that filled him, the quick shifting and chilling fears as to his fate, the anxious doubts that possessed him, the hopes that sprang up as he noted humour on the faces, the momentary shades of anxiety, curiosity to know whence these human monsters had come from, what they would do with him eventually; would they kill him, how? by roasting him alive, or plunging him screaming into a vat-like cooking pot? Ach Gott! I hope not, and a slight shake of the head, with a more pallid colour on the lips and a nervous twitch showed what distress he was in. He would do anything to deserve the favour of these big men, just as the young Nassamonians were willing to do 2600 years ago, when his pigmy forefathers pointed their fingers and jabbered at them in the old Nigritian village. So we took him to sit by us, and stroked him on the back, gave him some roast bananas to put into that distended aldermanic abdomen of his, and the pigmy smiled his gratitude. What a cunning rogue he was! how quick-witted! He spoke so eloquently by gesture that he was understood by the dullest of us.

“How far is it to the next village where we can procure food?”

He placed the side of his right hand across the left wrist. (More than two days’ march.)

“In what direction?”

He pointed east.

“How far is it to the Ihuru?”

“Oh!” He brought his right hand across his elbow joint—that is double the distance, four days.

“Is there any food north?”

He shook his head.

“Is there any west or north-west?”

He shook his head, and made a motion with his hand as though he were brushing a heap of sand away.

“Why?”

He made the motion with his two hands as though he were holding a gun, and said “Doooo!”

“To be sure the Manyuema have destroyed everything.”

“Are there any ‘Doooo’ in the neighbourhood, now?”

He looked up and smiled with a gush as artful as a London coquette, as if to say, “You know best! Oh! naughty man, why do you chaff me?”

“Will you show us the road to the village where we can get food?”

He nodded his head rapidly, patted his full-moon belly, which meant, “Yes, for there I shall get a full meal; for here”—he smiled disdainfully as he pressed his thumb nail on the first joint of his left index finger—“are plantains only so big, but there they are as big as this,” and he clasped the calf of his leg with two hands.

“Oh, Paradise!” cried the men, “bananas as big as a man’s leg!” The pigmy had contrived to ingratiate himself into every man’s affection. My authority was gone until the story of the monstrous bananas would be disproved. Some of them looked as if they would embrace him, and his face mimicked artless innocence, though he knew perfectly well that, in their opinion, he was only a little lower than an angel.

And all this time, the coppery face of the nut-brown little maid was eloquent with sympathy in the emotions of the male pigmy. Her eyes flashed joy, a subtle spirit glided over her features with the transition of lightning. There were the same tricks of by-play; the same doubts, the same hopes, the same curiosity, the same chilling fear, was felt by the impressionable soul as she divined what feelings moved her kinsman. She was as plump as a thanksgiving turkey or a Christmas goose; her breasts glistened with the sheen of old ivory, and as she stood with clasped hands drooping below—though her body was nude—she was the very picture of young modesty.

The pair were undoubtedly man and woman. In him was a mimicked dignity, as of Adam; in her the womanliness of a miniature Eve. Though their souls were secreted under abnormally thick folds of animalism, and the finer feelings inert and torpid through disuse, they were there for all that. And they suited the wild Eden of Avatiko well enough.

1888.
Oct. 28.
Forest.

Burdened with fresh supplies of dried plantains, and guided by the pigmies, we set out from the abandoned grove of Avatiko E.N.E., crossed the clear stream of Ngoki at noon, and at 3 P.M. were encamped by the brook Epeni. We observed numerous traces of the dwarfs in the wilds which we had traversed, in temporary camps, in the crimson skins of the amoma, which they had flung away after eating the acid fruit, in the cracked shells of nuts, in broken twigs that served as guides to the initiated in their mysteries of woodcraft, in bow-traps by the wayside, in the game-pits sunk here and there at the crossings of game-tracks. The land appeared more romantic than anything we had seen. We had wound around wild amphitheatral basins, foliage rising in terraces one above another, painted in different shades of green, and variegated with masses of crimson flowers, and glistening russet, and the snowdrop flowerets of wild mangoes, or the creamy silk floss of the bombax, and as we looked under a layer of foliage that drooped heavily above us, we saw the sunken basin below, an impervious mass of leafage grouped crown to crown like heaped hills of soft satin cushions, promising luxurious rest. Now and then troops of monkeys bounded with prodigious leaps through the branches, others swinging by long tails a hundred feet above our heads, and with marvellous agility hurling their tiny bodies through the air across yawning chasms, and catching an opposite branch, resting for an instant to take a last survey of our line before burying themselves out of sight in the leafy depths. Ibises screamed to their mates to hurry up to view the column of strangers, and touracos argued with one another with all the guttural harshness of a group of Egyptian fellahs, plantain-eaters, sunbirds, grey parrots, green parroquets, and a few white-collared eagles either darted by or sailed across the leafy gulf, or sat drowsily perched in the haze upon aspiring branches. There was an odour of musk, a fragrance of flowers, perfume of lilies mixed with the acrid scent of tusky boars in the air; there were heaps of elephant refuse, the droppings of bush antelopes, the pungent dung of civets, and simians along the tracks, and we were never long away from the sound of rushing rivulets or falling cascades, sunlight streamed in slanting silver lines and shone over the undergrowth and the thick crops of phrynia, arum, and amoma, until their damp leaves glistened, and the dewdrops were brilliant with light.

And the next day our march underneath the eternal shades was through just such a land, and on the morning of the 1st of November we emerged into the clearing of Andaki, to refresh our souls with the promised fruit of its groves. The plantains were not very large, but they were mature and full, and before an hour had elapsed, the wooden grates were up, and the fruit lay in heaps of slices on the bars over the fire. The word was passed that the first and second day of the month should be employed in preparing as much provisions as every man could carry. We were in N. Lat. 1° 16½′. Kilonga-Longa’s station was in 1° 6′, and Fort Bodo in 1° 20′, so that our course was good.

1888.
Nov. 2.
Audaki.

On the second some scouts hunting up the various tracks extending eastward came across two women, one of whom said she knew of a great village to the north where there was food. Another said that Andari lay E.N.E., four days’ march, where there was such a stock of food that Andaki was a mere handful compared with it.

Soon after leaving Andaki, and crossing a broad ridge, we came upon a vast abandoned clearing. Probably a year had elapsed since the people had fled, and their settlements had been consumed with fire, for the banana plants were choked by the voracious undergrowth and wild plants, and the elephants had trampled through and through, and sported for months among the wasted groves, and over the crushed Musa plants, through phrynia flourishing two fathoms deep, and where the stumps of cut trees had sprouted and grown until their tufted tops were joined to one another in one great thick carpet of bush. Through this we carved our way with brandished billhooks and cutlasses; the native women had lost the track, and were bewildered by the wildly luxuriant shrubbery, under which we sweated in the damp hot-house heat, and ploughed our way through the deep green sea, until after ten hours we came to a babbling rillet, and must perforce camp from sheer exhaustion, though we had made but five miles.

1888.
Nov. 4.
Forest.

On the morning of the fourth we resumed the task, to slash, cut, creep and crawl, bore through, in and out, to clamber over logs, tread carefully over gaping rifts in the reeking compost, bend under logs, to tunnel away with might and main, to drive through—a hungry column of men was behind, a wilderness before us—to crash headlong through the plants, veer to the left, and now to the right, to press on and on, to sharpen the weapons on the stones of the brook; to take a hasty drink to satisfy our thirst, and again to the work. Cleave away merrily, boys; sever those creepers; cut those saplings down! No way now? then widen that game hole in the bush clump! Come, strike with billhook and sword, axe and cutlass! We must not die like fools in this demon world! This way and that, through and through, until after sixteen hours we had cut a crooked channel through the awful waste, and stood once more under the lordly crowns of the primeval forest.

Paddy’s traditional patchy clothes was a dress suit compared to mine, as I stood woefully regarding the rents and tatters and threads waving in tassels from my breeches and shirt; and the men smiled, and one said we looked like rats dragged through the teeth of traps, which I thought was not a bad simile. But we had no time for talk; we ate a couple of roast plantains for lunch, and continued our journey, and by 3 P.M. were within half-an-hour of the Ihuru River.

The next day, before it was full daylight, we were filing along an elephant track that ran parallel with the Ihuru, which was at this time one raging series of rapids its whole length, and sounding its unceasing uproar in our ears. Numbers of deep tributaries were waded through; but we maintained a quick pace, owing to the broad track of the elephants, and by the usual hour of the afternoon nine miles had been covered.

Thirteen Zanzibaris of the rear column, and one of the Danagla soldiers of Emin Pasha, had succumbed during the last few days, and I do not know how many Madis and Manyuema.

On the evening of the sixth, after a march of eight miles, I became impressed with the necessity of finding food shortly, unless we were to witness wholesale mortality. Starvation is hard to bear, but when loads must be carried upon empty stomachs, and the marches are long, the least break in the continuity of supply brings with it a train of diseases which soon thins the ranks. Our Nyanza people were provident, and eked their stores with mushrooms and wild fruit; but the feeble manioc-poisoned men of the rear column, Madis and Manyuema, were utterly heedless of advice and example.

A youth named Amani, who looked rather faint, was adjured to tell me the truth about what he had eaten the last two days.

1888.
Nov. 6.
Forest.

“I will,” he said. “My mess had a fair provision of plantain flour that would have kept us with ease two days longer; but Sulimani, who carried it, put it down by the roadside while he went to gather mushrooms. When he returned the food was gone. He says the Manyuema had stolen it. Each one of us then on reaching camp last night set out to hunt for mushrooms, out of which we made a gruel. That is what we had to eat last night for supper. This morning we have fasted, but we are going to hunt up mushrooms again.”

“And what will you eat to-morrow?”

“To-morrow is in the hands of God. I will live in hopes that I shall find something.”

This youth, he was only nineteen, had carried sixty pound of cartridges in the meantime, and would carry it again to-morrow, and the next day, until he dropped, and measured his length with eyes upturned to the dark cope of leaves above, to be left there to mildew and rot; for out of nothing, nothing can be extracted to feed hungry men. He was only a solitary instance of over 400 people.

We reached a Manyuema Camp, and Uledi recognised it as being a place where he had halted during a forage tour to the west of the Ihuru, while he was waiting for Messrs. Jephson and Nelson at Ipoto, and the advance column was journeying to Ibwiri in November, 1887.

On the 7th a halt was ordered, that a column might be sent under Uledi to search the clearing of Andari, six miles N.N.W. of the camp, but over a hundred were so weak that they were unable to go, whereupon the messes were ordered to bring their pots up, and three handfuls of flour were placed in each to make gruel with, that they might have strength to reach the plantation.

On the 8th, about 200 remained silent in camp awaiting the foragers. In the afternoon, perceiving that it was too long a fast to wait for them we served out more plantain flour.

1888.
Nov. 9.
Forest.

On the 9th, the foragers had not arrived. Two men had died in camp. One reeled from the effects of a poisonous fungus, as they came to get another ration of flour for their gruel; their steps were more feeble; the bones of the sternum were fearfully apparent. Three days would find us all perished, but we were hopeful that every minute we should hear the murmur of the returning column.

On the morning of the 10th, anxious for the European provisions which we were carrying for the officers at Fort Bodo, I had them examined, and discovered to my consternation that fifty-seven tins of meat, teas, coffees, milks, were short—had been eaten by the Manyuema. If a look had potency sufficient to blast them, they would have speedily been reduced to ashes. “Dear me, how could the tins have vanished?” asked the chief Sadi. Ah, how? But the provision boxes were taken from his party, and Winchester and Maxim ammunition cases were served instead to them as freight.

At 2 P.M. the column of foragers returned, bringing from three to six days’ provisions, which they had gathered from an abandoned plantation. The bearers had refreshed themselves previous to gathering. Now, in return for my gruel, each member had to refund me one pound of flour, as my reserve store, and one pound for the sick, who were deprived of the power to forage, and who were rejected by the messes. So that in this manner the sick received about eight pounds of flour, or dried plantains, and I owned a reserve of 200 pounds for future use.

Within an hour-and-a-half on the 11th we had reached Kilonga-Longa’s ferry. The natives, fearing a repetition of his raids to the west of the Ihuru, had destroyed every canoe, and thus prevented me from crossing to pay Kilonga-Longa another visit, and to settle some accounts with him. The river was also in flood, and a gaunt and hungry wilderness stretched all round us. There was no other way for it than to follow the Ihuru upward until we could find means to cross to the east, or left side. Our course was now N.E. by N.

1888.
Nov. 12.
Forest.

On the 12th, we followed a track, along which quite a tribe of pigmies must have passed. It was lined with amoma fruit-skins, and shells of nuts, and the crimson rinds of phrynia berries. No wood-beans, or fenessi, or mabungu, are to be found in this region, as on the south bank of Ituri River. On reaching camp, I found that at the ferry, near the native camp at which we starved four days, six people had succumbed—a Madi, from a poisonous fungus, the Lado soldier, who was speared above Wasp Rapids, two Soudanese of the rear-column, a Manyuema boy in the service of Mr. Bonny, and Ibrahim, a fine young Zanzibari, from a poisoned skewer in the foot.

During the 13th the great forest was perceptibly improved for travel. Our elephant and game track had brought us across another track leading easterly from Andari, and both joined presently, developing to a highway much patronised by the pigmy tribes. This we followed for two hours. We could tell where they had stopped to light their pipes, and to crack nuts, and trap game, and halt to gossip. The twigs were broken three feet from the ground, showing that they were snapped by dwarfs. Where it was a little muddy the path showed high delicate insteps, proving their ancient ancestry and aristocratic descent, and small feet not larger than those of young English misses of eight years old. The path improved as we tramped along; it grew a highway of promise. Camps of the dwarfs were numerous. The soil was ochreous, the trees were larger, and towered to magnificent heights.

1888.
Nov. 13.
Forest.

I observed as we filed into camp that it was time to obtain a further supply of food, and rest somewhere, the bearing of the people lacked confidence, their forms were shrinking under the terrible task, and perpetual daily toil and round of marching and hunger. I could have wept at the excess of misfortunes which weighed us daily lower towards the grave; but we had been for so long strained to bear violent vicissitudes, and so frequently afflicted with sights of anguish and suffering, that we were reduced to hear each day’s tale of calamity in sorrowful silence. What losses we had already borne were beyond power of plaint and tear to restore. The morrow’s grief awaited us, as certain as the morrow’s sun; and to dwell upon the sorrowful past was to unfit us for what we had yet to bear.

To make 230 loads equal to the daily lessening number of carriers was a most aggravating task. Not one out of twenty men but made some complaint of a severe ulcer, a headache, or threatened rupture, undefined bodily pains, a whitlow, a thorn in the foot, rheumatism, fever, &c. The loads remained always the same, but the carriers died.

On the 14th, the Expedition, after a six hours’ march, approached Anduta and Andikumu. As the advance guard was pressing in over the logs and débris of the prostrated forest, some arrows flew, and two men fell wounded, and immediately boxes and bales were dropped, and quite a lively skirmish with the tall-hatted natives occurred; but in half-an-hour the main body of the caravan filed in, to find such a store of abnormally large plantains that the ravenous men were in ecstacies.

In extent the clearing was equal to the famous one of Ibwiri. It was situate in the bosom of hills which rose to the east, west and south. Along one of the tracks we saw the blazings of the Manyuema on the trees, and one of the villages was in ruins; but the size of the clearing had baffled the ravaging horde in their attempt to destroy the splendid plantain groves.

On examining the boxes of ammunition before stacking them for the night, it was found that Corporal Dayn Mohammed had not brought his load in, and we ascertained that he had laid it at the base of a big tree near the path. Four headmen were at once ordered to return with the Soudanese Corporal to recover the box.

1888.
Nov. 14.
Andikumu.

Arriving near the spot, they saw quite a tribe of pigmies, men, women and children, gathered around two pigmy warriors, who were trying to test the weight of the box by the grummet at each end. Our headmen, curious to see what they would do with the box, lay hidden closely, for the eyes of the little people are exceedingly sharp. Every member of the tribe seemed to have some device to suggest, and the little boys hopped about on one leg, spanking their hips in irrepressible delight at the find, and the tiny women carrying their tinier babies at their backs vociferated the traditional wise woman’s counsel. Then a doughty man put a light pole, and laid it through the grummets, and all the small people cheered shrilly with joy at the genius displayed by them in inventing a method for heaving along the weighty case of Remington ammunition. The Hercules and the Milo of the tribe put forth their utmost strength, and raised the box up level with their shoulders, and staggered away into the bush. But just then a harmless shot was fired, and the big men rushed forward with loud shouts, and then began a chase; and one over-fat young fellow of about seventeen was captured and brought to our camp as a prize. We saw the little Jack Horner, too fat by many pounds; but the story belongs to the headmen, who delivered it with infinite humour.

Mr. Bonny was sent to the Ihuru River on the 17th, to examine an old ferry reported to be there, but returned unsuccessful in finding a canoe, but with the information that the river appeared to flow from E.N.E., and was about sixty yards wide, with quiet current, and good depth.

The afternoon of the 14th, 15th and 16th of November, were spent by the people in making amends for their past abstinence. What with boiled, roasted plantains and porridge, they must have consumed an immense number. Probably each man had eaten 140 plantains during the three days.

1888.
Nov. 19.
Anduta.

Within a short time after leaving Andikumu on the 19th, we passed through Anduta; and then the column passed by a picturesque hill called Kakwa, over a rough country bristling with immense rock fragments and boulders thickly covered, and surrounded with depths of ferns. Among the rocks near our camp on this date was found a store of corn and bananas, which no doubt belonged to the dwarfs. Had the find occurred a few days previously, there would have been a riotous scramble for them; but now each man was so burdened with his private stores that they regarded it with supreme indifference. The men also so suffered from indigestion after their revel at Andikumu that they were unfit for travel.

A five-mile march was made on the 20th. Since striking the dwarfs’ highway, unlike the loamy soils which absorbed the perpetual rains nearer the Ituri, the path now led through a stiff red clayey country, which retained the rain in pools, and made it soapy and slippery.

At the noonday halt the leader of the van wandered a few hundred yards ahead on the path and encountered a native caravan from Anditoké, N. The natives uttered a howl of surprise at perceiving him, but seeing that he had no weapon, quickly advanced towards him with uplifted spears. But the howl they had raised had been heard by all at the halting-place, and the savages were met in time to save the Zanzibari leader. A skirmish took place, two of the natives were wounded and one was killed, and the effects of the caravan were captured. These effects consisted of iron rings, knobs, bracelets, and anklets, and calamus fibre leg-rings, a few native smith’s tools, and, most singular of all, several unfired Remington cartridges.

The first thought that was suggested was that Fort Bodo had either been evacuated or captured, or that some patrols had been waylaid; but on reflection we settled on the conviction that these cartridges had belonged to some raiding parties of Manyuema, but that originally they were our property.

The travelling powers of the men was noticeably low on the 21st; they still suffered from their late debauch. At noon of this day we were in N. lat. 1° 43′, which proved that, despite every effort to find a path leading eastward we were advancing north.

IN DARKEST AFRICA

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.VOLUME II.

IN DARKEST AFRICA.

CHAPTER XXI.WE START OUR THIRD JOURNEY TO THE NYANZA.

CHAPTER XXII.ARRIVAL AT FORT BODO.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME II.

CHAPTER XXI.
WE START OUR THIRD JOURNEY TO THE NYANZA.

CHAPTER XXII.
ARRIVAL AT FORT BODO.