The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile - Samuel White Baker (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

together!” and having so far secured

the boat that she could not be washed away, I ordered the men to

discharge the cargo, and then to pull her out of the lake. Everything

was destroyed except the gunpowder; that was all in canisters. But where

was the other canoe? I made up my mind that it must be lost, for

although much longer than our boat, it was lower in the water. After

some time and much anxiety, we perceived it running for the shore about

half a mile in our rear; it was in the midst of the breakers, and

several times I lost sight of it; but the old tree behaved well, and

brought the crew safe to the shore.

 

Fortunately there was a village not far from the spot where we landed,

and we took possession of a hut, lighted a good fire, and wrapped

ourselves in Scotch plaids and blankets wrung out, while our clothes

were being dried, as there was not a dry rag in our possession.

 

We could procure nothing to eat, except a few dried fish that, not

having been salted, were rather high flavoured. Our fowls, and also two

pet quails, were drowned in the boat during the storm; however, the

drowned fowls were made into a stew, and with a blazing fire, and clean

straw to sleep upon, the night’s rest was perhaps as perfect as in the

luxury of home.

 

On the following morning we were detained by bad weather, as a heavy sea

was still running, and we were determined not to risk our canoes in

another gale. It was a beautiful neighbourhood, enlivened by a

magnificent waterfall that fell about a thousand feet from the

mountains, as the Kaiigiri river emptied itself into the lake in a

splendid volume of water. This river rises in the great marsh that we

had crossed on our way from M’rooli to Vacovia. In this neighbourhood we

gathered some mushrooms—the true Agaricus campestras of Europe—

which were a great luxury.

 

In the afternoon the sea subsided, and we again started. We had not

proceeded above three miles from the village, when I observed an

elephant bathing in the lake; he was in water so deep, that he stood

with only the top of his head and trunk above the surface. As we

approached, he sunk entirely, only the tip of his trunk remaining above

the water. I ordered the boatmen to put the canoe as close to him as

possible, and we passed within thirty yards, just as he raised his head

from his luxurious bath.

 

I was sorely tempted to fire, but remembering my resolve, refrained from

disturbing him, and he slowly quitted the lake, and entered the thick

jungle. A short distance beyond this spot two large crocodiles were

lying upon the beach asleep; but upon the approach of the canoe they

plunged into the water, and raised their heads above the surface at

about twenty-five paces. I was uncertain about my Fletcher rifle, as it

had been exposed to so much wet; therefore, to discharge it, I took a

shot at the nearest crocodile just behind the eye. The little rifle was

in perfect order—thanks to Eley’s “double waterproof central

firecaps,” which will resist all weathers—and the bullet striking the

exact spot, the great reptile gave a convulsive lash with his tail, and

turning on his back, with his paws above the water, he gradually sunk.

The native boatmen were dreadfully frightened at the report of the

rifle, to the great amusement of their countrywoman, Bacheeta, and it

was with difficulty that I persuaded them to direct the canoe to the

exact spot. Being close to the shore, the water was not more than eight

feet deep, and so beautifully clear, that I could, when just above the

crocodile, perceive it lying at the bottom on its belly, and distinguish

the bloody head that had been shattered by the bullet. While one of my

men prepared a slip-knot, I took a long lance that belonged to a

boatman, and drove it deep through the tough scales into the back of the

neck; hauling gently, upon the lance I raised the head near to the

surface, and slipping the noose over it, the crocodile was secured. It

appeared to be quite dead, and the flesh would be a bonne-bouche for my

men; therefore we towed it to the shore. It was a fine monster, about

sixteen feet long; and although it had appeared dead, it bit furiously

at a thick male bamboo which I ran into its mouth to prevent it from

snapping during the process of decapitation. The natives regarded my men

with disgust as they cut huge lumps of the choicest morsels and stowed

them in the canoes; this did not occupy more than a quarter of an hour,

and hurrying on board, we continued our voyage, well provided with meat

—for all who liked it. To my taste nothing can be more disgusting than

crocodile flesh. I have eaten almost everything; but although I have

tasted crocodile, I could never succeed in swallowing it; the combined

flavour of bad fish, rotten flesh, and musk, is the carte de diner

offered to the epicure.

 

That evening we saw an elephant with an enormous pair of tusks; he was

standing on a hill about a quarter of a mile from the boats as we

halted. I was aided to resist this temptation by an attack of fever: it

rained as usual, and no village being in the neighbourhood, we

bivouacked in the rain on the beach in clouds of mosquitoes.

 

The discomforts of this lake voyage were great; in the day we were

cramped in our small cabin like two tortoises in one shell, and at night

it almost invariably rained. We were accustomed to the wet, but no

acclimatisation can render the European body mosquito-proof; thus we had

little rest. It was hard work for me, but for my unfortunate wife, who

had hardly recovered from her attack of coup de soleil, such hardships

were most distressing.

 

On the following morning the lake was calm, and we started early. The

monotony of the voyage was broken by the presence of several fine herds

of elephants, consisting entirely of bulls. I counted fourteen of these

grand animals, all with large tusks, bathing together in a small shallow

lake beneath the mountains, having a communication with the main lake

through a sandy beach; these elephants were only knee deep, and having

been bathing they were perfectly clean, and their colossal black forms

and large white tusks formed a beautiful picture in the calm lake

beneath the lofty cliffs. It was a scene in harmony with the solitude of

the Nile Sources—the wilderness of rocks and forest, the Blue

Mountains in the distance, and the great fountain of nature adorned with

the mighty beasts of Africa; the elephants in undisturbed grandeur, and

hippopotami disporting their huge forms in the great parent of the

Egyptian river.

 

I ordered the boatmen to run the canoe ashore, that we might land and

enjoy the scene. We then discovered seven elephants on the shore within

about two hundred yards of us in high grass, while the main herd of

fourteen splendid bulls bathed majestically in the placid lake,

showering cold streams from their trunks over their backs and shoulders.

There was no time to lose, as every hour was important: quitting the

shore, we once more paddled along the coast.

 

Day after day passed, the time occupied in travelling from sunrise to

midday, at which hour a strong gale with rain and thunder occurred

regularly, and obliged us to haul our canoes ashore. The country was

very thinly inhabited, and the villages were poor and wretched; the

people most inhospitable. At length we arrived at a considerable town

situated in a beautiful bay beneath precipitous cliffs, the grassy sides

of which were covered with flocks of goats; this was Eppigoya, and the

boatmen that we had procured from the last village were to deliver us in

this spot. The delays in procuring boatmen were most annoying: it

appeared that the king had sent orders that each village was to supply

the necessary rowers; thus we were paddled from place to place, at each

of which the men were changed, and no amount of payment would induce

them to continue with us to the end of our voyage.

 

Landing at Eppigoya, we were at once met by the headman, and I proposed

that he should sell us a few kids, as the idea of a mutton chop was most

appetizing. Far from supplying us with this luxury, the natives

immediately drove their flocks away, and after receiving a large present

of beads, the headman brought us a present of a sick lamb almost at the

point of natural death, and merely skin and bone. Fortunately there were

fowls in thousands, as the natives did not use them for food; these we

purchased for one blue bead (monjoor) each, which in current value was

equal to 250 fowls for a shilling. Eggs were brought in baskets

containing several hundreds, but they were all poultry.

 

At Eppigoya the best salt was produced, and we purchased a good

supply—also some dried fish; thus provisioned, we procured boatmen, and

again started on our voyage.

 

Hardly had we proceeded two hundred yards, when we were steered direct

to the shore below the town, and our boatmen coolly laid down their

paddles and told us that they had performed their share, and that as

Eppigoya was divided into four parts under separate headmen, each

portion would supply rowers!

 

Ridiculous as this appeared, there was no contesting their decision; and

thus we were handed over from one to the other, and delayed for about

three hours in changing boatmen four times within a distance of less

than a mile! The perfect absurdity of such a regulation, combined with

the delay when time was most precious, was trying to the temper. At

every change, the headman accompanied the boatmen to our canoe, and

presented us with three fowls at parting; thus our canoes formed a

floating poultry show as we had already purchased large supplies. Our

live stock bothered us dreadfully; being without baskets, the fowls were

determined upon suicide, and many jumped deliberately overboard, while

others that were tied by the legs were drowned in the bottom of the

leaky canoe.

 

After the tenth day from our departure from Vacovia the scenery

increased in beauty. The lake had contracted to about thirty miles in

width, and was decreasing rapidly northward; the trees upon the

mountains upon the western shore could be distinguished. Continuing our

voyage north, the western shore projected suddenly, and diminished the

width of the lake to about twenty miles. It was no longer the great

inland sea that at Vacovia had so impressed me, with the clean pebbly

beach that had hitherto formed the shore, but vast banks of reeds

growing upon floating vegetation prevented the canoes from landing.

These banks were most peculiar, as they appeared to have been formed of

decayed vegetation, from which the papyrus rushes took root; the

thickness of the floating mass was about three feet, and so tough and

firm that a man could walk upon it, merely sinking above his ankles in

the soft ooze. Beneath this raft of vegetation was extremely deep water,

and the shore for a width of about half a mile was entirely protected by

this extraordinary formation. One day a tremendous gale of wind and

heavy sea broke off large portions, and the wind acting upon the rushes

like sails, carried floating islands of some acres about the lake to be

deposited wherever they might chance to hitch.

 

On the thirteenth day we found ourselves at the end of our lake voyage.