From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to NorthGrogan, Ewart Scott
History
From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North
Grogan, Ewart Scott
Africa -- Description and travel; Grogan, Ewart Scott, 1874-1967
of the opportunity of doing so without passing through Lure country,
which they must do to visit Wadelai. One old gentleman arrived with a
cane-bottomed chair, which he said had once belonged to Emin; he also
distinctly remembered Sir Samuel Baker. His two chief wives came and
called on us; they were pleasant-featured women, and scrupulously clean,
but their appearance was much spoilt by the inevitable piece of glass
and enormous earrings. This wearing of a piece of glass in the lower lip
is very curious, and peculiar, I believe, to the Shulis and Lures.
On October 22nd, giving up all hopes of my loads, I sent back my Manyema
_via_ Kampala, and embarking in my man-of-war with five trusty Watonga,
my small boy from Ujiji, and my two Wa Ruanda, I started down stream
once more, and profiting by a strong current, made considerable
progress, and encamped on the left bank by one of the first villages of
the Madi. The Madi are a fine race, closely allied to the Lures; they
surround their villages with a dense thorn hedge, and the only means of
ingress is through small holes 2 ft. high. They make beautiful arrows
with barbs of a great variety of patterns.
Here the mosquitoes were terrible, and as they were small enough to
penetrate the mesh of my net, sleep was out of the question, while my
wretched natives spent the night in reminiscences of the happy lands
flowing with milk and honey now left far behind. On the following day
the river widened considerably, in some places resembling a lake rather
than a river. In the vicinity of Bora, the old Egyptian station, it
must be at least four miles broad, and the current is almost
imperceptible, except where the sudd is so extensive as to leave only
one or two small channels. There are enormous numbers of hippopotami in
these reaches, and they constitute a very real danger to navigation. One
of the Uganda canoes, in emerging from the Unyama, a river opposite
Dufilé, was attacked, and only escaped by running into the sudd.
Captain Delmé Radcliffe, the officer commanding this district, was
attacked in the steel boat; and an infuriated old bull chased me for
fully half a mile, at one time being within five yards of the stern, but
a well-placed shot from my revolver eventually induced him to desist
from the pursuit. The Madi attack them with a harpoon-head, fastened to
the end of a shaft by a twist of the rope to which it is attached, and
so arranged as to detach itself after the delivery of the stroke from
the shaft, which remains in the hand of the hunter, while the rope is
free to run out until the float, which is tied to the other end, can be
thrown overboard. The ridge of hills that commences at Wadelai
gradually increases in height, till at Bora the hills become quite
imposing; then they rapidly diminish, and a few miles south of Dufilé
vanish completely, giving place after a few miles of level ground to
some isolated kopjes. On the left bank a range of hills runs parallel
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account