How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. LivingstoneStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
Having surmounted the plateau and the worst difficulties, we had a fair
road comparatively, which ran through jungle, forest, and small open
tracts, which in three hours more brought us to Munieka, a small
village, surrounded by a clearing richly cultivated by a colony of
subjects of Swaruru of Mukondoku.
By the time we had arrived at camp everybody had recovered his good
humour and content except Hamed. Thani's men happened to set his tent
too close to Hamed's tree, around which his bales were stacked. Whether
the little Sheikh imagined honest old Thani capable of stealing one is
not known, but it is certain that he stormed and raved about the near
neighbourhood of his best friend's tent, until Thani ordered its removal
a hundred yards off. This proceeding even, it seems, did not satisfy
Hamed, for it was quite midnight--as Thani said--when Hamed came, and
kissing his hands and feet, on his knees implored forgiveness, which of
course Thani, being the soul of good-nature, and as large-hearted as any
man, willingly gave. Hamed was not satisfied, however, until, with the
aid of his slaves, he had transported his friend's tent to where it had
at first been pitched.
The water at Munieka was obtained from a deep depression in a hump of
syenite, and was as clear as crystal, and' cold as ice-water--a luxury
we had not experienced since leaving Simbamwenni.
We were now on the borders of Uyanzi, or, as it is better known,
"Magunda Mkali "--the Hot-ground, or Hot-field. We had passed the
village populated by Wagogo, and were about to shake the dust of Ugogo
from our feet. We had entered Ugogo full of hopes, believing it a
most pleasant land--a land flowing with milk and honey. We had been
grievously disappointed; it proved to be a land of gall and bitterness,
full of trouble and vexation of spirit, where danger was imminent at
every step--where we were exposed to the caprice of inebriated sultans.
Is it a wonder, then, that all felt happy at such a moment? With the
prospect before us of what was believed by many to be a real wilderness,
our ardor was not abated, but was rather strengthened. The wilderness in
Africa proves to be, in many instances, more friendly than the populated
country. The kirangozi blew his kudu horn much more merrily on this
morning than he was accustomed to do while in Ugogo. We were about to
enter Magunda Mkali. At 9 A.M., three hours after leaving Munieka, and
two hours since we had left the extreme limits of Ugogo, we were halted
at Mabunguru Nullah. The Nullah runs southwesterly after leaving its
source in the chain of hills dividing Ugogo from Magunda Mkali. During
the rainy season it must be nearly impassable, owing to the excessive
slope of its bed. Traces of the force of the torrent are seen in the
syenite and basalt boulders which encumber the course. Their rugged
angles are worn smooth, and deep basins are excavated where the bed is
of the rock, which in the dry season serve as reservoirs. Though the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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