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
I thought a spring-bok and zebra enough for one day's sport, especially
after a long march. The Gombe, a long stretch of deep water, winding in
and out of green groves, calm, placid, with lotus leaves lightly resting
on its surface, all pretty, picturesque, peaceful as a summer's dream,
looked very inviting for a bath. I sought out the most shady spot under
a wide-spreading mimosa, from which the ground sloped smooth as a
lawn, to the still, clear water. I ventured to undress, and had already
stepped in to my ancles in the water, and had brought my hands together
for a glorious dive, when my attention was attracted by an enormously
long body which shot into view, occupying the spot beneath the surface
that I was about to explore by a "header." Great heavens, it was
a crocodile! I sprang backward instinctively, and this proved my
salvation, for the monster turned away with the most disappointed look,
and I was left to congratulate myself upon my narrow escape from his
jaws, and to register a vow never to be tempted again by the treacherous
calm of an African river.
As soon as I had dressed I turned away from the now repulsive aspect of
the stream. In strolling through the jungle, towards my camp, I detected
the forms of two natives looking sharply about them, and, after bidding
my young attendants to preserve perfect quiet, I crept on towards them,
and, by the aid of a thick clump of underbush, managed to arrive within
a few feet of the natives undetected. Their mere presence in the immense
forest, unexplained, was a cause of uneasiness in the then disturbed
state of the country, and my intention was to show myself suddenly to
them, and note its effect, which, if it betokened anything hostile to
the Expedition, could without difficulty be settled at once, with the
aid of my double-barrelled smooth-bore.
As I arrived on one side of this bush, the two suspicious-looking
natives arrived on the other side, and we were separated by only a
few feet. I made a bound, and we were face to face. The natives cast a
glance at the sudden figure of a white man, and seemed petrified for a
moment, but then, recovering themselves, they shrieked out, "Bana, bana,
you don't know us. We are Wakonongo, who came to your camp to accompany
you to Mrera, and we are looking for honey."
"Oh, to be sure, you are the Wakonongo. Yes--Yes. Ah, it is all right
now, I thought you might be Ruga-Ruga."
So the two parties, instead of being on hostile terms with each other,
burst out laughing. The Wakonongo enjoyed it very much, and laughed
heartily as they proceeded on their way to search for the wild honey.
On a piece of bark they carried a little fire with which they smoked the
bees out from their nest in the great mtundu-trees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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