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
After Mizohazy is the bold cape of Kabogo--not the terrible Kabogo
around whose name mystery has been woven by the superstitious
natives--not the Kabogo whose sullen thunder and awful roar were heard
when crossing the Rugufu on our flight from the Wahha---but a point
in Ukaranga, on whose hard and uninviting rocks many a canoe has been
wrecked. We passed close to its forbidding walls, thankful for the
calm of the Tanganika. Near Kabogo are some very fine mvule trees, well
adapted for canoe building, and there are no loud-mouthed natives about
to haggle for the privilege of cutting them.
Along the water's edge, and about three feet above it, was observed very
clearly on the smooth face of the rocky slopes of Kabogo the high-water
mark of the lake. This went to show that the Tanganika, during the rainy
season, rises about three feet above its dry season level, and that,
during the latter season, evaporation reduces it to its normal level.
The number of rivers which we passed on this journey enabled me to
observe whether, as I was told, there was any current setting north.
It was apparent to me that, while the south-west, south, or south-east
winds blew, the brown flood of the rivers swept north; but it happened
that, while passing, once or twice, the mouths of rivers, after a
puff from the north-west and north, that the muddied waters were seen
southward of the mouths; from which I conclude that there is no current
in the Tanganika except such as is caused by the fickle wind.
Finding a snug nook of a bay at a place called Sigunga, we put in for
lunch. An island at the mouth of the bay suggested to our minds that
this was a beautiful spot for a mission station; the grandly sloping
hills in the background, with an undulating shelf of land well-wooded
between them and the bay, added to the attractions of such a spot.
The island, capable of containing quite a large village, and perfectly
defensible, might, for prudence' sake, contain the mission and its
congregation; the landlocked bay would protect their fishery and trade
vessels; more than sustain a hundred times the number of the population
of the island. Wood for building their canoes and houses is close at
hand; the neighbouring country would afford game in abundance; and the
docile and civil people of Ukaranga but wait religious shepherds.
From beautiful Sigunga, after a brief halt, we set off, and, after
three hours, arrived at the mouth of the River Uwelasia. Hippopotami
and crocodiles being numerous; we amused ourselves by shooting at them,
having also a hope of attracting the attention of our shore party, the
sound of whose guns we had not heard since leaving the Rugufu.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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