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
Kingaru.--"It was not I; it was my brothers who said to me, 'Come here,
come here, Kingaru, see what the white man has done! Has he not taken
possession of your soil, in that he has put his horse into your ground
without your permission? Come, go to him and see by what right.'
Therefore have I come to ask you, who gave you permission to use my soil
for a burying-ground?"
W. M. "I want no man's permission to do what is right. My horse died;
had I left him to fester and stink in your valley, sickness would visit
your village, your water would become unwholesome, and caravans would
not stop here for trade; for they would say, 'This is an unlucky spot,
let us go away.' But enough said: I understand you to say that you do
not want him buried in your ground; the error I have fallen into is
easily put right. This minute my soldiers shall dig him out again, and
cover up the soil as it was before; and the horse shall be left where he
died." (Then shouting to Bombay.) "Ho! Bombay, take soldiers with jembes
to dig my horse out of the ground, drag him to where he died, and make
everything ready for a march to-morrow morning."
Kingaru, his voice considerably higher, and his head moving to and fro
with emotion, cries out, "Akuna, akuna, bana!"--"No, no, master! Let not
the white man get angry. The horse is dead, and now lies buried; let him
remain so, since he is already there, and let us be friends again."
The Sheikh of Kingaru being thus brought to his senses, we bid each
other the friendly "Kwaheri," and I was left alone to ruminate over my
loss. Barely half an hour had elapsed, it was 9 P.M., the camp was in
a semi-doze, when I heard deep groans issuing from one of the animals.
Upon inquiry as to what animal was suffering, I was surprised to hear
that it was my bay horse. With a bull's-eye lantern, I visited him, and
perceived that the pain was located in the stomach, but whether it was
from some poisonous plant he had eaten while out grazing, or from some
equine disease, I did not know. He discharged copious quantities of
loose matter, but there was nothing peculiar in its colour. The pain was
evidently very great, for his struggles were very violent. I was up all
night, hoping that it was but a temporary effect of some strange and
noxious plant; but at 6 o'clock the next morning, after a short period
of great agony, he also died; exactly fifteen hours after his companion.
When the stomach was opened, it was found that death was caused by the
internal rupture of a large cancer, which had affected the larger half
of the coating of his stomach, and had extended an inch or two up the
larynx. The contents of the stomach and intestines were deluged with the
yellow viscous efflux from the cancer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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