In Darkest Africa, Vol. 2; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of EquatoriaStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
In Darkest Africa, Vol. 2; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Emin Pasha, 1840-1892
gulf, or sat drowsily perched in the haze upon aspiring branches. There
was an odour of musk, a fragrance of flowers, perfume of lilies mixed
with the acrid scent of tusky boars in the air; there were heaps of
elephant refuse, the droppings of bush antelopes, the pungent dung of
civets, and simians along the tracks, and we were never long away from
the sound of rushing rivulets or falling cascades, sunlight streamed in
slanting silver lines and shone over the undergrowth and the thick crops
of phrynia, arum, and amoma, until their damp leaves glistened, and the
dewdrops were brilliant with light.
And the next day our march underneath the eternal shades was through
just such a land, and on the morning of the 1st of November we emerged
into the clearing of Andaki, to refresh our souls with the promised
fruit of its groves. The plantains were not very large, but they were
mature and full, and before an hour had elapsed, the wooden grates were
up, and the fruit lay in heaps of slices on the bars over the fire. The
word was passed that the first and second day of the month should be
employed in preparing as much provisions as every man could carry. We
were in N. Lat. 1° 16½′. Kilonga-Longa’s station was in 1° 6′, and Fort
Bodo in 1° 20′, so that our course was good.
[Sidenote: 1888.
Nov. 2.
Audaki.]
On the second some scouts hunting up the various tracks extending
eastward came across two women, one of whom said she knew of a great
village to the north where there was food. Another said that Andari lay
E.N.E., four days’ march, where there was such a stock of food that
Andaki was a mere handful compared with it.
Soon after leaving Andaki, and crossing a broad ridge, we came upon a
vast abandoned clearing. Probably a year had elapsed since the people
had fled, and their settlements had been consumed with fire, for the
banana plants were choked by the voracious undergrowth and wild plants,
and the elephants had trampled through and through, and sported for
months among the wasted groves, and over the crushed Musa plants,
through phrynia flourishing two fathoms deep, and where the stumps of
cut trees had sprouted and grown until their tufted tops were joined to
one another in one great thick carpet of bush. Through this we carved
our way with brandished billhooks and cutlasses; the native women had
lost the track, and were bewildered by the wildly luxuriant shrubbery,
under which we sweated in the damp hot-house heat, and ploughed our way
through the deep green sea, until after ten hours we came to a babbling
rillet, and must perforce camp from sheer exhaustion, though we had made
but five miles.
[Sidenote: 1888.
Nov. 4.
Forest.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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