Albert, Lake (Congo and Uganda); Nile River; Sudan -- Description and travel
deceive me, as my wife and I should both die if we were compelled
to remain another year in this country by losing the annual boats at
Gondokoro.
The understanding was this: he was to give me porters to the lake,
where I was to be furnished with canoes to take me to Magungo, which was
situated at the junction of the Somerset. From Magungo he told me that
I should see the Nile issuing from the lake close to the spot where the
Somerset entered, and that the canoes should take me down the river,
and porters should carry my effects from the nearest point to Shooa,
and deliver me at my old station without delay. Should he be faithful to
this engagement, I trusted to procure porters from Shooa, and to reach
Gondokoro in time for the annual boats. I had arranged that a boat
should be sent from Khartoum to await me at Gondokoro early in this
year, 1864; but I felt sure that should I be long delayed, the boat
would return without me, as the people would be afraid to remain alone
at Gondokoro after the other boats had quitted.
In our present weak state another year of Central Africa without quinine
appeared to warrant death. It was a race against time; all was untrodden
ground before us, and the distance quite uncertain. I trembled for my
wife, and weighed the risk of another year in this horrible country
should we lose the boats. With the self-sacrificing devotion that she
had shown in every trial, she implored me not to think of any risks on
her account, but to push forward and discover the lake--that she had
determined not to return until she had herself reached the "M'wootan
N'zige."
I now requested Kamrasi to allow us to take leave, as we had not an hour
to lose. In the coolest manner he replied, "I will send you to the lake
and to Shooa, as I have promised, but YOU MUST LEAVE YOUR WIFE WITH ME!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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