Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Slave trade -- Africa
Upon reaching the animal, I found the bullet in the neck, where it had
divided the spine. I guessed the distance at about 240 yards. Some of
our Lobore natives, who had kept at a distance behind us, now came up,
and in a short time the noble waterbuck was cut up and the flesh carried
into camp. This species of antelope, when in good condition, weighs
about thirty stone (cleaned).
On March 2 we started at 6 A.M., and marched at a rapid rate along a
hard and excellent path, which inclined upwards from the river for about
eight miles.
The bush was very open, and in many portions the country was a
succession of deep dells, which in the wet season were covered with high
grass, but at this time the young grass was hardly three inches high,
having sprouted after the recent fires.
From an altitude of about 1,000 feet above the Asua river, we had a
splendid view of the entire landscape.
On the east, at about fifty miles distant, was the fine range of lofty
mountains that stretched in a long line towards Latooka. On the west, on
the left bank of the White Nile, which now flowed almost beneath our
feet, was the precipitous mountain Neri, known by the Arab traders as
Gebel huku. This fine mass of rock descends in a series of rugged
terraces from a height of between three and four thousand feet to the
Nile, at a point where the river boils through a narrow gorge between
the mountains. It is in this passage that the principal falls take place
which I witnessed in my former journey. At that time our path led along
the rocky bank of the river, and was both difficult and dangerous.
Eight miles from the Asua river now brought us to the top of the pass,
and having stopped for a few moments to take compass bearings, we began
the somewhat steep descent.
Walking was preferable to riding, and after a distance of a couple of
miles had been accomplished, we rounded the rocky hill by crossing a
ravine upon our right, and the view of the promised land burst upon us.
The grand White Nile lay like a broad streak of silver on our right as
it flowed in a calm, deep stream direct from the Albert N'yanza; at this
spot above all cataracts. No water had as yet been broken by a fall; the
troubles of river-life lay in the future; the journey to the sea might
be said to have only just commenced. Here the entire volume flowed from
the Albert N'yanza, distant hardly one degree; and here had I always
hoped to bring my steamers, as the starting-point for the opening of the
heart of Africa to navigation. (This has since been proved correct by
the efforts of my successor, Colonel Gordon, who carried the 38-ton
steamer which I had left at Gondokoro to this point above the cataracts,
and constructed her at Duffle on the opposite bank. This vessel steamed
into the Albert N'yanza without any difficulty, and corroborated my
assertion that the river was navigable. It may be remembered that many
geographers had contested the fact that the Nile was an effluent from
the Albert N'yanza.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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