Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark ContinentHeadley, Joel Tyler
History
Stanley's Adventures in the Wilds of Africa: A Graphic Account of the Several Expeditions of Henry M. Stanley into the Heart of the Dark Continent
Headley, Joel Tyler
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904
"Not long after the Arabs had departed, a dishful of hot hashed-meat
cakes was sent to us by Sayd bin Majid, and a curried chicken was
received from Mohammed bin Sali, and Moeni Kheri sent a dishful of
stewed goat meat and rice; and thus presents of food came in succession,
and as fast as they were brought we set to. I had a healthy, stubborn
digestion, the exercise I had taken had put it in prime order, but
Livingstone--he had been complaining that he had no appetite, that his
stomach refused everything but a cup of tea now and then--he ate
also--ate like a vigorous, hungry man; and as he vied with me in
demolishing the pancakes, he kept repeating, 'You have brought me new
life.'
"'Oh, by George,' I said, 'I have forgotten something. Hasten, Selim,
and bring that bottle; you know which; and bring me the silver goblets.
I brought this bottle on purpose for this event, which I hoped would
come to pass, though often it seemed useless to expect it.'
"Selim knew where the bottle was, and he soon returned with it--a bottle
of Sillery champagne; and, handing the doctor a silver goblet brimful of
the exhilarating wine, and pouring a small quantity into my own, I said:
'Dr. Livingstone, to your very good health, sir.'
"'And to yours,' he responded.
"And the champagne I had treasured for this happy meeting was drank with
hearty good wishes to each other.
"But we kept on talking and talking, and prepared food was brought to us
all that afternoon, and we kept on eating every time it was brought
until I had eaten even to repletion, and the doctor was obliged to
confess that he had eaten enough. Still, Halimah, the female cook of the
doctor's establishment, was in a state of the greatest excitement. She
had been protruding her head out of the cook-house, to make sure that
there were really two white men sitting down in the veranda, when there
used to be only one, who would not, because he could not, eat anything;
and she had been considerably exercised in her mind over this fact. She
was afraid the doctor did not properly appreciate her culinary
abilities; but now she was amazed at the extraordinary quantity of food
eaten, and she was in a state of delightful excitement. We could hear
her tongue rolling off a tremendous volume of clatter to the wondering
crowds who halted before the kitchen to hear the current of news with
which she edified them. Poor, faithful soul. While we listen to the
noise of her furious gossip, the doctor related her faithful services
and the terrible anxiety she evinced when the guns first announced the
arrival of another white man in Ujiji; how she had been flying about in
a state of the utmost excitement, from the kitchen into his presence,
and out again into the square, asking all sorts of questions; how she
was in despair at the scantiness of the general larder and treasury of
the strange household; how she was anxious to make up for their poverty
by a grand appearance--to make up a sort of Barmecide feast to welcome
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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