The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile SourcesBaker, Samuel White, Sir
History
The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile Sources
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Albert, Lake (Congo and Uganda); Nile River; Sudan
Jan. 9th.--Two natives fishing; left their canoe and ran on the approach
of our boats. My men wished to steal it, which of course I prevented; it
was a simple dome palm hollowed. In the canoe was a harpoon, very neatly
made, with only one barb. Both sides of the river from the Bahr el Gazal
belong to the Nuehr tribe. Course S.E.; wind very light; windings of
river endless; continual hauling. At about half an hour before sunset,
as the men were hauling the boat along by dragging at the high reeds
from the deck, a man at the mast-head reported a buffalo standing on a
dry piece of ground near the river; being in want of meat, the men
begged me to shoot him. The buffalo was so concealed by the high grass,
that he could not be seen from the deck; I therefore stood upon an
angarep (bedstead) on the poop, and from this I could just discern his
head and shoulders in the high grass, about a hundred and twenty yards
off. I fired with No. 1 Reilly rifle, and he dropped apparently dead to
the shot. The men being hungry, were mad with delight, and regardless of
all but meat, they dashed into the water, and were shortly at him; one
man holding him by the tail, another dancing upon him and brandishing
his knife, and all shouting a yell of exultation. Presently up jumped
the insulted buffalo, and charging through the men, he disappeared in
the high grass, falling, as the men declared, in the deep morass. It was
dusk, and the men, being rather ashamed of their folly in dancing
instead of hamstringing the animal and securing their beef, slunk back
to their vessels.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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