The Discovery of the Source of the NileSpeke, John Hanning
History
The Discovery of the Source of the Nile
Speke, John Hanning
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Nile River; Nile River Valley -- Discovery and exploration; Uganda -- Description and travel
desert, they would find my arm long enough to arrest them on the coast
and put them into prison.
During this march we crossed three deep nullahs which drain the Uzaramo
plateau, and arrived at the Makutaniro, or junction of this line with
those of Mboamaji and Konduchi, which traverse central Uzaramo, and
which, on my former return journey, I went down. The gum-copal diggings
here cease. The Dum palm is left behind; the large rich green-leaved
trees of the low plateau give place to the mimosa; and now, having
ascended the greater decline of the Kingani river, instead of being
confined by a bank, we found ourselves on flat open-park land, where
antelopes roam at large, buffalo and zebra are sometimes met with, and
guinea-fowl are numerous. The water for the camp is found in the river,
but supplies of grain come from the village of Kipora farther on.
A march through the park took us to a camp by a pond, from which, by
crossing the Kingani, rice and provisions for the men were obtained on
the opposite bank. One can seldom afford to follow wild animals on the
line of march, otherwise we might have bagged some antelopes to-day,
which, scared by the interminable singing, shouting, bell-jingling,
horn-blowing, and other such merry noises of the moving caravan, could
be seen disappearing in the distance.
Leaving the park, we now entered the riches part of Uzaramo, affording
crops as fine as any part of India. Here it was, in the district of
Dege la Mhora, that the first expedition to this country, guided by a
Frenchman, M. Maizan, came to a fatal termination, that gentleman having
been barbarously murdered by the sub-chief Hembe. The cause of the
affair was distinctly explained to me by Hembe himself, who, with
his cousin Darunga, came to call upon me, presuming, as he was not
maltreated by the last expedition, that the matter would now be
forgotten. The two men were very great friends of the little Sheikh,
and as a present was expected, which I should have to pay, we all talked
cheerfully and confidentially, bringing in the fate of Maizan for no
other reason than to satisfy curiosity. Hembe, who lives in the centre
of an almost impenetrable thicket, confessed that he was the murderer,
but said the fault did not rest with him, as he merely carried out the
instructions of his father, Mzungera, who, a Diwan on the coast, sent
him a letter directing his actions. Thus it is proved that the plot
against Maizan was concocted on the coast by the Arab merchants--most
likely from the same motive which has induced one rival merchant to
kill another as the best means of checking rivalry or competition.
When Arabs--and they are the only class of people who would do such
a deed--found a European going into the very middle of their secret
trading-places, where such large profits were to be obtained, they would
never suppose that the scientific Maizan went for any other purpose than
to pry into their ivory stores, bring others into the field after him,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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