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
Passing by the old village of Mbuiga, which I occupied on my former
expedition, we entered some huts on the western flank of the Mbuiga
district; and here, finding a coast-man, a great friend of the little
sheikh's, willing to take back to Zanzibar anything we might give him, a
halt was made, and I drew up my reports. I then consigned to his
charge three of the most sickly of the Hottentots in a deplorable
condition--one of the mules, that they might ride by turns--and all
the specimens that had been collected. With regret I also sent back the
camera; because I saw, had I allowed my companion to keep working it,
the heat he was subjected to in the little tent whilst preparing
and fixing his plates would very soon have killed him. The number of
guinea-fowl seen here was most surprising.
A little lighter and much more comfortable for the good riddance of
those grumbling "Tots," we worked up to and soon breasted the stiff
ascent of the Mabruki Pass, which we surmounted without much difficult.
This concluded the first range of these Usagara hills; and once over, we
dropped down to the elevated valley of Makata, where we halted two days
to shoot. As a travelling Arab informed me that the whole of the Maroro
district had been laid waste by the marauding Wahehe, I changed our
plans again, and directed our attention to a middle and entirely new
line, which in the end would lead us to Ugogi. The first and only
giraffe killed upon the journey was here shot by Grant, with a little
40-gauge Lancaster rifle, at 200 yards' distance. Some smaller animals
were killed; but I wasted all my time in fruitlessly stalking some
wounded striped eland--magnificent animals, as large as Delhi oxen--and
some other animals, of which I wounded three, about the size of
hartebeest, and much their shape, only cream-coloured, with a
conspicuous black spot in the centre of each flank. The eland may
probably be the animal first mentioned by Livingstone, but the other
animal is not known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account