The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African AdventuresPatterson, J. H. (John Henry)
History
The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African Adventures
Patterson, J. H. (John Henry)
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Hunting -- Africa, East; Uganda Railway
Should time be available, a trip to the Victoria Nyanza should
certainly be made. The voyage round the Lake in one of the comfortable
railway steamers takes about eight days, but the crossing to Entebbe,
the official capital of Uganda, can be done in seventeen hours, though
it usually takes twenty-seven, as at night the boats anchor for shelter
under the lee of an island. The steamer remains long enough in Entebbe
harbour to enable the energetic traveller to pay a flying visit in a
rickshaw to Kampala, the native capital, some twenty-one miles off. I
spent a most interesting day last year in this way, and had a chat with
the boy King of Uganda, Daudi Chwa, at Mengo. He was then about nine
years old, and very bright and intelligent. He made no objection to my
taking his photograph, but it unfortunately turned out a failure.
It is curious to find the Baganda (i.e., people of Uganda) highly
civilised--the majority are Christians--surrounded as they are on all
sides by nations of practically naked savages; and it is a very
interesting, sight to watch them in the "bazaar" at Kampala, clad in
long flowing cotton garments, and busily engaged in bartering the
products of the country under the shade of tattered umbrellas.
Unfortunately the great scourge of the district round the shores of the
Lake is the sleeping sickness, which in the past few years has carried
off thousands of the natives, and has quite depopulated the islands,
which were once densely inhabited. The disease is communicated by the
bite of an infected fly, but happily this pest is only found in certain
well-defined regions, so that if the traveller avoids these he is quite
as safe, as regards sleeping sickness, as if he had remained in England.
On the return journey from Entebbe, Jinja, a port on the north side of
the Victoria Nyanza, is usually called at. This place is of great
interest, as it is here that the Lake narrows into a breadth of only a
few hundred yards, and, rushing over the Ripon Falls, forms the
long-sought-for source of the Nile. The magnificent view of the mighty
river stretching away to the north amid enchanting scenery is most
inspiring and one can well imagine how elated Speke must have felt when
after enduring countless hardships, he at last looked upon it and thus
solved one of the great problems the ancients.
II.
The following, is a literal translation of the Hindustani poem referred
to on p. 104:--
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE:
First must I speak to the praise and glory of God, who is infinite and
incomprehensible,
Who is without fault or error, who is the Life, though without body or
breath.
He has no relatives, nor father nor son, being himself incomparable and
passionless.
His is the knowledge of the known and of the unknown, and although
without a tongue, yet does he speak in mighty tones.
I, Roshan, came to this country of Africa, and did find it indeed a
strange land;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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