What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the NileSpeke, John Hanning
History
What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile
Speke, John Hanning
Horn of Africa -- Description and travel; Nile River; Tanganyika, Lake
4th.--Halt. The morning is no improvement on the night. The captain
now arrives with most of the remaining crew, fears the troubled
waters, and will not put out to sea. In consequence of this
disappointment, a messenger is sent back to Kawélé, to fetch some
fresh provisions and firewood, as what little of this latter article
can be gathered in its saturated state is useless, for it will not
burn. During the afternoon the remainder of the crew keep dropping in,
and at nightfall seventeen hands are mustered.
5th.--At 3 A.M. the sea subsides, and the boat is loaded.--To pack so
many men together, with material, in so small a space as the canoe
affords, seems a difficulty almost insurmountable. Still it is
effected. I litter down amidships, with my bedding spread on reeds, in
so short a compass that my legs keep slipping off and dangling in the
bilge-water. The cook and bailsman sit on the first bar, facing me;
and behind them, to the stern, one-half the sailors sit in couples;
whilst on the first bar behind me are Bombay and one Beluch, and
beyond them to the bow, also in couples, the remaining crew. The
captain takes post in the bows, and all hands on both sides paddle in
stroke together.
Fuel, cooking-apparatus, food, bag and baggage, are thrown
promiscuously under the seats. But the sailors' blankets, in the shape
of grass matting, are placed on the bars to render the sitting soft.
Once all properly arranged, the seventeen paddles dash off with
vigour, and, steering southwards, we soon cross the mouth of the
Ruché. Next Ukaranga, the last village on this line down the eastern
shore, lying snugly in a bay, with a low range of densely-wooded hills
about three miles in its rear, is passed by dawn of day, and about
sunrise the bay itself is lost to sight.
The tired crew now hug a bluff shore, crowned with dense jungle, until
a nook familiar to the men is entered under plea of breakfasting. Here
all hands land, fires are kindled, and the cooking-pots arranged. Some
prepare their rods and nets for fishing, some go in search of fungi (a
favourite food), and others collect fuel. Gaetano, ever doing wrong,
dips his cooking-pot in the sea for water--a dangerous experiment, if
the traditions of Tanganyika hold good, that the ravenous hosts of
crocodiles seldom spare any one bold enough to excite their appetites
with such dregs as usually drop from those utensils; moreover, they
will follow and even board the boats, after a single taste.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account