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
If the site of the village be on moist or soft ground, it is usual, in
addition to the palisading, to have it further fortified by a moat or
evergreen fence.
15th.--We left Unyambéwa at 7 A.M., and reached a village in the
Ibanda district, having marched seven miles over flat ground, growing
fine crops in some places, with the remainder covered by the usual
slender forest-trees. The road was very good and regular. In the
afternoon the three porters arrived with the sultana's bullock, and
were attended by her nephew and managing man, and by some of her
slaves as drivers. The nephew asked first for more presents in her
name; as this was refused, he requested something for the drivers. I
gave them a cloth, and he then pleaded for himself, as he had
sacrificed so much time and trouble for me. I satisfied him with one
fundo of beads (a bunch of beads sufficient to form ten khetes or
necklaces), and we parted: a full khete is a string of beads double
the length of the fore-arm, or sufficiently long to encircle the neck
twice. The Beluches, finding that nothing but the coarsest grains were
obtainable with the white beads they had received, petitioned for and
obtained a shukka, but under the proviso of their always assisting me
to urge on the lazy porters. This they not only agreed to do, but also
declared themselves willing to execute any orders I might give them:
they looked upon me as their Ma, Bap (mother and father, a Hindostani
expression, significant of everything, or entire dependence on one as
a son on his parents), and considered my interests their interests.
16th.--We started at 6 A.M., and travelled eleven miles to Ukamba, a
village in the district of Msalala, which is held by a tribe called
Wamanda. The first four miles lay over the cultivated plain of Ibanda,
till we arrived at the foot of a ridge of hills, which, gradually
closing from the right, intersects the road, and runs into a hilly
country extending round the western side of the aforesaid plain. We
now crossed the range, and descended into a country more closely
studded with the same description of small hills, but highly
cultivated in the valleys and plains that separate them. About twelve
miles to the eastward of Ukamba live a tribe called Wasongo, and to
the west, at twenty miles' distance, are the Waquanda. To-day was
fully verified the absolute futility of endeavouring to march against
time in these wild countries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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