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
19th.--We got under way in the early morning, and commenced ascending
the same ravine, when a messenger from the sultan arrived, and desired
we would stop until he came. We had scarcely accomplished two miles,
and the morning was yet young and cool, and I strove with every effort
in my power to induce the men to go a little further forward, but
without the slightest effect; they were as obstinate as mules, and
just as unruly. This was a fair specimen of Somali travelling; any
pretext to save the trouble of moving is accounted too precious to be
lost. The ground here was a little more wooded; tall slender trees,
with thick green foliage, grew in the bed of the ravine, in which
there were some occasional pools of stagnant rain-water, and the brown
rocky hill-sides were decorated with budding bush acacias, which
afforded a good repast for the weary camels, whose journey over the
boulders must have been very fatiguing to them.
20th.--As the sultan did not arrive, and the young prince would not
allow my men to load, I ordered the interpreter and Imam to remain
where they were, whilst I returned to Bunder Gori to see what was the
matter, and on no account were they to issue any food until I came
back again. As soon as I had gone two or three miles, I found the
young prince and all the camel-men hastening after me, and entreating
me to return; they said the sultan was on his way, and would arrive in
camp in the evening. I complied, conditionally that they bound
themselves to march in the morning whether he came or not. Once again
in camp, I had my food prepared, and sat savagely watching the effect
its odour had upon my starving men, who, fearing they would get none,
formed in a body, and came petitioning me to forgive them, as they
consented to do my bidding for ever after. They were then fed.
21st.--After loading in the morning, with a great deal of beating and
thumping, all the camels, save two or three weakly ones, were whipped
up a winding steep ridge, one of the buttresses of the mountain, to a
camping-ground, six miles farther on, called Adhai. Here we were at
the station originally assigned for the first day's march, and, for
the first and last time during the whole journey, I pitched the tent.
The higher we ascended the hill the more abundant became the wooding,
and green grass for the first time was visible amongst the stones.
This freshness was attributed to a recent fall of rain. Altitude, by
boiling thermometer, 4577 feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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