These Mountains Decreased In Height Toward The North, In
Which Direction The Lake Terminated In A Broad Valley Of Reeds.
We were informed that we had arrived at Magungo, and after skirting the
floating reeds for about a mile we entered a broad channel, which we
were told was the embouchure of the Somerset River from Victoria
N'yanza.
In a short time we landed at Magungo, where we were welcomed by
the chief and by our guide Rabonga, who had been sent in advance to
procure oxen.
The exit of the Nile from the lake was plain enough, and if the broad
channel of dead water were indeed the entrance of the Victoria Nile
(Somerset), the information obtained by Speke would be remarkably
confirmed. But although the chief of Magungo and all the natives assured
me that the broad channel of dead water at my feet was positively the
brawling river that I had crossed below the Karuma Falls, I could not
understand how so fine a body of water as that had appeared could
possibly enter the Albert Lake as dead water. The guide and natives
laughed at my unbelief, and declared that it was dead water for a
considerable distance from the junction with the lake, but that a great
waterfall rushed down from a mountain, and that beyond that fall the
river was merely a succession of cataracts throughout the entire
distance of about six days' march to Karuma Falls. My real wish was to
descend the Nile in canoes from its exit from the lake with my own men
as boatmen, and thus in a short time to reach the cataracts in the Madi
country; there to forsake the canoes and all my baggage, and to march
direct to Gondokoro with only our guns and ammunition. I knew from
native report that the Nile was navigable as far as the Madi country to
about Miani's tree, which Speke had laid down by astronomical
observation in lat. 3 "degrees" 34'. This would be only seven days'
march from Gondokoro, and by such a direct course I should be sure to
arrive in time for the boats to Khartoum.
I had promised Speke that I would explore most thoroughly the doubtful
portion of the river that he had been forced to neglect from Karuma
Falls to the lake. I was myself confused at the dead-water junction; and
although I knew that the natives must be right - as it was their own
river, and they had no inducement to mislead me - I was determined to
sacrifice every other wish in order to fulfil my promise, and thus to
settle the Nile question most absolutely. That the Nile flowed out of
the lake I had heard, and I had also confirmed by actual inspection;
from Magungo I looked upon the two countries, Koshi and Madi, through
which it flowed, and these countries I must actually pass through and
again meet the Nile before I could reach Gondokoro. Thus the only point
necessary to settle was the river between the lake and the Karuma Falls.
The boats being ready, we took leave of the chief of Magungo, leaving
him an acceptable present of beads, and descended the hill to the river,
thankful at having so far successfully terminated the expedition as to
have traced the lake to that important point, Magungo, which had been
our clew to the discovery even so far away in time and place as the
distant country of Latooka. We were both very weak and ill, and my knees
trembled beneath me as we walked down the easy descent. I, in my
enervated state, endeavoring to assist my wife, we were the "blind
leading the blind;" but had life closed on that day we could have died
most happily, for the hard fight through sickness and misery had ended
in victory; and although I looked to home as a paradise never to be
regained, I could have lain down to sleep in contentment on this spot,
with the consolation that, if the body had been vanquished, we died with
the prize in our grasp.
On arrival at the canoes we found everything in readiness, and the
boatmen already in their places. Once in the broad channel of dead water
we steered due east, and made rapid way until the evening. The river as
it now appeared, although devoid of current, was on an average about 500
yards in width. Before we halted for the night I was subjected to a most
severe attack of fever, and upon the boat reaching a certain spot I was
carried on a litter, perfectly unconscious, to a village, attended
carefully by my poor sick wife, who, herself half dead, followed me on
foot through the marches in pitch darkness, and watched over me until
the morning. At daybreak I was too weak to stand, and we were both
carried down to the canoes, and crawling helplessly within our grass
awning we lay down like logs while the canoes continued their voyage.
Many of our men were also suffering from fever. The malaria of the dense
masses of floating vegetation was most poisonous, and upon looking back
to the canoe that followed in our wake I observed all my men sitting
crouched together sick and dispirited, looking like departed spirits
being ferried across the melancholy Styx.
The woman Bacheeta knew the country, as she had formerly been to Magungo
when in the service of Sali, who had been subsequently murdered by
Kamrasi. She informed me on the second day that we should terminate our
canoe voyage on that day, as we should arrive at the great waterfall of
which she had often spoken. As we proceeded the river gradually narrowed
to about 180 yards, and when the paddles ceased working we could
distinctly hear the roar of water. I had heard this on waking in the
morning, but at the time I had imagined it to proceed from distant
thunder. By ten o'clock the current had so increased as we proceeded
that it was distinctly perceptible, although weak.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 79 of 89
Words from 79382 to 80398
of 90207
