I again got up, and I
perceived him about eighty yards distant, walking slowly across the
river in the shallows. Having a fair shot at the shoulder, I fired right
and left with the No. 8 Reilly rifle, and I distinctly heard the bullets
strike. He nevertheless reached the right bank, when he presently turned
round and attempted to re-cross the shallow. This gave me a good chance
at the shoulder, as his body was entirely exposed. He staggered forward
at the shot, and fell dead in the shallow flat of the river.
He was now past recovery. It was very cold: the thermometer was 54
degrees Fahrenheit, and the blankets were very agreeable, as once more
all hands turned in to sleep.
On the following morning I made a post-mortem examination. He had
received three shots in the flank and shoulder; four in the head, one of
which had broken his lower jaw; another through his nose had passed
downward and cut off one of his large tusks. I never witnessed such
determined and unprovoked fury as was exhibited by this animal - he
appeared to be raving mad. His body was a mass of frightful scars, the
result of continual conflicts with bulls of his own species; some of
these wounds were still unhealed. There was one scar about two feet in
length, and about two inches below the level of the surface skin, upon
the flank. He was evidently a character of the worst description, but
whose madness rendered him callous to all punishment. I can only suppose
that the attack upon the vessels was induced by the smell of the raw
hippopotamus flesh, which was hung in long strips about the rigging, and
with which the zinc boat was filled. The dead hippopotamus that was
floating astern lashed to the diahbeeah had not been molested.
We raised the zinc boat, which was fortunately unhurt. The dingy had
lost a mouthful, as the hippopotamus had bitten out a portion of the
side, including the gunwale of hard wood; he had munched out a piece
like the port of a small vessel, which he had accomplished with the same
ease as though it had been a slice of toast.
I sent the boat to the English shipwrights for repair, and these capital
workmen turned it out in a few days nearly as good as new.
The success of the dam was most complete. The river rose so as to
overflow the marshes, which enabled us to push all the vessels up the
channel without the necessity of deepening it by spade labour.
"March 14. - Should we succeed in reaching Gondokoro without serious
loss, it will be the greatest possible triumph over difficulties, which
no one can understand who has not witnessed the necessities of the
journey.
"A diahbeeah arrived in the lake, breaking her yard in a sudden shift of
wind, and giving a man a fall from aloft, which was fatal.
"The steamer and fleet are coming through the sudd as fast as the troops
clear the channel.
"March 15. - The steamer arrived in the lake at 3.30 P.M.
"March 16. - Thermometer, 6 A.M., 61 degrees; noon, 82 degrees. Eleven
vessels entered the lake last night. The wind has been very variable for
the last few days, and the true north wind appears to have deserted us;
the absence of a fair breeze delays us sadly in pushing through the
narrow channels against the stream.
"Dysentery and scurvy are prevalent among the Egyptians. Four Egyptian
soldiers and two Soudanis have deserted. Where these wretched fools
intend to wander is quite a speculation; - they appear to have yielded
to a temptation to run away upon the first dry land that they have seen
for months.
"The fleet assembled in the lake. The Egyptian troops cut a passage for
fifty yards through a sudd in a channel through which the fleet must
pass, as there is a shallow that will prevent them from taking the main
course of the lake.
"To-morrow the whole force will turn out and cut the remaining portion
of about 300 yards; there will then be no difficulty except a sudd of
about three quarters of a mile between the lake and the White Nile.
"March 17. - We cut through the sudd, and all the vessels entered the
broad waters of the lake and anchored in the evening opposite some
native huts, close to the channel that we must open to-morrow. These
huts are the first habitations that we have seen for more than two
months; - they are now deserted by the frightened fishermen who had
occupied them.
"March 18. - The diahbeeah led the way at 7.30 A.M. through the channel
that is closed by grass and the Pistia Stratiotes. At 10.15 we arrived
in the White Nile. There is plenty of water throughout the closed
channel, but there was some heavy work to clear the vegetation.
"March 19. - All the vessels came through into the White Nile, and there
was great rejoicing throughout the fleet. At length the men really
believed that a country of dry land might lie before them, and that they
were delivered from the horrible chaos or 'Slough of Despond' in which
they had now laboured for sixty days.
"I served out new tow-ropes to the fleet, and ordered No. 13 transport
to discharge and divide her cargo among other vessels, and to take on
board thirty soldiers to accompany the steamer to-morrow. We remounted
the steamer's paddles and tautened all the rigging of the diahbeeah;
mended sails, and thoroughly repaired for a start to-morrow. No.
