These Palms Are
Well Adapted For Canoes, As The Bark, Or Rather The Outside Wood, Is
Intensely Hard For About An Inch And A Half, Beneath Which The Tree Is
Simply A Pithy, Stringy Substance, That Can Be Rapidly Scooped Out.
Two of the logs, when shaped, were each twenty-six feet in length; the
third was smaller.
Throughout the march from Masindi we had managed to carry an adze, a
hammer, and a cold chisel. The adze now came into play, together with
the Bandy little axes of the "Forty Thieves".
Among my troops was a Baggara Arab, who was a "canoe-builder". This was
one of the best men of "The Forty", and it was now for the first time
that I heard of his abilities as a boat-builder. This man, Said Bagara,
has since accompanied Colonel Long with great fidelity to the court of
King M'Tese.
The men took an immense interest in the work; but as too many volunteers
might interfere with the principal shipwright, I sent them all into the
forest to collect plantains. I gave orders that every man should prepare
14 lbs of plantain flour for the journey, in case it should be necessary
to march to Fatiko.
The canoes progressed, and a slice of about a foot wide having been
taken off horizontally from stem to stern, the soft inside was scooped
out with an adze, and with lance-heads bent to form a half circle.
In a few days the logs were neatly hollowed, and were then carried down
and launched upon the river.
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