From Want Of Guides, And Misguided By The Exclusive
Ill-Natured Wahuma Who Were Here In Great Numbers Tending Their
King's Cattle, We Lost Our Way Continually, So That We Did Not
Reach The Boat-Station Until The Morning Of The 21st.
Here at last I stood on the brink of the Nile; most beautiful was
the scene, nothing could surpass it!
It was the very perfection
of the kind of effect aimed at in a highly kept park; with a
magnificent stream from 600 to 700 yards wide, dotted with islets
and rocks, the former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by
sterns and crocodiles basking in the sun, - flowing between the
fine high grassy banks, with rich trees and plantains in the
background, where herds of the nsunnu and hartebeest could be
seen grazing, while the hippopotami were snorting in the water,
and florikan and guinea-fowl rising at our feet. Unfortunately,
the chief district officer, Mlondo, was from home, but we took
possession of his huts - clean, extensive, and tidily kept -
facing the river, and felt as if a residence here would do one
good. Delays and subterfuges, however, soon came to damp our
spirits. The acting officer was sent for, and asked for the
boats; they were all scattered, and could not be collected for a
day or two; but, even if they were at hand, no boat ever went up
or down the river. The chief was away and would be sent for, as
the king often changed his orders, and, after all, might not mean
what had been said. The district belonged to the Sakibobo, and
no representative of his had come here. These excuses, of course,
would not satisfy us. The boats must be collected, seven, if
there are not ten, for we must try them, and come to some
understanding about them, before we march up stream, when, if the
officer values his life, he will let us have them, and
acknowledge Karoso as the king's representative, otherwise a
complaint will be sent to the palace, for we won't stand
trifling.
We were now confronting Usoga, a country which may be said to be
the very counterpart of Uganda in its richness and beauty. Here
the people use such huge iron-headed spears with short handles,
that, on seeing one to-day, my people remarked that they were
better fitted for digging potatoes than piercing men. Elephants,
as we had seen by their devastations during the last two marches,
were very numerous in this neighbourhood. Till lately, a party
from Unyoro, ivory-hunting, had driven them away. Lions were
also described as very numerous and destructive to human life.
Antelopes were common in the jungle, and the hippopotami, though
frequenters of the plantain-garden and constantly heard, were
seldom seen on land in consequence of their unsteady habits.
The king's page again came, begging I would not forget the gun
and stimulants, and bringing with him the things I asked for -
two spears, one shield, one dirk, two leopard-cat skins, and two
sheets of small antelope skins.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 305 of 403
Words from 159406 to 159921
of 210958