Had My Party Not Been Under Control,
We Could Not Have Put Up Here; But On My Being Answerable That No
Thefts Should Take Place, The People Kindly Consented To Provide
Us With Board And Lodgings, And We Found Them Very Obliging.
One
elderly man, half-witted - they said the king had driven his
senses from him by seizing his house
And family - came at once on
hearing of our arrival, laughing and singing in a loose jaunty
maniacal manner, carrying odd sticks, shells, and a bundle of
mbugu rags, which he deposited before me, dancing and singing
again, then retreating and bringing some more, with a few
plantains from a garden, when I was to eat, as kings lived upon
flesh, and "poor Tom" wanted some, for he lived with lions and
elephants in a hovel beyond the gardens, and his belly was empty.
He was precisely a black specimen of the English parish idiot.
At last, with a good push for it, crossing hills and threading
huge grasses, as well as extensive village plantations lately
devastated by elephants - they had eaten all that was eatable, and
what would not serve for food they had destroyed with their
trunks, not one plantain or one hut being left entire - we arrived
at the extreme end of the journey, the farthest point ever
visited by the expedition on the same parallel of latitude as
king Mtesa's palace, and just forty miles east of it.
We were well rewarded; for the "stones," as the Waganda call the
falls, was by far the most interesting sight I had seen in
Africa. Everybody ran to see them at once, though the march had
been long and fatiguing, and even my sketch-block was called into
play. Though beautiful, the scene was not exactly what I
expected; for the broad surface of the lake was shut out from
view by a spur of hill, and the falls, about 12 feet deep, and
400 to 500 feet broad, were broken by rocks. Still it was a
sight that attracted one to it for hours - the roar of the waters,
the thousands of passenger-fish, leaping at the falls with all
their might; the Wasoga and Waganda fisherman coming out in boats
and taking post on all the rocks with rod and hook, hippopotami
and crocodiles lying sleepily on the water, the ferry at work
above the falls, and cattle driven down to drink at the margin of
the lake, - made, in all, with the pretty nature of the country -
small hills, grassy-topped, with trees in the folds, and gardens
on the lower slopes - as interesting a picture as one could wish
to see.
The expedition had now performed its functions. I saw that old
father Nile without any doubt rises in the Victoria N'yanza, and,
as I had foretold, that lake is the great source of the holy
river which cradled the first expounder of our religious belief.
I mourned, however, when I thought how much I had lost by the
delays in the journey having deprived me of the pleasure of going
to look at the north-east corner of the N'yanza to see what
connection there was, by the strait so often spoken of, with it
and the other lake where the Waganda went to get their salt, and
from which another river flowed to the north, making "Usoga an
island." But I felt I ought to be content with what I had been
spared to accomplish; for I had seen full half of the lake, and
had information given me of the other half, by means of which I
knew all about the lake, as far, at least, as the chief objects
of geographical importance were concerned.
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