How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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So Swift Was The Flow Of The Makata, And So Much Did Its Unsteady
Bridge, Half Buried In The Water, Imperil The Safety Of The
Property, That Its Transfer From Bank To Bank Occupied Fully Five
Hours.
No sooner had we landed every article on the other side,
undamaged by the water, than the rain poured down in torrents
that drenched them all, as if they had been dragged through the
river.
To proceed through the swamp which an hour's rain had
formed was utterly out of the question. We were accordingly
compelled to camp in a place where every hour furnished its quota
of annoyance. One of the Wangwana soldiers engaged at Bagamoyo,
named Kingaru, improved an opportunity to desert with another
Mgwana's kit. My two detectives, Uledi (Grant's valet), and
Sarmean, were immediately despatched in pursuit, both being armed
with American breech-loaders. They went about their task with
an adroitness and celerity which augured well for their success.
In an hour they returned with the runaway, having found him hidden
in the house of a Mseguhha chief called Kigondo, who lived about
a mile from the eastern bank of the river, and who had accompanied
Uledi and Sarmean to receive his reward, and render an account of
the incident.
Kigondo said, when he had been seated, "I saw this man carrying
a bundle, and running hard, by which I knew that he was deserting
you. We (my wife and 1) were sitting in our little watch-hut,
watching our corn; and, as the road runs close by, this man was
obliged to come close to us.
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