I do not believe I can go any farther; and
if you would only be kind enough, I should like to return very
much."
"Well, Mr. Shaw, I have come to the conclusion that it is best,
you should return. My patience is worn out. I have endeavoured
faithfully to lift you above these petty miseries which you
nourish so devotedly. You are simply suffering from hypochondria.
You imagine yourself sick, and nothing, evidently, will persuade
you that you are not. Mark my words - to return to Unyanyembe,
is to DIE! Should you happen to fall sick in Kwihara who knows
how to administer medicine to you? Supposing you are delirious,
how can any of the soldiers know what you want, or what is
beneficial and necessary for you? Once again, I repeat, if you
return, you DIE!"
"Ah, dear me; I wish I had never ventured to come! I thought
life in Africa was so different from this. I would rather go
back if you will permit me."
The next day was a halt, and arrangements were made for the
transportation of Shaw back to Kwihara. A strong litter was made,
and four stout pagazis were hired at Kigandu to carry him. Bread
was baked, a canteen was filled with cold tea, and a leg of a kid
was roasted for his sustenance while on the road.
The night before we parted we spent together. Shaw played some
tunes on an accordion which I had purchased for him at Zanzibar;
but, though it was only a miserable ten-dollar affair, I thought
the homely tunes evoked from the instrument that night were divine
melodies. The last tune played before retiring was "Home, sweet
Home."
The morning of the 27th we were all up early: There was considerable
vis in our movements. A long, long march lay before us that day;
but then I was to leave behind all the sick and ailing. Only
those who were healthy, and could march fast and long, were to
accompany me. Mabruk Saleem I left in charge of a native doctor,
who was to medicate him for a gift of cloth which I gave him in
advance.
The horn sounded to get ready. Shaw was lifted in his litter on
the shoulders of his carriers. My men formed two ranks; the
flags were lifted; and between these two living rows, and under
those bright streamers, which were to float over the waters of
the Tanganika before he should see them again, Shaw was borne
away towards the north; while we filed off to the south, with
quicker and more elastic steps, as if we felt an incubus had
been taken from us.
We ascended a ridge bristling with syenite boulders of massive
size, appearing above a forest of dwarf trees. The view which we
saw was similar to that we had often seen elsewhere. An
illimitable forest stretching in grand waves far beyond the ken of
vision - ridges, forest-clad, rising gently one above another until
they receded in the dim purple-blue distance - with a warm haze
floating above them, which, though clear enough in our
neighbourhood, became impenetrably blue in the far distance.
Woods, woods, woods, leafy branches, foliage globes, or
parachutes, green, brown, or sere in colour, forests one above
another, rising, falling, and receding - a very leafy ocean.
