How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
- Page 233 of 310 - First - Home
I Had Suffered Several
Fevers Between Bagamoyo And Unyanyembe, Without Anything Or Anybody
To Relieve Me Of The Tedious Racking Headache And Pain, Or To
Illumine The Dark And Gloomy Prospect Which Must Necessarily
Surround The Bedside Of The Sick And Solitary Traveller.
But
though this fever, having enjoyed immunity from it for three
months, was more severe than usual, I did not much regret its
occurrence, since I became the recipient of the very tender and
fatherly kindness of the good man whose companion I now found
myself.
The next morning, having recovered slightly from the fever, when
Mukamba came with a present of an ox, a sheep, and a goat, I was
able to attend to the answers which he gave to the questions about
the Rusizi River and the head of the lake. The ever cheerful and
enthusiastic Mgwana was there also, and he was not a whit abashed,
when, through him, the chief told us that the Rusizi, joined by
the Ruanda, or Luanda, at a distance of two days' journey by
water, or one day by land from the head of the lake, flowed INTO
the lake.
Thus our hopes, excited somewhat by the positive and repeated
assurances that the river flowed out away towards Karagwah,
collapsed as speedily as they were raised.
We paid Mukamba the honga, consisting of nine doti and nine fundo
of samsam, lunghio, muzurio n'zige. The printed handkerchiefs,
which I had in abundance at Unyanyembe, would have gone well here.
After receiving his present, the chief introduced his son, a tall
youth of eighteen or thereabouts, to the Doctor, as a would-be son
of the Doctor; but, with a good-natured laugh, the Doctor scouted
all such relationship with him, as it was instituted only for the
purpose of drawing more cloth out of him. Mukamba took it in good
part, and did not insist on getting more.
Our second evening at Mukamba's, Susi, the Doctor's servant, got
gloriously drunk, through the chief's liberal and profuse gifts
of pombe. Just at dawn neat morning I was awakened by hearing
several sharp, crack-like sounds. I listened, and I found the
noise was in our hut. It was caused by the Doctor, who, towards
midnight, had felt some one come and lie down by his side on the
same bed, and, thinking it was me, he had kindly made room, and
laid down on the edge of the bed. But in the morning, feeling
rather cold, he had been thoroughly awakened, and, on rising on
his elbow to see who his bed-fellow was, he discovered, to his
great astonishment, that it was no other than his black servant,
Susi, who taking possession of his blankets, and folding them about
himself most selfishly, was occupying almost the whole bed. The
Doctor, with that gentleness characteristic of him, instead of
taking a rod, had contented himself with slapping Susi on the back,
saying, "Get up, Susi, will you? You are in my bed.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 233 of 310
Words from 121953 to 122454
of 163520