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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Into this alluvial plain run the
Luaba, or Ruaba River, on the north side of Cape Kitunda, and the
Kasokwe, Namusinga, and Mshala Rivers, on the south side of the cape.
All the deltas of rivers emptying into the Tanganika are hedged
in on all sides with a thick growth of matete, a gigantic species
of grass, and papyrus. In some deltas, as that of Luaba and
Kasokwe, morasses have been formed, in which the matete and papyrus
jungle is impenetrable. In the depths of them are quiet and deep
pools, frequented by various aquatic birds, such as geese, ducks,
snipes, widgeons, kingfishers and ibis, cranes and storks, and
pelicans. To reach their haunts is, however, a work of great
difficulty to the sportsman in quest of game; a work often
attended with great danger, from the treacherous nature of these
morasses, as well as from the dreadful attacks of fever which,
in these regions, invariably follow wet feet and wet clothes.
At Nyabigma we prepared, by distributing ten rounds of ammunition
to each of our men, for a tussle with the Warundi of two stages
ahead, should they invite it by a too forward exhibition of their
prejudice to strangers.
At dawn of the fifth day we quitted the haven of Nyabigma Island,
and in less than an hour had arrived off Cape Kitunda. This cape
is a low platform of conglomerate sandstone, extending for about
eight miles from the base of the great mountain curve which gives
birth to the Luaba and its sister streams.
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