It Poured With Rain.
Upon Arrival At The Summit We Were In Precisely The Same Parklike Land
That Characterises Chopi And Unyoro, But The Grass Was About Seven Feet
High; And From The Constant Rain, And The Extreme Fertility Of The Soil,
The Country Was Choked With Vegetation.
We were now above the Murchison
Falls, and we heard the roaring of the water beneath us to our left.
We
continued our route parallel to the river above the Falls, steering
east; and a little before evening we arrived at a small village
belonging to the headman who accompanied us. I was chilled and wet; my
wife had fortunately been carried on her litter, which was protected by
a hide roofing. Feverish and exhausted, I procured from the natives some
good acid plums, and refreshed by these I was able to boil my
thermometer and take the altitude.
On the following morning we started, the route as before parallel to the
river, and so close that the roar of the rapids was extremely loud. The
river flowed in a deep ravine upon our left. We continued for a day's
march along the Somerset, crossing many ravines and torrents, until we
turned suddenly down to the left, and arriving at the bank we were to be
transported to an island called Patooan, that was the residence of a
chief. It was about an hour after sunset, and being dark, my riding ox,
who was being driven as too weak to carry me, fell into an elephant
pitfall. After much hallooing, a canoe was brought from the island,
which was not more than fifty yards from the mainland, and we were
ferried across. We were both very ill with a sudden attack of fever; and
my wife, not being able to stand, was, on arrival at the island, carried
on a litter I knew not whither, escorted by some of my men, while I lay
down on the wet ground quite exhausted with the annihilating disease. At
length the remainder of my men crossed over, and those who had carried
my wife to the village returning with firebrands, I managed to creep
after them with the aid of a long stick, upon which I rested with both
hands. After a walk, through a forest of high trees, for about a quarter
of a mile, I arrived at a village where I was shown a wretched hut, the
stars being visible through the roof. In this my wife lay dreadfully ill
upon her angarep, and I fell down upon some straw. About an hour later,
a violent thunderstorm broke over us, and our hut was perfectly flooded;
we, being far too ill and helpless to move from our positions, remained
dripping wet and shivering with fever until the morning. Our servants
and people had, like all natives, made themselves much more comfortable
than their employers; nor did they attempt to interfere with our misery
in any way until summoned to appear at sunrise.
The island of Patooan was about half a mile long by 150 yards wide, and
was one of the numerous masses of rocks that choke the river between
Karuma Falls and the great Murchison cataract. The rock was entirely of
grey granite, from the clefts of which beautiful forest trees grew so
thickly that the entire island was in shade. In the middle of this
secluded spot was a considerable village, thickly inhabited, as the
population of the mainland had fled from their dwellings and had taken
refuge upon the numerous river islands, as the war was raging between
Rionga and Kamrasi. A succession of islands from the east of Patooan
continued to within a march of Karuma Falls. These were in the
possession of Rionga, and a still more powerful chief and ally, Fowooka,
who were the deadly enemies of Kamrasi.
It now appeared that after my departure from M'rooli to search for the
lake, Ibrahim had been instructed by Kamrasi to accompany his army, and
attack Fowooka. This had been effected, but the attack had been confined
to a bombardment by musketry from the high cliffs of the river upon the
people confined upon one of the islands. A number of men had been
killed, and Ibrahim had returned to Gondokoro with a quantity of ivory
and porters supplied by Kamrasi; but he had left ten of his armed men as
hostages with the king, to act as his guard until he should return on
the following year to Unyoro. Ibrahim and his strong party having
quitted the country, Fowooka had invaded the mainland of Chopi, and had
burnt and destroyed all the villages, and killed many people, including
a powerful chief of Kamrasi's, the father of the headman of the island
of Patooan where we were now staying. Accordingly the fugitives from the
destroyed villages had taken refuge upon the island of Patooan, and
others of the same character. The headman informed us that it would be
impossible to proceed along the bank of the river to Karuma, as that
entire line of country was in possession of the enemy. This was
sufficient to assure me that I should not procure porters.
There was no end to the difficulties and trouble in this horrible
country. My exploration was completed, as it was by no means necessary
to continue the route from Patooan to Karuma. I had followed the
Somerset from its junction with the lake at Magungo to this point; here
it was a beautiful river, precisely similar in character to the point at
which I had left it at Karuma: we were now within thirty miles of that
place, and about eighteen miles from the point opposite Rionga's island,
where we had first hit upon the river on our arrival from the north. The
direction was perfectly in accordance with my observations at Karuma,
and at Magungo, the Somerset running from east to west. The river was
about 180 to 200 yards in width, but much obstructed with rocks and
islands; the stream ran at about four miles per hour, and the rapids and
falls were so numerous that the roar of water had been continuous
throughout our march from Murchison Falls.
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