There had been but little rain at Latooka since we left, although it had
been raining heavily at Obbo daily, and there was no difference in the
dry sandy plain that surrounded the town, neither was there any
pasturage for the animals except at a great distance.
The day after my arrival, Filfil was taken ill and died in a few hours.
Tetel had been out of condition ever since the day of his failure during
the elephant hunt, and he now refused his food. Sickness rapidly spread
through my animals; five donkeys died within a few days, and the
remainder looked poor. Two of my camels died suddenly, having eaten the
poison-bush. Within a few days of this disaster my good old hunter and
companion of all my former sports in the Base country, Tetel, died.
These terrible blows to my expedition were most satisfactory to the
Latookas, who ate the donkeys and other animals the moment they died. It
was a race between the natives and the vultures as to who should be
first to profit by my losses.
Not only were the animals sick, but my wife was laid up with a violent
attack of gastric fever, and I was also suffering from daily attacks of
ague. The small-pox broke out among the Turks. Several people died; and,
to make matters worse, they insisted upon inoculating themselves and all
their slaves; thus the whole camp was reeking with this horrible
disease.
Fortunately my camp was separate and to windward. I strictly forbade my
men to inoculate themselves, and no case of the disease occurred among
my people, but it spread throughout the country. Small-pox is a scourge
among the tribes of Central Africa, and it occasionally sweeps through
the country and decimates the population.
Among the natives of Obbo, who had accompanied us to Latooka, was a man
named Wani, who had formerly travelled far to the south, and had offered
to conduct Ibrahim to a country rich in ivory that had never been
visited by a trader: this man had accordingly been engaged as guide arid
interpreter. In an examination of Wani I discovered that the
cowrie-shells were brought from a place called "Magungo." This name I
had previously heard mentioned by the natives, but I could obtain no
clue to its position. It was most important that I should discover the
exact route by which the cowries arrived from the south, as it would be
my guide to that direction. The information that I received from Wani at
Latooka was excessively vague, and upon most slender data I founded my
conclusions so carefully that my subsequent discoveries have rendered
most interesting the first scent of the position which I eventually
followed with success.
