I Had Formerly Met Him Hunting On The
Banks Of The Settite River, In The Base Country, Where He Was
Purchasing Living Animals From The Arabs, For A Contractor To A
Menagerie In Europe; He Was An Excellent Sportsman, And An Energetic And
Courageous Fellow; Perfectly Sober And Honest.
Alas!
"The spirit was
willing, but the flesh was weak," and a hollow cough, and emaciation,
attended with hurried respiration, suggested disease of the lungs. Day
after day he faded gradually, and I endeavoured to persuade him not to
venture upon such a perilous journey as that before me: nothing would
persuade him that he was in danger, and he had an idea that the climate
of Khartoum was more injurious than the White Nile, and that the voyage
would improve his health. Full of good feeling, and a wish to please, he
persisted in working and perfecting the various arrangements, when he
should have been saving his strength for a severer trial.
Meanwhile, my preparations progressed. I had clothed my men all in
uniform, and had armed them with double-barrelled guns and rifles. I
had explained to them thoroughly the object of my journey, and that
implicit obedience would be enforced, so long as they were in my
service; that no plunder would be permitted, and that their names were
to be registered at the public Divan before they started. They promised
fidelity and devotion, but a greater set of scoundrels in physiognomy I
never encountered. Each man received five months' wages in advance, and
I gave them an entertainment, with abundance to eat and drink, to enable
them to start in good humor.
We were just ready to start; the supplies were all on board, the donkeys
and horses were shipped, when an officer arrived from the Divan, to
demand from me the poll tax that Moosa Pasha, the Governor-general, had
recently levied upon the inhabitants; and to inform me, that in the
event of my refusing to pay the said tax for each of my men, amounting
to one month's wages per head, he should detain my boats. I ordered my
captain to hoist the British flag upon each of the three boats, and sent
my compliments to the Government official, telling him that I was
neither a Turkish subject nor a trader, but an English explorer; that I
was not responsible for the tax, and that if any Turkish official should
board my boat, under the British flag, I should take the liberty of
throwing him overboard. This announcement appeared so practical, that
the official hurriedly departed, while I marched my men on board, and
ordered the boatmen to get ready to start. Just at that moment, a
Government vessel, by the merest chance, came swiftly down the river
under sail, and in the clumsiest manner crashed right into us. The oars
being lashed in their places on my boat, ready to start, were broken to
pieces by the other vessel, which, fouling another of my boats just
below, became fixed.
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