In the Madi
country, the Koshi being on its western bank; thus, as we were now at
the Nile head and saw it passing through the Madi and Koshi, any
argument against the river would be the argumentum ad absurdum. I
ordered the boats to be got ready to start immediately.
The chief gave me much information, confirming the accounts that I had
heard a year previous in the Latooka countries, that formerly cowrie
shells were brought in boats from the south, and that these shells and
brass coil brackets came by the lake from Karagwe. He called also
several of the natives of Malegga, who had arrived with beautifully
prepared mantles of antelope and goatskins, to exchange for bracelets
and glass beads. The Malegga people were in appearance the same as those
of Unyoro, but they spoke a different language.
The boats being ready, we took leave of the chief, leaving him an
acceptable present of beads, and we descended the hill to the river,
thankful at having so far successfully terminated the expedition as to
have traced the lake to that important point Magungo, which had been our
clue to the discovery even so far away in time and place as the distant
country of Latooka. We were both very weak and ill, and my knees
trembled beneath me as we walked down the easy descent.
