This Was The Greatest Waterfall Of The Nile, And, In Honour Of
The Distinguished President Of The Royal Geographical Society, I Named
It The Murchison Falls, As The Most Important Object Throughout The
Entire Course Of The River.
The boatmen, having been promised a present of beads to induce them to
approach the fall as close as possible, succeeded in bringing the canoe
within about 300 yards of the base, but the power of the current and the
whirlpools in the river rendered it impossible to proceed farther.
There
was a sandbank on our left which was literally covered with crocodiles
lying parallel to each other like trunks of trees prepared for shipment;
they had no fear of the canoe until we approached within about twenty
yards of them, when they slowly crept into the water; all excepting one,
an immense fellow who lazily lagged behind, and immediately dropped dead
as a bullet from the little Fletcher No. 24 struck him in the brain. So
alarmed were the boatmen at the unexpected report of the rifle that they
immediately dropped into the body of the canoe, one of them losing his
paddle. Nothing would induce them to attend to the boat, as I had fired
a second shot at the crocodile as a "quietus," and the natives did not
know how often the alarming noise would be repeated. Accordingly we were
at the mercy of the powerful stream, and the canoe was whisked round by
the eddy and carried against a thick bank of high reeds; - hardly had
we touched this obstruction when a tremendous commotion took place in
the rushes, and in an instant a great bull hippopotamus charged the
canoe, and with a severe shock striking the bottom he lifted us half out
of the water.
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