Upon This Excuse, Miani's Men Refused To Proceed, And Determined To Turn
Back To Gondokoro; Thus Ended His Expedition.
I regarded the tree that
marked the limit of his journey with much sympathy.
I remembered how I
had formerly contended with similar difficulties, and how heartbreaking
it would have been to have returned, baffled by the misconduct of my own
people, when the determination of my heart urged me forward to the
south; thus I appreciated the disappointment that so enterprising a
traveller must have felt in sorrowfully cutting his name upon the tree,
and leaving it as a record of misfortune.
With a just tribute to the perseverance that had carried him farther
than any European traveller had penetrated before him, we continued our
route over a most beautiful park of verdant grass, diversified by
splendid tamarind trees, the dark foliage of which afforded harbour for
great numbers of the brilliant yellow-breasted pigeon. We shortly
ascended a rocky mountain by a stony and difficult pass, and upon
arrival at the summit, about 800 feet above the Nile, which lay in front
at about two miles' distance, we halted to enjoy the magnificent view.
"Hurrah for the old Nile!" I exclaimed, as I revelled in the scene
before me: here it was, fresh from its great parent, the Albert lake, in
all the grandeur of Africa's mightiest river. From our elevated point we
looked down upon a broad sheet of unbroken water, winding through marshy
ground, flowing from W.S.W. The actual breadth of clear water,
independent of the marsh and reedy banks, was about 400 yards, but, as
usual in the deep and flat portions of the White Nile, the great extent
of reeds growing in deep water rendered any estimate of the positive
width extremely vague.
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