I Had Suffered A Good Deal From Thirst That Day, Unboiled
Water Being My Ibet And We Were All Very Nearly Tired Out With The
Athletic Sports Since Leaving Efoua.
One thing only we knew about
Egaja for sure, and that was that not one of us had a
Friend there,
and that it was a town of extra evil repute, so we were not feeling
very cheerful when towards evening time we struck its outermost
plantations, their immediate vicinity being announced to us by
Silence treading full and fair on to a sharp ebony spike driven into
the narrow path and hurting himself. Fortunately, after we passed
this first plantation, we came upon a camp of rubber collectors -
four young men; I got one of them to carry Silence's load and show
us the way into the town, when on we went into more plantations.
There is nothing more tiresome than finding your path going into a
plantation, because it fades out in the cleared ground, or starts
playing games with a lot of other little paths that are running
about amongst the crops, and no West African path goes straight into
a stream or a plantation, and straight out the other side, so you
have a nice time picking it up again.
We were spared a good deal of fine varied walking by our new friend
the rubber collector; for I noticed he led us out by a path nearly
at right angles to the one by which we had entered. He then pitched
into a pit which was half full of thorns, and which he observed he
did not know was there, demonstrating that an African guide can
speak the truth. When he had got out, he handed back Silence's load
and got a dash of tobacco for his help; he left us to devote the
rest of his evening by his forest fire to unthorning himself, while
we proceeded to wade a swift, deepish river that crossed the path he
told us led into Egaja, and then went across another bit of forest
and downhill again. "Oh, bless those swamps!" thought I, "here's
another," but no - not this time. Across the bottom of the steep
ravine, from one side to another, lay an enormous tree as a bridge,
about fifteen feet above a river, which rushed beneath it, over a
boulder-encumbered bed. I took in the situation at a glance, and
then and there I would have changed that bridge for any swamp I have
ever seen, yea, even for a certain bush-rope bridge in which I once
wound myself up like a buzzing fly in a spider's web. I was
fearfully tired, and my legs shivered under me after the falls and
emotions of the previous part of the day, and my boots were slippery
with water soaking.
The Fans went into the river, and half swam, half waded across. All
the Ajumba, save Pagan, followed, and Ngouta got across with their
assistance. Pagan thought he would try the bridge, and I thought I
would watch how the thing worked. He got about three yards along it
and then slipped, but caught the tree with his hands as he fell, and
hauled himself back to my side again; then he went down the bank and
through the water. This was not calculated to improve one's nerve;
I knew by now I had got to go by the bridge, for I saw I was not
strong enough in my tired state to fight the water. If only the
wretched thing had had its bark on it would have been better, but it
was bare, bald, and round, and a slip meant death on the rocks
below. I rushed it, and reached the other side in safety, whereby
poor Pagan got chaffed about his failure by the others, who said
they had gone through the water just to wash their feet.
The other side, when we got there, did not seem much worth reaching,
being a swampy fringe at the bottom of a steep hillside, and after a
few yards the path turned into a stream or backwater of the river.
It was hedged with thickly pleached bushes, and covered with liquid
water on the top of semi-liquid mud. Now and again for a change you
had a foot of water on top of fearfully slippery harder mud, and
then we light-heartedly took headers into the bush, sideways, or sat
down; and when it was not proceeding on the evil tenor of its way,
like this, it had holes in it; in fact, I fancy the bottom of the
holes was the true level, for it came near being as full of holes as
a fishing-net, and it was very quaint to see the man in front, who
had been paddling along knee-deep before, now plop down with the
water round his shoulders; and getting out of these slippery
pockets, which were sometimes a tight fit, was difficult.
However that is the path you have got to go by, if you're not wise
enough to stop at home; the little bay of shrub overgrown swamp
fringing the river on one side and on the other running up to the
mountain side.
At last we came to a sandy bank, and on that bank stood Egaja, the
town with an evil name even among the Fan, but where we had got to
stay, fair or foul. We went into it through its palaver house, and
soon had the usual row.
I had detected signs of trouble among my men during the whole day;
the Ajumba were tired, and dissatisfied with the Fans; the Fans were
in high feather, openly insolent to Ngouta, and anxious for me to
stay in this delightful locality, and go hunting with them and
divers other choice spirits, whom they assured me we could easily
get to join us at Efoua. I kept peace as well as I could,
explaining to the Fans I had not enough money with me now, because I
had not, when starting, expected such magnificent opportunities to
be placed at my disposal; and promising to come back next year - a
promise I hope to keep - and then we would go and have a grand time
of it.
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