FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO (continued 4)

The following day we crossed a stream of considerable breadth, filled with papyrus; the water was very deep, and we had great difficulty in the crossing of our goats and sheep. Marching through a desolate country with no population, we arrived at a good stream called the Gwenda. The bed of this stream is very curious; the country drops suddenly 100 ft., forming a broad, flat-bottomed valley, down the middle of which the Gwenda has carved out a deep trough. The valley is so flat that it cannot be due to erosion, and is probably a recently-dried-up arm of the lake.

From there we crossed a vast plateau, covered with short grass; and it was not until three in the afternoon that we reached an insignificant stream, on the banks of which were a few poverty-stricken villages.

The type of native had changed entirely; they informed us that they were Wanyabinga, and that the name of their country was Wataka. They refused cloth or beads, saying that they had no use for such things, their only garment consisting of well-cured skins.

The following morning we marched through similar country, and saw many tracks of elephant. I was leading the caravan that day, and was suddenly stopped by the cry of "Elephant!" I hastily put my big gun together, and saw a herd of fifty elephant cross the path and descend on to the flat plain below; they reminded me forcibly of an old print of the Spanish Armada, as they sailed past through the long grass; their huge ears flapping to and fro gave the impression of sails; and their gliding action over the uneven ground was exactly similar to the motion of a ship. The grass covered their legs, and the peculiar swinging action of the elephant, who moves both the legs on one side at the same time, gives the appearance of the beast being on wheels. Sending a note back to Sharp, I hurried off in pursuit, as they swept into an extensive patch of dense thorn jungle. The track was easy to follow, owing to the number that had passed, and after a sharp burst of half an hour I saw one standing broadside on, about thirty yards ahead. I tried for the brain-shot with my .303. He threw his trunk into the air, and fell like a rock--dead. Two more appeared at the shot, and looked at me; I fired, and the whole herd crashed away; then I remembered that the magazine of my gun had been loaded with expanding bullets. I rushed after them, but failed to catch them up, and I had the greatest difficulty in retracing my steps; the elephant had forced a way through the thornbush, and it was comparatively easy, in the excitement of pursuit, to follow, as I could push the thorns open in front as the elephant had done before me; but on my return journey it was almost impossible to get through, as the thorns, which had swung back in their place, had to be pulled towards one to allow a passage. However, eventually I arrived at my dead elephant, full of thorns, and torn to pieces. It was only a small bull, but it was my first, and as I strolled back to the caravan, the beast's tail in my hand, I was a proud man.

I had some difficulty in getting out of the jungle. In trying to do so I arrived unexpectedly in a village hidden in the thicket. The people, hearing my shots, had put the village in a state of defence. It was surrounded by almost impenetrable jungle, except at two places, where there was an elaborate gate and stockade. The gate had been filled up with a pile of heavy logs, pointing outwards and upwards, which rendered entrance impossible from without, but, to their astonishment, I arrived through the thicket. As I promptly leaned my rifle against a hut and put out my hand to greet them, their suspicions were allayed, and they gave me some water; then one of their number showed me the path out of the jungle, and I rejoined the caravan. Half a mile further on we camped by two muddy pools on the outskirts of the thicket.

The natives became quite friendly, and brought us large quantities of a small kind of bean, and helped us to cut out the tusks. Our carriers came to see the elephant, and forming a ring round it, chanted a song in its honour, and each man threw a handful of grass on its side to show his respect, but, of course, would not eat the meat. Curiously enough, the natives also refused to eat the meat, although they were very poor; they informed us that they would eat hippo meat, but not elephant, which seemed to me a very subtle distinction. We cut off a portion of the trunk and boiled it gently for twelve hours, but did not eat much of it when it came to table; the meat was excellent, but the two unpleasant tubes through the middle, and the wrinkled black skin with its short, stubby bristles, did not give an appetizing, appearance to the plat. However, the youthful cannibals devoured it, although there must have been at least ten pounds, in the short space of an hour. The two elderly cannibals disappeared during the night. It was evidently a move on the part of our boys, who resented the proportion of presents that fell to the cannibals' lot.

The reports of the country in front were not encouraging, so we bought up a considerable quantity of beans; and the following morning marched across the plain, and arrived near another village, similar to the one we had left, which was also carefully hidden in the jungle. This village was elaborately stockaded, and the natives absolutely refused to allow me to enter; however, I eventually succeeded in obtaining a guide, and we continued our march till we arrived at a small lagoon, where our guide promptly left us. Here we saw a considerable number of topi-hartebeeste and Uganda kob; these, with the exception of one waterbuck mentioned above, were the only game that we had seen for many long weeks; and it was a great treat to have a change from the inevitable goat.

Here the plain opened out to a tremendous width and had the most desolate appearance, all the short grass being burnt; and the only relieving features were a few patches of thorn-scrub and an occasional candelabra euphorbia. Having no guide and no idea of what was before us, it was rather a risky undertaking to go ahead without reconnoitring; but retreat was impossible, owing to the scarcity of provisions, and the quantity of game rendered actual starvation improbable.

The following morning we launched forth, and after a long march, as I was beginning to get doubtful as to whether we should find water, I sighted the Rutchuru river, which here swings back towards the east. There was a considerable quantity of Uganda kob, topi-hartebeeste, and Chanler's reedbuck, and on the path we saw several traces of lions, while the river teemed with hippopotami. The country is very barren, and there are numerous salt-pans, which at a distance appear like snow.

While the tents were being pitched, we went out and quickly secured a supply of meat. The Manyema, like all tribes that have come under the influence of the Arabs, refused to eat the meat of any animal that had not had its throat cut while still alive; they also refuse to eat hippo, elephant, or pig, but, curiously enough, are not so particular about rhinoceros.

We deemed it advisable to camp here for a day, while we went out in different directions to inspect the country, as we could still, by a forced march, manage to reach food countries if we found it impossible to proceed.

I went down the river, and six miles north came unexpectedly through a belt of reeds on to the lake-shore. Where the Rutchuru enters the lake there is a very extensive swamp, the haunt of thousands of birds (pelicans, geese, and various storks), and many hippo. Here I found a very sparse fishing population; their huts were built in the swamp, and they themselves travelled about in dangerous-looking canoes. They were very shy, and it was only after repeated efforts that I succeeded in inducing two men to come and talk; from them I purchased a few fish, giving them beads in exchange; and I made many inquiries as to the country that we had to traverse. They informed me that there were no villages for many days, and that the few villages that existed at some distance from the lake were reduced to pitiable straits by the drought, and the raids of some tribe from the east.

Hence it was obviously impossible to proceed without laying in a stock of provisions; so we shot several antelope and made our men dry the meat over fires.

I was suffering from slight fever, and consequently Sharp undertook to return with boys and purchase as many loads as possible of beans.

The fever brought on a very bad foot; I had rubbed all the skin off the heel with elephant-hunting, and had been walking on it ever since; and owing to the poisonous influence of the fever, it swelled to a great size, and was in such an unhealthy condition that when I pushed my finger into the swelling it left a cavity which did not swell out again for some minutes. As it was impossible to stop in the country, I had to make arrangements to be carried, and all the time that I was in camp, sat with my foot in a basin filled with a strong solution of permanganate of potash, applying a poultice of Elliman's Embrocation at night.

Here the water of the Rutchuru was almost too salt to drink, and we were not sorry to reach the lake, where, although the water was salt, it was drinkable.

Sharp shot several fine kob and topi, the horns being equal to anything recorded in Rowland Ward's book, Horns and their Measurement.

The water at the edge of the lake was very shallow. Two days from the Rutchuru my leg became so bad that we were compelled to stop; and as the supply of food was already running short, we sent some of our boys back to buy a fresh supply.

Here we were visited by some natives who, having heard our shots, came down the lake in canoes to find out who we were; they had a few guns which they had purchased from some Swahili traders; and as they entered the camp they fired a salute in our honour. The chief, who was a most intelligent native, asked us whether we wanted to buy any ivory. We told him to bring it to us, so that we might see whether it was worth purchasing. He brought a small tusk of 30 lbs., and said that he had another very large tusk, which he dared not bring unless we made blood-brotherhood with him. This we did, our headman serving as proxy.

The mode of procedure was as follows: Our headman sat down opposite the native's representative, each party having a sponsor, while the eldest of the natives constituted himself master of the ceremonies. Two small pieces of meat were procured, and each sponsor held one in his hand; the master of the ceremonies then explained that we were to become blood-brothers of the chief, and evoked a series of curses on either party that might not be true to the pledge. The words of his weird incantation were,--

"May hippopotami run against him; may leopards tear him by night; may hunger and thirst gripe him; may his women be barren; may his children wither, even as the grass withers; may crocodiles rend him; may lions howl round his couch by night; may elephants crush him," etc.

Having thus evoked all imaginary curses on the delinquent's head, he made a slight incision on each of the parties' chest. The blood that flowed from the cut having been smeared on the two pieces of raw meat, each party had to devour the piece smeared with the blood of the other.

A loaded gun had been placed between them, and when the ceremony was complete, this was fired into the air; while the chief and his attendants fired another volley. Thereupon I had the 4-bore brought forth, and told off my headman to fire it, while my gun-bearer supported him--an advisable precaution. The tremendous report, the obvious recoil, and the shriek of the huge bullet impressed them mightily.

We then called the chief up and taught him to shake hands, saying that it was the Englishman's method of making blood-brotherhood; and that now that we had performed the rites of both people, the Wanyabinga and the Englishman, there could be no possibility of the compact ever being broken. And we pointed out our flag,[#] which was flying over the camp, and told him that wherever in future he saw that flag, he might know that he would be well received and treated with justice.

[#] This flag was accepted by her late Majesty the Queen.

They then filed off with a handsome present of cloth, delighted with the result of their visit; and the following morning they arrived with the tusk, which was a large one, weighing about 80 lbs. But we did not purchase it, explaining to them that we had only come there to see the country, and to hunt elephant for our own amusement, and that we were not like the Swahili traders whom they had met. We allowed them to bring the tusk, so that they might see that they could repose absolute confidence in us. With the tusk they brought several loads of sweet potatoes, and we gave them a present in exchange.

The chief was a very pleasant and intelligent native, and during the next two days Sharp made several short trips with him. One day the chief and all his men showed us how they hunted antelope with dogs. The dogs were well trained; they rounded the beast and drove it within reach of the hunters, who succeeded in spearing it.

The whole of the southern coast of the Albert Edward is the home of hundreds of hippopotami, and the beach is lined with masses of their dung; all night they kept up a tremendous concert of bellowing and grunts, which rendered sleep well-nigh impossible.

My foot having meanwhile sufficiently healed to allow me to be carried, we advanced along the shore of the lake, and camped at the edge of the extensive swamp at the mouth of the three main streams which flow into the lake from the south-east. Here it was obvious that there had been a recent and abrupt rise in the country, the old lake-bed being sharply defined.

From this point I perceived that my observations would materially diminish the area of the lake; the suggested coast-line on extant maps practically corresponds with the last lake level. Judging from the comparatively insignificant size of the vegetation on the recently-exposed lake-bed, the last rise and level must have been historically recent and quite sudden; in fact, a remarkable point was that this vegetation corresponds in age to the vegetation found on the lava-beds that had been poured out by the volcanoes immediately prior to the late terrific eruption.

Owing to the swampy nature of the country, we were compelled to again march south-east; and after crossing a flat table-land, again descended on to the last level of the lake, where we crossed the first of the south-eastern streams, called the Sasa. Here an arm of the late lake level runs five miles inland, and is three miles broad. Then we again climbed on to the table-land, which is the last lake-level but two, and camped on the site of two deserted villages.

Our blood-brother was still with us, and he informed us that these villages had been raided by a tribe from the east, and that the surviving inhabitants had retired to the impenetrable thorn-jungle, or had fled to the Rutchuru valley.

From this camp we looked down on a great swampy plain which absorbs the waters of these three south-eastern streams. In many places geysers were shooting vast jets of steam into the air, and the course of the rivers was defined by dense strips of luxuriant jungle.

The surrounding country must be rising very rapidly, and the geysers are an indication of considerable volcanic activity. By the last rise the lake has lost a hundred and twenty square miles; and the loss occasioned by the last rise but one must have amounted to several hundreds of square miles.

The map of this lake-shore emphasizes the extraordinary similarity of form in all the great lakes of Central Africa, with the one exception of the Victoria Nyanza. A glance at the map will show that the angular inclination and general form of Lake Nyassa, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Albert Edward, and Lake Albert have a wonderful resemblance to one another.

The next day we again descended on to the last lake level, and crossed the Ntungwe river. This river we crossed by means of an ingenious native bridge, which would suggest that the country at some time not very remote was much more densely populated. After passing through one or two insignificant villages, we camped by a small lagoon. The following morning we crossed the third stream which feeds these swamps, but I could not ascertain its name; and we were compelled to make a detour to the east to avoid some very dense strips of jungle, in which we found some carefully-hidden villages, strongly fortified by stockades. The natives had carefully closed the entrance, but appeared to be quite friendly; and here, with great regret, we said farewell to our Wanyabinga brother.

Our day's march brought us once more to the lake-shore, which was still swampy; and as reed was growing at a distance of one mile from the shore, it was evident that the lake was still very shallow, and in all probability the next few years will see another very considerable change in its area.

A few miles further on there is a small bay, where are two insignificant villages close to the lake. Here the natives cultivate dwarf banana-plants, and eke out a precarious existence by trapping hippopotami. They build a stout scaffold of logs and fasten thereto a booby-trap, consisting of a heavily-weighted spear-head.

These villages were on the frontier of Visegwe's country, who is one of Kaihura's chiefs. Here my fever assumed a serious form; my temperature at one time rose to 108.4, but the motherly attentions of Sharp pulled me through; and when I was sufficiently recovered to be moved, he procured a gigantic dug-out canoe, in which I was paddled to Katwe, the frontier post of the Uganda Protectorate.

Sharp marched up the lake-shore, and with the assistance of Kazinga, ferried all the loads and boys across the narrow neck of Lake Ruisamba. The ferry is not more than four hundred yards wide, and with considerable trouble the cattle were induced to swim the distance. Two natives seized each beast by the horns, and, swimming by its side, assisted it across. Fortunately there were no crocodiles in the vicinity. The canoes were of extraordinary structure, and are peculiar to Lake Albert Edward, although they approximate to the type of canoe to be found on the Victoria Nyanza; some of them are very large. They are made of axe-hewn boards, sewn together with banana fibre.

CHAPTER XIV.

KATWE TO TORO.

As we had never heard that the boundary between the Uganda Protectorate and the Congo Free State had been definitely settled, we were surprised to find the Congo flag flying almost within shooting distance of the fort; and on our sending over to buy fish, we found that the natives across the border were not allowed to sell to us. Furthermore, the Soudanese officer in charge told us that the trade in salt had almost died out, as the Congo officials stopped their natives from bringing ivory or food to barter. It is hard to understand why the hard-and-fast line of the thirtieth parallel has been adhered to, when there is the natural boundary of the Semliki. With that boundary there would be no severance of the possessions of a chief, whereas now some of the land of Kaihura is Belgian and some English, and an uneducated native cannot be expected to serve two masters with different laws and widely-separated methods of treating him.

In the fort we were also shown the bullet-marks of the rebel Congo troops, who had attacked the fort because the Effendi refused to give up the fugitive Belgian lieutenant who had taken refuge there. As Colonel Lugard remarks in his Rise of our East African Empire, the fort stands in a very strong position; but there was no Congo fort in his time.

We here enjoyed the shelter of a roof for the first time for many months, despite the uncomfortable accessories of thousands of mosquitoes and armies of rats.

The Effendi kindly revictualled our forces, as we were not allowed to trade on our own account, and we gladly turned our backs on the bare ridges of the fort, and the curiously-coloured salt lake, and started on the eighty-mile march to Fort Gerry.

Elephant were reported as numerous throughout the country, and we looked forward to a little sport as a change, more especially as an Askari had shot a fine bull two days before, when he was out bathing in one of the streams we had to cross. We started on an excellent cleared road, myself in a machila, as the fever had left me too weak to walk, and passing several volcanic lakes and extinct craters, camped close by a large salt lake round the edge of which the spoor of many antelope was visible, and in which a few hippo snorted and splashed.

Hundreds of reedbuck dashed wildly about the plains, and a few kobus and waterbuck were seen in the distance, but, the grass being very short, there was no chance of a stalk.

Every day we crossed one or more beautiful clear streams, running down gullies from Mount Ruwenzori, the principal one being the Wimi; but nowhere did we ever get more than a glimpse of the outlying shoulders of the mountain, the higher peaks being always hidden in mist.

Elephant spoor was plentiful, but grass fires had cleared the whole of the plain and driven all the game to the foot-hills or swamps, and day after day our hopes of elephant were doomed to disappointment.

We met a Congo official--a Belgian--returning from a visit to Fort Gerry to his station, Fort Mbeni on the Semliki, whence there is a rapid and easy route or high-road to the Congo, of which the missionary, Mr. Lloyd, has lately given a startling account in The Graphic.

On July 27th we camped within sight of the hills, where Kasagama reigns by favour of the British Government, happy in the knowledge of the final extinction of his old enemy, Kabbarega; and on the morrow we gathered that we were nearing the end of our journey, by the amount of "Amerikani"[#] and the quantity of crucifixes, the hall-marks of the Protestant and Catholic sects. Next we saw a large church in a walled enclosure, and two Pères Blancs came out to welcome us, and insist on our trying their excellent Algerian wine. They were much interested on hearing that we had come up from Tanganyika, and asked many questions about the brethren of their order down south. Hospitably they accompanied us a short way till we reached the boundaries of the Church of England mission, whose territory they would not pass, except on urgent business, to the Government station.

[#] White trade cloth.

Kasagama's hill, on the left, is a magnificent situation for a palace (or fort), dominating as it does the missions nestling below it, and the Boma on an adjacent hill. The king received us a day or two later under the escort of the English missionaries.

The high-road led past the English mission, where extensive building operations in brick were going on, down a steep hill and across a primitive and dangerous bridge, built by the 11th Company of Soudanese, under the late Colonel Sitwell, to keep them quiet during the mutiny, and up a steep hill to the fort, where we were most hospitably received by Mr. S. S. Bagge, one of the founders of the Uganda Protectorate, who has spent nearly nine years in the country, having acquired the pioneering mania in that hot-bed of pioneers, the Western States of America. Captain J. A. Meldon was in charge of the troops. English newspapers and books were most welcome, after being separated from them for many months. Our own literature consisted of Whitaker, Shakespeare, and Keats.

Two days after our arrival at Fort Gerry, our boys began to get troublesome, as they had nothing to do, and pombe (native beer) was plentiful; and one evening they raided the milk belonging to the Soudanese officer, and beat his boys, for which the culprits were duly admonished. Next day they all declared a desire to go home again to Ujiji. We were anxious to take them on to Wadelai, there being no hopes of getting local porters to go anywhere except to Kampala; and at length, after much parleying, arranged that thirty of them should go to Wadelai with me, and the rest to Kampala with Sharp, to lay in supplies for the Nile journey, and then the whole lot could return by the Victoria Nyanza to Mwanza in German territory, and thence home in safety, via Tabora.

Meantime stories of enormous tuskers were dinned into our ears, and Captain Meldon having very kindly offered to accompany us, we determined to go and have a fortnight's elephant-hunting, as a little relaxation after our arduous march. On inquiry as to licences, we were horrified to find a £25 licence necessary, which entitled the payer to kill two elephant only. Permission might be obtained from the Commissioner of a district to kill others at £12 each--truly a preposterous regulation, in view of our subsequent experiences; however, having come so far, more or less with the objective of elephant-shooting, we paid up like men, and started off on the main road to Kampala.

The country, as usual in Toro, consisted of undulating hills intersected by papyrus swamps, with a few banana plantations, very sparsely populated, and showing no signs of game except some old elephant spoor.

The second march brought us to a very likely country, and the natives said there were many elephant in the vicinity. Sharp went out, but did not see any, the grass and thorn-scrub being almost impassable. Thence a four hours' walk brought us to the top of a small range of hills, from the crest of which I saw an elephant standing in the thick cane-brake on the opposite slope. The main part of the caravan, with Sharp and Meldon, was some distance in front, as the difficulty of carrying my machila through the swamps made my progress slow. Praying that the wind would hold, I was carried as near as the brake would allow, and after a short walk, in the course of which I fell into an elephant-pit, found the unsuspecting old gentleman under a tree, and killed him with a single .303 bullet in the brain. He was a stupendous old bull, 11 ft. 6 in. at the shoulder, with a 64-in. foot (dry), and his teeth, 5 ft. 10 and 6 ft. 2, weighed 86 and 85 lbs. This success filled the others with envy, and a native coming in during lunch with news of a herd of forty, not very far off, Meldon and Sharp rushed off, only to return at sundown hot and tired, having hit and lost a decent bull, while I had gone out to inspect an old gentleman who came and waved his ears at me from a neighbouring hill, but which I spared, not being satisfied with his ivories.

Leaving a few boys to bring the ivory and one foot, we trekked early next day to the ridge overlooking the river, passing fresh spoor and elephant tracks almost every minute, and, while looking for a likely camping-ground, saw a small herd of elephant in the valley. Sharp immediately went in pursuit, and unfortunately for him the Soudanese officer followed, and by cutting the line of elephant, gave the leaders the wind, and thus spoilt an excellent chance. From our camp on the hill we had a splendid view of ten miles or so of the Msisi valley and the hills opposite, and all day long, elephant, singly, in small herds, and, eventually in the afternoon, in large herds of two hundred or more, perambulated up and down, giving us the most magnificent chance of making their acquaintance.

Sharp returned at lunch, hot and miserable, having shot a cow elephant--the grass being so high that it was impossible to judge beforehand what he fired at. The whole of the morning we heard shots from the far side of the river fired by Waganda or Wanyoro hunters, and presently, in a great cloud of dust, a herd of at least a hundred elephant crossed the river and wandered towards our camp. It was a most impressive sight, as they swept the long grass down in front of them as flat as if a steam-roller had passed over it. They stopped for a time about half a mile below us, blowing water and dust over their backs, while we tried to pick out the biggest bull with our glasses. We must have seen a thousand to fifteen hundred elephant that day, and heard thirty or forty shots from native guns across the Msisi.

Next day there wasn't an elephant in sight, but we could hear the natives banging away up-river, and as the elephant near camp began to smell we trekked up the valley. Here the downtrodden grass showed that the big herd had moved off south.

Having exceeded our time-limit, we decided to return to Fort Gerry and start for the north. Taking all the ivory into Fort Gerry for registration, I left Sharp on the road with a few boys to hunt, intending to make the necessary arrangements at the station, and then to send out the boys to him for the march to Kampala; but the evening of my return was celebrated by a pombe revel amongst my boys, and when I went down to see what the noise was about, I was attacked by twenty or thirty of them with spears, and was obliged to fire my revolver at the ringleader. This scared them, and the whole hundred broke out of camp, scattering the Soudanese guards, who were supposed to keep them in order. Next day all the boys came in a body and demanded to be sent home; so, to avoid trouble, we rounded them by strategy into a cattle-kraal, and put a strong guard over them; and after giving them posho (cloth to buy food), and obtaining a guard from Kasagama to see them out of the country, I packed them off to Katwe. Sharp arrived next day, having done the fifty miles in two marches. Ten of our boys were in chain-gang for behaving badly during our absence, and these and Sharp's lot I persuaded to go with me to Wadelai, and thence by high-road to Kampala, and by Victoria Nyanza back to Tabora and Ujiji.

Out of our fourteen calves two alone had survived, and we had been obliged to kill two cows, as they could not travel further. Six cows we exchanged with Kasagama for a tusk of 138 lbs., and six others I sold for 180 r., giving the other cow and calf to Mr. Bagge. During our absence elephant-hunting, four of King Kasagama's cows died, so I rescinded the bargain, and gave two of my tusks and a present of cloth for the big one, and handed the surviving cattle over to Mr. Bagge. Curiously enough, the six I sold to the Soudanese Effendi were still well, while Mr. Bagge's cow and calf had both died. Too good food and too much time to eat it, after a march of two hundred and fifty miles, had evidently overpowered them.

At this stage of my journey, Mr. Sharp, to my great regret, was forced by the ties of urgent business to return home. The Nile was such an uncertain quantity that he was unable to risk the possibility of being buried in the wilds for another two years. He therefore marched through Toro and Uganda to the Mombasa rail-head, and took passage to England via the Red Sea.

CHAPTER XV.

TORO TO MBOGA.

Leaving Fort Gerry and all its hospitalities on August 28th, I skirted along the northern spur of Ruwenzori, passing between the little volcanic lakes Vijongo, and after three hours' walking, arrived at the edge of the first escarpment. Here there is a sheer drop of 1,500 ft. from the undulating table-land of Toro proper to the scrub-clad terrace about eight miles wide, which in its turn overlooks the Semliki valley, a further drop of 500 ft. From the edge of the first escarpment the view is truly magnificent; to the south looms the mighty bulk of Ruwenzori, a purple mass, peak piled upon peak, black-streaked with forest, scored with ravine, and ever mounting till her castellated crags shoot their gleaming tips far into the violet heavens. But it is only for a brief hour at sunset or sunrise: then again the mists swirl up her thousand gorges, again the storm-cloud lowers and broods grumbling round her virgin snows as though jealous of the future--a future of Cook's tours, funicular railways, personally-conducted ascents (with a sermon and ginger-beer thrown in). Well! thank God I have seen her first--seen her as she has stood for countless ages, wrapped in impenetrable mystery, undesecrated by human tread since the awful travail that gave her birth. "The Mountains of the Moon"--the very name breathes mystery and romance, and fitly have romance and the myths of the ancients played round her crest, for is she not part mother of the Nile? Alas! even as we gaze she fades away, a murky glow lights up the evening sky, again she starts into bold relief, 'tis her last farewell! The mists eddy round those frowning crags, creeping here, drifting there, and the curtain drops, hiding all but the great black base. Such is Ruwenzori, when she deigns to show herself; and only when there is rain in the air is she thus condescending.

Scarcely less striking is the outlook to the north. Deep shade is already on the terrific slope at our feet, while the setting sun still lights up the vast basin of the Semliki and the Albert Lake. We seem to be standing on the brink of a new world, ourselves in shade cast by the western spur, and the eye wanders on over sunlit plain picked out with silver streaks, where in places we catch a glimpse of the Semliki, and on till the lake lies gleaming like a sea of quicksilver, and yet on and on, ever-fading steel-blue to grey, till we can just see the black outlines of the hills against the blue-green sky, flecked with the gauzy pink of the after-glow. Then like a flash all is grey, for we are very near the equator, and we turn in to "kuku"[#] stew and the luxury of new potatoes and tomatoes. Those kukus! They are like Sinbad's old man of the sea, you cannot shake them off, for they are really indispensable. Their only resemblance to their English namesake is in name, for neither are they fine birds nor do they fly; nor, if they did fly, would they confine their vocal efforts to the period of their flight, but would, I am sure, still retain that inimitable faculty of producing at all, and more especially unseasonable, times, the most startling and by-no-means-(not-even-by-death)-repressible cries that have justly made them so beloved of African travellers. As I have had so many opportunities of observing the African variety of this world-wide domestic nuisance, less favoured observers may find a few remarks not out of place.

[#] Kuku: native word for fowl.

First, they are essentially gregarious. I have often seen large flocks collecting on any strange piece of clothing or blanket, especially if such blanket be placed out to dry after rain.

Secondly, they are capable of feeling and showing great affection for man. In fact, the united efforts of three servants have often failed to prevent them coming into my tent during the heat of the day, and, just out of respect, leaving a few superfluous inhabitants behind.

Thirdly, like the nightingale, they sing at night, taking especial delight in those ditties that have a good, full chorus.

Fourthly, they never lay fresh eggs--only eggs that have qualified for the seventh heaven. Presumably, as the native likes a good, full egg, it is the old tale of the survival of the fittest, and the hen who can lay a real Blondin has been spared. If so, this must dislodge all geological estimates of the date of the creation, as nothing short of incalculable ages could have brought the breed to its present state of perfection. For a long time I considered this elegant bird exempt from the natural process of decay, as no reasonable period after decease produced any modification in its adamantine structure, but a certain incident not unconnected with soup dispelled this excusable illusion.

And lastly, but not leastly, this diabolical fowl, although it can hang head downwards in a temperature of 140° for many hours without showing any signs of inconvenience other than a slightly intensified complexion, and although it greets with contumely blows inflicted with the various missiles to be found at a moment's notice in an average tent, yet, should it be left with natives other than its rightful owner for one short hour, it is so overcome with modesty that it reverts rapidly and without perceptible residue into its original invisible components.

The extent to which the kuku enters into one's very existence in Africa is, I feel sure, a sufficient excuse for this digression. In fact, I believe that, were it not for the counter-irritation produced by the camp goats, I should have "kuku" on the brain.

Having successfully wrestled with the athletic cause of this digression, and unsuccessfully with a prehistoric gun that a neighbouring chief brought me for medical treatment, and dreamt that a rooster with 10 ft. tusks was dancing the double shuffle on my chest, I descended into the valley, and after two hours' walking reached the Semliki, a fine river, here sixty to seventy yards wide, with a current of about five miles an hour. When I had, with the greatest difficulty, wedged myself in a very long, very unstable, and appallingly leaky piece of firewood (called by courtesy a canoe), and had with still greater difficulty dissuaded fifteen gentlemen from risking the voyage in my company, in the lucid intervals of the amazement with which I viewed the frantic efforts of my Charon (for such he was like to prove) to keep the stick's head up-stream, I gathered from a benevolent philanthropist on shore that a woman had been taken that morning by a crocodile from the very spot where we came to land, and that on no account must I permit my boys to go to the water's edge, as the crocodiles were very numerous and very daring. However, suitably cheered by this information, and in defiance of all such paltry laws of nature as gravity, we eventually did succeed in landing safely on the other side; how or why I cannot say, as only the two ends of the canoe were in the water, the middle, where I sat, being slightly raised above the surface. I suppose the whole concern had warped. Whatever the cause, I did not fancy trusting my baggage in her, so I sent up the river, and after much yelling and more delay, another more serviceable concern was produced. Having fixed on a place for my tent, I left the boys to attend to the passage of my belongings, and went out in search of dinner.

The plain, which here is about six miles wide, is covered with short grass and dotted with clumps of euphorbia and thorn-bush, and is the home of countless reedbuck and herds of Uganda kob. During the rains it is the playground of troops of elephant and of the few survivors of the teeming herds of buffalo that formerly roamed over all this country. I had no difficulty in bringing two bucks to grass, as the country offered magnificent stalking-ground, and the meat made a very agreeable change after the everlasting mutton. The Uganda kob (Cobus Thomasi) very closely resembles the pookoo (Cobus Vardoni), though its coat, which is of a beautiful reddish colour, is less foxy and not so long in the hair as that of the pookoo. They both have the regular gait of the waterbuck, that so forcibly reminds one of our own red deer. But whereas the pookoo never seems to run in herds of more than twenty or thirty, I have seen as many as three hundred Thomasi together. The leading buck of this herd, which I shot, had horns 20 in. in length.

Here, as elsewhere, I was much impressed by the two different types of native, the sharp, intelligent, almost delicate features and the lithe limbs of the aristocrats (of Galla origin) contrasting very forcibly with the coarse, squat, ape-like appearance of the rabble. Some of the lower class have really no ostensible claims to being human, beyond the ability to produce fire. Covering even of the most rudimentary description is totally ignored by both sexes. Leaving the Semliki, we travelled west to the hills of Mboga, and shortly left the plain below, rising into a country of miniature cañons, intersected by numerous ravines full of elephant-grass. Here we camped and sent out scouts in all directions to search for njojo (the local name for elephant). I had just made myself comfortable when news was brought of elephant to the south, so I set off without delay, only to find a herd of small cows. On my return to camp my boys told me that there was an elephant quite close, and pointed him out, standing under a tree in the middle of the elephant-grass in the ravine at our feet. As the sun was very hot, I concluded that he was likely to stop where he was, and setting a boy on an ant-hill to watch him, I sat down to lunch. He did stop where he was till I had finished lunch, and then moved on, and as it was useless to go into the grass, 15 to 25 ft. high, without a definite landmark such as the tree would have proved, I was fain to dodge about, watching him, when I could get an occasional glimpse, and to wait for another chance. Several times I lost sight of him altogether, and then again would see an ear. At last, as he appeared to be coming near the stream, which here ran close underneath the bank on which I was standing, I went down through the thorns and grass and waited, but in vain. Again I mounted the bank, but could see no signs of him till I was turning campwards in despair, when my boy saw the grass move, and this time quite close to the stream. Down we scrambled once more and stood in the bed of the stream listening. Then the crack of a twig and the waving of the tops of the grass showed that he was coming, and he glided past a slight gap in the thicket like some spectre, but I could not get a shot, although within twenty yards. I never can understand how they manage to glide through the most tangled jungles almost without sound unless they are alarmed, when it seems as if all hell were loosed. I followed quickly down the stream, the grass now completely hiding him, and suddenly came on him drinking in a small mud-hole, at about fifteen yards distance. He gave me a half side-shot, and I fired at his head, giving him a second as he swung round. Down he came like an avalanche, and lay thrashing the reeds with his trunk. Fearing that he might get up again, I approached to give him the coup de grâce. I was already within six yards, but still unable to see him, when a cold puff on the back of my neck gave me warning of a chance in the wind. I stepped back as he struggled to his feet, and his great trunk came quivering forward within two yards of my face. Again the wind steadied, and as I stood motionless as a rock, he failed to see me, swung round, and made off. Three shots I poured into him, then waited, sick at heart, listening to the crash-crash as he went away, till again I heard that welcome roar of rending tree and rush. He was down: a long gurgle and a sob, and all was over. Although a small elephant, he carried beautiful teeth, 7 ft. 9 in. and 7 ft. (tip broken), and weighing 72 lbs. and 69 lbs.

I reached camp just at dusk, and found that Changera, one of the Mboga chiefs, had come in to see me. His country lies between Tavara's and Kavalli's, and stretches from the top of the Congo Semliki watershed to the Semliju. The following morning I went down to see how they were cutting out the tusks, and found that hordes of Balegga had swarmed down from the hills for the meat. A weird sight it was: stark naked savages with long greased hair (in some cases hanging down on their shoulders) were perched on every available inch of the carcase, hacking away with knives and spears, yelling, snarling, whooping, wrestling, cursing, and munching, covered with blood and entrails; the new arrivals tearing off lumps of meat and swallowing them raw, the earlier birds defending their worms in the form of great lumps of fat paunch and other delicacies; while others were crawling in and out of the intestines lake so many prairie marmots. Old men, young men, prehistoric hags, babies, one and all gorging or gorged; pools of blood, strips of hide, vast bones, blocks of meat, individuals who had not dined wisely but too well, lay around in bewildering profusion; and in two short hours all was finished. Nothing remained but the gaunt ribs like the skeleton of a shipwreck, and a few disconsolate-looking vultures perched thereon.

The Balegga live in the hills to the north of Mboga proper, though many of them are now under Changera, having fled south from the Belgians. They are good specimens of the real Central African savage, rather short, but well-set-up, innocent of clothing as a babe unborn, and blessed with an inordinate and insatiable craving for meat, which at that time was, if possible, intensified by the failure of their crops, owing to the drought. They wear their hair in long thin plaits, liberally smeared with grease, which gives them a very wild appearance, especially when, as I noticed in some cases, it hangs down over their face. In the intervals of gorging and hacking, they amused themselves by smearing the caked blood over their hair and bodies--a proceeding that gave general satisfaction. I gathered from them that many had lately come south to Mboga (which is at present administered from Fort Gerry) to avoid the persecution of the Belgians, who had killed, as they said, great numbers both of them and their neighbouring tribes to the north. They indignantly denied my soft impeachment of cannibalism, but from extraneous sources I gathered that any lightly grilled portion of my anatomy that might happen to wander round their way would be, so to speak, a "gone coon."

The neighbouring chief, Tabara by name, apparently suffering from that troublesome complaint known to the faculty as "swelled head," amused himself for the next two days by sending in an intermittent fusillade of insolence; "it was not his business to come and see every white man who came into the country," etc., etc., ad nauseam. As I had never sent for him, being unaware even of the gentleman's existence, and as I found on inquiry that he was a chief independent of Kasagama, and owing allegiance to the official at Fort Gerry only, I concluded that my mubaka[#] provided by Kasagama was the cause of the trouble, or that he imagined I was Belgian. I therefore sent a message to him to the effect that I had no doubt he was a most admirable individual, but, strange to relate, till the arrival of his message I had been unaware of his existence; that my object in coming to the country was to shoot elephant, and not to interview obscure natives. The effect was remarkable: the following morning he turned up with a numerous following, carrying an umbrella and a very dangerous camp-stool, and presented me with sundry goats, fowls, and other edibles.

[#] A sort of courier.

The prevailing type of elephant in these parts differs so essentially from that of Toro, that I have been forced to the conclusion that there are two distinct varieties; a theory in which the natives universally concur.

When in Toro I saw more than a thousand elephant, and without exception they carried a thick, heavy type of tusk, the elephant themselves being unusually large and solid.

In Mboga, on the other hand, the prevailing type was a much smaller elephant, with very long thin tusks. Two cows shot by Mr. Bagge carried tusks about 4 ft., and no thicker than the butt-end of a billiard-cue.

The average height of old bulls in Mboga is about 9 ft., while the only two that I shot in Toro were 11 ft. and upwards, and several others that I had a chance of observing closely must have been about the same size. The Indian notion of twice the circumference of the foot equalling the height does not hold with the African species; I generally found that it fell short of the height by about 8 or 10 in. In a subsequent chapter I have dealt fully with this question.

A few days later, answering to the call of elephant, I came on a herd of cows, one of which I shot, hoping to be able to send the calf into Fort Gerry. The little fellow stood about 3 ft. high, and stalked towards us in the most majestic manner, rumbling and grunting on a 12 ft. scale at least. So confident was his advance that my boys, guns and all, fled without more ado, and it was only when I had caught him by the tail that they ventured back. His strength was amazing, and it needed the united efforts of myself and four boys to throw him. However, we eventually managed to tie his legs together, and laid him under a tree squealing and shrieking like a steam-engine. Whether in his vocal efforts he broke a blood-vessel, or whether owing to the heat of the sun, the sad fact remains that after I had made all arrangements for his transport to Fort Gerry he left the earthly trials of pitfalls and 4-bores at sunset. I was very much disappointed, as I had hoped that if he had survived he might have been of service in the future, should a progressive Government, departing from the usual practice of thinking of the matter when it is too late, endeavour to make use of the vast transport treasure that is now roaming the papyrus swamps of Toro. In the greater part of Africa the elephant is now a thing of the past; and the rate at which they have disappeared is appalling. Ten years ago elephant swarmed in places like B.C.A., where now you will not find one. Still, there is yet an accessible stronghold of the pachyderm in Toro, where at the lowest possible estimate there must be fifteen thousand elephant. Why is not an effort made, and that at once (for in a few years' time it will be too late), to secure this vast means of transport to posterity? What an inestimable boon to the country, and what an easy solution of half the labour problem that is already such a thorn in the side of the southern administrations! I suppose it is on the same principle on which a paternal Government sends its servants out to a pestilential spot where the sole recreation is shooting, and then forbids them that recreation, while allowing every native who can command a gas-pipe and a handful of powder to sally forth and slay a tithe of what he wounds, regardless of sex and age; or on which the same paternal Government allows the aforesaid servants to take out and pay for a licence permitting them to shoot two elephant, and then confidentially informs them that all ivory shot by servants of the Protectorate, either within or without the Protectorate's dominions, is the property of the Government; however (note the wild, unreasoning generosity), servants returning home may, with the permission of the Commissioner, be allowed to take a pair of tusks as a trophy. Upon what possible theory this preposterous claim is based I fail to conceive, unless the Government assumes that the leisure of their servants is included in their salary, in which case they may claim the pictures of an amateur artist who may be in their service, or his letters home, or anything else equally reasonable. It is the spirit of the thing that is so pitiable, and it seems so unnecessary, for nobody doubts but that the Exchequer can manage to stagger along somehow, even though deprived of the support that the miserable dozen tusks or so would afford; and, after all, the right to shoot and keep a couple of elephant is not an extravagant recompense for two years' isolation in a wilderness devoid of recreation.

I then moved my camp some miles to the west, on a hill overlooking a large patch of very dense elephant-grass.

The next morning I went south to a deep gorge filled with dense forest, where some elephant were reported. We descended a steep grass slope into the gorge itself, which was cut up in all directions by elephant and buffalo spoor. Suddenly, with much puffing, pawing, and snorting, some buffalo rushed past at about forty yards, at the same time starting some elephant, which we heard crashing up the slope. Leaving the buffalo to puff and snort, we struck the elephant spoor and cautiously approached to where we could hear them grunting and rumbling. By stooping low it was possible to follow the path with comparative ease, but the bush was so thick that we could not see two yards ahead. Having approached within ten yards, I stood, hoping that some movement would show me their exact whereabouts; but though they quickly recovered from their fright and started feeding, I could see nothing but the occasional waving of the leaves above where they were standing. After a quarter of an hour of this amusement, during which I was balancing myself on a slippery bank of clay, I descended again, and coming dead up-wind succeeded in getting within two yards of one. A thick tangle of lianas alone separated us, and although I could hear him breathing, and felt sure he must hear my heart thumping, I could see nothing. I know nothing in the world more exciting than hunting elephant in this description of country. One approaches so close, and yet can see nothing; the only thing to do is to wait, in hopes of some movement bringing them into view. Then they make such extraordinary noises, and at every crash of a branch torn down one thinks they are stampeding or coming towards one. Again, the wind is so shifty in cover, and one puff will set them all off, very possibly in the least desirable direction. A dropping shot is almost out of the question, and when wounded they have a nasty knack of looking to see who did it; a whole regiment of lions cannot produce the same moral effect as one elephant when he cocks his ears, draws himself up to his full height, and looks at you, letting off at the same time a blood-curdling scream, while in all probability others invisible are stampeding on all sides with the din of an earthquake. They are so vast (one I measured was actually 15 ft. from edge of ear to edge of ear) that they seem to block out the whole horizon; one seems to shrivel, and the very gun to dwindle into a pea-shooter; try as I will, I can never quite stomach it, and always feel inclined to throw down my rifle and run till I drop.

At last the elephant, having an idea that something was amiss, moved, and showing his head, received a mate to that idea in the shape of a .303 bullet. Down the bank he rushed, taking the bark off one side of a tree, while I stepped round the other. I got another shot home as he passed, and head over heels he went like a bolting rabbit. Trees, bush, blocks of earth, vanished like chaff, till a mighty old veteran trunk pulled him up short about fifty yards below. There he lay, his legs in the air, screaming and vainly struggling to regain his feet, a path like the sea-wall at Brighton leading down to him. A few more shots finished him.

The next day I was again in this gorge, and after vainly floundering about on the spoor of a small elephant, and complimenting in suitable terms a swarm of biting ants which eventually left me indistinguishable from a splash of pickled cabbage, I saw a fine old tusker grazing in the short grass on the top of the further bank. To cross was a matter of minutes, as I knew that at any moment he might descend into the gorge, and on emerging I saw him still in the same place. Walking up quite close, I dropped the poor old brute with one shot. He had very long teeth for their weight, 8 ft. 4 in. (tip slightly broken), and 7 ft. 4 in. (tip broken), and weighing 76 and 73 lbs. respectively. Standing on his ribs--that is, about 6 ft. from the ground--I saw some more grazing on the other side of a branch gully, so I set off in pursuit; but some of the half-starved natives, who would follow me about the country, and had been lurking behind some bushes, spoilt my chance of a shot by darting out up-wind of the herd, presumably to catch any elephant that might drop.

For several days matters were very quiet, and though I ranged far and wide, one day following buffalo spoor for several hours, I saw nothing; till again I was wakened by the welcome cry of "njojo," and snatching a hasty breakfast, set off, this time backed by the double 10-bore paradox which had been sent out after me, and had arrived the previous day; and very thankful I felt for its support. My double 4-bore had gone home with Sharp, who had left his paradox in its stead as the more useful all-round gun. And though I had my double .500 magnum, the firm that provided my cartridges had sent out all expanding bullets, despite the fact of my having ordered half with solids; just to humour me, however, they labelled the packets "solid bullets," so that I never found out till north of Tanganyika. Two other firms distinguished themselves in a similar manner, one by shipping my double .303 in a case, without so much as a cleaning-rod, much less a screwdriver or spare pin, and the other by providing me at the trifling cost of 2s. 6d. each with damaged cartridge-cases for my 4-bore; the majority of them were badly split at the rim, sufficiently split to fill rapidly when held in water, and though they had been carefully repolished, on close inspection the old firing marks were quite obvious. The consequent result was that the first shot I fired I was knocked over a fallen tree two yards behind me.

Our native took us across the marsh lying below the camp by a path that in its various intricacies led into a pit of water 20 ft. deep, into which they fondly hoped some elephant would walk; then through numerous villages where the banana-groves, owing to the depredations of elephant, looked more like street barricades, till we eventually emerged from the odoriferous fog of drying elephant meat on to the ridge where I had last camped. He then told us that two elephant had come into the bananas during the night and had retired up the gorge. Skirting along the edge of the plateau, we soon saw them in the elephant-grass below, and descending with difficulty through the tangled mat of grass, I took up my position behind a tree and waited, hoping that when they moved I might have a favourable chance. One was standing under a small tree about four hundred yards away; and the other, at a distance of two hundred yards, was up to his belly in mud, his stern alone showing round a tuft of grass. Previous experience had taught me that it was useless to go down into the grass, so I had perforce to stay where I was and possess my soul in patience. After some time the one under the tree moved, and in a leisurely manner strolled up to his companion. As he emerged from the long grass round the mud-hole I had one glimpse of his tusks, and, quite satisfied, I took the only chance I was likely to obtain, and fired a half-side head shot. He drew himself up into a bunch of indignant protest, as much as to say, "Who the devil did that?" But a second shot failing to elucidate the matter, he swung round and crashed away across the gully, while number two bolted straight ahead. I rained shot into him while he swerved round and followed in the wake of his companion. Then I dashed along the side of the slope, stumbling, tripping, rolling, and diving over grass that I could not force my way through, till a sudden drop of 10 ft. landed me face first on the bed of a stream, invisible above through the grass, but painfully tangible below. Fortunately my rifle did not suffer proportionately, and scrambling out I reached a small ridge from which I could see my elephant standing about three hundred yards off. Again I fusilladed him till out of range, and then followed, falling twice to the elephant's once. He was nearly spent, but managed to reach some extra long grass, where I lost sight of him for some time, till at length he crawled out into the shade of a tree under the opposite bank. The gorge was narrow at this point, so that he was not more than one hundred yards off when I reopened the bombardment. For a long time he took the phut-phut of the bullets without showing the slightest emotion. Then suddenly over he went like a tree under the axe. He struggled to his feet once more, only to fall for the last time under the continued hail. Cutting across the dip, I climbed on to the bank about twenty yards above him; but the grass was so dense that I could not see him, although considerably above the level of the tangle where he was lying. His great sobs told me that all was over, and anxious to put him out of his misery, I went down, having to approach within two yards before I could see him, and finished him off with the 10-bore, his head being invisible. To my amazement he had only one tusk, 7 ft. 9 in., and 98 lbs.; and as I was sure that I had seen two tusks, I came to the conclusion that this must be number two, and that number one had dropped at the same time that I did. So following back on the spoor, I came on the other elephant, lying four hundred yards from where I had first hit him, but, lo and behold! he also had only one tusk, 7 ft. 7 in., and 86 lbs. So certain was I of having seen two tusks that I followed his spoor back, thinking that possibly there might have been a third hidden by the grass, but it was not so, and to this day I believe he took the other tusk off and threw it away, as a sort of Jonah! On arriving at camp I found that letters and tomatoes had arrived from Toro. Our pagasi had attempted their old games about three days' journey south of the Albert Edward and had been attacked with the loss of twenty men, amongst them Sulimani, the root of all the disturbances. His successor in office, who, like other gentlemen of his kidney, combined loudness of talk in times of peace with extraordinary fleetness of foot in times of danger, was the first to bring the news to Toro.

CHAPTER XVI.

SEMLIKI VALLEY AND KAVALLI'S COUNTRY.

Leaving this country with regret, I descended into the valley once more and marched north, crossing the Semliki to avoid the swamps mentioned by Colonel Lugard at the westerly bend of the river, and recrossed about six miles from where the river enters the lake. For some distance the mournful monotony of aloe and euphorbia is broken by groves of the stately borassus palm. The few miserable Wanyoro, who are sparsely scattered over the plain, were absolutely destitute. The prolonged drought had dried up the maize and millet, and the beans, which form their main food supply, were finished, so that three hippo that I killed for them raised me to a giddy pinnacle of fame; my tent became, for the time being, a second Lourdes, droves of pilgrims pouring in to pay homage to my .303. Their astonishment, when I showed them the size of the bullet and how the magazine worked, was most ludicrous. They had heard how it would drop a huge elephant without a wriggle of his trunk, and they had heard the three shots and could see the three hippo tied to the bank, and had imagined, I suppose, that it was a sort of 7-pounder; so that when they held a cartridge with its pencil-like bullet in their hand, and the truth gradually dawned on them, they would drop it like a hot potato. Some, when I started the mechanism, fairly took to their heels. A native's estimate of a gun varies proportionately with the size of the bore, and his idea of killing range is ten yards, or, if the sportsman is something of a marksman, perhaps twenty. I was fortunate in bringing off several shots at about four hundred to five hundred yards at nsunu,[#] and natives, having no unit of distance, consider everything from two hundred yards to about five miles as the same thing. I have several times heard my gun-bearer, Makanjira, who is a great admirer of the gun, solemnly explaining to an open-mouthed audience how he had seen me kill beasts at such a distance, pointing to a hill some three or four miles away. Consequently, its powers were magnified to the most prodigious proportions, and on the march excited natives would point to mere specks on the horizon, inform me they were buck, and expect me to kill them on the instant; they never gave me any of the credit--it was the gun, the wonderful gun, and I only obtained a reflected glory as its possessor. After crossing the river, I found the natives very nervous and suspicious, and though I visited the village near which I camped, and induced the chief to come to the river-bank to see one of the hippo, which I told him he might have, the following morning, on sending for a guide, I found that they had "shot the moon," carrying off their half-dozen miserable goats, and fled into the bush.

[#] Nsunu: Cobus Thomasi.

As the guide promised me by the chief on the other side was not forthcoming, and not wishing to delay any longer, as the sun was terrible on these arid plains, I started without one, and, after two hours' walking, found that I had penetrated well into the marshes at the south end of the lake. In trying to skirt round the arm of water and sudd that stretches to the south, we soon found ourselves in an apparently boundless sea of one of Nature's truly African inventions, a tall grass, 8 to 10 ft. high, the roots forming a hopeless tangle of matted whipcord reaching 2 ft. from the ground, and effectually hiding the honeycomb of old hippo and elephant-holes 2 ft. deep below, while the stems and leaves are covered with myriads of invisible spines, which detach themselves in one's skin and clothes, and set up the most intense irritation.

After floundering through this sea of misery for a couple of hours, we were extricated by the promised guide, who had followed on our tracks, and eventually arrived at a miserable patch of huts; we came so unexpectedly on the people that they had not time to fly, and a few explanations soon put them at their ease. I found that they were Wanyabuga, the same people who were so friendly to Lugard and belonged to Katonzi, a nominal vassal of Kasagama's, and who is now the sole survivor of Lugard's three blood brothers, Katonzi, Kavalli, and Mugenzi. They do not cultivate, but depend on the Balegga and Wakoba for grain, which they barter for fish and salt. They are quite distinct in appearance from the surrounding tribes. The type is a tall (5 ft. 8 in.), large-limbed, square-shouldered negro, bull-necked, bullet-headed, with a very low forehead and coarse features; colour very dark; but they have a jolly expression, and were some of the pleasantest natives I ever dealt with. It was curious to see even amongst these people, who live a life apart from their surroundings, the occasional delicate features, gazelle-like eyes, light colour, lithe limbs, and genteel nonchalance of the Galla influence.

At the south end of the Albert Edward, where the Rutchuru flows into the lake, forming similar marshes to those of the Semliki, there is a people living exactly the same life. Unfortunately, owing to their extreme shyness, I could find out very little about them, but from their mode of life, methods of fishing, and general appearance, I have no doubt that they are closely allied; probably survivors of former inhabitants who have found a last refuge in these intricate waterways and impenetrable marshes. The similarity in the names of these two peoples is significant.

It is a strange amphibious existence in these simmering wastes of weed and water, the stillness of which is only broken by the occasional blow of a hippo, the splash of a fish or crocodile, the wild cry of the numerous flights of wild-fowl, and the everlasting plaint of the fish-eagle. A perpetual mirage hovering over the scene adds to the general mystery; groups of huts suddenly appear where all was shimmering light, and as suddenly vanish; a canoe with its two upright punters glides past apparently in the sky, a goose suddenly assumes the proportions of an elephant, and an elephant evolves out of what one took to be a goose; and thus the scene is ever changing, till the grey of evening and the crisp light of the rising sun bring out in strong relief the placid sheets of water, the long brown bands of weeds, the tiny islands with their little huts perched among the waving reeds, the thin strips of sand with their occasional waddling hippo, the little black canoes slowly gliding in and out amongst the weed-beds and tufts of grass, and the continual flight of flocks of white ibis.

I never tired of sitting on the shore and watching the long string of little black canoes slowly wending their way towards me, bringing in fish and salt, to trade with the group of Balegga who were waiting with loads of beans and millet flour.

The small stretch of country lying between the Semliki, the Albert Lake, and the hills is called Kitwakimbi, and is distinct from Bukande, which begins at the foot of the hills and reaches back to the watershed.

My Wanyabuga friends provided me with two guides, who, after wasting two hours in visiting obscure villages, all of which were deserted, and answering my protests at our zigzag route by ambiguous allusions to marshes, eventually landed me within four hundred yards of where I had started, and suggested that I should camp. Having with difficulty persuaded them that I was annoyed, which they evidently considered unreasonable on my part, they smilingly explained that it was far from their homes, and they had hoped to find me other guides. However, vague allusions to the presence of a "kiboko"[#] convinced them of the inexpediency, not to say positive danger, of further nonsense, and they gaily proceeded on their way, chortling hugely at the success of what they thought a very merry prank. They led me to a deserted village opposite Kasenyi, a small island about a mile from the mainland, and the present headquarters of Katonzi. The Wanyabuga-Balegga market was in full swing, but vanished like mist at my sudden appearance, and it was only by going down to the beach stripped to the waist, and a happy allusion to brothership with "Kapelli," that I induced them to bring their canoes to the shore again. "Kapelli" is the native name of that gallant officer Colonel Lugard, and to have left a name in Africa that opens all doors and all hearts is the finest monument to his exploits that a man can have. They flocked in to see me under Tunja, Katonzi's eldest son, who brought several loads of food, and informed me that Katonzi had left two days before for Toro. They asked all kinds of questions about "Kapelli" and Mr. Grant, who was with Lugard in his expedition to release the Soudanese, and wanted to know why he had never come back, and had the English deserted their country after promising to protect them? I answered all their questions to the best of my ability, and when I showed them Lugard's book and the photograph of Grant, which, to my surprise, they immediately recognized, their delight knew no bounds.

[#] Kiboko: whip made of hippo hide.

The mosquitoes here defy description; even at mid-day I had to eat my food walking about, and my evening and morning toilet, combined as it was with a Dan Lenoesque extravaganza, if performed on the Empire stage would assuredly have brought down the house. I crawled into my mosquito-net with the greatest caution, disposed all my weighty belongings, such as boots and cartridge-bags, in a circle round my bed to keep down the edges of the net, exhausted all my candle-ends in exploding the odd hundred or two that had crawled in with me, and was quickly lulled to sleep by the dismal drone of myriads, happy in the knowledge that they were outside; sleep, gentle sleep, during which I evolved in one short hour from my own insignificant self through the alarming stages of Daniel in the lion's den, and a cold bread poultice, to the stern reality that they were inside; and they were, hundred and hundreds of them. In vain I searched for some hole or possible inlet, and eventually had to resign myself to the inevitable, buoyed up by the meagre consolation that I had discovered that, like the light of the glow-worm, the mosquito is possessed of the properties of the Röntgen rays.

Early the next morning Tunja came to tell me that Katonzi was coming back, and at midday he arrived in person. He is a dismal old nigger, and though somewhat rapacious, not a bad fellow. His first request was to see the wonderful book, and then how I struck a match, an accomplishment that tickled him immensely. He then naïvely asked me to give him my guns, saying that Lugard had given them two guns, but that the Belgians had taken them away. I asked him why all the people were so frightened, and where they had all gone; whereupon he proceeded to recount the same tales of misery and oppression that I had heard the day before, from which I gathered that a Congo Free State official rejoicing in the name of "Billygee" had suddenly swooped down on the country a year ago, and after shooting down numbers of the natives had returned west, carrying off forty young women, numerous children, and all the cattle and goats, and putting a finishing touch to the proceedings by a grand pyrotechnic display, during which they bound the old women, threw them into the huts, and then fired the roofs. Several absolutely independent witnesses informed me that this had been done actually in the presence of Billygee and the gentlemen who accompanied him. Katonzi's two sons, Tunja and Kutaru, were bound and taken away, but released after two months. Kavalli's eldest son is now in their hands, while a younger one escaped to the Balegga. As I have mentioned before, when in Mboga the Balegga told me similar tales; here I was repeatedly given accounts that tallied in all essentials, and further north the Wakoba made the same piteous complaints; and I saw myself that a country apparently well populated and responsive to just treatment in Lugard's time (and that under very trying conditions, owing to the numbers of destitute aliens in the country--to wit, the Soudanese) is now practically a howling wilderness; the scattered inhabitants, terrified even of one another, and living almost without cultivation in the marshes, thickets, and reeds, madly flee even from their own shadows. Chaos--hopeless, abysmal chaos--from Mweru to the Nile; in the south, tales of cruelty of undoubted veracity, but which I could not repeat without actual investigation on the spot; on Tanganyika, absolute impotence, revolted Askaris ranging at their own sweet will, while the white men are throwing their ivory and cartridges into the lake, and cutting down their bananas for fear the rebels should take them; on Kivu, a hideous wave of cannibalism raging unchecked through the land, while in the north the very white men who should be keeping peace where chaos now reigns supreme, are spending thousands in making of peace a chaos of their own. I have no hesitation in condemning the whole State as a vampire growth, intended to suck the country dry, and to provide a happy hunting-ground for a pack of unprincipled outcasts and untutored scoundrels. The few sound men in the country are powerless to stem the tide of oppression.

The departure of my mubaka provided by King Kasagama had taken a great load off my mind; he was too heavy a swell for me to keep pace with, dressed in white breeks, yellow putties, red fez, and three fancy cloths, to say nothing of a red and yellow belt; and his terrible anxiety lest he should miss a chance of putting up a large white umbrella with a green lining was so infectious that finally I found myself watching the clouds with one eye and the mubaka with the other, knowing that at the first ray of sunshine he would emerge from his hut and perform for my edification. In the cloudy intervals he devoured such masses of solid food that even with my experience of native capacity I became quite alarmed, and between the struttings and bursting-point tests, he had very little time to devote to my affairs, so that I was very glad to see the last of him.

Katonzi, after relating his own troubles, and thinking, I suppose, that it was my turn to have a few, proceeded to paint the most gruesome pictures of what was in front. With tears in his eyes he begged me to turn back, saying that if I died the white men would blame him; he informed me that all was wilderness beyond--no food, no paths, all the people dead. Putting his hand to his head, he explained how they had all just done so, lain down and expired.[#] Pressed as to the reason of this general collapse, he eagerly shook his head and murmured "Muungu" (Kismet). Though summing up the majority of these perils as "nigger gibberish," I was rather alarmed at the sudden death business, thinking that perhaps it was smallpox or the Bombay plague; but this, like the rest, was simply imagination. It is strange how natives get these ideas into their heads. I do not think it was gratuitous lying, as all his people, as far as I could see without any other reason than belief in the sudden death, were afraid even to hunt in the direction indicated; and he certainly had nothing to gain by stopping me from going forward, since he had no interest in the country. However, I thought it advisable to buy several days' provisions, and to do this it was necessary to draw the Balegga from the hills; all my overtures had failed so far, and I saw that the only way to start was to lay ground-bait for them by killing elephant or buffalo. With this object in view I sallied forth with a guide who was to take me to the elephant country. He wandered about for two or three hours in country that an elephant would not look at through a telescope, and whenever I said that I wanted elephant, he nodded his head and said, "Oh yes, elephant." Then suddenly, as if a bright idea had struck him, he said, "Oh yes, elephant!" and promptly walked back through camp to a narrow spit jutting out into the lake and about a quarter of a mile distant. As I could see water on both sides and short grass in front, I thought he meant hippo, or was mad, inclining to the latter belief; but no, he was quite confident, and stalked along muttering to himself, "Yes, elephant! Yes, elephant!" (as much as to say, "Who would have thought it?"); and sure enough there were nine elephant in the reeds in the lake at the end of the spit. The place was a mass of vegetation and honeycombed with elephant-holes. I dropped one with a single shot.

[#] I have since realized that he was referring to the sleeping sickness which entered this district at that time.

As I had expected, after a day of very hot sun, the odour was too tempting, and the Balegga swarmed down from the hills and brought me what food I wanted. I went for a stroll in the evening, and came on a small herd of buffalo; they were very small compared with the South African species, and amongst them were three light brown ones, a bull, cow, and three-parts-grown calf. They were very beautiful animals, with a black ridge of hair running along the neck and the top of the shoulders. I shot the bull, and as my pagasi had as much as they could carry, I told the natives to cure the hide and send it with the head into Toro, so I hope to be able to have it described. When I first saw them I thought they were eland, and it was with the greatest surprise that I found they had a buffalo's head attached. The small one was as light in colour as a reedbuck, and the other two a similar colour round the rump and the belly.[#] I could gather no information from the natives as to whether they had seen others; all they knew was that the buffalo was an evil beast, had once been very numerous, but was now finished.

[#] I have since found, on reference to the British Museum, that they were the Congo buffalo. This proves that their distribution is further East than was imagined. The fact that they were running in the same herd as the black Eastern variety is of considerable scientific interest.

CHAPTER XVII.

ALBERT LAKE AND UPPER NILE TO WADELAI.

An hour's walk into the valley of death brought us to a cluster of villages with a large population, which was in a state of utter destitution. The people, who were very nervous at first, eventually gathered round in numbers with the same tale of rapine and murder, and the chief gave me a guide to take me to the foot of the hills. Another hour brought us to Nsabe, which, though generally depicted on maps in large letters, consists of about five dirty little muck-heaps, only recognizable as human habitations by the filthy smell that emanated from them. All the inhabitants fled, leaving their spears, bows, and beer in their hurry, and no amount of shouting and yelling would induce them to return. Our guide promptly made a bundle of the spears and other movables, with a view to appropriation, which when complete I placed against a tree, accompanying the movement by a vigorous application of my boot to the toughest portion of his anatomy. Incorrigible, bullying, thieving curs, one is often tempted to think that the Boer method of treating natives is, after all, the only one they deserve. Their Mark Tapleyism is their sole redeeming feature, and that is attributable to the incapacity of their intellect to hold anything but the impression of the moment. Although of the same tribe and close neighbours, I expect he would have thoroughly enjoyed seeing me burn and loot the place; it is the same everywhere--a guide amongst his own people is a worse thief even than a Manyema porter. He then took us by a devious route to the shore of the lake, and seemed greatly astonished to find that the village he had mentioned did not exist; nor had it left any trace behind. I could see by the way he was behaving that he intended to bolt, and knowing that without a native of the country there was very little chance of inducing the people, in their frightened state, to remain in their villages, I kept a close eye on him. As I expected, when I sat down on the shore to wait for the boys to close up, he began edging off towards the jungle; but when he looked round to see if it was all clear, he found himself covered by my .303. I had him brought back, and explained to him that his chief had sent him to show the way to the foot of the hills, that he had led me into the wilderness and could now lead me out, the two alternatives being villages, another guide, and a present, or a race with a .303 bullet. He chose the former, and seeing that fooling was a glut in the market, promptly took us to a village of the Wakoba called Kahoma, and in Kahuma's country. Here all the people fled, but he followed, and persuaded them to bring food to trade. They, too, had been raided, and had lost two women and two children captured. They could not tell me how many white men or Askaris there were, as they had not waited to see. The majority of them are fine, well-made men, and intensely black. One in particular took my fancy. He was a tremendous swell, with anything from 15 to 20 lbs. of red clay on his head, an enormous ivory bracelet, and multitudes of iron rings. The Wakoba live all along the lake-shore and in the fringe of the hills, and, curiously enough, their villages are mixed indiscriminately with those of the Balegga, with whom they seem to be on the best of terms, although the two peoples are quite distinct, the Balegga being real out-and-out bestial little savages, while the Wakoba are much above the Central African average of intelligence, with quite a wide knowledge of local affairs. They are both in a state of parallel expansion, the Balegga working to the north into the Lendu country, and the Wakoba in the opposite direction encroaching on the Wanyabuga.

Two miles north of Kahoma the hills come down to the water's edge, leaving only a narrow shingly beach, and thenceforward our progress became painfully slow; at intervals the headlands jut out into the water, and the work of transporting the loads round these obstructions with only two or three small and very unstable canoes was one of considerable difficulty, even the latitude of Doctor Johnson's dictionary proving insufficient on occasions; scores of little streams come tumbling down into the lake, each one forming a small delta, on many of which there are Wakoba villages with a few banana palms, and signs of scratching on the hillside, where I presume something was intended to grow, but had turned dizzy and given up the attempt. After Kahanama's, which is in Kahuma's sphere, Mpigwa is the big man, and I passed through many of his villages, some of the largest being Kabora, Zingi (?), Bordo, Nsessi, and Kiboko. Most of the scenery is very fine, the little white cascades gleaming in the shadow of immense trees, many of which are covered with scarlet and yellow blossoms, and in the midst of luxuriant tangles of vegetation the great gaunt slabs of slimy rock deep-set in their snow-white bed of sand, over which the little waves come tumbling in, gurgling and splashing round their feet and moaning and sobbing into a thousand miniature caves; while great apes and little brown-eyed monkeys drop from branch to branch and sit leering and gibbering at us as we paddle past.

The continual wetting and rock-climbing had the most disastrous effect on my already attenuated wardrobe, and for two or three days I was compelled to disport myself clad in a simple shirt, which, thanks to a classical education and consequent ignorance of the art of washing, had contracted to the modest and insufficient dimensions of a chest-preserver, while assuming the durable but inappropriate consistency of a piece of oil-cloth. The roseate hues of early dawn "weren't in it" with my nether limbs after the first day's exposure to a pitiless sun, and I became a sort of perambulating three-tiered Neapolitan ice, coffee, vanilla and raspberry, a phenomenon that greatly astonished a savage who surprised me in my bath, and who immediately fetched all his kith and kin to see; on the second day, however, the alarming desertion of a third of my epidermis so pained me mentally and physically, that after a great effort I produced a double-barrelled garment that in the absence of Poole-bred critics served its turn.

Of the various arts and crafts that one is called upon to undertake in Africa, such as cooking, shoe-mending, washer-womaning, doctoring, butchering, taxiderming, armoury work, carpentering, etc., ad infinitum, I think perhaps tailoring is the most trying; the cotton will not go into the eye of the needle, and the needle will go into one's fingers, and then when you think it is all over, you find you have sewn the back of your shirt to the front, or accomplished something equally unexpected and equally difficult to undo.

At Nsessi, two miles south of Kiboko, there is a superb waterfall; it has a drop of about 500 ft., and is divided into three stages, all at a different angle to one another, falling 100 ft., then swirling round at an angle, plunging into the next pool, and then a last long slide to the level of the lake. Stupendous silver-trunked trees, with foliage the colour of the ilex and brilliant splashes of scarlet bloom, crowd round on either side of the gorge wherever the wild rocks afford a footing; above towers a pointed peak showing bright above the dense gloom of the gorge, and a white stripe of sand fringes the little village, nestling in its banana grove, at the base.

These natives lead a curious existence, shut in between precipitous hills and the lake, their sole means of communication with one another being their leaky little 10 ft. dug-outs. They are wonderfully clever at handling them, and perform the extraordinary feat of crossing the lake, dodging in and out between the waves in the most marvellous manner. As a means of transport they are not to be recommended; the shape of a cross-section being that of an egg with its top off, one slides in with comparative ease like a pickle into a pickle-jar: once in, as with the pickle, extrication is a matter of time and patience. It needs one of Lear's Jumblies to feel thoroughly at home, as they leak like a sieve, and only perpetual bailing will keep them afloat.

The first day, in the sweet innocence of youth, I set off to round a headland with my guns and a tin box containing my indispensables on board, fearing to trust them to a native. All went smoothly at first, till I had arrived well off the rocks with a slight swell on and no landing-place near, and then she began slowly to heel over, while water seemed to be rushing in through the wood itself. After prodigious efforts I succeeded in running into the rocks, the water being then within an inch of the gunwale. I saved my guns and box, but smashed the canoe, and after that turned passenger. It looks so easy when they come dancing along, each with a native kneeling in the stern and plying a huge curved-bladed paddle; but it is a very different thing when one is wedged in oneself; physically incapable of squatting in a kneeling posture, as a native does, one finds bailing out an impossibility; the whole of the bottom of the canoe seems to be covered with boots, and the incurved edges catch the wooden bailing-dish and jerk the contents into one's lap.

Although the lake teems with fish, many of large size, the Wakoba make no attempt to catch them, trusting to the occasional chance of purchasing from the natives on the other shore or from Kasenyi.

One day I shot a baboon at the natives' request, a performance, by the way, that I shall not repeat, nor would I recommend it to any one but the most hardened villain. A frantic scramble took place for the flesh, and when I asked them what it tasted like, they "smole a smile." Amongst the countless troops of monkeys that are for ever coughing and dancing amongst the rocks and trees, I saw a small family of very beautiful little fellows with bright fox-red fringes down their sides, but I could not bring myself to shoot at them after seeing that unfortunate baboon, although I have never seen them described, or elsewhere in Africa.