Note 54 — Chapter XII · SPEKE AND THE NILE QUEST

In one of his books Speke shows us how Burton and himself managed to communicate with the natives. Neither of them—not even Burton—had a sufficient knowledge of Kiswahili during their journey to Tanganyika to talk direct with their porters. They conversed with “Bombay,” their Swahili interpreter, in Hindustani. Burton also was able to speak Arabic with the Arab traders. Both, perhaps, are a little too inclined to overlook this language difficulty in describing their conversations with native chiefs. In all cases these must have been carried on in the following manner: The chief would probably speak in his native language, which would be translated by somebody else into Swahili, and this again would be translated by Bombay, or Frij, or some other interpreter, into Hindustani or English; or, again, Burton’s information might be rendered by some Arab in Arabic. Direct communications no doubt were sometimes made by both parties in broken Swahili.