How I Found Livingstone, Henry M. Stanley [best fantasy books to read txt] 📗

I fear that some things,

while on a march, may be tinted somewhat stronger than their

appearance or merit may properly warrant. But I thought that the

view opening before us was much more agreeable than the valley of

Simbamwenni with all its indescribable fertility. It was a series

of glades opening one after another between forest clumps of young

trees, hemmed in distantly by isolated peaks and scattered

mountains. Now and again, as we crested low eminences we caught

sight of the blue Usagara mountains, bounding the horizon westerly

and northerly, and looked down upon a vast expanse of plain which

lay between.

 

At the foot of the lengthy slope, well-watered by bubbling

springs and mountain rills, we found a comfortable khambi with

well-made huts, which the natives call Simbo. It lies just two

hours or five miles northwest of the Ungerengeri crossing. The

ground is rocky, composed principally of quartzose detritus swept

down by the constant streams. In the neighbourhood of these grow

bamboo, the thickest of which was about two and a half inches in

diameter; the “myombo,” a very shapely tree, with a clean trunk

like an ash, the “imbite,” with large, fleshy leaves like the

“mtamba,” sycamore, plum-tree, the “ugaza,” ortamarisk, and the

“mgungu,” a tree containing several wide branches with small

leaves clustered together in a clump, and the silk-cotton tree.

 

Though there are no villages or settlements in view of Simbo

Khambi, there are several clustered within the mountain folds,

inhabited by Waseguhha somewhat prone to dishonest acts and

murder.

 

The long broad plain visible from the eminences crossed between

the Ungerengeri and Simbo was now before us, and became known to

sorrowful memory subsequently, as the Makata Valley. The initial

march was from Simbo, its terminus at Rehenneko, at the base of the

Usagara mountains, six marches distant. The valley commences with

broad undulations, covered with young forests of bamboo, which grow

thickly along the streams, the dwarf fan-palm, the stately Palmyra,

and the mgungu. These undulations soon become broken by gullies

containing water, nourishing dense crops of cane reeds and broad-bladed grass, and, emerging from this district, wide savannah

covered with tall grass open into view, with an isolated tree here

and there agreeably breaking the monotony of the scene. The Makata

is a wilderness containing but one village of the Waseguhha

throughout its broad expanse. Venison, consequently, abounds

within the forest clumps, and the kudu, hartebeest, antelope,

and zebra may be seen at early dawn emerging into the open

savannahs to feed. At night, the cyn-hyaena prowls about with

its hideous clamour seeking for sleeping prey, man or beast.

 

The slushy mire of the savannahs rendered marching a work of great

difficulty; its tenacious hold of the feet told terribly on men

and animals. A ten-mile march required ten hours, we were

therefore compelled to camp in the middle of this wilderness, and

construct a new khambi, a measure which was afterwards adopted by

half a dozen caravans.

 

The cart did not arrive until nearly midnight, and with it,

besides three or four broken-down pagazis, came Bombay with the

dolorous tale, that having put his load—consisting of the property

tent, one large American axe, his two uniform coats, his shirts,

beads and cloth, powder, pistol, and hatchet—on the ground, to go

and assist the cart out of a quagmire, he had returned to the place

where he had left it and could not find it, that he believed that

some thieving Washensi, who always lurk in the rear of caravans to

pick up stragglers, had decamped with it. Which dismal tale told

me at black midnight was not received at all graciously, but rather

with most wrathful words, all of which the penitent captain received

as his proper due. Working myself into a fury,, I enumerated his

sins to him; he had lost a goat at Muhalleh, he had permitted

Khamisi to desert with valuable property at Imbiki; he had

frequently shown culpable negligence in not looking after the

donkeys, permitting them to be tied up at night without seeing that

they had water, and in the mornings, when about to march, he

preferred to sleep until 7 o’clock, rather than wake up early and

saddle the donkeys, that we might start at 6 o’clock; he had shown

of late great love for the fire, cowering like a bloodless man

before it, torpid and apathetic; he had now lost the property-tent

in the middle of the Masika season, by which carelessness the cloth

bales would rot and become valueless; he had lost the axe which

I should want at Ujiji to construct my boat; and finally, he had

lost a pistol and hatchet, and a flaskful of the best powder.

Considering all these things, how utterly incompetent he was to

be captain, I would degrade him from his office and appoint

Mabruki Burton instead. Uledi, also, following the example of

Bombay, instead of being second captain, should give no orders

to any soldiers in future, but should himself obey those given

by Mabruki—the said Mabruki being worth a dozen Bombays, and

two dozen Uledis; and so he was dismissed with orders to return

at daylight to find the tent, axe, pistol, powder, and hatchet.

 

The next morning the caravan, thoroughly fatigued with the last

day’s exertions, was obliged to halt. Bombay was despatched after

the lost goods; Kingaru, Mabruki the Great, and Mabruki the Little

were despatched to bring back three doti-worth of grain, on which

we were to subsist in the wilderness.

 

Three days passed away and we were still at camp, awaiting, with

what patience we possessed, the return of the soldiers. In the

meantime provisions ran very low, no game could be procured, the

birds were so wild. Two days shooting procured but two potfuls

of birds, consisting of grouse, quail, and pigeons. Bombay returned

unsuccessfully from his search after the missing property, and

suffered deep disgrace.

 

On the fourth day I despatched Shaw with two more soldiers, to see

what had become of Kingaru and the two Mabrukis. Towards night he

returned completely prostrated, with a violent attack of the

mukunguru, or ague; but bringing the missing soldiers, who were

thus left to report for themselves.

 

With most thankful hearts did we quit our camp, where so much

anxiety of mind and fretfulness had been suffered, not heeding a

furious rain, which, after drenching us all night, might have

somewhat damped our ardor for the march under other circumstances.

The road for the first mile led over reddish ground, and was

drained by gentle slopes falling east and west; but, leaving the

cover of the friendly woods, on whose eastern margin we had been

delayed so long, we emerged into one of the savannahs, whose soil

during the rain is as soft as slush and tenacious as thick mortar,

where we were all threatened with the fate of the famous Arkansas

traveller, who had sunk so low in one of the many quagmires in

Arkansas county, that nothing but his tall “stove-pipe” hat was

left visible.

 

Shaw was sick, and the whole duty of driving the foundering

caravan devolved upon myself. The Wanyamwezi donkeys stuck in

the mire as if they were rooted to it. As fast as one was flogged

from his stubborn position, prone to the depths fell another,

giving me a Sisyphean labour, which was maddening trader pelting

rain, assisted by such men as Bombay and Uledi, who could not for

a whole skin’s sake stomach the storm and mire. Two hours of such

a task enabled me to drag my caravan over a savannah one mile and

a half broad; and barely had I finished congratulating myself over

my success before I was halted by a deep ditch, which, filled with

rain-water from the inundated savannahs, had become a considerable

stream, breast-deep, flowing swiftly into the Makata. Donkeys had

to be unloaded, led through a torrent, and loaded again on the other

bank—an operation which consumed a full hour.

 

Presently, after straggling through a wood clump, barring our

progress was another stream, swollen into a river. The bridge

being swept away, we were obliged to swim and float our baggage

over, which delayed us two hours more. Leaving this second

river-bank, we splashed, waded, occasionally half-swimming, and

reeled through mire, water-dripping grass and matama stalks,

along the left bank of the Makata proper, until farther progress

was effectually prevented for that day by a deep bend of the

river, which we should be obliged to cross the next day.

 

Though but six miles were traversed during that miserable day, the

march occupied ten hours.

 

Half dead with fatigue, I yet could feel thankful that it was not

accompanied by fever, which it seemed a miracle to avoid; for if

ever a district was cursed with the ague, the Makata wilderness

ranks foremost of those afflicted. Surely the sight of the

dripping woods enveloped in opaque mist, of the inundated country

with lengthy swathes of tiger-grass laid low by the turbid flood,

of mounds of decaying trees and canes, of the swollen river and the

weeping sky, was enough to engender the mukunguru! The well-used

khambi, and the heaps of filth surrounding it, were enough to

create a cholera!

 

The Makata, a river whose breadth during the dry season is but

forty feet, in the Masika season assumes the breadth, depth, and

force of an important river. Should it happen to be an unusually

rainy season, it inundates the great plain which stretches on

either side, and converts it into a great lake. It is the main

feeder of the Wami river, which empties into the sea between the

ports of Saadani and Whinde. About ten miles northeast of the

Makata crossing, the Great Makata, the Little Makata, a nameless

creek, and the Rudewa river unite; and the river thus formed

becomes known as the Wami. Throughout Usagara the Wami is known

as the Mukondokwa. Three of these streams take their rise from

the crescent-like Usagara range, which bounds the Makata plain south

and southwesterly; while the Rudewa rises in the northern horn of

the same range.

 

So swift was the flow of the Makata, and so much did its unsteady

bridge, half buried in the water, imperil the safety of the

property, that its transfer from bank to bank occupied fully five

hours. No sooner had we landed every article on the other side,

undamaged by the water, than the rain poured down in torrents

that drenched them all, as if they had been dragged through the

river. To proceed through the swamp which an hour’s rain had

formed was utterly out of the question. We were accordingly

compelled to camp in a place where every hour furnished its quota

of annoyance. One of the Wangwana soldiers engaged at Bagamoyo,

named Kingaru, improved an opportunity to desert with another

Mgwana’s kit. My two detectives, Uledi (Grant’s valet), and

Sarmean, were immediately despatched in pursuit, both being armed

with American breech-loaders. They went about their task with

an adroitness and celerity which augured well for their success.

In an hour they returned with the runaway, having found him hidden

in the house of a Mseguhha chief called Kigondo, who lived about

a mile from the eastern bank of the river, and who had accompanied

Uledi and Sarmean to receive his reward, and render an account of

the incident.

 

Kigondo said, when he had been seated, “I saw this man carrying

a bundle, and running hard, by which I knew that he was deserting

you. We (my wife and 1) were sitting in our little watch-hut,

watching our corn; and, as the road runs close by, this man was

obliged to come close to us. We called to him when he was near,

saying, `Master, where are you going so fast? Are you deserting

the Musungu, for we