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

now getting late, and the camp

was about three miles away, I was reluctantly obliged to return

without the meat.

 

On our way to camp we were accompanied by a large animal which

persistently followed us on our left. It was too dark to see

plainly, but a large form was visible, if not very clearly

defined. It must have been a lion, unless it was the ghost of

the dead boar.

 

That night, about 11 P.M., we were startled by the roar of a lion,

in close proximity to the camp. Soon it was joined by another,

and another still, and the novelty of the thing kept me awake.

I peered through the gate of the camp, and endeavoured to sight

a rifle—my little Winchester, in the accuracy of which I had

perfect confidence; but, alas! for the cartridges, they might have

been as well filled with sawdust for all the benefit I derived from

them. Disgusted with the miserable ammunition, I left the lions

alone, and turned in, with their roaring as a lullaby.

 

That terrestrial paradise for the hunter, the valley of the pellucid

Mtambu, was deserted by us the next morning for the settlement

commonly known to the Wakawendi as Imrera’s, with as much unconcern

as though it were a howling desert. The village near which we

encamped was called Itaga, in the district of Rusawa. As soon as

we had crossed the River Mtambu we had entered Ukawendi, commonly

called “Kawendi” by the natives of the country.

 

The district of Rusawa is thickly populated. The people are quiet

and well-disposed to strangers, though few ever come to this region

from afar. One or two Wasawahili traders visit it every year or so

from Pumburu and Usowa; but very little ivory being obtained

from the people, the long distance between the settlements serves

to deter the regular trader from venturing hither.

 

If caravans arrive here, the objective point to them is the

district of Pumburu, situated southwesterly one day’s good

marching, or, say, thirty statute miles from Imrera; or they

make for Usowa, on the Tanganika, via Pumburu, Katuma, Uyombeh,

and Ugarawah. Usowa is quite an important district on the Tanganika,

populous and flourishing. This was the road we had intended to

adopt after leaving Imrera, but the reports received at the latter

place forbade such a venture. For Mapunda, the Sultan of Usowa,

though a great friend to Arab traders, was at war with the colony

of the Wazavira, who we must remember were driven from Mpokwa

and vicinity in Utanda, and who were said to have settled between

Pumburu and Usowa.

 

It remained for us, like wise, prudent men, having charge of a

large and valuable Expedition on our hands, to decide what to do,

and what route to adopt, now that we had approached much nearer to

Ujiji than we were to Unyanyembe. I suggested that we should make

direct for the Tanganika by compass, trusting to no road or guide,

but to march direct west until we came to the Tanganika, and then

follow the lake shore on foot until we came to Ujiji. For it ever

haunted my mind, that, if Dr. Livingstone should hear of my coming,

which he might possibly do if I travelled along any known road, he

would leave, and that my search for him would consequently be a

“stern chase.” But my principal men thought it better that we should

now boldly turn our faces north, and march for the Malagarazi, which

was said to be a large river flowing from the east to the Tanganika.

But none of my men knew the road to the Malagarazi, neither could

guides be hired from Sultan Imrera. We were, however, informed that

the Malagarazi was but two days’ march from Imrera. I thought it

safe, in such a case, to provision my men with three days’ rations.

The village of Itaga is situated in a deep mountain hollow, finely

overlooking a large extent of cultivation. The people grow sweet

potatoes, manioc—out of which tapioca is made—beans, and the

holcus. Not one chicken could be purchased for love or money,

and, besides grain, only a lean, scraggy specimen of a goat, a

long time ago imported form Uvinza, was procurable.

 

October the 25th will be remembered by me as a day of great troubles;

in fact, a series of troubles began from this date. We struck an

easterly road in order to obtain a passage to the lofty plateau which

bounded the valley of Imrera on the west and on the north. We camped,

after a two and a half hours’ march, at its foot. The defile promised

a feasible means of ascent to the summit of the plateau, which rose

upward in a series of scarps a thousand feet above the valley of

Imrera.

 

While ascending that lofty arc of mountains which bounded westerly

and northerly the basin of Imrera, extensive prospects southward and

eastward were revealed. The character of the scenery at Ukawendi is

always animated and picturesque, but never sublime. The folds of this

ridge contained several ruins of bomas, which seemed to have been

erected during war time.

 

The mbemba fruit was plentiful along this march, and every few minutes

I could see from the rear one or two men hastening to secure a treasure

of it which they discovered on the ground.

 

A little before reaching the camp I had a shot at a leopard, but

failed to bring him down as he bounded away. At night the lions

roared as at the Mtambu River.

 

A lengthy march under the deep twilight shadows of a great forest,

which protected us from the hot sunbeams, brought us, on the next

day, to a camp newly constructed by a party of Arabs from Ujiji, who

had advanced thus far on their road to Unyanyembe, but, alarmed at

the reports of the war between Mirambo and the Arabs, had

returned. Our route was along the right bank of the Rugufu, a

broad sluggish stream, well choked with the matete reeds and the

papyrus. The tracks and the bois de vaches of buffaloes were

numerous, and there were several indications of rhinoceros being

near. In a deep clump of timber near this river we discovered a

colony of bearded and leonine-looking monkeys.

 

As we were about leaving our camp on the morning of the 28th a herd

of buffalo walked deliberately into view. Silence was quickly

restored, but not before the animals, to their great surprise, had

discovered the danger which confronted them. We commenced stalking

them, but we soon heard the thundering sound of their gallop,

after which it becomes a useless task to follow them, with a long

march in a wilderness before one.

 

The road led on this day over immense sheets of sandstone and iron

ore. The water was abominable, and scarce, and famine began to

stare us in the face. We travelled for six hours, and had yet seen

no sign of cultivation anywhere. According to my map we were yet

two long marches from the Malagarazi—if Captain Burton had correctly

laid down the position of the river; according to the natives’

account, we should have arrived at the Malagarazi on this day.

 

On the 29th we left our camp, and after a few minutes, we were in

view of the sublimest, but ruggedest, scenes we had yet beheld in

Africa. The country was cut up in all directions by deep, wild,

and narrow ravines trending in all directions, but generally

toward the northwest, while on either side rose enormous square

masses of naked rock (sandstone), sometimes towering, and rounded,

sometimes pyramidal, sometimes in truncated cones, sometimes in

circular ridges, with sharp, rugged, naked backs, with but little

vegetation anywhere visible, except it obtained a precarious tenure

in the fissured crown of some gigantic hill-top, whither some soil

had fallen, or at the base of the reddish ochre scarps which

everywhere lifted their fronts to our view.

 

A long series of descents down rocky gullies, wherein we were

environed by threatening masses of disintegrated rock, brought us

to a dry, stony ravine, with mountain heights looming above us a

thousand feet high. This ravine we followed, winding around in all

directions, but which gradually widened, however, into a broad

plain, with a western trend. The road, leaving this, struck across

a low ridge to the north; and we were in view of deserted

settlements where the villages were built on frowning castellated

masses of rock. Near an upright mass of rock over seventy feet

high, and about fifty yards in diameter, which dwarfed the gigantic

sycamore close to it, we made our camp, after five hours and thirty

minutes’ continuous and rapid marching.

 

The people were very hungry; they had eaten every scrap of meat,

and every grain they possessed, twenty hours before, and there was

no immediate prospect of food. I had but a pound and a half of flour

left, and this would not have sufficed to begin to feed a force of

over forty-five people; but I had something like thirty pounds of

tea, and twenty pounds of sugar left, and I at once, as soon as we

arrived at camp, ordered every kettle to be filled and placed on

the fire, and then made tea for all; giving each man a quart of a

hot, grateful beverage; well sweetened. Parties stole out also

into the depths: of the jungle to search for wild fruit, and soon

returned laden with baskets of the wood-peach and tamarind fruit,

which though it did not satisfy, relieved them. That night, before

going to sleep, the Wangwana set up a loud prayer to “Allah” to

give them food.

 

We rose betimes in the morning, determined to travel on until food

could be procured, or we dropped down from sheer fatigue and

weakness. Rhinoceros’ tracks abounded, and buffalo seemed to be

plentiful, but we never beheld a living thing. We crossed scores

of short steeps, and descended as often into the depths of dry,

stony gullies, and then finally entered a valley, bounded on one

side by a triangular mountain with perpendicular sides, and on the

other by a bold group, a triplet of hills. While marching down

this valley—which soon changed its dry, bleached aspect to a vivid

green—we saw a forest in the distance, and shortly found ourselves

in cornfields. Looking keenly around for a village, we descried

it on the summit of the lofty triangular hill on our right. A loud

exultant shout was raised at the discovery. The men threw down their

packs, and began to clamour for food. Volunteers were asked to

come forward to take cloth, and scale the heights to obtain it from

the village, at any price. While three or four sallied off we rested

on the ground, quite worn out. In about an hour the foraging party

returned with the glorious tidings that food was plentiful; that the

village we saw was called, “Welled Nzogera’s”—the son of Nzogera—by

which, of course, we knew that we were in Uvinza, Nzogera being the

principal chief in Uvinza. We were further informed that Nzogera,

the father, was at war with Lokanda-Mire, about some salt-pans in

the valley of the Malagarazi, and that it would be difficult to go

to Ujiji by the usual road, owing to this war; but, for a

consideration, the son of Nzogera was willing to supply us with

guides, who would take us safely, by a northern road, to Ujiji.

 

Everything auguring well for our prospects, we encamped to enjoy

the good cheer, for which our troubles and privations, during the

transit of the Ukawendi forests and jungles, had well prepared us.

 

I am now going to extract from my Diary of the march, as, without

its aid, I deem it impossible to relate fully our