The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, Samuel White Baker [inspirational novels .TXT] 📗

flash and smoke of ten drachms of

powder completely blinded me, and the sudden reaction of darkness

increased the obscurity. I could distinguish nothing; but I heard a

heavy fall, and a few moments after I could hear a rustling in the grass

as the herd of elephants retreated into the grass jungles. Richarn

declared that the elephant had fallen; but I again heard a rustling in

the high grass jungle within eighty yards of me, and this sound

continued in the same place. I accordingly concluded that the elephant

was very badly wounded, and that he could not move from the spot.

Nothing could be seen.

 

At length the birds began to chirp, and the “blacksmith” (as I named one

of the first to wake, whose two sharp ringing notes exactly resemble the

blows of a hammer upon an anvil) told me that it was nearly daybreak.

The grey of morning had just appeared when I heard voices, and I saw

Mrs. Baker coming along the field with a party of men, whom she had

brought down from the village with knives and axes. She had heard the

roar of the heavy rifle, and knowing the “Baby’s” scream, and the usual

fatal effects, she had considered the elephant as bagged. The natives

had also heard the report, and people began to accumulate from all

quarters for the sake of the flesh. The elephant was not dead, but was

standing about ten yards within the grass jungle; however, in a short

time a heavy fall sounded his knell, and the crowd rushed in. He was a

fine bull, and before I allowed him to be cut up, I sent for the

measuring tape; the result being as follows:

 

From tip of trunk to fleshy end of tail … 26 feet 0.5 inches

Height from shoulder to forefoot in a perpendicular line 10 ft 6.5 in

Girth of forefoot .… … … . 4 ft 10.25 in

Length of one tusk in the curve … … . 6 ft 6 in

Ditto of fellow tusk (el Hadam, the servant) … . 5 ft 11 in

Weight of tusks, 80 lbs. and 69 lbs. = 149 lbs.

 

The ridiculous accounts that I have read, stating that the height of

elephants attains FIFTEEN feet, is simply laughable ignorance. A

difference of a foot in an elephant’s height is enormous; he appears a

giant among his lesser comrades. Observe the difference between a horse

sixteen hands high and a pony of thirteen hands, and the difference of a

foot in the height of a quadruped is exemplified. The word being given,

the crowd rushed upon the elephant, and about three hundred people were

attacking the carcase with knives and lances. About a dozen men were

working inside as though in a tunnel; they had chosen this locality as

being near to the fat, which was greatly coveted.

 

A few days later I attempted to set fire to the grass jungle, but it

would not burn thoroughly, leaving scorched stems that were rendered

still tougher by the fire. On the following evening I took a stroll over

the burnt ground to look for game. No elephants had visited the spot;

but as I was walking along expecting nothing, up jumped a wild boar and

sow from the entrance of a large hole of the Manis, or great scaled

anteater. Being thus taken by surprise, the boar very imprudently

charged me, and was immediately knocked over dead by a shot through the

spine from the little Fletcher rifle, while the left-hand barrel rolled

over his companion, who almost immediately recovered and disappeared in

the grass jungle; however, there was pork for those who liked it, and I

went to the camp and sent a number of natives to bring it home. The Obbo

people were delighted, as it was their favourite game, but none of my

people would touch the unclean animal. The wild pigs of this country

live underground; they take possession of the holes made by the Manis:

these they enlarge and form cool and secure retreats.

 

A bad attack of fever laid me up until the 31st of December. On the

first day of January, 1864, I was hardly able to stand, and was nearly

worn out at the very time that I required my strength, as we were to

start south in a few days.

 

Although my quinine had been long since exhausted, I had reserved ten

grains to enable me to start in case the fever should attack me at the

time of departure. I now swallowed my last dose, and on 3d January, I

find the following note in my journal: “All ready for a start tomorrow.

I trust the year 1864 will bring better luck than the past, that having

been the most annoying that I have ever experienced, and full of fever.

I hope now to reach Kamrasi’s country in a fortnight, and to obtain

guides from him direct to the lake. My Latooka, to whom I have been very

kind, has absconded: there is no difference in any of these savages; if

hungry, they will fawn upon you, and when filled, they will desert. I

believe that ten years’ residence in the Soudan and this country would

spoil an Angel, and would turn the best heart to stone.”

 

It was difficult to procure porters, therefore I left all my effects at

my camp in charge of two of my men, and I determined to travel light,

without the tent, and to take little beyond ammunition and cooking

utensils. Ibrahim left forty-five men in his zareeba, and on the 5th of

January we started. Mrs. Baker rode her ox, but my animal being very

shy, I ordered him to be driven for about a mile with the others to

accustom him to the crowd: not approving of the expedition, he bolted

into the high grass with my English saddle, and I never saw him again.

In my weak state I had to walk. We had not gone far when a large fly

fastened upon Mrs. Baker’s ox, just by his tail, the effect of which was

to produce so sudden a kick and plunge, that he threw her to the ground

and hurt her considerably: she accordingly changed the animal, and rode

a splendid ox that Ibrahim very civilly offered. I had to walk to the

Atabbi, about eighteen miles, which, although a pleasant stroll when in

good health, I found rather fatiguing. We bivouacked on the south bank

of the Atabbi.

 

The next morning, after a walk of about eight miles, I purchased of one

of the Turks the best ox that I have ever ridden, at the price of a

double-barrelled gun–it was a great relief to be well mounted, as I

was quite unfit for a journey on foot.

 

At 4.30 P.m. we arrived at one of the villages of Farajoke. The

character of the country had entirely changed; instead of the rank and

superabundant vegetation of Obbo, we were in a beautiful open country,

naturally drained by its undulating character, and abounding in most

beautiful low pasturage. Vast herds of cattle belonged to the different

villages, but these had all been driven to concealment, as the report

had been received that the Turks were approaching. The country was

thickly populated, but the natives appeared very mistrustful; the Turks

immediately entered the villages, and ransacked the granaries for corn,

digging up the yams, and helping themselves to everything as though

quite at home. I was on a beautiful grass sward on the gentle slope of a

hill: here I arranged to bivouac for the night.

 

In three days’ march from this point through beautiful parklike

country, we arrived at the Asua river. The entire route from Farajoke

had been a gentle descent, and I found this point of the Asua in lat N.

3 degrees 12 minutes to be 2,875 feet above the sea level, 1,091 feet

lower than Farajoke. The river was a hundred and twenty paces broad, and

from the bed to the top of the perpendicular banks was about fifteen

feet. At this season it was almost dry, and a narrow channel of about

six inches deep flowed through the centre of the otherwise exhausted

river. The bed was much obstructed by rocks, and the inclination was so

rapid that I could readily conceive the impossibility of crossing it

during the rains. It formed the great drain of the country, all its

waters flowing to the Nile, but during the dry months it was most

insignificant. The country between Farajoke and the Asua, although

lovely, was very thinly populated, and the only villages that I saw were

built upon low hills of bare granite, which lay in huge piles of

disjointed fragments.

 

On arrival at the river, while the men were washing in the clear stream,

I took a rifle and strolled along the margin; I shortly observed a herd

of the beautiful Mehedehet antelopes feeding upon the rich but low grass

of a sandbank in the very centre of the river. Stalking them to within a

hundred and twenty paces they obtained my wind, and, ceasing to graze,

they gazed intently at me. I was on the high bank among the bushes, and

I immediately picked out the biggest, and fired, missing my mark. All

dashed away except the animal at which I fired, who stood in uncertainty

for a few moments, when the second barrel of the Fletcher 24 rifle

knocked him over, striking him through the neck. Hearing the quick

double shot, my people came running to the spot, accompanied by a number

of the native porters, and were rejoiced to find a good supply of meat;

the antelope weighed about five hundred pounds, and was sufficient to

afford a good dinner for the whole party.

 

The Mehedehet is about 13 hands high, with rough, brown hair like the

Samber deer of India. Our resting-place was on the dry, rocky bed of the

river, close to the edge of the shallow but clear stream that rippled

over the uneven surface. Some beautiful tamarind trees afforded a most

agreeable shade, and altogether it was a charming place to bivouac.

Although at Obbo the grass was not sufficiently dry to burn, in this

country it was reduced to a crisp straw, and I immediately set fire to

the prairies; the wind was strong, and we had a grand blaze, the flames

crackling and leaping about thirty feet high, and sweeping along with so

mad a fury that within an hour the entire country was a continuous line

of fire. Not a trace of vegetation remained behind; the country appeared

as though covered with a pall of black velvet. Returning from my work, I

found my camping place well arranged—beds prepared, and a good dinner

ready of antelope soup and cutlets. On waking the next morning, I found

that the Turks had all disappeared during the night, and that I was

alone with my people. It was shortly explained that they had departed to

attack some village, to which they were guided by some natives who had

accompanied them from Farajoke.

 

I accordingly took my rifle and strolled along the margin of the river

to look for game, accompanied by two of my porters. Although it was a

most likely country, being a natural park well timbered, with a river

flowing through the midst, there was a great scarcity of wild animals.

At length, in crossing a ravine that had stopped the progress of the

fire, an antelope (water buck) jumped out of a hollow, and, rushing

through the high grass, he exposed himself for an instant in crossing

the summit of a bare knoll, and received a ball from the little Fletcher

in the hindquarters. Although badly wounded, he was too nimble for my

natives, who chased him