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

by actual inspection; from Magungo I

looked upon the two countries, Koshi and Madi, through which it flowed,

and these countries I must actually pass through and again meet the Nile

before I could reach Gondokoro. Thus the only point necessary to swear

to, was the river between the lake and the Karuma Falls.

 

I had a bad attack of fever that evening, and missed my star for the

latitude; but on the following morning before daybreak I obtained a good

observation of Vega, and determined the latitude of Magungo 2 degrees 16

minutes due west from Atada or Karuma Falls. This was a strong

confirmation that the river beneath my feet was the Somerset that I had

crossed in the same latitude at Atada, where the river was running due

west, and where the natives had pointed in that direction as its course

to the lake. Nevertheless, I was determined to verify it, although by

this circuitous route I might lose the boats from Gondokoro and become a

prisoner in Central Africa, ill, and without quinine, for another year.

I proposed it to my wife, who not only voted in her state of abject

weakness to complete the river to Karuma, but wished, if possible, to

return and follow the Nile from the lake down to Gondokoro! This latter

resolve, based upon the simple principle of “seeing is believing,” was a

sacrifice most nobly proposed, but simply impossible and unnecessary.

 

We saw from our point at Magungo the Koshi and Madi countries, and the

Nile flowing out of the lake through them. We must of necessity pass

through those countries on our road to Gondokoro direct from Karuma via

Shooa, and should we not meet the river in the Madi and Koshi country,

the Nile that we now saw would not be the Nile of Gondokoro. We knew,

however, that it was so, as Speke and Grant had gone by that route, and

had met the Nile near Miani’s tree in lat. 3 degrees 34 min. in the Madi

country, the Koshi being on its western bank; thus, as we were now at

the Nile head and saw it passing through the Madi and Koshi, any

argument against the river would be the argumentum ad absurdum. I

ordered the boats to be got ready to start immediately.

 

The chief gave me much information, confirming the accounts that I had

heard a year previous in the Latooka countries, that formerly cowrie

shells were brought in boats from the south, and that these shells and

brass coil brackets came by the lake from Karagwe. He called also

several of the natives of Malegga, who had arrived with beautifully

prepared mantles of antelope and goatskins, to exchange for bracelets

and glass beads. The Malegga people were in appearance the same as those

of Unyoro, but they spoke a different language.

 

The boats being ready, we took leave of the chief, leaving him an

acceptable present of beads, and we descended the hill to the river,

thankful at having so far successfully terminated the expedition as to

have traced the lake to that important point Magungo, which had been our

clue to the discovery even so far away in time and place as the distant

country of Latooka. We were both very weak and ill, and my knees

trembled beneath me as we walked down the easy descent. I, in my

enervated state, endeavouring to assist my wife, we were the “blind

leading the blind;” but had life closed on that day we could have died

most happily, for the hard fight through sickness and misery had ended

in victory; and, although I looked to home as a paradise never to be

regained, I could have lain down to sleep in contentment on this spot,

with the consolation that, if the body had been vanquished, we died with

the prize in our grasp.

 

On arrival at the canoes we found everything in readiness, and the

boatmen already in their places. A crowd of natives pushed us over the

shallows, and once in deep water we passed through a broad canal which

led us into the open channel without the labour of towing through the

narrow inlet by which we had arrived. Once in the broad channel of dead

water we steered due east, and made rapid way until the evening. The

river as it now appeared, although devoid of current, was an average of

about 500 yards in width. Before we halted for the night I was subjected

to a most severe attack of fever, and upon the boat reaching a certain

spot I was carried on a litter, perfectly unconscious, to a village,

attended carefully by my poor sick wife, who, herself half dead,

followed me on foot through the marshes in pitch darkness, and watched

over me until the morning. At daybreak I was too weak to stand, and we

were both carried down to the canoes, and, crawling helplessly within

our grass awning, we lay down like logs while the canoes continued their

voyage. Many of our men were also suffering from fever. The malaria of

the dense masses of floating vegetation was most poisonous; and upon

looking back to the canoe that followed in our wake, I observed all my

men sitting crouched together sick and dispirited, looking like departed

spirits being ferried across the melancholy Styx. The river now

contracted rapidly to about 250 yards in width about ten miles from

Magungo. We had left the vast flats of rush banks, and entered a channel

between high ground, forming steep forest-covered hills, about 200 feet

on either side, north and south: nevertheless there was no perceptible

stream, although there was no doubt that we were actually in the channel

of a river. The water was clear and exceedingly deep. In the evening we

halted, and slept on a mud bank close to the water. The grass in the

forest was very high and rank; thus we were glad to find an open space

for a bivouac, although a nest of mosquitoes and malaria.

 

On waking the next morning, I observed that a thick fog covered the

surface of the river; and as I lay upon my back, on my angarep, I amused

myself before I woke my men by watching the fog slowly lifting from the

river. While thus employed I was struck by the fact, that the little

green water-plants, like floating cabbages (Pistia Stratiotes, L.), were

certainly, although very slowly, moving to the west. I immediately

jumped up, and watched them most attentively; there was no doubt about

it; they were travelling towards the Albert lake. We were now about

eighteen miles in a direct line from Magungo, and there was a current in

the river, which, however slight, was nevertheless perceptible.

 

Our toilette did not take long to arrange, as we had thrown ourselves

down at night with our clothes on; accordingly we entered the canoe at

once, and gave the order to start.

 

The woman Bacheeta knew the country, as she had formerly been to Magungo

when in the service of Sali, who had been subsequently murdered by

Kamrasi; she now informed me that we should terminate our canoe voyage

on that day, as we should arrive at the great waterfall of which she had

often spoken. As we proceeded the river gradually narrowed to about 180

yards, and when the paddles ceased working we could distinctly hear the

roar of water. I had heard this on waking in the morning, but at the

time I had imagined it to proceed from distant thunder. By ten o’clock

the current had so increased as we proceeded, that it was distinctly

perceptible, although weak. The roar of the waterfall was extremely

loud, and after sharp pulling for a couple of hours, during which time

the stream increased, we arrived at a few deserted fishing huts, at a

point where the river made a slight turn. I never saw such an

extraordinary show of crocodiles as were exposed on every sandbank on

the sides of the river; they lay like logs of timber close together, and

upon one bank we counted twenty-seven, of large size; every basking

place was crowded in a similar manner. From the time we had fairly

entered the river, it had been confined by heights somewhat precipitous

on either side, rising to about 180 feet. At this point the cliffs were

still higher, and exceedingly abrupt. From the roar of the water, I was

sure that the fall would be in sight if we turned the corner at the bend

of the river; accordingly I ordered the boatmen to row as far as they

could: to this they at first objected, as they wished to stop at the

deserted fishing village, which they explained was to be the limit of

the journey, farther progress being impossible.

 

However, I explained that I merely wished to see the fall, and they

rowed immediately up the stream, which was now strong against us. Upon

rounding the corner, a magnificent sight burst suddenly upon us. On

either side the river were beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to

a height of about 300 feet; rocks were jutting out from the intensely

green foliage; and rushing through a gap that cleft the rock exactly

before us, the river, contracted from a grand stream, was pent up in a

narrow gorge of scarcely fifty yards in width; roaring furiously through

the rockbound pass, it plunged in one leap of about 120 feet

perpendicular into a dark abyss below.

 

The fall of water was snow white, which had a superb effect as it

contrasted with the dark cliffs that walled the river, while the

graceful palms of the tropics and wild plantains perfected the beauty of

the view. This was the greatest waterfall of the Nile, and, in honour of

the distinguished President of the Royal Geographical Society, I named

it the Murchison Falls, as the most important object throughout the

entire course of the river.

 

The boatmen, having been promised a present of beads to induce them to

approach the fall as close as possible, succeeded in bringing the canoe

within about 300 yards of the base, but the power of the current and the

whirlpools in the river rendered it impossible to proceed farther. There

was a sandbank on our left which was literally covered with crocodiles

lying parallel to each other like trunks of trees prepared for shipment;

they had no fear of the canoe until we approached within about twenty

yards of them, when they slowly crept into the water; all excepting one,

an immense fellow who lazily lagged behind, and immediately dropped dead

as a bullet from the little Fletcher No. 24 struck him in the brain. So

alarmed were the boatmen at the unexpected report of the rifle that they

immediately dropped into the body of the canoe, one of them losing his

paddle. Nothing would induce them to attend to the boat, as I had fired

a second shot at the crocodile as a “quietus,” and the natives did not

know how often the alarming noise would be repeated. Accordingly we were

at the mercy of the powerful stream, and the canoe was whisked round by

the eddy and carried against a thick bank of high reeds;—hardly had

we touched this obstruction when a tremendous commotion took place in

the rushes, and in an instant a great bull hippopotamus charged the

canoe, and with a severe shock striking the bottom he lifted us half out

of the water. The natives who were in the bottom of the boat positively

yelled with terror, not knowing whether the shock was in any way

connected with the dreaded report of the rifle; the black women

screamed; and the boy Saat handing me a spare rifle, and Richarn being

ready likewise, we looked out for a shot