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

tolerable

amount of patience I succeeded in getting within about 120 paces of two

splendid black bucks that were separated from the herd;—a patch of

half-burnt reeds afforded a good covering point. The left-hand buck was

in a good position for a shoulder shot, standing with his flank exposed,

but with his head turned towards me. At the crack of the rifle he sprang

upon his hind legs,—gave two or three convulsive bounds, and fell. His

companion went off at full speed, and the left-hand barrel unfortunately

broke his hind leg, as the half-burnt reeds hindered a correct aim.

Reloading, while my men bled the dead buck, I fired a long shot at the

dense mass of antelopes who were now in full retreat at about 600 yards’

distance crowded together in thousands. I heard, or fancied I heard, the

ball strike some object, and as the herd passed on, a reddish object

remained behind that we could hardly distinguish, but on nearer approach

I found a doe lying dead—she had been by chance struck by the ball

through the neck at this great distance. The game being at full speed in

retreat, my sport would have been over had we not at that moment heard

shouts and yells exactly ahead of the vast herd of antelopes. At once

they halted, and we perceived a number of natives, armed with spears and

bows, who had intercepted the herd in their retreat, and who now turned

them by their shouts exactly towards us. The herd came on at full speed;

but seeing us, they slightly altered their line, and rushed along,

thundering over the ground almost in single file, thus occupying a

continuous line of about half a mile in length. Running towards them at

right angles for about a quarter of a mile, I at length arrived at a

white ant-hill about ten feet high; behind this I took my stand within

about seventy yards of the string of antelopes that were filing by at

full gallop. I waited for a buck with fine horns. Several passed, but I

observed better heads in their rear;—they came bounding along.

“Crack!” went the rifle; and a fine buck pitched upon his head. Again

the little Fletcher spoke, and down went another within ten yards of the

first. “A spare gun, Richarn!” and Oswell’s Purdey was slipped into my

hand. “Only one barrel is loaded,” said Richarn. I saw a splendid buck

coming along with a doe by his side;—she protected him from the shot

as they came on at right angles with the gun; but knowing that the ball

would go through her and reach him on the other side, I fired at her

shoulder,—she fell dead to the shot, but he went off scatheless. I now

found that Richarn had loaded the gun with twenty mould shot instead of

ball;—these were confined in a cartridge, and had killed her on the

spot.

 

I had thus bagged five antelopes; and, cutting off the heads of the

bucks, we left the bodies for the natives, who were anxiously watching

us from a distance, but afraid to approach. The antelope first shot that

was nearer to the boat, we dragged on board, with the assistance of ten

or twelve men. The buck was rather larger than an average

donkey;—colour, black, with a white patch across the withers;—a white

crown to the head; white round the eyes; chest black, but belly white;

the horns about two feet four inches long, and bending gracefully

backwards.

 

A few days after this incident we arrived at the junction of the Bahr el

Gazal, and turning sharp to the east, we looked forward to arriving at

the extraordinary obstruction that since our passage in 1863 had dammed

the White Nile.

 

There was considerable danger in the descent of the river upon nearing

this peculiar dam, as the stream plunged below it by a subterranean

channel with a rush like a cataract. A large diahbiah laden with ivory

had been carried beneath the dam on her descent from Gondokoro in the

previous year, and had never been seen afterwards. I ordered the reis to

have the anchor in readiness, and two powerful hawsers; should we arrive

in the evening, he was to secure the vessel to the bank, and not to

attempt the passage through the canal until the following morning. We

anchored about half a mile above the dam.

 

This part of the Nile is boundless marsh, portions of which were at this

season terra firma. The river ran from west to east; the south bank was

actual ground covered with mimosas, but to the north and west the flat

marsh covered with high weeds was interminable.

 

At daybreak we manned the oars and floated down the rapid stream. In a

few minutes we heard the rush of water, and we saw the dam stretching

across the river before us. The marsh being firm, our men immediately

jumped out on the left bank and manned the hawsers—one fastened from

the stern, the other from the bow; this arrangement prevented the boat

from turning broadside on to the dam, by which accident the shipwrecked

diahbiah had been lost. As we approached the dam, I perceived the canal

or ditch that had been cut by the crews of the vessels that had ascended

the river; it was about ten feet wide, and would barely allow the

passage of our diahbiah. This canal was already choked with masses of

floating vegetation and natural rafts of reeds and mud that the river

carried with it, the accumulation of which had originally formed the

dam.

 

Having secured the vessel by carrying out an anchor astern and burying

it on the marsh, while a rope fastened from the bow to the high reeds

kept her stern to the stream, all hands jumped into the canal and

commenced dragging out the entangled masses of weeds, reeds, ambatch

wood, grass, and mud that had choked the entrance. Half a day was thus

passed, at the expiration of which time we towed our vessel safely into

the ditch, where she lay out of danger. It was necessary to discharge

all cargo from the boat, in order to reduce her draught of water. This

tedious operation completed, and many bushels of corn being piled upon

mats spread upon the reeds beaten flat, we endeavoured to push her along

the canal. Although the obstruction was annoying it was a most

interesting object.

 

The river had suddenly disappeared: there was apparently an end to the

White Nile. The dam was about three-quarters of a mile wide; it was

perfectly firm, and was already overgrown with high reeds and grass,

thus forming a continuation of the surrounding country. Many of the

traders’ people had died of the plague at this spot during the delay of

some weeks in cutting the canal; the graves of these dead were upon the

dam. The bottom of the canal that had been cut through the dam was

perfectly firm, composed of sand, mud, and interwoven decaying

vegetation. The river arrived with great force at the abrupt edge of the

obstruction, bringing with it all kinds of trash and large floating

islands. None of these objects hitched against the edge, but the instant

they struck they dived under and disappeared. It was in this manner that

the vessel had been lost—having missed the narrow entrance to the

canal, she had struck the dam stem on; the force of the current

immediately turned her broadside against the obstruction; the floating

islands and masses of vegetation brought down by the river were heaped

against her, and heeling over on her side she was sucked bodily under

and carried beneath the dam; her crew had time to save themselves by

leaping upon the firm barrier that had wrecked their ship. The boatmen

told me that dead hippopotami had been found on the other side, that had

been carried under the dam and drowned.

 

Two days’ hard work from morning till night brought us through the

canal, and we once more found ourselves on the open Nile on the other

side of the dam. The river was in that spot perfectly clean; not a

vestige of floating vegetation could be seen upon its waters; in its

subterranean passage it had passed through a natural sieve, leaving all

foreign matter behind to add to the bulk of the already stupendous work.

 

All before us was clear and plain sailing. For some days two or three

of our men had been complaining of severe headache, giddiness, and

violent pains in the spine and between the shoulders. I had been anxious

when at Gondokoro concerning the vessel, as many persons had died on

board of the plague during the voyage from Khartoum. The men assured me

that the most fatal symptom was violent bleeding from the nose; in such

cases no one had been known to recover. One of the boatmen, who had been

ailing for some days, suddenly went to the side of the vessel and hung

his head over the river; his nose was bleeding!

 

Another of my men, Yaseen, was ill; his uncle, my vakeel, came to me

with a report that “his nose was bleeding violently!” Several other men

fell ill: they lay helplessly about the deck in low muttering delirium,

their eyes as yellow as orange-peel. In two or three days the vessel was

so horribly offensive as to be unbearable; THE PLAGUE HAD BROKEN OUT! We

floated past the river Sobat junction; the wind was fair from the south,

thus fortunately we in the stern were to windward of the crew. Yaseen

died; he was one who had bled at the nose. We stopped to bury him. The

funeral hastily arranged, we again set sail. Mahommed died; he had bled

at the nose. Another burial. Once more we set sail and hurried down the

Nile. Several men were ill, but the dreaded symptom had not appeared. I

had given each man a strong dose of calomel at the commencement of the

disease; I could do nothing more, as my medicines were exhausted. All

night we could hear the sick, muttering and raving in delirium, but from

years of association with disagreeables we had no fear of the infection.

One morning the boy Saat came to me with his head bound up, and

complained of severe pain in the back and limbs, with all the usual

symptoms of plague: in the afternoon I saw him leaning over the ship’s

side; his nose was bleeding violently! At night he was delirious. On the

following morning he was raving, and on the vessel stopping to collect

firewood he threw himself into the river to cool the burning fever that

consumed him. His eyes were suffused with blood, which, blended with a

yellow as deep as the yolk of egg, gave a horrible appearance to his

face, that was already so drawn and changed as to be hardly recognised.

Poor Saat! the faithful boy that we had adopted, and who had formed so

bright an exception to the dark character of his race, was now a victim

to this horrible disease. He was a fine strong lad of nearly fifteen,

and he now lay helplessly on his mat, and cast wistful glances at the

face of his mistress as she gave him a cup of cold water mixed with a

few lumps of sugar that we had obtained from the traders at Gondokoro.

 

We arrived at Fashoder, in the Shillook country, where the Egyptian

Government had formed a camp of a thousand men to take possession of the

country. We were well received and hospitably entertained by Osman Bey,

to whom our thanks are due for the first civilized reception after years

of savagedom. At Fashoder we procured lentils, rice, and dates, which

were to us great luxuries, and would be