How I Found Livingstone by Henry M. Stanley (trending books to read .txt) 📕
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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
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