In the Heart of Africa | Page 4

primitive craft--Stalking the giraffes--My first giraffes-Rare sport
with the finny tribe--Thieving elephants
CHAPTER VI.

Preparations for advance--Mek Nimmur makes a foray--The Hamran
elephant-hunters--In the haunts of the elephant-- A desperate charge
CHAPTER VII.
The start from Geera--Feats of horsemanship--A curious chase-- Abou
Do wins a race--Capturing a young buffalo--Our island camp--Tales of
the Base
CHAPTER VIII.
The elephant trumpets--Fighting an elephant with swords-- The
forehead-shot--Elephants in a panic--A superb old Neptune--The
harpoon reaches its aim--Death of the hippopotamus--Tramped by an
elephant
CHAPTER IX.
Fright of the Tokrooris--Deserters who didn't desert--Arrival of the
Sherrif brothers--Now for a tally-ho!--On the heels of the
rhinoceroses--The Abyssinian rhinoceros--Every man for himself
CHAPTER X.
A day with the howartis--A hippo's gallant fight--Abou Do leaves
us--Three yards from a lion--Days of delight--A lion's furious
rage--Astounding courage of a horse
CHAPTER XI.
The bull-elephant--Daring Hamrans--The elephant helpless--Visited by
a minstrel--A determined musician--The nest of the outlaws-- The
Atbara River
CHAPTER XII.
Abyssinian slave-girls--Khartoum--The Soudan under Egyptian rule--

Slave-trade in the Soudan--The obstacles ahead
CHAPTER XIII.
Gondokoro--A mutiny quelled--Arrival of Speke and Grant--The
sources of the Nile-Arab duplicity--The boy-slave's story--Saat adopted
CHAPTER XIV.
Startling disclosures--The last hope seems gone--The Bari chief's
advice--Hoping for the best--Ho for Central Africa!
CHAPTER XV.
A start made at last--A forced march--Lightening the ship--Waiting for
the caravan--Success hangs in the balance--The greatest rascal in
Central Africa--Legge demands another bottle
CHAPTER XVI.
The greeting of the slave-traders--Collapse of the mutiny--African
funerals-Visit from the Latooka chief--Bokke makes a suggestion--
Slaughter of the Turks--Success as a prophet--Commoro's philosophy
CHAPTER XVII.
Disease in the camp--Forward under difficulties--Our cup of misery
overflows--A rain-maker in a dilemma-Fever again--Ibrahim's
quandary-Firing the prairie
CHAPTER XVIII.
Greeting from Kamrasi's people--Suffering from the sins of
others-Alone among savages--The free-masonry of Unyoro.--Pottery
and civilization
CHAPTER XIX.

Kamrasi's cowardice--Interview with the king--The exchange of
blood-- The rod beggar's last chance--An astounded sovereign
CHAPTER XX.
A satanic escort--Prostrated by sun-stroke--Days and nights of
sorrow--The reward for all our labor
CHAPTER XXI.
The cradle of the Nile--Arrival at Magungo--The blind leading the
blind--Murchison Falls
CHAPTER XXII.
Prisoners on the island--Left to starve--Months of helpless- ness--We
rejoin the Turks--The real Kamrasi--In the presence of royalty
CHAPTER XXIII.
The hour of deliverance--Triumphal entry into Gondokoro-- Homeward
bound--The plague breaks out--Our welcome at Khartoum--Return to
civilization
IN THE HEART OF AFRICA.
CHAPTER I.
The Nubian desert--The bitter well--Change of plans--An irascible
dragoman--Pools of the Atbara--One secret of the Nile--At Cassala.
In March, 1861, I commenced an expedition to discover the sources of
the Nile, with the hope of meeting the East African expedition of
Captains Speke and Grant, that had been sent by the English
Government from the South via Zanzibar, for the same object. I had not
the presumption to publish my intention, as the sources of the Nile had
hitherto defied all explorers, but I had inwardly determined to

accomplish this difficult task or to die in the attempt. From my youth I
had been inured to hardships and endurance in wild sports in tropical
climates, and when I gazed upon the map of Africa I had a wild hope,
mingled with humility, that, even as the insignificant worm bores
through the hardest oak, I might by perseverance reach the heart of
Africa.
I could not conceive that anything in this world has power to resist a
determined will, so long as health and life remain. The failure of every
former attempt to reach the Nile source did not astonish me, as the
expeditions had consisted of parties, which, when difficulties occur,
generally end in difference of opinion and in retreat; I therefore
determined to proceed alone, trusting in the guidance of a Divine
Providence and the good fortune that sometimes attends a tenacity of
purpose. I weighed carefully the chances of the undertaking. Before me,
untrodden Africa; against me, the obstacles that had defeated the world
since its creation; on my side, a somewhat tough constitution, perfect
independence, a long experience in savage life, and both time and
means, which I intended to devote to the object without limit.
England had never sent an expedition to the Nile sources previous to
that under the command of Speke and Grant. Bruce, ninety years before,
had succeeded in tracing the source of the Blue or Lesser Nile; thus the
honor of that discovery belonged to Great Britain. Speke was on his
road from the South, and I felt confident that my gallant friend would
leave his bones upon the path rather than submit to failure. I trusted that
England would not be beaten, and although I hardly dared to hope that I
could succeed where others greater than I had failed, I determined to
sacrifice all in the attempt.
Had I been alone, it would have been no hard lot to die upon the
untrodden path before me; but there was one who,