In the Heart of Africa | Page 4

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, although my greatest comfort, was also my greatest care, one whose life yet dawned at so early an age that womanhood was still a future. I shuddered at the prospect for her, should she be left alone in savage lands at my death; and gladly would I have left her in the luxuries of home instead of exposing her to the miseries of Africa. It was in vain that I implored her to remain, and that I painted the difficulties and perils still blacker than I supposed they really would be. She was resolved, with woman's constancy and devotion, to share all dangers and to follow me through each rough footstep of the wild life before me. "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I