58 ROUTE TO MINEENG A.
To describe this country and its inhabitants, I devote
the present chapter.
The whole route was fine; never once did we lose
sight of trees, wooded hills, or valleys, while water was
everywhere abundant. The forest was what might be
called “ Donkey or Zebra forest”—bare-poled trees and
no underwood. The hills, now close, now distant,
were richly clothed and exceedingly graceful, reminding
me of the Trosachs. Grey rocks looked out in
fantastic shapes from amongst the trees. Huge blocks
lay one over the other, or abruptly ended a range of
bill. The valleys had been cleared by the axe, the
wild grasses were most luxuriant, and palisaded villages
were often met with. We had not to leave the
path in order to pluck the Indian corn. Our way led
from one valley to another, or threaded the green forest,
which rang with the songs of our followers. Generally
the road was of fine sand, which, when lately
washed by the rains, was loose and yellow. Once it
crossed a quicksand, the only one I recollect seeing in
Africa—very shaky and watery—along which a patch
of rice grew. Two streams running west were forded;
the Gombe, twenty yards across, there only 4ij feet
deep—and with no current, merely a gentle flow of
mud-coloured water; its banks well wooded and shelving
: our men shouldered us across, but there were
some rickety canoes made of bark lying on the left
bank. The other we crossed at night in two channels
running also west, but said to be dry one half of the
year, although now it was breast-deep, with a current
that nearly bore me down in my weak state. Attacks
of fever came on about every tenth day, lasting
eight and ten hours, with from two to five days of
CAPE RIFLEMEN OBLIGED TO RETURN. 59
nausea and fevered brain. Speke, who had been so
long in Africa, was not subject to them, but our men
were constantly laid up. One died, and the poor Cape
riflemen were such martyrs to fevers and sore eyes,
that they confessed they could not stand the hardships
of the journey, and were sent back to Kazeh, saying
they were sorry they had come so far. We were told
that smallpox was the most fatal disease in this part
of the country, but we saw no cases. The general
elevation of the country is 3400 feet, rising gently up
to the low ranges of hills everywhere around. It is
more open than Ünyanyembe. Mists rarely lie, except
on the bill-tops after rain. The greatest fall measured
was three-fourths of an inch in half an hour, after a
storm, which burst overhead with fearful concussions
of thunder at 3 p.m. of the 13th April. This may be
described as the grand finale to the rainy season.
Every morning the dews lay heavily, and a S.E. wind
blew, but the coolest breeze was when from S. by W.
The daily temperature inside a hut was 78° to 80° at
1 p.m. During the day the sky was generally clear,
with a fierce sun; but the air in the mornings and
evenings was deliciously cool, a fire at night being
cheery and comfortable. No dust-storms troubled
us, otherwise the open huts would have been uninhabitable.
Drinking water was always sweet and
refreshing. At Mineenga a copious spring gushed
out of the shell of a tree lying level with the
earth in the centre of a rice-field. This was the well
of the village; from its position it was considered a
phenomenon, and was looked on with veneration, as
it afforded cool water the whole year round—a rare
blessing.