It was then announced that—-inasmuch as my
duty compelled me to endeavour to do my utmost
to trace the great river to the sea, and as
the chiefs and the principal men of the Expedition
were resolved to follow me wherever 1
should lead them — on the fifth day from then
we should strike our camp, and form a new
and separate camp, and that on the sixth day
we should embark, and begin our journey down
the river to the ocean— or to death.
Said I: “ Into whichever sea this great river
empties, there shall we follow it. You have
seen that I have saved you a score of times,
when everything looked black and dismal for
us. That care of you to which you owe your
safety hitherto, I shall maintain, until I have seen
you safe and sound in your own homes, and
under your own palm-trees. All I ask of you
is, perfect trust in whatever I say. On your
lives depends my own; if I risk yours, I risk
mine. As a father looks after his children, I
will look after you. It is true we are not so
strong as when the. Wanyaturu. attacked us, or
when we marched through Unyoro to Muta
Nzige, but we are of the same band of men,
and we are still of the same spirit. Many of
our party have already died, but death is the
end of all; and if they died earlier than we, it
was the will of God, and who shall rebel
against His will? It may be we shall meet a
hundred wild tribes yet who, for the sake of
eating us, will rush to meet and fight us. We
have no wish to molest them. We have moneys
with us, and are, therefore, not poor. It they
fight us, we must accept it as an evil, like disease,
which we cannot help. We shall continue
to do our utmost to make friends, and the river
is wide and deep. If we fight, we fight for our
lives. It may be that we shall be distressed by
famine and want. It may be that we shall meet
with many more cataracts, or find ourselves
before a great lake, whose wild waves we cannot
cross with these canoes; but we are not
children, we have heads, and arms, and are we
not always under the eye of God, who will do
with us as He sees fit? Therefore, my children,
make up your minds as I have made up mine,
that as we are now in the very middle of this
continent, and it would be just as bad to return
as to go on, that we shall continue our journey,
that we shall toil on, and on, by this river and
no other, to the salt sea.” *
* A poetical friend on hearing, this address brought to my
notice a remarkable coincidence. In one of Tennysons
poems, Ulysses addresses, his followers thus;:
“ My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me,
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads: come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.