Frank would be ready to give me welcome
and such a meal as the country afforded.
At Gamfwe’s the natives sold us abundance of
bread, or rolls of pudding, of cassava flour, maize
cassava leaves, water-cresses, and the smallStrych-
nos fruit, and, for the first time, lemons. Fowls
were very dear, and a goat was too expensive a
luxury in our now rapidly impoverishing state,
On the 8th we descended from Gamfwe’s
to “Whirlpool Narrows,” opposite Umvilingya.
When near there we perceived that the eddy
tides, which rushed up river along the bank,
required very delicate and skilful manoeuvring,
I experimented on the boat first, and attempted
to haul her by cables round a rocky point from
the bay near Whirlpool Narrows. Twice they
snapped ropes and cables, and the second time
the boat flew up river, borne on the crests of
brown waves, with only Uledi and two men in
her. Presently she wheeled into the bay, following
the course of the eddy, and Uledi brought
her in-shore. The third time we tried the operation
with six cables of twisted rattan, about
200 feet in length, with five men to each cable.
The rocks rose singly in precipitous masses
50 feet above the river, and this extreme height
increased the difficulty and rendered footing
precarious, for furious eddies of past ages had
drilled deep circular pits, like ovens, in them,.
4, 6, even 10 feet deep. HoweveV, wjth the utrAprU
8-9, 1877.] a t THE “ WHIRLPOOL [ Umvilingya’s. J NARROWS.” 81
most patience we succeeded in rounding these
enormous blocks, and hauling the boat against
the uneasy eddy tide to where the river resumed
its natural downward flow. Below this, as I
learned, were some two miles of boisterous
water; but mid-river, though foaming in places,
was not what we considered dangerous. We
therefore resolved to risk it in mid-stream, and
the boat’s crew, never backward when they knew
what lay in front of them, manned the boat,
and in fifteen minutes we had taken her into a
small creek near Umvilingya’s landing, which fan
up river between a ridge of rocks and the right
bank. This act instilled courage into the canoe-
men, and the boat-boys having volunteered to act
as steersmen, with Frank as leader, all manned the
canoes next morning, and succeeded in reaching
my camp in good time without accident, though
one canoe was taken within 200 yards of Round
Island Falls, between Isameh’s and Umvilingya’s.
At this plaice Frank and I treated ourselves
to a pig, which we purchased from the chief
Umvilingya for four cloths, we having been
more than two weeks without meat.
On the 1 oth, having, because of illness, entrusted
the boat to Manwa Sera and Uledi, they
managed to get her jammed between two rocks
near the entrance to Gavubu’s Cove, and, as the
after-section was sunk for a time, it appeared
that the faithful craft would be lost here after
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. VOL. IV. G