health; for the great cataract gorge and table,
land above it, besides abounding in ants, mos-
quitoes, and vermin, are infested with three
dangerous insects, which prey upon the lower
limbs of man— the “jigga” from Brazil, the guinea-
worm, and an entozoon, which, depositing its
eggs in the muscles, produces a number of short
fat worms and severe tumours. I also discovered,
from the examples in my camp, that the least
abrasion of the skin was likely, if not covered,
to result in an ulcer. My own person testified
to this, for an injury to the thumb of my left
hand, injured by a fall on the rocks at Gamfwe’s,
had culminated in a painful wound, which I daily
cauterized; but though bathed, burned, plastered,
and bandaged twice a day, I had been at this
time a sufferer for over a month.
At this period we were all extremely liable
to disease, for our - system was impoverished.
Four of my people suffered from chronic dysentery
and eight from large and painful ulcers;
the itch disease was rabid— about a dbzen of
the men were fearful objects of its virulence,
though they were not incapacitated from duty
— and there were two victims of a low fever
which no medicine seemed to relieve.
In the absence of positive knowledge as to
how long we might be toiling in the cataracts,
we were all compelled to be extremely economical.
Goat and pig meat were such luxuries that
rApril 28, 1877.1 REDUCED TO POOR FARE. 1 01 [ Inkisi F a l ls . J
we declined to think of them as being possible
with our means; tea, coffee, sugar, sardines, were
fast receding into the memory-land of past
pleasures, and chickens had reached such prices
that they were rare in our camp. We possessed
one ram from far Uregga, and Mirambo, the
black riding-ass— the other two asses had died
a few weeks before— but we should have deserved
the name of cannibals had we dared to
think of sacrificing the pets of the camp. Therefore—
by the will of the gods— contentment had
to be found in boiled “ duff,” or cold cassava
bread, ground-nuts, or pea-nuts, yams, and green
bananas. To make such strange food palatable
was an art that we possessed in a higher degree
than our poor comrades. They were supplied
with the same materials as we ourselves, but
! the preparation was different. My dark followers
simply dried their cassava, and then pounding
it made the meal into porridge. Ground-nuts
they threw into the ashes, and when sufficiently
baked ate them like hungry men.
For me such food was too crude: besides,
my stomach, called to sustain a brain and body
strained to the utmost by responsibilities, required
that some civility should be showri. to it.
1 Necessity roused my faculties, and a jaded stomach
goaded my inventive powers to a high pitch.
I called my faithful cook, told him to clean and
wash mortar and pestle for the preparation of