148 THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. fJune 3, 1877.1
I Massassa. I
worthless Goee-Goee,” he replied, “for all the
natives to stare at me? No, indeed! Anyhow I
' must wait here all day without food, eh?”
“ It will not be long, master; in a quarter of
an hour I can reach camp, and in another half
I can be back, bringing food and hammock.”
“ Oh, it’s all mighty fine,” replied Frank, his
temper rising at the idea of being carried, which
he supposed would cause him to be made a
laughing-stock to everybody. “ I don’t believe
this fall is as bad as you say it is. The noise
is not like that of the fall which we have passed
and I feel sure if I went to look at it myself I
would soon find a way.”
“Well, if you doubt me, send Mpwapwa and
Shumari and Marzouk to see, and if they say
there is a road I will try it if you command me,”
Then Frank despatched two of them to examine,
and after a few moments they returned, saying
it was impassable by water.
Frank laughed bitterly, and said, “ I knew
what you would say. The Wangwana are always
cowardly in the water; the least little ripple
has before this been magnified into a great wave.
If I had only four white men with me I would
soon show you whether we could pass it or not.”
Frank referred, no doubt, to his companions
on the Medway or Thames, as by profession he
was a bargeman or a waterman, and being a
capital swimmer had many a time exhibited to
the admiring people, especially at Nzabi Creek, ;
his skill in the art of swimming and diving. At
the death of Kalulu he expressed great surprise
that not one of the five then lost had been
saved, and declared his conviction that Kalulu
Falls would never have drowned him, upon
which I had described a whirlpool to him, and
when, with an apparent instinct for the water,
he sought occasions to exhibit his dexterity, I
had cautioned him against being too venturesome,
and kept him to his land duties. The
success of Nubi, who was also a good swimmer,
at the whirlpool of the Lady Alice Rapids, confirmed
him in his idea that a perfect swimmer
ran no danger from them. At this moment he
forgot all my caution, and probably his high
spirit had secretly despised it. But he was also
goading brave men to their and his own destruction.
His infirmity manifested itself in jeering
at the men for whom with me he had not sufficient
adjectives at command to describe their
sterling worth; for he, as well as I, was well
aware of Uledi’S'daring, and of his heroic exploit
at the Fifth Cataract of the Stanley Falls he was
himself a witness. Poor Frank, had some good
angel but warned me of this scene, how easily
he had been saved!
“ Little master,” said the coxswain gravely,
stung to the quick, “ neither white men nor black
men can go down this river alive, and I do not