The Mammoth Book of Travel in Dangerous Places (40 page)

We had now left the “Land of the Moon” behind us, and entered upon a new district. The road before us lay through a howling wilderness, and the march lay along the right bank of a
malarial river, and the mosquitoes feasted right royally upon our bodies, even in the daytime. A good deal of the ground was very swampy, and it then stretched over jungly and wooded hill-spires,
with steep ascents and descents. Everywhere was thick, fœtid, and putrescent vegetation. The heaviness of this march caused two of our porters to levant and another four to strike work. It
was, therefore, necessary for me to again mount ass ten days after an attack of paralysis. So we dragged on for the next week, throughout the early days of February, a weary toil of fighting
through tiger and spear grass, over broken and slippery paths, and through thick jungle. But these difficulties were lightly borne, for we felt that we must be nearing the end of our journey.

On February 13th we resumed our travel through screens of lofty grass, which thinned out into a straggling forest. After about an hour’s march, as we entered a small savannah, I saw our
Arab leader running forward and changing the direction of the caravan. Presently he breasted a steep and stony hill, sparsely clad with thorny trees. Arrived at the summit with toil, for our fagged
beasts now refused to proceed, we halted for a few minutes and gazed.

“What is that streak of light which lies below?” I inquired of Seedy Bombay, one of our porters.

“I am of opinion,” quoth Seedy, “that is the water.”

I gazed in dismay. The remains of my blindness, the veil of trees, and broad ray of sunshine illuminating but one reach of the lake, had shrunk its fair proportions. Prematurely I began to curse
my folly in having risked life and health for so poor a prize, and even thought of proposing an immediate return with a view of exploring the Nyanza, or Northern Lake. Advancing, however, a few
yards, the whole scene suddenly burst upon my view, filling me with wonder, admiration, and delight. My longing eyes beheld the Tanganyika Lake as it lay in the lap of the mountain, basking in the
gorgeous tropical sunshine. Our journey had not been in vain.

A GLIMPSE OF LAKE VICTORIA

John Hanning Speke

(1827–64)

In July 1858, while returning from Lake Tanganyika with Burton, Speke made a solo excursion to the north in search of an even larger lake reported by an Arab informant.
Although partially blind and unable to ascertain its extent, he named this lake “Victoria” and boldly declared it the long sought source of the White Nile. Burton scoffed at the idea
and thus began exploration’s bitterest controversy. Speke later substantiated his claim but died unaware of Baker’s rival discovery of Lake Albert.

13
th July, 1858
The caravan started at 6.30 a.m., and after travelling eight miles over an open, waving, well-cultivated country, stopped at
the last village in Unyambéwa. The early morning before starting was wasted by the pagazis “striking” for more cloth, and refusing to move unless I complied with their demand. I
peremptorily refused, and they then tried to wheedle me out of beads. In demanding cloth, they pretended that they were suffering from the chilling cold of night – a pretence too absurd to
merit even a civil reply. I then explained to my head men that I would rather anything happened than listen to such imposture as this; for did the men once succeed by tricks of this sort, there
would never be an end to their trying it on, and it would ultimately prove highly injurious to future travellers, especially to merchants. On the route we had nothing to divert attention, save a
single Wasukuma caravan proceeding southwards to Unyanyembé. A sultana called Ungugu governs this district. She is the first and only female that we have seen in this position, though she
succeeded to it after the custom of the country. I imagine she must have had a worthless husband, since every sultan can have as many wives as he pleases, and the whole could never have been
barren. I rallied the porters for pulling up after so short a march, but could not induce them to go on. They declared that forests of such vast extent lay on ahead that it would be quite
impossible to cross them before the night set in. In the evening I had a second cause for being vexed at this loss of time, when every mile and hour was of so much importance; for by our halt the
sultana got news of my arrival, and sent a messenger to request the pleasure of my company at her house on the morrow. In vain I pleaded for permission to go and see her that moment, or to do so on
my return from the N’yanza; her envoy replied that the day was so far spent I could not arrive at her abode till after dark, and she would not have the pleasure of seeing me sufficiently
well. He therefore begged I would attend to the letter of her request, and not fail to visit her in the morning.

The lazy pagazis, smelling flesh, also aided the deputy in his endeavours to detain me, by saying that they could not oppose her majesty’s will, lest at any future time, when they might
want again to pass that way, she should take her revenge upon them. Though this might seem a very reasonable excuse, I doubt much, if their interests had lain the opposite way, whether they would
have been so cautious. However, it was not difficult to detect their motives for bringing forward such an urgent reason against me, as it is a custom in this country that every wealthy traveller or
merchant shall pay a passport-fee, according to his means, to the sultan of the country he travels through, who in return gives a cow or goat as a mark of amity, and this is always shared amongst
the whole caravan.

14th
The sultana’s house was reported to be near, so I thought to expedite the matter by visiting her in person, and thus perhaps gain an afternoon’s march:
otherwise to have sent the Jemadar with a present would have been sufficient, for these creatures are pure Mammonists. Vain hope, trying to do anything in a hurry in Negroland! I started early in
the morning, unfortified within, and escorted by two Beluches, the Kirangozi, three porters, Bombay, and Mabruki.

After walking six miles over a well-cultivated plain, I felt anxious to know what they meant by “near,” and was told, as usual, that the house was close at hand. Distrustful, but
anxious to complete the business as speedily as possible (for to succeed in Africa one must do everything one’s self), I followed the envoy across one of the waves that diversify the face of
the country, descended into a well-cultivated trough-like depression, and mounted a second wave six miles farther on.

Here at last, by dint of perseverance, we had the satisfaction of seeing the palisadoed royal abode. We entered it by an aperture in the tall slender stakes which surround the dwellings and
constitute the palisadoing, and after following up a passage constructed of the same material as the outer fence, we turned suddenly into a yard full of cows – a substitute for an anteroom.
Arrived there, the negroes at once commenced beating a couple of large drums, half as tall as themselves, made something like a beer-barrel, covered on the top with a cow-skin stretched tightly
over, by way of a drum-head. This drumming was an announcement of our arrival, intended as a mark of regal respect.

For ten minutes we were kept in suspense, my eyes the while resting upon the milk-pots which were being filled at mid-day, but I could not get a drop. At the expiration of that time a body of
slaves came rushing in, and hastily desired us to follow them. They led us down the passage by which we entered, and then turned up another one similarly constructed, which brought us into the
centre of the sultana’s establishment – a small court, in which the common negro mushroom huts, with ample eaves, afforded us grateful shelter from the blazing sun. A cow-skin was now
spread, and a wooden stool set for me, that I might assume a better state than my suite, who were squatted in a circle around me. With the usual precaution of African nobles, the lady’s-maid
was first sent to introduce herself – an ugly halting creature, very dirtily garbed, but possessing a smiling contented face. Her kindly mien induced me, starving and thirsty as I was after
my twelve miles’ walk, to ask for eggs and milk – great luxuries, considering how long I had been deprived of them. They were soon procured, and devoured with a voracity that must have
astonished the bystanders.

The maid, now satisfied there was nothing to fear, whether from ghost, goblin, or white face, retired and brought her mistress, a short stumpy old dame, who had seen at least some sixty summers.
Her nose was short, squat, and flabby at the end, and her eyes were bald of brows or lashes; but still she retained great energy of manner, and was blessed with an ever-smiling face. The dress she
wore consisted of an old barsati, presented by some Arab merchant, and was if anything dirtier than her maid’s attire. The large joints of all her fingers were bound up with small copper
wire, her legs staggered under an immense accumulation of anklets made of brass wire wound round elephant’s tail or zebra’s hair; her arms were decorated with huge solid brass rings,
and from other thin brass wire bracelets depended a great assortment of wooden, brazen, horn, and ivory ornaments, cut in every shape of talismanic peculiarity.

Squatting by my side, the sultana at once shook hands. Her nimble fingers first manipulated my shoes (the first point of notice in these barefooted climes), then my overalls, then my waistcoat,
more particularly the buttons, and then my coat – this latter article being so much admired, that she wished I would present it to her, to wear upon her own fair person. Next my hands and
fingers were mumbled, and declared to be as soft as a child’s, and my hair was likened to a lion’s mane. “Where is he going?” was the all-important query. This, without my
understanding, was readily answered by a dozen voices, thus: “He is going to the Lake, to barter his cloth for large hippopotami teeth.” Satisfied with this plausible story, she retired
into privacy, and my slave, taking the hint, soon followed with the hongo (present or tax), duly presented it, and begged permission in my name to depart. But as she had always given a bullock to
the Arabs who visited her, I also must accept one from her, though she could not realise the fact that so scurvy a present as mine could be intended for her, whose pretensions were in no way
inferior to those of the Unyanyembé Sultan. An Arab could not have offered less, and this was a rich Mzungu!

Misfortunes here commenced anew: the bullock she was desirous of giving was out grazing, and could not be caught until the evening, when all the cattle are driven in together. Further, she could
not afford to lose so interesting a personage as her guest, and volunteered to give me a shakedown for the night. I begged she would consider my position – the absolute necessity for my
hurrying – and not insist on my acceptance of the bullock, or be offended by my refusing her kind offer to remain there, but permit our immediate departure. She replied that the word had gone
forth, so the animal must be given; and if I still persisted in going, at any rate three porters could remain behind, and drive it on afterwards. To this I reluctantly consented, and only on the
Kirangozi’s promise to march the following morning. Then, with the usual farewell salutation, “Kuaheré, Mzungu,” from my pertinacious hostess, I was not sorry to retrace my
steps, a good five hours’ walk. We re-entered camp at 7.20 p.m., which is long after dark in regions so near to the equator.

16th
We started at 6 a.m., and travelled eleven miles to Ukamba, a village in the district of Msalala, which is held by a tribe called Wamanda. The first four miles lay
over the cultivated plain of Ibanda, till we arrived at the foot of a ridge of hills, which, gradually closing from the right, intersects the road, and runs into a hilly country extending round the
western side of the aforesaid plain. We now crossed the range, and descended into a country more closely studded with the same description of small hills, but highly cultivated in the valleys and
plains that separate them. About twelve miles to the eastward of Ukamba live a tribe called Wasongo, and to the west, at twenty miles’ distance, are the Waquanda. To-day was fully verified
the absolute futility of endeavouring to march against time in these wild countries. The lazy pagazis finding themselves now, as it were, in clover, a country full of all the things they love,
would not stir one step after 11 a.m. Were time of no consequence, and coloured beads in store, such travelling as this would indeed be pleasant. For the country here, so different from the Ujiji
line, affords not only delightful food for the eyes, but abounds in flesh, milk, eggs, and vegetables in every variety. The son of the Mséné Sultan, who lives between
Unyanyembé and Ujiji, and became great friends with us when travelling there, paid me a visit to-day. He caught me at work with my diary and instruments, and being struck with veneration at
the sight of my twirling compass and literary pursuits, thought me a magician, and begged that I would cast his horoscope, divine the probable extent of his father’s life, ascertain if there
would be any wars, and describe the weather, the prospects of harvest, and what future state the country would lapse into. The shrewd Bombay replied, to save me trouble, that so great a matter
required more days of contemplation than I could afford to give. Provisions were very dear when purchased with white beads, for they were not the fashion, and the people were indifferent to them. I
paid him one loin-cloth for four fowls and nine eggs, though, had I had coloured beads, I might have purchased one hen per khete (or necklace). Had this been a cloth-wearing instead of a
bead-decorating nation, I should have obtained forty fowls for one shukka (or loin-cloth), that being the equivalent value with beads, equal, according to Zanzibar money, to one dollar. It is
always foolish to travel without an assortment of beads, in consequence of the tastes of the different tribes varying so much; and it is more economical in the long-run to purchase high-priced than
low-priced beads when making up the caravan at Zanzibar, for every little trader buys the cheaper sorts, stocks the country with them, and thus makes them common.