It Was Useless To Remonstrate - Baraka
Insisted He Would Beat The Woman If She Abused Him, No Matter
Whether I
Thought it cowardly or not; he did not come with me
expecting to be bullied in this way - the whole
Fault lay with
Bombay - I did not do him justice - when he proved Bombay a thief
at Usui, I did not turn him off, but now, instead, I showed the
preference to Bombay by always taking him when I went to
Rumanika. It was useless to argue with such a passionate man, so
I told him to go away and cool himself before morning.
When he was gone, Bombay said there was not one man in the camp,
besides his own set, who wished to go on to Egypt - for they had
constant arguments amongst themselves about it; and whilst Bombay
always said he would follow me wherever I led, Baraka and those
who held by him abused him and his set for having tricked them
away from Zanzibar, under the false hopes that the road was quite
safe. Bombay said his arguments were, that Bana knew better than
anybody else what he was about, and he would follow him, trusting
to luck, as God was the disposer of all things, and men could die
but once. Whilst Baraka's arguments all rested the other way; -
that no one could tell what was ahead of him - Bana had sold
himself to luck and the devil - but though he did not care for his
own safety, he ought not to sacrifice the lives of others - Bombay
and his lot were fools for their pains in trusting to him.
3d. - At daybreak Rumanika sent us word he was off to Moga-
Namarinzi, a spur of a hill beyond "the Little Windermere,"
overlooking the Ingezi Kagera, or river which separates Kishakka
from Karague, to show me how the Kiangule river was fed by small
lakes and marshes, in accordance with my expressed wish to have a
better comprehension of the drainage system of the Mountains of
the Moon. He hoped we would follow him, not by the land route he
intended to take, but in canoes which he had ordered at the ferry
below. Starting off shortly afterwards, I made for the lake, and
found the canoes all ready, but so small that, besides two
paddlers, only two men could sit down in each. After pushing
through the tall reeds with which the end of the lake is covered,
we emerged in the clear open, and skirted the further side of the
water until a small strait was gained, which led us into another
lake, drained at the northern end with a vast swampy plain,
covered entirely with tall rushes, excepting only in a few places
where bald patches expose the surface of the water, or where the
main streams of the Ingezi and Luchoro valleys cut a clear drain
for themselves.
The whole scenery was most beautiful. Green and fresh, the
slopes of the hills were covered with grass, with small clumps of
soft cloudy-looking acacias growing at a few feet only above the
water, and above them, facing over the hills, fine detached
trees, and here and there the gigantic medicinal aloe.
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