Maula Having Joined Me, We Marched Down To Near The End Of The
Fork Overlooking The Plain Of Kitangule - The Waganada Drums
Beating, And Whistles Playing All The Way We Went Along.
We next descended from the Mountains of the Moon, and spanned a
long alluvial plain to the settlement of the so-long-heard-of
Kitangule, where Rumanika keeps his thousands and thousands of
cows.
In former days the dense green forests peculiar to the
tropics, which grow in swampy places about this plain, were said
to have been stocked by vast herds of elephants; but, since the
ivory trade had increased, these animals had all been driven off
to the hills of Kisiwa and Uhaiya, or into Uddu beyond the river,
and all the way down to the N'yanza.
To-day we reached the Kitangule Kagera, or river, which, as I
ascertained in the year 1858, falls into the Victoria N'yanza on
the west side. Most unfortunately, as we led off to cross it,
rain began to pour, so that everybody and everything was thrown
into confusion. I could not get a sketch of it, though Grant was
more fortunate afterwards; neither could I measure or fathom it;
and it was only after a long contest with the superstitious
boatmen that they allowed me to cross in their canoe with my
shoes on, as they thought the vessel would either upset, or else
the river would dry up, in consequence of their Neptune taking
offence at me. Once over, I looked down on the noble stream with
considerable pride.
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