It Was About An Hour After Sunset, And Being Dark, My Riding Ox,
Who Was Being Driven As Too Weak To Carry Me, Fell Into An Elephant
Pitfall.
After much hallooing, a canoe was brought from the island,
which was not more than fifty yards from the mainland, and we were
ferried across.
We were both very ill with a sudden attack of fever; and
my wife, not being able to stand, was, on arrival at the island, carried
on a litter I knew not whither, escorted by some of my men, while I lay
down on the wet ground quite exhausted with the annihilating disease. At
length the remainder of my men crossed over, and those who had carried
my wife to the village returning with firebrands, I managed to creep
after them with the aid of a long stick, upon which I rested with both
hands. After a walk, through a forest of high trees, for about a quarter
of a mile, I arrived at a village where I was shown a wretched hut, the
stars being visible through the roof. In this my wife lay dreadfully ill
upon her angarep, and I fell down upon some straw. About an hour later,
a violent thunderstorm broke over us, and our hut was perfectly flooded;
we, being far too ill and helpless to move from our positions, remained
dripping wet and shivering with fever until the morning. Our servants
and people had, like all natives, made themselves much more comfortable
than their employers; nor did they attempt to interfere with our misery
in any way until summoned to appear at sunrise.
The island of Patooan was about half a mile long by 150 yards wide, and
was one of the numerous masses of rocks that choke the river between
Karuma Falls and the great Murchison cataract. The rock was entirely of
grey granite, from the clefts of which beautiful forest trees grew so
thickly that the entire island was in shade. In the middle of this
secluded spot was a considerable village, thickly inhabited, as the
population of the mainland had fled from their dwellings and had taken
refuge upon the numerous river islands, as the war was raging between
Rionga and Kamrasi. A succession of islands from the east of Patooan
continued to within a march of Karuma Falls. These were in the
possession of Rionga, and a still more powerful chief and ally, Fowooka,
who were the deadly enemies of Kamrasi.
It now appeared that after my departure from M'rooli to search for the
lake, Ibrahim had been instructed by Kamrasi to accompany his army, and
attack Fowooka. This had been effected, but the attack had been confined
to a bombardment by musketry from the high cliffs of the river upon the
people confined upon one of the islands. A number of men had been
killed, and Ibrahim had returned to Gondokoro with a quantity of ivory
and porters supplied by Kamrasi; but he had left ten of his armed men as
hostages with the king, to act as his guard until he should return on
the following year to Unyoro.
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