He Immediately Pointed To Canopus, Which
I Knew By Speke's Map Should Be The Direction Of Rionga's Islands, And I
Charged Him With The Deceit.
He appeared very much astonished, and asked
me "why I wanted a guide if I knew the way?" confessing
That Karuma
Falls were "a little to the east of the star." I thanked Speke and Grant
at that moment, and upon many other occasions, for the map they had so
generously given me! It has been my greatest satisfaction to have
completed their great discovery, and to bear testimony to the
correctness of their map and general observations.
The march was exceedingly fatiguing: there was a swamp at least every
half hour during the day, at each of which we had the greatest
difficulty in driving the oxen, who were above the girths in mud. One
swamp was so deep that we had to carry the luggage piecemeal on an
angarep by about twelve men, and my wife being subjected to the same
operation was too heavy, and the people returned with her as
impracticable. I accordingly volunteered for service, and carried her on
my back; but when in the middle of the swamp, the tenacious bottom gave
way, and I sank, and remained immoveably fixed, while she floundered
froglike in the muddy water. I was extricated by the united efforts of
several men, and she was landed by being dragged through the swamp. We
marched for upwards of ten hours per day, so great were the delays in
crossing the morasses and in clearing off the grass jungle by burning.
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