A little after two o'clock I return to camp, after having wandered
about in the forest and found three very deep holes, down which I
heaved rocks and in no case heard a splash.
In one I did not hear
the rocks strike, owing to the great depth. I hate holes, and
especially do I hate these African ones, for I am frequently
falling, more or less, into them, and they will be my end.
The other demijohns of water have not arrived yet, and we are
getting anxious again because the men's food has not come up, and
they have been so exceedingly thirsty that they have drunk most of
the water - not, however, since it has been in Monrovia's charge; but
at 3.15 another boy comes through the bush with another demijohn of
water. We receive him gladly, and ask him about the chop. He knows
nothing about it. At 3.45 another boy comes through the bush with
another demijohn of water; we receive him kindly; HE does not know
anything about the chop. At 4.10 another boy comes through the bush
with another demijohn of water, and knowing nothing about the chop,
we are civil to him, and that's all.
A terrific tornado which has been lurking growling about then sits
down in the forest and bursts, wrapping us up in a lively kind of
fog, with its thunder, lightning, and rain. It was impossible to
hear, or make one's self heard at the distance of even a few paces,
because of the shrill squeal of the wind, the roar of the thunder,
and the rush of the rain on the trees round us. It was not like
having a storm burst over you in the least; you felt you were in the
middle of its engine-room when it had broken down badly. After half
an hour or so the thunder seemed to lift itself off the ground, and
the lightning came in sheets, instead of in great forks that flew
like flights of spears among the forest trees. The thunder,
however, had not settled things amicably with the mountain; it
roared its rage at Mungo, and Mungo answered back, quivering with a
rage as great, under our feet. One feels here as if one were
constantly dropping, unasked and unregarded, among painful and
violent discussions between the elemental powers of the Universe.
Mungo growls and swears in thunder at the sky, and sulks in white
mist all the morning, and then the sky answers back, hurling down
lightnings and rivers of water, with total disregard of Mungo's
visitors. The way the water rushes down from the mountain wall
through the watercourses in the jungle just above, and then at the
edge of the forest spreads out into a sheet of water that is an inch
deep, and that flies on past us in miniature cascades, trying the
while to put out our fire and so on, is - quite interesting. (I
exhausted my vocabulary on those boys yesterday.)
As soon as we saw what we were in for, we had thrown dry wood on to
the fire, and it blazed just as the rain came down, so with our
assistance it fought a good fight with its fellow elements, spitting
and hissing like a wild cat. It could have managed the water fairly
well, but the wind came, very nearly putting an end to it by
carrying away its protecting bough house, which settled on
"Professor" Kefalla, who burst out in a lecture on the foolishness
of mountaineering and the quantity of devils in this region. Just
in the midst of these joys another boy came through the bush with
another demijohn of water. We did not receive him even civilly; I
burst out laughing, and the boys went off in a roar, and we shouted
at him, "Where them chop?" "He live for come," said the boy, and we
then gave him a hearty welcome and a tot of rum, and an hour
afterwards two more boys appear, one carrying a sack of rice and
beef for the men, and the other a box for me from Herr Liebert,
containing a luxurious supply of biscuits, candles, tinned meats,
and a bottle of wine and one of beer.
We are now all happy, though exceeding damp, and the boys sit round
the fire, with their big iron pot full of beef and rice, busy
cooking while they talk. Wonderful accounts of our prodigies of
valour I hear given by Xenia, and terrible accounts of what they
have lived through from the others, and the men who have brought up
the demijohns and the chop recount the last news from Buea. James's
wife has run away again.
I have taken possession of two demijohns of water and the rum
demijohn, arranging them round the head of my bed. The worst of it
is those tiresome bees, as soon as the rain is over, come in
hundreds after the rum, and frighten me continually. The worthless
wretches get intoxicated on what they can suck from round the cork,
and then they stagger about on the ground buzzing malevolently.
When the boys have had the chop and a good smoke, we turn to and
make up the loads for to-morrow's start up the mountain, and then,
after more hot tea, I turn in on my camp bed - listening to the soft
sweet murmur of the trees and the pleasant, laughing chatter of the
men.
September 25th. - Rolled off the bed twice last night into the bush.
The rain has washed the ground away from under its off legs, so that
it tilts; and there were quantities of large longicorn beetles about
during the night - the sort with spiny backs; they kept on getting
themselves hitched on to my blankets and when I wanted civilly to
remove them they made a horrid fizzing noise and showed fight -
cocking their horns in a defiant way.
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