372 CAMERON'S JOURXEV ACROSS AFRfCA 



jumped out, seized the baskets and instantly opened a bottle to drink 

 'to the honor of the first European who had ever succeeded in crossing 

 tropical Africa from east to west/ For this hearty welcome I found 

 I was indebted to Monsieur Cauchoix, an old officer of the French 

 navy, who had settled as a merchant at Benguella. Hearing of my 

 approach between ten and eleven o'clock the night before, he had im- 

 mediately started ofif to meet me. His other baskets w-ere also full of 

 provisions, which he distributed to my men, throwing loaves of bread 

 at the hungry mortals; after which we moved on, and in a few min- 

 utes arrived at a house which he owned in Katombela." 



Arrangements were at once made for sending relief to the men 

 behind, and then Cameron very unwillingly found himself so seriously 

 ill that he had with all haste to be carried in a hammock to the hospital 

 at Benguella. Flis tongue w^as so swollen that it projected beyond 

 his teeth, blood flowed copiously from his mouth, and his body was an 

 extraordinary sight, covered with blotches of a variety of shades, 

 purple, blue, black and green, the rest of the skin being a deadly white. 

 He was indeed in a dangerous state; and probably if the illness had 

 come on a few days before, his life must have been lost. As it was, 

 with careful nursing and the gradual administration of natural food, 

 the crisis passed'; before long, he was al)le to eat and go about again 

 as usual, and had the satisfaction of seeing the remarkable kaleidos- 

 copic appearance of his skin rapidly fade away. 



There is little more to be told. From Loanda the men who had 

 accompanied him from Zanzibar were sent back in a schooner he 

 specially bought for the purpose, and Cameron himself took passage 

 in the steamer ''Congo" for Liverpool, where he arrived on the 26. of 

 April, three years and four months after his departure. 



