CHAPTER XLIII 



A Brave German Among the Cannibals 



OF those travelers who, starting from the north, have penetrated 

 to the heart of Africa, the two most daring and successful have 

 undoubtedly been Sir Samuel Baker and Dr. Schweinfurth, the 

 German naturalist and explorer. Schweinfurth was no novice in 

 travel. In 1863 he had traveled for two years through Egypt and 

 Abyssinia, and advanced to Khartoum, where his purse having become 

 empty, he was compelled to return to Germany, bringing with him a 

 magnificent collection of plants to enrich the European museums. But 

 he longed to go back to complete a more extended plan of exploration 

 which he had conceived, and at last, in 1868, having received a grant 

 of money from the Humboldt Institution, he set forth on his long and 

 now famous journey to Central Africa, 



Of his experiences on the way to Khartoum little need be said. 

 He went by steamer down the Red Sea to Suakin, and thence overland 

 to the Nile, arriving there, the real starting-point of his journey, on 

 November i, 1868. His course now for some distance lay by boat 

 up the Nile to the Gazelle River. In the neighborhood of Kaka an 

 unfortunate adventure befell him, that of being nearly stung to death 

 by bees. Sitting quietly in his cabin one day, he heard shouts from his 

 men, who, trudging along the bank, had been towing the boat, but now 

 rushed frantically on^ board again, pursued by a swarm of bees that 

 they had disturbed among the grass. The bees closely followed them, 

 and a scene of wild confusion ensued' on board. The savage insects 

 were everywhere. Schweinfurth covered his face with his handker- 

 chief and flung his arms about, but the more he gesticulated, the more 

 irritated the furious insects became. They stung him mercilessly on 

 his cheeks, his eyelids, beneath his hair, until perfectly maddened, he 

 leaped overboard; but even then they did not leave him alone, for 

 whenever he raised his head above water the stings rained upon him 

 afresh. He was compelled to go on board again, and there taking a 



