Bound for Khartoum Once More 



rocks. Thus we reached Uganda safe and sound 

 once more after a most delightful ten days' 

 trip. 



The next thine to be done on our forward 

 march was to negotiate the Assua river. It was 

 certain to be much swollen by the rains, if not in 

 actual flood, and would in any case cause some 

 trouble, as the swirl of the current is always great, 

 and large numbers of crocodiles come up from 

 the Nile to lie in wait and prey upon the game 

 going down to drink at the river's edge. How- 

 ever, I was informed that there was a big dug- 

 out canoe wherewith to transport our kit and 

 the odds and ends which one collects on a long 

 journey. 



The worst was in store for us. We arrived 

 drenched to the skin by a heavy rainstorm, and 

 stood shivering and shaking on the bank whilst I 

 let off a gun to attract the notice of the canoe 

 men who lived on the further bank. When they 

 appeared, it was to impart the sad news that 

 the only canoe available had been washed away 

 the night before owing to the silly owl in charge 

 of it having neither pulled it high and dry 

 enough to escape a flood, nor made it fast by a 

 rope. That is the savage mind all over ! The 

 river was well above the tops of the banks, and 

 to cross was quite out of the question. I might 

 have swum it, and so could a few of the rest, but 

 the baggage ! There was nothing for it but to 



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