THE ALBERT NYANZA 



the lake itself. Presently Wanaka pointed to the west, 

 where I could just make out the rugged outline of the 

 Bulegga mountains fully fort)- miles away. I stood as 

 though mesmerized. It was too grand for words. I 

 have experienced the fascination of South Africa, with 

 its kopjes and boundless undulating veldt and barren 

 land, wild Zululand with its lovely valleys, soft rippling 

 streams and mountain paths richly endowed with nature's 

 rugged grandeur, the glorious scenery of far away Aus- 

 tralasia, and the islands of the Great Pacific, but they 

 must all give way to the mountains, forests, and rivers 

 of Central Africa, where dwell a people still wilder — if 

 that be possible — than their surroundings. 



The crooning lullaby of the native fisherman came 

 from below, as he sat in the stern of his dugout canoe 

 plying the broad-bladed paddle as the little craft skimmed 

 gracefully over the shining waters, gradually fading away 

 into obscurity. Even the boys spoke in whispers, for 

 they too had recognized that we were alone with nature 

 wild and undisturbed as it was centuries ago. There it 

 was, just as Baker saw it on that eventful morning of 

 March 14th, 1864. 



Threading our way down the stony path, winding in 

 and out among the trees, we began to walk the remaining 

 few miles along the sandy shore to Butiaba. A slight 

 breeze sprang up from the south-west, and very shortly 

 the sun had kissed the Bulegga mountain peaks that rose 

 thousands of feet sheer from the water's edge in the 

 west. Gaunt forbidding sentinels of the Congo ! What 

 strange people dwell behind you ! The dwarfs and others 

 with their poisoned implements of war — cannibalism with 

 all its attendant horrors. A people that cannot tell us 

 of their past. The ages gone by are all a blank to them. 

 These people are akin to the beasts of the forest, inasmuch 

 as they care only for the present. They live for the 

 present, the past is gone, no records have been written 



33 d 



