OUR STATIONS ON THE NILE 193 



gold. I saw scores and scores of these birds solemnly sitting 

 on the trees, when I journeyed from Fovira to Mruli by the 

 road which gives a view of the Nile almost the whole way. It 

 was here, that I shot a specimen of the Unyoro guinea-fowl. I 

 was anxious to secure it; but two of the Soudanese soldiers, 

 eager to bring me the bird, managed to pull out the whole of 

 its tail and a handful or two of other feathers. This brings to 

 my mind, that I once saw a Swahili porter carrying a chicken 

 ready plucked but left alive, and tied to his belt. I had the 

 chicken at once killed and the porter punished. 



I have noticed at times diametrically opposite qualities in 

 a Swahili. He will share whatever he is eating with anybody 

 who holds out his hand for a portion of it, and he will allow his 

 sick companion to die of hunger and thirst before his very eyes. 

 He will follow bravely into the very thickest of the fight, with 

 death staring him in the face, and he will run away and hide 

 himself when a few shots are lired near him. He will fight and 

 quarrel to be allowed to carry the heaviest tusk of ivory, and he 

 will be equally quarrelsome to get the lightest load. And yet, 

 when I said good-bye to Fort Fovira and returned to Masindi, 

 I was glad that at least half of my porters were Swahilies, for 

 they are well-accustomed to caravan work. 



Fajao, the other Government station on the Nile, is not a 

 fort ; it is purely and simply a military settlement. The scenery 

 at Fajao is the very opposite of what one sees at Fovira. Instead 

 of having a silent river, one hears the ceaseless roar of the Mur- 

 chison Falls ; instead of the open fiat country, one sees steep 

 hills and lofty forest trees ; instead of having the peaceful 

 Lango as neighbours, the hostile Shuli hold the opposite bank. 

 Crocs and hippos swarm in the river, and lions infest the neigh- 

 bourhood. Instead of a healthy station, the climate must try 

 every white man's constitution, if stationed here for any length 

 of time ; death and danger surround him by land and by water, 

 and all his energies are called forth to guard against them. 



There was no hospital at Fajao, but Major Thruston most 

 kindly gave me carte blanche to build one. " Build it where 

 you like, how you like, what you like, and stay as long as you 

 like," was his way of summing it up. Thereupon I set to work, 

 and in twelve days had built the hospital shown in the illus- 

 tration. A row of patients may be seen calling at the hut which 

 serves as dispensary ; next to it is an open shed which answers 



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