Bujuku Valley. — Return of the Expedition. 



to cany down the equipineut in several trips. The tirst party 

 of porters had left Bujongolo ou the 4th July with forty loads. 

 Oil tlie 7th a second caravan went down, accompanied by 

 Roccati and by Cavalli, who liad iiastened his departure when 

 he heard tluit there were porters ill in various camps of the 

 valley, a report wliich proved to lie without foundation. A 

 week later Cagni left Bujongolo witli Laurent Petigax, 

 Brocherel, Igini, and twenty-three natives ; the Duke had left 

 for the Bujuku Valley on the previous day. Finally, on the 

 loth of July, the departure of BuUi with a last party of thirty 

 Bakonjos left Bujongolo deserted. 



All were satisfied with the work done, and were in fine 

 spirits at the prospect of returning home, and left without a 

 reofret the wild rock which had offered them shelter durinsr five 

 weeks. They were glad to leave behind tliem so much mud 

 and stones, the melancholy vegetation consumed by the 

 mildews and lichens, the pallid light of the mists, the 

 everlasting drip of the rain, the damp and the cold, and to 

 get back to the sun and the dry heat of the tropical plains, 

 the life and the colour, the cries of birds, the bright flowers 

 and the gay crowd of thoughtless and noisy Bagandas. 



The Mobuku lliver, swollen Ijy more than fifteen days 

 of continuous rains, was no longer recognizable. It 

 formed magnificent cascades from one of the vallev terraces 

 to another. At every step ou their way down, the parties 

 met porters on their way up to Bujongolo to fetch loads. 



A month before, when they first came up from the plain, the 

 valley had struck them as almost without sound of animal 

 life, but now, after weeks spent in the silence of the mountains 

 where at the utmost an occasional crow hovered overhead, 

 tliey were impressed by every buzzing of insects or fluttering 



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