OUR JOURNEY UP THE WELLE 275 



till the crisis comes when he either takes a sudden turn for 

 the better or death intervenes. From my experience I am 

 incUned to think that blackwater is not a specific disease, 

 but rather a condition resulting from the accumulated poison 

 of repeated attacks of malaria. 



Gosling was already convalescent when Doctor Vedy 

 whom I had sent for arrived from Bambili. The doctor 

 made an examination of his blood and found him very 

 anaemic ; he advised a rest of five days, and after that not 

 more than two or three hours' travelling in a day, to be 

 done in the cool of the morning. 



By April 1 Gosling felt well enough to go on. 



Before reaching Bambih, in a beautiful part of the river 

 where the whole water is lashed into a white foam by the 

 rocks and boulders, and the scenery is wild with wooded 

 banks and islands of stately cocoa-nut palms, Gosling, who 

 was ahead of me, saw the pretty sight of a party of five 

 elephants crossing the river ; he got quite close to them, 

 for they could only move very slowly as they picked their 

 way carefully among the rocks. 



A week later we arrived at Bambili. In the meantime 

 Gosling had recovered wonderfully, but he was still too 

 weak to go out hunting, and this worried him very much. 

 While he remained at Bambili I left with Jose and 

 made a journey of a few hours up the Bomakandi river 

 by which I gained the Ababua country. Here I stayed in 

 a small village to make the last of my forest collections. 

 The Ababua are a fine race inhabiting the forest country 

 between the Likati, Rubi, and Bomakandi rivers. They 

 are intelligent, proud of bearing, and exceptionally well- 



