VII SECOND EXPEDITION 157 



of the cool, inexhaustible flood, instead of facing the toil- 

 some journey before me through the parched and thirsty tracts 

 ahead. 



It struck me now that I had not made the most of my 

 opportunities on the south bank of the river ; but as there 

 seemed little chance of finding elephants on this side, and it 

 was now too late to return to hunt on the other, I set to work, 

 while waiting for my caravan, to weigh and adjust the donkey- 

 loads, it being most important to have each pair (one for each 

 pannier) exactly the same weight. While doing this rather 

 trying work in the burning sun, on an empty stomach (a bad 

 thing), I got a fresh touch of fever. However, I could not 

 afford to be ill now ; so, though feeling fit for nothing and my 

 head very painful, I disregarded the attack and worked it off. 

 The morning my men were to arrive, I went up stream a little 

 way to shoot a hippo for them. My first shot passed just over 

 one's head, but the second got it, as I could see by the way it 

 turned over. So, returning to camp, I kept a look-out, and in 

 two or three hours I saw it coming floating down. Singing 

 out to the men, several of them plunged into the river with a 

 rope to meet it, and, before it got far past the landing-place, 

 succeeded in making fast to it ; but in trying to haul it in the 

 rope broke. Luckily, though, it got stranded in shallow water 

 near the bank a little lower down ; and, being a fat cow, it 

 came in particularly handy ; for my men from Mtiya's had just 

 arrived opposite, so that, on their being ferried over later on, 

 all hands were made happy. 



It only now remained to cross the donkeys, which arrived 

 next day. We, on our side, made our way over to the top 

 island, to do which we had to ford several channels. The first, 

 where the current was very strong, we crossed by the aid of a 

 rope stretched across and made fast at each end (even then it 

 was no easy matter, as the bottom was all boulders) ; another 

 was up to our necks, but with hardly any current and a better 

 bottom. Having arrived on the bank of the main channel, the 



