450 LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH. 



streams — and there were only too many of these — before we 

 could cross them. You would have been delighted to see the 

 Governor of the province working in the deep water, axe in 

 hand. The Monbuttu are poor hunters, and swimmers are 

 very rarely found among them. 



Shortly before reaching Bellima, I received letters which 

 upset all my plans and obliged me to make a forced march 

 northwards to this place instead of going eastwards. The 

 Dinka had surprised Kumbek during profound peace, put all the 

 garrison and inhabitants to sword, and carried off weapons, 

 ammunition, stores, &c. I am quite at a loss to understand 

 how this happened, and how the people could have acted 

 thus without any incentive — but that is just it ! What can 

 the incentive have been ? I had sent off sufficient rein- 

 forcements to Ayak and Kumbek since the Dinka on the 

 Bahr-el-Ghazal had become refractory, so that I have nothing 

 to reproach myself with. However, I at once forwarded a de- 

 tachment to march from Gambari's past Gango to Logo, and 

 bring the men assembled there to Makraka. I resolved to 

 make for Makraka myself by the shortest way, to send forward 

 reinforcements from there, and, when the greater part of the 

 men from Logo had arrived, to go north with them. 



We followed the old road from Gambari's residence to 

 Mbaga's village, Negunda, and then, after a good march of 

 about seven hours, reached the Kibali, which we crossed 

 immediately. The Dongu flows into it just at this place, and 

 a hypsometrical observation gave the height as 2 1 7 1 feet, 

 which agrees pretty well with the altitudes obtained of the 

 stations Mundii and Dongu, and of this village (Bongere's). 

 Immediately after leaving the river, we entered the boundless 

 steppe ; there were tall, sharp grasses, marshy pools, genuine 

 papyrus swamps, and very scanty woods. We wandered for 

 two whole days in this chaos of grass, making a road for 

 ourselves, for there was no path most of the way, and you know 

 what that work is. The guides we had taken with us proved 

 incompetent from the first, and so we had only the compass to 

 depend on. We passed some Zande dwellings, standing by 

 brooks amidst the woods which line both banks, but they were 

 deserted, so that we could gain no information about the way. 



