66 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



reeds. When I paused I could often hear the pretty song of 

 the sedge-warblers, and sometimes wonderful purple gallinules 

 rose and flapped away with heavy flight, and dark mud- 

 brown gymnachus fish with eel-shaped heads darted off at 

 the noise of my wading. These afforded a new pursuit for 

 the " boys," who became almost as handy as the Budumas 

 in killing them with spears. All that they got were males, 

 for it was the breeding-time and the females were in their 

 nests in the reeds. 



One day while the " boys " were engaged in cutting, 

 they made a strange discovery actually within our course. 

 Sunk just below the surface of the water were the remains 

 of a boat which they hailed at once as those of a white 

 man's, and they were right. It was made of oak and 

 some 8 ft. long, and must have been in its position for years. 

 I can only think it was the boat which the explorer 

 Overweg is known to have taken out with him more than 

 fifty years ago on his travels with Dr. Barth. Overweg died 

 at Maduari, a Kanembu town near N'Grornu. The place 

 of his burial cannot be found; Gosling made careful in- 

 quiries when on his way to the latter place but could hear 

 nothing of it from the natives. 



On March 23, with a picked crew of six men, and 

 taking only the bare necessities of hfe, I set out in one 

 of the boats on a cruise to the north-east. The boat now 

 drew only 9 in., and we managed to scrape along for another 

 three miles though the men often had to get out and push for 

 long distances. It was on one of these occasions that our 

 old Buduma friend, whose presence we had grown quite 

 indifferent to of late, lagged suspiciously behind, and the 



