70 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



It was with feelings of dismay that I viewed the deserted 

 camp which a month ago we thought we had said good-bye 

 to for ever. My failure made me fearful for the future and 

 my depression was intensified by the loneliness. There was 

 no sign of a human soul in the place and the houses had 

 fallen to ruin. All was changed save the Lake that lay 

 calm and silent, refusing like the sphinx to give up her 

 secret. More than a month had gone by and Gosling must 

 have reached the Shari long ago, while I was no farther on 

 the way than when I first started. Worse than that, my 

 stores were all but exhausted, and desertion and sickness in 

 my party had left me with only seven men to get the two 

 boats and all my impedimenta by some means or other to the 

 Shari, for I knew I could depend on no outside help. Jose 

 occupied the next two days in taking the boats to pieces, 

 while I trekked by the shore line due south and explored 

 every corner in tJie hopes of finding an outlet. I had heard 

 that there was open water at a Buduma fish-market called 

 Kowa-Baga or Seyurum. But how far it was from Kaddai 

 I did not know. A distance of fifteen miles brought me 

 to the old camp that Talbot and I had made on our 

 journey from Kowa and this, I realised, would be quite far 

 enough for the first march, if the boat sections were to be 

 carried from Kaddai with the reduced labour I had at my 

 disposal. Moreover, it appeared a suitable place from which 

 I could reach Kowa to obtain supplies. The outlook was a 

 gloomy one. To move the boat-sections in one journey 

 would require at least forty men, probably more, as the work 

 was made more difficult owing to the lack of any road over 

 the rough ground and marsh. It required skilled carriers 



