DEA TH OF FREDERICK BARKER. 747 



have to say now. I did think to make this a long letter, but Singoro's slave, 

 who carries it, is in a hurry to go, as his caravan has already started. My 

 next letter must continue this from the Kagera River, called in Karagwe the 

 Kitangule, and it shall describe some foul adventures that we went through, 

 which caused us to appear in a wretched condition to our Expedition. Though 

 our condition was so wretched, it was not half so bad, nevertheless, as it 

 would have been had we returned two days later, for I doubt much whether 

 I should have had an Expedition to command at all. I had been absent too 

 long, and our fight with the Wavuma had been magnified and enlarged by 

 native rumour to such a pitch that Wolseley's victory at Ardahsu was as no- 

 thing to ours, for it had been said that we had destroyed a whole fleet of 

 canoes, not one of which had escaped, and that some other tribe or tribes 

 had collected a force, overtaken us, and destroyed us in like manner — an incre- 

 dible story, which had, however, so won upon a faction of my soldiers, that 

 they had determined to return to Unyanyembe, and thence to Zanzibar. But 

 God has been with us here, and on the lake, and, though we have suffered 

 some misfortunes, he has protected us from greater ones. 



'•'We had been absent from camp fifty-eight days, during which we had 

 surveyed in our brave little boat over one thousand miles of lake shores ; but 

 a part of the south-west coast has yet to be explored. We shall not leave the 

 Nyanza, however, until we have thoroughly done our work. I returned to 

 find also that one of my two remaining white companions, Frederick Barker, 

 of the Langham Hotel, London, had died on the 23rd April, twelve days be- 

 fore I reappeared at Kagehyi. His disease was, as near as I can make it out 

 from Frank Pocock's description, a congestive chill — that at least is the term 

 applied to it in the United States. Pocock calls it ' cold fits ' — a term every 

 whit, I believe, as appropriate. I have known several die of these ' cold fits,' or 

 aguish attacks — the preliminary symptoms of very severe attacks of intermit- 

 tent fever. These aguish attacks, however, sometimes kill the patient before 

 the fever arrives which generally follows the warning. The lips grow blue, 

 the face bears the apjDearance of one who is frozen, the blood becomes as it 

 were congealed, the pulse stops, and death ensues. There are various methods 

 of cmickening the blood and reviving the patient, however ; an excellent one 

 is to plunge him into a vapour or hot water and mustard bath, and apply re- 

 storatives — brandy, hot tea, etc. ; but Pocock was not experienced in this case, 

 though he gave Barker some brandy when first he lay down, after feeling a 

 slight nausea and chill. It appears by his comrade's report that he did not 

 afterwards live an hour. Frederick Barker suffered from one of these severe 

 aguish attacks in Ururi, but brandy and hot tea quickly given to him soon 

 brought him to that state which promises recovery. Thus two out of my 

 four white men are dead. I wonder, who next ? Death cries, Who next ? and 

 perhaps our several friends will sadly and kindly ask, Who next ? No matter 



