LETTER FROM FRANCIS JOHN POGOCK. 795 



anything of me. I am afraid you will hear too soon of my dear brother. I 

 "will not enter upon that, as you will know all about it. We received your 

 letters the day after we left the coast, and were very glad to hear such news. 

 Since then I have seen some changes, I can tell you. Sometimes without food, 

 sometimes plenty, sometimes wet weather, at other times dry ; it is a feast or 

 a famine with everything. I have had the fever about twelve times, but 

 thank Grod I have got over it. I have not had it for two months. I am now 

 more used to the country. I have good health now to what I did. "We had 

 rough times of it after poor Ted's death. What with fighting and long march- 

 ing, it almost turned me up. We arrived here on February 27th, after a 

 journey of one hundred and three days from the coast. When I saw the lake 

 my heart leapt within me at the sight of the water. We were coming over a 

 large hill, and one of the natives ran back to me and said, ' Bana ! Bana !' 

 which is, ' Sir,' ' margey (water) ! margey !' The master was behind, so that 

 I saw it before him. I am the third white man that ever saw the inland sea; 

 it is'one thousand and twenty-six miles around it, plenty of fish and crocodiles, 

 hippopotami, and birds on the shores. Plenty of islands. Me and Ted had 

 one each, Barker one, and there are many others, which will be on the map 

 when issued. 



" Mr. Stanley was fifty-seven days gone in the boat to find the source of 

 the Nile. He has been successful in his undertaking. Where Ted died was 

 the very spot where the Nile flows from. It was strange that he should say 

 what he did. In about fifteen days after that we crossed the south arm of 

 the Nile in the boat — the first English boat ever there. When the natives at 

 the lake saw the boat and three white men they were surprised. They are 

 quite wild ; they are naked, but civil. We travelled one hundred and seventy 

 miles where no other white man ever was ; that was where we had to fight. 

 You will hear of it from the papers. Dear parents, after we leave here we 

 go to a beautiful country called Uganda. Mr. Stanley stayed fifteen days 

 with the king while going round the lake. In fact, all the countries are 

 healthy that we are going to. We have a steamer waiting for us, with Mr. 

 Gordon, at Lake Albert Nyanza. Our work is more than one-third done ; 

 the worst is over ; all the countries we go to now have plenty of food, and 

 cheap. I have plenty to tell you when I come home, if Grod spares me, which 

 I hope He will. Frederick Barker died on April 25th. I was left with one 

 hundred and sixty-six men. I was in charge all the time Mr. Stanley was 

 away, but when he was gone I had no one to talk to or ask advice. When Mr, 

 Stanley came back he was very much pleased with the way I had discharged 

 my duty. He told me all about the trip in the boat, and many other things. 

 He says we shall be home in about eighteen months. All the letters you or 

 any one else has sent will be forwarded on to Ujiji, so that I shall get them 

 there, but that will not be before December. 



