MY ILLNES8 RETURNS 



423 



huge isolated blocks of rock were of more and more frequent 

 occurrence, and tlie river raged even more wildly in its encum- 

 bered bed, the spray from the foaming flood often dashing over 

 our heads. 



Ever hoping each obstacle to be the last, we patiently 

 shoved and dragged the loads over the rocks, crept on all 

 fours, sc[ueezed ourselves through cracks, cut j)aths in the bush, 

 or scaled some steep ridge to avoid absolutely insuperable 

 obstructions, till we were all simply exhausted. To advance or 

 to go back were equally impossible, and we envied Schaongwe 

 and another man, who had gone round by the mountains with 

 the donkey, which had been in no fit state for the route we 

 had taken. 



We halted to take breath, and tried to put new heart into 

 our men, then struggled on again, arriving at last, after eleven 

 hours of strenuous effort, at the longed-for camp just as the 

 sun was setting. As each man went in he flung himself down 

 and slept till far on in the next day. Not one of us thought of 

 eating, though nothing had passed our lips since we started in 

 the morning. 



With me the over-fatigue brought on an eruption accom- 

 panied by fever, and for a long time I could not sleep, one 

 incident or another of the terrible march haunting me. At 

 last I fell into a death-like slumber, from which I did not wake 

 till the afternoon of the next day. Perfect stillness reigned in 

 camp ; most of the men were still asleep. I was scarcely able 

 to take any food even now, and the next morning I was still 

 anything but fit for travelling. I decided to ride, and ordered 

 the donkey to be brought for me, only to find that another 

 man needed it worse than I did, so I crept along on foot with 

 my caravan to the mouth of the Guaso Narok, where we 

 camped again. On the march symptoms of a return of my old 

 complaint, dysentery, showed themselves, so I went straight to 



