A STOPPER TO PROGrvESS. 



119 



near our tents ; they lived as it were under arms, and 

 nothing would induce them to venture away from their 

 only escape, the canoes, which stood ready for launch- 

 ing whenever required. Sayfu swore that he would 

 return to Ujiji rather than venture a few yards inland 

 to buy milk, whilst Bombay and Mabruld, who ever 

 laboured under the idea that every brother- African of 

 the jungle thirsted for their blood, upon the principle 

 that wild birds hate tame birds, became, when the task 

 was proposed to them, almost mutinous. Our nine days, 

 halt at Uvira had therefore unusual discomforts. The 

 air, however, though damp and raw, with gust, storm, 

 and rain, must have been pure in the extreme ; appetite 

 and sleep — except when the bull-frogs were " making a 

 night of it " — were rarely wanting, and provisions 

 were good, cheap, and abundant. 



I still hoped, however, to lay down the extreme 

 limits of the lake northwards. Majid and Bekkari the 

 Arab agents of Said bin Majid, replied to the offer of 

 an exorbitant sum, that they would not undertake the 

 task for ten times that amount. The sons of Maruta 

 had volunteered their escort ; when I wanted to close 

 with them, they drew off. Kannena, when summoned 

 to perform his promise and reminded of the hire that 

 he had received, jumped up and ran out of the tent: 

 afterwards at Ujiji he declared that he had been willing 

 to go, but that his crews were unanimous in declining 

 to risk their lives, — which was perhaps true. Towards 

 the end of the halt I suffered so severely from ulceration 

 of the tongue, that articulation was nearly impossible, 

 and this was a complete stopper to progress. It is a 

 characteristic of African travel that the explorer may be 

 arrested at the very bourne of his journey, on the very 

 threshold of success, by a single stage, as effectually 



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