428 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
cheered him on. I got him from one stage to an- 
other, till, falling to the earth and gasping for breath, 
he stammered out, Buana, I cannot go on ; but if 
you have strength, try alone, never mind me ; I should 
not like you to be beaten ; I will wait here for you. 
If you come back, well and good ; if not, I shall not 
move from this spot, but shall die here ! " and the 
good, faithful fellow meant every word he said.- 1 
would not have sacrificed him for all the eternal 
snows " in the world, but I could not give up yet. If 
I could only reach the snow so as to touch it, I should 
be content, and it now really seemed within my 
reach. I paused to take a view of my situation. 
There was Kimawenzi on my right some miles off, 
but in appearance very near, almost standing over me 
in awful majesty. Between myself and it there was 
nothing but a wind-swept declivity of coarse, dry 
sand, as clean and as smooth as a sea-beach, but I 
was not bound thither. A little on my left was the 
snowy Kibo. I was almost flush with its southern 
face, and, I believe, quite as high as its snow-line on 
that side, and higher than the snow lies on its western 
slopes. The snows which were visible now were those 
lying on its eastern side, and they were at a much 
greater altitude than those on the other sides. The 
snow on the east of Kibo is a thick cap upon the very 
top, but tending downwards in an irregular line towards 
the south. At the south-east side of the dome there 
is a precipice, at the bottom of which is a long tongue 
of snow, from which the snow-line runs downwards 
round the dome to the west. It was this patch of 
snow upon which I had all along fixed my eye, and 
which I desired to reach. Directly before me was 
