150 CAPTAIN SPEKE DEPARTS FOR UGANDA. 
days, very few bright ones, never an Italian sky, as 
too many vapours hung about this equatorial region. 
The dews were heavy, and lay long, and the mould 
getting amongst plants was very disheartening to the 
collector, obliging him to discard many a souvenir. 
Brushwood was used instead of firewood, which was 
scarce and dear, otherwise the chilly mornings and 
nights might have been cheered by the watchflre. 
The country was luckily so hilly, that, though the rain 
dashed with the N.E. wind into the red clayey soil, 
making the hill-sides stream with muddy rivulets, one 
hour after the " pelt " all had run down, and a gleam 
of sunshine made the ground not unpleasant to walk 
upon. The health of the men did not seem to suffer 
from wet. Zanzibar people are accustomed to getting 
ducked. It keeps them occupied in repairing their 
grass huts, collecting firewood, and making merry over 
it, rather than causing despondency. With one case 
of ophthalmia, and a few of fever, there were no other 
cases of sickness amongst the half-dozen men left by 
Speke on the 10th January, when he departed for 
Uganda, leaving me behind sick. At first sight this 
appeared to some persons at home as an unkind pro- 
ceeding, leaving a helpless " brother " in the heart of 
Africa; but my companion was not the man to be 
daunted; he was offered an escort to the north, and 
all tender feelings must yield to the stern necessities 
of the case. " Strike while the iron is hot," applies to 
Africa more appropriately than to any country I know; 
another such opportunity might never occur, and had 
the traveller's determination of character been soften- 
ed, and had he not proceeded without me at that 
time, we might never again — so little upsets the 
