UGANDA AND WEST SIDE OF VICTORIA NYANZA. 261 
distinguish, nothing east or south-east. South-west we 
saw the Bumbireh group, and to purchase food we were 
compelled to proceed thither — disagreeably convinced 
that we had lost a whole day by calling at Alice Island, 
whereas, had we kept a direct course to the south, 
we might have reached the Bumbireh group in a few 
hours. 
As we started only at noon from Alice Island, being 
delayed by expectations of seeing Magassa, and also by 
the necessity for purchasing something even at high 
prices to prevent starvation, we did not reach Barker’s 
Island — the easternmost of the Bumbireh group — until 
night, which we passed most miserably in a little cove 
surrounded by impenetrable brushwood. It was one 
downpour of rain throughout the whole night, which 
compelled us to sit up shivering and supperless, for, to 
crown our discomforts, we had absolutely nothing to 
eat. No more abject objects can be imagined than the 
human beings that occupied the boat through the hours 
of darkness. There were my crew all sitting as closely 
as possible, back to back or side by side, on the oars 
and boards which they had arranged like a platform on 
the thwarts, and I sitting alone under the awning in 
the stern sheets, wearily trying to outline their figures, 
or vaguely taking mental notes of the irregularities of 
the bush, with occasional hasty glances at the gloomy 
sky, or at Bumbireh, whose black mass looked grim and 
lofty in the dark, and all the time the rain kept pouring 
down with a steady malignant impetuosity. I doubt if 
even the happiest hours which may fall to my lot in 
the future will ever obliterate from my memory that 
dismal night of discomfort and hunger. 
But as it generally happens, the dismal night was 
followed by a beautiful, bright morning. Every inch 
of nature that we could scan seemed revivified, refreshed, 
and gay, except the little world which the boat con- 
tained. We were eager to renew our acquaintance with 
humanity, for only by contact with others could we live. 
We accordingly sailed for Bumbireh, which lay about 
two miles from Barker’s Island, and ran down the coast 
