476 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
approach us, where a dozen willing hands were stretched 
out to snatch the half-smothered man. Zaidi next 
followed, but after the tremendous proofs he had given 
of his courage and tenacious hold we did not much fear 
for his safety, and he also landed, to be warmly con- 
gratulated for his double escape from death. Marzouk, 
the youngest, was the last, and we held our breaths 
while the gallant boy was struggling out of the fierce 
grasp of death. While yet midway the pressure of 
water was so great that he lost his hold of two cables, 
at which the men screamed in terror lest he should 
relax his hold altogether from despair, but I shouted 
harshly to him, ‘ Pull away, you fool. Be a man,’ at 
which with three hauls he approached within reach of 
our willing hands, to be embraced and applauded by all. 
The cheers we gave were so loud and hearty that the 
cannibal Wane-Mukwa must have known, despite the 
roar of the waters, that we had passed through a great 
and thrilling scene.” 
At the northern end of Ntunduru Island four separate 
branches rushing down from between Cheandoah and 
its neighbours unite, and their united waters tumble 
into one huge boiling, heaving cauldron, wherein 
mounds of water are sometimes lifted upward, and are 
hurled down several feet with tremendous uproar, along 
an island between Ntunduru and Asama. The distance 
is only about a mile and a half, and the breadth is but 
500 yards, but it presents one of the wildest water 
scenes conceivable. 
To avoid this terrific locality, it was now necessary to 
cut a road, nearly three miles in length, to the quiet 
creek flowing between Asama Island and the left bank. 
Spurs from inland, like “ hogs’ backs,” which projected 
into that boiling gulf, compelled us to make detours, 
which, though they lengthened our toil, rendered the 
transport of our vessels overland much easier. Minute 
red ants covered every leaf of the shrubby Asclepiadse, 
and attacked the pioneers so furiously that their backs 
were soon blistered, while my scalp smarted, as though 
wounded with a steel comb. A species of burr-bearing 
