436 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
ing men and beasts of burden that are unable to reach 
some place of safety. 
The last afternoon, when the flotilla had called to take 
us farther on our journey, we shot about a dozen buck, to 
give the porters and sailors a feast, which they had amply 
earned. All the meat did not get into camp until after 
dark—one of the sailors, unfortunately, falling out of a 
tree and breaking his neck on the way in—and it was 
picturesque to see the rows of big antelope—hartebeest, 
kob, waterbuck—stretched in front of the flaring fires, 
and the dark faces of the waiting negroes, each deputed by 
some particular group of gun-bearers, porters, or sailors 
to bring back its share. 
Next morning we embarked, and steamed and drifted 
down the Nile; ourselves, our men, our belongings, and 
the spoils of the chase all huddled together under the torrid 
sun. Two or three times we grounded on sand bars; but 
no damage was done, and in twenty-six hours we reached 
Nimule. We were no longer in healthy East Africa. Ker- 
mit and I had been in robust health throughout the time 
we were in Uganda and the Lado; but all the other white 
men of the party had suffered more or less from dysentery, 
fever, and sun prostration while in the Lado; some of the 
gun-bearers had been down with fever, one of them dying 
while we were in Uganda; and four of the porters who had 
marched from Koba to Nimule had died of dysentery— 
they were burying one when we arrived. 
At Nimule we were as usual greeted with hospitable 
heartiness by the English officials, as well as by two or 
three elephant hunters. One of the latter, three days be¬ 
fore, had been charged by an unwounded bull elephant. 
