Vlll 
PREFACE. 
me. I must take the reader of these volumes by the 
hand, and lead him step by step along my rough path 
from the beginning to the end ; through scorching- 
deserts and thirsty sands ; through swamp, and jungle, 
and interminable morass ; through difficulties, fatigues, 
and sickness, until I bring him, faint with the wearying 
journey, to that high cliff where the great prize shall 
burst upon his view—from which he shall look down 
upon the vast Albert Lake, and drink with me from 
the Sources pf the Nile ! 
I have written “ he ! ” How can I lead the more 
tender sex through dangers and fatigues, and passages 
of savage life ? A veil shall be thrown over many 
scenes of brutality that I was forced to witness, but 
which I will not force upon the reader; neither will I 
intrude anything that is not actually necessary in the 
description of scenes that unfortunately must be passed 
through in the journey now before us. Should any¬ 
thing offend the sensitive mind, and suggest the unfit¬ 
ness of the situation for a woman's presence, I must 
beseech my fair readers to reflect, that the pilgrim's 
wife followed him weary and footsore through all his 
difficulties, led, not by choice, but by devotion; and 
that in times of misery and sickness her tender care 
saved his life and prospered the expedition. 
“ 0 woman, in our liours of ease 
Uncertain, coy, and Lard to please, 
And variable as the shade 
By the light quivering aspen made; 
When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
A ministering angel thou ! ” 
