68 
TRADERS ARRIVE FROM THE. SOUTH. [chap. ii. 
of flesh cut in strips and laid for a few minutes upon 
the embers, while the regular meal was being prepared. 
They were now almost affectionate, vowing that they 
would follow me to the end of the world; while the 
late ri ngleader, in spite of his countenance being rather 
painted in the late row, declared that no man would 
be so true as himself, and that every “ arrow should 
pass through him before it should reach me” in the 
event of a conflict with the natives. A very slight 
knowledge of human nature was required to foresee 
the future with such an escort:—if love and duty 
were dependent upon full bellies, mutiny and disorder 
would appear with hard fare. However, by having 
parade every morning at a certain hour I endeavoured 
to establish a degree of regularity. I had been waiting 
at Gondokoro twelve days, expecting the arrival of 
Debonos party from the south, with whom I wished 
to return. Suddenly, on the 15th February, I heard 
the rattle of musketry at a great distance, and a 
dropping fire from the south. To give an idea of the 
moment I must extract verbatim from my journal as 
written at the time. 
“ Guns firing in the distance; Debono s ivory por¬ 
ters arriving, for whom I have waited. My men 
rushed madly to my boat, with the report that two 
white men were with them who had come from the 
sea! Could they be Speke and Grant ? Off I ran, 
and soon met them in reality ; hurrah for old Eng¬ 
land !! they had come from the Victoria N’yanza, 
from which the Nile springs. . . . The mystery of 
ages solved. With my pleasure of meeting them is 
the one disappointment, that I had not met them 
farther on the road in my search for them; however, 
the satisfaction is, that my previous arrangements had 
been such as would have insured my finding them had 
they been in a fix. . . . My projected route would have 
brought me vis-a-vis with them, as they had come 
from the lake by the course I had proposed to take. . . . 
All my men perfectly mad with excitement, firing 
