CHAP. X.] 
WILD BOARS. 
2 75 
recovered and disappeared in the grass jungle; how¬ 
ever, there was pork for those who liked it, and I went 
to the camp and sent a number of natives to bring it 
home. The Obbo people were delighted, as it was 
their favourite game, but none of my people would 
touch the unclean animal. The wild pigs of this 
country live underground; they take possession of the 
holes made by the Manis, these they enlarge and form 
cool and secure retreats. 
A bad attack of fever laid me up until the 31st of 
December. On the first day of January, 1864, I was 
hardly able to stand, and was nearly worn out at the 
very time that I required my strength, as we were to 
start south in a few days. 
Although my quinine had been long since exhausted, - 
I had reserved ten grains to enable me to start in case 
the fever should attack me at the time of departure. 
I now swallowed my last dose, and on 3d January, I 
find the following note in my journal : “ All ready for 
a start to-morrow. I trust the year 1864 will bring 
better luck than the past, that having been the most 
annoying that I have ever experienced, and full of 
fever. I hope now to reach Kamrasi’s country in a 
fortnight, and to obtain guides from him direct to the 
lake. My Latooka, to whom I have been very kind, 
has absconded: there is no difference in any of these 
savages ; if hungry, they will fawn upon you, and 
when filled, they will desert. I believe that ten years’ 
residence in the Soudan and this country would spoil 
an Angel, and would turn the best heart to stone.” 
It was difficult to procure porters, therefore I left all 
my effects at my camp in charge of two of my 
men, and I determined to travel light, without the 
tent, and to take little beyond ammunition and cooking 
utensils Ibrahim left forty-five men in his zareeba, 
and on the 5th of January we started. Mrs. Baker 
rode her ox, but my animal being very shy, I ordered 
him to be driven for about a mile with the others to 
accustom him to the crowd : not approving of the 
T 2 
