CHAP. XVII.] 
SIGNOR MIANVS RETREAT . 
459 
Loggo, the Bari interpreter, who had constantly acted 
for me during two years, happened to have been the 
interpreter of Signor Miani;—he confessed to me how 
he had been ^compelled by his master s escort to deceive 
^ him, by pretending that a combined attack was to be 
made upon them by the natives. Upon this excuse, 
Miani’s men refused to proceed, and determined to turn 
back to Gondokoro ;—thus ended his expedition. I re¬ 
garded the tree that marked the limit of his journey with 
much sympathy. I remembered how I had formerly 
contended with similar difficulties, and how heart-break¬ 
ing it would have been to have returned, baffled by the 
misconduct of my own people, when the determination 
of my heart urged me forward to the south ;—thus I 
appreciated the disappointment that so enterprising a, 
traveller must have felt in sorrowfully cutting his name 
upon the tree, and leaving it as a record of misfortune. 
With a just tribute to the perseverance that had 
carried him farther than any European traveller had 
penetrated before him, we continued our route over a 
most beautiful park of verdant grass, diversified by 
splendid tamarind trees, the dark foliage of which 
afforded harbour for great numbers of the brilliant 
yellow-breasted pigeon. We shortly ascended a rocky 
mountain by a stony and difficult pass, and upon 
arrival at the summit, about 800 feet above the Nile, 
which lay in front at about two miles’ distance, we 
halted to enjoy the magnificent view. “ Hurrah for the 
old Nile !” I exclaimed, as I revelled in the scene 
before me : here it was, fresh from its great parent, the 
Albert Lake, in all the grandeur of Africa’s mightiest 
river. From our elevated point we looked down upon a 
broad sheet of unbroken water, winding through marshy 
ground, flowing from W.S.W. The actual breadth of 
clear water, independent of the marsh and reedy banks, 
was about 400 yards, but, as usual in the deep and flat 
portions of the White Nile, the great extent of reeds 
growing in deep water rendered any estimate of the 
positive width extremely vague. We could discern the 
