CHAPTER XLIII 
A Brave German Among the Cannibals 
O F those travelers who, starting from the north, have penetrated 
to the heart of Africa, the two most daring and successful have 
undoubtedly been Sir Samuel Baker and Dr. Schweinfurth, the 
German naturalist and explorer. Schweinfurth was no novice in 
travel. In 1863 he had traveled for two years through Egypt and 
Abyssinia, and advanced to Khartoum, where his purse having become 
empty, he was compelled to return to Germany, bringing with him a 
magnificent collection of plants to enrich the European museums. But 
he longed to go back to complete a more extended plan of exploration 
which he had conceived, and at last, in 1868, having received a grant 
of money from the Humboldt Institution, he set forth on his long and 
now famous journey to Central Africa. 
Of his experiences on the way to Khartoum little need be said. 
He went by steamer down the Red Sea to Suakin, and thence overland 
to the Nile, arriving there, the real starting-point of his journey, on 
November 1, 1868. His course now for some distance lay by boat 
up the Nile to the Gazelle River. In the neighborhood of Kaka an 
unfortunate adventure befell him, that of being nearly stung to death 
by bees. Sitting quietly in his cabin one day, he heard shouts from his 
men, who, trudging along the bank, had been towing the boat, but now 
rushed frantically on board again, pursued by a swarm of bees that 
they had disturbed among the grass. The bees closely followed them, 
and a scene of wild confusion ensued on board. The savage insects 
were everywhere. Schweinfurth covered his face with his handker¬ 
chief and flung his arms about, but the more he gesticulated, the more 
irritated the furious insects became. They stung him mercilessly on 
his cheeks, his eyelids, beneath his hair, until perfectly maddened, he 
leaped overboard; but even then they did not leave him alone, for 
whenever he raised his head above water the stings rained upon him 
afresh. He was compelled to go on board again, and there taking a 
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