Seeking African Gold and Game 
III.—The Arrival at Lake Rudolph—Gold Scarce, Game 
Plenty—Trekking into the Congo Free State 
en Route to Rhodesia 
By JOHN A. M. LETHBRIDGE 
F INALLY we reached the shores of Rudolph 
and had accomplished what I had started 
out to do, except as to the finding of gold, 
Lake Rudolph is a fine sheet of water and in the 
near future I suppose we shall see steamers plying 
on it as they do on Victoria Nyanza. The way 
civilization is spreading in Africa is simply terrific, 
and from all sides. In a few years there will be 
no more darkest Africa, and one of the most 
fascinating of pursuits will have passed away 
with it. By this I mean traveling and hunting 
in a little known country. I now seriously 
thought of trying to get out to the East Coast, 
intending to travel through Turkanaland and 
Somaliland and make Kismayu or one of the 
ports on the eastern coast, but Eli told me this 
was impossible. With a large caravan it might 
be done, but that we should .stand no show, and 
that the Turkanas would in all probability cut us 
up and take everything we had, and if they did 
not, the Somalis would. I told him that we 
would stay here for a while and have a thorough 
look around and make our way a bit further 
north. At any rate there was game enough to 
keep us going and a good many rhino, but for 
the last few weeks I had no serious trouble with 
rhinos, although we were constantly running 
across them. Our chief cause of worry was flies 
and mosquitoes. These were something awful 
and would not leave us alone. They caused me 
endless annoyance and a great deal of pain, and 
this resulted in the usual attack of malaria. 
For a few days I was really very ill, but Eli 
proved a brick—absolutely unremitting in his 
care and attention to me. I could keep nothing 
on my stomach, and for a time thought it was 
going to turn to something worse than fever. 
I was badly frightened. To be very ill hundreds 
of miles from nowhere is not a pleasant thing 
to look forward to. However, on the fourth day 
I was well enough to get up and soon threw off 
the ill effects, but for several days I still felt 
a little shaky. Our marches were therefore 
shortened and I took things very easy. 
One evening Eli came in full of excitement 
and said there were several natives outside to 
whom he had been talking who knew of a place 
where there was much gold. I ordered him to 
bring them in, so that they could explain where. 
I asked them if they had any gold dust, to which 
they replied in the negative, and this made me 
a little skeptical. They said about fifteen days? 
march to the north there was much gold, and 
that the natives made all their ornaments out of 
it, and so I then asked them if they would ac¬ 
company me and told them that should I find 
out what they had told me was true, they should 
be handsomely rewarded and that I would bring 
them back. They would not agree to this at 
any price, but imagined I was fool enough to 
believe their yarn and had the impudence to ask 
for a present. One particularly admired my 
double .303 and observed that it would be a 
fitting recognition to him for his information. 
That was altogether too much for my temper 
and I kicked them out at once. If they had con¬ 
sented to go along with me I think I should have 
decided to go, but their unwillingness made it 
quite clear to me that they were lying. 
My hopes of striking some rich placer gold 
field were by this time considerably reduced, and 
as my caravan, though not large, was to me a 
comparatively large expense, I was obliged to 
make up my mind—and that quickly—to some 
definite action. Skins I could have traded for 
in any quantity, but the porterage made this im¬ 
possible. It would no doubt have been a good 
speculation had I come prepared for it, or had 
a pack train, but I had not one and so had to 
try for something else. That night I had a long 
talk with Eli and practically asked his advice. 
For a time he would not say much, but at last 
suggested that we turn south and go to a coun¬ 
try where he said there were many elephants and 
where we should in all probability be able to 
trade some ivory as well, and to this I agreed. 
How 1 wished for a companion or for my old 
partner, for I felt I was getting myself in rather 
a mess, and that unless matters should turn out 
well I should find that as the saying is, I had 
bitten off more than I could chew. I worried 
very much over the outcome of my trip, for 
after all porters must be paid and my expenses 
were mounting up faster than I cared to own 
even to myself. One thing was evident; we 
should all have to live hard, and to do with the 
least possible amount of grain in order to save 
my now very small stock of trade goods. 
The native is no fool and very quickly puts 
two and two together. How they grasp these 
things I do not know, but one porter who was 
always doing a lot of talking became very in¬ 
solent. This had to be nipped in the bud and I 
did it by handing out to him twenty-five of the 
very brightest and best with a sjambok. I never 
again had trouble with that gentleman, whom I 
paid off and kicked out at the very first oppor¬ 
tunity. This had a very good effect on the rest 
and I had no trouble to speak of again after¬ 
ward. I always thought, if I had really known 
the truth, that the blame for this was with Has- 
san. 
If I were again to make a trip like this I 
should take as an essential in the way of trade 
goods a supply of the cheapest watches. These 
can be bought for a mere song and traded off 
to very great advantage, and they are something 
new beside the everlasting brass and copper wire 
and beads. A novelty takes the negroes’ fancy. 
Soon after I saw a sight which I know has 
been seen by many others, but which I think is 
worthy of notice, namely two rhinoceros in the 
act of breeding. I was quite near them and took 
several snapshots which, as I have written. I 
lost. The male was a particularly fine one, but 
I had not the heart to shoot him, and after pho¬ 
tographing them I moved quietly away and left 
them. 
One day was now much like another, although 
game was abundant and something was always 
in sight. Until now on the whole trip we had 
seen very few lions. I think this often happens 
so. One either sees a lot or a very few, and 
where there is a large population of natives the 
lions seem more abundant, perhaps on account 
of the herds of cattle which they like to keep 
near, so that when they can no longer catch 
game they may turn their attention to these or 
their herders. The natives, though a trifle curi¬ 
ous in this country and at first inclined to run 
away, or rather not to have too much to say to 
us, after a little coaxing and a few very trifling 
presents, became friendly and I was an object 
of great interest, especially to the female popu¬ 
lation. I suppose they had all seen white men 
before, but I have noticed on many occasions in 
Central Africa where white persons were com¬ 
paratively common, if you were passing by a 
village, all the women would crowd out to look 
at you and jabber remarks to one another which 
I am quite sure were not always of a flattering 
nature. I got one to look through my field 
glasses the wrong side up, which of course in¬ 
stead of magnifying an object has just the con¬ 
trary effect, and she was scared badly and ran 
shrieking away. 
To the northeast of Rudolph lies Lake 
Stefanie, and if I had had a better equipped 
outfit I should have cut across to that, as at 
the northern end it is well watered as is 
