Part 8 (1/2)
Thanks to the good offices of Lord Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Royal Geographical Society promised him the necessary funds; while Cardinal Wiseave him a passport to all Catholic s were always distressing, and in order to avoid bidding adieu to Miss Arundell he adopted his usual course, leaving a letter which land for Bombay in October 1856, and crossed to Zanzibar in the Elphinstone sloop of war, Speke, as to be his co with hiladdestupon a distant journey into unknown lands Shaking off with one effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the slavery of civilisation, [166] man feels once more happy The blood floith the fast circulation of youth, exciteour to the muscles and a sense of sudden freedo the creas afriend of Burton Says Mr Low, ”We used to have bouts of single-stick in the pleasant evening sin the poop, and s with his weapons Though a dangerous ene Zanzibar, Burton, finding the season an unsuitable one for the coreat expedition, resolved to make what he called ”a preliminary canter” So he and Speke set out on a cruise northward in a crazy old Arab ”beden”
with ragged sails and woralvanised iron life-boat, ”The Louisa,” named after Burton's old love, and so felt no fear
They passed the Island of Pelad to visit on account of its associations with Ca the land, Nought save a narrow channel stood atween; And rose a city throned on the strand, Which froent of the seas was seen; Fair built with lordly buildings tall and grand As fro showed all its sheen, Here ruled a h famed, Islet and city are Mombasa named [168]
Indeed he neverspots associated with his beloved ”Master” Then they turned southward and on February 3rd reached Pangany, whence, in company with a facetious fellow named Sudy Boa, which they found to be ”an unfenced heap of hay cock huts” Though a forbidden city to strangers theythea of peculiar power over the moon, the stars, the wind and the rain” They found the sultan of the place, an old man named Kimwere, sick, emaciated and leprous He required, he said, an elixir which would restore hith, and youth
This, however, despite his very respectable knowledge oftwo days he took his leave ”Itlook hich the poor old king accompanied the word Kuahery!
(Farewell!)” On the return journey Speke shot a hippopotamus which he presented to the natives, who proain reached both travellers were in a high fever; but regarding it siratified rather than not When the Zanzibar boat arrived Speke ell enough to walk to the shore, but Burton ”had to be supported like a bedridden old woanyika, 26th June 1857 to 26th May 1858
Burton left Zanzibar on his great expedition at the end of June, carrying with him various letters of introduction froned by the Shaykh El Islam of Mecca, and the passport already mentioned of Cardinal Wises containing horse chestnuts which he carried about ”against the Evil Eye, and as a charm to ward off sickness” [169] Beside Burton and Speke, the party consisted of two Goa boys, two negro gun-carriers, Sudy Bombay, and ten Zanzibar mercenaries
Dr Steinhauser, who had hoped to join them, was restrained by illness
”My desire,” says Burton, ”was to ascertain the liraphy of its tribes, and to determine the export of the produce of the interior” He held the streaanyika to be the ultilory of their discovery would be his Fortune, however, the ht fit to deprive him of this ardently coveted boon
The explorers landed at Wale Point on June 26th, and on July 14th reached K'hutu At Dug'hus of chestnuts, fell with ined himself to be ”two persons ere ini the ”duality” theory When he recovered, freshasses died Burton, however, aed to do one very huainst a slave raider, and had the satisfaction of restoring five poor creatures to their hoetation and the pleasant streaht, but every ht of clean-picked skeletons or swollen corpses
Soaitedon their backs infants as loathsome as themselves Near every kraal stood detached huts built for the diseased to die in They passed fro with sater, calabashes and tamarinds, and circlets of deep, dew-fed verdure The air was spicy, and zebras and antelopes browsed in the distance Then the scene again changed, and they were in a sli, and by the unmerciful tzetze fly The mercenaries, who threatened to desert, rendered no assistance, and the leader, one Said bin Saliive Burton a piece of canvas to make a tent Sudy Bombay then made a memorable speech, ”O Said,” he said, ”if you are not ashamed of your master, be at least ashamed of his servant,”
a rebuke that had the effect of causing theAt other times the star-sapphire which Burton carried on his person proved a valuable auxiliary--and convinced where words failed But theBurton's forbearance for weakness, became daily bolder and more insolent, and they now only awaited a convenient opportunity to kill higer in hand, he became conscious that two of his men were unpleasantly near, and after a while one of theed the other to strike
Burton did not hesitate a er, and stabbed the man dead on the spot [170] The other, who fell on his knees and prayed for mercy, was spared This, however, did not cure his followers of their murderous instincts, and a little later he discovered another plot The prospective assassins having piled a little here they intended to kindle a fire, went off to search for one Burton unpowder in it On their return the assassins lighted the fire, seated themselves comfortably round, and presently there weren't any assassins We tell these tales just as Burton told them to his intimate friends The first may have been true, the second, we believe, siainst himself with the desire to shock In any circumstances, his life was in constant peril; but he and the majority of the party, after unexampled tortures from thirst, arrived footsore and jaded in a veritable land of Goshen--Kazeh or Unyanyembe, where they met some kindly Arab merchants
”What a contrast,” exclaims Burton, ”between the open-handed hospitality and the hearty good-will of this noble race--the Arabs--and the niggardliness of the savage and selfish African It was heart of flesh after heart of stone” Burton found the Arabs of Kazeh living coe, substantial houses, fine gardens, luxuries froallantly gives the ladies their due ”A the fair of Yombo,” he says, ”there were no fewer than three beauties--women ould be deemed beautiful in any part of the world Their faces were purely Grecian; they had laughing eyes their figures were ide, brune, e ritondette hts the world The dress--a short kilt of calabash fibre--rather set off than concealed their charh destitute of petticoat they holly unconscious of indecoruraciously smiled when in my best Kenyamwezi I did my devoir to the sex; and the present of a little tobacco always secured for me a seat in the undress circle”
Of the native races of West Africa Burton gave a graphic account when he came to write the history of this expedition [171] All, it seems, had certain custoambled They would hazard first their property and then theainst a cow As forthem Their idea of perfect bliss was total intoxication When ill, they applied to areceived a fee used it for the purpose of getting drunk, but upon his return to sobriety, he always, unless, of course, the patient took upon hi, attended conscientiously to his duties No self-respecting chief was ever sober after s are fattened for eable terland necessary to a divorce, observes Burton, are there unknown You turn your wife out of doors, and the thing is done
The chief trouble at Kazeh, as elsewhere, arose froantuan spiders Verth, such as fleas, ants, and an again, but they had not proceeded ht on my malaria; and Speke, whom Burton always called ”Jack,” becahts of the elmy fields and the bistre furrows of Elstree and the tasselled coppices of Tours crowded Burton's brain; and he wrote:
”I hear the sound I used to hear, The laugh of joy, the groan of pain, The sounds of childhood sound again Death must be near”
At last, on the 13th February they saw before theht ”Look, reat water!” They advanced a few yards, and then an enorht There, in the lap of its steel-coloured eous tropical sunshi+ne, lay the great lake Tanganyika The goal had been reached; by his daring, shrewdness and resolution he had overcome all difficulties Like the soldiers in Tacitus, in victory he found all things--health, vigour, abundance