ADVENTURE WITH A PYTHON--THE UNWHOLESOME FEN--THE VILLAGE OF THE DISMAL
SWAMP--THE MAN-EATER.
Not only as guides and carriers, but in a variety of other ways did
Harry find his new men useful. They were undoubtedly honest, they were
just as undoubtedly brave, and last, but not least, they were willing.
Well, they were servants and subjects of the island king, and depend
upon it a good master always makes a good servant.
It was but two men that Harry desired to have lent to him, but his
majesty insisted on sending three, wisely observing that while the two
could carry the packages, the other could act as guide and scout.
At the time, then, that the last "act" in this tale of ours opens, Harry
had already been three months on the road.
Three months only? Why it seemed like three years, so filled had the
days been with toil and adventure. No wonder that Harry felt a man when
he looked back to all he had come through. He had seen many strange
sights, and been among many strange tribes and peoples, and yet he could
have told you truthfully that he had not as yet made an enemy. To do so
needs that wonderful skill and judgment, tact and calmness of mind,
which only men like Stanley and Cameron possess.
My own impression is that one is more safe among the really
unsophisticated tribes of the far interior, than among those that lie
more near the coast, and who have been leavened with a modicum of
civilisation--and mayhap a modicum of rum. I would rather trust myself
among savages who had never seen a white man before, than among the
Somali Indians to the north of the line--whose tricks and manners, by
the way, I have good cause to remember.
Harry inquired the names of his islanders, but found they were so
difficult to pronounce, unless he tried to swallow his tongue, and
screwed his mouth out of all shape, that he determined to give them
English ones, so he called them Walter--the scout--and Bob and Bill--the
carriers. But in the mouths of these Indians Walter became "Walda," Bob
became "Popa," and Bill became "Peela;" so let them stand: Walda, Popa,
and Peela.
They were so much alike that it was quite a long time before Harry could
tell the one from the other--tell Popa from Peela, I mean.
As for Walda, though he was quite as tall, quite as straight, and every
bit as jetty black as his companions, his teeth had been filed into
triangles, and stained crimson by some mysterious means or other, and as
he was always on the grin there was no mistaking him.
Walda had a wondrous way of his own of making his peace with native
tribes. He seemed to know the whole country well, and used to run on
miles in front of the company, and by the time Harry got up it was no
uncommon thing to find everything prepared and ready, and even a rude
tent made for the white man's reception.
So that life became now a deal easier for our hero.
Poor Walda, though, had one day a narrow escape from a most terrible
death.
It was well for him that Harry and the rest of his people were near to
save him.
I cannot tell you whether or not the python or marsh boa of Central
Africa is a spiteful reptile, for I have never seen but one, and he made
no attempt to attack me, although I stood not twenty yards away. I
cannot believe all the fearful tales I have read and been told about the
creature, of its enormous length--sometimes sixty feet--of its power to
swallow a small bullock, and of its chasing travellers till they heard
its panting behind them, and felt its fulsome breath beating warm
between their shoulders. This would surely be more fearsome than any
nightmare. It puts one in mind of the words of the immortal Coleridge--
"Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread."
Walda was only a little way ahead of the rest on the day he was attacked
by the python. Nor was it of very large size, else would I not have
Walda's adventures to write.
The guide was near a tree when suddenly, with a loud hiss, the monster
sprang upon him. It seized the unfortunate man by the naked shoulder
with its fangs, and, twisting its tail round a tree, commenced to roll
Walda up in its coils.
His companions dropped their burdens and rushed to his rescue.
None too soon. Yet the attack and relief both together could hardly
have occupied more than twenty seconds. It was evident from the
quickness with which Peela and Popa commenced untwisting the coils from
the tree, that they had been actors in a scene like this before. They
at the same time hacked at the tail with their knives.
Meanwhile Harry had run his sword-bayonet, which luckily was fixed to
the end of the rifle, through the boa constrictor's body. Its folds
were instantly released, and Walda fell forward insensible, only to be
speedily dragged away by Somali Jack.
It was time for all to run now, to escape the lashings and writhings of
the monster. It coiled round the tree, and uncoiled again. It lay for
moments dormant, then sprang high in air.
Harry now took steady aim with his rifle and shot it through the neck,
close to the head, and soon after it expired.
In journeying on and on, ever towards the west, Harry and his people had
met with many a wild beast; sometimes, indeed, they were far too close
to lions to feel quite at home with their position. Very few, however,
fell to the guns, for the simplest of all reasons, they only fired when
really obliged to.
They found themselves one day on a hill-top, overlooking a vast stretch
of level country that extended towards the then setting sun as far as
the eye could reach.
In some places it seemed bare and sandy, while in others there were
clumps of forest trees, but for the most part it was treeless. Here and
there little lakes of water glittered in the sun's parting rays, and
looked like pools of blood.
It was an eerisome and ugly-looking district to cross, and Harry looked
north and south in the hope of seeing hills which he might reach, and
thus make a detour and avoid it. He consulted Walda on the subject.
But Walda shook his head.
"No, no," he said; "no way round. Must cross."
They entered on this dismal swamp early next morning.
It appeared like going down into a black and dreary ocean, and Harry
could not help a feeling of hopelessness and melancholy stealing over
him before he had walked for an hour, and the farther on he went the
more gloomy and depressed in spirits did he become.
Perhaps this was the effects of breathing the tainted and unwholesome
air.
"Why am I toiling and moiling here," he asked himself peevishly, again
and again, "when I might be far away and happy? This is no pleasure,"
he said, half aloud; "better by far I were dead."
Then he remembered he had a duty to perform--that of endeavouring to
find out and rescue his poor men.
But was he doing it? No, he was only bent on his own pleasure and
enjoyment. Enjoyment indeed! He was a fool for his pains, and a great
sinner besides. What were his parents doing all this weary time? The
_Bunting_ must be home long ago. And he would have been given up for
lost. They must have thought the dhow foundered at sea, or been lost
among the breakers and every one drowned. Well, then, if he was given
up for lost, the bitterness of his mother's grief must already be nearly
assuaged. What mattered a year or two more of wandering? He _would_
wander. He _would_ find his men or perish in the attempt. So ran his
thoughts.
And thus moodily, and half angrily, did Harry muse as he marched over
the dismal waste at the heels of his faithful guide Walda.
It was not easy walking here either; there were darksome murky pools to
go round, and brown unwholesome streams to wade through.
Nothing could have been more depressing than the view around him, look
where he would.
As far as wild beasts were concerned, the dismal swamp was untenanted.
Here were no lordly elephants, no sturdy rhinoceroses, no giraffes
towering in their strength, nor deer, nor gnu, nor hartbeeste, nor the
herds of swift-footed ambling zebras they had been so used to behold.
But in the great pools, and in the sluggish mud-stained streams,
wallowed crocodiles more large and loathsome than Harry could have
imagined even in his dreams, while often several of these at one time
could be seen on the banks huddled together asleep or basking in the
sunshine.
They walked onwards as fast as they could, hardly pausing to eat, but
there seemed no end to the horrible fen. It seemed to Harry as if he
was bound to go on, and still go on, but never come to anything.
The sun began to set at last, glaring purple through a watery-looking
sky.
There was nothing for it but sleep in the swamp till another day dawned.
Harry and his men now sought the shelter of a clump of stunted trees
which they reached after some difficulty.
While daylight lasted they were careful to beat the bush well before
they thought of lighting the camp-fire, for close under the trees in
places like this the giant anaconda or python often lies coiled up till
roused to fury by the presence of man or other animals.
The sun went down, and gloaming and gloom settled down over the marsh.
The very stars seemed to give a feebler light than was their wont, for
their rays were shorn by a rising haze.
It took quite a long time to-night to light the camp-fire, for the
materials had got damp.
The process of making fire is very simple to appearance, but requires no
little skill; it is, however, common among nearly all savage nations,
and my readers may, if they please, try their hands at it. Suppose
yourself a savage and have another savage to assist you. Well, you are
possessed of a round piece of hard dry wood about the length but not
nearly so thick as an ebony ruler, it is tapered to a point at one end.
Your companion savage sits in front of you holding firmly a bit of
softer wood, flat at the bottom for steadiness' sake, and with a little
hole in the top. Into this hole you insert the point of your hard wood
drill, then you have only to roll it rapidly back and fore between your
two palms, till sparks are emitted and smoke, then fanning or blowing
with your breath, and partially surrounding the hole with dried meadow
grass, or anything that will catch easily, will do the rest. If you try
it, I hope you will be successful; I myself lack two important
essentials to success--patience and dexterity.
But Jack and the guide "made fire" at last, and supper was cooked and
eaten.
During the time it was being got ready Harry had taken a little walk in
the dim starlight. He did not go far, for he soon got into a miry
place. Here he almost trampled upon a gigantic eel creature--it could
hardly have been a snake--it was slowly dragging its body through the
slime.
While he was looking at it there was the sound of wings in the sky right
above him. It was a great vulture of some kind: birds of this kind are
scarcely ever a mile distant from a party of African travellers, and
have the lion's share of all that is killed. The flapping of wings was
very loud and accompanied by a rustling noise; so close overhead was it
that he could hear it breathe hoarsely--so at least he thought. But
hardly had he turned away ere the great bird swooped down, and next
moment it had re-ascended carrying the great eel with it. Seeing the
latter, though but for a moment, wriggling in the talons of the unclean
bird was quite enough for Harry. He walked no farther that way, but
speedily returned to the camp.
The fire and his supper rendered him a shade more comfortable; his
people went into the wood to collect dry material to make their master a
bed. They beat the grass first with their spears before they ventured
to put their hands down, for several deadly-looking, triangular-headed
snakes had been seen before sunset, rustling through the undergrowth or
hanging to the branches of the trees.
Harry lay down at last, but he slept but little. How could he in such a
place, with the horrid bellowing of crocodiles ever and anon rising on
the night air, the intervals being filled up with the continuous hoarse
snoring of some creatures in the marsh, probably gigantic frogs!
[Dactylathrae.]
Next morning there was no chance of proceeding so early as they had
wished, for all the swamp was enveloped in a dark grey fog or mist, and
it was nearly noon before the sun had succeeded in dispelling it.
On they journeyed now, happy to be able to start at last, for Harry
shuddered to think what the consequences would be if the mist did not
lift for days.
They had not gone above five miles ere a village came into view.
Harry made Raggy ask the guide why he had not mentioned the existence of
this town.