The March to Zanzibar
On the tenth of April, 1889, the horn gave the signal to prepare for
departure. Stanley kept his word. The caravan was arranged in marching
order and at seven o'clock moved away, while behind them a dense black
cloud of smoke and crackling flames from the burning camp said farewell
to them.
Their course took them over a range of grassy, treeless hills, whose
monotony was dispelled by valleys with groups of palms. Farmers and
shepherds occupied the region and millet, sweet potatoes, and bananas
were cultivated. The march was very regular when one considers that the
most of the people were unaccustomed to efforts of this kind and that
there was a considerable number of children and women and old
broken-down men. Stanley rode at the head of the expedition followed by
the Zanzibarites and Manjema bearers. Emin led his own people and
hardened veterans brought up the rear, who urged on the laggards and
relentlessly drove them along. Ferida rode continually by the side of
her tender father. He now began to rejoice for her sake that they were
going to a safe and peaceful country, where his little daughter could be
educated and properly brought up.
Emin thought with a sad heart of those left behind and there was much to
trouble him on the journey, for his servants and soldiers were so
thoroughly convinced that they would be abandoned at Wadelai that when
they pitched their camp that night at Niamgabe, sixty-nine of them
eluded the vigilance of the sentinels and escaped. So sure were they
that they would be attacked by the natives on the road that the most
stringent measures were adopted to prevent further desertions.
Unfortunately Stanley was taken seriously ill at this time, and they had
to remain at Niamgabe nearly a month, until by the efforts of Emin and
Dr. Parke, he recovered. It became difficult, therefore, to procure
provisions at that place and still more difficult to maintain order in
the great expedition.
Early on the eighth of May they moved forward again and Emin found much
consolation in turning his attention to scientific matters. He
discovered new and unknown species of plants and insects which he
investigated and added to his collections and soon made the greatest
discovery of all. For the first time he had an opportunity to make a
close observation of a great mountain phenomenon, which had been seen
from a distance by Casati and by Stanley on the first expedition, but
which was now thoroughly investigated for the first time. This was the
snow mountain Ruwenzori (Cloud King), as the natives called it,
according to Stanley, separating the Albert Nyanza from the Albert
Edward Lake. Its mighty glaciers and copious rainstorms fed the Semliki,
a great tributary of the Nile, thus solving the question of the sources
of this tributary which had so long been obscure. The spectacle of this
snow mountain below the equator in a world of heat and sunshine is a
magnificent one. Deep, dark valleys lie along its base. Beautiful trees,
shrubs, and ferns bedeck its slopes, with timber below and the flowers
of the Alpine world, while its lofty summit and glaciers belong to the
region of eternal snow. In company with Lieutenant Stairs and forty men
Emin undertook the ascent of the mountain, but did not get far because
of deep intersecting valleys and the lack of food and proper clothing
for the higher region.
At the south end of Victoria Lake they turned southward and there took
an easterly direction. On the seventeenth of October the French
missionaries, Fathers Girault and Schynse, joined them. On the tenth of
November the bearers shouted: "To-day we shall come to Mpapua," and
about noon from an eminence they beheld a station with a German flag
waving. Lieutenant Rochus Schmidt welcomed them to German territory and
accompanied them with his soldiers to the coast. They soon exchanged the
sight of the parched and thorny wilderness for a land fragrant with
lilies and clad in spring greenery. The Makata plain, with its green
grass and its numerous groups of villages, was ample compensation for
the four months of wretchedness and hardship they had endured.
[Illustration: _THE SNOW MOUNTAIN_]
Shortly after this messengers from Major Wissmann, governor of German
East Africa at Bagamojo, met them with ample supplies. As the travellers
were pursuing their way by moonlight on the third of December they heard
the report of a cannon. It was the evening gun at Zanzibar. The
Zanzibarites gave a joyous shout, for it told them that their long
journey across the continent was at an end. The Egyptians and their
attendants also joined in the shout, for they now knew that in the next
twenty-four hours they would see the ocean over which they would go
safely and comfortably to Egypt, their future home.