They did not break up camp until several days later. They departed at
dawn—six o’clock—after a short prayer, in which they earnestly
commended themselves to God. At their head rode Stasch on horseback,
preceded by Saba. Behind him solemnly marched King, flapping his ears
and carrying on his enormous back the palanquin in which Nell and Mea
were seated; then, under Kali’s guidance, followed the horses, tied
together with a long rope, and laden with all sorts of baggage; and
little Nasibu, on the donkey—which was as fat as the boy—brought up
the rear.
At that early hour the heat did not inconvenience them very much,
although the day was fine, and from behind the Karamajo Mountains the
sun rose in great splendor from a cloudless sky. An eastern breeze
mitigated the heat of its rays. Occasionally the wind blew a gale,
waving the jungle grass like billows of the sea. Vegetation had grown so
luxuriantly after the copious showers—especially at the lower
levels—that King and the horses were covered up by the grass, so that
all that could be seen above the waving jungle was the white palanquin,
which looked like a ship sailing on a lake. After marching for an hour
they came to a dry, high plateau lying to the east of Linde Mountain,
and saw enormous thistles,[28] with stems as thick as tree trunks and
flowers as large as human heads. On the slope of many plateaus, which
from a distance looked barren, they found heather eight feet high. Other
plants, that grow very small in Europe, flourished here large as the
thistles and heather, and giant trees, standing by themselves in the
jungle, looked like church towers. Especially that species of fig-tree
known as the “daroo-tree,” whose “weeping” branches turn into new stems
on touching the ground, covered enormous areas, so that each tree made a
wilderness in itself.
From afar off the country appeared like one unbroken forest; but when
nearer it could be seen that the large trees grew only in certain
places—at various distances apart. Toward the north very few of them
could be seen, and the country seemed more like a mountainous steppe
covered with an even jungle, out of which the umbrella-shaped acacias
alone towered. The grasses there were greener, smaller, and apparently
better suited for grazing. Nell from her high seat on King’s back and
Stasch from a hillock saw larger herds of antelope than they had ever
seen before. The animals of each species grazed by themselves, or
occasionally intermingled with the gnu, boar, gazel, Ariel, female
antelope, buffalo, spring-buck, large koodoo, and others. There were a
great many zebras and giraffes to be seen. On observing the caravan in
the grass the animals stood still, threw up their heads, pricked up
their ears, and looked at the white palanquin in surprise; then they
immediately dispersed and ran away for a few hundred feet, then stared
again at the strange apparition, until they had satisfied their
curiosity, and calmly began to graze again. From time to time there
appeared in front of the caravan a rhinoceros growling and snarling, but
notwithstanding its aggressive nature and its disposition to attack
everything that comes in its way, it fled ignominiously before the
glance of King, who was only kept from following it by a command from
Stasch.
The African elephant hates the rhinoceros, and if he comes across a
fresh trail he follows it up till he finds his adversary, and, relying
on his superior strength, begins the fight in which the rhinoceros is
nearly always worsted. It was not very easy for King, who certainly had
more than one death on his conscience, to renounce his old habit, but he
was now tame and accustomed to look upon Stasch as his master;
therefore, on hearing his voice, and seeing his bright and threatening
eyes, the beast dropped his upturned trunk, drew in his ears, and calmly
walked on. Though Stasch would have enjoyed seeing a fight between these
giants, he was afraid of its effect on Nell. If the elephant were to
gallop, the palanquin might fall to pieces, or, what would be worse, the
enormous animal might knock it against a tree; so Nell’s life would be
in great danger. From the tales of the chase which Stasch had read when
at Port Said he learned that in India people hunting tigers are more
afraid that the elephant, in the excitement of the chase, might knock
the small tower against a tree than they are even of the tigers.
Besides, the giant gallops so clumsily that to ride like that any length
of time would endanger one’s health.
On the other hand, the presence of King obviated many dangers. The
vicious buffaloes they met that day on their way to the small lake,
where all the animals in the neighborhood congregated at nightfall, also
fled when he looked at them, and ran to the other side of the lake to
drink. With his left foot tied to a tree, King guarded the tent in which
Nell slept, and this so thoroughly protected her that although Stasch
kept a fire burning, he thought it unnecessary to build a hedge around
the camp, although he knew that there must certainly be lions in the
vicinity of so many herds of antelope; in fact, some of them began to
roar that very night among the enormous juniper-trees[29] on the
mountain slope. Attracted by the scent of the horses, they approached
the camp, notwithstanding the burning fire, but when King could no
longer stand their constant roaring, and began to send forth his
threatening, thunder-like trumpeting, they quieted down humbly, for they
seemed to know that they had better not come in contact with such an
antagonist. After this the children slept soundly for the remainder of
the night, and they did not continue their journey until daybreak.
But now Stasch was to have new troubles and worries. He noticed that
they were traveling very slowly and that they could not cover more than
ten kilometers a day. If they progressed no faster than that they would
certainly not reach the borders of Abyssinia in a month, but as Stasch
had decided to follow Linde’s advice implicitly (he had distinctly said
that they would not be able to reach Abyssinia), the road to the ocean
was the only one that they could take. But according to the calculation
made by the Swiss, more than a thousand kilometers lay between them and
the ocean; that is, in a direct line; for by way of Mombasa, which lies
in a more southerly direction, it is farther away, and it would take
more than three months to make the journey. Stasch was terrified when he
thought that this meant three months of fatigue, excitement, and danger
from encounters with tribes of negroes. Now they were still in a barren
country, depopulated by smallpox and rumors of attacks by the Dervishes;
but as, on the whole, Africa is fairly well populated, sooner or later
they were bound to come to places inhabited by strange tribes, which
would probably be ruled by savage and treacherous chiefs. It was no easy
task to retain one’s freedom and one’s life amid such dangers.
Therefore Stasch calculated that if they could come across the Wa-hima
tribe he would teach several of the warriors how to shoot, and by making
great promises would induce them to accompany their party to the ocean.
But Kali had not the least idea where his tribe lived, and Linde, who
had heard something about them, could neither tell how to reach them,
nor could he give an exact description of the place where they lived.
Linde had also mentioned having heard about a large lake, and Kali
distinctly declared the Wa-hima live on one side of this lake, which he
called Basso-Narok, on the other side of which the Samburu live. But now
Stasch was worried because that lake was not mentioned in the geography
of Africa, which he had studied carefully at school in Port Said. If
Kali had been the only one to mention it Stasch would have supposed it
to be Victoria-Nyanza, but Linde could not have made a mistake like that
if he had marched from Victoria Lake northward along the Karamajo
Mountains. Stasch came to the conclusion, after questioning the
inhabitants of these mountains, that this mysterious lake ought to lie
further to the east and north. Stasch did not know what to think of all
this; he was also afraid he might miss the lake and come across the
Wa-himas or other savage tribes, arid jungles, impassable mountains, the
tsetse-flies, which might kill the animals, the sleeping-sickness, the
fever for Nell, the heat, and worst of all those interminable distances
which still separated them from the ocean.
But having left Linde Mountain, the only thing to do was to advance
steadily due east. Linde had said that this was a journey to tax the
strength of an experienced and energetic explorer to the utmost, but
Stasch had already had great experience, and for Nell’s sake he
determined not to think of himself and to spare no energy to accomplish
his purpose. For the present it was necessary to save the girl’s
strength, and so he decided to travel only between six and ten o’clock
in the morning, and from three to six o’clock in the evening, when there
happened to be no water at their first halting-place. However, as there
had been plenty of rain during the rainy season, they found water
everywhere. The small lakes formed on the lowlands by the showers were
still well filled, and here and there rivers of crystal-clear cold water
flowed from the mountains; these were very inviting to bathe in, and
also very safe, for crocodiles only live in larger streams where there
are plenty of fish, upon which they chiefly subsist. As Stasch had found
a very good filter among Linde’s things, he did not allow the girl to
drink unfiltered water. The filter always surprised Kali and Mea, for
they saw that, though filled with clouded and whitish water, only clean
and clear water flowed from it into the reservoir beneath. At this they
laughed and slapped their knees, to show their pleasure and surprise.
On the whole the beginning of their journey was made by easy stages.
They had received from Linde large supplies of coffee, tea, sugar,
bouillon, various canned goods, and all kinds of medicines. Stasch was
not sparing of these, for they had more than they could take with them.
They also had plenty of utensils of all kinds, weapons of various
caliber, and rockets, which would be of great service when meeting
negroes. The country was very fertile, and there was plenty of fruit and
fresh meat. In the lowlands they occasionally came across swamps, which
had not evaporated sufficiently to poison the air with their deadly
odors, being still covered over with water. At this height there were no
mosquitoes to innoculate one with the fever; still, the altitude did not
prevent it from becoming unbearably hot by ten o’clock. The small
travelers made a halt during the so-called “white hours” in the deep
shade of large trees, through the thick foliage of which not a ray of
sun could penetrate. And so Nell, Stasch, and the negroes kept in
excellent health.
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Footnote 28:
Eschinops giganteus grows in this country and is especially abundant in
Abyssinia.
Footnote 29:
In Abyssinia in the Karamajo Mountains, the juniper trees attain a
height of fifty feet.