Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-10-27
EXPLORING AFRICA.
SANKEY'S March from the Coast te
Lake Victoria Niyanzi.
Hardships and PeriIs of the Journey. The
People and the Country.


long wanderings, set out on second
expedition to the interior of that coun-
try tor purposes Of exploration. He
went out under the auspices of the New
York Herald and the London Telegraph,
accompanied by 800 men. His march
was con stantly made wearisome, hazard
out and painful, by the hostility Of the
natives, the scarcity of food and water,
and the ruggedness of much of the
route. Five men strayed from tie
party In an early part of the journey,
and were never after seen alive. From
Stanley's first letter to the Herald,
which covers a whole page Of that pa
per, we extract the following passages !:
A STRANGE PEOPLE.
In Urimi, at Suna, we discovered q
people remarkable for their manly
beauty, noble proportions and naked
ness. Neither man nor boy had either
cloth or skin 10 cover his nudity; the
women bearing children only boosted of
goat skins. With all their physical
beauty and fine proportions they were
the most conspicuous people we had yet
seen. 1t required great tact and pa
thence to induce them to part with food
for our cloth and beads. They owned
no chief, but respected the injunctions
of their elders, with whom I treated for
permission to pass through their land.
The permission was reluctantly given,
and food was begrudgingly given, but
we bore with this silent hospitality
patiently, and [ took good care that no
overt ac5 on the part of the expedition
should change this suspicion into
hatred,
Our people were SO worn out with
fatigue that six more poor fellows died
here, and the sick list numbered thirty.
Here also Edward Pocock fell
seriously i'll of typhoid fever.
For his sake, as well as for the
other sufferers, halted in Suna four
days; but it was too evident that the
longer we stayed in their country the
natives regarded us with less favor, and
it was incumbent on us to move, though
much against my inclination. There
were many grave reasons why we should
have halted several days longer, for Ed
ward Pocock was daily getting, wol Sc
and the sick list increased aIarmingly
dysentery, diarrhma, chest diseases,
sore feet, tasked every medical knowl-
edge to the utmost; but prudence for
babe it. The rear guard and captains
of the expedition were, therefore, COM
PEELED to do the work of carriers, and
every soldier, for the time being, was
converted into a ao0gazi, Or porter.
Pocock was put into hammock. the
sick and weakly were encouraged to do
their utmost to move on with the expe-
dition to more suspicious lands, where
the natives were less suspicious, where
food was more abundant, and where
cattle were numerous. Imbued with
this hope, the expedition resumed it's
march across the clear, open and we'll
cultivated country of Urini.
PoCoCK BREATHEs his LAST.
We reached Chiwyu about 10 O. clock,
after short march, and here the young
Englishnan Edward Pocock breathed
his last, to the great grief Of us all. Ac-
cording to two rated pedometers we had
finished the 4O0th mile of our march to
the sea, and had reached the base of the
watershed whence the trickling streams
and infant water begin to flow Nileward,
when this noble young man died. We
buried him at night, and q cross cut
place at Chiwyu.
The farther we travelled north we
became still more assured that we had
arrived III the dewy land whence the
extreme southern springs, rivulets and
streams dischar ge their waters into the
Nile. From high ridge over looking
vast extent Of country the story Of
their course was plainly written in the
deep depressions and hollows Jrending
northward and northwestward, and as
we noted these signs of the incipient
Nile we cherished the daring hope that
before long we should gaze with glad
dened eyes on the rightly reservoir
which collected these waters which
puzzled and rippled at our feet, into its
broad bosom, to discharge them in one
vast body la the White Nile.
From Chiwyu we journeyed two days
through Urmi to Mangara, where Kali
Halleck-the carrier of Kinks letter
bag to Living stone, whom I compelled
to accompany me to Ujiji in 1871-was
brutally murdered. He Lad been suf-
fering from asthma, and [ had permit
ted him to follow the expedition slowly,
the rear guard being all employed as
carriers because of the heavy sick list,
when he was wa7laid by the natives and
hacked to pieces. This was the first
overt act Of hostility on the part of the
Warimi Unable to fix the crime on
any particular village, we resumed our
journey, and entered Ituru, district
of Northern Urimi, on the Dist of
January.
THE LEEWUMBU RIVER.
The village near which we camped
was called Vinyata, and was situated in
broad and populous valley, contain
ing, probably, some 2, 900 or 5000 souls.
Here We discovered the river which re-
ceived ell the streams that flowed be-
tween Vinyata and Chiwyu. It is called
here Leewumbu, and it's flow from this
valley was west. Even in the dry sea-
son it is e considerable stream, some
twenty feet in width and about two feet
deep, but in the rainy season it becomes