Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Category: Nonfiction
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surgeon couldsave me by amputating my leg. Now everything has coagulated and becomenumb, but during the first days I bit my hands from pain--"
"You surely will get well."
"No, my brave lad, I surely will die and you will cover me well withstones, so that the hyenas cannot dig me out. To the dead it may be allthe same, but during life it is unpleasant to think of it. It is hardto die so far away from your own--"
Here his eyes were dimmed as though with a mist, after which hecontinued thus:
"But I already have become resigned to the idea--so let us speak aboutyou, not about me. I will give you this advice. There remains for youonly the road to the east, to the ocean. But take a good rest beforestarting and gain strength, otherwise your little companion will die inthe course of a few weeks. Postpone the journey until the end of therainy season, and even longer. The first summer months, when the rainceases to fall and the water still covers the marshes, are thehealthiest. Here, where we are, is a plateau lying about twenty-twohundred and eighty-nine feet above the sea. At the height of forty-twohundred and fifty feet the fever does not exist and when brought fromthe lower places its course is weaker. Take the little English girl upinto the mountains."
Talking apparently fatigued him very much, so he again broke off andfor some time impatiently brushed away the big blue flies; the samekind as those which Stas saw among the burnt debris of Fashoda.
After this he continued thus:
"Pay close attention to what I tell you. About a day's journey towardsthe south there is an isolated mountain, not higher than twenty-sixhundred and twenty feet; it looks like a pan turned upside down. Itssides are steep, and the only way of reaching it is by a rocky ridge sonarrow that in some places two horses can barely proceed on it side byside. On its flat top, which is about thirty-five hundred feet wide,there was a negro village, but the Mahdists slaughtered and carriedaway the residents. It may be that this was done by that same Smainwhom I defeated, but those slaves I did not capture because he hadpreviously despatched them under an escort to the Nile. Settle on thatmountain. There is a spring of excellent water, a few manioc fields,and a multitude of bananas. In the huts you will find a great manyhuman bones, but do not fear infection from the corpses, as after thedervishes there were ants there, which drove us from the place. Andnow, not a living creature! Remain in that village a month or two. Atsuch a height there is no fever. Nights are cool. There your little onewill recover her health, and you will gain new strength."
"And what am I to do afterwards, and where shall I go?"
"After that it will be as God disposes. Try to get through to Abyssiniain places situated farther than where the dervishes have reached, orride to the east--I heard that the coast Arabs are reaching some kindof lake in their search for ivory which they purchase from the Samburuand Wahima tribes."
"Wahima? Kali comes from the Wahima tribe."
Here Stas began to narrate to Linde the manner in which he inheritedKali after Gebhr's death and that Kali had told him that he was the sonof the ruler of all the Wahimas.
But Linde received this information more indifferently than Stasexpected.
"So much the better," he said, "as he may be helpful to you. Among theblacks there are honest souls, though as a rule you cannot depend upontheir gratitude; they are children who forget what happened the daybefore."
"Kali will not forget that I rescued him from Gebhr's hands, I am sureof that."
"Perhaps," Linde said, and pointing at Nasibu added: "He also is a goodchild; take him with you after my death."
"Do not speak of death, sir."
"My dear boy," answered the Swiss, "I desire it--if it would only comewithout great agony; consider that now I am completely unarmed, and ifany one of the Mahdists whom I routed should accidentally stray to thishollow, alone he could stab me like a sheep."
Here he pointed to the sleeping negroes.
"They will not wake any more, or rather--I speak incorrectly--all ofthem awake for a short time before their death and in their mentalaberration fly to the jungle, from which they never more return. Of twohundred men, sixty remained to me. Many ran away, many died ofsmallpox, and some fell asleep in other ravines."
Stas with pity and awe began to gaze at the sleepers. Their bodies wereashen-hued, which in negroes indicates paleness. Some had their eyesclosed, others half open; but these latter slept deeply, for theireyeballs were not susceptible to the light. The knees of some wereswollen. All were frightfully thin, so that their ribs could be countedthrough their skins. Their hands and feet quivered without cessationvery rapidly. The big blue flies swarmed thickly on their eyes and lips.
"Is there no help for them?" Stas asked.
"There is none. On Victoria Nyanza this disease depopulates wholevillages. Sometimes more severely, sometimes less. It most frequentlytakes hold of the people of the villages situated in the underwood onthe banks."
The sun had passed to the western sky, but still before night Linde hadrelated to Stas his history. He was a son of a merchant of Zurich. Hisfamily came from Karlsruhe, but from the year 1848 had resided inSwitzerland. His father amassed a great fortune in the silk trade. Heeducated his son for an engineer, but young Henry was attracted fromearly youth by travel. After completing his studies in a polytechnicalschool, having inherited his father's entire fortune, he undertook hisfirst journey to Egypt. It was before the Mahdi's time, so he reachedas far as Khartum, and hunted with Dongolese in the Sudan. After thathe devoted himself to the geography of Africa and acquired such anexpert knowledge of it that many geographical societies enrolled himamong their members. This last journey, which was to end sodisastrously for him, began in Zanzibar. He had reached as far as theGreat Lakes and intended to penetrate into Abyssinia along the KaramojoMountains, which up to that time were unknown, and from there toproceed to the ocean coast. But the natives of Zanzibar refused to goany farther. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was a war between thekings of Uganda and Unyoro. Linde rendered important services to theking of Uganda, who in exchange for them presented him with over twohundred bodyguards. This greatly facilitated the journey and the visitto the Karamojo Mountains, but afterwards smallpox appeared in theranks, after that the dreadful sleeping sickness, and finally the wreckof the caravan.
Linde possessed considerable supplies of various kinds of preservedfood, but from fear of the scurvy he hunted every day for fresh meat.He was an excellent shot but not a sufficiently careful sportsman, andit happened that when a few days before he thoughtlessly drew near awild boar which had fallen from his shot, the beast started up and torehis legs frightfully, and afterwards trampled upon his loins. Thishappened near the camp and in the sight of Nasibu, who, tearing hisshirt and making bandages of it, was able to check the flow of bloodand lead the wounded man to the tent. In the foot, however, coagulumwas formed from the internal flow of blood and gangrene threatened thepatient.
Stas insisted upon dressing his wounds and announced that he would comedaily, or, so as not to leave Nell only under the care of the twoblacks, he proposed to convey him to "Cracow," on saddle-cloth,stretched between two horses.
Linde agreed to the dressing of the wounds, but would not agree to theremoval.
"I know," he said, pointing at the negroes, "that those men must die,but until they die, I cannot doom them to be torn to pieces alive byhyenas, which during the night-time are held back by the fire."
And he began to repeat feverishly:
"I cannot! I cannot! I cannot!"
But he became calm immediately, and continued in a strange voice:
"Come here to-morrow morning--I have a request to make of you, and ifyou can perform it, God may lead you out of this African gulf, andgrant me an easy death. I wished to postpone this request untilto-morrow, but as I may be unconscious to-morrow I make it to-day. Takewater in some utensil, stop before each one of those poor sleepingfellows, sprinkle water over him, and say these words: 'I baptize thee,in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!'"
Here emotion checked his speech and he became silent.
"I reproach myself," he said after a while, "that I did not take leavein that manner of those who died of small-pox and of those who fellinto their final slumber. But now death is hovering over me, and Idesire to go together with even that remnant of my caravan upon thelast great journey."
Saying this he pointed with his hand at the ruddy sky, and two tearscoursed slowly over his cheeks.
Stas wept like a beaver.
XIII
The next morning's sun illuminated a strange spectacle. Stas walkedalong the rocky walls, stopped before each negro, moistened hisforehead with water, and pronounced over him the sacramental words. Andthey slept with quivering hands and limbs, with heads drooping on theirbreasts or tilted upwards, still alive but already resembling