m, was restrained by illness.
"My desire," says Burton, "was to ascertain the limits of Tanganyika
Lake, to learn the ethnography of its tribes, and to determine the
export of the produce of the interior." He held the streams that fed
Tanganyika to be the ultimate sources of the Nile; and believed that the
glory of their discovery would be his. Fortune, however, the most fickle
of goddesses, thought fit to deprive him of this ardently coveted boon.

The explorers landed at Wale Point on June 26th, and on July 14th
reached K'hutu. At Dug'humi Burton, despite his bags of chestnuts, fell
with marsh fever, and in his fits he imagined himself to be "two persons
who were inimical to each other," an idea very suitable for a man
nursing the "duality" theory. When he recovered, fresh misfortunes
followed, and finally all the riding asses died. Burton, however,
amid it all, managed to do one very humane action. He headed a little
expedition against a slave raider, and had the satisfaction of restoring
five poor creatures to their homes.

The tropical vegetation and the pleasant streams afforded delightful
vistas both by daylight and moonlight, but every mile the travellers
were saddened by the sight of clean-picked skeletons or swollen corpses.
Sometimes they met companies of haggard, heavy-gaited men and women half
blind with small-pox--the mothers carrying on their backs infants as
loathsome as themselves. Near every kraal stood detached huts built for
the diseased to die in. They passed from this God-forsaken land to a
district of springs welling with sweet water, calabashes and tamarinds,
and circlets of deep, dew-fed verdure. The air was spicy, and zebras
and antelopes browsed in the distance. Then the scene again changed, and
they were in a slimy, malarious swamp. They were bitten by pismires
an inch long, and by the unmerciful tzetze fly. The mercenaries, who
threatened to desert, rendered no assistance, and the leader, one Said
bin Salim, actually refused to give Burton a piece of canvas to make a
tent. Sudy Bombay then made a memorable speech, "O Said," he said, "if
you are not ashamed of your master, be at least ashamed of his servant,"
a rebuke that had the effect of causing the man to surrender at once the
whole awning. At other times the star-sapphire which Burton carried
on his person proved a valuable auxiliary--and convinced where words
failed. But the mercenaries, mistaking Burton's forbearance for
weakness, bec