Zanzibar and the East Coast of Africa [pp. 70-87]

86 Zanzibar and the East Coast of Africa. [July
I attended with my boat's crew, without frorn the heavy night dews, and then
any arms visible but with pistols concealed; we slept.
the savages, however, did not make their Our stock of eatables having been reappearance; and perhaps it was just as well duced to a bag of biscuits and some dates,
that they refrained from doing so. and our stock of water consisting only of
Returning now to my so-called orang- one small barrel, I felt inclined at first to
outang-it was evidently a gorilla, or an return t6 the vessel; but at last considered
animal closely allied to that family, and the that I should be able to land at times to
first ever shot in Africa. There is an an- shoot game for our subsistence, and there cient work "Hanno's Periplus," which is fore resolved to proceed. So on the second
he account of a naval expedition under- day we found ourselves at the mouth of the
taken in the time of the Carthagenians, Juba, which was apparent from the water
which passed through the pillars of Her- being discolored by mud brought down by
cules-otherwise the Straits of Gibraltar- the river. But its entrance was so hemmed
and sailed down the west coast of Africa as in and concealed by rocks and islets that
far as what is now called the Bight of Benin, we failed to ciscover the channel; and in
and probably up to the river Gabon, the the meantime a strong northeasterly current
neighborhood of which is the habitat of Du (i. e. setting towards the northeast) and the
Chaillu's gorillas. Well, in that account southwest monsoon, which blew very fresh,
mention is made of hairy women called were hurrying us in a northerly direction,
"gorillas" being seen; so that the name so that on attempting to make way against
was kept for more than two thousand them, even by taking advantage of a slight
years. Du Chaillu gives the height of eddy ciose in shore, it was found to be ex some of those he saw and killed as nearly ceedingly difficult, and our endeavors to
six feet, describing them as having "an im- enter the river had to be abandoned for
mense body, huge chest, and gr~at muscu- the moment. (This river is several hundred
lar arms, with fiercely glaring, large, deep- miles long and flows entirely through the
gray eyes, and hellish expression of face, Galla country, excepting perhaps towards
which seemed to him like some nightmare its source. Several attempts have been
vision." This description corresponds very made to explore it, but unsuccessfully, and
nearly to that of the animal to whose ex- more than one British man-of-war's boat's
istence I put an end. crew has been capsized in the surf near the
The first day of that expedition did not mouth and murdered by the natives.) We
end without another contretemps. After then attempted to stem the current by pulling
our retreat from the Galla, we steered to- against it diagonally in zig-zags at a short
ward the northernmost of the Dundas Is- distance from the coast. But at the close
lands, in order to beach the boat for the of each day we found ourselves consideranight; when having approached too near to bly farther to the north than the point from
a reef, a sea broke in whilst I was eating my which we started in the morning; and five
supper, and washed away that and the days were passed in this way. The Galla
greater portion of our provisions, together were for a good many miles from the Juba
with my bag of clothing, which was on the visible on the beach, making signs to us to
seat; and I had the satisfaction of seeing land; but in the first place the surf was very
both swallowed by the sharks. Having heavy, the billows rolling in unbroken all
reached safe anchorage in a small creek, the the way from Malay peninsula, rendering it
boat was covered with a sail as a protection impossible; and secondly, even had it been