Probably the memory of this affair, which is still to be settled,
unfavourably impressed my escort. After a total of some two hours
(six miles) we arrived at a large "Olako" or breakwind, a half-
face of leafy branches, and all insisted upon a long rest. I
objected, and then "palaver came up." We were at last frankly
told that the villages ahead were hostile, that we could not
proceed further in this direction, and that the people of
Fakanjok had thought my only object was to sight from afar a
golden prairie and a blue range beyond. The latter is known to
the French as "Tem," from a hillock crowned with a huge red-
trunked tree of that name.
Opposition was useless, so we turned back some twenty minutes to
a junction, and took the south-eastern instead of the eastern
line. Here the country was higher and drier, more hilly and
gravelly, the aneroid showing some 900 feet (29.11); it would be
exceptionally healthy in any but the rainy season. Before the
afternoon had well set in, a camping ground had been chosen in
the tall, thin forest, near the confluence of two dwarf streams,
whose vitreous waters, flowing over fine sand and quartz pebbles,
were no small recommendation.
Pages:
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266