My personal experiences in equatorial Africa : as medical officer of the Emin Pasha relief expedition / by Thomas Heazle Parke.

  • Parke, Thomas Heazle, 1857-1893.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: My personal experiences in equatorial Africa : as medical officer of the Emin Pasha relief expedition / by Thomas Heazle Parke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    157/600 (page 119)
    savages who lay in ambush, and my best and faithful chief, Feruzi Ali, was felled to the ground by a huge knife [which I have still in my possession, vide No. S sketch, page 182] that penetrated both tables of the skull and depressed the bone, causing compression of the brain. His shoulder was also badly wounded. The foraging party returned in the evening, with but very little food, and great quantities of bhang, which is freely smoked by the natives. This is “ Starvation Camp ” No. II. Oct. 11.—We started early; Mr. Stanley was in advance, Jephson and Stairs urging on the men in the rear. All loads were carried, as twenty-four men were now relieved from convevins: the sections of the Advance. I was ordered to wait behind in camp with a small party (till 12 o’clock), so as to get across the river, by canoe, any men Avho had not turned up last night, and might still overtake us in time. None, how- ever, came; so I sank the canoe, and hurried after the column, which I overtook at 5.30 p.m. The boat went by the river, but was greatly delayed by cataracts. Morabo (of Bumbire noto- riety) captured a woman with beads on, which she had got from the Arabs, and we tried to get some information from her as to the whereabouts of these people. The natives, however, have, unfortunately, no ideas as to time and space of a suffi- ciently definite nature to make their opinions on such matters in the smallest degree reliable. So we could not ascertain how far off the much wished-for Arab station may be. They mark off distances on their arms. From the shoulder to the tips of their fingers means one day’s march. We passed a camp about 4 p.m., which had been occupied by the chiefs whom we had sent on before us from Nelson’s camp. At muster, in the evening, four men were absent. One of these, Kehani, has my bag with all the clothes I possess—also my sword. “ When evils come, they come not single S[.ie3, But in battalions.” Oct. 12.—We camped last night on the river bank. Jephson was sent back to the boat, to make some repairs, and bring her on through the rapids. He brought ten men to carry up loads, and so lit^hten the boat. A shauri wns then held, in which all the members of the Expedition who were present took part— both black and white.