I had fever daily
at about 3 P.M. and lay perfectly helpless for five or six hours, until
the attack passed off; this reduced me to extreme weakness. My wife
suffered quite as acutely. It was a position of abject misery, which
will be better explained by a few rough extracts from my journal:--
"FEB. 16th.--ALL MY PORTERS HAVE DESERTED, having heard that the lake is
so far distant; I have not one man left to carry my luggage. Should we
not be able to cross the Asua river before the flood, we shall be nailed
for another year to this abominable country, ill with fever, and without
medicine, clothes, or supplies.
"FEB. 17th.--Fever last night; rain, as usual, with mud accompaniment.
One of Kamrasi's headmen, whose tongue I have loosened by presents,
tells me that he has been to the lake in ten days to purchase salt, and
that a man loaded with salt can return in fifteen days. God knows the
truth! and I am pressed for time, while Kamrasi delays me in the most
annoying manner.
"Kamrasi came today; as usual, he wanted all that I had, and insisted
upon a present of my sword, watch, and compass, all of which I
positively refused. I told him that he had deceived me by saying that
the lake was so distant as six months' journey, as I knew that it was
only ten days. He rudely answered, 'Go, if you like; but don't blame me
if you can't get back: it is twenty days' march; you may believe it or
not, as you choose.
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