The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration, Volume 1

Front Cover
Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860 - 880 pages
The ivory porter; Zanzibar town from the sea; A town on the Mrima; Explorers in East Africa; The East African Ghauts; View in Unyamwezi
 

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Page 393 - The sepoys came to Clive, not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose that all the grain should be given to the Europeans, who required more nourishment than the natives of Asia. The thin gruel, they said, which was strained away from the rice, would suffice for themselves. History contains no more touching instance of military fidelity, or of the influence of a commanding mind.
Page 261 - ... men and women, boys and girls, some of whom would follow us for miles with explosions of Hi ! — i ! — i ! screams of laughter and cries of excitement, at a long, high trot — most ungraceful of motion ! — and with a scantiness of toilette which displayed truly unseemly spectacles.
Page 252 - Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.
Page 211 - Historically Presented, In the mad and cruel Gallantry, Foolish Bravery, ridiculous Beauty, Filthy Finenesse, and loathsome Lovelinesse of most Nations, Fashioning and altering their Bodies from the Mould intended by Nature.
Page 250 - Washenzi pagans: enter not into their houses (he points grimly to the ground). Have no dealings with them, show no cloth, wire, nor beads (speaking with increasing excitement). Eat not with them, drink not with them, and make not love to their women (here the speech became a scream).
Page 213 - Trembling with ague, with swimming heads, ears deafened by weakness, and limbs that would hardly support us, we contemplated with a dogged despair the apparently perpendicular path that ignored a zigzag, and the ladders of root and boulder, hemmed in with tangled vegetation, up which we and our starving drooping asses were about to toil.
Page 295 - The average of the heights observed is 3,650 feet, with a gradual rise westward to Jiwe la Mkoa, which attains an altitude of 4,200 feet (?). " This third region, situated to leeward of a range whose height compels the southeast trades to part with their load of vapors, and distant from the succession of inland seas which, stationed near the centre of the African continent, act as reservoirs to restore the balance of humidity, is an arid, sterile land, a counterpart in many places of the Kalahari...
Page 147 - ... ever called on to repeat ; and a scarlet blanket will put a whole village in commotion. Show dazzles him ; he never inquires after what it signifies, the outside is all. He is filled with the self-importance of fantastic imitation, and as well satisfied with any absurd sham as a little boy at play. " The African preserves the instincts of infancy in the higher races. He astonished the enlightened De Gama, some centuries ago, by rejecting with disdain, jewels, gold and silver, whilst he caught...
Page 323 - ... of the savage and selfish African — it was heart of flesh after heart of stone. A goat and a load of the fine white rice grown in the country were the normal prelude to a visit and to offers of service which proved something more than a mere vox et prceterea nihil.
Page 8 - ... of rich soil. The banks of the backwaters are lined with forests of white and red mangrove. When the tide is out, the cone-shaped rootwork supporting each tree rises naked from the deep sea-ooze ; parasitical oysters cluster over the trunks at water-level, and between the adults rise slender young shoots, tipped with bunches of brilliant green.

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