l through the wide and wild country
inhabited by the Samburu tribe. Stas, not without a certain pride,
thought that having escaped during his journey from Fashoda with only
Nell and the two negroes, without any means, he might come to the ocean
coast at the head of two hundred armed men with an elephant and horses.
He pictured to himself what would be said by the English people who
prized resourcefulness highly, but above all he thought of what his
father and Mr. Rawlinson would say. The thought of this sweetened all
his toils.

Nevertheless, he was not at all at ease as to his own and Nell's fate,
for he surely would pass through the possessions of the Wahimas and the
Samburus without any difficulties, but after that, what? Upon what
tribes would he yet chance, into what regions would he enter, and how
much travel still remained? Linde's directions were too vague. Stas was
greatly worried because he actually did not know where he was, as that
part of Africa appeared on the maps from which he studied geography
entirely like a blank page. He also had no idea what this Lake
Bassa-Narok was and how great it was. He was on its southern border, at
which the width of the overflow might amount to ten miles. But neither
the Wahimas nor the Samburus could tell him how far the lake extended
to the north. Kali, who knew the Kiswahili language passably well,
answered all questions with, "Bali! bali!" which meant "far! far!" but
this was all that Stas could elicit from him.

As the mountains on the north, shutting off the view, appeared quite
near, he assumed that it was a small, brackish lake, like many others
in Africa. A few years later it appeared how great an error he
committed* [* It was the great lake which was discovered in 1888 by the
celebrated traveler Teleki and which he named Lake Rudolf.]. For the
time being, however, he was not concerned so much about ascertaining
the exact dimensions of Bassa-Narok as whether some river did not flow
out of it, which afterwards coursed to the ocean. The
Samburus--subjects of Faru--claimed that east of their country lay a
waterless desert which no one had yet traversed. Stas, who knew negroes
from the narratives of travelers, from Linde's adventures, and partly
from his own experience, was aware that when the dangers and the
hardships began, many of his men would desert to return home, and
perhaps not one would remain. In such case he would find himself in the
wilds and desert with o