tude of
2,875 feet above sea-level, and then on to Fatiko, the capital of the
Shooa country, at an altitude of 3,877 feet.

_III.--Discovery of the Nile's Sources_

Shooa proved a land flowing with milk and honey. Provisions of every
kind were abundant and cheap. The pure air invigorated Mrs. Baker and
myself; and on January 18 we left Shooa for Unyoro, Kamrasi's country.
On the 22nd we struck the Somerset River, or the Victoria White Nile,
and crossed it at the Karuma Falls, marching thence to M'rooli,
Kamrasi's capital, at the junction of the Kafoor River with the
Somerset, which was reached on February 10. Here we were detained till
February 21, with exasperating excuses for preventing us going further,
and audacious demands from Kamrasi for everything that I had, including
my last watch and my wife! We were surrounded by a great number of
natives, and, as my suspicions of treachery appeared confirmed, I drew
my revolver, resolved that if this was to be the end of the expedition
it should also be the end of Kamrasi. I held the revolver within two
feet of his chest, looked at him with undisguised contempt, and told him
that if he dared to repeat the insult I would shoot him on the spot. My
wife also made him a speech in Arabic (not a word of which he
understood), with a countenance as amiable as the head of a Medusa.
Altogether, the _mise en scene_ utterly astonished him, and he let us
go, furnishing us with a guide named Rabongo to take us to M'wootan
N'zige, not Luta N'zige, as Speke had erroneously suggested. In crossing
the Kafoor River on a bridge of floating weeds, Mrs. Baker had a
sunstroke, fell through the weeds into deep water, and was rescued with
great difficulty. For many days she remained in a deep torpor, and was
carried on a litter while we marched through an awful broken country.
The torpor was followed by brain fever, with its attendant horrors. The
rain poured in torrents; and day after day we were forced to travel for
want of provisions, as in the deserted villages there were no supplies.
Sometimes in the forest we procured wild honey, and rarely I was able to
shoot a few guinea-fowl. We reached a village one night following a day
on which my wife had had violent convulsions. I laid her down on a
litter within a hut, covered her with a Scotch plaid, and I fell upon my
mat insensible, worn out with sorrow and fatigue. When I woke the next
morning I found my wife breathing gently, the fever gone,