When this little divertissement was finished, we turned to the
right, and were shown by a servant up a flight of steps into a
large airy room that was to be our residence, which, being well
protected from the sun, was cool and agreeable. Mr. Petherick had
started from Khartoum in the preceding March, and had expected to
meet Speke and Grant in the upper portion of the Nile regions, on
their road from Zanzibar; but there are insurmountable
difficulties in those wild countries, and his expedition met with
unforeseen accidents, that, in spite of the exertions of both
himself, his very devoted wife, Dr. Murie, and two or three
Europeans, drove them from their intended path. Shortly after our
arrival at the Consulate, a vessel returned from his party with
unfavourable accounts; they had started too late in the season,
owing to some difficulties in procuring boats, and the change of
wind to the south, with violent rain, had caused great suffering,
and had retarded their progress. This same boat had brought two
leopards that were to be sent to England: these animals were led
into the courtyard, and, having been secured by chains, they
formed a valuable addition to the menagerie, which consisted of
two wild boars, two leopards, one hyaena, two ostriches, and a
cynocephalus or dog-faced baboon, who won my heart by taking an
especial fancy to me, because I had a beard like his master.
Pages:
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656