They did not break up camp until several days later. They departed at dawn—six o’clock—after a short prayer, in which they earnestly commended themselves to God. At their head rode Stasch on horseback, preceded by Saba. Behind him solemnly marched King, flapping his ears and carrying on his enormous back the palanquin in which Nell and Mea were seated; then, under Kali’s guidance, followed the horses, tied together with a long rope, and laden with all sorts of baggage; and little Nasibu, on the donkey—which was as fat as the boy—brought up the rear.

At that early hour the heat did not inconvenience them very much, although the day was fine, and from behind the Karamajo Mountains the sun rose in great splendor from a cloudless sky. An eastern breeze mitigated the heat of its rays. Occasionally the wind blew a gale, waving the jungle grass like billows of the sea. Vegetation had grown so luxuriantly after the copious showers—especially at the lower levels—that King and the horses were covered up by the grass, so that all that could be seen above the waving jungle was the white palanquin, which looked like a ship sailing on a lake. After marching for an hour they came to a dry, high plateau lying to the east of Linde Mountain, and saw enormous thistles,^[28] with stems as thick as tree trunks and flowers as large as human heads. On the slope of many plateaus, which from a distance looked barren, they found heather eight feet high. Other plants, that grow very small in Europe, flourished here large as the thistles and heather, and giant trees, standing by themselves in the jungle, looked like church towers. Especially that species of fig-tree known as the “daroo-tree,” whose “weeping” branches turn into new stems on touching the ground, covered enormous areas, so that each tree made a wilderness in itself.

From afar off the country appeared like one unbroken forest; but when nearer it could be seen that the large trees grew only in certain places—at various distances apart. Toward the north very few of them could be seen, and the country seemed more like a mountainous steppe covered with an even jungle, out of which the umbrella-shaped acacias alone towered. The grasses there were greener, smaller, and apparently better suited for grazing. Nell from her high seat on King’s back and Stasch from a hillock saw larger herds of antelope than they had ever seen before. The animals of each species grazed by themselves, or occasionally intermingled with the gnu, boar, gazel, Ariel, female antelope, buffalo, spring-buck, large koodoo, and others. There were a great many zebras and giraffes to be seen. On observing the caravan in the grass the animals stood still, threw up their heads, pricked up their ears, and looked at the white palanquin in surprise; then they immediately dispersed and ran away for a few hundred feet, then stared again at the strange apparition, until they had satisfied their curiosity, and calmly began to graze again. From time to time there appeared in front of the caravan a rhinoceros growling and snarling, but notwithstanding its aggressive nature and its disposition to attack everything that comes in its way, it fled ignominiously before the glance of King, who was only kept from following it by a command from Stasch.

The African elephant hates the rhinoceros, and if he comes across a fresh trail he follows it up till he finds his adversary, and, relying on his superior strength, begins the fight in which the rhinoceros is nearly always worsted. It was not very easy for King, who certainly had more than one death on his conscience, to renounce his old habit, but he was now tame and accustomed to look upon Stasch as his master; therefore, on hearing his voice, and seeing his bright and threatening eyes, the beast dropped his upturned trunk, drew in his ears, and calmly walked on. Though Stasch would have enjoyed seeing a fight between these giants, he was afraid of its effect on Nell. If the elephant were to gallop, the palanquin might fall to pieces, or, what would be worse, the enormous animal might knock it against a tree; so Nell’s life would be in great danger. From the tales of the chase which Stasch had read when at Port Said he learned that in India people hunting tigers are more afraid that the elephant, in the excitement of the chase, might knock the small tower against a tree than they are even of the tigers. Besides, the giant gallops so clumsily that to ride like that any length of time would endanger one’s health.

On the other hand, the presence of King obviated many dangers. The vicious buffaloes they met that day on their way to the small lake, where all the animals in the neighborhood congregated at nightfall, also fled when he looked at them, and ran to the other side of the lake to drink. With his left foot tied to a tree, King guarded the tent in which Nell slept, and this so thoroughly protected her that although Stasch kept a fire burning, he thought it unnecessary to build a hedge around the camp, although he knew that there must certainly be lions in the vicinity of so many herds of antelope; in fact, some of them began to roar that very night among the enormous juniper-trees^[29] on the mountain slope. Attracted by the scent of the horses, they approached the camp, notwithstanding the burning fire, but when King could no longer stand their constant roaring, and began to send forth his threatening, thunder-like trumpeting, they quieted down humbly, for they seemed to know that they had better not come in contact with such an antagonist. After this the children slept soundly for the remainder of the night, and they did not continue their journey until daybreak.

But now Stasch was to have new troubles and worries. He noticed that they were traveling very slowly and that they could not cover more than ten kilometers a day. If they progressed no faster than that they would certainly not reach the borders of Abyssinia in a month, but as Stasch had decided to follow Linde’s advice implicitly (he had distinctly said that they would not be able to reach Abyssinia), the road to the ocean was the only one that they could take. But according to the calculation made by the Swiss, more than a thousand kilometers lay between them and the ocean; that is, in a direct line; for by way of Mombasa, which lies in a more southerly direction, it is farther away, and it would take more than three months to make the journey. Stasch was terrified when he thought that this meant three months of fatigue, excitement, and danger from encounters with tribes of negroes. Now they were still in a barren country, depopulated by smallpox and rumors of attacks by the Dervishes; but as, on the whole, Africa is fairly well populated, sooner or later they were bound to come to places inhabited by strange tribes, which would probably be ruled by savage and treacherous chiefs. It was no easy task to retain one’s freedom and one’s life amid such dangers.

Therefore Stasch calculated that if they could come across the Wa-hima tribe he would teach several of the warriors how to shoot, and by making great promises would induce them to accompany their party to the ocean. But Kali had not the least idea where his tribe lived, and Linde, who had heard something about them, could neither tell how to reach them, nor could he give an exact description of the place where they lived. Linde had also mentioned having heard about a large lake, and Kali distinctly declared the Wa-hima live on one side of this lake, which he called Basso-Narok, on the other side of which the Samburu live. But now Stasch was worried because that lake was not mentioned in the geography of Africa, which he had studied carefully at school in Port Said. If Kali had been the only one to mention it Stasch would have supposed it to be Victoria-Nyanza, but Linde could not have made a mistake like that if he had marched from Victoria Lake northward along the Karamajo Mountains. Stasch came to the conclusion, after questioning the inhabitants of these mountains, that this mysterious lake ought to lie further to the east and north. Stasch did not know what to think of all this; he was also afraid he might miss the lake and come across the Wa-himas or other savage tribes, arid jungles, impassable mountains, the tsetse-flies, which might kill the animals, the sleeping-sickness, the fever for Nell, the heat, and worst of all those interminable distances which still separated them from the ocean.

But having left Linde Mountain, the only thing to do was to advance steadily due east. Linde had said that this was a journey to tax the strength of an experienced and energetic explorer to the utmost, but Stasch had already had great experience, and for Nell’s sake he determined not to think of himself and to spare no energy to accomplish his purpose. For the present it was necessary to save the girl’s strength, and so he decided to travel only between six and ten o’clock in the morning, and from three to six o’clock in the evening, when there happened to be no water at their first halting-place. However, as there had been plenty of rain during the rainy season, they found water everywhere. The small lakes formed on the lowlands by the showers were still well filled, and here and there rivers of crystal-clear cold water flowed from the mountains; these were very inviting to bathe in, and also very safe, for crocodiles only live in larger streams where there are plenty of fish, upon which they chiefly subsist. As Stasch had found a very good filter among Linde’s things, he did not allow the girl to drink unfiltered water. The filter always surprised Kali and Mea, for they saw that, though filled with clouded and whitish water, only clean and clear water flowed from it into the reservoir beneath. At this they laughed and slapped their knees, to show their pleasure and surprise.

On the whole the beginning of their journey was made by easy stages. They had received from Linde large supplies of coffee, tea, sugar, bouillon, various canned goods, and all kinds of medicines. Stasch was not sparing of these, for they had more than they could take with them. They also had plenty of utensils of all kinds, weapons of various caliber, and rockets, which would be of great service when meeting negroes. The country was very fertile, and there was plenty of fruit and fresh meat. In the lowlands they occasionally came across swamps, which had not evaporated sufficiently to poison the air with their deadly odors, being still covered over with water. At this height there were no mosquitoes to innoculate one with the fever; still, the altitude did not prevent it from becoming unbearably hot by ten o’clock. The small travelers made a halt during the so-called “white hours” in the deep shade of large trees, through the thick foliage of which not a ray of sun could penetrate. And so Nell, Stasch, and the negroes kept in excellent health.