ADVENTURES IN TROPICAL AFRICA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11692, 19 September 1903, Page 6

ADVENTURES IN TROPICAL AFRICA.

With the inarch of civilisation througli the Dark Continent the age of adventure among savage nations and the wild animals of the forest is fast fading away. We, therefore, welcome genuine works o! travel, campaigning, and sport, which pud on record what happens to a. man when ha cufs himself off from civilisation in the tropical forest, so that we may know something of the actuality before such stories have passed entirely into the realms of bygone history. One of the best o! such works which we have lately nief with is entitled "Service and Sport on tha Tropical Nile," by Captain C. A. Sykes, R.H.A. In 1897 the Soudanese troops , who garrisoned Uganda revolted, and Captain Sykes was one of the officers urgently, asked for by the Foreign Office to help in quelling the mutiny. Though still in the • . air, there was also, as he tells us, the idea that a movement would be made down tha Nile through a country which, since Emin'l clay, had reverted to savagedom, ultimately to join hands with Sir Herbert Kitchener at Soudan. The case was believed to be urgent, and Captain Sykes had to leave Mombassa, with the Commisssioner, without even waiting for his baggage, after hastily getting together a few native bearers, and such supplies as could be procured on the spot. The great Uganda railway, then in its infancy, conveyed them the first 100 miles, after which Captain Sykes commenced a march through the African forest, that was destined to last two years. On reaching Ntebbe he was given the command of a Soudanesa column for an expedition down the Nile. The object was to anticipate the French, and join hands with Sir H. Kitchener, aftei he had defeated the dervishes. From this point Captain Sykes, as the only European officer, had to rely upon himself alone,, and his adventures become the more In-. teresting. What humour there is, he makes the most of it, but, as he tells us, it is not a country of much humour, and exedtemttt, sickness, cruelty, pathos, courage, devotion, privation, must all take their place - in his pages. Even the quaint little retainer, whom he christened "the Insek,' i and who supplies most of the lighter epi* " sodes in the early part of the book, comes to a tragic end, being devoured by a crocodile. . «'• - Those who take an interest in sport Will find plenty to enthral them in these pages —from shooting hartebeeste to elephants and hippopotami. Very interesting, too, is the author's account of the varioui tribeß of natives whom he met in his wanderings. He speaks very highly of tin' quality of the Soudanese as soldiers. B< ! tells us they are hardly ever ill, and they live on anything the country provides. They are gifted with a delightful cheerfulness under the most adverse circumstances, ' and are the most thoroughly professional soldiers he ever met. It is interesting to learn that the cadet movement is » / full swing among them. "When recruits | "are wanted," he tells us, "it is only ne- | " cessary to walk through their villages ; " and select the most likely-looking young-/-' "sters. You find them ready-made sol"diers, for the children drill each other "as soon as they can walk, and:. "I have often seen one child " manoeuvring about several smaller "children. He will first form them up, ' "give general instructions, and see them "carried out, chiding his squad for slack"ness or inattention, all with the serious" | "air of his father." T%e Soudanese are . first, enrolled on half-pay until they art efficient as trained men, when they re» . ceive the fall pay. They are excellent tailors, and make their own undress cloth-; ing and underclothing; they make their own shoes; they build their own houses; they till the soil, and are first-rate agriculturists. The Somalis are also excellent ' material as far as actual fighting is concerned, but Captain Sykes tells us that their delicate constitution made them almost useless in other respects. He nearly ' always had half of his Somali troops down with fever or lung troubles. We get also a graphic picture of European sufferings from malarial fever, and, abova all, from the dreaded "blackwater," in/ which, the author tells us, "the blood is "killed within one's veins and turns' " black." It is discovered suddenly, and a crisis is reached in 48 hours. Quinine is the great remedy for both complaints. The author refers those who desire descriptions of scenery to Sir Harry Johnson's great work upon Uganda, but.'here and there some graphic pictures will be , found in his own writings. Kilima Njaro, to his mind, is the most glorious sight, on the Continent. Mountains, as a rale, of 20,000 feet and upwards, rise from ,».; lofty plateau, but Kilima Njaro stands on -'. a pedestal of some 2000 feet, and raise* > its 20,000 feet sheer up from this. Tha :-, last few thousand feet are covered with y eternal snow, which glitters in the ■flerc» / sunshine, and delights the.eye with every;> kind of lovely hue. Equally telling i*

hi. Picture oi the great Murchison Falls, w here the Nile, after flowing out of the Victoria Lake, suddenly- from being a i. wide, converges into a rocky gorge, Id drops dc-n a precis o 120 feet. -f «A i half distance the gigantic At a mile and a nan xoar kept him awake at Bight . i stood still for countless Tropical Africa stow • w is now passing lt a breathless rW r. t.in Svkes came across some Wadelai Capt** Ke rerv old chiefs, who had known Gordon ," „ Hiker and spoke of them almost end even ii& eT > r . •f {bey were denn-gods lost in tlie risti of anti^ uit - r - ° ne ° ld Chi6f d6 ' fCf jbed Baker as a thick man with short !fgß and immense strength. He said that if Baker took up a man and shook . him, that man withered and died, and. add\the author, "I can quite believe it. "for they are.a fragile-looking race." It is barely four year« since Captain Sykes's mission came to an end, yet in Uganda the whole face of the land is already changed. "The steam whistle has "superseded the snort of the rhinoceros, 11 the -telegraph and red tape have found "out the haunts of the elephant. Where "there was solitude iu nature, one now "hears the ceaseless hum of human beings." The age of African romance, as we have

said, is fast passing away, and we are grateful to Captain Sykes for keeping the memory of so much* of it alive in his en-

tertaining pages,