Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/19

 go no further, and was prepared to die the worst of all deaths, a bird flew by him, and plunging down a hundred yards away showed him a charming spring, a little shaft of water about two feet in diameter, in a margin of green; man and beast raced to it, and drank till they could drink no more.

By dodging his enemies he at last reached the coast of Berberah, where he found his three comrades, and where he and the wretched mule were duly provided for, and he says he "fell asleep, conscious of having performed a feat which, like a certain ride to York, will live in local annals for many and many a year."

But he would not "let well alone"; he wanted to make a new expedition, Nilewards viâ Harar, on a large and imposing scale, and he went and came back from Aden with forty-two armed men, established an agency, and a camp in a place, where he could have the protection of an English gunboat which brought them; but unfortunately the Government drew off the gun-boat, and 300 of the natives swarmed round them in the night, and tried to throw the tents down, and trap them like mice. They fought desperately, but Speke received eleven wounds, poor Stroyan was killed, Herne was untouched, and Richard Burton, sabreing his way through the crowd, heard a friendly voice behind him, hesitated for a moment, and received a javelin through both cheeks, carrying