For an hour or more I sat waiting (Umslopogaas having meanwhile gone to sleep also) till at length the east turned grey, and huge shapes moved over the surface of the water like ghosts of long-forgotten dawns. They were the vapours rising from their bed to greet the sun. Then the grey turned to , and the primrose grew to red. Next, glorious bars of light sprang up across the eastern sky, and through them the radiant messengers of the dawn came speeding upon their arrowy way, the ghostly vapours and awaking the mountains with a kiss, as they flew from range to range and to longitude. Another moment, and the golden gates were open and the sun himself came as a bridegroom from his , with pomp and glory and a flashing as of ten million spears, and embraced the night and covered her with brightness, and it was day.
But as yet I could see nothing save the beautiful blue sky above, for over the water was a thick layer of mist exactly as though the whole surface had been covered with billows of cotton wool. By degrees, however, the sun sucked up the mists, and then I saw that we were afloat upon a glorious sheet of blue water of which I could not make out the shore. Some eight or ten miles behind us, however, there stretched as far as the eye could reach a range of precipitous hills that formed a retaining wall of the lake, and I have no doubt but that it was through some entrance in these hills that the river found its way into the open water. Indeed, I afterwards this to be the fact, and it will be some indication of the extraordinary strength and directness of the current of the mysterious river that the canoe, even at this distance, was still answering to it. Presently, too, I, or rather Umslopogaas, who woke up just then, discovered another indication, and a very unpleasant one it was. Perceiving some whitish object upon the water, Umslopogaas called my attention to it, and with a few strokes of the paddle brought the canoe to the spot, whereupon we discovered that the object was the body of a man floating face . This was bad enough, but imagine my horror when Umslopogaas having turned him on to his back with the paddle, we recognized in the sunken features the lineaments of—whom do you suppose? None other than our poor servant who had been sucked down two days before in the waters of the subterranean river. It quite frightened me. I thought that we had left him behind for ever, and ! borne by the current, he had made the awful journey with us, and with us had reached the end. His appearance also was dreadful, for he bore traces of having touched the pillar of fire—one arm being completely shrivelled up and all his hair being burnt off. The features were, as I have said, sunken, and yet they preserved upon them that awful look of despair that I had seen upon his living face as the poor fellow was sucked down. Really the sight unnerved me, weary and shaken as I felt with all that we had gone through, and I was glad when suddenly and without any warning the body began to sink just as though it had had a mission, which having been , it ; the real reason no doubt being that turning it on its back allowed a free passage to the gas. Down it went to the depths— after fathom we could trace its course till at last a long line of bright air-bubbles, swiftly chasing each other to the surface, alone remained where it had passed. At length these, too, were gone, and that was an end of our poor servant. Umslopogaas thoughtfully watched the body vanish.
‘What did he follow us for?’ he asked. ‘’Tis an ill for thee and me, Macumazahn.’ And he laughed.
I turned on him angrily, for I dislike these unpleasant suggestions. If people have such ideas, they ought in common to keep them to themselves. I individuals who make on the subject of their disagreeable , or who, when they dream that they saw one hanged as a common , or some such horror, will insist upon telling one all about it at breakfast, even if they have to get up early to do it.
Just then, however, the others woke up and began to rejoice exceedingly at finding that we were out of that dreadful river and once more beneath the blue sky. Then followed a babel of talk and suggestions as to what we were to do next, the upshot of all of which was that, as we were excessively hungry, and had nothing left to eat except a few of biltong (dried game-flesh), having abandoned all that remained of our provisions to those horrible freshwater , we to make for the shore. But a new difficulty arose. We did not know where the shore was, and, with the exception of the cliffs through which the subterranean river made its entry, could see nothing but a wide expanse of sparkling blue water. Observing, however, that the long flights of birds kept flying from our left, we concluded that they were advancing from their feeding-grounds on shore to pass the day in the lake, and accordingly headed the boat towards the quarter whence they came, and began to paddle. Before long, however, a stiffish breeze sprang up, blowing directly in the direction we wanted, so we improvized a sail with a blanket and the pole, which took us along merrily. This done, we the remnants of our biltong, washed down with the sweet lake water, and then lit our pipes and awaited whatever might turn up.
When we had been sailing for an hour, Good, who was searching the horizon with the spy-glass, suddenly announced that he saw land, and out that, from the change in the colour of the water, he thought we must be approaching the mouth of a river. In another minute we perceived a great golden , not unlike that of St Paul’s, piercing the morning mists, and while we were wondering what in the world it could be, Good reported another and still more important discovery, namely, that a small sailing-boat was advancing towards us. This bit of news, which we were very shortly able to verify with our own eyes, threw us into a considerable flutter. That the natives of this unknown lake should understand the art of sailing seemed to suggest that they some degree of civilization. In a few more minutes it became evident that the occupant or occupants of the advancing boat had made us out. For a moment or two she hung in the wind as though in doubt, and then came towards us with great swiftness. In ten more minutes she was within a hundred yards, and we saw that she was a neat little boat—not a canoe ‘dug out’, but built more or less in the European fashion with , and carrying a singularly large sail for her size. But our attention was soon diverted from the boat to her crew, which consisted of a man and a woman, nearly as white as ourselves.
We stared at each other in , thinking that we must be mistaken; but no, there was no doubt about it. They were not fair, but the two people in the boat were decidedly of a white as from a black race, as white, for instance, as Spaniards or Italians. It was a patent fact. So it was true, after all; and, mysteriously led by a Power beyond our own, we had discovered this wonderful people. I could have shouted for joy when I thought of the glory and the wonder of the thing; and as it was, we all shook hands and congratulated each other on the unexpected success of our wild search. All my life had I heard of a white race that existed in the highlands of this vast continent, and longed to put them to the proof, and now here I saw it with my own eyes, and was dumbfounded. Truly, as Sir Henry said, the old Roman was right when he wrote ‘Ex Africa semper aliquid novi’, which he tells me means that out of Africa there always comes some new thing.
The man in the boat was of a good but not particularly fine physique, and possessed straight black hair, regular features, and an intelligent face. He was dressed in a brown cloth garment, something like a shirt without the sleeves, and in an unmistakable kilt of the same material. The legs and feet were bare. Round the right arm and left leg he wore thick rings of yellow metal that I judged to be gold. The woman had a sweet face, wild and shy, with large eyes and curling brown hair. Her dress was made of the same material as the man’s, and consisted, as we afterwards discovered, first of a under-garment that hung down to her knee, and then of a single long strip of cloth, about four feet wide by fifteen long, which was wound round the body in folds and finally flung over the left shoulder so that the end, which was dyed blue or purple or some other colour, according to the social of the wearer, hung down in front, the right arm and breast being, however, left quite bare. A more becoming dress, especially when, as in the present case, the wearer was young and pretty, it is quite impossible to conceive. Good (who has an eye for such things) was greatly struck with it, and so indeed was I. It was so simple and yet so effective.
Meanwhile, if we had been astonished at the appearance of the man and woman, it was clear that they were far more astonished at us. As for the man, he appeared to be overcome with fear and wonder, and for a while round our canoe, but would not approach. At last, however, he came within hailing distance, and called to us in a language that sounded soft and pleasing enough, but of which we could not understand one word. So we hailed back in English, French, Latin, Greek, German, Zulu, Dutch, Sisutu, Kukuana, and a few other native dialects that I am acquainted with, but our visitor did not understand any of these tongues; indeed, they appeared to bewilder him. As for the lady, she was busily employed in taking stock of us, and Good was returning the compliment by staring at her hard through his eyeglass, a that she seemed rather to enjoy than otherwise. At length, the man, being unable to make anything of us, suddenly turned his boat round and began to head off for the shore, his little boat skimming away before the wind like a swallow. As she passed across our bows the man turned to attend to the large sail, and Good took the opportunity to kiss his hand to the young lady. I was at this proceeding, both on general grounds and because I feared that she might take offence, but to my delight she did not, for, first glancing round and seeing that her husband, or brother, or whoever he was, was engaged, she promptly kissed hers back.
‘Ah!’ said I. ‘It seems that we have at last found a language that the people of this country understand.’
‘In which case,’ said Sir Henry, ‘Good will prove an interpreter.’
I frowned, for I do not approve of Good’s frivolities, and he knows it, and I turned the conversation to more serious subjects. ‘It is very clear to me,’ I said, ‘that the man will be back before long with a host of his fellows, so we had best make up our minds as to how we are going to receive them.’
‘The question is how will they receive us?’ said Sir Henry.
As for Good he made no remark, but began to extract a small square tin case that had accompanied us in all our wanderings from under a pile of baggage. Now we had often with Good about this tin case, inasmuch as it had been an awkward thing to carry, and he had never given any very account as to its contents; but he had insisted on keeping it, saying mysteriously that it might come in very useful one day.
‘What on earth are you going to do, Good?’ asked Sir Henry.
‘Do—why dress, of course! You don’t expect me to appear in a new country in these things, do you?’ and he pointed to his soiled and worn garments, which were however, like all Good’s things, very tidy, and with every tear mended.
We said no more, but watched his with breathless interest. His first step was to get Alphonse, who was competent in such matters, to trim his hair and beard in the most approved fashion. I think that if he had had some hot water and a cake of soap at hand he would have shaved off the latter; but he had not. This done, he suggested that we should lower the sail of the canoe and all take a bath, which we did, greatly to the horror and of Alphonse, who lifted his hands and ejaculated that these English were indeed a wonderful people. Umslopogaas, who, though he was, like most high-bred Zulus, cleanly in his person, did not see the fun of swimming about in a lake, also regarded the proceeding with mild amusement. We got back into the canoe much refreshed by the cold water, and sat to dry in the sun, whilst Good his tin box, and produced first a beautiful clean white shirt, just as it had left a London steam laundry, and then some garments wrapped first in brown, then in white, and finally in silver paper. We watched this with the tenderest interest and much . One by one Good removed the dull husks that hid their splendours, carefully folding and replacing each piece of paper as he did so; and there at last lay, in all the of its golden epaulettes, lace, and buttons, a Commander of the Royal Navy’s full-dress uniform—dress sword, cocked hat, shiny patent leather boots and all. We .
‘What!’ we said, ‘what! Are you going to put those things on?’
‘Certainly,’ he answered composedly; ‘you see so much depends upon a first impression, especially,’ he added, ‘as I observe that there are ladies about. One at least of us ought to be decently dressed.’
We said no more; we were simply dumbfounded, especially when we considered the artful way in which Good had the contents of that box for all these months. Only one suggestion did we make—namely, that he should wear his mail shirt next his skin. He replied that he feared it would spoil the set of his coat, now carefully spread in the sun to take the out, but finally consented to this precautionary measure. The most amusing part of the affair, however, was to see old Umslopogaas’s astonishment and Alphonse’s delight at Good’s . When at last he stood up in all his glory, even down to the medals on his breast, and himself in th............