Chapter 57 Expedition
January 12, 1867.
Namanga is a small place on the border of Kenya and Tanzania.
An expedition is heading north in Namanga. The leader of the expedition is Henriette, a self-taught explorer from the German region.
Henriette has been fond of listening to adventure stories from the elders in her hometown since she was a child. She longed to explore around like the protagonist in the story, so when she grew up, she wanted to take risks around the world to seek the excitement and novelty.
Henriette's first stop was Africa, because Africa is the most mysterious place in Europe today. Unfortunately, Henriette didn't have a penny in her pocket and could not buy a ticket to Africa.
Fortunately, Ernst was recruiting people in the German region to explore the East African colonies, and Henriette signed up.
Henriette, like Captain Yaman, was one of the earliest members of the East African colonial mercenary team.
Henriette followed the mercenary team from the Baltic Sea, across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and arrived in East Africa.
When they first arrived, the East African colonial mercenary team did not know much about the environment of the interior of East Africa, so they needed to survey the interior environment. They formed several expedition teams to explore the interior of East Africa. These expeditions were originally composed of the East African colonies. More than 2,000 Germans signed up and were selected.
As the first person to sign up for the expedition, Henriette was appointed leader of a small team. He led an expedition team of more than a dozen people all the way west to explore Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika). nearby.
Henriette led the team this time to explore Kenya and participated in surveying the geography of East Africa, but this time they explored Kenya from the East African colonies northward.
Setting off at the same time as Henriette's team was another team sent by Mwanza, the capital of the Great Lakes region (Lake Victoria), to explore north along the eastern edge of the Great Lakes.
…
A few days ago, Henriette and his party set out from Karatu, first headed east to the Arusha stronghold, then turned north from Arusha, and arrived at Namanga today.
Namanga was a small town at the junction of Tanzania and Kenya in the past, with Mount Kilimanjaro more than 70 kilometers to the east.
Since the Sultanate of Zanzibar controlled a large area of eastern Kenya, the East African colonies did not choose to set out from the eastern part of the colony to survey the situation in Kenya in order to avoid trouble.
Instead, they explore from the northern plateau area, which is relatively centrally located in the East African colonies, to the central and western parts of Kenya.
Henriette's team only needs to go straight north from Namanga for about 150 kilometers to encounter the Nairobi area, the capital of Kenya in its previous life.
The central and western parts of Kenya were the essence of the previous Kenyan country. This can be seen from the map of Kenya's national administrative districts. The administrative districts in the southwest are relatively small and numerous, while the three eastern provinces account for half of the area.
Kenya's population is concentrated in the western plateau and near the Great Lakes region. In other areas, only places such as Mombasa on the southeast coast have relatively large populations.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar's rule over Kenya is much stronger than its rule over Tanzania. Basically, the eastern part of Kenya is within the control of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
Therefore, the colony started from the central and western regions and first prepared to take over the Kenyan land between Uganda and the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
Henriette wore a dome hat made of banana leaves on her head and leaned on a branch cut into a crooked shape. Against the scorching sun of the East African plateau, she led dozens of people to walk hard while observing the changes in the nearby landforms. Record the scenery and things along the way.
"Captain, let's take a break? The bad road and the sun are really unbearable!" A member suggested to Henriette.
Henriette raised her sleeves to wipe the sweat from her forehead and took a deep breath.
He first took a look at the sky around him, took out his compass, and checked the direction.
Now, it's just past noon, when the sun is at its most scorching, and the earth is baking under the scorching sun, sending out bursts of heat waves.
I took out the simple map I drew along the way from my backpack and crossed Ngong Mountain off my list.
Looking north from the location of the expedition, we can see that a hill has appeared in our eyes. This is what Arab traders call Mount Ngong.
Henriette pointed to Ngong Mountain and said to the team members, "Everyone, hang on a little longer. Today we have to rush to the foot of the mountain. From this distance, Ngong Mountain is not far away. We can walk another ten miles at most. By then we can Rest there.”
The team members were no longer impatient when they heard that they could rest ten miles away. For team members who were on the road for a long time, ten miles away was just a trivial matter to warm up when they had sufficient physical strength.
So the team continued to set off. After about an hour and a half, the sky began to darken and the sun was approaching the horizon.
The expedition team finally arrived near the foot of Ngong Mountain. The environment here is good, with dense green vegetation and many trees on the mountain.
The team began to set up camp to rest, and soon several camping tents were set up.
Henriette sat in the tent, took out the notes she had taken along the way from her backpack, and began to fill in the gaps and draw a map.
The road from Arusha to Namanga is almost flat land with gentle undulations, but the climate becomes drier as you go north, but there are still green plants along the way, and you can occasionally encounter some jungles.
This situation continued until near Ngong Mountain in Namanga. The green space in Ngong Mountain increased significantly, and there were large forests and more rivers on the mountain, which was no less impressive than the Arusha area.
Henriette read the notes carefully and marked the scenes she saw along the way on the map with a pencil.
After sorting it out until it was completely dark, Henriette completed the map annotation work. A piece of drawing was filled with dense text notes and icons.
…
"Captain Henriette, it's time to eat!" The voice of his teammates came from outside the tent.
The temperature dropped quickly in East Africa at night, so the team members found some firewood and set up a bonfire to keep warm and started to heat food.
While Henriette was working, they had already hunted their prey, a caracal.
After the skin is peeled off and the bones weigh only a few kilograms, a peeled wooden twig is passed through the middle, sprinkled with spices and salt, and roasted.
The expedition team brought dry food, which was rice produced in the colonies. They learned the skill of steaming rice from the Chinese. In fact, the German members of the expedition team wanted to eat bread more than rice.
Unfortunately, the conditions in the colony currently do not allow it, and the procedures such as kneading and baking dough are very complicated and are not suitable for field operations. These are secondary. The main reason is that the expedition team are all old men who did not know how to cook before.
That is, simple cooking methods such as grilling meat and cooking rice can be learned casually.
Use an aluminum lunch box, put rice and water in it, and throw it directly on the charcoal fire to suffocate the rice. The caracal meat is sizzling and oily under the charcoal grill, and with the wild vegetables picked from the wild, you can make a meal.
The rice in the colonies is the long-grain type from South Asia, and the wild vegetables are learned and understood from the local indigenous people. The caracal meat tastes good, but it may not be very delicious due to eating habits.
After eating, the team members began to rest. Two people were responsible for keeping watch, taking turns to prevent wild beasts from invading the camp.
In the darkness, flames danced in the open space, insects chirped everywhere, and there seemed to be a few pairs of shining eyes staring at the location of the expedition team in the nearby forest.
The members of the night watch, while adding firewood to maintain the flames of the bonfire, clenched their guns and were alert to their surroundings.
…
The next day, after an uneventful night, the team members packed up their supplies and embarked on the journey to Kenya again. They could enter Kenya by crossing the Ngong Mountains.