Chapter 57 Expedition
January 12, 1867.
Namanga is a small place on the border between Kenya and Tanzania.
An expedition was heading north through Namanga, led by Henriette, a self-taught explorer from Germany.
Since she was a child, Henriette loved listening to adventure stories told by the elders in her hometown, and she longed to explore like the protagonists in the stories. So when she grew up, she wanted to go on adventures around the world to seek that kind of excitement and novelty.
The first stop Henriette chose was Africa, because Africa is the most mysterious place in Europe today. Unfortunately, Henriette had no money in her pocket and could not buy a boat ticket to Africa.
Fortunately, Ernst was recruiting people in Germany to explore the East African colonies at that time, and Henriette signed up.
Henriette, like Captain Armand, was a member of the earliest group of East African colonial mercenaries.
Henriette set out with a team of mercenaries 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 inland environment of East Africa, so they needed to survey the inland environment. They formed several expedition teams to explore the inland areas of East Africa. These expedition teams were registered and selected from the original 2,000 Germans in the East African colony.
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 and explored westward to Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika).
Henriette was still the leader of the expedition to Kenya, and participated in the survey of the geography of East Africa, but this time they explored Kenya from the East African colonies to the north.
At the same time as Henriette's team, another team was sent from Mwanza, the capital of the Great Lakes Region (Lake Victoria), to explore northward along the eastern edge of the Great Lakes.
…
A few days ago, Henriette and her group set out from Karatu, first heading east to the Arusha stronghold, then turning north from Arusha, and arriving in Namanga today.
Namanga was a small town at the border of Tanzania and Kenya in the past. To the east is Mount Kilimanjaro, more than 70 kilometers away.
Since the Sultanate of Zanzibar controlled a large area in eastern Kenya, the East African colony did not choose to survey the situation in Kenya from the eastern part of the colony in order to avoid trouble.
Instead, they explored from the relatively central northern plateau area of East Africa's colonial location to the central and western parts of Kenya.
All Henriette's team had to do was head north from Namanga for about 150 kilometers before they came across Nairobi, the capital of Kenya in its previous life.
The central and western parts of Kenya are the essence of the former Kenyan nation. This can be seen from the administrative map of Kenya. The administrative regions in the southwest are relatively small in area and numerous in number, 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. Other areas include Mombasa on the southeast coast, where the population is relatively large.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar's rule over Kenya is much stronger than its rule over Tanzania. Basically, the eastern part of Kenya is under the rule of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
Therefore, the colony started from the central and western parts, first preparing to take over the Kenyan land between Uganda and the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
Henriette wore a round hat woven from banana leaves and leaned on a branch cut into a crook. She led dozens of people on an arduous walk against the scorching sun of the East African plateau, observing the changes in the nearby landforms and recording the landscape and things along the way.
"Captain, let's take a break. This bad road and the scorching sun are really unbearable!" a member suggested to Henriette.
Henriette raised her sleeve to wipe the sweat from her forehead and took a deep breath.
He first looked at the sky around him, then took out a compass and observed the direction.
Now, it is just past noon, and the sun is at its hottest. The earth under the scorching sun is emitting waves of heat.
I took out the simple map I had drawn along the way from my backpack and crossed Mount Ngong off the list.
Looking north from the expedition's position, a hill has appeared in sight. This is what the Arab merchants called Mount Ngong.
Henriette pointed at Mount Ngong and said to the team members, "Everyone hold on for a while. Today we must hurry to the foot of the mountain. Judging from this distance, Mount Ngong is not far away. It will take at most another ten miles. Then we can rest there."
When the team members heard that they only had ten miles to go before they could rest, they were no longer impatient. For the team members who have been traveling for a long time, ten miles is a piece of cake when they have enough physical strength, just a warm-up.
So the team continued on their journey. After about an hour and a half, the sky had begun to darken and the sun was approaching the horizon.
The expedition team finally reached the foot of Mount Ngong. The environment here was 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 built.
Henriette sat in the tent, took out the notes she had made 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 all flat, with gently undulating terrain. The climate becomes drier as you go north, but there are still green plants along the way and you can occasionally come across some jungles.
This situation continued until near the Ngong Mountains in Namanga, where the green area increased significantly, and there were large tracts of forest on the mountain and more rivers, which was no less than the Arusha area.
Henriette read through her notes and marked on the map in pencil what she saw along the way.
Henriette didn't finish marking the map until it was completely dark. The map was filled with densely packed text notes and icons.
…
"Captain Henriette, it's time to eat!" The voice of teammates came from outside the tent.
The temperature in East Africa dropped quickly at night, so the team members found some firewood and built a bonfire to keep warm and heat up the food.
While Henriette was working, they had already killed prey, a caracal.
After skinning and removing tendons, the fish weighs only a few pounds with bones. A sharp wooden fork is pierced through the middle, and then sprinkled with spices and salt and roasted.
The expedition team brought dry food, all of which was rice produced in the colonies. They learned how to steam rice from the Chinese. In fact, compared to rice, the German members of the expedition team wanted to eat bread more.
Unfortunately, the conditions in the colony do not allow this at present, and the procedures such as kneading and baking are very complicated and not suitable for field operations. These are still secondary. The main reason is that the expedition team are all men who did not know how to cook before.
That is to say, simple cooking methods such as grilling and cooking can be learned easily.
Use an aluminum lunch box, fill it with rice and water, and throw it directly on the charcoal fire to cook. The caracal meat will sizzle and ooze oil under the smoke of the charcoal fire. Add in wild vegetables picked from the wild, and it can make a complete meal.
The rice in the colony was the long-grain kind from South Asia, the wild vegetables were learned and known from the local indigenous people, and the caracal meat tasted good, but probably because of eating habits it was not very delicious.
After eating, the team members began to rest. Two people were responsible for keeping watch, taking turns to prevent wild animals from attacking the tents.
In the darkness, flames danced in the open space, insects chirped, and it seemed as if several pairs of shining eyes in the nearby mountains and forests were staring at the location of the expedition team.
The night watchmen added firewood to maintain the flame of the campfire, while they held their guns tightly and kept a vigilant eye on their surroundings.
…
The next day, after a peaceful night, the team members packed up their supplies and set out again for Kenya. After crossing the Ngong Mountains, they would enter Kenya.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
