Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Head man and members of the Komala tribe.
Apart from the slow pace of the natives, the di~culty of the
terrain and the need to stop at each village and haggle with the
chief, a major problem that also held them up was sickness. As
well as Reid, whose arm became progressively worse until he
ended up having to go to Durban to get treatment, Barton was
almost continuously ill with fever, frequently making it neces-
sary to stay several days in one place while he recovered. Holmes
was often left to cope on his own:
Yesterday I was in a great worry about him
[Barton]
because he was so ill and the responsibility of a sick man on
one's shoulders is really a serious matter. However, I got him
along on a donkey for three hours alright, and then we arrived
at a Portuguese station 10 miles away, and I managed to bor-
row a machila - a sort of bed carried on poles - and sent
him on in advance in comparative comfort.
The majority of the others also su¬ered some form of sick-
ness. Wayland had fever for ten days after becoming lost in the
forest when quite alone on an excursion from the camp at Sawa.
He had been forced to lie out on the side of a precipitous river
