ABSTRACT

Sir William Mackinnon, was engaged in painting the benches on the immaculate deck where we sat, To one railing clung a monkey, jabbering and eating bananas, On another a gray parrot squawked harshly, I turned to and helped paint the seats with great effect. The other passengers - of whom there were a half a dozen - lounged about in long steamer-chairs. One of the loungers was Mr, Freshfield, the celebrated mountain climber, who had come out to Uganda to attempt the ascent of Ruwenzon, He had not only failed, but had returned to Entebbe with three kinds of fever microbes rioting in his system, and had had just strength enough to crawl from the hospital to the steamer, a very ill man. Since then two Europeans have made this ascent; one whose name I've forgotten, while the second was the Duke of Abruzzi (cousin to the King of Italy), who was much disgusted that he was not the first.