Komba went to the bows and his people, taking the broad paddles, rowed and pushed the boat along the water-way made by the hippopotami through the tall and matted reeds, from which ducks and other fowl rose in multitudes with a sound like thunder.

A quarter of an hour or so of paddling through these weed-encumbered shallows brought us to the deep and open lake.

Here, on the edge of the reeds a tall pole that served as a mast was shipped, and a square sail, made of closely-woven mats, run up.

It filled with the morning off-land breeze and presently we were bowling along at a rate of quite eight miles the hour.

The shore grew dim behind us, but for a long while above the clinging mists I could see the flag that we had planted on the mound.