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Title: The Nile quest
Author: Harry Hamilton Johnston
Illustrator: J. G. Bartholomew
Release date: March 5, 2025 [eBook #75534]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Alston Rivers, 1906
Credits: Peter Becker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NILE QUEST ***
Transcriber’s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. Additional
notes will be found near the end of this ebook.
THE STORY OF EXPLORATION
EDITED BY
J. SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D., SEC. R.G.S.
THE NILE QUEST
BY
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.
[Illustration:
[_Frontispiece_
SPEKE (from a Drawing by the Author).]
THE NILE QUEST
A RECORD OF
THE EXPLORATION OF THE
NILE AND ITS BASIN
BY
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.
(PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY)
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS AND
PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR AND OTHERS_
WITH MAPS BY J. G. BARTHOLOMEW
[Illustration]
LONDON
ALSTON RIVERS, LIMITED
ARUNDEL STREET, W.C.
1906
THE STORY OF EXPLORATION
Probably few of the stories that tell of the achievements due to the
curiosity of humanity have a wider or more lasting interest than that
which is concerned with the exploration of the lands and seas, which
give feature to the face of the earth. It is a long story, and would
be longer still, if the men in the remote past had left any record of
their wanderings. Even as it is, in the scanty and perplexing records
left behind them by ancient Egyptians, Phœnicians, Carthaginians,
Hebrews, and even Chinese, the story begins more than three thousand
years ago and, so far as the pioneer work of exploration is concerned,
may be taken to have practically concluded with the end of the
nineteenth century. It seems, therefore, an opportune time to recount
the leading episodes in this long record of incessant human effort, in
a manner which will appeal to, and interest, all intelligent readers.
In the series of volumes, which will be issued under the general title
“The Story of Exploration,” it will be sought to make the narrative
circle round the personality of the men who had the leading share in
carrying on the adventurous work.
Beginning with the earliest journeys of which we have any record, the
story will be carried down stage by stage to the present day, and it
is believed that, when complete, it will form what may be called a
biographical history of exploration. While the work of geographical
research in all parts of the globe will be seriously and adequately
treated, the adventures incident to such research, which add human
interest to it, will have due prominence given to them. In all cases
it will be sought to obtain the co-operation of men who are recognized
as authorities on the particular subjects with which they deal. Each
volume will be profusely illustrated, the illustrations being selected
for their appropriateness to the text, while every assistance will be
given to the reader by means of carefully executed maps.
J. SCOTT KELTIE.
PREFATORY NOTE
When the author of this book was composing his recent work on the
Uganda Protectorate, he was led through the history of its discovery
into the general consideration of Nile exploration, since it was in the
search for the Nile sources that the territories now forming the Uganda
Protectorate were laid bare to the gaze of the civilised world. But as
anything like a detailed review of the exploration of the Nile basin
by the Caucasian race would have unduly extended a book dealing more
particularly with Uganda, he gladly took advantage of the suggestion
made by Dr. Scott Keltie (Editor of this series) that these studies
should be applied to the present volume, which is one of a series on
the history of great geographical discoveries.
It is not for the author to say that his book on the Nile Quest will
prove interesting; but he has striven to make it as accurate as
possible, and he hopes it may be permanently useful as a faithful
record of the names and achievements of those who solved the greatest
geographical secret, after the discovery of America, which remained for
the Caucasian’s consideration.
H. H. JOHNSTON.
LONDON, 1903.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Editor and the Author desire to acknowledge, with thanks, the loan
of photographs, letters, or maps for the illustration of this book,
from Sir John Kirk, G.C.M.G., Mrs. Murdoch (_née_ Speke), Mr. J. F.
Cunningham, Mr. W. G. Doggett, Mr. Theodore Tinne, Mr. T. Douglas
Murray, Lady Baker, Mr. Oscar Neumann, Mr. J. E. S. Moore, Major Gwynn,
Major Austin, Mr. J. Thomson, The African Society, Mr. S. Crispin, and
Mr. Warry.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. The Dawn of Nile Exploration 1
II. The Greeks interest Europe in the Nile Question 14
III. Abyssinians and Jews 30
IV. Islamites and Italians 37
V. A Summary of the Ancients’ Knowledge of the Nile 42
VI. Portugal and Abyssinia 45
VII. French Inquiries and D’Anville’s Maps 65
VIII. Bruce and the Nile: Sonnini, Browne, and Bonaparte 73
IX. Muhammad Ali opens up the White Nile 91
X. Missionaries and Snow-Mountains 111
XI. Burton and Speke 115
XII. Speke and the Nile Quest 125
XIII. Speke in Uganda 150
XIV. From the Victoria Nyanza to Alexandria 160
XV. Samuel Baker and the Albert Nyanza 174
XVI. Alexandrine Tinne and Theodor von Heuglin 192
XVII. Schweinfurth and the Basin of the Bahr-al-Ghazal 201
XVIII. Schweinfurth’s Achievements and Descriptions 216
XIX. Stanley confirms Speke 223
XX. Gordon and his Lieutenants.--Junker and the Nile-Congo
Water-parting 230
XXI. Joseph Thomson, Mt. Elgon, and Kavirondo Bay 246
XXII. Emin Pasha 250
XXIII. Stanley discovers the Mountains of the Moon and Lake
Albert Edward.--The End of Emin 259
XXIV. German Explorers determine the Southern Limits of the
Nile Basin 265
XXV. Geographical Work in the Uganda Protectorate 269
XXVI. The Eastern Basin of the Nile 276
XXVII. Conclusion 293
XXVIII. The Geography of the Nile Basin 299
APPENDIX I. The Roll of Fame of those who started on the Nile
Quest 319
APPENDIX II. Bibliography 322
INDEX 329
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SPEKE (from a drawing by the author) _Frontispiece_
_Page_
1. The Nile and the Pyramids 4
2. The Mountains of the Moon 23
3. The Course of the Nile according to Ptolemy 24
4. An Arab Trader (Maskati) 40
5. Dapper’s Map (Amsterdam: 1686) giving the falsified results
of Portuguese explorations 58
6. D’Anville’s Map of the Nile Basin 70
7. The Branching _Hyphæne_ Palm 75
8. Bruce’s Map of the Nile Sources 80
9. Portrait of James Bruce 86
10. Map of Africa by Williamson, London, 1800 90
11. Blue Nile, twenty miles east of Fazokl 93
12. Ferdinand Werne 96
13. Whale-headed Stork (_Balæniceps rex_) 100
14. John Petherick 102
15. Map published in Penny Magazine of 1852 108
16. The River Sobat 111
17. Rev. Dr. J. Ludwig Krapf 112
18. A Swahili Arab Trader 117
19. Sketch Map by Burton and Speke, 1858 123
20. John Hanning Speke, at the age of 17 126
21. Burton’s idea of the Nile Sources, December, 1864 127
22. James Augustus Grant 132
23. A Mnyamwezi Porter 135
24. A Hima of Mpororo near Karagwe 144
25. Speke’s Tragelaph 146
26. The Ripon Falls, from the west bank 151
27. A View in Uganda 152
28. The Nile at the Isamba Rapids, looking North 160
29. Ripon Falls, from Bugunga 162
30. View of Napoleon Gulf, from Jinja 163
31. The last Map issued to illustrate Speke’s Theories, 1865 170
32. Speke’s Handwriting 172
33. Samuel Baker, 1865 176
34. A Native of Unyoro 184
35. Alexandrine Tinne 192
36. On the Jur River: Sudd blocking the Channel 195
37. Letter of Miss Tinne to her nephew 198
38. Georg Schweinfurth, 1875 203
39. Shiluks 211
40. “Papyrus, fifteen feet high” 218
41. A Path through the Forest 220
42. Schweinfurth’s Map 223
43. The Victoria Nyanza 226
44. Stanley’s idea of the Victoria Nyanza, 1880 228
45. The Victoria Nile flowing towards Lake Kioga 232
46. Nuërr Village, Sobat River 241
47. Joseph Thomson and Wilhelm Junker 242
48. A Stern-wheel Steamboat forcing its way up the Jur (Sue)
or main affluent of the Bahr-al-Ghazal 245
49. N.E. corner of Victoria Nyanza (with Samia Hills in
distance) 247
50. Joseph Thomson 248
51. Emin Pasha 252
52. Raphia Palms by a Central African stream 257
53. Sir Henry Stanley, G.C.B. 261
54. Shores of the Victoria Nyanza near Emin Pasha Gulf 262
55. Dr. Franz Stuhlmann 264
56. A Native of Unyamwezi from near south shores of Victoria
Nyanza 267
57. Sir Frederic D. Lugard 269
58. G. F. Scott-Elliott 271
59. Dr. Donaldson-Smith 272
60. Cutting the Sudd 274
61. Dr. C. Beke 281
62. Natives of the Baro (Upper Sobat) 284
63. Colonel J. B. Marchand 286
64. Gorge of the River Baro (Upper Sobat) 287
65. Berta Negroes 289
66. A Berta Village in the Matongwe Mountains 291
67. The Nile in Egypt 293
68. Nubia: a “Washout” on the Sudan Railway 294
69. Tropical Forest at Entebbe, on the northwest shores of the
Victoria Nyanza 295
70. Napoleon Gulf, looking South 302
71. The Birth of the Victoria Nile, at the Ripon Falls 304
72. On Lake Albert Edward (North-west Coast) 305
73. In the Libyan Desert 315
74. Orographical Features of the Nile Basin 328
75. Land Surface Features of the Nile Basin 328
THE NILE QUEST
CHAPTER I
THE DAWN OF NILE EXPLORATION
The first men who entered Egypt and travelled up the valley of the
Nile came, almost unquestionably, from the east, and were part of
those radiations from the central focus of humanity, India. It is
possible that the first men who entered the valley of the Nile from
this direction may have been of so primitive, simian, and undetermined
a type--so “Neanderthaloid”--as not to belong definitely to any one
of the three main species of humanity. At that distant time, however
(let us say at the end of the Pleistocene period or beginning of the
Quaternary Epoch), there was undoubtedly a land connection over the
south as well as over the north end of the Red Sea, joining Arabia to
Ethiopia as well as to Egypt; and across this bridge came many types
of Asiatic mammals, also man,--possibly in the form of a low Negroid,
a type represented to-day (much changed and modified, of course) by
the Congo Pygmies and South African Bushmen. As regards the history
of humanity, however, the valley of the Nile has been divided into
two very distinct parts. The southern half of its basin--in common
with all Africa south of the Sahara and the fifteenth degree of north
latitude--was peopled from the east, through southern Arabia, and by
the Negro species in the main. Egypt proper and the adjoining regions
of Arabia once lay within the domain of the Negroid Pygmies, but
these indigenes were overwhelmed at a relatively early period by more
or less “negrified” branches of the Caucasian stock coming from the
direction of Syria or from Libya. Before the dawn of the historical
epoch--say nine thousand years ago--an element in the population of
Lower Egypt certainly showed Bushmen affinities. These steatopygous
Bushmen were perhaps Proto-negroes, who may have branched off from
the Nigritic stock when first that species reached the Mediterranean
regions. This Bushman element in Egypt was for some time distinct,
prior to the historical period, as the characteristic type of the
servile class. Following on these dwarfish people came races bearing
some slight resemblance to the Dravidians of India or the Brahuis of
Baluchistan,--a somewhat Australoid stock which has left traces in
Elam and around the shores of the Persian Gulf. Then came an aquiline
type of nearly pure Caucasian stock, usually known by Egyptologists as
the “Khafra” race. This probably arrived from Syria or Cyprus. But the
men of the northern half of the Nile basin who fathered the principal,
dominating type of ancient and modern Egyptian emigrated seemingly
from the direction of Galaland, Somaliland, or Abyssinia. In these
countries, or originally perhaps in southern Arabia, there was formed a
handsome race mainly of Caucasian stock, but which had mingled somewhat
considerably with the Proto-negroes and Dravidians in Arabia and in
northeast Africa, and so had acquired darker skins, and hair with
more or less tendency to curl. The men of this race, like the modern
Somali or Gala, and the inhabitants of southern Arabia, grew thin and
wedge-shaped beards. Their lips were full, their noses straight and
finely shaped. Their degenerate descendants continue to exist with but
little altered facial type in the Danākil, Somali, and Gala of the
present day; but in the northern half of the Nile valley they became
in time the main stock of the Egyptian population. They also, it would
seem, profoundly modified Negro Africa; for while on the one hand
they started out by a series of race movements and conquests from the
direction of Abyssinia to invade and mould Egypt, on the other (though
more faint-heartedly) they advanced in a southwesterly direction to
influence Negro Africa. They have formed aristocracies in the countries
round the head-waters of the White Nile. Their influence on the Negro
races has been widespread, permeating, even though faintly, in a
handsome physical type and remarkable form of language, to Zululand
on the south and perhaps westward across the continent to the Congo,
the Cross River, and the Atlantic coast. This Hamitic race (as it is
called for want of a better word), which made its first home--and
retains as its last--the highlands of Abyssinia and the plateaux and
arid coastlands of Afar, Somaliland, and the Gala countries, has
been the mainstay of Ancient Egypt, and also, together with its not
distantly related Libyan brethren, the main human agent in saving the
Negro from slipping back into the life of the anthropoid ape.
[Illustration: THE NILE AND THE PYRAMIDS.]
The valley of the Lower Nile, however, attracted many invasions from
Europe and Asia, and from Libya (northwest Africa), where the dominant
race was mainly of Iberian stock.[1] Dynasties rose and fell, often
coincident with the invasion of Egypt by one race of conquerors after
another. All these races (with the exception perhaps of the Hittites)
belonged to various types of the Caucasian species. The Hittites
possibly may have introduced a slight element of the Mongolian. In
the earliest historical period Egypt and the lower valley of the
Nile does not seem to have been markedly severed in its interracial
relations from the far greater portion of the Nile basin which lies
to the south of the fifteenth degree of north latitude. Egyptians
penetrated no doubt without much difficulty up the Nile valley into
and among the Negro tribes of the Central Sudan and Equatoria. The
Ancient Egyptians may have had--must have had--a certain proportion of
Negro or Negroid in their composition; beside the drop of Negro blood
in their Hamitic ancestors, they must have absorbed the earlier
Negroid population of their country and have imported and intermarried
with Negro slaves. But they were fully Caucasian in the vivid interest
they took in nature, and in their desire to depict all the striking
forms of life around them, especially when such forms had anything of
novelty. Prof. Flinders Petrie has, I believe, recently discovered a
vase of immeasurable antiquity of the “Pre-Dynastic” period in Lower
Egypt which is incised with a delineation of the Kudu antelope.[2]
Other and later relics would seem to show that the Egyptians were
acquainted with the chimpanzee of the Bahr-al-Ghazal regions, the
Pygmies who once inhabited the western part of the Upper Nile basin,
and many forms of the Tropical African fauna. But after these early
historical times there appears to have come about a severance of
relations between Egypt and the Upper Nile, though an overland route
to the Land of Punt (Somaliland) either through Abyssinia or to the
west of that elevated region nearly always existed unclosed to traffic.
It is noteworthy that the Ancient Egyptians themselves do not appear
ever to have penetrated up the main stream of the Nile much above its
junction with the Bahr-al-Ghazal, no doubt owing to the obstruction
of the sudd. Their traders may have travelled into many parts of the
Bahr-al-Ghazal region, and possibly even westward in the direction
of Lake Chad,--westward, it may be, even across the western Sudan
to the Niger,--yet there is not the slightest indication of their
ever having journeyed up the main White Nile to the snow-mountains
and the equatorial lakes. But they traded for thousands of years
with the men of Punt (Somaliland) by sea and by land; and there is
evidence to show that the peoples of Somaliland and Galaland (who had
by repeated prehistoric invasions permeated the Upper Nile basin and
left aristocracies behind them) traded anciently--say, in pre-Islamic
times--southwestward to Lake Rudolf, and round Lake Rudolf to the
present Turkana country, the neighbourhood of Mount Elgon, and even to
the northeastern shores of the Victoria Nyanza.
The Ancient Egyptians seem to have known the main Nile as far as
Khartum, and the Blue Nile up to its source in Lake Tsana. They
exercised intermittently some kind of rule over the northern and
western escarpment of Abyssinia, and are said to have sent criminals
and political exiles to die of cold on the snowy heights of the Samien
range. But they appear to have displayed little knowledge or curiosity
concerning the ultimate source of the _White_ Nile. No doubt the vast
marshes and obstructions of the sudd which characterised the course of
the Nile above its confluence with the Bahr-al-Ghazal, the generally
hopeless nature of this country with its utter absence of anything
like high land, of minerals, or of a trading population, discouraged
the practical-minded Egyptians from pursuing their researches in that
direction. The Nile itself they called _Hapi_, which was also the name
of the Nile God. It was sometimes spoken of as _Pi Yuma_, or “the
River.”[3] Its valley they called Atr, Atur, Aur (Modern Coptic =
_Eiōr_).[4]
Several foreign dynasties ruled over Ancient Egypt,--Arabian and
Libyan,--and for centuries at a time the energies of Egypt were mainly
concentrated on domestic work under these foreign task-masters or
insurrections to expel the hated rulers. The original civilisation of
Egypt rose rapidly to a great and wonderful height at a period which
may be as remote, historically, as about seven thousand years ago. The
main source of their civilisation seems to have been the introduction
into the country of copper implements instead of and in addition to
those of improved stone and flint manufacture. A wonderful development
of pictorial art occurred concurrently with this brilliant rise in
civilisation, and this early Egyptian art is of a realistic character
from which all subsequent Egyptian pictorial or sculptured art has been
a degeneration. At this time they easily impressed the Negroes of
the south and the Libyans of the west with their power, and it was no
doubt a matter of ease for Egyptian expeditions to penetrate into the
Sudan from the countries of Abyssinia and Galaland. Gold and precious
or gaudy stones were sought for in the east and southeast. Ivory,
slaves, gums, perfumes, and strange beasts were obtained from the south
and southwest. But no doubt Ancient Egyptians in their extensions of
political or commercial influence introduced amongst the Negro tribes
the knowledge of working metals. They also gave to them all those
domestic animals and cultivated plants now existing in Tropical Africa
which are not of a far later American or Indian origin (that is,
introduced by the Portuguese and Arabs). By instructing the Negroes
in this indirect manner in the arts of civilisation, and by spreading
among them, no doubt, the use of metal weapons (which were probably
as good as those used by the Egyptians themselves), there came a time
when--to use a term once much employed by the European pioneer--the
black men became “saucy” and objected to be harried, bullied, assessed,
and exploited by the lordly Egyptian. The Negro race at this time, too,
was becoming infiltrated by the same splendid stock--the Hamites--as
had so largely composed the ruling population of Egypt. Here and
there, no doubt, Negro tribes submitted willingly to be governed by
Hamitic princes (as has been the case in Uganda and Unyoro), and, thus
ruled, offered sharp opposition to Egyptian encroachments. Egyptian
interest, therefore, in the sources of the Nile died away, especially
as in the revival of native Egyptian power and in the expulsion of
foreign dynasties the thoughts of Egypt were all bent on the conquest
and retention of Syria, Asia Minor, and Cyprus. These lands were more
desirable in their eyes than the appalling wastes of the Sahara, the
sun-smitten Sudan, the cold mountains of Abyssinia, or the fetid
marshes of the Nile Negroes.
Almost older than the civilisation of Egypt was that of Mesopotamia,
the reflex action of which on the Hamites of western Arabia and
Abyssinia and on the inhabitants of the Nile Delta may have provoked
the civilisation of Egypt. Empires rose, declined, fell, and were
revived in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and their
influence over Arabia and Syria produced in those countries a stirring
of commerce and invention and a desire for distant enterprise. The
Phœnicians, who were originally an Arab people of the Persian Gulf,
forced their way across the barren wastes of northern Arabia to the
coasts of Syria, leaving behind, however, colonies of bold navigators
at the northern end of the Persian Gulf. The Phœnicians, by the
building of more seaworthy boats, and probably by the development of
sails, soon traversed the Mediterranean in all directions, passed
out through the Straits of Gibraltar, and even found their way to
Britain long before Julius Cæsar. Their most noteworthy action in
connection with Africa perhaps was the founding of Utica in 1100 B.C.
and Carthage in 820 B.C., these settlements being made at no great
distance from each other in that projection of North Africa which
constitutes the modern state of Tunis. The Carthaginian successors of
the Phœnicians carried on the work of discovery along the north and
west coasts of Africa until, in the memorable voyage of Hanno, they
had penetrated as far south in that direction as the existing colony
of Sierra Leone. The Phœnicians as bold navigators were enlisted in
the service of one of the last Egyptian sovereigns of a real Egyptian
dynasty,--Neku, son of Psametik I., who succeeded to the throne of
Egypt in 611 B.C. Evidently by this time the overland routes to the
regions of the Upper Nile and even to Somaliland had been closed by
hostilities with the Ethiopians and Negroes. A Phœnician expedition
was directed to sail down the Red Sea and along the coast to the Land
of Punt and the unknown territory beyond. According to tradition,
this expedition sailed round the whole continent of Africa and passed
through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, reaching Egypt
from that direction.
Egypt, in her several thousand years of history, had been many times
conquered by foreign races or the leaders of foreign armies, and had
sometimes endured the domination of strangers for five hundred years at
a time, though Egyptian art, tradition, and religion either survived
concurrently alongside the habits and customs of the less civilised
rulers, or ended by Egyptianising the stranger. But there was to
come a time when the independence of Egypt was to disappear, when the
Egyptian language was to cease to be dominant, when, in fact, the Egypt
of the Pharaohs and the Pyramids, of the Hieroglyph and the Mummy,
of Ra and Aphis, Osiris, Isis, and Horus was to disappear--perhaps
for ever; for the potent race that had so long held aloft a
brightly-lighted lamp of civilisation has been so changed and degraded
by the infusion of Persian, Arab, Greek, Italian, Negro, Circassian,
Turkish, French, and Maltese blood, so often decimated by wars,
famines, and diseases, and renewed with the tainted blood of mercenary
armies, that, though the residuum of the population may still offer
great facial resemblances to the vanished Egyptian type, the majesty of
demeanour, the brilliant mental endowments of the old race have gone,
and the rulers of Egypt to-day under the indifferent English are the
descendants of Slavs and Turks, Arabs, Armenians, and Circassians.
A ruler of Egypt, a usurper named Aahmes, had been raised to the
kingship over Egypt by a soldier’s mutiny. He had legitimised his
position by marrying a granddaughter of Psametik I. Carrying out a
series of successful expeditions, he once more opened a way to the
commerce of Nubia and the Upper Nile. He intervened in the affairs of
Asia Minor to support a small state there against encroachments by
the Persian conqueror Cyrus. The son of Cyrus the Great, whom we know
as Cambyses, but whose real name was probably in Persian Kambujiya,
resolved to punish Egypt for this interference. Aahmes, whom the
Greeks called Amasis, died before he could resist the invasion, and
his son, Psametik III., lost his throne and the independence of
Egypt in the battle of Pelusium. Cambyses became the conqueror, and
was crowned the legitimate King of Egypt. He seems to have been an
erratic and cruel conqueror, but, like Nero, somewhat fantastically
interested in science and exploration. He sent one great expedition
into the Libyan Desert which was never heard of again, and is supposed
to have perished in the sand; and he led a great army himself up the
Nile with some vague intention of conquering the Ethiopians. His
soldiers, however, had marched only a small distance into the desert
when their commissariat failed, and many perished, while others became
cannibals in their mad hunger. This disaster put a stop to any further
efforts on the part of the Persian Overlords of Egypt. For nearly
two hundred years Persia maintained her hold over Egypt, though for
brief intervals native dynasties arose in this part and that part and
flickered for a time in a state of semi-independence. Then happened
one of the great events in the history of Egypt and of the development
of Africa,--an event which may be paralleled by the descent on Egypt
of Napoleon Bonaparte two thousand one hundred and thirty-one years
later: Alexander the Great, continuing his war against the Persian
Empire, attacked that power in Egypt and won the day. Alexander left
in charge in Egypt one of his generals (who was perhaps also his
illegitimate half-brother), Ptolemy. After his death Ptolemy refused to
acknowledge the claims of Alexander’s posthumous son, and made himself
King of Egypt. He thus founded a Greek dynasty in that country which
lasted till the advent of the Cæsars and expired in the person of the
world-famed Cleopatra.
CHAPTER II
THE GREEKS INTEREST EUROPE IN THE NILE QUESTION
The second division of the Caucasian species of man (the Iberian being
the first) was the Aryan,--a race of golden-haired, pink and white
complexioned people, with eyes that are blue, gray, or violet.[5]
The Aryans first came into Greece as barbarians and destroyers, but
were soon conquered by the preceding Iberian Mykenæan civilisation,
on which they built up that Hellenic art and knowledge which are the
foundations of European civilisation at the present day. This Hellenic
spirit first made itself felt in Africa through the Greek colonies of
the Cyrenaica. Greece, when it became conscious of a world beyond its
peninsulas and islands, was strongly drawn towards Africa. The power
of Egypt long withstood attempts at Greek colonisation, though in
quite early days Hellenic or Hellenised Europeans were employed by the
rulers of Egypt as mercenary soldiers. Therefore, following the line
of least resistance, Greece planted her first African colonies between
Egypt on the east and the settlements of the Phœnicians (Carthage) on
the west. Due west of the narrow coast belt of Egypt is a remarkable
projection of North Africa into the Mediterranean,--the modern Barka,
the ancient Cyrenaica. This projection has been, several times in
geological history, a series of islands in a larger Mediterranean, or
it has grown into a bridge connecting Greece with Africa. The land now
rises to heights of three thousand feet, and there is a sufficiency of
rainfall in ordinary seasons to nourish a vegetation not much less rich
than that of southern Italy. South of the Cyrenaica lies the Sahara
Desert in its most aggravated form of well-nigh impassable sand dunes.
No Greek expedition that we know of ever succeeded in crossing the
Sahara from Cyrenaica and reaching the Sudan; but Greek influence and
inquiries were dimly felt in Phazania (Fezzan) to the southwest, and
the existence and prosperity of these Greek colonies in North Africa
aroused the interest of the Greeks in matters of African exploration.
In about 457 B.C. Herodotus (a native of Halicarnassus, a Hellenised
state in Asia Minor under Persian rule) visited Egypt, which from 650
B.C. onwards had been more or less thrown open to Greek enterprise by
Psametik I. Herodotus himself travelled up the Nile as far as the First
Cataract, and collected with some industry information from Egyptians
and travelled Greeks as to the regions which lay beyond. From these he
learned that the origin of the Nile was unknown, but that the river
might come from the far west, from the region where we now know Lake
Chad to be; that there was a civilised city of Ethiopians in the great
bend of the Nile at Meroe (Merāwi of to-day), and that beyond this
nothing certain was known of the Nile course. Aristotle--the great
Greek philosopher, who was born in northern Greece in 384 B.C.--wrote
on African discovery and recorded the news that to the southwest of
the Nile were Pygmy races who frequently warred with the “cranes” (?
ostriches).
In B.C. 276 was born at Cyrene, in North Africa, Eratosthenes, a Greek
geographer, who was made Librarian at Alexandria. From the information
he collected and collated (supplied, no doubt, by Greek traders) he,
first of all known geographers, sketched out with fair accuracy the
course of the Nile and its two great Abyssinian affluents as far
south as the modern Khartum. He hinted at the lake sources and first
mentioned the Nubians.
It was the conquest of Egypt from Persian domination by Alexander the
Great which really did more to extend Greek commerce and civilisation
and the use of the Greek language over eastern Africa and western Asia
than has even been done at a far later date in other parts of the
world for German commerce, knowledge, and the German language by the
unification of Germany under Bismarck, William I., and William II.
Greek explorers visited the Nile as far south as the junction of the
Astapus (Blue Nile), and Greek settlements were made on the island of
Sokotra, and possibly at other points near the mouth of the Red Sea.
Greek traders even visited the East African coast as far as Pangani,
opposite Zanzibar. The Greeks revealed India to Europe, and the
commerce which sprung up there through Greek agencies on the Persian
Gulf and the Red Sea gave unwilling navigators, in those days before
steam force, some acquaintance with the eastern coast of Africa as far
south as Zanzibar.
Yet the Greeks in all these regions were (as subsequently happened
with the Portuguese) but the followers of the Arabs and Phœnicians.
Some impulse, kindred in origin, no doubt, to the evolution of the
Phœnicians, had created an ancient civilisation in southern and western
Arabia which perhaps reached its climax in the lofty, well-watered, and
fertile country of Yaman. Much of southern Arabia, however, several
thousand years ago, was less arid than at the present day. The rainfall
was greater, and the already civilised inhabitants industriously
preserved the precious water by dams for purposes of irrigation. This
civilisation may be briefly styled Himyaritic or Sabæan,--perhaps the
last name is the more comprehensive. These Sabæan Arabs of south and
southwest Arabia, separately or in conjunction with their Phœnician
cousins, pursued their search for metals down the east coast of Africa,
along which they made settlements which are probably the sites of most
of the modern emporiums of commerce on the same coast. They had reached
the mouth of the Zambezi and ascended that river, and had penetrated
as far south as, let us say, Delagoa Bay. It was perhaps their
exploration of the Zambezi which led them to discover alluvial gold
in the vicinity of that river, though they afterwards found a shorter
route to the gold fields by way of Sofala. In this way they forestalled
by some twenty-five hundred years modern Rhodesian enterprise, and
gold was worked in the regions to the south of the Lower Zambezi and
a little to the north of that river by Arabs or people of allied
language and race almost continuously from an approximate period of
three thousand years ago down to the arrival of the Portuguese at the
beginning of the sixteenth century of this era. In the days before the
appalling religious disunion brought about by the conflicts between
Christianity and Islam there was no bitter feeling against the European
on the part of the Arab, and Greek adventurers and traders appear to
have penetrated freely up the Nile, and to have worked cordially with
the Sabæan Arabs whom they found established at various points between
India on the one hand and Zanzibar and the Red Sea on the other. The
Greek colony on the island of Sokotra no doubt traded industriously
with the opposite coast of Somaliland.
Rome displaced Greece in Egypt in the same way that Greece had
displaced Persia, and that Persia had closed the five thousand years
of fighting between Libyan, Gala, Arab, and Nubian. In 168 B.C. Rome
extended her protection over Egypt. In 30 B.C. Egypt became a Roman
province. When the Romans really took over the administration of the
land, they too, like the Galas, Persians, and Greeks before them, and
the French, Turks, and English after them, began to be interested in
the quest for the Nile sources. Each newly-arrived race of Caucasian
conquerors in Egypt has felt the same interest. But much of the
exploring and recording work under Roman rule was done by Greeks.
Strabo, a native of Amasia in Pontus, on the southern shore of the
Black Sea, who was born somewhere about 50 B.C., became, when quite a
young man, a geographer of the Roman world. He accompanied in B.C. 24
Ælius Gallus, the Roman Governor of Egypt, on a journey up the Nile as
far as Philæ (beyond Assuan and the First Cataract). Pliny the Elder,
writing some fifty years after the birth of Christ, shows us that just
before and just after that event Greek explorers (mainly from Asia
Minor) had been busy on the Nile above the First Cataract and perhaps
south of Khartum. These were Bion, Dalion, and Simonides. Aristocreon
and Basilis are also mentioned as authorities on Nile exploration, but
not necessarily explorers themselves. Simonides, above mentioned, lived
for five years in Meroe. Dalion is thought to have penetrated up the
river some distance beyond Khartum. The “Meroe” which is so constantly
mentioned by Greek and Roman writers from Herodotus to Ptolemy, was a
name given originally to an important and flourishing city on the south
or left bank of the Nile in Dongola,--the modern Merāwi. This place
was also known as Napata (Egyptian, Nepet), and was the residence
of Ethiopian (Abyssinian, Gala, Nubian) kings. Later the name Meroe
was also applied to a place on the right bank of the Nile about one
hundred miles south of that river’s confluence with the Atbara.
This is probably where the Greek Simonides stayed and beyond which
Dalion travelled. Finally, the term Meroe was applied to the “Island”
(peninsula) formed by the Atbara, the Blue Nile, and the White Nile, a
region formerly of great fertility.
The Emperor Nero, though the Beast of the Apocalypse, had a certain
genial interest in geography. He despatched--or caused to be
despatched--an expedition under two centurions in about the year 66
A.D., to discover, if possible, the source or sources of the White
Nile. Before dealing with Egypt the Romans had taken over control of
the old Greek colonies of the Cyrenaica and on the coast of Tripoli.
This had led (A.D. 19) to their having extensive relations with the
Berber kingdom of Fezzan, with whom and with the Tawareq people of
Garama to the south they maintained friendly relations. Through this
friendly co-operation a Roman expedition under Septimus Flaccus had in
the year 50 A.D. (perhaps) reached to some trans-Saharan place like
Bilma. Much later, about 150 A.D., another expedition under Julius
Maternus joined forces with the friendly Berber King of Garama, and
actually travelled to the vicinity of Lake Chad, or, as some think,
to the oasis of Air or Asben farther to the west. It was a country
which they called Agisymba, and abounded in rhinoceroses. From this
expedition the Romans derived some inkling of the possibilities, beyond
the sandy wastes and sun-smitten rocks of the Sahara Desert, of a
fertile Sudan, populated with an excellent material for slaves. But a
hundred years earlier they had realised the enormous difficulties which
attended any enterprise (in the days before camels were used in Africa)
across the Sahara Desert, and this gave them an added desire to follow
up the Nile and ascertain its practicability as a waterway into Negro
Africa.
Nero’s two centurions were passed on by Roman prefects to friendly
Nubian chiefs, one of whom ruled the principality of Meroe along the
main Nile between Atbara and the Blue Nile confluence. Furnished with
boats which they later exchanged for dug-out canoes, they appear to
have ascended the Nile above Fashoda, and possibly above the confluence
between the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the Kir or White Nile. At any rate they
got far enough south to come in contact with the Great Marsh which
extends from the vicinity of Fashoda to the frontiers of the Uganda
Protectorate. Their passage was stopped by the accumulation of water
vegetation which we now know as the “sudd.” Some writers on ancient
geography believe that the two centurions penetrated as far south as
the sixth degree of north latitude, or the verge of the Bari country.
At any rate they got well into the land of the naked Nile Negroes.
Their discouraging reports seem to have put an end to any further Roman
enterprise in the matter.
Greek traders in Egypt prospered greatly under the peace imposed by the
Roman Empire. Their commerce with Arabia, East Africa, and India grew
to a wonderful development in the first century after Christ. About 77
A.D. was published by a Greek of Alexandria the celebrated “Periplus of
the Red Sea,” a pilot’s manual not unlike the modern Admiralty “sailing
directions.” This “Periplus” shows us that the Greeks by the middle of
the first century knew the Zanzibar coast very well under the name of
Azan or Azania.
Among these Greek merchants trading with India was one Diogenes,
who, on returning from a voyage to India in about 50 A.D., landed on
the East African coast at Rhaptum (Pangani or the mouth of the river
Rufu?). Thence, he said, he “travelled inland for a twenty-five days’
journey, and arrived in the vicinity of the two great lakes and the
snowy range of mountains whence the Nile draws its twin sources.” As
nothing is recorded about his return journey, it is more probable that
he merely conversed on the coast with Arab settlers and traders who
told him that at a distance of twenty-five days’ march in the interior
began a series of great lakes from two of which were derived the twin
sources of the White Nile; that farther to the south of the most
western of these two lakes was a range of mountains of great altitude
covered with snow and ice, and named for their brilliant appearance of
white the Mountains of the Moon. The Nile, he was told, united its twin
head-streams at a point to the north of these two great lakes, and
then flowed through marshes until it joined the River of Abyssinia (the
Blue Nile), and so reached the regions of the known.
[Illustration: THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON: A GLIMPSE ON ONE OF
RUWENZORI’S HIGHEST PEAKS.]
This story was told by Diogenes to a Syrian geographer called
Marinus of Tyre, who published it in his geographical works in the
first century of the Christian era. The writings of Marinus of Tyre
disappeared, probably with the dispersal of the Alexandrian Library,
but fortunately for us at the present day all that portion of them
dealing with the sources of the Nile was quoted almost _in extenso_
by another geographer, Claudius Ptolemæus, a Greek-Egyptian, born at
Ptolemais in the Delta of the Nile, and resident at Alexandria (perhaps
in connection with the celebrated Library). Ptolemy (as he is currently
and incorrectly called) wrote in about the year 150 A.D., and therefore
to Ptolemy is commonly attributed the first clearly expressed theory
as to the main origin of the White Nile, the twin lakes (Victoria and
Albert), and the great snowy range called the Mountains of the Moon
(Ruwenzori).[6] Neither Marinus of Tyre nor Claudius Ptolemæus was the
first person to hint at this origin of the Nile. Besides Eratosthenes
and Pliny there are indications in various records of the two centuries
before Christ that the idea of the White Nile issuing from two great
lakes and passing through a vast marshy region before it reached
Ethiopia was vaguely known. The idea had perhaps even reached the ears
of Cambyses and of such of the earlier Ptolemies as may have cared for
geographical speculations. The bearers of the news would undoubtedly
have been men of the Gala (Abyssinian, Somali, Cushite) race, who at
that distant period of time seem to have freely penetrated through
the lands of the brutish and unarmed Negroes. No doubt many a Greek
adventurer in passing along the east coast of Africa brought back
tidings similar to those of Diogenes, but his grain fell among the
rocks, and the only definite record of the existence of this theory as
to the Nile’s origin is the story of Diogenes preserved through the
industry of Marinus of Tyre and Claudius Ptolemæus of Alexandria.
[Illustration: THE COURSE OF THE NILE, ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY.
From the oldest version of Ptolemy’s Map in existence, about 930 A.D.,
preserved in Mount Athos Monastery.]
The recording of travellers’ tales as to the twin lake sources of
the main Nile stream and the existence of a great snowy range called
the Mountains of the Moon was not the only contribution made by
Claudius Ptolemæus to Nile geography. The Egyptian Greek indeed was
a geographical giant compared with any of his predecessors, nor was
the height of his knowledge concerning the geography of Europe, Asia,
and Africa reached and passed until the fifteenth century of the
present era, some twelve hundred years after his death. The results
of the later Crusades, intercourse with the Arabs, and the journeys
of Marco Polo and other enterprising Venetians had brought in some
cases confirmation of Ptolemy’s theories, had corrected some of his
errors, and had filled up gaps in his information. But as regards the
geography of Africa more especially, Ptolemy remained ostensibly the
great authority until the end of the fifteenth century, although, as
already mentioned in a footnote, the latest editions of Ptolemy’s
maps (the latest ascribed to Ptolemy was published about 1485) show
that the geographers at the closing part of the fifteenth century,
consciously or unconsciously, touched up Ptolemy’s work by later
information received from Arabs, Italians, and Turks. Ptolemy discussed
with much detail the whole course of the Nile so far as it lay to any
extent within the regions of the known. He described the approximate
outline of its course about as far as the present site of Berber,
which district he describes as the Greater Primis, a name which Sir
E. H. Bunbury takes to be identical with the locality of Primnis[7]
rumoured by Strabo. Above this point Ptolemy applies the name of Meroe
(so often attributed to settlements or districts in Dongola) to that
great peninsula which is so nearly enclosed between the Atbara, the
main and the Blue Niles. Ptolemy indeed, and most writers of earlier
and later days, believed this district to be an actual island.[8]
The junction of the Blue and the White Niles is wrongly placed by
Ptolemy in latitude 12° north, instead of 15° 40′, and from this point
southwards Ptolemy’s proposed latitudes of places on the White Nile
became increasingly incorrect, so that by him the Nile system was
carried a little too far to the south of the equator. South of the site
of modern Khartum Ptolemy had but little information to go upon, other
than the account of the Centurions’ voyage; but from such suggestions
as he could obtain, together with the story of Diogenes, he guessed
that the twin sources of the White Nile joined their streams into one
river at 2° north latitude. This junction described with the knowledge
of later days would be equivalent to the exit of the Nile from Lake
Albert, the real latitude of this point being 2° 25′--an uncommonly
good guess on Ptolemy’s part. Ptolemy, however, imagined nothing quite
like Lake Albert, but thought that the waters coming respectively from
the two great equatorial lakes effected their junction at a point some
two hundred and fifty miles north of the western lake source (Lake
Albert); for he surmises that this lake lies approximately under the
sixth degree of south latitude (its southernmost extremity is in 1° 10′
north of the equator). His hypothetical Lake Victoria lies under or
extends to the seventh degree of south latitude, instead of no farther
than about 3° 30′ south. Ptolemy, however, was careful to discriminate
between the lake sources of the White Nile and the lake (Tsana) from
which the Blue Nile issues in the highlands of Abyssinia. This sheet
of water he calls definitely Coloe, and states that it is the source of
the river Astapus (or Blue Nile). It is thought that Strabo also made
allusion to Lake Tsana under the name of Psebo. It is probable that
both Strabo and Ptolemy heard of this lake source of the Astapus or
Blue Nile from Greek traders who had penetrated Abyssinia; for, during
the first centuries after Christ, Axum (then called Auxuma) had become
an important trading-centre which was reached from Adulis (Adulis
being a port on the Red Sea not far from the modern Masawa). Ptolemy’s
location of Lake Tsana, however, like the equatorial lakes, is too far
to the south. His sketch of the main course of the Atbara (Astaboras)
on the one hand, and of the Blue Nile (Astapus) on the other, would not
be very incorrect, but for the fact that he makes these streams unite
somewhere in the latitude of Khartum and then separate again, their
northern separation enclosing the island of Meroe. The Græcicised names
of Astapos (Blue Nile) and Astaboras (Atbara) were recorded before
the days of Ptolemy by Eratosthenes, but were not applied in the same
definite way to the Blue Nile and the Atbara. Eratosthenes sometimes
applies the name of Astapos to the main stream of the Nile and not
specially to the Blue Nile. He also mentions that the main stream of
the Nile is called Astasobas. It is evident that in these words we have
corruptions of local names, possibly derived from Nubian, or it may be
from Hamitic languages. Astaboras needs but little identification with
the Atbara. Astapus (Greek = Astapos) is not clearly recognizable under
the modern Abyssinian name of the Blue Nile,--Abai. The second part of
Astasobas certainly recalls the name Sobat, which besides being applied
by the Sudanese Arabs to the Baro or Sobat is also sometimes given by
them or by the Nile Negroes to the main course of the White Nile south
of Khartum. Asta may have been some Ethiopian term meaning “river.”
The present writer is unable to understand why that able geographer,
Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, has doubted the identification of Ruwenzori with
Ptolemy’s Mountains of the Moon. It must be obvious, when all facts
are considered, that Ruwenzori was the principal germ of this idea.
The Greek traders at Rhapta (Pangani) no doubt had some idea of the
existence of Kilimanjaro, but it is doubtful whether either the single
dome of Kilimanjaro or the gleaming pinnacle of Kenia would impress the
imagination so strongly as the whole brilliant range of Ruwenzori’s
four or five snow-peaks and thirty miles of glaciation. On such
occasions, as when this range is visible from a distance, and broadside
on, the dark blue forested slopes merge into the morning mists of the
lowlands, leaving the splendid phantasmagoria of cream-coloured snow
and gray rock floating in the sky like an exaggerated lunar landscape.
Ptolemy places this range, as he does his lakes, too far to the south,
and associates it more with the modern country of Unyamwezi than
with the region between the two lakes Albert and Victoria. But no
doubt then, as in Speke’s day, Ruwenzori and Lake Albert were reached
by Greek adventurers, by Sabæan Arabs, or by natives who served
as intermediaries, by way of the established trade route through
Unyamwezi. This word, which means “the Land of the Moon,” appears to
be rather old for a Bantu place name: Unyamwezi indeed seems in the
history of Bantu migrations to have played an important part, and to
have been one of those many sub-centres from which great dispersals of
the Bantu races took place. Indeed the Zulus (who were probably the
dreaded Mazimba or Bazimba spoken of by the Portuguese) seem to have
halted in their cannibal days in Unyamwezi before they descended on
South Africa in the sixteenth century. Ruwenzori is not, after all,
such a very long journey to the northwest of Unyamwezi, and it is very
possible that the returning travellers, having stated that they reached
the Nile sources and these wonderful snow-mountains through the Land of
the Moon thus caused this lunar name to be applied by Ptolemy to the
Ruwenzori range.
Though not an explorer, Ptolemy stands (for his age) in the highest
rank of Nile geographers; but he had to wait something like seventeen
hundred and forty years before Sir Henry Stanley, by his discovery
of the Semliki, the Ruwenzori snow-range, and the last problems of
the Nile sources, did justice to that remarkable foreshadowing of the
main features of the Nile system due to the genius of the Alexandrian
geographer.
CHAPTER III
ABYSSINIANS AND JEWS
The race of the Greek kings who ruled over Egypt after the death of
Alexander the Great and until 30 B.C., and later, again, the Byzantine
Emperors of Eastern Rome did much to implant Hellenic civilisation and
the use of the Greek language in Egypt, and their influence extended
over Abyssinia, where the kings of Ethiopian race (Gala dashed with
Arab and Jew) admired and imitated them in much the same manner as
the second Emperor of the French was admired and imitated by the
lesser potentates of Germany. The history of Abyssinia--if it is to be
written with regard to truth--is still obscure. This country of lofty
mountains and temperate climate is bordered on the east by the land of
Afar, an inhospitable desert inhabited by fierce Hamites (Danākil). On
the south its mountains are connected by plateaux and ridges with the
highlands of East Africa, but are separated by much arid and parched
country from the regions of the modern Uganda protectorate. On the
west the mountains of Abyssinia descend in terraces to the plains of
the central Nile. Here the torrid climate is that of the Sudan, but
the country is better watered by the rivers which rise in Abyssinia,
and by a fairly regular rainfall. On the extreme north the Abyssinian
mountains almost overhang the coast of the Red Sea, and are no doubt
visible in clear weather from the opposite Arabian shore. The mountains
of Yaman are remarkably similar in many points to those of Abyssinia,
and the people of Yaman when they were seized with a desire to emigrate
in search of fresh homes were no doubt drawn to this distant land of
mountains just visible in the west. Originally no doubt Abyssinia was
peopled by the same dwarf Bushman race as that which formed the lowest
stratum of all the African populations. Then a portion of the country
came into the possession of the big black Negroes who still inhabit its
western flanks. These again are superseded and partially absorbed by
the superior race of the Hamites, the ancestors of the Gala, Somali,
and Ancient Egyptian. This Hamite race of Caucasian stock with some
Negroid intermixture forms the basis of the Abyssinian population at
the present day. But in the early days of Sabæan enterprise--say four
thousand to three thousand years ago--Abyssinia was conquered by Sabæan
Arabs from Yaman. At many subsequent periods Abyssinia and Yaman (the
Red Sea acting as no barrier) were governed by the same dynasty, and
when Yaman came under Persian influence that influence also penetrated
Abyssinia. In this manner Abyssinia early developed a trade with India,
and even served as an emporium for the introduction of Indian wares
into Egypt on the one hand and the remote parts of eastern equatorial
Africa on the other. The Queen of Saba (Sheba) is no doubt in many
respects a legendary personage, but if she had any real historical
existence she is another instance of an Arab ruler who governed both
Abyssinia and Yaman. She may or may not have visited Solomon, but there
is no doubt that in the time of that Jewish king some intercourse was
kept up between the kingdom of Israel in its brief flicker of power
and prosperity, and the coasts of the Red Sea and southern Arabia.
After the smashing up of the Hebrew state by the Assyrians there are
good reasons for assuming that a number of the dispersed Israelites
migrated to Abyssinia, as no doubt they did to other parts of the
Sabæan Empire. Jewish monotheism always had a certain fascination (in
the days before Christianity and Islam) for the peoples of Arabia and
of Mauritania. This influence was most felt after the final destruction
of Jerusalem by the Romans and the subsequent dispersal of the Jews
in all directions. Several princes in southwestern Arabia adopted
the Jewish faith, more or less, and the Jewish settlers in Abyssinia
also appear to have acted as missionaries in converting the savage,
nominally Semitic, partly Gala rulers of Abyssinia to the principles
of the Jewish faith, into which they wove Jewish legends, such as the
glory and power of Solomon. A similar influence impressed on the Arab
mind the Solomon of the legends. The real son of David was no doubt an
unimportant Semitic prince who borrowed a little civilisation from his
Phœnician, Egyptian, and Sabæan neighbours. But the Greek influence
emanating from Egypt displaced for a time the Persian and Jewish
culture in Abyssinia. In the northern parts of that (then) collection
of Arab and Gala kingdoms, Greek began to be used as a second language,
the speech of the Court itself being a foreign tongue (Ge’ez), derived
from the Himyaritic or some early south Semitic language.
Auxuma--the modern Auxum--in the kingdom or province of Tigre
(northeastern Abyssinia) and near the more modern town of Adua, became
an important trade centre, frequented by many Greek merchants, some
of whom seem to have occasionally returned to their homes in Egypt by
way of the Atbara and the Nile. Others forestalled the Portuguese by
entering into trade relations or actually undertaking journeys which
revealed to them the existence of Lake Tsana and the upper waters of
the Blue Nile.
Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Byzantine Greek, who traded with India in
the early part of the sixth century of our era, called at the port of
Adulis (near Masawa) in 520 A.D. He discovered at this place a monument
which contained two separate inscriptions. The monument was apparently
one erected at the orders of Ptolemy III. (Philadelphus), who reigned
in Egypt from 285 to 247 B.C. This Ptolemy led and sent expeditions
which made a partial conquest of the coast regions of northern
Abyssinia, and added to the Egyptian Empire of that day a good deal of
what now constitutes the modern Italian colony of Eritrea.[9]
On the same monument some four hundred and seventy years later, in
about 127 A.D., a Semitic Abyssinian king (possibly Ela-Auda) recorded
in turn his own victories and extensions of rule. These conquests seem
to have done much to carry the Abyssinian (Semitic as distinct from
Hamitic) arms as far south as the ninth degree of north latitude. Other
indications would show that from this time onwards to about the tenth
century A.D. Abyssinian influence and conquests extended southward
intermittently to the vicinity of Lake Rudolf (the northern end of that
lake). Owing to these conquests, Christianity was carried as far south
as the modern province of Kaffa, and northwestwards along the course
of the Blue Nile to the site of the modern Khartum; for at one time
Abyssinian suzerainty or rule extended almost to the verge of Kordofan
on the west.[10]
The introduction of Islam among the Somalis, among some of the Gala
tribes, and all round the north and west of Abyssinia in the centuries
that followed the eleventh, checked any further spread of Christianity,
and limited--even curtailed--the political aspirations of Abyssinia.
In the sixteenth century a Muhammadan ruler--Muhammad Granye--arose
in the Danākil country (Tajurra Bay), and practically smashed the
Ethiopian Christian power in Abyssinia, which did not recover from the
ravages of these Muhammadan (Arab and Somali) armies for a century or
more. Soon after the wars of Muhammad Granye the heathen Galas[11]
from the south and southwest entered Abyssinia in force, and it was a
long time before the Semitic rulers of that country could bring them
under control. The arrival of the Portuguese (to be described in the
next chapter) gave a fillip to the power of the Christian Semites of
Abyssinia, mainly through the introduction of guns and gunpowder. It is
possible, indeed, that at different times after the commencement of the
Christian era Abyssinian raiders may have ridden south on their slave,
ivory, and cattle-hunting expeditions as far as the vicinity of Mount
Elgon. At the present day their raiders come almost to the frontiers
of Busoga, for there is no tsetse fly in all the district between
Abyssinia and the Victoria Nyanza; therefore, as the Abyssinians have
possessed horses for several thousand years, there has been little to
stop their making rapid expeditions into the Land of the Blacks. In
this way they may have raided and traded as far south as the Victoria
Nyanza and as far west as the White Nile, bringing back with them
for the edification of the Greeks stories of the Great Lakes and
Snow-mountains, and assisting, perhaps, to distribute over the lands
now comprised within the Uganda Protectorate those remarkable blue
Egyptian beads of unknown antiquity which have been referred to by the
present writer in his book, “The Uganda Protectorate,” as being some
slight indication of ancient trading relations between the countries of
the Great Lakes and those under the dominion of Egypt.
CHAPTER IV
ISLAMITES AND ITALIANS
When Egypt had become part of the Byzantine dominions, all interest in
the Nile sources had died away, and men’s minds were mainly centred on
religious controversies of greater or less violence. Greek Christianity
penetrated to Abyssinia and south of Abyssinia to countries not far
from the north end of Lake Rudolf. Most of the Nubian kingdoms became
nominally Christian, and Christianity was the religion of the people
on the Nile banks as far south as the confluence of the Blue and White
Niles. It is thought by the missionaries of the White Fathers’ Mission
to Uganda that the sign of the cross and the idea of baptism, with one
or two other practices found in the old heathen religions of Unyoro and
Uganda, may have reached those countries from Abyssinia. Greek and Arab
Christians in the first six centuries of the Christian era certainly
penetrated to the East African coast, but after the official adoption
of Christianity by the Roman Empire all mundane knowledge began to
decay. Christianity inspired a contempt for science, and the only ideas
of geography which floated about the world were connected with the
wanderings of propagandists or pilgrimages to the shrines of saints.
Arab enterprise, moreover, in these sad centuries suffered a curious
eclipse. Far to the south, in Zambezia, no doubt the invasion of the
country by the earlier and later sections of the Bantu Negroes brought
about the destruction of Sabæan power; and the somewhat degenerate
successors of the Sabæans from the south coast of Arabia only occupied
the coast emporiums dotted along the littoral from Somaliland to Sofala.
Then came one of the great landmarks of the world’s history, a movement
productive of a little good and some harm to civilisation. Christianity
had first been organised as a socialistic religion, grafting on to
the beautiful and indisputable precepts of its Founder the reaction
of poor, ignorant, starved, and enslaved people against the unmoral
philosophy, unequal wealth, and excessive materialism of the time. It
then grew to be a somewhat dismal faith, taking no heed of the beauty
of this world and of mundane opportunities for happiness; and above
all it waged an active warfare with sexuality, not merely curbing
immorality, but (wisely or unwisely) opposing polygamy and advocating
celibacy. The Arab and the North African were not ripe for such a
faith, and Judaism had already biassed them against the polytheistic
tendencies of Greek Christianity. Muhammad, the prophet of western
Arabia, founded on a basis of phallic worship and animistic belief
the third great Semitic religion--Islam. His teaching was a direct
challenge to Christianity, and soon became iconoclastic in every sense
of the word. Though the Persian, Syrian, and Iberian elements of the
Arab Empire for a time revived and perpetuated in somewhat grotesque
aspect the science of Greece, the art of Persia, and the lore of India,
the Muhammadan religion sealed most parts of Africa to European and
Christian research. It is true, however, that the conquests of Islam
enabled Arabs to penetrate further into the interior of tropical Africa
than before, though from the dawn of civilisation they had been the
most constant explorers of the eastern part of that continent.
The Arabs began to mention names connected with the Niger and the
western Sudan to the geographers of Italy and Sicily. Under the impulse
of Islamic, Persian, and Arab colonies the east coast of Africa and
the north coast of Madagascar came partially under Muhammadan rule in
the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Arabs there carrying on almost
continuously the commercial enterprise founded by their predecessors
and brothers, the Phœnicians and Sabæans. Invasion after invasion
crossed from Arabia, and passed over the lowlands surrounding Abyssinia
to the central Sudan; or higher up, through Egypt, to Mauritania.
But the Arabs who crossed the Nile in the latitudes of Khartum and
Assuan made no attempts to follow the White Nile, the Blue Nile, or
the Bahr-al-Ghazal to their sources,--left in fact all the Nile basin
above the confluence of the Blue and White rivers absolutely untouched
and unexplored. Egypt itself came under Arab rule in 640 A.D., and
subsequently formed an independent principality under the Fatimite
Khalifs.
The Crusades brought French, Germans, and English, Aragonese and
Flemings to the Delta of the Nile in more or less disastrous
expeditions against the Saracen power,--a power which was fast becoming
that of the Turk. A curious relic of these crusading days in the Nile
Delta is or was (for the present writer is not aware if they still
exist) several Spanish (originally Aragonese) monasteries, which were
established with the consent of the Muhammadan rulers of Egypt in order
to mitigate the woes of Christian captives and to arrange terms for
their release.
[Illustration: AN ARAB TRADER (MASKATI).]
Venice, however,--which had somewhat held aloof from the religious
ardour of the Crusades in order to build up a great commerce with the
Muhammadan East,--Venice became during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries the great neutral go-between for the trade of India, Persia,
Egypt, Arabia, and Syria with the Byzantine Empire and the rest of
Europe. Venetians (in Arab dress, of course) ran less risk than other
Europeans when travelling in Egypt in the days before the Portuguese
discoveries. Through the Venetians Europe became acquainted with
several strange African beasts which were brought from the Sudan
for public exhibition in Muhammadan Egypt, and in this way European
interest in the sources of the Nile was occasionally revived. It
is remarkable to reflect that the name of Venice will probably
never die out (as far as etymology is concerned) in the very heart
of Africa. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and perhaps
later, Venice manufactured in her arsenals improved types of guns.
She also acted as an intermediary in exchanging muskets (manufactured
elsewhere in Europe) with the Arabs and Turks, who at that time could
not construct these firearms for themselves. Thus the Turks and Arabs
became accustomed to call any improved type of musket a “Venetian”
(Bunduqi).[12] In this way the name of the most beautiful city in the
world has penetrated beyond the explorations of any European into
the very heart of Africa, as it has also circulated through all the
Muhammadan East.
CHAPTER V
A SUMMARY OF THE ANCIENTS’ KNOWLEDGE OF THE NILE
The next page in the history of the Nile Quest is marked by the coming
of the Portuguese; but before we proceed to consider what effect this
movement had on the revelation of Africa to the knowledge of the
Caucasian species, let us sum up briefly the purport of the foregoing
chapters:--
1. The lands through which the Nile flows were inhabited some ten
thousand years ago--let us say at a guess--by Pygmies in the north,
east, and southwest, and elsewhere by big black Negroes, these types
being offshoots from the original Negro Asiatic stem.
At some such period as ten thousand years ago northeast Africa was
repeatedly invaded from Arabia by a branch of the Caucasian race--the
Hamites--which in Arabia had absorbed a certain proportion of early
Negro and Dravidian[13] blood. About the same time in Egypt itself
there were invasions of other Caucasian immigrants; some perhaps of
the Dravidian stock still met with in Baluchistan and India, and
others of Libyan (Iberian, Algerian) race. There had also been early
minglings between the big black Negroes on the Central Nile and Hamite
invaders which had resulted in further hybrids such as the Nubians or
“Ethiopians.” These Ethiopians constantly invaded and raided Egypt,
thus mingling with the Caucasian Egyptians, but also at other times
acted as middlemen between civilised Egypt and the utterly barbarous
countries of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the Sudan; they brought to Egypt
knowledge of the Pygmies and such of the bigger beasts of Africa as had
become extinct in Egypt before the arrival of intelligent man. Through
these Nubians the Egyptians occasionally had glimmering ideas as to the
sources of the White Nile.
2. The Egyptians kept up a fairly constant communication with Abyssinia
and Somaliland by sea and overland. They had a fair knowledge of the
geographical features of Abyssinia and of the origin and source of the
Blue Nile. Moreover, through the ancestors of the Galas and Somalis
they came slightly into contact with the peoples of Lake Rudolf and the
Victoria Nyanza.
3. The Greeks, who began to travel in Egypt five hundred years before
Christ, expressed some curiosity about the origin of the Nile, and
communicated this inquiring spirit to the Romans. This resulted for a
time in the knowledge of the White Nile as far south as Fashoda.
4. The Arabs of western and southern Arabia very early in the history
of civilisation developed a culture scarcely inferior to that of the
Egyptians, and entered into trading and colonising relations with
Abyssinia and Somaliland, and with the East African coastlands as far
south as the modern Rhodesia. From their settlements on the Zanzibar
coast (such as Mombasa) they probably journeyed inland on trading
expeditions, or else the natives, who came to trade with them at the
coast, gave them geographical information. In one or other way they
learnt the existence of great lakes and snow-mountains. These stories
the Arabs passed on to inquiring Greeks as far back as two thousand
years ago; and an account which was an uncommonly near guess at the
truth was given to the reading world during the first two centuries
after the birth of Christ by writers on geography like Marinus of Tyre
and Claudius Ptolemæus of Alexandria.
5. This was the high-water mark of knowledge concerning the sources of
the White Nile for something like eighteen hundred years. Information
on the subject in the interval began to grow less rather than more.
The stories of the Nile lakes were, however, revived after the Arab
invasions of northeast Africa in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
and were communicated to the European world of the Renaissance through
the intermediary of the Saracen writers of Sicily, the theologians of
Rome, and the merchants of Venice.
CHAPTER VI
PORTUGAL AND ABYSSINIA
Portugal was created by the crusading spirit. The King of Castile, who
had become the leading prince in the northern half of Spain, despatched
a young Burgundian adventurer, Count Henry, to advance on the Douro
from Galicia (in the northwest corner of the Spanish peninsula) and
to drive the Moors into the sea,--either the Atlantic Ocean or the
Straits of Gibraltar. Count Henry drove them at any rate half-way down
that western coastland of the Spanish peninsula which we now call
Portugal.[14] Lisbon was only eventually conquered from the Moors by
the help of a large party of English volunteers who stopped to aid
in this struggle with the Moslem while on their way to a Crusade in
the Holy Land. Steadily, bit by bit, Count Henry and his successors,
the kings of Portugal, drove the Moors southward into and out of the
little province of Algarve, and then, flushed with continuous success,
crossed the Straits, attacked them in Morocco, and added a large part
of the present Empire of Morocco to the possessions of the Portuguese
Crown.[15] These brilliant successes awoke a great spirit of discovery
in Portugal,--a spirit fomented and encouraged by that noble and
far-sighted man, Prince Henry the Navigator, who had himself shared in
the Morocco wars. Rapidly the limits of the Portuguese explorations
extended. First they rounded Cape Bojador on the northwest coast of
Africa. Then they reached Sierra Leone, the gold coast, Benin (where
they powerfully affected native art and industry), the Niger Delta, the
Cameroons, the Congo, Angola, and the Cape of Good Hope. Once having
passed this promontory, whence they had once retired baffled, their
great navigator, Vasco da Gama, carried on the exploration of the
coasts of Africa eastward and northward to Mombasa and thence to India.
Succeeding vessels explored the Red Sea, and the expeditions they
conveyed attempted to get into touch with Abyssinia, where, according
to the rumours brought home by crusaders and Italian merchants from
Egypt, there lay a Christian country ruled by a pious monarch, John
the Priest.[16] But before ever Vasco da Gama had rounded the Cape of
Good Hope, the Portuguese, by contact with the Moors, had heard of Arab
settlements on the East Coast of Africa, and of the insular character
of the great continent. Their government, therefore, in 1486 despatched
on a journey to Egypt, India, and eastern Africa Pero de Covilhaõ to
spy out the land.
This was a very risky journey in those days when the jealousy of Venice
was added to the fanaticism of the Moslems. But Pero de Covilhaõ
fulfilled his mission. He visited Egypt, the Red Sea, and India. He
then, on his return journey, touched at many of the Arab ports on the
East African coast. Finally he disembarked at Masawa, and travelled
to Abyssinia, the first intelligent European to enter that country
for a very long period of time,--the first, in fact, since the Greek
merchants and missionaries who traded and travelled under the Byzantine
Empire. The King of Abyssinia was so delighted with the advent of this
white man, yet so suspicious of his country’s motives, that he was
detained as an unwilling guest in Abyssinia for several years, and
died when on his way home. But the Portuguese fleet came to Masawa in
1520 with an embassy which remained in the country of Abyssinia for
six years. In this embassy were the priests Bermudez and Francisco
Alvarez. Alvarez afterwards (about 1550) wrote an interesting account
of Abyssinia, describing more especially the province of Tigre, and
alluding to the Atbara (there known as the Takaze) as the main Nile.
Bermudez became for a time the primate or patriarch of Abyssinia. The
Jesuit missionaries, for the most part Portuguese, strove hard to
replace the corrupt Greek Christianity of the country by the Latin
rite. This action not unnaturally set up against them a strong body of
opponents in the native Abyssinian priesthood. For a time, however,
the civilisation they introduced, and their trading connection with
India, made a great impression on the king and chieftains of Ethiopia,
until, as will be seen later on, the country became suspicious of
Portuguese intentions, observing the facility with which parts of
East Africa, India, and the shores of the Persian Gulf had been
conquered and occupied by the Portuguese. But before this jealousy
was to culminate in the expulsion of the Portuguese from Abyssinia
one hundred years later, the Christian rulers of that country were
forced to appeal to Portugal for help and armed intervention. As
already mentioned in Chapter V., an attack on Abyssinia had been made
by a Muhammadan chieftain of the Danakil country,--Muhammad Granye,
or Muhammad the Lame. This man was probably of Somali race, and ruled
the country round about Tajurra Bay,--the French Somaliland of to-day.
In alliance with the Arabs and Turks, he not only created the Somali
kingdom of Adel, but ravaged the greater part of Abyssinia. His policy
was distinctly anti-Christian, and it is conceivable that he might
have extinguished for ever the Christian Semite rule over Abyssinia
but for the intervention of the Portuguese. The Emperor David, about
1530, managed to send emissaries (probably Jesuit priests) to Lisbon
to implore the assistance of the King of Portugal. The result was that
Dom Estevaõ da Gama (son of the celebrated Vasco[17]) as Portuguese
Admiral entered the Red Sea with the Portuguese fleet, and landed
at Masawa four hundred Portuguese under the command of his brother
Christophoro da Gama. The Portuguese brought with them firearms, with
which apparently the Muhammadan invaders of Abyssinia were at first
unprovided. They threw into the struggle with the Somalis and Arabs
all the crusading ardour with which their ancestors had driven the
Moors out of Portugal. Christophoro da Gama was a heroic figure, a
very paladin. He excited the admiration of his Somali opponent, who
at one stage of the struggle offered him a safe conduct to the coast
and the means of departing from Abyssinia worth all the honours of
war. Nevertheless, the four hundred Portuguese inflicted reverse after
reverse on the thousands that followed the banner of Muhammad Granye,
who at that time was practically master even of the mountainous regions
of Abyssinia. Some of the Portuguese went to the assistance of the
fugitive Emperor of Abyssinia. Those that remained under Christophoro
da Gama, despite the constant defeats they inflicted on superior
numbers, gradually found themselves isolated and vastly outnumbered.
The Turks had taken alarm at Portuguese successes, and had sent to
Muhammad Granye’s assistance a train of artillery, while two thousand
Arabs with muskets crossed over from Mokha and joined the Somalis. Thus
reinforced, Muhammad Granye attacked the Portuguese entrenched camp,
which he ultimately carried, when the unfortunate Christophoro da Gama
had one arm broken and his knee shattered. A few of the Portuguese
escaped and joined the Abyssinians, but most of them were slaughtered
by Muhammad Granye. Christophoro da Gama, however, though wounded,
managed with ten of his men to escape on horseback to a forest. Here he
was captured by Muhammad Granye, who, after inflicting much torture on
him, offered, in admiration of his bravery, to set him at liberty and
assist him to return to India, if only he would abjure Christianity.
The blazing indignation with which he answered this proposal so enraged
Muhammad Granye that he struck off his head with a sword. The body of
Dom Christophoro was then cut into quarters and his remains buried in
separate places. Ultimately, however, the bones are supposed to have
been gathered together by Roman Catholic Abyssinians, and some seventy
years later the skull of the martyr was thought to have been found by
Jeronimo Lobo.
Amongst the Portuguese who escaped slaughter at the hands of Muhammad
Granye was Pedro Leon, who had been body-servant to Christophoro da
Gama. Assisted by the advice of this little band of Portuguese heroes,
the Emperor of Abyssinia at last made a successful stand against the
Muhammadan invader. In the furious battle which ensued, the Portuguese
directed all their energies against that part of the Somali army
where Muhammad Granye was commanding. Pedro Leon, filled with a holy
rage, singled out the Somali king from amongst his men, and shot him
through the head with a musket. Muhammad Granye did not die at once,
but managed to escape for some distance from the battlefield, being
always, however, resolutely followed on horseback by Pedro Leon. At
last Muhammad fell down dead, and Leon, having satisfied himself of
the fact, cut off one of his ears to prove to the Emperor of Abyssinia
that it was he who had avenged Dom Christophoro. After the death of
their leader the Muhammadan forces melted away, and Christian Abyssinia
slowly recovered from the greatest crisis in its fortunes prior to the
Italian invasion of 1896.
In 1615[18] a notable advance in Nile exploration was made. Father
Pedro Paez was shown by the Abyssinians the sources of the Blue Nile
on the Sagada or Sakala Mountain in the western part of the province
of Gojam. Paez mentions that the river, before it enters Lake Tsana,
is styled the Jemma, a term which scarcely differs from its name at
the present day. He also alludes to, though he does not describe very
carefully, Lake Tsana.
In 1622 Father Jeronimo Lobo left Lisbon and proceeded to Goa, whence,
after staying for more than a year, he started for Abyssinia. News
had reached the Portuguese at Goa, from such of the missionaries as
remained in Abyssinia, that the Emperor of that country had decided to
join the Roman Church. A pressing demand was made for more Portuguese
missionaries to strengthen this conversion, and the missionaries
were advised to enter Ethiopia by way of the river Nile, through
Dongola and Sennar. Unfortunately the secretary to the missionaries
in Abyssinia mixed up the word Dancala (Dongola) with the country of
the Danakil (on the Red Sea),[19] and advised the Jesuits at Goa to
land at Zeila (Somaliland), and make their way through the Danakil
country to Abyssinia. It was attempted to carry out this unfortunate
advice. The eight missionaries who started from Goa were to divide
into two companies, one to go to Zeila, and the other to land at
Melinda (Malindi) on the Zanzibar coast, and thence make their way
overland to Abyssinia,--rather a “large order” at that date (to use
modern slang). Those that went by sea to Zeila were seized by the
Turks, though finally released at the intercession of the Emperor
of Abyssinia, who bribed the Turkish Pasha with the present of a
zebra.[20] The other four missionaries, among whom Lobo was one, were
again divided into two lots. Two of the fathers that were to attempt
entering southern Abyssinia from Somaliland were duly landed at Zeila.
A Muhammadan chieftain who was styled king of the country (probably in
the neighbourhood of Tajurra Bay) seized these unfortunate missionaries
and threw them into prison. In spite of the entreaties of the Emperor
of Abyssinia, this Muhammadan chieftain (some relation of the Muhammad
Granye who had been killed by the Portuguese when he invaded Abyssinia
seventy years previously) finally had the Jesuits beheaded.
Father Lobo and a companion were conveyed by a Portuguese ship to the
island of Lamu on the Zanzibar coast. Thence with great difficulty
they made their way in a boat along the coast to the mouth of the Juba
River, where they came into contact with the “Galles,”[21] probably the
existing Ogadein Somalis. These boisterous people soon made it apparent
to the missionaries that any journey overland from Kismayu to Zeila
and Abyssinia was an impossibility; so, after many hardships, they
eventually made their way back to Mombasa and India.
In 1625[22] Lobo and his companion once more started for Abyssinia, and
this time sailed past Sokotra Island and Cape Guardafui, and finally
landed at Baylur (Bailul), a port opposite Mokha, on the coast of
the little known Danakil country. Here they received a very friendly
reception, owing to the precautions taken by the Emperor of Abyssinia;
and the two Portuguese missionaries actually made their way through
the country of the fierce Danakil and across the salt deserts and
blazing steppes of that inhospitable region, which along the same route
has probably never since been traversed by Europeans. “Our clothes
tattered, and our feet bloody,” they climbed the Abyssinian mountains,
rejoicing at the cool temperature, running water, and singing birds,
and at length reached the Jesuit settlement of Fremona.[23] After
undergoing many risks and dangers owing to the hostility with which
the Abyssinians of Tigre regarded the Latin Christianity introduced
by the Jesuits, Lobo started for the kingdom of Damot, which is in
the southern part of Abyssinia proper, between the Blue Nile and Lake
Tsana. Prior to his crossing the Blue Nile, he had paid a ceremonial
visit to the Emperor of Abyssinia. He mentions that the Blue Nile
(which he not unnaturally considers to be the main stream) is called
by the Abyssinians Abavi. This may be an older form than Abai, and is
perhaps a little nearer to the Hellenised Astapus. The Blue Nile, he
found, as his predecessor Paez had declared, takes its rise on the
declivity of a mountain called Sakala (Sagada), some distance to the
south-southwest of Lake Tsana. The source of the Blue Nile he describes
as follows: “This spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes,
each about two feet in diameter, a short distance from each other. One
is about five feet and a half in depth.... The other, which is somewhat
less, has no bottom. We were assured by the inhabitants that none had
ever been found. It is believed here that these springs are the vents
of a great subterranean lake, and they have this circumstance to favour
their opinion: that the ground is always moist, and so soft that the
water boils up under foot as one walks upon it. This is more remarkable
after rain, for then the ground yields and sinks so much that I believe
it is chiefly supported by roots of trees that are interwoven one with
another.” Father Lobo declares that the infant Blue Nile (which bears
the name of Jimma) only enters Lake Tsana[24] on the southwest to
leave that lake not far from its entry, turning abruptly to the east
and south. It crosses Lake Tsana only at one end, “with so violent
a rapidity that the waters of the Nile may be distinguished through
all the passage, which is six leagues.” Fifteen miles from the point
where the Nile leaves Lake Tsana it “forms one of the most beautiful
waterfalls in the world,” under which Father Lobo rested himself “for
the sake of the coolness.” He was charmed “with the thousand delightful
rainbows which the sunbeams painted on the water in all their shining
and lovely colours. The fall of this mighty stream from so great a
height makes a noise which may be heard from a considerable distance,
and the mist rising from this fall of water may be seen much further
than the noise can be heard.” Father Lobo notes that at the cataracts
which succeeded this splendid fall there was a bridge of timber (logs)
over which the whole Abyssinian army had recently passed, but he goes
on to state that the Emperor had since built a bridge of one arch in
the same place, for which purpose masons were imported from India. This
stone bridge was the first erected in Abyssinia.
Father Lobo makes a truthful observation regarding the source of the
Nile floods, believing them to arise rather from the excessive rainfall
on the high mountains of Abyssinia than from the melting of the snows
in the summer. He declares, in fact, that he only saw snow on the
Samien and Namera mountains, and in small quantity.
As to the country of Damot, to the south of Lake Tsana, in which he
was sent to reside for a time, he expatiates enthusiastically on its
beauty, fertility, and perfect climate. He also describes here--first
of all Europeans--the wild banana, or Ensete, the name of which he
declares means “the tree for hunger,” though it is difficult to
understand, from our subsequent knowledge of the wild banana and from
Father Lobo’s description, how it can be used as an article of food,
as its fruit is almost inedible, while the leaves and watery trunk are
quite unfit for food.
But Lobo’s residence in Damot was not lengthy, as, owing to the jealous
suspicions of the Abyssinians, he was sent back to reside with the
rest of the Jesuits in Tigre. Their settlement of Fremona, where
some hundred Portuguese priests and seminarists were established,
was attacked by the Abyssinians. The Portuguese defended themselves
bravely, and for a time there was a truce. The friendly Emperor of
Abyssinia had died, and the subsidiary chiefs all believed that
Portugal intended to invade and annex Abyssinia. The prowess of the
four hundred Portuguese who in the preceding century had, as the
allies of the Abyssinians, completely routed the Muhammadan invaders,
made them feel that a few thousand Portuguese warriors would soon add
Abyssinia to the Portuguese Empire. At this juncture the Portuguese
sent a strong expedition to chastise the Sultan of Tajurra who had
killed the missionaries.
After attempting to flee from Abyssinia and make their way to the coast
of the Red Sea, the whole of the Portuguese colony of Fremona was
handed over to the Turks at Masawa, and by them sent to Suakin. They
underwent cruel sufferings at the hands of the Turks, but some of the
missionaries, including Father Lobo, were allowed to ransom themselves,
and return in a ship to India. Here Lobo endeavoured to induce the
Viceroy of Portuguese India to send an expedition against the Turks of
Suakin in order to release the priests that were left in their hands;
but the viceroy declined to take this step without the consent of the
Portuguese Government. Accordingly Father Lobo started for Lisbon, was
shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, fell into the hands of the Dutch,
but in spite of his extraordinary hardships, and difficulties wellnigh
insurmountable, actually returned to Portugal; whence he went to plead
at Rome the cause of Latin Christianity in Abyssinia. The missionaries
left in the hands of the Turks at Suakin were eventually ransomed, and
returned to India. The few Portuguese missionaries who for one cause or
another were left in Abyssinia were all killed by the Abyssinians.
[Illustration: DAPPER’S MAP (AMSTERDAM, 1686).
Giving the falsified results of Portuguese explorations in East Africa.]
Portuguese contact with Abyssinia, the Portuguese conquest of Zanzibar
and long occupation of Mombassa very naturally led to this people
acquiring in their intercourse with Arabs and Abyssinians some idea
of the geography of inner Africa,--ideas which were added to by the
information collected on the West Coast. Nevertheless, strange to say,
they were less correct in their surmises than Claudius Ptolemæus.
The maps of the Nile and the geography of inner Africa which
they formed on the reports of their explorers and missionaries were
altogether misleading. Their delineation of the whole interior of
the western half of Africa bears absolutely no correspondence to
actuality in geographical features; moreover, they were so ignorant of
the simplest principles of hydrography as to make one lake give rise
to several great rivers.[25] The only element of truth in all their
guesses at the inner waterways of Africa lay in their delineation of
Abyssinia. They put down with some likeness to actuality the Blue
Nile, and they named correctly the principal countries that lie to the
south of Abyssinia proper. But this contribution was vitiated by the
exaggerations regarding distances,--exaggerations perpetrated chiefly
by map-makers,--so that the Blue Nile and its tributaries, and such
provinces as Gojam, Kaffa, Shoa, etc., instead of lying a considerable
distance north of the equator, were dragged far to the south of the
line, and these features were even made to encroach on the basin of
the Congo. A good idea of the extent of Portuguese knowledge and fable
concerning the geography of inner Africa may be obtained from a glance
at the celebrated Vatican map of Africa which, from information derived
from the Portuguese and from the Abyssinian converts, was painted
on one of the panels of a gallery at the Vatican in the seventeenth
century.
Several Portuguese adventurers were despatched in the sixteenth century
across Africa from west to east to strike the Nile, but they were never
heard of any more. Credit must be given to the Portuguese Jesuits
for amassing much accurate knowledge regarding the scenery, people,
and products of Abyssinia. There is a wonderfully interesting and
very beautiful piece of tapestry in the Governor’s Palace at Valletta
(Malta), which it is supposed was executed early in the eighteenth
century from the information supplied by the Portuguese Jesuits. The
characteristic fauna and flora, domestic animals, houses, and natives
of Abyssinia are portrayed in this tapestry with great fidelity to
nature. Later in the eighteenth century Portugal began to take up with
some earnestness the scientific exploration of such African territories
as remained to her after the revolt and the attacks of the East Coast
Arabs, but these journeys and their results do not come within the
scope of the present volume. Portuguese influence over Abyssinia had
disappeared by the end of the seventeenth century, and almost all
that remains of it is the name which the civilised world applies to
this country. In the southeastern part of this powerful African state
is the river Hawash, or Habash, which attempts to reach the Red Sea
but finally expires in the barren sands of the Danakil country. The
name of this river had been applied by the Arabs to the Semiticised
people living north and west of its course. “Habash, Habshi”[26] was
transmuted through the Portuguese speech to Abessi, Abessim, Abessinia.
This in time was further misspelt in French and English as Abyssinie,
Abyssinia.
The Turks had always viewed with a great deal of jealousy and anger
the attempts of Portugal to establish herself as mistress of the
navigation of the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Arabian
Sea. Consequently the Turks occupied and held Masawa, and drove away
Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from easy contact
with Abyssinia, which between 1633 and 1769 was only visited by one
European, a French doctor named Poncet (1698).
Several Abyssinian converts of the Portuguese missionaries who had
become devotedly attached to the Roman Catholic form of the Christian
faith had proceeded to Italy for further instructions. Indeed, all
through the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries
Abyssinians constantly journeyed to Italy. They were able to traverse
the Muhammadan countries of Nubia and Egypt very easily, either
disguised as Copts or affecting to be Muhammadans. From the ports of
Egypt they easily made their way to Venice or to Naples as traders.
Four of these Christian Abyssinians, one of them known as Gregory, were
established at Rome in the middle of the seventeenth century.
At Erfurt in Saxony was born, in 1624, the celebrated Ludolf, whose
real name was Hiob Leutholf. Ludolf at an early age exhibited a
remarkable talent for acquiring languages, and he had a special bent
for the Semitic tongues. Having been entrusted with a secret mission
to Rome by the Swedish Ambassador at Paris, Leutholf, or Ludolf,
encountered in Rome these four Abyssinians. He spent three years in
enthusiastically studying Amharic, and also the older liturgical tongue
of Ethiopia, the Gez or Ge’ez. By the help of these Abyssinians he
compiled a grammar of the Amharic, and dictionaries of that tongue and
of the Ge’ez. He also wrote a history of Ethiopia; but, above all (as
far as this book is concerned), he did important work in elucidating
the geography of the northeastern portion of the Nile basin, and the
information he received from Gregory and the other Abyssinians he
carefully collated with the works of the Portuguese Jesuits. Although
Ludolf never visited even Egypt, he did a great deal to assist the
map-makers of his time to delineate the course of the Blue Nile and
of the Atbara with its various affluents. Ludolf passed a good many
years of his life in the diplomatic service of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha.
Curiously enough, he not only visited England repeatedly, but became
an Anglophil, and desired to establish trading connections between
England and Abyssinia. The troubles consequent on James II.’s reign,
and the jealous opposition of the Coptic Church in Egypt baulked his
scheme, which was much taken up in high quarters in England, and which
might, if it had been carried out, have strangely anticipated events
in northeast Africa by establishing British influence in Egypt and
Abyssinia at the end of the seventeenth century.
Attracted towards the mystery of the Nile and of the so-called
Christian civilisation of Abyssinia, that Duke of Saxe-Gotha who had
taken Ludolf into his diplomatic service caused another Saxon, named
Michael Wansleb (born at Erfurt), to learn Amharic first of all from
Ludolf, and then to go to Abyssinia. Here he was expected to explore,
and also to collect liturgies and other books likely to throw light on
the Abyssinian version of Christianity, which the Duke believed would
be found to be in harmony with Lutheranism. Wansleb never succeeded in
getting to Abyssinia, but journeyed for some distance up the Nile and
wrote on the subject of Egypt, publishing also in London, between 1661
and 1671, a number of Abyssinian liturgies and dissertations on the
Amharic language.
In 1668 the then recently founded Royal Society in England took up
the question of the Portuguese explorations of the Nile sources,
and ordered that the translation of a Portuguese manuscript by Sir
Peter Wyche should be printed and published. This little work is
described as “A Short Relation of the River Nile, etc.: Writings by an
Eye-witness who lived many years in the Abyssine Empire.” Sir Peter
Wyche probably did little else than translate and collate what seemed
to him the most interesting extracts from the works of Paez and Lobo.
These works were seemingly written first of all in Portuguese, but
were never printed in that language. Paez’ manuscript was translated
into Latin and published at Rome in 1652 by the Jesuit Athanasius
Kircher. The Portuguese manuscript of Jeronimo Lobo was translated at
length into English, and published in London by the Jesuit father F.
Balthazar Tellez. Seemingly, however, this book was issued either in a
Portuguese or a Latin version at Lisbon in 1670. It was translated into
French from the original Portuguese manuscript by M. Le Grand in the
early part of the eighteenth century, and this translation, with some
additional matter, was rendered into English and published in London in
1735.
The Royal Society’s paraphrase of which Sir Peter Wyche was author
contains no new matter, but its date is worthy of remark,--1668.
It would seem as though Sir Peter Wyche had had access to Lobo’s
manuscript, or to the joint works of Lobo and Paez, before the actual
publication of Lobo’s book in 1670. It is further remarkable as showing
the intelligent interest taken in these geographical questions at that
day by the cultivated classes in England.
CHAPTER VII
FRENCH INQUIRIES AND D’ANVILLE’S MAPS
Towards the close of the seventeenth century Louis XIV. of France
had begun to make the influence of his country widely felt in the
Mediterranean, though before his time Richelieu had cast an eye over
the Levant with the idea of supporting French commerce. Louis XIV.
even entered into an alliance with Turkey, in which he cut rather a
foolish figure, but which at any rate enabled him to send Frenchmen to
report on the trade of Egypt. It is stated that the result of these
inquiries was a scheme for the conquering and colonising of Egypt
which was laid before that monarch and remained in the archives of the
French government until it caught the attention of Napoleon Bonaparte
when he rose to power. Louis XIV. either did not notice the project
or put it aside; but nevertheless, during half of the seventeenth
and the whole of the eighteenth century Frenchmen were beginning to
interest themselves in the exploration of Egypt, Abyssinia, and the
Nile. When the Portuguese missionaries were irrevocably expelled from
Abyssinia, or were slaughtered in that country by Abyssinians, or died
under the hands of the Turks of Masawa or Suakin, it was suggested to
the Pope that perhaps French missionaries might prove more acceptable
to Ethiopia. Not a few Roman Catholic Abyssinians found their way
to Rome during the seventeenth century, where, as we know, they
imparted very valuable information to the learned Saxon philologist
Ludolf. These Ethiopians seem to have conveyed the idea to the Papal
Court that it was not so much Roman Christianity that was objected
to as the political ambitions of the Portuguese. But later on in the
seventeenth century _any_ missionaries teaching the Latin rite had
become unacceptable to the Abyssinians, and the project of sending
French Capuchins to take the place of the Portuguese Jesuits came to
nothing. But the Emperor of Abyssinia had one reason for regretting
the expulsion of the Jesuits,--an expulsion to which he personally
was less favourable than were his powerful vassal chiefs of Tigre and
Amhara,--he had relied on the Portuguese Jesuits for medical treatment.
At the close of the seventeenth century an agent of the then ruler of
Abyssinia was suffering from stone, and stood in urgent need of a good
surgeon. His agent in Egypt (Haji Ali) was instructed to inquire for
the services of a European who could operate, and at first endeavoured
to find one amongst the Franciscan missionaries, who were Italians.
But the Consul of France at Alexandria, hearing of this, resolved to
obtain the post for a French physician, and eventually Jacques Charles
Poncet, a surgeon from the Franche Comté, was engaged, and it was
decided that he should journey to Abyssinia accompanied by Father
Brèvedent, a French Jesuit. They reached the country of Sennar in
1699. Soon afterwards Father Brèvedent died, but Poncet succeeded in
reaching Abyssinia, and afforded medical assistance to the Emperor.
But his arrival in the country, together with the rumour that he was
being followed by French Jesuit priests (who as a matter of fact were
massacred in Egypt), so aroused the animosities of the Abyssinian
clerics that he was hurried out of the country, and returned to Europe
(Rome) in 1700. Notwithstanding his experiences, he mixed himself up
with the intrigues of an Abyssinian agent and a priest at Rome for the
despatch of French missionaries to Abyssinia. The Pope was prudent in
the matter, and determined to find out the truth by a Maronite priest,
Gabriel, whom he despatched from Cairo. Poncet, however, returned to
Egypt in 1703, was joined by a Jesuit, and set out for Jidda in Arabia,
but the mission came to grief. He quarrelled with the Abyssinian envoy,
Murat, whose pretensions to represent the Abyssinian government were
probably mythical, but who had accompanied Poncet to Italy. Poncet
never succeeded in returning to Abyssinia, but instead drifted away to
Persia and died at Ispahan.
Louis XIV. now took the matter up, urged to interference in the
affairs of Abyssinia by the French Consul at Alexandria. He decided
to despatch a mission to Ethiopia to open up diplomatic relations
with the Christian Emperor. Janus de Noir, le Sieur du Roule, was
appointed envoy and placed at the head of this mission. The consent
of the Turkish government was given to the passage through Egypt.
The expedition left France at the end of 1703, and after a stormy
voyage of four months (!) landed at Alexandria. Thence it pursued its
way to Cairo, and so on up the Nile and the Blue Nile to the country
of Sennar, a region at that time to a great extent under Abyssinian
political influence. Here the cupidity and suspicion of the local
chieftain were aroused. The mission was attacked, and M. du Roule was
massacred. The Emperor of Abyssinia expressed perfunctory regrets, and
then, to use a modern phrase, “the incident was closed,” Abyssinia
being in such an unattackable position as to make any French reprisals
impossible.
Here perhaps may be mentioned a curious attempt at Nile exploration
which in an indirect way was connected with French enterprise at this
period. The failure of M. du Roule to reach Abyssinia made a great
impression on the mind of a Frenchman named Joseph le Roux, Count of
Desneval. This nobleman had been in the Danish navy for many years,
leaving that service in 1739 with the rank of Rear Admiral. All this
time he had been giving his attention with laborious stupidity to
the Nile problem, and was convinced that he “had found the proper
key to enter these regions,” by studying in Denmark the reports of
unsuccessful travellers. Accordingly, in 1739, he started with his wife
for Cairo, accompanied by Lieutenant Norden, a Dane. None of the party
knew a word of Arabic. The expedition first got into trouble at Cairo
through the haughty manners of the Countess, who, becoming involved
in a street row, slashed at the people right and left with a pair of
scissors. Count Desneval penetrated some distance into Nubia, and his
lieutenant, Norden, went as far (possibly) as Berber, which he mentions
under its older name of Ibrim. But the Count was obliged to turn back,
and Norden was imprisoned by the Turkish Governor, and barely escaped
to Egypt with his life. The Count then resolved on an extraordinary
expedition. He decided to obtain a commission from Spain and start with
a fleet of ships to circumnavigate Africa, enter the Red Sea, and so
proceed to Abyssinia. But becoming involved in the war which was then
raging between Spain and England, his ship was captured by the British,
and he was sent as a prisoner of war to Lisbon, where his projects of
Nile exploration came to an end.
The Dutch in the seventeenth century, and some of the Rhenish
geographers of western Germany, had published remarkable maps of
Africa, but with the exception of the west and south, these maps, in
so far as the Nile basin was concerned, were based on the information
presented to the world by the Portuguese Jesuits Alvarez, Paez, and
Lobo, and on the interesting information concerning the geography of
Abyssinia collected by the Saxon philologist Ludolf when communing in
Italy with the Abyssinian envoys. These maps, as already related, did
injustice to the Portuguese by enormously exaggerating the area of
Abyssinia. In fact, Abyssinian geography was extended by these Dutch
interpreters of Portuguese travel notes far into the south and west of
Africa, so that Abyssinian place names such as Gojam, Kaffa, Enarea,
and the lakes and rivers of Abyssinia were pushed down to the vicinity
of the Zambezi, and right across the Congo basin. These maps, however,
continued to maintain European interest in African exploration, while
the French consuls in Egypt and early British travellers in that
country began to transmit information (derived for the most part from
Copts and Circassians) regarding the main course of the Nile.
In 1772 a French cartographer of a much higher order than had hitherto
appeared--D’Anville--published a notable map of Africa, in which
he cleared away much of the fantastic geography which the Dutch
and Germans had developed from the explorations of the Portuguese.
D’Anville’s map of Africa marks an important stage in the exploration
of the Nile basin, as it approaches the maps of to-day much more
than any previous chart. The outline of the African coast is given
more correctly than heretofore, while D’Anville brushes away the
exaggerations of Dutch and Portuguese cartographers, who had gradually
extended the geography of Abyssinia till they had connected with the
Nile all the main rivers of Africa in an absurd system of natural
canalisation.
[Illustration: D’ANVILLE’S MAP OF THE NILE BASIN.
(Published 1729; Revised 1772.)]
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville was born at Paris in 1697. From
his boyhood he devoted himself to the study of geography, and met with
considerable encouragement from the learned societies of Paris and from
the Court. D’Anville’s geography of Abyssinia was mainly based on the
information collected by the Portuguese missionaries and by Ludolf.
The result is so strikingly like the map subsequently constructed by
Bruce as the result of his explorations, that it shows how very much
information had already been collected by the Portuguese. The last
edition of this map bears the date 1772, a date which is one year
before Bruce could make the result of his explorations known. Were
these dates not certain, it would almost have seemed as if D’Anville
had obtained access to Bruce’s information and used it in his geography
of Abyssinia. A great mistake in D’Anville’s map, however, is made in
the delineation of the course of the Nile in its great Dongola bend.
Here the Nile is made to approach the Red Sea at least a hundred miles
nearer than is the case. There is a fairly correct suggestion of the
Bahr-al-Ghazal (which is named) and the Bahr-al-Arab. The White Nile
above the confluence of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is indicated more timidly.
Its course passes through a somewhat vague lake, which may be due to a
rumour of Lake Albert. Beyond this lake the sources of the White Nile
are divided, and made to flow from two lakelets ten degrees north of
the equator. To the south of these ultimate sources is the range of the
Mountains of the Moon.
On D’Anville’s map may be seen for the first time several modern place
and river names connected with the Nile, such as Shendi (spelled
Shanedi) and Bahr-al-Ghazal. Such other terms as Sennar, the Boran
Gala tribe, and the Shankala Negroes are also given; but these were
first mentioned by the Portuguese and by the Abyssinian teachers of
Ludolf one hundred years earlier. There is also a hint at the Unyamwezi
country south of the Victoria Nyanza under the name of Moenemuji,
though this also was first mentioned by the Portuguese.
D’Anville, who followed to some extent the Sicilian maps of the
eleventh century in his delineation of the Nile and inner Africa, made
the opposite mistake to Ptolemy and the Portuguese. They carried the
main Nile and the geography of Abyssinia many degrees too far to the
south. D’Anville placed the sources of the Nile and the Bahr-al-Ghazal
something like ten degrees too far to the north. At the same time his
map marked a considerable advance in the correct delineation of Nile
geography as well as in that of the Niger and the Zambezi.
CHAPTER VIII
BRUCE AND THE NILE: SONNINI, BROWNE, AND BONAPARTE
At the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a decline in
Muhammadan fanaticism which in the preceding centuries had so zealously
guarded the portals of African discovery. This was partly due to the
increase of friendliness and commercial relations between England and
France on the one hand and the Turkish Empire on the other. Consuls
were established to safeguard the interests of British merchants in
the tributary Turkish states of Barbary and in Egypt. Another stimulus
to friendly relations was the coffee trade. Coffee had been introduced
from Turkey into Europe in the seventeenth century. By the beginning of
the eighteenth the demand for it in the civilised countries of northern
and central Europe became so great that British and French ships began
to ply on the Red Sea and in the Levant merely for the transport of
coffee from the ports of southern Arabia to Suez, and thence (_via_
Alexandria) to France and England. It became possible for Frenchmen
and Englishmen to travel in Turkish Egypt without undue risk of
maltreatment, especially if they obtained permission to do so through
their consuls.
Almost the first English traveller to start on the Nile quest in the
eighteenth century was Richard Pococke, a learned divine (Doctor of
Laws and Fellow of the Royal Society), who afterwards became Bishop of
Meath. Pococke was remarkable for his knowledge of Greek. He travelled
a great deal in the Levant between 1737 and 1740, and made at least two
journeys to Egypt, during which he followed the Nile up to the First
Cataract. At that period the description of the journey from England to
Egypt has a rather modern sound. The traveller proceeds without much
difficulty overland from Calais to Leghorn, and from this Tuscan port
sails round Sicily to Alexandria, sometimes to Rosetta.
The book in which Pococke describes his adventures and researches[27]
is also in advance of its times, and in printing and illustrations
might well have been credited to the beginning of the nineteenth
century. Pococke devoted himself mainly to making plans and drawings
of Egyptian monuments, Coptic churches, and Muhammadan mosques.
He collected a great many Greek inscriptions (amongst others, the
interesting Greek and Latin sentences scratched on the legs of Memnon),
and besides many plans and drawings of buildings which illustrate his
book, are some excellent pictures of plants characteristic of Egypt.
Especially noteworthy are the botanical drawings of the branching
Hyphæne palm. These etchings would not be out of place in the most
modern work on Africa. Pococke ascended the Nile to the First Cataract,
then the limit of Turkish rule.
[Illustration: THE BRANCHING _Hyphæne_ PALM (_Hyphæne thebaica_).
Taken from interior of Nasr Fort (R. Sobat).]
One amusing feature in Pococke’s sumptuous volumes is the number of
dedications to British statesmen and notabilities of that date. The
book in general is dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery,
“Groom of the Stole to His Majesty George II.” His careful map of the
Nile from the First Cataract to the Mediterranean is dedicated to Lord
Carteret, “First Secretary to the King.” The map of Cairo and its
environs (a very interesting one with reference to the modern growth
of the city) is inscribed to the Earl of Stafford. These dedications,
however, seem to foreshadow a growing interest on the part of English
noblemen in the problem of the Nile,--an interest which, as will now be
shown, played such a part in the expedition of Bruce.
James Bruce was the first of the great group of notable British
explorers who between them in a century and a half have laid bare
to the world nearly every notable feature in the geography of the
Nile basin. This remarkable Scotchman was born at Kinnaird House,
Stirlingshire, in 1730. He was the son of a land-owner, and was
educated at Harrow. Soon after leaving school he was put (against his
will) into the wine trade with Spain and northern Portugal. In this
pursuit he visited Galicia and the northwest coast of the Spanish
peninsula. His trade, never very successful, was interrupted by the
war with Spain, which broke out in 1758. Bruce conceived a plan for
landing a British force at Ferrol, in Galicia, and to prosecute this
idea he obtained an introduction to the Earl of Halifax, then president
of the Board of Trade. George Montagu Dunk, second Earl of Halifax,
was a widely read man,[28] who took an interest in many subjects,
amongst others the mystery of the Nile. He is a curious link in that
chain of persons who have contributed efforts toward the revelation
to the civilised world of the whole course of this wonderful river.
Lord Halifax brushed aside the scheme for landing a force at Ferrol
as unnecessary and impracticable. But he began to consult Bruce about
the Nile Quest, as a man who had travelled considerably about Europe
even at that period--his travels having been undertaken to assuage
the grief caused by the loss of his wife. Bruce took up the matter
with energy. Lord Halifax, therefore, secured for him the appointment
of consul at Algiers, with the idea that this place and post would
enable Bruce to prepare for the exploration of the Nile by learning
Arabic and acquiring information concerning the interior of Africa.
Apparently the consulate at Algiers in those days was not harassed with
any restrictions regarding residence; indeed, Bruce’s consular duties
appear to have been merely nominal, for he was only a year at Algiers,
and spent it in the study of Arabic and Turkish.[29] In 1763 Bruce
started on a remarkable tour through Tunis and Tripoli, in which he
drew and measured (with the aid of a professional Italian draughtsman)
the wonderful Roman ruins in those countries. He then extended his
journeys to the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, and explored Syria and
Palestine. The greater part of the drawings which he made of buildings
in all these Mediterranean lands are now stored in the British Museum.
At last, in the summer of 1786, Bruce landed at Alexandria, accompanied
by the Italian artist-assistant, Balugano. He ascended the Nile as
far as Assuan. Then, crossing the desert to the Red Sea coast, he
took ship and sailed to Jiddah, the port of the Hajaz. After four
months spent on the coast of Arabia, where apparently he met with
no fanaticism, he sailed over to Masawa, the port of Abyssinia, and
from this point travelled to the then capital, Gondar in Tigre. The
Emperor of Abyssinia received him with great favour, gave him military
rank, and enabled him to reach the course of the Blue Nile, which
Bruce always held to be the main stream. Striking the Blue Nile in
the country of Gojam near its exit from Lake Tsana, Bruce crossed the
stream by its masonry bridge and travelled due west of the source of
the river in the western part of Gojam. Bruce fixed with approximate
correctness the latitude of the source of the Blue Nile on Sagada
Mountain, and also the longitude, by observation of the first satellite
of Jupiter. The latitude he fixed at 10° 55′ 25″, the longitude at 36°
55′ 30″ east of Greenwich. The present writer is not aware that any
subsequent observations have much upset these computations of Bruce’s.
The latitude of the Blue Nile source is, therefore, approximately 11°
north. As the Jesuits guessed it at 12°, they were not so much out
in a surmise which, after all, was based on nothing but vague dead
reckoning, and one cannot sympathise with Bruce when he sneers at them
for their error. Bruce, in fact, was very bitter against the memory of
Paez and Lobo when he learned from D’Anville that these missionaries
had preceded him as discoverers of the Blue Nile sources. He admits the
genuineness of Paez’ reports, but endeavours to show that Lobo merely
copied Paez’ description, and did not himself visit the sources of the
Blue Nile. In this contention I think he is unjust. There is certainly
a great deal of correspondence between the accounts of Paez and Lobo,
but Lobo enters into more detail than Paez, and as, after all, he
is describing the same features, it is hardly surprising that his
description should so closely parallel that of the man who preceded him
by some ten years. As there is no doubt that Lobo was in the country
round about Lake Tsana in the year 1625 or 1626, it would be surprising
if he had not attempted to see the sources of the famous river.
Bruce brings out as strongly as the Jesuits the fact that the river
Jimma, which rises on Sagada Mountain, flows with a strong observable
current in a circular course through the southern part of Lake Tsana.
Lake Tsana, indeed, would seem to be nothing but a huge volcanic
crater which has been filled up by the Blue Nile. He calculates the
approximate altitude of these sources at forty-eight hundred and
seventy feet. Near the village of Sakala or Sagada is a marsh at the
bottom of the Mountain of Gish. In this marsh there is a hillock of
a circular form a few feet above the surface of the marsh, a more or
less artificial altar raised by the people to the sources of their
Nile. In the middle of this hillock is a hole, artificially made, or
at least enlarged by the hand of man, and kept clear of grass or other
aquatic plants. The water in it is perfectly pure and limpid, but has
no ebullition or motion of any kind observable on its surface, though
it overflows into a shallow trench running round the mound and entering
the water in an eastward direction. The principal fountain of the
Blue Nile is only about three feet across. Ten feet distant from this
first source is another, only eleven inches broad. This would seem to
be the deepest of the three sources, and the one which was pronounced
unsoundable by Lobo. The water from these fountains is good, tasteless,
and intensely cold.
Following by land the course of the Blue Nile down stream till he
reached the confluence with the White Nile at the site of Khartum,
Bruce then turned northwards and descended the main Nile to Berber.
From this point he travelled across the Nubian desert to Korosko, which
place he reached with the greatest difficulty, very many dying from
thirst on the way. Having been obliged to abandon his caravan in the
desert, he started back from Korosko with fresh camels and guides, and
recovered his baggage from the desert. Bruce’s journeys in Abyssinia
and along the course of the Nile had occupied him nearly three years,
from the middle of 1770 to the beginning of 1773. From Alexandria he
made his way to Marseilles during a brief interval of peace between
England and France. The cultivated Frenchmen of that day received him
with the greatest kindness and _empressement_, and he spent some time
in Paris conferring with Buffon and other scientific men. But in Paris
he learned to his great chagrin that he was not the original discoverer
of the source of the (Blue) Nile. D’Anville, the great map-maker,
was able to prove to him that Lake Tsana and the main course of the
Bahr-al-Azrak had been made known to Europe by the journeys of the
Jesuit priests Paez and Lobo. Moreover this geographer attempted to
convince Bruce that the Blue Nile was not the main stream, and that the
mystery of the Nile sources remained at least two-thirds unexplored.
It is curious, in fact, to reflect that D’Anville, by his industrious
gathering up of all floating information, especially from French
consuls in Egypt, was far more correct in his delineation of the Nile
basin than Bruce himself, though D’Anville had published his map a year
before Bruce’s arrival in Paris.
[Illustration: BRUCE’S MAP OF THE NILE SOURCES.]
On account of this chagrin, or for other reasons, Bruce delayed[30]
the publication of his travels for seventeen years after his return
to England. They were not published (in five volumes) until 1790.
Strange to say, Bruce’s admirable work, though so truthful[31] and
convincing as one reads it now, was received with universal incredulity
in Great Britain. Among the stories selected for special derision was
the account constantly repeated by Bruce of the Abyssinian custom
of bleeding cattle and drinking their blood, and, still more, of
cutting raw flesh off the living animal, which is then turned out to
graze (or at least that is the flippant rendering of the contemporary
critic). As a matter of fact, these customs had been already reported
by the Jesuits from one to two hundred years previously, nor is there
any reason to suppose that Bruce departed from the exact truth in
describing contemporary Abyssinian customs. A hundred years later East
African travellers like New, Von der Decken, Joseph Thomson, and the
author of this book, noticed similar customs as regards blood-drinking
on the part of the Masai and the Bantu races of Kilimanjaro and Kikuyu.
The same writers constantly make allusion to the love of raw flesh
on the part of most of the East African pastoral races, many of whom
are more or less related to the Galas in blood (the foundation of the
Abyssinian population is Gala). The actual truth about the cutting
of steaks from the living animal seems to be this. It was sometimes
customary (even if the custom has wholly died out at the present day)
to slaughter a beast by degrees. The great arteries and the vital parts
were avoided, and the palpitating, hot flesh was cut off strip by strip
and devoured. But in all probability the creature was not as a general
rule expected to live long after part of its flesh was removed. It was
generally finished within two or three hours. Bruce, if I remember
rightly, only relates one instance where, after two pieces of flesh
had been removed from the buttocks of a cow, the skin was fastened up
over the wound and the creature was driven on a little further to be
finished on a later occasion. A summarised extract from Bruce’s travels
gives a vivid description of the way the Abyssinians feasted on raw
meat:--
“In the capital, where one is safe from surprise at all times, or
in the country villages, when the rains have become so constant
that the valleys will not bear a horse to pass them, or that men
cannot venture far from home through fear of being surrounded by
sudden showers in the mountains; in a word, when a man can say
he is safe at home, and the spear and shield are hung up in the
hall, a number of people of the best fashion in the villages, of
both sexes, courtiers in the palaces or citizens in the town, meet
together to dine between twelve and one o’clock. A long table is
set in the middle of a large room, and benches beside it for a
number of guests who are invited. Tables and benches the Portuguese
introduced amongst them, but bull hides spread upon the ground
served them before, as they now do in the camp and country.
“A cow or bull, one or more, as the company is numerous, is brought
close to the door and its feet strongly tied. The skin that hangs
down under its chin and throat is cut only so deep as to arrive at
the fat, of which it totally consists, and by the separation of
a few small blood-vessels six or seven drops of blood only fall
upon the ground. They have no stone bench or altar upon which
these cruel assassins lay the animal’s head in this operation.
The author, indeed, begs their pardon for calling them assassins,
as they are not so merciful as to aim at the life, but, on the
contrary, to keep the beast alive till he is nearly eaten up.
Having satisfied the Mosaic law, according to their conception, by
pouring these six or seven drops upon the ground, two or more of
them fall to work. On the back of the beast, and on each side of
the spine they cut skin deep; then, putting their fingers between
the flesh and the skin, they begin to strip the hide of the animal
half-way down his ribs, and so on to the buttock, cutting the skin
wherever it hinders them commodiously to strip the poor animal
bare. All the flesh on the buttocks is then cut off, and in solid,
square pieces, without bones, or much effusion of blood; and the
prodigious noise the animal makes is a signal for the company to
sit down to table.
“There are then laid before every guest, instead of plates,
round cakes (if they may be so called) about twice as big as a
pancake, and something thicker and tougher. It is unleavened bread
of a sourish taste, far from being disagreeable, and very easily
digested, made of a grain called teff. It is of different colours,
from black to the colour of the whitest wheat bread. Three or four
of these cakes are generally put uppermost for the food of the
person opposite to whose feet they are placed. Beneath these are
four or five of ordinary bread and of a blackish kind. These serve
the master to wipe his fingers upon, and afterwards the servant
as bread for his dinner. Two or three servants then come, each
with a square piece of beef in their bare hands, laying it upon
the cakes of teff placed like dishes down the table, without cloth
or anything else beneath them. By this time all the guests have
knives in their hands, and their men have large crooked ones, which
they put to all sorts of uses during the time of war. The women
have small clasped knives, such as the worst of the kind made at
Birmingham, sold at a penny each. The company are so ranged that
one man sits between two women; the man with his long knife cuts
a thin piece, which would be thought a good beefsteak in England,
while you see the motion of the fibres yet perfectly distinct and
alive in the flesh. No man in Abyssinia, of any fashion whatever,
feeds himself or touches his own meat. The women take the steak
and cut it lengthways about the thickness of a little finger, then
crossways into square pieces something smaller than dice. This they
lay upon a piece of the teff bread strongly powdered with black
pepper, or Cayenne pepper, and mineral salt; they then wrap it up
in teff bread like a cartridge.
“In the mean time, the man having put up his knife, with each hand
resting on his neighbour’s knee, his body stooping, his head low
and forward, and mouth open very like an idiot, he turns to the one
whose cartridge is first ready, who stuffs the whole of it into
his mouth, which is so full that he is in constant danger of being
choked. This is a mark of grandeur. The greater the man would seem
to be the larger piece he takes in his mouth; and the more noise he
makes in chewing it the more polite he is thought to be. They have
indeed a proverb that says, ‘Beggars and thieves only eat small
pieces or without making a noise.’ Having despatched this morsel,
which he does very expeditiously, his next female neighbour holds
another cartridge which goes the same way, and so on till he has
finished. He never drinks till he has finished eating; and, before
he begins, in gratitude to the fair one that fed him, he makes up
two small rolls of the same kind and form; each of his neighbours
open their mouths at the same time, while with each hand he puts
their portion into their mouths. He then falls to drinking out of
a large handsome horn; the ladies eat till they are satisfied,
and then all drink together. A great deal of mirth and jokes goes
round, very seldom with any mixture of acrimony or ill-humour.
“During all this time the unfortunate victim at the door is
bleeding indeed, but bleeding little. As long as they can cut off
the flesh from his bones they do not meddle with the thighs or the
parts where the great arteries are. At last they fall upon the
thighs likewise, and soon afterwards the animal, bleeding to death,
becomes so tough that the cannibals, who have the rest of it to
eat, find it very hard work to separate the flesh from the bones
with their teeth, like dogs.
“In the mean time those within are very much elevated; love
lights all its fires, and everything is permitted with absolute
freedom. There is no coyness, no delays, no need of appointments or
retirement to gratify their wishes; there are no rooms but one, in
which they sacrifice both to Bacchus and to Venus.”
Bruce’s travels are as well worth reading to-day as they were in 1790.
A somewhat conveniently abridged edition was published in the same year
(1790) as the five volumes appeared, but all who are taking up the
subject of Abyssinia seriously are advised to work their way through
the original five volumes. A sumptuously illustrated edition in eight
volumes appeared after the author’s death, in 1805. Bruce was received
with some honour at court on his return, but was awarded no special
distinction. Dr. Johnson, amongst others, denounced the brilliant
young Scotch traveller as an unscrupulous romancer; Horace Walpole
pronounced his volumes “dull and dear.” Just as the African Association
sprang into being and directed its efforts toward the rehabilitating
of Bruce’s character as a truthful writer, Bruce himself died in the
most disappointing manner by falling down the stairs at his house and
breaking his neck. His death was occasioned by over-politeness. He was
rushing from his study to the hall in order to be able to escort a lady
to her carriage.
Bruce was really a great traveller, an accurate observer, a splendid
sportsman,[32] and a far-sighted “Imperialist.” In 1775 he conceived
the need of the English rulers of India controlling the Egyptian
route, and actually obtained from the Turkish authorities in Egypt a
concession for the English on the shores of the Red Sea.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JAMES BRUCE.]
As has been already mentioned, Bruce had been accorded a magnificent
reception by the scientific men of France. Buffon especially was
incited by Bruce’s stories to urge the French government in the
direction of Nile exploration. Buffon had become interested in a
young man native to Alsace, Sonnini de Manoncourt. Sonnini was born
at Lunéville in 1751. He was the son of a Roman court official who
had followed King Stanislas of Poland to his residence in Lorraine.
Sonnini, the younger, who had travelled in French South America, had
conceived the idea of a journey through Africa from north to south,
from the Gulf of Sidra in Tripoli to the Cape of Good Hope. This
scheme, however, when recommended to the French Foreign Office official
who then had charge of the French establishments in the Levant, was
deemed impracticable, and Sonnini was invited to restrict his attempts
to a careful exploration of the Nile from Rosetta southward to the
limits of Egyptian rule. His travels did not extend much beyond Assuan,
but he brought back a great deal of detailed information about Upper
Egypt, its fauna, flora, and the habits and customs of its population
along the banks of the Nile. Sonnini’s work will always remain a useful
book of reference. For the period at which he wrote he took a great
interest in the question of the geographical distribution of mammals.
He attempted to collect information regarding the gradual disappearance
from civilised Egypt of the great fauna. In this he followed the
inspiration of Buffon. According to Sonnini and Buffon, hippopotamuses
only became extinct in the Lower Nile near the Mediterranean as late as
1658. Two hippopotamuses were killed at Damietta in 1600 by an Italian
surgeon named Federigo Zeringhi.
* * * * *
Nearly a hundred years before Cecil John Rhodes was brooding in his
studies at Oriel College over the advance of British South Africa
toward the equatorial regions, that same college at Oxford was
nurturing other dreams of African exploration in the mind of William
George Browne, a Londoner by birth (1768), who at seventeen became an
undergraduate at Oriel. Browne was fired by reading Bruce’s “Travels,”
and a year after those five volumes were published, when he was only
twenty-three (1791), he started for Alexandria, which he reached
after a month’s journey from England (not a bad record for those
days). Egypt proper prior to the descent of the French under Napoleon
must have been fairly free from Muhammadan fanaticism and distrust
of Europeans in the second half of the eighteenth century. Not a few
travellers--French, Italian, and English--were able to circulate in
the dominions governed by the Mameluks. Browne first of all visited
the oasis of Siwah. He spent a year and a half on this journey, and
examined the whole of Egypt proper and the peninsula of Sinai. Being at
Assiut in March or April, 1793, he heard of the caravan which, until
quite recently, left that place annually to travel across the desert
to Darfur. Following the same route, and in a measure attaching himself
to the caravan, he reached Darfur after a journey of considerable
difficulty. Here he found himself amongst such fanatical Muhammadans
that he was practically a prisoner, and it was only by invoking the aid
and sympathy of the Turkish authorities in Egypt that he induced the
Sultan of Darfur to allow him to return. Even then he was not allowed
to carry out his project of striking the White Nile from the direction
of Darfur, and thence crossing into Abyssinia. He was obliged to return
along the caravan route to Assiut. He then continued his travels in the
direction of Syria, and arrived in London in 1798. After publishing an
account of his travels, he again left England for the Levant. In 1812
he started for Persia with the intention of exploring Central Asia.
Between Tabriz and Teheran his caravan was attacked by robbers, and he
was killed.
The part of his book which deals with Egypt and Darfur is excellent,
much in advance of his age and very “modern” in its accuracy,
definiteness, and absence of gushing enthusiasm. Equally remarkable for
the age is the soundness of his orthography in spelling local names and
in transcribing dialects. Browne’s work still remains an authority on
Darfur.
The eighteenth century closed with some advance in the direction of
the Nile Quest. At any rate interest in the Nile problem had revived
in Europe. The publication at the beginning of the century, in an
English translation from the Portuguese, of the travels undertaken by
the Jesuit Fathers in Abyssinia,--the fact that an English statesman
(Lord Halifax) under the second George made it possible for Bruce to
start on his great journeys, and, lastly, the creation of the African
Association, testified to the commencement of this interest in England.
In France the question had been receiving attention from the end of the
seventeenth century, but mainly for political reasons. It had occurred
to Louis XIV. and to the ministers of his successor that Egypt, so
loosely held by the Turk, would be an admirable base from which to
effect the conquest of India. These ideas were not lost on Napoleon
Bonaparte, and the eighteenth century closes with the invasion of Egypt
by the French, an event as wonderful to the full and as far-reaching
in its results as the conquest of the same country by the Greeks under
Alexander the Great 2131 years previously. Alexander’s conquest of
Egypt from the Persians, or rather from the several native Egyptian
dynasties who were ruling under Persian suzerainty, put an end to the
régime of Ancient Egypt and Hellenised the countries of the Lower Nile
and of Abyssinia. The invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte broke the power
of the Moslem, and prepared the way for the administration of Egypt
by Europeans and Christians. Rome profited by the exploits of the
Macedonians; England has succeeded to the task which was begun with
such amazing brilliance by Frenchmen.
[Illustration: MAP OF AFRICA BY WILLIAMSON, LONDON, 1800.
Giving results of Browne’s journey to Darfur, French exploration of
lower Nile, and much Arab information from Egypt, North Africa, and
Senegambia.]
CHAPTER IX
MUHAMMAD ALI OPENS UP THE WHITE NILE
In 1807 Jacotin published at Paris an “Atlas de l’Égypte,” which gave
a fairly accurate survey of the Nile from the Delta to Assuan. This
Atlas gave the results of the geographical work done by the French
army of occupation. The splendid volumes which illustrated the other
scientific results of Napoleon’s venture were not published until the
Bourbons had been restored to the throne of France. They aroused,
however, great interest in the valley of the Nile, especially by the
account they gave of its remarkable fauna. This interest was felt as
much in England as in France; one of the first English travellers to
explore the Nile (as far as Korosko) after the close of the Napoleonic
war was the Hon. Charles Leonard Irby, who, with James Mangles (both
of them naval commanders), travelled in Egypt in 1817–1818. When
Egypt had settled down under the iron rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the
French, who had begun to conceive the idea of supporting the power of
that adventurer, and so once more gaining control over Egypt, began
to resume their interest in Nile exploration. In 1819 a Frenchman
named Frederic Caillaud (of Nantes), who had been in Egypt under the
Napoleonic régime, returned under the patronage of Louis XVIII. and
explored the main Nile as far south as the present site of Khartum,
and gave the first accurate account of one of the several Meroes,
namely, that ancient Ethiopian capital which is situated on the right
bank of the Nile about one hundred miles south of the confluence of
the Atbara. Caillaud and his companion Letorzec also accompanied
a military expedition under Ibrahim Pasha. This expedition (which
resulted in the founding of Khartum[33] in 1823) explored the Blue Nile
for a considerable distance,--as far as Fazokl. French interest in
Nile exploration was to continue later on more merged in the service
of the Egyptian government. But British efforts in this direction
had not been lacking in the early part of the nineteenth century. A
young Swiss, John Ludwig Burckhardt, born in French Switzerland in
1784,[34] and a student of two German universities, came to England in
1806 with a letter of introduction to Sir Joseph Banks and the African
Association.[35] This Association accepted his proposals for African
exploration. Burckhardt then set himself to study first in London and
then at Cambridge, and during his residence in England attempted in the
thoroughgoing Teutonic manner to inure himself to hardships by exposing
himself to cold, fatigue, and hunger in many fashions. After his three
years’ residence in England he left for Malta, and reached Aleppo
in October, 1809. Here he thoroughly mastered Arabic, the contents
of the Koran, and much else that appertained to the practice of the
Muhammadan religion and the administration of its law. In 1812 he
started from Cairo with the intention of journeying across the desert
to Fezzan, but, changing his plans, followed the Nile to Korosko, and
thence travelled across the Nubian Desert to Berber and Shendi. From
this last place he travelled to Suakin and to Jiddah. From Jiddah he
made (the first of all European Christians) the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Returning again to Cairo and preparing once more to start for Fezzan
and the Niger, he was seized with an illness of which he died at Cairo.
His journeys had resulted in the collection of eight hundred volumes
of Oriental manuscripts, all of which he sent to Cambridge University.
All the works of this brilliant traveller and profound Orientalist were
published after his death.
[Illustration: BLUE NILE, TWENTY MILES EAST OF FAZOKL.]
In 1827 Adolphe Linant (Bey), a Belgian, who subsequently called
himself Linant de Bellefonds, took service under the British African
Association,[36] ascended the White Nile (first of all Europeans, so
far as we know, since Dalion the Greek), and reached a point (Al Ais)
nearly one hundred and fifty miles south of Khartum.
But the next great blow at the Nile mystery was to be struck by the
orders of the Pasha of Egypt. Muhammad[37] Ali was the native of a
little Vlach (Wallach) town or settlement in Albania called Cavalla.
In appearance he might at any time have been mistaken for a Frenchman
of eastern France, a German, or an Englishman. He was born in 1768,
and was adopted as a son by the Governor of the town, who, as a reward
for his bravery as a soldier, gave him his daughter in marriage. His
three eldest sons, Ibrahim, Tusun, and Ismail, were born in Albania.
In 1801 he was sent to Egypt with the rank of a major, rising soon to
be colonel. When the French had evacuated Egypt, the Turks endeavoured
to gain direct control over the country by attacking the power of the
Mameluks or Circassian soldiery who had really ruled in the name of the
Turks. In 1803 the British evacuated Egypt, and gradually the situation
resolved itself into a struggle for power between the Albanian soldiery
under Muhammad Ali and the Turks. The Albanians allied themselves at
first with the Mameluk or Circassian party, the former rulers. At
length, after a civil war lasting for two years, the Turkish government
appointed Muhammad Ali to be Governor of Egypt. In 1807 the British
attempted to reoccupy Egypt, and took possession of Alexandria. This
action temporarily united Muhammad Ali with his enemies, the Circassian
Beys. The British expedition ended in disaster and withdrawal. At last,
by means of treachery and an appalling massacre, Muhammad Ali got rid
of the Circassian party and became the undisputed master of Egypt.
He then assisted the Porte to put down the Wahabi revolt in Arabia.
These expeditions resulting in many military successes, the ambition
of Muhammad Ali grew, and he desired to create for himself a perfectly
disciplined army. To this end he decided to employ his disaffected
troops who were opposed to innovations in discipline in conquering the
Sudan. He commenced with Nubia, Dongola, and Sennar. From the Sudan
were brought back numbers of the sturdy Negroes, who were drilled into
some kind of disciplined force by French officers at Assuan. Then came
the war with Turkey, which nearly resulted in Muhammad Ali capturing
Constantinople. But this led to the intervention of Europe, and the
ambition of Muhammad Ali was confined within the limits of Egypt and
the Sudan.
In 1839 the ruler of Egypt despatched the first important conquering
and exploring expedition up the White Nile. It was accompanied by
a French officer, Thibaut,[38] who had become a Muhammadan. This
expedition reached as far south as north latitude 6° 30′. In 1841 a
second expedition, which was accompanied by two Frenchmen (D’Arnaud
and Sabatier), and by a German, Ferdinand Werne, reached the vicinity
of Gondokoro in north latitude 4° 42′. Werne wrote an interesting and
scientific account of this second expedition. His map of the White
Nile from Khartum to Gondokoro is a remarkably good piece of work. A
third expedition under the same Turkish commander (Selim Bimbashi), and
accompanied by D’Arnaud, Sabatier, and Thibaut also reached Gondokoro.
All these expeditions were made in sailing boats, and those that
reached farthest were stopped by the same obstacles,--the rapids at
Gondokoro.
As far back as 1820 steamers had been introduced onto the Nile between
the Delta and the First Cataract, mainly through French enterprise.
Some of these steamers even plied between Cairo and Korosko. In 1846
the first steamboat was put together on the White Nile above Khartum.
In 1845 a Frenchman (Brun-Rollet) ascended the White Nile in a sailing
vessel and founded a trading post in the Kich country.
[Illustration: FERDINAND WERNE.]
Between 1827 and 1830 a German, Prokesch von Osten, had made a correct
survey of the Nile between Assuan and Wadi Halfa, and in the later
forties this survey was continued under Baron von Müller as far south
as Ambukol in Dongola. During the forties great interest concerning
the Egyptian Sudan had arisen in Austria. Austria was not suspected
of political views in the direction of Egypt, and therefore no doubt
Muhammad Ali and his successors were more disposed to encourage
Austrian missionaries than those of France or England. The Pope
created a Bishop of Khartum in 1849, and Austrian missionaries[39] had
founded stations on the White Nile as far distant as Gondokoro by 1850,
in which year Dr. Ignatz Knoblecher, an Austrian missionary, extended
his explorations a few miles beyond Gondokoro to Mount Logwek. A
little, very little, information was collected as to the course of the
Nile above that seventy miles of rapids which cuts off the navigation
of the river between Nimule on the south and Gondokoro on the north. A
vague story was collected from the Bari to the effect that this great
river came from a considerable distance southwards and issued from a
lake. This, no doubt, was a correct hint as to the existence of Lake
Albert Nyanza. But at this point the information stopped.
In other directions progress had been made in Nile exploration. Besides
the Austrian Roman Catholic Mission,[40] which established stations
chiefly in the Kich and Bari countries on the White or Mountain
Niles, the rapid opening up of the waterways into the heart of Africa
soon attracted pioneers of exploration, traders, and adventurers of
several European nationalities. Far ahead of the European and the
Turk, however, went the Nubian (the native of Dongola) and the Arab of
Upper Egypt. These men were the real pioneers of European exploration,
since they served as guides and transport agents to the Europeans who
followed along the routes they opened up. These Nubians started a
far-reaching trade in slaves, and were guilty of many barbarities. They
made such a deep impression on the minds of the Negroes in the Nile
basin from the Bahr-al-Ghazal to Uganda that to this day the natives
of the Egyptian Sudan are called “Nubi” or Nubian, even though they be
black Negroes from the equatorial regions. The Nubian slave-traders
laid the foundation of the Sudanese regiments which were to serve
Egypt and England in subduing and controlling Eastern Equatorial
Africa. As the Mountain Nile (thus the main stream is called, south
of its junction with the Bahr-al-Ghazal) led through excessively
swampy, despairing countries, and did not reach the habitable land
until it entered the Bari country near the rapids of Gondokoro, most
of the exploring enterprise for fifteen years, between 1840 and 1860,
preferred to follow the more easily navigable streams which unite to
form the Bahr-al-Ghazal, the great western tributaries of the Nile.
Among the pioneers in Nile exploration at this stage was the forerunner
of the intelligent tourist, Mr. Andrew Melly, a member of a Liverpool
family, though born at Geneva. Mr. Melly actually started for Khartum
and the White Nile accompanied by his wife, two sons, and a daughter.
His main object seems to have been that of natural history collecting.
He took insufficient measures for living with health in a tropical
climate; fever attacked him on his return journey, and he died near
Shendi on his way back from Khartum. His son George wrote a book in
two volumes describing Khartum and the Nile between that place and the
First Cataract. This book was mainly based on the father’s journal.
The expedition seems to have been well equipped. The provisions
were furnished by Fortnum and Mason, who even in that early period
(1849–1850) supplied tinned salmon.
The first of the long roll of European martyrs to African fever in the
opening up of the Sudan was Herr Baumgarten, a Swiss mining engineer,
educated in Austria, who died at Khartum in 1839 after returning with
Muhammad Ali, who at that period had penetrated as far south as Al
Ais, in the Shiluk country. Brun-Rollet, a Frenchman, was perhaps the
first European trader to establish himself on the White Nile. He ceased
trading, however, in 1850, after having established posts as far south
as the Bari country.
In 1851 the mission station of Gondokoro was founded by Knoblecher and
Vinci of the Austrian Mission. A short distance beyond Gondokoro, on
the west bank of the Nile, near the modern Belgian station of Rejaf,
is a little stony hill called by the Bari Logwek. This hill was the
extreme point reached by the third expedition despatched from Khartum
at the orders of Muhammad Ali in 1841, and afterwards by the Austrian
missionary, Knoblecher, in 1848. Here the White Nile, approached from
the north, became unnavigable owing to the rapids which obstruct the
course of the stream during its thousand-feet fall from Dufile to
Gondokoro. For a long time Logwek (remarkable as being the first high
and stony land which is met with in ascending the White Nile after the
many hundred miles’ journey through the marshes) formed the limit of
European discovery coming from the north.
About 1843 or 1844 D’Arnaud, one of the Frenchmen who accompanied the
exploring expeditions of the Egyptian government, published a map of
the White Nile which carried the course of the river as far south as 4°
42′ north latitude. Towards the end of the forties further explorations
were made from time to time west of the White Nile by a Frenchman,
De Malzac, who at the time of his death at Khartum, in 1859 (?), was
compiling a work on the Fauna of the White Nile.
[Illustration: THE WHALE-HEADED STORK (_Balæniceps rex_).]
In 1845 a Welsh[41] mining engineer named John Petherick entered the
service of Muhammad Ali, the Pasha of Egypt. He was employed for some
years in examining the countries of Upper Egypt, the coast of the Red
Sea, and Kordofan for coal and other minerals, apparently with little
or no success. In his interesting work, “Egypt, the Sudan, and Central
Africa,” he has left us, amongst other things, a remarkably interesting
account of Kordofan at the end of the forties of the last century,
some twenty-five years after its conquest by the Turks from the mild
rule of Darfur.[42] In 1848 Muhammad Ali died, and Petherick quitted
the service of the Egyptian government. Trade in the Sudan had now
ceased to be a government monopoly, partly owing to the efforts of
the English Consul-General at that time. Petherick therefore resided
at El Obeid in Kordofan for five years as a trader in gums and other
produce. In 1853 he resolved to go in for the ivory trade on the White
Nile and the Bahr-al-Ghazal. This great western feeder of the Nile was
beginning to be opened up by the Nubian traders already referred to.
For six years Petherick traded for ivory and explored some of the great
rivers which flowed into the Bahr-al-Ghazal,--chiefly the Jur and the
Yalo or Rōl. During the course of his explorations he was the first
European (unless De Malzac preceded him) to reach the Nyam-nyam country
(Mundo). He made some remarkable discoveries in natural history,--the
splendid _Cobus maria_ or Mrs. Gray’s Waterbuck, and the _Balæniceps
rex_ or Whale-headed Stork. Petherick’s skins of the _Balæniceps_ which
he gave to the British Museum in 1859 were the only specimens in that
collection for more than forty years, until they were reinforced by
the first Whale-headed Storks obtained on the Victoria Nyanza, which
were sent home by the author of this book. Petherick also captured
and brought to Europe a young hippopotamus. [It is interesting to
observe in his first book, “Egypt, the Sudan,” etc., published in 1859,
that the classification of his bird collections is made by Dr. P. L.
Sclater, then and until recently Secretary to the Zoölogical Society.]
Petherick’s return to Europe with a recital of such wonders obtained
for him considerable attention. He married in the early part of 1861,
and was invited to take charge of a relief expedition to be sent up the
Nile to meet Captain Speke and Grant, who were to attempt descending
the Nile from its supposed source at the north end of the Victoria
Nyanza.
[Illustration: John Petherick.]
During the latter period of Petherick’s experiences on the Nile (in
1858), he had been appointed consular agent for the British government
at Khartum. In 1861, before starting to return to the Sudan, he was
given the rank of consul. He left England in 1861 with his wife
and with an English youth named Foxcroft, who accompanied him as
bird-stuffer and natural history collector.[43] In 1861 he despatched
to Gondokoro, to await the arrival of Speke and Grant, an expedition
under the Turks and Arabs, with boats full of supplies. Petherick
and his wife, accompanied by Dr. Murie (who had joined them from
England) and by Foxcroft, then spent some years exploring the western
affluents of the Nile which unite in the Bahr-al-Ghazal. In this way
they revisited the Nyam-nyam country. Petherick seems to have been
partly trading and partly collecting information on the slave-trade and
prosecuting Maltese slave-traders; and these investigations seem to
have rather taken his attention from one of the objects of his mission,
which was to insure a proper relief to Speke and Grant. How far he
was to blame in the matter it is difficult to determine. People in
England seem to have doubted the effectiveness of his methods to insure
this relief, and amongst others who thought it necessary to forestall
Petherick was Mr. (afterwards Sir Samuel) Baker, who, in 1862–1863, got
ahead of the Pethericks (then deciding to go in person to the relief
of the explorers), and actually arrived at Gondokoro in time to afford
much needed assistance to the exhausted travellers. Speke appears to
have considered that Petherick had not acted up to the assurance he
had given to the Royal Geographical Society, who intrusted him with
the expenditure of the relief fund. This criticism, together with the
bitter animosity aroused by Petherick’s prosecution of slave-traders
and reports on the misgovernment of Egyptian officials, cost him
the confidence of the Foreign Office, and in 1864 his consulate was
abolished. It was actually alleged by some of his enemies that he
himself carried on a trade in slaves,--an allegation for which there
does not seem to have been the slightest foundation. In 1865 the
Pethericks returned to England. Petherick’s second book (“Travels in
Central Africa”) was not published until 1869. It is impossible, after
careful observation and a more than thirty years’ interval, to avoid
the impression that Petherick was treated by his country with some
ingratitude. He did a great deal to increase our knowledge of the Nile
basin and its remarkable fauna. His collections of beasts, birds, and
fishes enriched the British Museum. He took a number of astronomical
observations in order to fix important points on the White Nile and in
the region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal. He died in 1882.
In 1840 a French Egyptian official, Clot Bey, engaged as private
secretary a young French doctor of medicine, Alfred Peney. For
something like fifteen years Dr. Peney carried on official medical
work in Egypt. He was gradually led, however, towards Nile exploration
through his official visits to Khartum, the Blue Nile, and Kordofan.
He was intensely interested in ethnology and in the study of the Nile
Negroes. French influence in Egypt during the fifties was in the
ascendency. De Lesseps and the various officials who served France
as agents and consuls-general at Cairo had known how to secure the
concession for the Suez Canal. They became jealous that France should
also secure for her citizens the glory of having discovered and traced
the course and the sources of the Upper Nile. This blue ribbon of
geographical discovery was already being sought for by Germans and
Englishmen. Dr. Peney especially was continually urging his superiors
in Cairo to organise, or induce the Viceroy Said to organise, a Nile
research expedition under French auspices. But the choice by the
French agent of a leader for this enterprise fell most unfortunately.
Hanging about Cairo was a Frenchman of a type not infrequently met
with at Levantine courts during the first eight decades of the
nineteenth century. This was the Count d’Escayrac de Lauture. Men of
this description were either Royalist refugees, or the sons of such,
or they were Napoleonic noblemen who had got into financial or social
difficulties. D’Escayrac, however, appears to have been an amiable
dilettante, who had some pretensions to be an Egyptologist. But he was
utterly unsuited to lead an expedition into Central Africa. He was
elderly, vain, pompous, and extravagant. The viceroy, wishing that the
expedition should not be too exclusively French, ordered d’Escayrac to
recruit part of his personnel in England, Germany, and Switzerland.
This was done, but the expedition never left Cairo for the Upper Nile.
D’Escayrac made himself perfectly ridiculous by strutting about in a
fantastic uniform, trailing a long sabre. His expensive scientific
instruments were badly packed, and arrived at Cairo injured. The whole
expedition was dissolved, owing to the bitter dislike which d’Escayrac
inspired among his staff. The only incident in the whole of Count
d’Escayrac’s preparations which shows him to have been in any way
enterprising or intelligent, was his desire to secure good photographic
views of the Upper Nile and its natives. He had provided the expedition
with the best apparatus which could be obtained at that period (1856).
It is curious to note that in the criticisms of his plans published at
the time, the critics animadvert more bitterly on the extravagance of
spending one hundred pounds on photography than on any other supposed
mistake in d’Escayrac’s preparations.
Dr. Albert Peney was to have been medical officer to the expedition.
When it was dissolved, he started off for the White Nile on his
own account, attaching himself, whenever opportunity offered, to
such caravans as those of Andrea de Bono, the Maltese. Peney made a
remarkably good map (most interesting to place on record as showing
subsequent changes in the course of the Nile) between Bor and a place
which he calls Nieki, which was situated on the Mountain Nile very near
to the present site of Fort Berkeley. Peney, hearing rumours of great
rivers to the west, crossed the range of hills which flanks the western
bank of the Mountain Nile in the Bari country, and thus reached the
river Yie or Yeï. This river, as we know now, flows northwest nearly
parallel to the main Mountain Nile, and joins that river some distance
before its junction with the Bahr-al-Ghazal. But Peney exaggerated
the importance of this stream, and confused it with the accounts he
heard of the many great rivers that united to form the Bahr-al-Ghazal.
On his map he actually makes the Yie an effluent of the White Nile,
issuing from the main stream not far from the present post of Nimule,
and flowing northwestwards until it enters the Bahr-al-Ghazal. He thus
transformed the whole region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal into an enormous
island encircled by two branches of the Nile. Peney further visited the
country to the east of Gondokoro, and was probably the first explorer
to mention the name Latuka. This country he rightly designates Lotuka.
Latuka is the incorrect version given to the world by Emin Pasha. The
_Lo_ in this word is really the masculine article met with in so many
of the Masai group of languages to which the tongue of Latuka belongs.
The root _tuka_ (which should be properly spelled and pronounced
_tukă_) is evidently a racial name widespread among that Negroid group
resulting from an ancient intermixture of the Gala with the Negro, from
which groups the Latuka, Turkana, Masai, Nandi, and Elgumi descend.[44]
Dr. Peney died of blackwater fever in July, 1861, at a point on the
Nile near Fort Berkeley. Andrea de Bono was with him at his death,
and records the characteristics of the disease from which Dr. Peney
died. Since the idea has been started that blackwater fever is quite a
new disease in these regions, it is interesting to know that from all
accounts several of the earliest European pioneers from 1848 to 1861
appear to have died of this malady whilst exploring the Upper Nile.
About the time that Peney was exploring the Mountain Nile, another
Frenchman, Lejean, was surveying with some correctness the
Bahr-al-Ghazal estuary, of which he published a map in 1862.
[Illustration: MAP PUBLISHED IN PENNY MAGAZINE OF 1852.
Which gives results of Nile exploration up to that date.]
Not only Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans, but Italians and Maltese
had by this time appeared as explorers, traders, and naturalists on
the White Nile and its tributaries.[45] Some of these came as members
of the Austrian Roman Catholic Mission. Perhaps out of jealousy
of Austria, or with the idea of spreading North Italian trade and
influence, the then Kingdom of Sardinia appointed Signor Vaudet
(apparently a Piedmontese trader) Sardinian proconsul at Khartum.
Vaudet invited out his two nephews, the brothers Poncet (one of whom
published a book on the White Nile in 1863). Vaudet was killed by the
Bari tribe near Gondokoro about 1859. This Bari people, now so much
diminished by famine and by the raids of the Sudanese slave-traders
and Dervishes, was a far more serious bar to the prosecution of
exploration up the Mountain Nile in the direction of the great lakes
than the rapids above Gondokoro. The Bari, no doubt, were wronged by
the Europeans and Nubians, but they were nevertheless responsible for
the death of not a few European explorers. But for their determined
hostility, there is little doubt that the earlier French, Italian,
German, and English pioneers would have found their way to Lake Albert
long before its discovery by Baker. Indeed Giovanni Miani, a Venetian,
got as far south as Apuddo,[46] if not farther, in the prosecution
of his search for the rumoured lake. Miani subsequently explored the
regions of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the headwaters of the streams rising
in the Nyam-nyam country. He it was who, first of all explorers,
brought back those rumours of a watershed beyond the Nile system, with
a great river (the Welle) flowing to the west.
There seems to have been little, if any, international jealousy in
this wonderful field of exploration between 1840 and 1860. Khartum was
the rendezvous, the principal depot of the Europeans, and throughout
all these years was under a Turkish governor. Life in Khartum between
1850 and 1860 was by no means devoid of attractions. Several of the
Europeans who made it their headquarters brought out their wives with
them. Others were married to handsome Abyssinian women. The houses
of Egyptian style were comfortable and cool. The place swarmed with
strange new beasts and birds; indeed, nearly every house included a
menagerie in one of its yards. A great slave-market brought before the
eyes of astonished and interested Europeans nearly all the principal
Negro types from as far west as Wadai and Darfur, from the confines
of Abyssinia on the east, from the lands of the naked Nile Negroes on
the south; stalwart, lighter-coloured, bearded Nyam-nyam cannibals
from the southwest, coal-black Madi, here and there an Akka Pygmy,
thin-shanked Dinka and Shiluk, sturdy Bongo, and handsome Gala. “There
ain’t no Ten Commandments” might with some justice have been said of
society at Khartum. At any rate it was much untrammelled as regards the
more wearisome conventions of civilised life. Nobody inquired if M.
Dubois was legally married to Mme. Dubois, and perhaps the treatment of
the doubtful Mme. Dubois as a respectable married woman by blue-eyed
strait-souled Mrs. Jones ended by Mme. Dubois becoming legally united
to her spouse later on at Cairo, and finishing the rest of her life
as a happy and perfectly respectable person. The air was full of
wonderment. Improvements made year by year in firearms resulted in
marvellous big-game shooting. Though there were bad fevers to be got in
the Bahr-al-Ghazal, the climate of Khartum itself was not necessarily
unhealthy. The post seems to have arrived across the desert on camels
at least once a month. The tyranny, social and administrative, of the
British military officer and his dame was not to come for many years;
the “smart” hotel was absent; provisions were good, plentiful, and
cheap. Those are times that the African explorer of to-day looks back
upon with something like a sigh.
[Illustration: THE RIVER SOBAT.]
CHAPTER X
MISSIONARIES AND SNOW-MOUNTAINS
Down to 1858 all that Europe knew of the Nile basin was this: The
course of the Blue Nile had been mapped to some extent from its source
in Lake Tsana; and the travels of Rüppell (1830–1831) (the great German
naturalist), of another German, Joseph Russegger, of the D’Abbadies
(the great French surveyors), of Sir William Cornwallis Harris (who
was sent on a mission to Shoa), Théophile Le Febvre, Mansfield Parkyns
(1840–1845), H. Dufton, and C. T. Beke had cleared up a good many blank
spaces in the geography of Abyssinia and of the various affluents of
the Nile flowing from the snow-mountains of that African Afghanistan
in the direction of the Atbara, the Blue Nile, and the Sobat. The
Sobat had been explored for a hundred miles or so, as far as steamers
could penetrate. The White Nile had been surveyed from Khartum to the
junction of the Bahr-al-Ghazal. South of that point, under the name
of Mountain Nile, it and some of its branches, such as the Giraffe
River, had also been explored, and the River of the Mountains, as the
Upper White Nile is called by the Arabs, had been ascended to a little
distance south of Gondokoro. The Bahr-al-Ghazal, the great western
feeder of the Nile, and several of its more important affluents, such
as the Jur, had been made known, and the existence of the Nyam-nyam
cannibal country ascertained. But the ultimate sources of the Nile
stream were still undiscovered. This problem was now to be attacked
from two very different directions.
In 1829 the Church Missionary Society had resolved to attempt the
evangelisation of Abyssinia, and sent missionaries to the northern part
of that country. Amongst these missionaries, in 1840, was a Würtemberg
student named Ludwig Krapf, sent to prospect in northern Abyssinia. But
the Abyssinians eventually resented this missionary enterprise, and
Krapf and some others were expelled from the country in 1842.
[Illustration: REV. DR. L. LUDWIG KRAPF.]
Hearing good accounts of the more genial nature of the Zanzibar
Arabs and of their Maskat ruler, Krapf journeyed down the East Coast
of Africa and visited the Sayyid of Zanzibar (Majid); he obtained
permission from this Arab viceroy[47] to settle at Mombasa and
establish a Christian mission there. Krapf was soon joined by John
Rebman (another Würtemberger). Both were well-educated men, who had
been trained at Tübingen, at Basle, and in Rebman’s case at an English
missionary college. They acquired a knowledge of Arabic, and soon
added to it an intimate acquaintance with several African tongues.
Their intercourse with the Arabs and the Negroes at Mombasa and its
vicinity soon opened their ears to remarkable stories of the unknown
interior. Already the Arabs were pushing farther and farther inland
from these ports on the Zanzibar coast, and some of them had reached
Lake Tanganyika, while they had also heard rumours of the Victoria
Nyanza. The natives further told the missionaries of the wonderfully
high mountains distant from ten to thirty days’ march from the coast,
the tops of which were covered with “white stuff.” By 1850, through the
agency of the Church Missionary Society, Rebman and Krapf were able
to report from their own observation the existence of snow-mountains
nearly under the equator, Rebman having discovered Kilimanjaro in
1848, while in the following year Krapf not only confirmed this
discovery, but pushed his way far enough inland to catch a glimpse of
Mount Kenya, the distance of which from the coast he underestimated.
The missionaries also sent to Europe about the same time stories of
a great inland sea. They had gathered up the reports of Lake Nyasa,
Tanganyika, and the Victoria Nyanza, and had imagined these separate
sheets of water to be only parts of a huge, slug-shaped lake as big
as the Caspian Sea. They also reported the separate existence of Lake
Baringo. These stories they illustrated by a map (Erhardt and Rebman)
published in 1855. Their stories of snow-mountains in equatorial Africa
only drew down on them for the most part the ridicule of English
geographers, among whom was a wearisome person, Mr. Desborough Cooley,
who published fine-spun theories based on a fantastic interpretation
of African etymology; but their stories were believed in France, and
they were awarded a medal by the Paris Geographical Society. They also
impressed an American poet, Bayard Taylor, who in 1855 wrote some
stirring lines on Kilimanjaro:--
“Remote, inaccessible, silent, and lone--
Who from the heart of the tropical fervours
Liftest to heaven thine alien snows.”
These stories from the missionaries revived the interest in Ptolemy’s
Geography. The Nile lakes were once more believed in, especially as the
discovery of Kenya and Kilimanjaro appeared to confirm the stories of
the Mountains of the Moon. This idea indeed was additionally favoured
by the fact that the missionaries often referred to their hypothetical
lake as the Sea of Unyamwezi, which name they rightly explained as
meaning (we know not why) the “Land of the Moon.”[48]
CHAPTER XI
BURTON AND SPEKE
Nile exploration from the north had stopped in 1851 at the rapids south
of Gondokoro. It was now felt that the problem should be attacked
from other directions. In 1839 the British government had formally
annexed Aden at the southwestern corner of Arabia as a coaling station
for ships plying between Suez and India. Aden is opposite the Somali
coast, and has been for many centuries the outpost of civilisation
with which the Somali have traded. It was impossible to possess Aden
long without desiring to become acquainted with the character of the
African coast across the gulf, especially as Aden depended so much
on Somaliland for its supplies of meat, grain, and fodder, and the
ostrich feathers, ivory, and skins sold in the Aden bazaars. Aden
was, and is still, under the government of India, and officers of the
Indian army soon found their way across to Somaliland on authorised
or unauthorised surveys. Among these was Lieutenant Cruttenden, who
collected some new information about the sterile country beyond the
coast. In 1854 a remarkable man came to Aden as an officer in the
Indian garrison,--Lieutenant Richard Francis Burton, fresh from
his wonderful journey as a pilgrim to Mecca. Burton induced the
authorities to support him in a project for entering inner East Africa
through Somaliland, and thus perhaps striking at the sources of the
Nile. Another explorer in the bud, Lieutenant John Hanning Speke,
reached Aden soon afterwards, and obtained permission to join Burton’s
expedition.
Whilst waiting for a time thought to be favourable for travelling
southwards into the Ogadein country, Burton went off alone on a
remarkably plucky journey to the mysterious city of Harrar, to-day a
frontier town of Abyssinia. Harrar, lying to the south of that Rift
valley, which can be traced after a few interruptions from the Gulf of
Tajurra right down into British and German East Africa, was a walled
city inhabited by a Semitic people, or rather a people still retaining
the use of a Semitic dialect akin to those of Abyssinia and South
Arabia.
Speke did a good deal to increase our knowledge of the remarkable fauna
of Somaliland, but the Burton-Speke expedition into that country got no
great distance inland, and ended in disaster, owing to the suspicions
of the Somali. The expedition was attacked close to the seashore at
Berbera. One of the party, Lieutenant Stroyan, was killed. Speke was
severely, and Burton slightly wounded. Speke is of opinion that much
of this disaster was due to the mismanagement of Burton. He considers
that if, when the expedition was first organised, instead of fussing
about mysterious visits to Harrar and waiting for this thing and that
thing, the whole expedition had started off boldly for the interior,
the Somali would have had no time to cultivate suspicion, and would
have opposed no resistance. It is quite conceivable that Speke was
right, and that if the expedition had started with promptitude it might
have reached the confines of Shoa or the Gala country in the direction
of modern British East Africa. As it was, the attack on Burton’s
expedition closed for some thirty years any attempt at penetrating the
mysterious country of the Somali, with its remarkable mammalian fauna
and its as yet unexplained ruins.[49]
[Illustration: A SWAHILI ARAB TRADER.]
Burton’s attention was now drawn to the stories of the Mombasa
missionaries. With some difficulty he obtained from the Foreign Office,
the East India Company, and the Royal Geographical Society funds to
equip an expedition which should start from the Zanzibar coast in
search of the great lake. As Speke had lost over five hundred pounds
worth of private property in the disaster which fell on the Somali
expedition, Burton invited him to join this new expedition as his
lieutenant. Burton had been distracted for a time from this idea by
the Crimean War, but when peace was declared, he obtained the sanction
of the Geographical Society to his plans, and started with Speke for
India to smooth the difficulties placed in his way by the Indian
government. At the very end of 1856 the explorers reached Zanzibar.
While the expedition was being organised at Zanzibar, Burton and Speke
visited Pemba, Mombasa, and the mission station ten miles in the
interior. Fired by the stories of the snow-mountains and the rumour
of the great lake of Ukerewe,[50] Speke proposed that they should
bring their expedition to Mombasa and start for the lake by way of
Kilimanjaro. The Masai, however, were raiding the country right up
to within ten miles of Mombasa, and in consequence Burton was afraid
to take this route. The explorers visited the mountainous country of
Usambara, which is close to the coast, and then returned to Zanzibar.
The original instructions, however, of the Royal Geographical Society
(which had found the bulk of the funds) had been: “The great object
of the expedition is to penetrate inland, from Kilwa or some other
place on the East Coast of Africa, and make the best of its way to
the reputed Lake of Nyasa.” Burton found, however, that the Arabs of
Kilwa were strongly opposed to white men penetrating the interior
in that direction. He therefore decided to choose the line of least
resistance at Bagamoyo, and go along the now beaten track of the Arabs
to Ujiji. When Burton and Speke reached Unyamwezi (Kaze) at the close
of 1857, they were received with much kindness and courtesy by the
Zanzibar Arabs established there, especially by Sheikh Snay, who had
been the first Arab to reach Uganda. Snay promptly cleared up the
mystery of the missionaries’ great lake, telling the explorers that
it was three different lakes (Nyasa, Tanganyika, and Victoria) rolled
into one. The Arabs had also heard through the Banyoro rumours of
European vessels travelling up the White Nile to the Bari country.
Burton was continually prostrated with fever during this stay in
Unyamwezi, so that the command of the expedition and the solution of
its difficulties temporarily devolved on Speke. The main trouble, as
on all these expeditions, was with the question of transport. It was
very difficult to obtain porters to proceed in any direction north or
west of Unyamwezi. At last they induced a number of their paid-off men
who had accompanied them through the coast lands to rejoin and convey
the loads as far as Ujiji. In that way Burton and Speke discovered
Lake Tanganyika, and Speke thought (wrongly) that in the great tilted
plateau which they ascended on the east, and from which they looked
down on the beautiful blue waters of the lake, he had discovered the
Mountains of the Moon.
After a somewhat half-hearted exploration of the northern portion
of Tanganyika in an Arab dau, during which they heard and partially
verified the fact that no river flowed out of Tanganyika on the north,
but that the Rusizi flowed _into_ the lake[51] in that direction, they
returned to Ujiji, and from this point made their way back to Kaze in
Unyamwezi. Here Burton again became ill. Speke with some difficulty
obtained from him permission to travel northwards in search of the Lake
of Bukerebe. Burton yielded his consent reluctantly, and appears to
have given but grudging assistance in the shape of men and guides. Full
of energy, however, Speke gathered together a caravan, which crossed
Unyamwezi and Usukuma, and on the 30th of July, 1858, he saw the Mwanza
creek, one of the southernmost gulfs of the Victoria Nyanza. The
extremity of this he named “Jordans Nullah.”[52] Travelling northwards
along this creek, on August 3d (1858), early in the morning, Speke
saw the open waters of a great lake with a sea horizon to the north.
Much of the horizon was shut in by great and small islands, but Speke
detected through their interstices the vast extent of open water which
stretched to the north.
He realised to the full the wonder of his discovery, and the obvious
probability that this mighty lake would prove to be the main
headwaters of the White Nile. Even Speke, however, failed to appreciate
then or subsequently the full extent of the Nyanza’s area. He only
guessed its breadth at over one hundred miles, and its length from
north to south at under two hundred. Speke inquired from the natives
the name of this freshwater sea, and they replied “Nyanza,” which in
varying forms such as Nyanja, Nyasa, Mwanza, Kianja, Luanza (according
to prefix), is a widespread Bantu root for a large extent of water,--a
river or a lake. To this term Speke added the name of Victoria after
the Queen of England. The following extract from his book, “What Led to
the Discovery of the Source of the Nile,” gives his first impressions
of the great lake:--
“The caravan, after quitting Isamiro, began winding up a long but
gradually inclined hill [which, as it bears no native name, I shall
call Somerset] until it reached its summit, when the vast expanse
of the pale blue waters of the Nyanza burst suddenly upon my gaze.
It was early morning. The distant sea-line of the north horizon
was defined in the calm atmosphere between the north and the west
points of the compass; but even this did not afford me any idea
of the breadth of the lake, as an archipelago of islands, each
consisting of a single hill, rising to a height two hundred or
three hundred feet above the water, intersected the line of vision
to the left; while on the right the western horn of the Ukerewe
Island cut off any further view of its distant waters to the
eastward of north. A sheet of water--an elbow of the sea, however,
at the base of the low range on which I stood--extended far away
to the eastward, to where, in the dim horizon, a hummock-like
elevation of the mainland marked what I understood to be the south
and east angle of the lake. The important islands of Ukerewe and
Mzita, distant about twenty or thirty miles, formed the visible
north shore of this firth. The name of the former of these islands
was familiar to us as that by which this long-sought lake was
usually known. It is reported by the natives to be of no great
extent, and though of no considerable elevation, I could discover
several spurs stretching down to the water’s edge from its central
ridge of hills. The other island, Mzita, is of greater elevation,
of a hog-backed shape, but being more distant its physical features
were not so distinctly visible.
“In consequence of the northern islands of the Bengal Archipelago
before-mentioned obstructing the view, the western shore of the
lake could not be defined: a series of low hill-tops extended in
this direction as far as the eye could reach; while below me, at
no great distance, was the _débouchure_ of the creek which enters
the lake from the south, and along the banks of which my last
three days’ journey had led me. This view was one which even in a
well-known and explored country would have arrested the traveller
by its peaceful beauty. The islands, each swelling in a gentle
slope to a rounded summit, clothed with wood between the rugged,
angular, closely-cropping rocks of granite, seemed mirrored in the
calm surface of the lake, on which I here and there detected a
small black speck,--the tiny canoe of some Muanza fisherman. On the
gently shelving plain below me blue smoke curled among the trees,
which here and there partially concealed villages and hamlets,
their brown thatched roofs contrasting with the emerald-green of
the beautiful aloes, the coral flower-branches of which cluster in
such profusion round the cottages, and form alleys and hedgerows
about the villages as ornamental as any garden shrub in England.
But the pleasure of the mere view vanished in the presence of those
more intense and exciting emotions which are called up by the
consideration of the commercial and geographical importance of the
prospect before me.
“I no longer felt any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birth to
that interesting river, the source of which has been the subject
of so much speculation, and the object of so many explorers.
The Arabs’ tale was proved to the letter. This is a far more
extensive lake than the Tanganyika; ‘so broad that you could not
see across it, and so long that nobody knew its length.’ I had now
the pleasure of perceiving that a map I had constructed on Arab
testimony, and sent home to the Royal Geographical Society before
leaving Unyanyembe, was so substantially correct in its general
outlines I had nothing whatever to alter. Further, as I drew that
map after proving their first statements about the Tanganyika,
which were made before my going there, I have every reason to feel
confident of their veracity relative to their travels north through
Karagwe, and to Kibuga in Uganda.”
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP BY BURTON AND SPEKE, 1858.
From the Original in the possession of the Royal Geographical Society.]
Unable to delay longer in his exploration of the southern shores of
the Victoria Nyanza, as he had promised to rejoin Burton by a certain
date, Speke returned to Kaze in Unyanyembe, to find his companion vexed
at the great discovery which he had made. Speke did not pursue the
argument as to the Victoria Nyanza being the main source of the Nile.
The two men journeyed together on more or less bad terms to Zanzibar,
where Burton remained to wind up the affairs of the expedition, Speke
returning direct to England. Here the wonderful news he brought
prompted the Royal Geographical Society to gather together the funds
for a fresh expedition, which was to enable Speke to make good his
discovery of the lake, and to prove to the satisfaction of the
scientific world that this sheet of water was the ultimate source of
the White Nile.
CHAPTER XII
SPEKE AND THE NILE QUEST
John Hanning Speke was born on May 27, 1827, at Orleigh Court,
Bideford, North Devon. His father’s family had its seat in
Somersetshire, near the pretty old town of Ilminster, and was of
ancient descent. The name was spelled L’Espec in Norman times, and
apparently meant a spike or porcupine quill (the family crest was a
porcupine).[53] Speke’s mother was a Miss Hanning of Dillington Park,
also in Somerset. He was one of four sons, and had several sisters. As
his father (Mr. William Speke), after he came into the family place
of Jordans near Ilminster, had two church livings to dispose of, he
was desirous that two at least of his sons might be brought up to
the Church. John Hanning and Edward Speke (who was killed at Delhi)
declined such a career, however, and wished to go into the army. Speke
was a restless boy, who detested school, declaring that a sedentary
life made him ill. Whenever he could escape from his masters, he was
always out in the woods and on the heaths, displaying a great devotion
to natural history and sport.
When only seventeen his mother, who was acquainted with the Duke of
Wellington, obtained for her two sons, John and Edward, commissions
in the Indian army. The Duke asked to see the boys, and congratulated
their mother on two such fine young fellows coming forward for service
in India. Edward Speke, as already mentioned, was killed during the
Indian mutiny at the siege of Delhi. John Hanning Speke himself,
between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two, had seen a good deal of
military service in India, and took part in the last Sikh war, having
been at the battles of Ramnagar, Sedulapur, Chilianwala, and Guzerat.
In 1849 he first entertained the idea of exploring equatorial Africa.
Prior to this date he had shot a great deal in India, and subsequently
explored southwestern Tibet. His first interest in Africa lay in
the possibility of amassing magnificent zoölogical collections to
illustrate the fauna of that wide stretch of country which lay between
South Africa and Abyssinia. He wished to supplement the researches of
Rüppell on the northeast and of Harris, Gordon Cumming, and others in
the far south. Even at that date Speke desired to land at some point on
the East African coast, and strike across to the Nile, descending the
Nile to Egypt with his zoölogical collections.
[Illustration: JOHN HANNING SPEKE.
At the age of 17, on first receiving his commission in the Indian Army.]
He obtained furlough in the autumn of 1854, and proceeded to Aden
with the intention of landing on the opposite coast of Somaliland.
Arrived at Aden, his plans met with stubborn opposition from Colonel
Sir James Outram, the Resident, who not only opposed Speke’s journeys,
but even those which were officially ordered by the Bombay government
to be conducted by Richard Burton. But the Bombay government, in regard
to the latter plan, insisted on Sir James Outram withdrawing his
opposition. Sir James Outram then attached Speke to this expedition,
knowing him to be a good surveyor. Speke had in fact mapped a good deal
of southwestern Tibet, and was thoroughly at home with the sextant. The
results of this venture have been described in the preceding chapter.
The Somali expedition led to Speke’s accompanying Burton in 1857.
Speke returned to England alone on the 8th of May, 1859. The day after
his arrival Sir Roderick Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical
Society, decided that Speke was to be sent back as soon as possible to
substantiate his discovery of the Victoria Nyanza, and to ascertain its
connection with the Nile system. But although funds were soon secured
by public subscription, it was deemed advisable by Speke that the new
expedition should not start for nearly a year. Captain James Augustus
Grant, who had shot with Speke in India, begged leave to accompany him
as his lieutenant.
[Illustration: BURTON’S IDEA OF THE NILE SOURCES, DEC. 1864.]
Burton returned to England in 1859, somewhat chagrined to hear of
the enthusiasm with which Speke’s discovery of the Victoria Nyanza
had been received,--an enthusiasm which to some extent had put the
revelation of Lake Tanganyika in the shade. Burton nevertheless was
awarded, in 1860, the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society,
and in returning thanks for this honour, he uttered a handsome
acknowledgment of Speke’s services as surveyor on this expedition
to the great lakes. But the two men were evidently on bad terms,
and though the fault of their disaccord may have lain with Burton’s
conduct, the world knew of it first through the writings of Speke in
“Blackwood’s Magazine,” and later (in 1864) in the republication of
these Blackwood articles with additions under the title of “What Led to
the Discovery of the Source of the Nile.” In these works Speke makes
certain stinging references to Burton. So far as an impartial verdict
can be arrived at, Speke in all probability spoke the truth; but he
was perhaps unduly hard on his companion, for whom he had evidently a
great personal dislike and some degree of contempt. In some respects
Speke’s own education had been defective (at least, we are told that he
was so much of a truant as to receive but little schooling before going
to India). He may, therefore, have been unable to appreciate to the
full Burton’s undoubted talents. Yet again, in reading Speke’s books
it would occur to no one to say that he was deficient in education.
He had become an admirable geographer, a keen naturalist; and whether
his writing was or was not without grace of style, it was certainly
pithy and to the point. His great book, the “Discovery of the Source
of the Nile,” is good reading all through, and strikes one who, like
the present writer, has been over much of the same ground, as being
singularly truthful. It is as good a book as any that Burton himself
ever wrote on Africa, not excepting even the excellent “Lake Regions.”
Speke was a fine figure of a man,--tall and handsome in an English
style, with blue eyes and a brown beard. There is no doubt that he
impressed the natives favourably wherever he went as being a man and
a gentleman. Yet there was a little hardness in his disposition,
something pitiless in his criticisms of Burton. Burton’s own attacks on
Speke scarcely appeared in a public form until four years after Speke
had returned to Africa. They were angry, and somewhat clumsy, but not
so incisive as Speke’s criticisms of Burton. Burton’s chief revenge lay
in endeavouring for many years to prove that Speke had made no very
great discovery; that his Victoria Nyanza was not the greatest lake in
Africa and the main source of the Nile, but a network of swamps and
lakelets. Burton hailed with delight Sir Samuel Baker’s description
of the Albert Nyanza as being the ultimate origin of the White Nile.
To meet this view he, against his own convictions, tried to make the
Rusizi River flow out of the north end of Tanganyika instead of flowing
into that lake, in the hope that Tanganyika was thus connected with
Lake Albert,--a fact which, if proved, would dwarf the discovery of
the Victoria Nyanza into insignificance. To this end he published a
map, and endeavoured to persuade every geographer who would listen
to him that the Victoria Nyanza was more than half a myth, and that
its contribution to the Nile waters was insignificant compared to the
supply received from the western chain of lakes.
Speke’s character was that of many an officer in the British army.
Though his family claimed Norman descent, his physique was emphatically
Anglo-Saxon. Born almost without fear, he had perhaps too ready a
contempt for others of weaker nerve who could better weigh the chances
of danger and the counsels of prudence. Speke was a splendid shot,
and accurate in those astronomical observations necessary to the
determination of geographical positions. He had a good knowledge of
Hindustani,[54] but not that great readiness in picking up languages
which was Burton’s forte. Yet he was perfectly honest about this, as
about every talent which he possessed or lacked. On the other hand, his
great dislike of Burton sometimes made him unjust in denying to his
companion the qualities of mind he really possessed. Burton’s _résumé_
of ethnological information concerning the East African tribes from the
Zanzibar coast to Uganda and the shores of Tanganyika is masterly, and
due to the most careful note-taking. It may not, perhaps, be out of
place if I quote a few lines from a letter written by Sir Samuel Baker
to a correspondent:[55]--
“Speke comes first as a geographer and African explorer. He was
superior to Burton as a painstaking, determined traveller, who
worked out his object for the real love of geographical research,
without the slightest jealousy of others.... But Burton excelled
Speke in cleverness and general information, though he was not so
reliable. Speke was a splendid fellow in every way.... Grant (his
companion) was one of the most loyal and charming creatures in the
world. Perfectly unselfish, he adored Speke, and throughout his
life he maintained an attitude of chivalrous defence of Speke’s
reputation.... They were all friends of mine.”
There is little doubt that Burton, who had displayed such cool
courage on his journey to Mecca, had received a shock over the Somali
attack on his camp in 1854, from which he never wholly recovered. His
proceedings in connection with the Tanganyika journey were marked by
something approaching timidity. It is probable that had Speke been in
command of this expedition much more would have been done than was
actually accomplished. Feeling this very strongly, and realising that
he had contributed a good deal of his private funds to the resources
of this and the preceding Somali expedition, Speke considered himself
quite justified in hurrying home with the news of the expedition’s
discoveries, the more so because Burton had snubbed him for his pains
in connection with the Victoria Nyanza. I do not think it can be said
that he ever treated Burton unfairly, but there was perhaps in his
behaviour a touch of hardness and a lack of generosity. He heartily
disliked Burton, and that was the reason.
[Illustration: JAMES AUGUSTUS GRANT.]
In James Augustus Grant (as is indicated by the quotation from Sir
Samuel Baker’s letter) Speke had found a companion after his own heart.
Grant was a handsome Scotchman of the “Iberian” type,--black hair,
dark eyes, dark eyebrows, clear complexion. In later life the hair and
the beard turned white, but the face remained singularly youthful. Of
Grant Sir Samuel Baker writes: “He was the most unselfish man I ever
met; amiable and gentle to a degree that might to a stranger denote
weakness, but, on the contrary, no man could be more determined in
character or unrelenting when once he was offended.” Grant, like
Speke, was a sportsman; he was also--in a somewhat uninstructed way--a
zoölogist and a botanist. The botany of Africa, in fact, was his
principal hobby. He painted cleverly in water-colours, and did more
than anybody else, down to a quite recent date, to put before our
eyes some idea of the beautiful coloration of African wild flowers.
He published at his own expense, through the Linnæan Society, three
volumes illustrating the more notable features of his botanical
collections. Although most of these flowers were drawn for him by
scientific draughtsmen, his own sketches supplied the means for an
accurate coloration which could no longer be ascertained from the dried
specimens. In this particular Grant has made an important contribution
to African research.
Before leaving England Speke made arrangements, through the British
consul at Zanzibar, to send on an instalment of porters and property
to Unyamwezi, intending to follow his old route to the Victoria
Nyanza. The Indian government, which has often done so much to assist
the opening up or the settlement of eastern Africa, gave to Speke’s
expedition fifty carbines and twenty thousand rounds of ammunition, and
lent him as many surveying instruments as were required. The government
of India also put at his disposal rich presents (gold watches) for such
Arabs as had assisted him on the former expedition.
Petherick, whose explorations have been treated of in the previous
chapter, had recently arrived in England from the Upper Nile, and had
been promoted to be British Consul. Speke, before he left England,
made arrangements with Petherick to place boats at his disposal at
Gondokoro, and to send a party of men in the same direction to collect
ivory and to wait about in the vicinity of Gondokoro in order to
assist him when he should reach that part of the Nile. Petherick was
also invited to ascend the Asua River (then thought to be a branch of
the Nile instead of an affluent) in case it should be another means
of communication with the Victoria Nyanza. Speke and Grant journeyed
out by way of the Cape, and at Cape Town stayed for a while with the
great Sir George Grey, who, taking the greatest interest in their
undertaking, induced the Cape government to grant the sum of three
hundred pounds to be spent in buying baggage mules. With these mules
were sent ten Hottentot mounted police. From Cape Town the expedition
was conveyed on a gunboat to Zanzibar. At the commencement of October,
1860, Speke’s expedition was organised, and he started for the
interior. His expedition consisted of one corporal and nine privates
of the Hottentot police; one jemadar and twenty-five privates of the
Baluch soldiery of the Sultan of Zanzibar; one Arab caravan leader
and seventy-five freed slaves; one kirongozi or guide and one hundred
negro porters; two black valets, who had both been man-of-war’s men and
could speak Hindustani; Frij, the black cook (also from a man-of-war),
and the invaluable “Bombay,” who was interpreter and factotum. (The
expedition took with it twelve transport mules and three donkeys, also
twenty-two goats for milk and meat. The Hottentots soon broke down in
health, and took to riding the donkeys, the mules being loaded with
ammunition.) The white men, as a rule, had to walk. The Hottentots
were sometimes useful as camp cooks, but they suffered so much from
fever as to become a burden to the expedition.
[Illustration: A MNYAMWEZI PORTER.]
“My first occupation [writes Speke][56] was to map the country.
This is done by timing the rate of march with a watch, making
compass bearings along the road, or any conspicuous marks,--as, for
instance, hills off it,--and by noting the watershed,--in short,
all topographical objects. On arrival in camp every day came the
ascertaining, by boiling-point thermometer, of the altitude of the
station above the sea-level; of the latitude of the station by
the meridian altitude of a star taken with a sextant; and of the
compass variation by azimuth. Occasionally there was the fixing
of certain crucial stations at intervals of sixty miles or so, by
lunar observations ... for determining the longitude, by which the
original-timed course can be drawn out with certainty on the map by
proportion.... The rest of my work, besides sketching and keeping a
diary, which was the most troublesome of all, consisted in making
geological and zoölogical collections. With Captain Grant rested
the botanical collections and thermometrical registers. He also
undertook the photography. The rest of our day went in breakfasting
after the march was over,--a pipe, to prepare us for rummaging
the fields and villages to discover their contents for scientific
purposes,--dinner close to sunset, and tea and a pipe before
turning in at night.”
Speke noticed in Uzegura deposits of pisolitic limestone in which
marine fossils are observable. He draws attention to the interesting
fact that a limestone formation occurs with a few breaks almost
continuously from the southwest coast of Portugal, through North
Africa, Egypt, and part of the Somali country, across Arabia to eastern
India.[57] In connection with this it may be mentioned as a point of
great interest that Mr. C. W. Hobley (Sub-Commissioner in the East
Africa Protectorate) discovered deposits of limestone in the Nyando
valley, about forty miles from the northeast corner of the Victoria
Nyanza.
Speke’s expedition travelled on with little trouble as far as Usagara.
The complete harmony which existed at all times between Speke and Grant
contributed much to the smoothness of the arrangements. At Usagara,
however, they had trouble with one of their caravan leaders (Baraka).
The Hottentots became increasingly sick and helpless, and Captain Grant
was seriously ill with fever. However, they pushed on to that East
Coast range of terraced mountains which is nowadays dotted with not a
few mission and government stations. There is charming and fantastic
scenery in these mountains, which rise in parts to an altitude of seven
thousand feet. From Usagara were sent back some of the Hottentots, a
collection of natural history specimens, and the camera. Speke had
greatly desired to illustrate the scenery of equatorial Africa by means
of photography,--a most serious undertaking in the sixties. Grant
worked the apparatus, but was rendered so ill by the heat of the dark
tent that Speke decided to abandon photography and to rely instead on
his companion’s drawings.
Ugogo, which is a rolling plateau to the west of the Usagara range,
gave the travellers some trouble. Here, as elsewhere, there was famine,
owing to the scarcity of water and the incessant raids on the part
of the Masai from the north or the Wahehe from the south. The Wagogo
themselves are a truculent people, who have given serious annoyance to
caravans during the last hundred years. They speak a Bantu language,
but have very much more the physical aspect of the Nilotic tribes to
the north, being, like them, very much addicted to nudity.[58] On the
plains of Ugogo Grant killed the largest and handsomest of all the
gazelles, which had henceforth borne his name.[59]
In Ugogo Speke also records the existence of that strange archaic type
of dog, the _Otocyon_, a specimen of which he killed. On the western
frontier of Ugogo the expedition was menaced with serious trouble. The
rapacious native chief made increasing demands on them for taxes. A
number of their porters deserted, and their Wanyamwezi carriers who
had agreed to replace the missing men were scared away by the threats
of the Wagogo. In addition, the rainy season had come on, and was
unusually heavy, flooding the country in all directions. The expedition
would have come to grief but for the game shot by its leaders, which
kept the men from starvation. It was only got out of its difficulties
at last by the friendly help of the Arabs of Unyamwezi, who sent
seventy porters to the relief of the explorers. When Speke reached the
borders of Unyamwezi and took stock of his position, he found that
six of his Hottentots were dead or had been sent back to the coast
in charge of several free porters, that twenty-five of the Sultan of
Zanzibar’s slaves and ninety-eight of the original Wanyamwezi porters
had deserted, all the mules and donkeys were dead, and half of his
property had been stolen.
Unyamwezi, “the Land of the Moon,” is a remarkable part of eastern
Africa. Practically it consists of nearly all the land lying between
the Victoria Nyanza on the north and the vicinity of Lake Rukwa on
the south. It is longer (from north to south) than it is broad. Prior
to the German occupation it had ceased to be a single kingdom, and
was divided into a number of small and mutually hostile states only
united by the common bond of the Kinyamwezi language. This varies a
good deal in dialect, though it has distinctive features of its own.
In Usukuma to the north it offers more resemblance to the languages
of the Uganda Protectorate; on the south it links on in some way with
the languages of the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau. How the country became
associated with the moon is not known; for the most part of it is an
undulating plateau, with occasional rift valleys that contain salt or
fresh water pools. A great part of its drainage goes towards Tanganyika
or Lake Rukwa. The language of its people is typically Bantu, but
they would seem to be a very mixed race physically. Some of them have
the ugly features of the Congo Pygmies; others again are strikingly
like the Galas and the Bahima. The bulk of the nation consists of tall
and very muscular Negroes, with thoroughly Negro features. They are
celebrated as porters, being able to carry burdens twice as heavy as
could be offered to any other carriers. They have also a keen instinct
for trade, and it is supposed that, first of all Bantu nations of the
East African interior, they opened up communications with the coast.
There has been trade going on between the Zanzibar coast and Unyamwezi
for at least five centuries,--a trade, however, which has been subject
to prolonged interruptions. The Zanzibar Arabs did not settle in the
country until a hundred years ago.
Conversing with the Arabs of Unyamwezi, Speke again heard from them
of “a wonderful mountain to the northward of Karagwe[60] so high and
steep that no one could ascend it. It was seldom visible, being up in
the clouds, where white matter--snow or hail--fell on it.” The Arabs
also spoke of the other lake, which was salt and also called Nyanza,
but quite different from the Victoria.[61] From the Arabs Speke also
heard of the naked Nile Negroes to the north and east of Unyoro, and
of those of them (the Lango) who, like the Turkana farther east, wear
their hair in enormous bags down the back. They told him that Lake
Tanganyika was drained by the Marungu River.[62] Some of this knowledge
Speke perverted to fit in with erroneous and preconceived notions. At
this interval of time, however, one is surprised at the correctness
of geographical information given to Burton, Speke, and Baker by the
Arabs. One is still more surprised that the constant hints as to the
great snow-mountain range of Ruwenzori should have so often fallen on
deaf ears.
In Unyamwezi Speke’s further progress was much delayed, owing to the
difficulty in getting porters. The country to the east from which he
had come was convulsed with wars between the Arabs and the natives.
In these wars figured, as a bandit leader of handsome appearance and
remarkable adventures, the celebrated Manwa Sera, a dispossessed
Unyamwezi chief. In the course of these wars Speke’s principal friends
amongst the Arabs were killed or disappeared. Amongst them was the
celebrated Snay, the first Arab to enter Uganda, and in fact the
first non-Negro to convey the news of the existence of Uganda to the
civilised world. On the northwest trouble was threatened by the warlike
country of Usui, whose chief, Suwarora, blocked the way to Karagwe by
his extortions. To the west and north also the country was being raided
by the Watuta, a mysterious race of warlike nomads who were said to
be of Zulu origin, and were, according to all accounts, the furthest
extension of the great Zulu invasion of East Africa, which took place
in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Speke attempted to recruit porters in the northern parts of Unyamwezi,
but without success. He therefore returned to the headquarters of the
Arabs at Kaze, and from this point sent back the last of the Hottentots
to the coast. Speke, seeing that he could get no farther without
bringing some order into the country, negotiated a peace between Manwa
Sera and the Arabs. The peace with Manwa Sera broke down. Finally Speke
decided to leave Bombay and Grant behind in northern Unyamwezi with the
loads which it was impossible to transport. With such porters as he had
he pushed on to the northwest and entered Buzinza, the first country
ruled by Bahima chiefs.[63] Speke remarks rightly that specimens of
this Hamitic (Gala) aristocracy extend from the south shores of the
Victoria Nyanza southwards as far as the Fipa country and the edges of
the Nyasa-Tanganyika Plateau. On pages 128 to 134 of his book[64] Speke
gives an excellent description of the maddening extortions of a petty
African chief. This behaviour on the chief’s part should be borne in
mind when the armchair geographer is inclined to lay all the blame on
the European and Arab for commencing wars with Negro tribes.
From February to October Speke had the most trying experiences which
were to await him on this journey. He travelled backwards and forwards
from Kaze to Uzinza, endeavouring in all possible ways to get porters
to carry him to Usui. In these journeys he caught a severe cold, the
effects of which lasted for months in a most distressing cough, and
some disease of the chest which he could not diagnose. His caravans
were robbed, though the goods were sometimes recovered. Several of his
Swahili headmen turned traitors; Bombay alone was faithful. Grant, when
he had recovered from fever, marched and countermarched. But Speke
had fortunately managed months before to send on word of his coming
to Suwarora, Chief of Usui, who himself was a vassal of Rumanika, the
great Hima ruler of Karagwe. Suwarora sent an envoy with his mace to
invite Speke to proceed at once to his court. This intervention made a
good impression on the treacherous chief of Buzinza, Lumeresi. Much of
the stolen property was recovered, and the expedition obtaining a few
porters started for Usui in October, 1861.
Grant was left behind with such of the property as could not be
removed. Speke, when he left Buzinza, “was a most miserable spectre in
appearance, puffing and blowing at each step he took, with shoulders
drooping and left arm hanging like a dead log, which he was unable to
swing.” At last, after incredible worries and trouble, occasioned by
the demands for “hongo” (tribute) on the part of every petty chief
whose territories they crossed, they reached the large country of
Usui or Busui at the southwest corner of the Victoria Nyanza. Usui is
“a most convulsed looking country of well-rounded hills composed of
sandstone.... Cattle were numerous, kept by the Wahuma (Bahima), who
would not sell their milk to us because we ate fowls and a bean called
_maharagwe_.” In Usui the caravan was incessantly worried at night
by the attacks of thieves until one of these was killed, whereupon
the Basui congratulated the expedition, saying that the slain man was
a wonderful magician. “They thought us wonderful men, possessed of
supernatural powers.” Suwarora and his fellow-chief Vikora were most
exacting in their demands for hongo. At last, after heart-breaking
delays, they got away out of Suwarora’s country.
Between Usui and Karagwe was one of those no man’s lands, which at
times are such a relief to the harassed traveller,--a land in which
he can enjoy the beauty of the landscapes, the excitement of sport in
complete freedom from the harassing attentions of Negro tribes. In
this lovely wilderness they were greeted by officers sent to their
assistance by Rumanika, who said, “Rumanika has ordered us to bring
you to his palace at once, and wherever you stop a day, the village
officers are instructed to supply you with food at the King’s expense;
for there are no taxes gathered from strangers in the Kingdom of
Karagwe.” Speke noted the little lake of Urigi, and learned from the
natives that this was the remains of a much larger sheet of water. They
declared, in fact, that this lake had formerly extended far to the
southwards in the direction of Tanganyika, having been at one time a
considerable gulf of the Victoria Nyanza.
For the first time since leaving the coast they travelled day after day
through beautiful and attractive scenery, in which rhinoceroses, both
“white” and black, and herds of hartebeest mingled with the splendid
long-horned cattle of the natives. Speke and Grant shot several
square-lipped “white” rhinoceroses. (Stanley subsequently did the same
in this country of Karagwe. Though it has since been shot on the Upper
Nile, this creature is now becoming extinct in East Equatorial Africa.)
“Leaving the valley of Uthenja, we rose over the spur of Nyamwara, and
found we had attained the delightful altitude of five thousand feet.
Oh, how we enjoyed it!--every one feeling so happy at the prospect
of meeting the good king Rumanika. Rumanika the king and his brother
Nyanaji were both of them men of noble appearance and size.... They had
fine oval faces, large eyes, and high noses, denoting the best blood
of Abyssinia. Having shaken hands in true English style, which is the
peculiar custom of the men of this country, the ever-smiling Rumanika
begged us to be seated on the ground opposite to him, and at once
wished to know what we thought of Karagwe, for it had struck him his
mountains were the finest in the world; and the lake, too, did we not
admire it?”
[Illustration: A HIMA OF MPORORO, NEAR KARAGWE.]
Speke subsequently went to see the queens and princesses of this
royal family, who, by means of a milk diet, were kept immoderately fat.
Of one of them he writes: “She could not rise; and so large were her
arms that between the joints the flesh hung down like large, stuffed
puddings. Then in came their children, all models of the Abyssinian
type of beauty, and as polite in their manners as thoroughbred
gentlemen.”
Rumanika and his brothers received their presents with a graceful
gratitude which was striking after the ill manners of the Negro chiefs
in Unyamwezi and Usui. Rumanika begged Speke to remain a little while
in his country so that he might send on word of his coming to the
King of Uganda. Speke consented to do so, and when walking about
the vicinity of the king’s capital, descried the distant cone of
Mfumbiro. This he at once identified with the Mountains of the Moon
and with the story of the snow-capped peaks. It is curious, seeing how
friendly were all the Bahima, and what facilities were given to him for
travelling about the country of Karagwe, that he made no attempt to
enter Ruanda whilst waiting to go on to the north, and thus obtain a
nearer acquaintance with the Mountains of the Moon. Had he done so, he
might perchance have caught a glimpse of Ruwenzori. Grant’s drawing of
Mfumbiro and other volcanoes (since explored by many travellers) is a
truthful one.
In Rumanika’s country Speke discovered the water tragelaph which now
bears his name (_Limnotragus spekei_). This creature has the hoofs
very much prolonged, so as to enable it to walk on floating vegetation
and marshy ground. Speke at once discerned that this creature was
closely allied to the water tragelaph found by Livingstone on Lake
Ngami.
[Illustration: SPEKE’S TRAGELAPH (_Limnotragus spekei_).]
The existence of this Bahima[65] aristocracy in the countries west
and south of the Victoria Nyanza was not reported for the first time
in Speke’s account of his second journey to the Victoria Nyanza.
First of all, in the early fifties, the Zanzibar Arabs brought to the
coast--either at Mombasa or Zanzibar--accounts of a race of “white”
men who lived on the Mountains of the Moon. Burton, analysing these
stories at Kaze in Unyamwezi, reduced them to accounts of Bahima, who
were believed to have the features and complexion of Abyssinians.
Speke’s arrival in Buzinza and Karagwe made us partially acquainted
with the facts. We now know that at some relatively remote period not
less than two thousand years ago the lands between the Victoria and
Albert Nyanzas were invaded from the northeast by a Caucasian race
allied to the Gala and the Egyptian. These ancestors of the Bahima
mingled to some extent with the indigenous Negroes, and so somewhat
darkened the colour of their skins and acquired hair more like the
Negro’s wool. This pastoral people brought with them herds of cattle
from the direction of Abyssinia or Galaland,--cattle with enormous
horns, sometimes over three feet in length. This breed of cattle is
found at the present day in southern and western Abyssinia. It is also
depicted--with other breeds on the Egyptian monuments. It is supposed
to be allied in origin to the stock which gave rise to the ordinary
humped cattle of India,--the Zebu type. These oxen with enormous
horns--horns which are not only very long but sometimes very large
in girth--are found westwards as far as the vicinity of Lake Chad,
and in a more degenerate type farther west still, to the sources of
the Niger. It might be thought that they were also related to the
long-horned cattle of South Africa, but it is sometimes asserted that
the long-horned South African cattle owe their main origin to the
introduction of Spanish breeds by the Portuguese, the cattle met with
by the first Europeans in South Africa having belonged to the humped
zebu type.
The Bahima once founded an empire which stretched from the northern
limits of Unyoro and the Victoria Nile westward to the Congo Forest and
southward to the coast of Tanganyika. This ancient Empire of Kitara
split up into a number of states governed for the most part by Hima
dynasties, though in Uganda the native kings became more and more Negro
in aspect through their fathers’ intermarriage with Negro women. But
for the most part friendly relations subsisted between all the states
into which the Empire of Kitara was subdivided; it was only in more
recent times that the existing blood feud sprang up between Unyoro and
Uganda. The Bahima were reverenced and admired by the mass of the Negro
population as the descendants of supernatural beings who had brought
to these lands what little civilisation they possessed. Intermarriage
constantly took place between the dynasties of Buzinza, Usui, Karagwe,
Ruanda, Mpororo, Ankole, Unyoro, and Uganda. This and other causes for
intercommunication gave intelligent chiefs like Rumanika a considerable
grasp of African geography. These chiefs knew that their world was
bounded on the west by the impenetrable Congo Forest. They knew all
about Tanganyika, the Victoria Nyanza, the Masai countries, the course
of the Nile as far north as Gondokoro, and even the existence of Lake
Rudolf. Perhaps also they had a glimmering knowledge not only of
the “Turks” on the White Nile (which was the case), but also of the
existence of men like themselves in Galaland and Abyssinia. Speke and
subsequent travellers found these Hima sovereigns and their courts
very different to the petty Negro states of East Africa. Besides the
recognised king (a member of a long dynasty), there were regularly
established Court officials and functionaries, and an orderly system
of government. Travellers like Speke were not slow to appreciate the
influence which this Gala invasion of equatorial Africa had on the
Negro types. We now begin to feel that this Negrified Caucasian has
interpenetrated most parts of Negro Africa between the Cameroons and
Zanzibar, and between the northern limits of the Sudan and Natal.
In the western prolongation of Africa something like the same
infiltration of a superior race has been brought about by the Tawareqs
of the Sahara. This Libyan race is also of the Caucasian family, more
directly so indeed than the curly-haired Gala, who, mixing with the
Libyan, laid the foundation of Ancient Egyptian civilisation.
CHAPTER XIII
SPEKE IN UGANDA
Speke and Grant both seem to have taken the shape and existence of the
Victoria Nyanza for granted. No doubt from the highlands of Karagwe and
Buddu they occasionally caught glimpses of the distant Nyanza; besides
which the chiefs and the Arabs spoke of its existence as a fact which
could be ascertained by one or two days’ journey to the east. Speke was
more concerned himself with losing no time in getting to the point at
which the Nile left the Victoria Nyanza. He made little or no attempt
to delineate the coast line of that lake with any accuracy, and as
we know, he placed the west coast much too far to the east, reducing
the lake to almost two-thirds of its actual area. Seeing how near he
marched to the coast in Buddu, it is curious that he got no sight of
the large archipelago of the Sese Islands,[66] which can be sighted
from a distance of many miles. There is no indication of these islands
on his map. Apparently he made no attempts to check his computation
of the altitude of the Victoria Nyanza, which in 1858 he computed
at 3740 feet (an estimate not far off the correct one of 3775 feet).
All the other altitudes taken by his boiling-point thermometer seem to
be too low. His surmise that the Ripon Falls are only 3308 feet above
sea-level is more than four hundred feet too low; and if his altitudes
in northern Unyamwezi are correct (which I doubt), the waters of the
Victoria Nyanza must be a huge, pent-up dam which would flood large
tracts of German East Africa.
[Illustration: THE RIPON FALLS FROM THE WEST BANK.]
Grant had to be left behind in Karagwe, owing to an ulcerated leg.
Speke decided upon going to Uganda alone, but despatched the head-man
of his caravan, Baraka, with a companion to the north of Unyoro,
providing him with a letter to Petherick. He himself entered Uganda
(first of all Europeans to do so) on the 16th of January, 1862.
He travelled along the coast country of Buddu, and soon began to
appreciate the beauty of the land.
“I felt inclined to stop here a month, everything was so very
pleasant. The temperature was perfect. The roads, as indeed they
were everywhere, were as broad as our coach roads, cut through the
long grasses, straight over the hills and down through the woods
in the dells,--a strange contrast to the wretched tracks in all
adjacent countries. The huts were kept so clean and so neat, not a
fault could be found with them; the gardens the same. Wherever I
strolled I saw nothing but richness, and what ought to be wealth.
The whole land was a picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless
sea in the background. Looking over the hills, it struck the fancy
at once that at one period the whole land must have been at a
uniform level with their present tops, but that, by the constant
denudation it was subjected to by the frequent rains, it had been
cut down and sloped into those beautiful hills and dales which now
so much please the eye; for there were none of those quartz dykes
I had seen protruding through the same kind of aqueous formations
in Usui and Karagwe, nor were there any other sorts of volcanic
disturbance to distort the quiet aspect of the scene.”
[Illustration: A VIEW IN UGANDA.]
Speke found an Uganda not much smaller in area than that Negro kingdom
is to-day. It lacked the large slices of Unyoro which were cut off and
added to Uganda after the commencement of the British Protectorate,
but it probably wielded a political influence over Busoga on the east
and Toro on the west, since denied to it. The population of this
kingdom in those days was computed at not far under four millions. Its
administrators at the present time are doubtful if the same kingdom
possesses eight hundred thousand inhabitants. The roads then were as
broad and as well kept as they are now. It is sad to think that the
people were possibly happier. True, their despotic ruler--whom they
regarded with almost religious veneration--slaughtered and tortured
those who frequented his Court; but the people at large were little
affected by these deeds of cruelty, even if they did not regard them
with that disinterested admiration which the Negro always accords to a
display of force. Syphilis had wrought but slight ravages amongst them;
indeed, it was a disease of but recent introduction (coming from
the Nile).[67] No religious feuds had begun. The people believed their
monarch to be the mightiest on earth, and themselves to be the happiest
folk, living in a real paradise. For beauty the land can hardly be
matched elsewhere in Africa. The one indisputable flaw in the climate
is the frequency of dangerous thunderstorms. But for these reminders
of a harsher law the Baganda might well have looked back on their life
under Mutesa and his predecessors as one of ideal happiness. They had
plenty to eat. Their banana groves provided the staple of their diet
unfailingly. In addition, the rich soil grew such legumens and cereals
as they required. The rivers, lakes, and marshes swarmed with fish.
Cattle throve. Goats, sheep, and fowls were abundant. Bark cloth from
the fig-trees and carefully dressed skins provided the clothing they
were so scrupulous to wear; for they shuddered at open indecency,
and yet led the most licentious lives, licentiousness then paying no
penalty in the spread of malignant diseases. This would be the way in
which the average Muganda might look back on the past. Of course there
was another side to the picture, no doubt. The paradisaical, unmoral
lives of easy indulgence in their banana groves ill fitted them in the
long run to cope with the attacks of stronger races. Fate led them
under the British ægis after the country had been brought to something
like ruin by ten years of civil war, and ten years of wretched
misgovernment at the hands of a wicked sovereign. Had the British
Protectorate not been declared, it is futile to suppose the country
could have retained its independence. It would have been annexed by
Germany or France, have been added to the Congo Free State or to the
Egyptian Sudan.[68] If by some miracle it had escaped any one of these
masters, it would have fallen victim later on to the Abyssinian raiders
of the present day.
Speke found the country governed by a worshipped despot, Mutesa,
who had just succeeded to a throne which had been in existence for
something like four hundred and fifty years in an unbroken dynasty
originally of Hima origin. This despot was a young man of agreeable
countenance, with somewhat negroid features but a yellowish-brown skin.
He had the large, liquid eyes characteristic of all the princes and
princesses of this family. He lived in palaces which, though built
of palm trunks, reeds, and grass were often imposing in appearance,
with roofs rising to fifty feet above the ground. The interior of
these dwellings had a raised floor of mud, hard as cement, and was
divided into compartments by reed screens. The floor would be strewn
with a soft carpet of fine fragrant grass, on which leopard skins and
beautifully dressed ox-hides were laid down. The towns consisted
mainly of collections of these straw-thatched dwellings surrounded by
large gardens and banana groves, and fenced off from the outer world
by tall reed fences so plaited as to produce an agreeably variegated
aspect. Speke and his companion, and the Swahili porters with them,
noticed the resemblance offered by this beautifully “tidy” country of
Uganda to the civilised coast belt of Zanzibar. Negro savagery was
far removed, especially in sanitary matters, where the arrangements
were quite equal to those in force in England one hundred years
ago. The religion of the country consisted of a worship paid to a
large number of Ba-lubari or spirits, some of which were obviously
ancestral, and others the personification of earth, air, or water
forces.[69] The ministers of this religion were the Ba-mandwa or
sorcerer-priests. Originally these priests were of the Bahima stock.
Indeed, this religion which prevails amongst so many tribes in western
and equatorial Africa seems to have had (like the Bahima aristocracy)
a Hamitic origin, and to have come originally from the regions east of
the White Nile.
Mutesa’s Court was remarkable for its hierarchy of officials. The
principal minister is now the Katikiro, but was formerly styled
Kamuraviona. He was formerly the commander-in-chief, though now no
longer associated with such office. Some functions were hereditary,
such as the Pokino or Governor of Buddu; but these hereditary posts
were formerly the recognition of the existence of feudatory princes.
The Kimbugwe was formerly the guardian of the king’s navel string and
the keeper of his drums. The Mugema was the commissioner in charge
of the royal tombs; Kasuju was the guardian of the king’s sisters;
Mukwenda was his treasurer; Kauta was the steward of his kitchen;
Seruti his head brewer; and so forth. In course of time many of these
functions were purely honorary. The system seems to have come, like so
much else of the civilisation of Uganda, from the Hamitic invaders, and
it bears a curious resemblance to the origin of similar functionaries
in the courts of Europe.
Society also was divided much as it is in our own world. There were
the Royal Family and its collateral branches, known as Balángira, or
princes. The princesses were called Bambeja. The Baronage was styled
Bakungu. Then there was an upper class of functionaries known as
Batongoli, while the peasants were classed as Bakopi.
Speke--handsome, manly, kindly, and straightforward--became an immense
favourite with the volatile tyrant of Uganda, with the queens (for
there were several queens--dowagers, mothers, consorts--at once in
Uganda), with the nobles, and with the people. “My beard,” he writes,
“engrossed the major part of most conversations; all the Baganda
said they would come out in future with hairy faces.” The Royal
Family of Uganda, he also remarks, gave orders without knowing how
they were to be carried out, and treated all practical arrangements
as trifling details not worth their attention; so that Speke and his
caravan sometimes found themselves not very well off for food. The
king or the queen-mother had said, “Let them be fed,” but ministers
were not equally eager to see the royal largesse awarded. The handsome
young king was extremely trying to deal with, as he put a great many
questions and seldom waited for the answers. His slavish courtiers were
constantly on their bellies, uttering incessant expressions of “Thank
you very much” (“Niyanzi-ge”) for whatever their chief was pleased to
do, say, or show to them. Not infrequently Speke intervened to save
the lives of queens or pages who for a nothing were condemned to a
cruel execution. On one occasion a picnic on the shores of the Victoria
Nyanza was attended by the following incident. One of Mutesa’s wives,--
“a most charming creature, and truly one of the best of the lot,
plucked a fruit and offered it to the king, thinking, doubtless,
to please him greatly; but he, like a madman, flew into a towering
passion, said it was the first time a woman had ever had the
impudence to offer him anything, and ordered the pages to seize,
bind, and lead her off to execution. These words were no sooner
uttered by the king than the whole bevy of pages slipped their cord
turbans from their heads, and rushed like a pack of cupid beagles
upon the fairy queen, who, indignant at the little urchins daring
to touch her majesty, remonstrated with the king, and tried to
beat them off like flies, but was soon captured, overcome, and
dragged away, crying on the names of the Kamuraviona and ‘Mzungu’
(myself) for help and protection; whilst Lubuga, the pet sister,
and all the other women clasped the king by his legs, and kneeling,
implored forgiveness for their sister. The more they craved for
mercy, the more brutal he became, till at last he took a heavy
stick and began to belabour the poor victim on the head. Hitherto I
had been extremely careful not to interfere with any of the king’s
acts of arbitrary cruelty, knowing that such interference, at an
early stage, would produce more harm than good. This last act of
barbarism, however, was too much for my English blood to stand; and
as I heard my name, ‘Mzungu,’[70] imploringly pronounced, I rushed
at the king, and staying his uplifted arm, demanded from him the
woman’s life. Of course I ran imminent risk of losing my own in
thus thwarting the capricious tyrant; but his caprice proved the
friend of both. The novelty of interference even made him smile,
and the woman was instantly released.”
Speke had quitted Grant in January, 1862. The two travellers did
not meet again till the end of May in the same year. Grant had been
constantly ill, and had been unable to make any survey of the lake
shore. It was not till the 7th of July that Speke and Grant obtained
leave to quit the capricious king on their journey eastwards to the
Nile. The day before they started Speke notes:--
“On the way home one of the king’s favourite women overtook us,
walking, with her hands behind her head, to execution, crying
‘Nyawo’ in the most pitiful manner. A man was preceding her,
but did not touch her; for she loved to obey the orders of her
king voluntarily, and in consequence of previous attachment was
permitted as a mark of distinction to walk free. Wondrous world! It
was not ten minutes since we parted from the king, yet he had found
time to transact this bloody piece of business.”
On the following morning the king replied to Speke’s farewell remarks
“with great feeling and good taste.” The king followed him with his
courtiers in a procession to his camp, and exhorted the porters to
follow the travellers through fire and water. “Then, exchanging adieus
again, he walked ahead in gigantic strides up the hill, the pretty
favourite of his harem, Lubuga, beckoning and waving with her little
hands, and crying, ‘Bana! Bana!’[71] All showed a little feeling at the
severance. We saw them no more.”
CHAPTER XIV
FROM VICTORIA NYANZA TO ALEXANDRIA
On the 28th of July, 1862, Speke stood by the side of the Ripon Falls,
where the Victoria Nile leaves the great Nyanza at the head of Napoleon
Gulf. Grant had gone off with a portion of the expedition on the more
direct route to Unyoro. Speke had reached the Victoria Nile first of
all below its exit from the lake, and describes the scene as follows:--
“It was the very perfection of the effect aimed at in a highly
kept park, with a magnificent stream of from six to seven hundred
yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks,--the former occupied by
fishermen’s huts, the latter by birds and crocodiles basking in the
sun,--flowing between fine, high grassy banks, with rich trees and
plantains in the background, where herds of topi and hartebeest
could be seen grazing, while the hippopotami were snorting in the
water and bustards and guineafowl were rising at our feet.”
[Illustration: THE NILE AT THE ISAMBA RAPIDS (looking North).
Where Speke first struck it.]
Marching up the left bank of the Nile towards the lake, he thus
describes that river at the Isamba rapids:--
“The water ran deep between its banks, which were covered with fine
grass, soft cloudy acacia, and festoons of lilac convolvuli, whilst
here and there, where the land had slipped above the rapids,
bared spaces of red earth could be seen, like that of Devonshire;
there, too, the waters, impeded by a natural dam, seemed like a
huge mill pond, sullen and dark, in which two crocodiles, lying
about, were looking out for prey. From the high banks I looked down
upon a line of sloping wooded islets lying across the stream, which
divide its waters, and, by interrupting them, cause at once both
dam and rapids. The whole was more fairy-like, wild, and romantic
than--I must confess that my thoughts took that shape--anything I
ever saw outside of a theatre. It was exactly the sort of place,
in fact, where, bridged across from one side-slip to the other, on
a moonlight night, brigands would assemble to enact some dreadful
tragedy. Even the Wangwana (Zanzibaris) seemed spellbound at the
novel beauty of the sight, and no one thought of moving till hunger
warned us that night was setting in, and we had better look out for
lodgings.”
Speke describes the Ripon Falls, where the Nile leaves the lake, as by
far the most interesting sight he had ever seen in Africa. The falls
are stemmed by rocky islands and crowned by magnificent trees.[72]
“It was a sight that attracted one to it for hours,--the roar of
the waters, the thousands of passenger-fish, leaping at the falls
with all their might, the Basoga and Baganda fishermen coming
out in boats and taking post on all the rocks with rod and hook,
hippopotami and crocodiles lying sleepily on the water, the ferry
at work above the falls, and cattle driven down to drink at the
margin of the lake. The scene made, in all, with the pretty nature
of the country,--small hills, grassy-topped, with trees in the
folds, and gardens on the lower slopes,--as interesting a picture
as one could wish to see.”
This was Speke’s furthest point eastward in connection with Nile
discovery. He confesses in his book that he has missed much by not
going through Busoga to see the northeast corner of the lake. Had
he done so, he might have cleared up at the very beginning the most
disputed portion of that lake’s geography. At the northeast corner
of the Victoria Nyanza is a long and narrow gulf which we now term
Kavirondo Bay. This gulf figures on Speke’s map as a semi-independent
Lake Baringo. Stanley, in his circumnavigation, wholly overlooked it,
as its mouth is blocked by islands. Joseph Thompson read a quarter of
the riddle. One-half was guessed by Mr. C. W. Hobley, and the remaining
quarter was cleared up by an expedition under Commander Whitehouse.
[Illustration: RIPON FALLS, FROM BUGUNGA, WHERE SPEKE FIRST SAW THEM.]
These falls of the Nile were named after the Earl de Grey and Ripon,
then President of the Royal Geographical Society; and the gulf of
the Victoria Nyanza, from which the Nile issued, was called Napoleon
Channel after the then Emperor of the French. Speke and his party, with
their Baganda guides, got into canoes, and paddled some distance down
the Nile north of the Isamba rapids. But just as they were nearing Lake
Kioga (of whose existence Speke was ignorant) they passed an important
town on the left bank of the Nile which was an outpost of Unyoro,
under a semi-independent chief. Here the party was received with the
greatest hostility, and obliged to give up the river route. Speke
struck inland to the waters of the Luajali, which he wrongly believed
to be another outlet of the Victoria Nyanza, and shortly afterwards
met Grant, who was on his return journey from the capital of Unyoro.
After some hesitation they decided to join forces and march on Unyoro
overland. By this means they entirely lost count of the course of the
Victoria Nile for some distance, and of the existence of the great
lakes Kioga and Kwania. As they crossed the boundary line and entered
Unyoro, Speke writes:--
“This first march was a picture of all the country to its capital:
an interminable forest of small trees, bush, and tall grass, with
scanty villages, low huts, and dirty-looking people clad in skins;
the plantain, sweet potato, sesamum, and ulezi (millet) forming
the chief edibles, besides goats and fowls; whilst the cows, which
are reported to be numerous, were kept, as everywhere else where
pasture-lands are good, by the wandering, unsociable Wahuma, and
were seldom seen. No hills, except a few scattered cones, disturb
the level surface of the land, and no pretty views ever cheer
the eye. Uganda is now entirely left behind; we shall not see
its like again; for the further one leaves the equator, and the
rain-attracting influences of the Mountains of the Moon, vegetation
decreases proportionately with the distance.”
[Illustration: VIEW OF NAPOLEON GULF, FROM JINJA.]
Speke had sent on, many months in advance, his head-man, Baraka, to
await him in Unyoro, and possibly to convey letters to Petherick. But
for this action in all probability a peaceful entry into Unyoro would
have been refused, as the Baganda were much detested there for their
predatory raids. Kamurasi, King of Unyoro, was very nearly as big a
scoundrel and as inhospitable to strangers as his son Kabarega, who is
now residing in the Seychelles Islands. After innumerable difficulties
caused by the caprices of Mutesa and the jealousies subsisting between
the Baganda and Banyoro, and the fierce suspicions of Kamurasi, they
reached the capital of that monarch who considered himself to be the
legitimate emperor over all the lands once ruled by the Bahima race.
This capital was situated then on a peninsula between the Kafu River
and the Nile, on what is now the soil of Uganda. The Kafu River, which
is a broad, marshy stream rising not far from the Albert Nyanza, is the
present boundary between the two kingdoms. Speke wrongly believed it to
be another outlet of the Nile.
For nine days Speke and his companion were kept waiting before the
suspicious king could make up his mind to see them. From the 9th of
September to the 9th of November the whole expedition was detained
at the Court of this greedy tyrant. At his Court they heard of the
existence of a large lake, “Lutanzige,” to the west,[73] and asked
permission to go and see it. This was refused, and thus another
opportunity of adding an important piece of information to Nile
discovery was denied to Speke, who could have travelled to and from
the coast of Lake Albert in three weeks instead of wasting two months
at Kamurasi’s Court. However, during this long stay Speke managed to
send Bombay with some of Kamurasi’s men down the Nile and through
the Lango and Acholi countries to Petherick’s outpost. After Bombay’s
return with this cheering news, Speke was more than ever impatient to
get away. Kamurasi attempted to delay the departure under one pretext
or another, no doubt with the object of bleeding the expedition of more
and more gifts. At last, on the 9th of November, they descended the
Kafu River to its junction with the Nile, and found themselves on the
broad Nile, still lake-like in extent, owing to the vicinity of Lake
Kioga. In this manner, some travelling by canoe and some by land, they
reached the Karuma Falls, from which point they left the Nile, marching
across the marshy and then steppe-like countries of the Acholi, and
came first into touch with the influence of Egypt at Faloro, on the
borders of the Madi country. Here they met a Sudanese named Muhammad
Wad-el-Mek,--quite black, but dressed like an Egyptian and talking
Arabic. Muhammad was in command of some two hundred Sudanese, who,
by their association with Egypt, were known as Turks by the natives.
Muhammad Wad-el-Mek at first professed to be Petherick’s employé, and
then confessed that he was really the head-man of a Maltese trader
named De Bono. These were the men that Petherick had arranged with De
Bono were to come into touch with Speke’s expedition.
Here, however, they met with some disappointment. Instead of being
allowed to proceed directly to Gondokoro, Muhammad Wad-el-Mek sought
to detain them by alleging that no boats would be waiting for them
at Gondokoro at that season (December). The usual heart-breaking
delays took place. Speke decided from this point (Faloro) to send back
Kijwiga,--a fairly faithful Unyoro guide, who had been with him now,
one way and the other, about a year, having originally been sent to
greet him in Uganda. Meantime Muhammad, De Bono’s agent, went off to
the southward with his men to fight one African chief on behalf of
another so as to secure a large quantity of ivory.
Speke was shocked, during his stay in Unyoro, at the abominable way
in which the “Turks” treated the inoffensive Madi natives. At last,
on the 12th of January, 1863, Speke, disgusted and hopeless at the
delay, started ahead to a village called Panyoro. He was followed
up by Muhammad’s men, and they arrived at the Nile near the modern
station of Afuddu (close to the junction of the river Asua and the
Nile). At this place they found a tree with the letters M. I. inscribed
on its bark. This was the remains of an attempt on the part of the
Venetian traveller Miani to carve his name on a tree so as to give some
information to Speke, who had long been expected in this direction. At
this place there was another halt, which Speke and Grant employed in
killing game, and giving a great deal of the meat thus acquired to the
natives.
On the first of February they started again, Muhammad having procured
porters by the most arbitrary methods. They followed the Nile down to
the confluence of the Asua River. This stream Speke imagined to flow
out of what we now call Kavirondo Bay. It is strange that so great a
geographer should have had such elementary notions about hydrography.
He gives the Victoria Nyanza something like four principal outlets,
much as the Portuguese in earlier days provided lakes in the centre
of Africa which fed impartially the Congo, the Nile, and the Zambezi.
Crossing the Asua, they emerged along the Nile rapids until they
arrived at the verge of the Bari country. One serious attack was made
on them, but was met by the determined measures taken by Muhammad.
At last, on the 15th of February, 1863, they walked into Gondokoro.
Here their first inquiry was for Petherick. “A mysterious silence
ensued; we were informed that Mr. De Bono was the man we had to thank
for the assistance we had received in coming from Madi.” Hurrying down
through the ruins of the abandoned Austrian Mission to the bank of the
river, where a line of vessels was moored, the explorers suddenly saw
Mr. Samuel Baker marching towards them. “What joy this was I cannot
tell. We could not talk fast enough, so overwhelmed were we both to
meet again.”[74]
Mr. Samuel Baker had conceived the idea of going to meet Speke at the
head waters of the Nile. He and his wife (the present Lady Baker)
arrived at Khartum, and there received much information and assistance
from Petherick in the furtherance of their work. As to Petherick
himself, he arrived with his wife also a few days after Speke reached
Gondokoro. Speke seems to have been rather hard on this man. We know
that Petherick went up the river to Gondokoro in 1862, expecting to
get news of Speke, and not imagining that he could have lost something
like a year of travel by his delays in Unyamwezi, Uganda, and Unyoro.
Being unable to remain indefinitely at Gondokoro without news of the
travellers, he arranged with De Bono to send Muhammad and his men in
the direction of Unyoro to found a post where Speke might be awaited.
As we know, these orders were carried out. Petherick was naturally
obliged to think of his own means of livelihood, for he was an unpaid
consul. He therefore went on an ivory-trading expedition west of
the Mountain Nile, knowing, of course, that Baker would be awaiting
the travellers, and that runners from the direction of Gondokoro
would keep him advised as to their approach. He and his wife reached
Gondokoro only a few days after Speke had arrived there. Speke,
however, refused all assistance at their hands, and decided to return
to Khartum on Baker’s dahabiah. Speke’s adverse report on Petherick,
combined with the intrigues of the Turks, who disliked his opposition
to the slave-trade, practically ruined Petherick, as we have seen in a
previous chapter.
The journey of this wonderful expedition from Gondokoro down the Nile
(Speke mistaking the origin and course of its affluents as he went
along, so that his map in this respect is very incorrect) was broken
at Khartum, whence the Europeans and Negroes travelled across the
desert to Egypt. Of the hundred-odd porters who left Zanzibar with this
expedition in 1860, nineteen (including Bombay) reached Cairo with
Speke and Grant, the remainder having deserted, died, or been sent back
from various points. These survivors were generously treated by Speke,
who gave them an extra year’s pay as a gratuity, and orders for land
and marriage portions on their reaching Zanzibar. He also provided for
their free passage from Suez to Zanzibar via the Seychelles Islands.
Somehow or other they went on by mistake to Mauritius, where they were
treated most generously by the little colony. Thence they were sent in
safety to Zanzibar. From this point several of these men subsequently
journeyed with Stanley and other African explorers. Bombay, “Captain
of the Faithful,” died in 1886 (?), having been in receipt during the
last years of his life of a regular pension from the Royal Geographical
Society.
Speke and Grant returned to England in the spring of 1863. By December
in that year Speke had finished his great book, the “Discovery of the
Source of the Nile.” Speke, soon after his return, was received by the
present king. In the autumn of 1863 he was given an ovation in the
county of Somerset worthy of his achievements. “Punch” accorded him
a cartoon drawn by Tenniel, but the British government did _nothing_
for him, unless there can be attributed to its influence the paltry
satisfaction of granting to him through the Heralds College supporters
and an additional motto to his coat of arms. By this grant his family
is now entitled to add a hippopotamus and a crocodile as supporters to
their shield, a crocodile to their crest, the flowing Nile to their
coat of arms, and the additional motto, “Honor est a Nilo.”
[Illustration: THE LAST MAP ISSUED TO ILLUSTRATE SPEKE’S THEORIES,
1865.]
Meantime Burton had become a British consul on the West Coast of
Africa, and was returning to England in 1864. Speke had published
articles in “Blackwood” and a book which, as already related, made
uncomplimentary references to his former companion. The two great
travellers were invited to meet at the British Association at Bath in
1864 and discuss their different views as to the Nile sources; for
Burton, as a tit-for-tat, had published a work in collaboration with
Petherick, in which he sought to prove that Speke’s discovery of the
Victoria Nyanza was unimportant. Taking advantage of the traveller’s
admission that he had touched but seldom the shores of this great
lake, he denied its existence, and reduced it to a mere assemblage of
pools and swamps. Speke, before quitting Baker at Gondokoro, had told
him much of the Luta Nzige or Western Lake which had some connection
with the Nile, and Baker (as will be subsequently set forth) had
followed Speke’s indications with success, and discovered and named
the Albert Nyanza. His exaggeration of the length of this sheet of
water had convinced Burton that Speke was altogether mistaken, and
that he himself was wrong in having earlier stated that the Rusizi
River flowed into and not out of the north end of Tanganyika. (Neither
Speke nor Burton actually saw the Rusizi.) Burton therefore turned
the Rusizi into an effluent of Tanganyika, and made it a connection
between that lake and the Albert Nyanza. Had he had any glimmerings
of lakes Kivu, Albert Edward, and the Semliki, he would no doubt have
been still more certain of his hypothesis. As it was, Speke’s theories
have been shown subsequently to have been very near the whole truth.
The Victoria Nyanza is the main source of the Nile, though that river
finds another reservoir in the great swampy lakes of Kioga and Kwania
(which again receive much of the drainage of Mount Elgon), and a most
important contribution from the Albert Nyanza; for this last lake
is the receptacle of all the drainage of the Ruwenzori snow range.
At the time, however, Speke’s theory was not sufficiently supported
by evidence, and was certainly open to attack, the more so because
he had blundered by giving the Victoria Nyanza so many outlets. The
two great men were to meet and discuss their differences, and every
one knew that underneath a mere dispute on geographical theories lay
deep-seated bitterness of feeling. It was said that Speke, who hated
quarrelling, and perhaps felt some compunction as to the frankness of
his remarks concerning Burton, looked forward to this public meeting
with great dislike, the more so as he was a poor and unready public
speaker. But the intended conference was never to come off; on the
21st of September, 1864, Speke, whilst out partridge-shooting on his
father’s land at Jordans, near Ilminster, was scrambling over a stile
with his gun at full-cock. It was just one of those little imprudences
that even the wariest of African travellers commits when he returns to
civilisation. Both barrels of the gun were discharged into his body,
and he died within a few hours. The news was received by the British
Association at Bath just as the meeting was about to commence, and
as Burton was seated awaiting the arrival of his old comrade. This
terrible event hushed the difference between them. Burton’s wife, a
gifted woman, who sometimes wrote very good poetry, inscribed some very
beautiful lines to the memory of Speke.
[Illustration: SPEKE’S HANDWRITING.
(Letter to Laurence Oliphant.)]
We take leave here of one of the greatest of African explorers, the
second greatest only, if Stanley is to be accounted the first. Only a
man of extraordinary energy, determination, bravery, tact, and of iron
constitution could have struggled through the difficulties which beset
Speke on his route from Zanzibar to the Victoria Nyanza, and from the
Victoria Nyanza to the navigable Nile. The purport of the expedition
was wellnigh wrecked between Unyamwezi and the Victoria Nyanza; it
ran many risks from the caprices of Mutesa; several times Kamurasi
threatened it with failure in Unyoro; other dangers awaited it in the
Madi and Bari countries, but it finally resulted in affording us the
main solution of the Nile Quest. As the outcome of Speke’s journey,
the Victoria Nyanza was placed on the map with some approximate
correctness as to shape and area; the shape and size of Lake Albert
Nyanza were guessed at with extraordinary accuracy, and the course
of the White and Mountain Nile was foreshadowed with the same amount
of truth as in the case of the Albert Nyanza. The remarkable Hima
aristocracy of equatorial Africa and the barbaric court of Uganda were
revealed to the world. Speke broke the back of the Nile mystery, just
as Stanley did that of the Congo. It only remained henceforth to fill
up the minor details of the map.
CHAPTER XV
SAMUEL BAKER AND THE ALBERT NYANZA
Samuel White Baker was born in London on the 8th June, 1821, and was
the second and eventually eldest son of Mr. Samuel Baker, a city
merchant, who possessed large properties and sugar plantations in
Jamaica and Mauritius. Samuel Baker, the elder, at one time maintained
a small fleet of sailing vessels. He also became one of the first
Directors of the Great Western Railway. His family and grandfather were
mainly settled at Bristol, and were much connected with the navy in
the eighteenth century. Further back still the Bakers were members of
Parliament and Court officials. They came originally from London, then
became a Kentish family, then moved to Dorsetshire, then to Bristol,
and finally back again to London. Samuel Baker, the younger, was a
typical English boy. His biographer, Mr. Douglas Murray, describes him
as having been “of the Saxon type; a noble-looking boy, of very fair
complexion, light hair, and fearless blue eyes.” He was “enterprising,
mischievous, for ever getting into scrapes, and leading others into
them; but he was never known to tell a lie or do a mean thing.” His
career was very nearly brought to a premature close when he was twelve
years old by an attempt to make fireworks. He ignited a small heap of
gunpowder on the kitchen table, and caused a terrible explosion, which
blew him to the far end of the room and burnt his arm severely.
He hated school, and received most of his education from a private
tutor and by a residence at Frankfurt in Germany. His father attempted
to put him in his London office; and this work, though excessively
irksome, was endured for a time, as he had early fallen in love with
the daughter of a Gloucestershire rector, whom he married when he was
only twenty-two. Soon after his marriage he went out to Mauritius
with his wife, to attempt the management of his father’s estates in
that island. But he was restless and dissatisfied with this career;
moreover, his three children, born in three years, all died. He
therefore started for Ceylon, to which island he was attracted by the
stories of big-game shooting. His interest was excited in the splendid
mountain region of the interior of Ceylon, which presents considerable
areas for European occupations between six thousand and eight thousand
feet in altitude. Here for nine years he worked at founding an English
settlement of planters, which exists to this day in a flourishing
condition, some of the land-owners being members of the Baker family.
But his wife, who bore him many children, suffered greatly in health.
In 1855 he returned to England, and wrote a book on Ceylon. At the
end of that year his wife died, and Baker, after leaving his young
children to be brought up in England, started for Constantinople, which
he reached at the close of the Crimean War. His idea was to travel in
Circassia, and see what advance in that direction Russia was making
towards India; but he spent several years in a rather objectless
fashion, shooting, fishing, and exploring in Asia Minor and Turkey in
Europe.
In 1859 he settled down as Manager-General of a British-made railway
from the Danube to the Black Sea. Whilst this railway was being made
he met in Hungary the lady who became his second wife.[75] The railway
was completed in 1860, and Baker once more became restless. Big-game
shooting in Asia Minor--splendid as it seems to have been at that
period, when he could shoot as many bears, boars, wolves, red deer, and
roe deer as he wished--did not content him; his thoughts turned towards
Africa and the Nile. He arrived at Cairo with Mrs. Baker in 1861, with
the idea of travelling up the Nile to meet Speke and Grant coming from
Zanzibar via the Victoria Nyanza.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Maull & Fox._]
SAMUEL BAKER, 1865.]
But Baker resolved, before attempting anything so difficult as the
exploration of the White Nile above Gondokoro, to learn something of
African travel and Sudanese Arabic. He therefore left the main Nile
at Berber and ascended the Atbara River, the last affluent which the
Nile receives on its way to the Mediterranean;[76] the first running
river encountered by the traveller ascending the Nile that can be said
to flow through tropical Africa,--the Africa with the typical Ethiopian
fauna and flora.
“After a scorching march of about twenty miles we arrived at
the junction of the Atbara River with the Nile [writes Baker];
throughout the route the barren sand stretched to the horizon
on the left, while on the right, within a mile of the Nile,
the soil was sufficiently rich to support a certain amount of
vegetation, chiefly dwarf mimosas and the _Asclepia gigantea_....
The Atbara has a curious appearance; in no part was it less than
four hundred yards in width, while in many places this breadth
was much exceeded. The banks were from twenty-five to thirty feet
deep: these had evidently been overflowed during floods, but at
the present time the river was dead, not only partially dry, but
so glaring was the sandy bed that the reflection of the sun was
almost unbearable. Great numbers of the _Dum_ palm (_Hyphæne
thebaica_) grew upon the banks.... The only shade there is afforded
by the evergreen Dum palms.... Many pools were of considerable
size and great depth. In flood time a tremendous torrent sweeps
down the course of the Atbara, and the sudden bends of the river
are hollowed out by the force of the stream to a depth of twenty
or thirty feet below the level of the bed. Accordingly, these
hollows become reservoirs of water when the river is otherwise
exhausted.... These pools are full of life, huge fish, crocodiles
of immense size, turtles, and occasionally hippopotami.... The
animals of the desert gazelles, hyaenas, and wild asses--are
compelled to resort to these crowded drinking places....
Innumerable doves, varying in species, throng the trees and seek
the shelter of the Dum palms; thousands of sand grouse arrive
morning and evening to drink and to depart.”
In the pools of the Atbara Baker for the first time shot
hippopotamuses. He also started fishing with a rod and line, and on one
occasion caught an enormous “turtle.”[77]
At the end of June they were nearly suffocated with the heat and dust
of the Sudan summer, but they were to experience the effects of the
melting of Abyssinian snows and of the descent of the tropical rains
on that African Switzerland. On the 24th of June Baker was lying half
asleep on his bed by the margin of the river when he fancied he heard a
rumbling sound like distant thunder. This roar increased in volume till
it awoke his Arabs, who rushed into the camp shouting, “The river! The
river!”
“We were up in an instant, and my interpreter in a state of intense
confusion exclaimed that the river was coming down, and that the
supposed distant thunder was the roar of approaching water....
Many of the people were sleeping on the clean sand of the river’s
bed, and were only just in time to reach the top of the steep
bank before the water was on them in the darkness.... The river
had arrived ‘like a thief in the night.’ When morning broke I
stood upon the banks of a noble river, the wonder of the desert!
Yesterday there was a barren sheet of glaring sand with a fringe of
withered bush and trees upon its borders.... No bush could boast
of a leaf, no tree could throw a shade: crisp gum crackled upon
the stems of the mimosas.... In one night there was a mysterious
change.... An army of water was hastening to the wasted river,
which had become a magnificent stream some five hundred yards
in width and fifteen to twenty feet in depth. Bamboos and reeds
with trash of all kinds were hurried along the muddy waters.... I
realised what had occurred: the rains were falling and the snows
were melting in Abyssinia. These were the main source of the Nile
floods.”
Baker left the Atbara in a land of wild asses and gazelles, and
travelled to Kassala,--a fortress of the eastern Sudan since rendered
famous by the struggle for its possession between Dervishes and
Italians. Kassala is situated on the right bank of the river Mareb,
which rises close to the Red Sea on the northern slopes of the
Abyssinian plateau. The Mareb has every intention of reaching the Nile,
or rather the Atbara, and no doubt did so in past epochs; but at the
present time northwards of Kassala it loses itself in the desert.
“There was an extraordinary change [writes Baker] in the appearance
of the river between Gozerajup and this spot. There was no longer
the vast sandy desert with the river flowing through its sterile
course on a level with the surface of the country, but after
traversing an apparently perfect flat of forty-five miles of rich
alluvial soil, we suddenly arrived upon the edge of a deep valley,
between five and six miles wide, at the bottom of which, about two
hundred feet below the general level of the country, flowed the
river Atbara. On the opposite side of the valley, the same vast
table-lands continued to the western horizon.
“We commenced the descent towards the river; the valley was a
succession of gullies and ravines, of landslips and watercourses;
the entire hollow of miles in width had evidently been the work of
the river. How many ages had the rains and the stream been at work
to scoop out from the flat tableland this deep and broad valley?
Here was the giant labourer that had shovelled the rich loam upon
the delta of lower Egypt! Upon these vast flats of fertile soil
there can be no drainage except through soakage. The deep valley
is therefore the receptacle not only for the water that oozes from
its sides, but subterranean channels bursting as land-springs
from all parts of the walls of the valley, wash down the more
soluble portions of the earth, and continually waste away the
soil. Landslips occur during the rainy season; streams of rich mud
pour down the valley’s slopes, and as the river flows beneath in
a swollen torrent, the friable banks topple down into the stream
and dissolve. The Atbara becomes the thickness of pea-soup, as its
muddy waters steadily perform the duty they have fulfilled from age
to age. Thus was the great river at work upon our arrival on its
banks at the bottom of the valley. The Arab name, ‘Bahr-al-Aswad’
(black river), was well bestowed. It was the black mother of Egypt,
still carrying to her offspring the nourishment that had formed the
Delta.
“At this point of interest the journey had commenced; the deserts
were passed, all was fertility and life; wherever the sources of
the Nile might be, the Atbara was the parent of Egypt! This was my
first impression, to be proved hereafter.”
Baker gives a fine description of the splendid type of Arab who is
still found in the regions of the Atbara:--
“He was the most magnificent specimen of an Arab that I have ever
seen. Although upwards of eighty years of age, he was as erect as
a lance, and did not appear more than between fifty and sixty; he
was of Herculean stature, about six feet three inches high, with
immensely broad shoulders and chest, a remarkably arched nose; eyes
like an eagle, beneath large, shaggy, but perfectly white eyebrows;
a snow-white beard of great thickness descended below the middle of
his breast. He wore a white turban, and a white cashmere abbai or
long robe, from the throat to the ankles. As a desert patriarch he
was superb, the very perfection of all that the imagination could
paint, if we would personify Abraham at the head of his people.”
This fine old Sheikh brought ten of his sons, most of them as tall
as himself. He seems to have been the father of many children,--a
fortunate circumstance for the country, though no doubt nearly all
of his stalwart descendants were extirpated in the miserable wars
following on the Mahdi’s revolt.
Baker ascended the Atbara to its upper waters, where it is known as the
Settit (higher up still as the Takaze). Here he had magnificent hunting
of big game amongst the Hamran Arabs, whose extraordinary prowess with
the sword he describes most vividly. They would follow up elephants and
hamstring them with a single blow of their long weapons, which were
like those of the Crusaders. (As a matter of fact, the generality of
the Hamran swords were manufactured at Sollingen in Germany.) In this
land Baker saw innumerable giraffes, and most of the big antelopes of
Central Africa, including Kudu and Oryx. The country about the Upper
Atbara below the Abyssinian highlands was exactly like an English park,
though the trees were mainly acacias. Here and there was a gigantic
baobab. In the waters of the river was found the now well-known
Lung-fish, the _Protopterus_.
From the upper waters of the Atbara and its many tributaries Baker,
skirting the western terraces of Abyssinia, reached the river
Rahad,--an Egyptian affluent of the Blue Nile which flows nearly
parallel to the river Dinder. These two streams rise on the western
flanks of the Abyssinian tableland, and enter the Blue Nile about one
hundred miles southeast of Khartum. On his way down this river Baker,
in the country of Galabat, met two German lay missionaries proceeding
to Abyssinia in spite of the objection expressed to their presence by
King Theodore. “One of these preachers was a blacksmith, whose iron
constitution had entirely given way, and the little strength that
remained he exhausted in endless quotations of texts from the Bible,
which he considered applicable to every trifling event or expression.”
In June, 1862, the Bakers reached Khartum. After a long stay at the
Pethericks’ house, Baker decided, as already related, to go in search
of Speke. His wife, the present Lady Baker, accompanied him. As already
related, she was a Hungarian lady of great beauty, and possessed of
extraordinary courage. Her fame as “_the_ Lady” (Es-sitt) still lingers
among the Nile Negroes.
It has already been shown that Baker succeeded in being the first
European to greet Speke and Grant. He received from these travellers
the legacy to complete their task of ascertaining definitely the
existence of the western Nile lake (Albert), of which Speke had heard
under the name of Luta Nzige. On the 26th of March, 1863, the Bakers
left Gondokoro on this errand.
Muhammad Wad-al-Mek, De Bono’s agent, and all the other Nubian Nile
traders, did their very utmost to prevent Baker returning along Speke’s
route through the Bari country. They incited his Khartum men to mutiny.
Baker, being unable to obtain porters, owing to the excessive hostility
of the slave-traders, employed the camels he had brought with him
from Khartum for his transport. As the slave-traders had threatened,
if he followed in their footsteps, to raise the natives about him, he
determined to reach the back country of Lotuka first, and therefore
deliberately strewed some of his goods in the way so as to delay the
slave-traders, who stopped to pick them up. He was outdone at his own
game, for a large caravan of “Turks” reached the Elliria country nearly
as soon as he did. The leader of this expedition was one Ibrahim. Mrs.
Baker resolved to see what could be done by a direct appeal to whatever
the man might possess of generosity. The Bakers threatened that if
he did them harm he would probably be hung at Khartum, while if he
assisted them to see this lake, they would see he was well rewarded.
The result was that a truce was patched up between the slave-traders
and Baker’s small expedition. Nevertheless, a mutiny happened among
Baker’s camel-men in the vicinity of Lotuka. Some of these men ran away
and joined a slave-trading party, which, however, was massacred by the
Lotuka. Henceforth Baker’s few men stuck to him faithfully, in terror
of what might happen to them from his evil eye.
Baker journeyed southward through the splendid Lotuka country,--a
land of which we know even now scarcely more than he told us forty
years ago. The Lotuka people are a splendid race of Negroids, with a
good deal more Gala blood in their veins than is the case with the
Masai, to whom they are closely allied in language, but who dwell
very much farther to the east and south. Since the days of Baker’s
adventure some of the Lotuka have become Muhammadans, and they are
no longer completely nude in consequence. Their country is a very
mountainous one, and on the whole well watered. It will probably play
a considerable part in the future of the Uganda Protectorate. Working
steadily south through the Madi and Acholi countries, the Bakers forded
the Asua, the great southeastern tributary of the Mountain Nile. Here
nearly all their porters deserted, and as their camels had died in the
Madi country, they were obliged to abandon all loads which were not
absolutely necessary,--such as ammunition, and presents for Kamurasi.
[Illustration: A NATIVE OF UNYORO.]
At length they arrived at the Karuma Falls on the Victoria Nile,
and entered Unyoro. Their first reception in Unyoro was hostile,
because Muhammad Wad-al-Mek had preceded them, and had made the worst
impression by his treatment of the Banyoro. At first Baker desired to
follow the Nile down stream till it entered the Albert Nyanza, but the
Banyoro would not allow him to do anything of the kind, or to make
any journey off the main road along the Victoria Nile to Kamurasi’s
capital. Contrary to their anticipations, Kamurasi received the Bakers
well; and this was the more fortunate, as Mr. Baker was very nearly
dead with fever. But Kamurasi soon showed his evil nature. He refused
to allow Baker to proceed due west to the Albert Nyanza, declaring
that lake was distant a six months’ journey. Ibrahim, the slave and
ivory trader, had purchased all the goods he required, and had left
Unyoro. All Baker’s porters, except thirteen, had deserted. Finding,
however, there was nothing more to be got out of Baker, Kamurasi
relented, accepted a double-barrelled gun, and sent off the explorer
and his wife with two guides and an escort of three hundred men. This
escort, however, was soon sent back, owing to their unruly behaviour.
Somehow or other, with such porters as could be procured from village
to village, they managed, in the teeth of fearful misfortunes, to
reach the Albert Nyanza at a place called Mbakovia, on the southeast
coast. On this journey Mrs. Baker nearly died from sunstroke, and
Baker himself was frightfully ill. But on the 16th of March, 1864,
they had discovered a great lake “with a boundless sea-horizon to the
southwards,” which they named the Albert Nyanza.
At the time of Baker’s visit no doubt (though he does not say so)
there was a good deal of mist about this lake,--a common feature.
The mist and the clouds seem to have prevented the travellers from
getting any glimpse of the mass of the Ruwenzori snow-range which lay
not many miles distant from them to the south. They also believed
(though they were then a day’s journey from the end of the lake) that
there was a boundless sea-horizon to the south. Their misapprehension
of the geography of this lake has often caused surprise; but apart
from a natural tendency to exaggerate the importance of their own
particular lake, in looking to the southward they were looking up the
broad valley of the Semliki, which was undoubtedly at one time--at any
rate for a distance of some fifty miles--a southern extension of the
Albert Nyanza. This valley was bordered on either side by cliff-like
mountains--plateau edges--continued northwards along the coasts of the
Albert Lake. To the west of Lake Albert the plateau tilts westwards
towards the Congo basin. Baker called the western cliffs and the
foothills of Ruwenzori the Blue Mountains,--a name they might very well
continue to bear, as there is no native designation for these heights,
which separate so abruptly and by only a few miles the basin of the
Congo from the basin of the Nile.
After a short stay at Mbakovia, the Bakers got into canoes and coasted
along the Albert Nyanza to Magungo, where the lake is entered by the
Victoria Nile. They ascended the Victoria Nile and discovered the
Murchison Falls, “where the river drops in one leap one hundred and
twenty feet into a deep basin, the edge of which literally swarms with
crocodiles.” On their overland journey in the direction of the Karuma
Falls, their porters again deserted, and for two months they were
stranded, almost at death’s door, living with difficulty on wild herbs
and mouldy flour; occasionally, but rarely, obtaining fowls from the
natives. Once more they came within the persecution of Kamurasi, who
pestered Baker for his assistance in a war he was carrying on against
his relation, Fowuka. Whilst Baker was hesitating, the Nile was crossed
by one of De Bono’s caravans of ivory-traders, who had entered into an
alliance with Fowuka. They were just about to attack Kamurasi’s army
(and with their one hundred and fifty guns would have easily defeated
it) when Baker planted the British flag in Kamurasi’s camp, and
warned De Bono’s soldiers that the Unyoro king was now under British
protection. Overawed by Baker’s threats, the ivory-traders withdrew
to the north side of the Nile. The only return that he received from
Kamurasi for this service was that the latter placed every obstacle
in his way to prevent his leaving Unyoro. At the same time Mutesa of
Uganda, having heard of a white man’s arrival in Unyoro, and imagining
that Kamurasi was stopping his further journey to Uganda, sent a large
army to ravage Unyoro. Kamurasi fled to some islands in the Nile,
and left Baker to shift for himself, without provisions or beasts
of burden, at the Karuma Falls. From this point he managed to send
messages to Ibrahim, the slave and ivory trader, and the latter came
to his assistance. With the aid of Ibrahim, the Bakers, who had lost
everything except guns and ammunition, eventually managed to return
to Gondokoro, though they were nearly killed on the way by the Bari
tribe, which had risen against the slave-raiders. At Gondokoro their
troubles were not ended, for the sudd had begun to form, and obstructed
the passage of the White Nile. Plague also had broken out in Khartum.
But the travellers fought through all obstacles, any one of which
might have wrecked an expedition conducted by less intrepid people,
and reached Khartum in May, 1865. Here they remained two months to
recuperate, and during this time they managed to secure the banishment
of one of the slave-traders who had incited the mutiny of their men at
Gondokoro in 1863.
From Khartum they travelled to Berber down the Nile, and then started
on camels to cross the desert to Suakin. They reached England in the
autumn of 1865. By this time perhaps African exploration had become
more interesting to the British government, for Baker received for his
discoveries a well-earned knighthood,--a distinction which might very
well have been accorded to Speke or to Grant. As a matter of fact, the
only reward given to the last-named traveller was a C.B., which was
awarded, not for his marvellous “Walk across Africa,” but for the
inconspicuous services which he rendered some years later in connection
with the Abyssinian War.
As the result of the Speke and Baker explorations, so far as published
maps were concerned, our knowledge of the Nile basin in 1865 was
as follows: The shape and area of the Victoria Nyanza were roughly
indicated, together with the outlet of the Victoria Nile at the Ripon
Falls. The course of the Victoria Nile was mapped (with a good many
blanks) from the Ripon Falls to the north end of Lake Albert Nyanza.
Baker was able to show that there was a widening of the Victoria Nile
opposite the eastern frontier of Unyoro, but it was some years later
before this widening was discovered to consist of two large lakes
(Kioga and Kwania). Baker had given an extremely exaggerated size to
the Albert Nyanza. Speke, on the other hand, had sketched this lake
with remarkable accuracy merely from hearsay. The course of the Nile
from the north end of Lake Albert to its junction with the Asua River
was quite unexplored. The rest of the course of the Mountain Nile was
mapped as far as its junction with the Bahr-al-Ghazal, but very little
was known about one of its branches, the Giraffe River. No further
researches beyond those made by the Turks had taken place on the Sobat
River.
As for Sir Samuel Baker, we take leave of him here as one of the great
explorers of the Nile. He returned to the regions of the great lakes in
1869, having been appointed for four years in charge of an expedition
to subdue and annex to the Egyptian Empire the equatorial regions of
the Nile basin. This object involved him in incessant fighting in
Unyoro, with the slave-traders between Unyoro and Gondokoro, and with
the Bari. Some of these conflicts were forced on him; others, it is
to be feared, he precipitated by his determination to enlarge the
territories of the Egyptian Sudan. His time would seem to have been
passed mainly in warfare with one enemy or another, or in laying very
solidly the foundations of a civilised administration. His stay in
Equatoria resulted in but little addition to our knowledge of the Nile
and its affluents. A good many of his efforts for the welfare of the
country were thwarted by the Egyptian Governor-General at Khartum,
and after his departure, in 1873, some of his worst enemies among the
slave-traders were reinstated. This much must always be recorded to
the credit of Sir Samuel Baker’s work on the Upper Nile: he inspired
universal respect among the fair-dealing natives; he, first of all,
broke the back of the immense slave-trading industry which had sprung
up on the Mountain Nile, in Unyoro, and in the Acholi countries;
throughout these regions the natives can remember but one great and
good administrator before the present régime, and that is Sir Samuel
Baker. “Gordoom” Pasha is but a name, and represents little to their
minds; Emin they only remembered as an enthusiastic naturalist, who
did but little to check the rapine and wrong-doing of his Sudanese
soldiers; but “Baker Basha” is, in the remembrance of the old
people, the one heroic White man they have known: terrible in battle,
scrupulously just, at all times kind and jovial in demeanour amongst
friends; a born ruler over a savage people.
CHAPTER XVI
ALEXANDRINE TINNE AND THEODOR VON HEUGLIN
The journeys of Petherick and Miani in the western Nile basin
have already been described. The very interesting region of the
Bahr-al-Ghazal, however, had been relatively neglected by scientific
explorers down to the beginning of the sixties of the last century.
Petherick’s own map of these regions was not published till 1869. There
were two obstacles to water travel in this direction: the sudd, and the
terrible fevers which attacked Europeans. The introduction of steamers
on the Upper Nile to some extent enabled Europeans to force their
way up streams which were not to be penetrated by sailing-vessels.
Quite a rendezvous had been created at a place called Mashra-ar-Rak,
where many great streams coming from the Nyam-nyam country enter the
Bahr-al-Ghazal, which, as a geographical term, applied to the western
lake-like affluent of the Nile, may be said to begin its course here.
[Illustration: ALEXANDRINE TINNE.]
Miss Tinne, who with her German companions Von Heuglin and Steudner was
to considerably increase our knowledge of these regions, had already,
in 1859 and 1860, ascended the White Nile in sailing-vessels to near
Gondokoro. In 1861 she organised a great expedition in steamers and
boats, which was accompanied by her mother, her aunt, and, later on,
by several scientific explorers,--such as Baron d’Ablaing, Theodor von
Heuglin, and Dr. Steudner. This expedition was intended to explore the
region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, to see how far the Nile basin extended
westward in the direction of Lake Chad, and also, if possible, to
discover a great lake in the very heart of Africa, of which rumours had
been brought back by Miani and others.[78]
Alexandrine[79] Tinne was the daughter of Philip Frederic Tinne and
Henrietta, Baroness van Steengracht Capellen. Her father, Philip
Tinne, was a Dutchman, who settled in England during the wars of the
French Revolution, the French invasion of Holland having brought his
family into trouble. The Tinnes were of remote French Huguenot origin,
having emigrated to Holland from Calais. But further back still they
came from Saxony. A very far back ancestor went to the Crusades, and
distinguished himself at Rosetta (Egypt) by clambering onto the Saracen
battlements. He received therefrom the soubriquet of “Tinne” (in Low
Dutch, a battlement) and a coat of arms, still used by the family,
embodying battlements. It is remarkable that Miss Tinne’s remote
ancestor should have sprung into fame in the thirteenth century at
the _mouth_ of the Nile. Philip Tinne, who emigrated to England at the
end of the eighteenth century, returned to Holland after Napoleon’s
downfall, and married a Dutch heiress, the daughter of Admiral van
Capellen. He died when his daughter Alexandrine was only five years
old, leaving her the richest heiress in the Netherlands. It is said
that when a young girl she had a serious love disappointment, and
dismissed or lost her fiancé. To stifle her mental anguish, she
undertook a course of travel;[80] and after staying for some time
in the Levant and Egypt, ascended the Nile in dahabiahs to near
Gondokoro. This journey was followed by the great expedition to the
Bahr-al-Ghazal in 1861. It is said that this expedition was even
provided with European lady’s-maids. Probably no equally luxurious and
well-equipped undertaking ever started for equatorial Africa. Miss
Tinne commenced her second Nile journey by ascending the main stream as
far as Gondokoro, and then, returning, she explored a portion of the
Sobat River. She set out once more with the whole party from Khartum
in February, 1863, and entered the Bahr-al-Ghazal. This was ascended
as far as the mouth of the Bahr-al-Hamr. From this point a journey was
then made overland to the Jur and Kosango rivers, and to the mountains
on the borders of the Nyam-nyam country. On this exploration the
travellers suffered most severely from fever. Dr. Steudner and the
Baroness van Capellen eventually died of blackwater fever, and the
remainder of the party only managed with the greatest difficulty
to reach Khartum in July, 1864, where further deaths occurred. The
geographical results of this expedition were not published in full till
1869, though Miss Tinne’s cousin printed some notes on their expedition
at Liverpool in 1864.
[Illustration: ON THE JUR RIVER: SUDD BLOCKING THE CHANNEL.]
After four years spent in various places in Egypt, Algeria, and Tunis,
Miss Tinne started from Tripoli with a very large caravan to proceed to
Lake Chad, intending afterwards to journey from Lake Chad to the Upper
Nile.
Miss Tinne took with her two Dutch sailors to assist in the
organisation of her caravan, several Algerian women-servants, and her
confidential old Negress, Saadah, who was originally a slave freed by
Miss Tinne in the Sudan. The Turkish authorities made no opposition to
her journeys, nor do they seem to have been in any way to blame for
the catastrophe that occurred. Unfortunately, Miss Tinne, in order
to provide for the comfort of her followers as well as for herself,
decided to take with her one or more iron tanks filled with water,
which were carried by the camels. These tanks attracted much attention
when the expedition halted for a time at Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan,
where Turkish authority was still maintained. The rumour that they
contained treasure in coin which was to accompany this wonderful
princess into the heart of Africa spread from the bazaars of Murzuk
to the Tawareq of the desert, ever on the lookout to plunder caravans
crossing the Sahara.
Miss Tinne had taken all reasonable precautions to secure the
friendship of the Tawareq on this journey. She had sent messages to
Ghat, an important Saharan town, to the chief Ikenukhen, with presents,
and requests for guides. The chief replied that he would meet her
himself at a water place on the way to Ghat, and send her the guides.
These guides apparently concerted measures with the Arab and Tawareq
camel-drivers of her expedition, and plans were evidently laid for her
murder and the plunder of her goods.
The expedition had halted at Wadi Aberjong to await the Tawareq chief
Ikenukhen. On the early morning of the 1st of August Miss Tinne, in
her tent, heard the Arab and Tawareq camel-drivers disputing about
arranging the saddles of the Algerian women-servants. She called to the
Dutch sailors to stop the noise, which had developed into a sham fight.
The Dutch sailors went amongst the men to get at their own luggage
and take their rifles. The camel-drivers stopped their sham fight and
endeavoured to prevent the Dutch sailors obtaining their arms. Miss
Tinne, hearing the continued clamour, came out of her tent to inquire
its meaning. She held up her right hand to command attention. Suddenly
there was a cry of “Strike,” and a Tawareq made a cut at her with a
sabre, which severed her right hand almost entirely through the wrist,
so that it hung only by tendons of skin. The poor girl endeavoured to
replace it in position, and staggered back to her tent, where she sat
on a box. At the same moment that the blow was aimed at her one of the
Dutch sailors, Cornelius, was pierced through the body by a spear. The
other, Jacobse, was killed by a sabre cut cleaving his head. Cornelius,
with the spear passing right through him, ran into the tent and fell
at Miss Tinne’s feet. A man followed him, pinned him to the ground
with another spear, and fired two pistol shots into his head. Another
Tawareq struck Miss Tinne with a sabre on the nape of the neck, which
cut through the foulard enveloping her head, and severed the long
plait of her hair, but did not cut through the spine. She fell forward
to the ground, stunned. Two men then tore off most of her clothing,
and, seizing her by the heels, dragged her out of the tent to a spot a
few yards away, where they left her lying on the sand in the blazing
sunshine. Her poor old Negress, Saadah, followed, and raising her head,
gently rested it on her knee; but the Tawareq tore her away, and drove
her back into the camp. The unfortunate Alexandrine Tinne lay where
she was left from eight o’clock in the morning to three o’clock in the
afternoon, when death at last ended her sufferings. At intervals she
called piteously on her people, one by one, to bring her water, but
none were allowed to approach her. One of her Arab servants was asked
afterwards why they behaved so callously. He replied, “We had no arms,
we were like women: they kept us in the tent, and threatened to kill us
if we came out.”
Her baggage was ransacked by the Arabs and Tawareq, among whom
disputes then arose as to the allotment of the Algerian waiting-maids
and men-servants. Strange to say, this dispute ended by both parties
agreeing to make no slaves. The servants were each given a camel and a
dollar, and allowed to return to Murzuk.
The Pasha of Murzuk sent soldiers out to bury the bodies. They laid a
strip of calico about thirty yards long on the sand, and wound it round
Miss Tinne’s body by rolling it over with sticks, to avoid touching
her. Then they put boards on each side loaded with stones, and piled
sand over all. The two bodies of the faithful sailors were laid on each
side of her. Men were afterwards sent out to mark the spot, but the
sand of the desert had in the interval been blown over the place, thus
hiding the grave of this beautiful and talented woman.[81]
[Illustration: LETTER OF MISS TINNE TO HER NEPHEW JOHN.
Written from Tripoli, 1869.]
The leader of not a few exploring parties in Africa has been alone
to blame for disasters to his expedition, by committing himself or
allowing his followers to commit misdeeds sufficient to justify
native hostility. But wherever Miss Tinne and her expeditions went in
Africa, they left behind them nothing but the memory of considerate
treatment, kindness, and acts of sumptuous generosity. In all the
preparations which Miss Tinne made for crossing the Sahara, and so
reaching the western limits of the Nile basin, she showed a desire
to conciliate the suspicions of the people, and paid generously for
assistance afforded. The fierce Berber tribes which range over the
Sahara Desert from North Africa to the neighbourhood of Lake Chad,
almost alone of all African races, have earned sharp reprisals from
Europeans for their innumerable acts of causeless treachery to
explorers. If ever the French occupy the district of Ghat, as they will
eventually some day, it is to be hoped that they will bear in mind the
massacre of Alexandrine Tinne and avenge it.
This woman was the romantic figure in Nile exploration. Young and
beautiful,[82] remarkably accomplished, a daring horsewoman, a charming
Diana; mistress of many tongues, including Arabic, and generous to a
fault, it is little wonder that the “Signorina” (as she was called in
the days when most dragomen were Italian or Maltese) has lingered as a
beautiful and gracious demi-goddess in the remembrance of such Arabs
and Nile Negroes of the Egyptian Sudan as were not exterminated by the
Mahdi’s revolt.
* * * * *
Theodor von Heuglin was a native of Würtemberg. He was a scientific
observer and a naturalist much in the style of Schweinfurth. His
interest in the exploration of the Nile basin was rather in the
direction of zoölogy and anthropology. He began to travel in these
regions in the fifties of the last century. With Munzinger, a Swiss
(afterwards Munzinger Pasha), and Dr. Steudner, a German, he explored
Kordofan, and the regions round Khartum. In 1862 Von Heuglin and
Steudner joined Miss Tinne’s Nile expedition, and as her guest or alone
on their own account, explored the affluents of the Bahr-al-Ghazal
and the main White Nile. After the death of Steudner and of Miss
Tinne’s aunt and mother from blackwater fever, Heuglin turned away
from these regions with some disgust, and devoted himself henceforth
to the exploration of the healthier regions along the upper waters
of the Blue Nile and of the Atbara. In all this part of western and
northern Abyssinia he made valuable collections of natural history. Von
Heuglin’s books are of very great interest, and are full of valuable
natural history notes. His writings were published between 1860 and
1875, generally in Germany.
CHAPTER XVII
SCHWEINFURTH AND THE BASIN OF THE BAHR-AL-GHAZAL
As already related down to 1869, but little had been placed on the map
concerning the western tributaries of the Nile in the region now styled
generally the Bahr-al-Ghazal Province. The Bahr-al-Ghazal itself is the
gathering up of some nine great rivers. These unite to form a marshy,
lake-like stream, which indeed widens out into a lake of variable
size (Lake No) at its junction with the main or Mountain Nile. The
great breadth of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is often disguised, and the open
water reduced to a mere thread by an immense floating vegetable growth
which we now know by the name of _sudd_. The name “Bahr-al-Ghazal”
simply means a “River of Antelopes,” and is a designation given to the
great western affluent of the Nile by the Sudanese Arabs. Rumours of
this important contribution coming to the Nile from the west (and the
tributary periodical streams known as the Bahr-al-Arab or Bahr-al-Hamr
extend the Nile basin as far west as the frontiers of Wadai) reached
even the Greek geographers two thousand years ago, and induced some
of them to believe that the main sources of the Nile lay far to the
west, near where Lake Chad is situated on the map. Then this was
forgotten, and it was not until Arabs and Nubians had begun to extend
their commerce into the Sudan, when Egypt was under Turkish rule, that
the existence of the Bahr-al-Ghazal was again mooted. This affluent of
the Nile was first sketched on the map with an approach to definiteness
in 1771, when D’Anville plainly indicates its existence. In a very
truncated form it appears on the maps of the Nile drawn from the
surveys of the Frenchmen who accompanied the three expeditions sent by
Muhammad Ali to conquer the Sudan between 1839 and 1841. In the forties
of the last century Nubian slave-traders started in numbers to explore
these regions, firstly to purchase ivory, and secondly to acquire
slaves. The strange Nyam-nyam cannibals began to be heard of at Khartum
about 1845. Petherick himself went in these directions in 1848. He was
followed, as has been related, by Miani the Venetian, and by Miss Tinne
and Von Heuglin. First of all Europeans, Miani had penetrated so far
south up these affluents of the Bahr-al-Ghazal as to have heard from
the Nyam-nyam people of the existence of the Welle River, which he
reported to Petherick, and through Petherick to Speke, as a great river
flowing steadily to the west. This was the first hint received of the
southwestern limits of the Nile basin.
But little precise information about the southern portions of this
wonderful region had reached Europe until the work of Schweinfurth was
completed in 1871.
[Illustration: GEORG SCHWEINFURTH (1875).]
Georg Schweinfurth is a native of Riga in the Baltic Provinces of
Russia. He is consequently of German extraction. He was born in
1837, and in the early sixties spent much time in exploring for
botanical purposes Nubia, Upper Egypt, southwestern Abyssinia, and the
regions between these countries and the Red Sea coast. The tropical
luxuriance of the vegetation in the outlying districts of Abyssinia
attracted him to further journeys towards the equator. He conceived
the idea of visiting the then least known part of the Nile basin, the
Bahr-al-Ghazal province. For this purpose he obtained ample funds from
the Royal Academy of Science at Berlin. Apart from the fact that he was
a German by descent and speech, his great explorations of the Nile were
due entirely to German support, and must be considered one of Germany’s
many contributions towards the Nile Quest.
Schweinfurth landed at Suakin in September, 1867. Before proceeding
on his voyage up the White Nile, he resolved to commence with a
preliminary exploration of the mountains to the south and west of
Suakin between the end of the Nubian Alps and the beginning of the
Abyssinian highlands. This elevated district lies for the most part
within the watershed of the Atbara’s tributaries, though it also sends
down intermittent torrents to the Red Sea. In the mountains to the
south of Suakin first appears to any traveller coming from Egypt and
the north the characteristic vegetation of tropical Africa, especially
such types as the dragon trees (_Dracænæ_) and arborescent euphorbias.
These types begin at an altitude of about two thousand feet, as at that
height they obtain some moisture, whereas lower down the country is
mostly an arid desert. The Nubian _Dracænæ_ and those of the slopes of
the Abyssinian tableland are relatively dwarfish (at most some twenty
feet high) compared to the giant forms of these tree-lilies which are
met with in equatorial Africa. Aloes, of course, grow in the same
districts as the euphorbia and the dracæna. “Found in company with them
is a wild, unearthly-looking plant called the ‘Karaib’ (_Bucerosia_),
of which the branches are like wings, prickly and jagged round the
edges like a dragon’s back. They produce clusters of brown flowers
as large as one’s fist, which exhale a noxious and revolting smell,
the plants themselves being swollen with a white and slimy poisonous
juice.” Another item in this harsh vegetation is the _Sanseviera_, a
plant belonging to the same group as the aloes, lilies, and dracænas,
with isolated, leathery leaves like sword blades, though sometimes with
rolled edges like a thick, leathery whip. Higher up, at altitudes of
from four thousand to six thousand feet, the trees are covered with
clusters of _Usnea_ lichen. On the northern spurs of the Abyssinian
highlands is found the wild olive tree, “of low bushy shape, with
box-like foliage.” The wild olive is found nowhere else in tropical
Africa beyond the Abyssinian region.
All watercourses with a supply of moist soil under ground just
sufficient for a few months’ vegetation are comprehended within the
Arab designation _Wadi_. Cheerless through the dry season, after the
first rain their level sand flats are clothed with the most luxuriant
flora; fresh-springing grasses put forth their pointed leaves and
give the sward the appearance of being dotted with a myriad spikes;
then quickly come the sprouting blades, and the river bed is like a
waving field of corn. Half-way between Singat and Erkowit Schweinfurth
halted at a wady of this character, which bore the name of Sarrowi. He
writes:--
“What a prospect! How gay with its variety of hue,--green, red
and yellow! Nothing could be more pleasant than the shade of the
acacia, nothing more striking than the abundance of bloom of the
Abyssinian aloe, transforming the dreary sand beds into smiling
gardens. Green were the tabbes-grass and the acacias, yellow
and red were the aloes, and in such crowded masses, that I was
involuntarily reminded of the splendour of the tulip beds of the
Netherlands: but here the garden lay in a waste of gloomy black
stone. One special charm of a desert journey is that it is full
of contrasts, that it brings close together dearth and plenty,
death and life; it opens the eyes of the traveller to the minutest
benefits of nature, and demonstrates how every enjoyment is allied
to a corresponding deprivation.”
When he reached the Nile, coming from Suakin, he was received at
Berber by an old acquaintance, M. Lafargue, who was settled in that
starting-point for Suakin as a merchant and French vice-consul.
Lafargue, himself an experienced traveller on the Upper Nile, received
the German explorers with that hearty hospitality “which many other
desert wanderers have proved besides myself.”
“Sir Samuel Baker [writes Schweinfurth] aptly compares such
receptions to the oasis in the desert. No necessity for letters of
introduction here as with us in Europe, no hollow forms of speech,
exchanging courtesies which perchance mean the very reverse; no
empty compliment of at best a tedious dinner; but here in the
Egyptian Sudan we are received with free and genial amiability; all
Europeans are fellow-citizens, and everything is true and hearty.
‘What pleases me the most is the ease with which you travel in this
country; you come, you go, you return again as though it were a
walk.’ Such were M. Lafargue’s cordial words to me. We parted well
pleased with one another; I shall not see him again.”
About that part of the journey from Berber to Khartum by way of the
Nile Schweinfurth gives a vivid description. For the first part of the
voyage, as far as Shendi and Matammah, the only considerable towns in
this district, the shore offered nothing attractive. It reminded him
of the Egyptian valley of the Nile only in two places,--the mouth of
the Atbara, and one spot where the renowned pyramids of Meroe formed a
noble background.
Matammah was then a populous town, but dull and unenterprising. The
buildings, constructed of Nile earth, were insignificant in themselves,
and irregularly crowded together in a mass like huge ant-hills; not a
single tree afforded shade in the dreary streets, which were filthy
with dirt.
The Nile voyage below Shendi was, however, rich in the charms of
scenery. This was especially applicable to the views afforded by the
river islands. These islands were so many throughout the whole extent
of the sixth cataract between the island of Marnad and the lofty
mountain-island of Royān, “that no one pretends to know their precise
number, and the sailors call them in consequence the ninety-nine
islands.” The landscapes on shore afforded the traveller a treat “which
no other river voyage could surpass.” Splendid groups of acacias, in
three varieties, with groves of ‘holy-thorn,’ overgrown by the hanging
foliage of graceful climbers, made the profusion of islands set in
the surface of the water appear like bright green, luxuriant, and gay
tangles.
“Wildly romantic on the contrary, reminding one of the Bingerloch
on the Rhine, are the narrow straits of Sablu where the Nile,
reduced to a deep mountain stream, flows between high, bare granite
walls that rise to several hundred feet.
“So much the more surprising appeared the breadth which the Nile
exhibited above this cataract, where it displays itself in a
majesty which it has long lost in Egypt. Below their confluence,
the waters of the Blue and the White Nile are distinctly visible
many miles apart. It is highly probable that at certain times the
level of the streams might show a difference of several feet; the
proposed establishment of a Nilometer should therefore take place
below the confluence, in order that with the help of the telegraph
accurate intelligence of its condition might be remitted to Cairo.”
Schweinfurth reached Khartum on the 1st of November, 1868. He left that
place in January, 1869, for the Bahr-al-Ghazal. Of his voyage up the
White Nile he writes:--
“As the morning sun fell upon the low, monotonous shores of
the flowing river, it seemed at times almost as though it were
illuminating the ocean, so vast was the extent of water where the
current ran for any distance in a straight and unwinding course....
The districts along the shore mostly retained an unchanging aspect
for miles together. Rarely does some distant mountain or isolated
hill relieve the eye from the wide monotony.... The attention is
soon attracted by the astonishing number of geese and ducks which
are seen day after day. The traveller in these parts is so satiated
with them, fattened and roasted, that the sight creates something
akin to disgust. The number of cattle is prodigious: far as the eye
can reach they are scattered alike on either shore, whilst, close
at hand, they come down to the river-marshes to get their drink.
“The stream, as wide again as the Nile of Egypt, is enlivened by
the boats belonging to the shepherds, who row hither and thither to
conduct their cattle, their dogs in the water swimming patiently
behind.”
Early on the third day he reached Getina, a considerable village
inhabited by Hassaniah Arabs (long since wiped out by the Dervishes).
Getina was then a favourite rendezvous of the Nile boats. The flats
here were bright with the luxuriant green of sedges which in their
abundant growth imparted to the banks the meadow-like character of
European river-sides. Thousands of geese (_Chenalopex ægyptiacus_), in
no degree disconcerted by the arrival of humans, paced the greensward.
Although in places the right bank was bounded by sand-banks thirty
feet high, the left appeared completely and interminably flat, and
occasionally admitted the culture of sorghum. “This remarkable
difference which exists between the aspect of the two banks, and
which may be observed for several degrees, is to be explained by a
hydrographical law, which is illustrated not only here, but likewise
in the district of the Lower Nile. As rivers flow from southerly into
more northern latitudes, their fluid particles are set in motion with
increased velocity, the result of which is to drive them onwards so as
to wash away the eastern bank, leaving a continual deposit on the west.”
About two hundred miles to the south of Khartum more signs of
Tropical Africa begin to appear. Graceful, shade-giving acacias (_A.
spirocarpa_) grew on the river banks, where also were seen great
masses of large-leaved shrubs, many of them covered with the beautiful
blossoms of the _Ipomœa_ convolvulus. Hippopotamuses were abundant,
lions were heard roaring at night, and the semi-Arab, somewhat Nubian
population was gradually replaced by the naked, black, and lanky Shiluk
Negroes. Great monitor lizards (_Varanus_) and snakes rustled in the
dry grass, while _Cercopithecus_ monkeys, crowned cranes, and handsome
red and white waterbuck diversified the aspect of the river-banks;
huge crocodiles lay on the foreshore. In Negro Nileland Schweinfurth
first noticed the ambatch. This is really a member of the bean tribe
(_Herminiera elaphroxylon_), which grows in shallow water. Its leaves
resemble those of the acacia, and its blossoms are bold, pea-like
flowers of bright orange.
“The ambatch is distinguished for the unexampled lightness of its
wood, if the fungus-like substance of the stem deserves such a
name at all. It shoots up to fifteen or twenty feet in height, and
at its base generally attains a thickness of about six inches.
The weight of this fungus-wood is so insignificant that it really
suggests comparison to a feather. Only by taking it into his hands
could anyone believe that it were possible for one man to lift on
his shoulders a raft made large enough to carry eight people on
the water. The plant shoots up with great rapidity by the quiet
places on the shore, and since it roots merely in the water, whole
bushes are easily broken off by the force of the wind or stream,
and settle themselves afresh in other places. This is the true
origin of the grass-barriers so frequently mentioned as blocking up
the waters of the Upper Nile, and in many places making navigation
utterly impracticable. Other plants have a share in the formation
of these floating islands, which daily emerge like the Delos of
tradition; among them, in particular, the _Vossia_ grass and the
famous papyrus of antiquity, which at present is nowhere to be
found on the Nile either in Egypt or in Nubia.”
Schweinfurth notices a remarkable extinct volcano called Defafang, one
thousand feet high, which is situated some five miles from the east
bank of the Nile, in about latitude 10° 50′ north. This extinct volcano
was first discovered by Ferdinand Werne, who collected specimens
of the rocks,--chiefly basaltic lava. Defafang for a long time was
the boundary on that side of the Nile between the territory of the
Negroes on the south and that of the more or less Arab shepherds on
the north.
[Illustration: SHILUKS.]
At the village of Kaka, on the east bank of the White Nile,
Schweinfurth observed ruins of a fort which had once been the
headquarters of a renowned robber chief, Muhammad Kher. This man, who
flourished between 1840 and 1855, was a Nubian, who gathered round him
a number of well-armed Baggara Arab horsemen. He was one of the first
of the slave-traders to show how, by means of fortified stations, it
was possible to intimidate the Negroes of the Sudan and bring them
into subjection. Muhammed Kher and his Arabs devastated the country
for hundreds of miles along the banks of the Nile, exterminating
the population in many places. At Kaka Schweinfurth found himself
greeted by a great crowd of naked Shiluks, who, prompted by curiosity,
assembled on the shore.
“The first sight of a throng of savages suddenly presenting
themselves in their native nudity is one from which no amount of
familiarity can remove the strange impression; it takes abiding
hold upon the memory, and makes the traveller recall anew the
civilisation he has left behind.... Although these savages are
altogether unacquainted with the refined cosmetics of Europe, they
make use of cosmetics of their own; viz., a coating of ashes for
protection against insects. When the ashes are prepared from wood
they render the body perfectly gray; when obtained from cow-dung
they give a rusty red tint, the hue of red devils. This colour is
only donned by land-owners. Ashes, dung, and the urine of cows
are the indispensable requisites of the toilet. The item last
named affects the nose of the stranger rather unpleasantly when he
makes use of any of their milk vessels, as, according to a regular
African habit, they are washed with it, probably to compensate for
a lack of salt.... Entirely bare of clothing, the bodies of the men
would not of themselves be ungraceful, but through the perpetual
plastering over with ashes they assume a thoroughly diabolical
aspect. The movements of their lean bony limbs are so languid, and
their repose so perfect, as not rarely to give the Shiluks the
resemblance of mummies; and whoever comes as a novice amongst them
can hardly resist the impression that in gazing at these ash-gray
forms he is looking upon mouldering corpses rather than upon living
beings.”
As to the Bahr-al-Ghazal, Schweinfurth opines that the volume of
water brought down by the Gazelle River to swell the Nile is still an
unsolved problem. “In the contention as to which stream is entitled
to rank as first born among the children of the great river god, the
Bahr-al-Ghazal has apparently a claim in every way as valid as the
Bahr-al-Jabl (Mountain Nile). In truth, it would seem to stand in the
same relation to the Bahr-al-Jabl as the White Nile does to the Blue.
At the season when the waters are highest the inundations of the Ghazal
spread over a wide territory; about March, the time of year when they
are lowest, the river settles down in its upper section into a number
of vast pools of nearly stagnant water, whilst its lower portion runs
off into divers narrow and sluggish channels. These channels, overgrown
as they look with massy vegetation, conceal beneath (either in their
open depths or mingled with the unfathomable abyss of mud) such volumes
of water as to be in some places nearly unsoundable by moderate lengths
of pole or cord.”
At the commencement of the real Bahr-al-Ghazal, where that broad
lake-like stream is formed by the confluence of the Dyur (Jur) and
other rivers, there was, before the uprising of the Mahdi and the
consequent devastation of the Sudan, a large trading-station originally
founded by the Nubian, Arab, and Coptic merchants of Khartum. This
was named Mashra-ar-Rak--transcribed, in the mincing Turkish fashion,
“Meshra-er-Rek.” Here merchants and travellers generally started on
their land journeys into the Nyam-nyam countries. Miss Tinne had paused
a long time at Mashra-ar-Rak, and it was supposed that there her
expedition had contracted the severe malarial fevers which eventually
caused the death of five out of its nine Europeans. Mashra-ar-Rak was
situated on a lake-like swelling of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, which expanse
is partly covered by four wooded islands. All the surroundings of this
lake-like estuary are very low and swampy. In all directions the eyes
rest on jungles of papyrus, with the exception of the few trees on the
islands aforementioned.
A short time before Schweinfurth reached this place with its dismal
record of disease amongst Europeans, he heard that a French predecessor
had died not far from the Bahr-al-Ghazal. This was Le Saint, a French
naval officer, who had been despatched by the Paris Geographical
Society to make that extended exploration of the whole of the region
of the Bahr-al-Ghazal which Fate had destined Schweinfurth himself to
accomplish.[83]
Schweinfurth’s own expedition had to be conducted in a most economical
and unobtrusive fashion. He made most of his great journeys between
the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the Congo watershed on foot. Remembering that
his expedition was purely scientific, and was financed by a scientific
society, he very wisely concerned himself with no question of ethics
or reform such as had hitherto caused all English explorers of these
regions to be hindered as much as possible by Nubians, Arabs, and
Turks. He was not there to undertake crusades, but to make collections.
He thus won and retained the friendship and confidence of men of all
colours, some of them, no doubt, great ruffians, but all made equally
to subserve the interests of science by affording sympathetic support
to one of the greatest and most genial of African explorers, Georg
Schweinfurth. Schweinfurth was no sympathiser with the slave-trade and
the barbarities to which it gave rise. “Throughout my wanderings,” he
writes, “I was for ever puzzling out schemes for setting bounds to this
inhuman traffic. On one point (i.e. the abolition of the slave-trade)
all are unanimous,--that from Islam no help can be expected, and that
with Islamism no pact can be made.” His reports on the behaviour of the
slave-traders did a great deal to bring about the abolition of this
devastation by Gordon Pasha and his officers some years later.
CHAPTER XVIII
SCHWEINFURTH’S ACHIEVEMENTS AND DESCRIPTIONS
Dr. Schweinfurth spent three years exploring the regions of the
Bahr-al-Ghazal, and returned to Europe in the autumn of 1871. During
the course of his journeys he took no observation of latitude or
longitude, but kept a most accurate dead reckoning. He laid down with
astonishing accuracy much of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, of the courses of the
Rōl, the Roah and its affluents, the Dogoru and Tondi, the Jur, Nyenam,
Ji, Biri, Kuru, and Dembo tributaries of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, the upper
waters of the Sue and Yabongo; lastly, he crossed the Nile watershed
and entered that of the Congo, thus discovering the upper waters of the
Welle River and its many affluents. Here he thought that he had entered
the basin of the Shari River, but, as we know now, he had discovered
the head streams of that most important affluent of the Congo, the
Welle-Ubangi.
Dr. Schweinfurth gave the first true and particular account of the
Congo Pygmies under the name of Akka, whom he found in the thickly
forested region on the northern limits of the Congo watershed; he drew
our attention to those remarkable “gallery” forests,[84] and to the
existence in the Nile basin of the chimpanzee, the gray parrot,[85]
and other West African types. He discovered a slightly civilised race
on this Congo-Nile water-parting--the Mangbettu--speaking a language
which has no known relations, but leading a life singularly similar to
that of the other semi-civilised Negro states of Unyoro and Uganda.
The Mangbettu and their chiefs exhibit traces of former intermixture
with Hamitic people. Dr. Schweinfurth also told us much we did not know
before as to the Nyam-nyam,[86] the Bongo, and the Dinka tribes.
Schweinfurth possessed many qualifications for writing a book on
African exploration. He was a scientific botanist, and knew a great
deal of zoölogy. He had a quick ear for languages, and wrote down
vocabularies of the important dialects. He collected invaluable
notes on ethnology and anthropology. Although he was unable to do
much photography, he was a skilled draughtsman, and his beautiful
drawings are apt illustrations of his book. As regards the value of the
information he collected, no such book as Schweinfurth’s had appeared
before, with the exception of Barth’s classical work on the Western
Sudan; but Schweinfurth’s book was far ahead of Barth’s in the matter
of illustrations. These are as accurate as photographs, and yet much
clearer. More than any previous traveller who had written on Africa,
Schweinfurth is able to bring to our mental vision the different
aspects of vegetation. He describes the tree-lilies (_Dracænæ_),
with their bouquets of leaves like bayonets and their short, woody
stems, the Candelabra euphorbias, the coral red aloes, the dragon-like
_Bucerosia_, the leathery _Sanseviera_, and the gigantic clumps of the
grass-green _Salvadora_, which characterise the northern flanks of
Abyssinia.
[Illustration: “PAPYRUS, FIFTEEN FEET HIGH.”]
In another place he describes acacia groves on the right bank of the
White Nile above Khartum, with their enormous white bulbous thorns,[87]
and their oozy lumps of amber-coloured gum. He notes the remarkable
fact that little, if any, of the floating vegetation of the Upper
Nile reaches Egypt. He describes the jungles of papyrus, “fifteen
feet high,” the floating grass barriers and the sudd (which he calls
_sett_); the _suf_ reeds, the water-ferns, the floating _Pistia
stratiotes_ (like a pale-green lettuce), the duck-weeds, the beautiful
white and blue waterlilies. When he reached the vicinity of the
water-parting between the Nile and the Congo, he had entered the forest
region of West-Central Africa. This mighty tropical forest has no great
reverence for geographical boundaries, but overlaps in several places
the watershed of the Nile, while of course it exists in patches in
the basins of the Shari, the Benue, the Niger, and on the coast belt
of Upper and Lower Guinea. Perhaps the most marked feature of it, the
clearest indication of its West African nature, is the existence of the
climbing _Calamus_ palm, which is never found in typical East Africa.
The wonderful “gallery”[88] forests are described as follows:--
“Trees with immense stems, and of a height surpassing all that we
had elsewhere seen (not even excepting the palms of Egypt), here
stood in masses which seemed unbounded, except where at intervals
some less towering forms rose gradually higher and higher beneath
their shade. In the innermost recesses of these woods one would
come upon an avenue like the colonnade of an Egyptian temple,
veiled in the leafy shade of a triple roof above. Seen from
without, they had all the appearance of impenetrable forests, but,
traversed within, they opened into aisles and corridors which
were musical with many a murmuring fount. Hardly anywhere was
the height of these less than seventy feet, and on an average it
was much nearer one hundred; yet, viewed from without, they very
often failed to present anything of that imposing sight which was
always so captivating when taken from the brinks of the brooks
within. In some places the sinking of the ground along which the
gallery-tunnels ran would be so great that not half the wood
revealed itself at all to the contiguous steppes, while in that
wood (out of sight as it was) many a ‘gallery’ might still exist.”
Most of these gigantic trees, the size of whose stems exceeds any
European forest growth, belong to the order of the _Sterculiæ_,
_Boswelliæ_, _Papilionaceæ_, _Rosaceæ_, or _Cæsalpiniæ_; to the
_Ficaceæ_, the _Artocarpeæ_, the _Euphorbiaceæ_, and the varied order
of the _Rubiaceæ_. Amongst the trees of second and third rank are a
few _Araliacea_, large-leaved figs, brilliant-flowered Spathodeas,
Combretums, and Mussændas, as well as innumerable other rubiaceous or
papilionaceous plants. There is no lack of thorny shrubberies; “and
the _Oncoba_, the _Phyllanthus_, the _Celastrus_, and the _Acacia
ataxacantha_, cluster after cluster, are met with in abundance.”
“Thick creepers climbed from bough to bough, the _Modecca_ being the
most prominent of all; but the _Cissus_, with its purple leaf, the
_Coccinea_, the prickly _Smilax_, the _Helmiæ_, and the _Dioscoreæ_,
had all their part to play. Made up of these, the whole underwood
spread out its ample ramifications, its great twilight made more
complete by the thickness of the substance of the leaves themselves.”
[Illustration: A PATH THROUGH THE FOREST.]
Down upon the very ground, again, there were masses, all but
impenetrable, of plants (mainly _Zingeberaceæ_ or else Arums) growing
large gorgeously painted leaves which contributed to fill up the gaps
left in this mazy labyrinth of foliage. First of all there were the
extensive jungles of the _Amomum_ and the _Costus_, rising full fifteen
feet high, and of which the rigid stems (like those of stout reeds)
either bar out the progress of a traveller altogether, or admit
him, if he venture to force his way among them, only to fall into the
sloughs of muddy slime from which they grow.
“And then there was the marvellous world of ferns, destitute
indeed of stems, but running in their foliage to some twelve feet
high. Boundless in the variety of the feathery articulations of
their fronds, some of them seemed to perform the graceful part of
throwing a veil over the treasures of the wood; and others lent a
charming contrast to the general uniformity of the leafy scene.
High above these there rose the large, slim-stemmed _Rubiaceæ_
(_Coffeæ_), which by regularity of growth and symmetry of leaf
appeared to imitate, and in a measure to supply the absence of, the
arboraceous ferns. Of all the other ferns the most singular which
I observed was that which I call the elephant’s ear. This I found
up in trees at a height of more than fifty feet, in association
with the _Angræcum_ orchis and the long gray beard of the hanging
_Usnea_.”
Whenever the stems of the trees failed to be thickly overgrown by some
of these different ferns, they were rarely wanting in garlands of the
crimson-berried pepper. Far as the eye could reach, it rested solely
upon green which did not admit a gap. The narrow paths that wound
themselves partly through and partly around the growing thickets were
formed by steps consisting of bare and protruding roots which retained
the light, loose soil together. Mouldering stems, thickly clad with
moss, obstructed the passage at wellnigh every turn. “The air was no
longer that of the sunny steppe, nor that of the shady grove; it was
stifling as the atmosphere of a palm-house. Its temperature might vary
from 70° to 80° Fahr., but the air was so overloaded with an oppressive
moisture exhaled by the rank foliage that the traveller could not feel
otherwise than relieved to escape.”
* * * * *
In the second volume of his work Schweinfurth adds:--
“The cumbrous stems are thickly overgrown with wild pepper, and
the spreading branches are loaded with bead moss (_Usnea_) and
with that remarkable lichen which resembles an elephant’s ear.
High among the boughs are the huge dwellings of the tree-termites
(white ants). Some stems already decayed serve as supports for
immense garlands of _Mucuna_ (a bean), and overhung by impenetrable
foliage, form roomy bowers, where dull obscurity reigns supreme.
Such is the home of the chimpanzee.”
Schweinfurth might have extended his researches further into the
unknown but for a disastrous campfire in the Dyur country, which
destroyed the greater part of his collections, journals, drawings, and
instruments. Eventually, with such of his collections as he was able to
save from the conflagration, Schweinfurth turned his steps northward
again, and reached Europe in 1871. He subsequently did much to increase
our knowledge of the botany of Abyssinia and Arabia, but never resumed
the rôle of African explorer.
[Illustration: SCHWEINFURTH’S MAP.]
CHAPTER XIX
STANLEY CONFIRMS SPEKE
Dr. Schweinfurth evidently shared Burton’s opinions on the subject
of the Victoria Nyanza. Speke’s great discovery may be said to have
reached its low-water mark of depreciation in the map issued in 1873 to
illustrate Schweinfurth’s book, “The Heart of Africa.” On this map a
fairly correct estimate of the shape and area of the Albert Nyanza is
given, together with some hint of the abrupt commencement of the Congo
watershed west of Lake Albert. But the mountainous character of Unyoro
is greatly exaggerated, and the area of the great Victoria Nyanza is
taken up by five lakes and lakelets. Speke was dead, and Grant was
tired of asseverating that the Victoria Nyanza was one huge continuous
sheet of water.
In 1873, just as Dr. Schweinfurth’s book was being published, Henry
Moreton Stanley, an Americanised Welshman, had returned to London from
the discovery and relief of Dr. Livingstone. Soon after his return
arrived the news of Livingstone’s death. The sorrow over this loss, and
enthusiasm at the half-finished discoveries on the great mysterious
river which Livingstone believed to be the Nile and everyone else the
Congo, caused the “Daily Telegraph” and the “New York Herald” to unite
in furnishing funds for a great expedition which should attempt to
clear up many African problems. This expedition Stanley (who therefrom
rose to be the greatest of African explorers) commanded.
Starting from the coast opposite Zanzibar, whence so many expeditions
had set forth since Maizen[89] and Burton had made the first attempts,
Stanley travelled by the Unyamwezi route to the Victoria Nyanza, the
south shore of which he reached at the end of February, 1875. On
the 8th of March in that year Stanley (having put together a boat
which he brought in sections, and which he named the _Lady Alice_)
started--accompanied by eleven of his men--on a most adventurous voyage
along the eastern and northern shores of the lake. He coasted and named
the important southeastern arm of the Victoria Nyanza, which is known
as Speke Gulf. Passing rather hurriedly along the northeast coast of
the lake, he made one great blunder, in that he overlooked the very
narrow entrance to Kavirondo Bay (which is almost a separate lake), and
created instead a broad northern gulf which he called Ugowe Bay. Ugowe
Bay actually is the native name of quite a small shallow inlet on the
Uyoma coast. Stanley skirted at some distance the much indented shores
of Busoga, passed through what is now known as Rosebery Channel, and
so on up Murchison Gulf to the native capital of Uganda, then called
Rubaga (now known as Mengo). Here he had a splendid reception from
Mutesa, and here he met Édouard Linant de Bellefonds,[90] a Belgian in
the Egyptian government, who had been sent by Gordon Pasha to report on
the state of affairs in Uganda.
Mutesa having agreed to send a large fleet of canoes to transport
all Stanley’s expedition to Uganda, Stanley then resumed his
circumnavigation of the lake, following the western shore. Passing
between the mainland of Karagwe and the little island of Bumbiri, he
was fiercely and unprovokedly attacked by the natives of that island,
who were a savage people ruled over by light-coloured Bahima chiefs.
Narrowly escaping disaster, he rushed through the opposing savages, got
into the _Lady Alice_, and his men paddled off with boards which they
tore up from the bottom of the boat. Having rejoined his expedition,
which he had left at a place called Kagehi, near to the modern German
station of Muanza, Stanley made one more blunder in his configuration
of the lake (which he was the first to set right years afterwards).
Deceived by a chain of islands, he curtailed the Victoria Nyanza of its
southwestern gulf, which extension of the lake Stanley subsequently
named after Emin Pasha.
Reinforced by Mutesa’s fleet of canoes, Stanley’s entire expedition
was saved the long march through the Hima kingdoms to the west of the
Victoria Nyanza. But on his return journey to Uganda he was obliged to
stop and give a severe lesson to the Bumbiri islanders. These warlike
people barred the passage with their canoes. Stanley had been warned of
this opposition by the natives of Iroba on the mainland. Stanley seized
the king and two chiefs of Iroba as hostages, who should negotiate a
peace between himself and the king of Bumbiri. These hostages caught
for him the king’s son. At this moment a large reinforcement of Baganda
canoes arrived, and volunteered to go to Bumbiri and negotiate. But
they were attacked, and driven off with some loss. Stanley, therefore,
was obliged to inflict punishment. On the 4th of August, 1875, he
attacked Bumbiri, and drove its natives to the interior of the island.
The expedition then pursued its way along the west and north coasts
until they entered Napoleon Gulf and arrived at the Ripon Falls, where
the Nile leaves the lake. Here they found Mutesa encamped with a large
army, engaged in one of his periodical wars with Unyoro.
Stanley not only ascertained the approximate area and shape of the
Victoria Nyanza, but he was able to define with some approach to
accuracy its principal islands and archipelagoes. After his journey
there was no longer any doubt as to Speke’s great discovery. The
question was settled once and for ever.
[Illustration: THE VICTORIA NYANZA: UGANDA GOVERNMENT STEAMER IN THE
OFFING.]
Leaving Uganda in December, 1875, Stanley accompanied an expedition
sent by Mutesa to the countries then governed by the Banyoro at the
base of Ruwenzori. Amazing to relate, Stanley was actually encamped
under the Ruwenzori range (called, by the Baganda, Gambaragara),
and yet was unaware of the importance of his discovery. He guessed
that the mountain in front of him might be from fourteen to fifteen
thousand feet high, and he called it Mount Edwin Arnold. What is
so extraordinary about the matter is that he relates (as though he
disbelieved them) the stories of the natives to the effect that white
stuff and intense cold characterised the upper parts of this mountain
range, yet he evinced little or no curiosity to ascertain the truth of
these statements. Of course at the time of his visit all the thirty
miles of snow and glaciers were concealed under heavy clouds.
From the vicinity of Ruwenzori the party made its way to Lake Dweru,
which Stanley named Beatrice Gulf. This he learned from the natives
was (as it is) but a loop of a much larger lake. Years afterwards
Stanley was to realise that he had discovered a portion of Lake Albert
Edward. Quitting these regions of mysterious lakes and mountains, he
journeyed much more prosaically past the volcanoes of Mfumbiro and the
Hima kingdoms of Karagwe to Lake Tanganyika, which he reached at Ujiji
on its northeast coast. On this portion of the journey Stanley added
a good deal to our information regarding the ultimate source of the
Nile, the Kagera, though he was somewhat misled by native information,
and perhaps by exaggerated swamps, into the creation of a non-existing
lake, which he called the Alexandra Nyanza. His subsequent route across
Africa from Tanganyika to the mouth of the Congo does not concern the
present narrative.
One interesting result of Stanley’s explorations of the Victoria
Nyanza, Uganda, and Unyamwezi was that Mr. (now Sir Edwin) Arnold[91]
was inspired to propose a Cape-to-Cairo overland telegraph wire to pass
via the Zambezi, Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika, to Uganda and the Egyptian
Sudan, thereby forestalling both Cecil Rhodes and the author of this
book in the advocacy of a continuous line of British communications
between South Africa and Egypt.
[Illustration: STANLEY’S IDEA OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA.. 1880.]
It has been mentioned that Stanley’s letter to the “Daily Telegraph,”
summoning missionaries to the court of Mutesa, decided the fate of
Uganda. This letter met with an immediate response, and in 1876 two
parties of English missionaries were sent out by the Church Missionary
Society. The Rev. G. Lichfield, Mr. C. W. Pearson, and Dr. R. W. Felkin
were despatched by the Nile route. They travelled from Suakin to
Khartum, and thence, by the help of Gordon Pasha, to the Albert Nyanza
and Uganda. The other half of the missionary party (Lieutenant Shergold
Smith, R.N., the Rev. C. T. Wilson, and, amongst others, Alexander
Mackay, a Scottish engineer) made the journey by way of Zanzibar and
Unyamwezi. Some of these missionaries were detained at the south
end of the Victoria Nyanza. Lieutenant Shergold Smith--a man of great
promise--journeyed across the lake in a boat and reached Uganda; but
soon after his return to the south end of the lake he was killed in an
attack made by the natives of Ukerewe (Bukerebe) on the Arab traders.
Leaving Mackay, Lichfield, and O’Neil in Uganda, C. T. Wilson and
R. W. Felkin decided to return to Europe, taking with them envoys
whom Mutesa wished to send to England. On their return journey they
were greatly troubled by the sudd, which then--as frequently before
and since--practically blocked the navigation of the main Nile. They
therefore made a very interesting overland journey through Darfur and
Kordofan, and thence back into Egypt.
CHAPTER XX
GORDON AND HIS LIEUTENANTS.--JUNKER AND THE NILE-CONGO WATER-PARTING
In 1874 Colonel Purdy and Colonel Colston (Englishmen) were despatched
by the Egyptian government respectively into Darfur and Kordofan
for surveying purposes. By their expeditions a good deal of the
country along these half-dry affluents of the Bahr-al-Arab and the
water-parting between the Shari and the Nile was explored and made
known. Their work was added to in some respects (1875–1876) by Sidney
Ensor, a civil engineer, who surveyed the route for a railway from Wadi
Halfa to Al Fasher, the capital of Darfur.
The energetic work undertaken by Sir Samuel Baker of suppressing the
slave-trade in the Equatorial Province of the Egyptian Sudan was
carried much further by the celebrated Charles Gordon, who was destined
to die at Khartum under circumstances conferring on him lasting fame.
Gordon Pasha (as he subsequently became) had, as it is hardly necessary
to state, been an engineer officer. It was thought that his appointment
to the supreme government of the Egyptian Sudan (an appointment which
Baker had not held, since he worked with an Egyptian Governor-General
at Khartum) would--as it did--materially assist the improvement of
communications. Gordon made an interesting survey of the country
between Suakin and Berber on the Nile, and together with Lieutenants
Watson and Chippendall mapped the main Nile from Khartum to Gondokoro
and Lake Albert. He also caused the circumnavigation of that lake to be
effected.
Soon after Gordon had taken up the work begun by Sir Samuel Baker, a
curious theory had been started concerning Lake Albert Nyanza. In those
days, when so much personal feeling was very naturally imported into
Nile exploration, and one great explorer vied with another, theories
were often started by A to minimise the work of B or to exaggerate
the results of A’s own discoveries. It has been already recounted how
Burton, piqued by Speke’s great discovery of the Victoria Nyanza, which
might have fallen to Burton’s own lot had he been less crippled with
fever, subsequently strove to prove the non-existence of that lake as
a continuous sheet of water. Speke in the most wonderful manner had
not only discovered the Victoria Nyanza, but had, by the collection
of native information and the deductions he drew therefrom, made, on
the whole, a remarkably accurate forecast of the Nile system in the
region of the equatorial lakes. He had put Lake Albert on the map,
merely from report, in a shape and position closely in accordance with
actuality. Not, however, being able to visit this lake himself, he
had handed the task over to Sir Samuel Baker, who had discovered the
Albert Nyanza, but had not been able to ascertain its area and shape.
Both Speke and Baker, however, assumed that the Victoria Nile entered
Lake Albert, and quitted that lake as the main stream of the White
Nile. Neither explorer, however, nor most that came after them, could
state positively that they had mapped the Victoria Nile along its whole
course from the Ripon Falls to Lake Albert, nor had they traced the
course of the Nile from Lake Albert northward to Gondokoro. Therefore
in the early seventies some theorist had started the ingenious idea
that Lake Albert belonged either to the system of the Congo or the
Shari, and that its waters drained away by an unknown river at the
south end, or else by an outlet to the north, which was not the Nile,
as generally assumed, but a river which flowed westward to the unknown.
The discovery about this time of Lake Kioga further confused notions
about the Nile system, and it was thought that the Victoria Nile
discovered by Speke did not enter Lake Albert, but in some tortuous way
joined the Asua, and so flowed on past Gondokoro, leaving Lake Albert
altogether out of its system.
[Illustration: THE VICTORIA NILE FLOWING TOWARDS LAKE KIOGA.]
To settle these doubts, Gordon resolved to despatch Romolo Gessi,[92]
who was then little more than a steamer engineer, though, having
been the mate of a Mediterranean steamer, he was able to take
astronomical observations. Gessi was therefore instructed to
circumnavigate Lake Albert. This task he carried out in 1876. He
ascertained positively that the Victoria Nile entered Lake Albert and
left it again, and he connected his rough survey of the Albertine Nile
with the work which was being carried on up stream from Gondokoro
by two English engineer officers in Gordon’s employ, Lieutenants
Watson[93] and Chippendall. In 1877 Colonel Mason (an American) took
advantage of the first steamer being placed on Lake Albert to make a
survey rather more careful than that of Gessi, but neither of these
explorers ascertained the existence of the Semliki River or of the
snow-range of Ruwenzori, though it is said that in some of Gessi’s
private letters mention was made of a strange apparition “like
snow-mountains” in the sky, which had appeared to some of his men at
the south end of Lake Albert,--a remark that attracted no attention at
the time. Gessi also records having seen the mouth of a large river at
the south end of Lake Albert, but it never seems to have occurred to
him that this river was probably of the greatest geographical interest.
Nevertheless, when Gessi returned to Khartum to report the result of
his Albert Nyanza explorations to Gordon, the latter exclaimed, “What
a pity you are not an Englishman!” This remark is supposed to have
been made from pique that the two English officers despatched by Gordon
(Watson and Chippendall) had not arrived in time to accomplish what
a Levantine Italian had successfully performed. Gessi was already
somewhat offended, because he considered that he had done an excellent
piece of work, and he had only received as a reward a present of a few
hundred francs and the decoration of the Mejidieh, third class. He
therefore flung his fez at Gordon’s feet and tendered his resignation.
He journeyed to Italy, and was received with great distinction by the
Italian Geographical Society at Rome, who presented him with their Gold
Medal. He resolved, however, to return to work as an explorer, giving
particular attention to anthropological and zoölogical researches. He
engaged two Austrian-Italians--Giacomo Morch and Riccardo Buchta--to
accompany him. Buchta deserves special notice, as he was the first
careful photographer to visit the regions of the Upper Nile. His
photographs of the native types and scenery of these countries taken
between 1878 and 1882 are remarkably interesting.
Soon after Gessi’s arrival in Egypt with all his stores, he was
informed that a fire had broken out at Suez railway station, resulting
in the complete destruction of all his goods, involving a monetary
loss of something like twelve hundred pounds. He therefore returned to
Italy, gave up the idea of exploring the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and instead
resolved to start for the river Sobat, and work his way from the upper
waters of that stream to the southern regions of Abyssinia, where
two Italians--Cecchi and Chiarini--were supposed to be wandering. His
second expedition was financed by generous Italians and by the late
King of Italy. He was accompanied by Dr. Pellegrino Matteucci, who was
subsequently to cross Africa from east to west and die at the end of
his journey.
Ernst Marno, a Viennese, had attempted, in 1870, to ascend the Blue
Nile and then enter the country of the Galas to the south of it. After
penetrating, however, as far as Fadasi, he was obliged to turn back,
owing to the hostility of the people. The same obstacles turned back
Gessi and his companions, and the expedition to Kaffa was given up.
Returning to Khartum, Gessi was preparing to attempt the ascent of the
Sobat when Gordon returned to his post, from which he had been absent,
and invited Gessi to re-enter the service of the Egyptian government.
A serious revolt had occurred in the western part of the Egyptian
Sudan. The great slave-trader, Zubeir, who had conquered Darfur, had
become a danger to the Egyptian power. By dint of a wily invitation he
was lured to Cairo, and once in Egypt, was prevented by the Khedive
from returning to the Sudan. His son Suleiman, however, remained in
Darfur, and attempted to rise against the Egyptian government. His
attempt was frustrated by Gordon, who, however, pardoned him, and
appointed him sub-governor of his country with a handsome salary. But
in 1878 Suleiman openly espoused the cause of the Nubian and Arab
slave-traders whose devastations of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the White
Nile regions had been sternly suppressed by Baker and Gordon. Putting
himself at the head of these disaffected people, Suleiman practically
subjugated all the vast territory of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and proclaimed
his independence. Gessi proceeded with a small force on steamers to
Lado, on the White Nile, where he met Emin Pasha. From this point
he started for the Nyam-nyam country,[94] picking up on the way all
the soldiers he could obtain from the various stations of the Sudan
government. He found that Suleiman had proclaimed himself “Lord of
Bahr-al-Ghazal, Rōl, and Makarka.” At Dem Idris, in the most western
part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal province, the great battle took place.[95]
The people of the country were on the side of Gessi and the Egyptian
forces, because of the incessant slave-raiding of Suleiman and his
men. Gessi had entrenched himself and his small force, which at the
outside amounted to seven thousand men, regulars and irregulars. He had
several pieces of artillery that fired grape-shot. His entrenchments
were assaulted by Suleiman’s forces, and as the result of this attack
Suleiman lost his flags, much of his ammunition, and most of his guns,
together with several thousand of his men. Nevertheless, in spite of
the recovery of Egyptian prestige throughout the Sudan, Suleiman’s
power was not yet at an end. He gathered up more forces, and continued
to attack Gessi. At last reinforcements arrived from the north which
enabled Gessi to take the offensive. He captured stronghold after
stronghold. In the spring of 1879 Suleiman was flying for his life with
only a thousand men. Gessi destroyed almost all the strongholds of
the slavers (some of which had existed for twenty-five years, and had
devastated all the country around) in the province of Bahr-al-Ghazal.
Gordon Pasha had now come to Gessi’s assistance, and established
himself at Shakka on the Nile. He also invaded Darfur, reconquered
that country, and prevented reinforcements reaching Suleiman from that
direction. Eventually, after a hundred fights, Gessi succeeded in
tracking Suleiman to his last refuge. At the time he had no more than
two hundred men with him, whilst Suleiman had eight hundred. Taking
the camp entirely by surprise, he tried a game of bluff, and sent a
messenger to tell Suleiman that he had surrounded his place with a
large force, and that resistance was hopeless. Suleiman therefore
surrendered. Gessi tried him by court-martial, and had him shot in
November, 1879. This ended the first of the great rebellions which
menaced Anglo-Egyptian authority in the Sudan. Gessi was made a Pasha
for his services, and Governor of the Bahr-al-Ghazal province. He
slowly brought about peace among the distracted Negro tribes.
During all the operations undertaken by Gordon and Gessi a good many
additions were made to the geography of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, the
Bahr-al-Arab, and Darfur. After Gordon’s departure from the Sudan Gessi
found it impossible to work with the Egyptian Governor-General, Raiūf
Pasha. He was also extremely ill. He therefore decided to return to
Europe, but got no farther than Suez, where he died in 1881, having
uttered several premonitions as to the possibility of another revolt.
As a matter of fact, the Mahdi, who had just begun to make himself
known as a rebel, did little more than carry on the reaction against
the anti-slave-trading policy of the Anglo-Egyptian control. All the
elements of Suleiman’s revolt which had been destroyed by the splendid
valour of Gessi and Gordon gathered round the new leader, and brought
about that cataclysm which closed the area of Nile exploration for
fourteen years.
Édouard Linant de Bellefonds, the Belgian official in Gordon’s
employment of whom mention was made in the previous chapter, and who
had met his death at the hands of the Bari, was avenged by the American
C. Chaillé-Long, who inflicted severe chastisement on the Bari and
allied tribes at and around Gondokoro. Chaillé-Long was made a colonel
by the Egyptian government. He was despatched by Gordon on a mission to
Uganda to spy out the land; but owing to the intervention of Sir John
Kirk from Zanzibar, the British government stayed the ambitious Khedive
from attempting to include Uganda in the Egyptian Sudan. Chaillé-Long
added a little to our knowledge of the Victoria Nile, and gave a more
detailed report of Lake Kioga than had been previously gleaned from
the unscientific journey of Piaggia. He named this lake “Ibrahim.”
Chaillé-Long also travelled to the west of the Mountain Nile in the
Nyam-nyam countries. His book (“Central Africa: Naked Truths of Naked
People”) is unfortunately marred by much incorrect information, and by
the erroneous spelling of native names. Mutesa, the ruler of Uganda, is
disguised as “M’tse;” Uganda becomes Ugunda, while preposterous plurals
are invented for the people of Uganda and Unyoro, who are called the
Ugundi, Unyori, etc. Chaillé-Long’s one practical contribution to Nile
exploration was the definite discovery of Lake Kioga, which had only
been hesitatingly reported by the unlearned Piaggia.
Ernst Marno, the Viennese, surveyed a good deal of country west of
Lado and the Mountain Nile,--the valley of the Yei among other rivers.
Casati, an Italian officer, journeyed all over the lands of the
Egyptian Sudan; but as he was an unscientific observer and lost all
his journals in the troubles that followed on the Mahdi’s revolt, his
contributions to our knowledge of the Nile regions are practically
worthless.
Dr. Gustav Nachtigal, one of the great African explorers, was born
at Eichstadt, near Magdeburg, in Germany. He was despatched on a
mission to Bornu by the King of Prussia. After years spent with great
advantage to science in the Sahara, round Lake Chad, and on the Shari
River, he passed from Wadai into the Nile basin in the country of
Darfur, and added somewhat to our geographical knowledge of this little
known part of the Nile basin. Nachtigal reached Khartum at the end of
1874. Another German was to contribute his share to the opening up of
the Nile basin. Dr. Wilhelm Junker was born at Moscow in 1840 of German
parents, and was educated in Germany. He started for Egypt in 1875 with
the intention of going to Darfur, but he spent some time examining
the Libyan Desert and the curious blocked outlet of the Nile in the
Fayūm. After exploring the Atbara as far as Kasala and journeying
thence across country to the Blue Nile, he travelled up the Sobat River
to Nasr (a point at which all exploration of the Sobat stopped for
many years), and then made his way to the White Nile and the Makarka
(Nyam-nyam) country. His journeys through the Bahr-al-Ghazal province
took him as far south as the Kibali or Welle River. After a visit to
Europe with his collections and notes, he returned to the Welle and
the Mangbettu country. He explored the Welle and its tributaries for
some distance eastward and westward. Munza, the celebrated king of the
Mangbettu, about whom Schweinfurth wrote so much, had been murdered by
the Nubian slave-traders, and the country about the Upper Welle was
much disordered. Junker reached the Nepoko River, which is an affluent
of the Aruwimi. His journeys westward to the Welle River near its
confluence with the Mbomu convinced him that this mysterious stream,
the existence of which had first been reported by Miani and Potagos (a
Greek trader), was after all the most northern affluent of the Congo,
and not the Upper Shari. Junker’s journeys were now interrupted by the
news of the Mahdi’s revolt.
[Illustration: NUĒR VILLAGE, SOBAT RIVER.]
Frank Lupton (Bey), a native of Essex, and once a mate on a small
steamer plying between the Red Sea ports, had entered Gordon’s service,
and had become in time Governor of the Bahr-al-Ghazal province. Lupton
added a good deal to our knowledge regarding the many affluents of the
Bahr-al-Ghazal. He unhappily fell into the hands of the Dervishes,
and eventually lost his life. Lupton managed to warn Junker of the
outbreak, and the Russo-German traveller then made his way across
country to Lado. There he stayed until the news arrived of the fall
of Khartum. He then started for Uganda, crossed the Victoria Nyanza
by the help of the English missionaries, and travelled to Zanzibar
by way of Unyamwezi. Junker brought home with him the invaluable
journals of Emin Pasha. His own two great works on the Nile basin are
full of interesting information concerning the natives. He added much
to our knowledge of the southern tributaries of the Bahr-al-Ghazal,
but the chief value and glory of his work lay in the Congo basin and
was concerned with the identification of the Welle-Kibali with the
Ubangi. He also discovered the important northern tributary of the
Welle, the Mbomu. Junker’s observations regarding natural history
are not altogether trustworthy or accurate. His work in this respect
is not to be compared with that of Schweinfurth or Emin. His books
are badly illustrated, the drawings of beasts and birds being seldom
recognisable, and the pictures of the people quite without any
scientific value.
Two Italian officers, Massari and Matteucci, crossed the Nile
basin just before the uprising of the Dervishes closed the Sudan
to exploration for sixteen years. They passed through the northern
frontier lands of Abyssinia, descended the White Nile, and ascended
the Bahr-al-Ghazal, entered Darfur and quitted the Nile basin on the
borders of Wadai, which excessively hostile Muhammadan state they
actually traversed unharmed. From Wadai they reached the West Coast via
Bornu and the Niger, but only to die respectively in England and Italy
soon afterwards. For daring and courage the journey was a marvel; for
geography it was a nullity.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Maull & Fox._]
JOSEPH THOMSON AND WILHELM JUNKER.]
When the intensity of the Dervish rule was slackening, in the early
nineties of the last century various Belgian officers, such as
Lieutenant Van Kerckhoven, passed the Congo basin to the Bahr-al-Arab
and the westernmost tributaries of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and threw
a little fresh light on the still mysterious hydrography of the
Nile-Shari water-parting. They pointed the way, however, to Joseph
Marchand and his associates. This gallant band of Frenchmen, in
1897, made their way from the Mbomu River (Congo basin) down
the Jur (Sue) to the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the White Nile, to face
England at Fashoda. Marchand was accompanied, amongst other European
officers and non-commissioned officers, by Lieutenants A. H. Dyé and
Tanguedec. Tanguedec remained till 1900 on the Mountain Nile near the
Bahr-az-Ziraf. Dyé gave, in 1902, some account of the explorations of
the Bahr-al-Ghazal region undertaken by the Marchand expedition. The
swamps which characterise the northeastern part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal
province render the definite mapping of the lower courses of its great
rivers extremely difficult. Nevertheless, in the most systematic way,
Marchand and his companions, in their little steam launch _Faidherbe_,
surveyed the Sue or Jur (the longest stream flowing into the
Bahr-al-Ghazal estuary), the Bahr-al-Arab, Bahr-al-Hamr, the Tonj, and
Rōl.
The Bahr-al-Ghazal itself, from Mashra-ar-Rak downwards, was carefully
surveyed, and many indications were found of the changes which have
taken place since the days of its early explorers, though M. Dyé
considers the sketch given by Lejean in 1862 as wonderfully correct in
its general outlines.
After describing the ferruginous laterite plateau, which occupies
the whole southern part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal province, as well as
adjoining parts on the Congo basin, Lieutenant Dyé sketches the
transition from this region, in which the streams flow in steep-sided
valleys to the sea of swamps which lies along the ninth parallel. It is
in about 7° 20′ north that the first change occurs, the river-banks
opening out and leaving between them an alluvial-flood plain, grassy
and intersected by swamps, through which the river winds in a tortuous
course, much choked by sand-banks. At the height of the rains this
is entirely flooded. Still lower, the rocky valley sides entirely
disappear, and the clayey banks sink below the mean water-level, the
rivers becoming more and more narrow, and diminishing in depth until
they are finally lost, each in its own belt of swamp, which forms a sea
of grass, “Um Suf” [fleecy reeds], and papyrus.
Lieutenant Dyé, in his description, divides the estuary or drainage
channel of the Bahr-al-Ghazal below Mashra-ar-Rak into three sections,
each with its particular characteristics, the general trend of the
estuary, however, below Mashra-ar-Rak being north, then northeast, and
lastly east. The first section near Mashra-ar-Rak is at times of great
width, as at the expansion known as Lake Ambady or Ambach. There is
much floating vegetation, and the channels frequently change with the
winds. The depth is nowhere greater than thirteen feet in this section,
which is distinguished as the region of lakes, lagoons, and reed-beds.
In the second section, characterised by the growth of papyrus, the
channel becomes much narrower, and reaches depths of twenty feet and
more, though the figures given by former travellers seem somewhat
exaggerated. The width becomes greater again in the last section,
the banks of which are, as a rule, marked by ant-hills covered with
brushwood. Schweinfurth was mistaken in saying that the current
of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is imperceptible, for, except in expansions
and side branches, some movement can always be traced, and in the
narrowest section it reaches a speed of one mile and a quarter an hour.
A remarkable characteristic of the region is the small variation of
water-level between the seasons, owing to the impounding of the water
in the marshes. The maximum flood-level occurs on the Bahr-al-Ghazal in
November and December, or two months later than that on the Sue, and
various facts are quoted showing the slight effect which a rise in the
upper courses of the streams has on the water-level of the swamp region.
[Illustration: A STERNWHEEL STEAMBOAT.
Forcing its way up the Jur (Sue) or main affluent of the
Bahr-al-Ghazal.]
Given their resources and the distance they had to traverse (from
Loango on the West Coast to Fashoda on the Nile, and afterwards to
Abyssinia and Somaliland via the Congo, Ubangi, Mbomu, Sue, and
Bahr-al-Ghazal), the enemies they had to encounter, the allies they
had to win, the privations they had to endure: the journey of Marchand
and his companions is one of the most splendid feats in African
exploration, and well deserves the admiration accorded to it in France
and England.
CHAPTER XXI
JOSEPH THOMSON, MT. ELGON, AND KAVIRONDO BAY
It will be remembered that a remarkable turn was given to Nile
exploration when between 1849 and 1855 the German missionaries in the
employ of the Church Missionary Society at Mombasa reported their
explorations of inner East Africa,--explorations which revealed the
existence of snow-mountains, and which gathered reports of great lakes
in the interior. The outcome of these researches on the part of Krapf
and Rebman was the despatch of Speke and Burton in search of the Nile
lakes. We read that only Burton’s excessive prudence prevented this
first expedition to the lakes from starting inland from Mombasa and
following the trading route right through the Masai country to the
Victoria Nyanza. This was the route followed by Arab traders as far
back as 1850. The terror caused by the Masai led to great exaggerations
of the dangers of this direct journey. Its chief difficulty lay in the
fact that owing to the ravages of the Masai and the somewhat waterless
character of the intervening country, there were no inhabitants for
a distance of some two hundred miles between the coast regions on
the east and the fertile lands bordering the Victoria Nyanza on the
west. The missionaries, German and English, who were settled at or
near Mombasa, continued to collect information from Arab caravans.
In this way news arrived of the existence of the Rift valley, with
its chain of lakes, salt and fresh, and of some greater lake beyond
called “Samburu,” afterwards known as Lake Rudolf; also of the Nilotic
Negroes in the country of Kavirondo, on the northeast coast of the
Victoria Nyanza. Much of this information was industriously gathered up
by a most excellent missionary, the late Mr. Wakefield,[96] who sent
his notes and theories to an eminent geographer, E. G. Ravenstein.
Mr. Ravenstein prepared this information for the use of the Royal
Geographical Society, and in about 1880 had gathered together all that
was known from surveys and reports into maps illustrating Eastern
Equatorial Africa.
[Illustration: N.E. CORNER OF VICTORIA NYANZA (WITH SAMIA HILLS IN
DISTANCE).
Near where Joseph Thomson struck the lake shore at the end of his long
march, December, 1883.]
As the result of the interest these maps inspired, the Royal
Geographical Society resolved, in 1882, to despatch on this search for
a direct route to the Victoria Nyanza, Joseph Thomson, a very young and
very brilliant African explorer, who had already performed a remarkable
journey to lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. Joseph Thomson left Mombasa
in the spring of 1883, and after several checks and disappointments,
finally crossed Masailand (Dr. Fischer, a German, had discovered the
Rift valley and Lake Naivasha a year previously), settled at last the
existence of the much exaggerated Lake Baringo, and finally reached
the northeast coast of the Victoria Nyanza, in Kavirondo Bay, on the
borders of Busoga. So far as Nile exploration was concerned, the
chief immediate result of Joseph Thomson’s remarkable journey was
to draw attention to Stanley’s blunder about Ugowe Bay. But Thomson
himself only made a step towards the delineation of this gulf; his
work had subsequently to be finished by Mr. C. W. Hobley and Commander
Whitehouse. He discovered Mount Elgon, however (previously alluded to
by Stanley as Mount Masawa), and was, politically, the forefather of
the Uganda Railway.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Jamieson & Co._]
JOSEPH THOMSON.]
The present writer supplemented Thomson’s work in the neighbourhood of
the snow-mountain Kilimanjaro, and laid the foundations there of the
British Protectorate of East Africa. Bishop Hannington followed in an
attempt to repeat Thomson’s journey to the Victoria Nyanza, and thus
enter Uganda. The missionary bishop was murdered on the confines of
Uganda, and his plucky enterprise added nothing to our geographical
knowledge. Then came Count Samuel Teleki von Szek (a Hungarian) and
Lieutenant von Höhnel (an Austrian naval officer) in 1887. Although
the expedition led by these gentlemen never actually entered the Nile
basin, it achieved the most important results of discovering lakes
Rudolf and Stephanie, and thereby limiting the Nile basin on the
southeast. Ernest Gedge and F. J. Jackson crossed what is now British
East Africa in 1889–1890, and reached Elgon, the Victoria Nyanza,
and Uganda. Dr. Carl Peters made the same journey in 1890, but did not
add to our geographical knowledge in the basin of the Nile. All these
expeditions were the direct result of Joseph Thomson’s work.
CHAPTER XXII
EMIN PASHA
The remarkable man whose name is given to this chapter was a German
Jew,--Eduard Schnitzer,--born in Silesia about 1830. Becoming a
doctor of medicine, he gradually drifted to Austria and thence to
Turkey, where he engaged in much medical service in the suite of high
officials. To some extent he adopted the religion of Islam, and changed
his name to Dr. Emin. Attracted by the mystery of Central Africa, he
found his way to Khartum, and from being a mere medical practitioner,
became a Bey in the service of the Egyptian government under General
Gordon. He did a great deal to add to our knowledge of the eastern
tributaries of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the western tributaries of the
Mountain Nile. He explored the Nile-Congo water-parting, and made very
interesting notes on Unyoro, Uganda, and the Albert Nyanza. He also
added considerably to our knowledge of the Latuka, Bari, and Acholi
countries. Strange to relate, though he lived so much between 1877
and 1888 on the Albert Nyanza, he never once sighted the remarkable
snow-range of Ruwenzori. This extraordinary omission may have been
due to the fact that he was very short-sighted. He would, therefore,
not himself have noticed any remarkable appearance in the sky, and
probably the Negroes and Turks around him were too dull-witted to draw
his attention to the snow-peaks on the rare occasions on which they
were visible. In travelling along the west coast of Lake Albert Nyanza,
however, he discovered the Semliki River flowing into that lake, and
called it the river Dweru.[97] Emin Pasha’s journals and letters, which
were brought to England by Dr. Junker, were issued as a book in 1888.
Regarding this compilation, it may be classed as one of the few great
books that have ever been written about tropical Africa. It is full
of concise and valuable information on natural history, anthropology,
languages, and geography.[98] He gives a very interesting description
of the mountainous country of Lotuka (Latuka), and of the regions
further east.
He had been received by Latome, “an elderly gentleman of medium height
and rather pleasing features,” who was the ruler of the nude and
handsome Lotuka Negroids:--
“Meantime a motley crowd assembled in the yard,--women and girls,
the former with leather aprons, the latter entirely nude; men
of different districts, all armed with shields and spears,--the
genuine Lotuka people, recognisable by their slight figures and
long faces,--all nude, and adorned with iron ornaments, ivory rings
on the upper arm, broad copper rings as necklaces, and helmets
of shining brass or copper plates, surmounted by waving ostrich
plumes. Some of them wore caps made of basket work. After our
reception was over, we visited the summit of the hill, whence a
splendid view is obtained, extending from Mount Loligono in the
Bēr country, northwards over the whole Lokoya range, to the west,
and to the high peaks of the Obbo Mountains, in the south and
southwest, where the horns of Jebel Asal tower up,--so named on
Baker’s map, but called by the Bari “Ekara,” and by the Lotuka
“Chufal,”--then away to the long lofty ranges of Molong and Killio,
the defile leading to Tarangole, with its hills rising up like
sentinels, and finally the long range of Lafit, which closes the
scene on the northeast,--a typical Alpine landscape.”
The Lotuka people, it might be mentioned, are very similar in
appearance and language to the Elgumi tribe, which is much farther
south, in the vicinity of Mount Elgon. Both these peoples are nearly
related in origin to the Masai. They should properly be styled
Lotuka.[99]
[Illustration: EMIN PASHA.]
Of the Lotuka country Dr. Emin writes:--
“The sky was overclouded when we left Tarangole. Taking a
southeasterly course along Khor Kos,[100] through beautiful park
land, we reached the ford in about half an hour. The _khor_ was
here about twenty-two yards broad, and full of yellowish water,
which reached up to our thighs, and flowed over a sandy, rocky
bottom. We had a pleasant march over a good firm road, across
sandy country covered with open wood, the ground being rather wet
in some places; the predominance of acacias (_Acacia albida_, _A.
mellifera_, and _A. campylacantha_) and _Balanites_ gave a gray
tone to the scenery. Khor Oteng, now very insignificant, is said to
pour such large volumes of water into Khor Kos[101] in the rainy
season that the passage is often rendered impossible for hours.
The ford of Khor Kos is called Chuchur; a splendid forest of doleb
palms (_Borassus_) yielding an abundance of odorous fruits, skirts
the khor, copses of various other trees intervening. Large flat
blocks of friable granite, with white streaks, lie across the
road that leads direct to the foot of the hill of Loguren, which
is about four hundred feet high. Its summit is crowned with the
dome-shaped huts of the village bearing the same name.
“Dum Palms (_Hyphæne thebaica_) grow here, as they do at the ford
of Khor Kos. It appears, therefore, that the southern limit of this
tree runs along the Bahr-al-Jabl between Bor and Lado, and then
advances farther to the south, no doubt owing to the sandy soil
which connects the Lotuka and Somal districts.[102] Picturesque
groups of rocks, inhabited by the restless Hyrax, well-tilled
fields, and here and there small clumps of doleb palms are seen
along the road to Elianga, where, on the edges of the rocks,
numerous clay vessels containing human bones seem to say ‘Memento
mori,’ a rather unnecessary warning in Central Africa.”
Emin describes the Lotuka villages as being dreadfully dirty, in
contrast to the Bari settlements, which are always kept scrupulously
clean within, though their environments are filthy. Hundreds of rats
and mice infest the Lotuka huts. These latter are built upon round
substructures about four and one-half feet high, usually caulked
and overlaid with mud. The huts are surmounted by bell-shaped roofs
(sometimes peaked), which project considerably over the substructures.
A small doorway is left open, about two and a half feet high, which
must, of course, be entered on all fours. The interior is kept fairly
clean, but is quite dark. The thatch is generally made of grass; many
huts are covered with split leaves of the _Borassus_ palm, which are
more durable and compact,--a very desirable quality for withstanding
tropical rain. Sheep and goats are the only domestic animals kept here;
the former are long legged and of a superior breed. The Lotuka do not
seem to keep dogs. Agriculture, as is usual among hunting tribes, is
rather neglected, although the soil is excellent, and the Sudanese
soldiers stationed in Lotuka grew without difficulty durrah, maize,
ground-nuts, and splendid watermelons.
Ostriches are caught when young, and are tamed in the Lotuka
settlements. Sometimes they are hatched from eggs buried in the sand.
Snakes of many kinds, especially viperine, frequent the Lotuka villages
unmolested by the people, and often making their way into the huts
after the rats. A poisonous species of _Echis_ is, however, much
dreaded.
Okkela in the Lotuka country was a paradise for a natural history
collector like Emin. The belt of wood round this settlement was full
of treasures. There were many Colobus monkeys, whose white dorsal mane
and tail-tuft gleamed through the dark foliage, small families of them
being led by white-bearded old males which gazed fearlessly at the
stranger. Close by a brown baboon mother might be giving her offspring
rough lectures on good manners, which, to judge from the howling, were
not much appreciated; “tall, fox-coloured baboons, white on the under
side,[103] were chasing one another along the tree-tops, and barking
and yelping like hoarse dogs. A small mouse-coloured monkey with a
black face, and quite unknown to me, skulked away through the thick
bush; two varieties of _Funambulus_ squirrels ran up and down the long
tendrils of the creeping plants, and the graceful _Xerus leucumbrinus_
squirrel roved about upon the ground. Small cats, ichneumons, rats,
and mice had also found a comfortable shelter in the woods, and other
creatures, quite unknown, to judge from the description, are said to
haunt it, especially at night.”
Birds were even more numerous and striking. “Gorgeous blue kingfishers
(_Halcyon senegalensis_ and _H. semicærulea_) and beautiful bee-eaters
(_Merops bullockii_ and _M. albicollis_) were perched on the dry
boughs waiting for insects; a large gray cuckoo, probably a new
variety,[104] could be heard in the tree-tops, as also the handsome
_Cuculus capensis_, whose loud cry the Nile Negroes interpret by the
word _lashakong_ (my gourd), and a charming little falcon (_Nisus_
sp.) joined them with a sharp chirp, which the natives call _lefit_,
a happy imitation of its cry. Snow-white _Terpsiphone_ and brilliant
golden cuckoos (_Chalcites cupreus_ and _C. clasii_) were swinging in
the green leafy bowers, and cunning barbets (_Pogonorhynchus rolleti_,
_P. diadematus_, and _P. abyssinicus_) came into sight for a moment,
to disappear again directly like woodpeckers. In the thick copsewood
_Bessornis heuglinii_ flew off at my approach with a sudden cry of
fear, and _Cichladusa guttata_ sang as loudly, but was not quite so
shy. An _Aedon_ warbled its beautiful song among the thickest briars,
and was accompanied by the tapping of numerous woodpeckers. I caught
_Picus nubicus_, the rarer _P. minutus_, and another kind which I
think is new; it closely resembles _P. schoensis_, and it is equally
handsome.”
Animal life abounded also in the open country of Lotuka,--a land
covered with shrubs, with broad, grassy clearings and sandy flats. The
ground was strewn with the shells of _Achatina zebra_; small lizards
and snakes of various kinds--among them the rare _Typhlops_--glided
over the sand, and larger snakes hissed frightfully and retreated.
A concert of croaking frogs would arise from the reedy margins of
the half-dry rivers, and on the sandy islands of the Kos enormous
crocodiles were watching the children bathing close by. Herds of _Cobus
leucotis_[105] grazed on the young grass; large wart hogs issued
from holes in the ground. “They were,” writes Emin, “no despicable
antagonists, for they can make very good use of their huge tusks. Going
further into the bush, I saw the elegant form of a wild cat stealing
off with its tail in the air, and heard a loud growl from a leopard
which disapproved of my presence. Lions were most plentiful.”
[Illustration: RAPHIA PALMS BY A CENTRAL AFRICAN STREAM.]
A herd of zebras grazing on the fresh green grass is a pleasant
picture, whether surrounded by their frolicking young or running
away at a thundering gallop. One does not often meet with the
scaly ant-eater, _Manis temmincki_, still less with the earth-pig
(_Orycteropus æthiopicus_), but a fine example of the latter edentate
having fallen into a pitfall, Emin was able to attest its presence in
Nile land.
Emin’s journeys in the region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and along the
water-parting between the basins of the Nile and the Congo added
greatly to our knowledge of those countries. The forests in these
regions he described as magnificent “gallery” woods, in which all the
marvels of vegetation unfolded themselves before the enchanted gaze of
the botanist. These forests border the streams, and exist only near to
running water. The region, however, of immense unbroken forests, in
which one may wander for hours without seeing a sunbeam, and where one
hears the rain beating upon the summits of the trees without feeling
a drop, commences only a little to the west of the Nyam-nyam (Zande)
country. There is no doubt that much of the Bahr-al-Ghazal region
was originally quite covered with forests, to judge from the remains
of virgin woods which still exist. The gradual disappearance of the
forest is to be attributed to the comparatively thick population, the
constant removal of villages and fields, and to the inroads of both
axe and fire. Emin saw the remains of many a gigantic and magnificent
forest-tree lying rotting on the ground, having been cut down, and
given to decay because it spread too much shade over the crops. After
many years of wandering among these regions, he was inclined to think
that in ancient times the true Central African forest region, that is,
the permanence of evergreen woods containing westerly species, extended
much farther to the north than it does to-day. Towards the east of the
Nyam-nyam country, as far as the district of Janda, he observed such
West African forms as _Artocarpus_ and _Anthocleista_, but he states
that the valley of the Mountain Nile throughout its whole length, as
far south as Lake Albert, is characterised by steppe vegetation, as is
also the entire eastern region of the Nile basin.
CHAPTER XXIII
STANLEY DISCOVERS THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON AND LAKE ALBERT
EDWARD.--THE END OF EMIN
Two sets of circumstances now hindered further exploration of the Nile
basin,--the revolt of the Mahdi, with the disasters that followed at
Khartum; and the persecution of the Christians followed by civil war
in Uganda. Emin Pasha was left to govern Equatoria for four years, cut
off from all communication with Egypt. Dr. Junker, arriving with his
collections and journals in 1886, aroused a great wave of enthusiasm
in England and Germany. Stanley at once offered to lead a relief
expedition to the Equatorial provinces of the Nile. The great prestige
of this remarkable man made it impossible for any other candidate to
enter the field in England. Many, however, were in favour of entrusting
the expedition to Thomson, who believed in the practicability of
conducting it by a direct route from Mombasa to Mount Elgon, and so
across to the Nile. Whether he would have succeeded is a moot question,
owing to the fierceness of the Nile tribes between Elgon and Gondokoro,
and the jealousy and suspicion of Uganda and Unyoro; for the King
of Uganda, having had his fears aroused as to European aggression,
had already caused Bishop Hannington to be murdered for repeating
Thomson’s journey to Busoga.
Stanley was precluded from following the old Unyamwezi route, owing
to German jealousy. He decided, therefore, to strike at the Upper
Nile by way of the Congo, and so found himself struggling through the
dense forests of the Congo basin between the navigable waters of the
Aruwimi and the cliffs of Lake Albert. This wonderful journey, which
he took for the relief of Emin Pasha, resulted in the discovery of
the real Mountains of the Moon [Ruwenzori], the complete course of
the Semliki River, Lake Albert Edward, and the southwesternmost gulf
of the Victoria Nyanza. Stanley added a great deal to our knowledge
of the Congo Pygmies, who in this direction stray over into the Nile
watershed; but his grand discovery on this occasion was Ruwenzori. On
May 24, 1888, about five miles from Nsabe, on the grassy mountains to
the southwest of Lake Albert Nyanza,
“while looking to the southeast and meditating upon the events of
the last month, my eyes were directed by a boy to a mountain said
to be covered with salt, and I saw a peculiar shaped cloud of a
most beautiful silver colour, which assumed the proportions and
appearance of a vast mountain covered with snow. Following its form
downward, I became struck with the deep blue-black colour of its
base, and wondered if it portended another tornado; then as the
sight descended to the gap between the eastern and western plateaux
I became for the first time conscious that what I gazed upon was
not the image or semblance of a vast mountain, but the solid
substance of a real one, with its summit covered with snow....
It now dawned upon me that this must be the Ruwenzori, which was
said to be covered with a white metal or substance believed to be a
rock, as reported by Kavali’s two slaves.”
[Illustration:
_Photo by John Fergus._]
SIR HENRY STANLEY, G.C.B.]
This view was obtained from a distance of seventy miles,--about the
distance of the chief snows of Ruwenzori from the south end of Lake
Albert Nyanza. The constant haze rising from the Semliki valley no
doubt keeps this mountain usually invisible from the waters of the
lake. It is, therefore, not so surprising that it was not hitherto seen
by the explorers of the Albert Nyanza, as it is that Stanley himself
should have camped at the very base of this mountain for some days
in 1875, and have been ignorant of its true character as the highest
ground and the most completely snow-and-glacier-covered range in the
whole of Africa. The name that he has given to it unfortunately does
not completely correspond with the native pronunciation; it should be
Runsororo.
The discovery of this snowy range was soon followed by the realisation
of the Semliki River, another geographical name of Stanley’s giving
which it is most difficult to trace to any native source. (The Semliki,
in fact, is never called by any native tribe “Semliki.” It is known as
Dweru, Nyanja, Ituri, Isango, and other Bantu terms indicating _lake_
or _river_. When first discovered by Emin Pasha, a short time before
Stanley’s arrival, it was known as the Dweru.) This stream is really
the Albertine Nile. Its existence had been surmised by Sir Samuel
Baker without much foundation (then) for his theory. Emin Pasha first
noted it in 1884 as a feeder of Lake Albert. Stanley, in 1889, traced
the Semliki up its course to its point of exit from Lake Albert Edward,
which sheet of water he was the first European to discover. Albert
Edward is connected by a narrow, winding channel[106] on the northeast
with a somewhat extensive, shallow lake, usually known as “Dweru.”[107]
Dweru was discovered by Stanley in 1875, and named by him Beatrice
Gulf. Stanley now ascertained that the two lakes were connected. His
expedition crossed the Kafuru, as the connecting stream is called,
and entered the till then unvisited Hima kingdom of Ankole. Stanley’s
guess at the shape of the Albert Edward was incorrect, and it needed
subsequent expeditions to give us a truer idea of the form and area
of this sheet of water, the eastern shore of which still remains
unsurveyed.
[Illustration: SHORES OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA, NEAR EMIN PASHA GULF.]
Passing through Ankole, Stanley reached the southwestern extremity of
the Victoria Nyanza, which he named Emin Pasha Gulf. On his journeys of
circumnavigation in 1875, he had been deceived by a chain of islands
into an incorrect limitation of the area of the Victoria Nyanza in this
direction. He now realised that the lake extends much further to
the southwest than was previously thought by Speke and himself, and is
therefore not of the heart-shape assigned to it in the earliest maps;
it is, in fact, much longer from north to south than it is broad from
east to west.
The rest of Stanley’s great journey took him out of the Nile watershed.
But the discoveries which he made in the Albertine region of the Nile
basin whetted the curiosity of Emin Pasha, who longed to return to
these mysterious regions.
He did so in 1890, as a German official. Accompanied by Dr. Franz
Stuhlmann, a very able explorer, he directed his steps to these regions
of fascinating interest, the Snow-mountains, and the Great Forest. In
1891 Dr. Stuhlmann made an ascent of the Ruwenzori range on its western
aspect nearly to the snow-line. He revealed the existence of its
remarkable Alpine vegetation of giant groundsels and lobelias. He also
attempted to discriminate between the many different snow-peaks of this
lofty range, though with only partial success, his failure in arriving
at a complete result, like that of subsequent travellers, being due to
the constant presence of clouds. Emin and Stuhlmann together added a
good deal to our knowledge of the Semliki, and to the clearing up of
geographical points connected with the line of watershed between the
Nile and the Congo systems immediately west of Lake Albert. Emin Pasha
resolved to return by way of the Congo, and was therefore left to do
so by Stuhlmann, who returned to his duties in German East Africa.
Re-entering the great Congo forest, and following a northern affluent
of the Ituri-Aruwimi, Emin was captured by one of the slave-trading,
Arabised Manyema who had recently invaded this region to secure ivory
and slaves. As a German official, Emin (together with other Germans)
had confiscated property belonging to these Manyema, had released
slaves, and had severely punished slave-raiders. From motives of
revenge, therefore, he was sentenced to death by his captor, and his
throat was cut in his house one day in October, 1892.
[Illustration: DR. FRANZ STUHLMANN.
(Deputy Governor of German East Africa.)]
CHAPTER XXIV
GERMAN EXPLORERS DETERMINE THE SOUTHERN LIMITS OF THE NILE BASIN
The acquisition by Germany of those interior regions of the Zanzibar
coast-line which now constitute German East Africa led to a
considerable development of exploration in the southernmost regions
of the Nile basin. Prior to 1890 there had been much discussion as to
what was the Nile’s furthest tributary,--what stream, in fact, was the
ultimate source of the Nile. Stanley’s journeys in search of Emin Pasha
had revealed the existence of the Semliki and of Lake Albert Edward,
and had thus extended considerably the length of the Albertine Nile
system. Later on Count Götzen had shown by his remarkable journeys
north from Tanganyika that Lake Kivu (the existence of which had been
already reported by Burton, Speke, and Stanley) was connected with
Tanganyika, and therefore with the Congo. This put a limit to the Nile
basin in that direction, and disposed for ever of the last vestige of
Livingstone’s wild dream, by which the main course of the Nile would
have risen far south of the equator in what we now know to be the basin
of the Congo, and have flowed through Lake Albert instead of through
the Victoria Nyanza. Speke had discovered the important Kagera River
(which he called the Kitangule), and Stanley had extended our knowledge
of this, the largest affluent of the Victoria Nyanza. Stanley had,
in fact, in 1875 christened it the Alexandra Nile, but he was very
much misled about its origin and course, and he made it issue from a
hypothetical lake, Akanyaru,[108] which has no existence, but which
was no doubt in part an exaggeration of swamps along the course of the
Kagera, and in part a confusion with the rumoured Lake Kivu.
The Kagera is now acknowledged to be the extreme head-waters of the
Nile. A distinctly observable current passes across the Victoria
Nyanza from the mouth of the Kagera to the Ripon Falls. In 1891–1893
Dr. Oscar Baumann, a German official, who had previously done some
good exploring work in West Africa, made extensive journeys through
southern Masailand and Unyamwezi to the sources of the Kagera River.
This stream (especially in its upper waters, where it is known as
Ruvuvu), was further explored in 1899–1900 by M. Lionel Dècle, a French
traveller, who had done a great deal to increase our knowledge of
Central Africa.[109] Dr. Kandt,[110] in 1898, and other Germans, have
also put on the map portions of the Kagera’s course, and our knowledge
of this stream has received contributions from Messrs. Racey, Mundy,
and R. W. Macallister, officials of the Uganda Protectorate. The Kagera
River has two principal sources, both of them almost within sight of
the waters of Tanganyika. The stream which is usually taken to be the
more important source rises in south latitude 3° in the country of
Ruziga, about fifteen miles due north of the north end of Tanganyika,
at an altitude of about 6,270 feet above sea-level. Some fifty miles
south-southeast of this point, however, there is another source, which
may be taken to be the southernmost extension of the Nile system. This
fountain, in south latitude 3° 45′, is on the eastern slope of the
Utembera or Kangozi Mountains, only ten miles east of Tanganyika. The
altitude is about 6,300 feet. This would seem to be the farthest source
of the Nile.
[Illustration: A NATIVE OF UNYAMWEZI, FROM NEAR SOUTH SHORES OF
VICTORIA NYANZA.]
Herr Baumann made another contribution of negative value to Nile
exploration. Stanley and some other travellers had believed that the
southernmost source of the Nile lay in the country of Unyamwezi, in
certain streams which flowed northward into the Victoria Nyanza, which
they entered under the name of the river Simiyu or Shimeyu. But in
these deductions they were wrong. Baumann showed that the river Simiyu
was an inconsiderable stream of short course, and that the waters much
further to the south which had been identified with this river really
flowed northeastwards into a largish salt lake, discovered by Baumann
and called Lake Eyasi. Eyasi has no outlet. It is situated in a rift
valley which joins the great Rift valley of Masailand. The journeys
of Baumann and of other Germans considerably curtailed the present
extent of the Nile basin in Unyamwezi. The waters of this somewhat arid
tableland, which apparently is almost below the surface of the Victoria
Nyanza, flow mainly to Tanganyika, to Lake Rukwa, and to Lake Eyasi and
other isolated pools of the rift valleys.
[Illustration:
_Photo by J. Thomson._]
SIR FREDERIC D. LUGARD.]
CHAPTER XXV
GEOGRAPHICAL WORK IN THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE
Stanley’s relief of Emin Pasha led to the withdrawal of the latter’s
government from the equatorial regions, and after a brief interval of
hesitation, to the foundation of a British Protectorate over Uganda
and the adjoining territories. Preparations for this Protectorate were
made by Captain (now General Sir Frederic) Lugard, who, in the course
of his settlement of the disturbed country of Uganda, journeyed round
Ruwenzori to Lake Albert Edward.[111] Shortly afterwards (as already
related) Emin Pasha returned to this part of the world accompanied
by Dr. Stuhlmann. Mr. Scott-Elliott, a Scottish naturalist, came out
in 1893–1894 for the purpose of making natural history collections.
He drew a very neat and truthful little map of the eastern and
southern flanks of Ruwenzori,--a map which until quite recently has
been somewhat overlooked by those who have compiled charts of this
region. Scott-Elliott, Lugard, Stuhlmann, Grogan, J. E. Moore, Malcolm
Fergusson, and several Belgian officers, such as the late Lieutenant
Meura, were not slow to point out and correct serious errors on the
part of Stanley in his rough delimitation of Lake Albert Edward. Lake
Dweru or Beatrice Gulf was also redrawn with advantage. But curiously
enough, all these travellers--Stanley included--omitted to point out
that the connection between Lake Dweru and Lake Albert Edward was not
a broad channel, but a narrow and winding river between high banks.
It was left to the present writer to make this correction on the map.
The author also, together with Lieutenant Meura, redrew with greater
correctness the upper course of the Semliki River, and in 1900 added
somewhat to our knowledge of the configuration of the Ruwenzori range.
The expedition of Sir Gerald Portal (especially through the work of his
brother Raymond, who died after doing excellent service in pacifying
Toro) added to the map of the countries between Ruwenzori on the west
and Kavirondo on the east. In 1895 the late Colonel Seymour Vandeleur
(when only a lieutenant in the army) made an excellent and systematic
survey of the Kingdom of Uganda and of much of Unyoro. The wars against
the Sudanese mutineers added to our geographical knowledge of these
districts. Colonel John Evatt and Captain H. Maddox, amongst others,
gave us for the first time something like the true shape of the marshy
lakes of Kioga and Kwania, which, in some respects, are huge backwaters
of the Victoria Nile. But the great addition to the geography of the
southern extremities of the Nile basin was made by the expedition
under Colonel J. R. L. Macdonald. This officer had accurately
mapped the regions bordering on the northwest coasts of the Victoria
Nyanza in 1894. About this period also Mr. F. J. Jackson,[112] Mr.
C. W. Hobley, and Mr. Ernest Gedge were filling up the map as regards
the configuration of the country along the northeastern watershed of
Victoria Nyanza and the slopes of Mount Elgon. Mount Elgon was ascended
to its highest peak (14,080 feet), for the first and only time, by
Messrs. Jackson and Gedge in 1895.
[Illustration: G. F. SCOTT-ELLIOT.]
Colonel Macdonald was despatched more with a political than with a
geographical object. He was to journey through the northeastern part
of the British sphere of interest in East Africa and make for the
Nile about Gondokoro, and so travel with the idea of forestalling any
possible French competitors; whilst General (Lord) Kitchener should
be defeating the Khalifa at Khartum with a view to recovering all
the provinces of the Egyptian Sudan. But the mutiny of the Sudanese
soldiers in Uganda and other causes threw great difficulties in the
way of Colonel Macdonald’s expedition. He succeeded however in mapping
himself, and with the aid of such officers on his staff as Majors
Austin, Bright, Hanbury-Tracey, and others, the regions to the north
of Mount Elgon. He filled up a considerable blank in the map between
what was known east of the Mountain Nile and the actual coast-line of
Lake Rudolf. Colonel Macdonald’s expedition first brought clearly to
our knowledge the remarkable mountain-ranges of Chemorongi, Nakwai,
Lobor, Lopala, Morongole, Agoro, and Harogo. He put on the map the
upper waters of the Asua River (an important eastern contributary of
the Mountain Nile) and its larger affluents. His work and that of the
late Captain Welby has enabled us to define more clearly the separation
between the waters of Lake Rudolf on the east and the Mountain Nile on
the west. Colonel Macdonald discovered Lake Kirkpatrick on the upper
Asua, and mapped more precisely Lake Salisbury and the northern slopes
and streams of Mount Elgon.
Captain M. S. Wellby had travelled in 1899 round the east and south
shores of Lake Rudolf, and thence had penetrated westwards through
the Turkana and Karamojo countries to the Nile watershed, where he
discovered two streams flowing north, both of which he named Ruzi.
These he imagined to be the head-waters of the Sobat. Donaldson Smith
and H. H. Austin showed his theory to be wrong [?]. The Ruzis probably
flow into the rivers draining the Lotuka highlands and entering the
Bahr-az-Ziraf or Giraffe Nile.
[Illustration: DR. DONALDSON-SMITH.]
Colonel J. R. L. Macdonald (assisted by Captain Pringle) had previously
(1893), when first employed in Uganda, made an admirable survey of the
British coasts of the Victoria Nyanza, from Port Victoria in northern
Kavirondo, westwards to the German frontier at the Kagera River, and
for the first time put on record all or nearly all the islands, bays,
inlets, peninsulas, and rivers of the north and northwest coasts
of the Victoria Nyanza. Here and there his work in this direction has
been added to by Mr. C. W. Fowler and Commander Whitehouse. Whitehouse,
as already related, was the surveyor who finally amended Stanley’s
error of “Ugowe Bay,” and gave us for the first time the correct form
of the great northeastern gulf of the Victoria Nyanza (Kavirondo
Bay), together with the shape of the two large islands which mask
its entrance. Commander Whitehouse also surveyed the east coast of
the Victoria Nyanza down to the German frontier, and added a lot of
new material to the delineation of this eastern coast-line. In this
direction an interesting journey was made from Lake Naivasha to the
coast of Kavirondo Bay by Major E. Gorges in 1900. Mr. C. W. Hobley,
a Sub-Commissioner in the Uganda Protectorate, contributed a good
deal of information to fill up the blank places of the map between
Kavirondo Bay on the south and the northwestern flanks of Mount Elgon
on the north. Captain Pringle had already mapped these countries on the
railway survey.
In 1900 Dr. Donaldson-Smith, an American, traversed the countries
which lie between the north end of Lake Rudolf and the Mountain Nile.
He crossed several dry river-beds, in a region of appalling drought
(extinct tributaries of the Sobat), and then reached the rivers
Oguelokur, Tu, and Kos which flow in a northwesterly direction towards
the Mountain Nile or its branch, the Giraffe River. The region between
the Giraffe and the Sobat remains to-day the only unexplored part of
the Nile Basin.
In 1900 and 1901 Major C. Delmé Radcliffe made the first completely
accurate survey of the Nile from Lake Albert to Gondokoro, and put on
the map for the first time many new details concerning the Asua River
and its affluents, besides streams which rise in the hills of the
Acholi and Madi countries and enter that portion of the Nile between
Gondokoro and Lake Albert.
From the Cape to Cairo was a watchword that, as an idea, first emanated
from the pen of Sir Edwin Arnold in 1876, and as a phrase took shape
in writings by the author of this book in 1888 and 1890, and as a
policy was finally adopted by Cecil Rhodes in 1892. The first person
to carry this idea into practical execution was Mr. Ewart Grogan, who
(accompanied part of the way by Mr. Sharp) travelled literally from the
Cape to Cairo via Lake Albert Edward and the Uganda Protectorate. His
contributions to Nile explorations are referred to in the next chapter.
He was followed in 1900 by Major A. St. Hill Gibbons and later by M.
Lionel Dècle. Between 1898 and 1902 Colonel E. A. Stanton surveyed the
eastern part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the intricate channels of the
lower Mountain Nile.
[Illustration: CUTTING THE SUDD.]
In the year 1900 a very notable achievement took place. The terrible
obstruction of the sudd which had intermittently blocked the Nile
navigation from the days of Nero’s two centurions (who could hardly
force their way through it in the year 66 A.D.) to our own times was
cut through resolutely by an expedition under Major Malcolm Peake. The
government of the Egyptian Sudan has for the last two years continued
to clear away this obstacle, and in all probability it will never be
allowed to form again. In fact, in this direction man will probably do
much to modify the subsequent history of the Nile. Sir William Garstin
has recently explored Lake Tsana and the Blue Nile as well as the White
Mountain Nile as far as Gondokoro, Lake Albert, and Lake Victoria, with
a view to ascertaining which of the two rivers contributes the most
valuable supply of water for the irrigation and fertilisation of Egypt.
So far, he has decided for the Blue Nile, a fact which lends increased
importance to the Empire of Abyssinia.[113] It may be, however, that
with the clearing of the sudd on the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the Mountain
Nile these branches of the great river may send down increasing
supplies of water to Egypt. In any case the clearing of the sudd will
permit of these waterways being used for penetrating in all directions
into the heart of Equatorial Africa.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE EASTERN BASIN OF THE NILE
We will now turn to the eastern part of the Nile basin--the first to
be explored, the last to be finished. It has been already related
how, alarmed at the rapid successes of the Portuguese in India, the
Persian Gulf, and East Africa, the Abyssinians resolutely ejected the
Portuguese missionaries from their country during the seventeenth
century, and how the attempts of Louis XIV. to supplant the Portuguese
by French influence resulted disastrously. Bruce had broken the spell
which rested on this strange country, so fascinating to Europeans,
because while being absolutely “Africa” it was ruled, and for the most
part inhabited, by more or less Caucasian races, its rulers having a
Semitic history which attached them to the fountains of civilisation.
Our previous review of exploration in Abyssinia ended with Bruce’s
journey, and with the attempts on the part of French and German
explorers during the early part of the nineteenth century to enter
Abyssinia up the course of the Blue Nile. Meantime the overland route
to the East had been conceived by Lieutenant Waghorn, the British
government had seized Aden in 1839, and a much greater interest than
heretofore was taken in the navigation of the Red Sea, which was
rapidly becoming the main route to India. Although Abyssinia then as
now had no acknowledged political control over any part of the Red
Sea littoral, it was early recognised that Abyssinia was an important
factor in the political problems governing the control of the Red Sea.
Even before the safety of the British route to India became a matter
of urgent importance, we had sought to enter into direct relations
with Abyssinia. In 1805 a British mission under Lord Valentia and
Consul Henry Salt was sent to conclude an alliance with Abyssinia
and obtain a port on the Danakil coast by means of which Britain
could, if necessary, convey troops to Abyssinia, and so take a French
Egypt in the rear. The writings of Henry Salt added greatly to our
knowledge of the peoples, languages, and fauna of Abyssinia and of the
Zanzibar coast, but did not contribute materially to the elucidation
of Nile problems. During the first part of the nineteenth century
Abyssinia was in the throes of civil war caused by the struggles
for supremacy between the ruler of Tigre (the northern province)
and the Ras or Governor of Amhara (the central province). The Ras
of Tigre--Sabagadis--threw open northern Abyssinia to the English,
cordially inviting missionaries, mechanics, and explorers to enter
his dominions. In this way the Church Missionary Society’s missions
to eastern Africa started by the despatch of Protestant missionaries
(mostly Germans in the pay of the Society) to Tigre. On the other
hand, the war between Tigre and Amhara having resulted in the death
of both the chiefs, a third potentate, the ruler of the lofty Samien
Mountains, annexed Tigre, and out of opposition to his predecessor’s
policy invited Frenchmen to develop the country. Captains Galinier and
Ferret accepted the commission to survey Tigre and Samien by careful
triangulation. This task was accomplished in 1842, and resulted in the
correct mapping of the affluents of the Atbara. Meantime the British
Protestant missionaries had penetrated into Amhara, while Tigre and
Samien came under French Roman Catholic influence. In fact, the history
of Uganda was given here on a larger scale. Simultaneously the southern
province of Ethiopia, Shoa, under the enlightened ruler Selasié had
attracted the attention of Europeans. Major (afterwards Sir William)
Harris was sent by the Indian government in 1841 to conclude a treaty
with Shoa, as it was thought that this country might eventually extend
its influence over Somaliland, and so come into direct contact with
the Indian government at Aden. This British mission was naturally
followed by a French one, and a French envoy applied to the Pope for
the starting of a Roman Catholic mission in Shoa.
The work of Monseigneur Massaja, who was despatched by Pope Pius IX.,
though it throws much interesting light on the structure of the Gala
language, hardly comes within the sphere of Nile exploration. Meantime
an adventurer named Kasa had arisen in Amhara, and had gradually made
himself master of the northern and western provinces of Abyssinia.
He had himself crowned King of Kings of Ethiopia under the name of
Theodore, and then proceeded to annex the province of Shoa to his
dominions.
During the early part of Theodore’s reign the two brothers d’Abbadie
were at work surveying Abyssinia and collecting invaluable information
regarding the languages, literature, coins, inscriptions, and religions
of that assemblage of Semitic, Hamitic, and Negro states. Antoine
Thomson d’Abbadie and his brother Arnaud Michel were actually born in
Dublin, their father being French and their mother Irish. They were
however educated in France. Their bent for scientific exploration
was early recognised, for the French Academy sent the elder of the
two on a scientific mission to Brazil at the age of twenty-five. The
younger d’Abbadie explored Algeria. This leading his thoughts in the
direction of Abyssinia, he proposed to his brother a joint mission
of exploration, which commenced in 1838 by their landing at Masawa.
Besides carefully surveying the northern and central provinces of
Abyssinia they did work of special novelty and interest in the south.
Until the journeys of Cecchi and other Italians twenty years ago the
d’Abbadies’ information concerning the countries lying to the south
of Abyssinia represented all that we knew of Kaffa and Enarea,--names
indeed which had been cited by the Portuguese, but names unsupported
by geographical information. Antoine d’Abbadie penetrated the furthest
into Kaffa. He collected an immense amount of information regarding
the languages spoken in the vague south and southwest districts
inhabited mainly by races of Hamitic origin. The d’Abbadies closed
their survey of Abyssinia in 1848, though the younger brother paid the
country another short visit in 1853. They were in no hurry to give the
results of their explorations to the world; in fact, the “Géographie
de l’Éthiopie” (of which only one volume was published) did not appear
till 1890. Their actual surveys of Abyssinia were published between
the years 1860 and 1873. Their Ethiopian manuscripts came out also
during that period, but Antoine’s Dictionary of the Amharic tongue
was published no further back than 1881. Their twelve years’ work
in Abyssinia was the greatest contribution that has ever been made
to our knowledge of that country, but most of their labours do not
lie sufficiently within the field of Nile exploration to admit of an
adequate description in this book. Antoine d’Abbadie lived to the age
of eighty-seven (he died in 1897). About 1859 he found himself involved
in a somewhat acrid conflict of opinion with another Abyssinian
explorer, Dr. C. T. Beke, who visited Abyssinia in the forties of the
last century. D’Abbadie was naturally prejudiced in favour of the Blue
Nile being the main Nile, since that river and its southern affluents
had been the special object of his researches during twelve years.
On the other hand, Dr. Beke was hotly in favour of the White Nile,
especially after Speke’s discovery of the Victoria Nyanza. Dr. Beke was
right in his main contentions, but seems to have thrown unnecessary
aspersions on the genuineness of Antoine d’Abbadie’s explorations in
southern Abyssinia. We now know d’Abbadie’s work to have been perfectly
accurate.
[Illustration: DR. C. BEKE.]
Mansfield Parkyns, an Englishman, visited Abyssinia from 1843 to 1846,
wrote interestingly on the country in confirmation or correction of
Bruce’s statements, but did not add materially to our geographical
knowledge, though his book is still often quoted in regard to habits
and customs now dying out.
Amongst the Protestant missionaries first despatched to the country
by the Church Missionary Society of London was the celebrated Krapf,
already alluded to in Chapter XI. as the joint discoverer of the East
African snow-mountains. Krapf penetrated far south into Shoa, and gave
considerable information, both interesting and true, regarding the
dwarfish Negro tribes found to the southwest of the Abyssinian Empire.
Lij Kasa, who had become King of Kings of Ethiopia under the name of
Theodore III., showed himself, when he had consolidated his power,
very fond of the English, and encouraged English missionaries and
consuls to go to his court. He seems, however, to have pursued this
policy more with the idea of strengthening his prestige and improving
his kingdom by the spread of mechanical appliances and the manufacture
of superior arms and ammunition, than from any desire to encourage
missionary work. In the early sixties he became offended at a supposed
slight on the part of the British government, which left unanswered a
letter addressed to it by Theodore in 1863. His subsequent proceedings
in regard to the imprisonment of the consul and missionaries
eventually brought about the British expedition of 1868. A force of
sixteen thousand British and Indian soldiers under Sir Charles Napier
(afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala) marched from Masawa up and along
the eastern escarpment of the Abyssinian plateau, and captured the
citadel of Magdala, which is situated within the basin of the Nile,
close to the northeasternmost tributary of that river. This expedition
was accompanied by Dr. W. T. Blanford, who compiled a valuable work on
the geology and zoölogy of Abyssinia, which was published in 1870.
For ten years after the withdrawal of the British expedition,
in 1869, little advance was made in our knowledge of Abyssinian
geography. Theodore was succeeded by another adventurer, also called
Kasa,--a native of Tigre,--who afforded considerable help to the
British. By means of our indirect support he succeeded in getting
himself crowned as Yohannes (John), King of Kings of Ethiopia. Shoa
alone, where Menelik (the present emperor) was slowly recovering the
power of his father (who had lost the country to Theodore), was not
actually conquered by the Emperor John; for just as he was starting
to subdue Menelik, he himself was attacked by the Egyptian army
under Munzinger, the Swiss Governor of Masawa. Munzinger was urging
the Khedive’s government to occupy and annex Abyssinia, and Egypt
had, as a preliminary, seized the Bogos country, the greater part of
which still remains Egyptian. But in 1875 John inflicted a tremendous
defeat on the Egyptian army near the river Mareb, and in 1876 a second
defeat, still more disastrous to the Egyptian power. This brought
about the intervention of General Gordon, who, in 1876 and 1879, made
two attempts to come to a friendly understanding with Abyssinia. His
journeys added a little to our knowledge of the affluents of the Blue
Nile and the Atbara.
In 1879 the Earl of Mayo (who subsequently travelled with the writer of
this book in southwest Africa) made an interesting journey along the
Takaze River, which is the upper waters of the Atbara. His sporting
expedition was followed by that of the brothers W. and F. L. James
(who subsequently explored Somaliland). The Italians began to take
an interest in Abyssinia at the end of the seventies, but the first
expeditions undertaken by their explorers have no connection with the
Nile basin.
In 1839 or 1840 one of the most important affluents of the Nile was
discovered by the expedition of Turks and Europeans despatched by
Muhammad Ali to explore the White Nile. This was the Sobat (as it was
named by the Nile Arabs), which enters the White River under the ninth
degree of latitude. The word Sobat was evidently an ancient Nubian or
Ethiopian term which was in existence two thousand years ago, when it
was applied to the White Nile (Asta Sobas), in contradistinction to the
Blue Nile (Ast’apos). At the present day the Sobat is known by the
name of Kir[114] on its lower portion, and Baro on its upper course.
In subsequent years steamers ascended the Sobat from the Nile as far
as it was navigable, namely, to a point called Nasr. Johann Maria
Schuver, a Dutch traveller in the seventies of the last century, and
several Europeans in the service of the Egyptian government, collected
a little more information about the Sobat and its tributaries above
Nasr, but this river long remained one of the unsolved problems of
Nile geography. Schuver did much to explore the western Gala countries
between the Sobat and the Blue Nile. On some of these journeys he was
accompanied by the Italian explorer Piaggia[115] (who had discovered
Lake Kioga on the Victoria Nile). Piaggia, in endeavouring once more to
force his way towards the Sobat, died at Karkoj, on the Blue Nile, in
1882.
[Illustration: NATIVES OF THE BARO (UPPER SOBAT) SKINNING HIPPOPOTAMUS.]
The surcease of the Nile exploration which followed on the Mahdi’s
revolt in 1882, closed for a time the exploration of the Sobat and its
affluents. But one result of this revolt was to urge European inquirers
more and more towards Abyssinia, especially the southern provinces
of that empire. A French explorer, Jules Borelli, made remarkable
journeys to the south and southwest of Abyssinia at the close of the
eighties of the last century, and, besides discovering the river Omo,
which flows into Lake Rudolf, he gave much new information regarding
the source of the Sobat. The book which he published in 1890--“Ethiopie
Méridionale”--is one of the best and most beautifully illustrated works
which have appeared on Africa.
Italy having assumed an unacknowledged protectorate over Abyssinia,
subsidised expedition after expedition, nominally for scientific
research. Among the best equipped of these undertakings, and the most
fruitful in geographical results, was an expedition under Vittorio
Bottego, L. Vannutelli, and C. Citerni, which explored the head-waters
of the Sobat (Baro, Akobo, etc.) in the southern Abyssinian highlands,
and also the waters of the Didessa (Dabessa), which is the southernmost
tributary of the Blue Nile.
In 1898 the celebrated Captain (now Colonel) J. B. Marchand, who
had made a most remarkable journey across the Nyam-nyam country in
the western Nile basin from the Mbomu (a northern affluent of the
Welle-Ubangi), across the Nile watershed to the Sue River, and down the
Sue to the Bahr-al-Ghazal and Fashoda, left Fashoda[116] in consequence
of the agreement between France and Great Britain, and travelled to
Abyssinia more or less along the course of the Sobat River, thus,
first of all Europeans, practically connecting the southern provinces
of Abyssinia with the White Nile by a direct journey up the valley of
the Sobat or Baro. Marchand’s explorations were supplemented by those
of MM. de Bonchamps and Michel.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Pierre Petit & Fils._]
COLONEL J. B. MARCHAND.]
These explorers were soon followed in the same direction by the late
Captain M. S. Wellby. Captain Wellby also made a most interesting
journey from Abyssinia to Lake Rudolf, down the east coast of Lake
Rudolf to Lake Baringo and the Uganda Protectorate, and then northwest
through the Turkana country, which lies to the west of Lake Rudolf.
Here Captain Wellby found himself on the Nile-Rudolf water-parting.
To the west of the Turkana, in the Karamojo country, he crossed an
important stream named the Ruzi,[117] which was flowing in a general
way northwest. Farther north he encountered another river also named
Ruzi, which might or might not be the same, but which in doubt he
called Ruzi II. From the second of these Ruzis he eventually reached
the main Sobat. Thenceforth he believed that in one or other of the
Ruzis he had discovered the southernmost affluent, or perhaps the
headwaters of the Sobat River. His theory, however, was strongly
contested by Major H. H. Austin, who, in company with Major R. G. T.
Bright, travelled over the greater part of the Sobat system in
1900–1901, giving us for the first time a fairly accurate survey of
that river, and of its southern affluents, especially the Pibor-Akobo,
which for length of course, though not in volume, might lay claim to
be the main Sobat River. The Akobo rises in the mountains to the north
of Lake Rudolf, its source being very close to the stream of the Omo,
the principal feeder of Lake Rudolf. It does receive an affluent from
the south, which is named by Major Austin “Neubari,” but this stream
is at present unexplored in its lower course. It might turn out to be
one of the rivers named by Captain Wellby “Ruzi.” At the same time Dr.
Donaldson-Smith, who crossed this region in 1900, does not appear to
have encountered running water where the junction of the Ruzi and the
Neubari should have taken place. Probably the two Ruzis discovered
by Captain Wellby are two different streams, one of which flows
northwestward into the Nile and the other into the northwest corner of
Lake Rudolf. The countries to the south of Akobo and northwest of Lake
Rudolf are described by the few travellers who have visited them as
being a region of appalling drought.
[Illustration: GORGE OF THE RIVER BARO (UPPER SOBAT).]
Mr. Weld Blundell had succeeded the Bonchamps-Michel expedition
as an explorer of the Blue Nile, and of its interesting southern
affluent, the Didessa. Mr. Blundell made several interesting changes
in the delineation of the course of the Blue Nile westward of Gojam.
Blundell’s work was succeeded by the remarkable surveys of Major C. W.
Gwynn and Lieutenant L. C. Jackson, who contributed a map of the Blue
Nile from Roseires up stream to the Gubba country, on the frontiers of
Abyssinia. They also threw a little more light on the course of the
Didessa and Yabus affluents of the Blue Nile, and the upper waters of
the Rahad, which also flows (somewhat intermittently) into the Blue
Nile. From the Rahad they crossed the tiny stretch of mountainous
country (Galabat) to the Atbara. Here they showed that only a distance
of about five miles of mountains separates the affluents of the Atbara
from the affluents of the Rahad, which is a tributary of the Blue
Nile. But for this intervening ridge of five miles in breadth, the
systems of the Atbara and the Blue Nile would (as the ancients and
Arabs formerly believed) have turned the whole country of Sennar into a
huge island, in which form it was represented by most travellers down
to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Major Gwynn also explored
the head-waters of the river Garre, which is the northernmost affluent
of the Baro-Sobat, and also the Pibor. As to the country between the
Baro or the main upper Sobat and the Pibor, Major Gwynn describes it
as “a dried-up marsh covered with a thick choking layer of black ash
resulting from the burning of the grass.” The Nuers, one of the eastern
tribes of the Nilotic Negroes, he describes as a wonderfully fine
race physically, averaging nearly six feet in height. Of the work of
the earliest European pioneer in western Galaland Major Gwynn gives a
generous estimate:--
“Up to this point (the Lega-Gala country) we had been traversing
a land which had to a certain extent been explored by Schuver,
and his work had, on the whole, been found to be very accurate in
detail, though in the southern portions of his map a considerable
error in latitude had appeared.... Schuver was much liked and
respected throughout the country, and a great impression had been
produced by his dog, which must have been a big Newfoundland. (He
is still always spoken of by the Galas as Abu Sari, ‘the Father of
the Dog.’)”
[Illustration: BERTA NEGROES.]
On the middle of the Blue Nile, north of the country of Fazokl, the
aboriginal inhabitants are purely Negro--Berta and Barun. These Negro
races were probably first mentioned by Cailliaud, the French explorer,
and Ferdinand Werne, the German, who travelled on the Blue Nile between
1829 and 1843. Major Gwynn describes them as “a very black race, large,
well made, but slothful and stupid to a degree. Going up to their
villages in the hills, one finds them stretched out, sunning themselves
on the rocks, looking for all the world like great black snails. Funny
little black pigs and stringy fowls share the huts on equal terms.”
An interesting journey was made by Mr. Oscar T. Crosby across southern
Abyssinia and down the Blue Nile in 1900. In an article by Mr. Crosby
in the “Geographical Journal” of July, 1900, an interesting description
is given of the deep gorge of the Blue Nile in the Gomar country
of Gojam. The level of the river at this point is 4,725 feet above
sea-level. The edge of the plateau above the river is 9,650 feet, and
this plateau descends nearly five thousand feet in a series of abrupt
steps or “benches.”
At the beginning of 1900 Mr. Oscar Neumann, a German, already noted
for his explorations of the eastern part of the Uganda Protectorate,
reached Abyssinia by the now well-trodden route from Zeila to Harar,
and after visiting the Blue Nile in Gojam, explored the northern part
of the Rudolf basin, and then reached the Galo, which is one of the
rivers that might claim to be the head-waters of the Sobat, a river
rising in those lofty, snow-patched highlands to the southwest of
Enarea. From the Galo, Neumann crossed to the Akobo, and followed this
stream down to its confluence with the Pibor. At this confluence he
makes the Pibor such an important stream that it may well be Captain
Wellby’s Ruzi. In the country immediately to the south of Kaffa and
on the water-parting between the systems of the Nile and Lake Rudolf
Mr. Neumann claims to have discovered Negro races of the Bantu stock.
Apparently he means merely in physical type,--in other words, Negroes
of more or less West African affinities; but if he or any other
traveller should be able to support this statement by specimens of
the language of these Sheko and Binesho peoples which actually showed
affinities with the Bantu family, he would have thrown a remarkable new
light on the unsolved problem concerning the source of this interesting
family of African languages. The present writer has been able to show
that Bantu languages of the most archaic type exist at the present
day on the northwest slopes of Mount Elgon. This is the furthest
point to the northeast to which the Bantu family has been traced.
Thence southwards and westwards it spreads as the dominating family of
languages as far as Cape Colony and Fernando Po.
[Illustration: A BERTA VILLAGE IN THE MATONGWE MOUNTAINS.]
Almost the only large white spot now remaining unexplored in the
Nile basin is the district occupied by Nilotic Negroes (Dinka, Nuēr,
Shiluk), lying between the Sobat River on the northeast and the main
White Nile on the west and southwest. This region appears to be a flat
country of alternate marsh and arid steppe, producing few or no great
rivers of its own. On the west it is watered by the affluents of an
important river, vaguely known as the Oguelokur, some of which (such as
the Tu and Kos) rise in those high mountains of the Lotuka country in
the northernmost parts of the Uganda Protectorate. Mr. Ewart Grogan,
accompanied part of the way by Mr. Sharp, in 1899 and 1900, made a
remarkable journey, literally from the Cape to Cairo. He travelled from
the north end of Lake Tanganyika by way of lakes Kivu and Albert Edward
to the Albert Nyanza, and thence down the Nile to the sudd barriers
beyond Bor. After which, taking to the land, he traversed the unknown
country along that branch of the White Nile called Bahr-az-Ziraf or
the Giraffe River. He discovered another branch of the Mountain Nile
which joins the Bahr-az-Ziraf, and at the junction of these rivers he
notes the entry of a powerful tributary from the southeast, doubtless
the Oguelokur. It is sometimes supposed that the southernmost of the
Ruzi rivers discovered by Captain Wellby also joins the Oguelokur, and
not the Sobat, though the more northern Ruzi may be the head-waters of
the Pibor. Some distance to the west of the Pibor is a river called in
Sudanese Arabic “Khor Felus.” This river was practically discovered by
Captain H. H. Wilson in 1902. Starting southwards from the Sobat, not
far from its confluence with the main Nile, Captain Wilson followed
the Khor Felus up stream for a distance of some eighty-five miles in
a direct line due south. He describes the country traversed by this
winding river as being flat and uninteresting,--nothing but a vast
grassy plain, with hardly a tree to be seen. The river or khor was
not traced to its source, which indeed was said by the natives to be
the White Nile itself. If this be true, another branch of the White
Nile would start from near Bor and flow northeastwards into the Sobat;
further, more natural canals seem to connect the Khor Felus with the
Pibor or the Upper Sobat. If this is the case, then in that vast plain
lying between the Sobat and the Nile, which was once a portion of the
“Lake of Fashoda,” we have still remains of many old channels of the
Nile which, as the lake drained off to the northwards, meandered over
its drying bed.
[Illustration: THE NILE IN EGYPT.]
CHAPTER XXVII
CONCLUSION
The Nile quest is practically ended. It may be safely said that every
important branch or affluent or lake-source of this the longest river
in Africa (very nearly the longest in the world) has been discovered,
named, and partially or completely mapped. The only portion of the
Nile basin which presents any noticeable blank on the map is the
unknown district--some say of swamp alternating with arid steppe--which
stretches like a tongue of white in our charts between the tributaries
of the Mountain Nile and the Giraffe on the west, and the affluents
of the Sobat on the east. In all probability whilst these lines are
written and printed this blank is being filled up by industrious
surveyors sent out by the Anglo-Egyptian government of the Sudan.
Fate has ordained that the entire basin of this river and its
tributaries (with the trifling exceptions of the upper waters of those
which rise within the political limits of Abyssinia, a portion of the
extreme source of the Nile (the Kagera), of Lake Albert Edward, and of
the Semliki) should come under the political control of Great Britain.
We have, therefore, cast our ægis over one of the most wonderful
regions, in some respects one of the most productive portions, of
Africa.
On the north there is the oldest country in the world, so far as
history goes,--Egypt, with its ten millions of Egyptians, Arabs,
Europeans, and Nubians; its cotton and wheat, maize, barley, beans,
sugar-cane, dates, rice, and clover; its petroleum, gold, and emeralds
in the eastern desert, and its alum and soda in the Libyan wastes;
Egypt, with its European or Mediterranean fauna and flora.
Then comes Nubia, producing little at present but fierce men of mixed
Hamitic, Semitic, and Negro blood; then the richer countries of Darfur,
Kordofan, Sennar, Bogos, Kasalá, and Galabat. Here there is no lack of
trade goods,--copper, camels, asses, and, above all, acacia gum. The
vegetation in these lands is no longer that of the Mediterranean. It
is African. On the hills above three thousand feet, appear dracænas
and euphorbias. In the lowlands there are baobabs, acacias, giant
fig-trees, wild-date palms, and the branching hyphæne. Here begins the
great fauna of Africa,--baboons, elephants, antelopes, lions, zebras,
cheetahs, leopards, spotted hyænas, wild asses, rhinoceroses, giraffes.
[Illustration: NUBIA: A “WASHOUT” ON THE SUDAN RAILWAY.]
Farther south comes the influence of the regular equatorial rains. The
steppe gives place to grasslands, and, above all, to marshes,--hopeless
marshes of papyrus, of Phragmites reeds, of the fleecy _Vossia_ grass,
of the floating _Pistia stratiotes_, the amaranth, the water-lily,
and the ambatch (a gouty bean with orange-coloured blossoms). In
these marshes swarm the hippopotamuses and crocodiles, long banished
from Egypt proper. Here strides and poses the extraordinary _Balæniceps
rex_ or Whale-headed stork. Sacred ibises, spoonbills, stilts, herons,
marabou storks, white storks, black storks, saddle-billed storks,
tantalus storks, Egyptian geese, spur-winged geese, knobnose geese,
ducks of many kinds frequent this dreary land, that, save to birds,
has no horizon; for everywhere the view is shut in with walls of reed
and rush and amphibious bush. Yet away beyond the marshes--marshes
which are really hidden lakes and mighty rivers with false banks of
floating vegetation--is a grassy country dotted with stony hillocks,
if one travels far enough from the river, and inhabited by naked Nile
Negroes. These are tall black men with long, thin shanks, and the gait
and attitudes of wading birds. They are cattle-keepers, above all, and
their vast unseen herds beyond the marsh lands breed and send forth
periodically for the devastation of Africa those cattle plagues which
recur at intervals of a few years.
[Illustration: TROPICAL FOREST AT ENTEBBE, ON THE NORTH-WEST SHORES OF
VICTORIA NYANZA,
(Now turned into Botanical Gardens.)]
To the southwest of Marshland begins an attractive, even beautiful,
park-like country of rolling, grassy downs, interspersed with fine
trees of ample foliage, with belts of forest along the rivers. Beyond
the parklands rises that tremendous tropical forest which passes thence
uninterruptedly over the water-parting into the basin of the Congo.
This tropical forest, only to be rivalled in luxuriance by that of
the Amazons in South America, stretches in a crescent curve along
the southwestern edge of the Nile basin to Ruwenzori, and, with a few
interruptions, into Unyoro, Uganda, and the northern shores of the
Victoria Nyanza. On the plateaux lying to the northeast of the Victoria
Nyanza are other areas of dense forest, but not always tropical in
character,--forests consisting of great conifers and tree-heaths, which
reappear on the high mountains of Abyssinia.
To the immediate south of the marshy country appears more parkland on
either side of the Mountain Nile, and in the countries of the Acholi,
the Lango, and the Lotuka. Beyond this parkland is the great area of
marshes between the Victoria Nile and Mount Elgon. North of Elgon
the parkland becomes more arid. East and west of the Victoria Nyanza
are beautiful and healthy plateaux ranging from six thousand to ten
thousand feet in altitude, and highly suggestive of Europe and the Cape
of Good Hope in their vegetation.
Between the watershed of Rudolf and that of the White Nile are many
mountains, but as one proceeds northward in the direction of the Sobat,
the country is increasingly parched and sandy where it is not stagnant
marsh.
Nileland contains within its limits the highest point of the African
continent,--the culminating peak (whichever it may be) of the Ruwenzori
range, a ridge which presents some thirty miles of snow and glaciers,
and perhaps attains twenty thousand feet in supreme altitude. South
of Ruwenzori, and still partly within the Nile watershed, is the
Mfumbiro group of volcanoes, two of which possibly exceed an altitude
of thirteen thousand feet. Away to the northeast of the Victoria
Nyanza is the great extinct volcano of Elgon, over fourteen thousand
feet in height, while the mountains of Abyssinia, where the Sobat, the
Blue Nile and its tributaries, and the Atbara take their rise, reach
in places to altitudes of sixteen thousand feet, and are capped with
patches of perpetual snow. Nileland, therefore, offers a wonderful
range of climate, temperature, and vegetation.
Its fauna comprises the most interesting, the biggest, and the
handsomest of African beasts. And its human races include nearly every
type of Negro and Negroid,--Congo Pygmies, Turkana giants, Masai
like Greek athletes and Balega[118] like apes, long-shanked Dinka
and Shiluk, short-limbed Lendu, burly Baganda, handsome Bahima, ugly
Berta and Shangala, bearded Nyam-nyam and womanish Madi; the clothed,
curly-haired Galas and the absolutely nude Nilotic Negroes. In Egypt
are pure Caucasians; in Nubia and Abyssinia, in the lands between the
Nyanzas, are people of this regal stock variously mixed with antecedent
Negro.
The Nile has been the main route by which in ancient times the
Caucasian invaded Negro Africa, the once exclusive path by which the
white man’s cultivated plants and domestic animals reached the torrid
lands and dense forests where the Negro, before the Caucasian touched
him, lived in the condition of the semi-beast. No Negro race cared
whence the Nile came or whither it flowed. Interest in geographical
problems, as it was remarked in the first chapter of this book, is
almost the exclusive heritage of the Caucasian. This is the human
race which for some three thousand years has felt first a flickering
curiosity, latterly an intense desire, to wrest the secret of the Nile
sources from the heart of Africa. Its aim is accomplished. The main
features of the Nile system are placed on the maps of civilised men,
are known to intelligent Egyptians, Arabs, Indians, and Abyssinians.
The Nile has been the Caucasian’s first and easiest way across the
desert to Real Africa before the ocean could be navigated. The Nile
basin, moreover, offered to the more sensitive white man elevated
areas, oases in a land of malarial fever, wherein he could make
some home or settlement, south of the Tropic of Capricorn, not too
dissimilar in climate and temperature to the lands of temperate
Europe and Asia. From the vantage-ground of Abyssinia, of the Nandi
and Ankole plateaux, of the Mediterranean Delta of the Nile, the
Caucasian may still direct the education of the Nile Negroes and
permeate increasingly these black and bronze-skinned, woolly-haired
backsliders from human progress with Caucasian blood, energy, and love
of knowledge, till the Nile Negro himself grows interested in the past
history of Nile discovery.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE NILE BASIN
Early in the geological history of the globe there appear to have been
rock-foldings, wrinkles in the earth’s surface in the eastern half of
Africa. Sometimes this puckering of the solid crust manifested itself
simply in longitudinal strips of raised plateaux of which Abyssinia
and the highlands east of the Victoria Nyanza, north and west of
Nyasaland, are remains. A sharper wrinkle than others produced the
remarkable snowy range of Ruwenzori, perhaps the greatest altitude of
the African continent. These lofty plateaux and mountain ranges from
Abyssinia on the north to Nyasaland on the south have no doubt in all
times attracted an unusually heavy rainfall from the moisture-laden
clouds which are blown inland off the Indian Ocean. The rainfall on the
Livingstone Mountains and the Nyasa-Tanganyika Plateau drains south
and east to the Indian Ocean and west to the basin of the Congo; or
into Tanganyika, which is likewise connected with the Congo at the
present day.[119] North of the Tanganyika system, however,--that is to
say, approximately north of the third degree of south latitude,--the
rainfall flows either towards the Mediterranean down the valley of
the Nile, or else in a north-northeasterly direction into a string
of isolated lakes which apparently at one time communicated with the
Gulf of Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea. Supervening on the original
wrinkling of the true backbone of Africa (i.e. the elevated ridge
which extends from the Nubian Alps to the Cape of Good Hope or at any
rate to the Zambezi) came a series of profound volcanic disturbances,
elevating, depressing, cracking, and rending the eastern side of
this ancient continent. As a rule this volcanic action seems to
have proceeded along nearly parallel curved lines, running from the
latitudes of the Zambezi River in a north-northeasterly direction. The
first and widest of these faults due to volcanic action was seemingly
the sinking of the ground between Madagascar and East Africa. A nearly
parallel but much narrower rift valley was also formed up the trough of
Lake Nyasa, northwards[120] to the celebrated rift valley which lies
to the east of the Victoria Nyanza, and contains innumerable lakes,
large and small, salt and fresh. This valley, with some interruptions,
extends north and northeast till it reaches the shores of the Gulf
of Aden.[121] Westward again of this East African rift (which some
geologists believe to have been continued with a northwesterly
inflection up the Red Sea to the valley of the Jordan) is another less
clearly-defined fault, which may have produced the valleys of the
Kafue and of the Luapula, and was then continued northwards through
Tanganyika to the Albert Nyanza and the valley of the Nile. Various
upheavals and modifications broke up the continuity of this western
rift valley. The drainage of the Kafue was deflected to the Indian
Ocean; that of the Luapula and its lakes and of Tanganyika to the Congo
basin. North of Lake Kivu,[122] however, the drainage flowed northward
into a vast fresh-water inland sea, which, for want of a better name,
we may call the Lake of Fashoda. A parallel to this great circular,
shallow sheet of water existed not very anciently in the northern
basin of the Congo, and another is to be seen at the present day in
the Victoria Nyanza. This last is the largest existing lake in Africa.
So far as is known it is shallow compared to such deep troughs as
Tanganyika and Nyasa, and is possibly not a very ancient sheet of water
as geological age may be reckoned.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON GULF, LOOKING SOUTH, NEAR THE OUTLET OF THE
RIPON FALLS.
[Note the isolated rocks, the remains of a former barrier and fall.]]
The Victoria Nyanza is in origin little but the widened course of the
river Kagera, which flowed along a curved depression to the eastward
of the Ruwenzori, Ankole, Mpororo, and Mfumbiro highlands. The Kagera,
in fact, at the present day may be regarded as the extreme source of
the Nile. It rises approximately under the fourth degree of south
latitude, only a few miles from the mountainous shores of northeast
Tanganyika. Many streams descending[123] from these Burundi mountains
unite to form the Kagera, which, after a zigzag northerly course
studded with not a few small lakes, turns, under the first degree of
south latitude, abruptly to the east (with one dip to the south) and
enters the Victoria Nyanza a little to the north of the first degree
of south latitude. The original course of the stream evidently lay
between the Sese Islands (the remains of high mountains) and the coasts
of Buddu and Uganda, and then through the Rosebery Channel into the
Napoleon Gulf, from which, over the Ripon Falls, it issues as the
acknowledged Nile. Apart from the Kagera the great Victoria Nyanza
receives few rivers of size or important volume. The only others worthy
to be mentioned are the Nzoia on the northeast, the Nyando and its
affluents, which form Kavirondo Bay, and four largish rivers which
enter the east coast of the lake. If the bed of the Victoria Nyanza
could be raised by some earth movement about two hundred and fifty
feet, it would be traversed by a converging network of river channels
uniting with the Kagera and the main stream of the Nile in what is at
present called Napoleon Gulf; and the geographical appearance of this
dried-up lake would be very similar to the present aspect on the map of
the many branches and affluents of the Nile and its tributaries which
converge (south of Fashoda) at the junction of the Sobat. The surface
area of the Victoria Nyanza may at one time have been considerably
greater than it is at the present day, and have covered a good deal of
the country of Unyamwezi. Perhaps at one time it had no outlet. The
highlands forming the eastern spine of the continent and stretching
along the eastern cliffs of the rift valley from Abyssinia to North
Nyasa prevented its overflowing towards the Indian Ocean; while the
Nyasa-Tanganyika Plateau and the mountains bordering the Tanganyika
rift valley opposed any western escapement. Therefore the great inland
sea created by the drainage of Unyamwezi, of the Kagera, and the rivers
from the Nandi plateau was forced up against the ridge of highish land
(4,000 feet), forming the existing countries of Uganda, Busoga, and
Kavirondo. Attacking this ridge at its narrowest diameter, the pent-up
waters of the Victoria Nyanza slowly carved their way northwards down
the gorge now occupied by the Nile at the Ripon Falls. Nearly all the
drainage of the Uganda-Busoga Plateau runs northward, and does not
fall into the Victoria Nyanza. The tilt of this plateau is highest
round the northern shores of the Victoria Nyanza (four to five thousand
feet), and falls gradually till it reaches the somewhat low level (two
thousand feet) of the Upper Nile valley. The escaping waters of the
Victoria Nyanza formed another great lake (Kioga-Kwania) immediately
to the north on the other side of the Uganda ridge. This lake again
drained off eventually to the original (Albertine) Nile. The site of
its former bed is covered at the present day with vast marshes and with
the straggling, many-armed lake of Kioga-Kwania.
[Illustration: THE BIRTH OF THE VICTORIA NILE, AT THE RIPON FALLS.]
The Albertine Nile, which some geographers think was the original main
stream of the river, rises under the name of Ruchuru on the northern
slopes of that great volcanic mass called the Mfumbiro mountains. These
mountains have arisen in recent times in the middle of a rift valley
which, seemingly, included Lake Kivu. The same fault may also contain
the basin of Tanganyika, but this lies at a much lower level than Kivu.
From Kivu (which no doubt once drained towards the Nile before the
volcanic dam arose on the north) there would have been a gentle slope
downward and northward (only partially stemmed by the extraordinary
peninsula of Ruwenzori) to the basin of the Albert Nyanza.
The Ruchuru enters Lake Albert Edward,--creates that lake, in
fact,--and the Albert Edward Nyanza has a northern gulf or
tributary lake known as Dweru, which receives much of the drainage
of Ruwenzori, and transmits the melted snows of this Central African
Caucasus to the basin of the Albert Edward. From the north end of
Albert Edward the Albertine Nile issues again under the conventional
name of the Semliki. The Semliki flows round the abrupt western
slopes of Ruwenzori into Lake Albert Nyanza, from the northern end of
which important basin (which lies at an altitude of 2,100 feet above
the sea), the Mountain Nile, formed by the great twin lakes, whose
existence was remotely known to the ancients, starts on its career.
[Illustration: ON LAKE ALBERT EDWARD (NORTH-WEST COAST).]
The Victoria Nile enters the north end of Lake Albert, and its waters
leave that lake almost uninfluenced by their volume; in fact, Lake
Albert has almost become a river, the Albertine Nile, when the water
coming from the Victoria Nyanza enters the river-like end of the Albert
at Magungo and then abruptly turns with full stream to the north. The
Mountain Nile,[124] after leaving Lake Albert, maintains a broad,
lake-like character until it enters the narrow rift valley north of
Nimule in the Madi country. Along this winding gorge, which exhibits
some of the finest scenery of Africa, the Nile flows over nearly a
hundred miles of cataracts and descends in all about five hundred feet.
At Lado (in about 5° north latitude), where it slackens and expands,
the altitude of the White or Mountain Nile is about fifteen hundred
feet above sea-level. At the beginning of this cataract region, north
of Nimule, the Nile receives a lengthy affluent from the southeast.
This is the river Asua, which drains the very mountainous but slightly
arid country west of the Rudolf watershed, and north of Mount Elgon.
The Asua attracted a great deal of attention in the early days of Nile
exploration, owing to Speke having thought that it was an additional
outlet of the Victoria Nyanza, flowing from (what is now called)
Kavirondo Bay.
North of Lado the Nile enters an exceedingly marshy region, which is
perhaps three hundred miles from north to south and two hundred miles
from east to west. This area once certainly was the site of a lake at
one time as large or larger than the Victoria Nyanza. This lake was
mostly fed from the west by seven or eight important streams, which
to-day, with their many tributaries, unite to form that broad western
branch of the Nile known as the Bahr-al-Ghazal.[125]
The Bahr-al-Ghazal is little else than a great estuary which receives
contributions from many big rivers. If, however, one of these is to
be selected as the main stream on account of general consistency of
direction, then the Bahr-al-Arab would be the upper waters of the
Gazelle. The furthest perennial source of this river is in the country
of Dar Fertit, on the verge of the northernmost limits of the Congo
basin, and within a few days’ journey of the Upper Shari. Other very
doubtful tributaries of the Bahr-al-Arab drain off what little water is
not evaporated in the somewhat arid country of Darfur. The Bahr-al-Arab
is fed by at least four important rivers, which flow northward from the
Congo water-parting in the Nyam-nyam countries.
If volume of water is to be considered, then probably the main stream
of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is the Jur or Dyur, which, in its upper waters,
is known as the Sue or Swe. The Sue-Jur rises in about 4° north
latitude, not many days’ journey to the east of Mbomu. (The Mbomu is
an important tributary of the Welle-Ubangi, which again is one of the
principal tributaries of the Congo.) There is nearly continuous steam
navigation up the Welle-Ubangi and the Mbomu to within a few days’
journey of the Nile basin. It was up this stream (from the Congo) that
Marchand and his intrepid companions travelled in 1897. From the waters
of the Mbomu they carried their little steam-launch overland to the
Upper Sue. They were then able to descend this river for hundreds of
miles to the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the main Nile. Near Mashra-ar-Rak, at
the commencement of what the Sudanese style the Bahr-al-Ghazal, the
Jur is joined by another important stream called, in its lower course,
the Tonj, which has many tributaries coming from the vicinity of the
Welle. Nearly parallel with this river to the east are the Roa and the
Rōl (or Yalo), both of which enter the Bahr-al-Ghazal not far from its
confluence with the main Nile. There is also a river Yei or Ayi, the
direction of which is not fully determined. This river, which flows
nearly parallel with the main Nile, some sixty miles to the west of
Lado, either enters the Rōl and thus the Bahr-al-Ghazal, or turns into
the main Nile not far from the bifurcation of the Bahr-az-Ziraf.
The Bahr-az-Ziraf is an eastern branch of the main Nile, which leaves
the parental river near Bor (about latitude 6° 40′ north) and flows
very tortuously northwards, rejoining the White Nile about sixty miles
east of Lake No (Bahr-al-Ghazal). The Ziraf or Giraffe River has other
communicating channels with the main Nile, and also throws off sluggish
contributions to the Khor Felus,--a western tributary of the Lower
Sobat. The Giraffe River (so named by the Arabs for the many giraffes
once sighted from its banks) receives from the south an important
stream known (perhaps incorrectly) as the Oguelokur, which, through
its component rivers the Tu and Kos, drains the northern slopes of the
Lotuka Mountains.
The lower part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is often lost in marshes or is
widened into lake-like expanses such as Lake No, at the confluence of
the White Nile. About a hundred miles to the east of this confluence
with the Kir or main White Nile (also called, south of this point,
the Bahr-al-Jabl or Mountain Nile), there enters a very important
affluent from the east, the Sobat (Baro), which is formed by a number
of streams flowing from the southwestern part of the Abyssinian Empire
and the vicinity of the Lake Rudolf basin.[126] After its confluence
with the Sobat the White Nile flows without any important tributary for
something like three hundred and fifty miles nearly due north through
a country which passes from a tropical luxuriance of vegetation to
the acacias and thin grass of the steppe region. The influence of the
Sahara Desert, in fact, begins to make itself felt,--that desert which
extends right across from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, interrupted
only by the exceptional mountain regions of Tibesti, Darfur, Abyssinia,
Yaman, and Jabl Akhdar.
At Khartum, in about 15° 40′ north latitude, the Nile receives its most
important affluent, the Abai or Blue Nile (Bahr-al-Azrak). This river
rises on Sagada Mountain in the Abyssinian province of Gojam, passes
through the south end of Lake Tsana (a piece of water about the area of
Gloucestershire) in the western part of Central Abyssinia, and, after
curving to the east and south, turns west and north, and brings to the
Nile (it is said) that great increase of volume in the summer time
which causes the annual flooding of Lower Egypt.
Lengthy as is the course of the White Nile from the Victoria and Albert
Nyanzas to Khartum, and infinitely greater though the mass of its
waters should be than the volume of the Blue Nile, the stream of the
White River has nevertheless been much attenuated before it reaches
Khartum by the waste of its volume in the region of vast swamps lying
between Fashoda on the north and Lado on the south, to say nothing
also of a similar waste and evaporation of water from the deflection
of the Victoria Nile into the backwaters and swamps of Kioga and
Kwania. Another contribution--though a much feebler one in volume of
water--comes from Abyssinia in the shape of the Atbara, which, in its
upper waters, is known as the Takaze.[127] This river, during the
dry season, almost ceases to flow in its lower portion, though it is
flooded during the summer months from the melting of the snows and the
heavy tropical rains on the northern Abyssinian mountains. The Atbara
is considered by Sir Samuel Baker to contribute the principal share of
the black mud which fertilises Egypt.
After the confluence of the Atbara the Nile receives no other tributary
of running water during the whole remainder of its course, though
in former times of far greater rainfall it was joined by streams of
considerable volume flowing northeast from Kordofan. The Nile at
Ambukol seems to fall into another rift valley or series of faults,
along which, and over deserts of sandstone, granite, and limestone, it
pursues its way to the southeastern angle of the Mediterranean Sea. The
great river divides in the extreme lower part of its course into two
main branches, through which, and a number of other smaller streams and
artificial canals, it pours into the sea the attenuated volume of water
derived from the rainfall of Eastern Equatorial Africa, much having
been already spent in useless swamps, or evaporated as it passed over a
thousand miles of desert, or diverted by man to fertilise Lower Egypt.
An interesting feature of the Nile basin, and one which was known more
or less vaguely to the ancient Egyptians and to the Sabæan Arabs of
two thousand years ago,[128] is the existence of snow-mountains at the
head-waters of the two principal rivers of the Nile system,--the White
and the Blue Niles. Ruwenzori[129] was probably known to the ancients
as the Mountains of the Moon. It is a mass of mainly Archæan rock some
eighty miles long, which runs from northeast to southwest between Lake
Albert and Lake Albert Edward. This marvellous range of snow-peaks and
glaciers--a glittering panorama nearly thirty miles in length--exhibits
a greater display of snow and ice (and that exactly under the equator)
than can be seen anywhere else in the African continent, and is of far
more imposing appearance than the isolated snow-capped summits of
Kenya and Kilimanjaro (extinct volcanoes). The entire drainage of the
Ruwenzori snows falls into the Albertine Nile, that is to say, into
Lake Edward, or the river Semliki, which connects that lake with Albert
Nyanza. The other heights crowned with perpetual snow in the basin of
the Nile are the high peaks of the Samien or Simen range in northern
Abyssinia, and one at least,[130] of the south Ethiopian (Kaffa)
highlands. Two of the Samien peaks rise to a little over fifteen
thousand feet in altitude and one (Buahit) to sixteen thousand feet.
They are part of a nearly circular rim of great heights which surround
Lake Tsana. To the south of Lake Tsana the mountains rise to heights
of eleven, twelve, and fourteen thousand feet, but have no permanent
snow. On the limits of the Nile basin, near the northeast corner of the
Victoria Nyanza, stands Mount Elgon, a mighty extinct volcano,--perhaps
the largest extinct volcano in the world. The crater rim of Elgon rises
in places to over fourteen thousand feet in altitude, but no snow
remains there permanently. Elsewhere than the Nile basin it is probable
that permanent snow and ice are only to be found on the adjacent
extinct volcanoes of Kenya and Kilimanjaro, and on the highest peaks of
the Atlas range far away in the west of Morocco.[131]
The lower valley of the Nile, the country which we know as Egypt, has
undergone fluctuations of level since the beginning of the Tertiary
Epoch. In the secondary ages the last five hundred miles of the Nile
valley lay for a period of immense duration under the waters of the
ocean, where the limestone deposits were formed. In Eocene times this
limestone bed was slowly raised to the altitude of a tableland above
the Mediterranean, but always cut off from the direction of the Red Sea
by the continuous range of mountains which we know as the Nubian Alps.
It is possible that the drainage of the Central African rift valleys
and lakes and snow-mountains may, by the uprising of this tableland,
have been severed from its natural escape to the Mediterranean, and
that the Nile ran to waste in what is now the Libyan Desert. No doubt
the Nile formed lake after lake, and the overflow from these lakes
slowly bored a passage through the limestone tableland. Then in Miocene
times took place a further rise in the range of the Nubian Alps and
the adjoining land, which caused fractures to occur in the limestone
formation. Of this the Nile took advantage, though it filled up the
rifts to some extent with its debris. The Nile cut at one time a very
deep bed through the limestone; but then occurred fluctuations in
level, a sinking of the Nile valley which once more brought the waters
of the Mediterranean far inland, and covered the channel of the Nile
with rubble washed in by the sea. Previous to this the cracks and
folds which had occurred through the upheaval of the eastern highlands
had evidently caused volcanic disturbances by the water of the Nile
reaching through these cracks the heated strata below. The volcanic
outbursts left behind beds of basalt through which the persistent Nile
again cut a channel. In the later Tertiary ages Egypt was a country of
abundant rainfall, the very reverse of the absolute desert of to-day.
Heavy rains carved and scarped the surface of the country and nourished
a luxuriant forest. At this period the lands lying to the west of
Egypt, in what is now known as the Libyan Desert, were probably a bay
of the Mediterranean.
After the Pliocene Epoch, when man first began to appear on the scene,
there was another lowering of the level of the Nile valley in Egypt,
and the Mediterranean extended its waters perhaps to the vicinity of
Assiut. At this time the Mediterranean was almost certainly connected
with the Red Sea across the Isthmus of Suez. The Nile stream was
probably rapid in its descent towards the extended Mediterranean, and
cut a deeper and deeper channel. Then another rise of the land took
place, separating the Mediterranean from the Red Sea, and sending back
the Mediterranean to something like its present limits; the upheaval
indeed may have made what is now the Delta of the Nile higher than it
is at the present day, while the river cut its way through a channel
many feet deeper than the existing bed. Gradually, however, the Lower
Nile became more sluggish as the land near the Mediterranean rose, and,
losing its rapidity, it deposited more and more thickly the detritus
brought down from Equatorial Africa, Abyssinia, and Nubia, and so
raised its bed to a higher level. It has also enlarged its delta by the
deposit of mud, though the fatuity of its work in this direction (in
the presence of earth waves) is shown by the fluctuations which have
occurred even within the last three thousand years. Not more than a
thousand years ago Lake Menzaleh was a fertile and richly cultivated
district.
[Illustration: IN THE LIBYAN DESERT.]
Some time after man penetrated into Egypt (probably from the east)
the countries to the west of the Lower Nile began to rise above the
sea, for much of the Libyan Desert was under the Mediterranean in the
Tertiary Epoch. This retreat of the sea coupled with other conditions
not clearly known to us brought about a marked change in the climate of
Africa north of the fifteenth degree of north latitude. The aridity of
the Sahara Desert and of Arabia began to exercise a potent influence
over the fate of northern Africa. Many of the lands, which as late
as the human period were still covered with plentiful vegetation and
were traversable by the apes, the elephants, and the antelopes of
to-day, began to dry up into their present condition, an aridity which,
from all we know, is increasing and extending. Only Egypt was kept
alive by the beneficent stream which, so abundantly nurtured by the
snow-mountains and equatorial rain-belt of eastern Africa, survived
even its passage of a thousand miles through the blazing desert, and
covered the narrow ribbon of Upper Egypt and the tassel of the Delta
with an ever fruitful soil of finely triturated mud.
The Nile has a length of course of some four thousand miles
measured along the windings of the channel of its main stream,--the
Kagera-Victoria-Mountain-White Nile. It is still doubtful as to whether
the Missouri-Mississippi in North America is longer than the Nile,
and thus the longest river in length of course in the world. In any
case the Nile has the pre-eminence for actual length of basin, which,
in a straight line measured from the furthest source of the Kagera to
Rosetta on the Mediterranean, is about 2,490 miles.
The area of the Nile basin is approximately 1,080,000 square
miles.[132] This falls short of the area of the Congo basin by some
400,000 square miles. The volume of water which the Nile pours into
the Mediterranean is trivial compared with the Congo’s contribution to
the ocean; but then the waters of the equatorial zone in East Africa
are evaporated from the surface of lakes, squandered in swamps, sucked
up by the desert winds, and finally are employed to irrigate Egypt;
so that no comparison with the output of the Congo would give a fair
idea of the catchment in the Nile basin. This, perhaps (including the
annual contribution to the Nile lakes), reaches to two-thirds of the
volume of water poured into the Atlantic by the Congo’s single mouth.
This geographical sketch is intended to place before the reader the
main features in the geography of Nileland. It is the summing up of
the results of exploration during four or five thousand years. The
preceding chapters deal with the history of the way in which the
Caucasian has laid bare the secrets of the Nile to the curiosity of
the civilised. It is only the Caucasian race which has cared for
geography in the past,--the Caucasian in all his types as Dravidian,
Hamite, Semite, Iberian, and Aryan. The Mongol of Asia and America, the
Negro of Papua and Africa has never cared to ascertain whence rivers
flowed and whither, what lands lay beyond the ocean or the snow-peaks.
Some early cross with a Caucasian race sent the Polynesian cruising
about the Pacific and venturing over the Indian Ocean from Java to
Madagascar; but the more purely Mongoloid brother in China and Japan
did not care to trace the chain of Aleutian Islands to Alaska and
America, or if he did so by accident, felt the question of no interest,
sequence, or importance. Only the Caucasian, and mainly the White
Caucasian, has worried about the Nile problem. He has attacked it first
from the north (Hamite, Greek and Roman); then from the northeast and
east (Hamite and Semite, Greek, Portuguese, and British); once more
from the north (Arabs, Turks, French, British, Germans, Italians);
resolutely from the southeast (British and Germans); latterly from the
southwest (British, Belgians, and French); and, finally and completely,
from the north and northeast.
APPENDIX I
THE ROLL OF FAME
OF THOSE WHO STARTED ON THE NILE QUEST IN MODERN DAYS
NAME. NATIONALITY.
Francisco Alvarez Portuguese.
Pedro Paez ”
JERONIMO LOBO ”
Richard Pococke British (English).
JAMES BRUCE ” (Scottish).
William Browne ” (English).
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt Swiss.
Frederic Cailliaud French.
Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds Belgian.
Prokesch von Osten German.
Eduard Rüppell German.
Selim Bimbashi Turk.
Thibaut French.
D’Arnaud ”
FERDINAND WERNE German.
Brun-Rollet French.
Ignatz Knoblecher Austrian.
ANTOINE THOMSON D’ABBADIE French-Irish.
Arnaud d’Abbadie ” ”
Mansfield Parkyns British (English).
Charles T. Beke ” ”
De Malzac French.
John Petherick British (Welsh).
Alfred Peney French.
Lejean ”
Werner Munzinger Swiss.
Theodor von Heuglin German (Würtemberger).
Alexandrine Tinne Dutch.
JOHN HANNING SPEKE British (English).
JAMES AUGUSTUS GRANT ” (Scottish).
SAMUEL WHITE BAKER ” (English).
Florence Baker Hungarian.
Giovanni Miani Italian (Venetian).
GEORG SCHWEINFURTH Russo-German.
Piaggia Italian.
C. Chaillé-Long United States.
Édouard Linant de Bellefonds Belgian.
CHARLES GEORGE GORDON British (English).
HENRY MORETON STANLEY British (Welsh).
WILHELM JUNKER Russo-German.
C. T. Wilson British (English).
R. W. Felkin ” (Scottish).
Romolo Gessi Italian (Levantine).
C. M. WATSON British (English).
Mason (Bey) United States.
Johann Maria Schuver Dutch.
Ernest Marno Austrian.
EMIN (EDUARD SCHNITZER) German (Silesia).
JOSEPH THOMSON British (Scottish).
Frederick Dealtry Lugard ” (English).
Seymour Vandeleur ” (Irish).
G. F. Scott-Elliot ” (Scottish).
Franz Stuhlmann German.
Oscar Baumann ”
Vittorio Bottego Italian.
JAMES R. LENNOX MACDONALD British (Scottish).
A. H. Dyé French.
J. B. Marchand ”
De Bonchamps French.
M. S. Wellby British (English).
H. H. Austin ” ”
R. G. T. Bright ” ”
C. W. Hobley ” ”
Ewart Grogan ” ”
J. E. S. Moore ” ”
Malcolm Fergusson ” (Scottish).
Lionel Dècle French.
Donaldson Smith United States.
Malcolm Peake British (Scottish).
Weld Blundell ” (English).
Benjamin Whitehouse ” ”
G. W. Gwynn ” (Welsh).
Charles Delmé Radcliffe ” (English).
Oscar Neumann German.
H. H. Wilson British (English).
E. A. Stanton British (English).
William Garstin British (Irish).
This Roll includes those only who added definitely and markedly to the
map of the Nile basin, not those who travelled through these countries
for other than geographical purposes. It comprises: 34 British (21
English, 8 Scots, 3 Welsh, and 2 Irish); 10 Germans, 13 French, 4
Italians, 3 Portuguese, 2 Dutch, 2 Belgians, 2 Americans, 2 Swiss, 3
Austro-Hungarians, 1 Turk.
APPENDIX II
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS REFERRED TO OR CONSULTED IN THE COMPILATION OF
THIS BOOK
_Previous to 1840_
HISTORY OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY, by Sir E. H. Bunbury. London, 1879.
LE NORD DE L’AFRIQUE DANS L’ANTIQUITÉ, by Vivien de St. Martin (full
of valuable and reliable information). Paris, 1863.
GÉOGRAPHIE DU MOYEN AGE, by J. Lelewel. (Brussels, 1852.)
DOCUMENTS SUR L’HISTOIRE DE L’AFRIQUE ORIENTALE, by Guillain. (Paris,
1850.)
GÉOGRAPHIE ANCIENNE, by D’Anville (the 1834 edition brought up to
date by Manne). Paris.
DOCTRINA PTOLEMAEI, etc., by Berlioux. (Paris, 1871.)
PTOLEMY AND THE NILE, by T. Desborough Cooley. (1854.)
GÉOGRAPHIE DES ANCIENS, by P. F. G. Gosselin. Paris, 1798 to 1813.
Various papers by Mr. E. G. Ravenstein in the Proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society or in the GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE; also
privately written MS.
HISTORY OF EGYPT FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES, by W. M. Flinders Petrie (4
vols.). This and the same author’s article on (ANCIENT) EGYPT in
the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, 1902, are very
useful for ascertaining what information on the knowledge of the
Nile and the Land of Punt was prevalent in Ancient Egypt and at
the time of the Muhammadan invasion of the Nile countries.
HISTORY OF EGYPT, Vol. 1 (1902), by Dr. Wallis Budge.
PTOLEMY’S TOPOGRAPHY OF EASTERN EQUATORIAL AFRICA, by Dr. Schlichter
(Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, September, 1891).
PARTITION OF AFRICA, by Dr. J. Scott Keltie, Second Edition. 1895.
A SHORT RELATION OF THE RIVER NILE, etc. Proceedings of the Royal
Society, London, Nov. 1, 1668. (Portuguese Jesuits’ travels.)
TRAVELS OF THE JESUITS IN ETHIOPIA, by Bartholomeo Tellez. 1710.
HISTORIA DA AFRICA ORIENTAL PORTUGUEZA, por José Joaquim Lopes de
Lima. Lisbon, 1862.
A VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA, by Father Jerome Lobo, Portuguese Jesuit,
from the French of LE GRAND. London, 1735.
NARRATIVE OF THE PORTUGUESE EMBASSY TO ABYSSINIA, 1520–1527. (Hakluyt
Society’s publications, Vol. 44, 1881.)
L’HYDROGRAPHIE AFRICAINE AU SEIZIÈME SIÈCLE, D’APRÈS LES PREMIÈRES
EXPLORATIONS PORTUGUAISES. (Lisbon, 1878.)
A DESCRIPTION OF THE EAST and some other Countries, Vol. 1 (Egypt),
by Richard Pococke, LL.D., F.R.S. London, 1743.
TRAVELS IN UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT, by C. S. Sonnini de Manoncourt
(translated by Henry Hunter). London, 1799.
TRAVELS TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILE IN 1768, 1773, by James
Bruce, in 5 vols. Edinburgh, 1790.
(Also an excellent abridgment in 1 vol., published in 1798.)
A Second Edition in 7 vols., 1805, is considered the best and
fullest account of Bruce’s travels, with some of the errors
corrected.
TRAVELS IN AFRICA, EGYPT, AND SYRIA, 1792–1798, by William George
Browne. London, 1800. (Darfur, Nubia.)
THE SOURCES OF THE NILE, by Charles T. Beke. London, 1860.
THE STORY OF AFRICA, by Dr. Robert Brown, Vols. 2 and 3, 1893, 1894.
(A most useful and trustworthy compilation.) London, Cassel.
VOYAGE À MEROE, au Fleuve Blanc, etc., by Frederic Cailliaud. 4 vols.
Paris, 1826.
A VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA, by Henry Salt, 1814.
JOURNAL OF NAVIGATION ON THE BAHR-EL-ABIAD OR THE WHITE NILE, by A.
Linant de Bellefonds, 1828. African Association, London.
TRAVELS IN NUBIA, by John Louis Buckhardt. London, 1819.
REISEN IN NUBIEN, KORDOFAN, etc., by Eduard Rüppell. Frankfurt a. m.,
1829.
_From 1840 to the Present Day_
PREMIER VOYAGE À LA RECHERCHE DES SOURCES DU BAHR-AL-ABIAD OU NIL
BLANC: Journal de Voyage par Selim Bimbashi. _Bulletin_, Société
de Géographie. Paris, 1840.
DOCUMENTS ET OBSERVATIONS SUR LE COURS DU BAHR-AL-ABIAD, by D’Arnaud
Binbachi. Paris, 1843.
KHARTUM AND THE BLUE AND WHITE NILES (Journeys of Andrew Melly), by
George Melly. London, 1851. 2 vols.
EXPEDITION ZUR ENTDECKUNG DER QUELLEN DES WEISZEN NIL (1840, 1841),
by Ferdinand Werne. Berlin, 1848. (With admirable map of the
White Nile.)
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 17. (Brun-Rollet on
the Sobat River.)
ANNALES DE VOYAGE(?), by Andrea de Bono. Paris, July, 1862.
LE FLEUVE BLANC, by Jules Poncet. 1863.
EGYPT, THE SUDAN, AND CENTRAL AFRICA, etc., by John Petherick. 1861.
TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AFRICA AND EXPLORATION OF THE WESTERN NILE
TRIBUTARIES, 2 vols., by Mr. and Mrs. Petherick. 1869.
DIE DEUTSCHER EXPEDITION IN OST AFRICA, 1861–1862, by Heuglin and
Munzinger, in Petermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen, No. 13.
Heuglin also writes on Miss Tinne’s expedition in the same
periodical, No. 15, 1865, and gives further notes on the White
Nile.
TRAVELS IN THE REGION OF THE WHITE NILE, by Alexandrine Tinne. 1869.
GÉODÉSIE DE L’ÉTHIOPIE, by Antoine Thomson d’Abbadie. Paris, 1890. 1
vol.
LIFE IN ABYSSINIA, by Mansfield Parkyns. London, 1853. 2 vols.
GEOLOGY AND ZOÖLOGY OF ABYSSINIA, by W. T. Blanford. 1870.
THE NILE TRIBUTARIES OF ABYSSINIA, by S. W. Baker. 1867.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 36, p. 2, article by
S. W. Baker.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 36, pp. 1 to 18.
THE ALBERT NYANZA, etc., by Sir Samuel Baker, M.A. 1866.
THE ALBERT NYANZA, etc., by Sir Samuel Baker, M.A., New Edition. 1872.
TRAVELS, RESEARCHES, AND MISSIONARY LABOURS, by Dr. J. L. Krapf. 1860.
WHAT LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE NILE SOURCES, by Captain J. H.
Speke. 1864.
THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA, by R. F. Burton. 1860.
JOURNAL OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, by J. H. Speke.
1864.
A WALK ACROSS AFRICA, by J. A. Grant. 1865.
REISE IN DAS GEBIET DES WEISSEN NIL und seine westlichen Zuflusse,
1862–1864, von M. Theodor von Heuglin. Leipzig, 1869.
THE HEART OF AFRICA, by Georg Schweinfurth. 2 vols. London, 1873.
REISE IN NORDOST AFRICA, etc., von M. Theodor von Heuglin. Brunswick,
1869.
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT, by H. M. Stanley. 2 vols. 1877.
UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN, by C. T. Wilson and R. W. Felkin. 1879.
SIR SAMUEL BAKER: a Memoir by T. Douglas Murray and A. Silva White.
London, 1895.
ISMAILIA, by Sir Samuel W. Baker. London, 1874.
REMARKS ON A PROPOSED LINE OF TELEGRAPH OVERLAND from Egypt to the
Cape of Good Hope, by (Sir) Edwin Arnold, Colonel J. A. Grant,
and others. London, 1876.
COLONEL GORDON IN CENTRAL AFRICA, 1874–1879, by George Birkbeck Hill.
London, 1881.
CENTRAL AFRICA: NAKED TRUTHS OF NAKED PEOPLE, by Colonel C.
Chaillé-Long. London, 1876.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE KHÉDIVIAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF CAIRO,
1860–1882. [Schuver, Marno and other travellers.]
ARTICLES of Mr. E. G. Ravenstein on the researches of the Rev. C.
Wakefield in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1875,
1880.
THROUGH MASAILAND, by Joseph Thomson. 1885.
TRAVELS IN AFRICA DURING THE YEARS 1875–1878; 1879–1883; 1882–1886;
1890, 1891, 1892. By Dr. Wilhelm Junker.
SEVEN YEARS IN THE SUDAN, by Romolo Gessi Pasha. London, 1892.
IN DARKEST AFRICA, by H. M. Stanley. 2 vols. 1890.
MIT EMIN PASHA INS HERZ VON AFRICA, by Dr. Franz Stuhlmann. Berlin,
1894.
ÉTHIOPIE MÉRIDIONALE, by Jules Borelli. Paris, 1890.
A NATURALIST’S WANDERINGS IN MID-AFRICA, by C. Scott Elliot. 1894.
DURCH MASAILAND ZUR NIL QUELLE, by Oscar Baumann. Berlin, 1894.
JOURNEYS TO THE NORTH OF UGANDA, by Colonel J. R. L. Macdonald and
Major H. H. Austin in Geographical Journal of August, 1899.
(Also Blue Books giving reports of Major Macdonald’s expedition.)
CAMPAIGNING ON THE UPPER NILE AND NIGER, by Seymour Vandeleur. 1899.
THE CAPE TO CAIRO, by E. Grogan and A. Sharp. 1900.
THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, by J. E. Moore. 1902.
THE TANGANYIKA PROBLEM, by J. E. Moore. 1902.
AMONG SWAMPS AND GIANTS IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA, by H. H. Austin. 1902.
KING MENELIK’S DOMINIONS AND THE COUNTRY BETWEEN LAKE GALLOP (RUDOLF)
AND THE NILE VALLEY, by Captain M. S. Wellby. Geographical
Journal for September, 1900. London.
THE STORY OF AFRICA, Vols. 2, 3, and 4, by Dr. Robert Brown
(1893–1895).
THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE, by Sir Harry Johnston. 2 vols. 1902.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL (London) for July and December, 1901; and
October, 1902.
THE JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY (London) 1902, 1903. [Colonel
Stanton’s articles.]
[Illustration: OROGRAPHICAL FEATURES of the NILE BASIN]
[Illustration: LAND SURFACE FEATURES of the NILE BASIN]
FOOTNOTES
[1] A superior type of dark-haired white man allied with Circassian and
Persian, and perhaps a direct development from the Dravidian.
[2] The Kudu, which is a tragelaph rather than an antelope, exists at
the present day in the eastern part of the Egyptian Sudan, between
Abyssinia and the Nile, and its remains are found fossil in Algeria. It
may therefore have extended even within the historical period to near
the shores of the Mediterranean.
[3] This word is the origin of the Arabised _Fayūm_, a name given to
the remains of a curious Nile reservoir, or backwater-lake, to the west
of the Nile, in the Libyan Desert.
[4] The Biblical Yeôr. The Hebrews also called the Nile _Shikhor_,
or the “Black.” The earliest Greek name for the river and country is
_Aiguptos_ (the origin of “Egypt”). Later the name _Neilos_ (Nile) was
given to the river. This became the later Arab and European _Nilus_,
_Nil_, _Nile_, etc. The origin of the Greek names _Aiguptos_ and
_Neilos_ is unknown, but _Neilos_ may be derived from the Persian word
_nil_ = blue.
[5] Needless to say, in all cases the iris of these eyes is actually
gray; but the gray almost verges on blue in some instances, while the
absence or presence of a dark rim round the eyes gives or withholds the
violet tinge to the gray.
[6] Ptolemy’s original maps have disappeared, and we only know them
through the well-nigh innumerable copies that were made by Greek monks
between 600 and 900 A.D., by Arabs in the Islamic Renaissance, by
Latin monks and pilgrims, by Venetian and Catalan sailors, and Flemish
or German geographers. Latterly many of these copyists imported into
Ptolemy’s maps of the Nile much recent and modern information.
[7] Even to-day the local (unofficial) name of Berber or any of the
districts round Berber is Ibrim.
[8] This mistake is hardly surprising, seeing that at Matama, in the
country of Galabat, the most southern affluent of the Atbara approaches
to within five miles of the most eastern affluent of the Blue Nile. See
Chapter XXVI.
[9] Ptolemy Philadelphus’ chief inducement to establish stations in
Abyssinia was to procure war elephants. Thus to these Egyptian Greeks
and Ethiopians the African elephant did not appear too intractable.
[10] Dongola, the accepted name for the Nubian country north of
Kordofan, appears at one time to have been inhabited by a race speaking
a Hamitic rather than a Nubian language. Dongola (originally Dankala),
or its plural, Danagla, may be etymologically connected with Danākil of
the north Somali coast.
[11] Gala and Somali are almost convertible terms. But in this book
Somali is used to indicate that section of the Gala peoples who have
become Muhammadans, and Gala is reserved as a general term for the
whole race or for its non-Islamite tribes.
[12] The Arabic and Turkish name for Venice is, or was, Bunduq. This
was a clumsy rendering of the German Venedig, which again was a
corruption of the Latin Veneticum. Although the Arab _q_ (a very strong
_k_) is almost unpronounceable by most Europeans, it is nevertheless
constantly used by Arabs for translating the _k_-sound in European
words.
[13] By “Dravidian” I mean that very early and little differentiated,
dark-coloured Caucasian of India who is only a few degrees, physically,
above the Australian race.
[14] At the time of these exploits Oporto, now the second town of
Portugal, was of little account; the great port at the mouth of the
Douro was called in Latin Portus Calis, or, in the local dialect,
Portucal. This place, being the most important port in the district
recovered from the Moors by Count Henry, gave its name to the little
principality which he founded.
[15] Algarve is simply a Portuguese softening of the Arabic words
Al Gharb, the Extreme West or place of sun-setting. At that time
Morocco, across the Straits, was also called Al Gharb for the same
reason. Therefore, after these conquests, the kings of Portugal styled
themselves “Kings of the Algarves, on this side and on the other side
of the sea.” The after-triumphs of the Portuguese in the path of
exploration, conquest, and colonisation were finally summed up in the
grandiose titles of their monarchs, which endure to the present day,
and which may well be allowed to endure with respect, seeing what the
world’s knowledge owes to the Portuguese navigators and conquistadores.
The titles run, “Rey de Portugal e dos Algarves, alem e aquem do Mar
na Africa; Senhor da Guiné e da conquista e da navegaçao d’Ethiopia,
Arabia, Persia e India” (King of Portugal and of the Algarves, on this
side and on the other side of the Sea in Africa; Lord of Guinea, and of
the conquest and navigation of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India).
[16] Prester John.
[17] It may be interesting to some to know that Vasco is a contraction
of Velasco, meaning “hairy,” and was a nickname often given to
Portuguese in early days.
[18] In Lobo’s book the date is given as 1613, but Bruce shows with
some likelihood that, according to the native Abyssinian chronicles,
the date of Paez’ visit to the sources of the Blue Nile was probably
1615. In the Latin version of Paez’ account of his travels, published
at Rome in 1652 by the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, the date given is the
21st of April, 1618.
[19] See page 30.
[20] Probably, from the description given, _Equus grevyi_; so that
this, the largest, rarest, and the latest described of all the zebras,
was probably the first example of the striped horse to receive that
name at the hands of the Portuguese, and become known to Europe. The
name is spelt “zevra” in Father Lobo’s account, in some versions
“zeura.”
[21] The modern term, Gala or Galla, used to denominate that section of
the Hamite people closely akin to the Somalis yet heathen and dwelling
inland, is derived through the Portuguese from an Abyssinian cant term
meaning “wild,” “savage.” It is unrecognized by the “Gallas” themselves.
[22] Father Lobo gives an excellent description of the coasts of the
Red Sea as known to the Portuguese at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. Among other places that are probably mentioned for the first
time is Suakin, which is written “Suaquem.”
[23] Fremona, the first and principal seat of the Jesuits, was nine
or ten miles from Axum. It was originally called Maigoga, but the
name Fremona was given to it by the Portuguese Jesuits as being the
Abyssinian version of Frumentius, who was the so-called Apostle of
Abyssinia, and converted the rulers of that country to the Greek Church
in the fourth century.
[24] Lake Tsana is usually styled by Lobo and the earlier Portuguese
travellers Dambia (Dembea); but they also give it the name of Sena,
which is obviously the same as Bruce’s version of Tsana.
[25] Some of the blame undoubtedly must be laid on the shoulders of
the Dutch and Saxon map-makers, who used and distorted Portuguese
information.
[26] _Habsh_, _Habshi_ is the name given to Negroes at the present day
in Hindustani.
[27] A Description of the East and some other countries, Vol. I., by
Richard Pococke, LL.D., F. R. S. London, 1743.
[28] He filled many posts between 1725 and his death in 1771. He
desired to be made Secretary of State for the West Indies, but George
II. refused. His efforts to foster British trade and colonial expansion
were much appreciated by merchants and colonials, and Halifax, in Nova
Scotia, is named after him.
[29] Algeria was then practically a dependency of Turkey, governed by
Turks.
[30] Though it is so stated, the delay was apparently caused by the
complete breakdown of Bruce’s health, a breakdown which obliged him
to spend some time at Italian sulphur baths (Poretta). Bruce, before
leaving Sennar and the regions of the Blue Nile, had received into his
system the germ of the Guinea worm. This creature developed in the
usual way. One day when Bruce was reading on a sofa at Cairo he felt
an itching on his leg, and soon afterwards through the pimple thus
raised appeared the head of the worm. Three inches of this parasite
were wound off round a piece of silk, but on the ship which conveyed
Bruce from Alexandria to Marseilles the surgeon clumsily broke off the
portion of the worm extruding from the body. The remainder of the worm
still in the leg caused the most terrible agony for thirty-five days,
which Bruce had to spend in the lazaretto at Marseilles. Here, however,
he received better surgical treatment. Nevertheless, for some time
afterwards his leg gave him considerable trouble, and apparently, in
1774, he had to visit Italian sulphur baths.
[31] All except, perhaps, some of his stories of Nubia and Sennar.
[32] It is curious to read of his using a “rifle” in Abyssinia and
thereby astonishing the princes.
[33] The name of this notable African city is said to mean, in the
local Arabic, “elephant’s trunk,” as the long spit of sand on which it
was erected was supposed to resemble that feature. Other etymologies
are quoted. Apparently the name was that of a small fishing village of
grass huts which was selected by Ibrahim Pasha as a camp commanding
both the White and Blue Niles and easily defended. Khartum, from its
situation, rapidly became the metropolis of the Sudan. It was taken
and destroyed by the Mahdi in 1885. Its site was reoccupied by Lord
Kitchener’s victorious force in 1898. Khartum has since been rebuilt,
and will probably become one of the greatest cities of Africa.
[34] The son of a Swiss soldier in the Swiss corps subsidised by
England in the Napoleonic wars.
[35] Afterwards absorbed by the Royal Geographical Society.
[36] As this journey was financed by the African Association, it may be
regarded as a British contribution to Nile exploration.
[37] The name Muhammad is affectedly pronounced by the Turks Mehemet,
but is of course written by them Muhammad.
[38] Afterwards for nearly forty years French consular agent at Khartum.
[39] Mainly supported by the Archduchess Sophia.
[40] The names of the principal members of this Austrian Roman Catholic
Mission, which finally abandoned its labors about 1862, owing to
the terribly unhealthy climate of the Upper Nile, were Knoblecher,
Beltrame, Morlang, Ueberbacher, Ryllo, and Dorvak. Of their numbers
(seventeen in all) fifteen died of fever or dysentery, and only two
returned to Europe. Beltrame wrote important works in Italian on
the Dinka language. Knoblecher, Ueberbacher, and Morlang collected
materials for the illustration of the Bari language, which were put
together by Mitterrützner.
[41] Glamorgan.
[42] It may be mentioned here that throughout the Sudan, from the
Albert Nyanza to Khartum, the Egyptians, as distinct from their
Sudanese soldiers, are always spoken of as Turki or Turūk. Kordofan,
once the home of the Nubians and of Negro races, was overrun by Arabs
for several centuries, and more than a hundred years ago formed part of
the half-Ethiopian kingdom of Sennar. It was then subdued by the mailed
horsemen of Darfur, and held by them until conquered by the Egyptian
army under Ibrahim Pasha in 1820.
[43] Petherick in his last book writes in eulogistic terms of the
behaviour of this mere boy (so far as age went) throughout all the
trying experiences that the Pethericks underwent in their journeys up
and down the White Nile and the rivers of the Bahr-al-Ghazal. It would
be interesting to know what became of Foxcroft after so promising a
début in African travel.
[44] Many of these tribes are known to us at the present day by foolish
nicknames. For instance, the Kamasia people, who dwell in the western
part of the Baringo district, really call themselves El Tūkan. Turkana
seems often pronounced Tukana.
[45] Amabile, tried and sentenced to imprisonment by Petherick
for slave-trading, and Andrea de Bono, who, though ostensibly an
ivory-trader, was very unscrupulous in his methods. De Bono, however,
was the first European to explore the countries to the east of the
Mountain Nile, i.e., between the main Nile and the basin of Lake Rudolf.
[46] Near the confluence of the Asua River.
[47] Down to about 1860 the Arab ruler over East Africa was the Imam of
Maskat, the sovereign of the principality of Oman on the Persian Gulf.
For more than a hundred years, however, the Imam of Maskat deputed one
of his sons or kinsmen to be Sayyid of Zanzibar.
[48] By its own people this country is called _Wu-nya-mwezi_. _Wu-_ is
a degenerate form of the Bantu _bu-_ prefix, which is often used to
indicate a country. _Nya_ is a particle, meaning “of,” or “concerning,”
and _mwezi_ = the moon. Unyamwezi is, however, so far away from
Ruwenzori on the one hand or Kilimanjaro on the other that it is
difficult to associate its name (which so far as we know has been in
existence for about four centuries) with that of the snow-mountains.
[49] Speke and others are of opinion that there was a considerable
civilisation in Somaliland at one time, which completely disappeared
after the Muhammadanising of the country. The Somali (except those
of the far interior) were converted to Islam by Arab immigrants in
the fifteenth century. Prior to this they had been Christian to
some extent, a much degraded type of Christianity having penetrated
southwards from Abyssinia. It is hardly necessary to point out that the
Somali and Gala are practically one people in race and language. Gala
is only apparently a cant term originating in Abyssinia and unknown
to the people whom we call by that name. It is also interesting to
note that Speke and other explorers heard in Somaliland, in the “early
fifties,” of the existence of a great lake far in the interior which
was in all probability the Victoria Nyanza. The present writer has
endeavoured to show, in his book on the Uganda Protectorate, that in
ancient times considerable trading intercourse was kept up between
Somaliland and the northeast shores of the Victoria Nyanza.
[50] Victoria Nyanza. Often so called in earlier days by the Arabs,
from Bukerebe, a large island near the south shore.
[51] Though Burton subsequently recanted this opinion in order to
embarrass Speke’s theories, and declared that the Rusizi was the outlet
of Tanganyika.
[52] After his Somersetshire home, and the Indian word for a
creek--_ălla_.
[53] Walter L’Espec, in the reign of Henry I., founded three
abbeys,--Kirkham, Rivaulx, and Warden. In the thirteenth century the
L’Especs altered the spelling of their name to Speke. One Speke lost
property by faithfulness to Charles I.; another got into (and out of)
trouble in the reign of Charles II. by advocating the claims to the
succession of the Duke of Monmouth.
[54] In one of his books Speke shows us how Burton and himself managed
to communicate with the natives. Neither of them--not even Burton--had
a sufficient knowledge of Kiswahili during their journey to Tanganyika
to talk direct with their porters. They conversed with “Bombay,”
their Swahili interpreter, in Hindustani. Burton also was able to
speak Arabic with the Arab traders. Both, perhaps, are a little too
inclined to overlook this language difficulty in describing their
conversations with native chiefs. In all cases these must have been
carried on in the following manner: The chief would probably speak
in his native language, which would be translated by somebody else
into Swahili, and this again would be translated by Bombay, or Frij,
or some other interpreter, into Hindustani or English; or, again,
Burton’s information might be rendered by some Arab in Arabic. Direct
communications no doubt were sometimes made by both parties in broken
Swahili.
[55] Mr. T. Douglas Murray, who afterwards became Baker’s biographer.
This letter was written near the close of Sir Samuel Baker’s life, on
the 22d of August, 1893.
[56] See his “Discovery of the Source of the Nile.”
[57] Discovery of the Source of the Nile, p. 31.
[58] Worthy of mention here as being the southernmost extension of
“Nilotic” influence among the East African races.
[59] _Gazella granti_, the horns of which are far longer than is the
case with any other gazelle, the animal itself being about the size of
a fallow deer.
[60] A Hima state, lying to the west of the Victoria Nyanza.
[61] This, of course, was Lake Albert, the waters of which are slightly
brackish. But it is often called the Salt Lake by the Arabs, from the
large deposits of salt on its shores.
[62] They meant, of course, the Rukuga, which flows through Marungu.
[63] Hima or Huma is the commonest name applied locally to the Gala
aristocracy in East Equatorial Africa.
[64] Journal of the Discovery of the Sources of the Nile.
[65] Throughout the writings of Burton, Speke, and Stanley, this race
is called Wahuma. The most common term, however, by which they are
known and know themselves is Bahima (_hima_ being the root and _Ba-_
the plural prefix).
[66] This is the more curious because, on page 276 in the “Discovery of
the Source of the Nile,” Speke writes of “a long range of view of the
lake, and of the large island or group of islands called Sese, where
the king of Uganda keeps one of his fleets.”
[67] According to the traditions of the natives, syphilis and smallpox
entered Uganda about the same time, and came originally from Unyoro.
Unyoro received these plagues from the first Nubian slave- and
ivory-trading caravans, which were the pioneers of Egyptian rule in the
forties of the last century. Syphilis and smallpox were also brought by
the Zanzibar trading caravans from Unyamwezi not many years later.
[68] This, indeed, long before the British Protectorate, Gordon Pasha
meditated, and was only restrained therefrom by the intervention of Sir
John Kirk.
[69] It is a question whether all these spirits were not in origin
deified chiefs or medicine-men, who after death were supposed to become
controllers of the lake, of the rain supply, of certain diseases, or
of certain functions. Speke considers that a small element of phallic
worship was mixed up with the old Uganda religion.
[70] Muzungu, i.e., “White-man.”
[71] This word is really a mis-hearing on Speke’s part for Bwana,
which, again, is a corruption of Abuna, the Arab word for “our father.”
Bwana is the respectful term, meaning “master,” which is applied in the
Swahili language to all persons of superior position. It was the name
by which Speke was known throughout his stay in Uganda, though it has
long since been discarded for “Sapiki.”
[72] Since, by the unspeakable barbarism of the British Administration,
_cut down_!
[73] Albert Nyanza.
[74] Speke and Baker had met before in India.
[75] Florence Ninian von Sass. Lady Baker survives her husband.
[76] For something like twelve hundred miles, from the mouth of the
Atbara to the sea, the Nile receives no further contribution of water.
[77] _Cycloderma_, the Leathery Fresh-water Turtle.
[78] This great lake was in reality nothing but the lake-like course
of the Upper Congo. The words for river and lake in almost all African
languages are the same.
[79] She usually signed herself Alexine. Her full name was Alexandrina
Petronella Francina Tinne. The name is spelt without an accented _e_,
and is pronounced as it would be in German.
[80] Her nephew, Mr. John Tinne, however, informs the present writer
that his aunt once wrote to him saying that “ever since she was a
little girl doing lessons she had longed to see what there was on the
great blank spot on the map of Africa.”
[81] This account of the death of Miss Tinne is derived from
information very kindly supplied to the author by her nephew, Theodore
F. S. Tinne, Esq., of Hawkhurst, Kent.
[82] She was only thirty-three at the time of her death.
[83] France was dogged with continual ill-luck in her attempts to
open up and explore the Nile basin. Expedition after expedition and
explorer after explorer, despatched directly or indirectly under French
auspices, failed (generally by death from fever) in grasping the great
discoveries which fell to more fortunate Germans and Englishmen.
[84] They were, however, first mentioned by Piaggia.
[85] Heuglin forestalled him, perhaps, as regards the Gray Parrot.
[86] These people do not call themselves by the designation. It is one
applied to them by the Arabs as a nickname, indicating the gusto with
which they eat human flesh. They themselves acknowledge several names,
such as Azande and Makarka.
[87] Pierced by the ants so that they become whistles played on by the
wind.
[88] First of all revealed to our notice by the Italian explorer,
Piaggia, who succeeded Miani and preceded Dr. Schweinfurth.
[89] A gifted French explorer who attempted to forestall other
expeditions in discovering the Central African lakes. He was murdered
about a hundred miles inland from Zanzibar.
[90] Younger brother of Adolphe Linant, an early Nile explorer of 1827
and 1828.
[91] In a pamphlet written in conjunction with Mr. Kerry Nichols and
Colonel J. A. Grant, published in 1876, by William Clowes.
[92] Romolo Gessi was a Levantine Italian, born at Constantinople in
1831, who had gradually drifted into the employment of the Egyptian
government. He became a Pasha after Gordon’s departure from the Sudan
in 1880.
[93] Now Colonel Watson, R.E. In 1874–1875 Lieutenant C. M. Watson,
accompanied by Lieutenant Chippendall, made an admirable survey of
the main Nile from Khartum to Gondokoro, and later assisted Gordon in
completing this survey up to Lake Albert.
[94] A portion of this is often called Makarka.
[95] During this struggle Gessi was hard put to it for food, but he
quaintly notes that “Of all our troops only the Makarka and Nyam-nyam
remained healthy, owing to their feeding on human flesh. Directly
after a battle they cut off the feet of the dead, and consumed these,
together with their brains.”
[96] Whose encyclopædic work on the Galas will soon be published. Mr.
Wakefield died in 1902.
[97] Dweru, like Nyanza, is a very common Bantu word which is applied
equally to lake and river. It simply means “whiteness.” With different
prefixes it becomes Mweru, Jeru, and so forth.
[98] In giving extracts from this as from other works of Nile explorers
the present writer often summarises. He also employs sometimes more
modern spelling in scientific nomenclature to avoid puzzling the reader
habituated to the most recent descriptions.
[99] Vide chap. ix. p. 107.
[100] This stream, joining others from farther east, enters the
Mountain Nile near the bifurcation of the Giraffe River.--H. H. J.
[101] Khor Kos flows into the Oguelokur, and thus into the
Bahr-az-Ziraf. See chap. xxvi.
[102] The distribution of the branching Hyphæne Fan palm is very
peculiar. It is found right across the Sahara, south of latitude 25°,
to the vicinity of the Atlantic. It avoids the better watered regions
of Nigeria and the Bahr-al-Ghazal, but on the east extends across
Somaliland and down the coast to Mombasa.--H. H. J.
[103] Probably Emin refers to the lanky _Cercopithecus patas_.
[104] Really a plantain-eater--_Schizorhis_ or
_Gymnoschizorhis_.--H. H. J.
[105] The white-eared Kob antelope.--H. H. J.
[106] The Kafuru. This was re-examined by the author of this book.
It is a narrow winding channel passing between high banks. In spite
of the author’s delineation of this feature in his book, “The Uganda
Protectorate,” map-makers still continue to draw it as a lake-like
straight arm connecting the Albert Edward with Dweru.
[107] Dweru, as already explained, merely means a white surface or
sheet of water.
[108] This word is the name of one of the tributaries of the Kagera.
[109] M. Dècle travelled overland from the Cape of Good Hope to the
Victoria Nile in 1892–1894.
[110] Dr. Kandt (who first correctly mapped Lake Kivu) traced the
course of the important Nyavarongo and Akanyaru tributaries of the
Kagera. This learned explorer died in 1901.
[111] Lugard mapped much of the country between Uganda and Ruwenzori
and discovered Lake Wamala in western Uganda.
[112] Mr Jackson’s magnificent zoölogical collections, especially in
mammals, birds, and butterflies, have, with those of Mr. Oscar Neumann,
done much to illustrate the fauna of southern Nileland.
[113] It is said that the contribution to the Nile waters from the
great Victoria Nyanza is not more considerable than the maximum
discharge of one of the great canals in Egypt. Much of the volume
of the Victoria Nile is spread out to waste and evaporate in the
Kioga-Kwania Lake, which also receives the heavy rainfall of north and
west Elgon.
[114] I should again like to point out how frequent amongst Nilotic
Negroes is the word Kir for a big river. This name is frequently
applied to the main Nile, and appears even to crop up again in the
Bantu languages of the Victoria Nyanza, for in Luganda the Nile is also
called Kiira.
[115] Piaggia was originally an Italian mechanic, born at Alexandria.
He drifted to the Sudan in 1856, and generally attached himself as a
sort of caravan leader to the traders in the Bahr-al-Ghazal. In this
capacity he explored (quite unscientifically) the Nyam-nyam country in
1863–1865, and in 1876 he visited Lake Kioga and the Victoria Nile.
[116] For various reasons not all Captain Marchand’s officers could be
brought away from the Nile immediately. Lieutenant Tanguedec was left
for some two years entirely isolated on the White Nile near Bor.
[117] A name very suggestive of the Bantu languages.
[118] Negroes of the Semliki valley and forest.
[119] This lake is at present one of the unsolved African problems
as regards its history and affinities. Unlike other lakes of Central
Africa, its fauna has marine affinities, and would seem indeed to be
actually of marine origin. It is at the present day connected somewhat
intermittently with the Congo drainage, and therefore with the Atlantic
Ocean; and one assumption to explain the existence of its sponges,
shrimps, and jelly-fishes is that in Jurassic times it was connected
with a vast inlet of the Atlantic Ocean which occupied the northern
half of the low-lying Congo basin. Yet, when a relief map of Africa is
looked at, it strikes one at a glance that Tanganyika lies within the
same rift valley as Lakes Kivu, Albert Edward, Albert Nyanza, and the
Albertine Nile. Its southern end may also have been connected through
Lake Rukwa, with the rift valley of Lake Nyasa. It would be easy to
imagine the occurrence of a recent and slight upheaval which detached
this lake from the Nile system and sent its overflowing waters in the
direction of the Congo, but for the aforementioned marine fauna of
its waters. Its history, therefore, remains at the present moment an
unsolved problem.
[120] With a bifurcated rift up Tanganyika.
[121] See “L’Omo,” by L. Vannutelli and C. Citerni.
[122] A small and very interesting lake which lies about sixty miles to
the north of Tanganyika, and communicates with that lake by the river
Rusizi.
[123] Some rising as far south as Lat. 3° 50′ S. and within ten miles
of Tanganyika.
[124] Bahr-al-Jabl, so called by the Turks and early French and German
explorers, because by following it up stream they came at last to
mountains after the thousand miles of marsh between Khartum and Bor.
[125] “River of gazelles,” i.e., antelopes, the name given to it by the
Sudanese Arabs from the dense herds of game which were formerly to be
seen on its marshy shores.
[126] The Ruzi River, which rises to the west of Lake Rudolf, under the
fourth degree of north latitude, was considered by the late Captain
Wellby to be the southernmost source of the Sobat, but this supposition
has not been verified.
The Ruzi or the two Ruzis probably join the three big streams--the
Oguelokur, Tu, and Kos--which enter the Giraffe River.
[127] This name means “the terrible,” from the violence with which it
sweeps down a winding chasm from an altitude of 7,000 feet in Abyssinia
to 2,500 feet in the Nubian plains.
[128] Who transmitted the rumour to Greek travellers and merchants
visiting the coasts of the Red Sea and East Africa. These again handed
on the information to Greek and Roman geographers.
[129] A corruption of Runsororo.
[130] Wosho Mountain, approximately sixteen thousand feet.
[131] Snow may perhaps occasionally lie for a few days on the highest
points of the volcanic Mfumbiro peaks (Sabinzi and Karisimbi), which
are over thirteen thousand feet and lie almost within the limits of
the Nile basin, to the south of Lake Albert Edward; and there may be a
little permanent snow perhaps on the peaks over eleven thousand feet in
height on the southeast of Basutoland in South Africa.
[132] A little less perhaps than Dr. A. Bludan’s estimate.
INDEX
Aahmes, 11
Abbadie, Antoine Thomson d’, 111, 279, 280, 281, 319
Abbadie, Arnaud d’, 279, 319
Ablaing, Baron d’, 193
Abyssinia, 3, 298 _et seq._;
history of, 30 _et seq._, 46 _et seq._, 61, 112, 277 _et seq._;
geography of, 30, 57, 70, 87, 111, 179, 182, 203, 204, 279 _et
seq._;
people of, 31 _et seq._, 61, 82 _et seq._,
(raw-meat eating) 81–85,
(feasts) 82–85;
Christianity of, 48, 51, 58;
Emperor of, 49, 51, 57, 66, 77, 182, 278 _et seq._;
name of, 60, 61;
missionaries in, 112, 182, 278;
likeness to Bahima, 144;
Mother of the Nile, 179;
mountains, 297, 312
Acacia (gum) trees, 182, 205, 207, 209, 218, 220, 294
Acholi (Shuli), people, 165, 184, 253, 274, 296
Adel (Somaliland), 48
Aden, 115, 127, 276
Adua, 33
Adulis, 27, 33
Afar, 4, 30
Africa, East, 22, 44, 48, 133, 246
Africa, Negro, 21
Africa, North, 15, 38, 199
Africa, South, 134, 147
Africa, West, 148, 217, 219, 242, 245
African Association, 86, 90
African wild flowers, flora, 133, 177, 204, 205, 218, 257, 258
Agoro Mountains, 272
Ais, Al, 94, 99
Akka pygmies, 110, 216
Akobo River, 287, 290
Albania, Albanians, 94
Albert Edward, Lake, 171, 227, 260, 262, 269, 270, 304
Albert Nyanza, 26, 71, 97, 129, 164, 170, 173, 185 _et seq._, 231 _et
seq._, 250, 260 _et seq._, 304
Alexander the Great, 12, 13, 16, 90
Alexandra Nyanza, 228, 266
Alexandria, 16, 22, 23, 66, 80, 95
Algarve (southern province of Portugal), 46
Algiers, Algeria, 76
Aloes, 122, 204, 218
Alvarez, Francisco, 47, 69, 319
Ambach, or Ambady, 244
Ambatch (_Herminiera_), 209, 210, 294
Ambukol, 96, 310
America, Americans, 8, 233, 273, 317, 321
Amhara, 277, 278
Amharic language, 62, 63, 280
Ankole, 148, 262, 298
Antelopes, 182, 201, 209, 306
Anthropology, 200, 211, 212, 217, 251
Anville, D’, 70 _et seq._, 80, 202
Apes, anthropoid, 4, 5, 315
Apuddo (Apuddu), 109
Arabia, 1, 3, 7, 17, 95
Arabs, 17 _et seq._, 22, 39, 44, 50, 113, 119, 180, 181, 246, 317
Arabs of Zanzibar, their early knowledge of African geography, 139,
140
Aragonese, 40
Aristocracy in Nileland, 156
Aristocreon, 19
Aristotle, 16
Arnaud, D’, 96, 100, 319
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 228, 274
Aruwimi River, 240, 260, 264
Aryan races, languages, 14
Asia Minor, 19
Assiut, 88
Assuan, 19, 39, 77, 87, 95, 96
Astaboras (Abbara, _see_) 21, 27
Astapus (Blue Nile), 16, 27
Astasobas, 27
Asua River, 109, 134, 166, 167, 232, 272, 306
Atbara, 20 _et seq._, 25, 48, 92, 176 _et seq._, 203, 240, 278, 288,
310
Atlantic Ocean, 317
Austin, H. H., 271, 286, 287
Austria, Austrians, 96, 234, 248, 321
Austrian Mission on Mountain Nile, 97 _et seq._, 167
Author’s contributions to Nile geography, 248, 270
Auxuma, Axum, 27, 33
Azania, 22
Baggara Arabs, 211
Bahr-al-Arab, 71, 201, 230, 238, 242, 243, 307
Bahr-al-Aswad, 180
Bahr-al-Azrak, _see_ Blue Nile
Bahr-al-Ghazal River, 5, 6, 21, 43, 71, 72, 98, 100 _et seq._, 106
_et seq._, 192 _et seq._, 201 _et seq._, 212 _et seq._, 234,
236 _et seq._, 240, 241 _et seq._, 274, 285, 306 _et seq._
Bahr-al-Hamr, 194, 201, 243
Bahr-al-Jabl, _see_ White and Mountain Nile
Bahr-az-Ziraf, _see_ Giraffe Nile
Bailul, 54
Baker, Sir Samuel, 103, 129, 131, 167, 168;
birth and parentage, 174;
marriage and Ceylon, 175;
in Turkey, 176;
second marriage, 176;
commences Nile exploration, 176;
on the Atbara, 177 _et seq._;
starts for Albert Nyanza, 183 _et seq._;
deceived as to extent of this lake, 186;
knighted, 188;
results of his explorations, 189;
returns to Nileland, 190, 191;
character, 191, 320
Baker (Florence), Lady, 167, 176, 182, 320
_Balæniceps rex_, 101, 102, 295
Balega Negroes (Lendu), 297
Baltic provinces, 203
Baluchistan, Baluchi, 2, 43
Balugano (Italian draftsman), 77
Banana, the, 57, 153
Bantu languages, 114, 137, 138, 261, 284, 290, 291
Bantu Negro, 29, 38, 137, 290
Baobab tree, 182, 294
Bari country, people, 21, 97, 98, 108 _et seq._, 188, 190, 238
Baringo, Lake, 113, 162, 247
Baro (_see also_ Sobat), 284, 285, 288
Barth, Dr., 217
Basalt, 210, 314
Basilis (Greek explorer), 19
Bath, 170
Baumann, Oscar, 266, 267, 268, 320
Baumgarten (Swiss engineer), 99
Beads, Blue Egyptian, 36
Beatrice Gulf, 227, 262
Beke, Dr. C. T., 111, 280, 319
Belgium, Belgians, 225, 238, 242, 269, 318, 321
Beltrame, Father, 97
Benue River, 219
Berber (Primnis, Ibrim), 25, 69, 188, 205
Berbera, 116
Berbers, the, 199
Berkeley, Fort, 106
Berlin, 203
Bermudez, 47 _et seq._
Berta Negroes, 289, 297
Bilma, 20
Binesho tribe, 290
Bion (Greek explorer), 19
Birds, 208, 255, 295
Biri River, 216
Blackwater fever, 107, 195
Blackwood’s Magazine, 128, 170
Blandford, Dr. W. T., 282
Blood-drinking (Abyssinian, East African), 81, 82
Blundell, Weld, 287, 321
Bogos country, 283, 294
“Bombay” (Speke’s faithful), 130, 165, 169
Bonchamps, De, 286
Bongo tribe, 217
Bono, Andrea de, 106 _et seq._, 165, 168, 187
Bor, 106, 285, 291, 292
Boran Galas, 72
_Borassus_, palm (_Doleb_), 253, 254
Borelli, Jules, 285
Bornu, 239, 242
Botany, _see_ Flora
Bottego, V., 285, 320
Brahuis (of Beluchistan), 2
Brèvedent, Father, 67
Bright, R. G. T., 271, 286, 321
British, the, 293, 317, 318, 319 _et seq._;
in Egypt, 94, 95;
in Uganda, 154, 161, 228, 269;
in Abyssinia, 282;
in Egypt and Sudan, 293
British Association, 170, 172
British government, its indifference to African exploration, 169, 188
Browne, Wm. Geo., 88, 89, 319
Bruce, James, 71, 75 _et seq._;
and the Guinea worm, 81;
raw-flesh eating, 81, 82;
death, 86;
work in Abyssinian history, 276, 319
Brun-Rollet, 96, 99, 319
_Bucerosia_, 204, 218
Buchta, Richard, 234
Buddu, 150, 151, 156
Buffon, Comte de (naturalist), 80, 87
Bumbiri, Island of, 225, 226
Bunbury, Sir E. H., 25
Burckhardt, J. L., 92, 93, 319
Burton, Sir Richard F., 115 _et seq._, 127 _et seq._ (relations with
Speke), 128 _et seq._, 170, 171, 172, (character) 131 _et seq._;
transference to West Africa, 170;
theories of geography, 171, 231;
hesitation to take Mombasa route, 246
Burton, Lady, 172
Bushmen (pygmies), 1, 31
Busoga, 35, 152, 162, 224, 260, 303
Byzantine Empire, 30, 37, 40
Cæsar, Julius, 9
Cailliaud, Frederic, 91, 92, 289, 319
Cairo, 67 _et seq._, 75, 93
Cambridge, 93
Cambyses, 11, 12, 24
Camel, the, 21, 294
Camerons, 148
Cannibals, Cannibalism, 194, 202, 236
Cape of Good Hope, 47, 87, 134, 266
“Cape-to-Cairo,” phrase and telegraph, 228, 274
Capellen, Baroness Van, 193, 195
Carthage, 10, 15
Casabi (Italian explorer), 239
Cattle, breeds of African, 147;
abundant, 208, 295
Caucasian and Nile discovery, _prefatory note_, 19, 297, 298, 317
Caucasian, Caucasian race, 2, 14, 31, 42, 146, 148, 297, 317
Cecchi (Italian explorer), 235, 279
Centurions, Nero’s two, 20, 21, 26, 274
Ceylon, 175
Chad, Lake, 6, 15, 20, 147, 195, 199, 240
Chaillé-Long, Col., 238, 239, 320
Charles II., 125
Chemorongi Mountains, 272
Chiarini (Italian explorer), 235
Chimpanzee, the, 5, 217, 222
Chippendall, Capt., 231, 233, 234
Christianity, 34, 35,37 _et seq._, 48, 259
Church Missionary Society, 112, 113, 228, 246, 277, 281
Circassians, 11, 70, 94, 95
Citerni, C., 285
Civilisation, of Egypt, 7;
of Mesopotamia, 9;
of Greece, 14;
Himyaritic, 17
Coffee, 73
Colston, Col., 230
Congo forests, 147, 260
Congo Free State, 154
Congo River, 3, 46, 70, 193, 216, 218, 223, 228, 263, 299, 301, 316
Constantinople, 232
Consuls, 73, 76, 102, 282
Cooley, Mr. D., 114
Copper, 7, 294
Coptic language, Copts, 7, 61, 62, 70, 74
Cosmas Indicopleustes, 33
Covilhaō, Pero de, 47
Cow-dung, 211
Crocodiles, 209, 295
Crosby, Oscar T., 289
Cross River, 3
Crusades, 24, 40, 193
Cruttenden, Lieut., 115
Cyprus, 2, 9, 77
Cyrenaica, 14, 15, 16
Dahabiahs on Nile, 168, 194
“Daily Telegraph,” the, 224, 228
Dalion (Greek explorer), 19, 20, 94
Damietta, 88
Damot, 54, 57
Danākil (land, people), 3, 30, 34, 48, 52, 54, 277
Danish explorers, 68, 69
Darfur, 88, 101, 229, 230, 235 _et seq._, 294, 307
De Bono, _see_ Bono, De
Dècle, Lionel, 266, 274, 321
Defafang, extinct volcano on Nile, 210
Delmé-Radcliffe, Major C., 274, 321
Delta of Nile, _see_ Nile, delta;
_also_ 314, 315
Dem Idris, 236
Dembo River, 216
Dervishes (Mahdi’s adherents), 242
Desneval, Count of, 68, 69
Didessa, or Dabessa River, 285, 288
Dinder River, 182
Dinka people, language, country, 97, 110, 217, 297
Diogenes (Greek explorer), 22, 23, 26
Dogoru River, 216
Donaldson-Smith, 272, 273, 321
Dongola, 25, 34, 52, 71, 95
Dorvak, Father, 97
_Dracæna_ (Dragon trees), 203, 204, 218, 294
Dravidian race, 2, 42, 317
Dublin, 279
Dueru, or Dweru, Lake, 227, 251, 261, 262, 305
Dufton, H., 111
Dum Palm (_Hyphæne thebaica_), 74, 177, 253, 294
Dutch, the, 58, 69, 193, 195, 197, 284, 289, 321
Dyé, Lieut. A. H., 243, 244, 320
Dyur River, _see_ Jur
East Africa, British protectorate, 248
Edwin Arnold, Sir (_see_ Arnold)
Edwin Arnold, Mount (Ruwenzori), 227
Egypt, 2, 294;
Persian conquest of, 11, 12;
Greek, 12, 13;
Roman, 18, 19;
French, 65, 90;
once a very rainy country, 314
Egyptian government, 230
Egyptian temple, resemblance to an, 219
Egyptians, ancient, 4 _et seq._, 8;
trading relations with Equatorial Africa, 36, 43
Eichstadt (Germany, Nachtigal’s birthplace), 239
Elam, 2
Elephants, 34, 294
Elgon, Mount, 6, 35, 171, 248, 252, 271, 272, 291, 312
Elgumi, 107, 252
Elliott, Scott, Dr. G. F., _see_ Scott-Elliott
Emin (Pasha), Dr., 107, 190, 225, 236, 242, 320;
birth and early life, 250;
short-sightedness, 250;
journals, 251;
in Lotuka, 251 _et seq._;
description of birds, 255, 256;
beasts, 256;
in Bahr-al-Ghazal, 257;
the Congo forests, 258;
in Equatoria, 259 _et seq._;
journey with Stuhlmann, 263;
death, 264
Enarea, 70, 279, 290
England, English, the, 40, 45, 64, 91, 228, 245, 259, 281, 321
Ensor, Sidney, 230
Equatoria (Emin’s province), 259
Eratosthenes, 16, 23, 27
Erfurt, 61, 63
Erhardt (Rev.), 113
Eritrea, 34
Escayrac, Comte d’, 105, 106
Essex, 241
Ethiopia (_see also_ Abyssinia), 2, 48, 62, 278, 280
Ethiopians, Ethiopic language, 28, 30, 43, 280
Euphorbias, 204, 218, 220, 294
Euphrates, 9
Evatt, Col. John, 270
Eyasi, Lake, 267
Fadasi, 235
“Faidherbe,” steamship, 243
Faloro, 165, 166
Fasher, Al, 230
Fashoda, 21, 43, 243, 245, 285, 292
Fashoda, Lake of, 301, 306
Fauna, Tropical African, 5, 87, 104, 177, 209, 253 _et seq._, 294, 297
Fayūm, 7, 240
Fazokl, Fazogli, 92, 289
Febore, Théophile Le, 111
Felkin, Dr. R. W., 228, 229, 320
Felus, _see_ Khor Felus
Fergusson, Malcolm, 269, 321
Ferret, Capt., 278
Ferruginous laterite formations (Bahr-al-Ghazal), 243
Fezzan, 15, 93, 195
Fischer, Dr., 247
Flaccus, Septimus, 20
Flemings, Flemish, 40
Flora of Africa (Nileland), 133, 177, 204, 218 _et seq._, 220, 221,
253, 257, 294
Foreign Office, 103
Forests, 204, 218 _et seq._, 220, 257 _et seq._, 295;
“gallery,” 217, 219, 257
Fortnum and Mason, 99
Fowler, C. W., 273
Foxcroft, Mount, 102
France, 65, 214, 245
Fremona, 54, 57
French, the, 40, 65, 66, 70 _et seq._, 80, 87, 95, 96, 104, 105, 199,
202, 213, 224, 242, 278, 318, 321
Gala people, Galas, 3, 6, 24, 31, 34 _et seq._, 43, 53, 72, 82, 146,
148, 247, 297
Galabat, 25, 182
Galaland, 3, 147, 235, 284
Galinier, Capt., 278
Gallus, Ælius, 19
Galo River, 290
Gama, Christoforo da, 49 _et seq._
Gama, Estevaõ da, 49
Gamo, Vasco da, 46, 49
Garama, Garamentes, 20
Garstin, Sir William, 275, 321
Gazelle, Grant’s, 137
Gedge, Mr. Ernest, 248, 271
Geese, 208
Ge’ez (Ethiopic language), 62
Geographical Society, Italian (Rome), 234
Geographical Society, Khédivial, 326
Geographical Society, Paris, 114, 214
Geographical Society, Royal, 92, 103
Geology of Nile Basin, 135, 152, 243, 299, 304, 310, 311, 313 _et
seq._
George II., 75
Germany, Germans, 16, 40, 62, 69, 96, 112, 138, 200, 203, 240, 246,
247, 250, 259, 260, 263, 264, 265, 268, 277, 318, 321
Gessi Pasha, 232 _et seq._, 237, 320
Ghat, 196, 199
Gibbons, Major A. St. H., 274
Giraffe River, 111, 243, 253, 273, 291, 308
Giraffes, 294, 308
Goa, 52
Gojam, 52, 59, 70, 77, 287, 289
Gold, 8, 18
Gondar, 77
Gondokoro, 96, 115, 133, 166 _et seq._, 183, 188, 192, 232, 233, 238,
274
Gordon (Pasha), C. G., 190, 215, 225, 228, 230 _et seq._, 238, 250,
283, 320
Gorges, Major, 273
Grand, Le, 64
Grant, James Augustus, 103, 127, 131, 132 _et seq._, 142, 151, 158,
169, 188, 228, 320
Gray parrot, 217
Greece, 14
Greek Christianity, 48
Greek dynasties in Egypt, 13, 14
Greeks in Africa, 14 _et seq._, 16, 18, 43, 241, 311, 317
Gregory the Abyssinian, 61
Grogan, Ewart, 269, 274, 321
Gum (acacia), 101, 218
Gunpowder, 35
Guns, 41, (muskets) 50, 51
Gwynn, Major C. W., 287, 288, 289, 321
Habash, Hawash, Habshi, 60
Halifax, Lord, 76, 90
Hamitic languages, 280
Hamitic race, Hamites, 3, 8, 31, 42, 217, 280, 317
Hanbury-Tracey, Major, 271
Hannington, Bishop, 248, 260
Harrar, 116
Harris, Sir William C., 111, 278
Harrow School, 75
Hebrews, 7, 32
Herodotus, 15
Heuglin, Baron von, 192, 199, 200, 217, 320
Hima, Ba- (Wahuma), 141, 142 _et seq._, 146 _et seq._, 148, 164, 173,
225, 262, 297
Himyarite Arabs, 17, 33
Hippopotamus, 88, 102, 170, 177, 178, 209, 295
Hittites, 4
Hobley, C. W., 136, 162, 248, 271, 273, 321
Höhnel, Lieut. von, 248
Holland, 193
Hottentots, 134
Hungary, Hungarians, 248, 321
_Hyphæne_, Branching Palm, 74, 177, 253, 294
Iberian race, 4, 14, 43
“Ibrahim,” Lake (Kioga), 239
Ibrahim Pasha, 92, 94
Ibrahim (slave-trader), 183, 188
India, 1, 8, 17, 31, 48, 56, 58, 118, (Speke in) 126, 277, 278
Irby, Hon. Charles Leonard, 91
Ireland, Irish, 279, 321
Islam (Muhammadanism), 18, 34 _et seq._, 37 _et seq._, 73, 215
Italy, Italians, 34, 47, 61, 108, 219, 232, 234, 235, 239, 242, 284,
318, 321
Ivory, 8, 168, 202, 264
Jaba River, 53
Jackson, F. J., 248, 271
Jackson, L. C., 287
Jacobin (map publisher), 91
James II., 62
James, W. and F. L. (brothers), 283
Jemma, or Jimma (Upper Blue Nile), 52, 55, 79
Jesuit missionaries, 48, 52 _et seq._, 66 _et seq._, 90, 278
Jews, in Abyssinia, 32, 33
Ji River, 216
Jidda, 67, 77
Jimma, _see_ Jemma
John (Yohannes), Emperor of Abyssinia, 282, 283
Jordans Nullah, 120
“Jordans” (Speke’s home), 120, 172
Juba River, 53
Judaism, 38
Junker, Dr. William, 240, 241, 242, 259, 320
Jur, or Dyur, or Sue River, 101, 194, 213, 216, 222, 243, 307
Kabarega, 164
Kabirondo (country), 247, 270, 272, 303;
(people) 247;
(bay or gulf) 162, 167, 224, 248, 273, 303
Kaffa, 34, 59, 235, 279, 290, 312
Kafu River, 164
Kafuru River, 262
Kagera River (extreme Upper Victoria Nile), 227, 266, 267, 302, 303,
316
Kaka (on the White Nile), 211
Kamurasi, 164 _et seq._, 184 _et seq._, 187, 188
Kandt, Dr., 266
Karagwe, 139, 143, 147, 227
Karamojo, 272
Karuma Falls of Nile, 165, 187
Kasa, a name of several Abyssinian rulers before crowning, 281, 282
Kassalá, 179, 240
Katikiro, the, 155
Kaze, 123, 142
Keltie, Dr. J. Scott, _prefatory note_
Kenya Mountain, 28, 113, 114
Kerckhoven, Lieut. Van, 242
Khartum, 6, 16, 26, 34, 92 (founding of), 96, 102, 109, 110, 168,
182, 188, 202, 230
Khedive of Egypt, 235
Khor Felus River, 292, 308
Khor Kos River, 252, 253, 273, 291, 308
Khor Oteng River, 253
Kibali River, 240
Kich (Kity), 96, 97
Kilimanjaro, Mt., 28, 113, 114, 118, 248
Kioga, Lake, 162, 171, 189, 232, 239, 270, 284, 304
Kir (name of Nile), 284
Kircher, Father Athanasius, 51, 64
Kirk, Sir John, 154, 238
Kirkpatrick, Lake, 272
Kitara, Empire of, 147
Kivu, Lake, 171, 265, 266, 301, 304
Knoblecher, Dr. Ignatz, 97, 99, 319
Kordofan, 34, 101, 102, 200, 229, 230, 294, 310
Korosko, 80, 91, 93
Kosango River, 194
Krapf, Dr. Ludwig, 112 _et seq._, 246, 281
Kudu, the (antelope), 5, 182
Kuru River, 216
Kwania, Lake, 171, 189, 270
Lado, 236, 239, 305, 306
“Lady Alice,” the, 224, 225
Lafargue, Mons., 205, 206
Lakes, Nile, 16, 22 _et seq._, 26, 27, 44, 97, 113, 120 _et seq._
(_see_ Victoria Nyanza), 164, 170, 189, 224, 301 _et seq._
Lango country and people (Bakedi), 140 296
Latin, 63
Latitudes, Ptolemy’s, 26;
Portuguese, 59, 78;
Bruce’s, 78
Latuka (Lotuka) country and people, 107, 183, 184, 251 _et seq._, 296
Lega, Ba-, _see_ Balega, 297
Leghorn, 74
Lejean, 108, 243, 320
Lendu tribe, 297
Leon, Pedro, 51
Letorzec, 92
Libya, Libyan race, 2, 8, 149
Libyan desert, 12, 240, 294, 313 _et seq._
Lichfield, Rev. G., 228, 229
Limestone formations, 135, 311, 313
Linant de Bellefonds, Adolphe, 93, 225, 319
Linant de Bellefonds, Édouard, 225, 238, 320
Lisbon, 45, 49, 58, 64, 69
Liturgies, Abyssinian, 63
Liverpool, 195
Livingstone, Dr., 265
Lobo, Father Jeronimo, 51 _et seq._, 58, 63, 64, 69, 78, 319
Lobor Mountains, 272
Logwek, Mount, 98
Long, Chaillé-, _see_ Chaillé-Long
Lotuka, _see_ Latuka
Lotuka Mountains, 252, 291
Luajali River (affluent of Victoria Nile), 163
Ludolf (Leutholf), Hiob, 61 _et seq._, 66, 69
Lugard, Sir F. D., 269, 320
Louis XIV., 65 _et seq._, 67 _et seq._, 90
Louis XVIII., 92
Lupton (Bey), Frank, 241
Lutanzige (Albert Nyanza), 164, 170, 183
Macallister, R. W., 267
Macdonald, J. R. L., 270, 271, 272, 320
Mackay, Alexander, 228, 229
Madagascar, 300, 317
Maddox, Capt. H., 270
Madi country, people, 165, 166, 184, 274, 297
Magdala, 282
Magungo, 187, 305
Mahdi, the, 92, 181, 199, 238, 259, 284
Maizen (French explorer), 224
Makarka (Nyam-nyam), 236, 240
Malindi, 52
Malta, Maltese, 60, 103, 106, 108, 199
Malzac, De, 100, 101, 319
Mameluks, the, 88, 94
Mangbettu tribe, 217, 240
Mangles, James, 91
Manwa Sera, 140
Manyema tribe, 264
Maps, Ptolemy’s, 23, 25 _et seq._, 58;
Sicilian, 44, 72;
Vatican, 59;
Dutch and German, 59, 69;
Portuguese, 59;
French, 70 _et seq._, 91, 100;
Speke’s, 189
Marchand, Col. J., 242, 243, 243, 285, 320
Marco Polo, 24
Mareb River, 179, 283
Marinus of Tyre, 23, 24, 44
Marno, Ernst, 235, 320
Marseilles, 80, 81
Marshes, of the Nile, 21, 212, 213, 218, 243, 244, _et seq._, 294
Masai, 82, 107, 118, 137, 246, 247, 297
Masawa (Abyssinia), 27, 47, 49, 77, 282
Masawa, Mount (Elgon), 248
Mashra-ar-Rak, 192, 213, 243, 307
Maskat, Maskat Arabs, 112
Mason (Bey), 233, 320
Massaja, Monseigneur, 278
Massari (Italian explorer), 242
Matammah (on Desert Nile), 206
Maternus, Julius, 20
Matteucci, Dr. Pellegrino, 235, 242
Mauritania (Morocco, Algeria, Tunis), 39
Mauritius, 169, 174
Mayo, Earl of, 283
Mbakovia (on Lake Albert), 185, 186
Mbomu River, 241, 242, 285, 307
Mediterranean, 5, 9, 15, 77, 294, 300, 311, 313 _et seq._
Mehemet, _see_ Muhammad
Melly, Andrew, 98, 99
Menelik of Abyssinia, 282
Mengo, 225
Menzalet, Lake, 315
Merāwi (Meroe), 16, 19, 21, 25, 92, 206
Metals, Metal-working, 8
Meura, Lieut. (Belgian), 269
Mfumbiro Mountains, 145, 227, 297, 304, 312
Miami, Giovanni, 109, 166, 192, 202, 219, 241
Michel (French traveller), 286
Missionaries, 52, 54, 65, 66, 97, 228, 277, 278, 281
Mitterrützner, Herr ----, 97
Mokha, 50, 54
Mombasa, 44, 54, 113, 117, 118, 146, 246, 247, 259
Mongolian races, 317
Monkeys, 209, 255
Moon, Land of, _see_ Unyamwezi;
Mountains of, _see_ Mountains
Moore, J. E., 269, 321
Moors, Morocco, 45, 46, 49
Morch, Giacomo, 234
Morlang, Father, 97
Morongo Mountains, 272
Moscow, 240
Mountains, of the Moon, 23, 28, 114, 119, 146, 311;
of Lotuka, 252
Mpororo, 148, 302
Muhammad, 38
Muhammad Ali, 91, 94 _et seq._, 202, 283
Muhammad Granye, 35, 48 _et seq._
Muhammad Kher, 211
Muhammad Wad-el-Mek, 165, 183
Muhammadanism, _see_ Islam
Muhammadans, 49, 184
Mundy, Lieut., 267
Munza, King, 240
Munzinger (Pasha), Werner, 200, 282, 320
Murat (Abyssinian), 67
Murchison Falls, 187
Murchison Gulf, 225
Murchison, Sir Roderick, 127
Murie, Dr., 103
Murray, Mr. T. Douglas, 131, 174
Murzuk, 195, 198
Museum, British, 77, 101, 104
Mutesa, 153 _et seq._;
his cruelties, 158, 225;
name, 239
Mwanza Creek, 120, 225
Mykenæan civilisation, 14
Nachtigal, Dr., 239
Naivasha, Lake, 247, 273
Nakwai Mountains, 272
Nandi, people, country, 107, 298, 303
Napata, 20
Napier, Lord, 282
Napoleon Bonaparte, 12, 65, 90
Napoleon Gulf, 162, 302
Napoleon III., 162
Nasr (Sobat), 240, 284
Natal, 58
Neanderthaloid man, 1
Negro, the, 8 _et seq._, 31, 42, 210, 297, 317;
Nilotic, 9, 137, 211, 212, 247, 288, 291, 295;
West African, 290
Negroid races, 1, 43, 107, 183, 184, 251
Neil, O’ (Rev.), 229
Neku (King of Egypt), 10
Nepoko River, 240
Nero, 12, 20, 21, 274
Neumann, Oscar, 271, 290, 321
“New York Herald,” The, 224
Niger River, 219, 242
Nile alluvial mud (from Atbara River), 180, 315
Nile, Albertine, 233, 261, 274, 304, 305
Nile, Blue, 6, 16, 27, 33, 43, 51 _et seq._, 77 _et seq._, 92, 111,
207, 275, 283, 287, 289, 309
Nile, Cataracts of, 74, 161, 187, 207, 305
Nile, Giraffe, 111, 189, 252, 253, 272, 273, 291, 308
Nile Mountains, 97, 98, 106, 189, 212, 239, 305
Nile Quest, the, _prefatory note_, 76, 89, 104;
stops for a time at Gondokoro, 115;
Speke discovers main source of White Nile, 160;
Baker’s explorations, 176 _et seq._;
Alexandrine Tinne the romantic figure of the, 199;
Schweinfurth’s share, 203 _et seq._;
close of, 293
Nile River, 1 _et seq._, 206 _et seq._, 293 _et seq._, 313;
names of, 7, 284;
delta of, 9, 40, 298, 315;
origin of, 15, 160, 267, 298;
ultimate sources of, 22, 51 _et seq._, 55, 79, 123, 124, 160,
(farthest source of all) 267;
floods of, 56, 178, 179, 245, 275;
basin of, area, 316;
length of, 316
Nile, Valley of the, 1 _et seq._;
like Rhine, 207
Nile, Victoria, 187, 189, 232
Nile, White, 6, 20, 22, 26, 43, 95, 207 _et seq._, 275, 292, 308
Nileland, 42, 177 _et seq._, 206 _et seq._, 293 _et seq._, 296 _et
seq._;
geography of, 299 _et seq._
Nilotic Negroes, 9, 21, 137, 209, 247, 288, 291, 295
Nimule, 97, 305
No, Lake, 201, 308
Nubia, Nubians, 11, 34, 43, 69, 98, 202, 235, 236, 295, 297
Nubian Alps, 203, 313
Nudity of Negroes, 137, 211, 251, 294, 297
Nuēr tribe, 288, 291
Nyam-nyam country and people, 103, 109, 112, 192, 194, 202, 217, 236,
257 _et seq._, 297
Nyando valley, river, 136, 302
Nyanza, name of, 121, 261
Nyasa, Lake, 113, 118, 138, 300, 302
Nyenam River, 216
Nzoia River, 302
Oguelokur River, 253, 273, 291, 292, 308
Olive, the wild, 204
Oman, 112
Omo River, 285
Ostriches, 16, 254
_Otocyon_ (long-eared fox), 137
Oxen, African, 147, 295
Paez, Father Pedro, 51, 63, 78, 319
Palms, 219
Pangani, 22, 28
Papyrus, 210, 213, 218, 244, 294
Paris, 62, 71, 91, 114
Parklands, African, 182, 252, 295
Parkyns, Mansfield, 111, 319
Parrot, Gray, 217
Peake, Malcolm, 275, 321
Pearson, C. W., 228
Peney, Alfred, 104, 106 _et seq._, 320
Periplus of the Red Sea, 22
Persia, Persians, 12, 31, 67, 89
Persian Gulf, 2, 9, 48
Peters, Dr. Carl, 249
Petherick, John, 100 _et seq._, 104, 133, 163, 168, 170, 182, 192,
202, 319
Petherick, Mrs., 103, 104
Petrie, Prof. Flinders, 5, 322
Phallic worship, 155
Phœnicians, the, 9 _et seq._
Photography, 106, 135, 234
Piaggia, 217, 219, 239, 284, 320
Pibor River, 287, 288, 292
_Pistia stratiotes_, 294
Pliny, 19, 23
Pococke, Richard, 74, 75, 319
Polynesians, 317
Poncet brothers, 108
Poncet (French doctor-explorer), 61, 66, 67
Pope, Papal Court, 66, 67, 97, 278
Portal, Capt. Raymond, 270
Portal, Sir Gerald, 270
Portugal, 45
Portuguese, 8, 18, 46 _et seq._, 65 _et seq._, 279, 317, 319, 321
Potagos (Greek traveller), 241
“Prester John,” 47
Primnis (Berber), 25
Pringle, Capt., 272, 273
Prokesch von Osten, 96, 319
_Protopterus_, fish, 182
Psametik, 10, 12, 15
Ptolemy (King), 13, 33, 34
Ptolemy, Ptolemæus, Claudius, 23, 24 _et seq._, 44, 58, 114
Punt, land of, 5, 6, 10
Purdy, Col., 230
Pygmies, Congo, 1, 216, 260, 297
Pygmy races, 5, 16, 42, 281
Quartz, 152
Queen Victoria, 121
Queens, African, 144, 157 _et seq._
Racey River, 267
Radcliffe, Delmé, Ch. (Major), 274, 321
Rahad River, 182, 288
Raiūf Pasha, 238
Ravenstein, Mr. E. G., 28, 247
Rebman, John, 112 _et seq._, 246
Red Sea, 1, 22, 46, 47, 49, 73, 86, 277, 300
Reeds, 294
Rejaf, 99
Religions, Negro, 155
Rhaptum, or Rhapta, 22, 28
Rhinoceros, the, 21, 144, 294
Rhodes, Cecil, 228, 274
Rhodesia, 44
Rifles, 86
Rift Valley (Great), 247, 267, 268, 300, 301
Rift valleys of Eastern Africa, 300 _et seq._, 310
Riga, 203
Ripon Falls of Nile, 160 _et seq._, 189, 266
Roa River, 216, 308
Rōl River, 101, 216, 243, 308
Roman Catholics, 50, 61, 278
Rome, Romans, 18, 44, 58, 62, 66, 317
Rosebery Channel, 225, 302
Roseires, 288
Rosetta, 74, 87, 316
Roule, le Sieur du, 68
Royal Geographical Society, 92, 103, 118, 123, 124, 127, 162, 247
Royal Society, 63, 64
Ruanda, 145, 148
Ruchuru River, 304
Rudolf, Lake, 6, 34, 37, 148, 247, 248, 271, 272, 286, 287
Rukwa, Lake, 138, 268, 300
Rumanika, King, 143 _et seq._, 148
Rüppell, Dr. (German naturalist), 111, 319
Rusizi River, 120, 129, 171
Russegger, J. I., 111
Ruvuvu River (Kagera), 266
Ruwenzori Mountains, 23, 28, 139, 171, 186, 227, 233, 250, 260, 261,
(Alpine vegetation) 263, 269, 296, 299, 311
Ruzi River, 272, 286, 287, 292, 308
Ryllo, Father, 97
Saba (Sheba), Queen of, 32
Sabæan Arabs, 17, 31, 32
Sabatier, 96
Sagada Mountain, 51, 55, 78
Sahara Desert, 9, 15, 196, 199, 309, 315
Sailing ships, their effect on African discovery, 9
Saint, Le (French explorer), 213
Salisbury, Lake, 272
Salt, Consul Henry, 277
Samburu, Lake (_see_ Rudolf), 247
Samien Mountains, 6, 56, 278, 312
_Sanseviera_, plant, 204
Sardinian (i.e. N. Italian) travellers, 108
Saxony, Saxe Gotha (share in African exploration), 61, 63
Schuver, J. M., 284, 289
Schweinfurth, Dr. Georg, 199;
birth and nationality, 203;
starts for Suakin, 203;
describes botany of North Abyssinian terraces, 203, 204;
Berber to Khartum, 206 _et seq._;
White Nile scenery, 208 _et seq._;
Bahr-al-Ghazal, 212 _et seq._;
and the slave-trade, 214;
his achievements, 216 _et seq._;
anthropological discoveries, 217 _et seq._;
botany of Nileland, 218;
“gallery” forests, 219 _et seq._;
shares Burton’s opinions regarding Victoria Nyanza, 223
Sclater, Dr. P. L., 102
Scott-Elliott, G. F., 269, 320
Scottish, Scotland, 75, 132, 269, 321
Selim Bimbashi, 96, 319
Semitic influence, languages, 34, 49, 116, 317
Semliki River, 29, 171, 186, 233, 251, 260, 261, 305
Sennar, 52, 68, 95, 288
Sese Islands, 150, 302
Settit River (Atbara), 181
Shankala, Shangala, 72, 297
Shari River, 216, 232, 240, 242
Sharp, Mr., 274, 291
Sheko tribe, 290
Shendi, 72, 93, 99, 206
Shergold-Smith, R.N. Lieut., 228, 229
Shiluk people, country, 99, 209, 211, 212, 291, 297
Shoa, 59, 278, 282
Sicily, 44, 72, 74
Silesia, 250
Simiyu, or Shimeyu River, 267
Simonides (Greek explorer), 19, 20
Slaves, Slavery, 5, 8, 110
Slave-trade, Slave-traders, 103, 184, 190, 202, 214, 230, 235, 264
Slave-traders’ revolt, 235 _et seq._
Small-pox, 153
Snakes, 254, 256
Snay, Sheikh, 119, 140
Snow, Snow-mountains, 6, 22, 113, 114, 227, 233, 246, 247, 260, 290,
296, 297, 312
Sobat River, 28, 111, 189, 194, 234, 240, 272, 283, 284, 285, 292,
296, 297
Sofala, 18, 38
Sokotra, Island of, 16, 18, 54
Solomon, King, 32
Somali people, 3, 34, 117; language, 3
Somaliland, 3, 5 _et seq._, 48, 115 _et seq._
Somersetshire and Speke, 120, 121, 125
Sonnini de Manoncourt, 87 _et seq._
Sophia, Archduchess, 97
Spain, Spanish, 40, 45, 69, 75
Speke, John Hanning, 102, 103, 125, 320;
in Somaliland, 116 _et seq._;
starts for the Central Africa Lakes with Burton, 118 _et seq._;
discovers Victoria Nyanza, 120 _et seq._;
difference with Burton, 123 _et seq._;
returns to England, 124;
his birth and parentage, 125;
youth, 126;
character, 128, 129, 156, 170, 320;
second expedition with Grant, 133 _et seq._, 142;
in Uganda, 150 _et seq._;
returns to England, 158, 170, 171;
name in Uganda, 159;
discovers outlet of Victoria Nyanza, 160, 172;
honours, 169;
interview with King Edward, 169;
geographical theories, 171, 223;
death, 172
Speke Gulf, 224
Spekes, history of the, 125;
arms of the, 170
Stanley, Sir Henry, 29, 172, 223 _et seq._;
greatest African explorer, 172, 224;
confirms Speke, 223 _et seq._;
circumnavigates Victoria Nyanza, 225;
in Uganda, 226, 227;
mistake about Ugowe Bay, 248;
relieves Emin, 259 _et seq._;
discovers Ruwenzori, 260, 261
Stanton, E. A., 274, 321
Steamers on Nile, 96
Steudner, Dr., 192, 195, 200
Strabo, 19, 25, 27
Stroyan, Lieut., 116
Stuhlman, Dr. Franz, 263, 264, 269
Suakin, 54, 58, 93, 188, 203
Sudan, 4, 15, 96, 154, 190, 230, 235, 238, 275
Sudanese soldiers, 95, 190, 270;
races, 217, 297
Sudd, the, 5, 21, 188, 210, 274, 275, 294
Sue (Sive) River, 216, 243, 285, 307
Suez, 73, 234, 238
Suez Canal, 104, 314
Suleiman-bin-Zubeir, 235, 236 _et seq._
Switzerland, Swiss, 92, 99, 282, 321
Syphilis, 152, 153
Syria, Syrians, 2, 9, 77
Tajarra Bay, 48, 53, 57, 116
Takaze River (Upper Atbara), 181, 283, 310
Tanganyika, Lake, 113, 119, 120, 129, 171, 265, 266, 267, 299, 300
Tanguedec, Lieut., 243, 285
Tarangole, 252
Tawareq (Tonareg), Tamasheq, 20, 149, 196 _et seq._
Teleki, Count S., 248
Tellez, F. Balthasar, 64
Tertiary Epoch, the Nile during the, 313 _et seq._
Theodore, King, 182, 279, 281, 282
Thibaud, or Thibaut (French explorer and consular agent), 95, 96, 319
Thomson, Joseph, 82, 162, 217, 248, 249, 259, 260, 320
Tibet (Speke in), 126, 127
Tigre (Abyssinia), 48, 57, 66, 277, 278
Tigris River, 9
Tinne, Miss A., 192;
names, 193;
origin of Tinne family, 193;
mother and aunt, 194;
first Nile journeys, 194, 195;
death of mother and aunt, 195;
starts from Tripoli to explore Sahara and reach Bahr-al-Ghazal from
N.W., 195;
treacherously slain near Murzuk by Tawareqs, 196 _et seq._;
character and appearance, 198, 199;
on the Roll of Fame, 320
Tinne, Theodore F. S., 198
Tondi River, 216
Tonj River, 243, 307
Toro, 152, 270
Trade, Traders, 5, 96, 101, 213, 294
Tragelaph, Speke’s, 146
Trees, great forest, 220, 258
Tripoli, 77, 87, 195 _et seq._
Tsana, Lake, 6, 26 _et seq._, 33, 52, 55 _et seq._, 77 _et seq._,
309, 312
Tsetse fly, the, 35
Tu River, 273, 291
Tübingen, 112
Tunis, 77
Turkana, country, people, 6, 107, 272, 297
Turkey, 65, 73
Turks, the, 50, 53, 61, 65, 94, 95, 101, 195, 198, 318, 321
Ubangi River, 216, 241, 285
Ueberbacher, Father, 97
Uganda, _prefatory note_, 8, 228, 259;
protectorate of, 35, 154;
aristocracy of, 35, 148, 156;
country of, 119, 148, 151 _et seq._;
people of, 148, 152 _et seq._, 297;
King of, 154 _et seq._, 226;
Stanley in, 225–228;
missionaries proceed to, 228, 229;
Gordon and, 238;
route, via Busoga, 248
Uganda Railway, 248
Ugogo, 137
Ugowe Bay, 224, 248, 273
Ujiji, 119, 120, 227
Ukerewe (Bukerebe), 118, 121, 229
“Um Suf” (_Vossia_) (reeds), 244, 294
Unyamwezi, 29, 72, 114, 120 _et seq._, 138, 224, 228, 260, 267, 303;
porters, 139
Unyanyembe, 123
Unyoro, 37, 119, 147, 152, 163, 187, 270, 296
Usagara, 136
Usambara, 118
_Usnea_, lichen, 204, 221, 222
Usui, 142
Utica, 9
Valentia, Lord, 277
Vandeleur, Seymour, 270, 320
Vannutelli, L., 285, 301
Vaudet, Signor, 108
Venetians, Venice, 23, 24, 40, 41, 47, 202
Victoria Nyanza, 6, 23, 26, 35, 113, 117, 118;
discovery of, 120 _et seq._;
Burton’s depreciation of, 129;
Speke’s estimate of, 150 _et seq._, 162, 189;
Stanley’s circumnavigation, 224 _et seq._;
direct route to, from Mombasa, 246 _et seq._;
last discoveries of Stanley’s, 262;
surveyed (northern coast) by Col. J. R. L. Macdonald, 272;
by Whitehouse, Hobley, etc., 273;
general features of, 302 _et seq._
Vinci, 99
Volcanoes, 210, 227, 297, 304, 314
Wadai, 201, 240, 242
Wadi Halfa, 96, 230
_Wadi_, or river-bed, 205
Waghorn, Lieut., 276
Wakefield, Rev. Mr., 247
Wales, Welsh, 100, 321
Wansleb, Michael, 63
Waterfalls, 56, 161, 187
Watson, Col. C. M., 231, 233 _et seq._, 320
Wellby, M. S., 272, 286, 287, 321
Welle River, 109, 202, 216, 240, 241, 307
Werne, Ferdinand, 96, 210, 289, 319
Whale-headed storks, _see_ _Balæniceps rex_
Whitehouse, Commissioner B., 162, 248, 273, 321
White man, _see_ Caucasian
White Nile, _see_ Nile, White
Wilson, Capt. H. H., 292, 321
Wilson, Rev. C. T., 228, 229, 320
Wosho Mountain (North Abyssinia), 312
Würtemberg, 112, 199
Wyche, Sir Peter, 63
Yabongo River, 216
Yalo River, 101, 308
Yaman (Arabia), 17, 31, 309
Yei River, 106, 239, 308
Zambezi River, 17, 18, 300
Zanzibar, 17, 58, 112, 118, 123, 133, 134, 146, 265
Zebra, 53, 257, 294
Zeila, 52, 54, 290
Zinza, U-, Bu-, 142, 148
Zubeir Pasha, 235
Zululand, Zulus, 3, 29, 140
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Several words appear multiple times with and without accent marks.
These inconsistencies have not been changed.
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marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
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Transcriber added references to two maps at the end of the List of
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removed from this eBook.
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have been collected, sequentially renumbered, and placed near the end
of the book, just before the Index.
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references.
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