On returning from his voyage of exploration, he resolved on an overland journey to the hot springs of Mtagata, which have obtained considerable renown throughout all the neighboring countries for their healing properties. Two days’ severe marching towards the north brought them to a deep, wooded gorge wherein the hot springs are situated. Here they discovered a most astonishing variety of plants, herbs, trees and bushes; for here Nature was in her most astonishing mood. She shot forth her products with such vigor that each plant seemed to strangle the other for lack of room. They so clambered over one another that small hills of brush were formed, the lowest in the heap stifled by the uppermost, and through the heaps thus formed tall invules shot forth an arrow’s flight into the upper air, with globes of radiant, green foliage upon their stem-like crowns. These springs issued in streams from the base of a rocky hill, and when Fahrenheit’s thermometer was placed in the water, the mercury rose to 129 degrees. Four springs bubbled upward from the ground through a depth of dark, muddy sediment, and had a temperature of 110 degrees. These were the most favored by the natives, and the curative reputation of the springs was based on the properties of the water. Stanley says that he camped there for three days, and made free use of a reserved spring; but excepting unusual cleanliness, he could not conscientiously say that he enjoyed any benefit from the water. Having thoroughly explored the valley of the Kagera, noting and locating the minor lakes, mineral springs, and other features of the topography of this hitherto unknown region, and after completing a map of the Victoria Nyanza, which will prove one of the most important contributions ever made to geographical science, solving as it does one of its greatest problems, Stanley commenced his southward march to Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, the place where he was so fortunate as to discover the long-lost Livingstone. [Illustration: THE HOT SPRINGS OF MTAGATA.] He left the capital of Karagwe with brave intentions and high aspirations. He had discovered that the Kagera River formed a great lake about eighty miles in length and from five to fourteen miles in breadth, and that at Kishakka the Kagera was still a powerful, deep-flowing river; and curious reports from natives and Arabs had created curious ideas within his mind as to the source of this noble river. Imbued with the thought that by journeying a sufficient distance along its right bank he might discover this source, he made ample preparations for the crossing of a wide wilderness, packed ten days’ provisions of grain on the shoulders of each man of the expedition, and on the 27th of March, 1876, set out for the uninhabited land.