The Discovery of the Source of the Nile — John Shaqi
The Discovery of the Source of the NileSpeke, John Hanning
History
The Discovery of the Source of the Nile
Speke, John Hanning
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Nile River; Nile River Valley -- Discovery and exploration; Uganda -- Description and travel
We had a brave crew of young negroes to pull us; but, pull as they
would, the current was so strong that we feared, if we persisted, we
should be drawn into the broad Indian Ocean; so, changing our line, we
bore into the little coralline island, Maziwa, where, after riding over
some ugly coral surfs, we put in for the night. There we found, to our
relief, some fisherman, who gave us fish for our dinner, and directions
how to proceed.
Next morning, before daylight, we trusted to the boat and our good luck.
After passing, without landmarks to guide us, by an intricate channel,
through foaming surfs, we arrived at Zanzibar in the night, and found
that the vessel had got in before us.
Colonel Rigby now gave me a most interesting paper, with a map attached
to it, about the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon. It was written
by Lieutenant Wilford, from the "Purans" of the Ancient Hindus. As it
exemplifies, to a certain extent, the supposition I formerly arrived at
concerning the Mountains of the Moon being associated with the country
of the Moon, I would fain draw the attention of the reader of my travels
to the volume of the "Asiatic Researches" in which it was published. [5]
It is remarkable that the Hindus have christened the source of the Nile
Amara, which is the name of a country at the north-east corner of the
Victoria N'yanza. This, I think, shows clearly, that the ancient Hindus
must have had some kind of communication with both the northern and
southern ends of the Victoria N'yanza.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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