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
The pagazis would not start at the appointed time, hoping to enforce
their demands of last night; so we took the lead and started, followed
by the Wanguana. Seeing this, the pagazis cried out with one accord:
"The master is gone, leaving the responsibility of his property in our
hands; let us follow, let us follow, for verily he is our father;" and
all came hurrying after us. Here the river, again making a bend, is lost
to sight, and we marched through large woods and cultivated fields to
Muhugue, observing, as we passed long, the ochreish colour of the earth,
and numerous pits which the copal-diggers had made searching for their
much-valued gum. A large coast-bound caravan, carrying ivory tusks with
double-toned bells suspended to them, ting-tonging as they moved along,
was met on the way; and as some of the pagazis composing it were men who
had formerly taken me to the Victoria N'yanza, warm recognitions passed
between us. The water found here turned our brandy and tea as black as
ink. The chief, being a man of small pretensions, took only one sahari
and four yards merikani.
Instead of going on to the next village we halted in this jungly
place for the day, that I might comply with the desire of the Royal
Geographical Society to inspect Muhonyera, and report if there were
really any indications of a "raised sea-beach" there, such as their maps
indicate. An inspection brought me to the conclusion that no mind but
one prone to discovering sea-beaches in the most unlikely places
could have supposed for a moment that one existed here. The form and
appearance of the land are the same as we have seen everywhere since
leaving Bomani--a low plateau subtended by a bank cut down by the
Kingani river, and nothing more. There are no pebbles; the soil is rich
reddish loam, well covered with trees, bush, and grass, in which some
pigs and antelopes are found. From the top of this enbankment we gain
the first sight of the East Coast Range, due west of us, represented
by the high elephant's-back hill, Mkambaku, in Usagara, which, joining
Uraguru, stretches northwards across the Pangani river to Usumbara and
the Kilimandjaro, and southwards, with a westerly deflection, across the
Lufiji to Southern N'yassa. What course the range takes beyond those two
extremes, the rest of the world knows as well as I. Another conspicuous
landmark here is Kidunda (the little hill), which is the southernmost
point of a low chain of hills, also tending northwards, and representing
an advance-guard to the higher East Coast Range in its rear. At night,
as we had no local "sultans" to torment us, eight more men of sultan
Majid's donation ran away, and, adding injury to injury, took with them
all our goats, fifteen in number. This was a sad loss. We could keep
ourselves on guinea-fowls or green pigeons, doves, etc.; but the
Hottentots wanted nourishment much more than ourselves, and as their
dinner always consisted of what we left, "short-commons" was the fate in
store for them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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