Transcriber’s Notes Text printed in italics has been transcribed _between underscores_, bold face text =between equal signs=. Small capitals have been changed to ALL CAPITALS. Superscript text is represented by ^{text}. More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text. THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA VOL. I. LONDON PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUARE [Illustration: THE IVORY PORTER.] THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA A PICTURE OF EXPLORATION BY RICHARD F. BURTON Capt. H. M. I. Army: Fellow and Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society “_Some to discover islands far away_”--_Shakspere_ IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1860 _The right of translation is reserved_ TO MY SISTER, MARIA STISTED, THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED PREFACE. I had intended this record of personal adventure to appear immediately after my return to Europe, in May 1859. The impaired health, the depression of spirits, and worse still the annoyance of official correspondence, which to me have been the sole results of African Exploration, may be admitted as valid reasons for the delay. In April, 1860, the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain honoured me by publishing a detailed paper, forming the XXIXth Volume of their Journal, from which the topographical descriptions contained in the following pages have, with their kind permission, been extracted. I have now attempted to combine with geography and ethnology, a narrative of occurrences and an exposition of the more popular and picturesque points of view which the subject offers. When I communicated to my friends the publishers certain intentions of writing an exclusively “light work,” they protested against the project, stating that the public appetite required the addition of stronger meat. In compliance, therefore, with their suggestion, I have drawn two portraits of the same object, and mingled the gay with the graver details of travel, so as to produce an antipathetic cento. Modern “hinters to travellers” direct the explorer and the missionary to eschew theory and opinion. We are told somewhat peremptorily that it is our duty to gather actualities not inferences--to see and not to think, in fact, to confine ourselves to transmitting the rough material collected by us, that it may be worked into shape by the professionally learned at home. But why may not the observer be allowed a voice concerning his own observations, if at least his mind be sane and his stock of collateral knowledge be respectable?