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.