From the Cape to Cairo was a watchword that, as an idea, first emanated from the pen of Sir Edwin Arnold in 1876, and as a phrase took shape in writings by the author of this book in 1888 and 1890, and as a policy was finally adopted by Cecil Rhodes in 1892. The first person to carry this idea into practical execution was Mr. Ewart Grogan, who (accompanied part of the way by Mr. Sharp) travelled literally from the Cape to Cairo via Lake Albert Edward and the Uganda Protectorate. His contributions to Nile explorations are referred to in the next chapter. He was followed in 1900 by Major A. St. Hill Gibbons and later by M. Lionel Dècle. Between 1898 and 1902 Colonel E. A. Stanton surveyed the eastern part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the intricate channels of the lower Mountain Nile. [Illustration: CUTTING THE SUDD.] In the year 1900 a very notable achievement took place. The terrible obstruction of the sudd which had intermittently blocked the Nile navigation from the days of Nero’s two centurions (who could hardly force their way through it in the year 66 A.D.) to our own times was cut through resolutely by an expedition under Major Malcolm Peake. The government of the Egyptian Sudan has for the last two years continued to clear away this obstacle, and in all probability it will never be allowed to form again. In fact, in this direction man will probably do much to modify the subsequent history of the Nile. Sir William Garstin has recently explored Lake Tsana and the Blue Nile as well as the White Mountain Nile as far as Gondokoro, Lake Albert, and Lake Victoria, with a view to ascertaining which of the two rivers contributes the most valuable supply of water for the irrigation and fertilisation of Egypt. So far, he has decided for the Blue Nile, a fact which lends increased importance to the Empire of Abyssinia.[113] It may be, however, that with the clearing of the sudd on the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the Mountain Nile these branches of the great river may send down increasing supplies of water to Egypt. In any case the clearing of the sudd will permit of these waterways being used for penetrating in all directions into the heart of Equatorial Africa. CHAPTER XXVI THE EASTERN BASIN OF THE NILE