He realised to the full the wonder of his discovery, and the obvious probability that this mighty lake would prove to be the main headwaters of the White Nile. Even Speke, however, failed to appreciate then or subsequently the full extent of the Nyanza’s area. He only guessed its breadth at over one hundred miles, and its length from north to south at under two hundred. Speke inquired from the natives the name of this freshwater sea, and they replied “Nyanza,” which in varying forms such as Nyanja, Nyasa, Mwanza, Kianja, Luanza (according to prefix), is a widespread Bantu root for a large extent of water,--a river or a lake. To this term Speke added the name of Victoria after the Queen of England. The following extract from his book, “What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile,” gives his first impressions of the great lake:-- “The caravan, after quitting Isamiro, began winding up a long but gradually inclined hill [which, as it bears no native name, I shall call Somerset] until it reached its summit, when the vast expanse of the pale blue waters of the Nyanza burst suddenly upon my gaze. It was early morning. The distant sea-line of the north horizon was defined in the calm atmosphere between the north and the west points of the compass; but even this did not afford me any idea of the breadth of the lake, as an archipelago of islands, each consisting of a single hill, rising to a height two hundred or three hundred feet above the water, intersected the line of vision to the left; while on the right the western horn of the Ukerewe Island cut off any further view of its distant waters to the eastward of north. A sheet of water--an elbow of the sea, however, at the base of the low range on which I stood--extended far away to the eastward, to where, in the dim horizon, a hummock-like elevation of the mainland marked what I understood to be the south and east angle of the lake. The important islands of Ukerewe and Mzita, distant about twenty or thirty miles, formed the visible north shore of this firth. The name of the former of these islands was familiar to us as that by which this long-sought lake was usually known. It is reported by the natives to be of no great extent, and though of no considerable elevation, I could discover several spurs stretching down to the water’s edge from its central ridge of hills. The other island, Mzita, is of greater elevation, of a hog-backed shape, but being more distant its physical features were not so distinctly visible.