Opening the text

Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic OceanStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)

History

Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean

Name: Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean
Author: Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)

Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)

Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904 -- Travel -- Africa, Central

I gazed long on the grand encircling prospect. A halcyon calm brooded
on the lake, eastward, northward, and southward, until the clear
sky and stainless silver water met, the clear bounds of both veiled
by a gauzy vapour, suggesting infinity. In a bold, majestic mass to
the south-east rose Alice Island, while a few miles south-east of
it appeared the Bumbireh group. Opposite me, to the west, and two
miles from where I stood, was the long cliffy front of the plateau of
Uzongora, its slowly-rising summit gemmed with patches of evergreen
banana, until it became banked in the distance by lines of hazy blue
mountains.

It is a spot from which, undisturbed, the eye may rove over one of the
strangest yet fairest portions of Africa—hundreds of square miles of
beautiful lake scenes—a great length of grey plateau wall, upright and
steep, but indented with exquisite inlets, half surrounded by embowering
plantains—-hundreds of square miles of pastoral upland dotted thickly
with villages and groves of banana. From my lofty eyrie I can see herds
upon herds of cattle, and many minute specks, white and black, which can
be nothing but flocks of sheep and goats. I can also see pale blue
columns of ascending smoke from the fires, and upright thin figures
moving about. Secure on my lofty throne, I can view their movements and
laugh at the ferocity of the savage hearts which beat in those thin dark
figures; for I am a part of Nature now, and for the present as
invulnerable as itself. As little do they know that human eyes survey
their forms from the summit of this lake-girt isle as that the eyes of
the Supreme in heaven are upon them. How long, I wonder, shall the
people of these lands remain thus ignorant of Him who created the
gorgeous sunlit world they look upon each day from their lofty upland!
How long shall their untamed ferocity be a barrier to the Gospel, and
how long shall they remain unvisited by the Teacher!

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                                                    [_To face page 174._

[Illustration: RECEPTION AT BUMBIREH ISLAND, VICTORIA NYANZA.]

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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean

Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)

Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904 -- Travel -- Africa, Central

I gazed long on the grand encircling prospect. A halcyon calm brooded
on the lake, eastward, northward, and southward, until the clear
sky and stainless silver water met, the clear bounds of both veiled
by a gauzy vapour, suggesting infinity. In a bold, majestic mass to
the south-east rose Alice Island, while a few miles south-east of
it appeared the Bumbireh group. Opposite me, to the west, and two
miles from where I stood, was the long cliffy front of the plateau of
Uzongora, its slowly-rising summit gemmed with patches of evergreen
banana, until it became banked in the distance by lines of hazy blue
mountains.

It is a spot from which, undisturbed, the eye may rove over one of the
strangest yet fairest portions of Africa—hundreds of square miles of
beautiful lake scenes—a great length of grey plateau wall, upright and
steep, but indented with exquisite inlets, half surrounded by embowering
plantains—-hundreds of square miles of pastoral upland dotted thickly
with villages and groves of banana. From my lofty eyrie I can see herds
upon herds of cattle, and many minute specks, white and black, which can
be nothing but flocks of sheep and goats. I can also see pale blue
columns of ascending smoke from the fires, and upright thin figures
moving about. Secure on my lofty throne, I can view their movements and
laugh at the ferocity of the savage hearts which beat in those thin dark
figures; for I am a part of Nature now, and for the present as
invulnerable as itself. As little do they know that human eyes survey
their forms from the summit of this lake-girt isle as that the eyes of
the Supreme in heaven are upon them. How long, I wonder, shall the
people of these lands remain thus ignorant of Him who created the
gorgeous sunlit world they look upon each day from their lofty upland!
How long shall their untamed ferocity be a barrier to the Gospel, and
how long shall they remain unvisited by the Teacher!

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

                                                    [_To face page 174._

[Illustration: RECEPTION AT BUMBIREH ISLAND, VICTORIA NYANZA.]

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean

Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean

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