What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the NileSpeke, John Hanning
History
What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile
Speke, John Hanning
Horn of Africa -- Description and travel; Nile River; Tanganyika, Lake
hill, the eastern buttresses of these Lunae Montes, and washed on the
flanks by the Ukéréwé Sea) is bounded on the north by the Kitangulé
river, beyond which the Wanyoro territory (crescent shape) lies, with
the horns directed eastwards. Amidst them, situate in the concave or
lake side, are the Waganda, to whose capital I went. Anybody wishing
to see the northern boundary of the lake should go to Kibuga, take
good presents, and make friends with the reigning monarch; and, with
his assistance, buy or construct boats on the shore of the lake, which
is about five marches east of his capital.[47] North, beyond the
Waganda, the Wanyoro are again met with; and there quarrels and wars
were so rife, from a jealousy existing among them and the Waganda,
that had these people known of a northern boundary, I still might not
have heard of it. On crossing the Kitangulé river, I found it
emanating from Urundi (a district in the Mountains of the Moon), and
flowing north-easterly. The breadth of the river is very great--I
should imagine, some five to six hundred yards--and it contains much
water, overflowing as the Malagarazi does after rains. There are also
numerous other little streams on the way to Kibuga, but none so great
as the Katonga river. This, like the rest, comes from the west, and
flows towards the lake. It has a breadth of two thousand yards, is
very deep when full, but sinks and is very sluggish in the dry season,
when water-lilies and rushes overspread its surface, and the
musquitoes are very annoying. The cowrie-shell, brought from the
Zanzibar coast, is the common currency amongst the more northern
tribes; but they are not worth the merchant's while to carry, as beads
and brass (not cloth, for they are essentially a bead-wearing and
naked people) are eagerly sought for and taken in exchange. Large
sailing-craft, capable of containing forty or fifty men, and manned
and navigated after the fashion of ocean mariners, are reported by the
natives to frequent the lake (meaning the Nile at Gondokoro). We Arabs
believe in this report, as everybody tells the same story; but don't
know how it happens to be so, unless it is open to the sea. The
Kitangulé river is crossed in good-sized wooden canoes; but the
Katonga river can only be passed in the dry season, when men walk over
it on the lily leaves: cattle, too, are then passed across in certain
open spaces, guided by a long string, which is attached to the
animals' heads."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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