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
29th.--We started at 6 A.M., and marched thirteen miles to a village
at the northern extremity of the district. The face of the country is
still very irregular, sometimes rising into hills, at other times
dropping into dells, but very well cultivated in the lower portion;
whilst the brown granite rocks, with trees and brushwood covering the
upper regions, diversify the colouring, and form a pleasing contrast
to the scene; added to this, large and frequent herds graze about the
fields and amongst the villages, and give animation to the whole.
Amongst the trees, palms take a prominent part. Indeed, for tropical
scenery, there are few places that could equal this; and if the
traveller, as he moves along, surrounded by the screeching, howling,
inquisitive savages, running rudely about and boisterously jostling
him, could only divest himself of the idea that he is a bear baited by
a yelping pack of hounds, the journey would be replete with enjoyment.
Crossing some hills, the caravan sprang a covey of guinea-fowls, and
at some springs in a valley I shot several couple of sand-grouse,
darker in plumage than any I ever saw in Africa or India, and not
quite so big as the Tibet bird. The chief of the village offered me a
bullock; but as the beast did not appear until the time of starting, I
declined it. Neither did I give him any cloth, being convinced in my
mind that these and other animals have always been brought to me by
the smaller chiefs at the instigation of the Kirangozi, and probably
aided by the flesh-loving party in general. The Jemadar must have been
particularly mortified at my way of disposing of the business, for he
talked of nothing else but flesh and the animal from the moment it was
sent for, his love for butcher-meat amounting almost to a frenzy. The
sandstone in this region is highly impregnated with iron, and smelters
do a good business; indeed, the iron for nearly all the tools and
cutlery that are used in this division of Eastern Africa is found and
manufactured here. It is the Brummagem of the land, and has not only
rich but very extensive ironfields stretching many miles north, east,
and west. I brought some specimens away. Cloth is little prized in
this especially bead country, and I had to pay the sum of one dhoti
kiniki for one pot of honey and one pot of ghee (clarified butter).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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