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
[50] Sheikh Said has since declared, in "the most solemn manner, that
Captain Burton positively forbade his going." This happened when we
were at Usenyé, and immediately after I first asked the Sheikh.
[51] Captain Burton started with two huge elephant-guns, one double
rifle, one pea-rifle, one air-gun, two revolving pistols, and a
cross-bow, all of which he used for display to amuse the Arabs.
[52] Sukuma means north, and the Wasukuma are consequently northmen,
or northern Wanyamuézi.
[53] _Barsati_--a coloured cloth.
[54] One dhoti = 2 shukkas; 1 shukka = 4 cubits, or 2 yards, merikani
(American sheeting).
[55] _Kiniki_--a thin indigo-dyed cloth.
[56] _Boma_--a palisade. A village or collection of huts so fortified
is called so also.
[57] This, I maintain, was the discovery of the source of the Nile.
Had the ancient kings and sages known that a rainy zone existed on the
equator, they would not have puzzled their brains so long, and have
wondered where those waters came from which meander through upwards of
a thousand miles of scorching desert without a single tributary.
[58] This magnificent sheet of water I have ventured to name VICTORIA,
after our gracious Sovereign. Its length was not clearly understood by
me, in consequence of the word Sea having been applied both to the
Lake and to the Nile by my local informants; and there was no recent
map of the Nile with the expedition by which I might have been guided.
[59] I now think the breadth is over one hundred miles.
[60] Mahaya said he was of Wahinda extraction, or from the princes of
the Wahuma; but this I do not believe, for his features bore the
strongest possible testimony against him.
[61] The King of Uganda has sent presents by boat to Machunda, Sultan
of Ukéréwé, coasting along the western shore of the lake. Mtésa told
me this himself, and asked me if I knew Machunda personally.
[62] The Waganda also send boats for salt to the Bahari (Lake) Ngo, at
the north-east corner of the lake.
[63] On my return to England I constructed a map representing this
view, and lectured on the same in presence of Captain Burton, who then
raised no objections to what I said.
[64] In England geographers doubted this; and after it was printed, Dr
Petermann had reason to change his opinion. However, Knoblecher was
not far wrong, as I have since made the latitude of Gondokoro 4° 54'
north.
[65] The rising of the Katonga still puzzles me.
[66] Kibuga means palace.
[67] There are three cataracts between the N'yanza and Gondokoro: 1.
from Ripon Falls to Urondogani; 2. from Karuma Falls to Little Luta
Nzigé; 3. from Apuddo to near Gondokoro.
[68] Captain Burton, by way of having a special Lunæ Montes of his
own, calls these mountains a "mass of highlands, which, under the name
of Karagwah, forms the western spinal prolongation of the Lunar
Mountains." See his 'Lake Regions,' vol. ii. p. 144.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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