This Delighted My People, Who
Ejaculated "El Hamd El Illah!" (Thank God!) And Fell To Immediately At
Their Beef.
At sunrise on the following morning I took the compass, and accompanied
by the chief of the village, my guide Rabonga, and the woman Bacheeta, I
went to the borders of the lake to survey the country.
It was
beautifully clear, and with a powerful telescope I could distinguish two
large waterfalls that cleft the sides of the mountains on the opposite
shore. Although the outline of the mountains was distinct upon the
bright blue sky, and the dark shades upon their sides denoted deep
gorges, I could not distinguish other features than the two great falls,
which looked like threads of silver on the dark face of the mountains.
No base had been visible, even from an elevation of 1,500 feet above the
water level, on my first view of the lake, but the chain of lofty
mountains on the west appeared to rise suddenly from the water. This
appearance must have been due to the great distance, the base being
below the horizon, as dense columns of smoke were ascending apparently
from the surface of the water: this must have been produced by the
burning of prairies at the foot of the mountains. The chief assured me
that large canoes had been known to cross over from the other side, but
that it required four days and nights of hard rowing to accomplish the
voyage, and that many boats had been lost in the attempt. The canoes of
Unyoro were not adapted for so dangerous a journey; but the western
shore of the lake was comprised in the great kingdom of Malegga,
governed by King Kajoro, who possessed large canoes, and traded with
Kamrasi from a point opposite to Magungo, where the lake was contracted
to the width of one day's voyage. He described Malegga as a very
powerful country, and of greater extent than either Unyora or Uganda.
. . . South of Malegga was a country named Tori, governed by a king of
the same name: beyond that country to the south on the western shore
no intelligence could be obtained from any one.
The lake was known to extend as far south as Karagwe; and the old story
was repeated, that Rumanika, the king of that country, was in the habit
of sending ivory-hunting parties to the lake at Utumbi, and that
formerly they had navigated the lake to Magungo. This was a curious
confirmation of the report given me by Speke at Gondokoro, who wrote:
"Rumanika is constantly in the habit of sending ivory-hunting parties to
Utumbi."
The eastern shores of the lake were, from north to south, occupied by
Chopi, Unyoro, Uganda, Utumbi, and Karagwe: from the last point, which
could not be less than about two degrees south latitude, the lake was
reported to turn suddenly to the west, and to continue in that direction
for an unknown distance. North of Malegga, on the west of the lake, was
a small country called M'Caroli; then Koshi, on the west side of the
Nile at its exit from the lake; and on the east side of the Nile was the
Madi, opposite to Koshi. Both the guide and the chief of Vacovia
informed me that we should be taken by canoes to Magungo, to the point
at which the Somerset that we had left at Karuma joined the lake; but
that we could not ascend it, as it was a succession of cataracts the
whole way from Karuma until within a short distance of Magungo. The exit
of the Nile from the lake at Koshi was navigable for a considerable
distance, and canoes could descend the river as far as the Madi.
They both agreed that the level of the lake was never lower than at
present, and that it never rose higher than a mark upon the beach that
accounted for an increase of about four feet. The beach was perfectly
clean sand, upon which the waves rolled like those of the sea, throwing
up weeds precisely as seaweed may be seen upon the English shore. It was
a grand sight to look upon this vast reservoir of the mighty Nile, and
to watch the heavy swell tumbling upon the beach, while far to the
southwest the eye searched as vainly for a bound as though upon the
Atlantic. It was with extreme emotion that I enjoyed this glorious
scene. My wife, who had followed me so devotedly, stood by my side pale
and exhausted - a wreck upon the shores of the great Albert lake that
we had so long striven to reach. No European foot had ever trod upon its
sand, nor had the eyes of a white man ever scanned its vast expanse of
water. We were the first; and this was the key to the great secret that
even Julius Caesar yearned to unravel, but in vain. Here was the great
basin of the Nile that received EVERY DROP OF WATER, even from the
passing shower to the roaring mountain torrent that drained from Central
Africa towards the north. This was the great reservoir of the Nile!
The first coup d'oeil from the summit of the cliff 1,500 feet above the
level had suggested what a closer examination confirmed. The lake was a
vast depression far below the general level of the country, surrounded
by precipitous cliffs, and bounded on the west and southwest by great
ranges of mountains from five to seven thousand feet above the level of
its waters - thus it was the one great reservoir into which everything
MUST drain; and from this vast rocky cistern the Nile made its exit, a
giant in its birth. It was a grand arrangement of Nature for the birth
of so mighty and important a stream as the river Nile. The Victoria
N'yanza of Speke formed a reservoir at a high altitude, receiving a
drainage from the west by the Kitangule river, and Speke had seen the
M'fumbiro mountain at a great distance as a peak among other mountains
from which the streams descended, which by uniting formed the main river
Kitangule, the principal feeder of the Victoria lake from the west, in
about the 2 degrees S. latitude:
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