Thus The Only Point Necessary To Swear
To, Was The River Between The Lake And The Karuma Falls.
I had a bad attack of fever that evening, and missed my star for the
latitude; but on the following morning before daybreak I obtained a good
observation of Vega, and determined the latitude of Magungo 2 degrees 16
minutes due west from Atada or Karuma Falls.
This was a strong
confirmation that the river beneath my feet was the Somerset that I had
crossed in the same latitude at Atada, where the river was running due
west, and where the natives had pointed in that direction as its course
to the lake. Nevertheless, I was determined to verify it, although by
this circuitous route I might lose the boats from Gondokoro and become a
prisoner in Central Africa, ill, and without quinine, for another year.
I proposed it to my wife, who not only voted in her state of abject
weakness to complete the river to Karuma, but wished, if possible, to
return and follow the Nile from the lake down to Gondokoro! This latter
resolve, based upon the simple principle of "seeing is believing," was a
sacrifice most nobly proposed, but simply impossible and unnecessary.
We saw from our point at Magungo the Koshi and Madi countries, and the
Nile flowing out of the lake through them. We must of necessity pass
through those countries on our road to Gondokoro direct from Karuma via
Shooa, and should we not meet the river in the Madi and Koshi country,
the Nile that we now saw would not be the Nile of Gondokoro.
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