At A Distance Of About A Hundred Yards I Recognised My
Old Friend Speke, And With A Heart Beating With Joy I Took Off My Cap
And Gave A Welcome Hurrah!
As I ran towards him.
For the moment he did
not recognize me; ten years' growth of beard and moustache had worked a
change; and as I was totally unexpected, my sudden appearance in the
center of Africa appeared to him incredible. I hardly required an
introduction to his companion, as we felt already acquainted, and after
the transports of this happy meeting we walked together to my diahbiah;
my men surrounding us with smoke and noise by keeping up an unremitting
fire of musketry the whole way. We were shortly seated on deck under the
awning, and such rough fare as could be hastily prepared was set before
these two ragged, careworn specimens of African travel, whom I looked
upon with feelings of pride as my own countrymen. As a good ship arrives
in harbor, battered and torn by a long and stormy voyage, yet sound in
her frame and seaworthy to the last, so both these gallant travelers
arrived at Gondokoro. Speke appeared the more worn of the two; he was
excessively lean, but in reality he was in good tough condition; he had
walked the whole way from Zanzibar, never having once ridden during that
wearying march. Grant was in honourable rags; his bare knees projecting
through the remnants of trowsers that were an exhibition of rough
industry in tailor's work. He was looking tired and feverish, but both
men had a fire in the eye that showed the spirit that had led them
through.
They wished to leave Gondokoro as soon as possible, en route for
England, but delayed their departure until the moon should be in a
position for an observation for determining the longitude. My boats were
fortunately engaged by me for five months, thus Speke and Grant could
take charge of them to Khartoum.
At the first blush on meeting them I had considered my expedition as
terminated by having met them, and by their having accomplished the
discovery of the Nile source; but upon my congratulating them with all
my heart, upon the honour they had so nobly earned, Speke and Grant with
characteristic candour and generosity gave me a map of their route,
showing that they had been unable to complete the actual exploration of
the Nile, and that a most important portion still remained to be
determined. It appeared that in N. lat. 2 degrees 17 minutes, they had
crossed the Nile, which they had tracked from the Victoria Lake; but the
river, which from its exit from that lake had a northern course, turned
suddenly to the WEST from Karuma Falls (the point at which they crossed
it at lat. 2 degrees 17 minutes). They did not see the Nile again until
they arrived in N. lat. 3 deg. 32 min., which was then flowing from the
W.S.W. The natives and the King of Unyoro (Kamrasi) had assured them
that the Nile from the Victoria N'yanza, which they had crossed at
Karuma, flowed westward for several days' journey, and at length fell
into a large lake called the Luta N'zige; that this lake came from the
south, and that the Nile on entering the northern extremity almost
immediately made its exit, and as a navigable river continued its course
to the north, through the Koshi and Madi countries.
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