Longitude 10 West from Greenwich

10°

20 Longitude East

jiji Unyanyembe

L.Tanganyika

L.Bangweolo

L. Nyassa

Zambesi R

ZANZIBAR

E CHANNEL

MOZAMBIQUE C

MADAGASCAR

urban, Port Natal 30 from Greenwich

40

50

30

Stanley claims, is the "true source of the Nile." On savage war; had travelled hundreds of miles on foot March 8th, Stanley arrived at the Victoria Lake, and northward of the Victorian Sea; and had explored with his boat, the Lady Alice, began coasting along with a large force the strange countries lying between the southern shore of Speke Gulf. From the mouth the two lakes Muta Nzigé and Victoria. He had then of the Shimeeyu he passed the countries of Mazamza returned and had struck south from the Katonga lagoon and Manusoa, and on this journey he reached the north- down to the Alexandra Nile, the principal affluent of ern shore. having passed in view of Ukerewé. He the Victoria Lake, which drains nearly all the waters afterwards sailed along the south coast of Ukerewé, from the west and south-west. He then turned toward arriving at the rocky islands of Kiregi, at present unin- Tanganyika. habited. Stanley finally coasted along the Uganda In this portion of his remarkable journey Stanley in shore. Of this part of his journey he says: "From the every way confirms Speke, and awards to him the time the voyager touches Uganda ground he is as safe honor of having discovered the greatest inland sea of and free from care as though he were in the most civil- Africa. Stanley reached Lake Tanganyika May 27, ized state in Europe. He and his are in the hands of 1876, camping at Ujiji, where he had first met David M'T'esé, emperor of Uganda.' April 25th found him Livingstone in 1871. The second portion of Stanley's at Kagya, where a plateau begins rising to the height journey across the continent properly begins with his of 1000 to 1500 feet above the lake. The plateau-cliff arrival at Nyangwé, the farthest northern point attained rises boldly and perpendicularly except in the folds or by Livingstone and Cameron. Thither he carried with bends of the plateau-wall, where there is generally a him his boat, the Lady Alice, in sections, reaching gentle slope covered with banana and plantain trees. there in November, 1876, after a journey of 350 miles The natives entertain a strong dislike to strangers, but in forty days, itself a remarkable geographical feat. to those from Uganda they manage to show cold and Nyangwé, which he ascertained by observation to be grudging hospitality. Several days later he arrived at in 4° 15′ south latitude and 26° 5' east longitude, is Bumbireh Island, where he found the natives unscru- situated on the Lualaba of Livingstone, the river there pulous robbers, cunning and audacious. They number having a width of two miles in the rainy season, with 4000. While at M'T'esé's court Stanley met Col. Le-a volume of 240,000 cubic feet of water a second. He nant de Bellfonds, a member of the Gordon Pacha expe- learned on his arrival that Cameron had been there, dition, who had come from Gondokoro on a mission to and, being unable to follow the Lualaba in its northerly the king. Stanley was thus enabled to send despatches to course, had started southward towards the Atlantic the journals he represented by Col. Bellfonds, who safely coast. Stanley did not believe, with Livingstone, that delivered them at Gondokoro. Upon a subsequent mis- the Lualaba belonged to the Nile system, but thought, sion Bellfonds was killed, with thirty of his soldiers, with Cameron, that it was the eastern branch of the by the warlike Bari. Near the close of April, Stanley Congo. Stanley now had ample force to do what had had a sharp encounter with the natives of Bumbireh. been impracticable for Livingstone and Cameron; and, He endeavored to effect a landing on the island for besides, he had the moral support of an iron will. He purposes of barter, and the cunning natives inveigled met with the same difficulty which hampered his prehim on until his boat reached the shore, when they decessors in the unwillingness of the natives to supply seized the craft and landed it high and dry. Three his people with canoes. They told him, as they had hundred warriors soon opened upon the frail craft with told Livingstone and Cameron, that the tribes dwelling stones and arrows when Stanley sought to launch the to the north on the Lualaba were fierce and warlike canLady Alice again, and he and his men barely escaped nibals, who would permit no one to enter their terriwith their lives. As soon as possible he opened fire tory, as the Arab traders had frequently found to their upon the warriors, killing many. This did not deter cost; that between Nyangwé and the cannibal region them from pursuit in canoes, two of which Stanley sunk the natives were treacherous; and that the river ran by heavy broadsides from his most effective weapons. through dreadful forests, through which he would have Hardly had they escaped from this exciting ordeal be- to hew his way,-information which afterwards proved fore the boat was attacked by two furious hippopot- to be true. But Stanley would go, nevertheless; yet ami, but Stanley's well-directed shots disabled these this part of his work was not an easy task, as the peosaurian monsters. Upon his return to camp Stanley ple of Nyangwé filled his followers with terror by the found, to his sorrow, that he had lost his only American accounts they gave of ferocious cannibals, the dwarfs comrade, Frederick Barker, who had died twelve days with poisoned arrows who dwelt near the river, and the before. Other and startling acts of treachery on the terrible character of the forests through which they part of the people of Bumbireh followed. Stanley's would be obliged to pass. Stanley finally obtained the allies, the Waganda, had been betrayed into ambush canoes and enlarged his force. His theory of the flow and a number of them killed and wounded. Policy and of the river was also correct, and Cameron's wrong, justice alike impelled the American to administer con- the latter believing that it flowed almost due west into dign punishment. Having organized his force of attack the Atlantic Ocean. Stanley wrote at this time: "I in canoes, he found the enemy awaiting his arrival and am determined to stick to the Lualaba, fair or foul, formassed in great force, numbering 3000. Anchoring tune or misfortune. I have supplies for six months. within 100 yards of the shore, Stanley demanded if they Beyond that, Heaven knows what will become of us if would have peace. The answer being "No!" he open- we should find the Lualaba running into some unknown ed fire with disastrous effect. The savages rushed into river, without a bead or cowrie to buy food." The first the water to attack, having only spears and stones for three weeks were disheartening, confirming all they weapons. They were soon defeated with considerable had heard of the difficulty of passing northward along loss by the explorer, whose renown as a military chief the river-so much so that they had to abandon it and was carried far and wide among the equatorial tribes make their way through dense and gloomy forests, of Central Africa. Stanley now returned to the king which created great dissatisfaction among his followers. of Uganda's court, and not the least of his achievements Their disposition to abandon the expedition became was to convert M'T'esé to Christianity. Continual general, and he resolved to try the river; and after wars between the native tribes were going on during much argument, deliberation, and persuasion his deStanley's stay in this region of Central Africa. His cision was acceded to, and they reached it at a point entire journey from Zanzibar up to the time of leaving 3° 33′ south latitude, being 41 geographical miles north Uganda in Oct., 1875, had covered 1970 miles. He of Nyangwé. Here his little vessel, the Lady Alice, had traced the extreme southern sources of the Nile was put together. Stanley says at this point: "I from the marshy plains and uplands where they arose formed again the resolution never to abandon the Luto the great Nile reservoir, the Victoria Nyanza. He alaba until I learned its destination." He made an had circumnavigated the entire expanse; had penetrated encouraging speech to his men, telling them they had every inlet and creek; had been five times engaged in promised to follow him at Zanzibar for three years, and

58

that one year was yet unexpired.

you,

stream.

AFRICA.

"I will not," he said, "leave this river until I reach the sea, and I promise you that we shall reach it before the year is out. All I ask you is to follow me in the name of God."-"In the name of God, master, we will follow was their reply. His first attempt to navigate the river verified what they had heard of the treacherous character of the natives. They invited the white men to blood-brotherhood, and after Pocock, Stanley's associate, had gone to an island with ten men to undergo this rite, Stanley discovered that the intentions of the natives were hostile, finding thirty armed canoes proceeding in the direction of the island and sounding the war-cry. He was enabled, however, by a sharp and timely movement, to reach the island and rescue Pocock and get safely down the river, as his force of 500 men, armed as they were, was too powerful for the enemy. They now passed along the river in two divisions-one by land along the left bank, and one by the The land party was vigorously attacked, but succeeded in defending themselves until the water division approached, when the natives retired. They now reached that part of the stream obstructed by a long series of cataracts, which Stanley calls the Falls of Ullassa. Here their progress was again disputed by a body of armed natives, but they succeeded in passing down the river without loss. As they continued to descend they were constantly met with hostile demonstrations and attacks, all of which Stanley repelled All their attempts at friendly with great gallantry. intercourse were received by showers of poisoned arrows, and the land party was again attacked. To add to Stanley's trials, the small pox broke out among his escort, and in three days eighteen men died; others of the party were attacked with dysentery, and ulcers appeared on the limbs of many as the consequence of severe marching. At 125 miles from Nyangwé their boats were floating hospitals. Seventy-two died of the small-pox alone, and while thus afflicted they were repeatedly attacked by the savages for two days and two nights, both by land and by water, the whole country being up in arms against them. So constant were these attacks that they could not bury their dead or succor those who had been wounded by poisoned arrows and had become delirious from the poison. Having passed this peril, their Arab escort resolved to leave them, and Stanley feared that his own followers would also desert him; but they stood by him in this critical moment. Stanley's force now consisted of 146 persons, and the departure of the Arab escort was a sore trial. When his people heard the farewell song of the escort as it came "in wild and weird-like tones over the water," they wept as though their hearts "It was," says Stanley, "the saddest would break.

day I ever spent in Africa."

In January, 1877, they approached a long series of
cataracts, or rather falls, and entered the dreaded can-
nibal regions. Here they were hunted night and day
like game, and four times were obliged to break
through the lines of hostile canoes brought together
to obstruct their passage down the river; they con-
tinued to be the object of these incessant attacks
until they reached Basua Falls, 0° 30′ south latitude.
Return was now impossible; they would be unable to
pull their vessels against the stream. For twenty-four
days they had to repel these assaults. In going a dis-
tance of 42 miles they were obliged to go around six
falls, to drag their canoes 30 miles by land, and to cut a
track 13 miles through a dense forest, in order to trans-
port the Lady Alice around the cataracts. Then they
Between the 24th and 25th par-
had a period of rest.
allels of north latitude they came to a noble tributary
2000 feet in width, which Stanley thinks is the Welle
of Schweinfurth. As they approached the mouth of
this river they were suddenly attacked by fifty-four
canoes. They were surrounded by the natives in a
second, but after hard fighting Stanley drove them
back. The great river, now taking a south-westerly

direction, had here a width of from two to ten
miles. Their next peril was starvation. They had
been three days without food, and no communication
could be established with the shore. At last Stanley
took a great risk and invaded a village, finding the
natives, much to his surprise, friendly. He asked
them the name of the river, as they had had intercourse
with the Atlantic coast. They answered Yakuta-ya-
Kongo. The great problem was solved; the Lualaba
of Livingstone and the Congo were one and the same
river. They were yet 850 miles from the coast and 900
miles from Nyangwé. Farther down the river they
were again attacked, by fifty-four canoes armed with
muskets. The nineteen canoes of Stanley, after a
running fight of twelve miles down the river, won the
day. This was the thirty-second battle since starting
on the Lualaba. At a distance of 1480 miles down
stream the river became straight and narrow, and
Pocock and ten men were lost at one of
a succession of cataracts and whirlpools marked its
course.
Then they came near being starved.
these cataracts, and Stanley with the Lady Alice bare-
ly escaped.
Finally, Stanley reached the coast in August, 1877,
having passed fifty-seven cataracts and travelled along
the Congo 1800 miles. Of the 350 men with whom
he left Zanzibar in 1874, but 115 reached the Atlantic
coast alive. Thus triumphantly ended a geographical
feat which has brought to its chief a renown unequalled
in ancient or modern times in the copious annals of
discovery.
Col. Gordon in the Equatorial Regions.-Lieut.-Col.
"Chinese" Gordon, and a gallant officer of the
Charles George Gordon, C. B., known to his contempora-
ries as
British army, succeeded Sir Samuel Baker as governor
of the equatorial provinces. His career in this capacity
is pertinent as showing valuable discoveries made by his
subordinates in the Nile basin and outlying territory.
He reached Khartoum in March, 1874. On ascending
the White Nile he found the same obstruction, the vege-
table sudd, which had arrested the advance of his pre-
decessor. This sudd is formed, Gordon asserts, by the
growth of an aquatic plant which flourishes on the banks
of the equatorial lakes, with roots extending five or six
feet under water. The natives burn the top parts dry.
The ashes form mould, and fresh grasses grow until it
becomes like terra firma. When the river rises these
masses float down the Nile until they come to a curve,
where they stop. More and more of these floating isl
ands drift down, till at last the river is blocked up.
Though the water flows under them, navigation is pre-
vented, as they bridge the river for miles, diverting its
channel. It required large forces of men and two
steamers to clear out the sudd. At last, when this
vegetable dam was nearly ready to break, the men were
surprised by the barrier giving way, sweeping down on
the vessels, dragging the steamers down some four
miles, and clearing the passage. The scene was terri-
ble. The hippopotami were carried down screaming
and snorting; crocodiles were whirled around, and the
river was covered with dead and dying hippopotami,
This was a great piece of good fortune for Gor-
crocodiles, and large fish that were carried down by the
mass.
After his arrival near the
don. While it formerly took over a year to reach Gon-
dokoro, Gordon was able to reach this settlement in
twenty-one days by steamer.
Nile basin, Gordon and his subordinates, Americans,
Italians, and Belgians, solved several important geo-
graphical problems. He also set to work to complete
the humane work left unfinished by Baker, and dealt
blow after blow to the slave-traders. Among his sub-
ordinates were Gessi, an Italian, and Col. Long, Purdy
Bey, and Col. Mason, all Americans. Col. Long was
charged with a mission to M'T'esé, king of Uganda,
which country, after hard fighting, he visited with con-
siderable results, finding a lake delivering into the Vic-
toria Nile, which Long asserts is a major source of the
great river. This sheet of water, which intelligent ex-
plorers believe was only the parent river in a swollen