The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Great Nile Discoverer.

Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile.
By John Hanning S?eke. One Vol. pp. 658.
Wm. Blackwood and Sons. _ .

In this splendidly appointed volume Captain Speke
has recounted with mealy simplicity and with per-
fect ingenuousness the precise manner in which he
was enabled to accomplish his magnificent enter-
prise. As the Discoverer of The Source of the
Nile—emphatically the Source of the Nile (for one
of the Sources, the lesser of the two Sources, James
Bruce has still the glory of having brought to light
a century ago)—Captain J. H. Speke, aided
by his friend and companion, Captain J. W.
Grant, is now known to have achieved, in our
own time, what had previously baffled the efforts
repeatedly made towards its acquisition, alternately,
sometimes even simultaneously, by the imperial
rulers of the world, by the mightiest of conquerors,
by the most daring of adventurers. It is recorded
in ancient history how both Alexander the Great
and Ptolemy Philadelphus respectively, strove to
solve the very problem which has nevertheless
remained inscrutable until the date of its actual
solution, very recently, by the gallant English-
man, the author of this enthralling narrative.
Equally, by Julius Cosier, as, before him, by Alex-
ander and by Ptolemy, the alluring, nay it should
rather be said the absolutely captivating, project,was
cherished. Lucan in melodious numbers avers this
of CB3 tar, as Seneca subsequently, in his stately
prose, recaunts the like of his infamous pupil, that
later and degenerate Csar, the Emperor Nero.
This heretofore apparently all but insoluble pro-
blem being, in effect, quite simply, the source whence
flows northwards from the mountainous interior
of the great African Continent, the mighty current
of the River Nile, along a length of more than two
thousand miles down to the point at which its
sweet and sacred waters are mingled with those of
the blue and tideless Mediterranean. Happily, the
mystery surrounding the fountain-head of the Nile,
is a mystery now no longer. Captains Speke and
Grant have cleared it up, for once and for all, and
they have done this not, observe, partially, but
altogether. Several years ago Captain Speke may
be said to have put his finger upon the spot upon
the map at which he believed that the Source of the
Nile would be discovered eventually. That spot being
upon the borders of the Lake Victoria N'yanza—
a lake situated in let. 2.50 S., at an elevation of
3,740 feet above the level of the sea, ninety miles in
breadth, three hundred in length. There, in that
half-fabulous region in the south-eastern division
of Africa—among the shadows of what are for
Europeans the untrodden Mountains of the Moon,
mountains familiar at least by name to the reader
of Locksley Hall, as sacred to the worship of Mumbo-
jumbo—there in Lake Victoria N'yanza, it was con-
fidently felt in 1857.8, by Captain Speke, that the
Nile would eventually be found to take its rise. So
confident was he of this, that his very confidence
powerfully impressed even the least credulous of
contemporary geographers. By ono of the
commentators upon his lucubrations descriptive of
the African regions he had even then traversed, it
was remarked some time back with considerable
emphasis, "If by subsequent travel this gallant
explorer shall demonstrate the accuracy of this
opinion [that is, that the source of the Nile would be
discovered at last upon the borders of the Victoria
N'yanza] to him must be awarded the honour of
having solved the greatest geographical problem of
ancient or modern tima." How entirely that if
has been cleared away by Captain Speke, how far
that gallant explorer has made good his claim to
the honour awarded to him, thus conditionally; by
anticipation, let his own unadorned statement
of a fact—of the paramount fact—related in this
lengthened Journal of his last African wanderings,
at once quite clearly indicate without a word
of circumlocution. The passage we are about to
give is, beyond all doubt of it, the most important
passage in the whole volume. It affords us, as
through a loophole a glimpse of the goal won at
lastl—that is, of the Source of the Nile as at length
reached at—

"THE STONES"—ON THE VICTORIA N.YANZ A.
AT LAST, with a good push for it, crossing hills and thread
ing huge grasses, as well as extensive village plantations
lately devastated by elephants—they had eaten all that was
eatable, and what would not serve for food they had destroyed
with their trunks, not one plantain or, one hut being lef t
entire—we arrived at the extreme end of the journey, the
farthest point ever visited by the expedition en the same
parallel of latitude as King Mtesa's palace, and just forty
miles east of it.
We were well rewarded; for the "Stones," as the
Waganda call the Falls, was by far the most interesting
sight I had seen in Africa. Everybody ran to see them at
once, though the march had been long and fatiguing; and
even my sketch-block was called into play. Though beau-
tiful, the scene was not exactly what I expected ; for the
broad surface of the lake was shut out from view by a spur
of hills, and the falls, about 12 feet deep, and 400 to 600 feet
broad, were broken by rocks. Still it was a sight that
attracted one to it for hours—the roar of the waters, the
thousands of passenger-fish leaping at the falls with all
their might, the Wasoga and Waganda fishermen coming
out in boats and taking post on all the rocks with rod and
hook, hippopotami and crocodiles lying sleepily on the
waters the ferry at work above the falls, and cattle driven
down to drink at the margin of the lake—made in all, with
the pretty nature of the country--small hills, grassy-toppcd,
with trees in the folds and gardens on the lower slopes—as
interesting a picture as one could wish to see.
The expedition had now performed its functions.
[Note this.] I saw that old Father Nile, without
any doubt, rises in the Victoria N'yanza, and, as
1 had foretold, that lake is the great source of
the holy river which cradled the first expounder
of our religious belief. I mourned, however, when I
thought how much I had lost by the delays in the journey
having deprived me of the pleasure of going to look at the
there was, by the strait so often spoken of, with it and the
the other lake where the Waganda went to get their salt,
north-east corner of the isi,yanwa, to see what connection
and from which another river flowed to the north, making
di "(Mop an island." but I felt I ought to be content with
what I had been spared to accomplish ; for I had seen full
half of the lake, and had information given me of the other
half, by means of which I knew all about the lake, as far,
at least, as the chief objects of geographical importance
were concerned.
It was on the 28th of July, 1862, that Captain
Speke arrived at this his long wished-for destina
tion. A year and three-quarters previously he
had set out upon his last and crowning expedition
of discovery, bent upon verifying
his confident as-
sertion, two or three years previously made, and
already here adverted to—his unhesitatingly posi-
tive and explicit avowal that in the outlet of the
Victoria Nyanza (Nyanza meaning, by the way,
simply "pond") would sooner or later be found the
source, the fountaiu:head,
the mysterious rising
of the River Nile. By his indomitable
perseverance, his prediction of the result cer-
tain to be arrived at, he himself has happily
been enabled to fulfil ! Accomplishing his feat
a journey made on foot
oonvelyr' however,adistance ofby fully one fnoe thousand five hundred
miles! Having in attendance upon him while pas-
sing through these vast districts of savage Africa—
districts for the most part wholly unexplored until
then—hea
--and
edb
freedmen,
r a
eEs e
du
ha%peans--a cluster of native porters or
g oi
es
one liberated slaves called
solitaryWanguanas
n
' English companion,
Captain Grant, to whose pencil the Journal of Cap-
tain Speke's Travels, as now published by Messrs.
Blackwood, are indebted for a profusion of very clever
and every one of them thrice-welcome illustrations.
The Wanguanas, it should be said, are the roughs
or rowdies of the African population. Those selected
and, quitting by Captain Spekeon starting upon his enterprize,
numbered, in all, to begin with, seventy.six—that is
to say when he set his face westwards on the 3d of
October,beganh 1860,efirs to f opposite the Island of Zanzibar
tting the coast of the main-
land
immediately ihis
ion g
series of marches in that
westerly direction, marches that extended in that
direction steadily for five or six hundred miles
altogether. Not until that distance from the west
had been reached did Capt. Speke turn northwards.
Long before then his seventy-five African porters
had dwindled down numerically by a succession of
desertions.at length at some-
whereabout the Arrived,
ahowever,
soma
meridian as the Victoria
Lake, or pond, or N'yanza—northwards, the ex-
plorer then did turn in earnest with his diminished
body of attendants, and with Capt. Grout, his one
gallant English companion. The little party turned
northwards then and there—advancing first of
all midway between the oblong lake of Tangan-
yika and the triangular lake, pond, or N'yanza

known from this time forth by the name of our be-
loved Sovereign. Further northwards on their
march the exploring party of adventurers, the two
Englishmen and their gang of African porters
or Wanguanas, found the path of their journey
trending between the range of the Mountains of the
Moon and the western borders of the Victoria
N'yanza. The latter expanse of inland water may
perhaps be the most aptly and the most accurately
described,; by the suggestion that an equilateral
triangle, almost as irregular in form as the African
continent itself, or as the South American continent
—and so placed, by the way, that, like each of those
two continents, it should have one of its points or
angles directed almost due south—should
be placed with one of its sides resting al-
most immediately upon the line of the equator.
There, in the northern line of the equilateral triangle
of the lake or N'yanza. Victoria, the River Nile, the
White Nile, distinctly takes its rise. The waters of
the mighty stream runs out of the lake, strictly
speaking, it is true, at three points. But two of
those three outlets, it may be said, are little better
than marshes, or, as the Nile Discoverer himself
calls them—rush drains rather than rivers. It is
in the easternmost of the three that the Source of the
White Nile is really and truly discernible. There,
at Ripon Falls, the noble and mysterious current
takes its rise. The waters of the Victoria N'yanze,
passing through the Napoleon Channel, tumble at
those Ripon Falls over a ledge twelve feet in depth,
and from four to five hundred feet in breadth,
roaming and flashing down in a beautiful cascade,
worthy of marking the commencement of that
glorious river more than two thousand miles in its
seaward course, from the Ripon Falls to the Delta,
on the Mediterranean. It is curious to think for a
moment of that mighty stream rolling on through
those 2,000 miles and upwards, the largest of its
three or four tributaries, that is, the Biue Nile
of Bruce winding northwards through Abyssinia,
but the main stream, the grand trunk of the river,
distinguishable first of all as the White Nile,
rushing on northwards, ever northwards—sinu-
ously, serpent-wise, through Nubia, onwards in
a direct line through Egypt, marked at either ex-
tremity by an equilateral triangle ! Here at its
source, in the extreme south, the watery triangle
of the Victoria N'yanza! Here at its emergence
into the Mediterranean, in the extreme north, the
rich alluvial trangle of the Delta! To Capt. Speke
belongs the glory, as the annals of geography will
not tire of reiterating—to him belongs the honour
and privilege of having brought to light at
length the until now hidden truth as to the
source or origin of the gigantic stream of
the Nile. His companion will share with him of
course in enjoying the credit of this most notable
discovery. But as yet Captain Grant has preserved,
certainly so far as authorship goes, a profound and
unbroken silence as to what ought to be in justice
regarded as his due meed of honour as a participater
in the discovery of the source of the Nile. His
pencil has not remained idle it is true. But his pen
has altogether. And in Captain Speke's narrative
little—almost as one may say, next to nothing—ie
said about him. Detained as Captain Grant was
several menthe longer than Captain Speke in Kara-
gue, and this by reason of his being temporarily
crippled by a serious malady in one of his
legs he has surely much of interest in
his notes or in his recollections that he could tell
us. And we look all the more hopefully to his tell-
ing us a good deal at least, if not all, of what he
might, because Captain Speke has left so very much
untold that we are most anxious to have had
related. The Manners and Customs of the savage
tribes through which our travellers passed,
we know comparatively nothing of, from this
Journal, elaborate and lengthy though it is. The
naivete of the poor African race we catch glimpses
of, it is true, now and then : as where, in Unyoro,
King Kamrasi is dimly groping after knowledge
in regard to the Bible ; or as when the
reputed sanctity of the water of the
Nile is repudiated by Captain Speke's own
attendants. " I told my men," he writes, " they
ought to shave their heads and bathe in the holy
river, the cradle of Moses—the waters of which,
sweetened with sugar, men catty all the way from
Egypt to Mecca, and sell to the pilgrims." "We
don't look on those things," was the reply, " in the
same fanciful manner that you do; we are con.
tented with all the commonplaces of life, and look
for nothing beyond the ;present. If things don't
go well, it is God's will; and if they do go well,
that is His will also." This little incident occur-
ring, it should be remarked, at the point where the
Explorer first obtains a view of the river to the
discovery of whose source he is at the moment as-
piring—and not merely aspiring, but energeti-
cally struggling on, through how many hard-
ships, impediments, vexations, anxieties, and
diseouragements ! Here—at that first view of it,
he writes, in perhaps the most picturesque passage
that could be anywhere found in his Journal—
Hero at last I stood on the brink of the Nile ; most beau-
tiful was the scene—nothing could surpass it I It was the
very perfection of the kind of effect aimed at in ahi ghly-
kept park ; with a magnificent stream from 600 to 700
yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks, the former occu-
pied by fishermen's huts, the latter by sterns and crocodiles
basking in the sun—flowing between fine high grassy banks,
with rich trees and plantains in the background, where
herds of the nsunnu and hartebeest could be seen grazing,
while the hippopotami were snorting in the water, and flori-
ken and guinea-fowl rising at our feet. Unfortunately, the
chief district officer, Mlondo, was from home, but we took
possession of his huts --clean, extensive, and tidily kept—
facing the river, and felt as if a residence hero would do one
good.
Although the King of Karagne, by name Ramanika,
is about the most attractive of the aboriginal per-
sonages depicted in the volume, we are tempted to
give, by preference, our gallant traveller's delinea-
tion, thus graphically, of the young Sovereign of
Uganda, by name Mtesa :
The mighty king was now reported to be sitting on his
throne in the state hut of the third tier. I advanced, hat
in hand, with my guard of honour following, formed in
" open ranks," who in their turn were followed by the
nearers carrying the present. I did not walk straight
up to him as if to shake hands, but went outside the ranks
of a three sided square of squatting Wakungu, all
habited in skins, mostly cow skins ; some few of whom
had, in addition, leopard-cat skins girt round the
waist, the sign of royal blood, Here I was desired to
halt and sit in the glaring sun ; so I donned my hat,
mounted my umbrella, a phenomenon which set them all
a-wondering and laughing, ordered the guards to close
ranks, and sat gazing at the novel spectacle. A more
theatrical sight I never saw. The king, a good-looking,
well-figured, tall young man of 25, was sitting on a red
blanket spread upon a square platform of royal grass, encased
in tiger grass reeds, scrupulously well dressed in a new
mbugu. The hair of his head was cut short, excepting on
the top, where it was combed up into a high ridge, running
from stem to stern like a cock's comb. On his neck was a
very neat ornament—a large ring, of beautifully-worked
small beads, forming elegant patterns by their various
colours. On one arm was another bead ornament, prettily
devised ; and on the other a wooden charm, tied by a string
covered with snake skin. On every finger and every toe
he had alternate brass and copper rings ; and above the
ankles, half way up to the calf, a stocking of very pretty
beads. Everything was light, neat, and elegant in its
way; not a fault could be found with the taste of his
"getting up." For a handkerchief he held a well-folded
piece of bark, and a piece of gold-embroidered silk, which he
constantly employed to hide his large mouth when laugh-
ing, or to wipe it after a drink of plantain wine, of which
he took constant and copious draughts from neat little
gourd cups, administered by his ladies-in-waiting, who
were at once his sisters and wives. A white dog, spear,
shield, and woman—the Uganda cognisance—were by his
side, as also a knot of staff officers, with whom he kept up
a brisk conversation on one side; and on the other was a
band of Wichwezi, or lady sorcerers, such as I have already
described:
I was now asked to draw nearer within the hollow
square of squatter', where leopard skins were strewed upon
the ground, and a large copper kettle-drum, surmounted
with brass bells on arching wires, along with two other
smaller drums covered with cowrie shells, and beads
colour worked into patterns, were placed. I now longed to
open conversation, but knew not the language, and no one
near me dared speak, or even lift his head from fear of being
accused of eyeing the women; so the king and myself sat
staring at one another for full an hour—l mute, but he
pointing and remarking with those around him on the
novelty of my guard and general appearance, and even re-
quiring to see my hat lifted, the umbrella shut and opened,
and the guards face about and show off their red cloaks—
for such wonders had never been seen in Uganda.
Then, finding the day waning, he sent Maula on an
embassy to ask me if I had seen him; and on receiving my
reply, "Yes, for full one hour," I was glad to find him
rise, spear in hand, lead his dog, and walk unceremoniously
away through the enclosure into the fourth tier of huts ;
for this being a pure levee day, no business was transacted.
The king's gait in retiring was intended to be very ruajestie,

but did not succeed in conveying to me that impression.
It was the traditional walk of his race, founded on the step
of the lion ; but the outward sweep of the legs, intended to
represent the stride of the noble beast, appeared to me only
to realise a very ludicrous kind of waddle, which made me
ask Bombay if anything serious was the matter with the
royal person.
To the work itself, however, who is there but will
turn with the liveliest interest and curiosity ? In
a literary point of view it cannot, it is true, but be
regarded as marked by very considerable defici-
encies. The tale it tells is, in the strictest meaning
of the words, " plain and unvarnished." The elo-
quence of Captain Speke—if there be any eloquence
at all anywhere discernible in his narrative—is, more
literally than Mr. Cobden, " unadorned." He speaks
the simplest truth of the matter right out. just as it
occurs to him. And he does this so conscientiously
that at times he even disdains rot to become tedious.
It is a noble achievement, however, that he has to
relate, and he relates it with manful simplicity.
As for the general appearance and intrinsic value
of the work, as a substantive publication, it is
everything that could well have been wished for.
The publishers have lavished upon it, as
it deserved, every possible care as evi-
denced by a great variety of adornments in
the way of maps and illustrations. The volume
altogether is a noble addition to any, even the
most richly-stored bookshelves, as the Discovery it
relates is certainly a most noble addition to the
richest stores the world has yet gathered together
in the shape of geographical knowledge.

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