The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 23, 1863,

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

I must acquaint my associates with the deep inte-
rest which our patron the Queen, and our vice-
patron the Prince of Wales, take in this great dis=-
covery. When I recently waited upon the Queen
at the building of the International Exhibition,
along with other Royal Commissioners, her Ma-
jesty was pleased to congratulate me most gra-
ciously upon this great geographical feat, and I feel
certain, from the kind and emphatic manner in
which her Majesty expressed herself the first time
in which the Queen had appeared after her sad be-
reavement, that she is truly proud in the reflection
that two of her own gallant Indian officers should
have succeeded in doing what the people of every
European nation have failed to accomplish. Then
as to our vice-patron, the Prince of Wales, I know
that his Royal Highness, who is himself a great
traveller, and who loves our science, would have
been here this evening had not a very special
engagement prevented him ; but arrangements
have, I am hippy to say, been made by which his
Royal Highness will hear, to-morrow night, a lec-
ture from Captain Speke at the Royal Institution.
Whilst our own Royal family recognises the im-
portance of this great discovery, the King of Italy
has taken the lead amongst foreign sovereigns in
the expression of his desire to commemorate this
great discovery, and has directed two gold medals
to be struck in honour of our heroes of the Nile.
One of them, or that which is destined for the leader,
has arrived, and has on it the inscription, " Honor a
Nilo." I must here add _that Abe letter, of the
Italian Minister, the Marquis d'Azeglio, whiff
accompanies this appropriate reward is such an
elegant and apposite composition, that it is worthy
of the country which reared a Columbus. The
chairman read a letter from the Marquis d'Azeglio
expressing the admiration of the King of
Italy for the gallant explorers, and concluded
by saying, " As the French Geographical Society
(like our own society) gave a gold medal to
Capt. Spoke for his original discovery of the great
lake, he, in grateful remembrance of that act,
named a large channel at the head of the Victoria
Nyanza after the Emperor Napoleon, who will, I
doubt, duly appreciate the honour of having had
his name affixed to such an important feature in the
heart of Africa, and by such a distinguished British
geographer." I now call on Captain Speke to read
his communication.
Captain SPEKE said—ln attempting to describe
the extent and character of this great river—the
Nile—compared with its tributaries, within the
limits of actual inspection by myself, I will first
treat of its head, the Victoria Nyanza, from its
southern extremity, which I found by astronomical
observation in 1858, to be close on 3 deg. S. of the
equator, and gradually bring it down to its point
of debouchure in the Mediterranean Sea, 31 deg. N.
of the equator, by which it will be seen the Nile re-
presents, considering it lies almost in one direct
line from the south to north, a total in round num-
bers of 2,000 miles geographical rectilinear in
length, and is, therefore, nearly 1-10th the circum-
ference of the globe. It must be borne in mind,
however, that my observations respecting this great
river are not the result of one' expedition, but of
two ; that I have not actually followed its banks
from head to foot, but have tracked it down, occa-
sionally touching on it, and even navigating it as
occasion offered, for the barbarous nature of the
African forbids the traveller doing as he likes ;
therefore, to give full weight to any inferences I
may draw, deduced from what I have only seen in
part, I will blend native information to my own ex-
periences, and in doing so I shall hope to teach
others what I know, and, beyond that, what I be-
lieve myself. In the year 1858, when I discovered
the Victoria Lake, which is the great reservoir of
the Nile, I found it a large sheet of sweet water
lying on the main level, or from 3,000 to 4,000 feet
above the sea level of the great interior plateau of
equatorial Africa, looking for all the world like
the source of some great river ; so much so, indeed,
that I at once felt certain in my own mind it was
the source of the Nile, and noted it accordingly.
To add to this impression the natives, who there
only kno v it by the name of Nyanza, which
equally means lake, pond, and river, described its
extension in this confused manner to the northward
as being; boundless, whilst its breadth really—in
fact its circumference—was enormous; greater, if
anything, on the east than on the western side, for
the negro informants knew the name of all the
countries surrounding the lake, and must, had they
understood the value of geographical definitions,
have been able to separate the river Nile from the
Nyanza, and to reduce their explorations to any
common understanding. Our informants, Arab
merchants and their slaves, resident at Zanzibar,
who penetrate Africa in search of ivory, who had
completed the whole circuit of the Nyanza, not in-
dividually but separately, some
.on one side and
some on the other, assured me the Nyanza was the
source of some great river. They knew not what,
though they heard confused accounts from the
natives living on the equator of the European ivory
merchants who frequented the Nile in vessels at 5
deg. N., latitude, and had further heard through the
same channel that with the rising of the Nile, and
consequently the violence of its waters, islands were
floated down its surface, which really is the case,
not composed of earth and stone, but tangled roots
of trees, rush, and grass, with even sometimes huts
upon theme which otherwise undisturbed, are torn
away by the violence of the stream, and carried
down perfect floating islands. Then, again, these
men described the territory between the Nile and
Asua rivers as an island on the one side and the land
comprising the ancient kingdom of Kittara. accord-
ing to their acceptation of the word, as an island,
also being nearly circumscribed by the Kitangule,
and Luta Nzige rivers, in conjunction with the Lake
Nyanza and the Nile. No merchants, however, had
crossed the first parallel of north latituae ; none
understood geography. They heard what the
natives said, but could not fully comprehend them,
and thus it was that a doubt still existed in every-
body's mind but my own, as to the origin
of the Nile, which no one would believe until
I went again and turned the river down from
hand to mouth. Had I been all alone in the first
expedition I should have settled the Nile in
1859, by travelling from Unyanyembi to Uganda
with an Indian merchant, Maser Mzuri, who was
prepared to go there, but my proposal having been
negatived by the chief of the expedition, who was
sick at the time, and tired with the journey, I re-
turned to England, and, to my inexpressible de-
light, the very first day after my arrival here, found
in Sir Roderick Impey Murchison a warm advocate,
and proposer to the Royal Geographical Society to
complete what I had before begun, and, as mey be
imagined, I could not rest satisfied until the world
accepted my own views, happily now verified by in-
disputable means of actual inspection and astrono-
mical observation, that the Victoria Nyanza is the
great reservoir of the Nile. Suffice it now to say,
after returning toUnyanyembi (the old point), three
degrees south of the lake, in 1861, I struck upon a
new route, which I imagined, from the unsophisti-
cated depositions of the ivory merchants; would lead
me to a creek on the westerly flank of the Nyanza,
situated on the southern boundary of Karaguve.
Geographical definitions were here again found
wanting, for, instead of a creek to the great lake
appearing, a new lake was found, called Luero
(white), or Lake of Urigi, which formerly appeared
to have contained a considerable amount of water,
but is tow fast drying up. Its head lies in Urundi,
ngu reiaz
and, circling round the south and east flanks of Kara-
id by
in forma
the
K tmountaina valley,v e r i
intosthesubsequently
N Nyanza,
n
Kara-
guve,a,
but not in sufficient quantity to make any sensible
impression on the perennial contents of the Nyanza
basin. It is to the west and north of Karaguve that
ilravie' e
the lake receives its greatest terrestrial supply of
water, through the medium of the Kitangule River,
which, in draining the aforesaid Luero-10-Urigi,
drains off the superfluous waters of many minor

lakes, as the Akeuyard in 11rundi ; the Luckurow,
which is the second of a chain with the Akeuyard ;

the Ingerzi and Karaguve ; and the little Winan-
dermere, which, in Karanguve, lies below the
capital on its south-eastern corner. None of
these lakes are large—mere puddles in com•
parison to the great Victoria Nyanza; but
still the Kitangule River, after receiv-
ing all their contributions, is a noble river, low sunk
like a huge canal, about 80 yards across, with a

velocity of about four miles an hour, which appears
equal to the Nile itself as soon as it issues from the
lake by the Ripon Falls. The question naturally

suggests itself, what forms these lakes ? whence
originate their waters ? It is simply this : the
mountains of the moon, in which they lie, encircling

the northern end, and the Tanganyika Lake are
exposed to the influences of the rainy zone, where
I observed, in 1862, no less than 233 days out of the
year were more or less wet days. Mashonde, in
the Uddu portion of Uganda, is the first place where
in this second expedition, I obtained a view of the
Victoria Lake, called in these more northern coun-

•
tries Lueru (white)—(lo-of)—Luta (dead) Nzige
(locust), in consequence of the reputed fad that
flights of locusts, in endeavouring to cross these
waters, have dropped down from fatigue, unable to
accomplish such an extended journey on wing, and,
perishing in the lake, have been found dead in dense
masses by the boatmen. But, like the word Ny-
anza, it is also applied to the Nile and its tribu-
taries, confounding all inquiry. For instance, the
Waganda—who know of the Nile and the Little
Luta Nzige, a semi-lake tributary to it, flanking
the northern boundary of Ungoro, that being the

extent as to the instances of the dead locusts—say

at once Uganda, conjoined with Ungoro, is an island,

so that a man may walk for months and never see
the end of it. The whole is likewise called Nyanza
there, for, as might be expected in countries where
❑o literature is known, nor knowledge sought be-
yond the actual requirements of domestic life, the
people are satisfied with local names, never
troubling their heads with general specific ones.

This is the explorer's greatest difficulty in en-
deavouring to put together the information
which he hears, though it may be overcome by
close questioning, even better with the natives than
with the Arabs, for whilst the former regard all
rivers flowing, as we do, from head to mouth,
the Arab invariably says it goes from mouth
to head. In a southerly direction the Waganda
boatmen go as far as the Island Ukerewe,
which I saw ou my first journey to lquanzaat, the
southern extremity of the lake ; and to the east-
ward beyond the escape of the Nile, to the north-
eastern corner of Victoria Lake, where by a strait

they gain access to another lake in quest of salt,
possibly the Baringo of Dr. Kraph, which he, from
information gained through the natives, called Salt
_ _ .

Lake, most likely because there are salt islands in
it ; which reasoning I deduce from the fact that on
my former expedition, when the Arabs first spoke
to me of the Luta Nzige, they described it as a salt
lake belonging to the Great Nyanza; yet not be-
longing to it, when further pressed upon the sub-
ject. The Great Nyanza waters were purely fresh
and sweet. They (the Arabs), like Dr. Kraph,
merely narrated what they heard. As salt islands
were visited by the natives in search of that
mineral, the surrounding waters naturally were con-
sidered salt by them, deprived as they were of those
connecting links, which included the whole area of
ground under consideration within the limits of the
drainage system of the Nile. The Arabs, it is now
very clear, had heard of everything in connection
with the Nile ; but from not being cognisant with
the science of philosophical geography, were unable
to connect what they had gleaned in detached frag-
ments from it. Dr. Kraph further tells us of a
river trending from the river Nowey by Mount
Kcenio towards the Nile. If such is the case, it
must be a feeder to the Baringo, whose waters pass
off by the Asua river into the Nile, for the whole
country immediately on the eastern side of the
Victoria Nyanza is said by the Arabs, who have
traversed it for ivory, to be covered with low, roll-
ing hills, intersected only by small streams and
nullahs from this point in Muanza to the side stream
which is situated on the equator on the northern
boundary of the Victoria Nyanza. Turning now
again to Mas-horde, and proceeding north along the
bending coast of Nyanza to the valley of Kalonga,
which, as situated on the equator, the lake is
constantly in view. The land above the lake is
beautiful, composed of low sandstone hills, scoured
down by small streams, the effect of constant
rains, grown all over by gigantic grass, except
where the numerous villagers have supplanted it
by cultivation, or on the deltas where mighty trees,
tall and straight as the blue gums of Australia,
usurp the right of vegetation. The bed of the Ny-
anza has shrunk from its original dimensions, as we
saw in the ease of the Urigi Lake; and the moor-
lands immediately surrounding are covered with a
net-work of large rush drains, with boggy bottoms,
as many as one to every mile, even counting from
the Kitanqula, which of itself was obviously at one
period a much fuller stream than at the present day
when the old bed was on the level of the present
surface of the water, and its breadth was double
that which now exists. The mountains of the moon
are wearing down, and so is Africa. Crossing over
the equator altogether the conformation of the land
appeared much the same, but increased in beauty ;
the drainage system was found the opposite, clearly
showing we were on the north slope of Africa. One
stream, the Mwerango, of moderate dimensions,
said to arise in the lake, flowed north and joined the
Nile in the kingdom of Unigoro, where its name is
changed to Kafn ; or another stream, the Luagevri,
followed its example ; and then still further on
from the centre of the Lake Nyanzi's coast issued
the parent stream of the Nile, flowing over rocks of
igneous character 12 feet high, which, as the na-
tives and also some Arabs simply designate by the
simple name of stones. I have done myself the
honour to christen it the Ripon Falls, after his lord •
ship who was the President of the Royal Geogra-
phical Society when the expedition was set on
foot. This escape of the Nyanza waters, 20 miles
north of the equator, is the only one accurately in-
spected, owing to the barbarous restrictions placed
on visitors by the king of Uganda for the supposed
maintenance of his dignity ; but it mattered not, as
by following the Nile we saw the junction of both
the Kafu and Asua rivers, and crossed Luagevri
immediately before its place of junction. Now pro-
ceeding down the Nile from the Ripon Falls, the
river first bisects the sandstone continued hills,
which extend into Usuoga above the coast-line
of the lake, and rushes along north with
mountain-torrent beauty, and then, having passed
these hills, of no great extent, it turned through
long flats more like a lake than a river, where, in
Ungyoso, it was increased by the contributions of
the Kafn and the Luagevri, and continued in this
navigable form to the Karina Falls in Choppi,
where again, the land dropping suddenly to the
westward, we saw the river rushing along with
boisterous violence, but would not follow it owing
to the war which lay upon the track. It was in-
deed a pity, for not 60 miles from where we stood,
by common report, the Little Luta Mzige, which I
had taken so much trouble in tracing down its
course from the Lunte Mentes with its salt islands
in it, joined the Nile. The old river was next met
with in the Modi country, duo north of the Karma
Falls, where it still bore the unmistakable character
Southern
of the Nile—long flats, long rapids. The
half of the Madi was a flat extending, we believe,
;s entire
that is to. say, the Nile which
taortahpeidjuenxctetinodninogf tdhoewLnitttloe LthuetanAalvziiggae,btl
flooding ; and hero
length during the period of its isthe North
navigable
ing from the north-east
joins—in a rainy season an important 'feeder, but
when low fordable. The rest of the Nile, consider.
it was the Asia river of wchiorcnherwoefhavdichteoancd drain-
corner
ing it is navigated, ought to be well known ; but