New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-04-17
THE SOURCES OF THE NILE.

| to be soon answered. The mystery of the sources
of the Nile is now attacked by individual enter
prise with an ardor akin to that which attended
the efforts of the English African Association at
the close of the last century, to determine the
| sources and course of the Niger. In the list oil
that Company's servants-at whose head was Sir
Joseph Banks--wcre Ledyard, Mungo Park, Dem
| ham. Clapperton and the Landers, all worthy sue
cessors of Bruce, and among the most eminent Of
| African travellers. 1t was in the year 1880 that
Richard and John Lander settled the question of
! the course and mouth Of the Niger which Mungo
| Park in 1895, had, first among modern travellers,
| discovered, and announced in those famous words
| which 20 stimulated adventurous zeal in Europe
al saw the long-sought, majestic Niger, glittering
| in the morning sun, broad as the Thames at
| Westminster, and flowing slowly to the eastward"
The same earnest zeal inspires at the present mo-
| ment few individuals, German Jesuits Mission
aries in Central Africa to pluck out the heart of
the Nile-mystery namely, the secret of its
sources. Dr. Knoblecher, Vicar-General OF Cen
| trail Africa advances from the North coming up
the Nile, and Drs. Krapf and Rebmann push over
| the unknown lands to the south Of the supposed
Mountains of the Moon, northward, toward the
river.
While these pous and learned gentlemen prose-
cute their labor DIR. Charles Beke collects A sum-
mary Of Recent Nilotic Discovery, which apprises
us of the present condition of this interesting re-
search. Our own interest in the matter is quick
ened by the probable cooperation OF our friend
| and associate Bayard Taylor with DIR. knoble-
| chers advance from the North. We take plea
sure in laying briefly before our readers the results
of the Nile explorations up to the latest accounts
| The Table Land of Eastern Africa in not, as
| many suppose, of terraces, gradually rising
one above the other, and descending, step-wise,
| toward the Red Sea- but it is high land OF very
variable surface whose greatest hight Is upon the
| coast, and which gradually recedes toward the
| valley of the Nile. In the years 1910 and al,
| Mehemet Ali sent expeditions into the upper
regions of the Nile, ostensibly for scientific pur-
poses but really to ascertain what truth might lie
in the reports occasionally waited, like pleasant
perfume, from the remote South, of gold sands in
the far waters of the River The expeditions dis
| covered nothing but few races in state OF the
| EXTREMIST simplicity, which had been visited by
| one or two preceding adventurers and had no
| love for strangers coming up the river. The only
| man of real energy in the expeditions of Mehem-
| ct Ali, was countryman of those who have done
| most in the matter.
AT Khartoum, whence we have heard from MIR.
Taylor, the two branches coming from the unex-
| plored South unite, and form the single stream
whose shores are Egypt. These two branches are
called the White and Blue Niles, or, Bahr ell Abiad
| and Bahr ell Ghazal, more generally known as the
lar branch Tho Rlua
Nile. so called from the dark color of its water,
was explored and its sources discovered In 1918 by
| Pace, a Portuguese traveller. They were after
ward seen by Bruce, who astonlshed Europe by
declaring on his return that he had discovered the
sources of the Nile. The Blue Nile rises from two
| fountains near Geesh in Goam, i'll Abyssinia, TO-
| 600 feet above the sea.
| The White Nile is little known beyond Khar-
| toum, but, from its greater breadth and general
| Importance, is considered the Nile of Herodgus,
| and of other authors before Ptoemy. Up this
| branch the last expedition OF Mehemet Ali pro-
ceeded to A. AZ AZ" North, and was there stopped
| by cataract, and returned. In January, 1850,
as we stated last year, DIR. Knoblecher passed the
| same cataract and pushed up the river 70 appoint
beyond that reached by any preceding fraSeier,
a " NOrtn. Tic lltlt CllufDcu uuOuH{}fll sazt4
saw the Nile stretching sortirwad until It was
lost between tw6ioffy mountains. Beyoild these,
the negroes assured him, the rver came straight
from the South. He saw also, quiverne ~ the
distance. the faint outline Of a mountup use
which he supposed to be about 81 North. Inc
river at the point DIR. knobecher reached was
more than 600 feet broad and or feet deep. Tho
| Doctor concluded that the sources OF the river
| Law beyond the Equator and determined tp prose-
| cute his search the present season, andlhe was
about to depart upon the expedition in the iafter
| mart of last January. OF its results we hope to
apprise our readers at the earliest opportan'ty
and-unless he is compelled to return-from the
| personal observations of Mr.. Taylor.
So much for the North, where, if we may trust
DIR. Knob.echer's eyes and judgment, we have seen
a point only three degrees removed frOm the
EQUATOR Upon the South, the missionaries Dr.
Rebmann and Krapf are our heroes and sn-
thorities. They planted station at Nlos.pass
shont 10 South, and in 1913 DIR. kespann
reached D;agga. a point where he discovered aocnt
100 geographical miles from the coast, and W =.
w. from :.Alombas, the snow mountains T. ~
u,andaro. whose existence had been denied - es'-
rope. AT Diagga he received newset tts eevn-
try of Monomezi, a. the old Portuguese rave.''s
termed it. ana endeavored to penetrate INTO sna'
region and find the great lake Usambrc scaa'
bly the lake Zambro Of the Portugusse,-sS .n'cn
he had heard. -.
The king of the country interfercd w1s. sn''
project. and in 1919 his colleague. DR.
49,