New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-10-08
The Great Problem solved,

The great secret of the Nile, sought il vain 70
i ages, has at length been revealed. The myste
/ rous problem has been solved. In the words Q
: another:
Three Englishmen have penetrated into tn
! unknown wilds, where the river had been los
from the earliest memory of man. They have no
Erectided they have made the map of the interior
of Africa. New tribes and undiscovered countries
have sprung up, as it were, under their feet. In
despite Of all difficulty, and of encouragement
disease and weakness, not to speak of the disgust
both of body and mind, which is inevitablein such
4 journey, Spoke and Grant and Baker have pur-
sued their great object to the end, and have won
II from unwilling nature her long boarded secret.
The Nile has been forced out of darkness and
mystery into daylight and the records of science.
4 1t has been traced up to those sources which are
| untraceable-to the dews and rains and mountain
eataraets which feed its two most northern lakes
The great fact is established and certain. There
can be no longer any doubt about the sources of
the Nile. Let us hope that higher andmore i'm
portant results are to follow.
Mr.. Baker commenced his expedition from
Cairo, in April, 1861, when Spoke and Grant were
still in Africa, accompanied by Mrs. Baker--a re-
fined and intelligent lady, who makes no demon
stration like "our strongminded women but
whose bravery, when his men mutinied TO murder
MIN, and whose care of him when prestrated by
the fevers of Africa, saved him from death among
the cannibal sayages of Central Africa. Having
penetrated to Berber, he spent year in studying
the Arabic language, and exploring the ailments
OF the Nile from the Abyssinian mountains. In
1867 he was at Khartooms He hired his servants
forty-hve armed men, forty sailors, and other SER
wants. making party of ntnety-siX, and pro
ceeded on hisEoyage of many mishaps to kondO-
koro. Here he met Spek and Grant, who gave
him all the information they had obtained concern
ing his route After several days spent with them,
he took his leave of the AFOREMENTIONED ex-
plorers, and started again on his mission to dis
cover what the Nile did with itself between lati-
tude 2 degrees II minutes and degrees ~
We cannot follow our explorer through many
months Of wearisome iourneyings-at one time
half starved, abandoned by their servants, their
cames dead, at another sick and ready toperish-
ivory traders and brutal negroes conspirng against
tnem. Their priyatons, tolls and suferngs sur
pass all the adventures of romance. In one part
Of their journey he walked, half dead, at the side
Of the litter which his wife, almost lifeless was
carried, and for seven days and nights never
closed his eyes in sleep.
-Four days after Mrs. B. began to recover from
Drain lever they reached the great lake in central
AlMca-the long sought for spring whence flows
the Nile. Hurrying up the summit Of the hill, he
says:
1.-THE glory of our prize burst suddenly upon
me! There, like sea of quicksilver, lay, far be-
meath, the grand expanse of water; boundless
SEA horizon on the south and southwest glittering
ia the MONDAY sun aadFon the west at fifty or
sixty miles distance, blue mountains rose from the
bosom OF the lake to the heighth of about 1000
feet above its level II is impossible to describe
the triumph of that movement; here was the re-
ward of all our labor-for the years Of temerity
with which we had toiled through Africa. Eng
land had the sources of the Nile
Long before | reached this spot arranged to
give three cheers with all our men in English
style in honor of the discovery, but now that /
looked down upon the great inland sea, lying in
the very heartof Africa, and thought hew Yainiy
mankind had sought these sources through 50
many ages, and reflected that | had been the
humble instrument permitted to unrayel this por-
ton Of the great mystery, when 50 many greater
than l had failed, felt too serious to vent my
feelings in vain cheers for victory, and sincerely
thanked God for having guided ana supported US
through all dangers to the good end. y
The zigzag path to descend to the lake was so |
steep and dangerous that we were forced to leave
our oxen with guide, who was to take them to
Magungo and wait for our arrival, We com |
meneed the descent of the steep pass on foot.
led the way grasping a stout bamboo; my wife, |
IN extreme weakness, tottered down the path, /
supporting herself on my shoulder, and stopping
70 rest every twenty PAGES. After a toilsome /
descent Of about two hours, weak with years of I
fever, but for the moment strengthened by sue I
cess, we gained tho level plain below the Cliff
On re4ching the waters edge, he says: al I
rushed into the lake, and thirsty with heat and
fatigue, with heart full Of gratitude, / drank +
deeply from the sources of the Nfle,n
So
4 A MEDICAL 0PINroN.-An unfortunate man. [
who had never drank water enough to warrant
+I,a Il