The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-15
OPENING OF THE ALBERT wYANzA.

NJ
10 Soma extent bv the visit OF the Prince OF
Wales. and anxious to do something wIucH
shall oonfrm him in the goou oPlhion vi
Wostern nations the Viceroy OF Egypt mas
;nvited Sir Samuel Baker to take command oi
an expedition directed to the suppressioii VI Vi
Ill and in detail the vast interior reservoir
known as the Albert N'yanza, and to bring
tho hitherto untraversed districts lying around
tbo ,o,-sterious head waters of the great river
of Egypt within the sphere not only OF the
Viceroy's authority, but also OF mercantile
operations. ,;4i,,,, oro eo
tniI of nronise to our knowledge of the face
&c the globe we dwell upon, in itsleast known
ond most inaccessible regions, and to the
'aa,'so of n down-trodden and slave-driven
,,eonle that it is impossible not to be stirred
~, 70 our innermost heart at the bare idea OF
sncb truly glorious and noble enterprise 1t
NAV be termed by some to be war OF an
neration. and it may be said that Egypto-
Tnrks of a faith which tolerates slavery in
certain forms, are not precisely the people to
occupy Central Africa; but nothing could be
worse than the state of the countries which
IL is proposed to open to civilization; there
was no other power that could or would do it;
and the boon conveyed to the people them
selves is of such vast magnitude as
not only to exonerate the means that
NAV have to be used, but TO stamp them
With the unouestionable seal of truly philan-
tbronic and humanitarian morality. No man,
Too more fitted than Sir Samuel Baker to
take the lead of such an expedition, and no
man more likely to carry it out with the least
fighting and quarrelling that is possible.
True courage is always magnanimous, and Sir
Samuel Baker has shown by the patient per-
severance and self-devotion of himself and
wife in carrying out great purpose, that he
possesses what is rarer and loftier than mere
phvsical courage - the attributes of the
highest intellectual and moral courage-that
kind of courage which is sure to blend mercy
with strength and to be at all times concili-
ating whilst carrying out its objects.
1t will be remembered that Sir Samuel
Baker was led, when exploring the regions of
the Upper Nile, to the discovery of the Albert
Nyanza, from information he received at
Gondokoro from Captain Speke. That
lamented traveller had, upon the occasion OF
his exploration of the Victoria N'yanza heard
of the existence of another lake to the west
or northwest, which he at the time supposed
to be much smaller than his Victoria N'yanza,
and which was also supposed to receive the
waters of the outlet of the upper lake, the
Somerset or Victoria Nile, as it has been called.
After overcoming many wearisome obstacles
land who can read his narrative without a
thrill of admiration for the constant cheer
fulness with which the hero and heroine bore
the terrible hardships they were called to face,
the daily danger and hourly anxieties OF their
lonely life in Equatorial Africa, and the sick
ness and other disheartening trials which they
were called upon to endure p, Sir Samuel sue
ceeded in reaching the lake in question. 1t
lay before him like a sea of quicksilver, with
boundless sea horizon on the south and
southwest glittering in the MONDAY sun, and
on the west, at fifty or sixty miles distance,
blue mountains rose from the bosom of the
lake to height of about seven thousand feet
above its level
81 was about fifteen hundred feet above the
lake." the traveller relates, ''and l looked
down from the steep granite cliff upon those
welcome waters-upon that vast reservoir
which nourished Egypt and brought fertility
where all was wilderness-upon that great
source so long hidden from mankind-that
source of bounty and of blessings to millions
of human beings; and as one OF the greatest
objects in nature, 1 determined to honor it
with great name AS an imperishable me-
mortal of one loved and mourned by our gra-
cious Queen, and deplored by every English
man, called this great lake the Albert
Nyanza.' The Victoria and the Albert Lakes
are the two sources of the Nile"
At sunrise on the following morning, Sir
Samuel was enabled to distinguish, with the
aid of powerful telescope, the outline of the
mountains on the opposite shore, dark shades
upon their sides denoting deep gorges, whilst
two large waterfalls that cleft the sides of the
mountains looked like threads of silver upon
their dark face. The lake itself was vast
depression far below the general level of the
country, surrounded by precipitous cliffs and
bounded on the west and southwest by great
ranges of mountains from five to seven thou
sand feet above the level of its waters. thus
rendering it the one great reservoir into
which everything must drain, and ''from this
vast rocky cistern tie Nile n1aae its egt. q
giant IN its 6irth" ''It was, adds Sir Samuel,
"a grand arrangement Of nature for the birth
OF SO mighty and important a stream as the
river Nile"
Unfortunately, at the period of Sir Samuel
Bakers discovery of the Albert N'yanza, there
mad been some difference of opinion among
geographers as to whether the Victoria Nile
flowed directly onwards from Victoria N'yanza
into the White Nile by Gondokoro OF whether
It's waters mingled with those of Albert
Nyanza before joining the White Nile.
instead, then, of Sir Samuel and his wife,
as to all appearance they might have done,
Keeping, after their long fatigues, quietly in
boat, and allowing themselves to be peace
iul!y rowed and drifted down the Nile, which
Is described as we have seen, as "a giant in
It's birth, they navigated the lake in canoes
10 MagIngo, the point at which the Victoria
Nile joined the lake, and, what was worse, in
order TO settle question of no very great
Importance, as to the lake-feeder at Magungo
beng really the prolongation of the Victoria
Nlle they proceeded up that river, which is a
succession OF cataracts the whole way to the
haruma Falls, were stricken down again with
IeVer, narrowly escaped being eaten up by
crocodlles named the first obstruction they met
%ltn' we nope inappropriately, ''Murchison's