The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-04-23
The Nile.
BY GEORGE Il. VASHoN.

BY GEORGE i. VASHoN.
''Since Columbus first looked upon san
Salvador. the earth has but one emotion o
triumph left in her bestowal: and that she
reserves for him who shall first drink from
the fountains of the White Nile, under the
/ fields of the Kilimandaro." Such was the
/ opinion expressed by the American traveller
Bayard TAYLOR as he regretfully turned
/ back from his Central African wanderings
The great geographical problem limited al
therein has since been solved, and that tri
umphant emotion felt. In 1862, Captain
! Spck: and Grant. two officers of the East
/ Indian service, penetrated to the sources Of
! the Bahr-cl- Abiad, or White Nile, finding
4 them in the feeding springs of the recently
discovered lake Of Central Africa, lying
Immediately south of the Equator the Vic.
! toria Nyanza; and thus the secret which
Nature had guarded through five thousand
! years was at last revealed.
| Through the long lapse of time just men,
toned, the Nile has been famous river,
and in The lower portion of its course well
known to the inhabitants of the earth
From its entrance into the Mediterranean
sea by several arms. in Y. l.. 81 it has,
since the earliest days Of history, been
traced through the lands of Egypt and its
southern neighbor, Nubia, receiving in the
latter country, first, the tributary waters of
the Atbara, or Black River. and then higher
up, those of the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue
Nile. Geographical research, mounting
its stream still farther, found it swollen by
! the accession of various branches, until
its junction with the Sobat, about nine
degrees north of the Equator. Above the
junction with the latter river, its stream
has been assembled to point some eighty
miles south of Gondokoro Roman Cath
olic mission. situate i'll \. l.. 4 IS, leaving
the upper portion Of its course to its origin
a matter of conjecture. And, this conjec-
ture has not been Il listlessly Indifferent
one. Julius Caesar, according to the poet
Lucan. declared that he would willingly
sacrifice all his political aspirations, in
order to set out upon search for the
sources of the Nile: and Nero Caesar sent
out in their quest two centurions, whose
discoveries, as recountcd by Seneca in his
Questioncs Naturales. render it highly prob
able. that they attained to the very lake,
since visited by Captains Spoke and Grant.
The Egyptian geographer, Claudius Ptol-
envy, asserted, that the Nile took its rise
from two lakes south of the Equator and
north Of the Mountains of the moon, Il
range, according to him, extending east and
west: and it may be said, without any de
traction from the glory of the late discove-
res, that his information upon the matter
was substantially accurate. His notions in
reference to the latitude of the various
points in question are pardonably vague,
in view of the infancy of geographical
science when he wrote. and it may with
probability be surmsed. that his bold mag
nation assumed the crescent-shaped noun
tain discovered by Captain Spoke, north of
Lake Tanganyka and the snow crowned
Mount kcnia seen by krapf, about o. due
east to be the termini of continuous chain
But it was reserved for Captain Spoke
who had, in previous expedition, discov-
cred the Lake Victoria NyanZa, to verify
by actual exploration his conjectures then
formed, that this Lake was the parent
spring of the Nile. Starting from Zanzi-
bar on the East African coast, he proceeded
to the Lake, journeyed along its western
and northern borders. until he arrived at
the point whence the Nile issues FORTH and
then following its course, he continued
down by Gondokoro. and through Nubia,
into Egypt. Thus, the four hundred miles
of unexplored region, which lay between
the head-waters of the Nile and the highest
known point upon its banks have been
traveresed, and the mystery of its origin
exists no longer.
And now, that the problem of the sources
of the Nile has been solved-now that it
has been traced to its parent springs in
that fer off equterial basin, will it cease to
be an object of curious interest to the chill
longer reflect back the outspread sails of
the thousands whom quest of pleasure,
OF Il love for scientific research hitherto
caused to navigate its waters? No. AS
the Mediterranean, so long will the Nile
continue to be the goal of eager and de-
lighted travel; so long will it prove a source
of wonder deep and manifold to the nations
It's magnitude secured for it an especial
notice in the days of antiquity; and its
fructyfying uprisings. year after year.
prompted the dwellers along its banks to
recognize in it benefcent divinity; until,
in the mythology of Mizraim, the gods
whose affairs appealed successfully for the
most cherished worship was the trinity of
Isis, Osiris. and the Nile. And as it was
then regarded, so is it now, So will it ever
be, sacred river.
As the Tiber was to Rome as the Ganges
is to Hindostan SO was the Nile to ancient
Egypt-so is it now to the world. Its old
time worshipers slumber in their mummied
Ceiciileh'o III o"ta'oiioS ioii9 hi'icH upoh
its banks, and the temples reared in it's
honor are, with each ensuing year, buried
deeper beneath the sands Of the eucrsach-
ing desert. But blending itself with the
recollectiens of other creeds, the Nile still
rolls on, with placid and eternal flow,
holy river.
The descendant of Isreal recalls to mind
the time, when his progenitors, famine
pinched, went down into Egypt to buy
corn, and became men of note in the land,
until "there arose up a new king which
knew not Joseph Then in the dream Of