The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-12-23
BaJard TayIOr's speech Before the
Geographical Society or New York,
on Recent African Discoveries.

I BaJaFd TayIOr's speech Before the
/ Geographical Society or New York,
+ on Recent African Discoveries.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN gives
7 me very great pleasure to b. present
5. on this occasion and t. tase Il brief
part 10 the prOceedings- I have new
eT been an explorer in any important
! sense Of the WorJi, and I have long
since ceased to be even what is called
q traveller but / have never lost the
keenest possible Interest in geOgraph-
icaI research. especially now, when
every year brings rs such rich re-
turns. l think il most fitting that
Mr.. Stanley's recent achievements
should be especially considered by
the American Geographical Society.
Our recognition ard encouragement
are none the less due since, in all
probability, the report OF them will
not reach him before his heroic labOrs
are over.
In regard TO the main geographical
problem as affected by his latest dis
coveries, it seems to me that
there is no need of any further
discussion. For my own part
l have never held any other view
than that the sources OF the Nile
would be ultimately found among
the high mountains in Eastern Africa
south Of the equator. / must confess
the grounds of my belief were not at
all scientific, and am quite ready to
accept whatever ridicuie may follow
the expression of them.
In the first place, have always had
| the greatest faith in the correctness Of
ancient records. / believed in the
! trustwOrthiness OF Herodotus, StrabO
and PtOlemy, aud place the most i'm
plicit faith In all their statements,s and
when in the year l849 or 1850 Knapp
aud Rebmann's discovery on the
great snow mountains of Kilimaad-
jarO was made known to the world, 1
had connected it in my imagination
with the course Of the White Nile as
given in Werne's works, whicn had
been published by the great German
some years Lefore. The lakes Of
\ Ptolemy were still ali unknown region,
covering eight degrees of latitude, in
tervening between the SHOWS of Kill
mandjarO and the farthest point
which had then been reached on the
White Nile. This connection was an
| illogical one, il you please, but have
never been able since to separate item.
Early in 1851 DR.. Knoblecher, Catho-
| lie Bishop Apostolic for Central Afri-
ca, published in Germany his ac-
count of the ascent of the White
! Nile in latitude eight degrees north.
His descriptions were so careful and
evidently so correct, and they reveal
ed such an unexpected and wide field
of African travel, that when l found
myself in Egypt before the close OF
the same year, l determined to devote
the whole winter to reaching as far a
point on the White Nile as was possi-
ble with my limited means. l had
made no preparation in any sense for
an uetual journey Of OfeXP!oratiOn. To-
deed, | was ready to turn back at any
point whenever the difficulties OF
travel should become too great. But
though the difficulties of travel in
creased we aseended the Bshr-el-Shaz-
al and reached the town of khaTtOum,
at the junction of the Blue and White
Nile, where 1 met and made the ac-
quaintance of DE-. Kno6lecher himself, |
two years before tie died. l finally
found myself floating along the White |
Nile, carried along by a strong wind
south ward at the rate of one hundred
miles day. At that time the whole
region was unknown. Burton, Grant,
Speke and Baker were then unknown |
to the world, and there was so little
knowledge Ofthe region Of Egypt that
my own attempt was looked upon |
there as something exceedingly rash |
and dangerous. One day while [ was
drifting along the current of that
magnificent flood, with curious baby
hippOpOtamGs following the boat,
as if trying to find out who and what
We were, 1 reflected as 1 looked
down upon the water, these waves
were q short time ago SHOWS upon the
peak Of Kiligro.p / lad no more
doubt in it than If had seen with my
own eyes the little rills trickling
through the cold ravines and gather
lug into the river below. Then and
there / wrote a poedcal address to
that grand mysterious mountain, and |
I will take the liberty of reading to
you the opiniog lines
Hail, thou monarch of African mountains
Remote inaccessible, silent and alone,
Who from the heart OF the tropical fervor
LifteSt to heaven thine alien SHOWS;
Feeding forever the fountains that make
L.
Father of Nile and Creator of Egypt.
.-tApplause. ..l -E H-.t
OF course there was not the slight
est particle of scientific deduction in |
alt this /; there was no logic probably |
no common sense. 1t was simply !
that imagination which takes the |
form Of faith, and which firmly be- |
.lieves what it can notprove. Having |
thus committed myself, of course l
have never allowed any later deduc- |
ton to shake my positiOn-L laughter
-and am rather afraid that now at
this time, rejoice more heartily over |
the final confirmation for the sake of |
poetry than J. do for the sake Of geog- |
raphy. Between four and five years af-
ter that, Speke and Baker rediscovered |
the lost lakes OF Ptolemy, and 1 am |
now entirely satisfied that Stanley has
at last discovered the final concluding |
link, and has connected the waters of |
Victoria Niyanza with the snow on |
the Mountains of the Moon. / think |
the stream which Stanley has discov-j
cred flows into Victoria NiyanZa, and |
may possibly be the feeder of the lake. |
But think we shall discover that the /
greater portion of the water is derived |
from those maTshy lowlands on the
east, which must receive almost the
entire drainage Of the western slopes |
of the mountains.
Two years ago had the good for
tune to make the acquaintance of
Knoblecher himself, who told me that
he had been 1000 feet above the sea,
where they had been aim 0st frozen to
death under the equator. From his |
description, as well as from other
sources, feel satisfied that this great
mountain range contains at least four
peaks above the snow, from $1,000 to !
%, 900 feet in height, at a distance OF
$50 to 200 miles from the Victoria Nj
yanza. Further explorations are.nec-
essary to make this a geographical
history. l really need no further
proof. Stanley's account of the east
ern shore in his letters is quite suffi-
cient for my Imagination L sm en-
tirely satisfied that he has discovered
the true source of the Nile. The
speaker added that when Stanley's
first letters were published, and there
was so much skeptieism in regard to
them, he was convinced of their truth
from the fact that he spelled so many
of his Arabic words improperly. He
had evidently spelt them according to
their sound, proving conelusively to
the speaker that Stanley had caught
them from the lips OF tue natives, and
not always correctly. An impOstor
would never make such a mistake as
that.
fFrf1aEA New Cannon. --. nal