Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-08-25
STANLEY AND AFRICAN DISC0V'
cry.

Inc receipt OF lellers lTOul llenTy w, DJau-
Icy, to as late date as the middle of last
spring. will render interesting brief SUM-
mary of what has been done in African ex-
ploration within the last twenty years. At
the remote commencement OF that period,
all Central Africa was an unknown region,
across which some geographers stretched the
mythic Mountains Of the Moon, while others
left it blank on the maps. There were
then, as for thousands Of years, three uuan-
swered questions as to the source Of the
Nile, as to the causes of its annual inundation,
and as to the supply of the mighty, exhaust
less stream of the Egyptian river, flowing as
it does, for 100 miles through a burning
rainless desert without tributary.
The first Of these puzzles to be solved was
that of the yearly overflow which makes the
valleys of Egypt fertile. One summer night
in 1861, Sir, Samuel Baker was hustled out
of his encampment in the dry bed Of the
Atbara river, in Nubia, by the sudden thun-
derous approach of tremendous food, which
in the morning he beheld twenty feet deep
and half q mile wide, rolling down to
the Nile. He at once OWNED the meaning
Of the torrent, and further investigation
proved that the Atbara principally, aud the
Blue Nile further south in auxiliary meas.
ure, draining the extensive mountain country
of Abyssinia, gave to Egypt her wonderful
fertilizing food. Its primary causes are sup
posed to be the moisture-laden east winds
from the Indian ocean, striking its cold peaks
and leaving there their burden.
The discovery of the reservoirs of the
Nile in the great lake system of Central
Africa is due to Spoke and Burton, and to
Baker. Capt. Spoke in 1858 touched the
southern shore of the Victoria Niyanza, and
four years later beheld its outlet at the north,
throug the Napoleon channel and over the
Ripon Falls but he made no exploration of
the lake or the river flowing from it, and
supposed the latter to be the stream of the
White Nile. Sir Samuel Baker and his
wife in 1864, traced this outlet to its en-.
trance into another lake, lying westward,
which he named Albert Niyanza, aud be.
lieved to be the greater Of the two bodies Of
water, and the real source Of the Nile.
DR.. Livingstone, striking the long lake
Tanganyika, which Spoke and Burton had
discovered to the south OF the Albert and
Victoria lakes, proved that it was not, as
they had presumed, the feeder of the Fam.
best, but that the water sheds of the latter
river-the largest African stream that emp
ties into the Indian ocean-were totally dis
tinct from those of the lake. Then he sur
missed that the Tanganyika had an outlet at
the northern end, emptying it into the AL
bert lake, aud during the years in which he
was lost to the world he found, ready for
the worlds knowledge, an immense system
Of lakes and rivers west of Tanganyika, and
the Lualaba river flowing north and west.
He died in the faith that this river was the
primitive origin OF the Nile, having, after
his finding by Stanley, gone southwark, to
make certain every step in the survey.
In establishing this last fact that the
great region Of waters discovered by Living.
stone must drain into the Atlantic, and not
the Nile basin, it is also made certain that
Stanley has discovered the head stream Of
the Nle in the great river Shimeeyu, flow
ing into the Victoria lake from the south.
east, from region as yet only made known
by SANKEY'S passage through it. This, SO
far, is his share of the Nile work. Tue
work on which he is at present engaged
he himself describes in a private letter to
Mr.. Edward King, as that of exploring
these various lakes, discovering their sources
and unravelling the complications Of geog.
raphers. The Gordon expedition, one Of
whose members has lately circumnavigated
the Albert lake, is busy in the same direc-
ton, and has already, as it seems, settled
that the Albert lake is lesser body than
the Victoria, and receives no aff1uent Of any
consequence from any point except the stream
from the Victoria. The discoveries of these
two or three years past have been 80 impor-
tant, numerous and rapidly succeeding, that
they have made obsolete the statements and
probabilities of the American cycIopedia il
relation to this region and we have not in
this brief survey, even alluded to the oxpor-
ations Of Barth and Schweinfurth in the
northern part Of Central Africa.
In his latest letters, Stanley records two
voyages to Victoria lake T.; the one whose ex-
citing incidents we sampled for our readers
the other a return by the aid of the king Of
Ukerewe to Uganda. During {
journey to Albert lake, Stanley saw the i'm
mense mountain Gambaragara, on who's
summit, enclosed by vOin that marks j
as an extinct volcano, gathered around 1
crystal lake, cluster the villages of mystic
rious white race, whom the invasion of thu
blacks crowded up from the plains Som
half dozen Of these people Stanley saw
They are handsome, often singulary beauti
full their hair is kinky, inclined to brow
in color, their features regular, lips thin
but their noses are thick at the point. Do
casionally individuals OF tho race are me
with in Uganda, but they will not divulg
anything concerning the history or customs
of their race. This is one of the most re
markable discoveries Stanley has made
though we must allow, as he does himself
considerable margin in regard to thes
people.
SANKEY'S further explorations, so far a
narrated in the Herald, were OF tho Kaeg
river, most singular stream, seeming 4
connect with II separate lakes, but bein
IN reality merely a strong central curren
through continuous lake, interspersed with
floating fields of the papyrus. One of thes
lakes is Speke's Windermere, 1850 fec
above the sea. Thence Stanley turned hi
face southwark, determining to make Vii
a point Of departure for another eTpedi
ton TO the Albert lake. Before leaving
Uganda, however, he refused, almost will
tears Of sheer Vexation, he says, a mos
generous offer of King M'tesa of an army o
100000 men, il he chose, TO take him Il
tho shores Of Albert again. But Stanlel
had found M'tesa's people far from as trust
worthy and generous as his royal friend
Admiral Mugassa had failed him on tn