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was seen for the last time by a whaler, July 26, 1845, making for Lancaster Sound. At the close of 1847 the Admiralty despatched vessels with supplies; two were sent in 1848 on Franklin's route, and Sir John Richardson was despatched through Rupert's Land to the coast of the Arctic Sea. These were the beginnings of a series of searching expeditions persevered in year after year, until tidings were obtained. Of these we have interesting accounts in the Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847, by JOHN RAE, 1850; Journal of a Voyage in 1850-51, performed by the Lady Franklin' and 'Sophia' under command of Mr W. Penny, by P. C. SUTHERLAND, M.D., two volumes, 1852; Papers and Despatches relating to the Arcticsearching Expeditions of 1850-1-2, by JAMES MANGLES, R.N., 1852; Second Voyage of the • Prince Albert' in Search of Sir John Franklin, by W. KENNEDY, 1853; The Last of the Arctic Voyages, being a Narrative of the Expedition in H.M.S. ‘Assistance, under the command of SIR EDWARD BELCHER, C.B., in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1852-3-4, two volumes, 1855; The Discovery of the North-west Passage, by H.M.S. Investigator, CAPTAIN R. M'CLURE, 1850-54, published in 1856. The last of these voyages was the most important. Captain M'Clure was knighted, and parliament voted him a sum of £5000, with an equal sum to his officers and crew. The gallantry and ability displayed by the officers of the various expeditions, and the additions made by them to the geography of the Polar Seas, render these voyages and land-journeys a source of national honour, though of deep and almost painful interest. The abundance of animal life in the polar regions is remarkable. Reindeer, hares, musk oxen, with salmon and other fish, were found, and furnished provisions to the exploring ice-parties. In 1854 Dr Rae learned from a party of Esquimaux that in the spring of 1850 about forty white men were seen on the shore of King William's Land. They appeared thin, and intimated by signs that their ships had been lost in the ice, and that they were travelling to where they hoped to find deer to shoot. They were dragging a boat and sledges. The Esquimaux further stated that later the same season, before the ice broke up, the bodies of thirty white men were discovered on the continent a day's journey to the west of the Great Fish River, and five more bodies on an adjacent island. In 1857, Lady Franklin organised another searching expedition, and Captain M'Clintock, with a crew of twentyfour men, sailed in the Fox yacht. They spent the winter of 1857-58 in the ice, drifting about twelve hundred miles. In the spring they resumed operations, and in August reached Brentford Bay, near which the ship was laid up for winter-quarters. In the spring of 1859, Captain M'Clintock and Lieutenant Hobson undertook sledge expeditions, embracing a complete survey of the coasts. At Point Victory, upon the north-west coast of King William's Land, Lieutenant Hobson found under a cairn a record, dated April 25, 1848, signed by Captains Crozier and Fitzjames, stating that the Erebus and Terror were abandoned on the 22d of April 1848, in the ice, and that the survivors, in all one hundred and five, under the command of Captain Crozier, were proceeding to the Great Fish River. Sir John Franklin had died on the

11th of June 1847. The unfortunate party had expected to be able to penetrate on foot southwards to some of the most northerly settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company. Traces of their progress were further found a large boat fitted on a sledge, with quantities of clothing, cocoa, tea, tobacco, and fuel, with two guns and plenty of ammunition. Five watches, some plate, knives, a few religious books, and other relics were discovered; but no journals or pocket-books. The gallant band, enfeebled by three years' residence in arctic latitudes, disappointment, and suffering, had no doubt succumbed to the cold and fatigue, sinking down by the way, as the Esquimaux had reported to Dr Rae, and finding graves amidst the eternal frost and snow. The graves of three of the crew of the Erebus and Terror are thus noticed in Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal, by LIEUTENANT S. OSBORN:

Graves of the English Seamen in the Polar Regions. The graves, like all that Englishmen construct, were scrupulously neat. Go where you will over the globe's surface-afar in the east, or afar in the west, down among the coral-girded isles of the South Sea, or here, where the grim North frowns on the sailor's grave-you will always find it alike; it is the monument raised by rough hands but affectionate hearts over the last home of their messmates; it breathes of the quiet churchyard in some of England's many nooks, where each had formed his idea of what was due to departed worth; and the ornaments that nature decks herself with, even in the desolation of the frozen zone, were carefully culled to mark the dead seaman's home. The good taste of the officers had prevented the general simplicity of an oaken head and footboard to each of the graves being marred by any long and childish epitaphs, or the doggrel of a lower-deck poet, and the three inscriptions were as follows:

'Sacred to the Memory of Wm. Braine, R.M., of H.M.S. Erebus, died April 3, 1846, aged 32 years. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve."-Josh. xxiv. 15.

'Sacred to the Memory of J. Torrington, who departed this life, January 1, 1846, on board of H.M.S. Terror, aged 20 years.

'Sacred to the Memory of J. Hartwell, A.B., of H.M.S. Erebus, died January 4, 1846, aged 25 years. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.' Haggai i. 7.'

the men from the Erebus the manly and Christian spirit I thought I traced in the epitaphs over the graves of of Franklin. In the true spirit of chivalry, he, their captain and leader, led them amidst dangers and unknown difficulties with iron will stamped upon his brow, but the words of meekness, gentleness, and truth were his device.

Some interesting and affecting details of these arctic explorations are given in the Life of Sir John Richardson, by the REV. J. M'ILRAITH, 1868. Sir John was an intrepid explorer of the arctic regions, and largely contributed to the knowledge of the physical geography, flora, and fauna of British North America. This excellent man was a native of Dumfries, born in 1787, died in 1865.

We shall now advert to African discovery and adventure, and to the question of the source of the Nile, which, even from time immemorial, has been a subject of mysterious interest and speculation.

CAPTAIN BURTON.

One of the most fearless and successful of modern explorers is RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON, born at Tuam in Galway, Ireland, in 1820. Entering the East India Company's service, Lieutenant Burton served some years in Sindh under Sir Charles Napier, and published an account of Sindh and the Races that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus, 1851. The same year he produced a volume entitled Goa and the Blue Mountains, or Six Months of Sick-leave; and the next year, Falconry in the Valley of the Indus. His remarkable talent for acquiring languages, and particularly his knowledge of Arabic, suggested a journey in the East through regions unexplored or but partially known. Under the auspices of the English Geographical Society he proceeded to Arabia, adopting the habits of an Afghan pilgrim. He penetrated to the two holy cities, accomplishing a safe return to Cairo, and the result was a most valuable and interesting book of travels, entitled a Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, three volumes, 1855-57. The next expedition of the traveller was into the country of the Somaulis in Eastern Africa. He was accompanied by three brother-officers-Lieutenants Stroyan, Speke, and Hern. The first of these was killed, and Burton himself was much wounded, but he succeeded in reaching Harar, and he published an account of the journey under the title of First Footsteps in East Africa, or an Exploration of Harar, 1856. At the end of the year, Burton and Speke set out to the country of the Upper Nile, to verify the existence of an inland sea announced by the Arabs and missionaries. They started from the Zanzibar coast in 1857, and the result was the discovery of the vast lake of Tanganyika in lat. 5° S., long. 36° E., and a large crescent-shaped mass of mountains overhanging the northern half of the lake, and ten thousand feet high, considered by Speke to be the true Mountains of the Moon. Captain Burton published an account of this expedition, entitled The Lake Regions of Central Africa, two volumes, 1860. His health having been impaired by his African travels, Captain Burton embarked for the United States, which he traversed, and published an account of the Mormons. In 1861 he was appointed consul for Fernando Po, and from thence he made exploring expeditions described in his works Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains, two volumes, 1863; A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahomey, two volumes, 1864; Wit and Wisdom from West Africa, 1865. He was next appointed consul in Brazil, where he resided above three years, and wrote Explorations of the Highlands of Brazil, two volumes, 1869; and Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay, 1870. A later work of the traveller's is a description of Zanzibar, City, Island, and Coast, 1872. In 1875, Captain Burton published Ultima Thule, or a Summer in Iceland, in which we have not only the author's personal adventures, but a narrative of the discovery, the history, and characteristics of the island.

CAPTAINS SPEKE AND GRANT.

JOHN HANNING SPEKE was a native of Devonshire, born at Orleigh Court, near Bideford, in 1827. He obtained a commission in the Bengal

Native Infantry, and served in the war of the Punjaub. In 1854 he commenced his explorations in Eastern Africa, and in 1856, as already related, he joined Captain Burton in his expedition to ascertain the position of the great lakes of the interior, and their relation to the Nile basin. In February 1858, Lake Tanganyika was discovered, and in July of the same year, Speke traversed the route running north from Kazeh, and in August discovered the south end of the Victoria Nyanza. lake, which he considered to be the source of the Nile. In his opinion he differed from Burton and other travellers, and in order to establish more firmly his theory on the subject he undertook another expedition in 1860, accompanied by a The result he brother officer, Captain Grant. published in a large volume, a Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, 1863. Captain Speke was engaged to address the British Association at Bath on the 16th of September 1864, but was unfortunately killed on the day preceding by the accidental discharge of his gun. The death of the brave traveller under circumstances so distressing may be said to have saddened all England. Subsequent explorations in Africa have proved the accuracy of Speke's account of the Victoria Nyanza.

First View of the Nile.

Here at last I stood on the brink of the Nile; most beautiful was the scene-nothing could surpass it! It was the very perfection of the kind of effect aimed at in 2 highly-kept park; with a magnificent stream from six to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks, the former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by sterns and crocodiles basking in the sun, flowing between high grassy banks, with rich trees and plantains in the background, where herds of the nsunnu and hartebeest could be seen grazing, while the hippopotami were snorting in the water, and florikan and guinea-fowl rising at our feet. Unfortunately, the chief district of his huts-clean, extensive, and tidily kept-facing the officer, Mlondo, was from home, but we took possession river, and felt as if a residence here would do one good.

I marched up the left bank of the Nile, at a considerable distance from the water, to the Isamba Rapids, passing through rich jungle and plantain gardens. Nargo, an old friend, and district officer of the place, first refreshed us with a dish of plantain squash and dried fish with pombé. He told us he is often threatened by elephants, but he sedulously keeps them off with charms; for if they ever tasted a plantain they would never leave the garden until they had cleared it out. He then took us to see the nearest falls of the Nile-extremely beautiful, but very confined. The water ran deep between its banks, which were covered with fine grass, soft cloudy acacias, and festoons of lilac convolvuli; whilst here and there, where the land had slipped above the rapids, bared places of red earth could be seen like that of Devonshire: there, too, the waters, impeded by a natural dam, looked like a huge mill-pond, sullen and dark, in which two crocodiles, laving about, were looking out for prey. From the high banks we looked the stream, which divide its waters, and by interrupting down upon a line of sloping wooded islets lying across them, cause at once both dam and rapids. The whole

was more fairy-like, wild, and romantic than-I must confess that my thoughts took that shape-anything I ever saw outside of a theatre. It was exactly the sort of place, in fact, where, bridged across from one sideslip to the other, on a moonlight night, brigands would

* A fermented liquor made from grains, roots, or fruits.

assemble to enact some dreadful tragedy. Even the Wanguana seemed spell-bound at the novel beauty of the sight, and no one thought of moving till hunger warned us night was setting in, and we had better look -out for lodgings.

Etiquette at the Court of Uganda.

The mighty king was now reported to be sitting on his throne in the state-hut of the third tier. I advanced hat in hand, with my guard of honour following, formed in open ranks, who in their turn were followed by the bearers carrying the present. I did not walk straight up to him as if to shake hands, but went outside the ranks of a three-sided square of squatting Wakungu, all habited in skins, mostly cow-skins; some few of them had, in addition, leopard-cat skins girt round the waist, the sign of royal blood. Here I was desired to halt and sit in the glaring sun; so I donned my hat, mounted my umbrella-a phenomenon which set them all a-wondering and laughing-ordered the guard to close ranks, and sat gazing at the novel spectacle. A more theatrical sight I never saw. The king, a good-looking, well-figured, tall young man of twenty-five, was sitting on a red blanket spread upon a square platform of royal grass, encased in tiger-grass reeds, scrupulously welldressed mbugu. The hair of his head was cut short, excepting on the top, where it was combed up to a high ridge, running from stem to stern like a cock's comb. On his neck was a very neat ornament—a large ring of beautifully worked small beads, forming elegant patterns by their various colours. On one arm was another bead ornament, prettily devised; and on the other a wooden charm, tied by a string covered with snake-skin. On every finger and every toe he had alternate brass and copper-rings; and above the ankles, half-way up to the calf, a stocking of very pretty beads. Everything was light, neat, and elegant in its way; not a fault could be found with the taste of his 'getting-up.' For a handkerchief he held a well-folded piece of bark, and a piece of gold-embroidered silk, which he constantly employed to hide his large mouth when laughing, or to wipe it after a drink of plantain wine, of which he took constant and copious draughts from neat little gourd-cups, administered by his ladies-in-waiting, who were at once his sisters and wives. A white dog, spear, shield, and woman-the Uganda cognisance-were by his side, as also a knot of staff-officers, with whom he kept up a brisk conversation on one side, and on the other was a band of Wachwézi, or lady-sorcerers.

I was now asked to draw nearer within the hollow square of squatters, where leopard skins were strewed upon the ground, and a large copper kettle-drum, surmounted with brass bells on arching wires, along with two other smaller drums covered with cowrie-shells, and beads of colour worked into patterns, were placed. I now longed to open conversation, but knew not the language, and no one near me dared speak, or even lift his head from fear of being accused of eyeing the women; so the king and myself sat staring at one another for full an hour-I mute, but he pointing and remarking with those around him on the novelty of my guard and general appearance, and even requiring to see my hat lifted, the umbrella shut and opened, and the guards face about and shew off their red cloaks-for such wonders had never been seen in Uganda.

Then finding the day waning, he sent Maula on an embassy to ask me if I had seen him; and on receiving my reply, 'Yes, for full one hour,' I was glad to find him rise, spear in hand, lead his dog, and walk unceremoniously away through the inclosure into the fourth tier of huts; for this being a pure levée day, no business was transacted. The king's gait in retiring was intended to be very majestic, but did not succeed in conveying to me that impression. It was the traditional walk of his race, founded on the step of the lion, but the outward sweep of the legs, intended to represent the stride of the

noble beast, appeared to me only to realise a very ludicrous kind of waddle.

The Source of the Nile-A Summary.

The expedition had now performed its functions. I saw that old Father Nile, without any doubt, rises in the Victoria Nyanza, and, as I had foretold, that lake is the great source of the holy river which cradled the first when I thought how much I had lost by the delays in expounder of our religious belief. I mourned, however, the journey having deprived me of the pleasure of going to look at the north-east corner of the Nyanza to see what connection there was, by the strait so often spoken of, with it and the other lake where the Waganda went to get their salt, and from which another river flowed to the north, making 'Usoga an island.' But I felt I ought to be content with what I had been spared to accomplish; for I had seen full half of the lake, and had information given me of the other half, by means of which I knew all about the lake, as far, at least, as the chief objects of geographical importance were concerned.

The

Let us now sum up the whole and see what it is worth. Comparative information assured me that there was as much water on the eastern side of the lake as there is on the western-if anything, rather more. most remote waters, or top head of the Nile, is the southern end of the lake, situated close on the third degree of south latitude, which gives to the Nile the surprising length, in direct measurement, rolling over thirty-four degrees of latitude, of above two thousand three hundred miles, or more than one-eleventh of the circumference of our globe. Now from this southern point, round by the west, to where the great Nile stream issues, there is only one feeder of any importance, and that is the Kitangulé river; whilst from the southernmost point, round by the east, to the strait, there are no rivers at all of any importance; for the travelled Arabs one and all aver, that from the west of the snowclad Kilimandjaro to the lake where it is cut by the second degree, and also the first degree of south latitude, there are salt lakes and salt plains, and the country is hilly, not unlike Unyamůézi; but they said there were no great rivers, and the country was so scantily watered, having only occasional runnels and rivulets, that they always had to make long marches in order to find water when they went on their trading journeys: and further, those Arabs who crossed the strait when they reached Usoga, as mentioned before, during the late interregnum, crossed no river either.

There remains to be disposed of the 'Salt Lake,' which I believe is not a salt, but a fresh-water lake; and my reasons are, as before stated, that the natives call all lakes salt, if they find salt beds or salt islands in such places. Dr Krapf, when he obtained a sight of the Kenia mountain, heard from the natives there that there was a salt lake to its northward, and he also heard that a river ran from Kenia towards the Nile. If his information was true on this latter point, then, without doubt, there must exist some connection between his river and the salt lake I have heard of, and this in all probability would also establish a connection between my salt lake and his salt lake which he heard was called Baringo. In no view that can be taken of it, however, does this unsettled matter touch the established fact that the head of the Nile is in three degrees south latitude, where, in the year 1858, I discovered the head of the Victoria Nyanza to be.

JAMES AUGUSTUS GRANT, associated with Captain Speke in African travel and discovery, is a native of Nairn, of which town his father was He was born in 1827, and in his eighteenth year entered the Indian army; served under Lord Gough; and did duty with the 78th Highlanders, under General Havelock, at the

minister.

relief of Lucknow in 1857. On this occasion he was wounded in the right hand. From April 1860 till June 1863 he was engaged in the African expedition. In the preface to his work, A Walk Across Africa, or Domestic Scenes from my Nile Journal, 1864, Captain Grant says:

My acquaintance with Captain Speke commenced as far back as 1847, when he was serving in India with his regiment. We were both Indian officers, of the same age, and equally fond of fieldsports, and our friendship continued unbroken. After his return from discovering the Victoria Nyanza, he was, as is well known, commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society to prosecute his discovery, and to ascertain, if possible, the truth of his conjecture-that the Nile had its source in that gigantic lake, the Nyanza. I volunteered to accompany him; my offer was at once accepted; and it is now a melancholy satisfaction to think that not a shade of jealousy or distrust, or even ill-temper, ever came between us during our wanderings and intercourse.'

the fields, with hand-picks, loosening the soil, clearing it of weeds and worms. There is only one crop in the year, and all the cereals known in Zanzibar are grown here. Cotton was considered by an Indian resident to be as fine as that grown in Kutch, but he said they had no use for it, merely burning it as wicks. As the previous year's corn had been consumed, the poorer classes gathered the heads of a wild grass (Dactylosum Egyptia cum), and prepared it for stirabout by sun-drying, beating on the rocks, and rubbing it into flour on their flagstones. They also fed upon mushrooms, growing amongst the rank 'dub' grass, after drying, roasting, and peeling them. They were five inches in diameter, and sienna-coloured. Another variety was white, and half the size. All the cattle and goats in the country seemed to have found their way into the folds of the Arabs, and had been captured in a war still going on between them and the native population. The surrounding country is devoid of game, but within a long day's march a forest was visited, where various antelopes, giraffes, lions, and a few elephants might be met with along the valley of the Wallah River. The scales of an armadillo were seen worn as a charm, three inches across, and striated or lined at one end. Our men had a superstiCaptain, now Colonel Grant, was made a C.B. tion that the person who found an armadillo alive would in 1866; and in 1868, when the Abyssinian expedi- become a king-meaning, I imagine, that it was so rare. tion was organised, he was appointed head of the However, we came upon a pet one at three degrees north Intelligence Department, and for his services in latitude. About the cultivations near the village no Abyssinia was nominated a Companion of the singing-birds are ever heard, but the plumage of those Order of the Star of India. His volume of travels seen is often very brilliant. Flocks of beautiful little is a pleasing and interesting narrative. Its title birds, with black bodies, golden-tinted scarlet heads and is thus explained: 'Last season Sir Roderick backs, pecked at the ears of corn; or in the rice fields the favourite of the Cape farmers, the locust-bird, Murchison did me the honour to introduce me to black, and looking like a curlew when walking, went Her Majesty's First Minister, Viscount Palmer- tamely about. Crows, with a ring of white about the ston, and on that occasion his Lordship good-neck, were seen in twos and threes. The matting in humouredly remarked, 'You have had a long walk, Captain Grant!' The saying was one well fitted to be remembered and to be told again; and my friendly publishers and others recommended that it should form the leading title of my book.' We subjoin one extract:

Life in Unyanyembe.*

This province of Unyanyembe has nearly four months of rain, commencing in the end of November, and winding up with the greatest fall in February. As soon as the soil of sand, or black spongy mould, has softened, the seed is dropped, and by the 1st of February all is as green as an emerald. The young rice has to struggle for fifteen days against the depredations of a small black caterpillar, green underneath. It is a precarious time for the agriculturist; for, if rain does not fall, the crop is lost, being eaten close by this insect. Women walk in

* The following notice of African localities (from an article in the Times) will assist the reader: The Island of Zanzibar is cut by the sixth parallel of south latitude, and from Bagamoyo, on the mainland, starts a well-known caravan route, which leads in the first place to Unyanyembe, a central trading station and settlement of the Arab ivory and slave merchants, lying in five degrees south latitude, and three hundred and sixty miles west of Bagamoyo in a direct line. The next and farthest depot of the Arab merchants is Ujiji, one hundred and eighty miles due west of Unyanyembe, on the shores of the great lake of Tanganyika. When the native tribes and their petty sultans are not at war between themselves or with the Arabs, the road to Ujiji from Unyanyembe is pretty straight and safe for a well-organised caravan. The district between Tanganyika and the coast is well travelled by caravans; the tribute system with the different tribes is almost as organised as a customs tariff, and the drunken village chiefs and sultans, who depend upon traders for all their finery, are quite wise enough to know that if they rob and murder one caravan, another is not likely to come their way. Neither do the Arabs dare to kidnap along the route. Their slave-hunting grounds are in the distant interior, and it is quite an error to suppose that the country is desolated and uninhabited for several hundred miles from the coast inwards. A great part of the way from Bagamoyo to Ujiji, it is populous and prosperous, the natives are well armed with flint guns as far and farther than Unyanyembe, and it is to the interest of both the tribes and the traders to keep the peace.'

the house was full of bugs, or ticks, which pestered one while seated at night, causing considerable irritation.

It is not a country for ivory, the natives seldom, if ever, bringing any for sale. Grain was so scarce that slaves could be purchased for two fathoms of calico. One day a naked native passed us in charge of three Seedees (negros) armed with spears. They had found him stealing, and offered him for sale. No one would purchase him, and he was taken to the sultan, who would, as Moosah said, either spear him, keep him as a slave, or allow him to be sold. Slaves from the northern kingdom of Uganda, &c., were considered the most valuable. the coast, made excellent servants, and were famous at They were held to be more trustworthy than men from killing or capturing wild animals. The most esteemed women were of the Wahumah tribe from Karague; they resembled the Abyssinians.

Moosah, an Indian in whose house we resided, was a Let me give the reader some idea of our life here. fine benevolent old man, with an establishment of three

hundred native men and women around him.

His

abode had, three years ago, taken two months to build,
and it was surrounded by a circular wall which inclosed
his houses, fruit and vegetable gardens, and his stock
of cattle. The lady who presided over the whole was
of most portly dimensions, and her word was law.
Moosah sat from morn till night with his 'fondee' or
chief manager, and other head servants within sight,
receiving salutes and compliments from the rich and
poor at the front or gentlemen's side of the house, while
the lady presided over the domestic arrangements of the
interior. We had full access to both, and no house
could be conducted with greater regularity. At three
o'clock in the morning, Moosah, who had led a hard
life in his day, would call out for his little pill of opium,
which he had never missed for forty years. This would
He would then transact
brighten him up till noon.
business, chat, and give you the gossip at any hour you
might sit by him on his carpet. To us it seemed strange
that he never stopped talking when prayers from the
Koran were being read to him by a Bookeen,' or

scene.

Madagascar man. Perhaps he had little respect for the officiating priest, as the same reverend and learned gentleman was accustomed to make him his shirts! After a midday sleep, he would refresh himself with a second but larger pill, transact business, and so end the day. The harem department presented a more domestic At dawn, women in robes of coloured chintz, their hair neatly plaited, gave fresh milk to the swarm of black cats, or churned butter in gourds by rocking it to and fro on their laps. By seven o'clock the whole place was swept clean. Some of the household fed the game-fowls, or looked after the ducks and pigeons; two women chained by the neck fetched firewood, or ground corn at a stone; children would eat together without dispute, because a matron presided over them; all were quiet, industrious beings, never idle, and as happy as the day was long. When any of Moosah's wives gave birth to a child, there was universal rejoicing, and when one died, the shrill laments of the women were heard all night long. When a child misbehaved, we white men were pointed at to frighten it, as nurses at home too often do with ghost stories.

The most important functionary about this court was the head keeper or 'fondee,' who had been a slave all his life, and now possessed a village with a farm and cattle. His daily duty was to sit within sight of his master. On Speke calling to see his collection of horns and extract a bullet from the leg of one of his slaves, the fondee made us heartily welcome. Stools were placed, and he produced some ripe plantain, and shewed us about his premises. He also took us to one of his favourite shooting-grounds, where he certainly knew how to make himself comfortable.

SIR SAMUEL BAKER.

In 1854 and 1855 appeared The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon, and Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon. These works evinced a love of travel and adventure, an intelligence and power of description, that marked the writer as one eminently fitted for the exploration of Eastern countries. Their author was an English engineer, SAMUEL WHITE BAKER, born at Thorngrove in Worcestershire, in 1821. About the year 1847 he had gone to Ceylon, and was popularly known as the elephant hunter. His residence was fitted up with great taste and neatness, as both Mr Baker and his wife had a fine taste for art. Mrs Baker died, but in 1860 he married again, the lady being a young Hungarian, Florence von Saas, who shared in her husband's love of wild nature, and who accompanied him on a journey of exploration to the Upper Nile. In 1861 they sailed up the Nile from Cairo. They reached Khartoum in June 1862, compared the Blue Nile with the White Nile at or near the point of junction, and proceeded up the latter to Gondokoro. Baker had a good escort-ninety persons, twenty-nine camels and asses, and three boats. Gondokoro is a mission station and place of trade, and can be reached from Cairo in a sailing-boat, with a north wind, in about three months. At Gondokoro, Baker met Captains Speke and Grant, who had just arrived from their expedition to the south, and he led the way-worn travellers to his diabeah, or Nile pleasure-boat, where they found the comforts of civilised life, so long denied them. These southern explorers told Baker of their discovery of the Lake Victoria Nyanza, and of another great lake which the natives had described to them, but which they had been unable to visit. Baker at once undertook to trace this unknown water, which he conceived must have an important posi

tion in the basin of the Nile. He set off on the journey, and arrived in the Latooka country, 110 miles east of Gondokoro, in March 1863. After innumerable difficulties and hardships, the traveller and his heroic wife succeeded, in March 1864, in obtaining from the top of a range of lofty cliffs a view of the mysterious lake.

First Sight of the Albert Nyanza.

The glory of our prize suddenly burst upon me! There, like a sea of quicksilver, lay far beneath the grand expanse of water-a boundless sea horizon on the south and south-west, glittering in the noonday sun; and on the west, at fifty or sixty miles' distance, blue mountains rose from the bosom of the lake to a height of about seven thousand feet above its level.

It is impossible to describe the triumph of that moment; here was the reward for all our labour-for the years of tenacity with which we had toiled through Africa. England had won the sources of the Nile! . . . . I sincerely thanked God for having guided and supported us through all dangers to the good end. I was about one thousand five hundred feet above the lake, and I 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 blessings to millions of human beings; and as one of the greatest objects in nature, I determined to honour it with a great name. As an imperishable memorial of one loved and mourned by our gracious Queen, and deplored by every Englishman, I called the great lake 'the Albert Nyanza.' The Victoria and the Albert lakes are the two sources of the Nile.

After a toilsome

The zigzag path to descend to the lake was so steep and dangerous, that we were forced to leave our oxen with a guide, who was to take them to Magungo and wait for our arrival. We commenced the descent of the steep pass on foot. I led the way, grasping a stout bamboo. My wife, in extreme weakness, tottered down the pass, supporting herself upon my shoulder, and descent of about two hours, weak with years of fever, stopping to rest every twenty paces. but for the moment strengthened by success, we gained the level plain below the cliff. A walk of about a mile through flat sandy meadows of fine turf, interspersed with trees and bush, brought us to the water's edge. The waves were rolling upon a white pebbly beach: I rushed into the lake, and thirsty with heat and fatigue, with a heart full of gratitude, I drank deeply from the sources of the Nile. Within a quarter of a mile of the lake was a fishing village named Vacovia, in which we

now established ourselves.

The beach was perfectly clean sand, upon which the waves rolled like those of the sea, throwing up weeds precisely as sea-weed may be seen upon the English shore. It was a grand sight to look upon this vast reservoir of the mighty Nile, and to watch the heavy swell tumbling upon the beach, while far to the south-west the eye searched as vainly for a bound as though upon the Atlantic. It was with extreme emotion that I enjoyed this glorious scene. My wife, who had followed me so devotedly, stood by my side pale and exhausted-a wreck upon the shores of the great Albert Lake that we had so long striven to reach. No European foot had ever trod upon its sand, nor had the eyes of a white man scanned its vast expanse of water. We were the first; and this was the key to the great secret that even the great basin of the Nile that received every drop of Julius Cæsar yearned to unravel, but in vain. Here was water, even from the passing shower to the roaring mountain torrent that drained from Central Africa towards the north. This was the great reservoir of the Nile! .

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