SPEKE AND THE NILE QUEST
John Hanning Speke was born on May 27, 1827, at Orleigh Court,
Bideford, North Devon. His father’s family had its seat in
Somersetshire, near the pretty old town of Ilminster, and was of
ancient descent. The name was spelled L’Espec in Norman times, and
apparently meant a spike or porcupine quill (the family crest was a
porcupine).[53] Speke’s mother was a Miss Hanning of Dillington Park,
also in Somerset. He was one of four sons, and had several sisters. As
his father (Mr. William Speke), after he came into the family place
of Jordans near Ilminster, had two church livings to dispose of, he
was desirous that two at least of his sons might be brought up to
the Church. John Hanning and Edward Speke (who was killed at Delhi)
declined such a career, however, and wished to go into the army. Speke
was a restless boy, who detested school, declaring that a sedentary
life made him ill. Whenever he could escape from his masters, he was
always out in the woods and on the heaths, displaying a great devotion
to natural history and sport.
When only seventeen his mother, who was acquainted with the Duke of
Wellington, obtained for her two sons, John and Edward, commissions
in the Indian army. The Duke asked to see the boys, and congratulated
their mother on two such fine young fellows coming forward for service
in India. Edward Speke, as already mentioned, was killed during the
Indian mutiny at the siege of Delhi. John Hanning Speke himself,
between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two, had seen a good deal of
military service in India, and took part in the last Sikh war, having
been at the battles of Ramnagar, Sedulapur, Chilianwala, and Guzerat.
In 1849 he first entertained the idea of exploring equatorial Africa.
Prior to this date he had shot a great deal in India, and subsequently
explored southwestern Tibet. His first interest in Africa lay in
the possibility of amassing magnificent zoölogical collections to
illustrate the fauna of that wide stretch of country which lay between
South Africa and Abyssinia. He wished to supplement the researches of
Rüppell on the northeast and of Harris, Gordon Cumming, and others in
the far south. Even at that date Speke desired to land at some point on
the East African coast, and strike across to the Nile, descending the
Nile to Egypt with his zoölogical collections.
[Illustration: JOHN HANNING SPEKE.
At the age of 17, on first receiving his commission in the Indian Army.]
He obtained furlough in the autumn of 1854, and proceeded to Aden
with the intention of landing on the opposite coast of Somaliland.
Arrived at Aden, his plans met with stubborn opposition from Colonel
Sir James Outram, the Resident, who not only opposed Speke’s journeys,
but even those which were officially ordered by the Bombay government
to be conducted by Richard Burton. But the Bombay government, in regard
to the latter plan, insisted on Sir James Outram withdrawing his
opposition. Sir James Outram then attached Speke to this expedition,
knowing him to be a good surveyor. Speke had in fact mapped a good deal
of southwestern Tibet, and was thoroughly at home with the sextant. The
results of this venture have been described in the preceding chapter.
The Somali expedition led to Speke’s accompanying Burton in 1857.
Speke returned to England alone on the 8th of May, 1859. The day after
his arrival Sir Roderick Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical
Society, decided that Speke was to be sent back as soon as possible to
substantiate his discovery of the Victoria Nyanza, and to ascertain its
connection with the Nile system. But although funds were soon secured
by public subscription, it was deemed advisable by Speke that the new
expedition should not start for nearly a year. Captain James Augustus
Grant, who had shot with Speke in India, begged leave to accompany him
as his lieutenant.
[Illustration: BURTON’S IDEA OF THE NILE SOURCES, DEC. 1864.]
Burton returned to England in 1859, somewhat chagrined to hear of
the enthusiasm with which Speke’s discovery of the Victoria Nyanza
had been received,--an enthusiasm which to some extent had put the
revelation of Lake Tanganyika in the shade. Burton nevertheless was
awarded, in 1860, the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society,
and in returning thanks for this honour, he uttered a handsome
acknowledgment of Speke’s services as surveyor on this expedition
to the great lakes. But the two men were evidently on bad terms,
and though the fault of their disaccord may have lain with Burton’s
conduct, the world knew of it first through the writings of Speke in
“Blackwood’s Magazine,” and later (in 1864) in the republication of
these Blackwood articles with additions under the title of “What Led to
the Discovery of the Source of the Nile.” In these works Speke makes
certain stinging references to Burton. So far as an impartial verdict
can be arrived at, Speke in all probability spoke the truth; but he
was perhaps unduly hard on his companion, for whom he had evidently a
great personal dislike and some degree of contempt. In some respects
Speke’s own education had been defective (at least, we are told that he
was so much of a truant as to receive but little schooling before going
to India). He may, therefore, have been unable to appreciate to the
full Burton’s undoubted talents. Yet again, in reading Speke’s books
it would occur to no one to say that he was deficient in education.
He had become an admirable geographer, a keen naturalist; and whether
his writing was or was not without grace of style, it was certainly
pithy and to the point. His great book, the “Discovery of the Source
of the Nile,” is good reading all through, and strikes one who, like
the present writer, has been over much of the same ground, as being
singularly truthful. It is as good a book as any that Burton himself
ever wrote on Africa, not excepting even the excellent “Lake Regions.”
Speke was a fine figure of a man,--tall and handsome in an English
style, with blue eyes and a brown beard. There is no doubt that he
impressed the natives favourably wherever he went as being a man and
a gentleman. Yet there was a little hardness in his disposition,
something pitiless in his criticisms of Burton. Burton’s own attacks on
Speke scarcely appeared in a public form until four years after Speke
had returned to Africa. They were angry, and somewhat clumsy, but not
so incisive as Speke’s criticisms of Burton. Burton’s chief revenge lay
in endeavouring for many years to prove that Speke had made no very
great discovery; that his Victoria Nyanza was not the greatest lake in
Africa and the main source of the Nile, but a network of swamps and
lakelets. Burton hailed with delight Sir Samuel Baker’s description
of the Albert Nyanza as being the ultimate origin of the White Nile.
To meet this view he, against his own convictions, tried to make the
Rusizi River flow out of the north end of Tanganyika instead of flowing
into that lake, in the hope that Tanganyika was thus connected with
Lake Albert,--a fact which, if proved, would dwarf the discovery of
the Victoria Nyanza into insignificance. To this end he published a
map, and endeavoured to persuade every geographer who would listen
to him that the Victoria Nyanza was more than half a myth, and that
its contribution to the Nile waters was insignificant compared to the
supply received from the western chain of lakes.
Speke’s character was that of many an officer in the British army.
Though his family claimed Norman descent, his physique was emphatically
Anglo-Saxon. Born almost without fear, he had perhaps too ready a
contempt for others of weaker nerve who could better weigh the chances
of danger and the counsels of prudence. Speke was a splendid shot,
and accurate in those astronomical observations necessary to the
determination of geographical positions. He had a good knowledge of
Hindustani,[54] but not that great readiness in picking up languages
which was Burton’s forte. Yet he was perfectly honest about this, as
about every talent which he possessed or lacked. On the other hand, his
great dislike of Burton sometimes made him unjust in denying to his
companion the qualities of mind he really possessed. Burton’s _résumé_
of ethnological information concerning the East African tribes from the
Zanzibar coast to Uganda and the shores of Tanganyika is masterly, and
due to the most careful note-taking. It may not, perhaps, be out of
place if I quote a few lines from a letter written by Sir Samuel Baker
to a correspondent:[55]--
“Speke comes first as a geographer and African explorer. He was
superior to Burton as a painstaking, determined traveller, who
worked out his object for the real love of geographical research,
without the slightest jealousy of others.... But Burton excelled
Speke in cleverness and general information, though he was not so
reliable. Speke was a splendid fellow in every way.... Grant (his
companion) was one of the most loyal and charming creatures in the
world. Perfectly unselfish, he adored Speke, and throughout his
life he maintained an attitude of chivalrous defence of Speke’s
reputation.... They were all friends of mine.”
There is little doubt that Burton, who had displayed such cool
courage on his journey to Mecca, had received a shock over the Somali
attack on his camp in 1854, from which he never wholly recovered. His
proceedings in connection with the Tanganyika journey were marked by
something approaching timidity. It is probable that had Speke been in
command of this expedition much more would have been done than was
actually accomplished. Feeling this very strongly, and realising that
he had contributed a good deal of his private funds to the resources
of this and the preceding Somali expedition, Speke considered himself
quite justified in hurrying home with the news of the expedition’s
discoveries, the more so because Burton had snubbed him for his pains
in connection with the Victoria Nyanza. I do not think it can be said
that he ever treated Burton unfairly, but there was perhaps in his
behaviour a touch of hardness and a lack of generosity. He heartily
disliked Burton, and that was the reason.
[Illustration: JAMES AUGUSTUS GRANT.]
In James Augustus Grant (as is indicated by the quotation from Sir
Samuel Baker’s letter) Speke had found a companion after his own heart.
Grant was a handsome Scotchman of the “Iberian” type,--black hair,
dark eyes, dark eyebrows, clear complexion. In later life the hair and
the beard turned white, but the face remained singularly youthful. Of
Grant Sir Samuel Baker writes: “He was the most unselfish man I ever
met; amiable and gentle to a degree that might to a stranger denote
weakness, but, on the contrary, no man could be more determined in
character or unrelenting when once he was offended.” Grant, like
Speke, was a sportsman; he was also--in a somewhat uninstructed way--a
zoölogist and a botanist. The botany of Africa, in fact, was his
principal hobby. He painted cleverly in water-colours, and did more
than anybody else, down to a quite recent date, to put before our
eyes some idea of the beautiful coloration of African wild flowers.
He published at his own expense, through the Linnæan Society, three
volumes illustrating the more notable features of his botanical
collections. Although most of these flowers were drawn for him by
scientific draughtsmen, his own sketches supplied the means for an
accurate coloration which could no longer be ascertained from the dried
specimens. In this particular Grant has made an important contribution
to African research.
Before leaving England Speke made arrangements, through the British
consul at Zanzibar, to send on an instalment of porters and property
to Unyamwezi, intending to follow his old route to the Victoria
Nyanza. The Indian government, which has often done so much to assist
the opening up or the settlement of eastern Africa, gave to Speke’s
expedition fifty carbines and twenty thousand rounds of ammunition, and
lent him as many surveying instruments as were required. The government
of India also put at his disposal rich presents (gold watches) for such
Arabs as had assisted him on the former expedition.
Petherick, whose explorations have been treated of in the previous
chapter, had recently arrived in England from the Upper Nile, and had
been promoted to be British Consul. Speke, before he left England,
made arrangements with Petherick to place boats at his disposal at
Gondokoro, and to send a party of men in the same direction to collect
ivory and to wait about in the vicinity of Gondokoro in order to
assist him when he should reach that part of the Nile. Petherick was
also invited to ascend the Asua River (then thought to be a branch of
the Nile instead of an affluent) in case it should be another means
of communication with the Victoria Nyanza. Speke and Grant journeyed
out by way of the Cape, and at Cape Town stayed for a while with the
great Sir George Grey, who, taking the greatest interest in their
undertaking, induced the Cape government to grant the sum of three
hundred pounds to be spent in buying baggage mules. With these mules
were sent ten Hottentot mounted police. From Cape Town the expedition
was conveyed on a gunboat to Zanzibar. At the commencement of October,
1860, Speke’s expedition was organised, and he started for the
interior. His expedition consisted of one corporal and nine privates
of the Hottentot police; one jemadar and twenty-five privates of the
Baluch soldiery of the Sultan of Zanzibar; one Arab caravan leader
and seventy-five freed slaves; one kirongozi or guide and one hundred
negro porters; two black valets, who had both been man-of-war’s men and
could speak Hindustani; Frij, the black cook (also from a man-of-war),
and the invaluable “Bombay,” who was interpreter and factotum. (The
expedition took with it twelve transport mules and three donkeys, also
twenty-two goats for milk and meat. The Hottentots soon broke down in
health, and took to riding the donkeys, the mules being loaded with
ammunition.) The white men, as a rule, had to walk. The Hottentots
were sometimes useful as camp cooks, but they suffered so much from
fever as to become a burden to the expedition.
[Illustration: A MNYAMWEZI PORTER.]
“My first occupation [writes Speke][56] was to map the country.
This is done by timing the rate of march with a watch, making
compass bearings along the road, or any conspicuous marks,--as, for
instance, hills off it,--and by noting the watershed,--in short,
all topographical objects. On arrival in camp every day came the
ascertaining, by boiling-point thermometer, of the altitude of the
station above the sea-level; of the latitude of the station by
the meridian altitude of a star taken with a sextant; and of the
compass variation by azimuth. Occasionally there was the fixing
of certain crucial stations at intervals of sixty miles or so, by
lunar observations ... for determining the longitude, by which the
original-timed course can be drawn out with certainty on the map by
proportion.... The rest of my work, besides sketching and keeping a
diary, which was the most troublesome of all, consisted in making
geological and zoölogical collections. With Captain Grant rested
the botanical collections and thermometrical registers. He also
undertook the photography. The rest of our day went in breakfasting
after the march was over,--a pipe, to prepare us for rummaging
the fields and villages to discover their contents for scientific
purposes,--dinner close to sunset, and tea and a pipe before
turning in at night.”
Speke noticed in Uzegura deposits of pisolitic limestone in which
marine fossils are observable. He draws attention to the interesting
fact that a limestone formation occurs with a few breaks almost
continuously from the southwest coast of Portugal, through North
Africa, Egypt, and part of the Somali country, across Arabia to eastern
India.[57] In connection with this it may be mentioned as a point of
great interest that Mr. C. W. Hobley (Sub-Commissioner in the East
Africa Protectorate) discovered deposits of limestone in the Nyando
valley, about forty miles from the northeast corner of the Victoria
Nyanza.
Speke’s expedition travelled on with little trouble as far as Usagara.
The complete harmony which existed at all times between Speke and Grant
contributed much to the smoothness of the arrangements. At Usagara,
however, they had trouble with one of their caravan leaders (Baraka).
The Hottentots became increasingly sick and helpless, and Captain Grant
was seriously ill with fever. However, they pushed on to that East
Coast range of terraced mountains which is nowadays dotted with not a
few mission and government stations. There is charming and fantastic
scenery in these mountains, which rise in parts to an altitude of seven
thousand feet. From Usagara were sent back some of the Hottentots, a
collection of natural history specimens, and the camera. Speke had
greatly desired to illustrate the scenery of equatorial Africa by means
of photography,--a most serious undertaking in the sixties. Grant
worked the apparatus, but was rendered so ill by the heat of the dark
tent that Speke decided to abandon photography and to rely instead on
his companion’s drawings.
Ugogo, which is a rolling plateau to the west of the Usagara range,
gave the travellers some trouble. Here, as elsewhere, there was famine,
owing to the scarcity of water and the incessant raids on the part
of the Masai from the north or the Wahehe from the south. The Wagogo
themselves are a truculent people, who have given serious annoyance to
caravans during the last hundred years. They speak a Bantu language,
but have very much more the physical aspect of the Nilotic tribes to
the north, being, like them, very much addicted to nudity.[58] On the
plains of Ugogo Grant killed the largest and handsomest of all the
gazelles, which had henceforth borne his name.[59]
In Ugogo Speke also records the existence of that strange archaic type
of dog, the _Otocyon_, a specimen of which he killed. On the western
frontier of Ugogo the expedition was menaced with serious trouble. The
rapacious native chief made increasing demands on them for taxes. A
number of their porters deserted, and their Wanyamwezi carriers who
had agreed to replace the missing men were scared away by the threats
of the Wagogo. In addition, the rainy season had come on, and was
unusually heavy, flooding the country in all directions. The expedition
would have come to grief but for the game shot by its leaders, which
kept the men from starvation. It was only got out of its difficulties
at last by the friendly help of the Arabs of Unyamwezi, who sent
seventy porters to the relief of the explorers. When Speke reached the
borders of Unyamwezi and took stock of his position, he found that
six of his Hottentots were dead or had been sent back to the coast
in charge of several free porters, that twenty-five of the Sultan of
Zanzibar’s slaves and ninety-eight of the original Wanyamwezi porters
had deserted, all the mules and donkeys were dead, and half of his
property had been stolen.
Unyamwezi, “the Land of the Moon,” is a remarkable part of eastern
Africa. Practically it consists of nearly all the land lying between
the Victoria Nyanza on the north and the vicinity of Lake Rukwa on
the south. It is longer (from north to south) than it is broad. Prior
to the German occupation it had ceased to be a single kingdom, and
was divided into a number of small and mutually hostile states only
united by the common bond of the Kinyamwezi language. This varies a
good deal in dialect, though it has distinctive features of its own.
In Usukuma to the north it offers more resemblance to the languages
of the Uganda Protectorate; on the south it links on in some way with
the languages of the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau. How the country became
associated with the moon is not known; for the most part of it is an
undulating plateau, with occasional rift valleys that contain salt or
fresh water pools. A great part of its drainage goes towards Tanganyika
or Lake Rukwa. The language of its people is typically Bantu, but
they would seem to be a very mixed race physically. Some of them have
the ugly features of the Congo Pygmies; others again are strikingly
like the Galas and the Bahima. The bulk of the nation consists of tall
and very muscular Negroes, with thoroughly Negro features. They are
celebrated as porters, being able to carry burdens twice as heavy as
could be offered to any other carriers. They have also a keen instinct
for trade, and it is supposed that, first of all Bantu nations of the
East African interior, they opened up communications with the coast.
There has been trade going on between the Zanzibar coast and Unyamwezi
for at least five centuries,--a trade, however, which has been subject
to prolonged interruptions. The Zanzibar Arabs did not settle in the
country until a hundred years ago.
Conversing with the Arabs of Unyamwezi, Speke again heard from them
of “a wonderful mountain to the northward of Karagwe[60] so high and
steep that no one could ascend it. It was seldom visible, being up in
the clouds, where white matter--snow or hail--fell on it.” The Arabs
also spoke of the other lake, which was salt and also called Nyanza,
but quite different from the Victoria.[61] From the Arabs Speke also
heard of the naked Nile Negroes to the north and east of Unyoro, and
of those of them (the Lango) who, like the Turkana farther east, wear
their hair in enormous bags down the back. They told him that Lake
Tanganyika was drained by the Marungu River.[62] Some of this knowledge
Speke perverted to fit in with erroneous and preconceived notions. At
this interval of time, however, one is surprised at the correctness
of geographical information given to Burton, Speke, and Baker by the
Arabs. One is still more surprised that the constant hints as to the
great snow-mountain range of Ruwenzori should have so often fallen on
deaf ears.
In Unyamwezi Speke’s further progress was much delayed, owing to the
difficulty in getting porters. The country to the east from which he
had come was convulsed with wars between the Arabs and the natives.
In these wars figured, as a bandit leader of handsome appearance and
remarkable adventures, the celebrated Manwa Sera, a dispossessed
Unyamwezi chief. In the course of these wars Speke’s principal friends
amongst the Arabs were killed or disappeared. Amongst them was the
celebrated Snay, the first Arab to enter Uganda, and in fact the
first non-Negro to convey the news of the existence of Uganda to the
civilised world. On the northwest trouble was threatened by the warlike
country of Usui, whose chief, Suwarora, blocked the way to Karagwe by
his extortions. To the west and north also the country was being raided
by the Watuta, a mysterious race of warlike nomads who were said to
be of Zulu origin, and were, according to all accounts, the furthest
extension of the great Zulu invasion of East Africa, which took place
in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Speke attempted to recruit porters in the northern parts of Unyamwezi,
but without success. He therefore returned to the headquarters of the
Arabs at Kaze, and from this point sent back the last of the Hottentots
to the coast. Speke, seeing that he could get no farther without
bringing some order into the country, negotiated a peace between Manwa
Sera and the Arabs. The peace with Manwa Sera broke down. Finally Speke
decided to leave Bombay and Grant behind in northern Unyamwezi with the
loads which it was impossible to transport. With such porters as he had
he pushed on to the northwest and entered Buzinza, the first country
ruled by Bahima chiefs.[63] Speke remarks rightly that specimens of
this Hamitic (Gala) aristocracy extend from the south shores of the
Victoria Nyanza southwards as far as the Fipa country and the edges of
the Nyasa-Tanganyika Plateau. On pages 128 to 134 of his book[64] Speke
gives an excellent description of the maddening extortions of a petty
African chief. This behaviour on the chief’s part should be borne in
mind when the armchair geographer is inclined to lay all the blame on
the European and Arab for commencing wars with Negro tribes.
From February to October Speke had the most trying experiences which
were to await him on this journey. He travelled backwards and forwards
from Kaze to Uzinza, endeavouring in all possible ways to get porters
to carry him to Usui. In these journeys he caught a severe cold, the
effects of which lasted for months in a most distressing cough, and
some disease of the chest which he could not diagnose. His caravans
were robbed, though the goods were sometimes recovered. Several of his
Swahili headmen turned traitors; Bombay alone was faithful. Grant, when
he had recovered from fever, marched and countermarched. But Speke
had fortunately managed months before to send on word of his coming
to Suwarora, Chief of Usui, who himself was a vassal of Rumanika, the
great Hima ruler of Karagwe. Suwarora sent an envoy with his mace to
invite Speke to proceed at once to his court. This intervention made a
good impression on the treacherous chief of Buzinza, Lumeresi. Much of
the stolen property was recovered, and the expedition obtaining a few
porters started for Usui in October, 1861.
Grant was left behind with such of the property as could not be
removed. Speke, when he left Buzinza, “was a most miserable spectre in
appearance, puffing and blowing at each step he took, with shoulders
drooping and left arm hanging like a dead log, which he was unable to
swing.” At last, after incredible worries and trouble, occasioned by
the demands for “hongo” (tribute) on the part of every petty chief
whose territories they crossed, they reached the large country of
Usui or Busui at the southwest corner of the Victoria Nyanza. Usui is
“a most convulsed looking country of well-rounded hills composed of
sandstone.... Cattle were numerous, kept by the Wahuma (Bahima), who
would not sell their milk to us because we ate fowls and a bean called
_maharagwe_.” In Usui the caravan was incessantly worried at night
by the attacks of thieves until one of these was killed, whereupon
the Basui congratulated the expedition, saying that the slain man was
a wonderful magician. “They thought us wonderful men, possessed of
supernatural powers.” Suwarora and his fellow-chief Vikora were most
exacting in their demands for hongo. At last, after heart-breaking
delays, they got away out of Suwarora’s country.
Between Usui and Karagwe was one of those no man’s lands, which at
times are such a relief to the harassed traveller,--a land in which
he can enjoy the beauty of the landscapes, the excitement of sport in
complete freedom from the harassing attentions of Negro tribes. In
this lovely wilderness they were greeted by officers sent to their
assistance by Rumanika, who said, “Rumanika has ordered us to bring
you to his palace at once, and wherever you stop a day, the village
officers are instructed to supply you with food at the King’s expense;
for there are no taxes gathered from strangers in the Kingdom of
Karagwe.” Speke noted the little lake of Urigi, and learned from the
natives that this was the remains of a much larger sheet of water. They
declared, in fact, that this lake had formerly extended far to the
southwards in the direction of Tanganyika, having been at one time a
considerable gulf of the Victoria Nyanza.
For the first time since leaving the coast they travelled day after day
through beautiful and attractive scenery, in which rhinoceroses, both
“white” and black, and herds of hartebeest mingled with the splendid
long-horned cattle of the natives. Speke and Grant shot several
square-lipped “white” rhinoceroses. (Stanley subsequently did the same
in this country of Karagwe. Though it has since been shot on the Upper
Nile, this creature is now becoming extinct in East Equatorial Africa.)
“Leaving the valley of Uthenja, we rose over the spur of Nyamwara, and
found we had attained the delightful altitude of five thousand feet.
Oh, how we enjoyed it!--every one feeling so happy at the prospect
of meeting the good king Rumanika. Rumanika the king and his brother
Nyanaji were both of them men of noble appearance and size.... They had
fine oval faces, large eyes, and high noses, denoting the best blood
of Abyssinia. Having shaken hands in true English style, which is the
peculiar custom of the men of this country, the ever-smiling Rumanika
begged us to be seated on the ground opposite to him, and at once
wished to know what we thought of Karagwe, for it had struck him his
mountains were the finest in the world; and the lake, too, did we not
admire it?”
[Illustration: A HIMA OF MPORORO, NEAR KARAGWE.]
Speke subsequently went to see the queens and princesses of this
royal family, who, by means of a milk diet, were kept immoderately fat.
Of one of them he writes: “She could not rise; and so large were her
arms that between the joints the flesh hung down like large, stuffed
puddings. Then in came their children, all models of the Abyssinian
type of beauty, and as polite in their manners as thoroughbred
gentlemen.”
Rumanika and his brothers received their presents with a graceful
gratitude which was striking after the ill manners of the Negro chiefs
in Unyamwezi and Usui. Rumanika begged Speke to remain a little while
in his country so that he might send on word of his coming to the
King of Uganda. Speke consented to do so, and when walking about
the vicinity of the king’s capital, descried the distant cone of
Mfumbiro. This he at once identified with the Mountains of the Moon
and with the story of the snow-capped peaks. It is curious, seeing how
friendly were all the Bahima, and what facilities were given to him for
travelling about the country of Karagwe, that he made no attempt to
enter Ruanda whilst waiting to go on to the north, and thus obtain a
nearer acquaintance with the Mountains of the Moon. Had he done so, he
might perchance have caught a glimpse of Ruwenzori. Grant’s drawing of
Mfumbiro and other volcanoes (since explored by many travellers) is a
truthful one.
In Rumanika’s country Speke discovered the water tragelaph which now
bears his name (_Limnotragus spekei_). This creature has the hoofs
very much prolonged, so as to enable it to walk on floating vegetation
and marshy ground. Speke at once discerned that this creature was
closely allied to the water tragelaph found by Livingstone on Lake
Ngami.
[Illustration: SPEKE’S TRAGELAPH (_Limnotragus spekei_).]
The existence of this Bahima[65] aristocracy in the countries west
and south of the Victoria Nyanza was not reported for the first time
in Speke’s account of his second journey to the Victoria Nyanza.
First of all, in the early fifties, the Zanzibar Arabs brought to the
coast--either at Mombasa or Zanzibar--accounts of a race of “white”
men who lived on the Mountains of the Moon. Burton, analysing these
stories at Kaze in Unyamwezi, reduced them to accounts of Bahima, who
were believed to have the features and complexion of Abyssinians.
Speke’s arrival in Buzinza and Karagwe made us partially acquainted
with the facts. We now know that at some relatively remote period not
less than two thousand years ago the lands between the Victoria and
Albert Nyanzas were invaded from the northeast by a Caucasian race
allied to the Gala and the Egyptian. These ancestors of the Bahima
mingled to some extent with the indigenous Negroes, and so somewhat
darkened the colour of their skins and acquired hair more like the
Negro’s wool. This pastoral people brought with them herds of cattle
from the direction of Abyssinia or Galaland,--cattle with enormous
horns, sometimes over three feet in length. This breed of cattle is
found at the present day in southern and western Abyssinia. It is also
depicted--with other breeds on the Egyptian monuments. It is supposed
to be allied in origin to the stock which gave rise to the ordinary
humped cattle of India,--the Zebu type. These oxen with enormous
horns--horns which are not only very long but sometimes very large
in girth--are found westwards as far as the vicinity of Lake Chad,
and in a more degenerate type farther west still, to the sources of
the Niger. It might be thought that they were also related to the
long-horned cattle of South Africa, but it is sometimes asserted that
the long-horned South African cattle owe their main origin to the
introduction of Spanish breeds by the Portuguese, the cattle met with
by the first Europeans in South Africa having belonged to the humped
zebu type.
The Bahima once founded an empire which stretched from the northern
limits of Unyoro and the Victoria Nile westward to the Congo Forest and
southward to the coast of Tanganyika. This ancient Empire of Kitara
split up into a number of states governed for the most part by Hima
dynasties, though in Uganda the native kings became more and more Negro
in aspect through their fathers’ intermarriage with Negro women. But
for the most part friendly relations subsisted between all the states
into which the Empire of Kitara was subdivided; it was only in more
recent times that the existing blood feud sprang up between Unyoro and
Uganda. The Bahima were reverenced and admired by the mass of the Negro
population as the descendants of supernatural beings who had brought
to these lands what little civilisation they possessed. Intermarriage
constantly took place between the dynasties of Buzinza, Usui, Karagwe,
Ruanda, Mpororo, Ankole, Unyoro, and Uganda. This and other causes for
intercommunication gave intelligent chiefs like Rumanika a considerable
grasp of African geography. These chiefs knew that their world was
bounded on the west by the impenetrable Congo Forest. They knew all
about Tanganyika, the Victoria Nyanza, the Masai countries, the course
of the Nile as far north as Gondokoro, and even the existence of Lake
Rudolf. Perhaps also they had a glimmering knowledge not only of
the “Turks” on the White Nile (which was the case), but also of the
existence of men like themselves in Galaland and Abyssinia. Speke and
subsequent travellers found these Hima sovereigns and their courts
very different to the petty Negro states of East Africa. Besides the
recognised king (a member of a long dynasty), there were regularly
established Court officials and functionaries, and an orderly system
of government. Travellers like Speke were not slow to appreciate the
influence which this Gala invasion of equatorial Africa had on the
Negro types. We now begin to feel that this Negrified Caucasian has
interpenetrated most parts of Negro Africa between the Cameroons and
Zanzibar, and between the northern limits of the Sudan and Natal.
In the western prolongation of Africa something like the same
infiltration of a superior race has been brought about by the Tawareqs
of the Sahara. This Libyan race is also of the Caucasian family, more
directly so indeed than the curly-haired Gala, who, mixing with the
Libyan, laid the foundation of Ancient Egyptian civilisation.