STANLEY DISCOVERS THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON AND LAKE ALBERT
EDWARD.--THE END OF EMIN
Two sets of circumstances now hindered further exploration of the Nile
basin,--the revolt of the Mahdi, with the disasters that followed at
Khartum; and the persecution of the Christians followed by civil war
in Uganda. Emin Pasha was left to govern Equatoria for four years, cut
off from all communication with Egypt. Dr. Junker, arriving with his
collections and journals in 1886, aroused a great wave of enthusiasm
in England and Germany. Stanley at once offered to lead a relief
expedition to the Equatorial provinces of the Nile. The great prestige
of this remarkable man made it impossible for any other candidate to
enter the field in England. Many, however, were in favour of entrusting
the expedition to Thomson, who believed in the practicability of
conducting it by a direct route from Mombasa to Mount Elgon, and so
across to the Nile. Whether he would have succeeded is a moot question,
owing to the fierceness of the Nile tribes between Elgon and Gondokoro,
and the jealousy and suspicion of Uganda and Unyoro; for the King
of Uganda, having had his fears aroused as to European aggression,
had already caused Bishop Hannington to be murdered for repeating
Thomson’s journey to Busoga.
Stanley was precluded from following the old Unyamwezi route, owing
to German jealousy. He decided, therefore, to strike at the Upper
Nile by way of the Congo, and so found himself struggling through the
dense forests of the Congo basin between the navigable waters of the
Aruwimi and the cliffs of Lake Albert. This wonderful journey, which
he took for the relief of Emin Pasha, resulted in the discovery of
the real Mountains of the Moon [Ruwenzori], the complete course of
the Semliki River, Lake Albert Edward, and the southwesternmost gulf
of the Victoria Nyanza. Stanley added a great deal to our knowledge
of the Congo Pygmies, who in this direction stray over into the Nile
watershed; but his grand discovery on this occasion was Ruwenzori. On
May 24, 1888, about five miles from Nsabe, on the grassy mountains to
the southwest of Lake Albert Nyanza,
“while looking to the southeast and meditating upon the events of
the last month, my eyes were directed by a boy to a mountain said
to be covered with salt, and I saw a peculiar shaped cloud of a
most beautiful silver colour, which assumed the proportions and
appearance of a vast mountain covered with snow. Following its form
downward, I became struck with the deep blue-black colour of its
base, and wondered if it portended another tornado; then as the
sight descended to the gap between the eastern and western plateaux
I became for the first time conscious that what I gazed upon was
not the image or semblance of a vast mountain, but the solid
substance of a real one, with its summit covered with snow....
It now dawned upon me that this must be the Ruwenzori, which was
said to be covered with a white metal or substance believed to be a
rock, as reported by Kavali’s two slaves.”
[Illustration:
_Photo by John Fergus._]
SIR HENRY STANLEY, G.C.B.]
This view was obtained from a distance of seventy miles,--about the
distance of the chief snows of Ruwenzori from the south end of Lake
Albert Nyanza. The constant haze rising from the Semliki valley no
doubt keeps this mountain usually invisible from the waters of the
lake. It is, therefore, not so surprising that it was not hitherto seen
by the explorers of the Albert Nyanza, as it is that Stanley himself
should have camped at the very base of this mountain for some days
in 1875, and have been ignorant of its true character as the highest
ground and the most completely snow-and-glacier-covered range in the
whole of Africa. The name that he has given to it unfortunately does
not completely correspond with the native pronunciation; it should be
Runsororo.
The discovery of this snowy range was soon followed by the realisation
of the Semliki River, another geographical name of Stanley’s giving
which it is most difficult to trace to any native source. (The Semliki,
in fact, is never called by any native tribe “Semliki.” It is known as
Dweru, Nyanja, Ituri, Isango, and other Bantu terms indicating _lake_
or _river_. When first discovered by Emin Pasha, a short time before
Stanley’s arrival, it was known as the Dweru.) This stream is really
the Albertine Nile. Its existence had been surmised by Sir Samuel
Baker without much foundation (then) for his theory. Emin Pasha first
noted it in 1884 as a feeder of Lake Albert. Stanley, in 1889, traced
the Semliki up its course to its point of exit from Lake Albert Edward,
which sheet of water he was the first European to discover. Albert
Edward is connected by a narrow, winding channel[106] on the northeast
with a somewhat extensive, shallow lake, usually known as “Dweru.”[107]
Dweru was discovered by Stanley in 1875, and named by him Beatrice
Gulf. Stanley now ascertained that the two lakes were connected. His
expedition crossed the Kafuru, as the connecting stream is called,
and entered the till then unvisited Hima kingdom of Ankole. Stanley’s
guess at the shape of the Albert Edward was incorrect, and it needed
subsequent expeditions to give us a truer idea of the form and area
of this sheet of water, the eastern shore of which still remains
unsurveyed.
[Illustration: SHORES OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA, NEAR EMIN PASHA GULF.]
Passing through Ankole, Stanley reached the southwestern extremity of
the Victoria Nyanza, which he named Emin Pasha Gulf. On his journeys of
circumnavigation in 1875, he had been deceived by a chain of islands
into an incorrect limitation of the area of the Victoria Nyanza in this
direction. He now realised that the lake extends much further to
the southwest than was previously thought by Speke and himself, and is
therefore not of the heart-shape assigned to it in the earliest maps;
it is, in fact, much longer from north to south than it is broad from
east to west.
The rest of Stanley’s great journey took him out of the Nile watershed.
But the discoveries which he made in the Albertine region of the Nile
basin whetted the curiosity of Emin Pasha, who longed to return to
these mysterious regions.
He did so in 1890, as a German official. Accompanied by Dr. Franz
Stuhlmann, a very able explorer, he directed his steps to these regions
of fascinating interest, the Snow-mountains, and the Great Forest. In
1891 Dr. Stuhlmann made an ascent of the Ruwenzori range on its western
aspect nearly to the snow-line. He revealed the existence of its
remarkable Alpine vegetation of giant groundsels and lobelias. He also
attempted to discriminate between the many different snow-peaks of this
lofty range, though with only partial success, his failure in arriving
at a complete result, like that of subsequent travellers, being due to
the constant presence of clouds. Emin and Stuhlmann together added a
good deal to our knowledge of the Semliki, and to the clearing up of
geographical points connected with the line of watershed between the
Nile and the Congo systems immediately west of Lake Albert. Emin Pasha
resolved to return by way of the Congo, and was therefore left to do
so by Stuhlmann, who returned to his duties in German East Africa.
Re-entering the great Congo forest, and following a northern affluent
of the Ituri-Aruwimi, Emin was captured by one of the slave-trading,
Arabised Manyema who had recently invaded this region to secure ivory
and slaves. As a German official, Emin (together with other Germans)
had confiscated property belonging to these Manyema, had released
slaves, and had severely punished slave-raiders. From motives of
revenge, therefore, he was sentenced to death by his captor, and his
throat was cut in his house one day in October, 1892.
[Illustration: DR. FRANZ STUHLMANN.
(Deputy Governor of German East Africa.)]