EXPEDITION TO VICTORIA NYANZA
While Livingstone was discovering Lake Nyassa, Speke was busy
preparing for a new expedition to find out more about the great sheet
of water he had named Victoria Nyanza and to solve the vexed question:
Was this the source of the Nile?
In April 1860, accompanied by Captain Grant, an old friend and brother
sportsman, he left England, and by way of the Cape reached Zanzibar
some five months later. The two explorers started for their great
inland journey early in October, with some hundred followers, bound
for the great lake. But it was January 1861 before they had covered
the five hundred miles between the coast and Kaze, the old
halting-station of Burton and Speke. Through the agricultural plains
known as Uzarana, the country of Rana, where many negro porters
deserted, because they believed the white men were cannibals and
intended to eat them when safe away from the haunts of men; through
Usagara, the country of Gara, where Captain Grant was seized with
fever; through Ugogo's great wilderness, where buffalo and rhinoceros
abounded, where the country was flooded with tropical rains, on to
the land of the Moon, three thousand feet above sea-level, till the
slowly moving caravan reached Kaze. Here terrible accounts of famine
and war reached them, and, instead of following Speke's route of 1858,
they turned north-west and entered the Uzinza country, governed by
two chieftains of Abyssinian descent. Here Speke was taken desperately
ill. His cough gave him no rest day or night; his legs were "reduced
to the appearance of pipe-sticks." But, emaciated as he was, he made
his way onwards, till the explorers were rewarded by finding a
"beautiful sheet of water lying snugly within the folds of the hills,"
which they named the Little Windermere, because they thought it was
so like "our own English lake of that name. To do royal honours to
the king of this charming land, I ordered my men," says Speke, "to
put down their loads and fire a volley."
The king, whom they next visited, was a fine-looking man, who, with
his brother, sat cross-legged on the ground, with huge pipes of black
clay by their sides, while behind them, "squatting quiet as mice,"
were the king's sons, six or seven lads, with little dream-charms under
their chins! The king shook hands in true English fashion and was full
of inquiries. Speke described the world, the proportions of land and
water, and the large ships on the sea, and begged to be allowed to
pass through his kingdom to Uganda. The explorers learnt much about
the surrounding country, and spent Christmas Day with a good feast
of roast beef. The start for Uganda was delayed by the serious illness
of Grant, until at last Speke reluctantly decided to leave him with
the friendly king, while he made his way alone to Uganda and the Lake
Victoria Nyanza. It was the end of January 1861 when the English
explorer entered the unknown kingdom of Uganda. Messengers from the
king, M'tesa, came to him. "Now," they said, "you have really entered
the kingdom of Uganda, for the future you must buy no more food. At
every place that you stop for the day, the officer in charge will bring
you plantains."
[Illustration: M'TESA, KING OF UGANDA. From Speke's _Journey to
Discover the Source of the Nile_.]
The king's palace was ten days' march; the way lay along the western
coast of the Lake Victoria Nyanza, the roads were "as broad as our
coach roads cut through the long grass straight over the hills and
down through the woods. The temperature was perfect. The whole land
was a picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless sea in the
background."
On 13th February, Speke found a large volume of water going to the
north. "I took off my clothes," he says, "and jumped into the stream,
which I found was twelve yards broad and deeper than my height. I was
delighted beyond measure, for I had, to all appearance, found one of
the branches of the Nile's exit from the Nyanza."
But he had not reached the Nile yet. It was not till the end of July
that he reached his goal.
"Here at last," he says, "I stood on the brink of the Nile, most
beautiful was the scene, nothing could surpass it--a magnificent
stream from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets
and rocks, the former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by
crocodiles basking in the sun. I told my men they ought to bathe in
the holy river, the cradle of Moses."
Marching onwards, they found the waterfall, which Speke named the
Ripon Falls, "by far the most interesting sight I had seen in Africa."
The arm of the water from which the Nile issued he named "Napoleon
Channel," out of respect to the French Geographical Society for the
honour they had done him just before leaving England in presenting
their gold medal for the discovery of Victoria Nyanza.
[Illustration: THE RIPON FALLS ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA. From Speke's
_Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_.]
The English explorers had now spent six months in Uganda. The
civilisation in this country of M'tesa's has passed into history.
Every one was clothed, and even little boys held their skin-cloaks
tightly round them lest their bare legs might by accident be seen!
Everything was clean and orderly under the all-powerful ruler M'tesa.
Grant, who arrived in the end of May, carried in a litter, found Speke
had not yet obtained leave from the king to "open the country to the
north, that an uninterrupted line of commerce might exist between
England and Uganda by means of the Nile." But at last on 3rd July he
writes with joy: "The moment of triumph has come at last and suddenly
the road is granted."
The explorers bid farewell to M'tesa. "We rose with an English bow,
placing the hand on the heart, whilst saying adieu; and whatever we
did M'tesa in an instant mimicked with the instinct of a monkey."
In five boats of five planks each tied together and caulked with rags,
Speke started with a small escort and crew to reach the palace of the
neighbouring king, Kamrasi, "father of all the kings," in the province
of Unyoro. After some fierce opposition they entered the palace of
the king, a poor creature. Rumours had reached him that these two white
men were cannibals and sorcerers. His palace was indeed a contrast
to that of M'tesa. It was merely a dirty hut approached by a lane
ankle-deep in mud and cow-manure. The king's sisters were not allowed
to marry; their only occupation was to drink milk from morning to night,
with the result that they grew so fat it took eight men to lift one
of them, when walking became impossible. Superstition was rife, and
the explorers were not sorry to leave Unyoro _en route_ for Cairo.
Speke and Grant now believed that, except for a few cataracts, the
waterway to England was unbroken. The Karuma Falls broke the monotony
of the way, and here the party halted a while before plunging into
the Kidi wilderness across which they intended to march to save a great
bend of the river. Their path lay through swampy jungles and high grass,
while great grassy plains, where buffaloes were seen and the roar of
lions was heard, stretched away on every side.
[Illustration: CAPTAINS SPEKE AND GRANT.]
Suddenly they reached a huge rock covered with huts, in front of which
groups of black men were perched like monkeys, evidently awaiting the
arrival of the white men. They were painted in the most brilliant
colours, though without clothes, for the civilisation of Uganda had
been left far behind. Pushing on, they reached the Madi country, where
again civilisation awaited them in the shape of Turks. It was on 3rd
December that they saw to their great surprise three large red flags
carried in front of a military procession which marched out of camp
with drums and fifes playing.
"A very black man named Mohammed, in full Egyptian regimentals, with
a curved sword, ordered his regiment to halt, and threw himself into
my arms endeavouring to kiss me," says Speke. "Having reached his huts,
he gave us two beds to sit upon, and ordered his wives to advance on
their knees and give us coffee."
"I have directions to take you to Gondokoro as soon as you come," said
Mohammed.
Yet they were detained till 11th January, when in sheer desperation
they started off, and in two days reached the Nile. Having no boats,
they continued their march overland till 15th February, when the masts
of Nile boats came in sight, and soon after the two explorers walked
into Gondokoro. Then a strange thing happened. "We saw hurrying on
towards us the form of an Englishman, and the next moment my old friend
Baker, famed for his sports in Ceylon, seized me by the hand. What
joy this was I can hardly tell. We could not talk fast enough, so
overwhelmed were we both to meet again. Of course we were his guests,
and soon learned everything that could be told. I now first heard of
the death of H.R.H. the Prince Consort. Baker said he had come up with
three vessels fully equipped with armed men, camels, horses, donkeys,
and everything necessary for a long journey, expressly to look after
us. Three Dutch ladies also, with a view to assist us (God bless them!),
had come here in a steamer, but were driven back to Khartum by sickness.
Nobody had dreamt for a moment it was possible we could come through."
Leaving Baker to continue his way to central Africa, Speke and Grant
made their way home to England, where they arrived in safety after
an absence of three years and fifty-one days, with their great news
of the discovery of Uganda and their further exploration of Victoria
Nyanza. When Speke reached Alexandria he had telegraphed home: "The
Nile is settled." But he was wrong. The Nile was not settled, and many
an expedition was yet to make its way to the great lakes before the
problem was to be solved.