CHAPTER XIV 



GEOGRAPHY AND EAST AFRICA 



Burton and Speke Speke and Grant Death of Speke 

 Livingstone and Stanley Geographical incidents 



THE travels of the successive explorers of Eastern 

 Africa who started from the Zanzibar Coast 

 were watched by geographers with the keenest interest. 

 I was in one way or another somewhat closely con- 

 nected with the principal actors, and may therefore 

 speak about them with propriety. The information 

 that first drew general attention to this part of Africa 

 was the startling announcement that a snow-topped 

 mountain, Kilimandjaro, had been seen from a distance 

 by the missionaries Krapf and Rebmann on their 

 journeys from Mombas, where they were stationed. 

 Their information was fiercely criticised. It was 

 disbelieved wholly by some, and only partially 

 credited by many others. In addition to this, the 

 missionaries had transmitted reports of a vast Central 

 African lake, based on the collated testimonies of 

 many native travellers. Mr. Erhardt communicated a 

 memoir on this lake to the Royal Geographical Society, 

 and I, who had most to do with their then newly 

 established Proceedings, had it with its accompanying 

 map inserted in one of its early numbers. The map was 



an amazing production and very hypothetical, but the 



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