280 STANLEY AND THE MAP OF AFRICA. 



the outline of the Victoria Nyanza; he fouud it to be one of the great 

 lakes of the workl, 21,500 square miles iu extent, with au altitude of 

 over 4,000 feet and border soundings of from 330 to 580 feet. Into the 

 south shore of the lake a river tlowed, which he traced for some 300 

 miles, and which he set down as the most southerly feeder of tbe Nile. 

 With his stay at the court of the clever and cunning Mtesa of Uganda 

 we need not concern ourselves; it has had momentous results. West- 

 wards he came upon what he conceived to be a part of the Albert 

 Nyanza, which he named Beatrice Gulf, but of which more anon. 

 Coming southwards to Ujiji, Stanley filled in many features iu the 

 region he traversed, and saw at a distance a great mountain, which 

 he named Gordon Bennett, of which also more anon. A little lake to 

 the south he named the Alexandra Nyanza; thence he conjectured 

 issued the southwest source of the Nile, but on this point, within 

 the last few months, he has seen cause to change his mind. Lake 

 Tanganyika he circumnavigated, and gave greater accuracy to its out- 

 line; while through the Lukuga he found it sent its waters by the 

 Lualaba to the Atlantic. Crossing to Nyaugw6, where with longing- 

 eyes Livingstone beheld the mile-wide Lualaba flowing " north, north, 

 north," Stanley saw his opportunity, and embraced it. Tippu Tip 

 failed him then, as he did later ; but the mystery of that great river he 

 had made up his mind to solve, and solve it he did. The epic of that 

 first recorded journey of a white man down this majestic river, which 

 for ages had been sweei)ing its unknown way through the center of 

 Africa, he and his dusky companions running the gauntlet through a 

 thousand miles of hostile savages, is one of the most memorable things 

 in the literature of travel. Leaving Nyaugwe on Nov^emberS, 1876, iu 

 9 months he traced the many-islanded Congo to the Atlantic, and 

 placed on the map of Africa one of its most striking features; for the 

 Congo ranks among the greatest rivers of the world. From the remote 

 Chambeze, that enters Lake Bangweolo to the sea, it is 3,000 miles. It 

 has many tributaries, themselves affording hundreds of miles of navi- 

 gable drains, waters a basin of a million square miles, and pours into 

 the Atlantic a volume estimated at 1,800,000 cubic feet per second. 

 Thus, then, were the first broad lines drawn towards filling up the 

 great blank. But, as we know, Stanley two years later was once more 

 on his way to the Congo, and shortly after, within the compass of its 

 great basin, he helped to found the Congo Free State. During the 

 years he was olficiall^^ connected with the river, either directly or 

 through those who served under him, he went on filling up the blank 

 by the exi)loration of other rivers, north and south, which poured their 

 voluminous tribute into the main stream; and the impulse he gave 

 has continued. The blank has become a network of dark lines, the 

 interspaces cov^ered with the names of tribes and rivers and lakes. 



Such, then, briefly, is what Stanley did for the map of Africa during 

 his great and ever-memorable journey across the continent. Once more 



