THE COUNTRY AND ITS HISTORY 3 



inland, although situated some one hundred and seventy- 

 miles from the coast. 



The following year Ludwig Krapf made a longer jour- 

 ney inland and discovered Mount Kenia, the second highest 

 mountain on the continent of Africa. Kenia is situated 

 two hundred and fifty miles from the coast and attains an 

 altitude of seventeen thousand feet. Krapf did not reach 

 the mountain, but saw the peak from a distance of forty 

 miles from the Kitui district southeast of the peak. 



The first Arab caravan to brave the perils of the far 

 interior and cross the much-dreaded Masai and Nandi 

 country reached the Kavirondo district in 1857. Within a 

 few days' march of the shores of the Victoria Nyanza they 

 were stopped by the authority of the King of Uganda from 

 entering the country under his control, but they learned 

 from the natives of the existence a short distance westward 

 of a great body of water. During this year Speke, after 

 leaving Burton at Lake Tanganyika, which they had just 

 discovered, journeyed northward alone and reached the 

 southern shore of the great Nyanza. 



Upon his return to England he organized an expedition 

 to further explore the vicinity of this newly discovered 

 lake, which he had shrewdly guessed formed the head- 

 waters of the Nile. With Grant he set out in 1862 across 

 German East Africa and eventually reached the lake. 

 They skirted the western coast to the vicinity of Kampala, 

 where they obtained guides from the King of Uganda, who 

 led them to the Ripon Falls where the Nile issues as a cata- 

 ract from the great lake. Speke and Grant, however, did 

 not trace the Nile from its birth at the Ripon Falls west- 

 ward to the second lake, the Albert Nyanza. Owing to 



