iiS WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA 



is excellent, there is a well-furnished library, together with baths, 

 electric lights and all needed conveniences. 



Those who find themselves on board this modern ship in the 

 depths of the late savage Africa, certainly have reason to bless their 

 lucky stars that they are not confined to the crude former methods of 

 navigation on this magnificent inland sea. Darting along at a speed 

 of ten miles an hour upon a great freshwater lake as large as the 

 whole of Scotland, and at an elevation higher than that of Scotland's 

 highest mountains, was a pleasant sensation worth the journey to expe- 

 rience. With cool air and splendid scenery, except when out of sight 

 of land and environed only by sea and sky, they certainly had reason 

 to enjoy the trip. Now beautiful islands surrounded them, now they 

 ghded past forested coasts with blue mountains rising in the distance, 

 now other scenes of varied beauty attracted them, and all this in the 

 heart of Africa, on the line of the Equator, and at an elevation of four 

 thousand feet above the sea. Certainly it was an experience greatly 

 to be enjoyed and long to be remembered. 



Voyagers on the lake, except those intent on geographical dis- 

 covery, do not follow it for its entire length or trace the extended line 

 of its coast waters, but simply cross its northern waters to the port 

 of Entebbe on its northeastern side. This is the administrative center 

 of the British Protectorate of Uganda, an interesting country with 

 which we must deal in a chapter by itself. In the present one our 

 interest lies in the lake itself. 



This immense body of water, an inland sea occupying a large sec- 

 tion of east central Africa, is notable not alone for its size and for 

 its high elevation, but is of the highest interest for another reason, 

 since it is the source of one of the greatest and most famous rivers 

 of the world, the historic and world-renowned Nile, the stream which 

 has made Egypt and to which Egypt has given fame and glory. The 

 source of this grand river was long unknown. It was traced farther 

 and farther into Africa, travelers following southward step by step 

 through endless hardships and difficulties. Still it held its own, a 

 broad, deep stream, evidently coming from a great distance, but its 

 origin was not discovered until about fifty years ago, when Captain 

 John H. Speke reached the great lake which he named Victoria 

 Nyanza, in honor of the English queen. 



