DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 143 



In the desperation of the moment, he and several of his men 

 seized her, and dragged her across, sinking in the weeds up to their 

 waists, and just keeping her head above water. She lay perfectly 

 insensible, as though dead, with clenched hands and set teeth, all 

 efforts at restoring animation being for a time utterly useless. When 

 at length these had succeeded, she was gently borne forward like a 

 corpse — the rattle was in her throat, and the end seemed to be very 

 near. Three days of insensibility were followed by seven more of 

 brain-fever and delirium. Preparations were made for the worst, 

 which it was believed had actually come ; but the spark of life was not 

 fully extinguished, and it began to brighten, and by and by burnt more 

 steadily. It was now possible to move, and at the close of the sixteenth 

 day from M'rooli they were at the village of Parkani, one hundred 

 miles on a straight line from M'rooli; and they began to hope once 

 more that the object of these two years' weary wanderings was close 

 at hand. 



They did not suppose that it was actually within one day's march ; 

 yet such was really the case. On the day before they arived at 

 Parkani, Baker had observed, at a great distance to the northwest of 

 their course, a range of very lofty mountains. He fancied that the 

 lake must lie on the other side of this range, but now he was informed 

 that these mountains were the western boundary of the Nzige, and 

 that if he started early he might reach it by noon. Accordingly on the 

 14th of March, 1864, starting early, he, "the first European who had 

 ever seen it," looked on this magnificent body of water. 



"It is impossible," he says, "to describe the triumph of that 

 moment ; — here was the reward for all our labor — for the years of ten- 

 acity with which we had toiled through Africa. England had won the 

 sources of the Nile! I was about 1,500 feet above the lake, and I 

 looked down from the steep granite clifif upon those welcome waters, 

 upon that vast reservoir which nourished Egypt and brought fertility 

 where all was wilderness, upon that great source so long hidden from 

 mankind, that source of bounty and of blessings to millions of human 

 beings; and as one of the greatest objects of nature, I determined to 

 honor it with a great name. As an imperishable memorial of one 

 loved and mourned by our gracious Queen and deplored by every Eng- 



