430 ROOSEVELT'S JOURNEY FROM UGANDA DOWN THE NILE 



Tlie Albert Nyanza, a lake much smaller than the Victoria, lies in 

 the course of the Nile, but cannot be said to be traversed by it. On the 

 contrary the river enters and leaves it at its northern corner, passing 

 through only a few miles of its area, yet doubtless gaining from it 

 important additions to its flood. Other additions come from the Albert 

 Edward Nyanza, which receives the drainage of the Ruwenzori Moun- 

 tains and is connected with the Albert Nyanza by the Semliki River. 

 It is to these three central African lakes that the Nile owes the great 

 volume of its flood, gaining the abundant waters which for thousands 

 of years have brought to the land of Egypt perennial fertility. 



After leaving the Albert Nyanza, the next point of interest is the 

 former Arab slave-station of Gondokoro, more than two hundred 

 miles to the north. Though this distance may be traversed by boat, 

 the Roosevelt party made its way by land, journeying through a very 

 difficult stretch of country, a wilderness so forbidding to the white 

 men that even the enterprising telegraph companies have not yet ven- 

 tured to carry their wires through it, all communication being made 

 by native runners. But it presented excellent opportunities for hunt- 

 ing, and on reaching Gondokoro on February 17th the adventurers 

 declared that the past ten days had been one of the most enjoyable parts 

 of their entire African trip. Certainly they looked it, to judge from 

 the healthy aspect of the whole party. 



Gondokoro lies in the territory of the Bari tribe of the Soudanese 

 negroes, on the east bank of the Nile, the west bank at this point being 

 in the most northerly stretch of the territory of the Congo Free State. 

 Long ago the Arabs made it a center of the slave and ivory trade, and 

 though the former has been suppressed, the ivory trade is still active, 

 a number of ivory merchants making Gondokoro their headquarters. 

 Here the steamboats of the Soudan government call once a month, 

 carrying passengers and the mail between this place and Khartum, 

 nine hundred miles to the north. 



The entrance of the Roosevelt expedition to this far inland Nile 

 station was rudely picturesque, the British and natives alike doing 

 their utmost to give a fitting welcome to the travel-hardened wan- 

 derers. A party of the Bari tribe, Chief Keriba and his band of native 

 musicians at their head, met the Americans sixteen miles south and 



