GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY IN 1875. 



339 



that lake into the Lualaba, supposed to be the 

 head-stream of the Congo. 



Now, from March to May, 1875, Stanley, cir- 

 cumnavigating almost the entire lake, estab- 

 lished, beyond a peradventure, the unity of the 

 sheet. Stanley has perfected himself in the 

 art of taking hypsometrical and astronomical 

 observations, and has been able to make a 

 complete map of the lake and the country 

 explored. Though the lake is a large body 

 of water, it turns out to be smaller than some 

 of the maps have represented it to be. Ac- 

 cording to Stanley's measurements it is con- 

 siderably larger than, the area of the entire 

 kingdom of Scotland. Speke spoke of two 

 rivers flowing into the lake from the south, 

 but Stanley discovered only one, which is 

 therefore the true southern source of the White 

 Nile. There are a nmber of islands, some of 

 them of considerable size. The supposed lake 

 of Baingo is, it appears, only the northeastern 

 arm of the Victoria Nyanza. The southern 

 affluent, named Shimeeyu, which they fol- 

 lowed down some distance before reaching the 

 lake, rises somewhere near latitude 5 south, 

 longitude 35 east from Greenwich, and has a 

 length of about 350 miles. The altitude of the 

 lake he found to be 3,808 feet ; Speke's reckon- 

 ing was 3,740 feet. Mr. Stanley intended cross- 

 ing over to the Albert Nyanza, and exploring 

 that unknown water in his portable boat. His 

 object was to determine whether there were any 

 stream flowing into that body which rivaled the 

 Victoria Nile, or Somerset River, as a source of 

 the great river, and, furthermore, to connect 

 definitely the Albert Nyanza,. or Mvulan, with 

 the Nile. Their connection was known to Speke 

 only through accounts of natives and traders ; 

 Baker's observations made it still more prob- 

 able. The latter learned also from the natives 

 that Somerset River, passing through the lake, 

 flowed out again, and continued its course, a 

 navigable river, between the lands of Koshi 

 and Madi. Baker saw at Magungo the point 

 where the river empties into the lake, latitude 

 2 16' north, about eighteen miles across, the 

 outlet between the lands of Koshi and Madi, 

 and upon its left shore a range of hills. Again, 

 upon his next expedition at Ibrahimia, in the 

 Madi country, latitude 3 34', distant about 

 ninety miles from Magungo, he could see up the 

 Nile, for twenty miles, the lands of Madi and 

 Koshi upon the east and west, and the range 

 of hills stretching along the western border 

 of the valley. There is a discordancy in the 

 diverse accounts given of the Nile in Madi, 

 which Speke spoke of as a highland stream, 

 and the Somerset River, described by Colonel 

 Long as large enough to be navigated by the 

 Great Eastern. E. Marno also states that from 

 the size of the Bar Djebel, as the Nile is called 

 at Gondokoro, no one would suppose that it 

 was the outlet of so great a lake. He had also 

 been informed by traders that the Albert Lake 

 loses itself in morasses at its northern end, and 

 several of them had declared that the outlet 



seen by Baker was nothing but a creek. Mr. 

 Stanley intended, from last accounts, crossing 

 over to the Albert Nyanza, and exploring in 

 his Lady Alice that little-known water. 



It was expected that General Gordon would 

 precede him in this exploration. At the close 

 of August the latter had reached a point above 

 the largest rapid of the Nile, and was reported 

 to be only 140 miles distant from the lake. 

 His further progress was interrupted by the 

 killing of his assistant, M. Linant de Bellefords, 

 by the Bari, and a retaliatory excursion against 

 the attacking tribe. M. Linant had been sent 

 by General Gordon with messages to Stanley 

 at Uganda, and upon his return was set 

 upon by the natives, and killed, together with 

 thirty-six of his men. From later accounts, 

 owing to other accidental causes, Gordon has 

 not been able to continue his progress up the 

 river. 



Lieutenant Cameron, who was sent out by 

 the Geographical Society in 1873 to bring 

 succor to Dr. Livingstone, and who, after learn- 

 ing the fate of that traveler, and sending home 

 his journals and charts from Ujiji, proceeded 

 to explore and survey the southern shores of 

 the lake of Tanganyika, discovered on the 3d 

 of May, 1874, the Lucuga River, the outlet of 

 the Tanganyika, flowing westward, he supposed 

 into the Congo. On the 20th he entered this 

 river, determined to find where it issued, al- 

 though suffering from disease at the time, and 

 although the Geographical Society withheld 

 further support. For a year and a half no in- 

 telligence was received from the brave explo- 

 rator. On the 19th of November, 1875, he ar- 

 rived safely at Loanda. Following the river 

 which flows out of Lake Tanganyika, in a south- 

 westerly course, into the Lualaba, and follow- 

 ing the latter river, he came to a new lake. 

 Out of this lake another large river runs in a 

 westerly course, which he traced for a long dis- 

 tance, and which he believes to be the Congo. 

 Meeting a hostile tribe of natives, he was 

 obliged to turn his route, striking other streams 

 between Zambesi and Congo, which he followed 

 down, reaching the western coast in Benguela. 

 It seems established by this exploration that 

 the Lualaba and Tanganyika do not contribute 

 to the Nile system. He has no doubt himself 

 that they flow into the Congo. The Lualaba 

 at Nyangw6 he found to be only 1,400 feet 

 above the level of the sea, that is 500 feet below 

 the altitude of the Nile at Gondokoro. It flows, 

 he says, at that point through an enormously 

 wide valley, u which receives the drainage of 

 all this part of Africa, and is the continuation 

 of the valleys of the Luapula and Lualaba." 

 Contrary to the report of Livingstone, the river 

 turns westward below Nyangwe, and farther 

 on, according to Arab reports, south westward. 

 Another river, the Luowa, as large as the Lua- 

 laba at Nyangwe, flows into it from the north, 

 and farther on other large rivers join it from 

 the same direction. The lake of Sankorra, 

 into which the Lualaba flows, Cameron could 



