

362 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



siderably more to the north than that of Stan- 

 ley. Although it was in the dry season, they 

 had to cross large marshes and streams. The 

 profile of the country was uneven. On some 

 of the watercourses were poor villages sur- 

 rounded with maize and manioc plantations. 

 The expedition met with a serious check from 

 the desertion of the carriers at Mvomero. The 

 baggage was left at Mvomero to be transported 

 to Mpwapwa. The members of the party also 

 remained to advance with the goods when 

 porters could be obtained. Cambier alone 

 went forward, attended by a few faithful 

 men, to Urambo, in search of carriers. In 

 September the expedition was again on the 

 way, porters having been sent by the Pere 

 Etienne of the Bagamoyo mission. Cambier 

 had penetrated to Kiddino, 250 miles from the 

 coast. 



A. Keith Johnston, son of the celebrated 

 geographer, left England in November, under 

 the auspices of the African Exploration Fund, 

 to explore the country between the east coast 

 and the northern part of Lake Nyassa. He 

 will .start from the terminus of -the caravan 

 route just constructed from Dar-es-Salaam, 25 

 miles south of Zanzibar, and will aim his course 

 for the north end of Nyassa. 



The English mission on the banks of the 

 Victoria N'yanza has had a sorrowful history. 

 In the fall of 1876 Messrs. O'Neil and Clarke 

 established the first temporary station at 

 Mpwapwa, having marched from Bagamoyo 

 with a train of 50 carriers. They were there 

 joined by Lieutenant Smith, D. Smith, Mackay, 

 and others, Robertson having died in Zanzibar. 

 Leaving the station in charge of Messrs. Clarke 

 and Hartnoll, they set out in two parties. 

 The party of Lieutenant Smith lost Mackay, 

 who returned to the coast stricken with ill- 

 ness ; and while, on the desertion of the car- 

 riers, Lieutenant Smith had returned to Uny- 

 anyembe to engage others, so as to reach the 

 town of Eagehye on the lake, D. Smith was 

 smitten with death. The other party, com- 

 posed of Wilson and O'Neil, had meanwhile 

 reached that place, and, being rejoined by 

 Lieutenant Smith, after exploring the lake, 

 visited Mtesa at Rubago, and returned to bring 

 thither their expedition ; but on the way they 

 also died, leaving the survivor, Lieutenant 

 Smith, in Uganda, Mtesa's country. Four new 

 missionaries, named Person, Lichfield, Hall, 

 and Fnlkin, have left England for this field ; 

 and Mackay is conducting a caravan into the 

 interior. 



Mnrno made a trip in the first three months 

 of 1878 from Zanzibar to Saadani, on the 

 coast, and thence inland 177 miles to Koa- 

 Kiorra. The greater part of his route was to 

 je northward of those of Stanley and Came- 

 ron. The country he found to rise toward the 

 west. The natives he describes as indolent, 

 though cultivating maize, tobacco, and bana- 

 nas, to some extent. Toward the end of his 

 route he saw fields of sugar-cane, capsicum, 



and other produce. He took a complete series 

 of altitude and meteorological observations. 



Roger Price, of the English mission on Tan- 

 ganyika, has succeeded in opening communi- 

 cations between Saadani and Mpwapwa. An 

 aid of no insignificant value in the exploration 

 of central Africa has been found in the Indian 

 elephant. The use of these animals has be- 

 fore been advocated by Dr. Petermann and 

 others; but it was objected that their consti- 

 tution would not stand the food which is to be 

 found in the wilds of Africa, as the Hindoos 

 consider it necessary to feed them very deli- 

 cately ; that Hindoo keepers would be indis- 

 pensable ; and that the climate and hardships 

 would not be borne by them. But all objec- 

 tions have been removed by a practical exper- 

 iment of Colonel Gordon with five elephants 

 belonging to the Khedive. These and one 

 small African elephant he sent from Cairo to 

 Khartoom, whence they were conducted to 

 Lado, passing through a difficult and unknown 

 route from Sobat to Bahr, which occupied 

 thirty-one days, while they had provender for 

 only twenty days, swimming over streams and 

 lakes and crossing the roughest kind of country. 

 Gessi and Manteuci failed in their attempt 

 to join Antinori. Leaving Khartoom, they 

 arrived at Fadasi by way of Sennaar and Fa- 

 zollo. After the first failure of the Antinori 

 expedition to Shoa, and the return of Martini 

 from Italy with a fresh outfit, the news was 

 spread of the deaths of the Marquis Antinori 

 and Chiarini. This report was without foun- 

 dation. Martini returned again to Rome with 

 charts and collections, and Antinori is coming 

 back by way of Fazollo, Benijangoll, and Fa- 

 dasi. 



Dr. Wilhelm Junker passed ten months of the 

 year 1877 in examining the tract lying be- 

 tween Scbweinfurth's route and the Nile, about 

 5 north of the equator. He found that the 

 Jei is not, as Marno supposed, the upper part 

 of the Yalo River, or Bahr-el-Rohl, nor of the 

 same system. He made a second journey, 

 which extended beyond the Abakah and Mun- 

 do countries, passing streams which he took 

 for affluents of the Yalo, and others which 

 seemed to flow toward the Issu. He went as 

 far to the northwest as Senba-Agad and "Wow, 

 visited by Schweinfurth, but was prevented 

 from reaching the Kibaly River in the south, 

 which is supposed to be the upper course of 

 the Welle. 



Beatrice Gulf, when discovered by Stanley 

 in 1875, was supposed by him to be an arm of 

 the Mwutan or Albert N'yanza. He encoun- 

 tered this sheet of water in latitude 25' S., 

 and gave it the above name. Gessi asserted 

 that the lake did not extend so far, and the 

 question was left open whether it belonged to 

 Lake Albert or was an independent body of 

 water until this past year, when the problem 

 was solved by Mason, who explored the south- 

 ern extremity of the lake, and found that the 

 Beatrice Gulf is indeed connected with it, and 



