218 HISTORY OE THE PROTECTORATE TERRITORIES 



cause of Captain Burton's expedition being sent to discover Tanganyika. 

 On Burton's return from Tanganyika to Kaze and Tabora in Unyamwezi, 

 he gathered up and communicated to the Eoyal Geographical Society all 

 the information he could collect about Uganda, Unyoro, and the Hima 

 kingdoms at the sources of the Nile. 



About 1857 the first Arab caravans trading iidand from Mombasa 

 crossed the Masai and Nandi countries and stopped in Kavirondo waiting 

 for permission to enter Uganda. This was politely refused, on the grounds 

 that Suna was dead, and his successor, Mutesa, not properly installed. 



Burton, returning to Unyamwezi from Tanganyika, was ill and weary 

 after his fatiguing explorations. He heard from the Arabs about the 

 existence of the great Nyanza and Uganda, but did not feel inclined to 

 face the bother and risk of another exploring journey to the north. 

 So he reluctantly acceded to the pleadings of his companion Speke, and 

 allowed the latter with a very poorly equipped expedition to travel with 

 Arabs or Wanyamwezi in the direction of the Victoria Nyanza. Thus 

 Speke discovered and named that great lake, and his discovery, combined 

 with the information he and his companion had received from the Arabs, 

 convinced Speke (but not Burton) that the main source of the Nile had 

 at last been found. Burton seems to have been so snappish to the 

 enthusiastic Speke when the latter returned from his discovery of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, that Speke kept his enthusiasm henceforth to himself, 

 and took advantage of Burton's own desire to remain for some time at 

 Zanzibar to hurry to England and lay the facts of his discovery before 

 the Royal Geographical Society. No doubt, being human, he at the 

 same time poiared forth his grievances against Burton, who certainly seems 

 during all this Tanganyika expedition to have been over cautious about 

 running risks, and easily cast down by difficulties and fatigue. Owing to 

 an exaggerated scare about the ]Masai, which Speke was quite willing to 

 have brushed aside. Burton had forced Speke to give up the idea of 

 visiting first of all (which they could very well have done) the snow- 

 mountain of Kilimanjaro. Undoubtedly but for Burton's fretfulness and 

 exaggerated apprehension of hostility from the natives, the expedition 

 might either have added Lake Nyasa or the Mctoria and Albert Nyanzas 

 to the list of its discoveries. The most difficult part of the journey 

 certainly was the route to Tanganyika.* 

 \ Speke, having the late Colonel Grant with him as an associate, returned 



y to East Africa and journeyed with no great difficulty through Unyamwezi 



* It is curious, but true, that if Speke's advice had been followed, and Burton's 

 cautiousness had been less, they could have joined with Aral) caravans in 1857 to 

 march direct on the Victoria Nyanza vid Kilimanjaro, and thus have forestalled 

 Joseph Thomson by twenty-seven years. 



