Chapter I. 



landscape, it forms a spectacle at once so imposing and so un- 

 expected as to strike the imagination of those who behold it 

 more forcihlv than any other feature of the whole region, and 

 so impresses itself upon their memory as not to be effaced by 

 anv subsecpient vicissitude or experience of their journey. 



The opinion of Stanley, however, met with numerous 

 opponents, including a number of competent geographers. 



The German ex|)lorer. Dr. 0. Banmann, discovered the 

 sources of the Kao-era, tlie OT'eatest tril)utarv of the Victoria 

 Nyaiiza, in the mountains of Missóssi ya Mwesi, in Urundi, a 

 district situated to tlie nortli-east of Lake Tanwinika. These 

 he considered to be the moiuitains mentioned by Ptolemy ; 

 Missóssi ya Mwesi does, as a matter of fact, mean literally 

 "■Mountains of the Moon." The surrounding country is called 

 Charo cha Mwesi, which means ■' Land of the Moon." At the 

 same time the Kagera, wliich liad been called by Stanley the 

 Alexancha Nile, may certainly be comited as the southernmost 

 and one of the principal sources of the Eastern Nile. 



In England the theory of Dr. Bamnann, in its general 

 outline, has been accepted by Sir C-lements Markham. Neither, 

 indeed, has failed to recognize the olyection that the small 

 importance and low altitude of the Missóssi ya Mwesi scarcely 

 justify so far-reaching a celebrity. The natives of the Unyaniwesi 

 are certainly unconscious of the existence of the "Mountains 

 of the Moon" in their country. Years ago, in fact, Speke heard 

 from ihem a tale of a marvellous mountain situated to the 

 north of Kasagwe, a region to the west of the Victoria Nvanza. 

 This mountain was said to be so high and so stee}) tliat no 

 one could ever possibly ascend it, and to be rarelv \isil)le 

 because it soared up into the clouds from which a ])urt' white 

 substance was wont to fall u])on it. 



