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 forcibly than any other featiire of the whole region, and 

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

 any subsequent vicissitude or experience of their journey. 



The opinion of Stanley, however, met with numerous 

 opponents, including a nmnber of competent geographers. 



The German explorer, Dr. O. Baumann, discovered the 

 sources of the Kagera, the greatest tributary of the Victoria 

 Nvanza, in the mountains of Mlssossi ya Mwesi, in Urimdi, a 

 district situated to the north-east of Lake Tanganika. These 

 he considered to be the mountains mentioned by Ptolemy : 

 Misso.ssi va 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, \\hich had been called by Stanley the 

 AIexandi"a Nile, may certainly be comited as the southernmost 

 and one of the principal sources of the Eastern Nile. 



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

 outline, has been accepted by Sir Clements Markham. Neither, 

 indeed, has failed to recognize the objection tliat the small 

 importance and low altitude of the Missossi ya Mwesi scarcely 

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

 are certainly unconscious of the existence of the " Mountains 

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

 from them a tale of a marvellous mountain situated to the 

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

 This mountain was said to be so high anrl so steep that no 

 one could ever possibly ascend it, and to be rarely visible 

 because it soared up into the clouds from which a pure white 

 substance was wont to fall upon it. 



