A GREAT AFRICAN LAKE* 

 By Sir Henry M. Stanley, M. P. 



THE other day I was favored with 

 a peep at Commander White- 

 house's map, and I was struck 

 with the fullness of its detail and its 

 accuracy. I took out my old note books, 

 and then compared the rude sketches 

 that I made as I went from camp to camp 

 around the Victoria Nyanza twenty- 

 seven years ago with the details which 

 Commander Whitehouse has put in his 

 map. 



Mention has been made on more than 

 one occasion of Ugowe Bay when speak- 

 ing of this part of Africa. I remember 

 when sailing from Bridge Island I came 

 on a very spacious bay. Managing to 

 get within about a hundred yards of the 

 shore I saw a native and asked him what 

 the name of the place was. I had to ask 

 several times. Finally, in answer, I 

 heard something which sounded like, 

 "You go away." I said to myself, 

 " Why, this must be a Swahili, who has 

 fled from Zanzibar through committing 

 some awful crime, and who has found 

 shelter in this region." I again asked 

 the man the name of the place, the 

 man again replying, "You go away." 

 Finally I got the interpreter to say that 

 all I wanted was the name of the place, 

 and again the answer was, ' ' You go 

 away." Under these circumstances I 

 was, of course, bound to accept the 

 name ; anyhow, it would do very well 

 as a landmark to indicate the place 

 where the question had been asked, and 

 it could be left to experts like Com- 

 mander Whitehouse to come along some 

 day and find out whether it was ' ' U-jee- 

 jee " or "You go away." 



During his remarks Commander 

 Whitehouse let slip a sentence which 

 impressed me very much. He said, 

 ' ' The lake region is a very stormy one, 



and a day never passes without thunder, 

 while a storm can always be seen some- 

 where, although it never lasts long. 

 During the first survey of Port Florence, 

 in 1898, there were no less than seven- 

 teen violent storms occurring within 

 twenty-one days." On looking at the 

 beautiful map shown by Commander 

 Whitehouse I seemed to see the sailor, 

 with his small crew and his little steel 

 . boat, wandering from point to point, 

 crossing and recrossing, going from some 

 island to some headland, taking his bear- 

 ings from that headland back again to 

 the island and to some point far away; 

 then a tornado coming down, with a 

 torrential downpour of rain, and per- 

 haps a storm of hail, which threatened 

 to fill the boat; then a few hours later a 

 sun so fierce that the sides of the boat 

 became so hot as to scorch the hand if 

 they were touched. As I traced his 

 many courses over the lake I thought 

 to myself that Commander Whitehouse 

 must have passed many anxious hours 

 during the survey. He had said that he 

 was occupied thirteen months in de- 

 lineating the coast line of 2,200 miles in 

 length. 



When twenty-seven years ago I was 

 instructed to go into that part of the 

 world it was understood that I had to 

 settle a question which very much vexed 

 geographers at that time. According to 

 Speke's theory that great lake, to which 

 he had given the name ' ' Victoria Ny- 

 anza," was one vast body of water 

 almost equal to the size of Scotland in 

 area, whereas, according to Sir Richard 

 Burton, it was only a series of small lakes 

 or swamps. The problem I had to settle 

 was, which of the explorers was right. 

 Hence I had to circumnavigate the lake. 

 I carried a little sectional boat, built at 



; Republished from The Independent by courtesy of the editors. 



