338 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chai\ XIIL 



West Passage never had. The great men of antiquity 

 have recorded their ardent desires to know the fountains 

 of what Homer called " Egypt's heaven-descended spring." 

 Sesostris, the first who in camp with his army made and 

 distributed maps, not to Egyptians only, but to the Scy- 

 thians, naturally wished to know the springs, says Eustathius, 

 of the river on whose banks he flourished. Alexander the 

 Great, who founded a celebrated city at this river's-mouth, 

 looked up the stream with the same desire, and so did the 

 Caesars. The great Julius Caesar is made by Lucan to say 

 that he would give up the civil war if he might but see 

 the fountains of this far-famed river. Nero Caesar sent two 

 centurions to examine the " Caput Nili" They reported that 

 they saw the river rushing with great force from two rocks,, 

 and beyond that it was lost in immense marshes. This was 

 probably " native information," concerning the cataracts of 

 the Nile and a long space above them, which had already 

 been enlarged by others into two hills with sharp conical 

 tops called Crophi and Mophi — midway between which 

 lay the fountains of the Nile — fountains which it was im- 

 possible to fathom, and which gave forth half their water to 

 Ethiopia in the south, and the other half to Egypt in the 

 north : that which these men failed to find, and that which 

 many great minds in ancient times longed to know, has in 

 this late age been brought to light by the patient toil and 

 laborious perseverance of Englishmen.* 



In laying a contribution to this discovery at the feet of 

 his countrymen, the writer desires to give all the honour 

 to his predecessors which they deserve. The work of Speke 



* In 1827 Linant reached 13° 30' N. on the White Nile. In 1841 the 

 second Egyptian, under D'Arnauld and Sabatier, explored the river to 

 4° 42' N., and Jomard published his work on Lirnmoo and the River 

 Habaiah. Dr. Beke and Mr. D'Abbadie contributed their share to making 

 the Nile better known. Brun Rollet established a trading station in 1854 

 at Belema on the Nile at 5° N. lat. 



