1868.] CONTEMPORARY EXPLORERS. 339 



and Grant is deserving of the highest commendation, inas- 

 much as they opened up an immense tract of previously 

 unexplored country, in the firm belief they were bringing to 

 light the head of the Nile. No one can appreciate the diffi- 

 culties of their feat unless he has gone into new country. In 

 association with Captain Burton, Speke came much nearer to 

 the " coy fountains," than at the Victoria Nyanza, but they 

 all turned their backs on them. Mr. Baker showed courage 

 and perseverance worthy of an Englishman in following out 

 the hints given by Speke and Grant. But none rises higher 

 in my estimation than the Dutch lady Miss Tinne, who, 

 after the severest domestic afflictions, nobly persevered in 

 the teeth of every difficulty, and only turned away from 

 the object of her expedition, after being assured by Speke 

 and Grant that they had already discovered in Victoria 

 Nyanza the sources she sought. Had they not given their 

 own mistaken views, the wise foresight by which she pro- 

 vided a steamer, would inevitably have led her to pull up, 

 and by canoes to reach Lake Bangweolo's sources full five 

 hundred miles south of the most southerly part of Victoria 

 Nyanza. She evidently possesses some of the indomitable 

 pluck of Van Tromp, whose tomb every Englishman who 

 goes to Holland must see.* Her doctor was made a baron — 

 were she not a Dutch lady already we think she ought to 

 be made a duchess. 



By way of contrast with what, if I live through it. I shall 

 have to give, I may note some of the most prominent ideas 

 entertained of this world-renowned river. Ptolemy, a geo- 

 grapher who lived in the second century, and was not a 

 king of Egypt, with the most ancient maps made the Nile 

 rise from the "Montes Lunse," between ten and twelve 

 south lat., by six several streams which flowed north into 



* Miss Tinne succumbed to the dangers of African travelling before 

 Livingstone penned these just words of appreciation. 



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