COASTING VICTORIA NYANZA 710 



enormous gulf about twenty-five miles wide by sixty-fivo miles long. To 

 the noble Nyanza, discovered by him, Speke loyally gave the name of Victo- 

 ria, as a tribute to his Sovereign, which let no man take away ; but in order 

 to connect for ever Speke's name with the lake which he then found I have 

 thought it but simple justice to the gallant explorer to call the immense inlet 

 Speke Gulf. 



" If you look again on Speke's map you will observe how boldly he has 

 sketched the Nyanza stretching eastward and north-eastward. Considering 

 that he drew it from mere native report, which never yet was exact or clear, 

 I must say that I do not think that any other man could have arrived so near 

 the truth. I must confess that I could not have done it myself, for I could 

 make little of the vague and mythical reports of the natives of Kagehyi. 



" Proceeding eastward towards the unknown and fabulous distance in 

 the { Lady Alice,' with a picked crew of eleven men and a guide, I coasted 

 along the southern shore of the lake round many a noble bay, until we 

 came to the mouth of the Shimeeyu, in E. long. 33°. 33', S. lat. 2° 35'— by 

 far the noblest river discharging into the lake which we have yet seen. 

 Shimeeyu has a length of three hundred and seventy miles, and is the ex- 

 treme southern source of the Nile. Before emptying into the lake it unites 

 with the Luamberri River, along with which it issues in a majestic flood to 

 the Victoria Nyanza. At its mouth it is a mile wide, but contracts as we pro- 

 ceed up the channel to four hundred yards. Even by itself it would make 

 no insignificant White Nile. By accident our route through Ituru took us 

 from its birthplace, a month's march from the lake, and along many a mile 

 of its crooked course, until, by means of the ' Lady Alice,' we were enabled to 

 see it enter the Nyanza, a river of considerable magnitude. Between the 

 mouth of the Shimeeyu and Kagehyi were two districts — Sima and Magu — 

 of the same nature as Usukuma, and inhabited by peoples speaking the same 

 dialect. On the eastern side of the river is Mazanza, and beyond Manasa. 



"Coasting still along the southern shore of the lake, beyond Manasa, we 

 come to Ututwa, inhabited by a people speaking a different language, namely, 

 that of the Wajika — as the Wamanasa are called here — a people slender and 

 tall, carrying formidable long knives, and terrible portentous spears. In E. 

 lono-. 33° 45' 45" we sailed to the extreme end of Speke Gulf, and then turned 

 northward as far as S. lat. 2° 5', whence we proceeded westward almost in a 

 straight line along Shashi and Iranbu, in Ukerewe. In E. long. 33° 26' 

 we came to a strait — the Rugeji Strait — which separates one half of Uke- 

 rewe from the other half, and by which there is a direct means of communi- 

 cation from Speke Gulf with the countries lying north of Ukerewe. We did 

 not pass through, but proceeded still westward, hugging the bold shores of 

 that part of Ukerewe, which is an island, as far as E. long. 32° 40' 15", 

 whence, following the land, we turned north-west, thence north, until in 



