COLONEL GRANT ON STANLEY. 753 



ject. He should only notify to the meeting that there were two subjects for 

 discussion that evening — one relating to the Victoria Nyanza, the other to 

 the Albert Nyanza — but the two subjects would be kept as distinct as pos- 

 sible. After the first discussion he should read a few extracts of letters from 

 Colonel Gordon relative to his survey of the Nile, and his labours in the vici- 

 nity of the Albert Nyanza. 



Colonel Grant, who was loudly cheered, then read his paper. He said — 

 " The journey recently made by Mr. H. M. Stanley, the commissioner of 

 ' The Daily Telegraph ' and c New York Herald,' is one of the most import- 

 ant and brilliant that has ever been made in Central Africa, or, indeed in 

 any other country ; for, when we consider that he accomplished it so quickly, 

 taking only sixteen months from the period he left England, it appears at 

 first as incredible as was his famous discovery of the late Dr. Livingstone. It 

 is not alone the short time, but the great geographical question which he has 

 finally settled — namely, he has confirmed Speke's discovery, that the Victo- 

 ria Nyanza was one vast inland fresh water ; he has navigated its shores for 

 a thousand miles, thereby proving that its waters are continuous. In 1860, 

 Speke and I started from Zanzibar with two hundred followers. It will give 

 some idea of the fickle African race when I tell you that we had only forty 

 men of the two hundred when we reached Kazeh, four hundred and thirty 

 miles west of the sea-coast. Three-fourths had deserted us. We need not, 

 therefore, be alarmed by the report of Mr. Stanley, that one-half of his men 

 were non-effective. He will enlist others, or do with fewer. Months of 

 weary delay again took place on the way between Kazeh and the hilly 

 region of Karagweh, on account of the difficulties thrown in the way by the 

 inhabitants. We wished to get on quickly, and tried to march near the lake, 

 but were told that the ordinary route via Usui must be kept. We accordingly 

 went that way, and crossed the watershed at two and a-half degrees S. lat. 

 From this position we descended the northern incline of Equatorial Africa, 

 and never left Nile-land till we reached the Mediterranean. The route may 

 be likened to the teeth of a saw, the points being plains and the depressions 

 swamps. We had extensive views of the lakes from these plains. The bays 

 and long inlets of water or friths seen by us on the western and northern 

 shores were M'werooka, Katonga, Murchison, etc. Some were completely 

 land-locked, and twenty miles in length. I allude to the one seen near our 

 camp at Uganda capital. It is here, probably, that Colonel Long, of the 

 Khedive's service, found himself the other day, when he reported that Speke's 

 Victoria Nyanza was merely a small affair of thirty miles in extent. 



" The greatest river on the route between the most southern point of the 



lake, round its western and northern shores, is the Kitangule Kagcera, in the 



district of Karagweh. In appearance it has a slow, majestic, winding course, 



which is navigable for thirty to forty miles from its mouth ; vessels drawing 



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