754 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



twenty-five feet of water could, I believe, float at the ferry where we crossed. 

 Speke and I had to conjecture this depth at the ferry, because we were for- 

 cibly prevented from dropping our lead-lines into it ; the king would not be 

 pleased ; it was not ' canny ' to take soundings. I should not be the least 

 surprised to hear that Mr. Stanley selects this noble river as a point for ex. 

 ploration. With the ' Lady Alice ' he can ascend this stream for the lake up 

 almost to King Rumanika's door ; or he can cross over the mountains of Ruanda 

 and Urundi and descend to the spot on Lake Tanganyika where Livingstone 

 and he had such a pleasant pic-nic; or he may select the Albert Nyanza as his 

 field for exploration. All will be new to us ; either route would interest geo- 

 graphers intensely, for the country, its people, and its animals, are all unknown. 

 The area of the lake, according to Speke, is six hundred and forty-five geo- 

 graphical miles in circumference ; and if we add to this the circumference of 

 Lake Bahr-ingo, we have nine hundred and ten geographical miles. Many 

 will remember the enthusiastic reception given in old Burlington House where 

 Speke and I were received after telegraphing that the ' Nile was settled,' that 

 ' the Victoria Nyanza was the source of the Nile.' Such a reception certainly 

 awaits Mr. Stanley when he appears here ; and if he should make more dis- 

 coveries — which he undoubtedly will, if God spares him — there is no honour 

 which this Society can bestow that he will not have earned over and over 

 again. He, as an observer, a traveller in its real sense, a provider of true and 

 pleasant pictures from unknown lands, has confirmed the discoveries made by 

 Speke, and to him the merit is due of having sailed on the broad waters of 

 the lake, and sent home a map, and descriptions so vivid and truthful that 

 the most sceptical cannot fail to be satisfied. Here it may be as well to ex- 

 plain that some geographers never accepted Speke's lake as one great ocean, 

 although the geographical world did. The foremost of unbelievers, and the 

 one who appeared first in the field, was Captain Burton, the companion at 

 one time of Speke. He did not seem to have any reason for his argument. 

 He said there must be several lakes, lagoons — anything, in fact, except the 

 lake. Even the late Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley made out there must 

 be several lakes. Livingstone wrote in a very patronising tone, ' Poor Speke 

 had turned his back upon the real sources of the Nile ' — ' his river at Ripon 

 Falls was not large enough for the Nile ' — and was disparaging to Speke's 

 discoveries. The work of Dr. Schweinfurth, ' the Heart of Africa,' has fallen 

 into the greatest blunder. About three years ago a map, constructed without 

 authority in our map-room, was suspended from these walls, but on my pro- 

 test the President, Sir Henry Rawlinson, ordered that it be altered to the de- 

 lineation of the lake by Speke. This was done. Numbers of other writers 

 and map-makers, Continental and English, have gone on disintegrating the 

 lake from book to book, map to map, and from year to year ; but I think the 

 public w r ill now perceive how unjust the above critics have been, how firmly 



