COLONEL GRANT ON STANLEY. 755 



the fame of Speke has been established, and will not fail to accord him that 

 place in their opinions which he may have lost for a time. (The Colonel here 

 enumerated a series of maps, in which the Nyanza is divided into two or 

 more lakes, and resumed.) .It is now my place to make some comments on 

 Mr. Stanley's journey. Starting from Zanzibar, in 1874, with three hundred 

 followers, he made a rapid journey of seven hundred and twenty miles to the 

 south-east corner of Victoria Nyanza, performing this distance in one hundred 

 and three days, inclusive of halts. Through forests, across deserts and rivers, 

 he conveyed the boat, ' Lady Alice,' in sections, and launched her on the lake. 

 The forethought and energy required to convey this boat must command the 

 fullest admiration, for in doing so he has navigated the inland ocean, and 

 given us a thrilling account of its extent, its rivers and shores, and its beauti- 

 ful islands. He experienced almost stunning losses and privations in hisJand 

 journey. Having to travel through sterile, unhealthy regions, the want of 

 food and water was felt severely ; his men suffered from sickness — death was 

 rife amongst them — and he had to contend against the Waturu race, who 

 sounded their war drums, and killed twenty-one of his men. After contesting 

 with them for three days, and clearing a way for his advance, he continued 

 his march towards the lake. On the 27th of February last he obtained his 

 first view of the great sea, and it can be imagined how impatient he must 

 have been, and how hard he and his men must have worked to put the ' Lady 

 Alice ' together, to have a short trial on the lake before taking to sea in her. 

 " There are many questions which we should like to ask Mr. Stanley here 

 — namely, what crew had he ? who were they ? how did they all manage 

 for food ? and was it ever rough weather ? But we must be content with his 

 map now before us, with its rivers, islands, and broad expanse. It seems as 

 if the great brown plains, which Mr. Stanley speaks of as bounding the lake 

 to the east, drank up all the rain that falls upon them, for there are no rivers 

 on that side. Everywhere he heard of plains to the east. The mountains of 

 Ugeyeya, are called gigantic, for Mr. Stanley says, ' We pass between the 

 island of Ugingo and the gigantic mountains of Ugeyeya, at whose base the 

 ' Lady Alice ' seems to crawl like a tiny insect, while we on board admire 

 the stupendous summits.' There is nothing as to size or summit on the other 

 side of the lake to compare with this description of the equatorial mountains of 

 Ugeyeya. Having abstracted all the notes on the mountains of the east coast, 

 we can say that there are no mountains, no volcanic cones, to be compared 

 with them as to their height and proximity to the lake on the west coast. 

 I therefore cannot but conclude that the fairway of the lake will be found on 

 the east coast, and that the miles of swamps and shallow water in the west 

 do not exist to the same extent on the other shore. But this interesting ques- 

 tion will, I trust, soon be settled when we receive Mr. Stanley's observations 

 on depths. No fewer than sixty islands may be counted upon Mr. Stanley's 



