CHAPTER XXXIII. 



Despatches from Mr. Stanley — Circumnavigation of Lake Tanganyika — Legends as 

 to its Origin — Meaning of the Name — Geological Changes — The Alexandra 

 Nile — The Warundi and Waruanda — Small-Pox at Ujiji — Frank Pocock's 

 Letters — Comment of " The Daily Telegraph " on the Despatches. 



IN March, 1877, after a long silence, copious and deeply interesting de- 

 spatches reached this country from Mr. Stanley, under date Ujiji, August 

 7th to 13th, 1876. From these it appeared that the brave traveller had made 

 a complete survey of Lake Tanganyika, and settled the question of the Lukuga, 

 ■which Captain Cameron supposed to be its outlet. He proposed to cross the 

 country to Nyangwe, and there to determine his final course. The first of 

 these despatches is from Ujiji, Aug. 7, 1876 : — 



'"'Lake Tanganyika, despite its extreme length, is to be subject no more 

 to doubts and fanciful hypotheses, for it has been circumnavigated and mea- 

 sured by me, and its enormous coast line laid down and fixed as accurately 

 as a pretty good chronometer and solar observations will admit. Captain 

 Burton's discovery is now a completed whole, with no corner indefinite, no 

 indentation unknown. You must banish from your charts Mr. Cooley's grand 

 United Tanganyika and Nyassa, and Sir Samuel Baker's no less fanciful idea 

 of Upper and Lower Tanganyika, as also Livingstone's United Lake Liemba 

 and Lake Tanganyika. A finished circumnavigation dispels all erratic ideas 

 and illusions respecting its length and breadth, and furnishes us with a complete 

 knowledge, as far as present necessities require, of its affluents and effluents. 



" I write this letter to explain the problem of the Tanganyika, which has 

 puzzled Livingstone and so many explorers, and induced so many able carto- 

 graphers to publish wild conjectures instead of solid facts and truths; and I 

 take for my texts once more certain items from Lieutenant Verney Cameron's 

 letter to the Geographical Society, dated May 9, 1874. That gallant explorer 

 says : — 



' I have been fortunate enough to discover the outlet of the Tanganyika. 

 The current is small (1.2 knots), as might be expected from the levels. It is 

 believed to flow into the Lualaba, between the Lakes Moero and Kamarondo. 

 I went four or five miles down it, when my further progress was stopped by 



