39 i 'LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA: 



judgment upon his younger self, it is evident to 

 me that much might have heen omitted, and that 

 more might have been modified, yet I find no- 

 thing in it unfair, unreasonable, or in any way 

 unfaithful. Many opined that the more dig- 

 nified proceeding Avould have been to ignore the 

 injuries done to me. But the example of my 

 old commander, Sir Charles Napier (the soldier), 

 taught me in early life how unwise it is to let 

 public sentence be passed by default, and that 

 even delay in disputing unqualified assertions 

 may in some cases be fraught with lasting evil. 



Capt. Speke succeeded, as the world knows, in 

 organizing a second expedition upon the plan of 

 the first : it lasted between Sept. 25, 1860, and 

 April, 18G3, when he telegram'd to Alexandria, 

 ' The Nile is settled.' I would in no way depre- 

 ciate the solid services rendered to geography by 

 him and by his gallant and amiable companion, 

 Capt. Grant. They brought in an absolute gain 

 of some 350 geographical miles between S. lat. 3° 

 and N. lat. 3°, an equatorial belt, vaguely known 

 only l)y Arab report and concerning which, with 

 the hardest labour, I could collect only the heads 

 of information. But they left unsolved the 

 moot question of the Nile sources, and indeed 

 it soon became the opinion of scientific Europe 



