Chapter II. 
inferiority and weakness of the negro are too strong a 
temptation to his economic exploitation. In many places a 
state of social security appears to have bred sloth and 
dissoluteness among the natives, together with intemperance 
and lack of self-control, while every species of disease devastates 
the wretched and degenerate population. The civilized nations 
have but their own love of justice from which to draw the 
strength and consistency of purpose needful to carry on 
without hesitation a humanitarian work which demands 
disinterestedness and self-denial, gifts unfortunately rare in 
social aggregates. 
On the • morning of the 7th of May, by daybreak, the 
Winifred proceeded on her way, no longer in the muddy 
and colourless Gidf of Kavirondo, but in the open lake, 
whose waters are limpid and transparent, of a rich colour 
between emerald and blue, and as pure as crystal. A few 
hours after leaving the shore the land fades out of sight, 
giving the illusion of being on the high sea. The Victoria 
Nyanza is, in fact, surpassed in size only by Lake Superior in 
North America, and is so vast that it is possible to voyage along 
or across it for more than 200 miles without seeing land. It 
is like the sea, too, in its sudden and dangerous storms which 
raise up waves as high as those of the ocean. 
The hydrographic survey of the shore was only finished 
last year, 1907. The shore line measures 3,200 miles and the 
survey occupied Captain B. Whitehouse seven years. The 
centre of the lake is still in great part unexplored and gives 
rise to numerous legends which are current in the country 
about islands inhabited by cannibals, ships swallowed by 
whirlpools, monsters which inhabit unexplored abysses, and 
other such matters. 
50 
