chap, ii.] ANOTHER LAKE REPORTED TO EXIST. 
71 
could have got through the country. Accordingly they 
procured their information most carefully, completed 
their map, and laid down the reported lake in its sup¬ 
posed position, showing the Nile as both influent and 
effluent precisely as had been explained by the natives. 
Speke expressed his conviction that the Luta N’zige 
must be a second source of the Nile, and that geogra¬ 
phers would be dissatisfied that he had not explored it. 
To me this was most gratifying. I had been much 
disheartened at the idea that the great work was ac¬ 
complished, and that nothing remained for exploration; 
I even said to Speke, “ Does not one leaf of the laurel 
remain for me ? ” I now heard that the field was not 
only open, but that an additional interest was given to 
the exploration by the proof that the Nile flowed out 
of one great lake, the Victoria, but that it evidently 
must derive an additional supply from an unknown 
lake as it entered it at the northern extremity, while the 
body of the lake came from the south. The fact of a 
great body of water such as the Luta N’zige extending 
in a direct line from south to north, while the general 
system of drainage of the Nile was from the same di¬ 
rection, showed most conclusively, that the Luta N zige, 
if it existed in the form assumed, must have an im¬ 
portant position in the basin of the Nile. 
My expedition had naturally been rather costly, and 
being in excellent order it would have been heart¬ 
breaking to have returned fruitlessly. I therefore 
arranged immediately for my departure, and Speke 
most kindly wrote in my journal such instructions as 
might be useful. I therefore copy them verbatim :— 
“ Before you leave this be sure you engage two 
men, one speaking the Bari or Madi language, and 
one speaking Kinyoro, to be your interpreters through 
the whole journey, for there are only two distinct 
families of languages in the country, though of course 
some dialectic differences, which can be easily over¬ 
come by anybody who knows the family language. . . . 
Now, as you are bent on first going to visit Kamrasi 
