496 ARRIVAL AT KHARTOUM. [chap. xix. 
Khartoum about half an hour after sun-set on the 5th 
of May, 1865. 
On the following morning we were welcomed by the 
entire European population pf Khartoum, to whom are 
due my warmest thanks for many kind attentions. 
We were kindly offered a house by Monsieur Lombrosio, 
the manager of the Khartoum branch of the “ Oriental 
and Egyptian Trading Country/' 
I now heard the distressing news of the death of my 
poor friend Speke. I could not realise the truth of 
this melancholy report until I read the details of his 
fatal accident in the appendix of a French translation 
of his work. It was but a sad consolation that I could 
confirm his discoveries, and bear witness to the tenacity 
and perseverance with which he had led his party 
through the untrodden path of Africa to the first Nile 
source. This being the close of the expedition, I wish 
it to be distinctly understood how thoroughly I support 
the credit of Speke and Grant for their discovery of 
the first and most elevated source of the Nile in the 
great Victoria N yanza. Although I call the river be¬ 
tween the two lakes the “ Somerset,” as it was named 
by Speke upon the map he gave to me, I must repeat 
that it is positively the Victoria Nile, and the name 
“ Somerset ” is only used to distinguish it, in my de¬ 
scription, from the entire Nile that issues from the 
Albert N yanza. 
Whether the volume of water added by the latter 
lake be greater than that supplied by the Victoria, 
the fact remains unaltered : the Victoria is the highest 
and first-discovered source ; the Albert is the second 
source, but the entire reservoir of the Nile waters. 
I use the term source as applying to each reservoir 
ns a head or main starting-point of the river. I am 
quite aware that it is a debated point among geo¬ 
graphers, whether a lake can be called a source , as 
•it owes its origin to one or many rivers ; but, as the 
innumerable torrents' of the mountainous regions of 
Central Africa pour into these great reservoirs, it would 
