iiS WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA 
is excellent, there is a well-furnished library, together with baths, 
electric lights and all needed conveniences. 
Those who find themselves on board this modern ship in the 
depths of the late savage Africa, certainly have reason to bless their 
lucky stars that they are not confined to the crude former methods of 
navigation on this magnificent inland sea. Darting along at a speed 
of ten miles an hour upon a great freshwater lake as large as the 
whole of Scotland, and at an elevation higher than that of Scotland’s 
highest mountains, was a pleasant sensation worth the journey to expe¬ 
rience. With cool air and splendid scenery, except when out of sight 
of land and environed only by sea and sky, they certainly had reason 
to enjoy the trip. Now beautiful islands surrounded them, now they 
glided past forested coasts with blue mountains rising in the distance, 
now other scenes of varied beauty attracted them, and all this in the 
heart of Africa, on the line of the Equator, and at an elevation of four 
thousand feet above the sea. Certainly it was an experience greatly 
to be enjoyed and long to be remembered. 
Voyagers on the lake, except those intent on geographicaBdis- 
covery, do not follow it for its entire length or trace the extended line 
of its coast waters, but simply cross its northern waters to the port 
of Entebbe on its northeastern side. This is the administrative center 
of the British Protectorate of Uganda, an interesting country with 
which we must deal in a chapter by itself. In the present one our 
interest lies in the lake itself. 
This immense body of water, an inland sea occupying a large sec¬ 
tion of east central Africa, is notable not alone for its size and for 
its high elevation, but is of the highest interest for another reason, 
since it is the source of one of the greatest and most famous rivers 
of the world, the historic and world-renowned Nile, the stream which 
has made Egypt and to which Egypt has given fame and glory. The 
source of this grand river was long unknown. It was traced farther 
and farther into Africa, travelers following southward step by step 
through endless hardships and difficulties. Still it held its own, a 
broad, deep stream, evidently coming from a great distance, but its 
origin was not discovered until about fifty years ago, when Captain 
John H. Speke reached the great lake which he named Victoria 
Nyanza, in honor of the English queen. 
