He christened the falling effluent, where it drops from the level of the lake and escapes northerly into the Victoria Nile, “Ripon Falls,” in honour of the Earl of Ripon, who was President of the Royal Geographical Society when the expedition was organised, and the arm of the lake from which the Victoria Nile issued, Napoleon Channel, as a token of respect to the Paris Geographical Society, who had honoured him with a gold medal for the discovery of Lake Victoria.

Following this paragraph, Captain Speke makes an important statement, to which I beg attention: “One thing seemed at first perplexing, the volume of water in the Kitangule (Alexandra Nile) looked as large as the Nile (Victoria), but then the one was a slow river, and the other swift, and on this account I could form no adequate judgment of their relative values.”

On the 4th of June, Captain Speke and Grant embarked at Alexandria, Egypt, for England, where they arrived after an absence of 1146 days.

Though one might suppose that the explorers had sufficient grounds for supposing that Lake Victoria covered an enormous area, quite as large, or, approaching to the 29,000 square miles’ extent Captain Speke boldly sketched it, there were not wanting many talented men to dispute each point in the assertions he made. One of the boldest who took opposing views to Speke was his quondam companion, Captain R. F. Burton, and he was supported by very many others, for very plausible reasons, which cannot, however, be touched upon here.

Doctor David Livingstone, while on his last expedition, obtained much oral information in the interior of Africa from Arab traders, which dissected Speke’s Grand Lake into five; and it really seemed as if, from the constant assaults made upon it by geographers and cartographers, it would in time be erased from the chart altogether, or become a mere “rush drain,” like one of those which Speke and Grant found so numerous in that region. It was evident, therefore, that a thorough exploration of Lake Victoria was absolutely necessary to set at rest, once and for ever, one of the great problems that was such a source of trouble and dissatisfaction to the geographers of Europe and America.

The next European to arrive at the shores of Lake Tanganika, after Burton and Speke, was Dr. David Livingstone. He first saw it as he stood on the verge of the plateau which rises steeply from the surface of the Tanganika at its south-west corner, on the 2nd of April, 1867; and on the 14th of March, 1869, and after traversing nearly the whole of the western shore from the extreme south end of the lake to Kassengé, the island which Speke visited in 1858, he crossed over to the east side and reached Ujiji.

On the 15th of July, 1869, after camping at Kassengé, when on his way to Manyema, he writes in his journal the following opinion of Lake Tanganika; “Tanganika narrows at Uvira or Vira, and goes out of sight among the mountains; then it appears as a waterfall into the Lake of Quando, seen by Banyamwezi.”

In his letters home Dr. Livingstone constantly made mention of two lakes, called Upper Tanganika, which Burton discovered, and Lower Tanganika, which Sir Samuel Baker discovered, and which formed, as he said, the second line of drainage trending to and discharging its waters into the Nile.

He makes record in his Journals of the causes which induced him to verify his opinions by a personal investigation of the north end of Lake Tanganika on the 16th of November, 1871, a few days after my arrival, at Ujiji, I being the fourth European who had arrived on the shores of the Lake, in this manner:—

“16th November, 1871.—As Tanganika Explorations are said by Mr. Stanley to be an object of interest to Sir Roderick, we go at his expense and by his men to the north end of the lake.”

“24th November.—To Point Kisuka in Mukamba’s country. A Mgwana came to us from King Mukamba, and asserted most positively that all the water of Tanganika flowed into the River Lusizé, and then on to Ukerewe of Mteza; nothing could be more clear than his statements.”

“25th November.—Our friend of yesterday now declared as positively as before, that the water of Lusizé flowed into Tanganika, and not the way he said yesterday! Tanganika closes in except at one point N. and by W. of us.”

“26th November.—The end of Tanganika seen clearly, is rounded off about 4′ broad from east to west.”

On the 29th of November, Livingstone and I, in a canoe manned by several strong rowers, entered into Lusizé, or Rusizi, and discovered that it flowed into Lake Tanganika by three mouths with an impetuous current.

The explorations of Livingstone and myself in November 1871 to the north end of Lake Tanganika resolved that portion of the problem, but described only about thirteen miles of coast unvisited by Burton and Speke. On our way back, however, by a southern route to Unyanyembé, we added to the knowledge of the Tanganika coast-line, on the eastern side from Kabogo Point as far as Urimba, about twenty miles farther than Speke had seen.

In August 1872, about five months after I had departed from him homewards, he recommenced his last journey. On the 8th of October of the same year he saw the Tanganika again about sixty miles south of the point where he and I bade farewell to the lake, eight months previously. Clinging to the lake, he travelled along the eastern shore, until he reached the southernmost end of it.

From this it will appear evident that the only portion of Lake Tanganika remaining unvisited was that part of the west-end shore, between Kasengé Island and the northernmost point of what Burton and Speke called Ubwari Island, and what Livingstone and I called Muzimu Island. Doubtless there were many portions of Livingstone’s route overland which rendered the coast line somewhat obscure, and in his hurried journey to Ujiji in 1869, by canoe from Mompara’s to Kasengé, a portion of the Uguha coast was left unexplored. But it is Livingstone who was the first to map out and give a tolerably correct configuration to that part of Lake Tanganika extending from Urimba round to the south end and up along the eastern shore to Kasengé Island, as it was Burton and Speke who were the first to map out that portion of the Tanganika extending from Ujiji to a point nearly opposite Ubwari and the north-west, from Ubwari’s north end as far as Uvira.

In February 1874 Lieutenant Verney Lovett Cameron, R.N., arrived at the same village of Ujiji, which had been seen by Burton and Speke in 1858, and which was known as the place where I discovered Livingstone in 1872. He had traversed a route rendered familiar to thousands of the readers of the ‘Lake Regions of Central Africa,’ ‘the Journal of the Discovery of the Nile,’ and ‘How I found Livingstone,’ through a country carefully mapped, surveyed and described. But the land that lay before him westerly had only been begun by Livingstone, and there were great and important fields of exploration beyond the farthest point he had reached.

Lieutenant Cameron procured two canoes, turned south, and coasted along the eastern shore of the Tanganika, and when near the southern end of the Lake, crossed it, turned up north along the western shore, and discovered a narrow channel, between two spits of pure white sand. Entering this channel, the Lukuga creek, he traced it until farther progress was stopped by an immovable and impenetrable barrier of papyrus. This channel, Lieutenant Cameron wrote, was the outlet of Lake Tanganika. Satisfied with his discovery, he withdrew from the channel, pursued his course along the west coast as far as Kasengé Island, the camping-place of both Speke and Livingstone, and returned direct to Ujiji without making further effort.

Lake Tanganika, as will be seen, upon Lieutenant Cameron’s departure, had its entire coast-line described, except the extreme south end, the mouth of the Lufuvu and that portion of coast lying between Kasengé Island and the northern point of Ubwari, about 140 miles in extent.

Livingstone’s Great River.

What we knew distinctly of this great river began with Livingstone’s last journey, when he wrote from Ujiji in 1869, repeating what he had already written in 1867, at the town of Cazembe, in a despatch to Lord Clarendon.

Briefly, this last journey began, let us say, at Zanzibar, the date of his arrival being the 28th of January, 1866. On the 19th of March he sailed in H.M.S. Penguin for the mouth of the Rovuma river, after invoking the blessing of the Most High upon his meditated intercourse with the heathen. Effecting a landing at Mikindini Bay, he directed his course in a south-westerly direction, arriving within view of Lake Nyassa on the 13th of September, 1866.

On the 16th of January, 1867, he reached the most southerly streams emptying into the Chambezi, after crossing the mountains which separate the streams flowing east to the Loangwa. He describes the northern slope which gives birth to the affluents of the new river thus: “It is needless to repeat that it is all forest on the northern slopes of the mountains—open glade and miles of forest; ground at present all sloppy, oozes full and overflowing, feet constantly wet. Rivulets rush with clear water; though they are in flood we can guess which are perennial and which are torrents that dry up; they flow northwards and westwards to the Chambezi.”

Eight days later, in S. lat. 10° 34′, he reached the main river—the Chambezi—a stream “flooded with clear water-banks not more than 40 yards apart, showing abundant animal life in its waters and on its banks as it flowed westwards.” Just at the point Livingstone first saw the Chambezi, numerous streams are gathered from all points—northerly, easterly, and southerly, from the westerly slope of the uplands of Mambwe into the main river, which presently becomes a formidable river, and which subsequent explorations proved to enter Lake Bemba on its eastern side.

On the 8th of November, 1867, the traveller makes a very comprehensive statement. It is the evening of his arrival at Lake Mweru or Moero. “Lake Moero seems of goodly size, and is flanked by ranges of mountains on the east and west. Its banks are of coarse sand, and slope gradually down to the water; outside of these banks stands a thick belt of tropical vegetation in which fishermen build their huts. The country called Rua lies on the west, and is seen as a lofty range of dark mountains; another range of less height, but more broken, stands along the eastern shore.”

“The northern shore has a fine sweep, like an unbent bow, and round the western end flows the water that makes the River Lualaba, which, before it enters Mweru, is the Luapula, and that again (if the most intelligent report speak true) is the Chambezi before it enters Lake Bemba or Bangweolo.”

On page 261, vol i., of ‘Livingstone’s Last Journals,’ he sums up very succinctly what knowledge he has gained of the country which was the scene of his explorations, 1866-67. “First of all the Chambezi runs in the country of Mambwe, N.E. of Molemba. It then flows S.W. and W. till it reaches 11° S. lat. and long. 29° E., where it forms Lake Bemba or Bangweolo. Emerging thence, it assumes the new name Luapula, and comes down here to fall into Mweru. On going out of this lake it is known by the name Lualaba as it flows N.W. in Rua to form another lake with many islands called Ulengé or Urengé. Beyond this, information is not positive as to whether it enters Tanganika, or another lake beyond that.”

On the 18th of July, 1868, the discovery of Lake Bemba or Bangweolo was made by Dr. Livingstone.

On page 59, vol. ii., ‘Last Journals,’ we think we have an explanation of the causes which led him to form those hypotheses and theories which he subsequently made public by his letters, or elaborated in his journals, on the subject of the Nile Sources.

“Bambarre, 25th August, 1870.—One of my waking dreams is that the legendary tales about Moses coming up into Lower Ethiopia, with Merr his foster mother, and founding a city which he called in her honour ‘Meroe,’ may have a substratum of fact.”

“I dream of discovering some monumental relics of Meroe, and if anything confirmatory of sacred history does remain, I pray to be guided thereunto. If the sacred chronology would thereby be confirmed, I would not grudge the toil and hardship, hunger and pain I have endured—the irritable ulcers would only be discipline.”

The old explorer, a grand spectacle and a specimen of most noble manhood in these latter days of his life, travels on and on, but never reaches nearer the solution of the problem which puzzles his soul than the Arab depot Nyangwé, which is situate a few miles south of 4° S. lat. and a little east of 26° E. long. where he leaves the great river still flowing north.

Livingstone never returned to this point, but retracing his steps to Ujiji, thence to the north end of Lake Tanganika and back again to Ujiji and Unyanyembé, directed his course to the southern shore of Lake Bemba, where he died of dysentery in the beginning of May 1873.

In the month of August 1874, Lieutenant Cameron, whom we left at Ujiji after the delineation of that part of Lake Tanganika south of Ujiji, after traversing Livingstone’s route to Kasongo’s Manyema, and travelling by canoe about thirty-five miles, reaches Nyangwé, his predecessor’s farthest point. Though he does not attempt to resolve this problem, or penetrate the region north of Nyangwé, Lieutenant Cameron ventures upon the following hypothesis: “This great stream must be one of the head-waters of the Kongo, for where else could that giant amongst rivers, second only to the Amazon in its volume, obtain 2,000,000 cubic feet of water which it unceasingly pours each second into the Atlantic? The large affluents from the north would explain the comparatively small rise of the Kongo at the coast; for since its enormous basin extends to both sides of the equator, some portion of it is always under the zone of rains, and therefore the supply to the main stream is nearly the same at all times, instead of varying as is the case with tropical rivers, whose basins lie completely on one side of the equator.” Lieutenant Cameron illustrates his hypothesis by causing Livingstone’s great river to flow soon after leaving Nyangwé straight westward, the highest part of which is only 3° 30′ S. lat.

At Nyangwé, Lieutenant Cameron crossed the river, proceeded south with some Arab traders a few days’ journey, then, accompanied by guides, travelled still south to Juma Merikani’s, or Kasongo’s, thence, after a stay of nearly nine months, accompanied by Portuguese traders, he proceeded to Benguella, a small port belonging to the Portuguese Government on the Atlantic Ocean, having crossed Africa from east to west south of S. lat. 4°.

The above is a brief sketch which with the aid of the small maps attached to this volume explains and illustrates the several geographical problems left by my predecessors. I now propose to describe how these problems were solved, and the incomplete discoveries of Burton and Speke, Speke and Grant, and Doctor Livingstone were finished, and how we sighted the lake Muta N’zigé, by its broad arm, which I have called Beatrice Gulf, by a comprehensive exploration, lasting, from sea to sea, two years eight months and twenty days; the results of which are to be found embodied in these two volumes, entitled: ‘Through the Dark Continent; the Sources of the Nile, around the Great Lakes of Africa, and down the “Livingstone” to the Atlantic Ocean.’