The Discovery of the Source of the Nile Part 29

I hope the reader who has followed my narrative thus far will be interested in knowing how "my faithful children," for whose services I had no further occasion, and whom I had taken so far from their own country, were disposed of. At Cairo, where we put up in Shepherd's Hotel, I had the whole of them photographed, and indulged them at the public concerts, tableaux vivants, etc. By invitation, we called on the Viceroy at his Rhoda Island palace, and were much gratified with the reception; for, after hearing all our stories with marked intelligence, he most graciously offered to a.s.sist me in any other undertaking which would a.s.sist to open up and develop the interior of Africa.

I next appointed Bombay captain of the "faithfuls," and gave him three photographs of all the eighteen men and three more of the four women, to give one of each to our Consuls at Suez, Aden, and Zanzibar, by which they might be recognised. I also gave them increased wages, equal to three years' pay each, by orders on Zanzibar, which was one in addition to their time of service; an order for a grand "freeman's garden," to be purchased for them at Zanzibar; and an order that each one should receive ten dollars dowry-money as soon as he could find a wife.

With these letters in their hands, I made arrangements with our Consul, Mr Drummond Hay, to frank them through Suez, Aden, and the Seych.e.l.les to Zanzibar.

Since then, I have heard that Captain Bombay and his party missed the Seych.e.l.les, and went on to the Mauritius, where Captain Anson, Inspector-General of Police, kindly took charge of them and made great lions of them. A subscription was raised to give them a purse of money; they were treated with tickets to the "circus," and sent back to the Seych.e.l.les, whence they were transported by steamer to Zanzibar, and taken in charge by our lately-appointed Consul, Colonel Playfair, who appears to have taken much interest in them. Further, they volunteered to go with me again, should I attempt to cross Africa from east to west, through the fertile zone.

Footnotes:

[Footnote 1: The equator was crossed on the 8th February 1862.]

[Footnote 2: The Wahuma are treated of in Chapter IX.]

[Footnote 3: The list of my fauna collection will be found in an early Number of the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London."]

[Footnote 4: Captain Burton, on receiving his gold medal at the hands of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, said, "You have alluded, sir, to the success of the last expedition. Justice compels me to state the circ.u.mstances under which it attained that success. To Captain Speke are due those geographical results to which you have alluded in such flattering terms.

Whilst I undertook the history and ethnography, the languages, and the peculiarity of the people, to Captain Speke fell the arduous task of delineating an exact topography, and of laying down our positions by astronomical observations--a labour to which, at times, even the undaunted Livingstone found himself unequal."]

[Footnote 5: Vol. iii. of A. D. 1801.]

[Footnote 6: It was such an attack as I had on my former journey; but while mine ceased to trouble me after the first year, his kept recurring every fortnight until the journey ended.]

[Footnote 7: It may be as well to remark here, that the figures both in lat.i.tude and longitude, representing the position of Kaze, computed by Mr Dunkin, accord with what appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, computed by myself, and in the R. G. S. Journal Map, computed by Captain George.

This applies also to the position of Ujiji; at any rate, the practical differences are so trifling that it would require a microscope to detect them on the map.]

[Footnote 8: The Jub is the largest river known to the Zanzibar Arabs.

It debouches on the east coast north of Zanzibar, close under the equator.]

[Footnote 9: The two first gold watches were given away at Zanzibar.]

[Footnote 10: If one asked the name of a tree, and it happened to be the kind from which this cloth was made, the answer would be "mbugu." If, again, the question was as to the bark, the same answer; and the same if one saw the s.h.i.+rt, and asked what it was. Hence I could not determine whether the word had been originally the name of the tree, of its bark, or of the article made from the bark, though I am inclined to think it is the bark, as there are many varieties of these trees, which, being besides being called mbugu, had their own particular names.]

[Footnote 11: Rumanika's present.--One block-tin box, one Raglan coat, five yards scarlet broadcloth, two coils copper wire, a hundred large blue egg-beads, five bundles best variegated beads, three bundles minute beads--pink, blue, and white.]

[Footnote 12: Nnanaji's present.--One deole or gold-embroidered silk, two coils copper wire, fifty large blue egg-beads, five bundles best variegated beads, three bundles minute beads--pink, blue and white.]

[Footnote 13: Since named by Dr P. L. Sclater "Tragelaphus Spekii."

These nzoe have been drawn by Mr Wolf, from specimens brought home by myself.]

[Footnote 14: Round arm, 1 ft. 11 in.; chest, 4 ft. 4 in.; thigh, 2 ft.

7 in.; calf, 1 ft. 8 in.; height, 5 ft. 8 in.]

[Footnote 15: I.e. Dead Locust Lake,--Luta, dead--Nzige, locust.]

[Footnote 16: In 'Blackwood's Magazine' for August 1859.]

[Footnote 17: See p. 211.]

[Footnote 18: 1 block-tin box, 4 rich silk cloths, 1 rifle (Whitworth's), 1 gold chronometer, 1 revolver pistol, 3 rifled carbines, 3 sword-bayonets, 1 box ammunition, 1 box bullets, 1 box gun-caps, 1 telescope, 1 iron chair, 10 bundles best beads, 1 set of table-knives, spoons, and forks.]

[Footnote 19: The straight road down the Nile through Unyoro no one dares allude to at this time, as the two kings were always fighting.]

[Footnote 20: Some say a group of forty islands compose Sese.]

[Footnote 21: Named by Dr P. L. Sclater, Cosmetornis Spekii. The seventh pen feathers are double the length of the ordinaries, the eighth double that of the seventh, and the ninth 20 inches long. Bombay says the same bird is found in Uhiyow.]

[Footnote 22: It is questionable whether or not this word is a corruption of Bahr (sea of) Ingo.]

[Footnote 23: This obviously was an allusion to the way in which the first king of Uganda was countenanced by the great king of Kittara, according to the tradition given in Chapter IX.]

[Footnote 24: 1 double rifle, 1 block-tin box, 1 red blanket, 1 brown do., 10 copper wire, 4 socks full of different-coloured minute beads, 2 socks full of blue and white pigeon eggs, 1 Rodgers's pen-knife, 2 books, 1 elastic circle, 1 red handkerchief, 1 bag gun-caps, 1 pair scissors, 1 pomatum-pot, 1 quart bottle, 1 powder flask, 7 lb. powder, 1 dressing-case, 1 blacking-box, 1 bra.s.s lock and key, 4 bra.s.s handles, 8 bra.s.s sockets, 7 chintz, 7 binders, 1 red bag, 1 pair gla.s.s spectacles, 1 lucifer-box.]

[Footnote 25: It will appear shortly that is was actually not more than two marches to the northward of Faloro.]

[Footnote 26: Dr Khoblecher, the founder of the Austrian Church Mission Establishment of Gondokoro, ascertained that the Nile reached its lowest level there in the middle of January.]

[Footnote 27: The Baroness Miss A. van Capellan, and Mrs and Miss Tinne.]

[Footnote 28: See Petherick's succouring pet.i.tion, addressed to the Right Hon. Lord Ashburton, President of the Royal Geographical Society, in the Proceedings of that Society, date 10th June 1860.]