Lake Victoria; a narrative of explorations in search of the source of the Nile. Compiled from the Memoirs of Captains Speke and Grant, by G. C. Swayne

Part I. Chapter

I. THE SOMALI EXPEDITION. Speke's plans of exploration — He is appointed to assist Lieutenant Burton on an expedition to the Somali country with Lieutenants Herne and Stroyan — He crosses the mountains into the interior, while Burton goes to Harar, and the others collect cattle at Berbera — He returns to Aden, and sails again to the Somali, landing at Kurrum — His march to Berbera— Night-attack on the British camp — Stroyan killed— Burton, Herne, and Speke wounded — Miraculous escape of the latter, 15-52

Chapter II. Discovery Of The Tanganyika Lake

Projected expedition into the interior of Eastern Equatorial Africa — The Royal Geographical Society and the missionaries' map — Captains Burton and Speke go to Zanzibar — An excursion along the coast, and to Fuga — They start for the interior — Headquarters at KazÆ, an Arab depot — Discovery of the Tanganyika or Ujiji Lake — Speke crosses the lake— Burton and Speke explore it northwards — Return to Kaz£, 53-82

Chapter III. Discovery Of The Victoria Nyanza

Arab information at Kaz<? — Speke marches to the north— The country, people, and sultans — Wars and rumours of them — First sight of the great lake— Speke names it the Victoria Nyanza — Speculations about it and its neighbourhood — Adventures on the return march— The great resources of the country — Triumphal return to Kaz£, . . 83-112 CONTENTS. vi

Part II. Chapter

I. FROM ZANZIBAR TO KAz£ Captain Speke and Sir R. Murchison — Plans for another expedition — Preparations at Zanzibar— March through Uzaramo — Usagara and Ugogo, with notices of the people of those countries — Sporting — Adventures with buffaloes — The wilderness — Arrival in Unyamuezi — Natural history, ....... 115-141

CHAPTER II. FROM KAZE TO

KARAGU& Unyamuezi and its people — The march to Ukuni — Difficulties and delays — The Sultan Ukulima — Speke in advance — Grant's camp plundered by Myonga — Robber chiefs — Arrival in Usui — Suwarora's palace — Natural history and topography — The Watuta — Interview with a Watusi queen— They leave Uzinza, .... 142-177

CHAPTER III. KARAGUE.

Scenery on the way to Karagu6 — Beautiful site of Rumanika's palace — The Little Windermere Lake — Hospitable reception — Rumanika and his brother Nnanaji— His fat wives, his sons, and court — The Wauyambo — The royal musicians — Sporting adventures — Speke's conversations with Rumanika — He is sent for by the king of Uganda — Grant detained by illness — General remarks on the country and its productions — Grant's departure, ...... 178-210

Chapter IV. Uganda

History of the Wahuma dynasties — Speke's journey to Uganda — His reception by the king and the queen-dowager — Various incidents of his residence at Uganda — Manners and customs of the court and people — Grant's arrival— His observations by the way — Departure for the north, 211-262 CONTENTS. vii

Chapter V. Unyoro

Start on the northward journey — Grant and Speke divide, Speke making for the exit of the Nile and Grant for Kamrasi's — Speke at the Nile - the "Stones," or Ripon Falls — Speke tries to get down the Nile — The British flag surprised into piracy — Second battle of the Nile — Speke returns and looks for Grant — Grant meets him, having been driven back — They march together again forward — Sport with elephants— Kamrasi's palace — Description of Kamrasi- Long detention with the " King of the Beggars " — Superstition, &c. , of Unyoro, . . 263-300

Chapter VI. Unyoro To Egypt

The Nile and its floating islands — The district of Chopi — The Karuma Falls— Passage of the Wilderness of Kidi— The Gani — The camp of the elephant-hunters — Mahamed and his "ragged regiment "—Faloro — The Madi — Miani's name on a tree at Apuddo — Sporting adventures — March through the Bari — Hostile demonstrations — Gondokoro — Meeting with Sir Samuel Baker — Voyage down the Nile to Egypt, and return to England, ....... 301-342 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE nzoe antelopes, ..... Frontispiece SAID MAJID, SULTAN OF ZANZIBAR, . . . 118 BUGU, CALABASH, OR GOUTY-LIMBED TREES, . . 125 MHAMBAKU HILL, VIEWED FROM ZUNGOMERO, . . 126 HILL VIEW FROM EASTERN MBUIGA, .... 128 PRESENTING HUNTING SPOILS TO RUMANIKA, . . .198 ONE OF THE WAHUMA, ...... 213 THE KING OF UGANDA RETIRING, .... 234 THE KING OF UGANDA REVIEWING COLONEL CONGOW's REGIMENT, 253 KING MTESA HOLDING A LEVEE, .... 257 GOATSUCKER (Cos.netm~n.is Spekii), .... 266 THE RIPON FALLS — THE NILE FLOWING OUT OF VICTORIA NYANZA, 271 NSAMMA ANTELOPE — UGANDA, ..... 273 KAMRASI'S FIRST LESSON IN THE BIBLE, . . . 294 KIMENYA THE DWARF, ...... 297 THE KARUMA FALLS, KIDI, ..... 309 REMOVING A VILLAGE — MADI, ..... 324 THE NILE AND JBL KUKU, ..... 328 SPEKE'S "FAITHFULS," ......

LAKE VICTORIA. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. In spite of our Danish disgraces, and diplomatic defeats, and Jamaica Committees, and the thousand and one meannesses perpetrated by a generation deeply tainted with the worship of the " almighty dollar," the name of England is safe from contempt while she is still capable of producing men like those from whose diaries this narrative is compiled. While other countries are not unfruitful in the heroes of science, and France can boast of her Du Chaillu, her Maizan, her Jules Gerard — Ger many of her Vogel, her Barth, her Von der Decken — America of her Kane, — England still stands pre-eminent in the number of self-devoted men who have carried the double cross of her standard, like the leading-star of religion and civilisation, into the most inhospitable regions of the earth.

To mention names is invidious, because many will be omitted which deserve to be specified ; and yet it is impossible to think of African discovery without dwelling on the great name of Livingstone, the high priest and probably the martyr at once of faith and science ; and with- A out mentioning Speke and Grant's bold follower in the same regions, Sir Samuel Baker, who has enriched our maps by placing his great lake, called after " Albert the Good," by the side of that which Speke named after his beloved Sovereign — a happy combination, significative not of ambitious rivalry, but of harmonious union in a noble purpose. And the thought of African discovery suggests the valuable additions which have been made to know ledge by our Asiatic and American explorers, and by the pioneers of colonisation in the terrible deserts of Aus tralia, amongst whom must not be forgotten the valiant Eyre, who has added to his fame as a discoverer that peculiar merit for which ancient Rome would have de creed her most honourable crown — the merit of having saved the lives of citizens.

Though we may perhaps no longer possess the eyes to see heroism, it is a comfort to know that it still flourishes in our midst, if with little hope of adequate recognition ; and that a soil where such salt is still found, is a long way off from utter moral putre faction. Such are the class of men to whom England must always look for her leaders if her national existence or supremacy is imperilled by the bloated military establish ments of other nations ; men who have won victories of a higher character than those on the battle-field — victories over material nature and human ignorance — victories which have done great good and no harm to their kind, and where the lives of the victors have often been the only sacrifices, but won by an amount of personal courage, strate gical skill, patience, perseverance, and fortitude, such as the greatest campaigns ever fought have scarcely demanded.

It is more becoming to praise the dead than the living, and we may safely say that Speke was the beau iddal of a discoverer. In attempting to give, in a succinct form, the African experiences embodied in his notes and those of Captain Grant, it is necessary to confess that one great charm must be inevitably lost in the aroma of personal character that breathes from his own memoirs in number less little touches and traits and anecdotes, which it would be impossible to reproduce in a limited space. Even Speke's weaknesses are evidences of the kind of power that was eminently suited to his task. When, for instance, he confesses that he rather likes than otherwise those Somali ruffians who pierced his body with eleven wounds, because they were always in high spirits and loved "a jolly row," some grave people might shake their heads, and wonder how a man of ten years' Indian service could still have preserved that thoughtless sym pathy with exuberant life which is more appropriate to an Eton or Harrow boy ; but it was just such a sympathy that enabled him to bear up against that depression of spirits which must be produced by long and exclusive contact with a race who combine the most violent pas sions and worst vices of adults with the mental constitu tion of children, and so saved him from utter despair in barbarian human nature.

The worries he was subject to in his relations with the great black urchins who surrounded him were perhaps the greatest trial of his patience in his marvellous journeys, and could only be in a measure appreciated by those philanthropic gentlemen who have attempted to teach in a " ragged school." Even the most faithful of his men, such as Bombay and Baraka, gave Speke a world of trouble on the marches. The Wanguana or freedmen whom he took with him from Zanzibar were tolerably favourable specimens, yet he had to manage them like children, chiefly by humouring, tempered with a little fatherly severity. They used to say to him, when caught in some fault, " You ought to forgive and forget ; for are you not a big man who should be above harbouring spite, though for a moment you may be angry ? Flog me if you bke, but don't keep count against me, else I shall run away ; and what will you do then ?

" He mentions slavery and polygamy as the two chief curses of the African, which combine to keep him in a degraded condition. But these two evils are doubtless the consequences no less than the causes of his relatively humble position in the scale of human races. The man of a superior race, except under peculiar circumstances, will rather die than submit to slavery ; the woman of a superior race will inevitably rebel against polygamy. Slavery, in that naked ugliness which reduces a human being to a saleable chattel, and stifles in him the germ of a diviner life, is, of course, utterly indefensible. But there is a wide difference between such a slavery, as demoralising to the master as to the servant, and that degree of liberty which implies self-government. How few nations, even among the Æte of mankind, have proved themselves fit for this !

The utmost that can be said of most of them is, that with time they may possibly be educated up to it. The greatest possible happiness attainable at present by the unadulterated negro seems to be to fall under the just and mild dominion of some superior race. An ex ample of this was seen by Speke in the comparatively happy kingdom of Karague, which was ruled by a prince in whom Semitic blood seemed to predominate — the good king Rumanika. The tyrant of Uganda, Mtdsa, on the other hand, though a Wahuma by extraction, was said to have come of a family which had been degraded in its type by repeated intermixture with slaves. This prince is a fine specimen of a beggar on horseback — a spoilt child in a situation of absolute power. Not incapable of warm affections, and fully able by natural acuteness to appre ciate and submit to moral superiority, he indulges his animal propensities, and takes human life away, with an unconsciousness which, in a being not supposed to possess an immortal soul, would not be without a grim comicality.

His vanity, his ferocity, his vulgarity, his capacity for being amused with trifles, his indifference to everything but the enjoyment of the moment — lastly, his unbounded good-nature and unmeasured generosity — all stamp him as the representative negro. Such lessons ought not to be lost on those who, bke ourselves on a small scale, and the Americans on a large, have to deal with a population of emancipated black slaves. Nor are they to be lost on those excellent missionaries who, thinking solely of doing their duty in the service they have adopted, and the promotion of their peculiar views of Christian doctrine, may not always have had the leisure to study the natures of those who are the object of their labours. As babes must be fed with natural and wholesome milk, so must these simple people be weaned from superstitions by the inculcation of clear and simple doctrine, instead of having their weak brains puzzled with some complicated modern system of developed theology.

And in the name of all prudence, the family quarrels of the churches must remain as long as possible a dead letter to them. Accord ing to Speke's showing, the obstacles to missionary success are chiefly of an external character. As far as rebgion goes, the minds of the people in the interior of Africa would appear to be in the condition of a blank sheet of paper on which a few horrible caricatures have been scrawled by a haunting fear of the unknown supernatural. A message of universal love would appear to them almost too good news to be true. Yet there is little probability that the missionary can do much till the slave-hunter is put down. And this must be done, first, by shutting up one after another of the slave-markets; secondly, by teach ing the selfish Arabs and native princes that legitimate traffic will pay them much better, as well as introduce them to a world of comforts and conveniences, of which, under the present system, they must ever remain in igno rance.

Were the door thrown open to the missionary, it is obvious that a mere preacher would make very little way with the tribes of the interior. Even a Wilberforce, if obliged to express himself in Kisuahili, would find his accustomed eloquence soon fail him. A man bred in some ingenious trade, such as turning, would at once arrest their curiosity and arouse their intelligence ; and a good musician would at once find his way through their correct ears to. their hearts. But nothing would make a stronger impression upon them than a knowledge of sleight-of-hand, learned from some professional wizard, such as Robert Houdin, since the belief in magic is the only belief that stands in the way of a better ; and after Aaron's rod had swallowed the wands of the magicians, it would be easy to show that the apparent sorceiy was all produced by natural means.

It is really surprising, not merely as looking to the possible regeneration of benighted millions, but to the material gains which are sure to fol low from opening up so vast and rich a garden as Equa torial Africa, that so little has been done by the principal European Governments in forwarding exploring expedi tions. With us it has been considered far too much as a matter of interest for the Geographical Society alone. While money is forthcoming by hundreds of thousands of poundsfor enabling English products to make a creditable show at the Paris Exhibition, how niggardly in propor tion have been the doles dealt out to those brave men who have gone forward into the wilderness to prepare a vast virgin field for national enterprise ; and with what, perhaps unnecessary, sacrifices of their own resources, health, and often lives, have their labours been attended !

It was a miracle that Speke was able with his scanty guard to push through the tribes on his road to the Nile ; and probably Livingstone has perished — if he has — from the insufficient numbers as well as the untrustworthy nature of his defensive force. Yet all the narratives seem to show that a few hundred resolute and perfectly armed men, inured to similar climates, would be able to walk through Africa from one side to the other. It is only in the large kingdoms, such as Unyoro, Uganda, and Karagui., that large armies could be collected by the chiefs ; and the kings of these two first countries appear to be perfectly manageable — the first through his avarice, the second through his vanity ; while it seems to be the strongest wish of the exceptionally far-sighted Rumanika to open his gates to Europeans.

All the agricultural tribes on Speke's route seemed very glad to see him, though not averse to exacting as much black-mail as possible in a friendly way ; and such exac tions, though it might not be prudent altogether to resist them, might easily be kept within bounds by the presence of a strong armed force. The only tribes who keep up the true Ishmaelite character of hostility to all strangers appear to be the wandering pastorals, such as the Somab and Masai ; and, of course, it would be necessary to keep them at arm's length. A careless confidence might lead to such a disaster as ruined the expedition which was to have started from Berbera; but, after all, these tribesdo not appear to trust each other sufficiently to enable them to take common action in considerable numbers, and they appear to be very sparingly supplied with firearms.

The mere employment of breech-loading guns would probably be equivalent to doubbng the numbers of any expeditionary force. Two valuable hints to future explorers seem to be given by the account of Speke's rapid and most suc cessful journey from Kaz^ to the Victoria Nyanza in 1858. The first of these refers to the quabty of the guard. He found he was faithfully and courageously served by some Beluch volunteers from the Sultan of Zanzibar's mercen aries, and such men are to be found in abundance among the Sikhs and in the northern provinces of India, who have been used to British discipline, and would probably bear well a climate not on an average more trying than their own. The other hint touches the advantage of flying columns for purposes of exploration, unencumbered by what the conquerors of the world, in just contempt, called impedimenta.

Of course this implies the existence of a central depot for the expedition : such, in this case, had been formed in the Arab settlement of Kaz^. From Speke's description, no region, from its fertility and resources, appears better suited for a base of future opera tions than that about Ujiji on the Tanganyika Lake. Supposing such a depot estabbshed there, strongly posted, of course, in an intrenched camp, the different points of present geographical interest might be attacked at once by different parties — one, for instance, might go to the head of the lake, and see whether the river Speke heard of, but did not see there, really exists — whether, if exist ing, it flows into or out of the lake, and whether there is any communication between the Tanganyika, by it or other wise, and Baker's Albert Nyanza ; another might go to the south of the lake, and ascertain in what direction the river flows at that extremity, and whether the Tanganyika is connected by it with Livingstone's Nyassa, and endeavour to set the public mind at rest as to Livingstone's own fate ; while another might proceed to the south of the Victoria Nyanza, and build boats, possibly of iron, in the lack of building-trees, by the help of the smiths in those parts, for the thorough exploration of the eastern shores of the Nyanza.

It would now be generally admitted that Speke's great discoveries have gained in importance since those of Sir Samuel Baker have been pubbshed, confirm ing them in the most important particulars. Certainly Speke did not seem to have an idea of the great extent of the Luta Nzige" Lake, though he mentions native accounts which would have led him to infer it. On one subject only is he dogmatic — the physical impos sibibty of any of the great African rivers having their main sources anywhere except in the equatorial rainy zone ; and as yet he has not been disproved. He was perhaps, too, a bttle confident that the head of the Tanganyika was completely shut in by mountains, for appearances in such cases are often delusive, and gaps and rents in hills by natural convulsions are often not seen except at their entrances.

It would be strange if it should turn out that Speke was doubly right about the importance of the Victoria Nyanza, in the unexpected sense that water flows from his Nile into and out of Baker's lake, and, moreover, through Baker's lake into the Tan ganyika, and so on into the Nyassa, forming a sort of southern Nile springing from the same reservoir as the northern. But, in the present state of facts, such specula tions are simply amusing. When every corner of the country is known, and every principal source of the Nile has been visited, the real fountainhead of the river may still be a subject of controversy, — just as it is in the case of the best -known rivers, such as the Rhine and the Danube ; but not the less for this has Speke rendered inestimable services to geographical science, and his name is quite worthy to be bracketed with that of Bruce, who discovered the source of the Blue Nile in the Abyssinian hills, which was long thought the most important branch, as having the greater influence on the inundations in Egypt.

It may almost be disputed whether it is consist ent with geographical accuracy to speak of the source of a river at all. A little brook may flow from a source, but a river has the configuration of a tree, its farthest source being, as it were, only the topmost of a multitude of branches. It would be very difficult for any future explorers to achieve greater results than Speke and Grant effected with the means at their disposal ; but a thoroughly well-found expedition, with a nucleus of Europeans eminent in different branches of science, might be able in the same time to gather much more multifarious information, as all work is more perfectly done by division of labour. It certainly speaks highly for the education of Englishmen, that two Indian officers were found able and willing to march into the heart of Africa, who were both more or less competent commanders, sportsmen, zoologists, geologists, land-sur veyors, mathematicians, ethnologists, and philologists, besides being able to throw their observations on men and manners into language which proved what they might have done had they confined themselves to the province of pure literature.

Amongst the scattered no tices of the languages of 'the tribes through whom they travelled, one remark deserves particular notice — that the equator appears to be the boundary between two entirely different classes of languages. All the nations from Zanzibar to Unyoro appear to speak different dialects of the language of Unyamuezi, or the country of the Moon, which becomes at Zanzibar the Kisuahili or Coast dialect ; while the nations to the north of the equator speak languages differing from it in some important particulars. Speke says that the Coast language is based on euphony, which introduces a great complexity of forms, but this is a characteristic of many Indo-European tongues, such as the Greek, and still more the Sanscrit; while it appears to differ essentially from them in being not an inflexional but an agglutinative language, like the Basque, the Mag yar, and the Osmanli in Europe.

For instance, the syl lable Wa prefixed to the word signifying a country, means men or people ; U, in the same place, means locality, or the country itself; M means a man or individual, and Ki the language. As an example, we have Wagogo, Mgogo, Ugogo, Kigogo — the people, man, country, and language of Gogo respectively. It was only observed of the people to the north of the equator — the Gani, for in stance — -that all their words had a guttural sound, and they seemed to swallow them in speaking. Here, it may be seen at a glance, is a wide field opened for investiga tion, and from the extensive area in which the Kisuahib language is spoken, with certain modifications, it would appear that an adequate knowledge of it would be a most powerful instrument in the hands of any traveller whose object it might be to bring these races into closer relations with our civilisation.

One remark more in preface to this narrative. What ever may be effected by subsequent travellers, however great in a scientific point of view may be the results of their labours, our heroes will always stand, alone as having performed the unparalleled feat of crossing from the south east of Africa to the north by a path unknown to civil ised man before, with a courage and confidence equal to that of Columbus when he discovered America. Courage is not a rare virtue among British officers ; but to judge of the amount of patience, self-command, and forbearance necessary to accompbsh such a task, the narrative itself must be read ; and indeed its perusal will not be without a moral bearing on the general relations of bfe. GEORGE CARLESS SWAYNE. Boscobel House, Clifton.

PART I. PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS PART

I

Chapter I. The Somali Expedition

SPEKE'S TLANS OF EXPLORATION — HE IS APPOINTED TO ASSIST LIEU- TENANT BURTON ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE SOMALI COUNTRY WITH LIEUTENANTS HERNE AND STROYAN — HE CROSSES THE MOUNTAINS INTO THE INTERIOR, WHILE BURTON GOES TO HARAR, AND THE OTHERS COLLECT CATTLE AT BERBERA — HE RETURNS TO ADEN, AND SAILS AGAIN TO THE SOMALI, LANDING AT KURRUM — HIS MARCH TO BERBERA — NIGHT- ATTACK ON THE BRITISH CAMP — STROYAN KILLED — BURTON, HERNE, AND SPEKE WOUNDED— MIRA- CULOUS ESCAPE OF THE LATTER. It was in the year 1849 that Lieutenant Speke first formed the idea of exploring Equatorial Africa. His only object at first was to complete a museum of natural his tory that he had formed at his father's house, principally from specimens collected on the slopes of the Himalayas, and in Tibet, during service in India.

He was obliged to wait for the three years' furlough, granted to Indian officers after ten years' service, before he would be able to carry his plan into execution ; and then he proposed, by landing on the east coast of Africa, to strike the Nile at its sources, and travel down its course to Egypt, expecting PLAN OF EXPEDITION. to find the Mountains of the Moon stretching in a vast chain across the African continent, and the Nile rising in perpetual snows at some point in the chain, as the Ganges rises in the high region of the Himalayas. On the very day following that on which his ten years' term of service had expired — namely, the 4th of September 1854 — he sailed from the Indian shore for Aden, having bought various articles to the amount of £390 for distribution as presents among the natives of Africa.

His intention was to begin by endeavouring to pass through the Somab country opposite Aden ; but Colonel, afterwards Sir James, Outram, the British Political Resident, refused at first to countenance any such proceeding, not wishing to risk the life of a countryman among the impracticable savages of that region. But as the Bombay Government, contrary to the advice of Colonel Outram — which the event proved to be sound — was at this time organising an expedition for the ex ploration of the Somali Land under the command of Lieu tenant Burton, who, having succeeded in reaching Mecca, was thought most fit to be trusted with the conduct of an almost desperate enterprise, Colonel Outram suggested to Speke, that if he was determined to go at all hazards, he had better procure his appointment as an officer of this expedition, with which Lieutenants Stroyan and Herne had already been associated in an assistant capacity.

This plan suited Speke admirably, as it would save him his furlough for another occasion ; and so he immediately obtained the consent of Burton, while Colonel Outram procured his appointment to the service. The character of the inhabitants of the Somali country appears to be well, and not very favourably, known at Aden. With a thousand vices they seem to combine the solitary virtue of being expert donkeydrivers. They are CHARACTER OF THE SOMALI. 17 notorious for cheating and lying, boasting of their ex ploits of this kind, and so boisterous and quarrelsome that it is found necessary to deprive them of arms. When first arrived, it was the habit of the different tribes to fight out their feuds with spear and shield on the hill-sides of the crater of Aden, and the same battles were afterwards carried on by means of sticks and stones.

There were, in con sequence, few of the men who did not bear scars, some of them so deep that it was a miracle how they could have recovered from the hurts inflicted on these occasions. The simple costume of the men consists of a single sheet of long cloth, eight cubits long, thrown over the shoulder in the manner of a plaid. Some shave the head entirely, others wear the mane of a lion as a wig, which is supposed to add ferocity to the aspect of the wearer ; while those who affect the exquisite let their hair grow, and adorn it with sticks resembling Chinese joss-sticks, which they also use as a comb to dress it. Their arms in their own country are a spear and shield, a club and a long two-edged knife. The women dress in a cloth which they fasten tightly round the body just under the arms, allowing it to fall evenly to the ground so as en tirely to cover the legs.