Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume Ii Part 7

5, an admirable paper ent.i.tled "Observations, Systematical and Geographical, on Professor Christian Smith's Collection of Plants from the Vicinity of the River Congo, by Robert Brown, F.R.S."

The "Geology," by Mr. Charles Konig, of the British Museum, is based upon very scanty materials. The folio must not be severely criticized; had the writers lived, they might have worked up their unfinished logs into interesting and instructive matter.

But evidently they had not prepared themselves for the work; no one knew the periods of rain at the equator; there was no linguist to avoid mistakes in the vocabulary; moreover, Professor Smith's notes, being kept in small and ill-formed Danish characters, caused such misprints as "poppies" for papaws. Some few of the mistakes should be noticed for the benefit of students. The expedition appears to have confused So Salvador, the capital, with St. Antonio placed seven days from the river mouth (p. 277). It calls Santo Anto (Cape Verds) "San Antonio;"

the Ilha das Rolas (of turtle doves) Rolle's Island; "morfil"

bristles of the elephant's tail, and manafili ivory, both being from the Portuguese marfim; moudela for mondele or mondelle, a white man; malava, "presents," for mulavu (s. s. as msamba, not maluvi, Douville), palm wine, which in the form mulavu m'putu (Portuguese) applies to wine and spirits. We have also "Leimba"

for Lyamba or Dyamba (Cannabis saliva); "Maca.s.so, a nut chewed by great people only," for Makazo, the bean of the Kola (Sterculia); "Hyphaea" and "Dom" for Palmyra Flabelliformis, whose "fruit hangs down in bunched cl.u.s.ters;" "Raphia" for Raphia Vinifera, commonly called the bamboo or wine palm, and "casa," a purgative legumen, for nkasa, "sa.s.s," or poison wood, identified with the red-water tree of Sierra Leone, the erythropheum of Professor Afzelius, of the order Caealpineae, which gave a name to the Brazil.

The next important visit to the Congo River was paid by Captain Owen's Expedition, when homeward bound in 1826. The "Leven" and "Barracouta" surveyed the stream twenty-five miles from its mouth during a week, beginning with January 1, just after the highest flood. At thirteen miles out at sea the water was fresh and of a dingy red; it fermented and remained in a highly putrescent state for some days, tarnis.h.i.+ng silver; kept for four months, it became perfectly clear and colourless, without depositing any sediment.

This reminds us of the changing colours, green, red and milky white, to which the Nile and all great African rivers that flood periodically are subject.[FN#15]

The next traveller that deserves notice is the unfortunate Douville,[FN#16] through whose tissue of imposture runs a golden thread of truth. As his first journey, occupying nearly two of the three volumes, was probably confined to the Valley of the Cuanza River, so his second, extending beyond the equator, and to a meridian 25 east of Paris, becomes fable as he leaves the course of the Loge Stream. Yet, although he begins by doubting that the Coango and the Zaire are the same waters, he ends by recognizing the fact, and his map justly lays down the Fleuve Couango dit Zaire a son embouchure. Whether the tale of the mulatto surveyor be fact or not is of little matter: the adventurer had an evident inkling of the truth.

A flood of side light is thrown upon the head waters of the Congo River by Dr. Livingstone's first memorable journey (1852-56), across Africa, and by the more dubious notices of his third expedition The Introduction (p. xviii.) to Captain Tuckey's narrative had concluded from the fact of the highest flood being in March, and the lowest level about the end of August, that at least one branch of the river must pa.s.s through some portion of the northern hemisphere. The general observations affixed to "Narrative" (p. 346), contain these words: "If the rise of the Zaire had proceeded from rains to the southward of the Line, swelling the tributary streams and pouring in mountain torrents the waters into the main channel, the rise would have been sudden and impetuous." Of course the writer had recourse to the "Lakes of w.a.n.gara," in north lat.i.tude 12 to 15: that solution of the difficulty belonged inevitably to his day. Captain Tuckey (p.

178) learned, at Mavunda, that ten days of canoeing would take him beyond all the rapids to a large sandy islet which makes two channels, one to the north-west, the other to the north-east. In the latter there is a fall above which canoes are procurable: twenty days higher up the river issues, by many small streams, from a great marsh or lake of mud.[FN#17] Again, a private letter written from the "Yellala" (p. 343) declares that "the Zaire would be found to issue from a lake or a chain of lakes considerably to the north of the Line; and, so far from the low state of the river in July and August militating against the hypothesis, it gives additional weight, provided the river swell in early September"--which it did. In his "Journal" (p. 224), we find a memorandum, written as it were with a dying hand, "Hypothesis confirmed. The water..."

On February 24, 1854, Dr. Livingstone, after leaving what he calls the "Dilolo Lake," found on an almost level plain, some 4,000 to 5,000 feet high and then flooded after rains, a great water parting between the eastern and the western continental sh.o.r.es. I have carefully considered the strictures upon this subject by the author of "Dr. Livingstone's Errors" (p. 101), and have come to the conclusion that the explorer was too experienced to make the mistakes attributed to him by the cabinet geographer.

The translation "despair" for "bitterness" (of the fish?) and the reference to Noah's Deluge may be little touches ad captandum; but the Kibundo or Angolan tongue certainly has a dental though it lacks a cerebral d.

The easterly flow was here represented by the Leeba or upper course of the "Leeambye," the "Diambege of Ladislaus Magyar, that great northern and north-western course of the Zambeze across which older geographers had thrown a dam of lofty mountains, where the Mosi-wa-tunya cataract was afterwards discovered. The opposite versant flowing to the north was the Kasai or Kasye (Livingstone), the Casais of the Pombeiros, the Casati of Douville, the Casasi and Casezi of M. Cooley (who derives it from Casezi, a priest, the corrupted Arabic Kissis ); the Ka.s.sabi (Casabi) of Beke, the Ca.s.saby of Monteiro and Gamitto (p. 494), and the Ka.s.saby or Ca.s.say of Valdez. Its head water is afterwards called by the explorer Lomame and Loke, possibly for Lu-oke, because it drains the highlands of Mossamba and the district of Ji-oke, also called Ki-oke, Kiboke, and by the Portuguese "Quiboque." The stream is described as being one hundred yards broad, running through a deep green glen like the Clyde. The people attested its length by a.s.serting, in true African style, "If you sail along it for months, you will turn without seeing the end of it:" European geographers apparently will not understand that this declaration shows only the ignorance of the natives concerning everything a few miles beyond their homes. The explorer (February 27,1854) places the ford in south lat.i.tude 11 15' 47", and his map shows east longitude (G.), 21 40' 30", about 7 30' (=450 direct geographical miles) from Novo Redondo on the Western Coast. He dots its rise in the "Balobale country,"

south lat.i.tude 12 to 13, and east longitude 19 to 20.

Pursuing his course, Dr. Livingstone (March 30) first sighted the Quango (Coango) as it emerged from the dark jungles of Londa, a giant Clyde, some 350 yards broad, flowing down an enormous valley of denudation. He reached it on April, 1854, in south lat.i.tude 9 53', and east longitude (G.) 18 37', about 300 geographical linear miles from the Atlantic. Three days to the west lies the easternmost station of Angola, Ca.s.sange: no Portuguese lives, or rather then lived, beyond the Coango Valley.

The settlers informed him that eight days' or about 100 miles'

march south of this position, the sources are to be found in the "Mosamba Range" of the Basongo country; this would place them in about south lat.i.tude 12 to 13 and east longitude (G.) 18 to 19.

The heights are also called in Benguela Nanos, Nannos, or Nhanos (highlands);[FN#18] and in our latest maps they are made to discharge from their seaward face the Coango and Cuanza to the west and north, the Kasai to the north-east and possibly to the Congo, the Cunene south-westwards to the Atlantic, and southwards the Kubango, whose destination is still doubtful. Dr. Charles Beke ("Athenaeum," No. 2206, February 5, 1870), judged from various considerations that the "Ka.s.sabi" rising in the primeval forests of Olo-vihenda, was the "great hydrophylacium of the continent of Africa, the central point of division between the waters flowing to the Mediterranean, to the Atlantic, and to the Indian Ocean"--in fact, the head-water of the Nile. I believe, however, that our subsequent information made my late friend abandon this theory.

On his return march to Linyanti, Dr. Livingstone, who was no longer incapacitated by sickness and fatigue, perceived that all the western feeders of the "Kasa" flow first from the western side towards the centre of the continent, then gradually turn with the main stream itself to the north, and "after the confluence of the Kasai with the Quango, an immense body of water collected from all these branches, finds its way out of the country by means of the River Congo or Zaire, on the Western Coast" (chap. xxii.). He adds: "There is but one opinion among the Balonda respecting the Kasai and the Quango. They invariably describe the Kasai as receiving the Quango, and beyond the confluence a.s.suming the name of Zaire or Zerezere. And thus he verifies the tradition of the Portuguese, who always speak of the Casais and the Coango as "supposto Congo." It is regrettable that Dr. Livingstone has not been more explicit upon the native names.

The Balonda could hardly have heard of the semi-European term Zaire, which is utterly unknown even at the Yellalas. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that Maxwell was informed by native travellers that the river 600 miles up country was still called "Enzaddi," and perhaps the explorer merely intends Zaire to explain Zerezere. It is hardly necessary to notice Douville's a.s.sertion (ii. 372).

Meanwhile the late Ladislaus Magyar, who had previously informed the Benguelan Government that the Casais was reported to fall into the Indian Ocean at some unknown place, in 1851 followed this great artery lower than any known traveller. He heard that, beyond his furthest exploration point (about south lat.i.tude 6 30,[FN#19] and east longitude, G. 22), it pursues a north- easterly direction and, widening several miles, it raises waves which are dangerous to canoes. The waters continue to be sweet and fall into a lake variously called Mouro or Moura (Morave or Maravi?), Uhanja or Uhenje (Nyanza?), which is suspected to be the Urenge or Ulenge, of which Livingstone heard in about south lat.i.tude 3, and east longitude (G.) 26. The Hungarian traveller naturally identified it with the mythical Lake Nya.s.sa which has done such portentous mischief in a day now gone by. Ladislaus Magyar also states:[FN#20] "The Congo rises, I have convinced myself by reports, in the swamp named Inhan-ha occupying the high plateau of Moluwa, in the lands of the Luba, uniting with the many streams of this region; at a distance of about five days from the source it becomes a deep though narrow river, which flows to the westward, through a level country covered with dense forests, whose frequent streams coming from the north (?) and south are taken up "by the river; then it bends north-westward under the name of Kuango." Here we find the drowned lands, the "sponges" of Livingstone, who, however, placed the sources much further to the south-east.

Dr. Livingstone's third and last expedition, which began on March 24, 1866, and which ended (1873) with fatal fitness in the swamps of the Bangweolo, suggests a new and more distant derivation for the mighty Congo. After travelling from the Rovuma River to Lake Nya.s.sa, the great explorer in l867-8 came upon an "earthern mound," west of Lake Bangweolo or Bemba, in about south lat.i.tude 11; and here he places the sources of the Nile, where geographers have agreed provisionally to place the sources of the Congo. Already, in 1518, Fernandez de Enciso (Suma de Geographia), the "theoretical discoverer" of Kilimanjaro, was told by the Congoese that their river rises in high mountains, from which another great stream flows in an opposite direction-- but this might apply to more watersheds than one. The subject is treated at considerable length in an article by Dr. E.

Behm,[FN#21] certain of whose remarks I shall notice at the end of this chapter.

The article proves hypsometrically that the Lualaba, in which the explorer found the head waters of the Egyptian river, cannot feed the Tanganyika nor the Lake Nzige (N'zighe, Mwutan, Chowambe, or Albert Nyanza Lake), nor even the Bahr el Ghazal, as was once suspected. From the latter, indeed, it is barred by the water parting of the Welle, the "Babura" of Jules Poncet (1860), in the land of the Monb.u.t.tu; whose system the later explorer, Dr.

Schweinfurth, is disposed to connect with the Shari.

Hydrometrically considered, the Lualaba, which at Nyangwe, the most northerly point explored by Dr. Livingstone (1870), rolls a flood of 124,000 cubic feet per second in the dry season, cannot be connected either with the Welle (5,100 cubic feet), nor with the Bahr el Ghazal (3,042 to 6,500 cubic feet), nor with the Nile below the mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal (11,330); nor with the Shari (67,500); nor with the shallow Ogobe, through its main forks the Rembo Okanda and the Rembo Nguye.

But the Lualaba may issue through the Congo. The former is made one of the four streams ferried over by those travelling from the Cazembe to the Mwata ya Nvo, and Dr. de Lacarda[FN#22] records it as the "Guarava," probably a dialectic form of Lualava. It is the Luapula of the "Geographer of N'ya.s.si," who, with his usual felicity and boldness of conjecture (p. 38), bends it eastward, and discharges it into his mythical Central Sea.

Dr. Behm greatly under-estimates the Congo when he a.s.signs to it only 1,800,000 cubic feet per second. He makes the great artery begin to rise in November instead of September and decrease in April, without noticing the March-June freshets, reported by all the natives to measure about one-third of the autumnal floods.

His elements are taken from Tuckey, who found off the "Diamond Rock" a velocity of 3.50 knots an hour, and from Vidal's Chart, showing 9,000 English feet or 1.50 nautical miles in a Thalweg fifty fathoms deep. Thus he a.s.sumes only two nautical miles for the current, or sixty inches per second, which must be considerably increased, and an average depth of ten fathoms, which again is too little. For 1,800,000 cubic feet of water per second, which Tuckey made 2,000,000, we may safely read 2,500,000.

Dr. Livingstone himself was haunted by the idea that he was exploring the Upper Congo, not the Nile. From a Portuguese subordinate he "learned that the Luapula went to Angola." He asks with some truth, "Who would care to risk being put into a cannibal pot, and be converted into blackman for anything less than the grand old Nile?" And the late Sir Roderick I. Murchison, whose geographical forecasts were sometimes remarkable, suspected long ago[FN#23] that his "ill.u.s.trious friend" would follow the drainage of the country to the western coast.

The "extraordinary quiet rise of the periodical flood," proved by the first expedition, argues that the Congo "issues from the gradual overflowing of a lake or a chain of lakes." The increment in the lower bed, only eight to twelve feet where the Nile and the Ganges rise thirty and the Binuwe fifty, would also suggest that it is provided with many large reservoirs. The Introduction to Tuckey's "Narrative" (p. xviii.) a.s.sumes that the highest water is in March, but he entered the stream only on July 6, and the expedition ended in mid-October. The best informants a.s.sured me that from March till June there are heavy freshets. As in the Ogobe, the flood begins in early September, somewhat preceding that of the Lualaba, but, unlike the former stream, it attains its highest in November and December, and it gradually subsides from the end of June till August, about which time the water is lowest.

In the middle region of the Tanganyika, I found the rainy season lasting from September to May. At Lake Liemba, the south-eastern projection of the Tanganyika, Dr. Livingstone in 1867 saw no rain from May 12 to September, and in Many-wema-land, west of the central Tanganyika, about south lat.i.tude 5, the wet season began in November, and continued till July with intervals, marking the pa.s.sage of the belt of calms. But, for the Congo to rise in September, we must a.s.sume the rains to have fallen in early August, allowing ten or fifteen days for the streams to descend, and the rest for the saturation of the land. This postulates a supply from the Central African regions far north of the equator.

Even for the March-June freshets, we must also undoubtedly go north of the Line, yet Herr H. Kiepert[FN#24] places the northernmost influent of Congo some 150 miles south of the equator. Under these limitations I agree with Dr. Behm:--"Taking everything into consideration, in the present state of our knowledge, there is the strongest probability that the Lualaba is the head stream of the Congo, and the absolute certainty that it has no connection with the Nile or any other river (system) of the northern hemisphere." And again: "As surely as the sun stands over the southern hemisphere in our winter and the northern in our summer, bringing the rains and the swellings of the tropical rivers when it is in the zenith with regard to them, so surely can it be predicated, from a comparison of the rainy seasons and times of rising, that the Lualaba belongs to no river of the northern hemisphere; in the southern hemisphere Africa possesses only one river, the Congo, which could take up the vast water supply of the Lualaba." The Brazil shows the curious feature of widely different and even opposite rainy seasons in the same parallel of lat.i.tude; but this is not the place to discuss the subject.

Since these lines were written, I have to lament the collapse of the Livingstone-Congo Expedition. In 1872 the great explorer's friends, taking into consideration the prospect of his turning westward, organized a "relief" from West as well as from East Africa. Mr. J. Young, of Kelly, generously supplied the sinews of travel, and Mr. Clements R. Markham, Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, lent important aid in preparing the exploration. Navigating-Lieutenant W. J. Grandy, who had seen service on the eastern coast of Africa, landed at S. Paulo de Loanda in early 1873, and set out from Ambriz in March of that year. The usual difficulties were met and overcome, when Lieutenant Grandy was summarily recalled. The official explanation ("Royal Geographical Society," December 14th, 1874), is that the measure was in consequence of Livingstone's death.

The traveller himself says:--"Complying with instructions, we, with many regrets at the idea of leaving our work unfinished when all seemed so full of promise, commenced preparations for the return, leaving good presents with the chiefs, in order to procure a good reception for those who might come after us." An Ex-President of the Royal Geographical Society had a.s.serted, "The ascent of the (Upper) Congo ought to be more productive of useful geographical results than any other branch of African exploration, as it will bring to the test of experiment the navigability of the Congo above the Falls, and thus possibly open out a means of introducing traffic by steam into the heart of the continent at least two thousand miles from the mouth of the river."

With this explicit and stimulating a.s.sertion before us, we must lament that England, once the worthy rival in exploration of Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, is now too poor to support a single exploration on the West African Coast, when Germany is wealthy enough liberally to subsidize two.

Note.

A nous deux, Dr. E. Behm!

My objections to your paper are the three following: 1. It generally understates the volume of the Nzadi, by not allowing sufficiently for the double equinoctial periods of high water, March to June, as well as September to December; and by ignoring the north-equatorial supply. 2. It arbitrarily determines the question of the Tanganyika, separating it from the Nile-system upon the insufficient strength of a gorilla, and of an oil-palm which is specifically different from that of the Western Coast; and 3. It wilfully misrepresents Dr. Livingstone in the matter of the so-called Victoria Nyanza.

My first objection has been amply discussed. I therefore proceed to consider the second. As Mr. Alexander G. Findlay observed ("Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," No. 3, vol.

xvii. of July 28, 1873):--"Up to the time of Stanley's arrival at Ujiji, and his journey to the north of the lake, Livingstone was fully impressed with the conviction that the Tanganyika is nothing more than what he called a ?lacustrine river' (329 miles long by twenty of average breadth); flowing steadily to the north and forming a portion of the Great Nile Basin. The letters contained his reasons for forming that opinion, stating that he had been for weeks and months on the sh.o.r.es of the lake watching the flow of the water northwards" (at the rate of a knot per hour). At times the current appeared to run southwards, but that was under the influence of strong northerly winds. Also by Dr.

Livingstone's letters to Sir Thomas Maclear and Dr. Mann ("

Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,"No. i of 1873, pp.

69-70), it is evident that the explorer believed only in the lake outlet north of Ujiji. Again, Mr. Findlay, after attentively considering the unsatisfactory visit of Dr. Livingstone and Mr.

Stanley to the Rusizi River in November and December, 1871, holds it to be a mere marsh-drain, which when the south winds prevail, would possibly flow in the opposite direction; and he still believes that Captain Speke and I, when at Uvira, were within five or six miles of the head.

Since Dr. Livingstone's visit we have heard more upon this disputed subject. A native of Karagwah a.s.sured my friend Sir Samuel Baker--who, despite all prepossessions, candidly accepted the statement--that it is possible and feasible to canoe from Chibero,on the so-called Albert Nyanza, past Uvira, where the stream narrows and where a pilot is required, to the Arab depot, Ujiji. He described the northern portion of the Tanganyika as varying much in breadth, immensely wide beyond Vacovia, and again contracting at Uvira. His report was confirmed by a Msawahili, sent by King Mtesa, with whom he had lived many years, to communicate with Baker Pasha at Fatiko; this man knew both Uvira and Ujiji, which he called "Uyiyi." Nothing can be more substantial than this double testimony, which wears all the semblance of truth.

On the other hand, Lieut. Cameron, whose admirable work has, so to speak, re-constructed the Tanganyika Lake, discovered, on the 3rd of May, 18-74, the Lukuga River, which he supposes to form the outlet. It lies 25 direct miles to the south of the Kasenge Archipelago, numbering seventeen isles, visited by Captain Speke in March, 1857. Dr. Livingstone touched here on July 13, 1869, and heard nothing of the outlet; he describes a current sweeping round Kasenge to south-east or southwards according to the wind, and carrying trees at the rate of a knot an hour. But Mr. Stanley (pp. 400 et pa.s.sim) agrees with Dr. Krapf, who made a large river issue from "the lake" westwards, and who proposed, by following its course, to reach the Atlantic. The "discoverer of Livingstone" evidently inclines to believe that the Tanganyika drains through the caverns of Kabogo near Uguhha, and he records the information of native travellers that "Kabogo is a great mountain on the other side of the Tanganyika, full of deep holes, into which the water rolls; "moreover, that at the distance of over a hundred miles he himself heard the" sound of the thundering surf which is said to roll into the caves of Kabogo."In his map he ?cutely avoids inserting anything beyond "Kabogo Mountains, 6,000 to 7,000 feet high."

The gallant young naval lieutenant's exploration of the Lukuga has not yet reached us in a satisfactory form. He found the current sluggishly flowing at the rate of 1.2 knots per hour; he followed it for four or five miles, and he was stopped by floating gra.s.s and enormous rushes (papyri?). A friendly chief told him that the Lukuga feeds the Lualaba which, beyond Nyangwe (Livingstone's furthest point, in about south lat.i.tude 4) takes the name of Ugarowwa. An Arab had descended this stream fifty- five marches, and reached a place where there were s.h.i.+ps and white merchants who traded largely in palm-oil and ivory, both rare on the Congo River. And, unfortunately, "the name (River) Congo was also mentioned," a term utterly unknown except to the few Portuguese-speaking natives.

At present, therefore, we must reserve judgment, and the only conclusion to which the unprofessional reader would come is that the weight of authority is in favour of a double issue for the Tanganyika, north and west.

The wilful misrepresentation is couched in these words: "The reports obtained by Livingstone are if anything favourable to the unity of the Victoria Nyanza (Ukerewe, Ukara,) because along with it he names only such lakes as were already known to have a separate existence from it." As several were recognized, ergo it is one! Dr. Livingstone heard from independent sources that the so-called Victoria Nyanza is a lake region, not a lake; his account of the Okara (Ukara), and the three or four waters run into a single huge sheet, is substantially the same as that which, after a study of the Rev. Mr. Wakefield's Reports I offered to the Royal Geographical Society, and which I subsequently published in "Zanzibar City, Island, and Coast."

You, Dr. Behm, are apparently satisfied with a lake drained by an inverted delta of half-a-dozen issues--I am not. Nor can I agree with you that "whether the Victoria Nyanza is one lake or several is a point of detail of less importance," when it has disfigured the best maps of Africa for nearly a score of years. The last intelligence concerning the "unity" of the lake is from Colonel C. C. Long, a staff-officer in the service of His Highness the Khedive, who was sent by Colonel Gordon on a friendly mission to King Mtesa of Uganda. With permission to descend "Murchison Creek," and to view "Lake Victoria Nyanza," Colonel Long, after a march of three hours, took boat. He sounded the waters of the lake, and found a depth of from 25 to 35 feet; in clear weather the opposite sh.o.r.e was visible, appearing "to an unnautical eye"

from 12 to 15 miles distant; nor could this estimate be greatly wrong. After much negotiation and opposition he obtained leave to return to Egyptian territory by water, and on the way, in north lat.i.tude 1 30', he discovered a second lake or "large basin," at least 20 to 25 miles wide. The geography is somewhat hazy, but the a.s.sertions are not to be mistaken.

Finally, I read with regret such statements as the following, made by so well-known a geographer as yourself: "Speke's views have been splendidly confirmed; the attacks of his opponents, especially of Burton, who was most inimically inclined to him, collapse into nothing." This unwarrantable style of a.s.sertion might be expected from the "Mittheilungen," but it is not honourable to a man of science. There are, you well know, three main points of difference between the late Captain Speke and myself. The first is the horse-shoe of mountains blocking up the northern end of the Tanganyika; this, after a dozen years, I succeeded in abolis.h.i.+ng. The second is the existence of the Victoria Nyanza, which I a.s.sert to be a lake region, not a lake; it is far from being a "point of detail," and I hope presently to see it follow the way of the horse-shoe. Thirdly is the drainage of the Tanganyika, which Captain Speke threw southward to the Zambeze, a theory now universally abandoned. This may be your view of "splendid confirmation"--I venture to think that it will not be accepted by the geographical world.

Chapter XI.

Life at Banza Nokki.

I was now duly established with my books and instruments at Nkaye, and the inevitable delay was employed in studying the country and the people, and in making a botanical collection. But the season was wholly unpropitious. A naval officer, who was considered an authority upon the Coast, had advised me to travel in September, when a journey should never begin later than May.

The vegetation was feeling the effect of the Cacimbo; most of the perennials were in seed, and the annuals were nearly dried up.