The geographical knowledge acquired by their forcible push to the Albert Nyanza was of the highest importance, and well repaid Stanley, even though in the end he was forced to return. The lay of the plateau separating the great reservoirs of the Nile, the Victoria and Albert Nyanzas, the structure of the mountains and ridges, and the course of the water-sheds, and the course of the rivers Katonga and Rusango have been revealed. The great mountain Gambaragari and its singular people have been discovered, besides a portion of a gulf of the Albert, which Stanley called, in honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, Beatrice Gulf.
This gulf, almost a lake itself, is formed by the promontory of Usongora, which runs southwest some thirty miles from a point ten geographical miles north of Unyampaka. The eastern coast of the gulf is formed by the countries of Irangara, Unyampaka, Buhuju and Mpororo, which coast-line runs a nearly south southwest course. Between Mpororo and Usongora extend the islands of the maritime state of Utumbi. West of Unsongora is Ukonju, on the western coast of Lake Albert, reputed to be peopled by cannibals. North of Ukonju is the great country of Ulegga.
Coming to the eastern coast of Lake Albert we have Ruanda running from Mpororo on the east to Ukonju on the west, occupying the whole of the south and southeast coast of Lake Albert. North of Unyampaka, on the east side, is Irangara, and north of Irangara the district of Toro. Unyoro occupies the whole of the east side from the Murchison Falls of the Victoria Nile to Mpororo; for Unyampaka, Toro, Buhuju and Irangara are merely districts of Unyoro. The great promontory of Usongora, which half shuts in Beatrice Gulf, is tributary to Kabba Rega, though governed by Nyika, King of Gambaragara.
Usongora is the great salt field whence all the surrounding countries obtain their salt. It is, from all accounts, a very land of wonders; but the traveller desirous of exploring it should have a thousand Sniders to protect him—for the natives, like those of Ankori, care for nothing but milk and goatskins. Among the wonders credited to it are a mountain emitting “fire and stones,” a salt lake of considerable extent, several hills of rock salt, a large plain encrusted thickly with salt and alkali, a breed of very large dogs of extraordinary ferocity, and a race of such long-legged natives that ordinary mortals regard them with surprise and awe. The Waganda, who have invaded their country for the sake of booty, ascribe a cool courage to them, against which all their numbers and well-known expertness with shield and spear were of little avail. They are, besides, extremely clannish, and allow none of their tribe to intermarry with strangers, and their diet consists solely of milk. Their sole occupation consists in watching their cows, of which they have an immense number; and it was to capture some of these herds that the Emperor of Uganda sent one hundred thousand men, under his Prime Minister, to Usongora. The expedition was successful, for by all accounts the Waganda returned to their country with about twenty thousand; but so dearly were they paid for with the loss of human life, that it is doubtful whether such a raid will again be attempted to Usongora.
Upon arriving at Karagwe, Stanley was enabled through the kindness of the King, Rumanika, to explore the frontier of Karagwe as far north as Mpororo, and south as Ugufu. The yacht Lady Alice was conveyed to Speke’s Lake Windermere, and the sections screwed together, and after circumnavigating the lake, they entered the Kagera River, when it almost immediately flashed across Stanley’s mind that he had made another grand discovery—that he had discovered, in fact, the true parent of the Victoria Nile.
A glance at Speke’s map will show the reader that he calls the river the Kitangule River, and that he has two tributaries running to it, called respectively the Luchuro and the Ingezi. Speke, so wonderfully correct, with a mind which grasped geographical knowledge with great acuteness, and arranged the details with clever precision and accuracy, Stanley thinks is seriously in error in calling this noble river Kitangule. Neither Waganda nor Wanyamba know it by that name; but they all know the Kagera River, which flows near Kitangule. From its mouth to Wrundi it is known by the natives on both banks as the Kagera River. The Luchuro, or rather Lukaro, means “higher up,” but is no name of any river.
While exploring the Victoria Lake, Stanley had ascended a few miles up the Kagera, and was even then struck with its great volume and depth, so much so as to rank it as the principal affluent of the Victoria Lake. On this occasion he discovered, on sounding, that it was fifty-two feet deep and fifty yards wide. Proceeding on his voyage up the river for three days, he came to another lake about nine miles in length and a mile in width, situate on the right hand of the stream. At the southern end of this lake they came to the island of Unyamubi, a mile and a half in length. Ascending the highest point on the island, the secret of the Kagera or Ingezi was revealed.
Standing in the middle of the island, he perceived it was about three miles from the coast of Karagwe and three miles from the coast of Kishakka west, so that the width of the Ingezi at this point was about six miles, and north it stretched away broader, and beyond the horizon green papyri mixed with broad gray gleams of water. He also discovered, after further exploration, that the expanses of papyri floated over a depth of from nine to fourteen feet of water; that the papyri, in fact, covered a large portion of a long, shallow lake; that the river, though apparently a mere swift flowing body of water, confined apparently within proper banks by dense tall fields of papyri, was a mere current, and that underneath the papyri it supplied a lake varying from five to fourteen miles in width and about eighty geographical miles in length.
A SHORE SCENE ON LAKE WINDERMERE.