On exploring the Kagera throughout its entire length (eighty miles) Stanley found that it maintains almost the same volume and almost the same width, discharging its surplus waters to the right and to the left, as it flows on, feeding, by means of the underground channels what might be called by an observer on land, seventeen separate lakes, but which are in reality one lake, connected together underneath the fields of papyri, and by lagoon-like channels meandering tortuously enough between detached fields of the most prolific reed. The open expanses of water are called by the natives so many “rwerus” or lakes; the lagoons connecting them and the reed-covered water are known by the name of “ingezi.” Lake Windermere is one of these rwerus, and is nine miles in extreme length and from one to three miles in width. By boiling point Stanley ascertained it to be at an altitude of 3760 feet above the ocean, and about 320 feet above Lake Victoria.
On returning from his voyage of exploration, he resolved on an overland journey to the hot springs of Mtagata, which have obtained considerable renown throughout all the neighboring countries for their healing properties. Two days’ severe marching towards the north brought them to a deep, wooded gorge wherein the hot springs are situated. Here they discovered a most astonishing variety of plants, herbs, trees and bushes; for here Nature was in her most astonishing mood. She shot forth her products with such vigor that each plant seemed to strangle the other for lack of room. They so clambered over one another that small hills of brush were formed, the lowest in the heap stifled by the uppermost, and through the heaps thus formed tall invules shot forth an arrow’s flight into the upper air, with globes of radiant, green foliage upon their stem-like crowns.
These springs issued in streams from the base of a rocky hill, and when Fahrenheit’s thermometer was placed in the water, the mercury rose to 129 degrees. Four springs bubbled upward from the ground through a depth of dark, muddy sediment, and had a temperature of 110 degrees. These were the most favored by the natives, and the curative reputation of the springs was based on the properties of the water.
Stanley says that he camped there for three days, and made free use of a reserved spring; but excepting unusual cleanliness, he could not conscientiously say that he enjoyed any benefit from the water.
Having thoroughly explored the valley of the Kagera, noting and locating the minor lakes, mineral springs, and other features of the topography of this hitherto unknown region, and after completing a map of the Victoria Nyanza, which will prove one of the most important contributions ever made to geographical science, solving as it does one of its greatest problems, Stanley commenced his southward march to Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, the place where he was so fortunate as to discover the long-lost Livingstone.
THE HOT SPRINGS OF MTAGATA.
He left the capital of Karagwe with brave intentions and high aspirations. He had discovered that the Kagera River formed a great lake about eighty miles in length and from five to fourteen miles in breadth, and that at Kishakka the Kagera was still a powerful, deep-flowing river; and curious reports from natives and Arabs had created curious ideas within his mind as to the source of this noble river. Imbued with the thought that by journeying a sufficient distance along its right bank he might discover this source, he made ample preparations for the crossing of a wide wilderness, packed ten days’ provisions of grain on the shoulders of each man of the expedition, and on the 27th of March, 1876, set out for the uninhabited land.
After travelling for six days he reached Ubimba, the frontier of Karagwe, where, behind a ridge which extends between Ubimba and the lake, he saw the extreme south end of the lake he had so long followed, and noticed a decided change in the formation of the broad valley of the Kagera. The mountainous ridges bounding the western shore of the Kagera, which, extending from Mpororo south, continue on a south by west course, became broken and confused in southern Kishakka, and were penetrated from the northwest by a wide valley, through which issued into the Kagera a lake-like river called Akanyaru. Southwest was seen the course of the Kagera, which, above the confluence of the Akanyaru with it, was only a swift-flowing river of no very great depth or breadth. Such a river might well be created by the drainage of eastern Urundi and western Ubba. His attention was drawn from the Kagera to the lake-like stream of Akanyaru, and several natives stated to him while looking toward it that it was an effluent of the Kagera, and that it emptied into the Albert Nyanza. Such an extraordinary statement as this could not be received and transmitted as a fact without being able to corroborate it on his own authority, and exploration of the north of the Akanyaru proved that the Akanyaru is not an effluent but an affluent of the Kagera.
Beyond the mouth of the Akanyuru, Stanley found it was impossible for him to go, owing to the determined hostility and opposition of the natives on the right and left banks of the river. Forced to abandon the exploration of Lake Albert from this side of the Tanganyika, he marched in the direction of Ubagwe, in western Unyamwezi, about fifteen days’ journey from Ujiji. He then proposed to proceed quickly to Ujiji, explore the Tanganyika in his boat, and from Uzigo strike north to the Albert; and if that road should not be open, to cross the Tanganyika and travel north by a circuitous course to effect his purpose—the exploration of Lake Albert.