“We poured out on the plain a frantic multitude, but after an hour or two we became an orderly column. Into the emptied villages of the open country we proceeded to regale ourselves on melon, rich-flavored bananas and plantains, and great pots full of wine. The fowls, unaware of the presence of a hungry mob, were knocked down, plucked, roasted, or boiled; the goats, meditatively browsing, or chewing the cud, were suddenly seized and decapitated, and the grateful aroma of roast meat gratified our senses. An abundance, a prodigal abundance, of good things, had awaited our eruption into the grass-land. Every village was well stocked with provisions, and even luxuries long denied to us. Under such fare the men became most robust, diseases healed as if by magic, the weak became strong, and there was not a goee-goee or chickenheart left. Only the Babusesse, near the main Ituri, were tempted to resist the invasion.”
It is not possible yet fully to determine the geographical results of the expedition. That they are very great and important appears certain. In the brief narratives already furnished by Mr. Stanley many facts of value and interest appear, adding new details to the map of Africa. The Aruwimi, Mr. Stanley says, is also called the Ituri, the Dudu, the Biyerre, the Luhali, the Nevva, and the Nowelle-Itire. Throughout several hundred miles of its upper part it is invariably called the Ituri, as it is by the natives around the Albert Nyanza.
“The main Ituri, at the distance of six hundred and eighty miles from its mouth,” says Mr. Stanley, “is one hundred and twenty-five yards wide, nine feet deep, and has a current of three knots. It appears to run parallel with the Nyanza. Near that group of cones and hills affectionately named Mount Schweinfurth, Mount Junker, and Mount Speke, I would place its highest source. Draw three or four respectable streams draining into it from the crest of the plateau overlooking the Albert Nyanza, and two or three respectable streams flowing into it from northwesterly, let the main stream flow southwest to near north latitude 1°, give it a bow-like form north latitude 1° to north latitude 1° 50´, then let it flow with curves and bends down to north latitude 1° 17´ near Yambuya, and you have a sketch of the course of the Aruwimi, or Ituri, from the highest source down to its mouth, and the length of this Congo tributary will be eight hundred miles. We have travelled on it and along its banks for six hundred and eighty miles; on our first march to the Nyanza for one hundred and fifty-six miles along its banks or near its vicinity; we returned to obtain our boat from Kilonga-Longa’s; then we conveyed the boat to the Nyanza for as many miles again; for four hundred and eighty miles we travelled its flanks or voyaged on its waters to hunt up the rear column of the expedition; for as many miles we must retrace our steps to the Albert Nyanza for the third time. You will, therefore, agree with me that we have sufficient knowledge of this river for all practical purposes.”
In a letter, dated South End, Victoria Nyanza, September 3, 1889, referring to his experiences on the Aruwimi, he says: “For the time being you can believe me that one day has followed another in striving fully against all manner of obstacles, natural and otherwise. From the day I left Yambuya to August 28, 1889, the day I arrived here, the bare catalogue of incidents would fill several quires of foolscap. The catalogue of adventures, accidents, mortalities, sufferings from fever, and morbid musings over the mischances that meet us daily would make a formidable list. You know that all the stretch of country between Yambuya and this place is an absolute new country except what may be measured by five ordinary marches. First, there is that dead white of the map now changed to a dead black. I mean that the region of earth confined between east longitude 25° and south latitude 29° 45´ is one great compact of a remorselessly sullen forest with a growth of an untold number of ages, swarming at stated intervals with immense numbers of vicious man-eating savages, and crafty, undersized men who were unceasing in their annoyance. Then there is that belt of grass-land lying between it and Albert Nyanza, whose people contested every mile of our advance with spirit, and made us think that they were guardians of some priceless treasure hidden in the Nyanza shores or at war with Emin Pasha and his thousands. Sir Percival in search of the Holy Grail could not have met with hotter opposition. Three separate times necessity compelled us to traverse these unholy regions with varying fortunes.”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES EN ROUTE.
Finds that Baker has Made an Error — Altitudes of Lake Albert and the Blue Mountains — Vacovia — Discovers the Lofty Ruevenzori — The Nile or the Congo? — The Semliki River — The Plains of Noongora — The Salt Lakes of Kative — New Peoples — Wakonyu of the Great Mountains — The Awamba — Wasonyora — Wanyora Bandits — Lake Albert Edward — The Tribes and Shepherd Races of the Eastern Uplands — Wamyau Kori — Wanyaruwamba — Wazinya — A Harvest of New Facts — The Importance of Stanley’s Addition to the Victoria Nyanza.
Stanley first sighted the Albert Nyanza on December 13th, 1887. Its southern part lay at the feet of the explorer almost like an immense map. He glanced rapidly over the grosser details, the lofty plateau, the wall of Unyoro to the east and that of Baregga to the west, rising nearly three thousand feet above the silver water, and between the hills the stretched-out plain, seemingly very flat and grassy, with here and there a dark clump of brushwood, which, as the plain trended southwesterly, became a thin forest. The southwest edge of the lake he fixed at nine miles in a direct southeasterly line from this place. This will make the terminus of the southwest corner 1° 17´ N. latitude, by prismatic compass, magnetic bearing; of the southeast corner, just south of a number of falls, 1° 37´. This will make it about 1° 11´ 30` N. latitude, magnetic bearing of 1° 48´.
Taken from N. latitude 1° 25´ 30`, this about exactly describes the line of shore running from the southwest corner of the lake to the southeast corner of Albert. Baker fixed his position latitude 1° 15´ N., if we recollect rightly. The centre of Mbakovia Terrace bears 1° 21´ 30` magnetic from Stanley’s first point of observation. This will make Baker’s Vacovia about 1° 15´ 45`, allowing 10° west variation. In trying to solve the problem of the infinity of Lake Albert, as sketched by Baker, and finding that the lake terminus is only four miles south of where he stood to view it “from a little hill” and on “a beautifully clear day,” one would almost feel justified in saying he had never seen the lake.