On the 16th June, after a long march of four and three-quarter hours, we arrived at the zeriba of Rusessé. We descended from Karimi about 700 feet to the plain of Eastern Usongora, and an hour later we came to Ruverahi River, 40 feet wide, and a foot deep; an ice-cold stream, clear as crystal and fresh from the snows. Ruwenzori was all the morning in sight, a bright vision of mountain beauty and glory. As we approached Rusessé a Msongora herdsman, in the employ of Rukara, the General of the Wara-Sura, came across the plain, and informed us that he could direct us to one of Rukara’s herds. We availed ourselves of his kind offices, which he was performing as a patriot son of the soil tyrannised over and devastated by Rukara; and fifty rifles were sent with him, and in fifteen minutes we were in possession of a fine herd of twenty-five fat cattle, which we drove without incident with our one hundred head to the zeriba of Rusessé. From a bank of cattle-dung, so high as to be like a great earthwork round about the village, we gained our first view of the Albert Edward Nyanza, at a distance of three miles.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE SOURCES OF THE NILE—THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, AND THE FOUNTAINS OF THE NILE.
Père Jerome Lobo and the Nile—The chartographers of Homer’s time—Hekatæus’s ideas of Africa—Africa after Hipparchus—The great Ptolemy’s map—Edrisi’s map—Map of the Margarita Philosophica—Map of John Ruysch—Sylvannus’ Map—Sebastian Cabot’s map—The arbitrariness of the modern map-maker—Map of Constable, Edinburgh—What Hugh Murray says in his book published in 1818—A fine dissertation on the Nile by Father Lobo—Extracts from part of a MS. in the possession of H. E. Ali Pasha Moubarek—Plan of Mount Gumr—A good description of Africa by Scheabeddin—The Nile according to Abdul Hassen Ali—Abu Abd Allah Mohammed on the Nile river.
1889.
June.
The Nile.
Every reader of this chapter will agree with Père Jerome Lobo, of the Company of Jesus, who wrote in the 16th century, that “it is not difficult, after having found the sources of the Nile, and of the rivers that run into it, to resolve the question as to its origin—a question that has caused so much anxiety to ancient and modern authors, because they were looking for that which could not be discovered in their heads, by which they were lost in vain thoughts and reasonings.”
For the complacent satisfaction of those who have not undergone the harassing anxieties attending the exploration of the countries in the region of the Nile sources, and who would prefer to content themselves with reading about them at home before a sparkling fire and under the light of the parlour lamp, I beg to present them with a few copies of ancient maps, from Homer’s time, forty centuries ago, down to those whence we derived instruction in African geography. They will observe with pleasure that we have not much to boast of; that the ancient travellers, geographers, and authors had a very fair idea whence the Nile issued, that they had heard of the Lunae Montes, and the triple lakes, and of the springs which gave birth to the famous river of Egypt. We only claim to have barred for a time the periodic flights of these interesting features of Africa, from 10° north latitude to as far as 20° south latitude, and from east to west Africa, and to have located with reasonable precision the grand old Mountains of the Moon, and the Albertine and Victorine sources of the Nile. And for a time only! For “what profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.”
What the chartographers of Homer’s time illustrated of geographical knowledge succeeding chartographers effaced, and what they in their turn sketched was expunged by those who came after them. In vain explorers sweated under the burning sun, and endured the fatigues and privations of arduous travel: in vain did they endeavour to give form to their discoveries, for in a few years the ruthless map-maker obliterated all away. Cast your eyes over these series of small maps, and witness for yourselves what this tribe has done to destroy every discovery, and to render labour and knowledge vain. There is a chartographer living, the chiefest sinner alive. In 1875, I found a bay at the north-east end of Lake Victoria. A large and mountainous island, capacious enough to supply 20,000 people with its products of food, blocked the entrance from the lake into it, but there is a winding strait at either end of sufficient depth and width to enable an Atlantic liner to steam in boldly. The bay has been wiped out, the great island has been shifted elsewhere, and the picturesque channels are not in existence on his latest maps, and they will not be restored until some other traveller, years hence, replaces them as they stood in 1875. And young travellers are known to chuckle with malicious pleasure at all this, forgetful of what old Solomon said in the olden time: “There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.”
