What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile

by John Hanning Speke

But sometimes we came to grief when our supply of milk was, on the most foolish pretexts, stopped by Kannina, who was the only cow-proprietor in the neighbourhood. At one time he took offence because we turned his importunate wives out of the house, in mistake for common beggars. On another occasion, when I showed him a cheese of our manufacture, and begged he would allow me to instruct his people in the art of making them, he took fright, declared that the cheese was something supernatural, and that it could never have been made by any ordinary artifice. Moreover, if his people were shown the way to do it one hundred times, they would never be able to comprehend it. He further showed his alarm by forbidding us any more milk, lest, by our tampering with it, we should bewitch his cows and make them all run dry. The cattle this milk was taken from are of a uniform red colour, like our Devonshire breed; but they attain a very great height and size, and have horns of the most stupendous dimensions.

A year's acclimatisation had by this time produced a wonderful effect on all the party; so that now, with our fresh supplies, most of us marched away from Ujiji in better condition than we had enjoyed since leaving the coast. The weather was very fine, the rainy season having ceased on the 15th May; we marched rapidly across the eastern horn of the mountains back to the ferry on the Malagarazi, but by a more northernly route than the one by which we came.

We reached this river in early June, and found its appearance very different from what it was on our former visit, at the beginning of the monsoon. Then its waters were contained within its banks, of no considerable width; but now, although the rains had ceased here long ago, the river had not only overflowed its banks, but had submerged nearly all the valley in which it lies to the extent at least of a mile or more. The rains about 5° south latitude had just lasted out the six months during which the sun was in the south; and now, as the sun had gone north, the rains had gone there also. This was a very important fact, by which the rise of the Nile on the other side of the axis of this mountain-group might be determined, proving, as it does, that whilst rain falls most wherever the sun is vertical, it is greatly augmented on the equatorial regions by these mountains, where also, as our maps show, is the rainy zone of the world.

After crossing the river, we hurried along by a more southernly and straighter road than we formerly came by, and reached Kazé towards the latter end of June. Here Sheikh Snay received us with his usual genuine hospitality, arranged a house especially for our use, and with him we again established our headquarters. This man, when we were formerly detained here to form our second caravan on our journey westwards, housed us, and carefully attended to our wants. He took charge of our kit, provided us with porters, and finally became our agent. Living with him, surrounded by an Arab community, felt like living in a civilised land; for the Arab's manners and society are as pleasant and respectable as can be found in any Oriental family. Snay had travelled as much as, or more than, any person in this land; and from being a shrewd and intelligent inquirer, knew everybody and everything. It was from his mouth, on our former visit to Kazé, that I first heard of the N'yanza, or, as he called it, the Ukéréwé Sea; and then, too, I first proposed that we should go to it instead of journeying westward to the smaller waters of Ujiji. He had travelled up its western flank to Kibuga, the capital of the kingdom of Uganda, and had in his employ men who had lived and traded in Usoga. Snay, narrating his own experiences, said to me, "I was once three years absent on a visit to King Sunna, at his capital (Kibuga) in the Uganda kingdom, occupied by a tribe called Waganda. Starting from Kazé, it took me thirty-five marches to reach Kitangulé (bearing N.N.W.), and twenty more marches going northwards, with the morning sun a little on my right face (probably north by east), to arrive at Kibuga. The only people that gave me any trouble on the way are the Wasui, situate at the beginning of the Karagué kingdom; but that was only trifling, as they did not fight, and lasted but three or four marches. The Karagué kingdom (a mountainous tract of land, containing several high spurs of hill, the eastern buttresses of these Lunae Montes, and washed on the flanks by the Ukéréwé Sea) is bounded on the north by the Kitangulé river, beyond which the Wanyoro territory (crescent shape) lies, with the horns directed eastwards. Amidst them, situate in the concave or lake side, are the Waganda, to whose capital I went. Anybody wishing to see the northern boundary of the lake should go to Kibuga, take good presents, and make friends with the reigning monarch; and, with his assistance, buy or construct boats on the shore of the lake, which is about five marches east of his capital.[47] North, beyond the Waganda, the Wanyoro are again met with; and there quarrels and wars were so rife, from a jealousy existing among them and the Waganda, that had these people known of a northern boundary, I still might not have heard of it. On crossing the Kitangulé river, I found it emanating from Urundi (a district in the Mountains of the Moon), and flowing north-easterly. The breadth of the river is very great—I should imagine, some five to six hundred yards—and it contains much water, overflowing as the Malagarazi does after rains. There are also numerous other little streams on the way to Kibuga, but none so great as the Katonga river. This, like the rest, comes from the west, and flows towards the lake. It has a breadth of two thousand yards, is very deep when full, but sinks and is very sluggish in the dry season, when water-lilies and rushes overspread its surface, and the musquitoes are very annoying. The cowrie-shell, brought from the Zanzibar coast, is the common currency amongst the more northern tribes; but they are not worth the merchant's while to carry, as beads and brass (not cloth, for they are essentially a bead-wearing and naked people) are eagerly sought for and taken in exchange. Large sailing-craft, capable of containing forty or fifty men, and manned and navigated after the fashion of ocean mariners, are reported by the natives to frequent the lake (meaning the Nile at Gondokoro). We Arabs believe in this report, as everybody tells the same story; but don't know how it happens to be so, unless it is open to the sea. The Kitangulé river is crossed in good-sized wooden canoes; but the Katonga river can only be passed in the dry season, when men walk over it on the lily leaves: cattle, too, are then passed across in certain open spaces, guided by a long string, which is attached to the animals' heads."

Other Arab and Wasuahili merchants have corroborated Snay's statement, as also a Hindi merchant, called Musa, whom I especially mention, as I consider him a very valuable informant—not only from the straightforward way he had of telling his story, but also because we could converse with one another direct, and so obviate any chance of errors. After describing his route to the north in minute detail, stage by stage, with great precision, which was to the same effect as all the other accounts, he told me of a third large river to the northward of the Line, beyond Uganda; this he spoke of as much larger than the Katonga, and generally called the Usoga River, because it waters that district. Although he had recently visited Kibuga, and had lived with Sultan Mtésa, the present reigning monarch in place of Sunna, who died since Snay was there, he had no positive or definite idea of the physical features of any of the country beyond the point which he had reached; but he produced a negro slave who had been to Usoga, and had seen the river in question. This man called the river Kivira, and described it as being much broader, deeper, and stronger in its current than either the Katonga or Kitangulé river; that it came from the lake, and that it intersected stony hilly ground on its passage to the north-west.

This river Kivira, I now believe (although I must confess I did not until I made Snay alter his original statement about the direction of its flow, and so proved he meant this for his Jub), is the Nile itself. On a subsequent occasion, when talking to a very respectable Suahili merchant, by name Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasib, about the N'yanza, he corroborated the story about the mariners, who are said to keep logs and use sextants, and mentioned that he had heard of the Kidi and Bari people living on the Kivira river. Now, the Bari people mentioned by him are evidently those who have long since been known to us as a tribe living on the Nile in latitude 5° north and longitude 32° east, and described by the different Egyptian expeditions sent up the Nile to discover its source. M. Ferdinand Werne (says Dr Beke) has published an account of the second expedition's proceedings, in which he took part; and which, it appears, succeeded in getting farther up the river than either of the others. "The author states that, according to Lacono, King of Bari, the course of the river continues thence southwards a distance of thirty days' journey." This, by Dr Beke's computation, places the source of the Nile just where I have since discovered the N'yanza's southern extremity to be—in the second degree south latitude, lying in the Unyamuézi country.[48]

Here we see how singularly all the different informers' statements blend together in substantiating my opinion that the N'yanza is the great reservoir or fountainhead of that mighty stream that floated Father Moses on his first adventurous sail—the Nile. It must appear marvellous to the English reader how it happened that these traders obtained so much and such good information to the northward of the equator, and especially of the White Nile traders. The reasons are these:—For several years these Arabs have not only traded with Karagué, Uganda, and Usoga, but they have had trading-stations in Uddu-Uganda and in Karagué. The Uganda station has since been broken up by order of the king, as the Arabs were interfering too much with his subjects. In Karagué, on the contrary, they still have establishments; and as they cannot go into Unyoro themselves, they have induced the Wahaiya and Waziwa to bring them ivory from that country and from Kidi, in exchange for which they give beads. These Zanzibar merchants are very inquiring men, and have learnt a great deal from this source. Far more, however, they have learned from the King of Karagué, who is much respected by all the surrounding kings, and is continually exchanging presents and news with them. The King of Unyoro, for instance, whose territory extends to Madi, once sent him a present of beads and coral ornaments which must have come up the Nile, for at the same time the sailing-vessels on the Nile were heard of, and ornaments of that nature were never brought into the country from the Zanzibar side. Omitted in these accounts was a statement of Musa's I did not believe at first concerning the rise of the Nile, which was this: The natives had told him when the N'yanza (Nile) rose, it tore up and floated away islands. Further, Abdullah told me of a wonderfully high and steep mountain beyond Karagué—doubtless the Mfumbiro—being constantly covered with clouds; and I heard from him of a salt lake—doubtless the Little Luta Nzigé—which had some connection with the N'yanza. These details were, however, so obscurely given, I feared to place them on my map at that time.

I began the formation of the new caravan for exploring Northern Unyamuézi immediately after our arrival, but found it difficult to do things hurriedly. There was only one man then at Unyanyembé who knew the coast language, and would consent to act as my Kirangozi;[49] and as he had come all the way from Ujiji with us, he required a few days to arrange things at his home, in a village some distance off. Whilst he was absent the Arabs paid us daily visits, and gave many useful hints about the journey in prospect. One hint must especially be regarded, which was, to take care, on arrival at the lake, that I did not enter the village of a certain sultan called Mahaya, to whose district, Muanza, at the southern extremity of the lake, they directed me to go. This precautionary warning was advanced in consequence of a trick the sultan had played an Arab, who, after visiting him in a friendly way, was forcibly detained until he paid a ransom; an unjust measure, which the Arabs pointedly advert to as destructive to commercial interests. Further, the Arabs had learnt from travellers just arrived from Usukuma that the whole route leading to the N'yanza was in a state of commotion, caused by civil wars, and therefore advised me to go as strongly armed as possible.

To lose no time whilst the Kirangozi was away—for I had a long business to do in a very short space—I intimated to Sheikh Said and the Beluch guard my intention of taking them with me to the lake, and ordered them to prepare for the journey by a certain date. Said demurred, saying he would give a definite answer about accompanying me before the time of starting, but subsequently refused (I hear, as one reason), because he did not consider me his chief.[50] I urged that it was as much his duty as mine to go there; and said that unless he changed his present resolution, I should certainly recommend the Government not to pay the gratuity which the Consul had promised him on condition that he worked entirely to our satisfaction, in assisting the expedition to carry out the Government's plans.

The Jemadar of the Beluch guard, on seeing the Sheikh hold back, at first raised objections, and then began to bargain. He fixed a pay of one gora or fifteen cloths per man, as the only condition on which I should get their services; for they all declared that they had not only been to Ujiji, the place appointed by Sultan Majid and their chief before leaving Zanzibar, but that they had overstayed the time agreed upon for them to be absent on these travels—namely, six months. I acceded to this exorbitant demand, considering the value of time, as the dry season had now set in, and the Arabs at this period cease travelling to Zanzibar, from fear of being caught by droughts in the deserts between this place and the East Coast Range, where, if the ponds and puddles dry up, there is so little water in the wells that travelling becomes precarious.