Since these lines were penned Time has again proved himself the Avenger. The valuable notes on the Geography of Eastern Africa forwarded by Mr Wakefield enable me to show, almost with a certainty, that the 29,900 square miles assigned as the area to the ‘Victoria Nyanza’ contain at least four, and probably a greater number, of separate waters.
Mr Keith Johnston, jun., who appended remarks to the paper in question, observes (p. 333) that ‘the arguments which Captain Burton used in recommending a division of the Nyanza had not a sufficient basis of proof to give them moment, is shown by the acceptance of the lake as one sheet of water by the whole geographical world.’ The mapper will readily understand that it is much more convenient to have a lake neatly traced, and painted sky-blue like the Damascus swamps, than to split it up as I did: a volume published by the late Mr Macqueen and myself (The Nile Basin. London: Tinsleys, 1864) gave a sketch of what was actually seen by the second expedition, and the aspect of disjecta membra is not inviting. Afterwards, however (p. 334), Mr Johnston remarks, ‘Captain Burton’s recommendation would seem to receive some slight support from the new information obtained by Mr Wakefield,’ to which I add that the language might have been less hesitating. The ‘Notes on the Geography of Eastern Africa’ establish the existence of two new lakes.
The first is that which we named from hearsay, Bahari ya Ngo or Bahari Ngo (Sea, i. e. water of Ngo): Mr Wakefield prefers ‘Baríngo, or canoe,’ possibly so called from its form.[[60]] Route No. 5, from ‘Lake Nyanza’ to Lake Baringo, proves conclusively that Lake Baringo is not a vast salt marsh, or perhaps a sort of back-water, ‘connected with the Victoria Nyanza by a strait, at the same distance from the East of Ripon Falls as the Katonga river is to the West.’ Nor is it a lake without effluent: in this matter it has evidently been confused with the lately heard of saline Lake Naïrvasha or Balibali, S. West of Doenyo Ebor (Mont Blanc), alias Kenia. Native report supplies it with the Northern Nyarus, an outfall, the old Thumbiri or Tubirih, and Meri, afterwards called Usua, and Asua, the latter two words probably corrupted from Nyarus.
Far more important, however, is the new lake which Mr Wakefield’s informant, Sadi bin Ahedi, ignoring Nyanza, calls ‘Nyanja’ and ‘Bahari ya Pili,’ or second Sea, not, as we are expressly warned, because inland of the first sea or Indian Ocean, but clearly because leading to a first, and, lastly, called ‘Bahari ya Ukára,’ this being the name of the region on the East shore. Here we at once detect the origin of the ancient Garava, and the modern Ukerewe which the Wanyamwezi applied to the oriental portion of the supposed ‘Victoria Nyanza.’ Respecting the width of the Nyanja or Ukára Lake, Sadi declared that it could be crossed by canoes in 6 full days, paddling from sunrise to sunset, and that if the men went right on, night and day, the voyage was accomplished in three days. But the native craft used upon those dangerous mountain waters never dare to cross them: the voyager may rush over the narrow parts of the Tanganyika, but nothing would induce him to attempt the physical impossibility of navigating without chart or compass beyond reach and sight of shore. It is an absurdity to suppose a canoe-cruise across; it is evident that a coasting-cruise is meant. The total hours, assuming the day to be 12 without halts, would amount to 72. Upon the Tanganyika I estimated the rate at little more than 2 knots an hour, which would make in round numbers 140 miles. Protracting this course from Bahari-ni, Sadi’s terminus on the Eastern shore, at the rate of 3 knots an hour, and without allowing for the windings of the shore, the end would strike the entrance of ‘Jordan Nullah,’ off the ‘Bengal Archipelago.’ But even 140 miles require reduction: an estimate of the mean amount of error distributed over the whole of Mr Wakefield’s Routes gives an exaggeration of 1.24 : 1; and of course when laying down the length of these distant and dangerous cruises exaggeration would be excessive. We may therefore fairly assume the semi-circumference of the Ukara Lake at 120 miles, and the total circumference at 240.
As regards its breadth we read (p. 310): ‘Standing on the eastern shore Sadi said he could descry nothing of land in a western direction except the very faint outline of a mountain summit far, far away on the horizon.’ This passage is valuable. The level and sandy eastern shore of the Ukara or Nyanja Lake about Bahari-ni, where Sadi sighted it, is in E. long. (G.) 35° 15′. The easternmost, that is to say, the nearest point of the Karagwah highlands, or, as Captain Speke writes it, Karague, is in E. long. (G.) 32° 30′. Thus the minimum width is 165 miles, while man’s vision would hardly cover a score. Here, again, we have room for a double instead of a single lake. When Sadi declared that he ‘travelled 60 days (marches?) along the shore without perceiving any signs of its termination,’ he spoke wildly, as Africans will, and when he reported that the natives with whom he conversed were unable to give him any information about its northern or southern limit, we can only infer that in those parts of the African interior neither tribes nor individuals trust themselves in strange lands, especially when they had a chance of meeting the Wasuku. A lake 120 direct geographical miles in length, that is to say, a little shorter than the Baringo is supposed to be, will amply satisfy all requirements in this matter. Finally, if Sadi’s report be correct, namely, that eight or nine years ago (before 1867?) a large vessel with sails, and a crew of white egg-eaters—Africans have learnt by some curious process to connect Europeans with oöphagy—navigated the waters, it is evident that this lake cannot be Captain Speke’s Nyanza, and that the visitors cannot have made it viâ his ‘White Nile,’ with its immense obstructions. But it may be that of which he heard (Journal, p. 333) from the ‘Kidi officers,’ who reported a high mountain to rise behind the Asua (Nyarus?) river, and the existence of a lake navigated by the Gallas in very large vessels. We now understand why King Mtesa (p. 294) offered to send the traveller home in one month by a frequented route, doubtless through the Wamasai and the other tribes living between the Nyanja and the Nyanza. Thus Irungu, Chief of Uganda, expressed his surprise (Journal, p. 187) that Captain Speke had come all the way round to Uganda when he could have taken the short and safe direct route—across the middle of his lake—viâ Umasai and Usoga, by which an Arab caravan had travelled.
The third water is evidently the Nyanza, of which I first heard at Kazeh, whence Captain Speke was despatched on a reconnoitre between July 9th and August 25th, 1858. After returning, he reported that this water, being nearly flush with the surface of the level country to the south, bears signs of overflowing for some 13 miles during the rains. The second expedition showed no traces of flood on the marshy lands to the north and N. West of the lake. This fact, combined with 400 feet difference of level in the surface of the ‘Victoria Nyanza,’ speaks for itself. We are justified in suspecting a fourth lake, along whose banks Capt. Speke travelled northwards to Uganda: and there must be more than one, if all his effluents be correctly laid down.
Briefly to resume. Mr Wakefield’s very valuable notes teach us—
1. That the Baringo is a lake distinct from the ‘Victoria Nyanza,’ with a northern effluent, the Nyarus, and therefore it is fresh water.
2. That the Nyanja, Ukara, Ukerewe, Garawa, or Bahari ya Pili, is a long, narrow formation, perhaps 30 miles broad, with 240 miles of circumference, and possibly drained to the Nile by a navigable channel.
3. That the Nyanza is a water, probably a swamp, but evidently distinct from the two mentioned above, flooding the lands to the south, showing no signs of depth, and swelling during the low season of the Nile, and vice versâ.