But, by building a vessel in Madi above the
cataracts, he would have had, in my belief, some hundred miles of
navigable water to transport his merchandise. In short, his
succouring petition was most admirably framed, had he stuck to
it, for the welfare of both of us.[FN#28]
We now received our first letters from home, and in one from Sir
Roderick Murchison I found the Royal Geographical Society had
awarded me their "founder's medal" for the discovery of the
Victoria N'yanza in 1858.
Conclusion
My journey down to Alexandria was not without adventure, and
carried me through scenes which, in other circumstances, it might
have been worth while to describe. Thinking, however, that I
have already sufficiently trespassed on the patience of the
reader, I am unwilling to overload my volume with any matter that
does not directly relate to the solution of the great problem
which I went to solve. Having now, then, after a period of
twenty-eight months, come upon the tracks of European travellers,
and met them face to face, I close my Journal, to conclude with a
few explanations, for the purpose of comparing the various
branches of the Nile with its affluences, so as to show their
respective values.
The first affluent, the Bahr el Ghazal, took us by surprise; for
instead of finding a huge lake, as described in our maps, at an
elbow of the Nile, we found only a small piece of water
resembling a duck-pond buried in a sea of rushes. The old Nile
swept through it with majestic grace, and carried us next to the
Geraffe branch of the Sobat river, the second affluent, which we
found flowing into the Nile with a graceful semicircular sweep
and good stiff current, apparently deep, but not more than fifty
yards broad.
Next in order came the main stream of the Sobat, flowing into the
Nile in the same graceful way as the Geraffe, which in breadth it
surpassed, but in velocity of current was inferior. The Nile by
these additions was greatly increased; still it did not assume
that noble appearance which astonished us so much, immediately
after the rainy season, when we were navigating it in canoes in
Unyoro.
I here took my last lunar observations, and made its mouth N.
lat. 9§ 20' 48", E. long. 31§ 24' 0". The Sobat has a third
mouth farther down the Nile, which unfortunately was passed
without my knowing it; but as it is so well known to be
unimportant, the loss was not great.
Next to be treated of is the famous Blue Nile, which we found a
miserable river, even when compared with the Geraffe branch of
the Sobat. It is very broad at the mouth, it is true, but so
shallow that our vessel with difficulty was able to come up it.
It has all the appearance of a mountain stream, subject to great
periodical fluctuations. I was never more disappointed that with
this river; if the White river was cut off from it, its waters
would all be absorbed before they could reach Lower Egypt.
The Atbara river, which is the last affluent, was more like the
Blue river than any of the other affluences, being decidedly a
mountain stream, which floods in the rains, but runs nearly dry
in the dry season.
I had now seen quite enough to satisfy myself that the White
river which issues from the N'yanza at the Ripon Falls, is the
true or parent Nile; for in every instance of its branching, it
carried the palm with it in the distinctest manner, viewed, as
all the streams were by me, in the dry season, which is the best
time for estimating their relative perennial values.
Since returning to England, Dr Murie, who was with me at
Gondokoro, has also come home; and he, judging from my account of
the way in which we got ahead of the flooding of the Nile between
the Karuma Falls and Gondokoro, is of opinion that the Little
Luta Nzige must be a great backwater to the Nile, which the
waters of the Nile must have been occupied in filling during my
residence in Madi; and then about the same time that I set out
from Madi, the Little Luta Nzige having been surcharged with
water, the surplus began its march northwards just about the time
when we started in the same direction. For myself, I believe in
this opinion, as he no sooner asked me how I could account for
the phenomenon I have already mentioned of the river appearing to
decrease in bulk as we descended it, than I instinctively
advanced his own theory. Moreover, the same hypothesis will
answer for the sluggish flooding of the Nile down to Egypt.
I hope the reader who has followed my narrative thus far will be
interested in knowing how "my faithful children," for whose
services I had no further occasion, and whom I had taken so far
from their own country, were disposed of. At Cairo, where we put
up in Shepherd's Hotel, I had the whole of them photographed, and
indulged them at the public concerts, tableaux vivants, etc. By
invitation, we called on the Viceroy at his Rhoda Island palace,
and were much gratified with the reception; for, after hearing
all our stories with marked intelligence, he most graciously
offered to assist me in any other undertaking which would assist
to open up and develop the interior of Africa.
I next appointed Bombay captain of the "faithfuls," and gave him
three photographs of all the eighteen men and three more of the
four women, to give one of each to our Consuls at Suez, Aden, and
Zanzibar, by which they might be recognised.
