In Former Days The Dense Green Forests Peculiar To The
Tropics, Which Grow In Swampy Places About This Plain, Were
Said
to have been stocked by vast herds of elephants; but, since the
ivory trade had increased, these animals had
All been driven off
to the hills of Kisiwa and Uhaiya, or into Uddu beyond the river,
and all the way down to the N'yanza.
To-day we reached the Kitangule Kagera, or river, which, as I
ascertained in the year 1858, falls into the Victoria N'yanza on
the west side. Most unfortunately, as we led off to cross it,
rain began to pour, so that everybody and everything was thrown
into confusion. I could not get a sketch of it, though Grant was
more fortunate afterwards; neither could I measure or fathom it;
and it was only after a long contest with the superstitious
boatmen that they allowed me to cross in their canoe with my
shoes on, as they thought the vessel would either upset, or else
the river would dry up, in consequence of their Neptune taking
offence at me. Once over, I looked down on the noble stream with
considerable pride. About eight yards broad, it was sunk down a
considerable depth below the surface of the land, like a huge
canal, and is so deep, it could not be poled by the canoemen;
while it runs at a velocity of from three to four knots an hour.
I say I viewed it with pride, because I had formed my judgment of
its being fed from high-seated springs in the Mountains of the
Moon solely on scientific geographical reasonings; and, from the
bulk of the stream, I also believed those mountains must obtain
an altitude of 8000 feet[FN#16] or more, just as we find they do
in Ruanda. I thought then to myself, as I did at Rumanika's, when
I first viewed the Mfumbiro cones, and gathered all my distant
geographical information there, that these highly saturated
Mountains of the Moon give birth to the Congo as well as to the
Nile, and also to the Shire branch of the Zambeze.
I came, at the same time, to the conclusion that all our previous
information concerning the hydrography of these regions, as well
as the Mountains of the Moon, originated with the ancient Hindus,
who told it to the priests of the Nile; and that all those busy
Egyptian geographers, who disseminated their knowledge with a
view to be famous for their long-sightedness, in solving the
deep-seated mystery with enshrouded the source of their holy
river, were so many hypothetical humbugs. Reasoning thus, the
Hindu traders alone, in those days, I believed, had a firm basis
to stand upon, from their intercourse with the Abyssinians -
through whom they must have heard of the country of Amara, which
they applied to the N'yanza - and with the Wanyamuezi or men of
the Moon, from whom they heard of the Tanganyika and Karague
mountains. I was all the more impressed with this belief, by
knowing that the two church missionaries, Rebmann and Erhardt,
without the smallest knowledge of the Hindus' map, constructed a
map of their own, deduced from the Zanzibar traders, something on
the same scale, by blending the Victoria N'yanza, Tanganyida, and
N'yazza into one; whilst to their triuned lake they gave the name
Moon, because the men of the Moon happened to live in front of
the central lake. And later still, Mr Leon, another missionary,
heard of the N'yanza and the country Amara, near which he heard
the Nile made its escape.
Going on with the march we next came to Ndongo, a perfect garden
of plantains. The whole country was rich - most surprisingly so.
The same streaky argillaceous sandstones prevailed as in Karague.
There was nothing, in fact, that would not have grown here, if it
liked moisture and a temperate heat. It was a perfect paradise
for negroes: as fast as they sowed they were sure of a crop
without much trouble; though, I must say, they kept their huts
and their gardens in excellent order.
As Maula would stop here, I had to halt also. The whole country
along the banks of the river, and near some impenetrable forests,
was alive with antelopes, principally hartebeests, but I would
not fire at them until it was time to return, as the villagers
led me to expect buffaloes. The consequence was, as no buffaloes
were to be found, I got no sport, though I wounded a hartebeest,
and followed him almost into camp, when I gave up the chase to
some negroes, and amused myself by writing to Rumanika, to say if
Grant did not reach me by a certain date, I would try to navigate
the N'yanza, and return to him in boats up the Kitangule river.
We crossed over a low spur of hill extending from the mountainous
kingdom of Nkole, on our left, towards the N'yanza. Here I was
shown by Nasib a village called Ngandu, which was the farthest
trading depot of the Zanzibar ivory-merchants. It was
established by Musa Mzuri, by the permission of Rumanika; for, as
I shall have presently to mention, Sunna, after annexing this
part of Uddu to Uganda, gave Rumanika certain bands of territory
in it as a means of security against the possibility of its being
wrested out of his hands again by the future kings of Unyoro.
Following on Musa's wake, many Arabs also came here to trade; but
they were so oppressive to the Waganda that they were recalled by
Rumanika, and obliged to locate themselves at Kufro. To the
right, at the end of the spur, stretching as far as the eye could
reach towards the N'yanza, was a rich, well-wooded, swampy plain,
containing large open patches of water, which not many years
since, I was assured, were navigable for miles, but now, like the
Urigi lake, were gradually drying up. indeed, it appeared to me
as if the N'yanza must have once washed the foot of these hills,
but had since shrunk away from its original margin.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 92 of 207
Words from 92905 to 93928
of 210958
