Thus The Only Point Necessary To Swear
To, Was The River Between The Lake And The Karuma Falls.
I had a bad attack of fever that evening, and missed my star for the
latitude; but on the following morning before daybreak I obtained a good
observation of Vega, and determined the latitude of Magungo 2 degrees 16
minutes due west from Atada or Karuma Falls.
This was a strong
confirmation that the river beneath my feet was the Somerset that I had
crossed in the same latitude at Atada, where the river was running due
west, and where the natives had pointed in that direction as its course
to the lake. Nevertheless, I was determined to verify it, although by
this circuitous route I might lose the boats from Gondokoro and become a
prisoner in Central Africa, ill, and without quinine, for another year.
I proposed it to my wife, who not only voted in her state of abject
weakness to complete the river to Karuma, but wished, if possible, to
return and follow the Nile from the lake down to Gondokoro! This latter
resolve, based upon the simple principle of "seeing is believing," was a
sacrifice most nobly proposed, but simply impossible and unnecessary.
We saw from our point at Magungo the Koshi and Madi countries, and the
Nile flowing out of the lake through them. We must of necessity pass
through those countries on our road to Gondokoro direct from Karuma via
Shooa, and should we not meet the river in the Madi and Koshi country,
the Nile that we now saw would not be the Nile of Gondokoro. We knew,
however, that it was so, as Speke and Grant had gone by that route, and
had met the Nile near Miani's tree in lat. 3 degrees 34 min. in the Madi
country, the Koshi being on its western bank; thus, as we were now at
the Nile head and saw it passing through the Madi and Koshi, any
argument against the river would be the argumentum ad absurdum. I
ordered the boats to be got ready to start immediately.
The chief gave me much information, confirming the accounts that I had
heard a year previous in the Latooka countries, that formerly cowrie
shells were brought in boats from the south, and that these shells and
brass coil brackets came by the lake from Karagwe. He called also
several of the natives of Malegga, who had arrived with beautifully
prepared mantles of antelope and goatskins, to exchange for bracelets
and glass beads. The Malegga people were in appearance the same as those
of Unyoro, but they spoke a different language.
The boats being ready, we took leave of the chief, leaving him an
acceptable present of beads, and we descended the hill to the river,
thankful at having so far successfully terminated the expedition as to
have traced the lake to that important point Magungo, which had been our
clue to the discovery even so far away in time and place as the distant
country of Latooka.
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