"Remember Well That The Wahuma Are Most Likely Gallas; This
Question Is Most Interesting, And The More You Can Gather Of Their
History, Since They Crossed The White Nile, The Better.
Formerly Unyoro,
Uganda, and Uddhu were all united in one vast kingdom called Kittara,
but this name is now only applied to certain portions of that kingdom.
"Nothing is known of the Mountains of the Moon to the westward of
Ruanda. In Unyoro the king will feed you; beyond that I suspect you will
have to buy food with beads."
Such was the information most kindly written by Speke, which, in
addition to a map drawn by Captain Grant, and addressed to the Secretary
of the Royal Geographical Society, was to be my guide in the important
exploration resolved upon. I am particular in publishing these details,
in order to show the perfect freedom from jealousy of both Captains
Speke and Grant. Unfortunately, in most affairs of life, there is not
only fair emulation, but ambition is too often combined with intense
jealousy of others. Had this miserable feeling existed in the minds of
Speke and Grant, they would have returned to England with the sole
honour of discovering the source of the Nile; but in their true devotion
to geographical science and especially to the specific object of their
expedition they gave me all information to assist in the completion of
the great problem - the "Nile Sources."
We were all ready to start. Speke and Grant, an their party of
twenty-two people, for Egypt, and I in the opposite direction. At this
season there were many boats at Gondokoro belonging to the traders'
parties, among which were four belonging to Mr. Petherick, three of
which were open cargo boats, and one remarkably nice diahbiah, named the
"Kathleen," that was waiting for Mrs. Petherick and her husband, who
were supposed to be at their trading station, the Niambara, about
seventy miles west of Gondokoro; but no accounts had been heard of them.
On the 20th February they suddenly arrived from the Niambara, with their
people and ivory and were surprised at seeing so large a party of
English in so desolate a spot. It is a curious circumstance, that
although many Europeans had been as far south as Gondokoro, I was the
first Englishman that had ever reached it. We now formed a party of
four.
Gondokoro has a poor and sandy soil, so unproductive that corn is in the
greatest scarcity and is always brought from Khartoum by the annual
boats for the supply of the traders' people, who congregate there from
the interior, in the months of January and February, to deliver the
ivory for shipment to Khartoum. Corn is seldom or never less than eight
times the price at Khartoum; this is a great drawback to the country, as
each trading party that arrives with ivory from the interior brings with
it five or six hundred native porters, all of whom have to be fed during
their stay at Gondokoro, and in many cases, in times of scarcity, they
starve.
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