24 THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT.
S o c ie ty , who had honoured him with a gold
medal for the discovery o f Lake Victoria.
Following this paragraph, Captain Sp ek e
makes an important statement, to which I beg
attention:— “ One thing seemed at first p e rp lex in g :
the volume o f water in the Kitangule (Alexandra
Nile) look ed as large as the Nile (Victoria),
but then the one was a slow river, and the
other swift, and on this account I could form
no adequate judgment o f their relative values.”
On the 4th June, Captains Speke and Grant
embarked at Alexandria, E g y p t , for England,
where th ey arrived after an absence o f 1146 days.
Though one might suppose that the explorers
had sufficient grounds for supposing that L a k e
Victoria covered an enormous area, quite as
large, or approching1 to the 29,000 square miles
extent Captain Sp ek e boldly sketched it, there
were not wanting many talented men to dispute
each point in the assertions he made. One o f
the boldest who to ok opposing views to Speke
was his quondam companion, Captain R. F.
Burton, and he was supported b y v e ry many
others, for v e ry plausible reasons, which cannot,
however, be touched upon here.
Doctor David Livingstone, while on his last
expedition, obtained much oral information, in
the interior o f Africa from Arab traders, which
dissected S p ek e ’s Grand L a k e into five; and it
really seemed as if, from the constant assaults
LAKE TANGANIKA. . 25
'made upon it b y geographers and cartographers,
it would in time be erased from the chart
altogether, or become a mere “ rush drain,” like
one o f those which Speke and Grant found so
- numerous in that region. It was evident, there-
? fore, that a thorough exploration o f L ake Victoria
|was absolutely necessary to set at rest, once
I and for ever, one o f the great problems that
I was such a source o f trouble and dissatisfaction
to the geographers o f Europe and America.
LAKE TANGANIKA AGAIN.
T h e next European to arrive at the shores o f
I L ak e Tanganika, after Burton and Spek e, was I Dr. David Livingstone. He first saw it as he
f stood on the ve rge o f the plateau which rises
; steeply from the surface o f the Tanganika at
its south-west corner, on the 2nd A p ril 1867;
l and on the 14th March 1869, and after travers-
I ing nearly the whole o f the western shore from
i the extreme south end o f the lake to Kasenge,
the island which Sp ek e visited in 1858, he
crossed over to the east side and reached Ujiji.
On the 15th July 1869, after camping at
■ Kasenge, when on his w a y to Manyema, he
writes in his journal the following opinion o f
L ak e Tanganika:— “ Tanganyika narrows at Uvira
or Vira, and goes out o f sight among the
mountains; then it appears as a waterfall into
the L ak e o f Quando, seen b y Banyamwezi.”