The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile by Samuel White Baker (love story novels in english .txt) 📕

up weeds precisely as seaweed may be seen upon the English shore. It was

a grand sight to look upon this vast reservoir of the mighty Nile, and

to watch the heavy swell tumbling upon the beach, while far to the

southwest the eye searched as vainly for a bound as though upon the

Atlantic. It was with extreme emotion that I enjoyed this glorious

scene. My wife, who had followed me so devotedly, stood by my side pale

and exhausted—a wreck upon the shores of the great Albert lake that

we had so long striven to reach. No European foot had ever trod upon its

sand, nor had the eyes of a white man ever scanned its vast expanse of

water. We were the first; and this was the key to the great secret that

even Julius Caesar yearned to unravel, but in vain. Here was the great

basin of the Nile that received EVERY DROP OF WATER, even from the

passing shower to the roaring mountain torrent that drained from Central

Africa towards the north. This was the great reservoir of the Nile!

The first coup d’oeil from the summit of the cliff 1,500 feet above the

level had suggested what a closer examination confirmed. The lake was a

vast depression far below the general level of the country, surrounded

by precipitous cliffs, and bounded on the west and southwest by great

ranges of mountains from five to seven thousand feet above the level of

its waters—thus it was the one great reservoir into which everything

MUST drain; and from this vast rocky cistern the Nile made its exit, a

giant in its birth. It was a grand arrangement of Nature for the birth

of so mighty and important a stream as the river Nile. The Victoria

N’yanza of Speke formed a reservoir at a high altitude, receiving a

drainage from the west by the Kitangule river, and Speke had seen the

M’fumbiro mountain at a great distance as a peak among other mountains

from which the streams descended, which by uniting formed the main river

Kitangule, the principal feeder of the Victoria lake from the west, in

about the 2 degrees S. latitude: thus the same chain of mountains that

fed the Victoria on the east must have a watershed to the west and north

that would flow into the Albert lake. The general drainage of the Nile

basin tending from south to north, and the Albert lake extending much

farther north than the Victoria, it receives the river from the latter

lake, and thus monopolizes the entire headwaters of the Nile. The Albert

is the grand reservoir, while the Victoria is the eastern source, the

parent streams that form these lakes are from the same origin, and the

Kitangule sheds its waters to the Victoria to be received eventually by

the Albert, precisely as the highlands of M’fumbiro and the Blue

Mountains pour their northern drainage direct into the Albert lake. The

entire Nile system, from the first Abyssinian tributary the Atbara in N.

latitude 17 deg. 37 min. even to the equator, exhibits a uniform

drainage from S.E. to N.W., every tributary flowing in that direction to

the main stream of the Nile; this system is persisted in by the Victoria

Nile, which having continued a northerly course from its exit from the

Victoria lake to Karuma in lat. 2 degrees 16’ N. turns suddenly to the

west and meets the Albert lake at Magungo; thus, a line drawn from

Magungo to the Ripon Falls from the Victoria lake will prove the general

slope of the country to be the same as exemplified throughout the entire

system of the eastern basin of the Nile, tending from S.E. to N.W.

That many considerable affluents flow into the Albert lake there is no

doubt. The two waterfalls seen by telescope upon the western shore

descending from the Blue Mountains must be most important streams, or

they could not have been distinguished at so great a distance as fifty

or sixty miles; the natives assured me that very many streams, varying

in size, descended the mountains upon all sides into the general

reservoir.

I returned to my hut: the flat turf in the vicinity of the village was

strewn with the bones of immense fish, hippopotami, and crocodiles; but

the latter reptiles were merely caught in revenge for any outrage

committed by them, as their flesh was looked upon with disgust by the

natives of Unyoro. They were so numerous and voracious in the lake, that

the natives cautioned us not to allow the women to venture into the

water even to the knees when filling their water jars.

It was most important that we should hurry forward on our journey, as

our return to England depended entirely upon the possibility of reaching

Gondokoro before the end of April, otherwise the boats would have

departed. I impressed upon our guide and the chief that we must be

furnished with large canoes immediately, as we had no time to spare, and

I started off Rabonga to Magungo, where he was to meet us with our

riding oxen. The animals would be taken by a path upon the high ground;

there was no possibility of travelling near the lake, as the cliffs in

many places descended abruptly into deep water. I made him a present of

a large quantity of beads that I had promised to give him upon reaching

the lake; he took his departure, agreeing to meet us at Magungo with our

oxen, and to have porters in readiness to convey us direct to Shooa.

On the following morning not one of our party could rise from the

ground. Thirteen men, the boy Saat, four women, and we ourselves, were

all down with fever. The air was hot and close, and the country

frightfully unhealthy. The natives assured us that all strangers

suffered in a similar manner, and that no one could live at Vacovia

without repeated attacks of fever.

The delay in supplying the boats was most annoying; every hour was

precious; and the lying natives deceived us in every manner possible,

delaying us purposely in the hope of extorting beads.

The latitude of Vacovia was 1 degree 15 min. N.; longitude 30 degrees 50

min. E. My farthest southern point on the road from M’rooli was latitude

1 degree 13 minutes. We were now to turn our faces towards the north,

and every day’s journey would bring us nearer home. But where was home?

As I looked at the map of the world, and at the little red spot that

represented old England far, far away, and then gazed on the wasted form

and haggard face of my wife and at my own attenuated frame, I hardly

dared hope for home again. We had now been three years ever toiling

onwards, and having completed the exploration of all the Abyssinian

affluents of the Nile, in itself an arduous undertaking, we were now

actually at the Nile head. We had neither health nor supplies, and the

great journey lay all before us.

Notwithstanding my daily entreaties that boats might be supplied without

delay, eight days were passed at Vacovia, during which time the whole

party suffered more or less from fever. At length canoes were reported

to have arrived, and I was requested to inspect them. They were merely

single trees neatly hollowed out, but very inferior in size to the large

canoes on the Nile at M’rooli. The largest boat was thirty-two feet

long, but I selected for ourselves one of twenty-six feet, but wider and

deeper.

Fortunately I had purchased at Khartoum an English screw auger 1 1/4

inch in diameter, and this tool I had brought with me, foreseeing some

difficulties in boating arrangements. I now bored holes two feet apart

in the gunwale of the canoe, and having prepared long elastic wands, I

spanned them in arches across the boat and lashed them to the auger

holes. This completed, I secured them by diagonal pieces, and concluded

by thatching the framework with a thin coating of reeds to protect us

from the sun; over the thatch I stretched oxhides well drawn and

lashed, so as to render our roof waterproof. This arrangement formed a

tortoise-like protection that would be proof against sun and rain. I

then arranged some logs of exceedingly light wood along the bottom of

the canoe, and covered them with a thick bed of grass; this was covered

with an Abyssinian tanned ox-hide, and arranged with Scotch plaids. The

arrangements completed, afforded a cabin, perhaps not as luxurious as

those of the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s vessels, but both rain-and sun-proof, which was the great desideratum. In this rough vessel we

embarked on a calm morning, when hardly a ripple moved the even surface

of the lake. Each canoe had four rowers, two at either end. Their

paddles were beautifully shaped, hewn from one piece of wood, the blade

being rather wider than that of an ordinary spade, but concave in the

inner side, so as to give the rower a great hold upon the water. Having

purchased with some difficulty a few fowls and dried fish, I put the

greater number of my men in the larger canoe; and with Richarn, Saat,

and the women, including the interpreter Bacheeta, we led the way, and

started from Vacovia on the broad surface of the Albert N’yanza. The

rowers paddled bravely; and the canoe, although heavily laden, went

along at about four miles an hour. There was no excitement in Vacovia,

and the chief and two or three attendants were all who came to see us

off; they had a suspicion that bystanders might be invited to assist as

rowers, therefore the entire population of the village had deserted.

At leaving the shore, the chief had asked for a few beads, which, on

receiving, he threw into the lake to propitiate the inhabitants of the

deep, that no hippopotami should upset the canoe.

Our first day’s voyage was delightful. The lake was calm, the sky

cloudy, and the scenery most lovely. At times the mountains on the west

coast were not discernible, and the lake appeared of indefinite width.

We coasted within a hundred yards of the east shore; sometimes we passed

flats of sand and bush of perhaps a mile in width from the water to the

base of the mountain cliffs; at other times we passed directly

underneath stupendous heights of about 1,500 feet, which ascended

abruptly from the deep, so that we fended the canoes off the sides, and

assisted our progress by pushing against the rock with bamboos. These

precipitous rocks were all primitive, frequently of granite and gneiss,

and mixed in many places with red porphyry. In the clefts were beautiful

evergreens of every tint, including giant euphorbias; and wherever a

rivulet or spring glittered through the dark foliage of a ravine, it was

shaded by the graceful and feathery wild date.

Great numbers of hippopotami were sporting in the water, but I refused

to fire at them, as the death of such a monster would be certain to

delay us for at least a day, as the boatmen would not forsake the flesh.

Crocodiles were exceedingly numerous both in and out of the water;

wherever a sandy beach invited them to bask, several monsters were to be

seen, like trunks of trees, lying in the sun. On the edge of the beach

above high-water mark were low bushes, and from this cover the

crocodiles came scuttling down into the water, frightened at the

approach of the canoe. There were neither ducks nor geese, as there were

no feeding-grounds: deep water was close to the shore.

Our boatmen worked well, and long after dark we continued our voyage,

until the canoe was suddenly steered to the shore,