Part 14 (1/2)

[50] Sheikh Said has since declared, in ”the most solemn manner, that Captain Burton positively forbade his going.” This happened when we were at Usenye, and immediately after I first asked the Sheikh.

[51] Captain Burton started with two huge elephant-guns, one double rifle, one pea-rifle, one air-gun, two revolving pistols, and a cross-bow, all of which he used for display to amuse the Arabs.

[52] Suk.u.ma means north, and the Wasuk.u.ma are consequently northmen, or northern Wanyamuezi.

[53] _Barsati_--a coloured cloth.

[54] One dhoti = 2 shukkas; 1 shukka = 4 cubits, or 2 yards, merikani (American sheeting).

[55] _Kiniki_--a thin indigo-dyed cloth.

[56] _Boma_--a palisade. A village or collection of huts so fortified is called so also.

[57] This, I maintain, was the discovery of the source of the Nile.

Had the ancient kings and sages known that a rainy zone existed on the equator, they would not have puzzled their brains so long, and have wondered where those waters came from which meander through upwards of a thousand miles of scorching desert without a single tributary.

[58] This magnificent sheet of water I have ventured to name VICTORIA, after our gracious Sovereign. Its length was not clearly understood by me, in consequence of the word Sea having been applied both to the Lake and to the Nile by my local informants; and there was no recent map of the Nile with the expedition by which I might have been guided.

[59] I now think the breadth is over one hundred miles.

[60] Mahaya said he was of Wahinda extraction, or from the princes of the Wahuma; but this I do not believe, for his features bore the strongest possible testimony against him.

[61] The King of Uganda has sent presents by boat to Machunda, Sultan of Ukerewe, coasting along the western sh.o.r.e of the lake. Mtesa told me this himself, and asked me if I knew Machunda personally.

[62] The Waganda also send boats for salt to the Bahari (Lake) Ngo, at the north-east corner of the lake.

[63] On my return to England I constructed a map representing this view, and lectured on the same in presence of Captain Burton, who then raised no objections to what I said.

[64] In England geographers doubted this; and after it was printed, Dr Petermann had reason to change his opinion. However, k.n.o.blecher was not far wrong, as I have since made the lat.i.tude of Gondokoro 4 54'

north.

[65] The rising of the Katonga still puzzles me.

[66] Kibuga means palace.