Part 8 (2/2)

No wonder Burton felt a reat expanse of waters Here, he thought, are the sources of that ancient river--the Nile Now are fulfilled the longing of two thousand years I a hired ”a solid built Arab craft,” the explorers made their way first to Ujiji and then to Uvira, the northernmost point of the lake, which they reached on April 26th

On their return voyage they were caught in a terrible storm, from which they did not expect to be saved, and while the wild tuulf the in Burton's usts that sweep the whirling deep; What reck they of our evil plight, who on the shore securely sleep?” [172]

However, they came out of this peril, just as they had come out of so many others Burton also crossed the lake and landed in Kazembe's country, [173] in which he was intensely interested, and solish the narratives of Dr Lacerda [174]

and other Portuguese travellers who had visited its capital, Lunda, near Lake Moero

38 The Return Journey, 26th May 1858 to 13th February 1859

The explorers left Tanganyika for the return journey to Zanzibar on May 26th At Yombo, reached June 18th, Burton received a packet of letters, which arrived from the coast, and from one he learnt of the death of his father, which had occurred 8 months previous Despite his researches, Colonel Burton was not missed in the scientific world, but his son sincerely ent parent At Kazeh, Fortune, which had hitherto been so favourable, now played Burton a paltry trick Speke having expressed a wish to visit the lake now called Victoria Nyanza, a sheet of water which report declared to be larger than Tanganyika, Burton, for various reasons, thought it wiser not to accompany him So Speke went alone and continued his march until he reached the lake, the diuine expectations On his return to Kazeh he at once declared that the Victoria Nyanza and its affluents were the head waters of the Nile, and that consequently he had discovered them Isis (he assured Burton) was at last unveiled As athat stateanyika, and each clung tenaciously to his own theory Speke, indeed, had a very artistic eye He not only, by guess, connected his lake with the Nile, but placed on his e of mountains which had no existence--the Mountains of the Moon However, the fact reards the Nile his theory turned out to be the correct one

The expedition went forward again, but his attitude towards Burton henceforth changed Hitherto they had been the best of friends, and it was always ”dick” and ”Jack,” but now Speke becaave him offence Struck doith the disease called ”Little Irons,” he thought he was being torn liiants, and lion-headed demons, and he made both in his deliriuainst Burton, and interlarded his speech with contu Burton's refusal to accept the Victoria Nyanza-Nile theory But Burton made no retort On the contrary, he bore Speke's petulance with infinite patience Perhaps he remembered the couplet in his favourite Beharistan:

”True friend is he who bears with all His friend's unkindness, spite and gall” [175]

There is no need for us to side either with Speke or Burton Both were splendid men, and their country is proud of them Fevers, hardshi+ps, toils, disappoint, and it is quite certain that each of the explorers inwardly recognised the ain 4th March 1859

Had Burton been worldly wise he would have at once returned home, but he repeated the ain to suffer from it

Speke, on the other hand, who ever had an eye to the land, where he arrived 9th May 1859 He at once took a very unfair advantage of Burton ”by calling at the Royal Geographical Society and endeavouring to inaugurate a new exploration” without his old chief He was convinced, he said, that the Victoria Nyanza was the source of the Nile, and he wished to set theits northern shores The Society joined with him Captain James A Grant [176] and it was settled that this new expedition should iloriously at Burlington House When Burton arrived in London on May 21st it was only to find all the ground cut from under hi, he, Burton, the chief of the expedition, had landed unnoticed But the bitterest pill was the news that Speke had been appointed to lead the new expedition And as if that was not enough, Captain Rigby, Consul at Zanzibar, gave ear to and published the complaints of soh Fortune cheated Burton of having been the actual discoverer of the Source of the Nile, it urated the expedition to Central Africa and of leading it are his Tanganyika--in the words of a recent writer, ”is in a very true sense the heart of Africa” If so up on its shores, Burton will to all time be honoured as its indomitable Columbus In his journal he wrote proudly, but not untruly: ”I have built er than brass” The territory is now German Its future masters who shall name! but whoever they doreat man speeds on for ever

Chapter X 22nd January 1861-to August 1861, Morraphy:

17 The City of the Saints, 1861

39 We rushed into each other's ar Burton's absence Isabel Arundell tortured herself with apprehensions and fears Now and again a e deserts of silence Then came the news of Speke's return and lionization in London She thus tells the story of her re-union with Burton ”On May 22nd (1860), I chanced to call upon a friend I was told she had gone out, but would be in to tea, and was asked to wait In a fewcame to the door, and another visitor was also asked to wait A voice that thrilled , 'I want Miss Arundell's address' The door opened, I turned round, and judge of s when I beheld Richard! We rushed into each other's arms We went down-stairs and Richard called a cab, and he put me in and told the man to drive about anywhere He put his arm round my waist, and I put my head on his shoulder” [177] Burton had come back more like a ing in bags, his eyes protruding and his lips draay froacy of twenty-one attacks of fever

When the question of their ht before her parents, Mr

Arundell not only offered no impediment, but reet hiht,” but Mrs Arundell still refused consent She reiterated her statelish Catholics, Burton professed no religion at all, and declared that his conversation and his books proclai that she reination still continued to run riot over his supposed enorht hallucinations of De Quincey see themselves in a whole nation He had coias He had done a deed which the ibis and the crocodile treainst her h she admitted afterwards that, circumstances considered, Mrs Arundell's opposition was certainly logical

”As we cannot get your mother's consent,” said Burton, ”we had better marry without it”