bottoms, having a soil deeper and richer, produce fine large fig-trees of exceeding beauty, the huge calabash, and a variety of other trees. Here, in certain places where water is obtainable throughout the year, and wars, or slave-hunts more properly speaking, do not disturb the industry of the people, cultivation thrives surprisingly; but such a boon is rarely granted them. It is in consequence of these constantly-recurring troubles that the majority of the Wasagara villages are built on hill-spurs where the people can the better resist attack, or failing, disperse and hide effectually."

On leaving the Usagara, Speke's course lay in a northwesterly direction to Unyamuézi, the "Country of the Moon," one of the largest kingdoms in Africa. This he describes as "a high plateau, from 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea-level, studded with little outcropping hills of granite, between which, in the valleys, there are numerous fertilizing springs of fresh water, and rich iron ore is found in sandstone." The Wanyamŭézi are superior to the negroes generally, as agriculturists and manufacturers: they "make cloths of cotton in their own looms, smelt iron, and work it up very expertly.” Their capital Kazé, in 5° 0′ 53′′ S. lat., and 33° 1′ 34′′ E. long., is a principal depot of the trading caravans.

It will be remembered that in 1858, Captain Speke made two explorations from Kazé, as a depot; the first westward, with Burton, to the Tanganjika, the second northward, alone, to the Victoria N'yanza, which he then discovered. He now proceeded in a course bearing north by northwest, through the Uzinza country to the Karagwe, and thence to the country of the Uganda, his route skirting the eastward slope of the "Mountains of the Moon," as identified by him in 1858. His course was determined by the necessity of conciliating the chiefs of various powerful and jealous tribes, and the expedition was obstructed, imperilled, and at times well-nigh defeated, by the vexatious exactions of these "bloody and deceitful men."

A great part of Speke's journal is made up of the monotonous story of his hagglings with these ignorant, suspicious, and cunning lords of the soil. But this recital, while it detracts somewhat from the scientific value of the book, both certifies the authenticity of the narrative, and enables us to appreciate the cost and pains of the exploration. Moreover, while depicting the characters of his successive African hosts, the author unconsciously reveals his own character as one of courage, patience, perseverance, and generosity, rather than of prudence and tact.

In Usui Captain Speke remarked a great variety of facial features, — a consequence of the intermingling of tribes, and in particular he noticed many men and women with hazel eyes."

In Karagwe, he had a pleasant detention at the residence of Rumanika, the most intelligent and friendly of the South African princes. Upon leaving Karagwe, to enter the Uganda territory, Speke struck upon a river of which he had heard in 1858, and which he regards as an important link in the mountain sources of the Nile. This first affluent of the Nile, the Kitangulé, was reached on the 16th of January, 1862. This river, which

falls into the Victoria N'yanza on the west side, runs at a velocity of from three to four knots an hour, and has an average breadth of about eighty yards. "I viewed it with pride," says Captain Speke, "because I hal formed my judgment of its being fed from high-seated springs in the Mountains of the Moon solely on scientific geographical reasonings; and, from the bulk of the stream, I also believed those monntains must attain an altitude of 8,000 feet or more, just as we find they do in Ruanda.” This conjecture was published by Speke, in Blackwood's Magazine for August, 1859. The banks of the river, at intervals, are covered with impenetrable forests; and long before reaching the N'yanza the traveller came upon “a rich, well-wooded, swampy plain, containing large open patches of water," which are said to have been navigable within a recent period, but are now gradually drying up. Captain Speke conjectures that the N'yanza has shrunk away from its original margin.

Uganda is the most powerful state of the ancient Kittara. The Wahûma or Gallas are a pastoral people of Abessinian origin. Their king Mtésa, who rivals the king of Dahomey in his cruelties, detained the expedition, under various pretexts, for the greater part of a year; and it was not until the 7th of July, 1862, that Captain Speke was enabled to set out upon the last stage, which was to solve the great problem of the Nile. Journeying by slow marches, with many hinderances, he reached the river on the morning of the twenty-first." Here, at last, I stood on the brink of the Nile. Most beautiful was the scene; nothing could surpass it! It was the very perfection of the kind of effect aimed at in a highly-kept park; with a magnificent stream, from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks, the former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by sterns and crocodiles basking in the sun, flowing between fine, high, grassy banks, with rich trees and plantains in the background, where herds of the nsunnu and hartebeest could be seen grazing, while the hippopotami were snorting in the water, and florikan and guinea fowl rising at our feet."

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Following up the left bank of the river, after passing several rapids, he came upon the falls (now named Ripon Falls), by which the N'yanz ↓ pours itself into the Nile. Speke records this discovery with a tone of moderation which shows that with him it was a foregone conclusion : Though beautiful, the scene was not exactly what I expected; for the broad surface of the lake was shut out from view by a spur of hill, and the falls, about twelve feet deep, and four hundred to five hundred feet broad, were broken by rocks. Still it was a sight that attracted one to it for hours the roar of the waters, the thousands of passenger fish, leaping at the falls, with all their might, the Wasoga and Waganda fishermen coming out in boats and taking post on all the rocks with rod and hook, hippopotami and crocodiles lying sleepily on the water, the men at work above the falls, and cattle driven down to drink at the margin of the lake made in all, with the pretty nature of the country, — small hills, grassy-topped, with trees on the hills, and gardens on the lower slopes, as interesting a picture as

one could wish to see. The expedition had now performed its functions. I saw that old father Nile, without any doubt, rises in the Victoria N'yanza, and, as I had foretold, that lake was the great source of the holy river which cradled the first founder of our religious belief. I mourned, however, when I thought how much I had lost by the delays in the journey, it having deprived me of the pleasure of going to look at the furthest corner of the N'yanza to see what connection there was, by the strait so spoken of, with it and the other lake where the Waganda went to get their salt, and from which another river flowed to the north, making Usoga an island.' But I felt I ought to be content with what I had been spared to accomplish; for I had seen full half of the lake, and had confirmation given me of the other half, by means of which I knew all about the lake, as far, at least, as the chief objects of geographical importance were concerned."

From this point, Captain Speke journeyed north by northwest, following mainly the direction of the river, though at times deviating considerably from its banks, and once losing it for several days, where the Nile makes a detour westward about sixty miles from Kaiuma Falls to the Little Luta Nzigé. The connection of this salt and marshy lake with the drainage of the Mountains of the Moon, Captain Speke had already satisfactorily established; it is therefore the more to be regretted that tribal wars in that vicinity prevented him from verifying by personal observation the common report of the junction of the Little Luta with the Nile. This junction takes place in the Madi country, which Speke describes as a marshy flat. May not the "paludes" of Senaca be sought in this direction?

Again striking the main stream, in 3° 40′ N. lat., at the confluence of the Asua, which drains the northeast corner of the N'yanza, Captain Speke followed its course to Gondokoro in 4° 54′ N. lat. and 31° 46′ E. long., where he arrived on the 15th of February, 1863, having left Zanzibar on the 2d of October, 1860. Here he met Petherick's party, which had been equipped for his relief — a duty which Speke complains was neglected for the sake of trading in ivory. We notice with regret the disposition of Captain Speke to speak slightingly of other explorers, and even to dwarf the truly important and valuable labors of his associate Captain Grant. Such expedients are not needed by one who can claim the exclusive honor of the discovery of the N'yanza and of its connection with the Nile. Captain Speke gives the following as the net results of his labors:

"Let us now sum up the whole, and see what it is worth. Comparative information assured me that there was as much water on the eastern side of the lake as there is on the western; if anything, rather more. The most remote waters, or top head of the Nile, is the southern end of the lake, situated close on the third degree of south latitude, which gives to the Nile the surprising length, in direct measurement, rolling over thirty-four degrees of latitude, of above 2,300 miles, or more than one eleventh of the circumference of our globe. Now, from this southern point, round by the west to where the great Nile stream issues, there is only one feeder of any importance, and that is the Kitangule River, while from the southernmost

point, round by the east to the strait, there are no rivers at all of any importance; for the travelled Arabs, one and all, aver, that from the west of the snow-clad Kilimanjaro to the lake, where it is cut by the second degree and also the first degree of south latitude, there are salt lakes and salt plains, and the country is hilly, not unlike Unyamŭézi; but they said there were no great rivers, and the country was so scantily watered, having only occasional runnels and rivulets, that they always had to make long marches in order to find water when they went on their trading journeys; and further, those Arabs who crossed the strait, when they reached Usoga, as mentioned before, during the late interregnum, crossed no river either."

This is a very modest statement; and yet we cannot quite adopt the author's confident tone with regard to the eastern side of N'yanza.

Three points remain to be determined: First, what affluents, if any, the Victoria N'yanza receives upon its eastern side, yet unexplored. Secondly, what is the exact connection between the Nile, the Little Luta Nzigé, and the crescent-shaped mountains at the head of lake Tanganyika. Thirdly, are these mountains to be regarded as the Mountains of the Moon, or must these be found upon the eastern side of N'yanza? Dr. Beke still contends stoutly for the latter opinion, and that there will yet be found a great eastern affluent flowing into N'yanza from these mountains, which will prove to be the Nile of Ptolemy. Captain Speke argues, per contra, that the name "Mountains of the Moon" was derived from Unyamŭézi, which signifies the country of the moon; that the Wauyamuezi, the people of the moon, have from time immemorial visited the eastern coast for trade; and that the name of the people and their country was given to mountains which they reported to exist, but which inquirers at the coast confounded with the snowy peaks of Konia and Kilimanjaro. It is certain at last that the supposed equatorial line of mountains that so long figured upon the maps as the Mountains of the Moon, was a geographical fiction. The Nyanza belt is a great plateau, from which there is a descent to the Tanganyika. This lake, Speke supposes, from native authority, to have an outlet through the Marūngă river, thus forming one of a chain of lakes leading to the Nyassa of Dr. Livingstone, and through it, by the Zambezi, to the sea. We cannot sufficiently honor the enterprize and fidelity which have gained such solid and substantial results upon the great problem of the Nile.

It must be peculiarly gratifying to Captain Speke to be able to answer, with the tangible evidence of his new discovery, the ungenerous, and even malicious, cavils with which his former leader, Captain Burton, received his discovery of the N'yanza in 1858. Burton speaks of the conjecture of the N'yanza causing the flood of the Nile, as one "which no geographer can admit, and which is at the same time so weak and flimsy that no geographer has yet taken the trouble to contradict it." He also alleges that Speke has exaggerated "a thin ridge of hill fringing the Tanganyika to the portentous dimensions of the Mountains of the Moon;" adding, " Thus men do geography! and thus discovery is stultified."1

1 The Lake Regions of Central Africa, pp. 336 and 413. VOL. XXI. No. 82.

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The republication of Captain Speke's Journal by Harper and Brothers, of New York, brings it within easy reach of American readers. To the same house we are already indebted for available editions of Barth, Burton, Livingstone, Andersson, Du Chaillu, Davis, Cumming, Wilson, Lander, -in short, of nearly every modern explorer or adventurer in Africa. Their Catalogue of works upon Africa represents a valuable library of geographical discovery.

The map of Inner Africa referred to above, deserves a more particular notice. It appears as a Supplement to Petermann's Mittheilungen,' and is divided into ten sections, as follows: section 1. Fessan; 2. Aegpyten; 3. Tebu-Land; 4. Nubien; 5. Wadai und Bagirmi; 6. Dar-Fur und Kordofan; 7. Dar-Banda; 8. Gondokoro; 9. Kongo; 10. Unyamwesi. Accompanying the maps is a memoir upon each section, by B. Hassenstein, working up carefully the results of all recent travels and explorations within its area. In addition to this memoir, there is a brief chapter upon each section, giving original narratives or dissertations from various authorities. Among these are Moritz von Beurmann's Travels through the Nubian Desert, Theodore Kotschy's Travels from Chartum to Kordofan, Brun Rollet's Travels in the Sumpe District; the Country and People of Tebu by Dr. E. Behm; Antinori's Travels from Bahhr el Gagal to Djur; von Heuglin's Researches in Soudan, Dor, and along the Bahhr el Abiad and Bahhr Gha àl and Franz Morlang's Travels eastward and westward from Gondokoro. Thus this map, with the memoir and the dissertations that accompany it, lays before us the African continent from 30° N. lat. to 8° S. lat., and between 12° and 35° F. long. It brings the geography of Africa down to the present date in a clear, distinct, and reliable form.

Dr. Charles T. Beke, referred to above as a theoretical discoverer of the Nile sources, proposes to transfer Haran or Charran from Mesopotamia to the vicinity of Damascus. His opinion is, that "the country watered by the Pharpar and Abana — the fertile district known in after times as the Ager Damascenus- is Padan-Aram, the country into which, by the Divine direction, Terah and his family removed, and in which was situate the city of Haran or Charran, whence Abraham was called, and which afterwards was the residence of Laban." The precise locality he finds in the modern village of Harrân-el-Awamid, or “ Haran of the Columns," lying about fourteen miles east of Damascus, on the western border of the lake into which the Barada and the Awaj empty themselves. Dr. Beke argues, with some plausibility that seven days was much too short a time for the journey of Laban from Haran to Gilead, if Haran was beyond the Euphrates, a distance of 350 miles, but was a reasonable time from Damascus to Gilead. He urges also the resemblance of name and of natural scenery, in evidence that this was the Haran of Abraham; but these two points will apply equally to the Haran of Mesopotamia, which has in its favor also traditions

2 Inner Afrika nach dem Stande der Geographischen Kenntniss in der Yahrer 1861 bis 1963. Nach den Quellen Bearbeitet von A. Petermann und B. Hassen-tein.