How I Found Livingstone, Henry M. Stanley [best fantasy books to read txt] 📗

>of the White Nile issues out through reedy marshes, into the Bahr

Ghazal, thence into the White Nile, south of Gondokoro. By this

method we can suppose the rivers one; for if the lake extends

over so many degrees of latitude, the necessity of explaining the

differences of altitude that must naturally exist between two

points of a river 8 degrees of latitude apart, would be obviated.

 

Also, Livingstone’s instruments for observation and taking

altitudes may have been in error; and this is very likely to

have been the case, subjected as they have been to rough handling

during nearly six years of travel. Despite the apparent

difficulty of the altitude, there is another strong reason for

believing Webb’s River, or the Lualaba, to be the Nile. The

watershed of this river, 600 miles of which Livingstone has

travelled, is drained from a valley which lies north and south

between lofty eastern and western ranges.

 

This valley, or line of drainage, while it does not receive the

Kassai and the Kwango, receives rivers flowing from a great

distance west, for instance, the important tributaries Lufira

and Lomami, and large rivers from the east, such as the Lindi

and Luamo; and, while the most intelligent Portuguese travellers

and traders state that the Kassai, the Kwango, and Lubilash are

the head waters of the Congo River, no one has yet started the

supposition that the grand river flowing north, and known by

the natives as the Lualaba, is the Congo.

 

This river may be the Congo, or, perhaps, the Niger. If the

Lualaba is only 2,000 feet above the sea, and the Albert N’Yanza

2,700 feet, the Lualaba cannot enter that lake. If the Bahr Ghazal

does not extend by an arm for eight degrees above Gondokoro, then

the Lualaba cannot be the Nile. But it would be premature to

dogmatise on the subject. Livingstone will clear up the point

himself; and if he finds it to be the Congo, will be the first to

admit his error.

 

Livingstone admits the Nile sources have not been found, though he

has traced the Lualaba through seven degrees of latitude flowing

north; and, though he has not a particle of doubt of its being the

Nile, not yet can the Nile question be said to be resolved and

ended. For two reasons:

 

1. He has heard of the existence of four fountains, two of which

gave birth to a river flowing north, Webb’s River, or the Lualaba,

and to a river flowing south, which is the Zambezi. He has

repeatedly heard of these fountains from the natives. Several

times he has been within 100 and 200 miles from them, but something

always interposed to prevent his going to see them. According to

those who have seen them, they rise on either side of a mound or

level, which contains no stones. Some have called it an anthill.

One of these fountains is said to be so large that a man, standing

on one side, cannot be seen from the other. These fountains must

be discovered, and their position taken. The Doctor does not suppose

them to be south of the feeders of Lake Bangweolo. In his letter to

the ‘Herald’ he says “These four full-grown gushing fountains,

rising so near each other, and giving origin to four large rivers,

answer in a certain degree to the description given of the

unfathomable fountains of the Nile, by the secretary of Minerva,

in the city of Sais, in Egypt, to the father of all travellers—

Herodotus.”

 

For the information of such readers as may not have the original

at hand, I append the following from Cary’s translation of

Herodotus: <II.28>

 

<Jul 2001 The History of Herodotus V1 by Herodotus/ Macaulay

[1hofhxxx.xxx]2707>

***

With respect to the sources of the Nile, no man of all the

Egyptians, Libyans, or Grecians, with whom I have conversed,

ever pretended to know anything, except the registrar* of Minerva’s

 

<*the secretary of the treasury of the goddess Neith, or Athena

as Herodotus calls her:

ho grammatiste:s to:n hiro:n xre:mato:n te:s Athe:naie:s>

 

treasury at Sais, in Egypt. He, indeed, seemed to be trifling

with me when he said he knew perfectly well; yet his account was

as follows: “That there are two mountains, rising into a sharp

peak, situated between the city of Syene, in Thebais, and

Elephantine. The names of these mountains are the one Crophi,

the other Mophi; that the sources of the Nile, which are bottomless,

flow from between these mountains and that half of the water flows

over Egypt and to the north, the other half over Ethiopia and the

south. That the fountains of the Nile are bottomless, he said,

Psammitichus, king of Egypt, proved by experiment: for, having

caused a line to be twisted many thousand fathoms in length, he

let it down, but could not find a bottom.” Such, then, was the

opinion the registrar gave, if, indeed, he spoke the real truth;

proving, in my opinion, that there are strong whirlpools and an

eddy here, so that the water beating against the rocks, a

sounding-line, when let down, cannot reach the bottom. I was

unable to learn anything more from any one else. But thus much

I learnt by carrying my researches as far as possible, having gone

and made my own observations as far as Elephantine, and beyond

that obtaining information from hearsay. As one ascends the river,

above the city of Elephantine, the country is steep; here,

therefore; it is necessary to attach a rope on both sides of a boat,

as one does with an ox in a plough, and so proceed; but if

the rope should happen to break, the boat is carried away by the

force of the stream. This kind of country lasts for a four-days’

passage, and the Nile here winds as much as the Maeander. There

are twelve schoeni, which it is necessary to sail through in

this manner; and after that you will come to a level plain, where

the Nile flows round an island; its name is Tachompso. Ethiopians

inhabit the country immediately above Elephantine, and one half

of the island; the other half is inhabited by Egyptians. Near to

this island lies a vast lake, on the borders of which Ethiopian

nomades dwell. After sailing through this lake you will come to

the channel of the Nile, which flows into it: then you will have

to land and travel forty days by the side of the river, for sharp

rocks rise in the Nile, and there are many sunken ones, through

which it is not possible to navigate a boat. Having passed this

country in the forty days, you must go on board another boat, and

sail for twelve days; and then you will arrive at a large city,

called Meroe; this city is said to be the capital of all

Ethiopia. The inhabitants worship no other gods than Jupiter and

Bacchus; but these they honour with great magnificence. They

have also an oracle of Jupiter; and they make war whenever that

god bids them by an oracular warning, and against whatever

country he bids them. Sailing from this city, you will arrive at

the country of the Automoli, in a space of time equal to that

which you took in coming from Elephantine to the capital of the

Ethiopians. These Automoli are called by the name of Asmak,

which, in the language of Greece, signifies “those that stand at

the left hand of the king.” These, to the number of two hundred and

forty thousand of the Egyptian war-tribe, revolted to the

Ethiopians on the following occasion. In the reign of King

Psammitichus garrisons were stationed at Elephantine against the

Ethiopians, and another at the Pelusian Daphnae against the

Arabians and Syrians, and another at Marea against Libya; and even

in my time garrisons of the Persians are stationed in the same

places as they were in the time of Psammitichus, for they

maintain guards at Elephantine and Daphnae. Now, these Egyptians,

after they had been on duty three years, were not relieved;

therefore, having consulted together and come to an unanimous

resolution, they all revolted from Psammitichus, and went to

Ethiopia. Psammitichus, hearing of this, pursued them; and when

he overtook them he entreated them by many arguments, and adjured

them not to forsake the gods of their fathers, and their

children and wives But one of them is reported to have uncovered

[ ] and to have said, that wheresoever these were there they

 

<<“which it is said that one of them pointed to his privy member and

said that wherever this was, there would they have both children and

wives”— Macaulay tr.; published edition censors>>

 

should find both children and wives.” These men, when they arrived

in Ethiopia, offered their services to the king of the Ethiopians,

who made them the following recompense. There were certain

Ethiopians disaffected towards him; these he bade them expel,

and take possession of their land. By the settlement of these men

among the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians became more civilized, and

learned the manners of the Egyptians.

 

Now, for a voyage and land journey of four months, the Nile is

known, in addition to the part f the stream that is in Egypt; for,

upon computation, so many months are known to be spent by a

person who travels from Elephantine to the Automoli. This river

flows from the west and the setting of the sun; but beyond this no

one is able to speak with certainty, for the rest of the country

is desert by reason of the excessive heat. But I have heard the

following account from certain Cyrenaeans, who say that they went

to the oracle of Ammon, and had a conversation with Etearchus, King

of the Ammonians, and that, among other subjects, they happened to

discourse about the Nile—that nobody knew its sources; whereupon

Etearchus said that certain Nasamonians once came to him—this

nation is Lybian, and inhabits the Syrtis, and the country for no

great distance eastward of the Syrtis—and that when these

Nasamonians arrived, and were asked if they could give any

further formation touching the deserts of Libya, they answered,

that there were some daring youths amongst them, sons of powerful

men; and that they, having reached man’s estate, formed many

other extravagant plans, and, moreover, chose five of their number

by lot to explore the deserts of Libya, to see if they could make

any further discovery than those who had penetrated the farthest.

(For, as respects the parts of Libya along the Northern Sea,

beginning from Egypt to the promontory of Solois, where is the

extremity of Libya, Libyans and various nations of Libyans reach

all along it, except those parts which are occupied by Grecians

and Phoenicians; but as respects the parts above the sea, and

those nations which reach down to the sea, in the upper parts

Libya is infested by wild beasts; and all beyond that is sand,

dreadfully short of water, and utterly desolate.) They further

related, “that when the young men deputed by their companions

set out, well furnished with water and provisions, they passed

first through the inhabited country; and having traversed this,

they came to the region infested by wild beasts; and after this

they crossed the desert, making their way towards the west; and

when they had traversed much sandy ground, during a journey of

many days, they at length saw some trees growing in a plain; and

that they approached and began to gather the fruit that grew on

the trees; and while they were gathering, some diminutive men,

less than men of middle stature, came up, and having seized them

carried them away; and that the Nasamonians did not at all understand

their language, nor those who carried them off the language of

the Nasamonians. However, they conducted them through vast

morasses, and