MR STANLEY'S MISSION.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2611, 22 May 1877, Page 2

MR STANLEY'S MISSION.

Solution of the Problem of the

Tanganika.

Ujijt, Aug. 7,1876. Lake .Tanganika, despite its extreme length, is to be subject no more to doubts and fauciful hypotheses, for it has been circumnavigated and measured by me*. and its enormous coast line laid down and fixed as accurately as a pretty good chronometer and solar observations will admit. Captain Burton's discovery'is now a complete whole, with no corner indefinite, no indentation unknown. You must banish from your charts Mr Cooley'g grand United Tanganika and Nyassa, and Sir Samuel Baker's no less fanciful idea of Upper and Lower Tanganika, as also Livingstone's. United Lake Liemba and Lake Tanganika. A finished circumnavigation dispels all erratic ideas and illusions respecting its length and breadth, and furnisnes us with a complete knowledge, as far as present necessities require, of its affluents and effluents.

I write this letter to explain the problem of the'Tanganika, which has.puzzled Livingstone and so many explorerajjmd^ induced so many able cartographer! to^publish wild conjectures instead of solid facts and truths ; and I take for my texts once more certain items from Lieutenant Verney Cajaeron's letter to the Geographical Society, dated May 9, 1874. That gallant explorer says:

" I have been fortunate enough to discover tie outlet of the Tanganika. The current is small (I*2 knots) as might be expected from the levels. It is believed to flovr into the Lualaba, between the Lakes Moero and Kamarondo, .1 went four or five miles down it, when' my further progress was stopped by the floating grass and enormous rushes. The river, the Lukuga, is about 25 miles south of the Islands Captain Speke explored." ; It is not fair to criticise such a brief letter as this, evidently written hastily, after the discoverer's arrival in Ujiji, nor have I any such intention; but the obser- "• vations serve as a preface to what I am about to say, and in a measure mark the boundaries of difference between Lieutenant Cameron and myself. I send you a chart of the Lukuga Creek, to enable your readers to understand one of Nature's secrets in Central Africa. I shall novru briefly remark upon the above state* merits: ' - -

Lieutenant Cameron says he has been " fortunate enough to discover the outlet of Lake Tanganika." He certainly has discovered Lukuga Creek, and, entertaining the friendliest feelings towards the gallant gentleman, I am happy to admit that, though he has found what hss never been and is not the outlet, yet ' he has none the less pointed out what will be within a few years the outlet of the Tanganika, .for at present there is none, as we understand the term; no outflowing river or effluent.

"The current is small (1%2 knots),. as might be. expected from :the levels." Having differed with the first I must op. pose this second statement, though reluctantly ; but I impute the error to the traveller's over-hurry and imperfect levels. The chief who accompanied Cameron says that he stayed but a short time, and such a current as he mentions might well be caused by the monsoon wind blowing up the creek, but for further details and experiments testing this current I must refev you below. •' It is believed to flow into the Lualaba,,

between Lakes Moero and Kamarondo." ' More about the flow below, but Moero is pronounced " Mweru " by all men, natives or Arabs, and of Katnarondo "Lake," I can hear nothing except a distinct and . emphatic denial of there being such a lake ; but all who know anything of it ~ say there is a river called the Kamalondo. or Kamarondo, a large tributary of the Lualaba or Ugarowa.

". I went four or five miles down it, when my further progress was stopped by the floating grass and enormous rushes." , Lieutenant Cameron proceeded about three miles, I think, and made his experiments at Lumba. His progress .was stopped by the papyrus, which perhaps may come under his description; but all specimens'of ordinary grass seen in the Lukuga Creek at present may. be eaten by a healthy ass in fifteen minutes.

" The river, the Lukuga, is about 25 miles south of the group of islands Captain Bpeke explored." The entrance to the Lukuga Creek is situate in S. lit. odeg. 49min. £osec, while Kasenge Island is in S. lat. sdeg. 3omin. 30*ec.-—making the Lukuga just 14 geographical miles south of Kasenge, discovered by Speke. Beyond these few points I have no cause to. differ with Lieutenant Cameron, To him alone belongs the credit and honour of the discovery of the Lukuga Creek, the future outlet of Lake Tariganika. I followed his course inch by inch, marked each of his camps, and employed the same guides. Where he cut across deep bays, and finally traversed Tanganika, Lake without reaching the south end by 19 geographical miles, I diverged from his track, and completed what he there left undone, in the hope, since I was oh the lake, and captain of my owj^ . boat, to correct or confirm him; butafftJH£ all my trouble I only came to the Lukuga Creek to find that he is entitled to the honour of the discovery of the future outlet of the Tanganika, because there is not at present what can be called an outflowing river at Lukuga Creek. I followed Cameron as far as Kasenge, whence he returned to XTjiji, leaving the northern half explored, but then I continued the exploration along the coasts df TTgubba, Goma, Kovunvwch, Karamba, Übwari, Masani—all new ground unvisited by any white man. Thus I came to the point. where Livingstone and myself left off in • 1871; thence, to Ujiji, after having explored every corner and river mouth, bay, and creek, in search of the real outlet, or, if Lukuga can be called one, in search of • another. A distance of over 803 geographical miles was so traversed by me ; but though I have made several interesting discoveries during the long voyage none of them' deserves our special' attention like the Lukuga Creek. I hope none of Lieutenant Cameron's friends will take offence because I have found errors in his statements. Differences do not always imply dissensions. In this case his mistakes have arisen from haste and an imperfect examination of the . Lukuga Creek. He is not deprived of . the glory of the discovery of the Lukuga, nor of the credit of having gone through much trouble and hardship in his Tanganika voyage. It is difficult for any man .

to bo perfectly exact. One explorer loses a date, and having no me&s to right his calendars or take lunars. is corjected^ bj » the next; one traveller regards an objeol this way, another in quite an opposite aspect; one man hears a statement and obtains a version of a thing directly the reverse of what is reported to his succes^ sor; one person contents himself with merely hearing of a fact, another is no! content until he has realised it for himself, which mates a. vast difference. There are more errors iv the English Ad-miralty-chart of the East African Coast than in all the maps of the Central African travellers' routes. I have found do such absurd mistake iv Burton's, Speke's, Grant's, or Livingstone's" maps, as I found in the Admiralty chart, where Kissomang point stands for Kisima Mafia (or Mafia's well.) Let Cameron's friends, then, rest content, for in this letter I shall . have to correct myself, Livingstone, and Burton. I begin, after this lengthy preamble, with tradition, the mother of history, . The Wajiji, a tribe now occupying a small country near the centre of the eastern coast of the Tanganika—immigrants long since from TJrimdi—have two interesting legends respecting the origin of Lake Tanganika. The first relates that the portion of this continent now occupied by the Great Lake was a plain "years and years and years ago; " -%*t on this piain was a large town, th/site^f which is not known. In this town lived a man and his wife, with an enclosure, round their dwelling, which contained a remarkably deep well or fountain, whence an abundant supply of fresh fish was obtained for their wants. The existence of the fountain and its treasure was kept a profound secret from all their neighbors, as _ the revelation of its ; existence- had ' been Btrictiy prohibited by father to son for many generations within this particular family, lest some heavy calamity, dimly foretold, would happen ; and, remembering this injunction, the ,-owners of the fountain lived long and happily, fresh fish forming their main food each day.' The wife, however, wa§not very virtuous, for she permitted another man in secret to share the love which should have been solely bestowed on her proper husband, j and,: among other favors she frequently J gave to her lover some of the fresh fish, a kind of delicious meat he had never before tasted, which: roused his utmost curiosity to ascertain whence she obtained it. For a long time he ceased not to ask, while the woman, steadily refused to tell. One day the husband was compelled to begin a journey to Uyinza, but before departure he strictly enjoined his wife to look after his house closely, to admit no gossips within his doors, and above all not to show the fountain. This African Eve solemnly promised to comply with his instructions, though secretly she rejoiced at the prospect of his absence. A few hours after her husband's departure she left- her house to seek her lover, and when she found him she said, "You have for a long time demanded to know whence I obtained that delicious meat you have so often praised. Come with me and I will snow you." The African Eye then took him to her house, in opposition to her husband's commands ; where, with a view to enhance the glories of the fountain and the pleasures of viewing the fish sportfully displaying their silvery sides in the water, she first entertained her lover with dishes cooked in various. ways, nor was she neglectful to satisfy his thirst- with wine of her own manufacture. Then, when the black Lothario began to be impatient at the delay, having no cause to postpone the exhibition, she invited him to follow her. A fence of water-cane plastered over with mud enclosed the . wondrous'fountain, within whose crystal depths he saw the fish. For some time he gazed on the brilliant creatures with admiration, then, seized with a desire to handle one of them and regard it more closely, he put his hand within the water to catch one, when suddenly the well burst forth, the earth opened her womb, and soon an enormous lake replaced the plain. Within a few days the husband, returning from Uvinza, approached Ujiji, and saw to his astonishment a large ' lake where once a plain and many towns stood. He knew then that his wife had revealed the secret of the mysterious fountain, and that punishment had fallen upon her and her neighbours because of her sin.

The other tradition imparted to me by the ancients of Ujiji. relates that many years ago—how long no one can tell, ;the X-uwegeri, a river near Urimba, flowing westward into a valley, was met by the Lukuga flowing eastward, and its waters, driven backwards by the easterly flowing river, spread over the valley, and formed the Tanganika. Hence the Luwegeri is termed the mother of the Lukuga. The Wagubha have also their tale, •which is that a long time ago, near Urungu, there was a. small hill, hollow within and very deep, full of water. This hill one day burst, and the water spread over the land, becoming a lake. The chief at the mouth of the Lukuga gays that formerly that opening , was a small river flowing into the Tanganika, receiving many others as it descended towards the lake, but that the Tanganika, filling up, " swallowed " the Lukuga and made it a small lake or feeder of the Tan-

ganika, which until two years ago, during the rainy season, discharged, its surplus ■j£^ tohlav into the basin. During the last v two years, however, the Tanganika has risen so high that the neutral ground visible between the creek mouth and the Lukuga proper flowing to Rua has been inundated, so that the two Lukugas have become one. Thus much for traditions and native information.

From traditions we may proceed to hypotheses, which, as will-be seen, have been as "wild as the native tales. Mr Oooley, a member of the Royal. Geographical Society, on the strength of an acquaintance with a.half-caste Arab who had traded to certain parts'in Central Africa, wrote the results of what he- had gathered in his " Inner Africa Laid Open," wherein those who run may read and find much unwisdom, as has since teen conclusively proved. The Tanganika, according to Mi" Cooley, is connected with JTyassa. Livingstone also, the first of African explorers, was greatly misled and ' greatly in error about the Tanganika. He said he tested a current during three months by means of water plants, which kept continually drifting northward. Misled by those, he constantly wrote and spoke about Upper and Lower Tanganika. The Upper .was supposed to be the Albert^ yanza, the Lower, .Burton's Tanganika. So certain was he of this, that when he. and I -proceeded to explore ifortli Tanganika he spoke to me about continuing down the river as far. as the Albert-Nyanza. Since this last cir-

cumnavigating voyage of mine I do not wonder at all that Livingstone was so firm in his -.belief, for at the extreme south end and far up tie-west cost I find he made diligent search for the outlet. (On foot he trudged from Cazetnbo's

country to the frontier of Ugubba, and only took boat then to proceed by water to Ujiji. On his last march I also find that he made his direct way to the Tnnganika. I have not seen his journals, though no doubt they havo been published by this. From Ponda's village as far as Ukituta, I find he has coasted along the lake. Camp after camp was shown to me, and it appears that he only desisted from the search when he had united his last route to his former one. From all this it is apparent that he made strenuous efforts to discover the lake's outlet, though, unfortunately—the more's the pity after such courageous striving— without success. I never looked at the grim heights of Fipa, as I sat in my boat, without wondering how the aged traveller was able to hold out so long after such severe climbing: My men also stimulated my admiration by pointing out some ire- ! mendous. mountain which had occupied them an entire day to scale. I recollect also attending the Geographical Soiree of 1874, which was held at Willis's Booms, and seeing pendant from top to bottom of the wall an enormous map, illustrating broadly enough the "Hypothesis of Bir Samuel Baker,'' which was an imaginary marriage of the Albert-JNyanza with the Tanganika. Heedless of the stern obstacles that hinder the actual explorer in Africa, with one dab of paintbrush the gallant theorist had annihilated Ruanda, Mkinyaga, Unyambenya, Chamali, JNashi, and Uzige; while a broad, winding, river-like lake, nearly 800 geographical miles in length, astonished the scientific and unscientific worlds. .

But to the point. On reading over the duplicates of my letters, sent some months ago to the coast, I proudly perceive that I" have cause to congratulate myself upon having approached pretty near the truth; but it must be admitted that my conjectures were hot broached until I had paid a second visit to Lake Tanganika, and had viewed with surprise the great rise, of the lake which had taken place during an interval of five years. In my letters I ask, " Can it be possible that Lake Tanganika is filling up, and that the Lukuga is but an intermittent affluent ?" Now that traditions, hypotheses,, and conjectures must give way before the light thrown upon the . subject by careful and exact exploration, it will be seen that my conjectures were not unfounded. I forget who it was who said that the word Tanganika was derived from the Kiswahill words Kuchanganya or Kuchanganika, which means" in English, to "mix." Whether it was Mr Cooley or Captain Burton, the suggestion must be admitted to have been most ingenious; but the word has the objection of having been borrowed from a foreign language, because it shows-an accidental similarity to a Wajiji term". Whether Kiswahili or some other more northern speech must be taken for the mother tongue cannot be settled for some time yet; and, until this is definitely ascertained' by a comparison of. languages and dialects, and a knowledge of the course of ancient immigrations, it is greatly doubted whether the interpretation should be admitted as the correct one. '. \.

Among the inquiries made by me around this lake has been about the signification of the word Tanganika, which I discover to be only adopted by the Wajiji, Warundi, Wazige, Wavira, and Wagona, who united inhabit about a third of the shores. The Wawendi, Wafipa, Warunga, and Wawemba, who people the southern third, call it Jemba, Kiemba.jor Siemba—The Lake, It will be remembered that, among some of the discoveries Livingstone said he had made was that of Lake Liemba, which is really " Lake-Lake." No douiat Livingstone asked often enough of the natives of Uurnya, probably in Eibisa or KibisaKisawahili, the name of the "water, and was as often told it was Jemba or Liemba. Hence Livingstone wrote that he had «' discovered another lake, not very large, with two islands in it. Four river's discharged into the lake. The shores very pretty, romantic, &c." And in a subsequent letter lie sard, "I find that this Lake Liemba is joined to Lake Tanganika." Imperfect investigation also, it seems, did not therefore, exempt Livingstone from ever committing mistakes. Exploration of this part of Lake Tanganika (the south end) discovers it as tallying with the , above description of Liemba. Sakarabwe village, _ where the good doctor was brought-to by one of the chiefs of Kitumkuru as he came from Kabwire, and where he halted some time, was shown to me. The "two islands" are Ntondwe and Murikwa; the four rivers are the Wizi, the Kitoke, Eapata, and Mtombwa. -

The natives of Marungu and Ugubba occupy the western third, called Tan-ganika-Eimana, from which it is evident that bad Burton and Speke, the discovers of this lake, happened to have first marched to Pipa, instead of being informed about the " Tanganika," we should probably have heard of this lake as Lake Liemba, orßiemba. Had they journeyed from westward to the lake, it is to be doubted much whether we should have heard of it as Tanganika at all j undoubtedly they would have enlarged upon the vast length, sea-like expanse,- and romantic shores of Lake Eimana. In the I same manner as all hirge bodies of water are spoken of by the Waganda as' Nyanzas, so the Wajiji speak of them as Tanganikas.. ~

In my endeavours to ascertain the signification of the term Tanganika, and in the attempts of the Wajiji to explain, I learned that they really did not know themselves, unless it might be because the sea was so large, and its surf always made a noise, while a.oanoe could make a long journey ou it. Erbm all which I came to suppose that its signification was Large, Great," or Long Lake; Stormy Lake; Sounding Waters, or High Wave Lake, &c. I. also-learned that there was an electric fish called Nika in the lake, but then Tanga stood in the way of it being called after a fish; neither was the creature itself so Tbry remarkable an object as to give its name to so vast a body of water. Questioning' in this manner only worried the natives, and I did not obtain a satisfactory solution of the difficulty until happening, as is my custom, to write down as many native names for objects as I can gather from all dialects for the purpose of comparing them, I came to " Kitauga," a small lake, pool, or pond, a lake on which no canoes travel, arid " Nika," a plain. It appeared to me that the meaning of the word was now obtained; that Tanga-nika signifies

The plain-like Lakr, especially from the fact that a plain is universally taken in Inner Africa as a standard object for comparing or illustrating level Ivdies. of earth or water of considerable exunt, in the same manner as the word Bahr, or Sea, is usrd by the sea-coa-t people During the voyage to the Lukuga, the chief guide of Cameron, Para, whom I also employed, pointed out several instances of changes that had occurred since that explorer had been on the lake. Sand beaches, which in many instances had i served their canoes as a shelter from the j waves, had become flooded to a depth of ! from three to four feet; low points of I land had become totally insulated, islands ! had been formed, and- others had been submerged; in the words of the guide, " The Tanganika truly was swallowing the land v£ry .fast." But the best known change was at the mouth of the Lukuga. Two years apo—if Para and the chief at the -entrance are to be believed —there stood, there a long beach of white sand extending front Mkampemba on one side to Kara Point on the opposite side, cut by a channel 400 or 500 yards wide, much nearer Mkampemba than Kara Point. >Several Arabs, surprised at the change, confirmed Para's statement, but I found, instead of this beach, a line of breakers with a depth of from two to five feet, from Mkampemba to Kara Point; and as Cameron's halting place was no longer a shelter for canoes, we were compelled to proceed further in, about three-quarters of a mile.

The chief, Kawe-Nyange, who took Cameron in his canoe up the creek, was very affable, remembered the white man very well, and explained some of the wonderful things that had been shown him, finally expressing a doubt as to whether he should permit me to ascend the Lukuga, since he feared that the other white man had thrown some medicine into the water, which had caused the Tanganika to overflow much country. The beach between his village and Kara was covered with angry white waves, a fishing village on the beach was destroyed, and the Mitwansi was covered with water. If one white man could make so many changes in the country what might not two do? Kawe-Nyange, however, was after a little while, laughed out of his fears, and was encouraged with ample gifts to take men with him to show me the land and water round s about.

All I could hear about the Lukuga, whether at TJjiji or from the chief at its mouth, only added to .the difficulty of comprehending the real state of things. Lieutenant Cameron stated that he had discovered the outlet of the Tanganika, with a current of about I*2 knots an hour!

Arabs who had crossed the Lukuga scores of times said that it was not an outflowing river but an inflowing river. Wagubba from Monyis asserted that there were two Lukugas, one flowing east and one coming west, and a bank or ridge of dry land separated the two. Kuango, one of my guides, declared that he had crossed it five times ; that it was a small river flowing into the Tanganika ; that if I found it flowed in any other direction except into the Tanganika he would return his hire to me.

Para, Cameron's chief guide, remarked that the white man could not have seen the water flow towards Rua, simply because it did not flow there.

A native at Tembwe reported that last year there were two Lukugas, one flowing to Tanganika, another to Bua; but this year's rain had joined the two rivers and made them one, flowing west.

Kawe-JSyange, the chief at tin entrance to the Lukuga, said that he would show me a river flowing to the Tanganika, and a little way above another running towards Rua.

A sub-chief of his stated that formerly there were two Lukugas, one flowing to the lake, another running in towards Rua; but these last two years' rain had swelled the Tanganika so much that the lake had " swallowed " the Lukuga stream, flowing into it, and had become joined to the Lukuga, flowing io Rua; but tbal this union with the JR.ua-Lukuga was not continual, lasting only during the hours of the south-east monsoon (Manda); that each afternoon," after the wind had calmed, the river returned as usual to the lake.

Lastly I may mention that Mr J. F. de Bourgb, C.E. and F.R.G.S., a gentleman engaged by me to construct me a blank chart of Central Africa, has drawn, near the position occupied by the Lukuga in question, a small lake with a river flowing out of it towards the Tanganika. I must say that, wherever the gentleman obtained his information, he has illustrated the subject exactly as it stood a few years ago. As the case stands to-day, no one is exactly right, or quite wrong. Exploration and close investigation of this geographical phenomenon reconcile all these contrary statements; but, without the chart, illustrating my survey, I should despair of making my meaning very clear.

(To be continued.)