PART II. CHAPTER I. FROM ZANZIBAR TO KAZÉ. CAPTAIN SPEKE AND SIR R. MURCHISON-PLANS FOR ANOTHER EXPEDITION-PREPARATIONS AT ZANZIBAR-MARCH THROUGH UZARAMOUSAGARA AND UGOGO, WITH NOTICES OF THE PEOPLE OF THOSE COUNTRIES SPORTING ADVENTURES WITH BUFFALOES WILDERNESS-ARRIVAL IN UNYAMUÉZI-NATURAL HISTORY. THE THE years 1857 and 1858, while attention at home was engrossed with the Indian mutiny and its suppression, were quietly adding two glorious pages to the annals of African discovery. In the early spring of the latter year Captains Burton and Speke discovered the Tanganyika Lake; in the middle of the summer Speke alone, while his companion was recruiting his health at Kazé, discovered the Victoria Nyanza. That famous lake is entirely his own, and will be associated with his memory to the end of time. There is no doubt that it is one of the chief sources of the Nile, and the one which in all probability contributes most to its bulk; whether it is the source most remote from the mouth of the mighty river, is a problem which science has yet to solve. From want 116 START ON NEW EXPEDITION. of time and means, Speke had not as yet been able to verify the connection of his lake with the Nile, but he was naturally most anxious to do so at the first opportunity. In May 1859 he was in London, showing his map to Sir Roderick Murchison, the President of the Geographical Society, who said at once that the Society must send him to Africa again. A grant was obtained from Government of £2500, and the Indian department put at his disposal a supply of arms and ammunition, scientific instruments, and presents for the natives and Arab merchants. Captain Grant, an old friend and brother sportsman of Speke's, hearing that he was bound on the journey, applied to be associated with him, and received his appointment in due form from the Geographical Society. About the same time, Mr Petherick, an ivory merchant, arrived in England, and offered to place boats at Gondokoro on the Nile, sending men up the White River to collect ivory in the meanwhile, in order eventually to assist the expedition in coming down. If possible, he was also to ascertain at the same time if the branch called the Usua river had any connection with Speke's lake. On the 27th of April 1860, Speke and Grant embarked on board the new steam-frigate Forte, commanded by Captain Turnour, at Portsmouth, and arrived, by way of Madeira and Rio de Janeiro, at the Cape of Good Hope on the 4th of July. Here Sir George Grey, the governor, took up the scheme of the expedition warmly, and gave most valuable assistance. He had himself been wounded by savages in Australia, much as Speke had been among the Somali. Speke recruited here ten volunteers from the Cape Mounted Rifles (Hottentots), and with them and twelve mules, given him by the Cape Government, embarked on board the steam-corvette Brisk, and touching at Delagoa Bay and Mozambique, arrived at Zanzibar on PREPARATIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS. 117 the 15th of August, the Brisk catching a slaver on the way. Speke was welcomed by his old friend Colonel Rigby, the consul, successor of Colonel Hamerton, deceased, who told him all the news of Zanzibar. Dr Roscher, as has been told, had made a successful journey to the Nyinyézi Nyassa, or Star Lake, but had been afterwards murdered in Uhiyow. The Baron von der Decken was organising an expedition to search for the relics of his German countryman, and if possible complete his project.* The interior of the continent had been long in a disturbed state, in consequence of feuds between the ivory merchants and the natives. Hopes were, however, entertained that peace would shortly be restored. What was most important to Speke was that Colonel Rigby had sent on to Kazé, for his use, thirteen days before, fifty-six loads of cloth and beads. Speke next called on Sultan Majid, as in duty bound, was received very affably, and promised every assistance that lay in his power. After some delay, during which Speke cruised about the coast, the expedition was formed. Bombay and his adopted brother Mabruki had been among the first to greet Speke on his arrival, and were immediately re-engaged; but his old friends the Beluches, who wished him to take them, had been superseded by the Hottentots. Bombay prevailed on Baraka, Frij, and Rahan-old sailors who, like himself, knew Hindustanito join. Then thirty-six Wanguana, or freedmen, were enlisted to carry loads, or do any other work, and follow the expedition to Egypt. Each was to receive a year's pay in advance, the remainder when their work was done, and they were to be sent back to Zanzibar. The sultan added * This heroic traveller, after ascending the Kilimandjaro Mountain to a certain distance, and fixing its height at 22,000 feet, ascended the Jub in 1865, with a party of his countrymen and Speke's man Baraka, in two iron steamers. He was murdered, with his friend Dr Link, at Berdera, a town on the Jub, in the Somali country. 118 PREPARATIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS. thirty-four labourers, taken from his own gardens. A hundred pagazis, or Wanyamuézi porters, were next sought for, to carry each a load of cloth, beads, or brass wire as far as Kazé, as they do for the ivory merchants. They hoped to engage fresh relays on the march. The former caravan-captain, or cafila-bashi, Sheikh Said bin Salem, occupied that post again. Carbines were put into the hands of fifty of the Wanguana, who were drilled and formed into companies of ten each, under Baraka as general. The party, including but three or four women, when it started for the interior, was more than two hundred strong, |