.
Mistaken notion concerning mothers. Prospects for missionaries.
Halima. News of other travellers. Chuma is married.

By the arrival of the fast Ramadan on the 14th November, and a Nautical
Almanac, I discovered that I was on that date twenty-one days too fast
in my reckoning. Mr. Stanley used some very strong arguments in favour
of my going home, recruiting my strength, getting artificial teeth, and
then returning to finish my task; but my judgment said, "All your
friends will wish you to make a complete work of the exploration of the
sources of the Nile before you retire." My daughter Agnes says, "Much as
I wish you to come home, I would rather that you finished your work to
your own satisfaction than return merely to gratify me." Rightly and
nobly said, my darling Nannie. Vanity whispers pretty loudly, "She is a
chip of the old block." My blessing on her and all the rest.

It is all but certain that four full-grown gushing fountains rise on the
watershed eight days south of Katanga, each of which at no great
distance off becomes a large river; and two rivers thus formed flow
north to Egypt, the other two to Inner Ethiopia; that is, Lufira or
Bartle Frere's River, flows into Kamolondo, and that into Webb's
Lualaba, the main line of drainage. Another, on the north side of the
sources, Sir Paraffin Young's Lualaba, flows through Lake Lincoln,
otherwise named Chibungo and Lomame, and that too into Webb's Lualaba.
Then Liambai Fountain, Palmerston's, forms the Upper Zambesi; and the
Lunga (Lunga), Oswell's Fountain, is the Kafue; both flowing into Inner
Ethiopia. It may be that these are not the fountains of the Nile
mentioned to Herodotus by the secretary of Minerva, in Sais, in Egypt;
but they are worth discovery, as in the last hundred of the seven
hundred miles of the watershed, from which nearly all the Nile springs
do unquestionably arise.

I propose to go from Unyanyembe to Fipa; then round the south end of
Tanganyika, Tambete, or Mbete; then across the Chambeze, and round south
of Lake Bangweolo, and due west to the ancient fountains; leaving the
underground excavations till after visiting Katanga. This route will
serve to certify that no other sources of the Nile can come from the
south without being seen by me. No one will cut me out after this
exploration is accomplished; and may the good Lord of all help me to
show myself one of His stout-hearted servants, an honour to my children,
and, perhaps,