ociety; and it may
perhaps be doubted whether, had he foreseen the cost of the enterprise,
he would have deemed the object worthy of the price. But ever and anon,
he seemed to be close on what he was searching for, and certain to
secure it by just a little further effort; while as often, like the cup
of Tantalus, it was snatched from his grasp. Moreover, during a
life-time of splendid self-discipline, he had been training himself to
keep his promises, and to complete his tasks; nor could he in any way
see it his duty to break the one or leave the other unfinished. He had
undertaken to the Geographical Society to solve that problem, and he
would do it if it could be done. Wherever he went he had always some
opportunity to make known the father-hood of God and his love in Christ,
although the seed he sowed seemed seldom to take root. Then he was
gathering fresh information on the state of the country and the habits
of the people. He was especially gathering information on the accursed
slave-trade.

This question of the watershed, too, had fascinated his mind, for he had
a strong impression that the real sources of the Nile were far higher
than any previous traveler had supposed--far higher than Lake Victoria
Nyanza, and that it would be a service to religion as well as science to
discover the fountains of the stream on whose bosom, in the dawn of
Hebrew history, Moses had floated in his ark of bulrushes. A strong
impression lurked in his mind that if he should only solve that old
problem he would acquire such influence that new weight would be given
to his pleadings for Africa; just as, at the beginning of his career, he
had wished for a commanding style of composition, to be able to rouse
the attention of the world to that ill-treated continent.

He was strongly disposed to think that in the account of the sources
given to Herodotus by the Registrar of Minerva in the temple of Sais,
that individual was not joking, as the father of history supposed. He
thought that in the watershed the two conical hills, Crophi and Mophi
might be found, and the fountains between them which it was impossible
to fathom; and that it might be seen that from that region there was a
river flowing north to Egypt, and another flowing south to a country
that might have been called Ethiopia. But whatever might be his views or
aims, it was ordained that in the wanderings of his last years he should
bring within the sympathies of the Christian world