ding in that spot which had baffled the genius,
industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns for the course of
near three thousand years. Kings had attempted this discovery at the
heads of their armies--fame, riches, and honour had been held out for
a series of ages without having produced one man capable of wiping
off this stain upon the enterprise and abilities of mankind or adding
this desideratum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere
private Briton, I triumphed here over kings and their armies. I was
but a few minutes arrived at the source of the Nile, through numberless
dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have overwhelmed me
but for the continual goodness and protection of Providence. I was,
however, but then half through my journey, and all those dangers which
I had already passed awaited me again on my return. I found a
despondency gaining ground fast upon me and blasting the crown of
laurels I had too rashly woven for myself."

Bruce then filled a large cocoa-nut shell, which he had brought from
Arabia, full of the Nile water, and drank to the health of His Majesty
King George III.

CHAPTER XLVIII

MUNGO PARK AND THE NIGER

Bruce died in the spring of 1794. Just a year later another Scotsman,
Mungo Park, from Selkirk, started off to explore the great river
Niger--whose course was as mysterious as that of the Nile. Most of
the early geographers knew something of a great river running through
Negroland. Indeed, Herodotus tells of five young men, the Nasamones,
who set out to explore the very heart of Africa. Arrived at the edge
of the great sandy desert, they collected provisions and supplied
themselves with water and plunged courageously into the unknown. For
weary days they made their way across to the south, till they were
rewarded by finding themselves in a fertile land well watered by lakes
and marshes, with fruit trees and a little race of men and women whom
they called pigmies.

And a large river was flowing from west to east--probably the Niger.
But the days of Herodotus are long since past. It was centuries later
when the Arabs, fiery with the faith of Mohammed, swept over the
unexplored lands. "With a fiery enthusiasm that nothing could
withstand, and inspired by a hope of heaven which nothing could shake,
they swept from district to district, from tribe to tribe," everywhere
proclaiming to roving multitudes the faith of their master. In this
spirit they had