o idea of the breadth of the lake, as an archipelago of islands,
each consisting of a single hill rising to a height of two or three
hundred feet above the water, intersected the line of vision to the
left. A sheet of water extended far away to the eastward. The view
was one which even in a well-known country would have arrested the
traveller by its peaceful beauty. But the pleasure of the mere view
vanished in the presence of those more intense emotions called up by
the geographical importance of the scene before me. I no longer felt
any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birth to that interesting river
(Nile), the source of which has been the subject of so much speculation
and the object of so many explorers. This is a far more extensive lake
than Tanganyika; it is so broad that you could not see across it, and
so long that nobody knew its length. This magnificent sheet of water
I have ventured to name Victoria after our gracious sovereign."

[Illustration: BURTON AND HIS COMPANIONS ON THE MARCH TO THE VICTORIA
NYANZA. From a humorous sketch by Burton.]

Speke returned to Kaze after his six weeks' eventful journey, having
tramped no less than four hundred and fifty-two miles. He received
a warm welcome from Burton, who had been very uneasy about his safety,
for rumours of civil war had reached him. "I laughed over the matter,"
says Speke, "but expressed my regret that he did not accompany me,
as I felt quite certain in my mind I had discovered the source of the
Nile."

Together the two explorers now made their way to the coast and crossed
to Aden, where Burton, still weak and ill, decided to remain for a
little, while Speke took passage in a passing ship for home.

When he showed his map of Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza to the
President of the Royal Geographical Society in London, Sir Roderick
Murchison was delighted.

"Speke, we must send you there again," he said enthusiastically.

And the expedition was regarded as "one of the most notable discoveries
in the annals of African discovery."

CHAPTER LXIV

LIVINGSTONE TRACES LAKE SHIRWA AND NYASSA

Burton and Speke had not yet returned from central Africa, when
Livingstone left England on another expedition into the interior, with
orders "to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography of
eastern and central Africa and to encourage trade." Leaving England
on 10th March 1858, he reached the east coast the following May as
British Consul of