eople died of starvation and the
rest of the expedition was only saved by the purchase of some grain
from a distant village. But four more died and twenty-eight miles under
a hot sun prostrated one of the white men, who died a few days later.
Thus they entered Ituru, "a land of naked people, whose hills drained
into a marsh, whence issue the southernmost waters of the Nile."

Here they were surrounded by angry savages on whom they had to fire,
and from whose country they were glad to escape.

On 27th February 1875, after tramping for one hundred and three days,
they arrived at their destination. One of the white men who was striding
forward suddenly waved his hat, and with a beaming face shouted out,
"I have seen the lake, sir; it is grand."

Here, indeed, was the Victoria Nyanza, "which a dazzling sun
transformed into silver," discovered by Speke sixteen years before,
and supposed to be the source of the Nile. The men struck up a song
of triumph--

"Sing, O friends, sing; the journey is ended.
Sing aloud, O friends; sing to the great Nyanza.
Sing all, sing loud, O friends, sing to the great sea;
Give your last look to the lands behind, and then turn to the sea.
Lift up your heads, O men, and gaze around.
Try if you can to see its end.
See, it stretches moons away,
This great, sweet, fresh-water sea."

"I thought," says Stanley, "there could be no better way of settling,
once and for ever, the vexed question, than by circumnavigating the
lake."

So the _Lady Alice_ was launched, and from the shores of Speke Gulf,
as he named the southern end, the explorer set forth, leaving the two
remaining Englishmen in charge of the camp.

"The sky is gloomy," writes Stanley, "the rocks are bare and rugged,
the land silent and lonely. The rowing of the people is that of men
who think they are bound to certain death; their hearts are full of
misgivings as slowly we move through the dull dead waters." The waters
were not dead for long. A gale rose up and the lake became wild beyond
description. "The waves hissed as we tore along, the crew collapsed
and crouched into the bottom of the boat, expecting the end of the
wild venture, but the _Lady Alice_ bounded forward like a wild courser
and we floated into a bay, still as a pond."

So they coasted along the shores of the lake. Their guide told them
it would take years to sail round their sea, that on the shores dwelt
people with long tails, who p