r moving forward, Speke was obliged to set out for Uganda
alone, which place he entered on January 16, 1862. He became a close
friend of the royal family and the chief men, and his beard was a
constant source of admiration and conversation.

The illness of Grant prevented him from joining the party at Uganda till
the end of May, and on July 7th of the same year, after many delays,
they obtained leave from the king to leave Uganda. By July the 28th,
Speke had reached the Ripon Falls, where the Victoria Nyanza branch of
the Nile flows out of the great lake at the head of Napoleon Gulf. These
falls were called after the Marquis of Ripon, who was then the
president of the Royal Geographical Society. At this time, Grant, still
convalescent, was moving by a more direct route towards Ungaro. Speke
met him again on the way thither, and they finished their journey
together. After suffering vexatious impositions from the monarch,
Speke asked leave to go and visit a new lake which the natives called
Lutanzige, but was refused permission. He then sent Bombay, his servant
and interlocutor, along the course of the Nile towards the outposts
of Pethrick. The messenger returned with hopeful news that there was
a clear course open to them in that direction. The whole party then
journeyed down the Kafu River to the point where it enters the Nile.
On the way thither, they came to the Karuma Falls, and were obliged
to march across swampy ground. Finally they met a Sudanese black named
Mu-hammed Wad-el-Mek, who was dressed like an Egyptian and who spoke
Arabic. Muhammed first of all told them that he had come from Pethrick,
but it was later discovered that he was in the employment of Doctor
Bono, a trader from Malta. The Sudanese was not anxious that the
party should proceed, and told them stories about the impossibility of
ascending the river at that time, during the month of December. It was
difficult to dissuade Speke, however, and on January 12, 1863, he set
out for a place which is now called Affudu. There the party paused for
awhile in order to kill enough game to feed the native servants. On the
1st of February, having forced some of the natives into their service as
porters, they descended the Nile to its confluence with the Asua River.
They next crossed this river, and proceeded onwards to the Nile Rapids,
and from thence skirted the borders of the Bari country. On February 15,
1863, they made an entrance into Gondokoro, where the wh