In order to have a clear conception of the vast regions of which the works of

in the Gazelle River, which joins the White Nile just at the point where that stream is greatly impeded by great barriers and masses of weeds, which so choke the channel as to render it for some 'portion of the year almost impassable. This blocking of the White Nile, together with the force and volume of those western affluents which unite in the Gazelle, have lately revived discus

Dr. Schweinfurth and Sir Samuel Baker treat, it is necessary that the reader should master the physical features of the country which forms what is commonly called the Basin of the Nile. Below Khartoum, situated at about 16° sion as to the main stream of the Nile; north lat., the stream of the Nile is a and some, among whom, though he does very simple matter. But at Khartoum not positively say so, we think we can itself the perplexities of its course at reckon Dr. Schweinfurth, have recently once begin, and the questions arise at thought that the Djoor, which flows into that very spot which is the true main the Gazelle at a spot called the Meshera channel of that mighty river, and which or the Landing-Place in the Dinka terriare merely its affluents? The town to tory, may, after all, be the main stream which we refer lies, as is well known, at and the true Nile. On this vexed questhe junction of the Blue Nile, the Nile of tion we do not presume to offer an opinBruce and Abyssinia flowing from the ion: all that we wish to impress upon east, and the White Nile which joins its the reader is the fact that besides the sister stream from the west. For a long White Nile and its eastern affluents, period the Blue Nile was considered by there are numerous streams flowing from geographers the true Nile, but as the the west, as the Bahr-el-Arab, the Tondy, horizon of knowledge was extended the the Rohl, and, though last not least, the White Nile was raised to that dignity, Djoor, which, uniting in the short chanand after receiving another affluent from nel known as the Gazelle, find their way the eastward in the Sobat, was supposed, into the grass-grown stream of the White and is still supposed by most geogra- Nile, which, if its course becomes a little phers, to be the main stream, flowing from more blocked and choked by that luxuriant the south-east by the name of the Bahr-water vegetation, is threatened with exel-Gebel, and traced by the recent distinction as a river, and with transformacoveries of Baker and Speke and others tion into a series of lakes. As Baker's as issuing from the Albert Nyanza Lake, line of march lay along the eastern into which, again, a stream flows from stream of the Nile, so Schweinfurth's the Victoria Nyanza, called by Speke the discoveries were towards the west, and White Nile. So much will be sufficient through the regions watered by the west

as to the course of the eastern stream of

the Nile, the White Nile, and its affluents, and these are the rivers which traverse those south-eastern regions of the Nile Basin through which Baker travelled and campaigned. But besides the eastern or White Nile, there are a number of western affluents, which unite

1. The Heart of Africa. Three Years Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa, from 1868 to 1871. By Dr. GEORGE SCHWEINFURTH. Translated by ELLEN E. FREWER,

with an Introduction by WINWOOD READE. In 2 vols.

London: 1873.

2. Ismailia. A Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for the Suppression of the SlaveTrade. By Sir SAMUEL W. BAKER, Pacha, &c. In 2 vols. 1874.

ern affluents of the river which we have

named above. It adds immensely to the importance and interest of those discov

eries that in the course of his travels he passed out of the Nile Basin, and crossing its watershed, arrived the first of travellers from the north in a region where the streams flowed south to the shores of the Atlantic.

Having thus briefly explained the geographical features, so far as the Nile is concerned, of the countries visited by each of our authors, we proceed to say that the two works which stand at the head of this article were the result of expeditions which traversed neighbour

that the very men so indignant against it when in presence of the khedive are not slow to receive backsheesh from the traders in that emporium who were at first the originators and are still the propagators of this accursed commerce.

ing regions of Central Africa with very this we do not mean to say that at Cairo different aims and objects. The first there are not to be heard voices round was a purely scientific journey made by a the khedive's divan loudly decrying that distinguished German naturalist, who, iniquitous traffic as unworthy to exist on with great knowledge of his subject, but Egyptian soil; but, strange to say, those with comparatively slender resources, who use this language, returning to their availed himself of the assistance of trad- houses and harems, find themselves surers to forward and further him on his rounded by slaves, with whom, in spite way. The other was a military expedi- and in the teeth of their protestations, tion numbering at first many hundreds even Lower Egypt is full. It is not wonof men, and conveyed in a fleet of steam-derful therefore that, as the diahbeeah of ers and sailing-boats to Gondokoro on the tourist and the traveller ascends the the White Nile, which was to be the Nile, those outcries against the slaveheadquarters of this little army. If we trade gradually die away, until on arrivask what was the object this force had in ing at Khartoum, the stranger is surview, the command of which was for-prised to find that he is in the midst of a mally granted by an express firman of population whose daily bread is the trafthe khedive to a distinguished traveller fic so stigmatized at Cairo; nay, more, and elephant-hunter, with absolute power and the title of a pacha, that commander himself assures us that it was undertaken for the extirpation of that nefarious traffic in slaves, which he had discovered in his travels through the same regions to be the great bar to the civilization of After these preliminary observations, Central Africa. This object is put forth we propose to consider these two works on his title-page, professed in the first in the order of time, and to see what chapter of the book, and paraded, if we both the naturalist and the pacha accommay use the expression, on page after plished in their respective expeditions. page throughout these volumes. It was Starting with very different views and against the slave-trade, and the slave- traversing very divergent paths, it will trade alone, that Baker's expedition up be seen that they both meet at last in the White Nile was planned after due one common and outspoken declaration, deliberation by the khedive, and its com- that the slave-trade is the curse of Cenmand accepted by the traveller whose tral Africa, and that before it and the former travels in Africa in company with ivory-trade with which it is inseparably his heroic wife had proved him best connected, all other branches of trade fitted to lead a band of trained soldiers dwindle and decay; so that regions on a daring enterprise. We may say at blessed by Providence with abundant once, while treating of the origin of the populations and most exuberant fertility expedition, and of Baker's avowed sin- produce, under the present system of gleness of purpose, that in all probability trade at Khartoum, little else but slaves, the motives of the Egyptian government and the ivory which without slaves it is in this matter were mixed; and that the impossible to procure. To begin then acquisition of territory and the taming of with Dr. Schweinfurth. To use bis own barbarous neighbours were probably far words, he was "already no novice on greater recommendations in their eyes African soil" when he prepared in the than any such philanthropic object as the summer of 1868 for the great journey suppression of that traffic in human flesh described in these two bulky and beautiwhich, as we shall see afterwards, is, fully illustrated volumes. Born at Riga horrible as it may seem to the enlight-in 1836, the son of a merchant, he studied ened ears of Englishmen, a normal and at Heidelberg and Berlin, and from his even necessary condition of life in Upper boyhood devoted himself to botany. In Egypt and the Soudan. While writing 1860, when the collections of the young

Baron von Barnim, who had fallen a vic-| race in Central Africa has arisen. That tim to the climate while travelling on the he found not one but several tribes inUpper Nile, were brought home, they corrigible cannibals was to be expected; were placed in the young Schweinfurth's but his evidence on this fact outweighs, hands, and their examination roused in by its authority and gravity, the confused his mind what he well calls "the blame- accounts of Du Chaillu. These, together less avarice of a plant-hunter," and the with a great mass of geographical and hope that he too might one day make ethnological discoveries, are what the discoveries in his favourite science. To scientific world owes to the endurance such a man where there is a will there is and learning of this most accomplished always a way, and in 1863 we find him in naturalist. Egypt and penetrating as far as Khar- If it be asked how it was that. Schweintoum after skirting the Highlands of furth accomplished so much, while others Abyssinia. Thence he returned, with an in these regions have had such small sucempty purse indeed, but a splendid col- cess, the answer is ready. He did at lection of plants, in 1866. He could not, Khartoum as they do at Khartoum. It however, remain at home. He soon sub-is true that while at Alexandria and mitted a plan to the Royal Academy of Cairo he armed himself with special orScience at Berlin for the botanical ex- ders from the prime minister of the viceploration of the equatorial regions lying roy, by which the governor of Khartoum west of the Nile. His proposals were was to superintend any contracts he accepted, and in 1868, with a grant from might make with the merchants, and to the Humboldt Institution, he landed in take care that any obligations undertakEgypt to pursue his researches. "Dur- en by any member of that body should be ing three years," says Mr. Winwood fulfilled; but his former experience of Reade in his Introduction, "he was ab- that place and its atmosphere had consent in the heart of Africa," and even vinced Schweinfurth that if he was to before he had returned, his name was fa- penetrate into those regions west of the mous in Europe and America. Travel- Nile, it must be by attaching himself to ling not in the footsteps of Baker, but in some one of those traders when proceeda more westerly direction, he reached ing on an ivory-expedition, who would the neighbourhood of Baker's lake, pass- then pass him on from tribe to tribe with ing through the country of the Niam Niam, which he had relations, and even accomand visiting the unknown kingdom of pany him himself on his adventurous Monbuttoo. As an explorer he stands journey. Government help might forin the highest rank, and deserves to be ward him just to the verge of the counclassed with Mungo Park, Denham, and tries which he wished to explore, but beClapperton, Livingstone, Burton, Speke yond that point all travellers would be and Grant, Barth and Rohlfs. Two qual- dependent on the merchants whose greed ifications he possessed which no other of gain led them as pioneers into those African traveller can claim to have com- regions over which the regular governbined. He was a scientific botanist and ment of Egypt had no control. The negan excellent draughtsman, while in these lect of this alliance with the trading inmost necessary acquirements for a trav- terest of Khartoum had caused the faileller others have been mere amateurs. If ure of many expeditions fitted out at a we are to sum up briefly the scientific great sacrifice of life and money. We results of his discoveries, we may say pass over the journey from Cairo to that by him the limits of the Nile Basin Khartoum, which was made like Baker have been finally settled, the existence of by going by sea from Suez to Suakin on the a pigmy race in these regions, so much Red Sea, and thence, cutting across the in dispute since the days of Herodotus, country to Berber on the Upper Nile. has been proved, while in the skin gir- Suffice it to say that Schweinfurth reached dles of the Niam Niam and the Monbut- Khartoum by boat on Nov. 1, 1868, and too we see how the fable of a tail-bearing strong in his special recommendations of

the Egyptian government, and backed by, when it is at last delivered at Khartoum the support of Herr Duisberg, the vice- why in the world do these traders conconsul of the North German Confedera- tinue to traffic in it? For 500,000 dollars tion, and, though last not least, by the can be a sum by no means equivalent to powerful Djaffer Pacha, governor-gen- their trouble and outlay. In a word, the eral of the Soudan, proceeded to make ivory-trade must be attended with other his arrangements with the traders. In advantages, or it would no longer be this indeed he had little choice. The worth the while of the traders to carry it governor-general settled it all, and fixed on. But to return to our traveller. He on Ghattas, an ivory-trader and Coptic was consigned, as we have seen, to GhatChristian, as the traveller's guide into the tas, and in the boats of that trader he regions of Western Africa. Truth to was to begin his journey up the White say, Ghattas would rather have declined Nile, and thence along the Gazelle River the doubtful honour. If anything hap- to the Meshera, where his river journey pened to the naturalist thus confided was to cease. Though the unlucky Ghatto his hands, he would have to answer tas had engaged for a substantial confor it, and as he was the richest of the sideration to supply the traveller with ivory-traders, the government would the means of subsistence and to furnish "have the most legitimate reasons for him with bearers and a guard, as well as proceeding to the confiscation of his a boat for the river journey, Schweinfurth estates." Well, therefore, in this part of resolved to take with him six Nubians as his story does Schweinfurth call Ghattas his personal servants, who had already "unlucky." travelled with Petherick and other Europeans on the Upper Nile.

Our readers must bear with us if we tell them a little more about these ivory- At length, all contracts and preparatraders, of whom Ghattas, the only Chris- tions over, the journey began on Jan. 5, tian, by the way, among them was the 1869. On that day Schweinfurth started chief. The trade, according to Schwein- with thirty-two souls in his boat, eight of furth, is in the hands of some six great, whom were boatmen, fifteen so-called assisted by about twelve minor, mer- soldiers as a guard, and two women chants, and for some years the total slaves, whose hard lot it was to grind value of the ivory exported from Khar- corn incessantly, a fact which we only toum has not exceeded 500,000 Maria mention to show how soon this institution Theresa dollars, and even that amount of slavery, as the Americans used to call would decrease were it not that the trad- it, makes its appearance in African travel. ers year by year penetrate farther and The voyage up the White Nile has been farther into Central Africa. In this pur- frequently described; we pass rapidly suit the traders, under the protection of therefore over this part of the expedition, an armed guard procured from Khartoum, and only pause at Fashoda in the Shillook have divided the vast regions in and country, where the Egyptian government about the Nile Basin among themselves had a governor or mudir, and a fort which, by mutual understanding, and have es- in 1869, was the Ultima Thule of Egyptablished camps or depots, called seribastian rule. Since then, in 1871, the whole by Schweinfurth, and Zareebas by Ba- Shillook country has been annexed to ker, in the territory thus apportioned, in Egypt, which at the present moment is which each trader deposits his ivory, am- extending its rule by the conquest of munition, goods for barter, and supplies Darfour under Gordon, the successor of of food. These camps are in fact pal- Sir Samuel Baker. According to Schweinisaded villages in which the superintend- furth, the Shillook country is one of the ents and surbordinates of the traders most densely peopled of the Nile regions, permanently reside. Between these set- the inhabitants numbering more than a tlements and Khartoum the communi-million souls, while in the boundless cation is kept open by annual expeditions, acacia forests the finest gum is produced those up the Nile carrying goods for bar- in such quantities that a man might with ter and stores, and those down stream the greatest ease collect a hundredweight bringing back that ivory which costs such in a day. Not once, however, did our immense trouble to procure, besides many a cargo of slaves. At this point we may make one remark on a question to which we shall return. If the ivory thus brought back, with infinite toil and expenditure both of labour and life, produces so little

botanist see any one engaged in that pursuit. As the Roman people clamoured alone for panem et circenses, so slaves and ivory are the sole articles demanded by Khartoum trade, and for them the most valuable gums and grain and oil and

portant branch;" nor is he quite satisfied with Baker, who "has spoken of its magnitude with great depreciation." For ourselves on this occasion we are Gallios, and care little whether the Blue Nile of Bruce, or the White Nile, or the Gazelle, or the Djoor, are the main stream; and we think Ismael Pacha was quite right when he said that "every fresh African traveller had his own private sources of the Nile." Dr. Schweinfurth, even while asserting the magnitude of the Gazelle, is not at all ashamed to confess that he has not found the sources of the Nile, and on ground where doctors differ we are afraid to tread.

drugs are entirely neglected. Above | Schweinfurth takes up the cudgels against Fashoda one great difficulty of the White Speke, who in 1863 called it an "unimNile began. They had passed the mouth of the Giraffe River, one of the affluents or channels of the White Nile to the east, when on February 6th Dr. Schweinfurth saw his first papyrus, an event which to him, botanist as he was, "elevated the day into a festival." On the same day he met for the first time a man to whom he was indebted more than any one else for his African discoveries; this was a Nubian, Mohammed Aboo Sammat by name, an ivory-trader bound up the Gazelle, who now joined Ghattas' expedition with a single boat. But though the first papyrus was a botanical festival to Schweinfurth it was the beginning of trouble to the sailors and traders, and to More to our present purpose is the them was anything but a festival, marking fact that after reaching the mouth of the as it did the commencement of those ob- Gazelle the difficulties of the grass barstructions to Nile-navigation which both rier gradually ceased. The boats probefore and after Schweinfurth's journey ceeded prosperously along the Gazelle have been so terrible to travellers. From till they reached the Meshera or "Landwhatever reason all the streams and chan- ing-Place" par excellence, a settlement nels of the Nile regions have been of late on an island amidst swamps and marshes years periodically blocked by great rafts about sixteen miles above the confluence of river weeds, which so overgrow the of the Djoor River, another of those perstream that it dwindles away to the depth plexing affluents, with the Gazelle. On of a foot or two. Between these enor- this pestilential island, which had already mous rafts, which every year shift their proved fatal to many European explorers, position, there are lakes or oases of wa- Schweinfurth was doomed to spend the ter, in which it is dammed up, until even rest of February and the greater part of on the main stream of the White Nile, as March waiting for the native bearers. in Baker's expedition in 1870–71, no prac- who were to carry him and his effects. to. ticable channel was to be found, and he the chief seriba of Ghattas. It could not had to return foiled for a while, till at the have added to his spirits to reflect that end of the year he broke through these here amid these swamps had perished in gigantic grass barriers, called by Schwein- 1863 no less than five out of nine Eurofurth the Sett, by almost superhuman ex- pean members of Miss Tinne's expediertions in which the combined efforts of tion, among whom was the German bothis army were strained to the uttermost. anist Dr. Steudner; here too, just before Our naturalist's expedition was not foiled, Schweinfurth's arrival, had perished Le and it did not find the Sett so terrible, but Saint, a naval officer sent out by the it was bad enough. "On February 8th," French Geographical Society; and here he writes, "began our actual conflict Heuglin had lost the greater part of his with this world of weeds. . . . The pilots valuable time by continual relapses of were soon absolutely at a loss to deter- fever. But there was a cheeriness of namine by which channel they ought to pro- ture and an activity and energy of disposiceed, and two hundred of our people, tion in Schweinfurth which sustained his sailors and soldiers, were obliged to tug spirits. Instead of fretting at the delay with ropes for hours together to pull he was indefatigable in investigating the through one boat after another." In this ethnology and natural features of the laborious fashion they toiled on for sev-country round the Meshera, which is ineral days, and it was only by one of the side channels, called by the sailors, Maia Signora, because it was said to have been discovered in 1863 by the unfortunate Miss Tinné, that the expedition at last reached the mouth of the Gazelle River, which runs into the White Nile from the west. For this river and its affluents

habited by a branch of the great Dinka race, whose extreme outposts extend eastward towards the Egyptian borders of Upper Sennaar and whose tribes are counted by the hundred. While our traveller was there in 1869, the Dinkas round the Meshera acknowledged the supremacy of a woman called Shol, a sort of