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Both the guide and the chief of Vacovia informed me that we should be taken by canoes to Magungo, to the point at which the Somerset that we had left at Karuma joined the lake; but that we could not ascend it, as it was a succession of cataracts the whole way from Karuma until within a short distance of Magungo.
I had a long examination of Wani, the guide and interpreter, respecting the country of Magungo. This important error being discovered gave a new feature to the geography of this part. According to his description, Magungo was situated on a lake so large that no one knew its limits.
In an examination of Wani I discovered that the cowrie-shells were brought from a place called "Magungo." This name I had previously heard mentioned by the natives, but I could obtain no clue to its position. It was most important that I should discover the exact route by which the cowries arrived from the south, as it would be my guide to that direction.
I accordingly extract, verbatim, from my journal the note written by me at Latooka on the 26th of May, 1863, when I first received the clue to the Albert N'yanza: "I have had a long examination of Wani, the guide and interpreter, respecting the country of Magungo. This important error being discovered gives a new feature to the geography of this part."
I made him a present of a large quantity of beads that I had promised to give him upon reaching the lake; he took his departure, agreeing to meet us at Magungo with our oxen, and to have porters in readiness to convey us direct to Shooa. On the following morning not one of our party could rise from the ground. Thirteen men, the boy Saat, four women, and we ourselves, were all down with fever.
The understanding was this: he was to give me porters to the lake, where I was to be furnished with canoes to take me to Magungo, which was situated at the junction of the Somerset.
As an imperishable memorial of one loved and mourned by our gracious Queen and deplored by every Englishman, I called this great lake "the Albert N'yanza." The Victoria and the Albert lakes are the two Sources of the Nile. The zigzag path to descend to the lake was so steep and dangerous that we were forced to leave our oxen with a guide, who was to take them to Magungo and wait for our arrival.
The entire Nile system, from the first Abyssinian tributary the Atbara in N. latitude 17 deg. 37 min. even to the equator, exhibits a uniform drainage from S.E. to N.W., every tributary flowing in that direction to the main stream of the Nile; this system is persisted in by the Victoria Nile, which having continued a northerly course from its exit from the Victoria lake to Karuma in lat. 2 degrees 16' N. turns suddenly to the west and meets the Albert lake at Magungo; thus, a line drawn from Magungo to the Ripon Falls from the Victoria lake will prove the general slope of the country to be the same as exemplified throughout the entire system of the eastern basin of the Nile, tending from S.E. to N.W.
All the cowrie-shells used in Latooka and the neighboring countries were supplied by these vessels, but none had arrived for the last two years. I concluded the lake was no other than the N'yanza, which, if the position of Mangungo were correct, extended much farther north than Speke had supposed. I determined to take the first opportunity to push for Magungo.
She declares that Magungo, the place of which I have heard so much, is only four days' hard marching for a native, direct from Faloro, but eight days' for the Turks; and that it is equi-distant from Faloro and from Kamrasi's capital in Unyoro. She had heard of the Luta N'zige, as reported to Speke, but she knew it only by the name of 'Kara-wootan-N'zige.
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