clothed with a stiff moustache not large enough to hide the sneer in which his lips are set, and jaws vast and square as if settled down into a defiant belligerency-form the tout ensemble of a face that was intended for a born pugilist. His form of medium height, and large-boned, perhaps lends color to this udgment.

Burton is called a "wicked man" by some people. But Burton is more reckless than wicked. He delights to banter feebly intellectual folks and shock their prejudices. His intimate friends, however, looking under the crust of informality and bluntness which covers his real self, discover another man, essentially Burton,-a man not altogether unlovable, a man extremely sociable and delightful, a philosopher, and wise beyond first conception, a conversationalist of rare power, and a scholar who has amassed within the recesses of an extraordinary memory a rich store of Arabic, Persian, and Hindoo lore.

Howsoever Burton endeavors to screen himself under the rough guise of an explorer, the itinerating littérateur peeps out in all his books, especially in the record of his explorations in Africa. But his style, though it evinces scholarship, is abrupt, incohesive, and pedantic. He coins words where a new coinage of them is simply superfluous. In parts it also borders on quaintness, as if he had caught the habit of Sir Thomas More or Roger Bacon.

His powers of composition are most conspicuous in his scenic descriptions. These are so full of fervor and freshness that they appear like sunbeams shining through a dark cloud of fevers, disappointments, calamities, and many-phased trouble, and we get a glimpse, though dim and indistinct, of the reverence for things divine that is latent in him.

This short sketch of the man and his character will serve as a prelude to a few remarks upon his great feat of exploration in Africa.

Captain Burton, accompanied by Captain J. H. Speke, landed at Zanzibar on the 19th December, 1856, both as ignorant of the nature of the work they were about to engage in, and of the mode to accomplish that work, as any two men could well be. They had been commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society of London to proceed to Central Africa, to discover a lake which was believed to be the source of the River Nile.

On their arrival at Zanzibar, the two travelers were informed that they had come

at the wrong season to start, that the proper time to commence their march was in June. But for many reasons this was an advantage; they thus had ample time for preparation, to purchase and pack up the thousand and one impedimenta which they would be compelled to take with them, to study the language, the manners and customs of African tribes, and pick up serviceable information respecting the interior and the different routes which led into it. Some men would have improved the opportunity to do so, and Burton did do something in this way; yet, six months later, when about to depart, I note with astonishment his remark that his "preparations were too hurried."

The donkeys, porters, guides, and armed guard having been collected, the presents for the chiefs and the cloths for barter having been purchased, the two white men and their motley force landed at Kaole, three miles south of Bagamoyo, about the middle of June, 1857. Ten days later, amid doleful forebodings from the Indian merchants, and with kindly words of farewell from the British consul, the first expedition from East Africa resolutely set its face towards the west, and the troublous, harassing march to Ujiji began.

On

In their front they beheld the blue land waves rise in succession one above another, paling in the far distance until they resembled the milky-blue sky which domed them. each side extended sweet landscapes, bounded by shaggy forests, reposing under the tropic heaven, and vivid, spontaneous vegetation all around them. As they looked behind to catch a last solemn glance at what they were leaving, they beheld at their feet the village of Kaole nestling in a palm grove, and beyond this the billows of the Zingian Sea, blown into light playful curls, as the morning landbreeze toyed with them! What solemn thoughts must have filled at this time the minds of the two travelers! To the east was a radiant, sheeny sea, which at this time possessed an indescribable charm for them: to the west extended a mysterious and sombrous infinity of jungle and forest-perhaps full of lurking terrors, disease and death!

The two travelers soon found that they had engaged in no child's play. Their troubles grew thickly. The undisciplined mob they were leading towards the interior gave them great trouble; some clamored for tobacco, others for guitar strings, and their guards--donkey drivers from their birth-complained of the indignity of being required to drive asses. Their guides also, after receiving their advance, deserted them, and the Ba

Sub

looch soldiers insulted the white men. sequently there was not one person attached to this expedition who did not at some time or other attempt to desert. On the second day out they were mulcted by a contumacious chief of a large quantity of cloth, and on the fourth day a hyena attacked and killed three asses belonging to the expedition.

On the 8th of July, after struggling through a low and unhealthy district, they reached what the Arabs call "The Valley of Death, and the Home of Hunger," a broad plain traversed by the Kingani River. The water was everywhere bad, a mortal smell of decay pervaded the atmosphere, and both Burton and Speke were so affected by fever that they were unable to walk.

Burton's account of his journey through the land of Ugogo is exceedingly interesting, but is marred greatly by the lachrymal outpourings of a temper already greatly embittered by bile, and trouble with the ferocious and utterly intractable people he had to deal with.

Ugogo, which is generally reached in two months by caravans traveling inland, is the halfway district between the coast and Unyanyembe-the central province of the Land of the Moon. The people are a mongrel race, a mixture of the tribes of the mountains and the interior table-land. The plains are rich in grain, and the hills with cattle. Milk, honey, eggs and clarified butter are sold by the people readily for American sheeting and beads. The district abounds in game and elephants, and giraffes are frequently met.

After being subjected for several successive days to much contumely and abuse, the travelers, on the 12th October, 1857, shook the red dust of Ugogo from their feet, and on the 7th day of November, the one hundred and thirty-fourth day from the coast, they arrived in Unyanyembe, where they were received with open arms by the hospitable Arab merchants dwelling there. It may be presumed that this was the only day of real pleasure that Burton enjoyed since leaving the coast, and that the sight of his caravan, after so many vicissitudes, wriggling snakelike over the plain, each member of it boiling over with uncontrollable delight, while horns boomed, and muskets roared like saluting mortars, must have puckered his face on this day into a hundred smiles.

The great labor, however, lay yet unaccomplished, the inland sea was yet undiscovered; and so the expedition is found, after a month's detention at Unyanyembe, sallying out of its enclosed camp, bound for Ujiji.

Burton's account of the journey from Unyanyembe to Ujiji is replete with interest, and contains passages of great beauty. The latter place was distant from Unyanyembe 260 miles, and was reached on the 13th February, 1858. The character of the intervening country was undulating ground, intersected with low conical and tabular hills, whose lines ramified in all directions. During the rainy season the country is clad in vivid green. In the dry season it has a grayish aspect, "lighted up by golden stubbles, and dotted with wind-distorted trees, shallow swamps of emerald grass, and wide sheets of dark mud."

Altogether, Unyamwezi presents a scene of peaceful beauty. Burton says: "Few scenes are more soothing than a view of this country in the balmy evenings of spring, and the charm of the glorious sunsets with their orange glows, and their quickly-changing variegated colors, affects even the unimaginative Africans as they sit under the eaves of their huts or under the forest trees to gaze upon the glories around.

Upon surmounting a range of mountains which surround the lake on all sides, the great inland sea dawned upon their joy-lit eyes. Though the first view of it was disappointing, the great lake Tanganika shortly revealed itself in all its beauty and extent.

Burton

Sad, indeed, was the condition of the two travelers when they arrived at Ujiji. was half paralyzed, and Speke was half blind. They had paid a fearful penalty for the privilege of first discovering the great lake.

Soon after their arrival upon the palmclothed shores of the Tanganika, Burton and Speke set out to resolve the problem of the Rusizi, a river which was said to either run out of the lake or run into it, at its northern extremity. They were unsuccessful, and Burton, to retaliate upon the stubborn untractable natives, fills pages of his book with fierce abuse of them. His ambitious strug gle for the mastery over African geography ceased from this time, and Speke is henceforth permitted to come to the front, to cope with the difficulties, and to finally emerge from the contest with honor and credit to himself. Hence ensued fault-finding between the two, bickerings, jealousies, and heart-burnings.

On the return of the travelers to Unyanyembe, Burton, wearied with African travel, and sore in mind and body, gave permission to Speke to set out by himself towards the north. After fifty-two days' absence, Speke returned to his companion, and quietly announced the discovery of the Lake Victoria

Nyanza, the SOURCE OF THE NILE. Thus had the laurel leaves which should have graced Burton's brow been transferred to that of Speke, as the reward of his tireless energy and patient endurance; and the two friends from this time forth became bitter enemies.

On the 2d of February, 1859, Burton and Speke greeted old ocean with true British cheers, after an absence from Zanzibar of 19 months. In due time they arrived in England, Speke to be received with open arms and warm congratulations by the Royal Geographical Society, and to be chosen as leader of a second East African expedition; Burton to be graciously-snubbed.

CAPTAINS SPEKE AND GRANT.

Captain John Hanning Speke, the companion and successor of Burton in Africa, possessed a true heroic soul, and a real heroic nature. His large book on the Nile and its sources reveal him and his inner nature but too well, and we see glimpses of his heroic spirit on almost every page. His bold, fearless bearing before minacious savages, his indomitability, persistency, and quick, springy, elastic movements over thorny plain, through VOL. VI.-5

jungle and forest, are seen also, as well as the eager face peering from summits of mountains and various coignes of vantage for the prominent physical features of the strange new land spread before him. Unfortunately, too, the hasty, crude judgments which he passes upon the geography of the country are to be seen. On coming to the end of his Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, readers are compelled to admit that though Speke was a brave man, possessing many excellent qualities, such as endear him to easy natures, that though he was a born traveler, he was not-in the truest sense of the term-a great explorer.

Speke lacked the fortitude and the sober, sagacious judgment of Livingstone; the literary instincts, ambition, and pride, as well as the scientific attainments, which distinguish his former associate, Burton. Speke was more of a seeker after natural wonders, such as would excite a high-spirited boy, while the minutia of nature remained as a dull book to him. Grand mountains, large lakes, Nile rivers, fierce and large game, are the sensations to him, while all else is tedious and uninteresting.

The one darling passion of his nature was hunting. In the pursuit of venery he was

untiring, and the more dangerous the sport, the more spice it possessed. As a hunter, he was the equal of Gordon Cumming and Sir Samuel Baker.

In person Speke was tall and stalwart. His head was covered with a mass of tawny hair, which spoke a Saxon descent; by the natives his hair was said to resemble a lion's mane. He possessed regular features, a wellshaped nose, and a high, narrow forehead. His deep blue eyes had a steely gleam in them, which, with the settled composure of the lower parts of the face, betrayed sufficiently that he was quick to resent and resolute to execute.

His companion, Captain Grant, an Indian officer, is the beau-ideal of a well-drilled soldier and a polished gentleman. His figure is tall and well-shaped, and displays great power of endurance. His face, of a sanguine complexion, with a quiet, kindly look beaming from the eyes, proves him to be, as he was with Speke, a sociable and excellent companion.

The second East African Expedition, led by Captains Speke and Grant, arrived at Zanzibar on the 17th August, 1860. Its object was to find the outlet of the large lakethe Victoria N'Yanza, which Speke discovered in 1858, when, leaving Burton at Unyanyembe, he made that famous march to the north.

On the 21st September, 1860, the expedition left Zanzibar for Bagamoyo, and the march towards the interior was commenced twelve days later. The following description of the departure is found in Speke's book:

"Starting on a march with a large mixed caravan, consisting of one corporal and nine privates; Hottentots, one jemadar and 25 privates, Balochs-one Arab, Cafila Bashi, and 75 freed slaves-one kirangozi or leader, and 100 negro porters--12 mules untrained, three donkeys, and 22 goats-one could hardly expect to find everybody in his place at the proper time for breaking ground; but at the same time, it could hardly be expected that ten men, who had actually received their bounty money, and had sworn fidelity, should give one the slip the very first day. Such, however, was the case. Ten out of the thirtysix given by the Sultan ran away, because they feared that the white men, whom they believed to be cannibals, were only taking them into the interior to eat them; and one pagazi, more honest than the freed men, deposited his pay upon the ground, and ran away too. Go we must, however, for one desertion is sure to lead to more; and go we did. Our procession was in this fashion: the

kirangozi, with a load on his shoulder, led the way, flag in hand, followed by the pagazis, carrying spears or bows and arrows in their hands, and bearing their share of the baggage in the shape either of bolster-shaped loads of cloth and beads covered with matting, each tied into the fork of a three-pronged stick, or else coils of brass or copper wire tied in even weights to each end of sticks which they laid on the shoulder; then, helterskelter, came the Wanguana, carrying carbines in their hands, and boxes, bundles, tents, cooking-pots--all the miscellaneous property on their heads; next the Hottentots, dragging the refractory mules laden with ammunition-boxes, but very lightly, to save the animals for the future; and, finally, Sheikh Said and the Baloch escort, while the goats, sick women and stragglers brought up the rear. From first to last some of the sick Hottentots rode the hospital donkeys, allowing the negroes to tug their animals, for the smallest ailment threw them broadcast on their backs."

It is needless to recapitulate in detail what I have before written of the trials that beset a traveler marching to Unyanyembe. Those which Speke and Grant labored under were of the same nature as those which Burton and Speke endured.

By the end of October they had crossed the maritime region, and about the middle of November had entered upon a region called the "Fiery Field," which separates torrid Ugogo from that garden of Africa, the Land of the Moon.

In the "Fiery Field" began Speke's most notable adventures. He treats in this manner of shooting his first rhinoceros :

"Having learned that the rhinoceros frequented a bitter pool in the neighborhood, I set forth with a guide and two of the boys, each carrying a single rifle, and ensconced myself in the nullah, to hide until our expected visitors should arrive, and there remained until midnight. When the hitherto noisy villagers turned into bed, the silvery moon shed her light on the desolate scene, and the Mgogo guide, taking fright, bolted. He had not, however, gone long, when, looming above us, coming over the horizon line, was the very animal we wanted. In a fidgety manner, the beast then descended, as if he expected some danger in store-and he was not wrong; for, attaching a bit of white paper to the fly-sight of my Blissett, I approached him, crawling under cover of the banks, until within eighty yards of him, when, finding that the moon shone full on his flank, I raised my

self upright and planted a bullet behind his left shoulder. Thus died my first rhinoceros."

Soon after he shot a large buffalo, which, however, got away, and hid in the bushes. When Speke approached the place, he sprang out of his ambush and made a sudden and furious charge upon the hunter. Speke says: "It was a most ridiculous scene. Suliman by my side, with the instinct of a monkey, made a violent spring and swung himself by a bough immediately over the beast, while Faraj bolted away and left me single-gunned

to Unyanyembe were-one Hottentot dead, and five discharged and returned as useless, one Zanzibari sent back with the Hottentots, and one flogged and turned off, twenty-five servants and ninety-eight Wanyanmezi porters deserted, besides which 12 mules and 3 don. keys had died, more than half of the property had been stolen, while the traveling expenses had more than doubled, owing to a severe famine which was in the land.

The travelers were delayed several months at Unyanyembe, but finally they set out towards the north-west with a considerably di

to polish him off. There was only one course to pursue, for in one instant more he would have been into me; so, quick as thought, I fired the gun, and, as luck would have it, my bullet, after passing through the edge of one of his horns, stuck in the spine of his neck, and rolled him over at my feet as dead as a rabbit."

After encountering several disheartening. impediments during the transit of the "Fiery Field," the travelers reached Unyanyembe on the 16th of December. The losses of the expedition during the journey from Zanzibar

minished force. They were met with wars and rumors of wars, desertions became frequent, they lost over $5,000 worth of goods, and during the march through Uzinza and Usui, the expedition seemed doomed to failure. Day after day calamities overtook it; "blue-devil" frights seized the blacks which composed its members, and Speke was often at his wits' end to know what to do.

But by and by came relief, and a happy ending of these trials. The travelers reached the romantic kingdom of Karagwah about the