On the following morning we were welcomed by the entire European
population of Khartoum, to whom are due my warmest thanks for many kind
attentions. We were kindly offered a house by Monsieur Lombrosio, the
manager of the Khartoum branch of the "Oriental and Egyptian Trading
Company."
I now heard the distressing news of the death of my poor friend
Speke. I could not realize the truth of this melancholy report
until I read the details of his fatal accident in the appendix of
a French translation of his work. It was but a sad consolation
that I could confirm his discoveries, and bear witness to the
tenacity and perseverance with which he had led his party through
the untrodden path of Africa to the first Nile source. This
being the close of the expedition, I wish it to be distinctly
understood how thoroughly I support the credit of Speke and Grant
for their discovery of the first and most
elevated source of the Nile in the great Victoria N'yanza.
Although I call the river between the two lakes the "Somerset," as
it was named by Speke upon the map he gave to me, I must repeat
that it is positively the Victoria Nile, and the name "Somerset"
is only used to distinguish it, in my description, from the entire
Nile that issues from the Albert N'yanza.
Whether the volume of water added by the latter lake be greater than
that supplied by the Victoria, the fact remains unaltered: the Victoria
is the highest and first-discovered source; the Albert is the second
source, but the ENTIRE RESERVOIR of the Nile waters.
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