Lake Tanganyika

“ The first area of decided concentration on the part of the Bantu was very probably Uganda and the shores of Tanganyika. The main line of advance south-west trended rather to the east coast of Africa than to the west, but bifurcated at the south end of Lake Tanganyika, one great branch passing west between that lake and Nyasa, and the other southwards. ”

“ Lake Tanganyika had been known to the Arab slave hunters of the east coast of Africa long before the white man gazed upon its bright blue waters. These cunning, cruel people had good reasons for guarding well the secret of its existence. ”

“ As regards orographical features, much of the country is high plateau, with an average altitude of 3500 ft. above sea-level. Only a very minute portion of its area—the country along the banks of the river Shiré—lies at anything like a low elevation; though the Luangwa valley may not be more than about 900 ft. above sea-level. Lake Nyasa lies at an elevation of 1700 ft. above the sea, is about 350 m. long, with a breadth varying from 15 to 40 m. Lake Tanganyika is about 2600 ft. ”

“ But this famous place, which at one time gave its name to Lake Tanganyika itself, is a mere group of hamlets situated on the south side of a peninsula, whence a superb view is commanded of the surrounding coast, with its red cliffs, wooded slopes, and palm-groves. Ujiji, which is the residence of the muntuali, or "triumvirs," who administer the district, is an unhealthy place that has proved fatal to many Europeans. ”

“ Tanganyika has many deep bays running in four or five miles; they are choked up with aquatic vegetation, through which canoes can scarcely be propelled. When the bay has a small rivulet at its head, the water in the bay is decidedly brackish, though the rivulet be fresh, it made the Zanzibar people remark on the Lake water, "It is like that we get near the sea-shore—a little salt;" but as soon as we get out of the shut-in bay or lagoon into the Lake proper the water is quite sweet, and shows that a current flows through the middle of the Lake lengthways. ”

“ In 1875 he reached Lake Victoria Nyanza, and through the good offices of Mtesa, King of Uganda, obtained a flotilla of canoes, with which he circumnavigated the lake. It proved to be the largest basin of fresh water in the world, occupying the immense area of sixty thousand square miles. Mr. Stanley next pushed on to Lake Albert Nyanza; afterwards circumnavigated the northern half of Lake Tanganyika; struck westward to the Lualaba at Nyangwé (1876) , and thence descended the Lualaba as far as the Isangila Falls (June, 1877) , whence he crossed the country to Kalinda, on the west coast. ”

“ The Tanganyika Lake, lying between 3° and 8° south latitude, and in 29° east longitude, has a length of three hundred miles, and is from thirty to forty broad in its centre. The surface-level, as I ascertained by the temperature of boiling water, is only eighteen hundred feet, and it appears quite sunk into the lap of these mountains. Its waters are very sweet, and abound with delicious fish in great variety. The fertility of the northern end of the lake surpassed anything we had hitherto seen ”

“ The other key to the situation is the vast and splendid water-way in the heart of Africa—the Upper Shiré, Lake Nyassa, Lake Tanganyika, and the Great Lakes generally. As a base for military or patrol operations nothing better could be desired than these great inland seas. A small steamer upon each of them—or, to begin with, upon Nyassa and Tanganyika—with an associated depôt or two of armed men on the higher and healthier plateaux which surround them, would keep the whole country quiet. Only a trifling force of well-drilled men would be needed for this purpose. ”

“ Notwithstanding this, Hatibu forced on our march, the Wanyamwesi and Zanzibar men all carrying ivory when necessary, and in an extraordinarily short time we reached the shores of Lake Tanganyika. I remember some of the names of the countries we hurried through—Uhiya, Ubudjwa, and Uguhba. Some of the people had most extravagant head-dresses, something resembling a huge chignon, made of bark, and with a piece like a tongue hanging out of the middle of it. ”

“ Being determined to explore the northern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake, whence, according to several informants, issued a large river, flowing northwards, and seeing scanty chance of success, and every prospect of an accident, if compelled to voyage in the wretched canoes of the people, I at first resolved to despatch Said bin Salim across the water, and, by his intervention, to hire from an Arab merchant, Hamid bin Sulayyam, the only dow, or sailing-craft then in existence. ”

“ To the south lie high bluff headlands and capes; and as the eye dilates it falls on little outlying islets, speckling a sea horizon. Villages, cultivated lands, the frequent canoes of the fishermen, give a something of life, of variety, of movement to the scenery."
Tanganyika is fed by numerous rivers and streamlets which flow from the surrounding hills, the yearly rainfall being about 27 inches, but the rainy seasons vary extremely in different years, altering the surface area of the lake accordingly. ”

“ The inhabitants are not impressive or numerous on the shores, yet they show art in dress, and in manufactures. They have been terribly demoralized by the slave traders, and many sections depopulated entirely. While sailing up the western shore of the lake, Cameron thought he found what was the long sought for outlet of Tanganyika—the traditional connecting link between it and Lakes Ngami and Albert Nyanza. ”

“ A careful investigation and comparison of statements leads to the belief that the Tanganyika receives and absorbs the whole river-system—the net-work of streams, nullahs, and torrents—of that portion of the Central African depression whose water-shed converges towards the great reservoir. Geographers will doubt that such a mass, situated at so considerable an altitude, can maintain its level without an effluent. Moreover, the freshness of the water would, under normal circumstances, argue the escape of saline matter washed down by the influents from the area of drainage. ”

“ The southeast watershed is not high, nor is that on the south, which separates the Congo waters from those flowing into Lake Ngami or collected by the Zambezi. North of Lake Tanganyika the high mountains form a lofty watershed between the northeastern sources of the Congo and the sources of the Nile, and a line of hills sweeps around to the westward in the southern Sudan, and are continued to the lofty Jebel-el-Marra, in Darfur, whose slopes contribute the remotest northern waters of the Congo. ”

“ North of Tanganyika the valley is suddenly interrupted by a line of ancient eruptive ridges, which dam back the waters of Lake Kivu (q.v.) , but have been recently cut through by the outlet of that lake, the Rusizi, which enters Tanganyika by several mouths at its northern end. The flat plain traversed by the lower Rusizi was evidently once a portion of the lake floor. Tanganyika has been formed by the subsidence of a long narrow tract of country relatively to the surrounding plateaus, which fall to the lake in abrupt cliffs, some thousands of feet high in places. ”

“ I hope to ascend the Rovuma, or some other river north of Cape Delgado, and, in addition to my other work, shall strive, by passing along the northern end of Lake Nyassa, and round the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that part of Africa. ”

“ At the base of the slope we had much difficulty in fording a deep and rapid river, called the Kasilo; several goats and a calf were washed away, and the rest were only saved by the brilliant swimming of the Watonga contingent. Thence two hours' hard travelling brought us to the second German Soudanese fort, situated on a small hill overlooking the Rusisi, where it issues from its broken course through the mountains which dam the south end of Lake Kivu, preparatory to its seventy-five-mile run through the flat valley bed to Lake Tanganyika. ”

“ Flowing still further in the same direction, the Loapula forms Lake Mofué, or Mofu, and after this it is said to pass the town of Cazembé, bend to the north, and enter Lake Tanganyika. Whither the water went after it entered the last lake, no one would venture an assertion. But that the course indicated is the true watershed of that part of the country, we believe from the unvarying opinion of native travellers. ”

“ Got entangled in swampy forest on Zambesi (I think) , and Arabs declined to extricate us unless their pay was doubled! Also one of negresses—horrid woman!—has deserted me—come to place that she pretended to recognise as her native village, and said she meant to stay! Tact useless with females!
On Lake Tanganyika—or if it isn't Lake Tanganyika, it's an entirely new lake,—which I have been the first to discover! Suffer a good deal from fever and queer diet. Am studying native home-life.
Later.—Have left two Arabs and my remaining negress on Lake, and gone myself to look for STANLEY's Dwarfs. ”

“ This people, I was told, are so fierce in war that no other tribe can stand against them, though they only fight with short spears. When this discourse was ended, ever perplexed about the Tanganyika being a still lake, I enquired of Mohinna and other old friends what they thought about the Marungu river: did it run into or out of the lake? and they all still adhered to its running into the lake—which, after all, in my mind, is the most conclusive argument that it does run out of the lake, making it one of a chain of lakes leading to the N'yanza, and through it by the Zambezi into the sea ”

“ Tanganyika, that is, "Union of Waters," is fed by many afllucnts, mostly however of small size. The largest is the Malagarazi, which during the floods is no less than 1,700 yards wide at its mouth, and even in the dry season is nowhere fordable. Its farthest headstream rises in a lakelet within 330 miles of the east coast, being the point where the Congo basin approaches nearest to the Indian Ocean. The Ru-Sizi influent from the north follows exactly the main axis of the lake, which was at first supposed to send its overflow through this channel to the Nile. ”

“ Crossing the Runangwa or Marungu River, which, draining the southern countries towards the Tanganyika, is represented to equal the Malagarazi in volume, the traveller passes through the districts of Marungu Tafuna, Ubeyya, and Iwemba. Thence, turning to the north, he enters the country of the Wapoka, between whom and the Lake lie the Wasowwa and the Wafipa. This coast is divided from the opposite shore by a voyage of fourteen hours; it is a hilly expanse divided by low plains, where men swarm according to the natives like ants. ”

“ He was now left with Susi and Chuma and a few boys with whom he crossed the end of a long range of mountains over four thousand feet in height, and, pursuing a zigzag track, reached the Loangwa River on 16th December 1866, while his unfaithful followers returned to the coast to spread the story that Livingstone had been killed by the Zulus!
Meanwhile the explorer was plodding on towards Lake Tanganyika. The beauty of the way strikes the lonely explorer. The rainy season had come on in all its force, and the land was wonderful in its early green. "Many gay flowers peep out. ”

“ And this brings us to Victoria Nyanza again, which must be studied more fully, for after all we may not have seen in Albert Nyanza, so much of an ultimate Nile reservoir as we thought. It is hard too, of course, to rob our travels of their glory, but we cannot bear laurels at the expense of after discovered truth.
It was in 1858 that Speke and Grant, pushing their perilous way westward from Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa, discovered and partly navigated Lake Tanganyika, probably the greatest fresh water reservoir in Central Africa. ”

“ Stanley's journey in 1874-1877 led to many important discoveries. He first made clear the shape and extent of Victoria Nyanza; he tracked the chief feeder of that vast reservoir; and he proved that Lake Tanganyika drained into the River Congo. Voyaging down its course to the mouth, he found great and fertile territories, thus proving what Livingstone could only surmise, that here was the natural waterway into the heart of "the Dark Continent." ”

“ In the U-Rungu district, near the southern extremity of Tanganyika, lies the best port in the lake, to which the natives give the name of Liemba, that is, "Lake," a term which they apply in a pre-eminent sense to Tanganyika itself. The port in fact is a lacustrine basin of circular form, like a volcanic crater, completely sheltered on the north and west by the Mpete peninsula, and on the east by the escarpments of the plateau. ”

“ However, the damage is done, and I think the proposed remedy of importing "the teeming millions" of Lake Tanganyika (who, by the way, do not exist) a false and dangerous one. The imported natives, finding that they obtain less pay than the natives of the country, although they have come far from their own homes, break out in discontent, and, maybe, open revolt (as did the Angoni police, recruited and sent to Salisbury by Major Harding, C.M.G.) , and when they return home spread the feeling of dissatisfaction far and wide. ”

“ I found we were on a great decline of the country draining to the westward; the soil was deeper and richer, and the vegetation proportionately richer as we went on with the journey. Shortly we crossed the Malagarazi river in a bark canoe at the Mpété ferry, and found that, after having travelled along this decline from Kazé about one hundred and fifty miles, we began to ascend at the eastern horn of a large crescent-shaped mass of mountains overhanging the northern half of the Tanganyika Lake, which I am now about to describe. ”