CHAPTER XIV
GEOGRAPHY AND EAST AFRICA Burton and Speke-Speke and Grant-Death of Speke
Livingstone and Stanley-Geographical incidents
T H E travels of the successive explorers of Eastern Africa who started from the Zanzibar Coast were watched by geographers with the keenest interest. I was in one way or another somewhat closely connected with the principal actors, and may therefore speak about them with propriety. The information that first drew general attention to this part of Africa was the startling announcement that a snow-topped mountain, Kilimandjaro, had been seen from a distance by the missionaries Krapf and Rebmann on their journeys from Mombas, where they were stationed Their information was fiercely criticised. It was disbelieved wholly by some, and only partially credited by many others. In addition to this, the missionaries had transmitted reports of a vast Central African lake, based on the collated testimonies of many native travellers. Mr. Erhardt communicated a memoir on this lake to the Royal Geographical Society, and I, who had most to do with their then newly established Proceedings, had it with its accompanying map inserted in one of its early numbers. The map was an amazing production and very hypothetical, but the
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