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The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke
page 36 of 672 (05%)
Next morning, before daylight, we trusted to the boat and our
good luck. After passing, without landmarks to guide us, by an
intricate channel, through foaming surfs, we arrived at Zanzibar
in the night, and found that the vessel had got in before us.

Colonel Rigby now gave me a most interesting paper, with a map
attached to it, about the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon. It
was written by Lieutenant Wilford, from the "Purans" of the
Ancient Hindus. As it exemplifies, to a certain extent, the
supposition I formerly arrived at concerning the Mountains of the
Moon being associated with the country of the Moon, I would fain
draw the attention of the reader of my travels to the volume of
the "Asiatic Researches" in which it was published.[FN#5] It is
remarkable that the Hindus have christened the source of the Nile
Amara, which is the name of a country at the north-east corner of
the Victoria N'yanza. This, I think, shows clearly, that the
ancient Hindus must have had some kind of communication with both
the northern and southern ends of the Victoria N'yanza.

Having gone to work again, I found that Sheikh Said had brought
ten men, four of whom were purchased for one hundred dollars,
which I had to pay; Bombay, Baraka, Frij, and Rahan had brought
twenty-six more, all freed men; while the Sultan Majid, at the
suggestion of Colonel Rigby, gave me thirty-four men more, who
were all raw labourers taken from his gardens. It was my
intention to have taken one hundred of this description of men
throughout the whole journey; but as so many could not be found
in Zanzibar, I still hoped to fill up the complement in
Unyamuezi, the land of the Moon, from the large establishments of
the Arab merchants residing there. The payment of these men's
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