Frank asked if he was kindly received by them.
"They were very surly at first," said Doctor Bronson, "and came down to the river-bank armed with spears and clubs. After some parley their chief stepped forward and asked if he wanted to fight. Mr. Taylor declared he was anxious for peace, and for that reason had come on shore without arms. The chief was not assured of his good intentions for some time, and there was an angry controversy among the men, which threatened for a while to result in open hostility; but nothing of the kind was attempted. Mr. Taylor stayed a couple of hours on shore, and just as the Shillooks began to show a familiarity bordering on insolence he suddenly returned to his boat and steered down the river the way he had come."
"Then this was the southern limit of his journey, was it not?" Fred asked.
"Yes; he came to the island of Aba, which lies about latitude 12° north, or two hundred and fifty miles from Khartoum. He was very anxious to push on to the south, but his contract with the owner of the boat was only for a journey to this island. At that time the highest point on the Nile to which any Europeans had ascended was about latitude 4° north, or four hundred and eighty miles beyond the island of Aba. Nothing was known about the sources of the Nile, and the general impression among geographers was that the river rose at the base of Mount Kilimandjaro, in the third degree of south latitude. Some geographers had thought it possible that the Nile flowed from Lake N'yassi, but the idea was generally rejected. 'Since Columbus first looked upon San Salvador,' wrote Mr. Taylor in his journal, 'the earth has but one emotion of triumph left in her bestowal, and that she reserves for him who shall first drink from the fountains of the White Nile, under the snow-fields of Kilimandjaro.'"
"What great progress has been made since Mr. Taylor's time in the exploration of Africa!" Frank exclaimed, as the Doctor finished his last remark.
"Yes," was the reply, "the progress in the last half of the nineteenth century has been greater than in the preceding twenty centuries. From the days of Herodotus--two thousand years ago--till within the present generation exploration of the valley of the Nile had accomplished very little. Syene, at the first Cataract of the Nile, was a city in the days of the ancient dynasties of Egypt; three thousand years ago the kingdoms of Ethiopia flourished, and their rulers had a prominent place in history. Time and time again men sought in vain to solve the mystery of the source of the Nile, and it was reserved for men of our day to make the great discovery."