Chapter I: Preface

The rich contents and originality of the work before us will escape no one who casts a glance at it, however hasty that may be. It presents the liveliest views of the Natural Productions and People of regions hitherto entirely unvisited. The surprising novelty of the phenomena is described by a writer of much experience, bold energy, and intense devotion to the land of the South. We welcome it, therefore, as a pleasing contribution to our literature of travel, often so insipid. The discoverer of the Source of the White Nile, under the vertical rays of the sun in Equatorial Inner Africa, will share the same fate as his illustrious predecessor, James Bruce, the discoverer of the Sources of the Blue Nile, if many of his statements should be doubted, criticised, and misunderstood.

We have, however, no pretensions to be defenders of them. Some ten years later, perhaps, their justification, with the exception of a few errors, may follow our Herodotean wanderer into a _terra incognita_. Such was the case with a Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, James Bruce, and Mungo Park.

Two French accounts have preceded the present narrative of a German fellow-traveller, in one of the three vast expeditions by water, undertaken by Mohammed Ali in 1840 and the succeeding years, with unequal success, for the discovery of the Sources of the Bahr el Abiad. We welcomed the French accounts on their first appearance, notwithstanding their meagreness and doubtfulness, in consequence of their main results. At the same time we expressed our hope that we should be better informed of these events by their fellow-traveller, for we were already aware of the exertions of the author of the present narrative. Everything, therefore, introductory to this Work will be found in the undermentioned pamphlet, to which it is only necessary here to refer to avoid repetition in a preface:—

“A Glance at the Country of the Source of the Nile, by C. Ritter, with a Map, Berlin, 1844, and three Supplements—1st, by F. Werne, the Second Expedition to discover the Sources of the White Nile, from November 1840 to April 1841, pages 42-50. 2nd—On Carl Zimmermann’s annexed Chart, to shew the Upper Country of the Nile. 3d—Dr. Girard on the Nature of the Soil of Central Africa on both banks of the Upper Bahr el Abiad, to the foot of the Mountains of the Moon, pages 68-72., principally from the mountain specimens brought home by Mr. Werne.”

We have the pleasure of possessing, in the present more accurate statement, many new data and remarks on earlier accounts, though, doubtless, these will bring on a controversy, for the acrimony of which the Author has himself to blame. When, however, such sarcasm is directed in an instructive and legitimate manner, as that against D’Abbadie, in the convincing Appendix, (to which we must here draw attention, in order to understand the whole,) we cannot blame the Author, who has gained by toil and labour positive facts, for rendering them secure, as far as possible, against malicious presumptions and arrogant hypotheses. Science, moreover, is always the gainer by these discussions.

The annexed Map has been newly constructed, by Mr. H. Mahlmann, with his usual scrupulous accuracy, from the manuscript of the Journal, and the notes of the Traveller. Though, under the present circumstances, it leaves much here and there to be desired, yet by comparing it with that of Bimbashi D’Arnaud’s, executed and published at Paris in 1843, it makes a very useful addition to the Work. Still much instructive elucidation and enlargement of knowledge might be gained by a complete description and pictorial representation of the wonderful collection of Natural Productions, Works of Art, Weapons, Household Utensils, and other objects, hitherto the only one we possess. In the annexed engraving we give a specimen of these curiosities, collected by Mr. Werne’s care, on his journey to Bari, and afterwards incorporated by him, in addition to his Collection of Natural History, with the Royal Museum of this city, where they are to be viewed, to the number of one hundred and twenty-six different articles.

C. RITTER.

BERLIN, _July_ 27, 1848.

CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
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