One of the boys asked to whom the honor belonged of ascertaining the source of the Nile.
"That question is a conundrum," replied the Doctor, with a smile, "and a conundrum that needs an explanation before answering. The honor belongs to several explorers, and not to one alone. Each has made discoveries peculiarly his own, and these discoveries have supplemented the work of the rest.
"As I have before told you, it was long supposed that the Blue Nile was the parent stream, and its sources were ascertained by James Bruce. The error of this belief was set forth after the death of Bruce, as the White Nile was found to be of greater volume than the Blue, and was explored to a point more distant from the junction of the two streams than were the springs of the Blue Nile. Mohammed Ali sent three expeditions to find the sources of the White Nile, but they failed in their efforts. Private expeditions were sent every few years, but with the same results. The heat, the fevers, the hostility of the natives, the difficulty of penetrating marshes and tropical forests, all conspired to frustrate their efforts. The first expedition of Mohammed Ali reached latitude 6° 30' north; the second went to 4° 42' north; and the third stopped at about 5° north. Dr. Knoblecher, in 1849, went to 4° 10' north, which was farther than any one else had gone. Miani, an Italian traveller, went to a point about 3° 32' north, and about the same time Dr. Schweinfurth explored the Bahr-el-Gazal, one of the tributaries of the White Nile, in the expectation that it might turn out to be the main stream. Miss Tinné, a Dutch lady, also explored that river, and spent more than a year in its valley."
"What!" exclaimed one of the youths, "a lady going on an expedition in Africa! She must have been fond of adventure. Who was she?"
"Miss Tinné was born in 1835, and was the daughter of a baroness, who had a large fortune. She was fond of travel, and in 1861 went to Cairo with her mother. She was so enamored of the East that she determined to remain there, and announced to her friends that she should not return to Europe to live. In 1862 she started from Khartoum with a steamboat, several sailing-boats, a large party of attendants, and so many beasts of burden of various kinds that the natives everywhere believed she was the daughter of the Sultan of Turkey. The only Europeans of her party were Dr. Steudner and Baron Von Henglin, and also her mother. The latter died of fever, and so did Dr. Steudner, before the return to Khartoum, which occupied some fourteen months after the departure of the expedition.