, writing in 50 A.D. The Emperor Nero, in
A.D. 66, sent an expedition up the Nile, and its members journeyed as
far as the modern Fashoda and perhaps even beyond the White Nile.
Their advance was impeded by the sudd, and, after writing discouraging
reports, their attempt was abandoned. Among the Greek merchants who
traded on the East African coast was one named Diogenes, who had been
informed by an Arab that by a twenty-five days' journey one could gain
access to a chain of great lakes, two of which were the headwaters of
the White Nile. They also said that there was a mountain range, named
from its brilliant appearance the Mountains of the Moon. He was informed
that the Nile formed from the two head streams, flowed through marshes
until it united with the Blue Nile, and then it flowed on until it
entered into well-known regions. Diogenes reported this to a Syrian
geographer named Marinus of Tyre, who wrote of it in his _Geography_
during the first century of the Christian era. The writings of Marinus
disappeared, it is supposed, when the Alexandrian Library was scattered,
but luckily Gladius Ptolemy quoted them, and thus they have been
preserved for us. Ptolemy wrote, in 150 A.D., the first clearly
intelligible account of the origin of the White Nile, the two lakes,
Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and the Mountains of the Moon. But no less
than 1,740 years elapsed before justice could be done to this ancient
geographer, and his account verified. It was Sir Henry M. Stanley who
discovered the Ruwanzori mountain range, corresponding to the classical
Mountains of the Moon, and who thus justified Ptolemy's view of
the topography of Africa. For many years after Ptolemy, the work of
exploring the sources of the Nile was entirely discontinued, and the
solution of the problem was still wrapped in impenetrable mystery.

The first modern explorer of any consequence who came from Great Britain
was a Scotchman named Bruce. In 1763 he travelled through many ports
of Northern Africa and visited the Levant, and subsequently Syria and
Palestine. Wherever he went he drew sketches of antiquities, which are
now preserved in the British Museum. Landing in Africa in 1786, he went
up the Nile as far as Aswan. From there he travelled to the Red Sea and
reached Jiddah, the port of Hajas. He then returned to Africa, stopping
at Massawra, and from there penetrated into the heart of Abyssinia.
The emperor received him with favour and suffered him to