ood fortune to be
well received by the chieftain Kamurasi, and, as he was at this moment
suffering from a severe attack of fever, the friendliness of this
Central African chieftain was probably the means of saving his life. The
king graciously received Baker's present of a double-barrelled gun, and
then sent him onward with two guides and three hundred men. The party
now managed to push their way to the shores of the Albert Nyanza. They
first arrived at a place called Mbakovia, situated near the south-east
coast, and on March 16, 1864, they saw for the first time the great lake
itself, which they now named the Albert Nyanza. After a short stay at
Mbakovia, they proceeded along the coast of the lake until they reached
Magungo, where the Victoria branch of the Nile flows into the Albert
Nyanza. Continuing the journey up the source of the Victoria Nile, they
discovered the Murchison Falls. When they set out for the Karuma Falls
the porters deserted, and after many desperate adventures they at length
returned to Khartum in May, 1865. Baker then went on to Berber, and
crossed the desert to Suakin on the Red Sea. He returned to England
late in the year 1865, and was received with honour and decorated by the
queen with a well-earned knighthood.

In the year 1869 Baker entered the service of the Egyptian government,
and was commissioned by the viceroy to subdue the regions of Equatorial
Africa, and annex them to the Egyptian Empire. To succeed in this
enterprise he waged many a war with African tribes like the Boni. On
several occasions these conflicts had been forced upon him; on
other occasions Baker Pasha was the aggressor, owing to his fixed
determination to extend on all sides the limits of the Egyptian Sudan.
With all the rulers, however, who treated him well, he remained on terms
of loyalty and friendship; and, in time, he inspired them with respect
for his fairness and liberality. Baker Pasha scattered the slave-traders
on all sides, and, for the time being, effectually broke up their power.
The slave-traders of the Sudan were of Arab nationality, and were in
the habit of advancing farther, year by year, upon the villages of the
defenceless Africans, and spreading their ravages into the heart of
Africa. They always attacked the less warlike tribes, and, upon breaking
into a negro settlement, would carry off the whole population, except
the aged or sick. The slaves were herded together in vast numbers by
help of logs of