The region they were now crossing is very extensive.
It borders on the Mountains of the Moon on one side,
and those of Darfur on the other--a space about as
broad as Europe.
"We are, no doubt, crossing what is supposed to be
the kingdom of Usoga. Geographers have pretended that
there existed, in the centre of Africa, a vast depression,
an immense central lake. We shall see whether there is
any truth in that idea," said the doctor.
"But how did they come to think so?" asked Kennedy.
"From the recitals of the Arabs. Those fellows are
great narrators--too much so, probably. Some travellers,
who had got as far as Kazeh, or the great lakes, saw
slaves that had been brought from this region; interrogated
them concerning it, and, from their different narratives,
made up a jumble of notions, and deduced systems
from them. Down at the bottom of it all there is some
appearance of truth; and you see that they were right
about the sources of the Nile."
"Nothing could be more correct," said Kennedy. "It
was by the aid of these documents that some attempts at
maps were made, and so I am going to try to follow our
route by one of them, rectifying it when need be."
"Is all this region inhabited?" asked Joe.
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