Questions 23 through 33 are based on the following passage.
The Story of Geographical Discovery
We have seen how the Portuguese had slowly coasted along the shore of Africa during the fifteenth century in search of a way to the Indies. By the end of the century, mariners portulanos gave a rude yet (23) effective account of the littoral of Africa, both on the west and the eastern side. Not only did they explore the coast, but they settled upon (24) it, at Amina on the Guinea coast, at Loando near the Congo, and at Benguela on the western coast, they established stations from whence to despatch the gold and ivory, and, above all, the slaves, which turned out to be the chief African products of use to Europeans. On the east coast they settled at Sofala, a port of Mozambique; and in Zanzibar they possessed no less than three ports: those first visited by Vasco da Gama and (25) afterwards celebrated by Milton in the sonorous line contained in the gorgeous geographical excursus in the Eleventh Book—
“Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind.” —Paradise Lost, xi. 339.
1. It is probable that, besides settling on the coast, the Portuguese from time to time made explorations into the interior. 2. At any rate, in some maps of the sixteenth and (26) 17th century there is shown a remarkable knowledge of the course of the Nile. 3. (27) We, which can be scarcely other than the Victoria, Albert Nyanza, and Tanganyika, see it terminated in three large lakes. 4. The Mountains of the Moon also figure prominently, and it was only almost the other day that Mr. Stanley re-discovered them.
(28) 5. It is difficult, however, to determine how far these entries on the Portuguese maps were due to actual knowledge or report, or to the traditions of a still earlier knowledge of these lakes and mountains; for in the maps accompanying the early editions of Ptolemy we likewise obtain the same information, which is repeated by the Arabic geographers, obviously from Ptolemy, and not from actual observation. 6. When the two great French cartographers Delisle and D’Anville determined not to insert anything on their maps for which they had not some evidence, these lakes and mountains disappeared, and thus it has come about that maps of the seventeenth century often appear to display more knowledge of the interior of Africa than those of the beginning of the nineteenth, at least (29) with regard to the sources of the Nile.
African exploration of the interior begins with the search for the sources of the Nile, and has been mainly concluded by the determination of the course of the three other great rivers, the Niger, the Zambesi, and the Congo. It is remarkable that all four rivers
(30) has had their course determined by persons of British nationality. The names of Bruce and Grant will always be associated with the Nile, that of Mungo Park with the Niger, Dr. Livingstone with the Zambesi, and Mr. Stanley with the Congo. It is not inappropriate that, (31) accept in the case of the Congo, England should control the course of the rivers (32) (which her sons first made accessible to civilization).
We have seen that there was an ancient tradition reported by Herodotus, that the Nile trended off to the west and became there the river Niger; while still earlier there was an impression that part of it at any rate wandered eastward, and some way joined on to the same source as the Tigris and Euphrates—at least that seems to be the (33) suggestion.