INTRODUCTION. In February 1883 Dr. Junker had penetrated so far into the heart of Africa that he found himself at the zeriba Ali Kobo, on the banks of the Welle Makowa, in a region hitherto traversed by no other European. For three years this indefatigable traveller had been exploring north and south, east and west, the districts watered by the Welle, in the hope of find ing a definite solution to the important geographical problem propounded by his friend Dr. Schwein- furth, thirteen years previously, as to whether the Welle was connected with the Shary and thence with Lake Tchad, or whether it flowed into the Congo. It needed only a few more weeks of persever ance and progress towards the west, and the ex plorer would have attained his end and reaped the