{"id":367,"date":"2025-12-11T19:13:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/word\/?p=367"},"modified":"2025-12-11T19:13:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:13:38","slug":"as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/","title":{"rendered":"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil. I had traced the river to its great Albert source, and as the mighty stream glided before me, the mystery that had ever shrouded its origin was dissolved. I no longer looked upon its waters with a feeling approaching to awe, for I knew its home, and had visited its cradle. Had I overrated the importance of the discovery? and had I wasted some of the best years of my life to obtain a shadow? I recalled to recollection the practical question of Commoro, the chief of Latooka, &#8220;Suppose you get to the great lake, what will you do with it? What will be the good of it? If you find that the large river does flow from it, what then?&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;Samuel White Baker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil. I had traced the river to its great Albert source, and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,14],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.4.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil - Samuel White Baker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil - Samuel White Baker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil. I had traced the river to its great Albert source, and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Samuel White Baker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-11T19:13:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"melyn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/\",\"name\":\"Samuel White Baker\",\"description\":\"Victorian explorer &amp; hunter\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/\",\"name\":\"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil - Samuel White Baker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-11T19:13:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-11T19:13:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#\/schema\/person\/a0c53db4ae65115a8eace8ce7c655de3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#\/schema\/person\/a0c53db4ae65115a8eace8ce7c655de3\",\"name\":\"melyn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/1.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aab291c1a5e95ed98dafe92ceaef8653?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/1.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aab291c1a5e95ed98dafe92ceaef8653?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"melyn\"},\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/author\/melyn\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil - Samuel White Baker","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil - Samuel White Baker","og_description":"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil. I had traced the river to its great Albert source, and&hellip;","og_url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/","og_site_name":"Samuel White Baker","article_published_time":"2025-12-11T19:13:38+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"melyn","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/","name":"Samuel White Baker","description":"Victorian explorer &amp; hunter","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/#webpage","url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/","name":"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil - Samuel White Baker","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-12-11T19:13:38+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-11T19:13:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#\/schema\/person\/a0c53db4ae65115a8eace8ce7c655de3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/as-i-sat-beneath-a-tree-and-looked-down-upon-the-glorious-nile-that-flowed-a-few-yards-beneath-my-feet-i-pondered-upon-the-value-of-my-toil\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon the value of my toil"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#\/schema\/person\/a0c53db4ae65115a8eace8ce7c655de3","name":"melyn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"http:\/\/1.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aab291c1a5e95ed98dafe92ceaef8653?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/1.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aab291c1a5e95ed98dafe92ceaef8653?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"melyn"},"url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/author\/melyn\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6bvCl-5V","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":328,"url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/i-had-promised-speke-that-i-would-explore-most-thoroughly-the-doubtful-portion-of-the-river-that-he-had-been-forced-to-neglect-from-karuma-falls-to-the-lake\/","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":0},"title":"I had promised Speke that I would explore most thoroughly the doubtful portion of the river that he had been forced to neglect from Karuma Falls to the lake","date":"November 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I had promised Speke that I would explore most thoroughly the doubtful portion of the river that he had been forced to neglect from Karuma Falls to the lake. I was myself confused at the dead-water junction; and although I knew that the natives must be right--as it was their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nile&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":158,"url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/they-soon-arrived-beneath-the-high-bank-of-the-river-upon-which-i-stood\/","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":1},"title":"They soon arrived beneath the high bank of the river upon which I stood","date":"November 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"They soon arrived beneath the high bank of the river upon which I stood. Poor little Jali, my plucky and active ally, lay, as I thought, dead upon the litter. We laid him gently upon my angarep, which I had raised by four men, so that we could lower him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nile&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/all-was-darkness-and-confusion-everybody-talking-and-no-one-listening-but-the-great-event-had-occurred-the-river-had-arrived-like-a-thief-in-the-nightall-was-darkness-and-confusion-everyb\/","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":2},"title":"Everybody talking and no one listening","date":"May 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"All was darkness and confusion, everybody talking and no one listening; but the great event had occurred; the river had arrived \"like a thief in the night\"\",\"All was darkness and confusion, everybody talking and no one listening; but the great event had occurred; the river had arrived \"like a thief\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nile&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/i-ordered-my-men-to-carry-me-in-their-arms-to-the-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":3},"title":"I ordered my men to carry me in their arms to the king","date":"November 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Fools!\" I said, \"do you not see that the natives have no SHIELDS with them, but merely lances? Would they commence an attack without their shields? Kamrasi is coming in state to visit us.\" This idea was by no means accepted by my people, and we reached our little camp,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nile&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":209,"url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/the-next-few-days-we-spent-in-exploring-the-salaam-and-angrab-rivers\/","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":4},"title":"The next few days we spent in exploring the Salaam and Angrab rivers","date":"August 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The next few days we spent in exploring the Salaam and Angrab rivers. They are interesting examples of the destructive effect of water, that has during the course of ages cut through and hollowed out, in the solid rock, a succession of the most horrible precipices and caverns, in which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nile&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131,"url":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/we-had-proceeded-carefully-about-half-a-mile-when-i-heard-a-rustling-in-the-grass-and-i-shortly-perceived-a-bull-buffalo-standing-alone-beneath-a-tree-close-to-the-sandy-bed-of-a-dried-stream-which\/","url_meta":{"origin":367,"position":5},"title":"We had proceeded carefully about half a mile when I heard a rustling in the grass, and I shortly perceived a bull buffalo standing alone beneath a tree, close to the sandy bed of a dried stream, which was about a hundred yards distant, between us and the animal","date":"August 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"We had proceeded carefully about half a mile when I heard a rustling in the grass, and I shortly perceived a bull buffalo standing alone beneath a tree, close to the sandy bed of a dried stream, which was about a hundred yards distant, between us and the animal. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nile&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":391,"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aberth.com\/samuelwhitebaker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}