The first coup d'ail from the summit of the cliff, one closely linked than heretofore; both countries will thousand five hundred feet above the level, had suggested be eventually benefited, and the cause of freedom what a closer examination confirmed. The lake was a throughout the world will be promoted.' To vast depression far below the general level of the country, these patriotic and national advantages indicated surrounded by precipitous cliffs, and bounded on the by Dr Livingstone, his work possesses the interest west and south-west by great ranges of mountains from five to seven thousand feet above the level of its waters springing from a personal narrative of difficulties -thus it was the one great reservoir into which every-overcome and dangers encountered, pictures of thing must drain; and from this vast rocky cistern the Nile made its exit, a giant in its birth. This result of nearly five years passed in Africa might well form a subject of triumph to Baker. 'Bruce,' he said, 'won the source of the Blue Nile, Speke and Grant won the Victoria source of the great White Nile; and I have been permitted to succeed in completing the Nile sources by the discovery of the great reservoir of the equatorial waters, the Albert Nyanza, from which the river issues as the entire White Nile. For the discovery, and for his relief of Speke and Grant, the Royal Geographical Society awarded the gold medal, and Her Majesty conferred upon Baker the honour of knighthood. In 1866 he published, in two volumes, his interesting narrative, The Albert Nyanza, Great Basin of the Nile; and in 1867, The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia. A greater expedition was afterwards organised under the auspices of the Khedive or Viceroy of Egypt, who furnished a force of one thousand soldiers. Sir Samuel and Lady Baker left Cairo in December 1869, having besides the troops, Nile boats, stores, instruments, and other appliances either for war or peace. The grand object of the expedition was to suppress, if possible, the slave-trade, and promote commerce and agriculture. On the 8th of January 1870 Sir Samuel was again at Khartoum, and had succeeded in partially suppressing the slave-trade of the White Nile. The expedition, however, did not realise the expectations so sanguinely entertained at its commencement. DAVID LIVINGSTONE-HENRY M. STANLEY. Since the period of Mungo Park's travels and melancholy fate, no explorer of Africa has excited so strong a personal interest as DAVID LIVINGSTONE, a Scottish missionary, whose Researches in South Africa were published in 1857. Mr Livingstone had then returned to England, where his arrival was celebrated as a national event, after completing a series of expeditions, commenced sixteen years before, for the purpose of exploring the interior of Africa, and spreading religious knowledge and commerce. The narrative describes long and perilous journeys in a country, the greater part of which had never before been visited by a European, and contains a great amount of information respecting the natives, the geography, botany, and natural products of Africa. In the belief that Christianity can only be effectually extended by being united to commerce, Dr Livingstone endeavoured to point out and develop the capabilities of the new region for mercantile intercourse. The missionary, he argues, should be a trader a fact known to the Jesuits in Africa, and also to the Dutch clergy, but neglected by our Protestant missionary societies. By the introduction of the raw material of our manufactures, African and English interests will be more new and strange modes of life, with descriptions of natural objects and magnificent scenery. The volume fills 687 pages, and is illustrated with maps The style is simple and clear. Dr Livingstone by Arrowsmith, and a number of lithographs. early inured to hardship. He was born of poor was admirably fitted for his mission. He was but honest and pious parents at Blantyre in 1817. At ten years of age he was sent into the factory to work as a 'piecer,' and from his wages he put himself to college, and studied medicine. His ambition was to become a missionary to China, but the opium war was unfavourable, and he proceeded, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, to Africa. The most remote station from the Cape then occupied by our missionaries was Kuruman or Latakoo. Thither our author repaired, and excluding himself for six months from all European society, he gained a knowledge of the language of the Bechuanas, their habits, laws, &c., which proved of incalcuable ruled over by a chief named Sechele, who was The Bechuana people were advantage to him. converted to Christianity. The people are social and kindly, and Dr Livingstone and his wife set about instructing them, using only mild persuasion. Their teaching did good in preventing wars and calling the better feelings into play, but polygamy sidered it highly cruel to turn off their wives. was firmly established amongst them: they conThey excused themselves by thinking they were an inferior race. In a strain of natural pathos they used to say, 'God made black men first, and He He did not love us as he did the white men. made you beautiful, and gave you clothing, and guns, and gunpowder, and horses, and wagons, and many other things about which we know nothing. But towards us he had no heart. gave us nothing except the assegai (with which they kill game), and cattle, and rain-making, and he did not give us hearts like yours.' The rainmaking is a sort of charm-an incantation by which the rain-doctors, in seasons of drought, imagine they can produce moisture. The station ultimately chosen by Dr Livingstone as the centre of operations was about three hundred miles north of Kuruman. In one of his expeditions he was accompanied by two English travellers, Major Vardon and Mr Oswell; and the party discovered the great lake Ngami, about seventy miles in circumference, till then unknown except to the natives. About one hundred and thirty miles north-east from this point the travellers came upon the river Zambesi, a noble stream in the centre of the continent. In June 1852, he commenced another expedition, the greatest he had yet attempted, which lasted four years. In six months he reached the capital of the Makololo territory, Linyanti, which is twelve hundred miles above the latitude of Cape Town. The people * Another English traveller, MR ROUALEYN GORDON CUMMING (1820-1866) penetrated into this region, following a wild sporting career, and published Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Far Interior of South Africa, two volumes, 1850. were desirous of obtaining a direct trade with the sea-coast, and with an escort of twenty-seven men he set out to discover the route thither. The traveller's outfit was small enough: An African Explorer's Outfit. We carried one small tin canister, about fifteen inches square, filled with spare shirting, trousers, and shoes, to be used when we reached civilised life, and others in a bag, which were expected to wear out on the way; another of the same size for medicines; and a third for books, my stock being a Nautical Almanac, Thomson's Logarithm Tables, and a Bible; a fourth box contained a magic lantern, which we found of much use. The passes, were carried apart. My ammunition was distributed in portions through the whole luggage, so that, if an accident should befall one part, we could still have others to fall back upon. Our chief hopes for food were upon that, but in case of failure I took about twenty pounds of beads, worth forty shillings, which still remained of the stock I brought from Cape Town ; a small gipsy tent, just sufficient to sleep in ; a sheepskin sextant and artificial horizon, thermometer and com mantle as a blanket, and a horse-rug as a bed. As I had always found that the art of successful travel consisted in taking as few 'impediments' as possible, and not forgetting to carry my wits about me, the outfit was rather spare, and intended to be still more so when we should come to leave the canoes. Some would consider it injudicious to adopt this plan, but I had a secret conviction that if I did not succeed it would not be for lack of the 'knickknacks' advertised as indispensable for travellers, but from want of 'pluck,' or because a large array of baggage excited the cupidity of the tribes through whose country we wished to pass. They ascended the rivers Chobe and Leeambye, and stopped at the town of Shesheke, where Dr Livingstone preached to audiences of five and six hundred. After reaching a point eight hundred miles north of Linyanti, he turned to the west, and finally reached Loanda, on the shores of the Atlantic. The incidents of this long journey are, of course, varied. The fertility of the country the Barotze district, and the valley of the Quango, with grass reaching two feet above the traveller's head, the forests, &c., are described at length. There appeared to be no want of food, although the amount of cultivated land is as nothing with what might be brought under the plough.' In this central region the people are not all quite black, some inclining to bronze-the dialects spoken glide into one another. Dr Livingstone confirms the statements by Mr Roualeyn Gordon Cumming with respect to the vast amount of game and the exciting hunting scenes in that African territory. The following is a wholesale mode of destroying game practised by the Bechuanas : Hunting on a Great Scale. Very great numbers of the large game-buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, tsessébes, kamas or hartebeests, kokongs, or gnus, pallas, rhinoceroses, &c.-congregated at some fountains near Kolobeng, and the trap called hopo was constructed in the lands adjacent for their destruction. The hopo consists of two hedges in the form of the letter V, which are very high and thick near the angle. Instead of the hedges being joined there, they are made to form a lane of about fifty yards in length, at the extremity of which a pit is formed, six or eight feet deep, and about twelve or fifteen in breadth and length. Trunks of trees are laid across the margins of the pit, and more especially over that nearest the lane where the animals are expected to leap in, and over that farthest from the lane where it is supposed they will attempt to escape after they are in. The trees form an overlapping border, and render escape almost impossible. The whole is carefully decked with short green rushes, making the pit like a concealed pitfall. As the hedges are frequently about a mile long and about as much apart at their extremities, a tribe making a circle three or four miles round the country adjacent to the opening, and gradually closing up, are almost sure to inclose a large body of game. Driving it up with shouts to the narrow part of the hopo, men secreted there throw their javelins into the affrighted herds, and on the animals rush to the opening presented at the converging hedges, and into the pit till that is full of a living mass. escape by running over the others, as a Smithfield market dog does over the sheep's backs. It is a frightful scene. The men, wild with excitement, spear the lovely animals with mad delight: others of the poor creatures, borne down by the weight of their dead and dying companions, every now and then make the whole mass heave in their smothering agonies. Some Dr Livingstone left Loanda on 20th September 1854, and returned to Linyanti, which was reached in the autumn of 1855. Excited by the account of what wonders they had seen, as told by the men who accompanied Dr Livingstone to the shores of the Atlantic, the Makololo people flocked to his standard in great numbers when he announced an expedition to the east coast of Africa. With a party of one hundred and fourteen picked men of the tribe, he started for the Portuguese colony of Killimane, on the east coast, in November 1855. The chief supplied oxen, and there was always abundance of game. He found that British manufactures penetrate into all regions. English Manufactures in the Interior of South Africa. When crossing at the confluence of the Leeba and Makondo, one of my men picked up a bit of a steel watch-chain of English manufacture, and we were informed that this was the spot where the Mambari cross in coming to Masiko. Their visits explain why Sekelenke kept his tusks so carefully. These Mambari trade with a town, they deliberately begin the affair by are very enterprising merchants; when they mean to building huts, as if they knew that little business could be transacted without a liberal allowance of time for palaver. They bring Manchester goods into the heart of Africa: these cotton prints look so wonderful that the Makololo could not believe them to be the work of mortal hands. On questioning the Mambari, they were answered that English manufactures came out of the sea, and beads were gathered on its shore. To Africans our cotton-mills are fairy dreams. How can the irons spin, weave, and print so beautifully?' Our country is like what Taprobane was to our ancestors-a strange realm of light, whence came the diamond, muslin, and peacocks. An attempt at explanation of our manufactures usually elicits the expression, 'Truly, ye are gods!' After a journey of six months the party reached Killimane, where Dr Livingstone remained till July, and then sailed for England. One of the Makololo people would not leave him; 'Let me die at your feet,' he said; but the various objects on board the ship, and the excitement of the voyage, proved too much for the reason of the poor savage; he leaped overboard, and was drowned. The great object of Dr Livingstone was to turn the interior of this fertile country and the river Zambesi, which he discovered, into a scene of British commerce. The Portuguese are near the main entrance to the new central region, but they evince a liberal and enlightened spirit, and are likely to invite mercantile enterprise up the Zambesi, by offering facilities to those who may push commerce into the regions lying far beyond their territory. The white men' are welcomed by the natives, who are anxious to engage in commerce. Their country is well adapted for cotton, and there are hundreds of miles of fertile land unoccupied. The region near the coast is unhealthy, and the first object must be to secure means of ready transit to the high lands in the borders of the central basin, which are comparatively healthy. The river Zambesi has not been surveyed, but during four or five months there is abundance of water for a large vessel. There are three hundred miles of navigable river, then a rapid intervenes, after which there is another reach of three hundred miles. A second expedition was fitted out, and early in 1858 Dr Livingstone, accompanied by his brother, Charles Livingstone, and a party of scientific friends, set out on his important mission. In May they had reached the mouth of the Zambesi; in the January following they explored the river and valley of the Shiré, where a white man had never before been seen, and they proceeded up the Shiré about two hundred miles, till stopped by the Murchison Falls. The valley of the Shiré they found fertile and cultivated. In September 1860 the great Lake Nyassa was discovered. This he reached by an overland march of twenty days from the Shiré. He subsequently revisited it, and judged the lake to be about two hundred miles long and fifty broad. The country was studded with villages, and formed the centre of a district which supplies the markets of the coast with slaves. The natives of the Shiré and Nyassa valleys possess excellent iron, and are manufacturers as well as agriculturists. In February 1864 Livingstone left Africa for England, and he recorded his explorations in a Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, and of the Discovery of the lakes Shirwa and Nyassa. stone) reached his farthest point north, and traced the watershed as far as the unknown lake. He was obliged to halt at last because his men refused to go any further, and in bitter disappointment he turned his back upon the great problem he was on the eve of solving, and set out upon the long and weary return journey of between four and five hundred miles to Ujiji, thence intending to make another start with new men and fresh supplies. "I thought," wrote Livingstone to the editor of the New York Herald," that I was dying on my feet. It is not too much to say that almost every step of the weary, sultry way was in pain, and I reached Ujiji a mere ruckle of bones." This was in October 1870. The poor traveller was more dead than alive, and had to brook the bitter disappointment of finding the goods and men of Dr Kirk's 1869 expedition, to which he was trusting implicitly, gone to the four winds. In the first place, this expedition had been delayed months and months by the cholera, which had killed many of its men, and when finally such of the goods as had not been plundered arrived at Ujiji, they were sold off and the proceeds dissipated by "the drunken half-caste Moslem tailor” to whom they had been intrusted. The traveller had nothing left but "a few barter cloths and beads," beggary was staring him in the face, when, three weeks after his arrival at Ujiji, the New York Herald expedition appeared on the scene, and all was well.' MR HENRY M. STANLEY, the young and gallant correspondent of the New York Herald had been commissioned by the proprietor of that journal, Mr Bennet, to go and find Livingstone, offering carte blanche in the way of expenses. With dauntless courage and dexterous management he fought his way to Ujiji, and thus describes the meeting: The Meeting with Livingstone at Ujiji.* the thick matete brake, which grows on both banks Something like an hour before noon we have gained of the river; we wade through the clear stream, arrive on the other side, emerge out of the brake, and the gardens of Wajiji are around us-a perfect marvel of vegetable wealth. Details escape my hasty and partial observation. I am almost overpowered with my own emotions. I notice the graceful palms, neat plots, green with vegetable plants, and small villages surrounded with frail fences of the matete cane. In 1866 a third expedition was undertaken. In March of that year Livingstone left_ Zanzibar, and struck up the country towards Lake Nyassa. There he remained during the autumn. In March 1867 a painful rumour reached England that Livingstone had been assassinated. The story was disbelieved by Sir Roderick Murchison and others, and it turned out, as conjectured by Sir Roderick, to be an invention of some Johanna men, who had deserted when near Lake Nyassa, and brought back with them to the coast the fictitious story of the assassination. After many hardships and dangers, the intrepid traveller reached Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, in March 1869, and having written from thence to England, a small expedition was fitted out under the command of an old friend of Livingstone's, Mr E. D. Young, which sailed from Plymouth in June, and in September reached Lake Nyassa. There the falsehood of the report of the traveller's death was clearly ascertained, and Mr Young and his companions returned home. It appears that in June 1869 Livingstone had quitted Ujiji, in company with some Arab traders, to explore the far Manyema country on the west side of Tanganyika. It was in this journey,' says a summary in the Times, 'that he (Living-country of Jiji. We push on rapidly, lest the news of our coming might reach the people of Bunder Ujiji before we come in sight, and are ready for them. We halt at a little brook, then ascend the long slope of a naked ridge, the very last of the myriads we have crossed. This alone prevents us from seeing the lake (Tanganyika) in all its vastness. We arrive at the summit, travel across and arrive at its western rim, and-pause reader-the port of Ujiji is below us, embowered in the palms-only five hundred yards from us. At this grand moment we do not think of the hundreds of miles we have marched, of the hundreds of hills that we have ascended and descended, of the many forests we have traversed, of the jungles and thickets that annoyed us, of the fervid salt plains that blistered our feet, of the hot suns that scorched us, nor the dangers and difficulties now happily surmounted. Unfurl the flags and load your guns!' 'Ay wallah, ay wallah bana!' respond the men eagerly. One, *U is a prefix to denote the country: thus Ujiji signifies the two, three-fire!' A volley from nearly fifty guns roars like a salute from a battery of artillery. Now, Kiran gozi (guide), hold the white man's flag up high, and let the Zanzibar flag bring up the rear. And you must keep close together, and keep firing until we halt in the market-place, or before the white man's house. You have said to me often that you could smell the fish of the Tanganyika-I can smell the fish of the Tanganyika now. There are fish, and beer, and a long rest waiting for you. MARCH!' So I did that which I thought was most dignified. I pushed back the crowds, and, passing from the rear, walked down a living avenue of people, until I came in front of the semicircle of Arabs, in the front of which stood the white man with the gray beard. As I advanced slowly towards him I noticed he was pale, looked wearied, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat, and a pair of gray tweed trousers. I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of such a mob-would Before we had gone a hundred yards, our repeated have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did volleys had the effect desired. We had awakened not know how he would receive me; so I did what Ujiji to the knowledge that a caravan was coming, and cowardice and false pride suggested was the best thingthe people were rushing up in hundreds to meet us. walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said: The mere sight of the flags informed every one immedi-Dr Livingstone, I presume?' 'Yes,' said he, with a ately that we were a caravan, but the American flag kind smile, lifting his hat slightly. I replace my hat on borne aloft by gigantic Asmani (one of the porters or my head, and he puts on his cap, and we both grasp carriers), whose face was one vast smile on this day, hands, and then I say aloud: 'I thank God, doctor, I rather staggered them at first. However, many of the have been permitted to see you.' He answered: 'I feel people who now approached us remembered the flag. thankful that I am here to welcome you.' I turn to the They had seen it float above the American consulate, Arabs, take off my hat to them in response to the salutand from the mast-head of many a ship in the harbouring chorus of 'Yambos' I receive, and the doctor of Zanzibar, and they were soon heard welcoming the introduces them to me by name. Then, oblivious of the beautiful flag with cries of 'Bindera, Kisungu!'-a white crowds, oblivious of the men who shared with me my man's flag. 'Bindera Merikani!'-the American flag. dangers, wee-Livingstone and I-turn our faces towards Then we were surrounded by them by Wajiji, Wan- his tembe (or hut). He points to the verandah, or rather yamwezi, Wangwana, Warundi, Waguhha, Waman- mud platform under the broad overhanging eaves; he yema, and Arabs, and were almost deafened with the points to his own particular seat, which I see his age shouts of Yambo, yambo, bana! Yambo bana! and experience in Africa has suggested—namely, a straw Yambo bana!' To all and each of my men the wel- mat, with a goatskin over it, and another skin nailed come was given. We were now about three hundred against the wall to protect his back from contact with yards from the village of Ujiji, and the crowds are dense the cold mud. I protest against taking this seat, which about me. Suddenly I hear a voice on my right say, so much more befits him than me, but the doctor will 'Good morning, sir!' Startled at hearing this greeting not yield-I must take it. in the midst of such a crowd of black people, I turn sharply around in search of the man, and see him at my side, with the blackest of faces, but animated and joyous -a man dressed in a long white shirt, with a turban of American sheeting around his woolly head, and I ask, | "Who the mischief are you?' 'I am Susi, the servant of Dr Livingstone,' said he, smiling, and shewing a gleaming row of teeth. 'What! Is Dr Livingstone here?' 'Yes, sir.' 'In this village?' 'Yes, sir.' you sure?' Sure, sure, sir. Why, I leave him just Good morning, sir,' said another voice. Hallo,' said I, 'is this another one?' 'Yes, sir.' Well, what is your name?' 'My name is Chumah, sir.' 'And is the doctor well?' 'Not very well, sir.' Where has he been so long?' 'In Manyuema.' 'Now, you Susi, run and tell the doctor I am coming.' 'Yes, sir,' and off he now.' darted like a madman. : 'Are Soon Susi came running back, and asked me my name; he had told the doctor I was coming, but the doctor was too surprised to believe him, and when the doctor asked him my name, Susi was rather staggered. But, during Susi's absence, the news had been conveyed to the doctor that it was surely a white man that was coming, whose guns were firing and whose flag could be seen and the great Arab magnates of UjijiMohammed bin Sali, Sayd bin Majid, Abid bin Suliman, Mohammed bin Gharib, and others had gathered together before the doctor's house, and the doctor had come out from his verandah to discuss the matter and await my arrival. In the meantime, the head of the expedition had halted, and the Kirangozi was out of the ranks, holding his flag aloft, and Selim (the interpreter) said to me: I see the doctor, sir. Oh, what an old man! He has got a white beard.' And I-what would I not have given for a bit of friendly wilderness, where, unseen, I might vent my joy in some mad freak, such as idiotically biting my hand, turning a somersault, or slashing at trees, in order to allay those exciting feelings that were well nigh uncontrollable. My heart beats fast, but I must not let my face betray my emotions lest it should detract from the dignity of a white man appearing under such extraordinary circumstances. We are seated, the doctor and I, with our backs to the wall. The Arabs take seats on our left. More than a thousand natives are in our front, filling the whole square densely, indulging their curiosity, and discussing the fact of two white men meeting at Ujiji— one just come from Manyuema, in the west; the other from Unyanyembe, in the east. Mr Stanley left Ujiji in March 1871, and next year Livingstone, with an expedition numbering about eighty souls, with stores sufficient to last him three years, left Unyanyembe for Lunda in a south-south-westerly direction, this new expedition being the fountains of Herodotus.' He marched through a beautiful country, abounding with game along the eastern borders of the lake Tanganyika. He was in weak health. When the Bangweolo Lake was approached, the character of the country changed, and Livingstone descended into a chaos of swamps intersected by innumerable streams. The party were rarely upon dry land, and Livingstone was afflicted with chronic dysentery. On the 21st of April 1873, he writes in his Journal: Knocked up quite, and remain-recover-sent to buy milch goats. We are on the banks of the Molilamo.' These were the last words written by the indefatigable traveller; he died on the 1st of May. He was found dead by his negro attendants, having died kneeling by his bed apparently in prayer. Some five years earlier he had written in his journal: This is the sort of grave I should prefer to lie in the still, still forest, and no hand ever disturb my bones. The graves at home always seemed to me to be miserable, especially those in the cold damp clay, and without elbow room; but I have nothing to do but wait till He who is over all decides where I have to lay me down and die. Poor Mary (his wife) lies on Sheepanga brae.' Livingstone, however, was not destined to lie FROM 1830 CYCLOPÆDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. in the forest. His body was rudely embalmed by his faithful followers, and carried by them hundreds of miles to Zanzibar, whence it was conveyed to England, and interred in Westminster Abbey, 18th April 1874. His Last Journals, including his wanderings and discoveries in Eastern Africa, from 1865 to within a few days of his death, were published in 1865, edited by the Rev. Horace Waller. 'Livingstone,' as Sir Samuel Baker has said, 'gave the first grand impulse to African exploration; it was he who first directed public attention to the miseries and horrors of the East African slave-trade, which he has persistently exposed throughout his life. Had he lived for another ten years, he would have witnessed some fruits as the result of his example.' Mr Henry M. Stanley is again in Africa on another exploring expedition, the cost of which is to be defrayed partly by his American friend and patron, Mr Bennet of the New York Herald, and partly by the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph London journal. LIEUTENANT (NOW COMMANDER) CAMERON, R.N. The gallant Livingstone has found a worthy English successor in African exploration in LIEUTENANT VERNEY LOVETT CAMERON, whose labours possess great value alike in the interests of science and of civilisation. His work, Across Africa, is announced for publication, but will not be ready until after this volume has gone to press. Mr Cameron traversed on foot about three thousand miles, exposed for the greater part of the time to all the vicissitudes of climate, wandering through forests, marshes, and jungles, fording broad rivers, and coasting round large lakes, but his courage seems never to have given way. To determine the latitude and longitude of certain positions, he took as many as a hundred and forty lunar observations at a single spot, and his registered observations altogether number no less than five thousand. He has added immensely to our knowledge of the geography of Africa; he has ascertained the political condition of the interior of the country; he has discovered the leading trade routes; and he has unfortunately furnished fresh proof of the horrors of the slave-trade, which flourishes beyond the reach of European authority. About six degrees south of the equator lie two points which form a basis for exploration namely, Zanzibar Island on the east coast, and the mouth of the Congo River on the west coast. In this latitude the continent is about eighteen hundred miles wide. Towards the east coast there is a great lake system, which lies chiefly between three degrees north and ten degrees south of the equator, and forms the watershed of Africa, from which rivers flow north to the Mediterranean, east to the Indian Ocean, and west to the Atlantic. Of this system three lakes are now well known by name. Two, the Albert Nyanza and the Victoria Nyanza, are cut through by the equatorial line; and some two hundred miles to the north-west is the head of Lake Tanganyika, a sheet of water three hundred miles in length, and only twenty in mean breadth. To the west of Lake Tanganyika there is another system of smaller lakes and rivers, called the Lualaba. The 796 TO 1876. first question to be solved was whether Tanganyika and the Lualaba had any connection with the Nyanza and the Nile; and next, if they had not, whether they were feeders of the Congo. Lieutenant Cameron has determined that these southern lakes and rivers have no connection with the Nile basin. They lie at a considerably lower level, and therefore to reach the Nile they would require to flow up-hill. The traveller coasted Lake Tanganyika, and found ninety-six rivers falling into it, besides torrents and springs, and only one sluggish river, the Lakuga, flowing out. The balance is maintained by evaporation. The original intention of Lieutenant Cameron was to follow the river-system to the sea, so as to prove the identity of the Lualaba and Congo. This design was frustrated by the hostility of a chief, but there is little or no doubt of the identity of the rivers. According to the report of the natives, the Lualaba falls into a great lake, from which in all probability the Congo emerges. Forced to quit this track, Cameron took a more southerly course. He experienced the hospitality of Kasenga, the great potentate of that part of Africa; and he struggled towards the west coast through a country of extraordinary fertility and mineral wealth, and possessing a remarkable system of internal water communication. Not only are there cereals of all sorts, but metallic treasures, gums, and other valuable products, of which the traveller brought home specimens. The town of Nyangwe on the Lualaba, situated half-way between the east and west coasts, is an important mart where the trade routes unite. There Cameron met Arabs from the east, and traders from the west, and the lake which he was not permitted to reach, is visited, he was told, by merchants in large boats, who wear trousers and hats! Lieutenant Cameron's journey has thus revealed a splendid country with which commercial relations may be readily formed, and it is admitted that the operations of commerce afford the only hope of putting an end to the brutalities of the slave-trade. At present, villages are systematically attacked and plundered, and the men who escape are themselves driven by necessity to prey upon their neighbours. The traveller's indignation was specially aroused by the conduct of one Portuguese trader, who led off a string of fifty or sixty women, representing all that remained of five hundred people who had fled to the jungle on the sacking of their village. women were tied together by thick knotted ropes, and were unmercifully beaten if they shewed any symptoms of fatigue. Such exposures of the detestable traffic will surely lead to active measures for its suppression. A Geographical Conference has recently (September 1876) been held at Brussels under the auspices of King Leopold, for the purpose of considering the best means of developing Africa and suppressing slavery. It was attended by some of the most eminent travellers, geographers, and philanthropists of the age, and a subscription was com menced for constructing roads and stations from the coast opposite Zanzibar to the west coast at the mouth of the Congo. The accomplishment of such an enterprise would indeed be one of the crowning glories of the nineteenth century. These poor |