PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL GEOGEAPHICAL SOCIETY 

 OF LONDON. 



SESSION 1856-7. 



Fourth Meeting {Special), Dec. 15, 1856. 



The President, Sir KODEKICK T. MUECHISON, in tlie Cliair. 



In opening the Meeting, the Chairman said, — 



Gentlemen, — We are now specially assembled to welcome Dr. 

 Livingston, on returning from Southern Africa to his- native country 

 after an absence of sixteen years, during which, while endeavouring 

 to spread the blessings of Christianity through lands never before 

 trodden by the foot of a British subject, he has made discoveries of 

 incalculable importance, which have justly won for him, our Victoria 

 or Patron's Medal. 



When that honour was conferred in May, 1855, for traversing 

 South Africa from the Cape of Good Hope by Lalce Kgami and 

 Linyanti to Loanda on the west coast, the Earl of Ellesmere, then our 

 President, spoke with eloquence of the " scientific precision, with 

 which the unarmed and unassisted English Missionary had left his 

 mark on so many important stations of regions, hitherto blank." 



If for that wonderful journey, Dr. Livingston was justly recom- 

 pensed with the highest distinction we could bestow, what must be 

 our estimate of his prowess, now that he has re-traversed the vast 

 regions, which he first opened out to our knowledge ? Nay, more ; 

 that, after reaching his old starting point at Linyanti in the inte- 

 rior, he has followed the Zambesi, or continuation of the Leamb^-e 

 river, to its mouths on the shores of the Indian Ocean, passing 

 through the eastein Portuguese settlements to Quilimane, — thus com- 

 pleting the entire journey across South Africa. In short, it has been 

 calculate that, putting together his various journeys, Dr. Livingston 

 has not travelled over less than eleven thousand miles of African 

 ground. 



Then, how does he come back to us ? Kot merely like the far- 

 roaming and enterprising French missionaries. Hue and Gabet, who, 

 though threading through China with marvellous skill, and contri- 



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