240 LIVINGSTON. [Dec. 15, 1856, 



from our distinguished traveller. There are indications throughout the flanking 

 ranges, of great disturbance of the strata, by the intrusion of igneous rocks 

 which have very much metamorphosed them. The strata upon the two 

 sides of Africa, dip inwards, and the great interior region thus forms an elevated 

 plateau arranged in basin-shape. This vast basin is occupied by calcareous 

 tufa, the organic remains in which seem to indicate that at a period not 

 remote in the history of the globe, this great marshy region has been 

 desiccated, leaving in these broad i^lateaus of calcareous tufa, the remains of 

 lacustrine and land animals, which are still living in the country. 1 hold in 

 my hand a geological map of the Cape territory as prepared by Mr. Bain, 

 which, coupled with the discovery of Lake Ngami, led me to offer to you that 

 speculation on the probable physical condition of the interior of Africa which 

 the observations of Dr. Livingston have confirmed.* 



Dr. Livivgston then rose, and, pointing to the diagram of Africa, said : 

 The country south of 20° is comparatively arid ; there are few rivers in it, and 

 what water the natives get, is chiefly from wells. But north of 20°, we find a 

 totally different country, wonderfully well w^atered, and very imlike what 

 people imagine Central Africa to be. It is covered by a network of waters, 

 which are faintly put down in the map, and chiefly from native information. 

 The reason why we have trusted to native information in this case, is this : 

 when Mr. Oswell and 1 went up to the Chobe in 1851, we employed tlie natives 

 to draw a part of the Zambesi in the centre of the country, which had hitherto 

 been unknown to Europeans. They drew it so well, that although I have 

 since sailed up and down the river several times, and have taken observations 

 all along, T have very little to add to that native map. The natives show on 

 their maps that you can go up one river and get into another. You can go up 

 the Kama, for instance, and get into another, the river of the Banyenko. 

 You can go up the Simah and get into the Chobe, and can come down into the 

 Zambesi, or Lcambye. You can go up the river Teoge, and round again by 

 the Tzo to Lake Ngami. If you go up the Loi, you can get into the Kafue. And 

 they declare that if you go up the Kafue in a canoe, you can get as far as the 

 ix)int where that river divides from the Lonngua. All these rivers are deep 

 and lar::;e, and never dry up as the South African rivers do. Some will saj^ 

 that the natives always tell you that one river comes out of another. Yes, if 

 you do not understand the language you may say so. 1 remember when 

 Colonel Steele and I were together, the natives pointed him out as still wild, 

 and said I was tame, because I understood the language. "Now, I suppose, 

 when a geographer tells you that, when the natives say, " one river runs into 

 or out of another," they don't mean what they say; but, in reality, the natives 

 mean that the geographer is still luild, he is not tame, i. e. he does not know 

 the language I found the natives to be very intelligent ; and, in this well 

 w^atered part, to be of the true Negro family. They all had woolly hair, and a 

 good deal of it, and they are darker thnn those who live to the south. The 

 most remarkable point I noticed among them, was the high estimation in which 

 they hold the women. Many of the women become chiefs. If you ask a man 

 to do something for you, he wnll perhaps make some arrangement about pay- 

 ment ; but before deciding to do it, he is sure to say, " Well, 1 will go home 

 and ask my wife." If the wife agrees to it, he will do what you want ; but if 

 she says no, there is no possibility of getting him to move. The women sit in 

 the public council, and have a voice in the deliberations. Among the Bechuanas 

 the men swear by tlieir fathers, but among the true negroes they swear by their 

 mothers. Any exclamation they make is, " Oh, my mother ! " — while among 

 the Bechuanarf and the Caffres they swear by their father. If a woman sepa- 

 rate from her husband, the children all go with the mother— they all stick by 



See President's Address, vol. xxii, p, cxxii, 1852. 



