88 OK. LIVINGSTONE ON LAKES NYINYESI, OR [March 26, 1860. 



It appeared that the Shire', a magnificent river in itself, was separated by 

 cataracts (requiring a portage of about 30 miles) from the great river Zambesi, 

 by which alone water communication with the sea can take place from the 

 interior of the Continent. Dr. Livingstone has pointed out the healthfulness 

 of this country, in which he and his friend Dr. Kirk slept so many nights 

 without changing their wet clothes, and yet never had an illness. Dr. Living- 

 stone had certainly realised the truth of what he said after he first went to 

 Africa, that there were healthy lofty regions in that country in which Eng- 

 lishmen might live in perfect health. 



In calling for any observations upon this tract of Africa,*'he could not sit 

 down without adverting to another lake much to the northward of these tAvo 

 great lakes of Livingstone, the Shirwa and the Nyanzi, to that lake Ngami 

 which was discovered by Captain Speke. When he told them that Captain 

 Speke, who, a fortnight hence, would proceed on his adventurous journey, 

 was present, as well as Mr. Petherick, our vice-consul at Khartum, who was 

 likely to ascend from the upper sources of the JNile, and give a helping hand 

 to his friend Captain Speke, in his endeavour to push to the northward to dis- 

 cover the real sources of that great river, he thought the meeting would like 

 to hear something from both these gentlemen connected with the projected 

 explorations of the interior of Africa, which would, he trusted, end in the 

 discovery of the true sources of the Nile. 



Captain Speke, f.r.g.s., said Dr. Livingstone's communication was most 

 interesting, inasmuch as he had himself obtained considerable oral information 

 of the same country of which the Doctor had now given them a positive 

 account. He had first heard of the lake recently discovered by Dr. Livingstone 

 only as the Nyassa or Lake when at Kilwa ; now, however, the discoverer had 

 given them its true specific name, in calling it Niyanyizi, meaning in the 

 Negro language the Stars, and Dr. Livingstone would do well to call it 

 Niyanyizi Nyassa, or the Lake of the Stars. It was a peculiar coincidence 

 that the negroes should have two of the night luminaries, as Unyamuezi the 

 Country of the Moon, and Niyanyizi the Lake of the Stars, to designate two 

 great topographical features of their benighted land by ; and it is also remark- 

 able that, both being so close together, the latter had never been heard of, 

 though the former, the Moon, had been well known for centuries. 



The Captain said he entertained some doubts about the opinion expressed 

 by Dr. Livingstone as to the means of check-mating the slave-trade by simply 

 stopping their passage between the two lakes, as mentioned in his paper ; for 

 whilst at Kilwa he had been to some considerable trouble in collecting infor- 

 mation regarding that subject, and was assured by many native traders that 

 they crossed the lake in boats at various ferries along its shores, and the mis- 

 sionaries had also heard] this story from the same sources. Still it was con- 

 jecture, and he hoped Livingstone would soon push farther up the lake 

 and see how closely it approached to the Tanganyika Lake, which is about the 

 same altitude as the Niyanyizi Lake (1800 feet), and would much enhance the 

 value of the two discoveries, should it prove that any connection existed between 

 them, and the more especially so as Dr. Livingstone described that country 

 in such glowing terms, as capable of producing anything that grows in tropical 

 climates, including even cotton. 



But when talking of Africa as a cotton-producing country, and although 

 giving credit to its having a productive soil, he (the Captain) did not wish it 

 to be inferred that it would be of any immediate use to us, for at present 

 there were no regular organised and established governments there, nor would 

 there be any until slavery ceased. Slavery, he maintained, was the first and great 

 cause of, and impediment to the development of the resources of the country. 

 Fortunately for Africa and for England, he might also say, these discoveries 

 of rich and fertile lands — mainly attributable to the indefatigable exertions of 

 the Hoyal Geographical Society, who are now pressing their adventurous 



