Jan. 9, I860.] AND TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 43 



everybody that the result developed by the explorations of the two gentlemen who 

 had addressed them, as well as by Dr. Livingstone in his most interesting re- 

 searches, showed that, instead of the interior of Africa being, as was supposed of 

 old, an uninhabited desert, wherever we went we should find not only vegeta- 

 tion and productiveness, but a teeming population. This perhaps was the great 

 hope with those who had a right to be interested in the future of Africa ; and it 

 must be a great encouragement to the Geographical Society that as commerce, 

 cultivation, and Christianity were not only the hope of Africa, but also the ele- 

 ments of a well ordered civilization everywhere, so there was encoin-agement 

 for those who went forth to discover the resources and capabilities of the 

 country, that they would not be exposed to any sufferings from want, that 

 the populations to which they went were prepared to appreciate the endeavours 

 which they should make for their advancement, and were ready to meet them 

 in the exchange of the commodities which they might mutually have to offer. 

 It struck him that we might have known at this day much more of Africa 

 than we did now. It certainly had not been the fault of Englishmen that we 

 had not known more ; he believed it had been the fault of his own country- 

 men. They knew something of the history of the colony of Sierra Leone ; it 

 had been his lot to be located in the neighbourhood of that colony. Some 

 eighteen years ago it was his honour to be sent by the British Government to 

 the Gold Coast, and subsequently to the Republic of Liberia ; and now he 

 had recently returned from the Sherboro country, which was very near Sierra 

 Leone. He had been surprised, and even pained, to find that the part of 

 Africa of which we ought to know the most, was the very part of which we 

 knew the least. If they examined any of the charts of the coast to the 

 southward of the colony of Sierra Leone, they would observe that within 

 120 miles of Freetown (the capital of the colony) there was nothing at all, 

 no indication on the face of any of these charts, to show that beyond 3 

 miles from the coast anything whatever was known of the country. There 

 were two charts of the Sherboro River. He believed the name was a misnomer ; 

 it was not a river, it was a lagoon, which seemed to have been formed by the 

 joint action or rush of waters from four or five considerable rivers that came 

 from the interior and the ocean, throwing up a deposit conjointly. As a proof 

 that it was not a river he might mention that it had two tidal flows ; the 

 water ebbed and flowed both ways, and, of course, it could not be a river. But 

 what he meant to say was, that upon the chart of the Sherboro River there 

 was an indication of the embouchure of four other large rivers, but nothing 

 whatever was known of them, and they were all marked down as being un- 

 surveyed. He regretted exceedingly that the character of the duties which he 

 had to perform there prevented his travelling, or making any explorations in 

 the interior; but occasionally it became his duty to go up these rivers in the 

 course of service, and he found, as he went up, that in proportion as he got 

 away from the coast, — in the same proportion did he get away from the 

 malaria district, and gel into a healthy climate. He found, as a general rule, 

 that the mangrove belt which skirted the coast might be 20 or 25 miles in 

 extent ; beyond that, the traveller began to ascend, and to get into com- 

 paratively higher land, beyond the malaria influences. Another fact that had 

 occurred to him was, that the growth of mangrove seemed to be caused by 

 the confluence of fresh and sea water. Where there was fresh water they saw 

 no mangrove, but where the freshwater met the sea there the mangrove grew, and 

 where the mangrove throve, there you had that peculiar malaria which generated 

 the fevers of the west coast. The great hope of England with reference to 

 Africa was, if possible, to discover some source of supply of cotton for the 

 manufacturing districts of this country. They would observe that Dr. Living- 

 stone stated that in his quarter of Africa he found indigenous cotton growing 



