Nov. 28, 1859.] OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 27 



Mr. J. Macqueen, f.r.g.s., said, — The important papers just read offer a 

 wide field for observation. At this late hour, however, it is impossible to 

 enter upon the consideration of their contents to the extent I could wish. I 

 must glance at them hastily, taking the geographical features properly first. 



The River Chire, Xire, or Shire, is no new discovery. It has been known 

 to the Portuguese for more than two centuries as a large and important river, 

 up which they formerly traded to a distance of thirty days' journey. It was 

 known to have in some places rapids and cataracts. The early Portuguese 

 travellers and writers called the name of the lower part of the river and the 

 country around it Sherawa. They further called it the Nhanja in its upper 

 course. Lacerda, Monteiro, and others decidedly and repeatedly state this, 

 while they also decidedly give their opinion from what they considered good 

 information that the river which passes the capital of Cazembe was the head 

 stream thereof, and which is probably the fact. The northern Lake Nhanja 

 alluded to by Dr. Livingstone is not a lake but a large river, called Nionja or 

 Nhionja, which is in about lat. 14° S. and long. 36° E. ; when crossed by Silva 

 Porto in 1854, it was on the 29th of April, towards the close of the rainy 

 season, one mile broad. 



In this sense Father Codinho mentions this lake (Lagao : this word means 

 fen, marsh, or a sheet of water which expands and contracts, or dries up, 

 according to seasons and circumstances) in his Travels to India in 1663, and 

 which, on the information of an intelligent Portuguese explorer, who had 

 travelled over all that portion of Africa, and made a map thereof, is laid down 

 as extending from 15° 50' S. lat., and called by him Zachaf. It communicated 

 with the lower Zambesi below Senna, while its source came from avast'distance 

 to the north. I feel obliged to Sir Roderick Murchison for calling my attention 

 to a large manuscript majj of the world now in the British Museum, and made by 

 Antonio Sauces, a Portuguese, in 1623. Thereon every part of the whole coast 

 of Africa is laid down, with even greater accuracy than it is at the present 

 day. That map has a lake lying due west from Quiloa, and in the position of 

 what is at present called Lake Nyassa, and from this lake the great branch of 

 the Zambesi, the Shire, or Zachaf, is made to flow. Farther, that map gives 

 the source of the White Nile at the foot of exceedingly high mountains close 

 upon the Equator, and almost exactly as modern discovery shows it to be ; its 

 upper course also is delineated nearly as it is at present known, and has been 

 pointed out to the Society by Mr. Macqueen in his paper presented last 

 session. 



It is not at all likely that the enterprising Portuguese would not know the 

 capabilities of a river which they had known and included in their dominions 

 for more than 200 years. The Zambesi was well known to them to a great 

 distance beyond or above Zumbo, and they have always told us that the river 

 was not fit for imobstructed commercial navigation, and that near Chocwa it was 

 always said to be impassable. Dr. Livingstone has given us more minute in- 

 formation about the obstructions in some parts than they have done, but as 

 regards the main point he gives us no more than is known, nor shows how 

 difficulties that exist can be overcome. If a steamer drawing 2 feet water 

 cannot move with safety, it is clear that another drawing 6 feet or 10 feet 

 with proportionate power would never venture upon those ebb places, 

 narrow channels, and terrible rapids with the slightest chance of success. 



It is useless to shut our eyes to the fact that the expedition in its great 

 object, namely, the exploration of the Zambesi as a valuable commercial channel, 

 has for the present completely failed. The steamer, we are told, is not fit for 

 the service. Be it so ; but then it remains to remark where is the judgment 

 which sent out a vessel 80 feet long and a hull only ^g of an inch thick on such 

 an unknown and dangerous service to stem a stream running at the rate of 10 

 miles or more per hour, and to a country where no repairs could be effected ? 



