222 GEOGRAPHICAL OBSERVATIONS ON WESTERN AFRICA. [June 11, 18G0. 



indigenous race, and seek to elevate tliem by tlicir superior information and 

 knowledge of the arts, then no doubt great good would result. With reference 

 to the subject of cotton, it was too late to challenge a discussion on the subject ; 

 but lie believed he was quite right in saying that Africa was the home of the 

 cotton-plant, and that it surely could be produced in a country to which it was 

 indigenous. It was well known that cotton was grown and manufactured up 

 the valley of the iS'iger as far as Mungo Park went, and also in the regions 

 Avdiich Dr. Delany visited, and again in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, as 

 well as up the valley of the Senegal and the Gambia. lie was not presumptuous 

 in stating these facts, because he had gone over a great portion of the country 

 to which he had referred. If the Negroes from America, who had been well 

 disciplined in the best modes of cultivating cotton, would go into Africa and 

 teach their native brethren what they themselves had learned, some of the 

 gentlemen present might live to see the day when a great portion of the cotton, 

 now supplied by the United States, might come to lis from Africa. 



Sib Roderick Murchison, v.p.r.g.s., next called attention to the presence 

 of two Maori chiefs from New Zealand, v/ho had been brought to Europe by 

 Dr. Hochstetter, of the Austrian expedition, in the frigate Novara. They had 

 been to Vienna, and Dr. Hochstetter had brought them to this country to 

 see them off to their native land, for which they would embark in a few 

 days. When Dr. Hochstetter mentioned the circumstance to him, he thought 

 the Fellows of the Eoyal Geographical Society would like to see these gentle- 

 men, and he for one confessed he should like to hear one of them address the 

 meeting for a few moments in his own native language. Dr. Hochstetter 

 informed him that they had been taught how to print, and that in Vienna 

 every step had been taken to instruct them in the various arts of life. 

 Dr. Hochstetter then introduced the chief Toe-Toe, who addressed the meeting 

 in a few words in his native language. 



The President finally announced that Captains Speke and Grant had started 

 On their expedition to Eastern Africa, and stated that since they had left this 

 country they had found out that there were dangers to be encountered of which 

 Captain S])eke was possibly not aware. During only two months of the year 

 would he find boats on the White Nile to take them into more civilised parts, 

 but should he chance to arrive in any of the other ten months, he would not 

 meet with that mode of conveyance and would be exposed to great dangers. 

 Consul Petherick, from Khartum, could meet him with a large force and escort 

 him through the country, but Consul Petherick could hardly be expected to do 

 this at his own expense ; and as the Government declined making any farther 

 grant, the Council of the Society had departed from their usual rules, and had 

 headed a subscription with 100^. towards defraying those expenses. He only 

 hoped that many gentlemen would contribute towards so good and so just an 

 object. 



Sir Roderick Murchison said he had only to add that when Captain Speke 

 had reached the most northerly extremity of Lake Nyanza, he would have 

 to traverse two or three degrees of latitude through most hostile tribes, 

 whose territory no traveller had yet succeeded in passing ; and it would be 

 found alm.ost impossible to provision the party accompanying him, unless he 

 was assisted from the north by Mr. Petherick, whose knowledge of the country, 

 language, and habits of the barbarous tribes near the Equator, would prove of 

 the very greatest value to this most important expedition. 



