June 25, 1860.J ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 251 



knowledge, the more so as it is accompanied by the pleasing notice that the 

 slave trade is there unknown, except by the rare passage of a gang from other 

 parts. Again, this portion of the country so teems with rich vegetable products, 

 including cotton, and herds of elephants, as to lead us to hope that the spirit of 

 profitable barter, which powerfully animates the natives, may lead to their 

 civilization, and thus prove the best means of eradicating the commerce in 

 human beings. 



Whilst Livingstone was sailing to make his last venture and to realize the 

 promise he had given to his faithful Macololo friends, that he would return to 

 them, and bring them kind words from the Queen of the people who love the 

 black man. Captains Burton and Speke were returning from their glorious 

 exploits in a more central and northern region of South Africa, where they 

 had discovered two great 

 than 300 miles in length. 



I may here notice, to the honour of our Government, and particularly to that 

 of the present Secretary for Foreign Affairs, that Captain Speke, associated 

 with another officer of the Bengal army, Captain Grant, has received 2500Z., 

 to enable him to terminate his examination of the great Nyanza Lake, under 

 the Equator ; and we have reason to hope that he will find one of the chief 

 feeders of the White Nile flowing out from its northern extremity, and thus 

 determine the long-sought problem of the chief source of that classic stream. 



I also trust that in the last and most arduous portion of his efforts in 

 proceeding northwards he will be assisted, through the co-operation of Her 

 Majesty's Consul at Khartum on the Upper Nile, in traversing the country 

 immediately to the north of the Equator, where no traveller, ancient or 

 modern, has ever penetrated, and which is inhabited by wild and barbarous 

 natives. After a residence of sixteen years in that region, and having made 

 many trading expeditions to the confines of this unknown region, that bold 

 and experienced man. Consul Petherick, is, I am persuaded, the only European 

 who can afford real assistance to Captains Speke and Grant ; and if by their 

 united efi"orts the true source or sources of the Nile should be discovered, 

 Britain will have attained a distinction hitherto sought in vain from the days 

 of the Roman empire. 



During the week of our meeting, Mr. Petherick will bring before us his 

 project, which I trust you will support,* either for ascending the Nile to its 

 source or affording assistance to Captain Speke, without which it is much to 

 be feared that the gallant officer will never be able to traverse the savage tracts 

 which intervene between the Nyanza Lake and the highest part of the Nile as 

 yet known to any traveller. 



If we turn to the Polar Circle, we see what individual British energy has 

 been able to elicit from the frozen north. There, indeed, notwithstanding 

 many a well-found expedition sent out to ascertain the fate of Franklin, all 

 our efforts as a nation had failed, when the energy and perseverance of a 

 woman, backed only by a few zealous and abiding friends, accomplished the 

 glorious end of satisfying herself, and of proving to her admiring country, that 

 in sacrificing their lives her heroic husband and his brave companions had been 

 the first discoverers of the North- West Passage. 



For her noble and devoted conduct in having persisted through many years 

 of her life to send out expeditions at her own cost, until she at length unravelled 

 the fate of the Erebus and Terror, the Royal Geographical Society of London 

 has rightly judged, in awarding to Lady Franklin one of its gold medals, 

 whilst the other has been appropriately given to that gallant and skilful officer 

 Sir Leopold M'Clintock, who in the little yacht the JFox so thoroughly accom- 



* A Subscription List in furtherance of this great object is opened, headed by 

 Lord Ashburton and Sir Roderick Murchisou. 



