PROCEEDINGS 



OP 



THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 

 OF LONDON. 



SESSION 1868-9. 



Thirteenth Meeting, June 13^A, 1859. 



The earl OF RIPON, President, in the Chair. 



Elections. — Captain Richard F. Burton {Bombay Army) ; Lieutenant- 

 General Peter De la Motte, c.b. ; Professor Hind {of Canada) ; Captain 

 W. Fraser Tytler ; John F. Bateman^ c.e. ; A. Benson Dickson ; 

 Christian Hellmann ; Henry Johnson; Coleridge J. Kennard ; Daniel A. 

 Lange ; Walter D. Leslie ; F. Butler Montgom^rie ; W. Moon ; Stephen 

 W, Silver ; and Edward W. Stafford^ Esqrs. ; were elected Fellows. 



Exhibitions. — Specimens of the weapons, manufactures, and 

 natural productions brought by Captains Burton and Speke from 

 Eastern Africa, and of woods from the Zambesi brought home by 

 J. Lyons M'Leod, Esq., f.r.g.s., late Consul at Mozambique ; also 

 several maps of the seat of war in Italy, &c., were exhibited. 



The President. — Ladies and Gentlemen : I understand that it is not the 

 custom on these occasions to offer any general observations, except such as may 

 be connected with the Papers immediately in hand, otherwise I should have 

 felt it my duty to express my thanks to you at greater length than I shall now 

 do, because I am most anxious to preserve intact the ancient practices of this 

 Society. I should have felt it my duty to express my warmest thanks to the 

 Fellows of the Eoyal Geographical Society for placing me in this Chair. But I 

 apprehend a more fitting opportunity for so doing will be afiorded me on a future 

 occasion, of which I shall most gladly avail myself. It will, therefore, be 

 hardly necessary that I should detain you a minute from listening to the Papers 

 which will he read on that most interesting expedition, the exploration of 

 Central Africa, by Captains Burton and Speke. Their steps during that 

 arduous undertaking have been watched with interest by every person in this 

 country attached to geographical science, and every Fellow of this Society is 

 aware of the importance of the inquiries which they went out to institute. 

 What we shall hear from them will give us an idea of the difficulties, disasters, 

 and privations they endured, and I think we shall be able to draw from their 

 narratives — though they will not dwell on it themselves — with how much 

 spirit, courage, English pluck, and enterprise, they overcame those difficulties. 

 Captain Speke, who penetrated in a different direction somewhat farther than 

 Captain Burton, who was prevented by illness from following him, is decidedly 

 of opinion that he has established the point whence the Nile takes its rise. 



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