268 Memarks on the Expedition 



at least only another such process, proceeding from the boundary 

 whicli it is calculated to reach, will be either wished or attempt- 

 e 1. It will be very long indeed before we be prepared to make 

 the limit of this second extent the starting point for a third, and 

 we may expect that the very central regions of the continent 

 will before then be penetrated by shorter routes from the seas 

 on either side. We are not among those who are sanguine that 

 these very central regions can be attained in any other way, or 

 that this country in particular presents any special facilities 

 which can compensate for its distance, and hence a danger of 

 failure which is obviously to be estimated at a higher ratio than 

 as the distance. Considering how many blank and barren 

 parallels of latitude lie noted on our maps, between us and the 

 Mediterranean, the mind, in anticipation that all will ulti- 

 mately be discovered, may forget the necessarily contracted space 

 of one effort. Let us, however, keep in view proper measures 

 of what this extent presents to us. From this place to the 

 sources of the Nile, over which the baffled curiosity of Europe 

 yet sighs in vain, is probably as far as the direct distance of 

 Alexander's march from Macedou to the Indus, and from us to 

 Zumbao, in the neighbourhood of the 20th parallel, is about 

 equal to the space from sea to sea across the whole Australian 

 continent. The parallel of 19° includes on this side of it 

 almost all that is absolutely beyond the limit of European 

 knowledge and observation in this section of Africa. It will be 

 a very great achievement indeed, if with any proper degree of 

 attention to mapping and collecting, the resources of our Expe- 

 dition, and the favourable circumstances which we trust it will 

 meet with should enable it to traverse this space : it will be 

 highly satisfactory if we receive a distinct account of nature 

 and men as they occur betwixt ns and the tropic of Capricorn. 

 It will not require less than three such, each resting on the 

 acquisitions of its predecessor to bring us useful information of 

 the Equatorial regions. 



The most promising of all for that purpose is a scheme an- 

 nounced by Lieutenant Emery in No. III. of the Journal of the 

 Geographical Fociety of London. He proprosed to start from 

 Blonibas, occupying nearly the apex of the great bight which 

 presses in upon the African coast, north of the Mozam- 

 bique Channel: it is therefore almost the nearest point of the 

 coast line to the Equatorial centre of the continent. The place 

 was lately British, and may be so still if it were thought worth 

 accepting as a gift of its people. Ii is at all e\ents overlooked 

 if not ruled by the friendly power of our ally the Imaun of 

 Muskat. There are the resources of a partial civilization 

 about it, and the tiatives, including even the marauding Gallas, 

 Beemed to Lieut. Emery to be in no way hostile to the presence 

 of a stranger among them. This last clement, in the problem. 



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