206 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



without going any farther back than Mr. Barrow, the state of things is no 

 lonaer the same. The English missionaries, and private individuals, Trutter 

 and Somerville, Dr. Cowan and Donovan, who were horribly murdered on 

 their road to Sofala, VV. Burchill and J. Campbell, have penetrated into the 

 interior as tar as the 20th and even the 24tli degree of south latitude; and 

 we are now acquainted with the general course of the great river Orange, 

 or the Go triep, as well as with the courses of the two lesser rivers of the 

 same name, by the meeting of which it is principally formed, and which are 

 distinguished by the initials »« and htf: otherwise called the Black Garicp 

 and the Yellow Gariep; in the same manner as the White IVile and the Blue 

 Nile, in the north-east of Africa, unite to form the Great Mle, which, on 

 leaving the island of Meroe, bears only one name and flows in one bed. 

 These small rivers flow in a basin bounded on the one side by the chain of 

 mountains of Kowp, and on the other by the Long mountains'and by those 

 of Kamhanni, which were explored by Me, W. Burchell to m ally the 26th 

 degree of south latitude, and under the 22d degree of east longitude; thus 

 advancing far beyond the limits of the nations belonging to the race of the 

 Hottentots, and entering in front of a region covered with immense forests. 

 It still remained for him to advance as far as the establishments on the 

 north-west coast, in order to unite the discoveries made by the English with 

 those of the Portuguese, which we shall presently take into consideration •. 

 his guides, however, refused to accompany him any farther, and he was 

 compelled to renounce his project. 



The small river Zack, on the left side of the bazin, and the branches of 

 the river Elephant, farther towards the south, have been visited and their 

 position laid down ; and, on the right side of the basin, at the foot of the 

 chain of Kamhanni, an immense number of small rivers, all of w hich flow 

 towards the west, and sometimes are lost in the sands of the deserts, render- 

 ing it impossible to ascertain whether the river Fish is the continuation of 

 one of those which issue from that elevated chain. We here have to the 

 south of the equartor, several great currents which are absorbed by the 

 earth, though flowing within a moderate distance of the Atlantic, (only six 

 degrees:) is it not, therefore, probable that a similar phenomenon may take 

 place to the north of the line, at a much more considerable distance from 

 the three seas ? Before we leave the more southern part of Africa, let us 

 see how many questions still remain to be resolved, how many positions to 

 be determined ; Ihe sources of the two great arms of the river Orange, that 

 of the Fish river ; the connexion of the chains of mountains; the issue of 

 the river Zack, and of the rivers of Moshowa and of Makatta farther to- 

 wards the north, the first of which directs its course towards the Atlantic, 

 and the other towards the eastern coast ; which shows that the chain of 

 mountains of Kamhanni continues to prolong itself from north to south 

 under the 22d degree of east longitude, that is to say, upon the axis of 

 southern Africa, and at the same time gives rise to new doubts respecting 

 the pretended spine of the earth, which is placed much more towards the 

 cast, at about the 35th degree of longitude. If the line of mountains of 

 Lupatas does really exist, it is only a chain of the second, or even of the 

 third, class, intersected by a multitude of rivers; among the rest, by the 

 Sofala, by the Zambezi and its tributaries, and by the Loffih, which is said 

 to take its rise iu the mountains of the Moou. In what great uncertainty 

 are we not placed respecting the great lake of Maraw i, which D'Anville 

 has laid down upon his charts to the east of the mountains of Lupatas, and 

 which is made no mention of in the more recent researches ! 



A great vacuum has been filled up by very recent discoveries towards the 

 middle of southern Africa, between the mouths of the Congo and the Coanza 

 on the one side, and of the Zambezi and the channel of Mozambique on the 

 other, in the direction of the WIS W. to the ESE, and from the 4fh to the 



in time to publish, it will be seen that they had not been inactive in the 

 cause of discovery, and that they actually penetrated farther, -in a cer- 

 tain direction, than has even yet been done by travellers of any other coun- 

 try. No instance can be furnished of a more daring, active, and successful 

 traveller in South Africa, than the late Mr. Wm. van Reenen ; and if he 

 had lived in the present day, when his value would have been better appro-, 

 elated, he would, doubtless, have been ranked as one of the most assiduous 

 and meritorious explorers of the age.— Eds. 



