490 



GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



Dr. Livingstone's associates, in the autumn of 

 1861 visited Kilimanjaro, and by a series of 

 triangulations from Mombaz ascertained its 

 height to be 21,000 feet. M. Beke has also ex- 

 plored this country very thoroughly, and has 

 satisfied himself that these two mountains are 

 only summits of a chain of mountains extend- 

 ing from the Southern frontier of Abyssinia to 

 about the 8th degree of S. latitude, and which, 

 though running N. and S. instead of E. and W., 

 he supposes to be the real Mountains of the 

 Moon. MM. Vivien de St. Martin and Robin, 

 two French geographers, have also arrived at 

 the same conclusions. In some portion of the 

 Mountains of the Moon, and perhaps on the 

 slopes of Mt. Kenia, it is probable, will be 

 found the headwaters of the White Nile, rather 

 than in Lake Nyanza, as Capt. Speke supposed. 



Returning for a moment to Abyssinia, the 

 topography of which has been published (pre- 

 pared from actual surveys) the past year by M. 

 Antoine d'Abbadie, we find that it has been 

 visited by terrible earthquakes early in 1862, 

 and an eruption of the Djebel Dubbeh, an active 

 volcano near the eastern coast, which has de- 

 stroyed and covered with ashes the town of 

 Edd, situated on the Red Sea. 



M. Heuglin, a German traveller, already 

 known by his discoveries in Northeastern 

 Africa, has undertaken, sustained by a large 

 subscription in Germany, to penetrate to Wa- 

 day, the point where it is said the unfortunate 

 Vogel died, and to recover, if possible, his pa- 

 pers, and to learn the circumstances of his 

 death. For this purpose he has chosen a new 

 route through Abyssinia, Upper Nubia, Kordo- 

 fan, and Darfour. He left Abyssinia in the 

 spring of 1862, but as yet there is no intelli- 

 gence of his success. 



Dr. Livingstone has prosecuted his explora- 

 tions in S. E. Central Africa with unwearied 

 zeal, but with not so large a measure of success 

 as in former years. He ascended the Rovuma 

 in 186^, which he hoped to find connected 

 with Lake Nyassa, but being unsuccessful in 

 entering the lake by that route, he explored the 

 Comoro Islands at its mouth, and then returned 

 to the Zambesi, where he revisited his old 

 friends the Batoka and Makalolo, and in Au- 

 gust, 1861, carried a boat past the Murchison 

 cataracts in the river Shire, and launched it on 

 the Upper Shire, which he found was a pro- 

 longation of the long-sought lake, though 60 

 miles below the entrance of the lake proper. 

 He ascended the lake for 200 miles, and de- 

 scribes it as being in shape somewhat like Italy. 

 It is about 225 miles in length, and varies in 

 breadth from 18 to 60 miles, being widest to- 

 ward its northern extremity. Its southern ex- 

 tremity, which is forked, commences in S. lat. 

 14 25', and it extends beyond the 10th parallel 

 S. Its course is nearly from N. to S. and it lies 

 between the 35th and 36th meridians E. from 

 Greenwich. Five considerable rivers flowed 

 into it from the west, and one more, Dr. L. 

 believed, from the N. The population along 



its shores was very dense, and were maintained 

 by the abundant supplies of fish in the lake 

 and its tributaries. The traffic in slaves was 

 very active. At one point he attempted to in- 

 duce a tribe called Yawa to desist from slave 

 hunting, and he and his party were attacked 

 by them with poisoned arrows and guns, and 

 compelled to use firearms in self defence. He 

 returned to the Lower Shire in December, 1861, 

 and in the spring, having received a steamer in 

 parts from England, had it transported past the 

 cataracts, put together, and launched upon the 

 river, and in this he again ascended the lake in 

 the spring, and was involved in some of the 

 native wars, much to his regret and that of the 

 members of the Oxford and Cambridge Uni- 

 versity Mission, who, under his guidance, had 

 settled the previous autumn on the islands in 

 the lake, S. of Mt. Zoruba, but who soon after 

 this second visit abandoned the mission. Mrs. 

 Livingstone, who had accompanied her husband 

 on many of his perilous journeys, died on the 

 river Shire in Africa. 



Lieut. Rigby has contributed to the Mitthei- 

 lungen a description of the states of the sultan 

 of Zanzibar, and of the Island of Mombaz, 

 which is under the protection of Great Britain. 



A Portuguese geographer, the Viscount de 

 Sa Bandiera, published in the summer of 1862 

 a map of the Portuguese states of Zambesia 

 and Sofalla, with copious notes and explana- 

 tions, which gives a better idea of the country 

 watered by the Lower Zambesi and its affluents 

 than any map previously published. This re- 

 gion is of interest not only from the discoveries 

 of Dr. Livingstone, but from the missionary 

 settlements planted in its southern part by the 

 colonists sent out by Pastor Harms of Her- 

 mannsburg in Hanover. 



The accession of Radama II to the throne of 

 Madagascar (of which an account is given else- 

 where ; see AFRICA) has led to several explor- 

 ing expeditions in that island, mostly of a mis- 

 sionary character. Mr. Ellis, a venerable Eng- 

 lish clergyman, formerly a missionary in the 

 island, and driven from it by the fierce persecu- 

 tions of the late queen Ranavalona, has returned 

 there, and is now making a tour of the island. 

 Several French Jesuit missionaries are also en- 

 gaged in the investigation of the ethnolpgy and 

 language of the inhabitants. One of them, 

 Father Deniaux, who had spent 18 years in the 

 study of the Malagasha language, died in 1861, 

 but left in manuscript a very complete grammar 

 and dictionary of the language, which since his 

 death has been printed by his native pupils. 



Passing to the western coast, the new king- 

 dom of Bihe, lying to the east of Angola and 

 Benguela, has attracted some attention of late. 

 Its king is a Hungarian, Ladislas Magyar, who 

 has for many years resided in that country, and 

 whose narrative of the inhabitants, produc- 

 tions, and history of the country he governs, 

 recently published at Pesth, possesses great in- 

 terest. 



The region of the Gabtln, whose exploration 



