GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



445 



is rich in ivory, ebony, caoutchouc and palm oil, 

 but the natives are ignorant and degraded. 

 Oassango, one of the Portuguese possessions in 

 Southern Guinea, has been seized by the na- 

 tives, and is still held by them. Mossamedes, a 

 newly founded sea port on the coast of Benguela, 

 established by the Portuguese, is growing rap- 

 idly, and has already become an important city. 



Madagascar has during the past year been 

 the scene of a revolution, and its king, crowned 

 in 1862, has fallen a victim to his own madness 

 and folly. (See MADAGASCAR.) The island is 

 peopled by two different races, each divided 

 into numerous tribes. The ruling race, the 

 Hovas, are of Malay origin, and comprise only 

 onfe tenth of the population, being in all about 

 450,000. The subject tribes are of the negro 

 race, but are taller, stronger, and more ener- 

 getic than their brethren on the coast. ^The two 

 large islands east of Madagascar, Mauritius and 

 Reunion, have been very diligently explored 

 within the past two or three years. Of the lat- 

 ter, M. George Azema has published a very 

 complete history, and M. Maillard has issued, 

 during the past year, an extended and finely 

 illustrated work on the topography, geology, 

 and natural history of the island. Mr. James 

 Morris has contributed to the "Journal of 

 Arts " a interesting memoir on the geography, 

 &c., of Mauritius, and M. Leduc has presented 

 to the department of manuscripts of the Im- 

 perial Library of Paris an elaborate manuscript 

 history of that island, with numerous maps and 

 plans. The port of Obok, near the Gulf of 

 Tujura, on the coast of Somauli, has been ac- 

 quired by France, and will be occupied here- 

 after as a station for the French line of steam- 

 ers of the Messageries Imperiales Company, 

 between Suez and Cochin China. 



Oceanica, or at least that portion of it included 

 in Australasia and Polynesia, claims our atten- 

 tion. In Australia, the result of the three explor- 

 ing expeditions sent out in search of O'Hara 

 Burke and his party, has been laid before the 

 public during the past year. They have travers- 

 , ed Australia from N. to S. and from S. to N. in 

 four different directions, all of them east of the 

 meridian of 131 E. from Greenwich. Stuart 

 has nearly traversed the continent three times, 

 and in the last expedition reached the open 

 sea on Van Diemen's Gulf, on the 24th of 

 July, 1862. Lansborough, leaving the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria on the 10th of February, 1862, 

 struck S. E., and then followed nearly the 

 course of the 145th meridian to Melbourne, 

 which he reached on the 2d of June. 



McKinlay took a more extended route, leav- 

 ing Adelaide on the 14th of August, 1861, and 

 proceeding northward, nearly on the 138th 

 meridian, passed that locality laid down on the 

 maps as Lake Torrens, which proved to be a 

 shallow valley, which is covered with water 

 during the rainy season, but becomes dry from 

 the excessive evaporation of the dry season. 

 Proceeding northward, with a slight inclination 

 to the west, they reached the river Leichardt 



in about 19 S. lat., nearly 100 miles from its 

 mouth, on the 6th of May, and followed it to a 

 point five or six miles from the Gulf of Carpen- 

 taria. From this locality they turned their 

 faces southeastward, McKinlay having deter- 

 mined to explore the interior of Queensland. 

 The previous journey across the continent had 

 been made without serious suffering or privation, 

 but the route to Port Denison, in Queensland, 

 was attended with great distress from want 

 of water and scarcity of food, and the party 

 were compelled to kill most of their draft an- 

 imals, bullocks, horses, and camels, for allay- 

 ing their hunger. They reached the first sta- 

 tion in the settled districts on the Cth of Au- 

 gust, 1862. 



These three expeditions, taken in connection 

 with that of Burke and Wills, and the previous 

 ones of McDouall Stuart, and Sturt and Eyre, 

 give a very accurate idea of the interior of Aus- 

 tralia. It is not, as was supposed by the earlier 

 explorers, a congeries of lakes, nor, as Sturt 

 supposed, a vast arid desert. Considerable por- 

 tions of it are well watered, and have a rich 

 productive soil. Other portions are subject to 

 seasons of drought, but in the moist seasons will 

 yield abundant crops. A third and remaining 

 portion has a poor soil, and is almost wholly 

 barren, yet in the wet seasons yields some grass 

 for herds. There is, perhaps, a larger amount of 

 rainfall on Central Australia than in most coun- 

 tries ; but the evaporation which takes place 

 in the clear intensely hot weather is very rapid, 

 and soon reduces the plains to drought, and 

 dries up the lakes and considerable streams. 

 The conservation of the profuse rainfall in 

 tanks, and the resort to artificial irrigation 

 where cultivation is required, will cause this 

 desert to blossom like the rose. 



In January, 1863, James Morrill, a seaman 

 who had been shipwrecked in the Peruvian in 

 1846, and was the only one of the four persons 

 who had reached the shore who survived the 

 hardships that followed their shipwreck, came 

 into the settlements near Port Denison. He had 

 spent nearly seventeen years in the interior of 

 Australia, mostly among the natives, who 

 were, on the whole, very kind to him, but 

 were unwilling that he should return to civil- 

 ized life. He confirms the reports of the can- 

 nibalism of the natives, though he says they 

 will not kill their fellow men, simply for the 

 sake of eating them. The bushmen, he says, 

 are cruel and treacherous even in their deal- 

 ings with each other. 



Mr. Alfred Howitt, son of the celebrated au- 

 thor William Howitt, who had been sent out 

 by the colonial government of Victoria to seek 

 for the survivors of the Burke and Wills party, 

 and who found King, the only remaining mem- 

 ber of the party, on the banks of Cooper's 

 Creek, has, during 1862 and 1863, been engaged 

 in an exploration of the western portion of 

 Central Australia, and has visited the large 

 lakes of that region. 



New Zealand has, during the past year, been 



