104 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES. 



M. "Werner Munzinger, long a resident of 

 Egypt, has contributed a valuable memoir to 

 Petermann's Mittheilungen on the tribes of 

 Upper Nubia, between the Atbara and the Red 

 Sea. He enumerates four of these tribes : the 

 Bogos, the Mensa, the Barea, and the Kouna- 

 inas. The last named are called by the other 

 Nubians Gliangallas, that is, ~black savages. 

 They occupy the territory bounded by Dern- 

 bella on the east, and Adrabo and the Takazza 

 on the west. At the north they extend from 

 the Mareb to Barca, and on the south occupy 

 the wooded slopes of the Abyssinian plateau. 

 They are black, but well formed, muscular, with 

 curly but not woolly hair, a scanty beard, a 

 tine mouth, and seldom any flattening of the 

 nose. They are a grave and sedate people, but 

 courteous and pleasant. Their religion seems 

 to be an indifferent deism. They have no feasts 

 or fasts. Their government is patriarchal, and 

 the elders or aged men are greatly reverenced. 

 The magician, or rain maker, is also much 

 honored, but if he fails to bring rain he is put 

 to^death. The family, as we know it, does not 

 exist among the Kounamas, and the property 

 descends to the sister's son, in preference to 

 any putative child of the owner of property, as 

 in many of the African tribes. They are very 

 industrious farmers, cultivating the various 

 cereals of the country, tobacco and an oleagin- 

 ous plant called schebdb. Honey abounds, and 

 they make a fermented drink from it. They 

 live in bell-shaped huts covered with grass. No 

 European had previously penetrated into their 

 country in consequence of their alleged ferocity. 

 Herr Munzinger has ascertained with certainty 

 the identity of the rivers Mareb and Gache, 

 long supposed to be distinct streams. 



The question of the sources of the Nile, which 

 was at first supposed to be settled by the dis- 

 coveries of Captains Speke and Grant, is not 

 yet quite cleared of mystery, inasmuch as they 

 did not follow the Nile from its source to 

 Gondokoro, and could not tell what affluents it 

 might have received from other lakes. This is 

 now the subject of further exploration by the 

 Baron de Heuglin and Mr. Samuel Baker, who 

 have penetrated to Lake Nyanza, and have ob- 

 tained information which confirms Capt. Speke's 

 theory of the source of the Nile, and Consul 

 Petherick is also pushing his inquiries in that 

 direction. 



The Baron Yon der Decken, a well-known 

 German geographer, who ascended Mount Kili- 

 man'djaro, has undertaken his fourth exploring 

 tour, having the geologist Karsten and two 

 other eminent scholars as companions. He 

 reached Zanzibar in the summer of 1864, in- 

 tending to ascend either the Ozi or the Job 

 River, and, climbing the northern slope of Mount 

 Kenia, seek for a stream which he believes 

 flows thence to join the White Nile above Gon- 

 dokoro. 



Mr. G. Sejeau, a French geographer, has 

 penetrated into Abyssinia, and has prepared a 

 very complete map of that country. Dr. Liv- 



ingstone has returned to England after an ex 

 tended exploration of the upper waters of the 

 Shire, and the west shores of Lake Nyassa. 

 He found in this region a chain of mountains 

 running north and south (not east and west, as 

 our maps have laid them down), and broad 

 fertile valleys at an elevation of about 6,500 

 feet above the sea level, with a delightful cli- 

 mate, and admirably adapted to cotton culture. 

 He also discovered two rivers, both named 

 Loangwa ; one discharging its waters into Lake 

 Nyassa, the other turning toward the west, and 

 after a great detour falling into the upper Zam- 

 besi. He also learned from the natives of 

 another river, the Moitawa, which flows into a 

 little lake called Bemba. This river, the natives 

 say, is the source of the river Luapula, which 

 flowing west and uniting at first with the Mofue, 

 and passing through the city of Cazembe, falls 

 into Lake Tanganyika. Dr. Livingstone was 

 unable to explore tins river, but he ascertained 

 that Lake Nyassa did not communicate with 

 Lake Tanganyika, a point of considerable im- 

 portance. From the Western Coast, M. du 

 Chaillu has undertaken another exploration of 

 the interior of Africa. He has ascended the 

 Femand Vas, and crossed the mountains to the 

 interior, since which wo have no information 

 from him. Major Burton, well known as a 

 traveller, made, late in 1863, an official visit to 

 Dahome, and spending two months there, haa 

 given an interesting though characteristic nar- 

 rative of the people, customs, and human sac- 

 rifices of that degraded kingdom. Murder 

 seems to be the principal amusement of the 

 bloodthirsty wretch who rules it. His army of 

 Amazons, Burton thinks, do not exceed 2,500 

 or 3,000, and he regards them as by no means 

 formidable. Of their morals little can be said. 

 The country is in a pitiable condition; agri- 

 culture neglected, no manufactures, and only 

 war and plunder and the preservation of theii 

 own lives thought of. 



We have already mentioned the death of Dr. 

 Baikie, which occurred in November, 1864. 

 He had added materially to his discoveries in 

 the region of the Niger. Leaving Egga, 360 

 miles from the mouth of that river, he ascended 

 the Wunagi River, a branch of the Niger, with 

 Lieut. Gambler, for 50 miles to the village of 

 Wunagi, 7 miles from Beda the capital ot 

 King Massaba. Here they found an industrioua 

 agricultural population, who raise crops of grain, 

 yams, and cotton. The region is healthy. The 

 Christian settlements of Onitscha and Glebe 

 founded by the colored Bishop*Crowther, on 

 the Niger, are prospering, as are also the station 

 of Lukoja and the model farm established by 

 Dr. Baikie at the confluence of the Niger and 

 Benuwe. The Royal Geographical Society of 

 London have extended assistance to M. Rohlfs 

 Gerard, a young geographer who has under- 

 taken to make a journey of exploration from 

 Morocco to Timbuctu, and have received intel- 

 ligence of his having accomplished the first 

 stages of his journey. 



