332 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY IN 1876. 



they sailed fifty miles to a river, which they 

 ascended seven miles, where they were stopped 

 by the matted growth of papyri and other wa- 

 ter-plants, and saw beyond a magnificent wa- 

 terfall the natives informed them that this 

 came from the waters whicli accumulate in 

 the mountains, forming a river during the wet 

 season, but drying up in the dry season. They 

 informed Signer Gessi, also, that he had already 

 reached the end of the lake, that there was no 

 river or cataract beyond, and that the water 

 where the ambatoh grew was only knee-deep. 

 The country here is called Quando, and the 

 natives are suspected of cannibalism. They 

 crossed the lake here along the edge of the am- 

 batch-field, a distance of forty miles from east 

 to west. A view from the mast-head disclosed 

 a wide expanse grown over with ambatch, be- 

 yond which a valley covered with low vege- 

 tation reaches to the foot of the mountains. 

 On the other side of the lake they were unable 

 to communicate with the inhabitants of a vil- 

 lage, who fled, arousing the whole country, and 

 sought the next day to lead them treacherously 

 into an ambuscade. Coming to another large 

 village, Gessi succeeded, with some difficulty, 

 in holding a conversation with an old man, 

 who informed him, as the natives on the oppo- 

 site shore already had, that he could not pene- 

 trate the forest of ambatch, and that there was 

 no river or waterfall beyond ; that there wera 

 three waterfalls farther up the lake, which dry 

 up in the dry season, and that the waters of the 

 lake never rise or fall. The mountains descend 

 directly to the lake beyond Vacovia on both 

 sides, and are here devoid of large timber. 

 On the return-voyage they were beaten forty 

 miles out of their course by a violent storm. 

 The whole voyage occupied nine days. The 

 greatest width of the lake is reported by Signor 

 Gessi as 60 miles, and its length 141 miles. 



Dr. Emil Holub, a German physician, has 

 made interesting journeys into the interior 

 of South Africa. He started in March, 1875, 

 from Dutoitspan, and, after examining the 

 geological character of the salt-basins between 

 Christiana and Mamusa, he passed up the river 

 Limpopo, and then across by way of Shosheng, 

 northward to the Zambesi, intending to ex- 

 plore that stream to its source. He describes 

 the valley of the Marico, one of the sources of 

 the Limpopo, as the richest portion of the 

 Transvaal Republic, containing lands of the 

 greatest fertility, an extraordinary abundance 

 of animals, and mineral resources of the high- 

 est value. He observed that the salt-pans or 

 lagoons which are connected with the Suga 

 outlet of Lake Ngami, when at certain seasons 

 they are filled by the rising of the Suga, find 

 an outlet by the Shasha tributary of the Lim- 

 popo, thus showing that Lake Ngami and its 

 tributaries far to the west belong to the drain- 

 age system of the Limpopo. 



M. V. Largeau made an important and dan- 

 gerous expedition into the desert of Sahara 

 from Biskra, in Algiers, over a before uiitrav- 



eled route, through the oasis of Tuggurt, to 

 Ghadames, and back to El-Wad, his return- 

 route being about the same as that taken by 

 Duveyrier in 1860. 



An important Italian exploring expedition 

 to Eastern Equatorial Africa, sent for the pur- 

 pose of exploring the country between Shoa 

 and Lake N'yanza, and of deciding the question 

 of the identity of the Godjeb and Juba Rivers, 

 started at the beginning of the year, and have 

 now entered upon their investigations under 

 favorable auspices. The King of Shoa, in an 

 embassage to Italy, in 1872, invited Italian ex- 

 plorers to use his capital as a base of opera- 

 tions, and it was in consequence of this pro- 

 posal that this expedition was dispatched. The 

 party is headed by the Marchese Antonari, the 

 well-known African traveler, accompanied by 

 Captain Sebastiano Martini and the engineer 

 Chiarini. When last heard from, the travelers 

 had reached Shoa with good fortune, where 

 they were hospitably received. 



An important journey into the Nyassa coun- 

 try of Eastern Africa has been accomplished 

 by Bishop Steere. The object of the expedi- 

 tion was to establish a permanent mission at 

 Mataka's capital in the Wahiao country, east 

 of Lake Nyassa. The party, consisting of the 

 bishop, the Rev. C. A. James, and Messrs. 

 Bellville and Beardall, accompanied by Chuma 

 and Susi, Livingstone's attendants, leading 

 twenty Zanzibar porters, set out from Zanzibar 

 toward the end of August, 1875, and landed at 

 Lindy Bay, between Kilwa and the mouth of 

 the Rovuma River. They were delayed until 

 November by the opposition of the coast tribes, 

 and suffered from malaria ; at length, success- 

 fully passing through the coast settlements, 

 which only extended some twelve miles in- 

 land from Lindy Bay, they passed through 

 thick forests and discovered Lake Lutamba, 

 a small lakelet, inclosed by wooded hills, and 

 passed thence for nine days through the set- 

 tlements of the Wa-Mwera, villages finely situ- 

 ated along the foot of a range of hills ; and then, 

 traversing an uninhabited forest and a barren, 

 hilly region, they came to the town of the 

 chief Makochero of the Makao tribe on the 

 Rovuma River. Livingstone visited this chief 

 in 1866, when he was settled at a point beyond 

 the river. These people are subject to attacks 

 from the Gwangwaras and Mavitis. They 

 passed thence beyond the Luatize to their des- 

 tination, Mataka's village of Mwembe, through 

 a country of more irregular aspect, rising into 

 long ranges of round-topped hills, varied with 

 sharp, rocky ridges ; the trees, too, were of 

 different character from those of the Mwera 

 country. Mwembe, estimated by Livingstone 

 at 1,000 houses, lies near a conspicuous moun- 

 tain called Saninga; the elevation of the town, 

 from Bishop Steere's barometrical readings, 

 is considerably higher than Livingstone's esti- 

 mate, 2.700 feet. After remaining here a fort- 

 night, Bishop Steere returned by a different 

 route. The country traversed was in great 



