390 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOE. 



the marsh lands and tangled jungle by the river-side, combined 

 with the intense heat of the climate, proved fatal to the success 

 of the expedition. Fever broke out among the crews of the 

 vessels, and they were compelled to return and abandon the 

 enterprise after going northwards up the stream as far as Egga, 

 a large and populous town on the right bank of the Niger, about 

 325 miles from the sea, measuring in a direct line from the 

 mouth of the river Nun, the principal channel by which the 

 waters of the Niger enter the Gulf of Guinea. 



Since that period the most notable journeys of exploration 

 that have been undertaken on the rrestern side of Africa have 

 been the travels of M. Paul B. du Chaillu in 1856-59 in the 

 equatorial tract watered by the Gaboon Eiver, in which is the 

 country of the cannibal Fans and the powerful gorilla ; and in 

 1863-4 in Ashango Land and the country of the Ashiras, 

 where he met with a race of dwarf negroes measuring from four 

 feet to four feet and a-half in height, and having skin of a light- 

 brown colour. 



In 1845-46 the great desert Sahara, which forms the barren 

 centre of Northern Africa, bordered on the north and south by 

 a broad fringe of fertile country, teeming with luxuriant vege- 

 tation, was explored by James Richardson, who visited the 

 Touaricks and other wandering tribes of the people of Sahara, 

 and has given a full account of the cities of Ghat, Ghadames, 

 and Mourzuk, and the fruitful, well- watered oases in which they 

 stand. In 1849 he again set out to explore Central Africa, as 

 the leader of an expedition fitted out by the Foreign Office. To 

 this expedition Drs. Earth and Overweg were attached. Having 

 reached Tripoli towards the close of the year, they spent some 

 time in making the necessary preparations for the journey, 

 starting on their passage across the Sahara on March 23, 1850. 

 In the fall of the year they reached Damergu, and at this point 

 they separated, each traveller to pursue his explorations alone, 

 and to meet his companions once more at Kukawa, the capital 

 of Bornou, in the following year. Richardson died on his way 

 thither, at Unguratura, and Earth and Overweg were left to 

 continue their explorations alone. This tkey did with consider- 

 able success, but often at great personal risk, exploring Lake 

 Tchad and the rivers Shary and Yeou that enter it on the south 

 and west, and traversing Bornou, Baghirmi, Kanem, and- other 

 districts that lie grouped around the lake. On September 27, 

 1852, Dr. Overweg died, and Dr. Barth proceeded by way of 

 Sockatoo to Timbuctoo, which he reached on September 7,1853. 

 Here he remained until May in the following year, making 

 inquiries into the resources, commerce, and statistics of the sur- 

 rounding country, when he quitted the city, in which ho had 

 spent eight months, and travelling along the left bank of the 

 Nigar as far as Say, he made his way once more by Sockatoo to 

 Kukawa, and thence across the desert to Tripoli, arriving in 

 England in 1855, after an absence of six years. A young 

 German, Dr. Edward Vogcl, who was sent out in 1853 to join 

 Dr. Barth, was not so fortunate. He did not fall in with Dr. 

 "Earth, and while pursuing his explorations in Waday, a district 

 lying to the east of Lake Tchad, he is supposed to have been 

 assassinated by order of the Sultan of that country. 



Few travels in Africa, in the present century, have been 

 attended with such important results, by way of extension of 

 our geographical knowledge of that continent, as the journeys of 

 Dr. Livingstone in South Africa, from 1849 to the present time, 

 although it may be many years before our trade and commerce 

 may derive any perceptible benefit by the establishment of com- 

 mercial relations with the natives of those countries through 

 which he has passed. Some years previous to commencing his 

 explorations Dr. Livingstone had been residing at Kolobeng, on 

 one of the head-streams of the river Limpopo, as a missionary 

 among the Bechuanas ; and his visit to Lake Ngami. in 1849, 

 seems to have created in him that zest for travel which has led 

 him to traverse so largo a portion of South Africa on foot, 

 undeterred by the perils that beset the explorer on all sides, or 

 the long years that he must frequently pass without meeting a 

 single human being who speaks the same language, or is even of 

 the same colour as himself. Two years afterwards he pushed 

 his way northwards as far as Linyanti, the chief city of the 

 district inhabited by the Makololo, situated on the Chobe, one 

 of the southern affluents of the river Zambesi. On his return 

 from this journey he determined to send his wife and children to 

 England, and having accompanied them as far as Cape Town he 

 Once more turned his steps towards the interior. Starting 1 from 



Linyanti in June, 1853, accompanied by Sekeletu, the chief of 

 the Makololo, and a number of his people, Dr. Livingstone pro- 

 ceeded to explore the upper course of the Zambesi, which is 

 called the Leeambye above the Victoria Falls, a cataract not far 

 from its junction with the Chobe. In his first journey from 

 Linyanti he went northwards as far as the junction of the Leeba 

 and the Leeambye, passing on his way Nariele, the chief town of 

 the Barotse. In his second expedition from Linyanti, in Novem- 

 ber, 1853, he ascended the Leeba, reaching its source, a small 

 lake called Dilolo, in February, 1854. This lake is also one of 

 the sources of the river Congo, or Zaire, whose principal head- 

 stream is the Kasai. From this point Livingstone struck out 

 in a north-west direction for St. Paul do Loanda, on the west 

 coast of Africa, which ho reached at the end of May. 



Leaving St. Paul de Loanda at the commencement of autumn, 

 and following the course of the Coanza for a considerable dis- 

 tance, Livingstone and his party of Makololo arrived once more 

 in the neighbourhood of Lake Dilolo in June, 1855, and reached. 

 Linyanti in the following September. From this point he 

 resolved to make his way down the course of the Zambesi to the 

 coast, and he started on his new journey on November 3, 1855, 

 and arrived at Quilimane, on the north mouth of the river, in 

 May, 1856, after travelling for nearly four years through the- 

 heart of Southern Africa from coast to coast. 



Dr. Livingstone then repaired to England, but after a brief 

 rest he returned to Africa once more, to take command of an 

 expedition that had been set on foot for the purpose of exploring- 

 more thoroughly the country watered by the Zambesi and its 

 tributaries. In this expedition he was accompanied by his 

 brother, Charles Livingstone, Dr. Kirk, Mr. Thornton, Mr. T, 

 Baines, and other Europeans. The chief result of their explora- 

 tions was the discovery of the lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, from 

 the latter of which issues the river Shire, one of the northern 

 tributaries of the Zambesi. After traversing the country 

 watered by the Shire, and proceeding up the stream of the 

 Zambesi as far as Victoria Falls, an attempt was made to explore 

 the Rovuma, a river a little to the north of Capo Delgado, which 

 failed. A second attempt to ascend the river in September, 

 1861, was more successful, some rocky rapids being reached,, 

 about 160 miles from the mouth of the river, which prevented 

 further progress. After spending some time in retracing his 

 steps over districts that ho had already traversed, Dr. Living- 

 stone returned to England in 1864. 



While Livingstone had been busily engaged in South Africa,, 

 other travellers, as we will show presently, had discovered the 

 large fresh-water lakes Albert Nyanza and Victoria Nyanza on 

 the equator, and Lake Tanganyika, the northern extremity of 

 which is about 100 miles to the south of the first named of 

 these lakes. As it is doubtful whether Lake Tanganyika may 

 not be the most southern of the great reservoirs which dis- 

 charge their surplus waters into the Mediterranean through the 

 channel of the Nile, Dr. Livingstone set out on another expedi- 

 tion in order to discover whether this were really the case or 

 not, and to explore the country between Lakes Nyassa and Tan- 

 ganyika, leaving the coast on his way inland in March, 1866. In 

 the following year some deserters from his party spread a report, 

 that he had been murdered on the west side of LaJ :e Nyassa, 

 near its northern extremity. The researches of an expedition 

 sent out from England for the purpose of making in< uiries into 

 his fate, have disproved the assertions of the men vrho aban- 

 doned him ; and it is possible that the traveller has been en- 

 gaged in exploring the coasts of Lake Tanganyika and , 'ollowing 

 the course of the Nile northwards from its southernmost head- 

 stream through the chain of huge lakes that form such conspi- 

 cuous features of the country in Eastern Equatorial Africa. 



In 1854, about the time when Livingstone was at St. Paul de 

 Loanda, the first of a series of journeys was taken, that resulted 

 in the discovery of the great lakes about which we have just 

 been speaking. This was an expedition to Harar, a town in Lhe 

 country of the Somauli, about 200 miles south-west, as the crow- 

 flies, from Berbera, on the south coast of the Gulf of Aden. 

 The party was composed of Lieutenant (now Major) Burton, of 

 the Indian army, Captain Speke, the discoverer of the Lake 

 Victoria Nyauza, and Lieutenants Stroyan and Herne. A few 

 days after their return to Berbera, in 1855, they were attacked 

 by a party of Somauli, and in the conflict Stroyan was killed 

 and Captain Speke severely wounded. 



This, however, did not prevent Burton and Speke from prose- 



