VI THE LATE GEORGE FREDERICK RUXTON. 



nations toward the interior, as also of the nature of the chmate, 

 that he has the most sanguine hopes of being able to penetrate to 

 the central region, if not of traversing it to the Portuguese colo- 

 nies of Mozambique. If this be accomplished, then indeed will 

 Lieutenant Ruxton have acquired for himself a permanent name 

 among British travelers, by making us acquainted with the 

 nature of the axis of the great continent of which we possess the 

 southern extremity." 



In pursuance of this hazardous scheme, Ruxton, with a single 

 companion, landed on the coast of Africa, a little to the south 

 of Ichaboe, and commenced his journey of exploration. But it 

 seemed as if both nature and man had combined to baffle the 

 execution of his design. The course of their travel lay along a 

 desert of moving sand, where no water was to be found, and 

 little herbage, save a coarse tufted grass, and twigs of the resin- 

 ous myrrh. - The immediate place of their destination was 

 Angra Peguena, on the coast, described as a frequented station, 

 but which in reality was deserted. One ship only was in offing 

 when the travelers arrived, and, to their inexpressible mortifica- 

 tion, they discovered that she was outward bound. No trace 

 was visible of the river or streams laid down in the maps as 

 falling into the sea at this point, and no resource was left to 

 the travelers save that of retracing their steps — a labor for which 

 their strength was hardly adequate. But for the opportune 

 assistance of a body of natives, who encountered them at the 

 very moment when they were sinking from fatigue and thirst, 

 Buxton and his companion would have been added to the long 

 catalogue of those whose lives have been sacrificed in the attempt 

 to explore the interior of that fatal country. 



