28 LiJ\' and Lrttfrx of Francis GaJtnn 



We c«n here only affoni space for one letter ol" interest, that from Speke of 

 February 26th, 18()3; it indicates the growing feeling bet\vi>en Speke and 

 Burton and at the same time the ditiiculties that Galton had to encounter. 



" (My report* will be oent fniin Kh«r-> Oonimkoro 26 Fehrtuiry /63 

 \ toiim as soon as we arrive there. / (to be posted on arrival at [Khartoum'.] 



14' 30' N. Ijit. Head winds koi^) us hack.) 



27 MareJi. 



Mv IlKAK (•ALTON 



Pi'llifrick Las shown uie a paper of tlie H. G. Society by which I infer you wruti! me a 

 letter Kuspocting the V. N'yanra to l)e tlie source of the Congo or perhaps one of l)u Chaillu's 

 rivers In-cause a river was made to run both in and out of it. I fear you did not riM^eive the 

 letter I wrote from Madeira after reading Burton's journal in the Society's volumes, else you 

 could not have supposed so, for iu addition to the fact that eiteri/ Arab knew the 'Kiuiva' 

 river ran out of the Lake and told us they supposed the I^ake to be the source of the Jul), every 

 Arab had heard of the vessels on the Nile thou^;h l?urt<in tried to hide these matters from the 

 public: I suppose lo excuse himself for not visitiiij; the N'yanza. I can only say it is a pity my 

 geographical papers read before the Society were not put into tlie Society's Journal in preference 

 to Burton's papers, which were not retui and therefore not commented on, for that alone has put 

 everybody wrong. Burton's geography wa.s merely a copy of my unfinished original maps, left 

 open until I reached England for further information. Burton wanted me to instruct him, 

 acknowledging that he knew nothing of the typographical filatures of a country. He could not 

 have written one word unless I had instructed him, but he gave up his lessons too soon, imagined 

 largely on the nucleus I gave him and fell into error accordingly. — You will find all the infor- 

 mation you require ujxtn this journey in my reports, so I will now open a new project to you 

 for crossing Africa from Kast to West following as clo.se as possible u|K)n the line of the Equator; 

 for unles.s 1 do it, it will not Ix; done this century. It can be done easily enough on a large scale 

 and with a power of money, but not aa I have lieen travelling at the beck and call of every chief 

 that falls in the way. Thi^ is the sum total of my requirements, provided the Uovt. is enlightened 

 enough to accept it, which is doubtful we know ; Four men of science as captains to 400 negroes, 

 half Crue men from the Weat Coast, and the other half from Zanzilwr, all hands Ut be furnished 

 with carbines. I should then want a ve.ssel to visit Venice and pick up boats, pa.ss round the 

 West Coast for Crue men, and continue to Zanzibar where the vessel would wait until I com- 

 menced the march and then return by the Cape to the mouth of the Congo, where it would 

 await my arrival and convey the 400 men to their respective homes. But this is not all, for I 

 should require another vessel to go up the Nile and form a dep'it at Gondokoro. The rest you 

 can imagine. With one word more, I will close ni}' letter and I tell it to you as an overseer to 

 the Society — I firmi)' l)elieve I should have reached this one year ago and at ^ less expense, if 

 my proji-cts for the journey had been promptly att^-nded to. I asked for leave and money 12 

 months before starting in onler that I might form two Depots in the interior, but 1 neither got 

 my leave nor the money until 2 months or so Ijefore I startetl, and therefore could only form 

 one Depot in advance. That has been the root of my disasters and delay — but 'all's well that 

 ends well,' and there is an end of it, oidy let the warning be a caution for the future. How 1 

 should have rejoiced to receive your letter, but nothing has reached me, not even a letter of 

 advice from Kigby, which announced the departure of some letters and a host of delicacies sent 

 by kind friend Kigby. And now old Galt<jn with Grant's Insit wishes and my own to yourself 

 and Wife, believe me 



Yam's ever sincerely H. Spkkk. 



P.B. I have sent a map and several papers as 1 shall not be home in time to contribute to 

 this year's Journal and I fancy it important this should have an early issue." 



Let us pity "old Galton" as he read of those 400 men, each to be 

 furnished with a carbine! That great journey, which would have antedated 



' Delete»l. 



