104 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



great quantity in pits near the Malagarazi river, 

 and the iron I have already spoken about, could 

 only be of use to the country itself in facilitating 

 traffic, and in maturing its resources. 



It is a singular piece of luck that, with a few 

 pounds' worth of kit, I should, in the course of three 

 weeks, have discovered and brought to light a matter, 

 the importance of which cannot be over-estimated, 

 and on which endless sums have been fruitlessly 

 lavished for ages past by ambitious monarchs, and 

 eager and enterprising governments. Thousands of 

 years, I may say from Ptolemy to the present time, 

 has this inquiry been going on ; and now, so far as the 

 main features and utility of such discovery are con- 

 cerned, it is wellnigh, if not entirely, solved. But 

 out of justice to my commandant, Captain Burton, I 

 must add that the advantages over all other men, 

 under which I accomplished the journey, are solely 

 attributable to him. For I was engaged in organising 

 an expedition in another quarter of the globe when he 

 induced me to relinquish it, by inviting me to co- 

 operate with him in opening up Africa ; and this 

 brought me to Kaze, the starting-point for my 

 separate journey. These fertile regions have been 

 hitherto unknown from the same cause which Dr 

 Livingstone has so ably explained in regard to the 

 western side of Africa the jealousy of the short- 

 sighted people who live on the coast, who, to preserve 

 a monopoly of one particular article exclusively to 



