146 REPORT—1862. 
plexity of development which characterize the Caucasian brain; and hence the 
reason why the yazecunenee Rp cm differs from and so far surpasses the small- 
brained savage in the complexity of his manifestations, both intellectual and moral. 
In conclusion, he observed that the leading characters of the various races of man- 
kind have been maintained to be simply representatives of a particular type in the 
development of the highest or Caucasian; the Negro exhibiting permanently the 
imperfect brow, projecting lower jaw, and slender bent limbs of the Caucasian child 
some considerable time before its birth, the aboriginal Americans representing the 
same child nearer birth, and the Mongolian the same newly born. 
Exploration dans V Afrique centrale, de Serre-Leone a Alger, par Timbuctu. 
By Sores GERARD. 
On leaving Sierra Leone, the author proposed to visit the source of the Niger, 
and also to visit the Republic of Liberia, He should then make for the Kong 
Mountains, between which district and Timbuctoo a different race of natives was 
found. He did not propose to travel with a caravan, but with the tribes of the 
district. At Timbuctoo, or Ain Saleh, he hoped to discover the papers and journals 
of Major Laing, the African traveller, who was assassinated near Timbuctoo, The 
author expressed a confident belief that these papers were still in existence, since 
the natives of the interior had almost a superstitious veneration for written cha- 
racters, and treasured the most worthless scraps until long after they were illegible, 
His route would be through a country possessing a double interest, both geogra- 
phical and ethnological, ‘The journey was long and perilous; but he had weighed 
the difficulties of the route, and confidently expected to make his way from Sierra 
Leone to Algeria in safety. 
A Letter from Dr. Lrvrnestone, communicated by Sir Roderick Murchison. 
 Shupanga, River Zambesi, April 29, 1862. 
“My dear Sir Roderick Murchison,—With a sore, sore heart I must tell you of 
the loss of my much-loved wife, whose form was laid in the grave yesterday 
morning. She died in Shupanga-house on the evening of the ath, after about 
seven days’ illness. I must confess that this heayy stroke quite takes the heart 
out of me. Everything else that has happened only made me more determined to 
overcome; but with this sad stroke I feel crushed and void of strength. Only three 
short months of her society after four years’ separation! I married her from love, 
and the longer I lived with her I loved her the more. A good wife, and a good, 
kind, brave-hearted mother was she, and deserved all the praises you bestowed on 
her at our parting dinner, for teaching her own, and the native children too at 
Kolobeng. q try to bow to the blow as from our Heavenly Father, who orders all 
things for us. Some may afford to be stoical, but I should not be natural if I did 
not shed many tears over one who so deserved them. I neyer contemplated expo- 
sing her in the lowlands. I proposed that the Nyassa steamer should sail out, and 
on reaching Kongone cut wood and steam up the river, This involved but a few 
days in the lowlands; but another plan was preferred. She Abs e. the steamer) came 
in pieces in a brig. Gladly accepting the kind offer of Captain Wilson, of her 
Majesty’s ship ‘Gorgon,’ to help us up to the Murchison cataracts, we found by a 
month’s trial that the state in which the engines were precluded ascending the 
Shire with the pieces on board the ‘Pioneer.’ We were forced to put her together 
at Shu ange, and we have been three months, instead of three or four days, down 
here. Had my plan been adhered to—but why express useless regrets? All had 
been done with the best intentions. But you must remember how I hastened the 
first party away from the Delta, and tho h I saved them, got abused for breaking 
the Sabbath. Then I prevented Bishop Mackenzie’s party landing at all, till these 
same unhealthy months were past, and no one meriahee until the bishop came down 
to the unhealthy lowlands pa died. The Portuguese have taken advantage of the 
sanitary knowledge we have acquired, and send their teté at once. They lost but 
two of a detachment, while formerly, by keeping them at Quillimane and Senna, 
nearly all were cut off. 
“T shall do my duty still, but it is with a darkened horizon I set about it, Mz. 
