TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 165 



Viceroy of Egypt has so liberally afforded liim, will surely add largely to oiur 

 acquaintance with the vast central and watery region on each side of the equator. 

 A letter which he wrote to me from Ivhartoum in March 1870, stated that, having 

 received in sections, on the backs of camels, all the vessels of his river and lake 

 flotilla from England, as prepared by Mr. Saniuda, he was full of hope and confident 

 of success. Recently, I have received a longer and most interesting letter from him, 

 which will be read at the present Meeting, and which graphically details the diffi- 

 culties over which he has triumphed to the present time. We learn from this 

 etter that Baker, starting from his station on the White Nile, in lat. 9° 26 ', next 

 November, can only reach Gondokoro much later than he anticipated : we have 

 further to reflect upon the fact that after arriving at that place his gi'eat difficulties 

 would commence; for, in the Baii country, peopled by negroes who have been 

 rendered furious and wretched by cruel slave-dealers of various nations, he would 

 also have to transport all his vessels and materials along the right bank of the Nile, 

 where the great stream flows over granitic rapids. He has also to carry all his 

 goods over the Assua River, a great tributary ot the Nile, by a wire or chain bridge, 

 which he had to construct. Having vanquished these obstacles, and having reached 

 that portion of the Nile in which his vessels could be launched, he would then sail 

 up the stream until he reached his own great lake, the Albert Nyanza. This 

 .accomplished, and cheered by his charming and devoted wife, he woidd be 

 thoroughly master of a position wholly unprecedented in the history of African 

 discovery *. 



As I have ah'eady alluded to a very barbarous tract through which he would have 

 to pass, and which was formerly traversed by Speke and Grant, I would observe that 

 it is specially to such tracts that Baker holds instructions from the Khedive to 

 extirpate the cruel slave-dealers who have brought about these horrors by the 

 robbery of their ivory from the natives and the capture of women and children. 

 I specialh' m.ake this allusion, because a mistaken notion had arisen in Egypt that 

 Sir Samuel proceeded on a mission to abolish slavery altogether. Now, <as every 

 Egj-ptian household contains slaves as their only domestic servants, we leamt from 

 our Associate, Lord Houghton, when he visited the Suez Canal, that the Egyptians 

 were much prejudiced against Sir Samuel. But no such Quixotic and, I might 

 say, impossible task has been assigned to Baker, for domestic slavery is ingrained in 

 all parts of Africa as a regular institution of the land. Atrocious and cruel slave- 

 deahng and robbery may, however, be thoroughlyput an end to ; and this my friend 

 has already commenced, through the agency of Egyptian soldiers. Of his energy 

 in these philanthropic measures you will have a pregnant proof in the letter which 

 will be read to you. In this way the poor African serf may be assured that when 

 he sows his grain he will reap a crop at a future day. 



I can well imagine the delight with Avhich Baker will define with his flotilla the 

 western boundary of his great lake, and delineate the course of those lofty moun- 

 tains on its western shore which he had only seen at a great distance in his former 

 journey. We may also picture to ourselves how he would rejoice in exploring wide 

 tracts of that vast unknown interior in which large bodies of water lie, which are 

 supposed to feed the Congo. The point of the compass, however, which will bo 

 first sought by the intrepid A'oyager will, I doubt not, be the southernmost end of 

 the Albert Nyanza, because it is there that he hopes for the happiness of falling in 

 with and relieving his great contemporary Livingstone. 



If, indeed, that indomitable missionary, who unquestionably stands at the head 

 of all African explorers, should succeed in tracing a connexion between the waters 

 of the Tang.anyika Lake, where he was when we last heard from him, and the 

 south end of the Albert Nyanza, why then the meeting of these two remarkable 

 men will be the happiest consummation of our wishes. And if that shoidd be 

 accomplished. Sir Samuel Baker himself will, I doubt not, cheerfully award the 

 greater share of glory to his fellow explorer, who will then liave proved himself to 

 be the real discoverer of the ultimate southern sources of the Nile. 



In waiting for the solution of this great problem I adhere, in the meantime, to 

 the opinion which I previously expressed, that if Livingstone be still at or near 



* I communicated an outline of Sir S. Baker's progress to "The Times' of the 2Gth 

 August. 



