TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 109 



mth valuable results. The importance of exploratious was never more fundblv 

 exemplified than in the present instance, when a war is about to commence in a 

 wild country of which the military authorities are utterly ignorant, and solelv de- 

 pendent upon the accounts of private travellers. In Asia, we have to remark 'uidou 

 the extraordinary progress by the Russians in geograpliical enterprize, who by their 

 settlements in Manchm-ia and explorations of the Khiuka Lake, and the navio-able 

 rivers Usuri and Anioor, are laying the foundations for the future development of 

 that hitherto neglected portion of the world. When we regard the vigorous steps 

 that have been adopted by Eussia in Northern iVsia, we turn with increased atten- 

 tion to the energetic appeal of General Sir Arthur Cotton for an exploration of that 

 unknown land between the Burhampooter and the Yang-tze, with a view to open 

 a free communication between India, with its 200 millions, and China, with its 400 

 millions of inhabitants. In America we devote increased attention to inter-oceanic 

 communication across the Isthmus, upon which interesting subject papers will be 

 read before this Association by Lieutenant Oliver, on a recent exploration of a new 

 route across Nicaragua, under the direction of that well-known and enero-etic ex- 

 plorer, Captain Bedford Pirn. 



No striking geographical feat has been performed by England during the present 

 year ; but the anxiety not only of geographers but of Englishmen of^'all classes is 

 painfully keen upon a subject of uni-^ersal interest — the reported death of Dr. 

 Livingstone. It is well known that this eminent traveller was engaged in an 

 important exploration, with the intention of determining the watershed of Eastern 

 equatorial Africa. His object was to prove by actual inspection whether the 

 Nj'assa, from which the Shire flows to the Zambesi, was fed by a river from the 

 north ; he was then to reach the Tanganika Lake of Burton and Speke, and prove 

 whether a river issued from that lake towards the south, or whether some river 

 fed that lake from the south ; he was tlien to navigate the Tanganika to its 

 northern extremity, and prove whether it was fed by a river fronAhe north, or 

 whether it communicated with the Albert N'yanza. With this gTeat iournev 

 before him. Dr. Livingstone had reached and crossed over the northern portion of 

 the Nyassa, which appears to have been so shallow that the canoes were poled 

 across a sandy bed ; this would suggest the existence of some tributary of the 

 northern extremity of the lake that in annual floods had brouo-ht down the 

 deposit. 



Upon arrival on the western shore, he found himself in the hostile country of 

 the Mazite, and during the march, a few days later, the party was suddenly 

 attacked and overpowered. 



By the report of nine Johanna men and their leader, Moosa, who, after great diffi- 

 culties, returned to Zanzibar, it appears that Livingstone killed two of his'^issailants 

 but was himself struck down by the blow of an axe on the back of the neck! 

 Moosa and the Johanna men had concealed themselves in a thicket, but after dark 

 they ventured to the scene of the recent conflict, and discovered the body of Liv- 

 ingstone with those of several of their own party and two of the enemy. They 

 scraped a hole in the earth and buried the body of our lamented traveller. 



This happened in about August 1866; we have therefore been twelve montlis 

 without further tidings. There are some persons (among others, my hio-hly 

 honoured and much-loved friend Sir Roderick Murchison) who still cling tortile 

 hope that Livingstone is alive, and that the story of the Johanna men is false and 

 merely a lame excuse for the desertion of tiieir master. ' 



The fate of Livinostoue, our common friend, of whom we are all justly proud, is 

 so intensely interesting, that I may be excused for expressing my gloomy opinion : 

 I believe him to be dead. 



Those who still hope, cling to the fact that the Johanna men are renowned as 

 liars, and that they have trumped up a story to excuse their return. It is this very 

 fact of their power of consummate lying that convinces me of the substantial truth 

 of their statement. Natives are scientific liars ; they do not lie absurdly, like Euro- 

 peans, but they concoct their falsehoods with such forethought, that the lie itself is 

 an example of profound skill. No native, that I have ever seen, would commit him- 

 self to so inartistic a lie as to declare to be dead a man who is still alive, who would 

 become a witness at a future time against him. Shoidd natives intend to desert 



