138 report— 1877. 



rise to greater diversity of opinion respecting their course ; thus, upon the whole, 

 we have a most limited knowledge of Africa, and that little confined almost 

 exclusively to the coast ; in the interior we are nearly as ignorant as we ever 

 were." But this ignorance did not last long. Very soon after this time we find 

 Livingstone crossing Africa from Loanda on the Atlantic to Quillimane, near the 

 mouth of the Zamhesi, exploring the Lakes of Nyami and the Nyassa, discovering 

 the grand and maiestic Victoria Falls, rivalled only by the Niagara. Then come 

 in rapid succession those giants of travel, Burton, Speke, Grant, Baker, and Barth, 

 &c, unveiling to the civilized world the hidden mystery of all historic time, that great 

 equatorial system, Victoria Nyanza, Albert Nyanza,*Tanganyika — inland seas and 

 head-waters of the great Nile. In 1840 Barth, Overweg, and Richardson travelled 

 the desert of Sahara to Timbuctu, and navigated the Lake Chadd, studded with its 

 hundred islands. Almost simultaneously we observe that Rebmann, Krapf, and 

 Van der Deeken start from Mombaz on the east coast in 4° S., and discover the 

 snow-clad mountains of Kilimanjaro and Kenia, which rise to 22,000 feet high 

 between Victoria Nyanza and the Indian Ocean, and are capped with perpetual 

 snow. Of late years the heart of Africa has been traversed by those highly gifted 

 travellers Nachtigal and Schweinfurth, who have collected such ample information 

 on the ethnology, botany, and natural products of vast interior regions previously 

 unexplored. 



Livingstone's last work of enduring toil, after he left England in 1866, was the 

 discovery of the lakes Moero and Banguelo, and following the watercourse of the 

 Lualaba northward to Nyangwe\ Previous to his death he had recrossed the 

 Tanganyika to Ujiji, where he was met by the noble traveller Stanley, who had 

 generously gone to succour him ; but the worn-out traveller and missionary dis- 

 dained to leave his work, and returned to the heart of his new discoveries to end 

 his days. Thanks be to Stanley throughout this land for bringing home to us the 

 last tidings of the great African traveller. Upon the death of Livingstone the 

 public feeling of this country to civilize the African and to develop the productions 

 of the country greatly increased. Under Stanley, Gordon, and Cameron, the great 

 achievement has been attained of navigating the three great lakes. To Colonel 

 Gordon is due the honour of placing a steamboat on the Albert Nyanza, com- 

 pleting the work which the gallant Baker, the discoverer of the lake, had so much 

 at heart. 



But last of all let us accord our tribute of praise to the young naval officer, 

 Lieutenant Cameron, for his marvellous journey, as being the first European who 

 has ever crossed tropical Africa from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, a distance 

 of about 3000 miles, 1200 of which was over new ground never before trodden by 

 white man. The geographical results are highly valuable. He made a survey 

 alone of the southern hall of Lake Taganyika, and gave it a true position, fixing its 

 level at 2710 feet above the sea. From its western shore he discovered an outlet, 

 the Luku<ra. From Lake Tanganyika he plunged into the heart of Africa, nothing 

 daunted by sickness or danger, and without friend or white companion he fol- 

 lowed upon the track of Livingstone to Nyangwe, the last place visited by that 

 great traveller, a town on the Lualaba, which he found to be 1400 feet above the 

 sea, making it 500 feet below Gondokoro, thus setting at rest the idea that the 

 Lualaba was connected with the Nile. From Nyangwe Cameron embarked on the 

 Lualaba, a broad and rapid river flowing westward, in full hope that it woidd 

 prove to be the Congo ; unhappily a hostile chief denied him a passage through 

 his country. Then he directed his steps southward to the capital of Kisongo, 

 whence he discovered that the head-waters of the Lualaba are formed by a system 

 of lakes. After a most adventurous journey under the guidance of an atrocious 

 slave-dealer, who subjected him to many tedious delays and hardships, he reached 

 the shores of the Atlantic near Benguela. On this route he defined the parting water- 

 shed between the basin of the Lualaba and the tributaries of the river Zambesi. 

 Cameron carried on a complete series of hypsometrical measurements across the con- 

 tinent from Bagamoyo to Benguela, a work of great value, showing at a glance a sec- 

 tion of south tropical Africa from ocean to ocean. Another naval officer, Mr. E. D. 

 Young, has also earned distinction as a traveller by exploring the Lake Nyassa, 

 which he found to extend 100 miles further north than Dr. Livingstone had 



