TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 437 



3. That of the first Milanese Expedition for Commercial Exploration, sent out 

 by a society founded in 1878, with the object of opening up trade in Abyssinia and 

 the Red Sea, under the leadership of Dr. Pellegrino Matteucci, who has entered 

 Tig-re and set out for Debra-Tabor to be personally introduced to the chief, Jo- 

 hannes Kassa, after a stay in Adowa. His plan is to reach Shoa and the Galla 

 country. 



4. The Italian Expedition to Equatorial Africa. This originated in a subscrip- 

 tion promoted three years ago by the Italian Geographical Society, and resulted 

 in the departure in March 1876 of the Marquis Antinori, Engineer Giovanni 

 Chiarini, and Lieutenant Sebastiauo Martini-Bernardi, with the object of pene- 

 trating to Shoa from Zeila, then turning southwards, crossing the Galla country to 

 the Great Lakes, and returning to Zanzibar. At Ilarar, on the way to Shoa, 

 Martini was sent back to Europe for fresh supplies, in consequence of theft ; he 

 reached Italy and set out again in March 1877 with Captain Cenhi and reached 

 Shoa in the following September, finding Antinori to have lost his right hand by a 

 gun accident. Instead of resuming the proposed journey, Martini was once more 

 obliged to go back to Italy, on a mission from King Menilek, who made this a con- 

 dition of his support. This accomplished, he once more started from Italy, in March 

 last, reached Zeila, where he was met by a special caravan sent to bring him to 

 Shoa, and started for the interior in Jury with Count Antonelli and Signor Giu- 

 lietti, Antinori returning home. Meanwhile Chiarini and Cenhi started in May 

 1878 for Kaffa, and were last heard from under date of July 20, 1878, at Demekash 

 in the Guragwe country. Details of the route from Zeila to Shoa and of the phy- 

 sical and other conditions of the country and its inhabitants ; a political history of 

 Shoa, and economical and ethnological accounts of its people and of the Gallas; 

 astronomical determinations of positions ; plans and route-maps, &c, have already 

 been received from this expedition, with many zoological and other collections 

 (more of which are on the road). A station has been granted to the Italians in 

 the valley of the River Mantek, and is already for the greater part brought under 

 cultivation. 



Besides these four expeditions by Italians, it is to be noted that Lieutenant 

 Giacomo Bove has charge of the hydrographic operations and surveys of Professor 

 Nordenskj old's N.E. Arctic Expedition, of which he is a member. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 22. 



The following Papers were read : — 

 1. Journey across Africa from Benguela to Natal. By Major Serpa Pinto. 



Starting from Benguela, on the Atlantic coast, Major Pinto proceeded first to 

 Bihe, a native settlement in the interior, crossing different territories subjectto the 

 King of Portugal, and rectifying the positions of rivers, mountains, and villages, 

 of which the chief, subject to Portuguese authority, are Quillengues and Caconda. 

 In May, 1878, in obedience to the instructions of the Portuguese Government, by 

 whom he was sent to Africa, he left Bihe, accompanied by good native guides, his 

 principal object being to investigate the hydrographical system of the country 

 to the east-south-east of that place, as far as the Zambesi. This country, forming 

 the southern limit of the Benguelan highlands, stands 5,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea, and possesses great advantages in its salubrity and commercial and 

 agricultural capabilities. It is, in fact, of all tropical Africa the territory most 

 suitable for European colonisation. 



