before the a _— May 27, 1867. 15 
Pursuing subject, Mr. Findlay, after a 
-_ n ae ye altitude pe tig of Burton and ae 
e first East African expedition, those of Speke and Gran 
cai the second, and of Baker on his great journey to the Albart 
d a memoir in which be endeavors to prove 
that these various altitudes are not inconsistent with Tangan- 
yika being the furthermost lake of the Nile system, with an exit 
into Albert Nyanza, This important argumentative memoir 
will be read on us at our first meeting after the Anniversary, 
or myself I give no opinion on a question which, like many 
others respecting African geography, can really be “decided by 
positive survey only. Let us, then, trust that Livingstone has 
been enabled to solve this singularly interesting problem. 
In the mean time not believing in ie ia i of Levingstone 
on the sole testimony of one of his ¢ y rers 
who fled, and who has already given ‘different versions of the 
ca tastrophe, I am sure the Society and the public will approve 
of the course I recommended, and in which I was cordially 
supported by the Council, and, to their great credit, by Her 
Majesty’s Government, namely - to send out a boat expedition 
to the head of Lake Nyassa, and thus ascertain the truth. If 
by this exhaustive search we ascertain that, sceptical as we are, 
the noble fellow did fall at that spot where the Johanna man 
said he was killed, why then, alas! at our next anniversary, it 
will be the sad duty of your President, in mourning for his 
loss, to dwell upon the wondrous achievements of his life. ‘Tf, 
on the contrary, we should learn from our own corer, and not 
merely from Arab traders, that he has passed on into the in- 
terior (and this we shall ascertain in six or a ee F 
why then, trusting to the skill and indomitable pluck of Liv- 
ingstone, we may feel assured that, among friendly Negro tribes, 
who know that he is their steadfast friend, he may still realize 
one of the grandest geographical paso of our era, the con- 
nexion of the great Tanganyika with the waters of the Nile 
system. 
But even here I would have my countrymen who are accus- 
tomed to obtain rapid intelligence of distant travellers not to 
ps pad if they should be a year or more without any news of 
ur undaunted friend. For, if he be alive, they must recollect 
that he has with him a small band only of faithful negroes, nO 
one of whom could be to traverse the -— regions be- 
rae Lake Tanganyika and the coast. Until he himself re- 
rs—and how long was he unh of in his first great 
eaweaes of Southern Africa !—we have, theseiecn, little chance 
of knowing the true result of his mission, But if, as I fer- . 
vently pray, he should return to us, with what open arms will 
* 
