Proceedings of Learned Societies. 303 



Livingstone complained strongly of the inefficiency of the steamer 

 with which he was provided, which was passed by the native canoes. 

 Proceeding inwards they explored an affluent of the Zambesi called 

 the Shire, this winds amongst marshes in a valley 200 miles in 

 length, in one of these they counted at one time 200 elephants; in 

 other parts the population was very large, the men being armed 

 with bows and poisoned arrows. On a second visit they discovered 

 the Manganja, a people not hitherto visited by any Europeans. 

 These savages were described by Dr. Livingstone as being very low 

 in the scale of humanity ; nevertheless, they cultivate the soil,, 

 raising large quantities of maize and dhurra, cassava for tapioca,, 

 ground-nuts for oil, and Indian hemp for smoking, the whole family 

 labouring on their patch of ground, the men skeining the cotton, 

 the women malting the corn for the purpose of making an intoxica- 

 ting beverage, on which they occasionally all get tipsy together. 

 They also possess the capability of extracting iron from its ore, and 

 make excellent hoes very cheaply. Proceeding northward, they 

 discovered the Shire flowing a broad stream to Lake ISTyassa, between 

 ranges of elevated plateaux, cool, and well watered with streams. 

 Dr. Livingstone used his utmost endeavours to induce the various 

 tribes to cultivate cotton for export, as the cotton is of excellent 

 quality, and the plants do not require renewal oftener than once in 

 three years, the locality being asserted by the Doctor to be one of 

 the finest cotton fields in the world. 



Dr. Livingstone's views respecting the method of converting 

 the natives, are of the most sensible and practical character ; he 

 maintains that their bodily wants must be attended to as the basis 

 of all efforts at their elevation. 



Carrying a boat past Murchison's Cataracts, they sailed into 

 Lake Nyassa, a fresh-water lake of great depth, abounding in fish, 

 which the natives catch with nets, hooks/poison, and by spearing by 

 torchlight. Crocodiles also abound, but from the abundance of fish 

 rarely attack men. The lake is between fifty and sixty miles broad, 

 and its length is certainly over 225 miles. Before Dr. Livingstone 

 left for England, the African Portuguese slave-traders had induced 

 the Ajawa tribe, whom they furnished with fire-arms, to be paid for 

 in slaves, to attack the Manganja nation, who are armed only with 

 bows and arrows ; the result was that a panic seized the latter, who 

 fled, leaving all their food behind them, and the starvation of thou- 

 sands ensued, the fertile valley of the Shire becoming literally a 

 valley of dry bones, r unburied skeletons lying in every hut of the 

 deserted villages. Erom the depopulation of the country, Dr. Liv- 

 ingstone was unable to get his steam vessel, which was made in 

 twenty-four detached pieces, for convenience of carriage, conveyed 

 past the Murchison Ealls, and hence the failure of the expedition. 

 But his next attempt will be to pass into the country north of the 

 Portuguese. 



Dr. Miller made some remarks on The Spectra of the 

 Heavenly Bodies, examined by Mr. Huggins, in which he stated 

 that the presence of metals, as evidenced in the light of the planets 

 and some of the heavenly bodies, proved them to be similar to ter- 



