500 DISCOVERY FORESTALLED. Chap. XXV. 



come over in canoes, and receive the goods sent by Moffat to 

 "Nake," the Makololo replied, "Go along with yon, we know 

 better than that; how could he tell Moffat to send his things 

 here, he having gone away to the north?" The Matebele 

 answered, " Here are the goods ; we place them now before you, 

 and if you leave them to perish, the guilt will be yours." When 

 they had departed, the Makololo thought better of it, and, after 

 much divination, went over with fear and trembling, and earned 

 the packages carefully to an island in the middle of the stream ; 

 then, building a hut over them to protect them from the weather, 

 they left them ; and there I found they had remained from 

 September, 1854, till September, 1855, in perfect safety. Here, 

 as I had often experienced before, I found the news was very 

 old, and had lost much of its interest by keeping, but there 

 were some good eatables from Mrs. Moffat. Amongst other 

 things, I discovered that my friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, 

 while in his study in London, had arrived at the same conclusion 

 respecting the form of the African continent as I had lately come 

 to, on the spot (see note p. 475) ; and that, from the attentive 

 study of the geological map of Mr. Bain and other materials, 

 some of which were furnished by the discoveries of Mr. Oswell 

 and myself, he had not only clearly enunciated the peculiar 

 configuration as an hypothesis in his discourse before the 

 Geographical Society in 1852, but had even the assurance to 

 send me out a copy for my information ! There was not much 

 use in nursing my chagrin at being thus fairly " cut out," by the 

 man who had foretold the existence of the Australian gold before 

 its discovery, for here it was, in black and wlnte. In his easy- 

 chair he had forestalled me by three years, though I had been 

 working hard through jungle, marsh, and fever, and, since the 

 light dawned on my mind at Dilolo, had been cherishing the 

 pleasing delusion that I should be the first to suggest the idea, 

 that the interior of Africa was a watery plateau of less elevation 

 than flanking hilly ranges. 



Having waited a few days at Sesheke till the horses winch we 

 had left at Linyanti should arrive, we proceeded to that town, 

 and found the waggon and everything we had left in November, 

 1853, perfectly safe. A grand meeting of all the people was 

 called to receive our report, and the articles which had been sent 



