1867.] Geography and Ethnology. 585 



On Friday Sir Eoderick Murchison's promised exposition of his 

 views respecting Livingstone's fate, attracted a crowded audience 

 and excited much interest. He went over a great deal of ground, 

 giving a general sketch of the discoveries of Burton, Speke, and 

 Baker, and arguing that on general grounds it was not likely that 

 a man like Livingstone, who had gone across Africa on foot, with 

 no assistance except from natives, should fail on an expedition 

 in which he was assisted by Government and backed by the Boyal 

 Geographical Society. This argument, however, is transparently 

 weak (since no precautions can guard a man in a strange country 

 from the attacks of the natives), and Sir Eoderick therefore lays 

 most stress on the known bad character of Moussa, the Johanna 

 man, who is the sole witness to the fact of Livingstone's murder, 

 and on his having given two inconsistent versions of the story. Sir 

 Samuel Baker, on the other hand, whose knowledge of African 

 character and habits can hardly be disputed, admits that Moussa, 

 like most natives, is a great liar, but says that it is for this very 

 reason he believes him. The paradox is easily explained. The 

 natives are skilful and artistic liars, and one of the canons of their • 

 art is, never to tell a he of which you may be any day convicted. 

 No native would ever run away from his European master, and 

 exculpate himself by saying he saw him murdered, because the very 

 next day or week his master might return and convict him of a lie, 

 as well as of cowardly desertion. From the nature of the country 

 and the character of its inhabitants, the fact of a traveller being 

 murdered by them is in itself probable, and when his chief native 

 guide says he saw it done, the evidence is to be relied on, because 

 it would be too inartistic and easily disproved a falsehood for a clever 

 native to be guilty of. 



The only other papers that were of any interest this day were 

 those on Palestine, by Captain Wilson, of the Palestine Exploration 

 Fund, Lieutenant Anderson, and the Eev. H. B. Tristram; but 

 they contained little matter of note beyond an account of the pro- 

 gress in mapping the country round Jerusalem, and the discovery 

 of some fine architectural remains, and the system of aqueducts by 

 which the city was supplied with water. 



On Saturday Mr. Crawfurd did his best to supply both instruc- 

 tion and amusement to those who did not go on the excursions, by 

 reading three papers, all of which excited some discussion. The 

 first was on the Antiquity of Man, and was a resume of the main 

 arguments on this subject, interspersed with Mr. Crawford's peculiar 

 views on language and on the dependence of man's mental and 

 physical condition on the country he inhabits. He adverted to the 

 evidence of a high civilization at a very early period afforded by 

 the pyramids of Egypt, which the best authors considered to be 

 more than 5,000 years old ; to the unknown antiquity of the distaff 



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