Chap. XIX. EXTRACT FROM COL. RIGBY'S DESPATCH. 899 



Extract of Despatch from Lieut. -Col. 

 C. P. Rigbt, E. M. Consul and British 

 Agent, Zanzibar, to H. L. Anderson, 

 Esq., Secretary to Government, Bom- 

 bay. 



"British Consulate, Zanzibar, 

 « gjjj " 15ft July, 1860. 



"I have the honour to report, for 

 the information of the Right Hon. the 

 Governor in Council, that Dr. Alhrect 

 Roscher, a gentleman who was sent 

 by His Majesty the King of Bavaria 

 on a scientific mission to E. Africa, 

 was murdered on the 19th of March 

 last, at the village of Kisoongoonee, 

 three days' journey to the north-east 

 of Lake Nyassa." 



****** 



After some information bearing on 

 Dr. Roscher's other movements, the 

 despatch proceeds : — 



" 4. He again left Zanzibar in June, 

 1859, to explore the great lake of 

 Nyassa, and, having joined a caravan 

 at Keelwa, started from that part on 

 the 24th of August last, and reached 

 the Lake on the 19th of November, 

 being the first white man who has 

 ever reached its shores." 



[The reason of Col. Rigby's mis- 

 take was, that sufficient time had not 

 elapsed for the news of our discovery 

 of Nyassa to reach him at Zanzibar ; 

 nor was it then known that the Lake 

 Dr. Roscher and we had both visited 

 was one and the same. It does not in 

 the least detract from the honour due 

 to Dr. Roscher for reaching the Lake 

 by a path totally distinct from ours, 

 that others had preceded him in the 

 discovery ; but, for the sake of accu- 

 racy, it is necessary to produce the 

 grounds on which the precedence in 



the exploration is claimed by the Eng- 

 lish.] 



" He was in very bad health when 

 he left Zanzibar, and became so weak 

 on the journey, that he was carried in 

 a cot all the latter part of it. 



" He remained at Nussewa, on the 

 borders of the Lake, nearly four 

 months. On the 16th of March last 

 he left Nussewa to go to the River 

 Rovuma, which is crossed about twelve 

 days' journey from Lake Nyassa on 

 the road to Keelwa. He evidently in- 

 tended to return to the Lake from the 

 Rovuma, as he left nearly all his bag- 

 gage in charge of the Sultan of Nus- 

 sewa, and was only accompanied by 

 two negro-servants and two porters 

 for his luggage, viz., one man and one 

 woman." 



The despatch is long and full of 

 details and depositions. Dr. Roscher's 

 friend Kingomanga, the Sultan of 

 Nussewa, lives three days from the 

 Lake, and probably opposite KotaTtota 

 Bay, or even further south, and is of 

 the Waiao tribe. 



The depositions of the natives are 

 very interesting, as they show con- 

 clusively that Roscher heard of us. 

 Colonel Rigby thinks that Dr. Roscher 

 had been told of the trip we had made 

 to Shirwa, or as he writes it Kirwa, 

 " where," he remarks, " the natives of 

 Nussewa go for salt." But it is more 

 likely that he heard of our arrival at 

 the southern end of Nyassa where the 

 Shire flows from it, where there are 

 immense salt washings, and where we 

 came in contact with a party of coast 

 Arabs who fled by night, and would 

 take the road through the Ajawa 

 country in which Roscher arrived 

 two months later. 



