364 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



is given by the Johanna men of their having crossed th'e Rovuma on the return 

 journey ; but they crossed some river beds, at that time dry, with pools of water in 

 them. No doubt one of them was the Rovuma, which could be little more than as 

 described, in the dry season, before the junction of the Loendi, its chief supply. 



" Thus has ended what at one time promised to be an expedition rich in 

 results, and we must pause again in the march of discovery, leaving the map 

 of Africa a disconnected string of lakes, every one of which is incompletely 

 surveyed. Beginning at the north, the Victoria Nyanza is known only at its 

 north and south ends ; the intermediate coast on the west side has not been 

 seen, and the east is entirely hypothetical, beyond the simple fact that it must 

 have limits in that direction. As to the Albert, but a small part is known ; 

 and, like the Tanganyika, its north and south ends are as yet a blank. The 

 southern end, however, is now the only one of interest, on account of the 

 possibility of its uniting with the Tanganyika, and thus moving the Nile 

 sources far to the south, and proving the Portuguese who visited the Cazembe 

 to have been the first to reach them. I do not say that such a thing is pro- 

 bable ; I believe it is not. I suspect, however, that Dr. Livingstone was satisfied 

 the Nyassa did not extend far beyond where he crossed it, if indeed it was the 

 Nyassa that he passed over. His first object, and one of his chief aims, was to 

 determine the extent of the Nyassa westwards, and it is very improbable that 

 he would push on into an unknown and decidedly dangerous land beyond it, 

 leaving this important point unaccomplished. That it was the northern pro- 

 longation of the Nyassa I am decidedly inclined to believe ; for, firstly, the 

 general direction from Ngomana — which was west — would lead him there. It 

 could be none of the southern crossings by which he traversed the lake, for 

 indeed no part of the lake south of latitude 11° S. is shallow. Certainly nowhere 

 could it be crossed in canoes propelled by long bamboos. On the western side, 

 also, there are hills at all the crossings, except at Kota Kota, and there the 

 lake is wide. I believe that Dr. Livingstone first came upon the lake near 

 latitude 10° W., where the lofty mountains which were seen by us further south, 

 on both sides, have subsided. The precipitous rocky borders of the Nyassa, 

 in latitude 1 1°, are too marked a feature to escape the observations of the most 

 obtuse ; and the Johanna men all spoke of the land on both sides as flat, the 

 shores sandy, and the water shallow. . 



"Let me close this very hurried letter, impressing once more on you that 

 the information it contains is the result of an imperfect investigation ; much 

 has still to be elicited, much never will be known. If I disbelieved the story, 

 you know I would be the last to repeat it ; but I do think that substantially, 

 although not in detail, it is correct. " John Kikk." 



On the 26th of January, 1867, Mr. Seward sent a despatch to the Foreign 

 Office, which greatly tended to the fostering of a hope that the great traveller 

 was not murdered, as had been so circumstantially asserted. 



