LETTERS FROM DR. KIRK. 393 



"Such was Livingstone's great vigour and audacity in meeting every diffi- 

 culty, that he had not the slightest doubt that he would pursue such a river, if 

 found, and come out on the west coast, where his first expedition terminated, 

 before he recrossed to the Zambesi. In this case, we must not expect to hear 

 from him for twelve or eighteen months. But if, under the hypothesis, which 

 he rather held to, Livingstone found the waters of the Tanganyika flowing 

 into Baker's Lake (the Albert Nyanza), and turned back towards Zanzibar, 

 as most probably he would do, he might be expected in England in- the 

 month of September next. A third hypothesis was, that having since 

 arrived at the Lake of Sir Samuel Baker, he would follow its waters, and come 

 out by the Nile. He had dismissed that hypothesis from his own mind, in 

 consequence of the small force which Livingstone had at his disposal, and the 

 diminished store of goods for presents to give to the Equatorial Kings. 

 Knowing the difficulties which Speke, and Grant, and Baker, had in those 

 countries, he would pause before concluding that he had taken that route, 

 particularly after he had geographically solved the problem. Another reason 

 which operated in his mind against the third hypothesis was, that Livingstone 

 would have to go through the whole of the White Nile region, where the slave 

 trade was carried on to an abominable extent." 



We give Sir Roderick Murchison's remarks in full, because in them we 

 have the different theories as to the course of the waters, whose northward 

 flow Livingstone had struck when he had passed the hill region to the north and 

 west of Nyassa. We shall see, further on, that all these theories were at variance 

 with the conclusions which Dr. Livingstone ultimately arrived at when he 

 found that the main drainage of the vast central valley did not fall into the 

 Tanganyika at all, but passed it many miles to the west of its shores, and 

 flowed northward into unknown regions. 



News reached England early in October that Livingstone was on his way 

 to the coast, and was, at the time of its transmission, within a few miles of 

 Zanzibar, but on the 20th and 23rd, word reached London from Dr. Kirk, 

 that he had letters from him dated from Marenga, a district south, and in the 

 vicinity of Lake Tanganyika, in latitude 7° 55' south, and longitude 30° east, 

 near Ujiji, a district and an Arab station on Lake Tanganyika. This letter 

 was very brief, and had been written in the months of October and December, 

 and gave a satisfactory account for the delay in his progress to the north. He 

 had been living for three months with friendly Arabs, and waiting for the 

 close of a native war before proceeding to Ujiji, and he told the Arab messen- 

 ger, that after exploring Tanganyika, he meant to return to Zanzibar. Dr. 

 Kirk reported, when sending this information, that provisions, medicines, 

 letters, etc., etc., had been sent to Ujiji to meet him, some time previous to 

 the receipt of his letters. 



On the 9th of November, 1868, a short letter from Dr. Livingstone to Dr. 

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