A THEORETICAL GEOGRAPHER. 399 



wide, with 300 yards of flood on its west bank, so deep, we had to keep to the 

 canoes, till within fifty yards of the higher ground, then four brooks from 

 five to fifteen yards broad. One of them, the Chungu, possesses a somewhat 

 melancholy interest, as that on which poor Dr. Lacerda died. . . He was 

 the only Portuguese visitor who had any scientific education, and his latitude 

 of Cazembe's town on the Chungu being 50 miles wrong, probably reveals that 

 his mind was clouded with fever when he last observed ; and any one who 

 knows what that implies, will look upon his error with compassion. 

 The Chungu went high on the chest, and we had to walk on tiptoe to avoid 

 swimming. As I crossed all these brooks at both high and low water, I ob- 

 served the difference to be from fifteen to eighteen inches, and from all the per- 

 ennial streams, the flood is a clear water. The state of the rivers and the 

 country made me go in the lightest marching order. I took nothing but the 

 most necessary instruments, and no paper except a couple of note-books and 

 the Bible. On unexpectedly finding a party going to the coast, I borrowed a 

 piece of paper from an Arab, and the effects, unavoidable in the circumstances, 

 you will kindly excuse. Only four of my attendants would come here ; the 

 others, on various pretences, absconded. The fact is, they are all tired of this 

 everlasting tramping ; and so verily am I. Were it not for an inveterate 

 dislike to give in to difficulties, without doing my utmost to overcome them, 

 I would abscond too. I comfort myself by the hope that by making the coun- 

 try and the people better known, I am doing good ; and by imparting a little 

 knowledge occasionally, I may be working in accordance with the plans of an 

 all-embracing Providence, which now forms part of the belief of all the more 

 intelligent of our race : my efforts may be appreciated in good times coming 

 yet." 



After speaking of the care which he had always taken to give the position 

 of places with the utmost accuracy, and the compliments paid to the success 

 with which he had done this on the Zambesi and the Shire by scientific men, 

 he says: — "Well, it is not very comforting, after all my care and risk of 

 health, and even of life, it is not very inspiriting to find 200 miles of lake 

 tacked on to the north-west end of Nyassa ; and then 200 miles perched up 

 on the upland region, and passed over some 3,000 feet higher than the rest of 

 the lake 1 We shall probably hear that the author of this feat in fancyo- 

 graphy claims therefrom to be considered a theoretical discoverer of the 

 sources of the Nile." After stating several instances in which his positions 

 had been unwarrantably changed, he says, " The desecration my positions 

 have suffered, is probably unknown to the Council ; but that is all the more 

 reason why I should adhere to my resolution to be the guardian of my own 

 observations until publication. I regret this, because the upsetting of a canoe, 

 or any accident happening to me, might lead to the entire loss of the disco- 

 veries. My borrowed paper is done, or I should have given a summary of 



