630 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



and able to sail over any lake in Central Africa. I ought to state here that I 

 do not blame Mr. Messenger for sending me such unmanageable sections, so 

 much as I blame myself for not stopping over another month in England, to 

 watch the construction of so great a novelty as this kind of boat must neces- 

 sarily be to a Thames boat-builder. As this expedition is for a different 

 purpose from the former one in which I discovered Livingstone, I am well 

 provided with the usual instruments which travellers who intend to bring 

 home results that will gratify scientific societies, take with them. I have 

 chronometers, sextants, artificial horizons, compasses, beam and prismatic ; 

 pedometers, aneroid barometers, and thermometers ; Nautical Almanacs for 

 three years, hand leads, and one thousand fathoms sounding line, with a very 

 complete little reel, mathematical instruments, a planisphere, and a complete 

 and most excellent photographic apparatus, and a large stock of dry plates. 

 I have also half-a-dozen good time-pieces, silver and gold, blank charts, and 

 all the paraphernalia and apparatus necessary to obtain satisfactory geographic 

 observations. 



" The East Coast of Africa, from the mouth of the Juba River to that 

 of the Rovuma, possesses hundreds of good starting-points for the unexplored 

 interior ; but the best, for many reasons, is Bagamoyo. The present expedi- 

 tion is a large and costly one, and promises so far to be the best organised 

 and best equipped of any that ever left the sea-coast of East Africa for the 

 purpose of exploration ; therefore it would be a great pity if it were wrecked 

 or ruined just as it began to set out to fulfil its mission. To guard against 

 the possibility of such a sad collapse, I have, after much deliberation, decided 

 to start from Bagamoyo, and to proceed some distance along the well-known 

 caravan path, so as to give confidence to my men, and withdraw them as 

 much as possible from the temptation to desert, and afterwards to plunge 

 northward into the Masai Land — a country as yet untrodden by white men, 

 and of the state of which the best-informed among us are totally ignorant. 

 It will be a risky undertaking, but not half so dangerous as starting for that 

 region from some unknown seaport My present intention is then to make my 

 way westward to the Victoria Nyanza, and ascertain whether Speke's or 

 Livingstone's hypothesis is the correct one — whether the Victoria Nyanza 

 consists of one lake or five. All the most important localities will be fixed by 

 astronomical observations ; and whether the Victoria Lake consists of one or 

 many pieces of water, we shall discover it by complete circumnavigation. 

 "When this work is finished, I intend to visit Mtesa or Rumanika, and then 

 cross over to the Lake Albert Nyanza, and endeavour to settle how far Baker 

 is correct in his bold hypothesis concerning its length and breadth. On this 

 lake T expect to meet Cordon and his party, by whom I hope to be able to 

 send the first reports of my travels and discoveries since leaving the 

 Unyanyembe caravan road. Beyond this point the whole future appears to 



