CAMERON BEFORE THE RO YAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 663 



have great pleasure on this occasion — the first occasion on which I have had 

 the honour of occupying the chair since I became President of this Society — 

 of presenting to you so distinguished a member of a profession to which I 

 have the honour to belong, and a gentleman who has distinguished himself 

 so much by the journey which he has accomplished — a journey from sea to 

 sea through the centre of Africa. I feel that it requires very little preface on 

 my part to introduce him to you. The remarks upon this interesting journey 

 are to come from him, and any words that I might make would only take 

 away from the interest with which I am sure you will listen to him in his 

 account of his interesting exploits. At the same time I must congratulate the 

 Navy that it should fall to the lot of a member of that profession to show that 

 pluck which distinguishes all Englishmen, but which, in my opinion, more 

 particularly distinguishes naval officers — to accomplish so great a feat as 

 the journey across that vast continent — a journey which occupied two years 

 and eight months, and which, though the original object was to search for 

 our late lamented explorer, Dr. Livingstone, eventually became a separate 

 and independent exploration on Lieutenant Cameron's own part. I have 

 great pleasure in introducing to you Lieutenant Cameron, and I do so in the 

 confidence that we shall all be deeply interested by the account he will give 

 us of his interesting journey." 



Lieutenant Cameron then rose, and was received with loud cheers. In 

 the course of his address he said — " In consequence of the shortness of the 

 time I can do no more than give a very brief resume of my journey this 

 evening. The first portion of the journey may be considered as that from the 

 East Coast to Ujiji. The Expedition consisted originally of Dr. Dillon and 

 myself ; at Aden, Mr. Murphy, of the R.A., volunteered, and joined us after- 

 wards at Zanzibar, and a day or two before leaving Bagamoyo, Mr. Moffat, 

 of Natal, a nephew of Dr. Livingstone, also joined. My first great difficulty 

 was to provide porters to carry our stores, and after nearly a month at Baga- 

 moyo I formed a camp at Shamba Gonera to try and make them keep together, 

 but with no good results. In the middle of March, 1873, Dillon started to 

 form a camp at Kikoka, the farthest Balooch outpost of H.H. Syed Burghash, 

 and a little beyond the Kingani. A few days afterwards Sir Bartle Frere 

 came over to Bagamoyo, bringing Moffat with him. Two days afterwards I 

 joined Dillon at Kikoka, leaving Murphy ill with fever under charge of the 

 French missionaries at Bagamoyo. The French missionaries were most kind 

 and hospitable during our stay, and they are doing a very good and import- 

 ant work in the country They have a large number of pupils, who, besides 

 being Christianised and taught to read and write, are also instructed in the 

 ways and means of earning their livelihood in after life. 



" There was a great deal of opposition amongst the Wamerima, owing to 

 an idea (which pursued us to Unyanyembe) that we were personally engaged 



