672 LIFE OF DA VID LI VINGSTONE, LL.D. 



The people of Bihe, who work under Portuguese, are most cruel and brutal 

 in their treatment of these unfortunate wretches. I would have interfered far 

 oftener if I had not found that my interference brought a heavier punishment 

 on the unhappy beings when my back was turned. The only thing that will do 

 away with slavery is opening up Africa to legitimate commerce, and this can 

 best be done by utilising the magnificent water systems of the rivers of the 

 interior." 



Sir Henky Rawlinson, speaking on behalf of the Council of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, rose to express the high opinion which they entertained 

 of the services rendered to geography by Lieutenant Cameron. " They con- 

 sidered these services not only important geographically, but equally inter- 

 esting to the politician, the merchant, and the philanthropist. Although 

 Lieutenant Cameron made rather light of his journey, it was to be borne in 

 mind that it extended over three thousand miles, and that the gallant young 

 officer had been continually, or with very short intervals, on the tramp for 

 two years and eight months, exposed to all vicissitudes of climate, and to all 

 kinds of hardship and danger, and yet his courage never gave way. The 

 services he had rendered to geography were very important. He had not 

 been one of those explorers who carried their eyes in their pocket. He had 

 always kept his eyes well about him, and the observations he had made of the 

 country were of extraordinary value. The observations he had taken, and 

 which were now being computed at Greenwich, numbered five thousand, and 

 were not only numerous, but elaborate and accurate. He had every expecta- 

 tion that the result would be that they would have a definite line laid down 

 from sea to sea, which would serve as a basis for all further exploration of 

 equatorial Africa. 



'■'■ Among the minor objects — if he might so call them, where everything 

 was so important — he had to notice Lieutenant Cameron's circumnavigation 

 of the Tanganyika and discovery of the outlet by which it discharged itself 

 into the Lualaba. Another important matter had been his identification as 

 nearly as possible, though it was not absolutely proved by mathematical de- 

 monstration, of the Lualaba with the Congo, and one of his main objects had 

 been to follow the course of the former river, so as to prove or disprove this 

 identity. He had not been able to carry out that scheme in its entirety, but 

 he had collected fresh information to render it a matter, not perhaps of posi- 

 tive certainty, but at all events of the very highest degree of probability, that 

 the two rivers were one and the same. In regard to the political results of 

 the Expedition, it was to be noticed that he had discovered a new political 

 power, of which they had hitherto known nothing. He referred to the great 

 chief Kasongo, who appeared to be the most powerful potentate in all equa- 

 torial Africa ; and this discovery was most important in regard to the future 

 of that country — for whatever negotiations were carried on, or whatever 



