THE CONGO AND ZAMBESI SYSTEMS. 677 



up by two of the most magnificent systems of water-communication in the 

 world. 



" The River Congo has rapids at Ilalla, about one hundred and sixty miles 

 above its mouth ; and beyond them the only other rapids that I know of are 

 small ones, a short way below Nyangwe, near where my route quits the 

 Congo. But I think that river ought to be hereafter called the Livingstone, 

 for after all it was he who really discovered its sources. In the Zambesi 

 country there is a system of lacustrine rivers, extending for a distance which 

 makes the Congo one of the largest rivers in the world. Perhaps the Amazon 

 and the Yang-Tse-Kiang may, in volume, be larger, but certainly the Congo 

 is entitled to take third place among the rivers of the world. It has navi- 

 gable affluents that reach north within two hundred miles of Lake Nyassa, 

 where at present a colony in memory of Livingstone is being formed, which 

 has been reached from the Zambesi. Where my route passes near the sources 

 of the Zambesi, and where you see so many rivers dotted on the map, there 

 is a sandy plain, through which, if a canal were cut for twenty or thirty miles 

 across an easy country, the two systems of the Congo and Zambesi might be 

 joined, and a water communication formed between the east and west coasts 

 of Africa, with numerous navigable offsets on either side. Of course, these 

 rivers will be broken at times by rapids, but portages may be formed for the 

 present, and hereafter — though in days far in the future, I am afraid — locks 

 will be formed, so that there may be uninterrupted steam communication 

 from the east to the west of tropical Africa, by the Congo and Zambesi sys- 

 tems, and we shall then tap the ivory trade completely. 



"By large rivers which flow into the Congo from the north, a short way 

 in front of Nyangwe, we can get back into the country of Ulega, to which 

 traders come three thousand miles down the Nile to trade, and from which 

 they draw their principal supplies of ivory. Now, ascending the Congo a 

 thousand miles, will take us into this marvellously rich country. Again, the 

 offsets of the Tanganyika would also tap a great portion of the ivory trade 

 which is now carried on by the Arabs trading from Zanzibar. The Zambesi, 

 again, would form the means of obtaining ivory, if the communication were 

 made by joining it to the Congo, and so giving access to its northern affluents. 

 I passed numerous affluents of the Zambesi, some of which take their rise on 

 the West Coast, and these would act as offsets to the main system. By that 

 river, which you see marked on the map as falling into the Congo from the 

 north, we should get close up to the sources of the Nile and the Congo systems 

 by a very short route instead of by the long one from Alexandria up a river 

 which is far from healthy, and is choked with grass; while the country through 

 which I have gone may be considered as fairly healthy. Let me, in con- 

 clusion, thank you again for the great honour which you have done me." 

 Referring, a day or two after, to the above proceedings, one of our lead- 



