MR. COTTERILL'S ADDRESS AT BRIGHTON. 833 



very Society, I will endeavour to point out a few of the main features. You 

 will notice that all the great discoveries in Africa are more or less connected 

 with the three great arterial river systems of that continent. What great 

 mystery enshrouded the Nile in ancient times many of you know. This you 

 can discover by applying to your encyclopaedias and classical dictionaries, 

 and this I shall not deal with. But of more interest is the story how the Nile 

 was recently discovered, or re-discovered — for two thousand years b. c. the 

 two great basins of the Nile were laid down in maps. You know how these 

 were discovered by Speke, and Grant, and Burton. You know also how one 

 of the great rivers — the Zambesi — is essentially the river of Dr. Livingstone, 

 who, in coming from the south, struck that vast stream in the midst of the 

 continent; and how, proceeding still further northwards, he found another 

 huge river — the Lualaba — which he identified with the Nile, but which within 

 the last few months we have learned — and solely from the explorations of 

 one now present, to be the River Congo, the third of these great rivers. 

 Will you therefore keep in mind the fact, that the three great basins I have 

 mentioned are the Nyanzas — the Albert to the west, and the Victoria to the 

 east — and that with the Zambesi, the river running from west to east, there 

 is no large lake connected except the Nyassa, which is distinct from Nyanza, 

 although the word, I believe, is essentially the same, meaning a marshy place 

 or lake ; that with the Congo there is a vast system of interlacing lakes, the 

 source of which, probably, is this river discovered by Livingstone — the Zam- 

 besi. I shall not, however, take up your time with this; the part of the 

 country to which I especially wish to direct your attention is that of Lake 

 Nyassa, the one solitary lake with which the Zambesi is connected, and 

 which is the part for which I leave England. 



" Now, as regards the slave trade, I shall make a few broad statements, 

 and try to corroborate them afterwards. I put very little faith in mere sta- 

 tistics, but I think it must astonish us when we find that, in our Parliament- 

 ary blue books, stated by Sir Bartle Frere, the number of lives annually lost 

 in connection with the slave traffic is one million. Then, again, it is esti- 

 mated that, for every slave arriving safely in Madagascar, Egypt, or where- 

 ever it may be, ten lives are sacrificed. You may be incredulous when you 

 hear this ; so was I, but, if you read the facts, you will not be so. Consider 

 the vast area ; half-an-hour ago Lieutenant Cameron said to me, ' Consider 

 the whole of Central Africa as one vast region of slave trade.' It extends 

 from the Zambesi almost the whole length of the continent, and from the 

 east coast almost to the west. Now, as regards the way in which it is car- 

 ried on. The slavers start from some place, such as Zanzibar, taking with 

 them European goods. They make friends in the centre of Africa with a 

 powerful chief. They foment old hostilities, open up old sores, incite one 

 tribe against another, and lending their fire-arms to one side, naturally secure 



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