APPENDIX. 165 
tracted space of one effort. Let us, however, keep in view 
proper measures of what this extent presents tous. From 
this place to the sources of the Nile, over which the baffled 
curiosity of Europe yet sighs in vain, is probably as far as 
the direct distance of Alexander’s march from Macedon to 
the Indus, and from us to Zumbao, in the neighbourhood of 
the 20th parallel, is about equal to the space from sea to sea 
across the whole Australian continent. The parallel of 19° 
includes on this side of it almost all that is absolutely be- 
yond the limit of European knowledge and observation in 
this section of Africa. It will be a very great achievement 
indeed, if with any proper degree of attention to mapping 
and collecting, the resources of our Expedition, and the 
favourable circumstances which we trust it will meet with 
should enable it to traverse this space: it will be highly 
satisfactory if we receive a distinct account of nature and 
men as they occur betwixt us and the tropic of Capricorn. 
It will not require less than three such, each resting on the 
acquisitions of its predecessor to bring us useful information 
of the Equatorial regions. 
The most promising of all for that purpose is a scheme 
announced by Lieutenant Emery, in No. III. of the Journal 
of the Geographical Society of London. He proposed to 
start from Mombas, occupying nearly the apex of the great 
bight which presses in upon the African coast, north of the 
Mozambique Channel: it is therefore almost the nearest 
point of the coast line to the Equatorial centre of the con- 
tinent. ‘The place was lately British, and may be so still if 
it were thought worth accepting as a gift of its people. It 
is at all events overlooked if not ruled by the friendly power 
of our ally the Imaun of Muskat. There are the resources 
of a partial civilization about it, and the natives, including 
even the marauding Gallas, seemed to Lieutenant Emery to 
