RENEW EXPLORATION OF AFRICA. 5 



Reported home as a 'brouillon' and turbu- 

 lent, I again turned lovingly towards Africa — 

 Central and Intertropical — and on April 19, 

 1856, I resolved to renew my original design of 

 reaching the unknown regions, and of striking 

 the Mle-sources via the Eastern coast. Por 

 long ages, I knew, explorers had been working, 

 literally, as well as figuratively, against the 

 stream ; and, as the ancients had succeeded by a 

 flank march, so the same might be done by us 

 moderns. My Ptolemy told me the tale in very 

 plain and emphatic terms, and although his 

 shore-line shows great inaccuracies, his tra- 

 ditions of the interior, derived from mariners of 

 Tyre and from older writers, appeared far more 

 reliable : — 



6 He (scil. the Tyrian) says that a certain Dio- 

 genes, one of those sailing to India, . . . having 

 the Troglyditic region on the right, after 25 days 

 reached the Lakes whence the Nilus flows, and 

 of which the Promontory of the Hhapta is a little 

 more to the south.' 1 



Amongst my scanty literary belongings on 



1 Georg. lib. i. ix. The concluding words are ion to 

 twv 'Pcltttuv uKpori)piov dXiyw voTiuTtpov. There is no reason 

 why Bilibaldus Pirkimerus (Bilibaldi Pirckeymher), Lugd. 

 1535, should render it, ' quibus Rhaptum promontorium paulu- 

 luin est Australius.' 



