DISCOVERY FORESTALLED. 
819 
coivo tho goods sent by Moffat to “ Nako,” tbo Makololo 
replied, “ Go along with yon : wo know bettor than that. 
How could ho toll Moffat to send his things horo, ho having 
gono away to tho north 1 " The Matobolo answered, “Horo 
Wo tho goods : wo place thorn now bofore ycu, and if yon 
loavo thorn to perish tbo guilt wil. bo yours.” When they 
dad departed, the Makololo thought bottor of it, and, after 
dxicb divination, went over with four and trembling, and 
earned tho packagos carefully to an island in tho middlo of 
tho stream; then, building a hut ovor them to protect 
them from tho weather, they left them ; and thcro I found 
tboy had remained from Scptembor, 1854, till September, 
1855, in perfect safety. Hero, as I bad often experienced 
before, I found tho nows was very old, and had lost much 
its intorest by keeping ; but there were some good oat- 
ablcs from Mrs. Moffat. Among other things, I discovered 
that my friend Sir Roderick Murchison, while in his study 
m London, had arrived at the samo conclusion respecting 
tho form of tho African continent as I had lately como to 
on tho spot ; and that from tho attentive study of tho geo- 
logical map of Mr. Bain and other materials, some of which 
■Woro furnished by tho discovories of Mr. Oswcll and my- 
®olf, ho had not only clearly enunciated tho peculiar configu- 
ration as a hypothesis in his discourse before tho Googra- 
phical Society in 1852, but had ovon tho assuranco to send 
*00 out a copy for my information ! There was not much 
R8o in nursing my chagrin at being thus fairly “cut out” 
by the man who had forotold tho oxistcnco of tho Austra- 
lian gold beforo its discovery; for horo it was in black and 
^hito. In his casy-chair ho had forestalled mo by throe 
years, though I had been working hard through jungle, 
to arsh, and fever, and, sinco tho light dawned on my mind 
Dilolc, had been chorishing tho pleasing delusion that 1 
*hould be tho first to suggest tho idea that the interior of 
Africa was a watery plateau of less clovation than flanking 
hi Uy ranges. 
Having waited a few days at Seshcko till the horses 
