WANTS NO COMPANION. 
68.-> 
untravelled would-be geographer, who used to swear to the 
fancies he collected from slaves till he became bluo in the 
face. 
1 know about six hundred miles of the watershed pretty 
fairly. I turn to the seventh hundrud miles with pleasure 
and hope. I want no companion now, though discovery 
means hard work. Some can make what they call theoreti- 
cal discoveries by dreaming. I should like to offer a prize 
for an explanation of the correlation of the structure and 
economy of the watershed, with the structure and economy 
of the great lacustrine rivers in the production of the phe- 
nomena of the Nile. The prize cannot be undervalued by 
competitors even who may only have dreamed of what has 
given me very great trouble, though they may have hit on 
the division of labor in dreaming, and each discovered one 
or two hundred miles. In the actual discovery so far, I went 
two years and six months without once tasting tea, coffee 
or sugar; and except at TJjiji, have fed on buffaloes, rhino- 
ceros, elephants, hippopotami, and cattle of that sort, and 
have come to believe that English roast beef and plum 
pudding must be the real genuine theobroma, tho food of 
the gods, and I offer to all successful competitors a 
glorious feast of beefsteaks and stout. No competition 
will be allowed aftor I have published my own explana- 
tion, on pain of immediate execution, without benefit ot 
clergy ! 
I send home my journal, by Mr. Stanley, sealed, to my 
daughter Agnes. It is one of Letts’s large folio diaries, 
and is full except a few (live) pages reserved for alti- 
tudes which I cannot at present copj'. It contains a 
few private memoranda for my family alone, and I adopt 
this course in order to secure it from risk in my conclu- 
ding trip. 
Trusting that your Lordship will award mo your appro- 
bation and sanction to a little longer delay, I have, etc., 
David Livingstone, 
Her Majesty’s Consul. Inner Africa. 
