174 
TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
public at large for the lapse of time which has taken place be- 
tween the date of the ultimatum of the Expedition Committee and 
the publication of this statement. The reason has simply been 
that the inroads made on my health by climatic influences and the 
severe shock I received from the reverses I have experienced have 
incapacitated me from persevering in a work that proved too 
harassing to be dealt with but at intervals. In order to assist my 
friends and the public in arriving at a just decision in this matter^ 
I beg to recall to their memory the following facts : 
The Committee commence with the quotation of a Minute of 
Council stating that it was at my suggestion the Eoyal Geographical 
Society were pleased to avail themselves of my offer to render 
important services to Captains Speke and Grant. From this it 
might be inferred that I was a supplicant for employment on this 
expedition; but the Committee do not state at whose instigation 
this suggestion was formally made. But to place things as they 
occurred : in December, 1859, I received a letter from Captain 
Speke, in which he says : 
“Were you ever thinking of going up the Nile yourself? if 
so, it strikes me that my going up the Nile may possibly be 
injurious to your prospects. But should it meet your views that 
we could manage by combined exertions, either in company or 
separately, to settle the question of the White Biver, I would 
readily work with you.” 
Shortly after, on the 22nd December, 1859, I received another 
letter from him, in which he tells me : 
“ I have just received a letter from Sir Boderick Murchison, 
and am delighted to find that he has accepted my plan for open- 
