SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON’S ADDRESS. [May 24, 1858 
310 
AFRICA. 
Livingstone , or Zambesi Expedition . — As few events have reflected 
greater credit on the British nation than their warm and affectionate 
reception of the good and noble minded Livingstone when he 
emerged after so many struggles from the heart of Southern Africa, 
so it is most gratifying to every friend and admirer of that excel- 
lent man to know that the produce of his pen as a record of those 
travels has had so great a sale as to ensure a competency for his 
wife and children. The 30,000 or 40,000 copies of his remark- 
able volume, which the public eagerly bought, constitute the real 
monument which the author has raised for himself ! 
When I lately presided at the great festival held to wish him and 
his associates God speed, and dilated upon their prospect of success, 
I endeavoured at the same time to moderate the over sanguine 
expectations of the mercantile portion of the public in reference to 
the trade which might speedily be opened out with these regions.* 
It is also well to bear in mind that there are difficulties to be 
surmounted even in the ascent of the Zambesi, of which persons 
unacquainted with the oscillatory nature of African rivers must be 
informed. Thus, Mr. M‘Queen, our sagacious critic on all South 
African subjects, writes to me, that when the celebrated Portuguese 
traveller Lacerda f ascended the Zambesi in 1798, and when it was 
in full flood, he found that for spaces of 9 or 10 miles the stream 
had a depth of 3 feet 4 inches only ; the current being so rapid 
that he was obliged to unload his small boats and transport his 
baggage by land. We must, therefore, be prepared to hear of 
similar obstacles to navigation in Livingstone’s case ; but lei us 
hope that they are now in the very act of being overcome by the 
forethought and enterprise of a leader in whom we have every 
confidence, supported as he is by' a naval officer, Commander Beding- 
feld, of great experience in the navigation of African rivers, and 
heartily sustained by associates, each of whom is thoroughly 
adapted to effect the special object of his mission, J whilst all of 
them are sincerely attached to their undaunted and sagacious 
chief. 
* See Proceedings, vol. ii., p. 116. 
t Lacerda’s Journals of the Expedition toCazembe were published at Lisbon in 
the * Annaes Maritimos ’ for 1844, and are in our Library. 
X The other officers in addition to Commander Bedingfeld are Mr. C. Living- 
stone, secretary and superintendent ; Dr. J. Kirk, surgeon and naturalist ; Mr. R. 
Thornton, mining geologist ; and Mr. T. Baines, artist and storekeeper. 
