536 
Proceedings of the Asiatic Society . 
[No. 5, 
distinguished member of our Society, for it was only last year that 
the Society signified their appreciation of his reputation as a scholar 
and numismatist by electing him one of their Honorary members. In 
a recent letter I had asked him if he had any objections to my propos¬ 
ing to the Council his appointment as the successor of the late H. H. 
Wilson, and he has in reply readily assented. The post is one in which 
he will be in a position to be frequently of great service to us in England, 
and which I think it is for the interest of the Society to keep always 
filled. Its first incumbent, if I mistake not, was Colebrooke, who 
retired from it, and indeed from all literary life, under pressure of ill 
health in 1830.* The next was H. H. Wilson, to whose active co¬ 
operation we are perhaps mainly indebted for the annual grant which 
was made to us more than twenty years ago by the home authorities. 
In now appointing Mr. Thomas, the Society will secure for itself the 
services of an Agent not less distinguished in his own special line of 
study than were Colebrooke and Wilson in theirs.” 
The Meeting unanimously adopted the Council’s recommendation. 
Communications were received— 
1. From the Under-Secretary to the Government of India a 
memorandum received from the Bombay Government regarding Cap¬ 
tain Speke’s expedition to Eastern Africa. 
The Secretary read the following extracts from the memorandum. 
Writing from Ivazeh on the 21th January, 1861, Captain Speke 
anticipated that he would be prepared to set out in a few days to 
explore the Northern countries, and investigate the Victoria Nyanza 
with the view of determining whether or not the lake was the source 
of the Nile, and of following down any affluents until he arrived in 
Egypt. Should unforeseen obstacles arise he intended to endeavour 
to cross the Northern extremities of the Nyanza and reach Zanzibar. 
The expedition would attempt to reach the navigable Nile, the 
passage to Egypt appearing, from all the information which could be 
collected, the more easy and economical one, and the more advantageous 
for the future opening of the country, and this plan would only be 
relinquished in the event of Mr. Petherick or any other traveller 
arriving at Uganda by the passage of the Nile before him. 
Captain Speke, and his companion, Captain Grant, had been most 
hospitably received at Kazeli by Sheikh Moosa M’zari [a native of 
Surat] a trusted friend of the former expedition. The Sheikh actively 
