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Leader (1850-1860), 14th November 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, No 399, November 14,1657.] T H E L E A. ...

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      Dr. Livingstone's Travels. Missionary Tr...

      ^ — —¦—^——»————i—————i—¦——^— . ^^ - ^—— - haps , will possess more utility than any mere selection of attractive passages froni the body of the narration . The wanderings lasted from 1848 to 1856 . They were commenced at Cape Town , whence Livingstone proceeded to Latakoo , the farthest inland station of the London Missionary Society . Only resting thereto refresh his oxen , he pushed on northward to Shokuana , and in that place , after a short interval , located himself for six months , cut off from all European society , to study the language , laws , ways of thinking , and customs of the Bakwain section of the lSecliuana race . The apprenticeship was perfect . In 1842 , undertaking a journey over the hills , he approached close to the Lake Nganii , which , he afterwards discovered ; but it was his plan to make his way gradually . The year 1843 , therefore , was commenced in the valley of Mabotsa , more than twenty-five degrees from the equator , a locality ravaged by lions , the terrors of the people . It was in . this desolation that Livingstone felt that fearless stupefaction caused _ by the sudden gripe of a lion ' s jaw upon his shoulder . Here also he beganbuilding up hisinfluence by acts of justice and philanthropy , and cultivating good relations with the tribes and chiefs . The bastard i ) utch kidnappers , however , were his declared foes , and sought to drive hind away by persecution . But he resisted all their attempts , and gives a charming account of the pleasant days he passed in the Mabotsa Vale . It was now considered time to open his design of exploration . Lake Ngami , beyond the Kalahari Desert , was the object of his earliest research . Its position , for half a century at least , had been pointed out by _ the natives ; but it had been reached by no European traveller . The intervening solitudes consist of vast flats , tinted with many varieties of shrubs and plants , and teeming with animal life . Among their vegetable productions are the scarlet cucumber , the leishria , the bulbs of which are receptacles of water , and invaluable to the people of the desert , and the water-melon , which absorbs the rains , and preserves tliem for the use of the savage , in a region with scarcely any streams or springs . In addition to these supplies , the natives keep stores in little subterranean reservoirs , whence the precious fluid is drawn up through reeds by women , who use their mouths as pumps . It was in . June , 1849 , that Livingstone , Oswell , and Murray started across this wilderness towards the unknown north . On the 4 th of July , after many adventures , they reached the Zouga , which they found to be a river running to the north-east ; the natives , who possessed large herds of the great horned cattle , said that by tracing the stream upwards the white men would at last reach the ' broad water . ' This was done for upwards of a haadred noiles , it being observed that the people almost lived in their rough canoes ; and another river was passed , which Livingstone was informed came from a country ' full of rivers and large trees . ' Here was gladdening intelligence to an explorer , doubtful whether he should discover more than a new Libya in the south of the continent . On the 1 st of August , the lake itself was in view , beaming and glittering far and wide in the sun . It is extensive , but shallow , and lies at the bottom of a basin of considerable diameter . Near this point , the Scottish reminiscences of Livingstone reverted to the banks of the Clyde above Glasgow , but the African river-bank is overhung with mighty baobab shadows—the tall , swaying palmyra and clusters of the elegant rose-coloured plum . 'Wild indigo abounded , as , indeed , it does over large tracts of Africa . Elephants exist in prodigious numbers , with rhinoceroses , and anew and graceful species of antelope . Mullets , and other excellent fish 3 come down to the lake in shoals with the floods from the high countries . The next discovery was the Zambesi , flowing through the centre of the continent—the river not having been previously known to exist there at all . In every one of the Portuguese maps it is represented as rising far tc the east . At the dry season , when Livingstone saw it , it had from three to six hundred yards of deep water , with a favourable current . We maj anriino-fo tli « ovfrnnrrl ! tinw viel-inpss nC t-. liis n : rrt of t . tafi njirnLtivc bv

      mentioning that it comprises the results of eleven years of perpetual observation in countries hitherto almost , if not entirely , -unknown . At the close of that period , Livingstone returned to the Cape to send his family to England . In June , 1852 , he startedon his last and longest journey , extending over four years . The continent of Africa approaches its southern extremity in a gigantic cone between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans . It was almost up the central line of the middle division of this territory that Livingstone worked his way from Cape Town to Linyanti—upwards of twelve hundred miles . Thence a journey of about the same extent through the heart of Africa brought him to St . Paul de Loandn , the capital of Angola , on the western coast , lleturning from that point , after reaching within nine degrees of the equator , he partially retraced liis path as far as Victoria Falls ,

      between the sixteenth and seventeenth degrees of latitude , and making a curve northwards , penetrated the obscure and wide interior until he found himself at Quillhnane , again on the sea—nearly two thousand miles from where ho had last seen it . The phenomena he describes are , in many instances , of the most singular kind—among others , the hot electric winds of the desert , and certain ch'cumstanees which tempt him to believe that it is possible for the breast of a man to produce milk for the nurture of a child . Of this , indeed , tlumboldt quotes an example , but the scientific testimony on the subject is us yet inadequate . Beyond tho Bakwain country , Livingstone found the large Black ant , the land tortoise , lions , bullaloes , mice , serpents , and ostriches , and his descriptions of all these and their habits are particularly valuable . The habits of the various populations also are illustrated , and iitv interestinrr commentar y is * mvi > m on Mr . Gordon Cumniinji ' s

      hunting exploits , which Dr . Livingstone says appear to have been by no means exaggerated in tho published narrative . Early in 1852 , however , he passed the furthest station to the north ever ruached by Gumming . As he went on , the country became -very lovely ; ninny new trees ware discovered ; . the grass was green , and often overtopped the waggons ; tliu vines hung in festoons upon tho branches j tho banian was ibumflburishing ; largo sheets of water lay in the hollows ; watercourses abounded , becoming broader and deeper at every mile ' s progress northward , and nt length u barrier of water checked the traveller ' s ndvance . Climbing tho loftiest trees , he could see nothing but the inundations , surmounted by dense masses of reeds—the overflowed portion of tho Chobo river . The landscape was as unlike the traditionary centre of Africa—a surface of calcined rock and sand—as

      could p ossibly be imagined . The picture shows in what light the discoveries of this great explorer are to be regarded .: instead of deserts they have brought to light plantations , arable valleys , and gardens . Ivory abounds in these regions ; the soil producing maize , beans , Indian corn , sugar-cane , manioc , and certain varieties of fruit . Ostrich , feathers are among the articles of commerce . . The people were nowhere hostile , and seldom exhibited any fear of their white visitors . Dr . Livingstone now began to ascend the Leambye with his party in thirty-three canoes : every inch of the way was a geographical discovery , and this added to the enthusiasm of the voyage . The river is magnificent , often more than a mile in width , and bordered by a beautiful and prolific country . The population is of a superior character , and addicted to ingenious methods of industry . Dr . Livingstone compares the leambye with , the Nile ; its periodical inundations stimulating the fertility of the soil . Two crops of grain are produced annually ; the cattle feed on luxuriant crops of succulent grapes , the pasturage never being exhausted . The land is probably too rich for the production of wheat . The course of a large tributary stream brought the travellers into a region even niore extraordinary ; but no Quarterly Heview could enumerate a tenth of the details multiplied from chapter to chapter . Over the low plains , near the rivers , fresh-water shells were scattered largely . On the Leeba bees were seen , honey being a favourite article of food among the natives . But more interesting than to note the natural aspects of this new country was it to pick up , at the confluence of tlie Leeba and Makondo , a fragment of a steel watch-chain , of English manufacture ; this was at the point where the Mambari people cross in comin " to the kingdom of Masibo , and gave a clue to the trade of the interior . The Mambari are very enterprising merchants , and bring English cotton to the Makololo , who think it so b eautiful that they attribute the work to immortal hands ; At all events , they refuse to believe that iron machines spin , weave , or print with such magical success . Among these tribes the Salic law does not prevail , many of the chiefs being women . Hearing the coast , however , Dr . Livingstone saw numbers of young girls with chains on their limbs , the property of Portuguese traders . Among the western people , some of the prettiest maidens wear their hair stretched upon a hoop , producing an appearance like that of _ Madonna ' s glory—by others , cro-wns , peaks , and buffalo horns are imitated . The north-eastern journey was made by way of the Zambesi , and was commenced at Linyanti in November . The travellers struck off at the Victoria Palls , the connecting link between the known and unknown portions of the great river . The landscapes that now opened in constant succession were so fascinating , that Dr . Livingstone , who is not much addicted to the use of florid language , exclaims , " Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by an « els in their flight ! " He ascertained a number of highly important points relatino- to the configuration of this portion of Africa . The farther he advanceafthe more dense he found the population , which , however , was hot so improved in manners as elsewhere , the men being perfectly naked ; at the same time the products of the soil were shared by still larger herds of wild animals—gigantic elephants among tnem . Cultivation is carried on to a f considerable " extent . After an enormous journey , Livingstone again found . i himself nearing the ocean , and at the confluence of the Loangwa and the Zambesi discovered the remains of a church , built of stone , and a broken . ! bell , inscribed with the letters I . "H . S . A descent by the Zambesi brought ; him to Quillimane , on the coast , and at that point he parted from Africa . ; " We have here presented only the outlines of his vast researches . Much re-» mains to be dealt with in connexion with the national resources of Africa , and its commercial relations with England ; but , at present , we can only ' promise to every reader who takes up Dr . Livingstone ' narrative , a store - of enjoyment and instruction .

      No 399, November 14,1657.] T H E L E A. ...

      No 399 , November 14 , 1657 . ] T H E L E A . D E R > . 1097

      A Hundred Years Ago. A Hundred Years Ago...

      A HUNDRED YEARS AGO . A Hundred Years Ago . An Historical Sketch . 1755 to 1756 . By James Hutton . Longman and Co . With Mr . Hutton we may measure the progress of a hundred years . His book contains a picture a century old , and very interesting is it to put 1857 in contrast with 1756 . We trace our affinities , indeed , with the folks who then shot Byn " , read the first announcement of Johnson ' s dictionary , called King-George ' ° reat Caesar , ' blinded children by art to make beggars of them , admired the crambo of the poet Laureate , and tolerated ' Bucks' and * Bloods instead of laughing or kicking them out of society ; but the differences are also considerable , and we are forced to feel happy that we are not our own utnuc i wiiowi

      great- "ranatatuers . ja . nunureu yum a , « * , . v , » .... » v * . j « ... ~ penalty of our contempt , and when the Londoner is reading at noon the paper published in the morning at Lahore , wlien the Channel is tunneled , when tlie Prime Minister keeps the Foreign Secretary waiting five minutes while he consults the American President , when some one is reporting that a descendant of the Napoleons has turned up in Abyssinia , and when Egyptologers have mistaken the name of Dr . Lcpsius for that of a Pharaoh of the first dynasty , our idols of the t heatre , the den , and the market-place , may have been dispersed with the dust of Cheops . Not so , however , the genuine men . Mooting them us living actors in 175 G , the first sensation—if we allow ourselves to fall into a past age as into a dream—is one of surprise . It is like opening the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and finding no mention ot Australia or New Zealand . The names are so familiar that we fancy them At ui mwiucr

      heritages from times minutely more remote . mu uu « uuumij , however , in all human likelihood , colossal reputations will have arisen—in politics , in literature , in arts , in arms—and people will wonder what we talked of before these classics were created . Yot criticism ran high ana cossin spread afar its shallow inundations before any one could quote Johnson , or pity Chatterton , or read Cervantes in Smollett , or learn how Goldsmith adored Mademoiselle Clairon . Mr . Ilutton shows us over tlie years 1 S 5 . V-5 G , and points out the lions , the Court , the c >»» mb J . ° , "^~ ft the House of Commons included . Ho gives precedence to strictly public Xirs-thc quarrel with France over ° the Acadian boundary-and tins narrative glides into a parallel , hit off in a spirit of cool und qutet irony :-Truly , we have much reason to 1 ) 0 proud of our progresa in tho art of government

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 14, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14111857/page/17/