LETTER FROM DR. LIVINGSTONE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1784, 8 April 1863, Page 4

LETTER FROM DR. LIVINGSTONE.

At a meeting of the Itojal Geographical Society, laid on Monday e\eumg, the president said he had leccivert an interesting letter from that distinguished Afucan tiavellev, Dr. Livingstone, which he road to the meetting ;— Rher Rovuma, Oct. 10, 1562. My dear Sir Roddick, — "We have just relumed from a month's boat explotation of the lfovuma liver. We tinned at long 3S° 39' east, andlat. 11* 13' south ; so, assuming the longitude of the auuhoingc to be 40* 30' east, and lat. 10° 28' south, we went about 114 miles, as the ciow flies, ft om the coast Adding om longitude and latitude together, we went 156 miles up the river. It was unusually and excessively low, and entailed frequent diaggmg of the boats at the crossings. When the water split up into tlnee channels the woik was grievous ; hut having chosen the dry season, when we cannot do much in the Zambesi, we put " a stout heatt to it stey lnae," never stopped except on Sundays, and after fifteen days up and ten down, find ourselves rather tiled and blown. The bed of the river is about three-quai ters of a mile wide It is flunked by a well wooded table-land, which lonics like ranges of hills, 500 feet high. Sometimes the spurs of the high land comes close to the water, but geneially there is a mile of level alluvial soil between them and the bank. So few people appeared at first, it looked like a " land to let" but, having walked up to the edge of the plateau, consideiablu cultivation was met w Hh, though to make a garden a great mass of bitishwood must be cleared an ay. The women and childern fled, but cnlling to a man not to be afraid, ho asked if I had any objection to " liquor with him," and biought a cup of native beer. There areTmany new trees on the slopes, plenty of ebony in some places and thickets of brushwood. The who'e scenery had a light grey appcaiancc, doited over with masi.es of gieen tiees, which picccde the others in putting on new foliage, for this may be called our w inter. Olher tiees showed their young leaves biownish red, but soon all will be gloiiously gieen. Fuither up we came to numeious villages, perched on sandbanks in the liver. They had villnges on shoie too, and plenty of grain stowed away in the woods. They did not fwii for their victuals, but were afiaid of being stolen themselves. We passed thiough them all light, civilly declining an invitation to Kind at a village wheie two human heads had been cut off. A lot of those liver pilots then followed us till there was only a nanow passage under a high bank, and there let diive their anows at us. We (.topped an/1 expostulated with them fw along time; then got them to one of the boats and explained to them how easily we could diive them off with our rifles and levolveis, but we wished to be fiiends, and gas'e about thiity yauls of calico in present", in proof 'of friendship. All this time we weie within forty yards of a lot of them, aimed with muskets and bows, on the high bank. On patting, as we thought, on fiiendly terms, and ino\iugon, we leceived a M>lley of musket balls and ano«s, four bullet holes being made in my sail, and finding that we, instead of running away, letinned the file they took to their heels and left the comiction that these are the bolder lufHans who at \arious points present obstacles to Afiican exploia'ion — men-stealeis, in fact, who caie no more for human life titan that lespectable paity in London who stuffed the pioneoi's life-buojs with old stiaw instead of coik. It was sore against the giain to pay aw ay that calico. It was submitting to be lobbed for the sake of peace. It cannot be called " black mail," for that implies the lendeiing of impoitant services by Atabs; nor is it " custom dues." It is lobbeiy perpehated by any one who has a tiaveller or tiader in his power, and when tamely submitted to, incieases in amount, till wood, watei, glass, and e\ery conceivable offence is made an occasion for a fine. On our t etui nwe passed quietly through them ail, and piobably, the ne\t English Lo.it will he l expected. Beyond those M:dconde all were fiiendly and civil, laying down their aims befoie they came near us. Much trade is canied on by means, of canoes, and wo had company of seven of these small ciaft foi tlnc-eday?. They bung rice and grain down to piuchase salt. When about sixty miles up, the tableland mentioned iethe<s, and we have an immense plain, with detached granite rock and hills dotted over. Some rocks then appear in the river, and at last, at our tinning point, the bed is all locky masses, four or five foot high, with thp water lushing thiough by numerous channcN. The canoes go thiough with ease, and might have taken the boats up also ; but we weie told that further up the channels weie much naiiower, and theie was a high degree of piobability that we should get them smashed in coming down. We weie on part of tho slave route fiom the- lake Nyas=a to Qniloa (Kilwa), about till' ty miles below the station of Ndonde, where that route crosses Bovuma, and a little fuither fiom the confluence of the Liende, w Inch, ai ising from the hills on the east of Lake Nyassa , flows into Rovnraa. It is said to be very laige, with reeds and aquatic plants growing in it, but at this time only ankle deep. It contains no rockt till near its scources in the mountains, and between it and the lake the distance is reported to icquiie between two and llnee days. At the cataracts where wo turned there is no locks on the shore, as on the Zambese, at Kerbrabasa, and Murchison's catatacts. The land is perfectly smooth, and, as fur as we could see, the country piesented the same flat appeal mice with only a few detached hills. The Tsetse is met with all along the Rovuma, and the peoplo have no cattle in consequence. They produce large quantities of oil-yielding aeec|s, ns the sus.une, or gei/.elme, and have hives placed on the " tiees every few miles. We never saw ebony of equal size to what we met with on this river j and to its navigability, as' the maik at which water stands for many months is three feet above what it is now, and it is now said to be a cubit lower than Visual, I have no doubt that a vessel drawing when loaded about eighteen inches would vim with ease during many months op the year. Should English trade be established on tlie Lake Nyassa, Englishmen will make this, their outlet ' rather than pay dues to the Poituguese. We return to put our ship on Nynssn, by the Shire, because there have the friendship of all the people except that of the sluve-hunters. Fonnoily, we found the Shire people far more hostile than arethe'Makondo of Rovuma, but now they have confidence in us, aiul we in thorn. To leave them now would' be to open tlio oountryfor the slave hunters to 'pursue "tlftir balling therein, 1 ami we should be obliged to* go tKrpugll tl>e - whble process of gaining a people's sonfidence »e»irii— Lloyd's News. " - - "'■ " w .' > j ' ' ' >• ion ' -, M.f {■

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