The Traveller.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 243, 15 July 1876, Page 6

The Traveller.

AFRICAN EXPLORATION. (From the Argus.) The great Nile problem is not absolutely and conclusively solved, though it may be said to have been so far mastered as to show that Livingstone was wrong in some of his conclusions, and as to entitle us to say that very little more remains to be discovered. Lieutenant Cameron has followed up with great skill, energy, and good luck, the work begun by the doctor, and he has laid before the Ptoyal Geographical Society a mass of facts and figures which leave no doubt as to what the result of further explorations will be. Lieutenant Cameron may be said to have begun his work at Ujiji, on the great Lake Tanganyika, where Livingstone resided for months, and where he was found and succoured by Stanley. The great feature in Cameron's work is, that he continued the explorations, begun by Livingstone and Stanley, of the western shore of Lake Tanganyika, and in doing so he solved the problem as to the outlet, about which Livingstone was always in great doubt. In latitude 6'deg. south he found a large river running out of the lake, which river the natives called Luvubu, or Lukaga, and which appeared to have a very considerable fall to the west. This is the one great feat of Cameron's exploration, and may be said to supply the key to all the rest of the valuable work done by him. This river was known to join with the Luvuva, which in turn flows into the great river Lualaba, which is the main great stream, and does, in fact, connect nearly all the great lakes together. Beginning between lldeg. andl 2 deg. of south latitude, we have the great lake Bangweolo, where Livingstone died, 3688 ft. above the sea ; in lat. 6deg. S. there is Lake Moero, 3000 ft. above the sea; at the 6th degree south to Lake Langi, the Kamolondo of Livingstone, out of which the Lualaba flows in a magnificent stream. These may be called the eastern chain of lakes, which have no connection with the Nile watershed. On the west side there are other lakes, notably Lohemba and Kapali or Kikonja, 1750 ft. above the sea, and the true Lualaba, which is a chain of lakes for over 150 miles. The two series join in Lanji, and go to make up the immense body of water which Livingstone saw in lat. 4deg. south. He found the Lualaba to be over one mile in width and Bft. deep at that point, and it was upon this fact that was based the calculation that this could not form part of the Nile watershed, as the Nile stream was not big enough to carry away so large a body of water. Lieutenant Cameron has further demonstrated this fact by other and different observations and explorations. He followed Livingstone's track, and penetrated as far west as Nyangewe on the Lualaba, which he found turned off to the west, and did not flow to the north, as would be necessary if it united with the Nile watershed. At this point he was stopped by the jealousy of some of the African potentates, who declared that they would make war upon him if he proceeded any further ; and he was, therefore, unable to trace the further course of the Lualaba, and could not even reach a great lake called Sankorra, whither "men in trousers" came to trade from the lower country. These men were at first, and by Lieutenant Cameron himself, supposed to be white traders from the Lower Congo, but experienced persons think that they cannot be, because the white traders have not penetrated beyond the point reached by Tuckey in 1816, which is nearly 700 miles distant from the lake. Lieutenant Cameron learned, however, that several rivers came in from the north, amongst which is a very large one called the Lowa, and conjectured to be a continuation of the Ulle, seen by Dr. Schweinfurth during his travels in the Niam Niam country. All these facts go to show that the Lualaba has no connection whatever with the Nile, whose ultimate source is to be found in the rivers which feed the "Victoria _ Nyanza, whilst there is every reason to believe that the sources of the Congo are to be found in the enormous lake system to which we have referred.

To show that the Lualaba can have no connection with the Nile Lieutenant Cameron points out that the Lualaba at Nyangwe is only 1400 feet above the level of the sea, or 500 ft. below the Nile at Jondokoro, so that it could never reach the watershed of that famous river. We know also that all connection with the Nile is cut off by the Ulle, which it is now almost certain joins with the Lualaba, and that the . flow is towards the south, not towards the north, until the Lualaba is reached. All these facts point to the conclusion that the drainage on the west of Tanganyika and the Albert Nyanza is towards the south-west, and that a great central valley, somewhere about _ latitude 4deg. sorth, receives the waters coming from both the north and the south, and turns away to the west, forming the valley in which flows that wonderful river the Congo. But Lieutenant Cameron did not sneceedm connecting the Lualaba with the Congo ; indeed, he may be said to have done in this respect very little more than Livingstone did before him. He performed a wonderful journey, saw many strange sites, opened up some very rich and healthy country, but he was thrust aside from. the great geographical problem, partly through the ill-will and partly through the fears of the rulers of the land. They could not be made to understand that any body of men with whitish skins could mean peace. They knew that Arab traders,_who made many fair professions, always wanted either ivory or slaves, and they did not like the looks of

Cameron and his party. Indeed, the slave trade appears to be the origin of nearly all the evils in the interior of Africa, for, as Sir Samuel Baker points out, so long as the slave-traders keep away, the natives are disposed to be peaceful and hospitable. The effect of the opposition met with was to turn Lieutenant Cameron back almost south, nearly at right angles with the course which he. desired to pursue. Instead, therefore, of following up the Lualaba, and finally proving that it is part of the Congo, he was driven to cross the heads of an immense number of streams flowing westward into the Lualaba. He states he could hear nothing of the Chossamba Mountains, which appear in most maps, and where Livingstone placed his fountains of Herodotus : and the Arab traders generally seemed to think that there were no such mountains in existence. From the course taken it results that there is still a distance of some 700 miles to be explored before Ave shall be able to finally say that the Lualaba is part of the Congo, or "the Congo itself, and that the drainage from Lake Tanganyika finds its way to the sea on the western coast, and not north into the Mediterranean. So far as induction may be relied upon we are entitled to say this already, but the geographical mind will not be content until actual exploration verifies the fact, and the world knows from observation that the rivers are identical. Many strange things may be found in a distance of 700 miles. It is not much to look upon in a map, but when we call to mind what the work of exploration actually is, the obstacles' which have to' be surmounted, and the difficulties to be overcome, we shall see how much room there is for error, and how the most conclu-sive-looking hypothesis may break down. Of this we could not have a better example than the failure of Dr. Livingstone to solve the problem, or even to see what the work chiefly requiring to be done was. Had he followed the western shore of Tanganyika he would have found the outlet, and a flood of light would have been thrown upon the great Nile problem. It is probable, too, that his life would have been saved, for he would not have been wandering amidst a network of waters in search of the fountains of Herodotus, but would, in all probability, have returned to his old quarters at Nyangive, on the Lualaba, which he could not then have failed to guess turned in a direction which must have made it join the Congo, if it was not the Congo itself. "Verily there is, after all, much of chance in these matters. From Ujiji, where Livingstone dwelt so long, to the outlet of Tanganyika is but some 70 miles, yet this journey was never made, and Livingstone painfully toiled round the southern end of the lake, in order to discover what he could have found out in two days' journey in a boat. To Lieutenant Cameron's credit be it said, he seems to have divined the aim of Livingstone, for instead of following in search of the fountains of Herodotus, which may or may not exist, he took to exploring the shores of the great lake, and in a very short time discovered whither went the current which Livingstone had remarked upon as flowing past his very door towards the south. Still, the work is not yet done. Until the Congo and Lualaba are shown to be one, there will always be some room for doubt, though it may now be confidently said that we know the Nile water system, and it has no connection with Lake Tanganyika. The results of the explorations of Lieutenant Cameron will be, no doubt, very great. He points out that a canal, from twenty to thirty miles in lengths, across an almost level country, would connect the two great water systems of the Congo and the Zambesi, as in the rainy season they are, even at the present time, often connected. Supposing this to be practicable, and there appears to be little doubt about it, the beneficial results would be something truly wonderful if it should be found possible to navigate the rivers. The Congo falls into the Atlantic in the Bth degree of south latitude, and the Zambesi into the Indian Ocean, about latitude 18th degrees south, the difference in longitude being about 25 degrees. The whole of the long voyage round the Cape of Good Hope would be avoided, and a short cut made which would be an immense saving of time. But there are many cataracts in the Congo, and many hostile tribes. No doubt, the route proposed might be used to open up the heart of Africa, and Lieutenant Cameron thinks that that work could be doner in three years, for a couple of millions of pounds, if properly gone about, and there is a good deal of the charming mysterious in what he proposes. This much we may now safely conclude—that matters will not be allowed to rest where they are, and that the irrepressible European will swarm over the parts of Africa where hitherto only Arabs and halfe- caste Portuguese have hunted for slaves, and carried ruin and slaughter into many a peaceful negro village. The high lands which Lieutenant Cameron passed over are said to be healthy and fertile. In many parts wheat can be successfully grown, and the fruit trees of other countries flourish. Besides this there is a wonderful wealth of oilpalms and palms of all sorts, nutmegs, coffee, semsem, ground nuts, oil nuts, rice, cotton, indiarubber,. copal, and sugarcane. All the vegetable productions of Southern Europe are said to flourish, so that there is an immense field for the enterprising folks who want, something to do. Gold was surmised to have been traded for in quills, but there is little or no proof of its being found, though other metals undoubtedly exist in great abundance. Such is the last glimpse got of the interior of the mysterious Africa. We now know there is a tract of high and healthy country, a water system unrivalled,perhaps, in any other part of the world, and a natural vegetable wealth far beyond the wildest dreams of geographers. We may also say that we know that the Nile belongs to the eastern, and not to the western, side of the continent, and that its ultimate reservoir is the Victoria Nyanza.