AFRICA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 190, 10 May 1860, Page 4

AFRICA.

DR. LIVINGSTONE’S- EXPEDITION. The following are extracts from a letter of recent date, from Dr. Livingstone, published in the Cape Town Commercial Advertiser . “Kongone Harbour, Dec. 8. “I assure you we were very glad of the stores you sent us, for we are all much knocked up by the trip to Nyassa on foot. We left the vessel of Laird’s at Blubisus 19° 2' S., and when we returned, after forty day’s march, we had some longings for refreshments, but might as well have longed for a kiss from the Pope’s toe. Kirk and Rae volunteered to walk to Tete, to bring away Baines and Thornton, and materials to tinker the launch, as she leaked badly, and a terrible march they had of it. No water, except that of which the natives made salt, and .no food. The man who carried their salt. provisions, having missed the road, came in two days after them to Tetwf. After Mr. Livingstone had taken observation in 16°j2m. S„ we dropped down to the mouth of the Shire. The Zambesi took off the rust which had filled up, many of the holes iu the boat, aud I was at last forced to run down and breach her. And here ,we are tinkering instead of doing good service in the cause of African civilization. So much for Air. Laird’s launch. We have a fine moun- 1 tainous country adjacent to the Shire. Travelling this round by Lake Nyassa, we saw the Shire, flowing out'of it in 15 0 25m. S. We saw no signs of the Lake having an annual rise, although we were at the end of the dry season. There was a lot of rubbish three' or four feet from the edge, which seemed to have been washed up by the wind, and there are two mounds, like raised beaches, thirty or forty feet from the present shore, as if it had been at a higher level in earlier times, but the lake does not fill .and become low. The Shire flows out of it the whole year, and there is only a fall of about three feet in it, from the wet to the dry season. It is from eighty to one hundred and twenty yards wide, generally with a two-fathom channel, and a two-and-a-half knot current. We are troubled with sand-banks, as in the Zambesi, and it is deep all over, even to the edges. We "conclude a lake giving off such a stream must be very large indeed, and have large feeders at the south end eight or ten miles broad. All the natives could tell us was that the river goes a long w;ay to the north, and then turns round into the sea. We were obliged to. return, as the launch was in a sinking state ; but it was satisfactory to show my companions, Kirk, Livingstone, and Rae, a specimen of the fine country through which I had travelled far to the interior, and which your philosophers set down as a vast sandy desert. * * I am very anxious about the steamer that is coming (yes or no ?), for I don’t much relish a 700 miles’ trip on foot, and would give anything for four donkeys. There is nothing to be got here but pigs. We go next to the Makalo'.o country.” The following are extracts from a letter received from Dr. Livingstone, dated Kon gone Harbour, 12th December, 1859: “ We have discovered another lake, Nyassa, or Nyinyesi • This seems a grand opening. I believe that the Lord is preparing a great work in Africa * * The country is superb, abounding in running rills of deliciously cool water, that is the' high lands. i¥r. i?ae, Dr. Kirk, and Mr. Livingstone were with me. They never saw sucli a fine country. There are changes of climate within a few miles of each other, and it is a cotton field superior in many repects to the American. * * One lake, Oliiwa, or Tamandua,! is 90 miles long, but no one could tell how long Nyassa was. The shire comes flowing out. of it the whole year. There are 33 miles of cataract iu it. * * We saw some slave trade, and are sure this could be abolished by missions. I have applied to the Church Missionary Society to occupy this field for the Gospel, and lawful commerce will produce a change in this country. * * J see matters opening up where I never contemplated working, and I think that more good may be done for Africa by colonisation of our own honest Christian poor, along with missionaries and ministers. We go up to Tette, and thence to Sekeletu’s by land. This will probably be an eight months’ trip. : The ‘ Zuid Afrikaan,’ of 9th January says: —“When Lieut. Berkeley parted with him at the Kongone, on the 12th ult., Dr. Livingstone was in the enjoyment of excellent health. The little steam launch supplied to the .Zambesi expedition by Mr. Macgregor Laird .is not at all adapted for navigating the Zambesi;, being neither able to carry nor to tow, nor to attain/whilst burning wood, a speed of more than four- knots per hour. Notwithstanding repairs by the ‘ Lynx’s’ engineers, the little craft’s plates are in such a corroded condition that.; she will in all probability he abandoned after-daking Dr. Livingstone back to Tettee.”

The Manchester Examiner mentions, that “ samples.of cotton and .cotton yarn, received from Dr. Livingstone, are lying at the offices of the Cotton Supply Association, Manchester, The sample of cotton is excellent; but the most surprising sample is a ball of yarn spun

by Hie natives, weighing 16| oz., the cost of which is one foot of calico, or Id, iZ’he otlier samples of yarn are well spun and very strong. The cotton was grown in the valley of the Shire, which is 100 miles long by 20 broad. The natives spin and weave it for their own use, and so abundant is the cotton in this valley, that a vast number of cotton trees are annually burned to the ground. The navigation of the Zambesi and iShire is open to the centre of this valley during a great portion of the year—so that a large supply of cotton may be readily obtained from this part of Africa by the adoption of an effective agency.” The universities of Cambridge and Oxford are about to send missionaries to Central Africa. Dr. Livingstone has been applied to for advice as to the best locality. The mission 1 will consist of at least six clergy, a medical man, and several skilful artificers and husbandmen, under the superintendence of Archdeacon Mackenzie (a member of the Portmore family), who has just returned from Natal, where his practical efficiency has justified the choice the universities have made of him as the leader of their mission.