LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 710.-1 JANUARY, 1858. From The Spectator. many regions he had to pass through in effecting his discoveries. In a literary point of view, he could not without so long a sojourn have infused so much of African athe observed and did; a peculiarity which we mosphere as it were into his accounts of what have rarely noticed before in a traveller, never to so great an extent. The blaze and bareness of the desert-the increasing richness of vegetation and plentifulness of water as you advance towards the Equator, till rank grass, almost impenetrable forests, with inundations in the rainy season and swamps afterwards, give the traveller too much of those mantia-and more important still, the mental good things-the strange and various aniand moral character of the various peoplesare all presented to the reader, not as something surprising from a novice, but as matters that constitute quite the ordinary state of stone and many other travellers, and not bad things. The difference between Dr. Livingtravellers either, is the difference of an old experienced guide, who has all at his fingers'ends, and a smart young valet-de-place,. who may talk with more fluency, but whose actual. do things with more method and knowledge is not much deeper than the tourist's own. THIS long-looked for narrative of African travels and discovery will not disappoint expectation. Greater skill in the arrangement of the three leading divisions of the work, so as to present the travels in three distinct parts like the acts of a drama, would have facilitated the reader's grasp of the whole story at the outset; since there is in the first place the author's residence as a medical missionary in the country beyond the Cape settlements, his exploration of the desert, his discovery of Lake Ngami and the Zambesi; secondly, his journey from the Zambesi (starting in about 180 South Latitude and 240 West longitude) to Loanda on the Atlantic and back; 'finally, a similar journey Eastward to the shores of the Indian Ocean. Greater practice in composition would often have transferred the general observations on geography, natural history, and native character, to the close of the respective sections, instead of intermixing them with the narrative. Occasionally, greater clearness might be desirable as regards some scientific expositions. But, taken altogether, the book is original, attractive, and important, with an operating though not prominent judgment, which prevThe discoveries of Dr. Livingstone, as reents the author from dwelling upon his early gards extent, exceed those of any modern travels in the Cape colony or the explored land-traveller. If the reader will take up a regions beyond it. Enough of this is given, common map of Africa, he will observe the but no more than is needful to see the exPortuguese settlement of Loanda, on the perience and connections Dr. Livingstone Atlantic coast, in about 9 degrees of South acquired as a medical missionary and traveller latitude, and on the opposite side of the con-in the country of the Bechuanas, Bushmen, tinent, the mouths of the Quilimane and and other wild tribes. Without the habits Zambesi rivers, falling into the Mozambique and knowledge of a dozen years, the traveller Channel nearly opposite the centre Madagacould not have subsequently made his way scar. Throughout this range of ten degrees among strange and suspicious Negro tribes; of latitude and upwards of twenty of longiwithout long training and acclimatization, he tude, the examiner will find nothing but a never could have borne up against the labors, few scratches to indicate imaginary rivers, privations, and fever-laden atmosphere of the lakes, or mountains; for, except the PorMissionary Travels and Researches in South Africa;, including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Resi-tuguese information respecting their own setdence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from tlements at the two extremities of the long the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West range of country, all rested upon vague report Coast; thence across the Continent, down the River till Dr. Livingstone traversed the line and Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean. By David Living- filled up the map, substituting certainty for stone, LL.D., D.C.L., &c. &c. With Portrait, Maps by Arrowsmith, and numerous Illustrations. what before was blankness, with here and Published by Murray. there a conjectural feature. DCCX. LIVING AGE. VOL. XX. 1 The exploration has led to discoveries deed to the exploration-line of travellers greater in some sense than were even ex-from the North; which line stops short of pected. Instead of the great central desert the Equator by, about the same distance as where reported rivers lost themselves in the that of Dr. Livingstone. At either extremity sand that speculative geographers have of the continent we find a belt of land exdreamed of, Dr. Livingstone has traced a tending roughly over eight degrees of latitude, continuous and perennial river from about capable of regular settlement and cultivation, latitude 90 South and longitude 220 East, -as Algiers, with the other states along the across the continent to the mouths of the Mediterranean, and our Cape colonies. This Quilimane or more properly of the Zambesi. is followed in either case by a desert, only This water-course is not, like the Australian sparsely habitable from scarcity of water; or South African rivers, a torrent at certain the Northern Sahara seeming to have the times and a succession of pools with a muddy advantage as regards men, but the Southern or dry bed intervening for the remainder of with respect to animals, for whose sustenance the year. There is always plenty of water; it is provided with a peculiar vegetation. Of and for five-sevenths of its distance it is the forty degrees of latitude which form the navigable, so far as water is concerned, (for central part of Africa, we know that one-half the impediments from rapids, cataracts, and (and there are reasonable grounds for insandbanks, are numerous,) for "Thames ferring, the same of the middle. region) is steamers." Of course this body of water is distinguished by Tropical heat, Tropical rains, not from a single river. On the contrary, as and Tropical vegetation. The rains that far as Dr. Livingstone could learn, and as he create the fertility form considerable rivers, partly proved from the tributary streams he most of which find their way to the ocean; crossed in his way, the Leeba and the Zam- some form inland lakes; a once widely-enterbesi drain the larger portion of the continent tained theory Dr. Livingstone disputes altoof Africa over ten degrees of latitude and gether, he does not believe that any African nearly double the number of longitude. This river loses itself in sand. The inhabitants network of watercourses is one of the most are Negroes, though varying in physiognomy remarkable in the world. Like the Nile and and color; and when let alone by ambitious the Niger, it inundates the low flat lands dur- and turbulent rival chieftains and uncorrupted ing a portion of the year; but the tributary by the slave-dealers, seem to lead a happy rivers seem more numerous than those which enough animal kind of life, in a vegetarian (so far as we know) contribute to the Niger and often total abstinence mode of existence, and the Nile-rather resembling the Missis- though some tribes contrive to get intoxicated sippi and the mighty rivers of South Amer- on a sort of beer or mead. With the natural ica. The reason why no suspicion of the communications of, the country opened up, magnitude of the Zambesi was entertained, the soil tolerably cultivated, and regular govappears to be the same as that which so long ernments established, the region could proconcealed the outlet of the Niger, the number duce commodities enough for a most enormof its mouths, and the sandbanks across ous foreign commerce, and food sufficient to them. [The Zambesi has various names at stop the fears of the Malthusian for centuries different parts of its course, according to the to come. But we confess we are not so language of the tribes; but the names all sanguine in an early expectation of this milsignify flowing water, and mean the river, or lennium as some, and our author amongst the great river.] them. South America possesses as great Dr. Livingstone did not approach within natural advantages, if not greater; and nine degrees of the Equator, or do more though her countries may have bad governthan cross the upper waters of the Coango, ments, they have governments. So far as Dr. and other rivers that fall into the Atlantic Livingstone's discoveries bear upon African North and South of Loanda. His actual dis- advancements, it must be observed that the coveries, the native information he collected doors of the country are kept by others; and what is known from other sources, will, the Portuguese settlements of Loanda and however, enable the geographer to form a Quilimane at the two ends of his route shrewd guess as to the interior of Africa from render any trade or even communication imthe Equator to the Cape settlements, or in-practicable excpt by the good-will of Por tugal. This in the case of Dr. Livingstone | ordered some chaff to be given them, as if it was given kindly and lavishly; but there is a had been food. Other things also showed vast difference between a distinguished trav- unmistakeable hostility. As we were now preteller, recommended by a British Secretary of State, and skippers and supercargoes, only anxious to turn a penny, and not very scrupulous as to how they compass it. The great obstacles to African civilization and commerce are natural. Divided into a number of independent tribes at frequent foray with one another, there is no certainty; the smiling district of to-day may be a des'ert to-morrow, so far as man can make it so. An European might or might not be safe among them: Dr. Livingstone's example proves little. He was widely known by reputation; he thoroughly understood the native character; and he was recommended by a powerful chieftain. What is of more importance, his friend Sekeletu, this powerful chief of Bechuana or desert descent, furnished him with a body of Mokololo attendants on his Westward journey to Loanda. When the Doctor returned and started on his Eastward journey, which towards its close would lead him among unfriendly tribes, some of whom had lately been at war with the Portuguese, he was accompanied by upwards of a hundred followers. These men were analogous to the Arabs of the Northern Sahara-old campaigners, who desfred nothing better than an excuse "to labor in their VOcation." Here they are in presence of an illconditioned potentate. "This morning at sunrise, a party of Mpende's people came close to our encampment, uttering strange cries and waving some bright red substance towards us. They then lighted a fire with charms in it, and departed, uttering the same hideous screams as before. This was intended to render us powerless, and probably also to frighten us. Ever since dawn, parties of armed men have been seen collecting from all quarters, and numbers passed us while it was yet dark. Had we moved down the river at once, it would have been considered an indication of fear or defiance, and so would a retreat. I therefore resolved to wait, trusting in Him who has the hearts of all men in His hands. They evidently intended to attack us, for no friendly message was sent; and when three of the Batoka the night before entered the village to beg food, a man went round about each of them, making a noise like a lion. The villagers then called upon them to do homage; and when they complied, the chief ty certain of a skirmish, I ordered an ox to Sebituane [the father of Sekeletu and a great be slaughtered, as this is a means which warrior] employed for inspiring courage. I They have no doubt that we should have been vic- The greatest obstacle to improvement, however, is the climate. Except in a rather highland region laying towards the Portuguese settlement of Quilimane,-to which Dr. Livingstone proposes to return and form a mission,-the whole district is infested by fever, and even the hills may be. Numbers of the natives sink under it yearly; any man less acclimatized or with a less wonderful constitution than Dr. Livingstone must have sunk at the outset of his great expedition. Even on the verge of the desert, before he reached the basin of the Zambesi, the significant name of "fever-ponds " indicates the state of things. He was frequently attacked afterwards before he reached Loanda; and this was the condition in which he travelled the latter portion of the way to the Portuguese territory. "We were most kindly received by the Commandant of Ambaca, Arsenio de Carpo; who spoke a little English. He recommended wine for my debility, and here I took the first glass of that beverage I had taken in Africa. I felt much refreshed, and could then realize and meditate on the weakening effects of the fever. They were curious even This perfect health did not continue: on reaching Tete, the first Portuguese station, he was laid up with fever; and he caught another on his journey to Quilimane, as was to be expected from the nature of the coast. Indeed, the most wonderful thing about the expedition is that the traveller survived to tell it. "The village of Kilimane stands on a great mud bank, and is surrounded by exand rice-grounds. The swamps tensive to myself; for, though I had tried several | aided, no doubt, by the greater healthines times since we left Ngio to take lunar obser- of the district over which we passed, I envations, I could not avoid confusion of time joyed perfect health." and distance, neither could I hold the instrument steady, nor perform a simple calculation; hence many of the positions of this part of the route were left till my return from Loanda. Often, on getting up in the mornings, I found my clothing as wet from perspiration as if it had been dipped in water. In vain had I tried to learn or collect words of the Bunda or dialect spoken in Angola. I forgot the days of the week and the names of my companions, and, had I been asked, I probably could not have told my own. The complaint itself occupied many of my thoughts. One day I supposed banks of the river are lined with mangrovethat I had got the true theory of it, and bushes, the roots of which, and the slimy would certainly cure the next attack whether banks on which they grow, are alternately in myself or companions; but some new exposed to the tide and sun. symptoms would appear, and scatter all the are well built of brick and lime; the latter fine speculations which had sprung up with from Mozambique. If one digs down two extraordinary fertility in one department of or three feet in any part of the site of the my brain." village, he comes to water: hence the walls built on this mud bank gradually subside; pieces are sometimes sawn off the doors below, because the walls in which they are fixed have descended into the ground, so as to leave the floors higher than the bottom of the doors. It is almost needless to say that Kilimane is very unhealthy. A man of ple thoric temperament is sure to get fever; and concerning a stout person, one may hear the remark, Ah! he will not live long, he is sure to die. On the Westward journey he was reckless, but, gaining wisdom by experience, he made himself comfortable when going Eastward, according to African notions of comfort. The houses "This was the first wetting we had got since we left Sesheke, [Sekeletu's capital, and the starting-rendezvous] for I had gained some experience in travelling. In Loanda we braved the rain; and as I despised being carried in our frequent passage through running water, I was pretty constantly drenched, "A Hamburg vessel was lost near the bar but now, when we saw a storm coming, we before we came down. The men were much invariably halted. The men soon pulled more regular in their habits than English grass sufficient to make a little shelter for sailors, so I had an opportunity of observing themselves by placing it on a bush; and hav- the fever acting as a slow poison. They felt ing got my camp-stool and umbrella without of sorts' only, but gradually became a little grass under my feet, I kept myself pale, bloodless, and emaciated, then weaker perfectly dry. We also lighted large fires, and weaker, till at last they sank more like and the men were not chilled by streams of oxen bitten by tsetse than any disease I ever water running down their persons, and ab- saw. The captain, a strong robust young stracting the heat, as they would have been man, remained in perfect health for about had they been exposed to the rain. When three months, but was at last knocked down it was over, they warmed themselves by the suddenly and made as helpless as a child, by He had imbibed a fires, and we travelled on comfortably. The this terrible disease. effect of this care was, that we had much less foolish prejudice against quinine, our sheetsickness than with a smaller party in journey-anchor in the complaint. This is rather, a ing to Loanda. Another improvement made professional subject, but I introduce it here from my experience was avoiding an entire in order to protest against the prejudice as change of diet. In going to Loanda, I took little or no European food, in order not to burden my men and make them lose spirit, but trusted entirely to what might be got by the gun and the liberality of the Balonda; but on this journey I took some flour which had been left in the waggon, with some got on the island, and baked my own bread all the way in an extemporaneous oven made. by an inverted pot. With these precautions almost entirely unfounded. Quinine is in- among na Although discovery, and discovery of a new and most extensive kind, is the feature "In beginning to learn, Motibe seemed to himself in the position of the doctor who was obliged to drink his potion before the patient, to show that it contained nothing detrimental: after he had mastered the alphabet, and reported the thing so far safe, Sekeletu and his young companions came forward to try for themselves. He must have resolved to watch the effects of the book against his views on polygamy, and abstain whenever he perceived any tendency, in reading it, towards enforcing him to put his wives away. A number of men learned the alphabet in a short time, and were set to teach others." of the book, still there are many other things | his father-in-law, and some others determined in it of an interesting nature, regarding na- to brave the mysterious book. To all who tive traits, the habits and characteristics of have not acquired it, the knowledge of letters wild animals, and the peculiarities of insects there is nought like is quite unfathomable; it within the compass of their observation; and vegetation. Here are a few gatherings. and we have no comparison with any thing Queenly Difficulties."I found Sekeletu except pictures, to aid them in comprehenda young man of eighteen years of age, of ing the idea of signs of words. It seems to that dark-yellow or coffee-and-milk, color, of them supernatural that we see in a book which the Makololo are so proud, because it things taking place or having occurred at a distinguishes them considerably from the distance. No amount of explanation conblack tribes on the rivers. He is about five veys the idea unless they learn to read. feet seven in height, and neither so good- Machinery is equally inexplicable, and money looking nor of so much ability as his father nearly as much so until they see it in actual was, but is equally friendly to the English. use. They are familiar with barter alone; Sebituane installed his daughter. Mamochi- and in the centre of the country, where gold sáne into the chieftainship long before his is totally unknown, if a button and sovereign death; but, with all his acuteness, the idea were left to their choice, they would prefer. of her having a husband who should not be the former on account of its having an eye. her lord did not seem to enter his mind. He wished to make her his successor, probably in imitation of some of the Negro tribes with whom he had come into contact; but, being of the Bechuana race, he could not look upon the husband except as the woman's lord, so he told her all the men were hers, she might take any one, but ought to keep none. In fact, he thought she might do with the men what he could do with the women. But these men had other wives; and, according to a saying in the country, the tongues of women cannot be governed,' they made her miserable by their remarks. One man whom she chose was even called her wife, and her son the child of Mamochisáne's wife; but Heathenism." I had been, during a nine the arrangement was so distasteful to Mamo-weeks' tour, in closer contact with heathenism chisáne herself, that, as soon as Sebituane than I had ever been before; and though died, she said she never would consent to all, including the chief, were as kind and atgovern the Makololo so long as she had a tentive to me as possible, and there was no brother living. Sekeletu, being afraid of an- want of food, (oxen being slaughtered daily, other member of the family,Mpépe, who sometimes ten at a time, more than sufficient had pretensions to the chieftainship, urged for the wants of all,) yet to endure the danchis sister strongly to remain as she had al- ing, roaring, and singing, the jesting, anecways been, and allow him to support her au- dotes, grumbling, quarrelling, and murdering thority by leading the Makololo when they of these children of nature, seemed more went forth to war. Three days were spent like a severe penance than any thing I had in public discussion on the point. Mpépe before met with in the course of my missioninsinuated that Sekeletu was not the lawful ary duties. I took thence a more intense son of Sebituane, on account of his mother having been the wife of another chief before her marriage with Sebituane. Mamochisane however, upheld Sekeletu's claims, and at last stood up in the assembly and addressed him with a womanly gush of tears: I have been a chief only because my father wished it. I always would have preferred to be married and have a family like other women. You, Sekeletu, must be chief and build up your father's house."" Reading, Money, and Machinery.—" I proposed to teach the Makololo to read; but, for the reasons mentioned, Sekeletu at first declined: after some weeks, however, Motibe, disgust at heathenism than I had before, and formed a greatly elevated opinion of the latent effects of missions in the South, among tribes which are reported to have been as savage as the Makololo. The indirect benefits, which to a casual observer lie beneath the surface and are inappreciable, in reference to the probable wide diffusion of Christianity at some future time are worth all the money and labor that have been expended to produce them." The Looking-glass.- "The women have somewhat the same ideas with ourselves of what constitutes comeliness. They came frequently and asked for the looking-glass; |