NEW INDUSTRIAL SETTLEMENT IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 259, 10 April 1875, Page 3

NEW INDUSTRIAL SETTLEMENT IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

The project for founding an Industrial Station on Lake Nyassa, adjoining Mozambique in Eastern Africa, and about 300 miles from the Indian Ocean, has at length been definitely adopted, and we hear that an expedition, which will also be missionary in its character, will shortly be equipped to proceed by the Zambesi river, under the command of Mr Young, who is known as the leader of the search party to the same region in 1867, and who will build a town to be called “ Livingstonia,” in order to encourage trade, suppress slavery, disseminate the arts of industrial civilisation, and open the southern interior of the Lake country to commerce. At a meeting held in Glasgow last week, liberal subscriptions were made towards this purpose, including the following : —Mr James Young, of Kelly, £IOOO ; Mr James Stevenson, Glasgow, £1000[; Mr W. Mackinnon, of Balmakill, £500; Mr P. Mackinnon, £500; Mr George Martin, of Auchendennan, £500; Mr James White, of Overtoun, £500; Dr Joshua Paterson, £100; and Dr Hugh Miller, £IOO. Five thousand of the ten thousand required have already been collected. The locality of the proposed settlement will be at the southern end of Lake Nyassa, probably on the promontory known as Cape Maclear. At this point the Shire River leaves Nyassa at a distance of about sixty miles above the Murchison Cataracts. The distance to the sea is abput 300 miles; there is water communication for flat-bottomed vessels, drawing from two to three feet, all the way, with the exception of those cataracts, which extend over a distance of between thirty and forty miles. With reference to route, the party will proceed to the Luabo mouth of the Zambesi, either by the Red Sea or via the Cape by steamer. They would carry with them two boats, one the size of a ship’s would be formed of iron, made in sections to take to pieces by screws, and similar in construction to that used by Mr Young in 1867. The boats and goods having been landed at the Luabo mouth, they will proceed to put together the iron boat and load their goods. They would then hire fifty or more natives from a village a mile south from the river mouth, and with their assistance as paddlers or otherwise would proceed up the river. At the lower end of the Murchison Cataracts they would leave one boat, and unscrew the sections of the iron boat, and carry it and the goods by means of porters over the cataracts, then put the boat together again and sail upwards to Lake Nyassa, and commence their work by selecting a suitable spot, either side by side with a native chief or headman who might be willing to receive them, or in any place that is suitable. They then proceed as above described. At first, and for some time to come, no other buildings will be wanted than huts, square or round. The latter can be built by the natives, and the formei by them under the direction of Europeans.