DR. LIVINGSTONE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 258, 7 September 1867, Page 3

DR. LIVINGSTONE.

At the annual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on the 22nd of „June, Sir Roderick Murchison made the following remarks on the subject of Dr Livingstone's probable • return from the interior of Africa, and as to the ex- ' pedition which has sailed for the Zambesi in search of him : — I, have never admitted that there existed auy valid proof whatever of the /leath of that great traveller. And now that Arab merchants have arrived { from a spot close to the reported scene of che murder, long after the event was said to have taken place, and brought ■ to the Sultan of Zanzibar the intelli--2? : r$ gence that he had passed safely into the ■\ friendly Babisa country to the westward, and that a report had arrived at Zanzibar that a white man had reached the Lake Tanganyika, •we have fresh grounds for hoping that he may now be .' pursuing his journey in the interior. In truth we have recently . obtained good evidence of the mendacity of the man Moosa, on whose statement alone the death was reported. We have the strongest grounds for disbeliving the story altogether, and for hoping that great traveller has passed safely ■ Hhrough the intermediate country and reached the Lake Tanganyika, the great object of his mission. Already Living(X stone, by crossing the northern end of . his own Lake Nyassa, has determined one important point in respect to the watershed of South Africa, for he has proved, according tf Dr Kirk, that this

great sheet of water here terminates, and is not connected with the more northerly Lake Tanganjuka. If he has been spared, as we all hope, he has before him as grand a career as was ever laid out before an African explorer, it being now probable that Tanganika, a fresh water sea which must have an outlet, is connected on. the north with the Albert Nyanza of Baker and others belonging to the Nile system. Let us, then, trust that Livingstone has been enabled to solve this singularly interesting problem. But I would have my countrymen not to despair if they should be a year or more without any news of our undaunted friend. For, if lie be alive, he •has with him a very small band only of faithful negroes, no one of whom could be spaicd to traverse the wide regions between Lake Tanganyika and the coast. Until he himself appears, we have little chance of knowing the true result of his mission. The party which is about to proceed to Eastern Africa to procure information, will be commanded by Mr E. D. Young, who did excellent service in the former Zambesi expedition, in the management of the Lady Nyassa river boat. With him will be. associated Mr Henry Faulkner, a young volunteer of great promise, and two acclimatised men, one a mechanic and the other a seaman. The expedition is warmly supported by her Majesty Government. The Government have arranged for the transport of the party to the Cape, with the boat and stores, by the African mail steamer on the 9th of next month. Arrived there, one of our cruisers will take them to the Luabo mouth of the Zambesi, where the boats will be put together, and the party, having engaged a crew of negroes, left to pursue their noble aud adventurous errand by the Zambesi, the Shire, and the Lake N} r assa. The expedition will keep close to the eastward shore, which is hitherto unexplored, aud it is expected it will reach Kampunda, at the northern., extremity, by the end of September, and there ascftrtain whether our great traveller has perished as reported, or has passed forward in safety to Cazembo and Tanganyika.