CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 232, 10 January 1860, Page 3

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ANOTHER DISCOVERT B^DE. LIVIM-

■■■.;■■ ;;;■ ¥ . STONE,; • ■.•-■:.: ■ , The Cape Town journals contain accounts of tli« discovery of a large lake in the interior of Africa by Dr. Livingstone. It is contained in the following letter from the distinguished explorer to Sir George Grey t—

" River Shire, Ist June, 1859. "My dear Sir George,—We have lately discovered a very fine lake by going up this river in the steam launch, about one hundred miles, and then marching some fifty more on foot. It ia called Shirwa, and Lake Nguni is a mere pond in comparison. It is moreover, particularly interesting from the fact reported by the natives on its shores that it is separated by a strip of land of oply live or six miles in width from Nvanja, or Lake Nvanja, or Lake N'yinyesi—the Stars— ■ which Burton has gone to' explore. We could hear nothing of his party at Shirwa. and having got no European news since you kindly sent some copies- of the Times last year, .we are quite in th» dark as to whether he has succeeded or not. Lako Shirwa has no outlet, and its waters are bitter, but drinkable. It abounds in fishes, leeches, alligators and hippopotami. We discovered also, by examining partially a branch of the Shire, called Ruo, that one portion of Shirwa is not more than thirty miles distant from a point that may easily be reached by this launch, which by newspaper measurement draws 13 inches, and actually 31 inches. The Lake Shirwa is very grand. It is surrounded on all sides by lofty green mountains. Dzomba, or as people nearest it say Zomba, is over 6000. feet high, of the same shape as Table mountain, but inhabited at the top; others are equally high, l>ut inaccessible. It "is a highland region—the lake-itself being about two thousand feet above1 the sea. It is twenty or thirty miles wide, and fifty or sixty long. On going some way up a hill, we saw in the far distance two mountain tops, rising like little islands on a watery horizon. An inhabited mountain island stands near where we first como to it. From the size of the waves it is supposed to be deep. Mr. Maclear will show the map. Dr. Kirk and I, with fifteen Mokololo, formed the land party. The country is well peopled and very much like Bonda in the middle of the country many streams rising out of bogs—the vegetation nearly identical, also. Never saw so much cotton grown as among the Manganga of the Shire and Shirwa Valleys—all spin and weave it. These are the latitudes which I have pointed out as the cotton and sugar lands. (Signed) David Livingstone.

(Signed)