The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-13 00:00:00

DR. LIVINGSTONE.

The despatches that have been received at the
Foreign Other, announcing the safety of Dr. Living-
stone in October last, were read at the meeting of the
Royal Geographical Society, on Monday eat fling, Sir
Henry Rawbrown in the chair.

Shereef lisehlikh Bin Ahmed writes to 1/r. Kirk
on the 15th of Nov nther from 1.7 j ji

'I have t, inform you that on the 15th Shahan Nov. 10
a messenger came from the people ci Minima with letters
from the Arabs who are there, and one from the Doctor, and
these letters were dat,d the 20. h Rej.b (October 15). In
answer to my Inquiries they told me tbat the Doctor was
well, although he had been suffering, and he was for the
present at the town of Mauakoso with Mahomet Bin Mirth,
waiting for the caravan, being helpless, without means and
with few 101 l ,were— only eight men—so that he cannot move
elsewhere or come down. We have sent off twelve of our
men with American cloth, kink!, beads, sugar, eu 'fee, salt,
two pairs of shoes, shot, powder, and soap, and a
bottle of medicine (quinine). All that he was In 5e,..4 of
we have sent him, and I remain at IJIJI waiting hi(

"Another letter from an Arab mambay t at Ujij

• Letters have come Item the people of Minims, from
liahomet Bin uhirih and his people, awl they base got good
prices, such as please them, and the r.hrlatian Is In their
company, and they intend returning to I J J. In the month of
lair (April, 1871 . Memel reached I j jr, toying n
the goods of the Christian, and we intend sending 'moo of
these goods to him, for he is dmtitute, and the people of
Shereef will accompany the messengers who take the
letters.'

" Dr. Kirk, writing in February, says that havinc
heard that the men sent off by Mr. Churchill with
stores for Dr. Livingstone, as reported in his dispatch
of the 18th of November, 1870, were still at Bagimozo,
a coast town on the opposite mainland, and had wit
taken any steps to procure porters and proceed on their
Journey, he (Dr. Kirk) went there himself, and by his
irfluence with the Arabs succeeded in sending off all
the stores but four losils, and foilowed inland one day's
journey himself. He also arranged for the despatch
of the remrieing four loads. Orce fairly off on the road
(Dr . Kirk writes), there is little to induee there people to
delay, whereas at Bagamozo, living In good huts, among
their own people, and thinking to enjoy themselves,
aid earn monthly pay, had I not gone in te-roon they
might have loitered yet several months. While pass-
Mg along the trade route on the short excursion I made
for Bairami zo, we met several caravans on their way
from Unyamwezi, Urori, ecc., and by questioning the
natives as well as the leviers, found that no news hal
been received lately at Unyanyembe from Ujiji, and
nothing was known of Dr. Livingstone. All were
aware that he had gone on a journey from which he
had not yet returned up to the latest dates."
The chairman commented at seine length on these
interesting letters, reducing the Mahomedan date, to
those of our own calendar, and showin? how Living.
stifle had been carrying out his pre-arranged plans of
explorations. For examide, he had written in May,
1869, stating hi, intention of visiting the country tif
Manyetna, which he described as on the borders of a
lake west of Tanganyika, and exprevii g his doubts
whether that more westerly line of drainage, with its
rivers and lakes, might not be the head waters of the
Congo. Nothing regarding the Doctor's discoveries or
future plans had been communicated in these letters. It
was theref ire almostuseless to sp.culate regarding them.
The chairman, however, was inclined to believe from his
knowledge of Livingstone's character that if he had not
already satisfied himself regarding the union of Lake
Tanganyika with Baker's Lake to the north and the
Nile system, he would, now that he was replenished
with men and stores, make an attempt to solve that
problem before turning his face homewards.
Colonel Grant gave some account of his own ex-
periences of the country when travelling with C.iptain
Spelte, and maintained that nothing had yet been dis-
covered to disprove the title of Victoria Nye, z a to the
position of the most elevated, and therefore the prim
cipal, heal of the Nile waters.
The Rev. Horace Wailer, who had travelled with
Livingstone daring the Zambesi expedition, said that
the Doctor would be most probably, now that Le was
refitted, able to travel independently of the Ara') cara-
van?.