The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-11-13 00:00:00

DR. LIVINGSTONE'S LETTER.

Sir R. Murcithon writes as follows :

Although a full communication will be made to the
Royal Geographical Society on Mn lay next concern-
ing the last letter of Livimaitone, dated the 7th of July,
IS6S I may at once satisfy public anxiety respecting
the great traveller by stating that, as far as it went,
the recent telegram f rim Bombay was correct. In a
letter to myrrh from Zanzibar, dated the 10;h of Sep.
Leather, Dr. Kirk has given ae nth aeut extracts from
Livingstone's letter to him to enable me to give a vera
brief iiutline of the researches of my illustrious friend.
Dr. Kirk has also forwarded dispatches from Living-
stone to the Secietaries of State for Foreign Affairs
and India, and also a letter to myself; but v.h.in I
left Loud. n on Wednesday none of these letters had
reached their destination.
The folly% log is an outline of the information com-
municated to me :
Dr. Livingatone had traced a chain of lakes, con-
nected by mere, front the tracts smith of the Lake
Tanganyika to south lat. 10 deg. to 12 deg., and he
conjectures that these numerous connected lakes and
rivers are the ultimate southern sources of the Nile.
When he wrote he was about to travel northwards to
Ujiji, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, where
he expected to find BOUM information from home, of
which he had been entirely deprived for two tears, as
well as to receive provisions and assistance. As Dr. Kirk
adds, "You knew bmg ago if his safe arrival at CAC we
may infer that before this time he will have satisfied
himself whether any of the South African waters
flow into the Equatorial Albert Nyanza of Biker, of
the existence of which great lake we now learn that
Livingstone was cognisant. If this determination has
been arrived at, Livingstone will have gloriously solved
the great problem of African geography, and will have
proved by actual observation that Ptolemy, seventeen
centuries ago, really placed the sources of the Nile in
about their true latitude, a isiew which has of late
yeara been austaiued by Belie, Arrowsmith, and

Findlay.
P.S.—ln conssquence of the goodwill and letters of
the Sultan of Z snzthar, our long-absent friend has been
most hospitably treated by the Arab trailers in the
interior, of whom he writes in the most grateful terms.
Up Park, Peterstield, Nov. 4.

At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society,
held at the Royal Institution, London, on Monday
night, Sir R. Murchison read a most interesting and im-
portant letter from Dr. Livingstone, dated July, 1868,
and which confirms the accuracy of the statements
that had been already made with regard to the great ex-
plorer. It was most gratifying to receive more detailed
proofs that so lately as a few months back the illustrious
traveller was well and safe ; and his last letter, albeit
fifteen months old, was naturally delightful to hear. He
has found a chain if lakes connested by rivers far
to the south of Lake Tanganyika, and he helieves that
the chief sources of the Nile rise between 10 deg. and
12 deg. south latitude, or 400 miles south of the most
southerly portion of the Victoria Nyanza. Sir
Roderick Murchison confidently hopes that Living-
stone will finally determine whether those waters
really constitute the ultimate sources of the Nile.
As the President of the Geographical Society adds,
auil as Livingstone himself remarks, should the
conjecture be confirmed, we must go hack to the old
geography of Ptolemy. T. the general reader the
most interesting part of the long letter is the ac-
count of Dr. Livingstone's wanderings. It is very
good news to hear that the letters of the Sultan of
Zanzibar had procured the Doctor excellent treat-
ment from the Arabs. This augurs well for his
speedy and safe return, with other fruits of travel
besides those of which we have now the fore-
taste. Sir Roderick Murchison refers to the fact
that, having been accredited as her Majesty's Consul
to all the native States in the interior, Dr. Living-
stone is really engaged on a public mission ; and hence
the venera,ile Preeident expresses a confident hope
that, when the great explorer ehall return to England,
the Government will grant him a suitable pension.
That hope will be shared by the whole body of the
public.