The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-28 00:00:00

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of this society was held yes-
terday at Burlington.houe ; Sir It. MURCIII/10N, the presi-
dent, in the chair. The report of the council was read and
adopted ; the president was re-elected, and some re-elec-
tions and elections in the council took place. The founder's
medal was presented to Admiral Alexis Butakoff, of the
Russian Navy, for being the first to launch and navigate
ships in the Sea of Aral, and other services in the cause of
geographical science and discovery. The patron's medal
was awarded to Dr. Isaac J. Hayes, of the United States,
for his expedition to the Polar Sea. Mr. Adams, the
American minister, returned thanks on behalf of
Dr. Hayes. The President then delivered hit
annual address, in which the follow im remarks
were made touching the fate of De Livingstone :
During the last few months our thoughts have been di-
rected, with painful interest, to the last enterprise of our
eminent associate, Livingstone. For reasons which I have
explained at our evening meetings, and also through the
public press, I have never admitted that there existed any
valid proof whatever of the death of that great traveller.
And now that Arab merchants have arrived from a spot
close to the reported scene of the murder, long after the
event was said tohave taken place, and brought to the Sultan
of Zanxibar the intelligence that he had passed safely int*
the friendly Babies country to the westward, and that a
report had arrived at Zanzibar that • white man had
I reached the Inks Tanganyika, we have fresh grounds for
hoping that he may now be pursuing his journey is the
interior. In truth, we have recently obtained good evi-
dence of the mendacity of the man Moose, on whose state-
ment alone the death was reported—it being known that
he has given one version of it to the consul and Dr. Kirk
at Zanzibar, and also to the British resident at Johanna,
and an entirely different one to the Sepoy examined,
on his return to Bombay, by Colonel Rigby. We
have, therefore, the strongest grounds for disbelieving
the story altogether, and for hoping that oar great
traveller has passed safely through the intermediate
La °pantry and reached the ke Tanganyika, the great
object of his mission. Already Livinptene, by crossing
the northernend of his own Lake Byars, has determined
One important point in respect to the watershed of South
Atrial, for he has proved, according to Dr. Kirk, that this
great sheet of water here terminates, and is not connected
with the more northerly Lake Tanganyika. If be has
been spared, saws all hope he has before him as grand a
career as was overlaid out before an African explorer, it
being now probable that Tanganyika, 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. In the mean-
time, not believing in the death of Livingstone on the sole
testimony of his cowardly baggage-bearers who tied, I am
sure the society and the public will approve of the course
I recommended, and in which I was cordially supported
by the council, and, to their great credit, by her Majesty's
government, namely, to send out • boat expedition to the
head of Lake Nyasa, and thus ascertain the
truth. If by this exhaustive search we &seer-
tain that, sceptical as we are, the noble fellow did
fall at that spot where the Johanna men said he was
killed, why then, alas ! at our next anniversary, it will be
the sad duty of your president, in mourning for his loss,
to recite all the wondrous achievements of his life. If,
on the contrary, we should learn from our own envoys, and
not merely from Arab traders, that be has paned on into the
interior (and this we shall ascertain in six or seven months),
why then, trusting to the skill and the Indomitable pluek
of Livingstone, we may feel assured that, among friendly
negro tnbes, who know that he is their steadfast friend,
he may still realise one of the grandest geographical
triumphs of our era, the connexion of the great Tanganyika
with the waters of the Nile system. But even here I
would have my countrymen who are accustomed
to obtain rapid intelligence of distant travellers not to de-
spair if they should be a year or more without any news
of our undaunted friend. For, if he be alive, they must
recollect that he has with him • very small band only of
I faithful Degrees, no one of whom could be spared to tra-
I verse the wide regions between Lake Tanganyika and the
coot. Until he himself reappears (and how long was he
unheard of in his first peat traverse of Southern Africa '.')we
have, therefore, little chance of knowing the true resultof his
mission. (Cheers.) The party which I have announced is about
to proceed to Eastern Africa, to are **curate informa-
tion concerning Livingstone, win be commanded by Mr.
E. D. Young, who did exoelleut service in the former
Zambesi expedition, in the management of the Lady
Nunn, river boat. With him will be associated Mr.
Henry Faulkner, a young volunteer of great promise, and
two aoclunstised men, one a mechanic and the other •
seaman. The eedition, I am happy to say, Is
warmly supported by her Majesty's government, and
the building of the boat is rapidly progressing
I under the orders of the Board of Admiralty.
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 boat will be put together
and the party—having engaged a crew of negroes—left to
pursue their noble and adventurous errand, by theZzmbesi. !
the Shire, and the Lake Nyasa On account
of the heavy seas which prevail on the western or lee.
ward side of the lake, the expedition will keep close to
the eastward shore, which is hitherto unexplored, and it
is expected it will reach Ksmpunda, at the northern ex-
tremity, by the end of Sep- ember, and there ascertain
whether our great traveller has perished as reported, or
has passed forward in safety to Cazeinbe and Tanganyika.
The remaining portion of Sir Roderick's address consisted
of general observations on the progress of geography in all
parts of the world. In conclusion he said that in terminat-
ing his thirteenth presidential address be must ask the
society, when the coming year had terminated, to find a
younger chief, as be found his many duties press too
heavily upon him. A hearty vote of thanks to the presi-
dent was given at the close of the proceMtu
The annual dinner took place at Willis's Rooms in to
evening, the President in the chair. Amongst the guests
were the Marquis de Fontanelle, the American ambassador,
Sir H. Rawlinson, MP., Sir C. Nicholson, Mr. H. W.
Bates, Captain Brown, Sir G. Lee, Sir C. Wyke, Sir B.
Mayne, Professor Ramsay, Earl of Enniskillen. Sir P. G.
Egerton M.P., the Chief Justice of Mauritius, Mr. Hep-
worth Dixon, the Earl of Sheffield, Mr. Murray, Mr. Mac-
millan,
Viscount Strangford, and Lord Houghton.

ROYAL COLLIOII Or SUBOZONS.—At a special
meeting of the council yesterday, Mr. Samuel Solly,
' F.R.S. surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, was elected •
member of the Court of Examiners, in the vacancy occa-
sioned by the resignation of Sir William Lawrence, Bart.
Mr. Solly has been long and favourably known as an mai-
&ions cultivator of science ; he was admitted a member of
the college in 1828, a fellow in 1843, a councillor in 1856,
and in 1862 was elected professor of human anatomy and The splendid moon steamer Alexandra is an-
surgery to the college. It is stated that Sir William Law- flounced to accompany the sailing matches of the Royal
renoe, although still unable to articulate, Is gradually Lfillaoll and Royal Thames Yacht Clubs to-morrow and
recovering locomotion. The half-yearly examinations for Thursday.
the fellowship of the college will commence to morrow,
ADMIRALTY, MAY 27. APPOINTNIBTIA—MaI-
when it is stated that 34 candidates will offer themselves
tar w. H. Fawckser, to the Euphrates. Midshipman A.
for this distinction, a number unprecedented sinoe the
Barrow, to the Minotaur.
establishment of the fellowship. Professor Hancock will
commence his second course of lectures on Monday next, TEM BOMBAY MAIL.-81:71Z, MAY 27.—The
and will deliver six lectures on the anatomy and surgery Baroda, from Bombay on the 14th inst., arrived at 1 p.m.
of the foot. yesterday.