The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-22 00:00:00

THE AFRICAN EXPLORERS.

The following intelligence of the Livingstone
Expedition has been received at the Cape of Good
Hope, and is published by the South African
Advertiser of June 20 :

"Her Majesty's steamer Gorgon, Commander Wilson,
recently arrived in Algoa Bay, bringing the Rev. Mr.
Stewart and other passengers from the Zambezi, with
detailed intelligence from correspondents in that quarter,
of which the following is the substance :
" From Quillemaine, after parting with the Rapid, Dr,
Livingstone returned to the Zambezi mouth, and reached
Shupanga in the middle of December. After a delay of
about three weeks there, occcasioned by some repairs re-
quiring to be made to the Pioneer, the doctor proceeded up
the river to the Shire on the 10th of January, the steamer
Lady Nyassa being taken in tow by the Pioneer; and on
the 27th of February (the date of the latest advices), he was
within 30 miles of his destination—the lower end of the
Murchison Falls, where, unfortunately, both ships were said
to be fast on a sandbank, near the Upper end of the Ele-
phant Marsh. Hopes, however, were entertained of a rise
in the river, and that the vessels would shortly be got off.
"There was a considerable amount of fever and sickness
among the crew, but up to the date mentioned there had
been no fatal cases. From the Murchison Falls it was under-
stood that Dr. Livingstone would endeavour to push over-
land with his own little steamer, the Lady Nyassa, for the
further exploration of the great Lake Nyassa.
"Of the Rev. Mr. Stewart's movements, it appears that
after arriving in the Zambezi, about this time last year, he
waited five months at Shupanga, in hope of accompanying
Dr. Livingstone when he ascended the river. In the be-
ginning of July, when he found that there were to be fur-
ther delays, he resolved to start alone; and, having secured
a canoe and a crew of natives, he ascended, partly,
of course, on foot, to within 60 miles of Lake Nyassa,
where he was stopped by the simple impossibility of procur-
ing food. He then returned and went eastward to Mago-
nero, the former station of the Oxford and Cambridge
Mission. During his stay at the mission station he speaks
of having received every possible kindness ; and in the jour-
nays he made in the surrounding country had always the
advantage and pleasure of some one of its members accom-
panying him. After leaving the station, in September, he
ascended the Zambezi beyond Tette as far as the Kabra-
basa Rapids. There the same obstacle that prevented his
going further on the Shire—namely, scarcity of food, again
encountered him, and obliged him to return. From Ka-
bradasa he descended the river Quillemaine, and came
on to Mozambique. From the Portuguese authorities
generally he met with every civility ; and from his Excel-
lency the Governor-General of Mozambique he received
the substantial kindness of a good airy house to live in
while waiting there for a ship."
The Advertiser also publishes extracts from letters
received from the station on the river Shire, by
which it appears the Universities' Mission has
fallen into great difficulty and distress in conse-
quence of a famine that prevails throughout the
whole of that region. The Rev. H. C. Scudamore
died on the morning of New Year's-day of exhaus-
tion, produced by fever. His death is a great loss
to the mission. The famine is caused by a drought
and in some districts is aggravated by native wars.
The Rev. Mr. Rowley says, " the deaths from
starvation must have been beyond conception
frightful." He adds :

" About us, where war has not been, and a little corn has
been grown through the year on their lands and banks of
the river, one-third at least of the people have died from
want of food. The villages are either in ruins, or, where
there are inhabitants, they are the weak, the aged, and the
young children, who are day by day dying off. Frequently
the dead lie unburied in the huts, the air being pestiferous
with the rotting corpses. The stronger are roaming about
the country in search of what they can pick up or steal for
food, but in most cases their search is in vain—they lie
down and die by the wayside. So numerous are such deaths
that one cannot, I think, go along any path from our place
without coming across human remains ; we know that
several oorpses are now lying within two miles of us.
"The Shire has been literally the river of death. The
pool creatures roaming about in search of food are reckless
of iconsequences ; they try to steal the corn growing on the
river banks or islands ; but the owners, wolfishly alert,
generally detect them ; and, as these small crops have been
for a long time their only hope, they are pitiless, and either
cut the throats of the thieves and throw them into the
river, or throw them in alive. I believe hundreds have
perished in this way. Dead bodies are repeatedly seen
floating etc wn."

It is feared that the Mission must be abandoned,
and that the missionaries will return to Johanna,
Natal, or the Cape.