The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-19 00:00:00

and were obliged to be content to lose twelve men, besides
camels and other beasts of burden. After an hour
of hurrying on, we passed Shuhada, an unremarkable spot,
with a few ruined walls, and a cluster of graves, -each an
oval of rough stone, containing the martyrs,' crowned with
glory in one of the Prophet's plundering expeditions ; a..d in
thirty minutes reached Bir-el-Hindi, a favourite halting-
place, where some forgotten ' Indian' had dug a w ell. We
jogged on, scarcely out of the cut-throat gorge, and the nests
of the Hem'dah; and then, leaving the ravine, we struck off
northward into a well-trodden road, running over stony
rising ground. The heat became sickening. At no tine is
the sun in these regions more dangerous than between eight
and ten a.m. and it was eleven o'clock before wo encamped.
The station Suwaykeh is a rugged plain covered with stones,
coarse gravel, and thorn trees, and surrounded by racks pin-
nacle-shaped and calcareous on a granite base. We pitched
our tent under a villanous mimosa, the tree whose shade is
compared by these poetical thieves to the false rone that
deserts you when most needed ; and on the 25th of July, as
day dawned, finding all my friends were hurrying on with
reckless haste, I enquired if more robbers were there ? No,'
replied a neighbour, we are walking upon our eyes ;in a
minute we shall sight El Medeeneh.' Rapidly we crossed the
muse-loved ravine El Akeek. It was drywoasdsumr me is dust,
a broad flight of seteps,,raensedntalyt eve
and its beautiful trees' were stunted fire
esuammemtito,apasiasiuniag rragthro'ugh a lane of lava with steep banks, we
suddenly beheld the Holy y lying upon the plain 'before
us.. We halted our beasts as ifC•bty' woil of command, and all of
us, tired and hungry as we were, dismounted and sat down to
enjoy the view. Numerous were the poetical excl..= atiens
of those around me, whilst their features worked with excite-
ment and their eyes swam with tears. I now fully under-
stood tho meaning of the dark phrase in the Moslem ritual,
3,4lleVdheeennehhi,s le(tthheimpilgrim
raise
's)
voiceall
the and
sight falls
buesposnthtsherrtorepehse(t)fwEitlh-
the choic,estmosffreeristnrgiks.i's,of
tbeforehej
journey
no
yo
after the desolationfc'ir view
feature was
than the gardens and palm-groves of the town. We reached
El-Medeeneh on the 25th of July-, thus taking nearly eight
days to travel about 130 miles.
"Xy computation of the stages is

Miles.
From Yambo to Muzanhal l6
Bir-said
El-Hamra
—64 half -way.
El-Hamra to Bir-Abbas ..., 24
Suwaykeh
El-Medeeneh
--66 -

Total . ...... .. 130

"My camel men were of the Harb tribe, corrupted by
Turkish example, and the profession of taking in pil-
grims. They made no difficulty in answering my questions
about the country. To obviate curiosity I had an extract
of Arab genealogies, and always began my questions with
You men of Harb, on what lineage do you prido your-
selves ? ' Notes- must be kept private, and sketches must
not be seen; but these people do not object to a learned man
writing in a manuscript, as if commenting upon it, and
he may also retire into solitude. The best pretext to avoid
company is Sando, a i.e., a melancholic tempera-
ment, all Orientals, especially the Arabs, being subject to
fits of nervous depression, when they fly to solitude a,s to a
friend.

" Before I conclude I will not omit to mention some of the
secondary objects of my journey, which were to find out if a
market for purchasing horses could be established, to obtain
information concerning the great eastern desert, and to in-
quire about the existence of perennial streams, as well as the
disputed slope of the country. Of the first 1 can say that I
feel satisfied El-Hejaz (the Hedjaz) cannot supply India with
horses. These anim,ls, though bred in the holy laud of
Arabia, are • rats,' as slender stunted bloods are generally
called, of fabulous price, and to be bought only when neces-
sity compels their owners to part with them. 2. Of the
great eastern desert, marked in our maps as Ruba-el--Khali,
or the uninhabited region, I have heard from credible
sources that its horrid depths swarm with a large and half-
starved population, am. -ngst whom a hardy and daring
explorer will find it possible to travel; and that it is a sys-
tem of rocky hills, semi-fertile ravines and valleys, sand
deserts, and plains of hard clay covered with thin vegetation
from a scanty winter rain. At El-Mecleeneh I heard a
tradition that in days of yore a high road ran from the city,
passing through this wild region, to Hadramant; :it had,
however,- been deserted for ages, and my informant con-
sidered me demented, when I talked of travelling by it.
3. I am satisfied that, despite all geographers between
Ptolemy and Jomard, Arabia, so rich in ravines or winter
streams and mountain rills, contains nothing that can pro-
perly may be called a river, and I have reason to believe that,
contrary to Ritter and others, the general declivity of Arabia
is from north to south—from Bagdad to Mecca. My etlino-
al3oingeaciiceamelnyer
hens
ee atxetr
3ch
roeemse
emln
u. p—nri orp othi sno env
etw
jot
lhlde detailnhoaeut st
iotnome
meb
erf.,yu tsufiirfg.:enityi time,
most most obedient servant.
(Signed)
eeu
ya BombayGgphA Army.
"To 'nlßicß7.(l:
"To Dr. Shaw, Secretary to tlihi
So-
ciety.

! "Belair House, Bombay, April 13."
2. Journey from Cairo to Jerusalem, via, Suez, Mount Sinai,
Akaba, and Hebron, by the late Professor G. Wallin, of Fin-
land, translated by Dr. Shaw.
3. Further explorations in Central Africa, as far as lat. 14
deg. 10 min. 52 sec. S., and long 23 deg. 35 min. 40 sec ~ by
Dr. Livingstorie, with correct astronomical obsei vations, and
map of route, communicated through the Loudon Missionary
Society and Lieutenant-C,douel Steel, F.R.G.S., with motes
from G. Frere, Esq., F.R.G.S., through the Foreign-office,
and from T. Maclear, Esq., astronomer at the Cape, to Sir
J. Herschel, communicated through Sir Roderick Murchison,
who stated that he heartily agreed with the astronomers, Mr.
Maclear and Sir John Herschel, that so prfound an explorer
as Dr. Livingstone deserved every encouragement, and that
he rejoiced that • the Royal Geographical Society should pre-
viously have placed its confidence in this adventurous
missionary, and that ho should have lived to accom-
plisli, with the chronometer awarded to him by the society,
results exceeding in accuracy of observation any lately-made.
Dr. Livingstone has received this award for his discovery, in
company with two English gentlemen, Messrs. Oswell and
Murray, of Lke Ngami, and afterwards for his discovery of
the largest river of Southern Africa, which river this most en-
terprising of modern explorers had now traced far into the in
tenor, and the results of whose labours were so well con-
densed in the following letter :

" Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope,
April 19, 1854.
" My dear Sir John—By to-day's mail for England, I send
to Lieut.-Colonel Steele, F.R.G.S., the observations, and the
results from them, made by Dr. Livingstone for the geogra-
phical points along his route in 1853. By the last I forwarded
to the same gentleman a despatch from Livingston, intended,
I believe, for the Royal Geographical Society.
" Having reduced the observations, I can vouch for their
correctness; and they include four occultations.
" The remarkable geographical fact is the existence of a
very large river, which he navigated in canoes, in the com-
pany of a horde of natives, from about lat. 18' 20' to Lat.
14° 11'.

" On the other side I give you the latitudes and longitudes
of the points where he observed for both, and the latitudes of
all the points where he observed. I hope also a tracing of
the river will be ready in time for the post. One has been
sent to'Solonel Steele, on a large scale, drawn by Livingstone,
but it will require a little correction, as derived from my cal-
culations.

" Lake Ngami and most of the southern points must now
be shifted rather more than two degrees to the westward.
" Another remarkable fact is the detection of a Portuguese
slave merchant stockade. It was said that the existence of
slave merchants in that quarter, and so far south, is new—in
other words, the game is wearing out in the northern direc-
tion.

" Where there is plenty of rank vegetation, heat, and mois-
ture, you may conjecture that there is likely to be plenty of
fever ; and such is the case. Livingstone has had fever eight
times. At a spot a little south of the Chobe river, the whole
of his party was laid prostrate at one time. This spot ho
names ' the Fever Ponds.'
" At the date of his writing to me (Sept. 29,1853), he was
preparing for a push towards Loanda, on the west coast,
. thence to return to his late track through Loanda, ' the capi-
tal of a powerful state, down the Leda.' If spared to accom-
plish this, he will rip up and expose to the public an interest-
ing section of this ' terra incognita.'
"Iu order to accomplish his task without personal anxiety,
he sort his wife and family home (to Eng:and) last year.
Such a man deserves every encouragement in the power of his
country to grant. He has done that which few discoverers
or other travellers can boast of—he fixed his geographical
points with very great accuracy. He is a poor missionary.--
Yours, my dear Sir John, faithfully, "T. MACLEAR."
4. On the Eastern Territory of the state of Ecuador, the
Canton Quizos, the River Napo, and the N.W. sources of the
Maranon. Communicated by the Rev. C. G, Nicolay.
In introducing the well-known traveller, M. Kohl, to the
society, Sir R. Murchison briefly enumerated the leading
features of a work on America on which that author is en-
gaged, and which is specially recommended by Baron Hum-
boldt. This work was described as follows :-
1. A manuscript of about Eve volumes, containing a history
of the progressive discovery of America and all its divisions,
from the earliest times down to the latest years.
2. An historical map of the whole of America, showing upon
a single sheet the progress of the discovery of the New World,
and the part which several European nations, trading com-
panies, and other classes of persons, as well as everydistin-
guished conquoror took in that progress. To each advance a
particular and distinct colour was assigned, whilst the names,
dates, and routes of 700 travellers are given in the map.
3. A .collection of sketches and copies of 750 American
maps, taken from many old books and collections in Ger-
many, Franco, and England. These maps have been divided
into general and special maps, and arranged in twenty-six
portfolios. Each portfolio contains the map of one great
American division or country, put into chronological order,
so that you see all the different representations that have
been given of this country successively displayed from the first
primitive maps and the rudest sketches of the earliest dis-
coverers and travellers down to the perfect surveys of modern
geographers.
The Chairman next directed attention to the instrument
on the table, for measuring the velocity and ascertaining the
direction of sub-surface currents, by Dr. Buist, of Bombay;
to an ancient map of the world made in the fifteenth century,
exhibited by Sir Thomas Phillipps, as contrasted with Mr.
Arrowamith's beautiful map of the southern portion of the
Crimea, shortly to be published ; and to the sketches exhi-
bited by Mr. John Webster, illustrative of the cruise of the
royal yacht schooner Wanderer, commanded by the lamented
Mr. Boyd, through the islands of the Pacific, including the
Sandwich, the Kingsmills, and the Solomons, depicting the
natives and the scenery of the various groups. In answer to
Mr. Montgomery Martin's inquiry about the actual state of the
Proposed North Australian expedition he explained that the
ceaoutencoil had that day empowered the president to commit!' i-
vember
of
State
the' subject with Sir George Grey, the new Secretary
requested for the Colonies. In adjourning the meeting to No-
tbiheramato
isrelatatenthat
announced
fll
fellows
t 0
fLotrhde Ellesmere
society
whearde
warmly invited to attend his the
on the 14th and 21 t ' soirees at Bridgewater-house,
s inst.

PRISONERS RE;OT----
is now before the House of moval Bill, which has The
with the approbation of the
for debt or contempt of Coo:, e'
sheriff, may be removed from
county gaol, when the Inspector ofB
the House of Lords, and
DILL—The Prisoners Re-
Torectsa, Secretary, prisoners
quarter
sessions (on
shall have
HCoommonß, provides that,
proper
their ap•
state for
a icrahe custody of the
prison to the
certified to the justices in
plication) that the county gaol is in a
the reception of debtors ; and thereafter all the sheriff's
prisoners for debt shall be sent to the county gaol. If
the keeper of the gaol is appointed by the justices, and
not by the sheriff, the keeper and not the sheriff is to
be liable, at law for the escape of a debtor ; and the
justices ace4gpause the keeper to give security.
BLILW.iiT FRO It A THENRY TO Tl.7.tu. We understand
has I-wen Fri.oorl igul in urging upon
that ' !:,4,1 j.B1;11,:
the diiwturs of it Mid'aud Gre.:,t Western Railway
the'necessity of opening a branch line from Athenry via
Tuam into Mayo, and that the project will be pushed
forward with the titglost deepaia,—Ciattrav !Wet.