The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-10 00:00:00

JOURNEY ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA.

The subjoined article, which contains sone very inte-
resting particulars of Dr. Livingston's journey, we extract
from the "Evangelical Magazine" :
After a season of painful and protracted suspense, we
have at length the gratification to announce the safe ar-
rival of Dr. Livingston at Tette, on the river Zambesi,
within about 300 miles distance of Quillimane, his pro-
posed destination on the east coast of Africa.
This heroic and indefatigable missionary traveller left
St. Paul de Loanda, on the west coast, towards the close
of 1854, and entered with characteristic ardour upon an
undertaking more perilous and formidable than any of
his previous journeys—that of penetrating an unexplored
country occupied by barbarous tribes, and of reaching
the east coast at the distance of more than 2,000 miles
from his starting point. Proceeding from Cas-
'lenge, in the province of Angola—the first important
stage in his journey—early in 1855, Dr. Livingston
arrived at Naliele, lat. 15 deg. 24 min. south, long. 23
deg. 6 min. east, in August of the same year : at
Linyanti, on the river Chobe, in the October following,
and at Tette, the last stage of the journey previous to
reaching Quillimane, in the beginning of March of the pre-
sent year. _ .

Having already surmounted the main obstacles to his
reaching the east coast, our enterprising brother has, in
fact, succeeded in solving a great geographical problem,
and thus secured for himself a distinguished place in the
esteem and gratitude of the scientific world. But, as Dr.
Livingston well observes, " The end of the geographical
fact is but the beginning of the missionary enterprise ;"
• and no one is better able and disposed than himself to re-
gard this signal achievement as deriving its chief value
from the cheering hope that, in the Providence of God, it
may eventually open the way for introducing the arts of
civilisation and the blessings of Christianity into the heart
of that great continent, which for so many ages has been
consigned to unmitigated barbarism.
Two letters have been recently received from Dr. Living-
ston, the one from Linyanti, and the other, of later
date, from Tette ; and in the belief that they will gratify
the friends of missions, we now give extended extracts, de-
scriptive of the physical features and climate of this coun-
try traversed by Dr. Livingston, with notices of the abo-
rigines. _ _

While this narrative of the incidents of the journey can-
not fail to interest the friends of Africa, and in a great
measure to allay anxiety on Dr. Livingston's account, we
entertain the sanguine hope that we shall be able shortly
to announce his safe arrival at Quillimane ; and, in that
event, he may confidently be expected in this country within
a few months from the present time.
In conclusion, it behoves to add the expression of our
devout gratitute to God for his signal mercy in preserving
our beloved brother thus far on his journey, amidst the
innumerable perils and hardships to which he has been ex-
posed, and in enabling him to exhibit before the wild chil-
dren of the desert those high principles of Christian truth-
fulness, self-sacrifice, and generosity, which prove in his
experience, as they have ever done when fairly tested,
more effectual than either the hand •f power or the arts of
policy, to disarm opposition, and to conciliate esteem and
confidence.

The following are extrscts of a letter from Rev. Dr.
Livingston to Rev. Dr. Tidman, dated Linyanti, on the
river Chobe, Oct. 12, 1855 :

" Dear Sir,—The excessive heat and dust which prevail
previous to the commencement of the rainy season have
prevented my departure from the town of Sekeletu, as I
intended at the beginning of this month, in order to de-
scend the Leambye or Zambesi; and though often seized
with sore longing for the end of this pilgrimage, the cer-
tainty that the present weather would soon lay me up with
fever at a distance from friends, almost reconciles the mind
to the delay. As I now possess considerable knowledge of
the region to which I have devoted some years of toil, I
will employ my present comparative leisure in penning a
sort of report, which may enable you to fora a clear idea
of intertropical Africa as a missionary field.
" PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY.

"It may be advantageous to take a glance at the
physical features of the country first, in order to be able
to appreciate the nature of the obstacles which will
have to be surmounted by those whom God may honour to
introduce Christianity into this large section of the heathen
world. The remarks made for this purpose must be under-
stood as applying exclusively to the country between 18
deg. and 10 deg. S. latitude, and situated towards the
centre of the continent. The region thus indicated 'may
be described as an extensive plain, intersected in every
direction by largo rivers, with their departing and re-en-
tering branches. They bear on their bosoms volumes of
water, such as are totally unknown in the south, and never
dry up, as the Orange and most other African rivers do.
They appear as possessing two beds, one of inundation, and
another cut out exactly like the Clyde above Bothwell
Bridge. They overflow annually during the rainy season
in the north, and then the beds of inundation—the I
haughs or holms—are all flooded, though, as in the Bi-
rotse valley, they may be more than 20 miles broad. The
main body of water flows in the now very deep low-water
bed, but the rivers look more like chains of lakes
than streams. The country between this and Shesheke
was during the present year nearly all under water.
The parts which remained dry are only a few feet above the
general level, and canoes went regularly from Linyanti to
Shesheke, the distance being in a straight line more than
120 miles. It was an unusually wet year, and the plains
are not yet free from large patches of stagnant foul-swelling
water, though we expect the rains of another season to be
gin during the present month. The inundation, if I may
judge from my own observation, is by no means partial,
The exceptions are, where over-topping rocks form high
banks, and there we have rapids and cataracts, which im-
pede navigation, and have probably always been the car-
riers to inland trade. When the supply of water from
the north diminishes, the rivers are confine .l by the low-
water channels, and even at their lowest are deep enough
to prevent invasion by enemies who cannot swim or
manage canoes. Numerous lakes of considerable size are
left on the lately flooded meadows by the retiring rivers,
and these are either fringed with reeds or covered with
mat rushes, papyrus plants, the Egyptian arum, the lotus,
and other water-loving plants. They are always dry-
ing up, but never dry ere the next wet season begins.
"The country over which the rivers never rise is rarely
200 feet higher than the holms ; more frequently it is
under 100 feet. In many parts there are plains so level,
the rain water stands for months together six or eight
inches deep. We waded across some upwards of 20 miles
broad, and fish, otters, and water-tortoises, appeared in
numbers, and quite at home among the grass, bushes, and
trees. These peculiarities result in a great measure from
the form of that part of the continent to which our atten-
tion is directed. It appears to bo of a basin or trough
form ; the hollow is much more elevated certainly than the
sea, but it is considerably depressed in reference to two
sides. I was led to the recognition of this fact by contem-
plating the Lotembua running in two and nearly opposite
directions. Parting at the Lake Dilolo, the northern
portion is discharged into the Casai, and thence into the
Atlantic by the Congo. The southern half clisernbogues
into the Leba, and thence into the Indian Ocean by the
Zambesi. The boiling point of water showed this takes
place at the highest part of the basin. It is a sort of par-
tition in it, and both north and south of it all the feeders
of the great draining rivers flow from both eastern and
western ridges towards the centre of the continent. The
general direction of ranges of hills, and the stratification
of the rocks dripping down towards a central basin now
much filled Alp by eruptive rocks, I had noticed many
years ago ; and information received from Arabs of two
large shallow lakes within the eastern ridge makes me
wonder I did not recognise what seems so self-evident now.
I advance this view to yon now with the less diffidence,
inasmuch as I have just ascertained, by the perusal of Sir
R. Murchison before the Royal Geographical Society, that
he promulgated the same idea so long ago as 1852, I can-
not imagine how he received the information ; but from his
eminent scientific attainments it is certain to be from a
reliable source, and as I reached the conclusion from inde-
pendent but very jog-trot obse;vation, the view of that
gentleman is surely correct.
" THE CLIMATE.
"I may have dwelt too long on the foregoing topic, bat
you will at once perceive it has a most important bearing
on our missionary prospects. The great humidity produced
by quick evaporation from such a vast expanse of water
and marsh, the exuberant vegetation caused by fervid heat,
and a perfect flood of light in a rich moist soil, and the pro-
digious amount of decaying vegetable matter annually ex-
posed after the inundations to the fervid rays of the torrid
sun, with a flat surface often covered with forest, and little
wind, except at one season of the year, all combine to ren-
der the climate far from salubrious for any portion of the
human family. I really do not desire to deepen those dark
colours in which the climate of certain parts of Africa has
been portrayed ; but in dealing, even prospectively, with
that sacred thing, human life, it is necessary to be con-
scientiously explicit. Take the experience of the Blake-
lolo, who are composed of Basutas, Bakwains, and the
Bamanguats. They came from a dry climate, than which
there are few more salubrious in the world. They have
not been 20 years in this quarter, but so groat has been
the mortality among the men, that the tribe presents
all the appearance of being destined, at no distant day, to
extinction. I have heard Sebituane (Sebitane, his own
people call him), and many others, complain of the number
of children who have been cut off by fever. The Barotse,
Batoka, Bashibca, &c., who belong to the true negro race,
now constitute the body of the tribe; those who can boast
of being pure Makololo are considered the aristocracy, and
a mere handful. The negroes differ from the Bechuanas in
being very prolific. Every village we entered in the north
swarmed with children. This, perhaps, explains why, not-
withstanding all their wars, kidnapping, slave-selling, and
mortality by fever, they are such an imperishable race. I
supposed the mortality to be considerable among them,
because many with whom we formed acquaintanceship in
going north were in their graves when we returned ; but
we saw many aged men too.

"Having given the dark aide of the picture first the im
pression may have been produced that it can have no other.
n Before deciding let me try and give the bright" phase
a.
fairly. No one fleeing the country around Liuyauti or
heath, Gould form an idea of what it becomes futile