The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-11 00:00:00

TEE SOURCES OF THE NILE.

A crowded meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society was held on Monday evening at Burling-
ton-house, the Earl de Grey and Ripon, president,
in the chair. Among those present were—Sir R. J.
Murchison, the Danish Minister, Generals Sir H.
Jones, Sir G. Pollock, Portlock, and Moore ; Ad-
miral Fitzroy ; Colonels Sykes, M.P., Lefroy, Gor-
don, and Sotheby ; Captains Nolloth, Bedford, the
Hon. A. A. Cochrane, Willis, and Bedingfeld,
R.N. ; Major Moore, Mr. R. W. Crawford, M.P.,
Mr. Stephen Cave, M.P. ; Captains Speke, Syd-
ney Webb, Tytler, Murchison, and O'Brien;• Con-'
suls M'Leod and Hanson ; Drs. Hodgkin, Purcell,
and Bennett ; Messrs. Barrow, C. White, Brook-
ing, Osborne Smith, Gassiot, Grey, Arrowsmith,
Findlay, &c. Sir Andrew Agnew, M.P., Captain
Claude Clerk, the Hon. W. H. Forester Denison,
M.P., Capt. J. Hamilton Ward, R.N., Mr. Edward
Enfield, Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, Mr. Charles Otter,
and Mr. J. Petherick, were elected Fellows. The
paper read was, " Journey up the White Nile to the
Equator, and Travels in the Interior of Africa, in
the years 1857-58, by Mr. J. Petherick, her Majesty's
Consul at Khartum." On the author's first expedi-
tion in 1853 he reached the extreme limits of
the Bahr el Gazal, where he met opposition, which,
on account of the cowardice of his men, he was
unable to overcome ; but in the next year he
effected a landing, and, by establishing stations in
that and the following years along his route, he
believes that he actually penetrated as far as the
equator. Starting from Khartum in December,
1857, the author passed on the 30th, Eleis, the last
Egyptian settlement on the White Nile, leaving
which they proceeded for two days through an un-
inhabited and unfertile country, when they reached,
on the eastern bank, the Shillocks, a fishing and
commercial tribe; and on the western the Dinkers,
a nomadic tribe, its deadly enemy. The large
island of Daenab was next passed, whence, pro-
ceeding through a level, well-wooded, and thickly
inhabited country, they arrived off the mouth of
the Sobat, and at its mouth about 100 yards wide,
and which is supposed to have its sources in the
Galla and Berri countries. The Giraftb river,
scarcely half the size of the Sobat, flowing from the
S.E., was next passed ; continuing to steer W. by a
little N., they came to a large basin, into which
the White Nile flows from the south. This lake is
an accumulation of numberless rivulets and streams,
overgrown with strong reeds, abounding in hippo-
potami in such profusion as to make a passage be-
tween them appear impossible. From here they
continued their navigation to the island of Kyt,
whence they proceeded further into the interior by
land, passing through the country of the Djour
tribe. The natives hitherto met with are strictly
pastoral, but they now entered a latitude where the
tsetse fly abounds, and consequently cattle cannot
exist; therefore the Djour tribe, as well as all the
more southerly ones, are agricultural in their habits.
Pursuing their journey amid numerous obstacles
and perils, the author calculates that, having
marched 25 days from the shore of the lake, in a
direct line, the latitude of the equator was reached.
The general character of the country through which
he passed is eminently fertile. In some places
maize or millet, cotton of good staple, yarns, &c.,
are grown, and iron ore exists and is extensively
worked by the Djour tribe. The President, in
proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Pethe-
rick, stated that her Majesty's Govern-
ment had granted the sum of £2,500., to
be paid to the society's bankers, and to be expended
by the Council on behalf of the Eastern African
Expedition, under the command of Captain Speke,
and the President expressed a hope that these two
explorers, one proceeding from the south and the
other from the north, would, at some not far distant
day, again meet, after having completed their re-
spective undertakings and satisfactorily traeed the
course of the Nile. After some observations from
Captain Speke, Sir Roderick Murchison congratu-
lated the society on what they had learnt from Mr.
Petherick, and expressed his belief that the first
step towards the civilisation of Africa was by bar-
tering with them, and teaching them that they
could gain something by trading with an honest
Englishman. He also alluded to some clay brought
from Africa by Mr. Petherick, which upon analy-
sation was found to contain a fair proportion of
gold. After some remarks from Colonel Sykes re-
lative to the probability of the sources of the Nile
as laid down by Consul Petherick being identified
with the Lake Nyanza, discovered by Capt. Spoke,
Mr. Hanson, a native of Africa, and her Majesty's
Consul at Sherborough, on the coast of Guinea, ad-
dressed the society, expressing it as his opinion that
the establishment of commercial relations would go
further to suppress the slave trade than the equip-
ment of naval squadrons, however formidable. The
meeting was then adjeurned to the 23d inst., when
a paper by Mr. Wheelwright, on a proposd rail-
way route across the Andes, frem Caldera to Ro-
sario, via Cordova, will be read.