The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-04 00:00:00

DR. LIVINGSTONE'S DISCOVERIES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MANCHESTER GUARMAw
Sir,—l few days ago, when in the south of Eng-
land, I received a long letter from Dr. Livingstone,
dated Tette, March 9 ; this morning I have received
another, dated River Zambesi, May 30.
As many of Dr. Livingstone's friends will doubt-
less feel an interest in the accounts which he gives
of his expedition, I now enclose extracts from both
letters, which are at your service for publication.—
I am sir, yours respectfully, J. A. TURNER.
Pendlebury-house, Sept. 30, 1859.
FROM DR. LIVINGSTONE TO MR J. A. TURNER.
" Tette, 9th March, 1859.
"My dear Mr. Turner,— . . . I hope to
have an opportunity of sendingyou a package about
the end of May, for I have written to the Admiral
requesting one of his cruisers to call on the Queen's
birthday at the mouth of the Kongone, and furnish
us with some salt provisions. It will not reach you,
I should think, for three or four months after May.
We May not meet a cruiser then, but will bury a
bottle, and appoint a time, perhaps a month later.
The box will go to the Admiralty, and I think Capt.
Washington, the hydrographer, will be good enough
to forward it. If you wish to suggest anything, the
captain will at any time communicate with me.
" I believe we have proved that, during a large
portion of the yeitr' Europeans may come up this
river with safety. We have had some fever, but
on the edge of the highlands here people are known
to be safe. We have also shown that the Zambesi
may be navigated during most of the year in flat-
bottomed boats. I came up here in our vessel,
which draws two feet six inches, when the river
'Was at its lowest, and it was unusually low this
last year. Now it stands from nine to 13 feet
higher than it did then—this from accurate marks
—and it will continue to do so till the end of May.
" We have found that it is not necessary to give
the people cotton seed, as their own seed yields cot-
ton which we think quite as good as the upland
American ; and some is quite as long as the Egyp-
tian. This all imported cotton, or Tonge Manga'
(foreign). The Tonje Kadja,' or native, is remark-
ably strong, curly, or rather woolly to the feel, like
their own hair. Both plants, though burned down
annually, spring up again as fresh and vigorous as
ever. The country to the north of this is all cotton
land together. I have drawn attention to Angola
as part of the north country, and I hear that the
Government has got a report from a German natu-
ralist, Dr. Welweitch, which fully confirms all I
advanced about it. Sugar canes grew equally well.
I could collect some cartloads of indigo from the streets
and immediate vicinity of Tette. I can speak with
confidence nbw. It is of excellent quality.
'When asked about oils, in Manchester, I mentioned
that from cucumber seeds; and one of the news-
papers faceticiusly compared it to the idea of ex-
tracting sunbeams from cucumbers.' I now find
that the oil referred to is the best for the table, and
it is made not only from the yellow oval cucumber
I saw before, but from melon seeds too. They are
bjust ripening now, but I shall try and enclose a
ottle of cucumber oil for Mrs. Turner.
" Can your sons not make a model of a vessel of
really light draught ? This, after all the newspaper
talk of drawing only 13 in., never drew less than
2ft. lin. or 2ft. tin. ; and is so weak, with her 10-
horse single engine, that a breeze holds the paddles,
and stops her. Three and a half knots, in a current,
brings her to a standstill in another way, though
-working more steam than her maker alldwed. The
steel plates are excellent material for a hot climate ;
they seem to rust none at all, except where kept
wet and dry alternately, as on deck.
" We have a rapid above this, but when the river
is full the cataracts in it disappear. We are unable
to ascend in this vessel; she is only 1-16 in. in thick-
ness, and can carry no cargo whatever. So, in ad-
dition to the risk of doubling her up in hauling her
through, we would soon be without supplies after
we had succeeded. We expect another vessel out
with sufficient power to stem the rapids.
" In the meantime we have gone 100 miles up
the Shire, and find it admirably adapted for steam
navigation all the way—the people had plenty of
cotton for their own use, and sold us cotton and
yarn in small quantity. I enclose (box) specimens.
Provisions are abundant, but the people had never
been visited by Europeans before, and of course
never sold cotton before. This river is said to come
out of Lake Nyanja ; we were stopped by a cataract.
" Now that my attention has been specially
directed to the subject, I feel more than ever con-
vinced that Africa north of about 15 deg. south
latitude, is incomparably the best adapted for the
produce of cotton of any locality in the world. The
parallel of Tette suffers from droughts, but there
are none in the country beyond. I expect very
little to be done by the Portuguese.
"It seems our cruisers cannot touch a French
vessel engaged in the emigration scheme. This has
set the slave trade a-going, though it eats out both
power and commerce. The free emigrants are sent
down the river in chains ! It is vexatious to see the
infatuation by which this emigration is dictated.
They cannot raise sugar in Bourbon without guano;
.here the cane grows well without manure, and it is
called indigenous. The natives north of this (not
20 miles off) make sugar, and I buy it for our own
and the Kroomen's stores, at the rate of two yards
of your white calico for a pot weighing 251bs. ; yet
the labourers are exported to a worse soil.
"I have set up the skeleton of the sugar mill, and
little engine, to show what can be done with ma-
chinery. The Commandant, an enlightened man,
and a very warm friend of ours, thought as well as
we that it would do good ; but I have come to the
conclusion, on seeing the slave trade revive again,
which owing to the vigilance of the cruisers had
been repressed, that the colonisation of the healthy
highlands by our own countrymen will be the most
effectual means of winding up the difficulty. I have
no doubt our people would make themselves rich,
while virtually crowning with success our long-
continued efforts for the abolition of the slave trade.
I have ventured to suggest this in a despatch on
the slave trade. A few Portuguese, not numbering,
if the convict soldiery be excluded, more than 30
or 40, keep other nations out of this immense terri-
toi y.
" I would have written t) you long ago, but have
been sailing master during most of our stay. Our
naval officer resigned, and repeated the resignation,
from an idea that lye could net move, either hand
or foot, without him. I was obliged to teachlim
better, by mounting the paddle-box myself, and
sending him home. I have guided the vessel some
1,600 miles; this has prevented my writing, as
otherwise I would have done, to my friends.
The officer above-mentioned rejected a steamer
which would have suited us admirably. I
acquiesced, trusted to his judgment, not
knowing then his liability to sea-sickness, and
I fear the Government may refuse to let us have her
now. I have applied for her months ago. Will you
-make inquiry if they are going to send her ?
" Kindest salutations to Mrs. Turner and your
family. " DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
" To James Aspinall Turner, Esq., M.P."

" River Zambesi, May 30, 1859.
"My dear Mr. Turner—We have lately disco-
vered a very fine inland lake called Shirwa (Sheer-
wait) by going up the river Shire (pronounced
Sheerey) about 100 miles in this vessel, then some
50 more on foot. The lake is from 20 to 30 miles
wide at the broad part and 50 or 60 long. It is
very beautiful, being surrounded on all sides by
lofty mountains ; and it is reported about 2,000
feet above the level of the sea itself. It is reported
to be separated from a very much larger lake,
Nyanja (or, as we ascertained its proper name to
be, Nyinyesi, or The Stars), by a strip of land only
five or six miles wide—and, as we afterwards dis-
covered, a portion of Shirwa is only about 30 miles
distant from the Shire, which is at all times navi-
gable by tills vessel.
" The country through which we travelled was
quite a highland one—in ten days we were 1,500
feet above the vessel. The Shire rushes over seve-
ral bataracts in that portion which we saw when on
foot, and becoming confined in a narrow channel of
30 yards, has always a rapid current. It gave me
an idea of water power without dams, equal to drive
all the mills in England—such a cotton country we
have seen nowhere except Angola. The further we
went the more important did the crop appear to be
to the inhabitants. They plant it at a time of the
year that allows of the growth through the winter,
and mning to maturity before the rain commences
or insects come forth to injure the crops. Every
one spins and weaves the cotton, which is chiefly of
the strong indigenous kind. Chiefs may be seen
setting, picking, or arranging the rove with their
fingers. They have no trade in ivory—or any-
thing else except slaves. I never saw so much land
under cotton anywhere, and the country being so
elevated, it is healthy, the vegetation is exactly like
that of Londa in the middle of the country—run-
ning streams abound and this is the region
that I have always pointed out as the proper coun-
try for cotton and sugar.
"In coming down the Shire the people brought
cotton in small bags for sale—a bunch or rove as
large as one's head cost only one foot of calico not
worth a penny—l send it to you in the box.
" But before proteeding further, I must say that
having been disappointed- in meeting a man-of-war
on the 24th, the-box must remain at Senna till the
end of July, when we hope a ship will meet the
vessel at the Kongone, * * Well, our prospects
11 Shire cotton trade is as
;hat in the Niger, had we
'a Leone missions. afford ;
gad of collecting the dif•
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