The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-28 00:00:00

Dr. Livingstone.

The letter written by Dr. Livingstone to the Earl
of Clarendon, and read at the meeting of the Geo-
graphical Society on Monday evening, is as fol-
lows :

" Ugomano, May 18.

_ .
" My Lord,—When we could not discover a path
for camels through the mangrove swamps at the
mouth of the Rovuma, we proceeded about 25 miles
to the north of the river, and at the bottom of
Mikindamy Bay entered a beautiful land-locked
harbour, called Kinday-on-Pemba. The entrance
'seems not more than 300 yards wide, and of these
about 150 are deep, the reef on each side of the
channel showing so plainly of a light colour that no
ship ought to touch. The harbour is somewhat of
the shape of the spade' on cards, the entrance
being like the short handle. There is a mile nearly
of space for anchorage, the southern part being
from 10 to 14 fathoms, while the north-western
portion is shallow and rocky. It is a first-rate
harbour for Arab dhows, the land rising nearly all
around from 200 to 300 ft. The water is so calm
that they can draw their craft to the shore to dis-
charge and take in cargo. They are also completely
screened by the masses of trees growing all round it
from seaward observation. The population con-
sists of coast Arabs and their slaves. The six vil-
lages in which they live are dotted all round the
shore, and may contain 300 souls in all. They
seemed to be suspicious, and but for our having
been accompanied by her Majesty's steam-ship Pen-
guin would have given trouble. The ordinary pre-
caution of placing a sentry over our exposed goods
caused a panic, and the sirkar, or head man, thought
that he gave a crushing reply to my explanations
when he bluttered out 'But we have no thieves
here I' Our route hence was S.S.W. to the
.Rovuma, which we struck at the spot marked
on the chart as that at which Pioneer turned
in 1861. We travelled over the same plateau that
is seen to flank both sides of the Rovuma, like a
chain of hills, from 400 ft. to 600 ft. high. Except
where the natives, who are called Nakoade, reside,
the whole country within the influence of the mois-
ture from the ocean is covered with dense jungle.
The trees in general are not large, and planted so
closely together as generally to exclude the sun. In
many places they may be said to be woven together
by tangled masses of climbing plants, more resem-
bling the ropes and cables of a ship in inextricable
confusion than the graceful creepers with which we
are familiar in norther climates. They gave impres-
sion of being remnants of the carboniferous period
referred to by geologists, and the huge pachyder-
mate of that time were the only beings that could
wriggle through them. Trado paths have already been
made, but we had both to heighten and widen them
for camels and buffaloes. The people at the
sea coast had declared that no aid could be got from
the natives. When we were 7 miles off we were
d skill. with theirTw tomahawks
days'co
n
agreeably surprised to find that for reasonable wages
o
we could employ any number of carriers and s
as much as they could
wood-
cutters we desired. As they were accustomed to
whether
cleaning away the gigantic climbers for their garden
uldwnhootaeroemnpoettemweauth-
ept,
duunrteilcothnetyinuwoeurse lafboodurexaofeatlykilnikde thatthe
wig(
Niteliolinteit
dlt
aroekrysFdia.ss
remarkable
possibly,
questionable
labour
lue
nrhed speed
vwawayvaaine
Chinese) s
could
o
inhtoavevioolennlyt actionfowfowls,
asa thisfew
any people
lbaititnegk: soTmheany:akuoscnldese
tehaetersE ncgalnisehn
goats, and the chance of an occasional gorge of the
wild hog of the country. Little can be said about
the appearance of the country. By the occasional
glimpses we got it seemed covered with great masses
of dark green foliage, except where the bamboo gave
a ligher tint or a sterculia had changed its leaves to
yellow in anticipation of winter. The path we fol-
lowed sometimes went along or across a wady,' in
which we were smothered by the grass overhead.
Such rocks as we could see were undisturbed grey
sandstone, capped by ferruginous
blocks of silici-
fied this we often stumbled against bloc
wood that any one would willing to be unwilling
tones. This is a
be-
lieve at sight that they were not s
underneath, and
sure indication here of coal
being
gands of the river.
pieces of it were met in the conglomerate.
'nand with this change
the geological structure changes,
The chief rock is
we have more open vegetation.
When about 90 miles from the
patches of fine white dolomite lie
new ayenite, and
t'c masses have been shot
upon it in spots. Grani
1 tends in front all the way
up over the plain which osuth of the Rovuma
confluence of the Rovuma or
to Ugomano—the
inexplicable droughts had happened
that one of those
nkof
the Rovuma, and a tribe of
over the north bank the drier country we found
Mazite Mazi 13,
party, 1 ts and spread away all the food
like a swarm of locusts Louma, and Lo
d. I had to make forced
above and in the groun
.rolbnably Zulus, had come down
es with the
march enlnijakende in quest of provisions for
mmyora, the chief at Ugemano, and by sending some
20 miles to the south-west I shall soon succour
and am now with Matumora or Madill-
them. This is the point of confluence, as the name
Tugsmano or Ugomano implies, of the Louma and
Loendi. The Leondi is decidedly the parent stream,
and comes from the south-west, where, in addition
to some bold granite peaks, the dim outline of dis-
tant high land appears. Even at that distance they
eyi stroao
make
onaudkteL3taOhki
ems
EiNi miles a
shbeseaaya. beyond our
prospects
es
rapfeoteritl-el
rmaeisrettuhren
isnpgi riptos,inbtu
at
npdosstihbelyththr
easthioslcdauosfedthpear
utlnyebxy-
d ass
not return, but trust to another
therll have
i fact
ft
e lttl
there
propose
rt
yo
Itpwh
needoi
quarter for fresh supplies; but it is best to say
wort man, and
is
little about the future. Matumora is an intelli-
gent
appealed awleedl 1 tok known
nwanll to be f
otrr
hiss -
hy. H e
wise decisions, but he has not much real power be-
yond what his character gives him. The Makonde
are all independent of each other, but not devoid of