The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-29 00:00:00

DB. LIVINGSTONE'S EXPEDMON.

The Cape papers publish the following letters
which have been addressed by Dr. Livingstone to
the late governor, Sir George GreDec.
" Tete, lB, 1858.
" Dear Sir George,—We have been up to examine
the rapids of Kebra, or more correctly Ka ord Vasa,
when the water in the Zambesi was at its lowest,
and we found that all we knew of it previously,
from Portuguese description, -was just nothing at
all. We steamed about four miles beyond where
any description we could get even here terminated,
and found that instead of a number of detached
rocks jutting out of the water across the stream,
the affair arises from the Zambesi being con-
fined by mountains to a bed a quarter of a
mile wide at parts, and at one point to fifty
or sixty yards. In the wider part there is a
deep groove cut of the solid rock, if such it
can be called, where rocks are twisted, broken,
cleaved, and huddled together in every direction,
besides being waterworn and drilled with portholes
everywhere. When sailing up the groove, with the
walls far above our masts, the man at the lead kept
calling out 'no bottom at ten fathoms.' Yet the
groove fills at flood and flows over the adjacent bed,
though to do so it must rise perpendicularly 80 or
100 feet. There are rapids in the groove which this
feeble vessel cannot stem, but we have no doubt that
a steamer of good power would go up easily at flood.
One rapid which had 5 feet of fall became level at
3 feet general rise of the river. The Ma Robert was
just one sixteenth of an inch thick when new—is
now thinner ; so we fear to try towing her up lest
she should go craunch, like an old tin kettle, in the
operation. There is also a place with perpendicular
walls, past which no towing line could be carried.
The mountains are at least 2,300 feet high, covered
with trees and very healthy. As far as the eye can
reach northwards we see ranges of the same even into
the bide distance. We slept without cover or quinine,
and but for:the toil, which was excessive, we should
all have returned improved in health. It made us
so lean that had I come down this way in 1856, I
should have perished before reaching Tete. It is an
impediment to navigation, i.e., canoe or bumboat
navigation. They cannot paddle against a four
knot current, and then here they cannot punt at 60
feet deep, nor tow from a height of 80 feet, so they
go overland. We have abundance of work in the
meantime down here. The geologist reports having
found three seams of coal-Ist, seven feet thick ;
2d, thirteen feet six inches ; 3d, twenty•five feet
thick, in a fine cliff section. It was fired by light-
ning a few years ago, and burned a long time. We
are all in good health—have had colds only—no
fever, except among the Kroomen. The Portuguese
commandant, Major Secard, gave us the residence
or government house to live in at Tete. lam going
up the Shire next week.

" D. LIVINGSTONE."

" Tete, 19th Feb. 1859.

" My dear Sir George—ln my last I told you of
our visit to Kebra Vasa, and I am happy now to be
able to inform you that it has been visited again
since the water began to rise, and the reports by
Mr. C. Livingstone and Mr. Baines fully confirm
-what was advanced as to the effect of a flood. Se-
veral of the cataracts, which at low water seemed
very serious obstacles, are rendered so smooth that
but for the adjacent mountains having been
sketched they would not have been recognised ; but
a steamer capable of stemming the main current is
necesssary for the ascent. The river is now 15 feet
above above low-water mark in November, and as
it is expected to rise considerably more I felt in-
clined to take advantage of it, and haul the vessel
through; but besides the risk of doubling her up,
she can carry so little cargo we would soon be
without supplies after we had succeeded. We shall,
therefore, work fork while on this side the rapid;
and, as a beginning, I may mention that we went
up the Shire at the beginning of January and found
it a good navigable river for at least a hundred
miles from its confluence. The mountain Mamm-•
bala is four thousand feet high and has a wonder-
fully well cultivated large top. Lemon trees grow
quite wild in the woods, and so do oranges and
pine-apides. There are several fine little fountains,
with water slightly chalybeate ; the people inde-
pendent and very hospitable. The view from the
top of the Shire winding across an extended plain,
inhabited by real Solophagi, is magnificent, and, as
you may judge, from the height, we had quite a
different climate from that of the plain. The vege-
tation is very like that of Loanda and Angola. We
have also a fine hot sulphureous fountain at the

base, yet no advantage has been taken of this
splendid sanatorium by the, Portuguese. The valley
of the Shire at one part o.baunds in elephants, and
if you come to see us about January, I undertake
to show five hundred of these noble animals grazing
on the plain. We saw more than that; as there are
branches of the river which form islands, we"some•
times chased them with this vessel. They had
magnificent tusks. I think ,that they are at-
tracted down from the hills by the sweet fruit

of wild palmyras, o: which there a.re fine forests
there. The people are very suspicious of us—
never having been visited by Europeans before
—but treated us civilly. Our wooding parties
were never molested, yet a guard was set over both
night and day. They are well armed with bows
and poisoned arrows. The women insert an orna-
ment exactly the shape of the rings fur table nap-
kins into the upper lip. The effect is frightful. It
is a most unaccountable ornament. They cultivate
largely on the upper third of the Shire valley, and
we purchased abundance of provisions at a cheap
rate, besides specimens of their cotton yarn. They
have two kinds of cotton, and both very good in
quality.
Our first object was to gain their confidence,
and seeing them so suspicious, though we had pretty
certain information of tho Shire becoming smooth
again beyond the cataract which stopped our pro-

gross, and that Arabs from Zanzibar 'were in the
habit of coming down in canoes from Lake Nyanja,

we thought it imprudent to leave the vessel in their
power and go overland. We leave them to allow
our first visit to have its effect, and in the course of
a month return to them again. The reason why
the Portuguese have not gone farther up about
Merambala is probably the steady rapidity of the
current—two and a half knots. There are no still
reaches, and with the heavy Zambezi canoes, it is
difficult to get on in a current. The people, too,
have a bad name. They are said to have killed
some native traders. In 1856, when I was coming
down past the mouth of the Shire, I was told that
an expedition had been sent up, but was unable to
go far because the river was blocked up with duck-
weed. Quantities of that were then coming out of
the river, but at 25 miles from the confluence the
duckweed ceases, so that the expedition could not
have gone far. Above that th 3 river widens a
little, but it is free from sandbanks, and-deep. In-
deed, it may be said to be superior to the Zambezi
for steam navigation. We could go on at night
even.

" This is our most unhealthy season. Fever is
fatal on the coast. Here we have some of it, but
no one dies in consequence. Three of our party
have had touches of it, but better. This is the edge
of the high healthy lands, where I have still every
reason to believe that Europeans might live in
safety. We are longing somewhat for news,
having received none except the papers you were
kind enough to send us by the Lyra.
" I have little hopes of any good with the people
under or in contact with the Portuguese. A year
or more must elapse ere they recover from the effects
of their late war. But I think more highly of the
capabilities of the country for the produce England
stands most in need of than ever. I could collect a
waggon load or two of indigo from the streets of
Te?eto-morrow. Dr. Kirk made some with it ; and
cotton, though burned down annually, springs up as
brisk as ever. The people here make sugar. Of this
I was not aware before. We have put up our little
engine, to show what machinery can do. Our first
_work was to saw up planks, with which Major
Secard, our best friend, was about to build. We try
sugarcane as soon as it is ready to cut.—l am, &c.,
"'DAVID LIVINGSTONE.

" Dear Sir Ge(7rse,—We are now about to deliver
our letters to her Majesty's ship Persian, and though
I know that she has one onboard for you of May last,
I add a few words to that, as we are sending some
buarge seeds and living plants of the motsikri.
Dr. Kirk will write Mr. 3.l.,Gibbon as to how they
are to be disposed, and I have now to be your good
offices for speedy transmission
,to their destination.
The buarge will do well in Natal, in localities where
other cultivation is impossible. Should it grow, no
care is required for an annual crop (a comfortable
fact for all Hottentots, English, Date, and African)
for it is simply pollared when the fibre is mature in
the thinner branches. The seeds yield a paint or
drying oil. Some are for India and others for Natal:
and we shall send more when we can. There are
plants, too, of motsikiri, a tree the seed. of which
yields a fat and an oil valuable in commerce. It is
exported from Whambane. We have sent home a
report, the joint production of Dr. Kirk and myself,
on the African fever ; and we think our experience
of it has rendered it a less formidable disease than
heretofore. This will prpbably be published.
" We have been able to furnish a report on the
navigation of the Zambesi, after seeing all the
changes to which it is annually liable. From what
we have observed in an unusually dry year, a
vessel drawing two feet, such as they are obliged
to use on/ the Mississippi, could ply the whole of
ordinary years. During four or five months each
year large vessels could ascend to Tete. There the
river is 964 yards from bank to bank—about three
times the width of the Thames at London-bridge ;
at the broadest part it is about three miles, and

divided into five or six channels. A tide-poll put up
at my suggestion by Major Sicard showed a gra-
dual rise above low-water mark of 8 feet, then a va-
riation from 8 to 15 feet during some months, then
a gradual decrease to 31. The low-water mark
adopted was the surface of that in which from 18
in. to 24 in. were found in certain crossings from
one channel to another. The channels then contained
reaches, miles in length, of 8 or 10 feet, but in the
crossings we had much difficulty; the vessel of 31.3
in. being of what is called the :Niger canoe or pot-
bellied shape,' and so weak an engine as to be unable
to help us in the difficulty. She was only 1-16th
of an inch thick in the beginning, and is now
like an old copper kettle full of holes at one
part. We are about to try Nyinyesi from
the Shire, if she will only stick together so
long: The Shire is more easily navigated than the
Zambesi, as we have two or three fathoms con-
stantly, and can steam by night. We are in hopes,
after surmounting a 30 mile difficulty, of getting on
the lakes of Eastern Africa, and then we go to the
Makololo country either afloat or afoot.
(Signed) "DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
" P.S.—I wonder why our Cape merchants don't
push their merchandise higher up the coast. The
Tete trader 3 have been compelled to wait four
months at Quilimaine for calicoes, or till an Ameri-
can ship came. They are a yard wide, coarse, un-
bleached calico, and dearer than the English.
Gentoos from India give higher prices for ivory, in
English calico, than the Americans can afford. We
-have failed to receive our regular newspapers, and
not a Punch except yours—nothing more is needed
to prove us out of the world."