The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-29 00:00:00

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NEWSPAPER

ROYAL GEOGRA.N.IC IL eithAA"
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DR. LIVINGSTONE'S
Yesterday evening the second meetinw Ottp s-
society was held at Burlington :House; PiceadillT
Sir R. Murchison, Bart., F.R.So, in the chair...
Among the distinguished visitors present :were
Admiral van Dockum, the Danish Minister; the
Bishop of Llandaff, the Earl of Sheffield, Lord
Keane,,Archthaeon Raymond, Admiral Sir Thomas
Herbert, Sir E. Belcher, Generals Cannon, Fox,
Monterth, Phillips, Beatson, and Moore ; Colonel
Ainslie. Sir S. F. Davis Captains Collinso;i, Crau-
furd, Bedford, and liedingfield ; Mr. Maclean,
Astronomer Royal at. the Cape; Major Cooke, Cap-
tains Burton, Speke, Lynch, Jenkin, Defree, and
IV. Harrison Walker; the Hon. G. Barrington, the -
Hon. It. Marsham, Mr. Denby Seymour, M.P. ;
Drs. Kinkel, Fitton, and Wade; and-Messrs. Bab-
bage, btaveley, Osborne, Smith, Craufurd, Barrow,
and Arrowsmith.
The formal business of electing some new mem-
bers having been gone through,
The CHAIRMAN called on the Secretary to read
the letters from Dr. Livingstone.
The SECRETARY said the communications rela-
tive to the Livingstone expedition were so volumi-
nous, that it would not be possible to rend a quarter
of them. He should, therefore; confine himself to
reading the most important of them. The first
letter he should read was addressed by Dr. Living- •
stone to the Earl of Malmesbury. The first letter
he read stated, that after the alarm created by their
arrival had subsided, they landed, leaving the
vessel in command .ef the quartermaster, stokers,
and a chief named Chibisa, and with Dr. Kirk and
13 Makololo advanced on foot, until they had dis-
covered a magnificent inland lake, called Shirwa
which had no outlet, and is separated from the
lake Nynagesi (probably the Nyassa Nyanja, or
Uniamesi, which is believed to extend pretty well
up to the equator) by a tongue of land only five or
six miles broad, and as he ascended the southern
end of the Shirwa is not more than 30 miles distant
frOm a branch of the navigable Shire,. The course
pursued was chiefly north, and along the banks of
the Shire. They ascended the country, and ae . •
did so their route became very tortuous, as they
had to go from one chiefs village to another, and
the formalities occupied in convincing those great
little men that they were not a coir.pany of marau-
ders took up considerable time. Chibisa was the
only chief that did not deem it necessary to call
his people together and arm them before giving an
audience, and his influence was great service to
them. His progress was so slow that after travel-
ling for a fortnight they were not more than 40
miles in a straight line from the ships. He crossed
the spur of a mountain called Dzomba and Zomba.
On the south side they got a distant view of
a part of Lake Shirwa, at the feet of a
range of high mountains at the east. On
the 18th of April he reached the shores of the
lake, and found many streams flowing into
it, but the natives knew of no outlet. Tho
adjacent country was well watered, and several
streams flow into it; and form the Tolombe and
Zombane, which flow into the lake. The water is
bitter, but drinkable, and abounds. in fish, and the
country abounds in alligators and hippopotami.
The height of the lake Chibisa was 2,000 feet above
the level of the sea. Dzomba, was over 6,000 feet
high, and the spur he crossed on the south was
3,400 feet above the ship. The whole district was
well, though not densely populated with the Mang-
auja, who inhabit the banks of the river Shire front
Morambola Up to Chibisa's place, but they occupy
the eastern bank only and the adjacent mountains .
beyond that point. The western hank above
Chibisa is peopled by the Maravi: None of this
tribe are to be met with nearShirwa, so that it
would be improper to identify them with the Lake
Maravi of the maps. The Portuguese do not even
pretend to know Shirwa, but, after the first Euro-
pean had traversed this vast continent, the Portu-
guese Minister claimed the honour for two black
men who were trading; to that part of the country,
but it was in the memory of a lady now living at
Letts that those two black men came thither dressed
and armed like the people of Londe, but proceeded
no further than there. They thus failed by about
4,000 Juiles of what was claimed for thew. Dr.
Livingstone had made inquiry everywhere to ascer-
tain whether the country had ever been visited by
white people before, and everywhere he was an-
swered in the negative. In this he was confirmed
by the fact that the Portuguese dare not enter far
up the River Shire for fear of being attacked by
the natives. The Mang Anja were a brave people,
and repelled an expedition the Portuguese had sent
up the country before it had got thirty miles.
The traders would not venture up it., because setae
who had tried it had been robbed by the native
tribes, so that the interior was not known to the
Portuguese. The country everywhere appeared fer-
tile evea on the sides of rocks and mountains. The
grass grew high, and cotton was cultivated in large
quantities, and the further he went the crop ap-
peared to be of greater importance. The women
alone appeared to be well clothed with the pro-
duce of the country, the men appearing to be con-
tent with goatskins a qd'a cloth made of the bark
of trees. Every one of the natives spins and weaves
cotton. Even chiefs may be seen with a spindle
and a hag, which serves for a distaff. There were
two varieties of cotton he noticed grown in this
country. One was a woolley kind, and the other
was from imported seed, yielding a cotton that ren-
dered it unnecessary to furnish the people with
American seed. A point in its culture worth
ot ice Nva.: that the time of plhnting had been
selected so that the plants remained in the ground
during the winter, and five months after sowing
they came to maturity, before the rains began and
insects came to damage the crop. The natives had
no domestic animals but sheep, but large game was
plentiful among the Maravi, west of the Shire.
Their weapons were bows and poisoned arrows with
iron heads, and every native carried a knife. There
were also some rude attempts to make a pistol.
Almost every village had
.a forge for smelting
black magnetic iron ore, and many implements
were made of it, but all very rude in their form
and shape. The letters further gave minute details
of the domestic life of the inhabitants, whom they
described as strictly honourable in their bargains,
and that if I've were to purchase land of them our
right to it would be respected by. all. They then
referred to the navigation of the Mozambique
river, which Dr. Livingstone contended was of the
utmost-importance in a commercial point of view
to this country.

The letters were received with much satisfaction,
and after some discussion on the nature of the
country and the advantages we might derive from
our cenpnerce with it, the meeting adjourned.