The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-09 00:00:00

SAFETY OF DR. LIVINGSTONE.

All doubts and fears as to the safety of Dr. Livingstone
are now fortunately set at rest by the gratifying intelli-
gence that letters have been received from him by Dr.
Kirk at Zanzibar. These letters, which are now in Lon-
don, announce the safety of the traveller, and report him
to have succeeded in the object Of his perilous journey.
They were transmitted to Dr. Kirk by Arabs who had
travelled from the northern portion of Africa. The wel-
come missives also report that Dr. Livingstone has had on
the whole a very successful journey ; that he ha.s, as may
be supposed, made many important discoveries, and that
he will soon return to England.

It will be remembered that Dr. Livingstone went out to
Zanzibar, and thence, in 1866, to the interior,with the view
of exploring Lake Tanganyika, and determining its
waterflow. Everyone will also reeollect how the painful
news came to Ergiand that the men who had accom-
panied him hal returned to the coast, and had told
the story of Livingstone's having been put to death
by men of the Mazete tribe. This account obtained
almost general credit, and England mourned the fate
of the intrepid traveller. However, Sir Roderick
Murchison and one or two other gentlemen could not
feel by any means certain of the truth of this story,
and their doubts were the stronger from knowing
that these Johanna men are proverbially liars. So
strong was the conviction of the President of the Geogra-
phical Society that Dr. Livingstone was yet alive (for he
felt quite certain that the details of the account given by
these men were untrue), that he used the utmost exertions
with the society and with the Government to have an ex-
ploring party sent out. This was at length agreed to, and
Mr. Young and Mr. Faulkner wer: despatched to Zanzi
bar, and proceeded up the Zambesi in August last to Lake
Nyassa. Here Mr. Young had no small difficulty
in keeping with him the negroes whom he had
brought from the coast. But he contrived to visit
many villages, and in many places he obtained
tidings of Dr. Livingstone, there being nu reason to
doubt that he was the European whom the natives
described as having passed through the country twelve
months earlier. It is to be regretted that Mr. Young war
unable to induce the natives to go with him so as to trace
Dr. Livingstone yet farther than he was enabled to do by
report ; but there was a circumstantiality about the evi-
dence which he collected ,and an agreement in its nature,
though given by persons far asunder, which made it
impossible to doubt the deductions which he drew from
t. The evidence, as collected from the natives near
Lake Nya.ssa, was, that Dr. Livingstone Lad passed
through Mafunda at the southern end of the
,lake.
Mareuga, a local chief, gave Mr. Young an account of
the return of the Jehaen r men, who did not tell him that
Livingstone had been killed, but that they had returned,
as they had only agreed to carry his baggage as far as they
liked. He utterly ridiculed the idea of the Mazete having
been near the place at which the Johanna men said they
had killed Livingstone, and declared that if he hail
died three mouths' journey away he would have heal d
Of it. He alleged that Livingstone had gone south,
and produced a man who declared that he had
gone five days' journey with him. In various places
erticles which Dr. Livingstone carried with him
for barter were procured from the natives, such as a Corn.
mon Prayer-book, portions of the " Nautical Almanac "
for 1865, in which he had wrapped up medicine, and otla r
matters which strongly confirmed the story of his having
passed through the country in safety. There can be no
doubt that he travelled in safety for five days' journey
3eyand the place at which his lying servants said he had
been killed, and there seems good reason to expect that
he continued to travel eastward and acmes the c :nti-
nent again, or he may have turned to the north, as some
have suggested, and so down the Nile to Alexandria.
Whichever course he may have taken, it is a subject for
congratulation that there were men at home who doubted
the lying story of his returned servants, and that their
doubts were so pressed in the proper quarter as to lead to
the relief which all felt on reading the evidence that
chewed these doubts to have been fully justified. It is
further satisfactory to learn that the difficulties of travel-
ling in these regions seem to diminish in proportion to the
frequency of the expeditions, for Mr. Young expressed
the greatest readiness to go out again if needful.—Post.