The Nevada Democrat., 1857-02-11

The secret of Africa has ceased to be. That
mysterious quarter of the globe last in civiliza-
tion-for in the geography of human advance
ment as well as in physical geography, Egypt
is part of Asia-fortfed against Foreigners
by its compact form, its fatal fevers, the tabu-
lous savagery of its inhabitants, and more than
all, the uncertain terror which is everywhere
projected like a shadow from the unknown has
within few years past, lost great part of
its know nothing character. The sources of the
Nile have been almost reached. The countries
to the south of Sahara have been crossed aud
recrossed by white men, and steam has vexed
thousand miles of the waters of the Niger.
North Of the Cape of Good Hope Lake Ngami
has recently added something to our knowledge.
and its discoverer, DR.. Livingstone, is now as
tonishng the lovers of heroic perseverance and
perfect maps, by his details of a walk of 1000
miles from St. Paul de Loando on the Atlantic,
to Quillimane on the Indian Ocean.
DR.. Livingstone is nearly forty years old
His face is furrowed by hardships and thirty
fevers and black with exposure to burning
sun. His left arm is crushed and nearly help
| less from the too cordial embrace of an African
lion, ana sixteen years among savages have
given him African accent and great hesitancy
in speaking English. Passing through all pri-
vations with the heart of q true hero. not as
sacrifices but as victories, he reached ST. Paul
de Loando, in May, 1854, after q foot journey
of thousand miles from his mission among the
Bechuanas. He remained at st. Loando until
the close of the year. when he set out for the
unknown East. In March he arrived at Quill
name, where he was taken up by British man
of-war. On the way he traced the Leeambye
down to the ZambeZe thus demonstrating the
existence in the center of this unknown land q
river some two thousand miles long.
This immense stream, whose discovery is the
great fruit of the journey, is in itself an enigma
without parallel. But small portion of its
waters reach the sea coast Like the Abyssinian
Nile, it falls through basaltic cleft, near the
middle of its course, which reduces its breadth
from 1000 to 20 yards. Above these falls it
spreads out periodically into great sea, filling
hundreus of lateral channels; below 1t is q tran
quill stream of totally different character. Its
mouths seem to be closing. The southernmost
was navigable when the Portuguese first arrived
in the country, 300 years ago, but it has long
since ceased to be practicable. The Quillimane
mouth has of late years been impossible, even
for canoe, from July to February, and for 200
or 300 miles up the river navigation is never
attempted in the dry season. And in the month
ofJuy, when the lower portion of the river, after
its April freshets, has shrunk to a mere dribet,
above the falls the river spreads out like a sea
over hundreds Of square miles This, with fire.
quent cataracts, and the hostility of the natives
would seem to be an eflectual bar to the high
hopes of fat trade and fibustering in which
English merchants and journals are now in
dulgng.
During this unprecedented march, alone and
among savages, to whom a white face was a
miracle, DIR. Livingstone was compelled to strug-
gle through indescribabe hardsh;ps. The hos
tilty of the natives he conquered by his init
mate knowledge of their character and the
Bechuana tongue to which theirs is related. He
waded rivers and slept in the sponge and ooze
of marshes, being often so drenched as to be
compelled to turn his armpt into a watch pocket
His cattle were destroyed by the terrible tse-tse
fly and he was too poor to purchase canoe.
Lions were numerous, being worshiped by many
of the tribes as the receptacles Of the the depar
ted souls Of their chiefs; dangerous, too, as his
crushed arm testifies. However he thinks the
fear of African wild beasts greater in England
than in Africa. Many of his documents were
lost while crossing river in which he came
near losing his life also, but he has memoranda
Of the latitudes and lOngitudes of q multitude
Of cities towns rivers and mountains, which
will go far to fill up the unknown region" in
our aliases.
Toward the interior he found the country
more fertile and more populous The natives
worshped idols, believed in transmigrated exs-
tence after dcah, and performed religious cere-
ferOcious and suspicious than sea-board tribes
had tradition of the deluge aud more settled
governments. Some of them practiced nocula-
: ton, and used quininc, and all were eager for
trade, being entrely dependent on English calico
for clothing a small piece of which would pur.
chase slave. Their language was sweet ald
: expressive. Although their women. on the
whole, were not well treated. man having a'
many wives as he chose they were complete
mstresses Of their own houses and gardens
which the husband dared not enter in his wife''
absence. They were fond of show and glitter
and as much as $3.50 had been given for al
English rife. On the arid plateau of the interior
watermelons supplied the place of water fol
E some months of the year, as they do on the
; plains of Hungary in summer. A Quaker tribe
: on the river Zanga, never fight, never have con
SUMPTION scrOfola, hydrophobia, cholera, small
pox or measles. These advantages, however
are counterbalanced by the necessity of assidu
Gus devotion to trade and raising children te
make good their loss from the frequent inroad:
of their fighting neighbors.
DR.. Livingstone's discoveries, in their char.
acter and commercial value, have been declared
by Sir Roderic Murchson to be superior to any
since the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope
by Vasco de Cana But greeter than any com
mercial value is the lesson which they teach
that all obstacles yield to resolute man-N
y Tribune.
DAMASCUS THE OLDEST Cry IN THE WoRLp.--