The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-05-07


used on machinery will not become gummy in the
least There Is no danger from its use, and the
trouble OF trimming the lamps is comparatively
nothing. Its expense in comparison with fish oil may
be known from the fact that the Breckenridge Coal
Oil Company of Kentucky offered to the Department
proposals to supply the lighthouses with this kind Of
oil at about half the price of sperm oil, and will only
be rejected because the advertisement calls for fish
oil. We see no reason why this article viii not come
INTO general use as soon as n sufficient supply can be
furnished.-U s. Democrat.
DR.. LIvINGsroN's DIsCovER1Es.-The secret of
Africa has ceased to be. That mysterious quarter Of
the globe, last in civilization-for in the geography
OF human advancement, as well as in physical geogra-
ply, Egypt has always been a part Of Asia-fortifed
against foreigners by its compact form, its fatal fevers,
the fabulous savagery of its Inhabitants, and more
than all, the uncertain terror which is everywhere
projected like a shadow from the unknown, has with
III a few years past, lost a 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 and recrossed by white men.
Steam has veXed q thousand miles Of the waters Of
the Niger, and newspapers have been regularly sent
to within three or four hundred miles Of the geo
graphical center of the country. North of the Cape
Of Good Hope, Lake Ngami has recently added some
thing to our knowledge, and its discoyerer, DR.. Liv-
lngston, IS now astonishing 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..
Livingston IS nearly forty years old. His face is
turrowed by h~ardshlps and thirty fayers, and black
with exposure to a burning sun. His left arm IS
crushed and nearly helpless from the too cordial
embrace Of an African lion, and sixteen years among
sayages have given him an African accent and great
hesltancy IN speaking English. Passing through all
privation with the heart Of q true hero, not as
sacrifices but a3 victories, he reached st. Paul dc
Loando, IN May, 1854, after q foot Journey of a thou
SAND miles from his mission among the Bechuanas.
lie remained at st. Loando until the close of the year.
when he set out for the unknown East in March, he
arrived at Quiliimane, where he was taken up by q
British m~an-o-war. On the way he traced the
L~eeambye down to the Zambeze, thus demonstrating
the existence in the center Of this unknown land Of 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 Il small portion of its waters reach the
sea coast. Like the AbyEsinian Nile, it falls through
a basaltic cleft, near the middle E its course, which
reduces its breadth from 200 to 90 yards Above
these falls it spreads out periodically into a great sea,
filing hundreds of lateral channels; below it is q
tranquil stream of q totally different character. It's
mouths seem to be closing. The southernmost was
navigable when the Portuguese first arrived in the
country, 800 years ago, but it has long since ceased
to be practicable. The Quillimane mouth has Of late
years been impossible, even for q canoe, from July
to February, and for 200 or 800 miles up the river
navigation is never attempted in the dry season.
And in this very month Of July, when the lower por-
ton of the river, after its April freshets, has shrunk
to q mere driblot, above the falls the river spreads
out like n sea over hundreds of square miles. This,
with frequent cataractS, and the hostility of the
natives, would seem to be an effectual bar to the high
hopes of fat trade and fllibustering in which English
merchants and journals are now indulging.
During this unprecedented march, alone and among
savages, to whom q white face was n miracle, DR..
Livingston was compelled to struggle through indie
scribable h~ardships. The hostility of the natives he
conquered by his intimate knowledge of their charac-
ter and the Beehuana tongue 10 which theirs is re-
lated. He waded rivers and slept in the sponge and
ooze of marshes, being often so drenched as TO be
compelled to turn his armpit into q watch pocket.
His cattle were destroyed by the terrible tse-tse fly,
II l. 800 &0 ~on~ H. $1,000
numerous being w~orshiped by many of the tribes as
the receptacles of the departed souls of their chiefs
dangerous, too, as his crushed arm testifes. How
ever, he thinks the fear of African wild beasts greater
in England than in Africa. Many Of his documents
were lost while crossing o river in which he came
near losing his life also, but he has memoranda of the
ATTITUDES 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 w~orshiped
idols, believed IN transmigrated existence after death,
and performed religious ceremonles in groves and
woods. They were less ferocious and suspicious than
the seaboard tribes, had q tradition Of the deluge and
mere settled governments. Some Of them practiced
incubation, and used quinine, and all were eager for
trade, being entirely dependent on English calico fol
clothing, q small piece Of which would purchase q
slave. Their language was sweet and expressive
Although their women, on the whole, were not well
treated, q man having as many wives as he chose.
they were complete m~istresses of their own houses
and gardens which the husband dared not enter in
his wife's absence. they were fond of show and glit
ter, and as much as $3.50 had been given for an
English rifle. On the arid plateau of the interior
water-melons supplied the place of water for some
months of the year, as they do on the plains of Hun
gary in Summer. 4 Quaker tribe on the river Fan
ga, never fight, never have consumption, s~crofula.
hydrophobia, cholera, smallpox or measles. These
advantages, however, are counterbalanced by the
necessity Of assiduous devotion to trade and raising
children to make good their loss from the frequent
inroads of their fighting n%eighbors.
DR.. Livingston's discoveries, in their character and
their commercial value, have been declared by Sil
Roderic Murchison to be superior to any since the
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco d.
Cana. But greater than any commercial value is
to a resolute man.-N z. Tribune.