Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-01-29
DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA.

The discoveries of DR.. Livingstone in AZ
RIGA are considered Of great commercial val
he. lie lived with tribe of Bechuanas for
eight years, and, in cooperation with Mr..
Oswald, discovered Lake Ngami. He ira.
ced by himself the course Of the great River
Zamhe$i, in Eastern Africa, and extending
two thousand miles.
This immense stream, whose discovery is
the great fruit Of the journey, is in itself an
enigma without parallel. But a small por-
ton of its waters reach the sea coast. Like
the Aby>sinan Nile, it falls through basal
tic cleft, near the middle of its course, which
reduces its breadth from 900 to 20 yards.
Above these falls it tspreads periodically into
a great SEA, filling hundreds of lateral chan
nels; below it is tranquil stream of a total
ly different character Its mouths seem to
be closing. The southernmost was nayigable
when the Portuguese first arrived in the
country, 800 years ago, but it has long ceas-
ri to be practicable. The Quilimane mouth
has Of late years been impossible, even for
a canoe, from July to February, and for 200
or 800 miles up the river, navigation is nes-
er attempted in the dry season. And in this
very month of July when the lower portion
Of the river, after its April freshe.s, has sunk
10 4 mere driblet, above the falls the river
spreads out like 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 Glibustering in which English mer.
chant, and journals are now iudulsing.
During this unprecedented march, alone
and among sayages, to whom white face
was miracle, DR.. Livingstone was compcll-
ed to struggle through indescribable hard.
ships. The hostility Of the natives he con-
quersd by his intimate knowledge of their
character and the Bechuana tongue, to which
theirs is related. lie waled rivers and slept
in the sponge and ooze of marshes. being of.
ten SO drcuched as to be compelled to turn
kis ampit into watch.pockct. His cattle
were destroyed by the terrible tset>e fly,
and he was too pour 10 purchase a canoe
I.ivns were numerous, being worshipped by
many Of The tribes a. the rerertacles Of the
departed souls Of their chiefs; dangerous,
too, as his crushed arm testiGrs. However,
he thinks the fear of African wild beasts
greater in England than in Africa. Many of
his documents were lost while crossing riv.
er, in which he came near losing his life al
so, but he has memoranda of the attitudes
and longitudes of 4 multitude Of cities, towns,
rivers and mountains, which will go far to
fill up the "unkuown region" in our aliases.
Toward the interior lie found tie country
more fertile and more populous. The natives
worShipped idols, believed in transmigrated
existence after death, and performed religi-
Gus ceremonies in groves and woods. They
were less lerocious and suspicious than the
>ea.board tribes, had tradition of the de-
luce and more settled governments Some
of them praclisel incubation and used 1ui-
nine, and all were eager for trade, being en-
lirely dependent on English calico for cloth
inY, i small piece Of which would purchase
slave. Their language was sweet and e1-
pressive. Although their women, Oh the
who'll, were not well treated, man having
as many wives Is lie choose, they were COM
rietc mistreSseS Of their own houses and gar
drns. which the husband dared not enter in
his wife : absence. They were fond ofshow
and glitter, and as much as $3.50 had been
given for an English rifle, On the arid
platcna OF the interior, watermelons supplied
the place OF water for some months of the
year, as they DO on the plains of Hungary
in summer. \ Quaker tribe, on the river
Zanga, never fight, never have consumption,
scrofula, hydrophobia, cholera, smallpox, or
measles. These advantages, however, are
counterbalaneed by the necessity Of assidu-
ous devotion to trade and raising children