The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-04
Dr. Livingstone and thc Sources
Of ahe Mile.
From the London Spectator.

pei us to revise all biographies of Africa ex-
eept Ptolemy's-fancy Ptolemy instructing
Sir II. Murchison in his own subject !--and
will certainly modify profoundly the popular
conception as to the interior of Africa but
they will hardly excite as much interest as the
little postscript telling the Foreign Secretary
Of a race in South Central Africa called the
Rua, who dwell in eXcavated caves, some of
them thirty miles long, aud fit to contain
district when besieged; who have "pictures"
or writings" of some kind, and who have
eyes WHOSE outer angle slopes inward,
curious statement, which may mean only that
the Rua have Japanese eyes, or may by pos
sibility mean that these Troglodytes have ac-
quired from their mode of life some physical
popularity. The statement is far too vague
for any real discussion, but it excites the ina
gination far more than greater discoveries,
appealing as it does to an impression which
has cropped out in all ages, that men might
conceivably be found differing greatly in
physique from the human standard, an i'm
preston as yet supported by no evidence
whatever of any importance, for Mr.. Glib
sons man urang was in all probability . IWSUs
adtUTG.
Let us turn to the Nile Nearly three years
ago, nine Johanna men, who had accom-
panied DIR. Livingstone on his journey to de-
termine the Nilotic watershed, appeared at
Zanzibar with the news of the great explorers
death. The story which they told was so
well concocted, and the evidence they ad-
duced 80 very conclusive, that DR.. Kinks
sagacity for once at fault, and Living
stones former companion fully believed that
his quondam leader had been brutally muir
dered in Central Africa. With the details of
this mendacious story the world is now
familiar. Mr.. Youngs search expedition re-
ieved the public anxiety, and, subsequently,
news from DR.. Livingstone himself confirmed
our hopes of his safety. This intelligence
came from Bemba, and was dated February,
1867; since it was received nothing has been
until within the last few days, known of the
Doctors whereabouts. Again the anxiety
of the public has been aroused, the
hope deferred gradually gave way TO
despair, and but few believed that the
intrepid traveller was not dead. Sir
Roderick Nurchison steadily refused his
countenance to this fear, and by a number of
letters to the public press, suggesting from
time to time certain hypothesis to account
for his friends prolonged silence, sought to
disslpate the doubts and to sustain the hopes
OF all who felt an interest in the travellers
welfare. But as month after month rolled
by, the confidence of the public visibly les
sened, until the number of those who really
believed in LivingstOne's safety had become
small indeed Suddenly, however, a telegram
was received stating that DR.. Livingstone had
been heard of, and that he was not only alive
and well, but had found what he beloved to
be the sources Of the Nile. The news thus
flashed home to us from India has been veri-
fed. No wonder that Sir Roderick Murchison
and the Royal Geographical Society were
jubilant on Monday last; for not only had
extracts from DIR. LlvingstOne's letters been
sent from Zanzibar by DR.. Kirk, but
while the meeting was in progress Lord
Clarendon sent the full despatch which he
had received from the Consul-explorer him-
self. This despatch, to say nothing of the
oJa oil tbo
derful sagacity of Sir Roderick Murchison
again received the testimony of proof.
Nothing, probably, i'll the history of geogra-
phical enterprise was ever regarded with more
sincere satisfaction by the whole nation than
this conclusive intelligence relative to the
safety of the greatest of our explorers.
But our delight at the prospect of seeing
DR.. Livingstone again in the flesh must not
be allowed to overshadow the intense interest
attaching to his discoveries. Although in
July, 186S-the date of his last despatch-Dr.
Livingstone had not even seen Lake Tangan-
yika, and of course could not positively testify
that the lake drained into the Nile he had
yet found sufficient evidence, to say nothing
of native information, to Justify the opinion
that not only Tanganyika, but a series of
more southerly lakes, contribute their quota
of waters to the ''river of Egypt" If this
opinion should prove to be correct, he
will have solved the great problem
Of modern geography, and established
\ his claim to place in the
foremost rank of geographers of all ages.
Ptolemy's mysterious knowledge will prove
to have been something real, and Defoe's
imagination will be regarded as having been
strangely prophetic. In order to appreciate
what Dr. Livingstone has done, or is doing, it
: must be clearly understood what he was sent
to accomplish. The dispute between Captain
Burton and Captain Speke relative to the
drainage of Lake Tanganyika could not be
settled except by personal investigation. Bur
ton believed that this lake flowed into the
Nile, but in such case Spekes Victoria
N'yanza would not be the ultimate source of
the river The latter therefore maintained,
with rather ingenious logic, that the Tangan-
yika drained southwards, probably into the
Nyassa, and thence into the Zambezi. More
1 over, when Burton and Spoke were on the
lake its altitude was fixed by them at 1874
\ feet and if this were correct, it would be i'm
possible supposing other observations to be
correct also, for the Nile to receive the waters
of the Tanganyil1a. Baker made the elevation
of the Albert N'yanza to be 272O feet, aud
1 as his observations were carefully tested
on his return to England their accuracy may
be relied on. But Spekes thermometer-with
j which his observations were talen-read PA
deg instead of 214 deg. when brought down
TO the coast again, and Mr.. Findlay has
4 always argued that 1000 feet should be added
J to the altitude at which Captain Speke fixed
4 the lake. This would give il an elevation of
2844 feet; and rs Sir Samuel Baker had
shown the Albert Nyanza to be but 2720 feet,
y the Tanganyika would be 12i feet higher
than the Nilotic reservoir, and the physical