The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-08-15

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River-The Mile Problcm-The Ex-
Plorer, tho Missionary and tho Man.
In to-day's issue of the HERALD will be
found our correspondence detailed account
of the SIX years travels and discoveries of Dr.
Livingstone. To present these momentous
results Of the travellers great work in form
appreciable to the general as well as to the
scientific reader, we have accompanied it with
beautiful map of the wonderful region de-
scribed prepared with the utmost accuracy at
present attaipable. It displays with fidelity the
course of the mighty lacustrine stream, SO far as
explored, and indicates the direction by which
the explorer himself believes it to connect with
the Nile-the river of old fable land and mys-
terry. These discoveries were first given to
the world through the New YORK HERALD, and
we desire that no element may be wanting to
their thorough comprehension.
Before discussing the various theories to
which these discoveries have given rise outside
of Africa we will turn for an instant to the dis
coverer himself The achievements in the
cause Of science, humanity and the Gospel,
which will make the name of DIR. David Liv-
ingstone forever famous among men, have
been told to the world; but while they
call forth high admiration and sin
cere sympathy, those most impressed by
the recital will ask for further Light
upon the steadfast man who wrought and suf-
fered in patience and trust for the good of
mankind. Such picture is given in our cor
respondents letter. Perusing it we see the
crude outlines of the popular. vague, uncouth
idea of the man vanish, and in their stead
appear the full, tenderly-toned figure of the
and patience we see the moral strength
which sustained him under all vicis-
STUDIES; in his interpretive power the
charm which made long isolation bear
able, the desert populous and the far off
near; in his unobtrusive soulful piety, the
true qualities of the harbinger of Gods word
to the heathen.' The world will rejoice at this
mental beauty of the man whom it wishes to
honor, and the story of his trials will receive
menowed light from them. The portrait of O
great war captain in the flushed moment of
triumphal entry to the capital of his land may
dazzle the eye in its glare and pomp and
awaken feverish ideas Of fame in it's suggestion
of power and genius, but for absorbing inter-
est it cannot compare with picture Of the
conqueror grimed with the dust and smoke of
battle as he rests from victory at evening for
an hour before finging himself once more
upon the harried and broken enemy. Of ten
fold greater value to humanity is the peaceful
conqueror of the wild, such as Livingstone,
and of hundred-fold greater interest is this
presentment of the weary traveller resting
awhile from his labors than in the midst of the
highest honors he can attain. It blasts the
breath Of SANDER which panied the world,
although it could not even reach its object.
It withers the sneer Of false friend and heart
less cynic alike, and gives us our hero after
the very model his most ardent well-wishers
could desire.
Happy it is for Dr. Livingstone that he can
not, amid his continued searchings for the
connecting link between the Lualaba and the
Nile, be worried with the long discussion
which excites the attention OF geographers
over the value of what he has already placed
firmly on the map. The 'aching void on
and extending north and south from
two degrees north of the Equator down
to the Portuguese Zambezi, has only been
filed up in part, and over the "unexplored
region the geographers are wrangling Nu-
merous theories have been advanced dissent
ing from Livingstone's own conviction that
the Lualaba is the Nile. The van Of doubt
ers was led by the President of the English
Royal Geographical Society, Sir H. G.
Rawlinson, who ut first declared the Doc
tors great river to be the upper portion
of the Congo. 1t is worth while remark
ing that. this was DR.. Livingstone's first
idea when he had proved that the Chambezi
was not the Portuguese river resembling
it in name, and that the river flowing out of
Lake Bangweolo took q northerly course in
| the centre Of o great valley. On further read
ing however, Sir Henry adopted the opinion
of the Lualaba being the Nile but dissented
and still dissents from the explorers theory
of its line of connection with that river. We
may here say that our own first opinion of the
course of the Lualaba to the Nile was the
same as that subsequently, but equivocally,
adopted by the Geographical Society's
Overwhelmingly, that it flowed into
Sir Charles Bakers lake, the Albert Nyanza.
Doctor Lvingstone's words addressed to the
HERALD, on the matter of the direction Of the
great river he had followed, are-'and ct
last found the mighty river had left its west
ing and flowed right away to the north"
Continuing in this line, he argues, it must
inevitably connect with the Bahr Ell Gazahl-
Petherick's branch of the White Nile-through
the lake which the Italian traveller, Doctor
Piaggia, found at its southern extremity. Sir
Henry disputes this theory on the ground that
the sources of the Bahr ell Gazahl were
| traced by the German explorer, Doctor