Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-09-11
Whole No. 2917
AFRICA.
AFRICA.
The People and PLY steal Features
Ofthe Country.

The People and Ply Features
Of the Country.
Following is an extract fiom a let
ter written by DR.. Livingstone to the
New York Herald recently.
The slaves generally, and especially
those on the west coast, at Sean. Ell
bar and elsewhere, are extremely
ugly. L have no prejudice against
their color; indeed, any one who lives
| long among them forgets they
are black and feels that they are lust
/ fellOw-men, but the low, retreating
forehead, prOgnatheOus jaws, long
heels, and other physical peculiari-
| ties common among slaves and West
African negroes, always awakens
some feelings of aversion. I would
not utter a syllable calculated to press
either class more deeply in the mire
in which it is already sunk, but 1
wish to point out that these are not
| typical Africans, any more than typi-
cal Englishmen, and that the natives
on nearly all the high land of the
interior of the continent are, as a rule,
fair specimens of humanity. / hap
pened to be present when all the
head men of the great chief Msama,
who lives west of the south end of
| Tangyaneka, bad come together to
make peace with certain Arabs who
had burned their chief town, and I
am certain one could not see more
| finely formed, intellectual heads in
any assembly in London or Paris,
and faces and forms eOrreSpOnded
finely with the shape of the heads.
Msama himself had been a sort of
Napoleon for fighting and conquer
ing in his younger days. The cOun-
try abounds in food Of all kinds, and
the rich soil raises everything planted
in great luxurianee. A friend of
mine tried rice, and in between three
and four months the crop increased
120 fold Three measures of seed
yielded 364 measures. Maize is SO
abundant that have seen 40 loads,
each about 60 pounds weight, given
for single goat. Maize dura, or hOl-
Gus sorghum, hennlstum, eassava,
sweet potatoes, and yams furnish, IN
no stinted measure, farinaceOus ingre-
dients for diet. Palm oil, ground
nuts, and forest tree, afford fatty
natural food. Bananas and plantains
abound in great profusion, and the
sugar cane, the saccharine, the palm
tOddy, beer of bananas, tobacco, vange
canabi and salina, luxuries Of life, and
the Villages swarms with goats, sheep
hogs, pigs, and fowls, while elephants
buffalOes, and Zebras, and yOkes of
gOrrillas yield to expert hunters plen-
ty of nitrOgenOus ingredients of hui
man food.n
The Doctor details the peeuliarities
of a people called Rua, and tells Of a
number of them, who were eaptives,
dying of broken heart. They had
no complaint but pain in the heart,
and they pointed out its seat correct
ly, though many believe the heart is
situated underneath the top of the
sternum or breast bone. ''This to me
was the most startling death i ever
saw.n
1.-THE watershed, or broad belt, is
a tree-eovered upland, some TGO miles
in length from west to east. Its
general altitude is between LOCO and
5000 feet above the sea, and noun
tains stand on it at various points,
which are between 5000 and 1000
feet above the ocean level. On this
watershed springs are we'll nigh in
Vulnerable. These springs join each
other and form brooks, which again
converge and become rivers, or say
streams, 20 or 40 or so yards wide,
that never dry. All flow toward the
center OF an immense valley, which
I believe to be the valley Of the Nile.
In this trough we have at first three
large riv, ;, then all unite into one
enormous laeustine river, which 1
named Webb's Lualaba. In this val
ley there are five great lakes. One
near the upper end is called Lake
Bemba, or more properly BangWeolOi
but it is not the source OF the Me,
for no large river begins in. lake.
1t is supplied by river called Cham
besi, and several others, which may
be called sources, and out OF IL noWS
larger river, the Luapula, which
enters Lake MOera and comes out as
a great lake river to form Lake KOmo-
lOndo. West of KOmOlOndo, but still
in the great valley lies Lake Lincoln
which / name as my tribute of love
to the great and good man America
enioyed for some time and then lost.
One of the three great rivers L men,
toned, Bartle- -Freres or Lufra, falls
into KomolOndo, and Lake Lincoln,
becomes a laeustine river, and it, too,
Joins the central line of drainage, but
lower down, and all these united form
a fifth lake, which the slaves sent to
me instead of men forced me, to my
great grief, to leave as the unknown
lake. By my reckoning, the chrono-
meters being all dead, it IS i've degrees
of longitude west of Speke's position
at Ujiji. This makes it probable
that the great laeuStrlne river in the
valley is a western branch of PethOr-
.ick's Nile, the Bahar-ghazal, and not
the eastern branch, which Spekes
Grant and Baker believed to be the
river of Egypt. IfcOrrect, this would
make it the Nile only after the Bahar-
ghazal enters the eastern arm. l
found that mighty river left its wash
ing and flowed right away to the
north. The two great western arms
drain the Lufira TOmaine, and run
ming northeast before joining in the
central line or main Webb's Lualaba-
1 was told that the western side Of
the great valley was high, like the
eastern, and as this main is reported
to go into large, reedy lakes, it can
scarcely be aught else than the
western arm of the Nile"