The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-08-30
Letter Prom Dr.. Livingstone to His

[NCN0nAD0- 4OtlAa L0N l.
My DFAR BRoTHER:-I received
your welcome letter in February last,
written when the cable news made
you put off your suits Of mourning.
This was the first intimation I. had.
that a cable had been successfully
laid in the deep Atlantic. Very few
letters have reached me for years, IN
consequence Of my friends speculat-
ing where I should come out-on the
west coast, down the Nile or else
where.
The watershed is q broad upland,
between four and five thousand feet
above the sea, and some seventy
miles long. The springs o. the Nile
that rise thereon, are almost innu-
merable. It would take the best part
of a mans lifetime to count them.
One part-sixty four miles Of lati-
tude-gave thlrty-tHo springs from
calf to waist deep, or one spring every
two miles. A birds-eye view Of them
would be like vegetation Of frost on
window panes. To ascertain tnat
all of these fountains, united with
four great rivers in the upper part of
the Nile valley, was a work Of much
time and travel. Many a weary foot
I trod ere light daWned on the an
cient problem. If 1 had left at the
end of two years, for which my bare
expenses were paid, I could have
thrown very little more light on the
country than the Portuguese, who
in their three slavery visits to Ca
zembe, asked for ivory and slaves,
and heard of nothing else. asked
about the waters, questioned and
cross-questioned, till I was really
ashamed, and almost afraid of being
set down as afflicted with hydroce-
phalus. I went forward, backward
and side ways, feeling my way and
every step of the way. was gen
orally cropping in the dark, for who
cared where the rivers ran?
OF these four rivers, into which
the springs of the Nile converge, the
central one, called the Lualaba,is the
largest. 1t begins as the river Cham
beze, which flows into the great lake
BangWolo. On leaving it, its name
is changed from Chambeze to Lapu-
la, and that enters lake Moero. Com
ing out of it the name Lualaba is re-
sumed, and it flows into third lake,
Kamolondo, which receives one ofthe
four large drains mentioned above.
It then flows on and makes two enor-
nous bends to the west, which made
me often fear that I was following
the Congo instead of the Nile. It
is from one to three miles broad, and
never can be Waded at any part, or
at any time of the year. Far down
the valley it receives another Of the
four large rivers above mentioned,
Locke or Lomane, which flows
through what 1 have named Lake
Lincoln, and then joins the central
Lualaba. We have then only two
lines of drainage in the lower part Of
the great valley, that is Tanganylka
and Albert lake, which are but one
lake river; or say, if you want to be
pedantic, lacrustine river. These
two form the eastern line. The Lua-
laba, which 1 call Webb's Lualaba,
is then the eastern line, nearly as de-
scribed by Ptolemy in the second
century Of our era. After the Lo-
name enters the Lualaba, the fourth
great lake in the central line of drain
age is found, but this 1 have not yet
seen; nor yet the link between the
eastern and western mains. At the
top of Ptolemy's loop the great cen
tral line goes down into large, reedy
lakes, possibly those reported to Ne
ro's centurion, and these form the
western or Pethereck's arm, which
Speke, and Grant and Baker believed
to be the river of Egypt. Neither
can be called the Nile until they
unite.
The lakes mentioned in the central
line Of drainage, are by no means
small lakes. Bangwola, at the lowest
estimate, is one hundred and fifty
miles long, and 1 tried to cross it and
measure its breadth exactly. The
| first stage was to an inhabited island,
twenty-four miles. The second stage
could be seen from its highest point
or rather the tops of the trees upon
| it, evidently lifted up by mirage.
The third stage, the main land, was
said to be as far bayOnd, but my ca
noe men had stolen the canoe, and
they got hint that the real owners
we're in pursuit and got in a furry
to return home. Oh, that they would.
But 1 had only my coYer-let left to
hire another craft, and the lake be-
; ing 400 feet above the seait was very
: cold, so l gave in, and went back
but believe the breadth to be be-
? tween sixty and seventy miles.
!, BangWola, ,MOerO and Kamalado, are
t looked on as one Of the great riYerine
r lakes, and is one of Ptolemys. The
. other is Tanganylka, which I found
: steadily flowing to the G9rth. Thus
j ! the geographer's predecessors mus
r have cleaned their geography from
r the men who visited this very region
e The reason why his geography Wai
e rejected, was the extreme modestl
e of the modern map makers.
n One idle person in London pub
r lished pamphlet, which with killing
I modesty, be entitled sinner Afric,
Laid Open," and in the newspapers
: even in the Times, rails at any on,
e who travels and desires to find tn,
Y country different from that shown il
e his tWaddle. 1 am a great sinner, il
g the poor fellows opinion, and tht
: Times published his rawlings ever
when l was unwisely believed to b,
dead. Nobody but Lord Broughan
and 1 know what people will say aftel
we are gone. The work of trying
, to follow the central lines of drain
F age, has taken me away from mall
or postage. The Manyema are un
doubtedly cannibals, but it was lon,
t before could get conclusive eyi
dence thereon. 1 was sorely bese
and hindered by having half cast'
/ moslem attendants, ,unmitigated COW
f ards and false as their prophet, o
whose religion they have only i'm
hibed the fulsome pride. They for