The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-07-28
DR.. LIVINGSYONE'S DISCOVERIES.
One OF Mr.. Stanlcy's Critics Taken 20
Task by Charles Beke.

1ouOWlng letter rom Charles Beke In answer TO the
'carping criticism" of Mr.. Cooley on Doctor Living
stones and MIR. Stanley's, the HERALD explorers
rep0rt:-
mgstones discoveries In the Times OF the oth INST,
ts only acting up to the system which during many
years past has been witnessed by all geograpners
with regret and Indignation. II, as ne admits,
there are in Mr.. SANKEY'S report many inaccura
Giles attributable probably TO the haste OF the mar
rator and the weak memory OF MS nearer, /" ne IS
surely not Justified Accommodating on the partIcu-
lars Of that report II they were aIthoritativey
recorded assertions OF the traveief himself en
tor Livingstone's claim to have estab-
iished conclusivey the fact that the
your correspondent is neither Just nor generous.
1t may be true that, eighty years ago, Dr. Lacerda
called the ts liver w. Of e and ha " he
heard nom the natives OF the country that the for
mer trends to the river which runs by the city Of
the Cazembe; but that accomplished and conscien-
ti0us Portuguese scholar had not at all made up
hts mind as TO the value OF this information, "the
truth Of which, said he, only few days before his
lamented death, II neither allow nor disallow."
(6ee Mp. Findlays notes in the proceedings Of the
Royal Geographical Society. xi 2ae.) Even as late
Lisbon his narrative Of the second Portuguese mis-
rioD to the Court OF the CaZembe In 1881, he said
90 Auata Caxensoe, PIP. lel, 1927, when speaking OF
may be; but In any case 1t must be either In some
other great river, which deem the more probable,
COAST Of Africa Dr. iscerda having IMAGINED it
might be the head OF the Cunene And Major
Garvitt0 then continued: -"Perhaps 1t discharges
Itself into the Zainbezi, which do not look on as
impossible" Our English traveller must, there
fore, surely be excused II, when he first saw the
Chambezi he should have errOneously identified 1t
with the Zambezi. And when afterwards, can
didly admitting himself to have been mistaken, he
found from his own personal explorations that
there is no connection whatever between the two
rivers, he is lndsputaDly entitled 10 the merit Of
OF this great discovery.
But What, after ALL is Mr.. Cooleys own opinion on
thAo IT,lan ctora
he still looks on the Chambezi as tributary OF the
Zambezi For the former river Is the upper course
81 the la ne Of Which is os
styled by him "Nyanza" ana rs he contends that
ANyanza and NyanJa (the Tanganylka and Nyassa
Of DR.. LvingstOne) are one and the same lake."
and AZ we know that Nyassa joins the ZambeZi by
means OF the river Shire 1t follows that, in Mr.
Co0ley's estimation, the Chambezi joins the Zam-
bez. This is, however, upon the monstrous as
sumption that 1.-THE ianganyika and Nyassa OF DR..
Livingstone are one and the same lake'-an opinion
which, believe, Is at the present day retained by
no one but its originator, Mr.. Cooley himself.
That gentleman IS entitled to the credit OF having
many years ago directed public attention to the
neglected geography OF inner Africa; and in 1854
he communicated To the Royal Geographical Society
very valuable paper on "lhe Geography of 'yassi,
or the Great Sea OF southern Africa,r which was
printed in the fifteenth volume OF the society's
"JOurna.n This monograph In addition to his pre-
vi0us critical labors. and especially his detection of
the gross fraud perpetrateu on the learned world
by NJ. Domvllle In lis pretended journey TO the
Court OF the Muata YanoO, the Muata Cazembe's
helRODOl ana SuIeFtln properly pdceu Hin Ill TIE
first rank among gcographers. Unhappily for his
fame Mr. Cooley has not kept pace with the progress
OF geographical discovery. An idea that there IS
but one great lake in That part OF Airica-which
was natural enough In the first insSance-has
become stereOtyped on his mind so that he
will not allow facts to convince him to the con-
trary. Thus he now dOgmatcally declares that 'all
the information collected from natives during
nearly three centuries, from Lopes down to
Erhaidt, assures us that NyanZa and Nyanja 1.-THE
Tanganyika and Nyassa OF DR.. Livingstonel are one
and the same lake." and consequently, all the in
formation collected from natives during the last
quarter OF q century, assuring us that they are
two distinct lakes, and In addition to this the ac-
tual explorations OF DR.. Livingstone, which de-
monstrates this to be the fact, are all to go for
nothing
The first persons who contended for the sep
arate existence OF two lakes in that part OF
Nyassa had been discovered, were the late Baron
Bunsen and myself; we having, as wrote to Pro-
published work, ''The Idol in Horebn page 1is),
carefully compared Remnants southwest route to
Mono Moezi tpnyamweZi) with that OF Liefbensaid
and found them to correspond; SO that Cooley has
carried the latter too far south" And in cOnse-
quence OF this ] expressed my decided opinion
that tAe routes to the two lakes, obtained by Mr.;
Cooley from native sources, had been mixed up and
enormously applied by him to supposed single
lake" (Sce Auenrurn, July II. 1861
Lest 1t should be imagined by persons unac-
quainted with the subject that this is per-
sOnal question between Mr.. Cooley and myself, /
Ses sa 10 s %
Island and Coast" volume !, page 80, respecting
Mr.. CO0ley's paper on N'yassi, above mentioncd-
His monograph did good by awakening The scientific
happily asserted c. ID that in every part OF Eastern
unknown" And the author, having lad down his law
m it and ss wen as hs
asserting that the passages treating OF the Nile sources
sna s n" an s e S S
his singe Sea" which under the meaningless 81 and
lakes and this Of acumen offered the last insult
10 African geography.
nA mot tnfiN CON tau nnrfn furtb in he
structures Oh Mr. Cooleys opinions. Sufficient has
been said to warn the unlearncd public against al
lowing their Judgment respecting Dr. Lvlngstone,s
discoveries TO he Influenced by this geographers
criticisms, in which unless am much MISTAKEN
he viii be found to stand alone. AS an instance OF
the unIairness OF his criticism, may notice his OBJ
lection to the apparent discrepancy In the two ac-
counts Of the size OF Lake Moero. In DR.. Living
stones despatch TO Lord Clarendon, published in
the Times OF November 10, 1869, that lake Is mi
nutely described as being sixty miles in length and
fifty miles IN breadth, with ranges Of treecovered
two rvulets at It's northern end, and others appa-
rently in other parts. And yet, because Mr.. STAN
ley speaks OF "a little lake six miles long" Mi.
Cooley wishes 1t to be believed that this is not an
error OF the reporter but is totally different de-
scription under different circumstances: so that
this and the other lakes distinctly described by Dr.
Livingstone are nothing more than 1.-The lens and
marshes OF the Portuguese"
Further, Mr.. Cooley says that ''Dr. Livingstone
tells us that lie traced the River Lualaba, running
north then west, then south. II isl he says,
identical with the Chambezi, which is the Nile.
consequently, the Nile runs 10 the north ana
SOUTH where Dr. Livingstone leaves it," Wis is a
characteristic specimen OF your correspondents
criticism of not merely opinions but also OF matters
Of fact which may happen not to coincide with his
fancies. In the first place, this is the report
Of Mr.. Stanley, and it may well be inaccurate for
the reasons admitted by Mr.. Cooley himself. But
assuming, for arguments sake. that Mr.. Stanley
has repOrted-I Will not say absolutely, but sub
stantially correctywhat Dr.. Livingstone told him,
what does IL amount to That at the point at
which the traveller came upon the broad river
certainly not ''wnere DR.. Livingstone leaves
It," as Mr.. Cooley pretends-at that point
ne found the river running to the north and
coming from the west and south-n0t
an. then W., then S." as Mr.. Cooley has H.; and
that he then worked his way down stream to lati-
tude four degrees south. having followed the course
Of the river several hundred miles till he came
within one hundred and eighty miles OF that part OF
the Nile VIII oh has already been traced-that is to
say, the southern end OF Bakers Albert Nyanza. i
siO not pretend TO say that this Interpretation is
correct, inasmuch Mr. Stanlcy's words are not ut
conclusion we must wait and sec what Dr. living