The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-05-30
CENTRAL AFRICA,
An Account of Recent Explorations Made,
to the Berlin Geographical Society.

to the Berlin Geographical Society.
A Berlin letter says: In the Central
hotels spacious conservatory banquet
was held yesterday in celebration of the
fifty fifth anniversary of the Berlin Geo
graphical society's foundation. Lieutenant
Wissmann gave an account of his journey
across Africa from west to east, gratefully
acknowledging the hospitality bestowed on
MIN by the English mission at Ruanda, on
the shore of lake Tanganyika. There he was
equipped with tent and a bed, two
articles he had managed TO do without dur
ing his whole journey from Loanua. Mr..
Staney's description of the mighty volumes
of water poured into the Congo by the
lkelempa and Sankuru Is thoroughly borne
out by Lieutenant Wissmann's narrative,
but it appears that these rivers in their
upper course bear the names Kassai and
Lubilasl. On the other hand the accounts
which reached DR.. Livingston concerning
an immense lake turn out to be fables, for
Lieutenant Wissman walked around Lake
Mukamba in five hours, and there all the
stories about huge lake further of came
to an end. The Daily Telegraph of Febru-
airy 10Th having already acquainted English
readers with the marvellous country of Lu-
buku, or Friendship, where enmity is pro-
hibited, shall only relate that those eccen-
trio savages do not approve of privacy. As
in ancient Sparta, the individual lives in
public. Doors are scarcely known, and the
use OF bars and bolts is ,trctly forbidden,
European communists have evidently still
lesson to learn, and collectivism can be
pushed further still than our social phil
osophcrs have tanced. Friends of smoking
will be glad to hear that to inhale the in.
toxlcating vapors vi hemp is pleasure
invested win the sanctity of
religious rite by this amiable tribe of saw.
ages, who indulge in the weed to an extent
unknown in the rest OF the dark continent
Another curious case mentioned by Lieu.
tenant Wissmann should hes tate TO men.
ton were there any probability of its
adoption in England, Tie natives adore
speeChliylnE TO such q degree that each
word passing m orator lips is repeated by
the whole au Hence. AS 'niggeisn ara not
in the habit of lowering their voices.
the eil,ct ola speech must, from M acou.
site point Of view, be vastly enharced by
this practice. Most of the tribes westward
of Lake Tanganyika seem to practice can.
nibalism, but only in secrecy and on state
occasions, so that an ordinary traveller has
no more chance OF assisting--id est, us a liy-
ihE WitHCoo-db u ICphSb Ou uesn
than London mendlcant has of partaking
OF pate de foie gras or OF tasting turtle
soup. Here, therefore, az else where,
is a new proof tnat cannibali,m is
in It's essence superstitious rite
and nothing more. Lieutenant
Wissman states that horned cattle are quite
unknown in the region near the Lubilasi,
so that the buffalo that he rode upon was
an object Of still greater awe and astonish-
ment to the thousands than himself or his
gun, and mainly contributed to his passing
unmolested. He and DR.. Pogge had to re.
sort to various clever tricks and strategems
in order to break through the belt which
King Mwata Ysmvo had drawn between
equatorial Africa and the Portuguese prov
ince of Angola so that we do not know
how far II may be feasible to keep up COM
munications with amiable King Mukengo.
| The latter fought faithfully against the
Basconge at Dr. Poege's side on the way
home from the Lualaba. This was the sec.
ond serious attack on the travellers. In Au.
gust, DR.. Pogge is expected to be back in
Berlin. He separated from Lieutenant
Wissmann at Nyangwe, retracting his steps
westward.
Another German explorer, Herr Pnerel,
has just exceeded in tracing the river Benue
upto its source, a feat which is not without
importance for geography.