The New York Herald Newspaper, August 27, 1872, Page 3

DHIROGRAPHY FROM AFRICA. Of Interest to Admirers of the Great Explorer. A PROOF TO THE DOUBTING THOMASES, The Carpers at Livingstone’s Diction. Brief Sketch of. the Creat Traveller's Life. —_—-——_ HIS THREE AFRICAN JOURNEYS. THE OLD, OLD MYSTERY OF THE NILE, Herodotus and Claudius Ptolemy as Nilotic Geographers. 1 GRADUAL LIFTING OF THE VEIL. The Scotch Traveller Brace Discovers the Sources of the Blue Nile. . Sir Samuel Baker’s Explorations in Abys- sinia and on the White Nile— The Albert Nyapza. Captain Speke’s Journey from Vic- toria Nyanza Down the Bahr el Abiad. The Great Work Accomplished by Livingstone and the Work Before Him. On this page of the HERALD we present to our readers a Jac simile of the opening page and the closing sentence of the first letter which Dr. David Livingstone addressed to the editor of this journal ifrom Central Africa. In doing 80 a double object is achieved, which will in each part make its impres- - sion, The first lies in presenting to the publica specimen of how the great explorer writes in the wilds of Central Africa, with what firmness he grasps his pen and how he writes his mind without the afterthought visible in erasures and interpola- tions. The second is in exhibiting to the few doubt- Ang Thomases on this Continent, who may yet hold ut against indisputable evidence, a sign whereby they can learn to enter the ranks of THE MILLION OF TRUE BELIEVERS. While it is the duty of a journa! to make good its ‘announcements of news by furnishing all reasona- ble corroboration of their trath when disputed, there is a certain limit to this at which a paper May reasonably rest from its task of convincing perverse incredulity. Long ago has that period heen reached by the HERALD in the matter of its eorfespondent’s search for and finding of Dr. Lav- Angstone. The doubters frst asked positive infor- mation from Mr. Stanley about Livingstone’s move- ments during the last six years, his health, his ap- pearance and where last seen. These points once sat- 1sfactorily covered, doubt shook its head; it wanted letters from Livingstone himself. From information received ahead these were promised by the HERALD and immediately upon their arrival in London were telegraphed through the cable to America. This even was unsatisfactory. The doubters knew bet- ter. The man who had “concocted” the story of the meeting with Livingstone tn Central Africa might, with a similar display of what Miss Braddon calls “bold badness,” forge a letter to the HERALD reciting in other words the story of Livingstone’s travels and “so-called” discoveries. Nothing easter, they said. By and by news came to America of letters not only to the English Foreign Oftice, but to the family of the absent Livingstone. This was A DIRECT ASSAULT UPON THE THOMASES. But the certificates of Earl Granville and those of the explorer’s family as to the genuineness of the letters completely tumbled over their fortresses, and brought even the high and Royal Geographical doubters down to signing a capitulation. It is, therefore, with but little regard to a further con- vincing of these individuals that we publish the accompanying /uc-simile, yet \ts influence on them will result, if not in silencing them, at least in making their incredulities more deservedly ridicu- lous. To those who have long learned to admire the heroism of David Livingstone, which shone forth amid trying occasions, displaying persever- ance, patience, dignity, self-control, benevolence and piety, as the times demanded or his heart dictated, this presentment of the tracing of his pen will be of high interest. The clear, running hand, which fowingly Jots down thoughts that come from the mind like the current of the great river he has been following, ‘will tell its own story of the nerve, even-minded- ness and stamina of the man who sits down to write just ashe “came to Ujiji off a tramp .of be- tween four hundred and five hundred miles, be- neath a blazing vertical sun,/ having been bated, worried, defeated and forced to return, when almost in sight of the end.” Every peculiarity of Doctor Livingstone’s chirography has been faithfully followed in the fac-simile, even to the defects resulting from sluggish ink and such paper and pens as could be found in east longitude thirty degrees and south latitude five degrees on that November day last year. The disposition to gave paper, which leads Livingstone, after Olling the pages, to write upon every available square inch of margin, will be moticed too. In all civilized countries the preservation Of scraps of handwriting of great men has been a sacred task long after the men had passed away. In the great libraries and museums of European countries such scraps arrest the attention of the student with an interest un- surpassed by the costliest Or rarest tomes upon the shelves or among the carefully guarded archives of the State. The handwriting of Pope, with its fre- quent scorings out, corrections and interlineations; the sign manual of Milton, the remnants of the ‘Domesday Book,” the Magna Charta, awake, per- haps, more interest in him who wanders around the spacious halls of the British Museum than the gorgeously illuminated missais that lie beside them in their sumptuous bjndings and which cost #0 auch constant, secluded toil to learned but forgotten monks in the Middle Ages, The truth ds that the scraps bring the mind of the ob- server back by an intimate link to the men and times of the past, to which he bas hitherto directed his thoughts, im the Janguage of Dr. Livingstone, “(ike addressing an abstract idea,” and he finds Iimself face to face with something which brings the man or the time like a palpable entity before him, It is net necessary here to descant upon the peculiarities of Dr. Livingstone’s style or diction, upon which we have heard sueb miraculously pro- found comment of Jate. Cariyle epitomizes the life NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1872—TRIPLE SHEET. LIVINGSTONE’S SIGN MANUAL. Fac Simile of Doctor David Livingstone’s Letter of Thanks to the New York Herald. =e e@ée6e te of the hero in one word, “action,” and itis asa man of action the world first must look at the tireless explorer. From this standpoint it then can view his writing how it pleases; it will not affect his fame one iota, But apart from the rose-water few who think all great men should write with violet ink on scented paper, and phrase perspicuously as Cicero, Addison or Féné- lon, the verdict of intelligence on Livingstone’s letters will be that they are the clear, frank utter- ance of a man .of kindiy heart, unconquerable courage and of agentieman above all. That he should come to Ujiji “A MERE RUCKLE OF BONRS” is an unpardonable fact when told so graphically, but where he joins heart with Scotland's bard, and finds in Mid-Africa an application for one of the most nobly-sorrow/ful truths ever aliied to melody of words— Man's inhamanity to man , Makes countless thousands mourn— the critics must pause in their fault finding. The brave words, however, which he addresses to humanity regarding the slave trade, doubtless knowing the peril in which they yet may piace him among the siave traders of Ujiji, are those before which the phrase-splitter must hang his head, for they bespeak a loftiness of aim and an abnegation of self which the small-souled, pompous critic cannot understand. He says:—“And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of ali the Nile sources together.” The writer of the above sentence, DAVID LIVINGBTONE, M. D.y was born at Biantyre, upon the banks of the Olyde, ih i Qee 4 Phis faichful wife. per a owiNeeool 2 Sea thy Fi at Ural, oy gt: Sere aa ane Ma Ws.e/ lay to oe cpanel he rare y crel_ : dura eol Daal’ Tina WH «2 CEN sore 2500 Bs Uebel orders OW ween near Glasgow, about 1817, He is now, therefore, in his Ofty-fifth or fifty-sixth year. His parents were poor, and his early life was passed working ina cotton mill, striving between the hours of labor and sleep to pick up the secrets of literary knowledge. As he grew older he longed to become a missionary, and, after he had studied medicine and theology for a few years, he was despatched by the London Missionary Society im 1840 to Port Natal, in South Africa. Long and faithfully did be labor among the wild natives of that hitherto unknown region, and there married the daughter of a fellow missionary, a Miss Moffatt, who accompanied him upon his travels until her ontimely death from fever, at Shupanga, in 1862, The extent of his explorations in South Africa will be imagined when it is stated that, dur- ing his absence of sixteen years until 1856, he marched 11,000 miles. Im the last-named year he returned to Englana and fpublished bis first book, “Missionary Travels ana Researches in South Africa.” In March, 1858, he returned to Africa and undertook what is known as THE ZAMBUZL EXPEDITION, discovering Lake Nyassa. Here he lost and buried In 186% he returned to the coast, and thence proceeded to England, where he was received with increased favor. In 1865 he pub- lished hia work, “An Expedition to the Zambezi and ite Tributaries,’ and returned for the third time to Africa, This was bis last appearance in civilization, He started in 1866 up the Rovuma River, and was heard from occasionaily up to 1867, when THE FALSE NEWS OF HIS MURDER by the Mazitu, brought to Zanzibar by the cowardly WH haw - rill, PO sae Wee w nor ‘tev shy aS. deserter Moosa, startied England into sending an to search for him or his remati It may here be said that Moosa’s cunning story, although doubted originally by many, was sufliciently proved by this expedition, yet definite of the great traveller's abouts was learned until March, 1869, was heard from at Ujiji, Two years of silence, doubt and misgiving passed, and no word came. This was the condition of things when, in 1871, the HERALD Search Expedition started its caravans under the command of Mr. Henry M. Stanley, the world already knows with what happy result, An interesting portion of Dr. Livingstone’s letter is his reference to the sources of the mystic river which HERODOTUS, THE PATHER OF HISTORY, learned from the treasurer of the Temple of Minerva, on the island of Sais, in the delta of Egypt, 2,300 years ago. Misty, indeed, were the ideas of the time with regard to the great river source of Egypt's wealth, and Herodotus himself only corrects one absurd idea to account for the rise of the Nile to fall into another more ingeniously so. The treasurer of the. temple aforesaid, while showing him over its marvels of ponderous architecture, chatted with him about the sources of the Nile, and, asa cicerone will, assumed a perfect knowledge of every subject that came up. Herodotus did not quite believe the story, but he gives it with his usual impartiality. “That there are two moun- tains rising into a sharp peak situated between the city of Syene, in Thebais, and Elephantine; the Reames of these mountaine are, the one, Crophi; expedition, under the command of Mr. E.D. Young, | which are bottomless, dis- | nothing | where- | when he | es Aiea the other, Mophi; that the sourees of the Nile, flow (rom between thes mountains, and that MALF OF THE WATER FLOWS OVER EGYPT and to the north, the other half over Ethiopta and the South,” In bis travels Dr. Livingstone has heard repeatedly of such fountains, and while their position, as given by the registrar, is, of course, incorrect, the explorer has very little doubt of their existence, and that he 18 now, by the grace of God, preparing to clear up. The personalexplorations of Hero- dotus reacied no farther than the first cataract; his other information is admittedly he: It speaks of long stretches of the river to the far conn- try of the Autemoli, and indicates a large lake to the south through which the Nile Nows, While re- ferring to Herodotus it may be worth while to point another possible coincidence between his history and an ethnological observation of Dr. Livingstone. The explorer says that he found 4 light-colored, handsome people in Rua, who worked copper mines, wove grass very finely and were otherwise more distinguished in appeardnce and customs than their neighbors. Herodotus recounts that two hundred and forty thousand Egyptian soldiers, being placed on frontier duty at Elephantine, as the troops of the Viceroy scour the same country to-day, were induced to DRSERT TO ETHIOPIA by a three years’ neglect suffered at the hands of the King, Psammitichus, In spite of remonstrance they marched south and offered their services to the King of the Ethiopians. His recompense was a bestowal of certain territory held by disaffected subjects, Waich he gave the Egyptians in return for They brought, he says, some civilization to the Ethiopians. Are the people of Rua their descendants? Another of the ancients, whose lights have been dimmed by intermediate ignorance and who comes like a seer from the past, is CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY, the Egyytian mathematician, astronomer and geo- grapher, who flourished in the early partof the lcentury. In his universal geography he speaks of the Nile with certainty as rising far south in Alrica and passing through a series of lakes, just as Livingstone deseribes it, Coming down to modern times it is curious +» avie ow the “Holy Nile’? has been won back, as it were, from the clouds of ignorance that dwarfed its length, rendering the mystery greater still of its 1,400 miles of unaided Now, its wonderful fertal- izing rise of from twenty-four to thirty-six feet and {ts fail to the old level, In 1769 A SCOPCHMAN NAMED JAMES BRUOB, with the old mystery at heart, left civilization be- bind him and the following year reached Gondar, in Abyssina, Two years’ exploration followed, and he at last found three fountains, which he believed to be those of the true Nile, but which have since proved to be those of Bahr el Azrek or Blne Nile, The story of his travels was read by the youth of the generation with avidity for the curious views of savage and semi-savage life it furnisied, but at which the wiseacres shook their heads, until later research justified him. Gradu- ally the mists lifted from the mighty river, and the White Nile or Bahr el Abiad was declared to be the true Nile, while the Blue Nile was lessened to a sec tributary, ranking only above the Atbara, rising on the same Abyssinian platean, and joining its rain food to the Nile farther north near Berber, Again the Nile sources weve lost, like the Hes- perides of old. Many expeditions were undertaken both at the instance of the Egyptian government and of European governments. The first which ms attention, ii not in tts actual order, but in its collective importance, was that of SIR SAMUKL W. BAKER, who, accompanied by his lady, went up the Nile from Cairo and turned up the Atbara at Berber to solve finally the question of the annual rise. In one night he saw the dry bed of the Atbara. filled with a roaring torrent, rushing perturbed and muddy down, and saw within a week the shrivelled trees and herbage put on new coats of gre After & complete survey of the various streams which join the Nile between Berber and Khartoum he bent his way to the lat- ter city, and brought with him one-half of the mystery, It was this; that the extraordinary an- nual rise of the Nile is due to the prodigious rain- fall on the elevated piateau of Abyssinia, which carries down in its headlong course the soft, black soil of the countries through which it channels its way to spread THE THIN, BUT RICH MUD DEPOSIT over the valley of the Nile, which makes it so won. dertully fertile, From Khartoum he proceeded south, and in about latitude three degrees north discovered the great Lake Albe: The dis- coveries of CAPTAIN JOHN I, SPEKB must here be alluded to. In 1855 Captain Speke, having obtained a three years’ furlough from his regiment, then stationed in India, joined an expedition to explore Central Africa under the command of Lieutenant R. TH. Burton, This ex- pedition rendezvoused at Berbera, on the African shove of the Gulf of Aden, and with Lieu- tenant Burton at its head started for the in- terio With them were also two other military officers onfurlough. A few days after the expedi- tion got under way they were attacked by the savages. One of Speke’s companions was killed, and he himself severely wounded, He now returned to England, His next expedition into Africa was more successful. The lake regions of the interior, 60 glowingly described by Doctors Krapf and Rebman upon information gathered from the natives, were the object of the journey which began at Zanzibar im June, 1857. They struck boldly forward, but met terrible obstacles in the way of sickness and deser- tion of their men, After a long and weary journey, broken by enforced, dispiriting halts, they came in sight of the great TANGANYIKA LAKE, at Ujiji. They were prevented by untoward cir- cumstances from fully exploring the lake, and re- turned to Unyanyembe. Here they parted, Captain Speke taking @ northerly trail, whicn led to his discovery of the Victoria Nyanza, and which he then CONJECTURED TO BE THE TRUE SOURCE of the Nile. On his return to England he pre- pared for the next voyage, which he under- took in company with Major Grant. They left the east coast in October, — 1860, and marcned for the Nyanza Lake, They skirted it on its western shore, and on the northern end of it discovered the eMuents which they subsequently, after much worry and opposition from the native chieftains, succeeded in sufMficientiy tracing to the White Nile. on this journey, in February, 1863, they were met at Gondokoro by Sir Samuel Baker, who was then proceeding up the Nile. Thus the second line of drainage was brought to light by the proof that the Victoria Nyanza, at @ point nearly under the Equator, flowed out into a stream which, through a series of falls, Joined the Albert Lake, and thence went on to form the Nile. “At last the true Nile,’ the world cried in applause, but not yet was all the secret torn from old Africa's bosom. Lake Tan- ganyika, which lies to the south of Albert Lake, and which Richard F, Burton and Captain Speke had seen together before the latter set out for Victoria Nyanza, was suspected of being « link further south of the mighty river, and con necting with the Albert Nyan: Alleged dif- ferences in altitude ef these Jakes befoggea this question, and there it has since remained, Thus two great lines of drainage were secured, Dr. Barth, the German explorer; Mr, Petherick, the British Consul at Khartoum; Dr. Piaggia, the Itali and Dr. Schweinfurth, another German traveller, had made extensive explorations of other { confluents of the White Nile on the western bank, With these latter, through THE BAWR BL GHAZAL or Petherick's branch, Doctor Livingstone believes } he will yet connect the third or great central line of drainage, which has cost him already six years of toil to trace from ten to four degrees south latitude, The great * lacustrine —river—the Lualaba—tins placed on the map, is not yet all explored; and, from the fact of the explorations being carried on from the South, the actual point of its confuence to the White Nile is unknown, although Dr. Livingstone feels assured that AIS NEXT TWO YEARS’ LABOR Will determine it. Here we must perforce leave the question, ‘The savans of London, Paris and Berlin may see fit to doubt the conclusions of Dr. Livingstone, but they must look after all to him to resolve them. Whether, as Dr. Charles Beke imagines, the Lualaba fows Irito the Albert Nyan- za by a bend to the eastward, or, as Dr. Living- stone believes, goes directly narthward, through another great lake, into Petherick’s Branch, we cannot say; but ¢he glory of the discovery will be nowise dimmed around the great explorer’s brow WHATEVER WAY THE LUALABA RUNS, His efforts in the cause of science will place him | high upon the pedestal of fame. His quiet striving as a missionary among the benighted heathens will endear him to all lovers of the Gospel. His upright character a8 a man will preserve the balance between the two, These, making up ag they do the boid outlines for a mind picture of him, who will deny him the place of honor which every such hero of the human kind deserves ? Of interest as forming a touching commentary on the epistie which we present in fac-simile form is the following letter and extract to the English In- dependent from the Rev. Dr. Moffat, the celebrated South African missionary and father-in-law of Dr, David Livingstone :— Sin:*In my late visit to Windermere Lake T had the happiness to be introduced to the widow of the late Dr. Arnoid. In the course of conversation re- spectiug Dr. Livingstone she read a letter from her