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    haps , will possess more utility than any mere selection of attractive passages from the body of the narration . The wanderings lasted from 1848 to 1856 . They were commenced at Cape Town , whence Livingstone proceeded to Latakoo ., the farthest inland station of the London Missionary Society . Only resting thereto refresh his oxen , he pushed on northward to Shokuana , and in that place , after a short interval , located hiniself for six months , cut off from all European society , to study the language , laws , ways of thinking , and customs of the Bakwain section of the ltecbuana race . The apprenticeship was perfect . In 1842 , undertaking a journey over the hills , he approached close to the Lake Ngami , which , he afterwards discovered ; but it was his plan to make his way gradually . The year 1843 , therefore , was commenced in the valley of Mabotsa , more than twenty-five degrees from the equator , a _ locality ravaged by lions , the terrors of the people . It was in . this desolation that Livingstone felt that fearless stupefaction caused by the sudden gripe of a lion ' s jawupon his shoulder . Here also he began building up his influence by acts of justice and philanthropy , and cultivating good elations with the tribes and chiefsThe bastard Dutch

    r . kidnappers , however , were his declared foes , and sought to drive hint away by persecution . But he resisted all their attempts , and . ' gives a charming account of the pleasant days lie passed in the Mabotsa Vale . It was now considered time to open his design of exploration . Lake Ngami , beyond the Kalahari Desert , was the object of his earliest research . Its position , for half a century at least , had been pointed out by the natives , "but it had been reached by no European traveller . The intervening solitudes consist of vast flats , tinted with many varieties of shrubs and plants , and teeming with animal life . Among their vegetable productions are the scarlet cucumber , theleishna , the bulbs of which are receptacles of water , and invaluable to the people of the desert , and the water-melon , which absorbs the rains , and preserves them for the use of the savage , in a region with scarcely any streams or springs . In addition to these supplies , the natives keep stores in little subterranean reservoirs , whence the precious fluid is drawn up through reeds by women , who use their mouths as pumps . It was in ^ Tune , 1849 , that Livingstone , Oswell , and Murray started across this wilderness towards the unknown northOn the 4 th of Juljaft

    . -, er many adventures , they reached the Zouga , which they found to be a river running to the north-east ; the natives , who possessed large herds of the great horned cattle , said that by tracing the stream upwards the white men would ut last reach the ' broad water . ' This was done for upwards of a haadred miles , it being observed that the people almost lived in their rough canoes ; and another river was passed , which Livingstone was informed came from a country ' full of rivers and large trees . ' Here was gladdening intelligence to an explorer , doubtful whether he should discover more than a new Libya in the south of the continent . On tlie 1 st of August , the lake itself was in view , beaming and glittering far and wide in the sun . It is extensive , but shallow , and lies at the bottom of a basm of considerable diameter . Near this point , the Scottish reminiscences of Livingstone reverted to the banks of the Clyde above Glasgow , but the African river-bank is overhung with mighty baobab shadows—the tall , swaying palmyra and clusters of the elegant rose-coloured plum . ( 'Wild indigo abounded , as , indeed , it does over large tracts of Africa . ' Elephants exist in prodigious numbers , with rhinoceroses , and a new and graceful species of antelope . Mullets , and other excellent fish , come down to the lake in shoals with the floods from the high countries . The next discovery was the Zambesi , flowing through the centre of the continent—the river not having been previously known to exist there at all . In every one of the Portuguese maps it is represented as rising far to the east . At the dry season , when Livingstone saw it , it had from three to six hundred yards of deep water , with a favourable current . We may indicate the extraordinary richness of this part of the narrative by mentioning that it coin [ jrises the results of eleven years of perpetual observation in countries hitherto almost

    , if not entirely , -unknown . At the close of that period , Livingstone returned to the Cape to send his family to England . In June , 1852 , he startedon his last and longest journey , extending over four years . The continent of Africa approaches its southern extremity in a gigantic cone hetween , the Indian and Atlantic Oceans . It was almost up the central line of the middle division of this territory that Livingstone worked his way from Cape Town to Linyanti—upwards of twelve hundred miles . Thence a journey of about the same extent through the heart of Africa brought him to St . Paul de Loanda , the capital of Angola , on the western coast , lleturning from that point , after reaching within nine degrees of the equator , he partially retraced liis path as far as Victoria Falls , between the sixteenth and seventeenth degrees of latitude , and making a curve northwards , penetrated the obscure and wide interior until he found himself at Quillimune , again on the sea—nearly two thousand miles from where ho had last seen it . The phenomena he describes are , in many instances , of the most singular kind—among others , the hot electric winds of the desert , and certain circumstances which tempt him to believe that it is possible lor the breast of a man to produce milk for the nurture of a child . Of ?!" > »« l < Jed , Humboldt quotes an example , but the scientific testimony on the subject is us yet inadequate . Beyond tho Bakwain country , Livingstone found ' the lurge-Black ant , the land tortoise , lions , bullaloes , mice , serpents , ana ostriches , and his descri ptions of all these and their habits are particularly valuable . The habits of the various popuhitions also are illustrated , and an interesting commentary is given on Mr . ( Jordon Cumnling ' s hunting exploits , which Dr . Livingstone says i *|> pear to have been by no means exaggerated in the published narrative . Early in 1852 , however , he passed tue mrthust station to the north ever ruachod by Cunnning . As he went on , iiio country tonne very lovely ; ninny new trees were discovered ; . the grass was green and often overtopped the waggons ; the vines hung in festoons upon the branches ; tho banian was found lluurishing ; large sheets of water xayintne hollows ; watercourses abounded , becoming broader and deeper at every mile s progress northward , and nt length a barrier of water checked the traveller ' s advance . Climbing tho loftiest trees , he could see nothing but the inundations , surmounted by dense musses of reeds-thc over ! owed portion of tho Chobe river , ' / he landscape was as unlike the traditionary centre of Afnca-u surface of calcined ' rock and sand-as

    could possibly be imagined . The picture shows in what light the discoveries of this great explorer are to be regarded : instead of deserts they have brought to light plantations , arable valleys , and gardens . Ivory abounds in these regions ; the soil producing maize , beans , Indian corn , sugar-cane , manioc , and certain varieties of fruit . Ostrich feathers are among the articles of commerce . _ The people were nowhere hostile , and seldom exhibited any fear of their white visitors . Dr . Livingstone now began to ascend the Leambye with his party in thirty-three canoes : every inch of the way was a geographical discovery and this added to the enthusiasm of the voyage . The river is magnificent often more than a mile in width , and bordered by a beautiful and prolific country . The population is of a superior character , and addicted to ingenious methods of industry . Dr . Livingstone compares the Leambye with , the Nile ; its periodical inundations stimulating the fertility of the soil . Two crops of grain are produced annually ; the cattle feed oa luxuriant crops of succulent grapes , the pasturage never being exhausted . The land

    is probably too rich for the production of wheat . The course of a large tributary stream brought the travellers into ai'egion even more extraordinary ; but no Quarterly lie view could enumerate a tenth of the details multiplied from chapter to chapter . Over the low plains , near the rivers , fresh-water shells were spattered largely . On the Leeba bees were seen , honey being a favourite article of food among the natives . But more interesting than to note the natural aspects of this new country was it to pick up , at the confluence of the Leeba and Makondo , a fragment of a steel watch-chain , of English manufacture ; this was at the point where the Mambari people cross in coming to the kingdom of Masibo , and gave a clue to the trade of the interior . The Mambari are very enterprising merchants , and bring English cotton to the Makololo , who think it so beautiful that they attribute the work , to immortal hands . At all events , they refuse to believe that iron machines spin , weave , or print with such magical success . Among these tribes the Salic law does not prevail , many of the chiefs being women . Hearing the coast , however , Dr . Livingstone saw numbers of young girls with chains on their limbs , the property of Portuguese traders . Among the western

    . people , some of the prettiest maidens wear their hair stretched upon a hoop s producing an appearance like that of the Madonna ' s ¦ glory—by others , cro-wns , peaks , and buffalo horns are imitated . : The north-eastern journey was made by way of the Zambesi , and was commenced at Linyanti in November . The travellers struck off at the Victoria Palls , the connecting link hetween the known and unknown portions of the great river . The landscapes tuat now opened in constant succession were so fascinating , that Dr . Livingstone , who is not much addicted to the use of florid language , exclaims , " Scenes so lovely moist have been gazed upon by angels in their flight ! " He ascertained a number of highly important points relating to the configuration of this portion of Africa . The farther he advanced the more dense he found the population , which , however , was not so improved in manners as elsewhere , the men being perfectly naked ; at the same time the products of the soil were shared by still larger herds of wild animals—gigantic elephants among them . Cultivation is carried on to a considerable extent . After an enormous journey , Livingstone again found himself nearing the ocean , and at the confluence of the Loangwa and the Zambesi discovered the remains of a church , built of stone , and a broken , bell , inscribed with the letters I . H . S . A descent by the Zambesi brought him to Quillimane , on " the coast , and at that point he parted from Africa . We have here presented only the outlines of his vast researches . Much remains to \> n dealt with in connexion with the national resources of Africa , and its commercial relations with England ; but , at present , we can only promise to every reader who takes up Dr . Livingstone ' s narrative , a store of enjoyment and instruction .

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    A HUNDEED YEARS AGO . A Hundred Years Ago . An Historical Sketch . 1755 to 1756 . By James Hutton . Longman and Co . With Mr . Hutton we may measure the progress of a hundred years . His book contains a picture a century old , and very interesting is it to put 1857 in contrast with 1756 . We trace our affinities , indeed , with the folks who then , shot Byng , read the first announcement of Johnson ' s dictionary , called King ; George ' great Caesar , ' blinded children by art to make beggars of them , admired the crambo of the poet Laureate , and tolerated ' Bucks' and * Bloods * instead of laughing or kicking them out of society ; but the differences are also considerable , and we are forced to feel happy that we are not our own great-grandfathers . A hundred years hence , of course , we shall pay the penalty of our contempt , and when tbe Londoner is reading at noon the paper published in the morning at Lahore , when the Channel is tunneled , when the l * riine Minister keeps the Foreign Secretary waiting iive minutes while he consults the American President , when some one is reporting that a descendant of tlie Napoleons has turned up in Abyssinia , and when Egyptologers have mistaken the name of Dr . Lepsius for that of < v Pharaoh of the first dynasty , our idols of the theatre , the den , and the market-place , may have been dispersed with the dust of Cheops . Not so , however , the genuine men . Meeting them as living actors in 1756 , the first sensation—if we allow ourselves to fall into a past age as into a dream—is one of surprise . It is like opening the first edition of the Encyclopedia Jiritannica and finding no mention of Austrulia or New Zoaland . The names are so familiar that we fancy them heritages from times infinitely more remote . At the end of another century , however , in all human likelihood , colossal reputations will have arisen—in politics , in literature , in arts , in arms—and people will wonder what we talked of before these classics were created . Yet criticism ran high and gossip spread afar its shallow inundations before any one could quote Johnson , or pity Chatterton , or read Cervantes in Smollett , ' or learn how Goldsmith adored Mademoiselle Clairon . Mr . Iluttou shows us over the years 1855-56 , and points out the lions , the Court , tho Chamber of Horrors , tho House of Commons included . Ho gives precedence to strictly public affairs— the quarrel with Franco over the Acadian boundary—and tins narrative glides into a parallel , hit ofl' in u spirit of cool uad quiet irony : — Truly , we have much reason to bo proud of our progress in tho art of government

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    No 399 , November 14 1657 ] ¦¦' THE . , L . EADE . B .- . . 1097

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 14, 1857, page 1097, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2217/page/17/