He remained quiet till 26th June.
In April, 1870, from "Manyuema or Cannibal Country, say 150 miles N.W.
of Ujiji," he began a letter to Sir Roderick Murchison, but changed its
destination to his brother John in Canada. He notices his Immediate
object--to ascertain where the Lualaba joined the eastern branch of the
Nile, and contrasts the lucid reasonable problem set him by Sir Roderick
with the absurd instructions he had received from some members of the
Geographical Society. "I was to furnish 'a survey on successive pages of
my journal,' 'latitudes every night,' 'hydrography of Central Africa,'
and because they voted one-fifth or perhaps one-sixth part of my
expenses, give them 'all my notes, copies if not the originals!' For
mere board and no lodgings I was to work for years and hand over the
results to them." Contrasted with such absurdities, Sir Roderick's
proposal had quite fascinated him. He had ascertained that the watershed
extended 800 miles from west to east, and had traversed it in every
direction, but at a cost which had been wearing out both to mind and
body.
Pages:
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808