to communicate with me in reply to my letter to him. As yet I have not heard from either. Grieved and disappointed as I feel at this frustration of my endeavours in the cause of African discovery feelings which I fear will be shared by those who have kindly co-operated in providing the funds. for a journey which has proved so unsuccessful it is some consolation to know that the Church Missionaries are actively engaged in exploring the interior of Eastern Africa; and from their exertions we may expect to see, ere long, the solution of the great geographical problem, which it was hoped that Dr. Bialloblotzky would have had the good fortune to accomplish. St. Mildred's Court, 26th May, 1849. 5. Dr. Bialloblotzky's C. T. Beke. Journey to discover the Sources of the Nile. On the 4th January, 1849, I laid before the subscribers to Dr. Bialloblotzky's projected exploratory journey into Eastern Africa, a statement of receipt and expenditure to the 31st December, 1848. On the 26th May following, it became my duty to announce that the traveller had returned from Zanzibar to Aden on his way to Egypt. The undertaking on behalf of which I had exerted myself being thus prematurely brought to an end, I felt myself bound to decline receiving any further subscriptions on account of it. A few friends, who had offered to subscribe, have however since been solicited by me to join in defraying the expense of Dr. Bialloblotzky's journey home from Egypt, where he now is; and the sums contributed by them, added to the small balance which I still had on hand for the purposes of his expedition, but which I venture to appropriate to this new object, have enabled me to place 25 at his disposal, for the specific purpose of providing him with the means of returning to Europe. A general and final statement of the sums received and of their appropriation, is now submitted to the subscribers. The friends who have so generously responded to my appeal in the cause of African discovery, will doubtless be gratified in learning that the labours of the Church Missionaries stationed at Rabbai Empia, near Mombás, seem likely to result in the realization of the views as to the geography of Eastern Africa, which were enunciated by me in the year 1846, and which Dr. Bialloblotzky's expedition was intended to verify. Already has the Rev. Mr. Rebmann, in his several exploratory journeys, discovered, in about 3° 40′ S. lat. and 36o E. long., a lofty mountain, named Kilimandjáro, whose summit is covered with perpetual snow, and obtained information respecting a region further in the interior, called Uniamési, or,,the country of the Moon;" and he has further ascertained the existence, in Uniamési, of a large lake, which is not (as has been supposed) identical with Nyássi or,,the Sea" - the great lake of Southern Africa, commonly known as Lake Marávi but from its name, Usámbiro, is apparently the Lake Zambre of the Portuguese of the 16th and 17th centuries. On the other hand, the Egyptian expeditions for exploring the Upper Nile have ascended the river as far as the fourth parallel of north latitude, where they have found it to be still a very large stream, about 2,000 feet in breadth during the rains; and as the country of Uniamési (or Mono-Moézi) may be approximatively placed in 2° to 4° S. lat. and 29° to 34° E. long., the head of the Nile would, by its course being extended only 300 or 400 miles beyond the extreme point reached by the Egyptian expeditions, be brought near if not into this country of Uniamési. Should it really be the case that the Nile rises in the snow-capped Kilimandjáro or other similar mountains, in the vicinity of the lake in,,the country of the Moon", the fact would be almost literally in accordance with the assertions made 1700 years ago by the geographer Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, that the sources of the Nile are in the Mountains of the Moon, and that the lakes of that river receive the snows of those mountains. According to the latest intelligence received from the Missionaries, Mr. Rebmann hat set out on the 5th April last for Uniamési and the lake there; so that we may confidently anticipate the speedy solution of the great problem of geography Nili quærere caput. St. Mildred's Court, London, January 11th, Charles T. Beke. 1850. £ s. d. J. D. Hailes, Esq. T. B. Hart, Esq. William Heseltine, Esq. Dr. Hodgkin John Hogg, Esq. Sir Robert H. Inglis, Bart., M. P. John Winter Jones, Esq. Charles König, Esq. Colonel Sir Henry M. Lawrence The Literary Gazette Dr. Lee Ditto Second Subscription The (late) Bishop of Llandaff George Lowe, Esq. Sir Edmund Lyons, Bart. Ditto Second Subscription Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm Dr. Charles Meyer . J. S. Mill, Esq. T. J. Miller, Esq. Sir Roderick I. Murchison F. G. P. Neison, Esq. The Marquis of Northampton Richard Paterson, Esq. Louis Hayes Petit, Esq. (deceased) Rev. G. C. Renouard Samuel Sharpe, Esq. E. Osborne Smith, Esq. . 1 1 0 Alex. v. Humboldt's Briefwechsel. III. 11 |