Although not, as he supposed, the discoverer of the remotest source of the Nile, Speke was undoubtedly the first European who saw the Victoria Nyanza, while the adventurous and hazardous journey he and Grant performed together deservedly places them in the first rank of African travellers. They also opened up an extensive and rich district hitherto totally unknown, into which the blessings of Christianity and commerce may, in a few years, be introduced. It is to be hoped that King Rumanika, the most intelligent ruler with whom they came in contact, still survives, as he would afford a cordial welcome both to missionaries and legitimate traders, and his beautiful and healthy country might become the centre of civilisation in that part of Eastern Africa. Were a mission sent to him by way of Zanzibar, backed by a body of disciplined, well-armed men, he would probably greatly assist in clearing the district intervening between the north of his dominions and that lately brought under subjection by Sir Samuel Baker, and a speedy end might be put to the horrible cruelties of the barbarous Mtesa, King of Uganda. It is sad to reflect, however, that while Mahommedan Turks and Arabs are allowed to range at will over the wide regions of Africa and proselytise the heathen, so few Christian merchants or missionaries have made their way into the interior with the advantages their superior civilisation and pure faith would bestow on the hapless inhabitants. We may yet hope with Captain Burton that, "as the remote is gradually drawn nigh, and the difficult becomes accessible, the intercourse of man--strongest instrument of civilisation in the hands of Providence-- will raise Africa to that place in the great republic of nations, from which she has hitherto been unhappily excluded." CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. TRAVELS OF DR. LIVINGSTONE--FIRST EXPEDITION. HIS PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE--SETS OUT FOR AFRICA AS A MISSIONARY FROM THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY--ARRIVES AT CAPE TOWN--LEPELOLE--MABOTSA-- SECHELE--DR. LIVINGSTONE FINDS HIM AT KOLOBENG--A MISSIONARY'S NECESSARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS--THE KALAHARA DESERT DESCRIBED--STARTING--THE BANKS OF THE ZOUGA--LAKE NGAMI--RETURN TO KOLOBENG--RETURN TO LAKE NGAMI--FEVER-- SET OUT AGAIN AND REACH THE CHOBE--SEBITUANE--BANKS OF THE ZAMBESI-- RETURNS TO KOLOBENG--ARRIVES AT CAPE TOWN, WHERE HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN EMBARK FOR ENGLAND--REACHES KURUMAN--THE DUTCH BOERS--LINYANTI--RECEIVED BY THE MAKOLOLO--FEVER.