Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. Text used is taken from Argus, 21 November 1862, p. 7, col. 3. The letter, published under the headline ‘The Zambezi’, is introduced as having ‘just been received by a gentleman at Melbourne’. M is confirmed as the recipient by comparison with the contents of J. Kirk to M, 28 June 1862; and the reference in M to J. Balfour, 31 October 1862.

My dear Sir,

I have just received your kind and welcome letter of August, ’61.

2

Letter not found.

Being at the present moment about to start for the Portuguese town of Zette,

3

Printer's error for 'Tete'?

I shall not be able to arrange anything for you at the present moment, but shall keep it in mind.

The seeds of the New Zealand flax are extremely acceptable, and shall be tried in the country of the river Shire, a confluent of the Zambezi, and where our future work will most probably be for some time to come.

Among the highlands of that region, at an elevation of 4,000 ft. the United University Mission is now working; but, alas! they have had to mourn the loss of their esteemed bishop, and also one of the priests under him. But we have had a loss too, which comes even nearer. Mrs. Livingstone, the wife of our commander, joined her husband in the month of February, and had spent three months out here when she fell a victim to the fever. Among the men, too, we have had a large amount of sickness; and the surgeon to the Pioneer (Dr. Meller) being away at the Cape at present, for the benefit of his health, I have had my hands far too full to be able to attend to botany.

Besides, we have great works in hand. The Government have sent out a steamer, upwards of 100 ft. long, in sections, to be constructed on Lake Nyassa. We are obliged to have her shell screwed together here in the Zambezi, in order to make use of it as a large barge to take up the gear. After she has been launched and towed up to the commencement of the cataracts, which break the Shire between Lake Nyassa and the Zambezi, she must be taken down, and transported by land beyond these cataracts. This is a distance of 35 miles latitude, and, in all, of about forty miles, including the windings. In this distance the Shire falls 1,200 ft., or a little more; but once this distance is overcome, there remains no further obstacle to a vessel steaming right in and up Lake Nyassa.

I may state that this is none of the lakes visited by Captain Bunter, but one still further south. It was first discovered by Dr. Livingstone’s party. We reached its southern extremity in lat. 14deg 25min S.; while, two months later, it was reached by an enterprizing Hamburg gentleman (Dr Roscher). Poor fellow, he lost his life somewhere on the Rovuma a river supposed to have some communication with Lake Nyassa.

We spent two months last autumn cruizing on the lake. Having transported a boat gig by the same route by which we propose taking the sections of the Nyassa vessel, we followed its western shore until we saw into the 10deg of latitude. The boat reached about 11deg 25min and we could look still on to a water horizon far off.

It was provoking not to be able to finish the exploration, but it was impossible. I believe the lake terminates in 10deg 30min, but if we had proceeded thus far, I doubt whether we should have been here to tell it; for, robbed at night by thieves, we had a short stock both of clothing and of barter goods, and had entered a country without people, but desolatated by a tribe of Zulus. There was absolutely nothing to be had. When we landed we found a pile of skulls and fresh human bodies lying on the sand of the shore. Our boat, too, was small, and the storms on this inland sea seemed to equal those of the ocean. Several times we had to ride at anchor, and once we were for five hours in doubt whether we should be swamped or not. You know what it is when seas break in four fathoms.

The north end of Nyassa is still to be discovered, but we have now examined and mapped in upwards of 200 miles. The width is from fifteen to sixty, but the risk of storms and the unsettled state of the natives among whom our land party would have been left, prevented us from crossing and measuring it very accurately. The height above the sea is between 1,200ft. and 1,400ft. but its bottom may reach to sea level for all we know, for at a mile offshore we got no soundings with 115 fathoms of line, which were all we could muster. The coast is a series of sandy bays, with bold rocky headlands and mountains jutting into it, and sometimes forming a steep wall, rising for miles from its waters to a height of several thousand feet.

Towards the north end the vegetation undergoes a considerable modification, being more like that of the Rovuma, in lat. 10deg., where we spent a few weeks in the Pioneer.

The present commerce of Lake Nyassa consists of ivory, copper, malachite, but above all others—slaves. It is the slave mart for Zanzibar, Kilwa, Ibo and perhaps the towns further south. Most of the caravans from the interior cross it. This is done in large canoes at a narrow part near its southern end, but other crossings exist higher up. It is wonderful how the canoes can weather the seas, but perhaps they know the signs of the times better than we did.

The Arabs have built a dhow, which crosses with its living cargoes regularly. They ran from us both in going and coming, but once the steamer gets up they will be a prize.

I shall be away on this journey to Zette for five weeks possibly.

H. M. S. Pioneer, Shupanga, Zambezi

Lat. 18deg. S., May 4, 1862.