1902 Encyclopedia > Geography > David Livingstone. Verney Lovett Cameron. Henry Morton Stanley.

Geography
(Part 46)



David Livingstone. Verney Lovett Cameron. Henry Morton Stanley.

in Southern Africa also added considerably to our knowledge of the geography of that continent. In 1848 he started from Cape Colony, visited Lake Ngami in 1849, and eventually reached the Portuguese town of St Paul Loanda in 1855. Thence he marched across the continent, discovering the great falls and a considerable part of the course of the Zambesi.

In his second expedition he proceeded up the Zambesi [Zambezi] and its tributary the Shire, and discovered the Lake Nyassa.

On his third and last expedition he landed on the east coast at the mouth of the Rovuma, and made his way thence to lake Nyassa. The great travelers then followed in the footsteps of Dr Lacerda and Monteiro to the Cazembe’s capital, and thence to Lake Tanganyika. From Ujiji, on that lake, he made his way westward to the river Lualaba (the upper course of the Congo), and returning in a destitute condition to Ujiji, he was there succoured by Mr Stanley. Finally he once more started, and died in the midst of his discoveries among the remoter sources of the Congo.

Lieutenant Cameron’s expedition in 1873 had for its main object the succour of Livingstone, but the news of the great traveller’s death was received at Unyanyembe. Cameron then continued his march by a new route to Ujiji, and completed the survey of the southern half of Lake Tanganyika, discovering the Lukuga outlet. Thence he advanced westward across the Manyuema country to Livingstone’s furthest point at Nyangwe, crossed the Lualaba, and traversed the whole width of the African continent, reaching St Paul Loanda on the west coast.

Mr Stanley followed in 1874. he circumnavigated and fixed the outline of the Victoria Nyanza, followed Cameron across Lake Tanganvika to Nyangwe, and then descended the great River Congo, discovering its course, and connecting the work of Livingstone with that of Tuckey.

Mr Young has since completed the survey of Lake Nyassa; Nachtigal has supplemented the work of Barth and Vogel in the Tchad region; while Duveyrier and other French explorers have examined the region of the Sahara. In the far south the Limpopo basin, and the country intervening between the Limpopo and Zambesi, have been made known to us by St Vincent Erskine and Elton, Carl Mauch and Baines.

Thus the extent of the unknown parts of Africa has been rapidly curtailed, while our knowledge has been widened during the last half century.






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