daily routine of my life afloat. Fortune seemed to have a fresh stalk of grass for me every morning, whether afloat or ashore. If I was alternately "tinker, tailor, soldier and sailor," one day, I had to be "apothecary and ploughboy" by turns at a pinch; and to complete the list, must fain be "thief," and steal moments to write in, if I did so at all! However, I am thus the better able to thank those to whom I am very much indebted for their kindness in rendering me great assistance in the present undertaking. On Dr. Laws I could always reckon for the most obliging and painstaking observations and notes whilst he accompanied me in the voyage to the north end of the Lake, and at times when the serious responsibility of navigating our vessel absorbed all my thoughts.

I am exceedingly obliged to Mrs. Bruce for the loan of one of her father's (Dr. Livingstone's) maps to illustrate the country between. the East Coast of Africa and the eastern shore of the Lake. This map has a very peculiar interest, apart from its great value now that numerous endeavours are being made to turn almost every mile passed over by the great traveller to some practical use in opening up Africa.

When amongst his journals, pocket-books, and diaries, a complete history was found of every day spent during his last series of travels, it was at once apparent that the section of his map to which I allude was missing. Captain Cameron very fortunately discovered it at Ujiji after the publication of the 'Last Journals,' and by him it was restored to Mrs. Bruce. I take this opportunity to record my thanks to the Lords of the Admiralty, and to the Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, for enabling me in the first instance to mature plans upon the lines of previous experience, and to develop them unhampered by any restrictions whatever. If kindly forethought was present at every turn before starting, on my return a sincere welcome met me everywhere from my own countrymen. A friendship begun whilst amongst some of the scenes I treat upon is available too, and I gladly accept its promptings. The Rev. Horace Waller's acquaintance with the rivers and tribes of East Africa fitted him to do me a service in preparing my notes for publication, and I must record the obligation. I owe.

I am aware that it is almost necessary to

make one remark for fear of misunderstanding. In speaking of our presence in Africa, and in several other ways, I use throughout the term "the English," but it is in the general sense in which it seems natural to do so; moreover, it would lead to endless confusion if one had to teach the natives anew that the "British" had come to take up their quarters with them. From first to last it is plain enough that Scotland has paid a noble tribute to her great countryman, and has infused her own determined spirit into the great undertaking which I had the honour to guide as pioneer. In fact we are not without ample indications that a new era has already begun in East Africa. To the lasting credit of the Sultan of Zanzibar be it said that, in spite of political antagonism and dangers arising from the opposition of his own people, of which we have no conception, he has ever since his visit to England entered heart and soul into the suppression of the slave-trade. Reporting recently on his visit to a part of the Zanzibar Coast, hitherto famous for its slave-exporting transactions, Dr. Kirk, Her Majesty's indefatigable Consul-General, informs us, that "through❝out the whole district (Mungao) the slave

"trade is at an end, and the principal chiefs "who carried on the wars that depopulated the "district so lately as 1873, have become indus"trious and settled. A commerce has sprung

66

66

up in one year, which has reconciled the

people of Mungao to the new state of things, "and opened to them a source of wealth, but

66

one wholly incompatible with wars and slave"trade. Last year (1876) the export of india"rubber from the Mungao district amounted to

66

1,400,000lbs. which represents 400,000 dollars' value, or approximately 90,000l.” Wherever Dr. Kirk came in contact with the people he was glad to find a want of labour generally acknowledged: this alone makes it certain the chiefs will no longer harry and hunt down their people for exportation, when they can employ them to such advantage on the spot. I am here speaking, of course, of the sea-coast and the country adjacent to it, not the Lake country to which we penetrated: these benefits have yet to extend thither. I have only to add that, humanly speaking, a splendid foundation has been laid, but it will require the most consummate tact and energy both at home and abroad to raise up a structure of equally solid good

upon it. The critical time is when danger seems at an end, and a tendency to reaction succeeds amongst those who have worked long and arduously to set the machinery in motion. When I consider the darkness, cruelty, and wickedness against which these African Missionary enterprises are hurled in the great fight of good against evil, perhaps I may be excused if I adopt a simile which my profession suggests. Many a shell leaves the gun only to fall harmlessly enough-buried in the earth for want of due care. To make it burst at the right moment and right place is a matter of careful "timing" of fuses and skilled manipulation. In both cases the same powder is burnt in the gun: so with Missionary enterprises. Whether successful or unsuccessful, we see the same energy burnt at first and the same enthusiasm-the same good hope fires the charge, and then away whirls the missile over the darkest fortress the Devil ever had in this world, in my opinion. But it can only be when all precautions and the most intelligent care have been brought to bear-when every calculation for time and distance has been made the shell does its appointed work. In this instance I have shown that the range was found

that