Rovuma, a river exterior to the Portuguese claims, as soon as the vessel arrives.  Captain Oldfield of the ‘Lyra’ is sent already, to explore, as far as he can, in that ship.  The entrance is fine, and forty-five miles are known, but we keep our movements secret from the Portuguese—­and so must you; they seize everything they see in the newspapers.  Who are my imprudent friends that publish everything?  I suspect Mr. ——­, of ——­, but no one gives me a name or a clue.  Some expected me to feel sweet at being jewed by a false philanthropist, and bamboozled by a silly R. N. I did not, and could not, seem so; but I shall be more careful in future.

“Again back to the colony.  It is not to sleep, but preparation must be made by collecting information, and maturing our plans.  I shall be able to give definite instructions as soon as I see how the other mission works—­at its beginning—­and when we see if the new route we may discover has a better path to Nyassa than by Shire—­we shall choose the best, of course, and let you know as soon as possible.  I think the Government will not hold back if we have a feasible plan to offer.  I have recommended to the Universities Mission a little delay till we explore,—­and for a working staff, two gardeners acquainted with farming; two country carpenters, capable of erecting sheds and any rough work; two traders to purchase and prepare cotton for exportation; one general steward of mission goods, his wife to be a good plain cook; one medical man, having knowledge of chemistry enough to regulate indigo and sugar-making.  All the attendants to be married, and their wives to be employed in sewing, washing, attending the sick, etc., as need requires.  The missionaries not to think themselves deserving a good English wife till they have erected a comfortable abode for her.”

In the Royal Geographical Society this year (1860), certain communications were read which tended to call in question Livingstone’s right to some of the discoveries he had claimed as his own.  Mr. Macqueen, through whom these communications came, must have had peculiar notions of discovery, for some time before, there had appeared in the Cape papers a statement of his, that Lake ’Ngami of 1859 was no new discovery, as Dr. Livingstone had visited it seven years before; and Livingstone had to write to the papers in favor of the claims of Murray, Oswell, and Livingstone, against himself!  It had been asserted to the Society by Mr. Macqueen, that Silva Porto, a Portuguese trader, had shown him a journal describing a journey of his from Benguela on the west to Ibo and Mozambique on the east, beginning November 26, 1852, and terminating August, 1854.  Of that journal Mr. Macqueen read a copious abstract to the Society (June 27, 1859), which is published in the Journal for 1860.