before us must be deemed to be well worth the labour expended in procuring them by those to whose zeal and energy the present work will form a lasting monument.
The two handsome volumes, recently published under the above title, may be briefly described, as embodying the result of Mr. Stanley's attempt to solve three important problems of African geography, namely, the true source of the Nile, the extent of the Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika Lakes, and the course of the Great River, supposed to be the Congo, which Livingstone and Cameron had seen at Nyangwè.
The undertaking was a gigantic one, requiring not only nerve, judgment, and great physical powers of endurance on the part of the explorer, but an aptitude for governing a body of men knowing nothing of discipline, and possessing in many cases the most impetuous and excitable tempers; skill in planning the best course out of a difficulty, and promptitude and resolution in carrying out the measures devised.
It is impossible to read Mr. Stanley's narrative without coming to the conclusion that he possessed all these qualities in an eminent degree ; had it been otherwise he could never have accomplished what he did. More than this, in the preparation for his journey he displayed much prudence and forethought ; and after reading the works of previous explorers in Africa, a retentive memory enabled him to profit largely by past experience of his own and others in the inhospitable wilds which he was to tread.
His design for a boat — or barge, as he calls it — in five water- tight sections, to enable its easier carriage overland on men's shoulders, proved invaluable. It seems certain after his experience of the native canoes which were quite unable to live in rough weather, and went down one after another with stores and guns (pp. 260, 261), that without the ' Lady Alice' he could never have circumnavigated the Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika Lakes.
To any but the most intrepid traveller the extent of these vast
