HOPEFUL PROSPECTS. 427 But Europe possesses energy for anything, and if one man dies, another will take his place and carry on his work. It is strange that Europeans have left our countries quite out of sight, and prefer to pour money into the interior by the somewhat worn-out route from Zanzibar, and to enhance the greatness of Sultan Mirambo, and heroes of his stamp, by tribute. If only a thousandth part of the sums expended on _ those expeditions, which were, however, intended to form stations, had been employed in fitting out a small expedition—of Germans of course, I should prefer—and sending it here, I would have sent it forward into the still unoccupied country to the south of Makraki—a real paradise. ‘The men would have been within a few days’ march of us and in constant contact with the world, in a healthy mountain region, and would have become a protection and a blessing to the surrounding Negroes. Small stations would in a very short time have been thrown forward to the Congo through the entirely unknown district extending from the western shore of the Albert Nyanza to Nyangwe, or an advance might have been made to the Beatrice Gulf, and finally to the Tanganyika. Has the King of the Belgians no means of forming such a station ? And would it be quite impossible for you to start something of the sort? Of course, you must not mention me in connection with it, but you may be sure that the men who come may depend on my complete and most zealous support. I must, however, make one remark: I am not speaking of an exploring party, but of the founding of a station, a centre, in fact, for future explorations. The station should maintain itself by hunting, tillage, gardening, &c. (ivory!!). The staff should be chosen with a view to this—men who are not only able to command and to take the altitude of a star, but who know how to work occasionally, and do not disdain to take a look into the cooking-pot. As an experienced traveller, you will certainly admit that a man who wishes to live and work here would also do better to leave the spirit-bottle behind in Kurope.- What boundless advantages the country itself would derive from such beginnings! Much more effective support to our struggles against slavery would be afforded by the presence of several Europeans than by that of ten Consuls in