1 AUGUST 1863, Page 3

We regret to perceive that the progress of the South

African mission has been greatly impeded by thought. Dr. Livingstone is known to have reached nearly as fur as Lake Nyassa, but the Res% Mr. Stewart, who tried to ascend the Zambezi on foot, was stopped by the impossibility of procur- ing food, and the Rev. Mr. Rowley reports that on the Shire -one-third of the population have -died of starvation. The weak lie- dying in the houses, the strong roam about to rob, and, findins. I nothing, die by the way-side. 'ncessant attempts are made by the sufferers to rob the owners of the small crops on the river islands, and the latter, in self-defence, throw the thieves in alive. The valley is becoming one vast charnel. house. Catastrophes of this kind were once frequent in Europe, but they ceased some hundreds of years since. They still occur occasionally in isolated districts of India, and about once in five years in Madras. There, however, the people are not allowed to perish.