There is again hope that Dr. Livingstone is not dead,
and that the rumour to that effect was an invention of the Johanna men who had deserted him. By a letter received from Dr. Kirk, dated 2anzibar, February 8, Sir Roderick Murchison has learned that a despatch reached the Sultan [of Zanzibar?] the previous day, from the Governor of Quiloa, stating that traders had arrived at Quiloa from the far interior, beyond Lake Nyassa, and "that at the end of November last, that is, two months after the time of the reported 'catastrophe, when they were at Maksura (within ten miles of the supposed place of the massacre) nothing was known of any mishap having befallen Livingstone." On the contrary, he was believed to have proceeded towards the Avisa or Babisa country, after a hospitable reception on the shores of the lake. Maksura, where they heard all this, is, however, though so near, short of the place where the catastrophe is supposed to have occurred. An expedi- tion is to be fitted out at once to go in search of Dr. Livingstone. Sir Roderick Murchison had himself received more than twenty applications from competent men, to serve as volunteers in a Livingstone search expedition.
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