A crowded meeting of the Geographical Society was held last
Monday, to receive from Mr. Young an account of his success- ful journey in Dr. Livingstone's track, and the proofs that the story of his death was fabricated. Nothing very new transpired ; but Sir Samuel Baker, who had formerly deeply committed himself to melancholy prophecies, could not refrain from being lugubrious even in the face of good news, and darkly intimating that though -one story of his death had been false, some other would come and turn out true. " With only nine followers it was hardly possible he could get to Alexandria. He hoped, however, almost against hope, that they would hear of his return to Zanzibar." He was very anxious also to export a cat-o'-nine-tails for the benefit of the lying Johanna men,—their sin being, as far as we can make out, in Sir Samuel Baker's eyes, less their lie, than their failure to verify his exceptional and special belief in their truthfulness for that occasion only. Why is *ir Samuel Baker so profoundly and mournfully desponding? It almost looks as if he were a little jealous of Dr. Livingstone's succeeding as well as himself.
Previous page
