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THE 
 
 LIFE AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. ROBERTS, 
 
 Author of " Wild Animals in Freedom and Captivity" ** Memoir of John Bunyan ; 
 Editor of" Legendary Ballad Poetry of England and Scotland,'''' 
 " Burm's Poetical and Prose Works" Sfc. 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 EXTKACTS FROM DR. LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNAL, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. E. A. MANNING. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 B. B. RUSSELL, 55 CORNHILL. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : QUAKER-CITY PUBLISHING-HOUSE. 
 PORTLAND: JOHN RUSSELL. 
 
 1875. 
 
BOSTON: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 When the report of the death of Dr. Livingstone reached 
 this country, many people refused to credit the melancholy 
 intelligence. He had so often been given up for lost, and 
 mourned as dead, his countrymen were at first reluctant to 
 believe that the grand old man would never more be seen 
 amongst them. 
 
 Ever since the indomitable Stanley took his last look of the 
 great traveller, — who, although for nearly six years he had 
 been wholly cut off from civilization, still lingered, self-exiled, 
 until his work should be completed, — the interest in his move- 
 ments has not abated. From the Congo, or from the Nile, — 
 according to the opinions formed as to the further course of the 
 mysterious Lualaba, whose gathering waters he had followed 
 from the uplands which divide the African central valley from 
 that of the Zambesi, to a point within a couple of hundred 
 miles of the hitherto supposed head-waters of the Mle, — 
 intelligence of his movements has been looked for with an 
 impatience which shows how strong an impression this remark- 
 able man, and his extraordinary career, have made upon the 
 public mind. 
 
 The life of this truly great man, from its childhood to its 
 close, is a living lesson which the youth of our country cannot 
 take too closely to heart. The child and boy, who, while under- 
 going the drudgery of twelve hours' daily labor in a factory, 
 found time and means to educate himself for the noble office 
 of the Christian mission to the heathen, is as interesting and 
 instructive a study as that of the grown man, whose determined 
 will and untiring effort have made us familiar with more of 
 
4 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the formerly unknown regions of the earth than any previous 
 explorer of ancient or of modern times. 
 
 The present narrative — mainly designed for that large class 
 of modern readers who have neither the time nor the oppor- 
 tunity for becoming acquainted with the many sources from 
 which it has been gleaned — has been written in brief intervals 
 of leisure during the past eighteen months. 
 
 And it is believed that this brief account of his career will 
 tend to increase and maintain the interest, which the melan- 
 choly termination of his career has revived, in the great and 
 noble work to which he devoted, and for which he sacrificed, 
 his life. 
 
 In presenting a new edition to the public, we are happy to 
 be able to incorporate all the essential results of Dr. Living- 
 stone's Last Journal of his third attempt to open Central Af- 
 rica more fully to the civilized world, — an object for which 
 he seemed so ardently to live, and for which he certainly was 
 so ready to die, — always bearing in mind, what he never for an 
 instant lost sight of, viz., the discovery of the real source of the 
 Nile, and Africa's redemption from the vile curse of the slave- 
 trade. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAOa 
 Early Tears. — Education. — Arrival at Cape Town as a Missionary . . 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. ^ 
 Arrives at Kuruman. — Visits the Bechuana Tribes. — Resolves to settle 
 among the Bakwains. — Marriage. — Journeys to the Zouga River. — 
 The Bakwains attacked by the Boers 19 
 
 ' CHAPTER III. 
 The Kalahari Desert. — Discovers Lake Ngami. — Visits Sebituane.— 
 Death of Sebituane. —Discovers the Zambesi • V * ■ • 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Attack on Kolobeng by the Boers. — Starts on his Great Journey . . 43 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Preparations for Departure. — Ascends the Leeambye and the Leeba. — 
 
 Abundance of Animal Life. — Two Female Chiefs. — Visits Shinte . 60 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Visits Katema's Town. — Is hospitably entertained. — Lake Dilolo. — 
 
 Crosses the Quango. — Cassange. — Arrival at Loanda . ... 79 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Stay at Loanda. — Starts on Return Journey. — Dr. Livingstone again 
 attacked with Fever. — The Makololo suffer from Sickness. — Descent 
 of the Leeba and Leeambye. — Arrival at Linyanti .... 106 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Starts for the East Coast. —The Victoria Falls. — The Batoka Tribes.— 
 
 Reaches Zumbo, a deserted Portuguese Settlement .... 123 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Arrives in England. — Enthusiastic Reception. — Departs again for the 
 Zambesi. — Arrives at the Kongone Mouth of that River. — Passes 
 up the Zambesi 152 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Ascends the Shire. —Friendly Natives. — Discovers Lake Shirwa. — Con- 
 tact with Slave-hunters .166 
 
 1* 6 
 
6 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Starts for Linyanti. — Cutting up an Elephant. — The " Go-Naked " Tribe, 
 
 — The Victoria Falls.— Finds Sekeletuill ...... !81 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Descends the Zambesi.— Arrival of Bishop Mackenzie.— Liberates a 
 Band of Slaves. — Death of Bishop Mackenzie. — Arrival and Death 
 of Mrs. Livingstone 197 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Dreadful Results of a Slave Raid. — Dr. Livingstone recalled. — Journey 
 of Exploration beyond Lake Nyassa. — Starts for Home. — Arrival 
 in England 218 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Starts a Third Time for Africa. — His reported Murder. — Expedition 
 sent in Search of him. — Letters from himself. — Again lost to View. 
 
 — Mr. H. M. Stanley finds him at Ujiji . 226 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone as found by Mr. Stanley. — Expedition to North End of 
 Lake Tanganyika. — Dr. Livingstone accompanies Mr. Stanley to 
 Unyanyembe. — Mr. Stanley's Arrival in England. — Sketch of his 
 Life .269 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Letters of Dr. Livingstone. — Incidents of Travel. — The Slave Trade in 
 
 Central Africa.. — Geographical Conclusions, &c 278 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Sir Bartle Frere's Mission. — Expeditions sent to assist Dr. Livingstons. 
 
 — His Death. — Some Account of his Family, &c 320 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Account of Last Illness and Death of Dr. Livingstone. — Public Funeral 
 
 in Westminster Abbey, &c 330 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Reaches Zanzibar. — Ravages of Slave-stealers. — Theory of Inundations. 
 
 — Vultures. — Smelting Iron. — Loss of Medicines. — Lake Tangan- 
 yika. —Cropping Ears. — History of Joseph and his Brethren familiar 
 to the Natives. — Current through Tanganyika. — Timidity of people. 
 
 — Circumcision. — Beautiful Country. — Illness. — Reaches Lualaba. 351 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 First Hostility of Natives. — Very Feeble. — Stanley arrives. — Goes with 
 Stanley to Unyanyembe. — Stanley returns. — The Doctor starts for 
 the Nile Fountains. — Encouragement for Missionary Work. — 
 Reaches Bangweolo. — Fails rapidly. — Last hours and Death . . 37 1 
 
THE LIFE AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 OP 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY YEARS. — EDUCATION. — ARRIVAL AT CAPE TOWN AS 
 , A MISSIONARY. 
 
 David Livingstone was born at Blantyre, near Glas- 
 gow, in 1813. He was the son of humble but respecta- 
 ble parents, whose simple piety and worth were noticeable 
 even in a community, which, in those days, ranked above 
 the average for all those manly and self-denying virtues 
 which were, a few generations ago, so characteristic of the 
 lower classes of Scotland. Humble and even trying cir- 
 cumstances did not make them discontented with their 
 lot, nor tend to make them forget the stainless name 
 which had descended to them from a line of predecessors 
 whose worldly circumstances were hardly better than their 
 own. 
 
 In the introduction to his " Missionary Travels and 
 Researches " in South Africa, published in 1857, Dr. Liv- 
 ingstone gave a brief and modest sketch of his early 
 years, together with some account of the humble, although 
 notable family from which he sprang. " One great-grand- 
 
 r 
 
8 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 father," he tells us, " fell at the battle of Culloden, fight- 
 ing for the old line of kings ; and one grandfather was a 
 small farmer in Ulva, where my father was born. It is 
 one of that cluster of the Hebrides thus spoken of by Sir 
 Walter Scott : — 
 
 1 And Ulva dark, and Colonsay, 
 And all the group of islets gay 
 That guard famed Staff a round.' 
 
 " Our grandfather was intimately acquainted with ail 
 the traditionary legends which that great writer has sin fie 
 made use of in 4 The Tales of a Grandfather,' and other 
 works. As a boy, I remember listening with delight, for 
 his memory was stored with a never-ending stock of sto- 
 ries ; many of which were wonderfully like those I have 
 since heard while sitting by the African evening fires. 
 Our grandmother, too, used to sing Gaelic songs, some of 
 which, as she believed, had been composed by captive 
 Highlanders languishing among the Turks." 
 
 The reverence of your true Highlander for his ancestors, 
 and his knowledge of them and their doings for many 
 generations, have been frequently the subject of mirth to 
 the Lowlanders, or Sassenachs as they are termed by the 
 Celts ; but, in such instances as that of the family of which 
 we are treating, such feelings are not only virtues, but are 
 the incentives to bold and manly effort in the most trying 
 circumstances. Livingstone tells us that his grandfather 
 could rehearse traditions of the families for six generations 
 before him. One of these was of a nature to make- a 
 strong impression on the imaginative and independent 
 mind of the boy, even when almost borne down with toil 
 too severe for his years. He says, u One of these poor, 
 hardy islanders was renowned in the district for great wis- 
 
EARLY YEARS. 
 
 9 
 
 dom and prudence ; and it is related, that, when he was on 
 his death-bed, he called all his children around him, and 
 said, ' Now, in my lifetime I have searched most carefully 
 through all the traditions I could find of our family ; and 
 I never could discover that there was a dishonest man 
 among our forefathers. If, therefore, any of you, or any 
 of your children, should take to dishonest ways, it will not 
 be because it runs in our blood : it does not belong to 
 you. I leave this precept with you : Be honest.' " 
 
 With pardonable pride, and some covert sarcasm, Liv- 
 ingstone points out that at the period in question, accord- 
 ing to Macaulay, the Highlanders " were much like Cape 
 Caffres ; and any one, it was said, could escape punishment 
 for cattle-stealing by presenting a share of the plunder to 
 his chieftain. " Macaulay's assertion was true of the clans 
 and bands of broken men who dwelt near the Highland 
 line. But, even in their case, these cattle-lifting raids 
 hardly deserved the designation of pure theft ; as, even up 
 to the middle of the last century, they looked upon the 
 Lowland ers as an alien race, and consequently enemies, 
 whom it was lawful to despoil ; the conduct of the needy 
 and ambitious nobles who drove them from their native 
 haunts, where their fathers had lived and hunted for cen- 
 turies, with a view to possessing themselves of their 
 inheritance, too often furnishing a sufficient excuse for the 
 deeds of violence and plunder which figure so prominently 
 in the annuls of the country, down even to the days of 
 George II. 
 
 Like most of the Highlanders, his ancestors were 
 Roman Catholics ; but, when Protestantism got fairly 
 established in Scotland, the apostac} T of the chief was fol- 
 lowed by that of the entire clan. Livingstone says, " They 
 were made Protestants by the laird (the squire) coming 
 
10 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 round, with a man having a yellow staff, which would seem 
 to have attracted more attention than his teaching ; for the 
 new religion went long afterwards, perhaps it does so still, 
 by the name of ' the religion of the staff.' " 
 
 In the olden time, religion to them was only secondary 
 to their devotion and attachment to their chief, and never 
 seems to have taken any firm hold of their imaginations 
 The country was poor in money, and the priests they were 
 familiar with were poor and ignorant ; and, within the 
 Highland line, there were no splendid edifices, or pomps of 
 worship, to rouse their enthusiasm : so that the abandon- 
 ment of their old mode of worship was no sacrifice. 
 
 With the breaking-up of the clans, and the introduction 
 of industrial occupation, and the teaching and preaching 
 of devoted adherents of the new religion, the minds of the 
 Highlanders were moved ; and for man} T generations, and 
 even at the present da} 7 , the Presbyterian form of worship 
 has no more zealous adherents than the people of the 
 Highlands of Scotland. The man with the 3 T ellow staff 
 was, in all likelihood, one of the commissioners sent out 
 by the General Assembly to advocate the cause of the new 
 religion among those who were either indifferent, or were 
 too remote from Edinburgh to be affected by the deadly 
 struggle for supremacy which was going on between the 
 old creed and the new religion. 
 
 Towards the end of the last century, finding the small 
 farm in Ulva insufficient for the maintenance qf his fami- 
 ly, Livings tone's grandfather removed to Blantyre ; where 
 he, for a number of years, occupied a position of trust in 
 the employment of Messrs. Monteith & Co., of Blantyre 
 Cotton Works, his sons being employed as clerks. It 
 formed part of the old man's duty to convey large sums 
 of money to and from Glasgow ; and his unflinching hon- 
 
EARLY YEARS. 
 
 li 
 
 est}', in this and other ways, won him the respect and 
 esteem of his employers, who settled a pension on him 
 when too old to continue his services. 
 
 Livingstone's uncles shared in the patriotic spirit which 
 roused the country during the war with France, and en- 
 tered the service of the king ; but his father, having 
 recently got married, settled down as a small grocer, the 
 returns from which business were so small as to necessi- 
 tate his children being sent to the factory as soon as they 
 could earn any thing to assist in the family support. 
 David Livingstone was but ten years of age, /in 1823, 
 when he entered the mill as a " piecer ; " where he was 
 employed from six o'clock in the morning until eight 
 o'clock at night, with intervals for breakfast and dinner. 
 In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, this early introduc- 
 tion to a life of toil would have been the commencement 
 of a lifetime of obscure and daily toil. Let us see how 
 David Livingstone bore and conquered the cruel circum- 
 stances of his boyhood, and made for himself a name 
 which is known and respected throughout the civilized 
 world, and is accepted by the savage inhabitants of Cen- 
 tral Africa as conveying to their mind all that is best in 
 the character of u the white man." 
 
 Between the delicate " piecer" boy of ten, and the mid- 
 dle-aged man who returned to England after an absence 
 of sixteen years, in December, 1856, with a world-wide 
 reputation, there was a mighty hill of difficulty nobly sur- 
 mounted ; and we cannot attach too much importance tc 
 the mode in which he conquered those difficulties and hin- 
 derances, which, but that they are mastered every now 
 and again in our sight by some bold and daring spirit, 
 we are almost inclined to think insurmountable. It is a 
 true saying, that every man who has earned distinction 
 
12 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. LL.D. 
 
 must have been blessed with a parent or parents of no 
 mean order, whatever their position in society. What 
 his ancestors were like, we gather from his own brief allu- 
 sion to them ; and the few remarks he makes regarding 
 his parents and their circumstances, supplemented by 
 some information procured from one who knew them, 
 enables me to give a picture of his home surroundings, 
 which will assist materially in estimating the courageous 
 spirit which carried the delicate and overworked boy 
 safely through all his early toils and trials. 
 
 To the mere observer, Livingstone's father appeared to 
 be somewhat stern and taciturn, and an over-strict disci- 
 plinarian, where the members of his family were con- 
 cerned. But, under a cold and reserved exterior, he 
 sheltered a warm heart ; and his real kindliness, as well as 
 his truth and uprightness, are cherished in the memories 
 of his family and his intimates. He was too truthful and 
 conscientious to become rich as a small grocer in a coun- 
 try village ; while his real goodness of heart induced him 
 to trust people whose necessities were greater than their 
 ability or desire to pay, to the further embarrassment of a 
 household his limited business made severe enough. 
 
 He brought up his children in connection with the 
 Church of Scotland ; which he left, and joined an independ- 
 ent body worshipping in Hamilton, some miles distant, 
 after the} 7 had all grown up. Speaking of the Christian 
 example he set before his family, his famous son says, 
 ■ c He deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for pre- 
 senting me from infancy with a continuously consistent 
 pious example, such as that, the ideal of which is so 
 beautifully and truthfully portrayed in Burns's 4 Cotter's 
 Saturday Night.' " He was a strict disciplinarian, and 
 looked with small favor on his son's passion for reading 
 
EARLY YEARS. 
 
 13 
 
 scientific books, and works of travel ; but his son had 
 much of his own stubborn and independent temperament 
 where he supposed himself to be in the right, and sturdily 
 preferred his own selection of books to i c The Cloud of 
 Witnesses/' "Boston's Fourfold State," or " Wilber- 
 foree's Practical Christianity." His refusal to read the 
 latter work * procured him a caning, which was the last 
 occasion of his father's application of the rod. 
 
 As is the case of many a young man in like circum- 
 stances, his father's importunity, and unfortunate selection 
 of authors, fostered a dislike for merely doctrinal reading, 
 which continued until years afterwards ; when a perusal of 
 " The Philosophy of Religion," and the " Philosophy of 
 a Future State," by Thomas Dick, widened his under- 
 standing, and gratified him by confirming him in what he 
 had all along believed, u that religion and science are 
 not hostile, but friendly to each other." Both his parents 
 had taken much pains to instil the principles of Chris- 
 tianity into his mind ; but it was only after becoming 
 acquainted with the writings of Dr. Dick and others that 
 their efforts bore fruit. The depth of his religious con- 
 victions may be conceived from the sacrifices he has made 
 in his evangelistic labors ; but his strong understanding 
 has saved him from becoming a sectary or a bigot. While 
 there is no more earnest-minded or devoted servant of 
 Christ living, there is none so liberal and so large-hearted 
 in his acceptance of all honest and God-fearing men who 
 strive to uo good, whatever their creed may be. 
 
 His father died in February, 1856, at the time when his 
 son was making his way from the interior of Africa to 
 the coast, on his return to England, " expecting ho 
 greater pleasure, in this country, than sitting b} 7 our cot- 
 tage fire, and telling him my travels. I revere his mem- 
 2 
 
14 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 ory." The applause of the best and the highest in the 
 land, in the social circle or in the crowded assembly, 
 with hundreds hanging on his every word, was as nothing 
 compared to the long talks he had looked forward to with 
 the kindly though stern father he had not seen for so 
 many years. But it was not to be. He has small notions 
 of the strength of filial affection in the heart of such a 
 man, who cannot sympathize with him in his sorrow and 
 disappointment. 
 
 His mother, a kindly and gentle woman, whose whole 
 thoughts were given up to the care of her children, and the 
 anxieties consequent upon narrow means, was the con- 
 stant instructor of her children in religious matters. Her 
 distinguished son tells us that his earliest recollection of 
 her recalls a picture so often seen among the Scottish 
 poor, — " that of the anxious housewife striving to make 
 both ends meet." Her loving and kindly nature acted as 
 a valuable counterpoise to the strict and austere rule of 
 the father, and kept alive, in the hearts of her children, a 
 love and respect for all things sacred, which an enforced 
 study of dry theological books might have endangered or 
 destroyed. 
 
 The little education which the 64 piecer" boy of ten had 
 received had aroused within him the desire for more ; and 
 the genuineness of the desire was proved by the pur- 
 chase of a copy of 4 4 Ruddiman's Rudiments of Latin " 
 with a portion of his first week's earnings. For many 
 years he pursued the study of Latin with enthusiastic 
 ardor ; receiving much assistance in this and other studies 
 at an evening-school, the teacher of which was partly 
 supported by the intelligent members of the firm at Blan- 
 tyre works, for the benefit of the people in their employ- 
 ment. Livingstone's work-hours were from six, a.m., to 
 
EDUCATION 
 
 15 
 
 eight, p.m. ; school-hours from eight to ten ; and private 
 reading and study occupied from ten to twelve, when it 
 was often necessary for his mother to take possession of 
 his books in order to get the youthful student to bed. 
 Eighteen hours out of the twenty-four were given up to 
 toil and self-improvement ; a remarkable instance, truly, 
 of determined effort, on the part of a mere boy, to acquire 
 knowledge which his hard lot would almost have seemed 
 to place beyond his reach. 
 
 Even when at work, the book he was reading was fixed 
 upon the spinning-jenny, so that he could catch sentence 
 after sentence as he passed in his work. At sixteen 
 years of age, he tells us that he knew Horace and Virgil 
 better than he did in 1857. Notwithstanding the limited 
 leisure at his disposal, he made himself thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the scenery, botany, and geology of his 
 district. In these excursions he was accompanied by his 
 elder and 3'ounger brothers, John and Charles. The for- 
 mer of these afterwards settled in Canada, and became 
 successful in business : the latter was educated for the 
 ministry, and labored for several years in the United 
 States. In 1858 he joined the expedition headed by his 
 brother, and with him explored the Zambesi and its tribu- 
 taries ; a considerable portion of the narrative of that 
 expedition being written by him. 
 
 At nineteen years of age Livingstone was promoted to 
 the laborious work of a cotton-spinner ; and, while the 
 heavy toil pressed hard upon the young and growing lad, 
 he was cheered by the reflection that the high wages he 
 now earned would enable him, from his summer's labor, to 
 support himself in Glasgow during the winter months 
 while attending medical and other classes at the Univer- 
 sity ; to attend which he walked to and from his father's 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 house daily, a distance of nine miles. He never received 
 a particle of aid from any one, nor did the resolute youth 
 seek or expect such ; well knowing that his difficulties 
 and trials were no greater than those of dozens of his fel- 
 lows who sat on the same benches with him in the class- 
 rooms. The religious awakening which we have already 
 alluded to, which occurred when he was about sixteen years 
 of age, inspired him with a fervent ambition to be a 
 pioneer of Christianity in China ; and his practical 
 instincts taught him that a knowledge of medicine would 
 be of great service in securing him the confidence of the 
 people he was so desirous of benefiting, besides insuring 
 his appointment as a medical missionary in connection 
 with a society of that name recently formed in his native 
 land. 
 
 At the conclusion of his medical curriculum, he had to 
 present a thesis to the examining body of the Universit3 f , 
 on which his claim to be admitted a member of the 
 faculty of plrysicians and surgeons would be judged. 
 The subject was one, which, in ordinary practice, required 
 the use of the stethoscope for its diagnosis ; and it was 
 characteristic of the independence and originality of the 
 man, that an awkward difference arose between him and 
 the examiners, as to whether the instrument could do what 
 was claimed for it. This unfortunate boldness procured 
 him a more than ordinarily severe examination, through 
 which he passed triumphantly. Alluding to this in after 
 years, he dryly remarks that " the wiser plan would have 
 been to have had no opinions of my own." Looking 
 back over the years of toil and hardship which had led up 
 to this important stage in his career, and looking forward 
 to the possibilities of the future, he might well say that 
 " it was with unfeigned delight I became a member of s 
 
EARLY TEARS. 
 
 17 
 
 profession which is pre-eminently devoted to practica 4 
 benevolence, and which with unwearied energy pursues, 
 from age to age, its endeavors to lessen human woe." 
 
 Writing in 1857, he tells us, that on reviewing his life, 
 of toil before his missionary career began, he could feel 
 thankful that it was of such a nature as to prove a hardy 
 training for the great enterprises he was destined after- 
 wards to engage in ; and he speaks with warm and affec- 
 tionate respect of the sterling character of the bulk of 
 the humble villagers among whom he spent his early 
 years. 
 
 The outbreak of the opium war with China compelled 
 him reluctantly to abandon his cherished intention of 
 proceeding to that country ; but he was happily led to 
 turn his thoughts to South Africa, where the successful 
 labors of Mr. Robert Moffat were attracting the attention 
 of the Christian public in this country. In September, 
 1838, he was summoned to London to undergo an exami- 
 nation by the directors of } ' The London Missionary 
 Society ; " after which he was sent, on probation, to a 
 missionary training establishment, conducted by the Rev. 
 Mr. Cecil, at Chipping Ongar, in Essex. There he 
 remained until the early part of 1840, applying himself 
 with his wonted diligence to his studies, and testifying 
 his disregard for hard labor by taking his full share of 
 the work of the establishment, such as grinding the corn 
 to make the household bread, chopping wood, gardening 
 operations, &c. ; part of the training at Chipping Ongar 
 being a wise endeavor to make the future missionaries 
 able to shift for themselves in the uncivilized regions 
 in which they might be called upon to settle. 
 
 At Chipping Ongar he indulged his habit of making 
 long excursions in the country round ; and on one 
 2* 
 
18 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D: 
 
 occasion he walked to and from London, a distance of 
 fifty miles > in one day, arriving late at night completely 
 exhausted, as he had hardly partaken of any food during 
 the entire journey. From his earliest years up to his 
 attaining manhood, his training, both mental and physi- 
 cal, had been of the best possible kind to fit him for the 
 great career which lay before him ; which may be said to 
 have had its commencement when he landed at C&pe 
 Town in 1840. 
 
CHAPTER H. 
 
 J. . 
 
 ARRIVES AT KURUMAN. VISITS THE BECHUANA TRIBES.— 
 
 RESOLVES TO SETTLE AMONG THE BAKWAINS. — MARRIAGE. 
 — JOURNEYS TO THE ZOUGA RIVER. — THE BAKWAINS 
 ATTACKED BY THE BOERS. 
 
 A regularly ordained worker in the Christian field, and 
 a well-instructed doctor and surgeon, with an enthusiastic 
 love for the work he was engaged in, after a brief stay at 
 the Cape, he proceeded, in accordance with the instruc- 
 tions he had received from the Missionary Society, to 
 Kuruman, with the view of establishing a mission-station 
 still farther to the north, where ground had not yet been 
 broken. 
 
 At Kuruman and neighborhood he found Moffat and 
 his coadjutors hard at work, and remained with them a 
 few months, familiarizing himself with their mode of 
 operations, visiting and making himself acquainted with 
 the Bechuana people, their manners and customs, lan- 
 guage and country, with a view to settling amongst them ; 
 the chief of one of the Bechuana tribes being favorable 
 to his projects. 
 
 In his second preparatory excursion into the Bechuana 
 country, he settled for six months at a place called 
 Lepelole ; completely isolating himself from European 
 society, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the 
 language. Deeming that this was to be the scene and 
 centre of future labors, he commenced his preparations 
 
 Id 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 for a settlement among the Bakwains, as that section of 
 the Bechuana people who inhabit the district round 
 Lepelole was named. When these arrangements were 
 almost completed, he made a journey, principally on foot, 
 to the north, and penetrated within ten days' journey of 
 the lower part of the River Zouga ; and, if discovery had 
 been his object, he might even then have discovered Lake 
 Ngami. At this time the great traveller's slim appear- 
 ance gave little token of the hardy endurance which was 
 to enable him afterwards to undergo months and years of 
 toilsome journeyings in regions never before visited by 
 civilized man ; but this trial trip proved the pluck and 
 stamina which were to stand him in so good stead in 
 many undertakings of much greater magnitude. 
 
 Returning to Kuruman, intelligence followed him that 
 the Bakwains, among whom he had made up his mind to 
 settle, had been driven from Lepelole by the Barolongs, 
 a neighboring tribe ; so that he was obliged to set out 
 anew in search of another locality in which to establish 
 his mission-station, when he fixed upon the valley of 
 Mabotsa. Here he had an extraordinary adventure with 
 a lion, which, from the singular nature of his experiences, 
 merits insertion here. Several lions had been carrying 
 destruction among the cattle of the natives ; and Living- 
 stone went with the people to assist in the extermination 
 of the marauders. The lions were traced to a small 
 wooded hill, which the people surrounded, and proceeded 
 to beat through the underwood with the view of driving 
 the prey into a position where the shooters could see and 
 tire at them. Livingston, having fired at one of the ani- 
 ma.s, was in the act of reloading, when he heard a shout 
 of warning from the people near. " Starting, and looking 
 half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing 
 
ADVENTURE WITH A LION. 
 
 21 
 
 upon me. I was upon a little height. He caught my 
 shoulder as he sprang ; and we both came to the ground 
 below together. Growling horribly close to my eai, he 
 shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock pro- 
 duced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a 
 mouse after the first shake of the cat. It caused a sort 
 of dreaminess, in which there was no sense of p£ln, nor 
 feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all that was 
 happening. It was like what patients partially under the 
 influence of chloroform describe, who see all the opera- 
 tion, but feel not the knife. This singular condition was 
 not the result of any mental process. The shake annihi- 
 lated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking 
 round at the beast. This peculiar state is probably pro- 
 duced in all animals killed by the carnivora ; and, if so, 
 is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for 
 lessening the pain of death. Turning round to relieve 
 myself of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of 
 my head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe (a native 
 schoolmaster) , who was trying to shoot him at a distance 
 of ten or fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, missed fire 
 in both barrels : the lion immediately left me, and, attack- 
 ing Mebalwe, bit his thigh. Another man, whose hip I 
 had cured before, after he had been tossed by a buffalo, 
 attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe : 
 he left Mebalwe, and caught this man by the shoulder ; but 
 at that moment the bullets he had received took effect, 
 and he fell down dead. . . . Besides crunching the bone 
 into splinters, he left eleven teeth-wounds in my arm." 
 
 Sechele, the chief of the tribe of Bakwains, to which 
 tribe Livingstone attached himself, was a remarkable 
 man, as had also been his father and grandfather before 
 him. The latter was a great traveller, and the first that 
 
22 LIFE OF DAVID LIVIN7ST0NL LL.D. 
 
 ever told his people of the existence of t, race of white 
 men. During his father's life, those two extraordinary 
 travellers, Dr. Cowan and Capt. Donovan, lost their lives 
 m his territory, and were supposed to have been murdered 
 by the Bakwains, until Livingstone learned from Sechele 
 that they had died from fever in descending the River 
 Limpopo, after they had been hospitably entertained by 
 his father and his people. At that time the country was 
 rich in cattle and pasturage, as water was more abundant. 
 The country in Central and Southern Africa is so rapidly 
 undergoing a change through the drainage caused by the 
 disruption of the soil carrying off the water at a much 
 lower level, that vast districts, now almost desert, were 
 rich in cattle, and populous with human beings, within 
 the memory of people then living. 
 
 The father of Sechele was murdered when he was a 
 boy ; and a usurper proclaimed himself the head of the 
 tribe. The friends of the children applied to Sebituane, 
 chief of the Makololo, to reinstate them, and punish the 
 rebels. This he successfully accomplished ; and between 
 him and his subject tribes, and Sechele, there was much 
 friendly relation in consequence, which ultimately led to 
 Livingstone's visiting Sebituane's country, and making 
 the acquaintance of perhaps the wisest native ruler he 
 came in contact with in all his wanderings. 
 
 The government of the Bechuana tribes is patriarchal. 
 The chief is the head of the tribe, and a father is the 
 chief of his family. Round the hut of the chief are the 
 huts of his wives, those of his relations, and the leading 
 men of the tribe ; and round the hut of the father are 
 ranged those of his family, when they take up house. 
 Kinship is as minutely defined, and is as much a matter of 
 pride, with the natives of South Africa, as among the 
 inhabitants of the Highlands of Scotland. 
 
FIRST RELIGIOUS SERVICE. 23 
 
 The first time Livingstone held a public religious service, 
 Sechele listened with much attention ; and, on receiving 
 permission to ask questions regarding what he had heard, 
 inquired if Livingstone's forefathers knew of a future 
 judgment. On receiving an affirmative answer, and a 
 description of the great white throne, and Him who shall 
 sit on it, before whose face the heaven and earth shall flee 
 away, &c, he said, " You startle me. These words make 
 all my bones to shake. I have no more strength in me. 
 But my forefathers were living at the same time yours 
 were ; and how is it that they did not send them word 
 about these terrible things sooner? They all passed 
 away into darkness, without knowing whither they were 
 going." 
 
 So eager was Sechele to learn to read, that he acquired 
 a knowledge of the alphabet on the first day of Living- 
 stone's residence at Chounane. Mr. Oswell, who, as we 
 shall see, afterwards joined Livingstone in his expedition 
 to Lake Ngami, taught him arithmetic. After he was 
 able to read, nothing gave him greater pleasure than the 
 getting Livingstone to listen to his reading of the Bible. 
 Isaiah was his favorite book; and he would frequently 
 say, "He was a fine man, Isaiah. He knew how to 
 speak." Sympathizing with the difficulties encountered 
 in com erting his people, he offered to convert them in a 
 body ; and could hardly be made to understand Living 
 stone's objection to making Christians in a wholesale 
 manner, through the agency of whips made of rhinoceros 
 hide. Thinking of the difficulties in the way of being 
 baptized, and making an open profession of his belief in 
 Christianity, more especially as regarded the number of 
 his wives, the putting away of all of whom, save one, 
 would get him into trouble with their relatives, he fre- 
 
24 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, ZL.D. 
 
 quently said, a Oh ! I wish you had come into this coun- 
 try before I became entangled in the meshes of our 
 customs." At his own request, Livingstone held family 
 worship in his hut, in the hope . that it might induce his 
 people to become attached to Christianity. But as the 
 country was at that time suffering from a long-continued 
 drought, which was attributed to the chief taking up with 
 the new religion, few attended, save the members of his 
 own family. Speaking of the influence of the example 
 of a chief in all other things, he said bitterly, " I love 
 the word of God, and not one of my brethren will join 
 me." No doubt, if he had become a drunkard, or a plun- 
 derer of other tribes, he would have had plenty of follow- 
 ers : so powerful is evil example. 
 
 When he applied for baptism, Livingstone asked him 
 since he knew his Bible, and his duty as laid down there- 
 in, how he was to act. He went home, and sent all his 
 superfluous wives to their parents, with all the goods and 
 chattels they had been in the habit of using, intimating 
 that he had no fault to find with them, but that he only 
 followed the will of God. Crowds attended to witness 
 the baptism of Sechele and his family, many of them 
 shedding tears of sorrow over what they termed the weak- 
 ness of their chief in forsaking the ways of his fore- 
 fathers. Notwithstanding that he made few converts, 
 Livingstone had the satisfaction of seeing that the influence 
 of himself, and his devoted and energetic helpmate (he 
 had married a daughter of Robert Moffat's in 1844), was 
 attended with temporal results in introducing a higher 
 tone of morality among the people. This influence was 
 so strong as to have prevented war on no less than five 
 distinct occasions. 
 
 The drought which afflicted the country shortly after 
 
DAILY LABORS. 
 
 25 
 
 Livingstone settled among the people, and after they had 
 removed to the Kolobeng, — a stream forty miles distant 
 from the previous settlement, where an experiment in irri- 
 gation, under the direction of Livingstone, was tried with 
 much success for a time, until the parent stream became 
 dried up, — was popularly believed to be the result of the 
 evil influence of the missionary over the mind of the chief ; 
 the more especially as he had previously been a believer 
 in rain-making j and had a high reputation among his 
 people as a rain-doctor. After his conversion and bap- 
 tism, he forswore the medicines and incantations with 
 which he had previously charmed the rain-clouds to descend 
 upon the land ; and as this was attributed to Livingstone's 
 influence, and the people were starving for want of food 
 and water for months, it proved a great hinderance to the 
 good work amongst them. 
 
 Notwithstanding their dislike to the new religion, its 
 preacher and expounder lived amongst them in the most 
 perfect safety. He possessed the secret of ingratiating 
 himself with these savage Africans in a higher degree than 
 was ever before known ; and whether staying for a time 
 among the various tribes, or passing through their terri- 
 tory, the respect with which he has been treated is the 
 most remarkable feature in his career. This noble, reso- 
 lute, and God-fearing man went amongst them for their 
 good, and that only ; and interfered with nothing that did 
 not lie directly in his path of duty. With his own hands 
 he built his hut, tilled his garden, and dug his irrigating 
 canals. The wild animals, needful for the food of his 
 household, fell to his own gun ; and the fruits of the earth 
 were of his own gathering-in. During all his years of labor 
 in South Africa, his mission cost the inhabitants nothing ; 
 while they received much in higher ideas of justice and 
 
 8 
 
26 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 right, and in improved skill in husbandry and in the ccn 
 struction of their houses. Whatever were their feelings 
 as to the religion he taught, the man himself was above 
 the suspicion of evil, and went in and out amongst them, 
 a genuine representative to their minds of manliness, 
 truth, and justice. 
 
 His noble wife was no less popular. Her training, as 
 the daughter of Robert Moffat, made the trials of her life 
 no sacrifice to her. In dealing with the women and 
 children, she was most valuable ; and there cannot be 
 a doubt that the fact of his being married, and living a 
 happy and contented domestic life amongst them, had 
 a great deal to do with the influence he possessed over the 
 minds of the ignorant and superstitious Bakwains. As a 
 blacksmith and a carpenter, his skill was superior to theirs ; 
 and he never hesitated to doff his coat, and give any of 
 them the benefit of his labors when skill was required ; 
 wisely receiving some service which they could render him 
 as a set-off. In this way a feeling of mutual dependence 
 was fostered and encouraged, in which no notion of charity 
 had a part. 
 
 In speaking of their daily experience, he tells us that 
 they rose about six o'clock. " After family worship, and 
 breakfast, . . . we kept school, —men, women, and chil- 
 dren being all united. This lasted until eleven o'clock. 
 The missionary wife then betook herself to her domestic 
 affairs ; and the missionary engaged in some manual labor, 
 as that of a smith, carpenter, or gardener. If he did jobs 
 for the people, they worked for him in turn, and exchanged 
 their unskilled labor for his skilled. Dinner and an hour's 
 rest succeeded ; when the wife attended her infant school, 
 which the young liked amazingly, and generally mus- 
 tered a hundred strong ; or she varied it with sewing 
 
DAILY LABORS. 
 
 27 
 
 classes for the girls, which were equally well relished. 
 During the day every operation must be superintended, 
 and both husband and wife must labor till the sun declines. 
 After sunset the husband went into the town to converse, 
 either on general subjects or on religion. On thr^e nights 
 of the week we had a public religious service, as soon as 
 the milking of the cows was over, and it had become 
 dusk ; and one of instruction on secular subjects, aided 
 by pictures and specimens. These services were diversi- 
 fied by attending upon the sick, and prescribing for them, 
 giving food, and otherwise assisting the poor and wretched. 
 The smallest acts of friendship, even an obliging word 
 and civil look, are, as St. Xavier thought, no despicable 
 part of the missionary armor. Nor ought the good opinion 
 of the most abject to be neglected, when politeness may 
 secure it. Their good word, in the aggregate, insures a 
 reputation which procures favor for the gospel. Show 
 kindness to the reckless opponents of Christianity on the 
 bed of sickness, and they never can become your personal 
 enemies : there, if anywhere, love begets love." Every thing 
 they required had to be manufactured by themselves . Bricks 
 to build his house were made by himself in moulds made 
 of planks sawn from trees he felled in the forest. The 
 abundant forest furnished plenty of materials for roofing, 
 doors, windows, and lintels. The corn was ground into 
 meal by his wife ; and, when made into dough, was baked 
 in an extempore oven constructed in an ant-hill, or in a 
 covered frying-pan placed in the centre of a fire. A jar 
 served as a churn for making butter. Candles were made 
 in moulds from the tallow of various animals. Soap was 
 made from the ashes of a plant called salsola, or from 
 ordinary wood-ashes. Shut out from all communication 
 with civilization, the toil and care demanded in supplying 
 
28 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 these very necessities did not appear a hardslip. He 
 says, "There is something of the feeling which must 
 have animated Alexander Selkirk on seeing conveniences 
 spring up before him from his own ingenuity ; and married 
 life is all the sweeter when so many comforts emanate 
 directly from the thrifty, striving housewife's hands." 
 
 The good done by continuous labor of this kind, under- 
 taken in so noble and self-denying a spirit, is incalculable. 
 If the grown-up men and women resisted his persuasion, 
 and held coldty aloof from his teaching of the gospel, 
 their respect for him induced them to permit their children 
 to attend the various religious and secular classes taught 
 by him and his devoted wife. The seed sown in these 
 young minds, before the superstitions of their elders had 
 taken root, will, in time, bring forth an abundant reward 
 for the earnest labor expended ; while their general com- 
 fort will be greatly enhanced by the superior knowledge 
 acquired from him in husbandry and other peaceful avo- 
 cations. 
 
 In a new country, just beyond the pale of civilization, 
 always advancing, as law and order are extended, reckless 
 and adventurous men, most of whom are fugitives from 
 justice, establish themselves, and prey upon the savage 
 tribes, who are unable to defend themselves from their 
 cruelty and exactions. A band of such men, under the 
 leadership of a Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, had established 
 themselves as far into the interior as the Cashan Moun- 
 tains, on the borders of the Bechuana territory. At first 
 they were warmly welcomed by the Bechuanas, because 
 they had conquered and expelled a Caffre chief, who had 
 exercised a cruel authority over the neighboring tribes. 
 Their joy was shortlived, as they found that the Boers, as 
 Potgeiter and his followers were called, compelled them 
 
HOSTILITY OF TEE BOERS. 
 
 29 
 
 to do all their manual labor without fee or reward. 
 These men looked with no favorable eye on the doings of 
 Livingstone, when they found that they could ^either 
 frighten nor coerce him. The teaching, that -all men were 
 equal in the sight of God, was most distasteful to men 
 who lived upon the enforced labor — the slavery, in fact 
 — of the tribes around them. When threats had no 
 avail, thejr circulated reports that he had with him quan- 
 tities of firearms, and that he was assisting the Bakwains 
 to make war against their neighbors. As they could 
 make nothing of Livingstone, they sent a threatening 
 letter to Sechele, commanding him to surrender to the 
 Dutch, and acknowledge himself their vassal, and to stop 
 English traders from proceeding into the country. This 
 last was the true bone of contention. Possessing a better 
 knowledge of the value of skins, ivory, &c, than the 
 Bechuanas, they wished to close the country against any 
 traders but themselves. 
 
 Sechele, notwithstanding the risk he ran in quarrelling 
 with them, sent them a bold and resolute reply : — 
 
 "I am an independent chief, placed here by God, not 
 you. Other tribes you have conquered, but not me. The 
 English are my friends. I get every thing I wish from 
 them. I cannot hinder them from going where they 
 like." 
 
 The Boers had broken up and sacked several mission- 
 stations, and conquered the tribes whicfi gave them shel- 
 ter ; carrying away men and women as slaves. But Liv- 
 ingstone and the friendly Bakwains escaped until he was 
 absent on his first journey to Lake Ngami ; when four 
 hundred armed Boers attacked Sechele, and slaughtered a 
 considerable number of adults, and carried away over two 
 hundred children as captives. The Bakwains defended 
 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 themselves bravely until nightfall, killing eight of the 
 Boers, when they retreated to the mountains. Under the 
 pretext that Livingstone had taught them to defend them- 
 selves, and was consequently responsible for the slaughter 
 of their fellows, his house was plundered, his books and 
 stock of medicines destroyed. His furniture and clothing, 
 and large quantities of stores left by English gentlemen 
 who had gone northward to hunt, were carried off, and 
 sold to pay the expenses of their lawless raid. The rea- 
 son so few of the Boers were slain in this, as in other 
 similar expeditions in which they indulged, was because 
 they compelled natives they had conquered and enslaved 
 to take their places in the front, while they fired upon the 
 people over their heads in comparative safety. In speak- 
 ing of the determined opposition of the Boers, Living- 
 stone says, " The Boers resolved to shut up the interior, 
 and I determined to open the country ; and we shall see 
 who has been most successful in resolution, — they or I." 
 
 During the continuance of the drought, the Bakwains 
 suffered great privations, which Livingstone and his wife 
 shared. The wild animals leave a district in such circum- 
 stances ; and the domestic animals, that are not killed and 
 eaten to sustain life, die of hunger and thirst. Every 
 thing that would sell was disposed of to tribes more favor- 
 ably situated, in exchange for corn and other necessities. 
 The country round was scoured by women and children 
 for the numerous tmlbous plants which could sustain life ; 
 while the men hunted for wild animals in the neighborhood 
 of the infrequent fountains, where they came to slake 
 their thirst in their wanderings over the arid and sun-dried 
 country. 
 
 Sometimes when a herd of antelopes, zebras, quaggas, 
 &c, were discovered in the neighborhood, they were sur- 
 
SEVERE DROUGHT. 
 
 31 
 
 rounded, and driven with shouts into a V-shaped enclosure, 
 at the end of which a huge pit was dug, into which they 
 fell, and were despatched with spears. The meat was 
 equally divided among the people, Livingstone coming in 
 for his share with the rest. But for the frequent recur- 
 rence of such lucky hauls as this, the sufferings of the 
 people from an exclusive and scanty vegetable diet must 
 have been extreme. 
 
 Livingstone was mainly dependent upon his friends at 
 Kuruman for supplies of corn during this trying period ; 
 and on one occasion they were reduced to use bran as 
 a substitute, which required three laborers' grinding powers 
 to render it fit for baking into cakes. Supplies of all 
 kinds were so irregular, that they were fain to put up with 
 locusts on many occasions ; and, while not very partial to 
 such a diet, he preferred them to shrimps, " though I 
 would avoid both if possible." 
 
 A large species of frog, called matlemetto by the natives, 
 when procurable, was greatly relished, especially by his 
 children. During the continuance of dry weather this 
 frog remains in a hole which it excavates for itself in the 
 ground, out of which it emerges during rain, assembling 
 in numbers with such rapidity that they are vulgarly sup- 
 posed to come from the clouds along with the rain. At 
 night they set up a croaking in their holes, which assisted 
 Livingstone materially in hunting for them when the cup- 
 board was innocent of more preferable flesh-meat. 
 
CHAPTER m. 
 
 THE KALAHARI DESERT. DISCOVERS LAKE NGAMI. VISITS 
 
 SEBITUANE. DEATH OF SEBITUANE. DISCOVERS THE 
 
 ZAMBESI. 
 
 On the 1st of June, 1849, Livingstone started on his 
 long-contemplated journey, to settle the existence of Lake 
 Ngami, and visit the numerous tribes occupying the inter- 
 vening country. He was accompanied by Messrs. Murray 
 and Oswell, two enterprising Englishmen, who, in addition 
 to the mere love of adventure, were anxious to be of 
 service in extending our knowledge of the geography of 
 Central Africa. Just before starting, a number of people 
 from the lake district came to Kolobeng with an invitation 
 from their chief, Lechulatebe, to Livingstone to visit him. 
 These gave so glowing an account of the wealth of the 
 district near the lake in ivory and skins, that the Bakwain 
 guides were as eager to proceed as the strangers were. 
 
 The Kalahari desert, which lay between the travellers 
 and the goal of their hopes, covers a space of country 
 extending from the Orange River in the south, latitude 
 29°, to Lake Ngami in the north, and from about 24° east 
 longitude, to near the west coast. It is not, strictly 
 speaking, a desert, as it is covered with coarse grass, and 
 several kinds of creeping plants, with here and there 
 clumps of wood, and patches of bushes. It is intersected 
 by dry water-courses, which rarely contain any water, 
 although at no distant period they were the channels by 
 
 32 
 
THE KALAHARI DESERT. 33 
 
 / 
 
 which the superabundant waters caused by the rains far 
 ther north found their way to some parent stream, fertil- 
 izing the country in their passage. But for the number 
 of bulbous plants which are edible, human life could not 
 be sustained in this now arid region. The more promi- 
 nent of these are a scarlet-colored cucumber ; the leroshua, 
 a small plant with long, narrow leaves, and a stalk no 
 thicker than the stem of a tobacco-pipe, springing from a 
 fmer from four to six inches in diameter, which, " when 
 the rind is removed, we found to be a mass of cellular 
 tissue, filled with a fluid much like that of a young tur- 
 nip." The mokuri is a creeping plant, to which are 
 attached several tubers as large as a man's head. The 
 watermelon is the most important and abundant of these 
 edible plants, vast tracts being literally covered with it in 
 seasons when the rain-fall has been larger than ordinal . 
 
 Animals of various kinds abound in seasons of plenty, 
 and are at all times to be met with in considerable num- 
 bers. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the giraffe, the 
 eland, the gnu, and many other varieties of antelopes, 
 associate together in herds, and are preyed upon by lions, 
 hyenas, jackals, and leopards. Smaller varieties of 
 felines, snakes (poisonous and non-poisonous) , are plenti- 
 ful, and feed on the various rodents which are numerous 
 in all dry districts in Central Africa. Ants, and several 
 varieties of ant-eaters, abound. A large caterpillar, 
 which, feeds during the night on the leaves of a kind of 
 acacia-tree called mivato, and buries itself in the sand 
 during the day, is dug for by the natives, and roasted 
 and eaten. But for the want of water, the passage of this 
 vast tract of country would be comparatively easy ; but, as 
 days frequently passed without so much as a single drop 
 being found, the privations of Livingstone and his com 
 
LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 pardons, and the oxen which drew their wagons, were 
 severe in the extreme. No white man had ever succeeded 
 in crossing it before ; but the resolute men who now 
 attempted it were not to be daunted by difficult}'. 
 
 Tribes of Bushmen, whom Livingstone imagines to be 
 the aborigines of South Africa, inhabit the desert ; and a 
 tribe of Bechuanas, called Bakalahari, who had been 
 driven into the desert by the more powerful tribes of 
 their own nation, live in the desert, and enjoy that liberty 
 which was denied them in more favorable circumstances. 
 The Bushmen are nomadic in their habits, never culti- 
 vating the soil, but following the herds of game from place 
 to place. Their only domestic animal is a breed of 
 wretched dogs, which assist them in hunting. 
 
 The Bakalahari cultivate the scanty and inhospitable 
 soil, and grow melons and other tuberous plants, and 
 breed goats and other domestic animals. They settle at 
 a distance from water, which diminishes the chance of 
 visits from unfriendly Bechuanas. The water is carried by 
 their women from a distant well or spring, and is stored 
 ap in the shells of the eggs of the ostrich, and buried in 
 the earth. The Bakalahari and the Bushmen hunt the 
 various wild animals for their skins, which they exchange 
 with the tribes to the eastward for tobacco and other 
 luxuries, spears, knives, dogs, &c. Some idea of the 
 extent of the business done, and the abundance of ani- 
 mals in the desert, may be formed from the fact that 
 twenty thousand skins were purchased by the Bechuanas 
 during Livingstone's stay in their country ; and these were 
 principally those of the felidce. The Bakalahari are mild 
 and gentle in their habits, and are frequently tyrannized 
 over by the powerful tribes of the Bechuanas with whom 
 Ihey deal. The Bushmen, although mostly inferior to 
 
THE KALAHARI DESERT. 
 
 35 
 
 them in every way, are treated with more respect, their 
 ready use of the bow and the poisoned arrow securing 
 them from pillage and annoyance. 
 
 Water, being the scarcest and most valuable com- 
 modity in the country, is carefully hidden, to preserve it 
 from any wandering band who might take it by force. 
 Livingstone's method of conciliating them, and gaining 
 their good ODinion, was by sitting down quietly, and talk- 
 ing to them in a friendly way, until the precious fluid, 
 which no amount of domineering or threatening could 
 have brought forth, was produced. 
 
 The progress of the party was necessarily slow, as they 
 could only march in the mornings and evenings, and the 
 wheels of the wagons, in many places, sank deep into the 
 loose sand. In some places the heat was so great that 
 the grass crumbled to dust in the hand. Hours and days 
 of toilsome journeyings were sometimes rewarded b}^ the 
 arrival at a spring, where the abundant water fertilized a 
 small tract around, in which the grass flourished rank and 
 green, affording a welcome meal to the horses and oxen 
 after they had slaked their burning thirst at the spring ; 
 although often, for many hours, the eyes of the party were 
 not gladdened by the sight of such an oasis ; their hope 
 almost died within them ; and men and cattle staggered 
 on mechanically, silent, and all but broken in spirit. 
 After being refreshed, the three travellers would enjoy a 
 few hours' hunting at the game which was always abun- 
 dant at such places, and start with renewed vigor and 
 high hopes as to the accomplishment of their purpose, in 
 striking contrast to the despair and dread which I ad been 
 their experience only a few hours previous. 
 
 Sekomi, a powerful chief, who had no wish to see the 
 white men pass his territory, and open out a marke* 
 
36 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 direct, in ivory and skins, with the tribes of the interior, 
 tried hard to dissuade the travellers from proceeding 
 farther on their journey ; but the fearless men he had to 
 deal with were not to be turned aside from their purpose. 
 
 The travellers came upon several great tracts of salt- 
 pans which lay glittering in the sun, showing so like 
 lakes, that, on sighting the first one, Mr. Oswell threw his 
 hat up into the air at the sight, " and shouted an ' Huzza,' 
 which made the Bakwains think him mad. I was a little 
 behind, and was as completely deceived by it as he ; but, 
 as we had agreed to allow each other to behold the lake 
 at the same instant, I felt a little chagrined that he had 
 unintentionally got the first glance. We had no idea 
 that the long-looked-for lake was still more than three 
 hundred miles distant." These mirages were so perfect 
 that even the Hottentots, the horses, and the dogs, ran 
 towards them to slake their burning thirst. 
 
 After reaching the River Zouga, their farther progress 
 was easy, as they had only to follow its course to find the 
 object of their search, into which it poured its waters. 
 Sebituane had given orders to the tribes on the banks 
 of the river to assist the travellers in every way, — an 
 injunction which did not appear to be needed to insure 
 them kindly treatment at the hands of the Bayeiye, as 
 they were called. On inquiring from whence a large 
 river which flows into the Zouga from the north came, 
 Livingstone was told that it came 6 ' from a country full 
 of rivers, — so many that no one can tell their number." 
 This was the first confirmation of the reports he had pre- 
 viously received from travelled Bakwains, and satisfied 
 him that Central Africa was not a u large sandy plateau," 
 but a land teeming with life, and traversed by watery 
 highways ; along which Christianity and commerce, and 
 
J 
 
 THE KALAHARI DESERT. 37 
 
 the arts of peace, would in the future be conveyed tc vast 
 regions never as yet visited by civilized man. From that 
 moment the desire to penetrate into that unknown region 
 became more firmly rooted in his mind. His enthusiastic 
 hopes found vent in his letters to England, to his friends 
 i nd correspondents. 
 
 On the 1st of August, 1849, Livingstone and his com- 
 panions went down to the shore of Lake Ngami ; and the 
 existence of that fine sheet of water was established. It 
 is almost a hundred miles in circumference, and at one 
 time must have been of far greater extent ; and it was 
 found to be about two thousand feet above the level of 
 the sea, from which it is eight hundred miles distant. 
 Finding it impossible, from the unfriendliness of Lechu- 
 latebe, chief of the Batauana tribe, -to visit Sebituane, as 
 he had intended, the travellers passed up the course of 
 the Zouga ; the banks of which they found to be plenti- 
 fully covered with vegetation and splendid trees, some of 
 them bearing edible fruits. Wild indigo and two kinds 
 of cotton they found to be abundant. The natives make 
 cloth of the latter, which they dye with the indigo. Ele- 
 phants, hippopotami, zebras, giraffes, and several varieties 
 of antelopes, were found in great abundance. A species 
 of the latter, which is never found at any distance from 
 watery or marshy ground, hitherto unknown to naturalists, 
 was met with in considerable numbers. Several varieties of 
 fish abound in the river ; which are caught by the natives 
 in nets, or killed with spears. Some of these attain to a 
 great size, weighing as much as a hundred weight. 
 
 The second journey to Lake Ngami was undertaken in 
 April, 1850, with the view of pushing up the Tamunakle 
 a tributary of the Zouga, to visit Sebituane. Sechele 
 Mrs. Livingstone, and her three children, accompanied tly 
 
 4 
 
38 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 intrepid traveller on this journey. Just as he had 
 arranged with Lechulatebe to furnish the necessary 
 guides, and to undertake the protection of Mrs. Living- 
 stone and the children during his absence, the latter were 
 seized with fever. As several of their attendants were 
 seized at the same time, the attempt was given up as 
 hopeless at this time ; and the party, after recruiting in 
 the pure air of the desert, returned to Kolobeng. 
 
 On the occasion of the third and successful journey, 
 undertaken with the view of meeting Sebituane, his wife 
 and children accompanied him as before. Shobo, a Bash- 
 man, undertook to be their guide ; but, losing his way, he 
 lost heart, and refused to proceed, finally disappearing 
 altogether. Driving on at random, the travellers, know- 
 ing that a stream was near by the number of birds they 
 saw, and the fresh spoor of the rhinoceros, unyoked the 
 oxen ; and the}', knowing the signs, pushed forward until 
 they came to the Matabe, a tributary of the Tamunakle. 
 Before reaching the stream, the whole party suffered 
 greatly from the want of water ; and it almost seemed as 
 if his children were doomed to perish before his eyes. 
 This was all the more hard to bear, as a supply of water 
 had been wasted by one of the servants. His wife 
 looked at him, — despair at the prospect of losing her 
 children in her eyes, — but spoke no word of blame. Here 
 the travellers made the acquaintance of that terrible 
 insect, the tsetse, whose bite is so fatal to cattle and 
 horses. It is not much larger than the common house-fly, 
 and is of a brown color, with three or four bars of yellow 
 in the abdomen. Its bite is fatal to the horse, the ox, 
 and the dog. Within a few clays the eyes and nose of 
 the bitten animal begin to run, and a swelling appears 
 under the jaws, and sometimes on the belly. Emaciation 
 
J 
 
 VISITS SEBITUANE. 59 
 
 sets in ; and at the end of three months, when the poor 
 beast is only a mass of skin and bone, purging com- 
 mences, and it dies of sheer exhaustion. Man, and the 
 wild animals which abound in the district, the goat, the 
 mule, and the ass, enjoy a perfect immunity from its 
 bite. 
 
 On the banks of the Chobe the travellers came across a 
 number of Makololo men ; and learning from them that 
 their chief, Sebituane, was absent twenty miles down the 
 River Chobe, Mr. Oswell and Livingstone proceeded in 
 canoes to visit him. He had marched some two hundred 
 miles to welcome the white men into his country. On 
 hearing of the difficulties they had encountered in their 
 endeavors to reach him, he expressed his satisfaction at 
 their having at last succeeded, and added, " Your cattle 
 are all bitten by the tsetse, and will certainly die. But 
 never mind : I have oxen, and will give you as many as 
 you need." 
 
 In their ignorance, they thought little of this ; but the 
 death of forty of their oxen, although not severely bitten, 
 too surely attested his better knowledge. 
 
 The great chief Livingstone had so long desired to see 
 was a tall, wiry man, with a deep olive complexion. He 
 belonged originally to the south of Kuruman, where his 
 warlike and undaunted bearing (for he was not born a 
 chief) procured him a small following of bold men, who 
 retreated before the cruel raid of the Girquas in 1824. 
 
 The Bakwains, and others of the Bechuanas, made war 
 upon him, and drove him to desperate shifts ; but his 
 courage and genius stood him in good stead through in- 
 numerable difficulties ; and, forcing his way through the 
 desert of Kalahari, he maintained, for a long period, a des- 
 perate struggle with the Matabele, who were then led by 
 
40 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 a chief called Mosilikatlye, a warrior almost as renowned 
 as himself, for the possession of the country between 
 the Zouga and Zambesi. His frank and manly bearing, 
 and his kindness and benevolence to his people, and the 
 strangers who trusted to his hospitality, secured him the 
 affections of his own people, and of many of the tribes 
 which he conquered. 
 
 After he had subdued all the tribes in the neighborhood 
 of Lake Ngami, his strong desire to open up communi- 
 cations with the white men led him to the country of the 
 Zambesi, fighting and conquering every tribe in his line 
 of march. No wonder he was adored by all who came in 
 contact with him. Livingstone tells us that, "when a 
 party of poor men came to his town to sell their hoes or 
 skins, no matter how ungainly they might be, he soon 
 knew them all. A company of these indigent strangers, 
 sitting far apart from the Makololo around the chief, 
 would be surprised to see him come alone to them, and, 
 sitting down, inquire if they were hungry. He would 
 order an attendant to bring meal, milk, and honey ; and, 
 mixing them in their sight, in order to remove any sus- 
 picion from their minds, make them feast, perhaps for 
 the first time in their lives, in a lordly dish. Delighted 
 beyond measure with his affability and liberality, they 
 felt their hearts warm towards him, and gave him all the 
 information in their power ; and as he never allowed a 
 party of strangers to go away without giving every one 
 of them, servants included, a present, his praises were 
 sounded far and wide. ' He has a heart ; he is wise ! ' 
 were the usual expressions we heard before we saw 
 him." 
 
 He was much gratified at the confidence reposed in him 
 by Livingstone, in leaving his wife and children with him, 
 
DEATH OF SEBITUANE. 
 
 41 
 
 and promised to convey liim to his headquarters, where 
 they might locate themselves. But this was not to be : 
 these great men but met to part, and that forever. The 
 intrepid chief, whose liberal notions had enabled Living* 
 stone to push thus far into the interior of the country, 
 was stricken with inflammation of the lungs, and died 
 after a few days' illness. On the Sunday afternoon on 
 which ie died, Livingstone visited him, taking his boy 
 Roberl with him. " Come near," he said, " and see if I 
 am any longer a man : I am done." Arrived but recent- 
 ly amongst them, the great missionary must have felt cut 
 to the heart that he dare not deal as he would have 
 wished with him. He feared to attempt to arrest his 
 malady, in case he might be blamed for causing his death 
 if he had not succeeded in curing him. He could only 
 speak of the hope after death, and commend him to the 
 care of God. His last act was characteristic of the unself- 
 ish kindness of the man. Raising himself from his prone 
 position, he called a servant, and said, " Take Robert to 
 Maunku [one of his wives], and tell her to give him 
 some milk." 
 
 The death of Sebituane was a severe blow to Living- 
 stone. Much that he was to do which proved difficult, 
 notwithstanding the friendliness of his successor and his 
 people, might have been earlier and more easily accom- 
 plished had that noble and enlightened chief lived to 
 second his efforts, and possibly share in his journey. 
 u He was," Livingstone says, " the best specimen of a 
 native chief I ever met. I never felt so much grieved 
 by the loss of a black man before ; and it was impossible 
 not to follow him, in thought, into the world of 
 which he had just heard before he was called away, and 
 to realize somewhat of the feelings of those who pray for 
 
42 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the dead. The deep, dark question of what is to become 
 of such as he must, however, be left where we find it ; 
 believing that assuredly the Judge of all the esirth will 
 do right." 
 
 According to his wish, Sebituane was succeeded in the 
 chieftainship by a daughter, to whom Livingstone and his 
 party applied for leave to settle and travel in the country ; 
 which was granted. In company with Mr. Oswell, Liv- 
 ingstone discovered the Zambesi in the end of June, 1851, 
 at a point where it was not known previously to exist. 
 The sight of that noble stream, even in the dry season, 
 flowing majestically eastward, with a breadth of from 
 three to six hundred yards, must have filled Livingstone's 
 mind with the hope of the near approach of the time when 
 commerce and Christianity would flow into the heart of the 
 country along this great natural highway. 
 
 As the Makololo, between the Chobe and the Zambesi, 
 live on the low, marshy grounds in the neighborhood of 
 these rivers, and their affluents, as a protection from their 
 numerous enemies, the question of where a mission-station 
 could be settled was a serious one. The healthy regions 
 were defenceless, and not to be thought of in the then 
 state of the country. So there was no help for it but to 
 move south once more, and, after shipping his family for 
 England, return to complete the work which no mere per- 
 sonal considerations would have stopped at this ji tncture. 
 
/ 
 
 ( 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ATTACK ON KOLOBENG BY THE BOERS. — STARTS ON HIS 
 GREAT JOURNEY. 
 
 This, the longest journey he had yet undertaken, and 
 during which for many months his safety was to be a 
 matter of painful speculation to his friends, and the thou- 
 sands of intelligent men and women, throughout the civil- 
 ized world, who had been watching the doings of the 
 intrepid missionary, extended from the south coast to St. 
 Paul's de Loanda, the capital of Angola, on the west 
 coast ; and from thence across the continent to Killimane, 
 in Eastern Africa. The preliminary journey to the north- 
 west point of the country of the Makololo, previously 
 visited, consisted of fifteen hundred miles, which was 
 accomplished in a wagon drawn by oxen. Before reach- 
 ing the Orange River, he encountered a vast herd of 
 springboks. They came from the Kalahari desert, and 
 at the outset might number from forty to fifty thousand. 
 As neither scarcity of water nor grass can induce this 
 extraordinary migration, we are driven to believe that 
 they are led, by their instincts, to make their way into a 
 region where their flesh and skins are valuable to mankind, 
 to leave their native plains to prevent an undue increase 
 in their numbers, because animal life becomes too abun- 
 dant : as if by common consent, thousands of animals ex- 
 patriate themselves, and go to regions not so abundantly 
 supplied. One thing connected with these periodical 
 
 43 
 
44 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 migrations, like the locusts, lemmings, &c, they nevel 
 return. 
 
 At Kuruman, Livingstone was delayed for a fortnight 
 by the breaking of a wagon-wheel, which prevented him 
 from being present with Sechele and the friendly Bakwains 
 at Kolobeng, when the long-threatened attack of the 
 Boers, already alluded to, was carried into effect. Previ- 
 ous to this, Sechele had sent his children to Mr. Moffat to 
 be educated. 
 
 The news of the attack of the Boers was brought by 
 Masabele, Sechele's wife. She had herself been hidden in 
 a cleft of rock, over which a number of Boers were firing. 
 Her infant began to cry; and terrified lest this should 
 attract the attention of the men, the muzzles of whose 
 guns appeared at every discharge over her head, she took 
 off her armlets as playthings to quiet the child. She 
 brought Mr. Moffat a letter, which tells its own tale. 
 Nearly literally translated, it is as follows : — 
 
 "Friend of my heart's love, and of all the confidence 
 of my heart, I am undone by the Boers, who attacked me, 
 although I had no guilt with them. They demanded that I 
 should be in their kingdom, and I refused. They demanded 
 that I should prevent the English and Girquas from passing 
 [northwards]. I replied, These are my friends, and I 
 can prevent no one [of them]. They came on Saturday ; 
 and I besought them not to fight on Sunday, and they 
 assented. They began on Monday morning at twilight, 
 and fired with all their might, and burned the town with 
 fire, and scattered us. They killed sixty of my people, 
 and captured women and children and men ; and the 
 mother of Baloriling [a former wife of Sechele] they also 
 took prisoner. They took all the cattle, and all the goods, 
 of the Bakwains ; and the house of Livingstone they 
 
ATTACK ON KOLOBENG BY THE B0EB8. 
 
 45 
 
 plundered, taking away all his goods. The number of 
 wagons they had was eighty-five, and a cannon; and 
 after they had stolen my own wagon, and that of Macale, 
 then the number of their wagons (counting the cannon 
 as one) was eighty-eight. All the goods of the hunters 
 [certain English gentlemen hunting and exploring in the 
 north] were burned in the town ; and of the Boers were 
 killed twenty-eight. Yes, my beloved friend, now my 
 wife goes to see the children, and Robus Hae will convey 
 her to you. 
 
 I am 
 
 Sechele, The son of MocJioasele." 
 
 The report of this disaster raised such a panic among 
 the Bechuanas, that he could engage no one to accompany 
 him from any of the neighboring tribes. At last, in con- 
 junction with George Heming, a man of color, who was 
 on his way to the Makololo country, with the view of 
 opening up a trade with them, half a dozen servants were 
 procured. "They were," he says, " the worst possible 
 specimens of those who imbibe the vices, without the vir- 
 tues, of Europeans ; but we had no choice, and were glad 
 to get away on any terms." 
 
 At Motilo, forty miles to the north, the travellers met 
 Sechele on his way, as he said, to submit his case 64 to the 
 Queen of England." He was so firmly impressed with a 
 belief in the justice of Englishmen, that they found it 
 impossible to dissuade him from making the attempt. On 
 reaching Bloemfontein, he found the English army just 
 returned from a battle with the Besutos. The officers 
 were much interested in Sechele, invited him to dinner, 
 and subscribed a handsome sum amongst them to defray 
 his expenses. He proceeded as far as the Cape ; when, 
 
46 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 having expended all his means, he was compelled to return 
 to his own country without accomplishing his object. 
 
 If any thing had been required to show that the Dutch 
 Boers on the frontier were actuated by selfish interests 
 only, the fact that they were so assured of their ability to 
 chastise the Bakwains for receiving Livingstone and other 
 Englishmen, permitted them to wait over the Sunday be- 
 fore attacking them, at Sechele's request. 
 
 This journey was not altogether in vain, as on his return 
 he adopted a mode of punishment he had seen in the col- 
 ony, — the making criminals work on the public roads, — 
 and became the missionary to his own tribe. So popular 
 did he become, that, within a very short period, numbers 
 of the tribes formerly living under the Boers attached 
 themselves to him, until he became the most powerful 
 chief in the district. 
 
 It is facts like these which enable us to form a true idea 
 of the influence of the teaching of a noble-minded and 
 self-denying man like Livingstone among the tribes of 
 Central Africa. A larger fall of rain than ordinary 
 having taken place, the travellers found little difficulty in 
 crossing the hem of the Kalahari desert. Watermelons, 
 and other succulent herbs, were abundant. They met an 
 English traveller, Mr. J. Macabe, who had crossed the 
 desert at its widest part ; his cattle, on one occasion, sub- 
 sisting on the watermelons for twent} 7 -one days. Macabe 
 had, previous to Livingstone's discovery of Lake Ngami, 
 written a letter in one of the Cape papers, recommending 
 a certain route as likely to lead to it. The Transvaal 
 Boers fined him five hundred dollars for writing about 
 " onze velt" our country, and imprisoned him until it 
 was paid. Mr. Macabe' s comrade, a Mr. Maher, fell a 
 victim to the hatred engendered by the Boers. A tribe 
 
STARTS ON HIS GREAT JOURNEY. 
 
 47 
 
 of Barolongs, having taken Mm for a Boer, shot him as he 
 approached their village. When informed that he was an 
 Englishman, their regret at the misadventure was extreme. 
 
 On his way to the north, Livingstone found his old 
 friends the Bakwains suffering severely from the destruc- 
 tion of their property and the plunder of their cattle. 
 Notwithstanding that Sechele had given orders that no 
 violence was to be offered to the Boers during his absence,' 
 a band of young men had ventured out to meet a party of 
 Boers and, as the latter were in a minority, they ran off, 
 leaving their wagons, which the young men brought in 
 triumph to Letubamba, the headquarters of the tribe. 
 The Boers were alarmed, and sent four of their number to 
 sue for peace ; which was granted on their returning 
 Sechele's three children, which Schloz, the Boer leader, 
 had apprehended as slaves. One of them had three 
 large unbound open sores on its body, caused by falling 
 into the fire. This, and the general appearance of the 
 poor children, spoke eloquently of the treatment they had 
 received. 
 
 At Linyanti, the capital of the Makololo, the travellers 
 were heartily welcomed by Sekeletu, the son of Sebituane, 
 who had succeeded to his sister. Mamoschisane had 
 found it impossible to carry out her father's wishes ; and 
 this could hardly be wondered at, since one of them was 
 that she should have no husband, but use the men of the 
 tribe, or any number of them she chose, just as he him- 
 self had done by the women. But these men had other 
 wires ; and as Livingstone dryly puts it, in a proverb of 
 the country, " the temper of women cannot be gov- 
 erned ; " and they made her miserable by their remarks. 
 She chose one man, who was called her wife, and her son 
 the child of Mamoschisane's wife ; but, disliking the 
 
48 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 arrangement, after her father's death she declared she 
 would never govern the Makololo. Sekeletu, who was 
 afraid of the pretensions of Mpepe, another member of 
 the family, urged her to continue as chief, offering to re- 
 main with her, and support her authority in battle. She 
 wisely persisted in her determination to abdicate, indicat- 
 ing Sekeletu as her successor. " I have been a chief 
 only because my father wished it. I always would have 
 preferred to be married, and have a family, like other 
 women. You, Sekeletu, must be chief, and build up your 
 father's house." 
 
 Sekeletu was afraid of Mpepe, whose pretensions were 
 favored by the Mambari tribe, and the half-caste Portu- 
 guese, who carried on the slave-trade between the tribes 
 in the interior and the dealers in human flesh on the 
 coast. All their hopes of being able to carry on their 
 trade lay in the success of his rebellion. Previous to 
 Livingstone's arrival at Linyanti, a large party of Mam- 
 bari had arrived there ; but, on the receipt of intelligence 
 that Livingstone was approaching, they fled so precipi- 
 tately as not even to take leave of Sekeletu ; a marvel- 
 lous evidence, truly, of the moral influence of England, 
 even when only represented by one resolute man, on 
 savage men who are seldom amenable to any thing save 
 superior force. The Mambari retreated to the north, 
 where several half-caste slave-traders, under the leader- 
 ship of a half-caste Portuguese, had erected a stockade. 
 Through the aid of the fire-arms of the slave-traders, 
 Mpepe hoped to be able to make himself the head of the 
 Makololo ; while they, in the event of his being victori- 
 ous, expected to be rewarded by the captives he might 
 make in the course of the struggle. 
 
 Here and elsewhere the religious services were held in 
 
TREACHERY OF MPEPE. 49 
 
 the Kotla, or public meeting-place, under the trees near 
 the chief hut, and were always well attended. The meet- 
 ings were called, at Mabotsa and Kolobeng, by the chiefs 
 herald. As many as seven hundred frequently attended 
 these meetings. At Kolobeng, Sechele's wife frequently 
 came in after service had begun, as if to draw attention 
 not to her dress, but to her want of dress. Sechele, in 
 great displeasure, would send her out again to put on 
 some clothing. As she retired, she pouted, and looked 
 the very picture of feminine annoyance. If a woman 
 found that another woman was seated upon her dress, she 
 would give her a shove with her elbow, which the other 
 would return with interest, until several others would join 
 in the fray ; . the men swearing at them all to enforce 
 silence. If a child cried, it was enough to set a great 
 many of the audience into a fit of laughter : it seemed 
 to them the perfection of a joke for a squalling child to 
 interrupt the grave and earnest missionary. 
 
 Mpepe, determined to strike the first blow, had armed 
 himself with a battle-axe, avowing his intention of strik- 
 ing Sekeletu' down on the occasion of their first interview ; 
 trusting to his being exalted to his position as chief, 
 during the panic which would inevitably take possession 
 of the Makololo on his death. At Livingstone's request, 
 Sekeletu accompanied him on a journey, with the view of 
 ascending the river they had discovered in 1857 ; and, 
 when they had got about sixty miles on their way, they 
 encountered Mpepe. At their first interview, Livingstone 
 sat between them, and was unconsciously the means of 
 saving the life of Sekeletu. Some of Mpepe's friends 
 having informed Sekeletu of his murderous intentions, he 
 despatched several of his attendants to his hut ; who, 
 seizing him by the arms, led him about a mile from the 
 6 
 
50 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 encampment, where they speared him. This summary 
 settlement of a grave political difficulty thoroughly estab- 
 lished Sekeletu in his position, and removed what could 
 hardly have failed to become a serious hinderance to the 
 carrying-out of Livingstone's cherished schemes. Mpepe's 
 men fled to the Barotse, a tribe living in the district 
 Livingstone and Sekeletu were on their way to visit ; and 
 they, considering it unadvisable to go there during the 
 commotion excited by that occurrence, returned to Lin- 
 yanti for a month, when they again set out for the pur- 
 pose of ascending the Leeambye from Sesheke. They 
 were accompanied by a large number of attendants, wh< 
 are thus described : 4 4 It was pleasant to look back along 
 the long- extended line of our attendants, as it twisted 
 and bent according to the course of the footpath, or in 
 and out behind the mounds ; the ostrich-feathers of the 
 men waving in the wind. Some had the white ends of 
 ox-tails on their heads, hussar fashion ; and others, great 
 bunches of black ostrich feathers, or capes made of lions' 
 manes. Some wore red tunics, or various-colored prints, 
 which the chief had bought from Fleming ; the common 
 men carried burdens ; the gentlemen walked with a small 
 club of rhinoceros-horn in their hands, and had servants 
 to carry their shields ; while the machaka (battle-axe 
 men), carried their own, and were "liable at any time 
 to be sent off a hundred miles on an errand, and expected 
 to run all the way." Sekeletu was closely accompanied, 
 in marching, by his own mopato, or body-guard of young 
 men about his own age, who were selected for the per- 
 sonal attendance and defence of the chief, and seated 
 themselves round him when they encamped. 
 
 The Makololo were rich in cattle, and the chief had 
 numerous cattle stations all over the country. Tn jour- 
 
REACH THE LEE AM BYE. 
 
 51 
 
 neying, as on this occasion, his attendants were fed by 
 the chief, an ox or two being selected from his own herds, 
 if there were any in the neighborhood ; if not, the head 
 man of the nearest village presented one or two for the 
 purpose. The people of the villages presented the party, 
 on their arrival, with draughts of the beer of the country, 
 and milk. As elands, antelopes, and other kinds of 
 game, were frequently met with in the plains between 
 Linyanti and the Leeambye, they never wanted for food. 
 The party struck the Leeambye at a village considerably 
 above Sesheke, where it is about six hundred yards broad. 
 After crossing to the north side of the river, several days 
 were spent in collecting canoes. During this interval, 
 Livingstone took the opportunity of going in pursuit of 
 game to support the party, and to examine the adjacent 
 country. The country is flat, diversified with small tree- 
 covered mounds, which are too high to be covered by the 
 floods during the rainy season. The soil on the flat parts 
 is a rich loam ; and this, and the abundant floods during 
 the rainy season, enable the natives to raise large supplies 
 of grain and ground-nuts. Yast numbers of a small ante- 
 lope, about eighteen inches high, new to naturalists, 
 named the tianyane, are found on these plains, together 
 with many of the larger antelopes, including a new or 
 striped variety of the eland ; buffaloes and zebras were 
 found on the plains ; so that there was no difficulty in the 
 way of providing for so large a party. 
 
 This journey was undertaken by Livingstone and 
 Sekeletu with the object of finding a healthy spot for 
 establishing the headquarters of the Makololo within 
 friendly or defensible territory. The low-lying and 
 swampy districts they had been compelled, for purposes of 
 safety from their numerous enemies, to occupy, was exer 
 
52 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 cising a fatal influence on the physique and the increase 
 of the tribe. Fevers were common : Livingstone him- 
 self had suffered severely from an attack. And the intelli- 
 gent chief, and the head men of the tribe, were wise 
 enough to understand the value of the counsel of their 
 missionary friend, when he advised the removal of the 
 bulk of the tribe to a more elevated and healthy locality. 
 Such a position had to be sought for bej^ond the reach of 
 the annual inundations, which, for a period, transformed 
 the course of the river for miles into lakes and swamps ; 
 as when the waters subsided, the miasma arising from 
 the wet soil and the rotting vegetation, under a tropical 
 sun, made the district a hotbed of fever and dysentery. 
 Coming from the comparatively cold and hilly region of 
 the south, the Makololo suffered more severely from the 
 effects of the climate than the various tribes of Makalaka 
 Sebituane had found living in the district, and made sub- 
 ject to his rale. From choice they lived in the neighbor- 
 hood of the river ; and their agriculture is entirely 
 dependent on the annual floods. They cultivate dura (a 
 kind of grain), maize, beans, ground-nuts, pumpkins, 
 watermelons, and cucumbers ; and in the Barotse valley, 
 along the course of the Leeambye, the sugar-cane, sweer- 
 potato, &c, are added to the agricultural produce, the 
 fertility of the soil being increased by rude efforts at irri- 
 gation. 
 
 Having collected thirty-three flat-bottomed canoes, 
 capable of conveying one hundred and sixty men, the 
 imposing flotilla, rowed by Makalaka men, who are more 
 skilful watermen than the Makololo, moved rapidly up 
 the broad waters of the Leeambye ; the great explorer 
 enjoying an exhilaration of spirits natural to an adven- 
 turous man, who, first of all his countrymen, passed up 
 
ON THE LEE AM BYE. 
 
 53 
 
 this noble stream, and who saw clearly the great and 
 important part which a magnificent natural highway like 
 this would play in the civilizing of the numerous tribes of 
 Central Africa. At many places the river is more than a 
 mile broad, its surface broken by islands, small and 
 large. The islands and the banks are thickly covered 
 with trees, among which are the date-palm, with its 
 gracefully curved fronds, and the lofty palmyra, with its 
 feathery mass of foliage towering over all. Elephants, 
 and the larger species of game, were very abundant ; but 
 in consequence of the presence of that destructive insect, 
 the tsetse, the villagers on the banks had no domestic 
 cattle. The inhabitants of the valley of the river here 
 are known as Bairyete, and are, from their skill in making 
 various utensils, the handicraftsmen of the neighboring 
 tribes. They make neat wooden vessels with lids, 
 wooden bowls, and, after Livingstone had introduced the 
 idea of sitting on stools, they exercised their taste and 
 ingenuity on the construction of these in a variety of 
 shapes. Wicker baskets made of the split roots of trees, 
 and articles of domestic and agricultural utility in pottery 
 and iron, were also among the products of their skill. 
 Iron ore is dug out of the earth, and smelted, and fash- 
 ioned into rude hoes, almost the only implement of hus- 
 bandry known at this period. 
 
 The Banyete never appear to have been a warlike 
 people. War is either caused by slavery, or the posses- 
 sion of cattle ; and as the slave-dealers had never reached 
 their peaceful habitations, and the tsetse rendered the 
 possession of cattle impossible, they had lived secure 
 from the ambitious and selfish designs of more powerful 
 and warlike tribes. Tribute was regularly paid to 
 Sekeletu in the simple articles constructed by their indus- 
 5* 
 
54 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 trial skill ; and, in exchange, they lived contented and 
 happy under his protection. When the river is low, a 
 series of rapids make navigation difficult for considerable 
 distances ; but they met with no serious obstacle until 
 they reached the falls of Gonye ; where the river, narrow- 
 ing into a space of seventy or eighty yards wide, falls a 
 distance of thirty feet. There they had to carry the 
 canoes for about a mile over land. 
 
 At this place Livingstone heard of a tradition of a 
 man who took advantage of the falls to lead a portion of 
 the river over the level country below for the purposes of 
 irrigation. The garden was pointed out ; and, though neg- 
 lected for generations, they dug up an inferior kind of 
 potato, which they found to be bitter and waxy. If 
 properly cultivated and irrigated, Livingstone appears to 
 think that the valleys through which the great rivers and 
 their affluents flow might be made as productive as the 
 valley of the Nile ; to which that of the Zambesi bears a 
 striking resemblance. The intelligent and generally 
 peaceable character of the tribes visited by Livingstone 
 in Central Africa is a guaranty, that with the introduc- 
 tion of agricultural implements, and the humanizing 
 influence of contact with civilization, such a desirable 
 state of matters may speedily follow the opening-up of 
 the country for purposes of legitimate trade with Euro- 
 peans. 
 
 The valley of the Barotse, a district inhabited by a 
 people of that name, subject to the Makololo, which 
 extends west to the junction of the Leeambye and Leeba, 
 is about one hundred miles in length, and from ten to 
 thirty miles in width, with the Leeambye winding down 
 the middle. The whole of this valley is inundated not 
 by local rain-fall, but by the flooding of the river, just as 
 
REACH NALIELE. 
 
 \ 
 
 55 
 
 the Nile valley is flooded by the overflow of that river. 
 The villages of the Barotse are built on mounds, which 
 are at a sufficient elevation to be secure from the annual 
 floods. These mounds are, for the most part, artificial, 
 and are said to have been raised by a famous chief of the 
 Barotse, named Santuru, who planted them with trees ; 
 which gave a grateful shade, besides adding to the beauty 
 of the scenery. As this valley is free from the dreaded 
 tsetse, the Barotse are rich in cattle, which find abundant 
 food in the rich pasturage. At the approach of the floods 
 they retire to the high grounds, where food is less abun- 
 dant, and fall off in condition. Their return, on the sub- 
 sidence of the river, is a season of rejoicing among the 
 people, because the season of plenty has returned once 
 more. 
 
 In one of the Barotse towns, Mpepe' s father lived ; and 
 as he and another man had counselled Mamochisane to 
 kill Sekeletu, and marry Mpepe, they were led forth, and 
 tossed into the river. On Livingstone remonstrating 
 against this off-hand shedding of human blood, Nokuane, 
 who had been one of the executioners on this occasion, as 
 well as in the execution of Mpepe, excused the act by 
 saying, " You see we are still Boers: we are not yet 
 taught ; " surety a terrible sarcasm, coming from a sav- 
 age, on the doings of civilized men. At Naliele, the cap- 
 ital of the Barotse, which is built on a mound raised by 
 Santuru, the party were visited by some of the Mambari. 
 The pure Mambari are as black as the Barotse ; but many 
 of them were half-caste Portuguese, and could read and 
 write. The head of the party Livingstone believed to be 
 a true Portuguese. Mpepe had given them full permis- 
 sion to trade in his district ; and they had not been slow 
 to take advantage of the permission in exchanging the 
 
56 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 commodities they brought with them for slaves, assuring 
 the people they were only to be employed by them to cul- 
 tivate the land, and that they would take care of them as 
 their own children. The notion that they were taken, and 
 sold across the sea, was new to these simple people ; and 
 the lesson taught by Livingstone could not fail to be 
 useful in circumscribing the abominable traffic among 
 them and the other tribes he visited on his way to the 
 west coast. Santuru was once visited by the Mambari ; 
 but he and his head men refused them permission to buy 
 any of his people. The Makololo, in expelling them from 
 the country, quote this as a precedent. 
 
 Finding that Katonga, as the high ground beyond Na- 
 liele was called, was extensive, and free from the annual 
 inundations, Livingstone visited it ; but although exceed- 
 ingly beautiful, and abounding in gardens of great fertility, 
 cultivated with much care by the Barotse, it was found to 
 be equally unhealthy with the low ground. The view 
 from Katonga is thus described : 4 ' We could see the 
 great river glancing out at several points, and fine, large 
 herds of cattle quietly grazing on the green, succulent 
 herbage, among numbers of cattle-stations and villages 
 which are dotted over the landscape. Leches (a kind of 
 antelope) in hundreds fed securely beside them ; for they 
 have learned only to keep out of bow-shot, or two hun- 
 dred yards. When guns come into a country, the ani- 
 mals soon learn their longer range, and begin to run at a 
 distance of .five hundred yards." As the current of the 
 river was here about four miles and a half an hour, a 
 sure sign of a rapidly increasing rise in the country, 
 Livingstone determined on pushing still farther up the 
 stream, in search of a healthy location which he might 
 make his headquarters. 
 
RETURN TO LTNYANTL 
 
 57 
 
 Leaving Sekeletu at Naliele, lie proceeded up stream ; 
 the chief having presented him with men and rowers, and 
 also a herald to announce his arrival at the villages with 
 proper effect, by shouting at the top of his voice, " ' Here 
 comes the lord, the great lion,' the latter phrase being 
 tan e tona ; which in his imperfect way of pronunciation 
 became .saw e tona, and so like the great sow, that I 
 could not have the honor with becoming gravity, and had 
 to entreat him, much to the annoyance of my party, to 
 be silent.'' At all the villages, the party met with a 
 hearty welcome, as being to them messengers of peace, 
 which they term " sleep." After pushing his way to the 
 junction of the Leeba with the Leeambye, and failing to 
 find a suitable spot for a mission settlement, the party 
 descended to Naliele, but not before Livingstone had 
 made a guess that there lay the high road to the west 
 coast, and that its head waters must be within a hundred 
 and twent}^ miles of the Coanza, which would lead them 
 down to the coast near Loanda. The Coanza, as he 
 afterwards found, does not come from anywhere near the 
 route to Loanda. 
 
 The following extract from ' c The Missionary Travels " 
 will give some idea of the abundance of large game in 
 this region, and their want of fear of man : " Eiglny-one 
 buffaloes defiled in slow procession before our fire one 
 evening, within gunshot; and herds of splendid elands 
 stood by day without fear at two hundred yards distance. 
 The} T were all of the striped variety, and with their fore- 
 arm markings, large dewlaps, and sleek skins, were a 
 beautiful sight to see. The lions here roar much more 
 than in the country farther south. One evening we had 
 a good opportunity of hearing the utmost exertions the 
 animal can make in that line. We had made our beds 
 
58 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 on a large sandbank, and could be easily seen from all 
 sides. A lion on the opposite shore amused himself for 
 hours by roaring as loudly as he could ; putting, as is 
 usual in such cases, his mouth near the ground, to 
 make the sound reverberate. . . . "Wherever the game 
 abounds, these animals exist in proportionate numbers. 
 Here they were frequently seen ; and two of the largest I 
 ever saw seemed about as tall as common donkeys ; but 
 the mane made their bodies appear rather larger." 
 
 Coming down the river to the town of Ma Sekeletu 
 (the mother of Sekeletu) , they found Sekeletu with his 
 mother. After a short stay, the party started on their 
 vo} T age down the river, and reached Linyanti after an 
 absence of nine weeks. This being the first visit paid by 
 Sekeletu to this portion of his dominions, the travellers 
 were received with the utmost enthusiasm everywhere ; 
 the head men of the villages presenting him with more 
 eatables and drinkables than even his numerous followers 
 could devour, notwithstanding their wonderful powers in 
 that way. The enthusiasm of the people usually wound 
 up with an extraordinary dance, which Livingstone de- 
 scribes : "It consists of the men standing, nearly naked, 
 in a circle, with clubs or small battle-axes in their hands, 
 and each roaring at the loudest pitch of his voice, while 
 the}' simultaneously lift one leg, stamp heavily twice with 
 it, then lift the other, and give one stamp with that ; this 
 is the only movement in common. The arms and head 
 are thrown about also in every direction ; and all this 
 time the roaring is kept up with the utmost possible 
 vigor. The continued stamping makes a cloud of dust 
 around, and they leave a deep ring in the ground where 
 the}' have stood. If the scene were witnessed in a luna- 
 tic asylum, it would be nothing out of the way, and quite 
 
RETURN TO LINYANTL 
 
 59 
 
 appropriate, even, as a means of letting off the excessive 
 excitement of the brain ; but the gray-headed men joined 
 in the performance with as much zest as others whose 
 youth might be an excuse for making the perspiration 
 stream off their bodies with the exertion. . . . The 
 women stand by clapping their hands ; and occasionally 
 one advances into the circle composed of a hundred men, 
 makes a few movements, and then retires." 
 
 The effect the experience gained in this journey had 
 upon him, and the reflections induced thereby, are indi- 
 cated in the following extract: "I had been," he says, 
 "during a nine-weeks' tour, in closer contact with hea- 
 thenism than I had ever been before ; and though all, in- 
 cluding the chief, were as kind and attentive to me as 
 possible, and there was no want of food, yet to endure 
 the dancing, roaring, and singing, the jesting, anecdotes, 
 grumbling, quarrelling, and murdering, of these children 
 of nature, seemed more like a severe penance than any 
 thing I had before met with in the course of my mission- 
 ary duties. I took thence a more intense disgust at 
 heathenism than I had before, and formed a greatly ele- 
 vated opinion of the latent effect of missions in the south, 
 among tribes which are reported to have been as savage 
 as the Makololo. The indirect benefits, which, to a casual 
 observer, lie beneath the surface, and are inappreciable, 
 in reference to the probable wide diffusion of Christianity, 
 at some future time, are worth all the money and labor 
 that have been expended to produce them." 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. ASCENDS THE LEEAMBYE 
 
 AND THE LEEBA. ABUNDANCE OF ANIMAL LIFE. TWO 
 
 FEMALE CHIEFS. VISITS SHINTE. 
 
 As Sekeletu and the head men of the Makololo were as 
 alive to the advantages which would accrue to them from 
 the opening-out of trade with the west coast as Living- 
 stone was for these and higher purposes which they could 
 not comprehend, every assistance was rendered which 
 could help the traveller in carrying out his bold and dar- 
 ing attempt to make his way across the country. A 
 picJio, or conference, of the head men of the tribe, presided 
 over by the chief, was held to discuss the adventure, and 
 the best way of assisting in it. One of the old men, who 
 was famed as a croaker, said, " Where is he taking you to ? 
 This white man is throwing you away. Your garments 
 already smell of blood." This foreboding had no influ- 
 ence, over Sekeletu, or any of his men: they were too 
 much accustomed to hearing his prognostications of evil 
 from every enterprise ; and it was decided that a band of 
 twenty-seven picked men, principally Barotse, they being 
 best acquainted with the tribes to the west, should accom- 
 pany Livingstone, as the contribution of the chief and his 
 people towards the accomplishment of an object so desir- 
 able to all. 
 
 In answer to the question whether, u In the event of 
 your death, wiU not the white people blame us for having 
 
 60 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 61 
 
 allowed you to go away into an unhealthy and unknown 
 •country of enemies?" he replied that none of his friends 
 would blame them, because he would leave a book with 
 Sekeletu, " to be sent to Mr. Moffat in case I did not 
 "return, which would explain to him all that had happened 
 until the time of my departure." This book was a vol- 
 ume of his journal ; and months afterwards, when the 
 Makololo were despairing of ever seeing or hearing any 
 thing of him again, it was delivered, along with a letter, 
 by Sekeletu to a trader, to be delivered to Mr. Moffat. 
 No trace of this journal could be found on his return ; 
 which was a matter of much regret, as it contained val- 
 uable notes on the habits of wild animals, &c. 
 
 The following illustrates admirably the spirit which 
 animated this extraordinary man when ready to start on 
 his dangerous enterprise : 4 4 The prospect of passing 
 away from this fair and beautiful world thus came before 
 me in a pretty plain, matter-of-fact form ; and it did seem 
 a serious thing to leave wife and children, to break up all 
 connection with earth, and enter on an untried state of 
 existence. And I find myself, in my journal, pondering 
 over that fearful migration which lands us in eternit}^ ; 
 wondering whether an angel will soothe the fluttering soul, 
 sadly flurried, as it must be, on entering the spirit- world ; 
 and hoping that Jesus might speak but one word of peace, 
 for that would establish in the bosom an everlasting calm. 
 But as I had always believed, that, if we serve God at all, 
 it ought to be done in a manly way, I wrote to my broth- 
 er, commending our little girl to his care, as I was deter- 
 mined to succeed or perish in the attempt to open up this 
 part of Africa. The Boers, by taking possession of all 
 my goods, had saved me the trouble of making a will ; 
 and considering the light heart now left in my bosom. 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D 
 
 and some faint efforts to perform the duty of Christian 
 forgiveness, I felt that it was better to be the plundered 
 party than one of the plunderers." 
 
 Wisely resolving that his baggage should be so limited 
 in quantity as not to excite the cupidity of any unfriendly 
 tribe, he took with him only three muskets, a rifle, and a 
 double-barrelled gun, with the necessary ammunition, a 
 few biscuits, several pounds of tea and sugar, and about 
 twenty pounds of coffee, a beverage greatly relished by 
 the natives. Of wearing-apparel, independent of what 
 they wore, a small tin canister was filled with shirting, 
 trousers, and shoes, to be donned when the party should 
 reach the neighborhood of civilization ; and another sup- 
 ply, in a bag, was for use during the journey. 
 
 Another tin can contained a stock of medicines. A 
 third contained his books, consisting of a nautical alma- 
 nac, Thomson's Logarithms, and a Bible ; and a fourth 
 box contained a magic-lantern, a sextant and artificial 
 horizon, a thermometer, a chronometer watch with a stop 
 for seconds, and a small but powerful telescope, with a 
 stand capable of being screwed to a tree ; and two com- 
 passes, one of them for the pocket, were carried apart. 
 A small gypsy tent to sleep in, a blanket, and a horse-rug, 
 from the simplicity of the other impedimenta, might be 
 termed the luxuries of the baggage-roll. As the country, 
 so far as explored by him, abounded in game, he trusted 
 to his good rifle and double-barrelled gun for furnishing 
 the bulk of the food required ; but, in case of having to 
 pass through a country where these were not plentiful, 
 twenty pounds of beads, of the value of forty shillings, 
 weie set apart for the purchase of such necessities, in the 
 wa} of food, as they might require. In addition to the 
 absolutely necessary baggage, the party carried with Ihern 
 
SECOND ASCENT OF THE LfiEAMBYE. 63 
 
 four elephants' tusks belonging to Sekeletu, by the sale of 
 which they were to test the worth of the market on the 
 coast. 
 
 Surety never was so formidable a journey undertaken 
 with so little preparation in the way of mere persona 
 comfort and convenience ; but the want of hundreds of 
 these things usually supposed to be " indispensable to 
 travellers, " undertaking journeys of trifling danger and 
 extent in comparison, were more than made up by a large 
 stock of pluck and endurance, and the courage and resolve 
 which are born of an enterprise which had for its object 
 no thought of personal interest or aggrandizement, but 
 was undertaken in the noblest spirit, for the physical and 
 spiritual welfare of the savage tribes of Central Africa. 
 
 Scouts were sent to examine the country to the west, to 
 discover an outlet from Linyanti by a nearer route than 
 the one taken on the previous journey. But none could be 
 found free from the plague of tsetse, and such as were 
 defiled b}^ the existence of the slave-trade ; and a passage 
 through these for an expedition, the leading, material pur- 
 pose of which was the extinction of this detestable traffic, 
 was oat of the question. The expedition started for the 
 Chobe on the 4th of November, 1853, and commenced 
 their voyage down that river at the island Manuku, where 
 Livingstone had first met Sebituane. Here Sekeletu and 
 several of his principal men, who had accompanied them 
 thus far, took leave of them, wishing them success, 
 After paddling, at the rate of five miles an hour, for forty- 
 two hours, they reached the Leeambye ; and, proceeding 
 up the river, they reached Sesheke on the 19th of 
 November. 
 
 Monantsane, a brother-in-law" of Sebituane, the chief 
 of the various tribes in and around Sesheke, supplied 
 
64 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Livingstone with milk, honey, and meal, and sent scouts 
 up the river to the villages he was to stop at, enjoining 
 the head men to have food ready for him and his party. 
 The chief, and large numbers of the people, assembled in 
 the open air to listen to a religious address from Living- 
 stone. The audiences were very attentive, and appeared 
 anxious to profit by the instruction received, betraying 
 their interest by asking explanations of those things 
 which were beyond their comprehension. Moriantsane 
 acted as a kind of amateur beadle in keeping order ; on 
 one occasion, hurling his staff at some young man he saw 
 working with a skin, instead of listening to the speaker. 
 
 In their passage up the river, abundance of food and 
 fruit were provided. Several of the latter are worthy of 
 notice. A fruit, about the size of an orange, contains a 
 number of seeds, or pips, imbedded in layers of a pleasant, 
 juicy pulp ; from the pips and bark are derived a variety 
 of nux vomica, from which strychnia is extracted. A 
 fruit called mobola, being about the size of a date, when 
 stripped of the seeds, and dried, forms a very palatable 
 dish, with a flavor of strawberries ; when dried, it can be 
 preserved for a considerable period. The most palatable 
 fruit of the district is called the mamoslio: it is about 
 the size of a walnut. These fruits which in the Leeam- 
 bye valley grow on trees, some of them attaining a great 
 size, are found in the Kalahari desert, where they exist ag 
 small herbaceous plants. In the well- watered country, 
 plants which, in the dry regions of the south, are mere 
 shrubs, become great trees ; illustrating, in a remarkable 
 manner, the effect of the clrying-up of the numerous 
 water-courses in regions once as rich in vegetation as the 
 valleys of the Zambesi and its tributaries. A number of 
 his attendants, with the baggage and oxen of the party. 
 
ABUNDANCE OF ANIMAL LIFE. 65 
 
 marched by land, the canoe party regulating their 
 advance to suit theirs. 
 
 As the trees were putting on their fresh green leaves, 
 the banks of the river were much more beautiful than on 
 the occasion of his previous visit. In case of accident 
 from the attack, or the sudden uprising near them, of the 
 hippopotami, they hugged the banks, often passing under 
 the grateful shade of giant trees, among whose branches 
 the ibis, turtle-doves, and many other birds, were perched, 
 careless of the near neighborhood of the canoes and 
 their occupants. Plovers of various kinds wheeled over- 
 head, raising a great clamor. One of these, from its 
 hard, metallic cry called setula-tsipi, or hammering- wire, 
 is the bird famous for its friendship with the crocodile of 
 the Nile, which it invariably accompanies, boldly entering 
 its terrible jaws, and finding, in the entrance, water-insects 
 which attach themselves to the roof of the mouth of the 
 brute, causing it much annoyance. It is provided with a 
 spur on its shoulder (the top of the wing) about half an 
 inch in length, which it uses as a weapon of defence. 
 This bird and its habits were known to Herodotus ; and 
 up till twenty years ago the account was looked upon 
 as fabulous, when Mr. St. John actually witnessed it feed- 
 ing within the iron jaws of the huge reptile. In places 
 where the banks are steep, several species of birds build 
 their nests in holes which they dig with their bills. 
 Among these, the most notable is the bee-eater, a pretty 
 little bird, a species of sand-martin ; and several species 
 of kingfisher, one of them as large as a pigeon. 
 
 Song-birds in endless variety, some of them new to 
 science, enlivened the passage of the river ; and flocks of 
 green pigeons rose from the trees as they passed. In 
 some districts several species of canaries were as common, 
 6* 
 
66 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 and as destructive to garden produce, as sparrows. The 
 natives tame them, and keep them in wicker cages : 
 fcheir notes are clear and sweet. Tame pigeons were also 
 common. This love for birds would appear to have been 
 initiated by Santuru in the Leeambye valley, who kept a 
 great many tame animals ; among others, a couple of 
 hippopotami, ungainly pets enough. 
 
 The boomslang, a species of tree-snake, feeds upon 
 small birds ; the noise and chattering of a number of birds 
 fluttering round a tree usually indicate its presence. 
 The birds are unable or unwilling to keep aloof from the 
 dangerous proximity of this reptile ; which with its body 
 coiled round a branch, its head and about a foot of its 
 neck erect, quietly waits until one of them, more reck- 
 less than the rest, comes within reach of its spring. 
 
 The snake-bird, so called because in swimming the 
 whole bocly is submerged, and only the head and neck 
 appear above water, floated about them. The fish-hawk 
 and the pelican preyed on the finny tribe on the shoals ; 
 the former sometimes relieving the pouch of the latter of 
 its occupant, when its ungainly bill was temptingly open. 
 Guinea-fowls were common on the banks ; while snipes, 
 herons, spoon-bills, scissor-bills, flamingoes, cranes, 
 geese, and various other aquatic birds, were met with in 
 great numbers, especially in the uninhabited districts. 
 Vast shoals of fish descended the river with the floods, 
 the rainy season having set in. These are taken by the 
 natives in the shallow creeks, in baskets, nets, and by 
 clumsy hooks. When not eaten fresh, « they are pre- 
 seived by smoke-drying for future use. Several species 
 of mullet are very abundant, and are the most in favor 
 for food. Crocodiles and iguanas, a species of lizard, 
 the flesh of which is greatly relished by the natives, 
 
ASCENT OF THE LEEBA. 
 
 67 
 
 plunged into the water at the approach of the canoes ; 
 while in creeks and shady parts hippopotami floundered 
 about, the females carrying their young upon their backs. 
 
 Elephants, rhinoceroses, antelopes, zebras, &c, were 
 abundant on land ; and, as a consequence, lions and other 
 carnivora were common. 
 
 When nearing Naliele, Livingstone heard that a party 
 of Makololo, headed by Lerimo, an under-chief, had 
 carried out a successful foray against Masiko, a son of 
 Santuru, the chief of a tribe who had settled with his 
 people to the north of Naliele. This expedition was 
 undertaken with the full sanction of Mpololo the uncle of 
 Sekeletu, and head chief of the district. Some prisoners 
 had been taken, and several villages destroyed. As this 
 was in the direction Livingstone was going, and as 
 Sekeletu had strictly forbidden that such forays should be 
 undertaken, he determined, in the name and by the 
 authority of Sekeletu, to condemn the transaction, and 
 compel restitution of the prisoners ; Livingstone under- 
 taking to conduct the former to their homes, and deliver 
 the latter. 
 
 At Ma Sekeletu' s town he found Mpololo himself; and, 
 being supported by the mother of Sekeletu, he succeeded 
 in getting the captives returned, and an apology sent to 
 Masiko. A fresh foray, for which a number of men had 
 been collected, was abandoned ; and, through the influence 
 of Livingstone, a cowardly warfare, undertaken for the 
 purpose of plunder, was prevented, and a knowledge of 
 the peaceful and wise designs of Sekeletu disseminated ; 
 which could not fail to be of much value to the comfort 
 and happiness of the district. 
 
 Mosantu, a Batoko man, was despatched to Masiko 
 with the captives of his tribe, with a message that he 
 
68 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 (Livingstone) was sorry to find that Santuru had not 
 borne a wiser son; Santuru loved to govern men, but 
 Masiko wanted to govern wild beasts. Several captives, 
 belonging to other tribes farther to the north, were taken 
 with the party. 
 
 Passing up the placid Leeba, he saw a tree in flower 
 which brought the pleasant fragrance of hawthorn hedges 
 back to memory : its leaves, flowers, perfume, and fruit 
 resembled those of the hawthorn ; only the flowers were as 
 large as dog-roses, and the "haws like bo}^' marbles." 
 On the banks of the Leeba and Leeambye, and farther to 
 the north, the flowers are distinguished for their sweet 
 perfume ; a pleasant contrast to those farther south, which 
 either emit no smell, or only a nauseous odor. 
 
 Crocodiles were very numerous ; and, as it was the sea- 
 son for hatching, large numbers of young ones, from a 
 foot long and upwards, were met ; the little creatures 
 biting savagely at the spears with which his attendants 
 impaled them. The natives search for and eat the eggs 
 when they are fresh, so that an increase of population 
 would greatly diminish the number of these dangerous 
 reptiles. They feed on fish, and the smaller species of 
 game which come to the water to drink ; now and again 
 picking a child, a woman, or a man off the banks, or 
 seizing them in the water when bathing. The natives 
 have little dread of them ; and, when armed with a knife 
 or javelin, go into the water, and attack and kill them. 
 One of Livingstone's attendants, in swimming across a 
 creek, was seized by one ; but, being armed with a javelin, 
 he wounded it severely behind the shoulder, and escaped 
 with a severe teeth-wound in the thigh where the brute 
 had seized him. 
 
 In the south, when a man has been bitten by a croco« 
 
ASCENT OF THE LEEBA. 
 
 69 
 
 dile, he is shunned by the rest of his tribe as being un- 
 clean ; but in the north no such custom is known, as they 
 voluntarily hunt it for the sake of its flesh, which they eat. 
 
 At the village of Manenko, two Baloncla men visited 
 Livingstone, and informed him that one of his party was 
 believed to have acted as a guide to Lerimo during his 
 foray in the district. Having a captive boy and girl with 
 him, whom he was conducting back to their people to 
 show that neither he nor Sekeletu had any thing to do 
 with the fault of inferior men, they were so far satisfied 
 that his intentions were peaceable, and departed to report 
 the conversation to Manenko, the first female chief they 
 had come across. After waiting two days, an answer 
 came from this African amazon, accompanied with a 
 basket of manioc -roots, that they were to remain until 
 she should visit them. Other messengers arrived with 
 orders that he should visit her ; but, having lost four days 
 in negotiations, he declined going at all, and proceeded 
 up stream to the confluence of the Leeba and Makondo. 
 Here one of the party picked up a bit of a steel watch- 
 chain ; and its being there was explained by the infor- 
 mation that it was here the Mambari crossed in going and 
 coming to Masiko. 
 
 Among other articles of commerce, the Mambari bring 
 Manchester goods into the valley of the Leeba and Leeam- 
 bye ; which seem so wonderful, in the eyes of the simple 
 natives, that they cannot believe that they are the work 
 of mortal hand. No explanation satisfies them. "How 
 can the irons spin, weave, and print so beautifully? 
 Truly ye are God ! " It was impossible for them to un- 
 derstand the hard and prosaic toil endured, in the manu- 
 facture of similar fabrics, for years by the white man who 
 stood before them, — toil sweetened by the opportunity 
 
70 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the remuneration for it gave him to prepare himself for 
 the great work he was to accomplish on their behalf ; a 
 work, which, to the worldly and unthinking, brought no 
 adequate reward for his early sufferings and toils. 
 
 Sheakondo, chief of the village of the same name at 
 the mouth of the Lonkonye, visited the bivouac of the 
 party with two of his sons. The people who accompa- 
 nied him had their teeth filed to a point, by way of beau- 
 tifying themselves. They were tattooed and marked on 
 the body with stars formed by the skin being raised in 
 small cicatrices. They wear little or no clothing, and 
 anoint their bodies with butter or ox-fat, and, when these 
 fail them, with oil they extract from the castor-oil plant. 
 Sheakondo, who appears to have been a fine specimen of 
 an unsophisticated savage, seemed awe-struck when told 
 some of the "words of God." The elder of his wives 
 presented some manioc-roots, begging for butter to anoint 
 herself in exchange, which was given to her ; and as she 
 had little clothing, and was not very clean, he says, "I 
 can readily believe that she felt her comfort greatly en- 
 hanced thereby." The younger and more favored wife 
 also begged for butter ; and she had numbers of iron 
 rings on her ankles, to which were suspended small pieces 
 of sheet-iron, which made a tinkling as she walked min- 
 cingly in African style, — simple ornaments which ap- 
 peared to give her a great deal of pleasure. Livingstone 
 dryly remarks, " The same thing is thought pretty by our 
 own dragoons in walking jauntily." 
 
 Wending their way up stream, they arrived at the vil- 
 lage of another female chief, Nyamoana, the mother of 
 Manenko, and the sister of Shinte, the greatest Balonda 
 chief of the Leeba district. Nyamoana gave Livingstone 
 an audience. She was seated alongside of her husband, - 
 
V 
 
 INTERVIEW WITH FEMALE CHIEF. 71 
 
 on skins, on a raised couch, surrounded by a trench. 
 Round this trench sat about a hundred of her people of 
 all ages, the men armed with bows, spears, and broad 
 swords. After a palaver, Livingstone drew their atten- 
 tion to his hair, which was always a subject of curiosity 
 in the district. They imagined it a wig made of a lion's 
 mane, and could hardly believe it to be hair. He ex- 
 plained to them that his was the real, original hair, 
 " such as theirs would have been, had it not been scorched 
 and frizzled by the sun." In proof of what the sun 
 could do, he uncovered his bosom, and showed them the 
 contrast between its white hue, and his bronzed face and 
 hands. As they go nearly naked, and exposed to the sun, 
 this practical lesson enabled them readily to grasp the 
 idea of a common origin for whites and blacks. This 
 was a familiar illustration of Livingstone's in addressing 
 the natives. 
 
 Nyamoana's people were very superstitious ; and it was 
 here that he first saw evidence of the existence of idola- 
 try. It was a human head rudely carved on a block of 
 wood. His watch and pocket-compass were scanned with 
 much curiosity ; but, although invited to look at them by 
 her husband, the chief appeared to be afraid of them, 
 and could not be persuaded to approach near enough to 
 see them. 
 
 On expressing his intention of proceeding up the Leeba, 
 Which appeared still to come from the direction he wished 
 to go, Nyamoana urged him not to do so, as there was a 
 cataract in front, and the Balobale, whose country lies to 
 the west of the river, might kill the party. As the Balo- 
 oale were unfriendly to the Makololo, his attendants 
 joined with her in urging that they should proceed by 
 land, and visit her brother Shinte. In the midst of the 
 
72 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 discussion, Manenko appeared upon the scene, and, throw- 
 ing her influence into the scale, carried the day against 
 the further ascent of the river. 
 
 Manenko was a tall, well-formed, hardy, and masculine 
 woman, about twenty years of age ; a profusion of orna- 
 ments and medicines, supposed to act as charms, being 
 suspended about her person. She scarcely wore airy 
 clothing ; and her body was smeared with a mixture of 
 fat and red ochre, as a protection against the weather. 
 When asked why she, who could procure plenty of cloth- 
 ing, went about in a state of nudity, she replied that it 
 was necessary for her, as chief, to show her indifference 
 to the weather. She was a splendid pedestrian, and on a 
 march made her attendants and companions glad when 
 she proposed a halt. Livingstone's attendants succumbed 
 at once to the strong will of this female ruler ; and Liv- 
 ingstone himself, though resolute and inflexible in carrying 
 out his own purpose in his own way, was compelled to 
 give way to her wishes. What could he do when, ap- 
 proaching him, she put her hand on his shoulder in a 
 motherly wa} T , and said, "Now, my little man, just do as 
 the rest have done " ? 
 
 As the tribes in the districts where he now found him- 
 self had no cattle, the party suffered severely from the 
 want of food. All they had had for several days was a 
 small dole of manioc-roots every evening from Npmoana. 
 This was the state of affairs when Mosantu arrived from 
 his visit to Masiko, accompanied by an imposing embassy, 
 consisting of his under- chiefs, who brought a fine ele- 
 phant's tusk, two calabashes of honey, and a large piece 
 of blue baize, as presents. He sent his expressions of 
 pleasure at the return of the captives, and at the prospects 
 of a peaceful alliance with the Makololo. 
 
MARCH TO VISIT SHINTE. 73 
 
 An ox was given by Livingstone as a return for his 
 gifts ; but the poor under-chiefs were so hungry, that they 
 wished to kill and eat it. On asking his permission to do 
 this, he was reluctantly compelled to decline, as he had 
 nothing he could send instead, and had no food to offer 
 them. 
 
 Manenko, and her husband Sambanza, accompanied by 
 a drummer, whose duty it was to thump regularly on his 
 drum, in order to acquaint all people they might meet with 
 the fact that a personage of importance was coming, 
 started to escort Livingstone and his party to Shinte's 
 town. The rain poured in torrents, notwithstanding that 
 her husband endeavored to stop it by various incantations 
 and vociferations. Manenko marched on unconcernedly 
 at such a rate as made it difficult for the men to keep up 
 with her. Livingstone being still weak from fever, which 
 was aggravated by the low diet of the last few days, was 
 on oxback, the indomitable Manenko walking by his side, 
 keeping up a lively conversation. All suffered from want 
 in this journey. The balk of what they had was begged 
 from the inhabitants of the villages they passed ; and they 
 were a sad contrast to the Makololo, for on several occa- 
 sions they were refused even the scantiest supply. Even 
 when Manenko herself went to beg something for Living- 
 stone, on one occasion, she only managed to procure five 
 ears of maize, notwithstanding that the head man of the 
 tillage was a subject of her uncle's. 
 
 In the forests they came upon artificial beehives, wnich 
 are formed by removing the bark whole from a tree ; which 
 is then sewed up, closed at both ends, and, after a hole is 
 perforated in it for the bees to pass in and out by, it is 
 aung upon a tree. The bees, finding so suitable a place 
 for the deposit of their honey and wax, take possession 
 7 
 
74 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 of it ; and at the proper season their store is removed. 
 In this way all the honey and wax exported from Loanda 
 are collected. A piece of medicine is attached to the 
 tree, and proves a sufficient protection. Their idolatry 
 is the result of fear only ; and their dread of conse- 
 quences keeps the people honest under such circumstances. 
 
 To the west of the Leeba, Livingstone and his men 
 found it useless to follow the fluttering flight of the bee- 
 eater, a pretty little bird, as all the bees of the district 
 were artificially provided with hives ; and he would not 
 permit any of the hives to be destroj'ed. 
 
 Great quantities of edible mushrooms were found in the 
 forest ; and as they were pleasant to eat, some of them 
 even when raw, they proved a great blessing in their 
 present half-starved condition. Some of these grow to a 
 great size, as large as the crown of a hat ; and several of 
 them are of colors unknown to Europe, one being 
 dark blue. In this district he first saw signs of the 
 insecurity of life and property. The huts were closed 
 with upright stakes, which were removed and replaced as 
 the inmate went in or departed. The dealings with the 
 Mambari in slaves, and the over-reaching nature of their 
 bargainings, had introduced a lower state of morals than 
 that he found prevailing among the Bechuanas and the 
 Makololo ; where theft and over-reaching were all but 
 unknown in their transactions with each other, and the 
 relations between man and man were conducted with 
 primitive simplicity and justice. In all ages and at all 
 times, wherever slavery exists, and is fostered by white 
 men, the vices of civilization, without its virtues, become 
 rampant. 
 
 Katompo, Shinte's town, stands in a pleasant green 
 valley, with a limpid brook running through it. The town 
 
ARRIVAL AT SHINT&S TOWN. 
 
 75 
 
 was embowered in trees ; and the huts were well built, and 
 had square walls (the first he had seen), and circular 
 roofs. The streets were straight ; and each hut had its 
 patch of ground, in which tobacco, sugar-cane, and 
 bananas were carefully cultivated, and was surrounded 
 by a straight fence of upright poles a few inches apart, 
 with grass or leafy branches interwoven between. Out- 
 side these fences, trees of the Ficus indica family, which 
 they hold in veneration, form a grateful shade. Two 
 native Portuguese traders, and a large number of Mamba- 
 ri, were in the town, dealing in their wares, and trading 
 in human flesh. For the first time most of his men saw 
 slaves in chains. 44 They are not men," they exclaimed, 
 44 who treat children so." 
 
 Shinte gave Livingstone a grand reception in the Kotla, 
 or place of assemblage. About a hundred women were 
 present : this was the first occasion in which he had seen 
 women present in the Kotla on a formal occasion. A 
 party of musicians, consisting of three drummers, and 
 four performers on the marimba, filled up the intervals 
 with music. The marimba 44 consists of two bars of 
 wood placed side by side, here quite straight, but farther 
 north bent round so as to resemble half the tire of a car- 
 riage-wheel ; across these are placed about fifteen wooden 
 keys, two or three inches broad, and fifteen inches long ; 
 their thickness is regulated according to the deepness of 
 the note required. Each of the keys has a calabash be- 
 neath it ; from the upper part of each a portion is cut olf 
 to enable them to embrace the bars, and form hollow 
 sounding-boards to the keys ; and little drumsticks elicit 
 the music. Rapidity of execution seems much admired 
 among them ; and the music is pleasant to the ear. 1 ' 
 
 After a man had imitated 44 the most approved attitules 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 observed in actual fight, — as, of throwing one javelin, 
 receiving another on the shield, springing to one side 
 to avoid a third, running backwards and forwards, leap- 
 ing, &c, — Sambanza (Manenko was indisposed), and the 
 spokesman of Nyamoana, stalked backward and forward 
 before Shinte, giving him a full and true account, so far 
 as they knew, of the white man, and his object in passing 
 through the country ; recommending him to receive him 
 well, and send him on his way. Several speakers among 
 his own head men also delivered orations, the women 
 bursting into a plaintive melody between each. This 
 over, Shinte stood up, and the reception was at an end. 
 The power and standing of Shinte among the Balonda 
 chiefs was borne out by the numbers present, there being 
 albout a thousand people, and three hundred armed men." 
 
 On this occasion no communication passed between 
 Livingstone and Shinte. By some mistake, the former 
 was permitted to take a seat at a considerable distance 
 from the latter ; and the one being too dignified to ap- 
 proach his guest, and the other imagining that all was 
 according to etiquette at Kabompo, they parted without 
 exchanging a word ; but it was remarked by his attend- 
 ants that Shinte scarcely took his eyes off Livingstone 
 during the interview. Next day Livingstone was com- 
 manded to visit him, and found him frank and straight- 
 forward. He was about fifty-five years of age, about the 
 middle height, and of dignified bearing. After discuss- 
 ing Livingstone's plans, he signified his approval of them. 
 After the business was over, Livingstone inquired if he 
 had ever seen a white man before. " Never : you are 
 the very first man I have seen with a white skin and 
 straight hair ; your clothing, too, is different from any 
 W3 have ever s^en." 
 
V 
 
 INTERVIEW WITH SHINTE. 77 
 
 On receiving a hint that " Shinte's mouth was bitter 
 for want of tasting ox-flesh," Livingstone presented him 
 with one to his great delight ; recommending him to trade 
 in cows with the Makololo, as his country was so well 
 adapted for them. On his return, Livingstone found that 
 this shrewd savage had followed his advice. When Ma- 
 nenko, who was busy preparing a hut and court-yard suit- 
 able to her pretensions, heard that the white man had 
 presented her uncle with an ox, she was very wroth. 
 " This white man belonged to her. She had brought him ; 
 and therefore the ox was hers, not Shinte's ;" and, ordering 
 her men to bring it, she had it slaughtered, only sending 
 her uncle a leg, with which he appeared to be quite con- 
 tented. She evidently had her own way with him, as with 
 all others with whom she came in contact. 
 
 The magic-lantern was a never-failing source of interest 
 and instruction everywhere. The simple savages never 
 tired of looking at the pictures, many of them travelling 
 miles to see them ; chiefs and peoples inquiring minutely 
 as to the meaning of every picture. As many of them 
 were illustrations of Scripture subjects, he found it a 
 ready means of introducing them to Bible truths. A 
 kind of beer, or mead, is largely drunk among the Balonda ; 
 and many cases of intoxication — a thing unknown far- 
 ther south — were observed. Sambanza, the husband of 
 Manenko, got hopelessly tipsy on one occasion, and stag- 
 gered towards the hut of his wife ; and although, as Liv- 
 ingstone says, she "had never promised to ' love, honor, 
 and obey him,' she had not been ' nursing her wrath to 
 keep it warm : ' so she coolly bundled him into the hut, 
 and put him to bed.' " 
 
 At their last interview, Shinte presented Livingstone 
 with a string of beads, and the end of a common sea-shel] 
 
 7* 
 
78 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 mounted with string, " which is considered, in regions fai 
 from the sea, of as great value as the lord-mayor's badge 
 in London. He hung it round my neck, and said, ' There ! 
 now you have a proof of my friendship.' " For two such 
 shells he afterwards found a slave could be bought ; and 
 five of them were considered a handsome price for an ele- 
 phant's tusk worth ten pounds. After furnishing him 
 with guides, and a stock of provisions, they parted with 
 mutual good wishes, each being serviceable to the other to 
 an extent of which Shinte had little idea. 
 
i 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 visits katema's town, is hospitably entertained. 
 
 The great explorer was now in regions where his knowl- 
 edge of the language of the Bechuanas and the Makololo 
 was of no service to him ; and he speaks bitterly of the 
 inconvenience and drawbacks of speaking through an in- 
 terpreter. 
 
 From Kabompo to Katema's town, Livingstone and his 
 party passed across a country rich in woods and fertile 
 plains ; the latter covered, from a depth of a few inches to 
 several feet, with water, the result of the incessant rains 
 which fell daily. In this vast plain, the rivers which unite 
 to form the Zambesi take their rise. The people at the 
 various villages were very friendly, presenting Living- 
 stone and his party with abundance of food, and even 
 striving who should have the pleasure of entertaining 
 them. The people were very superstitious ; their super- 
 stition taking the form of a dread and terror of some 
 being or beings unseen, and supposed to be near and dan- 
 gerous. In the forests, 'medicines were found fixed to the 
 trees as charms, human faces cut out of the bark, and 
 propitiatory gifts hung in the branches, and bundles of 
 twigs, to which every passer-by added his or her quota ; 
 all designed as offerings to the unseen powers, who drew 
 them by fear, and not by love. 
 
 Several remarkable chiefs and head men were met and 
 conversed with during this stage of the journey. Mozin- 
 
 79 
 
80 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 kwa, a head man of Katema's, and his wife (he had only 
 one), were far above the ordinary run in intelligence. 
 They had a large and well-kept garden, hedged round. 
 The hut and court-yard were surrounded by a living and 
 impenetrable wall of banyan-trees. Cotton grew round 
 all the premises. Plants used as relishes to the insipid 
 porridge of the district, castor-oil plants, Indian brignalls, 
 yams, and sweet-potatoes were carefully and successfully 
 cultivated. Several large trees, planted in the middle of 
 the yard, formed a grateful shade to the huts of the fam- 
 ily, who were fine specimens of the negro race at its best. 
 Livingstone was much touched by the worth and kindness 
 of this family, and, amongst other things, promised to 
 bring the wife a cloth from the white man's country on 
 his return. But alas ! before his return she was dead ; 
 and Mozinkwa and his family had forsaken their pleasant 
 huts and gardens ; as a Balonda man cannot live in a spot 
 where a favorite wife has died. 
 
 In speaking to these people on religious subjects, he 
 found that nothing made so much impression upon them 
 as the fact that the Son of God came down from heaven 
 to die for men, and really endured death in our stead, out 
 of pure love ; and to tell about God, and the place from 
 whence he had come. If this method of interesting them 
 did not succeed, he found it impossible to move them. 
 As human sacrifices had been at one time common among 
 the Balonda, and at the time of Livingstone's visit still 
 existed in a limited degree, on the occasion of the death of 
 great chiefs, &c, they would really appreciate the sacri- 
 fice made by a great being in submitting himself to death 
 iD the place of others. Quenclencle was a snuff-taker, and 
 prepared the titillating powder in a primitive fashion. The 
 leaves of the tobacco-plant, after being dried at the fire, 
 
INTERVIEW WITH KATE MA. 
 
 81 
 
 were pounded in a mortar, after which it was ready for 
 use. 
 
 Quendende, the father-in-law of Katema, a fine old 
 man with long woolly hair reaching to the shoulders, 
 plaited on either side, and the back hair gathered into a 
 lump on the nape of the neck, recived a visit which grati- 
 fied him much. The whole party were hospitably enter- 
 tained by him ; and he took much interest in all that the 
 white man told him, and gave him much information as to 
 the Balonda and their habits, in return. Speaking of 
 Matiamvo, a powerful chief of the district, he said that 
 so absolute was he, that, when any of the mountain traders 
 arrived, he would select a large portion of their goods, 
 and hand over a number of his people, or even the inhabit- 
 ants of an entire village, as pa}'ment. He was a man of 
 violent temper, and appeared to have been really insane, 
 as "he sometimes indulged in the whim of running a 
 muck in the town, and beheading whomsoever he met, 
 until he had quite a heap of human heads." That they 
 have some notion of a future state, is evident from the 
 remark of an ambassador of Matiamvo when he was 
 rebuked for his cruelty, and told that he would be judged 
 in company with those he destroyed. u We do not go up 
 to God as you do : we are put into the ground," was his 
 answer. 
 
 Katema received the party seated on a sort of throne, 
 with about three hundred of his principal men around 
 nim, and thirty women, said to be his wives, seated 
 behind. The main body of the people were seated in a 
 semicircle about fifty yards distant. Intemese, the chief 
 guide sent with Livingstone by Shinte, in a speech, gave 
 the history of tEe white man, his doings and inten- 
 sions. Katema placed twelve large baskets of meal, half 
 
82 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 a dozen fowls, and a dozen eggs, before them, telling them 
 to " go home, and cook and eat, and you will then be in 
 a fit state to speak to me at an audience I will give you 
 to-morrow." Katema is described by Livingstone as " a 
 tall man, about forty years of age ; and his head was 
 ornamented with a helmet of beads and feathers. He 
 had on a once snuff-brown coat, with a broad band of tinsel 
 down the arms, and carried in his hand a large tail made 
 of the caudal extremities of a number of gnus," which 
 had charms attached to it. 
 
 He had a great idea of his own importance, and did 
 not fail to give Livingstone the benefit of it on the 
 morrow. 44 1 am the great Moene (lord) Katema, the 
 father of Matiamvo. There is no one in this country 
 equal to Matiamvo and me. I have always lived here, 
 and my forefathers too. There is the house in which my 
 father lived. You found no human skulls near the place 
 where you encamped. I never killed any of the traders : 
 they all come to me. I am the great Moene Katema, of 
 whom you have heard." 
 
 Livingstone presented him with several small articles, 
 apologizing for the smallness of his gift, and asking him 
 what he should bring him from the coast, hinting that it 
 should not be bulky. Every thing (he said laughing) of 
 the white people would be acceptable, and he would 
 receive any thing thankfully ; but the coat he had then on 
 was old, and he would like another. 
 
 Unlike the chiefs farther to the south, he had a herd of 
 cattle reared from two he bought from the Balobale when 
 he was young. They were fine animals, almost white, 
 and as handsome and nearly as active as elands. As he 
 did not milk them, they were in a semi-wild state ; and, 
 when he wanted to kill one, it had to be stalked and shot. 
 
PASS LAKE DILOLO. 
 
 83 
 
 Livdngstone explained to him how to milk them. The 
 Balonda are remarkable for a formal etiquette, which will 
 not permit them to eat meat prepared by others, or to eat 
 in the presence of strangers ; and, when an inferior meets a 
 superior, he drops on his knees, and puts handfuls of dust 
 on his breast. 
 
 Here several of Livingstone's people suffered from 
 fever, and he had another attack himself. These frequent 
 seizures had reduced his strength, but had not impaired, 
 in the slightest degree, that resolute and iron will which al- 
 lowed nothing to interfere with the great end he had in view. 
 Before he was quite recovered, he was on the move again, 
 accompanied by three guides given by Katema. While 
 here, and at Shinte's town, they had wanted for nothing 
 the people had to give ; and they were able to return the 
 compliment, as while there they killed an ox, a share of 
 which was a great boon to people who seldom tasted flesh- 
 meat. The want of cattle throughout a district so ad- 
 mirably adapted for them on account of the abundance 
 of grass and water, and the freedom from tsetse, struck 
 him as singular. 
 
 Pushing on through flooded plains, and dank forests, 
 the party reached the narrow end of Lake Dilolo, which 
 at its widest is about three miles broad, and is about 
 seven miles long. Livingstone's weak state rendered it 
 undesirable that he should examine it carefully, even 
 although this only involved a few miles of travel. The 
 frequent attacks of fever from which he had suffered made 
 him anxious to loiter as little by the way as possible. 
 His passionate desire was to reach the coast ; and the 
 only dread which seemed to possess him was, that he 
 might succumb before accomplishing his purpose} ; in 
 which case his long and toilsome journey would have been 
 
84 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 useless to mankind. On reaching the unflooded higher 
 lands je3~ond the plain, Livingstone discovered, to his joy 
 and surprise, that he now stood on an elevated plateau 
 which formed the water-shed both of the northern and the 
 southern rivers. The streams running north fell into the 
 Kasai, or Loke ; and those to the south united to form the 
 Zambesi (under the names of the Leeba and Leeambye) , 
 the upward course of whose waters he had followed with 
 so much ease and comfort. 
 
 Here the valleys were deeper and more beautiful than 
 any he had yet seen. Their steep sides were seamed with 
 water-courses ; and, as each of these valleys was drained 
 by a running stream, the growth of the trees was not 
 impeded by the accumulation for months annually of stag- 
 nant water. Many of these trees grew to a great height ; 
 sixty and eighty feet of clean, straight trunk, ere the 
 branches were reached, being not uncommon. The 
 ground underneath was covered with a luxuriant crop of 
 green grass, through and over which beautiful flowers of 
 all colors stood out, and perfumed the air. 
 
 Turning westwards through such scenery as this, Liv- 
 ingstone found himself among tribes who owed allegiance 
 to Katema, and whose dealings with the Mambari had 
 taught them to give nothing to strangers out Of friend- 
 ship. Gunpowder or calico was demanded for every 
 thing ; and as he had none of these to spare, and as his 
 last parcel of beads was about all he had to traffic with 
 for the long and arduous journey still before him, he 
 began to dread that the expedition was doomed to suffer 
 more from hunger than it had yet done. Kangenke, a 
 chief whose village is near the Kasai, although not 
 inclined to play the generous host, readily furnished 
 guides, enabling the party to proceed at once. They 
 
AN AFRICAN " PIKE MAN." 
 
 85 
 
 crcssed the Kasai in canoes, tho men pointing out its 
 course, saying, "Though you sail along it for months, 
 you will turn without seeing the end of it." The Kasai 
 and its affluents unite, and form the Congo, which falls 
 into the Atlantic Ocean four degrees to the north of Lo- 
 anda, whither the expedition was bound ; so that its course 
 was long enough to to give these untravelled savages a 
 high notion as to its unknown extent. Speaking of the 
 si ream where the party crossed it, Livingstone likens it to 
 his native Clyde, which, in its lower reaches above Glas- 
 .gow, is richly w r oocled. 
 
 Food was now getting scarce, as none could be got 
 unless in exchange for something out of their little store. 
 One of the guides caught a blue mole, and two mice, 
 which he dressed for his supper ; a distinct indication that 
 larger game was scarce, or not to be had. Since his en- 
 trance into the country of Balonda, the sight of herds of 
 game, and even single individuals, had become few and far 
 between ; and these had become so shy, from being hunted, 
 that there was no chance of getting within gunshot of 
 them without horses and other hunting appliances, which 
 he had not got. The weakness caused by the frequent 
 attacks of fever, and the bad setting of his shoulder, 
 which had been shattered b}^ the lion which attacked 
 him at Chounane, left him hardly able to carry or hold 
 his gun straight. Katende, a chief, sent a message to 
 Livingstone that he must give him either a man, a tusk, 
 beads, copper rings, or a shell, before he would be allowed 
 to pass ; to which demand an explanation of his circum- 
 stances, and one of his remaining shirts, was sent, 
 together with a message, that, if he liked, he might come 
 and take any thing else ; in which case he would reach 
 Vis own chief naked, and have to account for it by 
 
 8 
 
86 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 telling that Katende had taken them. The shirt was 
 detained, and a little meal and manioc, and a fowl, sent, 
 in exchange, to the famishing band. 
 
 They passed onward without seeing Katende, and 
 reached a river with a wooden bridge across it, which 
 Livingstone was surprised to find in the possession of a 
 u pikeman " who demanded toll, — a functionary he had 
 not expected to meet with so far from the eocenes of 
 civilization. A payment of three copper bracelets secured 
 the passage of the party. For days their route was across 
 a country intersected by valleys, through each of which 
 flowed a flooded stream, more or less difficult to cross. 
 In passing one of these, Livingstone lost his hold of the 
 tail of an ox, and swam unassisted to the other side, to 
 the great joy of his men, who leaped into the water to 
 save him They had not known till then that he could 
 swim, and expressed their satisfaction, and contempt for 
 future difficulties of a similar nature, by saying, "We can 
 all swim. Who carried the white man across the river 
 but himself? " 
 
 Livingstone's men, who had accompanied him from the 
 Leeambye and the Chobe, and passed through so many 
 miles of country not half so fertile as the region they had 
 been passing through for days, expressed their astonish- 
 ment at the want of cattle, and the non-cultivation of the 
 Boil ; especially as the country was about as thickly peopled 
 as their own. He came to the conclusion, that, when wild 
 game was abundant in the district, it had been afflicted 
 with tsetse, and that now, on account of the introduction 
 of guns, &c, these becoming scarce, the insect plague 
 had ceased ; a state of matters of which, up to that time, 
 Shinte, Katemo, and Matiamvo were the only chiefs who 
 had had the wisdom to take advantage. 
 
MUTINY AMONG HIS MEN. 
 
 87 
 
 The travellers were now in the country of the Chiboque, 
 a people who, through their connection with the Mambari, 
 had imbibed a passion for plundering all strangers, by way 
 of toll for the right of passage through their country ; 
 which subjected the party to much danger and incon- 
 venience. Wishing to be on good terms with Njambi, a 
 chief of some consequence, the hump and ribs of an ox 
 they had slaughtered were sent tQ him. The gift was 
 accepted ; and a present of food was promised next day, 
 which resolved itself into a small quantity of meal, and a 
 demand for a man, an ox, a gun, some powder, or cloth. 
 About mid-day, the } T oung men of the tribe began to gather 
 round the party ; and, as the^y were overheard remarking 
 that they had only five guns, it was evident they intended 
 plundering, and perhaps murdering them. Livingstone's 
 men stood on the defensive, while the young Chiboque 
 brandished their swords, and pointed their guns at Living- 
 stone ; who sat quietly on a camp-stool, with his double- 
 barrelled gun across his knees. 
 
 The resolute and calm demeanor of the party had its 
 effect ; and the chief consented to take a seat, along with 
 several of his head men, beside Livingstone to talk mat- 
 ters over. He complained that one of his men, Pitsane, 
 had spat upon one of the Chiboque, and that the matter 
 might be settled by the present of a man, an ox, or a gun. 
 It was no use explaining to them that the offence was a 
 pure accident : they were determined to have all they could 
 get ; and after a bunch of beads and a large handkerchief 
 had been given, they were more clamorous than ever. 
 Feeling certain that he and his men could give a good 
 account of these plundering savages, but being determined 
 to avoid bloodshed unless driven to extremity, Livingstone 
 maintained his coolness ; which had its effect upon his men , 
 
B8 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 as well as upon the Chiboque. Before the chief and hia 
 counsellors were aware of it, they found themselves cut 
 off from their people, and surrounded by Livingstone's 
 party. This induced a more friendly understanding, and 
 taught them unmistakably, that any attempt at force 
 would be met with a most formidable defence. Being 
 desirous of satisfying them as far as possible, a tired ox 
 was given to the chief, who promised to send food in 
 return ; but all he sent was a small basket of meal, and a 
 few pounds of the flesh of his own ox. As they could 
 now depart, Livingstone forbore remonstrating against the 
 shabby treatment they had received, and pushed on. 
 
 For several days he suffered severely from fever, being 
 scarcely able to sit upon his ox ; and, when quite prostrate 
 from its effects, a mutiny arose among his men, who were 
 dissatisfied on account of some presents he had made to 
 his guides and chief men, who had become disheartened, 
 and whose good- will and courage were so necessary to the 
 safety of the expedition. Having explained the matter 
 to them, and promised to slay an ox at the next village 
 they reached, he imagined that harmony was restored. 
 Some time after, on recovering from a stupor induced by 
 fever, he found matters in a worse state than ever. Feel- 
 ing how necessary it was that order should be restored, he 
 staggered from his bed armed with his double-barrelled 
 pistol, and, partly by threats and cajolery, restored amity 
 amongst them. Several days afterwards the exactions 
 of the Chiboque, and the dangers with which they were 
 daily beset, sapped the courage of his men ; and they 
 demanded to be led back to their homes, as they saw no 
 hope of being able to reach the coast. After using all 
 his power of persuasion without avail, he announced his 
 intention, in the event of their deserting him , of proceed- 
 
REACHES THE VALLEY OF THE QUANGO. 89 
 
 mg to his destination alone. This had the desired effect. 
 Some of them made answer, " We will never leave you. 
 Do not be disheartened. Wherever you lead, we will 
 follow. Our remarks were made only on account of the 
 injustice of these people." 
 
 Those who had accompanied him all the way said, 
 " They were all my children : they knew no one but Sek- 
 eletu and me, and they would die for me." At every step 
 of his journey we are called upon to admire the wisdom 
 and courage of this heroic man. On many occasions the 
 slightest indiscretion or rashness would have ruined the 
 expedition, by exciting the jealous and suspicious nature 
 of the savage tribes ; and, when real danger threatened, 
 his cool and resolute bearing — offering no violence, but 
 showing unmistakably, that, if such were absolutely neces- 
 sary, it would be forthcoming — saved him frequently 
 from plunder and a violent death. A man like this, who 
 knows his own powers thoroughly, and possesses the 
 unusual faculty of commanding himself, his passions and 
 feelings, in all cases, illustrates our highest idea of what 
 " a leader of men" should be. To such men few under- 
 takings, however dangerous, are impossible : their courage 
 and honesty conquer the stranger, while their followers 
 cannot help imbibing these qualities to an extent which 
 makes them capable of efforts they would have shrunk 
 from under inferior guidance. 
 
 The travellers passed rapidly through the remainder of 
 their route to the Quango, avoiding villages, as the visit- 
 ing of these only led to delays, no food being procurable 
 without making sacrifices of their now scanty necessaries. 
 On passing a village, swarms of children would rush 
 out, and run for long distances alongside of them, view- 
 ing them with wonder. They suffered greatly from 
 
 8* 
 
90 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 hunger ; but the near prospect of reaching Portuguese 
 territory, and finding friends, kept them up, and induced 
 them to strain every nerve to reach it as speedily as 
 possible. 
 
 On the 30th of March, when so weak from fever and 
 hunger that he had to be led by his men to prevent his 
 falling, Livingstone looked down from the high land upon 
 a valley about a hundred miles wide, through which the 
 broad Quango wound its way to the north-west. This 
 great valley is nearly covered with dark forest, excepting 
 along the course of the river, which gleamed here and 
 there from the midst of the green meadows which extend 
 a considerable way from its banks.. On the farther side 
 lofty mountains rose indistinctly through the haze, while 
 the high ground from which he viewed the magnificent 
 scene was about a thousand feet above the level of the 
 stream. Weary and worn with want and disease, one 
 cannot adequately imagine the feelings of this remarkable 
 man, as he surve} r ed the magnificent valley below, and 
 had his eyes refreshed and his blood exhilarated by the 
 sight of blue mountain summits, after hundreds of miles 
 of travel through a country all but flat. Beyond that 
 broad stream lay friendly territory. A few -days more 
 of trial and difficulty, and he would be among a people 
 who would aid him in the completion of his great enter- 
 prise, and esteem it an honor to supply him with the com- 
 forts and necessities of which he stood so much in need. 
 
 The chiefs of Bashinje, a people on the east bank of the 
 Quango, made themselves as troublesome as possible, as 
 Livingstone would neither give them a man, nor one of the 
 tusks belonging to Sekeletu. Every thing they had pos- 
 sessed, save the tusks and his instruments, was gone ; 
 and their clothes were hanging about them in tatters. 
 
IN PORTUGUESE TERRITORY. 
 
 91 
 
 The chief, a young man of pleasing countenance, visited 
 Livingstone, who showed him his watch ; which so excited 
 his fear and wonder, that he declined to see the magic- 
 lantern and his pocket compass. Hunger, and the near 
 prospect of succor, had made the whole party determined 
 to march on, even if they should have to cut their way 
 through these unfriendly people. In answer to the 
 threats and demands of the chief, he was told firmly that 
 they " should certainty go forward next day; and, if he 
 commenced hostilities, the blame before God would be 
 his ; " and Livingstone's interpreter added, of his own 
 accord, " How many white men have you killed in this 
 path?" meaning, " You have never killed any white man ; 
 and you will find one more difficult to manage than you 
 imagine." 
 
 Arrived at the Quango, another Bashinje chief insisted 
 upon having an ox, a man, or a gun, before he would per- 
 mit them to be ferried across. Livingstone's men stripped 
 off the last of their copper rings, and gave them to him ; 
 but he still insisted upon a man. While in the midst of 
 this difficulty, a young half-caste Portuguese sergeant 
 of militia, Cypriano di Abreu, who had crossed from the 
 other side in search of beeswax, made his appearance, and 
 joined with Livingstone in inducing his men to go down 
 to the river-bank. There Cypriano succeeded in arran- 
 ging matters with the fereyman ; and, to their great joy, 
 they found themselves in Portuguese territory. They 
 passed with light hearts through the tall grass, which, in 
 the valley of the Quango, is frequently over six feet in 
 height. Three miles to the west of the river, they came to 
 several neat square houses, before which many cleanly 
 looking half-caste militiamen, part of Cyj >riano's com- 
 mand, stood, and saluted them. 
 
92 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Livingstone's tent was pitched in front of Cypriano's 
 dwelling ; and in the morning his men were graciously 
 presented with pumpkins and maize, while Livingstone 
 was entertained to a breakfast, in his dwelling, of ground- 
 nuts, roasted maize, and boiled manioc-roots, with guavas 
 and honey as a dessert. " I felt sincerely grateful," sa} T s 
 Livingstone, "for such a breakfast." Several of Cypri- 
 ano's friends joined them at dinner ; before partaking of 
 which, each guest had water poured on his hands, to wash 
 them, by a female slave. 
 
 One of the guests cut up a fowl with a knife and fork, 
 the only set in the house ; so they all partook of the fowl 
 with their fingers, their hands being washed at the conclu- 
 sion of the dinner, as at the commencement. 
 
 During the few days they remained with Cypriano, he 
 killed an ox for their entertainment, and stripped his gar- 
 den of its produce to feed them ; nor did his kindness end 
 here, as he furnished them with as much food as would 
 serve them during the four or five days' journey to Cas- 
 sange. 
 
 All these half-caste militiamen could read and write : 
 they were Roman Catholics, but knew nothing about the 
 Bible. The militia are quartered among the Ban gala, 
 the people of the district, on account of their having at 
 one time made themselves troublesome to the Portuguese 
 traders, killing one of them. When the government of 
 Angola had reduced them to obedience, the militia were 
 established amongst them to enforce their good behavior. 
 These militia receive no pay, but maintain themselves by 
 trade and agriculture. 
 
 As the party had crossed several streams, and had 
 marched for miles among wet grass which grew two feet 
 over their heads, they had a very forlorn appearance as 
 
LIVINGSTONE ENTERS CASSANGE. 93 
 
 they entered Cassange, the farthest east Portuguese set- 
 tlement, and presented themselves to the gaze of civilized 
 men. The first gentleman Livingstone met asked him for 
 his passport, " and said it was necessary to take me 
 before the authorities. As I was in the same state of mind 
 in which individuals are who commit a petty depredation 
 in order to obtain the shelter and food of a prison, I gladly 
 accompanied him to the house of the commandant, Senor 
 de Silva Rego. Having shown ' my passport (letters 
 of recommendation from the Chevalier Du Prat of Cape 
 Town) to the gentleman, he politely asked me to supper ; 
 and, as we had eaten nothing except the farina of Cypri- 
 ano from the Quango to this, I suspect I appeared par- 
 ticularly ravenous to the other gentlemen around the 
 table." One can readily sympathize with him when he 
 adds, " Had they not been present, I might have put some 
 in my pocket to eat by night ; for, after fever, the appe- 
 tite is unusually keen, and manioc is one of the most 
 unsatisfying kinds of food." One of the guests, Capt. 
 Antonio Rodrigues Neves, took the worn and exhausted 
 traveller to his house with him, where he remained during 
 his stay, and presented him with a decent suit of clothing. 
 This kindly man also furnished food for the famishing 
 party. 
 
 The Portuguese traders in Cassange numbered about 
 forty, and were all officers in the militia. They were ex- 
 ceedingly kind to the colored people about them, their 
 half-caste and full-colored clerks and assistants in the 
 business sitting at table with them. None of them had 
 European wives with them ; but most of them had fami- 
 lies by native women, whom they treated with every kind- 
 ness and consideration, and seldom or never desert them, 
 hut provide for them as if they were Europeans. 
 
94 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 At Cassange the tusks belonging to Sekeletu were sold ; 
 and as two muskets, three small barrels of gunpowder, 
 and English baize and calico sufficient to clothe the whole 
 party, with several large bunches of beads, were received 
 for one tusk, Livingstone's companions were quite de- 
 lighted ; as, in their own country, they only received one 
 gun for two tusks. Another tusk was sold for calico 
 with which to pay their way to the coast, as it is the 
 chief currency of the district ; and the remaining two 
 were sold for money to buy a horse for Sekeletu at 
 Loanda. 
 
 Livingstone was astonished to find that the traders at 
 Cassange had an accurate knowledge of the country, and 
 the courses of the rivers, far to the east, although this 
 information had never appeared on a European map. 
 
 The commander handsomely sent a soldier with the 
 party, as a guide, to Ambaca, entertained Livingstone to a 
 farewell dinner, and presented his companions with an ox 
 to regale themselves with. The merchants accompanied 
 him some distance in hammocks carried by slaves ; and, 
 having given him letters of introduction to their friends 
 in Loanda, they parted with mutual expressions of good- 
 will. Livingstone's guide was a man of color, a native 
 of Ambaca, and a full corporal in the militia. He was 
 attended by three slaves, two of whom carried his ham- 
 mock, in which he alwa} 7 s reclined in state on entering 
 and leaving a village : the third slave carried a box 
 which contained his dishes, clothing, and writing-materi- 
 als ; for he could both read and write, sis nearly all his 
 brethren could. Although a pure native himself, when 
 he lost temper in dealing with any of his slaves, he called 
 him a " negro," as if he meant it as a term of reproach. 
 
 Crossing the high lands which bounded the Quango 
 
ARRIVAL AT AMBACA. 
 
 95 
 
 valley to the west, Livingstone found no difficulty in pro- 
 curing abundance of food from the inhabitants of the 
 numerous villages, in exchange for pieces of calico, and 
 beads. The rains and night dews brought on another 
 attack of fever ; and a considerable portion of the journey 
 was made in pain and misery. The skin of his body 
 became abraded in various places ; and his strong courage 
 almost failed him even when the hour of his success was 
 so near at hand. 
 
 Arrived at Ambaca, Livingstone was hospitably enter- 
 tained by the commandant, who recommended wine for 
 his debility ; and here he took the first glass of that 
 beverage he had taken in Africa. While sleeping in the 
 house of the commandant, he was bitten by an insect 
 called the tampan, a kind of tick, which ranges in size 
 from a pin's head to a pea. It invariably attacks the 
 parts between the toes, sucking the blood till quite full. 
 Its bite is poisonous, and causes a sensation of pain and 
 itching, which passes up the limb until it reaches the 
 abdomen, when it causes purging and retching. When 
 these effects do not follow, fever often sets in, which fre- 
 quently results in death. Before starting, the command- 
 ant gave them two militia soldiers as guides, to replace 
 their Cassange corporal, who left them here ; and pro- 
 vided the party with as much bread and meat as would 
 serve them until they reached the next station. With 
 characteristic liberality, Livingstone tells us that the 
 ability of so many of the people of Ambaca to read and 
 write 4 ' is the fruit of the labors of the Jesuit and Capu- 
 chin missionaries, for they taught the people of Ambaca ; 
 and, ever since the expulsion of the teachers by the 
 Marquis of Pombal, the natives have continued to teach 
 each other. These devoted men are held in high estima- 
 
96 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 tion throughout the country to this day. All speak well 
 of them ; and, now that they are gone from this lower 
 sphere, I could not help wishing that their own Roman 
 Catholic fellow-Christians had felt it their duty to give 
 the people the Bible, to be a light to their feet when the 
 good men themselves were gone." 
 
 Nothing of note occurred during the remainder of the 
 journey. The Portuguese, without exception, treated the 
 party with the utmost consideration and kindness, which 
 was all the more gratifying to him on account of his 
 debilitated condition. Parties of Mambari were met, who 
 did not seem pleased at finding Makololo men so far from 
 their native Zambesi, and so near a market where they 
 would discover the true value of their elephants' tusks. 
 The} 7 tried to induce them to return, by repeating the 
 legend that the white men lived in the sea, and that harm 
 would happen to them. But Livingstone's companions 
 were now proof against such fables ; and although full of 
 wonder and doubt as to the new world they were about 
 to enter, and the treatment they might receive, they 
 determined to stand by him to the last. 
 
 On catching their first glimpse of the sea, the astonish- 
 ment of his companions was boundless. Speaking of their 
 first sight of it, on their return to their friends, they said, 
 4 c We marched along with our father, believing that what 
 the ancients had always told us was true, that the world 
 had no end ; but, all at once, the world said to us, c I am 
 finished : there is no more of me.' " 
 
 There was only one Englishman in Loanda, which has 
 a population of twelve thousand souls, — Mr. Gabriel, 
 ihe British commissioner for the suppression of the slave- 
 trade ; and he gave his countrjanan a warm welcome. 
 He had sent an invitation to meet him on the way from 
 
ARRIVES AT LOAN DA. 
 
 97 
 
 Cassange, whence intelligence of the arrival of an Eng- 
 lishman from the interior of Africa — a region from 
 which no Englishman had ever before come — had reached 
 Loanda ; but it had missed him on the way. After par- 
 taking of refreshments, and noticing how ill his guest 
 looked, he conducted him to bed. 4 'Never shall I 
 forget," says he, u the luxuriant pleasure I enjoyed in 
 feeling myself again on a good English couch, after six 
 months' sleeping on the ground. I was soon asleep ; and 
 Mr. Gabriel, coming in almost immediately, rejoiced at 
 the soundness of my repose." 
 
 He had achieved his purpose : the mystery of South 
 Africa was solved. Instead of being a vast, barren 
 desert, he had found it to be a populous and fertile region, 
 watered by splendid streams navigable for hundreds of 
 miles, abounding in game of all kinds, and inhabited by 
 tribes capable of benefiting from the civilizing and hu- 
 manizing influences of honest commerce, and the teach- 
 ing of the gospel. What are the triumphs of arms 
 compared with the great work this heroic man had 
 achieved? On these vast, fertile plains, there is room for 
 millions of human beings living peaceful and industrious 
 lives. Is it too much to hope, that, within a period not 
 very remote, the tribes of South and Central Africa will 
 have become all that he believes them capable of becom- 
 ing, and that they will hold in reverence the undaunted 
 Englishman who first introduced them and their country 
 to the civilized world ? 
 
 Livingstone and his party started from Linyanti on the 
 11th of November, 1853, and reached Loanda on the 31st 
 of l\Jay, 1854, the journey thus occupjing something 
 more than six months ; during which period none of his 
 friends, either savage or civilized, heard any thing of 
 
 9 
 
98 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 lim. He had disappeared into the wilderness ; and, like 
 many more daring spirits, it was supposed that he had 
 fallen a victim to the climate, or the cruelty of some 
 savage chief. Not the least remarkable fact connected 
 with his journey was, that he had not lost a man in the 
 long and toilsome journey ; and, as we shall see, he was 
 equally fortunate in returning. 
 
 Instead of burning and parched plains, he had found, 
 as he had shrewdly suspected he would, that with the 
 exception of a portion of the Bechuana country, and the 
 Kalahari desert, the vast country between the confines of 
 civilization at Kuruman, and St. Paul de Loanda on the 
 west coast, and, from all he could see and learn of the 
 northern watersheds, equally vast districts to the north of 
 his line of march, — were seamed with river-courses, which 
 poured their waters into magnificent streams which found 
 their way to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and were, for 
 many hundred miles of their course, navigable for flat- 
 bottomed vessels. The long rainy season gave to the 
 earth a fertility which the abundant animal life of these 
 districts could not master ; and the tall grass lay rotting 
 on the ground in the flooded districts, a tangled mass 
 impeding the progress of the traveller, the dense swaths 
 of which were used, by the various species of antelopes, 
 for hiding their young from their numerous enemies. 
 
 The introduction of improved agriculture, and European 
 merchandise, together with moral and religious instruc- 
 tion, is only required to make this region the home of 
 millions of happy and contented human beings. The 
 annual inundations, which for a period submerge the low- 
 lying plains, the stagnant water, from which proceed 
 deadly fevers, with proper skill and appliances could be 
 made the regenerator of the country. Irrigation would 
 
AT LOAN DA. 
 
 99 
 
 carry the superabundant water to vast tracts of land at 
 present unproductive ; and the increase in the herds of 
 cattle would eat up the vegetation which at present, for a 
 certain period of the year, lies rotting in the sun. Save 
 in the immediate neighborhood of the rivers and swamps, 
 the natives are subject to fewer diseases than Europeans. 
 Jn return for the comforts and industrial appliances of 
 civilized life, they could give cotton, indigo, skins, ivory, 
 &c. ; and a legitimate and mutually helpful trade of this 
 kind, with the civilized centres of the world, would do 
 more in ten years towards the suppression of the traffic 
 in human flesh than all the money Great Britain has 
 spent for this object since the abolition of slavery in hei 
 dependencies. , 
 
 Of wild animals, birds, and insects, he found no lack ; 
 and, in each of these departments of animal life, his obser- 
 vations enabled him to add several new species and vari- 
 eties. Game being abundant, the different species of 
 African felines were numerous, and frequently met with. 
 Lions, leopards, tiger-cats, hyenas, jackals, and herds of 
 game, were always to be found in the neighborhood of 
 water. With the exception of the attack on one of his men 
 by a crocodile in crossing a creek in the Leeambye, and a 
 bite received by another from a non-poisonous snake near 
 the Leeba, the party did not suffer any inconvenience 
 from the ferce naturae of the district. 
 
 This great district he found as thickly populated as the 
 Bechuana country by tribes ranking high, among savages, 
 in intelligence ; who, in the main, led peaceable and blame- 
 less lives, cultivating their gardens, feeding their cattle, 
 catching the fish in the rivers, and hunting the game of 
 the plains, and cherishing traditions of wise and dis- 
 tinguished forefathers of their tribes. To the west, 
 
100 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 through their connection with the slave-traders of the 
 coast, and the evil passions which Invariably follow this 
 inhuman traffic, he found a people who had lost the 
 peaceful and patriarchal simplicity of their brethren of the 
 interior ; but amongst them he found wise and intelligent 
 chiefs and head men, with whom it appeared to him eas}', 
 given the opportunity of bringing the proper teaching and 
 experience before them through missionary and commer- 
 cial effort, to introduce a purer and nobler life. 
 
 Livingstone speaks somewhat contemptuously of the 
 courage and appearance of the lion. He likens its appear- 
 ance, in its native haunts, to that of a large dog ; and says 
 that, if met in the da}', it slouches off until it reaches some 
 distance, when it increases its progress to a gallop. It 
 never attacks a man boldly, and only does so when it can 
 pounce on a man unseen. It only becomes the aggressor 
 when wounded, or brought to baj r ; and then its attack is 
 formidable, as is that of much smaller members of the 
 feline order. The Bengal tiger he considers to be a much 
 more powerful and terrible animal. A single lion has no 
 chance with a buffalo, which defends itself, or boldlj T at- 
 tacks the lion, with its head and hoofs. The true king 
 of the African wilderness is the rhinoceros. The ele- 
 phant, which cares no more for the near neighborhood of 
 a lion than it does for an antelope, strides away on the 
 approach of the rhinoceros. The formidable horn (or 
 horns, for some varieties have more than one) which 
 adorns its snout, in an attack is plunged into the body of 
 the animal it engages ; and, as it can split up a tree of a 
 foot diameter with this terrible weapon, the consequences 
 of a thrust from it to the larger animals may be readily 
 imagined. The buffalo, when wounded, is a dangerous 
 antagonist to the hunter, as its rush is both sudden and 
 
DIFFERENT SPECIES OF ANTELOPES. 101 
 
 resistless. The herds are accompanied by a bird called 
 the ox or buffalo bird, which flies around them, settling 
 on their backs, and feeding on the ticks which swarm 
 amongst their hair, or the larvae of insects which are em- 
 bedded in their skins. Elephants were met with in pro- 
 digious numbers ; and their presence, and that of the zebra 
 and the quagga, on the sandy plains, was alwa} 7 s hailed 
 with joy, as indicating the near neighborhood of water. 
 
 In addition to the various species of antelopes knoiro 
 to us which roam in vast herds on the African plains, 
 many of them appearing to be almost independent of 
 water, — the handsome eland, the fierce-looking gnu, the 
 beautiful and elegant koodoo, the springbok, with its 
 gazelle-like limbs and stout body, countless herds of 
 which scour the plains from place to place, and many 
 others, — Livingstone met with several hitherto unknown 
 varieties and species. In the neighborhood of the 
 Zouga, he met with a new species of water-buck, called 
 the leche, with fine ringed horns bending outwards and 
 inwards like those of the water-buck of the Bechuana 
 country. The chest, the belly, and a patch round the eyes, 
 are nearly white ; the body and upper parts are light 
 brown ; while the limbs are of a darker hue than the body. 
 The male has a light-brown mane. It is never seen above 
 a mile from the marshy ground in the neighborhood of 
 rivers ; and it is only found in the central districts of the 
 country. Another water-buck, called the nakong, he also 
 found in Central Africa. It is more clumsy in its build, 
 and is larger than the former species. Its great length of 
 foot (nearly twelve inches) enables it to walk with ease in 
 the boggy morasses which it frequents. It has very hand- 
 some twisted horns, and is of a grayish- brown color. 
 When the natives hunt it, it takes to the water ; and, as it 
 
 9* 
 
102 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 only keeps the point of its nose above the surface, it is 
 somewhat difficult to catch. In the valley of the Leeain- 
 bye, great numbers of a beautiful and graceful antelope, 
 standing about eighteen inches high, were met with. The 
 natives name it tranydne. It is of a brownish-reel color, 
 the under parts being w r hite. It is a very timid animal 
 unless while it is rearing its young, when it will do battle 
 with a man if he should approach it. A new variety of 
 eland, differing only from the one already known in the 
 light-colored stripes down the sides, and across the bocly, 
 was also discovered in the Leeambye valley. In the 
 interior, the antelopes were so tame, and their beauty and 
 graceful appearance made so much impression upon Liv- 
 ingstone, that he felt serious compunctions about shooting 
 them, even when they were required for food for his party. 
 This feeling prevented him from killing any of them wan- 
 tonly ; although if a mere love of slaughter, in the name of 
 sport, had been his object, he might have shot hundreds 
 of them. 
 
 The number and variety of rodents, both land and 
 aquatic, furnish food for the smaller felines, and several 
 species of snakes, poisonous and non-poisonous. Of 
 these, several varieties of pythons are common, one of 
 which attains a great size. It is known as the fatal 
 python. The smaller antelopes fall victims to this 
 species. A species of cobra, known as the naji of Egypt, 
 and the puff-adder, is much dreaded. Livingstone had a 
 narrow escape from a poisonous snake on one occasion. 
 Having trampled upon it in the dark, it wound itself 
 round his leg. The vigor of his leap, caused by the 
 fright, fortunately shook it off before it could fasten its 
 fangs in his limb. 
 
 Several varieties of mice were very abundant. One 
 
ANIMAL LIFE OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 103 
 
 raises little haycocks over its burrow, long stretches of the 
 Kalahari desert being dotted with them. Its shallow bur- 
 rows are so plentiful, and so near the surface, that walk- 
 ing is a matter of difficulty. Several small species of 
 snakes are alwaj^s numerous near these mouse-colonies. 
 
 Hippopotami, crocodiles, and various kinds of lizards, 
 were numerous. Land-turtles were plentiful, and were 
 greatly prized. The ostrich was common on the sandy 
 plains to the south : it is hunted by the Bushmen for its 
 flesh, and its fine plume of feathers. Its eggs are eagerly 
 sought after, and are accounted a great delicacy. The 
 shells we have already spoken of as being used for hold- 
 ing water in the Kalahari desert. The secretary-bird 
 stalked about in the dry, arid plains, searching for the 
 snakes on which it feeds. The sacred ibis, several varie- 
 ties of cranes, herons, spoonbills, fish-hawks, kingfishers, 
 &c, abounded along the main rivers. The beautiful 
 jacana, witlf its long claws, darting nimbly over the 
 broad leaves of aquatic plants, appeared to be walking 
 on the water. Pigeons and turtle-doves, canaries, honey- 
 birds, and a vast variety of other feathered songsters, 
 made the lone forests vocal with their music. Weaver- 
 birds sewed the long leaves together, with the threads of 
 the spider's web, to form their nests ; and the small bee- 
 eater, and various species of martins, flashed over the 
 broad rivers, darting in and out of their nests in the 
 bank. 
 
 Several varieties of ants were abundant everywhere, the 
 vast plains being dotted with the conical mounds raised 
 by this curious and industrious creature ; some of them 
 attaining to a height of from twenty to thirty feet, and 
 double that in width at the base, even trees growing plen- 
 tifully upon them, and native huts finding a secure foun- 
 dation upon their firin surfaces. 
 
104 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.Q. 
 
 Spiders abounded, both in the north and the south, of 
 every conceivable color, shape, and size. Among theBec- 
 huanas, a black, hairy spider, about an inch and a quarter 
 long, had a curious process at the end of each of the fore- 
 claws like that at the end of the tail of the scorpion. 
 When the insect seizes hold of any living object with 
 these claws, an irritating poison is exuded. Several leap- 
 ing spiders are found all over the country ; they leap 
 upon their prey from a distance of twelve inches. The 
 most common variety is of a reddish hue, and is about an 
 inch and a half in length. 
 
 The most singular species is called selali. It burrows 
 in the ground, making a perpendicular hole about the size 
 of a shilling, which it covers with a door of about the 
 same size, working on a hinge. This door, which on the 
 under side appears to be made of silky-white paper, is 
 covered with sand on the upper side, which is attached to 
 it by a viscid substance it exudes from its body. 
 
 A yellow-spotted spider, over an inch in length, makes 
 a web a yard square, which it suspends from the branch 
 of a tree. The lines of the web are as thick as common 
 thread. Another novel variety weaves a large number of 
 webs at right angles to each other. These are so numer- 
 ous, and so crowded together, as frequently to hide the tree 
 or hedge to which they are suspended. 
 
 Livingstone was bitten on the brow and hand, while in 
 the Balonda country, by a poisonous black spider, an inch 
 and a quarter in length, which woke him, during the night, 
 by crawling over his brow. On raising his hand to wipe 
 it olf, it bit his brow and hand severely, causing consider- 
 able inconvenience for a time. 
 
 The scavenger-beetle is a very useful animal to the 
 Bechuana tribes. It feeds on animal excretions, and all 
 
THE ANT-BEAR, 
 
 105 
 
 kinds of carrion. It rolls away the round pellets of ante- 
 lope and goat dung, and, having taken it to a soft spot, 
 digs the loose earth from below it until it is sunk below 
 the surface. It then deposits its eggs in the mass ; and, 
 when the larvae are hatched, they feed upon their nests 
 until they are able to shift for themselves. 
 
 Ant-eaters, four-footed and winged, are numerous. 
 The ant-lion has much the appearance of our dragon-fly, 
 but is larger. It forms a pitfall on a route likety to be 
 used by ants, into which they stumble, and become a prey 
 to it. Another insect, about an inch and a half long, 
 having somewhat the appearance of an earwig, feeds on 
 ants. Thrusting its head into a hole, it moves the forceps 
 in its tail with a quivering motion ; and, when an ant ap- 
 proaches to gratify its curiosity, it is snapped up by the 
 forceps. 
 
 Several varieties of ant-eaters proper, with their strong 
 claws, break open the ant-hills, and lick up the insects 
 with great rapidity with their extensile tongues. The 
 point of the tongue exudes a viscid substance to which 
 the ants adhere ; which greatly facilitates the work of 
 destruction. The ant-bear is the most singular-looking 
 of. the ant-eaters. Its body is round as a ball, and cov- 
 ered with a thick, hairless skin ;. the head is small, and 
 the snout elongated. The tapering tail is so thick at the 
 base, as to appear to be an extension of the body. The 
 fore-limbs and claws are very strong. A full-grown speci- 
 men will weigh a hundred pounds. It has no teeth, and 
 is a harmless creature ; although, when attacked by the 
 smaller felines, it proves more than a match for them, if 
 it manages to get its strong limbs and claws round its 
 assailant's neck. Its strong skin prevents it from receiv« 
 ing very serious damage at the first onset. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BTiT AT LOANDA. STARTS ON RETURN JOURNI Y. — • DR. 
 
 LIVINGSTONE AGAIN ATTACKED WITH FEVER. THE 
 
 MAKOLOLO SUFFER FROM SICKNESS. DESCENT OF THE 
 
 LEEBA AND LEEAMBYE. ARRIVAL AT LINYANTI. 
 
 As Livingstone's illness was of so serious a nature as 
 to require a considerable period of rest and treatment, ho 
 remained at the house of Mr. Gabriel, where he was 
 treated with ever}' kindness and attention ; nor was the 
 comfort and well-being of his attendants forgotten. Mr. 
 Gabriel presented them with red caps, and striped cotton 
 jackets, in which costume they were presented by Dr. 
 Livingstone to the bishop, who was acting as provisional 
 governor. The bishop, who cook a warm interest in Liv- 
 ingstone and his attendants, gave the latter the right of a 
 free passage to Loancla whenever the}' might wish to 
 return. Two British ships of war, engaged in the sup- 
 pression of the slave-trade, having come into the harbor, 
 their commanders, Capt. Skine and Commander Beding- 
 field, invited the party to visit their ships. - Nearly the 
 whole of them went, although filled with misgivings as to 
 what might befall them. The kindness of the sailors, 
 who gave them a share of their dinners, put them at their 
 ease. The firing-off of a cannon gave them a. high idea 
 of the power and determination of the countrymen of Liv- 
 ingstone in their endeavor to put down slavey. The size 
 of the ships filled them with amazement. "It is not a 
 
 106 
 
MAKOLOLO MAKE THEMSELVES USEFUL. 107 
 
 canoe, it is a town," they said of the brig of war ; 6t and 
 what sort of a town is this which you must climb up into 
 with a rope ? " 
 
 The respect in which Livingstone was held by every one 
 in authority increased their reverence for him, and added 
 to their own importance as the servants and companions 
 of a man of so high an authorit} 7 among white men. This 
 tended to increase their devotion to him ; and, as this and 
 the other wonders they saw did not lose in the rehearsing 
 to their friends on the Chobe and the Leeambye, the influ- 
 ence of Livingstone, among the tribes of Central Africa, 
 was greatly increased. 
 
 Compassionating Livingstone's emaciated condition, 
 Capt. Bedingfield, of H. M. S. " Pluto," who was re- 
 turning to England on board " The Forerunner," an 
 African mail-steamer, in consequence of the shattered 
 state of his health, which had suffered through a long and 
 arduous service on the coast, offered him a passage home. 
 This kind offer, Livingstone, true to his idea of duty, was 
 compelled to decline. The twenty-seven subjects of Seke- 
 letu had come thus far with him on the understanding that 
 he should take them back again to their own country, if 
 that were possible. In addition to this, he felt that the 
 long land-journey through swamps and forests, from the 
 Leeba to the Quango, made the passage from the centre 
 of the continent to the west coast one of extreme diffi- 
 culty ; and he had already begun to dream of a more 
 easy route clown the valley of the Zambesi to the east 
 coast, which he could explore on his return to Linyanti. 
 
 During his convalescence, his attendants, of their own 
 accord, employed themselves in gathering firewood in the 
 neighboring forest, which they sold in the town. Through 
 the interest of Mr. Gabriel, who was delighted with this 
 
108 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 evidence of their industrious habits, they were employed 
 in unloading a coal- vessel, which had come from England^ 
 at sixpence a day. In speaking of this to their friends 
 on their return, they endeavored to convey some idea of 
 the size of the vessel by stating that they had ' ' labored 
 every day, from sunrise to sunset, for a moon and a half, 
 unloading, as quickly as they could, stones that burn, and 
 were tired out, still leaving plenty in her." The money 
 they earned was spent in purchasing clothing and orna- 
 ments to take back with them to their' own country ; their 
 good sense being shown in selecting plain, strong calico, 
 instead of the more colored and flaring fabrics. 
 
 Through the intelligent kindness of the authorities and 
 merchants at Loanda, the expedition left that place hand- 
 somely provided with comforts and necessities. The au- 
 thorities sent a colonel's uniform and a horse for Sekeletu, 
 and gave suits of clothing to all the men. The public 
 subscription among the merchants provided two donkeys, 
 in the hope of introducing the ass into districts where its 
 insensibility to the poison of the tsetse would make it 
 invaluable as a beast of burden. His man-of-war friends 
 provided Livingstone with a good new tent, manufactured 
 by the crew of " The Philomel." Livingstone provided 
 each man with a musket, and procured a good stock of 
 ammunition, beads, and cotton cloth. They set out 
 on the 20th of September, 1854, having remained at 
 Loanda nearly four months. Their baggage was as 
 heavy as it was valuable ; and they were much beholden 
 to the bishop, who furnished them with twenty carriers, 
 to assist them to the nearest station, and ordered the 
 commandants of the districts they had to pass through to 
 give Livingstone and his party all needful help. 
 
 The hard, dry ground tried the feet of his attendants 
 
A SUCCESSFUL PLAN TUB. 
 
 109 
 
 severely ; and on account of this, and an attack of ma- 
 laria from which several of them suffered, their progress 
 was slow. Towards the middle of December, thej 
 reached the estate of Col. Pires, which is situated to the 
 south of the Lucalla, one of the tributaries of the Coan- 
 za, in the district of Pungo Andongo ; where he learned, 
 to his great sorrow and regret, that "The Forerunner" 
 was lost, and that his despatches, journals, and maps, 
 had gone to the bottom with her. It was matter for con- 
 gratulation to him that his friend, Capt. Bedingfield, was 
 among the saved ; and with characteristic energy he set 
 to work, while under the hospitable roof of Col. Pires, to 
 re-write his journal. Col. Pires had two estates, and 
 was the most energetic and successful planter of the dis- 
 trict. His slaves, in consequence of being so well 
 treated, might readity, from their zeal and efficient ser- 
 vice, have been taken for free servants. Through his exer- 
 tions, the district has become the garden of Angola, 
 producing abundant crops of figs, grapes, wheat, butter, 
 cheese, &c. Coming to the country as a servant on 
 board ship, Col. Pires, by his skill and perseverance, had 
 become the richest merchant in the country. He could 
 number his cattle by thousands, and, if need were, could 
 defend himself and his property with several hundred 
 armed slaves, who would have fought for him with willing 
 devotedness. 
 
 The fort and village of Pungo Andongo are situated in 
 the midst of a group of rocky columns, several of which 
 are over three hundred feet in height, and about one hun- 
 dred feet in width at the base. As the village is situated 
 in an open space in the centre of these rocks, and is only 
 reached by narrow and circuitous roads, commanded by 
 Uie rocks, it must have been a place of great strength 
 10 
 
110 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 when the country was in an unsettled state under the 
 Jingas, the original possessors of the country. This 
 warlike tribe, which was driven out of their territory by 
 the Portuguese, have settled farther to the north, where 
 they maintain an independent existence. 
 
 Crossing the Coanza, and several of its tributaries, 
 they reached Tala Mungongo, where they made a short 
 stay, and suffered from a plague of red ants, which were 
 so numerous and so formidable, that slaves were obliged 
 to sit up all night, burning fires of straw round the 
 slaughtered carcass of a cow : otherwise they would have 
 devoured it. They march in a compact band, several 
 inches wide, and attack man and every animal crossing 
 their track with determined pugnacity. The stinging 
 pain caused by their bites is compared, by Livingstone, to 
 that produced by sparks of tire falling upon the bare skin. 
 The} r perform considerable service in devouring any car- 
 rion they come across, and by eating the white ants, rats 
 and mice, small snakes, and even the large pythons, 
 wiien they find them in a state of surfeit. They do not 
 form hills, like the white ants, but construct their nests 
 in burrows at some distance from the surface of the 
 ground. 
 
 At Cassange, he was again hospitably entertained by 
 Capt. Neves ; and during his short stay he finished the 
 re-writing of his journal, and, to his great joy, received 
 a packet of the u Times" newspaper, which gave him, 
 among other news, u an account of the Russian war up 
 to the terrible charge of the Light Brigade. The intense 
 anxiety I felt to hear more may be imagined b} r every true 
 patriot ; but I was forced to live on in silent thought, 
 and utter my poor prayers for friends, who, perchance, 
 were now no more, until I reached the other side of the 
 
PREVALENCE OF FEVER. 
 
 Ill 
 
 continent." When he next came within reach of news 
 from home, the Russian war was ended, and the Indian 
 mutiny was the absorbing topic of interest and dread 
 among his countrymen. This complete isolation from all 
 news from the civilized quarters of the world was not the 
 least of the trials to which his adventurous career exposed 
 him. 
 
 But for the prevalence of fever, which, perhaps, im- 
 proved cultivation might tend to diminish, Livingstone 
 speaks of Angola as being ' ' in every other respect an 
 agreeable land, and admirably adapted for yielding a rich 
 abundance of tropical produce for the rest of the 
 world." He further says, that, " had it been in the pos- 
 session of England, it would now have been } 7 ielding as 
 much, or more, of the raw materials of her manufactures, 
 as an equal extent of territory in the cotton-growing 
 States of America. A railway from Loancla to this 
 valley (the Quango) would receive the trade of most 
 of the interior of South Central Africa." Livingstone's 
 men, during this passage through Angola, collected better 
 breeds of fowls and pigeons than those in their own coun- 
 try. The native tribes of Angola are very superstitious ; 
 and, notwithstanding the vigilance of the Portuguese gov- 
 ernment, practise many of their inhuman rites, — notably 
 the ordeal for witchcraft, which consists in the accused 
 party drinking the sap of a poisonous tree, which almost 
 invariably proves fatal. 
 
 After partaking of the hospitality of their good friends 
 in Portuguese territory, they bade adieu to civilized socie- 
 ty, and crossed the Quango, reducing the ferryman's 
 charge from thirty yards of calico to six, their more pros- 
 perous appearance, and better armament, having its effect 
 in. expediting their progress where they had previously 
 
112 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 suffered so much. Sleeping on the damp ground, dining 
 the incessant rains, brought on a severe attack of rheu- 
 matic fever, which delayed their journey for twenty days, 
 as the faithful Makololo would not stir during his weak 
 state. Petty chiefs endeavored to extract handsome 
 presents for permission to pass through their small territo- 
 ries ; but experience had taught them to put them at 
 defiance, the wisdom of which course was shown when the 
 party were attacked, in a forest, by a chief and his braves, 
 who were repulsed so effectually as to make them glad to 
 be permitted to depart with whole skins. 
 
 As the Makololo suffered from sickness, their progress 
 was slow ; about two-thirds of their time being taken up 
 with stoppages to recruit, or to collect provisions. Making 
 a detour to the south, the part}^ calne in contact with several 
 tribes who had not been contaminated by connection with 
 slave-traders : amongst these they procured abundance of 
 food on reasonable terms. The men were great dandies, 
 the oil dripping from their hair on to their shoulders, and 
 every article of clothing was saturated with it. They 
 amuse themselves with various kinds of musical instru- 
 ments of most primitive manufacture, and never go out 
 save armed to the teeth ; their guns and bows ornamented 
 with strips of the hides of the various animals they have 
 shot. Ladies tend pet lap-dogs with as much care as 
 their civilized sisters, with a better excuse for their pecu- 
 liar taste in pets, as they are fattened for eating. Flesh- 
 meat is so scarce with them, that they were always pleased 
 to give something in return for the smallest piece of ox- 
 flesh. Rats, mice, lizards, and birds are so diligently 
 hunted and trapped for food, especially the latter, that 
 they were seldom seen. Parasitic plants were so plentiful, 
 that in many places a man had to precede the party in the 
 
AMONG UNFRIENDLY TRIBES. 
 
 113 
 
 forests, armed with a hatchet to cut a passage. The lug- 
 gage, on the backs of the oxen, was frequently entangled by 
 them, and thrown to the ground ; the same fate frequently 
 overtaking the leader of the party himself. Provisions 
 were exceedingly cheap ; a fowl, and twenty pounds of 
 manioc-meal, costing a yard of calico, worth threepence. 
 From the Quango valley, the party had been accompanied 
 by Paseval and Favia, two half-caste slave-traders. It was 
 instructive to notice that they could not carry on their 
 peculiar traffic without paying heavy blackmail, in the shape 
 of presents, to every petty chief whose village they visited ; 
 nor could they trust their native bearers, who seemed to 
 consider it the right thing to plunder them on all occa- 
 sions. They were compelled to wink at their irregular- 
 ities, as the safety of their merchandise was entirely in 
 their hands. 
 
 Kawawa, a Balonda chief, being balked in his endeav- 
 ors to extract blackmail from the party, sent forward four 
 of his men to the ferry across the Kasai, with instructions 
 to the ferrymen that they should not be carried across the 
 stream, which was about a hundred yards broad, and very 
 deep, unless they got a man, an ox, a gun,. and a robe. At 
 night, Pitsane, who had seen where the canoes were hid- 
 den among the reeds on the opposite side of the stream, 
 secured a canoe, in which they all passed safely across ; 
 to the chagrin of the ferrymen, and Kawawa's messengers, 
 who could hardly guess how they had managed to cross, as 
 the canoes were all safe on their side of the stream. Pit- 
 sane had replaced the canoe after it had done its work, 
 and swam across to join his comrades ; some beads being 
 left in it as payment for a small quantity of meal got 
 from the ferryman on the previous day. In their mor- 
 tification at being so completely worsted, Kawawa's peoplo 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 shouted across to them, " Ah, you are bad ! " to vrhich 
 the Makololo returned for answer, " Ah, ye are gooc. ! and 
 we thank 3 ou for the loan of your canoe. " 
 
 The country before them might now be considered as 
 friendly territor} 7 , in which the simple inhabitants could 
 be trusted to assist them in their onward progress, and 
 whose generous kindness would render less serious their 
 exhausted stores of baggage and ornaments ; which had 
 disappeared through the exactions of the unfriendly chiefs 
 and tribes through which they had passed since crossing 
 the Quango, and the payment for provisions during the 
 long delays caused by the ill health of the part} 7 . The 
 goods and ornaments the Makololo had received in pres- 
 ents, or had purchased out of their earnings at Loanda, 
 had nearly all gone, together with the iron they had 
 purchased for Sekeletu. The open plains of the Balonda 
 country were comparatively clear of water, save in low- 
 lying spots ; and, as the vegetation was less dense than 
 they had found it farther to the east, their progress was 
 more easy. Animal life became more abundant as they 
 proceeded, giving cheering token of the land of plenty to 
 which they were approaching ; vultures sailed overhead ; 
 swifts, and several varieties of swallows, flitted about ; 
 wild ducks, and other water-fowl, were seen in considerable 
 numbers in the neighborhood of the streams and pools ; 
 small herds of the larger game, rendered very shy in con- 
 sequence of being regularly hunted by the natives, were 
 frequently seen ; and jet-black larks made the air musical 
 with their song in the early morning. The plain was 
 radiant with flowers : one he specially noticed, which 
 grows in such numbers as to give its hue to the ground, 
 71ie variety of color of this flower was remarkable. A 
 ') oad band of yellow, on being closely examined, would 
 
HIS TWENTY-SEVENTH ATTACK OF FEVER. 115 
 
 resolve itself into individual flowers, exhibiting every 
 variety of color from the palest lemon to the^idchest 
 orange. A hundred yards of this rich carpeting would be 
 succeeded by another broad band of the same flower of a 
 blue color, made up of every variation of that tint from 
 the lightest to the darkest blue, and even purple. The 
 color of the birds was as variable, in this and other dis- 
 tricts, as that of the flowers. 
 
 On the second clay's journey from the Kasai, Livingstone 
 suffered from his twenty-seventh attack of fever ; and, 
 after an exhausting journey, he reached Lake Dilolo. 6 4 The 
 sight of the blue waters," he tells us, "and the waves 
 lashing the shore, had a most soothing influence on the 
 mind, after so much of lifeless, flat, and gloomy forest. 
 The heart yearned for the vivid impressions which are 
 alwa}' s* created by the sight of the broad expanse of the 
 grand old ocean." Livingstone's old friend, Katema, 
 entertained the party most hospitably, presenting them 
 with a cow, and abundance of meal. According to prom- 
 ise, Livingstone presented him with a cloak of red baize, 
 a cotton robe, a quantity of beads, an iron spoon, and a 
 tin pannikin, containing a quarter of a pound of powder. 
 Katema had come from his hunting-ground . to meet the 
 party, to which he returned after his interview with Liv- 
 ingstone ; leaving instructions with his head man to attend 
 to their wants, and provide them with a guide to tne 
 Leeba. 
 
 At Shinte's town, the party were most hospitably enter- 
 tained by that intelligent chief ; and Nyamoana, his sister, 
 who had changed the site of her village in consequence of 
 the death of her husband, treated them with every kind- 
 ness, and gave them the loan of five small canoes, in w T hich 
 to proceed down the Leeba. His companions also bought 
 
116 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 several light, sharp-prowed canoes for hunting animals in 
 the water. Manenko was unable to visit the party in con- 
 sequence of a burn in the foot ; but her husband Sam- 
 banza came instead, and, as an earnest of good-will, 
 performed the ceremony called kasencli, — Pitsane and 
 Sambanza being the parties engaged. The hands of the 
 parties were joined, and small incisions, sufficient to 
 cause bleeding, made in the hands, on the pits of the 
 stomachs, the right cheeks, and the foreheads. Drops of 
 blood were conveyed from the wounds of each on a stalk 
 of. grass, and dipped in beer, — the one drinking the beer 
 mixed with the other's blood. During the drinking of the 
 beer, members of the party beat the ground with clubs, 
 and muttered sentences, by way of ratifj'ing the treaty. 
 This ceremony constitutes the parties engaging in it, 
 blood-relations, each being bound to warn the other of 
 impending evil, even if it involved the disclosure of an 
 intended attack, on the tribe of the other, by his own 
 chief. After the ceremony, they exchanged presents ; 
 Pitsane getting an abundant supply of food, and two 
 shells, and Sambanza receiving Pitsane' s suit of green 
 baize, faced with red. 
 
 Below the confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye, the 
 part} 7 met some native hunters, well provided with the 
 dried flesh of the hippopotamus, buffalo, and the crocodile. 
 They stalk these animals among the reeds with a cap made 
 of the skin of the head of an antelope, with the horns 
 attached, and the breast and shoulder skin, or with the 
 neck and head attached, of a species of crane. By adopt- 
 ing these stratagems, the} 7 get within bow-shot of the 
 animal they wish to kill. They presented Livingstone 
 with three fine water- turtles, one of which had upwards 
 of forty eggs in its body. The eggs and flesh of these 
 
DESCENT OF THE LEEBA AND LEE AM BYE. 117 
 
 turtles are most excellent, and were joyfully accepted by 
 the part}'. Here Livingstone had a narrow escape from a 
 bull buffalo, which charged him at full speed. In round- 
 ing a bush, the animal exposed his shoulder, into which he 
 sent a bullet. " The pain must have made him renounce 
 his purpose ; for he bounded past me into the water, where 
 he was found dead." 
 
 At Libonta, they were received with every demonstra- 
 tion of joy and thankfulness for their return. For months 
 they had been given up as dead. Such a scene of kissing 
 and hand-shaking ensued, as made Livingstone glad when 
 they were all quietly seated in the kotla, to hear their 
 report of their adventures. Wisely declining to do this 
 himself, Pitsane enlarged, for a whole hour, on the won- 
 ders they- had seen, and the adventures they had come 
 through. The members of his party had, with pardonable 
 vanity, throughout all their trials preserved a suit of white 
 European clothing with red caps, which finished the ad- 
 miration of their friends. Next day they had two religious 
 services in the kotla, where Livingstone u addressed them 
 all on the goodness of God in preserving us from all the 
 dangers of strange tribes and disease." The men pre- 
 sented them with two fine oxen ; and the women brought 
 abundance of milk, meal, and butter. They explained 
 the total expenditure of their means, in the return journey, 
 as a reason for their giving nothing in return ; and the 
 good Libontese answered, u It does not matter : }t>u have 
 opened a path for us, and we shall have sleep (peace)." 
 
 All the way down the Barotse valley, they were received 
 with the same enthusiasm, and as generously treated. At 
 Chitlane's village, they were invited to collect a colony of 
 yonubi linkololo, a long-legged bird about the size of a 
 crow, which breeds among the reeds on the banks of the 
 
118 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Leeambye. There were a hundred and seventy-six of 
 them. When roasted, they make capital eating. All 
 along their route it was a continuous feast of joy ; the 
 donors partaking, with the party, of the meats they 
 furnished. 
 
 At Sesheke, Livingstone found several packages which 
 had been sent up the river to him by Mr. Moffat, who had 
 made a long and fatiguing journey in search of him. In 
 these, which had been carefully kept by the Makololo in a 
 hut on an island in the river, as. they feared witchcraft on 
 the part of the Matabeles (their enemies) who had brought 
 them, he found English newspapers and magazines, and 
 some preserved eatables. Amongst other information the 
 papers contained, was the explanation, by Sir Roderick 
 Murchison, after a study of Mr. Barnes's geological map, 
 and discoveries made by Livingstone and Mr. Oswell, of 
 the peculiar conformation of the continent of Central 
 Africa. Speaking of this wonderful prediction of the 
 physical characteristics of a countr} r of which he had no 
 knowledge, save that supplied by induction, Livingstone 
 says, 64 There was not much use in nursing my chagrin at 
 being thus fairly cut out by the man who had foretold the 
 existence of the Australian gold before its discovery ; for 
 here it was, in black and white. In his easy-chair he had 
 forestalled me by three 3-ears, though I had been working 
 hard through jungle, marsh, and fever, since the light 
 dawned in my mind at Dilolo. I had been cherishing the 
 pleasing delusion, that I should be the first to suggest the 
 idea that the interior of Africa was a watery plateau of 
 less elevation than flanking hill ranges." 
 
 Arriving at Lhryanti, in September, Livingstone found 
 his wagon and goods standing where he' had left them 
 more than twelve months before ; not an article had been 
 
ARRIVAL AT LINY ANT I. 
 
 119 
 
 touched, although they all possessed great value in the 
 eyes of the Makololo. Chief and people were loud in 
 their demonstrations of joy at his unlooked-for return. A 
 great meeting was held to receive their report, and the 
 presents sent from the governor and merchants of Lo- 
 anda. The wonderful story of their adventures lost nolli- 
 ing in the telling at the hands of the Makololo, who had 
 accompanied him ; and the presents sent to the chief 
 filled them with unbounded admiration. Sekeletu was 
 proud of his colonel's uniform ; and, when he donned it at 
 the first religious service held after their arrival, his 
 splendid suit attracted more attention than the sermon. 
 The two donkeys were greatly admired, as they promised 
 to be the parents of a flock of domestic animals of great 
 value. They had borne the long journey with that patient 
 and untiring endurance so characteristic of their species, 
 and enjoyed the abundant vegetation of their new home. 
 
 Having been so long separated from his family, and 
 having come through so many trials and difficulties, which 
 left him feverish and enfeebled, no one would have blamed 
 him if he had harnessed his oxen to his wagon, and de- 
 parted for Kuruman or the Cape, to rest and recruit before 
 attempting another journey. But this was not in accord- 
 ance with Livingstone's sense of duty. His popularity 
 gave him hopes of being able to make an impression on 
 the Makololo by his religious teaching ; and their kind- 
 ness, and their confidence in him, made him desirous of 
 serving them in other ways. The road to Loanda was 
 long and difficult ; and so much of it passed over land 
 inhabited by unfriendly tribes, that he felt this was not 
 the proper outlet for the merchandise of Central Africa. 
 For months his mind had wandered down the course of 
 that greatest of African rivers, the Zambesi, to the east 
 
120 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 coast ; and, the more he thought over the matter, the more 
 he became convinced that this was the proper route, and 
 that it was his duty to settle the point without delay. 
 
 He was all but destitute, and was indebted to the faith- 
 ful Makololo for every thing he required while amongst 
 them ; and he could not carry out his intention of passing 
 to the coast without their aid in men, oxen, and material. 
 Nor were these wanting. Explaining to Sekeletu the 
 method of preparing sugar, he asked him if he could pur- 
 chase a mill for him in the east coast. On his replying 
 that he had nothing with which to buy a mill, Sekeletu 
 and his councillors said, " The ivory is all your own : if 
 you leave any in the country, it will be your own fault." 
 Sekeletu then gave him an order for a sugar-mill, " and 
 for all the varieties of clothing he had ever seen, and 
 especially a mohair coat, a good rifle, beads, brass wire, 
 &c, and any other beautiful thing you may see in your 
 own country." As he had found the two horses left with 
 him when Livingstone started for Loanda, of great use, 
 especially in hunting, he was anxious to have more ; which 
 Livingstone expected to be able to get for him at the 
 nearest Portuguese settlements. 
 
 The mother of Sekeletu, who had joined her son at Lin- 
 yanti, prepared a bag of ground-nuts, by frying them in 
 cream with a little salt, as a sort of sandwich for the 
 journey ; and every one seemed anxious to contribute 
 something for the use of the party. One hundred and 
 fourteen men, principally volunteers, were selected to 
 accompany him, and carry the ivory, with which they 
 were to pay their way to the coast, and purchase the 
 articles they meant to bring back. Sekwebu, who had 
 been captured by the Matebele when a boy, had travelled 
 along with the tribe in which he was captive to the coun- 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. [ 121 
 
 try near Tete, and was intimately acquainted with the 
 country on both sides of the Zambesi, and the dialect spo- 
 ken, was appointed head of the expedition. Mamire, a 
 chief who had married the mother of Sekeletu since 
 Livingstone's departure for the west coast, a man of 
 great wisdom and prudence, on bidding him farewell, 
 said, "You are now going among a people who cannot 
 be trusted, because we have used them badly ; but you 
 go with a different message from any they have ever 
 heard before ; and Jesus will be with you, and help you, 
 though among enemies ; and if he carries }^ou safely, and 
 brings you and Ma-Robert back again, I shall say he has 
 bestowed a great favor upon me. May we obtain a path 
 whereby we may visit, and be visited by, other tribes, 
 and by white men ! " Mentioning his inability to pay the 
 men who would accompany him, this good and sagacious 
 man replied, "A man wishes, of course, to appear 
 among his friends, after a long absence, with something 
 of his own to show. The whole of the ivory in the coun- 
 try is yours : so you must take as much as you can, and 
 Sekeletu will furnish men to carry it." 
 
 As the wives of man}^ of his attendants had given their 
 husbands up as lost, and taken to themselves other hus- 
 bands, Livingstone had some difficult questions, as to 
 possession, to decide. In cases where the man had only 
 one wife, he decided without hesitation that she should go 
 back to the original husband ; but, when a man had more 
 than one, he declined to decide what should be done, in 
 case it should be thought that he favored polygamy. 
 Some of the men consoled themselves for the loss of their 
 wives by taking others. 
 
 Soon after his arrival, a picho was held to consider the 
 propriety of settling in the Barotse valley, to be nearer 
 11 
 
122 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the west coast for the purposes of trade with the new 
 market the expedition had opened up to them. At this 
 " picho," Sekeletu said, addressing Livingstone, "I am 
 perfectly satisfied as to the great advantages for trade of 
 the path which you have opened, and think that we ought 
 to go to the Barotse, in order to make the way for us to 
 Loanda shorter ; but with whom am I to live there ? If 
 you were coming with us, I would remove to-morrow ; 
 but now you are going to the white man's country to 
 bring Ma-Robert (Mrs. Livingstone) ; and, when you 
 return, you will find me near to the spot on which you 
 wish to dwell." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 START FOR THE EAST COAST. THE VICTORIA FALLS. THB 
 
 BATOKA TRIBES. REACHES ZUMBO, A DESERTED PORTU- 
 GUESE SETTLEMENT. 
 
 On the 3d of November, 1855, Livingstone and hi3 
 fellow- adventurers, accompanied by Sekeletu with two 
 hundred of his followers, who were to accompany them as 
 far as Kalai on the Leeambye, started from Linyanti. 
 The whole party were fed at Sekeletu' s expense, — the 
 cattle for the purpose being taken from his cattle-stations, 
 which are spread over the whole territory owing him alle- 
 giance. Passing through a 44 tsetse" district when dark, 
 to escape its attacks, they were overtaken by a tremen- 
 dous storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, which thor- 
 oughly drenched the party. Livingstone's extra clothing 
 having gone on, he was looking forward ruefully to the 
 prospect of passing the night on the wet ground, when 
 Sekeletu gave him his blanket, lying uncovered himself. 
 He says, 44 1 was much touched by this little aet of genu- 
 ine kindness. If such men must perish by the advance 
 of civilization, as certain races of animals do before 
 others, it is a pity. God grant that, ere this time comes, 
 they may receive that gospel which is a solace for the soul 
 in death ! " 
 
 On the island of Kalai, they found the grave of Sekote, 
 a Batoka chief, who had been conquered by Sebituane, 
 and had retreated to this place, where he died. The 
 
 123 
 
124 \ LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 ground near the grave was garnished by human skulls, 
 mounted on poles, and a large heap of the crania of 
 hippopotami, the tusks being placed on one side. The 
 grave was ornamented with seventy large elephants' tusks, 
 planted round it with the points inwards, forming an 
 ivory canopy ; and thirty more were placed over the 
 graves of his relatives. As they neared the point from 
 which the party intended to strike off to the north-east 
 from the river, Livingstone determined to visit the falls 
 of Mosioatunya, known as the Falls of Victoria since his 
 visit. He had often heard of these falls from the Mako- 
 lolo. None of them had visited them ; but many of them 
 had been near enough to hear the roar of the waters, and 
 see the cloud of spray which hangs over them. The lit- 
 eral meaning of the Makololo name for them is ' 4 smoke 
 does sound there." 
 
 He visited them twice on this occasion, the last time 
 along with Sekeletu, whose curiosity had been aroused by 
 his description of their magnificence. Just where the 
 sounding smoke, of which Sebituane and the Makololo 
 had told him, rises up for several hundred feet into the 
 sky, and is visible for over twenty miles, — a spectacle of 
 ever-changing form and color, — the mighty stream, about 
 a mile in width, plunges, in a clear and unbroken mass, 
 into a rent in the basaltic rock which forms the bed of 
 the river, and the low hills which bound the river in front, 
 and on either side, for a considerable distance of its 
 course. This chasm is from eighty to a hundred feet in 
 width, and of unknown depth ; the thundering roar of the 
 falling waters being heard for a distance of many miles. 
 The throbbing of the solid ground, caused by the immense 
 weight and force of the falling water, is felt at a great 
 distance from the tremendous chasm in which the great- 
 river is ingulfed. 
 
THE VICTORIA FALLS. 
 
 125 
 
 After a descent of several yards, the hitherto unbroken 
 mass of water presents the appearance of drifted snow, 
 from which jets of every form leap out upon the opposite 
 side of the chasm. For about a hundred feet, its descent 
 can be traced, when it reaches the seething surface of 
 the water below ; from which arises, in jets of water like 
 steam, a dense smoke-cloud of spray, which, descending 
 on all sides like rain, wets the on-looker to the skin, and 
 maintains a constant green verdure within the reach of its 
 influence. The depth of the narrow chasm, which draws 
 off such a vast volume of water, must be very great. At 
 one place it has been plumbed to a depth more than twice 
 that of the pool into which the St. Lawrence falls at 
 Niagara. The great smoke-clouds are formed by five dis- 
 tinct columns of spray which ascend from the gulf, to a 
 height of from two to three hundred feet. Three of these 
 columns — two on the right, and one on the left, of Gar- 
 den Island, which overlooks the falls — appeared to Liv- 
 ingstone to contain as much water, in each, as there is in 
 the Clyde at the fall of Stonebyres during a flood. The 
 waters are drained off, at the eastern end of the falls, by 
 a prolongation of the rocky chasm, which pursues its way, 
 with little variation as to breadth,, in a zigzag course 
 through the mass of low hills, for over thirty miles ; when 
 the tormented waters break into the plains, and spread 
 out to their former width, to be here and there narrowed 
 by the several rapids which interrupt its navigation, in 
 some cases even to the light canoes of the bold and skil- 
 ful Makololo and Batoka men. 
 
 The scene round the falls is exceedingly beautiful. 
 The banks and islands are covered with vegetation, 
 through which the giants of the African forest rear their 
 lofty crests. The baobab, each of whose arms would 
 11* 
 
126 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 form great trees, the palmyra, with its feathery leases, 
 the mohonou, in form like the cedars of Lebanon, the 
 cypress-like motsouri, and other varieties of trees similar 
 to our own oaks, elms, and chestnuts, stood out cleai 
 against the background of smoke-cloud ; which, during the 
 day, glowed in the sun, and was surmounted by magnifi- 
 cent rainbows, and at night shone with a yellow, sulphur- 
 ous haze, shadowed by clouds of pitchy blackness, as if 
 belched from the crater of a burning mountain. No 
 wonder the ignorant natives looked upon this scene, so 
 grand and so terrible in its beauty and majesty, as the 
 abode of their God Barimo : it was the highest mani- 
 festation of the power and grandeur of nature with which 
 they were acquainted. The untutored savage worships 
 power and mystery ; and here these were presented to 
 hin_ in a form which could not fail to impress his imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 Previous to the formation of the immense fissure into 
 which the Zambesi falls, the plains above must have been 
 the bed of a vast lake ; and its whole course from the falls 
 upwards, previous to Livingstone's visit, had been popu- 
 larly supposed to be a parched desert. The great 
 traveller notices that while he was engaged in resolving 
 this, a writer in " The Athenaeum, " dealing with the pre- 
 vious discoveries and guesses as to the extent of this river, 
 placed its source in the neighborhood of the falls, on the 
 edge of a great desert, and made its upper waters, the 
 Leeba and the Leeamb} T e, turn sharply to the south, and 
 lose themselves in the arid wastes of the Kalahari desert : 
 so difficult is it to get mere theorists to give up a long- 
 existing notion. To this writer, a central desert must 
 exist ; and all other physical facts, however new and 
 strange, must conform to it. 
 
V 
 
 THE BATOKA TRIBES. 127 
 
 Taking leave of Sekeletu and his followers, the party 
 pushed northwards through the Batoka country. Thig 
 powerful and numerous tribe had been conquered and 
 decimated by Sebituane and the Matabele until vast 
 tracts of fruitful hill and plain, in which the larger game 
 abounded, were almost devoid of human h'fe. The 
 Batoka people are a low type, and are of a cruel and vin- 
 dictive disposition, probably fostered by the wars they 
 have been forced to wage against more powerful tribes. 
 They have a barbarous habit of knocking out the front 
 teeth in the upper jaw, which gives to their faces a hide- 
 ous expression. They explained that they did this in 
 order to look like oxen, and not like zebras, which they 
 hold in detestation. 
 
 In the valley of the Lekone, a considerable river which 
 falls into the Zambesi below the falls, they rested a day 
 at the village of Moyara, whose father had been a power- 
 ful chief, with many followers, and large herds of cattle 
 and goats. His son lives among the ruins of his town, 
 with five wives, and a handful of people ; while the remains 
 of his warlike and more powerful father are buried in the 
 middle of his hut, covered with a heap of rotting ivory. 
 Bleached skulls of Matabele, evidences of his power and 
 cruelty, were stuck on poles about the village. The 
 degraded condition of the Batoka, among the more pow- 
 erful tribes, was exemplified by the fact that a number 
 of them were introduced into his party by Sekeletu to 
 carry his tusks to the nearest settlement, where they 
 could be sold by Livingstone. 
 
 The open plains, and the short grass and firm ground, 
 made travelling a luxury compared with their experiences 
 m going to the west coast ; and the party marched on in 
 the highest spirits. Fruit-trees, yielding edible fruit, 
 
128 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 were abundant ; several of them were similar to th >se 
 they had seen on the coast near Loanda. Large regi- 
 ments of black soldier-ants were seen ; they are about 
 half an inch in length, and march in close column headed 
 by leaders, which are considerably larger than the others. 
 They prey upon the white ants, which are stung by the 
 leaders, inducing a state of coma, during which they are 
 carried away to be eaten by the marauders. When dis- 
 turbed in their march, they utter a distinct hissing or 
 chirping sound. But for the black ants, the white ants 
 would increase to an alarming extent, and make the 
 country a desert by eating up every thing vegetable. 
 The white ants perform several useful functions. The 
 soil, after being manipulated by them in forming their 
 houses and nests, becomes exceedingly fertile ; and they 
 remove all deca}ing vegetation, just as the black ants do 
 all putrid flesh, and excrement. 
 
 The Batoka, like the Makololo and other inland tribes, 
 smoke the mutokwane, a species of hemp, which produces 
 a kind of intoxication, which sometimes leads to a fit of 
 mad frenzy. So strongly are they addicted to this prac- 
 tice, that even Sekeletu and his head men could not be 
 persuaded by Livingstone to abandon it. 
 
 Buffaloes, antelopes, elephants, zebras, and lions and 
 other felines, abounded in the district crossed by them 
 during the early part of their journey. In consequence of 
 being little disturbed, the larger game were very tame. 
 Livingstone shot a bull buffalo among a herd. When 
 wounded, the others endeavored to gore it to death. 
 This herd was led by a female ; and he remarks that this 
 is often the case with the larger game, as the leader is not 
 followed on account of its strength, but its wariness, and 
 its faculty of discerning danger. The cow buffalo -lea.ler, 
 
( 
 
 V 
 
 A HEALTHY AND FERTILE REGION. 129 
 
 when she passed the party at the head of the herd, had a' 
 number of buffalo-birds seated upon her withers. By fob * 
 iowing the honey-bird, his attendants procured abundance 
 of honey. 
 
 The ruins of many towns were passed, proving the 
 density of the population before the invasion of the 
 county by Sebituane, and his being driven out of it by 
 the Matabele, and other rival tribes. At the river Dila, 
 they saw the spot where Sebituane had lived. The Ma- 
 kololo had never ceased to regret their enforced departure 
 from this healthy, beautiful, and fertile region ; and Sek- 
 webu had been instructed by Sekeletu to point out to Liv- 
 ingstone its advantages as a position for their future head- 
 quarters. Beyond the Dila, they reached a tribe hostile to 
 the Makololo ; but, although they assumed a threatening 
 attitude, the party, owing to Livingstone's courage and 
 firmness, passed through unharmed. Save on this occa- 
 sion, the Batoka were most friendly, great numbers of 
 them coming from a distance with presents of maize and 
 fruit, and expressing their great joy at the first appear- 
 ance of a white man amongst them. The women clothe 
 themselves much as the Makololo women do ; but the men 
 go about in puris natur alibis, and appeared to be quite 
 insensible to shame. The country got more populous 
 the farther east they advanced ; but their curiosity and 
 kindness did not increase. Food was abundant ; the 
 masuka tree w r as plentiful, and its fruit was so thickly 
 strewn about the ground, that his men gathered and ate it 
 as they marched. Everywhere among these unsophisti- 
 cated sons of nature, who had all they wished for in their 
 genial climate, plentiful herds, and abundant crops of 
 maize and fruit, the cry w r as for peace. Before the 
 advent of Sebituane, the country had been swept by a 
 
130 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, IL.D. 
 
 powerful chief named Pingola, who made war from a mere 
 love of conquest ; and the memory of their sufferings had 
 entered deep into their hearts. A sister of Monze, the 
 head chief of the tribes in the district they were now 
 traversing, in expressing her joy at the prospect of being 
 at peace, said, " It would be so pleasant to sleep without 
 dreaming of any one pursuing them with a spear ! " 
 
 Monze visited the -party, wrapped in a large cloth, and 
 rolled in the dust, slapping the outside of his thighs with 
 his hands, — a species of salutation Livingstone had a 
 strong repugnance to, especially when performed by 
 naked men ; but no expression of his feelings tended to 
 put a stop to it. Monze gave them a goat and a fowl, 
 and a piece of the flesh of a buffalo which had been 
 killed by him, and was greatly pleased with a present of 
 some handkerchiefs ; and the head men of the neighbor- 
 ing villages also visited them, each of them provided with 
 presents of maize, ground-nuts, and corn. Some of 
 these villagers had the hair of their heads all gathered 
 into a mass, and w^oven into a cone, from four to eight 
 inches in width at the base, ending in a point more or 
 less prolonged. 
 
 As buffaloes and elephants were plentiful, one was now 
 and again shot, so that the part}^ seldom wanted flesh- 
 meat. A part}^ of his men on one occasion slaughtered 
 a female and her calf w T ith their spears, native fashion. 
 The mother had much the appearance of a huge porcu- 
 pine, from the number of spears sticking into her flesh, 
 when she at last fell exhausted by the loss of blood. 
 This was a needlessly cruel method of recruiting their 
 stores of food, and Livingstone did not encourage it ; 
 although he found shooting the larger game for food both 
 trying and hazardous, as he could make little use of 
 
THE KAFUE. 
 
 131 
 
 his right arm, which had been fractured by the lion when 
 among the Bakwains. His skill was very much impaired, 
 and was, provokingly enough, at its lowest ebb when meat 
 was most wanted. 
 
 They had now got into a district where rains were fre- 
 quent ; and so much had they been spoiled by the beauti- 
 ful dry weather, and level country they had passed 
 through, that at first they invariably stopped, and took to 
 shelter, when it fell. 
 
 On the 18th of December, they reached the Kafue, the 
 largest tributary of the Zambesi they had yet seen. It 
 was about two hundred yards broad, and full of hippo- 
 potami. Here they reached the village of Semalembue, 
 who made them a present of thirty baskets of meal and 
 maize, and a large quantity of ground-nuts. On ex- 
 plaining that he had little to give in return for the chiefs 
 handsome gift, he accepted his apologies politely, saying 
 that he knew there were no goods in the country from which 
 lie had come. He professed great joy at the words of peace 
 tfhich Livingstone addressed to him, and said, " Now I 
 shall cultivate largely, in the hope of eating and sleeping 
 in peace." The preaching of the gospel amongst these 
 people gave them the idea of living at peace with one 
 another as one of its effects. It was not necessary to ex- 
 plain to them the existence of a Deity. Sakwebu 
 pointed out a district, two-and-a-half days' distance, 
 where there is a hot fountain which emits steam, where 
 Sebituane had at one time dwelt. "There," said he, 
 u had Sebituane been alive, he would have brought you to 
 liye v> ith him. You would be on the bank of the river ; 
 and, by taking canoes, you would at once sail down to th6 
 Zambesi, and visit the white people at the sea." 
 
 The country they were now in was diversified by hills 
 
132 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 and e\ery available piece of ground in the valeys in 
 the neighborhood of the villages was carefully planted. 
 The gardens near the river are surrounded by pitfalls, to 
 prevent the inroads of the hippopotami, which are very 
 numerous, and quite tame, showing no fear when any of 
 the party approached them. As they required meat, they 
 shot a cow hippopotamus, and found the flesh tasted very 
 much like pork. The range of hills, amongst which they 
 now were, rose from six to nine hundred feet above the 
 level of the river ; and these were but the outer and lower 
 fringe of a higher range be}'ond. From the top of the 
 outer range of hills, they had a splendid view of the sur- 
 rounding country. The course of the Kafue, through 
 hills and forests, could be followed towards its confluence 
 with the Zambesi, and beyond that lay a long range of 
 dark hills ; above the course of the Zambesi, floated a 
 line of fleecy clouds. Elephants, zebras, and buffaloes 
 were met with in vast herds, which showed no dread of 
 their approach. They also saw large numbers of red- 
 colored wild pigs. 
 
 As the}' approached the Zambesi, the ground became 
 more and more thickly covered with broad-leaved brush- 
 wood ; and water-fowl rose out of the pools and streams, 
 and flew overhead, in large numbers. On reaching the 
 king of African rivers, they found it much larger than 
 above the falls, and flowing at the rate of four- and- a-half 
 miles an hour. When Sekwebu was a boy, this region 
 was thickly inhabited, and all the natives had plenty of 
 cattle. The return to it of the larger game had intro- 
 duced the dreaded insect " tsetse,'' which rapidly de- 
 fctro}-ed them. 
 
 Every village they passed furnished two guides, who 
 conducted them by the easiest paths to the next. Along 
 
AN AGRICULTURAL TRIBE. 
 
 132 
 
 the courso of the Zambesi, in this district, the people are 
 great agriculturists. Men, women, and children were all 
 verv busily at work in their gardens. The men are 
 strong and robust, and with hands hardened by toil. 
 The women disfigure themselyes by piercing the upper 
 lip, and inserting a shell. This fashion universally pre- 
 vails among the Maran, which is the name of the people. 
 The head men of the villages presented the party freely 
 with food ; and one of them gave Livingstone a basinful 
 of rice, the first he had seen for a long time. He said he 
 knew it was white man's meal, and refused to sell a 
 quantity unless for a man. Strange that his first intro- 
 duction to one of the products of civilization should he 
 simultaneous with that of a hateful commerce, fostered 
 by a race holding themselves so much superior to the 
 savage tribes of the interior through which they had 
 passed, who held it in abhorrence. 
 
 Previous to Livingstone's arrival in this part of the 
 county, Sinatomba, an Italian slave-dealer, who had 
 married the daughter of a neighboring chief, had as- 
 cended the river in canoes with fifty armed slaves, and 
 carried off a large number of people, and a quantity of 
 ivory, from several inhabited islands. At the instigation 
 of his father-in-law, several chiefs assembled their follow- 
 ers, and attacked him as he descended the river, defeating 
 and slaying him, and liberating his prisoners. Selole, a 
 great chief, hearing of the approach of a white man with a 
 large following, imagining that this was another Italian 
 slave-trader, or Sinatomba himself risen from the dead, 
 made great preparations for attacking the party. A 
 timely explanation of the object of their journey put 
 matters to rights at once. At Mburumba's village, his 
 brother came to meet them, and, in explanation of the 
 12 
 
134 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTON!., LL.D. 
 
 delay caused by the threatened attack, toll them that the 
 Italian had come among them, talking of peace as they 
 did, and had kidnapped slaves, and bought ivory with 
 them ; and that the}' were supposed to be of the same 
 calling. As they had been unsuccessful in hunting the day 
 before, an elephant having got clear off with from seventy 
 to eighty spears fixed in his flesh in addition to the last 
 dozen of Livingstone's bullets, he said, "The man at 
 whose village you remained was in fault in allowing you 
 to want meat ; for, had he only run across to Mburumba, 
 he would have given him a little meal ; and having sprin- 
 kled that on the ground, as an offering to the gods, you 
 would have found your elephant." Among these tribes, 
 the chiefs are all supposed to possess supernatural power. 
 
 Mburumba did not visit the party himself ; and although 
 he sent presents of meal, maize, and native corn, the 
 conduct of his people was very suspicious, as the}' never 
 came near them unless in large numbers, and fully armed 
 with bows and spears. The party were suspicious of the 
 intentions of the guides sent by Mburumba to take them 
 to his mother's village ; but they reached their destination 
 in safety, and were hospitably treated by Ma-Mburumba, 
 who furnished them with guides, who conveyed them to 
 the junction of the Loangwa and the Zambesi. As the 
 natives assembled in great force at the place where they 
 were to cross the Loangwa, they were still in dread of 
 being attacked ; but, whatever were their reason;* for this 
 formidable demonstration, they were allowed to pass 
 safely to the other side. 
 
 Beyond the river, they came upon the ruins of some 
 houses, which were simply constructed, but beautifully 
 situated on the hillsides commanding a view of the river. 
 These had been the residences of Portuguese traders in 
 
A DESERTED PORTUGUESE SETTLEMENT. . 135 
 
 ivor} 7 and slaves, when Zumbo, which they were now ap- 
 proaching, had been a place of considerable importance 
 as a Portuguese trade settlement. Passing Zumbo, they 
 slept opposite the island of Shotanaga in the Zambesi, 
 and were surprised by a visit from a party with a hat and 
 jacket on from the island. He was quite black, and had 
 come from the Portuguese settlement of Tete, which they 
 now learned, to their chagrin, was on the other side of the 
 stieam. This was all the more awkward, as he informed 
 them that the people of the settlement had been fighting 
 with the natives for two years. Mpende, a powerful 
 chief, who lived farther down the river, had determined 
 that no white man should pass him. All this made them 
 anxious to cross to the other bank of the river ; but 
 none of the chiefs whose villages lay between their pres- 
 ent position and Mpende's town, although in every other 
 waj r most friendly, dared to ferry them across, in dread 
 of offending that powerful chief. 
 
 All but unarmed as they were, and dependent upon the 
 kindness of the people through whose country they were 
 passing, their progress being retarded by the feebleness 
 of their tsetse-bitten oxen, there was no help for it but 
 to proceed, and trust to Providence for the reception they 
 might receive from the dreaded chief who was at waj 
 with the Portuguese in their front. Trusting in the pur 
 ity of his motives, and that dauntless courage, tempered 
 with discretion, which had never deserted him, Living- 
 stone passed on ; the fear of what awaited him in front 
 not preventing him from admiring the beauty of the coun- 
 try, and its capability, under better circumstances, of main- 
 taining a vast population in peace and plenty. Nearing 
 Mpende's village, where a conical hill, higher than any lie 
 had yet seen, and the wooded heights, and green, fertile 
 
136 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 valleys, commanded his admiration, he all but forgot the 
 danger of his situation, until forcibly reminded of it by 
 the arrival of a formidable number of Mpende's people at 
 his encampment, uttering strange cries, waving some red 
 substance towards them, and lighting a fire, on which 
 they placed chains, after which they departed to some dis- 
 tance, where armed men had been collecting ever since 
 daybreak. 
 
 Fearing a skirmish, Livingstone slaughtered an ox, ac- 
 cording to the custom of Sebituane, with the view of 
 raising the courage of his men by a plentiful meal. Al- 
 though only half- armed, in rags, and suffering from their 
 march, yet inured as they were to fatigue, and feeling a 
 confidence in their superiority over the Zambesi men, 
 notwithstanding all drawbacks in comfort and circum- 
 stances, Livingstone had little fear of the result, if fight 
 he must ; but, in accordance with his constant policy, he 
 was bound to accomplish his object in peace, if that were 
 posible. His men were elated at the prospect of a fight, 
 and looked forward to victory as certain, and the posses- 
 sion of corn and clothes in plenty, and of captives to 
 carry their tusks and baggage for them. As they waited, 
 and ate the meat by their camp-fire, they said, " You 
 have seen us with elephants, but you don't know yet what 
 we can do with men." 
 
 By the time breakfast was despatched, Mpende's whole 
 tribe was assembled at about half a mile distance from 
 their encampment. Spies, who refused to answer any 
 questions, advanced from among the trees which hid the 
 position of the main body, up to the encampment of the 
 party. To two of these, Livingstone handed the leg of 
 an ox, desiring them to carry it to Mpende. This brought 
 a visit from two old men, who asked Livingstone who he 
 
PREPARING FOR BATTLE, 
 
 137 
 
 was. " I am a Lekoa " [Englishman], he replied. " We 
 don't know the tribe," they said ; " we suppose you are 
 Mozunga [Portuguese] , with whom we have been fight- 
 ing." As the Portuguese they knew were half-castes, 
 Livingstone bared his bosom, and asked if they had hair 
 and skin like his. " No," they replied : "we never saw 
 skin so white as that. Ah ! you must be one of that 
 tribe that loves the black man." 
 
 Through the intercession of one of these men, Sindese 
 Oalea, the head man of a neighboring village, Mpende, 
 after a long discussion with his councillors, was induced 
 to believe Livingstone's story, and to treat him and his 
 party with great generosity and kindness. Sekwebu was 
 sent to the chief with a request that he might be permit- 
 ted to buy a canoe to convey one of his men, who was ill. 
 Mpende said, 4 'That white man is truly one of our 
 friends. See how he lets me know his afflictions." — 
 "Ah ! " said Sekwebu, " if you only knew him as well as 
 we do who have lived with him, you would understand 
 that he highly values your friendship, and that of Mbu- 
 rumba ; and, as he is a stranger, he trusts in you to direct 
 him." He replied, " Well, he ought to cross to the other 
 side of the river ; for this bank is hilly and rough, and the 
 way to Tete is longer on this than on the opposite bank." 
 — "But who will take us across if you do not?" — 
 u Truly," replied Mpende : "I only wish you had come 
 sooner to tell me about him ; but you shall cross." And 
 cross they did, leaving the place in very different spirits 
 from those with which they had approached his village. 
 
 The people here, and lower down the river, he found 
 well supplied with cotton goods, which they purchased 
 from the Babisa, a tribe farther to the east, who had been 
 doing all the trade with the interior during the two years 
 12* 
 
138 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.P. 
 
 the war with the Portuguese had lasted. Beyond the 
 range of hills to the north, lived a tribe called Basenga, 
 who are great traders in iron-ore ; and beyond them, again, 
 in a country where the Portuguese had at one time washed 
 for gold, lived a people called Maravi, who are skilful 
 agriculturists, raising, in addition to corn and maize, sweet 
 potatoes, which grow to a great size in the fertile soil of 
 the district, and which they haye learned to preserve for 
 future use by burying them in the ground, embedded in 
 wood-ashes. The ground on the north side of the river 
 appeared to be much more fertile than that on the southr 
 In many places, he found evidences that coal was abun- 
 dant. 
 
 A little way down the river, they arrived opposite an 
 island belonging to a chief called Mozinkwa. Here they 
 were detained by heavy rains, and the illness of one of 
 the Batoka men, who died. He had required to be car- 
 ried by his fellows for several days, and, when his case be- 
 came hopeless, they wanted to leave him alone to die ; 
 but to such an inhuman proposal, Livingstone could not, 
 of course, give his consent. Here, one of the Batoka 
 men deserted openly to Mozinkwa ; stating, as his reason, 
 that the Makololo had killed both his father and his 
 mother, and that he would not remain any longer with 
 them. 
 
 Towards the end of January, they were again on their 
 way ; and early in February, as his men were almost in a 
 state of nudity, Livingstone gave two tusks for some cal- 
 ico, marked Lawrence Mills, Lowell, U.S. The clayey 
 soil, and the sand-filled rivulets, made their progress slow 
 and difficult. The sand-rivers are water-courses in sandy 
 bottoms, which are full during the rainy season, and dry 
 at other times ; although, on digging a few feet into the 
 
SAND-RIVERS. 
 
 139 
 
 bed of the stream, water is found percolating on a stra- 
 tum of clay. " This," Livingstone says, " is the phenome 
 non which is dignified by the name of rivers flowing under 
 ground." In trying to ford one of these sand-rivers — 
 the Zingesi — in flood, he says, " I felt thousands of par- 
 ticles of coarse sand striking my legs ; and the slight dis- 
 turbance of our footsteps caused deep holes to be made 
 in the bed. The water . . . dug out the sand beneath 
 the feet in a second or two ; and we were all sinking, by 
 that means, so deep that we were glad to relinquish the 
 attempt to ford it before we got half-way over. The oxen 
 were carried away down to the Zambesi. These sand- 
 rivers remove vast masses of disintegrated rock before it 
 is fine enough to form soil. The man who preceded me 
 was only thigh-deep ; but the disturbance caused by his 
 feet made it breast-deep for me. The stream of particles 
 of gravel which struck against my legs gave me the idea 
 that the amount of matter removed by every freshet must 
 be very great. In most rivers where much wearing is go- 
 ing on, a person diving to the bottom may hear, literally, 
 thousands of stones knocking against each other. This 
 attrition, being carried on for hundreds of miles in differ- 
 ent rivers, must have an effect greater than if all the pes- 
 tles and mortar mills of the world were grinding and 
 wearing away the rocks." 
 
 The party were now in a district where a species of 
 game-law exists. If an elephant is killed by a stranger, 
 or a man from a neighboring village, living under another 
 chief, the under-half of the carcass belongs to the lord of 
 the soil ; nor must the hunter commence to cut it up until 
 the chief claiming the half, or one of his head men, is 
 present. The hind-leg of a buffalo, and a large piece of 
 an elephant, must be given, in like circumstances, to the 
 
140 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 occupier of the land on which they were grazing when 
 shot. The number of rivulets and rivers enable them to 
 mark out their territory with great exactness. In this 
 district, the huts are built on high stages in the gardens, 
 as a protection from the attacks of the spotted hyena, and 
 lions and elephants. 
 
 Before leaving the land of a chief named Nyampungo, 
 who had entertained them hospitably, Livingstone's men 
 killed a bull-elephant, and had to wait a day until some 
 of the chiefs people came to superintend the cutting-up, 
 and secure his half of the animal. Nyampungo's men 
 brought with them a basket of corn, a fowl, and a few 
 strings of handsome beads, as a thank-offering for having 
 killed the elephant. While they were cutting up and 
 cooking the carcass, a large number of hyenas collected 
 round them at a respectable distance, " and kept up a 
 loud laughter for two nights. I asked my men what the 
 hyenas were laughing at, as they usually give animals 
 credit for a share of intelligence. They said that they 
 were laughing because we could not take the whole, and 
 that they would have plenty to eat as well as us." 
 
 Speaking of the birds of Central Africa, he says, 
 ' ' These African birds have not been wanting in song : 
 they have only lacked poets to sing their praise, which 
 ours have had from the time of Aristophanes downwards. 
 Ours have both a classic and a modern interest to enhance 
 their fame. In hot, dry weather, or at mid-day, when the 
 sun is fierce, all are still : let, however, a good shower 
 fall, and all burst forth at once into merry lays, and loving 
 courtship. The early mornings, and the cool evenings, are 
 the times for singing." 
 
 In the Mopane country, they met with numbers of a red- 
 beaked variety of hornbill, which builds its nest in an 
 
ONE OF THE MEN DISAPPEARS. 
 
 141 
 
 aperture in a tree. When the nest is built, the female re- 
 tires into it, while the male covers the orifice with clay, all 
 save a narrow slit for the introduction of air, and for feed- 
 ing her ; which the devoted bird does until the eggs are 
 hatched. As the female is very fat at such times, the 
 natives search for their nests, and capture and eat them. 
 Lions were abundant, and were treated as privileged ani- 
 mals by the natives ; no one attempting to hunt them, as 
 it is supposed that, when a chief dies, he can metamor- 
 phose himself into a lion. 
 
 At the village of a chief called Monina, Monahin, one 
 of Livingstone's men, disappeared during the night. Ac 
 he had been ill for some time, and had complained of his 
 head, Livingstone imagined that he had wandered, in an 
 insane state, and been picked up by a lion. They prowled 
 about the native settlements, at night, with great boldness, 
 making it dangerous for any one to be about after dark. 
 He had proved very valuable to Livingstone, and he felt 
 his loss greatly. .The general name of the people of this 
 district is Banyai : they are ruled over by several chiefs, 
 the government being a sort of feudal republican. The 
 people of a 'tribe, on the death of their chief, have the 
 privilege of electing any one, even from another tribe, to 
 be his successor, if they are not satisfied with any of the 
 members of his family. The sons of the chiefs are not 
 eligible for election among the Banyai. The various 
 chiefs of the Ban} r ai acknowledge allegiance to a head 
 chief, Nyatewe, holding the supreme position at the time 
 of Livingstone's visit. This custom appears to prevail 
 in South and Central Africa ; and, if the chief who wields 
 supreme power is a wise and prudent ruler, the result is 
 highly beneficial. 
 
 Among the Banyai, the women are treated with great 
 
142 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 respect, the husband doing nothing that his wife disap- 
 proves. Notwithstanding this, a barbarous custom pre- 
 vails amongst them if a husband suspects his wife of 
 witchcraft or infidelity. A witch-doctor is called, who 
 prepares the infusion of a plant named goho, which the 
 suspected party drinks, holding up her hand to heaven in 
 attestation of her innocence. If the infusion causes 
 vomiting, she is declared innocent ; but, if it causes pur- 
 ging, she is held to be guilty, and burned to death. In 
 many cases, the drinking of the infusion causes death. 
 This custom prevails, with modifications, amongst most 
 of the tribes of Central Africa, and is found as far west 
 as Ambaca. When a Banyai marries, so many head of 
 cattle or goats are given to the parents ; and, unless 
 the wife is bought in this way, the husband must enter the 
 household of his father-in-law, and do menial offices, the 
 wife and her family having exclusive control of the chil- 
 dren. The Banyai men are a fine race ; but the superior 
 courage and skill Livingstone's men displayed in hunting 
 won the hearts of the women ; but none of them would 
 be tempted into matrimony, where it involved subjection 
 to their wives. 
 
 Several of the chiefs through whose villages they passed 
 occasioned some trouble by disbelieving the statement 
 of Livingstone, that he was unable to make presents. A 
 powerful chief, Nyakoba, who sympathized with their con- 
 dition, gave them a basket of maize, and another of corn, 
 and provided them guides to Tete, advising them to shun 
 the villages so as to avoid trouble. This they succeeded 
 in doing till within a few miles of Tete, where they were 
 discovered by a party of natives, who threatened to in- 
 form Katolosa, the head chief of the district, that they 
 were passing through the country without leave. A pres- 
 
CIVILIZED SOCIETY ONCE MORE. lib 
 
 ent of two tusks satisfied them, and they were allowed to 
 depart. 
 
 Within eight miles of Tete, Livingstone was so fatigued 
 as to be unable to go on, but sent some of his men, with 
 his letters of recommendation, to the commandant. About 
 two o'clock on the morning of the 3d of March, the 
 encampment was aroused by the arrival of two officers, 
 and a company of soldiers, sent with a supply of pro- 
 visions for the party by the commandant. As Livingstone 
 and his men had been compelled for several days to live 
 on roots and honey, their arrival was most timely. He 
 says, 46 It was the most refreshing breakfast I ever par- 
 took of ; and I walked the last eight miles without the 
 least feeling of weariness, although the path was so rough 
 that one of the officers remarked to me, 4 This is enough 
 to tear a man's life out of him.' The pleasure experienced 
 in partaking of that breakfast was only equalled by the 
 enjoyment of Mr. Gabriel's bed, when I arrived at Lo- 
 anda. It was also enhanced by the news that Sebastopol 
 had fallen, and the war was finished." 
 
 Major Sicard, the Portuguese commandant at Tete, 
 treated Livingstone and his men with the greatest generos- 
 ity. He clothed himself and his men, and provided them 
 with food and lodgings, declining to receive several tusks 
 which were offered in compensation. As the most of his 
 men were to be left here, Major Sicard gave them a por- 
 tion of land on which to cultivate their own food, and 
 permission to hunt elephants, — the money they made 
 from the tusks and dried meat to be used for the purchase 
 of articles to take to Sekeletu on their return. 
 
 Had Livingstone set out on his journey several months 
 earlier, he would have arrived in the neighborhood of Tete 
 during the war between the natives and the Portuguese, 
 
144 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 when he would have had little chance of escaping with his 
 Life. His arrival was not unexpected at Tete ; as through 
 Lord Clarendon, and the Portuguese minister, Count de 
 Lavradio. the Portuguese authorities on the Zambesi were 
 warned of his expected appearance. A short time pre- 
 vious to his arrival, some natives came down the river to 
 Tete. and said. " alluding to the sextant and artificial 
 horizon. * that the Son of God had come ; ' and that he 
 was • able to take the sun down from the heavens, and 
 place it under his arm.' Major Sicard then felt sure that 
 this was the man mentioned in Lord Clarendon's de- 
 spatch." 
 
 As Livingstone was in a very emaciated state, and fever 
 was raging at Kilimane. the point on the coast to which 
 he was bound. Livingstone was induced to remain at Tete 
 for a month. drving which he occupied himself by making 
 several journeys in the neighborhood, visiting a coal-field, 
 &c. The village of Tete he found to consist of a large 
 number of wattle-and-daub native huts, with about thirty 
 •European houses built of stone. The place had declined 
 greatly in importance through the introduction of the 
 slave-trade. In former times, considerable quantities of 
 wheat, maize, millet, coffee, sugar, oil. indigo, gold-dust, 
 and ivory, were exported ; and. as labor was both abundant 
 and cheap, the trade was profitable. Livingstone says, 
 
 When the slave-trade began, it seemed to many of the 
 merchants a more speedy mode of becoming rich, to sell 
 off the slaves, than to pursue the slow mode of gold- 
 washing and agriculture ; and they continued to export 
 fhem until they had neither hands to labor nor to fight for 
 thein. . . . The coffee and sugar plantations, and gold- 
 washings, were abandoned, because the labor had been 
 exported to the Brazils." The neighboring chiefs were 
 
SUFFERINGS OF THE PORTUGUESE. 145 
 
 not slow to take advantage of the impoverished state of 
 the Portuguese and half-caste merchants of Tete. " A 
 clever man of Asiatic and Portuguese extraction, called 
 Nyaude, had built a stockade at the confluence of the 
 Luenya and Zambesi ; and, when the commandant of Tete 
 sent an officer with his company to summon him to his 
 presence," they were surrounded, and bound hand and 
 foot. The commandant " then armed the whole body of 
 slaves, and marched against the stockade of Nyaude ; " 
 but, before they reached it, Njmide despatched a strong 
 part}^, under his son Bonga, who attacked Tete, plundered 
 and burned the whole town, with the exception of the 
 house of the commandant, and a few others, and the church 
 and fort. The women and children, having taken refuge 
 in the church, were safe, as the natives of this region will 
 never attack a church. The news of this disaster caused 
 a panic among the party before the stockade of Nyaude ; 
 and they fled in confusion, to be slain or made captives 
 by Katolosa, the head chief of the district to the west of 
 Tete. 
 
 Another half-caste chief, called Kisaka, on the opposite 
 bank of the river, near where the merchants of Tete had 
 their villages and principal plantations, also rebelled, and 
 completed the defeat and impoverishment of the Portu- 
 guese. " An attempt was made to punish this rebel ; but 
 it was unsuccessful, and he has lately been pardoned by 
 the home government. One point in the narrative is 
 interesting. They came to a field of sugar-cane so large 
 that four thousand men, eating it during two days, did 
 not finish the whole. Nyaude kept the Portuguese shut 
 up in their fort for two years ; and, as he held the command 
 of the river, they could only get goods sufficient to buy 
 food by sending to Kilimane, by an overland route, along 
 
 13 
 
146 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the north bank of the Zambesi." The memory of one 
 man's sufferings in this affair evoked the following from 
 Livingstone: 44 The mother country did not, in these 
 4 Caffre wars,' pay the bills : so no one became rich, or 
 blamed the missionaries. Major Sicard, from his gool 
 character, had great influence with the natives, and put a 
 stop to the war, more than once, by his mere presence on 
 the spot. TTe heard of him among the Banyai, as a man 
 with whom they would never fight, because he had a good 
 heart." No doubt the influence of this good and generous 
 man helped Livingstone and his party in their march 
 through the districts which had so recently been disturbed. 
 
 In consequence of a sudden change of temperature, 
 Major Sicard and Livingstone, and nearly every person in 
 the house, suffered from an attack of fever. Livingstone 
 soon recovered, and was unremitting in his attention to 
 the others. His stock of quinine becoming exhausted, 
 his attention was drawn by the Portuguese to a tree called 
 b} 7 the natives kumbanzo, the bark of which is an admir- 
 able substitute. He says, 44 There was little of it to be 
 found at Tete ; while forests of it are at Senna, and near 
 the delta of Kilimane. It seems quite a providential 
 arrangement, that the remedy for fever should be found 
 in the greatest abundance where it is most needed. . . . 
 The thick, soft bark of the root is the part used by the 
 natives : the Portuguese use that of the tree itself. I 
 immediately- began to use a decoction of the bark of the 
 root ; and rny men found it so efficacious, that they col- 
 lected small quantities of it for themselves, and kept it in 
 little bags for future use." 
 
 On the 2 2d of April, Livingstone started on his voyage 
 down the river to Kilimane, having selected sixteen men 
 from among his party who could manage canoes. Many 
 
ARRIVAL AT THE EAST COAST. 
 
 147 
 
 more wished to accompany him ; but as there was a famine 
 at Kilimane in consequence of a failure of the crops, 
 during which thousands of slaves were dying of hunger, 
 he could take no more than was absolutely necessary. 
 The commandant sent Lieut. Miranda with Living- 
 stone, to convey him to the coast. At Senna, where they 
 stopped, they found a more complete ruin and prostration 
 than at Tete. For fifteen miles from the head of the 
 delta of the Zambesi, the Mutu, which is the head waters 
 of the Kilimane River, and the only outlet to the Zambesi, 
 was not navigable ; and the party had to walk under the 
 hot sun. This, together with the fatigue, brought on a 
 severe attack of "fever, from which Livingstone suffered 
 greatly. At Interra, where the Pangaze, a considerable 
 river, falls into the Mutu, navigation became practicable. 
 The party were hospitably entertained by Senhor Asevedo, 
 " a man who is well known by all who ever visited Kili- 
 mane, and who was presented with a gold chronometer 
 watch by the admiralty, for his attentions to English 
 officers." He gave the party the use of his sailing launch, 
 for the remainder of the journey, which came to its con- 
 clusion at Kilimane, on the 20th of May, 1856 ; " which 
 wanted only a few days of being four years since I started 
 from Cape Town." At Kilimane, Col. Galdino Jose 
 Nunes received him into his house, and treated him with 
 marked hospitality. For three years he had never nearcl 
 from his family direct, as none of the letters s£nt had 
 reached him. He had now the gratification of receiving 
 a letter from Admiral Trotter, " conveying information 
 of their welfare, and some newspapers, which were a treat 
 indeed. Her Majesty's brig c The Frolic ' had called to 
 inquire for me in the November previous ; and Capt. 
 Nolloth of that ship had most considerately left a case 
 
148 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 of ^ ine ; and his surgeon, Dr. James Walsh, divining 
 what I should need most, left an ounce of quinine. These 
 gifts made my heart overflow. . . . But my joy on reach- 
 ing the coast was sadly imbittered by the news that Com- 
 mander M>Lune, of her Majesty's brigantine ' Dart,' in 
 coming into Kilimane to pick me up, had, with Lieut. 
 Woodruff e and five men, been lost on the bar. I never 
 felt more poignant sorrow. It seemed as if it would have 
 been easier for me to have died for them, than that they 
 should all have been cut off from the joys of life, in gen- 
 erously attempting to render me a service." In speaking 
 of the many kind attentions he received while at Kilimane, 
 he says, "One of the discoveries I have made is, that 
 there are vast numbers of good people in the world ; and 
 I do most devoutly tender my unfeigned thanks to that 
 gracious One, who mercifully watched over me in every 
 position, and influenced the hearts of both black and 
 white to regard me with favor." 
 
 Ten of the smaller tusks belonging to Sekeletu were 
 sold to purchase calico and brass-wire for the use of his 
 attendants at Tete ; the remaining twenty being left with 
 Col. Nunes, with orders to sett them, and give the pro- 
 ceeds to them in the event of his death, or failure to return 
 to Africa. Livingstone explained all this to the Mako- 
 lolo, who had accompanied him to Kilimane ; when they 
 answered, "Nay, father, you will not die : you will return 
 to take us back to Sekeletu." Their mutual confidence 
 was perfect. They promised to remain at Tete until he 
 returned to them ; and he assured them that nothing but 
 death would prevent his rejoining them. The kindness 
 and generosity of the Portuguese merchants and officers 
 have already been alluded to. These were continued to his 
 men during his absence ; and the young King of Portu- 
 
SAILS FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 149 
 
 gal, Don Pedro, as soon as he heard of their being in his 
 territory, sent orders that they should ">e maintained at 
 the public expense of the province and Mozambique, 
 until Livingstone should return to claim them. Their 
 kind attentions gladdened his heart. 
 
 After waiting about six weeks at Kilimane, " The Frolic " 
 arrived, bringing abundant supplies for all his needs, and 
 a hundred and fifty pounds to pay his passage home, from 
 the agent of the London Missionary Society at the Cape. 
 The admiral at the Cape sent an offer of a free passage 
 to the Mauritius, which Livingstone gladly accepted. As 
 six of the eight of his attendants w T ho had accompanied 
 him to Kilimane had, by his instructions, gone back to 
 Tete to await his return, while the other eight who had 
 accompanied him as far as the delta of the Zambesi had 
 also returned, only two were left with him when " The 
 Frolic " arrived. One of these was Sekwebu, who had 
 been so useful throughout the journey that he determined 
 to take him to England with him, so that he might be 
 able to tell Sekeletu and the Makololo what sort of coun- 
 try England was, and further increase the confidence and 
 trust already reposed in him and in his countrymen gen- 
 erally. The other one begged hard to be permitted to 
 accompany them ; and it is a matter for regret that the 
 expense alone prevented Livingstone from acceding to his 
 wishes. There was a heavy sea on when they crossed 
 the bar to " The Frolic ; " and, as this was Sekwebu's first 
 introduction to the ocean, he appeared frightened. On 
 board ship, he seemed to get accustomed to his novel situ- 
 ation, picked up a few words of English, and ingratiated 
 himself with the crew, who treated him with great kind- 
 ness. 
 
 During all this time, there was, although unnoticed, a 
 
 13* 
 
150 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 strain upon his untutored mind, which reached its climax 
 when a steamer came out to tow 4 6 The Frolic " into the 
 harbor at the Mauritius. The terror at the sight of the 
 uncouth, panting monster, with its volume of smoke, cul- 
 minated in madness, and he descended into a boat along- 
 side. On Livingstone following him to bring him back, 
 he said, " No, no! It is enough that I die alone. You 
 must not perish. If you come, I shall throw myself into 
 the water." Noticing then that his mind was affected, 
 Livingstone said, "Now, Sekwebu, we are. going to Ma- 
 Robert." This had a calming effect upon his mind ; and 
 he said, u Oh, yes ! where is she? and where is Robert ?" 
 (Livingstone's son.) The officers proposed to put him in 
 irons for a time ; but Livingstone fearing that this would 
 wound his pride, and that it might be said in his own 
 country that he had bound him like a slave, unfortunately 
 would not consent to this. "In the evening a fresh 
 accession of insanity occurred : he tried to spear one of 
 the crew, then leaped overboard, and, though he could 
 swim well, pulled himself down hand under hand, by the 
 chain cable. We never found the body of Sekwebu." 
 
 At the Mauritius, Livingstone was hospitably enter- 
 tained by Major-Gen. C. M. Hay, and was induced to 
 remain some time to recruit his shattered health. On the 
 12th of December, 1856, he arrived in England, after an 
 absence of seventeen years ; the Peninsular and Oriental 
 Steam Company generously refunding his passage-money, 
 when made aware of the distinguished personage they 
 had had the honor of carrying. On the day preceding 
 his arrival, u The Times" informed the country that 
 "The Rev. Dr. Livingstone had arrived at Marseilles 
 from Tunis, on the 6th inst., and was then in good 
 health. His left arm is, however, broken, and partly 
 
PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 
 
 151 
 
 useless, it having been torn by a lion. When ho was 
 taken on board ' The Frolic ' on the Mozambique coast, 
 he had great difficulty in speaking a word of English, 
 having disused it so long while travelling in Africa. . . . 
 He is rather a short man, with a pleasing and serious 
 countenance, which betokens the most determined resolu- 
 tion. He continued to wear the cap wldch he wore while 
 performing his wonderful travels. . . . He never spoke 
 of his travels except in answer to quest ons." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ARRIVES IN ENGLAND. ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION. DE- 
 PARTS AGAIN FOR THE ZAMBESI. ARRIVES AT THE KON- 
 
 GONE MOUTH OF THAT RIVER. PASSES UP THE ZAMBESI. 
 
 At Cape Town a meeting was held on the 12th of No- 
 vember, 1856, for the purpose of taking steps to express 
 the public sense of the eminent services rendered to sci- 
 ence, civilization, and Christianity by Dr. Livingstone. 
 Sir George Grey, the governor, who occupied the chair, 
 said, "I think no man of the present day is more de- 
 serving of honor than Dr. Livingstone, — a man whom 
 we, indeed, can hardly regard as belonging to any partic- 
 ular age or time, but who belongs, rather, to the whole 
 Christian epoch ; possessing all those qualities of mind, 
 and that resolute desire, at all risks, to spread the gospel, 
 which we have generally been in the habit of attributing 
 solely to those who lived in the first ages of the Christian 
 era. Indeed, that man must be of almost apostolic char- 
 acter, who, animated by a desire of performing his duty 
 to his Maker and to his fellow-men, has performed jour- 
 neys which we cannot but regard as altogether marvel- 
 lous." The bishop of Cape Town, the judges, and other 
 government officials, took part in the proceedings, which 
 were of a most enthusiastic character. The meeting re- 
 solved to enter into a subscription for a testimonial to the 
 great traveller, which Sir George Grey headed with a dona- 
 tion of Hfty pounds. 
 
 152 
 
ARRIVES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 153 
 
 In England curiosity had been excited by the appear- 
 ance of short paragraphs in the newspapers, treating of his 
 discoveries ; but it was not until the meeting of the Royal 
 Geographical Society, on the 15th of December, or. which 
 occasion the Society's gold medal was presented to the 
 distinguished traveller, that the magnitude of his discov- 
 eries, and the heroic character of the man, came to be 
 properly understood. Next day the London Missionary 
 Society honored him with a public reception in Freema- 
 son's Hall ; and in the evening he was entertained at a 
 dinner by the society at the Milton Club, Ludgate Hill. 
 Both gatherings were attended by a numerous and dis- 
 tinguished assemblage. At the latter, Mrs. Livingstone 
 was present in the gallery, and received a share in the 
 ovation with her husband. 
 
 A great meeting was held in the Eg} r ptian Hall, Man- 
 sion House, the lord mayor in the chair, for the purpose 
 of raising a fund towards presenting a testimonial to Dr. 
 Livingstone. Upwards of four hundred and fift} 7 pounds 
 was subscribed in the room. Addresses poured in upon 
 the great traveller from all quarters. The Universities 
 of Oxford and Cambridge conferred the degree of D.C.L. 
 and LL.D. on him respectively. In his own country, 
 Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamilton, &c, presented him with 
 the freedom of their corporations, and entertained him 
 at banquets, &c. His appearance and manner on the? 
 platform, at this time, were thus described in u The Non- 
 conformist Newspaper:" — 
 
 "A foreign-looking person, plainly and rather care- 
 less, j dressed, of middle height, bony frame, and Gaelic 
 countenance, with short-cropped hair and mustachios, 
 and generally plain exterior, rises to address the meeting. 
 He appears to be about foiiy years of age . His face is 
 
154 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 deeply farrowed, and pretty well tanned. It indicates 
 a man of quick and keen discernment, strong impulses, 
 inflexible resolution, and habitual self-command. Un an- 
 imated, its most characteristic expression is that of se- 
 verh"y ; when excited, a varied expression of earnest and 
 benevolent feeling, and remarkable enjoyment of the ludi- 
 crous in circumstances and character, passes over it. . . . 
 When he speaks, you think him, at first, to be a French- 
 man ; but, as he tells a Scotch anecdote in true Glas- 
 gowegian dialect, you make up your mind that he must be, 
 as his face indicates, a countryman from the north. His 
 command of his mother-tongue being imperfect, he apolo- 
 gizes for his broken, hesitating speech, by informing you 
 that he has not spoken }^our language for nearly sixteen 
 years ; and then he tells you, as but a modest yet earnest 
 man can, concerning his travels. . . . His narrative 
 is not very connected ; and his manner is awkward, except- 
 ing once, when he justifies his enthusiasm, and once, 
 when he graphically describes the great cataract of Cen- 
 tral Africa. He ends a speech of natural eloquence, and 
 witty simplicity, by saying that he has ' begun his work, 
 and will carry it on.' His broken thanks are drowned by 
 the applause of the audience." 
 
 The press was not slow to acknowledge the greatness 
 and importance of the discoveries he had made, nor 
 stinted in its admiration of the manner in which he carried 
 out his self-imposed task. u The Star" said, "We be- 
 lieve, that, along the whole line of eleven thousand miles 
 which he traversed in Africa, the name of Dr. Living- 
 stone will awaken no memories of wrong or pain in the 
 heart of man, woman, or child, and will rouse no purposes 
 of vengeance to fall on the head of the next European 
 visitor that may follow in his footsteps.- His experience 
 
PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN ENGLAND. 155 
 
 has utterly belied the truculent theory of those vrho main- 
 tain that barbarous and semi -barbarous nations can ba 
 influenced only by an appeal to their fears, and that the 
 safety of the traveller consists in a prompt and peremp- 
 tory display of force. . . . Dr. Livingstone, clothing 
 himself in a panoply of Christian kindness, passed un- 
 scathed among the warlike African tribes, and won them 
 to an exhibition of a noble generosity of character towards 
 himself and his companions." The "leader" wound up 
 an elegant tribute with the following : — 
 
 "For seventeen years, smitten by more than thirty 
 attacks of fever, endangered by seven attempts upon his 
 life, continually exposed to fatigue, hunger, and the 
 chance of perishing miserably in a wilderness, shut out 
 from the knowledge of civilized men, the missionary pur- 
 sued his way, an apostle and a pioneer, without fear, and 
 without egotism, without desire of reward. Such a work, 
 accomplished by such a man, deserves all the eulogy that 
 can be bestowed upon it ; for nothing is more rare than 
 brilliant and unsullied success." 
 
 Dr. Livingstone remained in England until the 10th 
 of March, 1858, in the interval publishing his "Mission- 
 ary Travels in South Africa ; " a task which he found so 
 irksome as to induce him to say that he would rather 
 cross the continent of Africa, from coast to coast, once 
 more, than write another book. Finding that his freedom 
 of future action might be encumbered by his continuing 
 his connection with the Missionary Society, he separated 
 himself from it. His pay as a missionary was too small 
 for the calls upon him as a son, a husband, and a father , 
 and he concluded, not unnaturally, that funds would be 
 forthcoming, through the aid of government or otherwise, 
 to enable him to continue his efforts for the opening up 
 
156 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 of the interior of Africa for legitimate commerce, and the 
 suppression of the slave-trade. "While I hope to con- 
 tinue the same cordial co-operation and friendship which 
 has always characterized our intercourse, various reasons 
 induced me to withdraw from pecuniary dependence on 
 any society. I have done something for the heathen ; 
 but for an aged mother, who has still more sacred claims 
 than they, I have been able to do nothing ; and a con- 
 tinuance of the connection would be a perpetuation of 
 my inability to make any provision for her declining 
 years." 
 
 Lord Palmerston, who was then at the head of her 
 Majesty's government, readily assented to rendering as- 
 sistance to enable him to prosecute his researches on the 
 Zambesi River. Lord Clarendon then held the seals of 
 the Foreign Office ; and, under his auspices, a mission 
 was formed, and means furnished to enable Dr. Living- 
 stone to provide himself with efficient assistance and 
 equipment for the proper prosecution of his new enter- 
 prise. His brother Charles Livingstone, who had joined 
 him from the United States, Dr. Kirk, and Mr. R. Thorn- 
 ton, w^ere appointed his assistants. A small steamer, 
 constructed of steel, and christened the "Ma- Robert" 
 in honor of Mrs. Livingstone, was constructed for the 
 navigation of the Zambesi. 
 
 The party proceeded to the Cape on board her Ma- 
 jesty's colonial steamship "Pearl," where they were joined 
 by Mr. Francis Skead, R.N., as survej^or, and arrived 
 off the mouths of the Zambesi in May. The real mouths 
 of the Zambesi were little known, as the Portuguese gov- 
 ernment had let it be understood that the Kilimane w T as 
 the only navigable outlet of the river. This w^as done to 
 Induce the English cruisers emploj^ed in the suppressiou 
 
ON THE ZAMBESI AGAIN. 
 
 157 
 
 of the slave-trade to watch the false mouth while slaves 
 were quietly shipped from the true one ; this deception 
 being propagated, even after the publication of Living- 
 stone's discoveries, in a map issued by the Portuguese 
 colonial minister. The "Ma-Robert" was put together 
 and launched, and four inlets to the river, each of them 
 superior to the Kilimane, discovered and examined. The 
 four mouths are known as the Milambe, the Luabo, the 
 Timbwe, and the Kongone ; the latter being selected as 
 the most navigable. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone's manly exposure of the deception 
 practised by the Portuguese government for the purpose 
 of encouraging the slave-trade, excited the wrath and 
 jealousy of the Portuguese government, who have vainly 
 endeavored to throw discredit upon his discoveries. This 
 feeling was not shared b} 7 the local authorities, who were 
 really ignorant of the existence of the true channel, and 
 showed their appreciation of his discovery by establishing 
 a fort at the mouth of the Kongone. 
 
 Steaming up the channel, the natives retreating in ter- 
 ror at their approach, the party had an opportunity of 
 admiring the fertility of the soil, and the abundant ani- 
 mal and vegetable life with which the delta abounds. 
 The delta is much. larger than that of the Nile, and, if 
 properly cultivated, would, Livingstone thinks, grow as 
 much sugar-cane as would supply the wants of the whole 
 of Europe. The dark woods of the delta "resound with 
 the lively and exultant cries of the kinghunter, as he sits 
 perched on high among the trees. As the steamer moves 
 on through the winding channel, a pretty little heron or 
 bright kingfisher darts out in alarm from the edge of the 
 bank. The magnificent fish-hawk sits on the top of a 
 mangrove-tree, digesting his morning meal of fresh fish, 
 
 14 
 
158 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 and is clearly unwilling to stir until the imminence of the 
 danger compels him at last to spread his great wings for 
 flight. The glossy ibis, acute of ear to a remarkable 
 degree, hears from afar the unwonted sound of the pad- 
 dles ; and, springing from the mud where his family has 
 been quietly feasting, is off screaming out his loud, harsh, 
 and defiant c Ha, ha, ha ! ' long before the danger is near. 
 
 "The mangroves are now left behind, and are suc- 
 ceeded by vast, level plains of rich, dark soil, covered with 
 gigantic grasses, so tall that they tower over one's head, 
 and render hunting impossible. Beginning in Jury, the 
 grass is burned off every year after it has become dry. . . . 
 Several native huts now peep out from the bananas and 
 cocoa-palms on the right bank. They stand on piles a few 
 feet above the level of the low, damp ground ; and their 
 owners enter them by means of ladders." The native 
 gardens were in a high state of cultivation ; rice, sweet- 
 potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, onions, pease, 
 cotton, and sugar-cane being freely cultivated. The 
 natives they met with were well fed, but very scantily 
 Clothed. They stood on the banks, and gazed with won- 
 der at the " Pearl " and the " Ma-Robert ; " one of them, 
 an old man, asking if the former was made out of one 
 tree. They were all eager to trade, coming alongside the 
 steamers, in their canoes, with fruit and food and honey 
 and beeswax, and shouting, " Malonda, malonda!" 
 [things for sale.] 
 
 When the water became too shallow for the passage of 
 the "Pearl," she left the part}'; Mr. Skead and a Mr. 
 Duncan, who had accompanied them from the Cape, 
 returning with her. A number of the party were left on 
 an island they named Expedition Island, from the 18th of 
 June until the 13th of August, while the others were con- 
 
A CRUEL SLAVE-DEALER. 
 
 159 
 
 veying the goods up to Shupanga and Senna. This was a 
 work of some danger, as the country was in a state of war 
 A half-caste chief called Mariano, who ruled over the 
 country from the Shire down to Mazaro at the head of 
 the delta, had waged war against the Portuguese for 
 some time previous to their visit. He was a keen slave- 
 hunter, and kept a large number of men well armed with 
 muskets. So long as he confined himself to slave-hunting 
 forays among the helpless tribes, and carried down his 
 natives in chains to Kilimane, where they were sold, and 
 shipped as " free emigrants " to the French island of Bour- 
 bon, the Portuguese authorities did not interfere with 
 him, although his slave-hunting expeditions were con- 
 ducted with the utmost atrocit} r , frequently indulging his 
 thirst for blood by spearing large numbers of helpless 
 natives with his own hand. Getting bolder, he began to 
 attack the natives who were under the protection of the 
 Portuguese ; and then war was declared against him. He 
 resisted for a time ; but, fearing that he would ultimately 
 get the worst of it, he went to Kilimane to endeavor to 
 arrange for peace with the governor ; but Col. Da Silva 
 refused his proffered bribes, and sent him to Mozambique 
 for trial. When Livingstone's party first came in contact 
 with the rebels at Mazaro, they looked formidable and 
 threatening ; but, on being told that the party were Eng- 
 lish, they fraternized with them, and warmly approved of 
 the objects of the expedition. 
 
 A little later, a battle was fought between the contend- 
 ing parties, within a mile and a half of Livingstone's 
 party ; and on landing to pay his respects to several of 
 his old friends, who had treated him kindly on the occa- 
 sion of his former appearance amongst them, he found 
 himself among the mutilated bodies of the slain. The 
 
160 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 governor was ill of fever, and Livingstone was requested 
 to convey him to Shupanga ; and, just as he had con- 
 sented, the battle was renewed, the bullets whistling 
 about his ears. Failing to get any assistance, Living- 
 stone half-supported and half-carried the sick governor 
 to the ship. His excellency, who had taken nothing for 
 the fever but a little camphor, and being a disbeliever in 
 Livingstone's mode of treatment, was, after some diiFi- 
 culty, cured against his will. A little after this, Bor.ga, 
 Mariano's brother, made peace with the governor, and 
 the war came to an end. 
 
 For miles before reaching Mazaro, the scenery is unin- 
 teresting, consisting of long stretches of level, grass}'' 
 plains, the monotony of which is broken here and there by 
 the round green tops of stately palm-trees. Sand-martins 
 flit about in flocks, darting in and out of their holes in 
 the banks. On the numerous islands which dot the broad 
 expanse of the stream, many kinds of water-fowl, such 
 as geese, flamingoes, herons, spoonbills, &c, are seen in 
 large numbers. Huge crocodiles lay basking on the low 
 banks, gliding sluggishly into the stream as they caught 
 sight of the steamer. The hippopotamus " rising from the 
 bottom, where he has been enjoying his morning bath after 
 the labor of the night on shore, blows a puff of spray 
 out of his nostrils, shakes the water out of his ears, puts 
 his enormous snout up straight, and yawns, sounding a 
 loud alarm to the rest of the herd, with notes as of 
 a monstrous bassoon." 
 
 The Zulus, or Landeens, are the lords of the soil on the 
 right bank of the Zambesi, and take tribute from the 
 Portuguese at Senna and Shupanga. Each merchant 
 pays annually two hundred pieces of cloth of sixteen 
 ^ards each, besides beads and brass- wire ; and, while 
 
FAILURE OF "THE MA-ROBERT." 161 
 
 they groan under this heavy levy of blackmail, they are 
 powerless, as a refusal to pay it would involve them in a 
 war in which they would lose all they possess. In the 
 forests near Shupanga, a tree called by the natives mo- 
 konclu-Jcundu abounds. It attains to a great size, and, 
 being hard and cross-grained, is used for the manufacture 
 of large canoes. At the time of Livingstone's visit, a Por- 
 tuguese merchant at Kilimane paid the Zulus three hun- 
 dred dollars per annum for permission to cut it. 
 
 Livingstone's old friends, Col. Nunes and Major 
 Sicard, received the traveller and his party with much 
 good-will, causing wood to be cut for fuel for the steamer. 
 The woods used for this purpose were lignum-vitae and 
 African ebony. The engineer, knowing the value of them 
 at home, " said it made his heart sore to burn woods so 
 valuable." The india-rubber tree and calumba root were 
 found to be abundant in the interior ; and, along the banks 
 of the river, indigo was growing in a wild state. The 
 1 ' Ma-Robert " turned out a failure ; the builder having de- 
 ceived Livingstone as to her power, &c. It" took hours to 
 get up steam ; and she went so slowly, that the heavily- 
 laden native canoes passed more rapidly up the river than 
 she did. One can hardly think with temper on a misad- 
 venture like this, and can readily sympathize with his 
 feeling of annoyance when he found, that, for all practical 
 purposes, she was worse than useless. Near the mouth 
 of the Shire, Bonga, with some of his principal, men, 
 visited the party ; and, in addition to assuring them that 
 none of his people would molest them, presented them 
 with some rice, two sheep, and a quantity of firewood. 
 Within six miles of Senna, the party had to leave the 
 steamer, the shoal channel not being deep enough for her 
 draught. " The narrow, winding path, along which they 
 
 14* 
 
162 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 had to march in Indian file, lay through gardens and 
 patches of wood, the loftiest trees being thorny acacias. 
 The sky was cloudy, the air cool and pleasant, and the 
 little birds, in the gladness of their hearts, poured forth 
 sweet, strange songs, which, though equal to those of the 
 singing-birds at home on a spring morning, yet seemed, 
 somehow, as if in a foreign tongue. TVe met many natives 
 in the wood. Most of the men were armed with spears, 
 bows and arrows, and old Tower muskets : the women had 
 short-handled iron hoes, and were going to work in the 
 gardens. They stepped aside to let us pass, and saluted us 
 politely, the men bowing and scraping, and the women, 
 even with heavy loads on their heads, courtesying : a 
 courtesy from bare legs is startling." 
 
 On an island near Senna, they visited a small fugitive 
 tribe of hippopotami-hunters, who had been driven- from 
 their own island in front. They are an exclusive people, 
 and never intermarry with other tribes. These hunters 
 frequently go on long expeditions, taking -their wives and 
 children with them, and erect temporary huts on the banks 
 of the rivers, where they dry the meat they have killed. 
 They are a comely race, and do not disfigure themselves 
 with lip-ornaments, as many of the neighboring tribes do. 
 Livingstone gives the following description of the weapon 
 with which they kill the hippopotamus: ' ; It is a short 
 iron harpoon inserted in the end of a long pole ; but, being 
 intended to unship, it is made fast to a strong cord of 
 milola or hibiscus bark, which is wound closely round the 
 entire length of the shaft, and secured at its opposite end. 
 Two men in a swift canoe steal quietly down on the sleep- 
 ing animal ; the bowman dashes the harpoon into the un- 
 conscious victim, while the quick steersman sweeps the 
 light craft back with his broad paddle. The force of the 
 
MEETING WITH THE MAKOLOLO MEN. 163 
 
 blow separates the harpoon from its corded handle ; which, 
 appearing on the service, sometimes with an inflated blad- 
 der attached, guides the hunters to where the wounded 
 beast hides below until they despatch it." 
 
 The u Ma-Robert" anchored in the stream off Tete, on 
 the 8th of September ; and great was the joy of the Mako- 
 lolo men when they recognized Dr. Livingstone. Some 
 were about to embrace him ; but others cried out, " Don't 
 touch him ! you will spoil his new clothes." They 
 listened sadly to the account of the end of Sekwebu, 
 remarking, "Men die in any country." They had 
 much to tell of their own doings and trials. Thirty of 
 their number had died of small-pox ; and other six, becom- 
 ing tired of wood-cutting, went away to dance before the 
 neighboring chiefs. They visited Bonga, the son of 
 Nyaude (not the brother of Mariano), who cruelly put 
 them to death. " We do not grieve," they said, " for the 
 thirty victims of small-pox, who were taken away by 
 Morimo [God] ; but our hearts are sore for the six 3 T ouths 
 who were murdered by Bonga." If any order had been 
 given by Don Pedro for the maintenance of the Makololo 
 men during Livingstone's absence, it never reached Tete ; 
 and they were dependent on their own exertions, and the 
 kindness of Major Sicard, who treated them most gener- 
 ously, and gave them land and tools to raise some food for 
 themselves. 
 
 At Tete, the party took up their abode in the Residency 
 House, and received the most generous hospitality from 
 Major Sicard and all the Portuguese residents. A singu- 
 lar case of voluntary slavery came under Livingstone's 
 notice here. Chibanti, an active young fellow, who had 
 acted as pilot to the expedition, sold himself to Major 
 SicaW. ; assigning, as a reason, that he had neither father 
 
164 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 nor mother, and that Major Sicard was a kind master. 
 He sold himself for three and thirty yard-pieces of cloth. 
 With two of the pieces he bought a man, a woman, and a 
 child ; afterwards he bought more slaves, and owned a 
 sufficient number to man one of the large canoes with 
 which the trade of the river is carried on. Major Sicard 
 subsequent!}' employed him in carrying ivory and other 
 merchandise to Kilimane, and gave cloth to his men for 
 the voyage. The Portuguese, as a rule, are very kind to 
 their slaves ; but the half-castes are cruel slaveholders. 
 Livingstone quotes a saying of a humane Portuguese, 
 which indicates the reputation they bear : 1 c God made 
 white men, and God made black men ; but the Devil made 
 half-castes/' 
 
 Xeat Tete, a seam of excellent coal, of twenty-five feet 
 in thickness, was visited and examined. Coal and iron 
 are common in the lower Zambesi ; the latter being of ex- 
 cellent quality, and quite equal to the best Swedish. The 
 existence of these minerals must play an important part 
 in the regeneration of the people, and the cultivation of 
 this vast and important district. 
 
 The party visited and examined the Kebrabasa Rapids, 
 and found them very formidable barriers to the navigation 
 of the river. They are so called from a range of rocky 
 mountains, which cross the Zambesi at that spot. The 
 river, during the dry season, is confined to a narrow chan- 
 nel, through which the water forces itself, boiling and 
 eddying within a channel of not more than sixty yards in 
 width ; the top of the masts of the " Ma-Robert," although 
 thirtj' feet high, not reaching to the flood-mark on the 
 rocky sides. The whole bed and banks of the stream 
 are broken by huge masses of rock of every imaginable 
 shape. The rapids extend for upwards of eight miles, 
 
DETERMINED TO ASCEND THE SHIRE. 165 
 
 and could only be passed by a steamer during the floods. 
 The march along the banks of the river among the rocks, 
 which were so hot, from the heat of the sun, as to blister 
 the bare feet of the Makololo men, was most fatiguing. 
 Several miles above these rapids, is the cataract of Mo- 
 rumbwa, where the river is jammed into a cavity of not 
 more than fifty yards in width, and the fall of the cataract 
 is twenty feet in a slope of thirty yards. During floods it 
 is navigable ; the rapids being all but obliterated through 
 the great rise in the river, the rocks showing a flood-mark 
 eighty feet above the level of the stream. 
 
 Finding it impossible to take their steamer through the 
 Kebrabasa Rapids, the party forwarded from Tete, to 
 which they had returned, information to that effect to the 
 English government ; requesting that a more suitable ves- 
 sel for the ascent of the river should be sent out to them. 
 In the mean time, they determined on ascending the Shire, 
 which falls into the Zambesi about a hundred miles from 
 its mouth. The Portuguese could give no information 
 about it ; no one ever having gone up it for any distance, or 
 found out from whence it came. Years ago, they informed 
 him that a Portuguese expedition had attempted to as- 
 cend it ; but had to turn back on account of the impene- 
 trable masses of duckweed which grew in its bed, and 
 floated in shoals on its surface. The natives on its banks 
 were said to be treacherous, thievish, and bloodthirsty; 
 and nothing but disaster was predicted as the end of such 
 a foolhardy expedition. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ASCENDS THE SHIRE. FRIENDLY NATIVES. DISCOVERS 
 
 LAKE SHIRWA. CONTACT WITH SLAVE-HUNTERS. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone and his party had come all the way 
 from England to explore the district, and were not to be 
 lightly turned aside from their object ; so early in Janu- 
 ary, 1859, they boldly entered the Shire. They found, for 
 the first twenty-five miles, that a considerable quantity of 
 duckweed was floating down the river, but not in suffi- 
 cient quantity to interrupt its navigation, even in canoes. 
 As they approached the native villages, the men assem- 
 bled on the banks, armed with bows and arrows ; but it 
 was not until they reached the village of a chief called 
 Tingane, who had gained considerable notoriety by his 
 successful prevention of the Portuguese slave-traders from 
 passing farther to the north, that they met with any thing 
 like serious opposition. Here five hundred armed men 
 were collected, who commanded them to stop. Living- 
 stone boldly went on shore, and, at an interview with the 
 chief and his head men, explained the objects of the 
 party, and their friendly disposition. Tingane, who was 
 an elderly, well-made man, gray-headed, and over six feet 
 high, withdrew his opposition to their further progress, 
 and called all his people together, so that the objects of 
 the exploring-party might be explained to them. 
 
 Following the winding course of the river for about two 
 hundred miles, their farther progress was arrested by a 
 
 166 
 
FRIENDLY NATIVES. 
 
 167 
 
 series of cataracts, to which the party gave the name of 
 "The Murchison," in honor of the great friend of the 
 expedition, Sir Roderick Murchison. In going down 
 stream, the progress of the u Ma-Robert " was very rapid ; 
 the hippopotami keeping carefully out of the way, while 
 the crocodiles would make a rush at the vessel as if to 
 attack it, coming within a few feet of her, when they sank 
 like a stone, to re-appear, and watch the progress of the 
 unknown invader of their haunts, when she had passed. 
 
 Although narrower than the Zambesi, the Shire is much 
 deeper, and more easily navigated. The lower valley of 
 the Shire is about twenty miles wide, and very fertile. 
 The hills which enclose it on either side are covered with 
 wood, in many cases, to their summits, some of which are 
 at an altitude of four thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea. They visited one of the loftiest of the hills, called 
 by the natives Morambala. On the wooded sides of this 
 mountain, Dr. Kirk found thirty species of ferns. In the 
 forests near its base, monkeys, antelopes, rhinoceroses, 
 and several varieties of the larger birds, were abundant. 
 "A hot fountain boils up on the plain, near the north 
 end. It bubbles out of the earth, clear as crystal, at two 
 points, or eyes, a few yards apart from each other, and 
 sends off a fine flowing stream of hot water. The tem- 
 perature was found to be 174° Fahr. ; and it boiled an egg 
 in about the usual time." Two pythons coiled together 
 among the branches of a tree were shot. The largest was 
 ten feet long. Their flesh is greatly relished by the na- 
 tives. The people who dwelt on the mountain slopes, 
 here and elsewhere on the lower Shire, were found to be a 
 hardy and kindly race. They cultivate maize, pumpkins, 
 and tobacco, in their gardens on the plains, and catch fish 
 in the river, which they dry for future sale or consump- 
 
168 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 tion. On the occasion of a future ascent of the river, 
 the party found that many of these harcly mountaineers 
 had been swept away in a slave-raid by Mariano. 
 
 In the middle of March, they started for a second trip 
 up the Shire, when they found the natives altogether 
 friendly, and anxious to sell them rice, fowls, and corn. 
 Within ten miles of the Murchison Cataracts, they en- 
 tered into amicable relations with a chief named Chibisa, 
 whose career had been of a very warlike character ; which 
 he excused and explained by stating that the parties with 
 whom he had fought had all been in the wrong, while he 
 was invariably in the right. He was a true believer in 
 the divine right of kings. " He was an ordinary man, 
 he said, when his father died, and left him the chieftain- 
 ship ; but, directly he succeeded to the high office, he was 
 conscious of power passing into his head, and down his 
 back. He felt it enter, and knew that he was a chief, 
 clothed with authority, and possessed of wisdom ; and 
 people then began to fear and reverence him." 
 
 Fortunately his people were of the same mind ; for they 
 bathed in the river without dread of the crocodiles, after he 
 had placed a medicine in it to prevent their biting them. 
 
 Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, and several of the Makololo 
 men, left the steamer, and the other members of the party, 
 at Chibisa's village, and proceeded overland to Lake 
 Shirwa ; the inhabitants of the district through which they 
 passed presenting a hostile appearance. Through a mis- 
 understanding, their guide took them first to an extensive 
 marsh, which they christened Elephant Marsh, from the 
 large number of those animals they saw there. After- 
 wards they pushed on without guides, save when some 
 idiot from a native village joined them, and accompanied 
 them a considerable way on their march, when no sane 
 
LAKE SHIRWA DISCOVERED, 
 
 169 
 
 member of the tribe would consent to guide them for love 
 or money. The people who occupy the district beyond 
 the Shire were called Manganja, and were distinguished 
 for their bold and independent bearing. Drs. Livingstone 
 and Kirk, while keeping themselves prepared for any 
 attack, were careful to give no cause of offence, and so 
 managed to avoid getting into any serious difficulty with 
 this warlike people, to the disgust of the Makololo men, 
 who were anxious to give them a taste of their quality. 
 
 On the 18th of April, they discovered Lake Shirwa. 
 The water was brackish ; and in it were enormous numbers 
 of leeches, the attacks of which prevented them obtaining 
 the latitude by the natural horizon, which they hoped to 
 do on a sandbank at some distance from the shore. 
 Several varieties of fish, hippopotami, and crocodiles, 
 were abundant in the waters of the lake. The lake was 
 found to be one thousand eight hundred feet above the 
 level of the sea. It was reported to be from sixty to 
 eighty miles long, and of an average breadth of twenty 
 miles. Lofty mountains, whose height was supposed to 
 be about eight thousand feet, stand near its eastern shore ; 
 and on the west is a long ridge, 6 ailed Mount Zomba, 
 with a height of about seven thousand feet, and a length 
 of about twenty miles. In returning to the steamer, they 
 changed their route, and passed through a country peo- 
 pled by friends of Chibisa, who did not interfere with 
 their progress. They found their quartermaster, John 
 Walker, ill of fever ; and, having cured him, they sailed 
 down into the Zambesi, reaching Tete on the 23d of 
 June. 
 
 As their provisions w r ere almost exhausted, the chief 
 members of the party proceeded down the river to meet 
 some of her Majesty's cruisers of the Kongone ; and here 
 16 
 
170 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D 
 
 they were compelled to beach the "Ma-Robert" for repairs. 
 Besides being a bad sailer, she leaked so that the cabin 
 was constantly flooded, the water coming not only from 
 below, but through the deck whenever it rained. The 
 damp caused by this state of affairs was very prejudicial 
 to their health, and also caused the destruction of many 
 botanical specimens, occasioning much worry, and loss of 
 time, in replacing them with others. After receiving a 
 supply of provisions from her Majesty's brig " Persian," 
 the party returned to Tete, and started on their third 
 ascent of the Shire. On this occasion they examined a 
 lagoon, called "the Lake of Mud" in the language of 
 the natives, in which grows a lotus-root called nyika, 
 which the natives collect : when boiled or roasted, it 
 resembles our chestnuts ; and, as it is common throughout 
 South Africa, it is extensively used as food. These 
 lagoons and marshes, which are common in the course of 
 the great rivers of South Africa, mark the spot where 
 extensive lakes existed when the waters passed off to 
 the sea at a higher level than they do at the present day. 
 
 As the miserable little steamer could not carry all the 
 men they required in this more extended expedition, they 
 were compelled to place some of them in boats, which 
 were towed astern. Unfortunately, one of these capsized, 
 and one of the Makololo men was drowned. At Mboma, 
 where the people were eager to sell any quantity of food, 
 the party were entertained by a native musician, who 
 drew excruciating notes from a kind of one-stringed 
 violin. As he threatened to serenade them all night, he 
 was asked if he would not perish from cold. " Oh, no ! " 
 he replied ; " I shall spend the night with my white com- 
 rades in the big canoe. I have often heard of the white 
 men, but have never seen them till now ; and I must sing 
 
WATER-FOWL ON THE SHIRE. 
 
 171 
 
 and play well to them." A small piece of cloth bought 
 him off, and he departed well content. 
 
 On the banks were many hippopotami- traps, which 
 u consist of a beam five or six feet long, armed with a 
 spear-head, or hard-wood spike, covered with poison, and 
 suspended by a forked pole to a cord ; which, coming 
 down to the path, is held by a catch, to be set free when 
 the animal treads on it. . . . One got frightened by the 
 ship, as she wa3 steaming close to the bank. In its eager 
 hurry to escape, it rushed on shore, and ran directly 
 under a trap, when down came the heavy beam on its 
 back, driving the poisoned spear-head a foot deep into its 
 flesh. In its agony, it plunged back into the river, to die 
 in a few hours, and afterwards furnished a feast for the 
 natives. The poison on the spear-head does not affect 
 the meat, except the part around the wound, which is cut 
 out, and thrown away." 
 
 In the Shire marshes, in addition to abundance of the 
 large four-footed game, water-fowl of many kinds were 
 seen in prodigious numbers. " An hour at the mast- 
 head unfolds novel views of life in an African marsh. 
 Near the edge, and on the branches of some favorite 
 tree, rest scores of plotuses and cormorants, which 
 stretch their snake-like necks, and in mute amazement 
 turn one e} T e and then another towards the approaching 
 monster. The pretty ardetta, of a light yellow color 
 when at rest, but seeiningty of a pure white when flying, 
 takes wing, and sweeps across the green grass in large 
 numbers ; often showing us where buffaloes are, by perch- 
 ing on their backs. Flocks of ducks, of which the kind 
 called soriri is most abundant, being night-feeders, medi- 
 tate quietly by the small lagoons, until startled by the 
 noise of the t steam-machinery. Pelicans glide over the 
 
172 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 water catching fish, while the scopus, and large herons, 
 peer intently into the pools. The large black-and-white 
 spar-winged goose springs up, and circles round to find 
 out what the disturbance is, and then settles down again 
 with a splash. Hundreds of linongolos rise from the 
 clumps of reeds, or low trees, in which the}' build in 
 colonies, and are speedily in mid-air. Charming little 
 red-and-yellow weavers remind one of butterflies, as they 
 fly in and out of the tall grass, or hang to the mouths of 
 their pendant nests, chattering briskly to their mates 
 within. . . . Kites and vultures are busy overhead, beating 
 the ground for their repast of carrion ; and the solemn- 
 looking, stately-stepping marabout, with a taste for dead 
 fish or men, stalks slowly along the almost stagnant 
 channels. . . . Towards evening, hundreds of pretty little- 
 hawks are seen flying in a southerly direction, and feed- 
 ing on dragon-flies and locusts. . . . Flocks of seissor- 
 bills are then also on the wing, and in search of food, 
 ploughing the water with their lower mandibles, which 
 are nearly half an inch longer than the upper ones." 
 
 Be}'ond the marshes, in many places the soil is saline ; 
 and the natives procure large quantities of salt by mix- 
 ing the earth w^ith water in a pot with a small hole in it, 
 evaporating the liquid, as it runs through, in the sun. 
 Livingstone noticed that on these saline soils the cotton 
 grown is of a larger and finer staple than elsewhere. 
 When the party arrived at Chibisa's village, they found 
 several of the men busy cleaning, sorting, and weaving 
 cotton. This was a sight which greeted them in most of 
 the villages on the Shire ; and, as cotton can be grown 
 there to any extent, there can be no doubt that once 
 slavery were put down, and legitimate commerce intro- 
 duced, the course of this fine river would became a thriv 
 
THE SHIRE COUNTRY. 
 
 173 
 
 ing and populous district ; as food can be grown to any 
 extent, and there is plenty of grass for innumerable herds 
 of cattle. 
 
 On the 28th of August, Livingstone and his three white 
 companions, accompanied by two guides and thirty-sis: 
 Makololo men, left the vessel in charge of the remainder 
 of the party, and started in search of Lake Nyassa. A 
 short march up a beautiful little valley, through which 
 flowed a small stream, led them to the foot of the Man- 
 g&nja hills, over which their course lay. Looking back 
 from a height of a thousand feet, the beautiful country for 
 many miles, with the Shire flowing through it, excited their 
 admiration ; while as they approached the summit of the 
 range, innumerable vallej^s opened out to their admiring 
 gaze, majestic mountains rearing their heads in all direc- 
 tions. This part of the journey was exceedingly toil- 
 some ; but the uniform kindness of the inhabitants, and 
 the beauty of the scenery, maclQ up for their exertions. 
 Among the hill- tribes, women are treated as if they were 
 inferior animals ; but, in the upper valley of the Shire, 
 they found that women were held in great respect, the 
 husband seldom doing any thing unless the wife approves. 
 A portion of the valley is ruled over by a female chief 
 named Nyango. On reaching the village, the party went 
 to the boalo, or spreading-place, under the shade of lofty 
 trees, where mats of split reeds or bamboo were usually 
 placed for the white members of the party to sit upon. 
 Here the grand palaver was held, at which their objects 
 and intentions in visiting the country were discussed with 
 due gravity and form. 
 
 The inhabitants of this district are very industrious : in 
 addition to cultivating the soil extensively, working in 
 iron, cotton, and basket-making. Each village has its 
 
 15* 
 
174 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 smel ting-house, charcoal-burners, and blacksmiths. Thfi 
 axes, spears, needles, arrowheads, bracelets, and anklets 
 are excellent, and are sold exceedingly cheap. Crockery 
 and pottery of various kinds are also largely manufac- 
 tured ; and fishing-nets are made from the fibres of the 
 bucize, which grows on the hills. 
 
 The use of ornaments on the legs and arms is common. 
 Bat the most extraordinary custom is that of the pelele, 
 worn b}^ women. A small hole is made in the upper lip, 
 and gradually widened, the process of widening extend- 
 ing over several years, until an aperture of from one to 
 two inches is rendered permanent. Into this a tin or 
 ivory ring is forced until the lip protrudes a couple of 
 inches beyond the nose. " When an old wearer of a 
 hollow ring smiles, by the action of the muscle of the 
 cheeks, the ring and lip outside it are dragged back, and 
 thrown over the eyebrows. The nose is seen through 
 the middle of the ring ; and the exposed teeth show how 
 carefully they have been chipped to look like those of the 
 crocodile." No reason was given for this monstrosity, 
 excepting that it was the fashion. The prevalence of 
 such a hideous custom is the more to be wondered at, as 
 the Manganja are a comely people, intelligent-looking, 
 with well- shaped heads and agreeable features. 
 
 They brew large quantities of a kind of beer. "The 
 grain is made to vegetate, dried in the sun, pounded into 
 meal, and gently boiled. When only a day or two old, 
 the beer is sweet, with a slight degree of acidity, which 
 renders it a most grateful beverage in a hot climate, or 
 when fever begets a sore craving for acid drinks." It is 
 pinkish in color, and of the consistency of thin gruel. It 
 takes a large quantity of it to produce intoxication ; but 
 as they must drink it rapidly, as it will not keep for any 
 
ARRIVAL AT LAKE NYASSA. 
 
 175 
 
 time, intoxication among the Manganjas is very common, 
 — whole villages being often found on the spree. It 
 apparently has no baneful effects upon them, nor does it 
 shorten life, as the party never saw so many aged people 
 as they did while amongst this people. One aged chief, 
 Muata Manga, appeared to be about ninety years of 
 age. " His venerable appearance struck the Makololo. 
 4 He is an old man,' they said, — ' a very old man. His 
 skin hangs in wrinkles, just like that on elephants' hips.' " 
 
 They very rarely wash, and are consequently very dirty. 
 An old man told them that he had once washed, but it 
 was so long since that he did not remember how he felt ; 
 and the women asked the Makololo, " Why do you wash? 
 Our men never do." As might have been expected, skin- 
 diseases were common. They believe in a divine Being 
 whom they call Morungo, and in a future state. But 
 where, or in what condition, they exist, they do not know ; 
 as although the dead, they say, sometimes return to the 
 living, and appear to them in their dreams, they never 
 tell them how they fare, or whither they have gone. 
 
 Lake Nyassa was discovered a little before noon on the 
 16th of September, 1859, with the River Shire running 
 out at its southern end in 14° 25' S. latitude. The chief 
 of the village near the outlet of the Shire, called Mosau- 
 ka, invited the party to visit his village, and entertained 
 them under a magnificent banyan-tree, giving them a 
 goat, and a basket of meal. A party of Arab slave- 
 hunters were encamped close by. They were armed with 
 long muskets, and were a villanous-looking set of fellows. 
 Mistaking the country of the white men the}' had met so 
 unexpectedly, they offered them young children for sale ; 
 but, on hearing that they were English, they showed signs; 
 of fear, and decamped during the nigbt. Curiously 
 
176 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 enough, one of the slaves they had with them recognized 
 the party. She had been caught by her Majesty's ship 
 "Lynx" at Kongone along with several others. She 
 said that the Arabs had fled for fear of an uncanny 
 sort of Basunga (white men or Portuguese) . 
 
 Several great slave-paths from the interior cross the 
 upper valley of the Shire. The chiefs are ashamed of 
 the traffic, and excuse themselves by saying that they 
 " do not sell many, and only those that have committed 
 crimes." The great inducement to sell each other is, that 
 they have no ivory, and nothing else with which to buy 
 foreign goods ; a state of matters which the Arab 
 traders know how to take advantage of, as they want 
 nothing but slaves, and the food they may require when 
 on the hunt. Nothing but the establishment of legiti- 
 mate commerce can be expected to put a stop to the 
 slave-traffic in such circumstances as these. The sight 
 of slaves being led in forked sticks excited the indigna- 
 tion of the Makololo ; and they could not understand why 
 Livingstone did not allow them to set them free, by force 
 if necessary. They said, " Ay, you call us bad ; but are 
 we yellow-hearted like these fellows ? Why don't you let 
 us choke them?" These slave-sticks were about three 
 feet in length, with a fork at one end into which the neck 
 is thrust. The stick is retained in its position by putting 
 a piece of stout wire through the ends of the fork, which 
 is turned down at either end. The price of slaves neai 
 Lake Nyassa was four yards of cotton cloth for a man, 
 three for a woman, and two for a boy or girl. When 
 flesh and blood cost so little as an absolute purchase, free 
 labor could be bought at a price which would make the 
 rearing of cotton, corn, &c, a profitable speculation if 
 a proper means of communication with the coast were 
 
RETURN TO THE STEAMBOAT. 
 
 177 
 
 opened up. Water-carriage by the Shire and the Zam- 
 besi exists all the way, save for a distance of forty miles 
 at the Murchison Cataracts ; and, from the character of 
 the country, the making of a road for this distance would 
 be no serious difficulty. At the time of Livingstone's 
 visit, cotton, of which the Manganja grew considerable 
 quantities for their own use, was worth less than a penny 
 per pound. 
 
 The tribes on the Upper Shire were suspicions, and less 
 hospitable than those in the lower valley. Many slave- 
 trading parties had visited them, with as much preten- 
 sions to friendliness as Dr. Livingstone and his party, 
 only to abuse their confidence. As every care was taken 
 to do nothing that could give offence, they were slowly 
 but surely won over to a belief in the friendly intentions 
 of the red men, as they termed Livingstone and his white 
 friends. Lake Nyassa, as he proved on his second visit, 
 was about two hundred miles long, with' a breadth of 
 from eighteen to fifty or sixty miles at its widest parts. 
 It is narrowest towards its southern end, and has some- 
 what the boot-shape of the Italian peninsula. 
 
 The party returned to the steamboat after a la^d jour- 
 ney of forty days, very much exhausted from eating the 
 cassava-root, which in its raw state is poisonous, but 
 when boiled twice, and the water strained off, has no evil 
 effect. The cook, not knowing this, had served it up, after 
 boiling it until the water was absorbed : and it was only 
 after it had been tried with various mixtures, and the 
 whole party had suffered for clays from its effects, that 
 the cause was discovered. 
 
 At Elephant Marsh, on their return, they saw nine herds 
 of elephants. They frequently formed a line two miles 
 long. 
 
178 LIFE OF DA T ID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 From Chibisa, Dr. Kirk and Mr. Rae, with guides, went 
 overland to Tete, and suffered greatly from the heat on 
 the journey, arriving there very much exhausted, after the 
 steamer, with the members of the expedition, had arrived, 
 and gone down to Kongone, as it was necessary to beach 
 the vessel for repairs, as she leaked worse than ever. 
 Off Senna, Senhor Ferrao sent them a bullock, which was 
 a very acceptable gift. At Kongone they were supplied 
 with stores from her Majesty's ship "Lynx;" but, un- 
 fortunately, a boat was swamped in crossing the bar, and 
 the mail-bags, with despatches from government and 
 letters from home, were lost. It is easy to sympathize 
 with Livingstone's distress at this most unfortunate acci- 
 dent. " The loss of the mail-bags," he says, " was felt 
 severely, as we were on the point of starting on an ex- 
 pedition into the interior, which might require eight or 
 nine months ; and twenty months is a weary time to be 
 without news of friends and family." After returning to 
 Tete, where they staid some time enjojing the hospi- 
 tality of the Portuguese merchants, Livingstone and his 
 companions, before proceeding inland to visit the Mako- 
 lolo country, sailed down the Zambesi with Mr. Rae, 
 who was about to return to England to superintend the 
 construction of a successor to the " Ma-Robert," which 
 was now more than useless for the purposes for which it 
 was intended. At Shupanga, Sininyane, one of the 
 Makololo, exchanged names with a Zulu, and ever after- 
 wards only answered to the name of Moshoshoma. This 
 custom is common among the tribes on the Zambesi. After 
 exchanging names, the parties owe to each other special 
 duties and services ever afterwards. While at Kebra- 
 basa, ChaiJ.es Livingstone was made a comrade for life, 
 names not being exchanged, of a hungry native traveller 
 
TROUBLESOME REPTILES. 
 
 179 
 
 to whom he gave some food, and a small piece of cloth. 
 Eighteen months afterwards, the man having prospered 
 in the interval, he came into the camp of the party while 
 on their journey into the interior, bringing a liberal 
 present of rice, meal, beer, and a fowl, saying that 44 he 
 did not like them to sleep hungry or thirsty." Some of 
 the Makololo took the names of friendly chiefs, and 
 others took the names of famous places they had visited ; 
 the assumed names being retained after their return to 
 their own county. 
 
 While anchored in the river, the party suffered from the 
 visits of certain animals and insects. Mosquitoes, of 
 course, were plentiful at certain seasons in the low-lying 
 districts ; but other tormentors were of a novel descrip- 
 tion. Livingstone gives a graphic account of some of 
 them, from which we quote : 44 The rats, or, rather, large 
 mice of this region, are quite facetious ; and, having a 
 great deal of fun in them, often laugh heartily. . . . No 
 sooner were we all asleep, than they made a sudden dash 
 over the lockers, and across our faces, for the cabin door, 
 where all broke out into a loud 4 He, he, he, he, he, he ! ' 
 showing how keenly they enjoyed the joke. They next 
 went forward with as much delight, and scampered over 
 the men. Every evening they went fore and aft, rousing 
 witti impartial feet every sleeper, and laughing to scorn 
 the aimless blows, growls, and deadly rushes of outraged 
 humanity. . . . Scorpions, centipedes, and poisonous 
 spiders were not unfrequently brought into the ship with 
 the wind, and occasionally found their way into our beds ; 
 .out in every instance we were fortunate enough to dis- 
 cover and destroy them, before they did any harm. . . . 
 Snakes sometimes came in with the wood, but oftener 
 floated down the river to us, climbing on board with ease 
 
180 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.Z . 
 
 by the chain-cable ; and some poisonous ones were caught 
 in the cabin. A green snake lived with us several weeks, 
 concealing himself behind the casing of the deck in the 
 daytime. To be aroused in the dark by five feet of cold 
 green snake gliding over one's face, is rather unpleasant, 
 however rapid the movement may be. Myriads of two 
 varieties of cockroaches infested the vessel : they not only 
 ate round the roots of our nails, but even devoured and 
 defiled our food, flannels, and boots. Vain were all our 
 efforts to extirpate these destructive pests. fi If you kill 
 one,' say the sailors, 1 a hundred come down to his fu- 
 neral.' " 
 
 At Senna and Tete he noticed a singular service in 
 which domesticated monkeys were engaged. He had 
 been* speaking of the opportunities the merchants at these 
 places allow to slip of creating a thriving legitimate com- 
 merce. He says, " Our friends at Tete, though heedless 
 of the obvious advantages which other nations would 
 eagerly seize, have beaten the entire world in one branch 
 of industry. It is a sort of anomaly that the animal most 
 nearly allied to man in structure and function should be 
 the most alien to him in respect to labor, or trusty friend- 
 ship. But here the genius of the monkey is turned to good 
 account. He is made to work in the chase of certain 
 4 wingless insects better known than respected.' Having 
 been invited to witness this branch of Tete industry, we 
 can testify that the monkey took it kindly, and it seemed 
 profitable to both parties." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 START FOR LINYANTI. — CUTTING UP AN ELEPHANT. — THB 
 u GO-NAKED" TRIBE. — THE VICTORIA. FALLS. — FIND 
 SEKELETU ILL. 
 
 As Livingstone felt bound in honor to revisit Sekeletu, 
 and take back the men who had accompanied him from 
 that chief in his wanderings, together with the merchan- 
 dise he had purchased for his use with the tusks intrusted 
 to him, the party started from Tete for Linyanti, on the 
 15th of May ; leaving ten English sailors in charge of the 
 ship until their return. As many of the men had taken 
 up with slave-women, they did not leave with much good 
 will ; and, before the party had reached Kebrabasa Cata- 
 racts, thirty of them had deserted. Before starting, Liv- 
 ingstone had paid them in cloth, &c, for their services in 
 the expedition, being anxious that they should make as 
 good an appearance as possible when they reached Lin- 
 yanti. Many of them had earned a good deal during 
 their stay at Tete, while Dr. Livingstone was absent in 
 England ; but, as they unfortunately picked up a good 
 many of the evil habits of the natives round Tete, they 
 had squandered all they possessed. It is disgraceful to 
 think that these unsophisticated sons of nature should 
 have come so far to see and meet civilized people with 
 such results. Not only were the . slave and half-caste 
 population drunken and immoral, but the Portuguese 
 merchants, with few exceptions, were no better. 
 
 16 181 
 
182 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 A merchant at Tete sent three of his men with the 
 party to convey a present for Sekeletu ; two other mer- 
 chants gave the loan of a couple of donkeys ; and Major 
 Sicard sent them men to assist them on their return, 
 when, of course, their attendants would be reduced, 
 should the Makololo men elect to remain, and no one 
 volunteer to accompany them on their return down the 
 river. In order to escape the exactions of the Banyai 
 tribes, the party proceeded up the left bank of the river. 
 At several of the villages, on their way up the Zambesi 
 valle} r , they saw and conversed with pondoros, as men are 
 called who pretend to be able to change themselves into a 
 lion, or other animal. Strangely enough, this power ap- 
 peared to be believed in by the people ; even the wife of 
 the pondoro, during the period when he retired into the 
 forests to change his shape, leaving food for him in a hut 
 in the forest prepared for him ; the change to the brute 
 form apparently not destroying or altering the human ap- 
 petite. These excursions usually last until the pondoro 
 has discovered some animal just slain by a lion, when he 
 returns to his village, and leads them to the carcass ; 
 taking credit to himself, of course, for having killed it 
 during his transformation. 
 
 * Near the village of a chief called Sandia, six of the 
 Makololo shot a cow-elephant. In this district, the chief 
 claims one-half of any game killed on his ground. This 
 right was, to some extent, waived : the head man of the 
 hunting-party superintended the cutting-up of the brute, 
 and apportioned the pieces. " The head and right hind- 
 leg belong to him who killed the beast, that is, to him 
 who inflicted the first wound ; the left leg to him who deliv- 
 ered the second, or first touched the animal after it fell ; 
 the meat around the eve to the English, or chief of the 
 
CUTTING UP AN ELEPHANT. 
 
 183 
 
 travellers ; and different parts to the head men of the 
 different fires, or groups, of which the camp is composed ; 
 not forgetting to enjoin the preservation of the fat and 
 bowels for a second distribution." The cut ting-up of the 
 carcass is a scene of wild excitement. " Some jump in- 
 side, and roll about there in their eagerness to seize the 
 precious fat ; while others run off screaming, with pieces 
 of the bloody meat, throw it on the grass, and run back 
 for more : all keep talking and shouting at the utmost 
 pitch of their voices. Sometimes two or three, regardless 
 of all law, seize the same piece of meat, and have a brief 
 fight of words over it. ... In an incredibly short time, 
 tons of meat are cut up, and placed in separate heaps 
 around." The following is the method of cooking the 
 elephant's forefoot, which the white members of the party 
 had for breakfast on the following morning : "A large 
 hole was dug in the ground, in which a fire was made ; 
 and, when the inside was thoroughly heated, the entire 
 foot was placed in it, and covered over with the hot ashes 
 and soil. Another fire was made above the whole, and 
 kept burning all night. ... It is a whitish mass, 
 slightly gelatinous, and sweet, like marrow. . . . Ele- 
 phants' trunks and tongues are also good, and, after 
 long simmering, much resemble the hump of a buffalo, 
 and the tongue of an ox ; but all the other meat is tough, 
 and, from its peculiar flavor, only to be eaten by a hungry 
 man." The natives eat enormous quantities of meat 
 when they have the opportunity. 
 
 u They boil as much as their pots will hold, and eat 
 antil it becomes physically impossible for them to stow 
 away any more. An uproarious dance follows, accompa- 
 nied with stentorian song ; and as soon as they have 
 shaken their first course down, and washed off the sweat 
 
184 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 and dust of the after-performance, they go to work to 
 roast more., A short snatch of sleep succeeds, and they 
 are up and at it again : all night long it is boil and eat, 
 roast and devour, with a few brief interludes of sleep. 
 Like other carnivora, these men can endure hunger for a 
 much longer period than the mere porridge-eating tribes." 
 As game was abundant, the weather excellent for camp- 
 ing, and the route known, travelling was not an unpleas- 
 ant task. Flocks of guinea-fowls and other birds were 
 met with daily ; and as they were in good condition, and 
 their flesh excellent, the party enjoyed a variety of flesh- 
 meat. 
 
 In camping, the men took it by turns to cut grass for 
 the beds of the three Englishmen, — Dr. Livingstone- 
 being placed in the middle, Dr. Kirk on the right, and 
 Charles Livingstone on the left. Their bags, rifles, and 
 revolvers were placed near their beds ; and a fire was kin- 
 dled near their feet. A dozen fires were kindled in the 
 camp nightly, and replenished, from time to time, by men 
 who were awakened by the cold. On these grass-beds, 
 with their rugs drawn over them, the three Englishmen 
 slept soundly under some giant tree, through whose 
 branches they could look up to the clear, star-spangled, 
 moonlit sky. Their attendants slept between mats of 
 palm-ieaves, which were sewn together round three sides 
 of the square, one being left open to enable the man to 
 crawl in between the two. These sleeping-bags are called 
 fumbas ; and, when the} 7 were all at rest within the en- 
 campment, they had the appearance of sacks strewn round 
 about the camp-fires. 
 
 Before going to sleep, the natives amused themselves 
 with songs and political discussions, carried on with a 
 warmth and eloquence worthy of an English debating- 
 
ON THE MARCH, 
 
 185 
 
 club. About five o'clock in the morning, the camp was 
 astir ; the blankets were folded, and stowed away in bags ; 
 the fumbas and cooking-pots were fixed on the end of the 
 carrying-sticks, which were borne on the shoulders. The 
 cook received the cooking-utensils used for the English- 
 men. After a cup of tea or coffee, the whole party were 
 on the march before sunrise. At nine breakfast was 
 prepared at a convenient spot. In the middle of the day 
 there was a short rest ; and' early in the afternoon they 
 pitched their camp, the" white men going hunting, if 
 food was required, and examining the neighborhood. 
 Their rate of progress was about two and a half miles an 
 hour as the crow flies ; and their daily march lasted about 
 six hours. After several days of this, the natives com- 
 plained of being fatigued, even when well fed with fresh 
 meat. They lacked the stamina and endurance of the 
 Europeans. 
 
 In the Chicova plains, a chief named Chitora brought 
 the party a present of food and drink, because, he said, 
 " He did not wish us to sleep hungry. He had heard of the 
 doctor when he passed down, and had a great desire to 
 see and converse with him ; but he was a child then, and 
 could not speak in the presence of great men. He was 
 glad that he had seen the English now, and was sorry 
 that his people were away, or he should have made them 
 cook for us." Here, and at other places, they noticed 
 that the natives filtered their water through sand, even 
 although at the time the water of the river was clear and 
 limpid. During the flood, as the water is polluted with 
 all sorts of filth collected near the native villages, the fil- 
 tering process is very necessary. 
 
 The white men were objects of curiosity, and at first 
 of terror, in every village they entered ; but the two don- 
 16* " 
 
186 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 keys rivalled theni in the interest they excited. u Great 
 was the astonishment when one of the donkeys began to 
 bray. The timid jumped more than if a lion had roared 
 beside them. All were startled, and stood in mute 
 amazement at the harsh- voiced one, till the last broken 
 note was uttered ; then, on being assured that nothing in 
 particular was meant, they looked at each other, and 
 burst into a loud laugh at their common surprise. When 
 one donkey stimulated the other to try his vocal powers, 
 the interest felt by the startled natives must have equalled 
 that of the Londoners when they first crowded to see the 
 famous hippopotamus." 
 
 Here they examined seams of excellent coal, and found 
 lumps of it which had been brought dow T n from the near 
 hill-ranges by the brooks, and astonished the natives by ■ 
 showing them that the black stones would burn. They 
 stated that there was plenty of it among the hills. Some 
 of the chiefs wore wigs made of the fibrous leaves of a 
 plant called i/e, allied to the aloes : when properly dyed, 
 these wigs have a fine glossy appearance. Mpende and 
 his people, who were objects of some dread to Living- 
 stone and his companions in their descent to the coast, 
 were now most friendly ; the chief apologizing for his 
 want of attention to the traveller and his party as they 
 passed on their way to the coast. Several Banyai chiefs 
 sent their head men across the stream to demand tribute : 
 but the travellers were glad to be in a position to resist 
 such exactions. Halting near the village of a chief named 
 Pangola, he demanded a rifle in exchange for the food 
 they needed, and refused to trade on any other terms. 
 Fortunately several of the party managed to shoot a water- 
 bok, which rendered them independent of the greedy 
 savage, who was intensely mortified at seeing them depart 
 
PORTUGUESE RUINS. 
 
 187 
 
 without his having traded with them In any way. He 
 cried after them as the} 7 passed on their way, 6 ' You are 
 passing Pangola. Do not you. see Pangola?" But the 
 whole party were so disgusted with him, that they would 
 not deal with him on any terms. 
 
 Passing the ruins of the once flourishing Portuguese 
 settlement of Zumbo, which is beautifully situated in 
 the midst of fertile plains watered by two splendid rivers, 
 the travellers moralized on the worse than utter failure 
 attending the establishment of the Portuguese on the 
 east coast of Africa. " Not a single art, save that of 
 distilling spirits by means of a gun barrel, has ever been 
 learnt from strangers ; and, if all the progeny of the 
 whites were at once to leave the country, their only me- 
 morial would be the ruins of a few stone and mud-built 
 walls, and that blighting relic of the slave-trade, the 
 belief that man may sell his brother man ; a belief which 
 is not of native origin, for it is not found except in the 
 track of the Portuguese." Beyond the ruins of their 
 churches at Zumbo, there is nothing in the habits and 
 beliefs of the people to tell that Christianity was once 
 taught there. At Tete, Senna, and Kilimane, where the 
 Jesuits have still establishments, alt-hough shorn of their 
 original splendor, their want of success is in deep con- 
 trast to the good done among the people of Ambaca, 
 which is still perceptible after several generations. Main- 
 taining a footing in the country only on the sufferance of 
 the Zulus and other native tribes, it is a matter of deep 
 regret that the Portuguese government should be permitted 
 to stand in the way of the elevation of a people, and the 
 civilization of a vast territory. 
 
 Between Zumbo and the falls, game of all kinds was so 
 abundant that their native attendants got fat, and be- 
 
188 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 came fastidious in their eating, declining antelope, and 
 preferring buffalo-flesh and guinea-fowl. The natives 
 were curious and hospitable at all the villages they passed ; 
 and their bold and fearless bearing told that they were 
 now beyond the range of the operations of the slave- 
 traders. Families were frequently met marching in single- 
 Qle, — the man at the head, carrying nothing save his 
 arms, his wives and sons and daughters following, with 
 their scanty household utensils and comforts. These par- 
 ties always came in for a share of the white men's abun- 
 dance of flesh-meat. Around the foot of the great tree of 
 audience at every village, or suspended from its branches, 
 were collections of buffalo and antelope horns and 
 skulls, the trophies of the chase. The travellers re- 
 marked that " at these spots were some of the most 
 splendid buffalo-heads we have ever seen ; the horns, after 
 making a complete circle, had commenced a second turn. 
 This would be a rich country for a horn-fancier. " 
 
 The only thing edible they wanted in the central plains 
 was vegetables. Now and again they got a supply of sweet- 
 potatoes, which allayed the disagreeable craving which a 
 continuous diet of meat and meal had induced. After 
 crossing the Kafue, the party got amongst a people of 
 Batoka origin, and belonging to the same tribe as several 
 of the attendants who had left Liiryanti with Livingstone. 
 Here they were told that Moselekatse's (Sebituane's great 
 enemy) chief town was almost three hundred miles dis- 
 tant, and that the English had come to him, and taught 
 him that it was wrong to kill people ; and that now he 
 sent out his men to collect and sell ivory. It was refresh- 
 ing to find that news of this description had travelled so 
 far. The Bawee, a people who go entirely nude, or 
 clothed only in a coat of red ochre, were very friendly. 
 
THE GO-NAKEDS. 
 
 189 
 
 The party tried to discover the reason for their going 
 naked, but could only learn that it was the custom. The 
 habit was only confined to the males, the women being 
 always more or less clothed. They felt no shame, nor 
 could any feeling be aroused by laughing and joking at 
 their appearance. " They evidently felt no less decent 
 than we did with our clothes on ; but, whatever may be 
 said in favor of nude statues, it struck us that man in a 
 state of nature is a most ungainly animal. Could we see 
 a number of the degraded of our own lower classes in like 
 guise, it is probable, that without the black color, which 
 acts somehow as a dress, they would look worse still." 
 
 Leaving the bank of the Zambesi for a time, the party 
 travelled through the Batoka highlands, where the free 
 air of the hillside was most invigorating and beneficial, 
 especially to Dr. Kirk, who had suffered from fever. The 
 country, although very fertile, is thinly populated ; Sebit- 
 iiane and Moselekatse having ravaged it in their numer- 
 ous forays. The Batoka are a peace-loving and industrious 
 people : they were so hospitable that it would have pained 
 them if the party had passed without receiving something, 
 ^ery frequently they prepared their camp for them, — 
 smoothing the ground with their hoes for their beds, col- 
 lecting grass and firewood, erecting a bush fence to 
 protect them from the wind, and carrying w T ater from the 
 distant well or stream. 
 
 Once they w r ere visited by a noble specimen of the Go- 
 Nakeds, clothed only in a tobacco-pipe, with a stem two 
 feet long, wound round with polished ivory. " God made 
 him naked," he said, " and he had therefore never worn 
 »ny clothing." 
 
 Great quantities of tobacco are grown in the Batoka 
 country, which is famed for its quality. They are inveter- 
 
190 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 ate smokers, bat always had the politeness to ask the 
 white men's permission before smoking in their presence. 
 Above Karibs, the people had never before been visited 
 by foreigners. The chief of Koba, on being asked if 
 any tradition existed among his people of strangers hav- 
 ing visited the country, answered, " Not at all : our fath- 
 ers all died without telling us that they had seen men like 
 you. To-day I am exalted, in seeing what they never 
 saw ; " while others, in a spirit worthy of Charles Lamb, 
 who threatened to write for the ancients, because the 
 moderns did not appreciate him properly, said, " We are 
 the true ancients : we have seen stranger things than any 
 of our ancestors, in seeing } r ou." 
 
 At Moachemba, the first of the Batoka villages which 
 owed allegiance to Sekeletu, the party distinctly saw the 
 smoke of the Victoria Falls, twenty miles distant. Here 
 the native attendants heard news from home. Takelaiig's 
 wife had been killed by Sekeletu's head man at the falls, 
 on a charge of witchcraft ; Inchikola's two wives, believ- 
 ing him to be dead, had married again ; and Masakasa 
 was intensely disquieted to hear that two years before, his 
 friends, giving him up for dead, had held a kind of Irish 
 wake in his honor, slaughtered all his oxen, and thrown 
 his shield over the falls. He declared he would devour 
 them, and when they came to salute him would say, " I 
 am dead ; I am not here ; I belong to another world, and 
 should stink if I came among you." The Batoka wife of 
 Sima, who had remained faithful to him during his ab- 
 sence, came to welcome him back, and took the }'Oung 
 wife he had brought with him from Tete away with her 
 without a murmur of disapproval. At night, when the 
 camp was quiet, Takelang fired his musket, and cried out, 
 4 4 1 am weeping for my wife ; my court is desolate ; I 
 have no home ! 99 ending with a loud wail of anguish. 
 
THE VICTORIA FALLS REVISITED. 
 
 19, 
 
 Dr. Livingstone and his English friends had news also to 
 receive of a painful character. An attempt to establish a 
 mission at Lin} T anti, under the Rev. F. C. Helmore, had 
 fail ed. The mission originally consisted of nine Europeans, 
 and thirteen colored people from the neighborhood of Kuru- 
 man. Of these, five Europeans, including Mr. Helmore 
 and his wife, and four natives, died within three months ; 
 and the survivors retreated disheartened from the region 
 which had been so deadly to their devoted companions. 
 
 The various head men of Sekeletu, having been holding 
 foraj^s among the Batoka, had to be lectured by Dr. Liv- 
 ingstone, — a discipline which they took in good part, 
 excusing themselves by endeavoring to prove that they 
 were in the right, and could not avoid fighting. 
 
 On the 9th of August, 1860, the party reached the 
 Victoria Falls, and Dr. Livingstone and his two compan- 
 ions were rowed through the rapids to Garden Island, to 
 obtain a view of the falls. The canoe in which they sat 
 was owned by Tuba Mokoro, which means u Smasher 
 of Canoes ; " a somewhat ominous title, which his success 
 and skill on the present occasion belied. The party had 
 to embark several miles above the falls, and were strictly 
 enjoined to maintain silence. For a considerable dis- 
 tance, the river was smooth and tranquil ; the beautiful is- 
 lands, densely covered with tropical vegetation, adding to 
 the pleasure felt in the rapid and easy movement of the 
 craft. Near the falls, the surface of the river got broken 
 by rocks, which, as the water was then low, protruded 
 their heads above the stream, breaking the current into 
 boiling and foaming eddies, which it required all- the skill 
 of the boatmen to pilot their way through. " There were 
 places where the utmost exertion of both men had to be put 
 forth in order to force the canoe to the only safe part of 
 
192 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the rapids, and to prevent it from sweeping down broad- 
 side, when, in a twinkling, we should have found ourselves 
 floundering among the plotuses and cormorants, which 
 were engaged in diving for their breakfast of small fish. 
 At times it seemed as if nothing could save us from dash- 
 ing, in our headlong race, against the rocks, which, now 
 that the river was low, jutted out of the water ; but, just 
 at the very nick of time, Tuba passed the word to the 
 steerman, and then with ready pole turned the canoe 
 a little aside, and we glided smoothly past the threatened 
 danger. Never was canoe more admirably managed. . . . 
 We were driving swiftly down. A black rock, over which 
 the foam flew, lay directly in our path ; the pole was 
 planted against it as readily as ever, but it slipped just as 
 Tuba put forth his strength to turn the bow off. We 
 struck hard, and were half full of water in a moment. 
 Tuba recovered himself as speedily, shoved off the bow, 
 and shot the canoe into a still, shallow place, to bale out 
 the water." 
 
 At the falls they met an Englishman, a Mr. Baldwin, 
 from Natal, who had reached them, his only guide for the 
 greater part of the way being his pocket-compass. He 
 had anticipated the arrival of his wagon by two days. 
 Mashotlam had ferried him across the stream ; and, when 
 nearly over, he had jumped out, and swum ashore. u If," 
 said the chief, u he had been devoured by one of the 
 crocodiles which abound there, the English would have 
 blamed us for his death. He nearly inflicted a great 
 injury upon us : therefore, we said, he must pay us a fine." 
 Mr. Baldwin was, when Dr. Livingstone and his friends 
 met him, contentedly waiting the arrival of his wagon, so 
 that he might pay the fine. 
 
 On reaching Sesheke, where Sekeletu was, Dr. Living- 
 
SEKELETU ILL AND DISPIRITED. 193 
 
 stone found matters in a bad way with the Makololo. 
 Sekeletu was suffering from leprosy, and had withdrawn 
 himself from the sight of his people. A long-continued 
 drought had almost destroyed the crops, and the country 
 was suffering from a partial famine. The illness and 
 inactivity of Sekeletu had induced chiefs and head men 
 at a distance to do as they pleased ; which meant, too 
 often, the ill-usage of their immediate dependants, and 
 the plundering of neighboring and friendly tribes. 
 
 On the arrival of the party, an unbroken stream of vis- 
 itors poured in upon them, all desirous of paying their 
 respects to Dr. Livingstone, and to tell him the haps and 
 mishaps which had befallen them during his absence. All 
 were in low spirits. Sekeletu, believing himself bewitched, 
 had slain a number of his chief men, together with their 
 families ; distant friendly tribes were revolting ; famine 
 was upon them ; and the power of the Makololo was 
 passing away. These forebodings were only too soon 
 realized. In 1864 Sekeletu died ; and, in the struggle 
 which ensued for the succession, the wide kingdom his 
 father had conquered, and ruled over with a wisdom 
 rare among his peers, was broken up. 
 
 They found Sekeletu sitting in a covered wagon, which 
 was enclosed in a high wall of reeds. His face was 
 slightly disfigured by the thickening and discoloration 
 of the skin where the leprosy had passed over it. He 
 had a firm belief that he had been bewitched. As the 
 doctors of his own tribe could do nothing for him, a 
 female doctor of the Manyeti tribe was endeavoring 
 to cure him at the time of their arrival. After some 
 difficulty, she allowed the white men to take her patient 
 in charge ; and, under their treatment, he all but recov- 
 ered. 
 
 IT 
 
194 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 The two horses left by Dr. Livingstone in 1 853 were 
 still alive, notwithstanding the severe discipline to which 
 they had been subjected. Sekeletu had a great passion 
 for horses ; and, about a year before the arrival of Living- 
 stone and his friends from Tete, a party of Makololo were 
 sent to Benguela on the west coast, who had purchased 
 five horses ; but they had all died on the journey, through 
 being bewitched, as they believed ; and they arrived with 
 nothing to show for them save their tails. The mer- 
 chants at Benguela had treated them kindly, and made 
 them presents of clothing and other articles. As they 
 had only recently arrived, and their clothes were com- 
 paratively unworn, they proved, when arrayed in their 
 best, to be as well, if not better, dressed than Living- 
 stone and his white friends. " They wore shirts well 
 washed and starched, coats and trousers, white socks, and 
 patent-leather boots, a red Kilmarnock cowl on the head, 
 and a brown wide-awake on the top of that." They, and 
 the travelled natives who had come from Tete, fraternized, 
 and held themselves to be something superior on account 
 of what they had seen ; but, as in more enlightened re- 
 gions, there was not wanting a party who believed in 
 ignorance. "They had seen the sea, had they? And 
 what is that? nothing but water. They could see plenty 
 of water at home, — ay, more than they wanted to see ; 
 and white people came to their town : why, then, travel 
 to the coast to look at them ? " 
 
 Sekeletu was well pleased with the articles brought for 
 him. The sugar-mill had been left at Tete, being too 
 bulky to be carried with them. On the arrival of a proper 
 steamer for the navigation of the Zambesi, he was in- 
 formed it would be sent up as far as the falls. In his 
 ignorance as regards the power of artillery, he asked if 
 
HONESTY OF THE MAKOLOLO. 
 
 195 
 
 cannon could not blow away the falls, and allow the ves* 
 sel to come up to Sesheke. 
 
 Two packages containing letters and newspapers from 
 Kuruman were lying at Linyanti ; and a messenger was 
 sent for them, who returned with only one (the other 
 being too heavy for him) , within seven days, during which 
 time he had travelled two hundred and forty miles. 
 
 As Dr. Livingstone wished to get some more medicine 
 and papers out of the wagon he had left at Linyanti in 
 1853, he determined to proceed there himself. On his 
 arrival, he found the wagon and its contents untouched 
 from the time of his departure in 1853, and every thing 
 in its place. This illustrates the trustworthy character 
 of the Makololo, which was still further exemplified by 
 the discovery of one of the books of notes he had left 
 with Sekeletu on his departure for the west coast in 1853. 
 It will be remembered, that, fearing he was dead, Seke- 
 letu had given the books, together with a letter addressed 
 to Mr. Moffat, to a native trader, and that nothing further 
 had been heard of them. On being told that the trader 
 to whom they had said they had given the books and 
 letters had denied having received them, Seipone, one 
 of Sekeletu's wives, said, " He lies: I gave them to him 
 myself." Ths trader afterwards went to Mosilikatse's 
 country ; and, his conscience having bothered him it is 
 presumed, " one of the volumes was put into the mail-bag 
 coming from the south, which came to hand with the lock 
 taken off in quite a scientific manner. " 
 
 In the wagon Livingstone found the supply of medicine 
 he had left there, untouched ; and it was a melancholy 
 reflection, that Mr. Helmore, and the other members of his 
 mission, should have died there, with the medicines they 
 needed lying within a hundred yards of their encamp* 
 
196 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 ment. In returning to Sesheske, lie heard of a lion being 
 killed by the bite of a serpent. Animals were frequently 
 the victims of poisonous snakes ; but he seldom heard of 
 their attacking human beings. While generally accepting 
 the leading truths of Christianity, there were some habits 
 and superstitions which they found it difficult to shake. 
 The belief in witchcraft and sorcery was deeply rooted. 
 They said, " They needed the book of God; but the 
 hearts of black men are not the same as those of the 
 whites. They had real sorcerers among them. If that 
 was guilt which custom led them to do, it lay between the 
 white man and Jesus, who had not given them the book, 
 nor favored them as he had the whites." As to cattle- 
 lifting from their weaker neighbors, they said, "Why 
 should these Makalaka (a term of contempt for the 
 blacker tribes) possess cattle if they cannot fight for 
 them ? " The pithy border creed, — 
 
 " The good old rule 
 Sufficeth them, the simple plan, 
 That they should take who have the power, 
 And they should keep who can," — 
 
 was universally understood in its naked simplicity ; and, 
 despite their general ignorance, they could reason very 
 ingeniously. 
 
CHAPTER XIL 
 
 DESCENDS THE ZAMBESI. ARRIVAL OP BISHOP MACKEN- 
 ZIE. LIBERATES A BAND OP SLAVES. DEATH OF 
 
 BISHOP MACKENZIE. ARRIVAL AND DEATH OP MRS. 
 
 LIVINGSTONE 
 
 The party left Sesheske on the 17th of September, 
 1860 ; Leshore and Pitsane (the latter the factotum of 
 Dr. Livingstone in his journey to and from Loanda) , and 
 several Batoka men, being sent with them to aid them in 
 their journey, and bring the merchandise left at Tete, 
 and a supply of medicine for Sekeletu, who was then 
 nearly cured of his loathsome complaint. Although he 
 and his people were suffering from famine, Sekeletu had 
 been generous in his treatment of Dr. Livingstone and 
 his companions ; and when they left he gave them six 
 oxen for their support until they reached the country below 
 the falls, where food was more abundant. The party 
 passed down the valley of the Zambesi, sometimes by 
 land, and sometimes in canoes; 'the latter being either 
 bought or borrowed, or freely loaned for their use without 
 reward, according to the friendly or unfriendly character 
 of the proprietors. Below the junction of the Kafue 
 with the Zambesi, they met a half-caste ivory hunter 
 named Sequasha, who, along with a large number of 
 armed slaves, had been hunting elephants since they 
 passed up the river. He told them that his men had 
 killed two hundred and ten elephants during the trip. 
 
 17* 197 
 
198 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 This Sequasha was an unscrupulous villain. Shortly be- 
 fore this he had entered into a league with the head man 
 of a chief Mpangwe, near Zumbo, to kill the chief. With 
 a picked party of slaves armed with loaded muskets, he 
 visited the unsuspecting chief, who received him kindly ; 
 and, while he was ministering to their wants, the chief 
 and twenty of his people were shot in cold blood. For 
 this diabolical service, he received ten tusks ; and the head 
 man usurped the place of his murdered chief. Sequasha 
 carried a plentiful supply of wares with him to purchase 
 tusks and food ; and, among other articles, he had a quan- 
 ta of American clocks, which got him into trouble with 
 a tribe of Banvai. He set them all going in the pres- 
 ence of the chief, who was greatly frightened at the 
 strange noise they made ; and, imagining that they were 
 intended to bewitch himself and his people, it was decided 
 that he should pay a heavy fine of cloth and beads for his 
 imprudence. 
 
 They again met Sequasha at Senna, when he confessed 
 to having brought down 25,800 lbs. of ivory. At Tete 
 he was afterward cast into prison ; the reason given being 
 his disorderly conduct in the interior, the true reason 
 being the desire to share a part of his wealth. He wa3 
 soon after set at liberty. 
 
 At the Mburuma Rapids, the party had a striking 
 instance of the presence of mind, and devotion, of the 
 Makololo. While passing the most dangerous of the 
 rapids, the two canoes filled with water, and were in 
 danger of being swamped, when, of course, the whole party 
 must have perished. Two men, without a moment's hes- 
 itation, leap 3d out of each of the canoes, and ordered a 
 Batoka man to do the same, as " the white men must be 
 saved." — " I cannot swim," said the Batoka. "Jump 
 
VORACIOUS CROCODILES. 
 
 199 
 
 out, then, and hold on to the canoe." Swimming along- 
 side, they guided the swamping canoes down the swift 
 current, to the foot of the rapid, and then ran them 
 ashore to bale them out. 
 
 In one of the Kebrabasa Rapids, Dr. Kirk's canoe was 
 swamped, the occupants scrambling ashore with difficulty ; 
 but, unfortunately, a chronometer, a barometer, and his 
 notes of the journey, and botanical drawings of the fruit- 
 trees in the interior, were lost. The ri^er was very low, 
 and crocodiles were numerous. On one occasion, as they 
 were dragging the dead body of a hippopotamus behind 
 one of the canoes, they rose in such numbers, and tugged 
 so hard at the huge carcass, that they had to cut it adrift 
 to save the canoe from being swamped. On another occa- 
 sion, one of these monsters seized a water-buck, which 
 had been wounded by a shot, and dragged it into the 
 river. The poor buck made a desperate resistance, and 
 succeeded in freeing itself, when another crocodile gave 
 chase ; but a ball aimed at it drove it to the bottom. At 
 many places in the interior, stockades were erected to pre- 
 serve the women from the attacks of crocodiles while tak- 
 ing water from the river. At Tete and Senna, where 
 many slave-women were seized by crocodiles, no such 
 precautions were taken, even although Livingstone offered 
 a subscription towards the expense. The lives of slaves 
 were too valueless to occasion either thought or trouble 
 for their preservation, to men otherwise humane. 
 
 After the accident to Dr. Kirk's canoe, the party passed 
 the remainder of the rapids on foot, through a rough and 
 tr} T ing country, which greatly fatigued the whole party, 
 one of the , two donkeys they had with them dying from 
 sheer exhaustion. Although the natives are very partial 
 to the flesh of the zebra and the quagga, which are a sort 
 
200 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 of second cousins to the donkey, they wo aid not eat its 
 flesh. They said, " It would be like eating man himself, 
 because the donkey lives with man, and is his bosom com- 
 panion." 
 
 The party arrived safely at-Tete on the 23d of Novem- 
 ber, after an absence of a little over six months. The 
 two English sailors had enjoyed excellent health, and be- 
 haved themselves admirably during the absence of the 
 party. Their gardening operations turned out a failure. 
 A hippopotamus had paid the garden a visit, and eaten up 
 all the vegetables ; and the sheep they had ate up the 
 cotton when it was in flower ; the crocodiles devoured the 
 sheep left with them ; and two monkeys they purchased 
 ate the eggs of the fowls ; and, in turn, the natives relieved 
 them of all care of the latter by landing on the island dur- 
 ing the night, and stealing them. They were more suc- 
 cessful in bargaining with the natives for food. Their pur- 
 chases were all made on board the steamer; and, when 
 more was demanded than the market price, they brought a 
 chameleon out of the cabin, an animal of which the na- 
 tives have a mortal dread, and thus settled the matter at 
 once, by clearing the deck of the exorbitant traders. 
 
 One night they were roused by hearing shrieks of dis- 
 tress, and, on rowing to the spot, found a woman in the 
 jaws of a crocodile. Rescuing her with the loss of a leg 
 below the knee, they took her on board, gave her a bottle 
 of rum, bandaged the leg, and carried her to her hut in 
 the village. Next morning they found the bandages torn 
 off, and the unfortunate creature left to die. " I believe," 
 remarked one of the sailors, " her master was angry with 
 us for saving her life, seeing as how she had lost her 
 leg." 
 
 Starting for the mouth of the Kongone, where thej 
 
ARRIVAL OF BISHOP MACKENZIE. 
 
 201 
 
 expected to meet some English cruisers with supplies and 
 the new steamer they had ordered, they were compelled to 
 abandon the " Ma-Robert," as she would keep afloat no 
 longer. They reached the mouth of the Kongone on the 
 4th of January, 1861, and found that the Portuguese had 
 erected a custom-house there, and also a hut for a black 
 lance-corporal and three men. The party took up their 
 quarters in the custom-house. The soldiers were suffer- 
 ing from hunger. The provisions of Dr. Livingstone's 
 party were also becoming exhausted ; but, as a large herd 
 of water-bucks were found in a creek between the Kon- 
 gone and East Luabo, they were not put to any serious 
 strait during the month they waited for the arrival of a 
 ship. From drinking the brackish water, and eating the 
 fresh pasturage which is saline near the coast, the flesh 
 of the antelopes w r as much sweeter and more tender than 
 in the interior, where it is so dry and tough that the na- 
 tives, who are not over-fastidious, refuse to eat it for any 
 length of time. The eggs of the pelican and the turtle 
 were found in abundance, and, together with several varie- 
 ties of fish, assisted in giving a little variety to their lim- 
 ited cuisine. 
 
 They found some natives pounding the woody stems of 
 a poisonous climbing plant, and hanging it up in bundles. 
 Having staked off a portion of the stream with bushes to 
 prevent the exit of the fish, the poison was poured into 
 the water, and either killed the fish-, or stupefied them, so 
 that they were easily secured. 
 
 On the 31st of January, their new ship, u The Pioneer," 
 anchored outside the bar ; but, owing to the state of the 
 weather, she did not venture in until the 4th cf Februar} r . 
 Shortly after, two of II. M.S. cruisers arrived, bringing 
 with them Bishop Mackenzie, and the Oxford and Cam- 
 
202 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 bridge missions to the tribes of the Shire and Lake 
 Nyassa. The mission consisted of six Englishmen and 
 five colored men from the Cape ; and as Dr. Livingstone and 
 his party were under orders to explore the Eovuma, about 
 seven hundred miles to the north of the Zambesi, and be- 
 yond Portuguese territory, they were somewhat at a loss 
 what to do with them. If they acceded to Bishop Macken- 
 zie's wishes, and conveyed them at once to Chibisa's village 
 on the Shire, and left them there, the}' dreaded, that, as they 
 had no medical attendant, they might meet the fate of 
 Mr. Helmore and his party at Linyanti. It was at last 
 arranged that the bishop should, after accompanying his 
 companions to Johanna, where they would await his re- 
 turn with H.M. Consul, Mr. Lumley, go with the expedi- 
 tion on board " The Pioneer" to the Eovuma, in the hope 
 that by this route access might be found to Lake Nyassa, 
 and the valley of the Shire. 
 
 u The Pioneer" anchored in the mouth of the Eovuma 
 on the 25th of February ; which they found to have a mag- 
 nificent natural harbor and bay. They sailed up the river 
 for thirty miles, though a hill}' and magnificently wooded 
 country, but were compelled to return as the river was 
 rapidly falling in volume, and they were afraid that the 
 ship might ground altogether, and have to lie there until 
 the next rainy season. Soon after reaching the sea, fever 
 prostrated the bulk of the crew ; and the command and 
 navigation of the ship devolved upon Dr. Livingstone, 
 tvho was quite equal to the occasion. He dryly remarks 
 that " The habit of finding the geographical positions, on 
 land renders it an easy task to steer a steamer, with only 
 three or four sails set, at sea ; where, if one does not run 
 ashore, no one follows to find out an error, and where a 
 current affords a ready excuse for every blunder." .After 
 
A SLAVE PARTY. 
 
 203 
 
 calling at Johanna for the bishop's friends, the}- sailed for 
 the mouth of the Zambesi, and steamed up that river to 
 the Shire, up which they ascended as far as Chibisa's 
 village ; the ship being dragged over the shallows with 
 extreme difficulty. She drew five feet of water, which 
 rendered her quite useless for the navigation of either of 
 the three great rivers which flowed through the tract of 
 country they were accredited to during the dry season. 
 
 On arriving at Chibisa's, they learned that war was 
 raging in the Manganja country $ and that on the follow- 
 ing day a slave party, on its way to Tete, would pass 
 through the village, ' 6 Shall we interfere ? " was the 
 question asked of each other. On the one hand, there 
 was the risk to be run, if they did, of irritating the au- 
 thorities at Tete, where the principal portion of the pri- 
 vate baggage of the party was stored, and which might 
 be confiscated in retaliation. On the other hand, Dr. Liv- 
 ingstone and the whole party were indignant that his 
 steps should be followed by slave-parties, who had never 
 entered the country before, and called themselves his 
 children and followers, while they extended the range of 
 accursed traffic, which he had gone through so much pri- 
 vations to put down. The decision, as might have been 
 expected, was that they should run all risks, and do what 
 they could to stop the traffic. 
 
 " A long line of manacled men and women made their 
 appearance. The black drivers, armed with muskets, and 
 bedecked with various articles of finery, marched jauntily 
 in the front, middle, and rear of the line, some of them 
 blowing exulting notes out of long tin horns. They 
 seemed to feel that they were doing a very noble thing, 
 and might proudly march with an air of triumph. But. 
 the instant the fellows caught a glimpse of the English, 
 
204 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the}' darted off like mad into the forest ; so fast, indeed, 
 that we caught but a glimpse of their red caps, and the 
 soles of their feet. The chief of the party alone re- 
 mained ; and he, from being in front, had his hand tightly 
 grasped by a Makololo. He proved to be a well-k iown 
 slave of the late commandant at Tete, and for some time 
 our own attendant while there. On asking him how he 
 obtained these captives, he replied, he had bought them ; 
 but, on our inquiring of the people themselves, all save 
 four said they had been captured in war. While this in- 
 quiry was going on, he bolted too. The captives knelt 
 down, and, in their way of expressing thanks, clapped 
 their hands with great energy. The}- were thus left 
 entirely in our hands ; and knives were soon at work cut- 
 ting women and children loose. It was more difficult to 
 cut the men adrift, as each had his neck in the fork of a 
 stout stick, six or seven feet long, and kept in b} T an iron 
 rod, which was riveted at both' ends across the throat. 
 With a saw, luckily in the bishop's baggage, one by one 
 the men were sawn out into freedom. The worn-en, on 
 being told to take the meal they were carrying, and cook 
 breakfast for themselves and the children, seemed to 
 consider the news too good to be true ; but, after a little 
 coaxing, went at it with alacrity, and made a capital fire 
 by which to boil their pots with the slave sticks and 
 bonds, their old acquaintances through many a sad night 
 and weary day. Many were mere children, about four 
 years of age and under. One little boy, with the sim- 
 plicity of childhood, said to our men, ' The others tied 
 and starved us : you cut the ropes, and tell us to eat. 
 What sort of people are you ? Where do you come from ? 9 
 Two of the women had been shot the day before for at - 
 tempting to untie the thongs. . . . One woman had her 
 
FIGHT WITH THE AJAWA. 205 
 
 infant's brains knocked out, because she could not carry 
 her load and it ; and a man was despatched with an axe, 
 because he had broken down with fatigue." 
 
 The number liberated was eighty-four in all ; and on 
 being told that they were at liberty to go where they 
 pleased, or remain with the mission, they chose the latter. 
 During several days following, many more captives were 
 liberated, their drivers running from before the face of 
 the white men. Months afterwards, at Tete, several mer- 
 chants, all of whom were engaged in the slave-trade, re- 
 marked to Dr. Livingstone that he had released some of 
 the governor's slaves, to which he replied that he had 
 liberated several groups of slaves in the Manganja 
 counitry. 
 
 Leaving the rescued slaves, the party started to visit 
 the^Ajawa people, who were carrying war and slavery 
 among the Manganja, and came upon them in the act of 
 sacking and burning a village, where Dr. Livingstone and 
 his friends had been previously entertained by the peace- 
 ful inhabitants, so many of whom were then engaged in 
 weaving cotton, that they jestingly called it u the Paisley 
 of the hills." After engaging with the bisho ) in fervent 
 prayer, the part}^ advanced to demand a parley. The 
 poor Manganja, seeing them, shouted out, " Our Chibisa is 
 come ; " Chibisa being well known as a great general and 
 conjuror. The Ajawa ran off 3 7 elling, " War, war ! " and 
 refused to listen to them ; but rallying, and forming them- 
 selves into a body, they began to shoot at them with 
 their poisoned arrows, until the party were reluctantly 
 compelled, in self-defence, to fire upon their assailants, 
 who fled, shouting back that they would follow and kill 
 them while they slept. This was the first occasion on 
 which, in all his wanderings, Dr. Livingstone had felt 
 
 18 
 
206 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 compelled to use force ; and it was with sad hearts that 
 he and his companions returned to the village they had 
 left in the morning, having failed in their attempt at con- 
 ciliation, and having been compelled reluctantly to take a 
 step which might subject them to much blame and mis- 
 construction at the hands of lukewarm friends and the 
 secret enemies of the cause they had at heart. 
 
 As the bishop had made up his mind to settle among the 
 Manganja, atMagomero, he felt naturally indignant at the 
 idea of the people in his charge being swept away into 
 slavery in hordes, and proposed that they should at once 
 follow the triumphant Ajawa, and drive them out of the 
 country, and liberate the captives that they might have in 
 their possession. All were in favor of this course save- Dr. 
 Livingstone, who saw clearly what w T ould be the result if 
 a Christian missionary took such a step as this ; and he 
 cautioned them not in any circumstances to interfere by 
 force in an} 7 of these wars, even although called upon by 
 the Manganja to go to their assistance in their extremity. 
 It is necessary to mention this, because many people 
 ignorantly blamed Dr. Livingstone for having given him 
 different counsel. The site chosen for the mission settle- 
 ment was on a small promontory, formed by the windings 
 of the clear little stream Magomero. It was completely 
 surrounded by stately trees. The weather was delight- 
 ful, and provisions were cheap and abundant ; and, when 
 Dr. Livingstone and his friends left them to proceed to 
 Lake Nyassa, the bishop had commenced to learn the 
 languages, Mr. Waller was bus} r superintending the 
 building operations, and Mr. Scudamore was getting 
 together the members of an infant school. They were 
 full of hope and ardor, and saw nothing before them but 
 success in the noble work they had sacrificed home and 
 comfort to accomplish. 
 
TROUBLES WITH THE NATIVES. 
 
 207 
 
 The disastrous end of the mission may as well be told 
 here. After laboring for some time with much accepta 
 tion among the neighboring tribes, and being anxious to 
 discover a nearer route to the Shire, Messrs. Proctor and 
 Scudamore, with a number of Manganja carriers, left in 
 December to explore the country for a new route. Their 
 guides misled them ; and they found themselves in a slave- 
 trading village, where the threatening aspect of the peo- 
 ple bodied mischief. Warned by a woman that if they 
 slept there they would be all killed, they prepared to 
 leave, when the Anguro followed, shooting their arrows 
 at the retreating party. Two of the carriers were taken 
 prisoners ; and the two missionaries, barely escaping with 
 their lives, swam a deep river, and made their way with 
 great difficulty to Magomero, where they arrived ex- 
 hausted with their exertions. 
 
 The wives of the two carriers pleaded with the bishop, 
 that, as their husbands had been made captive in his ser- 
 vice, he should rescue them from slavery. It appeared to 
 him to be his duty to do this ; and, on asking the Mako- 
 lolo who had remained with him to assist in the expedi- 
 tion, they joyfully assented, as they held the natives of 
 the lower Zambesi in utter contempt, and knew of no 
 better way of settling a difference with them than by a 
 resort to force. There can be no doubt, that, had the 
 bishop given them leave to do as they pleased, they would 
 have cleared the country of the offenders ; but he re- 
 strained them, which gave the delinquents an opportunity 
 of escaping. The offending village was burned, and a 
 few sheep and goats taken. The head man, being afraid 
 to retain the captives any longer, liberated them, and they 
 returned to their homes. As this expedition was under- 
 taken during the rainy season, and the missionaries got 
 
208 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 frequently wet, their health, was seriously affected. Mr. 
 Scudamore never recovered it, and the bishop and Mr. 
 Burrup suffered from diarrhoea. Notwithstanding the 
 state of their health, the two latter started for Chibisa. 
 The rivulets were swollen with the rains, which made 
 their progress very slow. As none of the Manganja men 
 would take them down the river during the flood, the 
 Makololo canoe men agreed to do so. The canoe was 
 upset ; and clothes, provisions, and medicines were un- 
 fortunately lost. The bishop was seized with fever, and 
 was faithfully tended by the Makololo in a hut on an 
 island at the mouth of the Ruo, from which miserable 
 shelter they saved him from being ejected by the chief of 
 the district. For three weeks they waited on him with 
 the utmost attention, when he died; Mr. Burrup, who 
 was ill of fever, staggering out, and repeating fragments 
 of the burial-service over his remains, as they laid them 
 in a grave dug on the edge of the forest. 
 
 Taking Mr. Burrup in a canoe as far up the river as 
 they could, the Makololo then formed a litter of branches, 
 and carried him to Magomero, where he died shortly after- 
 wards. Mr. Scudamore and Mr. Dickinson were dead ; 
 and all knowledge as to their fate was in the possession 
 of the faithful Makololo, who had seen the end, and in 
 the contents of a paper written by Mr. Burrup, and left, 
 along with other papers, with the chief of Malo, to be 
 given to the first Englishman who should ascend the river. 
 All that now remains of the mission, undertaken and 
 entered upon with such high hope, and carried on for a 
 time with enthusiastic zeal and success, is but the mounds 
 of earth by the banks of the Shire, which mark where the 
 bodies of its brave leaders sleep the last sleep. 
 
 A few weeks afterwards Capt. Wilson, of H. M. S, 
 
END OF THE MISSION. 
 
 209 
 
 " Gorgon," together with Dr. Kirk and' a large party, in- 
 cluding Mrs. Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, went up the 
 Shire, to join the mission, as they hoped ; and, although 
 they were close by the grave of Bishop Mackenzie, they 
 could hear nothing from the chief of Malo of the mission. 
 He was, in all likelihood, afraid that he might be blamed 
 for his death. At Chibisa's, the faithful Makololo told 
 them the sad news they had come so far to hear. This 
 information awakened fresh anxiety as to the fate of the 
 others ; so, leaving the ladies with Dr. Ramsay and the 
 Makololo, Capt. Wilson and Dr. Kirk pushed up into 
 the hill country , where they met the survivors of the mis- 
 sion-party at a chief's called Soche. Capt. Wilson had a 
 severe attack of fever ; and the whole party were so ex- 
 hausted that there was nothing for it but to return to the 
 boat, and sail sadly down the river to " The Pioneer." 
 On the 4th of April, " The Gorgon" sailed for the Cape, 
 taking with her all the surviving members of the mission 
 who had only arrived in January, save one. 
 
 On the 6th of August, 1861, Drs. Livingstone and 
 Kirk, and Mr. Charles Livingstone, started for Nyassa, 
 with a light, four-oared gig, and attended by a white sailor 
 and a score of natives. They found no difficulty in hiring 
 people to carry the boat from village to village ; and, as 
 they had the means of crossing the streams they met 
 with, were quite independent of the humors of the various 
 chiefs and head men, with whom, on a previous occasion, 
 they had to bargain for being transferred across the 
 streams. The course of the river was followed closely, so 
 as to avail themselves of the still reaches between the 
 rapids for sailing ; and, when they had passed the last of 
 them, they launched their boat for good on the Shire. 
 The upper portion of the river is so broad and deep that 
 
 18* 
 
210 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 it is roughly spoken of by the natives as a portion of the 
 lake. At one point in the upper reaches of the river, Lake 
 Shirwa is only a day's journey distant ; within a recent 
 period they must have been connected. The native land 
 party passed thousands of Manganja living in temporary 
 huts, who had been compelled to fly before the blood- 
 thirsty Ajawa. 
 
 The cooler temperature on the broad and deep waters 
 of the lake was very enjoyable, after the stifling heat on 
 the river, which in its upper reaches is enclosed in an 
 almost impenetrable belt of papyrus and other water- 
 plants ; but they were very nearly shipwrecked in a tre- 
 mendous storm which burst upon them almost without 
 warning. " The waves most dreaded came rolling on 
 in threes, with their crests driven into spray, stream- 
 ing behind them. . . . Had one of these white-maned 
 seas struck our frail bark, nothing could have saved us, 
 for they came on with resistless fury ; seaward, in shore, 
 and on either side of us, they broke in foam. But we 
 escaped. . . . We had to beach the boat every night 
 to save her from being swamped at anchor. Did we not 
 believe the gales to be peculiar to one season of the year, 
 we would call Nyassa the Lake of Storms. " 
 
 At no place in Africa had Dr. Livingstone found the 
 population so dense as on the shores of Nyassa. In 
 some parts there was almost one unbroken succession of 
 villages ; and the inhabitants lined the shores of every 
 bay, looking in wonder on a boat being propelled by sails. 
 Whenever they landed they were the objects of untiring 
 curiosity. The people are industrious agriculturists and 
 fishers, and appeared to enjoy plenty of every thing. No 
 fines or dues were exacted from the explorers, nor pres- 
 ents demanded. The northern dwellers on the lake during 
 
INSECT-CAKES. 
 
 211 
 
 a portion of the year reap a singular harvest. At the 
 proper season, clouds, as of smoke from burning grass, 
 hang over the lake and the adjacent country. These 
 clouds are formed of countless myriads of minute midges, 
 called by the natives Jcungo, which means a cloud or fog. 
 The natives gather these insects by night, and boil them 
 into thick cakes, which they eat as a relish to their vege- 
 table food. " A kungo cake, an inch thick, and as large 
 as the blue bonnet of a Scotch ploughman, was offered to 
 us ; it was very dark in color, and tasted not unlike 
 caviare, or salted locusts." 
 
 The lake swarmed with fish, which the native fishermen 
 catch in nets and basket-traps, and with hook and line. 
 The principal fish, .called the sanjilca, a kind of carp, 
 grows to a length of two feet. Its flesh was delicious, 
 better than that of any fish the party had tasted in Africa. 
 Fine watermen as the Makololo were, they frankly con- 
 fessed that the lake fishermen were their superiors in 
 daring and skill. 
 
 Their nets were formed from the fibres of the buaye; 
 and their clothes were manufactured from cotton grown 
 by themselves, or from the fibres of the bark of a tree 
 which is abundant in the district. The fishermen pre- 
 sented the party with fish, while the agricultural members 
 of the community gave food freely. The chief of the 
 northern parts, a tall, handsome man named Marenga, 
 gave them largely of food and beer. " Do they wear 
 such things in your country ? " he asked, pointing to his 
 iron bracelet, which was studded with copper, and highly 
 prized. The doctor said he nad never seen such in his 
 country ; whereupon Marenga instantly took it off, and 
 presented it to him, and his wife also did the same with 
 hers. On the return of the party, he tried to induce them 
 
212 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 to spend a day with him, drinking beer ; and when they 
 declined he loaded them with provisions. 
 
 Near Chilanda, one of the slave crossing-places, the 
 white members of the party were robbed, for the first 
 time in Africa, while they slept : quantities of wearing- 
 apparel and other things being taken. On the northern 
 shore of the lake, a tribe of Zulus known as Mazitu had 
 settled, and were carrying on the slave-trade with terrible 
 rigor, sweeping away the helpless people like sheep. 
 They had frequently attacked Marenga and his people ; 
 but the thickets and stockades around their villages ena- 
 bled the bowmen to pick off the Mazitu in security, and 
 they were driven off. Many of the Mazitu were settled 
 on islands in the lake, from which they emerged to 
 plunder and make captive the peaceful inhaibtants on 
 the shores of the lake. Long tracts of country were 
 passed through where " the population had all been swept 
 away ; ruined villages, broken utensils, and human skele- 
 tons, met with at' every turn, told a sad tale of 'man's 
 inhumanity to man.' The extent of the trade done in 
 slaves, in the Nyassa district, may be gathered from the 
 fact that nineteen thousand slaves alone pass through the 
 custom-house of the island of Zanzibar ; and those taken 
 out of the country form only a small section of the suf- 
 ferers, as many thousands more are slain in the slave-raids, 
 and die of famine after having to fly from their homes." 
 The exploration of the lake extended from the 2d of 
 September to the 27th of October, 1861, and was aban- 
 doned for a time because they had expended or lost the 
 most of their goods. The party frequently suffered from 
 the want of flesh-meat, although, from the great size of 
 the game, they frequently had much more than they could 
 use ; in which case the natives gladly accepted the surplus. 
 
AN UNNATURAL SLAVE-DEALER. 213 
 
 On one occasion they killed two hippopotami and an ele- 
 phant, " perhaps in all some eight tons of meat ; and, two 
 days after, they ate the last of a few sardines for dinner." 
 The wretched and ruined Manganja, although all their 
 sufferings were caused by the demand for human flesh, 
 sold each other into slavery when they had a chance. In 
 speaking of a native of this tribe, who sold a boy he had 
 made captive in a hostile raid, Dr. Livingstone speaks of 
 "having seen a man who was reputed humane, and in 
 whose veins no black blood flowed, parting, for the sum of 
 four pounds, with a good-looking girl, who stood in a 
 closer relationship to him, than the boy to the man who 
 excited our ire ; and, she being the nurse of his son be- 
 sides, both son and nurse made such a pitiable wail for 
 an entire day, that even the half-caste w T ho had bought her 
 relented, and offered to return her to the white man, but 
 in vain." It is so long since our government washed its 
 hands, at an immense cost, of this iniquitous traffic, and 
 it expends so much annually to put it down on the coast 
 of Africa, that the knowledge that such things can* be 
 done by civilized men comes with a shock upon us. Surely 
 the wonderful trials Dr. Livingstone has come through, in 
 his campaigns against this detestable traffic, will not have 
 been suffered in vain ~, nnd the knowledge of such crimes 
 against humanity will be the prelude to their extinction. 
 
 Arriving at the village at the foot of the cataracts, the 
 party found it in a much more flourishing condition than 
 when they passed up. A number of large huts had been 
 built, and the people had a plentiful stock of cloth and 
 beads. The sight of several fine large canoes, instead of 
 the old leaky ones w r hich lay there before, explained the 
 mystery : the place had become a crossing-place for the 
 slaves on their way to Tete. Well might the indignant 
 
214 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 members of the expedition say that " nothing was more 
 disheartening than the conduct of the Manganja, in prof- 
 iting by the entire breaking-up of their nation." 
 
 The party reached the ship on the 8th of November ; 
 and on the 14th Bishop Mackenzie and Mr. Burrup, who 
 had only just joined him, visited them. As they started 
 on their downward voyage, they "gave and received three 
 hearty English cheers, as they went to the shore ; and we 
 steamed off." This was the last they saw of these de- 
 voted men, as they soon after perished in the manner 
 already related. The ship having run aground about 
 twenty miles below Chibisa's, they w T ere detained five 
 weeks, until the river rose sufficiently to float her off; and 
 during their detention the carpenter's mate, a fine, healthy 
 young Englishman, died of fever ; being the first death of 
 a member of the expedition, although they had been three 
 years and a half in the country. 
 
 At Mboma's village, they heard that the notorious 
 Mariano had been allowed to leave Mozambique in order 
 to collect a heavy fine which had been imposed upon him 
 after trial, for his crimes. He had immediately taken to 
 his old trade, slaveiy, and had depopulated a large tract 
 of country on the right bank of the river. While express- 
 ing indignation at his conduct, and sending an expedition 
 against him, which he defeated, the leader of it being sent 
 back loaded with presents, the party had no doubt that 
 the Portuguese officials at Mozambique were quite aware 
 of his intentions before he started, and were, in all likeli- 
 hood, sharing in his ill-gotten gains. 
 
 Sailing down the Zambesi, they anchored in the Great 
 Luabo mouth of the Zambesi ; and, on the 30th of Decem- 
 ber, H. M. S. " Gorgon" arrived, towing the brig which 
 brought Mrs. Livingstone, Miss Mackenzie, and Mrs. 
 
DEATH OF MRS. LIVINGSTONE. 215 
 
 Burrup. The former had come out to join her husband ; 
 while the latter were on their way to join their friends at 
 Magomero, where they arrived, as we have already seen, 
 too lato to see their friends alive. 
 
 The progress of " The Pioneer," with the party, and a 
 portion of the sections of u The Lady Nyassa," a vessel 
 which Livingstone had had specially built for river-naviga- 
 tion, in pieces of a size which one man could carry on 
 board, was so distressingly slow, >n consequence of the 
 machinery having been allowed to get out of order, that 
 Livingstone and his friends determined to land, and put 
 the pieces of "The Lady Nyassa" together at Shupanga, 
 while Capt. Wilson, Dr. Kirk, and Dr. Ramsay, and Mr. 
 Sewell of " The Gorgon," and the mission-party, went for- 
 ward in the gig of that ship. 
 
 During the unhealthy season, several of Dr. Living- 
 stone's party suffered from fever ; and, about the middle of 
 April, Mrs. Livingstone was prostrated by that disease ; 
 and, notwithstanding that she received every attention 
 which affection and skill could render, she died on the 
 27th of that month, and was buried on the following day, 
 under the shadow of a giant baobab-tree ; the Rev. James 
 Stewart, who had shortly before come out to inquire into 
 the practicability of establishing a mission in connection 
 with the Free Church of Scotland, reading the burial-ser- 
 vice. The gallant seamen of u The Gorgon" mounted 
 guard for several nights over her last resting-place. It is 
 impossible not to sympathize with the stricken husband, 
 who thus lost the wife of his early years, who had shared 
 in so many of his trials and difficulties, just when he was 
 re-united to her after a separation of nearly four years. 
 Beloved and revered as she was by white men as well as 
 by black, the party who stood under the wide-spreading 
 
216 . LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 branches of the baobab-tree must have been a sad and 
 melancholy one. One comforting reflection there was, — 
 she died among dear and loving friends, and not alone 
 among savages, like Bishop Mackenzie and Mr. Burrup, 
 whose death was so soon to overwhelm with grief two com- 
 panions of her voyage out, who little dreamed, when they 
 sorrowed for her, that the dear ones they had come so far 
 to see had already been consigned to the grave by savage, 
 although friendly hands. 
 
 When ' ' The Lady Nyassa " was put together at Shupan- 
 ga, she was launched in the presence of a large assemblage 
 of natives, who had come from far and near to witness it. 
 The} T could not believe, that, being of iron, she would float ; 
 and their astonishment was great when they saw her glide 
 lightly and gracefully in the water. The figure-head, 
 which was the head and bust of a female, was pointed to 
 as a wonderful work of art. As it was now well on in 
 June, and the river was at its lowest, it would be impossi- 
 ble to sail up the river until December. The party pro- 
 ceeded in " The Pioneer " to Johanna, to obtain a supply 
 of provisions and other requisites, and some draught oxen 
 to cany the sections of " The Lady Nyassa " past the 
 Murchison Cataracts. Mr. Lumley, H. M. Consul, for- 
 warded their views in every way, and gave them six of his 
 own trained oxen, used in his sugar-plantation. 
 
 In the interval which must elapse before they could sail 
 up the Shire, the principal members of the ' expedition, 
 with a number of native assistants, proceeded to explore 
 the Rovuma, as Dr. Livingstone was not without hopes 
 that a better way to Lake Nyassa might be found by as- 
 cending this river ; but their hopes were doomed to disap- 
 pointment. The Rovuma was found to contain a much 
 smaller volume of water than many of the tributaries of 
 
ATTACKED BY NATIVES. 
 
 217 
 
 the Zambesi. Shallows were numerous ; and snags, formed 
 by the sinking of large trees in the mud during the sub- 
 sidence of the floods, rendered the navigation difficult even 
 for the boats of H. M. S. " Orestes," which had been lent 
 to the party for the ascent. Ninety miles from the mouth, 
 their farther progress was arrested by a series of cataracts ; 
 and there was nothing for it but to return to Johanna, 
 and proceed to Lake Nyassa by the valley of the Shire. 
 
 The lower part of the Rovuma valley was found to be 
 very sparsely populated, and of no great breadth, the hills 
 lying close to the river on* either side. Sixty-five miles up 
 the stream they arrived at an inhabited island ; and after 
 some difficulty they managed to open friendly relations, 
 and purchased food from the natives. Here not only the 
 females, but many of the young men, wore the pelele, or 
 lip-ring. Farther up the stream, at the temporary village 
 of an armed band of slave-traders, an attempt was made 
 to arrest their farther progress unless a toll was paid. 
 Rather than- proceed to extremities, Dr. Livingstone gave 
 them thirty pieces of calico, which so excited their cu- 
 pidity that they fired a volley of musketry and poisoned 
 arrows at the party, fortunately without effect. A few 
 shots fired at them drove these bloodthirsty cowards into 
 the forest, and secured the party from any further attack. 
 
 The people in the neighborhood of the cataracts were 
 found to be peaceful and industrious, and friendly in 
 their disposition. They are called Makoa, and are 
 known by a cicatrice on the brow, in the form of a cres- 
 cent, with the horns pointing downwards. The hills on 
 either side were lofty, and seemed to be outlying spurs of 
 a wide range on either side. Coal was found in such 
 circumstances as warranted the party in believing that it 
 existed in abundance in the valleys. 
 
 19 
 
CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 DREADFUL RESULTS OF A SLAVE-RAID. DR. LIVINGSTONS 
 
 RECALLED. JOURNEY OF EXPLORATION BEYOND LAKE 
 
 NYASSA. — STARTS FOR HOME. ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 
 
 In January, 1863, "The Pioneer" steamed up the 
 Shire, with " The Lady IsTyassa" in tow ; and she had 
 not breasted its waters for many hours before the party 
 came upon traces of the wholesale ravages of the noto- 
 rious and bloodthirsty Mariano. A little more than 
 twelve months before, the valley of the Shire was popu- 
 lous with peaceful and contented tribes : now the coun- 
 try was all but a desert, the very air polluted by the 
 putrid carcasses of the slain, which lay rotting on the 
 plains, and floated in the waters of the river in ' such 
 numbers as to clog the paddles of the steamer. Once 
 they saw a crocodile make a rush at the carcass of a boy, 
 and shake it as a terrier-dog shakes a rat, while others 
 rushed to share in the meal, and quickly devoured it. 
 The miserable inhabitants who had managed to avoid 
 being slain, or carried off into captivity, were collecting 
 insects, fruits, and wild fruits, — any thing, in short, that 
 would stave off starvation, — in the neighborhood of the 
 villages where they had formerly enjoyed peace and 
 plenty. They were entirely naked, save for the palm- 
 leaf aprons they wore, as every thing of any value had 
 been carried off by the slave-stealers. The sight of hun- 
 dreds of putrid dead bodies and bleached skeletons wa? 
 
 218 
 
RESULTS OF A SLAVE-RAID. 
 
 219 
 
 not half so painful as the groups of children and women 
 who were seen sitting amidst the ruins of their former 
 dwellings, with their ghastly, famine- stricken faces, and 
 dull, dead eyes. These made up such a tale of woe 
 and misery, that those who were dead might be deemed 
 fortunate in comparison with the survivors, who instinct- 
 ively clung to the devastated spot they had once called 
 home, and those who had been led into lifelong captivity. 
 Everywhere dead bodies were met with ; in the huts, 
 when opened, the mouldering corpse was found " with the 
 poor rags round the loins, the skull fallen off the pillow ; 
 the little skeleton of the child, that had perished first, 
 rolled up in a mat between two large skeletons." 
 
 Mr. Thornton rejoined the party on the Shire, bringing 
 with him supplies for the mission and the expedition 
 party, after successfully assisting Baron Vanderdecken in 
 a survey of the Kilimandjaro Mountains, and the ascent 
 of the highest member of the range to a height of fourteen 
 thousand feet, discovering, at the same time, that the 
 height above the level of the sea of the highest peak was 
 twenty thousand feet. These mountains above eight thou- 
 sand feet are covered with perpetual snow. The present 
 mission was to examine the geology of the district in the 
 neighborhood of the cataracts ; but, before he had well 
 begun his arduous labors, he was attacked with fever, and 
 died on the 21st of April. 
 
 While busily making a road through the forest to con- 
 nect the Lower Shire with the Upper, beyond the Mur- 
 chison Cataracts, Dr. Kirk and Mr. Charles Livingstone, 
 after repeated attacks of fever and dj^sentery, were com- 
 pelled to leave for England ; the undaunted chief of the 
 expedition remaining at his post, although he had had a 
 severe attack of fever. Before they had completed theil 
 
220 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D> 
 
 arrangements for passing the cataracts, a despatch arrived 
 from Lord John Russell, then minister for foreign affairs, 
 withdrawing the expedition. As the descent of the river 
 could not be made for some time, Dr. Livingstone deter- 
 mined on a journey to the neighborhood of Lake Nyassa ; 
 selecting five of the Makololo men, who had settled near 
 Chibisa's, and several of the Johanna men and natives on 
 the spot, making, in all, twenty native assistants, to accom- 
 pany him. In attempting to ascend the cataracts in 
 boats, one of these, with valuable stores in it, was lost 
 through the fpolhardiness of several Zambesi men, who 
 were desirous of showing that they could manage her 
 better than the Makololo. 
 
 As a punishment, the Zambesi men were sent back to 
 Chibisa's for provisions, cloth, and beads, Dr. Living- 
 stone determining to go on, on foot. The bold explorer 
 managed to penetrate, through a hitherto unvisited coun- 
 try, to a point a hundred miles to the west of the lake. 
 At the different villages he was well received, after his 
 intentions were made known. In many places he found 
 evidence of the ravages of the Ajawa ; and the inhabitants 
 were in daily dread of a slave-stealing raid being made 
 upon them, and naturally looked with suspicion on an 
 armed party, headed by a white man. The "country was 
 very populous, and exceedingly beautiful, showing every 
 variety of scenery to be found between the level plain and 
 the summits of the mountain ridges, at a height of from 
 three to four thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 The part}' were the recipients of much kind attention 
 from the great bulk of the simple inhabitants of the dis- 
 trict through which the}' passed ; and again and again 
 Dr. Livingstone had proofs, both of eye and ear, that the 
 native tribes in the interior, who have not suffered from 
 
CORN-GRINDING. 
 
 221 
 
 the introduction of the slave-trade, lead comparatively 
 blameless and industrious lives. It was a refreshing 
 sight to see men, women, and children preparing the 
 ground for their crops, or clearing the latter of weeds, 
 which were carefully gathered and burned, as in highly 
 farmed England ; or grinding their corn in the stone mill, 
 which consists, all over the districts he had visited, " of a 
 block of granite, or even mica schist, fifteen or eighteen 
 inches square, and four or six thick, with a piece t>f 
 quartz, or other hard rock, about the size of half a brick, 
 one side of which has a coarse surface, and fits into a 
 concave hollow in the larger and stationary stone. The 
 workwoman, kneeling, grasps this upper millstone with 
 both hands, and works it backwards and forwards in the 
 hollow of the lower millstone, in the same wa} 7 that a 
 baker works his dough, when pressing it, and pushing it 
 from him. The weight of the person is brought to bear 
 on the movable stone ; and, while it is pressed and pushed 
 forwards and backwards, one hand supplies, every now and 
 then, a little grain, to be thus at first bruised, and then 
 ground in the lower stone, which is placed on the slope, 
 so that the meal, when ground, falls on to a skin or mat 
 spread for the purpose." 
 
 Before being ground, the corn is pounded in a large 
 wooden mortar, exactly similar to that used by the ancient 
 Egyptians. The pestle is about six feet long, and four 
 inches in thickness. By this process the husk is removed 
 from, the grain ; and, that it is a tedious process, we have 
 the authority of Solomon, who thought that it took more 
 vigor and trouble to separate " a fool from his folly," than 
 to remove the hard husk from the wheat. 
 
 ' ' A chief named Muazi presented Livingstone with a 
 basket of unground corn ; and, on his hinting that he had 
 
 19* 
 
222 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE LL.D. 
 
 no wife to grind it for him, the chief's buxom spouse 
 archly said, ' I will grind it for you, and leave Muazi, to 
 accompany and cook for you in the land of the setting 
 sun. ,,, 
 
 Everywhere he was struck with little touches of human 
 nature, which told him that blacks and whites, in their 
 natural ways, were very much the same. Sleeping out- 
 Side a hut, but near enough to hear what passed in the 
 interior of it, he heard a native woman commence to grind 
 in the dark, about two o'clock in the morning. " Ma," 
 said her little daughter, " why grind in the dark?" After 
 telling her to go to sleep, she said, " I grind meal to buy 
 a cloth from the strangers, which will make you a little 
 lady." And, no doubt, the little child went to sleep quite 
 contented, just as an English girl would under like cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Their greatest luxury was beer, of which they drank 
 considerable quantities, generally in a hospitable kind 
 of way, inviting their neighbors to share in the jollifica- 
 tion. Under such circumstances, they politely praise the 
 quality of the liquor provided ; a common saying being, 
 that it was so good, " the taste reaches right to the back 
 of the neck." 
 
 The merchants or traders of the district are the Babisa. 
 They are distinguished by a line of horizontal cicatrices 
 down the middle of the forehead and chin. They collect 
 the ivory from the Manganja and the Ajawa, and carry it 
 to the coast, and sell it, bringing back European manu- 
 factures, beads, &c, in return for it, and deal in tobacco, 
 and native iron utensils. Some of the natives to the west 
 of the lake were very tall and strong ; many of them were 
 a good way over six feet in height, and six feet was com- 
 mon. On reaching Lake Nyassa on their return journey, 
 
AUGHT IN THE RAINS. 
 
 223 
 
 the} 7 found many of the inhabitants living in hiding 
 among the reeds by the margin of the lake ; temporary 
 huts being erected on the flattened reeds, which were so 
 thick and strong as to form a perfect though yielding 
 floor on the surface of the lake. They had a miserable, 
 half-starved appearance, agriculture being out of the 
 question while they were living in constant terror of a 
 visit from slave-trading bands. No one would yell any 
 food, unless in exchange for some other article of food, 
 for the simple reason that they were starving, many of 
 them dying from sheer want. 
 
 Before the party got back to the ship, they were caught 
 m the rains. Sometimes it came on at night, with unpleas- 
 ant results, when the party were asleep with no shelter 
 but the umbrageous foliage of some giant tree. Living- 
 stone says, " When very tired, a man feels determined to 
 sleep in spite of every thing ; and the sound of dripping 
 water is said to be conducive to slumber, but that does not 
 refer to an African storm. If, when half-asleep in spite 
 of a heavy shower on the back of the head, he uncon- 
 sciously turns on his side, the drops from the branches 
 make such capital shots into the ear, that the brain rings 
 again." Curiously enough, the keen, bracing air of the 
 highlands had a deleterious effect on the Zambesi. 
 
 The party reached the ship early in November, and 
 found those they had left there in good health. The 
 exploring party had travelled eight hundred miles in a 
 straight line, which gave a mileage of twelve and a half 
 per day ; but, taking the windings into account, Living- 
 stone put their rate of advance down at fifteen miles, a 
 wonderful progress, truly, in an unknown country. An 
 Ajawa chief named Kapeni waited upon them, and grati- 
 fied Livingstone by saying that he and most of his people 
 
224 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 were anxious to receive English missionaries as iheii 
 teachers. The effect of this was marred by intelligence, 
 which reached him shortly afterwards, that Bishop Tozer, 
 Bishop Mackenzie's successor, after a short stay near the 
 mouth of the Shire, on the top of Mount Morambala, had 
 determined to leave the country. In descending the 
 river, they heard that Mariano, the infamous slave- 
 stealing half-caste, had died of debauchery some time 
 previous. 
 
 A number of natives, old and young, who had been 
 attached to Bishop Mackenzie, some of whom had also 
 been with his successor, pleaded to be taken with the 
 party. Livingstone took them on board, and got them, 
 with the exception of seven men and ten boys whom he 
 kept with him on board "The Lady Nyassa," a passage 
 to the Cape on board H. M. S. " Orestes." H. M. S. 
 "Ariel" towed "The Lady Nyassa," with Livingstone 
 and his party on board, to Mozambique, during a dread- 
 ful storm, which knocked the little vessel about in such 
 a way, that it was a miracle she was not lost with all on 
 board. 
 
 "The Lady Nyassa" steamed from Mozambique to 
 Zanzibar ; and, as Livingstone had determined to dispose 
 of her, he started in her on a voyage of twenty-five hun- 
 dred miles for that purpose to Bombay, which he accom- 
 plished in safety, arriving there on the 13th of June, 
 having left Zanzibar on the 16th of April, the heroic 
 explorer acting as navigator ; his crew consisting of three 
 Europeans, — viz., a stoker, a sailor, and a carpenter, — 
 and seven native Zambesi men, and two boys. Considering 
 that the three European members of his crew were laid 
 aside for a month each, and his native Zambesi men had 
 to be taught the duties of the ship, and " The Lady Ny 
 
ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 
 
 225 
 
 assa" was a tiny, light craft, constructed for lake and 
 river navigation, the feat of sailing her across the Indian 
 Ocean was not the least marvellous of the many daring 
 undertakings he has successfully carried through. When 
 they steamed into the harbor of Bombay, he says, " The 
 vessel was so small, that no one noticed our arrival." His 
 appearance in civilized society, after such a fashion, must 
 have been as unexpected and wonderful as his turning up 
 among the Portuguese in the West, after travelling from 
 the Cape right across country through regions till then 
 wholly unknown. The two native bo} T s, who were about 
 sixteen years of age, named respectively Wakotani and 
 Chuma, were left with Dr. Wilson of Bombay, to be edu- 
 cated. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone arrived in England in the year 1864, 
 and busied himself with the preparation of his narrative 
 for the press, and thinking over further efforts to be made 
 for the amelioration of the condition of the natives of Cen- 
 tral Africa. It was quite clear to him that no help in this 
 direction must be looked for from the Portuguese govern- 
 ment, which, in spite of the utter valuelessness of their 
 possessions on the east coast of Africa, seemed to wink 
 at the devastation and depopulation of the country by 
 slave-dealers, and threw eveiy obstacle in the way of any 
 one anxious to acquire information regarding the tribes 
 bordering on their territory, and the introduction of legit- 
 imate commerce amongst them. The horrors Dr. Living- 
 stone had to make us acquainted with then, and those 
 which, though dead, he is still telling us, after having 
 been lost to his country and friends for years, cannot fail 
 to raise such a storm of indignation throughout the civil- 
 ized world, as will hasten the end of the frightful traffic 
 in human beings which is carried on under the protection 
 of the Portuguese flag. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 STARTS A THIBD TIME FOR AFRICA. HIS REPORTED MUR- 
 DER. EXPEDITION SENT IN SEARCH OF HIM. LETTERS 
 
 FROM HIMSELF. AGAIN LOST TO VIEW. MR. H. M. 
 
 STANLEY FINDS HIM AT UJUI. 
 
 When Dr. Livingstone arrived in England, the discov- 
 eries of Capt. Speke and Major Grant were the subject 
 of almost universal interest among the intelligent public ; 
 and he had not been long amongst us, when the enthu- 
 siasm those had excited, and the cravings for further 
 knowledge of the regions about the head waters of the 
 Nile, were further indulged by the discoveries of Sir 
 Samuel Baker. Lakes, hill ranges, and populous native 
 settlements, were slowly filling up the great blank patch 
 in the centre of the vast continent of Africa, which for 
 centuries had been assumed to be a vast sandy desert, a 
 second and greater Sahara. From the known regions of 
 Southern Africa, Livingstone had, in his several expedi- 
 tions from 1852, when he marched across the Kalahari 
 desert, and discovered Lake Ngami, down to his leaving 
 the Zambesi on the conclusion of his last series of ex- 
 plorations, laid down rivers, lakes, mountain ranges, and 
 native settlements, over a tract of country vastly more 
 extensive than was ever explored hy a single individual, 
 in the history of discovery and adventure. His discov- 
 eries in the South, and those of his contemporary ex- 
 plorers farther to the North, had settled the fact beyond 
 
 226 
 
INTEREST IN AFRICAN EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 227 
 
 dispute, that the centre of Africa was peopled by tribes 
 mentally and industrially capable of elevation, if the 
 iniquitous slave-trade was suppressed, and legitimate 
 commerce with civilized nations introduced amongst 
 them ; and that they inhabited regions rich in vegetable 
 and animal life, and watered by magnificent rivers and 
 streams ; which filled the minds of thoughtful men with 
 the hope of seeing opened, within a reasonable time, new 
 corn, cattle, cotton, coffee, sugar, indigo, coal, and iron 
 producing regions of so vast an extent, as to render the 
 European continent independent, in the future, of the ex- 
 haustion of her present stores, through the demands of a 
 population daily increasing in numbers and in wealth. 
 
 Between Speke and Grant's and Baker's discoveries, aud 
 Livingstone's in the south, there was still a vast tract of 
 country of which little or nothing reliable was known. 
 Farther investigation, and a due consideration of the 
 character of the newly-explored regions, led thinking 
 men to doubt and question the fact that Capt. Speke 
 had traced the Nile to its headquarters, when he watched 
 it flow, a noble stream, from the Victoria Nyanza Lake. 
 These doubts and questions soon resolved themselves into 
 actual belief that the head waters of the river of Egypt 
 must be carried as far south as Lake Tanganyika, and 
 farther south, as some thought. 
 
 Livingstone having a strong opinion that such was the 
 «tase, and that the northern and western watersheds were 
 not far removed from the point to which he had pene- 
 trated to the west of Lake Nyassa immediately before 
 his return, was not the sort of man to leave this question, 
 for long, a mere matter of opinion or probability. Early 
 in 1865, after he had recruited his health, and superin- 
 tended the publication of his explorations on the Zambesi , 
 
228 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the Shire, and the Rovuma, and Lake Xyassa, lie began 
 to make preparations for a new expedition, which should 
 push its way into the interior of the country by the Ro- 
 vuma, and thence northwards, as his experience should 
 direct. 
 
 The council of the Eoyal Geographical Society seconded 
 his aspirations, engaging him to undertake a fresh expedi- 
 tion to solve the problem of the direction taken by the 
 outflow from Lake Tanganyika, and the country between 
 it and Lake Nyassa. Earl Russell happily connected it 
 with the public interest, by renewing his appointment as 
 H. jVL Consul to the tribes in the interior ; and Mr. 
 Young, one of his oldest friends, advanced a thousand 
 pounds in furtherance of the objects of the expedition. 
 
 On the 14th of August Dr. Livingstone left England 
 to carry out this programme, proceeding direct for Bom- 
 bay, where he had left " The Lady Nyassa," seven Zam- 
 besi men. and the two boys who had been connected with 
 the Oxford and Cambridge mission on the Shire ; the 
 latter having been left in the interval in the charge, for 
 educational purposes, of Dr. Wilson, the well-known 
 missionary. He was pleased to find that they had con- 
 ducted themselves well, and could both read and write, 
 and that they were anxious to be baptized into the Eng- 
 lish Church, which was done before their departure with 
 him on his new expedition. In addition to these faithful 
 and tried followers, a native havildar, several sepoys, and 
 several Suahili lads from the Xassick School, Bombay, and 
 a number of men from the island of Johanna, were enlisted 
 Its assistants. These latter were headed by a man named 
 Moosa, whose name became painfully familiar throughout 
 the world, as we shall see farther on. Thus accompanied, 
 Dr. Livingstone sailed from Zanzibar for the Rovuma, 
 
REPORT OF HIS DEATH. 
 
 229 
 
 on the 28th of March, 1866. A letter to his friends, 
 written when about to start from the coast, and a de- 
 spatch, dated 18th May, sent to Zanzibar for the English 
 government from Ngomano, which stated that he tl^n 
 stood on the threshold of the unexplored, comprehended 
 all that was known of his movements, until Moosa and 
 the other Johanna men returned, bringing a circumstan- 
 tial report that he had been slain in an encounter with a 
 band of natives (Mafite) and Zulus. According to their 
 account, the party had left Kampoonda, on the shore of 
 Lake Nyassa, and had travelled five days. The Johanna 
 men, with the exception of Moosa (it was necessary one, 
 at least, should be near to give credibility to the story) , 
 were at a considerable distance behind, carrying the 
 Joads. The party was weakened by the dismissal of the 
 sepoys, and the desertion of several of his attendants. 
 The following is from the despatch sent by the British 
 resident at Zanzibar : — 
 
 "Livingstone, as usual, led the way, his nine or ten 
 unpractised musketeers at his heels. Ali Moosa had 
 nearly come up with them, having left his own Johanna 
 men resting with their loads, far in the rear. Suddenly 
 he heard Livingstone warn the boys that the Mafite were 
 coming ; the boys, in turn, beckoned Moosa to press for- 
 ward. Moosa saw the crowd here and there among the 
 trees ; and he had just gained the party, and had sunk 
 down behind a tree to deliver his own fire, when his 
 leader fell by an axe-cut from behind. Moosa fled for 
 his life along the path he had come, meeting his Johanna 
 men, who threw down their loads, and in a body rushed 
 into the deeper forest. . . . Near him, in front, lay the 
 grim Zulus, who were killed under his sure aim ; here and 
 there lay some four dead fugitives p£ the expedition, 
 
 20 
 
230 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 That >ne blow had killed him outright : he had no other 
 wound but this terrible gash ; it must have gone, from 
 their description, through the neck and spine, up to the 
 throat in front, and it had nearly decapitated him." 
 
 This story, circumstantial in all its details, was ac- 
 cepted as true by all, save a few friends of Livingstone's, 
 chief among wh'jm were Sir Roderick Murchison, Mr. 
 E. D. Young, and the Rev. Mr. Waller, who had been for 
 some time with Dr. Livingstone on the Zambesi. So 
 firmly persuaded were these sagacious men of the false- 
 hood of the report brought by the Johanna men, mainly 
 from an accurate knowledge of Livingstone's method of 
 dealing with the natives in Africa, and the fact that none 
 but Johanna men had returned to tell the tale, and that 
 none of them was missing, that they at once set about 
 organizing an expedition to discover the truth ; the dis- 
 trict of his reputed murder to be reached by way of the 
 Zambesi and the Shire, in a small vessel to be built for 
 the purpose. Mr. Young was appointed leader of the 
 expedition ; and with him were associated Mr. Henry 
 Faulkner, formerly a captain in H. M. 17th Lancers, Mr. 
 J. Buckley, an old shipmate of Mr. Young's, and Mr. 
 John Reid, a mechanic. The expedition was originally 
 organized and provided for b} T the council of the Royal 
 Geographical Society, and was warmly encouraged and 
 assisted by the admiralty. A boat was constructed of 
 steel, in sections weighing only fifty pounds each, for con- 
 venience of land-carriage past the Murchison Rapids on 
 the Shire ; and in this the members of the expedition were 
 to be rowel by natives up the Zambesi and the Shire. 
 The boat was christened " The Search ; " she was placed 
 on board the Cape mail-steamer " The Celt," which sailed 
 from Plymouth on the lOtb of June, 1867, reaching Table 
 Bay on the 12th of July. 
 
THE SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 231 
 
 In their instructions from the council of the Geographi- 
 cal Society, and the Admiralty, they were enjoined, if 
 possible, to complete their mission, and return to the 
 coast by or before the end of November, when one of 
 H.M.S. cruisers would arrive about that time to take them 
 off. On the 27th of July " The Search," and two whale- 
 bjats which the} 7 intended to take with them to assist in 
 currying their necessary impedimenta, which was com- 
 prised within the smallest bulk that a knowledge of their 
 necessities could manage, was launched from the deck of 
 H.M.S. "Petrel ; " and accompanied by two of the cutters 
 of the ship, in which were several officers, they safely 
 crossed the bar of the Kongone, and landed on the delta, 
 where they completed their final arrangements, such as 
 engaging native rowers, &c. They started at eight, a.m., 
 on the 6th of August, and proceeded up stream ; and for 
 a time the search party were lost to view. 
 
 In the mean time reports had reached Zanzibar, through 
 various channels, that a white man had been seen to the 
 west of Tanganyika, in the country of the Marunga. The 
 information was brought by a native slave, who picked 
 out the traveller's photograph from many others as being 
 the white man he had seen. Rumors of a similar kind 
 arrived at Zanzibar, and tended greatly to allay the feel- 
 ing of pain and uncertainty which had been caused by 
 his reputed death. 
 
 All doubts of the falsehood of the Johanna men were 
 «et at rest by the arrival of Mr. Young and Mr. Faulkner 
 of the Livingstone search expedition, at the Cape, on the 
 17th of December, 1867 ; bringing intelligence that they 
 had met with natives on the banks of Lake Nyassa, who 
 had seem Livingstone after the Johanna men had deserted 
 him, and who had been emoloyed in carrying his baggage 
 
232 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL D. 
 
 twenty miles to the north-west of Maksoira's village ; which, 
 again, was ten days' journey from the point at which the 
 Johanna men had deserted him, and returned to spread a 
 report of the death of the great traveller, to cover their 
 own cowardly and treacherous conduct in leaving their 
 leader to his fate. One of the natives at Marenga's town, 
 where Livingstone had been generously treated by the 
 chief of that name, had a knife, and another had a spoon, 
 which the u white man" had presented to them. Pro- 
 ceeding to Mapunda's village, in search of still further 
 information, the mother of that chief showed them a 
 prayer-book, containing the name of one of the doctor's 
 followers who had been left* behind on account of lame- 
 ness. As this bo} r , Waik-tanee (who was reported by the 
 Johanna men to have deserted) , was absent with the chief, 
 Mr. Young and his party had no opportunity of examin- 
 ing him. As, in addition to the information received 
 from so many sources, all the natives who had seen Dr. 
 Livingstone, as he passed through, recognized his photo- 
 graph among a number of others, they had no doubt but 
 that their mission was accomplished, and the dauntless 
 explorer had passed. onwards to settle the question of the 
 head waters of the Nile, and work his way home by that 
 river. After waiting for a considerable time at the mouth 
 of the Kongone, the search party were taken off by H.M.S. 
 44 Racoon ; " when they had the satisfaction of having their 
 information corroborated by the native intelligence we have 
 already alluded to as having arrived at Zanzibar, that 
 Livingstone was alive and well long after the date up to 
 which they had traced his actual presence, and his more 
 than probable safety for some time after ; Marenga being 
 certain, that, if any disaster had befallen him within sev- 
 eral months' journey of the spot, he would have heard of it 
 
A EAPPT POL Y GAM 1ST. 
 
 233 
 
 This Marenga appears to have made a strong impres- 
 sion on Mr. Young. When he first met him, he says, " I 
 found myself in the presence of a fat, jovial-looking old 
 fellow, the very picture of good living and good humor. 
 Without further ado, he seized me by the hand, and shook 
 it most violently, clearly demonstrating not only his re- 
 spect for my countrymen, but also for their mode of salu- 
 tation." When Moosa and his companions returned to 
 Marenga's village, after deserting Livingstone, he up- 
 braided them with their desertion of him. They said, 
 " They were merely Arabs who had come across Living- 
 stone in his wanderings, and had consented to help him 
 in his undertaking ; but, really, there must be some limit 
 to all things ; and, as they knew he was about to enter a 
 very dangerous country, they were not justified in further 
 indulging their disinterested motives in assisting a travel- 
 ler, and having, as it were, torn themselves away from 
 him with reluctance, they must now go back to the 
 coast." Marenga belonged to the Babisa, of whom we 
 have already spoken as being the traders of the district 
 round Nyassa. He was a horrid polygamist, and, what is 
 more, evidently maintained his numerous wives in peace 
 and harmony. Mr. Young says, " With great satisfac- 
 tion he introduced us to forty of his young wives, who, 
 although not fair, and far under forty in years in any case, 
 were as sleek as good living and pombi (beer) drinking 
 could make them. Their reverence for their liege lord 
 was excessive ; and he could not stir without his least 
 want or wish being anticipated by one or other of them." 
 Speaking of the expedition of Mr. Young, and its suc- 
 cessful termination, in a letter to the members of the 
 Geographical Society, Sir Roderick Murchison says, " To 
 put together a boat constructed in sections, to find a negro 
 20* 
 
234 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 crew for the navigation of the Zambesi, to put the boat 
 together, and have it carried up thirty-six miles along the 
 sides of the cataracts (the Murchison Cataracts) to the 
 River Shire ; then, after navigating the waters until the fate 
 of Livingstone was clearly ascertained, to take the vessel 
 to pieces, and convey it to the Zambesi ; and again to re- 
 construct it, and to sail down the Zambesi, and finally 
 bring it and the party safe back to England without the 
 loss of a single man, — this, indeed, is a real triumph." 
 Mr. Young has published an account of the expedition, 
 entitled " The Search after Livingstone;" and Capt. 
 Faulkner has published a work under the title of ' 6 Ele- 
 phant Haunts," &c, which gives an interesting account 
 of the animal life of the districts through which they 
 passed, and his sporting adventures among them. 
 
 The first accounts of his movements, by the traveller 
 himself, reached the country in the shape of a letter to a 
 friend in Edinburgh, about the 20th of April, from which 
 we make the following extracts. It is dated the country 
 of Chipeta, which is far to the north-west of the point to 
 which the search expedition traced him, and was written 
 on the 10th of November, 1866. "It has been quite im- 
 possible to send a letter coastwise ever since we left the 
 Rovuma. The Arab slave-traders take to their heels as 
 soon as they hear that the English are on the road. I am 
 a perfect bugbear to them. Eight parties thus skedaddled ; 
 and, last of all, my Johanna men, frightened out of their 
 frits by stories told them by a member of a ninth party 
 who had been plundered of his slaves, walked off, and 
 Left me to face the terrible Mazitu with nine Nassick 
 boys. The fear which the English name has struck into 
 the slave-traders has thus been an inconvenience. I 
 could not go round the north end of the lake for fear that 
 
NEWS FROM LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 235 
 
 my Johanna men, at sight of danger, would do then what 
 they actually did at ;he southern end ; and the owr.er of 
 two dhows now on the lake kept them out of sight, lest I 
 should burn them as slavers, and I could not cross in the 
 middle." Hounding the southern end, he got up Kirk's 
 range, and among Manganja not yet made slave-sellers. 
 " This was a great treat ; for, like all who have not been 
 contaminated by that blight, they were very kind ; and, 
 having been worried enough by unwilling sepoys and cow- 
 ardly Johanna men, I followed my bent by easy marches, 
 among friendly, generous people, to whom I tried to im- 
 part some new ideas in return for their hospitality. The 
 country is elevated, and the climate cool. One of the 
 wonders told of us in successive villages was that we slept 
 without fires. The boys, having blankets, did not need 
 fire ; while the inhabitants, being scantily clad, have their 
 huts plastered inside and out, and even use moss to make 
 them comfortable. Our progress since has been slow 
 from other and less agreeable causes. Some parts have 
 been denuded of food by marauding Mazitu or Zulus : we 
 have been fain to avoid them, and gone zigzag. Once we 
 nearly walked into the hands of a party ; and several times 
 we have been detained by rumors of the enemy in front. 
 
 " January, 1867. — I mention several causes of delay ; 
 i mu&t add the rainy season is more potent than all, 
 except hunger. In passing through the Babisa country, 
 we found that food was not to be had. The Babisa are 
 great slave-traders, and have, in consequence, little indus- 
 try. This seems to be the chief cause of their having no 
 food to spare. The rains, too, are more copious than I 
 ever saw them anywhere in Africa ; but we shall get on 
 in time. Feb. 1. — I am in Bemba or Loemba, and at 
 the chief man's place, which has three stockades around 
 
236 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D, 
 
 it, and a deep, dry ditch round the inner one. He 
 seems a fine fellow, and gave us a cow to slaughter on 
 our arrival y esterday. We are going to hold a Christmas 
 feast of it to-morrow, as I promised the boj-s a blow-out 
 when we came to a place of plenty. We have had pre- 
 cious hard lines ; and I would not complain, if it had not 
 been for gnawing hunger for many a day, and our bones 
 sticking through, as if they would burst the skin. When 
 we were in a part where game abounded, I filled the pot 
 with a first-rate rifle, given me by Capt. Warter ; but 
 elsewhere we had but very short rations of a species of 
 millet called macre, which passes the stomach almost 
 unchanged. The sorest grief of all was the loss of the 
 medicine-box, which your friends at Apothecaries' Hall so 
 kindly fitted up." Several of his attendants acting as 
 carriers had made off with the box, his plates, and dishes, 
 and most of his powder, and two guns. " This loss, with 
 all our medicine, fell on my heart like a sentence of death 
 by fever, as was the. case with poor Bishop Mackenzie ; 
 but I shall try native remedies, trusting Him who has led 
 me hitherto to lead me still. We have been mostly on 
 elevated land, between three thousand and five thousand 
 feet above the sea. I think we are now in the watershed 
 for which I was to seek. We are forty-five hundred feet 
 above the sea level, and will begin to descend when we go. 
 This maybe put down as 10°, 50', 2". We found a party 
 of black half-caste armed slaves here, and one promised to 
 take a letter to Zanzibar ; but they give me only half a 
 day to write. I shall send what I can, and hope they 
 will be as good as their word. We have not had a single 
 difficulty with the people, but we have been very slow. 
 Eight miles a day is a good march for us, loaded as the 
 boys are ; and we have often been obliged to go zigzag, 
 us I mentioned. Blessings on you all ! " 
 
AN INTELLIGENT CHIEF. 
 
 237 
 
 The next communication from Livingstone was ad- 
 dressed to Sir Roderick Murchison, and was read at a 
 meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, on the 29th 
 of April, 1868. It is dated Feb. 2, 1867. We give 
 extracts from it, cutting out parts referring to matters 
 dealt with in the preceding letter. From the end of 
 July to the middle of September, Livingstone remained 
 at Mateka, about fifty miles from Nyassa on the Rovuma 
 side. He says, "There are at least a thousand houses 
 in the town, and Mateka is the most powerful chief in the 
 country. . . . He was anxious that some of the liberated 
 boys (Nassick bo}<s) should remain with him ; and I tried 
 my best to induce them, but in vain. He wished to be 
 shown how to make use of his cattle in agriculture : I 
 promised to try and get some other boys, acquainted with 
 Indian^ agriculture, for him. That is the best point I 
 have seen for an influential station, and Mateka showed 
 some sense of right. When his people went, without his 
 knowledge, to plunder at a part of the lake, he ordered 
 the captives and cattle to be sent back. This was his 
 own spontaneous act, and it took place before our arrival ; 
 but I accidentally saw the strangers. They consisted of 
 fifty-four women and children, about a dozen bo3 T s, thirty 
 head of cattle and calves. I gave him a trinket in mem- 
 ury of his good conduct, at which he was delighted ; for it 
 aad not been without opposition that he carried out his 
 orders, and he showed the token of my approbation in 
 triumph." 
 
 Leaving the shores of the lake, he endeavored to 
 ascend Kirk's range ; 4 ; but the people below were afraid 
 of those above ; and it was only after an old friend, 
 Katosa, had turned out with his wives to carry our extra 
 loads, that we got up. It is only the edge of a plateau, 
 
238 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D, 
 
 peopled by various tribes of Manganja, who had never 
 been engaged in slaving ; in fact, they had driven away a 
 lot of Arab slavers a short time before. We used to 
 think them all Maravi ; but Katosa is the only Maravi 
 % chief we know. The Kanthunda, or climbers, live on the 
 mountains that rise out of the plateau ; the Chipeta live 
 more on the plains there ; the Echewa still farther north. 
 We went among a very hospitable people, until we 
 thought we were past the longitude of the Mazitu ; we 
 then turned north, and all but fell into the hands of a 
 marauding party of that people. After a rather zigzag 
 course, we took up the point we had left in 1863, or say 
 21' west of Chimanga's, crossed the Loangwa in 12° 
 45' south, as it flows in the bed of an ancient lake, and, 
 after emerging out of this great hollow, we ascended the 
 plateau of Lobisa, at the southern limit of 11° south. 
 The hills on one part of it rise to a height of sixty-six 
 hundred feet above the sea, . . . We had now, on the 
 plains, a good deal of gnawing hunger, as day after day 
 we trod the sloppy, dripping forests, which yield some 
 wretched wild fruit and lots of mushrooms. A woman 
 collected a load of half a hundred weight. After cooking, 
 they pound them into what they call 4 porridge ; ' but, woe 
 is me ! they are good only for producing dreams of the 
 roast beef of bygone days. . . . When we got to the 
 Chambeze, which is true to the character of the Zambesi, 
 in having abundant animal life in its waters, we soon got 
 an antelope on its banks. We crossed it in 10° 24' : it 
 was flooded with clear water, but the lines of bushy trees 
 which showed its actual banks were not more than forty 
 yards apart. 
 
 " We arrived here (at Bemba) on the last day of Jan 
 uary. It is a stockaded village with three lines of defence, 
 
LIVINGSTONE AT TANGANYIKA. 
 
 239 
 
 the inner one having a deep dry ditch round it. I think, 
 if I am not mistaken, we are on the watershed between 
 the Chambeze and Loapula. I have not had any time to 
 take observations, as it is the rainy season, and almost 
 always cloudy ; but we shall rest a little here, and get 
 some flesh on our bones. Altitude about forty-five hun 
 dred feet above the sea. The Loapula is said to be a 
 very large river; but I hope to send fuller information 
 from Tanganyika. . . . The chief here seems a jolly, 
 frank person ; but, unless the country is insecure, I don't 
 see the use of his lines of circumvallation. He presented 
 a cow on our arrival, and an elephant's tusk, because I 
 had sat upon it. 
 
 " I have had no news whatever from the coast since we 
 left it, but hope for letters, and our second stock of goods 
 (a small one), at Ujiji. I have been unable to send 
 any thing either : some letters I have written in hopes of 
 meeting an Arab slave-trader, but they all skedaddled as 
 soon as they heard the English were coming." 
 
 News reached England early in October that Living- 
 stone was on his way to the coast, and was, at the time 
 of their transmission, within a few miles of Zanzibar ; but, 
 on the 20th and 23d, word reached London from Dr. 
 Kirk, that he had letters from him dated from Marenga, 
 a district south, and in the vicinity of Lake Tangan- 
 yika, in latitude 7° 55' south, and longitude 30° east, 
 near Ujiji, a district and an Arab station on Lake 
 Tanganyika. This letter was very brief, and had been 
 written in the months of October and December, and 
 gave a satisfactory account for the delay in his progress 
 to the north. He had been living for three months with 
 friendly Arabs, and waiting for the close of a native war 
 before proceeding to Ujiji ; and he told the Arab mes- 
 
240 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 senger, that, after exploring Tanganyika, he meant to 
 return to Zanzibar. Dr. Kirk reported, when sending this 
 information, that provisions, medicines, letters, &c, bad 
 been sent to Ujiji to meet him, some time previous to the 
 receipt of his letters. 
 
 On the 18th of January, 1869, a letter appeared in " The 
 Times" from Horace Waller, one of Livingstone's old 
 comrades during a part of the Zambesi expedition, that, 
 from letters received from Dr. Kirk from Zanzibar, noth- 
 ing had been heard of Livingstone for a long time. After 
 cautioning the public to be in no anxiety on that account, 
 he says, u Dr. Kirk informs me that Moosa (the chief of 
 the Johanna men who deserted him) has been handed 
 over to him at Zanzibar from Johanna. Finding that he 
 had already passed eight months in heavy irons, the 
 authorities very humanely considered this time sufficient 
 for the reflective powers of the mischievous scamp to 
 reconsider the merits of truth and falsehood ; so Dr. Kirk' 
 set him free." 
 
 On the 19th of April, news arrived in England that 
 Livingstone had reached Zanzibar, and was on his way to 
 England. His old friend Sir Roderick Murchison pub- 
 lished his doubts of the truth of this ; and, as in many 
 other cases where the great traveller was concerned, the 
 veteran geologist was correct. A report of Dr. Living- 
 stone having been murdered, and another of his being in 
 captivity, having got into circulation, was causing much 
 anxiety in the public mind. Sir R. Murchison wrote in 
 "The London Scotsman" on the 6th of September, as 
 follows. After explaining that a long time must elapse, 
 in consequence of the district into which he had entered, 
 before we could expect to hear from him, he says, u It is, 
 therefore, I think, quite unnecessary to have recourse to 
 
LETTER TO LORD CLARENDON. 241 
 
 the hypothesis of his captivity. But, whatever may be 
 the speculations entered into during his absence, I have 
 such implicit confidence in the tenacity of purpose, undy- 
 ing resolution, and Herculean power, of Livingstone, that, 
 however he may be delayed, I hold stoutly to the opinion 
 that he will overcome every obstacle, and will, as I have 
 suggested, emerge from South Africa on the same west- 
 ern shore on which he appeared after his first great 
 march across that region, and long after his life had 
 been despaired of." 
 
 Sir Roderick Murchison was partly right once more. 
 Livingstone was not on his way home, nor thinking of it ; 
 for on the 24th of October, 1869, a telegram was re- 
 ceived in this country, to the effect that Dr. Kirk had 
 received a letter from him, dated July 8, 1868, from 
 Lake Bangweolo, in which he said, " I have found the 
 source of the Nile between 10° and 12° south." The 
 great traveller wrote in good health and spirits ; and 
 it was cheering, at the same time, to be told that a cara- 
 van, which had recently arrived at Zanzibar, reported him 
 at Ujiji on Lake Tanganjdka, and that the road between 
 them was open. 
 
 The letter was addressed to Lord Clarendon. We give 
 the following extracts : " When I had the honor of writ- 
 ing to you in February, 1867, I had the impression that I 
 was then on the watershed of the Zambesi, and either the 
 Congo or the Nile. More extended observation has since 
 convinced me of the essential correctness of that impres- 
 sion ; and from what I have seen, together with what I 
 have learned from intelligent natives, I think that I may 
 safely assert that the chief sources of the Nile arise 
 between 10° and 12° south latitude, or nearly in the 
 position assigned to them by Ptolemy, whose River 
 
 21 
 
212 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Rap tit a is probably the Rovuma. Aware that others 
 have been mistaken, and laying no claim to infallibility, I 
 do not speak very positively, particularly of the parts 
 "west and north-west of Tanganyika, because these have 
 not yet come under my observation ; but if your lordshij 
 will read the following short sketch of my discoveries, 
 you will perceive that the springs of the Nile have hith- 
 erto been searched for very much too far north. They 
 rise about four hundred miles south of the most southerly 
 portion of Victoria Nyanza, and, indeed, south of all th$ 
 lakes except Bangweolo, leaving the valley of the Lo 
 angwa, which enters the Zambesi at Zumbo. We climbed 
 up what seemed to be a great mountain mass ; but it 
 turned out to be only the southern edge of an elevated 
 region, which is from three thousand to six thousand feet 
 above the level of the sea. This upland may roughly be 
 said to cover a space south of Lake Tanganyika of some 
 three hundred and fifty square miles. It is generally 
 covered with dense or open forest ; has an undulating, 
 sometimes hilly surface, a rich soil, is well watered by 
 numerous rivulets ; and, for Africa, is cold. It slopes 
 towards the north and west ; but I have found no part of 
 it under three hundred feet of altitude. The country of 
 Xsango, situated east of the space indicated, is also an 
 upland, and affords pasturage for the immense herds of 
 the cattle of the Basango, a remarkably light-colored race, 
 very friendly to strangers. Nsango forms the eastern 
 side of a great but still elevated valley. The other or 
 western arch is formed by what are called the Kone 
 Mountains, beyond the copper mines of Katango. Still 
 farther w r est, and beyond the Kone range or plateau, our 
 old acquaintance the Zambesi, under the name of Jam- 
 basi, is said to rise. The southern end of the great 
 
COURSE OF THE RIVERS. 
 
 243 
 
 valley between Nsango and the Kone range is between 
 11° and 12° south. ... As we advanced, brooks, 
 evidently perennial, became numerous. Some went 
 eastwards to fall into the Loangwa ; others went north- 
 west to join the river Chambeze. Misled by a map call- 
 ing this river, in an off-hand manner, 4 Zambezi, eastern 
 branch,' I took it to be the southern river of that name ; 
 but the Chambeze, with all its branches, flows from the 
 eastern side into the centre of the great upland valley 
 mentioned, which is probably the valle}^ of the Nile. It 
 is an' interesting river, as helping to form these lakes, and 
 changing its name three times in the five hundred or six 
 hundred miles of its course. . . . 
 
 " The Chambeze runs into Lake Bangweolo, and on 
 coming out of it assumes the name Luapula, and flows 
 north, past the town of Cazembe, and twelve miles below 
 it enters Lake Moero. On leaving Moero, ... it takes 
 the name Lualapa, and passing on north-north-west forms 
 Lake N}denge, in the country west of Tanganyika." 
 
 Here follow a number of surmises as to the course of 
 the river running out of Nylenge ; which were exceedingly 
 interesting at the time, but are now forestalled by infor- 
 mation derived from personal observation, with which we 
 will deal farther on. The summing up of his opinion, as 
 to the destination of all the water flowing to the north by 
 numerous channels, is worthy of weight in the light of 
 what he has actually determined, and was about to further 
 establish when left by Mr. Stanley, the persevering and 
 courageous correspondent of "The New York Herald," 
 who had the good fortune to connect the great traveller 
 once more with civilization. He says, u My opinion at 
 present is, if the large amount of water I have seen 
 going north does not flow past Tanganyika on the west, 
 
244 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 it must have an exit from the lake, and in all likelihood 
 by the Loanda. . . . On the northern slope of the up- 
 land, and on the 2d of April, 1867, I discovered Lake 
 Liemba. It lies in a hollow, with precipitous sides, two 
 thousand feet down. It is extremely beautiful ; sides, top, 
 and bottom being covered with trees and other vegetation. 
 Elephants, buffaloes, and antelopes feed on the steep 
 slopes, while hippopotami, crocodiles, and fish swarm in 
 the waters. ... It is as perfect a natural paradise as 
 Xenophon could have desired. On two rocky islands, 
 men till the land, rear goats, and catch fish ; the villages 
 ashore are embowered in the palm-oil palms of the west 
 coast of Africa. Four considerable streams flow into 
 Liemba ; and a number of brooks, from twelve to fifteen 
 feet broad, leap down the steep bright clay schist rocks, 
 and form splendid cascades, that made the dullest of my 
 attendants pause and remark with wonder. I measured 
 one of the streams fifty miles from its confluence, and 
 found it, at a ford, two hundred and ninety-four feet, . . . 
 thigh and waist deep, and flowing fast over hardened 
 sandstone flag, in September. The last rain had fallen 
 on the 12th of Maj\ . . . The Lonzua drives a large 
 body of smooth water into Liemba : this body of water was 
 ten fathoms deep. Another of the four streams is said to 
 be larger than the Lofu ; but an over-officious head man 
 prevented me from seeing more of it and another than 
 three mouths. The lake is not large ; from eighteen to 
 twenty miles broad, and from thirty to forty long." 
 
 Livingstone was unable, a war being then raging, to 
 settle the question whether the lake was connected by its 
 effluent, or not, with Lake Tanganyika, which he strongly 
 suspected. Afterwards, according to intelligence received 
 through Mr. Stanley, he found that his surmise was cor- 
 
VISIT TO CAZEMBE. 
 
 245 
 
 rect, and added one more link to the chain of evidence 
 that he was among the head waters of the Nile. The war, 
 which interrupted his forward progress in the direction he 
 wished to proceed, was the result of a quarrel between the 
 chief of Itawa and a party of ivory- traders. On going 
 eighty miles in a direction to avoid the disturbed district, 
 he came upon the Arab ivory-traders ; and, on showing 
 them a letter from the Sultan of Zanzibar, they supplied 
 him with provisions, cloth, and beads ; and, after a tedious 
 interval of three months, he was mainly instrumental in 
 patching up a peace between them and the Itawa chief. 
 " I was glad," he saj^s, 6 4 to see the mode of ivory and 
 slave trading of these men : it proved such a perfect con- 
 trast to that of the ruffians of Kilwa, and to the ways of 
 the atrocious Portuguese from Tete." After peace was 
 declared, he visited Masama, the chief of Itawa, and ex- 
 amined Lake Moero, which he found to be sixty miles 
 long, and from twenty to fifty miles broad. From thence 
 he visited Cazembe, and was very hospitably treated by 
 the chief of that name, with whom he staid forty days, 
 on account of the rains having flooded the country, and 
 made progress impossible. Cazembe's town, which has 
 been three times visited by Portuguese, " stands on the 
 north-east bank of the lakelet Mojeve : this is from two to 
 three miles broad, and nearly four long. It has several 
 low, reedy islets, and yields plenty of fish, a species of 
 perch." He was very desirous of visiting Lake Bangweolo 
 at this time, and would have attempted it in spite of the 
 rains ; but " not having a grain of any kind of medicine, 
 and as fever without treatment produced very disagreeable 
 sj^mptoms, I thought that it would be unwise to venture 
 where swelled thyroid glands, known among us as Derby- 
 shire neck, and elephantiasis (seroli), prevail." Getting 
 
 21* 
 
246 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. LL.D. 
 
 tired of his inactivity, he went northwards towards Ujiji^ 
 " where," he says, " I have goods, and, I hope, letters, 
 for I have heard nothing from the world for more than 
 two years ; but, when I got within thirteen days of Tan- 
 ganyika, I was brought to a standstill by the superabun- 
 dance of water in the country in front." His description 
 of wading across swollen rivulets, flooded plains, and 
 morasses, gives a vivid idea of the courage and resolution 
 of the man. The paths among the long grass were even 
 more trying than these. He says, "The plain was of 
 black mud, with grass higher than our heads. We had 
 to follow the path, which, in places, the feet of passengers 
 had worn into deep ruts. Into these we every now and 
 then plunged, and fell over the ankles in soft mud, while 
 hundreds of bubbles rushed up, and, bursting, emitted a 
 frightful odor. ^Ye had four hours of this wading and 
 plunging ; the last mile was the worst ; and right glad we 
 were to get out of it, and bathe in the clear, tepid waters 
 and sandy beach of Moero. In going up the bank of 
 the lake, we first of all forded four torrents thigh deep, 
 then a river eighty yards wide, with three hundred yards 
 of flood on its west bank, so deep, we had to keep to the 
 canoes till within fifty yards of the higher ground, then 
 four brooks from five to fifteen yards broad. One of them, 
 the Chungu, possesses a somewhat melancholy interest, as 
 that on which poor Dr. Lacerda died. . . . His latitude 
 of Cazembe's town on the Chungu being fifty miles wrong, 
 probably reveals that his mind was clouded with fever, 
 when he last observed ; and any one who knows what that 
 implies will look upon his error with compassion. . . . 
 The state of the rivers and the country made me go in 
 the lightest marching-order. I took nothing but the most 
 necessary instruments, and no paper except a couple of 
 
MISREPRESENTATION. 
 
 247 
 
 note-books and the Bible. On unexpectedly finding a 
 party going to the coast, I borrowed a piece of paper from 
 an Arab ; and the effects, unavoidable in the circumstances, 
 you will kindly excuse. Only four of my attendants would 
 come here ; the others, on various pretences, absconded. 
 The fact is, they are all tired of this everlasting tramp- 
 ing ; and so verily am I. Were it not for an inveterate 
 dislike to give in to difficulties, without doing my utmost 
 to overcome them, I would abscond too. I comfort my- 
 self by the hope, that, by making the country and the peo- 
 ple better known, I am doing good ; and, by imparting a 
 little knowledge occasionally, I may be working in accord- 
 ance with the plans of an all-embracing Providence, which 
 now forms part of the belief of all the more intelligent of 
 our race. My efforts may be appreciated in good times 
 coming yet." 
 
 After speaking of the care which he had alwa} T s taken 
 to give the position of places with the utmost accuracy, 
 and the compliments paid to the success with wiiich he 
 had done this, on the Zambesi and the Shire, b} T scientific 
 men, he .says, " Well, it is not very comforting, after 
 all my care, and risk of health, and even of life, it is not 
 veiy inspiriting to find two hundred miles of lake tacked 
 on to the north-west end of Nyassa ; and then two hundred 
 miles perched up on the upland region, and passed over 
 some three thousand feet higher than the rest of the lake ! 
 We shall probably hear that the author of this feat in fan- 
 cyography claims therefrom to be considered a theoretical 
 discoverer of the sources of the Nile." After stating sev- 
 eral instances in which his positions had been unwarrant- 
 ably changed, he says, "The desecration nry positions 
 have suffered is probably unknown to the council ; but 
 that is all the more reason why I should adhere to my res- 
 
248 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 olution to be the guardian of my own observations until 
 publication. I regret this, because the upsetting of a 
 canoe, or airy accident happening to me, might lead to the 
 entire loss of the discoveries. My borrowed paper is done, 
 or I should have given a summary of the streams, which, 
 flowing into Chambeze, Luapula, Lualaba, and the lakes, 
 may be called sources. Thirteen, all larger than the Isis 
 at Oxford, or the Avon at Hamilton, run into one line 
 of drainage, five into another, and five into a third re- 
 ceptacle, — twenty-three in all. Not having seen the Nile 
 in the north, I forbear any comparison of volume." 
 
 In a postscript he says, " Always something new from 
 Africa. A large tribe live in underground houses in Rua. 
 Some excavations are said to be thirty miles long, and 
 have running rills in them. A whole district can stand a 
 siege in them. The 6 writings ' thereon, I have been told 
 by some of the people, are drawings of animals, and not 
 letters, otherwise I should have gone to see them : people 
 Yery dark, well made, and outer angle of eyes slanting 
 inwards." That Dr. Livingstone should have been able 
 to write a communication such as this, bristling .with facts 
 carefully detailed, under the circumstances indicated, is 
 as wonderful as the resolute endurance and courage neces- 
 sary to their collection. 
 
 The next information received from Dr. Livingstone 
 was contained in a letter sent to Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar, 
 and was published in "The Times" of Dec. 13, 1869. 
 It is dated Ujiji, May 30, 1869, and is as follows: 
 u This note goes by Musa Kamaals, who was employed by 
 Koarji to drive the buffaloes hither ; but by over-driving 
 them unmercifully in the sun, and tying them up to save 
 trouble in herding, they all died before he got to Unyan- 
 yembe. He witnessed the plundering of my goods, and 
 
LETTERS DESTROYED. 
 
 249 
 
 got a share of them ; and I have given him beads and 
 cloth sufficient to buy provisions for himself on the way 
 back to Zanzibar. He has done nothing here. He 
 neither went near the goods here, nor tried to prevent 
 them being stolen on the way. I suppose that pay foi 
 four months in coming, other four of rest, and four in 
 going back, would be ample ; but I leave this to your de- 
 cision. I could not. employ him to carry my mail back, 
 nor can I say any thing to him ; for he at once goes to the 
 Ujijians, and gives his own version of all he hears. He 
 is untruthful and ill-conditioned, and would hand o^er 
 the mail to any one who wished to destroy it. The people 
 here are like the Kilwa traders, haters of the English. 
 Those Zanzibar men whom I met between this and Nyassa 
 were gentlemen, and traded with honor. Here, as in the 
 haunts of the Kilwa hordes, slavery is a source of forays, 
 and they dread exposure by my letters. No one will take 
 charge of them. I have got Thani bin Suelim to take a 
 mail privately for transmission to Unyanyembe. It con- 
 tains a check on Ritchio, Stewart, & Co., of Bombay, for 
 two thousand rupees, and some forty letters written dur- 
 ing my slow recovery. I fear it may never reach you. 
 A party was sent to the coast two months ago. One man 
 volunteered to take a letter secretly ; but his master 
 warned them all not to do so, because I might write some- 
 thing he did not like. He went out with the party, and 
 gave orders to the head man to destroy any letters he 
 might detect on the way. Thus, though I am good friends 
 outwardly with them all, I can get no assistance in pro- 
 curing carriers ; and, as you will see if the mail comes to 
 hand, I sent to Zanzibar for fifteen good boatmen to act 
 as carriers if required, eighty pieces of meritano, forty 
 pieces of kinitra, twelve farasales of the beads called ja- 
 
250 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. LL.D. 
 
 sain* shoes, &c. I have written to Seyd Majid, begging 
 two of his guards to see to the safety of the goods here 
 into Thani bin Suelim's hands, or into those of Mo- 
 hammed bin Sahib. 
 
 " As to the work done by me, it is only to connect the 
 sources which I have discovered, from five hundred to 
 seven hundred miles south of Speke and Baker, with their 
 Nile. The volume of water which flows from latitude 
 120° south is so large, I suspect I have been working at 
 the sources of the Congo as well as those of the Nile. I 
 have to go down the eastern line of drainage to Baker's 
 turning-point. Tanganyika, Ujiji, Chowambe (Baker's), 
 are one water ; and the head of it is three hundred miles 
 south of this. The western and central lines of drainage 
 converge into an unvisited lake west or south-west of this. 
 The outflow of this, whether to Congo or Nile, I have to 
 ascertain. The people of this district, called Many em a, 
 are cannibals, if Arabs speak truly. I may have to go 
 there first, and down Tanganyika. If I come out uneaten, 
 and find my new squad from Zanzibar, I earnestly hope 
 that you will do what you can to help me with the goods 
 and men. Four hundred pounds to be sent by Mr. Young 
 must surety have come to you through Fleming Brothers. 
 A long box paid for to Ujiji was left at Unyanyembe, and 
 so with other boxes." 
 
 In this letter we have the first indications of dissatis- 
 faction with the waj^ assistance was being sent to him by 
 Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar, of which we have heard more from 
 Mr. Stanley and from the traveller himself. It was nat- 
 ural that the lonely man, who had not any communication 
 with the world for so long a period, and who had been 
 travelling in unknown regions dependent upon chance for 
 the necessities of living, should feel a bitterness at the 
 
ANXIETY ABOUT HIM. 
 
 2oi 
 
 want of success in relieving him. That he misjudged his 
 old and tried friend, Dr. Kirk, he himself will be glad to 
 acknowledge when he knows the circumstances, we may 
 feel assured. Dr. Kirk mentions, in a note published 
 along with this letter, that stores and letters had been 
 sent on the 7th of October, and that no time would be 
 lost in sending the articles now required by the explorer. 
 To the unsettled state of the country, and the dishonesty 
 and carelessness of the people he was compelled to employ 
 to succor Dr. Livingstone, are due the failure of these 
 efforts, and not to any neglect on the part of Dr. Kirk. 
 
 Once more the cloud of mystery and darkness enveloped 
 the fate of the great traveller ; and surmises and reports 
 as to his probable fate tended toward a general belief, that, 
 in some unknown region in the far interior, the greatest 
 traveller and discoverer the world has ever seen had 
 become the most distinguished of that long roil of mar- 
 tyrs who had perished in their dauntless endeavor to pene- 
 trate the secret recesses of a country all but impregnably 
 guarded by disease, pestilence, and the cruel jealousy 
 of savage tribes. The anxiety of the public regarding the 
 fate of the traveller was shared in by the government. In 
 Maj f , 1870, a thousand pounds was sent to the consul at 
 Zanzibar, to be expended in efforts to discover and relieve 
 him. On the 25th of January, 1871, hope was again ex- 
 cited that we might soon hear tidings from himself of a 
 much later date than the last received, b} T the arrival of a 
 letter to Sir Roderick Murchison, from Dr. Kirk, giving ex- 
 tracts of a letter received from an Arab chief, Sheik Said, 
 of Unyanyembe, dated July 16, 1870. The chief says, 
 " Your honored letter has reached, and your friend (Liv- 
 ingstone) has understood it. The people (a party with a 
 caravan from Zanzibar) arrived in good health, and are 
 
252 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 going on to Ujiji to our friend the doctor. The news of 
 him is that he has not yet returned from Manemis (Me- 
 nama, or Manyema : the Arabic word is spelt in three 
 different ways) ; but we expect him soon, and probably he 
 and the people with supplies will reach Ujiji at the same 
 time." As Sir Roderick pointed out, this was the first 
 indication we had received that the explorer had made a 
 lengthened journey to the west of Tanganyika ; which, 
 taken together with the probabilit} T that letters sent by 
 him had been destroyed by jealous Arabs, accounted for 
 his long silence. 
 
 Early in May, this intelligence was corroborated by the 
 arrival of news from Shirif Bassheikh bin Ahmed, the 
 Arab sent from Zanzibar and Ujiji in charge of stores 
 for Dr. Livingstone, dated Nov. 15, 1870, that he had 
 been visited a few days previously by a messenger from 
 the people of Menama (or Manyema) , with letters from 
 the Arabs staying there, and one from " the doctor ; " the 
 letters being dated Oct. 15. The messenger had told 
 him that the doctor was well, although he had been suffer- 
 ing, and that he was at the town of Manakosa, with 
 Mohammed bin Tharib, waiting for the caravans, being 
 himself without means, and with few followers, only 
 eight men, so that he could not move elsewhere, or come 
 down to Ujiji. Shirif further stated that he had sent 
 twelve men, with a quantity of goods, ammunition, qui- 
 nine, &c, on to him, and that he awaited the explorer's 
 further orders at Ujiji. 
 
 The intelligence that a war had broken out between the 
 Arab colon} 7 " in the district of Unyanyembe, and a power- 
 ful native chief between Ujiji and Kasagne, vhich was 
 being carried on with the utmost fury on both sides, and 
 effectually closed up the road to the coast, added to the 
 
FIRST MENTION OF MR. STANLEY. 253 
 
 public anxiety. For the first time since his departure on 
 his adventurous mission, in February, we have the men- 
 tion of the name of a young gentleman, a Mr. Stanley, a 
 correspondent of " The New-York Herald," who had been 
 despatched by the proprietor of that great journal from 
 Paris, with orders to find out Dr. Livingstone, or bring 
 back tidings of his safety or death, at whatever cost. In 
 a letter to Earl Granville, dated Zanzibar, 22d September, 
 1871, Dr. Kirk says, — 
 
 " Letters just received by special messengers, who left 
 Unyanyembe about a month ago, inform us of a sad 
 disaster that has befallen the Arab settlement there, and 
 that will in all likelihood stop the road to Ujiji and Ka- 
 sagne for some time to come. All accounts agree as to 
 the main facts ; but naturally letters written by Mr. 
 Stanley, an American gentleman who was on the spot, 
 are the most circumstantial and reliable. ... A chief 
 whose village was one day's journey distance on the main 
 road to Ujiji and Kasagne, fell under the displeasure of the 
 Unyanyembe Arab settlers ; and his place was attacked, 
 in due course, by a force of about fifteen hundred mus- 
 kets. Seeing that he could not hold the blockaded village, 
 he retired with his followers, and formed an ambush for 
 the return of the attacking party, when laden with ivory 
 and other booty. The result was disastrous to the Arabs ; 
 and a great many were killed, including ten or twenty of 
 the leaders, men of good family here. The Arab retreat 
 soon became a rout, and much property was lost. 
 
 " Fortunately, Mr. Stanley, who was weak and ill from 
 fever, managed to return to Unyaiiy embe ; but he was 
 abandoned by the Arabs, whose conduct he speaks of as 
 cowardly in the extreme." In announcing to the mem- 
 bers of the Geographical Society that the council had 
 
 22 
 
254 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 determined to address the Foreign Office, asking its 
 assistance in an effort to succor Dr. Livingstone, Sir 
 Roderick Murchison said, it appeared to the council 
 and himself now that the hope which we had of communi- 
 cating with Dr. Livingstone through Mr. Stanley, the 
 American traveller, must for the present be abandoned ; 
 and it had become, consequently, their duty to cast about 
 for some other means of reaching him. We all know 
 that the result of the determination of the Council of the 
 Royal Geographical Society was the getting-up of a for- 
 midable expedition to march into the interior, and find 
 news of the great explorer, dead or alive. As the gov- 
 ernment refused to advance any money to assist in cover- 
 ing the expenses of the expedition, it was left for the 
 society and the public to furnish the means ; and within a 
 few weeks ample funds, and an efficient party, were read}' 
 to start for Africa. 
 
 Early in 1872, this expedition was being organized at 
 Zanzibar, under the guidance of Lieut. Dawson, who 
 was assisted by Lieut. Henn, Mr. New (a missionar}^) , 
 and Mr. Oswell Livingstone, a son of the great explorer. 
 As the public felt satisfied with the zeal and abilities of 
 the English heads of the Search and Relief Expedition, 
 the public excitement subsided. No one appeared to 
 hope for any thing from the expedition sent out by the 
 proprietors of u The New-York Herald;" and gradually 
 its existence came to be overlooked or forgotten. Even 
 Dr. Kirk, who had opportunities of seeing its leader, and 
 his careful preparations, never dreamed that Livingstone 
 would ever be heard of through his exertions. 
 
 Meantime the indefatigable Mr. Stanley was fulfilling 
 the duty intrusted to him, with a zeal and determination 
 which nothing could conquer. We have heard how he 
 
DOINGS OF MR. STANLEY. 
 
 255 
 
 was stopped, in his forward course to Ujiji, by a war which 
 had broken out between the Arab settlers of Unyanyembe 
 and a powerful chief named Mirambo, whose country lay 
 in the direct line of march from Unyanyembe to Ujiji. 
 Mr. Stanley and his native soldiers took part in the war 
 for a time, until he found, that from the cowardice of the 
 Arabs, and their foolish method of fighting an astute and 
 wary foe, the safety of his expedition w^as in danger, and 
 that, even if the Arabs succeeded in conquering Mirambo, 
 to await this would occasion the loss of months of valu- 
 able time. He determined on at once proceeding on his 
 journey, after getting his people together with great diffi- 
 culty, as they had been completely demoralized by the 
 dreadful slaughter of the Arabs by Mirambo, through the 
 ambush he had laid for them, already alluded to in Dr. 
 Kirk's letter to Lord Granville. After several days' 
 march, he reached Kwihara ; and as the country swarmed 
 with fugitives, who reported that Mirambo was thundering 
 in their rear, threatening the whole country with fire and 
 sword, Mr. Stanley thought the time had come when he 
 must prepare for the worst. He says, "First of all, a 
 lofty bamboo was procured, and planted on the roof of 
 our fortlet ; and the American flag was run up, where it 
 waved joyously and grandly, an omen to all fugitives and 
 their hunters. Then began the work of ditch-making and 
 digging rifle-pits all around the court or enclosure. The 
 strong clay walls were pierced in two rows for the mus- 
 kets ; the great door was kept open, with materials ready 
 close at hand to barricade it when the enemy came in 
 sight ; watchmen were posted on top of the house ; every 
 pot in the house was filled with water ; provisions were 
 collected sufficient to stand a siege of a month's duration ; 
 the ammunition boxes were unscrewed, and when I saw 
 
256 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the three thousand bright metallic cartridges for the 
 American carbines, I laughed within myself at the idea, 
 that, after all, Mirambo might be settled with American 
 lead, and all this furor of war be ended without much 
 trouble. 
 
 "Before six, p.m., I had a hundred and twent3 r -five 
 muskets and stout fellows who had enlisted from the 
 fugitives ; and the house, which only looked like a fortlet 
 at first, became a fortlet in reality, impregnable and 
 untakable. All night we stood guard ; the suburbs of 
 Tabora were in flames ; all the Wanganmezi and Wan- 
 guana houses were destroyed ; and the fine house of 
 Abid-bin-Sulermain had been ransacked, and then com- 
 mitted to the flames. Mirambo boasted that 'to-morrow* 
 Kwihara should share the fate of Tabora ; and there 
 was a rumor that that night the Arabs were going 
 to start for the coast. But the morning came, and 
 Mirambo departed, with the ivory and cattle he had cap- 
 tured ; and the people of Kwihara and Tabora breathed 
 freer. And now I am going to say farewell to Unyan- 
 3^embe for a while. I shall never help an Arab again. He 
 is no fighting man ; or, I should say, does not know how 
 to fight, but knows personally how to die. They will not 
 conquer Mirambo within a year, and I cannot stop to see 
 that play out. There is a good old man waiting for me 
 somewhere, and that impels me on. There is a journal 
 afar off that expects me to do my clmy, and I must do it. 
 Goocl-by. I am off the day after to-morrow for Ujiji, 
 then perhaps to the Congo River." 
 
 Clearly here was a man who was not to be turned aside 
 from his purpose on small or even great occasion. He 
 had been sent to find Livingstone ; and find him he had 
 determined upon, if he was alive. When Mr. Stanley 
 
MONOTONY OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 257 
 
 arrived at his next camping-ground, Mkwenkwe, he 
 found that his attendants, who had gone before to make 
 preparations, had deserted in a body, and returned to 
 Kwihara. To make matters worse, he was suffering from 
 fever. The awkward position in w T hich he found himself 
 roused his indomitable pluck, and enabled him to throw 
 off the fever which oppressed him ; and, the men who 
 stood true to him having collected the scattered fugitives, 
 after a couple of days' rest he continued his march. Alter 
 reaching Kasegera, two of his followers deserted. When 
 brought back, he had them tied up and flogged, and then 
 fastened them together with a chain. This mode of treat- 
 ment he found to be quite successful in quelling insubor- 
 dination. He says in regard to it, "I was determined to 
 try a new method, not having the fear of Exeter Hall 
 before my eyes ; and I am happy to say to-day, for the 
 benefit of all future travellers, that it is the best method 
 yet adopted, and that I will never tread in Africa again 
 without a good long chain. A few days after this, Shaw 
 the Englishman broke down, partly from illness and 
 partly from fear, and was sent back to Unyanyembe." 
 
 The following extract gives a graphic picture of the 
 countiy he was marching through: "We were about 
 entering the immense forest that separates IJiryanyembe 
 from the district of Ugunda. In lengthy undulating 
 Tvaves the land stretched before us, — the new land which 
 no European knew ; the unknown, mystic land. The view 
 which the eyes hurry to embrace, as we ascend some ridge 
 higher than another, is one of the most disheartening 
 which can be conceived. Away, one be3^ond another, 
 were the lengthy rectilinear ridges clad in the same garb, 
 — woods, woods, woods ; forests, leafy branches, green 
 and yellow, and dark-red and purple, then an undefinable 
 
 22* 
 
258 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 ocean bluer than the bluest sky. The horizon all round 
 shows the same scene, — a sky dropping into the depths of 
 the endless forest, with but two or three tall giants of the 
 forest, higher than their neighbors, which are conspicuous 
 in their outlines, to break the monotony of the scene. On 
 no one point do our eyes rest with pleasure ; they have 
 viewed the same outlines, the same forest, and the same 
 horizon, day after day, week after week ; and again, like 
 Noah's clove, from wandering over a world without a 
 halting-place, return wearied with the search." 
 
 At Ugunda Mr. Stanley had an interview with a 
 friendly chief, Mamanyara, "a tall, stalwart man, with a 
 pleasing face. He carried in his hand a couple of spears ; 
 and, with the exception of a well-worn barsati round his 
 loins, he was naked. Three of his principal men and 
 himself were invited to seat themselves on my Persian 
 carpet. They began to admire it excessively, and asked 
 if it came from my country. Where was my country? 
 Was it large? How many days to it? Was I a king? 
 Had I many soldiers ? were questions quickly asked, and 
 as quickly answered ; and the ice being broken, the chief 
 being as candid as I was myself, he grasped my forefinger 
 and middle fingers, and vowed we were friends. The 
 revolvers, and Winchester's repeating rifle, were things so 
 wonderful, that to attempt to give you any idea of how 
 awe-struck he and his were would task my powers. The 
 chief roared with laughter ; he tickled his men in the ribs 
 with his forefinger ; he clasped their fore and middle 
 fingers, vowed that the Musungu (white man) was a won- 
 der, a marvel, and no mistake. Did the}' ever see any 
 thing like it before? 'No,' as solemnly as before. Is he 
 not a wonder? Quite a wonder, — positively a wonder." 
 
 Pushing onwards, he made the acquaintance of the 
 
THE HONEY-BIRD. 
 
 253 
 
 honej^-bird, and while in timbered country never lacked 
 the agreeable addition of honey to their meals. The 
 honey-bird " is a pretty bird, not much larger than a 
 wren. When it sees a human being, it becomes very busy 
 all at once, hops and skips, and flies from branch to 
 branch with marvellous celerity. The traveller lifts up 
 his eyes, beholds the tiny little bird hopping about, and 
 hears its sweet call, c Sweet, sweet, sweet ! ' If he is a 
 Wokonongo (a native tribe given to honey-hunting) , he 
 follows it. Away flies the bird on to another tree, thep 
 springs to another branch nearer to the begging man, 
 as if to say, 4 Shall I, must I, come and fetch you?' 
 Another, assured by the advance of its friend, rushes off 
 to another tree, coquets about, and sweets his call rapidly, 
 sometimes more earnest and loud, as if chiding the trav- 
 eller for being so slow ; and so on, until at last the 
 treasure is found and secured. As the honey -bird is a 
 very busy little animal, while the man secures his treasure 
 of honey, he holds himself ready for another flight, and 
 to discover another treasure." 
 
 The following illustrates the trouble he had in maintain- 
 ing discipline among his own followers. A man of less 
 courage and nerve must either have laid down his life 
 there and then, or have been compelled to abandon the 
 expedition for a time, if not for altogether. Three hours' 
 journey from the banks of the G-ombe, where they had 
 rested for three da} r s, his men halted, and refused to pro- 
 ceed. The rapid marching was beginning to tell upon 
 them ; and they wished to remain encamped several days, 
 where, from the quantity of game about, they could rest, 
 and enjoy abundance. Ever since he had left Kwihara, 
 Stanley had been possessed by a feverish eagerness to 
 push forward, and was, in consequence, in no mood to sub 
 
260 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 unit to any needless detention. We will let Mm tell what 
 
 happened in his own words : — 
 
 "As I was walking up to see what was the matter, I 
 saw the guide and his brother sitting on an ant-hill, apart 
 from the other people, fingering their guns in what 
 appeared to be a most suspicious manner. Calling Selim, 
 I took the double-barrelled smooth-bore, and slipped in 
 two charges of buckshot, and then walked on to my 
 people, keeping an eye, however, upon the guide and his 
 brother. I asked Bombay to give me an explanation of the 
 stoppage. He would not answer ; though he mumbled 
 something sullenly, which was unintelligible to me. I 
 looked on the other people, and perceived that they acted 
 in an irresolute manner, as if they feared to take my 
 part, or were of the same mood as the party on the ant- 
 hill. I was but thirty paces from the guide ; and, throw- 
 ing the barrel of the gun into the hollow of my left hand, 
 I presented it cocked at the guide, and called out to him, 
 if he did not come to me at once I would shoot him ; 
 giving him and his companions to understand that I had 
 twenty-four small bullets in the gun, and that I could 
 blow them to pieces. In a very reluctant manner they 
 advanced towards me. When they were sufficiently near, 
 I ordered them to halt ; but the guide, as he did so, 
 brought his gun to the present, with his finger on the 
 trigger ; and, with a treacherous and cunning smile which 
 I perfectly understood, he asked what I wanted of him. 
 His companion, while he was speaking, was sidling to my 
 rear, and was impudently engaged in filling the pan of his 
 musket with powder ; but a threat to finish him if he did 
 not go back to his companion, and there stand till I gave 
 him permission to move, compelled this villanous Ther- 
 site to execute the ' right about ' with a promptitude 
 
A MUTINY QUELLED. 
 
 261 
 
 which caused commendation from me. Then, facing my 
 Ajax of a guide with my gun, I next requested him to 
 ]ower his gun if he did not wish to receive the contents 
 of mine in his head ; and I do not know but what the 
 terrible catastrophe, warranted by stern necessity, had 
 occurred then and there, if Mabruki (bull-headed Ma- 
 bruki, but my faithful porter and faithfullest soldier) had 
 not dashed the man's gun aside, asking him how he dared 
 level his gun at his master, and then, throwing himself at 
 my feet, praj^ed me to forgive him. . . . When Ma- 
 bruki's pra} r er for forgiveness was seconded by that of the 
 principal culprit that I would overlook his offence, I was 
 able to act as became a prudent commander, though I felt 
 some remorse that I had not availed myself of the oppor- 
 tunity to punish the guide and his companion as they 
 eminently deserved. . . . However, as Bombay could 
 not bend himself to ask forgiveness, I came to the con- 
 clusion that it were best he should be made to feel the 
 penalty of stirring dissensions in the expedition, and be 
 brought to look with a more amiable face upon the scheme 
 of proceeding to Ujiji through Ukonongo and Ukawendi ; 
 and I at once proceeded about it with such vigor, that 
 Bombay's back will for as long a time bear traces of the 
 punishment which I administered to him, as his front 
 teeth do of that which Speke (he had been a servant of 
 Speke's) rightfully bestowed on him some eleven years 
 ago." 
 
 After a time the character of the scenery changed ; and 
 this, together with the rapid movement, and the almost 
 certainty that Lake Tanganyika would be speedily 
 reached, had the effect of raising the spirits of every 
 member of the expedition. This is his description of the 
 country within fourteen days of the great lake, on whose 
 shore he hoped to find the object of his search : — 
 
262 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 " Here and there were upheaved above the tree-tops 
 sugar-loaf hills ; and darkly blue, west of us, loomed a 
 noble ridge of hills which formed the boundary between 
 Kamiramba's territory and that of Utendi. Elephant- 
 tracks became numerous, and buffalo met the delighted 
 eyes everywhere. Crossing the mountainous ridge of 
 Mivara, with its lengthy slope slowly declining westward, 
 the vegetation became more varied, and the outlines of 
 the land before us more picturesque. We grew satiated 
 with the varieties of novel fruit which w^e saw hanging 
 thickly on the trees. There was the mbember, with the 
 taste of an over-ripe peach ; the tamarind pod and beans 
 with their grateful acidity, resembling somewhat the 
 lemon in their flavor ; the matonga, or nux vomica, was 
 welcome ; and the luscious singive, the plum of Africa, 
 was most delicious of all. There were wild plums like 
 our own, and grapes unpicked, long past their season, and 
 beyond eating. 
 
 " Guinea-fowl, the moor-hen, ptarmigan, and ducks, 
 supplied our tables ; and often the hump of a buffalo, or 
 an extravagant piece of venison, filled our camp-kettles. 
 My health was firmly re-established. The faster we pros- 
 ecuted our journey, the better I felt. I had long bidden 
 adieu to the nauseous calomel and rhubarb compounds, 
 and had become quite a stranger to quinine." 
 
 Pushing onwards, their proximity to the Tanganyika 
 Lake was evident from the number of streams all trending 
 towards that goal of their hopes. The neighborhood of 
 these streams was thickly covered with brushwood ; and 
 the vicinity of these was dreaded b}' his followers, and 
 not without cause. He says, u The undergrowth of 
 bushes and tall grass, dense and impenetrable, likely 
 resorts of leopard, lion, and wild boar, were enough to 
 
SCENERY OF UK A WEND I, 
 
 263 
 
 appal the stoutest heart. One of my donkeys, while 
 being driven to water along a narrow path edged by the 
 awesome brake on either side, was attacked by a leopard, 
 which fastened its fangs in the poor animal's neck ; and 
 it would have made short work of it, had not its com- 
 panions set up a bra}ing chorus that might well have 
 terrified a score of leopards. And that same night, while 
 encamped contiguous to the limpid stream of Mtambu, 
 with that lofty line of enormous trees rising dark and 
 awful above us, the lions issued from the brakes beneath, 
 and prowled about a well-set bush defence of our camp, 
 venting their fearful clamor without intermission until 
 morning." 
 
 He has a different story to tell of the southern portion 
 of the same region. He says, " The fairest of Califor- 
 nian scenery cannot excel, though it may equal, such 
 scenes as Ukawendi can boast of ; and yet a land as large 
 as the State of New York is almost uninhabited. Days 
 and days one ma}' travel through primeval forests ; now 
 ascending ridges overlooking broad, well-watered valle}'s, 
 with belts of valuable timber crowning the banks of the 
 river, and behold exquisite bits of scenery, wild, fan- 
 tastic, picturesque, and pretty, all within the scope of 
 vision, whichever way one may turn. And, to crown the 
 glories of this lovely portion of earth, underneath the sur- 
 face but a few feet, is one mass of iron-ore, extending 
 across three degrees of longitude, and nearly four of lati- 
 tude, cropping out at intervals, so that the traveller can- 
 not remain ignorant of the wealth lying beneath. 
 
 " Ah, me ! what wild and ambitious projects fill a man's 
 brain, as he looks over the forgotten and unpeopled coun- 
 try, containing in its bosom such stores of wealth, and 
 with such an expanse of fertile soil capable of sustaining 
 
264 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 millions ! What a settlement one could have in this val- 
 ley ! See, it is broad enough to support a large popula- 
 tion. Fancy a church-spire where that tree rears its dark 
 crown of foliage ; and think how well a score or so of 
 pretty cottages would look, instead of those thorn-clumps 
 and gum-trees. 
 
 " Fancy this lovely valley teeming with herds of cattle, 
 and fields of corn spreading to the right and left of this 
 stream ! How much better would such a state of things 
 become this valley, than the present deserted and wild 
 aspect ! But be hopeful : the day will come, and a future 
 } T ear will see it, when happier lands have become crowded, 
 and nations have become so overgrown, that they have no 
 room to turn about. It really wants an Abraham or a 
 Lot, an Alaric or an Attila, to lead their hosts to this 
 land ; which, perhaps, has been wisely reserved for such a 
 time." 
 
 Leaving this unpeopled paradise behind them, the part}' 
 had several weary days' march over a country as rocky 
 and sterile as the Sierra Nevada, which, in its rocky hills, 
 and dry, stony watercourses, reminded Mr. Stanley of the 
 country round Magdala. Their provisions were all but 
 exhausted ; and they were suffering from thirst, and foot- 
 sore and weary, when they reached the village of a son of 
 the chief of Uzogera, where they were hospitably enter- 
 tained. From this point the country improved at every 
 step, although many difficulties had } r et to be overcome, 
 the principal of which were the heavy tributes exacted by 
 warlike chiefs for leave to pass through their territory. 
 Mr. Stanley's account of a natural bridge, across which 
 the expedition passed with safety, cannot fail to be inter- 
 esting. " Fancy," he sa}^s, " a river as broad as the 
 Hudson at Albany, though not near so deep or swift, cov- 
 
A NAT U HAL BRIDGE. 
 
 265 
 
 ered over with water-plants and grasses, which had be- 
 come so interwoven and netted together, as to form a 
 bridge covering its entire length and breadth, under which 
 the river flowed calm and deep below. It was over this 
 natural bridge we were expected to cross. Adding to the 
 tremor which one naturally felt at having to cross this 
 frail bridge, was the tradition, that, only a few yards higher 
 up, an Arab and his donkey, thirty- five slaves, and sixteen 
 tusks of ivory, had been suddenly sunk forever out of 
 sight. As one-half of our column had already arrived at 
 the centre', w T e on the shore could see the outwork of grass 
 waving on either side, and between each man ; in one 
 place like the swell of the sea after a storm, and in 
 another like a small lake violently ruffled by a squall. 
 Hundreds of yards away from them, it ruffled and undu- 
 lated, one wave after another. As we all got on it, we 
 perceived it to sink about a foot, forcing the water on 
 which it rested into the grassy channel formed by our 
 footsteps. One of m} r donkeys broke through, and it re- 
 quired the united strength of ten men to extricate him. 
 The aggregate weight of the donkey and men caused that 
 portion of the bridge on which they stood to sink about 
 two feet, and a circular pool of water was formed. I ex- 
 pected, every minute, to see them suddenly sink out of 
 sight. Fortunately we managed to cross the treacherous 
 bridge without further accident." 
 
 At last their eyes were, gladdened by the sight of the 
 broad and swift Malagarazi, an influent of Lake Tangan- 
 yika. The goal was nearly won : a few days' march, and 
 the mighty lake of Central Africa would be spread out 
 before their gaze. The principal sultan of Revinza, the 
 country bordering on the Malagarazi', was Kiala, the 
 eldest son of Uzogera. The command of the river gave 
 
 23 
 
266 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 him great power as a levier of blackmail from travellers 
 passing through his country, which he used to the utmost. 
 After much higgling, Stanley had to give ninety-two yards 
 of cloth for the privilege of passing through his country. 
 The tribute for passing the river had still to be settled, 
 and after a long and stormy discussion this was arranged. 
 " Finally," he says, "seven doli (twenty-eight yards of 
 cloth) , and ten pounds of Sami-Sami seeds, were agreed 
 upon ; after which we marched to the ferry, distant half a 
 mile from the scene of so much contention. The river at 
 this place was not more than thirty yards broad, sluggish, 
 and deep. Yet I would prefer attempting to cross the 
 Mississippi by swimming rather than the Malagarazi. 
 Such another river for crocodiles, crocodiles cruel as 
 death, I cannot conceive. Their long, tapering heads 
 dotted the river everywhere ; and, though I amused my- 
 self pelting them with two-ounce balls, I made no effect 
 upon their numbers. 
 
 u Two canoes discharged their live cargo on the other 
 side of the river, when the story of Capt. Burton's passage 
 across the Malagarazi higher up was brought vividly to 
 my mind by the extortions which now commenced. About 
 twenty or so of the chiefs men had collected ; and, backed 
 by them, he became insolent. If it were worth while to 
 commence a struggle for two or three more doli of cloth, 
 the mere firing of one revolver, at such close quarters, 
 would have settled the day ; but I could not induce my- 
 self to believe it was the best way of proceeding, taking 
 in view the object of our expedition. And accordingly, 
 this extra demand was settled at once, with as much ami- 
 ability as I could muster ; but I warned him not to repeat 
 it ; and, to prevent him from doing so, ordered a man to 
 each canoe, and to be seated there with a loaded gun in 
 
STANLEY ARRIVES AT UJIJL 
 
 267 
 
 each man's hand. After this little episode we got on very 
 well. . . . We then drove a donkey into the river, having 
 first tied a strong halter to his neck ; but he had hardly 
 reached the middle of the river, when a crocodile beneath 
 seized him by the neck, and dragged him under, after sev- 
 eral frantic but ineffectual endeavors to draw him ashore." 
 
 More and yet more pillage, in name of tribute, had the 
 party to undergo, and several days' hard and toilsome 
 marching over a rough, hilly country. At last they are at 
 " the base of a hill, from the top of which the Kirangozi 
 (a native tribe) said we would obtain a view of Lake 
 Tanganyika. . . . On arriving at the top, we beheld it at 
 last from the spot whence probably Burton and Speke 
 looked at it ; 6 the one in a half-paralyzed state, the 
 other almost blind.' Indeed, I was placed at the right ; 
 and, as we descended, it opened more and more into view, 
 until it was revealed at last into a great inland sea, 
 bounded westward by an appalling black-blue range of 
 mountains, and stretching north and south, without 
 bounds, a gray expanse of water." 
 
 After feasting their eyes on this longed-for prospect, 
 they hurry on with eager footsteps ; three hours of rapid 
 marching appearing, to their excited imaginations, to 
 occupy only a fourth of that time. The supreme moment 
 had come at last ; the American flag is flung out to the 
 breeze ; muskets are loaded and fired olf in hot haste to 
 rouse the little town of Ujiji, which, as yet, knew nothing 
 of the strange and unexpected visitors now at its gates. 
 u The natives of Ujiji, . . . and I know not where else, 
 hurry up by the hundreds to ask what it all means, this 
 fusillading, shouting, and blowing of horns, and flag- 
 flying. There are Yambos (How do you do's) shouted 
 out to me by the dozen ; and delighted Arabs have run' up 
 
268 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 breathlessly to shake my hand, and ask anxiously where I 
 came from. But I have no patience with them ; the ex- 
 pedition goes far too slow ; I should like to settle the 
 vexed question by one personal view. Where is he? Has 
 he fled? Suddenly a man, a black man at my elbow, 
 shouts in English, 4 How do you do, sir? ' — c Hallo ! who 
 the deuce are you ? ' — 4 1 am the servant of Dr. Living- 
 stone,' he says ; but, before I can ask any more questions, 
 he is running like a madman towards the town. 
 
 " We have at last entered the town. There are hun- 
 dreds of people around me, — I might say thousands, 
 without exaggeration. It seems to me it is a great tri- 
 umphal procession.. As we move, they move : all eyes 
 are drawn towards us. The expedition at last comes to a 
 halt ; the journey is ended for a time ; but I alone have a 
 few more steps to make. There is a group of the most 
 respectable Arabs ; and, as I come nearer, I see the white 
 face of an old man among them. He has a cap with a 
 gold band around it ; his dress is a short jacket of red 
 blanket-cloth ; and his pants — well, I didn't observe. 
 I am shaking hands with him. We raise our hats ; and I 
 say, 6 Dr. Livingstone. I presume?' and he says, 'Yes.* 
 Finis core nat opus." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DR. LIVINGSTONE AS FOUND BY MR. STANLEY. EXPEDITION 
 
 TO NORTH END OF LAKE TANGANYIKA. ACCOMPANIES 
 
 MR. STANLEY TO UNYANYEMBE. STANLEY SENDS NEWS OF 
 
 HIS SUCCESS. SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 
 
 i 
 
 The following description of Dr. Livingstone, as he 
 appeared to Mr. Stanley- at Ujiji, will now have an addi- 
 tional interest, if that be possible, if the heroic traveller 
 is really no more. He says, 64 Upon my first introduc- 
 tion to him, Livingstone was to me like a huge tome 
 with a most unpretending binding. Within, the work 
 might contain much valuable, lore and wisdom ; but its ex- 
 terior gave no promise of what was within. Thus, out- 
 side, Livingstone gave no token, except of being rudely 
 dealt with by the wilderness, of what elements of power 
 or talent lay within. He is a man of unpretending ap- 
 pearance enough, has quiet, composed features, from 
 which the freshness of youth has quite departed, but 
 which retain the mobility of prime age, just enough to 
 show that there yet lies much endurance and vigor within 
 his frame. The eyes, which are hazel, are remarkably 
 bright, not dimmed in the least, though the whiskers and 
 mustache are very gray. The hair, originally brown, is 
 streaked here and there with gray over the temples : 
 otherwise it might belong to a man of thirty. The teeth 
 alone show indications of being worn out. The hard fare 
 of Louda and Manajenia have made havoc in their rows 
 
 23* . 269 
 
270 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 His form is stoutish, a little over the ordinary height, 
 with slightly bowed shoulders. When walking, he has 
 the heavy step of an overworked and fatigued man. On 
 his head he wears the naval cap, with a round visor, with 
 which he Las been identified throughout Africa. His 
 dress shows that at times he has had to resort to the needle 
 to repair and replace what travel has worn. Such is Liv- 
 ingstone externally. 
 
 . . . " The hours of that afternoon. passed most pleas- 
 antly, — few afternoons of my life more so. It seemed to 
 me as if I had met an old, old friend. There was a 
 friendly or good-natured abandon about Livingstone, 
 which was not lost on me. As host, welcoming one who 
 spoke his language, he did his duties with a spirit and 
 style I have never seen elsewhere. He had not much to 
 offer, to be sure ; but what he had was mine and his. The 
 wan features, which had shocked me at first meeting, the 
 heavy step which told of age and hard travel, the gray 
 beard and stooping shoulders, belied the man. Underneath 
 that aged and well-spent exterior lay an endless fund of 
 high spirits, which now and then broke out in peals of 
 heart}' laughter ; the rugged frame enclosed a very young 
 and exuberant soul. The meal — I am not sure but 
 what we ate three meals that afternoon — was seasoned 
 with innumerable jokes and pleasant anecdotes, interest- 
 ing hunting stories, of which his friends Webb, O swell, 
 Varden, and Gordon Cumming were always the chief actors. 
 'You have brought me new life,' he said several times, so 
 that I was not sure but there was some little hysteria in 
 this joviality and abundant animal spirits ; but, as I found 
 it continued during several weeks, I am now disposed to 
 think it natural. . . . Dr. Livingstone is a truly pious 
 man, a man deeply imbued with real religious instincts. 
 
RELIGIOUS SERVICES. 
 
 271 
 
 The stud}- of the man would not be complete if we did 
 not take the religious side of his character into considera- 
 tion. His religion, an} r more than his business, is not of 
 the theoretical kind, simply contenting itself with owning 
 all other religions as wrong or weak. It is of the true, 
 practical kind, never losing a chance to manifest itself in 
 a quiet, practical way ; never demonstrative or loud. It 
 is always at work. It is not aggressive, which sometimes 
 is troublesome, and often impertinent. In him religion 
 exhibits its loveliest features. It governs his conduct 
 towards his servants, towards the natives, and towards the 
 bigoted Mussulmans even, — all who come in contact 
 with him. Without religion, Livingstone, with his ardent 
 temperament, his enthusiastic nature, his high spirit and 
 courage, might have been an uncompanionable man and 
 a hard master. Religion has tamed all these character- 
 istics ; nay, if he was ever possessed of them, they 
 have been thoroughly eradicated. Whatever was crude 
 or wilful, religion has refined, and has made him — to 
 speak the earnest, sober truth — the most agreeable of 
 companions and indulgent of masters. . . . Every Sun- 
 day morning he gathers his flock around him ; and he has 
 pra}^ers read, not in the stereotyped tone of an English 
 High-Church clergyman, which always sounds in my ear 
 insincerely, but in the tone recommended by Archbishop 
 Whately, viz., natural, unaffected, and sincere. Follow- 
 ing these, he delivers a short address in the Kirawahili lan- 
 guage, about what he has been reading from the Bible to 
 them ; which is listened to with great attention." 
 
 Mr. Stanley staid with Livingstone for a considerable 
 period ; and before they left for Unyanyembe, at which 
 place Dr. Livingstone was to await stores and assistance 
 from Zanzibar, they set off for the head of the Tanganyika 
 
272 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE LL.D. 
 
 to settle the question as to whether the Rusizi is an influent 
 or effluent of the lake, — a question which was greatly 
 exciting the minds of geographers at home. 
 
 "It took us," says Mr. Stanley, "ten clays hard pulling 
 to reach the head of the lake, a distance of nearly a hun- 
 dred geographical miles from Ujiji ; the remaining eight 
 we were coasting along the bold shores of Uruncli, which 
 gradually inclined to the eastward ; the western ranges, 
 ever bold and high, looking like a huge blue-black barrier 
 some thirty miles west of us, to all appearance impene- 
 trable and impassable. If the waters of the Tanganyika 
 could be drained out, and we were to stand upon the 
 summit of those great peaks which rise abruptly out of 
 the lake, a most wonderful scene would be presented to us. 
 We should see an extraordinary deep chasm, from five 
 thousand to seven thousand feet deep, with the large 
 island Ubuari rising like another Magdala from the awful 
 depths around it ; for I think that the greatest depth of 
 that lake is nearly three thousand feet deep. . . . Until 
 we were close to this brake, we could not detect the slight- 
 est opening for a river such as we imagined the Rusizi to 
 be. We followed some canoes which were disappearing 
 mysteriously and suspiciously through some gaps in the 
 dense brake. Pulling boldly up, we found ourselves in 
 what afterwards proved to be the central mouth of the 
 river. All doubt as to what the Rusizi was vanished at 
 once and forever before that strong brown flood, which 
 tasked our exertions to the utmost as we pulled up. I 
 once doubted, as I seized the oar, that we should ever be 
 able to ascend ; but, after a hard quarter of an hour's 
 pulling, the river broadened, and a little higher up we saw 
 it widen into lagoons on either side." 
 
 One of the questions left for Livingstone to settle was 
 
NEWS OF HIS SAFETY. 
 
 273 
 
 the outlet from Tanganyika, and whether it is, or is not, 
 connected with the Nile drainage by some other channel. 
 
 After this expedition Stanley, accompanied by Dr. 
 Livingstone, started on the march back to the coast. 
 Dr. Livingstone, as we have previously stated, was to 
 accompany him as far as Unyanyembe, there to await 
 stores, &c, which Mr. Stanley undertook to see de- 
 spatched from Zanzibar in safe and competent custody. 
 Livingstone declined to return. He said, " I would like 
 very much to go home and see my children once again ; 
 but I cannot bring my heart to abandon the task I have 
 undertaken when it is so nearly completed. It only 
 requires six or seven months more to trace the true source 
 that I have discovered with Petherick's branch of the 
 White Nile, or with the Albert Nyanza of Sir Samuel 
 Baker. Why should I go home before my task is ended, 
 to have to come back again to do what I can very well do 
 now?" 
 
 When Mr. Stanley got within communicating distance 
 with the coast, the intelligence he had to give of his 
 doings was as startling as it was unexpected. 
 
 It was on the 3d of July, 1872, the civilized world was 
 startled by news of the finding of Livingstone at Ujiji, — 
 the place to which so many caravans and messengers had 
 been sent from Zanzibar, with results as to the succor of 
 the great traveller, as we had too good reason to fear, of 
 a very ineffectual description. In addition to the assur- 
 ance of. his being alive, we had news of his having been 
 in the far west among friendly tribes, exploring the west- 
 ern division of the great watershed of Central Africa, of 
 the extent of which he had already informed us in his 
 letter to Lord Clarendon of July 8, 1868. 
 
 The news of his safety did not come to us in the shape 
 
274 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 of a telegram of a few lines by way of Bombay, — tantal- 
 izing us with the scantiness of its information, and the 
 dread that in a few days, like many others, it would be 
 contradicted, — but reached us in the form of a succinct 
 narrative of the meeting of Mr. Stanley- and the explorer 
 at Ujiji, their companionship together for several months, 
 a brief account of his discoveries, and an intimation that 
 Mr. Stanley was the bearer of letters and despatches from 
 Dr. Livingstone for the Government, the Royal Geogra- 
 phical Society, and personal friends. As many of the 
 most sanguine believers in his ultimate safety had begun 
 to have grave doubts that Livingstone's great career had 
 ended, as that of many a brave predecessor in African 
 discovery had, the joy and satisfaction felt at the cer- 
 tainty of his safety was of the warmest description. 
 
 When people had time to think calmly about his safety, 
 and the startling nature of the discoveries which he had 
 made while lost to our view in the recesses of the 
 interior, a feeling of wonder arose that he should have 
 been discovered and succored by a private individual, a 
 young man at the threshold of his fourth decade, the cor- 
 respondent of a newspaper, whose only experience of 
 Africa, prior to this great feat which has associated his 
 name forever with that of the greatest and most success- 
 ful explorer of ancient or modern times, was gained in 
 company with the expedition sent by the English Govern- 
 ment for the rescue of the English prisoners at Magdala. 
 Caravan after caravan laden with stores, and accompanied 
 by men intended to be of service to the traveller, had 
 been despatched by Dr. Kirk, H. M. consul at Zanzibar, 
 ■ — the Government and the Royal Geographical Society 
 aiding him in his endeavors to discover and succor the 
 man in whose fate the whole civilized world was inter- 
 ested-— in vain. 
 
STRANGENESS OF HIS DISCOVERT. 
 
 275 
 
 As we have seen, an imposing expedition under the 
 auspices of the Geographical Society, and handsomely 
 provided with means by subscriptions from private indi- 
 viduals and corporate bodies, had left this country, and 
 "was then popularly supposed to be on its way towards the 
 unknown region where its mission could be fulfilled. 
 
 That Livingstone's safety should be determined, and his 
 wants supplied, at the cost of the proprietor of a New 
 York newspaper, and through the pluck and daring of one 
 of his subordinates, who went at his bidding to look for 
 Livingstone in Central Africa, just as he would have gone 
 to collect news in any of the great centres of European 
 civilization, was a singular way of accomplishing a great 
 object, sadly puzzling for a time to many ; and fears were 
 entertained that the whole was an audacious canard, on 
 which only a Yankee journalist would dare to venture. 
 By and by, as the original intelligence came to be supple- 
 mented, it became apparent, that not only was his story 
 true, but that this young journalist was one, who, in deter- 
 mined courage and resolute perseverance, was in every 
 way worthy to take his place among the heroes of African 
 discovery and travel. When James Gordon Bennett, the 
 proprietor of "The New York-Herald," made up his mind 
 that an effort should be made to find Livingstone, and 
 assigned the task to Mr. Stanley, it fell into the hands of 
 a man capable of carrying it into successful execution. 
 No doubt, if some Englishman or American of fortune 
 had done this thing from a love of adventure or some 
 higher impulse, our ideas of the fitness of things would 
 not have been outraged : but there are hundreds of capable 
 and adventurous men who cannot afford to indulge in 
 heroic impulses of this nature ; and it wa^ a fortunate 
 thing for Livingstone, and a matter of congratulation on 
 
276 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the part of civilized mankind, that Mr. Bennett had such 
 a man on his staff, and had the wisdom to know that he 
 was the man who could carry out his wishes, if these were 
 possible. 
 
 If a life of varying vicissitude and arduous journeyings 
 be a good preparation for travel in Central Africa, Mr. 
 Stanley had undergone a training remarkable for one of 
 his years. Born in Denbigh, in North Wales, he emi- 
 grated to New Orleans while still in his teens. He joined 
 the Confederate army, and was taken prisoner at the 
 battle of Pittsburg Landing, on the 6th of April, 1862. 
 While being conveyed to prison, he managed to effect his 
 escape in a way which showed the bold daring of the man. 
 Seizing a favorable moment, he burst through the armed 
 escort, and, plunging into a deep and sluggish stream, 
 swam safely to the other side, notwithstanding that a 
 dozen bullets were sent whistling about his ears. He got 
 clear away, and went back to England for a few months. 
 Returning again to the United States, he enlisted in the 
 Federal navy, and was present at the capture of Fort 
 Fisher on the 15th January, 1865. After the war he 
 became connected with "The New York Tribune," and 
 acted as special correspondent with Gen. Hancock's 
 expedition against the Kiowa and Cheyenne Indians. In 
 returning from this mission to the Far West, he, along 
 with a companion of kindred spirit, disdaining the lum- 
 bering stage route, accomplished nearly seven hundred 
 miles of their return on a raft down the River Platte as far 
 as its junction with the Missouri. In a short time after 
 this, Mr. Stanley and two companions turned up all but 
 naked and totally destitute at the American consulate in 
 Constantinople, having been robbed and maltreated in an 
 attempt to penetrate into the interior of Asia Minor. 
 
MR. STANLEY'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 277 
 
 t 
 
 Getting back to New York, he was engaged by Mr. Bennett, 
 of "The New York Herald/' as special correspondent with 
 the British Military Expedition to Magdala in Abyssinia. 
 For several years afterwards, his time was occupied in 
 representing that great American journal in various Euro- 
 pean capitals, and at the opening of the Suez Canal. 
 Immediately prior to proceeding to Africa in search of 
 Livingstone, he accomplished a journey even more peril- 
 ous, as regards danger to life and limb, than his more 
 famous expedition to Lake Tanganyika. This was noth- 
 ing less than a journey from Constantinople, through Asia 
 Minor, Persia, and India, to Bombay, with only a single 
 servant as companion. Not the least remarkable part of 
 this wonderful exploit was its moderate cost. He tells us 
 that the entire expenditure, including outfit, was only 
 a hundred and sixty-four pounds. As he is still under 
 middle age, we may yet hear of some equally daring 
 exploit, as boldly conceived and as successfully carried 
 out, as the journey from Constantinople to Bombay, and 
 that from Zanzibar to Ujiji and back. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 LETTERS OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 THE SLAVE-TRADE IN CENTRAL AFRICA. GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 CONCLUSIONS, ETC. 
 
 The story of Dr. Livingstone's wanderings to and fro 
 over the vast extent of country, the watershed of which, 
 according to his belief, goes to form the Nile and the 
 Congo, cannot be better told than in his own words. 
 Letters to Mr. James Gordon Bennett, and to Lords Clar- 
 endon and Granville, successively foreign ministers in 
 the English government, supply ample materials, and 
 tell the story of his trials and difficulties, and the geo- 
 graphical conclusions he had arrived at up to the period 
 of Mr. Stanley's meeting with him, in a far more graphic 
 and telling manner than any paraphrase of ours could 
 pretend to do. In his first letter to Mr. Gordon Bennett, 
 he records his thanks for the great service rendered to 
 to him by that gentleman : — 
 
 " If I explain the forlorn condition in which he found 
 me, you will easily perceive that I have good reason to 
 use very strong expressions of gratitude. I came to 
 Ujiji off a tramp of between four hundred and five hun- 
 dred miles beneath a blazing vertical sun, having been 
 baffled, worried, defeated, and forced to return, when 
 almost in sight of the end of the geographical part of my 
 mission, by a number of half-caste Moslem slaves, sent 
 to me from Zanzibar, instead of men. The sore heart, 
 
 278 
 
1 
 
LETTERS OF LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 279 
 
 made still sorer by the truly woful sights I had seen of 
 6 man's inhumanity to man/ re-acted on the bodily frame, 
 and depressed it beyond measure. I thought that I was 
 dying on my feet. It is not too much to say, that almost 
 every step of the weary, sultry way I was in pain ; and I 
 reached Ujiji a mere ruckle of bones, Here I found that 
 some five hundred pounds worth of goods I had ordered 
 from Zanzibar had unaccountably been intrusted to a 
 drunken half-caste Moslem tailor, who, after squandering 
 them for sixteen months on the way to Ujiji, finished up by 
 selling off all that remained for slaves and ivory for him- 
 self. He had divined on the Koran, and found that I 
 was dead. He had also written to the governor of Un- 
 yanyembe that he had sent slaves after me to Manyema, 
 who returned and reported my decease, and begged per- 
 mission to sell off the few goods that his drunken appe- 
 tite had spared. He, however, knew perfectly well, from 
 men who had seen me, that I was alive, and waiting for 
 the goods and men ; but, as for morality, he is evidently 
 an idiot ; and, there being no law here except that of the 
 dagger or musket, I had to sit down in great weakness, 
 destitute of every thing save a few barter cloths and 
 beads I had taken the precaution to leave here in case of 
 extreme need. The near prospect of beggary among 
 Ujijians made me miserable. I could not despair, be- 
 cause I laughed so much at a friend, who, on reaching the 
 mouth of the Zambesi, said, ' that he was tempted to 
 despair on breaking the photograph of his wife : we could 
 have no success after that.' After that, the idea of 
 despair has to me such a strong smack of the ludicrous, it 
 is out of the question. 
 
 " Well, when I had got to about the lowest verge, 
 vague rumors of an English visitor reached me. I 
 
280 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 thought of myself as the man who went down from 
 Jerusalem to Jericho ; but neither priest, Levite, nor 
 Samaritan could possibly pass my way. Yet the good 
 Samaritan was close at hand ; and one of my people 
 rushed up at the top of his speed, and in great excite- 
 ment gasped out, ' An Englishman coming ! I see him ! ' 
 And off he darted to meet him. An American flag, the 
 first ever seen in these parts, at the head of a caravan, 
 told me the nationality of the stranger. I am as cold 
 and non-demonstrative as we islanders are usually reputed 
 to be, but your kindness made my frame thrill. It was 
 indeed overwhelming ; and I said in my soul, ' Let the 
 richest blessings descend from the Highest on you and 
 yours.' 
 
 " The news Mr. Stanle}* had to tell me was thrilling : 
 the mighty political changes on the Continent ; the suc- 
 cess of the Atlantic cables, the election of Gen. Grant, 
 and many topics, riveted my attention for days together, 
 and had an immediate and beneficial effect on my health. 
 I had been without news from home for years, save what 
 I could glean from a few 4 Saturday Reviews/ and copies 
 of ' Punch ' for 1868. The appetite revived, and in a 
 week I began to feel strong again. Mr. Stanley brought 
 a most kind and encouraging despatch from Lord Claren- 
 don, whose loss I sincerely deplore, — the first I have 
 received from the Foreign Office since 1866, — and infor- 
 mation that Her Majesty's government had kindly sent 
 one thousand pounds to my aid. Up to his arrival I was 
 not aware of any pecuniary aid. I came unsalaried, but 
 this want is now happily repaired ; and I am anxious that 
 you and all my friends should know, that, though 
 uncheered by letters, I have stuck to the task which my 
 friend Sir Roderick Murchison set me, with John-Bullish 
 tenacity, believing that all will come right at last." 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S LETTERS. 
 
 281 
 
 Dr. Livingstone's despatch, addressed to the Earl of 
 Clarendon, gives the best summary of his geographical 
 conclusions we have under his own hand. We give it 
 entire : — 
 
 " I wrote a very hurried letter on the 28th ult., and 
 sent it by a few men who had resolved to run the risk of 
 passing through contending parties of Banyamwesi and 
 mainland Arabs at Unyan}-embe, which is some twenty 
 days east of this. I had just come off a tramp of 
 more than four hundred miles beneath a vertical torrid 
 sun, and was so jaded in body and mind by being forced 
 back by faithless, cowardly attendants, that I could have 
 written little more though the messengers had not been in 
 such a hurry to depart as they were. I have now the 
 prospect of sending this safely to the coast by a friend ; 
 but so many of my letters have disappeared at Unyan- 
 yembe, when intrusted to the care of the Lewale, or 
 governor, who is merely the trade-agent of certain 
 Banians, that I shall consider that of the 28th as one of 
 the unfortunates, and give in this as much as I can recall. 
 
 4 4 1 have ascertained that the watershed of the Nile is a 
 broad upland, between 10° and 12° south latitude, and from 
 four thousand to five thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea. Mountains stand on it at various points ; which, 
 though not apparently very high, are between six thousand 
 and seven thousand feet of actual altitude. The water- 
 shed is over seven hundred miles in length, from west to 
 east. The springs that rise on it are almost innumerable ; 
 that is, it would take a large part of a man's life to count 
 them. A bird's-eye view of some parts of the watershed 
 would resemble the frost vegetation on window-panes. 
 They all begin in an ooze at the head of a slightly 
 depressed valley. A few hundred yards down, the quan- 
 
 24* 
 
282 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 tity of water from oozing earthen sponge forms a brisk 
 perennial burn, or brook, a few feet broad, and deep enough 
 to require a bridge. These are the ultimate or primary 
 sources of the great rivers that flow to the north in the 
 great Nile valley. The primaries unite, and form streams 
 in general larger than the Isis at Oxford, or Avon at 
 Hamilton, and may be called secondary sources. They 
 never dry, but unite again into four large lines of drain- 
 age, the head waters, or mains, of the river of Egypt. 
 These four are each called by the natives Lualaba, which, 
 if not too pedantic, may be spoken of as lacustrine rivers, 
 extant specimens of those which in prehistoric times 
 abounded in Africa, and which in the south are still called 
 by Bechuanas 4 Melapo ; ' in the north, by Arabs, 
 4 Wadys ; ' both words meaning the same thing, — river- 
 beds in which no water ever now flows. Two of the four 
 great rivers mentioned fall into the central Lualaba, or 
 Webb's Lake River ; and then we have but two main lines 
 of drainage as depicted nearly by Ptolemy. 
 
 4 4 The prevailing winds on the watershed are from the 
 south-east. This is easily observed by the direction of 
 the branches ; and the humidity of the climate is apparent 
 in the numbers of lichens, which make the upland forest 
 look like the mangrove swamps on the coast. 
 
 44 In passing over sixt} 7 miles of latitude, I waded thirty- 
 two primary sources from calf to waist deep, and requir- 
 ing from twenty minutes to an hour and a quarter to cross 
 stream and sponge : this would give about one source to 
 every two miles. 
 
 44 A Suaheli friend, in passing along part of the Lake 
 Bangweolo, during six days counted twenty-two from 
 thigh to waist deep. This lake is on the watershed : for 
 the village at which I observed on its north-west shore 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S LETTERS. 
 
 283 
 
 was a few seconds into 11° south, and its southern shores 
 and springs and rivulets are certainly in 12° south. I 
 tried to cross it, in order to measure the breadth accu- 
 rately. The first stage to an inhabited island was about 
 twenty-four miles. From the highest point here, the tops 
 of the trees, evidently lifted by the mirage, could be seen 
 on the second stage and the third stage : the mainland 
 was said to be as far as this beyond it. But my canoe 
 men had stolen the canoe, and got a hint that the v ^al 
 owners were in pursuit, and got into a flurry to return 
 home. ' They would come back for me in a few days 
 truly ; ' but I had only my coverlet left to hire another craft 
 if they should leave me in this wide expanse of water : 
 and being four thousand feet above the sea, it was very 
 cold ; so I returned. 
 
 64 The length of this lake is, at a very moderate esti- 
 mate, one hundred and fifty miles. It gives forth a large 
 body of water in the Luapula ; yet lakes are in no sense 
 sources, for no large river begins in a lake. But this and 
 others serve an important purpose in the phenomena of 
 the Nile. It is one large lake, and unlike the Okara, — 
 which, according to Suaheli, who travelled long in our 
 company, is three or four lakes run into one huge Victoria 
 Nyanza, — gives out a large river, which, on departing 
 out of Moero, is still larger. These men had spent many 
 years east of Okara, and could scarcely be mistaken in 
 saying, that, of the three or four lakes there, only one, the 
 Okara, gives off its water to the north. 
 
 "The 6 White Nile' of Speke, less by a full half than 
 the Shire out of Nyassa (for it is only eighty or ninety 
 yards broad) , can scarcely be named in comparison with 
 the central or Webb's Lualaba, of from two thousand to 
 six thousand yards, in relation to the phenomena of the 
 
284 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Nile. The structure and economy of the watershed 
 answer very much the same end as the great lacustrine 
 rivers ; but I cannot at present copy a lost despatch which 
 explained that. The mountains on the watershed are 
 probably what Ptolemy, for reasons now unknown, called 
 the Mountains of the Moon. From their bases I found 
 that the springs of the Nile do unquestionably arise. 
 This is just what Ptolemy put down, and is true geogra- 
 phy. We must accept the fountains ; and nobody but 
 Philistines will reject the mountains, though we cannot 
 conjecture the reason for the name. 
 
 " Mounts Kenia and Kilimanjaro are said to be snow- 
 capped ; but they are so far from the sources, and send no 
 water to any part of the Nile, they could never have been 
 meant by the correct ancient explorers, from whom 
 Ptolemy and his predecessors gleaned their true geogra- 
 phy, so different from the trash that passes current in 
 modern times. 
 
 " Before leaving the subject of the watershed, I may 
 add, that I know about six hundred miles of it, but am 
 not yet satisfied, for unfortunately the seventh hundred is 
 the most interesting of the whole. I have a very strong 
 impression, that in the last hundred miles the fountains 
 of the Nile, mentioned to Herodotus by the secretary of 
 Minerva in the city of Sais, do arise, not, like all the rest, 
 from oozing earthen sponges, but from an earthei 
 mound ; and half the water flows northward to Egypt, 
 the other half south to Inner Ethiopia. These, fountains, 
 at no great distance off, become large rivers, though at 
 the mound they are not more than ten miles apart. 
 That is, one fountain rising on the north-east of the 
 mound becomes Bartle Frere's Lualaba, and it flows into 
 one of the lakes proper, Kamolondo, of the central line 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S LETTERS. 
 
 285 
 
 of drainage ; Webb's Lualaba, the second fountain, 
 rising on the north-west, becomes (Sir Paraffin) Young's 
 Lualaba, which passing through Lake Lincoln and be- 
 coming Loeki, or Lomame, and joining the central line 
 too, goes north to Eg} T pt. The third fountain, on the 
 south-west, Palmerston's, becomes the Liambia, or Upper 
 Zambesi ; while the fourth, OswelFs fountain, becomes 
 the Kafue, and falls into Zambesi in Inner Ethiopia. 
 
 "More time has been spent in the exploration than I 
 ever anticipated. My bare expenses were paid for two 
 years ; but, had I left when the money was expended, I 
 could have given little more information about the coun- 
 try than the Portuguese, who, in their three slave-trading 
 expeditions to Cazembe, asked for slaves and ivory alone, 
 and heard of nothing else. From one of the subordi- 
 nates of their last so-called expedition, I learnt that it 
 was believed that the Luapula went to Angola ! I asked 
 about the waters till I was ashamed, and almost afraid of 
 being set down as afflicted with hydrocephalus. I had to 
 feel my wa}-, and every step of the way, and was gen- 
 erally groping in the dark ; for who cared where -ihe 
 rivers ran ? Many a weary foot I trod ere I got a clear 
 idea of the drainage of the great Nile valley. The most 
 intelligent natives and traders thought that all the rivers 
 of the upper part of that valley flowed into Tanganyika. 
 But the barometers told me, that, to do so, the water must 
 flow up hill. The great rivers and the great lakes all 
 make their waters converge into the deep trough of the 
 valley, which is a full inch of the barometer lower than 
 the Upper Tanganyika. It is only a sense of dut}^, which 
 I trust your lordship will approve, that makes me remain, 
 and, if possible, finish the geographical question of my 
 mission. After being thwarted, baffled, robbed, worried 
 
286 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 almost to death in following the central line of drainage 
 down, I have a sore longing for home ; have had a per- 
 fect surfeit of seeing strange new lands and people, 
 grand mountains, lovely valle}^, the glorious vegetation 
 of primeval forests, wild beasts, and an endless succes- 
 sion of beautiful man ; besides great rivers and vast lakes, 
 — the last most interesting from their huge outflo wings, 
 which explain some of the phenomena of the grand old 
 Nile. 
 
 " Let me explain, but in no boastful style, the mistakes 
 of others who have bravely striven to solve the ancient 
 problem, and it will be seen that I have cogent reasons 
 for following the painful, plodding investigation to 
 its conclusion. Poor Speke's mistake was a foregone 
 conclusion. When he discovered the Victoria Nyanza, 
 he at once leaped to the conclusion that therein lay the 
 sources of the river of Eg}-pt, ' twenty thousand square 
 miles of water,' confused by sheer immensity. 
 
 4 4 Ptolemy's small lake 4 Coloc ' is a more correct rep- 
 resentation of the actual size of that one of three or four 
 lakes which alone sends its outflow to the north : its name 
 is Okara. Lake Kavirondo is three days distant from it, 
 but connected by a narrow arm. Lake Naibash, or Nei- 
 bash, is four days from Kavirondo . Baringo is ten days 
 distant, and discharges by a river, the Nagardabash, to 
 the north-east. 
 
 44 These three or four lakes, which have been described 
 by several intelligent Suaheli, who have lived for many 
 years on their shores, were run into one huge Victoria 
 N} T anza. But no sooner did Speke and Grant turn their 
 faces to this lake to prove that it contained the Nile 
 fountains, than they turned their backs to the springs of 
 the river of Egypt, which are between four hundred and 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S LETTERS. 
 
 287 
 
 five hundred miles south of the most southerly portion of 
 the Victoria Lake. Every step of their heroic and really 
 splendid achievement of following the river down took 
 them farther and farther from the sources they sought. 
 But for devotion to the foregone conclusion, the sight of 
 the little 6 White Nile,' as unable to account for the great 
 river, they must have turned off to the west, down into 
 the deep trough of the great valley, and there found 
 lacustrine rivers amply sufficient to account for the Nile 
 and all its phenomena. 
 
 "The next explorer, Baker, believed as honestly as 
 Speke and Grant, that in the Lake Eiver Albert he had a 
 second source of the Nile to that of Speke. He came 
 farther up the Nile than any other in modern times, but 
 turned when between six hundred and seven hundred 
 miles short of the caput Nili. He is now employed in a 
 more noble work than the discovery of Nile sources ; and 
 if, as all must earnestly wish, he succeeds in suppressing 
 the Nile slave-trade, the boon he will bestow on hu- 
 manity will be of far higher value than all my sources 
 together. 
 
 ' 6 When intelligent men like these and Bruce have been 
 mistaken, I have naturally felt anxious that no one should 
 come after me and find sources south of mine, which I 
 now think can only be possible by water running up the 
 southern slope of the watershed. 
 
 "But all that can in modern times, and in common 
 modesty, be fairly claimed, is the re-discovery of what 
 had sunk into oblivion, like the circumnavigation of 
 Africa by the Phoenician admiral of one of the Pharaohs, 
 about B. C. 600. He was not believed, because he re- 
 ported, that, in passing round Libya, he had the sun on his 
 right hand. This, to us who have gone round the Cape 
 from east to west, stamps his tale as genuine. 
 
288 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 " The predecessors of Ptolemy probably gained their 
 mformation from men who visited this very region ;• for, 
 m the second century of our era, he gave, in substance, 
 what we now find to be genuine geography. 
 
 " The springs of the Nile, rising in 10° to 12° south 
 latitude, and their water collecting into two large lacus- 
 trine rivers, and other facts, could have been learned only 
 from primitive travellers or traders, — the true discoverers 
 of what emperors, kings, philosophers, all the great minds 
 of antiquit}', longed to know, and longed in vain. 
 
 " The geographical results of four arduous trips in 
 different directions in the Manyema country are briefly 
 as follows : The great river, Webb's Lualaba, in the 
 centre of the Nile valley, makes a great bend to the west, 
 soon after leaving Lake Moero, of at least a hundred and 
 eighty miles ; then, turning to the north for some dis- 
 tance, it makes another large sweep west, of about a hun- 
 dred and twenty miles, in the course of which about thirty 
 miles of southing are made ; it then draws round to north- 
 east, receives the Lomame, or Loeki, a large river which 
 flows through Lake Lincoln. After the union a large lake 
 is formed, with many inhabited islands in it ; but this has 
 still to be explored. It is the fourth large lake in the cen- 
 tral line of drainage, and cannot be Lake Albert ; for 
 assuming Speke's longitude of Ujiji to be pretty correct, 
 and my reckoning not enormously wrong, the great central 
 lacustrine river is about five degrees west of Upper and 
 Lower Tanganyika. 
 
 " The mean of many barometric and boiling-point ob- 
 servations made Upper Tanganyika two thousand eight 
 hundred and eighty feet high. Respect for Speke's mem- 
 ory made me hazard the conjecture that he found it to be 
 nearly the same ; but from the habit of writing the Annum 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S LETTERS. 
 
 289 
 
 Domini, a mere slip of the pen made him say one thousand 
 eight hundred and forty-four feet. But I have more con- 
 fidence in the barometers than in the boiling-points ; and 
 they make Tanganyika over three thousand feet, and the 
 lower part of Central Lualaba one inch lower, or about 
 the altitude ascribed to Gondokoro. 
 
 "Beyond the fourth lake, the water passes, it is said, 
 into large, reedy lakes ; and is, in all probability, Pether- 
 ieVs branch, — the main stream of the Nile, — in distinc- 
 tion from the smaller eastern arm, which Speke, Grant, 
 and Baker took to be the river of Egypt. 
 
 " In my attempts to penetrate farther and farther, I had 
 but little hope of ultimate success ; for the great amount 
 of westing led to a continual effort to suspend the judg- 
 ment, lest, after all, I might be exploring the Congo, 
 instead of the Nile ; and it was only after the two great 
 western drains fell into the central main, and left but the 
 two great lacustrine rivers of Ptolemy, that I felt pretty 
 sure of being on the right track. 
 
 " The great bends west probably form one side of the 
 great rivers above that geographical loop ; the other side 
 being Upper Tanganyika and the Lake River Albert. A 
 waterfall is reported to exist between Tanganyika and 
 Albert Nyanza, but I could not go to it ; nor have I seen 
 the connecting link between the two, — the upper side of 
 the loop, — though I believe it exists. 
 
 u The Manyema are certainly cannibals ; but it was long 
 ere I could get evidence more positive than would have 
 led a Scotch jury to give a verdict of c not proven.' They 
 eat only enemies killed in war : they seem as if instigated 
 ny revenge in their man-eating orgies ; and, on these occa- 
 sions, they do not like a stranger to see them. I offered a 
 large reward in vain to any one who would call me to wit- 
 
 25 
 
290 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, ZL.D. 
 
 ness a cannibal feast. Some intelligent men have told me 
 that the meat is not nice, and made them dream of the 
 deal. The women never partake, and I am glad of it ; 
 for many of them far down Lualaba are very pretty : they 
 bathe three or four times a day, and are expert divers for 
 oysters. 
 
 " The terror that guns inspire generally among the 
 Manyema seems to arise among the Bakuss from an idea 
 that they are supernatural. The effect of gunshot on a 
 goa. ; . was shown, in order to convince them that the 
 traders had power, and that the instruments they carried 
 were not, as they imagined, the mere insignia of chief- 
 tainship : they looked up to the skies, and offered to bring 
 ivory to purchase the charm by which lightning was drawn 
 down ; and afterwards, when the traders tried to force a 
 passage which was refused, they darted aside on seeing 
 Banyamwezi's followers place the arrows in the bow- 
 strings, but stood in mute amazement while the guns 
 mowed them down in great numbers. They use long 
 epears in the thick vegetation of their country with great 
 dexterity ; and they have told me frankly, what was self- 
 evident, that, but for the lire-arms, not one of the Zanzi- 
 bar slaves or half-castes would ever leave their country. 
 
 " There is not a single great chief in all Man}^ema. No 
 matter what name the different divisions of people bear, 
 — Manyema, Balegga, Babire, Bazire, Bakoos, — there 
 is no political cohesion ; not one king or kingdom. Each 
 head man is independent of eve^ other. The people are 
 industrious, and most of them cultivate the soil largely. 
 We found them everywhere very honest. When detained 
 at Bambarre, we had to send our goats and fowls to the 
 Manyema villages, to prevent them being all stolen by the 
 Zanzibar slaves : the slave-owners had to do the same. 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S LETTERS. 
 
 291 
 
 "Manyema-land is the only country in Central Africa 
 I have seen where cotton is not cultivated, spun, and 
 Woven. The clothing is that known in Madagascar aa 
 ' lambas ' or grass-cloth, made from the leaves of the 
 4 Muale 9 palm. 
 
 " They call the good spirit above ' Ngulu, ' or the Great 
 One ; and the spirit of evil, who resides in the deep, 4 Mu- 
 lambu.' A hot fountain near Bambarre .is supposed to 
 belong to this being, the author of death by drowning and 
 other misfortunes." 
 
 The following graphic account of travel in Manyema- 
 land, which occurs in a despatch to Lord Granville, gives 
 a striking picture of the country and the difficulties of 
 travel : — 
 
 " The country is extremely beautiful, but difficult to 
 travel over. The mountains of light-gray granite stand 
 like islands in new red sandstone, and mountain and 
 valley are all clad in a mantle of different shades of green. 
 The vegetation is indescribably rank. Through the grass 
 — if grass it can be called, which is over half an inch in 
 diameter in the stalk, and from ten to twelve feet high — 
 nothing but elephants can walk. The leaves of this me- 
 gatherium grass are armed with minute spikes, which, as 
 we worm our way along elephant-walks, rub disagreeably 
 on the side of the face where the gun is held, and the 
 hand is made sore by fending it off the other side for 
 hours. The rains were fairly set in by November ; and in 
 the mornings, or after a shower, these leaves were loaded 
 with moisture which wet us to the bone. The valleys are 
 deeply undulating, and in each innumerable dells have to 
 be crossed. There may be only a thread of water at the 
 bottom ; but the mud, mire, or (scottice) c glaur ' is 
 grievous : thirty or forty yards of the path on each side 
 
292 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 of the stream are worked by the feet of passengers into 
 an adhesive compound. By placing a foot on each side 
 of the narrow way, one may waddle a little distance 
 along ; but the rank crop of grasses, gingers, and bushes 
 cannot spare the few inches of soil required for the side 
 of the foot, and down he comes into the slough. The 
 path often runs along the bed of the rivulet for sixty or 
 more yards, as if he who first cut it out went that dis- 
 tance seeking for a part of the forest less dense for his 
 axe. In other cases, the Muale palm, from which here, as 
 in Madagascar, grass-cloth is woven, and called by the 
 same name, 1 lamba,' has taken possession of the valley. 
 The leaf-stalks, as thick as a strong man's arm, fall off 
 and block up all passage, save by a path made and mixed 
 up by the feet of elephants and buffaloes : the slough 
 therein is groan-compelling and deep. 
 
 " Every now and then the traders, with rueful faces, 
 stand panting ; the sweat trickles down my face ; and I 
 suppose that I look as grim as they, though I try to cheer 
 them with the hope that good prices will reward them at 
 the coast for ivory obtained with so much toil. In some 
 cases the subsoil has given way beneath the elephant's 
 enormous weight ; the deep hole is filled with mud ; and 
 one, taking it all to be about calf deep, steps into the top 
 of the thigh, and flaps on to a seat, soft enough, but not 
 luxurious : a merry laugh relaxes the facial muscles, 
 though I have no other reason for it than that it is better 
 to laugh than to cry. 
 
 " Some of the numerous rivers which in this region flow 
 into Lualaba are covered with living vegetable bridges : a 
 species of dark glossy-leaved grass, with its roots and 
 leaves, felts itself into a mat that covers the whole stream. 
 When stepped upon, it yields twelve or fifteen inches, and 
 
LIVINGSTONE'S LETTERS. 
 
 293 
 
 that amount of water rises up on the leg. At every step 
 the foot has to be raised high enough to place it on the 
 unbent mass in front. This high stepping fatigues like 
 walking on deep snow. Here and there holes appear 
 which we could not sound with a stick six feet long : they 
 gave the impression that anywhere one might plump 
 through and finish the chapter. Where the water is shal- 
 low, the lotus, or sacred lily, sends its roots to the bottom, 
 and spreads its broad leaves over the floating bridge, so 
 as to make believe that the mat is its own ; but the grass 
 referred to is the real felting and supporting agent, for it 
 often performs duty as bridge where no lilies grow. The 
 bridge is called by Manyema 6 kintefwetefwe,' as if he who 
 first coined it was gasping for breath after plunging over 
 a mile of it. 
 
 " Between each district of Manyema large belts of the 
 primeval forest still stand. Into these the sun, though 
 vertical, cannot penetrate, except by sending down at 
 midday thin pencils of rays into the gloom. The rain- 
 water stands for months in stagnant pools made by the 
 feet of elephants ; and the dead leaves decay on the damp 
 soil, and make the water of the numerous rivulets of the 
 color of strong tea. The climbing plants, from the size 
 of whipcord to that of a man-of-war's hawsers, are so 
 numerous, the ancient path is the only passage. When 
 one of the giant trees falls across the road, it forms a wall 
 breast-high to be climbed over ; and the mass of tangled 
 ropes brought down makes cutting a path round it a work 
 of time which travellers never undertake. 
 
 " The shelter of the forest from the sun makes it pleas- 
 ant ; but the roots of trees high out of the soil across the 
 path keep the eyes, ox-like, on the ground. The trees 
 are so high, that a good shot-gun does no harm to parrots 
 
 25* 
 
294 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 or guinea-fowls on their tops ; and they are often m 
 closely planted, that I have heard gorillas, here called 
 4 sokos,' growling about fifty 3-ards off, without getting a 
 glimpse of them. His nest is a poor contrivance : it ex- 
 hibits no more architectural skill than the nest of our 
 cushat dove. Here the 6 soko ' sits in pelting rain, with 
 his hands over his head. The natives give him a good 
 character, and from what I have seen he deserves it ; bi t 
 they call his nest his house, and laugh at him for being 
 such a fool as to build a house, and not go beneath it for 
 shelter." 
 
 In a despatch addressed to Earl Granville, dated Ujiji, 
 Nov. 14, 1871, Dr. Livingstone exposes the fact that the 
 slave-trade in Central Africa is mainly carried on for the 
 benefit of British subjects. He says, — 
 
 "In my letter dated Bambarre, November, 1870, now 
 enclosed, I stated my grave suspicions that a packet of 
 about forty letters — despatches, copies of all the astrono- 
 mical observations from the coast onwards, and sketch- 
 maps on tracing paper, intended to convey a clear idea of 
 all the discoveries up to the time of arrival at Ujiji — 
 would be destroyed. It was delivered to the agent here 
 of the governor of Unyanyembe ; and I paid him in full 
 all he demanded to transmit it to Syde-bin-Salem Buras- 
 chid, the so-called governor, -who ik merely a trade-agent 
 of certain Banians of Zanzibar, and a person who is 
 reputed dishonest by all. As an agent he pilfers from his 
 employers, be they Banians or Arabs ; as a governor, 
 expected to exercise the office of a magistrate, he dis- 
 penses justice to him who pays most ; and, as the subject 
 of a sultan who intrusted him because he had no power on 
 the mainland to supersede him, he robs his superior shame- 
 lessly. No Arab or native ever utters a good word for 
 trim, but all detest him for his injustice. 
 
ARAB SLAVE-TRADERS. 
 
 295 
 
 "The following narrative requires it to be known that 
 his brother, Ali-bin-Salem Buraschid, is equally notorious 
 for unblushing dishonesty. All Arabs and Europeans 
 who have had dealings with either speak in unmeasured 
 terms of their fraud and duplicity. The brothers are 
 employed in trade, chiefly by Ludha Damji, the richest 
 Banian in Zanzibar. 
 
 " It is well known that the slave-trade in this country 
 is carried on almost entirely with his money and that of 
 other Banian British subjects. The Banians advance the 
 goods required ; and the Arabs proceed inland as their 
 agents, perform the trading, or rather murdering, and, 
 when slaves and ivory are brought to the coast, the Arabs 
 sell the slaves. The Banians pocket the price, and adroitly 
 let the odium rest on their agents. As a rule, no travel- 
 ling Arab has money sufficient to undertake an inland 
 journey. Those who have become rich imitate the 
 Banians, and send their indigent countrymen and slaves 
 to trade for them. The Banians could scarcely carry on 
 their system of trade, were they not in possession of the 
 custom-house, and had power to seize all the goods that 
 pass through it to pay themselves for debts. The so- 
 called governors are appointed on their recommendation, 
 and become mere trade-agents. When the Arabs in the 
 interior are assaulted by the natives, they never unite 
 under a governor as a leader ; for they know that defend- 
 ing them, or concerting means for their safety, is no part 
 of his duty. The Arabs are nearly all in debt to the 
 Banians, and the Banian slaves are employed in ferreting 
 out every trade transaction of the debtors ; and, when 
 watched by governors' slaves and custom-house officers, 
 it is scarcely possible for even this cunning, deceitful race 
 to escape being fleeced. To avoid this many surrender 
 
296 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 all the ivory to their Banian creditors, and are allowed to 
 keep or sell the slaves as their share of the profits. It 
 will readily be perceived that the prospect of in any way 
 coming under the power of Banian British subjects at 
 Zanzibar is very far from re-assuring." 
 . Leaders of slave parties often resort to massacre with 
 the view of inspiring a dread of their power, and to insure 
 the rapid capturing of slaves during the confusion thus 
 created. Dr. Livingstone gives a terrible narrative of an 
 attack upon the unoffending Man}-ema : " On the 13th 
 of June a massacre was perpetrated which filled me with 
 such intolerable loathing that I resolved to yield to the 
 Banian slaves, return to Ujiji, get men from the coast, and 
 try to finish the rest of my work by going outside the area 
 of Ujijian bloodshed, instead of vainly trying from its 
 interior outwards. 
 
 w Dugumbe's* people built their huts on the right bank 
 of Lualaba, at a market-place called Nyangwe. On hear- 
 ing that the head slave of a trader at Ujiji had, in order 
 to get canoes cheap, mixed blood with the head men of 
 the Bagenya on the left bank, [they] were disgusted with 
 his assurance, and resolved to punish him, and make an 
 impression in the country in favor of their own greatness 
 by an assault on the market people, and on all the 
 Bagenya who had dared to make friendship with any but 
 themselves. Tagamoio, the principal under-tracler of 
 Dugumbe's party, was the perpetrator. The market was 
 attended every fourth day by between 2,000 and 3,000 
 people. It was held on a long slope of land, which down 
 at the river ended in a creek capable of containing be- 
 tween fifty and sixty large canoes. The majority of the 
 
 * Dugumbe was an Arab trader. 
 
HORRIBLE MASSACRE, 
 
 297 
 
 market people were women, many of them very pretty. 
 The people west of the river brought fish, salt, pepper, 
 oil, grass-cloth, iron, fowls, goats, sheep, pigs, in great 
 numbers, to exchange with those east of the river for 
 cassava grain, potatoes, and other farinaceous products. 
 They have a strong sense of natural justice, and all unite 
 m forcing each other to fair dealing. At first my presence 
 made them all afraid ; but wishing to gain their confidence, 
 which my enemies tried to undermine or prevent, I went 
 among them frequently, and when they saw no harm in 
 me became very gracious. The bargaining was the finest 
 acting I ever saw. I understood but few of the words 
 that flew off the glib tongues of the women, but their 
 gestures spoke plainly. I took sketches of the fifteen 
 varieties of fish brought in, to compare them with those 
 of the Nile farther down ; and all were eager to tell their 
 names. But, on the date referred to, I had left the mar- 
 ket only a minute or two, when three men whom I had 
 seen with guns, and felt inclined to reprove them for 
 bringing them into the market-place, but had refrained, 
 attributing it to ignorance in new-comers, began to fire 
 into the dense crowd around them ; another party down 
 at the canoes rained their balls on the panic-struck multi- 
 tude that rushed into these vessels. All threw away their 
 goods ; the men forgot their paddles ; the canoes were 
 jammed in the creek, and could not be got out quick 
 enough, so many men and women sprang into the water. 
 The women of the left bank are expert divers for oysters, 
 and a long line of heads showed a crowd striking out for 
 an island a mile off : to gain it they had to turn the left 
 shoulder against a current of between a mile and a half to 
 two miles an hour. Had they gone diagonally with the 
 current, though that would have been three miles, many 
 
298 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 would have gained the shore. It was horrible to see one 
 head after another disappear, — some calmly ; others throw- 
 ing their arms high up towards the Great Father of all, 
 and going down. Some of the men who got canoes out 
 of the crowd paddled quick, with hands and arms, to help 
 their friends ; three took people in, till they all sank 
 together. One man had clearly lost his head ; for he 
 paddled a canoe which would have held fifty people 
 straight up-stream, nowhere. The Arabs estimated the 
 loss at between 400 and 500 souls. Dugumbe sent out 
 some of his men in one of thirty canoes, which the owners 
 in their fright could not extricate to save the sinking. 
 One lady refused to be taken on board because she 
 thought that she was to be made a slave ; but he rescued 
 twenty-one, and of his own accord sent them, next day, 
 home ; many escaped and came to me, and w r ere restored 
 to their friends. When the firing began on the terror- 
 stricken crowd at the canoes, Tagamoio's band began their 
 assault on the people on the west of the river, and con- 
 tinued the fire all day. I counted seventeen villages in 
 flames and next day six. Dugumbe' s power over the 
 underlings is limited ; but he ordered them to cease shoot- 
 ing : those in the market were so reckless they shot two 
 of their own number. Tagamoio's crew came back next 
 day in canoes, shouting and firing off their guns as if 
 believing that they were worthy of renown. 
 
 " Next day about twenty head men fled from the west 
 Dank, and came to my house. There was no occasion now 
 to tell them that the English had no desire for human 
 blood. They begged hard that I should go over with them 
 and settle with them, and arrange where the new dwellings 
 of each should be. I was so ashamed of the bloody 
 Moslem company in which I found myself, that I was 
 
DISCOURAGEMENT AND DANGER. 
 
 299 
 
 unable to look at the Manyema. I confessed my grief and 
 shame, and was entreated, if I must go, not to leave them 
 now. Dugumbe spoke kindly to them, and would protect 
 them as well as he could against his own people ; but 
 when I went to Tagamoio to ask back the wives and 
 daughters of some of the head men, he always ran off and 
 hid himself. 
 
 4 4 This massacre was the most terrible scene I ever saw 
 1 cannot describe my feelings, and am thankful that I did 
 not give way to them, but by Dugumbe's advice avoided a 
 bloody feud with men, who, for the time, seemed turned 
 into demons. The whole transaction was the more de- 
 plorable, inasmuch as we have always heard from the 
 Manyema, that, though the men of the districts may be 
 engaged in actual hostilities, the women pass from one 
 market-place to another with their wares, and were nevei 
 known to be molested. The change has come only with 
 these alien bloodhounds ; and all the bloodshed has 
 taken place in order that captives might be seized where 
 it could be done without danger, and in order that the 
 slaving privileges of a petty sultan should produce abun- 
 dant fruit. 
 
 " Heartsore, and greatly depressed in spirits by the 
 many instances of ' man's inhumanity to man ' I had un- 
 willingly seen, I commenced the long weary tramp to 
 Ujiji, with the blazing sun right overhead. The mind 
 acted on the body ; and it is no over-statement to say that 
 almost every step of between four hundred and five hun- 
 dred miles was in pain. I felt as if dying on my feet, and 
 I came very near to death in a more summary way. It 
 ia within the area of bloodshed that danger alone occurs. 
 I could not induce my Moslem slaves to \enture outside 
 that area or sphere. They knew better than I did. ' Was 
 Muhamad not the greatest of all, and their prophet ? ' " 
 
300 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 The natives to the west of Lake Tanganyika are, accord- 
 ing :o Livingstone, a naturally intelligent and well- 
 favored "race, and exceedingly friendly and well-disposed 
 towards strangers, until they have lost confidence in them 
 through cruelty and ill-usage. The following " lights and 
 shades" of African life are painfully interesting. He 
 says, — 
 
 " Slaves generally — and especially those on tne West 
 Coast at Zanzibar and elsewhere — are extremely ugly. 
 I have no prejudice against their color : indeed, any one 
 who lives long among them forgets that th^y are black, 
 and feels that they are just fellow-men. But the low, re- 
 treating forehead, prognathous jaws, lark heels, and other 
 physical peculiarities common among slaves and West 
 Coast negroes, always awaken the same feelings of aver- 
 sion as those with which we view specimens of the ' Bill 
 S} T kes ' and ' Bruiser ' class in England. I would not utter 
 a syllable calculated to press down either class more 
 deeply in the mire in which they are already sunk ; but I 
 wish to point out that these are not typical Africans any 
 more than typical Englishmen, and that the natives of 
 nearly all the high lands of the interior of the continent 
 are fair average specimens of humanity. I happened to 
 be present when all the head men of the great chief In- 
 sama, who lives west of the south end of Tanganyika, had 
 come together to make peace with certain Arabs who had 
 burned their chief towm ; and I am certain one could not 
 see more finery formed, intellectual heads in an}- assembly 
 in London or Paris ; and the faces and forms corresponded 
 with the finely-shaped heads. Insama himself, who had 
 been a sort of Napoleon for righting and conquering in his 
 younger days, was exactly like the ancient Assyrians 
 sculptured on the Nineveh marbles , as Nimrod and others : 
 
ADORNMENTS OF THE WOMEN 
 
 301 
 
 lie showed himself to be one of ourselves liy habitually 
 indulging in copious potations of beer, called pombe, and 
 had become what Nathaniel Hawthorne called 4 bilbous ' 
 below the ribs. I don't know w T here the prase 6 bloated 
 aristocracy ' arose. It must be American ; for I have had 
 glimpses of a good few English noblemen* and Insama 
 was the only specimen of a bloated aristocrat on whom I 
 ever set my eyes. 
 
 " Many of the women were very pretty, and, like all 
 ladies, would have been much prettier if they had only let 
 themselves alone. Fortunately, the dears could not 
 change their charming black e} 7 es, beautiful foreheads, 
 • nicely rounded limbs, well-shaped forms, and small hands 
 and feet. But they must adorn themselves ; and this 
 they do — oh, the hussies ! — by filing their splendid teeth 
 to points like cats' teeth. It was distressing ; for it made 
 their smile, which has generally so much power over us 
 great he-donkeys > rather crocodile-like. Ornaments are 
 scarce. What would our ladies do, if they had none, but 
 pout and lecture us on ' women's rights ' ? But these 
 specimens of the fair sex make shift by adorning their 
 fine warm brown skins, tattooing them with various pretty 
 devices without colors, that, besides purposes of beaut} 7 , 
 serve the heraldic uses of our Highland tartans. The} 7 
 are not black, but of a light warm brown color ; and so 
 very sisterish, — if I may use the new coinage, — it feels an 
 injury done to one's self to see a bit of grass stuck through 
 the cartilage of the nose, so as to bulge out the aim nasi 
 (wings of the nose of anatomists). Cazembe's queen — 
 a Ngombe, Moarl by name — would be esteemed a real 
 beauty in London. Paris, or New York ; and yet she had 
 a small hole through the cartilage near the top of her fine 
 slightly aquiline nose. But she had only filed one side of 
 
 26 
 
602 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 the two fronts of her superb snow-white teeth ; and then 
 what a laugh she had ! Let those who wish to know, go 
 and see her carried to her farm in her pony phaeton, 
 which is a sort of throne fastened on two very long poles, 
 and carried by twelve stalwart citizens. If they take 
 Punch's motto for Cazembe, ' Niggers don't require to be 
 shot here,' as their own, they may show themselves to be 
 men ; but, whether they do or not, Cazembe will show him- 
 self a man of sterling good sense. Now, these people, so 
 like ourselves externally, have genuine human souls. Rua, 
 a very large section of country north and west of Ca- 
 zembe's, but still in the same inland region, is peopled 
 by men ver} T like those of Insama and Cazembe. 
 
 " An Arab, Said-bin-Habib, went to trade in Rua two 
 years ago ; and, as the Arabs usually do when the natives 
 have no guns, Said-bin-Habib's elder brother carried 
 matters with a high hand. The Rua men observed that 
 the elder brother slept in a white tent, and, pitching their 
 spears into it by night, killed him. As Moslems never 
 forgive bloodshed, the younger brother forthwith ran at 
 all indiscriminately in a large district. Let it not be 
 supposed that any of these people are, like the American 
 Indians, insatiable, bloodthirsty savages, who will not 
 be reclaimed, or enter into terms of lasting friendship 
 with fair-dealing strangers. Had the actual murderers 
 been demanded, and a little time been granted, I feel 
 morally certain, from man} 7 other instances among tribes, 
 who, like the Ra Rua, have not been spoiled by Arab 
 traders, they would all have been given up. The cliiefs of 
 the country would, first of all, have specified the crime of 
 which the elder brother was guilty, and who had been led 
 to avenge it. It is very likely that they would stipulate 
 that no other should be punished but the actual perpetra- 
 
DEATHS FROM HOMESICKNESS. 
 
 303 
 
 cor. Domestic slaves, acting under his orders, would be 
 considered free from blame. I know of nothing that 
 distinguishes the uncontaminated Africans from other 
 degraded peoples more than their entire reasonableness 
 and good sense. It is different after they have had wives, 
 children, and relations kidnapped ; but that is more than 
 human nature, civilized or savage, can bear. In the case 
 in question, indiscriminate slaughter, capture, and plunder 
 took place. A very large number of very fine young men 
 were captured, and secured in chains and wooden yokes. 
 I came near the party of Said-bin-Habid, close to the 
 point where a huge rent in the mountains of Rua allows 
 the escape of the River Lualaba out of Lake Moero ; and 
 here I had for the first time an opportunity of observing 
 the differences between slaves and freemen made captives. 
 When fairly across Lualaba, Said thought his captives 
 safe, and got rid of the trouble of attending to and 
 watching the chained gang by taking off both chains and 
 yokes. All declared their joy and perfect willingness to 
 follow Said to the end of the world or elsewhere ; but next 
 morning twenty- two made clear off to the mountains. 
 Many more, in seeing the broad Lualaba roll between 
 them and the homes of their infancy, lost all heart ; and 
 in three days eight of them died. They had no complaint 
 but pain in the heart ; and they pointed out its seat cor- 
 rectly, though many believe that the heart is situated 
 underneath the top of the sternum or breast-bone. This 
 to me was the most startling death I ever saw. They 
 evidently died of broken-heartedness ; and the Arabs 
 wondered, seeing they had plenty to eat. I saw others 
 perish, particularly a very fine boy of ten or twelve years 
 of age. When asked where he felt ill, he put his hand 
 correctly and exactly over the heart. He was kindly 
 
304 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 earned, and, as he breathed out his soul, was laid gently 
 on the side of the path. The captors were not usually 
 cruel: they were callous, — slavery had hardened their 
 hearts. 
 
 . . . "I once saw a party of twelve who had been 
 slaves in their own country, — Lunda, or Londa, — of 
 which Cazembe is chief in general. They were loaded 
 with large heavy wooden yokes, which are forked trees 
 about three inches in diameter, and seven or eight feet 
 long. The neck is inserted in the fork, and an iron bar 
 driven in across from one end of the fork to the other, 
 and riveted ; the other end is tied at night to a tree, or to 
 the ceiling of a hut ; and the neck being firm in the fork, 
 the slave is held off from unloosing it. It is excessively 
 troublesome to the wearer ; and, when marching, two yokes 
 are tied together by their free ends, and loads put on the 
 slaves' heads besides. Women, having in addition to the 
 yoke and load a child on the back, have said to me on 
 passing, c They are killing me ! if they would take off 
 the yoke, I could manage the load and child ; but I shall 
 die with the loads.' One who spoke thus did die ; and 
 the poor little girl, her child, perished of starvation. I 
 interceded for some ; but, when unyoked, off they bounded 
 into the long grass, and I was gently blamed for not 
 caring to preserve the owner's property. After a day's 
 march under a broiling vertical sun, with yokes and 
 heav}* loads, the strongest are exhausted. The party of 
 twelve above mentioned were sitting singing and laugh- 
 ing. ' Hallo ! ' said I, ' these fellows take to it kindly : 
 this must be the class for whom philosophers say slavery 
 is the natural state.' And I went and asked the cause of 
 their mirth. I had to ask the aid of their owner as to 
 the meaning of the word rukha, which usually means to 
 
ABUNDANCE OF IVORY. 
 
 305 
 
 fly or leap. They were using it to express the idea of 
 haunting, as a ghost, and inflicting disease and death; 
 and the song was, ' Yes, we are going away to Manga 
 (abroad in white man's land) with yokes on our necks ; 
 but we shall have no yokes in death. And we shall 
 return to haunt and kill you.' The chorus then struck in 
 with the name of the man who had sold each of them ; 
 and then followed the general laugh, in which at first I 
 saw no bitterness. Perembe, an old man of at least one 
 hundred and four years, had been one of the sellers. In 
 accordance with African belief, they had no doubt of being 
 soon able, by ghost power, to kill even him. Their refrain 
 might be rendered, — 
 
 Oh, oh, oh, ! 
 
 Bird of freedom, oh! 
 
 You sold me, oh, oh, oh! 
 
 I shall haunt you, oh, oh, oh!' 
 
 The laughter told not of mirth, but of tears of such as 
 were oppressed, and they had no comforter." 
 
 No slave hunters or traders had ever entered the Man- 
 yema country until about the time of Dr. Livingstone's 
 visit: consequently, "the value of ivory was quite un- 
 known. Indeed, the tusks were left in the forests, with 
 the other bones, where the animals had been slain : many 
 were rotten ; others were gnawed by a rodent animal to 
 sharpen his teeth, as London rats do on leaden pipes. If 
 civilly treated, the people went into the forests to spots 
 where they knew elephants had been killed either by traps 
 or spears, and brought the tusks for a few copper brace- 
 lets. I have seen parties return with so much ivory, that 
 they carried it by three relays of hundreds of slaves. 
 But even this did not satisfy human greed. The Man- 
 
 26* 
 
306 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 yema were found to be terrified by the report cf guns : 
 some, I know, believed them to be supernatural ; for, 
 when the effects of a musket-ball was shown on a goat, 
 they looked up to the clouds, and offered to bring ivory to 
 buy the charm by which lightning was drawn down. 
 When a village was assaulted, the men fled in terror, and 
 women and children were captured. 
 
 "Many of the Manyema women, especially far down 
 '.he Lualaba, are very light colored and lovely : it was 
 common to hear the Zanzibar slaves — whose faces resem- 
 bled the features of London door-knockers, which some 
 atrocious ironfounder thought were like those of lions — say 
 to each other c Oh, if we had Manyema wives, what pretty 
 children we should get ! ' Manyema men and women are 
 vastly superior to the slaves, who evidently felt the in- 
 feriority they had acquired through wallowing in the mire 
 of bondage. Many of the men were tall, strapping fellows, 
 with but little of what we think distinctive of the negro 
 about them. If one relied on the teachings of phrenology, 
 the Manyema men would take a high place in the human 
 family. They felt their superiority, and often said truly, 
 1 Were it not for fire-arms, not one of the strangers would 
 ever leave our country.' If a comparison were instituted, 
 and Manyema taken at random, placed opposite, say, the 
 members of the Anthropological Society of London, clad 
 like them in kilts of grass-cloth, I should like to take my 
 place alongside the Man} T ema, on the principal of prefer- 
 ring the company of my betters : the philosophers would 
 look wofully scraggy. But though the 4 inferior race,' as 
 we compassionately call them, have finely -formed heads, 
 anl often handsome features, they are undoubtedly can- 
 nibals. . . . 
 
 "The country abounds in food of all kinds, and the 
 
THE MAN YE MA WOMEN. 
 
 307 
 
 rich soil raises every thing in great luxuriance A friend 
 of mine tried rice ; and in between three or foui months it 
 yielded between one hundred and twenty fold. . . . 
 Maize is so abundant that I have seen forty-five loads, 
 each about sixty pounds, given for a single goat. . . . 
 The villages swarm with goats, sheep, dogs, pigs, and 
 fowls ; while the elephants, buffaloes, zebras, and sokos, 
 or gorillas, yield to the expert hunter plenty of nitrogen- 
 ous ingredients of human food. It was puzzling to me 
 why they should be cannibals. ... They say that human 
 flesh is not equal to that of goats or pigs : it is saltish, 
 and makes them dream of the dead. Why fine-looking 
 men like them should be so low in the moral scale, can 
 only be attributed to the non-introduction of that religion 
 which makes those distinctions among men which phre- 
 nology and other ologies cannot explain. . . . 
 
 " The Manyema women, especially far down the Lua- 
 laba, are very pretty and very industrious. The market 
 is with them a great institution ; and they work hard and 
 carry far, in order to have something to sell. All are 
 dressed in their best, — gaudy-colored, many-folded kilts, 
 that reach from the waist to the knee. When two thou- 
 sand or three thousand are together, they enforce justice, 
 though chiefly women ; and, they are so eager traders, they 
 set off in companies by night, and begin to run as soon as 
 they come within the hum arising from hundreds of voices. 
 To haggle and joke and laugh and cheat, seems to be 
 the dearest enjoyment of their life. They confer great 
 benefits upon each other. The Bazenza women are ex- 
 pert livers for oysters ; and they barter them and fish for 
 farinaceous food with the women on the east of the Lua- 
 laba , who prefer cultivating the soil to fishery. The Man- 
 yema have told us that women going to market wero 
 
508 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, 1L.D. 
 
 never molested. When the men of two districts were en- 
 gaged in actual hostilities, the women passed through 
 from one market to another unharmed : to take their goods, 
 even in war, was a thing not to be done." 
 
 Sometimes the great traveller met with a cold reception, 
 from his supposed connection with Arab slavers and rob- 
 bers. " In going west of Bambarre," he says, "in 
 order to embark on the Lualaba, ... I found myself 
 among people who had been lately maltreated by the 
 slaves ; and they naturally looked on me as of the same 
 tribe as their persecutors. Africans are not generally un- 
 reasonable, though, smarting under wrongs, if you can 
 fairly make them understand your claim to innocence, and 
 do not appear as having your back up. The women here 
 were particularly outspoken in asserting our identity with 
 the cruel strangers. On calling to one vociferous lady, 
 who gave me the head traitor's name, to look at my color, 
 and see if it were the same as his, she replied with a bitter 
 little laugh, 1 Then you must be his father ! ' The most 
 the men did was to turn out in force, armed with large 
 spears and wooden shields, and show us out of their dis- 
 trict." 
 
 At Bambarre Dr. Livingstone was laid up with ulcers 
 on his feet for over six months. He says, " I found con- 
 tinual wading in the mud grievous ; for the first time in 
 my life, my feet failed. When torn by hard travel, instead 
 of healing kindly as heretofore, irritable eating ulcers fas- 
 tened on each foot. If the foot is placed on the ground, 
 blood flows ; and every night a discharge of bloody ichor 
 takes place, with pain that prevents sleep. The wailing 
 of the poor slaves with ulcers that eat through every 
 thing, even bone, is one of the night sounds of a slave- 
 camp. They are probably allied to fever. The people 
 
NARROW E8CAPF 
 
 309 
 
 are invariably civil, and even kind ; for, curiously enoi gh, 
 the Zanzibar slaves propagated everywhere glowing ac- 
 counts of my goodness, and of the English generally, be- 
 cause they never made slaves." 
 
 Sometimes Livingstone had a narrow escape with his 
 life, from being found in company with traders who had 
 ill-used the Manyema. On his way to Bambarre, he says, 
 " We passed another camp of Ujijian traders ; and they 
 begged me to allow their men to join my party. These in- 
 cluded seventeen men of Manyema, who had volunteered 
 to carry ivory to Ujiji. These were the very first of the 
 Manyema who had in modern times gone fifty miles from 
 their birthplace. As all the Arabs have been enjoined by 
 Seyed Majid, the late sultan, to show me all the kindness 
 in their power, I could not decline their request. My 
 party was increased to eighty ; and a long line of men, 
 bearing elephants' tusks, gave us all the appearance of 
 traders. The only cloth I had left some months before 
 consisted of two red blankets, which were converted into 
 a glaring dress, unbecoming enough ; but there were no* 
 Europeans to see it. ' The maltreated men ' (Manyema, 
 who had been wronged by the traders) , now burning for 
 revenge, remembered the dress ; and, very naturally, tried 
 to kill the man who had murdered their relations. They 
 would hold no parley. We had to pass through five hours of 
 forest, with vegetation so dense, that, by stooping dowr. 
 and peering towards the sun, we could at times only see 
 a shadow moving, and the slight rustle in the rank vegeta- 
 tion was a spear thrown from the shadow of an infuriated 
 man. Our people in front peered into every little open- 
 ing in the dense thicket before they would venture past 
 it. This detained the rear, and two persons near to me 
 were slain. A large spear lunged past close behind; 
 
310 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 another missed me by about a foot in front. Coming to a 
 part of the forest of about a hundred yards cleared for 
 cultivation, I observed that fire had been applied to one 
 of the gigantic trees, made still higher by growing on an 
 ant-hill twenty or more feet high. Hearing the crack 
 that told the fire had eaten through, I felt that there was 
 no danger, it looked so far away, till it appeared coming 
 right down towards me. I ran a few paces back ; and it 
 came to the ground, only one yard off, broke in several 
 lengths, and covered me with a cloud of dust. My attend- 
 ants ran back, exclaiming, 4 Peace, peace ! you will finish 
 your work in spite of all these people, and in spite of 
 every thing ! ' I, too, took it as an omen of good, that 
 I had three narrow escapes from death in one day. 
 The Manyema are expert in throwing the spear ; and 
 as I had a glance of him whose spear missed by less 
 than an inch behind, and he was not ten yards off, I 
 was saved clearly by the good hand of the almighty 
 Preserver of men. I can say this devoutly now ; but 
 in running the terrible gauntlet for five weary hours 
 among furies, all eager to signalize themselves by slay- 
 ing one they sincerely believed to have been guilty of a 
 horrid outrage, no elevated sentiment entered the mind. 
 The excitement gave way to overpowering weariness ; and 
 I felt, as I suppose soldiers do on the field of battle, — not 
 courageous, but perfectly indifferent whether I were killed 
 or not/" 
 
 The real slave-dealers are thus exposed by Dr. Living- 
 stone. "The Banian British subjects have long been, 
 and are now, the chief propagators of the Zanzibar slave- 
 trade : their money, and often their muskets, gunpowder, 
 balls, flints, beads, brass wire, and calico, are annually 
 advanced to the Arabs, at enormous interest, for the mur 
 
TROUBLES WITH THE BANIANS. 311 
 
 derous work of slaving, of the nature of which every 
 Banian is fully aware. Having mixed much with the 
 Arabs in the interior, I soon learned the whole system 
 that is called 4 butchee.' Banian trading is simply ma- 
 rauding and murdering by the Arabs, at the instigation 
 and by the aid of our Indian fellow- subjects. The cun- 
 ning Indians secure nearly all the profits of the caravans 
 they send inland, and very adroitly let the odium of 
 slaving rest on their Arab agents. ... It is a mistake 
 to call the system of Ujiji slave- 4 trade ' at all : the cap- 
 tives are not traded for, but murdered for ; and the gangs 
 that are dragged eastwards to enrich the Banians are 
 usually not slaves, but captive free people. A sultan anx- 
 ious to do justly, rather than pocket head-money, would 
 proclaim them all free as soon as they reached his terri- 
 tory. . . . 
 
 " I cannot say that I am altogether free from chagrin 
 in view of the worry, thwarting, baffling, which the Ba- 
 nians and their slaves have inflicted. Common traders 
 procure supplies of merchandise from the coast, and send 
 loads of ivory down by the same pagazi or carriers we 
 employ, without any loss. But the Banians and their 
 agents are not their enemies. I have lost more than two 
 years in time, have been burdened with eighteen hundred 
 miles of tramping, and how much waste of money I can- 
 not say, through my affairs having been committed to 
 Banians and slaves, who are not men. I have adhered, in 
 spite of losses, with a sort of John-Bullish tenacity, to my 
 task ; and while bearing misfortune in as manly a way as 
 possible, it strikes me that it is well that I have been 
 brought face to face with the Banian system, that inflicts 
 enormous evils on Central Africa. Gentlemen in India, 
 who see only the wealth brought to Bombay and Cutch, 
 
312 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 and know that the religion of the Banians does not allow 
 them to harm a fly or mosquito, are virtually the worst 
 cannibals in all Africa. The Manj^ema cannibals, among 
 whom I spent nearly two years, are innocence compared 
 with our protected Banian fellow- subjects. . . . The 
 Banians, having complete possession of the custom- 
 house and revenue of Zanzibar, enjoy ample opportunity 
 to aid and conceal the slave-trade, and all fraudulent 
 transactions committed by their agents. . . . Geogra- 
 phers- will be interested to know the plan I propose to fol- 
 low. I shall at present avoid Ujiji, and go about south- 
 west from this to Fipa, which is east of and near the 
 south end of Tanganyika ; then round the same south 
 end, only touching it again at Sambetti ; thence resuming 
 the south-west course to cross the Chambezi, and proceed 
 along the southern shores of Lake Bangweolo, which 
 being in latitude 12° south, the course will be due west to 
 the ancient fountains of Herodotus. From them it is 
 about ten days north to Katanga, the copper mines of 
 which have been worked for ages. . . . About ten days 
 north-east of Katanga very extensive underground rock 
 excavations deserve attention as very ancient, the natives 
 ascribing their formation to the Deity alone. They are 
 remarkable for having water laid on in running streams ; 
 and the inhabitants of large districts can all take refuge 
 in them in case of invasion. Returning from them to 
 Katanga, twelve days N.N.W., will take to the southern 
 end of Lake Lincoln. I wish to go down through it to 
 the Lomarae. and into Webb's Lualaba, and home." 
 
 How much of this programme he had successfully 
 carried out up to the time of his reported death, we will 
 not know until his papers are received. It is gratif}ing 
 to be able to say, that the misunderstanding in regard to 
 
PRIVATIONS. 
 
 313 
 
 his old friend Dr. Kirk was cleared away previous to the 
 last time of our hearing from him. Of the work of ex- 
 ploration still to be done he spoke cheerfully and hope- 
 full}'. He sa3's, " I know about six hundred miles of the 
 watershed pretty fairly : I turn to the seventh hundred 
 miles with pleasure and hope. I want no companion 
 now, though discovery means hard work. Some can 
 make what they call theoretical discoveries b} T dreaming. 
 I should like to offer a prize for an explanation of the cor- 
 relation of the structure and econonry of the watershed, 
 with the structure and economy of the great lacustrine 
 rivers in the production of the phenomena of the Nile. 
 The prize cannot be undervalued by competitors, even who 
 ma} 7 have only dreamed of what has given me very great 
 trouble, though the}^ may have hit on the division of 
 labor in dreaming, and each discovered one or two hun- 
 dred miles. In the actual discovery so far, I went two 
 .years and six months without once tasting tea, coffee, or 
 sugar ; and, except at Ujiji, have fed on buffaloes, rhinoce- 
 ros, elephants, hippopotami, and cattle of that sort ; and 
 have come to believe that English roast-beef and plum- 
 pudding must be the real genuine theobroma, the food of 
 the gods ; and I offer to all successful competitors a glori- 
 ous feast of beef-steaks and stout. No competion will be 
 allowed after I have published my own explanation, on 
 pain of immediate execution, without benefit of clergy." 
 
 A brief outline of Dr. Livingstone's journeyings, and 
 their results, so far as known, will enable the reader to 
 understand a little more clearly what he has been about 
 since he entered Africa for the third time in 1866. From 
 the Lake N} T assa district until he left Cazembe's country, 
 he was travelling in regions to some extent known to us 
 through his own previous explorations, and those of Por- 
 
 27 
 
314 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 tuguese travellers. Beyond Cazembe's country, either to 
 the north or the west, lay a vast extent of country totally 
 unknown to Europeans, and of which even the most intel- 
 ligent native knew only, and that imperfectly, a narrow 
 hem of from fifty to a hundred miles in extent. Cazembe 
 was first made known to us by Lacerda, the Portuguese 
 traveller. Livingstone found the present ruler of Ca- 
 zembe to be a most kingly savage. He describes him as 
 a tall, stalwart man, wearing a peculiar kind of dress 
 made of crimson print, and worn in many folds, in the 
 form of a prodigious kilt, the upper part of his body 
 being bare. The statement of the traveller, that he was 
 going north in search of lakes and rivers, filled him with 
 astonishment. "What can you want to go therefor?" 
 he said. " The water is close here ! There is plenty of large 
 water in this neighborhood ! " Cazembe had never seen 
 an Englishman before ; and notwithstanding that he could 
 not understand this water-seeker, and very possibly 
 thought him wrong in the head, or, as Livingstone puts it, 
 that, 4 4 he had water on the brain," he gave orders to his 
 chiefs and people that the traveller was to be allowed to 
 go wherever he had a mind, and treated him with much 
 consideration. 
 
 Cazembe's queen, described as a fine, tall woman, paid 
 the traveller a visit, and evidently intended to give him a 
 striking idea of the honor done him. She was decked out 
 in all the finery her wardrobe could muster, and was armed 
 with a ponderous spear. Following her was a body-guard 
 of Amazons, also armed with spears. His royal visitor and 
 her retinue, and their dress and accoutrements, did astonish 
 the stranger, but not in the way intended. He burst into 
 an uncontrollable fit of laughter, which disconcerted the 
 royal lady for a moment ; but, recovering herself, slie joined 
 
DISCOVERT OF NEW LAKES. 
 
 315 
 
 heartily in the laugh, — which was re-echoed by her attend- 
 ants, — and then fled from his presence until she had re- 
 covered the dignity and gravity becoming so great a queen. 
 The Portuguese assertion, that the river he found running 
 to the north, and named the Chambezi, was or»e of the 
 main branches of the Zambesi, cost him many a month of 
 tedious and unprofitable wandering. Although he was no* 
 long in forming doubts as to the truth of this conclusion, 
 the similarity in name made him cautious in accepting his 
 own notions regarding it. Up and down and across its 
 course he wandered like an uneasy spirit, until at last 
 the conclusion was forced upon him, that it flowed to the 
 north, and could be none other than the head waters of 
 the Nile. 
 
 Striking away to the north-east of Cazembe's countiy, 
 he came to a large lake, called by the natives Liemba, from 
 the country of that name which borders it. Following its 
 winding shore to the northwards, he found it to be a con- 
 tinuation of Lake Tanganyika. Returning to the southern 
 end of the lake, he crossed the Marungu country, and 
 reached Lake Moero ; and finding its chief influent the 
 Luapula, he ascended its course to the point where it flows 
 out of Lake Bangweolo or Bemba, a lake as large as Tan- 
 ganyika itself. The most important feeder of this lake he 
 found to be the Chambezi, so that all doubts as to the 
 course of that river were set at rest. In the hitherto un- 
 trodden land to the north, this great and constantly in- 
 creasing volume of water pursued its winding course ; and 
 he braced himself up to the effort of tracing it to a point 
 where, under some other name, it was already well known 
 to geographers. From this lake Livingstone, in the first 
 place, went to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, where he hoped 
 to find stores awaiting him, and where he could recruit 
 
316 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 himself for the accomplishment of the arduous task he had 
 set himself to accomplish. From his letters we already 
 know how sadly he was disappointed in his hopes of 
 material aid from Zanzibar. While waiting there among 
 rascally Arab traders and their slaves, and equally rascally 
 natives corrupted by their association with those worthless 
 representatives of the civilization he had been cut off from 
 for nearly three years, he longed to explore the shores of 
 Tanganyika, and settle the question of its effluent ; but 
 Arabs and natives alike were so bent on plundering him for 
 every service rendered, he was compelled to abandon his 
 design. Although worn in body, and scantily provided 
 with stores and followers, he determined, in June 1869, to 
 march across country until he should strike the great river 
 which he knew flowed northwards out of Lake Moero. At 
 Bambarre in Manyema land, as we know, he was laid up 
 for six weary months with ulcerated feet. So soon as he 
 recovered he set off in a northerly direction, and after sev- 
 eral days' journey struck the main artery of his line of 
 drainage, the Lualaba, a magnificent lacustrine stream, 
 with a width of from one to three miles. This great stream 
 pursues so erratic a course, flowing northward, westward, 
 and even southwards, in wide loops, that he was frequently 
 fairly at fault as to its ultimate course. Sometimes he 
 thought he was working away at the Congo ; but at last 
 he was completely satisfied that its course was northward. 
 After following it up to its outlet from Lake Moero, and 
 confirming its consequent identity with the Luapula and 
 the Chambezi, he retraced his steps, and saw it lose itself 
 in Lake Kamalondo. As many of the great streams on 
 the watershed were named Lualaba by the natives, he 
 christened the stream which flows from Lake Moero to 
 Lake Kamalondo " Webb's Lualaba," to distinguish it, and 
 
HELP FROM MR. STANLEY. 
 
 317 
 
 also to do honor to one of his oldest friends, M> Webb 
 of JSTewstead Abbey. 
 
 Several days south-west from Kamalondo, he discovered 
 another lake, called by the natives Chebungo. This he 
 named "Lake Lincoln," in honor of Abraham Lincoln, 
 President of the United States during the war of secession. 
 Its principal influent he named "Young's Lualaba," in 
 honor of another fast friend, Mr. Young, of paraffin oil 
 celebrity ; " Sir Paraffin," as Dr. Livingstone humorously 
 designates him. The waters of Lake Lincoln pass into 
 the Lualaba by the river Loeki, or Lomame. 
 
 The river which, issuing out of Lake Kamalondo and 
 flowing to the north, was, he now found, the central or 
 main line of drainage ; and he named it the Lualaba proper. 
 Although sick and worn, he followed its course as far as 4° 
 south latitude, and found that it entered another lake, 
 named Uyangwe. From his letters we know how the 
 brave and dauntless , traveller was compelled to turn back 
 when so near to the termination of the quest he had suf- 
 fered so much in following up thus far, and fall back to 
 Djiji, with little hopes of succor arriving there from the 
 coast. But help was at hand. He had barely settled 
 down to what he feared must be a weary waiting for help, 
 when Mr. Stanley made his appearance, and so unex- 
 pectedly, that he was all but face to face with his deliverer 
 before he even knew that any traveller with a white skin 
 was in search of him. 
 
 What the result of his explorations after parting with 
 Mr. Stanley at Unyanyembe may be, we do not at present 
 know. At that time the great traveller appeared to have 
 no doubt but that the Chambezi, the Luapula, and the 
 Lualaba, were none other than the Nile ; and that these 
 were connected b> a series of lakes and shallow lakelets 
 
 27* 
 
318 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. LL.D. 
 
 with Petherick's White Nile, which issues out of the Bahr- 
 Ghazal. The great lake in 4° south latitude, into which 
 Dr. Livingstone found that the Lualaba flowed, Mr. Stanley 
 conjectures may be the lake discovered by the Italian trav - 
 eller Piaggia. If Dr. Livingstone be correct in his conclu 
 sions, — and we know that he is not a rash theorizer, — 
 the Nile is the second longest river in the world, and flows 
 2600 miles in a straight line, or 700 miles farther than we 
 had previously supposed. 
 
 Many people recognize in Lake Tanganyika the true 
 source of the Nile ; others adhere to the notion that it is 
 connected with the Lualaba, and is one of the feeders of 
 the Congo ; while others think that it is connected with 
 neither of these great rivers, but finds an outlet for its 
 waters to the eastward into the Indian Ocean to the south 
 of Zanzibar. A lively notion of the difficulties of African 
 travel may be formed from the fact that Burton and Speke 
 were in its neighborhood for three months, and Livings- 
 tone and Stanley for even a longer period, and yet neither 
 of them can tell where its effluent is, or in what direction 
 it flows. Dr. Livingstone speaks positively to a north- 
 ward flow of the waters of the lake ; but, as we have seen, 
 the only river towards the north yet as known is the Ruizzi, 
 and it flows into the lake, and not out of it, as had been 
 previously supposed. As for a great portion of its circuit 
 the mountains slope down into the lake, which is very 
 deep, even close in shore, an outlet would very easily 
 escape the notice of any one sailing round it. Nothing short 
 of a land circuit will satisfactorily clear up the direction 
 of its waters. Lake Tangair^ika is believed to be from 
 three to four hundred miles in length, by about sixty miles 
 in breadth at its widest part ; and on the map it has very 
 much the shape of a Wellington boot, with the foot turned 
 
THEORIZERS. 
 
 319 
 
 eastward, It will be evident, from what we have to say 
 farther on, that Dr. Livingstone has settled the question 
 of the Nile fountains ; but as to the absolute settlemer t 
 of the question whether the Lualaba shall be hereafter 
 named the Congo or the Nile, we cannot at present speak. 
 Our present scanty information as to his later move- 
 ments adds nothing to our previous stock of information 
 on that vexed point. 
 
 Geographers at home have not hesitated to theorize, 
 and have almost unanimously gone counter to Dr. Living- 
 stone's declared impression as to the farther course of the 
 Lualaba. With wonderful unanimity, they throw aside 
 the belief of the man who has suffered so much in acquir- 
 ing it, and insist that the Lualaba must be the Congo. 
 We shall be curious to hear what they will say for them- 
 selves if it should turn out, as we believe it will, that he 
 who had the best means of coming to a conclusion was 
 right, and that they who could only theorize were wrong. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SIB BARTLE FRERE's MISSION. — EXPEDITIONS SENT TO 
 
 ASSIST DR. LIVINGSTONE. HIS DEATH. SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF HIS FAMILY, ETC. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone's letters, received through Mr. Stan- 
 ley, drew such a frightful picture of the horrors of the 
 East African slave-trade, that our Government determined 
 to use its powerful influence with the Sultan of Zanzibar 
 for its suppression. Sir Bartle Frere was sent on a spe- 
 cial mission to Zanzibar in November, 1872, with ample 
 powers accorded to him for bringing strong pressure to 
 bear on the sultan in enforcing and carrying out the 
 wishes of the English government. The United States 
 government gave its hearty co-operation ; and we have 
 every reason to believe that the objects of the mission 
 have been completely attained. About the same time 
 two Central African expeditions, for the relief and assist- 
 ance of Dr. Livingstone, were fitted out in this country, 
 and sent, the one to the east and the other to the west 
 coast, with orders to converge, by way of the Congo and 
 Zanzibar, on the scene of the traveller's last labors. 
 Lieut. Cameron, R.N., took the command of the East 
 Coast expedition ; and Lieut. Grandy, R.N., took com- 
 mand of that of the West Coast. No intelligence has as 
 yet reached this country from the latter from any unknown 
 regions. Lieut. Cameron's expedition unfortunately got 
 into difficulties, through the accidental shooting of a aa- 
 
 320 
 
SICKNESS AND DEATH. 
 
 321 
 
 tive by one of his followers. He was detained at and 
 near Unyanyembe on account of the disturbed state of the 
 country, and the bad health of the European members of 
 the party. All of them had suffered from repeated at- 
 tacks of fever, and were much debilitated in consequence. 
 A grandson of Dr. Livingstone's father-in-law, Mr; Mof- 
 fat, the well-known* missionary, a very promising young 
 man, fell a victim to fever at an early stage of the jour- 
 ney ; and recently Lieut. Cameron had to report the 
 melancholy intelligence of the suicide of Dr. Dillon, 
 another valued coadjutor, while in the delirium of fever. 
 
 Towards the end of January a telegram from Zanzibar 
 reported the currency of a rumor there that Dr. Living- 
 stone had died near Lake Bangweolo. On the 11th of 
 February a despatch to the Foreign Office from H. M. 
 acting consul at Zanzibar, stated that letters received 
 from Lieut. Cameron, dated Oct. 22, 1873, confirmed 
 the report. "It appears," writes the acting consul, 
 "from the information given to Lieut. Cameron by the 
 doctor's servant, Elivant Chumah, that Livingstone 
 proceeded from Ujiji to the middle of the northern shore 
 of Lake Bemba (Bangweolo) ; and that, being unable to 
 csoss it, he retraced his steps, and rounded it to the south- 
 wards, crossing, besides the Chambese, three other rivers 
 which flowed into the lake. He then went (so far as 
 Lieut. Cameron is able to make out) in search of the 
 ancient fountains of Herodotus, eventually turned to the 
 eastward, and crossed the Luapula. After marching for 
 some days through an extremely marshy country, in 
 which, sometimes for three hours at a time, the water 
 stood above the waists of the travellers, the doctor suc- 
 cumbed to an attack of dysentery, which carried him off 
 after an illness of ten or fifteen days. During this trying 
 
822 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 journey two of his men died and several deserted. The 
 remainder, seventy-nine in number, disembowelled the 
 corpse, and embalmed it as well as they were able with 
 salt and brandy. On nearing Unyanyembe, Chumah, with 
 a few others, started ahead in order to procure supplies, 
 as the party was nearly starving ; and the remainder, with 
 the body, were reported to be distant from ten to twenty 
 days' march from Unyanyembe at the date of Lieut. Cam- 
 eron's letter. It will be seen, on reference to Dr. Living- 
 stone's last communication to your lordships," dated 1st 
 July, 1872, that the account given by the doctor's ser- 
 vants of his latest movements agrees in the main with the 
 route sketched out by the traveller himself before leaving 
 Unyanyembe. His intention was to go southwards to 
 Ujiji, then round the south end of Tanganyika, and, 
 crossing the Chambese, to proceed west along the shore 
 of Lake Bangweolo. Being then in latitude 12 degrees 
 south, his wish was to go straight west to the ancient 
 fountains reported at the end of the watershed, then to 
 turn north to the copper mines of Katanga, and, after 
 visiting the underground excavations, to proceed to the 
 head of Lake Lincoln, whence he would retire along Lake 
 Kamolando towards Ujiji and home. He distinctly stated 
 that it was not his intention to return northward through 
 the Manyueme (Manyema) country ; and, as he estimated 
 the duration of the journey from Ujiji and back again at 
 eight months, it is not unreasonable to infer that the 
 design had been completely carried out, and that Living- 
 stone was on his homeward journey when attacked by the 
 disease to which he fell a victim. This supposition is 
 rendered more probable by the fact that when the doctor 
 left Unyanyembe he was well supplied with stores and 
 provisions, and that he is reported by his servants to have 
 
NEWS OF HIS DEATH CONFIRMED. 323 
 
 been nearly destitute at the time of his death. ... As a 
 mar]: of respect to the memory of Dr. Livingstone, the 
 flagstaff of this agency was kept at half-mast from sun- 
 rise to sunset on the 5th of January. This example was 
 followed by His Highness the Sultan, by Her Majesty's 
 ships-of-war then in harbor, ' The Briton ' and ' The 
 Daphne/ and by the consular representatives of other 
 foreign powers in Zanzibar, from all of whom I received 
 letters of condolence on the death of this eminent explorer 
 and distinguished servant of the queen." 
 
 Man}' people were unwilling to believe the story of Dr. 
 Livingstone's death, even when told so circumstantially, 
 and so implicitly credited by Lieut. Cameron and the 
 European officials at Zanzibar. He had been so frequently 
 reported as dead, and had turned up again, patiently and 
 devotedly carrying out his self-imposed task, that it was 
 difficult to believe that the great traveller and distinguished 
 Christian missionary had perished w r hen his work was all 
 but concluded, and the civilized world was waiting eagerly 
 for the opportunity of showing him how high was the 
 respect and admiration which his life of heroic self- 
 sacrifice had evoked. 
 
 We have reason to believe that the members of his own 
 family in Scotland, hoping against hope, had refused to 
 accept the report of his death as final. The brief letter 
 addressed by Lieut. Murphy to Dr. Kirk, and dated 
 the 2Uth of January last from Mpuapwa, ten days' journey 
 from the coast, in which he states that he was bringing 
 the body of Dr. Livingstone to Zanzibar, extinguished the 
 last ray of hope which had hitherto afforded some comfort 
 to those near and dear to him. 
 
 When Lieut. Murphy left him, Lieut. Cameron, 
 although suffering from long-protracted illness, and de* 
 
324 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 serted by many of his followers, was preparing to start 
 for Ujiji for the papers left there by Dr. Livingstone. 
 
 Official instructions have been sent to Zanzibar that his 
 body is to be sent to England immediately on its arrival 
 there. It is understood that Dean Stanley has spon- 
 taneously offered a resting-place for the remains of our 
 great countryman in Westminster Abbey. In that Val- 
 halla of the greatest and best of England's sons, there is 
 no name more worthy of the nation's honor than that of 
 David Livingstone. 
 
 No higher encomium on the character of Dr. Living- 
 stone and the genuine value of his achievements can be 
 passed now or in the after-time, than the devotion of his 
 native followers. In circumstances of no common trial 
 and difficulty they have borne the body of their loved 
 leader across more than a thousand miles of all but path- 
 less country. No doubt Livingstone himself would give 
 the directions which have resulted in the preservation of 
 his body, with a view to satisfying his f amity and the 
 world as to the fate which had befallen him ; but the 
 carrying out of his last instructions in the face of hunger 
 and fatigue for many months is a striking instance of love 
 and fidelity on the part of these ignorant men, which it is 
 to be hoped will not be allowed to pass without substan- 
 tial reward. 
 
 To his infinite honor, Mr. Gladstone, within a couple 
 of days of his resigning the highest office under the 
 Crown, — in circumstances when he might have been sup- 
 posed to be thinking of nothing save the inconstancy of 
 the party he had so earnestly served for five years, — 
 recommended Her Majesty to grant a pension of two hun- 
 dred pounds per annum to the family of Dr. Livingstone. 
 
MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY. 
 
 325 
 
 We need hardly say that the recommendation was imme- 
 diately acted upon. 
 
 The following account of the surviving members of Dr. 
 Livingstone's family will not be without interest to the 
 reader : — 
 
 His mother died in 1865. Dr. Livingstone took fre- 
 quent opportunities of acknowledging the debt he owed 
 to the Christian example set him by his parents. Speak- 
 ing at a banquet held in his honor in Hamilton, in Janu- 
 ary, 1857, he said, "A great benefit which his parents 
 had conferred on him and their other children was reli- 
 gious instruction and a pious example ; and he was more 
 grateful for that than though he had been born to riches 
 and worldly honors." Although a strict disciplinarian, 
 and somewhat stern in his manner towards his children. 
 Dr. Livingstone's father earned the respect and affection 
 of his family in no common degree. He was proud of 
 his sons and the positions they attained ; and more 
 especially was he proud of his son David, as a great 
 missionary and successful explorer of hitherto unknown 
 regions. The regret felt by Dr. Livingstone on his return 
 to this country, that his father was not alive to hear the 
 stirring story of his adventures, was reciprocated by the 
 longing which filled the mind of the old man on his death- 
 bed to see once more his distinguished son. "The Ham- 
 ilton Advertiser" of Jan. 10, 1857, speaking of Mr. Neil 
 Livingstone, says, — 
 
 " Among his last words were, ' O Dauvit ! come awa, 
 man, that I may see ye before I dee.' The old man's 
 favorite walk in the later years of his life was to the woods 
 near the ancient Roman bridge near Bothwell, also a fre- 
 quent resort of the doctor's when a youth, and where he 
 had carved his name, and the polemical war cry of tho 
 
 28 
 
826 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 day, ' No State Church,' * on the bark of a tree, — wood- 
 cuts which it was his father's delight to decipher. The 
 letters ' D. L.' have grown with the growth of the tree, 
 and broadened by the lapse of time, as has the fame of 
 their owner." 
 
 The family of Xeil Livingstone erected a tombstone to 
 the memory of their parents in the Hamilton Cemetery 
 The inscription on it is one of the met touching we 
 remember ever to have seen. We cannot resist giving a 
 copy of it : — 
 
 TO SHOW THE RESTESXt-PEACE 
 
 OF NEIL LIVIXGSTOXE 
 AXD AGNES HUNTER; 
 
 AXD TO EXPRESS 
 THE THAXKFULXESS TO GOD 
 OF THEIR CHTLDREX, 
 JOHN', DAVH>, JANET, CHARLES, 
 
 AXD AGXES, 
 FOR POOR AXD PIOUS PAREXTS. 
 
 Of this family, the two best known to the general pub- 
 lic are dead. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone's eldest brother John is still alive. 
 He emigrated to Xorth America in early life, and settled 
 at Listowel, twenty-five miles from Niagara Falls, as a 
 farmer and storekeeper. He is a man of energetic char- 
 acter, and has done much towards the improvement of a 
 
 * At that time the Voluntary Controversy was agitating the 
 churches in Scotland, and the "Ten Years' Conflict," which ended 
 in the disruption of the Church of Scotland was at its height. In 
 his manhood, no man was more tolerant as to the question of 
 11 Creed" than Br. I ivingstone. To him all men were truly " breth- 
 ren," who honestly and uprightly followed after Christ and his 
 commandments. 
 
RESIDENCE OF HIS FAMILY. 
 
 327 
 
 large tract of county all but unreclaimed when he entered 
 it. Like all the other members of his f amity, he is re- 
 spected for his humble and unobtrusive piet} 7 , and for his 
 uprightness and worth as a man of the world. An inde- 
 fatigable representative of "The New York Herald" 
 visited and interviewed him in 1872, and treated the 
 readers of "The Herald" to a graphic account of the 
 old gentleman and his surroundings, when Mr. Stanley 
 and his discovery of Livingstone were attracting univer- 
 sal attention. 
 
 Charles, Dr. Livingstone's younger brother, and his 
 loved companion in the brief holiday hours of his boy 
 hood, was educated for the ministry, and was for a good 
 many years pastor of one of the New England Presbyte 
 rian churches. He shared the adventurous spirit of his 
 brother, Dr. Livingstone, and, as we have seen, accompa- 
 nied him on his second expedition to the Zambesi. Re- 
 turning to England, he was appointed one of H. M. 
 consuls to the West Coast of Africa, — a position which 
 gave him much opportunity for doing good to the heathen, 
 which he embraced with great zeal and success. Last 
 year, his health having broken down, he started on 
 his return to England, but died on the passage home. 
 Dr. Livingstone's sisters, Janet and Agnes, removed with 
 their parents to Hamilton in 1841, where they still reside. 
 They are both unmarried, and are held in much respect 
 by their neighbors for their Christian character and genial 
 worth. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone's family have resided principally in 
 Hamilton since his departure on his last expedition in 
 1866. His eldest son, to use his father's weirds in a 
 letter to Sir Bartle Frere written in 1868, " wandered into 
 the American war," and must have been killed, as he has 
 
328 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. LL.D 
 
 never been heard of since the close of one of the early 
 battles before Richmond. His second son, Mr. Thomas 
 E. Livingstone, represents a large commercial house in 
 Alexandria. His third son, Mr. W. Oswell Livingstone, 
 is at present completing his medical education at Glasgow 
 University. His eldest daughter, who was a great favor- 
 ite of her father, and to whom he intrusted the custody of 
 his papers sent home by Mr. Stanley, resides in Hamilton, 
 where her younger sister is at present receiving her edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Up to the present time, the Livingstone family have 
 done honor to the injunction of their progenitor recorded 
 at page nine. At a time when the morals of his neigh- 
 bors were of a somewhat loose description, he did not on 
 his death-bed tell his children to strive to be distinguished 
 or to become rich, but to be honest, as all their forefathers 
 had been. The generations of his successors, with whom 
 the achievements of Dr. Livingstone have made us ac- 
 quainted, have more than obeyed the dying counsel of 
 their Highland ancestor. To honesty they have added 
 godliness ; and from among them has come the man of all 
 others in this nineteenth century who will stand highest 
 with his cojntrymen for the noblest human characteris- 
 tics, — self-denial, intrepidity, and love to God and his 
 fellow-men. His life from early manhood has been a con- 
 tinual sacrifice offered up for the material and spiritual 
 welfare of a vast people of whose existence in the mys- 
 terious heart of the African continent modern commerce 
 and Christian missions were previously unaware. 
 
 That he should have died on his homeward journey, 
 after nearly a quarter of a century of successful explora- 
 tion in hitherto unknown countries, is a dispensation of 
 Providence to which we must reverently bow. His fate 
 
A CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY. 
 
 329 
 
 forms one more instance in the annals of heroic effort and 
 self-sacrifice, where the human instrument of God's great 
 .purpose has been removed in the very hour of success, 
 when rest and peace, and human, rewards and acknowl- 
 edgments, were awaiting him at the close of his stirring 
 conflict. Though weary, worn, and broken in body, we 
 may readily believe that his undaunted spirit remained to 
 him at the last ; and he would be thankful to God, that to 
 him had been given a rare opportunity of preaching the 
 gospel of his Master to thousands of benighted heathens, 
 who had never before heard of their Eedeemer. This, 
 and the certainty, that, as a result of his labors, the intro- 
 duction of Christianity and peaceful commerce, and the 
 suppression of slavery among the millions of Central 
 Africa, would be only a question of time, would reconcile 
 him to the laying down the burden of his life far from 
 home and kindred, among the people he had striven so 
 nobly to serve. Of late years the magnitude of his con- 
 tributions to our geographical knowledge has all but made 
 us forget that he was a Christian missionary to the 
 heathen. From early boyhood this was his cherished 
 ambition ; and from his own published accounts, and 
 through Mr. Stanley, we know that he never lost an op- 
 portunity of going about his Master's work. 
 
 28* 
 
CHAPTER XVTII. 
 
 ACCOUNT OP LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 The following brief account of the last moments of Dr. 
 Livingstone has reached us as the last £heet of this narra- 
 tive was going to press. It was sent by the correspondent 
 of " The New York Herald "at Suez, and reached England 
 on the 29th of March : — 
 
 " ' The Malwa* (Peninsular and Oriental steamer) 
 arrived off Suez at eleven on Saturday night, having Mr. 
 Arthur Laing and Jacob Wainwright on board, with tho 
 body of Livingstone. 
 
 44 The great traveller had been ill with chronic dysen- 
 tery for several months past, although well-supplied with 
 stores and medicines ; and he seems to have had a pre- 
 sentiment that this attack would prove fatal. 
 
 44 He rode a donkey at first, but was subsequently 
 carried, and thus arrived at Ilala, beyond Lake Bemba 
 (Bangweolo), in Bisa Country, when he said to his fol- 
 lowers, 4 Build me a hut to die in.' The hut was built by 
 his men, who first of all made him a bed. It is stated 
 that he suffered greatly, groaning night and day. On the 
 third day he said, 4 1 am very cold : put more grass over 
 the hut/ 
 
 44 His followers did not speak to or go near him. Kit- 
 umbo, chief of Bisa, however, sent flour and beans, and 
 behaved well to the party. On the fourth day Living- 
 stone became insensible, and died about midnight. Ma- 
 
 330 
 
THE BODY PRESERVED. 
 
 331 
 
 juahra, his servant, was present. His last entry in the 
 diary was on April 27. He spoke much and sadly of 
 home and family. When first seized, he told his follow- 
 ers he intended to exchange every thing for ivory to give 
 to them, and to push on to Ujiji and Zanzibar, and try 
 to reach England. On the day of his death these men 
 consulted what to do, and the Nassick boys determined to 
 preserve the remains. They were, however, afraid to in- 
 form the chief of Livingstone's death ; and the secretary, 
 therefore, removed the body to another hut, around which 
 he built a high fence to insure privacy. Here they opened 
 the body, and removed the internals, which were placed in 
 a tin box, and buried inside the fence under a large tree. 
 
 4 6 Jacob Wainwright cut an inscription on the tree as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 6 Dr. Livingstone died on May 4, 1873/ 
 
 and superscribed the name of the head man, Susa. • The 
 tody was then preserved in salt, and dried in the sun for 
 I welve days. Kitumbo was then informed of Livingstone's 
 death ; upon which he beat drums, fired guns as a token of 
 respect, and allowed the followers to remove the body, 
 which was placed in a coffin formed of bark. The Nassick 
 boys then journeyed to Uyanyembe in about six months, 
 sending an advance party with information addressed to 
 Livingstone's son, which met Cameron. The latter sent 
 back a few bales of cloth and powder. The body arrived 
 at Unyanyembe ten days after advance party, and rested 
 there a fortnight. Cameron, Murphy, and Dillon were 
 together there. The latter was very ill, blind, and his 
 mind was affected. He committed suicide at Kasakera, 
 and was buried there. 
 
552 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 " Here Livingstone's remains were put in another 
 bark case, smaller, done up as a bale to deceive the na- 
 tives, who objected to the passage of the corpse, which 
 was thus carried to Zanzibar. Livingstone's clothing, 
 papers, and instruments accompanied the body. It may 
 be mentioned, that, when ill, Livingstone prayed much. 
 At Ilala he said, 6 1 am going home.' 
 
 " Webb, the American consul at Zanzibar, is on his 
 way home, and has letters handed to him by Murphy from 
 Livingstone for Stanley, which he will deliver personally 
 only. Chumah remains at Zanzibar. 
 
 " Geographical news follows. After Stanley's depar- 
 ture the doctor left Unyairyembe, rounded the south end of 
 Lake Tanganyika, and travelled south of Lake Bemba, 
 or Bangweolo, crossed it south to north, then along the 
 east side, returning north through marshes to Ilala. All 
 papers are sealed, and addressed to the Secretary of State, 
 in charge of Arthur Laing, a British merchant from Zan- 
 zibar. Murphy and Cameron remained behind." 
 
 Surely this is one of the most affecting stories ever 
 told ! Feeling that the marvellous physical power which 
 had hitherto sustained him had at last given wa}^, he turned 
 his face homeward with feverish eagerness. But the end had 
 come, and he knew it, and set himself to die among his 
 followers as became a hero and a Christian. We are in- 
 debted to a daily newspaper * for suggesting how like a 
 passage of scripture the narrative of Jacob Wainwright, 
 his negro follower, reads : " He rode a donkey, but sub- 
 sequently was carried, and thus arrived at Ilala beyond 
 Lake Bemba, in Bisa Country, when he said, ' Build me a 
 hut to die in ' " The melancholy order was obeyed. 
 
 * Newcastle Daily Chronicle, March 31. 
 
SUICIDE OF DR. DILLON. 
 
 333 
 
 u The hut was built by his men, who first made him a 
 bed. He suffered greatly, groaning day and night. On 
 the third day he said, ' 1 am very cold : put more grass 
 ov<sr the hut. ' " And then we are told of the silent be- 
 havior of his followers in the face of the grim enemy of 
 man. They did not speak to or go near him. 
 
 The language of savage tribes, when speaking under 
 strong feeling, is frequently characterized by remarkable 
 force and beauty ; and here was a tragedy which had so 
 moved his humble and ignorant follower, that, in narrating 
 its incidents, he rises to the height of graphic simplicity. 
 
 "The Times of India" (received March 30) publishes 
 the following, in despatch from its correspondent at Zan- 
 zibar, dated Feb. 11 : — 
 
 u Dr. Dillon and Lieut. Murphy proceeded to Zanzibar 
 with the remains of Dr. Livingstone ; but a most melan- 
 cholly misfortune happened on their way. Dr. Dillon, 
 nearly blind, and worn out with fever, committed suicide 
 on the way down. He shot himself through the head, 
 pulling the trigger with his toe. I reiterate my former- 
 statement, that, in regard to this expedition, it is simply 
 a march to death. They had, at the very least, a six or 
 seven years' march before them. All the funds at their 
 command were expended, and before six months they 
 were short of supplies. The expedition is vitally broken 
 up, unless Lieut. Cameron is possessed of superhuman en- 
 durance." 
 
 The letters received from Dr. Livingstone, and pub- 
 lished up to the time of going to press, were all written 
 in a most cheerful spirit. As yet, no letter written after 
 the shadow of death had begun to fall upon him has been 
 given to the public. The most interesting letter is that 
 addressed to Mr. Gordon Bennett, giving, as it does, sc 
 
334 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 graphic an account of the daily life of a Central African 
 family : we reproduce the bulk of it. 
 
 M I fear that a portion at least of the sympathy in England for 
 what simple folks called the ' Southern cause,' during the American 
 civil war was a lurking liking to be slaveholders themselves. One 
 Englishman at least tried to put his theory of getting the inferior 
 race to work for nothing into practice. He was brother to a member 
 of parliament for a large and rich constituency ; and when his 
 mother died she left him two thousand pounds. With this 
 he bought a wagon and oxen at the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and an outfit composed chiefly of papier-mache" snuff-boxes, 
 each of which had a looking-glass outside and another inside 
 the lid. These, he concluded, were the 'sinews of war.' 
 He made his way to my mission-station, more than a 
 thousand miles inland ; and then he found that Ins snuff-boxes 
 would not even buy food. On asking the reason for investing in 
 that trash, he replied, that, in reading a book of travels, he saw that 
 the natives were fond of peering into looking-glasses, and liked 
 snuff ; and he thought that he might obtain ivory in abundance for 
 these luxuries. I gathered from his conversation that he had even 
 speculated on being made a chief. He said that he knew a young 
 man who had so speculated ; and I took it to be himself. "We sup- 
 ported him for about a couple of months, but our stores were fast 
 drawing to a close. We were then recently married, and the young 
 housekeeper could not bear to appear inhospitable to a fellow-coun- 
 tryman. I relieved her by feeling an inward call to visit another 
 tribe. ' Oh! ' said our dependent, ' I shall go too.' ' You had better 
 not,' was the reply, and no reason assigned. He civilly left some scores 
 of his snuff-boxes, but I could never use them either. He frequently 
 reiterated, ' People think these blacks stupid and ignorant ; but, by 
 George! they would sell any Englishman.' 
 
 "I may now give an idea of the state of supreme bliss, for the 
 attainment of which all the atrocities of the so-called Arabs are 
 committed in Central Africa. In conversing with a half-caste Arab 
 prince, he advanced the opinion, which I believe is general among 
 them, that all women were utterly and irretrievably bad. I 
 admitted that some were no better than they should be, but the 
 majority were unmistakably good and trustworthy. He insisted 
 that the reason why we English allowed our wivos so niueh Liberty 
 was because we did not know them so well as Arabs did. 'No, no,' 
 he added, 1 no woman can be good, — no Arab woman, — no English 
 
LETTER TO MR. J. G. BENNETT. 
 
 335 
 
 woman can be good ; all must be bad ; ' and then he praised his own 
 and countrymen's wisdom and cunning in keeping their wives from 
 ever seeing other men. A rough joke as to making themselves turn- 
 keys, or, like the inferior animals, bulls over herds, turned the edge 
 of his invectives ; and he ended by an invitation to his harem to sh. w 
 
 that he could be as liberal as the English. Capt. S , of H. M. S. 
 
 'Corvette,' accepted the invitation, also to be made everlasting 
 friends by eating bread with the prince's imprisoned wives. The 
 prince's mother, a stout lady of about forty-five, came first into the 
 room where we sat with her son. When young she must have 1 een 
 very pretty, and she still retained many of her former good looks. 
 She shook hands, inquired for our welfare, and to please us sat on 
 a chair, though it would have been more agreeable for her to squat 
 on a mat. She then asked the captain if he knew Admiral Wyvil, 
 who formerly, as commodore, commanded at the Cape Station. 
 
 " It turned out, that, many years before, an English ship was 
 wrecked at the island on which she lived ; and this good lady had 
 received all the lady passengers into her house, and lodged them 
 courteously. The admiral had called to thank her, and gave her a 
 written testimonial acknowledging her kindness. She now wished 
 to write to him for old acquaintance sake, and the captain promised 
 to convey the letter. She did not seem to confirm her son's low 
 opinion of women. A red cloth screen was lifted from a door in 
 front of where we sat, and the prince's chief wife entered in gor- 
 geous apparel. She came forward with a pretty, jaunty step, and with 
 a pleasant smile held out a neat little sweet cake, off which we each 
 broke a morsel and ate it. She had a fine frank address, and talked 
 and looked just as a fair English lady does who wishes her husband's 
 friends to feel themselves perfectly at home. Her large, beautiful 
 jet-black eyes riveted the attention for some time before we could 
 notice the adornments, on which great care had evidently been 
 oestowed. Her head was crowned with a tall scarlet hat ox nearly the 
 same shape as that of a Jewish high priest, or that of some of the 
 lower ranks of Catholic clergymen. A tight-fitting red jacket, pro- 
 fusely decked with gold lace, reached to the waist, and allowed 
 about a finger's breadth of the skin to appear between it and the upper 
 edge of the skirt, which was of white Indian muslin, dotted over 
 with tambourine spots of crimson silk. The dra wers came nearly to 
 the ankles, on which were thick silver bangles ; and the feet were 
 shod with greenish yellow slippers, turned up at the toes, and roomy 
 enough to make it probable she had neither corns nor bunions. 
 Around her neck were many gold and silver chains ; and she had 
 earrings not only in the lobes of the ears, but others in holes lnadt 
 
336 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 all round the rims. Gold and silver bracelets of pretty Indian work 
 manship decked the arms ; and rings of the same material, set with 
 precious stones, graced every finger and each thumb. A lady alone 
 could describe the rich and rare attire ; so I leave it. The only flaw in 
 the get-up was short hair. It is so kept for the convenience of drying 
 soon after the bath. To our northern eyes, it had a tinge too much of 
 the masculine. While talking with this chief lady of the harem, a 
 second entered, and performed the ceremony of breaking bread too. 
 She was quite as gayly dressed, about eighteen years of age, of per- 
 fect form, and taller than the chief lady. Her short hair was oiled 
 and smoothed down, and a little curl cultivated in front of each ear. 
 This was pleasantly feminine. She spoke little, but her realty re- 
 splendent eyes did all save talk. They were of a brownish shade, 
 and lustrous, like the ' een o' Jeanie Deans filled wi' tears ; they 
 glanced like lamour beads/ — 'lamour,' Scottice for amber. The 
 lectures of Mr. Hancock at Charing Cross Hospital, London, long 
 ago, have made me look critically on eyes ever since. A third lady 
 entered, and broke bread also. She was plain as compared with 
 her sister houris, but the child of the chief man of those parts. Their 
 complexion was fair brunette. The prince remarked that he had 
 only three wives, though his rank entitled him to twelve. 
 
 " A dark slave woman, dressed like, but less gaudily than her 
 superior, now entered with a tray and tumblers of sweet sherbet. 
 Having drunk thereof, flowers were presented, and then betel-nut 
 for chewing. The head lady wrapped up enough for a quid in a 
 leaf, and handed it to each of us, and to please her we chewed a 
 little. It is slightly bitter and astrigent, and like a Kola-nut of West 
 Africa, and was probably introduced as a tonic and preventative of 
 fever. The lady superior mixed lime with her own and sister's, — 
 good large quids. This made the saliva flow freely ; and it being of a 
 brick-red color, stained their pretty teeth and lips, and by no means 
 improved their looks. It was the fashion, and to them nothing un- 
 comely, when they squirted the red saliva quite artistically all over 
 the floor. On asking the reason why the mother took no lime in her 
 quid, and kept her teeth quite clean, she replied that the reason was, 
 she had been on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and was a Hajee. The 
 whole scene of the visit was like a gorgeous picture. The ladies had 
 tried to please us, and were thoroughly successful. We were 
 delighted with a sight of the life in a harem ; but whether from 
 want of wit, wisdom, or something else, I should still vote for the 
 one- wife system, having tried it for some eighteen years. I would 
 not exchange a monogamic harem, with some merry, laughing, 
 noisy children, for any polygamous gathering in Africa or the world. 
 
LETTER TO MR. J. G. BENNETT. 
 
 337 
 
 It scarcely belongs to the picture, which I have attempted to draw 
 as favorably as possible, in order to show the supreme good for the 
 sake of the possible attainment of which the half-caste Arabs perpe- 
 trate all the atrocities of the slave-trade ; but a short time after this 
 visit, the prince fled on board our steamer for protection from cred- 
 itors. He was misled by one calling himself Col. Aboo, who 
 went about the world saying he was a persecuted Christian. He 
 had no more Christianity in him than a door-nail. At a spot some 
 eighty miles south-west of the south end of Tanganyika, stands the 
 stockaded village of the chief Chitimbwa. A war had commenced 
 between a party of Arabs numbering six hundred guns and the chief 
 of the district situated west of Chitimbwa, while I was at the south 
 end of the lake. 
 
 " The Arabs, hearing that an Englishman was in the country, natu- 
 rally inquired where he was ; and the natives, fearing that mischief 
 was intended, denied positively that they had ever seen him. They 
 then strongly advised me to take refuge on an inhabited island ; 
 but, not explaining their reasons, I am sorry to think that I sus- 
 pected them of a design to make me a prisoner, which they could 
 easily have done by removing the canoes, the island being a mile 
 from the land. They afterwards told me how nicely they had 
 cheated the Arabs, and saved me from harm. The end of the lake 
 is in a deep cup-shaped cavity, with sides running sheer down at 
 some parts two thousand feet into the water. The rocks, of red clay 
 schist, crop out among the sylvan vegetation ; and here and there pretty 
 cascades leap down the precipices, forming a landscape of surpassing 
 beauty. Herds of elephants, buffaloes, and antelopes enliven the 
 scene, and, with the stockaded villages embowered in palms along 
 the shores of the peaceful water, realize the idea of Xenophon's Par- 
 adise. "When about to leave the village of Mbette, or Painbette, 
 down there, and climb up the steep path by which we had descended, 
 the wife of the chief came forward, and said to her husband and the 
 crowd looking at us packing up our things, 'Why do you allow this 
 man to go away? He will certainly fall into the hands of the 
 Mazitu [here called Batuba], and you know it, and are silent.' On 
 inquiry, it appeared certain these marauders were then actually plun- 
 dering the villages up above the precipices at the foot of which we 
 sat. We waited six days ; and the villagers kept watch on an ant-hill 
 outside the stockade, all the time looking up for the enemy. Wher. 
 we did at last ascend, we saw the well-known lines of march of the 
 jSlazitu,— straight as arrows through the country, without any regard 
 to the native paths : their object was simply plunder, for in this case 
 there was no bloodshed. We found that the really benevolent lady 
 29 
 
338 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 had possessed accurate information. On going thence round th( end 
 of the lake, we came to the village of Karambo, at the confluence of 
 a large river; and the head man refused us a passage across, 'be- 
 cause,' said he, ' the Arabs have been fighting with the people west 
 of us ; and two of their people have since been killed, though only 
 in search of ivory. You wish to go round by the west of the lake, 
 and the people may suppose that you are Arabs ; and I dare not 
 allow you to run the risk of being killed by mistake.' On seeming 
 to disbelieve, Karamba drew his finger across his throat, and said, 
 If at any time you discover that I have spoken falsely, I give you 
 " eave to cut my throat.' That same afternoon two Arab slaves came 
 t;o the village in search of ivory, and confirmed every word Karamba 
 had spoken. 
 
 " Having previously been much plagued by fever, and without a 
 particle of medicine, it may have been the irritability produced by 
 that disease that made me so absurdly pig-headed in doubting the 
 intentions of my really kind benefactors three several times. The 
 same cause may be in operation when modern travellers are unable 
 to say a civil word about the natives ; or if it must be admitted, 
 for instance, that savages will seldom deceive you if placed on their 
 honor, why must we turn up the whites of our eyes, and say it 
 is an instance of the anomalous character of the Africans? Being 
 heaps of anomalies ourselves, it would be just as easy to say that it 
 is interesting to find other people like us. The tone which we mod- 
 em travellers use is that of infinite superiority; and it is utterly 
 nauseous to see at every step our great and noble elevation crop- 
 ping out in low cunning. Unable to go north-west , we turned to go 
 due south one hundred and fifty miles or so; then proceeded 
 west till past the disturbed district, and again resumed our 
 northing. But, on going some sixty miles, we heard that 
 the Arab camp was twenty miles farther south, and we 
 went to hear the news. The reception was extremely kind ; 
 for the party consisted of gentlemen from Zanzibar, and of a very 
 different stamp from the murderers we afterwards saw at Many em a. 
 They were afraid that the chief with whom they had been fighting 
 might flee southwards, and that in going that way I might fall into 
 his hands. Being now recovered, I could readily believe them ; and 
 they, being eager ivory traders, as readily believed me when 1 
 asserted that a continuance of hostilities meant shutting up the ivory 
 market. No one would like to sell if he stood a chance of being 
 shot. Peace, therefore, was to be made ; but the process of 'mixing 
 blood,' forming a matrimonial alliance with the chief's daughter, 
 etc., required three and a half months ; and during long intervals of 
 
LETTER TO MR. J. G. BENNETT. 
 
 339 
 
 that time 1 remained at Chitimbwa' s. The stockade was situated by 
 a rivulet, and had a dense grove of high, damp-loving trees round a 
 spring on one side, and open country, pretty well cultivated, on the 
 other. It was cold, and over four thousand seven hundred feet 
 above the sea, with a good deal of forest land and ranges of hills 
 in the distance. The Arabs were on the west side of the stockade, 
 and one of the Chitimbwas' wives at once vacated her house on 
 the east side for my convenience. 
 
 "Chitimbwa was an elderly man, with gray hair and beard, of 
 quiet, self-possessed manners. He had rive wives ; and, my hut being 
 one of the circle which their houses formed, I often sat reading or 
 writing outside, and had a good opportunity of seeing the domestic 
 life in this Central African harem, without appearing to be prying; 
 The chief wife, the mother of Chitimbwa's son and heir, was some- 
 what aged, but was the matron in authority over the establishment. 
 The rest were young, with fine shapes, pleasant countenances, and 
 nothing of the West-Coast African about them. Three of them had 
 each a child, making, with the eldest son, a family of four children 
 to Chitimbwa. The matron seemed to reverence her husband; for, 
 when she saw him approaching, she invariably went out of the way, 
 and knelt down till he had passed. It was the time of year for 
 planting and weeding the plantations ; and the regular routine work 
 of all the families in the town was nearly as follows : Between three 
 and four o'clock in the morning, when the howling of the hyenas and 
 growling of the lions or leopards told that they had spent the night 
 fasting, the first human sounds heard were those of the good wives 
 knocking off the red coals from the ends of the sticks in the fire, and 
 raising up a blaze to which young and old crowded for warmth from 
 the cold, which at this time is the most intense of the twenty-four 
 hours. Some Psange smoker lights . his pipe, and makes the place 
 ring with his nasty, scicaming, stridulous coughing. Then the cocks 
 begin to crow (about four, a.m.), and the women call to each other to 
 make ready to march. 
 
 ''They go off to their gardens in companies, and keep up a brisk, 
 loud conversation, with a view to frighten away any lion or buffalo 
 that may not yet have retired ; and for this the human voice is 
 believed to be efficacious. The gardens, or plantations, are usually a 
 couple of miles from the village. This is often for the purpose of 
 securing safety for the crops from their own goats or cattle, but more 
 frequently for the sake of the black, loamy soil near the banks of 
 rivulets. This they prefer for maize and dura (holcus sorghum) ; 
 while for a small species of millet, called mileza, they select a 
 patch in the forest, which they manure by burning the branches of 
 
340 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 trees. The distance which the good wives willingly go to get the 
 soil best adapted for different plants, makes their arrival just about 
 dawn. Fire has been brought from home; and a little pot is set on 
 with beans or pulse, — something that requires long simmering ; and 
 the whole family begins to work at what seems to give them real 
 pleasure. The husband, who had marched in front of each little 
 squad with a spear and little axe over his shoulder, at once begins 
 to cut off all the sprouts on the stumps left in clearing the ground. 
 A]', the bushes fall to his share; and all the branches of tall trees too 
 hard to bo cut down are filed round the root, to be fired when dry. 
 He must also cut branches to make a low fence round the planta- 
 tion ; for few wild beasts like to cross over any thing having tho 
 appearance of human workmanship. The wart-hog, having a great 
 weakness for ground-nuts, otherwise called pig-nuts (Arachis 
 hypor/oia), must be circumvented by a series of pitfalls, or a deep 
 ditch and earrnen dike all round the nut-plot. If any other ani- 
 mal has made free with the food of the family, papa carefully exam- 
 ines the trail of the intruder, makes a deep pitfall in it, covers it 
 carefully over ; and every day it is a most interesting matter to see 
 whether the thief has been taken for the pot. The mother works 
 away vigorously with her hoe, often adding new patches of virgin 
 land to that already under cultivation. The children help by remov- 
 ing the weeds and grass which she has uprooted into heaps to be 
 dried and burned. They seem to know and watch every plant in 
 the field. It is all their own ; no one is stinted as to the land he 
 may cultivate : the more they plant, the more they have to eat and 
 to spare. In some parts of Africa the labor falls almost exclusively 
 on the women ; and the males are represented as atrociously crue* 
 to them. It was not so here ; nor is it so in Central Africa gener- 
 ally. Indeed, the women have often decidedly the upper hand. 
 The clearances by law and custom were the work of the men ; the 
 weeding was the work of the whole family ; and so was the reap- 
 ing. The little girls were nursing a baby under the shade of a watch- 
 lion *e perched on the tops of a number of stakes about twelve 
 feet or fourteen feet high ; and to this the family adjourn when 
 the dura is in ear, to scare away birds by day, and antelopes by 
 night. 
 
 "About eleven, a.m., the sun becomes too hot for comfortable 
 work; and all come under the shade of the lofty watch-tower, or a 
 tree left fcr the purpose. Mamma serves out the pottage, now 
 thorc uglily cooked, by placing a portion in each pair of hands. It is 
 bad manners here to receive any gift with but one hand. Thoy eat 
 to with keen appetites, and with so much relish that forever after- 
 
LETTER TO MR. J. G. BENNETT. 
 
 341 
 
 wards they th ink that to eat with the hand is far nicer than with a 
 spoon. Mamma takes and nurses baby while she eats her own 
 share. Baby seems a general favorite, and is not exhibited till he 
 is quite a little ball of fat. Every one then takes off beads to orna- 
 ment him. He is not born with a silver spoon in his mouth ; and 
 one may see poor mothers who have no milk mix a little flour and 
 water in the palm of the hand, and the sisters look on with intense 
 interest, to see the little stranger making a milk-bottle of the aide cf 
 the mother's hand, the crease therein just allowing enough to pass 
 down. They are wide-awake little creatures, and I thought that my 
 own little ones imbibed a good deal of this quality. I never saw 
 such unwearied energy as they display the livelong day; and that, 
 too, in the hot season. The meal over, the wife, and perhaps 
 daughter, goes a little way into the forest, and collects a bundle of 
 dry wood, and with the baby slung on her back in a way that sug- 
 gests the flattening of the noses of many Africans. Placing the 
 wood on her head, and the boy carrying her hoe, the party wends 
 home. Each wife has her own granary, in which the produce of the 
 garden is stowed. It is of the beehive shape of the huts ; only the 
 walls are about twelve feet high, and it is built on a stage about eigh- 
 teen -inches from the ground. It is about five feet in diameter, and 
 roofed Avith wood and grass. The door is near the roof ; and a 
 ladder, made by notches being cut in a tree, is used to enable the 
 owner to climb into it. The first thing the good wife does, on coming 
 home, is to get the ladder, climb up, and bring down millet or dura 
 grain sufficient for her family. She spreads it in the sun ; and while 
 this is drying or made crisp, occurs the only idle time I have seen in 
 the day's employment. Some rested, others dressed their husband's 
 or neighbor's hair, others strung beads. I should have liked to see 
 them take life more easily ; for it is as pleasant to see the negro 
 reclining under his palm, as it is to look at the white man lolling on 
 his ottoman. But the great matter is, they enjoy their labor; and 
 the children enjoy life as human beings ought, and have not the sap 
 of lite squeezed out of them by their own parents, as is the case 
 with nailers, glass-blowers, stockingers, fustian-cutters, brick-makers, 
 &c, in England. At other periods of the year, when harvest is 
 home, they enjoy more leisure and jollification with their native 
 beer, called 'pombe.' But in no case of free people, living in their 
 own free land, under their own free laws, are they like what slaves 
 become. 
 
 "When the grain is dry, it is pounded in a large wooden mortar. 
 To separate the scales from the seed, a dexterous toss of the hand 
 drives all the chaff to one corner of the vessel. This is lifted out 
 29* 
 
342 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 and then the dust is tossed out by another peculiar up-and-down 
 half -horizontal motion of the vessel, difficult to describe or do, which 
 leaves the grain quite clean. It is then ground into fine meal by a 
 horizontal motion of the upper millstone, to which the whole weight 
 is applied ; and at each stroke the flour is shoved off the farther end 
 of the nether millstone, and the flour is finished. They have meat 
 but seldom, and make relishes from the porridge into which the 
 flour is cooked, of the leaves of certain wild and cultivated plants; 
 or they roast some ground-nuts, grind them fine, and make a curry. 
 They seem to know that oily matter, such as the nuts contain, is 
 requisite to modify their otherwise farinaceous food; and some even 
 grind a handful of castor-oil nuts with the grain for the same pur- 
 pose. The husband having employed himself in the afternoon in 
 making mats for sleeping on, in preparing skins for clotliing, 
 or in making new handles for hoes, or cutting out wooden bowls, 
 joins the family in the evening, and all partake abundantly 
 of the chief meal of the day before going off to sleep. They have 
 considerable skill in agriculture, and great shrewdness in selecting 
 the sorts proper for different kinds of produce. When Bishop Mack- 
 enzie witnessed their operations in the field, he said to me, 'When 
 I was in England, and spoke in public meetings about our mission, 1 
 mentioned, that, among other things, I meant to teach them agricul- 
 ture ; but now I see that the Africans know a great deal more about 
 it than I do.' One of his associates, earnestly desiring to benefit the 
 people to whom he was going, took lessons in basket-making before 
 he left England ; but the specimens of native workmanship he met 
 with everywhere led him to conclude that he had better say nothing 
 about his acquisition; in fact, he could 'not hold a candle to them.' 
 The foregoing is as fair an example of the e very-day life of the 
 majority of the people in Central Africa as I can give. It as truly 
 represents surface-life in African villages as the other case does the 
 surface condition in an Arab harem. In other parts, the people 
 appear to travellers in much worse light. The tribes lying more 
 towards the east coast, who have been much visited by Arab slaves, 
 are said to be in a state of chronic warfare, the men always ready to 
 rob and plunder, and the women scarcely ever cultivating enough 
 of food for the year. That is the condition to which all Arab slavery 
 tends. Capt. Speke revealed a state of savageism and brutality in 
 Uganda of which I have no experience. The murdering by whole- 
 sale of the chief Mteza, or Mtesa, would not be tolerated among the 
 tribes I have visited. The slaughter of head men's daughters would 
 elsewhere than in Uganda insure speedy assassination. 1 have no 
 reason to suppose that Speke was mistaken in liis statements as to 
 
LETTER TO MR. J. G. BENNETT. 
 
 the numbers of ^onien led away to execution, — two hundred Ba, 
 ganda. People now here assert that many were led away to become 
 field-laborers; and one seen by Grant with her hoe on her head 
 seems to countenance the idea. But their statements are of small 
 account as compared with those of Speke and Grant ; for they now 
 all know that cold-blooded murder, like that of Mtesa, is detested 
 by all the civilized world, and they naturally wish to smooth the 
 matter over. 
 
 " The remedy open to all other tribes in Central Africa is desertion. 
 The tyrant soon finds himself powerless. His people have quietly 
 removed to other chiefs, and never return. The tribes subjected by 
 the Makololo had hard times of it, but nothing like the butchery of 
 Mteza. A large body went off to the north. Another sent to Tete 
 refused to return ; and seventeen, sent with me to the Shire for med- 
 icine for the chief, did the same thing. When the chief died, the 
 tribes broke up and scattered. Mteza seems to be an un whipped fool. 
 "We all know rich men who would have been much better fellows if 
 they had ever got bloody noses and sound thrashings at school. 
 The two hundred of his people here have been detained many months, 
 and have become thoroughly used to the country, but not one of them 
 wishes to remain. The apparent willingness to be trampled in the 
 dust by Mteza is surprising. The whole of my experience in Central 
 Africa says that the negroes not yet spoiled by contact with the slave- 
 trade are distinguished for friendliness and good sound sense. Some 
 can be guilty of great wickedness, and seem to think little about it. 
 Others perform actions as unmistakably good, with no great self- 
 complacency ; and if one catalogued all the good deeds or all the 
 • bad ones he came across, he might think the men extremely good 01 
 extremely bad, instead of calling them, like ourselves, curious com- 
 pounds of good and evil. In one point they are remarkable, — they 
 are honest, even among the cannibal Manyema. A slave-trader at 
 Bambarre and I had to send our goats and fowls up to the Manyema 
 villages, to prevent their being all stolen by my friend's own slaves. 
 Another wide-spread trait of character is a trusting disposition. 
 The Central African tribes are the antipodes of some of the North 
 American Indians, and very unlike many of their own countrymen, 
 who have come into contact with Mahommedans and Portuguese and 
 Dutch Christians. They at once perceive the superiority of the 
 strangers in power of mischief, and readily listen to and ponder over 
 friendly advice. 
 
 "Aiter the cruel massacre of Nyangwe, which I unfortunately 
 witnessed, the fourteen chiefs whose villages had been destroyed, 
 and many of their people killed, fled to my house, and begged me to 
 
544 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 make peace for them. The Arabs then came over to their side of the 
 great river Lualaba, dividing their country anew, and pointing out 
 where each should build a new village and cultivate other planta- 
 tions. The peace was easily made ; for the Arabs had no excuse for 
 their senseless murders, and each blamed the other for the guilt. 
 Both parties pressed, me to remain at the peacemaking ceremonies ; 
 and, had I not kown the African trusting disposition, I might have 
 set down the native appeal to great personal influence. All I had 
 in my favor was common decency and fairness of behavior, and per- 
 haps a little credit for goodness awarded by the Zanzibar slav63. 
 The Manyenia could easily see the Arab religion was disjoined from 
 morality. Their immorality, in fact, has always proved an effectual 
 barrier to the spread of Islamism in Eastern Africa. It is a sad pn v 
 that our good ' Bishop of Central Africa,' albeit ordained in West- 
 minster Abbey, preferred the advice of a ooJoneJ in the army to 
 remain at Zanzibar, rather than proceed into his diocese, and take 
 advantage of the friendliness of the still unspoiled tribes to spread 0141 
 faith. The Catholic missionaries lately sent from England to Mary 
 land to convert the negroes might have obtained the advice of haH 
 a dozen army colonels to remain at New York, or even at London . 
 but the answer, if they have any Irish blood in them, might have 
 been, 1 Take your advice and yourselves off to the battle of Dorking 
 we will fight our own fight.' The venerable Archbishop ot Balri 
 more told these brethren that they would get * chiis aud fever ; : hut 
 he did not add, ' When you do get the shivers, then take to your heels, 
 my hearties.' When any of the missionaries at Zanzibar get 'chills 
 and fever,' they have a nice pleasure trip in a man-of-war to the 
 Seychelles Islands. The good men deserve it of course, and no one 
 grudges to save their precious lives. But human nature is frail 
 Zanzibar is much more unhealthy than the mainland , aud the Gov 
 ernment, by placing men-of-war at the disposal of these brethren 
 though meaning to help them in their work, virtually aids them to 
 keep out of it. 
 
 " Some eight years have rolled on, and good Christian people have 
 contributed the money annually for Central Africa, and ;he •Central 
 African Diocese' is occupied only by the lord of all evil, it is with a 
 sore heart I say it ; but recent events have shown to those who have 
 so long been playing at being missionaries, and peeping across from 
 the sickly island to their diocese on the mainland with telescopes, 
 that their time might have been turned to far better account. About 
 1868 there were twelve congregations of native Christians at the cap- 
 ital of Madagascar. These were the results of the labors of inde- 
 pendent missionaries. For some fifty years the Malagasse Chris- 
 
LETTER TO MR. J. G. BENNETT. 
 
 345 
 
 tians showed their faith to be genuine by enduring the most bitter 
 persecutions ; and scores, if not hundreds, submitted to cruel public 
 executions rather than deny the blessed Saviour. The first missiona- 
 ries had to leave the island ; but the converts, having the Bible in their 
 own tongue, continued to meet and worship and increase in secret, 
 though certain death was the penalty on discovery. A change in 
 the government allowed the return of the missionaries ; and a per - 
 sonal entreaty of Queen Victoria to the successor of the old perse- 
 cuting Queen of Madagascar obtained freedom of worship for the 
 Christians, and peace and joy prevailed. The Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts thereafter sent some mission- 
 aries to Tamatave, which may be called the chief seaport for the 
 capital where many heathen lived; and the energetic Cape bishop 
 slyly said that they were not to interfere with churches already 
 formed; but the good pious man at once sent the touching cry back 
 to London, 'Let us go up to the capital.' Sheer want of charity 
 makes me conjecture, that if we had twelve native churches a& TTny- 
 anyembe, or Ujiji, or the Tanganyika, the 1 Bishop of Central Africa* 
 would eight years ago have been in here like a shot, and no colonel's 
 advice, however foolish, would have prevented him. It is not to be 
 supposed that the managers of the Society named felt that they were 
 guilty of unchristian meanness in introducing themselves into other 
 men's labors, while tens of millions of wholly untaught heathen 
 were equally within their reach. These things are due from want of 
 kind consideration. A similar instance of bad manners occurred 
 at Honolulu a few years ago. Mr. Ellis, the venerable apostle 
 of the Malagasse, was working at Honolulu towards the begin- 
 ning of this century, when some American Presbyterian mission- 
 aries appeared, searching for a sphere of labor. Mr. Ellis at once 
 gave up his dwelling, church, school, and printing-press to them, 
 and went to work elsewhere. TheAmericans hare labored most de- 
 votedly and successfully in Owyhee, as Capt. Cook called it, and by 
 them education and Christianity were diffused over the whole Sand- 
 wich group : but it lately appeared that the converted islanders 
 wanted an Episcopalian bishop ; and a bishop they got, vrbo, in sheer 
 lack of good breeding, went about Honolulu with a great paper cap 
 on his head, ignoring his American brethren, whose success showed 
 them to be of the true apostolic stamp, and declaring that he, the 
 novice, was the only bishop, the only true bishop, and no mistake. 
 
 " Of all mortal men, missionaries and missionary bishops ought 
 manifestly to be true gentlemen : and it does feel uncomfortably 
 6trange to see our dearly-beloved brethren entering into their neigh- 
 bors' folds, built up by the toil of half a century, and being guilty oi 
 
346 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 conduct through mere non-consideration that has an affinity to slieep- 
 stealing. It may seem harsh to say so ; but sitting up here in Unyan- 
 yembe in wearisome waiting for Mr. Stanley to send men from the 
 coast, two full months' march, or rive hundred miles distant, and all 
 Central Africa behind me, the thought will rise up that the Church of 
 England and Universities have, in intention at least, provided the 
 gospel for the perishing population ; and why does it not come? 
 Then, again, the scene rises up of undoubtedly good men descending 
 to draw away stray sheep from those who have borne the burden and 
 heat of the day, at Tananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, rather than 
 preach to the Bamabake heathen, or to the thousands of Malagasse in 
 BembJi:ook Bay, who, though Sakalavas, are quite as friendly and 
 politically one with Thovas at the seat of government. And then the 
 unseemly spectacle at Honolulu. It is a proceeding of the same na- 
 ture as that in ,> Madagascar ; but each process has something in its 
 favor. 'The native Christians wanted a bishop.' Well, ail who 
 know natives understand exactly what that means, if we want to 
 cavil. ' An intelligent Zulu ' soon comes to the front. I overhead 
 an intelligent, educated negro aver that the Bible was wrong, because 
 an elephant was stronger than a lion ; and the Bible says, ' What is 
 sweeter than honey? what is stronger that a lion?' But I did not 
 wish to attack the precious old documents, the 'Scriptures of truth;' 
 and his intelligence, such as it was, shall remain unsung. The ex- 
 cellent bishops of the Church of England, who all take an interest in 
 the ' Central African Mission,' will, in their kind and gracious way, 
 roak* every allowance for the degeneracy of the noble effort of the 
 Universities into a mere chaplaincy of the Zanzibar consulate. One 
 of them even defended a lapsus which no one else dared to face ; 
 but whatever in their kindheartedness they may say, every man of 
 them would, rejoice to hear that the Central African had gone into 
 Central Africa. If I must address those who hold back, I should 
 say, Come on, brethren : you have no idea how brave you are till 
 you try. The real brethren who are waiting for you have many 
 faults, but also much that you can esteem and love. The Arabs 
 never saw mothers selling their offspring ; nor have I : though one 
 author made a broad statement to that effect, as a nice setting to a 
 nice little story about ' A Mother Bear.' He may Lave seen an infant 
 sold who had the misfortune to cut its upper teeth before the lower, 
 because it was called unlucky, and likely to bring death into the 
 family. We have had foundlings among us; but that does not mean 
 that English mothers are no better than she-bears. If you go into 
 other men's labors, you need not tell at home who reared the con- 
 certs you have secured ; but you will feel awfully uncomfortable, 
 
LETTER TO MR. J. G. BENNETT. 
 
 even in heaven, till you have made abject apologies to yoar brethren 
 who, like y ourselves, are heavenward bound. 
 
 " Having now been some six years out of the world, and most of my 
 friends having apparently determined by their silence to impress me 
 with the truth of the adage, 'Out of sight, out of mind,' the dark 
 scenes of the slave-trade had a most distressing and depressing influ- 
 ence. The power of the Prince of Darkness seemed enormous. It 
 was only with a heavy heart I said, * Thy kingdom come ! * In one 
 point of view, the evils that brood over this beautiful country are 
 insuperable. When I dropped among the Makololo and others in the 
 Central region, I saw a fair prospect of the regeneration of Atrica. 
 More could have been done in the Makalolo country than was done 
 by St. Patrick in Ireland ; but I did not know that I was surrounded 
 by the Portuguese slave-trade, a blight like a curse from heaven, 
 that proved a barrier to all improvement. Now I am not so hopeful. 
 I don't know how the wrong will become right ; but the great and 
 loving Father of all knows, and he will do it according to his 
 infinite wisdom.' ' 
 
 There is little to add to what is already told of the last 
 hours of the great traveller. For the last few days of his 
 life, he wished to be alone, arid conversed with none but 
 his two head men ; but all his followers came to the door 
 of his hut every morning to greet him. More than once 
 they had to fight before they could pass on their way with 
 the body. The donkey on which he rode .at the last was 
 killed by a lion on the way to the coast. 
 
 The Peninsular and Oriental steamship " Malwa," hav- 
 ing the bod}', arrived in the Solent between six and seven 
 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday the 15th April. 
 Dr. Moffat, the famous African missionary, and father- 
 in-law of Dr. Livingstone ; W. Oswell Livingstone, the 
 second surviving son of the great traveller ; Henry M. 
 Stanley ; the Rev. Horace Waller, an old friend and fel- 
 low-traveller of Dr. Livingstone ; Mr. A. Laing, of Zan- 
 zibar ; Mr. W. F. Webb, of Newstead Abbey l and Mr. 
 James Young, — had been in Southampton since the pre- 
 
348 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 ceding Saturday, for the purpose of receiving the body. 
 Messrs. Webb and Young are the gentlemen whose names 
 have been so happily associated with the great river, the 
 Lualaba, by Dr. Livingstone, in gratitude for the many 
 friendly services they had rendered to him, and to the 
 great work to which he dedicated his life. 
 
 Several of the above gentlemen, accompanied by Ad- 
 miral Hall, entered a tug-boat belonging to the Peninsular 
 and Oriental Company, and steamed down the Solent to 
 meet " The Malwa." Getting on board, they were re- 
 ceived by the officers of the ship, and the eldest son of 
 the late traveller, Mr. Thomas Livingstone, who had 
 joined "The Malwa" at Alexandria. Jacob Wainright, 
 a negro follower of Dr. Livingstone, a squat little fellow, 
 barely over five feet in height, was warmly greeted by all. 
 He remembered Mr. Stanley, although the change in his 
 dress and appearance puzzled him for a moment. He was 
 rescued from slavery b}^ Dr. Livingstone, in the valley of 
 the Shire, on the occasion of his second visit to the coun- 
 tries of the Zambesi and the Shire, when a mere boy, and 
 was left, along with several other African natives, at the 
 Nassick school near Bombay, where he was carefully edu- 
 cated. When the Livingstone search expedition under 
 Lieut. Dawson was projected, towards the end of 1871, 
 Jacob Wainwright offered to accompany it, and was at 
 Zanzibar when the arrival of Mr. Stanley, who had suc- 
 cessfully relieved the great traveller, rendered the expedi- 
 tion unnecessary. Mr. Stanley engaged him, and sent 
 him on to Dr. Livingstone along with the men and stores 
 for which the latter was waiting at LTnyanyembe. The 
 friends of the deceased were conducted to the room where 
 the body had lain during the vo}~age. " This apartment," 
 Bays the correspondent of a London paper, "had been 
 
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 draped roun'l with Union Jacks, and the coffin covered 
 with the company's flag. With bared heads the deputation 
 stood round as the chief officer unlocked the door ; and 
 then, as each peeped into what really looked like a neat 
 little mortuary chapel, it was impossible not to feel that 
 the gallant sailor could not have done better with the 
 means at his disposal. . . . The short, bulky, externa, 
 coffin was found to be roughly made of some native wood, 
 stained black, with a few uncouth attempts at ornamenta- 
 tion, though, no doubt, the best that could be done at 
 Zanzibar. There was an inner coffin, it was said, of sol- 
 dered zinc." 
 
 In the streets a procession, consisting of the ma}~or 
 and corporation, the friends of the deceased, the deputa- 
 tion of the Geographical Society, and the various public 
 bodies in the town, accompanied the hearse containing 
 the remains to the railway station, where a special train 
 was waiting to convey it to London. While the proces- 
 sion was in progress, the church-bells rang a muffled peal, 
 and the Hants Artillery Volunteers fired minute guns from 
 the platform batter}'. At Waterloo Station a hearse and 
 three mourning carriages were waiting to convey the body 
 and the friends of the deceased to the Geographical Soci- 
 ety's rooms in S a vile Row. 
 
 In the course of the evening the body was examined by 
 Sir William Fergusson, who identified it as that of Dr. 
 Livingstone from the ununited fracture on the left arm, 
 caused by the bite of a lion thirty years ago, an account 
 of which will be found at page 21. 
 
 On Saturday the 18th of April, the remains of Dr. Liv- 
 ingstone found a resting-place in Westminster Abbe}', the 
 procession an I entombment of the body being witnessed 
 by thousands of spectators. The ceremony within the 
 
 30 
 
850 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Abbey was witnessed by a vast number of people, many 
 of whom are the leaders in science, literature, art, poli- 
 tics, &c. Eepresentatives from Edinburgh, Glasgow, 
 Hamilton, and other parts of Scotland, were present. 
 The grave is situated in the centre of the west part of the 
 nave. Through the cloisters the coffin was reverently 
 borne at a very slow pace, Mr. Thomas Livingstone and 
 Mr. Oswell Livingstone bearing the foremost ends of the 
 pall. Dr. Moffat, Mr. Webb, Mr. Stanley, Mr. Waller, 
 and the Rev. Mr. Price, and Jacob Wainwright brought 
 up the rear. Following behind all was Kalulu, Mr Stan- 
 d's boy. The funeral service was read by Dean Stanley. 
 The pealing of the organ, and the beautiful rendering of 
 the musical portion of the service by the choir, added 
 greatly to the beauty and solemnity of the service. On 
 the pall were placed wreaths and immortelles , one of which 
 was sent by Her Majesty. 
 
 When the body was lowered into the grave, those pres- 
 ent were permitted to see the coffin as it lay in its narrow 
 bed. It bears the plain inscription : — 
 
 "DAVID LIVINGSTONE, 
 
 BORN AT BLANTRYE, LANARKSHIRE, SCOTLAND, 
 19TH MARCH, 1813; 
 DIED AT ILALA, CENTRAL AFRICA, 
 4TH MAY 1873." 
 
 On the Sunday following the funeral, the lesson of Dr. 
 Livingstone's life was enforced from thousands of pulpits 
 throughout the country. In Westminster Abbey special 
 services were held. In the afternoon Dean Stanley 
 preached to a crowded congregation, and alluded at some 
 length, in an eloquent and impressive manner, to the ser- 
 vices rendered to humanity by the great deceased. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 BEACHES ZANZI JAR. — RAVAGES OF SLAVE-STEALERS. — 
 
 THEORY OF INUNDATIONS. VULTURES. SMELTING 
 
 IRON. —LOSS OF MEDICINES. LAKE TANGANYIKA. 
 
 CROPPING EARS. HISTORY OF JOSEPH AND HIS BRETH- 
 REN FAMILIAR TO THE NATIVES. CURRENT THROUGH 
 
 TANGANYIKA. TIMIDITY GF PEOPLE. CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY. ILLNESS. REACHES LUALABA. 
 
 The journal of Dr. Livingstone's third expedition into 
 the interior of Africa begins with his arrival at Zanzibar, 
 Jan. 28, 1866, having sailed from Bombay on the 5th. 
 With the help of letters, and a superb present (a steamer 
 from the Chinese fleet) for the sultan of Zanzibar (through 
 whose loosely governed domain he was to proceed) from 
 the Governor of Bombay, many facilities were furnished 
 Livingstone at the outset of his undertaking, including a 
 letter commending him to the head men of the tribes, 
 which fairly commenced on the 19th of March ; the party 
 sailing from Zanzibar in u The Penguin," Lieut. Garforth 
 commanding, and consisting of thirteen sepoys, ten 
 Johanna men, nine Nassack boj^s, two Shupanga men, 
 and two Wai} T ans (Wakatani and Chuma) who had been 
 liberated from slavers by the doctor and Bishop McKen- 
 zie in 1861. 
 
 His diary proper has this characteristic introduc- 
 tion : — 
 
 361 
 
352 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 "March 19. — We start this morning at ten, a.m. I 
 trust that the Most High may prosper me in this work, 
 granting me influence in the eyes of the heathen, and 
 helping me to make my intercourse beneficial to them." 
 
 Three da} T s subsequently we find the party at Rovum& 
 Ba} r , about two miles from the mouth of the Rovuma 
 River . But the swollen state of vhe river, and the heavy 
 jungle and miry ground, made it impossible to find any 
 available roadwa}' , especially for the camels, mules, buffa- 
 loes, and donkeys; and it was finally decided to land at 
 Pemba, north side of entrance to Mikindany Bay, some 
 twenty-five miles farther north. The animals were thought 
 necessary to carry the baggage and goods of the party, 
 — the goods consisting chiefly of cloth and beads, the 
 articles most in demand in trading with tribes all through 
 Africa, a yard or a fathom of the former purchasing 
 almost any amount of food, and a string of the latter 
 being the open sesame to favors of the largest degree. 
 J3ut one b}^ one the beasts succumbed, either to the poi- 
 sonous bite of the tsetse fly, or to abuse and overwork by 
 his sepoy attendants. Here the outfit for the trip was 
 landed, and the work of preparation entered upon. We 
 began to prepare saddles of a very strong tree called 
 ntibwe, used for making the hooked spears for killing 
 hippopotami, — very strong and tough. I also applied for 
 twenty carriers, and a Banian engaged to get them. In 
 view of the great object contemplated, Mr. Livingstone 
 says at this point, 64 1 feel quite exhilarated. When one 
 travels with the . . . view of ameliorating the condition 
 of the natives, every act becomes ennobled." 
 
 April 4, 1866. — When about to start from Pemba, one 
 of the buffaloes gored a donkey so badly that he had to be 
 
GREAT MOISTURE. 
 
 353 
 
 shot. Our path lay in a valley, with well-wooded heights 
 on each side. The route was nearly south, taking us 
 generally in the direction of the Rovunia River, undo - 
 Ben Ali, a Somalie guide. [The most of the way till 
 reaching the river was beset with dense tangles of a sin- 
 gular thorn-climber, which so interlaced the branches of 
 the trees as to oblige them to employ the villagers as cut- 
 ters and carriers. Much trouble was also experienced 
 from the treachery and laziness of the sepoys, and their 
 inhuman treatment of the camels, leading Dr. Livingstone 
 to regret having taken them. 
 
 Finding the Makonde people strangely showing them 
 no little kindness (for their habit is to tax all travellers 
 through their country) , Dr. Livingstone says, " This is an 
 answer to my praj'er for influence on the minds of the 
 heathen. I wish I could speak to them that good of His 
 name which I ought." Gum-copal trees abounded here ; 
 and the gum was found oozing from cuts in the tree, 
 and dropping from the branches.] 
 
 April 13. — In descending the northern slope down to 
 the Rovunia, we caught occasional glimpses of the coun- 
 try, seeming to be covered with great masses of dark 
 green forest. Frequently our vision was circumscribed to 
 a few yards. The moisture from the Indian Ocean gives 
 the vegetation a rank luxuriance, with a steamy, smother- 
 ing air, making me feel that I was, like it, struggling for 
 existence, and no more capable of taking bearings than if 
 in a hogshead, and observing through the bung-hole. A 
 head man presented me a goat, and there arose a fierce 
 dispute among my Moslem attendants about how its throat 
 should be cut. Interesting to reflect that not Christians 
 alone feel keenly on religious subjects. 
 
 April 21. — The rapacity of the Mazitu, a marauding 
 
 30* 
 
354 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 and slave-stealing tribe, is shown in the absence of all 
 provisions in the Valley of Mehambwe, which they had 
 carried off in one of their invasions. 
 
 April 23. — Passing a spot where an animal had been 
 burnt, we learned that the Makonde tribe, when they kill 
 a leopard, do not eat it (though other tribes do freely) 
 because leopards devour men. 
 
 May 1 . — Reached a more open country, relieving us 
 of the necessity of cutting our way. Found a village sur- 
 rounded by a strong stockade to protect the villagers from 
 the slavers, who would steal the women as they went to 
 draw water. 
 
 May 3. — Rested in a Makoa village. Our poodle-dog 
 frightened all the dogs here, they not seeming to know at 
 which end his head or tail lay. 
 
 May 14. — The people of Hassane's town are very kind, 
 but all are terror-stricken by the Mazitus. We noticed 
 that even a child would not go a few yards for necessary 
 purposes unless grandmother stood in sight. 
 
 May 19. — Reached the confluence of Rovuma with 
 Loendi River, and were taken over the stream by Matu- 
 mora, who sat on the bank till the goods were all carried 
 across, and then came in the canoe with me. He opened 
 a fish-basket in the weir, and gave me the contents, with 
 some green sorghum. He says the Loendi and Rovuma 
 come out of Lake Nyassa, though many waterfalls are in 
 their path. It is strange if all this is a nryth. 
 
 June 3. — I asked Matumora if the Matwambe believed 
 in God. He did not know him, and said, if I asked the 
 people if they prayed to him, they would think I wished 
 them killed, — that they praj-ed by offering a little meal, 
 but did not know much about him. 
 
 June 6. — Met a slaving party. Few acknowledge as a 
 
RAVAGES OF SLAVE STEALERS. 
 
 355 
 
 reason for slaving, that sowing and spinning cotton is pain- 
 ful. Makochera thought God was not good, for he killed 
 so many. [Everywhere Livingstone finds the presence of 
 an Englishman alarming to the slavers, who are chiefly 
 low-caste Arabs, and whose precipitate retreat from him 
 gave him additional prestige among the tribes.] 
 
 June 12. — Makoloya visited me, and said he had 
 heard about the Bible, and his father had told him there is 
 a God, but nothing more. The tattooing on the people's 
 bodies much resembles the old Egyptian drawings, — wavy 
 lines signifying water, trees., and gardens. 
 
 June 13. — It is astonishing to see the increasing evi- 
 dences of the slave-trade in the number of yokes by the 
 roadside, indicating how the poor creatures fell out of the 
 ranks to die. The African cow never gives its milk unless 
 the calf is present, or its stuffed skin, called " fulchan." 
 It is curious that trade-rum is almost unknown on the east 
 coast of Africa. The Portuguese of South Deigado have 
 even erected distilleries, but the trade will not succeed. 
 But beer is common everywhere. 
 
 June 19. — Passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree, 
 dead. A slaver had killed her to prevent any one else 
 getting the benefit of her sale, as she dropped from ex- 
 haustion. 
 
 June 27. — We found a number of slaves with slave- 
 sticks on, abandoned by the slave-traders for want of 
 food, too weak to speak, and left fastened together to die. 
 Told Chenjewala's people that those who sold the slaves 
 were guilty of murder, and that they were impoverishing 
 their country besides. They are dumbfounded when we 
 tell them that, in the eyes of their Maker, they are parties 
 to the destruction of human life, and dislike the idea of 
 guilt being attached to them for having sold the many 
 slaves who perish on the way. 
 
356 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 July 28. — The country is a mass of mountains, the 
 barometer showing three thousand four hundred feet abo\ e 
 the sea. A great many pieces of silicified wood appear, a 
 sure indication of coal beneath. 
 
 Aug. 8. — We came to the lake (Nyassa), and felt 
 grateful to that Hand which had protected us thus far on 
 our journey. It was as if I had come back to an old 
 home. 
 
 Aug. 30. — The fear of the English by slave-traders 
 makes them flee from me as if I had the plague. The 
 only dhows on the lake are used for the trade, and they 
 fear if we get into them we shall burn them ; so we re- 
 solved to go southward, and cross the lake where the 
 Shire leaves it. 
 
 Sept. 13. — We are now within three miles of the end of 
 the lake, where we first saw the Shire emerge. Many 
 hopes have been disappointed here. Far down the Zam- 
 besi (to which the Shire is tributary) lies the dust of her 
 whose death changed all my future prospects ; and now, 
 instead of a check being given to the slave-trade by law- 
 ful commerce, on the lake slave-dhows prosper. 
 
 Sept. 17. — The old Manganja men said their fore- 
 fathers never told them that after or at death they went to 
 God, but had heard it said of such a one who died, u God 
 took him." 
 
 Sept. 18. — Our whole part}' crossed the lake in eight 
 canoes. A party of fishermen fled on seeing us, though 
 we shouted to them that we were only a travelling party. 
 
 Sept. 19. — Found many people making salt on a plain 
 impregnated with it, lixiviating the soil, boiling the 
 water, and filtering it through grass in a pot with a hole 
 in the bottom. 
 
 Sept. 20. — Agriculture does not seem servile; the 
 
ANNUAL INUNDATIONS. 
 
 357 
 
 chief was in his garden, and all are proud of their skill. 
 A lion killed a woman early yesterday morning, eating 
 most of her undisturbed. 
 
 Sept. 24. — The bogs, or earthen sponges of this coun- 
 tiy, founl where the land slopes towards a narrow opening 
 among the hills, probably explain the annual inundations 
 of most of the rivers. The rotted vegetation forms a 
 rich black loam, often three feet thick, resting on a bed 
 of pure river sand. In the dry season this loam is 
 cracked in all directions, frequently three inches wide, 
 and very deep ; and the first of the rains is absorbed by 
 the sand. The black slushy loam floats on the sand ; the 
 "narrows" prevent its moving off in a landslide; and, 
 when the second or greater rains come, all the bogs and 
 river-courses being wet, the water runs off and forms the 
 inundation. This is certainly true of the Zambesi and 
 Shire ; and, taking the different time for the sun's passage 
 north of the equator, it explains the inundation of the 
 Nile. 
 
 Oct. 9. — Our altitude is upwards of four thousand feet 
 above the sea, — the country very fine, mountains rising 
 all around two to three thousand feet above this upland. 
 Patches of cultivation, squarish in form, remind us of the 
 cultivated fields of England, minus the hedgerows. The 
 soil is tilled by trenching, hoeing deep ; the soil, grass, 
 and weeds are heaped and burnt slowly, the products of 
 the combustion so enriching the soil as to produce large 
 crops. Men, women, and children engage in field labor; 
 many of the men engage in spinning a fine fibre from the 
 roots of a shrub, and also cotton. The population is so 
 large that no wild animals are seen in the countn\ 
 
 Oct. 14. — A woman died as we left the village ; and, 
 had she died before we began to move, not a man would 
 have stirred, so great is their reverence for death. 
 
358 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Oct. 16. —We came to a smithy, and watched him 
 drawing off his slag from a furnace. The ore was put 
 into the top of the furnace, mixed with charcoal. The 
 bellows was formed of a goat-skin. 
 
 Oct. 20. — In passing a sepulchral grove, our guide said, 
 " My forefathers sleep there." This is the first time I 
 ever heard "sleep" applied to death in these parts. 
 Clapping the hands is the polite wa}^ of saying, " Allow 
 me," " I beg pardon," " Permit me to pass," " Thanks," 
 &c. When inferiors are called, they give two brisk claps 
 of the hands, meaning " I am coming." They are very 
 punctilious. 
 
 Oct. 29. — The first rain, a thunder-shower. It de- 
 prived us of our carriers, who all hurried off to their gar- 
 dens to put in their seed. 
 
 Nov. 2. — We found Kangene and his people in alarm 
 from the ravages by the Mazitu, who he said had stripped 
 them of their provisions. These marauders come after 
 harvest, and not only steal the able-bodied young men, 
 but make them carry off the corn. The Africans' mode of 
 life is enjo} T able, if let alone. They love agriculture, 
 know nothing of other countries, but have imbibed the 
 idea of property in man. 
 
 Nov. 9. — We are on the watershed between Loangwa 
 of Zumbo on the west, and the lake on the east. The 
 Port -guese evidently failed to trace carefully the course 
 of ti e streams. 
 
 Nov. 10. — Found a village of smiths forging hoes. A 
 large stone bound with bark serves as hammer, and a large 
 stone as anvil. They make several hoes a day ; and the 
 metal is very good, which is from yellow hematite, and 
 abounds everywhere here. 
 
 Nov. 13. — A lion gave a growl last night on finding 
 
SJBK CLOTH. 
 
 35& 
 
 he could not get our meat. The people kept up a shout- 
 ing to keep him away. A good portion of the trees have 
 been cut down for charcoal. 
 
 Nov. 16. — An elephant came near enough last night 
 to scream at us. The iron-trade must have prevailed a 
 long time, judging from what we saw of slag, broken pots, 
 calcined pipes, &c. The people say they were taught to 
 smelt iron by Chisumpi (God) . 
 
 Dec. 6. — Too ill to march [the first illness the doctor 
 notes] . 
 
 Dec. 7. — Noticed miniature huts by the dozen, and 
 found that they are built where a child or relative dies ; and 
 on cooking pleasant food, or brewing beer, some is placed 
 there for the departed. 
 
 Dec. 9. — A poor child, mother dead, was crying bit- 
 terly for its mother. The women kept saying, ' 8 She is com- 
 ing ; " but the starved child died to-day, as no one will 
 nurse another's child. A continuous tapping shows that 
 bark cloth is being made. The bark is steeped in water 
 till the outer bark can be separated ; then begins the tap- 
 ping with a mallet, the face cut in small furrows, often of 
 ebony, so as to soften and not break the fibres. 
 
 Dec. 18. — So many new bird-notes heard shows the 
 country to be rich in ornithology, as well as all other 
 game, — zebras, pallahs, gnus, &c. 
 
 Christmas Day, 1866. — Guide led us where he expected 
 to find the rhinoceros, but only saw their tracks. Lost 
 four goats, which I felt keenly. Indigestible porridge for 
 fare makes me dream of better. 
 
 Dec. 30. — The forest resounds with singing birds, 
 whippoorwills among them, and one uttering " Oh, ho, 
 ho ! " I observed the brown ibis, a noisy bird, restrains 
 its loud, harsh voice when driven from the tree in which 
 
360 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 its nest is, and when a quarter of a mile off commences 
 his loud " Ha, ha, ha ! " We had so little to eat that I 
 dreamed all night of dinners I had eaten, or might have 
 been eating. I shall make this beautiful land better 
 known, which is an essential part of the process of making 
 it the " pleasant haunts of men." Most of its rich luxu- 
 riance is running to waste through the slave-trade and 
 internal wars. 
 
 We now end 1866. It has not been so fruitful or use- 
 ful as I intended. Will try to do better in 1867, and be 
 better. 
 
 Jan. 1, 1867. — May He who was full of grace and truth 
 impress his character on mine ! 
 
 Jan. 4. — We are on the north-western brim of the great 
 Loangwa Valley, and in a set-in rain. The people take 
 this time to hunt elephants, as they get bogged in the soft 
 mud. 
 
 Jan. 12. — Sitting down this morning near a tree, my 
 head was just one yard off a goocl-sized cobra, coiled up 
 in the sprouts at its root, but benumbed with cold. 
 
 Jan. 20. — [The journal has an extended and most 
 painful allusion to the desertion of two Wai}-au attendants, 
 who carried off the medicine-box, on which Dr. Living- 
 stone depended so greatly, leaving him destitute of reme- 
 dies entirety . This, added to the great scarcity of food, 
 greatly distressed him. And his friend, Rev. Mr. Walker, 
 compiler of his Journal, thinks that to this disaster is 
 mainly owing his death, he being utterly unable to coun- 
 teract the malarial poison contracted.] 
 
 Jan. 24. — On the Movushi, a sluggish stream; made 
 sheds on west side. At last found food in good supply. 
 Bed and pink beads are in fashion, and fortunately we 
 have red. Beads are an important item of currency all 
 
TRADE IN BEADS. 
 
 361 
 
 through Africa. With a few exceptions, they are all made 
 in Venice ; and great care must be had by the traveller, as 
 ignorance of the prevailing fashion ma} r leave on his hands 
 a stock utterly worthless to him. The Waiyau prefer 
 exceedingly small beads of various colors, but opaque. 
 A red bead of various sizes, red in centre, is always valu- 
 able in any part of the country ; and they give it a name 
 signifying birds' eyes, — " masokantussi." A peculiarly 
 long bead maybe sent to the west coast, but. never to the 
 east. " Machua Kanga," guinea-fowls 9 eyes, is another 
 popular variety. But b}- far the most valuable of all is a 
 small white oblong bead, looking, when strung, like joints 
 of the cane-root. It is said one pound of these will buy a 
 tusk of ivory in the south Tanganyika country so large 
 f hat a strong man cannot carry it more than two hours. 
 
 Jan. 25. — I observe that vultures hover about when 
 we begin making our sheds, but after watching a while, 
 seeing no meat, the}' depart ; which proves they are guided 
 by sight, not by smell. 
 
 Jan. 27. — Waded across two miles of flooded flats, 
 going northward. 
 
 Jan. 31. — Having reached the Chambeza River, we 
 were told that the head man, Chitapangwa, must be 
 " approached with something in our hands." We passed 
 through the inner stockade, and then on to an enormous 
 hut, where sat Chitapangwa, with three drummers, and ten 
 or more men with rattles in their hands. The drummers 
 beat furiously, and the rattlers kept time to the drums. I 
 declined to sit on the ground, and an enormous tusk was 
 brought for me. 
 
 Feb. 3. — The head man of a slave party left for the 
 coast, b} T whom we sent a packet of letters to be delivered 
 at Zanzibar, (They reached England safely.) 
 at 
 
362 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Feb. 8. — Chitapangwa demands one of my boxes and 
 a blanket. I explain that the only blankets we bave 
 belong to the boys, who are not slaves. He thinks we 
 have some self-interest to secure in going through his 
 country ; and when I told him it was for a public benefit, 
 he pulled down the under lid of his right eye ! 
 
 Feb. 10. — Had service in the open air, many looking 
 on. I spoke to the chief, who believes nothing only what 
 Sptke and Burton's man has told him. 
 
 Feb. 17. — Too ill with rheumatic fever to have service, 
 — the first attack of it I ever had, and no medicine ! But 
 I trust in the Lord. 
 
 Feb. 19. — A glorious day of bright sunlight. We 
 scarce ever have a twenty-four hours without rain, and 
 never half that period without thunder. 
 
 Feb. 23. — Came to Moamba's village. Spoke to him 
 about the Bible. He asked me to come next day, and tell 
 him about prayer to God. 
 
 March 10. — Have been ill with fever ever since we left 
 Moamba's. Every step I take jars in the chest ; and I am 
 very weak, can scarcely keep up the march. 
 
 March 22. — Saw men from Tanganyika. 
 
 March 28. — Saw cotton-bushes of very large size. 
 
 March 31, April 1, 1867. — Went up a low ridge of hills : 
 and, soon after passing the summit, the blue water of Tan- 
 ganyika loomed through the trees, two thousand feet below 
 us, surrounded by a nearly perpendicular ridge. It is about 
 eighteen or twent}^ miles broad, and we could see about 
 thirty north. I never saw any thing so still and peaceful 
 as the lake all the morning. Fishermen enumerate 
 twenty-four species of fish with which it abounds. I am 
 excessively weak, cannot walk without tottering, but the 
 Highest will lead me farther. The latitude we find to be 
 
AN EARTHQUAKE. 363 
 
 8° 46' 54" S., long. 31° 57', by working out only one set 
 of observations (my head is out of order) ; height above 
 level of sea, over twenty-eight hundred feet. The people 
 will not let me sound the lake. They suspect u*, and we 
 can get no information. The lake discharges its water? 
 north-north- west ward. [Speaks of several attacks of 
 insensibility, some hours elapsing before recognizing his 
 whereabouts, — the result of fever unchecked b} r inedicine ] 
 
 May 1. — We intend to go north-west to see if the lake 
 narrows. Streams about fifteen yards wide, knee-deep, 
 are almost innumerable. Cotton of the Pernambuco spe- 
 cies is quite freely cultivated. Much black and white 
 striped cloth was made in these parts before the Mazitu 
 raids began. Curious it should only be found in the middle 
 of this country. Mairy of the shawls are seen yet. Natives 
 tell of the river Liemba, a great way north-west, dammed 
 up by rocks, with a great waterfall. 
 
 June 1. — Advised to go up the east side of the lake 
 (Tanganyika) to Ujiji, but that would ruin my plan of 
 discovering whether the watershed of Lake Moero is that 
 of the Congo or the Nile. An Arab tells me the water 
 of Tanganyika flows south. 
 
 July 1. — The men are very particular as to the time of 
 offering prayers and making charms. To-night it was 
 exactly ten, p.m. 
 
 July 6. — An earthquake this afternoon, with a hollow, 
 rumbling sound, made me for a few seconds feel as if 
 afloat. 
 
 July 7. — Before starting this morning, the men put 
 incense on some hot coals ; and all the leaders joined in a 
 short pi xyer, seeming earnest and sincere. 
 
 July 29. — Marriage is forbidden to the first, second, 
 and third degrees ; first and second cousins are called 
 brothers and sisters. 
 
864 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Aug 7. — A man tells me the Tanganyika flows north, 
 and forms a large water beyond Uganda. 
 
 Oct. 30. — Two ugly images, used in rain-making and 
 healing ceremonies, nearest approach to idol-worship yet 
 seen. 
 
 Nov. 8. — Came to Lake Moero, which is flanked by 
 mountain ranges on the east and west. 
 
 Nov. 15. — This is the home of the negro, their fea- 
 tures small and well rounded, such as we see in ancient 
 Egyptian pictures. In this vicinity saw some most dis- 
 tressing illustrations of the horrors of slave-trading. 
 
 Nov. 24. — Accounts given us appear to show that the 
 waters of Lake Moero have an outlet at the north-west 
 end, called Lualaba, passing through another lake ; still 
 another beyond Tanganyika. Carembe, the head-man 
 here, seems tjTannical, cropping off the ears, and lopping 
 off the hands of his people, almost at will ; so that many 
 of his people thus mutilated, and some principal ones too 
 seemingly, present a most repulsive aspect. 
 
 Dec. 1. — Perembe, said to be one hundred and fifty 
 years old, a sensible man, has the idea of all men being 
 derived from a single pair. 
 
 Dec. 15. — [Prepares a despatch to Lord Clarendon, 
 reciting his course of exploration, and the general impres- 
 siDns he had verified somewhat carefully, touching the 
 piobabilit}^ of the head- waters of the Nile being located in 
 the vicinity of his present discoveries. Instances of hot 
 fountains are noted, with some shocks of earthquakes, 
 sometimes at night, setting the fowls cackling, and chan- 
 ging the rates cf the chronometers considerably. He 
 notices 'iie long, strong stapled cotton, seeds clustering 
 and adhering together, evidently of the Pernambuco va- 
 riety, found in all the central regions of Africa.] 
 
SPRINGS OF THE NILE. 
 
 365 
 
 Jan. 1, 1868. — "Almighty Father, forgive the sins of 
 the past year, for thy Son's sake. If I am to die this 
 year, prepare me for it." 
 
 Feb. 25. — Mungo Park mentions the Africans in the 
 interior of the west in possession of the stories of Joseph 
 and his brethren, and others ; and they we r « much aston- 
 ished that Mungo knew of them. The Katanza people 
 are afraid to dig gold, believing " Ngolu" (Satan) owns 
 it, and hid it in the earth. Their fear of death is remark- 
 ably strong. Some Arabs believe a serpent on one of 
 the Nyanza lakes has the power of speaking, and is the 
 same that beguiled Eve. It is a crime to kill a serpent. 
 If a child cuts the upper front teeth first, it is killed, as 
 unluck}', — a wide-spread superstition . Mohamad bin Saleh 
 says the Mohammedans never proselyte Africans, and 
 never translate the Koran ; so that Capt. Burton's idea 
 that the Mohammedans would make the best missionaries 
 to Africa, is about like saying they would catch more birds 
 than Christians, as they would put salt on their tails. 
 
 April 2. — If I am not deceived by information 
 received from various reliable sources, the springs of the 
 Nile rise between 9° and 10° south latitude, or at least 
 four hundred miles south of the south end of Speke's 
 source ; and Tanganyika is an expansion of the Nile, and 
 so is Lake Chowambe, the two lakes being connected by 
 the River Loancla. 
 
 June 24. — Found a group of slaves singing, " Oh, you 
 sent me off to Manga [sea-coast] ; but the }'oke is off 
 when I die, and back I shall come to kill 3 ou ; " and was 
 told that they were rejoiced at the idea of coming back 
 after death to hunt and kill those who had sold them. 
 They had a chorus, weaving in the names of their captors. 
 
 July 3. — The sources I shall report as flowing into the 
 
 31* 
 
366 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 central line of drainage formed by the Chambeze, Luapula, 
 and Lualaba, are thirteen in all. Five go through Tan- 
 ganyika. 
 
 Aug. 31. — The notion of a rainy zone of perpetual 
 showers receives no confirmation from my observations. 
 I account for the great humidity here by the prevailing 
 winds from the Indian Ocean meeting those from the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 Oct. 23. — On the Zambesi, and among the Wanyamwesi, 
 a slave changes masters bj^ going to one he likes better, 
 and breaking a bow or spear in his presence ; and the new 
 master may keep him till he gets his full price. A case 
 of this kind happened 3'esterday. 25. — The Koran is 
 consulted as authority for staying another day. This is 
 very trying. 
 
 Nov. 22. — Africans cannot stand sneers. If a mishap 
 occurs, a yell of derision is set up ; if one is tired, and sits 
 down, the same j-ell greets him. It is a spur to exertion 
 
 Jan. 1 , 1869. — [After pressing on to reach Tanganyika, 
 the doctor finds himself quite ill from crossing the Lofuko 
 in water to the waist, and very cold. Seems to have lost 
 count of the days and w r eeks ; and the next date is, — ] 
 
 About Jan. 7. — Cannot walk, — pneumonia of right 
 lung. Cough all day and all night. If I look at a 
 piece of wood, the bark is covered with figures and faces 
 of men, which remain though I look away. Saw nryself 
 tying dead in the way to Ujiji, and all the letters I ex- 
 pected there useless. Cupped my chest. 
 
 Jan. 8, 9. — Have to be carried, the first time in my 
 life. Cannot raise myself to sitting posture. Momauad 
 gave me a sharp purgative. 
 
 Feb. 14. — Arrived at Tanganyika. 15. — Cough and 
 pain in chest diminished, thanks to the great Father in 
 heaven. 
 
CURRENT THROUGH TANGANYIKA. 367 
 
 March 7. — Were received at Katanza by a young Arab 
 muscat, who dined us sumptuously. 
 
 March 8. — Found a current flows through the middle 
 of the lake, where the water is quite sweet, while on the 
 borders and up the inlets it is quite brackish, like the sea. 
 
 March 14. — Reach Ujiji, and next day took account 
 of my goods which were left from the plundering. Sixty- 
 two out of eighty pieces cloth, and most of my best beads, 
 were stolen. Medicines, wine, and cheese at Unyanyembe, 
 tlrrteen days east ; and the road blocked by a Mazitu war. 
 
 March 28. — Cough ceased, and I walk half a mile. 
 
 April 27. — Busy writing letters home, and finished 
 forty-two. Find it difficult to send letters ; they suspect 
 I will reveal their treachery to the governor of Unyembe. 
 [A note says the letters must have been destrc^ed, for 
 they never arrived at Zanzibar.] 
 
 May 19. — [Contains a just and discriminating resume 
 of the lack of sympathy which our struggle against the 
 late Rebellion met with from Englishmen, summing up 
 the whole thus : " Large numbers of Englishmen are not 
 slaveholders only because the law forbids it."] 
 
 June 7. — It is remarkable that all Ujiji Arabs who 
 have any opinion on the subject believe all the water in 
 the north, and in the south too, flows into Tanganyika, 
 but have no conjecture where it then goes. 
 
 June 28. — The current in Tanganyika is well marked 
 where a river flows into it, the current moving north 
 nearly a mile an hour. May the Highest direct me, that 
 I may finish creditably the work I have begun ! [In ex- 
 ploring this hitherto unknown Manyuema region, the 
 doctor was aided by the rumor, quite current, that ivory 
 abounded there; and therefore the natives were more 
 willing to go.] 
 
368 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 July 14. — Sounded the lake opposite Mount Kabogo, 
 and found it 1,965 feet. 
 
 Sept. 17. — Our people are all afraid, if they go out 
 of sight, the natives will kill them. This shows, proba- 
 bly, why so little exploration of the country at the north 
 has been made. 
 
 Sept. 22.— There grows a species of wood here, which, 
 if a fire is made of it, emits a horrid fecal smell, pervad- 
 ing the entire camp. 
 
 Sept. 29. — Visited a hot fountain, temperature 150°, 
 slightly saline in taste, steam issuing continually. 
 
 Oct. 9 . — Circumcision is general among all the Man- 
 yuema people, but is never performed during a drought. 
 
 Nov. 4. — This (Manyuema) country is surpassingly 
 beautiful, the soil excessively rich. The maize bends its 
 fruit-stalk round into a sort of hook, and lines of the 
 climbing plant are trained in hedges, along which the 
 maize cobs are suspended by its hooked stalk, making a 
 sort of upright granary, from which the ripe fruit is picked 
 when needed. 
 
 Jan. 1, 1870. — The Lord help me to finish the work 
 in hand before the year is out ! Thanks for all last year's 
 loving kindness. 
 
 Jan. 15. — Suffered from choleraic purging, brought on 
 by the wet, and bad water. 27-30. — Rest in camp. 
 
 Feb. 3. — While sitting under an umbrella in a drench- 
 ing rain, a little treefrog near me began a tune, loud and 
 sweet, surprising me at so much music from so small a 
 musician. 
 
 Feb. 7. — Went into quarters. Rest, shelter, and 
 using boiled water, and the potato species called nyumbo, 
 soon put me all to rights again. 
 
 Feb. 22. — Confirmed in my conjecture that the 
 
TEE GARDEN OF EDEN. 
 
 369 
 
 Lualaba is lower than Tanganyika, by the falls we 
 found. 
 
 March 25. — The mamba fish has breasts with milk, 
 and utters a cry. Its flesh is very white. 
 
 May 1 . — Killed an elephant which h**d three good- 
 sized tusks. 
 
 June 26. — My people failed me ; and with only Suri, 
 Cliuma, and Gardner, I started north-west for the Lualaba. 
 
 July, 1870. — For the first time in my life my feet fail 
 me ; irritable ulcers fasten on both feet. 
 
 [The doctor turned back here. He adds, medicine has 
 little effect on these wounds.] 
 
 Aug. 8. — I learn from two men who have been be3'ond 
 Katanza, that seven days west of that point flows another 
 Lualaba, and that there is a large lake called Chibungo, 
 formed, probably by the Sufira and Lualaba. Were this 
 spot in Armenia, it would serve exactly the description in 
 Genesis of the Garden of Eden, with its four rivers. It 
 may have given occasion to the story told to Herodotus 
 about the two conical-topped hills, " midway between 
 which are the fountains of the Nile, which it is impossible 
 to fathom, half the water running north into Eg}^pt, and 
 half to the south into Ethiopia." The water-shed is 
 between seven hundred and eight hundred miles long, 
 from east to west, say from 22° or 23° to 34° or 35°, 
 east longitude ; parts of it enormous sponges, others in- 
 numerable rills, forming rivulets, which, again, form 
 rivers. The convex surface of the nose of a garden 
 watering-can is a tolerable similitude. [Tbe doctor seems 
 satisfied that the sources of the Nile are by no means in 
 Victoria Nj^anza. The White Nile, flowing from this 
 lake, is at most only one hundred yards broad, while the 
 Lualaba, far south of the point of its departure, averages 
 
S70 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 four to six thousand yards in width, and always deep. 
 The severe pneumonia and choleraic attacks from which 
 he had suffered, with the irritable ulcers, warn him, he 
 writes, to retire while life lasts.] 
 
 Aug. 24. — Four gorillas, or sokos, were killed y ester- 
 da}^. They often go erect, but place the hand on the 
 head, as if to steady the ; body, making an ugly-looking 
 beast ; bandy-legged, pot-bellied, low-looking, and villan- 
 ous. Takes away my appetite. 
 
 Sept. 26, 1870. — Ulcers healing, after having been laid 
 up eighty days. They kill many slaves. 
 
 Oct. 4. — [Under this date, Dr. Livingstone at length 
 gives his reasons for rejecting the theory of the Chambeze 
 being a branch of the Zambesi. It took him eighteen 
 months to w T ork out this correction, and twenty-two 
 months in exploring Bangweolo, Chambeze, Luapula, 
 Moero, and Lualaba. After spending two full years at this 
 work, the chief Casembe was the first to throw light on 
 the subject, hy saying, 44 It is the same water here as in 
 the Chambeze, the same in Moero, and Lualaba ; and one 
 piece of water is just like another." He gives the names 
 of Pres. Lincoln and Lord Palmerston to important bodies 
 of water, — 44 Palmerston Fountain" to the upper Zam- 
 besi, and 4 ' Lincoln Lake" to what had been known as 
 Lake Chibungo, — in honor of the labors of these noble men 
 for the abolition of slaver}-.] 
 
 Oct. 10. — Came out of my hut to-day, after being 
 confined to it since Jul}'. 
 
 Oct. 25. — [His plan seemed to be to go down the Cen- 
 tral Lualaba, or Webb's Lake River, then up the Western 
 or Young's Lake River, to the head waters of Katanza, 
 and then retire. 44 1 pray it may be to my native home," 
 he adds. He has a strong impression that some evidence 
 
BR OKEN—HEARTEDNESS. 
 
 871 
 
 might be found, showing that Moses might possibly have 
 penetrated somewhere hereabouts (dated Bambarre).] 
 
 Oct. 29. — The Manyuena buy their wives. A pretty 
 girl brings ten goats. Saw one brought home to-day, 
 coming jauntily, with one attendant, husband walking 
 behind. 
 
 Nov. 11. — u The education of the world is a terrible 
 one, and it has come down with relentless rigor on Africa, 
 from the most remote times. . . . When the Highest ac- 
 complishes his purposes, this will be a wonderful country 
 again, — something like what it was of old, when Zerah 
 and Tirhakah flourished and were great." 
 
 Dec. 10. — [Refers to the badger which furnished the 
 skins for the tabernacle covering. Several references are 
 made to the terrible effects of the slave-trading barbar- 
 ities. The neggeri attacks the tenderest parts of man and 
 beast, biting them off, and retiring contented. Buffaloes 
 are often castrated by them. Men who know it squat 
 down, and kill it with knife or gun.] 
 
 Dec. 28. — The strangest disease I have seen in this 
 country seems really broken-heartedness, and attacks free 
 men who have been made slaves by capture. Syde bin 
 Habib had captured a large number of young men, and 
 took them in chains across the Lualaba. They endured 
 their chains till they saw this broad river rolling between 
 them and their homes, when eight of them died in three 
 da} T s, ascribing their only pain to their heart. The slavers 
 express surprise, as they have plenty to eat, and no work. 
 It seems really a broken heart of which they die. 
 
 Jan. 1, 1871. — O Father! help me to finish this work 
 to thy honor. Frustrated continually in obtaining canoes ; 
 singular deceptiveness perpetrated by all we try to bar- 
 gain with. 
 
372 
 
 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 March 31. — Reached the Lualaba. Found it narrower 
 than higher up, though at least three thousand 3-ards wide, 
 and always deep, — never can be waded at any time of the 
 year, or at airy point. The current is about two mile an 
 hour to the north. 
 
 Ap' 4 il 4. — The Arabs ask many questions about the 
 Bible --how many prophets have appeared; say they 
 believe in them all, but never heard of Baalim, nor of the 
 two hundred and fifty false prophets of Jezebel and Ahab. 
 
 May 24. — The markets of the natives are busy scenes. 
 Every one is dead earnest. Little time is lost in friendly 
 greetings. Each is intensely eager to barter the articles 
 the % y bring, making strong assertions as to the goodness 
 or badness of every thing. The sweat stands in beads 
 on their faces. Cocks crow briskly, even when slung over 
 the shoulder, with their heads hanging down. The} 7 deal 
 fairly ; and when differences arise they are easily settled 
 by others interfering, or b} r pointing to me. They have a 
 strong sense of natural justice. It is a scene of the finest 
 natural acting imaginable. I could not understand the 
 words that flowed off their glib tongues, but the gestures 
 were too expressive to need interpretation. 
 
 [Having been defeated in repeated attempts to obtain 
 a canoe for descending the river, he says, — ] 
 
 June 27. — In answer to my praj-ers for preservation, I 
 was prevented going down to the narrows formed by a 
 dyke of mountains cutting across country, and jutting 
 a little ajar, which makes an enormous mass of water 
 wheel around behind it helplessly, and overturns tho 
 canoes which reach the rock against which the water 
 dashes. 
 
 July 1. — Planned to go west to Lomame, then up 
 Lake Lincoln to Katanza and the fountains. 
 
MURDERS BY SLA VE-S TEA L ERS. 
 
 373 
 
 July 12, 13. — The men say they will go to the River 
 Lomame, but no farther ; fearing, as they said, they should 
 lose their lives. 
 
 July 14. — Am perplexed and distressed what to do, so 
 as not to be foiled. All seems against me. 
 
 July 15. — About fifteen hundred people came to mar- 
 ket, though many villages around are in flames from the 
 sla\e-stealing parties. It was not long before the entire 
 mass were thrown into terrible confusion by the murder- 
 ous firing of a party who had entered the crowd with their 
 guns. Large numbers were shot, and many who had 
 plunged into the river were drowned. It gave me an im- 
 pression of being in hell. 
 
 July 20. — Start back for Ujiji. Passed over a beauti- 
 tul country, with much cultivation. 
 
 July 31. — Passed through the defile between Mount 
 Kimazi and Mount Kijila. Below a cave found here, with 
 stalactite pillar in its door, a fine echo is heard. 
 
 32 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FIRST HOSTILITY OF NATIVES. VERY FEEBLE. STANLEY 
 
 ARRIVES. GOES WITH STANLEY TO UNYANYEMBE. — 
 
 STANLEY RETURNS. THE DOCTOR STARTS FOR THE NILE 
 
 FOUNTAINS. ENCOURAGEMENT FOR MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 REACHES BANGWEOLO. FAILS RAPIDLY. LAST HOURS 
 
 AND DEATH. 
 
 Aug. 8. — The villagers all ran away as we came, and 
 then threw stones at us, and tried to kill those who went 
 for water. An ambush was laid in a narrow path, and 
 trees cut down to obstruct us. A large spear lunged past 
 me, almost grazing my back. The good hand of God 
 was upon me. Lost all my remaining calico, a telescope, 
 umbrella, and five spears. I do most devoutly thank the 
 Lord for sparing my life three times in one day. 
 
 [Here follows, from Aug. 12, a series of brief entries, 
 sometimes only the dates ; evidently indicating great fee- 
 bleness.] 
 
 Sept. 23. — I was sorely knocked up by this march 
 back to Ujiji ; in the latter part of it felt as if d}ing on 
 my feet. Almost every step was in pain ; appetite failed, 
 and a little bit of meat caused violent diarrhoea ; and the 
 mind, sorely depressed, re-acted on the body. 
 
 Oct. 23. — Off at dawn, and go to Ujiji ; welcomed by 
 all the Arabs. Reduced to a skeleton. In the evening 
 heard that Shereef had sold off all my goods, not leaving 
 
 874 
 
MEETING WITH STANLEY. 
 
 375 
 
 a single yard of calico out of three thousand, nor a string 
 of beads out of seven hundred pounds. He is evident!; 
 a moral idiot, for he came without shame to shake hands 
 with me ; and, when I refused, assumed an air of dis- 
 pleasure. It was annoying to see his slaves passing from 
 the market with all the good things my goods had bought. 
 
 Oct. 24. — When my spirits were at the lowest ebb, one 
 morning Suri came running at the top of his speed, gasp- 
 ing out, u An Englishman ! I see him ! " and off he darted 
 to meet him. The American flag at the head of the cara- 
 van, with bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, cook- 
 ing-pots, tents, &c, made me think, "This must be a 
 luxuriant traveller, and not one at his wits' end, like me." 
 It was Henry Moreland Stanley, the travelling correspond- 
 ent of " The New -York Herald," sent by James Gordon 
 Bennett, jun., at an expense of four thousand pounds, to 
 obtain accurate information about Dr. Livingstone, if liv- 
 ing, and, if dead, to bring home my bones. . . . Appetite 
 returned, and instead of the spare, tasteless twc meals a 
 day, I ate four times daily, and in a week began to feel 
 strong. This disinterested kindness of Mr. Bennett, so 
 nobly carried into effect by Mr. Stanley, was simply over- 
 whelming. I feel extremely grateful, and at the same 
 time a little ashamed at not being more worthy of the 
 generosity. 
 
 Nov. 16. — As Tanganyika-explorations are said by 
 Mr. Stanley to be an object of interest to Sir Roderick, 
 we go, at his expense and with his men, to the north of 
 the lake. [Dr. Livingstone had written former!}' from 
 the interior, to the effect that this lake poured its waters 
 into the Albert Nyanza Lake of Baker, little realizing the 
 interest this announcement was likely to occasion.] 
 
 Nov. 24. — At Point Kizuka, in Mukamba's country, a 
 
376 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 Molongwama asserted most positively that all the water 
 of Tanganyika flowed into the River Lusize, and 1hen on 
 to Ukerewe of Mteza. Nothing could be more clear 
 than his statements. Next day this man declared, as posi- 
 tively, that Lusize flowed into Tanganyika. Lusize goes 
 to or comes from Luanda and Karagwe. This is hopeful, 
 but I suspend judgment. We go to-morrow near Lusize. 
 
 Nov. 26. — Mr. Stanley has severe fever. The end of 
 Tanganyika clearly seen, rounded off about 4' from east 
 to west. 27. — At four, a.m., reached Lohinga, at mouth 
 of Lusize. 28. — Lohinga, a superior of Mukamba, the 
 most intelligent and the frankest chief we have seen here, 
 named eighteen rivers, four of which enter Tanganyika, 
 and the rest Lusize. All come into, none leave Tangan- 
 yika. 
 
 Nov. 29. — The outlet of the lake is probably oy the 
 Longumba River into Lualaba, as the Luamo. 
 
 Dec. 2,3. — 111 from bilious attack. Better, and thank- 
 ful. 
 
 Dec. 4. — Lohinga does not know Baker's Lake ; it can- 
 not be near. 
 
 Dec. 9. — Leave New- York Herald Islet, and go south. 
 
 Dec. 13.— Mr. Stanley received from Consul Webb a 
 letter of June 12, and telegrams from Aden to April 29. 
 
 Dec. 15. — At Ujiji, getting ready to march east for my 
 goods. 
 
 [Entries of writing and packing up to send home by 
 Stanley occur till, — ] 
 
 Jan. 10, 1872. — Cross a very lovely green country, 
 fresh, and like' an English gentleman's park. 
 
 Feb. 4. — Mr. Stanley so ill we carried him in a cot. 
 
 Feb. 18. — Unyan}'embe, — thanks to the Almighty! 
 Mr. Stanley used some strong arguments for my going 
 
THE SOURCES OF THE NILE. 377 
 
 home, recruiting my strength, and returning to finish my 
 task. My judgment saj's, " Complete the exploration of 
 the sources of the Nile before you retire." Agnes [his 
 daughter] says, " Much as I wish you to come home, I 
 would rather you would finish your work to your own satis- 
 faction, than return merely to gratify me." Rightly and 
 nobly said, my darling Nannie ! Vanity whispers pretty 
 loudly, " She's a chip of the old block." My blessing on 
 her, and all the rest ! It is all but certain that four full- 
 grown, gushing fountains rise on the watershed eight 
 days south of Katanza, each of which soon becomes a 
 large river ; and two rivers thus formed flow north to 
 Egypt, the other two south to inner Ethiopia. That is, 
 Lufra, or Bartle Frere's River, flows into Kamolondo, and 
 that into Webb's Lualaba, the main line of drainage ; 
 another, on the north side of the sources (Young's Lua- 
 laba), flows through Lake Lincoln, and that too into 
 "Webb's Lualaba. Then Siambai Fountain (Palmerston's) 
 forms the Upper Zambesi ; and the Lunga (Oswell's Foun- 
 tain) is the Kafue, both flowing into inner Ethiopia. It may 
 be that these are not the fountains of the Nile mentioned 
 to Herodotus by the secretary of Minerva in Sais, in 
 Egypt ; but they are worth discover}', as in the last hun- 
 dred of the seven hundred miles of the watershed from 
 which nearly all the Nile springs do unquestionably come. 
 I propose going round the south end of Lake Tanganyika, 
 Tambete, or Mbete, then across Chambeze, and round 
 south of Lake Bangweolo, and due west to the ancient 
 fountains. This route will serve to show that no other 
 sources of the Nile can come from the south without being 
 seen by me. No one will cut me out after this explora- 
 tion is accomplished ; and may the good Lord of all help 
 me to show myself one of his stout-hearted servants, an 
 
 32* 
 
378 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 honor to my country and children, and perhaps to my 
 country and race ! 
 
 On reaching Unyanyembe, found stores had been pi cin- 
 dered by the two head men selected by a slave-trader 
 since Oct. 20, 1870, to this date, nearly sixteen months. 
 One of the thieves has died of small-pox, and the other 
 has broken open and plundered Mr. Stanley's goods. 
 But Mr. Stanle} 7 has more than made up my losses ; 
 indeed, I am quite set up ; and, as soon as he can send 
 men (not slaves) from the coast, I go to work hope- 
 fully. 
 
 Feb. 20. — To my great joy I got four flannel shirts 
 from Agnes, and was delighted to find two pairs of fine 
 English boots from my friend Mr. Waller. 
 
 Feb. 22. — Service this morning, and thanked God for 
 safety thus far. 
 
 Feb. 24. — Writing a despatch to Lord Granville 
 against Banian slave-trading, and in favor of an English 
 native settlement transfer. 
 
 [The interval to March 14 is occupied in writing 
 despatches, &c, at which time Mr. Stanley left with his 
 journal sealed up ; and Dr. Livingstone busies himself in 
 preparations to renew his toilsome explorations.] 
 
 March 19. — Birthday. My Jesus, my King, nry life, 
 my all ! I again dedicate myself to thee. 
 
 April 2. — Making a sounding-line out of lint left by 
 Mr. Stanley. 
 
 April 23. — The chief of the Banyamwezi told me that 
 he had, when a little boy, followed his father as far as 
 Katanza by my proposed route via Fipa. 
 
 May 1. — Finished a letter for 4 ' New- York Herald," 
 trying to enlist American zeal to stop the east coast slave- 
 trade. [This letter closes with, u All I can add in my 
 
PRIDE OF MOHAMMEDANS. 
 
 379 
 
 loneliness is, may Heaven's rich blessing come down on 
 every one, American, English, or Turk, who will help to 
 heal the open sore of the world ! "* These words have 
 been inscribed on his tablet in Westminster Abbey, and 
 were written by the great traveller exactly one year before 
 his death, May 1, 1873.] 
 
 Under May 9 he saj-s, u If Baker's expedition should 
 succeed in annexing the Valley of the Nile to "Egypt, 
 would not the miserable condition of the natives be worse 
 under Eg} T ptian dominion?" [The doctor would have 
 been fully as much surprised had he been told of the 
 position taken by the Khedive of Eg}-pt in regard to this 
 " open sore of the world," as most of us are at his having 
 done so.] 
 
 May 13. — He will keep his word, the gracious One, 
 full of grace and truth ; no doubt of it. He said, " Him 
 that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out ; " and, 
 " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will give it." 
 He vvill keep his word. Then I can come, and humbly 
 present my petition, and it will be all right. Doubt is 
 here inadmissible, surely. D. L. 
 
 May 17. — Ailing. Making cheeses for the journey. 
 
 May 23. — Little prospect of Christianity spreading by 
 ordinary means among Mohammedans. Their pride is 
 the great obstacle. No new invention or increase of 
 power, on the part of Christians, seems to disturb their 
 self-complacent belief that ultimately all power and 
 dominion in this world will fall into the hands of 
 Moslems. They sa}', 4 6 Don't 3-011 know Jerusalem is 
 ours ? All the world is ours ; and in a short time we 
 shall overcome all." 
 
 May 28. — Many parts of this interior land present 
 most inviting prospects for well-sustained efforts of pri- 
 
380 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 vate benevolence. Its teeming population could easily 
 be swayed by an energetic, prudent missionary. I say to 
 missionaries, "Come on, brethren, to the real heathen. 
 Leave the coast tribes, and devote 3'ourselves heartily to 
 the savages. With some drawbacks and wickedness, you 
 will find a great deal to admire and love." 
 
 [An entry near the 1st of June reveals a calculation of 
 his projected work, as occupj-ing him till 1874.] 
 
 June 13. — Heard through one of Stanley's men that 
 my caravan is at Ugogo. 
 
 June 18. — I trust in Providence to still aid me. I 
 know the four rivers, Zambesi, Kafue, Luapula, and 
 Lomame ; their fountains must exist in one region. 
 
 June 21. — No jugglery or sleight-of-hand, as recom- 
 mended to Napoleon III., would have an}' effect in the 
 civilization of the Africans ; they have too much good 
 sense for that. Goodness or unselfishness impresses their 
 minds more than any kind of skill or power. The prayer 
 to Jesus for a new heart and a right spirit at once com- 
 mends itself to them. It is a part of their original faith 
 to ascribe every thing above human agency to unseen 
 spirits. Music has great influence on those having musi- 
 cal ears, and often leads to conversion. 
 
 July 7. — Waiting wearily , hoping the good and loving 
 Father of all may favor me. 
 
 [While waiting for his caravan so wearily, this entry 
 occurs : — ] 
 
 Aug. 5. — One is struck by the fact of the children 
 having so few games. Life is a serious business ; and 
 amusement is derived from imitating the vocations of 
 the parents, — hut-building, making little gardens, bows 
 and arrows, and spears. Some are very ingenious little 
 fellows, expert in making traps for small birds. They 
 
ILLNESS. 
 
 381 
 
 make play-guns of reeds, which go off with a trigger and 
 spring, with a cloud of ashes for smoke. The boys shoot 
 locusts with small toy-guns very cleverly. 
 
 Aug. 15. — The men came yesterda}-, sevent}~-four 
 days from Bangamoio. Most thankful to the Giver of all 
 good I am. After a few days rest I shall start. 
 
 Aug. 25. — Started, making short marches at first. 
 [The company was made up of fifty-seven men and boys 
 hired by Mr. Stanley on the coast, and some more Nas- 
 sack pupils sent from Bombay to join Lieut. Dawson ; 
 among them are the names of John and Jacob Wain- 
 wright ; and among Dr. Livingstone's original followers 
 were Susi, Chuma, and Amoda, who joined him in 1864, 
 and Malruki and Gardner, two Nassick boj's hired in 
 1866.] 
 
 Sept. 19. — 111 with bowels, having eaten nothing for 
 eight clays. 
 
 Sept. 21. — Rest at Simba's, who sent a handsome 
 present of food. Complaint does not yield to medicine 
 or time. 
 
 Oct. 9. — The heat makes me useless, and constrains 
 me to lie like a log. Feel tired inwardly too. 
 
 Oct. 13. — Coursed along the range of hills parallel 
 with Lake Tanganyika, a thousand feet above the water. 
 
 Dec. 25. — Christmas Day. I thank the good Lord 
 for the good gift of his Son Jesus Christ. 
 
 Jan. 22. — No astronomical observations worth nam- 
 ing during December and January. 
 
 Feb. 14. — If the good Lord gives me favor, and per- 
 mit© me to finish my work, I shall thank and bless him, 
 though it cost me untold toil, pain, and travel. This 
 trip has made my hair all gray. 
 
 Feb. 22. — 111 all day yesterday, but escaped fever by 
 hemorrhage. 
 
382 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 March 1, 1873. — Reached Bangweolo. 
 
 March 25. — Nothing earthly will make me give up my 
 work in despair. 
 
 April 10. — I am pale, bloodless, and weak from bleed- 
 ing profusely ever since the 31st of March last ; an artery 
 gives off a copious stream, and takes away my strength. 
 How I long to be permitted by the Over Power to finish 
 my work ! 
 
 April 12. — Cross the Muanakazi, a hundred or a hun- 
 dred and thirty yards broad, and deep. So weak I could 
 hardly walk, but tottered along two hours, and then lay 
 down, quite clone. Cooked our last coffee. Unwilling to 
 be carried, but, being pressed, I allowed the men to help 
 me along b}' relays to Chinama. 
 
 April 20 (Sunday). — Service. I am excessively weak. 
 The previous day, says, " No observations now, owing 
 to great weakness. Can scarcely hold ; my stick is a 
 burden." 
 
 April 21. — Tried to ride, but was forced to lie down ; 
 and they carried me back to village exhausted. [The 
 men explain that he fell down utterly exhausted. Susi 
 immediately undid his belt and pistol, and picked up his 
 cap ; and Chum a ran to stop the men on ahead. When 
 he got back, the doctor said, " I have lost so much blood, 
 there is no more strength left in my legs. You must 
 carry me."] 
 
 April 25. — [No entry except date.] 
 
 April 26. —[Nothing but date.] 
 
 April 27. — [He seemed to be almost dying, but roused 
 himself to make his last entrj', as follows:] " Knocked 
 up, quite; and remain — recover — sent to buy milch- 
 goats. We are on the banks of the Molilaruo." [The men 
 add, that they could get no goats. The Mazitu (slave- 
 
DEATH, 
 
 383 
 
 hunters) had taken every thing. Thinking he could eat 
 some mapira pounded up with ground-nuts, some was 
 prepared ; but, when brought to him, he could not take 
 
 it.] 
 
 April 29. — [The chief Kalunganjovu wished to assist 
 to the utmost, and did all in his power to secure canoes 
 for crossing the river. When all was ready, as he could 
 not walk to the door of the hut, he asked the men to 
 break down the side of it, so that the kitanda, or palan- 
 quin, might be brought to him. While the embarkation 
 was going on, he was taken to the shade of a little tree 
 till the most of the men had crossed. On attempting to 
 lift him into the canoe, he could not bear the pain of a 
 hand touching his back, and he faintly asked Chuma to 
 stoop down, and let him clasp his hands together behind 
 his head ; and in this way he was laid in the bottom of 
 the canoe. The difficult task of crossing accomplished, 
 the party hasted as best they could for Chitambo's vil- 
 lage ; reaching which, at length a hut was made ready for 
 him. A bed was prepared, and raised from the floor ; and 
 the doctor was tenderly placed in it.] 
 
 April 30. — [Chitambo came to pay a visit of courtesy, 
 but the doctor was too weak to see him. In the afternoon 
 he asked Susi to bring his watch to his bedside, and ex- 
 plained to him how to hold it in his palm, while he slowly 
 turned the key. About eleven, p.m., Susi was called, and 
 asked, "Is this the Luapula?" When told it was the 
 Molilamo, in Suaheli, he asked, " How many clays is it to 
 the Luapula ? " " About three days," said Susi. A few 
 seconds after, as if in great pain, " Oh, dear, dear!' 
 und dozed off again. About an hour later he asked Susi 
 to boil some water. Eeturning with the copper kettle 
 full, he called for his medicine-chest, asking to have the 
 
384 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 
 
 candle held near him. as he could see with difficulty. 
 
 He selected some calomel : and, having prepared it. he 
 said feebly, 4i All right; you can go now." These were 
 the last words he was ever heard to speak. About four. 
 a.m.. Majwara came to Susi. saying. " I don't know if 
 he's alive ; " upon which Susi roused some of the men, 
 and went into the hut. and saw the doctor appar- 
 ently in prayer: and Majwara said. " When I lay down 
 he was just as he is now." On drawing nearer, they 
 lound him cold in death, kneeling by his bedside, his 
 body stretched forward, his head burled in his hands on 
 the pillow.]