The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 406 pages of information about The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873.

The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 406 pages of information about The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873.

The spirit of Missions is the spirit of our Master:  the very genius of His religion.  A diffusive philanthropy is Christianity itself.  It requires perpetual propagation to attest its genuineness.

9th November, 1872.—­We got very little food, and kill a calf to fill our mouths a little.  A path east seems to lead out from these mountains of Tanganyika.  We went on east this morning in highland open forest, then descended by a long slope to a valley in which there is water.  Many Milenga gardens, but the people keep out of sight.  The highlands are of a purple colour from the new leaves coming out.  The donkey began to eat to my great joy.  Men sent off to search for a village return empty-handed, and we must halt.  I am ill and losing much blood.

10th November, 1872.—­Out from the Lake mountains, and along high ridges of sandstone and dolomite.  Our guide volunteered to take the men on to a place where food can be bought—­a very acceptable offer.  The donkey is recovering; it was distinctly the effects of tsetse, for the eyes and all the mouth and nostrils swelled.  Another died at Kwihara with every symptom of tsetse poison fully developed.

[The above remarks on the susceptibility of the donkey to the bite of the tsetse fly are exceedingly important.  Hitherto Dr. Livingstone had always maintained, as the result of his own observations, that this animal, at all events, could be taken through districts in which horses, mules, dogs, and oxen would perish to a certainty.  With the keen perception and perseverance of one who was exploring Africa with a view to open it up for Europeans, he laid great stress on these experiments, and there is no doubt that the distinct result which he here arrived at must have a very significant bearing on the question of travel and transport.

Still passing through the same desolate country, we see that he makes a note on the forsaken fields and the watch-towers in them.  Cucumbers are cultivated in large quantities by the natives of Inner Africa, and the reader will no doubt call to mind the simile adopted by Isaiah some 2500 years ago, as he pictured the coming desolation of Zion, likening her to a “lodge in a garden of cucumbers."[27]]

11th November, 1872.—­Over gently undulating country, with many old gardens and watch-houses, some of great height, we reached the River Kalambo, which I know as falling into Tanganyika.  A branch joins it at the village of Mosapasi; it is deep, and has to be crossed by a bridge, whilst the Kalambo is shallow, and say twenty yards wide, but it spreads out a good deal.

[Their journey of the 12th and 13th led them over low ranges of sandstone and haematite, and past several strongly stockaded villages.  The weather was cloudy and showery—­a relief, no doubt, after the burning heat of the last few weeks.  They struck the Halocheche River, a rapid stream fifteen yards wide and thigh deep, on its way to the Lake, and arrived at Zombe’s town, which is built in such a manner that the river runs through it, whilst a stiff palisade surrounds it.  He says:—­]

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The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.