had in vain tried to make them comprehend a house of two stories.  They knew of no dwellings except their own conical huts, made of poles stuck into the ground, and could not conceive how one hut could be built on the top of another, or how people could live in the upper story, with the pointed roof of the lower one sticking up in the middle of the floor.  The vessels in the harbor were, they said, not canoes, but towns, into which one must climb by a rope.

At Loanda Livingstone was attacked by a fever, which reduced him to a skeleton, and for a while rendered him unable to attend to his companions.  But they managed very well alone.  Some went to the forest, cut firewood, and brought it to town for sale; others unloaded a coal-vessel in the harbor, at the magnificent wages of a sixpence a day.  The proceeds of their labor were shrewdly invested in cloth and beads which they would take home with them in confirmation of the astounding stories they would have to tell; “for,” said they, “in coming to the white man’s country, we have accomplished what no other people in the world could have done; we are the true ancients, who can tell wonderful things.”

The two years, at the close of which Livingstone had promised to rejoin his family, had almost expired, and he was offered a passage home from Loanda.  But the great object of his expedition was only partially attained.  Though he had reached the west coast in safety, he had found that the forests, swamps, and rivers must render a wagon-road from the interior impracticable.  He feared also that his native attendants would not be able to make their way alone back to their own country, through the unfriendly tribes.  So he resolved, feeble as he was, to return to Sekeletu’s dominions, and thence proceed to the eastern coast.

In September he started on his return journey, bearing considerable presents for Sekeletu from the Portuguese, who were naturally anxious to open a trade with the rich ivory region of the interior.  The Board of Public Works sent a colonel’s uniform and a horse, which unfortunately died on the way.  The merchants contributed specimens of all their articles of trade, and a couple of donkeys, which would have a special value on account of their immunity from the bite of the tsetse.  The men were made happy by the acquisition of a suit of European clothes and a gun apiece, in addition to their own purchases.

In the Bashinje country he again encountered hostile demonstrations.  One chief, who came riding into the camp upon the shoulders of an attendant, was especially annoying in his demands for tribute.  Another, who had quarreled with one of Livingstone’s attendants, waylaid and fired upon the party.  Livingstone, who was ill of a fever, staggered up to the chief, revolver in hand.  The sight of the six mouths of that convenient implement gaping at his breast wrought an instant revolution in his martial ideas; he fell into a fit of trembling, protesting that he had just come to have a quiet talk, and wanted only peace.