A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864Livingstone, David
History
A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, Central -- Discovery and exploration
Having travelled at least twenty miles in search of our party that day,
our rest on a mat in the best hut of the village was very sweet. We had
dined the evening before on a pigeon each, and had eaten only a handful
of kitedzi porridge this afternoon. The good wife of the village took a
little corn which she had kept for seed, ground it after dark, and made
it into porridge. This, and a cup of wild vegetables of a sweetish taste
for a relish, a little boy brought in and put down, with several vigorous
claps of his hands, in the manner which is esteemed polite, and which is
strictly enjoined on all children.
On the third day of separation, Akosanjere, the headman of this village,
conducted us forward to our party who had gone on to Nseze, a district to
the westward. This incident is mentioned, not for any interest it
possesses, apart from the idea of the people it conveys. We were
completely separated from our men for nearly three days, and had nothing
wherewith to purchase food. The people were sorely pressed by famine and
war, and their hospitality, poor as it was, did them great credit, and
was most grateful to us. Our own men had become confused and wandered,
but had done their utmost to find us; on our rejoining them, the ox was
slain, and all, having been on short commons, rejoiced in this "day of
slaughter." Akosanjere was, of course, rewarded to his heart's content.
As we pursued our way, we came close up to a range of mountains, the most
prominent peak of which is called Mvai. This is a great, bare, rounded
block of granite shooting up from the rest of the chain. It and several
other masses of rock are of a light grey colour, with white patches, as
if of lichens; the sides and summits are generally thinly covered with
rather scraggy trees. There are several other prominent peaks--one, for
instance, still further north, called Chirobve. Each has a name, but we
could never ascertain that there was an appellation which applied to the
whole. This fact, and our wish to commemorate the name of Dr. Kirk,
induced us afterwards, when we could not discover a particular peak
mentioned to us formerly as Molomo-ao-koku, or Cock's-bill, to call the
whole chain from the west of the Cataracts up to the north end of the
Lake, "Kirk's Range." The part we slept at opposite Mvai was named
Paudio, and was evidently a continuation of the district of one of our
stations on the Shire, at which observations for latitude were formerly
taken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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