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
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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
We were not able, when hastening back to the men left in the ship, to
remain in the villages belonging to this chief; but the people came after
us with things for sale, and invited us to stop, and spend the night with
them, urging, "Are we to have it said that white people passed through
our country and we did not see them?" We rested by a rivulet to gratify
these sight-seers. We appear to them to be red rather than white; and,
though light colour is admired among themselves, our clothing renders us
uncouth in aspect. Blue eyes appear savage, and a red beard hideous.
From the numbers of aged persons we saw on the highlands, and the
increase of mental and physical vigour we experienced on our ascent from
the lowlands, we inferred that the climate was salubrious, and that our
countrymen might there enjoy good health, and also be of signal benefit,
by leading the multitude of industrious inhabitants to cultivate cotton,
buaze, sugar, and other valuable produce, to exchange for goods of
European manufacture; at the same time teaching them, by precept and
example, the great truths of our Holy Religion.
Our stay at the Lake was necessarily short. We had found that the best
plan for allaying any suspicions, that might arise in the minds of a
people accustomed only to slave-traders, was to pay a hasty visit, and
then leave for a while, and allow the conviction to form among the people
that, though our course of action was so different from that of others,
we were not dangerous, but rather disposed to be friendly. We had also a
party at the vessel, and any indiscretion on their part might have proved
fatal to the character of the Expedition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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