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
After pitching our camp, one or two of us usually go off to hunt, more as
a matter of necessity than of pleasure, for the men, as well as
ourselves, must have meat. We prefer to take a man with us to carry home
the game, or lead the others to where it lies; but as they frequently
grumble and complain of being tired, we do not particularly object to
going alone, except that it involves the extra labour of our making a
second trip to show the men where the animal that has been shot is to be
found. When it is a couple of miles off it is rather fatiguing to have
to go twice; more especially on the days when it is solely to supply
their wants that, instead of resting ourselves, we go at all. Like those
who perform benevolent deeds at home, the tired hunter, though trying
hard to live in charity with all men, is strongly tempted to give it up
by bringing only sufficient meat for the three whites and leaving the
rest; thus sending the "idle ungrateful poor" supperless to bed. And yet
it is only by continuance in well-doing, even to the length of what the
worldly-wise call weakness, that the conviction is produced anywhere,
that our motives are high enough to secure sincere respect.
A jungle of mimosa, ebony, and "wait-a-bit" thorn lies between the
Chicova flats and the cultivated plain, on which stand the villages of
the chief, Chitora. He brought us a present of food and drink, because,
as he, with the innate politeness of an African, 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." All his subsequent conduct showed
him to be sincere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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