How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. LivingstoneStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
"Well, Mr. Shaw, I have come to the conclusion that it is best, you
should return. My patience is worn out. I have endeavoured faithfully to
lift you above these petty miseries which you nourish so devotedly. You
are simply suffering from hypochondria. You imagine yourself sick,
and nothing, evidently, will persuade you that you are not. Mark my
words--to return to Unyanyembe, is to DIE! Should you happen to fall
sick in Kwihara who knows how to administer medicine to you? Supposing
you are delirious, how can any of the soldiers know what you want, or
what is beneficial and necessary for you? Once again, I repeat, if you
return, you DIE!"
"Ah, dear me; I wish I had never ventured to come! I thought life in
Africa was so different from this. I would rather go back if you will
permit me."
The next day was a halt, and arrangements were made for the
transportation of Shaw back to Kwihara. A strong litter was made, and
four stout pagazis were hired at Kigandu to carry him. Bread was baked,
a canteen was filled with cold tea, and a leg of a kid was roasted for
his sustenance while on the road.
The night before we parted we spent together. Shaw played some tunes on
an accordion which I had purchased for him at Zanzibar; but, though
it was only a miserable ten-dollar affair, I thought the homely tunes
evoked from the instrument that night were divine melodies. The last
tune played before retiring was "Home, sweet Home."
The morning of the 27th we were all up early: There was considerable vis
in our movements. A long, long march lay before us that day; but then
I was to leave behind all the sick and ailing. Only those who were
healthy, and could march fast and long, were to accompany me. Mabruk
Saleem I left in charge of a native doctor, who was to medicate him for
a gift of cloth which I gave him in advance.
The horn sounded to get ready. Shaw was lifted in his litter on the
shoulders of his carriers. My men formed two ranks; the flags were
lifted; and between these two living rows, and under those bright
streamers, which were to float over the waters of the Tanganika before
he should see them again, Shaw was borne away towards the north; while
we filed off to the south, with quicker and more elastic steps, as if we
felt an incubus had been taken from us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone — John Shaqi
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