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
Outside nothing is heard beyond the cry of a stray florican, or
guinea-fowl, which has lost her mate, or the hoarse croaking of the
frogs in the pool hard by, or the song of the crickets which seems to
lull the day to rest; inside our camp are heard the gurgles of the
gourd pipes as the men inhale the blue ether, which I also love. I am
contented and happy, stretched on my carpet under the dome of living
foliage, smoking my short meerschaum, indulging in thoughts--despite the
beauty of the still grey light of the sky; and of the air of serenity
which prevails around--of home and friends in distant America, and these
thoughts soon change to my work--yet incomplete--to the man who to me is
yet a myth, who, for all I know, may be dead, or may be near or far from
me tramping through just such a forest, whose tops I see bound the
view outside my camp. We are both on the same soil, perhaps in the same
forest--who knows?--yet is he to me so far removed that he might as well
be in his own little cottage of Ulva. Though I am even now ignorant
of his very existence, yet I feel a certain complacency, a certain
satisfaction which would be difficult to describe. Why is man so feeble,
and weak, that he must tramp, tramp hundreds of miles to satisfy
the doubts his impatient and uncurbed mind feels? Why cannot my form
accompany the bold flights of my mind and satisfy the craving I feel to
resolve the vexed question that ever rises to my lips--"Is he alive?"
O soul of mine, be patient, thou hast a felicitous tranquillity, which
other men might envy thee! Sufficient for the hour is the consciousness
thou hast that thy mission is a holy one! Onward, and be hopeful!
Monday, the 2nd of October, found us traversing the forest and plain
that extends from the Ziwani to Manyara, which occupied us six and a
half hours. The sun was intensely hot; but the mtundu and miombo trees
grew at intervals, just enough to admit free growth to each tree, while
the blended foliage formed a grateful shade. The path was clear and
easy, the tamped and firm red soil offered no obstructions. The only
provocation we suffered was from the attacks of the tsetse, or panga
(sword) fly, which swarmed here. We knew we were approaching an
extensive habitat of game, and we were constantly on the alert for any
specimens that might be inhabiting these forests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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