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
"No; I did try to go there, but the Wajiji were doing their best to
fleece me, as they did both Burton and Speke, and I had not a great deal
of cloth. If I had gone to the head of the Tanganika, I could not have
gone, to Manyuema. The central line of drainage was the most important,
and that is the Lualaba. Before this line the question whether there
is a connection between the Tanganika and the Albert N'Yanza sinks into
insignificance. The great line of drainage is the river flowing from
latitude 11 degrees south, which I followed for over seven degrees
northward. The Chambezi, the name given to its most southern extremity,
drains a large tract of country south of the southernmost source of the
Tanganika; it must, therefore, be the most important. I have not the
least doubt, myself, but that this lake is the Upper Tanganika, and the
Albert N'Yanza of Baker is the Lower Tanganika, which are connected by a
river flowing from the upper to the lower. This is my belief, based upon
reports of the Arabs, and a test I made of the flow with water-plants.
But I really never gave it much thought."
"Well, if I were you, Doctor, before leaving Ujiji, I should explore it,
and resolve the doubts upon the subject; lest, after you leave here,
you should not return by this way. The Royal Geographical Society attach
much importance to this supposed connection, and declare you are the
only man who can settle it. If I can be of any service to you, you may
command me. Though I did not come to Africa as an explorer, I have
a good deal of curiosity upon the subject, and should be willing to
accompany you. I have with me about twenty men who understand rowing we
have plenty of guns, cloth, and beads; and if we can get a canoe from
the Arabs we can manage the thing easily."
"Oh, we can get a canoe from Sayd bin Majid. This man has been very kind
to me, and if ever there was an Arab gentleman, he is one."
"Then it is settled, is it, that we go?"
"I am ready, whenever you are."
"I am at your command. Don't you hear my men call you the 'Great
Master,' and me the 'Little Master?' It would never do for the 'Little
Master' to command."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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