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
Had the natives not assisted him, he must have despaired of ever being
able to penetrate the wild and unexplored interior which he was now
about to tread. "Fortunately," as the Doctor says with unction, "I was
in a country now, after leaving the shores of Nyassa, which the foot
of the slave-trader has not trod; it was a new and virgin land, and of
course, as I have always found in such cases, the natives were really
good and hospitable, and for very small portions of cloth my baggage
was conveyed from village to village by them." In many other ways
the traveller, in his extremity, was kindly treated by the yet
unsophisticated and innocent natives.
On leaving this hospitable region in the early part of December, 1866,
the Doctor entered a country where the Mazitu had exercised their
customary marauding propensities. The land was swept clean of provisions
and cattle, and the people had emigrated to other countries, beyond the
bounds of those ferocious plunderers. Again the Expedition was besieged
by pinching hunger from which they suffered; they had recourse to the
wild fruits which some parts of the country furnished. At intervals
the condition of the hard-pressed band was made worse by the heartless
desertion of some of its members, who more than once departed with the
Doctor's personal kit, changes of clothes, linen, &c. With more or less
misfortunes constantly dogging his footsteps, he traversed in safety the
countries of the Babisa, Bobemba, Barungu, Ba-ulungu, and Lunda.
In the country of Lunda lives the famous Cazembe, who was first made
known to Europeans by Dr. Lacerda, the Portuguese traveller. Cazembe
is a most intelligent prince; he is a tall, stalwart man, who wears
a peculiar kind of dress, made of crimson print, in the form of
a prodigious kilt. In this state dress, King Cazembe received Dr.
Livingstone, surrounded by his chiefs and body-guards. A chief, who had
been deputed by the King and elders to discover all about the white man,
then stood up before the assembly, and in a loud voice gave the result
of the inquiry he had instituted. He had heard that the white man had
come to look for waters, for rivers, and seas; though he could not
understand what the white man could want with such things, he had no
doubt that the object was good. Then Cazembe asked what the Doctor
proposed doing, and where he thought of going. The Doctor replied that
he had thought of proceeding south, as he had heard of lakes and rivers
being in that direction. Cazembe asked, "What can you want to go there
for? The water is close here. There is plenty of large water in this
neighbourhood." Before breaking up the assembly, Cazembe gave orders to
let the white man go where he would through his country undisturbed and
unmolested. He was the first Englishman he had seen, he said, and he
liked him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account