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
Livingstone arrived at Ujiji, October 16th, almost at death's door. On
the way he had been trying to cheer himself up, since he had found it
impossible to contend against the obstinacy of his men, with, "It won't
take long; five or six months more; it matters not since it cannot be
helped. I have got my goods in Ujiji, and can hire other people, and
make a new start again." These are the words and hopes by which he tried
to delude himself into the idea that all would be right yet; but imagine
the shock he must have suffered, when he found that the man to whom was
entrusted his goods for safe keeping had sold every bale for ivory.
The evening of the day Livingstone had returned to Ujiji, Susi and
Chuma, two of his most faithful men, were seen crying bitterly. The
Doctor asked of them what ailed them, and was then informed, for the
first time, of the evil tidings that awaited him.
Said they, "All our things are sold, sir; Sherif has sold everything for
ivory."
Later in the evening, Sherif came to see him, and shamelessly offered
his hand, but Livingstone repulsed him, saying he could not shake hands
with a thief. As an excuse, Sherif said he had divined on the Koran, and
that this had told him the Hakim (Arabic for Doctor) was dead.
Livingstone was now destitute; he had just enough to keep him and his
men alive for about a month, when he would be forced to beg from the
Arabs.
The Doctor further stated, that when Speke gives the altitude of the
Tanganika at only 1,800 feet above the sea, Speke must have fallen into
that error by a frequent writing of the Anne Domini, a mere slip of
the pen; for the altitude, as he makes it out, is 2,800 feet by boiling
point, and a little over 3,000 feet by barometer.
The Doctor's complaints were many because slaves were sent to him, in
charge of goods, after he had so often implored the people at Zanzibar
to send him freemen. A very little effort on the part of those entrusted
with the despatch of supplies to him might have enabled them to procure
good and faithful freemen; but if they contented themselves, upon the
receipt of a letter from Dr. Livingstone, with sending to Ludha Damji
for men, it is no longer a matter of wonder that dishonest and incapable
slaves were sent forward. It is no new fact that the Doctor has
discovered when he states that a negro freeman is a hundred times
more capable and trustworthy than a slave. Centuries ago Eumaeus, the
herdsman, said to Ulysses:
Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day Makes man a slave, takes half
his worth away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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