"Whenever Dr. Livingstone encountered one of these travelling gangs of slaves he released them, if the circumstances permitted, and they generally did. By so doing he roused the hostility of the slave-traders, who revenged themselves by spreading unfavorable reports concerning him, and inciting the natives to attack him. Most of his troubles with the natives were from this cause, and several times his escape from death at their hands was exceedingly narrow. The slave-traders were too cowardly to make any open fight with him, and when he met them on the road with their slaves they generally ran away, and left him to deal with their human merchandise as he liked. [Illustration: SLAVERS AVENGING THEIR LOSSES.] "One of his stories of an encounter with a slave caravan is quite amusing. "One day he heard from a native that a gang of slaves on its way to the coast was coming along the road, and would shortly appear in sight. He was in a little village where the party was to pass, and so he sat down and waited for them. "In a little while the slave-party, a long line of manacled men, women, and children, came wending their way round the hill into the valley, on the side of which the village stood. The black drivers, armed with muskets and bedecked with various articles of finery, marched jauntily in the front, middle, and rear of the line, some of them blowing exultant notes out of long tin horns. 'They seemed to think,' says the doctor, 'that they were doing a very noble thing, and might proudly march with an air of triumph; but the instant the fellows caught a glimpse of the English they darted off like mad into the forest--so fast, indeed, that we caught but a glimpse of their red caps and the soles of their feet. The chief of the party alone remained; and he, being in front, had his hand tightly grasped by a Makololo. He proved to be a well-known slave of the late commandant at Tette, and for some time our own attendant while there. "'On asking him,' says Dr. Livingstone, 'how he obtained these captives he replied that he had bought them; but on inquiring of the people themselves, all, save four, said they had been captured in war. While this inquiry was going on he bolted too.