The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868Livingstone, David
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The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel
_4th May, 1868._--We leave the Mandapala. Cropped-ears, whose name I
never heard, collapsed at once on hearing the message of Casembe:
before that I never heard such a babbler, to every one passing, man or
woman, he repeated the same insinuations about the English, and
"Mpamari," and the Banyamwezi,--conspiracy--guilt--return a second
time,--till, like a meddling lawyer, he thought that he had really got
an important case in hand!
The River Chungu we found to be from fifteen to eighteen yards broad
and breast deep, with at least one hundred yards of flood, before we
reached the main stream, the Mandapala. The Chungu and the Lundi join
in the country called Kimbafuma, about twelve miles from our
crossing-place of Mandapala, and about west of it. The Lundi was now
breast deep too, and twelve yards broad.
On reaching Casembe's, on the Mofwe, we found Mohamad Bogharib digging
and fencing up a well to prevent his slaves being taken away by the
crocodiles, as three had been eaten already. A dog bit the leg of one
of my goats so badly that I was obliged to kill it: they are nasty
curs here, without courage, and yet they sometimes bite people badly.
I met some old friends, and Mohamad Bogharib cooked a supper, and from
this time forward never omitted sharing his victuals with me.
_6th May, 1868._--Manoel Caetano Pereira visited Casembe in 1796, or
seventy-two years ago: his native name was Moendo-mondo, or the
world's leg--"world-wide traveller!" He came to Mandapala, for there
the Casembe of the time resided, and he had a priest or "Kasise" with
him, and many people with guns. Perembe, the oldest man now in Lunda,
had children even then: if Perembe were thirty years of age at that
period he would now be 102 years old, and he seems quite that, for
when Dr. Lacerda came he had forty children. He says that Pereira
fired off all his guns on his arrival, and Casembe asking him what he
meant by that, he replied, "These guns ask for slaves and ivory," both
of which were liberally given.
I could not induce Perembe to tell anything of times previous to his
own. Moendo-mondo, the world's leg (Pereira), told Dr. Lacerda that
the natives called him "The Terror!"--a bit of vanity, for they have
no such word or abstract term in their language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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