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
The chief gave me a public reception, which was like that of Casembe,
but better managed. He is young, and very handsome but for a defect in
his eyes, which makes him keep them half shut or squinting. He walked
off in the jaunty way all chiefs do in this country, to show the
weight of rings and beads on the legs, and many imitate this walk who
have none, exactly as our fathers imitated the big cravat of George
IV., who thereby hid defects in his neck: thousands carried their
cravats over the chin who had no defects to hide. Moenempanda carried
his back stiffly, and no wonder, he had about ten yards of a train
carried behind it. About 600 people were present. They kept rank, but
not step; were well armed; marimbas and square drums formed the bands,
and one musician added his voice: "I have been to Syde" (the Sultan);
"I have been to Meereput" (King of Portugal); "I have been to the
sea." At a private reception, where he was divested of his train, and
had only one umbrella instead of three, I gave him a cloth. The Arabs
thought highly of him; but his graciousness had been expended on them
in getting into debt; he now showed no inclination to get out of it,
but offered about a twentieth part of the value of the goods in
liquidation. He sent me two pots of beer, which I care not to drink
except when very thirsty on a march, and promised a man to guide me to
Chikumbi, and then refused. Casembe rose in the esteem of all as
Moenempanda sank, and his people were made to understand how shabbily
he had behaved.
The Lulaputa is said to flow into the Luena, and that into the Luongo:
there must be two Luenas.
_22nd June, 1868._--March across a grassy plain southerly to the
Luongo, a deep river embowered in a dense forest of trees, all covered
with lichens--some flat, others long and thready, like old men's
beards, and waving in the wind, just as they do on the mangrove-swamp
trees on the coast. The Luongo here is fifty yards broad and three
fathoms deep; near its junction with the Luapula it is 100 yards; it
rises here to eight fathoms' depth. A bridge of forty yards led us
over to an island, and a branch of the river was ten yards beyond: the
bridge had been broken, some thought on purpose, but it was soon
mended with trees eighteen to twenty yards long. We went a little way
beyond, and then halted for a day at a rivulet flowing into the
Luongo, 200 yards off.
_23rd June, 1868._--We waited for copper here, which was at first
refused as payment of debt. I saw now that the Luongo had steep clay
banks fifteen feet down, and many meadows, which must be swimming
during the rains. The Luena is said to rise east of this.
[In a private letter Livingstone shows that he had seldom been more
affected by the sufferings of slaves than at this time, and it would
perhaps be difficult to imagine any scene more calculated to excite
misery and distress of mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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