33 3 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mouth bar, and lying beyond Portuguese territory, it would afford a 

 better entrance to the Shire country than the Zambesi. Starting from 

 Zanzibar, he found no connection to exist between the Rovuraa and 

 Lake Nyassa, and, from a thorough examination of its north end, 

 that there was no communication between that lake and Tanganyika. 

 Livingstone's idea has been mentioned, on first hearing of these lakes 

 in the interior, that, on the supposition of a central dividing line, be- 

 tween the north and south river systems, the region about them would 

 be found to be the water-shed of the Nile. This theory it seems to 

 have been his object now to establish, by tracing, if he could, a north- 

 ern outflow from Tanganyika into Sir S. Baker's great lake, the 

 Albert Nyanza. " Go," said Sir Roderick, even before he left Eng- 

 land, " and you will then be the real discoverer of the sources of the 

 Nile ! " 



Soon after starting toward Tanganyika, a little to the west of Ny- 

 assa, the men he had engaged at Johanna were frightened by a report 

 of native ferocity, and, deserting him in a body, returned to the coast 

 with the story that he had been murdered. The story ran, that in 

 marching westward from the north end of the lake, the party was at- 

 tacked by a body of Mazitu a Kaffre tribe, who are known to have 

 emigrated from the south side of the Zambesi. The Johanna men 

 were some distance behind with unloaded guns, and saw three men at- 

 tack the doctor, who had fired, and was trying to reload. One struck 

 him behind the head with an axe ; he gave a loud cry and fell dead. 

 Two of the Mazitu were found lying near him, shot with his revolver, 

 and the bodies of some boys he had brought with him from Bombay. 

 The Johannese hid in the bush till the Mazitu had retreated, and then, 

 having buried their master, travelling by night made the best of their 

 way back to Zanzibar. 



The murder was said to have taken place in August, 1866, and the 

 details were circumstantial. In July, 1867, an expedition left the 

 mouth of the Zambesi, dispatched by the Royal Geographical Society, 

 under the leadership of Mr. Young, formerly master of the Pioneer, 

 with a view of obtaining some clew to Livingstone's fate. The voyage 

 to Nyassa and back was accomplished in a little steel boat which 

 could be taken to pieces, and on November 11th they were once more 

 at the Zambesi mouth. On his return to England, Mr. Young gave 

 his report. He had ascertained the route taken by Livingstone in 

 crossing Lake Nyassa, and had been able to trace him to the village 

 of a chief, Marenga, at least five days' journey beyond the point of the 

 reported murder ! The chief was an old friend of Livingstone's, and 

 assured Mr. Young that, if the doctor had been killed one month's 

 journey beyond his village, he, Marenga, must have heard of it. 

 Mazitu had never been seen in that part of the country ; and the 

 story of the Johanna men was a gross fabrication to cover their own 

 cowardice! 



