3i6 LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEY ACROSS AFRICA 



This last achievement was of great importance; for he had not 

 only passed through entirely new country, taking most elaborate and 

 careful notes of the geographical facts which everywhere presented 

 themselves to him, and entering most fully into considerations of the 

 social fabric of the inhabitants and the capabilities of their environ- 

 ,ment, but he had also made very many astronomical calculations, deter- 

 mining his exact route, and adding greatly to the value of his maps. 

 His care and exactness in this direction were afterwards highly 

 commended by Sir Thomas Maclear, astronomer-royal at the Cape. 



On the 20th of September, 1854, he turned his back upon Loanda 

 and set out on his return journey to Linyanti. He had been six months 

 on the road to Loanda, he was to be twice that long on his return, 

 while six months more were to be spent in travel before he would reach 

 Quilimane, on the Pacific, and complete his signal feat of crossing 

 Africa, a journey which was to bring him the unbounded plaudits of 

 the world. 



We have already dealt with his journey between Linyanti and 

 the ocean, and need only say that on his return he added greatly to 

 his store of geographical facts, especially gaining much information 

 about the affluents of the Congo River. 



On arriving at Lake Dilolo, Livingstone discovered that this com- 

 paratively small body of water emptied its waters both into the Zam- 

 besi and the Kasai; and that, consequently, it distributed its contents 

 as far as the Indian Ocean on the one side, and the Atlantic on the 

 other. It was through this circumstance that the continental struc- 

 ture of Africa became clear to him. The rivers, in the western por- 

 tion, flowed from elevated ridges into the center, and he had learnt 

 from the Arabs that much the same occurred in the eastern portion. 

 But that while one drainage system had a southerly declivity, the other 

 pursued a northerly course. In other words, the two great drains of 

 Central Africa are the Congo and the Zambesi. 



During his return he met with many of the native chiefs who 

 had been kind to him on liis westward journey and rewarded some of 

 them with valued presents. With one of these, Sambanza, he per- 

 formed the ceremony of blood-brotherhood, which is so curious that 

 it is worth describing in his words 



