CHAPTER XXXV 



Livingstone's Last Journey 



WHILE Livingstone was busy in the explorations described 

 in former chapters, other explorers were seeking to solve 

 various parts of the African problem. Among these was 

 Captain Richard F. Burton, who in 1858 discovered the great Lake 

 Tanganyika, northeast of Lake Nyassa and out of the range of Liv- 

 ingstone's former journeys. This lake was the scene of the great 

 Scotchman's final enterprise. 



Having raised the necessary funds with great difficulty, he set 

 out from Zanzibar in March, 1866, for the exploration of this import- 

 ant inland sea, the southern end of which he reached after a march of 

 great hardship. In this locality he remained for the succeeding three 

 years, discovering the large lakes Moero and Bangweolo, his main 

 purpose being to trace the course of a noble stream of this region, the 

 Lualaba River, which he hoped' to identify as the head stream of the 

 Nile. As later explorers have discovered, it forms really the head 

 waters of the Congo, its outlet being in the Atlantic instead of 

 the Mediterranean. 



More than twenty years of persistent African travel had weak- 

 ened the powers of the stalwart traveler, he having been a score and 

 more of times prostrated by the severe African fevers. During this, 

 his last venture, these fevers again frequently attacked him, and lack 

 of medicines unfitted him to combat them. Early in 1869 he set out 

 for Ujiji, the principal place on the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika, 

 but was so debilitated that he had to be carried by his faithful fol- 

 lowers. As soon as he felt able to walk, he set out for the Manyuema 

 country, on the northwestern side of the lake. He reached Bambarre, 

 a town in this country, on September 21, 1869. 



Manyuema was at that time quite unknown, though rumor had 

 given its people a bad name. But this did not deter Livingstone, whose 



