212 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY. 



As the voyagers approached it, they only became more puzzled 

 as to what they should find. Two days' sail from their destination 

 they w^ere positively assured by the natives that the water flowed 

 out of Tanganyika. Even when the limits of open water were 

 reached in a broad marshy flat covered by aquatic plants, it was not 

 easy to answer the question wdiich the travelers had come all this 

 long' w^ay to solve. Seven broad inlets were seen penetrating the 

 bed of reeds. In none of them could any current be discovered. 



A ROMANTIC JOURNEY IN A CANOE. 



Entering the centre channel in a canoe, however, and pulling 

 on for some distance past sedgy islands and between walls of 

 papyrus, disturbing with every stroke of the paddles some of the 

 sleeping crocodiles that throng in hundreds in this marsh, all doubt 

 as to the course of the Rusizi was soon removed. A strange current 

 of discolored water was met pouring down from the high grounds, 

 and further examination showed that the stream had other chan- 

 nels losing themselves in the swamp, or finding their way into one 

 or other of the inlets at the head of the lake. 



Their work in connection wath the Rusizi done, our heroes 

 returned to Ujiji, this time skirting along the western shores of the 

 lake, and crossing it near a large island called Muzumi. Back 

 again at Ujiji on the 15th of December, Stanley did all in his power 

 to persuade Livingstone to return home wath him and recruit his 

 strength; but the only answer he could obtain was, "Not till my 

 work is done." 



In this resolution Livingstone tells us in his journal he was 

 confirmed by a letter from his daughter Agnes, in which she said — 

 "Much as I wish you to come home, I would rather you finished 

 your work to your own satisfaction than to return merely to gratify 

 me." "I must complete the exploration of the Nile sources before 

 I retire," says the devoted hero in another portion of his notes, 

 little dreaming that he was all the time working not at them, but 

 at those of the Congo. 



It was arranged, however, that Livingstone should accom- 

 pany Stanley on his return journey as far as Unyanyembe, to fetch 



