THE -WORLD'S WONDERS. 353 



DANGER FROM SERPENTS. 



As food was scarce in all the villages, Livingstone could not 

 stop in any of them, but pushed on where everything appeared 

 distressingly gloomy. On January 1, 1867, he had reached the 

 Chambeze river, but now the rains set in, and ten miles a day 

 was all that could be made, as rank grass obscured the paths, 

 and even the guides had to depend on the configuration of the 

 country. Snakes were numerous, and there was an ever-present 

 danger lurking in the grass. One morning Livingstone sat down 

 by a tree, and accidentally glancing down by his side saw a large 

 cobra, and a little further off a puff-adder, both of which, how- 

 ever, were somewhat benumbed by the cold. 



FAMINE AND A SERIOUS LOSS. 



RAIN and hunger now united to stay further progress, and a 

 less resolute man must have succumbed to these desperate obsta- 

 cles. On the 20th of January the most serious loss that Living- 

 stone could sustain befel him. Two Waiyan carriers, who had 

 served him faithfully for several weeks, deserted, carrying with 

 them, among other things, the medicine chest; they took also 

 all the dishes, a large powder-box, two guns, a cartridge-pouch, 

 and all the tools; these latter, though of inestimable value in 

 such a country, could be dispensed with, but in the medicine 

 chest lay all the hope and possibility of the expedition, for no 

 constitution can withstand the malarial exhalations of tropical 

 Africa unaided by that fever specific, quinine. Livingstone says : 

 " I felt as if I had received the sentence of death." 



MEETING WITH CHIEF CHITAPANGWA. 



LIVINGSTONE came upon a small stream called the Lopiri, a 

 branch of the Chambeze, on the last day of January, and follow- 

 ing it down some distance he entered a village, over which Chita- 

 pangwa, sometimes called Motoka, was ruler. Fish were very 

 plentiful in the Lopiri, and this fact mainly induced Livingstone 

 to make a short stay in the village, where he supposed food 

 must be procurable. Entering the place he was gladdened by 

 the sight of a party of Arabs, who were upon the point of going 



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