THE LAST AND LONGEST JOURNEY. 57 



CHAPTER V. 



DR. LIVINGSTONE STARTS IN JUNE, 1852, ON THE LAST AND 

 LONGEST JOURNEY FROM CAPE TOWN. 



Having sent my family home to England, I started in 

 the beginning of June, 1852, on my last journey from 

 Cape Town. This journey extended from the southern 

 extremity of the continent to St. Paul de Loando, the 

 capital of Angola, on the west coast, and thence across 

 South Central Africa in an oblique direction to Kilimane 

 (Quilimane) in Eastern Africa. I proceeded in the usual 

 conveyance of the country, the heavy lumbering Cape 

 wagon drawn by ten oxen, and was accompanied by two 

 Christian Bechuanas from Kuruman, — than whom I never 

 saw better servants anywhere, — by two Bakwain men, 

 and two young girls, who, having come as nurses with our 

 children to the Cape, were returning to tbeir home at 

 Kolobeng. Wagon-travelling in Africa has been so often 

 described that I need say no more than that it is a prolonged 

 S3 r stem of picnicking, excellent for the health, and agree- 

 able to those who are not over-fastidious about trifles, 

 and who delight in being in the open air. 



Our route to the north lay near the centre of the cone- 

 shaped mass of land which constitutes the promontory of 

 the Cape. 



The slow pace at which we wound our way through the 

 colony made almost any subject interesting. The attention 

 is attracted to the names of different places, because they 

 indicate the former existence of buffaloes, elands, and ele- 

 phants, which are now to be found only hundreds of miles 

 beyond. A few blesbucks, (Antilope pygarga,) gnus, bluo- 

 bucks, (A. cerulea,~) steinbucks, and the ostrich, (Struthio 

 camelus,) continue, like the Bushmen, to maintain a pre- 

 carious existence when all the rest are gone. The eie- 



