154 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vm. 



burden in one sense, as much as a help in another ; 

 chicken-hearted, ready to succumb to every trouble, and 

 to be cowed by any chief that wore a threatening face. 

 Worse if possible, Livingstone himself was in wretched 

 health. During this part of the journey he had constant 

 attacks of intermittent fever, 1 accompanied in the latter 

 stages of the road with dysentery of the most distressing 

 kind. In the intervals of fever he was often depressed 

 alike in body and in mind. Often the party were desti- 

 tute of food of any sort, and never had they food suitable 

 for a fever-stricken invalid. The vexations he encountered 

 were of no common kind : at starting, the greater part of 

 his medicines was stolen, much though he needed them ; 

 in the course of the journey, his pontoon was left behind ; 

 at one time, while he was under the influence of fever, 

 his riding-ox threw him, and he fell heavily on his head ; 

 at another, while crossing a river, the ox tossed him into 

 the water ; the heavy rains, and the necessity of wading 

 through streams three or four times a day, kept him 

 almost constantly wet ; and occasionally, to vary the 

 annoyance, mosquitos would assail him as fiercely as if 

 they had been waging a war of extermination. The most 

 critical moments of peril, demanding the utmost coolness 

 and most dauntless courage, would sometimes occur during 

 the stage of depression after fever ; it was then he had to 

 extricate himself from savage warriors, who vowed that 

 he must go back, unless he gave them an ox, a gun, or a 

 man. The ox he could ill spare, the gun not at all, and 

 as for giving the last — a man — to make a slave of, he 

 would sooner die. At the best, he was a poor ragged 

 skeleton when he reached those who had hearts to feel 

 for him, and hands to help him. Had he not been a 

 prodigy of patience, faith, and courage, had he not known 

 where to find help in all time of his tribulation, he would 

 never have reached the haunts of civilised men. 



1 The number of attacks was thirty-one. 



