180 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. ix. 



believed in by him, but now fully verified, was of much 

 more practical importance. It had been ascertained by 

 him that skirting the central hollow there were two 

 longitudinal ridges extremely favourable for settlements, 

 both for missions and merchandise. We shall hear much 

 of this soon. 



Slowly but steadily the eastward tramp is continued, 

 often over ground which was far from favourable for 

 walking exercise. " Pedestrianism," said Livingstone, 

 " may be all very well for those whose obesity requires 

 much exercise ; but for one who was becoming as thin 

 as a lath through the constant perspiration caused by 

 marching day after day in the hot sun, the only good I 

 saw in it was that it gave an honest sort of a man a 

 vivid idea of the treadmill." 



When Livingstone came to England, and was writing 

 books, his tendency was rather to get stout than thin ; 

 and the disgust with which he spoke then of the " beastly 

 fat " seemed to show that if for nothing else than to get 

 rid of it he would have been glad to be on the tread-mill 

 again. In one of his letters to Mr. Maclear he thus 

 speaks of a part of this journey : — " It was not likely that 

 I should know our course well, for the country there is 

 covered with shingle and gravel, bushes, trees, and grass, 

 and we were without path. Skulking out of the way of 

 villages where we were expected to pay after the purse was 

 empty, it was excessively hot and steamy ; the eyes had 

 to be always fixed on the ground to avoid being tripped." 



In the course of this journey he had even more 

 exciting escapades among hostile tribes than those which 

 he had encountered on the way to Loanda. His serious 

 anxieties began when he passed beyond the tribes that 

 owned the sovereignty of Sekeletu. At the union of the 

 rivers Loangwa and Zambesi, the suspicious feeling regard- 

 ing him reached a climax, and he could only avoid the 

 threatened doom of the Bazimka (i.e. Bastard Portu- 



