1858-59] THE ZAMBESI. 251 



Another difficulty arose from the state of the country 

 north of the Zambesi, in consequence of the natives having 

 rebelled against the Portuguese and being in a state 

 of war. Livingstone was cautioned that he would be 

 attacked if he ventured to penetrate into the country. 

 He resolved to keep out of the quarrel but to push on in 

 spite of it. At one time, his party, being mistaken for 

 Portuguese, were on the point of being fired on, but on 

 Livingstone shouting out that they were English the 

 natives let them alone. On reaching Tette he found his 

 old followers in ecstasies at seeing him ; the Portuguese 

 Government had done nothing for them, but Major Sicard, 

 the excellent Governor of Tette, had helped them to find 

 employment, and maintain themselves. Thirty had died 

 of small-pox ; six had been killed by an unfriendly chief. 

 When the survivors saw Dr. Livingstone they said : " The 

 Tette people often taunted us by saying, ' Your English- 

 man will never return ; ' but we trusted you, and now we 

 shall sleep." It gave Livingstone a new hold on them 

 and on the natives generally, that he had proved true to 

 his promise, and had come back as he had said. As the 

 men had found ways of living at Tette, Livingstone was 

 not obliged to take them to their home immediately. 



One of his first endeavours after reaching Tette was 

 to ascertain how far the navigation of the Zambesi was 

 impeded by the rapids at Kebrabasa, between twenty 

 and thirty miles above Tette, which he had heard of but 

 not seen on his journey from Linyanti to Quilimane. 

 The distance was short and the enterprise apparently 

 easy, but in reality it presented such difficulties as only 

 his dogged perseverance could have overcome. After he 

 had been twice at the rapids, and when he believed he 

 had seen the whole, he accidentally learned, after a day's 

 march on the way home, that there was another rapid 

 which he had not yet seen. Determined to see all, he 

 returned, with Dr. Kirk and four Makololo, and it was 



