1861-62.] ROVUMA AND NYASSA. 287 



Leaving the " Pioneer " at Chibisa's, on 6th August 

 1861, Livingstone, accompanied by his brother and Dr. 

 Kirk, started for Nyassa with a four- oared boat, which 

 was carried by porters past the Murchison Cataracts. 

 On 23d September they sailed into Lake Nyassa, naming 

 the grand mountainous promontory at the end Cape 

 Maclear, after Livingstone's great friend the Astronomer- 

 Royal at the Cape. 



All about the lake was now examined with earnest 

 eyes. The population was denser than he had seen any- 

 where else. The people were civil, and even friendly, but 

 undoubtedly they were not handsome. At the north of 

 the lake they were lawless, and at one point the party 

 were robbed in the night — the first time such a thing had 

 occurred in Livingstone's African life. 1 Of elephants 

 there was great abundance, — indeed of all animal and 

 vegetable life. 



But the lake slave-trade was going on at a dismal rate. 



1 In The Zambesi and its Tributaries, Livingstone gives a grave account of the 

 robbery. In his letters to his friends he makes fun of it, as he did of the raid 

 of the Boers. To Mr. F. Fitch he writes : "You think I cannot get into a scrape. 

 . . . For the first time in Africa we were robbed. Expert thieves crept into our 

 sleeping places, about four o'clock in the morning, and made off with what they 

 could lay their hands on. Sheer over-modesty ruined me. It was Sunday, and 

 such a black mass swarmed around our sail, which we used as a hut, that we could 

 not hear prayers. I had before slipped away a cmarter of a mile to dress for 

 church, but seeing a crowd of women watching me through the reeds, I did not 

 change my old 'unmentionables,' — they were so old, I had serious thoughts of 

 converting them into — charity ! Next morning early all our spare clothing was 

 walked off with, and there I was left by my modesty nearly through at the knees, 

 and no change of shirt, flannel, or stockings. After that, don't say that I can't 

 get into a scrape ! " The same letter thanks Mr. Fitch for sending him Punch, 

 whom he deemed a sound divine ! On the same subject he wrote at another time, 

 regretting that Punch did not reach him, especially a number in which notice was 

 taken of himself. " It never came. Who the miscreants are that steal them I 

 cannot divine. I would not grudge them a reading if they would only send them 

 on afterwards. Perhaps binding the whole year's Punches would be the best 

 plan ; and then we need not label it ' Sermons in Lent,' or ' Tracts on Homoeo- 

 pathy, ' but you may write inside, as Dr. Buckland did on his umbrella, ' Stolen 

 from Dr. Livingstone. ' We really enjoy them very much. They are good against 

 fever. The ' Essence of Parliament, ' for instance, is capital. One has to wade 

 through an ocean of paper to get the same information, without any of the fun. 

 And by the time the newspapers have reached us, most of the interest in public 

 matters has evaporated." 



