316 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xv. 



depressing of diseases had produced its natural effect ; he 

 had had worries, delays, and disappointments about ships 

 and boats of the most harassing kind ; and now the 

 "Lady Nyassa" could not be floated in the waters of 

 which he had fondly hoped to see her the angel and the 

 queen. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the noble 

 quality of the heart that, undeterred by all these 

 troubles, resolved to take this last chance of exploring 

 the banks of Nyassa, although it could only be by 

 the weary process of trudge, trudge, trudging ; although 

 hunger, if not starvation, blocked the path, and fever 

 and dysentery flitted round it like imps of darkness ; 

 although tribes, demoralised by the slave-trade, might at 

 any moment put an end to him and his enterprise ; — not 

 to speak of the ordinary risks of travel, the difficulty of 

 finding guides, the Hability to bodily hurt, the scarcity 

 of food, the perils from wild beasts by night and by 

 day, — risks which no ordinary traveller could think of 

 lightly, but which in Livingstone's journeys drop out of 

 sight, because they are so overtopped and dwarfed by 

 risks that ordinary travellers never know. 



Why did not Livingstone go home ? A single 

 sentence in a letter to Mr. Waller, while the recall was 

 only hi contemplation, explains : — " In my case, duty 

 would not lead me home, and home therefore I would 

 not go." Away then goes Livingstone, accompanied by 

 the steward of the "Pioneer" and a handful of native 

 servants (Mr. Young being left in charge of the vessel), 

 to get to the northern end of the lake, and ascertain 

 whether any large river flowed into it from the west, and 

 if possible to visit Lake Moero, of which he had heard, 

 lying a considerable way to the west. For the first time 

 in his travels he carried some bottles of wine, — a present 

 from the missionaries Waller and Alington ; for water 

 had hitherto been his only drink, with a little hot coffee 

 in the mornings to warm the stomach and ward off the 



