384 DA VI D LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xix. 



of the Bible, which accompanied him in these wander- 

 ings, and which we have no doubt he read throughout, 

 must have got wearisome sometimes. He occupied him- 

 self in writing letters, in the hope that somehow or some- 

 time he might find an opportunity of despatching them. 

 He took the rainfall carefully during the year, and lunars, 

 and other observations, when the sky permitted. He had 

 intended to make his observations more perfect on this 

 journey than on any previous one, but alas for his diffi- 

 culties and disappointments ! A letter to Sir Thomas 

 Maclear and Mr. Mann his assistant, gives a pitiful account 

 of these : " I came this journey with a determination to 

 observe very carefully all your hints as to occultations and 

 observations, east and west, north and south, but I have 

 been so worried by lazy, deceitful Sepoys, and thievish 

 Johanna men, and indifferent instruments, that I fear the 

 results are very poor." He goes on to say that some of 

 his instruments were defective, and others went out of 

 order, and that his time-taker, one of his people, had 

 no conscience, and could not be trusted. The records of 

 his observations, notwithstanding, indicate much care 

 and pains. In April, he had been very unwell, taking 

 fits of total insensibility, but as he had not said any- 

 thing of this to his people at home, it was to be kept 

 a secret. 



His Journal for 1867 ends with a statement of the 

 poverty of his food, and the weakness to which he was 

 reduced. He had hardly anything to eat but the coarsest 

 grain of the country, and no tea, coffee, or sugar. An 

 Arab trader, Mohamad Bogharib, who arrived at Casembe's 

 about the same time, presented him with a meal of ver- 

 micelli, oil, and honey, and had some coffee and sugar ; 

 Livingstone had had none since he left Nyassa. 



The Journal for 1868 begins with a prayer that if he 

 should die that year, he might be prepared for it. The 

 year was spent in the same region, and was signalised by 



