1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 387 



places might be the real sources of the three great rivers, 

 the Nile, the Congo, and the Zambesi. A link, however, 

 was yet wanting to prove his theory. It had yet to 

 be shown that the waters that flowed from Lake Bang- 

 weolo into Lake Moero, and thence northwards by the 

 river Lualaba, were connected with the Nile system. 

 Dr. Livingstone was strongly inclined to believe that 

 this connection existed ; but towards the close of his 

 life he had more doubts of it, although it was left to 

 others to establish conclusively that the Lualaba was the 

 Congo, and sent no branch to the Nile. 



On leaving Lake Bangweolo, detention occurred again 

 as it had occurred before. The country was very disturbed 

 and very miserable, and Dr. Livingstone was in great 

 straits and want. Yet with a grim humour he tells how, 

 when lying in an open shed, with all his men around him, 

 he dreamt of having apartments at Mivart's Hotel. It 

 was after much delay that he found himself at last, under 

 the escort of a slave-party, on the way to Ujiji. Mr. 

 Waller has graphically described the situation. ' ' At 

 last he makes a start on the 11th of December 1868, with 

 the Arabs, who are bound eastwards for Ujiji. It is a 

 motley group, composed of Mohamad and his friends, a 

 gang of Unyamwezi hangers-on, and strings of wretched 

 slaves yoked together in their heavy slave-sticks. Some 

 carry ivory, others copper, or food for the march, whilst 

 hope and fear, misery and villainy, may be read off on the 

 various faces that pass in line out of this country, like a 

 serpent dragging its accursed folds away from the victim 

 it has paralysed with its fangs." 



New Year's Day, 1869, found Livingstone labouring 

 under a worse attack of illness than any he had ever had 

 before. For ten weeks to come his situation was as pain- 

 ful as can be conceived. A continual cough, night and 

 day, the most distressing weakness, inability to walk, yet 

 the necessity of moving on, or rather of being moved on, 



