134 HUMANITY AND COURAGE. 



captives to Makoma. The scene was one which would have 

 filled the heart of Cumming or Anderson or Harris with san- 

 guinary delight. Herds of splendid animals were feeding on 

 every side. He says he could easily have gotten within fifty 

 yards of them ; but he adds : " There I lay, looking at beautiful 

 pokus, leches, and other antelopes often, till my men, wonder- 

 ing what was the matter, came up and frightened them away. 

 I felt a doubt and the antelopes got the benefit of it." Even 

 when he was driven to use his gun in providing food, this noble 

 man was always studying to find the peculiarly fatal spot where 

 the death-wound might produce the least possible pain. 



The progress up the river beyond Libonta was slower and 

 more toilsome, because a division of the party had to follow 

 along on the land with the oxen, and it was a trying path in- 

 deed, if path it may be called, which needed to be opened almost 

 every foot in some parts of it by the axe. They were not only 

 leaving the lovely valley, but the empire of the children of 

 Sebituane for the untried Balonda. 



It is so natural for the reader to become absorbed in the 

 strange surroundings of an explorer; his novel experiences are 

 so full of interest, that the man himself is hardly appreciated as 

 he should be. It is peculiarly so in tracing the steps of Dr. 

 Livingstone. He moves along so quietly, calling so little atten- 

 tion to himself, that one almost forgets the incalculable toil and 

 suffering of such long and tedious marches through an unknown 

 land. And every interview and transaction with the native 

 chiefs is told so simply, so devoid of all representations of the 

 difficulties and perils which attended it, that one is tempted to 

 forget that it is really the history of a single almost defenceless 

 man dealing with barbarous chiefs in their own wild fortresses. 

 "We are particularly struck with the lofty moral courage of 

 Livingstone, when we find him boldly reproving these chiefs, 

 and almost dictating to them their duties. He seemed to have 

 no idea but that right and truth must prevail, and exhibited 

 absolute fearlessness and confidence while conscience clear in his 

 devotion to these. Almost the first act within the Balonda 

 borders was to send quite a severe rebuke to Masiko for allow- 

 ing the sale of his people into slavery. It is true his message 

 was attended by the return of some captives wrenched from the 



