"it is down in a book." 389 



unfolded to them the grand panorama of tropical nature which 

 invited their unwearying gaze. 



The cataracts which we have mentioned had been discovered 

 some time before, and distinguished by the honorable name of 

 the generous friend of geographical science, who had also proven 

 himself a true friend of Dr. Livingstone. Murchison's cataracts 

 extend through thirty-five miles of latitude, having in this distance 

 about twelve hundred feet fall. Above the cataracts, as below, 

 the river was found broad and easily navigable, and guided the 

 explorers in their search for the great lake. It is hardly to be 

 expected that even so short a journey could be performed with- 

 out the discouragements which men ever lavish on new enter- 

 prises, and the African was not behind the foremost man on the 

 list in the readiness with which he finds the explanation of every 

 momentous undertaking in the folly of its leader. One of these 

 pests joined himself to the party in the Upper Shire valley, and 

 annoyed them by telling the residents that " all of these men " 

 had wandered, " gone mad," and knew not where they were 

 going. There was a more serious discouragement, however, in 

 the assurance which they received at the village of Muana 

 Moesa that the lake had never been heard of there, but that the 

 river stretched on as they saw it the distance of two months, 

 and then came out from between rocks which towered almost to 

 the skies. The Makololo looked blank when they heard this, 

 and said, " Let us go back to the ship; it is of no use trying to 

 find the lake." " We shall go and see those wonderful rocks 

 at any rate," said the doctor. "And when you see them," re- 

 plied Masakasa, "you will just want to see something else." 

 " But there is a lake," rejoined Masakasa, " for all their deny- 

 ing it, for it is down in a book." Masakasa, having unbounded 

 faith in whatever was in a book, went and scolded the natives 

 for telling him an untruth. " There is a lake," said he, " for 

 how could the white men know about it in a book if it did not 

 exist?" 



Such uncalled-for attempts at deception might have been as 

 provoking to Dr. Livingstone as they were to his Makololo, but 

 he had thought more about human nature than they, and could 

 more easily understand and more readily pity such exhibitions 

 among people so untaught. It is lamentable that the grandest 



