VARIOUS DIFFICULTIES. 589 



Prominent among the representatives of this nefarious class 

 was the very man of all on whom he had been instructed to de- 

 pend, viz., Thani bin Suellim. This man had been a slave, and 

 had from that degradation risen to freedom and influence; his 

 countenance told unmistakably the meanness of his spirit; he 

 had a "disagreeable squint of the right eye, protruding teeth, 

 averted lips, and the light mixed-breed color; he was a type 

 of the vicious African." The doctor had anxiously awaited his 

 coming from Unyanyembe, whence he arrived on the 20th of 

 May, bringing with him two light boxes, for which he demanded 

 fourteen fathoms of cloth, although the carriage had been pre- 

 paid at Zanzibar; and not satisfied with this extortion and 

 additional presents, succeeded in stealing more, and in a short 

 time sent a demand for coffee : when this was declined lie found 

 a bitter revenge in sending round a warning to all the Ujijians 

 against their carrying letters for the traveller to the coast. 



Livingstone felt very anxious, as his strength returned, to 

 explore the lake thoroughly, particularly was he eager to trace 

 its northward course and examine the reported outlet in that 

 direction; but his supplies were so reduced by the plundering 

 of those who had been their custodians, and it was so manifest 

 that the Arabs and their associates at Ujiji were bent on fleecing 

 him entirely, that he was compelled to give up the undertaking 

 for the time. But, in the face of all the disappointments 

 and vexations and more serious discouragements, his purpose 

 remained firm : he would not relinquish his work. And early 

 in July we find him with his back upon Ujiji, and his face to 

 the northwest, bound for the Manyuema country. 



The Manyuema had been exempt from the forays of the Arabs, 

 and he had reason to hope that they would be found friendly. 

 A great chief was reported as living far away there on a great 

 river, and it was exhilarating to think of reaching a people un- 

 contaminated by the evil influences which had preceded him so 

 generally, in all the regions through which he had been travelling. 

 There lay before him a vast region which had never been pene- 

 trated even by the trader, a region, as we shall find, inhabited 

 by a people whose customs had never been modified by foreign 

 influences, a people as unlike the tribes nearer the coast as their 

 country was wilder and stranger than those sections where the 



