CHAPTER XXIX. 



FOUR MONTHS AT NYANGWE. 



The Lualaba — Abed and Hassani — The Temper of the Traders — Livingstone's 

 Situation — The Difficulty — Writing Materials — Nyangwe Market-Women — 

 Old and Young — The Market Scenes — Eagerness for Barter — Independence of 

 Women — Ten Human Skulls — Cannibalism — Difficulty of getting a Canoe — 

 Ivory — The Bakuss — A Characteristic Manoeuvre — Bakuss' Opinion of Guns 

 — Arabs' Idea of Business — A Fiendish Plot — Dugumbe — No Assistance — 

 Wonderful Underground Houses — The People of Rua — " Heartbrokenness " — 

 Disappointed Utterly — Beautiful Picture Blighted — Dreadful Slaughter — 

 Three Hundred and Forty Dead — Superwickedness — Too Much to Bear — Re- 

 solved to Return — Importuned by the Natives — Determined — Providence in 

 the Disappointment — Providence in all Things — Precious Interests — A 

 Despatch — James Gordon Bennett, Jr. — Henry M. Stanley. 



The great river which he had sought so long and so reso- 

 lutely was rolling at his feet. It was a noble river, worthy of 

 being thought of as the near relative of any water on earth. 

 The sight of it had cost great sacrifice and suffering. Dr. 

 Livingstone stood willing to venture far more than he had en- 

 dured in finding out the secrets it might be able to disclose. 

 But there were before him on those steep banks men who had 

 no sympathy with his enterprise, who could see in him only the 

 representative of a nation whose unrelenting frown rested on 

 their barbarities ; and at the hands of these men he could hope 

 for little that might in any way facilitate his work. At their 

 hands, in fact, we shall see that he met the resistance which at 

 last compelled him to go away from the river, to him so full of 

 promise, to relinquish what to him seemed like positive success, 

 when a few more vigorous strokes might have brought to him 

 its sweet realization. 



The Arab traders who were found established at Nyangwe 

 on Dr. Livingstone's arrival, Abed and Hassani, were men 

 notorious for their barbarities. They were associated with 

 Dugumbe, who was himself absent. Notwithstanding profes- 

 sions of friendly feeling and promises of cooperation, it was soon 

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