TEMPER OF THE TRADERS. 619 



very evident that these men were determined to compel the 

 Englishman to go out of the country. They did not dare to 

 attempt this by any violent measures, but they could poison the 

 minds of the natives against him, could misrepresent him, could 

 tamper with his Bauian slave followers, could prevent his 

 getting a canoe, could surround him with such scenes of cruelty 

 as would sicken his soul. All of these things they could do, 

 all of them they did. It is not ungenerous to say that they did 

 them all deliberately, designedly, because they did not want the 

 restraint of an Englishman's presence in their horrid business. 

 They were generous with their gifts, because they wanted to be 

 thought kind. They knew what to give and what to withhold ; 

 they would give something to make a good impression, they 

 would be unable to do other things, and see to it underhandedly 

 that they were done by nobody, that they might be rid of the 

 man. They had numbers and goods, and they would by all 

 means possible get the confidence or excite the fears of the peo- 

 ple, and they could turn either the confidence or the fear to the 

 same account. They were determined that Dr. Livingstone 

 should get no canoe, while they promised to get him one almost 

 every day, managing thus to hold their victim in agonizing 

 alternations of hope and despondency nearly four months. We 

 need not ask now, surely, why Livingstone was so dependent : 

 we know that he had only three men on whom he could depend ; 

 he had some means, but money could do nothing unless he could 

 procure men. Four men could not start alone through such a 

 country under such circumstances. He had been able some- 

 times to get escorts from traders, and he trusted that he would 

 succeed. He could have gone on if no Arabs had been in the 

 country. Then, with the support of SdSi and Chuma, he could 

 have controlled his ten Banian men, but he could do nothing 

 with them while Hassani was at hand with his hordes, offering 

 them protection in all their unfaithfulness, and offering a pre- 

 mium for their desertion. We will not detain the reader with 

 the promises and disappointments which were the matters of 

 really most consequence to Dr. Livingstone every day, but take 

 advantage of the information which was treasured for us during 

 these months by the traveller. 



It was not the smallest of the deprivations, we may remark, 



