SUFFERINGS AND LONGINGS. 737 



despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God, and go for- 

 ward." At length the Chambeze was behind them, with its 

 rushing flood — but all was flood still. They left Kabinga's 

 with their baggage in canoes and the men wading beside them, 

 whilst the doctor himself was pulled along in a canoe nearer 

 the lake in deeper water. Pitiless rains from above conspired 

 with the floods around them. There was no escape; no respite. 

 The heavy exertions, coupled with constant exposure, extreme 

 anxiety and annoyance, inseparable from the care of so large a 

 party in such a realm of water, brought on another severe attack. 

 The 10th of April he writes: "I am pale, bloodless, and weak 

 from bleeding profusely ever since the 31st of March last : an 

 artery gives off a copious stream, and takes away my strength ; " 

 then he exclaims: "Oh, how I long to be permitted by the 

 Over-power to finish my work ! " 



It is almost incredible that this man should still insist on 

 tottering along — hours at a time. But even the most powerful 

 will must fail some time to sustain a human body, and at last 

 Dr. Livingstone was obliged to submit to the kindness of his 

 men who were so eager to carry him, as they saw how rapidly 

 his strength was failing. At Chinama they were on the right 

 bank of the Lolotikila — the 13th of April. The dry season was 

 now coming on ; the sky was clearing and the southeast wind 

 was beginning to blow. The rain-fall was estimated at seventy- 

 three inches — six feet ! — much the heaviest ever known in that 

 latitude. The doctor was able then with the stump of a pencil 

 to enter a rather more extensive sketch of the country than 

 usual ; of it he says : " One sees interminable grassy prairies 

 with lines of trees, occupying quarters of miles in breadth, and 

 with these give way to bouga or prairie again. The bouga is 

 flooded annually, but its vegetation consists of dry-land grasses. 

 Other bouga extend out from the lake up to forty miles, and 

 are known by aquatic vegetation, such as lotus, papyrus, arums, 

 rushes of different species, and many kinds of purely aquatic 

 subaqueous plants which send up their flowers only to fructify 

 in the sun, and then sink to ripen one bunch after another. 

 Others, with great cabbage-looking leaves, seem to remain 

 always at the bottom. The young of fish swarm, and bob in 

 and out from the leaves. A species of soft moss grows on most 



