THE LAST WRITTEN WORDS. 743 



the answer was, ' Stay as long as you wish, and when you want 

 guides to Kalunganjovu's you shall have them.'" 



His servants say that instead of rallying they saw that his 

 strength was becoming less and less, and in order to carry him 

 they made a kitanda of wood, consisting of two side pieces of 

 seven feet in length, crossed with rails three feet long, and about 

 four inches apart, the whole lashed strongly together. This 

 framework was covered with grass, and a blanket laid on it. 

 Slung from a pole, and borne between two strong men, it made 

 a tolerable palanquin, and on this the exhausted traveller was 

 conveyed to the next village through a flooded grass plain. To 

 render the kitanda more comfortable another blanket was sus- 

 pended across the pole, so as to hang down on either side, and 

 allow the air to pass under whilst the sun's rays were fended off 

 from the sick man. He was borne as tenderly as possible by 

 his faithful men, Chuma or Susi; one remained constantly be- 

 side him. The doctor only had strength to enter the days of 

 the month— 22d, 23d, 24th, 25th, 26th. On the 27th he 

 "seems to have been almost dying." That day he wrote his 

 last words ; they were these : 



" Knocked up quite, and remain ; recover ; sent to buy milch 

 goats. We are on the banks of the Mulia/me." 



There seems to have been an effort to get something which 

 he trusted would restore his strength, but the "Mazitu had 

 taken everything." 



They were at the village of Kalunganjovu from the 27th to 

 the 29th. He was a generous-hearted man, and manifested 

 much real sympathy for the sufferer, and went himself to super- 

 intend the passage of the stream. When they were ready to set 

 .out Susi went into the hut of Dr. Livingstone, but the doctor 

 was unable to walk to the door. His men removed one side of 

 the frail abode, and placing the kitanda by the side of his bed, 

 lifted him gently to it, and raising the burden to their shoulders 

 marched out of the village. 



"Their course was in the direction of the stream, and they 

 followed it till they came to a reach where the current was un- 

 interrupted by the numerous little islands which stood partly in 

 the river and partly in the flood on the upper waters. Kalun- 

 ganjovu was seated on a knoll, and actively superintended the 

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