100 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. IV. 



find an easy access to Central Africa. The only obstacles 

 that exist are, first, the foolish policy of the Portuguese 

 with regard to Customs' duties at the mouth of the Zam- 

 besi ; and secondly, a succession of cataracts on the Shire, 

 which impede navigation for seventy miles. The first 

 hindrance may give way under more liberal views than 

 those which prevail at present at the Court of Lisbon, and 

 then the remaining difficulty — accepted as a fact — will be 

 solved by the establishment of a boat service both above 

 and below the cataracts. Had Livingstone survived he 

 would have been cheered by hearing that already several 

 schemes are afoot to plant Missions in the vicinity of Lake 

 Nyassa, and we may with confidence look to the revival of 

 the very enterprise which he presently so bitterly deplores 

 as a thing of the past, for Bishop Steere has fully deter- 

 mined to re-occupy the district in which fell his prede- 

 cessor, Bishop Mackenzie, and others attached to the 

 Universities Mission.] 



In the course of this day's march we were pushed close 

 to the Lake by Mount Gome, and, being now within three 

 miles of the end of the Lake, we could see the whole 

 plainly. There we first saw the Shire emerge, and there 

 also we first gazed on the broad waters of Nyassa. 



Many hopes have been disappointed here. Far down on 

 the right bank of the Zambesi lies the dust of her whose 

 death changed all my future prospects; and now, instead 

 of a check being given to the slave-trade by lawful com- 

 merce on the Lake, slave-dhows prosper ! 



An Arab slave-party fled on hearing of us yesterday. 

 It is impossible not to regret the loss of good Bishop 

 Mackenzie, who sleeps far down the Shire, and with him 

 all hope of the Gospel being introduced into Central Africa. 

 The silly abandonment of all the advantages of the Shire 

 xoute by the Bishop's successor I shall ever bitterly deplore, 



