306 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. XII. 



twenty yards long. "We went a little way beyond, and then 

 halted for a day at a rivulet flowing into the Luongo, 200 

 yards off. 



23rd June. — "We waited for copper here, which was 

 at first refused as payment of debt. I saw now that the 

 Luongo had steep clay banks fifteen feet down, and many 

 meadows, which must be swimming during the rains. The 

 Luena is said to rise east of this. 



[In a private letter Livingstone shows that he had sel- 

 dom been more affected by the sufferings of slaves than at 

 this time, and it would perhaps be difficult to imagine any 

 scene more calculated to excite misery and distress of mind. 



The following incident deals with the firm belief in a 

 future state, which enters so largely into the minds of all 

 Africans, and which for very lack of guidance assumes all 

 the distorted growths of superstition. 



He must be of a thankless spirit who does not long to 

 substitute the great vision of future peace afforded by 

 Christianity, in lieu of the ghastly satisfaction which 

 cheered these men, when he sees by the light of this story 

 the capacity that exists for realising a life beyond the 

 grave.] 



24£7i June. — Six men slaves were singing as if they did 

 not feel the weight and degradation of the slave-sticks. I 

 asked the cause of their mirth, and was told that they 

 rejoiced at the idea " of coming back after death and 

 haunting and killing those who had sold them." Some of 

 the words I had to inquire about ; for instance, the meaning 

 of the words " to haunt and kill by spirit power ;" then it 

 was,. "Oh, you sent me off to Manga (sea-coast), but the yoke 

 is off when I die, and back I shall come to haunt and to kill 

 you." Then all joined in the chorus, which was the name 

 of each vendor. It told not of fun, but of the bitterness 



