320 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOUENALS. [Chap. XIII. 



answered all purposes; they left the remainder at the 

 next village, with orders to send it back to head-quarters, 

 and then continued their course through Ilala, led by their 

 guides in the direction of the Luapula. 



A moment's inspection of the map will explain the line of 

 country to be traversed. Susi and Chumah had travelled 

 with Dr. Livingstone in the neighbourhood of the north- 

 west shores of Bangweolo in previous years. The last fatal 

 road from the north might be struck by a march in a due 

 N.E. direction, if they could but hold out so far without any 

 serious misfortune ; but in order to do this they must first 

 strike northwards so as to reach the Luapula, and then 

 crossing it at some part not necessarily far from its exit 

 from the Lake, they could at once lay their course for the 

 south end of Tanganyika. 



There were, however, serious indications amongst them. 

 First one and then the other dropped out of the file, and 

 by the time they reached a town belonging to Chitambo's 

 brother — and on the third day only since they set out — half 

 their number were hors de comhat. It was impossible to 

 go on. A few hours more and all seemed affected. The 

 symptoms were intense pain in the limbs and face, great 

 prostration, and, in the bad cases, inability to move. The 

 men attributed it to the continual wading through water 

 before the Doctor's death. They think that illness had 

 been waiting for some further slight provocation, and that 

 the previous days' tramp, which was almost entirely through 

 plashy Bougas or swamps, turned the scale against them. 



Susi was suffering very much. The disease settled in one 

 leg, and then quickly shifted to the other. Songolo nearly 

 died. Kaniki and Bahati, two of the women, expired in a 

 few days, and all looked at its worst. It took them a good 

 month to rally sufficiently to resume their journey. 



Fortunately in this interval the rains entirely ceased, and 

 the natives day by day brought an abundance of food to the 



