102 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



merit, 3,000 per cent, can be made by it, it is in vain to attempt to stop it. 

 The result of all our observation in the matter is, the introduction of guns 

 among the natives has the same effect among them as among European 

 nations ; it puts an end to most of their petty wars, and renders such as do 

 occur much less bloody than they formerly were. We do not plead for the 

 trade. We only say stop that, and stop the slave trade, by coercion if you can. 

 If any one will risk something in endeavouring to establish a trade on the 

 Zambesi, we beg particularly to state that June, July, and August are, as far 

 as our present knowledge goes, the only safe months for the attempt. He who 

 does establish a fair trade will be no loser in the end. We had frost on the Chobe 

 in July, but the winter is very short. We saw swallows on Sesheke in the 

 beginning of August, and the trees generally never lose their leaves." 



From Mr. Chapman's travels we are tempted to give here a series of 

 extracts supplementing Livingstone's account of the countries to the south of 

 the Zambesi. Near the streams and lakes the abundance of animal life is very 

 striking. In his account of his approach to Lechulatebes town, Mr. Chapman 

 gives a graphic account of animal and plant life on the Botletlie or Zouga 

 river : — 



" The vegetation is everywhere luxuriant, and the animals seem to revel 

 in it. The birds, in particular, are seen in countless numbers and of endless 

 varieties. We saw some (Jibbaroos) as large as adjutants, with long red beaks 

 turned upward at the extremity, the plumage black and white. Also three 

 kinds of demoisella cranes, and a large magnificent hawk, with black breast 

 and throat. It is dark serna grey above, snow white underneath, with black 

 spots. Hundreds of grouse and pheasants, with their young broods, run 

 before us, and hawks are all day snapping them up, while mice and lizards, 

 coming out to bask, are so plentiful that these rapacious birds have no want 

 of food. Wherever the water has pushed over the banks, and formed little 

 swamps and pools, we see hundreds of ducks and geese of several kinds, also 

 the large yellow-billed duck, with glossy green wings, and the large whistling 

 ducks. 



"Next morning, which was bitterly cold, with again a southerly wind, I 

 started early, cooped up in a middling- sized ill-shapen canoe, with a Makobo 

 and two little sons with him, one to paddle and the other for company. We 

 poled or paddled, or drifted with the stream, as chance offered, frequently 

 having to tear our way through the dense reeds which shut up our path. For 

 a mile or two the river would be quite free and open, and often so shallow 

 that we had to put back and return by another channel, or get out and drag 

 the boat, so that I somewhat repented that I had not rather undertaken the 

 journey on foot. At times we forced our way through large and picturesque 

 basins, under perpendicular white cliffs, crowned with gigantic over-hanging 

 trees, while the green slopes on the opposite side were clothed with a carpet 



