140 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



trunk ere the branches were reached being not uncommon. The ground 

 underneath was covered with a luxuriant crop of green grass, through and 

 over which beautiful flowers of all colours stood out, gladdening the sight and 

 perfuming the air. 



Turning westwards through such scenery as this, Livingstone found 

 himself among tribes who owed allegiance to Katema, and whose dealings 

 with the Mambari had taught them to give nothing to strangers out 

 of friendship. Gunpowder or calico was demanded for everything ; 

 and as he had none of these to spare, and as his last parcel of beads was 

 about all he had to traffic with during the long and arduous journey still 

 before him, he began to dread that the expedition was doomed to suffer more 

 from hunger than it had yet done. Kangenke, a chief whose village is near 

 the Kasai, although not inclined to play the generous host, readily furnished 

 guides, enabling the party to proceed at once. They crossed the Kasai in 

 canoes, the men pointing out its course, saying, " Though you sail along it 

 for months, you will turn without seeing the end of it." The Kasai and its 

 tributaries unite and form the Congo, which falls into the Atlantic Ocean four 

 degrees to the north of Loanda, whither the expedition was bound, so that its 

 course was long enough to give these untravelled savages a high notion as to 

 its unknown extent. Speaking of the stream where the party crossed it, 

 Livingstone likens it to his native Clyde, which in its lower reaches above 

 Glasgow is richly wooded. 



Food was now getting scarce, as none could be got unless in exchange 

 for something out of their little store. One of the guides caught a blue 

 mole and two mice, which he dressed for his supper, a distinct indication that 

 larger game was scarce, or not to be had. Since his entrance into the country 

 of Balonda the sight of herds of game and even single individuals had 

 become few and far between ; and these had become so shy from being 

 hunted, that there was no chance of getting within gun-shot of them without 

 horses and other hunting appliances which he had not got. The weakness 

 caused by the frequent attacks of fever, and the bad setting of his shoulder, 

 which had been shattered by the lion that attacked him at Chounane, left 

 him hardly able to carry or hold his gun straight. Katende, a chief, sent a 

 message to Livingstone that he must give him either a man, a tusk, beads, 

 copper rings, or a shell, before he would be allowed to pass ; to which demand 

 an explanation of his circumstances, and one of his remaining shirts, was 

 sent, together with a message that if he liked he might come and take any- 

 thing else, in which case he would reach his own chief naked and have to 

 account for it by telling that Katende had taken them. The shirt was 

 detained, and a little meal and manioc, and a fowl sent in exchange to the 

 famishing band. 



They passed onward without seeing Katende. and reached a river with 



