152 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



cleaned to yield as good quality of fruit as can be found in the -world. A few 

 months ago it was discovered at Cassange, 300 miles inland. ... I 

 return because I feel that the work to which I set myself is only half 

 accomplished. The way out to the eastern coast may be less difficult than 

 I have found that to the west. If I succeed, we shall at least have a 

 choice. I intend, God helping me, to go down the Zambesi or Leeambye 

 to Killimane. I may, in order to avoid the falls of Mosioatunya, and 

 the rapid and rocky river above that part, go across from Sesheke to the 

 Mauniche-Loeuge or river of the Bashokolompo, and then descend it to the 

 Zambesi. If I cannot succeed I shall return to Loanda, and thence embark 

 for England. I expected letters at Loanda, and feel much disappointed at 

 receiving none. I asked my friends to write to that place, and now suppose 

 they believed I should never reach it. I shall feel obliged if you will send a 

 letter to Killimane. I know not whether I shall reach it. I mean to try." 



The following extracts from a letter written by Dr. Livingstone to Dr. 

 Tidman give a graphic account of the countries and peoples he had visited 

 previous to October, 1855, the date of the letter : — 



" Dear Sir, — The excessive heat and dust which prevail previous to the 

 commencement of the rainy season, have prevented my departure from the town 

 of Sekeletu, as I intended at the beginning of this month, in order to descend 

 the Leeambye or the Zambesi. And though often seized with sore longing for 

 the end of this pilgrimage, the certainty that the present weather would soon 

 lay me up with fever, at a distance from friends, almost reconciles the mind 

 to the delay. As I now possess considerable knowledge of the region to which 

 I have devoted some years of toil, I will employ my present comparative 

 leisure in penning a sort of report, which may enable you to form a clear idea 

 of inter-tropical Africa as a missionary field. 



"Physical Features of the Country. 



" It may be advantageous to take a glance at the physical features of the 

 country first, in order to be able to appreciate the nature of the obstacles 

 which will have to be surmounted by those whom Grod may honour to intro- 

 duce Christianity into this large section of the heathen world. The remarks 

 made for this purpose must be understood as applying exclusively to the 

 country between 18° and 10' S. latitude, and situated towards the centre of 

 the continent. The region thus indicated may be described as an extensive 

 plain, intersected in every direction by large rivers, with their departing and 

 re-entering branches. They bear on their bosoms volumes of water, such as 

 are totally unknown in the south, and never dry up as the Orange and most 

 other African rivers do. They appear as possessing two beds, one of inunda- 

 tion, and another cut out exactly like the Clyde above Bothwell bridge. They 

 overflow annually during the rainy season in the north, and then the beds of 



