CHAPTER XIII. 



Dr. Livingstone and His Fellow Travellers Leave for Africa. — Ascend the Zam- 

 besi. — Difficulties of Navigation. — Ascend the Shire. — Discover Lakes Shirwa 

 and Nya-ssa. 



THE interest felt by the public in the second mission of Dr. Living- 

 stone to Africa was shared by the Government of the day. Lord 

 Palmerston, who was then at the head of Her Majesty's Government, 

 readily assented to rendering assistance to enable him to prosecute his 

 researches in the valley of Zambesi. Lord Clarendon then held the seals of 

 the Foreign Office, and under his auspices a mission was formed and means 

 furnished to enable Dr. Livingstone to provide himself with efficient assistance 

 and equipment for the proper prosecution of his new enterprise. This provi- 

 sion included his brother, the Rev. Charles Livingstone, who had joined him 

 from the United States, Dr. Kirk, as botanist, since well-known to the public 

 as Her Majesty's Consul at Zanzibar, Mr. R. Thornton, as geologist and 

 naturalist, Mr. Baines, as artist, and Captain Bedingfeld, as navigator and 

 surveyor of the river systems. A small steamer constructed of steel, and chris- 

 tened the Ma-Robert in honour of Mrs. Livingstone, was specially designed 

 for the navigation of the Zambesi. 



The party proceeded to the Cape on board Her Majesty's Colonial steam- 

 ship, Pearl, where they were joined by Mr. Francis Skead, R.N., as surveyor, 

 and arrived off the mouths of the Zambesi in May. The real mouths of the 

 Zambesi were little known, as the Portuguese Grovernment had let it be 

 understood that the Killimane was the only navigable outlet of the river. 

 This was done to induce the English cruisers employed in the suppression of 

 the slave trade to watch the false mouth, while slaves were quietly shipped 

 from the true one ; this deception being propagated — even after the jiublication 

 of Livingstone's discoveries — in a map issued by the Portuguese colonial 

 minister. The Ma-Robert was put together and launched, and four inlets to 

 the river, each of them superior to the Killimane, discovered and examined. 

 The four mouths are known as the Milambe, the Luabo, the Timbwe, and the 

 Kongone ; the latter being selected as the most navigable. 



Dr. Livingstone's manly exposure of the deception practised by the Portu- 

 guese Government for the purpose of encouraging the slave trade, excited the 

 wrath and jealousy of the Portuguese Government officials, who have vainly 



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