2U LIFE OF DA VI D LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



endeavoured to throw discredit upon his discoveries. This feeling was not 

 shared by the local authorities, who were, or pretended to be, really ignorant 

 of the existence of the true channel, and showed their appreciation of his 

 discovery by establishing a fort at the mouth of the Kongone. 



Steaming up the channel, the natives retreating in terror at their approach, 

 the party had an opportunity of admiring the fertility of the soil, and the 

 abundant animal and vegetable life with which the delta abounds. The 

 delta is much larger than that of the Nile, and if properly cultivated would, 

 Livingstone thinks, grow as much sugar-cane as would supply the wants of 

 the whole of Europe. The dark woods of the delta " resound with the lively 

 and exultant cries of the kinghunter, as he sits perched on high among the 

 trees. As the steamer moves on through the winding channel, a pretty little 

 heron or bright kingfisher darts out in alarm from the edge of the bank. . . 

 The magnificent fishhawk sits on the top of a mangrove tree digesting his 

 morning meal of fresh fish, and is clearly unwilling to stir until the imminence 

 of the danger compels him at last to spread his great wings for flight. The 

 glossy ibis, acute of ear to a remarkable degree, hears from afar the unwonted 

 sound of the paddles, and, springing from the mud where his family has been 

 quietly feasting, is off screaming out his loud, harsh, and defiant ha ! ha ! ha ! 

 long before the danger is near." 



" The mangroves are now left behind, and are succeeded by vast level 

 plains of rich dark soil, covered with gigantic grasses, so tall that they tower 

 over one's head, and render hunting impossible. Beginning in July, the grass 

 is burned off every year after it has become dry. . . . Several native huts 

 now peep out from the bananas and cocoa-palms on the right bank ; they 

 stand on piles a few feet above the level of the low damp ground, and their 

 owners enter them by means of ladders." The native gardens were in a high 

 state of cultivation — rice, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, 

 onions, peas, cotton, and sugar-cane being freely cultivated. The natives 

 they met with were well fed, but very scantily clothed. They stood on the 

 banks and gazed with wonder at the Pearl and the Ma-Bobert, one of them, 

 an old man, asking if the former was made out of one tree. They were all 

 eager to trade, coming alongside the steamers in their canoes with fruit, and 

 food, and honey, and beeswax, and shouting " Malonda, Malonda I — Things 

 for sale." 



When the water became too shallow for the passage of the Pearl, she left 

 the party ; Mr. Skead and a Mr. Duncan, who had accompanied them from 

 the Cape, returning with her. Several members of the expedition were left on 

 an island, which they named Expedition Island, from the 18th of June until the 

 13th of August, while the others were conveying the goods up to Shupanga and 

 Senna. This was a work of some danger, as the country was in a state of 

 war — a half-caste chief, called Mariano, who ruled over the country from the 



