284 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



Portuguese expedition had attempted to ascend it, but had to turn back on 

 account of the impenetrable masses of duck-weed which grew in its bed and 

 floated in shoals on its surface. The natives on its banks were reported to be 

 treacherous, thievish, and bloodthirsty ; and nothing but disaster was predicted 

 as the end of such a foolhardy expedition. 



Dr. Livingstone and his party had come all the way from England 

 to explore the district, and were not to be lightly turned aside from 

 their object; so, early in January, 1859, they boldly entered the Shire. 

 They found for the first twenty-five miles that a considerable quantity of 

 duckweed was floating down the river, but not in sufficient quantity to 

 interrupt its navigation, even in canoes. As they approached the native 

 villages, the men assembled on the banks, armed with bows and arrows ; but 

 it was not until they reached the village of a chief called Tingane, who had 

 gained considerable notoriety by his successful prevention of the Portuguese 

 slave-traders from passing farther to the north, that they met anything like 

 serious opposition. Here five hundred armed men were collected, who com- 

 manded them to stop. Livingstone boldly went on shore, and at an interview 

 with the chief and his headmen, explained the objects of the party and their 

 friendly disposition. Tingane, who was an elderly, well-made man, grey- 

 headed, and over six feet high, withdrew his opposition to their further pro- 

 gress, and called all his people together, so that the objects of the exploring 

 party might be explained to them. 



Following the winding course of the river for about two hundred miles, 

 their farther progress was arrested by a series of cataracts, to which the party 

 gave the name of " The Murchison," in honour of the great friend of the ex- 

 pedition, Sir Roderick Murchison. In going down the stream, the progress 

 of the Ma-Robert was very rapid. The hippopotami kept carefully out of the 

 way, while the crocodiles frequently made a rush at the vessel as if to attack it, 

 coming within a few feet of her, when they sank like a stone, to re-appear 

 and watch the progress of the unknown invader of their haunts, when she 

 had passed. 



Although narrower than the Zambesi, the Shire is much deeper and more 

 easily navigated. The lower valley of the Shire is about twenty miles wide, 

 and very fertile ; the hills which enclose it on either side are covered with 

 wood, in many cases to their summits ; some of these hills rise to a height of 

 4000 feet above the level of the sea. They visited one of the loftiest of the 

 hills, called by the natives Morambala. On the wooded sides of this mountain 

 Dr. Kirk found thirty species of ferns. In the forests near its base, monkeys, 

 antelopes, rhinoceroses, and several varieties of the larger birds were abund- 

 ant. " A hot fountain boils up on the plain, near the north end. It bubbles 

 out of the earth, clear as crystal, at two points, or eyes, a few yards apart 

 from each other, and sends off a fine flowing stream of hot water. The tern- 



