334 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



perhaps the stormiest season of the year (September and October), and were 

 repeatedly detained by severe gales. At times, while sailing pleasantly over 

 the blue water, with a gentle breeze and under a cloudless sky, suddenly and 

 without any warning, would be heard the sound of the pursuing gale, as it 

 came roaring on, dragging myriads of white-crested waves in its excited 

 wake. We got caught, one morning in a heavy gale. As a sort of forlorn 

 hope the anchor was let go in seven fathoms, a mile from the land, with the sea 

 breaking, even far out beyond us. The waves we dreaded most rushed upon 

 us in squadrons of threes, with a few minutes of comparative quiet between 

 the successive charges. Had one of these almost perpendicular-sided masses 

 broken on our frail bark nothing could have saved us, but, to our heartfelt 

 relief, as on they came with resistless force they broke before reaching us, or 

 on one side, or behind. For six mortal hours we faced the fierce charges of 

 those terrible trios, not knowing but some one of their waves might be carry- 

 ing our fate on its hoary and uplifted head. A low, dark cloud came slowly 

 from the mountains, and for hours hung directly over our heads. Our black 

 crew became so sea-sick as to be unable to sit up, and the bow-oar had to be 

 constantly at work to keep the boat's head to the sea. The natives, with our 

 land party, stood on the high cliffs, commiserating the unhappy fate of the 

 poor white men, and exclaiming, as the boat was hid by the waves, ' Ah I 

 they're lost ! they're dead ! ' In the afternoon the gale moderated, the anchor 

 was soon up, the glad boat ran for the land, dashed through the boiling surf, 

 and in a few seconds was safe on the beach. 



" The west side of Nyassa is a succession of bays of similar form, as 

 though produced by a common cause, such as the prevalence of north-easterly 

 winds ; and each is separated from its neighbour by a rocky headland, with 

 detached rocks extending some distance out to sea. In general these bays 

 have a sandy beach or pebbly shore. The great south-westerly bay has a 

 safe and commodious harbour. A good deal of the land adjacent to the lake 

 is low, sometimes marshy, with numerous waterfowl and some elephants. 

 Eight or ten miles back of the plain are ranges of high and well-wooded 

 granite hills, running nearly parallel with the lake, and presenting in several 

 places magnificent views of range towering behind range, until the distant 

 blue mountains bound the prospect by rearing their lofty summits to the 

 skies. Towards the north the plain becomes narrower, and near where we 

 turned disappears altogether. The mountains then rise abruptly out of the 

 lake, and form the north-east boundary of a high and extensive table-land, 

 resembling the Batoka country, healthy, and well-suited for pasturage and 

 agriculture. 



" Never before, in Africa, have we seen anything like the dense popula- 

 tion of Lake Nyassa, especially in the south. In some parts there seemed to 

 be an unbroken chain of villages. On the beach of well-nigh every little 



