342 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.JJ. 



neighbourhood of the cataracts ; but before he had well begun his arduous 

 labour he was attacked with fever, and died on the 21st of April. 



While busily making a road through the forest to connect the lower Shire 

 with the upper, beyond the Murchison cataracts, Dr. Kirk and Mr. Charles 

 Livingstone, after repeated attacks of fever and dysentery, were compelled to 

 leave for England ; the undaunted chief of the expedition remaining at his 

 post, although he also had had a severe attack of fever. Before they had com- 

 pleted their arrangements for passing the cataracts, a despatch arrived from 

 Lord John Russell, then minister for foreign affairs, withdrawing the expedi- 

 tion. As the ascent of the river could not be made for some time, Dr. 

 Livingstone determined on a journey to the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa, 

 selecting five of the Makololo men, who had settled near Chibisa's, and several 

 of the Johanna men and natives on the spot, making in all twenty native 

 assistants, to accompany him. In attempting to ascend the cataracts in boats, 

 one of these, with valuable stores in it, was lost through the foolhardiness of 

 several Zambesi men, who were desirous of showing that they could manage 

 her better than the Makololo. 



As a punishment, the Zambesi men were sent back to Chibisa's for 

 provisions, cloth, and beads, Dr. Livingstone determining to go on on foot. 

 The bold explorer managed to penetrate through a hitherto unvisited country, 

 to a point several hundred miles west of the lake. At the different villages he 

 was well received, after his intentions were made known. In many places he 

 was received with coldness, and the inhabitants were in daily dread of a 

 slave-stealing raid being made upon them, and naturally looked with suspicion 

 on an armed party, headed by a white man. The country was very populous, 

 and exceedingly beautiful, showing every variety of scenery to be found 

 between the level plain and the summits of the mountain ridges, at a height 

 of from three to four thousand feet above the level of the sea. 



The party were the recipients of much kind attention from the great bulk 

 of the simple inhabitants of the district through which they passed ; and again 

 and again Dr. Livingstone had proofs, both of eye and ear, that the native 

 tribes in the interior, who have not suffered from the introduction of the slave 

 trade, lead comparatively blameless and industrious lives. It was a refreshing 

 sight to see men, women, and children, preparing the ground for their crops, 

 or clearing the latter of weeds, which were carefully gathered and burned, as 

 in highly farmed England ; or grinding their corn in the stone mill, which 

 consists all over the districts he had visited, " of a block of granite, or even 

 mica schist, fifteen or eighteen inches square, and four or six thick, with a 

 piece of quartz or other hard rock, about the size of half a brick, one side 

 of which has a coarse surface, and fits into a concave hollow in the large and 

 stationary stone. The work-woman kneeling, grasps this upper millstone 

 with both hands, and works it backwards and forwards in the hollow of the 



