344 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



they were living in constant terror of a visit from slave-trading bands. No 

 one would sell any food unless in exchange for some other article of food, for 

 the simple reason that they were starving, many of them dying from sheer 

 want. 



Before the party got back to the ship they were caught in the rains ; 

 sometimes it came on at night, with unpleasant results, when the party were 

 asleep with no shelter but the umbrageous foliage of some giant tree. Living- 

 stone says, "when very tired a man feels determined to sleep in spite of every- 

 thing, and the sound of dripping water is said to be conducive to slumber, 

 but that does not refer to an African storm. If, when half- asleep, in spite of 

 a heavy shower on the back of the head, he unconsciously turns on his side, 

 the drops from the branches make such capital shots into the ear, that the 

 brain rings again." Curiously enough, the keen bracing air of the highlands 

 had a deleterious effect on the Zambesi men. 



The following is Dr. Livingstone's account of the journey to the north- 

 west of Lake Nyassa, in a letter to Sir Roderick Murchison : — 



" The despatch containing instructions for our withdrawal, though dated 

 2nd of February, did not reach me before the 2nd of July, when the water 

 had fallen so low that the Pioneer could not be taken down to the sea. To 

 improve the time, therefore, between July and the flood of December, I 

 thought that I might see whether a large river entered the northern end of 

 Lake Nyassa, and, at the same time, ascertain whether the impression was 

 true that most of the slaves drawn to Zanzibar, Kilwa, Iboe, and Mozambique, 

 came from the Lake district. With this view I departed, taking the steward 

 of the Pioneer and a few natives, carrying a small boat, and ascended the 

 Shire. Our plan was to sail round the eastern shore and the north end of the 

 lake, but unfortunately we lost our boat when we had nearly passed the falls 

 of the Shire ; the accident occurring through five of our natives trying to 

 show how much cleverer they were than the five Makololo who had hitherto 

 had the management of it. It broke away from them in a comparatively still 

 reach of the river, and rushed away like an arrow over the cataracts. Our 

 plans after this had to be modified, and I resolved to make away for the 

 north-west on foot, hoping to reach the latitude of the northern end of the 

 lake without coming in contact with the Mazitu, or Zulus, who have de- 

 populated its north-western shores, and then go round the Lake from the 

 west. 



" We soon came to a range of mountains running north and south, rising 

 about 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. The valley on the eastern base 

 was 2,000 feet above the sea, and was of remarkable beauty — well supplied 

 with streams of delicious cold water. This range forms the edge of the high 

 table-land (called Deza) on which the Maravi dwell. We were, however, 

 falsely told that no people lived on the other side, and continued our course 



