358 LIFE OF DA YID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



traditional shield, broad-bladed spears and axes. "With Livingstone there 

 were nine or ten muskets ; his Johanna men were resting with their loads 

 far in the rear. The Mazitu instantly came on to fight ; there was no parley, 

 no avoidance of the combat ; they came on with a rush and with war-cries, 

 and rattling on their shields with their spears. As Livingstone and his party 

 raised their pieces, their onset was for a moment checked, but only for a 

 moment. 



" Livingstone fired, and two Zulus were shot dead (his boys fired too, 

 but their fire was harmless); he was in the act of reloading, when three 

 Mazitu leaped upon him through the smoke. There was no resistance, there 

 could be none, and one cruel axe-cut from behind put him out of life. He 

 fell, and when he fell, his terror-stricken escort fled, hunted by the Mazitu. 

 One, at least, of the fugitives escaped ; and he, the eye-witness, it is who tells 

 the tale — Ali Moosa, chief of his escort of porters. 



" The party had left the western shores of Nyassa about five days. 

 They had started from Kampunda, on the lake's borders (they left the 

 Havildar of Sepoys there dying of dysentery, Livingstone had dismissed the 

 other Sepoys of the Bombay 21st at Mataka), and had rested at Marengo, 

 where Livingstone was cautioned not to advance. The next station was 

 Maklisoora ; they were traversing a flat country broken by small hills, and 

 abundantly wooded. Indeed, the scene of the tragedy so soon to be consum- 

 mated would appear to have been an open forest-glade. 



" Livingstone, as usual, led the way, his nine or ten unpractised 

 musketeers at his heels. Ali Moosa had nearly come up with them, having 

 left his own Johanna men resting with their loads far in the rear. Suddenly 

 he heard Livingstone warn the boys that the Mazitu were coming ; the boys 

 in turn beckoned Moosa to press forward. Moosa saw the crowd here and 

 there among the trees, and he had just gained the party, and had sunk down 

 behind a tree to deliver his own fire, when his leader fell (by an axe-cut from 

 behind). Moosa fled for his life along the path he had come, meeting his 

 Johanna men, who threw down their loads, and in a body rushed into the 

 deeper forest. ... If the Mazitu really passed Moosa, his escape and 

 that of his people verges on the marvellous. 



" However, at sunset, they in great fear left their forest refuge, and got 

 back to the place where they hoped to find their baggage. It was gone, and 

 then with increasing dread they crept to where the slain traveller lay. Near 

 him, in front, lay the grim Zulus, who were killed under his sure aim ; here 

 and there lay some four fugitives of the expedition. That one blow had 

 killed him outright ; he had no other wound but this terrible gash ; it must 

 have gone, from their description, though the neck and spine, up to the throat 

 in front, and it had nearly decapitated him. Death came mercifully in its 

 instant suddenness, for David Livingstone was ' ever ready.' They found 



