372 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



Mr. Petherick, the great Nile traveller, in the course of some remarks on 

 the expedition, said, " He entirely coincided with Sir Roderick Murchison in 

 disbelieving the report of Dr. Livingstone's death. Any man who had had a 

 long experience of the negroes of those districts would detect a falsehood on 

 the very face of the story that Moosa had told. It was too circumstantial for 

 a true account. His statement, that after the fight he returned with his com- 

 panions several hours afterwards, and found the bodies of Livingstone and 

 three or four of his companions on the ground unmolested, was so unlike the 

 usual mode of proceeding of these people, that it could not be correct. Every 

 African traveller knew that the trophy most prized by savages such as the 

 Mazitu, would be a portion of the body of the enemy they had slain ; and if 

 the poor Doctor had fallen, his body would have been cut up into as many 

 pieces as there were savages to be gratified. It was, he thought, to be deeply 

 regretted that the object of the expedition, now about to leave England, was 

 merely to ascertain the certainty of the fate of Dr. Livingstone, and was on 

 so small a scale as to preclude it from the possibility of affording the illustrious 

 traveller, should he be in life, that relief of which he might be in need. He, 

 himself had been in his late journey in a similar strait, and had he not most 

 fortunately obtained supplies from one of the trading stations, he and his party 

 must have succumbed." 



On the 25th of November letters were read from H.M.'s Consul at 

 Zanzibar, H. A. Churchill, and Dr. Kirk, that they had heard from a native 

 trader just returned from Central Africa, that a white man had been seen in 

 the country of Marungo, near the town of the head chief Katumba,* and that 

 they had hopes that this white man was none other than Dr. Livingstone. 

 Early in December a letter was received by Mr. Webb of Newstead Abbey 

 from Dr. Kirk, which may be said to have satisfied the public that Dr. 

 Livingstone was alive and pushing on towards the north. Dr. Kirk says : — 



" The interesting discovery that a white man had been seen seven months 

 ago to the south of Lake Tanganyika, induced Mr. Churchill, the Consul, and 

 myself, to go to Bagamoyo, a place on the coast, the point of arrival and 

 departure of the Ujiji caravans. The result of our visit has been to find two 

 other men who also saw the wanderer in the interior at Marunga, and to place 

 his existence beyond a doubt. We have also learned something about his 

 personal appearance, his escort, and the route he was taking ; and have been 

 told that letters were given to one of the headmen of another caravan that 

 was at Marunga. This man, we have since been told, is a well-known man ; 

 so that on his arrival from the interior, expected in the course of a month, we 

 may not only have our curiosity satisfied, but I sincerely hope our best wishes 



*It was in this district, and near Katumba's town, that the great traveller died, about six years 

 after his first appearance there. 



