384 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.I). 



object of the expedition was accomplished. In sailing down the lake the 

 party encountered several of the tremendous storms for which it is famous. 

 They landed at Mapunda, which is the village in which, according to Moosa, 

 he and his followers were robbed and ill-treated. The chief was unfortunately 

 from home, but the party were hospitably entertained by his mother. Here 

 they learned that Wekatoni, who found some of his relatives in the village, 

 elected to remain in spite of the persuasions of Dr. Livingstone. Unfor- 

 tunately the lad was not then at the village, but the natives brought Mr. 

 Young " a small book Wekatoni had left at his hut, called ' The First 

 Footsteps in the way of Knowledge.' The lad's name is written in it : ' This 

 book belongs to Wekatoni, Bombay, 15 December, 1864,' and there are other 

 schoolboy-scribblings also. I had it replaced by my Bible, and it was with 

 pleasure I gave it, on my return to England, to one who had stood by when 

 Wekatoni saw the white man for the first time, and gave his footsteps free- 

 dom by cutting the slave's thongs from the lad's linibs in years gone past, 

 upon the Manganja hills." 



Mr. Young left a letter for Wekatoni, telling him the reports which had 

 been circulated as to the death of Dr. Livingstone, and the reason for his 

 journey, and pleaded with him to make his way to Kilwa or Mozambique, and 

 place himself once more within the pale of civilization. As yet there has 

 been no response to this appeal, and no European has been in the lake region 

 who could bring any tidings as to his future fate. The mother of Ma- 

 punda treated the party with great hospitality, and solemnly denied that 

 Moosa and his companions had either been robbed or ill-treated in the 

 village. Her manner of doing this is worthy of note : — 



" Standing erect in the middle of her assembled people, she stooped and 

 picked up a handful of sand, and then, looking up to the sky, and again 

 down to the ground, she slowly let it trickle from her hand, and with all the 

 solemnity of a heavy oath, declared that every word was utterly false ; and 

 I believed her. She was certainly the most remarkable native woman I had 

 ever come across, and the respect shown for her by all her people was 

 profound." 



But for the dread of the Mazitu Mr. Young would have thoroughly ex- 

 amined the north end of Lake Nyassa, but the Makololo were in terror of 

 their cutting them off from their settlement near Chibisa's, and he was re- 

 luctantly compelled to start at once on his homeward voyage. On the return 

 their boat nearly came to grief from a hippopotamus. " We had struck him 

 on the head with a rifle ball, and his struggles were tremendous. All we 

 could do to keep him from getting under the boat seemed useless, and the 

 blows dealt to our steel vessel shook her from stem to stern. Had it been a 

 smaller boat, or one less strongly built, we should have been upset and 

 smashed to pieces." 



