432 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



and they were suffering from thirst, and foot-sore and weary, when they reached 

 the village of a son of the chief of Uzogera, where they were hospitably enter- 

 tained. From this point the country improved at every step, although many 

 difficulties had yet to be overcome, the principal of which were the heavy 

 tributes exacted by warlike chiefs for leave to pass through their territory. 

 Mr. Stanley's account of a natural bridge, across which the expedition passed 

 with safety, cannot fail to be interesting. " Fancy," he says, " a river as 

 broad as the Hudson at Albany, though not near so deep or swift, covered 

 over with water-plants and grasses, which had become so interwoven and 

 netted together as to form a bridge covering its entire length and breadth, 

 under which the river flowed calm and deep below. It was over this natural 

 bridge we were expected to cross. Adding to the tremor which one naturally 

 felt at having to cross this frail bridge was the tradition that, only a few yards 

 higher up, an Arab and his donkey, thirty-five slaves, and sixteen tusks of 

 ivory, had been suddenly sunk for ever out of sight. As one-half of our column 

 had already arrived at the centre, we on the shore could see the network of 

 grass waving on either side, and between each man ; in one place like the 

 swell of the sea after a storm, and in another like a small lake violently ruffled 

 by a squall. Hundreds of yards away from them it ruffled and undulated, 

 one wave after another. As we all got on it, we perceived it to sink about a 

 foot, forcing the water on which it rested into the grassy channel formed by 

 our footsteps. One of my donkeys broke through, and it required the united 

 strength of ten men to extricate him. The aggregate weight of the donkey 

 and men caused that portion of the bridge on which they stood to sink about 

 two feet, and a circular pool of water was formed. I expected every minute 

 to see them sink out of sight. Fortunately we managed to cross the trea- 

 cherous bridge without further accident. Arrived on the other side, we struck 

 north, passing through a delightful country, in every way suited for agricul- 

 tural settlements, or happy mission stations. The primitive rock began to 

 show itself anew in eccentric clusters, or a flat-topped rock on which the vil- 

 lages of the Wavinza were seen, and where the natives prided themselves on 

 their security, and conducted themselves accordingly in an insolent and for- 

 ward fashion, though I believe that with forty good rifles I could have made 

 the fellows desert their country en masse. But a white traveller's motto in 

 these lands is, do, dare, and endure ; and those who have come out of Africa 

 alive have generally to thank themselves for their prudence rather than their 

 temerity." 



At last their eyes were gladdened by the sight of the broad and swift 

 Malagarazi, an influent of Lake Tanganyika. The goal was nearly won ; a 

 few days' march, and the mighty lake of Central Africa would be spread out 

 before their gaze. The principal Sultan of Uvinza, the country bordering on 

 the Malagarazi, was Kiala, the eldest son of Uzogera. The command of the 



