582 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONS, LL.D. 



ferred this morning until tLe dew was off the heads of the long grass suffi- 

 ciently to ensure his being kept tolerably dry. The excruciating pains of 

 dysenteric malady caused him the greatest exhaustion as they marched, and 

 they were glad enough to reach another village in two hours and a quarter, 

 having travelled S.W. from the last point. Here another hut was built. The 

 name of the halting-place is not remembered by the men, for the villagers 

 fled at their approach ; indeed the noise made by the drums sounding the 

 alarm had been caught by the Doctor some time before, and he exclaimed 

 with thankfulness on hearing it, "Ah, now we are near I" Throughout this 

 day the following men acted as bearers of the kitanda : Chowpere, Songolo, 

 Chumah, and Adiamberi. Sowfere, too, joined in at one time. 



" ' 23rd April. (No entry except the date.) — They advanced another 

 hour and a half through the same expanse of flooded treeless waste, passing 

 numbers of small fish-weirs set in such a manner as to catch the fish on their 

 way back to the lake, but seeing nothing of the owners, who had either hid- 

 den themselves or taken to flight on the approach of the caravan. Another 

 village afforded them a night's shelter, but it seems not to be known by any 

 particular name. 



" ' 24:th April. (No entry except the date.) — But one hour's march was 

 accomplished to-day, and again they halted amongst some huts — place un- 

 known. His great prostration made progress exceedingly painful, and fre- 

 quently when it was necessary to stop the bearers of the kitanda, Chumah 

 had to support the Doctor from falling. 



" ' 25th April. (No entry except the date.) — In an hour's course S.W. 

 they arrived at a village in which they found a few people. Whilst his ser- 

 vants were busy completing the hut for the night's encampment, the Doctor, 

 who was lying in a shady place on the kitanda, ordered them to fetch one of 

 the villagers. The chief of the place had disappeared, but the rest of his peo- 

 ple seemed quite at their ease, and drew near to hear what was going to be 

 said. They were asked whether they knew of a hill on which four rivers took 

 their rise. The spokesman answered that they had no knowledge of it. They 

 themselves, said he, were not travellers, and all those who used to go on trad- 

 ing expeditions were now dead. In former years Malenga's town, Kutchin- 

 yama, was the assembling place of the Wabisa traders, but these had been 

 swept off by the Mazitu. Such as survived had to exist as best they could 

 amongst the swamps and inundated districts around the lake. Whenever an 

 expedition was organised to go to the coast, or in any other direction, travel- 

 lers met at Malenga's town to talk over the route to be taken ; then would 

 have been the time, and they, to get information about every part. Dr. 

 Livingstone was here obliged to dismiss them, and explained that he was too 

 ill to continue talking, but he begged them to bring as much food as they 

 could for sale to Kalunganjovu's. 



