DR. LIVINGSTONE'S DIARY. 585 



that the others had gone on to build, but they were obliged as it was to allow 

 him to remain for an hour in the native gardens outside the town. On reach- 

 ing their companions it was found that the work was not quite finished, and 

 it became necessary therefore to lay him under the broad leaves of a native 

 hut till things were ready. Chitambo's village at this time was almost empty. 

 When the crops are growing it is the custom to erect little temporary houses 

 in the fields, and the inhabitants, leaving their more substantial huts, pass their 

 time in watching their crops, which are scarcely more safe by day than by 

 night ; thus it was that the men found plenty of room and shelter ready to 

 their hand. Many of the people approached the spot where he lay whose 

 praises had reached them in previous years, and in silent wonder they stood 

 round him, resting on their bows. Slight drizzling showers were falling, and 

 as soon as possible his house was made ready, and banked round with 

 earth. Inside it the bed was raised from the floor by sticks and grass, occu- 

 pying a position across and near to the bay-shaped end of the hut ; in the bay 

 itself bales and boxes were deposited, one of the latter doing duty for a table, 

 on which the medicine chest and sundry other things were placed. A fire 

 was lighted outside, nearly opposite the door, whilst the boy, Majwara, slept 

 just within to attend to his master's wants in the night. On April 30, 1873, 

 Chitambo came early to pay a visit of courtesy, and was shown into the 

 Doctor's presence, but he was obliged to send him away, telling him to come 

 again on the morrow, when he hoped to have more strength to talk to him, 

 and he was not again disturbed. In the afternoon he asked Susi to bring his 

 watch to the bedside, and explained to him the position in which to hold his 

 hand, that it might lie in the palm whilst he slowly turned the key. 



" ' So the hours stole on till nightfall. The men silently took to their 

 huts, whilst others, whose duty it was to keep watch, sat round the fires, all 

 feeling that the end could not be far off. About 11 p.m. Susi, whose hut was 

 close by, was told to go to his master. At the time there were loud shouts in 

 the distance, and, on entering, Dr. Livingstone said, " Are our men making 

 that noise ?" " No," replied Susi ; " I can hear from the cries that the people 

 are scaring away a buffalo from their dura fields." A few minutes afterwards 

 he said slowly, and evidently wandering, " Is this the Luapula ?" Susi told 

 him they were in Chitambo's village, near the Molilamo, when he was silent 

 for a while. Again, speaking to Susi, in Suaheli this time, he said, " Sikun 

 gapi kuenda Luapula ?" (How many days is it to the Luapula ?) " Na zani 

 zikutatu, Bwana" (I think it is three days, master), replied Susi. 



" ' A few seconds after, as if in great pain, he half sighed, half said, 

 " Oh dear, dear!" and then dozed off again. 



" 'It was about an hour later that Susi heard Majwara again outside the 

 door, " Bwana wants you, Susi." On reaching the bed the doctor told him 

 he wis! led him to boil some water, and for this purpose he went to the fire 

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