DE. LIVINGSTONE'S DIARY. 589 



of the absence of all extravagance or expressions of surprise in these Journals. 

 It is a consistent feature in them. There is plenty of warm appreciation of 

 natural beauty, of vivid description, and lively interest displayed in the 

 strange spectacles and curious people visited. But the narrative goes calm 

 and stately as a great river, which sparkles and winds indeed about every 

 little and large thing in its course, yet without fret or turmoil. He loved 

 travel. At setting forth upon the Rovurna he says : — 



" ' Now that I am on the point of starting on another trip into Africa I 

 feel quite exhilarated : when one travels with the specific object in view of 

 ameliorating the condition of the natives every act becomes ennobled. 



" ' Whether exchanging the customary civilities on arriving at a village, 

 accepting a night's lodging, purchasing food for the party, asking for infor- 

 mation, or answering polite African inquiries as to our objects in travelling, 

 we begin to spread a knowledge of that people by whose agency their land 

 will yet become enlightened and freed from the slave-trade. 



" ' The mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild, unexplored country 

 is very great. When on lands of a couple of thousand feet elevation, brisk 

 exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, fresh and healthy blood circulates 

 through the brain, the mind works well, the eye is clear, the step is firm, 

 and a day's exertion always makes the evening's repose thoroughly enjoy- 

 able. 



" ' We have usually the stimulus of remote chances of danger, either from 

 man or beast.' 



" But of this danger he always makes pretty light either in expectation 

 or arrival ; and he knew, with that same quiet courage, how to impress and 

 govern his followers far better than all the brow-beating and violent sorts 

 of travellers. On one occasion, when the bad conduct of a sepoy, Perim, 

 tempted him to strike the man with a cane, he enters the incident in his 

 Diary with a ' black mark' against himself, says that it ' is degrading,' 

 and scores up the resolution, ' I am not to do the punishment myself again.' 

 At every other page his passion for African scenery comes out quietly but 

 strongly ; as when he reaches the Nyassa, and writes, ' It is like coming home ; 

 it is so pleasant to bathe in the delicious waters again, to hear the roar of the 

 lake and dash in the rollers. I feel quite exhilarated." But Nyassa saddened 

 him too. He says : — 



" ' Many hopes have been disappointed here. Far down on the right 

 bank of the Zambesi lies the dust of her whose death changed all my future 

 prospects ; and now, instead of a check being given to the slave-trade by law- 

 ful commerce on the lake slave dhows prosper ! An Arab slave-party fled on 

 hearing of us yesterday. It is impossible not to regret the loss of Bishop 

 Mackenzie, who sleeps far down the Shire, and with him all hope of the Gros- 

 pel being introduced into Central Africa. The silly abandonment of all the 



