DR. LIVINGSTONE'S DIARY 595 



the Molilarno,' in the centre of Africa, to Zanzibar. They were under no 

 small temptation to bury the corpse where Dr. Livingstone had died, for the 

 superstitious terror of the tribes on their way to the coast, all of which look 

 upon the dead as haunting and injuring the living, would, they knew, 

 increase their difficulties in the journey. They never wavered, however, 

 and no company of Europeans could have conducted the matter better than 

 those unsophisticated creatures. Chumah and Susi were appointed leaders 

 by consent of all, and were not only appointed, but obeyed. 



"David Livingstone died like a soldier in battle, 'falling on the foe- 

 man's ground.' His constitution was naturally so strong, and he had so often 

 rallied when death seemed to have got hold upon him, that, after he was un- 

 able to stand or to sit upon a donkey, he still pressed on, carried in a litter. 

 Through flooded country, under a continual downpour,' which ' saturated 

 every man with fever-poison,' on he went, clinging to the hope that he 

 might yet reach Luapula, and solve the problem of the sources of the Nile." 

 How touching is the following entry in his Diary : — " In this journey I 

 have endeavoured to follow, with unswerving fidebty, the line of duty. My 

 course has been an even one, turning neither to the right hand nor to the 

 left, though my route has been tortuous enough. All the hardship, hunger, 

 and toil, were met with the full conviction that I was right in persevering to 

 make a complete work of the exploration of the sources of the Nile. Mine 

 has been a calm, hopeful endeavour to do the work that has been given me 

 to do, whether I succeed or whether I fail. The prospect of death in pur- 

 suing what 1 knew to be right did not make me veer to one side or the other. 

 I had a strong presentiment, during the first three years, that I should never 

 live through the enterprise, but it weakened as I came near to the end of the 

 journey, and an eager desire to discover any evidence of the great Moses 

 having visited these parts bound me — spell-bound me, I may say ; for, if I 

 could bring to light anything to confirm the Sacred Oracles, I should not 

 o-rudge one whit all the labour expended. I have to go down the Central 

 Lualaba or Webb's Lake River, then up the Western, or young's Lake River, 

 to Katanga head waters and then retire. I pray that it may be to my native 

 home." 



" Among the last words he uttered was a question to Susi, ' How many 

 days to the Luapula ?' ' I think it is three days, master.' ' dear, dear 1' 

 said Livingstone, fearing that after all he would be too late. He then dosed 

 off, his comatose condition being a presage of death, and at the same time 

 obscuring his consciousness of its approach. Next morning before cock-crow 

 he was found dead. 



" The specific problem on which, perhaps, more than on any other, 

 Livingstone set his heart in his last days was not solved. The sources of the 

 Nile have not been indisputably ascertained, or rather it has not been settled 



