706 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



fines of Usandawi, a country famous for elephants ; but here our route inclined 

 north-west, and we entered Ukimbu, or Uyanzi, at its north-eastern extremity. 

 We had hired guides in Ugogo to take us as far as Iraniba, but at Muhalala, 

 in Ukimbu, they deserted. Fresh guides were engaged at Muhalala, who 

 took us one day's march farther north-west, but at night they also disappeared, 

 and in the morning we were left on the edge of a wide wilderness without a 

 single pioneer. On the roads the previous day the guides had informed us 

 that three days' march would bring us to Urimi, and, relying on the truth of 

 the report, I had purchased two days' provisions, so that this second deser- 

 tion did not much disconcert us, nor raise any suspicion, though it elicited 

 many unpleasant remarks about the treachery of the Wagogo. We there- 

 fore continued our journey, but on the morning of the second day, the narrow, 

 ill-defined track which we had followed became lost in a labyrinth of ele- 

 phant and rhinoceros trails. The best men were despatched in all directions 

 to seek the vanished road, but they were all unsuccessful, and we had no 

 resource left but the compass. The next day brought us into a dense jungle 

 of acacia and euphorbia, through which we had literally to push our way by 

 scrambling and crawling along the ground under natural tunnels of embrac- 

 ing shrubbery, cutting the convolvuli and creepers, thrusting aside stout, 

 thorny bushes, and by various detours taking advantage of every slight open- 

 ing the jungle afforded. This naturally lengthened our journey and pro- 

 tracted our stay in the wilderness. On the evening of the third day the first 

 death in this dismal waste occurred. 



" The fourth day we made but fourteen miles, and the march was three- 

 fold more arduous than the preceding tramp. Not a drop of water was dis- 

 covered, and the weaker people, labouring beneath their loads, and under- 

 going besides hunger and thirst, lagged behind the vanguard many miles, 

 which caused the rearguard under two of the white men much suffering. As 

 the last files advanced, they shouldered the loads of the weaker men, and 

 endeavoured to encourage them to resume the march. Some of these poor 

 fellows were enabled to Teach camp, where their necessities were relieved by 

 medicine and restoratives. But five strayed from the path which the passing 

 Expedition had made, and were never seen alive again. Scouts sent out to 

 explore the woods found one dead about a mile from our road, the others 

 must have hopelessly wandered on until they also fell down and died. 



" On the fifth day we arrived at a small village, lately erected, called 

 Uveriveri, the population of which consisted of four negroes, their wives, and 

 little ones. These people had not a grain of food to spare. Most of our 

 Expedition were unable to move for hunger and fatigue. In this dire extre- 

 mity I ordered a halt, and selected twenty of the strongest to proceed to 

 Suna, twenty -nine miles north-west from Uveriveri, to purchase food. In the 

 interval I explored the woods in search of game, but the quest was fruitless, 



