816 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D, 



in the least of ultimately succeeding. Our boats will not carry a quarter of 

 our stores, so I have been obliged to hire canoes, but the expense will not be 

 very great ; at all events, I have done the best I could under the circum- 

 stances. I will send the boats down from the Cataracts here for stores, when 

 I will report further progress," 



LETTER FROM MR. E. D. YOUNG, R.N, 



(i Upper Shire, above Murchison Cataracts, 

 22nd September, 1875. 



" It is with very great pleasure that I advise you, for the information of 

 the Committee, that I arrived here to-day with the last of six hundred and 

 fifty carriers, conveying the whole of the steamers, engines and boiler, and 

 all the stores we shall require for some time. After writing you from Mas- 

 aro, on the Zambesi, we were very much delayed, owing to the rivers being 

 so low. Several times we had to clear the ' Ilala ' to the mere shell to get 

 her over and through the sandbanks. Day and night often we were at work. 

 The Morambala marsh is now a vast lake, owing to the Zambesi altering its 

 course, and we had great difficulty in finding a passage through. On near- 

 ing the Makololo villages on the Lower Shire, we were met by canoes bring- 

 ing us presents of food and fuel for the steamer ; and on our arrival at the 

 small villages, nothing could exceed the joy of the natives when they knew 

 who we were. Thousands lined the banks, clapping their hands, dancing 

 and singing, saying their fathers, the English, had come back to them. I at 

 once assembled the chiefs, who are all Makololo, and informed them of the 

 object of our mission. They all appeared very grateful, and promised to 

 assist us ; and so they have ; for without their help we could not, in so short 

 a time, have got together so many carriers, and transported everything here. 



u We arrived at the head of the Lower Shire on the 6th inst., and com- 

 menced to take the boat to pieces, pack goods, and employ carriers, and 

 arrived to-day with the last of the goods, after a sixteen miles' walk. The 

 journey was very fatiguing, and the heat oppressive ; and even to me, who 

 have done the journey before, it appears wonderful how the poor natives 

 carried their heavy loads across the mountains of rock and sand, and through 

 thick bush. Some of them came a distance of forty miles to be employed, 

 then to walk with a load of steel not less than sixty pounds, find themselves 

 in provisions, and now to return the same distance, for doing which I paid 

 each six yards of calico ! So I hope your Committee will not think I have 

 overpaid them ! I myself am pretty well, but at present am nearly done up with 

 the journey, and attending to the carriers. Till our arrival here, the whole 



