rir f i 
528 Miscellaneous. 
that Dr. Livingstone had crossed Lake Nyassa about the 
middle of September last, and had advanced a few stages 
beyond its western shores, when he encountered a horde of 
savages of the Mafite tribe. He was marching, as usual, 
ahead of his party, having nine or ten personal attendants, 
principally boys from Nassick, immediately behind him. 
The savages are said to have set upon them without any 
provocation, and with very little warning. Dr. Living- 
stone’s men fired, and before the smoke of their muskets 
had cleared away, their leader had fallen beneath the stroke 
of a battle-axe, and his men speedily shared the same fate. 
Moosa, who witnessed the encounter and the death-blow 
of his master from behind a neighbouring tree, imme- 
diately retreated, and, meeting the rest of the party, they 
fled into the deep forest, and eventually made their way 
back to Lake Nyassa, whence they returned to the coast 
with a caravan. When the news of Dr. Livingstone’s sad 
death reached Zanzibar, the English and other European 
consuls lowered their flags, an example which was followed 
by all the ships in the harbour, as well as by the Sultan. 
It may be worth while to remark that Dr. Livingstone 
himself had a strong presentiment that he would never 
return from the expedition which has terminated thus dis- 
astrously ; and this presentiment he frequently expressed 
to the officers of H.M.’s ship Penguzn, who were the last 
Europeans he saw before starting for the interior. Sir R. 
Murchison writes ;—“ By a letter from Dr. Kirk, dated Zanzi- 
bar, February 8, (eleven days later than the previous dates), 
I learn that a dispatch reached his highness the Sultan, on 
the previous day from the governor of Quiloa, containing a 
most important statement with regard to Dr. Livingstone. 
The dispatch stated that traders had arrived at that port 
(Quiloa) from the far interior, beyond Lake Nyassa, and 
that at the end of November last (2.2, two months after the 
time of the reported catastrophe), when they were at Mak- 
sura (within ten miles of the supposed place of the massacre), 
nothing was known of any mishap having befallen Living- 
stone. They said, on the contrary, that the traveller had 
continued onward towards the Avisa or Babisa country, 
after having met with a hospitable reception on the western 
shore of the north end of Lake Nyassa. Dr. Kirk adds, 
however, that as Maksura is short of the place of attack 
described by the Johanna men, he almost fears to communi- 
cate this intelligence, lest it should buoy up hopes which ~ 
may too soon be broken. . . . In proof of the intense 
