224 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
came. Their reception all along the Barotse valley was 
an ovation, and they were welcomed as if received from 
the dead. At last Linyanti was reached in the begin¬ 
ning of September, where the party met with a grand 
reception from Sekeletu and his people, and where 
Livingstone’s men gave the most wonderful report of 
their experiences. A party of natives was soon sent 
west with another load of ivory, though it does not 
seem that trade was carried on with much vigour after¬ 
wards, probably owing to the baneful influence of the 
slave trade along the route. 
For Livingstone’s purposes, however, the route to the 
west was unavailable, and he meant now to test the 
practicability of the route from the east coast. At first 
he had some idea of crossing the country to Zanzibar, 
but finally decided to follow the Zambesi to its mouth. 
Accompanied by Sekeletu and a numerous following, 
Livingstone left Linyanti on November 8, 1855. A 
fortnight after he made the great discovery with which, 
in popular imagination, his name is more intimately 
associated than with anything else he did—the famous 
“Victoria” falls of the Zambesi, which, after a second 
examination in his subsequent journey, he concluded to 
be due to an immense fissure or fault right across the 
bed of the river, which was one means of draining off 
the waters of the great lake which he supposed must 
have at one time occupied the centre of the continent. 
He had already formed a true idea of the configuration 
of the continent as a great hollow or basin-shaped 
plateau, surrounded by a ring of mountains. On No¬ 
vember 20 he bade adieu to Sekeletu, and, accompanied 
by 114 men, set out again on what proved a weary 
journey, and rendered more difficult in the region to 
which the Portuguese slave traders had penetrated by 
the suspicions of the natives. Livingstone reached the 
Portuguese settlement of Tette on March 2, 1856, in 
a very emaciated condition, and, after six weeks, left 
his men well cared for, and proceeded to Kilimane, 
where he arrived on May 20, thus having completed in 
two years'and six months one of the most remarkable 
