LIVINGSTONE'S MISSIONARY TRAVELS 
31 * 
from the position of an obscure missionary into that of the most famous 
of modern travelers. 
On the nth of November, 1853, Livingstone set out on a journey 
which was to end at Loanda on the Atlantic coast of Africa. He had 
sent his companions back to Kuruman and the Cape, and took with 
him instead twenty-seven men whom Sekeletu, then the Makololo chief, 
provided. These men, Livingstone said, might have been called Zam- 
besians, for there were only two true Makololo among them. 
In these latter days of exploring Africa with elaborate equip¬ 
ments and large armed forces, Livingstone’s outfit is worth noting. 
For food he took “only a few biscuits, a few pounds of tea and sugar, 
and about twenty pounds of coffee.” Of clothing he had some in a 
small tin box for use on reaching the civilized towns on the coast; of 
books he had three—a Bible, a nautical almanac and Thomson’s Lo¬ 
garithm Tables. Of course he had his journal with him—a toughly 
bound book of more than eight hundred pages. His stock of medicines 
was enclosed in a tin box, and the precious sextant, thermometer, and 
compasses were carried separately. For his followers he had three 
muskets, for himself a rifle and double-barrelled gun, these to be used 
only in the obtaining of food; and, failing the presence of game, about 
twenty pounds of beads were taken to purchase food from the natives. 
Livingstone’s bed was a horse-rug, his blanket a sheep-skin. The sole 
protection he afforded himself from tempestuous weather was repre¬ 
sented by a small gipsy tent. One more item remains to be noticed. 
He had been given by Mr. Murray a magic-lantern with slides of 
Scripture scenes, and this always afforded entertainment to the vari¬ 
ous audiences he met in his journey. “It was,” he wrote, “the only 
mode of instruction I was ever pressed to repeat.” 
The journey now before him was one of six months of toil and 
hardship, during which he followed the Zambesi until it branched off 
to the northeast, away from his chosen route. The Leeba, which here 
joined it, led him to Lake Ditolo, whence he made his way over the 
hill country of the Basouge. Finally, on the 31st of May, 1854, he 
reached die Atlantic coast at Loanda, the chief town in Portuguese 
West Africa. He had achieved a feat which no former white man had 
ever attempted and the tidings of which roused the world’s attentior 
to the utmost. Here are a few extracts from his journal: 
