316 
LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEY ACROSS AFRICA 
This last achievement was of great importance; for he had not 
only passed through entirely new country, taking most elaborate and 
careful notes of the geographical facts which everywhere presented 
themselves to him, and entering most fully into considerations of the 
social fabric of the inhabitants and the capabilities of their environ¬ 
ment, but he had also made ver*y many astronomical calculations, deter¬ 
mining his exact route, and adding greatly to the value of his maps. 
His care and exactness in this direction were afterwards highly 
comfriended by Sir Thomas Maclear, astronomer-royal at the Cape. 
On the 20th of September, 1854, he turned his back upon Loanda 
and set out on his return journey to Linyanti. He had been six months 
on the road to Loanda, he was to be twice that long on his return, 
while six months more were to be spent in travel before he would reach 
Quilimane, on the Pacific, and complete his signal feat of crossing 
Africa, a journey which was to bring him the unbounded plaudits of 
the world. 
We have already dealt with his journey between Linyanti and 
the ocean, and need only say that on his return he added greatly to 
his store of geographical facts, especially gaining much information 
about the affluents of the Congo River. 
On arriving at Lake Dilolo, Livingstone discovered that this com¬ 
paratively small body of water emptied its waters both into the Zam¬ 
besi and the Kasai; and that, consequently, it distributed its contents 
as far as the Indian Ocean on the one side, and the Atlantic on the 
other. It was through this circumstance that the continental struc¬ 
ture of Africa became clear to him. The rivers, in the western por¬ 
tion, flowed from elevated ridges into the center, and he had learnt 
from the Arabs that much the same occurred in the eastern portion. 
But that while one drainage system had a southerly declivity, the other 
pursued a northerly course. In other words, the two great drains of 
Central Africa are the Congo and the Zambesi. 
During his return he met with many of the native chiefs who 
had been kind to him on his westward journey and rewarded some of 
them with valued presents. With one of these, Sambanza, he per¬ 
formed the ceremony of blood-brotherhood, which is so curious that 
it is worth describing in his words 
