LIVINGSTONE TRACES LAKE SHIRWA AND NYASSA
Burton and Speke had not yet returned from central Africa, when
Livingstone left England on another expedition into the interior, with
orders "to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography of
eastern and central Africa and to encourage trade." Leaving England
on 10th March 1858, he reached the east coast the following May as
British Consul of Quilimane, the region which lies about the mouth
of the Zambesi. Livingstone had brought out with him a small
steam-launch called by the natives the _Ma-Robert_ after Mrs.
Livingstone, the mother of Robert, their eldest child. In this little
steam-launch he made his way up the Shire River, which flows into the
Zambesi quite near its mouth. "The delight of threading out the
meanderings of upwards of two hundred miles of a hitherto unexplored
river must be felt to be appreciated," says Livingstone in his diary.
At the end of this two hundred miles further progress became impossible
because of rapids which no boat could pass. "These magnificent
cataracts we called the Murchison Cataracts, after one whose name has
already a world-wide fame," says Livingstone. Leaving their boat here,
they started on foot for the Great Lake described by the natives. It
took them a month of hard travelling to reach their goal. Their way
lay over the native tracks which run as a network over this part of
the world. "They are veritable footpaths, never over a foot in breadth,
beaten as hard as adamant by centuries of native traffic. Like the
roads of the old Romans, they run straight on over everything, ridge
and mountain and valley."
[Illustration: THE _MA-ROBERT_ ON THE ZAMBESI. After a drawing in
Livingstone's _Expedition to the Zambesi_.]
On 18th April, Lake Shirwa came into sight, "a considerable body of
bitter water, containing leeches, fish, crocodiles, and hippopotami.
The country around is very beautiful," adds Livingstone, "and clothed
with rich vegetation, and the waves breaking and foaming over a rock,
added to the beauty of the picture. Exceedingly lofty mountains stand
near the eastern shore."
No white man had gazed at the lake before. Though one of the smaller
African lakes, Shirwa is probably larger than all the lakes of Great
Britain put together. Returning to Tete, the explorer now prepared
for his journey to the farther Lake Nyassa. This was to be no new
discovery. The Portuguese knew the locality of Lake Shirwa, and at
the beginning of the seventeenth century Nyassa was familiar to them
under another name. Landing at the same spot on the Shire banks as
before, Livingstone, with thirty-six Makololo porters and two native
guides, ascended the beautiful Shire Highlands, some twelve hundred
feet above sea-level, and crossed the range on which Zomba, the
residence of the British Commissioner for Nyassaland, now stands. When
within a day's march of their goal they were told that no lake had
ever been heard of in the neighbourhood, but, said the natives, the
river Shire stretched on, and it would take two months to reach the
end, which came out of perpendicular rocks which towered almost to
the skies.
"Let us go back to the ship," said the followers; "it is no use trying
to find the lake."
But Livingstone persevered, and he was soon rewarded by finding a sheet
of water, which was indeed the beginning of Lake Nyassa. It was 16th
September 1859.
"How far is it to the end of the lake?" he asked.
"The other end of the lake? Who ever heard of such a thing? Why, if
one started when a mere boy to walk to the other end of the lake, he
would be an old grey-headed man before he got there," declared one
of the natives. Livingstone knew that he had opened up a great waterway
to the interior of Africa, but the slave trade in these parts was
terrible, gangs being employed in carrying the ivory from countries
to the north down to the east coast. The English explorer saw that
if he could establish a steamer upon this Lake Nyassa and buy ivory
from the natives with European goods he would at once strike a deadly
blow at the slave trade. His letters home stirred several missionaries
to come out and establish a settlement on the banks of the Shire River.
Bishop Mackenzie and a little band of helpers arrived on the river
Shire two years later, and in 1862 Mrs. Livingstone joined them,
bringing out with her a little new steamer to launch on the Lake Nyassa.
But the unhealthy season was at its height, and "the surrounding low
land, rank with vegetation and reeking from the late rainy season,
exhaled the malarious poison in enormous quantities." Mrs.
Livingstone fell ill, and in a week she was dead. She was buried under
a large baobab tree at Shapunga, where her grave is visited by many
a traveller passing through this once solitary region first penetrated
by her husband.
The blow was a crushing one for Livingstone, and for a time he was
quite bewildered. But when his old energy returned he superintended
the launching of the little steamer, the _Lady Nyassa_. But
disappointment and failure awaited him, and at last, just two years
after the death of his wife, he took the _Lady Nyassa_ to Zanzibar
by the Rovuma River and set forth to reach Bombay, where he hoped to
sell her, for his funds were low.
On the last day of April 1864 he started on his perilous journey. Though
warned that the monsoon would shortly break, he would not be deterred.
And after sailing two thousand five hundred miles in the little boat
built only for river and lake, "a forest of masts one day loomed through
the haze in Bombay harbour," and he was safe. After a brief stay here,
Livingstone left his little launch and made his way to England on a
mail-packet.
But no one realised at this time the importance of his new discoveries.
No one foresaw the value of "Nyassaland" now under British
protectorate. Livingstone had brought to light a lake fifteen hundred
and seventy feet above the sea, three hundred and fifty miles long
and forty broad, up and down which British steamers make their way
to-day, while the long range of mountains lining the eastern bank,
known as the Livingstone range, testify to the fact that he had done
much, even if he might have done more.