FOILED BY THE SLAVERS
Livingstone now made a second attempt to reach Lake Nyassa by the
River Rovuma. The explorers started in rowing-boats with a party
from the cruiser _Gorgon_, and made their way up stream for many days
without much adventure, though twice their right of way was disputed.
Once a tribe of natives crowded both banks, and, while fitting
poisoned arrows to their bows, began the hideous antics of their war
dance. Their chief hailed the boats, and ordered the explorers to
stop and pay toll. After a parley, Livingstone gave him thirty yards
of calico, and he promised in return that his tribe would be their
friends. No sooner, however, had the first boat rounded the next
bend of the river, than a cloud of poisoned arrows and a few
musket-balls came whizzing and singing over the heads of her crew.
The sail was cut and torn, but luckily no one was wounded, and a few
rifle-shots from the second boat sent the natives flying through the
bush.
Another time a surly hippopotamus tried to stop their way. He seemed
to think they had no right to cross his favourite bathing-pool, and
wake him out of his mid-day sleep. Diving under the water, he came
up just under the boat, and rocked her to and fro as he tried to lay
hold of her with his clumsy jaws. After grinding away at her planks
for a while with his teeth, he at last made up his mind that she was
too big and too tough for him to swallow, and then he plunged off in
a fit of the sulks.
When Livingstone had taken the boats as far up the Rovuma as
possible, he found that the river was divided into two branches, and
the natives told him that neither of them came from the Lake Nyassa.
Accordingly he returned to Shupanga, and then for the last time
started up the Shiré in the _Pioneer_ with his own little steamer,
the _Lady Nyassa_, in tow.
It was not long before he began to see that, even in the short time
he had been away, the deadly slave trade had come like a blight on
the land. A half-bred Portuguese, named Mariano, and his brutal gang
had deceived Tingané by calling themselves "Livingstone's children,"
and so were treated as friends. Thus, taking him by treachery, they
killed him and many of his tribe, and dragged off all they could to
slavery. Not content with this, they burnt the village and the
stores of corn, destroyed the crops, and drove away the flocks. No
more corn would grow for many months, and those who escaped were thus
left to starve. Many of them clung to life by hunting game and
digging up roots, but far the greater number of them died of famine.
[Illustration: They burnt the village]
When once Tingané was overcome, the work of the slavers was easier;
for his tribe was the strongest, and had been the frontier guard.
Village by village this foul and ruthless piracy spread up the river,
till now Livingstone saw the whole face of the country changed.
The smiling valley he had found four years ago was now a land of
death, strewn with black ruins and whitened skeletons. Even the
song-birds were silent around the wasted homes, as though they could
not bear to sing in the midst of such misery and desolation. Yet the
inhuman Portuguese were paying Mariano for his slaves, and
Livingstone had not the power to stop them. All he could do was to
push on with his work, and publish all he saw, in the hope that the
British Government would interfere.
But fortune was against him completely. On reaching the Murchison
Cataracts the explorers unscrewed the _Lady Nyassa_ to pieces, and
then began to make a road over which they could take her, bit by bit,
to the head of the rapids. Before the first mile of this road was
finished, both Kirk and Livingstone fell dangerously ill, and Kirk
had to return to England.
At the same time a despatch came from the British Government to
recall the expedition. The Portuguese Government had forbidden all
ships but their own to enter the Zambesi, and the British did not
think it worth while to interfere. A bitter disappointment like this
might well have broken his spirit, but Livingstone was too brave and
too faithful to his cause for that. The _Pioneer_ must wait several
months for the floods before she could go down the river, and
meanwhile he would row round Nyassa in search of a way to the sea
outside Portuguese country.
Once more his bearers started to carry a boat past the cataracts, and
all went well till they came to a stretch of smooth but swift water
below the uppermost rapid. Here, to save labour, the boat was
launched and towed up stream with a rope from the bank. All their
stores were put inside her, and also some of the Makololo, who kept
her off the rocks with poles. After two miles the Makololo, who were
splendid canoe-men, said the current was too swift and dangerous, and
they brought the boat to the bank.
Then some conceited Zambesi canoe-men took hold of the poles and
tow-rope, saying they would teach the Makololo how to take her up the
rapid. Livingstone had moved on, away from the bank, and knew
nothing of their intention till he heard loud shouts of distress. He
rushed to the bank just in time to see his stores and the Zambesi men
in the water, and his boat shooting keel uppermost down the river
like a dart.
Some of the party gave chase, but the bank was too difficult for
speed, and they never saw the boat again. The Zambesi men swam to
shore and knelt down, with their foreheads touching the earth, at
Livingstone's feet. He sent them down to the _Pioneer_ for more
stores, and, nothing daunted by this new disappointment, started off
to go round Nyassa on foot. But in spite of all his efforts he did
not reach the end of the lake before it was time to return to the
_Pioneer_ and make his last voyage down the Shiré.
The Universities' Mission also had come to an end for a while. The
brave Bishop Mackenzie had lost his life from fever on a journey down
the Shiré. The rest of the missionaries thought it best to move down
from the highlands to the river bank, and one by one they died of
fever. Livingstone now took the remnant of the mission away with him
on board the _Pioneer_, lest they should again fall into the hands of
the slavers.
In February 1864 he handed the _Pioneer_ over to H.M.S. _Orestes_, at
the mouth of the Zambesi, while his own little steamer was taken in
tow to Zanzibar by the cruiser _Ariel_. Here he learnt that many
people in England and at the Cape were blaming him for the failure of
the Zambesi expedition, and also for the fate of the Universities'
Mission. Livingstone felt this very keenly, for he knew that the
chief blame lay with the slave trade. If the British Government had
forced the Portuguese to put an end to slavery, there would have been
no failure at all.
Defeated and disappointed as he was, Livingstone would not give in,
for he knew that he was working in God's cause. He also firmly
believed that, if he could only make his countrymen really understand
the wicked cruelty and waste in Africa, they would come to the
rescue. Clearly it was his duty to awaken their understanding and
show them the way when they came. He determined to visit England,
and publish all he knew about Africa and the slave trade; then he
would return to his pioneering, and find out more.
To get money for the voyage he now tried to sell the _Lady Nyassa_,
but, on hearing that the Portuguese wanted her for a slave-boat, he
decided to take her to Bombay.
This was one of the boldest feats he ever carried out. Taking with
him a crew of three white men and nine natives, he started in the
tiny little steamer to cross 2500 miles of the Indian Ocean with
fourteen tons of coal. Two of his white sailors fell ill, and so for
many days he and the third man shared the watch in spells of four
hours. Then they lost the wind, and lay becalmed for twenty-five
days, not daring to waste their coal. At last a breeze sprang up,
and they were able to use their sails again; but they had to pass
through two furious storms before their journey's end.
The good little _Lady Nyassa_, however, came safely through
everything, till strands of seaweed and green and yellow sea-serpents
told them they were near the coast of India. They had then only
enough coal to last twenty-eight hours, and their supplies were
nearly done; but still they managed to hold out and reach Bombay
after a voyage of forty-five days. The _Lady Nyassa_ was so small
that no one noticed her arrival till Livingstone went on shore and
made himself known.
In due time Livingstone reached England, and wrote an account of the
expedition in a book called "The Zambesi and its Tributaries." He
was sought out everywhere for speeches, lectures, and entertainments;
but as soon as his work in England was finished he returned to
Zanzibar to carry out the purpose of his life.
Before leaving England the Prime Minister sent to ask him if there
was anything he wanted. Many men would have asked for money or a
title, but Livingstone thought of nothing but his work. His only
request was that the Government would make a treaty with Portugal to
put down slavery and open the Zambesi to honest trade. He was then
called before a committee of the House of Commons, who heard all his
opinions about Africa and the slave trade. Yet all the Government
did at the time was to give him £500 towards his expenses, and to
make him Consul of Central Africa, but without a salary and without a
pension. His friends in the Royal Geographical Society gave £1500
towards the new expedition, and Livingstone promised them to try and
discover the true sources of the Congo and the Nile.