LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY IN AFRICA.
The Great Explorer as a Companion -- His Missionary Labors -- The
Story of His Latest Explorations -- The Probable Sources of the Nile
-- Great Lakes and Rivers -- The Country and People of Central Africa
-- A Race of African Amazons -- Slave Trade -- A Horrid Massacre --
The Discoverer Plundered.
Mr. Stanley, rather contrary, it would seem, to his expectations, found
Dr. Livingstone an exceedingly companionable and agreeable gentleman. He
had been led to suppose that the explorer of Africa was haughty and
reserved in manner. Instead, he found him hospitable, most generous, and
as open and unaffected as a child. He deferred reading his own letters,
brought by Mr. Stanley, until he had the general news of the world
during the long period in which he had been “lost.” Then, he read of
home, and gave the commander of the “Herald” expedition an account of
his explorations. The result of these interviews is contained in a
letter dated at Bunder Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, December 26, 1871, from
which we largely extract as follows:
“The goal was won. _Finis coronat opus._ I might here stop very
well--for Livingstone was found--only the ‘Herald’ I know will not be
satisfied with one story, so I will sit down to another; a story so
interesting, because he, the great traveller, the hero Livingstone,
tells most of it himself.
“Together we turned our faces towards his tembe. He pointed to the
veranda of his house, which was an unrailed platform, built of mud,
covered by wide overhanging eaves. He pointed to his own particular
seat, on a carpet of goatskins spread over a thick mat of palm leaf. I
protested against taking his seat, but he insisted, and I yielded. We
were seated, the Doctor and I, with our back to the wall, the Arabs to
our right and left and in front, the natives forming a dark perspective
beyond. Then began conversation; I forget what about; possibly about the
road I took from Unyanyembe, but I am not sure. I know the Doctor was
talking, and I was answering mechanically. I was conning the
indomitable, energetic, patient and persevering traveller, at whose side
I now sat in Central Africa. Every hair of his head and beard, every
line and wrinkle of his face, the wan face, the fatigued form, were all
imparting the intelligence to me which so many men so much desired. It
was deeply interesting intelligence and unvarnished truths these mute
but certain witnesses gave. They told me of the real nature of the work
in which he was engaged. Then his lips began to give me the
details--lips that cannot lie. I could not repeat what he said. He had
so much to say that he began at the end, seemingly oblivious of the fact
that nearly six years had to be accounted for. But the story came out
bit by bit, unreservedly--as unreservedly as if he was conversing with
Sir R. Murchison, his true friend and best on earth. The man’s heart was
gushing out, not in hurried sentences, in rapid utterances, in quick
relation--but in still and deep words. A happier companion, a truer
friend than the traveller, I could not wish for. He was always
polite--with a politeness of the genuine kind--and this politeness never
forsook him for an instant even in the midst of the most rugged scenes
and greatest difficulties. Upon my first introduction to him Livingstone
was to me like a huge tome, with a most unpretending binding. Within,
the book might contain much valuable lore and wisdom, but its exterior
gave no promise of what was within. Thus outside Livingstone gave no
token--except of being rudely dealt with by the wilderness--of what
element of power or talent lay within. He is a man of unpretending
appearance enough, has quiet, composed features, from which the
freshness of youth has quite departed, but which retains the mobility of
prime age just enough to show that there yet lives much endurance and
vigor within his frame. The eyes, which are hazel, are remarkably
bright, not dimmed in the least, though the whiskers and mustache are
very gray. The hair, originally brown, is streaked here and there with
gray over the temples, otherwise it might belong to a man of thirty. The
teeth above show indications of being worn out. The hard fare of Londa
and Manyema have made havoc in their ranks. His form is stoutish, a
little over the ordinary in height, with slightly bowed shoulders. When
walking he has the heavy step of an overworked and fatigued man. On his
head he wears the naval cap, with a round vizor, with which he has been
identified throughout Africa. His dress shows that at times he has had
to resort to the needle to repair and replace what travel has worn.
Such is Livingstone externally.
[Illustration: THE DISCOVERY OF LIVINGSTONE.]
“Of the inner man much more may be said than of the outer. As he reveals
himself, bit by bit, to the stranger, a great many favorable points
present themselves, any of which taken singly might well dispose you
toward him. I had brought him a packet of letters, and though I urged
him again and again to defer conversation with me until he had read the
news from home and children, he said he would defer reading until night;
for the time he would enjoy being astonished by the European and any
general world news I could communicate. He had acquired the art of being
patient long ago, he said, and he had waited so long for letters that he
could well afford to wait a few hours more. So we sat and talked on that
humble veranda of one of the poorest houses in Ujiji. Talked quite
oblivious of the large concourse of Arabs, Wanguana, and Wajiji, who had
crowded around to see the new comer.
“The hours of that afternoon passed most pleasantly--few afternoons of
my life more so. It seemed to me as if I had met an old, old friend.
There was a friendly or good-natured _abandon_ about Livingstone which
was not lost on me. As host, welcoming one who spoke his language, he
did his duties with a spirit and style I have never seen elsewhere. He
had not much to offer, to be sure, but what he had was mine and his. The
wan features which I had thought shocked me at first meeting, the heavy
step which told of age and hard travel, the gray beard and stooping
shoulders belied the man. Underneath that aged and well spent exterior
lay an endless fund of high spirits, which now and then broke out in
peals of hearty laughter--the rugged frame enclosed a very young and
exuberant soul. The meal--I am not sure but what we ate three meals that
afternoon--was seasoned with innumerable jokes and pleasant anecdotes,
interesting hunting stories, of which his friends Webb, Oswell, Vardon,
and Cumming (Gordon Cumming) were always the chief actors. ‘You have
brought me new life,’ he said several times, so that I was not sure but
that there was some little hysteria in this joviality and abundant
animal spirits, but as I found it continued during several weeks I am
now disposed to think it natural.
“Another thing which specially attracted my attention was his
wonderfully retentive memory. When we remember the thirty years and more
he has spent in Africa, deprived of books, we may well think it an
uncommon memory that can recite whole poems of Burns, Byron, Tennyson,
and Longfellow. Even the poets Whittier and Lowell were far better known
to him than me. He knew an endless number of facts and names of persons
connected with America much better than I, though it was my peculiar
province as a journalist to have known them.
“Dr. Livingstone is a truly pious man--a man deeply imbued with real
religious instincts. The study of the man would not be complete if we
did not take the religious side of his character into consideration. His
religion, any more than his business, is not of the theoretical
kind--simply contenting itself with avowing its peculiar creed and
ignoring all other religions as wrong or weak. It is of the true,
practical kind, never losing a chance to manifest itself in a quiet,
practical way--never demonstrative or loud. It is always at work, if not
in deed, by shining example. It is not aggressive, which sometimes is
troublesome and often impertinent. In him religion exhibits its
loveliest features. It governs his conduct towards his servants, towards
the natives and towards the bigoted Mussulmans--all who come in contact
with him. Without religion Livingstone, with his ardent temperament, his
enthusiastic nature, his high spirit and courage, might have been an
uncompanionable man and a hard master. Religion has tamed all these
characteristics; nay, if he was ever possessed of them, they have been
thoroughly eradicated. Whatever was crude or wilful religion has
refined, and made him, to speak the earnest, sober truth, the most
agreeable of companions and indulgent of masters. Every Sunday morning
he gathers his little flock around him and has prayers read, in the tone
recommended by Archbishop Whatley--viz, natural, unaffected, and
sincere. Following them he delivers a short address in the Kisawahiti
language about what he has been reading from the Bible to them, which is
listened to with great attention.
“When I first met the Doctor I asked him if he did not feel a desire to
visit his country and take a little rest. He had then been absent about
six years, and the answer he gave me freely shows what kind of man he
is. Said he:--
“‘I would like very much to go home and see my children once again, but
I cannot bring my heart to abandon the task I have undertaken when it
is so nearly completed. It only requires six or seven months more to
trace the true source that I have discovered with Petherick’s branch of
the White Nile, or with the Albert Nyanza of Sir Samuel Baker. Why
should I go before my task is ended, to have to come back again to do
what I can very well do now?’ ‘And why,’ I asked, ‘did you come so far
back without finishing the short task which you say you have yet to do?’
‘Simply because I was forced; my men would not budge a step forward.
They mutinied and formed a secret resolution that if I still insisted on
going on to raise a disturbance in the country, and after they had
effected it to abandon me, in which case I should be killed. It was
dangerous to go any farther. I had explored six hundred miles of the
watershed, had traced all the principal streams which discharged their
waters into the central line of drainage, and when about starting to
explore the last one hundred miles the hearts of my people failed, and
they set about frustrating me in every possible way. Now, having
returned seven hundred miles to get a new supply of stores and another
escort, I find myself destitute of even the means to live but for a few
weeks, and sick in mind and body.’
“Again, about a week after I had arrived in Ujiji, I asked Livingstone
if he had examined the northern head of the Tanganyika. He answered
immediately he had not, and then asked if people expected he had.
“‘I did try before setting out for Manyema,’ he said, ‘to engage canoes
and proceed northward, but I soon saw that the people were all
confederating to fleece me as they had Burton, and had I gone under
such circumstances I should not have been able to proceed to Manyema to
explore the central line of drainage, and of course the most important
line--far more important than the line of the Tanganyika; for whatever
connection there may be between the Tanganyika and the Albert the true
sources of the Nile are those emptying into the central line of
drainage. In my own mind I have not the least doubt that the Rusizi
River flows from this lake into the Albert. For three months steadily I
observed a current setting northward. I verified it by means of water
plants. When Speke gives the altitude of the Tanganyika at only 1,880
feet above the sea I imagine he must have fallen into the error by
frequently writing the Anno Domini, and thus made a slip of the pen; for
the altitude is over two thousand eight hundred feet by boiling point,
though I make it a little over three thousand feet by barometers. Thus
you see that there are no very great natural difficulties on the score
of altitude, and nothing to prevent the reasonable supposition that
there may be a water connection by means of the Rusizi or some other
river between the two lakes. Besides, the Arabs here are divided in
their statements. Some swear that the river goes out of the Tanganyika,
others that it flows into the Tanganyika.’
“Dr. Livingstone left the island of Zanzibar in March, 1866. On the 7th
of the following month he departed from Mikindini Bay for the interior,
with an expedition consisting of twelve Sepoys from Bombay, nine men
from Johanna, of the Comoro Isles seven liberated slaves and two
Zambesi men (taking them as an experiment), six camels, three buffaloes,
two mules and three donkeys. He thus had thirty men, twelve of
whom--viz., the Sepoys--were to act as guards for the expedition. They
were mostly armed with the Enfield rifles presented to the Doctor by the
Bombay Government. The baggage of the expedition consisted of ten bales
of cloth and two bags of beads, which were to serve as currency by which
they would be enabled to purchase the necessaries of life in the
countries the Doctor intended to visit. Besides the cumbrous moneys they
carried several boxes of instruments, such as chronometers, air
thermometers, sextant and artificial horizon, boxes containing clothes,
medicines, and personal necessaries.
“The expedition travelled up the left bank of the Rovuma River, a route
as full of difficulties as any that could be chosen. For miles
Livingstone and his party had to cut their way with their axes through
the dense and most impenetrable jungles which lined the river’s banks.
The road was a mere footpath, leading in the almost erratic fashion, in
and through the dense vegetation, seeking the easiest outlet from it
without any regard to the course it ran. The pagazis were able to
proceed easily enough, but the camels, on account of their enormous
height, could not advance a step without the axes of the party first
clearing the way. These tools of foresters were almost always required,
but the advance of the expedition was often retarded by the
unwillingness of the Sepoys and Johanna men to work. Soon after the
departure of the expedition from the coast the murmurings and complaints
of these men began, and upon every occasion and at every opportunity
they evinced a decided hostility to an advance.
“The Doctor and his little party arrived on the 18th day of July, 1866,
at a village belonging to a chief of the Mahiyaw, situated eight days’
march south of the Rovuma and overlooking the watershed of the Lake
Nyassa. The territory lying between the Rovuma river and this Mahiyaw
chieftain was an uninhabited wilderness, during the transit of which
Livingstone and the expedition suffered considerably from hunger and
desertion of men.
“Early in August, 1866, the Doctor came to Mponda’s country, a chief who
dwelt near the Lake Nyassa. On the road thither two of the liberated
slaves deserted him. Here, also, Wakotani (not Wikotani) a _protege_ of
the Doctor, insisted upon his discharge, alleging as an excuse, which
the Doctor subsequently found to be untrue, that he had found his
brother.”
Hence the explorer proceeded to the heel of Lake Nyassa where there is a
village of a Babisa chief. The chief was ill, and Doctor Livingstone
remained there for some time to give him medical aid. It was here that
he was deserted by his Johanna men, the chief of whom, Ali Moosa (or
Musa), pretended to give credence to a mournful story of plunder
perpetrated upon a certain half-caste Arab who had been along the
western shore of the lake. Though the explorer gave no faith to the Arab
story, he determined not to go among the Ma-zitu, reported so hostile,
and proceeded in a southwestern course for a considerable distance. The
correspondent’s letter goes on to say:
“As soon as he turned his face westward Musa and the Johanna men ran
away in a body. The Doctor says, in commenting upon Musa’s conduct, that
he felt strongly tempted to shoot Musa and another ringleader, but was
nevertheless glad that he did not soil his hands with their vile blood.
A day or two afterwards another of his men--Simon Price by name--came to
the Doctor with the same tale about the Ma-Zitu, but, compelled by the
scant number of his people to repress all such tendencies to desertion
and faint-heartedness, the Doctor ‘shut him up’ at once and forbade him
to utter the name of the Ma-Zitu any more. Had the natives not assisted
him he must have despaired of ever being able to penetrate the wild and
unexplored interior which he was now about to tread.
“‘Fortunately,’ as the Doctor says with unction, ‘I was in a country
now, after leaving the shores of the Nyassa, where the feet of the slave
trader had not trodden. It was a new and virgin land, and of course, as
I have always found it in such cases, the natives were really good and
hospitable, and for very small portions of cloth my baggage was conveyed
from village to village by them.’ In many other ways the traveller in
his extremity was kindly treated by the undefiled and unspoiled natives.
On leaving this hospitable region in the early part of December, 1866,
the Doctor entered a country where the Mazitu had exercised their
customary spoliating propensities. The land was swept clean of all
provisions and cattle, and the people had emigrated to other countries
beyond the bounds of these ferocious plunderers. Again the expedition
was besieged by famine, and was reduced to great extremity. To satisfy
the pinching hunger it suffered it had recourse to the wild fruits which
some parts of the country furnished. At intervals the condition of the
hard-pressed band was made worse by the heartless desertion of some of
its members, who more than once departed with the Doctor’s personal
kit--changes of clothes and linen, etc. With more or less misfortunes
constantly dogging his footsteps, he traversed in safety the countries
of the Babisa, Bobemba, Barungu, Baulungu, and Londa.
“In the country of Londa lives the famous Cazembe--made known to
Europeans first by Dr. Lacerda, the Portuguese traveller. Cazembe is a
most intelligent prince; is a tall, stalwart man, who wears a peculiar
kind of dress, made of crimson print, in the form of a prodigious kilt.
The mode of arranging it is most ludicrous. All the folds of this
enormous kilt are massed in front, which causes him to look as if the
peculiarities of the human body were reversed in his case. The abdominal
parts are thus covered with a balloon-like expansion of cloth, while the
lumbar region, which is by us jealously clothed, with him is only half
draped by a narrow curtain which by no means suffices to obscure its
naturally fine proportions. In this state dress King Cazembe received
Dr. Livingstone, surrounded by his chiefs and body guards. A chief, who
had been deputed by the King and elders to find out all about the white
man, then stood up before the assembly, and in a loud voice gave the
result of the inquiry he had instituted. He had heard the white man had
come to look for waters, for rivers and seas. Though he did not
understand what the white man could want with such things, he had no
doubt that the object was good. Then Cazembe asked what the Doctor
proposed doing and where he thought of going. The Doctor replied that he
had thought of going south, as he had heard of lakes and rivers being in
that direction. Cazembe asked: ‘What can you want to go there for? The
water is close here. There is plenty of large water in this
neighborhood.’ Before breaking up the assembly Cazembe gave orders to
let the white man go where he would through his country undisturbed and
unmolested. He was the first Englishman he had seen, he said, and he
liked him.
“Shortly after his introduction to the King the Queen entered the large
house surrounded by a body guard of Amazons armed with spears. She was a
fine, tall, handsome young woman, and evidently thought she was about to
make a great impression upon the rustic white man, for she had clothed
herself after a most royal fashion, and was armed with a ponderous
spear. But her appearance, so different from what the Doctor had
imagined, caused him to laugh, which entirely spoiled the effect
intended, for the laugh of the Doctor was so contagious that she herself
was the first who imitated, and the Amazons, courtier-like, followed
suit. Much disconcerted by this, the Queen ran back, followed by her
obedient damsels--a retreat most undignified and unqueenlike compared
to her majestic advent into the Doctor’s presence.
“Soon after his arrival in the country of Londa, or Lunda, and before he
had entered the district of Cazembe, he had crossed a river called the
Chambezi, which was quite an important stream. The similarity of the
name with that large and noble river south, which will be forever
connected with his name, misled Livingstone at that time, and he
accordingly did not pay it the attention it deserved, believing that the
Chambezi was but the head-waters of the Zambezi, and consequently had no
bearing or connection with the sources of the river of Egypt, of which
he was in search. His fault was in relying too implicitly upon the
correctness of Portuguese information. This error cost him many months
of tedious labor and travel. But these travels and tedious labors of his
in Londa and the adjacent countries have established beyond doubt,
first, that the Chambezi is a totally distinct river from the Zambezi of
the Portuguese, and secondly, that the Chambezi, starting from about
latitude eleven degrees south, is none other than the most southerly
feeder of the great Nile, thus giving this famous river a length of over
two thousand six hundred miles of direct latitude, making it second to
the Mississippi, the longest river in the world. The real and true name
of the Zambezi is Dombazi. When Lacuda and his Portuguese successors
came to Cazembe, crossed the Chambezi and heard its name, they very
naturally set it down as ‘our own Zambezi,’ and without further
inquiry sketched it as running in that direction.
[Illustration: AMAZON WARRIORS.]
“During his researches in that region, so pregnant in discoveries,
Livingstone came to a lake lying northeast of Cazembe, which the natives
called Liemba, from the country of that name, which bordered it on the
east and south. In tracing the lake north he found it to be none other
than the Tanganyika, or the southeastern extremity of it, which looks on
the Doctor’s map very much like an outline of Italy. The latitude of the
southern end of this great body of water is about nine degrees south,
which gives it thus a length, from north to south, of 360 geographical
miles.
“From the southern extremity of the Tanganyika he crossed Marungu and
came in sight of Lake Moero. Tracing this lake, which is about sixty
miles in length, to its southern head, he found a river called the
Luapula entering it from that direction. Following the Luapula south he
found it issue from the large lake of Bangweolo, which is as large in
superficial area as the Tanganyika. In exploring for the waters which
emptied into the lake he found by far the most important of these
feeders was the Chambezi. So that he had thus traced the Chambezi from
its source to Lake Bangweolo, and issue from its northern head under the
name of Luapula, and found it enter Lake Moero. Again he returned to
Cazembe, well satisfied that the river running north through three
degrees of latitude could not be the river running south under the name
of the Zambezi, though there might be a remarkable resemblance in their
names.
“At Cazembe he found an old white-bearded half-caste named Mohammed ben
Salih, who was kept as a kind of prisoner at large by the King because
of certain suspicious circumstance attending his advent and stay in his
country. Through Livingstone’s influence Mohammed ben Salih obtained his
release. On the road to Ujiji he had bitter cause to regret having
exerted himself in the half-caste’s behalf. He turned out to be a most
ungrateful wretch, who poisoned the minds of the Doctor’s few followers
and ingratiated himself in their favor by selling the favors of his
concubines to them, thus reducing them to a kind of bondage under him.
From the day he had the vile old man in his company manifold and bitter
misfortunes followed the Doctor up to his arrival in Ujiji, in March,
1869.
“From the date of his arrival until the end of June (1869) he remained
in Ujiji, whence he dated those letters which, though the outside world
still doubted his being alive, satisfied the minds of the Royal
Geographical people and his intimate friends that he was alive, and
Musa’s tale an ingenious but false fabrication of a cowardly deserter.
It was during this time that the thought occurred to him of sailing
around the Lake Tanganyika, but the Arabs and natives were so bent upon
fleecing him that, had he undertaken it the remainder of his goods would
not have enabled him to explore the central line of drainage, the
initial point of which he found far south of Cazembe, in about latitude
11 degrees, in the river Chambezi. In the days when tired Captain
Burton was resting in Ujiji, after his march from the coast near
Zanzibar, the land to which Livingstone, on his departure from Ujiji,
bent his steps, was unknown to the Arabs save by vague report. Messrs.
Burton and Speke never heard of it, it seems. Speke, who was the
geographer of Burton’s expedition, heard of a place called Uruwa, which
he placed on his map according to the general direction indicated by the
Arabs; but the most enterprising of the Arabs, in their search after
ivory, only touched the frontiers of Rua, as the natives and Livingstone
call it; for Rua is an immense country, with a length of six degrees of
latitude and as yet an undefined breadth from east to west.
“At the end of June, 1869, Livingstone took _dhow_ at Ujiji and crossed
over to Uguhha, on the western shore, for his last and greatest series
of explorations, the result of which was the discovery of a series of
lakes of great magnitude connected together by a large river called by
different names as it left one lake to flow to another. From the port of
Uguhha he set off in company with a body of traders, in an almost direct
westerly course, through the lake country of Uguhha. Fifteen days march
brought them to Bambarre, the first important ivory depot in Manyema,
or, as the natives pronounce it, Manuyema. For nearly six months he was
detained at Bambarre from ulcers in the feet, with copious discharges of
bloody ichor oozing from the sores as soon as he set his feet on the
ground. When well, he set off in a northerly direction, and, after
several days, came to a broad, lacustrine river, called the Lualaba,
flowing northward and westward, and, in some places southward, in a most
confusing way. The river was from one to three miles broad. By exceeding
pertinacity he contrived to follow its erratic course until he saw the
Lualaba enter the narrow but lengthy lake of Kamolondo, in about
latitude 6 deg. 30 min. south. Retracing it south he came to the point
where he had seen the Luapula enter Lake Moero.
“One feels quite enthusiastic when listening to Livingstone’s
description of the beauties of Moero scenery. Pent in on all sides by
high mountains clothed to their tips with the richest vegetation of the
tropics, Moero discharges its superfluous waters through a deep rent in
the bosom of the mountains. The impetuous and grand river roars through
the chasm with the thunder of a cataract; but soon after leaving its
confined and deep bed it expands into the calm and broad
Lualaba--expanding over miles of ground, making great bends west and
southwest, then, curving northward, enters Kamolondo. By the natives it
is called the Lualaba, but the Doctor, in order to distinguish it from
the other rivers of the same name, has given it the name of Webb’s
River, after Mr. Webb, the wealthy proprietor of Newstead Abbey, whom
the Doctor distinguishes as one of his oldest and most consistent
friends. Away to the southwest from Kamolondo is another large lake,
which discharges its waters by the important river Locki, or Lomami,
into the great Lualaba. To this lake, known as Chebungo by the natives,
Dr. Livingstone has given the name of Lincoln, to be hereafter
distinguished on maps and in books as Lake Lincoln, in memory of Abraham
Lincoln, our murdered President. This was done from the vivid impression
produced on his mind by hearing a portion of his inauguration speech
read from an English pulpit, which related to the causes that induced
him to issue his emancipation proclamation. To the memory of the man
whose labors in behalf of the negro race deserved the commendation of
all good men Livingstone has contributed a monument more durable than
brass or stone.
“Entering Webb’s River from the south-southwest, a little north of
Kamolondo, is a large river called the Lufira, but the streams that
discharge themselves from the watershed into the Lualaba are so numerous
that the Doctor’s map would not contain them, so he has left all out
except the most important. Continuing his way north, tracing the Luabala
through its manifold and crooked curves as far as latitude four degrees
south, he came to another large lake called the Unknown Lake; but here
you may come to a dead halt, and read it thus:--* * * * * *. Here was
the furthermost point. From here he was compelled to return on the weary
road to Ujiji, a distance of 600 miles.
“In this brief sketch of Doctor Livingstone’s wonderful travels it is to
be hoped that the most superficial reader as well as the student of
geography, comprehends this grand system of lakes connected together by
Webb’s river. To assist him, let him procure a map of Africa, embracing
the latest discoveries. Two degrees south of the Tanganyika, and two
degrees west let him draw the outlines of a lake, its greatest length
from east to west, and let him call it Bangweolo. One degree or
thereabout to the northwest let him sketch the outlines of another but
smaller lake and call it Moero; a degree again north of Moero another
lake of similar size, and call it Kamolondo, and still a degree north of
Kamolondo another lake, large and as yet undefined limits, which, in the
absence of any specific term; we will call the Nameless Lake. Then let
him connect these several lakes by a river called after different names.
Thus, the main feeder of Bangweolo, the Chambezi; the river which issues
out of Bangweolo and runs into Moero, the Luapula; the river connecting
Moero with Kamolondo, Webb’s river; that which runs from Kamolondo into
the Nameless Lake northward, the Lualaba; and let him write in bold
letters over the rivers Chambezi, Luapula, Webb’s River and the Lualaba
the ‘Nile,’ for these are all one and the same river. Again, west of
Moero Lake, about one degree or thereabouts, another large lake may be
placed on his map, with a river running diagonally across to meet the
Lualaba north of Lake Kamolondo. This new lake is Lake Lincoln, and the
river is the Lomami River, the confluence of which with the Lualaba is
between Kamolondo and the Nameless Lake. Taken altogether, the reader
may be said to have a very fair idea of what Dr. Livingstone has been
doing these long years, and what additions he has made to the study of
African geography. That this river, distinguished under several titles,
flowing from one lake into another in a northerly direction, with all
its great crooked bends and sinuosities is the Nile, the true Nile, the
Doctor has not the least doubt. For a long time he did doubt, because of
its deep bends and curves--west, and southwest even--but having traced
it from its headwaters, the Chambezi, through seven degrees of
latitude--that is, from latitude eleven degrees south to a little north
of latitude four degrees south--he has been compelled to come to the
conclusion that it can be no other river than the Nile. He had thought
it was the Congo, but he has discovered the sources of the Congo to be
the Kasai and the Quango, two rivers which rise on the western side of
the Nile watershed in about the latitude of Bangweolo; and he was told
of another river called the Lubilash, which rose from the north and ran
west. But the Lualaba the Doctor thinks cannot be the Congo, from its
great size and body and from its steady and continual flow northward
through a broad and extensive valley, bounded by enormous mountains,
westerly and easterly. The altitude of the most northerly point to which
the Doctor traced the wonderful river was a little over two thousand
feet, so that though Baker makes out his lake to be two thousand seven
hundred feet above the sea, yet the Bahr Ghazal, through which
Petherick’s branch of the White Nile issues into the Nile is only a
little over two thousand feet, in which case there is a possibility that
the Lualaba may be none other than Petherick’s branch. It is well known
that trading stations for ivory have been established for about five
hundred miles up Petherick’s branch. We must remember this fact when
told that Gondokoro, in latitude four degrees north, is two thousand
feet above the sea, and latitude four degrees south, where the Doctor
was halted, is only a little over two thousand feet above the sea. That
two rivers, said to be two thousand feet above the sea, separated from
each other by eight degrees of latitude, are the same stream may, among
some men, be regarded as a startling statement. But we must restrain
mere expressions of surprise and take into consideration that this
mighty and broad Lualaba is a lacustrine river--broader than the
Mississippi--and think of our own rivers, which, though shallow, are
exceedingly broad. We must wait also until the altitude of the two
rivers--the Lualaba, where the Doctor halted, and the southern point on
the Bahr Ghazal, where Petherick has been--are known with perfect
accuracy.
[Illustration: CHARACTERISTIC HEAD-DRESSES.]
“Webb’s River, or the Lualaba, from Bangweolo is a lacustrine river,
expanding from one to three miles in breadth. At intervals it forms
extensive lakes, then contracting into a broad river it again forms a
lake, and so on to latitude four degrees north, and beyond this point
the Doctor heard of a large lake again north. Now, for the sake of
argument, suppose we give this nameless lake a length of four degrees
latitude, as it may be the one discovered by Piaggia, the Italian
traveller, from which Petherick’s branch of the White Nile issues out
through reeds, marshes and the Bahr Ghazal into the White Nile south of
Gondokoro. By this method we can suppose the rivers one--for the lakes
extending over so many degrees of latitude would obviate the necessity
of explaining the differences of latitude that must naturally exist
between the points of a river eight degrees of latitude apart. Also,
that Livingstone’s instruments for observation and taking altitude may
have been in error, and this is very likely to have been the case,
subjected as they have been to rough handling during nearly six years of
travel.
“Despite the apparent difficulty about the altitude, there is another
strong reason for believing Webb’s River, or the Lualaba, to be the
Nile. The watershed of this river, 600 miles of which Livingstone has
travelled, is drained by a valley which lies north and south between the
eastern and western ranges of the watershed. This valley or line of
drainage, while it does not receive the Kasai and the Quango, receives
rivers flowing from a great distance west--for instance, the important
tributaries Lufira and Lomami and large rivers from the east, such as
the Lindi and Luamo; and while the most intelligent Portuguese
travellers and traders state that the Kasai, the Quango and Lubilash are
the head waters of the Congo river, no one as yet has started the
supposition that the grand river flowing north and known to the natives
as the Lualaba, was the Congo. If this river is not the Nile where,
then, are the head waters of the Nile? The small river running out of
the Victoria Nyanza and the river flowing out of the little Lake Albert
have not sufficient water to form the great river of Egypt. As you glide
down the Nile and note the Asna, the Geraffe, the Sobat, the Blue Nile
and Atbara, and follow the river down to Egypt, it cannot fail to
impress you that it requires many more streams, or one large river,
larger than all yet discovered, to influence its inundations and
replace the waste of its flow through a thousand miles of desert.
Perhaps a more critical survey of the Bahr Ghazal would prove that the
Nile is influenced by the waters that pour through ‘the small piece of
water resembling a duck pond buried in a sea of rushes,’ as Speke
describes the Bahr Ghazal. Livingstone’s discovery answers the question
and satisfies the intelligent hundreds, who, though Bruce and Speke and
Baker, each in his turn had declared he had found the Nile, the only and
true Nile sources, yet doubted and hesitated to accept the enthusiastic
assertions as a final solution of the Nile problem. Even yet, according
to Livingstone the Nile sources have not been found; though he has
traced the Lualaba through seven degrees of latitude flowing north, and
though neither he nor I have a particle of doubt of its being the Nile,
not yet can the Nile question be said to be ended for three reasons--
“_First_--He has heard of the existence of four fountains, two of which
give birth to a river flowing north--Webb’s River, or the Lualaba; two
to a river flowing south, which is the Zambezi. He has heard of these
fountains repeatedly from the natives. Several times he has been within
one hundred and two hundred miles from them, but something always
interposed to prevent him going to see them. According to those who have
seen them, they rise on either side of a mound or hill which contains no
stones. Some have even called it an ant hill. One of these fountains is
said to be so large that a man standing on one side cannot be seen from
the other. These fountains must be discovered, and their position
taken. The Doctor does not suppose them to lie south of the feeders of
Lake Bangweolo.
“_Second_--Webb’s River must be traced to its connection with some
portion of the old Nile.
“_Third_--The connection between the Tanganyika and the Albert Nyanza
must be ascertained.
“When these three things have been accomplished, then, and not till
then, can the mystery of the Nile be explained. The two countries
through which this marvellous lacustrine river--the Lualaba--flows, with
its manifold lakes and broad expanses of water, are Rua--the Uruwa of
Speke--and Manyema. For the first time Europe is made aware that between
the Tanganyika and the known sources of the Congo there exist teeming
millions of the negro race who never saw or heard of the white peoples
who make such noisy and busy stir outside of Africa. Upon the minds of
those who had the good fortune to see the first specimen of these
remarkable white races Livingstone seems to have made a favorable
impression, though, through misunderstanding his object and coupling him
with the Arabs who make horrible work there, his life has been sought
after more than once.
“These two extensive countries, Rua and Manyema, are populated by true
heathens--governed not as the sovereignties of Karagwah, Wumdi, and
Uganda by despotic kings, but each village by its own sultan or lord.
Thirty miles outside of their own immediate settlements the most
intelligent of those small chiefs seem to know nothing. Thirty miles
from the Lualaba there were but few people who had ever heard of the
great river. Such ignorance among the natives of their own countries, of
course, increased the labors of Livingstone. Compared with these all
tribes and nations in Africa with whom Livingstone came in contact may
be deemed civilized. Yet in the arts of home manufacture these wild
people of Manyema are far superior to any he had seen. When other tribes
and nations contented themselves with hides and skins of animals thrown
negligently over their shoulders the people of Manyema manufactured a
cloth from fine grass which may favorably compare with the finest grass
cloth of India. They also know the art of dyeing in various
colors--black, yellow, and purple. The Wanguana or freed men of
Zanzibar, struck with the beauty of this fine grass fabric, eagerly
exchange their cotton cloths for fine grass cloth, and on almost every
black man returned from Manyema I have seen this native cloth converted
into elegantly made _damirs_ (Arabic)--short jackets.
“These countries are also very rich in ivory. The fever for going to
Manyema to exchange their tawdry beads for the precious tusks of Manyema
is of the same kind as that which impelled men to the gulches and
placers of California, Colorado, Montana, and Idaho; after nuggets to
Australia, and diamonds to Cape Colony. Manyema is at present the El
Dorado of the Arabs and the Wamrima tribes. It is only about four years
since the first Arab returned from Manyema with such wealth of ivory and
reports about the fabulous quantities found there that ever since the
old beaten tracks of Karagwah, Uganda, Ufipa and Marungu have been
comparatively deserted. The people of Manyema, ignorant of the value of
the precious article, reared their huts upon ivory stanchions. Ivory
pillars and doors were common sights in Manyema, and hearing of these
one can no longer wonder at the ivory palace of Solomon. For generations
they had used ivory tusks as doorposts and eave stanchions, until they
had become perfectly rotten and worthless. But the advent of the Arabs
soon taught them the value of the article. It has now risen considerably
in price, though yet fabulously cheap. At Zanzibar the value of ivory
per frarsilah of thirty-five pounds weight is from fifty dollars to
sixty dollars, according to its quality. In Unyanyembe it is about one
dollar and ten cents per pound; but in Manyema it may be purchased for
from half a cent to one and a quarter cent’s worth of copper per pound
of ivory.
[Illustration: AN AFRICAN BELLE.]
“The Arabs, however, have the knack of spoiling markets by their
rapacity and wanton cruelty. With muskets a small party of Arabs are
invincible against such people as those of Manyema, who until lately
never heard the sound of a gun. The report of a musket inspires mortal
terror in them, and it is almost impossible to induce them to face the
muzzle of a gun. They believe that the Arabs have stolen the lightning,
and that against such people the bow and arrow can have but little
effect. They are by no means devoid of courage, and they have often
declared that were it not for the guns not one Arab would leave the
country alive, which tends to prove that they would willingly engage in
fight with the strangers, who have made themselves so detestable, were
it not that the startling explosion of gunpowder inspires them with such
terror.
“Into whichever country the Arabs enter they contrive to render their
name and race abominated. But the mainspring of it all is not the Arab’s
nature, color, or name, but simply the slave trade. So long as the slave
trade is permitted to be kept up at Zanzibar so long will these
otherwise enterprising people, the Arabs, kindle against them throughout
Africa the hatred of the natives. The accounts which the Doctor brings
from that new region are most deplorable. He was an unwilling spectator
of a horrible deed--a massacre committed on the inhabitants of a
populous district--who had assembled in the market place, on the banks
of the Lualaba, as they had been accustomed to for ages. It seems the
Wa-Manyema are very fond of marketing, believing it to be the _summum
bonum_ of human enjoyment. They find unceasing pleasure in chaffering
with might and main for the least mite of their currency--the last
bead--and when they gain the point to which their peculiar talents are
devoted they feel intensely happy. The women are excessively fond of
their marketing, and as they are very beautiful, the market place must
possess considerable attractions for the male sex. It was on such a day,
with just such a scene, that Tagomoyo, a half-caste Arab, with his armed
slave escort, commenced an indiscriminate massacre by firing volley
after volley into the dense mass of human beings. It is supposed that
there were about two thousand present, and at the first sound of the
firing these poor people all made a rush for their canoes. In the
fearful hurry to avoid being shot the canoes were paddled away by the
first fortunate few who got possession of them. Those that were not so
fortunate sprang into the deep waters of the Lualaba, and, though many
of them became an easy prey to the voracious crocodiles that swarmed to
the scene, the majority received their deaths from the bullets of the
merciless Tagomoyo and his villainous band. The Doctor believes, as do
the Arabs themselves, that about four hundred people, mostly women and
children, lost their lives, while many more were made slaves. This scene
is only one of many such which he has unwillingly witnessed, and he is
utterly unable to describe the loathing he feels for the inhuman
perpetrators.
[Illustration: THE MASSACRE OF THE MANYUEMA WOMEN.]
“Slaves from Manyema command a higher price than those of any other
country, because of their fine forms and general docility. The women,
the Doctor says repeatedly, are remarkably pretty creatures, and have
nothing except their hair in common with the negroes of the West Coast.
They are of very light color, have fine noses, well-cut and not over
full lips, and a prognathous jaw is uncommon. These women are eagerly
sought after for wives by the half-castes of the East Coast, and even
the pure Amani Arabs do not disdain connection with them. To the north
of Manyema Livingstone came to a light-complexioned race of the color of
Portuguese, or our own Louisiana quadroons, who are very fine people,
and singularly remarkable for commercial ‘cuteness’ and sagacity. The
women are expert divers for oysters, which are found in great abundance
in the Lualaba.
“Rua, at a place called Katanga, is rich in copper. The copper mines of
this place have been worked for ages. In the bed of a stream gold has
been found washed down in pencil-shaped lumps or particles as large as
split peas. Two Arabs have gone thither to prospect for this metal, but
as they are ignorant of the art of gulch mining it is scarcely possible
that they will succeed.
“From these highly important and interesting discoveries Dr. Livingstone
was turned back when almost on the threshold of success by the positive
refusal of his men to accompany him further. They were afraid to go
unless accompanied by a large force of men, and as these were not
procurable in Manyema the Doctor reluctantly turned his face toward
Ujiji.
“It was a long and weary road back. The journey had now no interest for
him. He had travelled it before when going westward, full of high hopes
and aspirations, impatient to reach the goal which promised him rest
from his labors; now returning unsuccessful, baffled and thwarted when
almost in sight of the end, and having to travel the same road back on
foot, with disappointed expectations and defeated hopes preying on his
mind, no wonder that the brave old spirit almost succumbed and the
strong constitution almost wrecked. He arrived at Ujiji October 26,
almost at death’s door. On the way he had been trying to cheer himself
up, since he had found it impossible to contend against the obstinacy of
his men, with ‘it won’t take long, five or six months more; it
matters not, since it can’t be helped. I have got my goods in Ujiji and
can hire other people and make a new start.’ These are the words and
hopes with which he tried to delude himself into the idea that all would
be right yet; but imagine, if you can, the shock he must have suffered
when he found that the man to whom was entrusted his goods for safe
keeping had sold every bale for ivory.
[Illustration: AMBUSCADED BY THE MANYUEMAS.]
“The evening of the day Livingstone had returned to Ujiji, Susi and
Chuma, two of his most faithful men, were seen crying bitterly. The
Doctor asked them what ailed them, and was then informed for the first
time of the evil tidings that awaited him. Said they:--‘All our things
are sold, sir. Shereef has sold everything for ivory.’ Later in the
evening Shereef came to see him and shamelessly offered his hand, with a
salutatory ‘Yambo.’ Livingstone refused his hand, saying he could not
shake hands with a thief. As an excuse Shereef said he had divined on
the Koran and that had told him the Hakim (Arabic for Doctor) was dead.
Livingstone was now destitute. He had just enough to keep him and his
men alive for about a month, after which he would be forced to beg from
the Arabs. He had arrived in Ujiji October 26. The HERALD Expedition
arrived November 10, from the coast--only sixteen days difference. Had I
not been delayed at Unyanyembe by the war with Mirambo I should have
gone on to Manyema, and very likely have been traveling by one road,
while he would have been coming by another to Ujiji. Had I gone on two
years ago, when I first received the instructions, I should have lost
him without doubt. But I am detained by a series of circumstances, which
chafed and fretted me considerably at that time, only to permit him to
reach Ujiji sixteen days before I appeared. It was as if we were
marching to meet together at an appointed rendezvous--the one from the
west, the other from the east.
“The Doctor had heard of a white man being at Unyanyembe, who was said
to have boats with him, and he had thought he was another traveller sent
by the French government to replace Lieutenant Le Sainte, who died from
a fever a few miles above Gondokoro. I had not written to him because I
believed him to be dead, and of course my sudden entrance into Ujiji was
as great a surprise to him as it was to the Arabs. But the sight of the
American flag, which he saw waving in the van of the expedition,
indicated that one was coming who could speak his own language, and you
know already how the leader was received.”
[Illustration]