Writing to his son Robert, Livingstone thus describes the attack made by the Ajawa on him, the Bishop, and the missionaries:
"The slave-hunters had induced a number of another tribe to capture people for them. We came to this tribe while burning three villages, and though we told them that we came peaceably, and to talk with them, they saw that we were a small party, and might easily be overcome, rushed at us and shot their poisoned arrows. One fell between the Bishop and me, and another whizzed between another man and me. We had to drive them off, and they left that part of the country. Before going near them the Bishop engaged in prayer, and during the prayer we could hear the wail for the dead by some Manganja probably thought not worth killing, and the shouts of welcome home to these bloody murderers. It turned out that they were only some sixty or seventy robbers, and not the Ajawa tribe; so we had a narrow escape from being murdered.
"How are you doing? I fear from what I have observed of your temperament that you will have to strive against fickleness. Every one has his besetting fault--that is no disgrace to him, but it is a disgrace if he do not find it out, and by God's grace overcome it. I am not near to advise you what to do, but whatever line of life you choose, resolve to stick to it, and serve God therein to the last. Whatever failings you are conscious of, tell them to your heavenly Father; strive daily to master them and confess all to Him when conscious of having gone astray. And may the good Lord of all impart all the strength you need. Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will bless you."
Leaving the "Pioneer" at Chibisa's, on 6th August, 1861, Livingstone, accompanied by his brother and Dr. Kirk, started for Nyassa with a four-oared boat, which was carried by porters past the Murchison Cataracts. On 23d September they sailed into Lake Nyassa, naming the grand mountainous promontory at the end Cape Maclear, after Livingstone's great friend the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape.
All about the lake was now examined with earnest eyes. The population was denser than he had seen anywhere else. The people were civil, and even friendly, but undoubtedly they were not handsome. At the north of the lake they were lawless, and at one point the party were robbed in the night--the first time such a thing had occurred in Livingstone's African life[61]. Of elephants there was a great abundance,--indeed of all animal and vegetable life.
[Footnote 61: In _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_, Livingstone gives a grave account of the robbery. In his letters to his friends he makes fun of it, as he did of the raid of the Boers. To Mr. F. Fitch he writes: "You think I cannot get into a scrape.... For the first time in Africa we were robbed. Expert thieves crept into our sleeping-places, about four o'clock in the morning, and made off with what they could lay their hands on. Sheer over-modesty ruined me. It was Sunday, and such a black mass swarmed around our sail, which we used as a hut, that we could not hear prayers. I had before slipped away a quarter of a mile to dress for church, but seeing a crowd of women watching me through the reeds, I did not change my old 'unmentionables,'--they were so old, I had serious thoughts of converting them into--charity! Next morning nearly all our spare clothing was walked off with, and there I was left by my modesty nearly through at the knees, and no change of shirt, flannel, or stockings. After that, don't say that I can't get into a scrape!" The same letter thanks Mr. Fitch for sending him _Punch_, whom he deemed a sound divine! On the same subject he wrote at another time, regretting that _Punch_ did not reach him, especially a number in which notice was taken of himself. "It never came. Who the miscreants are that steal them I cannot divine, I would not grudge them a reading if they would only send them on afterward. Perhaps binding the whole year's _Punches_ would be the best plan; and then we need not label it 'Sermons in Lent,' or 'Tracts on Homoeopathy,' but you may write inside, as Dr. Buckland did on his umbrella, 'Stolen from Dr. Livingstone.' We really enjoy them very much. They are good against fever. The 'Essence of Parliament,' for instance, is capital. One has to wade through an ocean of paper to get the same information, without any of the fun. And by the time the newspapers have reached us, most of the interest in public matters has evaporated."]