He sets out to explore Manyuema and the river Lualaba--Loss of forty-two letters--His feebleness through illness--He arrives at Bambarré--Becomes acquainted with the soko or gorilla--Reaches the Luama River--Magnificence of the country--Repulsiveness of the people--Cannot get a canoe to explore the Lualaba--Has to return to Bambarré--Letter to Thomas, and retrospect of his life--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann--Miss Tinné--He is worse in health than ever, yet resolves to add to his programme and go round Lake Bangweolo--Letter to Agnes--Review of the past--He sets out anew in a more northerly direction--Overpowered by constant wet--Reaches Nyangwe--Long detention--Letter to his brother John--Sense of difficulties and troubles--Nobility of his spirit--He sets off with only three attendants for the Lualaba--Suspicions of the natives--Influence of Arab traders--Frightful difficulties of the way--Lamed by foot-sores--Has to return to Bambarré--Long and wearisome detention--Occupations--Meditations and reveries--Death no terror--Unparalleled position and trials--He reads his Bible from beginning to end four times--Letter to Sir Thomas Maclear--To Agnes--His delight at her sentiments about his coming home--Account of the soko--Grief to hear of death of Lady Murchison--Wretched character of men sent from Zanzibar--At last sets out with Mohamad--Difficulties--Slave-trade most horrible--Cannot get canoes for Lualaba--Long waiting--New plan--Frustrated by horrible massacre on banks of Lualaba--Frightful scene--He must return to Ujiji--New illness--Perils of journey to Ujiji--Life three times endangered in one day--Reaches Ujiji--Shereef has sold off his goods--He is almost in despair--Meets Henry M. Stanley and is relieved--His contributions to Natural Science during last journeys--Professor Owen in the _Quarterly Review_.
After resting for a few weeks at Ujiji, Dr. Livingstone set out, 12th July, 1869, to explore the Manyuema country. Ujiji was not a place favorable for making arrangements; it was the resort of the worst scum of Arab traders. Even to send his letters to the coast was a difficult undertaking, for the bearers were afraid he would expose their doings. On one day he despatched no fewer than forty-two--enough, no doubt, to form a large volume; none of these even arrived at Zanzibar, so that they must have been purposely destroyed. The slave-traders of Urungu and Itawa, where he had been, were gentlemen compared with those of Ujiji, who resembled the Kilwa and Portuguese, and with whom trading was simply a system of murder. Here lay the cause of Livingstone's unexampled difficulties at this period of his life; he was dependent on men who were not only knaves of the first magnitude, but who had a special animosity against him, and a special motive to deceive, rob, and obstruct him in every possible way.
After considerable deliberation he decided to go to Manyuema, in order to examine the river Lualaba, and determine the direction of its flow. This would settle the question of the watershed, and in four or five months, if he should get guides and canoes, his work would be done. On setting out from Ujiji he first crossed the lake, and then proceeded inland on foot. He was still weak from illness, and his lungs were so feeble that to walk up-hill made him pant. He became stronger, however, as he went on, refreshed doubtless by the interesting country through which he passed, and the aspect of the people, who were very different from the tribes on the coast.
On the 21st September he arrived at Bambarré, in Manyuema, the village of the Chief Moenékuss. He found the people in a state of great isolation from the rest of the world, with nothing to trust to but charms and idols,--both being bits of wood. He made the acquaintance of the soko or gorilla, not a very social animal, for it always tries to bite off the ends of its captor's fingers and toes. Neither is it particularly intellectual, for its nest shows no more contrivance than that of a cushat dove. The curiosity of the people was very great, and sometimes it took an interesting direction. "Do people die with you?" asked two intelligent young men. "Have you no charm against death? Where do people go after death?" Livingstone spoke to them of the great Father, and of their prayers to Him who hears the cry of his children; and they thought this to be natural.