How I Found Livingstone, Henry M. Stanley [best fantasy books to read txt] 📗

it, second to the

Mississippi, the longest river in the world. The real and true

name of the Zambezi is Dombazi. When Lacerda and his Portuguese

successors, coming 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.

 

During his researches in that region, so pregnant in discoveries,

Livingstone came to a lake lying northeast of Cazembe, which the

natives call 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 Tanganika, or the south-eastern 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 8 degrees 42 minutes south, which thus gives it a

length, from north to south, of 360 geographical miles. From the

southern extremity of the Tanganika 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 nearly as large in superficial area as the Tanganika. In

exploring for the waters which discharged themselves into the

lake, he found that 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 the issue from its northern

head, under the name of Luapula, and found it enter Lake Moero.

Again he returned to Cazembe’s, well satisfied that the river

running north through three degrees of latitude could

not be the river running south under the name of Zambezi, though

there might be a remarkable resemblance in their names.

 

At Cazembe’s he found an old white-bearded half-caste named

Mohammed bin Sali, who was kept as a kind of prisoner at large by

the King because of certain suspicious circumstances attending his

advent and stay in the country. Through Livingstone’s influence

Mohammed bin Sali 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 with them by selling the favours of his

concubines to them, by which he reduced them to a kind of bondage

under him. The Doctor was deserted by all but two, even faithful

Susi and Chumah deserted him for the service of Mohammed bin Sali.

But they soon repented, and returned to their allegiance. From

the day he had the vile old man in his company manifold and

bitter misfortunes followed the Doctor up to his arrival at

Ujiji in March, 1869.

 

From the date of his arrival until the end of June, 1869, he

remained at 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

still existed, and that Musa’a tale was the false though ingenious

fabrication of a cowardly deserter. It was during this time that

the thought occurred to him of sailing around the Lake Tanganika,

but the Arabs and natives were so bent upon fleecing him that, had

he undertaken it, the remainder or 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’s in about latitude 11 degrees,

in the river called 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 Urua, 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 quitted Ujiji and crossed

over to Uguhha, on the western shore, for his last and greatest

series of explorations; the result of which was the further

discovery of a lake of considerable magnitude connected with Moero

by the large river called the Lualaba, and which was a

continuation of the chain of lakes he had previously discovered.

 

From the port of Uguhha he set off, in company with a body of

traders, in an almost direct westerly course, for the country of

Urua. Fifteen days’ march brought them to Bambarre, the first

important ivory depot in Manyema, or, as the natives pronounce it,

Manyuema. For nearly six months he was detained at Bambarre from

ulcers in the feet, which discharged bloody ichor as soon as he

set them on the ground. When recovered, 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,

long lake of Kamolondo, in about latitude 6 degrees 30 minutes.

Retracing this to the 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 the edges with the rich vegetation

of the tropics, the 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, stretching over miles of ground. After

making great bends west and southwest, and then curving northward,

it enters Kamolondo. By the natives it is called the Lualaba, but

the Doctor, in order to distinguish it from 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 Loeki, 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, by which memorable deed 4,000,000 of

slaves were for ever freed. To the memory of the man whose

labours on behalf of the negro race deserves the commendation of

all good men, Livingstone has contributed a monument more durable

than brass or stone.

 

Entering Webb’s River from the south-south-west, a little north

of Kamolondo, is a large river called 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 Lualaba through its manifold and crooked curves as far

as latitude 4 degrees south, he came to where he heard of another

lake, to the north, into which it ran. But here you may come to

a dead halt, and read what lies beyond this spot thus … .

This was the furthermost point, whence he was compelled to return

on the weary road to Ujiji, a distance of 700 miles.

 

In this brief sketch of Dr. Livingstone’s wonderful travels it is

to be hoped 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 glance at the

map accompanying this book. He will then have a fair idea of what

Dr. Livingstone has been doing during 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 entertained

great scepticism, because of its deep bends and curves west,

and southwest even; but having traced it from its head waters,

the Chambezi, through 7 degrees of latitude—that is, from

11 degrees S. to lat. 4 degrees N.—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 has discovered the sources

of the Congo to be the Kassai and the Kwango, 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 continued 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 in excess of 2,000 feet; so that, though Baker

makes out his lake to be 2,700 feet above the sea, yet the

Bahr Ghazal, through which Petherick’s branch of the White Nile

issues into the Nile, is but 2,000 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 500 miles up Petherick’s branch. We must

remember this fact when told that Gondokoro, in lat. 4 degrees N.,

is 2,000 feet above the sea, and lat. 4 degrees S., where the

halt was made, is only a little over 2,000 feet above the sea.

That the two rivers said to be 2,000 feet above the sea, separated

from each other by 8 degrees of latitude, are one and the same

river, 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; that at intervals

the body of water forms extensive lakes; then, contracting into

a broad river, it again forms a lake, and so on, to lat. 4 degrees;

and even beyond this point the Doctor hears of a large lake again

north.

 

We must wait also until the altitudes 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.

 

Now, for the sake of argument, suppose we give this nameless lake

a length of 6 degrees of latitude, as it may be the one discovered

by Piaggia, the Italian traveller, from which Petherick’s branch