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

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 pieces or in

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 on unless accompanied by a large force of

men; and, as these were not procurable in Manyuema, the Doctor

reluctantly turned his face towards Ujiji.

 

It was a long and weary road back. The journey had now no

interest for him. He had travelled the road 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 path back on foot, with

disappointed expectations and defeated hopes preying on his mind,

no wonder that the old brave spirit almost succumbed, and the

strong constitution almost went to wreck.

 

Livingstone arrived at Ujiji, October 16th, 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 cannot be helped. I have got my goods in Ujiji, and

can hire other people, and make a new start again.” These are the

words and hopes by which he tried to delude himself into the idea

that all would be right yet; but imagine 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.

 

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 of 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; Sherif has sold

everything for ivory.”

 

Later in the evening, Sherif came to see him, and shamelessly

offered his hand, but Livingstone repulsed him, saying he could not

shake hands with a thief. As an excuse, Sherif said he had divined

on the Koran, and that this 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, when he would be forced to beg

from the Arabs.

 

The Doctor further stated, that when Speke gives the altitude of

the Tanganika at only 1,800 feet above the sea, Speke must have

fallen into that error by a frequent writing of the Anne Domini,

a mere slip of the pen; for the altitude, as he makes it out,

is 2,800 feet by boiling point, and a little over 3,000 feet by

barometer.

 

The Doctor’s complaints were many because slaves were sent to him,

in charge of goods, after he had so often implored the people at

Zanzibar to send him freemen. A very little effort on the part of

those entrusted with the despatch of supplies to him might have

enabled them to procure good and faithful freemen; but if they

contented themselves, upon the receipt of a letter from Dr.

Livingstone, with sending to Ludha Damji for men, it is no longer

a matter of wonder that dishonest and incapable slaves were sent

forward. It is no new fact that the Doctor has discovered when

he states that a negro freeman is a hundred times more capable

and trustworthy than a slave. Centuries ago Eumaeus, the herdsman,

said to Ulysses:

 

Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day

Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.

 

We passed several happy days at Ujiji, and it was time we were now

preparing for our cruise on the Tanganika. Livingstone was

improving every day under the different diet which my cook furnished

him. I could give him no such suppers as that which Jupiter and

Mercury received at the cottage of Baucis and Philemon. We had no

berries of chaste Minerva, pickled cherries, endive, radishes,

dried figs, dates, fragrant apples, and grapes; but we had cheese,

and butter which I made myself, new-laid eggs, chickens, roast

mutton, fish from the lake, rich curds and cream, wine from the

Guinea-palm, egg-plants, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, peanuts,

and beans, white honey from Ukaranga, luscious singwe—a plum-like

fruit—from the forests of Ujiji, and corn scones and dampers,

in place of wheaten bread.

 

During the noontide heats we sat under our veranda discussing our

various projects, and in the early morning and evening we sought

the shores of the lake—promenading up and down the beach to breathe

the cool breezes which ruffled the surface of the water, and rolled

the unquiet surf far up on the smooth and whitened shore.

 

It was the dry season, and we had most lovely weather; the

temperature never was over 80 degrees in the shade.

 

The market-place overlooking the broad silver water afforded us

amusement and instruction. Representatives of most of the tribes

dwelling near the lake were daily found there. There were the

agricultural and pastoral Wajiji, with their flocks and herds;

there were the fishermen from Ukaranga and Kaole, from beyond

Bangwe, and even from Urundi, with their whitebait, which they

called dogara, the silurus, the perch, and other fish; there were

the palm-oil merchants, principally from Ujiji and Urundi, with

great five-gallon pots full of reddish oil, of the consistency of

butter; there were the salt merchants from the salt-plains of

Uvinza and Uhha; there were the ivory merchants from Uvira and

Usowa; there were the canoe-makers from Ugoma and Urundi; there

were the cheap-Jack pedlers from Zanzibar, selling flimsy prints,

and brokers exchanging blue mutunda beads for sami-sami, and

sungomazzi, and sofi. The sofi beads are like pieces of thick

clay-pipe stem about half an inch long, and are in great demand

here. Here were found Waguhha, Wamanyuema, Wagoma, Wavira,

Wasige, Warundi, Wajiji, Waha, Wavinza, Wasowa, Wangwana, Wakawendi,

Arabs, and Wasawahili, engaged in noisy chaffer and barter.

Bareheaded, and almost barebodied, the youths made love to the

dark-skinned and woolly-headed Phyllises, who knew not how to

blush at the ardent gaze of love, as their white sisters; old

matrons gossiped, as the old women do everywhere; the children

played, and laughed, and struggled, as children of our own lands;

and the old men, leaning on their spears or bows, were just as

garrulous in the Place de Ujiji as aged elders in other climes.

 

CHAPTER XIII. OUR CRUISE ON THE LAKE TANGANIKA—

EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH-END OF THE LAKE—

THE RUSIZI IS DISCOVERED TO ENTER INTO THE LAKE—

RETURN TO UJIJI.

 

“I distinctly deny that `any misleading by my instructions

from the Royal Geographical Society as to the position of the

White Nile’ made me unconscious of the vast importance of

ascertaining the direction of the Rusizi River. The fact is,

we did our best to reach it, and we failed.”—Burton’s Zanzibar.

 

“The universal testimony of the natives to the Rusizi River

being an influent is the most conclusive argument that it does

run out of the lake.”—Speke.

 

“I therefore claim for Lake Tanganika the honour of being the

SOUTHERNMOST RESERVOIR OF THE NILE, until some more positive

evidence, by actual observation, shall otherwise determine it.”—

Findlay, R.G.S.

 

Had Livingstone and myself, after making up our minds to visit

the northern head of the Lake Tanganika, been compelled by the

absurd demands or fears of a crew of Wajiji to return to

Unyanyembe without having resolved the problem of the Rusizi River,

we had surely deserved to be greeted by everybody at home with a

universal giggling and cackling. But Capt. Burton’s failure to

settle it, by engaging Wajiji, and that ridiculous savage chief

Kannena, had warned us of the negative assistance we could expect

from such people for the solution of a geographical problem. We

had enough good sailors with us, who were entirely under our

commands. Could we but procure the loan of a canoe, we thought

all might be well.

 

Upon application to Sayd bin Majid, he at once generously

permitted us to use his canoe for any service for which we might

require it. After engaging two Wajiji guides at two doti each,

we prepared to sail from the port of Ujiji, in about a week or

so after my entrance into Ujiji.

 

I have already stated how it was that the Doctor and I undertook

the exploration of the northern half of the Tanganika and the River

Rusizi, about which so much had been said and written.

 

Before embarking on this enterprise, Dr. Livingstone had not

definitely made up his mind which course he should take, as his

position was truly deplorable. His servants consisted of Susi,

Chumah, Hamoydah, Gardner, and Halimah, the female cook and wife of

Hamoydah; to these was added Kaif-Halek, the man whom I compelled

to follow me from Unyanyembe to deliver the Livingstone letters to

his master.

 

Whither could Dr. Livingstone march with these few men, and the

few table-cloths and beads that remained to him from the store

squandered by the imbecile Sherif? This was a puzzling question.

Had Dr. Livingstone been in good health, his usual hardihood and

indomitable spirit had answered it in a summary way. He might

have borrowed some cloth from Sayd bin Majid at an exorbitant

price, sufficient to bring him to Unyanyembe and the seacoast.

But how long would he have been compelled to sit down at Ujiji,

waiting and waiting for the goods that were said to be at

Unyanyembe, a prey to high expectations, hoping day after day

that the war would end—hoping week after week to hear that

his goods were coming? Who knows how long his weak health had

borne up against the several disappointments to which he would be

subjected?

 

Though it was with all due deference to Dr. Livingstone’s vast

experience as a traveller, I made bold to suggest the following

courses to him, either of which he could adopt:

 

Ist. To go home, and take the rest he so well deserved and, as he

appeared then, to be so much in need of.

 

2nd. To proceed to Unyanyembe, receive his goods, and enlist

pagazis sufficient to enable him to travel anywhere, either to

Manyuema or Rua, and settle the Nile problem, which he said he

was in a fair way of doing.

 

3rd. To proceed to Unyanyembe, receive his caravan, enlist men,

and try to join Sir Samuel Baker, either by going to Muanza, and

sailing through Ukerewe or Victoria N’Yanza in my boats—which I

should put up—to Mtesa’s palace at Uganda, thus passing by

Mirambo and Swaruru of Usui, who would rob him if he took the

usual caravan road to Uganda; thence from Mtesa to Kamrasi,

King of Unyoro, where he would of course hear of the great white

man who was said to be with a large force of men at Gondokoro.

 

4th. To proceed to Unyanyembe, receive his caravan, enlist men,

and return to Ujiji, and back to Manyuema by way of Uguhha.

 

5th. To proceed by way of the Rusizi through Ruanda, and