Chapter 37
how i found livingston travels adventures and discoveries in central africa including four months residence with dr livingston by sir henry m stanley chapter fourteen part four our journey from ujiji to unyanyembe on the thirty first of january at muaru sultan ka we met a caravan under the leadership of a slave of sayed ben habib who came to visit us in our camp which was hidden in a thick clump of jungle after he was seated and had taken his coffee i asked what is the news my friend that thou hast brought from unyanyembe my news is good master how goes the war ah marambo is where he eats the hides even he is famished sayed ben habib my master hath possession of the arabs are thundering at the gates of willyankuru sayed ben majid who came from ujiji to usagozo in twenty days hath taken and slain moto fire the king
simba of casera hath taken up arms for the defence of his father macasiwa of uyaniembe the chief of ugunda hath sent five hundred men to the field og marombo is where in a month he will be dead of hunger great and good news truly my friend yes in the name of god and whither art thou bound with thy caravan saeed the son of majid who came from ujiji hath told us of the road that the white man took that he arrived at ujiji safely and that he was on his way back to so we have thought that if the white man could go there we could also lo the arabs come by the hundred by the white man's road to get the ivory from ujiji i am that white man you yes why was it reported that you were dead that you fought with the wazavira ah my friend these are the words of najara the son of kamis see pointing to livingstone this is the white man my father it is a courteous custom in africa to address elderly people as baba or father whom i saw at ujiji he is going with me to ujianyembe to get his cloth after which he will return to the great waters wonderful thou sayest truly what hast thou to tell me of the white man at ujianyembe which white man the white man i left in the house of saeed the son of salim my house at
he is dead dead true you do not mean to say that the white man is dead true he is dead how long ago many months now what did he die of homa or fever any more of my people dead i know not enough i looked sympathetically at the doctor and he replied i told you so when you described him to me as a drunken man i knew he could not live men who have been habitual drunkards cannot live in this country any more than men who have become slaves to other vices i attribute the deaths that occurred in my expedition on the zambesi much to the same cause ah doctor there are two of us gone i shall be the third if this fever lasts much longer oh no not at all if you would have died from fever you would have died at ujiji when you had that severe attack of remittance don't think of it your fever now is only the result of exposure to wet i never travelled during the wet season this time i have travelled because i was anxious and i did not wish to detain you at ujiji
well there is nothing like a good friend at one's back in this country to encourage him and keep his spirits up poor shah i am sorry very sorry for him how many times have i not endeavored to cheer him up but there was no life in him and among the last words i said to him before parting were remember if you return to uyanyebe you die we also obtained news from the chief of sayed ben habib's caravan that several packets of letters and newspapers and boxes had arrived for me from zanzibar by my messengers and arabs that selim the son of shaykh hasid of zanzibar was amongst the latest arrivals in the doctor also reminded me with the utmost good nature that according to his accounts he had a stock of jellies and crackers soups fish and potted ham besides cheese awaiting him in unyan yembe and that he would be delighted to share his good things whereupon i was greatly cheered and during the repeated attacks of fever i suffered about this time my imagination loved to dwell upon the luxuries at unyanyembe i pictured myself devouring the hams and crackers and jellies like a madman
i lived on my raving fantasies my poor vexed brain rioted on such homely things as wheaten bread and butter hams bacon caviare and i would have thought no price too high to pay for them though so far away and out of the pale of europe and america it was a pleasure to me during the athumia or despondency into which i was plunged by ever-recurring fevers to dwell upon them i wondered that people who had access to such luxuries should ever get sick and become tired of life i thought that if a wheaten loaf with a nice pat of fresh butter were presented to me i would be able though dying to spring up and dance a wild fandango though we lacked the good things of this life above named we possessed salted giraffe and pickled zebra tongues we had ugali made by helima herself we had sweet potatoes tea coffee dampers or slapjacks but i was tired of them my enfeebled stomach harrowed and irritated with medicinal compounds with ipecac colosynth tartaremetic quinine and such things protested against the coarse food oh for a wheaten loaf my soul cried in agony five hundred dollars for one loaf of bread
the doctor somehow or other despite the incessant rain the dew fog and drizzle the marching and sore feet ate like a hero and i manfully sternly resolved to imitate the persevering attention he paid to the welfare of his gastric powers but i miserably failed dr livingstone possesses all the attainments of a traveller his knowledge is great about everything concerning africa the rocks the trees the fruits and their virtues are known to him he is also full of philosophic reflections upon ethnological matters with camp craft with its cunning devices he is au fait his bed is luxurious as a spring mattress each night he has it made under his own supervision first he has two straight poles cut three or four inches in diameter which are laid parallel one with another at the distance of two feet across these poles are laid short sticks saplings three feet long and over them is laid a thick pile of grass then comes a piece of waterproof canvas and blankets and thus a bed has been improvised fit for a king it was at livingston's instigation i purchased milch goats by which since leaving ujiji we have had a supply of fresh milk for our tea and coffee three times a day
apropos of this we are great drinkers of these welcome stimulants we seldom halt drinking until we have each had six or seven cups we also have been able to provide ourselves with music which though harsh is better than none i mean the musical screech of parrots from manuema half way between mwaru kamarambo's village and the deserted tongondi of yukamba i carved the doctor's initials and my own on a large tree with the date february second i have been twice guilty of this in africa once when we were famishing in southern uvinza i inscribed the date my initials and the word starving in large letters on the trunk of a sycamore in passing through the forest of ukamba we saw the bleached skull of an unfortunate victim to the privations of travel referring to it the doctor remarked that he could never pass through an african forest with its solemn stillness and serenity without wishing to be buried quietly under the dead leaves where he would be sure to rest undisturbed in england there was no elbow-room the graves were often desecrated and ever since he had buried his wife in the woods of champunga he had sighed for just such a spot where his weary bones would receive the eternal rest they coveted
the same evening when the tent door was down and the interior was made cheerful by the light of a paraffin candle the doctor related to me some incidents respecting the career and the death of his eldest son robert readers of livingston's first book south africa without which no boy should be will probably recollect the dying sabutane's regard for the little boy robert mrs livingston and family were taken to the cape of good hope and thence sent to england where robert was put in the charge of a tutor but wearied of inactivity when he was about eighteen he left scotland and came to natal whence he endeavoured to reach his father unsuccessful in the attempt he took ship and sailed for new york and enlisted in the northern army in a new hampshire regiment of volunteers discarding his own name of robert moffatt livingston and taking that of rupert vincent that his tutor who seems to have been ignorant of his duties to the youth might not find him from one of the battles before richmond he was conveyed to a north carolina hospital where he died from his wounds on the seventh of february we arrived at the gombe and camped near one of its largest lakes this lake is probably several miles in length and swarms with hippopotami and crocodiles
from this camp i despatched ferraji the cook and chelpera to unyaniembe to bring the letters and medicines that were sent to me from zanzibar and meet us at ugunda while the next day we moved to our old quarters on the gombe where we were first introduced to the real hunter's paradise in central africa The rain had scattered the greater number of the herds, but there was plenty of game in the vicinity. Soon after breakfast I took Kameesee and Kahlulu with me for a hunt. After a long walk we arrived near a thin jungle, where I discovered the tracks of several animals—boar, antelope, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and an unusual number of imprints of the lion's paw.
Suddenly I heard Kameezy say, Master, Master, here is a Simba, Lion, and he came up to me trembling with excitement and fear, for the young fellow was an errant coward, to point out the head of a beast, which could be seen just above the tall grass, looking steadily toward us. It immediately afterwards bounded from side to side, but the grass was so high that it was impossible to tell exactly what it was. Taking advantage of a tree in my front, I crept quietly
onwards, intending to rest the heavy rifle against it, as I was so weak from the effects of several fevers that I felt myself utterly incapable of supporting my rifle for a steady aim. But my surprise was great when I cautiously laid it against the tree, and then directed its muzzle to the spot where I had seen him stand. Looking further away, to where the grass was thin and scant, I saw the animal bound along at a great rate, and that it was a lion, the noble
monarch of the forest was in full flight. From that moment I ceased to regard him as the mightiest among the brutes, or his roar as anything more fearful in broad daylight than a sucking doves. The next day was also a halt, and unable to contain my longing for the chase, where there used to be such a concourse of game of all kinds, soon after morning coffee, and after dispatching a couple of men with presents to my friend, Ma Maniara, of ammonia-bottle memory, I sauntered
once more out for the park. Not five hundred yards from the camp, myself and men were suddenly halted by hearing in our immediate vicinity, probably within fifty yards or so, a chorus of roars, issuing from a triplet of lions. Instinctively my fingers raised the two hammers, as I expected a general onset on me, for, though one lion might fly, it was hardly credible that three should. While looking keenly about, I detected, within easy rifle-shot, a fine hard
beast, trembling and cowering behind a tree, as if it expected the fangs of the lion in its neck. Though it had its back turned to me, I thought a bullet might plough its way to a vital part, and without a moment's hesitation I aimed and fired. The animal gave a tremendous jump, as if it intended to take a flying leap through the tree, but recovering itself it dashed through the underbrush, in a different direction from that in which I supposed the lions to be,
and I never saw it again, though I knew I had struck it from the bloody trail it left. Neither did I see or hear anything more of the lions. I searched far and wide over the park-land for prey of some kind, but was compelled to return unsuccessful to camp. Disgusted with my failure, we started a little afternoon for Manyara, at which place we were hospitably greeted by my friend, who had sent men to tell me that his white brother must not halt
in the woods, but must come to his village. We received a present of honey and food from the chief, which was most welcome to us in our condition. Here was an instance of that friendly disposition among Central African chiefs, when they have not been spoiled by the Arabs, which Dr. Livingston found among the Babisi and Ba-Alunga and in Manueme. I received the same friendly recognition from all the chiefs, from Imrera in Yukawendi to Unanyembe, as I did from
Ma Manyara. On the fourteenth we arrived at Ugunda, and soon after we had established ourselves comfortably in a hut which the chief lent us for our use, in came Farigi and Chaupera, bringing with them Sarmian and Uledi Manwasera, who, it will be recollected, were the two soldiers sent to Zanzibar with letters, and who should Sarmian have in charge but the deserter Hamdala, who decamped at Manyara as we were going to Ujiji. This fellow, it seems, had halted at
Caganda, and had informed the chief and the doctor of the village that he had been sent by the white man to take back the cloth left there for the cure of Mabruxalim, and the simple chief had commanded it to be given up to him on his mere word, in consequence of which the sick man had died. Upon Sarmian's arrival in Unyaniembe from Zanzibar, about fifty days after the expedition had departed for Ujiji, the news he received was that the white man, Shah, was dead, and that a
man called Hamdallah, who had engaged himself as one of my guides, but who had shortly after returned, was at Unyaniembe. He had left him unmolested until the appearance of Faraji and his companion, when they at once, in a body, made a descent on his hut and secured him. with the zeal which always distinguished him in my service sarmian had procured a forked pole between the prongs of which the neck of the absconder was placed firmly lashed effectually prevented him from relieving himself out of the incumbrance attached to him so deftly there were no less than seven packets of letters and newspapers from zanzibar which had been collecting during my absence from yunyanyembe these had been entrusted at various times to the chiefs of caravans who had faithfully delivered them at my tembe according to their promise to the consul
there was one packet for me which contained two or three letters for dr livingstone to whom of course they were at once transferred with my congratulations in the same packet there was also a letter to me from the british consul at zanzibar requesting me to take charge of livingstone's goods and do the best i could to forward them on to him dated twenty fifth september eighteen seventy one five days after i left unyaniembe on my apparently hopeless task well doctor i said to livingston the english consul requests me to do all i can to push forward your goods to you i am sorry i did not get the authority sooner for i should have attempted it but in the absence of these instructions i have done the best i could by pushing you towards the goods the mountain has not been able to advance toward mohammed but mohammed has been compelled to advance toward the mountain but dr livingstone was too deeply engrossed in his own letters from home which were just a year old i received good and bad news from new york but the good news was subsequent and wiped out all feelings that might have been evoked had i received the bad only but the newspapers nearly a hundred of them new york boston and london journals were full of most wonderful news
the paris commune was in arms against the national assembly the tuileries the louvre and the ancient city lutetia parisurium had been set in flames by the blackguards of st antoine french troops massacring and murdering men women and children rampant diabolism and incarnate revenge were at work in the most beautiful city in the world fair women converted into demons and dragged by ruffianly soldiers through the streets to universal execration and pitiless death children of tender age pinned to the earth and bayoneted men innocent or not shot cut stabbed slashed or destroyed a whole city given up to the summa injuria of an infuriate reckless and brutal army o france o frenchmen such things are unknown even in the heart of barbarous central africa we spurned the newspapers with our feet and for relief to sickened hearts gazed on the comic side of our world as illustrated in the innocent pages of punch poor punch good-hearted kindly-natured punch a traveller's benison on thee thy jokes were as physic thy innocent satire was provocative of hysteric mirth
our doors were crowded with curious natives who looked with indescribable wonder at the enormous sheets i heard them repeat the words kabari kisungu white man's news often and heard them discussing the nature of such a quantity of news and expressing their belief that the wasungu were mbaiasani and very mkali by which they meant to say that the white men were very wicked and very smart and clever though the term wicked is often employed to express high admiration on the fourth day from uganda or the eighteenth of february and the fifty third day from ujiji we made our appearance with flags flying and guns firing in the valley of quihara and when the doctor and myself passed through the portals of my old quarters i formally whelked him to unyanyembe and to my house since the day i had left the arabs sick and weary almost with my life but nevertheless imbued with the high hope that my mission would succeed one hundred and thirty-one days had elapsed with what vicissitudes of fortune the reader well knows during which time i had journeyed over twelve hundred miles the myth after which i travelled through the wilderness proved to be a fact and never was the fact more apparent than when the living man walked with me arm in arm to my own room and i said to him doctor we are at last home chapter fourteen part four
