Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/394

 Livingstone personal neatness and cleanliness, and considered that any other appearance lowered a man in the eyes of savages, he descended the Tshobe, and then turned round and ascended the Liambai, or main Zambesi. At Libonta, the last village of the Makololo kingdom, he stayed to collect fat and butter for presents further on. From Libonta he journeyed on to the confluence of the Liba and Kabompo. He ascended the Liba for some distance, but in passing through the Lunda country he had some difficulty in averting a hostile reception; with his usual tact and patience, however, he explained away the natives' apprehensions and won their friendship. Queen Nyamoana objected to his proceeding further up the Liba, and despatched him on the back of a riding-ox to the supreme chief, Shinte, and sent her daughter, Manenko, as guide and protectress, he arrived at the town of Shinte on 16 Jan. 1854, and found himself unmistakably in west central Africa, denoted by banana groves, great trees, straight streets, and rectangular houses. Shinte gave him a royal reception. The heavy rains and the drunkenness of the people delayed Livingstone for ten days, and then he travelled in a northerly direction parallel to the Liba, the main stream of which he crossed near its confluence with the Lukalueje affluent, which, with a number of little tributary streams, flows through the great Luvale flat and renders it a vast sodden marsh. In the middle of this swampy prairie is the little Lake Dilolo, about twenty-eight miles in extent, near which is the straggling village of Katema. Here Livingstone and several of his party were ill with fever, and had to stay some days. Obtaining guides from Katema, he pursued a north-west course across the Kifumaji and Dilolo flats to the banks of the Kasai, one of the great affluents of the Congo. He discovered that the swampy plain he had crossed was the watershed between the Congo and the Zambesi, and described the Kasai as a beautiful river resembling the Clyde. He crossed the Kasai, and going due west entered the extensive country of Kioko. The Va-Kioko were an ill-conditioned people, who put many obstacles in Livingstone's way. The party were now in want of food, and Livingstone had to draw on his stock of beads to purchase meal and manioc. They were in a country where no animal food could be obtained, and their guide rejoiced in catching a mole and two mice for his supper. From this time their difficulties increased. Hitherto, whatever had been the physical impediments to their progress, they had been generally cordially received and supplied with food. Now everything had to be paid for; the stock of beads was small, and beads were not the current means of exchange. Tolls were demanded, and Livingstone had to part with some of his clothes, and his men with their ornaments. Moreover, Livingstone suffered incessantly from attacks of fever, brought on by crossing streams and daily getting wet up to the waist. All these difficulties began to have a bad effect. The morale of Livingstone's followers suffered, and a mutiny was only repressed by his firm and vigorous action. On 4 March they reached the territory of the Chiboque, and were only saved from collision with the chief by Livingstone's suavity and firmness. They found the natives to the westward familiar with the visits of slave-dealers, and Livingstone struck away to the north north-east, hoping to find at a point further north an exit to the Portuguese settlement of Kasanji. They crossed many swollen streams, and spent Sunday, 26 March, on the banks of the Quilo, where the scenery was fine; but fever prevented its enjoyment. They now met many parties of native traders, but had nothing to barter with them, and, depressed by sickness and want of food and clothing, Livingstone arrived at the Quango on 3 April 'glad to cower under the shelter of my blanket, thankful to God for His goodness in bringing us thus far without the loss of one of the party.' Here a Portuguese sergeant of militia, Cypriano de Abreu, in charge of a detachment, entertained them, and supplied them with meal to carry them to Kasanji, where they arrived on 13 April. They were hospitably treated by Captain Neves, who sent a black militia corporal to escort them for the three hundred miles remaining of their journey to Loanda. At Kasanji Livingstone received every kindness from the Portuguese. 'May God remember them,' he writes. 'in their day of need!' They left Kasanji on 21 April, and were hospitably received at the different stations on the way to the coast; but the journey was rough, and Livingstone was ill with dysentery, and on reaching the highlands of Golungo-Alto he rested a few days to recover his strength. On 24 May he started on his descent to the coast, and arrived in Loanda on 31 May 1854, where he was hospitably welcomed by Mr. Gabriel, the English commissioner for the suppression of the slave-trade and consul for Angola; by the Bishop of Angola, who was at the time acting governor-general, and by the leading Portuguese of the place.

The captains of H.M.'s ships Pluto, Philomel, and Polyphemus, coming shortly after into port, offered to take Livingstone either to