How I Found Livingstone by Henry M. Stanley (read after .txt) đ
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âRobert.â Mrs. Livingstone 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 his 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 Livingstone, 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 7th 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 Ferajji, the cook, and Chowpereh to
Unyanyembe, 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 hunterâs 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 Khamisi and
Kalulu with me for a hunt. After a long walk we arrived near a
thin jungle, where I discovered the tracks of several animalsâboar,
antelope, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and an unusual
number of imprints of the lionâs paw. Suddenly I heard Khamisi
say, âMaster, master! here is a `simba!â (lion);â and he came
up to me trembling with excitement and fearâfor the young fellow
was an arrant cowardâto point out the head of a beast, which could
be seen just above the tall grass, looking steadily towards 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 awayâto where the grass was thin and
scantâI 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
âmightiest among the brutes;â or his roar as anything more
fearful in broad daylight than a sucking doveâs.
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 despatching
a couple of men with presents to my friend Ma-manyara, of
ammonia-bottle memory, I sauntered out once more 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 hartebeest,
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 momentâs 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 nor 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 after noon 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. âWe 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. Livingstone found among the Babisa and
Ba-ulungu, and in Manyuema. I received the same friendly
recognition from all the chiefs, from Imrera, in Ukawendi,
to Unyanyembe, as I did from Ma-manyara.
On the 14th 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 Ferajji and Chowpereh, bringing with them Sarmean and Uledi
Manwa Sera, who, it will be recollected, were the two soldiers sent
to Zanzibar with letters and who should Sarmean have in charge but
the deserter Hamdallah, who decamped at Manyara, as we were going
to Ujiji. This fellow, it seems, had halted at Kigandu, 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 Mabruk Saleem; and the simple chief had commanded it to
be given up to him upon his mere word, in consequence of which
the sick man had died.
Upon Sarmeanâs arrival in Unyanyembe from Zanzibar, about fifty
days after the Expedition had departed for Ujiji the news he
received was that the white man (Shaw) 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 Unyanyembe. He had
left him unmolested until the appearance of Ferajji 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, Sarmean had procured a forked pole, between
the prongs of which the neck of the absconder was placed; and
a cross stick, firmly lashed, effectually prevented him from
relieving himself 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
Unyanyembe. These had been intrusted 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 Livingstoneâs goods and do the best I could
to forward them on to him, dated 25th September, 1871, five days
after I left Unyanyembe on my apparently hopeless task.
âWell, Doctor,â said I to Livingstone, âthe English Consul
requests me to do all I can to push forward your goods to you.
I am sorry that 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 towards Mohammed,
but Mohammed has been compelled to advance towards the mountain.â
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
Parisiorum had been set in flames by the blackguards of
Saint-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 soldiery 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, destroyedâa whole city given
up to the summa injuria of an infuriate, reckless, and brutal army!
Oh France! Oh 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.â
Poor âPunch!â good-hearted, kindly-natured `Punch!â a travellerâs
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, âKhabari Kisunguââwhite manâs newsâoften, and heard
them discussing the nature of such a quantity of news, and
expressing their belief that the âWasunguâ were âmbyah sana,â
and very âmkali;â 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 Ugunda, or the 18th of February, and the
fifty-third day from Ujiji, we made our appearance with flags
flying and guns firing in the valley of Kwihara, and when the
Doctor and myself passed through the portals of my old quarters
I formally welcomed 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, 131 days had elapsedâwith what vicissitudes
of fortune the reader well knowsâduring which time I had journeyed
over 1,200 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 old room, and I said
to him, âDoctor, we are at last HOME!â
CHAPTER XV. HOMEWARD BOUND.âLIVINGSTONEâS LAST WORDS
THE FINAL FAREWELL
Unyanyembe was now to me a terrestrial Paradise. Livingstone was
no less happy; he was in comfortable quarters, which were a palace
compared to his hut in Ujiji. Our storerooms were full of the
good things of this life, besides cloth, beads, wire, and the
thousand and one impedimenta and paraphernalia of travel with which
I had loaded over one hundred and fifty men at Bagamoyo. I had
seventy-four loads of miscellaneous things, the most valuable of
which were now to be turned over to Livingstone, for his march back
to the sources of the Nile.
It was a great day with, us when, with hammer and chisel, I broke
open the Doctorâs boxes, that we might feast our famished stomachs
on the luxuries which were to redeem us from the effect
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