How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
- Page 137 of 160 - First - Home
But There Was No Life In Him.
And Among The Last Words I Said To Him, Before Parting, Were,
`Remember, If You Return To Unyanyembe, You Die!'"
We also obtained news from the chief of Sayd bin 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 Sheikh Hashid of Zanzibar, was amongst the
latest arrivals in Unyanyembe.
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 Unyanyembe, 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 fancies. 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 Halimah herself; we had sweet potatoes, tea, coffee,
dampers, or slap jacks; but I was tired of them. My enfeebled
stomach, harrowed and irritated with medicinal compounds, with
ipecac, colocynth, tartar-emetic, 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 another, 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
matter. 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 Livingstone'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 have also
been able to provide ourselves with music, which, though harsh,
is better than none. I mean the musical screech of parrots from
Manyuema.
Half-way between Mwaru - Kamirambo's village - and the deserted
Tongoni of Ukamba, I carved the Doctor's initials and my own on
a large tree, with the date February 2nd. 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 Shupanga 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 Livingstone's first book,
`South Africa,' without which no boy should be, will probably
recollect the dying Sebituane's regard for the little boy
"Robert." 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 137 of 160
Words from 139159 to 140171
of 163520