How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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I Used To Amuse Myself With Taking Notes
Of The Humorous And The Terrible, The Fantastic And Exaggerated
Pictures That Were Presented To Me - Even While Suffering The
Paroxysms Induced By Fever.
We arrived at a large pool, known as the Ziwani, after a four
hours' march in a S.S.W. direction, the 1st of October.
We
discovered an old half-burnt khambi, sheltered by a magnificent
mkuyu (sycamore), the giant of the forests of Unyamwezi, which
after an hour we transformed into a splendid camp.
If I recollect rightly, the stem of the tree measured thirty-eight
feet in circumference. It is the finest tree of its kind I have
seen in Africa. A regiment might with perfect ease have reposed
under this enormous dome of foliage during a noon halt. The
diameter of the shadow it cast on the ground was one hundred and
twenty feet. The healthful vigor that I was enjoying about this
time enabled me to regard my surroundings admiringly. A feeling
of comfort and perfect contentment took possession of me, such as
I knew not while fretting at Unyanyembe, wearing my life away in
inactivity. I talked with my people as to my friends and equals.
We argued with each other about our prospects in quite a
companionable, sociable vein.
When daylight was dying, and the sun was sinking down rapidly over
the western horizon, vividly painting the sky with the colours of
gold and silver, saffron, and opal, when its rays and gorgeous
tints were reflected upon the tops of the everlasting forest, with
the quiet and holy calm of heaven resting upon all around, and
infusing even into the untutored minds of those about me the
exquisite enjoyments of such a life as we were now leading in the
depths of a great expanse of forest, the only and sole human
occupants of it - this was the time, after our day's work was ended,
and the camp was in a state of perfect security, when we all would
produce our pipes, and could best enjoy the labors which we had
performed, and the contentment which follows a work well done.
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