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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He Had Thus Thirty Men With Him, Twelve Of Whom, Viz.,
The Sepoys, Were To Act As Guards For The Expedition.
They were
mostly armed with the Enfield rifles presented to the Doctor by
the Bombay Government.
The baggage of the expedition consisted
of ten bales of cloth and two bags of beads, which were to serve
as the currency by which they would be enabled to purchase the
necessaries of life in the countries the Doctor intended to visit.
Besides the cumbrous moneys, they carried several boxes of
instruments, such as chronometers, air thermometers, sextant,
and artificial horizon, boxes containing clothes, medicines,
and personal necessaries. The expedition travelled up the left
bank of the Rovuma River, a rout/e/ as full of difficulties as
any that could be chosen. For miles Livingstone and his party
had to cut their way with their axes through the dense and
almost impenetrable jungles which lined the river's banks.
The road was a mere footpath, leading in the most erratic fashion
into and through the dense vegetation, seeking the easiest outlet
from it without any regard to the course it ran. The pagazis
were able to proceed easily enough; but the camels, on account
of their enormous height, could not advance a step without the
axes of the party clearing the way. These tools of foresters
were almost always required; but the advance of the expedition
was often retarded by the unwillingness of the Sepoys and
Johanna men to work.
Soon after the departure of the expedition from the coast,
the murmurings and complaints of these men began, and upon every
occasion and at every opportunity they evinced a decided
hostility to an advance.
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