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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In Order To Prevent The Progress Of The
Doctor, And In Hopes That It Would Compel Him To Return To The
Coast, These Men So Cruelly Treated The Animals That Before Long
There Was Not One Left Alive.
But as this scheme failed, they set
about instigating the natives against the white men, whom they
accused most wantonly of strange practices.
As this plan was most
likely to succeed, and as it was dangerous to have such men with
him, the Doctor arrived at the conclusion that it was best to
discharge them, and accordingly sent the Sepoys back to the coast;
but not without having first furnished them with the means of
subsistence on their journey to the coast. These men were such a
disreputable set that the natives spoke of them as the Doctor's
slaves. One of their worst sins was the custom of giving their
guns and ammunition to carry to the first woman or boy they met,
whom they impressed for that purpose by such threats or promises
as they were totally unable to perform, and unwarranted in making.
An hour's marching was sufficient to fatigue them, after which
they lay down on the road to bewail their hard fate, and concoct
new schemes to frustrate their leader's purposes. Towards night
they generally made their appearance at the camping-ground with
the looks of half-dead men. Such men naturally made but a poor
escort; for, had the party been attacked by a wandering tribe
of natives of any strength, the Doctor could have made no defence,
and no other alternative would have been left to him but to
surrender and be ruined.
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