As an excuse, Sherif said he had divined
on the Koran, and that this had told him the Hakim (Arabic for
Doctor) was dead.
Livingstone was now destitute; he had just enough to keep him and
his men alive for about a month, when he would be forced to beg
from the Arabs.
The Doctor further stated, that when Speke gives the altitude of
the Tanganika at only 1,800 feet above the sea, Speke must have
fallen into that error by a frequent writing of the Anne Domini,
a mere slip of the pen; for the altitude, as he makes it out,
is 2,800 feet by boiling point, and a little over 3,000 feet by
barometer.
The Doctor's complaints were many because slaves were sent to him,
in charge of goods, after he had so often implored the people at
Zanzibar to send him freemen. A very little effort on the part of
those entrusted with the despatch of supplies to him might have
enabled them to procure good and faithful freemen; but if they
contented themselves, upon the receipt of a letter from Dr.
Livingstone, with sending to Ludha Damji for men, it is no longer
a matter of wonder that dishonest and incapable slaves were sent
forward.
