with an arrow
in the shoulder through the palisade, and N'taru in the finger. Things
were becoming desperate. Putting the body of Dr. Livingstone and all
their goods and chattels in one hut, they charged out of the town, and
fired on the assailants, killing two and wounding several others.
Fearing that they would only gather together in the other remaining
villages and renew the attack at night, the men carried these quickly
one by one and subsequently burnt six others which were built on the
same side of the river, then crossing over, they fired on the canoes
which were speeding towards the deep water of Bangweolo, through the
channel of the Lopupussi, with disastrous results to the fugitive
people.

Returning to the town, all was made safe for the night. By the fortunes
of war, sheep, goats, fowls, and an immense quantity of food fell into
their hands; and they remained for a week to recruit. Once or twice they
found men approaching at night to throw fire on the roofs of the huts
from outside, but with this exception they were not interfered with. On
the last day but one a man approached and called to them at the top of
his voice not to set fire to the chief's town (it was his that they
occupied); for the bad son had brought all this upon them; he added that
the old man had been overruled, and they were sorry enough for his bad
conduct.

Listening to the account given of this occurrence, one cannot but lament
the loss of life and the whole circumstances of the fight. Whilst on the
one hand we may imagine that the loss of a cool, conciliatory, brave
leader was here felt in a grave degree, we must also see that it was
known far and wide that this very loss was now a great weakness to his
followers. There is no surer sign of mischief in Africa than these
trumpery charges of bewitching houses by placing things on them: some
such over-strained accusation is generally set in the front rank when
other difficulties are to come: drunkenness is pretty much the same
thing in all parts of the world, and gathers misery around it as easily
in an African village as in an English city. Had the cortege submitted
to extortion and insult, they felt that their night by the river would
have been a precarious one--even if they had been in a humour to sleep
in a swamp when a town was at hand. These things gave occasion to them
to resort to force. The desperate nature of their whole enterprise in
starting for Zanzibar perhaps had accumula