great
caravan road from the coast to the interior.

[4] These letters must have been destroyed purposely by the Arabs, for
they never arrived at Zanzibar.--ED.

[5] It is curious that this name occurs amongst the Zulu tribes south
of the Zambesi, and, as it has no vowel at the end, appears to be of
altogether foreign origin.--ED.

[6] In 1859.

CHAPTER II.

Prepares to explore River Lualaba. Beauty of the Manyuema
country. Irritation at conduct of Arabs. Dugumbe's ravages.
Hordes of traders arrive. Severe fever. Elephant trap. Sickness
in camp. A good Samaritan. Reaches Mamohela and is prostrated.
Beneficial effects of Nyumbo plant. Long illness. An elephant of
three tusks. All men desert except Susi, Chuma, and Gardner.
Starts with these to Lualaba. Arab assassinated by outraged
Manyuema. Returns baffled to Mamohela. Long and dreadful
suffering from ulcerated feet. Questionable cannibalism. Hears
of four river sources close together. Resume of discoveries.
Contemporary explorers. The soko. Description of its habits. Dr.
Livingstone feels himself failing. Intrigues of deserters.

_1st November, 1869._--Being now well rested, I resolved to go west to
Lualaba and buy a canoe for its exploration. Our course was west and
south-west, through a country surpassingly beautiful, mountainous, and
villages perched on the talus of each great mass for the sake of quick
drainage. The streets often run east and west, in order that the bright
blazing sun may lick up the moisture quickly from off them. The dwelling
houses are generally in line, with public meeting houses at each end,
opposite the middle of the street, the roofs are low, but well thatched
with a leaf resembling the banana leaf, but more tough; it seems from
its fruit to be a species of Euphorbia. The leaf-stack has a notch made
in it of two or three inches lengthways, and this hooks on to the
rafters, which are often of the leaf-stalks of palms, split up so as to
be thin; the water runs quickly off this roof, and the walls, which are
of well-beaten clay, are screened from the weather. Inside, the
dwellings are clean and comfortable, and before the Arabs came bugs were
unknown--as I have before observed, one may know where these people have
come by the presence or absence of these nasty vermin: the human tick,
which infests all Arab and Suaheli houses, is to the Manyuema unknown.

In some cases, where the s