to be carried over the rivers on the
back of one of his men, in the fashion so graphically depicted on the
cover of the _Last Journals_. The stretches of sponge that came before
and after the rivers, with their long grass and elephant-holes, were
scarcely less trying. The inhabitants were, commonly, most unfriendly to
the party; they refused them food, and, whenever they could, deceived
them as to the way. Hunger bore down on the party with its bitter
gnawing. Once a mass of furious ants attacked the Doctor by night,
driving him in despair from hut to hut. Any frame but one of Iron must
have succumbed to a single month of such a life, and before a week was
out, any body of men, not held together by a power of discipline and a
charm of affection unexampled in the history of difficult expeditions,
would have been scattered to the four winds. Livingstone's own
sufferings were beyond all previous example.

About this time he began an undated letter--his last--to his old friends
Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann. It was never finished, and never
despatched; but as one of the latest things he ever wrote, it is deeply
interesting, as showing how clear, vigorous, and independent his mind
was to the very last:

"LAKE BANGWEOLO, SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA.

"MY DEAR FRIENDS MACLEAR AND MANN,--... My work at present is
mainly retracing my steps to take up the thread of my
exploration. It counts in my lost time, but I try to make the
most of it by going round outside this lake and all the
sources, so that no one may come afterward and cut me out. I
have a party of good men, selected by H. M. Stanley, who, at
the instance of James Gordon Bennett, of the _New York
Herald_, acted the part of a good Samaritan truly, and
relieved my sore necessities. A dutiful son could not have
done more than he generously did. I bless him. The men,
fifty-six in number, have behaved as well as Makololo. I
cannot award them higher praise, though they have not the
courage of that brave kind-hearted people. From Unyanyembe we
went due south to avoid an Arab war which had been going on
for eighteen months. It is like one of our Caffre wars, with
this difference--no one is enriched thereby, for all trade is
stopped, and the Home Government pays nothing. We then went
westward to Tanganyika, and along its eastern excessively
mountainous bank to the end. The heat w