t not worth killing, and the shouts
of welcome home to these bloody murderers. It turned out that
they were only some sixty or seventy robbers, and not the
Ajawa tribe; so we had a narrow escape from being murdered.

"How are you doing? I fear from what I have observed of your
temperament that you will have to strive against fickleness.
Every one has his besetting fault--that is no disgrace to
him, but it is a disgrace if he do not find it out, and by
God's grace overcome it. I am not near to advise you what to
do, but whatever line of life you choose, resolve to stick to
it, and serve God therein to the last. Whatever failings you
are conscious of, tell them to your heavenly Father; strive
daily to master them and confess all to Him when conscious of
having gone astray. And may the good Lord of all impart all
the strength you need. Commit your way unto the Lord; trust
also in Him. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will
bless you."

Leaving the "Pioneer" at Chibisa's, on 6th August, 1861, Livingstone,
accompanied by his brother and Dr. Kirk, started for Nyassa with a
four-oared boat, which was carried by porters past the Murchison
Cataracts. On 23d September they sailed into Lake Nyassa, naming the
grand mountainous promontory at the end Cape Maclear, after
Livingstone's great friend the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape.

All about the lake was now examined with earnest eyes. The population
was denser than he had seen anywhere else. The people were civil, and
even friendly, but undoubtedly they were not handsome. At the north of
the lake they were lawless, and at one point the party were robbed in
the night--the first time such a thing had occurred in Livingstone's
African life[61]. Of elephants there was a great abundance,--indeed of
all animal and vegetable life.

[Footnote 61: In _The Zambesi and its Tributaries_, Livingstone gives a
grave account of the robbery. In his letters to his friends he makes fun
of it, as he did of the raid of the Boers. To Mr. F. Fitch he writes:
"You think I cannot get into a scrape.... For the first time in Africa
we were robbed. Expert thieves crept into our sleeping-places, about
four o'clock in the morning, and made off with what they could lay their
hands on. Sheer over-modesty ruined me. It was Sunday, and such a black
mass swarmed around our sail, which we used as a hut, that we could not
hear p