rayers. I had before slipped away a quarter of a mile to dress for
church, but seeing a crowd of women watching me through the reeds, I did
not change my old 'unmentionables,'--they were so old, I had serious
thoughts of converting them into--charity! Next morning nearly all our
spare clothing was walked off with, and there I was left by my modesty
nearly through at the knees, and no change of shirt, flannel, or
stockings. After that, don't say that I can't get into a scrape!" The
same letter thanks Mr. Fitch for sending him _Punch_, whom he deemed a
sound divine! On the same subject he wrote at another time, regretting
that _Punch_ did not reach him, especially a number in which notice was
taken of himself. "It never came. Who the miscreants are that steal them
I cannot divine, I would not grudge them a reading if they would only
send them on afterward. Perhaps binding the whole year's _Punches_ would
be the best plan; and then we need not label it 'Sermons in Lent,' or
'Tracts on Homoeopathy,' but you may write inside, as Dr. Buckland did
on his umbrella, 'Stolen from Dr. Livingstone.' We really enjoy them
very much. They are good against fever. The 'Essence of Parliament,' for
instance, is capital. One has to wade through an ocean of paper to get
the same information, without any of the fun. And by the time the
newspapers have reached us, most of the interest in public matters has
evaporated."]

But the lake slave-trade was going on at a dismal rate. An Arab dhow was
seen on the lake, but it kept well out of the way. Dr. Livingstone was
informed by Colonel Rigdy, late British Consul at Zanzibar, that 19,000
slaves from this Nyassa region alone passed annually through the
custom-house there. This was besides those landed at Portuguese slave
ports. In addition to those captured, thousands were killed or died of
their wounds or of famine, or perished in other ways, so that not
one-fifth of the victims became slaves--in the Nyassa district probably
not one-tenth. A small armed steamer on the lake might stop nearly the
whole of this wholesale robbery and murder.

Their stock of goods being exhausted, and no provisions being
procurable, the party had to return at the end of October. They had to
abandon the project of getting from the lake to the Rovuma, and
exploring eastward. They reached the ship on 8th November, 1861, having
suffered more from hunger than on any previous trip.

In writing to his friend Young, 28th Nov