risome
sometimes. He occupied himself in writing letters, in the hope that
somehow or sometime he might find an opportunity of despatching them. He
took the rainfall carefully during the year, and lunars and other
observations, when the sky permitted. He had intended to make his
observations more perfect on this journey than on any previous one, but
alas for his difficulties and disappointments! A letter to Sir Thomas
Maclear and Mr. Mann, his assistant, gives a pitiful account of these:
"I came this journey with a determination to observe very carefully all
your hints as to occupations and observations, east and west, north and
south, but I have been so worried by lazy, deceitful Sepoys, and
thievish Johanna men, and indifferent instruments, that I fear the
results are very poor." He goes on to say that some of his instruments
were defective, and others went out of order, and that his time-taker,
one of his people, had no conscience, and could not be trusted. The
records of his observations, notwithstanding, indicate much care and
pains. In April, he had been very unwell, taking fits of total
insensibility, but as he had not said anything of this to his people at
home, it was to be kept a secret.

His Journal for 1867 ends with a statement of the poverty of his food,
and the weakness to which he was reduced. He had hardly anything to eat
but the coarsest grain of the country, and no tea, coffee, or sugar. An
Arab trader, Mohamad Bogharib, who arrived at Casembe's about the same
time, presented him with a meal of vermicelli, oil, and honey, and had
some coffee and sugar; Livingstone had had none since he left Nyassa.

The Journal for 1868 begins with a prayer that if he should die that
year, he might be prepared for it. The year was spent in the same
region, and was signalized by the discovery of Lake Bemba, or, as it may
more properly be called, Lake Bangweolo, Early in the year he heard
accounts of what interested him greatly--certain underground houses in
Rua, ranging along a mountain side for twenty miles. In some cases the
doorways were level with the country adjacent; in others, ladders were
used to climb up to them; inside they were said to be very large, and
not the work of men, but of God. He became eagerly desirous to visit
these mysterious dwellings.

Circumstances turning out more favorable to his going to Lake Bangweolo,
Dr. Livingstone put off his journey to Ujiji, on which his men had been
counting, an