n
within a day's march of their goal they were told that no lake had
ever been heard of in the neighbourhood, but, said the natives, the
river Shire stretched on, and it would take two months to reach the
end, which came out of perpendicular rocks which towered almost to
the skies.

"Let us go back to the ship," said the followers; "it is no use trying
to find the lake."

But Livingstone persevered, and he was soon rewarded by finding a sheet
of water, which was indeed the beginning of Lake Nyassa. It was 16th
September 1859.

"How far is it to the end of the lake?" he asked.

"The other end of the lake? Who ever heard of such a thing? Why, if
one started when a mere boy to walk to the other end of the lake, he
would be an old grey-headed man before he got there," declared one
of the natives. Livingstone knew that he had opened up a great waterway
to the interior of Africa, but the slave trade in these parts was
terrible, gangs being employed in carrying the ivory from countries
to the north down to the east coast. The English explorer saw that
if he could establish a steamer upon this Lake Nyassa and buy ivory
from the natives with European goods he would at once strike a deadly
blow at the slave trade. His letters home stirred several missionaries
to come out and establish a settlement on the banks of the Shire River.
Bishop Mackenzie and a little band of helpers arrived on the river
Shire two years later, and in 1862 Mrs. Livingstone joined them,
bringing out with her a little new steamer to launch on the Lake Nyassa.
But the unhealthy season was at its height, and "the surrounding low
land, rank with vegetation and reeking from the late rainy season,
exhaled the malarious poison in enormous quantities." Mrs.
Livingstone fell ill, and in a week she was dead. She was buried under
a large baobab tree at Shapunga, where her grave is visited by many
a traveller passing through this once solitary region first penetrated
by her husband.

The blow was a crushing one for Livingstone, and for a time he was
quite bewildered. But when his old energy returned he superintended
the launching of the little steamer, the _Lady Nyassa_. But
disappointment and failure awaited him, and at last, just two years
after the death of his wife, he took the _Lady Nyassa_ to Zanzibar
by the Rovuma River and set forth to reach Bombay, where he hoped to
sell her, for his funds were low.

On the last day of April 1864 he started on his per