Six days later he passed through Cassangé. Here it was that Alvez had seen him. On the 31st of May he arrived at St. Paul de Luanda, having traversed the continent in about two years.
It was not long, however, before he was off again. Following the banks of the Cuanza, the river which was to bring such trying experiences to Dick Sands and his party, he reached the Lombé, and having met numbers of slave-caravans on his way, again passed through Cassangé, crossed the Kwango, and reached the Zambesi at Kewawa. By the 8th of the following June he was again at Lake Dilolo, and descending the river, he re-entered Linyanté. Here he stayed till the 3rd of November, when he commenced his second great journey, which was to carry him completely across Africa from west to east.
After visiting the famed Victoria Falls, the intrepid explorer quitted the Zambesi, and took a northeasterly route. The transit of the territory of the Batokas, a people brutalized by the inhalation of hemp; a visit to Semalemboni the powerful chief of the district; the passage of the Kafoni; a visit to king Mbourouma; an inspection of the ruins of Zumbo, an old Portuguese town; a meeting with the chief Mpendé, at that time at war with the Portuguese, these were the principal events of this journey, and on the 22nd of April, Livingstone left Teté, and having descended the river as far as its delta, reached Quilimané, just four years after his last departure from the Cape. On the 12th of July he embarked for the Mauritius, and on the 22nd of December, 1856, he landed in England after an absence of sixteen years.
Loaded with honours by the Geographical Societies of London and Paris, brilliantly entertained by all ranks, it would have been no matter of surprise if he had surrendered himself to a well-earned repose; but no thought of permanent rest occurred to him, and on the 1st of March, 1858, accompanied by his brother Charles, Captain Bedingfield, Dr. Kirk, Dr. Miller, Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Baines, he started again, with the intention of exploring the basin of the Zambesi, and arrived in due time at the coast of Mozambique.
The party ascended the great river by the Kongone mouth; they were on board a small steamer named the Ma-Robert, and reached Teté on the 8th of September.
During the following year they investigated the lower course of the Zambesi, and its left affluent the Shire, and having visited Lake Shirwa, they explored the territory of the Manganjas, and discovered Lake Nyasa. In August, 1860, they returned to the Victoria Falls.
Early in the following year, Bishop Mackenzie and his missionary staff arrived at the mouth of the Zambesi.
In March an exploration of the Ruvuma was made on board the Pioneer, the exploring party returning afterwards to Lake Nyasa, where they remained a considerable time. The 30th of January, 1862, was signalized by the arrival of Mrs. Livingstone, and by the addition of another steamer, the Lady Nyassa; but the happiness of reunion was very transient; it was but a short time before the enthusiastic Bishop Mackenzie succumbed to the unhealthiness of the climate, and on the 27th of April Mrs. Livingstone expired in her husband’s arms.
A second investigation of the Ruvuma soon followed and at the end of November the doctor returned to the Zambesi, and reascended the Shire. In the spring of 1863 he lost his companion Mr. Thornton, and as his brother and Dr. Kirk were both much debilitated, he insisted upon their return to Europe, while he himself returned for the third time to Lake Nyasa, and completed the hydrographical survey which already he had begun.
A few months later found him once more at the mouth of the Zambesi; thence he crossed over to Zanzibar, and after five years’ absence arrived in London, where he published his work, “The exploration of the Zambesi and its affluents.”
Still unwearied and insatiable in his longings, he was back again in Zanzibar at the commencement of 1866, ready to begin his fourth journey, this time attended only by a few sepoys and negroes. Witnessing on his way some horrible scenes which were perpetrated as the result of the prosecution of the slave-trade, he proceeded to Mokalaosé on the shores of Lake Nyasa, where nearly all his attendants deserted him, and returned to Zanzibar with the report that he was dead.
Dr. Livingstone meanwhile was not only alive, but undaunted in his determination to visit the country between the two lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. With none to guide him except a few natives, he crossed the Loangona, and in the following April discovered Lake Liemba. Here he lay for a whole month hovering between life and death, but rallying a little he pushed on to the north shore of Lake Moero. Taking up his quarters at Cazembé for six weeks, he made two separate explorations of the lake, and then started farther northwards, intending to reach Ujiji, an important town upon Lake Tanganyika; overtaken, however, by floods, and again abandoned by his servants, he was obliged to retrace his steps. Six weeks afterwards he had made his way southwards to the great lake Bangweolo, whence once more he started towards Tanganyika.
This last effort was most trying, and the doctor had grown so weak that he was obliged to be carried, but he reached Ujiji, where he was gratified by finding some supplies that had been thoughtfully forwarded to him by the Oriental Society at Calcutta.
His great aim now was to ascend the lake, and reach
