LIVINGSTONE 721
Loanda was left on September 20, 1854, but Livingstone lingered long about the Portuguese settlements. Making a slight detour to the north to Cabango, the party reached Lake Dilolo on June 13. Here Livingstone made a careful study of the watershed of the country in what is perhaps the most complicated river system in the world. He "now for the first time apprehended the true form of the river systems and the continent," and the conclusions he came to have been essentially confirmed by subsequent observations. The return journey from Lake Dilolo was by the same route as that by which the party came. Their reception all along the Barotse valley was an ovation, and Linyanti was reached in the beginning of September.
For Livingstone's purposes the route to the west was unavailable, and he decided to follow the Zambesi to its mouth. With a numerous following, he left Linyanti on November 8, 1855. A fortnight afterwards he made the great discovery with which, in popular imagination, his name is more intimately associated than with anything else he did, – the famous "Victoria" falls of the Zambesi, which, after a second examination in his subsequent journey, he concluded to be due to an immense fissure or fault right across the bed of the river, which was one means of draining off the waters of the great lake that he supposed must have at one time occupied the centre of the continent. He had already formed a true idea of the configuration of the continent as a great hollow or basin-shaped plateau, surrounded by a ring of mountains. Livingstone reached the Portuguese settlement of Tette on March 2, 1856, in a very emaciated condition, and after six weeks, left his men well cared for, and proceeded to Kilimane, where he arrived on May 20, thus having completed in two years and six months one of the most remarkable and fruitful journeys on record. The results in geography and in natural science in all its departments were abundant and accurate; his observations necessitated a reconstruction of the map of central Africa. Men of the highest eminence in all departments of science testified to the high value of Livingstone's work. In later years, it is true, the Portuguese, embittered by his unsparing denunciations of their traffic in slaves, attempted to depreciate his work, and to maintain that much of it had already been done by Portuguese explorers. When Livingstone began his work in Africa it was virtually a blank from Kuruman to Timbuctoo, and nothing but envy or ignorance can throw any doubt on the originality of his discoveries.
On December 12 he arrived in England, after an absence of sixteen years, and met everywhere with the welcome of a hero. He told his story in his Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857) with straightforward simplicity, and with no effort after literary style, and no apparent consciousness that he had done anything extraordinary. Its publication brought what he would have considered a competency had he felt himself at liberty to settle down for life. In 1857 he severed his connexion with the London Missionary Society, with whom, however, he always remained on the best of terms, and in February 1858 he accepted the appointment of "Her Majesty's consul at Kilimane for the eastern coast and the independent districts in the interior, and commander of an expedition for exploring eastern and central Africa."
The Zambesi expedition, of which Livingstone thus became commander, sailed from Liverpool in H.M.S. "Pearl" on March 10, 1858, and reached the mouth of the Zambesi on May 14, and the party ascended the river from the Kongone mouth in a steam launch, the "Ma-Robert," reaching Tette on September 8. The remainder of the year was spent in examining the river above Tette, and especially the Kebrabasa rapids. Most of the year 1859 was spent in the exploration of the river Shire and Lake Nyassa, which was discovered in September; and much of the year 1860 was spent by Livingstone in fulfilling his promise to take such of the Makalolo home as cared to go. In January of next year arrived Bishop Mackenzie and a party of missionaries sent out by the Universities Mission to establish a station on the upper Shire.
After exploring the river Rovuma for 30 miles in his new vessel the "Pioneer," Livingstone and the missionaries proceeded up the Shire to Chibisa's; there they found the slave trade rampant, desolating the country and paralysing all effort. On July 15 Livingstone, accompanied by several native carriers, started to show the bishop the country. Several bands of slaves whom they met were liberated, and after seeing the missionary party settled in the highlands of Magomero to the south of Lake Shirwa, Livingstone spent from August to November in exploring Lake Nyassa. While the boat sailed up the west side of the lake to near the north end, the explorer marched along the shore. He returned more resolved than ever to do his utmost to rouse the civilized world to put down the desolating slave-trade. On January 30, 1862, at the Zambesi mouth, Livingstone welcomed his wife and the ladies of the mission, with whom were the sections of the "Lady Nyassa," a river steamer which Livingstone had had built at his own expense, absorbing most of the profits of his book, and for which he never got any allowance. When the mission ladies reached the mouth of the Ruo tributary of the Shire, they were stunned to hear of the death of the bishop and of Mr Burrup. This was a sad blow to Livingstone, seeming to have rendered all his efforts to establish a mission futile. A still greater loss to him was that of his wife at Shupanga, on April 27, 1862.
The "Lady Nyassa" was taken to the Rovuma. Up this river Livingstone managed to steam 156 miles, but further progress was arrested by rocks. Returning to the Zambesi in the beginning of 1863, he found that the desolation caused by the slave trade was more horrible and widespread than ever. It was clear that the Portuguese officials were themselves at the bottom of the traffic. Kirk and Charles Livingstone being compelled to return to England on account of their health, the doctor resolved once more to visit the lake, and proceeded some distance up the west side and then north-west as far as the watershed that separates the Loangwa from the rivers that run into the lake. Meanwhile a letter was received from Earl Russell recalling the expedition by the end of the year. In the end of April 1864 Livingstone reached Zanzibar in the "Lady Nyassa," and on the 30th he set out with nine natives and four Europeans for Bombay, which was reached after an adventurous voyage of a month, and on July 23 Livingstone arrived in England. He was naturally disappointed with the results of this expedition, all its leading objects being thwarted through no blame of his. For the unfortunate disagreements which occurred, and for which he was blamed in some quarters, he must be held acquitted, as he was by the authorities at home; though it is not necessary to maintain that Livingstone was exempt from the trying effects on the temper of African fever, or from the intolerance of lukewarmness which belongs to all exceptionally strong natures. Still the results at the time, and especially those of the future, were great. The geographical results, though not in extent to be compared to those of his first and his final expeditions, were of high importance, as were those in various departments of science. Details will be found in his Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, published in 1865.
By Murchison and his other staunch friends Livingstone was as warmly welcomed as ever. When Murchison proposed to him that he should go out again, although he seems to have had a desire to spend the remainder of his
