Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/345

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DR. LIVINGSTONE.
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serves notice: "Not only the natives," he says, "but Europeans whose constitutions have been impaired by an Indian climate, find the tract of country indicated"—the southern borders of the Kalahari—"both healthy and restorative.... Cases have been known in which patients have come from the coasts with complaints closely resembling, if they were not actually those of consumption; and they have recovered by the influence of the climate alone."

A subsequent journey in the same direction brought him to the town of Sebituane, chief of the Makololo, from whom he met with a most cordial reception. Unfortunately, the chief fell sick and died shortly after his arrival; but the promise of assistance made before this occurred was confirmed by his successor, a daughter, Ma-Mochisane. In order to confer with her on the matter, Livingstone made a journey to Shesheke, where she lived, 130 miles to the northeast, in company with Mr. Oswell. It was on this journey that they discovered the Zambési, toward the end of June, 1851, even then, the dry season of the year, a magnificent stream 300 or 400 yards broad. In defence of his claim to the discovery, Dr. Livingstone says: "The Portuguese maps all represent the Zambési as rising far to the east of where we now were; and, if ever any thing like a chain of trading-stations (as is asserted) had existed across the country between the latitudes 12° and 18° south, this magnificent portion of the river must have been known before." The discovery was indeed important; and, impelled not only by the prospects it presented, but by the remembrance of his difficulties at Kolobeng, Livingstone decided to explore the river thoroughly, and meanwhile send his family home to England.

The journey undertaken with this view commenced in the early part of June, 1852, and "extended from Capetown, at the southern extremity of the continent, to St. Paul de Loando, the capital of Angola on the west coast, and thence across south Central Africa in an oblique direction to Quelimane in Eastern Africa." Besides geographical research, Livingstone tells us that his object was to find if he could "a healthy district that might prove a centre of civilization, and open up the interior by a path to either the east or west coast."

Glancing rapidly along his route, we are to see our traveller first at Kuruman, where the panic in the country on account of the attack on Kolobeng delayed him. Then at Linyanti, capital of the Makololo, where Sekeletu now reigned in place of his sister Ma-Mochisane, showing himself, like his predecessors, favorable to Livingstone. Then with a large body of Makololo, provided by the chief, on December 27, 1853, at the confluence of the two streams Leeba and Leeambye, where we pause.

The Leeambye—also called the Kabompo and Zambési—is a large river 300 yards wide, flowing from the eastward, while the Leeba, 250 yards wide, comes from the N. N. W. The junction of the two forms Livingstone's Zambési, lat. 14° 10' 52" S., long. 23" 35' 40" E. Lake