18th February, 1872.—Go through low tree-covered hills of granite, with blocks of rock sticking out: much land cultivated, and many villages. The country now opens out and we come to the Tembé,[16] in the midst of many straggling villages. Unyanyembé. Thanks to the Almighty.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] The reader will best judge of the success of the experiment by looking at a specimen of the writing. An old sheet of the Standard newspaper, made into rough copy-books, sufficed for paper in the absence of all other material, and by writing across the print no doubt the notes were tolerably legible at the time. The colour of the decoction used instead of ink has faded so much that if Dr. Livingstone's handwriting had not at all times been beautifully clear and distinct it would have been impossible to decipher this part of his diary.—Ed.
[15] Thus the question of the Lusizé was settled at once: the previous notion of its outflow to the north proved a myth.—ED.
[16] Tembé, a flat-roofed Arab house.
CHAPTER VII.
Determines to continue his work. Proposed route. Refits. Robberies discovered. Mr. Stanley leaves. Parting messages. Mteza's people arrive. Ancient geography. Tabora. Description of the country. The Banyamwezi. A Baganda bargain. The population of Unyanyembé. The Mirambo war. Thoughts on Sir S. Baker's policy. The cat and the snake. Firm faith. Feathered neighbours. Mistaken notion concerning mothers. Prospects for missionaries. Halima. News of other travellers. Chuma is married.
By the arrival of the fast Ramadân on the 14th November, and a Nautical Almanac, I discovered that I was on that date twenty-one days too fast in my reckoning. Mr. Stanley used some very strong arguments in favour of my going home, recruiting my strength, getting artificial teeth, and then returning to finish my task; but my judgment said, "All your friends will wish you to make a complete work of the exploration of the sources of the Nile before you retire." My daughter Agnes says, "Much as I wish you to come home, I would rather that you finished your work to your own satisfaction than return merely to gratify me." Rightly and nobly said, my darling Nannie. Vanity whispers pretty loudly, "She is a chip of the old block." My blessing on her and all the rest.
It is all but certain that four full-grown gushing fountains rise on the watershed eight days south of Katanga, each of which at no great distance off becomes a large river; and two rivers thus formed flow north to Egypt, the other two to Inner Ethiopia; that is, Lufira or Bartle Frere's River, flows into Kamolondo, and that into Webb's Lualaba, the main line of drainage. Another, on the north side of the sources, Sir Paraffin Young's Lualaba, flows through Lake Lincoln, otherwise named Chibungo and Lomamé, and that too into Webb's Lualaba. Then Liambai Fountain, Palmerston's, forms the Upper Zambesi; and the Lunga (Lunga), Oswell's Fountain, is the Kafué; both flowing into Inner Ethiopia. It may be that these are not the fountains of the Nile mentioned to Herodotus by the secretary of Minerva, in Sais, in Egypt; but they are worth discovery, as in the last hundred of the seven hundred miles of the watershed, from which nearly all the Nile springs do unquestionably arise.