When Livingstone heard the news he came out from his verandah and went into the courtyard, where all the Arabs of Ujiji had collected. Stanley made his way through the crush, and saw a small man before him, grey and pale, dressed in a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, a red-sleeved waistcoat, and grey trousers. Stanley would have run up to embrace him, but he felt ashamed in the presence of the crowd, so he simply took off his hat and said, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
"Yes," said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly.
"I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you."
"I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."
They sat down on the verandah, and all the astonished natives stood round, looking on. The missionary related his experiences in the heart of Africa, and then Stanley gave him the general news of the world, for of course he knew nothing of what had taken place for years past. Africa had been separated from Asia by the Suez Canal. The Pacific Railway through North America had been completed. Prussia had taken Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, the German armies were besieging Paris, and Napoleon the Third was a prisoner. France was bleeding from wounds which would never be healed. What news for a man who had just come out of the forests of Manyuema!
Evening drew on and still they sat talking. The shades of night spread their curtain over the palms, and darkness fell over the mountains where Stanley had marched, still in uncertainty, on this remarkable day. A heavy surf beat on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The night had travelled far over Africa before at last they went to rest.
The two men were four months together. They hired two large canoes and rowed to the northern end of Tanganyika, and ascertained that the lake had no outlet there. Only two years later Lieutenant Cameron succeeded in finding the outlet of Tanganyika, the Lukuga, which discharges into the Lualaba; and when he found that Nyangwé on the Lualaba lies 160 feet lower than the Nile where it flows out of the Albert Nyanza, he had proof that the Lualaba could not belong to the Nile, and that Livingstone's idea that the farthest sources of the Nile must be looked for at Lake Bangweolo was only an idle dream. The Lualaba therefore must make its way to the Atlantic, and in fact this river is nothing but the Upper Congo. Lieutenant Cameron was also the first European to cross Central Africa from east to west.
On the shores of the great lake the two travellers beheld a series of beautiful landscapes. There lay villages and fishing-stations in the shade of palms and mimosas, and round the villages grew maize and durra, manioc, yams, and sweet potatoes. In the glens round the lake grew tall trees from which the natives dig out their canoes. Baboons roared in the forests and dwelt in the hollow trunks. Elephants and rhinoceroses, giraffes and zebras, hippopotami and wild boars, buffaloes and antelopes occurred in large numbers, and the northern extremity of the lake swarmed with crocodiles. Sometimes the strangers were inhospitably received when they landed, and once when they were off their guard the natives plundered their canoes. Among other things they took a case of cartridges and bullets, and the travellers thought it would be bad for the thieves if the case exploded at some camp fire.
It soon became time, however, for Stanley to return to Zanzibar and inform the world through the press that Livingstone was alive. They went to Tabora, for Livingstone expected fresh supplies, and in addition Stanley gave him forty men's loads of cloth, glass beads and brass-wire, a canvas boat, a waterproof tent, two breech-loaders and other weapons, ammunition, tools, and cooking utensils. All these things were invaluable to Livingstone, who was determined to remain in Africa at any cost until his task was accomplished.