Sekelétu had not been behaving well in Livingstone's absence. He had been conducting marauding parties against his neighbors, which even Livingstone's men, when they heard of it, pronounced to be "bad, bad." Livingstone was obliged to reprove him. A new uniform had been sent to the chief from Loanda, with which he appeared at church, "attracting more attention than the sermon." He continued, however, to 'show the same friendship for Livingstone, and did all he could for him when he set out eastward. A new escort of men was provided, above a hundred and twenty strong, with ten slaughter cattle, and three of his best riding oxen; stores of food were given, and a right to levy tribute over the tribes that were subject to Sekelétu as he passed through their borders. If Livingstone had performed these journeys with some long-pursed society or individual at his back, his feat even then would have been wonderful; but it becomes quite amazing when we think that he went without stores, and owed everything to the influence he acquired with men like Sekelétu and the natives generally. His heart was much touched on one occasion by the disinterested kindness of Sekelétu. Having lost their way on a dark night in the forest, in a storm of rain and lightning, and the luggage having been carried on, they had to pass the night under a tree. The chief's blanket had not been carried on, and Sekelétu placed Livingstone under it, and lay down himself on the wet ground. "If such men must perish before the white by an immutable law of heaven," he wrote to the Geographical Society (25th January, 1856), "we must seem to be under the same sort of terrible necessity in our Caffre wars as the American Professor of Chemistry said he was under, when he dismembered the man whom he had murdered."
Again Livingstone sets out on his weary way, untrodden by white man's foot, to pass through unknown tribes, whose savage temper might give him his quietus at any turn of the road. There were various routes to the sea open to him. He chose the route along the Zambesi--though the the most difficult, and through hostile tribes--because it seemed the most likely to answer his desire to find a commercial highway to the coast. Not far to the east of Linyanti, he beheld for the first time those wonderful falls of which he had only heard before, giving an English name to them,--the first he had ever given in all his African journeys,--the Victoria Falls. We have seen how genuine his respect was for his Sovereign, and it was doubtless a real though quiet pleasure to connect her name with the grandest natural phenomenon in Africa, This is one of the discoveries [43] that have taken most hold on the popular imagination, for the Victoria Falls are like a second Niagara, but grander and more astonishing; but except as illustrating his views of the structure of Africa, and the distribution of its waters, it had not much influence, and led to no very remarkable results. Right across the channel of the river was a deep fissure only eighty feet wide, into which the whole volume of the river, a thousand yards broad, tumbled to the depth of a hundred feet [44], the fissure being continued in zigzag form for thirty miles, so that the stream had to change its course from right to left and left to right, and went through the hills boiling and roaring, sending up columns of steam, formed by the compression of the water falling into its narrow wedge-shaped receptacle.
[43] Virtually a discovery, though marked in an old map.
[44] Afterward ascertained by him to be 1800 yards and 820 feet respectively.
A discovery as to the structure of the country, long believed in by him, but now fully verified, was of much more practical importance. It had been ascertained by him that skirting the central hollow there were two longitudinal ridges extremely favorable for settlements, both for missions and merchandise. We shall hear much of this soon.
Slowly but steadily the eastward tramp is continued, often over ground which was far from favorable for walking exercise. "Pedestrianism," said Livingstone, "may be all very well for those whose obesity requires much exercise; but for one who was becoming as thin as a lath through the constant perspiration caused by marching day after day in the hot sun, the only good I saw in it was that it gave an honest sort of a man a vivid idea of the tread-mill."
When Livingstone came to England, and was writing books, his tendency was rather to get stout than thin; and the disgust with which he spoke then of the "beastly fat" seemed to show that if for nothing else than to get rid of it he would have been glad to be on the tread-mill again. In one of his letters to Mr. Maclear he thus speaks of a part of this journey: "It was not likely that I should know our course well, for the country there is covered with shingle and gravel, bushes, trees, and grass, and we were without path. Skulking out of the way of villages where we were expected to pay after the purse was empty, it was excessively hot and steamy; the eyes had to be always fixed on the ground to avoid being tripped."
In the course of this journey he had even more exciting escapades among hostile tribes than those which he had encountered on the way to Loanda. His serious anxieties began when he passed beyond the tribes that owned the sovereignty of Sekelétu. At the union of the rivers Loangwa and Zambesi, the suspicious feeling regarding him reached a climax, and he could only avoid the threatened doom of the Bazimka (i.e. Bastard Portuguese) who had formerly incurred the wrath of the chief, by showing his bosom, arms, and hair, and asking if the Bazimka were like that. Livingstone felt that there was danger in the air. In fact, he never seemed in more imminent peril:
14th January, 1856.--At the confluence of the Loangwa and Zambesi. Thank God for his great mercies thus far. How soon I may be called to stand before Him, my righteous Judge, I know not. All hearts are in his hands, and merciful and gracious is the Lord our God. O Jesus, grant me resignation to Thy will, and entire reliance on Thy powerful hand. On Thy Word alone I lean. But wilt Thou permit me to plead for Africa? The cause is Thine. What an impulse will be given to the idea that Africa is not open if I perish now! See, O Lord, how the heathen rise up against me, as they did to Thy Son. I commit my way unto Thee. I trust also in Thee that Thou wilt direct my steps. Thou givest wisdom liberally to all who ask Thee--give it to me, my Father. My family is Thine. They are in the best hands. Oh! be gracious, and all our sins do Thou blot out.
'A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On Thy kind arms I fall.'
Leave me not, forsake me not. I cast myself and all my cares down at Thy feet. Thou knowest all I need, for time and for eternity.
"It seems a pity that the important facts about the two healthy longitudinal ridges should not become known in Christendom. Thy will be done!... They will not furnish us with more canoes than two. I leave my cause and all my concerns in the hands of God, my gracious Saviour, the Friend of sinners.
"Evening.--Felt much turmoil of spirit in view of having all my plans for the welfare of this great region and teeming population knocked on the head by savages to-morrow. But I read that Jesus came and said, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations--and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world' It is the word of a gentleman of the most sacred and strictest honor, and there is an end on't. I will not cross furtively by night as I intended. It would appear as flight, and should such a man as I flee? Nay, verily, I shall take observations for latitude and longitude to-night, though they may be the last. I feel quite calm now, thank God.
"15th January, 1856.--Left bank of Loangwa. The natives of the surrounding country collected round us this morning all armed. Children and women were sent away, and Mburuma's wife who lives here was not allowed to approach, though she came some way from her village in order to pay me a visit. Only one canoe was lent, though we saw two tied to the bank. And the part of the river we crossed at, about a mile from the confluence, is a good mile broad. We passed all our goods first, to an island in the middle, then the cattle and men, I occupying the post of honor, being the last to enter the canoe. We had, by this means, an opportunity of helping each other in case of attack. They stood armed at my back for some time. I then showed them my watch, burning-glass, etc., etc., and kept them amused till all were over, except those who could go into the canoe with me. I thanked them all for their kindness and wished them peace."
'A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On Thy kind arms I fall.'