1 88 THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. T Nov- '9- >876. i
LThe Livingstone. J
Nyangwe. An afternoon observation for longitude
showed east longitude 2 50 49'. The name Lualaba
terminates here. I mean to speak of it
henceforth as T h e L iv in g s t o n e .
We found, when twenty miles from the river,
that many of the Waregga had never seen it,
though they had heard of it as the Lu-al-ow-wa.
Had not Livingstone spoken of the river at
Nyangwe as the Lualaba, I should not have
mentioned the word except as a corruption by
the Waguha of the Wenya term Lu-al-ow-wa,
but as the river changes its name each time
after receiving an affluent, it would be useless
to endeavour to retain so many names in the
memory.
The Livingstone was 1200 yards wide from
bank to bank opposite the landing-place of Kampunzu.
As there were no people dwelling within
a mile of the right bank, we prepared to encamp.
My tent was pitched about thirty feet from the
river, on a grassy spot; Tippu-Tib and his
Arabs were in the bushes; while the 550 people
of whom the Expedition consisted began to
prepare a site for their huts, by enlarging the
open space around the landing-place.
While my breakfast (for noon) was cooking,
and my tent was being drawn taut and made
trim, a mat was spread on a bit of short grass,
soft as an English lawn, a few yards from the
water. Some sedgy reeds obstructed my view,
r Nov. 19, 1876. -1 A DAY DREAM. 189
LThe Livingstone.!
and as I wished while resting to watch the river
gliding by, I had them all cropped off short.
Frank and the Wangwana chiefs were putting
the boat sections together in the rear of the
camp; I was busy thinking, planning a score of
things—what time it would be best to cross the
river, how we should commence our acquaintance
with the warlike tribes on the left bank, what
our future would be, how I should succeed in
conveying our large force across, and, in the
event of a determined resistance, what we should
do, &c.
Gentle as a summer’s dream, the brown wave
of the great Livingstone flowed by; broad and
deep. On the opposing bank loomed darkly
against the sky another forest, similar to the
one which had harrowed our souls. I obtained
from my seat a magnificent view of the river,
flanked by black forests, gliding along, with a
serene grandeur 'and an unspeakable majesty of
silence about it that caused my heart to yearn
towards it.
“ Downward it flows to the unknown! to night-
black clouds of mystery and fable, mayhap past
the lands of the anthropoids, the pigmies, and
the blanket-eared men of whom the gentle pagan
king of Karagwe spoke, by leagues upon leagues
of unexplored lands, populous with scores of
tribes, of whom not a whisper has reached the
people of other continents; perhaps that fabulous