Fragment of 1870 Field Diary (XVII-XX)
David Livingstone

Date of composition: 19-31 October 1870
Place of composition: Bambarre
Repository: David Livingstone Centre, Blantyre, United Kingdom
Shelfmark: 297d
Clendennen & Cunningham number(s): Field Diaries, 037
Digital edition and date: Livingstone Online, 2016
Publisher: University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, MD, USA
Project id: liv_000204
TEI encoding: Adrian S. Wisnicki, Megan Ward, Heather F. Ball, Alexander Munson

[liv_000204_0001]

XVII to be copied - 19th Octr Bambarre = The Ringleading
Nassick deserters sent Chuma to say that they were going with the
people of Muhamad what{ich} left today to the Metamba = I said
that I had naught to say to them – They would go now to the
5 Metamba which on deserting they said they so much feared & left
me to go with only three attendants and get my feet torn to
pieces in mud & sand = They probably meant to go back to the
women at Mamohela who fed them in the absence of their husbands
They were told by Muhamad - that they must not follow his
10people and he gave orders to bind them & send them back if
they did – They think that no punishment will reach them
whatever they do – They are freemen & need not work or do any
thing but beg. "English" they call themselves & the Arabs fear
them though the eagerness with which they engaged in slave
15hunting shewed them to be genuine niggers – To lie without
compunction seems to be one of their Indian acquisitions – Ibram
said "that I told him to beg"! and Simon said that I had spoken
to him only once & he would [ ]{ha}ve gone on intended to go till I took
the gun from him – Derrides any entreaties Katumba spoke
20persuasively several times & he refused to go – The gun would
have been used to steal from the Manyema as it was when we
came back here to bully them for four fowls.

20th first heavy rain of this season fell yesterday afternoon
It is observable that the permanent halt to which the Manyema
25have come is not affected by the appearance of superior men among
them - They are stationary & improvement unknown - Moenekus paid
smiths to teach his sons and they learned to work in copper & iron
but he never could get them to imitate his own generous and
obliging deportment to others – He had to reprove them perpetually for
30mean short sight ways and when he died he virtually left no
successor for his sons are both narrow minded, mean,
short sighted creatures, without dignity or honour –

#Lonzua Luaze Luanzo
35

All they can say of
[ ]ir forefathers is that
they came from Lualaba up Luamo then to Luelo and
thence here – The name seems to mean forest people –
40 Manyuema =

p72 into Last Journal p72

The party under Hassani crossed the Logumba at Kanying
gere’s – and went N. & N.N.E. – They found the country
becoming more & more mountainous till at last when
one day from Uerere it was perpetually up & down

45

They slept at a village on the top They could send for
water to the bottom only once. It took so much time to
descend & ascend – Rivers all flowed into Uerere or
Lower Tanganyika Hot fountain – water could not
be touched nor stones stood upon Balegga very un-
50friendly – collected in thousands – we
came to buy ivory -
said Hassani & if
there is none we
go away

55{figure}

"Nay" shouted they, "you
came to die here" then
shot with arrows - when
shot was returned they
60fled & would not come
to receive the captives

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XVIII. 25th Octr 1870- Last Jour f II 72 Bambarre = to be copied #
In this Journey I have endeavoured to follow with
unswerving fidelity the line of duty – my course has
been an even one turning neither to the right hand
5nor the left though my route has been tortuous
enough = All the hardship hunger & toil were met
with the full conviction that I was right in persever
ing to make a complete work of the exploration of the
sources of the Nile – Mine has been a calm —
10hopeful endeavour to do the work that has been given
me to do whether I succeed or whether I fail – The prospect
of death in following pursuing what I knew to be
right did not make me veer to one side or the other
I had a strong presentiment during the first three
15years that I should never live through the work enterprise
but that weakened as I came near to the end of the
journey – and a strong desire to discover any
evidence of the great Moses having visited these
parts bound me – spellbound me – I may say
20for if I could bring to light anything to confirm
the sacred oracles I should not grudge one whit all
the labour expended – I have to go down the central
Lualaba or Webb’s lake river – Then up the Western
or Youngs lake river to Katanga head waters & then
25retire – I pray that it may be to my native home
Syde bin Habib – Dugumbe – Juma Merikano
Abdullah Masudi are coming in with 700 muskets
and immense store of beads copper &c They will
cross Lualaba & trade West of it – I wait for them
30because they may have letters for me – I have had no
letter from th Foreign Office – The last I had was a
piece of the most exhuberant impertinence that
ever left the Foreign or any other office – I was to
have no claim for any services rendered = no
35position when my work was done – Lord Russells
name had been obtained to it though a statesman
like him might bind future Governments to
to give h{H}e never would enjoin them not to give
This bore internal evidence of being the effusion
40of the supernumerary undersecretary Murray
I expect only the same treatment that Murray would
claim for himself – The offer of other work or
of being provided with another office – The slave
trade on the West Coast having ceased he ought
45to have resigned but he thought to earn his salary
by unjustly stopping mine – The only annoyances
I have suffered were from this as Lord Clarendon
called it "ungracious & unjust" letter - and from a
letter of busybody instructions from the R.G.S. (Sheet 9)

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Syde bin Salem Burashid family Lumke |  | Mengongo soga – Guke a fish sangardo – Do

5

XIX. 28 Octr Moenemokaia who has travelled further
than most Arabs said to me "If goes with a good
natured civil tongue, he may pass through the worst
people in Africa unharmed" This true – time
also is required – one must not run ^ through a country, but
10give the people time to become acquainted with
you and let their first fears subside —

29th The Manyema buy their wives from each other
a pretty girl brings ten goats – saw one brought
home today – she came jauntily with but one
15attendant and her husband walking behind -
They stop five days – then go back and remain other
five days at home – The husband fetches her again
Many are pretty – and have perfect forms and
limbs – They hoe large spaces for maize – It is
20merely scraping the surface The soil is so rich
no more is needed

31st Oct – Monangoi of Luamo – married to the
sister of Moenekuss came some time ago to beg that
Kanyingere be attacked by Muhamad's people –
25no fault has he "but he is bad" – Monangoi the
chief here offered two tusks to effect the same thing
on refusal he sends the tusks to Katomba & may get
his countryman spoiled by him – "He is bad" is all they
can alledge as a reason – Meantime this chief here
30caught a slave who escaped = a prisoner from
Moenemokia's and sold him or her to Moenemokia
for 30 spears & some knives – When asked about this
captive he said "she died" – It was simply theft - but
he does not consider himself bad

35

2nd November 1870 – The plain without trees
that flanks the Lualaba on the right bank
called Mbuga is densely peopled and the
inhabitants are all civil and friendly – From
50 to 60 large canoes come over from the left
40bank daily to hold markets – These people too are
good but the dwellers in the Metamba or
dense forest are treacherous and murder a single
person without scruple – The dead is easily concealed
while on the plain all would become aware of it

45

I long with intense desire to move on & finish
my work – I have also an excessive wish to find
any thing that may exist proving the visit of the
great Moses & the ancient Kingdom of Tirhaka
but I pray give me just what pleases Thee my
50Lord – and make submissive to Thy will in all things

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XX. I recieved information about Mr Young's search
trip up Shire and Nyassa only in February 1871 and
now take the first opportunity of offering hearty thanks
to H M Government and all concerned in kindly enquiring
5after my fate – Musa and his companions are fair average
specimens for heartlessness and falsehood of the lower
classes of Muhamadans in East Africa - When on the
Shire we swung the ship into midstream every night in order
to let the air put in motion by the water pass from end to end
10 Musa's brother in law stepped into the water one morning
in order to swim off for a boat – and was seized by a crocodile
The poor fellow held up his hand imploringly but Musa and
the rest allowed him to perish – on my denouncing his
heartlessness, Musa replied “Well – no one tell him = go in there
15When at Senna a slave woman was seized by a crocodile,
four Makololo rushed in unbidden and rescued her –
though they knew nothing about her. From long inter-
course with both I take these incidents as typical of the
two races. Those of mixed blood possess the vices of both
20races and the virtues of neither – A gentleman of superior
abilities has devoted life and fortune to elevate the Johanna
men but fears that they are "an unimprovable race"
The Sultan of Zanzibar who knows his people better than
any stranger cannot entrust any branch of his revenue
25to even the better class of his subjects but places
his customs income and money affairs in the hands
of Banians from India, and his father did the same
before him – When the Muhamadan gentlemen of
Zanzibar are asked Why their sovereign places all his
30pecuniary affairs and fortune in the hands of aliens they
frankly avow that if he allowed any Arab to farm his
customs he would receive nothing but a crop of lies - Burton
had to dismiss most of his people at Ujiji for dishonesty –
Spekes followers deserted at the first approach of danger
35 Musa fled in terror on hearing a false report from a half
caste Arab about the Mazitu 150 miles distant though
I promised to go due West and not turn to the North till far
past the beat of that tribe – The few liberated slaves with
whom I went on had the misfortune to be Muhamadan
40slaves in boyhood but did fairly till we came into close
contact with moslems again. A black Arab ^ was released
from a 12 years bondage by Cazembe through my own
influence and that of the Sultan's letter = We travelled
together for a time and he sold the favours of his female
45slaves to my people for goods which he perfectly well knew
were stolen from me – He recieved my four deserters
and when I had gone off to L Bangweolo with only four
attendants the rest wished to follow but he dissuaded
them by saying that “I had gone into a country where there
50was war” – He was the direct cause of all my difficulties
with these liberated slaves but judged by the East African
Moslem standard as he ought to be and not by ours - He is
a very good man, and I did not think it prudent to come
to a rupture with the old blackguard –

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Last Journals Vol p 71