Transcription of Fragment of 1870 Field Diary
David Livingstone, Agnes Livingstone

Date of composition: 25 August-8 October 1870
Place of composition: Bambarre
Repository: Bodleian Library. Weston Library, Oxford, United Kingdom
Shelfmark: MSS. Afr. 16 (Box 6)
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_000212
TEI encoding: Adrian S. Wisnicki, Megan Ward, Heather F. Ball, Ashanka Kumari, Erin Cheatham, Alexander Munson

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Bambarre, 25th August, 1870.

One of my waking dreams is that the legendary
tales about Moses coming up into Inner
5 Ethiopia with Merr his foster-mother, and
founding a city which he called in her honour
"Meroe," may have a substratum of fact.
He was evidently a man of transcendent
genius and we learn from the speech of
10 St. Stephen that "he was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty
in words & in deeds." The deeds must have
been well known in Egypt for "he supposed
that his brethern would have understood
15how that God by his hand would deliver
them, but they understood not." His supposition
could not be founded on his success in
smiting a single Egyptian. He was too great
a man to be elated by #a single act of prowess
20but his success on a large scale in Ethiopia
afforded reasonable grounds for believing
that his brethern would be proud of their
countryman, and disposed to follow his
leadership, but they were slaves. The notice
25taken of the matter by Pharaoh shewed
that he was eyed by the great as a dangerous
#304 [liv_000212_0019]
if not powerful man. He "dwelt" in
Midian for some time before his gallant
bearing towards the shepherds by the well,
commended him to the Priest or Prince
5of the country. An uninteresting wife and
the want of intercourse with kindred spirits
during the long forty years' solitude of a
herdsman's life, seems to have acted injuriously
on his spirits, and it was not till he had
10with Aaron struck terror into the Egyptian
mind, that the "man Moses" again became
"very great in the eyes of Pharaoh and
his servants." - The Ethiopian woman whom
he married could scarcely be the daughter
15of Reuel or Jethro for Midian was descended
from Keturah, Abraham's concubine, and
they were never considered Cushite or
Ethiopian. If he left his wife in Egypt
she would now be some 50 or 60 years old,
20and all the more likely to be despised by
the proud prophetess Miriam as a daughter
of Ham. I dream of discovering some
monumental relics of Meroe and if anything
of confirmatory of sacred history does remain
25I pray to be guided thereunto. If the sacred
chronology would thereby be confirmed, I would
not grudge the toil & hardships, hunger
& pain, I have endured - the
irritable ulcers would only be discipline. -

30

This Manyema country is unhealthy not
so much from fever as from debility of the
whole system, induced by damp, cold, and
indigestion. This general weakness is ascribed
by some to maize being the common food. It [liv_000212_0020]
shows itself in weakness of bowels & choleraic
purging. This may be owing to bad water,
there is no scarcity, but it is so impregnated
with dead vegetable matter, as to have the
5colour of tea. Irritable ulcers fasten on any
part attached (?) by any accident, and
it seems to be a spreading fungus for the
matter settling on any part near becomes a
fresh centre of propagation. The vicinity
10of the ulcer is very tender, and it eats in
frightfully if not allowed rest. Many slaves
die of it, and its periodical discharges
of bloody ichor makes me suspect it to be a
development of fever. Support seems to be
15essential, but the ichor forcing its way out is
so painful the supporting bandages have to
be loosed. I have found lunar caustic useful.
A plaister of wax, and a little finely ground
sulphate of copper is used by the Arabs, and
20so is cocoa-nut oil and butter. These ulcers
are excessively intractable. There is no healing
of them before they eat into the bone, especially
on the shins. The pain causes slaves to cry
the whole night long.

25

Rheumatism is also common and it cuts
the natives off. The traders fear these diseases
and come to a stand if attacked, in order
to use rest in the cure. "Taema," or Tape-
worm is frequently met with - No remedy
30is known among the Arabs & natives for it.
Syphilitic [ ] skin diseases are common among
Manyema - large scabs on face & body,
even among children. The Arabs increase
them by impure intercourse. Filthy takers all. [liv_000212_0021]
6 #11
White leprosy is also common. Malachite
ground on a stone with water is good for
irritable ulcers.

5

When Speke saw that his little river out of
the Victoria Nyanza would not account for
the Nile, the more philosophic course would
have been instead of conjecturing a backwater,
to strike ^ west across the great valley, and there
10not to mention Baker's water which he too
might have called a Lake, he would have
come to the central Lualaba, not 90 or 100
yards but from 2000 to 6000 yards and
always deep - this near the bottom of the
15trough, and then further West another
Lualaba, a worthy companion to that in
the centre. The central Lualaba I would
fain call the Lake River Webb, - the Western
the Lake River Young. The Lufira and
20 Lualaba West form a Lake the native name
of which, "Chibungo" must give way to Lake
Lincoln. I wish to name the fountain of
the Liambai or Upper Zambesi, Palmerston
fountain, using these two names by way
25of placing my poor little garland on their
tombs, and adding that of Sir Bartle
Frere to the fountain of Lufira. Three
names of men who have done more to
abolish slavery & the slave-trade than
30any of their contemporaries.

4th October 1870. A trading party came from
Ujiji, arrived on 23d Sept, left for N.W. four
days afterwards. Report an epidemic raging
between coast & Ujiji & very fatal. Syde bin
35Habib and Dugumbe coming - they have letters [liv_000212_0022]
and perhaps people for me, so I remain, though
the irritable ulcers are well-nigh healed.
I fear that my packet for the coast may
have fared badly, for the Lewale has kept
5 Musa Kamaal by him so that no evidence
against himself or dishonest man Musa
bin Saloom should be given. My box and
guns with Despatches I fear will never be sent.
Zahor, to whom I gave calico to pay carriers
10has been sent off to Lobemba. Muhamad
sowed rice yesterday. Has to send his
people who were unsuccessful among Balegga
away to the Metambe, where they got ivory
before. - I cannot understand very well
15what a "Theoretical Discoverer" is. If anyone
got up and declared in a public meeting
that he was the theoretical discoverer of
the "philosopher's stone", of perpetual motion
for watches, should we not mark him as
20a little wrong in the head? So of the Nile
sources. The Portuguese crossed the Chambeze
some seventy years before I did, but to them
it was a branch of the Zambesi & nothing
more. Cooley put it down as the New Zambesi
25and made it run backwards, uphill
between 3000 & 4000 feet! I was misled by
the similarity of names and a map to think
it the Eastern branch of the Zambesi. I was
told that it formed a large water in the
30South West. This I readily believed to be
the Liambai, in the Barotse Valley, and
it took me eighteen months of toil to work
back again to the Chambeze in Lake
Bangweolo, and work out the error into [liv_000212_0023]
12
which I was led. Twenty-two months elapsed
ere I got back to the point whence I set
out to explore Chambeze, Bangweolo,
5 Luapula, Moero, and Lualaba. I spent
two full years at this work, and the Chief
Cazembe was the first to throw light on
the subject. - "It is the same water here
as in the Chambeze, the same in Moero
10& Lualaba and one piece of water is just
like another. Will you draw out calico
from it that you wish to see it? As your
chief desired you to see Bangweolo, go to
it, and if in going north you see a travelling
15party, join it - if not come back to me
and I will send you safely by my path along
Moero." #fox

8th Octr 1870. - Mbarawa & party came yesterday
from Katomba at Mamohela. Reports that
20 Jangeonge (?) with Moeneokela's men had been
killing people of Metamba or forest, and
four of his people slain. He intended
fighting, hence his desire to get rid of me
when I went north. Got one and a half
25tusks, but little ivory, but Katomba's party
got fifty tusks. Abdullah had got two tusks
also been fighting, and Katomba had sent
a fighting party down to Lolinde. Plunder &
murder is Ujijian trading. Mbarawa got
30his ivory on the Lindi or as he says "Urindi"
which has black water, and is very large -
An arrow could not be shot across; its
400 or 500 yards had to be crossed by canoes,
goes into Lualaba. - It is curious that all
35think it necessary to say to me, "The Manye [liv_000212_0024]
Manyema are bad - very bad." The Balegga
will be let alone, because they can fight, and
we shall hear nothing of their badness. My
slavelings join in the chorus of the Manyema
5being bad. The Babemba were good said
Simon, and he killed two because he was
safe. - -