pagazi, or porters, the only system of carriage yet devised in this roadless and rugged country.
The question of portage is, beyond doubt, next to the want of coinage, the great obstacle in the way of African travel; and until some substitute can be found for the idle, cowardly, thievish scoundrels picked up at Zanzibar or near the coast, whether this substitute is the horse, the honest, hard-working, and faithful donkey, the bullock, useful in life, useful also in death, or even a locomotive engine on a line of railway, travelling will continue to be slow and costly, and remunerative traffic quite impossible. We will not doubt that some improvement will soon be made. The London Missionary Society has, we believe, determined to establish a station at Mpwapwa, half-way to Unyanyembe; and one of their missionaries, the Rev. Roger Price, by taking a more northerly route from Sidani, and so avoiding the Makata swamp, succeeded last July in reaching that place, with four oxen and a donkey, all in good health, and in bringing them back again to the coast. This must of itself tend to settle the difficulty, which, once conquered, will probably disappear. There seems no reason why others should not do easily what Mr. Price has shown them how to do; the London Missionary Society means to make the attempt on a large scale, intending, if success crowns its efforts, to push on to Ujiji; and there is, we understand, a remote possibility that the sultan of Zanzibar may see it advantageous: to his government to carry a caravan road through from Bagamoyo, or more probably from Sidani.
Taborah, the chief town or settlement of Unyanyembe, has been from time immemorial a centre of inland traffic. It is a point to which all caravans come, and from which they diverge, whether to the north, south, or west, to carry on their trade in slaves or ivory with distant tribes. It is now held by a detachment of Balooch and Arab troops, in the pay of the sultan of Zanzibar, and is the home of a considerable number of Arab settlers, who live there in comfort and Oriental luxury, untroubled even by the social want of which we, in England, hear so much—the want of good cooks, for the best is to be bought for two hundred dollars. The trade is, however, by no means exclusively in the hands of the Arabs: the natives take their share in it with eagerness and remarkable industry, being, according to Speke, the only people of Africa who have shown any commercial aptitude.
Some years previous to Cameron's visit this industrious community had been drawn by some peculiarly "smart" trick on the part of one of their number, into a savage war with a neighboring chief, Mirambo, who had indeed—if Cameron's information was correct—been foully swindled in the first instance; though Mr. Stanley has taken a different view of the affair: but, as matter of fact, the disturbed state of the country, added to continually recurring attacks of fever, detained Cameron and his companions there for some weeks; and he was still there on the 20th of October, when, as he lay in bed prostrate from fever, his servant came running in with a letter. It was from Jacob Wainwright, Livingstone's attendant, and contained the melancholy news of Livingstone's death.
It is no part of our present purpose to speak of the character or labors of David Livingstone; they are known wherever the English tongue extends, wherever African geography or exploration has any interest, and they have been very fully noticed in two recent numbers of this review.[1]
The effect of this news on the expedition was, however, important. The expedition had been fitted out, primarily, to relieve and assist Livingstone; and now that he was dead, and the party bearing his body to the coast was on the way to Taborah, its special work seemed to be prematurely ended. Murphy accordingly announced his intention of returning. Dillon and Cameron, on the contrary, determined to go on, at least to Ujiji, to secure Livingstone's remaining effects; and then, if possible, to push westward and follow up his explorations. Unhappily, Dillon fell sick a few days before the time fixed for their start, and was compelled to give up the idea. Murphy offered to go
- ↑ British Quarterly Review, Nos. 118 and 112.
