David Livingstone’s travels in east and central Africa were of great interest to his contemporaries. A fierce opponent of the slave trade, this account includes his witnessing of a massacre connected with the eastern slave trade.
“Dr. Livingstone.–On Friday night there was an overflowing attendance of ladies and gentlemen at the Royal Institution to listen to a lecture by Sir Hy. Rawlinson, K.C.B., on “Livingstone’s Recent Discoveries in Central Africa.” Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.D., president of the institution, occupied the chair. Sir Henry Rawlinson said that Dr. Livingstone was not a mere traveller, but a pioneer of civilization, and a deadly enemy to the slave trade. In the year 1865 Dr. Livingstone was an idle man in London, anxious to be at his old work of exploration ; so, at the suggestion of Sir Roderick Murchison, he started in 1866 for Africa, via Bombay, to discover, if he could, the nature of the watershed of Central Africa. He landed near Zanzibar, and went one or two hundred miles up the river. Travelling westward he reached a pleasant elevated country. Further westward, after he was deserted by the Johanna men, he crossed a pleasant country once more, which the slave traders had never entered. Then he crossed a range of mountains west of Lake Nyassa ; he found no game on the hills, and had to live for a month on mushrooms. The country so far had often been previously traversed by other Europeans, especially by the Portuguese, several of whom have crossed Africa from east to west. Very little being known by the British public about the travels of the Portuguese in these regions, the Royal Geographical Society is about to publish some of their discoveries. After ten months’ travel Livingstone entered the lake country, and found it to be one of the most beautiful and luxuriant districts in the world; in fact, when the sea coast is left behind, and the central plateau reached, Africa is a far more delightful country than is generally supposed. In the beginning of 1868 his progress to Lake Tanganyaka was stopped by the inundations. Early in 1869 he was ill for several months, after which, for three years, he was lost to sight, till Mr. Stanley found him. During this period he made four distinct journeys into the cannibal country of Manyuema, which he found to be mountainous and nearly covered with primaeval forests and rich grass, through which elephants only could force their way. On June 13, 1871, there occurred a horrible massacre : hundreds of men, women, and children were wantonly slaughtered by Arab traders, who opened fire upon the inoffensive people on a fair day. Livingstone, who had travelled with the Arabs, was then hunted out of the country, and reached Ujiji, a mere mass of bones, about a month before he was succoured by Stanley, who, there is little doubt, was the means of saving his life. Livingstone is now tracing several streams which he believes to be the sources of the Nile, but which there is little doubt are the sources of the Congo.”
Stamford Mercury, 7th March, 1873.