The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death | Page 8

and wish
to go down Tanganyika, but cannot get men: two months must elapse
ere we can face the long grass and superabundant water in the way to
Manyuema.
[Illustration: Lines of Green Scum]
The green scum which forms on still water in this country is of
vegetable origin--confervæ. When the rains fall they swell the lagoons,
and the scum is swept into the Lake; here it is borne along by the
current from south to north, and arranged in long lines, which bend
from side to side as the water flows, but always N.N.W. or N.N.E., and
not driven, as here, by the winds, as plants floating above the level of
the water would be.
_7th June, 1869._--It is remarkable that all the Ujiji Arabs who have
any opinion on the subject, believe that all the water in the north, and
all the water in the south, too, flows into Tanganyika, but where it then

goes they have no conjecture. They assert, as a matter of fact, that
Tanganyika, Usigé water, and Loanda, are one and the same piece of
river.
Thani, on being applied to for men and a canoe to take me down this
line of drainage, consented, but let me know that his people would go
no further than Uvira, and then return. He subsequently said Usigé, but
I wished to know what I was to do when left at the very point where I
should be most in need. He replied, in his silly way, "My people are
afraid; they won't go further; get country people," &c. Moenegheré sent
men to Loanda to force a passage through, but his people were repulsed
and twenty killed.
Three men came yesterday from Mokamba, the greatest chief in Usigé,
with four tusks as a present to his friend Moenegheré, and asking for
canoes to be sent down to the end of Urundi country to bring butter and
other things, which the three men could not bring: this seems an
opening, for Mokamba being Moenegheré's friend I shall prefer paying
Moenegheré for a canoe to being dependent on Thani's skulkers. If the
way beyond Mokamba is blocked up by the fatal skirmish referred to, I
can go from Mokamba to Rumanyika, three or four or more days
distant, and get guides from him to lead me back to the main river
beyond Loanda, and by this plan only three days of the stream will be
passed over unvisited. Thani would evidently like to receive the
payment, but without securing to me the object for which I pay. He is a
poor thing, a slaveling: Syed Majid, Sheikh Suleiman, and Korojé, have
all written to him, urging an assisting deportment in vain: I never see
him but he begs something, and gives nothing, I suppose he expects me
to beg from him. I shall be guided by Moenegheré.
I cannot find anyone who knows where the outflow of the unvisited
Lake S.W. of this goes; some think that it goes to the Western Ocean,
or, I should say, the Congo. Mohamad Bogharib goes in a month to
Manyuema, but if matters turn out as I wish, I may explore this
Tanganyika line first. One who has been in Manyuema three times, and
was of the first party that ever went there, says that the Manyuema are
not cannibals, but a tribe west of them eats some parts of the bodies of

those slain in war. Some people south of Moenékuss[5], chief of
Manyuema, build strong clay houses.
_22nd June, 1869._--After listening to a great deal of talk I have come
to the conclusion that I had better not go with Moenegheré's people to
Mokamba. I see that it is to be a mulcting, as in Speke's case: I am to
give largely, though I am not thereby assured of getting down the river.
They say, "You must give much, because you are a great man:
Mokamba will say so"--though Mokamba knows nothing about me! It
is uncertain whether I can get down through by Loanda, and great risk
would be run in going to those who cut off the party of Moenegheré, so
I have come to the conclusion that it will be better for me to go to
Manyuema about a fortnight hence, and, if possible, trace down the
western arm of the Nile to the north--if this arm is indeed that of the
Nile, and not of the Congo. Nobody here knows anything about it, or,
indeed, about the eastern or Tanganyika line either; they all confess that
they have but one question in their minds in going anywhere, they ask
for ivory and for nothing else, and each trip ends as a foray.
Moenegheré's last trip ended disastrously, twenty-six of his men being
cut off; in extenuation he says