The Heroes of African Discovery & Adventure; From the Earliest Times to the Death of Livingstone (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... of considerable length. Another poet afterwards appeared; his verses were not always very regular, but if the right word did not come in, he went smoothly on, eking out the line with sounds of his own invention that meant nothing. At last, on the 4th of August, the columns of vapour rising from the Victoria Falls, described in our last chapter, were descried, though then upwards of twenty miles distant. The Makololo name, by the way, Mosi-oa-tunya, means " smoke-sounding." On the 18th, the party arrived at Sesheke, where dwelt Seketlu, chief of the Makololo. He was afflicted at that time with a species of skin disorder akin to leprosy, and had not shown himself to his people since the disease, --which was of course attributed to witchcraft, --first showed itself. An old woman, a native doctress, was prescribing for him at the time; but he at once took the medicines given by the visitors, and was considerably relieved by them. The party then returned to Tete, and again took to the Ma Robert. The two English sailors who had had charge of the ship, had got on very comfortably; they paid the market price for articles of food; and the natives found out it was no use to try and bargain with them. If these traders became troublesome, and refused to leave the ship unless they were paid a larger sum than that given, the sailors had discovered a very effectual means of getting rid of them. They brought a chameleon, --of which the natives have an immense dread, --out of the cabin, and at the sight of this every black man tumbled out of the ship in an instant. Soon after Livingstone's arrival at the coast, he found that his new ship, the Pioneer, had arrived from England, a very welcome substitute for the Ma Robert, which some time before had been finally...