02.04 - Africa from West to East

4. Africa from west to east.

Africa from West to East The journey to Luanda took several months; they arrived there - in May, 1854 - a sorry party. Livingstone himself was ragged and emaciated, suffering from dysentery and with his mind so fogged that he could hardly remember his surname. Kindly Portuguese officials nursed him back to health, and a passage home was offered him in a British vessel in port at that time. the temptation must have been great, but this route was clearly no ’highway to the interior’; they must return to Linyanti. The outward journey had been bad but the return journey, by almost the same route, was even worse. Torrential rain, malaria and rheumatic fever sapped Livingstone’s energy, and tribes whose country he passed through were hostile; but the party pressed on until at least Linyanti was reached. After only a brief stop, and again with the help of Chief Sekeletu, Livingstone set out once more, heading eastwards following the valley of Zambesi. This time the going was much less difficult, and shortly Livingstone made what was perhaps the most spectacular discovery. Two years earlier, when he had first reached Sesheke, he had heard of a giant waterfall which the Africans called ’Mosi-oa-tunya’ (the smoke that thunders). On 17 November 1855, Livingstone had his first sight of the grandeur of the falls as the waters of the Zambesi tore headlong over the 1,600-metre-wide ledge, down into the chasm over 100 metres below. This was one of the few times that Livingstone put any name other than African ones on his map; he named the falls the ’Victoria Falls’. The long journey from there to the coast, although not uneventful, was safely accomplished; most of the way the party followed the Zambesi. Livingstone became so certain that this was a navigable river which would provide a highway to the interior that at one point he made a diversion to reach the coast more quickly, and in so doing missed out that part of the river which he was later to find barred from navigation by the Kebrabasa Rapids.

Having crossed Africa from west to east, a journey of some 4,300 miles, mostly of foot - Livingstone was the first European to have done this - he set out by ship for England, reaching home in 1856. The reception he received would surely have turned the head of a lesser man. Honours were conferred upon him, and no one was too distinguished to seek his friendship. Although reluctant to do so, Livingstone was persuaded to write a book. He put together his diaries and published them under the title Missionary Travels; the book was an immediate best-seller.

Africa and its people had now become so much a part of him that Livingstone was impatient to return and continue the work he had begun. At every opportunity, and there were many, Livingstone pleaded the cause of Africa; he was anxious that Africans should benefit from European civilisation, and tried hard to persuade others to join in his work. He was particularly anxious to see the ordinary tradesmen - carpenters, builders, farmers and the like - go there as teachers pass on their skills, so that the Africans might learn new techniques in building better houses and raising better crops, and be able to enter the world’s commercial markets. These first sixteen years in Africa had been under the auspices of the London Missionary Society but, while there was no great rift in the relationship, there was no doubt that some felt Livingstone had recently become too preoccupied with exploration to carry out the society’s scheme of work. Hence Livingstone felt free to accept appointment as leader of a government-sponsored expedition to explore the Zambesi and its tributaries. On 12 march 1858, with his wife again beside him, and with other members of the expedition including Dr John Kirk and Charles Lvingstone, his brother, he sailed for the Cape in the steamer Pearl. Mrs Livingstone, in spite of the many hardships she had endured, was not a robust person; illness overtook her on the voyage, causing her to stay at Cape Town while the others proceeded to the mouth of the Zambesi, where she would later join them. Tragedy and misfortune seemed to be the keynote of this whole expedition. The Ma Robert, the boat on which Lvingstone had hoped to sail up the Zambesi, proved worthless; he called it ’an asthmatic tin can’. He discovered what he had bypassed on his first journey down the river - the impassable barrier of the Kebrabasa Rapids - but he did not strike northwards to explore the Shire River and make important discoveries, including that of Lake Nyasa (known today as Lake Malawi). At about this time he heard that, as a result of his appeal in Cambridge in 1857, the Universities Mission to the Shire Highlands had been founded. Soon afterwards a strong party, under the leadership of Bishop MacKenzie, arrived, but they were inexperienced and had no medical personnel; a year later, Bishop MacKenzie and others had died of fever, and the mission was abandoned. Even greater personal tragedy was at hand for Livingstone; he and his wife had been reunited for only three months when Mrs Livingstone died of fever at Shupanga. It was a terrible blow for him; they had been deeply attached and Mary Moffat’s heroic contribution had made a significant difference to his life and work.

One of Livingstone’s great shortcomings was his inability as a leader of this expedition; he had worked too long with Africans as his companions - men whose instinct told them that they could trust in his judgement - and he had not let them down. With his fellow Europeans, however, there soon arose a feeling of discontent; they did not want instructions without preliminary consultation and discussion. But Livingstone, always the ’dour Scot’, did not seem to appreciate this, and expected too much of their initiative without always making the task, or the purpose of it, clear to them. Charles Livingstone, his brother, came in for more criticism than he deserved from other members of the party, who considered him incompetent but shown favouritism by his elder brother.