s--He reaches England, Dec., 1856--News of his
father's death.

Dr. Livingstone left St. Paul de Loanda on 24th September, 1854, arrived
at his old quarters at Linyanti on 11th September, 1855, set out
eastward on 3d November, 1855, and reached Quilimane on the eastern
coast on 20th May, 1856. His journey thus occupied a year and eight
months, and the whole time from his leaving the Cape on 8th June, 1852,
was within a few days of four years. The return journey from Loanda to
Linyanti took longer than the journey outward. This arose from detention
of various kinds[41]: the sicknesses of Livingstone and his men, the
heavy rains, and in one case, at Pungo Andongo, the necessity of
reproducing a large packet of letters, journals, maps, and despatches,
which he had sent off from Loanda. These were despatched by the
mail-packet "Forerunner," which unhappily went down off Madeira, all the
passengers but one being lost. But for his promise to the Makololo to
return with them to their country, Dr. Livingstone would have been
himself a passenger in the ship. Hearing of the disaster while paying a
visit to a very kind and hospitable Portuguese gentleman at Pungo
Andongo, on his way back, Livingstone remained there some time to
reproduce his lost papers. The labor thus entailed must have been very
great, for his ordinary letters covered sheets almost as large as a
newspaper, and his maps and despatches were produced with
extraordinary care.

[Footnote 41: Dr. Livingstone observed that traders generally traveled
ten days in the month, and rested twenty, making seven geographical
miles a day, or seventy per month. In his case in this journey the
proportion was generally reversed--twenty days of traveling and ten of
rest, and his rate per day was about ten geographical miles, or two
hundred per month. As he often zigzagged, the geographical mile
represented considerably, more. See letter to Royal Geographical
Society, October 16, 1855.]

He found renewed occasion to acknowledge in the warmest terms the
kindness he received from the Portuguese; and his prayers that God would
reward and bless them were not the less sincere that in many important
matters he could not approve of their ways.

In traversing the road backward along which he had already come, not
many things happened that demand special notice in this brief sketch. We
find him both in his published book and still more in his private
Journal repeating his admiration of