ies of terror and raised their arms to heaven before they went
down to the dark crystal halls of the crocodiles. Fugitives who
succeeded in getting their canoes afloat forgot their paddles and had to
paddle with their hands. Three canoes, the crews of which tried to
rescue their unfortunate friends, filled and sank, and all on board were
drowned. The heads in the water became gradually fewer, and only a few
men were still struggling for life when Dugumbe took pity on them and
allowed twenty-one to be saved. One brave woman refused to receive help,
preferring the mercy of the crocodiles to that of the slave-king. The
Arabs themselves estimated the dead at 400.

This spectacle made Livingstone ill and depressed. The description of
the scene which afterwards appeared in all the English journals awakened
such a feeling of horror that a commission was appointed and sent out to
Zanzibar to inquire into the slave-trade on the spot, and with the
Sultan's help devise means of suppressing it. But we know that in
Gordon's time the slave-trade still flourished in the Sudan, and several
decades more passed before the power of the slave-dealers was broken. As
for Livingstone, it was fortunate that he did not accompany Dugumbe, for
the natives combined for defence, attacked the chiefs party and slew 200
of the slave-dealing rabble.

Thus the question of the Lualaba remained unsolved, but Livingstone
began to suspect that his theory of the Nile sources was wrong. He heard
a doubtful tale of the Lualaba bending off to the west, but he still
hoped that it flowed northwards, and that therefore the ultimate source
of the Nile was to be found among the feeders of Lake Bangweolo. When
difficulties sprang up around him, his determination not to give in was
only strengthened. But he could do nothing without a large and
well-ordered caravan, and therefore he had to return to Ujiji, whither
fresh supplies ought to have arrived from the coast. And amidst a
thousand dangers and lurking treachery he effected his return through
the disturbed country. Half dead of fever and in great destitution he
arrived at Ujiji in October.

There a fresh disappointment awaited him. His supplies had indeed come,
but the Arabian scoundrel to whose care the goods had been consigned had
sold them, including 2000 yards of cloth and several sacks of glass
beads, the only current medium of exchange. The Arab coolly said that he
thought the missionary was dead.

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