y, he had found
that the forests, swamps, and rivers must render a wagon-road from the
interior impracticable. He feared also that his native attendants would
not be able to make their way alone back to their own country, through
the unfriendly tribes. So he resolved, feeble as he was, to return to
Sekeletu's dominions, and thence proceed to the eastern coast.

In September he started on his return journey, bearing considerable
presents for Sekeletu from the Portuguese, who were naturally anxious
to open a trade with the rich ivory region of the interior. The Board of
Public Works sent a colonel's uniform and a horse, which unfortunately
died on the way. The merchants contributed specimens of all their
articles of trade, and a couple of donkeys, which would have a special
value on account of their immunity from the bite of the tsetse. The men
were made happy by the acquisition of a suit of European clothes and a
gun apiece, in addition to their own purchases.

In the Bashinje country he again encountered hostile demonstrations. One
chief, who came riding into the camp upon the shoulders of an attendant,
was especially annoying in his demands for tribute. Another, who had
quarreled with one of Livingstone's attendants, waylaid and fired upon
the party. Livingstone, who was ill of a fever, staggered up to the
chief, revolver in hand. The sight of the six mouths of that convenient
implement gaping at his breast wrought an instant revolution in his
martial ideas; he fell into a fit of trembling, protesting that he had
just come to have a quiet talk, and wanted only peace.

These Bashinje have more of the low negro character and physiognomy than
any tribe encountered by Livingstone. Their color is a dirty black; they
have low foreheads and flat noses, artificially enlarged by sticks
run through the septum, and file their teeth down to a point. A little
further to the south the complexion of the natives is much lighter,
and their features are strikingly like those depicted upon the Egyptian
monuments, the resemblance being still further increased by some of
their modes of wearing the hair. Livingstone indeed affirms that the
Egyptian paintings and sculptures present the best type of the general
physiognomy of the central tribes.

The return journey was still slower than the advance had been; and it
was not till late in the summer of 1855 that they reached the villages
of the Makololo, having been absent more than eighteen