The services of two members of the
Expedition were also dispensed with, as they were not found to be
promoting its ends. Livingstone would not pay the public money to men
who, he believed, were not thoroughly earning it. To these troubles was
added the constantly increasing mortification arising from the state
of the ship.
It has sometimes been represented, in view of such facts as have just
been recorded, that Livingstone was imperious and despotic in the
management of other men, otherwise he and his comrades would have got on
better together. The accusation, even at first sight, has an air of
improbability, for Livingstone's nature was most kindly, and it was the
aim of his life to increase enjoyment. In explanation of the friction on
board his ship it must be remembered that his party were a sort of
scratch crew brought together without previous acquaintance or knowledge
of each other's ways; that the heat and the mosquitoes, the delays, the
stoppages on sandbanks, the perpetual struggle for fuel[59], the
monotony of existence, with so little to break it, and the irritating
influence of the climate, did not tend to smooth their tempers or
increase the amenities of life.
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