The explorers did not venture beyond the banks of the
rivers, but so far as they saw, the people were industrious, and the
country fertile, and a steamer of light draft might carry on a very
profitable trade among them. But there was no water-way to Nyassa. The
Rovuma came from mountains to the west, having only a very minute
connection with Nyassa. It seemed that it would be better in the
meantime to reach the lake by the Zambesi and the Shire, so the party
returned. It was not till the beginning of 1863 that they were able to
renew the ascent of these rivers. Livingstone writes touchingly to Sir
Roderick, in reference to his returning to the Zambesi: "It may seem to
some persons weak to feel a chord vibrating to the dust of her who rests
on the banks of the Zambesi, and think that the path by that river is
consecrated by her remains."
Meanwhile, Dr. Livingstone was busy with his pen. A new energy had been
imparted to him by the appalling facts now fully apparent, that his
discoveries had only stimulated the activity of the slave-traders, that
the Portuguese local authorities really promoted slave-trading, with its
inevitable concomitant slave-hunting, and that the horror and desolation
to which the country bore such frightful testimony was the result.
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