After a few miles of the road had been
completed, it was thought desirable to ascertain whether the boat left
near the lake two years before was fit for service, so as to avoid the
necessity of carrying another boat past the rapids. On reaching it the
boat was found to have been burnt. The party therefore returned to carry
up another. They had got to the very last rapid, and had placed the boat
for a short space in the water, when, through the carelessness of five
Zambesi men, she was overturned, and away she went like an arrow down
the rapids. To keep calm under such a crowning disappointment must have
I taxed Livingstone's self-control to the very utmost.
It was now that he received a despatch from Earl Russell intimating
that the Expedition was recalled. This, though a great disappointment,
was not altogether a surprise. On the 24th April he had written to Mr.
Waller "I should not wonder in the least to be recalled, for should the
Portuguese persist in keeping the rivers shut, there would be no use in
trying to develop trade," He states his views on the recall calmly in a
letter to Mr.
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