[Footnote 72: The head of this spear is among the Livingstone relics at
Newstead Abbey.]
At last, on the 23d October, reduced to a living skeleton, he reached
Ujiji. What was his misery, instead of finding the abundance of goods he
had expected, to learn that the wretch Shereef, to whom they had been
consigned, had sold off the whole, not leaving one yard of calico out of
3000, or one string of beads out of 700 pounds! The scoundrel had
divined on the Koran, found that Livingstone was dead, and would need
the goods no more. Livingstone had intended, if he could not get men at
Ujiji to go with him to the Lualaba, to wait there till suitable men
should be sent up from the coast; but he had never thought of having to
wait in beggary. If anything could have aggravated the annoyance, it was
to see Shereef come, without shame, to salute him, and tell him on
leaving, that he was going to pray; or to see his slaves passing from
the market with all the good things his property had bought! Livingstone
applied a term to him which he reserved for men--black or white--whose
wickedness made them alike shameless and stupid--he was a "moral idiot.
Pages:
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833