Scotland/Scots > Last years of Livingstone

122
THE LAST YEARS OF LIVINGSTONE.
island being a mile from the land. They afterwards told
me how nicely they had cheated the Arabs and saved me
from harm.
The end of the lake is a deep cup-shaped cavity with
sides running sheer down in some parts, 2,000 feet into the
water. The rocks of red clay schist, crop out among the
sylvan vegetation, and here and there pretty cascades leap
down the precipices, forming a landscape of surpassing
beauty. Herds of elephants, buffaloes, and antelopes en¬
liven the scene, and,with the stockaded villages embowered
in palms along the shores of the peaceful water, realize
the idea of Xenophon’s Paradise. When about to leave
the village of Mbette or Pambette, down there, and climb
up the steep path by which we had descended, the wife of
the chief came forward and said to her husband and the
crowd looking at us packing up our things, “ Why do you
allow this man to go away ? He will certainly fall into
the hands of the Mazitu (here called Batuba), and you
know it and are silent.” On inquiry it appeared certain
that these marauders were then actually plundering the
villages up above the precipices at the foot of which we sat.
We waited six days, and the villagers kept watch on an
ant-hill outside the stockade, all the time looking up for
the enemy. When we did at last ascend we saw the well-
known lines of march of the Mazitu—straight as arrows
through the country, without any regard to the native
paths, and in the details of their plundering, for in this
case there was no bloodshed. We found that the really
benevolent lady had possessed accurate information. On