Scotland/Scots > Last years of Livingstone

THE LAST YEARS OF LIVINGSTONE.
149
I came here a mere ruckle of bones, terribly jaded in
body and mind. The head man of my worthless Moslems
remained here, and, as he had done from the coast, ran
riot with the goods sent to me, drunk for a month at a
time. He then divined on the Koran and found that I
was dead, sold off all the goods that remained for slaves
and ivory for himself, and I arrived to find myself desti¬
tute of everything except a few goods I left in case of need.
Goods are the currency here, and I have to wait now till
other goods and other men come from Zanzibar. When
placed in charge of my supply of soap, brandy, opium and
gunpowder from certain Banians (British subjects) he was
fourteen months returning, all expenses being paid out of
my stocks ; three months was ample, and he then remained
here and sold off all. You call this smart, do you ? some
do, if you don’t. I think it moral idiocy.
Yours affectionately,
David Livingstone.
Frequent allusion has been made, in the course of this
work, to the enmity of the slave traders, and their contin¬
ual efforts to baffle Livingstone by stealing his stores
and destroying his letters. The subjoined letter, with an
enclosure from Dr. David Livingstone to W. F. Steams,
Esq., dated Unyanyembe, March 13, 1872, was among the
number brought to the coast by Mr. Stanley, the Herald
correspondent. The package was forwarded, as directed,
to Bombay, to the firm of Stearns, Hobart & Co., in which
Mr. Stearns was a partner at the date of Dr. Livingstone’s
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