Why did not Livingstone go home?  A single sentence in a letter to Mr. Waller, while the recall was only in contemplation, explains:  “In my case, duty would not lead me home, and home therefore I would not go.”  Away then goes Livingstone, accompanied by the steward of the “Pioneer” and a handful of native servants (Mr. Young being left in charge of the vessel), to get to the northern end of the lake, and ascertain whether any large river flowed into it from the west, and if possible to visit Lake Moero, of which he had heard, lying a considerable way to the west.  For the first time in his travels he carried some bottles of wine,—­a present from the missionaries Waller and Alington; for water had hitherto been his only drink, with a little hot coffee in the mornings to warm the stomach and ward off the feeling of sinking.  At one time the two white men are lost three days in the woods, without food or the means of purchasing it; but some poor natives out of their poverty show them kindness.  At another they can procure no guides, though the country is difficult and the way intersected by deep gullies that can only be scaled at certain known parts; anon they are taken for slave-dealers, and make a narrow escape of a night attack.  Another time, the cries of children remind Livingstone of his own home and family, where the very same tones of sorrow had often been heard; the thought brought its own pang, only he could feel thankful that in the case of his children the woes of the slave-trade would never be added to the ordinary sorrows of childhood.  Then he would enjoy the joyous laugh of some Manganja women, and think of the good influence of a merry heart, and remember that whenever he had observed a chief with a joyous twinkle of the eye accompanying his laugh, he had always set him down as a good fellow, and had never been disappointed in him afterward.  Then he would cheer his monotony by making some researches into the origin of civilization, coming to the clear conclusion that born savages must die out, because they could devise no means of living through disease.  By and by he would examine the Arab character, and find Mahometanism as it now is in Africa worse than African heathenism, and remark on the callousness of the Mahometans to the welfare of one another, and on the especial glory of Christianity, the only religion that seeks to propagate itself, and through the influence of love share its blessings with others.  Anon he would dwell on the primitive African faith; its recognition of one Almighty Creator, its moral code, so like our own, save in the one article of polygamy; its pious recognition of a future life, though the element of punishment is not very conspicuous; its mild character generally, notwithstanding the bloodthirstiness sometimes ascribed to it, which, however, Livingstone held to be, at Dahomey for example, purely exceptional.