Marenga came dressed in a red-figured silk shawl, and attended by about ten court beauties, who spread a mat for him, then a cloth above, and sat down as if to support him.  He asked me to examine his case inside a hut.  He exhibited his loathsome skin disease, and being blacker than his wives, the blotches with which he was covered made him appear very ugly.  He thought that the disease was in the country before Arabs came.  Another new disease acquired from them was the small-pox.

26th September, 1866.—­An Arab passed us yesterday, his slaves going by another route across the base of Cape Maclear.  He told Musa that all the country in front was full of Mazitu; that forty-four Arabs and their followers had been killed by them at Kasungu, and he only escaped.  Musa and all the Johanna men now declared that they would go no farther.  Musa said, “No good country that; I want to go back to Johanna to see my father and mother and son.”  I took him to Marenga, and asked the chief about the Mazitu.  He explained that the disturbance was caused by the Manganja finding that Jumbe brought Arabs and ammunition into the country every year, and they resented it in consequence; they would not allow more to come, because they were the sufferers, and their nation was getting destroyed.

I explained to Musa that we should avoid the Mazitu:  Marenga added, “There are no Mazitu near where you are going;” but Musa’s eyes stood out with terror, and he said, “I no can believe that man.”  But I inquired, “How can you believe the Arab so easily?” Musa answered, “I ask him to tell me true, and he say true, true,” &c.

When we started, all the Johanna men walked off, leaving the goods on the ground.  They have been such inveterate thieves that I am not sorry to get rid of them; for though my party is now inconveniently small, I could not trust them with flints in their guns, nor allow them to remain behind, for their object was invariably to plunder their loads.

[Here then we have Livingstone’s account of the origin of that well-told story, which at first seemed too true.  How Mr. Edward Young, R.N., declared it to be false, and subsequently proved it untrue, is already well known.  This officer’s quick voyage to Lake Nyassa reflected the greatest credit on him, and all hearts were filled with joy when he returned and reported the tale of Livingstone’s murder to be merely an invention of Musa and his comrades.]

I ought to mention that the stealing by the Johanna men was not the effect of hunger; it attained its height when we had plenty.  If one remained behind, we knew his object in delaying was stealing.  He gave what he filched to the others, and Musa shared the dainties they bought with the stolen property.  When spoken to he would say, “I every day tell Johanna men no steal Doctor’s things.”  As he came away and left them in the march, I insisted out his bringing up all his men; this he did not relish, and the amount stolen was not small.  One stole fifteen pounds of fine powder, another seven, another left six table-cloths out of about twenty-four; another called out to a man to bring a fish, and he would buy it with beads, the beads being stolen, and Musa knew it all and connived at it; but it was terror that drove him away at last.