So the hours stole on till nightfall.  The men silently took to their huts, whilst others, whose duty it was to keep watch, sat round the fires, all feeling that the end could not be far off.  About 11 P.M.  Susi, whose hut was close by, was told to go to his master.  At the time there were loud shouts in the distance, and, on entering, Dr. Livingstone said, “Are our men making that noise?” “No,” replied Susi; “I can hear from the cries that the people are scaring away a buffalo from their dura fields.”  A few minutes afterwards he said slowly, and evidently wandering, “Is this the Luapula?” Susi told him they were in Chitambo’s village, near the Mulilamo, when he was silent for a while.  Again, speaking to Susi, in Suaheli this time, he said, “Sikun’gapi kuenda Luapula?” (How many days is it to the Luapula?)

“Na zani zikutatu, Bwana” (I think it is three days, master), replied Susi.

A few seconds after, as if in great pain, he half sighed, half said, “Oh dear, dear!” and then dozed off again.

It was about an hour later that Susi heard Majwara again outside the door, “Bwana wants you, Susi.”  On reaching the bed the Doctor told him he wished him to boil some water, and for this purpose he went to the fire outside, and soon returned with the copper kettle full.  Calling him close, he asked him to bring his medicine-chest and to hold the candle near him, for the man noticed he could hardly see.  With great difficulty Dr. Livingstone selected the calomel, which he told him to place by his side; then, directing him to pour a little water into a cup, and to put another empty one by it, he said in a low feeble voice, “All right; you can go out now.”  These were the last words he was ever heard to speak.

It must have been about 4 A.M. when Susi heard Majwara’s step once more.  “Come to Bwana, I am afraid; I don’t know if he is alive.”  The lad’s evident alarm made Susi run to arouse Chumah, Chowpere, Matthew, and Muanyasere, and the six men went immediately to the hut.

Passing inside they looked towards the bed.  Dr. Livingstone was not lying on it, but appeared to be engaged in prayer, and they instinctively drew backwards for the instant.  Pointing to him, Majwara said, “When I lay down he was just as he is now, and it is because I find that he does not move that I fear he is dead.”  They asked the lad how long he had slept?  Majwara said he could not tell, but he was sure that it was some considerable time:  the men drew nearer.

A candle stuck by its own wax to the top of the box, shed a light sufficient for them to see his form.  Dr. Livingstone was kneeling by the side of his bed, his body stretched forward, his head buried in his hands upon the pillow.  For a minute they watched him:  he did not stir, there was no sign of breathing; then one of them, Matthew, advanced softly to him and placed his hands to his cheeks.  It was sufficient; life had been extinct some time, and the body was almost cold:  Livingstone was dead.