Livingstone arrived at Ujiji, October 16th, almost at death’s door.  On the way he had been trying to cheer himself up, since he had found it impossible to contend against the obstinacy of his men, with, “It won’t take long; five or six months more; it matters not since it cannot be helped.  I have got my goods in Ujiji, and can hire other people, and make a new start again.”  These are the words and hopes by which he tried to delude himself into the idea that all would be right yet; but imagine the shock he must have suffered, when he found that the man to whom was entrusted his goods for safe keeping had sold every bale for ivory.

The evening of the day Livingstone had returned to Ujiji, Susi and Chuma, two of his most faithful men, were seen crying bitterly.  The Doctor asked of them what ailed them, and was then informed, for the first time, of the evil tidings that awaited him.

Said they, “All our things are sold, sir; Sherif has sold everything for ivory.”

Later in the evening, Sherif came to see him, and shamelessly offered his hand, but Livingstone repulsed him, saying he could not shake hands with a thief.  As an excuse, Sherif said he had divined on the Koran, and that this had told him the Hakim (Arabic for Doctor) was dead.

Livingstone was now destitute; he had just enough to keep him and his men alive for about a month, when he would be forced to beg from the Arabs.

The Doctor further stated, that when Speke gives the altitude of the Tanganika at only 1,800 feet above the sea, Speke must have fallen into that error by a frequent writing of the Anne Domini, a mere slip of the pen; for the altitude, as he makes it out, is 2,800 feet by boiling point, and a little over 3,000 feet by barometer.

The Doctor’s complaints were many because slaves were sent to him, in charge of goods, after he had so often implored the people at Zanzibar to send him freemen.  A very little effort on the part of those entrusted with the despatch of supplies to him might have enabled them to procure good and faithful freemen; but if they contented themselves, upon the receipt of a letter from Dr. Livingstone, with sending to Ludha Damji for men, it is no longer a matter of wonder that dishonest and incapable slaves were sent forward.  It is no new fact that the Doctor has discovered when he states that a negro freeman is a hundred times more capable and trustworthy than a slave.  Centuries ago Eumaeus, the herdsman, said to Ulysses: 

Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day
Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.