[The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 by David Livingstone]@TWC D-Link book
The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873

CHAPTER III
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If the sacred chronology would thereby be confirmed, I would not grudge the toil and hardships, hunger and pain, I have endured--the irritable ulcers would only be discipline.
Above the fine yellow clay schist of Manyuema the banks of Tanganyika reveal 50 feet of shingle mixed with red earth; above this at some parts great boulders lie; after this 60 feet of fine clay schist, then 5 strata of gravel underneath, with a foot stratum of schist between them.
The first seam of gravel is about 2 feet, the second 4 feet, and the lowest of all about 30 feet thick.

The fine schist was formed in still water, but the shingle must have been produced in stormy troubled seas if not carried hither and thither by ice and at different epochs.
This Manyuema country is unhealthy, not so much from fever as from debility of the whole system, induced by damp, cold, and indigestion: this general weakness is ascribed by some to maize being the common food, it shows itself in weakness of bowels and choleraic purging.

This may be owing to bad water, of which there is no scarcity, but it is so impregnated with dead vegetable matter as to have the colour of tea.
Irritable ulcers fasten on any part abraded by accident, and it seems to be a spreading fungus, for the matter settling on any part near becomes a fresh centre of propagation.

The vicinity of the ulcer is very tender, and it eats in frightfully if not allowed rest.

Many slaves die of it, and its periodical discharges of bloody ichor makes me suspect it to be a development of fever.


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