ARTHUR PROBSTHAIN Oriental Bookseller 41 Gt. Russell Street LONDON, W.C.I Frontispiece DAVID LIVINGSTONE From the original Oil Portrait in the possession ofMK. MURRAY. JERS(mAL LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE BY WILLIAM GARDEN gLAIKIE,. D.D., LL.D. NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH 73 / WITH PORTRAIT AND MAP 63 LONDON JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STREET 1913 Yirst Edition, . 6s., . . . Dec. 1880 Second Edition, Dec. 1881 Third Edition, June 1882 Reprinted Dec. 1883 Reprinted, . Sept. 1888 Reprinted, Oct. 1892 Reprinted Dec. 1893 Reprinted, June 1897 Fourth Edition, July 1897 Reprinted, July 1897 Fifth Edition, . 2s. Gd., . . Nov. 1903 Reprinted, Dec. 1904 Reprinted, Oct. 1906 Reprinted, . . ... . . Aug. 1908 Sixth Edition, . Is Feb. 1910 Reprinted Dec. 1911 Reprinted Feb. 1913 [Ml rtpMt r**rvf-, -, , - . I CHAPTER II. MISSIONARY PREPARATION. A.D. 1836-1840. His desire to be a missionary to China Medical missions He studies at Glasgow Applies to London Missionary Society Is accepted provisionally He goes to London to Ongar Reminiscences by fellow-students Rev. R. Moflat in England Livingstone interested Could not be sent to China Is appointed to Africa Receives Medical diploma Parts from his family, 15 CHAPTER III. FIRST TWO YEARS IN AFRICA. A.D. 1841-1843. His ordination Voyage out At the Cape He proceeds to Kuruman Letters Journeys to Bechuana country Influence with chiefs Letter to Dr. Risdon Bennett Sechele, chief of Bakwains New station Letters to Directors on their Mission policy Desiccation of South Africa Death of a servant, Sehamy Letters, . . .30 CHAPTER IV. FIRST TWO STATIONS MABOTSA AND CHONtTANE. A.D. 1843-1847. Description of Mabotsa Infested with lions Livingstone's encounter Marriage to Mary Moffa.t Trouble at Mabotsa Livingstone goes viii CONTENTS. PAGE to Sechele and the Bakwains Station at Chonuane Journeys east- wardThe Boers and the Transvaal Scientific labours and miscel- laneous employments, 53 CHAPTER V. THIRD STATION KOLOBENG. A.D. 1847-1852. Removal to Kolobeng Letters to Mr. Watt, his sister, and Dr. Bennett Conversion of Sechele Letter from his brother Charles Livingstone's relations with the Boers Resolves to explore north- wards Manifold employments Studies in Sichuana, . . .69 CHAPTER VI. KOLOBENG continued LAKE 'NGAMI. A.D. 1849-1852. Sebituane's country and the Lake 'Ngami Livingstone sets out with Messrs. Oswell and Murray Discovers Lake 'Ngami Second expe- dition Idea of finding passage to sea either west or east Third expedition Reaches Sebituane The Chief's illness and death Discovery of the Upper Zambesi Crisis in Livingston's life His guiding principles New plans His unabated missionary zeal He goes with his family to the Cape His literary activity, . . 81 CHAPTER VH. FROM THE CAPE TO LINYANTI. A.D. 1852-1853. Departure of Mrs. Livingstone and children He leaves the Cape and reaches Kuruman Destruction of Kolobeng by the Boers His re- solution to open up Africa or perish Arrival at Linyanti Thoughts on setting out for coast Sekeletu's kindness Missionary activity Determines to go to Loanda Prospect of his falling, . . . 107 CHAPTER VIH. FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA. A.D. 1853-1854. Difficulties and hardships of journey Repulsiveness of the people Their religious belief Preaching Slave-trade Management of the natives Danger from Chiefs " The good time coming " Arrives at Loanda Received by Mr. Gabriel No letters Resolves to go back to Linyanti and make for East Coast Geographical Society award their gold medal, . 127 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER IX. FROM LOANDA TO QTJILIMANE. A.D. 1854-1856. PACK Journey back Effects of slavery Box at Linyanti Letter from Mrs. Moffat Letters to friends He sets out for the East Coast Dis- covers the Victoria Falls The healthy longitudinal ridges Narrow escapes Triumph of the spirit of trust in God Favourite texts Chief subjects of thought Letters to Geographical Society Mis- sionary labour Letter to Directors Views as a missionary states- man He reaches Tette Senna Quilimane Retrospect Letter from Directors Voyage home Narrow escape Reaches England, December 1856, 142 CHAPTER X. FIRST VISIT HOME. A.D. 1856-1857. Mrs. Livingstone Congratulatory meetings Enthusiastic meeting held at Cape Town Begins to write a book Reminiscences of friends Honours Publication and success of book Letter on mission employments, 166 CHAPTER XI. . FIRST VISIT HOME continued. A.D. 1857-1858. Livingstone at Dublin At Manchester At Glasgow, honours received At Hamilton At Blantyre Visit to Edinburgh More honours Visit to Cambridge He severs his connection with London Mission- ary Society Proposal of Government expedition He accepts con- sulship and command of expedition Results of Livingstone's visit to England Farewell banquet Valedictory letters Dr., Mrs., and Oswell Livingstone set sail from Liverpool, 182 CHAPTER XII. THE ZAMBESI, AND FIRST EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. A.D. 1858-1859. Dr. Livingstone conscious of difficult position in connection with expedition At Sierra Leone At Cape Town Splendid reception there Illness of Mrs. Livingstone She remains behind On the Zambesi Exploration Applies for new steamer Exploration of the Shire Discovery of Lake Shirwa Discovery of Lake Nyaasa Bright hopes for the future Idea of a colony, . . 203 CONTENTS. CHAPTER GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO. A.D. 1860. PACK State of the ship Further delay Letters to friends Up Zambesi- Mode of travelling African warfare and its effects Desolation The Portuguese local Governors oppose Livingstone Death of the London missionaries, the Helmores and others Sekeletu Efforts for the spiritual good of the Makololo Cheering prospect of the Universities Mission, ......... 223 CHAPTER XIV. ROVTJMA AND NYASSA UNIVERSITIES MISSION. A.D. 1861-1862. Arrival of "Pioneer," and of the agents of Universities Mission Explores the Kovuma with Bishop Mackenzie Returns to the Shire" The slave-sticks Bishop settles at Magomero Hostilities between Manganja and Ajawa Starts for Lake Nyassa Dismal activity of the slave-trade Hears of Dr. Stewart coming out from Free Church of Scotland "Gorgon" appears with brig from England and new steamer Mrs. Livingstone and other ladies on board Death of Bishop Mackenzie and Mr. Burrup Great distress Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone detained at Shupanga Illness and death of Mrs. Living- stone there, . . . . .' . ' ..... 238 CHAPTER XV. LAST TWO YEARS OF THE EXPEDITION. A.D. 1862-1863. Launch of "Lady Nyassa" He explores the Rovuma Fresh activity of the slave-trade Proceeds up Zambesi with "Lady Nyassa" in tow Appalling desolations of Marianno Recall of the Expedition Great discouragements Proceeds to explore Nyassa Reaches the ship Abandonment of the Mission The work of the Expedition Plans for the future, ......... 258 CHAPTER XVI. QOTLIMANE TO BOMBAY AND ENGLAND. A.D. 1864. Sails in the "Nyassa "to Bombay Terrific storm and risks Calms and anxieties Livingstone captain and engineer At last enters Bombay harbour At Bombay Sails for England Reaches Charing , Cross Two projects contemplated on his way home, . . . 274 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XVH. SECOND VISIT HOME. A.D. 1864^1865. PACE Dr. Livingstone and Sir R. Murchison Goes to Scotland Pays visits At Bath at British Association Speech offends the Portuguese He visits Mr. and Mrs. Webb at Newstead He spends eight months there writing his book Proposal made to him fey Sir R. Murchison to return to Africa Letter from Sir Roderick His reply Overtures from Foreign Office Livingstone displeased Goes down to Scotland His mother's death Goes to London, preparing to leave Last days in England, 284 CHAPTER XVm. FROM ENGLAND TO BOMBAY AND ZANZIBAR. A.D. 1865-1866. Object of new journey Double scheme He goes to Paris with Agnes Reaches Bombay Reminiscences of friends He sells the "Lady Nyassa" Sets out for Zanzibar in "Thule" Reaches Zanzibar Leaves in " Penguin " for the continent, . . " . ' '' ' ". ' '' ' . '' . 302 CHAPTER XIX. FROM ZANZIBAR TO TJJIJI. A.D. 1866-1869. Dr. Livingstone goes to mouth of Rovuma Dismissal of his Sepoys Fresh horrors of slave-trade He reaches Lake Nyassa Question of the watershed His Johanna men leave in a body Circulate rumour of his murder Search Expedition Review of 1866 First sight of Lake Tangany^ia Discovery of Lake Moero Discovery of Lake Bangweolo Severe illness Reaches Ujiji Goods have been wasted and stolen, 312 CHAPTER XX. MANYTTEMA. A.D. 1869-1871. He sets out to explore Manyuema and the river Lualaba Cannot get a canoe to explore the Lualaba Has to return to Bambarre He sets out anew in a more northerly direction Reaches Nyangwe Long detention Suspicions of the natives Frightful difficulties Has to return to Bambarre' Long and wearisome detention Wretched character of men sent from Zanzibar Difficulties Hor- rible massacre on banks of Lualaba Frightful scene He returns to Ujiji New illness Shereef has sold off his goods Meets Henry M. Stanley and is relieved, 329 FAQB xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. A.D. 1871-1872. 1 Stanley in search of Livingstone Meeting with Livingstone Account of Livingstone They go to the north of the lake Livingstone re- solves not to go home, but to get fresh men and explore sources of the Nile Stanley leaves Livingstone commissions him to send servants and stores from Zanzibar Stanley fulfils his trust Pro ceeds to England Stanley's reception England grateful to Stanley, 351 CHAPTER XXII. FROM UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. A.D. 1872-1873. Arrival of new escort He starts for Unyanyembe Illness Near . Bangweolo Incessant moisture Greatness of sufferings His six- tieth birthday Increasing illness The end approaching Last writ- ten words Last day of his travels He reaches Chitambo's village, in Ilala Is found on his knees dead, on morning of 1st May Courage and affection of his attendants His body embalmed and carried towards shore The party reach Bagamoio, and the remains are placed on board a cruiser Search Expeditions from England to East Coast under Cameron to West Coast under Grandy Livingstone's remains broughu to England Buried in Westminster Abbey Tributes to his memory, 365 CHAPTER XXILT. POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. Thrilling effect of the tragedy of Ilala Livingstone's influence on the slave-trade Sir Bartle Frere's mission to Zanzibar Successful efforts of Dr. Kirk and others to suppress it Various commercial enterprises Influence of Livingstone on exploration Enterprise of newspapers Exploring undertakings of various nations Living- stone's personal service to science His influence on missionary enterprise Livingstonia Dr. Stewart Mr. E. D. Young Blantyre The Universities Mission under Bishop Steere Its return to the mainland and to Nyassa district Church Missionary Society at Nyanza London Missionary Society at Tanganyika French, In- land, Baptist, American, and other missions Livingstone's great legacy to Africa, a spotless Christian name and character Honours of the future, .388 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS. A.D. 1813-1836. THE family of David Livingstone sprang, as he has him- self recorded, from the island of Ulva, off the west coast of Mull, in Argyllshire. Ulva, "the island of the wolf," is of the same group as Staffa, and, like it, remarkable for its basaltic columns, which, according to MacCulloch, are more deserving of admiration than those of the Giant's Causeway, and have missed being famous only from being eclipsed by the greater glory of Staffa. The island belonged for many generations to the Macquaries, a name distinguished in our home annals, as well as in those of Australia. The Celtic name of the Livingstones was M'Leay, which according to Dr. Livingstone's own idea means " son of the grey-headed," but according to another derivation, " son of the physician." It has been sur- mised that the name may have been given to some son of the famous Beatoun, who held the post of physician to the Lord of the Isles. Probably Dr. Livingstone never heard of this derivation; if he had, he would have shown it some favour, for he had a singularly high opinion of the physician's office. The Saxon name of the family was originally spelt Livingstone, but the Doctor's father had shortened it by the omission of the final " e." David wrote it for many 2 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. I. years in the abbreviated form, but about 1857, at his father's request, he restored the original spelling. The significance of the original form of the name was not with- out its influence on him. He used to refer with great pleasure to a note from an old friend and fellow-student, the late Professor George Wilson of Edinburgh, acknow- ledging a copy of his book in 1857 : "Meanwhile, may your name be propitious ; in all your long and weary journeys may the Living half of your title outweigh the other ; till after long and blessed labours, the white stone is given you in the happy land. " Livingstone has told us most that is known of his forefathers; how his great-grandfather fell at Culloden, fighting for the old line of kings; how his grandfather could go back for six generations of his family before him, giving the particulars of each ; and how the only tradition he himself felt proud of was that of the old man who had never heard of any person in the family being guilty of dishonesty, and who charged his children never to intro- duce the vice. He used also to tell his children, when spurring them to diligence at school, that neither had he ever heard of a Livingstone who was a donkey. He has recorded a tradition that the people of the island were con- verted from being Roman Catholics " by the laird coming round with a man having a yellow staff, which would seem to have attracted more attention than his teaching, for the new religion went long afterwards perhaps it does so still by the name of the religion of the yellow stick." The same story is told of perhaps a dozen other places in the Highlands ; the " yellow stick " seems to have done duty on a considerable scale. There were traditions of Ulva life that must have been very congenial to the temperament of David Livingstone. In the " Statistical Account " of the parish to which it belongs (Kilninian and Kilmore) we read of an old custom among the inhabitants, to remove with their flocks in the beginning of each summer to the upland pastures, and bivouac there till they were obliged to descend in the month of August. The open-air life, the free intercourse, of families, the roaming frolics of the young men, the songs and merriment of young and old, seem to have made this 1813-36.] EARLY YEARS. 3 a singularly happy time. The writer of the account (Mr. Clark of Ulva) says that he had frequently listened with delight to the tales of pastoral life led by the people on these occasions ; it was indeed a relic of Arcadia. There were tragic traditions, too, of Ulva ; notably that of Kirsty's Rock, an awful place where the islanders are said to have administered Lynch law to a woman who had unwittingly killed a girl she meant only to frighten, for the alleged crime denied by the girl of stealing a cheese. The poor woman was broken-hearted when she saw what she had done ; but the neighbours, filled with horror, and deaf to her remonstrances, placed her in a sack, which they laid upon a rock covered by the sea at high water, where the rising tide slowly terminated her existence. Living- stone quotes Macaulay's remark on the extreme savagery of the Highlanders of those days, like the Cape Caffres, as he says; and the tradition of Kirsty's Rock would seem to confirm it. But the stories of the " baughting-time " pre- sented a fairer aspect of Ulva life, and no doubt left happier impressions on his mind. His grandfather, as he tells us, had an almost unlimited stock of such stories, which he was wont to rehearse to his grandchildren and other rapt listeners. When, for the first and last time in his life, David Livingstone visited Ulva, in 1864, in a friend's yacht, he could hear little or nothing of his relatives. In 1792, his grandfather, as he tells us, left it for Blantyre, in Lanark- shire, about seven miles from Glasgow, on the banks of the Clyde, where he found employment in a cotton factory. The dying charge of the unnamed ancestor must have sunk into the heart of this descendant, for, being a God- fearing man and of sterling honesty, he was employed in the conveyance, of large sums of money from Glasgow to the works, and in his old age was pensioned off, so as to spend his declining years in ease and comfort. There is a tradition in the family, showing his sense of the value oi education, that he was complimented by the Blantyre schoolmaster for never grudging the price of a school- book for any of his children a compliment, we fear, not often won at the present day. The other near relations ot Livingstone seem to have left the island at the same time. 4 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. i. and settled in Canada, Prince Edward's Isle, and the United States. The influence of his Highland blood was apparent in many ways in David Livingstone's character. It modified the democratic influences of his early years, when he lived among the cotton-spinners of Lanarkshire. It enabled him to enter more readily into the relation of the African tribes to their chiefs, which, unlike some other mission- aries, he sought to conserve while purifying it by Christian influence. It showed itself in the dash and daring which were so remarkably combined in him with Saxon fore- thought and perseverance. We are not sure but. it gave a tinge to his affections, intensifying his likes, and some of his dislikes too. His attachment to Sir Roderick Murchi- son was quite that of a Highlander, and hardly less so was his feeling towards the Duke of Argyll a man whom he had no doubt many grounds for esteeming highly, but of whom, after visiting him at Inveraray, he spoke with all the enthusiasm of a Highlander for his chief. The Ulva emigrant had several sons, all of whom but one eventually entered the King's service during the French war, either as soldiers or sailors. The old man was some- what disheartened by this circumstance, and especially by the fate of Charles, head-clerk in the office of Mr. Henry Monteith in Glasgow, who was pressed on board a man-of- war, and died soon after in the Mediterranean. Only one son remained at home, Neil, the father of David, who eventually became a tea-dealer, and spent his life at Blan- tyre and Hamilton. David Livingstone has told us that his father was of the high type of character portrayed in the Cottar's Saturday Night. There are friends still alive who remember him well, and on whom he made a deep impression. He was a great reader from his youth upwards, especially of religious works. His reading and his religion refined his character, and made him a most pleasant and instructive companion. His conversational powers were remarkable, and he could pour out in a most interesting way the stores of his reading and observation. Neil Livingstone was a man of great spiritual earnestness, and his whole life was consecrated to duty and the fear of God. In many ways he was remarkable, being in some 1813-36.] EARLY YEARS. 5 things before his time. In his boyhood he had seen the evil effects of convivial habits in his immediate circle, and in order to fortify others by his example he became a strict teetotaler, suffering not a little ridicule and opposition from the firmness with which he carried out his resolution. He was a Sunday-school teacher, an ardent member of a mis- sionary society, and a promoter of meetings for prayer and fellowship, before such things had ceased to be regarded as badges of fanaticism. While travelling through the neigh- bouring parishes in his vocation of tea-merchant, he acted also as colporteur, distributing tracts and encouraging the reading of useful books. He took suitable opportunities when they came to him of speaking to young men and others on the most important of all subjects, and not without effect. He learned Gaelic that he might be able to read the Bible to his mother, who knew that language best. He had indeed the very soul of a missionary. Withal he was kindly and affable, though very particular in enforcing what he believed to be right. He was quick of temper, but of tender heart and gentle ways; anything that had the look of sternness was the result not of harshness but of high principle. By this means he commanded the affection as well as the respect of his family. It was a great blow to his distinguished son, to whom in his character and ways he bore a great resemblance, to get news of his death, on his way home after his first great journey, dissipating the cherished pleasure of sitting at the fireside and telling him all his adventures in Africa. The wife of Neil Livingstone was Agnes Hunter, a member of a family of the same humble rank and the same estimable character as his own. Her grandfather, Gavin Hunter, of the parish of Shotts, was a doughty Covenanter, who might have sat for the portrait of David Deans. His son David (after whom the traveller was named) was a man of the same type, who got his first religious impressions in his eighteenth year, at an open-air service conducted by one of the Secession Erskines. Snow was falling at the time, and before the end of the sermon the people were standing in snow up to the ankles ; but David Hunter used to say he had no feeling of cold that day. He married Janet Moffat, and lived at first in comfortable circumstances at A2 o DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. i. Airdrie, where he owned a cottage and a croft. Mrs. Hunter died, when her daughter Agnes, afterwards Mrs. Neil Livingstone, was but fifteen. Agnes was her mother's only nurse during a long illness, and attended so carefully to her wants that the minister of the family laid his hand on her head and said, "A blessing will follow you, my lassie, for your duty to your mother." Soon after Mrs. Hunter's death a reverse of fortune overtook her husband, who had been too good-natured in accommodating his neighbours. He removed to Blantyre, where he worked as a tailor. Neil Livingstone was apprenticed to him by his father, much against his will ; but it was by this means that he became acquainted with Agnes Hunter, his future wife. David Hunter, whose devout and intelligent char- acter procured for him great respect, died at Blantyre in 1834, at the age of eighty-seven. He was a great favour- ite with his grand-children, to whom he was always kind, and whom he allowed to rummage freely among his books, of which he had a considerable collection, chiefly theo- logical Neil Livingstone and Agnes Hunter were married in 1810, and took up house at first in Glasgow. The furnish- ing of their house indicated the frugal character and self- respect of the occupants ; it included a handsome chest of drawers, and other traditional marks of respectability. Not liking Glasgow, they returned to Blantyre. In a humble home there, five sons and two daughters were born. Two of the sons died in infancy, to the great sorrow of the parents. Mrs. Livingstone's family spoke and speak of her as a very loving mother, one who contributed to their home a remarkable element of brightness and serenity. Active, orderly, and of thorough cleanliness, she trained her family in the same virtues, exemplifying their value in their own home. She was a delicate little woman, with a wonderful flow of good spirits, and remarkable for the beauty of her eyes, to which those of her son David bore a strong resem- blance. She was most careful of household duties and attentive to her children. Her love had no crust to pene- trate, but came beaming out freely like the light of the sun. Her son loved her, and in many ways followed her. It was the genial, gentle influences that had moved him under his 1813-36.] EARLY YEARS. ^ mother's training that enabled him to move the savages of Africa. She too had a great store of family traditions, and, like the mother of Sir Walter Scott, she retained the power of telling them with the utmost accuracy to extreme old age. In one of Livingstone's private journals, written in 1864, during his second visit home, he gives at full length one of his mother's stories, which some future Macaulay may find useful as an illustration of the social condition of Scotland in the early part of the eighteenth century : "Mother told me stories of her youth : they seem to come back to her in her eighty-second year very vividly. Her grandfather, Gavin Hunter, could write, while most common people were ignorant of the art. A poor woman got him to write a petition to the minister of Shotts 'parish to augment her monthly allowance of sixpence, as she could not live on it. He was taken to Hamilton jail for this, and having a wife and three children at home, who without him would certainly starve, he thought of David's feigning madness before the Philistines, and beslabbered his beard with saliva. All who were found guilty were sent to the army in America, or the plantations. A serjeant had compassion on him and said, ' Tell me, gudeman, if you are really out of your mind. I '11 befriend you. ' He confessed that he only feigned insanity, because he had a wife and three bairns at home who would starve if he were sent to the army. 'Dinna say onything mair to ony body,' said the kind- hearted serjeant. He then said to the commanding-officer, ' They have given us a man clean out of his mind : I can do nothing with the like o' him.' The officer went to him and gave him three shil- lings, saying, ' Tak' that, gudeman, and gang awa' hame to your wife and weans.' 'Ay,' said mother, 'mony a prayer went up for that serjeant, for my grandfather was an unco godly man. He had never had so much money in his life before, for his wages were only threepence a day.' " Mrs. Livingstone, to whom David had always been a most dutiful son, died on the 18th of June 1865, after a lingering illness which had confined her to bed for several years. A telegram received by him at Oxford announced her death ; that telegram had been stowed away in one of his travelling cases, for a year after (19th June 1866), in his Last Journals, he wrote this entry : " I lighted on a telegram to-day : ' Your mother died at noon on the 18th June.' This was in 1865 ; it affected me not a little." 8 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. I. The borne in which David Livingstone grew up was bright and happy, and presented a remarkable example of all the domestic virtues. It was ruled by an industry that never lost an hour of the six days, and that welcomed and honoured the day of rest : a thrift that made the most of everything, though it never got far beyond the bare neces- saries of life ; a self-restraint that admitted no stimulant within the door, and that faced bravely and steadily all the burdens of life ; a love of books that showed the presence of a cultivated taste, with a fear of God that dignified the life which it moulded and controlled. To the last David Livingstone was proud of the class from which he sprang. When the highest in the land were showering compliments on him, he was writing to his old friends of " my own order, the honest poor," and trying, by schemes of colonisation and otherwise, to promote their benefit. He never had the least hankering for any title or distinction that would have seemed to lift him out of his own class ; and it was with perfect sincerity that on the tombstone which he placed over the resting-place of his parents in the cemetery of Hamilton, he expressed his feelings in these words, delibe- rately refusing to change the " and " of the last line into "but": TO SHOW THE RESTING-PLACE OF NEIL LIVINGSTONE, AND AGNES HUNTER, HIS WIFE, AND TO EXPRESS THE THANKFULNESS TO GOD OF THEIR CHILDREN, JOHN, DAVID, JANET, CHARLES, AND AGNES, FOR POOR AND PIOUS PARENTS. David Livingstone's birthday was the 19th March 1813. Of his early boyhood there is little to say, except that he was a favourite at home. The children's games were merrier when he was among them, and the fireside brighter. He contributed constantly to the happiness of the family. Anything of interest that happened to him he was always ready to tell them. The habit was kept up in after years. When he went to study in Glasgow, returning on the Saturday evenings, he would take his place by the fireside 1813-36.] EARLY YEARS. 9 and tell them all that had occurred during the week, thus sharing his life with them. His sisters stOl remember how they longed for these Saturday evenings. At the village school he received his early education. He seems from his earliest childhood to have been of a calm, self-reliant nature. It was his father's habit to lock the door at dusk, by which time all the children were expected to be in the house. One evening David had infringed this rule, and when he reached the door it was barred. He made no cry nor disturbance, but having procured a piece of bread, sat down contentedly to pass the night on the doorstep. There, on looking out, his mother found him. It was an early application of the rule which did him such service in later days, to make the best of the least pleasant situations. But no one could yet have thought how the rule was to be after- wards applied. Looking back to this period, Livingstone might have said, in the words of the old Scottish ballad " O little knew my mother, The day she cradled me, The lands that I should wander o'er, The death that I should dee." At the age of nine he got a New Testament from his Sunday-school teacher for repeating the 119th Psalm on two successive evenings with only five errors, a proof that perseverance was bred in his very bone. His parents were poor, and at the age of ten he was put to work in the factory as a piecer, that his earnings might aid his mother in the struggle with the wolf which had followed the family from the island that bore its name. After serving a number of years as a piecer, he was pro- moted to be a spinner. Greatly to his mother's delight, the first half-crown he ever earned was laid by him in her lap. Livingstone has told us that with a part of his first week's wages he purchased Euddiman's Rudiments of Latin, and pursued the study of that language with unabated ardour for many years afterwards at an evening class which had been opened between the hours of eight and ten. " The dictionary part of my labours was followed up till twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be back in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my io DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. i. work, with intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night. I read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil and Horace better at sixteen than I do now." In his reading, he tells us that he devoured all the books that came into his hands but novels, and that his plan was to place the book on a portion of the spinning-jenny, so that he could catch sentence after sentence as he passed at his work. The labour of attending to the wheels was great, for the improvements in spinning machinery that have made it self-acting had not then been introduced. The utmost interval that Livingstone could have for reading at one time was less than a minute. The thirst for reading so early shown was greatly stimulated by his father's example. Neil Livingstone, while fond of the old Scottish theology, was deeply in- terested in the enterprise of the nineteenth century, or, as he called it, " the progress of the world," and endeavoured to interest his family in it too. Any books of travel, and especially of missionary enterprise, that he could lay his hands on, he eagerly read. Some publications of the Tract Society, called the Weekly Visitor, the Child 1 s Companion and Teacher's Offering' were taken in, and were much enjoyed by his son David, especially the papers of " Old Humphrey." Novels were not admitted into the house, in accordance with the feeling prevalent in religious circles. Neil Living- stone had also a fear of books of science, deeming them unfriendly to Christianity ; his son instinctively repudiated that feeling, though it was some time before the works of Thomas Dick of Broughty-Ferry enabled him to see clearly, what to him was of vital significance, that religion and science were not necessarily hostile, but rather friendly to each other. The many-sidedness of his character showed itself early ; for not content with reading, he used to scour the country, accompanied by his brothers, in search of botanical, geolo- gical, and zoological specimens. Culpepper's Herbal was a favourite book, and it set him to look in every direction for as many of the plants described in it as the country-side could supply. A story has been circulated that on these occasions he did not always confine his researches in zoology 1813-36.] EARLY YEARS. n to fossil animals. That Livingstone was a poacher in the grosser sense of the term seems hardly credible, though with the Radical opinions which he held at the time it may readily be believed that he had no respect for the sanctity of game. If a salmon came in his way while he was fishing for trout, he made no scruple of bagging it. The bag on such occasions was not always made for the purpose, for there is a story that once when he had captured a fish in the "salmon pool," and was not prepared to transport such a prize, he deposited it in the leg of his brother Charles's trousers, creating no little sympathy for the boy, as he passed through the village with his sadly swollen leg ! It was about his twentieth year that the great spiritual change took place which determined the course of Living- stone's future life. But before this time he had earnest thoughts on religion. " Great pains," he says in his first book, " had been taken by my parents to instil the doc- trines of Christianity into my mind, and I had no diffi- culty in understanding the theory of a free salvation by the atonement of our Saviour ; but it was only about this time that I began to feel the necessity and value of a per- sonal application of the provisions of that atonement to my own case." Some light is thrown on this brief account in a paper submitted by him to the Directors of the London Missionary Society in 1838, in answer to a schedule of queries sent down by them when he offered himself as a missionary for their service. He says that about his twelfth year he began to reflect on his state as a sinner, and became anxious to realise the state of mind that flows from the reception of the truth into the heart. He was deterred, however, from embracing the free offer of mercy in the gospel, by a sense of unworthiness to receive so great a blessing, till a supernatural change should be effected in him by the Holy Spirit. Conceiving it to be his duty to wait for this, he continued expecting a ground of hope within, rejecting meanwhile the only true hope of the sinner, the finished work of Christ, till at length his convictions were effaced and his feelings blunted. Still his heart was not at rest ; an unappeased hunger remained, which no other pursuit could satisfy. In these circumstances he fell in with Dick's Philosophy of 12 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. I. a Future State. The book corrected his error, and showed him the truth. " I saw the duty and inestimable privilege immediately to accept salvation by Christ. Humbly believ- ing that through sovereign mercy and grace I have been enabled so to do, and having felt in some measure its effects on my still depraved and deceitful heart, it is my desire to show my attachment to the cause of Him who died for me by devoting my life to His service." There can be no doubt that David Livingstone's heart was very thoroughly penetrated by the new life that now flowed into it. He did not merely apprehend the truth the truth laid hold of him. The Divine blessing flowed into him as it flowed into the heart of St. Paul, St. Augustine, and others of that type, subduing all earthly desires and wishes. What he says in his book about the freeness of God's grace drawing forth feelings of affection- ate love to Him who bought him with His blood, and the sense of deep obligation to Him for his mercy that had influenced in some small measure his conduct ever since, is from him most significant. Accustomed to suppress all spiritual emotion in his public writings, he would not have used these words if they had not been very real. They give us the secret of his b'fe. Acts of self-denial that are very hard to do under the iron law of conscience become a willing service under the glow of Divine love. It was the glow of Divine love as well as the power of conscience that moved Livingstone. Though he seldom revealed his inner feelings, and hardly ever in the language of ecstasy, it is plain that he was moved by a calm but mighty inward power to the very end of his life. The love that began to stir his heart in his father's house continued to move him all through his dreary African journeys, and was still in full play on that lonely midnight when he knelt at his bed- side in the hut in Ilala, and his spirit returned to his God and Saviour. At first, he had no thought of being himself a mis- sionary. Feeling " that the salvation of men ought to be the chief desire and aim of every Christian," he had made a resolution "that he would give to the cause of missions all that he might earn beyond what was required for his subsistence." The resolution to give himself came 1813-36.] EARLY YEARS. 13 from his reading an Appeal by Mr. Gutzlaff to the Churches of Britain and America on behalf of China. It was " the claims of so many millions of his fellow-creatures, and the complaints of the scarcity, of the want of qualified missionaries," that led him to aspire to the office. From that time apparently his twenty-first year his "efforts were constantly directed towards that object without any fluctuation." The years of monotonous toil spent in the factory were never regretted by Livingstone. On the contrary, he regarded his experience there as an important part of his education, and had it been possible, he would have liked " to begin life over again in the same lowly style, and to pass through the same hardy training." The fellow-feeling he acquired for the children of labour was invaluable for enabling him to gain influence with the same class, whether in Scotland or in Africa. As we have already seen, he was essentially a man of the people. Not that he looked unkindly on the richer classes he used to say in his later years that he liked to see people in comfort and at leisure, enjoying the good things of life, but he felt that the burden-bearing multitude claimed his sympathy most. How quick the people are, whether in England or in Africa, to find out this sympathetic spirit, and how powerful is the hold of their hearts which those who have it gain ! In poetic feeling, or at least in the power of expressing it, as in many other things, David Livingstone and Robert Burns were a great contrast; but in sympathy with the people they were alike, and in both cases the people felt it. Away and alone, in the heart of Africa, when mourning "the pride and avarice that make man a wolf to man," Living- stone would welcome the " good time coming," humming the words of Burns "When man to man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that. " In all the toils and trials of his life he found the good of that early Blantyre discipline, which had forced him to bear irksome toil with patience, until the toil ceased to be irksome, and even became a pleasure. Livingstone has told us that the village of Blantyre, with its population of two thousand souls, contained some H DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. i. characters of sterling worth and ability, who exerted a most beneficial influence on the children and youth of the place by imparting gratuitous religious instruction. The names of two of the worthiest of these are given, probably because they stood highest in his esteem, and he owed most to them, Thomas Burke and David Hogg. Essen- tially alike, they seem to have been outwardly very differ- ent. Thomas Burke, a somewhat wild youth, had enlisted early in the army. His adventures and hairbreadth escapes in the Forty-second, during the Peninsular and other wars, were marvellous, and used to be told in after years to crowds of wondering listeners. But most marvel- lous was the change of heart that brought him back an intense Christian evangelist, who, in season and out of season, never ceased to beseech the people of Blantyre to yield themselves to God. Early on Sunday mornings he would go through the village ringing a bell to rouse the people that they might attend an early prayer-meeting which he had established. His temperament was far too ardent for most even of the well-disposed people of Blan- tyre, but Neil Livingstone appreciated his genuine worth, and so did his son. David says of him that " for about forty years he had been incessant and never weary in good works, and that such men were an honour to their country and their profession." Yet it was not after the model of Thomas Burke that Livingstone's own religious life was fashioned. It had a greater resemblance to that of David Hogg, the other of the two Blantyre patriarchs of whom he makes special mention, under whose instructions he had sat in the Sunday-school, and whose spirit may be gathered from his death- bed advice to him : " Now, lad, make religion the every-day business of your life, and not a thing of fits and starts ; for if you do, temptation and other things will get the better of you.' It would hardly be possible to give a better account of Livingstone's religion than that he did make it quietly, but very really, the every-day business of his life From the first he disliked men of much profession and little performance j the aver sion grew as he advanced in years ; and by the end of his life, in judging of men, he had come to make somewhat. light both of profession and of formal creed, retaining and 1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 15 cherishing more and more firmly the one great test of tho Saviour "By their fruits ye shall know them." CHAPTER II. MISSIONARY PREPARATION. A.D. 1836-1840. IT was the appeal of Gutzlaff for China, as we have seen, that inspired Livingstone with the desire to be a missionary ; and China was the country to which his heart turned. The noble faith and dauntless enterprise of Gutzlaff, pressing into China over obstacles apparently insurmountable, aided by his medical skill and other unusual qualifications, must have served to shape Livingstone's ideal of a missionary, as well as to attract him to the country where Gutzlaff laboured. It was so ordered, however, that in consequence of the opium war shutting China, as it seemed, to the English, his lot was not cast there ; but throughout his whole life he had a peculiarly lively interest in the country that had been the object of his first love. Afterwards, when his brother Charles, then in America, wrote to him that he too felt called to tho missionary office, China was the sphere which David pointed out to him, in the hope that the door which had been closed to the one brother might be opened to the other. When he determined to be a missionary, the only persons to whom he communicated his purpose were his minister and his parents, from all of whom he received great encouragement. He hoped that he would be able to go through the necessary preparation without help from any quarter. This was the more commendable, because, in addition to the theological qualifications of a missionary, he determined to acquire those of a medical practitioner. The idea of Medical Missions was at that time comparatively new. It had been started in connection with missions to 16 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. n. China, and it was in the prospect of going to that country that Livingstone resolved to obtain a medical education. It would have been comparatively easy for him, in a financial sense, to get the theological training, but the medical education was a costly affair. To a man of ordinary ideas, it would have seemed impossible to make the wages earned during the six months of summer avail not merely for his support then, but for winter too, and for lodgings, fees, and books besides. But the importance of the medical qualification had taken a firm hold of his mind, and he persevered in spite of difficulties. Though it was never his lot to exercise the healing art in China, his medical training was of the highest use in Africa, and it developed wonder- fully his strong scientific turn. It was in the winter of 1836-37 that he spent his firet session in Glasgow. Furnished by a friend with a list of lodgings, Livingstone and his father set out from Blantyre one wintry day, while the snow was on the ground, and walked to Glasgow. The lodgings were all too expensive. All day they searched for a cheaper apartment, and at last in Rotten Row they found a room at two shillings a week. Next evening David wrote to his friends that he had entered in the various classes, and spent twelve pounds in fees ; that he felt very lonely after his father left, but w r ould put " a stout heart to a stey brae," and " either mak : a spune or spoil a horn." At Rotten Row he soon found that his landlady held rather communistic views in regard to his tea and sugar ; so another search had to be made, and this time he found a room in the High Street, where he was very comfortable, at half-a-crown a week. At the close of the session in April he returned to Blantyre and resumed work at the mill. He was unable to save quite enough for his second session, and found it necessary to borrow a little from his elder brother. 1 The classes he attended during these two sessions were the Greek class in the University, the theological class of the 1 The readiness of elder brothers to advance part of their hard-won earnings, or otherwise encourage a younger brother to attend College, is a pleasant feature of family life in the humbler classes of Scotland. The case of James Beattie the poet, assisted by his brother David, and that of Sir James Simpson, who owed so much to his brother Alexander, will be remembered in this connection. 1 836-40.] MISSIONAR Y PREPARA TION. 1 7 Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, who trained students for the Inde- pendent Churches, and the medical classes in Anderson's College. In the Greek class he seems to have been entered as a private student, exciting little notice. In the same capacity he attended the lectures of Dr. Wardlaw. He had a great admiration for that divine,' and accepted generally his theological views. But Livingstone was not much of a scientific theologian. His chief work in Glasgow was the prosecution of medical study. Of his teachers, two attracted him beyond the rest the late Dr. Thomas Graham, the very distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Dr. Andrew Buchanan, Pro- fessor of the Institutes of Medicine, his life-long and much- attached friend. While attending Dr. Graham's class he was brought into frequent contact with the assistant to the Professor, Mr. James Young. Originally bred to a mechanical employment, this young man had attended the evening course of Dr. Graham, and having attracted his attention, and done various pieces of work for him, he became his assistant. The students used to gather round him, and several met in his room, where there was a bench, a turning-lathe, and other conveniences for mechanical work. Livingstone took an interest in the turning-lathe, and in- creased his knowledge of tools a knowledge which proved of the highest service to him when as he used to say all missionaries should be ready to do he had to become a Jack-of-all-trades in Africa. Livingstone was not the only man of mark who frequented that room, and got lessons from Mr. Young " how to use his hands." The Eight Hon. Lyon Playfair, who has had so distinguished a scientific career, was another of its habitues. A galvanic battery constructed by two young men on a new principle, under Mr. Young's instructions, became an object of great attraction, and among those who came to see it and its effects were two sons of the Professor of Mathematics in the University. Although but boys, both were fired at this interview with enthusiasm for electric science. Both have been for many years Professors in the University of Glasgow. The elder, who has now retired, Professor James Thomson, is well known for his useful inventions and ingenious papers on many branches of I? DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. 1 1. science. The younger, Sir William Thomson, ranks over the world as prince of electricians, and second to no living man in scientific reputation. Dr. Graham's assistant devoted himself to practical chemistry, and made for himself a brilliant name by the purification of petroleum, adapting it for use in private houses, and by the manufacture of paraffin and paraffin-oil. Few men have made the art to which they devoted them- selves more subservient to the use of man than he whom Livingstone first knew as Graham's assistant, and afterwards used to call playfully " Sir Paraffin." " I have been obliged to knight him," he used to say, " to distinguish him from the other Young." The other Young was Mr. E. D. Young of the Search Expedition, and subsequently the very suc- cessful leader of the Scotch Mission at Lake Nyassa. The assistant to Dr. Graham still survives, and is well known as Mr. Young of Kelly, LL.D. and F.RS. When Livingstone returned from his first journey, his acquaintance with Mr. Young was resumed, and their friendship continued through life. It is no slight testimony from one who knew him so long and so intimately, that, in his judgment, Livingstone was the best man he ever knew, had more than any other man of true filial trust in God, more of the spirit of Christ, more of integrity, purity, and simplicity of character, and of self-denying love for his fellow-men. Livingstone named after him a river which he supposed might be one of the sources of the Nile, and used ever to speak with great respect of the chief achievement of Mr. Young's life filling houses with a clear white light at a fraction of the cost of the smoky article which it displaced. Beyond their own department men of science are often as lax and illogical as any ; but when scientific 'training is duly applied, it genders a habit of thorough accuracy, inas- much as in scientific inquiry the slightest deviation from truth breeds endless mischief. Other influences had already disposed Livingstone to great exactness of statement, but along with these his scientific training may be held to have contributed to that dread of exaggeration and of all in- accuracy which was so marked a feature of his character through life. It happened that Livingstone did not part company with 1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 19 Professor Graham and Mr. Young when he left Glasgow. The same year Dr. Graham went to London as Professor in University College, and Livingstone, who also went to London, had the opportunity of paying occasional visits to his class. In this way, too, he became acquainted with the late Dr. George Wilson, afterwards Professor of Technology in the University of Edinburgh, who was then acting as unsalaried assistant in Dr. Graham's laboratory. Frank genial, and chivalrous, Wilson and Livingstone had much in common, and more in after years, when Wilson too became an earnest Christian. In the simplicity and purity of their character, and in their devotion to science, not only for its own sake, but as a department of the kingdom of God, they were brothers indeed. Livingstone showed his friendship in after years by collecting and transmitting to Wilson whatever he could find in Africa worthy of a place in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, of which his friend was the first Director. In the course of his second session in Glasgow (1837-38) Livingstone applied to the London Missionary Society, offering his services to them as a missionary. He had learned that that Society had for its sole object to send the gospel to the heathen ; that it accepted missionaries from different Churches, and that it did not set up any particular form of Church, but left it to the converts to choose the form they considered most in accordance with the Word of God. This agreed with Livingstone's own notion of what a Missionary Society should do. He had already connected himself with the Independent communion, but his prefer- ence for it was founded chiefly on his greater regard for the personnel of the body, and for the spirit in which it was administered, as compared with the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland. He had very strong views of the spirituality of the Church of Christ, and the need of a profound spiritual change as the only true basis of Christian life and character. He thought that the Presbyterian Churches were too lax in their communion, and particularly the Established Church. He was at this time a decided Voluntary, chiefly on the ground maintained by such men as Vinet, that the connection of Church and State was hurtful to the spiritu- ality of the Church ; and he had a particular abhorrence of 90 DA VTD LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. n. what he called "geographical Christianity," which gave every man within a certain area a right to the sacraments. We shall see that in his later years Dr. Livingstone saw reason to modify some of these opinions; surveying the Evangelical Churches from the heart of Africa, he came to think that, established or non-established, they did not differ so very much from each other, and that there was much good and considerable evil in them all His application to the London Missionary Society was provisionally accepted, and in September 1838 he was summoned to London to meet the Directors, A young Englishman came to London on the same errand at the same time, and a friendship naturally arose between the two. Livingstone's young friend was the Rev. Joseph Moore, afterwards missionary at Tahiti ; now of Congleton in Cheshire. Nine years later, Livingstone, writing to Mr. Moore from Africa, said : " Of all those I have met since we parted, I have seen no one I can compare to you for sincere, hearty friendship." Livingstone's family used to speak of them as Jonathan and David. Mr. Moore has kindly furnished us with his recc Jections of Livingstone at this time : "I met with Livingstone first in September 1838, at 57 Alders- gate Street, London. On the same day we had received a letter from the Secretary informing us severally that our applications had been received, and that we must appear in London to be examined by the Mission Board there. On the same day, he from Scotland, and I from the south of England, arrived in town. On that night we simply accosted each other, as those who meet at a lodging- house might do. After breakfast on the following day we fell into conversation, and finding that the same object had brought us to the metropolis, and that the same trial awaited us, naturally enough we were drawn to each other. Every day, as we had not been in town before, we visited places of renown in the great city, and had many a chat about our prospects. ' ' On Sunday in the morning we heard Dr. Leif child, who was then in his prime, and in the evening Mr. Sherman, who preached with all his accustomed persuasiveness and mellifluousness. In the afternoon we worshipped at St. Paul's, and heard Prebendary Dale. "On Monday we passed our first examination. On Tuesday we went to Westminster Abbey. Who that had seen those two young men passing from monument to monument could have divined that one of them would one day be buried with a nation's rather with the civilised world's lament, in that sacred shrine ? The wildest fancy could not have pictured that such an honour awaited David 1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 21 Livingstone. I grew daily more attached to him. If I were asked why, I should be rather at a loss to reply. There was truly an in- describable charm about him, which, with all his rather ungainly ways, and by no means winning face, attracted almost every one, and which helped him so much in his after wanderings in Africa. "He won those who came near him by a kind of spell. There happened to be in the boarding-house at that time a young M.D., a saddler from Hants, and a bookseller from Scotland. To this hour they all speak of him in rapturous terms. " After passing two examinations, we were both so far accepted by the Society that we were sent to the Rev. Richard Cecil, who resided at Chipping Ongar in Essex. Most missionary students were sent to him for three months' probation, and if a favourable opinion was sent to the Board of Directors, they went to one of the Independent Colleges. The students did not for the most part live with Mr. Cecil, but took lodgings in the town, and went to his house for meals and instruction in classics and theology. Livingstone and I lodged together. We read Latin and Greek, and began Hebrew together. Every day we took walks, and visited all the spots of interest in the neighbourhood, among them the country churchyard which was the burial-place of John Locke. In a place so quiet, and a life so ordinary as that of a student, there did not occur many events worthy of recital. I will, however, mention one or two things, because they give an insight a kind of prophetic glance into Livingstone's after career. " One foggy November morning, at three o'clock, he set out from Ongar to walk to London to see a relative of his father's. 1 It was about twenty-seven miles to the house he sought. After spending a few hours with his relation, he set out to return on foot to Ongar. Just out of London, near Edmonton, a lady had been thrown out of a gig. She lay stunned on the road. Livingstone immediately went to her, helped to carry her into a house close by, and having exam- ined her and found no bones broken, and recommending a doctor to be called, he resumed his weary tramp. Weary and footsore, when he reached Stanford Rivers he missed his way, and finding after some time that he was wrong, he felt so dead-beat that he was inclined to lie down and sleep ; but finding a directing post he climbed it, and by the light of the stars deciphered enough to know his whereabouts. About twelve that Saturday night he reached Ongar, white as a sheet, and so tired he could hardly utter a word. I gave him a basin of bread and milk, and I am not exaggerating when I say I put him to bed. He fell at once asleep, and did not awake till noon had passed on Sunday. 1 We learn from the family that the precise object of the visit was to transact some business for his eldest brother, who had begun to deal in lace. In the darkness of the morning Livingstone fell into a ditch, smear- ing his clothes, and not improving his appearance for smart business pur. poses. The day was spent in going about in London from shop to shop, greatly increasing Livingstone's fatigue. 22 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. 11. " Total abstinence at that time began to be spoken of, and Livingstone and I, and a Mr. Taylor, who went to India, took a pladge together to abstain. 1 Of that trio, two, I am sorry to say (lieu me miserum!), enfeebled health, after many years, compelled to take a little wine for our stomachs' sake. Livingstone was one of the two. "One part of our duties was to prepare sermons, which were sub- mitted to Mr. Cecil, and, when corrected, were committed ta memory, and then repeated to our village congregations. Living- stone prepared one, and one Sunday the minister of Stanford Kivers, where the celebrated Isaac Taylor resided, having fallen sick after the morning service, Livingstone was sent for to preach in the evening. He took his text, read it out very deliberately, and then then his sermon had fled ! Midnight darkness came upon him, and he abruptly said : ' Friends. I have forgotten all I had to say, ' and hurrying out of the pulpit, he left the chapel. " He never became a preacher " [we shall see that this does not apply to his preaching in the Sichuana language], " and in the first letter I received from him from Elizabeth Town in Africa he says, ' I am a very poor preacher, having a bad delivery, and some of them said if they knew I was to preach again they would not enter the chapel. Whether this was all on account of my manner I don't know ; but the truth which I uttered seemed to plague very much the person who supplies the missionaries with wagons and oxen. (They were bad ones. ) My subject was the necessity of adopting the benevolent spirit of the Son of God, and abandoning the selfish- ness of the world.' Each student at Ongar had also to conduct family worship in rotation. I was much impressed by the fact that Livingstone never prayed without the petition that we might imitate Christ in all His imitable perfections." 2 In the Autobiography of Mrs. Gilbert, an eminent member of the family of Taylors of Ongar, there occur some reminiscences of Livingstone, corresponding to those here given by Mr. Moore. The Rev. Isaac Taylor, LL.D., now rector of Settrington, Yorkshire, son of the celebrated author of The Natural 1 Livingstone had always practised total abstinence, according to the invariable custom of his father's house. The third of the trio was the late Rev. Joseph v. S. Taylor, of the Irish Presbyterian Church Mission, Gujerat, Bombay. 2 In connection with this prayer, it is interesting to note the impression made by Livingstone nearly twenty years afterwards on one who saw him but twice once at a public breakfast in Edinburgh, and again at the British Association in Dublin in 1857. We refer to Mrs. Sime, sister of Livingstone's early friend, Professor George Wilson of Edinburgh. Mrs. Sime writes : "I never knew any one who gave me more the idea of power over other men, such power as our Saviour showed while on earth, the power of love and purity combined." 1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 2 $ History of Enthusiasm, and himself author of Wards and Places* Etruscan Researches, etc., has kindly furnished us with the following recollection : "I well remember as a boy taking country rambles with Livingstone when he was studying at Ongar. Mr. Cecil had several missionary students, but Livingstone was the only one whose personality made any impression on my boyish imagination. I might sum up my impression of him in two words Simplicity and Resolu- tion. Now, after nearly forty years, I remember his step, the characteristic forward tread, firm, simple, resolute, neither fast nor slow, no hurry and no dawdle, but which evidently meant getting there." We resume Mr. Moore's reminiscences : " When three months had elapsed, Mr. Cecil sent in his report t the Board. Judging from Livingstone's hesitating manner in con- ducting family worship, and while praying on the week-days in the chapel, and also from his failure so complete in preaching, an un- favourable report was given in. ... Happily, when it was read, and a decision was about to be given against him, some one pleaded hard that his probation should be extended, and so he had several months' additional trial granted. I sailed in the same boat, and was also sent back to Ongar as a naughty boy. . . . At last we had so improved that both were fully accepted. Livingstone went to- London to pursue his medical studies, and I went to Cheshunt College. A day or two after reaching College, I sent to Livingstone, asking him to purchase a second-hand carpet for my room. He was quite scandalised at such an exhibition of effeminacy, and positively refused to gratify my wish. ... In the spring of 1840 1 met Living- stone at London in Exeter Hall, when Prince Albert delivered his maiden speech in England. I remember how nearly he was brought to silence, when the speech, which he had lodged on the brim of his hat, fell into it, as deafening cheers made it vibrate. A day or two after, we heard Binney deliver his masterly missionary sermon, ' Christ seeing of the travail of His soul and being satisfied.' " The meeting at Exeter Hall was held to inaugurate the Niger Expedition. It was on this occasion that Samuel Wilberforce became known as a great platform orator. 1 It must have been pleasant to Livingstone in after years to recall the circumstance when he became a friend and correspondent of the Bishop of Oxford. Notwithstanding the dear postage of the time, Livingstone wrote regularly to his friends, but few of his letters have survived. One of the few, dated 5th May 1839, is addressed 1 Life of Bishop Wilberforce, vol. i. p. 160. 24 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. II. to his sister, and in it he says that there had been some intention of sending him abroad at once, but that he was very desirous of getting more education. The letter con- tains very little news, but is full of the most devout aspirations for himself and exhortations to his sister. Alluding to the remark of a friend that they should seek to be "uncommon Christians, that is, eminently holy and devoted servants of the Most High," he urges : " Let us seek and with the conviction that we cannot do without it that all selfishness be extirpated, pride banished, unbelief driven from the mind, every idol dethroned, and everything hostile to holiness and opposed to the divine will crucified ; that ' holiness to the Lord ' may be engraven on the heart, and evermore characterise our whole conduct. This is what we ought to strive after ; this is the way to be happy ; this is what our Saviour loves entire sur- render of the heart. May He enable us by His Spirit to persevere till we attain it ! All comes from Him, the disposition to ask as well as the blessing itself. " I hope you improve the talents committed to you whenever there is an opportunity. You have a class with whom you have some influence. It requires prudence in the way of managing it ; seek wisdom from above to direct you ; persevere don't be content with once or twice recommending the Saviour to them again and again, in as kind a manner as possible, familiarly, individually, and privately, exhibit to them the fountain of happiness and joy, never forgetting to implore divine energy to accompany your endeavours, and you need not fear that your labour will be unfruitful. If you have the willing mind, that is accepted ; nothing else is accepted if that be wanting. God desires that. He can do all the rest. After all, He is the sole agent, for ' the willing mind ' conies alone from Him. This is comforting, for when we think of the feebleness and littleness of all we do, we might despair of having our services accepted, were we not assured that it is not these God looks to, except in so far as they are indications of the state of the heart. " Dr. Livingstone's sisters have a distinct recollection that the field to which the Directors intended to send him was the West Indies, and that he remonstrated on the ground that he had spent two years in medical study, but in the West Indies, where there Avere regular practitioners, his medical knowledge would be of little *or no avail. He pleaded with the Directors, therefore, that he might be allowed to complete his medical studies, and it was then that Africa was provisionally fixed on as his destination. It appears, however, that he had not quite abandoned the 1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 25 thought of China. Mr. Moir, his former pastor, writes us that being in London in May 1839, he called at the Mission House to make inquiries about him. He asked whether the Directors did not intend to send him to the East Indies, where the field was so large and the demand so urgent, but he was told that though they esteemed him highly, they did not think that his gifts fitted him for India, and that Africa would be a more suitable field. On returning to London, Livingstone devoted himself with special ardour to medical and scientific study. The church with which he was connected was that of the late Rev. Dr. Bennett, in Falcon Square. This led to his- becoming intimate with Dr. Bennett's son, now the well- known Sir J. Eisdon Bennett, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., late President of the Royal College of Physicians, London. The friendship continued during the whole of Dr. Living- stone's life. From some recollections with which Sir Risdon has kindly furnished us, we take the following : "My acquaintance with David Livingstone was through the .London Missionary Society, when, having offered himself to that Society, he came to London to carry on those medical and other studies which he had commenced in Glasgow. From the first, I became deeply interested in his character, and ever after maintained a close friendship with him. I entertained towards him a sincere affection, and had the highest admiration of his endowments, both of mind and heart, and of his pure and noble devotion of all his powers to the highest purposes of life. One could not fail to be impressed with his simple, loving, Christian spirit, and the combined modest, unassuming, and self -reliant character of the man. " He placed himself under my guidance in reference to his medicai studies, and I was struck with the amount of knowledge that he had already acquired of those subjects which constitute the foundation of medical science. He had, however, little or no acquaintance with the practical departments of medicine, and had had no opportunities of studying the nature and aspects of disease. Of these deficiencies he was quite aware, and felt the importance of acquiring as much practical knowledge as possible during his stay in London. I was at that time Physician to the Aldersgate Street Dispensary, and was lecturing at the Charing Cross Hospital on the practice of medicine, and thus was able to obtain for him free admission to hospital practice as well as attendance on my lectures and my practice at the dis- pensary. I think that I also obtained for him admission to the ophthalmic hospital in Moorfields. ^ With these sources of information open to him, he obtained a considerable acquaintance with the more ordinary forms of disease, both surgical and medical, and an amount 26 DA V1D LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. n. of scientific and practical knowledge that could not fail to be of the greatest advantage to him in the distant regions to which he was going, away from all the resources of civilisation. His letters to me, and indeed all the records of his eventful life, demonstrate how great to him was the value of the medical knowledge with which he entered on missionary life. There is abundant evidence that on various occasions his own life was preserved through his courageous and sagacious application of his scientific knowledge to his own needs ; and the benefits which he conferred on the natives to whose welfare he devoted himself, and the wonderful influence which he exercised over them, were in no small degree due to the humane and skilled assistance which he was able to render as a healer of bodily disease. The account which he gave me of his perilous encounter with the lion, and the means he adopted for the repair of the serious injuries which he received, excited the astonishment and admiration of all the medical friends to whom I related it, as evincing an amount of courage, sagacity, skill, and endurance that have scarcely been sur- passed in the aimals of heroism. " Another distinguished man of science with whom Living- stone became acquainted in London, and on whom he made an impression similar to that made on Dr. Bennett, was Professor Owen. Part of the little time at his disposal was devoted to studying the series of comparative anatomy in the Hunterian Museum, under Professor Owen's charge. Mr. Owen was interested to find that the Lanarkshire student was born in the same neighbourhood as Hunter, but still more interested in the youth himself and his great love of natural history. On taking leave, Livingstone promised to bear his instructor in mind if any curiosity fell in his way. Years passed, and as no communication reached him, Mr. Owen was disposed to class the promise with too many others made in the like circumstances. But on his first return to this country Livingstone presented himself, bearing the tusk of an elephant with a spiral curve. He had found it in the heart of Africa, and it was not easy of transport. " You may recall," said Professor Owen, at the Farewell Festival in 1858, "the difficulties of the progress of the weary sick traveller on the bullock's back. Every pound weight was of moment; but Livingstone said, 'Owen shall have this tusk,' and he placed it in my hands in London." Professor Owen recorded this as a proof of Livingstone's inflexible adherence to his word. With equal justice we may quote it as a proof of his undying gratitude to any one that had shown him kindness. 1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 27 On all his fellow-students and acquaintances the sim- plicity, frankness, and kindliness of Livingstone's character made a deep impression. Mr. J. S. Cook, now of London, who spent three months with him at Ongar, writes : " He was so kind and gentle in word and deed to all about him that all loved him. He had always words of sympathy at command, and was ready to perform acts of sympathy for those who were suffering." The Rev. D. G. Watt, a brother Scotchman, who went as a missionary to India, has a vivid remembrance of Livingstone's mode of discus- sion ; he showed great simplicity of view, along with a certain roughness or bluntness of manner ; great kindli- ness, and yet great persistence in holding to his own ideas. Mr. Alexander Macmillan, the eminent publisher, who was frequently in the company of Livingstone and his fallow-students at this time, writes : " I can recall nothing that would enable me to say that he made any special im- pression on my mind as regards the mental aspect of his character. But that the great characteristics to which he owed in after life his great eminence were recognised at that time I cannot doubt; these being resolute courage, singular purity and loftiness of moral aim, and an exquisite modesty of mind. ... I have heard it said of him, ' Fire, water, stone-wall would not stop Livingstone in the fulfilment of any recognised duty.' " But no one had by this time discerned that remarkable vigour of intellect which afterwards led Sir Bartle Frere to say of him, after much personal intercourse : " Of his intellectual force and energy he has given such proof as few men could afford. Any five years of his life might in any other occupation have established a character and raised for him a fortune such as none but the most energetic of our race can realise." x Livingstone's prospects of getting to China had been damaged by the Opium War ; while it continued, no new appointments could be made, even had the Directors wished to send him there. It was in these circumstances that he y the power of commerce and population unto the people of the saints of the Most High. And this is an ever- lasting kingdom, a little stone cut out of a mountain without hands which shall cover the whole earth. For this time we work ; may God accept our imperfect service !" At length Livingstone began to get near the coast, reach- ing the outlying Portuguese stations. He was received by the Portuguese gentlemen with great kindness, and his wants were generously provided for. One of them gave 136 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. vni. him the first glass of wine he had taken in Africa. Another provided him with a suit of clothing. Livingstone invoked the blessing of Him who said, " I was naked and ye clothed me." His Journal is profuse in its admiration of some of the Portuguese traders, who did not like the slave-trade not they, but had most enlightened views for the welfare of Africa. But opposite some of these eulogistical passages of the Journal there was afterwards added an expressive series of marks of interrogation. Arrived at Loanda, 31st May 1854, with his twenty-seven followers, he was most kindly received by Mr. Edmund Gabriel, the British Commissioner for the suppression of the slave-trade there, and everything was done by him for his comfort. The sensation of lying on an English bed, after six months lying on the ground, was indescribably delightful. Mr. Gabriel was equally attentive to him during a long and distressing attack of fever and dysentery that prostrated him soon after his arrival at Loanda. In his Journal the warmest benedictions are poured on Mr. Gabriel, and blessings everlasting besought for his soul. One great disappointment he suffered at Loanda not a single letter was awaiting him. His friends must have thought he could never reach it. This want of letters was a very severe trial, especially to one who wrote so many, and of such length. The cordial friendship of Mr. Gabriel, however, was a great solace. He gave him much infor- mation, not only on all that concerned the slave-trade now more than ever attracting his attention but also on the natural history of the district, and he entered, con amore, into the highest objects of his mission. Afterwards, in acknowledging to the Directors of the London Missionary Society receipt of a letter for Dr. Livingstone, intrusted to his care, Mr. Gabriel wrote as follows (20th March 1856) : "Dr. Livingstone, after the noble objects he has achieved, most assuredly wants no testimony from me. I consult, therefore, the impulse of my own mind alone, when I declare that in no respect was my intercourse more gratifying to me than in the opportunities afforded to me of observing his earnest, active, and unwearied solicitude for the advancement of Christianity. Few, perhaps, have had better opportunities than myself of estimating the benefit the Christian cause in this country has derived from Dr. Livingstone's exertions. It is indeed fortunate for that sacred cause, and highly 1853-54-] FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA. 137 honourable to the London Missionary Society when qualities and dispositions like his are employed in propagating its blessings among men. Irrespective, moreover, of his laudable and single-minded conduct as a minister of the Gospel, and his attainments in making observations which have determined the true geography of the interior, the Directors, I am sure, will not have failed to perceive how interesting and valuable are all the communications they receive from him as sketches of the social condition of the people, and the material, fabrics, and produce of these lands. I most fervently pray that the kind Providence, which has hitherto carried him through so many perils and hardships, may guide him safely to his present journey's end. " The friendship of Mr. Gabriel was honourable both to himself and to Dr. Livingstone. At a very early period he learned to appreciate Livingstone thoroughly ; he saw how great as well as how good a man he was, and felt that to be the friend of such a man was one of the highest distinctions he could have. After Livingstone left Loanda, and while he was detained within reach of letters, a brisk correspond- ence passed between them ; Mr. Gabriel tells him about birds, helps him in his schemes for promoting lawful commerce, goes into ecstasies over a watch-chain which he had got from him, tells him the news of the battle of the Alma in the Crimea, in which his friend, Colonel Steele, had distinguished himself, and of the success of the Rae Expedition in finding the remains of the party under Sir John Franklin. In an official communication to Lord Clarendon, after Livingstone had left, Mr. Gabriel says, 5th August 1855 : " I am grieved to say that this excellent man's health has suffered a good deal [on the return journey]. He nevertheless wrote in cheerful spirits, sanguine of success in doing his duty under the guidance and protection of that kind Providence who had always carried him through so many perils and hardships. He assures me that since he knew the value of Christianity, he has ever wished to spend his life in propagating its blessings among men, and adds that the same desire remains still as strong as ever." While Livingstone was at Loanda, he made several acquaintances among the officers of Her Majesty's navy, engaged in the suppression of the slave-trade. For many of these gentlemen he was led to entertain a high regard. Their humanity charmed him, and so did their attention to their duties. In his early days, sharing the feeling then 138 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. vnr. so prevalent in his class, he had been used to think of epauletted gentlemen as idlers, or worse "fruges consumers nati." Personal acquaintance, as in so many other cases, rubbed off the prejudice. In many ways Livingstone's mind was broadening. His intensely sympathetic nature drew powerfully to all who were interested in what was rapidly becoming his own master-idea the suppression of the slave-trade. We shall see proofs not a few, how this sympathetic affection modified some of his early opinions, and greatly widened the sphere of his charity. After all the illness and dangers he had encountered, Livingstone might quite honourably have accepted a berth in one of Her Majesty's cruisers, and returned to England. But the men who had come with him from the Barotse country to Loanda had to return, and Livingstone knew that they were quite unable to perform the journey with- out him. That consideration determined his course. All the risks and dangers of that terrible road the attacks of fever and dysentery, the protracted absence of those for whom he pined, were not to be thought of when he had a duty to these poor men. Besides, he had not yet accomplished his object. He had, indeed, discovered a way by which his friend Sekeletu might sell his tusks to far greater advan- tage, and which would thus help to introduce a legitimate traffic among the Makololo, and expel the slave-trade ; but he had discovered no healthy locality for a mission, nor any unexceptional highway to the sea for the purpose of general traffic. The east coast seemed to promise better than the west. That great river, the Zambesi, might be found to be a navigable highway to the sea. He would return to Lin- yanti, and set out from it to find a way to the eastern shore. Loaded with kindness from many quarters, and furnished with presents for Sekeletu, and for the chiefs along the way, Livingstone bade farewell to Loanda on 20th September 1854. The following letter to Mrs. Livingstone, written a month afterwards, gives his impressions of Loanda and the neighbourhood : " Oohmgo Alto, 25th October 1854. It occurs to me, my dearest Mary, that if I send you a note from different parts on the way through this colony, some of them will surely reach you ; and if 1853-54-] FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA. 139 they carry any of the affection I bear to you in their composition, they will not fail to comfort you. I got everything in Loanda I could desire ; and were there only a wagon-path for us, this would be as good an opening into the interior as we could wish. I re- mained rather a long time in the city in consequence of a very severe attack of fever and dysentery which reduced me very much : and I remained a short time longer than that actually required to set me on my legs, in longing expectation of a letter from you. None came, but should any come up to the beginning of November, it will come after me by post to Cassange. 7 "The [Roman Catholic] Bishop, who was then acting-governor, gave a horse, saddle and bridle, a colonel's suit of clothes, etc., for Sekeletu, and a dress of blue and red cloth, with a white cotton blanket and cap to each of my companions, who are the best set of men lever travelled with except Malatsi and Mebalwe. .The mer- chants of Loanda gave Sekeletu a large present of cloth, beads, etc., and one of them, a Dutchman, gave me an order for ten oxen as provisions on the way home to the Zambesi. This is all to en- courage the natives to trade freely with the coast, and will have a good effect in increasing our influence for that which excels every- thing earthly. Everything has, by God's gracious blessing, proved more auspicious than I anticipated. We have a most warm-hearted friend in Mr. Gabriel. He acted a brother's part, and now writes me in the most affectionate manner. I thank God for His goodness in influencing the hearts of so many to show kindness, to whom I was a total stranger. The Portuguese have all been extremely kind. In coming through the coffee plantations I was offered more coffee than I could take or needed, and the best in the world. One spoon- ful makes it stronger than three did of that we used. It is found wild on the mountains. " Mr. Gabriel came about 30 miles with me, and ever since, though I spoke freely about the slave-trade, the very gentlemen who have been engaged in it, and have been prevented by our ships from following it, and often lost much, treated me most kindly in their houses, and often accompanied me to the next place beyond them, bringing food for all in the way. . . . Give my love to all the chil- dren, they will reap the advantage of your remaining longer at home than we anticipated. I hope Robert, Agnes, and Tom are each learning as fast as they can. When will they be able to write a letter to me ? How happy I shall be to meet them and you again ! I hope a letter from you may be waiting for me at Zambesi. Love to all the children. How tall is Zouga ? Accept the assurance of unabated love. DAVID LIVINGSTON." It must not be forgotten that all this time Dr. Living- stone was making very careful astronomical observations, in order to determine his exact positions, and transmitting elaborate letters to the Geographical Society. His astro- nomical observations were regularly forwarded to his friend 140 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAA vni. the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape, Mr. Maclear, for verification and correction. Writing to Livingstone on 27th March 1854, with reference to some of his earlier observations, after noticing a few trifling mistakes, Mr. Maclear says : " It is both interesting and amusing to trace your improvement as an observer. Some of your early observations, as you remark, are rough, and the angles ascribed to objects misplaced in transcribing. But upon the whole I do not hesitate to assert that no explorer on record has determined his path with the precision you have accomplished." A year after- wards, llth August 1855, but with reference to papers received from Sekele"tu's place, Mr. Maclear details what he had done in reducing his observations, preparing abstracts of them, sending them to the authorities, and publishing them in the Cape papers. He informs him that Sir John Herschel placed them before the Geographical Society, and that a warm eulogium on his labours and discoveries, and particularly on the excellent series of observations which fixed his track so exactly, appeared in the President's Address. Then, referring to his wonderful journey to Loanda, and remarkable escapes, he says : " Nor is your escape with life from so many attacks of fever other than miraculous. Perhaps there is nothing on record of the kind, and it can only be explained by Divine interference for a good purpose. may life be continued to you, my dear friend! You have accomplished more for the happiness of mankind than has been done by all the African travellers hitherto put together." Mr. Maclear's reference to Livingstone's work, in writing to Sir John Herschel, was in these terms : " Such a man deserves every encouragement in the power of his country to give. He has done that which few other travellers in Africa can boast of he has fixed his geographical points with very great accuracy, and yet he is only a poor mis- sionary." Nor did Dr. Livingstone pass unrewarded in other quarters. In the Geographical Society, his journey to Loanda, of which he sent them an account, excited the liveliest interest. In May 1855, on the motion of Sir 1853-54-] FROM LINYANTI TO LOANDA. 141 Roderick Murchison, the Society testified its appreciation by awarding him their gold medal the highest honour they had to bestow. The occasion was one of great interest. From the chair, Lord Ellesmere spoke of Livingstone's work in science as but subordinate to those higher ends which he had ever prosecuted in the true spirit of a missionary. Th:e simplicity of his arrangements gave additional wonder/to the results. There had just appeared an account /of a Portuguese expedition of African exploration from the east coast : ' ' I advert to it, " said his Lordship, ' ' to point out the contrast between the two. Colonel Monteiro was the leader of a small army some twenty Portuguese soldiers, and a hundred and twenty Caffres. The contrast is as great between such military array and the solitary grandeur of the missionary's progress, as it is between the actual achievements of the two between the rough knowledge obtained by the Portuguese of some three hundred leagues of new country, and the scientific precision with which the unarmed and unassisted Englishman has left his mark on so many important stations of regions hitherto a blank." About the time when these words were spoken, Dr. Livingstone was at Cabango on his return journey, recover- ing from a very severe attack of rheumatic fever which had left him nearly deaf; besides, he was almost blind in consequence of a blow received on the eye from a branch of a tree in riding through the forest. Notwithstanding, he was engaged in writing a despatch to the Geographical Society, through Sir Roderick Murchison, of which more anon, reporting progress, and explaining his views of the structure of Africa. But we must return to Loanda, and set out with him and his Makololo in proper form, on their homeward tour. H2 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. ix. CHAPTEE IX. FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. A.D. 1854-1856. DR. LIVINGSTONE left St. Paul de Loanda on 20th September 1854, arrived at his old quarters at Linyanti on llth September 1855, set out eastwards on 3d November 1855, and reached Quilimane on the eastern coast on 20th May 1856. The journey thus occupied a year and eight months, and the whole time from his leaving the Cape on 8th June 1852 was within a few days of four years. The return journey from Loanda to Linyanti took longer than the journey outwards. This arose from detention of various kinds : : the sicknesses of Livingstone and his men, the heavy rains, and in one case, at Pungo Andongo, the necessity of reproducing a large packet of letters, journals, maps and despatches, which he had sent off from Loanda. Thesa were despatched by the mail-packet "Forerunner," which unhappily went down off Madeira, all the passengers but one being lost. But for his promise to the Makololo to return with them to their country, Dr. Livingstone would have been himself a passenger in the ship. Hearing of the disaster while paying a visit to a very kind and hospitable Portuguese gentleman at Pungo Andongo, on his way back, Livingstone remained there some time to reproduce his lost papers. The labour thus entailed must have been very great, for his ordinary letters covered sheets almost as large as a newspaper, and his maps and despatches were produced with extraordinary care. He found renewed occasion to acknowledge in the warm- est terms the kindness he received from the Portuguese ; and his prayers that God would reward and bless them 1 Dr. Livingstone observed that traders generally travelled ten days in the month, and rested twenty, making seven geographical miles a day, or seventy per month. In his case in this j ourney the proportion was generally reversed twenty days of travelling and ten of rest, and his rate per day was about ten geographical miles or two hundred per month. As he often zigzagged, the geographical mile represented considerably more. See letter to Royal Geographical Society, October 16, 1855. 1854-56-] FROM LOANDA TO QU I LI MANE. 143 were not the less sincere that in many important matters he could not approve of their ways. In traversing the road backwards along which he had already come, not many things happened that demand special notice in this brief sketch. We find him botli in his published book and still more in his private Journal repeat- ing his admiration of the country, and its glorious scenery. This revelation of the marvellous beauty of a country hitherto deemed a sandy desert was one of the most astounding effects of Livingstone's travels on the public mind. But the more he sees of the people the more pro- found does their degradation appear, although the many instances of remarkable kindness to himself, and occasional cases of genuine feeling one towards another convinced him that there was a something in them not quite barbarised. On one point he was very clear the Portuguese settlements among them had not improved them. Not that he under- valued the influences which the Portuguese had brought to bear on them ; he had a much more favourable opinion of the Jesuit missions than Protestants have usually allowed themselves to entertain, and felt both kindly and respect- fully towards the padres, who in the early days of these settlements had done, he believed, a useful work. But the great bane of the Portuguese settlements was slavery. Slavery prevented a good example, it hindered justice, it kept down improvement. If a settler took a fancy to a good-looking girl, he had only to buy her, and make her his concubine. Instead of correcting the polygamous habits of the chiefs and others, the Portuguese adopted like habits themselves. In one thing indeed they were far superior to the Boers in their treatment of the children born to them by native mothers. But the whole system of slavery gendered a blight which nothing could counteract ; to make Africa a prosperous land, liberty must be proclaimed to the captive, and the slave system, with all its accursed surround- ings, brought conclusively to an end. Writing to Mrs. Livingstone from Bashinge,20th March 1855, he gives some painful particulars of the slave-trade. Referring to a slave- agent with whom he had been, he says : ' ' This agent is about the same in appearance as Mebalwe, and speaks Portuguese as the Griquas do Dutch. He has two chainsful 144 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. JCHAP. ix. of women going to be sold for the ivory. Formerly the trade went from the interior into the Portuguese territory ; now it goes the opposite way. This is the effect of the Portuguese love of the trade : they cannot send them abroad on account of our ships of war on the coast, yet will sell them to the best advantage. These women are decent-looking, as much so as the general run of Kuruman ladies, and were caught lately in a skirmish the Portuguese had with their tribe ; and they will be sold for about three tusks each. Each has an iron ring round the wrist, and that is attached to the chain, which she carries in the hand to prevent it jerking and hurting the wrist. How would Nannie like to be thus treated ? and yet it is only by the goodness of God in appointing our lot in different circumstances that we are not similarly degraded, for we have the same evil nature, which is so degraded in them as to allow of men treating them as beasts. " I long for the time when I shall see you again. I hope in God's mercy for that pleasure. How are my dear ones ? I have not seen any equal to them since I put them on board ship. My brave little dears ! I only hope God will show us mercy, and make them good too. . . . " I work at the interior languages when I have a little time, and also at Portuguese, which I like from being so much like Latin. Indeed, when I came I understood much that was said from its similarity to that tongue, and when I interlarded my attempts at Portuguese with Latin, or spoke it entirely, they understood me very well. The Negro language is not so easy, but I take a spell at it every day I can. It is of the same family of languages as the Sichuana. . . . ' ' We have passed two chiefs who plagued us much when going down, but now were quite friendly. At that time one of them ordered his people not to sell us anything, and we had at last to force our way past him. Now he came running to meet us, saluting us, etc., with great urbanity. He informed us that he would come in the evening to receive a present, but I said unless he brought one he should receive nothing. He came in the usual way. The Balonda show the exalted position they occupy among men, viz. , riding on the shoulders of a spokesman in the way little boys do in England. The chief brought two cocks and some eggs. I then gave a little present too. The alteration in this gentleman's conduct the Peace Society would not credit it is attributable solely to my people possessing guns. When we passed before, we were defence- less. May every needed blessing be granted to you and the dear children, is the earnest prayer of your ever most affectionate " D. LIVINGSTON." It was soon after the date of this letter that Livingstone was struck down by that severe attack of rheumatic fever, accompanied by great loss of blood, to which reference has already been made. "I got it," he writes to Mr. Maclear, " by sleeping in the wet. There was no help for it. Every 1854-56-] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 145 part of a plain was flooded ankle-deep. We got soaked by going on, and sodden if we stood still." In his former journey he had been very desirous to visit Matiamvo, para- mount chief of the native tribes of Londa, whose friendship would have helped him greatly in his journey ; but at that time he found himself too poor to attempt the enterprise. The loss of time and consumption of goods caused by his illness on the way back prevented him from accomplishing his purpose now. ' *' Not only was the party now better armed than before, but the good name of Livingstone had also become better known along the line, and during his return journey he did not encounter so much opposition. We cannot fail to be struck with his extraordinary care for his men. It was his earnest desire to bring them all back to their homes, and in point of fact the whole twenty-seven returned in good health. How carefully he must have nursed them in their attacks of fever, and kept them from unnecessary exposure, it is hardly possible for strangers adequately to understand. On reaching the country of the Barotse, the home of most of them, a day of thanksgiving was observed (23d July 1855). The men had made little fortunes in Loanda, earning sixpence a day for weeks together by helping to discharge a cargo of coals, or, as they called them, " stones that burned." But, like Livingstone, they had had to part with everything on the way home, and now they were in rags ; yet they were quite as cheerful and as fond of their leader as ever, and felt that they had not travelled in vain. They quite understood the benefit the new route would bring in the shape of higher prices for tusks and the other merchandise of home. On the thanksgiving day "The men decked themselves out in their best, for all had managed to preserve their suits of European clothing, which, with their white and red caps, gave them a rather dashing appearance. They tried to walk like soldiers, and called themselves ' my braves. ' Having been again saluted with salvos from the women, we met the whole population, and having given an address on divine things, I told them we had come that day to thank God before them all for His mercy in preserving us from dangers, from strange tribes and sicknesses. We had another service in the afternoon. They gave us two fine oxen to slaughter, and the women have supplied us abundantly with milk and meal. This is all gratuitous, and I feel ashamed that I can make no return. My meu explain the whole 146 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. IX. expenditure on the way hither, and they remark gratefully : ' It does not matter, you have opened a path for us, and we shall have sleep.' Strangers from a distance come flocking to see me, and seldom come empty-handed. I distribute all presents among my men." Several of the poor fellows on reaching home found domestic trouble a wife had proved inconstant and married another man. As the men had generally more wives than one, Livingstone comforted them by saying that they still had as many as he. Amid the anxieties and sicknesses of the journey, and multiplied subjects of thought and inquiry, Livingstone was as earnest as ever for the spiritual benefit of the people. Some extracts from his Journal will illustrate his efforts in this cause, and the flickerings of hope that would spring out of them, dimmed, however, by many fears : "August 5, 1855. A large audience listened attentively to my address this morning, but it is impossible to indulge any hopes of such feeble efforts. God is merciful and will deal with them in justice and kindness. This constitutes a ground of hope. Poor degraded Africa ! A permanent station among them might effect something in time, but a considerable time is necessary. Surely some will pray to their merciful Father in their extremity, who never would have thought of Him but for our visit." " October 15. We had a good and very attentive audience yester- day, and I expatiated with great freedom on the love of Christ in dying, from his parting address in John xvi. It cannot be these precious truths will fall to the ground ; but it is perplexing to observe no effects. They assent to the truth, but ' we don't know, ' or ' you speak truly ' is all the response. In reading accounts of South Sea missions it is hard to believe the quickness of the vegeta- tion of the good seed, but I know several of the men " [the South Sea missionaries], " and am sure they are of unimpeachable veracity. In trying to convey knowledge, and use the magic lantern, which is everywhere extremely popular, though they listen with apparent delight to what is said, questioning them on the following night reveals almost entire ignorance of the previous lesson. that the Holy Ghost might enlighten them ! To His soul-renewing influence my longing soul is directed. It is His word, and cannot die." The long absence of Livingstone and the want of letters had caused great anxiety to his friends. The Moffats had been particularly concerned about him, and, in 1854, partly in the hope of hearing of him, Mr. Moffat undertook a visit to Mosilikatse, while a box of goods and comforts was sent to Linyanti to await his return, should that ever take place. I854-56-J FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 147 A letter from Mrs. Moffat accompanied the box. It is amusing to read her motherly explanations about the white shirts, and the blue waistcoat, the woollen socks, lemon juice, quince jam, and tea and coffee, some of which had come all the way from Hamilton ; but there are passages in that little note that make one's heart go with rapid beat : "My DEAR SON LIVINGSTON, Your present position is almost too much for my weak nerves to suffer me to contemplate. Hitherto I have kept up my spirits, and been enabled to believe that our great Master may yet bring you out in safety, for though His ways are often inscrutable, I should have clung to the many precious promises made in His word as to temporal preservation, such as the 91st and 121st Psalms but have been taught that we may not presume con- fidently to expect them to be fulfilled, and that every petition, however fervent, must be with devout submission to His will. My Eoor sister-in-law clung tenaciously to the 91st Psalm, and firmly elieved that her dear husband would thus be preserved, and never indulged the idea that they should never meet on earth. But I apprehend submission was wanting. ' If it be Thy will,' I fancy she could not say and, therefore, she was utterly confounded when the news caine. 1 She had exercised strong faith, and was disap- pointed. Dear Livingston, I hive always endeavoured to keep this in mind with regard to you. Since George [Fleming] came out it seemed almost hope against hope. Your having got so thoroughly feverised chills my expectations ; still prayer, unceasing prayer, is made for you. When I think of you my heart will go upwards. ' Keep him as the apple of Thine eye, ' ' Hold him in the hollow of Thy hand,' are the ejaculations of my heart." In writing from Linyanti to his wife, Livingstone makes the best he can of his long detention. She seems to have put the matter playfully, wondering what the " source of attraction " had been. He says : 4 ' Don't know what apology to make you for a delay I could not shorten. But as you are a mercifully kind-hearted dame, I expect you will write out an apology in proper form, and I shall read it before you with as long a face as I can exhibit. Disease was the chief obstacle. The repair of the wagon was the * source of attrac- tion ' in Cape Town, and the settlement of a case of libel another ' source of attraction.' They tried to engulf me in a law-suit for simply asking the postmaster why some letters were charged double. They were so marked in my account. I had to pay 13 to quash 1 Rev. John Smith, missionary at Madras, had gone to Vizagapatam to the ordination of two native pastors/ and when returning in a small vessel, a storm arose, when he and all on board perished. 148 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. IX- it. They longed to hook me in, from mere hatred to London missionaries. I did not remain an hour after I could move. But I do not wonder at your anxiety for my speedy return. I am sorry you have been disappointed, but you know no mortal can control disease. The Makololo are wonderfully well pleased with the path we have already made, and if I am successful in going down to Quilimane, that will be still better. I have written you by every opportunity, and am very sorry your letters have been mis- carried." To his father-in-law he expresses his warm gratitude for the stores. It was feared by the natives that the goods were bewitched, so they were placed on an island, a hut was built over them, and there Livingstone found them on bis arrival, a year after ! A letter of twelve quarto pages to Mr. Moffat gives his impressions of his journey, while another of sixteen pages to Mrs. Moffat, explains his "plans," about which she had asked more full information. He quiets her fears by his favourite texts for the present "Commit thy way to the Lord," and "Lo, I am with you alway ; " and his favourite vision of the future the earth full of the knowledge of the Lord. He is somewhat cutting at the expense of so-called " missionaries to the heathen, who never march into real heathen territory, and quiet their consciences by opposing their do-nothingism to my blundering do-somethingism ! " He is indignant at the charge made by some of his enemies that no good was done among the Bakwains. They were, in many respects, a dif- ferent people from before. Any one who should be among the Makololo as he had been, would be thankful for the state of the Bakwains. The seed would always bear fruit, but the husbandman had need of great patience, and the end was sure. Sekele"tu had not been behaving well in Livingstone's absence. He had been conducting marauding parties against his neighbours, which even Livingstone's men, when they heard of it, pronounced to be "bad, bad." Livingstone was obliged to reprove him. A new uniform had been sent to the chief from Loanda, with which he ap- peared at church, "attracting more attention than the sermon." He continued however to show the same friend- ship for Livingstone, and did all he could for him when he set out eastwards. A. new escort of men was provided, 1854-56.] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 149 above a hundred and twenty strong, with ten slaughter cattle, and three of his best riding oxen ; stores of food were given, and a right to levy tribute over the tribes that were subject to Sekele"tu as he passed through their borders. If Livingstone had performed these journeys with some long-pursed society or individual at his back, his feat even then would have been wonderful ; but it be- comes quite amazing when we think that he went without stores, and owed everything to the influence he acquired with men like Sekele"tu and the natives generally. His heart was much touched on one occasion by the disinter- ested kindness of Sekele"tu. Having lost their way on a dark night in the forest, in a storm of rain and lightning, and the luggage having been carried on, they had to pass the night under a tree. The chief's blanket had not been carried on, and Sekel^tu placed Livingstone under it, and lay down himself on the wet ground. " If such men must perish before the white by an immutable law of heaven," he wrote to the Geographical Society (25th January 1856), " we must seem to be under the same sort of terrible necessity in our Caffre wars as the American Professor of Chemistry said he was under, when he dismembered the man whom he had murdered." Again Livingstone sets out on his weary way, untrodden by white man's foot, to pass through unknown tribes, whose savage temper might give him his quietus at any turn of the road. There were various routes to the sea open to him. He chose the route along the Zambesi though the most difficult, and through hostile tribes because it seemed the most likely to answer his desire to find a commercial highway to the coast. Not far to the east of Linyanti, he beheld for the first time those wonder- ful falls of which he had only heard before, giving an English name to them the first he had ever given in all his African journeys, the Victoria Falls. We have seen how genuine his respect was for his Sovereign, and it was doubtless a real though quiet pleasure to connect her name with the grandest natural phenomenon in Africa. This is one of the discoveries 1 that have taken most hold on the popular imagination, for the Victoria Falls are like a second 1 Virtually a discovery, though marked in an old map. i5o DAVID LIVINGSTONE, [CHAP. ix. Niagara. Right across the channel of the river was a deep fissure only eighty feet wide, into which the whole volume of the river, a thousand yards broad, tumbled to the depth of a hundred feet, 1 the fissure being continued in zigzag form for thirty miles, so that the stream had to change its course from right to left and left to right, and went through the hills boiling and roaring, sending up columns of steam, formed by the compression of the water falling into its narrow wedge-shaped receptacle. A discovery as to the structure of the country, long believed in by him, but now fully verified, was of much more practical importance. It had been ascertained by him that skirting the central hollow there were two longitudinal ridges extremely favourable for settlements, both for missions and merchandise. We shall hear much of this soon. Slowly but steadily the eastward tramp is continued, often over ground which was far from favourable for walk- ing exercise. " Pedestrianism," said Livingstone, " may be all very well for those whose obesity requires much exercise ; but for one who was becoming as thin as a lath through the constant perspiration caused by marching day after day in the hot sun, the only good I saw in it was that it gave an honest sort of a man a vivid idea of the treadmill." In the course of this journey he had even more exciting escapades among hostile tribes than those which he had encountered on the way to Loanda. His serious anxieties began when he passed beyond the tribes that owned the sovereignty of Sekele"tu. At the union of the rivers Loangwa and Zambesi, the suspicious feeling regarding him reached a climax, and he could only avoid the threat- ened doom of the Bazimka (i.e. Bastard Portuguese) who had formerly incurred the wrath of the chief, by showing his bosom, arms, and hair, and asking if the Bazimka were like that. Livingstone felt that there was danger in the air. In fact he never seemed in more imminent peril : " \4lh January 1856. At the confluence of the Loangwa and Zambesi. Thank God for His great mercies thus far. How soon I 1 Afterwards ascertained by him to be 1800 yards and 320 feet respec- tively. 1854-56-] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 151 may be called to stand before Him, my righteous judge, I know not. All hearts are in His hands, and merciful and gracious is the Lord our God. Jesus, grant me resignation to Thy will, and entire reliance on Thy powerful hand. On Thy Word alone I lean. But wilt Thou permit me to plead for Africa ? The cause is Thine. What an impulse will be given to the idea that Africa is not open if I perish now ! See, Lord, how the heathen rise up against me, as they did to Thy Son. I commit my way unto Thee. I trust also in Thee that Thou wilt direct my steps. Thou givest wisdom liberally to all who ask Thee give it to me, my Father. My family is Thine. They are in the best hands. Oh ! be gracious, and all our sins do Thou blot out. ' A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall.' Leave me not, forsake me not. I cast myself and all my cares down at Thy feet. Thou knowest all I need, for time and for eternity. " It seems a pity that the important facts about the two healthy longitudinal ridges should not become known in Christendom. Thy will be done ! . . . They will not furnish us with more canoes than two. I leave my cause and all my concerns in the hands of God, my gracious Saviour, the Friend of sinners. " Evening. Felt much turmoil of spirit in view of having all my plans for the welfare of this great region and teeming population knocked on the head by savages to-morrow. But I read that Jesus came and said, ' All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations and lo, / am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. ' It is the word of a gentleman of the most sacred and strictest honour, and there is an end on't. I will not cross furtively by night as I intended. It would appear as flight, and should such a man as I flee ? Nay, verily, I shall take observations for latitude and longitude to-night, though they may be the last. I feel quite calm now, thank God. " 15th January 1856. Left bank of the Loangwa. The natives of the surrounding country collected round us this morning all armed. Children and women were sent away, and Mburuma's wife who lives here was not allowed to approach, though she came some way from her village in order to pay me a visit. Only one canoe was lent, though we saw two tied to the bank. And the part of the river we crossed at, about a mile from the confluence, is a good mile broad. We passed all our goods first, to an island in the middle, then the cattle and men, I occupying the post of honour, being the last to enter the canoe. We had, by this means, an opportunity of helping each other in case of attack. They stood armed at my back for some time. I then showed them my watch, burning-glass, etc. etc., and kept them amused till all were over, except those who could go into the canoe with me. I thanked them all for their kindness and wished them peace. " Nine days later, they were again threatened by Mpende : 152 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. ix. "23d January 1856. At Mpende's this morning at sunrise, a party of his people came close to our encampment, using strange cries, and waving some red substance towards us. They then lighted a fire with charms in it, and departed uttering the same hideous screams as before. This is intended to render us powerless, and probably also to frighten us. No message has yet come from him, though several parties have arrived, and profess to have come simply to see the white man. Parties of his people have been col- lecting from all quarters long before daybreak. It would be con- sidered a challenge for us to move down the river, and an indication of fear and invitation to attack if we went back. So we must wait in patience, and trust in Him who has the hearts of all men in His hands. To Thee, O God, we look. And, oh ! Thou who wast the man of sorrows for the sake of poor vile sinners, and didst not dis- dain the thief's petition, remember me and Thy cause in Africa. Soul and body, my family and Thy cause, I commit all to Thee. Hear, Lord, for Jesus' sake." In the records of Christian heroism, there are few more remarkable occasions of the triumph of the spirit of holy trust, than those which are recorded here so quietly and modestly. We are carried back to the days of the Psalmist : " I will not be afraid of ten thousand of the people that have set themselves against me round about." In the case of David Livingstone as of the other David, the triumph of confidence was not the less wonderful that it was pre- ceded by no small inward tumult. Both were human creatures ; but in both the flutter lasted only till the soul had time to rally its trust to think of God as a living friend, sure to help in time of need. And how real is the sense of God's presence ! The mention of the two longi- tudinal ridges, and of the refusal of the people to give more than two canoes, side by side with the most solemn appeals, would have been incongruous, or even irreverent, if Living- stone had not felt that he was dealing with the living God, by whom every step of his own career and every movement of his enemies were absolutely controlled. A single text often gave him all the help he needed : "It is singular," he says, "that the very same text which recurred to my mind at every turn of my course in life in this country and even in England, should be the same as Captain M'Clure, the discoverer of the North-west Passage, mentions in a letter to his sister as familiar in his experience : ' Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy steps. 1854-56-] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 153 Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.' Many more, I have no doubt, of our gallant seamen feel that it is graceful to acknowledge the gracious Lord, in whom we live and move and have our being. It is an advance surely in humanity from that devilry which gloried in fearing neither God, nor man, nor devil, and made our wooden walls float- ing hells. " His being enabled to reach the sanctuary of perfect peace in the presence of his enemies was all the more striking if we consider what he felt keenly that to live among the heathen is in itself very far from favourable to the vigour or the prosperity of the spiritual life. " Travelling from day to day among barbarians," he says in his Journal, " exerts a most benumbing effect on the religious feelings of the soul." Among the subjects that occupied a large share of his thoughts in these long and laborious journeys, two appear to have been especially prominent : first, the configuration of the country; and second, the best way of conducting missions, and bringing the people of Africa to Christ. The configuration of intertropical South Africa had long been with him a subject of earnest study, and now he had come clearly to the conclusion that the middle part was a table-land, depressed however in the centre, and flanked by longitudinal ridges on the east and west ; that originally, the depressed centre had contained a vast accumulation of water, which had found ways of escape through fissures in the encircling fringe of mountains, the result of volcanic action or of earthquakes. The Victoria Falls presented the most remarkable of these fissures, and thus served to verify and complete his theory. The great lakes in the heart of South Africa were the remains of the earlier accumulation before the fissures were formed. Lake 'Ngami, large though it was, was but a little fraction of the vast lake that had once spread itself over the south. This view of the structure of South Africa he now found, from a communica- tion which reached him at Linyanti, had been anticipated by Sir Roderick Murchison, who in 1852 had propounded it to the Geographical Society. Livingstone was only amused at thus losing the credit of his discovery ; he contented himself with a playful remark on his being " cut out " by Sir Roderick. But the coincidence of views was very re- 154 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. IX. markable, and it lay at the foundation of that brotherlike intimacy and friendship which ever marked his relation with Murchison. One important bearing of the geogra- phical fact was this : it was evident that while the low dis- tricts were unhealthy, the longitudinal ridges by which they were fringed were salubrious. Another of its bearings was, that it would help them to find the course and perhaps the sources of the great rivers, and thus facilitate commercial and missionary operations. The discovery of the two healthy ridges, which made him so unwilling to die at the mouth of the Loangwa, gave him new hope for missions and commerce. These and other matters connected with the state of the country formed the subject of regular communications to the Geographical Society. Between Loanda and Quilimane, six despatches were written at different points. Formerly, as we have seen, he had written through a Fellow of the Society, his friend and former fellow-traveller, Captain, now Colonel Steele ; but as the Colonel had been called on duty to the Crimea, he now addressed his letters to his country- man, Sir Roderick Murchison. Sir Roderick was charmed with the compliment, and was not slow to turn it to account, as appears from the following letter, the first of very many communications which he addressed to Livingstone : " 16 BELGRAVE SQUARE, October 2, 1855. " MY DEAR SIR, Your most welcome letter reached me after I had made a tour in the Highlands, and just as the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science commenced. ' ' I naturally communicated your despatch to the Geographical section of that body, and the reading of it called forth an unanimous expression of admiration of your labours and researches. "In truth, you will long ago, I trust, have received the cordial thanks of all British geographers for your unparalleled exertions, and your successful accomplishment of the greatest triumph in geo- graphical research which has been effected in our times. " I rejoice that I was the individual in the Council of the British Geographical Society who proposed that you should receive our first gold medal of the past session, and I need not say that the award was made by an unanimous and cordial vote. "Permit me to thank you sincerely for having selected me as your correspondent in the absence of Colonel Steele, and to assure you that I shall consider myself as much honoured, as I shall cer- tainly be gratified, by every fresh line which you may have leisure to write to me. 1854-56.] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 155 " Anxiously hoping that I may make your personal acquaintance, and that you may return to us in health to receive the homage of all geographers, I remain, my dear Sir, yours most faithfully, "K,ODCK I. MURCHISON." The other subject that chiefly occupied Livingstone's mind at this time was missionary labour. This, like all other labour, required to be organised, on the principle of making the very best use of all the force that was or could be contributed for missionary effort. With his fair, open mind, he weighed the old method of monastic establish- ments, and, mutatis mutandis, he thought something of the kind might be very useful. He thought it unfair to judge of what these monasteries were in their periods of youth and vigour, from the rottenness of their decay. Modern missionary stations, indeed, with their churches, schools, and hospitals, were like Protestant monasteries, conducted on the more wholesome principle of family life ; but they wanted stability ; they had not farms like monasteries, and hence they required to depend on the mother country. From infancy to decay, they were pauper institutions. In Livingstone's judgment they needed to have more of the self-supporting element : " It would be heresy to mention the idea of purchasing lands, like religious endowments, among the stiff Congregationalists, but an endowment conferred on a man who will risk his life in an unhealthy climate, in order, thereby, to spread Christ's gospel among the heathen, is rather different, I ween, from the same given to a man to act as pastor to a number of professed Christians. . . . Some may think it creditable to our principles that we have not a single acre of land, the gift of the Colonial Government, in our possession. But it does not argue much for our foresight that we have not farms of our own, equal to those of any colonial farmer. " Dr. Livingstone acknowledged the services of the Jesuit missionaries in the cause of education and literature, and even of commerce. But while conceding to them this meed of praise, he did not praise their worship. He was slow, indeed, to disparage any form of worship any form in which men, however unenlightened, gave expression to their religious feelings; but he could not away with the sight of men of intelligence kissing the toe of an image of the Virgin, as he saw them doing in a Portuguese church, and taking part in services in which they did not, and could 156 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. ix. not, believe. If the missions of the Church of Rome had left good effects on some parts of Africa, how much greater blessing might not come from Protestant missions, with the Bible instead of the Syllabus as their basis, and ani- mated with the spirit of freedom instead of despotism ? With regard to that part of Africa which he had been exploring, he gives his views at great length in a letter to the Directors, dated Linyanti, 12th October 1855. After fully describing the physical features of the country, he fastens on the one element which, more than any other, was likely to hinder missions fever. He does not deny that it is a serious obstacle. But he argues at great length that it is not insurmountable. Fever yields to proper treatment His own experience was no rule to indicate what might be reckoned on by others. His journeys had been made under the worst possible conditions. Bad food, poor nursing, insufficient medicines, continual drenchings, exhausting heat and toil, and wearing anxiety had caused much of his illness. He gives a touching detail of the hardships incident to his peculiar case, from which other missionaries would be ex- empted, but with characteristic manliness he charges the Directors not to publish that part of his letter, lest he should appear to be making too much of his trials. " Sacrifices " he could never call them, because nothing could be worthy of that name in the service of Him who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor. Two or three times every day he had been wet up to the waist in crossing streams and marshy ground. The rain was so drenching that he had often to put his watch under his arm-pit to keep it dry. His good ox Sindbad would never let him hold an umbrella. His bed was on grass, with only a horse-cloth between. His food often consisted of bird-seed, manioc-roots, and meal. No wonder if he suffered much. Others would not have all that to bear. Moreover, if the fever of the district was severe, it was almost the only disease. Consumption, scrofula, madness, cholera, cancer, delirium tremens, and certain coutagious diseases of which much was heard in civilised countries, were hardly known. The beauty of some parts of the country could not be surpassed. Much of it was densely peopled, but in other parts the population was scattered. Many of the 1854-56-] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 157 tribes were friendly, and, for reasons of their own, would welcome missionaries. The Makololo, for example, fur- nished an inviting field. The dangers he had encountered arose from the irritating treatment the tribes had received from half-caste traders and slave-dealers, in consequence of which they had imposed certain taxes on travellers, which, sometimes, he and his brother- chartists had refused to pay. They were mistaken for slave-dealers. But character was a powerful educator. A body of missionaries, maintaining everywhere the character of honest, truthful, kind-hearted Christian gentlemen, would scatter such prejudices to the winds. In instituting a comparison between the direct and in- direct results of missions, between conversion-work and the diffusion of better principles, he emphatically assigns the preference to the latter. Not that he undervalued the conversion of the most abject creature that breathed. To the man individually his conversion was of overwhelming consequence, but with relation to the final harvest, it was more important to sow the seed broadcast over a wide field than to reap a few heads of grain on a single spot. Con- centration was not the true principle of missions. The Society itself had felt this, in sending Morrison and Milne to be lost among the three hundred millions of China ; and the Church of England, in looking to the Antipodes, to Patagonia, to East Africa, with the full knowledge that charity began at home. Time was more essential than concentration. Ultimately there would be more conver- sions, if only the seed were now more widely spread. He concludes by pointing out the difference between mere worldly enterprises and missionary undertakings for the good of the world. The world thought their mission schemes fanatical; the friends of missions, on the other hand, could welcome the commercial enterprises of the world as fitted to be useful. The Africans were all deeply imbued with the spirit of trade. Commerce was so far good that it taught the people their mutual dependence ; but Christianity alone reached the centre of African wants. " Theoretically," he concludes, " I would pronounce the country about the junction of the Leeba and Leeambye or Kabompo, and river of the Bashukulompo, as a most desir- F iSo JJA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. ix. able centre-point for the spread of civilisation and Christi- anity ; but unfortunately I must mar my report by saying I feel a difficulty as to taking my children there without their intelligent self-dedication. I can speak for my wife and myself only. WE WILL GO, WHOEVER REMAINS BEHIND." Resuming the subject some months later, after he had got to the sea-shore, he dwells on the belt of elevated land eastward from the country of the Makololo, two degrees of longitude broad, and of unknown length, as remarkably suitable for the residence of European missionaries. It was formerly occupied by the Makololo, and they had a great desire to resume the occupation. One great advan- tage of such a locality was that it was on the border of the regions occupied by the true negroes, the real nucleus of the African population, to whom they owed a great debt, and who had shown themselves friendly and disposed to learn. It was his earnest hope that the Directors would plant a mission here, and his belief that they would thereby "onfer unlimited blessing on the regions beyond. Some of the remarks in these passages, and also in the extracts which we have given from his Journals are of profound interest, as indicating an important transition from the ideas of a mere missionary labourer to those of a missionary general or statesman. In the early part of his life he deemed it his joy and his honour to aim at the con- version of individual souls, and earnestly did he labour and pray for that, although his visible success was but small. But as he gets better acquainted with Africa, and reaches a more commanding point of view, he sees the necessity for other work The continent must be surveyed, healthy localities for mission stations must be found, the tempta- tions to a cursed traffic in human flesh must be removed, the products of the country must be turned to account ; its whole social economy must be changed. The accomplish- ment of such objects, even in a limited degree, would be an immense service to the missionary ; it would be such a preparing of his way that a hundred years hence the spiritual results would be far greater than if. all the effort now were concentrated on single souls. To many persons it appeared as if dealing with individual souls were the only proper work of a missionary, and as if one who had 1854-56-] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 159 been doing such work would be lowering himself if he accepted any other. Livingstone never stopped to reason as to which was the higher or the more desirable work ; he felt that Providence was calling him to be less of a missionary journeyman and more of a missionary states- man; but the great end was ever the same "THE END OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL FEAT IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE ENTERPRISE." Livingstone reached the Portuguese settlement of Tette on the 3d March 1856, and the "civilised breakfast" which the commandant, Major Sicard, sent forward to him, on his way, was a luxury like Mr. Gabriel's bed at Loanda, and made him walk the last eight miles without the least sensation of fatigue, although the road was so rough that, as a Portuguese soldier remarked, it was like " to tear a man's life out of him." At Loanda he had heard of th battle of the Alma ; after being in Tette a short time he heard of the fall of Sebastopol and the end of the Crimean War. He remained in Tette till the 23d April, detained by an attack of fever, receiving extraordinary kindness from the Governor, and, among other tokens of affection, a gold chain for his daughter Agnes, the work of an inhabi- tant of the town. These gifts were duly acknowledged. It was at this place that Dr. Livingstone left his Makololo followers, with instructions to wait for him till he should return from England. Well entitled though he was to a long rest, he deliberately gave up the possibility of it, by engaging to return for his black companions. In the case of Dr. Livingstone, rest meant merely change of employment, and while resting and recovering from fever, he wrote a large budget of long and interesting letters. One of these was addressed to the King of Portu- gal : it affords clear evidence that, however much Living- stone felt called to reprobate the deeds of some of his subordinates, he had a respectful feeling for the King himself, a grateful sense of the kindness received from his African subjects, and an honest desire to aid the whole- some development of the Portuguese colonies. It refutes, by anticipation, calumnies afterwards circulated to the effect that Livingstone's real design was to wrest the 160 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. ix. Portuguese settlements in Africa from Portugal, and to annex them to the British Crown. He refers most grate- fully to the great kindness and substantial aid he had received from His Majesty's subjects, and is emboldened thereby to address him on behalf of Africa. He suggests certain agricultural products especially wheat and a species of wax that might be cultivated with enormous profit. A great stimulus might be given to the cultivation of other products coffee, cotton, sugar, and oil. Much had been done for Angola, but with little result, because the colonists leant on Government instead of trusting to themselves. Illegitimate traffic (the slave-trade) was not at present remunerative, and now was the time to make a great effort to revive wholesome enterprise. A good road into the interior would be a great boon. Efforts to provide roads and canals had failed for want of superintendents. Dr. Livingstone named a Portuguese engineer who would superintend admirably. The fruits of the Portuguese missions were still apparent, but there was a great want of literature, of books. " It will not be denied," concludes the letter, " that those who, like your Majesty, have been placed over so many human souls, have a serious responsibility resting upon them in reference to their future welfare. The absence also of Portuguese women in the colony is a circumstance which seems to merit the attention of Government for obvious reasons. And if any of these suggestions should lead to the formation of a middle class of free labourers, I feel sure that Angola would have cause to bless your Majesty to the remotest time." Dr. Livingstone has often been accused of claiming for himself the credit of discoveries made by others, of writing as if he had been the first to traverse routes in which he had really been preceded by the Portuguese. Even were it true that now and then an obscure Portuguese trader or traveller reached spots that lay in Dr. Livingstone's subse- quent route, the fact would detract nothing from his merit, because he derived not a tittle of benefit from their ex- perience, and what he was concerned about was, not the mere honour of being first at a place, as if he had been running a race, but to make it known to the world, to bring it into the circuit of commerce and Christianity, and thus place it under the influence of the greatest blessings. 1854-56.] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 161 But even as to being first, Livingstone was careful not to claim anything that was really due to others. Writing from Tette to Sir Roderick in March 1856, he says: "It seems proper to mention what has been done in former times in the way of traversing the continent, and the result of my inquiries leads to the belief that the honour belongs to our country." He refers to the brave attempt of Captain Jose da Roga, in 1678, to penetrate from Benguela to the Rio da Senna, in which attempt, however, so much opposition was encountered that he was compelled to return. In 1800, Lacerda revived the project by pro- posing a chain of forts along the banks of the Coanza. In 1815, two black traders showed the possibility of communi- cation from east to west, by bringing to Loanda communi- cations from the Governor of Mozambique. Some Arabs and Moors went from the East Coast to Benguela, and with a view to improve the event, "a million of reis (142) and an honorary captaincy in the Portuguese army was offered to any one who would accompany them back but none went." The journey had several times been performed by Arabs. " I do not feel so much elated," continued Dr. Livingstone, "by the prospect of accomplishing this feat. I feel most thankful to God for preserving my life, where so many, who by superior intelligence would have done more good, have been cut off. But it does not look as if I had reached the goal. Viewed in relation to my calling, the end of the geographical feat is only the beginning of the enterprise. Apart from family longings, I have a most intense longing to hear how it has fared with our brave men at Sebastopol. My last scrap of intelligence was the Times, 17th November 1855, after the terrible affair of the Light Cavalry. The news was not certain about a most determined attack to force the way to Balaclava, and Sebastopol ex- pected every day to fall, and I have had to repress all my longings since, except in a poor prayer to prosper the cause of justice and right, and cover the heads of our soldiers in the day of battle. " [A few days later he heard the news.] "We are all engaged in very much the same cause. Geographers, astronomers, and mechanicians, labouring to make men better acquainted with each other : sanitary reformers, prison reformers, promoters of ragged schools and Niger Expeditions : soldiers fighting for right against oppression, and sailors rescuing captives in deadly climes, as well as missionaries, are all aiding in hastening on a glorious consummation to all God's dealings with our race. In the hope that I may yet be honoured to do some good to this poor long downtrodden Africa, the gentlemen over whom you have the honour to preside will, I believe, cordially join. 162 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. ix. From Tette he went on to Senna. Again he is treated with extraordinary kindness by Lieutenant Miranda, and others, and again he is prostrated by an attack of fever. Provided with a comfortable boat, he at last reaches Quilimane on the 20th May, and is most kindly received by Colonel Nunes, " one of the best men in the country." Dr. Livingstone has told us in his book how his joy in reaching Quilimane was embittered on his learning that Captain Maclure, Lieutenant Woodruffe, and five men of H. M. S. "Dart," had been drowned off the bar in coming to Quilimane to pick him up, and how he felt as if he would rather have died for them. 1 News from across the Atlantic likewise informed him that his nephew and namesake, David Livingstone, a fine lad eleven years of age, had been drowned in Canada. All the deeper was his gratitude for the goodness and mercy that had followed him and preserved him, as he says in his private Journal, from " many dangers not recorded in this book." The retrospect in his Missionary Travels of the manner in which his life had been ordered up to this point, is so striking that our narrative would be deficient if it did not contain it : "If the reader remembers the way in which I was led, while teaching the Bakwains, to commence exploration, he will, I think, recognise the hand of Providence. Anterior to that, when Mr. Moffat began to give the Bible the Magna Charta of all the rights and privileges of modern civilisation to the Bechuanas, Sebituane went north, and spread the language into which he was translating the sacred oracles, in a new region larger than France. Sebituane, at the same time, rooted out hordes of bloody savages, among whom no white man could have gone without leaving his skull to ornament some village. He opened up the way for me let us hope also for the Bible. Then, again, while I was labouring at Kolobeng, seeing only a small arc of the cycle of Providence, I could not understand it, and felt inclined to ascribe our successive and prolonged droughts to the wicked one. But when forced by these, and the Boers, to become explorer, and open a new country in the north rather than i Among Livingstone's papers we have found draft letter to the Admir- alty, earnestly commending to their Lordships' favourable consideration a petition from the widow of one of the men. He had never seen her, he said, but he had been the unconscious cause of her husband's death, and all the joy he felt in crossing the contin*jit was embittered when the news of the sad catastrophe reached him. 1854-56.] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 163 set my face southward, where missionaries are not needed, the gracious Spirit of God influenced the minds of the heathen to regard me with favour, the Divine hand is again perceived. Then I turned away westwards, rather than in the opposite direction, chiefly from observing that some native Portuguese, though influenced by the hope of a reward from their Government to cross the continent, had been obliged to return from the east without accomplishing their object. Had I gone at first in the eastern direction, which the course of the great Leeambye seemed to invite, I should have come among the belligerents near Tette when the war was raging at its height, instead of, as it happened, when all was over. And again, when enabled to reach Loanda, the resolution to do my duty by going back to Linyanti probably saved me from the fate of my papers in the 'Forerunner.' And then, last of all, this new country is partially opened to the sympathies of Christendom, and I find that Sechele himself has, though unbidden by man, been teaching his own people. In fact, he has been doing all that I was prevented from doing, and I have been employed in exploring a work I had no previous intention of performing. I think that I see the operation of the Unseen Hand in all this, and I humbly hope that it will still guide me to do good in my day and generation in Africa." In looking forward to the work to which Providence seemed to be calling him, a communication received at Quilimane disturbed him not a little. It was from the London Missionary Society. It informed him that the Directors were restricted in their power of aiding plans connected only remotely with the spread of the gospel, and that even though certain obstacles (from tsetse, etc. ) should prove surmountable, "the financial circumstances of the Society are not such as to afford any ground of hope that it would be in a position within any definite period to undertake untried any remote and difficult fields of labour." Dr. Livingstone very naturally understood this as a declin- ature of his proposals. Writing on the subject to Rev. William Thompson, the Society's agent at Cape Town, he ' ' I had imagined in my simplicity that both my preaching, conver- sation, and travel were as nearly connected with the spread of the gospel as the Boers would allow them to be. A plan of opening up a path from either the east or west coast for the teemingpopulation of the interior was submitted to the judgment of the Directors, and received their formal approbation. "I have been seven times in peril of my life from savage men while laboriously and without swerving pursuing that plan, and never doubting that I was in the path of duty. "Indeed, so clearly did I perceive that I was performing good 164 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. ix. service to the cause of Christ, that I wrote to my brother that I would perish rather than fail in my enterprise. I shall not boast of what I have done, but the wonderful mercy I have received will con- strain me to follow out the work in spite of the veto of the Board. "If it is according to the will of God, means will be provided from other quarters. ' The Directors showed a much more sympathetic spirit when Livingstone came among them, but meanwhile, as he tells us in his book, his old feeling of independence had returned, and it did not seem probable that he would remain in the same relation to the Society. After Livingstone had been six weeks at Quilimane, H.M. brig " Frolic " arrived, with ample supplies for all his need, and took him to the Mauritius, where he arrived on 12th August 1856. It was during this voyage that the lamentable insanity and suicide of his native attendant Sekwebu occurred, of which we have an account in the Missionary Travels. At the Mauritius he was the guest of General Hay, from whom he received the greatest kindness, and so rapid was his recovery from an affection of the spleen which his numerous fevers had bequeathed, that before he left the island he wrote to Commodore Trotter and other friends that he was perfectly well, and " quite ready to go back to Africa again." This however was not to be just yet. In November he sailed through the Red Sea, on the homeward route. He had expected to land at Southampton, and there Mrs. Livingstone and other friends had gone to welcome him. But the perils of travel were not yet over A serious accident befell the ship, which might have been followed by fatal results but for that good Providence that held the life of Livingstone so carefully. Writing to Mrs. Livingstone from the Bay of Tunis (27th November 1856), he says : " We had very rough weather after leaving Malta, and yesterday at midday the shaft of the engine an enormous mass of malleable iron broke with a sort of oblique fracture, evidently from the terrific strains which the tremendous seas inflicted as they thumped and tossed this gigantic vessel like a plaything. We were near the island called Zembra, which is in sight of the Bay of Tunis. The wind, which had been a full gale ahead when we did not require it, now fell to a dead calm, and a current was drifting our gallant ship, with her sails napping all helplessly, against the rocks ; the boats were provisioned, watered, and armed, the number each was to carry 1854-56] r'ROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 165 arranged (the women and children to go in first, of course), when most providentially a wind sprung up and carried us out of danger into the Bay of Tunis, where I now write. The whole affair was managed by Captain Powell most admirably. He was assisted by two gentlemen whom we all admire Captain Tregear of the same Company, and Lieutenant Chimnis of the Royal Navy, and though they and the sailors knew that the vessel was so near destruction as to render it certain that we should scarcely clear her in the boats before the swell would have overwhelmed her, all was managed so quietly that none of us passengers knew much about it. Though we saw the preparation no alarm spread among us. The Company will do everything in their power to forward us quickly and safely. I 'm only sorry for your sake, but patience is a great virtue, you know. Captain Tregear has been six years away from his family, I only four and a half. " The passengers were sent on vid Marseilles, and Living- stone proceeded homewards by Paris and Dover. At last he reached " dear old England " on the 9th of December 1856. Tidings of a great sorrow had reached him on the way. At Cairo he heard of the death of his father. He had been ill a fortnight, and died full of faith and peace. " You wished so much to see David," said his daughter to him as his life was ebbing away. " Ay, very much, very much ; but the will of the Lord be done.'' Then after a pause he said, " But I think I '11 know what- ever is worth knowing about him. When you see him, tell him I think so." David had not less eagerly desired to sit once more at the fireside and tell his father of all that had befallen him on the way. On both sides the desire had to be classed among hopes unfulfilled. But on both sides there was a vivid impression that the joy so narrowly missed on earth would be found in a purer form in the next stage of being. 166 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. x. CHAPTER X. FIRST VISIT HOME. A.D. 1856-1857. THE years that had elapsed since Dr. Livingstone bade his wife farewell at Cape Town had been to her years of deep and often terrible anxiety. Letters, as we have seen, were often lost, and none seem more frequently to have gone missing than those between him and her. A stranger in England, without a home, broken in health, with a family of four to care for, often without 'tidings of her husband for great stretches of time, and harassed with anxieties and apprehensions that sometimes proved too much for her faith, the strain on her was very great Those who knew her in Africa, when, " queen of the wagon " and full of life, she directed the arrangements and sustained the spirits of a whole party, would hardly have thought her the same person in England. When Livingstone had been longest unheard of, her heart sank altogether; but through prayer, tranquillity of mind returned, even before the arrival of any letter announcing his safety. She had been waiting for him at Southampton, and, owing to the casuality in the Bay of Tunis, he arrived at Dover, but as soon as possible he was with her, reading the poetical welcome which she had prepared in the hope that they would never part again : " A hundred thousand welcomes, and it 's time for you to come From the far land of the foreigner, to your country and your home. Oh, long as we were parted, ever since you went away, I never passed a dreamless night, or knew an easy day. Do you think I would reproach you with the sorrows that I bore? Since the sorrow is all over, now I have you here once more, And there 's nothing but the gladness, and the love within my heart, And the hope so sweet and certain that again we '11 never part. 1856-57.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 167 A hundred thousand welcomes ! how my heart is gushing o'er With the love and joy and wonder thus to see your face once more. How did I live without you these long long years of woe ? It seems as if 'twould kill me to be parted from you now. You'll never part me, darling, there 's a promise in your eye ; I may tend you while I 'm living, you will watch me when I die ; And if death but kindly lead me to the blessed home on high, What a hundred thousand welcomes will await you in the sky ! "MARY." Having for once lifted the domestic veil, we cannot resist the temptation to look into another corner of the home circle. Among the letters of congratulation that poured in at this time, none was more sincere or touching than that which Mrs. Livingstone received from her mother, Mrs. Moffat. 1 In the fulness of her congratula- tions she does not forget the dark shadow that falls en the missionary's wife when the tune comes for her to go back with her husband to their foreign home, and requires her to part from her children ; tears and smiles mingle in Mrs. Moffat's letter as she reminds her daughter that they that rejoice need to be as though they rejoiced not : " Kuruman, December 4, 1856. MY DEAREST MARY, In propor- tion to the anxiety I have experienced about you and your dear husband for some years past, so now is my joy and satisfaction ; even though we have not yet heard the glad tidings of your having really met, but this for the present we take for granted. Having from the first been in a subdued and chastened state of mind on the subject, I endeavour still to be moderate in my joy. With regard to you both ofttimes has the sentence of death been passed in my mind, and at such seasons I dared not, desired not, to rebel, submissively leaving all to the Divine disposal ; but I now feel that this has been a suitable preparation for what is before me, having to contemplate a complete separation from you till that day when we meet with the spirits of just men made perfect in the kingdom of our Father. Yes, I do feel solemn at death, but there is no melancholy about it, for what is our life, so short and so transient ? And seeing it is so, we should be happy to do or to suffer as much as we can for Him who bought us with His blood. Should you go to those wilds which God has enabled your husband, through 1 We have been greatly impressed by Mrs. Moffat's letters. She was evidently a woman of remarkable power. If her life had been published, we are convinced that it would have been a notable one in missionary biography. Heart and head were evidently of no common calibre. Per- haps it is not yet too late for some friend to think of this. 1 68 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. x. numerous dangers and deaths, to penetrate, there to spend the re- mainder of your life, and as a consequence there to suffer manifold privations, in addition to those trials through which you have already passed and they have not been few (for you had a hard life in this interior) you will not think all too much, when you stand with that multitude who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb ! "Yet, my dear Mary, while we are yet in the flesh my heart will yearn over you. You are my own dear child, my first-born, and recent circumstances have had a tendency *to make me feel still more tenderly towards you ; and deeply as I have sympathised with you for the last few years, I shall not cease to do so for the future. Already is my imagination busy picturing the various scenes through which you must pass, from the first transport of joy on meeting till that painful anxious hour when you must bid adieu to your darlings, with faint hopes of ever seeing them again in this life ; and then, what you may both have to pass through in those inhospitable regions. . . . " From what I saw in Mr. Livingstone's letter to Robert, I was shocked to think that that poor head, in the prime of manhood, was so like my own, who am literally worn out. The symptoms he describes are so like my own. Now, with a little rest and relaxa- tion, having youth on his side, he might regain all, but I cannot help fearing for him if he dashes at once into hardships again. He is certainly the wonder of his age, and with a little prudence as regards his health, the stores of information he now possesses might be turned to a mighty account for poor wretched Africa. . . . We do not yet see how Mr. L. will get on the case seems so complex. I feel, as I have often done, that as regards ourselves it is a subject more for prayer than for deliberation, separated as we are by such distances, and such a tardy and eccentric post. I used to imagine that when he was once got out safely from this dark continent we should only have to praise God for all His mercies to him and to us all, and for what He had effected by him ; but now I see we must go on seeking the guidance and direction of His providential hand, and sustaining and preventing mercy. We cannot cease to remem- ber you daily, and thus our sympathy will be kept alive with you. ..." Dr. Moffat's congratulation to his son-in-law was calm and hearty : ' ' Your explorations have created immense interest, and especially in England, and that man must be made of bend-leather who can remain unmoved at the rehearsal even of a tithe of your daring enterprises. The honours awaiting you at home would be enough to make a score of light heads dizzy, but I have no fear of their affecting your upper story, beyond snowing you that your labours to lay open the recesses of the vast interior have been appreciated. It will be almost too much for dear Mary to hear that you are verily unscathed. She has had many to sympathise with her, and 1856-57-] FIRST VISIT HOME. 169 I daresay many have called yon a very naughty man for thus having exposed your life a thousand times. Be that as it may, you have succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations in laying open a world of immortal beings, all needing the gospel, and at a time, now that war is over, when people may exert their energies on an object compared with which that which has occupied the master minds of Europe, and expended so much money, and shed so much blood, is but a phantom." On the 9th of Decemoer, as we have seen, Livingstone arrived at London. He went first to Southampton, where his wife was waiting for him, and on his return to London was quickly in communication with Sir Roderick Murchison. On the 15th December the Royal Geographical Society held a special meeting to welcome him. Sir Roderick was in the chair ; the attendance was numerous and distinguished, and included some of Livingstone's previous fellow-travellers, Colonel Steele, Captain Vardon, and Mr. Oswell. The President referred to the meeting of May 1855, when the Victoria or Patron's medal had been awarded to Living- stone for his journey from the Cape to Linyanti and Loanda. Now Livingstone had added to that feat the journey from the Atlantic Ocean at Loanda to the Indian Ocean at Quilimane, and during his several journeys had travelled over not less than eleven thousand miles of African ground. Surpassing the French missionary travellers, Hue and Gabet, he had determined, by astronomical observa- tions, the site of numerous places, hills, rivers, and lakes, previously unknown. He had seized every opportunity of describing the physical structure, geology, and climatology of the countries traversed, and making known their natural products and capabilities. He had ascertained by experi- ence, what had been only conjectured previously, that the interior of Africa was a plateau intersected by various lakes and rivers, the waters of which escaped to the Eastern and Western Oceans by deep rents in the flanking hills. Great though these achievements were, the most honourable of all Livingstone's acts had yet to be mentioned the fidelity that kept his promise to the natives, who, having accom- panied him to St. Paul de Loanda, were reconducted by him from that city to their homes. "Rare fortitude and virtue must our medallist have possessed, when, having struggled at the imminent risk of his life through such i;o DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP, x, obstacles, and when, escaping from the interior, he had been received with true kindness by our old allies the Portuguese at Angola, he nobly resolved to redeem his promise and retrace his steps to the interior of the vast continent ! How much indeed must the influ- ence of the British name be enhanced throughout Africa, when it has been promulgated that our missionary has thus kept his plighted word to the poor natives who faithfully stood by him " On receiving the medal, Livingstone apologised for his rustiness in the use of his native tongue ; said that he had only done his duty as a Christian missionary in opening up a part of Africa to the sympathy of Christendom: that Steele, Vardon, or Oswell might have done all that he had done ; that as yet he was only buckling on his armour, and therefore in no condition to speak boastfully ; and that the enterprise would never be complete till the slave-trade wa& abolished, and the whole country opened up to commerce and Christianity. Among the distinguished men who took part in the con- versation that followed was Professor Owen. He bore testimony to the value of Livingstone's contributions to- zoology and palaeontology, not less cordial than Sir Roderick Murchison had borne to his service to geography. He had listened with very intense interest to the sketches of these magnificent scenes of animal life that his old and most esteemed friend had given them. He cordially hoped that many more such contributions would follow, and expressed his admiration of the moral qualities of the man who had taken s.uch pains to keep his. word. In the recognition by other gentlemen of Dr. Living- stone's labours, much stress was laid on the scientific accuracy with which he had laid down every point over which he had travelled. Thanks were given to the Portu- guese authorities in Africa for the remarkable kindness, which they had invariably shown him. Mr. Consul Brand reported tidings from Mr. Gabriel at Loanda, to the effect, that a company of Sekeletu's people had arrived at Loanda,, with a cargo of ivory, and though they had not been very- successful in business, they had shown the practicability of the route. He added, that Dr. Livingstone, at Loanda, had written some letters to a newspaper, which had given such an impetus to literary taste there, that a new journal had, been started the Loanda Aurqra. 1856-57.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 171 On one other point there was a most cordial expression of feeling, especially by those who had themselves been in South Africa, gratitude for the unbounded kindness and hospitality that Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone had shown to South African travellers in the neighbourhood of their home. Happily Mrs. Livingstone was present, and heard this acknowledgment of her kindness. Next day, 16th December, Dr. Livingstone had his re- ception from the London Missionary Society in Freemasons' Hall. Lord Shaf tesbury was in the chair : " What better thing can we do," asked the noble Earl, " than to welcome such a man to the shores of our country ? What better than to receive him with thanksgiving and rejoicings that he is spared to refresh us with his presence, and give his strength to future exertions? What season more appropriate than this, when at every hearth, and in every congregation of worshippers, the name of Christ will be honoured with more than ordinary devotion, to receive a man whose life and labours have been in humble, hearty, and willing obedience to the angels' song, ' Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill towards men.'" In reply, Dr. Livingstone acknowledged the kindness of the Directors, with whom, for sixteen years, he had never had a word of difference. He referred to the slowness of the African tribes, in explanation of the comparatively small progress of the gospel among them. He cordially acknowledged the great services of the British squadron on the West Coast in the repressing of the slave-trade. He had been told that to make such explorations as he was engaged in was only a tempting of Providence, but such ridiculous assertions were only the utterances of the weaker brethren. Lord Shaf tesbury's words at the close of this meeting, in honour of Mrs. Livingstone, deserve to be perpetuated : "That lady," he said, "was born with one distinguished name, which she had changed for another. She was born a Moffat, and she became a Livingstone. She cheered the early part of our friend's career by her spirit, her counsel, and her society. Afterwards, when, she reached this country, she passed many years with her children in solitude and anxiety, suffering the greatest fears for the welfare of her husband, and yet enduring all with patience and resignation, and even joy, because she had surrendered her best feelings and sacrificed her own private interests to the advancement of civilisa- tion and the great interests of Christianity." A more general meeting was held in the Mansion House 172 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. x. on the 5th of January, to consider the propriety of present- ing a testimonial to Dr. Livingstone. It was addressed by the Bishop of London, Mr. Raikes Currie, and others. Meanwhile a sensible impulse was given to the scientific enthusiasm for Livingstone by the arrival of the report of a great meeting held in Africa itself, in honour of the mis- sionary explorer. At Cape Town, on 12th November 1856, His Excellency the Governor Sir George Grey, the Colonial Secretary, the Astronomer-Royal, the Attorney- General, Mr. Rutherfoord, the Bishop, the Rev. Mr. Thompson, and others, vied with each other in expressing their sense of Livingstone's character and work. The testimony of the Astronomer-Royal to Livingstone's emin- ence as an astronomical observer was even more emphatic than Murchison's and Owen's to his attainments in geography and natural history. Going over his whole career, Mr. Maclear showed his unexampled achievements in accurate lunar observation. " I never knew a man," he said, " who, knowing scarcely anything of the method of making geographical observations, or laying down positions, became so soon an adept, that he could take the complete lunar observation, and altitudes for time, within fifteen minutes." His observations of the course of the Zambesi, from Sesheke to its confluence with the Lonta, were con- sidered by the Astronomer-Royal to be " the finest speci- mens of sound geographical observation he ever met with." "To give an idea of the laboriousness of this branch of his work," he adds, "on an average each lunar distance consists of five partial observations, and there are 148 sets of distances, being 740 contacts, and there are two altitudes of each object before, and two after, which, together with altitudes for time, amount to 2812 partial ob- servations. But that is not the whole of his observations. Some of them intrusted to an Arab have not been received, and in reference to those transmitted he says, ' I have taken others which I do not think it necessary to send.' How completely all this stamps the impress of Livingstone on the interior of South Africa ! . . . I say, what that man has done is unprecedented. . . . You could go to any point across the entire continent, along Livingstone's track, and feel certain of your position." 1 1 It seems unaccountable that in the face of such unrivalled testimonies, reflections should continue to be cast on Livingstone's scientific accuracy, even so late as the meetingof the British Association at Sheffield in 1879. The family of the late Sir Thomas Maclear Las sent home his collection of 1856-57.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 173 Following this unrivalled eulogium on the scientific powers of Livingstone, came the testimony of Mr. Thomp- son to his missionary ardour : ' ' I am in a position to express my earnest conviction, formed in long, intimate, unreserved communications with him, personally and by letter, that in the privations, sufferings, and dangers he has passed through, during the last eight years, he has not been actuated by mere curiosity, or the love of adventure, or the thirst for applause, or by any other object, however laudable in itself, less than his avowed one as a messenger of Christian love from the Churches. If ever there was a man who, by realising the obliga- tions of his sacred calling as a Christian missionary, and intelligently comprehending its object, sought to pursue it to a successful issue, such a man is Dr. Livingstone. The spirit in which he engages in his work may be seen in the following extract from one of his letters : ' You kindly say you fear for the result of my going in alone. I hope I am in the way of duty ; my own conviction that auch is the case has never wavered. I am doing something for God. I have preached the gospel in many a spot where the name of Christ has never been heard, and I would wish to do still more in the way of reducing the Barotse language, if I had not suffered so severely from fever. Exhaustion produced vertigo, causing me, if I looked sud- denly up, almost to lose consciousness ; this made me give up sedentary work ; but I hope God will accept of what I can do. '" A third gentleman at this meeting, Mr. Rutherfoord, who had known Livingstone for many years, besides describing him as " one of the most honourable, benevolent, conscientious men I ever met with," bore testimony to his capacity in mercantile affairs ; not exercised in his own interest, but in that of others. It was Mr. Rutherfoord who, when Livingstone was at the Cape in 1852, entered into his plans for supplanting the slave-trade by lawful traffic, and at his suggestion engaged George Fleming to go north with him as a trader, and try the experiment. The project was not very successful, owing to innumerable un- foreseen worries, and especially the rascality of Fleming's men. Livingstone found it impossible to take Fleming to the coast, and had therefore to send him back, but he did his utmost to prevent loss to his friend; and thus, as Mr. Livingstone's papers. They fill a box which one man could with difficulty carry. And their mass is i'ar from their most striking quality. The evi- dence of laborious, painstaking care to be accurate is almost unprece- dented. Folio volumes of pages covered with figures show how much time and labour must have been spent in these computations. Explana- tory remarks often indicate the particulars of the observation. 174 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. x. Kutherfoord said, " at the very time that he was engaged in such important duties, and exposed to such difficulties, he found time to fulfil his promise to do what he could to save me from loss, to attend to a matter quite foreign to his usual avocations, and in which he had no personal interest ; and by his energy and good sense, and self-denying exer- tions, to render the plan, if not perfectly successful, yet by no means a failure." Traveller, geographer, zoologist, astronomer, missionary, physician, and mercantile director, did ever man sustain so many characters at once 1 Or did ever man perform the duties of each with such painstaking accuracy and so great success ? As soon as he could tear himself from his first engage- ments, he ran down to Hamilton to see his mother, chil- dren, and other relatives. His father's empty chair deeply affected him. " The first evening," writes one of his sisters, " he asked all about his illness and death. One of us re- marking that after he knew he was dying his spirits seemed to rise, David burst into tears. At family worship that evening he said with deep feeling ' We bless thee, O Lord, for our parents ; we give thee thanks for the dead who has died in the Lord.'" At first Livingstone thought that his stay in this country could be only for three or four months, as he was eager to be at Quilimane before the unhealthy season set in, and thus fulfil his promise to return to his Makololo at Tette. But on receiving an assurance from the Portuguese Govern- ment (which, however, was never fulfilled by them) that his men would be looked after, he made up his mind for a somewhat longer stay. But it could not be called rest. As soon as he could settle down he had to set to work with a book. So long before as May 1856, Sir Roderick Murchison had written to him that "Mr. John Murray, the great publisher, is most anxious to induce you to put together all your data, and to make a good book," adding his own strong advice to comply with the request. If he ever doubted the propriety of writing the book, the doubt must have vanished, not only in view of the unequalled interest excited by the subject, but also of the readiness of unprin- cipled adventurers, and even some respectable publishers. 1856-57.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 175 to circulate narratives often mythical and quite un- authorised. The early part of the year 1857 was mainly occupied with the labour of writing. For this he had materials in the Journals which he had kept so carefully ; but the busi- ness of selection and supplementing was laborious, and the task of arrangement and transcription very irksome. In fact, this task tried the patience of Livingstone more than any which he had yet undertaken, and he used to say that he would rather cross Africa than write another book. His experience of book-making increased his respect for authors and authoresses a hundredfold ! We are not, however, inclined to think that this trial was due to the cause which Livingstone assigned, his want of experience, and want of command over the English tongue. He was by no means an inexperienced writer. He had written large volumes of Journals, memoirs for the Geographical Society, articles on African Missions, letters for the Missionary Society, and private letters without end, each usually as long as a pamphlet. He was master of a clear, simple, idiomatic style, well fitted to record the incidents of a journey sometimes poetical in its vivid pictures, often brightening into humour, and sometimes deepening into pathos. Viewing it page by page, the style of the Missionary Travels is admirable, the chief defect being want of perspective; the book is more a collec- tion of pieces than an organised whole : a fault inevitable, perhaps, in some measure, from its nature, but aggravated, as we believe, by the haste and pressure under which it had to be written. In his earlier private letters, Living- stone, in his single-hearted desire to rouse the world on the- subject of Africa, used to regret that he could not write in such a way as to command general attention : had he been master of the flowing periods of the Edinburgh Review, he- thought he could have done much more good. In point of fact, if he had had the pen of Samuel Johnson, or the tongue of Edmund Burke, he would not have made the impression he did. His simple style and plain speech were eminently in harmony with his truthful, unexaggerating nature, and showed that he neither wrote nor spoke for effect, but simply to utter truth. What made his work of 176 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. x. composition irksome was, on the one hand, the fear that he was not doing it well, and on the other, the necessity of doing it quickly. He had always a dread that his English was not up to the critical mark, and yet he was obliged to hurry on, and leave the English as it dropped from his pen. He had no time to plan, to shape, to organise ; the archi- tectural talent could not be brought into play. Add to this that he had been so accustomed to open-air life and physical exercise, that the close air and sedentary attitude of the study must have been exceedingly irksome ; so that it is hardly less wonderful that his health stood the con- finement of bookmaking in England, than that it survived the tear and wear, labour and sorrow, of all his journeys in Africa. An extract from a letter to Mr. Maclear, on the eve of his beginning his book (21st January 1857) will show how his thoughts were running : "I begin to-morrow to write my book, and as I have a large party of men (110) waiting for me at Tette, and I promised to join them in April next, you will see I shall have enough to do to get over my work here before the end of the month. . . . Many thanks for all the kind things you said at the Cape Town meeting. H ere they laud me till I shut my eyes, for only trying to do my duty. They ought to vote thanks to the Boers who set me free to discover the fine new country. They were determined to shut the country, and I was determined to open it. They boasted to the Portugueee that they had expelled two missionaries, and outwitted themselves rather. I got the gold medal, as you predicted, and the freedom of the town of Hamilton, which insures me protection from the pay- ment of jail fees if put in prison ! " -'t * ' .' - *"% In writing his book, he sometimes worked in the house of a friend, but generally in a London or suburban lodging, often with his children about him, and all their noise ; for, as in the Blantyre mill, he could abstract his attention from sounds of whatever kind, and go on calmly with his work. Busy though he was, this must have been one of the happiest times in his life. Some of his children still remember his walks and romps with them in the Barnet woods, near which they lived part of the time how he would suddenly plunge into the ferny thicket, and set them looking for him, as people looked for him afterwards when he disappeared in Africa, coming out all at once at some unexpected corner 1856-57.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 177 of the thicket. One of his greatest troubles was the penny post. People used to ask him the most frivolous questions. At first he struggled to answer them, but in a few weeks he had to give this up in despair. The simplicity of his heart is seen in the childlike joy with which he welcomes the early products of the spring. He writes to Mr. Maclear that, one day at Professor Owen's, they had " seen daisies, primroses, hawthorns, and robin-redbreasts. Does not Mrs. Maclear envy us ? It was so pleasant." But a better idea of his mode of life at home will be conveyed by the notes of some of the friends with whom he stayed. For that purpose, we resume the recollections of Sir J. Risdon Bennett : " On returning to England, after his first great journey of dis- covery, he and Mrs. Livingstone stayed in my house for some time, and I had frequent conversations with him on subjects connected with his African life, especially on such as related to Natural History and Medicine, on which he had gathered a fund of infor- mation. His observation of malarious diseases, and the methods of treatment adopted by both the natives and Europeans, had led him to form very definite and decided views, especially in reference to the use of purgatives, preliminary to, and in conjunction with, quinine and other acknowledged febrifuge medicines. Ke had, whilst staying with me, one of those febrile attacks to which persons who have once suffered from malarious disease are so liable, and I could not fail to remark his sensible observations thereon, and his judicious management of his sickness. He had a great natural predilection for medical science, and always took great interest in all that related to the profession. I endeavoured to persuade him to commit to writing the results of his medical observations and experience among the natives of Africa, but he was too much occupied with the preparation of his Journal for the press to enable him to do this. Moreover, as he often said, writing was a great drudgery to him. He, however, attended with me the meetings of some of the Medical Societies, and gave some verbal accounts of his medical experience which greatly interested his audience. His remarks on climates, food, and customs of the natives, in reference to the origin and spread of disease, evinced the same acuteness of observation which characterised all the records of his life. He specially commented on the absence of consumption and all forms of tubercular disease among the natives, and connected this with their constant exposure and out-of-door life. "After leaving my house he had lodgings in Chelsea, and used frequently to come and spend the Sunday afternoon with my family, often bringing his sister, who was staying with him, and his two elder children. It was beautiful to observe how thoroughly he enjoyed domestic life and the society of children, how strong v.'aa 178 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. x. nis attachment to his own family after his long and frequent separa- tions from them, and how entirely he had retained his simplicity of character. ' ' Like so many of his countrymen, he had a keen sense of humour, which frequently came into play when relating his many adventures and hardships. On the latter he never dilated in the way of com- plaint, and he had little sympathy with, or respect for, those travellers who did so. Nor was he apt to say much on direct re- ligious topics, or on the results of his missionary efforts as a Christian teacher. He had unbounded confidence in the influence of Christian character and principles, and gave many illustrations of the effect produced on the minds and conduct of the benighted and savage tribes with whom he was brought into contact by his own unvarying uprightness of conduct and self-denying labour. The fatherly character of God, His never-failing goodness and mercy, and the infinite love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and efficacy of His atoning sacrifice, appeared to be the topics on which he loved chiefly to dwell. The all-pervading deadly evils of slavery, and the atrocities of the slave-trade, never failed to excite his righteous indignation. If ever he was betrayed into unmeasured language it was when referring to these topics, or when speaking of the injurious influence exerted on the native mind by the cruel and unprincipled conduct of wicked and selfish traders. His love for Africa, and confidence in the steady dawn of brighter days for its oppressed races, were unbounded." From a member of another family, that of Mr. Frederick Fitch, of Highbury New Park, with whom also the Living- stones spent part of their time, we have some homely but graphic reminiscences : "Dr. Livingstone was very simple and unpretending, and used to be annoyed when he was made a lion of. Once a well-known gentleman, who was advertised to deliver a lecture next day, called on him to pump him for material. The Doctor sat rather quiet, and, without being rude, treated the gentleman to monosyllabic answers. He could do that could keep people at a distance when they wanted to make capital out of him. When the stranger had left, turning to my mother, he would say, ' I '11 tell you anything you like to ask.' ' ' He never liked to walk in the streets for fear of being mobbed. Once he was mobbed in Regent Street, and did not know how he was to escape, till he saw a cab, and took refuge in it. For the same reason it was painful for him to go to church. Once, being anxious to go with us, my father persuaded him that, as the seat at the top of our pew was under the gallery, he would not be seen. As soon as he entered, he held down his head, and kept it covered with his hands all the time, but the preacher somehow caught sight of him, and rather unwisely, in his last prayer, adverted to him. This gave the people the knowledge that he was in the chapel, and 1856-57-] FIRST VISIT HOME. 179 after the service they came trooping towards him, even over the pews, in their anxiety to see him and shake hands. l "Dr. Livingstone usually conducted our family worship. On Sunday mornings he always gave us a text for the day. His prayers were very direct and simple, just like a child asking his father for what he needed. "He was always careful as to dress and appearance. This was his habit in Africa too, and with Mrs. Livingstone it was the same. They thought that this was fitted to secure respect for themselves, and that it was for the good of the natives too, as it was so difficult to impress them with proper ideas on the subject of dress. " Dr. and Mrs. Livingstone were much attached, and thoroughly understood each other. The Doctor was sportive and fond of a joke, and Mrs. Livingstone entered into his humour. Mrs. Living- stone was terribly anxious about her husband when he was in Africa, but before others she concealed her emotion. In society both were reserved and quiet. Neither of them cared for grandeur ; it was a great trial to Dr. Livingstone to go to a grand dinner. Ye* in his quiet way he would exercise an influence at the dinner- table. He told us that, once at a dinner at Lord 's, every one was running down London tradesmen. Dr. Livingstone quietly remarked that though he was a stranger in London, he knew one tradesman of whose honesty he was thoroughly assured ; and if there was one such in his little circle, surely there must be many more. " He used to rise early : about seven he had a cup of tea or coffee, and then he set to work with his writing. He had not the appear- ance of a very strong man. " In spite of his literary work, the stream of public honours and public engagements began to flow very strongly. The Prince Consort granted him an interview, soon after his arrival, in presence of some of the younger members of the Royal Family. In March it was agreed to present him with the freedom of the City of London, in a box of the value of fifty guineas, and in May the pre- sentation took place. Most of his public honours, however, were reserved till autumn. The Missionary Travels was published in November 1857, and the success of the book was quite remarkable. Writ- ing to Mr. Maclear, 10th November 1857, he says, after an apology for delay : "You must ascribe my culpable silence to 'aberration.' I am out of my orbit, rather, and you must have patience till I come in 1 A similar occurrence took place in a church at Bath ^jring the meet- ings of the British Association in 1864. iSo DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. x. again. The book is out to-day, and I am going to Captain Washing- ton to see about copies to yourself, the Governor, the Bishop, Fair- bairn, Thompson, Rutherfoord, and Saul Solomon. 1 Ten thousand were taken by the London trade alone. Thirteen thousand eight hundred have been ordered from an edition of twelve thousand, so the printers are again at work to supply the demand. Sir Roderick gave it a glowing character last night at the Royal Geographical Society, and the At/ienceum has come out strongly on the same side. This is considered a successful launch for a guinea book." It has sometimes been a complaint that so much of the book is occupied with matters of science, geographical inquiries, descriptions of plants and animals, accounts of rivers and mountains, and so little with what directly con- cerns the work of the missionary. In reply to this, it may be stated, in the first place, that if the information given and the views expressed on missionary topics were all put together, they would constitute no insignificant contribu- tion to missionary literature. But there was another con- sideration. Livingstone regarded himself as but a pioneer in missionary enterprise. During sixteen years he had done much to bring the knowledge of Christ to tribes that had never heard of Him probably no missionary in Africa had ever preached to so many blacks. In some instances he had been successful in the highest sense he had been the instrument of turning men from darkness to light ; but he did not think it right to dwell on these cases, because the converts were often inconsistent, and did not exemplify a high moral tone. In most cases, however, he had been a sower of seed, and not a reaper of harvests. He had no triumphs to record, like those which had glad- dened the hearts of some of his missionary brethren in the South Sea Islands. He wished his book to be a record of facts, not a mere register of hopes. The missionary work was yet to be done. It belonged to the future, not to the past. By showing what vast fields there were in Africa ripe for the harvest, he sought to stimulate the Christian enterprise of the Churches, and lead them to take posses- sion of Africa for Christ. He would diligently record facts which he had ascertained about Africa, facts that he saw 1 Livingstone was quite lavish with presentation copies ; every friend on earth seemed to be included in his list. He tried to remember every one who had shown kindness to himself, and particularly to his wife and children. 1856-57-] FIRS-T VISIT HOME. 181 had some bearing on its future welfare, but whose full significance in that connection no one might yet be able to perceive. In a sense, the book was a work of faith. He wished to interest men of science, men of commerce, men of philanthropy, ministers of the Crown, men of all sorts, in the welfare of Africa. Where he had so varied a con- stituency to deal with, and where the precise method by which Africa would be civilised was yet so indefinite, he would faithfully record what he had come to know, and let others build as they might with his materials. Cer- tainly, in all that Livingstone has written, he has left us in no doubt as to the consummation to which he ever looked. His whole writings and his whole life are a com- mentary on his own words " The end of the geographical feat is only the beginning of the enterprise." Through the great success of the volume and the hand- some conduct of the publisher, the book yielded him a little fortune. We shall see what generous use he made of it how large a portion of the profits went to forward directly the great object to which his heart and his life were so cordially given. More than half went to a single object connected with the Zambesi Expedition, and of the remainder he was ready to devote a half to another favourite project All that he thought it his duty to reserve for his children was enough to educate them, and prepare them for their part in life. Nothing would have seemed less desirable or less for their good than to found a rich family to live in idleness. It was and is a common impression that Livingstone received large sums from friends to aid him in his work. For the most part these impressions were unfounded; but his own hard-earned money was bestowed freely and cheerfully wherever it seemed likely to do good. The complaint that he was not sufficiently a missionary was sometimes made of his speeches as well as his book. At Carlisle, a lady wrote to him in this strain. A copy of his reply is before us. After explaining that reporters were more Teady to report his geography than his mission- ary views, he says : " Nowhere have I ever appeared as anything else but a servant of God, who has simply followed the leadings of His hand. My views 1 82 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xi. of what is missionary duty are not so contracted as those whose ideal is a dumpy sort of man with a Bible under his arm. I have laboured in bricks and mortar, at the forge and carpenter's bench, as well ^,s in preaching and medical practice. I feel that I am ' not my own. ' I am serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men, or taking an astronomical observation, or writing to one of His children who forget, during the little moment of penning a note, that charity which is eulogised as ' thinking no evil ; ' and after having by His help got information, which I hope will lead to more abundant blessing being bestowed on Africa than heretofore, am I to hide the light under a bushel, merely because some will consider it not sufficiently, or even at all, missionary ? Knowing that some persons do believe that opening up a new country to the sympathies of Christendom was not a proper work for an agent of a Missionary Society t'o engage in, I now refrain from taking any salary from the Society with which I was connected ; so no pecuniary loss is sus- tained by any one. " Subsequently, when detained in Manyuema, and when his immediate object was to determine the watershed, Dr. Livingstone wrote : " I never felt, a single pang at having left the Missionary Society. I acted for my Master, and believe that all ought to devote their special faculties to Him. I regretted that uncoiiscientious men took occasion to prevent many from sympathising with me." CHAPTER XL FIRST VISIT HOME continued. A.D. 1357-1858. FINDING himself, in the autumn, free of the toil of book- making, Dr. Livingstone moved more freely through the country, attended meetings, and gave addresses. In August he went to Dublin, to the meeting of the British Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, and gave an interest- ing lecture. Mrs. Livingstone did not accompany him. In a letter to her we have some pleasant notes of his Dublin visit : "Dublin, 29th August 1857. I am very sorry now that I did not bring you with me, for all inquire after you, aad father's book is 1 857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 183 better known here than anywhere else I have been. But it could scarcely kave been otherwise. I think the visit to Dublin will be beneficial to our cause, which, I think, is the cause of Christ in Africa. Lord Radstock is much interested in it, and seems willing and anxious to promote it. He was converted out at the Crimea, whither he had gone as an amateur. His lady is a beautiful woman, and I think, what is far better, a good, pious one. The Archbishop's daughters asked me if they could be of any use in sending out needles, thread, etc., to your school. I, of course, said Yes. His daughters are devotedly missionary, and work hard in ragged schools, etc. One of them nearly remained in Jerusalem as a mis- sionary, and is the same in spirit here. It is well to be servants of Christ everywhere, at home or abroad, wherever He may send us or take us. ... I hope I may be enabled to say a word for Him on Monday. There is to be a grand dinner and soiree at the Lord- Lieutenant's on Monday, and I have got an invitation in my pocket, but will have to meet Admiral Trotter on Tuesday. I go off as soon as my lecture is over. . . . Sir Duncan Macgregor is the author of The. Burning of tJie Kent East Indiaman. His son, the only infant saved, is now a devoted Christian, a barrister. " l In September we find him in Manchester, where the Chamber of Commerce gave him a hearty welcome, and entered cordially into his schemes for the commercial development of Africa. He was subjected to a close cross- examination regarding the products of the country, and the materials it contained for commerce ; but here, too, the missionary was equal to the occasion. He had brought home five or six and twenty different kinds of fruit; he told them of oils they had never heard of dyes that were kept secret by the natives fibres that might be used for the manufacture of paper sheep that had hair instead of wool honey, sugar-cane, wheat, millet, cotton, and iron, all abounding in the country. That all these should abound in what used to be deemed a sandy desert appeared very strange. A very cordial resolution was unanimously agreed o, and a strong desire expressed that Her Majesty's Government would unite with that of Portugal in giving 1 Dr. Livingstone always liked that style of earnest Christianity which he notices in this letter. In November of the same year, after he had re- signed his connection with the London Missionary Society, and was pre- paring to return to Africa as H.M. Consul and head of the Zambesi Expedition, he writes thus to his friend Mr. James Young : " I read the Life of Hedley Vicars for the first time through, when down at Rugby. It is really excellent, and makes me ashamed of the coldness of my ser- vices in comparison. That was his sister you saw me walking with iu Dublin at the Gardens (Lady Rayleigh). If you have not read it, tho sooner you dip into it the better. You will thank me for it." 184 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XL Dr. Livingstone facilities for further explorations in the interior of Africa, and especially in the district around the river Zambesi and its tributaries, which promised to be the most suitable as a basis both for commercial and missionary settlements. In the course of the same month his foot was again on his native soil, and there his reception was remarkably cordial. In Glasgow, the University, the Corporation, the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, the United Presby- terians, and the Associated Operative Cotton-spinners of Scotland came forward to pay him honour. A testimonial of 2000 had been raised by public subscription. The Corporation presented him with the freedom of the city in a gold box, in acknowledging which he naturally dwelt on some of the topics that were interesting to a commercial community. He gave a somewhat new view of " Protec- tion" when he called it a remnant of heathenism. The heathen would be dependent on no one ; they would depress all other communities. Christianity taught us to be friends and brothers, and he was glad that all restrictions on the freedom of trade were now done away with. He dwelt largely on the capacity of Africa to furnish us with useful articles of trade, and especially cotton. His reception by the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons had a special interest in relation to his medical labours. For nearly twenty years he had been a licentiate of this Faculty, one of the oldest medical institutions of the country, which for two centuries and a half had exerted a great influence in the west of Scotland. He was now admitted an honorary Fellow an honour rarely conferred, and only on pre- eminently distinguished men. The President referred to the benefit which he had found from his scientific as well as his more strictly medical studies, pursued under their auspices, and Livingstone cordially echoed the remark, saying he often hoped that his sons might follow the same course of study and 1 devote themselves to the same noble profession : " In the country to which I went," he continued, "I endeavoured to follow the footsteps of my Lord and Master. Our Saviour was a physician ; but it is not to be expected that His followers should per- form miracles. The nearest approach which they could expect to 1 85 7-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 185 make was to become acquainted with medical science, and endeavour to heal the diseases of man, . . . One patient expressed his opinion of my religion to the following effect : ' We like you very much ; you are the only white man we have got acquainted with. We like you because you aid us whilst we are sick, but we don't like your everlasting preaching and praying. We can't get accustomed to that!'" To the United Presbyterians of Glasgow he spoke of mission work in Africa. At one time he had been some- what disappointed with the Bechuana Christians, and thought the results of the mission had been exaggerated, but when he went into the interior and saw heathenism in all its unmitigated ferocity, he changed his opinion, and had a higher opinion than ever of what the mission had done. Such gatherings as the present were very encourag- ing ; but in Africa mission work was hard work without excitement ; and they had just to resolve to do their duty without expecting to receive gratitude from those whom they laboured to serve. When gratitude came, they were thankful to have it ; but when it did not come they must go on doing their duty, as unto the Lord. His reply to the cotton-spinners is interesting as showing how fresh his sympathy still was with the sons of toil, and what respect he had for their position. He congratulated himself on the Spartan training he had got at the Blantyre mill, which had really been the foundation of all the work he had done. Poverty and hard work were often looked down on, he did not know why, for wickedness was the only thing that ought to be a reproach to any man. Those that looked down on cotton-spinners with contempt were men who, had they been cotton-spinners at the beginning, would have been cotton-spinners to the end. The life of toil was what belonged to the great majority of the race, and to be poor was no reproach. The Saviour occupied the humble position that they had been born in, and he looked back on his own past life as having been spent in the same position in which the Saviour lived. "My great object," he said, "was to be like Him to imitate Him as far as He could be imitated. We have not the power of working miracles, but we can do a little in the way of healing the sick, and I sought a medical education in order that I might be like Him. In Africa I have had hard work. I don't know that any 1 86 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xi. one in Africa despises a man who works hard. I find that all eminent men work hard. Eminent geologists, mineralogists, men of science in every department, if they attain eminence, work hard, and that both early and late. That is just what we did. Some of us have left the cotton-spinning, but I think that all of us who have been engaged in that occupation look back on it with feelings of complacency, and feel an interest in the course of our companions. There is one thing in cotton-spinning that I always felt to be a privilege. We were confined through the whole day, but when we got out to the green fields, and could wander through the shady woods, and rove about the whole country, we enjoyed it immensely. We were "delighted to see the flowers and the beautiful scenery. We were prepared to admire. We were taught by our confinement to rejoice in the beauties of nature, and when we got out we en- joyed ourselves to the fullest extent. " At Hamilton an interesting meeting took place in the Congregational Chapel where he had been a worshipper in his youth. Here he was emphatically at home ; and he took the opportunity (as he often did) to say how little he liked the lionising he was undergoing, and how unexpected all the honours were that had been showered upon him. He had hoped to spend a short and quiet visit, and then return to his African work. It was his sense of the kind- ness shown him, and the desire not to be disobliging, that made him accept the public invitations he was receiving. But he did not wish to take the honour to himself, as if he had achieved anything by his own might or wisdom. He thanked God sincerely for employing him as an instru- ment in His work. One of the greatest honours was to be employed in winning souls to Christ, and proclaiming to the captives of Satan the liberty with which he had come to make them free. He was thankful that to him, "the least of all saints," this honour had been given. He then proceeded to notice the presence of members of various Churches, and to advert to the broadening process that had been going on in his own mind while in Africa, which made him feel himself more than ever the brother of all : " In going about we learn something, and it would be a shame to us if we did not ; and we look back to our own country and view it as a whole, and many of the little feelings we had when immersed in our own denominations we lose, and we look to the whole body of Christians with affection. We rejoice to see them advancing. I believe that every Scotch Christian abroad rejoiced in his heart when he saw the Free Church come boldly out on principle, and I may 1857-58-] FIRST VISIT HOME. 187 say we shall rejoice very much when we see the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church one, as they ought to be. ... I am sure I look on all the different denominations in Hamilton and in Britain with feelings of affection. I cannot say which I love most. I am quite certain I ought not to dislike any of them. Really, perhaps I may be considered a little heterodox ; if I were living in this part of the country I could not pass one Evangelical Church in order to go to my own denomination beyond it. 1 I still think that the different denominational peculiarities have, to a certain degree, a good effect in this country, but I think we ought to be much more careful lest we should appear to our fellow-Chris- tians unchristian, than to appear inconsistent with the denomi- national principles we profess. . . . Let this meeting be the ratifica- tion of the bond of union between my brother 2 and me, and all the denominations of Hamilton. Remember us in your prayers. Bear us on your spirits when we are far away, for when abroad we often feel as if we were forgot by every one. My entreaty to all the Christians of Hamilton is to pray that grace may be given to us to be faithful to our Saviour even unto death." At Blantyre, his native village, the Literary and Scientific Institute gave him a reception, Mr. Hannan, one of the proprietors of the works, a magistrate of Glasgow, and an old acquaintance of Livingstone's, being in the chair. The Doctor was labouring under a cold, the first he had had for sixteen years. He talked to them of his travels, and by particular request gave an account of his encounter with the Mabotsa lion. He ridiculed Mrs. Beecher Stowe's notion that factory-workers were slaves. He counselled them strongly to put more confidence than workmen generally did in the honest good intentions of their em- ployers, reminding them that some time ago, when the Blantyre proprietors had wished to let every workman have a garden, it was said by some that they only wished to bring the ground into good order, and then they would take the garden away. That was nasty and suspicious. If masters were more trusted they would do more good. Finally, he exhorted them cordially to accept God's offers 1 Dr. Livingstone gave practical evidence of his sincerity in these remarks in the case of his elder daughter, saying, in reply to one of her guardians, with whom she was residing, that he had no objections to her joining the Church of Scotland. This however she did not do ; but afterwards, when at Newstead Abbey, she was confirmed by the Bishop of Lincoln, and received the Communion along with her father, who helped to prepare her. 2 Dr. Livingstone had been joined by his brother Charles, who was pre- sent on this occasion. i88 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XL of mercy to them in Christ, and give themselves wholly to Him. To bow down before God was not mean ; it was manly. His one wish for them all was that they might have peace with God, and rejoice in the hope of the eternal inheritance. His remarks to the operatives show how sound and sagacious his views were on social problems ; in this sphere, indeed, he was in advance of the age. The quickness and correctness with which he took up matters of public interest in Britain, 'mastered facts, and came to clear intelligent conclusions on them, was often the astonishment of his friends. It was as if, instead of being buried in Africa, he had been attending the club and reading the daily newspapers for years, this, too, while he was at work writing his book, and delivering speeches almost without end. We find him at this time anticipating the temperan ce coffee-house movement, now so popular and successful. On llth July 1857 he wrote on this subject to a friend, in reference to a proposal to deliver a -lecture in Glasgow. It should be noticed that he never lectured for money, though he might have done so with great pecuniary benefit : " I am thinking of giving or trying to give a lecture by invitation at the Athenaeum. I am offered thirty guineas, and as my old friends the cotton-spinners have invited me to meet them, I think of handing the sum, whatever it may be, to them, or rather letting them take it and fit up a room as a coffee-room on the plan of the French cafes, where men, women, and children may go, instead of to whisky-shops. There are coffee-houses already, but I don't think there are any where they can laugh and talk and read papers just as they please. The sort I contemplate would suit poor young fellows who cannot have a comfortable fire at home. I have seen men dragged into drinking ways from having no comfort at home, and women also drawn to the dram-shop from the same cause. Don't you think something could be done by setting the persons I mention to do something for themselves ? " Edinburgh conferred on Livingstone the freedom of the city, besides entertaining him at a public breakfast and hearing him at another meeting. We are not surprised to find him writing to Sir Roderick Murchison from Rossie Priory, on the 27th September, that he was about to pro- ceed to Leeds, Liverpool, and Birmingham, " and then farewell to public spouting for ever. I am dead tired of it. 1857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 189 The third meeting at Edinburgh quite knocked me up." It was generally believed that his appearances at Edinburgh were not equal to some others; and probably there was truth in the impression, for he must have come to it ex- hausted ; and besides, at a public breakfast, he was put out by a proposal of the chairman, that they should try to get him a pension. Yet some who heard him in Edinburgh received impressions that were never effaced, and it was probable that seed was silently sown which led afterwards to the Scotch Livingstonia Mission one of the most hope- ful schemes for carrying out Livingstone's plans that have yet been organised. Among the other honours conferred on him during this visit to Britain was the degree of D.C.L. from the Univer- sity of Oxford. Some time before, Glasgow had given him the honorary degree of LL.D. In the beginning of 1858, when he was proposed as a Fellow of the Eoyal Society, the certificate on his behalf was signed, among others, by the Earl of Carlisle, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, who after his signature added P.E. (pro Eegina), a thing that had never been done before. The life he was now leading was rather trying. He writes to his friend Mr. Maclear on the 10th November : " I finish my public spouting next week at Oxford. It is really very time-killing this lionising, and I am sure you pity me in it. I hope to leave in January. Wonder if the Portuguese have fulfilled the intention of their Government in supporting my men. ... I shall rejoice when I see you again in the quiet of the Observatory. It is more satisfactory to serve God in peace. May He give His grace and blessing to us all ! I am rather anxious to say something that will benefit the young men at Oxford. They made me a D.C.L. There ! ! Wonder if they would do so to the Editor of the Graliamstown Journal?" Livingstone was not yet done with "public spouting," even after his trip to Oxford. Among the visits paid by him towards the end of 1857, none was more interesting or led to more important results than that to Cambridge. It was on 3d December he arrived there, becoming the guest of the Rev. Wm. Monk of St. John's. Next morning in the senate-house, he addressed a very large audience, con- sisting of graduates and undergraduates and many visitors igo DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XL from the town and neighbourhood. The Vice -Chancellor presided and introduced the stranger. Dr. Livingstone's lecture consisted of facts relating to the country and its people, their habits and religious belief, with some notices of his travels, and an emphatic statement of his great object to promote commerce and Christianity in the country which he had opened. The last part of his lecture was an earnest appeal for missionaries : " It is deplorable to think that one of the noblest of our missionary societies, the Church Missionary Society, is compelled to send to Germany for missionaries, whilst other Societies are amply supplied. Let this stain be wiped off. The sort of men who are wanted for missionaries are such as I see before me : men of education, standing, enterprise, zeal, and piety. ... I hope that many whom I now address will embrace that honourable career. Education has been given us from above for the purpose of bringing to the benighted the knowledge of a Saviour. If you knew the satisfaction of performing such a duty, as well as the gratitude to God which the missionary must always feel, in being chosen for so noble, so sacred a calling, you would have no hesitation in embracing it. "For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back affa small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay ? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the conscious- ness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter ? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought ! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink ; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which HE made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us ; ' who being the brightness of that Father's glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. ' . . . ' ' I beg to direct your attention to Africa : I know that in a few years I shall be cut off in that country, which is now open ; do not let it be shut again ! I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity ; do you carry out the work wliich I have begun. I LEAVE IT WITH YOU ! " In a prefatory letter prefixed to the volume entitled Dr. 1857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 191 Livingstone's Cambridge Lectures, the late Professor Sedgwick remarked, in connection with this event, that in the course of a long academic life he had often been present in the senate-house on exciting occasions ; in the days of Napoleon he had heard the greetings given to our great military heroes ; he had been present at four installation services, the last of which was graced by the presence of the Queen, when her youthful husband was installed as Chancellor, amid the most fervent gratulations that subjects are per- mitted to exhibit in the presence of their Sovereign. But on none of these occasions " were the gratulations of the University more honest and true-hearted than those which were offered to Dr. Livingstone. He came among us with- out any long notes of preparation, without any pageant or eloquence to charm and captivate our senses. He stood before us, a plain, single-minded man, somewhat attenuated by years of toil, and with a face tinged by the sun of Africa , . . 'While we listened to the tale he had to tell, there arose in the hearts of all the listeners a fervent hope that the hand of God which had so long upheld him would uphold him still, and help him to carry out the great work of Christian love that was still before him." Next day, December 5th, Dr. Livingstone addressed a very crowded audience in the Town Hall, the Mayor pre- siding. Referring to his own plans he said ' ' I contend that we ought not to be ashamed of our religion, and liad we not kept this so much out of sight in India, we should not now be in such straits in that country " [referring to the Indian Mutiny]. " Let us appear just what we are. For my own part, I intend to go out as a missionary, and hope boldly, but with civility, to state the truth of Christianity, and my belief that those who do not possess it are in error. My object in Africa is not only the elevation of man, but that the country might be so opened that man might see the need of his soul's salvation. I propose in my next expedition to visit the Zambesi, and propitiate the different chiefs along its banks, endeavouring to induce them to cultivate cotton, and to abolish the slave-trade : already they trade in ivory and gold- dust, and are anxious to extend their commercial operations. There is thus a probability of their interests being linked with ours, and thus the elevation of the African would be the result. ' ' I believe England is alive to her duty of civilising and Christian- ising the heathen. We cannot all go out as missionaries, it is true ; but we may all do something towards providing a substitute. More- over, all may especially do that which every missionary highly prizes, I 9 2 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XI. Viz. COMMEND THE WORK IN THEIR PRAYERS. I HOPE THAT THOSE WHOM I NOW ADDRESS WILL BOTH PRAY FOR, AND HELP THOSE WHO ARE THEIR SUBSTITUTES. " Dr. Livingstone was thoroughly delighted with his reception at Cambridge. Writing to a friend, on 6th December 1857, he says : "Cambridge, as Playfair would say, was grand. It beat Oxford hollow. To make up my library again they subscribed at least forty volumes at once. I shall have reason soon to bless the Boers." Referring to his Cambridge visit a few weeks afterwards, in a letter to Rev. W. Monk, Dr. Livingstone said : " I look back to my visit to Cambridge as one of the most pleasant episodes of my life. I shall always revert with feelings of delight to the short intercourse I enjoyed with such noble Christian men as Sedgwick, Whewell, Selwyn, etc. etc., as not the least important privilege conferred on me by my visit to England. It is something inspiriting to remember that the eyes of such men are upon one's course. May blessings rest upon them all, and on the seat of learning which they adorn !" Among the subjects that had occupied Dr. Livingstone's attention most intensely during the early part of the year 1857 was that of his relation to the London Missionary Society. The impression caused by Dr. Tidman's letter received at Quilimane had been quite removed by personal intercourse with the Directors, who would have been delighted to let Livingstone work in their service in his own way. But with the very peculiar work of exploration and inquiry which he felt that his Master had now placed in his hands, Dr. Livingstone was afraid that his freedom would be restricted by his continuing in the service of the Society, while the Society itself would be liable to suffer from the handle that might be given to contributors to say that it was departing from the proper objects of a missionary body. That in resigning his official connection he acted with a full knowledge of the effect which this might have upon his own character, and his reputation before the Church and the world, is evident from his correspondence with one of his most intimate friends and trusted counsellors, Mr. J. B. Braithwaite, of Lincoln's Inn. Though himself a member of the Society of Friends, Mr. Braithwaite was 1857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 193 desirous that Dr. Livingstone should continue to appear before the public as a Christian minister : " To dissolve thy connection with the Missionary Society would at once place thee before the public in an aspect wholly distinct from that in which thou art at present, and, what is yet more im- portant, would in a greater or less degree, and, perhaps, very gradually and almost insensibly to thyself, turn the current of thy own thoughts and feelings away from those channels of usefulness and service, as a minister of the gospel, with which I cannot doubt thy deepest interest and highest aspirations are inseparably asso- ciated. " On Dr. Livingstone explaining that, while he fully ap- preciated these views, it did not appear to him consistent with duty to be receiving the pay of a working missionary while engaged to a considerable extent in scientific ex- ploration, Mr. Braithwaite expressed anew his sympathy for his feelings, and respect for his decision, but not as one quite convinced : "Thy heart is bound, as I truly believe, in its inmost depths to the service of Christ. This is the ' one thing ' which, through all, it is thy desire to keep in view. And my fear has been lest the severing of thy connection with a recognised religious body should lead any to suppose that thy Christian interests were in the least weakened ; or that thou wast now going forth with any lower aim than the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Such a circum- stance would be deeply to be regretted, for thy character is now, if I may so speak, not thy own, but the common property, in a certain sense, of British Christianity, and anything which tended to lower thy high standing would cast a reflection on the general cause." The result showed that Mr. Braithwaite was right as to the impression likely to be made on the public ; but the contents of this volume amply prove that the impression was wrong. Dr. Livingstone had said at Quilimane that if it were the will of God that he should do the work of exploration and settlement of stations which was indispensable to the opening up of Africa, but which the Directors did not then seem to wish him to undertake, the means would be pro- vided from some other quarter. At the meeting of the British Association in Dublin, a movement was begun for getting the Government to aid him. The proposal was entertained favourably by the Government, and practically 194 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XI. settled before the end of the year. In February 1858, Dr. Livingstone received a formal commission, signed by Lord Clarendon, Foreign Secretary, appointing him Her Majesty's Consul at Quilimane for the Eastern Coast and the inde- pendent districts in the interior, and commander of an expedition for exploring Eastern and Central Africa. Dr. Livingstone accepted the appointment, and during the last part of his stay in England was much engaged in arranging for the expedition. A paddle steamer of light draught was procured for the navigation of the Zambesi, and the various members of the expedition received their appointments. These were Commander Bedingfield, E.N., Naval Officer ; John Kirk, M.D., Botanist and Physician ; Mr. Charles Livingstone, brother of Dr. Livingstone, General Assistant and Secretary ; Mr. Eichard Thornton, Practical Mining Geologist ; Mr. Thomas Baines, Artist and Storekeeper ; and Mr. George Eae, Ship Engineer. All these, and who- ever afterwards might join the expedition, were required to obey Dr. Livingstone's directions as leader. " We managed your affair very nicely," Lord Pahnerston said to Livingstone at a reception at Lady Palmerston's on the 12th December. " Had we waited till the usual time when Parliament should be asked, it would have been too late." Lord Shaftesbury, at the reception, assured him that the country would do everything for him, and con- gratulated him on going out in the way now settled. So did the Lord Chancellor (Cranworth), Sir Culling Eardley, and Mr. Calcraft, M.P. Dr. Livingstone was on the most friendly terms with the Portuguese Ambassador, the Count de Lavradio, who ever avowed the highest respect for himself, and a strong desire to help him in his work. To get this assurance turned into substantial assistance appeared to Livingstone to be of the very highest importance. Unless strong influence were brought to bear on the local Portuguese Governors in Africa, his scheme would be wrecked. The Portuguese Ambassador was then at Lisbon, and Livingstone had resolved to go there, to secure the influence from head- quarters which was so necessary. The Prince Consort had promised to introduce him to his cousin, the King of Por- tugal. There were, however, some obstacles to his going. 1857-58-] FIRST VISIT HOME. 195 Yellow fever was raging at Lisbon, and, moreover, time was precious, and a little delay might lead to the loss of a season on the Zambesi. At Lady Palmerston's reception, Lord Palmerston had said to him that Lord Clarendon might manage the Portuguese affair without his going to Lisbon. A day or two after, Livingstone saw Lord Claren- don, who confirmed Lord Palmerston's opinion, and assured him that when Lavradio returned the affair would be set- tled. The Lisbon journey was accordingly given up. The Count returned to London before Livingstone left, and ex- pressed a wish to send a number of Portuguese agents along with him. But to this both Lord Clarendon and he had the strongest objections, as complicating the expedition. Livingstone was furnished with letters from the Portuguese Government to the local Governors, instructing them to give him all needful help. But when he returned to the Zambesi he found that these public instructions were strangely neutralised and reversed by some unseen process. He himself believed to the last in the honest purpose of the King of Portugal, but he had not the same confidence in the Government. From some of the notes written to him at this time by friends who understood more of diplomacy than he did, we can see that little actual help was expected from the local Governors in the Portuguese settlements, one of these friends expressing the conviction that " the sooner those Portuguese dogs-in-the-manger are eaten up, body and bones, by the Zulu Caffres, the better." The co-operation of Lord Clarendon was very cordial. " He told me to go to "Washington (of the Admiralty) as if all had been arranged, and do everything necessary, and come to him for everything I needed. He repeated, ' Just come here and tell me what you want, and I will give it you.' He was wonderfully kind. I thank God who gives the influence." Among other things, Lord Clarendon wrote an official letter to the chief Sekeletu, thanking him, in the name of the Queen, for his kindness and help to her servant, Dr. Livingstone, explaining the desire of the British nation, as a commercial and Christian people, to live at peace with all and to benefit all ; telling him too what they thought of the slave-trade ; hoping that Sekeletu would help to keep " God's highway," the river Zambesi, as a free 196 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xi. pathway for all nations ; assuring him of friendship and good- will; and respectfully hinting that, "as we have derived all our greatness from the Divine religion we re- ceived from heaven, it will be well if you consider it care- fully when any of our people talk to you about it." Similar letters were written to other chiefs. Most men, after receiving such carte, Handle as Lord Clarendon had given to Livingstone, would have been drawing out plans on a large scale, regardless of expense. Livingstone's ideas were quite in the opposite direction. Instead of having to press Captain Washington, he had to restrain him. The expedition as planned by Washing- ton, with commander and assistant, and a large staff of officers, was too expensive. All that Livingstone wished was a steam launch, with an economic botanist, a prac- tical mining geologist, and an assistant. All was to be plain and practical; nothing was wished for ornament or show. Before we come to the last adieus, it is well to glance at the remarkable effect of Dr. Livingstone's short visit, in connection with his previous labours, on the public opinion of the country in regard to Africa. In the first place, as we have already remarked, there was quite a revolution of ideas as to the interior of the country. It astonished men to find that, instead of a vast sandy desert, it was so rich and productive a land, and merchants came to see that if only a safe and wholesome traffic could be introduced, the result would be hardly less beneficial to them than to the people of Africa. In the second place, a new idea was given of the African people. Caffre wars and other mis- managed enterprises had brought out the wildest aspects of the native character, and had led to the impression that the blacks were just as brutish and ferocious as the tigers and crocodiles among which they lived. But Livingstone showed, as Moffat had showed before him, that, rightly dealt with, they were teachable and companionable, full of respect for the white man, affectionate towards him when he treated them well, and eager to have him dwelling among them. On the slave-trade of the interior he had thrown a ghastly light, although it was reserved to him in his future journeys to make a full exposure of the devil's 1 857-5 8-] FIRST VISIT HOME. 197 work in that infamous traffic. He had thrown light, too, on the structure of Africa, shown where healthy localities were to be found, copiously illustrated its fauna aitd flora, discovered great rivers and lakes, and laid them down on its map with the greatest accuracy ; and he had shown how its most virulent disease might be reduced to the category of an ordinary cold. In conjunction with other great African travellers, he had contributed not a little to the great increase of popularity which had been acquired by the Geographical Society. He had shown abundance of openings for Christian missions from Kuruman to the Zambesi, and from Loanda to Quilimane. He had excited no little compassion for the negro, by vivid pictures of his dark and repulsive life, with so much misery in it and so little joy. In the cause of missions he did not appeal in vain. At the English Universities, young men of ability and promise got new light on the purposes of life, and wondered that they had not thought sooner of offering themselves for such noble work. In Scotland, men like James Stewart, now of Lovedale, were set thinking whether they should not give themselves to Africa, and older men were pondering in what manner the work could be begun. The London Missionary Society, catching up Livingstone's watchword "Onward," were planning a mission at Linyanti, on the banks of the Zambesi. Mr. Moffat was about to pay a visit to the great Mosilikatse, with a view to the commencement of a mission to the Matebele. As for Livingstone himself, his heart was yearning after his friends the Makololo. He had been quite willing to go and be their missionary, but in the meantime other duty called him. Not being aware of any purpose to plant a mission among them, he made an arrangement with his brother-in- law, Mr. John Moffat, to become their missionary. Out of his private resources he promised him 500, for outfit, etc., and 150 a year for five years as salary, besides other sums, amounting in all to 1400. Nearly three years of his own salary as Consul (500) were thus pledged and paid. In one word, Africa, which had long been a symbol of all that is dry and uninviting, suddenly became the most interesting part of the globe. As the time of Dr. Livingstone's departure for Africa G2 198 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xi. drew near, a strong desire arose among many of his friends, chiefly the geographers, to take leave of him in a way that should emphatically mark the strength of their admiration and the cordiality of their good wishes. It was accordingly resolved that he should be invited to a public dinner on the 13th February 1858, and that Sir Roderick Murchison should occupy the chair. On the morning of that day he had the honour of an interview with Her Majesty the Queen. A Scottish correspondent of an American journal, whose letter at other points shows that he had good infor- mation, after referring to the fact that Livingstone was not presented in the usual way, says : " He was honoured by the Queen with a private interview. . . . She sent for Livingstone, who attended Her Majesty at the palace, without ceremony, in his black coat and blue trousers, and his cap surrounded with a stripe of gold lace. This was his usual attire, and the cap had now become the appropriate distinction of one of Her Majesty's consuls, an official position to which the traveller attaches great importance, as giving him consequence in the eyes of the natives, and authority over the members of the expedition. The Queen conversed with him affably for half an hour on the subject of his travels. Dr. Livingstone told Her Majesty that he would now be able to say to the natives that he had seen his chief, his not having done so before having been a constant subject of surprise to the children of the African wilderness. He mentioned to Her Majesty also that the people were in the habit o'f inquiring whether his chief were wealthy ; and that when he assured them she was very wealthy, they would ask how many cows she had got, a ques- tion at which the Queen laughed heartily." In the only notice of this interview which we have found in Livingstone's own writing, he simply says that Her Majesty assured him of her good wishes in his journeys. It was the only interview with his Sovereign he ever had. When he returned in 1864 he said that he would have been pleased to have another, but only if it came naturally, and without his seeking it. The Queen manifested the greatest interest in him, and showed great kindness to his family, when the rumour came of his death. The banquet in Freemasons' Tavern, which it had been intended to limit to 250 guests, overflowed* the allotted bounds, and was attended by upwards of 350, including the Ministers of Sweden and "Norway, and Denmark ; Dukes of Argyll and Wellington ; Earl of Shaftesbury and Earl 1857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 199 Grey; Bishops of Oxford and St. David's; and hosts of other celebrities in almost every department of public life. The feeling was singularly cordial. Sir Roderick rehearsed the services of Livingstone, crowning them, as was his wont, with that memorable act his keeping his promise to his black servants by returning with them from Loanda to the heart of Africa, in spite of all the perils of the way, and all the attractions of England, thereby "leaving for himself in that country a glorious name, and proving to the people of Africa what an English Christian is." Still more, perhaps, did Sir Roderick touch the heart of the audience when he said of Livingstone " that notwithstanding eighteen months of laudation, so justly bestowed on him by all classes of his countrymen, and after receiving all the honours which the Universities and cities of our country could shower upon him, he is still the same honest, true-hearted David Living- stone as when he issued from the wilds of Africa/' It was natural for the Duke of Argyll to recall the fact that Livingstone's family was an Argyllshire one, and it was a happy thought that as Ulva was close to lona " that illus- trious island," as Dr. Samuel Johnson called it, "whence roving tribes and rude barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion," so might the son of Ulva carry the same blessings to Africa, and be remem- bered, perhaps, by millions of the human race as the first pioneer of civilisation, and the first harbinger of the gospel. It was graceful in the Bishop of Oxford (Samuel Wilber- force) to advert to the debt of unparalleled magnitude which England, founder of the accursed slave-trade, owed to Africa, and to urge the immediate prosecution of Living- stone's plans, inasmuch as the spots in Africa, where the so-called Christian trader had come, were marked, more than any other, by crime and distrust, and insecurity of life and property. It was a good opportunity for Professor Owen to tell the story of the spiral tusk, to rehearse some remarkable instances of Livingstone's accurate observations and happy conjectures on the habits of animals, to rate him for destroying the moral character of the lion, and to claim credit to himself for having discovered, in the bone caves of England, the remains of an animal of greater bulk than any living species, that may have possessed all the qualities 200 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xi. which the most ardent admirer of the British lion could desire ! l On no topic was the applause of the company more enthusiastic than when mention was made of Mrs. Living- stone, who was then preparing to accompany her husband on his journey. Livingstone's own words to the company were simple and hearty, but they were the words of truth and soberness. He was overwhelmed with the kindness he had experienced. He did not expect any speedy result from the expedition, but he was sanguine as to its ultimate benefit. He thought they would get in the thin end of the wedge, and that it would be driven home by English energy and spirit. For himself, with all eyes resting upon him, he felt under an obligation to do better than he had ever done. And as to Mrs. Livingstone "It is scarcely fair to ask a man to praise his own wife, but I can only say that when I parted from her at the Cape, telling her that I should return in two years, and when it happened that I was absent four years and a half, I supposed that I should appear before her with a damaged character. I was, however, forgiven. My wife, who has always been the main spoke in my wheel, will accompany me in this expedition, and will be most useful to me. She is familiar with the languages of South Africa. She is able to work. She is willing to endure, and she well knows that in that country one must put one's hand to everything. In the country to which I am about to proceed she knows that at the missionary's station the wife must be the maid-of -all-work within, while the husband must be the jack- of-all-trades without, and glad am I indeed that I am to be accompanied by my guardian angel." Of the many letters of adieu he received before setting out we have space for only two. The first came from the venerable Professor Sedgwick, of Cambridge, in the form of an apology for inability to attend the farewell banquet. It is a beautiful unfolding of the head and heart of the Christian philosopher, and must have been singularly wel- come to Livingstone, whose views on some of the greatest subjects of thought were in thorough harmony with those of his friend : "Cambridge, February 10, 1858. MY DEAK SIR, Your kind and 1 Livingstone purposed to bequeath to Professor Owen a somewhat ex- traordinary legacy. Writing afterwards to his friend Mr. Young, he said : " If I die at home I would lie beside you. My left arm goes to Professor Owen, mind. That is the will of David Livingstone." 1857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 201 very welcome letter came to me yesterday ; and I take the first moment of leisure to thank you for it, and to send you a few more words of good-will, along with my prayers that God may, for many years, prolong your life and the lives of those who are most near and dear to you, and that He may support you in all coming trials, and crown with a success, far transcending your own hopes, your endea- vours for the good of our poor humble fellow-creatures in Africa. " There is but one God, the God who created all worlds and the natural laws whereby they are governed ; and the God of revealed truth, who tells us of our destinies in an eternal world to come. All truth of whatever kind has therefore its creator in the will and essence of that great God who created all things, moral and natural. Great and good men have long upheld this grand conclusion. But, alas ! such is too often our bigotry, or ignorance, or selfishness, that we try to divorce religious and moral from natural truth, as if theywere inconsistent and in positive antagonism one to the other, a true Catholic spirit (oh that the word ' catholic ' had not been so horribly abused by the foul deeds of men), teaching us that all truths are linked together, and that all art and science, and all material dis- coveries (each held in its proper place and subordination), may be used to minister to the diffusion of Christian truth among men, with all its blessed fruits of peace and good-will. This is, I believe, your faith, as I see it shining out in your deeds, and set forth in the pages of your work on Southern Africa, which I have studied from beginning to end with sentiments of reverence and honour for the past, and good hopes for the future. " What a glorious prospect is before you ! the commencement of the civilisation of Africa, the extension of our knowledge of all the kingdoms of nature, the production of great material benefits to the old world, the gradual healing of that foul and fetid ulcer the slave- trade, the one grand disgrace and weakness of Christendom, and that has defiled the hands of all those who have had any dealings with it ; and last, but not least nay, the greatest of all, and the true end of all the lifting up of the poor African from the earth, the turning his face heavenwards, and the glory of at length (after all his sufferings and all our sins) calling him a Christian brother. May our Lord and Saviour bless your labours, and may His Holy Spirit be with you to the end of your life upon this troubled world ! "I am an old man, and I shall (so far as I am permitted to look at the future) never see your face again. If I live till the 22d of March I shall have ended my 73d year, and not only from what we all know from the ordinary course of nature, but from what I my- self know and feel from the experience of the two past years, I am assured that I have not long to live. How long, God only knows. It grieves me not to have seen you again in London, and I did hope that you might yourself introduce me to your wife and children. I hear that a farewell dinner is to be given you on Saturday, and greatly should I rejoice to be present on that occasion, and along with many other true-hearted friends wish you 'God-speed.' But it must not be. I am not a close prisoner to my room, as I was some weeks past, but I am still on the sick list, and dare not expose 202 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xi. myself to any sudden change of temperature, or to the excitement of a public meeting. This is one of the frailties of old age and infirm health. I have gone on writing and writing more than I intended. Once for all, God bless you ! and pray (though I do not personally know them) give my best and Christian love to your dear wife (Ma- Robert she was called, I think, in Africa) and children. Ever gratefully and affectionately yours, A. SEDGWICK. " Sir Roderick, too, had a kind parting word for his friend : " Accept my warmest acknowledgments for your last farewell note. Believe me, my dear friend, that no transaction in my somewhat long and very active life has so truly rewarded me as my intercourse with you, for, from the beginning to the end, it has been one continued bright gleam." To this note Livingstone, as was his wont, made a hearty and Christian response : " Many blessings be on you and yours, and if we never meet again on earth, may we through infinite mercy meet in heaven !" The last days in England were spent in arrangements for the expedition, settling family plans, and bidding fare- well. Mrs. Livingstone accompanied her husband, along with Oswell, their youngest child. Dr. Livingstone's heart was deeply affected in parting with his other children. Amid all the hurry and bustle of leaving he snatches a few minutes almost daily for a note to one or more of them : "London, 2d February 1858. MY DEAR TOM, I am soon going off from this country, and will leave you to the care of Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and never disappointed any one who put his trust in Him. If you make Him your friend He will be better to you than any companion can be. He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 'May He grant you grace to seek Him and to serve Him. I have nothing better to say to you than to take God for your Father, Jesus for your Saviour, and the Holy Spirit for your sanctifier. Do this and you are safe for ever. No evil can then befall you. Hope you will learn quickly and well, so as to be fitted for God's service in the world." "'Ptarl,' in the Mersey, Wth March 1858. MY DEAR TOM, We are off again, and we trust that He who rules the waves will watch over us and remain with you, to bless us and make us blessings to our fellow-men. The Lord be with you and be very gracious to you ! Avoid and hate sin, and cleave to Jesus as your Saviour from guilt. Tell grandma we are off again, and Janet will tell all about us." In his letters to his children from first to last, the counsel most constantly and most earnestly pressed is, to 1857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 203 take Jesus for their friend. The personal Saviour is continually present to his heart, as the one inestimable treasure which he longs for them to secure. That treasure had been a source of unspeakable peace and joy to himself amid all the trials and troubles of his chequered life ; if his children were only in friendship with Him, he could breathe freely in leaving them, and feel that they would indeed FARE WELL. CHAPTER XII. THE ZAMBESI, AND FIRST EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. A.D. 1858-1859. ON the 10th March 1858, Dr. Livingstone, accompanied by Mrs. Livingstone, their youngest son, Oswell, and the members of his expedition, sailed from Liverpool on board Her Majesty's colonial steamer, the " Pearl," which carried the sections of the "Ma-Robert," the steam launch with Mrs. Livingstone's African name, which was to be per- manently used in the exploration of the Zambesi and its tributaries. At starting, the " Pearl " had fine weather and a favourable wind, and quickly ran down the Channel, and across the Bay of Biscay. With that business-like precision which characterised him, Livingstone, as soon as sea-sickness was over, had the instructions of the Foreign Office read in presence of all the members of the Expedi- tion, and he afterwards wrote out, and delivered to each person, a specific statement of the duties expected of him. In these very characteristic papers, it is interesting to observe that his first business was to lay down to each man his specific work, this being done for the purpose of avoiding confusion and collision, acknowledging each man's gifts, and making him independent in his own sphere. While no pains were to be spared to make the expedition successful in its scientific and commercial aims, and while, 204 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xn. for this purpose, great stress was laid on the subsidiary instructions prepared by Professor Owen, Sir W. Hooker, and Sir K. Murchison, Dr. Livingstone showed still more earnestness in urging duties of a higher class, giving to all the same wise, and most Christian counsel to maintain the moral of the expedition at the highest point, especially in dealing with the natives : "You will understand that Her Majesty's Government attach more importance to the moral influence which may be exerted on the minds of the natives by a well-regulated and orderly household of Europeans, setting an example of consistent moral conduct to all who may congregate around the settlement ; treating the people with kindness, and relieving their wants ; teaching them to make experiments in agriculture, explaining to them the more simple arts, imparting to them religious instruction, as far as they are capable of receiving it, and inculcating peace and good-will to each other. " The expedition is well supplied with arms and ammunition, and it will be necessary to use these in order to obtain supplies of food, as well as to procure specimens for the purposes of Natural History. In many parts of the country which we hope to traverse, the larger animals exist in great numbers, and, being comparatively tame, may be easily shot. I would earnestly press on every member of the expedition a sacred regard to life, and never to destroy it unless some good end is to be answered by its extinction ; the wanton waste of animal life which I have witnessed from night-hunting, and from the ferocious, but childlike, abuse of the instruments of destruction in the hands of Europeans, makes me anxious that this expedition should not be guilty of similar abominations. " It is hoped that we may never have occasion to use our arms for protection from the natives, but the best security from attack consists in upright conduct, and the natives seeing that we are pre- pared to meet it. At the same time, you are strictly enjoined to exercise the greatest forbearance towards the people ; and, while retaining proper firmness in the event of any misunderstanding, to conciliate, as far as possibly can be done with safety to our party. "It is unnecessary for me to enjoin the strictest justice in deal- ing with the natives. This your own principles will lead you invariably to follow, but while doing so yourself, it is decidedly necessary to be careful not to appear to overreach or insult any one by the conduct of those under your command. . . . " The chiefs of tribes and leading men of villages ought always to be treated with respect, and nothing should be done to weaken their authority. Any present of food should be accepted frankly, as it is impolitic to allow the ancient custom of feeding strangers to go into disuse. We come among them as members of a superior race, and servants of a Government that desires to elevate the more degraded portions of *he human family. We are adherents of a 1858-59-] THE ZAMBESI. 205 benign, holy religion, and may, by consistent conduct, and wise, patient efforts, become the harbingers of peace to a hitherto dis- tracted and trodden down race. No great result is ever attained without patient, long-continued effort. In the enterprise in which we have the honour to be engaged, deeds of sympathy, considera- tion, and kindness, which, when viewed in detail, may seem thrown away, if steadily persisted in, are sure, ultimately, to exercise a commanding influence. Depend upon it, a kind word or deed is never lost." Evidently, Dr. Livingstone felt himself in a difficult position at the head of this enterprise. He was aware of the trouble that had usually attended civil as contrasted with naval and military expeditions, from the absence of that habit of discipline and obedience which is so firmly established in the latter services. He had never served under Her Majesty's Government himself, nor had he been accustomed to command such men as were now under him, and there were some things in his antecedents that made the duty peculiarly difficult. On one thing only he was resolved : to do his own duty to the utmost, and to spare no pains to induce every member of the expedition to do his. It was impossible for him not to be anxious as to how the team would pull together, especially as he knew well the influence of a malarious atmosphere in causing intense irritability of temper. In some respects, though not the most obvious, this was the most trying period of his life. His letters and other written papers show one little but not uninstructive effect of the pressure and distraction that now came on him in the great change which his hand- writing underwent : the neat, regular writing of his youth giving place to a large and heavyish hand, as if he had never had time to mend his pen, and his only thought had been how to get on most quickly. Yet we see also, very clearly, how nobly he strove after self-control and concilia- tory ways. The tone of courtesy, the recognition of each man's independence in his own sphere, and the appeal to his good sense and good feeling, apparent in the instruc- tions, show a studious desire, while he took and intended to keep his place as Commander, to conceal the symbols of authority, and bind the members of the party together as a band of brothers. And though in his published book, The Zambesi and its Tributaries, which was mainly a report 206 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xn. of his doings to the Government and the nation, he con- fined himself to the matters with which he had been intrusted by them, there are many little proofs of his seeking wisdom and strength from above with undimin- ished earnestness, and of his striving, as much as ever, to do all to the glory of God. As the swift motion of the ship bears him farther and farther from home, he cannot but think of his orphan children. As they near Sierra Leone, on the 25th March, he sends a few lines to his eldest son : "MY PEAR ROBERT, We have been going at the rate of 200 miles a day ever since we left Liverpool, and have been much favoured by a kind Providence in the weather. Poor Oswell was sorely sick while rolling through the Bay of Biscay, and ate nothing for about three days ; but we soon got away from the ice and snow to beautiful summer weather, and we are getting nicely thawed. We sleep with all our port-holes open, and are glad of the awning by day. At night we see the Southern Cross ; and the Pole Star, which stands so high over you, is here so low we cannot see it for the haze. We shall not see it again, but the same almighty gracious Father is over all, and is near to all who love Him. You are now alone in the world, and must seek His friendship and guidance, for if you do not lean on Him, you will go astray, and find that the way of transgressors is hard. The Lord be gracious to you, and accept you, though unworthy of His favour. " Sierra Leone was reached in a fortnight. Dr. Living- stone was gratified to learn that, during the last ten years, the health of the town had improved greatly consequent on the abatement of the " whisky fever," and the draining and paving of the streets through the activity of Governor Hill. He found the Sunday as well kept as in Scotland, and was sure that posterity would acknowledge the great good which the operations of the English Squadron on the one hand and the various Christian missions on the other had effected. He was more than ever convinced, notwithstanding all that had been said against it, that the English Squadron had been a great blessing on the West Coast. The Christian missions, too, that had been planted under the protection of the Squadron, were an evidence of its beneficial influence. He used constantly to refer with intense gratitude to the work of Lord Palmerston in this cause, and to the very end of his life his Lordship was among the men whose memory he most highly honoured. 1858-59-] THE ZAMBESI. 207 Often, when he wished to describe his aim briefly, in regard to slavery, commerce, and missions, he would say it was to do on the East Coast what had been done on the West. At Sierra Leone a crew of twelve Kroomen was engaged and taken on board for the navigation of the " Ma-Robert," after it should reach the Zambesi. On their leaving Sierra Leone, the weather became very rough, and from the state of Mrs. Livingstone's health, inclining very much to fever, it was deemed necessary that she, with Oswell, should be left at the Cape, go to Kuruman for a time, and after her coming confinement, join her husband on the Zambesi in 1860. " This," says Livingstone in his Journal, " is a great trial to me, for had she come on with us, she might have proved of essential service to the expedition in case of sickness or otherwise ; but it may all turn out for the best." It was the first disappointment, and it was but partially balanced by his learning from Dr. Moffat, who, with his wife, met them at the Cape, that he had made out his visit to Mosilikatse, and had learned that the men whom Livingstone had left at Tette had not returned home, so that they would still be waiting for him there. He knew of what value they would be to him in explain- ing his intentions to the natives. From Sir George Grey, the excellent Governor of the Cape, and the inhabitants of Cape Town generally, the expedition met with an un- usually cordial reception. At a great meeting at the Exchange, a silver box containing a testimonial of eight hundred guineas was presented to Livingstone by the Governor ; and two days after, a grand dinner was given to the members of the expedition, the Attorney-General being in the chair. Mr. Maclear was most enthusiastic in the reception of his friend, and at the public meeting had so much to say about him that he could hardly be brought to a close. It must have been highly amusing to Living- stone to contrast Cape Town in 1852 with Cape Town in 1858. In 1852, he was so suspected that he could hardly get a pound of gunpowder or a box of caps while preparing for his unprecedented journey, and he had to pay a heavy fine to get rid of a cantankerous postmaster. Now he returns with the Queen's gold band round his cap, and with brighter decorations round his name than Sovereigns 2o8 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xn. can give ; and all Cape Town hastens to honour him. It was a great victory, as it was also a striking illustration of the world's ways. It is not our object to follow Dr. Livingstone into all the details of his expedition, but merely to note a few of the more salient points, in connection with the oppor- tunities it afforded for the achievement of his object and the development of his character. It may be well to note here generally how the years were occupied. The remainder of 1858 was employed in exploring the mouths of the Zam- besi, and the river itself up to Tette and the Kebrabasa Rapids, a few miles beyond. Next year 1859 was de- voted mainly to three successive trips on the river Shire", the third being signalised by the discovery of Lake Nyassa. In 1860, Livingstone went back with his Makololo up the Zambesi to the territories of Sekel6tu. In 1861, after exploring the river Rovuma, and assisting Bishop Mac- kenzie to begin the Universities' Mission, he started for Lake Nyassa, returning to the ship towards the end of the year. In 1862 occurred the death of the Bishop and other missionaries, and also, during a detention at Shupanga, the death of Mrs. Livingstone : in the latter part of the year Livingstone again explored the Rovuma. In 1863 he was again exploring the Shir6 valley and Lake Nyassa, when an order came from Her Majesty's Government, recalling the expedition. In 1864 he started in the "Lady Nyassa" for Bombay, and thence returned to England. On the 1st May 1858 the " Pearl " sailed from Simon's Bay, and on the 14th stood in for the entrance to the Zambesi, called the West Luabo, or Hoskins' Branch. Of their progress Dr. Livingstone gives his impressions in the following letter to his friend Mr. James Young : " ' PEARL,' IQth May 1858 " Here we are, off Cape Corrientes (' Whaur's that, I wonner ?'), and hope to be off the Luabo four days hence. We have been most remarkably favoured in the weather, and it is well, for had our ship been in a gale with all this weight on her deck, it would have been perilous. Mrs. Livingstone was sea-sick all the way from Sierra Leone, and got as thin as a lath. As this was accom- panied by fever I was forced to run into Table Bay, and when I got ashore I found her father and mother down all the way fromKuru- man to see us and hlp the young missionaries, whom the London 1858-59-] THE ZAMBESI. 209 Missionary Society has not yet sent. Glad, of course, to see the old couple again. We had a grand to-do at the Cape. Eight hundred guineas were presented in a silver box by the hand of the Governor, Sir George Grey, a fine fellow. Sure, no one might be more thankful to the Giver of all than myself. The Lord grant me grace to serve Him with heart and soul the only return I can make ! ... It was a bitter parting with my wife, like tearing the heart out of one. It was so unexpected ; and now we are screwing away up the coast. . . . We are all agreeable yet, and all looking forward with ardour to our enterprise. It is likely that I shall come down with the ' Pearl ' through the Delta to doctor them if they become ill, and send them on to Ceylon with a blessing. All have behaved well, and I am really thankful to see it, and hope that God will graciously make some better use of us in promoting His glory. I met a Dr. King in Simon's Bay, of the ' Cambrian' frigate, one of our class-mates in the Andersonian. This frigate, by the way, saluted us handsomely when we sailed out. We have a man-of-war to help us (the ' Hermes'), but the lazy muff is far behind. He is, however, to carry our despatches to Quilimane. ..." A letter to Dr. Moffat lets us know in what manner he was preparing to teach the twelve Kroomen who were to navigate the " Ma-Eobert," and his old Makololo men : " First of all, supposing Mr. Skead should take this back by the ' Hermes ' in time to catch you at the Cape, would you be kind enough to get a form of prayer printed for me ? We have twelve Kroomen, who seem docile and willing to be taught ; when we are parted from the ' Pearl ' we shall have prayers with them every morning. ... I think it will be an advantage to have the prayers in Sichuana when my men join us, and if we have a selection from the English Litany, with the Lord's Prayer in Sichuana, all may join. Will you translate it, beginning at ' Remember not, Lord, our offences,' up to ' the right way '? Thence, petition for chiefs, and on to the end. . . . The Litany need not be literal. I suppose you are not a rabid nonconformist, or else I would not venture to ask this. ..." By the time they reached the mouth of the Zambesi, Livingstone was suffering from a severe attack of diarrhoea. On the 16th of May, being Sunday, while still suffering, he deemed it a work of necessity, in order to get as soon as possible out of the fever-breeding region of mangrove swamps where they had anchored, that they should at once remove the sections of the "Ma-Eobert" from the "Pearl;" accordingly, with the exception of the time oc- cupied in the usual prayers, that day was spent in labour. His constant regard for the day of rest, and great unwilling- ness to engage in labour then, is the best proof that on 210 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. * this occasion the necessity for working was to his mind absolutely irresistible. He had found that active exercise every day was one of the best preventives of fever ; cer- tainly it is very remarkable how thoroughly the men of the expedition escaped it at this time. In his Journal he says : " After the experience gained by Dr. M'William, and communicated to the world in his admirable Medical History of the Niger Expedition, I should have considered myself personally guilty had any of the crew of the ' Pearl ' or of the expedition been cut off through delay in the mangrove swamps." Afterwards, when Mrs. Living- stone died during a long but unavoidable delay at Shu- panga, a little farther up, he was more than ever convinced that he had acted rightly. But some of his friends were troubled, and many reflections were thrown on him, especially by those who bore him no good-will. The first important fact in the history of the expedition was the discovery of the advantages of the Kongone entrance of the Zambesi, the best of all the mouths of the river for navigation. Soon after, a site was fixed on as a depot, and while the luggage and stores were being landed at it, there occurred an unfortunate collision with the naval officer, who tendered his resignation. At first Livingstone declined to accept of it, but on its being tendered a second tune he allowed the officer to go. It vexed him to the last degree to have this difference so early, nor did he part with the officer without much forbearance and anxiety to ward off the breach. In his despatches to Government the whole circumstances were fully detailed. Letters to Mr. Maclear and other private friends give a still more detailed narra- tive. In a few quarters blame was cast upon him, and in the Cape newspapers the affair was much commented on. In due time there came a reply from Lord Malmesbury, then Foreign Secretary, dated 26th April 1859, to the effect that after full inquiry by himself, and after consulting with the Admiralty, his opinion was chat the officer had failed to clear himself, and that Dr. Livingstone's proceed- ings were fully approved. Livingstone had received autho- rity to stop the pay of any member of the expedition that should prove unsatisfactory ; this, of course, subjected hv conduct to the severer criticism- 3858-59-] THE ZAMBESI, 211 When the officer left, Livingstone calmly took his place, adding the charge of the ship to his other duties. This step would appear alike rash and presumptuous, did we not know that he never undertook any work without full deliberation, and did we not remember that in the course of three sea-voyages which he had performed he had had opportunities of seeing how a ship was managed oppor- tunities of which no doubt, with his great activity of mind, he had availed himself most thoroughly. The facility with which he could assume a new function, and do its duties as if he had been accustomed to it all his life, was one of the most remarkable things about him. His chief regret in taking the new burden was, that it would limit his inter- course with the natives, and prevent him from doing as much missionary work as he desired. Writing soon after to Miss Whately of Dublin, he says : "It was imagined we could not help ourselves, but I took the task of navigating on myself, and have conducted the steamer over 1600 miles, though as far as my likings go I would as soon drive a cab in November fogs in London, as be ' skipper ' in this hot sun ; but I shall go through with it as a duty." To his friend Mr. Young he makes humorous reference to his awkwardness in nautical language : "My great difficulty is calling out 'starboard' when I mean 'port,' and feeling crusty when I see the helmsman putting the helm the wrong way." Another difficulty arose from the state of the country, north of the Zambesi, in consequence of the natives having rebelled against the Portuguese and being in a state of war. Livingstone was cautioned that he would be attacked if he ventured to penetrate into the country. He resolved to keep out of the quarrel, but to push on in spite of it. At one time, his party, being mistaken for Portuguese, were on the point of being fired on, but on Livingstone shouting out that they were English the natives let them alone. On reaching Tette he found his old followers in ecstasies at seeing him ; the Portuguese Government had done nothing for them, but Major Sicard, the excellent Governor of Tette, had helped them to find employment and maintain themselves. Thirty had died of small-pox ; six had been killed by an unfriendly chief. When the survivors saw 212 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xn. Dr. Livingstone they said : " The Tette people often taunted us by saying, ' Your Englishman will never return ; ' but we trusted you, and now we shall sleep." It gave Livingstone a new hold on them and on the natives generally, that he had proved true to his promise, and had come back as he had said. As the men had found ways of living at Tette, Livingstone was not obliged to take them to their home immediately. One of his first endeavours after reaching Tette was to ascertain how far the navigation of the Zambesi was im- peded by the rapids at Kebrabasa, between twenty and thirty miles above Tette, which he had heard of but not seen on his journey from Linyanti to Quilimane. The distance was short and the enterprise apparently easy, but in reality it presented such difficulties as only his dogged perseverance could have overcome. After he had been twice at the rapids, and when he believed he had seen the whole, he accidentally learned, after a day's march on the way home, that there was another rapid which he had not yet seen. Determined to see all, he returned, with Dr. Kirk and four Makololo, and it was on this occasion that his followers, showing the blisters on their feet burst by the hot rocks, told him, when he urged them to make another effort, that hitherto they had always believed he had a heart, but now they saw he had none, and wondered if he were mad. Leaving them,, he and Dr. Kirk pushed on alone ; but their boots and clothes were destroyed ; in three hours they made but a mile. Next day, however, they gained their point and saw the rapid. It was plain to Dr. Livingstone that had he taken this route in 1856, instead of through the level Shidina country, he must have perished. The party were of opinion that when the river was in full flood, the rapids might be navigated, and this opinion was confirmed on a subsequent visit paid by Mr. Charles Livingstone and Mr. Baines during the rainy season. But the " Ma-Kobert " with its single engine had not power to make way. It was resolved to apply to Her Majesty's Government for a more suitable vessel to carry them up the country, stores and all. Until the answer should come to this application, Dr. Livingstone could not return with his Makololo to their own country. 1858-59-] EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. 213 While making this application, he was preparing another string for his bow. He wrote to his friend, Mr. James Young, that if Government refused, he would get a vessel at his own expense, and in a succession of letters authorised him to spend 2000 of his own money in the purchase of a suitable ship. Eventually, both suggestions were carried into effect. The Government gave the "Pioneer" for the navigation of the Zambesi and lower Shire" ; Livingstone procured the " Lady Nyassa " for the Lake (where, however, she never floated), but the cost was more than 6000 the greater part, indeed, of the profits of his book. The " Ma-Eobert," which had promised so well at first, now turned out a great disappointment. Her consumption of fuel was enormous ; her furnace had to be lighted hours before the steam was serviceable ; she snorted so horribly that they called her "The Asthmatic," and after all she made so little progress that canoes could easily pass her. Having taken much interest in the purchase of the vessel, and thought he was getting a great bargain because its owner professed to do so much through " love of the cause," Livingstone was greatly mortified when he found he had got an inferior and unworthy article ; and many a joke he made, as well as remarks of a more serious kind, in connec- tion with the manner which the " eminent shipbuilder" had taken to show his love. Early in 1859 the exploration of the Shir6 was begun a river hitherto absolutely unknown. The country around was rich and fertile, the natives not unfriendly, but sus- picious. They had probably never been visited before but l>y man-stealers, and had never seen Europeans. The Shire" valley was inhabited by the Manganja, a very war- like race. Some days' journey above the junction with the Zambesi, where the Shire issues from the mountains, the progress of the party was stopped by rapids, to which they gave the name of the "Murchison Cataracts." It seemed in vain to penetrate among the people at that time without supplies, considering how suspicious they were. Crowds went along the banks watching them by day; they had guards over them all night, and these were always ready with their bows and poisoned arrows. Nevertheless, some progress was made in civilising them, and at a 2i4 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xn. future time it was hoped that further exploration might take place. Some passages in Livingstone's private Journal give us a glimpse of the more serious thoughts that were passing through his mind at this time : "March 3, 1859. If we dedicate ourselves to God unreservedly He will make use of whatever peculiarities of constitution He has imparted for His own glory, and He will in answer to prayer give wisdom to guide. He will so guide as to make useful. O how far am I from that hearty devotion to God I read of in others ! The Lord have mercy on me a sinner ! " "March 5th. A woman left Tette yesterday with a cargo of slaves (20 men and 40 women) in irons to sell to St. Cruz [a trader], for exportation at Bourbon. Francisco at Shupanga is the great receiver for Cruz. This is carnival, and it is observed chiefly as a drinking feast. " "March 6th. Teaching Makololo Lord's Prayer and Creed. Prayers as usual at 9 A.M. When employed in active travel, my mind becomes inactive, and the heart cold and dead, but after remaining some time quiet, the heart revives, and I become more spiritually-minded. This is a mercy which I have experienced before, and when I see a matter to be duty I go on regardless of my feelings. I do trust that the Lord is with me, though the mind is engaged in other matters than the spiritual. I want my whole life to be out and out for the Divine glory, and my earnest prayer is that God may accept what His own Spirit must have implanted the desire to glorify Him. I have been more than usually drawn out in earnest prayer of late for the expedition for my family the fear lest 's misrepresentation may injure the cause of Christ the hope that I may be permitted to open this dark land to the blessed gospel. I have cast all before my God. Good Lord, have mercy upon me. Leave me not, nor forsake me. He has guided well in time past. I commit my way to Him for the future. All I have received has come from Him. Will He be pleased in mercy to use me for His glory ? I have prayed for this, and Jesus himself said, 'Ask, and ye shall receive,' and a host of statements to the same effect. There is a great deal of trifling frivolousness in not trusting in God. Not trusting in Him who is truth itself, faithfulness, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ! It is presumption not to trust in Him implicitly, and yet this heart is sometimes fearfully guilty of distrust. I am ashamed to think of it. Ay ; but He must put the trusting, loving, childlike spirit in by His grace. O Lord, I am Thine, truly I am Thine take me do what seemeth good in Thy sight with me, and give me complete resignation to Thy will in all things. " Two months later (May 1859), a second ascent of the Shire was performed, and friendly relations were established with a clever chief named Chibisa, " a jolly person, who 1858-59-] EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. 215 laughs easily which is always a good sign." Chibisa believed firmly in two things the divine right of kings, and the impossibility that Chibisa should ever be in the wrong. He told them that bis father had imparted an influence to him, which had come in by his head, whereby every person that heard him speak respected him greatly. Livingstone evidently made a great impression on Chibisa ; like other chiefs, he began to fall under the spell of his influence. Making a detour to the east, the travellers now discovered Lake Shirwa, "a magnificent inland lake." This lake was absolutely unknown to the Portuguese, who, indeed, were never allowed by the natives to enter the Shire\ Living- stone had often to explain that he and his party were not Portuguese but British. After discovering this lake, the party returned to the ship, and then sailed to the Kongone harbour, in hopes of meeting a man-of-war, and obtaining provisions. In this, however, they were disappointed. Some idea of the voluminous correspondence carried on by Dr. Livingstone may be formed from the following enumeration of the friends to whom he addressed letters in May of this year : Lords Clarendon and Palmerston, Bishop of Oxford, Miss Burdett Coutts, Mr. Venn, Lord Kinnaird, Mr. James Wilson, Mr. Oswell, Colonel Steele, Dr. Newton of Philadelphia, his brother John in Canada, J. B. and C. Braithwaite, Dr. Andrew Smith, Admiral R Grey, Sir R. Murchison, Captain Washington, Mr. Maclear, Professor Owen, Major Vardon, Mrs. Livingstone, Viscount Goderich. Here is the account he gave of his proceedings to his little daughter Agnes : " River Shird, 1st June 1859. We have been down to the mouth of the river Zambesi in expectation of meeting a man-of-war with salt provisions, but, none appearing on the day appointed, we con- clude that the Admiral has not /received my letters in time to send her. We have no post-office here, so we buried a bottle containing a letter on an island in the entrance to Kongone harbour. This we told the Admiral we should do in case of not meeting a cruiser, and whoever comes will search for our bottle and see another appoint- ment for 30th of July. This goes with despatches by way of Quilimane, and I hope some day to get from you a letter by the same route. We have got no news from home since we left Liver- pool, and we long now to hear how all goes on in Europe and in 2i6 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xn. India. I am now on my way to Tette, but we ran up the Shir6 some forty miles to buy rice for our company. Uncle Charles is there. He has had some fever, but is better. We left him there about two months ago, and Dr. Kirk and I, with some fifteen Makololo, ascended this river one hundred miles in the ' Ma-Robert, ' then left the vessel and proceeded beyond that on foot till we had discovered a magnificent lake called Shirwa (pronounced Shurwah). It was very grand, for we could not see the end of it, though some way up a mountain ; and all around it are mountains much higher than any you see in Scotland. One mountain stands in the lake, .and people live on it. Another called Zomba is more than six thousand feet high, and people live on it too, for we could see their gardens on its top, which is larger than from Glasgow to Hamilton, or about from fifteen to eighteen miles. The country is quite a highland region, and many people live in it. Most of them were afraid of us. The women ran into their huts and shut the doors. The children screamed in terror, and even the hens would fly away and leave their chickens. I suppose you would be frightened too if you saw strange creatures, say a lot of Trundlemen, like those on the Isle of Man pennies, come whirling up the street. No one was impudent to "us except some slave-traders, but they became civil as soon as they learned we were English and not Portuguese. We saw the sticks they employ for training any one whom they have just bought. One is about eight feet long, the head, or neck rather, is put into the space be- tween the dotted lines and shaft, and another slave carries the end. When they are considered tame they are allowed to go in chains. " I am working in the hope that in the course of time this horrid system may cease. All the country we travelled through is capable of growing cotton and sugar, and the people now cultivate a good deal. They would grow much more if they could only sell it. At present we in England are the mainstay of slavery in America and elsewhere by buying slave -grown produce. Here there are hundreds of miles of land lying waste, and so rich that the grass towers far over one's head in walking. You cannot see where the narrow paths end, the grass is so tall, and overhangs them so. If our countrymen were here they would soon render slave-buying unprofitable. Per- haps God, may honour us to open up the way for this. My heart is sore when I think of so many of our countrymen in poverty and misery, while they might be doing so much good to themselves and others where our Heavenly Father has so abundantly provided fruitful hills and fertile valleys. If our people were out here they would not need to cultivate little snatches by the side of railways as they do. But all is in the hands of the all-wise Father. We must trust that He will bring all out right at last. "My dear Agnes, you 'must take Him to be your Father and Ouide. Tell Him all that is in your heart, and make Him your 1858-59-] EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. 217 confidant. His ear is ever open, and He despiseth not the humblest sigh. He is your best Friend, and loves at all times. It is not enough to be a servant, you must be a friend of Jesus. Love Him and surrender your entire being to Him. The more you trust Him, casting all your care upon Him, the more He is pleased, and He will so guide you that your life will be for His own glory. The Lord be with you ! My kind love to grandma and to all your friends. I hope your eyes are better, and that you are able to read books for yourself. Tell Tom that we caught a young elephant in coming down the Shire, about the size of the largest dog he ever saw, but one of the Makololo, in a state of excitement, cut its trunk, so that it bled very much, and died in two days. Had it lived, we should have sent it to the Queen, as no African elephant was ever seen in England. No news from mamma and Oswell. " Another evidence of the place of his children in his thoughts is found in the following lines in his Journal : " 20th June 1859. I cannot and will not attribute any of the public attention which has been awakened to my own wisdom or ability. The great Power being my Helper, I shall always say that my success is all owing to His favour. I have been the channel of the Divine Power, and I pray that His gracious influence may penetrate me so that all may turn to the advancement of His gra- cious reign in this fallen world. ' ' Oh, may the mild influence of the Eternal Spirit enter the bosoms of my children, penetrate their souls, and diffuse through their whole natures the everlasting love of God in Jesus Christ ! Holy, gracious, almighty Power, I hide myself in Thee through Thy almighty Son. Take my children under Thy care. Purify them and fit them for Thy service. Let the beams of the Sun of Righteousness produce spring, summer, and harvest in them for Thee." The short trip from Kongone to Tette and back was marked by some changes in the composition of the party. The Kroomen being found to be useless, were shipped on board a man-of-war. The services of two members of the expedition were also dispensed with, as they were not found to be promoting its ends. Livingstone would not pay the public money to men who, he believed, were not thoroughly earning it. To these troubles was added the constantly increasing mortification arising from the state of the ship. It has sometimes been represented, in view of such facts as have just been recorded, that Livingstone was imperious and despotic in the management of other men, otherwise he and his comrades would have got on better together. 218 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XH. The accusation, even at first sight, has an air of improba- bility, for Livingstone's nature was most kindly, and it was the aim of his life to increase enjoyment. In explanation of the friction on board his ship it must be remembered that his party were a sort of scratch crew brought together without previous acquaintance or knowledge of each other's ways; that the heat and the mosquitos, the delays, the stoppages on sandbanks, the perpetual struggle for fuel, 1 the monotony of existence, with so little to ttreak it, and the irritating influence of the climate, did not tend to smooth their tempers or increase the amenities of life. The malarious climate had a most disturbing effect. No one, it is said, who has not experienced it, could imagine the sensation of misery connected with the feverish attacks so common in the low districts. And Livingstone had difficulties in managing the men who formed his company which he had not in managing the natives. He was so conscientious, so deeply in earnest, so hard a worker him- self, that he could endure nothing that seemed like playing or trifling with duty. Sometimes, too, things on which a milder construction might have been put, were harshly represented to him. One of those with whom he parted at this time afterwards rejoined the expedition, his pay being restored on Livingstone's intercession. Those who con- tinued to enjoy his friendship were never weary of speaking of his delightful qualities as a companion in travel, and the warm sunshine which he had the knack of spreading around. A third trip up the Shir6 was made in August, and on the 16th of September Lake Nyassa was discovered. Living- stone had no doubt that he and his party were the discoverers ; Dr. Roscher, on whose behalf a claim was subsequently made, was two months later, and his unfor- tunate murder by the natives made it doubtful at what point he reached the lake. The discovery of Lake Nyassa, as well as Lake Shirwa, was of immense importance, because they were both parallel to the ocean, and the whole traffic of the regions beyond must pass by this line. The con- figuration of the Shir6 valley, too, was favourable to coloni- 1 This was incredible. Livingstone wrote to his friend Jose Nunes that it took all hands a day and a half to cut one day's fuel. 1858-59-] EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. 219 sation. The valley occupied three different levels. First there was a plain on the level of the river, like that of the Nile, close and hot. Rising above this to the east there was another plain, 2000 feet high, three or four miles broad, salubrious and pleasant. Lastly, there was a third plain 3000 feet above the second, positively cold. To find such varieties of climate within a few miles of each other was most interesting. In other respects the region opened up was remarkable. There was a great amount of fertile land, and the products were almost endless. The people were industrious ; in the upper Shir6, notwithstanding a great love of beer, they lived usually to a great age. Cleanliness was not a universal virtue; the only way in which the expedition could get rid of a troublesome follower was by threatening to wash him. The most disagreeable thing in the appear- ance of the women was their lip-ornament, consisting of a ring of ivory or tin, either hollow or made into a cup, inserted in the upper lip. Dr. Livingstone used to give full particulars of this fearful practice, having the idea that the taste of ladies at home in dress and ornament was not free from similar absurdity ; or, as he wrote at this time to the Royal Geographical Society of Vienna, in acknowledging the honour of being made a corresponding member, "be- cause our own ladies, who show so much virtuous perse- verance with their waists, may wish to try lip ornament too. " In regard to the other sex, he informed the same Society "I could see nothing encouraging for the gentlemen who are anxious to prove that we are all descended from a race that wore tails." In the highland regions of the Shire valley, the party were distinctly conscious of an increase of energy, from the more bracing climate. Dr. Livingstone was thoroughly convinced that these highlands of the Shir6 ralley were the proper locality for commercial and missionary stations. Thus one great object of the expedition was accomplished. In another point of view, this locality would be highly serviceable for stations. It was the great pathway for con- veying slaves from the north and north-west to Zanzibar. Of this he had only too clear evidence in the gangs of slaves whom he saw marched along from time to time, and whom 220 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [.CHAP, xi he would have been most eager to release had he known of any way of preventing them from falling again into the hands of slave-sellers. In this region Englishmen " might enjoy good health, and also be of signal benefit, by leading the multitude of industrious inhabitants to cultivate cotton, maize, sugar, and other valuable produce, to exchange for goods of European manufacture, at the same time teaching them, by precept and example, the great truths of our holy religion." Water-carriage existed all the way from England, with the exception of the Murchison Cataracts, along which a road of forty miles might easily be made. A small steamer on the lake would do more good in suppressing the slave-trade than half-a-dozen men-of-war in the ocean. If the Zambesi could be opened to commerce the bright vision of the last ten years would be realised, and the Shir6 valley and banks of the Nyassa transformed into the garden of the Lord. From the very first Livingstone saw the importance of the Shir6 valley and Lake Nyassa as the key to Central Africa. Ever since, it has become more and more evident that his surmise was correct. To make the occupation thoroughly effective, he thought much of the desirableness of a British colony, and was prepared to expend a great part of the remainder of his private means to carry it into effect. On August 4th, he says in his Journal : " I have a very strong desire to commence a system of colonisa- tion of the honest poor ; I would give 2000 or 3000 for the pur- pose. Intend to write my friend Young about it, and authorise him to draw if the project seems feasible. The Lord remember my desire, sanctify my motives, and purify all my desires. Wrote him. " Colonisation from a country such as ours ought to be one of hope, and not of despair. It ought not to be looked upon as the last and worst shift that a family can come to, but the perform- ance of an imperative duty to our blood, our country, our religion, and to human-kind. As soon as children begin to be felt an incum- brance, and what were properly in ancient times Old Testament blessings are no longer welcomed, parents ought to provide for removal to parts of this wide world where every accession is an addition of strength, and every member of the household feels in his inmost heart, ' the more the merrier. ' It is a monstrous evil that all our healthy, handy, blooming daughters of England have not a fair chance at least to become the centres of domestic affections. The state of society, which precludes so many of them from occupy, ing the position which Englishwomen are so well calculated to 1858-59-] EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. 221 adorn, gives rise to enormous evils in the opposite sex evils and wrongs which we dare not even name, and national colonisation is almost the only remedy. Englishwomen are, in general, the most beautiful in the world, and yet our national emigration has often, by selecting the female emigrants from workhouses, sent forth the ugliest huzzies in creation to be the mothers the model mothers of new empires. Here, as in other cases, State necessities have led to the ill-focmed and ill-informed being preferred to the well-formed and well-inclined honest poor, as if the worst as well as better qualities of mankind did not often run in the blood. " The idea of the colony quite fascinated Livingstone, and we find him writing on it fully to three of his most con- fidential business friends Mr. Maclear, Mr. Young, and Sir Roderick Murchison. In all Livingstone's correspon- dence we find the tone of his letters modified by the character of his correspondents. While to Mr. Young and Sir Roderick he is somewhat cautious on the subject of the colony, knowing the keen practical eye they would direct on the proposal, to Mr. Maclear he is more gushing. He writes to him : " I feel such a gush of emotion on thinking of the great work before us that I must unburden my mind. I am becoming every day more decidedly convinced that English colonisation is an essential ingredient for our large success. ... In this new region of highlands no end of good could be effected in developing the trade in cotton and in discouraging that in slaves. . . . You know how I have been led on from one step to another by the overruling providence of the great Parent, as I believe, in order to a great good for Africa. ' Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass. ' I have tried to do this, and now see the prospect in front spreading out grandly. . . . But how is the land so promising to be occupied ? . . . How many of our home poor are fighting hard to keep body and soul together ! My heart yearns over our own poor when I see so much of God's fair earth unoccupied. Here it is really so ; for the people have only a few sheep and goats, and no cattle. I wonder why we cannot have the old monastery system without the celibacy. In no other part where I have been does the prospect of self-support seem so invit- ing, and promising so much influence. Most of what is done for the poor has especial reference to the blackguard poor." In his letter to Mr. Young he expressed his conviction that a great desideratum in mission agency was missionary emigration by honest Christian poor, to give living exam- ples of Christian life that would insure permanency to the gospel once planted. He had. always had a warm side to H 222 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xn. the English and Scottish poor his own order, indeed. If twenty or thirty families would come out as an experiment, he was ready to give 2000 without saying from whom. He bids Mr. Young speak about the plan to Thorn of Chorley, Turner of Manchester, Lord Shaftesbury, and the Duke of Argyll. " Now, my friend," he adds, " do your best, and God's blessing be with you. Much is done for the blackguard poor. Let us remember our own class, and do good while we have opportunity. I hereby authorise you to act in my behalf, and do whatever is to be done without hesitancy. " These letters, and their references to the honest poor, are characteristic. We have seen that among Dr. Livingstone's forefathers and connections were some very noble specimens of the honest poor. It touched him to think that, with all their worth, their life had been one protracted struggle. His sympathies were cordially with the class. He desired with all his heart to see them with a little less of the burden and more of the comfort of life. And he believed very thoroughly that, as Christian settlers in a heathen country, they might do more to promote Christianity among the natives than solitary missionaries could accomplish. His parents and sisters were not forgotten. His letters to home are again somewhat in the apologetic vein. He feels that some explanation must be given of his own work, and some vindication of his coadjutors : ' ' We are working hard," he writes to his mother, " at what some can see at a glance the importance of, while to others we appear following after the glory of discovering lakes, mountains, jeuny- nettles, and puddock-stools. In reference to these people I always remember a story told me by the late Dr. Philip with great glee. When a young minister in Aberdeen, he visited an old woman in affliction, and began to talk very fair to her on the duty of resig- nation, trusting, hoping, and all the rest of it, when the old woman looked up into his face, and said, ' Peer thing, ye ken naething aboot it. ' This is what I say to those who set themselves up to judge another man's servant. We hope our good Master may per- mit us to do some good to our fellow-men.'' His correspondence with Sir Eoderick Murchison is like- wise full of the idea of the colony. He is thoroughly per- suaded that no good will ever be done by the Portuguese. They are a worn-out people utterly worn out by disease 1*58-59-] EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE'. 223 their stamina consumed. Fresh European blood must be poured into Africa. In consequence of recent discoveries, he now sees his way open, and all his hopes of benefit to England and Africa about to be realised. This must have been one of Livingstone's happiest times. Visions of Christian colonies, of the spread of arts and civilisation, of the progress of Christianity and the Christian graces, of the cultivation of cotton and the disappearance of the slave-trade, floated before him. Already the wilderness seemed to be blossoming. But the bright consummation was not so near as it seemed. One source of mischief was yet unchecked, and from it disastrous storms were preparing to break on the enterprise. On his way home, Dr. Livingstone's health was not satisfactory, but this did not keep him from duty. " 14th October. Wen on 17th part way up to Murchison's Cata- racts, and yesterday reached it. Very ill with bleeding from the bowels and purging. Bled all night. Got up at one A.M. to take latitude." At length, on 4th November 1859, letters reached him from his family. " A letter from Mrs. L. says we were blessed with a little daughter on 16th November 1858 at Kuruman. A fine healthy child. The Lord bless and make her His own child in heart and life ! " She had been nearly a year in the world before he heard of her exist- ence. CHAPTER XIII. GOING HOME WITH THE MAK.OLOLO. A.D. 1860. IT was necessary to go down to Kongone for the repair of the ship. Livingstone was greatly disappointed with it, and thought the greed of the vendor had supplied him with a very inferior article for the price of a good one. He thus pours forth his vexation in writing to a friend : " Very grievous it is to be standing here tinkering when we might 224 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xnr. be doing good service to the cause of African civilisation, and that on account of insatiable greediness. Burton may thank L. and B. that we were not at the other lakes before him. The loss of time greediness has inflicted on us has been frightful. My plan in this expedition was excellent, but it did not include provisions against hypocrisy and fraud, which have sorely crippled us, and, indeed, ruined us as a scientific expedition." Another delay was caused before they went inwards, from their having to wait for a season suitable for hunting, as the party had to be kept in food. The mail from England had been lost, and they had the bitter disappoint- ment of losing a year's correspondence from home. The following portions of a letter to the Secretary of the Com- mittee for a Universities Mission gives a view of the situa- tion at this time : " RIVER ZAMBESI, 26th Jan. 1860. - The defects we have unfortunately experienced in the ' Ma- Robert, ' or rather the 'Asthmatic,' are so numerous that it would require a treatise as long as a lawyer's specification of any simple subject to give you any idea of them, and they have inflicted so much toil that a feeling of sickness comes over me when I advert to them. "No one will ever believe the toil we have been put to in wood- cutting. The quantity consumed is enormous, and we cannot get sufficient for speed into the furnace. It was only a dogged deter- mination not to be beaten that carried me through. . . . But all will come out right at last. We are not alone, though truly we deserve not His presence. He encourages the trust that is granted by the word, ' I am with you, even unto the end of the world.' . . . " It is impossible for you to conceive how backward everything is here, and the Portuguese are not to be depended upon ; their esta- blishments are only small penal settlements, and as no women are sent out, the state of morals is frightful. The only chance of success is away from them ; nothing would prosper in their vicinity. After all, I am convinced that were Christianity not divine, it would be trampled out by its professors. Dr. Kirk, Mr. C. Livingstone, and Mr. Rae, with two English seamen, do well. We are now on our way up the river to the Makololo country, but must go over- land from Kebrabasa, or in a whaler. We should be better able to plan our course if our letters had not been lost. We have never been idle, and do not mean to be. We have been trying to get the- Portuguese Government to acknowledge free-trade on this river, and but for long delay in our letters the negotiation might have been far advanced. I hope Lord John Russell will help in this matter, and then we must have a small colony or missionary and mercantile i860.] GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO. 225 settlement. If this our desire is granted, it is probable we shall have no cause to lament our long toil and detention here. ' My wife : s letters too, were lost, so I don't know how or where she is. Our separation, and the work I have been engaged in, were not contem- Elated, but they have led to our opening a path into the fine cotton- eld in the North. You will see that the discoveries of Burton and Speke confirm mine respecting the form of the continent and its fertility. It is an immense field. I crave the honour of establish- ing a focus of Christianity in it, but should it not be granted, I will submit as most unworthy. I have written Mr. Venn twice, and from yours I see something is contemplated in Cambridge. ... If young men come to this country, they must lay their account with doing everything for themselves. They must not expect to find influence at once, and all the countries near to the Portuguese have been greatly depopulated. We ,are now ascending this river with- out vegetables, and living on salt beef and pork. The slave-trade has done its work, for formerly all kinds of provisions could be pro- cured at every point, and at the cheapest rate. We cannot get any- thing for either love or money, in a country the fertility of which is truly astonishing." A few more general topics are touched on in a letter to Mr. Braithwaite : " I am sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Sturge. He wrote me a long letter on the ' Peace principle, ' and before I could study it carefully, it was mislaid. I wrote him from Tette, as I did not wish him to suppose I neglected him, and mentioned the murder of the six Makololo and other things, as difficulties in the way of adopting his views, as they were perfectly unarmed, and there was no feud between the tribes. I fear that my letter may not have reached him alive. The departure of Sir Fowell Buxton and others is very unexpected. Sorry to see the loss of Dr. Bowen of Sierra Leone a good man and a true. But there is One who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and to carry on His own work. A terrible war that was in Italy, and the peace engenders more uneasy forebodings than any peace ever heard of. It is well that God and not the devil reigns, and will bring His own purposes to pass, right through the midst of the wars and passions of men. Have you any knowledge of a famous despatch written by Sir George Grey (late of the Cape), on the proper treatment of native tribes? I wish to study it. " Tell your children that if I could get hold of a hippopotamus I would eat it rather than allow it to eat me. We see them often, but before we get near enough to get a shot they dive down, and remain hidden till we are past. As for lions, we never see them sometimes hear a roar or two, but that is all, and I go on the plan put forth by a little girl in Scotland who saw a cow coming to her in a meadow, ' boo ! boo ! you no hurt me,, I no hurt you.'" At Tette one of his occupations was to fit up a sugar- 226 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xin. mill, the gift of Miss Whately of Dublin, and some friends. To that lady he writes a long letter of nineteen pages. He tells her he had just put up her beautiful sugar-mill, to show the natives what could be done by machinery. Then he adverts to the wonderful freedom from sickness that his party had enjoyed in the delta of the Zambesi, and pro- ceeds to give an account of the Shir6 valley and its people. He finds ground for a favourable contrast between the Shir6 natives and the Tette Portuguese : " They (the natives) have fences made to guard the women from the alligators, all along the Shire" ; at Tette they have none, and two women were taken past our vessel in the mouths of these horrid brutes. The number of women taken is so great as to make the Portuguese swear every time they speak of them, and yet, when I proposed to the priest to make a collection for a fence, and offered twenty dollars, he only smiled. You Protestants don't know all the good you do by keeping our friends of the only true and infallible Church up to their duty. Here, and in Angola, we see how it is, when they are not provoked if not to love, to good works. . . . "On telling the Makololo that the sugar-mill had been sent to Sekeletu by a lady, who collected a sum among other ladies to buy it, they replied, ' O na le pelu ' she has a heart. I was very proud r of it, and so were they. "... With reference to the future, I am trying to do what I did before obey the injunction, ' Commit thy way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.' And I hope that He will make some use of me. My attention is now directed specially to the fact that there is no country better adapted for producing the raw materials of English manufactures than this. . . . "See to what a length I have run. I have become palaverist. I beg you to present my respectful salutation to the Archbishop and Mrs. Whately, and should you meet any of the kind contributors say how thankful I am to them all. " From Tette he writes to Sir Eoderick Murchison, 7th February 1860, urging his plan for a steamer on Lake Nyassa: "If Government furnishes the means, all right; if not, I shall spend my book-money on it. I don't need to touch the children's fund, and mine could not be better spent. People who are born rich sometimes become miser- able from a fear of becoming poor ; but I have the advant- age, you see, in not being afraid to die poor. If I live, I must succeed in what I have undertaken ; death alone will put a stop to my efforts." A month after he writes to the same friend, from Kon 1860.] GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO. 227 gone, 10th March 1860, that he is sending Kae home for a, vessel : " 1 tell Lord John Russell that he (Rae) may thereby do us more service than he can now do in a worn-out steamer with 35 patches, covering at least 100 holes. I say to his Lordship, that after we have, by patient investigation and experiment, at the risk of life, rendered the fever not more formidable than a common cold ; found access, from a good harbour on the coast, to the main stream ; and dis- covered a pathway into the magnificent Highland lake region, which promises so fairly for our commerce in cotton, and for our policy in suppressing the trade in slaves, I earnestly hope that he will crown our efforts by securing our free passage through those parts of the Zambesi and Shire of which the Portuguese make no use, and by enabling us to introduce civilisation in a manner which will extend the honour and influence of the English name." In his communications with the Government at home, Livingstone never failed to urge the importance of their securing the free navigation of the Zambesi. The Portu- guese on the river were now beginning to get an inkling of his drift, and to feel indignant at any countenance he was receiving from their own Government. Passing up the Zambesi with Charles Livingstone, Dr. Kirk, and such of the Makololo as were willing to go home, Dr. Livingstone took a new look at Kebrabasa, from a different point, still believing that in flood it would allow a steamer to pass. Of his mode of travelling we have some pleasant glimpses. He always tried to make progress more a pleasure than a toil, and found that kindly consideration for the feelings even of blacks, the pleasure of observing scenery and everything new, as one moves, on at an ordi- nary pace, and the participation in the most delightful rest with his fellows, made travelling delightful. He was gratified to find that he was as able for the fatigue as the natives. Even the headman, who carried little more than he did himself, and never, like him, hunted in the after- noon, was not equal to him. The hunting was no small addition to the toil ; the tired hunter was often tempted to give it up, after bringing what would have been only suffi- cient for the three whites, and leave the rest, thus sending "the idle, ungrateful poor" supperless to bed. But this was not his way. The blacks were thought of in hunting as well as the w,hites. " It is only by continuance in well- doing," he says, "even to the length of what the worldly- 228 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xnr. wise call weakness, that the conviction is produced anywhere, that our motives are high enough to secure sincere respect." As they proceeded, some of his old acquaintances reap- peared, notably Mpende, who had given him such a threaten- ing reception, but had now learned that he belonged to a tribe "that loved the black man and did not make slaves." A chief named Pangola appeared, at first tipsy and talka- tive, demanding a rifle, and next morning, just as they were beginning divine service, reappeared sober to press his request. Among the Baenda-Pezi, or Go-Nakeds, whose only clothing is a coat of red ochre, a noble specimen of the race appeared in full dress, consisting of a long tobacco- pipe, and brought a handsome present. The country bore the usual traces of the results of African warfare. At times a clever chief stands up, who brings large tracts under his dominion ; at his death his empire dissolves, and a fresh series of desolating wars ensues. In one region which was once studded with villages, they walked a whole week without meeting any one. A European colony, Livingstone was sure, would be invaluable for constraining the tribes to live in peace. " Thousands of industrious natives would gladly settle round it and engage in that peaceful pursuit of agriculture and trade of which they are so fond, and, undistracted by wars and rumours of wars, might listen to the purifying and enno- bling truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ" At Zumbo, the most picturesque site in the country, they saw the ruins of Jesuit missions, reminding them that there men once met to utter the magnificent words, "Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ ! " but without leaving one permanent trace of their labours in the belief and worship of the people. Wherever they go, Dr. Livingstone has his eye on the trees and plants and fruits of the region, with a view to commerce; while he is no less interested to watch the treatment of fever, when cases occur, and greatly gratified that Dr. Kirk, who had been trying a variety of medicines on himself, made rapid recovery when he took Dr. Living- stone's pills. He used to say if he had followed Morison, and set up as pill-maker, he might have made his fortune. Passing through the Bazizulu he had an escape from a 1860.] GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO. 22? rhinoceros, as remarkable though not quite as romantic as his escape from the lion ; the animal came dashing at him, and suddenly, for some unknown reason, stopped when close to him, and gave him time to escape, as if it had been struck by his colour, and doubtful if hunting a white man would be good sport. At a month's distance from Mosilikatse, they heard a report that the missionaries had been there, that they had told the chief that it was wrong to kill men, and that the chief had said he was born to kill people, but would drop the practice an interesting testimony to the power of Mr. Moffat's words. Everywhere the Makololo proclaimed that they were the friends of peace, and their course was like a triumphal procession, the people of the villages loading them with presents. But a new revelation came to Dr. Livingstone. Though che Portuguese Government had given public orders that he was to be aided in every possible way, it was evident that private instructions had come, which unintentionally perhaps, certainly produced the opposite effects. The Portuguese who were engaged in the slave-trade were far too much devoted to it ever to encourage an enterprise that aimed at extirpating it. Indeed, it became painfully ap- parent to Dr. Livingstone that the effect of his openirg up the Zambesi had been to afford the Portuguese traders new facilities for conducting their unhallowed traffic ; and had it not been for his promise to bring back the Makololo, he- would now have abandoned the Zambesi and tried the Rovuma, as a way of reaching Nyassa. His future endea- vours in connection with the Rovuma receive their explana- tion from this unwelcome discovery. The significance of the discovery in other respects cannot fail to be seen. Hitherto Livingstone had been on friendly terms with *he Portuguese Government ; he could be so no longer. The remarkable kindness he had so often received from Portu- guese officers and traders made it a most painful trial ta break with the authorities. But there was no alternative. Livingstone's courage was equal to the occasion, though he could not but see that his new attitude to the Portuguese must give an altered aspect to his expedition, and create- difficulties that mieht bring it to an end. H2 230 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xin. A letter to Mr. James Young, dated 22d July, near Kalosi, gives a free and familiar account of " what he was about :" " This is July 1860, and no letter from you except one written a few months after we sailed in the year of grate 1858. What you are doing I cannot divine. I am ready to believe any mortal thing except that Louis Napoleon has taken you away to make paraffin oil for the Tuileries. I don't believe that he is supreme ruler, or that he can go an inch beyond his tether. Well, as I cannot con- ceive what you are about, I must tell you what we are doing, and we are just trudging up the Zambesi as if there were no steam and no locomotive but shank's nag yet discovered. . . . " We have heard of a mission for the Interior from the English Universities, and this is the best news we have got since we came to Africa. I have recommended up Shire as a proper sphere, and hasten back so as to be in the way if any assistance can be rendered. I rejoice at the prospect with all my heart, and am glad, too, that it is to be a Chucch of England Mission, for that Church has never put forth its strength, and I trust this may draw it forth. I am tired of discovery when no fruit follows. It was refreshing to be able to sit down every evening with the Makololo again, and tell them of Him who came down from heaven to save sinners. The unmerciful toil of the steamer prevented me from following my bent as I should have done. Poor fellows ! they have learned no good from their contact with slavery ; many have imbibed the slave spirit ; many had married slave women and got children. These I did not expect to return, as they were captives of Sekeletu, and were not his own proper people. All professed a strong desire to return. To test them I proposed to burn their village, but to this they would not assent. We then went out a few miles and told them that any one wishing to remain might do so without guilt. A few returned, but though this was stated, to them repeatedly after- wards they preferred running away like slaves. I never saw any of the interior people so devoid of honour. Some complained of sick- ness, and all these I sent back, intrusting them with their burdens. About twenty-five returned in all to live at Tette. Some were drawn away by promises made to them as elephant-hunters. I had no objection to their trying to better their condition, but was annoyed at finding that they would not tell their intentions, but ran away as if I were using compulsion. I have learned more of the degrading nature of slavery of late than I ever conceived before. Our 20 millions were well spent in ridding ourselves of the incubus, and I think we ought to assist our countrymen in the West Indies to import free labour from India. ... I cannot tell you how glad I am at a prospect of a better system being introduced into Eastern Africa than that which has prevailed for ages, the evils of which have only been intensified by Portuguese colonisation, as it is called. Here we are passing through a well-peopled, fruitful region a pro- longed valley, for we have the highlands far on our right. I did i860.] GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO. 231 not observe before that all the banks of the Zambesi are cotton fields. 1 never intended to write a book and take no note of cotton, which I now see everywhere. On the Chongwe we found a species which is cultivated south of the Zambesi, which resembles some kinds from South America. ' ' All that is needed is religious and mercantile establishments to begin a better system and promote peaceful intercourse. Here we are among a people who go stark naked with no more sense of shame than we have with our clothes on. The women have more sense, and go decently. You see great he-animals all about your camp carrying their indispensable tobacco-pipes and iron tongs to lift fire with, but the idea of a fig-leaf has never entered the mind. They cultivate largely, have had enormous crops of grain, work well in iron, and show taste in their dwellings, stools, baskets, and musical instruments. They are very hospitable too, and appreciate our motives ; but shame has been unaccountably left out of the question. They can give no reason for it except that all their ancestors went exactly as they do. Can you explain why Adam's first feeling has no trace of existence in his offspring?" When the party reached the outskirts of Sekel^tu's ter- ritory the news they heard was not encouraging. Some of the men heard that in their absence some of their wives had been variously disposed of. One had been killed for witchcraft, another had married again, while Masakasa was told that two years ago a kind of wild Irish wake had been celebrated in honour of his memory ; the news made him resolve, when he presented himself among them, to declare himself an inhabitant of another world ! One poor fellow's wail of anguish for his wife was most distressing to hear. But far more tragical was the news of the missionaries who had gone from the London Missionary Society to Linyanti, to labour among Sekeletu's people. Mr. and Mrs. Helmore and several of his party had succumbed to fever, and the survivors had retired. Dr. Livingstone was greatly distressed, and not a little hurt, for though the Directors at home had consulted frankly with him about this mission, and taken his advice, he had not heard a word from any one of the movements of the missionaries in Africa. 1 All spoke kindly of Mr. Helmore, who had quite won the hearts of the people. Knowing their language, he had 1 The statement, which has been made public, that he had made an Appointment to meet them at Linyanti, is without any authority. 232 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xnr. at once begun to preach, and some of the young men at Sesh^ke were singing the hymns he had taught them. Kumours had gone abroad that some of the missionaries had been poisoned. In some quarters blame was cast on Livingstone for having misled the Society as to the char- acter of Sekeletu and his disposition toward missionaries ; but Livingstone satisfied himself that, though the mission- aries had been neglected, no foul play had taken place ; fever alone had caused the deaths, and want of skill in managing the people had brought the remainder of the troubles. One piece of good news which he heard at Linyanti was that his old friend Sechele.was doing well. He had a Hano- verian missionary, nine tribes were under him, and the schools were numerously attended. Writing to Dr. Moffat, 10th August 1860, from Zambesi Falls, he says : "With great sorrow we learned the death of our much-esteemed friends, Mr. and Mrs. Helmore, two days ago. We were too late to be of any service, for the yoxinger missionaries had retired, pro- bably dispirited by the loss of their leader. It is evident that the fever when untreated is as fatal now as it proved in the case of Commodore Owen's officers in this river, or in the great Niger Expedition. And yet what poor drivel was poured forth when I adopted energetic measures for speedily removing any Europeans out of the Delta. We were not then aware that the remedy which was first found efficacious in our own little Thomas on Lake 'Ngami, in 1850, and that cured myself and attendants during my solitary journeyings, was a certain cure for the disease, without loss of strength in Europeans generally. This we now know by ample experience to be the case. Warburg's drops, which have r, great reputation in India, here cause profuse perspiration only, and the fever remains uncured. With our remedy, of which we make no secret, a man utterly prostrated is roused to resume his march next day. I have sent the prescription to John, as I doubt being able to- go so far south as Mosilikatse's. " Again the grand Victoria Falls are reached, and Charles Livingstone, who has seen Niagara, gives the preference to Mosi-oa-tunya. By the route which they took, they would have passed the Falls at twenty milee' distance, but Dr. Livingstone could not resist the temptation to show them to his companions. All his former computations as to their size were found to be considerably within the mark ; instead of a thousand yards broad they were more than eighteen hundred, and whereas he had said that the height 1860.] GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO. 233 of fall was about 100 feet, it turned out to be 310. His habit of keeping within the mark in all his statements of remarkable things was thus exemplified. On coming among his old friends the Makololo, he found them in low spirits owing to protracted drought, and Sekeletu was ill of leprosy. He was in the hands of a native doctress, who was persuaded to suspend her treat- ment, and the lunar caustic applied by Drs. Livingstone and Kirk had excellent effects. 1 On' going to Linyanti, Dr. Livingstone found the wagon and other articles which he had left there in 1853, safe and sound, except from the effects of weather and the white ants. The expressions of kindness and confidence towards him on the part of the natives greatly touched him. The people were much dis- appointed at not seeing Mrs. Livingstone and the children. But this confidence was the result of his way of dealing with them. " It ought never to be forgotten that influence among the heathen can be acquired only by patient con- tinuance in well-doing, and that good manners are as necessary among barbarians as among the civilised." The Makololo were the most interesting tribe that Dr. Living- stone had ever seen. While now with them he was unwearied in his efforts for their spiritual good. In his Journal we find these entries : " September 2, 1860. On Sunday evening went over to the people, giving a general summary of Christian faith by the life of Christ. Asked them to speak about it afterwards. Replied that these things were above them they could not answer me. I said if I spoke of camels and buffaloes tamed, they understood, though they had never seen them ; why not perceive the story of Christ, the witnesses to which refused to deny it, though killed for main- taining it ? Went on to speak of the resurrection. All were listening eagerly to the statements about this, especially when they heard that they too must rise and be judged. Lerimo said, ' This I won't believe.' ' Well, the guilt lies between you and Jesus.' This always arrests attention. Spoke of blood shed by them ; the con- versation continued till they said, ' It was time for me to cross, for the river was dangerous at night.' " "September^). Spoke to the people on the north side of the river wind prevented evening service on the south. " 1 In 1864, while residing at Newstead Abbey, and writing his book, The Zambesi and its Tributaries, Dr. Livingstone heard of the death of 'Sekeletu. 234 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xnr. The last subject on which he preached before leaving them .on this occasion was the great resurrection. They told him they could not believe a reunion of the particles of the body possible. Dr. Livingstone gave them in reply a chemical illustration, and then referred to the authority of the Book that taught them the doctrine. And the poor people were more willing to give in to the authority of the Book than to the chemical illustration ! In The Zambesi and its Tributaries this journey to the Makololo country and back occupies one-third of the volume, though it did not lead to any very special results. But it enabled Dr. Livingstone to make great additions to his knowledge both of the people and the country. His observations are recorded with the utmost care, for though he might not be able to turn them to immediate use, it was likely, and even certain, that they would be useful some day. Indeed the spirit of faith is apparent in the whole narrative, as if he could not pass over even the most insignificant details. The fish in the rivers, the wild animals in the woods, the fissures in the rocks, the course of the streams, the composition of the minerals and gravels, and a thousand other phenomena, are carefully observed and chronicled. The crowned cranes beginning to pair, the flocks of spurwinged geese, the habits of the ostrich, the nests of bee-eaters, pass under review in rapid succession. His sphere of observation ranges from the structure of the great continent itself to the serrated bone of the konokono, or the mandible of the ant. Leaving Sesheke on the 17th September, they reached Tette on the 23d November I860, whence they started for Kongone ih the unfortunate " Ma-Robert." But the days of that asthmatic old lady were numbered. On the 21st December she grounded on a sandbank, and could not get off'. A few days before this catastrophe Livingstone writes to Mr. Young : ' ' Lupata, 4th Dec. 1860. Many thanks for all you have been doing about the steamer and everything else. Yon seem to have gone about matters in a most business-like manner, and once for all I assure you I am deeply grateful. " We are now on our way down to the sea, in hopes of meeting the new steamer for which you and other friends exerted yourselves BO zealously. We are in the old ' Asthmatic, ' though we gave her 1860.] GOING HOME WITH THE MAKOLOLO, 235 up before leaving in May last. Our engineer has been doctoring her bottom with fat and patches, and pronounced it safe to go down the river by dropping slowly. Every day a new leak bursts out, and he is in plastering and scoring, the pump going constantly. I would not have ventured again, but our whaler is as bad all eaten by the teredo, so I thought it as well to take both, and stick to that which swims longest. You can put your thumb through either of them ; they never can move again ; I never expected to find either afloat, but the engineer had nothing else to do, and it saves us from buying dear canoes from the Portuguese. "20//t Dec. One day, above Senna, the 'Ma-Robert' stuck on a sandbank and filled, so we had to go ashore and leave her. " The correspondence of this year indicates a growing delight at the prospect of the Universities Mission. It was this, indeed, mainly that kept up his spirits under the depression caused by the failure of the " Ma-Robert," and other mishaps of the Expedition, the endless delays and worries that had resulted from that cause, and the manner in which both the Portuguese and the French were counter- working him by encouraging the slave-trade. While professedly encoura'ging emigration, the French were really extending slavery. Here is his lively account of himself to his friend Mr. Moore : " TETTE, 28 examine. . . . " 2d October. Took Communion in the chapel of the Abbey. God grant me to be and always to act as a true Christian. " 3d. Mr. and Mrs. Webb kindness itself personified. A blessing be on them and their children from the Almighty ! " When first invited to reside at Newstead Abbey, Dr. Livingstone declined, on the ground that he was to be busy writing a book, and that he wished to have some of his children with him, and in the case of Agnes, to let her have music lessons. His kind friends, however, were resolved that these reasons should not stand in the way, and arrangements were made by them accordingly. Dr. Living- stone continued to be their guest for eight months, and received from them all manner of assistance. Sometimes Mr. and Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Goodlake (Mrs. Webb's mother), and his daughter Agnes would all be busy copying his journals. The "Livingstone room," as it is called, in the Sussex tower, is likely to be associated with his name while the building lasts. It was his habit to rise early and work at his book, to return to his task after breakfast and con- 292 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvn. tinue till luncheon, and in the afternoon have a long walk with Mr. Webb. It is only when the book is approaching its close that we find him working " till two in the morning." One of his chief recreations was in the field of natural history, watching experiments with the spawning of trout. He endeared himself to all, high and low ; was a special favourite with the children, and did not lose opportunities to commend, in the way he thought best, those high views of life and duty which had been so signally exemplified in his own career. The playfulness of his nature found full and constant scope at Newstead; he regained an almost- boyish flow of animal spirits, revelled in fun and frolic in his short notes to friends like Mr. Young, or Mr. Webb when he happened to be absent ; wrote in the style of Mr. Punch, and called his opponents by ludicrous names ; yet never forgot the stern duty that loomed before him, or allowed the enjoyment and abandon of the moment to divert him from the death-struggle on behalf of Africa in which he had yet to engage. The book was at first to be a little one, a blast of the trumpet against the monstrous slave-trade of the Portuguese ; but it swelled to a goodly octavo, and embraced the history of the Zambesi Expedition. Charles Livingstone had written a full diary, and in order that his name might be on the title-page, and he might have the profits of the American edition, his journal was made use of in the writing of the book ; but the arrangement was awkward ; sometimes Livingstone forgot the understanding of joint-authorship, and he found that he could more easily have written the whole from the foundation. At first it was designed that the book should appear early in the summer of 1865, but when the printing was finished the map was not ready ; and the publication had to be delayed till the usual season in autumn. The entries in his Journal are brief and of little general interest during the time the book was getting ready. Most of them have reference to the affairs of other people. As he finds that Dr. Kirk is unable to undertake a work on the botany and natural history of the Expedition, unless he should hold some permanent situation, he exerts himself to procure a Government appointment for him, recommending 1864-65.] SECOND VISIT HOME. 295 him strongly to Sir R. Murchison and others, and is parti- cularly gratified by a reply to his application from the Earl of Dalhousie, who wrote that he regarded his request as a command. He is pleased to learn that, through the kind efforts of Sir Roderick, his brother Charles has been appointed Consul at Fernando Po. He sees the American minister, who promises to do all he can for Robert, but almost immediately after, the report comes that poor Robert has died in a hospital in Salisbury, N. Carolina. He de- livers a lecture at the Mechanics' Institute at Mansfield, but the very idea of a speech always makes him ill, and in this case it brings on an attack of haemorrhoids, with which he had not been troubled for long. He goes to London to a meeting of the Geographical Society, and hears a paper of Burton's a gentleman from whose geographical views he dissents, as he does from his views on subjects more important. In regard to his book he says very little ; four days, he tells us, were spent in writing the description of the Victoria Falls ; and on the 15th April 1865 he summons his daughter Agnes to take his pen and write FINIS at the end of his manuscript. On leaving Newstead on the 25th, he writes, " Parted with our good friends the Webbs. And may God Almighty bless and reward them and their family. " Some time before this, a proposal was made to him by Sir Roderick Murchison which in the end gave a new direction to the remaining part of his life. It was brought before him in the following letter : " Jan. 5, 1865. "MY DEAR LIVINGSTONE, As to your future, I am anxious to know what your own wish is as respects a renewal of African ex- ploration. "Quite irrespective of missionaries or political affairs, there is at this moment a question of intense geographical interest to be settled : namely, the watershed, or watersheds, of South Africa. " Now, if you would really like to be the person to finish off your remarkable career by completing such a survey, unshackled by other avocations than those of the geographical explorer, I should be delighted to consult my friends of the Society, and take the best steps to promote such an enterprise. " For example, you might take your little steamer to the Rovuma, and, getting up by water as far as possible in the rainy season, then try to reach the south end of the Tanganyika. Thither you might transport a light boat, or build one there, and so get to the end o that sheet of water. K2 294 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XVIL " Various questions might be decided by the way, and if you could get to the west, and come out on that coast, or should be able to reach the White Nile (!), you would bring back an un- rivalled reputation, and would have settled all the great disputes now pending. " If you do not like to undertake the, purely geographical work,I am of opinion that no one, after yourself, is so fitted to carry it out as Dr. Kirk. I know that he thinks of settling down now at home. But if he could delay this home-settlement for a couple of years, he would not only make a large sum of money by his book of travels, but would have a renown that would give him an excellent intro- duction as a medical man. ' ' I have heard you so often talk of the enjoyment you feel when in Africa, that I cannot believe you now think of anchoring for the rest of your life on the mud and sand banks of England. ' ' Let me know your mind on the subject. When is the book to appear? Kind love to your daughter. Yours" sincerely, I. MURCHISON." Livingstone begins his answer by assuring Sir Roderick that he never contemplated settling down quietly in Eng- land ; it would be time enough for that when he was in his dotage. " I should like the exploration you propose very much, and had already made up my mind to go up the Rovuma, pass by the head of Lake Nyassa, and away west or north-west as might be found practicable." He would have been at this ere now, but his book chained him, and he feared that he could not take back the " Lady Nyassa " to Africa, with the monsoon against him, so that he must get a boat to explore the Rovuma. "What my inclination leads me to prefer is to have intercourse with the people, and do what I can by talking, to enlighten them on the slave-trade, and give them some idea of our religion. It may not be much that I can do, but I feel when doing that I am not living in vain. You remember that when, to prevent our coming to a standstill, I had to turn skipper myself, the task was endurable only because I was determined that no fellow should prove himself indispensable to our further progress. To be debarred from spend- ing most of my time in travelling, in exploration, and continual intercourse with the natives, I always felt to be a severe privation, and if I can get a few hearty native companions, I shall enjoy my- self, and feel that I am doing my duty. As soon as my book is out, I shall start." In Livingstone's Journal, 7th January 1865, we find this entry : " Answered Sir Roderick about going out. Said I could only feel in the way of duty by working as a mission- 1864-65.] SECOND VISIT HOME. 295 ary." The answer is very noteworthy in the view of what has so often been said against Livingstone that he dropt the missionary to become an explorer. To understand the precise bearing of the proposal, and of Livingstone's reply, it is necessary to say that Sir Roderick had a conviction, which he never concealed, that the missionary enterprise encumbered and impeded the geographical. He had a special objection to an Episcopal mission, holding that the planting of a Bishop and staff on territory dominated by the Portuguese, was an additional irritant, rousing ecclesi- astical jealousy, and bringing it to the aid of commercial and political apprehensions as to the tendency of the English enterprise. Neither mission nor colony could suc- ceed in the present state of the country ; they could only be a trouble to the geographical explorer. On this point Livingstone held his own views. He could only feel in the line of duty as a missionary. Whatever he might or might not be able to do in that capacity, he would never abandon it, and, in particular, he would never come under an obligation to the Geographical Society that he would serve them " unshackled by other avocations than those of the geographical explorer." A letter to Mr. James Young throws light on the feel- ings with which he regarded Sir Roderick's proposal : " 20th January 1865. I am not sure but I told you already that Sir Roderick and I have been writing about going out, and my fears that I must sell ' Lady Nyassa, ' because the monsoon will be blowing from Africa to India before I get out, and it won't do for me to keep her idle. I must go down to the Seychelles Islands (tak' yer speks and keek at the map or gougrafy), then run my chance to get over by a dhow or man-of-war to the Rovuma, going up that river in a boat, till we get to the cataracts, and then tramp. I must take Belochees from India, and may go down the lake to get Makololo, if the Indians don't answer. I would not consent to go simply as a geographer, but as a missionary, and do geography by the way, because I feel I am in the way of duty when trying either to enlighten these poor people, or open their land to lawful commerce. " It was at this time that Mr. Hay ward, Q.C., while on a visit to Newstead, brought an informal message from Lord Palmerston, who wished to know what he could do for Livingstone. Had Livingstone been a vain man, wishing a handle to his name, or had he even been bent on getting 296 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvn. what would be reasonable in the way of salary for himself, or of allowance for his children, now was his chance of accomplishing his object. But so single-hearted was he in his philanthropy that such thoughts did not so much as enter his mind ; there was one thing, and one only, which he wished Lord Palmerston to secure free access to the highlands, by the Zambesi and Shir6, to be made good by a treaty with Portugal. It is satisfactory to record that the Foreign Office has at last made arrangements to this effect. While the proposal on the part of the President of the Geographical Society was undergoing consideration, certain overtures were made to Dr. Livingstone by the Foreign Office. On the llth of March he called at the office, at the request of Mr. Layard, who propounded a scheme that he should have a commission giving him authority over the chiefs from the Portuguese boundary to Abyssinia and Egypt ; the office to carry no salary. When a formal pro- posal to this effect was submitted to him, with the addi- tional proviso that he was to be entitled to no pension, he could not conceal his irritation. For himself he was just as willing as ever to work as before, without hope of earthly recompence, and to depend on the petition, " Give us this day our daily bread ; " but he thought it ungenerous to take advantage of his well-known interest in Africa to deprive him of the honorarium which the most insigni- ficant servant of Her Majesty enjoyed. He did not like to be treated like a charwoman. As for the pension, he had never asked it, and counted it offensive to be treated as if he had shown a greed which required to be repressed. It came out, subsequently, that the letter had been written by an underling, but when Earl Eussell was appealed to, he would only promise a salary when Dr. Livingstone should have settled somewhere ! The whole transaction had a very ungracious aspect. Before publishing his book, Dr. Livingstone had asked Sir Roderick Murchison's advice as to the wisdom of speaking his mind on two somewhat delicate points. In reply, Sir Roderick wrote : " If you think you have been too hard as to the Bishop or the Portuguese, you can modify the phrases. But I think that the truth ought to 1864-65.] SECOND VISIT HOME. 297 be known, if only in vindication of your own conduct, and to account for the little success attending your last mis- sion." We continue our extracts from his Journal : "26th April 1865. In London. Horrified by news of President Lincoln's assassination, and the attempt to murder Seward. " "29th April. Went down to Crystal Palace, with Agnes, to a Saturday Concert. The music very fine. Met Waller, and lost a train. Came up in hot haste to the dinner of the Royal Academy. . . . Sir Charles Eastlake, President ; Archbishops of Canterbury and York on each side of the chair ; all the Ministers present, except Lord Palmerston, who is ill of gout in the hand. Lord Russell, Lord Granville, and Duke of Somerset, sat on other side of table from Sir Henry Holland, Sir Roderick, and myself. Lord Clarendon was close enough to lean back and clap me on the shoulder, and ask me when I was going out. Duke of Argyll, Bishops of Oxford and London, were within earshot ; Sir J. Romilly, the Master of the Rolls, was directly in front, on the other side of our table. He said that he watched all my move- ments with great interest. . . . Lord Derby made a good speech. The speeches were much above the average. I was not told that I was expected to speak till I got in, and this prevented my eating. When Lord John Manners complimented me after my speech, I mentioned the effect the anticipation had on me. To comfort me he said that the late Sir Robert Peel never enjoyed a dinner in these circumstances, but sat crumbling up his bread till it became quite a heap on the table. . . . My speech was not reported. "2d May. Met Mr. El win, formerly editor of the Quarterly. He said that Forster, one of our first-class writers, had told him that the most characteristic speech was not reported, and mentioned the heads as, the slave-trade being of the same nature as thuggee, garrotting ; the tribute I paid to our statesmen ; and the way that Africans have been drawn, pointing to a picture of a woman spinning. This non-reporting was much commented on, which might, if I needed it, prove a solace to my wounded vanity. But I did not feel offended. Everything good for me will be given, and I take all as a little child from its father. "Heard a capital sermon from Dr. Hamilton [Regent Square Church], on President Lincoln's assassination. ' It is impossible but that offences will come, ' etc. He read part of the President's address at second inauguration. In the light of subsequent events it is grand. If every drop of blood shed by the lash must be atoned for by an equal number of white men's vital fluid, righteous, O Lord, are Thy judgments ! The assassination has awakened universal sympathy and indignation, and will lead to more cordiality between the countries. The Queen has written an autograph letter to Mrs. Lincoln, and Lords and Commons have presented addresses to Her Majesty, praying her to convey their sentiments of horror at the fearful crime. 298 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvn. " I8t/t May 1865. Was examined by the Committee [of the House of Commons] on the West Coast ; was rather nervous and confused, but let them know pretty plainly that I did not agree with the aspersions cast on missions. " In a letter to Mr. Webb, he writes h propos of this ex- amination : " The monstrous mistake of the Burton school is this : they ignore the point-blank fact that the men that do the most for the mean whites are the same that do the most for the mean blacks, and you never hear one mother's son of them say, You do wrong to give to the whites. I told the Committee I had heard people say that Christi- anity made the blacks worse, but did not agree with them. I might have said it was ' rot,' and truly. I can stand a good deal of bosh, but to tell me that Christianity makes people worse ugh ! Tell that to the young trouts. You know on what side I am, and I shall stand to my side, Old Pam fashion, through thick and thin. I don't agree with all my side say and do. I won't justify many things, but for the great cause of human progress I am heart and soul, and so are you. " Dr. Livingstone was asked at this time to attend a public meeting on behalf of American freedmen. It was not in his power to go, but, in apologising, he was at pains to express his opinion on the capacity of the negro, in con- nection with what was going on in the United States : ' ' Our kinsmen across the Atlantic deserve our warmest sympathy. They have passed, and are passing, through trials, and are en- compassed with difficulties which completely dwarf those of our Irish famine, and not the least of them is the question, what to do- with those freedmen for whose existence as slaves in America our own forefathers have so much to answer. The introduction of a degraded race from a barbarous country was a gigantic evil, and if the race cannot be elevated, an evil beyond remedy. Millions can neither be amalgamated nor transported, and the presence of de- gradation is a contagion which propagates itself among the more civilised. But I have no fears as to the mental and moral capacity of the Africans for civilisation and upward progress. We who suppose ourselves to have vaulted at one bound to the extreme of civilisation, and smack our lips so loudly over our high elevation, may find it difficult to realise the debasement to which slavery has sunk those men, or to appreciate what, in the discipline of the sad school of bondage, is in a state of freedom real and substantial progress. But I, who have been intimate with Africans who have never been defiled by the slave-trade, believe them to be capable of holding an honourable rank in the family of man." Wherever slavery prevailed, or the effects of slavery s 1864-65.] SECOND VISIT HOME. 299 found, Dr. Livingstone's testimony against it was clear and emphatic. Neither personal friendship nor any other con- sideration under the sun could repress it. When his friends Sir Eoderick and Mr. Webb afterwards expressed their sympathy with Governor Eyre of Jamaica, he did not scruple to tell them how different an estimate he had formed of the Governor's conduct. We continue our extracts from his Journal and letters : " 24th May. Came down to Scotland by last night's train; found mother very poorly ; and, being now eighty-two, I fear she may not have long to live among us. " (f 21th May (to Mr. Webb). I have been reading TomBrowris School Days a capital book. Dr. Arnold was a man worth his weight in something better than gold. You know Oswell " [his early friend] ' ' was one of his Rugby boys. One could see his training in always doing what was brave, and true, and right. " " 2d June. Tom better, but kept back in his education by his complaint. Oswell getting on well at school at Hamilton. Anna Mary well. Mother gradually becoming weaker. Robert we shall never hear of again in this world, I fear ; but the Lord is merciful, and just, and right in all His ways. He would hear the cry for mercy in the hospital at Salisbury. I have lost my part in that gigantic struggle which the Highest guided to a consummation never contemplated by the Southerners when they began ; and many others have borne more numerous losses. " 5th June. Went about a tombstone to my dear Mary. Got a good one of cast-iron to be sent out to the Cape. "Mother very low. . . . Has been a good affectionate mother to us all. The Lord be with her. . . . Whatever is good for me and mine the Lord will give. " To-morrow, Communion in kirk. The Lord strip off all imper- fections, wash away all guilt, breathe love and goodness through all my nature, and make His image shine out from my soul. " Mother continued very low, and her mind ran on poor Robert. Thought I was his brother, and asked me frequently, 'Where is your brother ? where is that puir laddie ? ' . . . Sisters most atten- tive. . . . Contrary to expectation she revived, and I went to Oxford. The Vice-Chancellor offered me the theatre to lecture in, but I expected a telegram if any change took place on mother. Gave an address to a number of friends in Dr. Daubeny's chemical class-room." "Monday, ISth June. A telegram came, saying that mother had died the day before. I started at once for Scotland. No change was sbserved till within an hour and a half of her departure. . . . Seeing the end was near, sister Agnes said, ' The Saviour has come for you, mother. You can "lippen" yourself to Him?' She replied ' Oh yes. ' Little Anna Mary was held up to her. She gave her the last look, and said ' Bonnie wee lassie, ' gave a few long inspirations, 300 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvn. and all was still, with a look of reverence on her countenance. She had wished William Logan, a good Christian man, to lay her head in the grave, if I were not there. When going away in 1858, she said to me that she would have liked one of her laddies to lay her head in the grave. It so happened that I was there to pay the last tribute to a dear good mother." The last thing we find him doing in Scotland is attending the examination of Oswell's school, with Anna Mary, and seeing him receive prizes. Dr. Loudon of Hamilton, the medical attendant and much valued friend of the Living- stones, furnishes us with a reminiscence of this occasioa He had great difficulty in persuading Livingstone to go. The awful bugbear was that he would be asked to make a speech. Being assured that it would be thought strange if, in a gathering of the children's parents, he were absent, he agreed to go. And of course he had to speak. What he said was pointed and practical, and in winding up, he said he had just two things to say to them " FEAR GOD, AND WORK HARD." These appear to have been Livingstone's last public words in his native Scotland. His Journal is continued in London : " 8lh August. Went to Zoological Gardens with Mr. Webb and I>r. Kirk ; then to lunch with Miss Coutts " [Baroness Burdett 'Coutts]. "Queen Emma of Honolulu is to be there. It is not fair for High Church people to ignore the labours of the Americans, for [the present state of Christianity] is the fruit of their labours, and not of the present Bishop. Dined at Lady Franklin's with Queen Emma ; a nice sensible person the Queen seems to be. "9<& August. Parted with my friends Mr. and Mrs. Webb at King's Cross station to-day. He gracefully said that he wished I had been coming rather than going away, and she shook me very cordially with both hands, and said, ' You will come back again to us, won't you ? ' and shed a womanly tear. The good Lord bless and save them both, and have mercy on their whole household ! " llth August. Went down to say good-bye to the Duchess- Dowager of Sutherland at Maidenhead. Garibaldi's rooms are shown : a good man he was, but followed by a crowd of harpies who tried to use him for their own purposes. . . . He was so utterly worn out by shaking hands, that a detective policeman who was with him in the carriage, put his hand under his cloak, and did the ceremony for him. "Took leave at Foreign Office. Mr. Layard very kind in his expressions at parting, and so was Mr. Wylde. " I2tk August. Went down to Wimbledon to dine with Mr. Murray, and take leave. Mr. and Mrs. Oswell came up to say fare- well. He offers to go over to Paris at any time to bring Agnes" 1864-65.] SECOND VISIT HOME. 301 [who was going to school there] " home, or do anything that a father would." ["I love him," Livingstone writes to Mr. Webb, "with true affection, and I believe he does the same to me ; and yet we never show it."] " We have been with Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton for some time good, gracious people. The Lord bless them and their household ! Dr. Kirk and Mr. Waller go down to Folkestone to-morrow, and take leave of us there. This is very kind. The Lord puts it into their hearts to show kindness, and blessed be His name." Dr. Livingstone's last weeks in England were passed under the roof of the late Rev. Dr. Hamilton, author of Life in Earnest, and could hardly have been passed in a more congenial home. Natives of the same part of Scotland, nearly of an age, and resembling each other much in taste and character, the two men drew greatly to each other. The same Puritan faith lay at the basis of their religious character, with all its stability and firmness. But above all, they had put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. In Natural History, too, they had an equal enthusiasm. In Dr. Hamilton, Livingstone found what he missed in many orthodox men. On the evening of his last Sunday, he was prevailed on to give an address in Dr. Hamilton's church, after having in the morning received the Communion with the congregation. In his address he vindicated his character as a missionary, and declared that it was as much as ever his great object to proclaim the love of Christ, which they had been commemorating that day. His prayers made a deep impression ; they were like the com- munings of a child with his father. At the railway station, the last Scotch hands grasped by him were those of Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton. The news of Dr. Hamilton's death was received by Livingstone a few years after, in the heart of Africa, with no small emotion. Their next meeting was in the better land. 302 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvm. CHAPTEE XVIII. FROM ENGLAND TO BOMBAY AND ZANZIBAR. A.D. 1865-1866. THE object for which Dr. Livingstone set out on his third and last great African journey is thus stated in the preface to The Zambesi and, its Tributaries : " Our Government have supported the proposal of the Royal Geographical Society made by my friend Sir Roderick Murchison, and have united with that body to aid me in another attempt to open Africa to civilising influences, and a valued private friend has given a thousand pounds for the same object. I propose to go inland, north of the territory which the Portuguese in Europe claim, and endeavour to commence that system on the east which has been so eminently successful on the west coast : a system combining the repressive efforts of Her Majesty's cruisers with lawful trade and Christian missions the moral and material results of which have been so gratifying. I hope to ascend the Rovuma, or some other river north of Cape Delgado, and, in addition to my other work, shall strive, by passing along the northern end of Lake Nyassa, and round the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the water shed of that part of Africa." The first part of the scheme was his own, the second he had been urged to undertake by the Geographical Society. The sums in aid contributed by Government and the Geographical Society were only 500 each ; but it was not thought that the work would occupy a long time. The Geographical Society coupled their contribution with some instructions as to observations and reports which seemed to Dr. Livingstone needlessly stringent, and which certainly ruffled his relation to the Society. The honorary position of Consul at large he was willing to accept for the sake of the influence which it gave him, though still retaining his opinion of the shabbiness which had so explicitly bargained that he was to have no salary and to expect no pension. The truth is, if Livingstone had not been the most 1865-66.] FROM ENGLAND TO ZANZIBAR. 303 single-minded and trustful of men, he would never have returned to Africa on such terms. The whole sum placed at his disposal was utterly inadequate to defray the cost of the Expedition, and support his family at home. Had it not been for promises that were never fulfilled, he would not have left his family at this time as he did. But in nothing is the purity of his character seen more beautifully than in his bearing towards some of .those who had gained not a little consideration by their connection with him, and had made him fair promises, but left him to work on as best he might. No trace of bitter feeling disturbed him, or abated the strength of his love and confidence. Dr. Livingstone went first to Paris with his daughter, and left her there for education. Passing on he reached Marseilles on the 19th August, and wrote her a few lines, in which he informed her that the man who was now trans- forming Paris [Baron Haussmann] was a Protestant, and had once taught a Sunday-school in the south of France ; and that probably he had greater pleasure in the first than in the second work. The remark had a certain applicability to his own case, and probably let out a little of his own feeling ; it showed at least his estimate of the relative place of temporal and spiritual philanthropy. The prayer that followed was expressive of his deepest feelings towards his best-beloved on earth : "May the Almighty qualify you to be a blessing to those around you, wherever your lot is cast. I know that you hate all that is mean and false. May God make you good, and to delight in doing good to others. If you ask He will give abundantly. The Lord bless you ! " From a Bombay gentleman who was his fellow-traveller to India a little anecdote has casually come to our knowledge illustrating the unobtrusireness of Livingstone his dislike to being made a lion of. At the table-d'hote of the hotel in Marseilles, where some Bombay merchants were sitting, the conversation turned on Africa in connection with ivory an extensive article of trade in Bombay. Our friend dropped the remark, " I wonder where that old chap Livingstone is now." To his surprise and discomfiture, a voice replied, "Here he is." They were fast friends all through the voyage that followed. Little of much interest happened during that voyage. Livingstone writes that Palgrave was 304 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvm. in Cairo when he passed through, but he did not see him. Of Baker he could hear nothing. Miss Tinn6, the Dutch lady, of whom he thought highly as a traveller, had not been very satisfactory to the religious part of the English com- munity at Cairo. Miss Whately was going home for six weeks, but was to be back to her Egyptian Ragged School. He saw the end of the Lesseps canal, about the partial opening of which they were making a great noise. Many thought it would succeed, though an Egyptian Commodore had said to him, " It is hombog." The Red Sea was fear- fully hot and steamy. The " Lady Nyassa " hung like a millstone round his neck, and he was prepared to sell her for whatever she might bring. Bombay was reached on llth September. TO AGNES LIVINGSTONE. "Bombay, 20th Sept. 1865. ... By advice of the Governor I went up to Nassick to see if the Africans there under Government instruction would suit my purpose as members of the Expedition. I was present at the examination of a large school under Mr. Price by the Bishop of Bombay. It is partly supported by Government. The pupils (108) are not exclusively African, but all showed very great proficiency. They excelled in music. I found some of the Africans to have come from parts I know one from Ndonde on the Rovuma and all had learned some handicraft, besides reading, writing, etc. , and it is probable that some of them will go back to their own country with me. Eight have since volunteered to go. Besides these I am to get some men from the ' Marine Battalion," who have been accustomed to rough it in various ways, and their pensions will be given to their widows if they should die. The Governor (Sir Bartle Frere) is going to do what he can for my success. " After going back to Bombay I came up to near Poonah, and am now at Government House, the guest of the Governor. "Society here consists mainly of officers and their wives. . . . Miss Frere, in the absence of Lady Frere, does the honours of the establishment, and very nicely she does it. She is very clever, and quite unaffected very like her father. . . . " Christianity is gradually diffusing itself, leavening as it were in various ways the whole mass. When a man becomes a professor of Christianity, he is at present cast out, abandoned by all his relations, even by wife and children. This state of things makes some whc don't care about Christian progress say that all Christian servants are useless. They are degraded by their own countrymen, and despised by others, but time will work changes. Mr. Maine, who came out here with us, intends to introduce a law whereby a convert deserted by his wife may marry again. It is in accordance with the text in Corinthians If an unbelieving wife depart, let her depart. People will gradually show more sympathy with the poor fellows 1865-66.] FROM ENGLAND TO ZANZIBAR. 305. who come out of heathenism, and discriminate between the worthy and unworthy. You should read Lady Duff Gordon's Letters from Egypt, They show a nice sympathising heart, and are otherwise very interesting. She saw the people as they are. Most people see only the outsides of things. . . . Avoid all nasty French novels. They are very injurious, and effect a lasting injury on the mind and heart. I go up to Government House again three days hence, and am to deliver two lectures, one at Poonah, and one at Bombay." Some slight reminiscences of Livingstone at Bombay, derived from admiring countrymen of his own, will not be out of place, considering that the three or four months spent there was the last period of his life passed in any part of the dominions of Great Britain. The Kev. Dugald C. Boyd of Bombay (now of Portsoy, Banffshire), an intimate friend of Dr. Stewart of Lovedale, writing to a correspondent on 10th October 1865, says : " Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of meeting Livingstone at dinner in a very quiet way. ... It was an exceedingly pleasant evening. Dr. Wilson was in great 'fig,' and Livingstone was, though quiet, very communicative, and greatly disposed to talk about Africa. ... I had known Mrs. Livingstone, and I had known Robert and Agnes, his son and daughter, and I had known Stewart. He spoke very kindly of Stewart, and seems to hope that he may yet join him in Central Africa. . . . He is much stouter, better and healthier-looking than he was last year. . . . "12tft October. Livingstone was at the tamaslia yesterday. He was dressed very unlike a minister more like a post-captain or admiral. He wore a blue dress-coat, trimmed with lace, and bear- ing a Government gilt button. In his hand he carried a cocked hat. At the Communion on Sunday (he sat on Dr. Wilson's right hand, who sat on my right) he wore a blue surtout, with Government gilt buttons, and shepherd-tartan trousers ; and he had a gold band round his cap. 1 I spent two hours in his society last evening at Dr. 1 Dr. Livingstone's habit of dressing as a layman, and accepting the designation of David Livingstone, Esquire, as readily as that of the Rev. Dr. Livingstone, probably helped to propagate the idea that he had sunk the missionary in the explorer. The truth, however, is that -from the first he wished to be a lay missionary, not under any Society, and it was only at the instigation of his friends that he accepted ordination. He had an intense dislike of what was merely professional and conventional, and he thought that as a free-lance he would have more influence. Whether in this he sufficiently appreciated the position and office of one set aside by the Church for the service of the gospel may be a question : but there can be no question that he had the same view of the matter from first to last. He would have worn a blue dress and gilt buttons, if it had been suitable, as readily as any other, at the most ardent period of his missionary life. His heart was as truly that of a missionary under the Consul's dress as it had ever been when he wore black, or whatever else he could get, in the 306 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvm. Wilson's. He was not very complimentary to Burton. He is to lecture in public this evening." Another friend, Mr. Alexander Brown, now of Liverpool, sends a brief note of a very delightful excursion given by him, in honour of Livingstone, to the caves of Kennery or Kenhari, in the island of Salsette. There was a pretty large party. After leaving the railway station, they rode on ponies to the caves. "We spent a most charming day in the caves, and the wild jungle around them. Dr. Wilson, you may believe, was in his element, pouring forth volumes of Oriental lore in connection with the Bud- dhist faith and the Kenhari caves, which are among the most striking and interesting monuments of it in India. They are of great extent, and the main temple is in good preservation. Livingstone's almost boyish enjoyment of the whole thing impressed me greatly. The stern, almost impassive, man seemed to unbend, and enter most thoroughly into the spirit of a day ia which pleasure and instruction, under circumstances of no little interest, were so delightfully combined." At Bombay, he heard disquieting tidings of the Hano- verian traveller, Baron van der Decken. In his Journal he says : "29th December 1865. The expedition of the Baron van der Decken has met with a disaster up the Juba. He had gone up 300 miles, and met only with the loss of his steam launch. He then ran his steamer on two rocks and made two large holes in her bottom. The Baron and Dr. Link got out in order to go to the chief to con- ciliate him. He had been led to suspect war. Then a large party came and attacked them, killing the artist Trenn and the chief engineer. They were beaten off, and Lieutenant von Schift with four survivors left in the boat, and in four days came down the stream. Thence they came in a dhow to Zanzibar. It is feared that the Baron may be murdered, but possibly not. It looks ill that the attack was made after he landed. " My times are in Thy hand, O Lord ! Go Thou with me, and I am safe. And above all, make me useful in promoting Thy cause of peace and good- will among men. " The rumour of the Baron's death was subsequently con- firmed. His mode of treating the natives was the very opposite of Livingstone's, who regarded the manner of his death as another proof that it was not safe to disregard the manhood of the African people. The Bombay lecture was a great success. Dr. Wilson, wilds of Africa. At the time of his encounter with the lion he wore a coat of tartan, and he thought that that material might have had some effect in preventing the usual irritating results of a lion's bite. 1865-66.] FROM ENGLAND TO ZANZIBAR. 307 Free Church Missionary, was in the chair, and after the lecture tried to rouse the Bombay merchants, and especially the Scotch, to help the enterprise. Referring to the driblets that had been contributed by Government and the Geographical Society, he proposed that in Bombay they should raise as much as both. In his next letter to his daughter, Livingstone tells of the success of the lecture, of the subscription, which promised to amount to 1000 (it did not quite do so), and of his wish that the Bombay merchants should use the money for setting up a trading establishment in Africa. " I must first of all find a suitable spot ; then send back here to let it be known. I shall then be off in my work for the Geographical Society, and when that is done, if I am well, I shall come back to the first station." He goes on to speak of the facilities he had received for transporting Indian buffaloes and other animals to Africa, and of the extraordinary kindness and interest of Sir Bartle Frere, and the pains he had taken to commend him to the good graces of the Sultan of Zanzibar, then in Bombay. He speaks pleasantly of his sojourn with Dr. Wilson and other friends. He is particularly pleased with the management and menu of a house kept by four bachelors and then he adds : " Your mamma was an excellent manager of the house, and made everything comfortable. I suppose it is the habit of attending to little things that makes such a difference in different houses. As I am to be away from all luxury soon, I may as well live comfortably with the bachelors while I can." To Mr. James Young he writes about the "Lady Nyassa," which he had sold, after several advertisements, but only for .2300 : " The whole of the money given for her I dedicated to the great object for which she was built. I am satisfied at having made the effort ; would of course have preferred to have succeeded, but we are not respon- sible for results." In reference to the investment of the money, it was intended ultimately to be sunk in Govern- ment or railway securities ; but meanwhile, he had been recommended to invest it in shares of an Indian bank. Most unfortunately, the bank failed a year or two after- wards ; and thus the whole of the 6000, which the vessel had cost Livingstone, vanished into air. 3 o8 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvni. His little daughter Anna Mary had a good share of his attention at Bombay. He writes to her : " 24A December 1865. I went last night to take tea in the house of a Hindoo gentleman who is not a professed Christian. It was a great matter for such to eat with men not of his caste. Most Hindoos would shrink with horror from contact with us. Seven little girls were present, belonging to two Hindoo families. They were from four or five to eight years old. They were very pleasant- looking, of olive complexions. Their hair was tied in a knot behind, with a wreath of flowers round the knot ; they had large gold ear-rings and European dresses. One played very nicely on the piano, while the rest sang very nicely a funny song, which shows the native way of thinking about some of our customs. They sang some nice hymns, and repeated some pieces, as the ' Wreck of the Hesperus,' which was given at the examination of Oswell's school. Then all sung, ' There is a happy land, far, far away,' and it, with some of the Christian hymns, was beautiful. They speak English perfectly, but with a little foreign twang. All joined in a metrical prayer before retiring. They have been taught all by their father, and it was very pleasant to see that this teaching had brought out their natural cheerfulness. Native children don't look lively, but these were brimful of fun. One not quite as tall as yourself brought a child's book to me, and with great glee pointed out myself under the lion. She can read fluently, as I suppose you can by this time now. I said that I would like a little girl like her to go with me to Africa to sing these pretty hymns to me there. She said she would like to go, but should not like to have a black husband. This is Christmas season, and to-morrow is held as the day in which our Lord was born, an event which angels made known to men, and it brought great joy, and proclaimed peace on earth and good-will to men. That Saviour must be your friend, and He will be if you ask Him so to be. He will forgive and save you, and take you into His family." On New Year's Day 1866 he writes in his Journal : " The Governor told me that he had much pleasure in giving Dr. Kirk an appointment ; he would telegraph to him to-day. It is to be at Zanzibar, where he will be of great use in promoting all good works." It had been arranged that Dr. Livingstone was to cross to Zanzibar in the " Thule," a steamer that had formed part of the squadron of Captain Sherard Osborn in China, and which Livingstone had now the honour of being com- missioned to present to the Sultan of Zanzibar, as a present from Sir Bartle Frere, and the Bombay Govern- ment. We give a few extracts from his journal at sea : i86s-66.] FROM ENGLAND TO ZANZIBAR. 309 " 17th January. Issued flannel to all the boys from Xassick ; the marines have theirs from Government. The boys sing a couple of hymns every evening, and repeat the Lord's Prayer. I mean to keep up this, and make this a Christian expedition, telling a little about Christ wherever we go. His love in coming down to save men will be our theme. I dislike very much to make my religion distasteful to others. This, with 's hypocritical ostentation, made me have fewer religious services on the Zambesi than would have been desirable, perhaps. He made religion itself distasteful by excessive ostentation. . . . Good works gain the approbation of the world, and though there is antipathy in the human heart to the gospel of Christ, yet when Christians make their good works shine all admire them. It is when great disparity exists between pro- fession and practice that we secure the scorn of mankind. The Lord help me to act in all cases in this Expedition as a Christian ought. "23d January. My second book has been reviewed very favour- ably by the Athenaeum and the Saturday Review, and by many newspapers. Old John Crawford gives a snarl in the Examiner, but I can afford that it should be so. 4800 copies were sold on first night of Mr. Murray's sale. It is rather a handsome volume. I hope it may do some good. " In a letter to Mr. James Young he writes of his voyage, and discharges a characteristic spurt of humour at a mutual Edinburgh acquaintance who had mistaken an order about a magic lantern : " At sea, 300 miles from Zanzibar, 26th January 1866. We have enjoyed fair weather in coming across the weary waste of waters. We started on the 5th. The ' Thule, ' to be a pleasure yacht, is the most incorrigible roller ever known. The whole 2000 miles has been an everlasting see-saw, shuggy-shoo, and enough to tire the patience of even a chemist, who is the most patient of all animals. I am pretty well gifted in that respect myself, though I say it that shouldn't say it, but that Sandy B ! The world will never get on till we have a few of those instrument-makers hung. I was particular in asking him ' to get me Scripture slides coloured, and put in with the magic lantern, and he has not put in one ! The very object for which I wanted it is thus frustrated, and I did not open it till we were at sea. O Sandy ! Pity Burke and Hare have no successors in Auld Reekie ! . . . "You will hear that I have the prospect of Kirk being out here. I am very glad of it, as I am sure his services will be found invalu- able on the east coast." To his daughter Agnes he writes, h, propos of the rolling of the ship : " Most of the marine-sepoys were sick. You would have been a victim unless you had tried the new remedy of a bag of pounded ice along the spine, which sounds as hopeful as the eld cure for 3io DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xvm. toothache : take a mouthful of cold water, and sit on the fire till it boils, you will suffer no more from toothache. ... A shark took a bite at the revolving vane of the patent log to-day. He left some pieces of the enamel of his teeth in the brass, and probably has the toothache. You will sympathise with him. ... If you ask Mr. Murray to send, by Mr. Conyngham, Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History, and Mr. Gladstone's Address to the Edinburgh Students, it will save me writing to him. When you return home you will be scrutinised to see if you are spoiled. You have only to act naturally and kindly to all your old friends to disarm them of their prejudices. I think you will find the Youngs true friends. Mrs. Williamson of Widdicombe Hill near Bath writes to me that she would like to show you her plans for the benefit of poor orphans. If you thought of going to Bath, it might be well to get all the insight you could into that and every other good work. It is well to be able to take a comprehensive view of all benevolent enterprises, and resolve to do our duty in life in some way or other, for we cannot live for ourselves alone. A life of selfishness is one of misery, and it is unlike that of our blessed Saviour, who pleased not Himself. He followed not His own will even, but the will of His Father in heaven. I have read with much pleasure a book called Rose Douglas. It is the life of a minister's daughter with fictitious names, but all true. She was near Lanark, and came through Hamilton. You had better read it if you come in contact with ft." Keferring to an alarm, arising from the next house having taken fire, of which she had written him, he adds playfully : " You did not mention what you considered most precious on the night of the fire ; so I dreamed that I saw one young lady hugging a German grammar to her bosom ; another with a pair of curling tongs, a tooth-pick and a pinafore ; another with a bunch of used- up postage stamps and autographs in a crinoline turned upside down, and a fourth lifted up Madame Hoce"d6 and insisted on carrying her as her most precious baggage. Her name, which I did not catch, will go down to posterity alongside of the ladies who each carried out her husband from the besieged city, and took care never to let him hear the last on't afterwards. I am so penetrated with admiration of her that I enclose the wing of a flying-tish for her. It lighted among us last night, while we were at dinner, coming right through the sky-light. You will make use of this fact in the high-flying speech which you will deliver to her in French." Zanzibar is at length reached on the 28th January, after a voyage of twenty-three days, tedious enough, though but half the length of the cruise in the " Nyassa " two years before. To Agnes : 1865-66.] FROM ENGLAND TO ZANZIBAR. 311 " 29th Jan. We went to call to-day on the Sultan. His High- ness met us at the bottom of the stair, and as he shook hands a. brass band which he got at Bombay, blared forth ' God save the Queen ! ' This was excessively ridiculous, but I maintained suffi- cient official gravity. After coffee and sherbet we came away, and the wretched band now struck up 'The British Grenadier,' as if the fact of my being only 5 feet 8, and Brebner about 2 inches lower, ought not to have suggested ' Wee Willie Winkie ' as more appropriate. I was ready to explode, but got out of sight before giving way. " Dr. Livingstone brought a very cordial recommendation to the Sultan from Sir Bartle Frere, and experienced much kindness at his hand. Being ill of toothache, the Sultan could not receive the gift of the " Thule " in person, and it was presented through his commodore. Livingstone was detained in Zanzibar nearly two months waiting for H.M.S. " Penguin," which was to convey him to the mouth of the Rovuma. Zanzibar life was very monotonous "It is the old, old way of living eating, drinking, sleeping ; sleeping, drinking, eating. Getting fat ; slaving -dhows coming and slaving-dhows going away ; bad smells ; and kindly looks from English folks to each other." The sight of slaves in the Zanzibar market, and the recognition of some who had been brought from Nyassa, did not enliven his visit, though it undoubtedly confirmed his purpose and quickened his efforts to aim another blow at the accursed trade. Always thinking of what would benefit Africa, he writes to Sir Thomas Mac- lear urging very strongly the starting of a line of steamers between the Cape, Zanzibar, and Bombay : " It would be a most profitable one, and would do great good, besides, in eating out the trade in slaves." At last the "Penguin" came for him, and once more, and for the last time, Livingstone left for the Dark Con- tinent. 312 DA V1D LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. CHAPTER XIX. FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJL A.D. 1866-1869. ON the 19th of March, fortified by a firman from the Sultan to all his people, and praying the Most High to prosper him, " by granting him influence in the eyes of the heathen, and blessing his intercourse with them," Living- stone left Zanzibar in H.M.S. "Penguin" for the mouth of the Rovuma. His company consisted of thirteen Sepoys, ten Johanna men, nine Nassick boys, two Shupanga men, and two Waiyau. Musa, one of the Johanna men, had been a sailor in the " Lady Nyassa ;" Susi and Amoda, the Shu- panga men, had been wood-cutters for the "Pioneer;" and the two Waiyau lads, Wikatani and Chuma, had been among the slaves rescued in 1861, and had lived for some time at the mission station at Chibisa's. Besides these, he carried with him a sort of menagerie in a dhow six camels, three buffaloes and a calf, two mules, and four donkeys. What man but Dr. Livingstone would have encumbered himself with such baggage, and for what conceivable pur- pose except the benefit of Africa 1 The tame buffaloes of India were taken that he might try whether, like the wild buffaloes of Africa, they would resist the bite of the tsetse- fly ; the other animals for the same purpose. There were two words of which Livingstone might have said, as Queen Mary said of Calais, that at his death they would be found engraven on his heart fever and tsetse ; the one the great scourge of man, the other of beast, in South Africa. To help to counteract two such foes to African civilisation no trouble or expense would have been judged too great. Already he had lost nine of his buffaloes at Zanzibar. It was a sad pity that owing to the ill treatment of the remaining animals by his people, who turned out a poor lot, it could never be known conclusively whether the tsetse- bite was fatal to them or not. In spite of all he had suffered in Africa, and though he was without the company of a single European, he had, in 1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 313. setting out, something of the exhilarating feeling of a young traveller starting on his first tour in Switzerland, deepened by the sense of nobility which there is in every endeavour to do good to others. "The mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild unexplored country is very great. . . . The sweat of one's brow is no longer a curse when one works for God ; it proves a tonic to the system, and is actually a blessing." The Rovuma was found to have changed greatly since his last visit, so that he had to land his goods twenty-five miles to the north at Mikindany harbour, and find his way down to the river further up. The toil was fitted to wear out the strongest of his men. Nothing could have been more grateful than the Sunday rest. Through his Nassick boys, he tried to teach the Makond6 a tribe that bore a very bad character, but failed; however, the people were wonderfully civil, and, contrary to all previous usage, neither inflicted fines nor made complaints, though the animals had done some damage to their corn. He set this down as an answer to his prayers for influence among the heathen. His vexations, however, were not long of beginning. Both the Sepoy marines and the Nassick boys were extremely troublesome, and treated the animals abominably. The Johanna men were thieves. The Sepoys became so intolerable that after four months' trial he sent most of them back to the coast. It required an effort to resist the effect of such things, owing to the tendency of the. mind to brood over the ills of travel. The natives were not un- kindly, but food was very scarce. As they advanced, the horrors of the slave-trade presented themselves in all their hideous aspects. Women were found dead, tied to trees, or lying in the path shot and stabbed, their fault having been inability to keep up with the party, while their amiable owners, to prevent them from becoming the pro- perty of any one else, put an end to their lives. In some instances the captives, yet in the slave-sticks, were found not quite dead. Brutality was sometimes seen in another form, as when some natives laughed at a poor boy suffering from a very awkward form of hernia, whose mother wa& trying to bind up the part. The slave-trade utterly demoralised the people; the Arabs bought whoever was .314 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. brought to them, and the great extent of forest in the country favoured kidnapping ; otherwise the people were honest. Farther on they passed through an immense uninhabited tract, that had once evidently had a vast population. Then, in the Waiyau country, west of Mataka's, came a splendid district 3400 feet above the sea, as well adapted for a settlement as Magomero, but it had taken them four months to get at it, while Magomero was reached in three weeks. The abandonment of that mission he would never cease to regret. As they neared Lake Nyassa, slave parties became more common. On the 8th August 1866 they reached the lake, which seemed to Livingstone like an old familiar friend which he never expected to see again. He thanked God, bathed again in the delicious water, and felt quite exhilarated. Writing to his son Thomas, 28th August, he says : " The Sepoys were morally unfit for travel, and then we had hard lines, all of us. Food was not to be had for love or money. Our finest clothes only brought miserable morsels of the common grain. I trudged it the whole way, and having no animal food save what turtle-doves and guinea-fowls we occasionally shot, I became like one of Pharaoh's lean kine. The last tramp [to Nyassa] brought us to a land of plenty. It was over a very fine country, but quite depopulated. . . . The principal chief, named Mataka, lives on the "watershed overhanging this, but fifty miles or more distant from this ; his town contained a thousand houses many of them square, in imitation of the Arabs. Large patches of English peas in full bearing grew in the moist hollows, or were irrigated. Cattle showed that no tsetse existed. When we arrived, Mataka was just sending back a number of cattle and captives to their own homes. They had been taken by his people without his knowledge from Nyassa. I saw them by accident : there were fifty-four women and children, about a dozen young men and boys, and about twenty-five or thirty head of cattle. As the act was spontaneous, it was the more grati- fying to witness. . . . "I sometimes remember you with some anxiety, as not knowing what opening may be made for you in life. . . . Whatever you feel yourself best fitted for, ' commit thy way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass.' One ought to endeavour to devote the peculiarities of his nature to his Redeemer's service, whatever these may be." Resting at the lake, and working up journal, lunars, and altitudes, he hears of the arrival of an Englishman at 1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJJJL 315 Mataka's, with cattle for him, " who had two eyes behind as well as two in front news enough for a while." Zoology, Botany, and Geology engage his attention as usual. He tries to get across the lake, but cannot, as the slavers own all the dhows, and will neither lend nor sell to him ; he has therefore to creep on foot round its southern end. Marks of destruction and desolation again shock the eye skulls and bones everywhere. At the point where the Shir6 leaves Nyassa, he could not but think of disappointed hopes the death of his dear wife, and of the Bishop, the increasing vigour of the slave-trade, and the abandonment of the Universities Mission. But faith assured him of good times coming, though he might not live to see them. Would only he had seen through the vista of the next ten years ! Bishop Tozer done with Africa and Bishop Steere returning to the old neighbourhood, and resuming the old work of the Universities Mission ; and his own countrymen planting his name on the promontory on which he gazed so sorrow- fully, training the poor natives in the arts of civilisation, rearing Christian households among them, and proclaiming the blessed Gospel of the God of love ! Invariably as he goes along, Dr. Livingstone aims at two things : at teaching some of the great truths of Christianity, and rousing consciences on the atrocious guilt of the slave- trade. In connection with the former he discovers that his usual way of conducting divine service by the reading of prayers does not give ignorant persons any idea of an unseen Being ; kneeling and praying with the eyes shut is better. At the foot of the lake he goes out of his way to remonstrate with Mukat6, one of the chief marauders of the district. The tenor of his addresses is in some degree shaped by the practices he finds so prevalent : " We mention our relationship to our Father, the guilt of selling any of His children, the consequences : e.g. it begets war, for as they don't like to sell their own, they steal from other villagers, who retaliate. Arabs and Waiyau, invited into the country by their selling, foster feuds, wars and depopulation ensue. We mention the Bible future state prayer ; advise union, that they would unite as one family to expel enemies, who came first as slave- traders, and ended by leaving the country a wilderness." 3i6 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. It was about this time that Wikatani, one of the two Waiyau boys who had been rescued from slavery, finding, as he believed or said, some brothers and sisters on the western shore of the lake, left Livingstone and remained with them. There had been an impression in some quarters that, according to his wont, Livingstone had made him his slave ; to show the contrary, he gave him his choice of remaining or going, and, when the boy chose to remain, he acquiesced. Dr. Livingstone had ere now passed over the ground where, if anywhere, he might have hoped to find a station for a commercial aud missionary settlement, independent of the Portuguese. In this hope he was rather disappointed. Th only spot he refers to is the district west of Mataka's, which, however, was so difficult of access. Nearer the coast a mission might be established, and to this project his mind turned afterwards ; but it would not command the Nyassa district. On the whole he preferred the Zambesi and Shir6 valley, with all their difficulties. But the Rovuma was not hopeless, and indeed, within the last few years, the Uni- versities Mission has occupied the district successfully. The geographical question of the watershed had now to be grappled with. It is natural to ask whether this question was of sufficient importance to engage his main energies, and justify the incalculable sacrifices undergone by him during the remaining six years of his life. First of all, we must remember, it was not his own scheme it was pressed on him by Sir Eoderick Murchison and the Geographical Society ; and it may perhaps be doubted whether, had he foreseen the cost of the enterprise, he would have deemed the object worthy of the price. But ever and anon, he seemed to be close on what he was searching for, and certain to secure it by just a little further effort ; while as often, like the cup of Tantalus, it was snatched from his grasp. Moreover, during a lifetime of splendid self-discipline, he had been training himself to keep his promises, and to complete his tasks ; nor could he in any way see it his duty to break the one or leave the other unfinished. He had undertaken to the Geographical Society to solve that problem, and he would do it if it could be done. Wherever he went he had always some opportunity to make known the father- 1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 317 hood of God and His love in Christ, although the seed he sowed seemed seldom to take root. Then he was gathering fresh information on the state of the country and the habits of the people. He was especially gathering information on the accursed slave-trade. This question of the watershed, too, had fascinated his mind, for he had a strong impression that the real sources of the Nile were far higher than any previous traveller had supposed far higher than Lake Victoria Nyanza, and that it would be a service to religion as well as science, to dis- cover the fountains of the stream on whose bosom, in the dawn of Hebrew history, Moses had floated in his ark of bulrushes. A strong impression lurked in his mind that if he should only solve that old problem he would acquire such influence that new weight would be given to his pleadings for Africa ; just as, at the beginning of his career, he had wished for a commanding style of composition, to be able to rouse the attention of the world to that ill- treated continent. He was strongly disposed to think that in the account of the sources given to Herodotus by the Eegistrar of Minerva in the temple of Sais, that individual was not joking, as the father of history supposed. He thought that in the water- shed the two conical hills, Crophi and Mophi, might be found, and the fountains between them which it was impos- sible to fathom ; and that it might be seen that from that region there was a river flowing north to Egypt, and another flowing south to a country that might have been called Ethiopia. But whatever might be his views or aims, it was ordained that in the wanderings of his last years he should bring within the sympathies of the Christian world many a poor tribe otherwise unknown ; that he should witness sights, surpassing all he had ever seen before of the inhu- manity and horrors of the slave-traffic sights that harrowed his inmost soul; and that when bis final appeal to his countrymen on behalf of its victims came, not from his living voice but from his tomb, it should gather from a thousand touching associations a thrilling power that would rouse the world, and finally root out the accursed thing. A very valuable testimony was borne by Sir Bartle Frere to the real aims of Livingstone, and the value of his work, L 3i 8 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. especially in this last journey, in a speech delivered in the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 10th November 1876 : "The object," he said, "of Dr. Livingstone's geographical and scientific explorations was to lead his countrymen to the great work of christianising and civilising the millions of Central Africa. You will recollect how when first he came back from his wonderful journey, though we were all greatly startled by his achievements and by what he told us, people really did not lay what he said much to heart. They were stimulated to take up the cause of African discovery again, and other travellers went out and did excellent service ; but the great fact which was from the very first upon Livingstone's mind, and which he used to impress upon you, did not make the impression he wished, and although a good many people took more and more interest in the civilisation of Africa and in the abolition of the slave-trade, which he pointed out was the great obstacle to all progress, still it did not come home to the people generally. It was not until his third and last journey, when he was no more to return among us, that the descriptions which he gave of the horrors of the slave-trade in the interior really took hold upon the mind of the people of this country, and made them determine that what used to be considered the crotchet of a few religious minds and humanitarian sort of persous, should be a phase of the great work which this country had undertaken, to free the African races, and to abolish, in the first place, the slave-trade by sea, and then, as we hope, the slaving by land." In September an Arab slaver was met at Marenga's, who told Musa, one of the Johanna men, that all the country in front was full of Mazitu, a warlike tribe ; that forty-four Arabs and their followers had been killed by them at Kasunga, and that he only had escaped. Musa's heart was filled with consternation. It was in vain that Marenga assured him that there were no Mazitu in the direction in which he was going, and that Livingstone protested to him that he would give them a wide berth. The Johanna men wanted an excuse for going back, but in such a way that, when they reached Zanzibar, they should get their pay. They left him in a body, and when they got to Zanzibar, circulated a circumstantial report that he had been murdered. In December 1866, Musa appeared at Zanzibar, and told how Livingstone had crossed Lake Nyassa to its western or north-western shore, and was pushing on west or north-west, when, between Marenga and Maklisoora, a band of savages stopped the way, and rushed on him and his small band of followers, now reduced to twenty. Livingstone fired twice, 1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 319 and killed two ; but, in the act of reloading, three Mafite leapt upon him through the smoke, one of them felled him with an axe-cut from behind, and the blow nearly severed his head from his body. The Johanna men fled into the thick jungle, and miraculously escaped. Returning to the scene of the tragedy, they found the body of their master, and in a shallow grave dug with some stakes, they com- mitted his remains to the ground. Many details were given regarding the Sepoys, and regarding the after fortunes of Musa and his companions. Under cross-examination Musa stood firmly to his story, which was believed both by Dr. Seward and Dr. Kirk of Zanzibar. But when the tidings reached England, doubt was thrown on them by some of those best qualified to judge. Mr. Edward D. Young, who had had dealings with Musa, and knew him to be a liar, was suspicious of the story ; so was Mr. Horace Waller. Sir Roderick Murchison, too, proclaimed himself an unbeliever, notwithstanding all the circumstantiality and apparent con- clusiveness of the tale. The country was resounding with lamentations, the newspapers were full of obituary notices, but the strong-minded disbelievers were not to be moved. Sir Roderick and his friends of the Geographical Society determined to organise a search expedition, and Mr. E. D. Young was requested to undertake the task. In May 1867 all was ready for the departure of the Expedition ; and on the 25th July, Mr. E. D. Young, who was accompanied by Mr. Faulkner, John Reid, and Patrick Buckley, cast anchor at the mouth of the Zambesi. A steel boat named " The Search," and some smaller boats, were speedily launched, and the party were moving up the river. We have no space for an account of Mr. Young's most interesting journey, not even for the detail of that wonderful achievement, the carrying of the pieces of the "Search" past the Murchison Cataracts, and their reconstruction at the top, without a single piece miss- ing. The sum and substance of Mr. Young's story was, that first, quite unexpectedly, he came upon a man near the south end of Lake Nyassa, who had seen Livingstone there, and who described him well, showing that he had not crossed at the north end, as Musa had said, but, for some reason, had come round by the south ; then, the chief Marenga not only told him of Livingstone's stay there, but 3 2o DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. also of the return of Musa, after leaving him, without any story of his murder ; also at Mapunda, they came on traces of the boy Wikatani, and learned his story, though they did not see himself. The most ample proof of the falsehood of Musa's story was thus obtained, and by the end of 1867, Mr. Young, after a most active, gallant, and successful campaign, was approaching the shores of England. 1 No enterprise could have brought more satisfactory results, and all in the incredibly short period of eight months. Meanwhile, Livingstone, little thinking of all the com- motion that the knave Musa had created, was pushing on in the direction of Lake Tanganyika. Though it was not true that he had been murdered, it was true that he was half-starved. The want of other food compelled him to subsist to a large extent on African maize, the most tasteless and unsatisfying of food. It never produced the feeling of sufficiency, and it would set him to dream of dinners he had once eaten, though dreaming was not his habit, except when he was ill. Against his will the thought of delicious feasts would come upon him, making it all the more difficult to be cheerful, with, probably, the poorest fare on which life could be in any way maintained. To complete his misery, his four goats were lost, so that the one comfort of his table a little milk along with his maize was taken from him when most eagerly sought and valued. In reviewing the year 1866, he finds it less productive of results than he had hoped for: "We now end 1866. It has not been so fruitful or useful as I intended. Will try to do better in 1867, and be better more gentle and loving; and may the Almighty, to whom I commit my way, bring my desires to pass, and prosper me ! Let all the sins of '66 be blotted out, for Jesus' sake. May He who was full of grace and truth impress His character on mine : grace eagerness to show favour ; truth truthfulness, sincerity, honour for His mercy's sake." Habitually brave and fearless though Livingstone was, it was not without frequent self-stimulation, and acts of faith in unseen truth, that the peace of his mind was maintained. In the midst of his notes of progress, such private thoughts as the following occur from tune to time: "It seems to 1 See The Search for Livingstone, by E. D. Young : London, 1868. 1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 321 have been a mistake to imagine that the Divine Majesty on high was too exalted to take any notice of our mean affairs. The great minds among men are remarkable for the attention they bestow on minutiae. An astronomer can- not be great unless his mind can grasp an infinity of very small things, each of which, if unattended to, would throw his work out. A great general attends to the smallest details of his army. The Duke of Wellington's letters show his constant attention to minute details. And so with the Supreme Mind of the universe, as He is revealed to us in His Son. ' The very hairs of your head are all numbered.' ' A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without your Father.' 4 He who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto ' condescends to provide for the minutest of our wants, directing, guarding, and assisting us each hour and moment, with an infinitely more vigilant and excellent care than our own utmost self-love can ever attain to. With the ever- watchful, loving eye constantly upon me, I may surely follow my bent, and go among the heathen in front, bearing the message of peace and good-will. All appreciate the statement that it is offensive to our common Father to sell and kill His children. I will therefore go, and may the Almighty help me to be faithful !" Writing to his son Thomas, 1st February 1867, he complains again of his terrible hunger : "The people have nothing to sell but a little millet-porridge and mushrooms. Woe is me ! good enough to produce fine dreams of the roast beef of old England, but nothing else. I have become very thin, though I was so before ; but now, if you weighed me, you might calculate very easily how much you might get for the bones. But we got a cow yesterday, and I am to get milk to-morrow. . . . I grieve to write it, poor poodle ' Chitane ' was drowned " [15th January, in the Chimbwe] ; "he had to cross a marsh a mile wide, and waist-deep. ... I went over first, and forgot to give directions about the dog all were too much engaged in keeping their balance to notice that he swam among them till he died. He had more spunk than a hundred country dogs took charge of the whole line of march, ran to see the first in the line, then back to the last, and barked to haul him up ; then, when he knew what hut I occupied, would not let a country cur come in sight of it, and never stole him- self. We have not had any difficulties with the people, made many friends, imparted a little knowledge sometimes, and raised a protest against slavery very widely." The year 1867 was signalised by a great calamity, and 322 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. by two important geographical feats. The calamity was the loss of his medicine-chest. It had been intrusted to one of his most careful people ; but, without authority, a carrier hired for the day took it and some other things to carry for the proper bearer, then bolted, and neither carrier nor box could be found. " I felt," says Livingstone, " as if I had now received the sentence of death, like poor Bishop Mackenzie." With the medicine-chest was lost the power of treating himself in fever with the medicine that had proved so effectual. We find him not long after in a state of insensibility, trying to raise himself from the ground, falling back with all his weight, and knocking his head upon a box. The loss of the medicine-box was probably the beginning of the end ; his system lost the wonderful, power of recovery which it had hitherto shown; and other ailments in the lungs, the feet, and the bowels, that might have been kept under in a more vigorous state of general health, began hereafter to prevail against him. The two geographical feats were his first sight of Lake Tanganyika, and his discovery of Lake Moero. In April he reached Lake Liemba, as the lower part of Tanganyika was called. The scenery was wonderfully beautiful, and the air of the whole region remarkably peaceful. The want of medicine made an illness here very severe ; on recovering, he would have gone down the lake, but was dissuaded, in consequence of his hearing that a chief was killing all that came that way. He therefore returns to Chitimba's, and resolves to explore Lake Moero, believing that there the question of the watershed would be decided. At Chi- timba's, he is detained upwards of three months, in con- sequence of the disturbed state of the country. At last he gets the escort of some Arab traders, who show him much kindness, but again he is prostrated by illness, and at length he reaches Lake Moero, 8th November 1867. He hears of another lake, called Bembo or Bangweolo, and to hear of it is to resolve to see it. But he is terribly wearied with two years' travelling without having heard from home, and he thinks he must first go to Ujiji, for letters and stores. Meanwhile, as the traders are going to Casembe's, he accompanies them thither. Casembe he finds to be . fierce chief, who rules his people with great tyranny, cutting off 1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 323 their ears, and even their hands, for the most trivial offences. Persons so mutilated, seen in his village, excite a feeling of horror. This chief was not one easily got at, but Living- stone believed that he gained an influence with him, only he could not quite overcome his prejudice against him. The year 1867 ended with another severe attack of illness. " The chief interest in Lake Moero," says Livingstone, " is that it forms one of a chain of lakes, connected by a river some 500 miles in length. First of all, the Chambeze rises in the country of Mambwe", N.E. of Molemba ; it then flows south-west and west, till it reaches lat. 11 s., and long. 29 E., where it forms Lake Bemba or Bangweolo ; emerging thence, it assumes the name of Luapula, and comes down here to fall into Moero. On going out of this lake it is known by the name of Lualaba, as it flows N.w. in Rua to form another lake with many islands, called TJrenge" or Ulenge. Beyond this, information is not positive as to whether it enters Lake Tanganyika, or another lake beyond that. . . . Since coming to Casembe's, the testimony of natives and Arabs has been so united and consistent, that I am but ten days from Lake Bemba or Bangweolo, that I cannot doubt its accuracy." The detentions experienced in 1867 were long and wearisome, and Livingstone disliked them because he was never well when doing nothing. His light reading must have been pretty well exhausted ; even Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, which accompanied him in these wanderings, and which we have no doubt he read throughout, must have got wearisome sometimes. He occupied himself in writing letters, in the hope that somehow or sometime he might find an opportunity of despatching them. He took the rainfall carefully during the year, and lunars, and other observations, when the sky permitted. He had intended to make his observations more perfect on this journey than on any previous one, but alas for his difficulties and disappoint- ments ! A letter to Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann his assistant, gives a pitiful account of these : " I came this journey with a determination to observe very carefully all your hints as to occultations and observations, east and west, north and south, but I have been so worried by lazy, deceitful Sepoys, and thievish Johanna men, and indifferent instruments, that I fear the results are very poor." He goes on to say that some of his instruments were defective, and others went out of order, and that his time-taker, one of his people, had no conscience, and could not be trusted. The 324 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. records of his observations, notwithstanding, indicate much care and pains. In April, he had been very unwell, taking fits of total insensibility, but as he had not said anything of this to his people at home, it was to be kept a secret. His Journal for 1867 ends with a statement of the poverty of his food, and the weakness to which he was reduced. He had hardly anything to eat but the coarsest grain of the country, and no tea, coffee, or sugar. An Arab trader, Mohamad Bogharib, who arrived at Casembe's about the same time, presented him with a meal of ver- micelli, oil, and honey, and had some coffee and sugar; Livingstone had had none since he left Nyassa. The Journal for 1868 begins with a prayer that if he should die that year, he might be prepared for it The year was spent in the same region, and was signalised by the discovery of Lake Bemba, or, as it may more properly be called, Lake Bangweolo. Early in the year he heard accounts of what interested him greatly certain under- ground houses in Rua, ranging along a mountain side for twenty miles. In some cases the doorways were level with the country adjacent ; in others, ladders were used to climb up to them ; inside they were said to be very large, and not the work of men, but of God. He became eagerly desirous to visit these mysterious dwellings. Circumstances turning out more favourable to his going to Lake Bangweolo, Dr. Livingstone put off his journey to Ujiji, on which his men had been counting, and much against the advice of Mohamad, his trader friend and com- panion, determined first to see the lake of which he had heard so much. The consequence was, a rebellion among his men. "With the exception of five, they refused to go with him. They had been considerably demoralised by contact with the Arab trader and his slave-gang. Dr. Livingstone took this rebellion with wonderful placidity, for in his own mind he could not greatly \>lame them. It was no wonder they were tired of the everlasting tramping, for he was sick of it himself. He reaped the fruit of his mildness by the men coming back to him, on his return from the lake, and offering their services. It cannot be said of him that he was not disposed to make any allowance for human weakness. When recording a fault, and how 1 866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 325 he dealt with it, he often adds, "consciousness of my own defects makes me lenient." "I also have my weaknesses." The way to the lake was marked by fresh and lamentable tokens of the sufferings of slaves. " 24th June. Six men- slaves were singing as if they did not feel the weight and degradation of the slave-sticks. I asked the cause of their mirth, and was told that they rejoiced at the idea of * com- ing back after death, and haunting and killing those who had sold them.' Some of the words I had to inquire about ; for instance, the meaning of the words, ' to haunt and kill by spirit power ;' then it was, ' Oh, you sent me off to Manga (sea-coast), but the yoke is off when I die, and back I shall come to haunt and to kill you.' Then all joined in the chorus, which was the name of each vendor. It told not of fun, but of the bitterness and tears of such as were oppressed ; and on the side of the oppressors there was power. There be higher than they !" His discovery of Lake Bangweolo is recorded as quietly as if it had been a mill-pond : " On the 18th July, I walked a little way out, and saw the shores of the lake for the first time, thankful that I had come safely hither." The lake had several inhabited islands, which Dr. Livingstone visited, to the great wonder of the natives, who crowded around him in multitudes, never having seen such a curiosity as a white man before. In the middle of the lake the canoe-men whom he had hired to carry him across refused to proceed further, under the influence of some fear, real or pretended, and he was obliged to submit. But the most interesting, though not the most pleasant thing about the lake, was the ooze or sponge which occurred frequently on its banks. The spongy places were slightly depressed valleys, without trees or bushes, with grass a foot or fifteen inches high ; they were usually from two to ten miles long, and from a quarter of a mile to a mile broad. In the course of thirty geographical miles, he crossed twenty-nine, and that too, at the end of the fourth month of the dry season. It was necessary for him to strip the lower part of his person before fording them, and then the leeches pounced on him, and in a moment had secured such a grip, that even twisting them round the fingers failed to tear them off. L2 326 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. It was Dr. Livingstone's impression at this time that in discovering Lake Bangweolo, with the sponges that fed it, he had made another discovery that these marshy places might be the real sources of the three great rivers, the Nile, the Congo, and the Zambesi. A link, however, was yet wanting to prove his theory. It had yet to be shown that the waters that flowed from Lake Bangweolo into Lake Moero, and thence northwards by the river Lualaba, were connected with the Nile system. Dr. Livingstone was strongly inclined to believe that this connection existed ; but towards the close of his life he had more doubts of it, although it was left to others to establish conclusively that the Lualaba was the Congo, and sent no branch to the Nile. On leaving Lake Bangweolo, detention occurred again as it had occurred before. The country was very disturbed and very miserable, and Dr. Livingstone was in great straits and want. Yet with a grim humour he tells how, when lying in an open shed, with all his men around him, he dreamt of having apartments at Mivart's Hotel. It was after much delay that he found himself at last, under the escort of a slave-party, on the way to Ujiji. Mr. Waller has graphically described the situation. " At last he makes a start on the llth of December 1868, with the Arabs, who are bound eastwards for Ujiji. It is a motley group, com- posed of Mohamad and his friends, a gang of Unyamwezi hangers-on, and strings of wretched slaves yoked together in their heavy slave-sticks. Some carry ivory, others copper, or food for the march, whilst hope and fear, misery and villainy, may be read off on the various faces that pass in line out of this country, like a serpent dragging its accursed folds away from the victim it has paralysed with its fangs." New Year's Day, 1869, found Livingstone labouring under a worse attack of illness than any he had ever had before. For ten weeks to come his situation was as pain- ful as can be conceived. A continual cough, night and day, the most distressing weakness, inability to walk, yet the necessity of moving on, or rather of being moved on, in a kind of litter arranged by Mohamad Bogharib where, with his face poorly protected from the sun, he was jolted up and down and sideways, without medicine or food for an invalid, made the situation sufficiently trying. His 1866-69.] t FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 327 prayer was that he might hold out to Ujiji, where he ex- pected to find medicines and stores, with the rest and shelter so necessary in his circumstances. So ill was he, that he lost count of the days of the week and the month. " I saw myself lying dead in the way to Ujiji, and all the letters I expected there useless. When I think of my children, the lines ring through my head perpetually ' I shall look into your faces, and listen to what you say ; And be often very near you when you think I 'm far away. ' " On the 26th February 1869 he embarked in a canoe on Tanganyika, and on the 14th March he reached the longed- for Ujiji, on the eastern shore of the lake. To complete his trial, he found that the goods he expected had been made away with in every direction. A few fragments was about all he could find. Medicines, wine, and cheese had been left at Unyanyembe, thirteen days distant. A war was raging on the way, so that they could not be sent for till the communications were restored. To obviate as far as possible the recurrence of such a disaster to a new store of goods which he was now asking Dr. Kirk to send him, Livingstone wrote a letter to the Sultan of Zanzibar, 20th April 1869, in which he frankly and cordially acknowledged the benefit he had derived from the letter of recommendation his Highness had given him, and the great kindness of the Arabs, especially Mohamad Bogharib, who had certainly saved his life. Then he complains of the robbery of his goods, chiefly by one Musa bin Salim, one of the people of the Governor of Unyanyembe, who had bought ivory with the price, and another man who had bought a wife. Livingstone does not expect his cloth and beads to be brought back, or the price of the wife and ivory returned, but he says : " I beg the assistance of your authority to prevent a fresh stock of goods, for which I now send to Zanzibar, being plundered in the same way. Had it been the loss of ten or twelve pieces of cloth only, I should not have presumed to trouble your Highness about the loss; but 62 pieces or gorahs out of 80, besides beads, is like cutting a man's throat. If one or two guards of good character could be sent by you, no one would plunder the pagasi next time. 328 DA VI D LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xix. " I wish also to hire twelve or fifteen good freemen to act as canoe-men or porters, or in any other capacity that may be required. I shall be greatly obliged if you appoint one of your gentlemen who knows the country to select that number, and give them and their headman a charge as to their behaviour. If they know that you wish them to behave well, it will have great effect. I wish to go down Tanganyika, through Luanda and Chowambe, and past the river Karagwe, which falls into Lake Chowambe. Then come back to Ujiji, visit Manyuema and Rua, and then return to Zanzibar, when I hope to see your Highness in the enjoyment of health and happiness." Livingstone showed only his usual foresight in taking these precautions for the protection of his next cargo of goods. In stating so plainly his intended route, his pur- pose was doubtless to prevent carelessness in executing his orders, such as might have arisen had it been deemed un- certain where he was going, and whether or not he meant to return by Zanzibar. Of letters during the latter part of this period very few seem to have reached their destination. A short letter to Dr. Moffat, bearing date "Near Lake Moero, March 1868," dwells dolefully on his inability to reach Lake Bemba in consequence of the flooded state of the country, and then his detention through the strifes of the Arabs and the natives. The letter, however, is more occupied with re- viewing the past than narrating the present. In writing to Dr. Moffat, he enters more minutely than he would have done with a less intimate and sympathetic friend into the difficulties of his lot difficulties that had been increased by some from whom he might have expected other things. He had once seen a map, displayed in the rooms of the Geographical Society, substantially his own, but with another name in conspicuous letters. On the Zambesi he had had difficulties little suspected, of which in the meantime he would say nothing to the public. A letter to his daughter Agnes, after he had gone to Bangweolo, dwells also much on his past difficulties as if he felt that the slow progress he was making at the moment needed explanation or apology. Amid such topics, almost involuntary touches of the old humour occur: "I broke my teeth tearing at 1866-69.] FROM ZANZIBAR TO UJIJI. 329 maize and other hard food, and they are coming out. One front tooth is out, and I have such an awful mouth ! If you expect a kiss from me, you must take it through a speaking-trumpet." In one respect, amid all his trials, his heart seems to become more tender than ever in affection for his children, and wise and considerate advice for their guidance. In his letter to Agnes, he adverts with some regret to a chance he lost of saying a word for his family when Lord Palmerston sent Mr. Hayward, Q.C., to ask him what he could do to serve him. "It never occurred to me that he meant anything for me or my children till I was out here. I thought only of my work in Africa, and answered accordingly." It was only the fear that his family would be in want that occasioned this momentary xegret at his disinterested answer to Lord Palmerston. CHAPTER XX. MANYUEMA. A.D. 1869-1871. AFTER resting for a few weeks at Ujiji, Dr. Livingstone set out, 12th July 1869, to explore the Manyuema country. Ujiji was not a place favourable for making arrangements ; it was the resort of the worst scum of Arab traders. Even to send his letters to the coast was a difficult undertaking, for the bearers were afraid he would expose their doings. On one day he despatched no fewer than forty-two enough, no doubt, to form a large volume; none of these ever arrived at Zanzibar, so that they must have been purposely destroyed. The slave-traders of Urungu and Itawa, where he had been, were gentlemen compared with those of Ujiji, who resembled the Kilwa and Portuguese, and with whom trading was simply a system of murder. Here lay the cause of Livingstone's unexampled difficulties at this period of his life ; he was dependent on men who were not only knaves of the first magnitude, but who had a special 330 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. animosity against him, and a special motive to deceive, rob, and obstruct him in every possible way. After considerable deliberation he decided to go to Man- yuema, in order to examine the river Lualaba, and deter- mine the direction of its flow. This would settle the question of the watershed, and in four or five months, if he should get guides and canoes, his work would be done. On setting out from Ujiji he first crossed the lake, and then proceeded inland on foot. He was still weak from illness, and his lungs were so feeble that to walk up-hill made him pant. He became stronger, however, as he went on, re- freshed doubtless by the interesting country through which he passed, and the aspect of the people, who were very different from the tribes on the coast. On the 21st September he arrived at Bambarre in Man- yuema, the village of the Chief Moenekuss. He found the people in a state of great isolation from the rest of the world, with nothing to trust to but charms and idols, both being bits of wood. He made the acquaintance of the soko or gorilla, not a very social animal, for it always tries to bite off the ends of its captor's fingers and toes. Neither is it particularly intellectual, for its nest shows no more contrivance than that of a cushat dove. The curiosity of the people was very great, and sometimes it took an interest- ing direction. " Do people die with you 1 " asked two intelli- gent young men. " Have y ou n o charm against death ? Where do people go after death ? " Livingstone spoke to them of the great Father, and of their prayers to Him who hears the cry of His children ; and they thought this to be natural He rested at Bambarre till the 1st of November, and then went westwards till he reached the Luamo river, and was within ten miles of its confluence with the Lualaba. He found the country surpassingly beautiful : " Palms crown the highest heights of the mountains, and their gracefully bent fronds wave beautifully in the wind. Climbers of cable size in great numbers are hung among the gigantic trees; many unknown wild fruits abound, some the size of a child's head, and strange birds and monkeys are everywhere. The soil is excessively rich, and the people, though isolated by old feuds that are never settled, cultivate largely." 1869-71-] MANYUEMA. 331 The country was very populous, and Livingstone so excited the curiosity of the people that he could hardly get quit of the crowds. It was not so uninteresting to be stared at by the women, but he was wearied with the ugliness of the men. Palm-toddy did not inspire them with any social qualities, but made them low and disagreeable. They had no friendly feeling for him, and could not be inspired with any. They thought that he and his people were like the Arab traders, and they would not do anything for them. It was impossible to procure a canoe for navigating the Lua- laba, so that there was nothing for it but to return to Bam- barre, which was reached on the 19th December 1869. A long letter to his son Thomas (Town of Moenekuss, Manyuema Country, 24th September 1869) gives a retro- spect of this period, and indeed, in a sense, of his life : " MY DEAR TOM, I begin a letter, though I have no prospect of being able to send it off for many months to come. It is to have something in readiness when the hurry usual in preparing a mail does arrive. I am in the Manyuema Country, about 150 miles west of Ujiji, and at the town of Moenekoos or Moene"kuss, a principal chief among the reputed cannibals. His name means ' Lord of the light-grey parrot with a red tail,' which abounds here, and he points away still further west to the country of the real cannibals. His people laugh and say ' Yes, we eat the flesh of men,' and should they see the inquirer to be credulous enter into particulars. A black stuff smeared on the cheeks is the sign of mourning, and they told one of my people who believes all they say that it is animal charcoal made of the bones of the relatives they have eaten. They showed him the skull of one recently devoured, and he pointed it out to me in triumph. It was the skull of a gorilla, here called ' soko, ' and this they do eat. They put a bunch of bananas in his way, and hide till he comes to take them, and spear him. Many of the Arabs believe firmly in the cannibal propensity of the Manyuema. Others who have lived long among them, and are themselves three-fourths African blood, deny it. I suspect that this idea must go into oblivion with those of people who have no knowledge of fire, of the Supreme Being, or of language. The country abounds in food, goats, sheep, fowls, buffaloes, and elephants : maize, holcuserghum, cassaba, sweet potatoes, and other farinaceous eatables, and with ground-nuts, palm-oil, palms and other fat-yielding nuts, bananas, plantains, sugar-cane in great plenty. So there is little inducement to eat men, but I wait for further evidence. " Not knowing how your head has fared, I sometimes feel greatly distressed about you, and if I could be of any use I would leave my work unfinished to aid you. ,But you will have every medical assist- ance that can be rendered, and I cease not to beg the Lord who healeth His people to be gracious to your infirmity. 332 DA VID LIVINGSTONE, [CHAP. xx. " The object of my expedition is the discovery of the sources of the Nile. Had I known all the hardships, toil, and time involved I would have been of the mind of Saint Mungo of Glasgow, of whom the song says that he let the Molendinar Burn ' rin by,' when he could get something stronger. I would have let the sources ' rin by ' to Egypt, and never been made ' drumly ' by my plashing through them. But I shall make this country and people better known. ' This,' Professor Owen said to me, ' is the first step ; the rest will in due time follow.' By different agencies the Great Ruler is bringing all things into a focus. Jesus is gathering all things unto Himself, and He is daily becoming more and more the centre of the world's hopes and of the world's fears. War brought freedom to 4,000,000 of the most hopeless and helpless slaves. The world never saw such fiendishness as that with which the Southern slave- ocracy clung to slavery. No power in this world or the next would ever make them relax their iron grasp. The lie had entered into their soul. Their cotton was King. With it they would force England and France to make them independent, because without it the English and French must starve. Instead of being made a nation, they made a nation of the North. War has elevated and purified the Yankees, and now they have the gigantic task laid at their doors to elevate and purify 4,000,000 of slaves. I earnestly hope that the Northerners may not be found wanting in their portion of the superhuman work. The day for Africa is yet to come. Possibly the freed men may be an agency in elevating their Fatherland. " England is in the rear. This affair in Jamaica brought out the fact of a large infusion of bogiephobia in the English. Frightened in early years by their mothers with ' Bogie Blackman,' they were terrified out of their wits by a riot, and the sensation writers, who act the part of the ' dreadful boys ' who frighten aunts, yelled out that emancipation was a mistake. ' The Jamaica negroes were as savage as when they left Africa. ' They might have put it much stronger by saying, as the rabble that attended Tom Sayers's funeral, or that collects at every execution at Newgate. But our golden age is not in the past. It is in the future, in the good time coming yet for Africa and for the world. " The task I undertook was to examine the watershed of South Central Africa. This was the way Sir Roderick put it, and though he mentioned it as the wish of the Geographical Council, I suspect it was his own idea ; for two members of the Society wrote out ' in- structions ' for me, and the watershed was not mentioned. But scientific words were used which the writers evidently did not under- stand. " The examination of the watershed contained the true scientific mode of procedure, and Sir Roderick said to me : ' You will be the discoverer of the sources of the Nile.' I shaped my course for a path across the north end of Lake Nyassa, but to avoid the certainty of seeing all my attendants bolting at the first sight of the wild tribes there, the Nindi, I changed off to go round the south end, and if not, cross the middle. What I feared for the north took 1 86 9 -7i.] MANYUEMA. 333 place in the south when the Johanna men heard of the Mazitu, though we were 150 miles from the marauders, and I offered to go due west till past their beat. They were terrified, and ran away as soon as they saw my face turned west. I got carriers from village to village, and got on nicely with people who had never engaged in the slave-trade ; but it was slow work. I came very near to the Mazitu three times, but obtained information in time to avoid them. Once we were taken for Mazitu ourselves, and surrounded by a crowd of excited savages. They produced a state of confusion and terror, and men fled hither and thither with the fear of death on them. Casembe would not let me go into his southern district till he had sent men to see that the Mazitu, or, as they are called in Lunda, the Watuta, had left. Where they had been all the food was swept off, and we suffered cruel hunger. We had goods to buy with, but the people -had nothing to sell, and were living on herbs and mushrooms. I had to feel every step of *he way, and generally was groping in the dark. No one knew anything beyond his own district, and who cared where the rivers ran ? Casembe said, when I was going to Lake Bangweolo : ' One piece of water was just like another (it is the Bangweolo water), but as your chief desired you to visit that one, go to it. If you see a travelling party going north, join it. If not, come back to me and I will send you safely along my path by Moero ;' and gave me a man's load of a fish like white- bait. I gradually gained more light on the country, and slowly and surely saw the problem of the fountains of the Nile developing before my eyes. The vast volume of water draining away to the north made me conjecture that I had been working at the sources of the Congo too. My present trip to Manyuema proves that all goes to the river of Egypt. In fact, the head- waters of the Nile are gathered into two or three arms, very much as was depicted by Ptolemy in the second century of our era. What we moderns can claim is re-discovery of what had fallen into oblivion, like the cir- cumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenician admiral of one of the Pharaohs, B.C. 600. He was not believed, because 'he had the sun on his right hand in going round from east to west. ' Though to us this stamps his tale as genuine, Ptolemy was not believed, because his sources were between 10 and 12 north latitude, and collected into two or three great head branches. In my opinion his informant must have visited them. " I cared nothing for money, and contemplated spending my life as a hard-working poor missionary. By going into the country beyond Kuruman we pleased the Directors, but the praises they bestowed excited envy. Mamma and you all had hard times. The missionaries at Kuruman, and south of it, had comfortable houses and gardens. They could raise wheat, pumpkins, maize, at very small expense, and their gardens yielded besides apples, pears, apricots, peaches, quinces, oranges, grapes, almonds, walnuts, and all vegetables, for little more than the trouble of watering. A series of droughts compelled us to send for nearly all our food 270 miles off. Instead of help we had to pay the uttermost farthing for everything, and got bitter envy besides. Many have thought that 334 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. I was inflated by the praises I had lavished upon me, but I made it a rule never to read anything of praise. I am thankful that a kind Providence has enabled me to do what will reflect honour on my children, and show myself a stout-hearted servant of Him from whom comes every gift. None of you must become mean, craven- hearted, untruthful, or dishonest, for if you do, you don't inherit it from me. I hope that you have selected a profession that suits your taste. It will make you hold up your head among men, and is your most serious duty. I shall not live long, and it would not be well to rely on my influence. I could help you a little while living, but have little else than what people call a great name to bequeath afterwards. I am nearly toothless, and in my second childhood. The green maize was in one part the only food we could get with any taste. I ate the hard fare, and was once horri- fied by finding most of my teeth loose. They never fastened again, and generally became so loose as to cause pain. I had to extract them, and did so by putting on a strong thread with what sailors call a clovehitch, tie the other end to a stump above or below, as the tooth was upper or lower, strike the thread with a heavy pistol or stick, and the tooth dangled at the stump, and no pain was felt. Two upper front teeth are thus out, and so many more, I shall need a whole set of artificials. I may here add that the Manyuema stole the bodies of slaves which were buried, till a threat was used. They said the hyenas had exhumed the dead, but a slave was cast out by Banyamwezi, and neither hyenas nor men touched it for seven days. The threat was effectual. I think that they are can- nibals, but not ostentatiously so v The disgust expressed by native traders has made them ashamed. "Women never partook of human flesh. Eating sokos or gorillas must have been a step in the process of teaching them to eat men. The sight of a soko nauseates me. He is so hideously ugly, I can conceive no other use for him than sitting for a portrait of Satan. I have lost many months by rains, refusal of my attendants to go into a canoe, and irritable eating ulcers on my feet from wading in mud instead of sailing. They are frightfully common, and often kill slaves. I am recovering, and hope to go down Lualaba, which I would call Webb River or Lake ; touch then another Lualaba, which I will name Young's River or Lake ; and then by the good hand of our Father above turn home- wards through Karagwe. As ivory trading here is like gold-digging, I felt constrained to offer a handsome sum of money and goods to my friend Mohamad Bogharib for men. It was better to do this than go back to Ujiji, and then come over the whole 260 miles. I would have waited there for men from Zanzibar, but the authority at Ujiji behaved so oddly about my letters, I fear they never went to the coast. The worthless slaves I have saw that I was at their mercy, for no Manyuema will go into the next district, and they behaved as low savages who have been made free alone can. Their eagerness to enslave and kill their own countrymen is dis- tressing. ... , } "Give my love to Oswell and Anna Mary and the Aunties. I have received no letter from any of you since I left home. The 1869-71-] MANYUEMA. 335 good Lord bless you all, and be gracious to you. Affectionately yours, " DAVID LIVINGSTONE. " Another letter is addressed to Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann, September 1869. He enters at considerable length into his reasons for the supposition that he had dis- covered, on the watershed, the true sources of the Nile. He refers in a generous spirit to the discoveries of other travellers, mistaken though he regarded their views on the sources, and is particularly complimentary to Miss Tinn6 : " A Dutch lady whom I never saw, and of whom I know nothing save from scraps in the newspapers, moves my sympathy more than any other. By her wise foresight in providing a steamer, and push- ing on up the river after the severest domestic affliction the loss by fever of her two aunts till after she was assured by Speke and Grant that they had already discovered in Victoria Nyanza the sources she sought, she proved herself a genuine explorer, and then by trying to go s.w. on land.'' Had they not, honestly enough of course, given her their mistaken views, she must inevitably, by boat or on land, have reached the head waters of the Nile. I cannot con- ceive of her stopping short of Bangweolo. She showed such indo- mitable pluck she must be a descendant of Van Tromp, who swept the English Channel till killed by our Blake, and whose tomb every Englishman who goes to Holland is sure to visit. "We great he-beasts say, 'Exploration was not becoming her sex.' Well, considering that at least 1600 years have elapsed since Ptolemy's informants reached this region, and kings, emperors, and all the great men of antiquity longed in vain to know the fountains, exploration does not seem to have become the other sex either. She came much further up than the two centurions sent by Nero Caesar. " I have to go down and see where the two arms unite the lost city Meroe ought to be there, then get back to Ujiji to get a supply of goods which I have ordered from Zanzibar, turn bankrupt after I secure them, and let my creditors catch me if they can, as I finish up by going round outside and south of all the sources, so that I may be sure no one will cut me out and say he found other sources south of mine. This is one reason for my concluding trip ; another is to visit the underground houses in stone, and the copper mines of Katanga which have been worked for ages (malachite). I have still a seriously long task before me. My letters have been delayed inexplicably, so I don't know my affairs. If I have a salary I don't know it, though the Daily Telegraph abused me for receiving it when I had none. Of this alone I am sure my friends will all wish me to make a complete work of it before I leave, and in their wish I join. And it is better to go in now than to do it in vain afterwards. " "I have still a seriously long task before me." Yet he had lately been worse in health and weaker than he had ever been ; he was much poorer than he expected to be, 336 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. and the difficulties had proved far beyond any he had hitherto experienced. But so far from thinking of taking things more easily than before, he actually enlarges his programme, and resolves to " finish up by going round out- side and south of all the sources." His spirit seems only to rise as difficulties are multiplied. He writes to his daughter Agnes at the same time : "You remark that you think you could have travelled as well as Mrs. Baker, and I think so too. Your mamma was famous for roughing it in the bush, and was never a trouble." The allusion carries him to old days their travels to Lake 'Ngami, Mrs. Livingstone's death, the Helmores, the Bishop, Thornton. Then he speaks of recent troubles and diffi- culties, his attack of pneumonia, from which he had not expected to recover, his annoyances with his men, so unlike the old Makololo, the loss of his letters and boxes, with the exception of two from an unknown donor that contained the Saturday Review and his old friend Punch for 1868. Then he goes over African travellers and their achieve- ments real and supposed. He returns again to the achieve- ments of ladies, and praises Miss Tinne and other women. "The death-knell of American slavery was rung by a woman's hand. We great he-beasts say Mrs. Stowe ex- aggerated. From what I have seen of slavery I say exaggeration is a simple impossibility. I go with the sailor who, on seeing slave-traders, said : ' If the devil don't catch these fellows, we might as well have no devil at all.' " The year 1870 was begun with the prayer that in the course of it he might be able to complete his enterprise, and retire through the Basango before the end of it. In February he hears with gratitude of Mr. E. D. Young's Search Expedition up the Shire and Nyassa. In setting out anew he takes a more northerly course, proceeding through paths blocked with very rank vegetation, and suffering from choleraic illness caused by constant wettings. In the course of a month the effects of the wet became overpowering, and on 7th February Dr. Livingstone had to go into winter quarters. He remained quiet till 26th June. In April 1870, from "Manyuema or Cannibal Country, say 150 miles N.W. of Ujiji," he began a letter to Sir Roderick Murchison, but changed its destination to his 1869-71.1 MANYUEMA. 337 brother John in Canada. He notices his immediate object to ascertain where the Lualaba joined the eastern branch of the Nile, and contrasts the lucid reasonable problem set him by Sir Roderick with the absurd instructions he had received from some members of the Geographical Society. " I was to furnish ' a survey on successive pages of my journal,' 'latitudes every night,' 'hydrography of Central Africa,' and because they voted one-fifth or perhaps one- sixth part of my expenses, give them ' all my notes, copies if not the originals !' For mere board and no lodgings I was to work for years and hand over the results to them." Contrasted with such absurdities, Sir Roderick's proposal had quite fascinated him. He had ascertained that the watershed extended 800 miles from west to east, and had traversed it in every direction, but at a cost which had been wearing out both to mind and body. He drops a tear over the Universities Mission, but becomes merry over Bishop Tozer strutting about with his crosier at Zanzibar, and in a fine clear day getting a distant view through a telescope of the continent of which he claimed to be Bishop. He denounces the vile policy of the Portuguese, and laments the indecision of some influential persons in England who virtually upheld it. He is tickled with the generous offer of a small salary, when he should settle somewhere, that had been made to him by the Government, while men who had risked nothing were getting handsome salaries of far greater amount ; but rather than sacrifice the good of Africa, HE WOULD SPEND EVERY PENNY OF HIS PRIVATE MEANS. He seems surrounded by a whole sea of difficulties, but through all, the nobility of his spirit shines undimmed. To per- severe in the line of duty is his only conceivable course. He holds as firmly as ever by the old anchor " All will turn out right at last." When ready, they set out on 26th June. Most of his people failed him; but nothing daunted, he set off then with only three attendants, Susi, Chuma, and Gardner, to the north-west for the Lualaba. Whenever he comes among Arab traders he finds himself suspected and hated because he is known to condemn their evil deeds. The difficulties by the way were terrible. Fallen trees and flooded rivers made marching a perpetual struggle. 338 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. For the first time, Livingstone's feet failed him. Instead of healing as hitherto, when torn by hard travel, irritating sores fastened upon them, and as he had but three atten- dants, he had to limp back to Bambarr6, which he reached in the middle of July. And here he remained in his hut for eighty days, till 10th October, exercising patience, harrowed by the wicked- ness he could not stop, extracting information from the natives, thinking about the fountains of the Nile, trying to do some good among the people, listening to accounts of soko-hunting, and last, not least, reading his Bible. He did not leave Bambarre till 16th February 1871. From what he had seen and what he had heard he was more and more persuaded that he was among the true fountains of the Nile. His reverence for the Bible gave that river a sacred character, and to throw light on its origin seemed a kind of religious act. He admits, however, that he is not quite certain about it, though he does not see how he can be mistaken. He dreams that in his early life Moses may have been in these parts, and if he should only discover any confirmation of sacred history or sacred chronology he would not grudge all the toil and hardship, the pain and hunger he had undergone. The very spot where the fountains are to be found becomes defined in his mind. He even drafts a despatch which he hopes to write, saying that the fountains are within a quarter of a mile of each other ! Then he bethinks him of his friends who have done noble battle with slavery, and half in fancy, half in earnest, attaches their names to the various waters. The fountain of the Liambai or Upper Zambesi he names Palmerston Fountain, in fond remembrance of that good man's long and un- wearied labour for the abolition of the slave-trade. The lake formed by the Lufira is to be Lincoln Lake, in grati- tude to him who gave freedom to four millions of slaves. The fountain of Lufira is associated with Sir Bartle Frere, who accomplished the grand work of abolishing slavery in Sindia in Upper India. The central Lualaba is called the River Webb, after the warm-hearted friend under whose roof he wrote The Zambesi and its Tributaries ; while the western branch is named the Young River, to commemorate 1869-71-] MANYUEMA. 339 his early instructor in chemistry and life-long friend, James Young. "He has shed pure white light in many lowly cottages and in some rich palaces. I too have shed light of another kind, and am fain to believe that I have performed a small part in the grand revolution which our Maker has been for ages carrying on, by multitudes of conscious and many unconscious agents, all over the world." 1 He is by no means unaware that death may be in the cup. But, fortified as he was by an unalterable conviction that he was in the line of duty, the thought of death had no influence to turn him either to the right hand or to the left. For the first three years he had had a strong pre- sentiment that he would fall. But it had passed away as he came near the end, and now he prayed God that when he retired it might be to his native home. Probably no human being was ever in circumstances parallel to those in which Livingstone now stood. Years had passed since he had heard from home. The sound of his mother tongue came to him only in the broken sen- tences of Chuma or Susi or his other attendants, or in the echoes of his own voice as he poured it out in prayer, or in some cry of home-sickness that could not be kept in. In long pain and sickness there had been neither wife nor child nor brother to cheer him with sympathy, or lighten his dull hut with a smile. He had been baffled and tan- talised beyond description in his efforts to complete the little bit of exploration which was yet necessary to finish his task. His soul was vexed for the frightful exhibitions of wickedness around him, where " man to man," instead of brothers, were worse than wolves and tigers to each other. During all his past life he had been sowing his seed weeping, but so far was he from bringing back his sheaves rejoicing, that the longer he lived the more cause there seemed for his tears. He had not yet seen of the travail of his soul. In opening Africa he had seemed to open it for brutal slave-traders, and in the only instance in which he had yet brought to it the feet of men " beautiful upon the mountains, publishing peace," disaster had be- fallen, and an incompetent leader had broken up the enterprise. Yet, apart from his sense of duty there was 1 See Last Journals, vol. ii. pp. 65, 66. 340 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. no necessity for his remaining there. He was offering himself a freewill-offering, a living sacrifice. What could have sustained his heart and kept him firm to his purpose in such a wilderness of desolation ? " I read the whole Bible through four times whilst I was in Manyuema." So he wrote in his Diary, not at the time, but the year after, on 3d October 187 1. 1 The Bible gathers wonderful interest from the circumstances in which it is read. In Livingstone's circumstances it was more the Bible to him than ever. All his loneliness and sorrow, the sickness of nope deferred, the yearnings for home that could neither be repressed nor gratified, threw a new light on the Word. How clearly it was intended for such as him, and how sweetly it came home to him ! How faithful too were its pictures of human sin and sorrow ! How true its testi- mony against man, who will not retain God in his know- ledge, but, leaving him, becomes vain in his imaginations and hard in his heart, till the bloom of Eden is gone, and a waste howling wilderness spreads around ! How glorious the out-beaming of Divine Love, drawing near to this guilty race, winning and cherishing them with every endearing act, and at last dying on the cross to redeem them ! And how bright the closing scene of Revelation the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth right- eousness yes, he can appreciate that attribute the curse gone, death abolished, and all tears wiped from the mourner's eye. So the lonely man in his dull hut is riveted to the well- worn book ; ever finding it a greater treasure as he goes along ; and fain, when he has reached its last page, to turn back to the beginning, and gather up more of the riches which he has left upon the road. To Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann he writes during his detention (September 1870) on a leaf of his cheque- book, his paper being done. He gives his theory of the rivers, enlarges on the fertility of the country, bewails his difficulty in getting men, as the Manyuema never go beyond their own country, and the traders, who have only begun to come there, are too busy collecting ivory to be 1 See Last Journals, vol. ii. p. 154. 1869-71.] MANYUEMA. 341 able to spare men. " The tusks were left in the terrible forests, where the animals were killed; the people, if treated civilly, readily go and bring the precious teeth, some half rotten, or gnawed by the teeth of a rodent called dezi. I think that mad naturalists name it Aulo- caudatus Swindermanus, or some equally wise agglutination of syllables. . . . My chronometers are all dead ; I hope my old watch was sent to Zanzibar ; but I have got no letters for years, save some, three years old, at Ujiji. I have an intense and sore longing to finish and retire, and trust that the Almighty may permit me to go home." In one of his letters to Agnes from Manyuema he quotes some words from a letter of hers that he ever after cherished as a most refreshing cordial : " I commit myself to the Almighty Disposer of events, and if I fall, will do so doing my duty, like one of His stout-hearted servants. I am delighted to hear you say that, much as you wish me home, you would rather hear of my finishing my work to my own satisfaction than come merely to gratify you. That is a noble sentence, and I felt all along sure that all my friends would wish me to make a complete work of it, and in that wish, in spite of every difficulty, I cordially joined. I hope to present to my young countrymen an example of manly perseverance. I shall not hide from you that I am made by it very old and shaky, my cheeks fallen in, space round the eyes ditto ; mouth almost toothless, a few teeth that remain, out of their line, so that a smile is that of a he -hippopotamus, a dreadful old fogie, and you must tell Sir Roderick that it is an utter impossibility for me to appear in public till I get new teeth, and even then the less I am seen the better." Another letter to Agnes from Manyuema gives a curious account of the young soko or gorilla a chief had lately presented to him : " She sits crouching eighteen inches high, and is the most intelli- gent and least mischievous of all the monkeys I have seen. She holds out her hand to be lifted and carried, and if refused makes her face as in a bitter human weeping, and wrings her hands quite humanly, sometimes adding a foot or third hand to make the appeal more touching. . . . She knew me at once as a friend, and when plagued by any one always placed her back to me for safety, came and.sat down on my mat, decently made a nest of grass and leaves, 342 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. and covered herself with the mat to sleep. I cannot take her with me, though I fear that she will die before I return, from people plaguing her. Her fine long black hair was beautiful when tended by her mother, who was killed. I am mobbed enough alone ; two sokos she and I would not have got breath. " I have to submit to be a gazing-stock. I don't altogether relish it, here or elsewhere, but try to get over it good-naturedly, get into the most shady spot of the village, and leisurely look at all my admirers. When the first crowd begins to go away, I go into my lodgings to take what food may be prepared, as coffee, when I have it, or roasted maize infusion when I have none. The door is shut, all save a space to admit light. It is made of the inner bark of a gigantic tree, not a quarter of an inch thick, and slides in a groove behind a post on each side of the doorway. When partially open it is supported by only one of the posts. Eager heads sometimes crowd the open space, and crash goes the thin door, landing a Manyuema beauty on the floor. ' It was not I, ' she gasps out, ' it was Bessie Bell and Jeanie Gray that shoved me in, and ' as she scrambles out of the lion's den, 'see they're laughing;' and, fairly out, she joins in the merry giggle too. To avoid darkness or being half-smothered, I often eat in public, draw a line on the ground, then ' toe the line, ' and keep them out of the circle. To see me eating with knife, fork, and spoon is wonderful. ' See ! they don't touch their food ! what oddities, to be sure ! ' . . . "Many of the Manyuema women are very pretty; their hands, feet, limbs, and form are perfect. The men are handsome. Com- pared with them the Zanzibar slaves are like London door-knockers, which some atrocious iron-founder thought were like lions' faces. The way in which these same Zanzibar Mohammedans murder the men and seize the women and children makes me sick at heart. It is not slave-trade. It is murdering free people to make slaves. It is perfectly indescribable. Kirk has been working hard to get this murdersome system put a stop to. Heaven prosper his noble efforts ! He says in one of his letters to me, ' It is monstrous injustice to compare the free people in the interior, living under their own chiefs and laws, with what slaves at Zanzibar afterwards become by the abominable system which robs them of their manhood. I think it is like comparing the anthropologists with their ancestral sokos. "... " I am grieved to hear of the departure of good Lady Murchison. Had I known that she kindly remembered me in her prayers, it would have been great encouragement. . . . " The men sent by Dr. Kirk are Mohammedans, that is, unmitigated liars. Musa and his companions are fair specimens of the lower class of Moslems. The two head-men remained at Ujiji, to feast on my goods, and get pay without work. Seven came to Bambarre, and in true Moslem style swore that they were sent by Dr. Kirk to bring me back, not to go with me, if the country were bad or dangerous. Forward they would not go. I read Dr. Kirk's words to them to follow wheresoever I led. ' No, by the old liar Mohammed, they were to force me back to Zanzibar. ' After a superabundance of falsehood, it turned out that it all meant only an advance of pay, though they i869-7'-J MANYUEMA. 343 had double the Zanzibar wages. I gave it, but had to threaten on the word of an Englishman to shoot the ringleaders before I got them to go. They all speak of English as men who do not lie. ... I have travelled more than most people, and with all sorts of followers. The Christians of Kuruman and Kolobeng were out of sight the best I ever had. The Makololo, who were very partially christianised, were next best honest, truthful, and brave. Heathen Africans are much superior to the Mohammedans, who are the most worthless one can have." Towards the end of 1870, before the date of this letter, he had so far recovered that, though feeling the want of medicine as much as of men, he thought of setting out, in order to reach and explore the Lualaba, having made a bargain with Mohamad, for 270, to bring him to his destination. But now he heard that Syde bin Habib, Dugumbe, and others were on the way from Ujiji, perhaps bringing letters and medicines for him. He cannot move till they arrive ; another weary time. " Sorely am I per- plexed, and grieve and mourn." The New Year 1871 passes while he is at Bambarre, with its prayer that he might be permitted to finish his task. At last, on 4th February, ten of the men despatched to him from the coast arrive, but only to bring a fresh disappoint- ment. They were slaves, the property of Banians, who were British subjects ! and they brought only one letter ! Forty had been lost. There had been cholera at Zanzibar, and many of the porters sent by Dr. Kirk had died of it. The ten men came with a lie in their mouth ; they would not help him, swearing that the Consul told them not to go forward, but to force Livingstone back. On the 10th they mutinied, and had to receive an advance of pay. It was apparent that they had been instructed by their Banian masters to baffle him in every way, so that their slave- trading should not be injured by his disclosures. Their two headmen, Shereef and Awathe, had refused to come farther than Ujiji, and were revelling in his goods there. Dr. Livingstone never ceased to lament and deplore that the men who had been sent to him were so utterly unsuitable. One of them actually formed a plot for his destruction, which was only frustrated through his being overheard by one whom Livingstone could trust. Livingstone wrote to his friends that owing to the inefficiency of the men, he lost 344 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. two years of time, about a thousand pounds in money, had some 2000 miles of useless travelling, and was four several times subjected to the risk of a violent death. At length, having arranged with the men, he sets out on 16th February over a most beautiful country, but wofully difficult to pass through. Perhaps it was hardly a less bitter disappointment to be told, on the 25th, that the Lualaba flowed west-south-west, so that after all it might be the Congo. On the 29th March Livingstone arrived at Nyangwe on the banks of the Lualaba. This was the farthest point westward that he reached in his last expedition. The slave-trade here he finds to be as horrible as in any other part of Africa. He is heart- sore for human blood. He is threatened, bullied, and almost attacked. In some places, however, the rumour spreads that he makes no slaves, and he is called "the good one." His men are a ceaseless trouble, and for ever mutinying, or otherwise harassing him. And yet he perseveres in his old kind way, hoping by kindness to gain influence with them. Mo- hamad's people, he finds, have passed him on the west, and thus he loses a number of serviceable articles he was to get from them, and all the notes made for him of the rivers they had passed. The difficulties and discourage- ments are so great that he wonders whether, after all, God is smiling on his work. His own men circulate such calumnious reports against him that he is unable to get canoes for the navigation of the Lualaba. This leads to weeks and months of weary waiting, and yet all in vain ; but afterwards he finds some consolation on discovering that the navigation was perilous, that a canoe had been lost from the inexperience of her crew in the rapids, so that had he been tliere, he should very likely have perished, as his canoe would probably have been foremost. A change of plan was necessary. On 5th July he offered to Dugumbe" 400, with all the goods he had at Ujiji besides, for men to replace the Banian slaves, and for the other means of going up the LomaHie" to Katanga, then returning and going up Tanganyika to Ujiji. Dugumbe" took a little time to consult his friends before replying to the offer. 1869-71-] MANYUEMA. 345 Meanwhile an event occurred of unprecedented horror, that showed Livingstone that he could not go to Loiname in the company of Dugumb6. Between Dugumb6's people and another chief a frightful system of pillage, murder, and burning of villages was going on with horrible activity. One bright summer morning, 15th July, when fifteen hundred people, chiefly women, were engaged peacefully in marketing in a village on the banks of the Lualaba, and while Dr. Livingstone was sauntering about, a murderous fire was opened on the people, and a massacre ensued of such measureless atrocity that he could describe it only by saying that it gave him the impression of being in hell. The event was so superlatively horrible, and had such an overwhelming influence 011 Livingstone, that we copy at full length the description of it given in the Last Journals : "Before I got thirty yards out, the discharge of two guns in the middle of the crowd told ine that slaughter had begun : crowds dashed off from the place, and threw down their wares in confusion, and ran. At the same time that the three opened fire on the mass of people near the upper end of the market-place, volleys were discharged from a party down near the creek on the panic-stricken women, who dashed at the canoes. These, some fifty or more, were jammed in the creek, and the men forgot their paddles in the terror that seized all. The canoes were not to be got out, for the creek was too small for so many ; men and women, wounded by the balls, poured into them, and leaped and scrambled into the water, shrieking. A long line of heads in the river showed that great numbers struck out for an island a full mile off ; in going towards it they had to put the left shoulder to a current of about two miles an hour ; if they had struck away diagonally to the opposite bank, the current would have aided them, and, though nearly three miles off, some would have gained land ; as it was, the heads above water showed the long line of those that would inevitably perish. ' ' Shot after shot continued to be fired on the helpless and perish- ing. Some of the long line of heads disappeared quietly ; whilst other poor creatures threw their arms high, as if appealing to the great Father above, and sank. One canoe took in as many as it could hold, and all paddled with hands and arms : three canoes, got out in haste, picked up sinking friends, till all went down together, and disappeared. One man in a long canoe, which could have held, forty or fifty, had clearly lost his head ; he had been out in the stream before the massacre began, and now paddled up the river nowhere, and never looked to the drowning. By and by all the heads disappeared ; some had turned down stream towards the bank, and escaped. Dugumb6 put people into one of the deserted 346 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. vessels to save those in the water, and saved twenty-one ; but one woman refused to be taken on board, from thinking that she was to be made a slave of ; she preferred the chance of life by swimming, to the lot of a slave. The Bagenya women are expert in the water, as they are accustomed to dive for oysters, and those who went down stream may have escaped, but the Arabs themselves estimated the loss of life at between 330 and 400 souls. The shooting-party near the canoes were so reckless, they killed two of their own people ; and a Banyamwezi follower, who got into a deserted canoe to plunder, fell into the water, went down, then came up again, and down to rise no more. "After the terrible affair in the water, the party of Tagamoio, who was the chief perpetrator, continued to fire on the people there, and fire their villages. As I write I hear the loud wails on the left bank over those who are there slain, ignorant of their many friends now in the depths of Lualaba. Oh, let Thy kingdom come ! No one will ever know the exact loss on this bright sultry summer morning ; it gave me the impression of being in Hell. All the slaves in the camp rushed at the fugitives on land, and plundered them ; women were for hours collecting and carrying loads of what had been thrown down in terror." The remembrance of this awful scene was never effaced from Livingstone's heart. The accounts of it published in the newspapers at home sent a thrill of horror through the country. It was recorded at great length in a despatch to the Foreign Secretary, and indeed, it became one of the chief causes of the appointment of a Royal Commission to investigate the subject of the African slave-trade, and of the mission of Sir Bartle Frere to Africa to concert measures for bringing it to an end. Dugumbe had not been the active perpetrator of the massacre, but he was mixed up with the atrocities that had been committed, and Livingstone could have nothing to do with him. It was a great trial, for, as the Banian men were impracticable, there was nothing for it now but to go back to Ujiji, and try to get other men there with whom he would repeat the attempt to explore the river. For twenty-one months, counting from the period of their engagement, he had fed and clothed these men, all in vain, and now he had to trudge back forty-five days, a journey equal, with all its turnings and windings, to six hundred miles. Livingstone was ill, and after such an exciting time he would probably have had an attack of fever, but for another ailment to which he had become more especially 1869-71.] MANYUEMA. 347 subject. The intestinal canal had given way, and he was subject to attacks of severe internal haemorrhage, one of which came on him now. 1 It appeared afterwards that had he gone with Dugumb6, he would have been exposed to an assault in force by the Bakuss, as they made an attack on the party and routed them, killing two hundred. If Livingstone had been among them, he might have fallen in this engagement So again, he saw how present dis- appointments work for good. The journey back to Ujiji, begun 20th July 1871, was a very wretched one. Amid the universal desolation caused by the very wantonness of the marauders, it was impossible for Livingstone to persuade the natives that he did not belong to the same set. Ambushes were set for him and his company in the forest. On the 8th August they came to an ambushment all prepared, but it had been abandoned for some unknown reason. By and by, on the same day, a large spear flew past Livingstone, grazing his neck ; the native who flung it was but ten yards off ; the hand of God alone saved his life. 2 Farther on, another spear was thrown, which missed him by a foot. On the same day, a large tree, to which fire had been applied to fell it, came down within a yard of him. Thus on one day he was delivered three times from impending death. He went on through the forest, expecting every minute to be attacked, having no fear, but perfectly indifferent whether he should be killed or not. He lost all his remaining calico that day, a telescope, umbrella, and five spears. By and by he was prostrated with grievous illness. As soon as he could move he went onwards, but he felt as if dying on his feet. And he was ill-rigged for the road, for the light French shoes to which he was reduced, and which had been cut to ease his feet till they would hardly hang together, failed to protect him from the sharp fragments of quartz with which the road was strewed. He was getting near to Ujiji, however, where abundance of goods and comforts were no doubt 1 His friends say that for a considerable time before he had been sub- ject to the most grievous pain from haemorrhoids. His sufferings were often excruciating. 2 The head of this spear is among the Livingstone relics at Newstead Abbey. 348 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. safely stowed away for him, and the hope of relief sustained him under all his trials. At last, on the 23d October, reduced to a living skeleton, he reached Ujiji. What was his misery, instead of finding the abundance of goods he had expected, to learn that the wretch Shereef, to whom they had been consigned, had sold off the whole, not leaving one yard of calico out of 3000, or one string of beads out of 700 pounds ! The scoundrel had divined on the Koran, found that Living- stone was dead, and would need the goods no more. Livingstone had intended, if he could not get men at Ujiji to go with him to the Lualaba, to wait there till suitable men should be sent up from the coast ; but he had never thought of having to wait in beggary. If anything could have aggravated the annoyance, it was to see Shereef come, without shame, to salute him, and tell him on leaving, that he was going to pray ; or to see his slaves passing from the market with all the good things his property had bought ! Livingstone applied a term to him which he reserved for men black or white whose wickedness made them alike shameless and stupid he was a "moral idiot." It was the old story of the traveller who fell among thieves that robbed him of all he had ; but where was the good Samaritan ? The Government and the Geographical Society appeared to have passed by on the other side. But the good Samaritan was not so far off as might have been thought. One morning Syed bin Majid, an Arab trader, came to him with a generous offer to sell some ivory and get goods for him ; but Livingstone had the old feeling of independence, and having still a few barter goods left, which he had deposited with Mohamad bin Saleh before going to Manyuema, he declined for the present Syed's generous offer. But the kindness of Syed was not the only proof that he was not forsaken. Five days after he reached Ujiji the good Samaritan appeared from another quarter. As Livingstone had been approaching Ujiji from the south- west, another white man had been approaching it from the east. On 28th October 1871, Henry Moreland Stanley, who had been sent to look for him by Mr. James Gordon Bennett, junior, of the New York Herald newspaper, grasped the hand of David Livingstone. An angel from heaven 1 869-71.] MANYUEMA. 349 could hardly have been more welcome. In a moment the sky brightened. Stanley was provided with ample stores, and was delighted to supply the wants of the traveller. The sense of sympathy, the feeling of brotherhood, the blessing of fellowship, acted like a charm. Four good meals a day, instead of the spare and tasteless food of the country, made a wonderful change on the outer man ; and in a few days Livingstone was himself again hearty, and happy, and hopeful as before. Before closing this chapter and entering on the last two years of Livingstone's life, which have so lively an interest of their own, it will be convenient to glance at the contri- butions to natural science which he continued to make to the very end. In doing this, we avail ourselves of a very tender and Christian tribute to the memory of his early friend, which Professor Owen contributed to the Quarterly Review, April 1875, after the publication of Livingstone's Last Journals. Mr. Owen appears to have been convinced by Living- stone's reasoning and observations, that the Nile sources were in the Bangweolo watershed a supposition now ascer- tained to have been erroneous. But what chiefly attracted and delighted the great naturalist was the many interesting notices of plants and animals scattered over the Last Journals. These Journals contain important contributions both to economic and physiological botany. In the former department, Livingstone makes valuable observations on plants useful in the arts, such as gum-copal, papyrus, cotton, india-rubber, and the palm-oil tree ; while in the latter, his notices of " carnivorous plants," which catch insects that probably yield nourishment to the plant, of silicified wood and the like, show how carefully he watched all that throws light on the life and changes of plants. In zoology he was never weary of observing, especially when he found a strange- looking animal with strange habits. Spiders, ants, and bees of unknown varieties were brought to light, but the strangest of his new acquaintances were among the fishy tribes. He found fish that made long excursions on land, thanks to the wet grass through which they would wander for miles, thus proving that " a fish out of water " is not always the best symbol for a man out of his element M 350 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xx. There were fish too that burrowed in the earth ; but most remarkable at first sight were the fish that appeared to bring forth their young by ejecting them from their mouths. If Bruce or Du Chaillu had made such a statement, remarks Professor Owen, what ridicule would they not have en- countered ! But Livingstone was not the man to make a statement of what he had not ascertained, or to be content until he had found a scientific explanation of it. He found that in the branchial openings of the fish, there occur bags or pouches, on the same principle as the pouch of the opossum, where the young may be lodged for a time for protection or nourishment, and that when the creatures are discharged through the mouth into the water, it is only from a temporary cradle where they were probably enjoying repose, beyond the reach of enemies. Perhaps the greatest of Livingstone's scientific discoveries during this journey Avas that " of a physical condition of the earth's surface in elevated tracts of the great continent, unknown before." The bogs or earth-sponges, that from his first acquaintance with them gave him so much trouble, and at last proved the occasion of his death, were not only remarkable in themselves, but interesting as probably ex- plaining the annual inundations of most of the rivers. Wherever there was a plain sloping towards a narrow opening in hills or higher ground, there were the conditions for an African sponge. The vegetation falls down and rots, and forms a rich black loam, resting often, two or three feet thick, on a bed of pure river sand. The early rains turn the vegetation into slush, and fill the pools. The later rains, finding the pools already full, run off to the rivers, and form the inundation. The first rains occur south of the equator when the sun goes vertically over any spot, and the second or greater rains happen in his course north again. This, certainly, was the case as observed on the Zambesi and Shire, and taking the different times for the sun's passage north of the equator, it explained the inunda- tions of the Nile. Such notices show that in his love of nature, and in his careful observation of all her agencies and processes, Livingstone, in his last journeys, was the same as ever. He looked reverently on all plants and animals, and on the 1869-71-] MANYUEMA. 351 solid earth in all its aspects and forms, as the creatures of that same God whose love in Christ it was his heart's delight to proclaim. His whole life, so varied in its out- ward employments, yet so simple and transparent in its one great object, was ruled by the conviction that the God of nature and the God of revelation were one. While thoroughly enjoying his work as a naturalist, Professor Owen frankly admits that it was but a secondary object of his life. " Of his primary work the record is on high, and its imperishable fruits remain on earth. The seeds of the Word of Life implanted lovingly, with pains and labour, and above all with faith ; the out-door scenes of the simple Sabbath service ; the testimony of Him to whom the worship was paid, given in terms of such simplicity as were fitted to the comprehension of the dark-skinned listeners, these seeds will not have been scattered by him in vain. Nor have they been sown in words alone, but in deeds, of which some part of the honour will redound to his successors. The teaching by forgiveness of injuries, by trust, however unworthy the trusted, by that confidence which imputed his own noble nature to those whom he would win, by the practical enforcement of the fact that a man might promise and perform might say the thing he meant, of this teach- ing by good deeds, as well as by the words of truth and love, the successor who treads in the steps of LIVINGSTONE, and accomplishes the discovery he aimed at, and pointed the way to, will assuredly reap the benefit." 1 CHAPTEE XXL LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. A.D. 1871-1872. THE meeting of Stanley and Livingstone at Ujiji was as unlikely an occurrence as could have happened, and, along with many of the earlier events in Livingstone's life, serves 1 Quarterly Review, April 1875, pp. 498, 499. 352 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxi. to show how wonderfully an Unseen Hand shaped and guarded his path. Neither Stanley nor the gentleman who sent him had any personal interest in Livingstone. Mr. Bennett admitted frankly that he was moved neither by friendship nor philanthropy, but by regard to his business and interest as a journalist. The object of a journal was to furnish its readers with the news which they desired to know ; the readers of the New York Herald desired to know about Livingstone ; as a journalist, it was his business to find out and tell them. Mr. Bennett determined that, cost what it might, he would find out, and give the news to his readers. These were the very unromantic notions, with an under-current probably of better quality, that were passing through his mind at Paris, on the 16th October 1869, when he sent a telegram to Madrid, summoning Henry M. Stanley, one of the " own correspondents " of his paper, to " come to Paris on important business." On his arrival Mr. Bennett asked him bluntly, "Where do you think Livingstone is?" The correspondent could not tell could not even tell whether he was alive. " Well," said Mr. Bennett, " I think he is alive, and that he may be found, and I am going to send you to find him. Mr. Stanley was to have whatever money should be found necessary; only he was to find Livingstone. It is very mysterious that he was not to go straight to Africa he was to visit Constantinople, Palestine, and Egypt first. Then, from India, he was to go to Zanzi- bar ; get into the interior, and find him if alive ; obtain all possible news of his discoveries ; and if he were dead, get the fact fully verified, find out the place of his burial, and try to obtain possession of his bones, that they might find a resting-place at home. It was not till January 1871 that Stanley reached Zanzi- bar. To organise an expedition into the interior was no easy task for one who had never before set foot in Africa. To lay all his plans without divulging his object would, perhaps, have been more difficult if it had ever entered into any man's head to connect the New York Herald with a search for Livingstone. But indomitable vigour and per- severance succeeded, and by the end of February and be- ginning of March, one hundred and ninety- two persons in all had started in five caravans at short intervals from i8;i-72.J LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 353 Bagamoio for Lake Tanganyika, two white men being of the party besides Stanley, with horses, donkeys, bales, boats, boxes, rifles, etc., to an amount that made the leader of the expedition ask himself how such an enormous weight of material could ever be carried into the heart of Africa. The ordinary and extraordinary risks and troubles of travel in these parts fell to Mr. Stanley's lot in unstinted abundance. But when Unyanyembe was reached, the half- way station to Ujiji, troubles more than extraordinary befell. First, a terrible attack of fever that deprived him of his senses for a fortnight. Then came a worse trouble. The Arabs were at war with a chief Mirambo, and Stanley and his men, believing they would help to restore peace more speedily, sided with the Arabs. At first they were apparently victorious, but immediately after, part of the Arabs were attacked on their way home by Mirambo, who lay in ambush for them, and were defeated. Great con- sternation prevailed. The Arabs retreated in panic, leaving Stanley, who was ill, to the tender mercies of the foe. Stanley however managed to escape. After this experience of the Arabs in war, he resolved to discontinue his alliance with them. As the usual way to Ujiji was blocked, he determined to try a route more to the south. But his people had forsaken him. One of his two English companions was dead, the other was sick and had to be sent back. Mirambo was still threatening. It was not till the 20th September that new men were engaged by Stanley, and his party were ready to move. They marched slowly, with various adventures and difficulties, until, by Mr. Stanley's reckoning, on the 10th November (but by Livingstone's earlier), they were close on Ujiji. Their approach created an extraordinary excitement. First one voice saluted them in English, then another; these were the salutations of Livingstone's servants, Susi and Chuma. By and by the Doctor himself appeared. "As I advanced slowly towards him," says Mr. Stanley, " I noticed he was pale, looked wearied, had a grey beard, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat and a pair of grey tweed trousers. I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of such a mob, would have embraced him, only 354 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XXL he being an Englishman, I did not know how he would receive me ; so I did what cowardice and false pride sug- gested was the best thing walked deliberately to him, took off my hat and said, ' Dr. Livingstone, I presume 1 ' ' Yes,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly. I replace my hat on my head, and he puts on his cap, and we both grasp hands, and I then say aloud ' I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you.' He answered, 'I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.' " The conversation began but Stanley could not remember what it was. " I found myself gazing at him, conning the wonderful man at whose side I now sat in Central Africa. Every hair of his head and beard, every wrinkle of his face, the wanness of his features, and the slightly wearied look he bore were all imparting intelligence to me the know- ledge I craved for so much ever since I heard the words, ' Take what you want, but find Livingstone.' What I saw was deeply interesting intelligence to me and unvarnished truth. I was listening and reading at the same time. What did these dumb witnesses relate to me 1 11 Oh, reader, had you been at my side on this day in Ujiji, how eloquently could be told the nature of this man's work ! Had you been there but to see and hear ! His lips gave me the details ; lips that never lie. I cannot repeat what he said ; I was too much engrossed to take my note-book out, and begin to stenograph his story. He had so much to say that he began at the end, seemingly oblivious of the fact that five or six years had to be accounted for. But his account was oozing out ; it was growing fast into grand proportions into a most marvellous history of deeds." And Stanley, too, had wonderful things to tell the Doctor. " The news," says Livingstone, " he had to tell one who had been two full years without any tidings from Europe made my whole frame thrill. The terrible fate that had befallen France, the telegraphic cables successfully laid in the Atlantic, the election of General Grant, the death of good Lord Clarendon, my constant friend ; the proof that Her Majesty's Government had not forgotten me in voting 1000 for supplies, and many other points of interest, re- vived emotions that had lain dormant in Manyuema." As 1871-72.] LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 355 Stanley went on, Livingstone kept saying, "You have brought me new life you have brought me new life." There was one piece of news brought by Stanley to Livingstone that was far from satisfactory. At Bagamoio, on the coast, Stanley had found a caravan with supplies for Livingstone that had been despatched from Zanzibar three or four months before, the men in charge of which had been lying idle there all that time on the pretext that they were waiting for carriers. A letter-bag was also lying at Baga- moio, although several caravans for Ujiji had left in the meantime. On hearing that the Consul at Zanzibar, Dr. Kirk, was coming to the neighbourhood to hunt, the party at last made off. Overtaking them at Unyanyembe, Stanley took charge of Livingstone's stores, but was not able to bring them on ; only he compelled the letter-carrier to come on to Ujiji with his bag. At what time, but for Stanley, Livingstone would have got his letters, which after all were a year on the way, he could not have told. For his stores, or such fragments of them as might remain, he had after- wards to trudge all the way to Unyanyembe. His letters conveyed the news that Government had voted a thousand pounds for his relief, and were besides to pay him a salary. 1 The unpleasant feeling he had had so long as to his treat- ment by Government was thus at last somewhat relieved. But the goods that had lain in neglect at Bagamoio, and were now out of reach at Unyanyembe, represented one- half the Government grant, and would probably be squan- dered, like his other goods, before he could reach them, The impression made on Stanley by Livingstone was remarkably vivid, and the portrait drawn by the American will be recognised as genuine by every one who knows what manner of man Livingstone was : "I defy any one to be in his society long without thoroughly fathoming him, for in him there is no guile, and what is apparent on the surface is the thing that is in him. . . . Dr. Livingstone is about sixty years old, though after he was restored to health he looked like a man who had not passed his fiftieth year. His hair has a brownish colour yet, but is here and there streaked with grey lines over the temples ; his beard and moustaches are very grey. His 1 The intimation of salary was premature. Livingstone got a pension of 300 afterwards, which lasted only for a year and a half. 356 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP, xxi- eyes, which are hazel, are remarkably bright ; he has a sight keen as a hawk's. His teeth alone indicate the weakness of age ; the hard fare of Lunda has made havoc in their lines. His form, which soon assumed a stoutish appearance, is a little over the ordinary height, with the slightest possible bow in the shoulders. When walking he has a firm but heavy tread, like that of an overworked or fatigued man. He is accustomed to wear a naval cap with a semicircular peak, by which he has been identified throughout Africa. His dress, when first I saw him, exhibited traces of patching and repairing, but was scrupulously clean. ' ' I was led to believe that Livingstone possessed a splenetic, mis- anthropic temper ; some have said that he is garrulous ; that he is demented ; that he has utterly changed from the David Livingstone whom people knew as the reverend missionary ; that he takes no notes or observations but such as those which no other person could read but himself, and it was reported, before I proceeded to Africa, that he was married to an African princess. ' ' I respectfully beg to differ with all and each of the above state- ments. I grant he is not an angel ; but he approaches to that being as near as the nature of a living man will allow. I never saw any spleen or misanthropy in him : as for being garrulous, Dr. Living- stone is quite the reverse ; he is reserved, if anything ; and to the man who says Dr. Livingstone is changed, all I can say is, that he never could have known him, for it is notorious that the Doctor has a fund of quiet humour, which he exhibits at all times when he is among friends." [After repudiating the charge as to his notes and observations, Mr. Stanley continues :] " As to the report of his African marriage, it is unnecessary to say more than that it is untrue, and it is utterly beneath a gentleman even to hint at such a thing in connection with the name of Dr. Livingstone. "You may take any point in Dr. Livingstone's character, and analyse it carefully, and I would challenge any man to find a fault in it. ... His gentleness never forsakes him ; his hopefulness never deserts him. No harassing anxieties, distraction of mind, long separation from home and kindred, can make him complain. He thinks ' all will come outright at last ;' he has such faith in the good- ness of Providence. The sport of adverse circumstances, the play- thing of the miserable beings sent to him from Zanzibar he has been baffled and worried, even almost to the grave, yet he will not desert the charge imposed upon him by his friend Sir Roderick Murchison. To the stern dictates of duty, alone, has he sacrificed his home and ease, the pleasures, refinements, and luxuries of civilised life. His is the Spartan heroism, the inflexibility of the Roman, the enduring resolution of the Anglo-Saxon never to relinquish his work, though his heart yearns for home ; never to surrender his obligations until he can write FINIS to his work. "There is a good-natured abandon about Livingstone which was not lost on me. Whenever he began to laugh, there was a contagion about it, that compelled me to imitate him. It was such a laugh as Teufelsdrockh's, a laugh of the whole man from head to heel. If he told a story, he related it in such a way as to convince one of its 1S7I-72.] LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 357 truthfulness ; his face was so lit up by the sly fun it contained, that I was sure the story was worth relating, and worth listening to. "Another thing that specially attracted my attention was his wonderfully retentive memory. If we remember the many years he has spent in Africa, deprived of books, we may well think it an uncommon memory that can recite whole poems from Byron, Burns, Tennyson, Longfellow, Whittier, and Lowell. . . . "His religion is not of the theoretical kind, but it is a constant, earnest, sincere practice. It is neither demonstrative nor loud, but manifests itself in a quiet, practical way, and is always at work. It is not aggressive, which sometimes is troublesome if not impertinent. In him religion exhibits its loveliest features ; it governs his conduct not only towards his servants but towards the natives, the bigoted Mohammedans, and all who come in contact with him. Without it, Livingstone, with his ardent temperament, his enthusiasm, his high spirit and courage, must have become uncompanionable, and a hard master. Religion has tamed him, and made him a Christian gentle- man ; the crude and wilful have been refined and subdued ; religion has made him the most companionable of men and indulgent of masters a man whose society is pleasurable to a degree. . . . "From being thwarted and hated in every possible way by the Arabs and half-castes upon his first arrival at Ujiji, he has, through his uniform kindness and mild, pleasant temper, won all hearts. I observed that universal respect was paid to him. Even the Moham- medans never passed his house without calling to pay their com- pliments, and to say, 'The blessing of God rest on you!' Each Sunday morning he gathers his little flock around him, and reads prayers and a chapter from the Bible, in a natural, unaffected, and sincere tone ; and afterwards delivers a short address in the Kisa- wahili language, about the subject read to them, which is listened to with evident interest and attention." It was agreed that the two travellers should make a short excursion to the north end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain whether the lake had an outlet there. This was done, but it was found that instead of flowing out, the river Lusize flowed into the lake, so that the notion that the lake dis- charged itself northwards turned out to be an error. Mean- while the future arrangements of Dr. Livingstone were matter of anxious consideration. One thing was fixed and certain from the beginning : Livingstone would not go home with Stanley. Much though his heart yearned for home and family all the more that he had just learned that his son Thomas had had a dangerous accident, and much though he needed to recruit his strength and nurse his ailments, he would not think of it while his work remained unfinished. To turn back to those dreary sponges, sleep in those flootf ed plains, encounter anew that terrible pneumonia M2 358 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxi. which was "worse than ten fevers," or that distressing haemorrhage which added extreme weakness to extreme agony might have turned any heart ; Livingstone never flinched from it. What a reception awaited him if he had gone home to England ! What welcome from friends and children, what triumphal cheers from all the great Societies and savants, what honours from all who had honours to con- fer, what opportunity of renewing efforts to establish missions and commerce, and to suppress the slave-traffic ! Then he might return to Africa in a year, and finish his work. If Livingstone had taken this course, no whisper would have been heard against it. The nobility of his soul never rose higher, his utter abandonment of self, his entire devotion to duty, his right honourable determination to work while it was called to-day never shone more brightly than when he declined all Stanley's entreaties to return home, and set his face steadfastly to go back to the bogs of the watershed. He writes in his Journal : " My daughter Agnes says, 'Much as I wish you to come home, I had rather that you finished your work to your own satisfaction, than return merely to gratify me.' Rightly and nobly said, my darling Nannie ; vanity whispers pretty loudly, ' She is a chip of the old block.' My blessing on her and all the rest. " After careful consideration of various plans, it was agreed that he should go to Unyanyembe, accompanied by Stanley, who would supply him there with abundance of goods, and who would then hurry down to the coast, organise a new expedition composed of fifty or sixty faithful men to be sent on to Unyanyembe, by whom Livingstone would be accom- panied back to Bangweolo and the sources, and then to Rua, until his 'work should be completed, and he might go home in peace. A few extracts from Livingstone's letters will show us how he felt at this remarkable crisis. To Agnes : " Tanganyika, 18th November 1871. [After detailing his troubles in Manyuema, the loss of all his goods at Ujiji, and the generous offer of Syed bin Majid, he continues :] Next I heard of an English- man being at Unyanyembe with boats, etc., but who he was, none could tell. At last one of my people came running out of breath and shouted, ' An Englishman coming ! ' and off he darted back again to meet him. An American flag at the head of a large caravan showed the nationality of the stranger. Baths, tents, saddles, big 1871-72.] LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 359 kettles, showed that he was not a poor Lazarus like me. He turned out to be Henry M. Stanley, travelling correspondent to the New York Herald, sent specially to find out if I were really alive, and, if dead, to bring home my bones. He had brought abundance of goods at great expense, but the fighting referred to delayed him, and he had to leave a great part at Unyanyembe. To all he had I was made free." In a later letter, Livingstone says : " He laid all he had at my service, divided his clothes into two heaps, and pressed one heap upon me ; then his medicine-chest ; then his goods and everything he had, and to coax my appetite, often cooked dainty dishes with his own hand. " " He came with the true American characteristic generosity. The tears often started into my eyes on every fresh proof of kindness. My appetite returned, and I ate three or four times a day, instead of scanty meals morning and evening. I soon felt strong, and never wearied with the strange news of Europe and America he told. The tumble-down of the French Empire was like a dream. ..." A long letter to his friends Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann of the same date goes over his travels in Man- yuema, his many disasters, and then his wonderful meeting with Mr. Stanley at UjijL Speaking of the unwillingness of the natives to believe in the true purpose of his journey, he says : "They all treat me with respect, and are very much afraid of being written against ; but they consider the sources of the Nile to be a sham ; the true object of my being sent is to see their odious system of slaving, and if indeed my disclosures should lead to the sup- pression of the East Coast slave-trade, I would esteem that as a far greater feat than the discovery of all the sources together. It is awful, but I cannot speak of the slaving for fear of appearing guilty of exaggerating. It is not trading ; it is murdering for captives to be made into slaves. " His account of himself in the journey from Nyangwe is dreadful : " I was near a fourth lake on this central line, and only eighty miles from Lake Lincoln on our west, in fact almost in sight of the geographical end of my mission, when I was forced to return [through the misconduct of his men] between 400 and 500 miles. A sore heart made still sorer by the sad scenes I had seen of man's inhumanity to man, made this march a terrible tramp the sun vertical, and the sore heart reacting on the physical frame. I was in pain nearly every step of the way, and arrived a mere ruckle of bones to find myself destitute." In speaking of the impression made by Mr. Stanley's kindness : 360 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxi. "I am as cold and non-demonstrative as we islanders are reputed to be, but this kindness was overwhelming. Here was the good Samaritan and no mistake. Never was I more hard pressed ; never was help more welcome." During thirteen months Stanley received no fewer than ten parcels of letters and papers sent up by Mr. Webb, American Consul at Zanzibar, while Livingstone received but one. This was an additional ground for faith in the efficiency of Stanley's arrangements. The journey to Unyanyembe was somewhat delayed by an attack of fever which Stanley had at Ujiji, and it was not till the 27th December that the travellers set out. On the way Stanley heard of the death of his English attendant Shaw, whom he had left unwell. On the 18th of February 1872 they reached Unyanyembe, where a new chapter of the old history unfolded itself. The survivor of two head- men employed by Ludha Damji had been plundering Livingstone's stores, and had broken open the lock of Mr. Stanley's store-room and plundered him likewise. Not- withstanding, Mr. Stanley was able to give Livingstone a large amount of calico, beads, brass wire, copper sheets, a tent, boat, bath, cooking-pots, medicine-chest, tools, books, paper, medicines, cartridges and shot. This, with four flannel shirts that had come from Agnes, and two pairs of boots, gave him the feeling of being quite set up. On the 1 4th of March Mr. Stanley left Livingstone for Zanzibar, having received from him a commission to send him up fifty trusty men, and some additional stores. Mr. Stanley had authority to draw from Dr. Kirk the remaining half of the Government grant, but lest it should have been expended, he was furnished with a cheque for 5000 rupees on Dr. Livingstone's agents at Bombay. He was likewise intrusted with a large folio MS. volume containing his journals from his arrival at Zanzibar, 28th January 1866 to February 20, 1872, written out with all his characteristic care and beauty. Another instruction had been laid upon him. If he should find another set of slaves on the way to him, he was to send them back, for Livingstone would on no account expose himself anew to the misery, risk, and disappointment he had experienced from the kind of men that had compelled him to turn back at Nyangwe. 1871-72.] LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 361 Dr. Livingstone's last act before Mr. Stanley left him was to write his letters twenty for Great Britain, six for Bombay, two for New York, and one for Zanzibar. The two for New York were for Mr. Bennett of the New York Herald, by whom Stanley had been sent to Africa. Mr. Stanley has freely unfolded to us the bitterness of his heart in parting from Livingstone. " My days seem to have been spent in an Elysian field ; otherwise, why should I so keenly regret the near approach of the parting hour ? Have I not been battered by successive fevers, prostrate with agony day after day lately ? Have I not raved and stormed in madness ? Have I not clenched my fists in fury, and fought with the wild strength of despair when in de- lirium ? Yet, I regret to surrender the pleasure I have felt in this man's society, though so dearly purchased. . . . March 14th. We had a sad breakfast together. I could not eat, my heart was too full ; neither did my companion seem to have an appetite. We found something to do which kept us longer together. At eight o'clock I was not gone, and I had thought to have been off at five A.M. . . . We walked side by side ; the men lifted their voices in a song. I took long looks at Livingstone, to impress his features thoroughly on my memory. . . . ' Now, my dear Doctor, the best friends must part. You have come far enough; let me beg of you to turn back.' 'Well,' Living- stone replied, ' I will say this to you : You have done what few men could do, far better than some great travellers I know. And I am grateful to you for what you have done for me. God guide you safe home, and bless you, my friend.' ' And may God bring you safe back to us all, my dear friend. Farewell!' 'Farewell.' . . . My friendly reader, 1 wrote the above extracts in my diary on the evening of each day. I look at them now after six months have passed away ; yet I am not ashamed of them ; my eyes feel some- what dimmed at the recollection of the parting. I dared not erase nor modify what I had penned while my feelings were strong. God grant that if ever you take to travelling in Africa you will get as noble and true a man for your companion as David Livingstone ! For four months and four days I lived with him in the same house, or in the same boat, or in the same tent, and I never found a fault 362 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XXL in him. I am a man of a quick temper, and often without sufficient cause, I daresay, have broken the ties of friendship; but with Livingstone I never had cause for resentment, but each day's life with him added to my admiration for him." If Stanley's feeling for Livingstone was thus at the warmest temperature, Livingstone's sense of the service done to him by Stanley was equally unqualified. Whatever else he might be or might not be, he had proved a true friend to him. He had risked his life in the attempt to reach him, had been delighted to share with him every comfort he possessed, and to leave with him ample stores of all that might be useful to him in his effort to finish his work Whoever may have been to blame for it, it is certain that Livingstone had been afflicted for years, and latterly worried almost to death, by the inefficiency and worthless- ness of the men sent to serve him. In Stanley he found one whom he could trust implicitly to do everything that zeal and energy could contrive in order to find him efficient men and otherwise carry out his plans. It was Stanley therefore, and not Dr. Kirk, whom he commissioned to send him up men from Zanzibar. It was Stanley to whom he intrusted his Journal and other documents. Stanley had been his confidential friend for four months the only white man to whom he had talked for six years. It was matter of life and death to Livingstone to be supplied for this con- cluding piece of work far better than he had been for years back. What man in his senses would have failed in these circumstances to avail himself to the utmost of the services of one who had shown himself so efficient ; would have put him aside to fall back on others, albeit his own countrymen, or his old friends, who, with all their good-will, had not been able to save him from robbery, beggary, and a half- broken heart 1 Stanley's journey from Unyanyembe to Bagamoio was a perpetual struggle against hostile natives, flooded roads, slush, mire and water, roaring torrents, ants and mosquitos, or, as he described it, the ten plagues of Egypt. On his reaching Bagamoio on the 6th May, he found a new surprise. A white man dressed in flannels and helmet appeared, and as he met Stanley congratulated him on his splendid success. It was Lieutenant Henn, R.N., a member of the 1871-72.] LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 363 Search Expedition which the Royal Geographical Society and others had sent out to look for Livingstone. The resolution to organise such an expedition was taken after news had come to England of the war between the Arabs and the natives at Unyanyembe, stopping the communica- tion with Ujiji, and rendering it impossible, as it was thought, for Mr. Stanley to get to Livingstone's relief. The expedition had been placed under command of Lieutenant Dawson, B.N., with Lieutenant Henn as second, and was joined by the Eev. Charles New, a missionary from Mom- basa, and Mr. W. Oswell Livingstone, youngest son of the Doctor. Stanley's arrival at Bagamoio had been preceded by that of some of his men, who brought the news that Livingstone had been found and relieved. On hearing this, Lieutenant Dawson hurried to Zanzibar to see Dr. Kirk, and resigned his command. Lieutenant Henn soon after followed his example by resigning too. They thought that as Dr. Livingstone had been relieved there was no need for their going on. Mr. New likewise declined to proceed. Mr. W. Oswell Livingstone was thus left alone, at first full of the determination to go on to his father with the men whom Stanley was providing ; but being in poor health, and being advised by Dr. Kirk not to expose himself to a needless risk, seeing that his father had been relieved, it is little wonder that, young and inexperienced, he too decided to return. On the 29th of May, Stanley, with Messrs. Henn, Living- stone, New, and Morgan, departed in the "Africa" from Zanzibar, and in due time reached Europe. It was deeply to be regretted that an enterprise so beautiful and so entirely successful as Mr. Stanley's should have been in some degree marred by ebullitions of feeling little in harmony with the very joyous event. The leaders of the English Search Expedition and their friends at Zanzibar felt, as they expressed it, that the wind had been taken out of their sails. They could not but rejoice that Livingstone had been found and relieved, but it was a bitter thought that they had had no hand in the process. It was galling to their feelings as Englishmen that the brilliant service had been done by a stranger, a newspaper corre- spondent, a citizen of another country. On a small scale 364 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP, xxi that spirit of national jealousy showed itself, which on a wider arena has sometimes endangered the relations of England and America. When Stanley reached England, it was not to be over- whelmed with gratitude. At first the Royal Geographical Society received him coldly. Instead of his finding Living- stone, it was surmised fchat Livingstone had found him. Strange things were said of him at the British Association at Brighton. The daily press actually challenged his truthfulness ; some of the newspapers affected to treat his whole story as a myth. Stanley says frankly that this reception gave a tone of bitterness to his book How I Found Livingstone which it would not have had if he had understood the real state of things. But the heart of the nation was sound; the people believed in Stanley, and appreciated his service. At last the mists cleared away, and England acknowledged its debt to the American. The Geographical Society gave him the right hand of fellowship "with a warmth and generosity never to be forgotten." The President apologised for the words of suspicion he had previously used. Her Majesty the Queen presented Stanley with a special token of her regard. Unhappily, in the earlier stages of the affair, wounds had been inflicted which are not likely ever to be wholly healed. Words were spoken on both sides which cannot be recalled. But the great fact remains, and will be written on the page of history, that Stanley did a noble service to Livingstone, earning thereby the gratitude of England and of the civilised world. A very genuine and thorough Englishman thus celebrates the achievement of Stanley : ' ' America saves England mighty Child Of mighty Mother, it is nobly done ! Join your two strong right hands for evermore, And swear that none shall sever them anew ! Then tremble, crowned oppressors of mankind ! England, America, on your free soil The slave may kneel ; but only kneel to God ! Thou, gallant Stanley, scorning toil, alert, Stern battling with thy formidable foes, Hast won the brilliant prize ; and Europe turns Her enviously grateful eyes on thee." 1 1 Livingstone in Africa, by The HOB. Boden Noel, p. 105. 1872-73.] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 365 CHAPTER XXII FROM UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. A.D. 1872-73. WHEN Stanley left Livingstone at Unyanyembe there was nothing for the latter but to wait there until the men should come to him who were to be sent up from Zanzi- bar. Stanley left on the 14th March ; Livingstone calcu- lated that he would reach Zanzibar on the 1st May, that his men would be ready to start about the 22d May, and that they ought to arrive at Unyanyembe on the 10th or 15th July. In reality, Stanley did not reach Bagamoio till the 6th May, the men were sent off about the 25th, and they reached Unyanyembe about the 9th August. A month more than had been counted on had to be spent at Unyanyembe, and this delay was all the more trying because it brought the traveller nearer to the rainy season., The intention of Dr. Livingstone, when the men should come, was to strike south by Ufipa, go round Tanganyika, then cross the Chajabeze, and bear away along the southern shore of Bangweolo, straight west to the ancient fountains ; from them in eight days to Katanga copper mines ; from Katanga, in ten days, north-east to the great underground excavations, and back again to Katanga ; from which N.N.W. twelve days to the head of Lake Lincoln. " There I hope devoutly," he writes to his daughter, "to thank the Lord of all, and turn my face along Lake Kamolondo, and over Lualaba, Tanganyika, Ujiji, and home." His stay at Unyanyembe was a somewhat dreary one ; there was little to do and little to interest him. Five days after Stanley left him occurred his fifty-ninth birthday. How his soul was exercised appears from the renewal of his self-dedication recorded in his Journal : " 19th March, Birthday. My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All ; 1 again dedicate my whole self to Thee. Accept me, and grant, O gracious Father, that ere this year is gone I may finish my taak. In Jesus' name I ask it. Amen. So let it be. " DAVID LIVINGSTONE." 366 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxii. Frequent letters were written to his daughter from Unyanyembe, and they dwelt a good deal upon his diffi- culties, the treacherous way in which he had been treated, and the indescribable toil and suffering which had been the result. He said that in complaining to Dr. Kirk of the men whom he had employed, and the disgraceful use they had made of his (Kirk's) name, he never meant to charge him with being the author of their crimes, and it never occurred to him to say to Kirk, " I don't believe you to be the traitor they imply ; " but Kirk took his complaint in high dudgeon as a covert attack upon himself, and did not act toward him as he ought to have done, considering what he owed him. His cordial and uniform testimony of Stan- ley was " altogether he has behaved right nobly." On the 1st May he finished a letter for the Neiv York Herald, and asked God's blessing on it. It contained the memorable words afterwards inscribed on the stone to his memory in Westminster Abbey : " All I can add in my loneliness is, may Heaven's rich blessing come down on every one American, English, or Turk who will help to heal the open sore of the world." It happened that the words were written precisely a year before his death. Amid the universal darkness around him, the universal ignorance of God and of the grace and love of Jesus Christ, it was hard to believe that Africa should ever be won. He had to strengthen his faith amid this universal desolation. We read in his Journal : " 13^ May. He will keep His word the gracious One, full of grace and truth ; no doubt of it. He said : ' Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out ; ' and, ' Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will give it.' He WILL keep His word : then I can come and humbly present my petition, and it will be all right. Doubt is here inadmissible, surely. D. L." His mind ruminates on the river system of the country and the possibility of his being in error : "21st May. I wish I had some of the assurance possessed by others, but I am oppressed with the apprehension that, after all, it may turn out that I have been following the Congo ; and who would risk being put into a cannibal pot, and converted into black man for it ? " " 3lst May. In reference to this Nile source I have been kept in perpetual doubt and perplexity. I know too much to be positive. 1 872-73.] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 367 Great Lualaba, or Lualubba, as Manyuema say, may turn out to be the Congo, and Nile a snorter river after all. 1 The fountains flowing north and south seem in favour of it being the Nile. Great westing is in favour of the Congo. " "24th June. The medical education has led me to a continual tendency to suspend the judgment. What a state of blessedness it would have been had I possessed the dead certainty of the homceo- pathic persuasion, and as soon as I found the Lakes Bangweolo, Moero, and Kamolondo pouring out their waters down the great central valley, bellowed out, ' Hurrah ! Eureka ! ' and gone home in firm and honest belief that I had settled it, and no mistake. Instead of that, I am even now not at all ' cock-sure ' that I have not been following down what may after all be the Congo." We now know that this was just what he had been doing. But we honour him all the more for the diffidence that would not adopt a conclusion while any part of the evidence was wanting, and that led him to encounter un- exampled risks and hardships before he would affirm his favourite view as a fact. The moral lesson thus enforced is invaluable. We are almost thankful that Livingstone never got his doubts solved, it would have been such a dis- appointment ; even had he known that in all time coming the great stream which had cast on him such a resistless spell would be known as the Livingstone River, and would perpetuate the memory of his life and his efforts for the good of Africa. Occasionally his Journal gives a gleam of humour: " 18th June. The Ptolemaic map defines people according to their food, the Elephantophagi, the Struthiophagi, the Ichthyophagi, and Anthropophagi. If we followed the same sort of classification, our definition would be by the drink, thus : the tribe of stout-guzzlers, the roaring potheen-fuddlers, the whisky-fishoid-drinkers, the vin- ordinaire bibbers, the lager-beer-swillers, and an outlying tribe of the brandy cocktail persuasion." Natural History furnishes an unfailing interest: " ISth June. Whydahs, though full-fledged, still gladly take a feed from their dam, putting down the breast to the ground, and cocking up the bill and chirruping in the most engaging manner and winning way they know. She still gives them a little, but administers a friendly shove-off too. 1 From false punctuation, this passage is unintelligible in the Last Journals, vol. ii. p. 193. 368 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxn. They all pick up feathers or grass, and hop from side to side of their mates, as if saying, Come, let us play at making little houses. The wagtail has shaken her young quite off, and has a new nest. She warbles prettily, very much like a canary, and is extremely active in catching flies, but eats crumbs of bread-and-milk too. Sun-birds visit the pomegranate flowers, and eat insects therein too, as well as nectar. The young whydah birds crouch closely together at night for heat. They look like a woolly ball on a branch. By day they engage in pairing and coaxing each other. They come to the same twig every night. Like children, they try and lift heavy weights of feathers above their strength." On 3d July a very sad entry occurs : " Received a note from Oswell, written in April last, containing the sad intelligence of Sir Roderick's departure from among us. Alas ! alas ! this is the only time in my life I ever felt inclined to use the word, and it bespeaks a sore heart ; the best friend I ever had true, warm, and abiding, he loved me more than I deserved; he looks down on me still." This entry indicates extraordinary depth of emotion. Sir Roderick exercised a kind of spell on Livingstone. Respect for him was one of the subordinate motives that induced him to undertake this journey. The hope of giving him satisfaction was one of the subordinate rewards to which he looked forward. His death was to Livingstone a kind of scientific widowhood, and must have deprived him of a great spring to exertion in this last wandering. On Sir Roderick's part the affection for him was very great. 'Looking back," says his biographer, Professor Geikie, "upon his scientific career when not far from its close, Murchison found no part of it which brought more pleasing recollections than the support he had given to African explorers Speke, Grant, and notably Livingstone. 'I rejoice,' he said, 'in the steadfast tenacity with which I have upheld my confidence in the ultimate success of the last-named of these brave men. In fact, it was the con- fidence I placed in the undying vigour of my dear friend Livingstone which has sustained me in the hope that I might live to enjoy the supreme delight of welcoming him back to bis own country.' But that consummation was not 1872-73-] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 369 to be. He himself was gathered to his rest just six days before Stanley brought news and relief to the forlorn traveller on Lake Tanganyika. And Livingstone, while still in pursuit of his quest, and within ten months of his death, learned in the heart of Africa the tidings which he chronicled in his journal." 1 At other times he is ruminating on mission work : "lOthJuly. No great difficulty would be encountered in estab- lishing a Christian mission a hundred miles or so from the East Coast. . . . To the natives the chief attention of the mission should be directed. It would not be desirable or advisable to refuse explana- tion to others ; but I have avoided giving offence to intelligent Arabs who have pressed me asking if I believed in Mohamad, by saying, ' Xo, I do not : I am a child of Jesus bin Miriam, ' avoiding anything offensive in my tone, and often adding that Mohamad found their forefathers bowing down to trees and stones, and did good to them by forbidding idolatry, and teaching the worship of the only One God. This they all know, and it pleases them to have it recognised. It might be good policy to hire a respectable Arab to engage free porters, and conduct the mission to the country chosen, and obtain permission from the chief to build temporary houses. ... A couple of Europeans beginning and carrying on a mission without a staff of foreign attendants, implies coarse country fare, it is true ; but this would be nothing to those who at home amuse themselves with vigils, fasting, etc. A great deal of power is thus lost in the Church. Fastings and vigils, without a special object in view, are time run to waste. They are made to minister to a sort of self-gratification, instead of being turned to account for the good of others. They are like groaning in sickness : some people amuse themselves when ill with continuous moaning. The forty days of Lent might be annually spent in visiting adjacent tribes, and bearing unavoidable hunger and thirst with a good grace. Considering the greatness of the object to be attained, men might go without sugar, coffee, tea, as I went from September 1866 to December 1868 without either." On the subject of Missions he says, at a later period, 8th November : " The spirit of missions is the spirit of our Master; the very genius of His religion. A diffusive philanthropy is Christianity itself. It requires perpetual propagation to attest its genuineness." Thanks to Mr. Stanley and the American Consul, who made arrangements in a way that drew Livingstone's warmest gratitude, his escort arrived at last, consisting of fifty-seven men and boys. Several of these had gone with Mr. Stanley from Unyanyembe to Zanzibar; among the 1 Life of Sir R. I. Murchison, vol. ii. pp. 297-8. 370 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. L CHAP. xxn. new men were some Nassick pupils who had been sent from Bombay to join Lieutenant Dawson. John and Jacob Wainwright were among these. To Jacob Wainwright, who was well educated, we owe the earliest narrative that appeared of the last eight months of Livingstone's career. How happy he was with the men now sent to him appears from a letter to Mr. Stanley, written very near his death : " I am perpetually reminded that I owe a great deal to you for the men you sent. With one exception, the party is working like a machine. I give my orders to Manwa Sera, and never have to repeat them." Would that he had had such a company before ! On the 25th August the party started. On the 8th October they reached Tanganyika, and rested, for they were tired, and several were sick, including Livingstone, who had been ill with his bowel disorder. The march went on slowly, and with few incidents. As the season advanced, ram, mist, swollen streams, and swampy ground became familiar. At the end of the year they were approaching the river Chambe'ze'. Christmas had its thanksgiving : " I thank the good Lord for the good gift of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." In the second week of January they came near Bangweolo, and the reign of Neptune became incessant. We are told of cold rainy weather; sometimes a drizzle, sometimes an incessant pour ; swollen streams and increasing sponges, making progress a continual struggle. Yet, as he passes through a forest, he has an eye to its flowers, which are numerous and beautiful : ' ' There are many flowers in the forest ; marigolds, a white jonquil-looking flower without smell, many orchids, white, yellow, and pink asclepias, with bunches of French- white flowers, clematis Methoruca gloriosa, gladiolus, and blue and deep purple polygalas, grasses with white starry seed-vessels, and spikelets of brownish red and yellow. Besides these, there are beautiful blue flowering bulbs, and new flowers of pretty delicate form and but little scent. To this list may be added balsams, composites of blood-red colour and of purple ; other flowers of liver colour, bright canary yellow, pink orchids on spikes thickly covered all round, and of three inches in length ; spiderworts of fine blue or yellow or even pink. Different coloured asclepiadeae ; beautiful yellow and red umbelliferous flower- ing plants ; dill and wild parsnips ; pretty flowering aloes, yellow and red, in one whorl of blossoms ; peas and many other flowering plants which I do not know." I 872-73.] UNYANYEMBE TO isANGWEOLO. 371 Observations were taken with unremitting diligence, except when, as was now common, nothing could be seen in the heavens. As they advanced, the weather became worse. It rained as if nothing but rain were ever known in the watershed. The path lay across flooded rivers, which were distinguished by their currents only from the flooded country along their banks. Dr. Livingstone had to be carried over the rivers on the back of one of his men, in the fashion so graphically depicted on the cover of the Last Journals. The stretches of sponge that came before and after the rivers, with their long grass and elephant-holes, were scarcely less trying. The inhabitants were commonly inost unfriendly to the party ; they refused them food, and, whenever they could, deceived them as to the way. Hunger bore down on the party with its bitter gnawing. Once a mass of furious ants attacked the Doctor by night, driving him in despair from hut to hut Any frame but one of iron must have succumbed to a single month of such a life ; and before a week was out, any body of men, not held together by a power of discipline and a charm of affection unexampled in the history of difficult expeditions, would have been scattered to the four winds. Livingstone's own sufferings were beyond all previous example. About this time he began an undated letter his last to his old friends Sir Thomas Maclear and Mr. Mann. It was never finished, and never despatched ; but as one of the latest things he ever wrote, it is deeply interesting, as showing how clear, vigorous, and independent his mind was to the very last : " LAKE BANGWEOLO, SOUTH CENTHAL AFRICA. "MY DEAR FRIENDS MACLEAB AND MANN, . . . My work at present is mainly retracing my steps to take up the thread of my exploration. It counts in my lost time, but I try to make the most of it by going round outside this lake and all the sources, so that no one may come afterwards and cut me out. I have a party of good men, selected by H. M. Stanley, who, at the instance of James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald, acted the part of a good Samaritan truly, and relieved my sore necessities. A dutiful son could not have done more than he generously did. I bless him. The men, fifty -six in number, have behaved as well as Makololo. I cannot award them higher praise, though they have not the courage of that brave kind-hearted people. From Unyanyembe we went due south to avoid an Arab war which had been going on for 372 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP, xxu eighteen months. It is like one of our Caffre wars, with this differ- ence no one is enriched thereby, for all trade is stopped, and the Home Government pays nothing. We then went westward to Tanganyika, and along its eastern excessively mountainous bank to the end. The heat was really broiling among the rocks. No rain had fallen, and the grass being generally burned off, the heat rose off the black ashes as if out of an oven, yet the flowers persisted in coming out of the burning soil, and generally without leaves, as if it had been a custom that they must observe by a law of the Medes and Persians. This part detained us long ; the men's limbs were affected with a sort of subcutaneous inflammation black rose or erysipelas, and when I proposed mildly and medically to relieve the tension it was too horrible to be thought of, but they willingly carried the helpless. Then we mounted up at once into the high, cold region Urungu, south of Tanganyika, and into the middle of the rainy season, with well-grown grass and everything oppres- sively green ; rain so often that no observations could be made, except at wide intervals. I could form no opinion as to our longi- tude, and but little of our latitudes. Three of the Baurungu chiefs, one a great friend of mine, Nasonso, had died, and the population all turned topsy-turvy, so I could make no use of previous observa- tions. They elect sisters' or brothers' sons to the chieftainship, instead of the heir-apparent. Food was not to be had for either love or money. "I was at the mercy of guides who did not know their own country, and when I insisted on following the compass, they threatened, ' no food for five or ten days in that line. ' They brought us down to the back or north side of Bangweolo, while I wanted to cross the Chambeze and go round its southern side. So back again south-eastwards we had to bend. The Portuguese crossed this Chambeze a long time ago, and are therefore the first European discoverers. We were not black men with Portuguese names like those for whom the feat of crossing the continent was eagerly claimed by Lisbon statesmen. Dr. Lacerda was a man of scientific attainments, and Governor of Tette, but finding Cazembe at the rivulet called Chungu, he unfortunately succumbed to fever ten days after his arrival. He seemed anxious to make his way across to Angola. Misled by the similarity of Chambeze to Zam- besi, they all thought it to be a branch of the river that flows past Tette, Senna, and Shupanga, by Luabo and Kongone to the sea. "I rather stupidly took up the same idea from a map saying ' Zambesi ' (eastern branch), believing that the map printer had some authority for his assertion. My first crossing was thus as fruitless as theirs, and I was less excusable, for I ought to have remembered that while Chambeze is the tiue native name of the northern river, Zambesi is not the name of the southern river at all. It is a Portuguese corruption of Dombazi, which we adopted rather than introduce confusion by new names, in the same way that we adopted Nyassa instead of Nyanza ia Nyinyesi = Lake of the Stars, which the Portuguese, from hearsay, corrupted into Nyassa. The English have been worse propagators of. nonsense than Portuguese. 1872-73-] VNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 373 ' Geography of Nyassa ' was thought to be a learned way of writing the name, though ' Nyassi ' means long grass and nothing else. It took me twenty-two months to eliminate the error into which I was led, and then it was not by my own acuteness, but by the chief Cazembe, who was lately routed and slain by a party of Banyam- wezi. He gave me the first hint of the truth, and that rather in a cantering strain : ' One piece of water is just like another ; Bang- weolo water is just like Moero water, Chambeze water like Luapula water ; they are all the same ; but your chief ordered you to go to the Bangweolo, therefore by all means go, but wait a few days till I have looked out for good men as guides, and good food for you to eat, ' etc. etc. "I was not sure but that it was all royal chaff, till I made my way back south to the head-waters again, and had the natives of the islet Mpabala slowly moving the hands all around the great expanse, with 183 s of sea horizon, and saying that is Chambeze, forming the great Bangweolo, and disappearing behind that western headland to change its name to Luapula, and run down past Cazembe to Moero. That was the moment of discovery, and not my passage or the Portuguese passage of the river. If, however, any one chooses to claim for them the discovery of Chambeze as one line of drainage of the Nile valley, I shall not fight with him ; Culpepper's astrology was in the same way the forerunner of the Herschels' and the other astronomers that followed." To another old friend, Mr. James Young, he wrote about the same time : " Opere peracto ludemus the work being finished, we will play you remember in your Latin Rudi- ments lang syne. It is true for you, and I rejoice to think it is now your portion, after working nobly, to play. May you have a long spell of it ! I am differently situated ; I shall never be able to play. ... To me it seems to be said, ' If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain ; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, doth not He that pondereth the heart consider, and He that keepeth thy soul doth He not know, and shall He not give to every one according to his works ? ' I have been led, unwittingly, into the slaving field of the Banians and Arabs in Central Africa. I have seen the woes inflicted, and I must still work and do all I can to expose and mitigate the evils. Though hard work is still to be my lot, I look genially on others more favoured in their lot. I would not be a member of the ' Interna- tional,' for I love to see and think of others enjoying life. "During a large part of this journey I had a strong presentiment that I should never live to finish it. It is 374 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxn. weakened now, as I seem to see the end towards which I have been striving looming in the distance. This presenti- ment did not interfere with the performance of any duty ; it only made me think a great deal more of the future state of being." In his latest letters there is abundant evidence that the great desire of his heart was to expose the slave-trade, rouse public feeling, and get that great hindrance to all good for ever swept away. " Spare no pains," he wrote to Dr. Kirk in 1871, " in attempting to persuade your superiors to this end, and the Divine blessing will descend on you and yours." To his daughter Agnes he wrote (15th August 1872) : "No one can estimate the amount of God-pleasing good that will be done, if by Divine favour, this awful slave- trade, into the midst of which I have come, be abolished. This will be something to have lived for, and the conviction has grown in my mind that it was for this end I have been detained so long." To his brother in Canada he says (December 1872) : " If the good Lord permits me to put a stop to the enormous evils of the inland slave-trade, I shall not grudge my hunger and toils. I shall bless His name vrith all my heart. The Nile sources are valuable to me only as a means of enabling me to open my mouth with power among men. It is this power I hope to apply to remedy an enormous evil, and join my poor little helping hand in the enormous revolution that in His all-embracing Providence He has been carrying on for ages, and is now actually helping forward. Men may think I covet fame, but I make it a rule never to read aught written in my praise." Livingstone's last birthday (19th March 1873) found him in much the same circumstances as before. " Thanks to the Almighty Preserver of men for sparing me thus far on the journey of life. Can I hope for ultimate success ? So many obstacles have arisen. Let not Satan prevail over me, my good Lord Jesus." A few days after (24th March), " Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God, and go forward." In the beginning of April, the bleeding from the bowels, 1872-73-] UNYANYEMBE TO RANGWEOLO. 375 from which he had been suffering, became more copious, and his weakness was pitiful ; still he longed for strength to finish his work Even yet the old passion for natural history was strong ; the aqueous plants that abounded everywhere, the caterpillars that after eating the plants ate one another, and were such clumsy swimmers ; the fish with the hook-shaped lower jaw that enabled them to feed as they skimmed past the plants; the morning summons of the cocks and turtle-doves ; the weird scream of the fish eagle all engaged his interest. Observations continued to be taken, and the Sunday services were always held. But on the 21st April a change occurred. In a shaky hand he wrote : " Tried to ride, but was forced to lie down, and they carried me back to vil. exhausted." A kitauda or palanquin had to be made for carrying him. It was sorry work, for his pains were excruciating and his weakness excessive. On the 27th April l he was apparently at the lowest ebb, and wrote in his Journal the last words he ever penned "Knocked up quite, and remain = recover sent to buy milch goats. We are on the banks of K. Moli- larno." The word " recover " seems to show that he had no pre- sentiment of death, but cherished the hope of recovery ; and Mr. Waller has pointed out from his own sad observa- tion of numerous cases in connection with the Universities Mission, that malarial poisoning is usually unattended with the apprehension of death, and that in none of these in- stances, any more than in the case of Livingstone, were there any such messages, or instructions, or expressions of trust and hope as are usual on the part of Christian men when death is near. The 29th April was the last day of his travels. In the morning he directed Susi to take down the side of the hut that the kitanda might be brought along, as the door would not admit it, and he was quite unable to walk to it. Then came the crossing of a river ; then progress through swamps and plashes; and when they got to anything like a dry plain, he would ever and anon beg of them to lay him down. At last they got him to Chitambo's village in Ilala, where they had to put him under the eaves of a house during a 1 This was the eleventh anniversary of his wife's death. 376 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxn. drizzling rain until the hut they were building should be got ready. Then they laid him on a rough bed in the hut, where he spent the night. Next day he lay undisturbed. He asked a few wandering questions about the country especially about the Luapula. His people knew that the end could not be far off. Nothing occurred to attract notice during the early part of the night, but at four in the morning, the boy who lay at his door called in alarm for Susi, fearing that their master was dead. By the candle still burning they saw him, not in bed, but kneeling at the bedside, with his head buried in his hands upon the pillow. The sad yet not unexpected truth soon became evident : he had passed away on the furthest of all his journeys, and without a single attendant. But he had died in the act of prayer prayer offered in that reverential attitude about which he was always so particular ; commending his own spirit, with all his dear ones, as was his wont, into the hands of his Saviour ; and commending AFRICA his own dear Africa with all her woes and sins and wrongs, to the Avenger of the oppressed and the Redeemer of the lost. If anything were needed to commend the African race, and prove them possessed of qualities fitted to make a noble nation, the courage, affection, and persevering loyalty shown by his attendants after his death might well have this effect. When the sad event became known among the men, it was cordially resolved that every effort should be made to carry their master's remains to Zanzibar. Such an undertaking was extremely perilous, for there were not merely the ordinary risks of travel to a small body of natives, but there was also the superstitious horror everywhere prevalent con- nected with the dead. Chitambo must be kept in ignorance of what had happened, otherwise a ruinous fine would be sure to be inflicted on them. The secret however oozed oat, but happily the chief was reasonable. Susi and Chuma, the old attendants of Livingstone, became now the leaders of the company, and they fulfilled their task right nobly. The interesting narrative of Mr. Waller at the end of the Last Jownals tells us how calmly yet efficiently they set to work. Arrangements were made for drying and embalming 1872-73.] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 377 the body, after removing and burying the heart and other viscera. For fourteen days the body was dried in the sun. After being wrapped in calico, and the legs bent inwards at the knees, it was enclosed in a large piece of bark from a Myonga tree in the form of a cylinder ; over this a piece of sail-cloth was sewed ; and the package was lashed to a pole, so as to be carried by two men. Jacob Wainwright carved an inscription on the Mvula tree under which the body had rested, and where the heart was buried, and Chitambo was charged to keep the grass cleared away, and to protect two posts and a cross piece which they erected to mark the spot. They then set out on their homeward march. It was a serious journey, for the terrible exposure" had affected the health of most of them, and many had to lie down through sickness. The tribes through which they passed were generally friendly, but not always. At one place they had a regular fight. On the whole, their progress was wonder- fully quiet and regular. Everywhere they found that the news of the Doctor's death had got before them. At one place they heard that a party of Englishmen, headed by Dr. Livingstone's son, on their way to relieve his father, had been seen at Bagamoio some months previously. As they approached Unyanyembe, they learned that the party was there, but when Chuma ran on before, he was disap- pointed to find that Oswell Livingstone was not among them. Lieutenant Cameron, Dr. Dillon, and Lieutenant Murphy were there, and heard the tidings of the men with deep emotion. Cameron wished them to bury the remains where they were, and not run the risk of conveying them through the Ugogo country ; but the men were inflexible, determined to carry out their first intention. This was not the only interference with these devoted and faithful men. Considering how carefully they had gathered all Living- stone's property, and how conscientiously, at the risk of their lives, they were carrying it to the coast, to transfer it to the British Consul there, it was not warrantable in the new-comers to take the boxes from them, examine their contents, and carry off a part of them. Nor do we think Lieutenant Cameron was entitled to take away the instru- ments with which all Livingstone's observations had been 378 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxn. made for a series of seven years, and use them, though only temporarily, for the purposes of his expedition, inas- much as he thereby made it impossible so to reduce Livingstone's observations as that correct results should be obtained from them. Sir Henry Rawlinson seems not to have adverted to this result of Mr. Cameron's act, in his reference to the matter from the chair of the Geographical Society. On leaving Unyanyembe the party were joined by Lieu- tenant Murphy, not much to the promotion of unity of action or harmonious feeling. At Kaseke>a a spirit of opposition was shown by the inhabitants, and a ruse was resorted to so as to throw them off their guard. It was resolved to pack the remains in such form that when wrapped in calico they should appear like an ordinary bale of merchandise. A fagot of mapira stalks, cut into lengths of about six feet, was then swathed in cloth, to imitate a dead body about to be buried. This was sent back along the way to Unyanyembe, as if the party had changed their minds and resolved to bury the remains there. The bearers, at nightfall, began to throw away the mapira rods, and then the wrappings, and when they had "thus disposed of them they returned to their companions. The villagers of Kaseke>a had now no suspicion, and allowed the party to pass unmolested. But though one tragedy was averted, another was enacted at Kaseke>a the dreadful suicide of Dr. Dillon while suffering from dysentery and fever. The cortege now passed on without further incident, and arrived at Bagamoio in February 1874. Soon after they reached Bagamoio a cruiser arrived from Zanzibar, with the acting Consul, Captain Prideaux, on board, and the remains were conveyed to that island previous to their being sent to England. The men that for nine long months remained steadfast to their purpose to pay honour to the remains of their master, in the midst of innumerable trials and dangers and without hope of reward, have established a strong claim to the gratitude and admiration of the world. Would that the debt were promptly repaid in efforts to free Africa from her oppressors, and send throughout all her borders the Divine I874-] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 379 proclamation, " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good- will to men." In regard to the Search party to which reference has been made, it may be stated that when Livingstone's purpose to go back to the barbarous regions where he had suffered so much before became known in England, it excited a feeling of profound concern. Two expeditions were arranged. That to the East Coast, organised by the Royal Geographical Society, was placed under Lieutenant Cameron, and included in its ranks Robert Moffat, a grandson of Dr. Moffat's, who (as has been already stated) fell early a sacrifice to fever. The members of the expedition suffered much from sickness ; it was broken up at Unyanyembe, when the party bearing the remains of Dr. Livingstone was met. The other party, under command of Lieutenant Grandy, was to go to the West Coast, start from Loanda, strike the Congo, and move on to Lake Lincoln. This expedition was fitted out solely at the cost of Mr. Young. He was deeply concerned for the safety of his friend, knowing how he Avas hated by the slave-traders whose iniquities he had exposed, and thinking it likely that if he once reached Lake Lincoln he would make for the west coast along the Congo. The purpose of these expeditions is carefully explained in a letter addressed to Dr. Livingstone by Sir Henry Rawlinson, then President of the Royal Geographical Society : " LONDON, Nov. 20, 1872. "DEAR DR. LIVINGSTONE, You will no doubt have heard of Sir Bartle Frere's deputation to Zanzibar long before you receive this, and you will have learnt with heartfelt satisfaction that there is now a definite prospect of the infamous East African slave-trade being suppressed. For this great end, if it be achieved, we shall be mainly indebted to your recent letters, which have had a powerful effect on the public mind in England, and have thus stimulated the action of the Government. Sir Bartle will keep you informed of his arrange- ments, if there are any means of communicating with the interior, and I am sure you will assist him to the utmost of your power in carrying out the good work in which he is engaged. ' ' It was a great disappointment to us that Lieutenant Dawson's expedition, which we fitted put in the beginning of the year with such completeness, did not join you at Unyanyembe, for it could not have failed to be of service to you in many ways. We are now trying to aid you with a second expedition under Lieutenant Cameron, whom we have sent out under Sir Bartle's orders, to join you if possible in the vicinity of Lake Tanganyika, and attend to your 380 DA V1D LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. XXH. wishes in respect to his further movements. We leave it entirely to your discretion whether you like to keep Mr. Cameron with you or to send him on to the Victoria Nyanza, or any other points that you are unable to visit yourself. Of course the great point of interest connected with your present exploration is the determination of the lower course of the Lualaba. Mr. Stanley still adheres to the view, which you formerly held, that it drains into the Nile ; but if the levels which you give are correct, this is impossible. At any rate, the opinion of the identity of the Congo and Lualaba is now becom- ing so universal that Mr. Young has come forward with a donation of 2000 to enable us to send another expedition to your assistance up that river, and Lieutenant Grandy, with a crew of twenty Kroomen, will accordingly be pulling up the Congo before many months are over. Whether he will really be able to penetrate to your unvisited lake, or beyond it to Lake Lincoln, is,, of course, a matter of great doubt ; but it will at any rate be gratifying to you to know that support is approaching you both from the west and east. We all highly admire and appreciate your indomitable energy and perseverance, and the Geographical Society will do everything in its power to support you, so as to compensate in some measure for the loss you have sustained in the death of your old friend Sir Roderick Murchison. My own tenure of office expires in May, and it is not yet decided who is to succeed me, but whoever may be our President, our interest in your proceedings will not slacken. Mr. Waller will, I daresay, have told you that we have just sent a memorial to Mr. Gladstone, praying that a pension may be at once conferred upon your daughters, and I have every hope that our prayer may be successful. You will see by the papers, now sent to you, that there has been much acrimonious discussion of late on African Affairs. I have tried myself in every possible way to throw oil on the troubled waters, and begin to hope now for something like peace. I shall be very glad to hear from you if you can spare time to send me a line, and will always keep a watchful eye over your interests. I remain, yours very truly, H. C. RAWLINSON." The remains were brought to Aden on board the "Calcutta," and thereafter transferred to the P. and 0. steamer "Malwa," which arrived at Southampton on the 15th of April Mr. Thomas Livingstone, eldest surviving son of the Doctor, being then in Egypt on account of his health, 1 had gone on board at Alexandria. The body was conveyed to London by special train and deposited in the rooms of the Geographical Society in Savile Row. In the course of the evening the remains were examined by Sir William Fergusson and several other medical gentle- men, including Dr. Loudon of Hamilton, whose professional 1 Thomas never regained robust health. He died at Alexandria, 15th March 1876. 1 874.] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 381 skill and great kindness to Dr. Livingstone's family had gained for him a high place in his esteem and love. To many persons it had appeared so incredible that the remains should have been brought from the heart of Africa to London, that some conclusive identification of the body seemed to be necessary to set all doubt at rest. The state of the arm, the one that had been broken by the lion, supplied the crucial evidence. " Exactly in the region of the attachment of the deltoid to the humerus " (said Sir William Fergusson in a contribution to the Lancet, April 18, 1874), "there were the indications of an oblique fracture. On moving the arm there were the indications of an ununited fracture. A closer identification and dissection displayed the false joint that had so long ago been so well recognised by those who had examined the arm in former days. . . . The first glance set my mind at rest, and that, with the further examination, made me as positive as to the identification of these remains as that there has been among us in modern times one of the greatest men of the human race David Livingstone." On Saturday, April 18, 1874, the remains of the great traveller were committed to their resting-place near the centre of the nave of Westminster Abbey. Many old friends of Livingstone came to be present, and many of his admirers, who could not but avail themselves of the opportunity to pay the tribute of respect to his memory. The Abbey was crowded in every part from which the spectacle might be seen. The pall-bearers were Mr. H. M. Stanley, Jacob Wainwright, Sir T. Steele, Dr. Kirk, Mr. W. F. Webb, Eev. Horace Waller, Mr. Oswell, and Mr. E. D. Young. Two of these, Mr. Waller and Dr. Kirk, along with Dr. Stewart, who was also present, had assisted twelve years before at the funeral of Mrs. Livingstone at Shupanga. Dr. Moffat too was there, full of sorrowful admiration. Amid a service which was emphatically impressive through- out, the simple words of the hymn, sung to the tune of Tallis, were peculiarly touching : " O God of Bethel ! by whose hand Thy people still are fed, Who through this weary pilgrimage Hast all our fathers led. " N 382 DA VI D LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP, xxn The black slab that now marks the resting-place of Livingstone bears this inscription : BROUGHT BY FAITHFUL HANDS OVER LAND AND SEA, HERE RESTS DAVID LIVINGSTONE, MISSIONARY, TRAVELLER, PHILANTHROPIST, BORN MARCH 19, 1813, AT BLANTYRE, LANARKSHIRE. DIED MAY 4,' 1873, AT CHITAMBO'S VILLAGE, ILALA. For thirty years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets, and abolish the desolating slave-trade of Central Africa, where, with his last words he wrote : " All I can say in my solitude is, may Heaven's rich blessing come down on every one American, English, Turk who will help to heal this open sore of the world." Along the right border of the stone are the words : TANTUS AMOR VERI, NIHIL EST QUOD NOSCERE MALIM QUAM FLUVII CAUSAS PER SyECULA TANTA LATENTES. And along the left border OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD, THEM ALSO I MUST BRING, AND THEY SHALL HEAR MY VOICE. On the 25th June 1868, not far from the northern border of that lake Bangweolo on whose southern shore he passed away, Dr. Livingstone came on a grave in a forest He says of it " It was a little rounded mound, as if the occupant sat in it in the usual native way ; it was strewed over with flour, and a number of the large blue beads put on it ; a little path showed that it had visitors. This is the sort of grave I should prefer : to be in the still, still forest, and no hand ever disturb my bones. The graves at home always 1 In the Last Journals the date is 1st May ; on the stone 4th May. The attendants could not quite determine the day. 1 874-] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 383 seemed to me to be miserable, especially those in the cold damp clay, and without elbow-room ; but I have nothing to do but wait till He who is over all decides where I have to lay me down and die. Poor Mary lies on Shupanga brae, 'and beeks foment the sun.'" " He who is over all " decreed that while his heart should lie in the leafy forest, in such a spot as he loved, his bones should repose in a great Christian temple, where many, day by day, as they read his name, would recall his noble Christian life, and feel how like he was to Him of whom it is written : " The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me ; because the LORD nath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : he hath sent me to bind, up the broken- hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn ; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." ' ' Droop half-mast colours, bow, bareheaded crowds, As this plain coffin o'er the side is slung, To pass by woods of masts and ratlined shrouds, As erst by Afric's trunks, liana-hung. 'Tis the last mile of many thousands trod With failing strength but never failing will, By the worn frame, now at its rest with God, That never rested from its fight with ill. Or if the ache of travel and of toil Would sometimes wring a short, sharp cry of pain From agony of fever, blain and boil, 'Twas but to crush it down and on again ! He knew not that the trumpet he had blown Out of the darkness of that dismal land, Had reached and roused an army of its own To strike the chains from the slave's fettered hand. Now we believe, he knows, sees all is well ; How God had stayed his will and shaped his way, To bring the light to those that darkling dwell With gains that life's devotion will repay. 384 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP, xxn Open the Abbey doors and bear him in To sleep with king and statesman, chief and sage, The missionary come of weaver-kin, But great by work that brooks no lower wage. He needs no epitaph to guard a name Which men shall prize while worthy work is known ; He lived and died for good be that his fame : Let marble crumble : this is LIVING STONE." Punch. Eulogiums on the dead are often attempts, sometimes sufficiently clumsy, to conceal one-half of the truth and fill the eye with the other. In the case of Livingstone there is really nothing to conceal. In tracing his life in these pages we have found no need for the brilliant colours of the rhetorician, the ingenuity of the partisan, or the enthu- siasm of the hero-worshipper. We have felt, from first to last, that a plain, honest statement of the truth regarding him would be a higher panegyric than any ideal picture that could be drawn. The best tributes paid to his memory by distinguished countrymen were the most literal we might almost say the most prosaic. It is but a few leaves we can reproduce of the many wreaths that were laid on his tomb. Sir Bartle Frere, as President of the Royal Geographical Society, after a copious notice of his life, summed it up in these words : " As a whole, the work of his life will surely be held up in ages to come as one of singular nobleness of design, and of unflinching energy and self-sacrifice in execution. It will be long ere any one man will be able to open so large an extent of unknown land to civilised man- kind. Yet longer, perhaps, ere we find a brighter example of a life of such continued and useful self-devotion to a noble cause." In a recent letter to Dr. Livingstone's eldest daughter, Sir Bartle Frere (after saying that he was first introduced to Dr. Livingstone by Mr. Phillip, the painter, as " one of the noblest men he had ever met," and rehearsing the history of his early acquaintance) remarks : " I could hardly venture to describe my estimate of his character as a Christian further than by saying that I never met a man who fulfilled more completely my idea of a perfect Christian gentleman, actuated in what he thought, I874-] UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 385 and said, and did, by the highest and most chivalrous spirit, modelled on the precepts of his great Master and Exemplar. " As a man of science, I am less competent to judge, for my knowledge of his work is to a great extent second-hand ; but derived, as it is, from observers like Sir Thomas Maclear, and geographers like Arrowsmith, I believe him to be quite unequalled as a scientific traveller, in the care and accuracy with which he observed. In other branches of science I had more opportunities of satisfying myself, and of knowing how keen and accurate was his observation, and how extensive his knowledge of everything connected with natural science ; but every page of his journals, to the last week of his life, testified to his wonderful natural powers and accurate observation. Thirdly, as a missionary and explorer I have always put him in the very first rank. He seemed to me to possess in the most wonderful degree that union of opposite qualities which were required for such a work as opening out heathen Africa to Christianity and civilisation. No man had a keener sympathy with even the most barbarous and unenlightened ; none had a more ardent desire to benefit and improve the most abject. In his aims, no man attempted, on a grander or more thorough scale, to benefit and improve those of his race who most needed improvement and light. In the execution of what he undertook, I never met his equal for energy and sagacity, and I feel sure that future ages will place him among the very first of those missionaries, who, following the apostles, have continued to carry the light of the gospel to the dark- est regions of the world, throughout the last 1800 years. As regards the value of the work he accomplished, it might be premature to speak, not that I think it possible I can over-estimate it, but because I feel sure that every year will add fresh evidence to show how well-considered were the plans he took in hand, and how vast have been the results of the movements he set in motion." The generous and hearty appreciation of Livingstone by the medical profession was well expressed in the words of the Lancet : " Few men have disappeared from our ranks more universally deplored, as few have served in them with a higher purpose, or shed upon them the lustre of a purer devotion. " 386 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. xxn. Lord Polwarth, in acknowledging a letter from Dr. Livingstone's daughter, thanking him for some words on her father, wrote thus : "I have long cherished the memory of his example, and feel that the truest beauty was his essentially Christian spirit. Many admire in him the great explorer and the noble-hearted philanthropist; but I like to think of him, not only thus, but as a man who was a servant of God, loved His Word intensely, and while he spoke to men of God, spoke more to God of men. " His memory will never perish, though the first fresh- ness, and the impulse it gives just now, may fade ; but his prayers will be had in everlasting remembrance, and un- speakable blessings will yet flow to that vast continent he opened up at the expense of his life. God called and qualified him for a noble work, which by grace, he nobly fulfilled, and we can love the honoured servant, and adore the gracious Master." Lastly, we give the beautiful wreath of Florence Night- ingale, also in the form of a letter to Dr. Livingstone's daughter : "LONDON, Feb. 18, 1874. " DEAR Miss LIVINGSTONE, I am only one of all Eng- land which is feeling with you and for you at this moment. " But Sir Bartle Frere encourages me to write to you. "We cannot help still yearning to hear of some hope that your great father may be still alive. " God knows ; and in knowing that He knows who is all wisdom, goodness, and power, we must find our rest. <( He has taken away, if at last it be as we fear, the greatest man of his generation, for Dr. Livingstone stood alone. " There are few enough, but a few statesmen. There are few enough, but a few great in medicine, or in art, or in poetry. There are a few great travellers. But Dr. Living- stone stood alone as the great Missionary Traveller, the bringer-in of civilisation ; or rather the pioneer of civilisa- tion he that cometh before to races lying in darkness. " I always think of him as what John the Baptist, had he been living in the nineteenth century, would have been. " Dr. Livingstone's fame was so world- wide that there were other nations who understood him even better than we did. I874-J UNYANYEMBE TO BANGWEOLO. 387 " Learned philologists from Germany, not at all orthodox in their opinions, have yet told me that Dr. Livingstone was the only man who understood races, and how to deal with them for good ; that he was the one true missionary. We cannot console ourselves for our loss. He is irreplace- able. " It is not sad that he should have died out there. Per- haps it was the thing, much as he yearned for home, that was the fitting end for him. He may have felt it so himself. "But would that he could have completed that which he offered his life to God to do ! " If God took him, however, it was that his life was com- pleted, in God's sight ; his work finished, the most glorious work of our generation. " He has opened those countries for God to enter in. He struck the first blow to abolish a hideous slave-trade. " He, like Stephen, was the first martyr. He climbed the steep ascent of heaven, Through peril, toil, and pain ; O God ! to us may grace be given To follow in his train ! " To us it is very dreary, not to have seen him again, that he should have had none of us by him at the last ; no last word or message. " I feel this with regard to my dear father, and one who was more than mother to me, Mrs. Bracebridge, who went with me to the Crimean war, both of whom were taken from me last month. "How much more must we feel it, with regard to our great discoverer and hero, dying so far off ! " But does he regret it ? How much he must know now ! how much he must have enjoyed ! " Though how much we would give to know his thoughts, alone with God, during the latter days of his life. "May we not say, with old Baxter (something altered from that verse) ? My knowledge of that life is small, The eye of faith is dim ; But 'tis enough that Christ knows all, And he will be with Him. " Let us think only of him and of his present happiness, 338 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. his eternal happiness, and may God say to us : ' Let not your heart be troubled.' Let us exchange a ' God bless you,' and fetch a real blessing from God in saying so. " FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE." CHAPTER XXIII. POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. THE heart of David Livingstone was laid under the mvula tree in Ilala, and his bones in Westminster Abbey ; but his spirit marched on. The history of his life is not completed with the record of his death. The continual cry of his heart to be permitted to finish his work was answered, answered thoroughly, though not in the way he thought of. The thrill that went through the civilised world when his death and all its touching circumstances became known, did more for Africa than he could have done had he com- pleted his task and spent years in this country following it up. From the worn-out figure kneeling at the bedside in the hut in Ilala, an electric spark seemed to fly, quickening hearts on every side. The statesman felt it ; it put new vigour into the despatches he wrote and the measures he devised with regard to the slave-trade. The merchant felt it, and began to plan in earnest how to traverse the conti- nent with roads and railways, and open it to commerce from shore to centre. The explorer felt it, and started with high purpose on new scenes of unknown danger. The missionary felt it, felt it a reproof of past languor and unbelief, and found himself lifted up to a higher level of faith and devotion. No parliament of philanthropy was held ; but the verdict was as unanimous and as hearty as if the Christian world had met and passed the resolution " Livingstone's work shall not die : AFRICA SHALL LIVE." A rapid glance at the progress of events during the few years that have elapsed since the death of Livingstone will show best what influence he wielded after his death. Whether we consider the steps that have been taken to xxiu.] POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 389 suppress the slave-trade, the progress of commercial under- takings, the successful journeys of explorers stimulated by his example who have gone from shore to shore, or the new enterprises of the various missionary bodies carried out by agents with somewhat of Livingstone's spirit, we shall see what a wonderful revolution he effected, how entirely he changed the prospects of Africa. Livingstone himself had the impression that his long and weary detention in Manyuema was designed by Providence to enable him to know and proclaim to the world the awful horrors of the slave-trade. When his despatches and letters from that region were published in this country, the matter was taken up in the highest quarters. After the Queen's Speech had drawn the attention of Parliament to it, a Royal Commission, and then a Select Committee of the House of Commons, prepared the way for further action. Sir Bartle Frere was sent to Zanzibar, with the view of negotiating a treaty with the Sultan, to render illegal all traffic in slaves by sea. Sir Bartle was unable to persuade the Sultan, but left the matter in the hands of Dr. Kirk, who succeeded in 1873 in negotiating the treaty, and got the shipment of slaves prohibited over a sea-board of nearly a thousand miles. But the slave-dealer was too clever to yield ; for the route by sea he simply substituted a route by land, which, instead of diminishing the horrors of the traffic, actually made them greater. Dr. Kirk's energies had to be employed in getting the land traffic placed in the same category as that by sea, and here too he was successful, so that within the dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the slave-trade, as a legal enterprise, came to an end. But Zanzibar was but a fragment of Africa. In no other part of the continent was it of more importance that the traffic should be arrested than in Egypt, and in parts of the Empire of Turkey in Africa under the control of the Sultan. The late Khedive of Egypt was hearty in the cause, less, perhaps, from dislike of the slave-trade, than from his desire to hold good rank among the Western powers, and to enjoy the favourable opinion of England. By far the most important contribution of the Khedive to the cause lay in his committing the vast region of the Soudan to the hands of our countryman. Colonel Gordon, whose recent resigna- 390 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. tion of the office has awakened so general regret Hating the slave-trade, Colonel Gordon employed his remarkable influence over native chiefs and tribes in discouraging it, and with great effect. Few men, indeed, have shown more of Livingstone's spirit in managing the natives than Gordon Pasha, or furnished better proof that for really doing away with the slave-trade more is needed than a good treaty there must be a hearty and influential Executive to carry out its provisions. Hence the traffic could hardly fail to revive under Gordon's successor, a man of quite different spirit. Our conventions with Turkey have come to little or nothing. They have shared the usual fate of Turkish promises. Even the convention announced with considerable con- fidence in the Queen's Speech on 5th February 1880, if the tenor of it be as it has been reported in the Temps news- paper, leaves far too much in the hands of the Turks, and unless it be energetically and constantly enforced by this country, will fail in its object. To this end, however, we trust that the attention of our Government will be earnestly directed. The Turkish traffic is particularly hateful, for it is carried on mainly for purposes of sensuality and show. The abolition of the slave-trade by King Mtesa, chief of Waganda, near Lake Victoria Nyanza, is one of the most recent fruits of the agitation. The services of Mr. Mackay, a countryman of Livingstone's, and an agent of the Church Missionary Society, contributed mainly to this remarkable result. Such facts show that not only has the slave-trade become illegal in some of the separate states of Africa, but that an active spirit has been roused against it, which, if duly directed, may yet achieve much more. The trade, however, breeds a reckless spirit, which cares little for treaties or enactments, and is ready to continue the traffic as a smug- gling business after it has been declared illegal. In the Nyassa district, from which to a large extent it has disap- peared, it is by no means suppressed. It is quite conceiv- able that it may revive after the temporary alarm of the dealers has subsided. The remissness, and even the connivance, of the Portuguese authorities has been a great hindrance to its abolition. All who desire to carry out the noble objects of Livingstone's life will therefore do well to XXIIL] POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 391 urge her Majesty's Ministers, members of Parliament, and all who have influence, to renewed and unremitting efforts towards the complete and final abolition of the traffic throughout the whole of Africa. To this consummation the honour of Great Britain is conspicuously pledged, and it is one to which statesmen of all parties have usually been proud to contribute. If we pass from the slave-trade to the promotion of lawful commerce, we find the influence of Livingstone hardly less apparent in not a few undertakings recently begun. The "Livingstone Central African Company, Limited," with Mr. James Stevenson of Glasgow as chair- man, has constructed a road along the Murchison Rapids, thus making the original route of Livingstone available between Quilimane and the Nyassa district, and is doing much more to advance Christian civilisation. France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy, have all been active in pro- moting commercial schemes. A magnificent proposal has been made, under French auspices, for a railway across the Soudan. There is a proposal from Manchester to connect the great lakes with the sea by a railway from the coast opposite Zanzibar. Another scheme is for a railway from the Zambesi to Lake Nyassa. A telegraph through Egypt has been projected, to the South African colonies of Britain, passing by Nyassa and Shire" . An Italian colony on a large scale has been projected in the dominions of Menelek, king of Shoa, near the Somali land. Any statement of the various commercial schemes begun or contemplated would probably be defective, because new enterprises are so often appearing. But all this shows what a new light has burst on the commercial world as to the capabilities of Africa in a trading point of view. There seems, indeed, no reason why Africa should not furnish most of the products which at present we derive from India. As a market for our manufactures it is capable, even with a moderate amount of civilisation, of becoming one of our most extensive customers. The voice that proclaimed these things in 1857 was the voice of one crying in the wilderness ; but it is now repeated in a thousand echoes. In stimulating African exploration the influence of Livingstone was very decided. He was the first of the 392 DA VI D LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. galaxy of modern African travellers, for both in the Geographical Society and in the world at large his name became famous before those of Baker, Grant, Speke, Burton, Stanley, and Cameron. Stanley, inspired first by the desire of finding him, became himself a remarkable and successful traveller. The same remark is applicable to Cameron. Not only did Livingstone stimulate professed geographers, but, what was truly a novelty in the annals of exploration, he set newspaper companies to open up Africa. The New York Herald, having found Livingstone, became hungry for new discoveries, and enlisting a brother-in-arms, Mr. Edwin Arnold of the Daily Telegraph, the two papers united to send Mr. Stanley "to fresh woods and pastures new." Animated by the memory of his four months' fellowship with Livingstone, Mr. Stanley undertook the exploration of the Congo or Livingstone River, because it was a work that Livingstone desired to be done. Amid many difficulties he continues this difficult enterprise. Under the auspices of the African Exploration Society, and the directions of the Royal Geographical, Mr. Keith Johnston and Mr. Joseph Thomson undertook the exploration of the country between Dar es Salaam and Lake Nyassa, the former falling a victim to illness, the latter penetrating through unexplored regions to Nyassa, and subsequently extending his journey to Tanganyika. We can but name the international enter- prise resulting from the Brussels Conference ; the French researches of Lieutenant de Semell6 and of de Brazza ; the various German expeditions of Dr. Lenz, Dr. Pogge, Dr. Fischer, and Herr Denhardts ; and the Portuguese explora- tion on the west, under Major Serpa Pinto, from Benguela to the head waters of the Zambesi. Africa does not want for explorers, and generally they are men bent on advancing legitimate commerce and the improvement of the people. It would be a comfort if we could think of all as having this for their object ; but tares, we fear, will always be mingled with the good seed; and if there have been travellers who have led immoral lives and sought their own amusement only, and traders who by trafficking in rum and such things have demoralised the natives, they have only shown that in some natures selfishness is too deeply imbedded to be affected by the noblest examples. xxui.] POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 393 Livingstone himself traversed twenty-nine thousand miles in Africa, and added to the known part of the globe about a million square miles. He discovered Lakes 'Ngami, Shirwa, Nyassa, Moero, and Bangweolo; the upper Zambesi, and many other rivers ; made known the wonderful Victoria Falls ; also the high ridges flanking the depressed basin of the central plateau ; he was the first European to pass along the whole length of Lake Tanganyika, and to give it its true orientation; he traversed in much pain and sorrow the vast watershed near Lake Bangweolo, and through no fault of his own, just missed the information that would have set at rest all his surmises about the sources of the Nile. His discoveries were never mere happy guesses or vague descriptions from the accounts of natives ; each spot was determined with the utmost precision, though at the time his head might be giddy from fever or his body tor- tured with pain. He strove after an accurate notion of the form and structure of the continent ; investigated its geo- logy, hydrography, botany, and zoology ; and .grappled with the two great enemies of man and beast that prey on it fever and tsetse. Yet all these were matters apart from the great business of his life. In science he was neither amateur nor dilettante, but a careful, patient, laborious worker, and hence his high position, and the respect he inspired in the scientific world. Small men might peck and nibble at him, but the true kings of science, the Owens, Murchisons, Herschels, Sedgwicks, and Fergussons honoured him the more the longer they knew him. We miss an important fact in his life if we do not take note of the impression which he made on such men. Last, but not least, we note the marvellous expansion of missionary enterprise in Africa through Livingstone's in- fluence. Though he used no sensational methods of appeal, he had a wonderful power to draw men to the mission field. In his own quiet way, he not only enlisted recruits, but inspired them with the enthusiasm of their calling. Not even Charles Simeon, during his long residence at Cambridge, sent more men to India than Livingstone drew to Africa in his brief visit to the Universities. It seemed as if he suddenly awakened the minds of young men to a new view of the grand purpose? of life. Mr. Monk wrote 394 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. to him truly, "That Cambridge visit of yours lighted a candle which will NEVER, NEVER go out." At the time of his death there was no missionary at work in the great region of Shire and Nyassa on which his heart was so much set. The first to take possession were his countrymen of Scotland. The Livingstonia mission and settlement of the Free Church, planned by Dr. Stewart of Lovedale who had gone out to reconnoitre 'in 1863, and actually begun in 1875, has now three stations on the lake, and has won the highest commendation of such travellers as the late Consul Elton. 1 Much of the success of this enterprise in its first stage is due to Livingstone's old comrade, Mr. E. D. Young, R.N., who led the party, and by his great experience and wonderful way of managing the natives, laid not only the founders of Livingstonia, but the friends of Africa, under obligations that have never been sufficiently acknowledged. 2 In concert with the " Living- stone Central African Company," considerable progress has been made in exploring the neighbouring regions, and the recent exploit of Mr. James Stewart, C.E., one of the lay helpers of the Mission, in traversing the country between Nyassa and Tanganyika, is an important contribution to geography. 3 It would have gratified Livingstone to think that in promoting the evangelisation and civilisation of this district all the Scottish Presbyterian Churches were taking a share. Under Bishop Steere, the successor of Bishop Tozer, the Universities Mission has re-occupied part of the mainland, and the freed-slave village of Masasi, situated between the sea and Nyassa, to the north of the Rovuma, enjoys a large measure of prosperity. Other stations have been formed, or are projected, one of them on the eastern margin of the lake. The Church Missionary Society has occupied the shores of Victoria Nyanza, achieving great results amid many trials and sacrifices, at first wonderfully aided and encouraged by King Mtesa, though afterwards bitterly opposed. Lake Tanganyika has been occupied by the London Missionary Society. 1 Lakes and Mountains of Africa, pp. 277-280. a See his work, Nyassa : London, 1877. 3 See Transactions of Royal Geographical Society, 1880. xxiii.] POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 395 The "Society des Missions Evangeliques " of Paris has made preparations for occupying the Barotse valley, near the head waters of the Zambesi. The Livingstone Inland Mission, under Mr. Grattan Guinness, has a large body of missionaries on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Congo, and others who are working inwards, while a monthly journal is edited by Mrs. Grattan Guinness, en- titled The Regions Beyond. The recent death of one of the missionaries, Mr. M'Call, has been deeply and universally lamented. The Baptist Missionary Society has a mission in the same district, towards the elucidation of which the Rev. J. T. Comber's Explorations Inland from Mount Came- roons and through Congo to Mkouta have thrown considerable light. More than one Roman Catholic Mission has been sent to Africa. More recently still, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, having resolved to devote to Africa the munificent bequest of Mr. Otis of a million dollars, appointed the Rev. Dr. Means to collect information as to the most suitable openings for missions in Central Africa ; and on his recommendation, after considering the claims of seven other localities, have decided to adopt as their field the region of Bihe" and the Coanza, an upland tract to the east of Benguela, healthy and suitable for European colon- isation, and as yet not occupied by any missionary body. Thus the old world and the new are joining their forces for the evangelisation of Africa. And they are not only occupying regions which Livingstone recommended, but are trying to work his principle of combining colonisation with missions, so as to give their people an actual picture of Christianity as it is exemplified in the ordinary affairs of life. Besides missions on the old principle, Medical Missions have received a great impulse through Livingstone. When mission work in Central Africa began to be seriously enter- tained, men like Dr. Laws, the late Dr. Black, and the late Dr. Smith, all medical missionaries, were among the first to offer their services. The Edinburgh Medical Mission made quite a new start when it gave the name of Livingstone to its buildings. Another institution that has adopted the name for a hall in which to train coloured people for African 396 DA VI D LIVINGSTONE. [CHAP. work is the Fisk University, Tennessee, made famous by the Jubilee Singers. In glancing at these results of Livingstone's influence in the mission field, we must not forget that of all his legacies to Africa by far the highest was the spotless name and bright Christian character which have become associated everywhere with its great missionary explorer. From the first day of his sojourn in Africa to the last, " patient con- tinuance in well-doing " was the great charm through which he sought, with God's blessing, to win the confidence of Africa. Before the poorest African he maintained self- restraint and self-respect as carefully as in the best society at home. No prevailing relaxation of the moral code in those wild, dark regions ever lowered his tone or lessened his regard for the proprieties of Christian or civilised life. Scandal is so rampant among the natives of Africa that even men of high character have sometimes suffered from its lying tongue ; but in the case of Livingstone there was such an enamel of purity upon his character that no filth could stick to it, and none was thrown. What Livingstone did in order to keep his word to his poor attendants was a wonder in Africa, as it was the admiration of the world. His way of trusting them, too, was singularly winning. He would go up to a fierce chief, surrounded by his grinning warriors, with the same easy gait and kindly smile with which he would have approached his friends at Kuruman or Hamilton. It was the highest tribute that the slave- traders in the Zambesi district paid to his character when for their own vile ends they told the people that they were the children of Livingstone. It was the charm of his name that enabled Mr. E. D. Young, while engaged in founding the Livingstonia settlement, to obtain six hundred carriers to transport the pieces of the Ilala steamer past the Murchison Cataracts, carrying loads of great weight for forty miles, at six yards of calico each, without a single piece of the vessel being lost or thrown away. The noble conduct of the band that for eight months carried his remains towards the coast was a crowning proof of the love he inspired. Nearly every day some new token comes to light of the affection and honour with which he was regarded all over xxin.1 POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 397 Central Africa. On 12th April 1880, the Rev. Chauncy [Maples, of the Universities Mission, in a paper read to the Geographical Society describing a journey to the Rovuma and the Makonde country, told of a man he found there, with the relic of an old coat over his right shoulder, evidently of English manufacture. It turned out, from the man's state- ment, that ten years ago a white man, the donor of the coat, had travelled with him to Mataka's, whom to have once seen and talked with was to remember him for life ; a white man who treated black men as his brothers, and whose memory would be cherished all along the Eovuma Valley after they were all dead and gone ; a short man with a bushy moustache, and a keen piercing eye, whose words were always gentle, and whose manners were always kind ; whom, as a leader, it was a privilege to follow, and who knew the way to the hearts of all men. That early and life-long prayer of Livingstone's that he might resemble Christ was fulfilled in no ordinary degree. It will be an immense benefit to all future missionaries in Africa that, in explaining to the people what practical Christianity means, they will have but to point to the life and character of the man whose name will stand first among African benefactors in centuries to come. A foreigner has remarked that, " in the nineteenth century, the white has made a man out of the black; in the twentieth century, Europe will make a world out of Africa.'' When that world is made, and generation after generation of intelligent Africans look back on its beginnings, as England looks back on the days of King Alfred, Ireland of St. Patrick, Scotland of St. Columba, or the United States of George Washington, the name that will be encircled by them with brightest honour is that of DAVID LIVINGSTONE. Mabotsa, Cho- nuane, and Kolobeng will be visited wit^h thrilling interest by many a pilgrim, and some grand memorial pile in Ilala will mark the spot where his heart reposes. And when preachers and teachers speak of this man, when fathers tell their children what Africa owes to him, and the question is asked what made him so great and so good, the answer will be, that it was the love of Christ that constrained him to live and die for Africa- Tropic of A MAP T SOUTHERN AFRICA TO ILLUSTRATE DfBLAffilE'S "PERSONAL LIFE OF LIVINGSTON K Seal.- of EngKh Miles tirtt Expedition, (iOttionary Tray fir) thu* m aecoiul ,. f Zambesi Jc its latt .. (La ft of Good lap, ' Etrt of Geiwich Lon-don : John Murray, Albemeode Street . INDEX. INDEX. ABYSSINIA, 33, 41, 296. African Exploration Society, 391. Ajawa, 240-250, 264. Alexandria, 283, 380. Alington, Kev. Charles, 265, 267. American Foreign Mission Board, 395. Angola, 160, 170, 226, 372. Ants, attack by, 371. Arabs, slave-traders, 99, 273, 313, 315, 318, 324, 329, 373; travel across Africa, 161 ; dhow on Lake Nyassa, 243 ; character and religion of, 268 ; 369 ; kindness of Arab traders to Livingstone, 324, 348 ; Livingstone condemns evil deeds of, 337 ; mas- sacre of Bagenya by, 346 ; Living- stone plundered by, 327, 348 ; war with Mirambo, 353, 363, 371; Livingstone wins hearts of, 357. Argyll, Duke of, 4, 198, 222, 287, 297. " Ariel, "H. M.S., 274-275. Ashton, Rev. Wm., 102. " Athenaeum," 180, 309. BAGAMOIO, 353 seq., 365 seq. Bakaa, 39, 45. Bakalahari, 45, 102. Baker, Sir Samuel, 304, 392. Bakhatla, 43, 48, 50, 51, 53, 63, 111. Bakuss, 411. Bakwains, 36, 45, 63, 67, 71, 74, 86, 100 seq., Ill, 118, 162,257. Balonda, 144. Bamangwato, 38, 88, 102. Bambarre, 330, 338, 343. Bandeira, Viscount de Sa da, 260. Bangweolo, Lake, or Bemba, 323 seq., 358, 365 seq. ; discovery of, 325. Banians, 343-5, 373. Banyamwezi, 334, 346, 373. Baoba-tree, 253. Baptist Missionary Society, 395. Barotse, 101, 118 seq., 128 seq., 145. Bath, 179, 249. Bechuana, 31 seq., 66, 88, 106, 162. Belochees, 295. Belshore, forays of, 260. Bemba Lake. See Bangweolo. Benguela, 161, 237, 395. St. Philip de, 121. Bennett, Rev. Dr. , 25. James Gordon, junior, 348, 352, 361, 371. Sir J. Risdon, M.D., 25, 50, 71 ; letter to, 41, 45 ; recollections by, 25, 177. Binney, Rev. Dr., 23. Blantyre, in Lanarkshire, 3 seq., 13, 14, 16, 29, 185, 187. Boers drive Mosilikatse westward, 35, 65 ; found Transvaal republic, 64 ; policy towards natives, 66 seq. , 113, 143 ; turn out missionaries, 88, 135, 176; destroy Kolobeng, 110-112; attack Sechele, 105; Livingstone exposes in papers, 106; slave-trade among the, 112. Bogs, or earth sponges, 326, 349-50, 371. Bombay, 208, 271, 276 seq., 304 seq., 360 ; missionary institutions at, 283. Bootchap, fossils of, 68. 402 INDEX. Botha, trial of, 107. Boyd, Rev. D. C. , recollections by, 305. Braithwaite, J B., 192, 215, 225. British Association at Bath, 179, 288; at Brighton, 364 ; at Dublin, 182, 193 ; at Sheffield, 173. ' British Banner," papers for, 79, 106. "British Quarterly Review," contri- butions to, 106. Brown, Alexander, recollections by, 306. Bubi, 36seq., 63. Buchanan, Dr. Andrew, 17. Buckland, Professor, 51, 68. Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 215, 257, 300. Burke, Thomas, 14. Burrup, Rev. Mr. and Mrs., 244-255. Burton, Captain, 224, 293, 298, 306, 392. Bushmen, 41, 119. CAFFRE WAR, 107, 196, 372. Caffres, 67, 107. Cambridge, 189 seq. Cameron, Lieutenant, R.N., 377-80, 392. Cameroons, Mount, 395. Candido, Senhor, 260. Canoes, 84, 130, 330, 344* Cape, The, 30 seq., 64, 107, 238, 251, 261. Cape Town, 85, 108 ; Bishop of (Gray), 172, 250 ; meeting at, 172. Carlisle, Earl of, 189. Casembe, 322-4, 333, 373. Cashan Mountains, or Magaliesberg,74. Cassange, 127, 139. Cecil, Rev. Richard, 21-23, 30. Chambeze, river, 323, 370, 373. Chibisa, 214-15, 240-44, 262, 312. Chiboque, 133. Chinsamba's in Mosapo, 269. Chitambo, 375-7. Chitimba, 322. Chobe, river, 98, 118. Cholera, 336, 343. Chongwe, river, 231. Chonuane, 63 seq., 397. Chowambe, Lake, 328. Chuma, 277, 283, 312, 337, 339, 353, 376. Church Missionary Society, 390, 394. Clarendon, Earl of, 137, 194-6, 215, 354. Coanza, river, 161, 395. Coffee, 160. Colenso, Bishop, 289. Congo, or Livingstone River, 326, 333, 344, 367, 379, 395 ; Stanley's exploration of, 391. Cook, J. S., 27. Copper, 66, 335, 365. Cotton, 66, 160, 184, 220, 239, 272, 349. Cotton-fields, 225, 231. GUI n in ing, Roualeyn Gordon, 72, 95. Cypriano de Abrao, 134. DAHOMEY, 268. Dalhousie, Earl of, 293. Dawson, Lieut., R.N., 363, 370, 379. Decken, Baron van der, 306. Desiccation of Africa, 51. Dick's " Philosophy of a Future State," 11, 28. Dillon, Dr., 377-8. Dublin, visit to, 182. Dugumbe, 343 seq. Dysentery, 128, 136, 378. EDINBURGH, visit to, 188. Edinburgh Medical Mission, 395. Edwardes, Sir Herbert, 96. Egypt, 283, 296, 317. Khedive of, 389. Egyptian literature, 80. Elephants, 72, 84, 93, 106, 217, 242. 331. Ellesmere, Lord, 141. Elton, Consul, 394. FAULKNER, Henry, 319. INDEX. 403 Ferguson, Sir William, 380. Fernando Po, 293. Fever, Thomas Livingston attacked by, 95 ; Livingstone's remedy for, 114-15, 232 ; Livingstone attacked by, on journey to Loanda, 128, 133 ; at Loanda, 136 ; in Nyassa district, 262 ; in Bangweolo district, 322 ; Kirk's experiments on medicine for, 228 ; Mr. and Mrs. Helmore suc- cumb to, 231 ; illness and death of members of Universities Mission from, 262-3 ; suicide of Dr. Dillon through, 378 : Robert Moffat dies of, 379. Fitch, Frederick, 178, 242, 249, 269. Fleming, George, 110 seq., 173. " Forerunner," mail packet, 142, 163. Franklin, Lady, 286, 300. Fredoux, Rev. Mr., of Motito, 86. Freeman, Rev. J. J., 30, 78. Frere, Sir Bartle, opinion of Living- stone, 27, 317, 384; opinion of Charles Livingstone, 74 ; receives Livingstone at Bombay, 299 seq. ; recommendation to Sultan of Zan- zibar, 311 ; Lulira named after him, 338 ; mission to Zanzibar, 346, 379, 389 ; obituary notice of Living- stone, 56, 384. Frere, Lady, 283, 304. Frere, Miss, 304. " Frolic," H.M.S., 164. GABRIEL, Edmund, 136 seq., 159, 170. Galton, Francis, 86. Geographical Society, Royal, 180, 197, 237, 293, 296, 348 ; Living- stone's communications to, 51, 84, 149, 154 ; Oswell's communications, 69; Livingstone awarded twenty- five guineas, 84 ; awarded patron's gold medal, 169 ; Livingstone's dis- coveries called in question at, 237 ; contribute aid to Zambesi Expedi- tion, 302 ; urge Livingstone to explore central watershed, 316 ; organise E. D. Young's Search Ex- pedition, 319 ; absurd instructions to Livingstone, 337 ; organise Daw- son's Search Expedition, 363 ; re- ception of Stanley, 364 ; organise Cameron's Expedition, 379 ; obitu- ary notice of Livingstone by Presi- dent, 56, 384. Geographical Society of Vienna, 219. Geology, 268, 315. Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E., 286, ' 310,380. Golungo Alto, 138. Goodlake, Mrs., 291. Gordon, Colonel, R.E., 389. Lady Duff, " Letters from Egypt," 305. "Gorgon," H. M.S., 246-50. Graham, Dr. Thomas, 17, 19. Grady, Lieutenant, R.N., 379, 380- Grant, Captain, 290, 335, 368, 392. Grey, Sir George, Governor of the Cape. 172, 207, 225. Griqua Town, 35, 110. Griquas, 35, 101, 144. Guinness, Mrs. Grattan, " The Regions Beyond," 3P5. Gutzlaff, Mr., n appeal on behalf of China by, 15. 15, 28. H-ffiMORRHAGF, 223, 347, 357, 374. Hemorrhoids, 293, 347. Hamilton, 4, 174, 176. Rev. Dr. James, 297, 301. Hankey missionary station, 32. Hanoverian Missions, 105, 232. Helmore, Rev. Mr., 231, 235. Henn, Lieutenant, R.N., 362-3. " Hermes," H. M.S., 209. Herodotus, 317. Herschel, Sir John, 140. Hogg, David, 14. Holland, Sir Henry, 297. Honolulu, Queen Emma of, 300. Hottentots, 32. INDEX. Hunter, Gavin, 5 ; David, his son, 5 ; Agues, cee Mrs. Neil Livingstone. ILALA, 375, 388, 397. Ivory, 84, 100, 145, 327, 340. JEHAN, John, 261. Jesuit Missions, 143, 228. Johanna men, 261, 312, 313, 318-19, 323, 333. KALAHARI Desert, 38, 82, 268. Kamolondo, Lake, 365, 367. Katanga, 335, 344, 365 Kebrabasa Rapids, 208, 212, 224, 227. Kennery, Caves of, 306. Kirk, John, M.D., 355, 360 ; member of Zambesi Expedition, 194, 212, 216, 224 seq., 242 seq., 259, 262; Livingstone recommends for Go- vernment appointment, 292 ; ap- pointed to Zanzibar, 308 ; believes Musa's story, 319 ; applied to for stores by Livingstone, 327 ; labours to stop slave-trade, 342, 374, 389 ; complaints of Livingstone to, 366 ; at Livingstone's funeral, 381. Kolobeng, 69 seq., 81 seq., 110, 113, 257, 397; destruction of, by the Boers, 110-12. Kongone, 210, 215-17, 226, 234, 245, 253, 272, 275, 372. Krieger, Commandant, 74. Kuruman, or Lattakoo, 31 seq., 89, 111-13, 123, 207, 223, 251, 254, 396. LACTERDA, Senhor, 161, 249, 290, 372. "Lady Nyassa" (steamboat), 208, 213, 243 seq., 258 seq., 274 seq,, 283, 294, 304, 307. "Lancet," 381, 385. "Last Journals," 7, 276, 339, 345, 349, 367, 371, 376, 382. Lavradio, Count de, 195. Layard. Sir Austen, 260, 285, 296, 300 Lechulatebe, 82, 87. Leeba, river, 127, 130, 157. Liambai or Leeambye, 120, 157, 338. See Zambesi. Liemba, Lake, 322. lamaue, 106, 111. Lincoln, Lake, 338, 359, 365, 379. Lions, 38, 45, 77, 90, 114, 225; Livingstones encounter with, at Mabotsa, 55 seq. Linyanti, 94, 114 seq., 142, 147, 197, 212, 231, 237. LIVINGSTONE, DAVID, family of, 1-14 ; enters cotton-spinning factory, 9 ; student life in Glasgow, 16-19 ; ap- plication to London Missionary Society, 20 ; passes licentiate of College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, 29 ; ordained missionary, 30. Embarks for Africa, 30 ; arrival at Cape, 31 ; at Kuruman, 33 ; tours to the Bechuana country, 34-36 ; with the Bakwains, 36 ; third tour to the interior, 43 ; returns to Kuru - man, 46 ; views as to distribution of missionaries, 47 ; visits Bakhatla, accompanied by Steele and Pringle, 48 ; encounter with a lion, 55 ; mar- riage, 58 ; at Mabotsa, 58, 63 ; at Chonuane, 63, 69 ; removes to Kolo- beng, 69 ; travels north accompanied by Murray and Oswell, 81 ; his philological studies, 80 ; his chil- dren, 80 ; discovers Lake 'Ngami, 83 ; awarded twenty-five guineas by Geographical Society, 85; visits Sebituane, 92-3 ; returns to the Cape, 105 ; literary work, 106 ; wife and children sail for England, 108 ; Kolobeng destroyed by the Boers, 110 ; resolves to open up Africa or perish, 113, 127 ; reaches Linyanti, 114 ; his remedy for African fever, 115 ; views on missionary work, 122 seq. ; loss of his journal, 127. INDEX. 405 LIVINGSTONE, David continued. Journey from Linyanti to Loan Ja, 127 seq. ; his feeling of loneliness, 132 ; arrives at Loanda, 136 ; kind- ness of Gabriel, 136 ; leaves Loanda for East Coast, 138 ; awarded gold medal of Geographical Society, 141; reaches Barotse Country, 145 ; dis- covery of Victoria Falls, 149 ; danger from hostile tribes, 150 ; reaches Tette. 159 ; reaches Quili- mane, 162 ; views on missionary enterprise, 163 ; leaves for England, 164 ; great danger in the Bay of Tunis, 164 ; arrival in England, aes. First visit home, 166 seq. ; wel- come at Geographical Society, 169 ; at London Missionary Society, 171; at Mansion House, 171 ; visits Hamilton, 174 ; interview with Prince Consort, 179 ; honours paid to him, 179; publishes "Mission- ary Travels," 179 ; letter to a Car- lisle lady, 181-2 ; visits Dublin, 182 ; Manchester, 183; Glasgow, 184; Hamilton and Blantyre, 186 ; and Edinburgh, 188; created D.C.L. Oxon., LL.D. Glasgow, F.R.S., 189; visits Oxford, 189: Cam- bridge, 189 ; severs his connection with London Missionary Society, 192 ; appointed Consul for eastern coast of Africa, 194 ; Zambesi ex- pedition organised, 194 ; effect of his visit on the public, 196 ; inter- view with the Queen, 198 ; public banquet in Freemasons' Tavern, 198 ; letter from Professor Sedg- wick, 200. Sails from Liverpool, 203 ; re- ception at Cape Town, 207 ; arrives at Kongone, 208 ; proceeds up the Zambesi, 210 ; applies for a new steamer, 212 ; explores the Shire, 213 ; discovers Lake Shirwa, 215 ; LIVINGSTONE, David continual. discovers Lake Nyassa, 218 ; scheme for a colony in Nyassa district, 221 ; goes home with the Makololo, 223 seq. ; disappointed with the " Ma- Robert" steamer, 223; letter to secretary of Universities Mission, 224; breaks with the Portuguese authorities, 229 ; reaches Victoria Falls, 232 ; returns to Tette, 234 ; "Pioneer" steamer received, 238; welcomes Bishop Mackenzie and Universities Mission, 239 ; explores Lake Nyassa, 242 ; joined by Mrs. Livingstone at Luabo, 246 ; death of Bishop Mackenzie, 248 ; birth of daughter (Anna Mary), 251 ; death of his wife, 252 ; explores Rovuma, 259 ; paper war with Portuguese, 260 ; his impressions of slave-trade desolation, 262 ; receives recall of Expedition, 263 ; great discourage- ments of Livingstone, 266 ; writes to Bishop Tozer imploring him not to abandon Universities Mission, 270 ; sends rescued slaves to the Cape, 271 ; imminent peril in a circular storm, 274-5; his voyage from Zanzibar to Bombay in " Lady Nyassa," 276 ; welcomed by Sir Bartle Frere at Bombay, 282. Second visit home, 284-301 ; ar- rival in London, 284; interviews with Lord Palmerston, 285 ; death of his son Robert, 286 ; visits Mr. Young of Kelly, 287 ; visits the Duke of Argyll, 287 ; lectures at British Association, Bath, 288 ; visits Mr. Webb of Ne wstead Abbey, 291 ; writes "The Zambesi and its Tributaries," 292 ; urged by Mur- chison to undertake exploration of Central African watershed and Nile sources, 293-4; views of his mis- sionary duty, 294-5 ; ungracious proposal of Foreign Office, 296; 4 o6 INDEX. LIVINGSTONE, David continued. speaks at Royal Academy dinner, 297 ; visits Hamilton, 299. Last expedition to Africa, 302- 388 ; leaves England on last expe- dition, 302 ; its object, 302 ; reaches Bombay, 304 ; lectures there, 307 ; sells the "Lady Nyassa," 307; leaves Bombay for Zanzibar, 308 ; receives firman from Sultan, 312 ; witnesses horrors of slave-trade, 313 ; theory of Nile watershed, 317 ; deserted by Johanna men, 318 ; deserters' lying tale of his death, 318 ; Search Expedition, 319 seq. ; loses his medicine-chest, 322 ; reaches Lake Tanganyika, 322 ; discovers Lake Moero, 322 ; discovers Lake Bang- weolo, 325 ; his sponge theory of sources of Nile, Zambesi, and Congo, 326 ; illness on way to Ujiji, 326 ; reaches Ujiji, 327 ; plundered by Arabs, 327 ; starts to explore Manyuema country, 329 ; arrives at Bambarre, 330 ; letter to his son Thomas, 331 ; starts to explore Lualaba, 337 ; driven back by sore feet, 338; reads the whole Bible through four times, 340 ; disap- pointed with Banians' slaves sent to him from Zanzibar, 343 ; mutiny among his men, 343 ; reaches Ny- angwe, 344 ; his description of massacre of Bagenya, 345 ; suffer- ings from haemorrhoids, 347 ; three times saved from death in one day, 347 ; prostrated by illness, 348 ; reaches Ujiji, 348 ; Professor Owen's tribute to his scientific services, 349 ; relieved by Stanley, 348 ; de- scription of meeting, 353 ; Stanley's impression of him, 355 ; explores Tanganyika with Stanley, 357 ; Stanley parts from him, 360 ; de- tention at Unyanyembe, 365 ; plan of new journeys, 365 ; complaints LIVINGSTONE, David continued. to Kirk, 366 ; opinion of Stanley's behaviour, 366 ; views on mission work, 369 ; excellence of escort sent by Stanley, 369-70 ; travels to Tan- ganyika and Bangweolo, 370 ; his sufferings through floods, 371 ; his last letter to Maclear and Mann, 371 ; sufferings of his party from erysipelas, 372 ; last efforts to rouse public feeling against the slave- trade, 374 ; illness increases, 374 ; last entry in journal, 375 ; death in Chitambo's village, 376 ; remains conveyed by his followers to Zanzi- bar, 376 ; conveyed to Southampton and to London, 380 ; identified by Sir Wm. Ferguson and Dr. London, 381 ; funeral in Westminster Abbey, 382. Livingstone, Mrs. (wife), 58, 65, 86 seq., 97, 171, 200, 207, 225, 244, 246 ; marriage, 60 ; sails for Eng- land, 108; sails for Africa, 202; joins Livingstone on Zambesi, 246 ; letters to, 109, 138, 143, 147, 164 ; death of, 251-3. Robert (son), 65, 124, 255, 285 ; letters to, 206, 241 ; death of, 286, 293. Thomas (son), 232, 246, 380; letters to, 124, 202, 314, 331 ; death of, 380. William Oswell (son), 95, 124, 202, 203, 206, 299, 363, 368, 377. Agnes (daughter), 159, 288, 291, 293, 297, 303, 386 ; letters to, 109, 124, 215, 256, 274, 304, 309, 336, 341, 374. Anna Mary (daughter), 251, 287, 300, 308. Elizabeth (daughter), 88, 114. Neil (father), 4, 14, 29, 44, 78, 104, 125 ; death of, 165. Mrs. Neil (mother), 7-9, 29, 61. 174, 222, 287 ; death of, 299. INDEX. 407 Livingstone, Charles (brother), 15, 73, 94, 104, 194, 212, 216, 224 seq., 262, 292, 293 ; death of, 74. Livingstone Central African Company, 391, 394. Livingstone Inland Mission, 395. Livingstone River. See Congo. Livingstonia, 189, 263, 271, 393, 396. Loanda, St. Paul de, 121, 130 seq., 136, 148 seq., 169 seq., 197-9, 237, 379 ; Livingstone arrives at, 136. Loangwa, river, 130, 150. Loangwa of Nyassa, river, 268. Lomame (Young's River), 344. Londa, 130, 145. London Missionary Society, 20, 33, 72-4, 136, 163, 171, 182, 192, 197, 208, 231, 394; Livingstone joins, 30 ; severs his connection with, 192. Loudon, Dr., 300, 380. Luabo. 245, 275, 372. Lualaba (Webb's River), 323, 326, 330 seq., 365-67. Luapula, river, 323, 373, 376. Lufira, river, 338 Lunda, 333, 355. Lupata, 234. MABOTSA, 53 seq., 70, 80, 397 ; life at, 61 seq. M'Clure, Sir Robert, Capt. R.N., 152. Mackenzie, Bishop, 238 seq., 259, 270 seq. ; death of, 248. Miss, 244 seq. Maclear, Sir Thomas, 110, 172, 207, 221, 270, 291 ; opinion of Living- stone as an observer, 140, 172 ; letters to, 144, 176, 179, 189, 261, 282, 323, 335, 340, 359, 371. Maclear, Cape, 242. Maclure, Captain, 162. Macmillan, Alexander, 3S. Macqueen, Mr., 237. M 'Robert, Mrs., 46, 55. Magomero, 240-1, 262. Mahometauism, 268. Maine, Sir H. Summer, 304. Maize, 220, 272, 320, 331, 333. Makhatla, 59. Makololo, 209, 212, 270; begin to practise slave-trade, 98 ; change in chiefship, 116 ; guides for Living- stone, 126 ; accompany Livingstone to Loanda, 128 seq. ; accompany Livingstone to Quilimane, 142 seq. ; Livingstone returns to Barotse with, 224 seq. ; Livingstone's opinion of, 343, 371. Makonde, 313. Malatsi, 109, 139. Malmesbury, Lord, 210. Ma-mochisane, 93, 116, 120. Manganja, 213, 241, 250, 267. Manioc -roots, 156. Mann, Mr., 323, 335, 340, 371. Manyuema, 329 seq. Maples, Rev. Chauncy, 397. Marianne, a slave agent, 262. " Ma-Robert," steam-launch, 203 seq., 224 seq. Mataka, 315, 316. Matebele, 44, 93, 126. Matiamvo, 127, 145. Mauritius, 164. Mazitu, 269, 318, 333. Mebalwe, 46, 50, 55, 59, 66, 67, 76, 86, 105, 111, 139. Medical missions, 16, 395. Meroe City, 335. Mirambo, 353. "Missionary Travels," 13, 56, 74, 83, 90, 91, 114, 127, 130, 162, 164, 175, 179. Moenekuss, 330 seq. Moero, Lake, 329 seq. , 367. Moffat, Rev. Dr., Livingstone's first introduction to, 28 ; letters to, 77, 98, 110, 127, 209, 232. Mrs., 95, 105, 254 ; letters from, 147, 167, 257-8 ; letters to, 147, 255. Janet, wife of David Hunter, 5. John, 197, 232, 278. 408 INDEX. Moffat,Mary.